Category: news

Second-hand blogger

Post author By ahniwa
Post date January 22, 2005

You can say that someone or something is “going down”, and you can say that it’s “going up in smoke”, but nothing ever seems to “go down in smoke”. Which seems to me a great way to double your threat with little effort. Some camper keep fragging you? Griefer steal your earthworm munch? Save your other, small threats. Tell them they’re “going down in smoke”. That’ll put a shiver in their timbers, if they’ve got timbers to shiv.

But that’s all beside the point.
The point is: Montreal is going down in smoke, literally.

love news personal poetic

“Vote for me and I’ll set you free”

Post author By ahniwa
Post date October 30, 2004
2 Comments on “Vote for me and I’ll set you free”

The polls are just around the corner.
Don’t forget: “Vote early, vote often.”
Oh, by the way, if you’re lazy like me,
and didn’t watch the debates as they happened,
you can watch them all online here.
Some other good discussion here and here.

Health’s fragile again, though it seems like I just gone done being sick recently. Mostly body ache this time, slight fever; perhaps I just need more sleep. Well, despite staying up late tonight for the concert, I have nowhere to be tomorrow, and I plan on sleeping most of the day, if not through the whole damned thing and into Monday. Ahhhh, sweet, sweet slumber. “To sleep, perchance…”

I dream of falling, dream of flight,
of pipers calling out the night,
of sunlight steeping in the dew;
I sleep, perchance to dream of you.

I dream of limbs, of sweat and heat,
of bodies ‘twined between the sheets
and as the dreams, at last, are through,
I wake to find – they all were true.

Ha. See, Eve, we all have sappy, bad poetry in us.

I have to admit, I’m yet a bit giddy about this new relationship in my life; and honestly, I hope to be for a long time. I’ve become prone to spontaneous, goofy smiles and randomly bursting into song and dance. Okay, so randomly bursting into song and dance is nothing new for me, but lately I’ve felt more exuberant about it.

An hour ago, hail fell like small loaves of bread
past the windows (really, really small loaves);
now the sun is shining against the damp leaves,
transforming them into small shards of emerald light.
I love my Washington weather.

libraries news personal

Today, someone died…

Post author By ahniwa
Post date February 21, 2004

The snow is melted, huzzah!

Today, a shot was fired within a block of the library. We locked our doors, called the police, gabbed about the possibilities. “Was it a gunshot?” “Yes!” “Where? Who? What?” I continued to unlock the door any time a patron wanted in or out … I was told to, but really, I was unconcerned. Grafton is hardly the type of town to host the next Dog Day Afternoon. When the police arrived and told us it was just a car trying to start with no manifold cover (something about spraying ether), and backfiring, I wasn’t surprised. Still, that’s what passes for excitement when you work in a small-town library, I guess.

Today, someone died in Grafton. No, they weren’t shot by the car backfiring. Someone died at the bowling alley, and that’s all I know. Not how, nor why … they waited, and the ambulance never came. They called for one twice. Somewhere nearby, there is grief. Nearby, there is anger. I know no details, only third-hand information (if not fourth).

If I had a spiritual guru, it would be Rob Brezsny.

Aries (March 21 – April 19)

On February 1, six big-name entertainers took control of the Super Bowl halftime show. The result was a histrionically boring spectacle of robotic sexuality and fake emotion. If there was any saving grace amidst the monumental emptiness, it was Janet Jackson’s climactic unveiling. In a New York Times article, Alessandra Stanley wrote, “The one moment of honesty in that coldly choreographed tableau was when the cup came off and out tumbled a normal middle-aged woman’s breast instead of an idealized Playboy bunny implant.” Your assignment in the coming week, Aries, is to be inspired by that moment of honesty. Strip away pretension and phoniness everywhere you find them, thereby exposing the raw humanity that lies beneath. One caveat: Do this ethically, and without breaking the law.

I’m not one for pretension or phoniness as it is. For some reason, though, I really, really appreciated this perspective on something that the rest of the nation has been playing up as shocking, horrifying, or – and perhaps this shocks me more than the others – even newsworthy. Today in Grafton, someone died because the ambulance never came. It will affect the news no more than a passing breeze, but Janet’s breast will never be forgotten.

I die of shame.