catching up...

Ah, the holidays...lots of quality time being spent with loved ones, then WHAM-MO...i'm sick, serious smack-down sick. In bed for four days, don't eat, little sleep, drifting around in dreams, "lots of fluids", some reading when i could get past the headache. Oh yeah. Melian was a real trooper, feeding herself and the critters. My sense of smell was really heightened during and after. That was cool. I gradually re-introduced myself to the joys of food on the fifth day. Went into a different room of the house! Wow! Look at me, i'm standing up! Crazy stuff. Doing some yoga stretches to regain muscle tone. AND, trying to catch up with all of our friends this week that we wanted to visit with last week. Happy new year & pass me a beer.
Read Exporting America by Lou Dobbs. Short & to the point. Scary. Our government is removing our ablility to make a living. To be self-reliant as a country. Crushing any pride we might have left at a job well-done, "look! we made that"...goodbye middle-class! Yes, all for the sake of that bottom line ($$$$$). And the proponents of offshore outsourcing try to obscure the issue by saying that we (Americans workers) don't want to work, aren't productive, and lack education. When it's really alot about money. Outsourcing is cheaper. Why pay us $17 an hour plus benefits when you can pay someone in India/China/insert country here 62 cents and hour and no benefits? In my opinion this is one of the most horrific trends that have come along this decade. Lou gives a list of companies that have outsourced, it's quite lengthy and depressing. Count how many of the companies that you deal with on a regular basis that are on this list...
On the fiction end i am reading Stephen King's The Dark Tower. Noticed quite a bit of sloppy writing in the first third of the book. It's getting better here in the last third. But i still just don't like his having himself as a character, for some reason it's really grated on my nerves. I really dig the Darktower series, and hope it ends well. It's down to Roland, Oy and Susannah now...