Life in Lisbon
Current mood: busy
Category: Life

Bom Dia!

Today is my first "real" day in Lisbon, in that I am actually doing work-related things. I tried and failed to find a place with free wifi within a few kilometers of our apartment. It might turn out that the only place with free wireless internet is McDonald..s, because I have read that all of the Mickey D..s in Lisbon are wired up. I will be checking that out for sure, but how ironic would that be? I move to Portugal only to spend several hours a week hanging out with Ronald McDonald. Anyway, I am also doing some freelance writing, visitng my English school, and other practical things.

Oh, it does not seem quite real yet... except for both of us working today, this could be like any other visit. Well, there is all the work that Joana plowed into redoing her apartment for us, which was sweet. It is not quite finished yet, so I will be doing my part. Also, we have not had so much quality time between us yet because of VLAD. Her Weimeraner-Lab mix has grown into a big, big boy. He is only seven months, but is already huge. It seems he is behaving better just because of me and my testosterone, though - I am the Alpha. After an initial burst of puppily-wuppily "I..m so glad you are home" from his 60-70lbs, black, over-excited self, big Vladimir has settled down and let me get to work.

On the first night, before we fetched Vlad back, we went to the neighborhood sushi place at Campeo Pequeno. This is a bullfight arena that is partially converted to a shopping mall. That is better than you might think, because it is a 19th Century stylized brick castle, and the restaurants are located in the towers. It was our little celebratory gesture, since we were both exhausted. I was relieved just to get all four of my boxes over undamaged and with no hassles. Anyway, there was a bullfight that night, complete with a small cadre of demonstrators blowing their horns and whistles. It made for quite a little spectacle.

Joana and I have been making dinner in since then, which has been great. I did fried chicken, herbal mashed potatoes, and broccoli last night The night before, she did a mushroom and beef stew. Basically, it is our quiet time because otherwise it is all taking Vlad to his obedience training or dealing with household issues. But, we are starting work on our Azores getaway, and next weekend we need to get out to Alto Alentejo and look around for a place to reserve for February and the so-called "public wedding."

And that..s what is going on over here in Portugal...

12:57 AM - 9 Comments - 12 Kudos - Add Comment

In Between
Current mood: melancholy
Category: Life

George drove off with my former car and my dog yesterday. It was the likely the most bittersweet moment of my life.

I will have Malcolm back sometime in October, of course. I also believe that going with George on an adventure to North Carolina is best for him, since it avoids the massive separation anxiety he would suffer from watching me pack up for days and then leave him behind.

Still, this in between stuff I am in now is awful. My Noodle is gone, my house is a wreck, my life here is functionally over, but I have whole days to go before I start my new one in Lisbon. It's lonely and hollow.

I can't wait to get out of here and be on that plane. I'm thankful that four writing assignments landed in my lap Friday, since it will help keep me busier.

3:52 PM - 8 Comments - 6 Kudos - Add Comment

I’d Be Leaving Anyway
Current mood: busy
Category: Life

You know, if I weren't moving to Portugal, I would be still be forgetting about the States.

Over the summer I finally had a break-out in terms of freelance writing, enough of one that it has become a stable, part-time job with predictable income. That makes me very happy, because I can take it with me to Lisbon and therefore have two part-time jobs. My economic picture is much brighter as a result.

But, of course, the other thought coming out of that is the wistful one: if I had this string of sources set up in 2005, I would have been able to earn enough money on the travel trail to cover my monthly expenses. I would have only dipped into the travel budget for things like classes, diving, and flight tickets.

Realizing that makes me realize something else: were I not already moving to Portugal, and I had a realization like that, I would be putting it in the works to go back to Asia. This time I would not be traveling. Instead, I would pick a country - Malaysia, Indonesia, India or Nepal most likely - and try to combine freelance writing, freelance foreign journalism, and English teaching for a while. Furthermore, it would be an indefinite move: I would sell the house, bank the proceeds, and have little intention of returning to America for some years.

There are all sorts of reasons for doing that, it being an admixture of not wanting a desk job anymore, missing being over there, and how badly things stalled for me professionally here. There are stretches that run weeks long where I feel like a half-starved bear in a cage. Frankly, I never stop feeling like a bear in a cage, but the half-starved part comes and goes. Of course, I would miss my fam and miss Malcolm, but I could not live like that for years and years.

My reasons for moving to Lisbon are obviously different, but while my perspective of being in a couple and what's best for us is different, none of that fundamentally changes either. My Ooomama asked me if I would be moving to Portugal were it not for Joana, and the answer to that is a clear-cut no. But, I'd be going somewhere, that much is certain. Being Stateside just doesn't agree with me anymore.

Currently listening : Into the Woods By Malcolm Middleton Release date: 2005-08-16

7:18 AM - 6 Comments - 9 Kudos - Add Comment

What to do about the Russians
Current mood: argumentative
Category: News and Politics

It's funny how much the question of "what to do about the Russians" bends back around and is hamstrung by our miserable failure of a President, old Dumbya.

First there is one of the Russian's covers for invading Georgia: namely, that the US led the way in Iraq and Serbia. I'm ashamed to be an American in the sense that in the Iraq case, they actually have a half-point. It's terrible isn't it? However, at the end of it all, that claim is BS on account of two simple things: unlike Serbia or Iraq, Georgia has never been a threat to its neighbors; unlike Serbia or Iraq, even if that government was unpleasant or elections ugly, Georgia has still been more of a democracy than Serbia or Russia, let alone Iraq, for the last 15 years.

So what to do? Here's where Bush comes into play again. Frankly, a big contributor to this crisis was Bush and Co's obsession to prove they had the biggest dicks in the world, because otherwise we would never have been flirting with NATO membership for Georgia. We can't defend them, and even suggesting that we would do so is hideously offensive to Moscow. Bush stopped just short of encouraging the crackdown in Ossetia that Putin used as an excuse to crush Georgia.

Still, despite the fact we can't protect the Georgians with military force, because the political will to do so is non-existent, it is interesting what made the Russians stop and back off. Contrary to the what our European cousins want to believe, what with their gargantuan egos and flaccid personalities, it wasn't Sarkozy's ceasefire diplomacy or their threat to send "independent monitors." It was Bush ordering US military aircraft to deliver humanitarian aid + the 2,000 Georgian troops serving in Iraq. Basically, the Russians backed off out of fear of shooting down an American plane, and thus creating a much bigger crisis. That is something that could be exploited to create a better solution to this problem than letting Russia do what it wants with Abkhazia and Ossetia, but unforunately we don't have the means to do so. Much as with Iran, our stick is hollow because the pulp of it is all over Iraq.

Still, there is plenty of diplomatic sanction to be made against Russia, and I think the best one would be to kick them out of the G8. The G8 started out as the G7, and informal annual summit meeting of the leaders of the world's richest seven western states. We started inviting Russia after the end of the Cold War, and back then it was called the G7+1. The best way to signal that if Russia isn't going to behave like a fine, upstanding member of the community then it can't come to the clubhouse either is to boot them from this organization. Doing that one better would be to invite China to take their place

The EU could also skuttle talks of a special treaty with Russia, but I doubt that would happen. Once again, it gets back to Bush. Eastern Europe is scared stiff about what happened to Georgia. In Nicholas Sarkozy, France is run by the most Atlanticist, pro-American leader it has known since Louis XVI. Italy is Berlusconi the criminal scumbag for the umpteenth time, so getting Paris and Rome to join us and Britain in a big diplomatic retaliatory push is very plausible. But that will never happen. Why? Can anyone imagine Europe rallying behind George Bush on EU business? HA!

We can get Russia out of the G8 though. It's as simple as refusing to go ourselves if they come too. The other six will hate it, but they'll cave. A G7 meeting without the US is utterly ridiculous.

The final thing are the Baltic states. Because of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, and their EU/NATO membership, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania must be protected from Russian bullying. It is a moral and political imperative. Starting with Putin's rise to power, the FSB has sustained a dirty tricks harrassment campaign against these three small countries. It's time to use some economic aid and some covert assistance to help them block all that nasty cyber and economic warfare, and indeed, help them hit back. By just letting the FSB do things like hack the Lithuanian equivalent of the IRS, we are sending a message that we don't care.

Finally, enjoy my review of the Top World Welterweights

Currently watching : My Summer of Love Release date: 2005-10-04

6:34 PM - 1 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment

About Georgia
Current mood: content
Category: News and Politics

I think there are a few things to keep in mind about the crisis in Georgia:

1) While Russia does have a legitimate "sphere of influence" comprising most of the former Soviet Union, including Georgia, and George Bush and Co. have been flagrantly ignoring that, the war in Georgia is not really about that. Moscow first started arming rebels and making trouble for Tblisi in the early 1990s. The was partly sour grapes because ethnic unrest in Georgia contributed to the collapse of the Soviet Union, and partly personal animosity because Yeltsin and Co. despised former Soviet Foreign Minister and then Georgian President Eduard Shevardnaze. It predates any concerns about Western instrusions into the "near abroad."

2) Comparisons with the independence of Kosovo are wrong-headed, since such comparisons ignore the status of Serbia as a unapologetic warmaking state. Georgia is not Serbia.

3) News reports indicate that up to 200 armored vehicles invaded Georgia. That means something like an armored or motorized rifle division, and given the utterly unprofessional nature of Russian military logistics, an educated guess would say this operation was planned at least a season ago. Vladimir Putin, who is certainly the prime mover behind this invasion, no doubt had spies in Tblisi who told him what the Georgian government intended to do; he had his counterstroke ready to go while the world was paying attention to the Olympics.

4) What a sham this makes of the Olympics themselves! At a minimum, Russian and Georgian athletes should be sent home! What are warring parties doing at an event about international athletic amity?

Speaking of the Olympics, I've been writing two threads of Olympic coverage. One is following boxing, and the other monitoring Beijing's smog contoversy. There are now too many for me to want to index, but you can find them all here.

I also have these two new ones:

Journey to Cambodia

The Prince of Knockouts: Naseem Hamed

Currently reading : The Crusades: A Short History By Jonathan Riley-Smith

9:27 PM - 0 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment

My Old Kentucky Home
Current mood: calm
Category: Blogging

Driving home was a severe chore this time. Outside of Charleston, WV, there was a tractor-trailer caused multi-car pile up. By the time I got out of it - by following a state trooper down the shoulder so I could get off the interstate - traffic was backed up for roughly 18 miles. I know that because I had to study the map to figure out how to get into Charleston on back roads. It took two hours to work around that. I hope no one was seriously hurt...

I got home to discover that they have demolished a block of downtown Lexington, including the venerable Buster's poolhall and bar. That place opened when I was in undergrad, and while not the oldest continuous bar in downtown, it was certainly had the longest standing of any that I regularly patronized. Oh, the passing of an era, and all for another Webb Brothers inspired real estate boondoggle.

One of the more mundane-yet-interesting sidenotes of this visit home is that I'm actually working while I am here. One of the outcomes of my employment struggles since I got back from Asia has been building up freelance writing into a stable, steady, viable part-time job ... one that I can take anywhere. I muse on the idea that if I'd had in early 2006 what I have now, I would have been able to bring in my typical monthly budget and therefore spent very little savings while I was in Asia... in other words, if the dollar rebounds I could go back and support myself in a place like India, Nepal, Cambodia, or Indonesia. It makes for a nice daydream, because I do dearly miss living in a shack on the beach and SCUBA diving all the time.

The Spiritual Centers of India: Varanasi and Sarnath

Joe Louis: The Boxing Legend Falls on Hard Times

Currently reading : Panic in Level 4: Cannibals, Killer Viruses, and Other Journeys to the Edge of Science By Richard Preston Release date: 2008-05-27

12:52 PM - 3 Comments - 3 Kudos - Add Comment

Go With God Aleksandr Isayevich...
Category: Life

Aleksandr Isayevich Solzhenitsyn has passed away. I read A Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich back in high school. Along with The First Circle, Cancer Ward, and The Gulag Archipelago, they were the works that first got me into Russian literature. Given that he sits with Fyodor Dostoevsky as the only Russian author of whom I can say I have liked everything I have read (although I have not yet read everything written). Solzhenitsyn is my favorite modern Russian author. Even the far right-wing views of his later years were interesting, if sometimes repugnant.

Hoist a glass of vodka tonight, for another giant has left us. To my knowledge, as no other Russian author has since achieved the status of a Sozhenitsyn, Chekov, or Tolstoi, he might very well prove to be the last giant of Russian literature.

11:22 AM - 1 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment

Oh Wow...
Current mood: staggered
Category: staggered Life

It's August 1st. I move this month. Wow! It's staggering. The enormity of it all is, well, finally in view.

I was finally forced to do a new OS installation on my latop - a "nuke and pave." After a day and a half of work, the job is finished. I have a lingering bug with my DirectX driver, but otherwise everything else works. It's like having a brand new, old laptop

I heard on NPR that a gang of ten Dems and Repugs came out with a "compromise energy bill." All I had to do was hear that douschebag Saxby Chambliss (R-GA) was one of them, and I immediately started rooting for the thing to go down in flames. UGH! Here's to hoping he loses his election this November.

Currently reading : The Billionaire's Vinegar: The Mystery of the World's Most Expensive Bottle of Wine By Benjamin Wallace Release date: 2008-05-13

1:53 AM - 0 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment

Some rants and observations
Current mood: busy
Category: Blogging

Senator Ted Stevens indicted multiple times for corruption. Ahhhh... music to my ears! 

So, about The Dark Knight. I actually don't think that the performances of Eckhart and Ledger (Ledger especially) shoved Bale into the background as some critics have said. Instead, I think that the Nolans tried to keep him in the foreground by making Batman an allegory for the war on terror... and bungled it. They put Bats in some interesting quandries, but had him wrestle with the wrong ones, and the result was he became James Bond in a cape. I still adored the film, though.

Rush Limbaugh recently claimed that the only reason Obama won the nomination is because of "affirmative action." That extremely specious argument - that Jessie Jackson remade the primary process to benefit a future minority candidate - was examined by "respectible" (can you see me stiffling my laughter?) journalists following Super Tuesday, and rejected months ago. It's a ham-fisted, racist slur aimed at all those folks I know so well in Kentucky and similar places, who are really just looking for excuses to not vote for a black man. "Well, that feller won because he's black. It ain't fair!"

*gag* I've been putting up with Limbaugh since undergrad. Will someone please riddle his fat, drug-addled, draft-dodging ass with bullets? I swear to visit you in prison once a year.

And now for  couple more features:

Visiting the Lost City of Angkor

Roberto Duran: The "Hands of Stone" Hammers Out His Legend

Currently listening : Boingo By Oingo Boingo Release date: 1994-05-17

2:38 PM - 2 Comments - 4 Kudos - Add Comment

Another Look at My Former Life
Current mood: groggy
Category: Blogging

Journey to Bodh Gaya: The Birthplace of Buddhism

Glory Cut Short: The Brief Career of Mexican Boxer Salvador Sanchez

Currently listening : All the Classic Releases 1937-1949 By Bill Monroe Release date: 2003-06-10

5:27 AM - 1 Comments - 2 Kudos - Add Comment

Bourbon anyone?
Category: Blogging

For a small change of pace, I'm just doing some article links today. It's the same old deal - please go look and bump my numbers if you have the time.

A Guide to the Top 5 Kentucky Bourbons

This is one you should share with everyone you know who likes a good shot of whiskey. Right Sonia? My Old Kentucky Homefolks? Heather? George?

Julio Cesar Chavez: The King of Mexican Boxing

Max Baer: The Menacing Clown Prince of Boxing

This is the other half of true careers of the men from The Cinderella Man, if you have seen that film.

2:08 PM - 2 Comments - 2 Kudos - Add Comment

*snicker*
Current mood: irate
Category: annoyed that the moods aren’t alphabetized Music

Plus, for your reading pleasure...

Kostya Tszyu: Australia's Pocket Hercules

Sihanoukville: Cambodia's Main Beach Resort

Currently listening : Best of 1992-1995 By Morphine Release date: 2003-02-18

10:17 PM - 1 Comments - 2 Kudos - Add Comment