The question must be asked: why am I living in NYC right now?

I don't have a good answer, other than that I have a lot of friends here. But really, I don't seem to see people all that often, and while I enjoy the daily life in BKLYN, I could get a similar quality of life in a lot of otther places. Living here is not boosting my career in any way, and the cost of living kind of works against my plans to retire debt and save money in 2006.

I'm not about to leave, but as I come up on a possible moving date from my current sublet, I have to start wondering about these things. I'm not at all unhappy, but as I begin to consider more deeply what the hell I'm doing with my life, the cold calm calculus of reason begins to beg a number of questions.

Tips for Travelers to Canada

The Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004 requires that, by January 1, 2008, travelers to and from the Caribbean, Bermuda, Panama, Mexico and Canada have a passport or other secure, accepted document to enter or re-enter the United States. This is a change from prior travel requirements.

With my photocopy, I can get a new Drivers License in 7 to 21 days, which is in time for my trip. It seems I will have sufficient proof of self.

It was funny though, getting on the phone with the man from the DMV. "You've got a problem, man. You can't proove who you are!"

I know.

Anyway, all's well that ends well.

Bike wheel stolen.

2006 has a high energy of activation it seems.

This could become a new blog category...

clicky clicky

Kos gets permission to repost an article from the DC-insider Hotline (which costs huge amounts of money... kinda weird) about my man Howard Dean, the Chairman.

For those of you who splash around in the pisspool of politics, it's a welcome change. Surprise surprise, he's doing what he set out to do and build a much more comprehensive human infrastructure for the Democratic party, and surprise surprise it's getting people involved.

That's a Good Thing.

Well, I found my copy of that fax I sent to Oregon, so I have a photocopy of my license. This may be enough to get a passport. With a passport I can get a new license. I'll find out more tomorrow when I try to deal with the passport people at the local PO.

And I've got half a flu. I sort of felt it coming on yesterday so I got to bed early and have been dosing myself with vitimins and echinaechia and wearing a scarf and hat. A rather inauspicious beginning to 2006.

Identity is a bitch. I was just about to apply for a new passport (my old one was lost in a move a while back) to travel to Vancouver BC next month, and discovered that sometime in the past few weeks I lost my drivers license. The last time I know I had it for sure was when I faxed a copy to Oregon to get a copy of my birth cirtificate for the passport application. Now it's gone. I never need it, so I'm not sure when or where it was lost. I'll ransack my room tonight, but I have a bad feeling that it's gone.

I can't get the passport without the drivers licence. To get a new drivers licence I need "six points" of identification, of which I have one. Apparently I am joining the ranks of uncodumented American citizens. I'll let you know how it turns out.

Actually, this is sort of serious. I cannot travel by airplane or drive a car without having my papers in order. One more reason to retire to the State of Jefferson.

Hippity Hop from MLPS; people calling it Emo Hop, but seems that's just because he spits about self-destruction rather than the destruction of others. Very well produced. Soulful.

I can't fucking wait for the major label cartels to crumble. People don't even know what they're missing.

Microsoft is participating in Chineese internet censorship. Not really surprising. A number of large American companies are complicit in helping Red China turn the internet into a state-run media.

So it's worth noting that there's nothing magical and free about TCP/IP networking (the tech that powers the net). If we let it happen, governments and corporations will ruin what we've potentially got going here.

The more I think about it, the more I want to get an organization together to take a stand on these kinds of issues: internet freedom, outsourcing, open-sourcing, etc.

Microsoft is participating in Chineese internet censorship. Not really surprising. A number of large American companies are complicit in helping Red China turn the internet into a state-run media.

So it's worth noting that there's nothing magical and free about TCP/IP networking (the tech that powers the net). If we let it happen, governments and corporations will ruin what we've potentially got going here.

The more I think about it, the more I want to get an organization together to take a stand on these kinds of issues: internet freedom, outsourcing, open-sourcing, etc.