YouTube Fame & Glory

As you may have heard, some friends and I visited the offices of our congressional representatives last week as part of 1Sky.org's Climate Leadership Now event. And look, here's proof! That's Susan & me posing at Ben R. Lujan's office with Aaron & Carlos. Mary is invisible, being on the other side of the camera:

Impressive

A few minutes ago I was downright proud of my frugality because I spend "only" $10,000 a year. Then I read this article about Jim Merkel, who lives on $5,000 a year. Wow. It's good to have something to shoot for I guess, although my sense of virtue has deflated drastically. Who knew I was such a big spender? Maybe this is what Paulson and Bernanke feel like when they fling cash around.

Buy Nothing Day

Links of interest: Adbusters' Buy Nothing Day (the big wussies! we could do that standing on our heads, right campers?) and Juliet Schor on why consumer spending cannot save the economy.

This Is a Tardigrade

According to Wikipedia tardigrades are:

polyextremophile
eutelic
oviparous
cryptobiotic

The Most Important Number On Earth

Bill McKibben wants you to know: it's 350.

Some Secular Spirituality

I just love this idea:

"We have for too long now confined the notion of soul to the interior of the human being, leaving the world to the exploitation of need and greed. If there is no soul in the world, then the notion of the human being as having soul is nothing more than pious abstraction and bad theory. The notion of soul and spirit put forth in this writing weaves a fabric with the whole of the world. There is a very special myth expressing the World Soul, the stories told in all cultures of a spiritual being called Sophia. In all such stories, Sophia is not just another goddess. She is the world-as-imagination; she is the world-coming-to-be. She is God's light, and not 'his' as his possession, but that through which God is able to see himself and to know himself and thus able to love all of creation, for God is love." --Robert Sardello, Love and the World

No One As Irish As Barack O'Bama

First Purchase

Just did my first voluntary shopping since September and it felt passing strange. The items acquired were knitting needles and skeins of yarn, and it wasn't easy even at the safe remove of the internet. I sat and stared at the "Place Order" button for several minutes, got up and fussed around away from the computer awhile, then finally summoned all available courage in order to execute that final click. Is it that the economy has bitten the big one since I last shopped? Or just that I'm out of practice?

In Case You Haven't Already Seen This

I Wasn't Gonna Cry

Has anyone made it through the past twelve hours without tearing up at some point? Like when CNN declared Obama our next president, or when he told his girls that they're getting a new puppy to take to the White House, or when he told the rest of us that change can't happen without "a new spirit of service, a new spirit of sacrifice"? Today is the best Wednesday ever. And I have a good feeling about tomorrrow's chances of being the best Thursday. Happy Obama Days, everyone!

Mid-Day Election Update

The Obama office is alight with excitement and swarming with volunteers--more bodies than there are left who haven't voted, I bet. The McCain office had two people in it when we drove by, which is two more than I've seen there yet this year.

There are no lines at the local polls, and the few people we've found at home are too busy thinking about voting to talk to us. One guy was just getting in his car to go vote when I walked up. I did not detain him.

The absolutely last and final round of canvassing starts in 45 minutes. Must go eat something!

Politics Unusual

I'm about to head out for the final day of get-out-the-vote canvassing. Tensions are running high at the local Obama office, threatening everyone's sanity and inner peace. In fact, I'm wondering if inner peace isn't indirectly proportional to the number and intensity of one's political opinions. That doesn't mean I'm going to stop canvassing, if only because the atmosphere cannot canvass on its own behalf, but the big test today will be zenning out while knocking on doors. Buddha JoJo here, to ask with interest and no judgment if you happen to have voted already, and if not, would you care for a calm and serene ride to the polls?

But my point was that this election cycle has been a radically different experience from any other. Last night I dreamed that John and Cindy McCain had to spend the night at my house on the campaign trail, even while it was my job to conceal and protect a zip-lock bag of damning evidence against them which would guarantee they couldn't steal the election. I woke up from that nightmare at 4 AM and never managed to get back to sleep. I have never been more ready for an election to be over.

It Is Done

I bought these today, and I've been thinking lustful thoughts about winter socks and mittens.

Plans for the Sneezer

October is over so I suppose the shopping can begin again. But blogging about shopping isn't nearly as fun as blogging about not shopping, so Sal and I were thinking that Punkin Sneezer should become more of an all-purpose blog, a wee soapbox for sounding off on topics including but not limited to consumer culture, creative culture, liberal values, politics, forest gardening, and knitting. Rumor has it we might be seeing more from Sal in the way of drawings, as well.

So I haven't any idea how often posts might show up. Is there some way for Blogger to notify you when there's something new to read? Maybe that's what the "follow this blog" link is about, way down in the right-hand column, I don't know. I put a Subscribe widget over there too, just in case. The point is that it might be more convenient to be told when there's an update than to keep reloading the page, hour after hour, with no reward whatsoever, when all you want is the news that you can relax now, Obama has won the election, the world has been saved, and we can all get on with our lives.