Just thinkin'

I woke up this morning and read (my favorite columnist) Charles Krauthammer's column about Chief Justice Roberts, on why he did what he did. I don't understand much of the details of Obamacare, but I understand enough to know that I don't want to be told to do anything. Especially by the government. Imposing this individual mandate on anyone to buy health insurance is not really the big issue here, but rather the issue of how much government will be allowed to control our personal life. But then again, we have already done a few things the government has told us to buy. Like, you can't buy a car without car insurance. Well, you can, as long as you don't drive it out of your garage.


With this "individual mandate" that just passed, I wonder what the US government would mandate for me to buy next. Which, for that matter, Obama can peddle it somewhere else; like Kenya or Indonesia, because right now, this old hag is not in the market for anything. Unless it is for something useful; like, an adult male servant with a Latin or European accent. And it comes with a certificate of authenticity and lifetime warranty: "You have just purchased a 100% male servant. By 100% we mean he's not implanted with anything, other than what should belong to him--top and bottom. He's guaranteed to work in the yard, in the kitchen and in the garage. And the bedroom if you wish. If you're not fully satisfied, just deflate him and ship back in the box that he came in. Deportation charges does not apply and purchase of liability insurance is not necessary for a dead dummy."

Between the US slowly imploding, the nitwits running the apartment complex I live in in the US, and my people here in the good old Philippines killing me with their smoke and spit, I think what I should be buying is my own planet. Complete with my own dummy President and dummy congress.

Here and there

When I feel down, there's nothing I could do to change the mood of the day, except to push through the clouds and wait until I get a breakthrough. But one thing that always shines a light into my dark and gloomy soul is when I hear my boys shouting from the gate: Mama Ritchie! Mama Ritchie!
This boy is new to the group. Same story as witht the rest of them--1 parent is gone and with at least 6 siblings.

The boys showed up yesterday and we had fun going through their trash looking for an expensive find. This piece of scrap iron and aluminum tray will bring in about 3 dollars. How much one makes doesn't matter, because if the other member of the group doesn't have money for food, the one with money has to share his income to feed the rest of the group. When they don't have enough money to buy food, it means it's time to see me.

You see how clean they are here? it's because Katie an American friend just gave them these clothes the day before.

Regardless how much I tell them to stay clean since I'm giving them free water, they, like my cat, loves to roll on the dirt. So their clothes are only clean a good hour, if at that.

Uploading solved

I think I have finally solved my uploading problem. Shrink the pictures. Duh?

I want you to see what a Temperature memory bed look like in my economy. I am slowly building not because of health reasons but because my Franklin's have run out. But trust me, I will get this done before I die. I bought this land for it's panoramic ocean view, but what sealed the deal is this breadfruit tree. I have lots of childhood food that I wish I can have again, but not really. But this breadfruit is one that I would often dream of while living in the US. You boil the ripe or half-ripe fruit, then you slather it with caramelized coconut milk. Harvest is not until 2 months from now. They're already extinct in the urban areas, so when I saw that the land has this tree--it sold itself. This land is not where my hut is, this is ten times bigger than where my hut sits right now. I am using this land to plant the fruit trees of my childhood and to build my own old age home.

No title

It's one week to my birthday and as usual, when my birthday is coming up I feel excited, encouraged, hopeful. Even Thankful.  Reason for this gush of positive emotions is because this is the time when I feel justified to do "stuff", any stuff, even crazy stuff. And usually, crazy stuff means spending money I don't have.

I was talking to my friend last night and it suddenly occured to me again that I should stop all efforts towards building and construction and or buying goats and chickens. Not for any reason, but because CitiBank said they have reached the limit of their resources--as far as I am concerned.
There was a study done on the spending habits of women and it showed that during an economic downturn, either personally or nationally, a woman will stop spending only for 6 months, after that, she will resume spending regardless of the status of the economy. 
Since I am not allowed to spend money I don't have, let me just play with pictures. My Viking (age) kitchen. Boy with his kitten, while he tag along with mother selling cassava cake. We're checking on the sweet potatoes. Cassava cake. Poor man's version in place of rice.

Blogspot sucks!

Steve Jobs hated Google, so I do now. Gone are the days when I look forward to blogging. Maybe it's me who's very slow in learning how to use new applications. (or is that what you call it?) Blogspot has changed the format on how you do text and photos and it's driving me mad. When one user of Apple's first Iphone sent Jobs an email calling him an "asshole" because Job refused to allow porn on the phone, Jobs engaged him and responded to every comment he had. Jobs was on his computer working, answering a client's email! How stone-age is that?  "And I noticed it was  already 2 a.m."  The user noted, and of course, he was awed. That's one of the reasons why Apple is cramped with A-players, while blogspot, whoever is running this outrigger will soon be out there adrift in the big ocean of "has-beens"... if they're not already. They're lucky that I'm cheap, because the only reason I stay with them is because it's free.

I tried my luck and emailed blogspot (I think it's them I emailed) hoping that Larry Page or Sergey Brin would pop up on my screen, to apologize for the inconvenience they have made me endure. I swear I would get up even at 3 a.m to answer his email. But no, that was several months ago. Me calling them an "asshole" didn't work, so I suffer. And you get this post without pictures.

I told Chat I brought my Tonka truck to the city to pick up an a/c unit that I am installing in my room in my mountain hut. Her reply was instantaneous with sarcasm: "Yeah. Because all mountain huts have a/c." I know. I know. But I just want to be cool whenever I can, because I haven't  seen a coffin with provisions for freon.

This post is supposed to come with pictures but with blogspot going down the path of hell, I would have to have the patience of Job to sit here and wait for a picture to upload, if at all.

Moving on and moving up

It's way past my bedtime and I'm drinking coffee. I'm already high as a kite but I need to be high on something because the thought of giving up my apartment in Dallas has gotten me down. Yet, at the same time, I wish I could just give it up tomorrow and be done with it. I can't explain it and ya'll won't understand when I say that this apartment feels more like home to me than the house I lived in when my husband was alive and even when Chat was still living with us.

Papayas

I have been stuck here in my city crib for over a week now. I am dying to get to my mountain hut and see how my new plants and seedlings are doing, but because I am helping my friend move tomorrow, I have to be here. Got bored today so I decided to do something about the papayas in my yard. I love the ripened one, but there's lots of them, so I made some salad.

I love anything pickled, so this is what I did.

The allure of the street

The boys hasn't come by the house this week so I went to find them. I was glad to see them but then I noticed that the one against the wall is a female and she's a new addition. It's bad news because look at this.

They reproduce and they continue to live on the street. This woman's husband works as a barker at the bus stop and she makes a living using the baby as a tool to make people give money. They're adults, not much I can say anymore to them. But with the boys, for some reason the street is very alluring to them so every time we meet I always impart to them the importance of living decently; work and not steal. I don't feed them to encourage them to not work, rather, I asked them to come to my house so I can have face time with them and impart some values to their young minds. I don't know what they do when I'm not around, but I just trust that they'll remember and do what I tell them.

Ok, so that's where my boys sleep. My cat? I know, it's a shame. I can't impart nothing to him. No matter how hard I try.