Huh. So apparently the site by the woman who claimed to have toured Chernobyl alone on her motorcycle was mostly bunk. Sorry to hear it...
From the "No shit, Sherlock" files:
Same stuff I was talking about in my entry from January 30. I'd written that entry before we'd even really tucked into this little war in Iraq that at this point has cost our nation over $113 billion dollars and counting. Now is not the time to be sinking another $53 billion into a pie-in-the-sky (or should it be "fry-in-the-sky"?) weapons program that many of the nation's leading defense-technology experts reject as being unfeasible and foolish.
What the fuck is wrong with this Administration? Really, what's their deal? It's as if they're pushing this shit for fun... Let's see if we can invade a country without adequate provocation and justify it with outright lies; let's see if we can just toss out the Geneva conventions when dealing with prisoners we take in military actions, and gloss over our actions with technicalities, or crocodile tears of contrition when cornered with proof of abuse; let's see if we can play favorities by issuing massive non-competed defense contracts to companies in which we have vested interests or long-standing associations... Let's see if people will mind if we sink a boatload of their tax money into a weapons program that will never, ever competantly perform the job it's intended to do, while at the same time seeing the gradual degradation of things like Social Security and social programs across the board for lack of funds. And we got on the prior President's case for getting a blow job? I think the current Administration has us all on our knees, when you get right down to it...
I have so much hope that the eyes of American voters are being opened up with the news that comes out about the decisions this Administration is making on our behalf; I guess we'll know for sure 6 months from now.
So, after reading one of Eric's recent entries, I realize how much I miss letters.
I don't mean emails - I mean physical, snail mail letters. I miss writing them and sending them out with little doodles on the envelope. There was always something about writing a letter that felt more creative than typing an email ever has - choosing the type of paper and the color of the pen; writing in the margins, or in a spiral; sticking bonus items in the envelope like flowers or confetti or clippings. I miss emptying the mailbox and finding among all the ads and bills a letter addressed to me - yay, fun mail! - and the whole process of ripping it open and curling up somewhere to read it. I have boxes of old letters in my closet from all kinds of people - family, friends, foreign pen-pals, old boyfriends (no, wait, I burned all those! Uh, mostly...). I do not, on the other hand, have piles of email printouts from anyone (well, except Bill - but only because that's mostly how we dated for the first several months).
There's just something special about a physical letter - it's a gift, really. Having someone's handwriting on a page is like having a little bit of them, in a weird way. You're holding something that person held and took time to compose and stick in an envelope and address and mail. Writing a letter takes more effort, more purpose, than writing email, I think. A person's handwriting style is also a unique part of them - a feature, as distinctive as a fingerprint or an expression on their face. In my mind I can see the handwriting of the people I love as clearly as I can imagine their faces; looking at something someone's written me is almost like looking at a picture of them. I haven't printed out a whole lot of emails that people have sent me, but I have almost every letter that anyone close to me has ever sent.
So, I know what I want for my birthday, from anyone who cares to give me something...
I want a letter. A handwritten letter, sent via snail mail. Don't skimp - I want a good full page, minimum - more if you have it in you.
Come on - how else can you give someone exactly what they want for the bargain price of $0.37?
Let me know if you need me to email you my address...