Life in the key of E flat minor

In the midst of the media maelstrom about the first anniversary of the landfall of Hurricane Katrina in Louisiana, I just wish to stop and to remember all those who died and those whose lives have been uprooted and profoundly impacted by this disaster. Our government failed us, but the American people didn’t fail New Orleans and the Gulf Coast. There was a major outpouring of love, concern, prayer and money. We can not falter in this. It’s our responsibility to educate, inform and tell the stories in order to keep us vigilant about never allowing this blatant disregard for human life to happen again. http://www.redcross.org/

A love of travel. I saw this on Blankbaby , and I HAD to do this. Got at b3co.com !

or (And your little dog, Goofy, too!) It’s official, the International Astronomical Union (IAU), founded in 1919, has defined (I never had that much time in my life to define something -- most of my identify and define tests were given in the time frame of 40 minutes, slackers.) what a planet is: A planet is a celestial body that (a) is in orbit around the Sun, (b) has sufficient mass for its self-gravity to overcome rigid body forces so that it assumes a hydrostatic equilibrium (nearly round) shape, and (c) has cleared the neighborhood around its orbit. According to this definition, Pluto has been demoted from a planet to a dwarf planet. A dwarf planet is a celestial body that (a) is in orbit around the Sun, (b) has sufficient mass for its self-gravity to overcome rigid body forces so that it assumes a hydrostatic equilibrium (nearly round) shape, (c) has not cleared the neighbourhood around its orbit, and (d) is not a satellite. Pluto is a dwarf planet by the above definition and is ...

One of the things that I wanted to talk about my trip to Syracuse and my traveling on my songline is that I picked up a copy of the Syracuse New Times in order to figure out what social activities exist in Syracuse. It reminded me of the Philly Weekly. While perusing the New Times, I came across Rob Brezsny’s Horoscope column . For the week of August 10, 2003, he wrote for Pisces: "Anger or bitterness toward those who have hurt you will block your path to higher ground," said inspirational author Vernon Howard. "You can have anger toward people or you can have freedom from people, but you can't have both." I suggest you make that one of your guiding thoughts in the coming week, Pisces. An undreamed-of burst of liberation is now possible for you if you compel yourself to experiment with radical generosity on the wild frontiers of forgiveness. The wild frontiers of forgiveness, what? I’m Irish, we grudge. Don’t suggest that I change, damnit. I’m not in a mood to...

I have nothing yet original for this blog, so I quote to express my feelings. My roadtrip to Syracuse to attend Christopher’s, my cousin, vow ceremony (he’s a Jesuit now) was like going for a walkabout : a little religious faith, a little bit of travel and a lot of time to ponder. Having traveled on I-476 and I-81, I can add them into the weave of my songline a s part of the line as I listened to following as my song: If he loved you Like I love you I would walk away in shame I'd move town I'd change my name When he watches you When he counts to buy your soul On your hand his golden rings Like he owns a bird that sings When we dance Angels will run and hide their wings The priest has said my soul's salvation Is in the balance of the angels And underneath the wheels of passion I keep the faith in my fashion When we dance Angels will run and hide their wings I'm still in love with you [I'm gonna find a place to live Give you all I've got to give] When we dance ...

Beaver jokes are tons more funny when women make them. A., L., J. and E. are some of my female co-workers and their names have been initialized to protect the innocent and gulty. Here's a neatened transcript of our latest e-mail stream of consciousness . (I have edited some of the details, truncated some sentences, omited a few too absurd non sequiturs and re-ordered some of the text to improve the flow.) A.: (to me) Have you been making out with your boyfriend wikipedia again? L.: Wikibeaver A.: Obvi. Me: Le duh! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beaver A.: E. totally loves European beavers. J.: Seriously, Bob probly thinks I'm wicked retarded b/c I can't stop laughing. He loves Casey's wikipedia find. E.: That's why I can't get a girlfriend! L.: Dude, I'm glad my beaver doesn't weigh 55 lbs. A.: Goddamn, me too. Me: I'll take my love, heavy on the beaver. J: Seriously I'm choking... E.: I would like one about 5'7", 130 pounds ...

(Confessions Tour, interlude) A little bit electronica, a little bit chant... This was a great song in the concert!

From a commercial for the Flavor of Love 2 on VH1: A black chickie-poo and a white chickie-poo are talking about dating Flavor Flav. White chickie-poo : I wanna have dark babies. Black chickie-poo : There's something wrong with her. You just don't go around sayin' that.

One the 29th, I met my friends, Gerald and Chris, out at Copa Miami for lunch. This conversation remained funny to us a week later: Chris : A mojito , what's that? Casey : It's a delicious cocktail of rum, lime juice, mint and simple shyrup. Gerald : Shyrup? Casey : That's what I said. Shut it. Gerald : Look at all the varieties and flavors the mojitos come in. Casey : Maybe we should get some rum and play with the flavors. Gerald : Perhaps we should just get one of each from the menu.

While I'm sure that many are a buzz about Lance Bass, he's not the Lance I'm talking about. I was out last night with a friend. During our night of drinking at the Black Sheep (and have the Monty Python's Holy Grail Ail while you're at it) the conversation turned to Floyd Landis and the Tour de France . Most people believe that he did dope, and the only outside chance for an explanation would be that he has testicular cancer. Yet, as of today, that seems more and more remote. As we all now, our favorite 7-time winner of the Tour de France was diagnosed with testicular cancer (which had metastasized to his brain and lungs) and the current Mennonite winner-for-now is diagnosed with a bad hip. So, we were talking about their health. Hip replacement is not that horrible of a surgery; the recovery from that is faster and better than from a knee replacement. However fueled by Holy Ail, I went off on Mr. Armstrong. Lance only has one ball! and he dumped Sheryl Crow ...