Random Piercings

and read this thing, go to my survey and fill it out. If you read this and know somebody who works for a newspaper, send them the link.

Thanks.

Yes I am.

Morning After

via BoingBoing

Obama won.

Wow.

It’s just hard to comprehend the level of change that represents. Even with the good poll numbers and news from the hustings, I had trouble believing that the U.S. could get over his biraciality, his Muslim connections, all the other things so shamefully harped upon by the McCain camp either overtly or on the down low, that shouldn’t have mattered but might, in my worried mind, provide some excuse for people not to vote for him. As it may have as close as my own family. (Of course, said family member might have been pulling my chain. It has been known to happen).

And maybe that’s the reason I’ve had a hard time assimilating all this. I’m ecstatic, don’t get me wrong, and a lot more hopeful for the future than I have been in a long time, and absolutely glad that I’ll have something to hope for beyond impotence for the current administration. But it’s hard to believe I lived to see this (and I’m not 40 yet, but that was the state of mind; I’m like the MLK depicted in a recent political cartoon: pinch me).

Thank goodness for the young people who voted, and the hispanics, who went overwhelmingly for Obama as they grew to an electoral force to be reckoned with. (I’m omitting mention of my worrying whether it’ll continue. Gotta focus on the positive.) Thank goodness for all who voted for Obama, and pushed him so much higher than Kerry or Gore in almost all states, whether he won their electoral votes or not. That’s going to be huge as this moves forward.

Now there are a lot of things to do, for both the president-elect and his supporters. Time to get to work undoing the damage and building the foundation of the fourth American republic. To be alive at such a time is a priviledge.

Wow, again.

Bold for the things I know how to do, italics for those I want to learn how to do.

Automotive

1. Handle a blowout
2. Drive in snow
3. Check trouble codes
4. Replace fan belt
5. Wax a car
6. Conquer an off-road obstacle
7. Use a stick welder
8. Hitch up a trailer
9. Jump start a car

Handling Emergencies

10. Perform the Heimlich
11. Reverse hypothermia
12. Perform hands-only CPR
13. Escape a sinking car

Home

14. Carve a turkey
15. Use a sewing machine
16. Put out a fire
17. Home brew beer
18. Remove bloodstains from fabric
19. Move heavy stuff
20. Grow food
21. Read an electric meter
22. Shovel the right way
23. Solder wire
24. Tape drywall
25. Split firewood
26. Replace a faucet washer
27. Mix concrete
28. Paint a straight line
29. Use a French knife
30. Prune bushes and small trees
31. Iron a shirt
32. Fix a toilet tank flapper
33. Change a single-pole switch
34. Fell a tree
35. Replace a broken windowpane
36. Set up a ladder, safely
37. Fix a faucet cartridge
38. Sweat copper tubing
39. Change a diaper
40. Grill with charcoal
41. Sew a button on a shirt
42. Fold a flag

Medical Myths

43. Treat frostbite
44. Treat a burn
45. Help a seizure victim
46. Treat a snakebite
47. Remove a tick

Military Know-How

48. Shine shoes
49. Make a drum-tight bed
50. Drop and give the perfect pushup

Outdoors

51. Run rapids in a canoe
52. Hang food in the wild
53. Skipper a boat
54. Shoot straight
55. Tackle steep drops on a mountain bike
56. Escape a rip current

Primitive Skills

57. Build a fire in the wilderness
58. Build a shelter
59. Find potable water

Surviving Extremes

60. Floods
61. Tornados
62. Cold
63. Heat
64. Lightning

Teach Your Kids

65. Cast a line (not saying they’ll catch anything)
66. Lend a hand
67. Change a tire
68. Throw a spiral
69. Fly a stunt kite
70. Drive a stick shift
71. Parallel park
72. Tie a bowline
73. Tie a necktie
74. Whittle
75. Ride a bike (I know how, teaching the kids is another story)

Technology

76. Install a graphics card
77. Take the perfect portrait
78. Calibrate HDTV settings
79. Shoot a home movie
80. Ditch your hard drive

Master Key Workshop Tools

81. Drill driver
82. Grease gun
83. Coolant hydrometer
84. Socket wrench
85. Test light
86. Brick trowel
87. Framing hammer
88. Wood chisel
89. Spade bit
90. Circular saw
91. Sledge hammer
92. Hacksaw
93. Torque wrench
94. Air wrench
95. Infrared thermometer
96. Sand blaster
97. Crosscut saw
98. Hand plane
99. Multimeter
100. Feeler gauges

As we rush headlong into bailing out Wall Street to the tune of trillions and trillions of dollars, David Cay Johnston, former NYTer and excellent author of Free Lunch, sounds a warning and clarion call for skepticism among journalists. Read it for the questions that should be being asked right now.

Posted by email from Pierce’s posterous