glum perspective from a glum burg - carlalafong's Blog - Bakersfield.com

bill moyers interviews rev. wright

don't believe the soundbiters.

go on here to joe bertia's blog for further discussion, too: http://people.bakersfield.com/home/Blog/JBertia/

an oldie but goodie & pete seeger, great patriot

www.snopes.com , the urban legend buster, describes this as containing "degrees of truthfulness" and also, of course, subjectivity. Listed also are two other sites (one called "Crossbearer," which certainly suggests a subjective perspective) that it says one can go to to check the veracity of the resume's "facts." Reading it might cause a sane person to feel a certain mordant satisfaction... and then want to weep for the "state of things."

www.snopes.com/politics/bush/resume.asp

Last night a documentary on the Pete Seeger was shown on PBS. 36 years ago and more, he was singing that this country's people, specifically its poor, need shelter, food, and schools, not to be ignored and/or sent to war as cannon fodder.

When his patriotism was questioned because of his anti-war stance, Seeger replied, "Was Lincoln unpatriotic when he opposed the Mexican War?"

BRING 'EM HOME

If you love this land of the free
Bring 'em home, bring 'em home
Bring all troops back from overseas
Bring 'em home, bring 'em home

It will make the generals sad, I know
Bring 'em home, bring 'em home
They want to tangle with the foe
Bring 'em home, bring 'em home

They want to test their weaponry
Bring 'em home, bring 'em home
Here is their big fallacy
Bring 'em home, bring 'em home

Our foe is hunger and ignorance
Bring 'em home, bring 'em home
You can't beat that with bombs and guns
Bring 'em home, bring 'em home

I may be right, I may be wrong
Bring 'em home, bring 'em home
But I got a right to sing this song
Bring 'em home, bring 'em home

Spoken
Isn't that the wonderful thing about America.
You got a right to be wrong.
Where else in the world can we do it like we can do it here ?
And back in 1965 when I first wrote this song it was
"If you love your Uncle Sam
Support our boys in Vietnam
Bring 'em home"
And if you all sing that chorus with me we can raise the ceiling a little higher.
Hooray for the United States of America and the right to speak your mind.

There's one thing I must confess
Bring 'em home, bring 'em home
I'm not really a pacifist
Bring 'em home, bring 'em home

If an army invaded this land of mine
Bring 'em home, bring 'em home
You'd find me out on the firing line
Bring 'em home, bring 'em home

Show those generals a fallacy
Bring 'em home, bring 'em home
They don't have the right weaponry
Bring 'em home, bring 'em home

For defence you need common sense
Bring 'em home, bring 'em home
They don't have the right armaments
Bring 'em home, bring 'em home

The world needs teachers, books and schools
Bring 'em home, bring 'em home
And learning a few universal rules
Bring 'em home, bring 'em home

So now we don't want to fight for oil
Bring 'em home, bring 'em home
Underneath some foreign soil
Bring 'em home, bring 'em home

So if you love this land of the free
Bring 'em home, bring 'em home
Bring all troops back from overseas
Bring 'em home, bring 'em home

Words & Music : Pete Seeger

public schools, public schools

After returning from 2 months in Iceland, I decided to stay off the Internet for a while and have been happily successful. However, I felt the need to share the message below. I received it today from my friend the teacher.

My take on what she wrote is that schools will not change until parents in large numbers step up to the plate to support their child's education by regularly helping out at school. Student achievement is directly related to parent involvement.

Directly.

If you are reading this and are the parent of a public school kid, you likely already help your local school (if not, you need to!). Please encourage every one of your parent-friends to get involved with their child's school. That is the only way the "public school problem" will ever improve.

->>sometimes life stinks, so i need to remember how small i am in all of this, how small we all are

->> most who care at all would agree, i think, public schools are in deep trouble. the one i'm at now is staffed by hard, hard working idealists who put in long, long hours... yet despite the cheerful, intelligent, & committed people i know my teacher friends to be, our district, the largest k-8 in ca, suffers terribly (except for its pet school, which unfairly has the king's share of the $$). leaving late from school, i just had terrible, terrible news, heard something that broke my heart for everyone involved & saddened me deeply about the "handwriting on the wall" for public schools & their students.
-> problems will only worsen as schools get bigger & poorer & monies are funneled twd standardized testing instead of meeting children's basic needs (love, safety, nourishment). kids have gotten much wilder, since i started teaching yrs ago; i correlate it w/the onset of internet & video games, when kids' awareness of "fame" as the ultimate goal & the "necessity" of having high-$ toys caused children to acquire the venal "adult" mindset of acquisition over everything.
in public schools, "highly qualified" staff gets ever-scarcer, for who'd want to be a scapegoated teacher nowadays, overworked, underpaid, blamed for society's ills?
hardworking idealists, that's who. people who love kids & know they're the future. people who never give up & can take a hit because they know what they do is good & right.
unfortunately, increasingly, we're not bred as a society to be hardworking OR idealistic, OR to think of much else besides buying stuff.
2 in 5 teachers quit in their 1st few yrs: your kids likely are taught by someone who's just learning the ropes, &, just a few yrs from now, burnt out & heartbroken, likely will give up before they have even reached mastery.
the public school system is sick, hamstrung by evil governmental priorities (testing over children's well-being) & societal "norms" that encourage sociopathy & addiction. as the educational testing trend continues, less & less adequately-qualified adults will pursue or stay with teaching.
the ones who suffer will be children. today i am heartsick, but know on another level this means i must not give up because my job, tho i complain about it, is too important.

Who will get your vote? ... Are you sure???

repost

Subject: WHO ARE YOU GOING TO VOTE FOR???

Thinking about next year's election ... already made up your mind? still deciding? try this fascinating website!

Takes about 1-2 minutes.

Having trouble deciding who to vote for in 2008?

This will compare your answers with ALL candidates.

I found this to be of interest .... It did not select the candidate I had expected!

Of even more interest was which were way down the list - and why..

Click on the website below

http://www.wqad.com/Global/link.asp?L=259460

I'm sure you'll want to pass this along to friends ... I suggest you do it without disclosing who your candidate was before and after the survey !

brussel sprouts and bush

postings below from expat g.t., hugely creative not just musically, but (i didn't know this) with political thought. don't throw the baby out with the bathwater on this one -- g.t. (i mean, joe green) gives us some good fat to chew on here. too bad he went and moved to brussels, but i know others who've decided to do so, too, in the last 7-8 years... unfortunately, they're to a one the most talented, bright, and productive people i know, which means not just bakersfield, but the u.s. suffers "brain drain" when they go...

JOE DEAN COMMENTS ON GENERAL PETRAEUS' SPEECH TO CONGRESS

Maybe it's an Ollie North-type situation, but with more rank? All good things to those who (fall on their sword and) wait? It is most interesting that at this late stage of the game -- damage-control, graceful(less?) exit, political (cow) chips, etc -- that Petraeus is standing firmly with the Bush-Admin. Wonder what size 'red dress' HE wears?

But let's look at the Iraq War Scoreboard for a minute (courtesy of ESPN Baghdad).

On the plus side:

(+1)Ding-dong the witch is dead! -- no more Saddam. Now, for the life of me, that's the only 'plus' that I can see.

On the minus side:

(-1)No WMD found -- our 'self-mandated' original mission.

(-1)No working-democracy, except in W's fantasy world. It's just not happening, folks.

(-1)Repairing the infrastructure. Rub a lamp for that one OR, just interview the average Iraqi.

(-1)Stabilizing the country and ending sectarian violence (see previous). They're tribal peoples with conflicts much older than our nation -- they're not gonna get along because we tell them to.

(-1)Developing a self-sufficient Iraqi military and police force. Still waiting...and waiting.

(-1)The War On Terror. Let's see...we took a secular muslim dictatorship (albeit a very distasteful one) and morphed it into Afghanistan West -- a mecca (sorry) for radical muslims. "A chance to kill Americans?...sign me up!"

(-1)The cost in human life. 3700-plus (and counting) of our military personnel (never mind the maimed, disfigured and mentally destroyed OR the numbers of other coalition nations' dead and wounded), countless civilian casualties, some of them OUR civilian employees. I didn't even do a 'body count' of enemy killed (remember, as the 'experts' say, "this is nothing like Viet Nam").

(-1)The $$$$$$. We're gonna hit the Big Trillion next year (had to check the spelling, as I've never typed 'trillion' before). That'd buy A LOT of health care, even with our prescription drug prices.

Now, we just add (subtract?) up the score...let's see...("naught, naught, carry the naught")...OK, Jethro says the score is Negatives 8, Positives 1. Looks like a rout(e) to me.

Now, I don't see what kind of success we can achieve with this conflict (other than gettin' the Hell outta Dodge) before this administration rides off into the sunset (Ronnie & the Duke would be SO proud). What kind of blueprint could this war possibly represent for our future 'leaders'? However, I sorta felt the same about Viet Nam and look where we are? Palm trees & rice paddies...apples & oranges.

Oh, and speaking of Cuba and the Phillipines. It seems to me it's much easier to conquer and then close the borders on an island, since most nations (or terrorist groups) don't have much in the way of naval power (Taliban-Al Queda Navy?), than to conquer(?) and close the borders of a country @ 98% land-locked and bordered by large numbers of folks who would like to kill us. To properly secure Iraq, we would've needed @ 500,000 troops to button it up right. I'm no military expert, but every commander allowed to be interviewed is always asking for more troops. Draft Lottery, anyone?

Respectfully yours,
Joe S. Dean (from Bowling Green)

GW POINTS TO "SUCCESS" (NOT VICTORY) IN IRAQ

Watching this Iraq business unfold from Belgium (where they're now FOUR YEARS without a seated Federal Government -- Hooray!) it all appears to be so much posturing, dancing, singing, crowing, finger-pointing, da-di-da-di-da...

Indulge me in a little fantasized (super-sized?) crystal ball-gazing, if you would.

According to the L.A. Times (and others), we're now holding (secret?) talks with Sadr's Shiite militia about playing nicey-nice. Since we've already been recently getting SOME co-operation from the Sunnis (for big $$$, I'll wager), how's this for a scenario? (SERIOUSLY too bad about Abdul Rattar Rashawi being assassinated the other day, though)

IF we can get the respective militias to tone it down and help with the policing in their respective neighborhoods and outlying provinces, our military (read: The Administration) can then concentrate on getting Baghdad spruced up and reasonably secure, begin to SLOWLY (not too fast!) reduce troop levels (carefully timed and credited to assist Campaign '08), all the while telling everyone in the world about all the progress they've made and are making. The Democrats will have, at best, a few "me, too's" and "I told you so's" but mostly it'll be the Republicans taking all the credit. Oh, I almost forgot...when they start releasing all the Iraqi oil, which Halliburton and KBR have squirreled away, watch gas prices come down, oh, say, about the first week of June '08 ("have a great summer, America, courtesy of Bush-Cheney & the Republican Party").

At certain points, they'll present all sorts of Cold War-style, carefully-staged, "look at all the happy Iraqis enjoying life in their nice, secure city" and "our returning troops are reunited with their families (THAT will be truly welcome)" feel-good propaganda, which will, hope Bush & Co, generate enough relief that the war MIGHT be coming to an end ("good job, Mr. President") to allow the Republicans to secure YET ANOTHER four years in office. This CAN come about due to our country's seemingly PERPETUAL blind faith in Truth, Justice & The American Way. Then...about the first Wednesday in November, it all starts to unravel. By January 20th, 2009, it'll be "good luck, Mr-Ms President, whoever you may be".

Nah...could never happen.

ONE MORE BIT OF POLITICAL RAMBLING

So, "W" says we're now trying for 'success' in Iraq, not 'victory'? He announced yesterday the first troop cuts, with, of course, no time-table for more. The Dems shot their wad in their recent majority Congress by trying to wrest away control of the war from The Administration with threats of budget cuts to the military (thank you, Ms Pelosi!). Politically, "taking the bullet$ away from our boy$" was never going to work. Unfortunately, at the time, they couldn't override any of his threats of veto on any other legislation pertaining to the war and everybody knew it. But they kept shaking that blunt saber, nevertheless. NOW, "W" possesses the added political card of "bringing our troops home" whenever he should need it. The Dems can't very well object to these announcements, since this is what THEY wanted, and was the ONLY issue they focused on. So, King George is in position to make it happen, at Prince Cheney's whim, of course.

CREATIONIZhhhhhmmmmmmm

"The universe was created by an all-powerful, all-knowing being who came down to us in the form of a cosmic Jewish carpenter, who was his own father, and who can make you live forever, if you symbolically eat his flesh and telepathically tell him you accept him as your master, so that he can remove an evil force from your soul that is present in humanity because a 'rib-woman' was persuaded by a talking snake to eat a piece of fruit from a magical tree." -- author unknown

THE MEANING OF LIFE

This just in from my friend the teacher, whom I hope now won't go off the deep end, with all her newly-found time...

THE MEANING OF LIFE!

LEARNING WITH SOUL

a guidebook or curriculum is now available online for you to look at, if you're interested in the above phrase/s:
http://www.freewebs.com/learningwithsoul/index.htm

i certainly don't have any answers!!! but i DID do A LOT of research and ended up creating this thing under punishing time constraints with hopes it might help at least one person who is a little adrift while on the journey of life (since we ALL are on that journey!)...

when you click on the link, on the left side you'll see the table of contents.

the first parts are just my thesis, which probably won't interest most people. it's to me a strange combination of discursive/analytical/descriptive/anecdotal/formal/personal writing -- i was encouraged to do this by my professors (www.newcollege.edu) . it still feels weird to read parts of it, kind of like walking around naked, but there you go. oh well.

***** the actual guidebook or curriculum starts where it says LEARNING WITH SOUL, on the left side.

so this thing is now available to anyone who wants it! please use and share it however you wish -- amend, revise, improve it! if you know someone who's struggling, kind of unhappy, bored, whatever, and you think it might help him or her, look it over and pull out what you think'll be useful... and again, nothing's set in stone, but maybe something here will be helpful to someone!!

if you see major errors or omissions, i thank you ahead of time for letting me know. :)

here again is the link:
http://www.freewebs.com/learningwithsoul/index.htm

lone star oldie-goody (pg-13 content, maybe)

featuring molly ivins, may she r.i.p.

hope you get a good laugh or two out of this one. :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TYXUUsDGxkU

the founding immigrants

repost courtesy of bakes-patriat lonnie lopez! i didn't know this about franklin, whom i still do admire... interesting facts here from a guy who wrote a heckuvan entertaining capsule-history book, i think.

happy independence day to all...

The Founding Immigrants
By KENNETH C. DAVIS

Kenneth C. Davis is the author of "Don't Know Much About History: Everything You Need to Know About American History but Never Learned."

Dorset, Vt.

A PROMINENT American once said, about immigrants, "Few of their children in the country learn English... The signs in our streets have inscriptions in both languages ... Unless the stream of their importation could be turned they will soon so outnumber us that all the advantages we have will not be able to preserve our language, and even our government will become precarious."

This sentiment did not emerge from the rancorous debate over the immigration bill defeated last week in the Senate. It was not the lament of some guest of Lou Dobbs or a Republican candidate intent on wooing bedrock conservative votes. Guess again.

Voicing this grievance was Benjamin Franklin. And the language so vexing to him was the German spoken by new arrivals to Pennsylvania in the 1750s, a wave of immigrants whom Franklin viewed as the "most stupid of their nation."

About the same time, a Lutheran minister named Henry Muhlenberg, himself a recent arrival from Germany, worried that "the whole country is being flooded with ordinary, extraordinary and unprecedented wickedness and crimes. ... Oh, what a fearful thing it is to have so many thousands of unruly and brazen sinners come into this free air and unfenced country."

These German masses yearning to breathe free were not the only targets of colonial fear and loathing. Echoing the opinions of colonial editors and legislators, Ben Franklin was also troubled by the British practice of dumping its felons on America. With typical Franklin wit, he proposed sending rattlesnakes to Britain in return. (This did not, however, preclude numerous colonists from purchasing these convicts as indentured servants.)

And still earlier in Pennsylvania, the Scotch-Irish had bred discontent, as their penchant for squatting on choice real estate ran headlong against the colony's founders, the Penn family, and their genteel notions about who should own what.

Often, the disdain for the foreign was inflamed by religion. Boston's Puritans hanged several Friends after a Bay Colony ban on Quakerism. In Virginia, the Anglicans arrested Baptists.

But the greatest scorn was generally reserved for Catholics - usually meaning Irish, French, Spanish and Italians. Generations of white American Protestants resented newly arriving "Papists," and even in colonial Maryland, a supposed haven for them, Roman Catholics were nonetheless forbidden to vote and hold public office.

Once independent, the new nation began to carve its views on immigrants into law. In considering New York's Constitution, for instance, John Jay - later to become the first chief justice of the Supreme Court - suggested erecting "a wall of brass around the country for the exclusion of Catholics."

By 1790, with the United States Constitution firmly in place, the first federal citizenship law restricted naturalization to "free white persons" who had been in the country for two years. That requirement was later pushed back to five years and, in 1798, to 14 years.

Then, as now, politics was key. Federalists feared that too many immigrants were joining the opposition. Under the 1798 Alien Act - with the threat of war in the air over French attacks on American shipping - President John Adams had license to deport anyone he considered "dangerous." Although his secretary of state favored mass deportations, Adams never actually put anybody on a boat.

Back then, the French warranted the most suspicion, but there were other worrisome "aliens." A wave of "wild Irish" refugees was thought to harbor dangerous radicals. Harsh "anti-coolie" laws later singled out the Chinese. And, of course, the millions of "involuntary" immigrants from Africa and their offspring were regarded merely as persons "held to service."
Scratch the surface of the current immigration debate and beneath the posturing lies a dirty secret. Anti-immigrant sentiment is older than America itself. Born before the nation, this abiding fear of the "huddled masses" emerged in the early republic and gathered steam into the 19th and 20th centuries, when nativist political parties, exclusionary laws and the Ku Klux Klan swept the land.
As we celebrate another Fourth of July, this picture of American intolerance clashes sharply with tidy schoolbook images of the great melting pot. Why has the land of "all men are created equal" forged countless ghettoes and intricate networks of social exclusion? Why the signs reading "No Irish Need Apply"? And why has each new generation of immigrants had to face down a rich glossary of now unmentionable epithets? Disdain for what is foreign is, sad to say, as American as apple pie, slavery and lynching.

That fence along the Mexican border now being contemplated by Congress is just the latest vestige of a venerable tradition, at least as old as John Jay's "wall of brass." "Don't fence me in" might be America's unofficial anthem of unfettered freedom, but too often the subtext is, "Fence everyone else out."

rev. sharpton quotes from today's californian

"the only things that run when an exterminator comes are 'roaches'." (This one, I think, can really sound bad out of context... Read the story for that context. He is speaking of his critics.)

"I usually like to hang around where folks get upset because it makes me feel they've got something to hide... What they really don't want is someone to address the divisiveness [of American society]."

WHY WAS THIS ONE IN THE "SAY WHAT" BOX ON PG. 2? It kinda scares me that the following didn't make sense to some Californian editor! Maybe the paper was just trying to promote discourse... "There is a difference between peace and quiet. Most folks don't want peace, they want quiet. They just want people to shut up and suffer in silence."

"If everyone likes you, 'you haven't taken a side.'"

The Self-Taught Gardener Reflects

a relative of mine is writing a story about "rooms without walls" - backyards that are like retreats, getaways, etc, i would think. she interviewed a family member, who gave the following lecture. once his (rightful) indignation wore off, he gave many helpful tips for the budding gardener... she forwarded this in email to me, since she can't use much of it. hope you find some intriguing ideas here, as i did.

I get a real pain when I hear people talk of backyard retreats. No one wants to talk about
the poor - the no backyard with a dog running around - or admit there's such a problem as
poverty. We need to recognize the predominant number of people who can't have an oasis.
Here it's not too different than in Mexico, where you have a have-have not classist society.
We have community service workers - not city or county workers- doing the maintenance work
fo the wealthy, just striving to survive. They didn't choose to live that way - they are
struggling to feed their families.
It's a pathetic comment on how the wealthy use their money, to feather their own nests. On
the other hand, they are providing jobs. Maybe the point is that I wish America could be
more equal, with less difference between rich and poor, or let the rich keep what they got,
but help bring the poor along, too - child care, health care, access to Aera Park and other
remote wealthy regions. It was a big deal when Bank of America went in on Brundage
so people could actually bank in their own neighborhoods. Do people in Haggin Oaks have to
worry about easily accessible fresh food and services?
What of those who can't create a Shangri La in their backyards? Those who don't have to raise
a finger, just say, I saw something in a magazine I like, then call a friend of a friend
to do the work? - That's not how it is for most people.
I built some steps to my citrus trees. Someone said it looked "old country" - they're
lacking in the perfectness you'd see in the beautiful magazines like Sunset, that
studied effort to make a rustic look. Those stairs just happened through found materials.
You demolish a brick BBQ and suddenly have material for steps.
If a person has enough energy after work and having to pick the kids up, who've been farmed
out, help them with their homework, cook dinner, if you're a single mom who has to wash clothes,
renting a crappy apartment - then you still have the time and desire, but not the $6,000 for
a grotto by a landscaping company, you'll likely have to use found materials. Something in
the yard that's been a sore thumb and might provide raw building materials. Maybe a retaining
wall made of railroad ties - instead of throwing them away, it's good wood - you accumulate.
Throw it behind the clothes line or a hedge until you can use it.
Also be aware this is a salable commodity. Keep your mind open to things without obvious
monetary value. Hold back, squirrel it away, like broken construction, for example. Say
your neighbor tore out part of the driveway. It's been in the street for two weeks. You
wonder when he's gonna get rid of it. Might be good stepping stones. He might say, "take
em." Bricks, concrete, wood, safety glass, which breaks out like gravel, not in shards...
save it all, if you can.

They're excavating for a new shopping center at Mt Vernon and Bernard - there would be rocks
there.

Plant now for the future - the time when you will have time for a backyard retreat.
A Pawlonia grows so fast, you can hear it screaming. At the same time, plant a slower-
growing tree, like a weeping elm, which is beautiful and stately. Cut the Pawlonia down
once the mature tree gets to a certain size. Use its wood to build something else - a trellis,
maybe, or a patio cover or pathway. Don't plant a white birch if you plan to live here longer
than 15 years.
Same with redwoods - they go into decline. But a valley oak for the grandchildren? It's like
buying a bottle of wine and telling the grandchildren when they marry, they may open it.
Such a tree is a gift to the future.

Surfaces - cement is expensive and hot, though easy to clean off. Gravel has rustic charm,
but is heavy. You'd have to have lots of family with strong backs to help. Redwood chips are
reasonably inexpensive, smell good, and are fairly light, on the other hand.
Weed control - put down landscaping cloth. This allows water to pass through into the
ground. You place it on the bare dirt, but it's so fine, the weeds can't germinate through
it. It's well worth it, inexpensive. Places like Wal-Mart, Home Depot, Lowe's have it.

A hammock is pretty cheap. Kids can't jump on it, but it's fine if cared for. It implies you
have trees to hang it from, but some come with frames. Place it where you have the best
wind movement and shade. The neighbor might be throwing out old furniture - hose it down,
let it dry out, cover it with old blankets or table clothes, you have your outside furniture.

Uncle Joe once told me, "Don't ever put anything in you can't move. You'll find yourself
rearranging things." He was right.
Gardening is an evolving activity. The garden gets older, has less energy, moves toward
simplicity. The gardener makes changes based on not being able to bend over as well, say
puts a faucet higher up, maybe after decades splurges on a strip of cement all around
the house so he can move the wheelbarrow more easily.
Gardeners learn through experience. You might plant an exotic macadamia plant for instance,
and have it die. That's why the process takes so long.

Looking at the side garden - this was a fence, no grass, hot, lots of sunshine. Now, trees provide a ceiling
for a "secret garden". "The English have the word 'folly' to describe 'a whimsical conversation piece', like maybe a fake Parthenon or Acropolis."

He has a bird bath (a gift) as focal
point, a "Blessed Mother" statue, an arch from a family wedding. "In Ireland, you see little leprauchan houses. These are conversation pieces. Like pink flamingos - you don't see enough of
those around here. Or the plywood grandma and grandpa bending over. I think some people are
limited by social convention that tells them, for example, 'These things are tacky and
low-class.' Those with less to lose can be more expressive and more creative."

Stinky-shorts tree - a volunteer. You gotta listen to the plants. Originally, this tree
was growing on the hill. I cut it down with a hoe and put it in a pot. It died, then came back.
It died again, so i planted it in the ground. Look at it now. (it's humungous.)
Trellis - very old. Came in 4x8 sections from a garden supply store. Recycled.
You arrange things to please your own eye. For instance you can hang things in trees, like bicycles, for instance. It's weird, funny, great!
Pots and planters have been gifts. So were the Buddha statue, the welcome signs.

He has patio curtains to draw when the light moves. Lanterns. Classroom masks. Wind chimes. Gourds.

Ceiling fans are affordable for someone who knows how to wire.
Indoor-outdoor carpet feels good on the feet, so there's the tactile thing. It's also
pretty and defines the space. You can find carpets at second hand stores and yard sales.
Don't get furniture spiders can get up in, like wicker, for instance.
The little fridge is from my old classroom - not planned.
Time figures strongly in this.
Your friends need to know you're getting into gardening. Tell them more than once! People will give you things.
What not to plant - wisteria is a monster. The self-taught gardener learns hard lessons.
You plan honeysuckle, you will forever kick yourself. It progresses like mold.
Trial and error, though, is part of the fun. There is a macabre pleasure in complaining - and it's not hurting anyone.
Wherever you go or live, you're always looking for ideas. When my children were babies, there was a
hippie community up in the hills behind our house and at night you'd hear these weird
bells and gongs. It was spooky! But I always liked gongs and chimes, like the ones in Morro Bay, so I made my own gong from metal tubing and wood and twine.
Everything is evolving.

Monji and Urner and people like them are paid for expertise. They've seen the things that work and don't work.
You have a class of people who don't care - they don't want to be creative: "Don't bother
me with details, just give me something nice." There are those who want to be involved
in the processs. Then you have those who don't have those options. Ressure them that
if they're interested, they can do it, too.
Gardening is a unique expression of creativity. It can be enjoyed by all.