Bits and pieces:

Admittedly unscientific, but I don't think the prices for HD Tv's are any higher now than they were before Christmas. Maybe the Post-Thanksgiving prices were lower, but not by much. I wonder sometimes if the 'SALES!' at Christmas are really all that much better.

Writing a novel is NOT a daily blog activity, at least not the way I do it.

Watching home renovation shows just makes me tired.

The BAT is still spending a thousand a day on repairs. And I still think a small crew of enterprising fellows in vans could zip around town transporting everyone for cheaper. Or, again, that would pay for 100 ten dollar taxi rides....

There is a generational gap between my customers and I, when it comes to Transformers and G.I. Joe. Those two licenses have absolutely no resonance with me. Not the slightest twinge of nostalgia. But I recognize it when I see it.

I've often wondered how the Beatles and the Doors and Led Zepplin resonate with the young folk who missed it the first time. I wonder if it is like my nostalgia for the 'pulp' era of the 30's and 40's.

Retro-future is going to start doubling in on itself, as more and more predictions and illustrations and stories are proven wrong. Was watching 2001 last night, and the beautiful elegant space stations, and realizing we didn't even come close. But we should have......

Billions upon billions upon billions spent in that hell-hole Iraq, and still no universal health care.

Whether you like the Bush administration or not, I think it is becoming very clear that history is going to be very harsh. The scholarly books just keep coming out (Book T.V.- C-Span.) The Fox channel and the right wing talk radio are ephemeral, these books are going to be forever.

At some point in every fad, it becomes so ridiculously out of control that all you can do is shake your head. Then watch the inevitable decline. I think Bend hit that point late last year, and is still frothing over, but I think many of the developments that are being announced now will never actually be built.

We get these old art books and portfolio's in the BOOKMARK once in awhile, all the way back to the 30's and 40's. Black and white, with color plates. Now, I could buy much better, full color illustrations in almost any modern art book. But there is just something about the yellowed paper and touched-up color that really appeals to me. My mother was an art major in college, so our house was filled with these old books. They aren't worth a thing, and are usually too beat up to sell, so I take them home.

I've noticed that the House-selling scroll on the the local cable clusters like-priced homes together. So one day there might be nothing but 3.5 million homes, and the next there might be under two hundred thou mobile homes. Kind of disorienting. So you watch these 5000 ft. homes and wondered who needs that much space. Then comes a home for ONLY 900 thou, and you think, "That seems more reasonable." Wait.....in my dreams. It's all relative.