If you guys are wondering what I've been doing what I've been up to the past few days when "special" political essays have replaced my normal journal entries... here ya go:

Yesterday, November 11th, Philip had some more of his dad's social security business to attend to in Mobile. I had a normal day... running on the treadmill, filling orders, making dinner (salad and pesto pasta). Philip and I watched "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition: How'd they do that?" and a wonderful documentary (on Bravo) about how the Patriot Act is actually eroding our civil liberties and violates our constitution... and is being misused in the name of fighting terrorism. The parallels of this not-so-veiled anti-Islamic stuff and the internment of American citizen of Japanese descent during World War II were not lost on me. The more and more I research what the Bush administration has done, the more it sickens me.

On Sunday, October 31st, Philip had his first day off in a long time. We stayed home and relaxed... and straightened things out a bit (this house still has SO MUCH work to be done on it). I also made mini-morsel chocolate chip cookies as Philip's treat. Now where's my trick?!

On Saturday, October 30th, I sent out a whole bunch of "Happy Halloween" emails to my friends ands pen-pals. After Philip got off from work, we watched the last three episodes of STAR TREK: DEEP SPACE NINE (that I taped off cable), which Philip had never seen... and I hadn't seen since it originally aired in late May and early June of 1999. It was so beautiful and emotional... I'm glad I got reminded of its visual poetry. We also watched the four and final disc of THE THORN BIRDS, which I also introduced to Philip. He loved it. He nearly cried. I am still amazed my grandmother (Hilda) gave me that book to read when I was so young. She was an amazing woman!

On Friday, October 29th, I had to get all "ghetto" with netflix.com when they put my account on hold because of errors THEY made. But I cleared that up. While running on the treadmill, I watched PROPHECY (the Talia Shire horror flick) on cable, which I hadn't seen since 1979. It was the first movie that sparked my interest in social consciousness (racism, the environment). And sweet Jonno wrote to let me know that the porn site he writes for (fleshbot.com) gave a nice mention to my old zombie movie, AT TWILIGHT COME THE FLESH-EATERS. It's so kewl that it's still be recognized for being unique, all these years after its release. And when Philip got home we watched STAR TREK: ENTERPRISE which not only had Brent Spiner doing a guest role, but hot super model Joel West, too!

On Thursday, October 28th, I wrote several "special" politically-themed diary entries... and decided to direct vidkidtimo.com to my diary (so people might put porn on hold and focus on some serious stuff 'til the election).

And that catches us up to today.

After voting, Philip and I went to see I HEART HUCKABEES, the brilliant existential comedy. I found it to be incredibly meaningful... from a cameo role by Talia Shire (notice how I had just seen her for the first time in many years in PROPHECY) and so many other seeming coincidences that tie together to reveal the secrets of reality (or at least the pattern in the tapestry of reality)... the painful balance of energies... the beauty of awareness. Philip and I both loved it.

We then ate dinner and went over to Mike and Allan's place to grab some stuff from their backyard that they won't be able to bring with them when they move to Texas. So, they used to be the "boat boys"... then they evolved to the "landlubber lads"... and now they'll be the "Galveston guys".

Philip and I drove back to Alabama and watched election returns until about 1am... when it seemed too close to call, but kind of slanted toward Bush's re-election. How that brings back memories of four years ago when I was visiting my friend Jamey in Missouri during the 2000 election.