Trying to Understand

I'm finding myself increasingly interested in politics and economics. They seem to be what make our world go round. Politics seems much more straightforward than economics. Reading an article on politics requires much less background knowledge than reading one about economics. I may actually have to educate myself, because my one semester of macro-economics did not remain in my brain. I do, however, still have my text and workbooks. So maybe I'll dig them out to peruse during my massive amount of free time. Unfortunately not making time to do so will mean that my current understanding the system will continue to be lacking, and I really feel the need to learn up.

What is a blog?

I write. I write a lot. I write a lot about a lot of things. I have a bazillion blogs (ok, maybe closer to eight, but in terms of number of blogs eight might as well be a bazillion in terms of ridiculousness). I also have a journal, after learning the hard way that some thoughts are meant to be private. So what exactly is a blog? More specifically, what is the point of all of my blogs? It's not like so many people are interested in what I have to say that any of them besides my baby blog are even warranted to exist. I have a baby blog. I have a general blog. I have a cooking blog. I have a "green" blog. I have a couple of private blogs. And now I find myself asking, WTF do I have all of these blogs? And is the answer consolidation or just deletion? I think the answer might be to get it down to two. My baby blog and my general blog. People interested in the baby stuff don't have to be bothered with all the rest of the crap I like to write about, but I will be getting my accomplishments (what accomplishments, this is a load of bs, that's what this is) out there so I feel satisfied (about my massive amount of non-accomplishments). Maybe if I record everyday, normal stuff in a blog it feels more like an accomplishment.

I've recently come to the conclusion that I am extremely mentally lazy. And let's just skip the quips about all the other ways I'm lazy, but it was rather like an epiphany. We are capable of so much, and I don't know about the rest of you, but I let most of that potential go to waste. When I think about all the things there are to think about that I don't think about...well, it makes me feel mentally lazy, I said that already. They aren't kidding when they say learning makes you smarter. Now, mental laziness is directly related to physical laziness. I mean, why can't I learn a language? Because I'm too lazy to take the time out of my day to sit down and make my lazy brain work. Lazy, lazy, lazy. People like Louis Howe (no, I don't expect you to know who that is unless you're a history buff like me, but you can google it if you're curious) must never have given their brains a chance to rest, they were so busy and accomplished so much by working so hard. Does everyone in politics think like that? If they don't, does that explain so many of the problems in our government? Maybe everyone is just mentally lazy and they hide it by knowing how to look like they're doing something. I think I just summed up the American legislative branch.

This wouldn't be that important, except I've been trying to figure out what the point of having a blog is when I have a journal. Did you know that people who journal every day have higher IQs? I think it has something to do with self reflection and organizing ideas. I think that the blog is for specific ideas, things that I would write an essay on, or could, at least. My journal is for me to record the important thoughts my internal narrative has had that day. To keep track of my thoughts. Heavens, I forget more than I'll ever remember. Ha.

Ok, the baby is asleep. He's been asleep all morning, so it's time to wake him up. Or maybe take a nap. Hey, I said I was lazy. I'm also tired.

Lists, lists, and more lists

Anyone who knows me knows that I love lists. Lists make my world go round. If it's not on a list it just doesn't seem solid to me. So I have lists about everything. And this morning I need a distraction from things I don't want to talk about and don't have the emotional strength to think about anymore. So I'm going to make a lists of lists that are partially formed and need to be cemented down. Some lists are just lists and some are more along the lines of plans. And I expect this to be absolutely fascinating to anyone who reads my blog. Are you fascinated yet? Ha!

Reading List: fiction and non-fiction
Snowflake Method
Reading the Bible
Home Improvement Projects
Crafty Projects
Knitting Projects
Expanding my Creativity Projects
Recipes
Movies I want to see
TV Shows I want to see
Video Games I want to play
Math Goals (shudder and gasp, trust me)
Scientific Learning
A Filing System
Foreign Languages
Expanding Spirituality
Travel
Home Decorating
Previous Political Opinions List

That's all I have for now. And not all of these are listy kind of lists. For example, my travel list is documented in Google Earth, not in any sort of document.

Politics

So, I have decided that I want to figure out what my opinions on certain political issues are (aka I finished A Storm of Swords and now I'm bored as hell). Too often we find ourselves in conversations about things that we really don't know how we feel about. It's not that we don't care, and sometimes we care very vehemently, but still don't really know the facts (or what we're talking about). Currently I am registered as a Democrat, but I consider myself an Independent. However, Colorado requires that you be a registered member of a political party to vote in their primary elections and I decided I cared more about who the Democrats were sending to the ballot than the Republicans last election. Is there a political party I actually identify with enough to loudly proclaim membership? Although, "Hi, my name is Chelsey and I vote for the best person for the job," does sound a lot more empowered than, "Hi, I'm a Democrat." I've done enough reading about the Tea Party to know I agree with some of their ideas, but that's partially what has sparked this newfound interest in politics, because I realized I had no opinion on taxes. Last fall I voted for a big increase in property taxes in Colorado Springs because I felt that what it would pay for was worth it. But the opposite side of that coin is eliminating government waste, and I can't deny that being an impossible job. Why should we pay for that? This could take come time though, and I certainly don't think that I'm going to come to conclusions about every issue I've thought of tonight, so I'm going to list them here and refer back, and whenever I need something to do and my brain is rotting from boredom I can learn something and blog about it. 


This is going to be a long list, I wonder if there's a better way to write it so as not to take up so much space...Hmm...Thinking...

Religion          Gun Rights          Abortion          Stem Cell Research          Sex Education          Feminism          Same-sex Unions          Capital Punishment          Drugs          Illegal Immigration          Fiscal Policy          Bailouts          Earmarks          Housing Issues          Health Care          Taxes          Natural Gas Pipeline          Offshore Drilling          Nuclear Energy          Oil and Gas Development         Global Warming          Water          Endangered Species          Environmental Policy          Defense          Don't Ask, Don't Tell          Foreign Policy          Afghanistan          Iraq          Iran, Syria          Israel       NATO, Russia, Georgia, Ukraine          United Nations          Nuclear Proliferation          Disability Rights          Veterans Benefits          Native Americans          Racial Issues          HIV/AIDS          Civil Liberties          Patriot Act          DC Voting Rights

Luke Chapter 10

⁸"When you enter a town and are welcomed, eat what is set before you.⁹Heal the sick who are there and tell them, 'The kingdom of God is near you.' ¹⁰But when you enter a town and are not welcomed, go into its streets and say, ¹¹'Even the dust of your town that sticks to our feet we wipe off against you. Yet be sure of this: The kingdom of God is near.' ¹²I tell you, it will be more bearable on that day for Sodom than for that town.


This was the scripture reading at the Celtic service last night. It made me feel better.

Lousy Day

I hurt. If I lie in bed and don't move I don't hurt. Getting rid of this nausea is proving difficult though. Maybe I just need an easy weekend. Let's hope that'll make me feel better.

After talking more with David I feel even more confused. Of course, half my concerns don't even apply by the time I talk to him. Because somehow in a day or two things have changed, or something. Who knows. Our 1-2-3-5-10 year plan doesn't go past 3. That doesn't work for me. I recognize that anything that far advance in subject to major changes, but the point is to have a plan. And he just hasn't been online often enough or long enough to satisfy my need to figure this out. I don't know if I even feel like thinking today though.

I'm putting away baby stuff now. Then maybe a nap. Then the Celtic service. That's about all I'm up for today. Even though I'm feeling better.

Planning on the military

It's officially impossible to try to make solid life plans while a family member is in the service. I'm really looking forward to going back to school. Really, really looking forward to it. I'm finding that a baby born in November is extremely inconvenient to going to school though, because it's a month before finals when you don't have any real time to be missing large expanses of class. If I were in Colorado already it might be possible for me to start a full semester class in January, however from a practical standpoint I don't think it's likely that I can move back there in time to start classes, having had abdominal surgery just a month prior, a two-month old in tow without a built-in support network, and coming back to a house that needs a serious scrubbing from top to bottom, half of its contents thrown out, and then a lot of handywork done. I'd like to think that it's possible, but it would be a stretch, and one done without much outside help. One or both of my parents might be able to come help me settle in, but then I'm left with two friends in the Springs. The rest of my friends and support are going to have to be built from the ground up. There are some late start classes that I could enroll in after David gets back, so I'm planning on applying to the school either way, just to keep my options open. But next semester doesn't look promising.

Then there's this new issue of where I am going to graduate from. At the point I don't know. I know that David will be home in early 2011 and one of two things will happen. Either he will stay at Carson to complete a deployment to Afghanistan in 2012 or he will be PCS'd to Ft. Hood to start training on the new ERMP MQ-1C UAV. No, I didn't realize that there was a potential for an "or" there either. If he stays at Carson then college is fairly straightforward. I need to work out my debt with UCCS so I can go back to school there and start taking classes towards the degree I will eventually earn there. I would have enough time to complete my degree in Colorado before they potentially PCS'd us elsewhere after his Afghanistan deployment. If he goes to Ft. Hood we are facing a lot of complications. For starters, moving could require us to fork over $8,000 to the IRS. That would be the tax credit we received when we bought our house last October. We are supposed to live in the house for three whole years to earn that credit, and if we sell, or even lease, before then, we might have to pay it all back. I don't know about you, but $8,000 is a lot of money. That's a really big incentive to stay the hell put. Also, Ft. Hood is two and a half hours away from any major Texas city. Actually, it's about two and a half hours away from three of them. Three big cities with good schools and they are just far enough away to be inaccessible. But this could potentially be a really good thing for David's career. This is the new UAV, who knows where or when we will be fighting next, and being on the up and coming end of training is nothing but beneficial. I imagine that David is going to be career army, and therefore our long term plans have to include a certainly inevitability of inconvenience. If this is what could set him up for being more than just  another UAV pilot turned flight instructor because there was nowhere else for him to go, I'd like to expound upon that opportunity. Even if it means going to *shudder* Texas.

Now David and I have yet to finish our conversation on this topic. He had to go to work. So I don't know everything that I would like to know. I can only imagine that he would like the opportunity to go to Texas, both because this new UAV is pretty kick-ass and because he brought it up at all. If he was completely unenthused about the possibility of going to Texas (I'm pretty sure this is a submit your candidacy kind of program) he wouldn't have said anything about it. And I am of course keenly interested in what kind of an opportunity this job actually is. If this is the it, if this is the split in the career track that makes the difference between standard and exceptional, than we need to go to Texas, and I'm not going to keep that from happening. Maybe I'm making too much of the opportunity though, and nothing would really be that different. In which case the potential costs of the physical move are severe. It has to be worth it. That's why it merited my first blog since January. Because I don't wanna go! I'm really hoping that my conversation with David when he gets off work later will answer some of my questions. That's the other thing about the military. I know that some of my questions don't have answers because he just doesn't know yet. For example, I could give Ft. Hood the ok and then they could not send him there. However, that would just mean that he'd be set for a 2012 deployment and I'd be back on track being able to graduate in Colorado.

It all comes down to how big a deal this really is. And I won't know until later. I just hadn't thought of any of this until now.