Thursday

July 1, 1999

Alison Has Taken Over Our Yard

A couple of months ago, I mentioned that we had begun hosting a houseguest named Alison. A lot has been going on since then, including launching Contagious Dreams, building out our attic, getting ready for Origins, and spending a week at the beach (with Alison staying behind to house-sit), so perhaps my long-term readers are wondering what's going on with the houseguest named Alison and if she's moving on soon or planning to stay awhile.

As it turns out, Alison has really settled in here at Wunderland. Her room is an absolute disaster area, but as a member of the household, she's working out perfectly. The three of us get along incredibly well, she helps out on both the chores and on our numerous creative projects, and since Kristin and I are both working full-time for Looney Labs, which isn't yet profitable, the rent is certainly helpful. So it's looking like Alison will be living here for the indefinite future. (Now if she could just find a permanent job... anyone looking for a horticultural children's educator? Alison promises to have her resume up on her site by next week, so check back then...)

One thing that's really cool about Alison is that she brings into our household something it's been sorely lacking: knowledge of and passion for plants. We have a yard that would be great if landscaped and cared for, but since Kristin and I are always inside working on the computer, and don't know anything about plants anyway, the grounds at Wunderland have always been its least interesting point.

But now, there's Alison, who has taken charge of the grounds and has been planting and weeding and landscaping our yard like a crazy woman. It's fabulous. This weekend she took down a section of chain link fence that was there when we bought the house, which we'd never even thought of removing, and what a difference it makes! Give it a couple of years and the landscaping at our house will be as cool as the interior decorating we've been cultivating here for the past decade.

Behold, yet another minor reorganization of this page. Now that we have so many featurettes, I'm moving a bunch of the other stuff out of the left column and down to a new footer. Now the stuff that changes weekly is more clearly in the spotlight, and there's room for a couple of new things on the upper footer, notably links to GinohnNews and L'heure Verte, other frequently updated newsfeeds here at Wunderland.com. Plus I've moved the Past and Future arrows up nearer the top, so that surfing back and forth through the archives won't require scrolling anymore.

Anyway, Enjoy Life!

"America has parallel universes now, a situation akin to science fiction... At the center of the second universe is a new elite - geeks and nerds, hackers, scientists and engineers, technocrats and creators of various stripes - hammering together a culture that daily lays siege to the first." - Jon Katz

One of the bad things about wars is that they are staggeringly expensive. The recent war in Yugoslavia cost us approximately $4 billion -- currently an issue for federal budget makers. Meanwhile, we spend $18 billion each year fighting the War on Drugs.

"More important than [the drug war's financial drain on the taxpayers], however, has been the erosion of the freedoms for which this nation's founders revolted from English rule, the freedoms they sought to enshrine in the Constitution. Unlawful searches, abnormal prison sentences and illicit property seizures are tolerated-even endorsed-as necessary for a war the government is no closer to winning than it was 30 years ago." - Salt Lake Tribune, June 25, 1999