I was trying to find the first picture of Monkey in my Flickr, so I could figure out how old he is. I found this. Man. How did I ever get anything done? Oh right, I didn’t.

Poor Monkey won’t eat today and he’s throwing up a little. I hope he gets better in a few hours, or he might just be going to the kitty doctor in the morning.
Monkey and Lucie:

I’ve been reading this book for a bit now. (You can download it in sections from the website and read it free online. nifty,huh?)

Anyway, one of the things I keep hearing bandied about politically these days is how the “Free Market” should be left to do it’s job. The wrench in that plan is that what we see as the “Free Market” is anything but free. This book takes on those facts and presents solutions. It is an excellent read and I highly recommend it to anyone who really wants to understand the state of our world.

_____________

As economic decisionmakers—whether consumers, corpo-
rate planners, government policymakers, or investment
bankers—we all depend on the market for information to guide
us. In order for markets to work and economic actors to make
sound decisions, the markets must give us good information,
including the full cost of the products we buy. But the market is
giving us bad information, and as a result we are making bad
decisions—so bad that they are threatening civilization.
The market is in many ways an incredible institution. It allo-
cates resources with an efficiency that no central planning body
can match and it easily balances supply and demand. The mar-
ket has some fundamental weaknesses, however. It does not
incorporate into prices the indirect costs ofproducing goods. It
does not value nature’s services properly. And it does not respect
the sustainable yield thresholds ofnatural systems. It also favors
the near term over the long term, showing little concern for
future generations.

One of the best examples of this massive market failure can
be seen in the United States, where the gasoline pump price in
mid-2007 was $3 per gallon. But this price reflects only the cost
of discovering the oil, pumping it to the surface, refining it into
gasoline, and delivering the gas to service stations. It overlooks
the costs of climate change as well as the costs of tax subsidies
to the oil industry (such as the oil depletion allowance), the bur-
geoning military costs of protecting access to oil in the politi-
cally unstable Middle East, and the health care costs for treating
respiratory illnesses from breathing polluted air.

Based on a study by the International Center for Technology
Assessment, these costs now total nearly $12 per gallon ofgaso-
line burned in the United States. If these were added to the $3
cost of the gasoline itself, motorists would pay $15 a gallon for
gas at the pump. In reality, burning gasoline is very costly, but
the market tells us it is cheap, thus grossly distorting the struc-
ture of the economy.
_______________________

And while I’m posting from this book, I’ll also include this passage, which is basically what the book is about. Solutions:

The overriding challenge for our generation is to build a new
economy—one that is powered largely by renewable sources of
energy, that has a much more diversified transport system, and
that reuses and recycles everything. We have the technology to
build this new economy, an economy that will allow us to sus-
tain economic progress. Can we build it fast enough to avoid a
breakdown of social systems?

i need to get my cameras out of the boxes they’ve been in since we moved here. i miss taking real pictures.

I guess word is finally getting around pretty well, as despite many of my “regulars” being on vacation, we had a packed house. This month’s model was the lovely Melissa, aka Vesperi. Melissa makes some really awesome latex clothing and lingerie in “real life”, she also happens to be pretty proficient on the trapeze. Initially, I’d hoped to rig a real trapeze from the ceiling, but the only good place to do that would have been right over the bar, and that wasn’t even a good place. Luckily, she had a stand that we were able to use, and she brought her lyra.

I was fortunate to have two photographers in the room, since my camera has died an untimely death. Russ Matthews has a set of photos up here.

and here are three from Max Shirley, of www.atlantaphotography.org

Thanks to both gentlemen for allowing me to re-post their work.

I’m seriously loving this book. This page made me laugh and laugh last night…

I got one!

treasury!

I’ve been remiss in sending out thank-you’s to people who sent me little birthday packages. My apologies, life was sort of insane that first week of June.

First, a giant thank you to a very talented friend from Boston who sent me this amazing book. The whole thing is drawings like this. SO cool! I can’t wait to read it.

Then, my gramma sent me a cookbook that has recipes from 100 years of her church. I am seriously looking forward to comparig the old vs new. (and trying some new dishes!)

There was also an amazing bottle of wine, and equally amazing cookbook from the newly-married Bonnie and Rob

the wine bottle is a paper doll! We had fun making her lose clothes as the bottle was drunk. realistic! ha.

I also got a gift card from wayne’s mom, which magically turned itself into a replacement yoga mat! Yay!

And then Wayne got me the cutest shirt ever from Etsy seller DeadWorry

tentacles!!