Time flies. Three weeks with out a post doesn't mean that I've been doing nothing, I've been busy but that's no excuse.

Haven't had either the chance or the weather to get out, and with 2 plus inches of snow as well as being on call the odds of getting out today is absolutely zero. Its beautiful to watch day breaking with the whole area covered with a thick coating of the white stuff. For some reason its quieter and nicer this way, but soon the beauty will torn apart by traffic and people rushing about.

NPR was doing a series on the shopping culture, or perhaps we could call it the cult of shopping. Amongst others a gentleman who makes his living teaching retailers how to separate you from the fruits of your labor. I think he is more of a pimp than a consultant, since we the customers seem to spend more and more of our energy prostituting ourselves for some one else's gain. The really disturbing thought this brings to mind is there seems to be no end ot this cycle. I have watched the development of the consumer society all my life, for the most part with a need to participate, but increasingly with a feeling of distaste, and maybe a bit of horror at the idea that I am powerless to confront it.

The whole consumer culture thing is ugly. That's hard to say, it goes against the grain of the majority of the conservative philosophy I have held for most of my life. A gentleman I've never met but whose website has given me much pleasure and much food for thought, Paul Lutus, has a web article that has given a name amongst other things to my feelings, http://www.arachnoid.com/lutusp/consumerangst.htm. The site is wonderful for many other reasons also. The series of articles on summers in Alaska is very good, as is the "Confessions of a Long Distance Sailor". One of the reasons I decided to get back to my life long goal of sailing.