I've been playing with Drupal 7 for the past few days. I have to say, I really like it. I think it's a lot of fun. This could very well be because it's different enough that it's like learning it all over again, so the challenge is there. I really want to upgrade to it so that I'm not left behind. I see that they are already talking about version 8, and I'm still running 6.

Unfortunately, they don't have all the modules I'm currently running available for Drupal 7, so it's just not practical for me to upgrade. So, I shall blissfully remain running 6 for now; but, I think I will continue to play on 7 to see if I can actually get it up and running the way that I want it to. Perhaps, when 8 becomes the standard, I might begin to use 7.

We shall see.

After almost 7 years, 3 locations, 2 servers, 3 platforms, and 3 domains, I think the time may be upon us to call it quits with the Musings of Jo Cose. It's been a lot of fun over the years writing what I thought was witty, entertaining blog entries, and I still get a laugh when I go back and read my posts. I hope that I have lived up to my name and been quite jocose. I hope, also, that you have shared in the laughter and merriment I have tried to imbue in my writing.

I haven't decided 100% if I will be parting ways with this blog yet, and your opinions matter to me. Please send me an email or leave a comment at the bottom of this post to let me know what you think.

Having said all of this, please don't think that I plan to be abandoning my writing or that I will stop blogging. The simple truth of the matter is that it's getting very expensive to keep so may domain names, and I'm beginning to consolidate URLs. Also, my interests have changed, and I would like to blog about other things that don't lend themselves so well to the Jo Cose persona. Unlike Robert Orin Charles Kilroy, I'm not prepared "to throw away this mask," but I am ready to start blogging as me on a completely separate and unrelated site. In fact, I have already started blogging at the new site, and it's going along in about the same fits and starts as this one.

If you're interested in that one, please drop me a line and I'll be happy to send you the new URL.

Thanks for your patronage and support,

Jo Cose

If you believe that God has a plan and everything has a purpose and reason, you should be worried. If you worship at the altar of Minerva and are positive that there is a scientific rationale for everything in the universe, you should be equally worried.

What is the issue that appears to be of concern equally to all? Crude Oil. The funny thing about both of these camps is that they both believe that everything on (and in) this tiny planet of ours is here for a reason. Those who subscribe to the idea that an omnipotent deity built the universe to very precise specifications, and that nothing was created just because, must believe that God placed oil beneath the surface for a reason, even if we are not privy to it (and I am confident that it was not—as I'm sure that many Republican Christians would believe—so we, in the 21st century, could "drill, baby, drill"). Likewise, the science community, with its insistence that facts and data can explain anything, even if we don't have the data yet to answer certain questions, have to acknowledge that nature wouldn't spend millions of years patiently creating crude oil for no other reason than just because, even if huge oil-producing companies have them on their payroll.

So, if we can all agree that the crude oil we have become so dependent on was created for a reason (whether God made it or it’s a natural byproduct of the decomposition of organic material), what happens when it's all gone?

We really don't know why there is all this oil pooling just beneath the crust of our planet, do we? So, what if it's the grease in the machine we call Earth? Once we suck the last drop out of the crust, will the planet overheat from the friction and stop spinning? What if it's there to allow the continental plates to move smoothly? Will we have more earthquakes than we already have? What if gravity is a hoax, and it’s really the oily Ectoplasm that keeps us rooted to the Earth? Will we just float away?

The bottom line is that we need to recognize that just because we have found our own use for something doesn't mean that that is the use for it. Regardless on which side of the fence you stand (God v. Science), we can all agree that the crude oil in the ground was put there for a reason, and it seems that we really don't know what that reason was. I only hope for my child's sake, and the sake of her children, that the Earth can function without oil, and we won't come to find out that the crude oil in the soil is in fact the very lifeblood of Mother Earth.

I think the thing I hate most about having my own website(s) is the amount of spam that I get. I have spam guards in place, and they seem utterly useless against the onslaught of spam that I receive as comments on this site.

So, just to make things harder for those who want to post to my site, and for me who wants people to post, I now have it set that I have to moderate all comments.

That sucks!

This email is really just a test.  As I mentioned the other day, I have switched the blog over to Drupal, which I really like. One of the great things is that I can now blog from my email. That means that I don't need to log into Drupal in order to blog. I'm not 100% sure how this will benefit me since ultimately, I need an internet connection to email, which means that I should also have access to Drupal.

Nevertheless, it's quite cool that I can do such things, and hopefully, that means that I will be able to blog more frequently. I know that I have said this before, and perhaps I might mean it this time.

We shall see.

crap [krap] noun: The stuff you wrote in junior and high school that you thought was really good poetry, only to read it years later and see it for what it is.

a good cupcake recipe?

I want to start a non-profit.

Anyone interested in helping?

I was, again, stuck in Florida with a shuttle that wouldn’t launch. So, again, after several days, the Sabra decided to come down and join me. And, again, she proved to be the good-luck charm we needed, and that little Shuttle launched.

Since she was in FL anyway, we decided to take a vacation, and we stayed in Orlando for a week. It was nice; we went to Disney World, which was pretty fun. We only had one day there, so we just went to Magic Kingdom. Then we spent the next morning listing to the benefits of buying a timeshare. We were strong and didn’t buy, but we DID get a free breakfast and 2 one-day passes to both Universal Orlando parks, so I guess we did OK.

I started back at work this morning, and I noticed that even though schools are all officially back in session, the Metro was surprisingly empty. Then I got off the train at Gallery Place/Chinatown to transfer. As I walked down the platform, there was a mass onrush of people walking the opposite direction. Someone had opened the floodgates and people were pouring out and over the walkway. It occurred to me that this is exactly how salmon feel as they fight their way up against the currents of the raging rivers of the Pacific Northwest. Where once I felt like drone in the subway, today, I better appreciated the plight of the salmon. Unfortunately for me, I did not spawn at the end of this river of people; however, fortunately, I did not die as do the fierce salmon who make the difficult trek to perpetuate their species.

I merely went to work.

This is a bit of a catch-up post…

The Sabra is back, living in the same state, and indeed, the same house as yours truly. She received official word that she was laid off a few weeks ago, and after an unfortunate series of events, she finally accepted the severance package her office offered: 2 more paychecks, relocation money, and 10 days’ worth of COBRA while we waited for my insurance to pick her up. I flew up on July 2, and we drove back on the fifth, car loaded with all her worldly possessions.

Now that she is unemployed and almost without a status, we have submitted the paperwork for her Green Card…and what an experience that has been. It was actually easier than we thought to get all the papers together, and I got my bonus at work at just the right time—for it ain’t cheap to get permanent residence status. She also had to get a physical from a US Citizenship and Immigration Services recognized doctor. This physical included a TB test, which, due to her being immunized as a child, she promptly failed. So, she had to go to another place to get a chest x-ray to verify that she is TB free. But, since we live in the District, we had to take an extra step.

I took yesterday off thinking that I would get some well-deserved rest and get some things done around the apartment. Instead, I spent the better part of the morning at DC General Hospital at the TB clinic where the Sabra had to get clearance from the DC Department of Health. It was a bit creepy hanging out with so many consumptives in one room. I will definitely need to get a TB test at my next physical!

With clearance in hand, we returned to the CIS approved clinic and had all the paperwork finalized. We put the papers, applications, and checks (yes, there were 3 of them) in the mail this morning.

Now we wait for the next step in the process, which I believe is the interview…stay tuned!