Hear It, Vice President Gore? Whale Song! Either Canada Needs a Chuckle, Or William Way Some Attention!

"May I confess? As I was drinking that initial ill-advised cup of coffee, I felt so proud of not coughing that I accidentally swallowed some the wrong way, and almost expressed a lung! Sorry -- what do you want? I learned irony at the feet of Alanis Morissette in the mid-90s.

"(That said, Ms. Morissette, I just heard Ms. McLachlan speaking on your behalf; she's very cold there in Nova Scotia, but doesn't she nevertheless own a kind house in which to live? Give her a call...)

"Thank u India

Thank u terror

Thank u Dr. Eichelberger

4 to-do lists, yeah!

"There. Feeling better... Oh, thanks, Ms. Mitchell, I love ginger snaps! Don't mind if I do. (California's the bees' knees, I must say, though I know I shouldn't... You know, as a native...

"Where was I? Oh yes, thanks eldritch voices: Hypothetical: you're about to lose your life -- what do you watch? An entire first-season episode of 'DeGrassi Junior High'; the gay bareback porn clips accidentally pre-empting Trent Reznor's and Matt Pinfield's pilot of 'Eh, Canada?' on MuchMusic; or Atom Egoyan's laundry drying on the line in this fine January weather? What. Do. You. WATCH???

"...Dunno, really. This is what we've got. All I had was the idea for naming Canada's first nuclear submarine the Alexandre Despatie... Honest!"

A couple of Canadian players who began as children doing skits in a hallway...

(Donate if you insist -- House Renovation Campaign)(Donations may be mailed to WILLIAM R WAY PO BOX 206 STONYFORD CA 95979)

Urgent! House Renovation Campaign!

BACKSTORY: In the early 2000s, my dearly departed father, William Francis Way, due to a lack of prudence and circumspection, unfortunately cost the Way family its old house on Black Diamond Road in Century Ranch. Times went hard for him, my mother, and brother, who then was still living with them, in Colusa County (I myself was living in San Francisco, sending money from my biweekly paychecks, whatever I could afford, to my mother.) The three of them were forced to live in a camper on two acres of land just outside of the town of Stonyford (happily, the land has always been in my brother's name.) But a few short years later, my beloved Grandfather passed, leaving a decent inheritance to his daughter, my mother. My mother subsequently purchased a previously owned manufactured home, which was then assembled on the property; we also are equipped with a well, a septic system, and have electricity as well as propane.

Glad to say, the fully developed property is owned outright by my younger brother; I live here now with my mother, paying her rent every month... There is no mortgage, no debt against it. We do have a certificate of occupancy; the County passed the house for inspection in 2003 or so.

THE CAMPAIGN: This is, however, a pre-owned manufactured home; it needs a lot of TLC. My mother and brother had planned to finance a custom built home, but my mom is getting on in years, and our family would rather not be saddled with the debt incurred by a construction loan (even if the resulting occupancy is a superior real estate investment/development); better option we've been in discussion with each other about is to spend perhaps $4000 to $5000 on renovating the current home. Certainly, we're already in the process of updating the wiring, and we'd also like to fix the plumbing, as well as address certain structural damage, especially in the underside and subflooring, in order to bring the whole thing up to code. It would be great, too, if we could install new flooring, paneling, baseboards, moulding, fixtures, and so on -- by no means would we do anything fancy, like hardwood or laminate; no expensive drywall or tile. We're talking surfaces appropriate to a manufactured home, but that are clean and new -- materials easily purchased online via Home Depot, and put in by our neighbors who are local contractors and handymen (not to mention with my volunteered sweat equity.) Here are some pictures of more serious damage (the last picture shows you the exterior, which clearly demands new siding, trim and skirting):

Like I mentioned, we're just looking to patch damage in the structure and install new surfaces, and do a new exterior. And fyi, the roof is a little over a decade old, in great shape...

All told, with the desired updates, we're looking to raise approximately $9,000. If this is feasible, I'd be happy to report on the end result with pictures and such.  The donations may be sent to my Venmo account:

https://www.gofundme.com/way-house-renovation-campaign

(Snail mail donations can be sent to: WILLIAM R WAY PO BOX 206 STONYFORD CA 95979) Hope you can give; I'll be reposting the request with every new Hollow Man update, including funding raised to date... Thanks so much, and Happy Lunar New Year everybody!

Claro que si, conoce tus derechos, pero...

I'd like to be all, "Yay!" about volunteers in Cali always handing out Red Cards (awesome folks, good hearts), but the people who gratefully accept reminders of their rights from outreach workers aren't stupid. We all know reality (which is why I'm cautiously optimistic, still, about this Trump shitshow, but I digress...): hella mess goes down ALL THE TIME on this side of the border at the hands of racist fuckers, rapists, thugs from ICE, la migra, and others... The only rule I know when it's my turn to help out is kind of scary to think about (love you, Dad, RIP... I'll be a gentleman, even if they called me LA PRECIOSA LOL...) -- it's this: if you see something, if you see some shit go down that you know is wrong: DO SOMETHING -- NAMELY, STAY ALIVE UNTIL YOU CAN GET BACK AT THE MOTHERFUCKERS WHO ARE DOING EVIL TO INNOCENT PEOPLE. Witness or victim, your objective is to survive no matter what. If you do, you will be in a position to get help and give help, and secure justice when God gets you there. Have faith, be strong. At least, I think that's the best any of us could do, right...?

(Sure, if you're a citizen, especially white, especially lacking priors or compromising stuff, and others are around, feel more confident to take a stand then and there if you're up to bat. It's kind of catch as catch can. But don't get killed out of your indignation, don't try to be a boss or a hero -- remember la cucaracha is wise and outlives evil...)

URGENT House Renovation Campaign - Gofundme...

...Or donations can be mailed to:  PO BOX 206 STONYFORD CA 95979

Casual, Red-Eye Reflection

Dear fellow souls,

When I consider topical (Trump-derived and culminating-in-Trump) kerfuffles, what should come to mind but your average, inner-city, devout-Muslim owned-and-operated bodega... No, there's no liquor, but there are plenty of cigarettes; you can buy a $2.oo charger for your janky old flip phone (a nod to the geographic and socio-economic reality); and you bet the hot dogs are halal -- BUT THEY ARE A YEAR OLD AND THE CONSISTENCY OF SHOE PLEATHER. The business struggles in a way, when half mulled-over, it seems no urban American small business should.

Non sequiter-like, I now jump to the dynamic obviously shared between what and who really animate the Trump phenomenon; and its objectively more disparate and odd-bedfellows opponents: both "sides" exemplify, agree upon, and talk past each other about the imperfections in the modern human world that truly imperil humanity's long-term viability.  We truly are in the end-times, and what's at stake is our species-wide Linus binky best described as being a comforting, penultimate-resort fear we have that for certain, whether or not we continue to survive is to an unfairly large degree our responsibility, and will be decided by a painfully lucid, collective decision-making process, global in scope (Cylon model 2's faux-philosophical mutterings on our worthiness of survival be damned...)

Calls of "Let them in" at Dulles? Check and weak-yet-advantaged countercheck... The rigged game plays out, and even if you're as sappari Japanese as Zatoichi, playing your weighted die in a personally unfamiliar yakuza gambling house, presuming too much even as you are fundamentally certain never to incur traditional physical punishment, ultimately uncertainty takes over, and nothing is as our faith would have it.

Crisis will not be forever deferred... It inshallah will be upon those of us who live to endure that moment. The many recently deceased luminaries of American acting and performing no doubt earnestly pity the remaining billions who have yet to perish... (Thank you -- presumptuously -- Miz Fisher, Miz Reynolds, Miz Tyler Moore, et alia for your sorrow and compassion I now know you surely cast back at us from the sweet hereafter. Please rest in peace... May we endeavor to carry on.)

(I loathe what Mr. Trump appears to be about, but smvrti satya needs be connected by the ligaments of karma to the world of similitudes, which is so helpful to mullahs, rabbis, and other such boddhisattvas, whose burden and joy it is to successfully instruct the more fortunate among us... I right now, more than anything, am just keenly, primally and uselessly stung with my enviable place among hoi polloi, comparing as I cannot but the President's lot with mine...)

Not to put too fine a point on it, but I guess what I'm wondering, in (you might self-servingly, blamelessly argue) a neo-liberal way, is this: is it so cruel, objectively, that refugees and immigrants be excluded? What quality of asylum does our greater-in-aspirations-than-in-concrete-accomplishments nation offer? Bootless speculation? Mayhap -- I'm hardly any more an agent than the sicaria running inexcusably toward the worst cardinal direction from obvious consequences, or a 1990s London party girl who just kind of got stranded with a murky immigration status in San Francisco lo these last twenty-odd years...

As always, yours in trying too hard to be of more use than a MSM pundit or an holidays-with-family-dinner-table-screaming match, and falling inevitability into the usual contemptibility,

American and human William R. Way
URGENT House Renovation Campaign - Venmo...

...Or donations can be mailed to:  WILLIAM R WAY PO BOX 206 STONYFORD CA 95979

Only 39 and Due To No Fault of Mine Another Dream Sails West...

This is the year of the Rooster, and I am a Snake in Water... Grumble -- this was supposed to be a gangbuster year for me! I'm fresh out of debt, with a clean credit history, and was just starting my savings plan so that I might travel to Mexico and to Morocco, to learn Spanish and Arabic (respectively.) But with Trump in office, how can this come to pass? Already, Iran slams its doors shut in response to our legislating America's making mandatory that we as a country all agree to commit the very sin of Sodom itself.

Ma, shou ga nai ya na...

Thai Forest Tradition

(Raw fucking tomorrow, at the latest...)

URGENT House Renovation Campaign - Venmo...

...Or donations can be mailed to:  WILLIAM R WAY PO BOX 206 STONYFORD CA 95979

More Gay Bareback Breeding Tomorrow...

Why do people march on D.C.?
URGENT House Renovation Campaign - Venmo...

...Or donations can be mailed to:  WILLIAM R WAY PO BOX 206 STONYFORD CA 95979

Patriotism and Paranoia Sunday

January 15, 1943 – The Pentagon is dedicated in Arlington, Virginia.

The United States Department of War (the Department of Defense after 1948) had long been headquartered in the Old Exeuctive Office Building east of the White House. During World War I, two 18-wing temporary office buildings ("tempos") were built on the north edge of the National Mall between the Washington Monument and the Lincoln Memorial. The War Department occupied these buildings, as well as more than a dozen others throughout the D.C. area. In 1939, construction started on a new office building in Foggy Bottom. But as war in Europe loomed, the War Department felt it was too small. So the building was assigned to the Department of State.

As war approached in 1940, Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson became deeply alarmed at how inefficient the situation was. In May 1941, he told President Franklin D. Roosevelt that the war could actually be lost if something wasn't done. Roosevelt pushed Democrats in Congress to act, and they did: In July congressional hearings, Democrats pushed the War Department for an "overall solution" to the department's space problem.

General Brehon Somervell, head of the War Department's construction office, was told to come up with a plan in five days. Somervell decided to keep costs low by seeking land close to the city but relatively undeveloped. This limited the site search to Arlington County, Virginia. To keep the use of steel low, the building could be no more than four stories tall, which meant it had to sprawl over a large area. This limited the possible sites two just two: the Department of Agriculture's Experimental Farm (now the eastern half of Arlington National Cemetery) and Washington-Hoover Airport (the newly-abandoned city airport just south of the Experimental Farm).

The Experimental Farm was chosed for the site. Since it had a roughly pentagonal shape, the War Department building was planned as an irregular pentagon. Concerned that the new building would obstruct the view of Washington from Arlington Cemetery, President Roosevelt ordered that the building be built on the Washington-Hoover Airport site instead. The building retained its pentagonal layout because a major redesign would have been too costly.

On July 28, 1941, Congress authorized funding for the new building. An additional 287 acres of land (including the notorious Hell's Bottom neighborhood) around Washington-Hoover were acquired to fill out the site. Additional land was created by dredging a lagoon north of the site, and using the dredged material to create the new land. Contracts totaling $31.1 million ($506.4 million in 2017 inflation-adjusted dollars) were issued on September 11, and ground broken the same day.
Because the Pentagon was built on an uneven floodplain and newly-created (and unsettled) reclaimed land, its foundations had to be remarkably strong and extensive.. Two retaining walls were built and dredged material used to even out the site. 41,492 pressure-injected concrete footings 165 feet down were surmounted by stainless steel rebar cages. These pilings helped stabilize the ground and kept the building from sinking.

Architectural and structural design work for the Pentagon proceeded simultaneously with construction, which proved immensely costly but dramatically cut down construction time. Initial drawings were ready by early October 1941, and nearly all the design work complete by June 1942. Because racial segregation was the law in Virginia, the Pentagon had to have separate eating and bathroom facilities. Thus, there are dining rooms in the basement and top floors, and twice the number of toilets for a building its size. (President Roosevelt ordered racial segregation in the military ended in June 1941. Roosevelt discovered that it lasted in the Pentagon building, and ordered it ended there in February 1943.)

After the attack on Pearl Harbor, Somervell demanded that at least one wing of the Pentagon be available for occupancy by April 1, 1942.

Construction was completed January 15, 1943. It had taken just 16 months, but cost a whopping $83 million (nearly triple the original estimate).
URGENT House Renovation Campaign - Venmo...

...Or donations can be mailed to:  WILLIAM R WAY PO BOX 206 STONYFORD CA 95979

Deliberately Vague VS. Specifically Malicious

A twisted heart is something to break.

"I don't know what your problem is, Will..."

"Well, I do wish I could claim sole ownership of it..."

Same Logistics as 1/1/2017

Recalling the "187" calls of the '80s, the best of which went the right way (girls screaming in fear and delight as they found themselves broken in by heroes, inexplicably...), we can help set things to rights...

Again, front (West) door unlocked. First door to the left down the hallway. Careful with noise -- opening the front door is screechy. My bedroom light will be on, though. The rest is up to visitors. If law enforcement, please rest assured this is no "gotcha." I'm straight dope, WYSIWYG all the way.

(Unlike last time, I will have glass to help. No liquor, weed, or viagra, though...) God bless, and good luck...)

(415-203-6957)

UPDATE:  Door unlocked, hole prepped. All you need is backbone and full nuts.

UPDATE II: To sweeten the pot, here's the rear:

UPDATE III 3:06AM: Still hankerin' after a visit from someone. Think I'll lay down, but the door's still unlocked.