Prison Blog and Books

I've been reading a blog written a few years ago while this guy was in prison. I'll warn you, it can be pretty explicit at times. There are a lot of f-bombs and people talking about sexual gratification as it relates to prison life. Just so if you don't want to read those sorts of things, you either don't read the blog, or know that parts should be skipped over.

It has brought my attention to different problems with prisons, though, and I guess made me question the whole prison system anyway. Like I'm not a fan of drugs or anything, but I think there is a big difference between doing drugs and committing murder. But when people who do drugs are sent to the same prisons as people who murder...then they are becoming part of a community of murderers, or they risk being murdered by those people...or being extremely lonely. And it's like...a system where people are forced to associate with those type of people changes them, and it seems to me that going to prison could change them into hardened criminals. They don't learn the virtues that are important in the outside world. They learn to be tough, to hide their emotions, and to avoid being beaten up, being raped, or being killed. It seems to me that the system is not working. People doing drugs should not be sent to prison to be punished, but to be rehabilitated, maybe even forced detox or something like that, where they are in control of the state. It seems in much more interest of the state to rehabilitate prisoners so that they don't return and so they can contribute to society, rather than creating criminals out of drug-users, so then we can pay to keep them in prison for the rest of their lives? That just doesn't seem to be a system that makes sense to me.

Anyway, for anyone else interested in trying to help prisoners...I don't have anything that specifically helps with those issues, but there is a prison book program, which helps prisoners get books so they can get educated, so they can hopefully contribute to society when they get back out -- http://www.prisonbookprogram.org/.

And then there is also a site devoted to helping stop prison rape -- http://www.spr.org/, which it seems like also is a very good idea.

So...help the prisoners out!

I want to make cheese

I went looking around on the internet again for cheesemaking supplies, and it made me excited to make cheese. I am really excited, though of course, it will take a long time to figure out if I was successful at my first attempts (because the least amount of aging is like one month). Anyway...so I am once again excited, and can't wait to be settled back in Utah so I can start making cheese. Yum.

Can't Sleep

Tonight it is because I tried to go to sleep 2 hours earlier than I have been going to sleep the past week or so. I got on the computer, because I thought it might help me, and it seems to already be serving its purpose, though I am now realizing that I am really hungry, so I may need to eat something before I go to sleep. Also I think it is going to be hard to get to bed much earlier than 1am when I am running until 9:30pm. It is too hot here to run any earlier. I was running in the mornings, but then I ended up with headaches all day because of the heat. Perhaps I am doomed to sleep from 1am-10am. But even getting up at 10 would be better than 11:30/noon as I have been lately. I end up with such a short amount of time where I feel free to do things, because then after 10:30/11 at night, Carol has gone to bed and so I don't want to wake her up doing anything that might be loud.

Anyway, I am tired, but not tired enough to fall asleep. I did have some good thinking time, though. That is one thing I like about going to bed before I am dead tired. I get to think about a lot of things. That is often when I come up with new ideas for stories or worlds or settings. Maybe if I start freewriting a little again I'll get more inspiration coming to me at night. It is odd, because as soon as I have a really good idea, I find it so much easier to sleep, because I am looking forward to writing about it, but not so jazzed up about it that I can't sleep.

Well...Janardan just stirred. I think my typing may interrupt his sleep. So goodnight blogosphere, sleep tight.

100 Miles Baby!

I've run over 100 miles since I got my NikePlus!

Yay! I'm so excited! And now I am having crazy thoughts. Like...I may actually want to run a marathon. I'm thinking sometime next year. I am trying to decide between April and the St. George, which I don't remember when is (Oct/Nov-ish). Anyhoo, there ya go.

I feel wrapped in happiness

I feel like I seem obsessed with my rainbow quilt, like I changed my whole theme to my rainbow quilts, and I feel like I write about them a lot. It is for the simple reason that this rainbow quilt that I have makes me happy. I got it out yesterday to use, and so I look down at my lap, and see these beautiful rainbow colors, just there, and it fills me with a sense of happiness. And so today, I feel wrapped in happiness, because I have my rainbow quilt around me.

It is a not a quilt that I am uber proud of. It's not like I think of my quilting prowess, and am like - oh my rainbow quilt is the coolest thing I have made, but I love it. Hm...maybe I will make a mini rainbow quilt just like this one that I can hang on the wall. That would be fun. And be ridiculously quick to make.

Well, there, you got to witness how I come up with an idea for a quilt. This is why it is a bad thing to talk about quilting - it always ends up with a project. I am still trying to figure out what kind of borders I want on my 2nd rainbow quilt. It is eluding me right now.

Also I am soo excited. I get to go to church tomorrow. It's been three weeks. I like...cannot wait. I have felt so deprived not being able to go these last two weeks.

Ok...I am feeling more incoherent than usual, and all spazzy, so I will go to bed.