The Gila Capers

Motivational Speakers

2009-06-02T09:22:00.000-07:00

Many of my (relatively unemployed) friends and acquaintances have, of late, turned to writing motivational or inspirational material and some (a few, I don't know or care how many or how much) have begun to show a profit for their efforts. Which leads me to this... Are we a generation of people who need constant motivational tools and if so, why?

Having felt a lull in motivation myself lately, I thought I might go back to FlyLady as a way to gain some control, but increasingly I have come to feel like "control" over our lives is completely unrealistic, despite my friend's assertion to the contrary (his point is well taken nevertheless, we are all responsible for our own actions).

Yesterday, I was motivated and I had a great day and I was thinking to my self that one thing I might find valuable would be to make a personal "Ten Commandments" of sorts, not that I don't respect those clay tablet ones from the Bible too, but just as a way of reminding myself what I can do better.

Try doing this yourself, create a list of ten things that you will try to honor as you live your life. They can be big or small but they should be meaningful!

My Ten Commandments

1. Thou shalt live simply. (Do not be obsessed with material things. Do not abuse the vast resources you have been given access to. Do not always choose convenience over sustainability.)

2. Thou shall love thyself. I have been getting better at this, but to really seal the deal I need to not be so hard on myself. I need to remind myself it is okay (good, even) to relish in my accomplishments, enjoying them will help eliminate envy when others shine, which brings me too:

3. Thou shall love others and be happy for their successes. See how #2 has to come before #3? It's the equivalent of securing your oxygen mask before helping others with theirs. Love yourself, so you can open yourself to loving others.

4. Thou shall always seek the answers. Never stop learning. This doesn't mean you will always find the answers, but you are doing well so long as you don't miss an opportunity to discover something about the world or yourself. The goal or culmination of these four items leads to number five...

5. Thou shall always see the beauty in the world. In design or in chaos. In the smallest insect or the largest tree and in people as well as things try to find something that makes that person or thing beautiful and meaningful to you. Savor it, be thankful for it. Like learning you must always be receptive in order to find it.

"Never lose an opportunity of seeing anything that is beautiful, for beauty is God's handwriting -- a wayside sacrament. Welcome it in every fair face, in every fair sky, in every flower, and thank God for it as a cup of blessing." - Ralph Waldo Emerson

6. Thou shall take more chances. I do not regret a single thing I have done in my life. Some were ill-advised, others the result of stubborness and pettiness. What I regret are the things I didn't do. The dreams deferred, the roads lleft untravelled, these are regrettable.

7. Thou shall drink more water. I currently have a Liter of Coke on my desk purchased from the 7-11 around the corner which is over half empty. I will take this bottle and fill it at the water fountain before I leave and drink the entire thing again with smething not manufactured in a bottling plant. For me, my health, my planet.

8. Thou shall work to make the world better. Remember the cardinal rule: No one can do everything, but everyone can do something.

"Everyone can be great because anyone can serve. You don't have to have a college degree to serve. You don't even have to make your subject and your verb agree to serve... You only need a heart full of grace. A soul generated by love..." - Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

9. Thou shall refrain from offering your opinion, until you have listened to others. We were given two eyes, two ears and one mouth. Coincidence? I think not.I will try to do a better job of actively listening and less of the unecessary talking. There is too much talking in the world anyway. (Although after a few glasses of wine, all ebts are off!)

10. Thou shall be more supportive. Try to build people up, not tear them down. Remind people of what about them you find valuable, but be truthful in it, they'll know if you don't mean it.

Notice there are no "thou shall nots"? I don't want the negativity they bring, this is about being a positive, life afirming person, not about setting or breaking rules or limits.

Have a glorius day everyone!

*ETA: “I must learn to love the fool in me the one who feels too much, talks too much, takes too many chances, wins sometimes and loses often, lacks self-control, loves and hates, hurts and gets hurt, promises and breaks promises, laughs and cries” - Theodore Isaac Rubin

One of my favorite songs.... ever...

2009-05-22T16:31:00.000-07:00

What if we went to Italy?

What if we went to Italy
A suitcase of books and one bag a piece for the summer
I don't speak a word of Italian
Except for Campari and soda for two, how much is a Lire
Yes, a villa will do and a breeze, in Tuscany please

What if we spent all of our days, improving our minds, learning new ways to be lazy
It wouldn't be too much of a strain
Relax after breakfast till lunch comes around
Can't wait for dinner, oh, I need to lie down
And refuel, out by the pool

What if the ancients were lazy like us
Too blissed out to paint, to sketch or to sculpt
Just as relaxed as the tower of Pisa
Not ever missing that old Mona Lisa

What if we never got back on the plane
As summer turned colder and then warmer again
Losing all track of the passing of years
Till it no longer mattered how long we'd been here

What if we went to Italy
Maybe next year, just you and me for the summer
I still can't speak any Italian
But words are replaced under Siennese skies
By nothing so much as a nod, and a sigh, and a wish, to be always like this

Love everything she does, but especially LOVE this song...

Sleep on it...

2008-11-05T09:12:00.001-08:00

I have already posted my post-election rant over at the White Elephant, so something more light hearted now.

I was looking for images of bookshelves. A friend is helping me make a website for my CV and such... and I found this:

How cool is that?

Poe and Democracy

2008-10-23T05:44:00.000-07:00

I just recently finished "E Pluribus Unum" a book about Poe and the Constitutional Paradox. The author, W. C. Harris argues that Poe was not anti-democratic as many scholars have claimed, and that he was in fact, very concerned with the problem of the individual in relation to society at large.

I am thinking of doing something like this for my final paper, some sort of textual evaluation.... hmmmm. More later maybe...?

Desparation

2008-10-22T07:28:00.000-07:00

It's had a whole television show built around it. Most men, so the proverb tells us, leade lives of quiet desparation. So what do we do then when those desparate moments string together and urge to be set free? Well, some people get going, they fix things, others get angry, they hit things, they destroy, and other people shut down. It's not my usual response, but it is where I am right now. In shutdown mode. Hibernating I suppose. Only the world won't go away and I am not at any peace and I see no solution, outside of drastic measures which offer only escape and no real solution at all. Coming apart at the seams isn't so bad, not being able to pull yourself back together, that's a different story.

Isn't it time I was honest with myself?

2008-06-13T16:57:00.000-07:00

I am staring thirty in the face as we speak. in fact, I will be thirty in less than a week. In other words, as I wrote in a piece of short fiction in the fall, thirty is so close "I could reach out and pick it like a ripe plum from a tree". So now, I figure it is time that I displayed a little honesty about myself and my life and what I want and value. It's not necessarily that I have lied about these things before, I have just been unaware, and as if a single moment offers a turning-point or some false sense of clarity I wonder if I can now be honest with myself. Growing out of one's adolescent insecurities (especially ones as deep as mine) will take much longer than the ten years of my twneties.

I have never liked myself much. I probably do now, more than I have at any point in my life, but that is still not saying much. As a friend remarked the other day I wish I could unknow how meaningless I am. There are great swaths of things I wish I could change, how women are viewed and treated in the world is first and foremost among those, but smaller simpler things too. I can make an effort to do them in my own life, but mannifesting change seems like a duty, and one that I am incapable of living up to.

I do want to get my Ph.D. Very badly. I don't want to be "one of those intellectuals," you know the kind, I don't even have to say it. Flannery O'Connor didn't set Helga up for mockery for no reason at all...

I want to read more. I want to know more. I take classes every semester, I read, recently I have watched enough movies to "choke a horse" as my grandparents might say, but I want more. I want to be in every facet of culture from the most popular to the most obscure. I want to travel the world. I want to feel a part of something larger and more connected.

I don't want spirituality. I certainly don't want religion. I want something in the world to reach out and suck me in like a Hoover upright on steriods, or a black hole maybe.

I want people to respect others and the world we live in. I want to not fear disorder. I want to scream from the mountantops. I want to whisper a poem. I want to fire a gun, rock someone's world, lounge with a cocktail, dream big, live simply, fly freely, cure cancer, beat the odds, save the world, give back, pay it forward, find myself, and above all, hope always.

Obligatory Oscar Post

2008-02-25T05:00:00.000-08:00

First, let me say that I did not see any of this year's nominated films (bummer!). But I have a long list of films I wanted to see and now want to see even more.

One thing that irritated me was Jon Stewart's commentary at the beginning. Sure, it's funny on his own show and it is his shtick I guess, but really, he doesn't actually have to govern, he just gets to make fun of those who do. A much easier and far less noble pursuit. His presence was a reminder that we blur the lines all the time between entertainment and information. I like Jon Stewart. I think he's a funny guy. I just don't think he was the best choice for this year's ceremony.

One thing I loved was how much highlight was placed on the folks behind the camera, not just in front of it. If the writer's strike has made Hollywood (and the rest of the world) a bit more aware of all the unseen effort that goes into films, all the better.

So many gorgeous dresses last night! So much red on the red carpet. I loved Katherine Heigl (stunning but nervous in her lavish tomato-red gown), Helen Mirren, absolutely beautiful in her red dress, with white lace (she did indeed have a "madame" quality), and Jessica Alba (golden in gold last year, she looked even more beautiful in a flowing wine colored gown this time around). Jon's comment that there were two pregnant women in the crowd, no wait three, but that Jack was there so they'd have to retallly at teh end was very funny.

And what is it about Jack Nicholson? I find him amazingly sexy, likely because I know I shouldn't. The thing I love most is how his lips curl in that devilish smile. Last night, sitting on the sofa, my husband and I both exploded in laughter at a seemingly minute detail of his speech about best pictures, then simultaneously looked at each other, why were we laughing? Jack manages to bring unexpected emotions into the strangest places. This is his charm -- and it works.

One thing I missed was more emphasis on short films, which I love; and I was a bit disappointed that Wes Anderson's "Hotel Chevalier" didn't get a nomination for short film. Speaking of the things I miss. Richmond doesn't get a lot of foreign films and I am dismayed that I did not see any of the films nominated in that category, especially the Russian and Polish films which both looked amazing.

I was also disappointed for Cate Blanchett. I certainly thought she'd get something out of her multiple award nominations last night. She'll surely be a contender for many years to come and I have little doubt that she'll get the coveted top honor for Best Actress before too long.

Speaking of Best Actress awards, did anyone else notice the emphasis on Hollywood couples? It is true that as much as Americans hate to admit it, we love royalty, and Hollywood royalty is the closest we get to the actual thing. The footage of Catherine Zeta Jones and Annette Benning winning in years past then returning to their husbands was simultaneously touching and nauseating. Successful women, in Hollywood as oft else, must follow traditional gender roles above all else. (Don't even get me started on the fact that Oscar still refers to the award as best actress and not best female actor in a lead role or something similar.)

Although I haven't seen it (yet!) I was so happy to see Joel and Ethan Coen pick up the best director prize for No Country for Old Men. I think they may win more before their careers are through. Now, I am more eager than ever to see their film. Among the others I really want to see, "There Will Be Blood", "La Vie en Rose", "Michael Clayton", "Elizabeth: The Golden Age" and "American Gangster".

I wish the Academy had used it theme from a year or two ago (A Return to Glamour) for last night's ceremony. I love the golden age of the silver screen.

Also, check out this article, though I heartily disagree, it's an interesting piece.

Need a swift kick in the ass

2007-10-25T06:01:00.000-07:00

Last night a women's group on campus hosted a leadership forum. The speaker was the first African American woman to receive an MBA from Harvard Business School. Her topic: "Breaking the Mold".

While she was interesting and I am glad I went I felt that a lot of her suggestions were generic platitutdes. Two things I did take away from her talk:

1. She would never have acted had circumstances not changed for her. Therefore, if I want to make a change, I have to change my circumstances. No more playing it safe.

2. I need to find a source of personal strength and listen to my intuition more. For a while now, my intuition has been telling me what to do, and I have found every imaginable excuse not to do it. Now is the time...

Tea Leaves and Tobacco Leaves

2007-10-22T06:01:00.000-07:00

Something I will confess right here and now, this fiction class is making me want to become a smoker. This would be fine except that I have asthma and I can't stand the smell of tobacco. Well, okay I can't stand the smell of smoked tobacco. I love the smell of unsmoked tobacco. I probably didn't notice until my husband mentioned it, that I love it so much. This morning while walking around campus, I could smell it, strong and sweet, as if the warehouse were a block away and not a mile.

There is something about the smell of tobacco that is alluring, but I can never put my finger on it. For my husband the appeal lies in the fact that for years his grandfather smoked a pipe and it is a scent he assoicates with childhood, specifically spending afternoons with his grandfather. He has solid memories of afternoons spent together making pizzas or peanut brittle, reading stories or playing baseball. For me, I have no clear associations, I just enjoy the aroma the way many people love the smell of coffee.

Speaking of smells and childhod. When I was young, we had a sassafras tree on the property border between our yard and our neighbor's; my cousin and I would pick leaves and grind them up for tea. Now, everyone who seriously drinks sassafras tea is aware that roots are best for the purpose, but I quite remember liking the tea made from the leaaves.

Makes. My. Skin. Crawl.

2007-10-08T13:36:00.000-07:00

Every day, 10 new women and girls who have been raped show up at his hospital. Many have been so sadistically attacked from the inside out, butchered by bayonets and assaulted with chunks of wood, that their reproductive and digestive systems are beyond repair.

I just can't stand to read these things anymore... How can humans be so evil to one another? How can we all not see that we do these things to ourselves, that we become the enemy that we seek to destroy?

Perhaps it is because I am tired, or because I have read so many stories like this, or because all they talked about on Tom Joyner this morning was a similar smattering of awful things people do to one another. Maybe it's because I am reading a feminist Utopian novel (by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, no less!), maybe I am just grumpy because it's Monday. Whatever the case, these stories make me broken hearted ... as they should and it's a small heartache compared the ones these women are experiencing.

The article talks about one woman who "said she was raped twice — first by Hutu militiamen two years ago and then by Nkunda soldiers in July. Two soldiers held her legs apart, while three others took turns violating her.

“When I think about what happened,” she said, “I feel anxious and brokenhearted.”

She is also lonely. Her husband divorced her after the first rape, saying she was diseased."

Then I think of myself, at my desk, a caramel latte and my iPod, sitting on my desk beside me. Typing on this keyboard, looking at this computer screen, my biggest concern of the day so far has been deciding whether I wanted the slice of pumpkin bread at the vegan coffee shop around the corner or not (I did), so what does that mean? How can I in good conscience complain about the state of afffairs in my world?

Yet, I do, all the time and so do most people I know, because we are human, and that, I guess, is part of it. But, I don't have to look as far as the Congo to witness such cruelty against human beings, women especially, but humans overall.

The Darjeeling Limited (Release)

2007-10-03T13:31:00.001-07:00

I found this while searching for the wide release date of "The Darjeeling Limited," a must see for me, and the sooner the better. Of course, for now it is only in NYC.

Wow! Someone gets to the core of what I love about Wes Anderson films:

His characters have wide-ranging but, one assumes, shallow interests; they have reputations for brilliance that don’t quite pan out. Max Fischer? “He’s one of the worst students we’ve got.”

The Tenenbaum prodigies? “(Their childhood accomplishments) had been erased by nearly two decades of betrayal, failure and disaster.”

Team Zissou? “Klaus here used to be a bus driver... We’re a pack of strays, don’t you get it?”

There’s a sense that something, somewhere, was lost. Weren’t we supposed to be better? Go farther? How did we wind up here — in public school, back at our mother’s home, stealing equipment for another undersea voyage? His characters are, at their best, theatrical, and at their worst, numb. With few exceptions, they are easily bruised. They seem too delicate for the world.

Balloon Dreams

2007-10-01T07:01:00.000-07:00

In third grade, my entire class participated in a balloon launch. This was in the eighties and the Reagan era had us in love with the skies. I should also note that this was long before balloon launches were considered horrible affronts against the environment.

On each of our balloon strings we were to tie a half sheet of paper, with a paragraph about something in our lives we wanted to acheive. I wanted a purple balloon, but there were no purple balloons, so I hoped to get a blue one -- by the time I got one, only pink were left. I didn't want pink, but I eagerly tied my paragraph, its lines fresh off the mimeograph machine that when freshly printed always smelled strangely like mayonnaise.

My wish was that I would one day travel to Paris with my husband. We had to post a copy of the paragraph on the cinderblock wall outside our classroom. I took a lot of flack for mine as I recall. Yes, I was a wannabe jetset even at eight years old.

My husband and I haven't done it yet, but I really hope that one day soon, we will. I looked at flights and such online this morning and I am optimistic that we could afford something like that in a year or two.

It's funny though, a couple of months ago when we were discussing vacations, my husband said to me, "I never expected to be able to travel much when I got older".

*choke*

I was flummoxed!

I can never travel as much as I want (or maybe need) to. I itch after a few months to jump on a plane and get out of town. I want to see an unfamiliar city, or to stroll through a familiar one (like New York) so often it's a bit disconcerting.

And so, off I go, in search of cheap flights on the internet again...

I'm Odd, so what else is new?

2007-09-19T06:10:00.000-07:00

I am Odd, not just odd, as in, a little strange, I am Odd in a capital "O" kind of way, in an "eats paint" kind of way (though I don't really eat paint, that's not odd, it's unhealthy).

But I am Odd...

Today we have a faculty candidate visiting which is sure to take up most, if not all of my day, and Friday we have another, and next Tuesday yet another. So things at work will be crazy and I will be annoyed because it is my favorite time of year amd I am stuck here pushing paperwork for some lame academics and academic wannabes. As an academic wannabe myself, that's probably an odd statement but not odd in the capital "O" kind of way, just in the a little strange kind of way.

Coincidentally, this was also the day I had planned to go to NYC and see my friend A. I love A, she is a dear person who is beautiful and talented, but also so sweet that one never feels inferior to her, even though nearly everyone clearly is. No, if you knew her, you'd know what I mean.

So, I have said all this, mostly to say this:

I'd rather be on a plane to New York right now.

God, I hate my shameless wanderlust.

Welcome to You Suck 101

2007-09-18T05:00:00.000-07:00

One of the things I am discovering about myself, and it's good to know, is that, despite my best efforts, I am not a good fiction writer.

My one page story doesn't get critiqued until next week, but I know it will be torn to shreds. We workshopped the first batch last night and overall people were very positive, on what were in my opinion some pretty dismal stories.

I made some suggestions for improvement, but I am not sure my comments were really all that helpful, since, nearly every time I opened my mouth the other students at the table looked at me as if I had sprouted a third leg right in the middle of my face... but, I did contribute. Is it really possible I am THAT out of touch with students ten years younger than me?

I am a little concerned that most of the students tried too hard, tried to accomplish too much and that the whole thing just didn't come accross on paper, in retrospect I might have done the same; we'll see.

The dumbing down of scientific research

2007-09-17T11:49:00.001-07:00

I would love to know if this study took into account differences in age and other physical limitations...

From Slate:

Are liberals smarter than conservatives?

It looks that way, according to a study published this week in Nature Neuroscience. In a rapid response test—you press a button if you're given one signal, but not if you're given a different signal—the authors found that conservatives were "more likely to make errors of commission," whereas "stronger liberalism was correlated with greater accuracy." They concluded that "a more conservative orientation is related to greater persistence in a habitual response pattern, despite signals that this response pattern should change."

The columnist goes on to attempt to discredit the study (and doesn't really succeed in my book, but whatever). One point he does drive home, and one that I patently agree with, is that grand conclusions are being extrapolated from some very simplified response/stimuli interactions.

Is it really news that liberals on the whole might be smarter or more adept at responding to stimuli? After all, Democrats remind Republicans of this every election cycle, which is why that have had such a rough six years.

I will stop now before I look even more like part of the "vast right-wing conspiracy".

Mindless Capitalist Musings

2007-09-12T11:53:00.000-07:00

So, I'll admit it. I was one of the last people in the world to get on the iPod bandwagon and even then, I couldn't bring myself to pay the money for even a Nano. So... I got the shuffle, the little lime green one. Kermit and I have been very happy together, since late in June just after my birthday.

Possibly the only thing that could have made Kermit cooler (this would have also meant that he wouldn't have been named Kermit, but I digress...) would have been if he were purple.

And now, they have them in the most lovely shade of periwinkle, ever! *covets* [Golam]And I wants one! My precious...[/Golam]

In other news, I should point out that I normallly give more to animal charities then I spend in clothes during a year and yet in the past week I have spent an eye popping amount on clothing. All will be worth it though when this arrives.

Academicians and their effing mind games...

2007-09-04T11:24:00.000-07:00

In which I roll my eyes and get my feathers ruffled over one more arrogant bastard in academia. I just received the following email from a faculty member regarding an attempt to get into their class:

Dear Full First and last Name:

Besides the room-size difficulty of there being no more seats at the table, entering the class after missing the first meeting is not advisable. The first meeting is the one in which I spend all 2 hours and 40 minutes lecturing on all that the students will need to know to make it through the course. You missed that, and there's no way to make it up. No one who has missed the first class has ever earned a very good grade in the course, and most fail or eventually drop out.. In addition, the course has a one-cut limit, which you've already used up., You couldn't ever miss another class without additional consequences to your grade. I tell you all this because I want to make sure you understand the position that missing the first class has put you in.

I assigned many short stories to be read for the next class period. From the Norton Anthology of Short Fiction, 7th edition, you will have to have read the stories that start on pages 65, 96, 206, 250, 585, 520, 661, 666, 862, 1002, 1188, 1201, 1212, 1492, 1512, 1535, 1550. If you do decide to remain in the class, make sure you have read all these stories before class. Be prepared to discuss them.

--Professor

I beat him at his own game though... I was so kind, I even offered to find a larger meeting room. Take that you cranky wanker!

Old News by Now

2007-09-04T10:57:00.000-07:00

...but still too funny!

From The New York Times Book Review:

Imagine a version of Studio 54 where Jane Austen, wearing nothing but gold panties, vomits all over Harold Bloom's shoes while infomercials for debut novels flash on the walls.

*tries to erase mental image*

*tries again*

*fails*

*rolls on the floor in fits of laughter*

Truth is...

2007-09-01T07:59:00.000-07:00

Some views on truth:

Truth is tough. It will not break, like a bubble, at a touch, nay, you may kick it all about all day like a football, and it will be round and full at evening.--Oliver Wendell Holmes, The Professor at the Breakfast Table

Truth, like gold, is to be obtained not by its growth, but by washing away from it all that is not gold.--Leo Tolstoy

The trouble about man is twofold. He cannot learn truths which are too complicated; he forgets truths which are too simple.--Rebecca West

I do not know what I appear to the world; but to myself I seem to have been only like a boy playing on a seashore, and diverting myself now and then by finding a smoother pebble or a prettier shell than ordinary, whilst the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me.--Sir Issac Newton

It will never be possible by pure reason to arrive at some absolute truth.--Werner Heisenberg, Physics and Philosophy

We swallow greedily any lie that flatters us, but we sip only little by little at a truth we find bitter.--Denis Diderot

We do not err because truth is difficult to see. It is visible at a glance. We err because this is more comfortable.--Alexander Solzhenitsyn

It is error alone which needs the support of government. Truth can stand by itself.--Thomas Jefferson, Notes on Virginia

As scarce as truth is, the supply has always been in excess of the demand.--Josh Billings

There is no truth. There is only perception.--Gustave Flaubert

So, in truth I am scared. I signed up for a fiction writing class this semester which means that I must put away my casusal observations of the world and begin to create worlds of my own, which I think will be very hard for me.

More Greek than a salad with olives and feta...

2007-08-29T05:15:00.000-07:00

In more, "Why didn't I ever think of that before?" news:

Olympia sits in the middle of a dense pine forest, which provides plenty of kindling for a fire. (Some ruins have wooden scaffolding to support ancient walls; these can also be set ablaze.) To protect the site from fire during the dry Greek summers, engineers had installed 50-foot metal fire towers in the hills to the north.

I found this last night, and noticed that this morning's New York Times contained the headline "Greek Government Faces Political Fallout from Fires".

I don't know why but it never occurred to me that these ancient ruins could be seriously damaged by fire. Perhaps, because they have been there so long they have the quality of being indestructable. Incidentally the limestone does not run the risk of burning, but the heat can cause crumbling, which is why the concern.

and since I must be on a Greek kick of some sort:
Once a common possession of the well educated, classical knowledge now bobs like flotsam amid the wreckage wrought by a century of educational scuttling.

Now I must confess, I am a geek and I have a love of antiquity. A Classics major however, would have been even less marketable than my current English degree.

So, I certainly see the value in knowing this stuff, but I hate it when people try to say the world is not as good a place because more people aren't learning Latin and reading Aristotle.

Would the world be much cooler? Yes.
Is Aristotle still relevant? Yes.
Is society crumbling because few people are reading him? No.

In short don't tell me what I need to know to be educated, (Harold Bloom!) just educate me. The rest, I believe, will fall into place.

Ahhh nothing more perfect than the natural beauty of ... condos??

2007-08-27T16:33:00.000-07:00

Whiskey tango foxtrot Virginia?

For the uninititated, Natural Bridge is a National Historic Landmark and though once owned by Thomas Jefferson, I think it is a shame that it is up for sale.

*tap, *tap, *tap...

On second thought, nothing is sacred these days and it already features "The Drama of Creation, a sound and light show depicting the seven days of creation each evening at dusk under the Natural Bridge..."

Blech, spare me please! I'd rather they turn it into a strip club, this crap greatly offends my transcendentalist sensibilities. :-@

Latin. Old English. Bikinis?

2007-08-27T04:59:00.000-07:00

I love Dictionary dot com. I love getting the "free" Word of the Day in my inbox. I look forward to it every morning, and I am not even a morning person.

I don't know that it helps my vocabulary that much. I still struggle to find the appropriate word lots of times and though I make an effort to incorporate the Word of the Day into my daily vocabulary, it's not as easy as it was when I was seven and my grandfather paid me five dollars a week to learn new words.

The object then was simple, I had only to look up a word, write down its definition and a sentence using the word, then use the word in conversation at least once that day. For all of this I received one dollar per day, don't laugh, in 1985 that was a really big deal.

Fast forward to the present. When I get the word of the day I either know it (usually I do) or I don't. Regardless, I look at the definition only in the most cursory fashion, but no matter whether I already know the word or not, I always spend a few minutes looking at the etymology, thinking through other words that sound similar and pondering their etymologies as well. It's my favorite part.

Similarly, and for those who receive it you'll be aware of this already, the top (and bottom for that matter) often contain a text ad for some pseudo-intellectual pursuit or another, translation software, puzzle games etc. Who knew the nerd market was so big? One of my favorites (101 Questions Answered!) asks three questions:

-What is Hezbollah?
-What are stem cells?
-How'd those swimsuits get so skimpy?

While most Americans probably can and do get by with ignorance on all three counts and while I know that I should want to know more about stem cells and Hezbollah, they are much like the cursory definition glancing I do. I just want to know enough to get by, but the swimsuits, they are different. How did this cultural shift occur? I want more details! I want to know if, as an image on a friend's MySpace page suggests, by way of a picture depciting underwear from the 1800's to the present, this is evidence of global warming (*snicker, snicker). Okay, not seriously, but why?

A quick glance at the KnowledgeNews website hints only that skimpy suits have been around since Roman times. And being ~~cheap~~ frugal enough that paying for a membership seems ludicrous when I have a University library and the entire World Wide Web at my fingertips, I searched and found this site on the history of swimsuits. It's a cute diversion for a Monday, and as an added benefit, much like my beloved etymologies, of little or no value whatsoever in the practical world.

I tremble at the thought of his retirement...

2007-08-25T11:10:00.000-07:00

"I'm not going to issue any clarification," said Warner, R-Va. "I don't think any clarification is needed."

Oh my god, John, don't leave us! Virginia needs you. A short glance at Warner's Wikipedia entry will show you why.

Incidentally, I noticed that the link to John Warner's web page is not working since the Senate.gov servers are apparently down. That's reassuring. Not.

FYI, as we get closer to elections around the country this year, and the upcoming Presidential elections next year. I have found a particularly useful page, maintained by the Washington Post. More information about how your Congressperson voted can be found here.

Back to Blogging

2007-08-24T07:29:00.000-07:00

A good friend just called and mentioned she had been blogging. I have been insanely lax about it over the past few months, so I am very excited to get back into the swing of things (and on Blogger's eightth birthday no less!).

I still haven't figured out why it recognizes my "The Gila Capers" blog but won't let me merge it into this one and I need to do lots this weekend to bring myself up to speed with the blogosphere which I have admittedly, been only a casual observer of, lo these many months.

Dogfighting has been in the news a lot lately, and while it hurts me to even consider it, I am also glad animal issues are getting the kind of attention they deserve. I receive advocacy alerts from the ASPCA and The Humane Society and both advocate a sort of "constant villigance" approach to monitoring everything from local animal control laws to dogfighting cases to what's in the pet food many of us buy off the shelves. I keep meaning to transition my girls to a BARF diet, but haven't done so yet. Below are a bunch of really valuable Animal Rescue and Wellness Sites I love:

Dogster
--> Also check out their Pet Food Recall Alert (and accompanying feeds which can be added to your iGoogle or My Yahoo page)

The Animal Rescue Site
-->One Click Daily Helps Provide Food and Services for Shelter Animals... Want to Help More? Buy Something from their store!

Petfinder
-->Everything you need to find the perfect pet! Has links to your local shelter and beyond. Don't forget to support your local shelter, I support two local shelters The Henrico Humane Society and the Richmond SPCA!

The Humane Society of the United States
-->Remember that as awful as the Michael Vick case is, it is just one example of the daily reality for many animals. In this country alone, there are millions of animals living in desperate conditions. The Humane Society is one of the most active agencies dealing with legislation and their page on Issues Affecting Your Pets is a must read for anyone looking to become involved in making a change for the better.

The ASPCA
-->The grandaddy of them all. Especially of use is their page on disaster preparedness. I am currently putting together a preparedness kit that includes special items for my pups. Also don't forget that the ASPCA provides a Pet Poison Control Center