Boxer Rebellion

People are still going hungry so I am still fasting this year

2009-09-28T08:06:00.002-05:00

I am reposting the comments I had last year around Yom Kippur. The only thing I am adding this year is that in addition to fasting, I also decided to take the day off. It is really hard to function in a job especially when you are chasing little kids when you have not eaten all day. Also, the day seems to normal if I go to work, I am trying to add some kind of difference to this day in addition to the fasting.

As many of you know, tonight is the first night of Yom Kippur, so I will be fasting for the next 24 or so hours. (It might not be 24 hours exactly depending on when GG and I eat tomorrow and I ate kind of late tonight, but still...) I was talking to a co-worker who is taking tomorrow off since it is Yom Kippur and she is fasting. I have no idea if she is going to a synagogue tomorrow, but I would not be surprised if she was. So I started to think about why I am fasting this year. I have not been to a synagogue in at least 2 or 3 years and not regularly since I graduated from undergrad seven years ago. So why am I fasting? It is not related to the idea of fasting to concentrate more on prayers, which never made sense to me in many ways as it was harder to focus having not eaten. It is not because I am especially religious. It is not even because I think that this is God's commandment, so I must follow it. I am a cultural Jew, someone who does the routines and rituals like fasting for Yom Kippur, lighting the menorah and eating latkes for Chanukah and not eating bread for Passover. I don't even light the candles for Shabbat or do any of the rituals like I used to do. But the fasting is the only one of the rituals for a holiday (I am not including the Shabbat rituals here) that I really follow for reasons outside of this is just part of my identity and Jewishness.

I fast because it is a reminder to me that I am lucky to have food on my table. I am lucky that I can eat three meals a day and snacks in between if I want. I am lucky that I do not have to decide between food or bills or gas. I am lucky that I have never truly experienced food insecurity. I went through some rough times, where I had to watch my food budget, but I was always able to eat. I work in public schools now where the snack that we feed to kids may be their breakfast or their lunch depending on whether they are in the AM or PM session. Where the fact that they get milk or juice and some cookies or crackers means that they will have eaten at least once that day. This may not apply to all of the kids that I work with, but I suspect that at least some of them do not eat at home before they come to school or at least not three meals at home. I think about the fact that I have the luxury to make a choice to not eat for a day and that many people for whom this is not a choice. There are days at the end of the month where there is nothing to eat for some, something I have not had to experience. I think about the fact that when tomorrow night comes, I will be able to eat again, not always an option for everyone. Fasting is hard, it is difficult and I seem to think more about food and drink when I am fasting than usual, but I know that this is only temporary. I know that I have people who care for me and that will help me if I ever truly do have issues where I cannot afford to pay for groceries. This year I also think about those families who are now struggling more than ever. Those families who got stuck in sub-prime mortgages or other tricks by shady lenders and are experiencing economic distress that they are not used to. I think about how some of these families are still trying to live the same way they had, while others are now just trying to now put food on the table and keep the electricity turned on. I am lucky to not have these struggles and so I fast for those who do, so that I may be more empathetic.

I also think about how this is supposed to be a Day of Atonement. There are many things I am sorry for, but I really think that our national leaders need to atone for what they have done to us as a nation. They need to atone for sending people to fight a war over oil. They need to atone for the lives they have cost us as a nation. They need to atone for the economic crisis that is now dragging our country down. And they need to atone for the hatred and bigotry that they have allowed to flourish i.e.-homophobia, racism and sexism. My actions probably affected one or two people, probably no more than ten, but when you send people to war to die you are affecting many more than my ten. I think there is a passage during the Yom Kippur prayers where we ask God for their forgiveness of our national leaders, I cannot do that. Our leaders need to ask forgiveness from first the peoples of this nation and then if their are so religiously motivated, their God.

To those of you who are fasting like me, I wish you good luck in your you fast. It is hard and by tomorrow night I will be ready to eat whatever we have for dinner, but I also like to try and make this fast meaningful to me and so I hope that if you are fasting you do it with meaning.

Because a pirate without treasure is like a monkey without a spatula

2009-09-19T18:42:00.002-05:00

It be talk like a pirate day so here is my favorite pirate song.

The death penalty should be illegal

2009-09-18T15:49:00.003-05:00

This is why I oppose the death penalty. I oppose it because it is inhumane and cruel. When it takes two hours to find a vein to execute an individual that is cruel and inhumane. Most doctors will not administer lethal injections, so this job is left to those who do not know what to do. We are supposed to be a civilized country, we are supposed to have a ban on cruel and unusual punishment and yet we allow the death penalty. Allowing the death penalty and being a civilized country do not mesh. Either we ban the death penalty or we admit that we are a barbaric, vindictive country who is only out of blood. Life in jail with no parole is punishment enough, especially if this time is spent in solitary confinement, we do not need the death penalty.

The death penalty is supposed to be a deterrent and yet, who does it deter? There are still over a million people a day that are victims of violent crimes. So obviously the death penalty is not working. How we deter individuals from committing violent crime, I do not know. But we need another solution other than the death penalty.

Is organic farming a crazy idea?

2009-09-17T18:01:00.004-05:00

I have had this article for about two weeks and it has been percolating in my brain for that amount of time. I keep thinking of blogging it and yet I have not. For a while I wanted time to think about it, but then I just didn't blog it and now it is time for me to blog about it.

This article takes on the "agri-intellectuals" and what the author, Blake Hurst, sees as their misunderstanding of farming and especially industrial farming. He points to all of these books that he says are not telling the whole truth to those who read them, that "[f]arming has always been messy and painful, and bloody and dirty. It still is." Well, no shit that farming is messy. But really is this a revelation and I am not sure that most writers would disagree with you on this point. Anyway, he begins with a story about an airplane ride in which a business man was sitting in front of him and spouting off about the whole farming industry and how as a farmer he saw this guy as talking out of his ass, but yet the businessman was able to hold sway over a group around him. Blake finally gets fed up with the guy making his points and Blake says that he is a farmer, but that he is not an organic farmer. Blake is not an organic farmer because he sees organic farming as unrealistic and idealistic As he says, "I deal in the real world, not superstitions, and unless the consumer absolutely forces my hand, I am about as likely to adopt organic methods as the Wall Street Journal is to publish their next edition by setting the type by hand.

Blake then goes on to elaborate about the person on the plane,

He was a businessman, and I’m sure spends his days with spreadsheets, projections, and marketing studies. He hasn’t used a slide rule in his career and wouldn’t make projections with tea leaves or soothsayers. He does not blame witchcraft for a bad quarter, or expect the factory that makes his product to use steam power instead of electricity, or horses and wagons to deliver his products instead of trucks and trains. But he expects me to farm like my grandfather, and not incidentally, I suppose, to live like him as well. He thinks farmers are too stupid to farm sustainably, too cruel to treat their animals well, and too careless to worry about their communities, their health, and their families.

This got my dander up and it continued to stay up as I continued to read this article. Blake continues to belittle and criticize anyone who is not a farmer in the same way he is. He picks and chooses certain sentences and ideas out of several different books and then stomps on them as being totally wrong and stupid. I can honestly say I have not read most of the books/authors he mentions, but I have read Michael Pollan who he seems to fault as the biggest of these agri-intellectuals. Now do I think that Pollan is perfect or has all of the answers, no. But Blake picks out Pollan's discussion on the increased use of cover crops such as soy and alfalfa to do more nitrogen fixing in the soil, so that we can rely less on chemical fertilizers to add nitrogen to the soil. Blake then suggests that Pollan talk to farmers before making this suggestion, but the problem is that Pollan did talk to farmers about this. He talked to farmers who are using this system and using it very efficiently both in his books and in the film Food, Inc. Blake also discusses how he is corn farmer and how corn farmers are family farmers and jump at the chance to use biotechnology as much as they can. I agree they do jump at the chance because corn is a subsidized crop here in the US and so the more they grow the more money they can make to help support their farms and their families. There is also the little matter that most corn grown in the US is not actually used to feed people, it is feed corn for animals. It is feeding cows that do not naturally feed on and digest corn, so that they are fatter and can go to slaughter faster along with chickens and pigs for the same reasons.

This is where my real issues with the article develop. He skips over some major issues. He talks about how turkeys are not smart enough to get out of the rain and turn their heads skyward and then drown, so now farmers have to keep poultry in chicken houses for their own safety. In theory this sounds good, in fact I have an ex-girlfriend whose family had chicken that they kept in a chicken house, but they did not have hundreds of chickens who were living in their own filth, whose beaks had to be cut off to keep them from injuring each other and in situations where it was so overcrowded that antibiotics had to be administered so that the chickens would not die because they were living in too close of contact. These all happen on these large industrial chicken farms. And yes I understand that the chicken houses are owned by family farmers, but these farmers are controlled by contracts from the large chicken producers. They sign a contract and the corporation can dictate how many chickens you have, what kind of houses they live in and what they are fed or the corporation will retract the contract leaving these families in debt and with no way to sell the chickens. Blake also ignores the issues with cattle farming, conveniently in my opinion as he knows there is no way to defend the ways cattle are raised, being fed corn they can't digest fully, pumped fully of hormones and antibiotics, kept in unsanitary conditions, being fed the remains of other animals and finally the ways in which they are slaughtered that leads to outbreaks of mad cow disease and e.coli in consumers.

Blake also leaves out the whole local foods movement and only attacks organic farming. The local foods movement may be more important that the organic foods movement. I and many others would take a locally grown food over an organically grown food that is shipped from thousands of miles away from our homes and stores. And don't tell me that local farms can't feed us and that local farms are not sustainable. I have seen many times over huge farmers markets that bring produce to the consumers that is locally grown and harvested. And the whole idea that farmers markets are only for the middle class is being debunked as increasingly farmers markets will accept WIC and food stamps.

I have run out of steam about this topic, but I have talked about food consciousness here, here, here, here, here, here and here. Yeah I have talked about this in one way or another many times on this blog and I will continue too, hopefully. As a side note, I wish I had written about this article when I first got it as I was less brain dead at that point, I think my points were more well developed and most importantly it might have jump started my blogging again.

YouTube Fridays

2009-08-14T13:02:00.005-05:00

There was an article about Muppet diplomacy and so I decided that today's YouTube Friday should be in honor of Sesame Street. Then I found these great spoofs done by Sesame Street and I knew that was what I wanted to post.

People need to learn history already

2009-08-13T13:49:00.003-05:00

I saw this video and commented over at Konagod, but I had to do a bit more over at my own place as I kept stewing about this women's ignorance.

First, my comment over at Konagod:

I agree with Katy here, lets go back to the way the Founding Fathers viewed this country. Women, including Katy, should not be allowed to speak, we should re-institute slavery with minorities considered lower class citizens and only white male landowners should be able to vote and be involved in politics. Ya know, when people show off their ignorance, it just amazes me. How do you get through high school let alone college with this much ignorance? I have no idea if she went to college, but I am going to hope she graduated from high school. People need to realize that the Constitution and the country as a whole has changed and has evolved and maybe we as an electorate need to change with it.

Also, did anyone else notice at the end how her whole ideas of people helping the less fortunate kind of sounds like socialism. Plus who wants to have a $5000 deductible if they don't have to. I don't understand how choice is bad, but then again I am a pinko commie so what do I know.

I really don't understand how you can go through life with such a naive view of the founding father. They were slave holders, they were racist, they were misogynistic and they were rapists/adulterers (adulterers if you are being nice about the illegitimate black children they fathered, rapists if the truth is told about those same illegitimate children). How the fuck are we supposed to view that as the good old days? And what the fuck is this women talking about, "the founding fathers didn't want some of these programs". How the fuck does she know the the founding fathers did not want the populous to be taken care of as they get older, Medicare? When asked if she has told her parents not to go on Medicare, she responds that they don't talk about politics. That is not the fucking question, do you do you not want your parents to have health insurance as they get older? This is a fucking question of what you want for your parents. You have the means that you will never need government health care or even Medicare as you get older, that is great for you and I say fuck off then. There are many of us, myself included, that will need Medicare. I will want and need health care when I get older. Yes, I have health care now, but as I get older and then retire, I will not have the means to pay all of my medical bills without some kind of health care. I sure as hell won't be able to afford to pay the private companies for their version of health care that probably wouldn't even cover half of the issues I will have.

Furthermore, she says she heard President Obama says he wants single payer healthcare, but when pressed, she heard it on TV, but she does not know when, "in maybe like 2002 or 2003." So you believe everything you hear on TV, huh, and where did you hear this wonderful clip? I would put my life on that fact that you either never heard it and are bullshitting or you heard it on Fox News which lies constantly. You want to debate national health care, then fine, but lets debate it based upon facts not half truths and lies. And lets debate it in a civilized fashion, not by yelling your opponent down and threatening violence against those that are on the other side of the issue. I am all for a civilized debate on a national health care plan and how to implement it, but not the way it is being debated now.

Chuck Norris knows what is best for our kids

2009-08-12T09:55:00.006-05:00

I know I have been away from this blog for a while and I had every intention of coming back and so here I am. I have sort of a backlog of ideas in my head of things to blog about and yet, when i see an article in which Chuck Norris expresses his "thoughts" on the Obama Healthcare plan and on child development, well... ya knew I had to comment on it. I originally found the article in an online post from the Chicago Tribune and then went to the original post by Chuckie, welcome to wingnuttia. Not only does he talk about things that have nothing to do with healthcare, but he is an uninformed, ignorant rambling idiot. I know this is no surprise and it is what I expected to find when I looked at the article, but really... Apparently, there is a provision in the new healthcare plan that gives monies to states to allow for "home visitation programs for families with young children and families expecting children."According tot he bill this would be accomplished by "well-trained and competent staff," who would "provide parents with knowledge of age-appropriate child development in cognitive, language, social, emotional, and motor domains ... modeling, consulting, and coaching on parenting practices," and "skills to interact with their child to enhance age-appropriate development." Norris's response is your basic wingnut response about how dare the government interfere in me raising my child. Whose idea of child raising would be used, "would they teach some secular-progressive and religiously neutered version of parental values and wisdom?" He also wants to know what field and theory of childhood development would be used by these government agents? Now this may be a valid question if you knew what you were talking about, but Chuck doesn't know what he is talking about. He is saying that there is either no child development field or it is just government telling us how to raise our children. I hate to tell him but there is a large and expansive child development field with many opinions about raising children. Many of which are, yes, non-religious so that those with and without religion can still use the same theories and philosophies. The field of child development is not focused on how to raise your child, but on how children tend to develop with the understanding that every child and family is different and each child will develop differently. I also hate to inform Chuck and his ilk, but programs like these exist everywhere and are used with a lot of success. These programs allow for an expert or an outside individual to come into a home and help the parents to learn how to best work with their child. These experts would say things like, children need to be read to and need books in the house, they need to not watch TV 24-7, they need to be fed regularly and bathed. I can guess they would help parents to not beat their children and learn other methods of discipline other than physical violence. I know these are radical ideas, but you may notice that none of them would contradict any religion. If the only book you wish to read to your child is the bible, than go for it. You are still reading to your child and they still see the value of reading and books. If you want to have your child home schooled, no child development expert is going to disagree with you as long as you teach them the ABCs, 123s and other basic skills. Ya see, Chuck, child development does not care about how you raise your child as long as you are doing what is in the best interest of the children.

Then he rails how in the bill it says that this assistance will be targeted toward lower income families. He makes a comment how that then means lower income families must not make good parents like middle and upper class families according to the government. Well, again that is bullshit, there is research that shows that lower income families do not always have the resources or expertise that is helpful in raising a child. Middle and upper class families tend to have the money to send their children to good schools and good childcare centers, this is not usually the case with lower income families. They are struggling just to put food on the table and keep a roof over their heads, they do not always know if their child is developing typically or not. I have worked in schools for low income families for three of my four years in early childhood education and I have seen first hand these parents struggling and many of them are glad when someone, a teacher, suggests other ways of doing things or gives them help in how to work with their children. So no, lower income parents are not bad parents, sometimes they just need help. Plus these programs are voluntary, as Chuck notes. He does not believe this though, he thinks that there will be jackbooted government officials breaking into houses and telling parents what to do with their children. In reality, there are already similar programs where at the hospital, parents are offered assistance if they want it and if they refuse, than they are left alone.

Yet again, the right wing nuts are trying to scare people and spreading lies and half truths. I wish, though, on this topic maybe someone would have done some research and realize that this is not a scary idea and that it in no way infringes on their own beliefs and decisions about how to raise their children.

UPDATE: I forgot to write some names that are influential in child development just in case someone does not actually think that there is such a field, Jean Piaget, Lev Vygotsky, and Urie Bronfenbrenner, who happens to also be the founder of Head Start here in the US.

YouTube Fridays

2009-07-10T15:47:00.004-05:00

Two songs off of the new Regina Spektor CD, Far. I really like this new album.

Eet- Regina Spektor

Blue Lips- Regina Spektor

In memory- Oscar Meyer

2009-07-09T16:13:00.004-05:00

Oscar Meyer died today at 95. This is just another of the tragic deaths we have had to endure, Farah Fawcett, Michael Jackson and now the father of grocery store bologna. When will the madness end? Ok, so maybe Fawcett and Jackson's death were more tragic as they were younger, but still...neither of them has a ditty that sticks in my head like Oscar Meyer.

Where are all of the gay princesses?

2009-06-30T10:25:00.003-05:00

I have had this article for a while about the fact that Disney movies elevate love to great heights, it can change laws, wake people from sleeping, and stop wars, but it has to be heterosexual love. All of the Disney stories and many other movies show the princess or others falling in love, but it is always in a opposite-sex relationship. The article discusses two different studies that show the power and influence that these repeated images have on children, how they are subtly and sometimes not so subtly taught that only heterosexuals can love. I had forgotten that I had bookmarked this article and when I found it again, yesterday, I started to think about a post about this exact topic. Then I started to think about all of the other issues with the Disney Princesses, they are all white or white looking, they are helpless, they need men to save them, in Snow White's case she did the dishes and cleaned up after seven men while they went to work, the Little Mermaid gave up her life and identity for a man, there are so many issues with the Princesses and then of course how does this affect the children especially the little girls who watch these movies over and over again. It cannot have a positive influence on their self-esteem and their views of love and what is expected of women in our society. But then I started to think, but what are the alternatives? Many of these stories are based upon fairy tales that are 200-300 years old and so as our society has advanced, it may not have gone far, but still there are some changes, our fairy tales have not changed. In fact the only princess I can think of that would be a positive role model for little girls is Princess Fiona from Shrek and really only in the first movie. It seems to be that after the first Shrek movie, Fiona becomes more of a domestic housewife and we lose the asskicking strong female that is presented in the first movie.

This also leaves us with no positive role models of non-heterosexual life and parenting. I really was going to write about how we need more stories about gay families, which may lead to more movies about gay families and this will lead to young children growing up understanding that gay families are like any other family and love their children. This also teaches children that if they grow up to be gay, it is Ok and they can still hope, dream and have a family when they are adults. But I thought I better look for books with gay families before I started to spout off. I knew there were books for gay teenagers, but were there any books that would appeal to the preschool crowd that I work with? Well, I was pleasantly surprised to learn that are many really good books out there that highlight gay families. I even learned that Barnes & Noble online has a whole section that is titled:Children of gay parents->Children's fiction, so you can find books for or about children of gay parents. I also found two other resources about books that highlight gay families or gay individuals here and here. So instead of being annoyed and depressed that there are no really good books out there to teach children about gay families, I found several resources. I know there is so much more that needs to be done so that children can begin to realize that heterosexual love is not the only type of love.

But thinking about these books and the fact that I want to get some of them to add to my children's book collection that I am constantly working on, I began to wonder if I could actually read any of these books in my classroom. If I brought them in, would the parent's freak out? Hell, would the administration freak out? Would I be asked to not read those types of books in school? There are a few teachers who may not agree with me on reading these books, but since they are not my supervisor, I do not worry about them. As much as I like to push my boundaries and even be a bit of a rebel at times, I need my job and if reading books that feature gay families threatens my job, I have to decide whether it is worth it. I am not saying I wouldn't read books with gay families, but I need to find ways of incorporating all types of families in my classroom including gay families.

YouTube Fridays

2009-06-26T15:49:00.004-05:00

Because when all else fails and I can't think of anything to post on YouTube Fridays, I can always post Eddie Izzard.

Eddie Izzard, Harry Enfield, Alan Rickman and the legendary Vic Reeves perform the famous 'four yorkshire men' sketch from Monty Python.

In Memory- Michael Jackson

2009-06-25T18:50:00.003-05:00

It is amazing to think that two pop icons have died today, Farrah Fawcet and Michael Jackson. I am too young to remember Fawcett, but I grew up with and on Michael Jackson. I think Thriller was the first cassette (remember those things) that I have had or that I listened to a lot. Although, he had some issues he was an amazing artist and influenced a generation of musicians. I could not get the Thriller video, so I had to use this one which is the Thriller video using Legos.

Reza Aslan and Iran

2009-06-25T13:05:00.003-05:00

Iran is in the news constantly these days as we all know and yet I feel like there are gaps in the understanding of Iranian politics and what this revolution really is about. It is no longer about an election it is about much more than that. I have now seen two different interviews with Reza Aslan, a commentator for The Daily Beast, which really helps me to understand what is going on in Iran and some of the realities of the lack of influence the U.S can and does have in Iran. I know several Republicans including McCain have called for more action from President Obama and yet that seems counterproductive in a country and region where there is so much hostility toward us. These interviews are also with two of my favorite interviewers and news people, Jon Stewart and Rachel Maddow. I am choosing to show both interviews in case you have not seen one or both of them. Also, I think that each interviews adds to and expands Aslan's thoughts and ideas on Iran.

First, Rachel Maddow's piece about Iran including the interview with Aslan.

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Now for the slightly longer interview with Aslan from The Daily Show with Jon Stewart.

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart

Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c

Reza Aslan

thedailyshow.com

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Jason Jones in Iran

Baking with Boxer- white sandwich bread

2009-06-24T15:06:00.003-05:00

Todays item is white sandwich bread that I made yesterday. I know what you are thinking, white sandwich bread, like that white bread crap that you can get at the grocery store that has no nutritional value, well yes and no. It is white bread, but there are no preservatives and chemicals and other crap in it. Also, I intend to use a mix of white whole wheat flour and all purpose flour next time, this time I just wanted to make it following the recipe and see how it turned out. I turned out with really good texture and a slight bit of sourness at times. As to the sourness, I think I may have over rose the dough. Those of you who saw my facebook page yesterday saw that the dough was rising incredibly fast, it must really like the heat and humidity, well that might have been the problem. I might have over fermented the yeast and thus had some lactic acid in the dough, but I am not sure. I even try to slow down the second rise since GG and I were going out for a bit to get a new car. (We got the new Honda hybrid, Insight.) Well, even in the fridge it still tripled in volume, now I know and I will be more careful next time. I am not going to give the recipe this time as it is kind of a long recipe and I want to encourage you to buy, get from the library, or steal from a friend a copy of the Bread Bible by Rose Levy Beranbaum. It is a great book and many of the bread recipes I have started to use are from this book. So, I will just leave you with a picture of the finished product. It may not look pretty, but it is good. Oh and the ridges on the top of the bread are not supposed to be there, I had the oven racks too close together and as the bread rose in the oven while it was cooking it pressed against one of the racks.

Doggy Park etiquette

2009-06-24T10:03:00.003-05:00

I have started to take Bodhi to the doggy park almost everyday. It gives him the opportunity to play and run off leash, to burn up some of the energy that puppies (and kids) seem to have in abundance and it allows him to socialize and get used to being around a lot of different dogs that are older and younger than him and bigger and smaller than him. He really loves going to the dog park and gets really excited to go in the car. There are even some regular dogs that we tend to see there more often, there is Odin the younger beagle, Max the older Beagle, and Bailey the fully intact, really pretty grey and white speckled dog (I am not sure what kind of dog he is). He also gets to play with any number of other random dogs that we see there that do not seem to be regulars, but whoever it is Bodhi chases them and they chase him and he loves it. And I love taking him, except... I get frustrated some times with the owners. There are these owners who show up at the dog park and stay for like 15 minutes and then tell their dog, "I hope you got all of your energy out because mommy/daddy needs to do chores around the house." "Or daddy/mommy needs to leave you at home for a long time today so I hope you are done playing for the day." Now I am no dog behaviorist or dog trainer, but letting a dog play for 15 minutes does not seem sufficient to me especially when the dog is still running and chasing other dogs and is not panting or seem to be tired in the least. It seems that 15 minutes is just when the dog is starting to get warmed up. It also seems to always be the owners with the bigger dogs, the Rottweilers, Huskies, or Labs that think 15 minutes is sufficient. Also, cleaning up after your dog is not optional, if they shit you need to clean it up. Now I understand if you are new to the park and do not realize that you may need to supply your own bags. There are supposed to be bags there for doo doo clean-up, but they run out sometimes and so having a back up set of bags with you is a good idea. But especially when there are bags at the doggy park, there is no excuse for why you cannot clean up after you dog. No one wants to step in your dog's shit that you didn't want to clean-up. That is part of going to a dog park, taking responsibility for your dog.

Today, Bodhi and I went to the park, but I didn't want to stay too long, it is really hot here and I did not want Bodhi to over heat. Also, he is afraid of the water fountain and wouldn't drink from it and I forgot to get a bowl to take with us for him to drink out of. (He also does not like hoses or really any water device other than his bowl of water.) So I intended to stay for about 30 minutes. There was no one else there for about 20 minutes and so Bodhi ran and frolicked in the grass and had fun by himself although he definitely prefers there to be other dogs there for him to play with. So then a van pulled up and this guy and his husky came into the park. The man seemed annoyed that there was anyone else at the park and was annoyed at Bodhi for coming over and saying hi to him and his dog. I kept telling Bodhi, "no" as he can be a bit exuberant when he ways hi to people and other dogs. But really he was fun and was just happy that there was another dog to play with. The Husky did not seem too interested in playing, but that didn't stop Bodhi and they kind of played chase for a bit. Then the Husky had to go to the bathroom. The man just ignored this fact. The dog shit in one spot than another and than another, he just kept moving and shitting. Finally, it was time for me and Bodhi to go home and as I went to get Bodhi, I heard the man say, "Finish up it is time to go home." He then took his dog back to the car and left. I was so annoyed, how dare you treat the dog park which is for everyone like your backyard. You bring your dog, he does nothing, but shit and then you leave and not clean it up. what an asshole. So if you take you dog to the doggie park and if you have a dog it is great fun for both human and dog, then please clean up after your dog and realize that 15 minutes may seem sufficient to you, but really your dog may need like 30 to 60 minutes of real playtime to be a calm and happy dog.

Baking with Boxer

2009-06-22T14:28:00.007-05:00

I am hoping to make this a regular feature on this blog. I like to bake and I have been doing it a lot more lately, so I figured I would share with y'all the fruits of my labor. Well, at least pictures and recipes and the ideas of the fruits of my labor, to get the actual fruits you have to be here.

This post will be written as I work on this recipe. I am experimenting today as I try to make a bread that is sprinkled with chocolate. I have a chocolate bread recipe and I really like it, but there was this Swiss bakery in NC which made a sweet, white bread that had chocolate in it. It was awesome on its own, but with some peanut butter it was even better. I am attempting to recreate this bread. As I was thinking about this, I remembered a blog post from the now not active blog Harp and Sword. I went there and found the chocolate bread recipe except it was written to be made in a bread machine, I do not have a bread machine, so I am attempting to adjust on the fly and make this recipe.

Ingredients straight from Harp and Sword:
1 1/4 cups buttermilk
1 large egg, beaten
1 tbsp butter
1 tbsp sugar
1 1/4 teaspoon kosher or sea salt
2 3/4 cups bread flour
1 1/4 teaspoon yeast
1/3 cup coarsely chopped bittersweet chocolate (about 12 squares of a Trader Joe's Pound Plus® 70% cocoa mass Bittersweet Chocolate) (I could not find this so I got the 72% dark chocolate from Trader Joe's- BR)

How I made the bread:
Mix the sugar, buttermilk and yeast together and let the yeast bloom for at least 10-15 minutes. Place the bread flour and salt in the Kitchen Aid. Turn the mixer on low for approximately 30 seconds to mix up the flour and salt so that the salt does not come in direct contact with the yeast and kill it. Add the eggs, butter and yeast mixture to the flour and salt. Mix on low for a minute or so to get the flour moist, turn the mixer up to #4 and mix for seven minutes. At this point, the dough was still too sticky for me so I added another 1/4 cup of bread flour and let the mixer go for another 2 minutes. Place the dough in a bowl to rise for at least 1.5 hours. Cut up the chocolate into chunks. Knead the chocolate into the bread dough a little bit at a time till all of the chocolate is mixed in with the dough. Let the bread rise again, for another hour. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees at least 45 minutes before you plan on baking the bread. I did this with my pizza stone in the oven already. I then placed the bread onto a silpat covered jelly roll sheet pan, but you could spray the sheet pan with oil to keep the bread from sticking to the pan. Place the bread into the oven. I also boiled some water and put it into a small cast iron pan and put that into the oven as well right below the sheet pan with the bread. I do this to help add some moisture to the oven and so that the bread will have a nicer crust, or so I have read. Bake for 45 minutes. Let it cool completely on a cooling rack and eat.

Censorship of books in the news again

2009-06-22T10:42:00.003-05:00

In an article in the Chicago Tribune, a group of parents are complaining because one of the high schools that is close to where I currently live has the incoming freshman reading "The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian," by Sherman Alexie. The parents say that this book is too mature for their children. The book apparently has some rough language and their children should not be exposed to that kind of language in school. According to one parent, "I began reading, and I started to cross out sections that I didn't want him to read," she said. "Soon I thought, 'Wait, this is not appropriate; he is not reading this.' " So first you are censoring what you child reads and now you want the schools to censor what our children read. I understand and fully agree with parents reading what their children read, just as watching TV with your children is a great idea. This way you can discuss with your children things that you might feel are questionable or beyond their maturity or comprehension, but deciding your child should not read is not a good way to go, IMHO. This school said they picked this book after much consideration and looking at a list of books that were written for Young Adults. They also did a survey the previous year and discovered that many young men were not reading (I could have told you that without a survey, but still...), so they decided to use a book that had a young man as a protagonist to encourage the boys to read. The parents also saw the language in the book as racist. According to the demographic information I was able to find for this district, the student body is 96% white, I grew up in a similarly monocultural setting and trust me these kinds are already hearing and in some cases using racist language. Maybe they need a book that uses this same type of language where an adult could then address the racist language and discuss it openly with the students.

I have read several Sherman Alexie books and I have enjoyed most of them. He is an interesting writer who grew up on the Spokane Indian Reservation and so brings the reservation life and thoughts to his writings. His writing also tends to focus on Spokane or Coeur d'Alene Indians and this book is no exception. I have not read this book, but based upon his other writings, yes, there probably is some rough language. According to one review I read on Amazon, the "f" word is used frequently and masturbation is also discussed in the book. Most high schoolers have heard or use, frequently, words like fuck, motherfucker and fuckwad. They are also aware of masturbation and statistics show that most teenagers are probably masturbating. Is sexuality a sensitive issue in schools? Yes. Does that mean we should exclude books just because it is in the book? NO.I do not know, but I can't help but wonder when one of the major complaints is racist language would the same complaints appear if the protagonist was Caucasian. The other book that comes to mind is Catcher in the Rye, which always seems to be on the banned books lists. But in this community would the same outrage have occurred?

Finally, and my biggest issue with the whole parents who are complaining, is that there is an alternative book that you can have your child read if you are not comfortable with the Alexie book. So, if you do not want your child to read "The Absolutely True... ",then don't. Have them read the other book and go away happy that you shielded your child from a book that may open their eyes and may give you chances to talk with your child. Oh, and the other book is about a group of teens who steal rafting equipment to go rafting down the Grand Canyon. So, now according to your own logic, you're encouraging your child to be a thief.

YouTube Fridays (late edition)

2009-06-20T10:50:00.002-05:00

I was looking through my CDs and I found this old mix of music. Both of these songs are from this mix and they have been in my head for the past week.

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Us3- Cantaloop

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Maná- Rayando el Sol

A quick book review- Fool

2009-06-17T14:55:00.002-05:00

I have been a fan of Christopher Moore for a while, his books tend to be quick, easy reads for me. But he is very hit and miss for me. I loved Coyote Blue which is the first book I read by him and Bloodsucking Fiends: A Love story was also quite enjoyable. I absolutely love Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff and his two most recent novels, You Suck: A love story (the sequel to Bloodsucking fiends) and A Dirty Job were also both really good. The rest of his novels were good in most cases, nothing really great, but light and airy and that is nice to read sometimes. So when I heard he was doing a novel based upon the Shakespearean play King Lear, I was intrigued. Well, in this novel, Fool, he did not disappoint. It is loosely based upon King Lear, but Moore acknowledges that he takes from like 12 other works of The Bard and so it does not follow King Lear directly. I also do not know King Lear very well, but I was able to recognize it somewhat and elements of other Shakespearean plays in the book, Fool. I find it at least sort of helpful to be aware of Shakespeare's work if you are going to read Fool, but I am sure that is not totally necessary. The best part, IMHO, is the bawdiness of this book. There is a warning at the beginning of the novel that it is bawdy and it does not disappoint in that area. The whole book is full of double entendres, sexual behavior and other bawdiness. It reminds me a lot of the Renaissance Faire when I used to go when I was in high school. (GG and I went to the Faire last year and it is now not as entertaining or as bawdy as I recall.) There may be times in which the humor is sophomoric and infantile, but when I am laughing within the first few pages, I know I will enjoy the book. It may not follow King Lear accurately, but it is a fun romp nonetheless.

A band that has stood the test of time

2009-06-15T14:25:00.004-05:00

As I was doing some errands today, I had a mix of music on my iPod that had a lot of '90s rock and grudge music. I was enjoying the music, but also realizing that much of this music just does not seem to speak to me that way it did when it first came out and I was in high school. And then Nirvana came on and I realized that here is a band that has music that has, possibly, stood the test of time. Maybe it is just nostalgia or maybe because Kurt Cobain died while Nirvana was still so popular and there was no real decline or dragged out process by which the band faded from view, but Nirvana still sounds as good to me now as they did when they were at the height of their popularity. I am not sure I can think of a lot of other bands from that same genre and era that I can still listen to and still think, wow this is as relevant as it was when it originally came out. I am also of the mind that the Nirvana Unplugged album is and will go down as one of the classic albums of the '90s music scene.

Nirvana- All Apologies

Are bank tellers still a necessity?

2009-06-15T14:01:00.002-05:00

After I went to the bank today to deposit my paycheck, I started to think about how little I actually go into the bank anymore. I can only think of one time in over a year that I had to actually go into the bank and talk to someone. This thought led me to wondering what bank tellers do anymore. I am not saying that we should fire all bank tellers or that I begrudge anyone a job, but really how many people actually go to the counter at the bank to deposit money or get cash? The one time that I can think of having to go inside the bank, it was because I had my debit card number stolen and I had to go in and get a new card. This was after I had already talked to someone on the phone and so the account was already straitened out. I didn't even talk to a bank teller, I went immediately to another bank representative to handle my account. There are even people whose job it is to point the customer to who they need to talk to, thus eliminating people talking to the teller. There are plenty of people who need to be able to go in and talk to bank employees to secure loans or to add a new account or change their account or even, like I had to do, to get a new bank card if yours has been stolen or lost. But none of these actions require the services of the bank teller. It seems that myself and most people use the ATM or online banking to do most of our business with banks these days. Hell, I signed up for my current bank account online and was mailed the form I had to sign and then mailed it back to them. I never even stepped into a bank to set-up the account or to deposit any money.

This just seems to be a radical change for me and the way in which banking seems to work currently. I can remember, and I am not that old, when I set-up my very first bank account, my father and I had to go into the bank to fill out the paperwork and to deposit money. ATM cards were just becoming something that banks offered and these were used primarily to get money out of an ATM when the bank was not open or you did not want to go into the bank. Now we can and do use debit cards for everything, from getting money from an ATM machine to paying for purchase to depositing checks and cash into your account. I don't even carry cash that much anymore and I know I am not unusual in this fact. Even depositing money into ATMs has changed recently, at the bank I use there are no envelopes or deposit slips. You place the cash or check, depending, into a slot and then the ATM counts the cash or displays the amount that the check is written for. No fuss, no mess and no wasted paper. Are we moving toward a society where banks solely exist virtually either online or at ATM machines? I see a future where there are only a few large national banks, cash is all but extinct and we do all of our banking through machines.

Blogging doesn't pay

2009-06-14T17:15:00.003-05:00

I am shamelessly stealing this cartoon from BAC. I saw this cartoon and I instantly liked it. First, as a blogger and one who reads many blogs and knows the hard work that goes into blogging and many people's blogs, mine not so much yet as I am getting restarted, but still... There is so much hard work that bloggers do and yet the rewards are not monetary. I also suspect that there are many people who get into blogging because they think that they can sit in their basement and write their thoughts and the fans, accolades and money will just roll in. It doesn't work that way. Most of us do it because we like to write, we have something to say or just it allows us to get things off of our collective chests without having to nag our significant other with every little thought, or maybe that is just me. Anyway, it just struck me right especially as I am attempting to re-start this blog and really get myself back to blogging regularly. I know there is no money in this for me, hell I don't have that many people that even read this and I lost those that I did when I stopped blogging regularly so I am doing it out of love or the need to hear my own voice.

This cartoon also "triggered" my thoughts on the big progressive feminist blog that seems to be in shambles and is moving slowly to a cult-like existence with a leader at the top, an inner circle of disciples and then the underlings who are supposed to worship at the feet of the master. The whole debacle has been done to death by bloggers who are more intelligent and better writers than I, but in case you have missed it or are interested in what the hell I am talking about or just want to see some great blogs here they are.

First, Konagod with a more serious post and thoughts on the blog who shall not be named (BWSNBN). Then a hilarious satirical look at that same blog. We also have The Apostate who again does a great job of chronicling the decline and after affects of the latest hissy fit. And finally, Litbrit who it was awesome to find again after she had left the BWSNBN, to put the final touch, well at least for this roundup, on the thoughts of some of us about the demise of a once awesome place, hell the BWSNBN is where I met GG and that has turned out wonderfully.

Quote of the Day

2009-06-14T08:11:00.002-05:00

No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.

--Eleanor Roosevelt

YouTube Fridays- Stanley Cup game 7

2009-06-12T18:54:00.001-05:00

Let's go Pens!!!

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The state of this blog

2009-06-11T17:42:00.002-05:00

It has been almost a month since I have posted anything to this blog and that was a note saying I would probably not be blogging much if any in May. My blogging has really dropped off and I have on several occasions said I was done blogging. Hell, last night I told GG I was going to shut down the blog. I was doing most of my blogging on Facebook or at least I was writing and posting the videos I would have posted here to Facebook. So that was set, I was shutting down the blog. Then this morning I realized there are things that I can't or won't say on Facebook because there are many of my co-workers on Facebook too. I need to be able to keep that world and this world separate. I had thought that when my summer vacation began on Monday I would get right back into blogging. I would take the time to do it. I sort of had some ideas in my head and yet, Monday came and went and then Tuesday came and went and the Wednesday I decided I wasn't going to post so I was going to shut it down and now here it is Thursday and I have finally decided to blog. I have some posts I want to put up and some thoughts to share. Will this be another short lived return? I hope not, but maybe.

There have been major changes in my life this past year. I have given up most of my material possessions and moved half way across the country to live with someone I had met once prior to her coming to NC to help me pack and move. Do I regret this decision, hell no. But it has changed me in many ways including, but not limited to the fact that now many of the ideas I would have blogged at one point I can discuss with the person who is sitting beside me on the couch as I type this. This is incredibly awesome and does seem to lessen the need for me to blog, but it doesn't lessen the desire that I have for blogging. These changes also include us getting a cat in February and my dog, Logan, the boxer for whom this site was initially inspired, passing away in March. We then got a new boxer-mix, Bodhi, at the end of April. I have also been working for a new school district here in IL and the accompanying drama and stress that comes with working in preschool and in the public school system. I think, finally, this summer I may be able to get back to blogging, really blogging. I look back at my archives and I realize that at one point I was an OK writer and that I was kind of surprised and proud of myself. But since writing does not come naturally to me, I need to be doing it and working on it to refine my thoughts and more importantly my presentation of these thoughts. In other words, i need to be writing more often, daily preferably, to be a better blogger and writer. I realized that I do not comment as much as I used to. It is too easy with Google Reader to read a blog and then not have to comment or it seems like a pain to click the blog post and then have to comment. But I need to be commenting more, there are so many things being said by those of you who blog and I feel like I fail you as an author and me as a blogger by not being involved in the process, by not commenting. So I am rededicating myself to this blog and to blogging in general.

YouTube Fridays

2009-05-22T21:48:00.005-05:00

This is my first post in almost a month which is kind of sad and weak and such, but as Blue Gal say

or at least that is my story and I am sticking to it, that and I am busy playing with the new puppy or I am just a bit lazy and I do not take the ideas in my head for blog posts and then put them on paper so to speak. Anywho... this weeks YouTube clips are inspired by a mix my brother and sister-in-law gave me for Christmas.

Dar Williams- Buzzer (live in studio)

I can't believe that I have not posted this song before on this site as I have been addicted to this song since I first heard it on the CD and since it is the first song, I have now heard it many times.

Michael Franti and Spearhead- Say Hey (I love you)

Since it is almost June and then I will be done with school for at least this school year and I can get back to regularly blogging like at least once a day, hopefully this will be the first of many posts.

When ya need a burger, ya need a burger

2009-05-05T18:27:00.003-05:00

Apparently, being a non-meat eater I do not know this but, when ya need a burger, ya need a burger. And apparently our President and Vice President had a hankering for some dead cow. They took the motorcade on a short ride into Virginia to get some burgers at an independent burger joint. I just love that they took the whole motorcade to a burger joint, then paid out of their own pockets and waited for their burgers to be done. I am sure the burger joint knew they were coming and I am sure they could have just run in and gotten a burger real quick and not had to interact with the public that much, but that is not how this administration seems to operate. I am also assuming that the White House kitchen can make a burger, but instead Joe and Barack went out for a burger. It is just nice to see a President and VP who want to spend time with the public and who seem to actually try to be more down to earth, "real" people. It is a nice change from the past administration.

Ahhhhhhh...the life of a puppy

2009-04-29T16:26:00.004-05:00

I have not been able to blog that much as Bodhi has been taking up a lot of my time. I know this is to be expected with a puppy, but this one is a bit affection starved. If I spend too much time on the computer than he starts to whine and wants to play with me or more often jump into my lap. We are working on him not jumping on the furniture, but he will put his paws on you and just want affection. He has many toys like balls and ropes he likes to play with, but, of course, those require that someone throw them or that someone play tug of war with him. He is a great dog and lots of fun, but when I am trying to do something he does seem to need a lot of attention. He is whimpering at me now and wants me to pet him. So, maybe soon I will be able to type more, but not yet.

Welcome our new addition

2009-04-24T16:46:00.004-05:00

After the loss of Logan, I really missed having a dog around the house. We have been looking around for a Boxer to adopt, we have looked at other breeds, but I keep coming back to Boxers. Well, we found one who was being fostered through a local rescue organization and we went to see him. He loved us from the minute we got there and GG and I were pretty smitten too. So, Here he is, the new addition to our family, Bodhi.

Job Opportunity

2009-04-19T09:26:00.002-05:00

If you are a computer hacker, the US government is looking for you. They do not want to arrest you, they want to hire you. According to the new Pentagon budget, they will be increasing the number of cyber experts from 80 to 250 by the year 2011. Which of course brings me to my favorite hacker turned FBI agent, Penelope Garcia.

YouTube Fridays- This is a public service announcement

2009-04-17T20:52:00.005-05:00

You may be a Canadian today and not even know it. The Canadian government amended a Canadian citizenship law that allows for former Canadiens who were forced to renounce their citizenship between 1944 and 1977 to reclaim their Canadian citizenship, this applies to their children as well. And as this YouTube shows it is as simple as waking up and suddenly Mounties meet you at the door to your place, there are stuffed animal moose in your room and all kinds of other symbols of Canada just appear.

Finding this out made me think of this song from the '80s. I mean, if you can turn Canadian overnight why not other nationalities as well?

The Vapors- Turning Japanese

My new obsessions

2009-04-16T18:21:00.002-05:00

I have become mildly obsessed with these two new sites I was told about. First, there is Fmylife. Basically it is short twitter or text message like statements where people complain about their life. This sounds stupid and is, but really some people have interesting lives. Like the person whose house was crashed into by a person eating watermelon and texting while driving. And then there is the virtual NES, for those of you who are not children of the '80s or who just don't know, NES stands for Nintendo Entertainment System. This website has a lot of the old Nintendo games like Super Mario Bros, 1,2 and 3, Contra, Metroid, Double Dragon and actually a lot more of them. I so love those games and it is such a time suck for me. I will start playing one game and play that for a while and then if I get bored, I move onto to another game. I find this so much fun and free, which is even better.

Today at school...

2009-04-15T17:53:00.003-05:00

it was backward day. So several of the teachers, including yours truly, and many of the kids had their shirts inside out and backwards. One kid had his Lakers jersey, his hat and his pants on backwards which reminded me of this song and the brief fad that followed of wearing your shirts and pants backwards.

Kris Kross- Jump

In honor of Passover

2009-04-12T17:11:00.005-05:00

If you have never seen the ten plagues done by peeps, you have to see it. It makes the plagues funny, even death of the first born.

YouTube Fridays

2009-04-10T15:12:00.003-05:00

GG and I were talking about this song after seeing a comment on another blog that we both read, but we couldn't remember the name of it or who it was by. Well, later in the comments, someone said who the song was by, but that does not really help as GG did not think it was by E,L,P, but it was and then the name of the some is not an obvious one. I finally found the song and now, of course a few days later, I have to post the song.

Emerson, Laker and Palmer- Karn Evil 9 First Impression part 1

I had heard this song a while back on American Idol, I don't watch often but I had caught this particular show and really liked the song. I had to find out who had done it originally. After I found out that KT Tunstall had done this song, I eventually had to get the whole CD.

KT Tunstall- Black Horse and the Cherry Tree

Happy Passover

2009-04-08T18:31:00.001-05:00

Happy Passover to all of you who are celebrating. I will miss bread, but still, it is only 7-8 days of matzah, I will live.

Movie Review- Che Parts 1 and 2

2009-04-07T17:54:00.003-05:00

I have an interest in Che Guevara and his life. I had seen The Motorcycle Diaries when it had come out in the theaters and then eventually bought the movie. So when I heard that Steven Soderbergh was directing a film about Che starring Benicio Del Toro, I was intrigued. I become more intrigued when I heard it was going to be a four hour long epic. I then heard that they were going to split the film into two parts, but I wanted to see it in the original four hour long epic. This was not possible for me. I could not find it playing in the full length film, but I was able to find it in Milwaukee where it was playing in two parts. I was able to schedule it where I was able to see the films back-to-back with a small break in between the two films. The first film is about the Cuban Revolution and Che's part in organizing the revolution along with Castro. Che is portrayed as a man trying to lead a peasant revolution. He insists that his men respect the peasants that they meet. At one point, some of his men leave the revolutionary's camp and they rape a farmers daughter and take all of the farmers produce. When Che and his men eventually catch up with the wayward soldiers, the wayward soldiers are killed for disgracing the revolutionary cause. So, Che is not shown as a man who is not willing to kill his own troops or the government troops, but he still has some principles that he is fighting for. He feels that the only way to overthrow the Batista government is by violence. In the second film, we follow Che in Bolivia when he again tries to create a peasant revolution, but this time he fails. We see the failed attempts to convince the rural peasants that Che is trying to help them and the influence of the Bolivian government in working against Che. We also see the beginning of several foreign Marxist groups in working with Che and the mistrust that these foreigners and even the fact that Che is not Bolivian born creates within the Bolivian people. The film ends with Che's death by government officials in the Bolivian highlands.

I really liked both films. I had read that the first part of the film was better than the second part. I would sort of agree as seeing success is usually more interesting than watching failure. Also, the facts of the Cuban revolution are better known than the attempted Bolivian revolution, so Soderbergh was able to use some base knowledge and add upon that. But as I watched the films, both of them, I kept thinking that Che is such and icon and symbol that there is no unbiased way to make a movie about him. These films are very sympathetic toward him, he is not totally nonviolent, but his violence is supposed to be directed by principles. In this way, Che is a sympathetic character in these films, but if Che were portrayed as a violent asshole with no principles again this would show a biased. It seems to me that the truth is somewhere in between these two extremes. Che was both a violent asshole and a man who was trying to lead a revolution that he thought would benefit the poorer peoples of the countries he was leading revolutions within. I would recommend the first film definitely and would only slightly less recommend the second film if you wanted to learn more about Che and his demise, but seeing them together seems to not be crucial. On a side note, I am not sure I would want to try to see another two part film like this where I was sitting in a theater for a long time unless it was a really special set of films.

Thank you

2009-04-06T15:55:00.002-05:00

Thank you to everyone for your condolences. I know I had to make a tough choice, but it was the right choice for Logan. He was only in pain for the last hour or so or at least the was the only time that he whimpered or cried, so I knew that I could not allow him to continue in pain. Thank you again for your thoughts and good wishes.

In loving memory

2009-04-05T17:17:00.005-05:00

Logan passed away tonight. He was having neurological issues and they finally escalated to the point where he was in a lot of pain and I had to do the only humane thing I know how to do. This blog was named for him and will continue to live on in his memory as a tribute to him.

YouTube Fridays

2009-04-03T09:33:00.004-05:00

This week's YouTube Friday is inspired by the Queen's iPod selections.

I dreamed a dream from Les Miserables

Seasons of Love from Rent

All that Jazz- Chita Rivera

The Queen's iPod

2009-04-02T15:26:00.003-05:00

As many of you have probably seen already Barack Obama gave the Queen an iPod when he was in London for the G20 summit. I couldn't help, but wonder what was on the iPod and then I found a list.

This was on it:

The Impossible Dream from Man of La Mancha

And this one:

If I were a rich man from Fiddler on the Roof

And finally this one:

Diamonds are a girl's best friend from Gentlemen prefer blondes

The full list of all of the songs is here.

Deaf culture and inclusion

2009-04-01T10:10:00.005-05:00

DISCLAIMER #1: I will try not to use too much education/special education jargon, but as I am writing this post as a means for me to think about this issue, I may slip into jargon at times, if I do please note it in comments and I will try to explain.
DISCLAIMER #2: This post is a bit long and rambling, it took two days to do and now I need to move on to other topics.

This is a follow-up to the review of Train Go Sorry I did here. In this book, the author, Leah Hager Cohen, discusses how much of the deaf community does not see the idea of having children who are deaf in a regular eduction classroom as a good idea or at least when she was writing this 15 years ago they did not. Cohen discusses how this is viewed as a threat to the deaf community and the deaf culture. That if children who are deaf are placed in regular education classrooms, they will lose parts of themselves and this will destroy the deaf culture. They are afraid that taking children from deaf only schools and placing them in inclusion or regular education classroom de-emphasizes deaf culture.

There is a valid point here. If the deaf culture is defined by the fact that its inhabitants speak another language, ASL. Also this is not a culture that your parents will necessarily pass down to you by the fact that deafness is not a hereditary trait so many children who are deaf are born to hearing parents. Deaf culture is also not like being Jewish or Muslim or African-American or Latino where your parents are in that culture so by you being their offspring you are also ensconced in that culture. Deaf culture grows out of the fact that an individual cannot hear and so being with other individuals who cannot hear provides you with a bond that may not exist otherwise. Deafness extends beyond religious and ethnic barriers, it is not defined by where you grow up or who your parents are, it is a part of you. You are deaf.

This fear by the deaf community also grows out of ignorance by those outside the deaf world. As Cohen points out, up until the mid-1960s ASL was not viewed as a valid communication tool. It may have been used in the home, but it would never have been acceptable in the educational world. ASL was viewed as proof that individuals who are deaf were inferior to their hearing brethren by the fact that ASL meant that the individual who was deaf did not have to speak. It made the individual who was deaf different than their hearing brethren. So many of the schools, including the Lexington School for the Deaf, that Cohen highlights was an oral school. They taught their students to lip read and to to speak English. Even when Cohen wrote the book in 1994, the Lexington School was just beginning to use ASL in the classroom and move to a more shared model of teaching both oral and manual communication. There has been a rise in deaf pride and the desire of many more individuals who are deaf to be able to not be treated as second class citizens and not have to be the same as the rest of the hearing world. With the Deaf President Now movement leading to the installation of the first Deaf president at Galludet University, the largest and best known liberal arts deaf university, there has also been a push by the deaf community to install more administrators who are deaf to schools around the county.

So what does this all have to do with how the practice of inclusion in the public school system affects the deaf community, a lot. In 1975 when Public Law 94-142 was enacted, it provided for the education of many individuals with disabilities to be educated in the public school system. This law has been renamed and is now known as Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). PL 94-142 and now IDEA provide funding and support to state governments to provide public education for children with disabilities. At the same time over the past 20 or so years there has been a push to move away from the separate schools and separate classrooms for children with disabilities to a model of inclusion. This is where children with special needs are placed into the schools that they would attend if they did not have a disability and in many cases into the classrooms that they would attend if they did not have a disability. The idea is that the separate schools and separate classrooms were supposed to be separate but equal, but in many cases were not equal. There is also a lot of research that looks at the fact that inclusion benefits both the students with and without disabilities. (I am not going to go into specifics here, but there is a lot of evidence.) But what happens in the case of students who are deaf, where the teachers probably do not sign and these children now have no role models of successful individuals who are deaf? The deaf community argues children who are deaf need to be around other deaf people to learn ASL: and to be able to see that in a hearing world, even though you are deaf you can still be successful. The whole deaf pride movement also encourages those who are deaf to be around and involved with deaf causes and how are children who are not involved in the deaf schools to know about deaf pride.

The language acquisition of ASL and the need to be around other individuals who are fluent in ASL seems to make a lot of sense to me. I equate it to the language acquisition of other children. We know that children whose parents talk to them and interact with them and who hear a lot of different vocabulary and conversations are more likely to have better expressive and receptive language skills. So why can't the same be said for children who are deaf, why would putting them in a hearing school where they do not have the constant input of ASL language as a means of communication not hinder their language development in ASL over a child who goes to a school for the deaf and is surrounded by peers and teachers who use ASL constantly. I know there are some (many?) who would argue that by placing children who are deaf in regular education classrooms, we give the same opportunities for language development, but it is spoken language rather than manual language. But is that what is in the best interest of the children or is that just our own prejudices that everyone should communicate like us prevailing? Isn't this like the whole if you live in America you should speak English argument? Just because you live in a hearing world, should children have to be able to orally communicate?

As a teacher, I have concerns about public policy that are purported to be in the best interest of all children or all people. How can one law or policy be good for everyone? Each of us is an individual and so one mandate cannot cover every single instance. I am beginning to wonder if maybe the policy of inclusion is not as beneficial to children who are deaf as it is to children with other disabilities. But then what is the solution? It seems to be a slippery slope either way. If we allow for children who are deaf to not have to be in inclusion classrooms or even allow for them to be in their own schools for the deaf, what then stops someone from wanting separate schools for children who are blind or who have autism? Do we have to accommodate everyone and their individual needs for each separate population of individuals with a specific disability? But if we force children into inclusion classrooms, where they are not receiving the best instruction and where the needs of the hearing world are placed above the needs of the deaf community, are we being selfish and prejudiced?

I guess I am no the fence about this and many issues for children with special needs. Policies are set from government officials and school administrators that are supposed to be for the best interest of all involved, but no one policy can fit everyone.

Book Review- Train Go Sorry: Inside a Deaf World

2009-04-01T09:24:00.003-05:00

I have not always been a fan of nonfiction books. I find them to be boring and tedious and when I read I like to lose myself in the story and fiction does that better, IMHO. But I have recently gotten on a bit of a nonfiction binge, where I will read a nonfiction book or two and then go back to fiction for a while. And since I do not always like nonfiction, I am picky about what I read, so when I see a recommendation somewhere for a nonfiction book, I tend to like having these ideas from others. (I like fiction book recommendations as well, but nonfiction is where I struggle finding books most of the time.) I saw this recommendation, on a big blog that I read, about this nonfiction book, Train Go Sorry: Inside a Deaf World and I knew I wanted to read it. First, it sounded like an interesting and easy read and two, I have an interest in deaf culture and I thought this might be a good book to read to get an insiders view of the world of people who are deaf. I was right on both accounts. This is a fascinating story of life inside the Lexington School for the Deaf. The author, Leah Hager Cohen, spent much of her life living in and around the Lexington School. Although she is hearing, Cohen's father was the principal and then the superintendent of the Lexington School which means she was around the deaf community for much of her growing up years.. She mentions at the beginning of the book that for some of her early years she lived on the grounds of the Lexington School and so was, at least marginally, involved in the deaf culture from birth. Cohen goes back to the school as an adult and acts as an observer to be able to tell the story of this school and by extension a part of the deaf community. She highlights two students, James and Sofia, who are both seniors at the Lexington School, each of whom has their own personal struggles. Sofia immigrated with her family from the former Soviet Union to the United States. She had been to a school for the deaf in Russia and so had learned Russian and a form of sign language, so when she was attending the Lexington School she had to learn English and American Sign Language (ASL). She also became interested in having a Bat Mitzvah, even though she was about 5 years older than the traditional age for this coming of age ceremony. Since she was going to have to read from the Torah, Sofia also had to learn Hebrew in addition to ASL and English.

James is a African-American male who lives in a rougher part of New York City and initially struggled with tardiness and absenteeism when he first entered the Lexington School. The Lexington School finally realizes that the best solution to this problem is to allow James to stay in the residential dorms on the school campus that are now rarely used. James' bother was in jail while the book was being written and James said that if he had not been deaf and gone to the Lexington School he also might have ended up in a gang. James struggles with trying to find his way as an individual surrounded by an urban culture that does not value school and learning and also as someone who needs to learn in order for him to be able to make it in a hearing world. Both Sofia and James are success stories in the book, each of them finds their way on to the next chapter of life with both of them going to an institution of higher learning.

Cohen also intercedes with chapters about her paternal grandfather and grandmother, who were both deaf. She discusses what it was like for them to have traveled from the Old Country, both of them were from the former Soviet Union, and their own struggles as individuals who are deaf. She discusses her father and how he went from living in a household parented by two deaf individuals where he learned ASL to the point at which he kind of stumbled upon the job as an administrator at the Lexington School, where his father had attended. Cohen discusses some of the current issues in the deaf community, at least they were current in 1994 when the book was published and some of them still are very much issues, such as what she refers to as mainstreaming and is now called inclusion to cochlear implants to the rise of deaf pride and how these issues affect the deaf community and deaf culture.

Cohen provides the reader an insight into deaf culture that is rarely seen, or at least I have never really seen it before. She presents the issues that currently plague the deaf culture as it struggles to define itself in a hearing world. Although, Cohen is not always unbiased in her opinions about the larger issues, she does a magnificent job presenting the individual stories with no external opinions and allows each individual to present their own thoughts, feelings and ideas for themselves.

Although I got this book from the local library (yay local libraries), this is one book that I may have to buy at some point as it seems as though it would be a valuable book to read and re-read every so often.

People have too much time on their hands

2009-03-31T14:29:00.002-05:00

So as an easy and always interesting post, I decided to see what keywords lead people to this wonderful little blog.

men education- Is this about educating men or men in education?
sexy boxer rebellion- Thats my dog alright, sexy.
how baboons look like- I am not sure what you are asking, are you wondering about the appearance of baboons or how they use their eyes to look at something.
very very sexy women- hmmmmmm, there are no sexy women here, just dogs.
slogan where men feel comfortable- what?!?
www.photos women with no shirts and with thongs.com- is this really a website? Cause it sure as hell not here.
were boxers made for masturbating- I don't know. I thought they were just underwear, but maybe I am wrong.
rachel dcup- is this a reference to Lisa's old blog or to my lesbian girlfriend, Rachel Maddow? i guess we will never know.
women sexy body photo- again, no sexy women here, just dogs

I'm back

2009-03-31T09:52:00.002-05:00

I wondered if I would actually be able to stop blogging and the the answer is, NO. As soon as I stopped, I started to come up with ideas of what I should blog about. This blogging thing, it is addictive. I will be doing some renovations around here and so may not actually be blogging everyday this week if I ever do get back to everyday, which I would like to, but I will try to post at least 3-4 times a week if not more.

Bye (for now?)

2009-03-22T13:56:00.002-05:00

I have not been doing a good job of doing the blogging thing lately, so I am putting this blog into semi-retirement. Maybe I will come back in a day, a week or a year, but for now I will not be blogging. I guess this blog has served its purpose, it was meant as a way for me to speak my thoughts to the world when I was living alone. Now that I am living with someone else, most of what I would post here, I just talk to my better half about. I will see y'all around as I will continue to read you and try to comment when I have something to say.

YouTube Fridays

2009-03-13T15:30:00.001-05:00

Since last week was an '80s dance party, tonight is a bit more '90s hip hop. It was going to be more of a dance party, but it became ol' skool hip hop.

No Dioggity- Black Street with Dr. Dre

Regulate- Nate Dogg and Warren G.

And finally, because we were talking about his song at school on Thursday.

The Bad touch- Bloodhound Gang

Happy Birthday!!

2009-03-13T00:01:00.000-05:00

Happy Birthday to the Gourmet Goddess. It was a year, basically today, since we met in person and now we are living together, wow.

Censoring books is a bad thing

2009-03-10T16:46:00.004-05:00

I am glad to see that a school board and an English teacher were finally able to stand up to those conservative parents who are always trying to get rid of books that are being taught in the classroom. In a small town in Indiana, parents were trying to get rid of three books: Toni Morrison's "The Bluest Eyes",Bobbie Ann Mason’s “In Country,” and Chris Crutcher’s “Chinese Handcuffs” which they said were too sexual and had too much inappropriate language to be taught in school. Now, I have only read the Morrison book and it is still one of my favorite books I have ever read. It is a great look at the expected stereotypes of girls and how they are supposed to look. It also leads nicely, IMHO, into the unreasonable beauty expectations that many young women are currently exposed. I believe there is a rape scene in the book, if I remember correctly and I know that the main character is friends with three prostitutes , but by 11th grade young people should be able to handle a book with this material. When we expect our children to not be able to handle books that deal with tough issues, than they are not able to deal with the tough issues in real life. Young people are exposed to a lot of sex, violence and rough language on a daily basis in the media and in their environment, so why can't we also expose them to these same types of things in ways where an adult can discuss with the young adults the circumstances in the books. I firmly believe that if we tried to censor every book that had some questionable material according to one person's definition, than there would be nothing left to read.

I also guess that parents who want to censor books, are also probably not readers themselves. I am not sure exactly why I think this, maybe it is that my parents loved to read when my brother and I were growing up and still do and my brother and I were allowed to read whatever we wanted and I have heard similar stories from other people I know. I understand if you are worried about your child and what they are reading especially if you are not familiar with the book, but as one parent I know does, why not read the books that your children are assigned at the same time as your child so that you can interact with them and discuss the book if you are that worried about it. Banning books does not solve the problem, it only creates young adults who do not like to read which is not a good thing, IMHO.

Library Ninjas

2009-03-08T18:03:00.002-05:00

I am really annoyed with people lately. I have been trying to get a copy of The Watchmen graphic novel and all of the copies are checked out of the local library. There are four copies of the novel in the libraries card catalog, one was due back in October, one was due back a week ago, and two are due back over the next two weeks. Now I have no problem with those who have the book out for the next few weeks, but those who have it out late annoy me. I have a hold on the book and it is only right that if someone has a hold you return the book. I am sorry if you didn't get to finish the book, but dammit I want to read it and I did the right thing and put a hold on the book. So, here is what I am proposing: a specially trained small cadre of library ninjas who would seek out and get back overdue books. They could go out when the library is closed and get back overdue books. I know they have a fine system in place, but obviously it is not work as well as it should as people do not care about returning a library book, they will just keep it instead as is demonstrated by the person who is now 4 months overdue. I think the library ninja idea is a much better one. I know there are breaking and entering laws and such, but really isn't an overdue library book is much more important? Ok so maybe breaking and entering is not a better way of handling things, but I am still annoyed that people are keeping this book and any book for more than a few days overdue. I know I get annoyed when I have a book and am not finished with it and there is a hold on the book so I cannot renew it, but that is the price for "renting" a book. You have to return it so that others may enjoy the same book. Damn people who keep the books overlate. BTW the whole library ninjas was not my idea, I saw it on a cartoon called Jacob Two-Two which is a cute, smart cartoon I could find sometimes in NC which was made in Canada and is based upon a series of books by Mordecai Richler. I found the episode online and so if you have like 25 minutes and want to see it, here goes otherwise don't.

YouTube Fridays

2009-03-06T19:49:00.003-06:00

This is going to be a bit of a blast from the past. Tonight is an '80s dance party, so get down and have some fun.

Was (Not Was-) Walk that Dinosaur

Men without Hats- Safety Dance

Eurythmics- Sweet Dreams (Are made of this) I had issues finding this one as BMG music had co[yrighted almost all of the videos on YouTube, stupid music companies.

Rob Base and DJ E-Z Rock- It takes two

Finally someone with a brain on The View

2009-03-06T19:27:00.002-06:00

I mean no disrespect to Barbara Wawas or Whoppi Goldberg or Joy Behar and the other two, well... lets just leave it at the first three I named. So, Rachel Maddow appeared on The View and I, of course, loved this clip, but it was somewhat spastic. They would start talking politics and then it went to her love life and then how she came out and then back to politics, if there had been somewhat of a semblance of order, it might have been nice. But still...a great job by Maddow.

I don't know what to say about this

2009-03-05T17:22:00.003-06:00

Nashville is voted the "manliest" city in the US. They won "thanks to its high number of NASCAR enthusiasts, popularity of hunting and fishing, and concentration of barbecue restaurants." Also,"cities lost ranking points for 'emasculating' characteristics like the abundance of home furnishing stores, high minivan sales and subscription rates to beauty magazines." I don't get this at all, how is a city manly? I actually had to take a few minutes to collect my thoughts as this is possibly one of the stupidest, most sexist and misogynistic surveys I have ever seen. I guess I will no longer buy Mars Snack food products anymore, as they are the ones who commissioned and published this survey. It is too bad because I like M&Ms, Milky Way Dark, Snickers, and 3 Musketeer bars. I still am not sure what else, I think I need to just walk away from the computer for a minute as this is really, really annoying to me that we have gotten to the point where there are surveys about the manliness of cities.

Jon Stewart is at it again

2009-03-05T16:58:00.001-06:00

I was going to post this video in which Jon Stewart calls out all of the asshats over at CNBC especially Rick Santelli about their "business" reporting. As Stewart shows they are merely shills for the corporate world with no actual care for the non-millionaires in the world. And then I read my RSS feed and saw that Little Mary Sunshine and Betsy over at Mock, Paper, Scissors. But then I decided, ahh fuck it, I am posting it anyway. It is too good not to post and really what does it hurt for one more person to post it to their blog, maybe more people will see it then. Although I do have to say that I saw the clip initially in a Chicago Sun-Times article with the title, Jon Stewart attacks Rick Santelli in a Daily show rant. Stewart not really ranting, IMHO, more like pointing out the inadequacies of CNBC which he does and does well with most any network or person who makes themselves into a flaming idiot. So enjoy if you have not seen this already.

The Daily Show With Jon StewartM - Th 11p / 10c

CNBC Gives Financial Advice

Daily Show Full Episodes
Important Things With Demetri Martin

Political Humor
Joke of the Day

What has the world come to..

2009-03-03T20:01:00.004-06:00

...attacking mascots is very, very wrong. This man attacked Chuck E. Cheese. Yes, he attacked a man who was dressed up as the mouse that is the symbol for Chuck E. Cheese. Trahan Pires said he attacked the mouse because he thought the mascot pinned his child against a video game. Hmmmmm lets see violence is not really the solution to this problem. What are you teaching your child about good ways in which to solve conflict? And furthermore what the hell where the other children thinking when they saw the mascot's head ripped off and someone attacking Chuck E. Cheese?

Then there is this man who thought it would be funny to hit the McGruff, the crime dog mascot. McGruff was on the streets of Washington, DC handing out fliers to kids, when Shawn Brim pulled his bus over and got out and hit McGruff in the head. He later said he thought it would be funny to hit the mascot. Ummmmmm...yeah...so violence is funny now. I think not. Plus idiot-boy, McGruff is a mascot that the police generally use, there was a policeman in that uniform. Not exactly your brightest moment attacking a police officer, in a costume, but still...

Obama=Sex

2009-03-02T17:53:00.003-06:00

I was going to write about this article on ESPN about a female high school basketball player who is not going to the big McDonalds All-American Game because either the principal of her high school or her father have said that this would require too much time away from her academics. I was going to say how I applaud whoever made the decision that academics is more important that athletics and that I think it is stupid that a basketball game for high school students is being played while school is in session. Shouldn't we encourage these players to be in school and not take a whole week off of school just for a basketball game? I like basketball and all, but academics should come first. I was going to talk about that, but then I saw this clip that Betsy over at Mock, Paper, Scissors put up and I had to put it up here because apparently hearing Obama talk is like sex to some Republican analysts. And I think that we all should think on that for a minute, Obama=sex.

TV is not reality

2009-03-01T17:19:00.002-06:00

I have become a minor fan of the new Joss Whedon show, Dollhouse. The basic premise that there is a secret organization that is able to erase a person's mind and create a new personality They then take these "dolls" and rent them out to rich individuals to be whatever a client wants them to be from a hostage negotiator to a romantic fling. There have only been three episodes aired so far. It usually airs on Friday nights and since GG and I have been out the past two Friday nights when it is on, I was catching up on the episodes online today. It is not the greatest show ever and not my favorite Joss Whedon show, Firefly is my favorite, but it is a good show with an interesting concept, IMHO. After watching the first two episodes and then definitely after the third episode, I started to think that this would make a great one and off show, meaning one season and then the show is over. So it would be an extended miniseries, I am Ok with maybe a three year plan as long as the creator and writers know from the start the general arc of the characters and do not try to go all crazy and keep it on the air forever. I feel as though too many shows stay on for too long as American networks get too greedy and are not willing to let a show go off the air while it is still good. I have never seen Lost or Heroes, but both shows seem to be that they would have been great had they only lasted a season or two and then ended. Both shows just keep staying on and it seems to be dragging on even for fans of these shows, both seemed to have some issues with reviews and fans saying the show had lost their initial spark. (BBC seems to have figured this out and they regularly have shows that only last a season and are really good i.e. Jekyll.) So anyway, I am a fan of shows like Dollhouse having a specific story arc and not meandering all over the place, so I decided to look up the show and Joss Whedon specifically to see if this had been addressed. It appears as though Joss Whedon has in mind a five year story arc, which I think might be too long, but it might work out too. So that was the first complaint from many reviewers that I noticed, that this show would become repetitive after a few episodes. The comments commonly said there is no way you can keep a show like this on for an indefinite amount of time, there are only so many ways in which you can have a person becoming a lover, assassin or other such jobs for which they would be hired. I agree with this, but I had already thought of this and the fact that Joss Whedon does seem to have some kind of timeline in mind then meant I kind of ignored these complaints.

The second complaint and really the reason I am writing this post is that people complained that the show is not "real enough." There is no way that a person's mind can be erased and then have a whole new personality imprinted on them, well no shit. But what makes you think the show has to be based in reality. Lets review the previous Joss Whedon creations: Buffy the Vampire slayer, a group of young adults who slay vampires and other monsters; Angel, a vampire private investigator who fights monsters, demons, and other vampires; Firefly, a series about space cowboys. Do you notice anything about these three series? NONE OF THEM ARE BASED IN REALITY. Joss Whedon is not creating TV that is based in reality, he is creating TV that aims to be entertaining. And who said that TV has to be realistic. Even our "reality TV" is not realistic. Survivor, how many people do you know get stranded on an island with 19 other people to compete for a million dollars? Amazing Race, how many people do you know who are involved in a race around the world for a million dollars? Hell, how many people can afford to just fly all over the world who are not having their airline tickets and other expenses paid for by a TV network? Top Chef, chefs do not generally compete for a million dollars or by having to make all kinds of different types of food, most chefs cook based upon what restaurant they are working in serve. See, reality TV is not based entirely in reality, sure all of these shows have "regular" people and not actors and it can be argued that there are no scripts, but the shows are still manipulated in many other ways. So, since when do we judge TV based upon how based in reality it is? This annoys me when people say, "Oh that TV show is not real enough. or "the things that happen in that movie could not happen in real life." Unless it is a documentary, it is not supposed to be totally real, it is entertainment. If you do not like a show or movie, fine, but judging based upon if you believe that it either can or does happen in your everyday life is beyond moronic, IMHO.

I love cover songs

2009-03-01T14:42:00.004-06:00

I have this thing for cover songs, ya know when a band covers a song from another band or individual. I have made whole CDs from just cover songs and so every once in a while I try to find new covers and Youtube has made this immensely easier. I especially love when the band doing the cover is in a whole different genre or really takes a song and by the virtue of how they play the song it gives it a whole new meaning.

This was the song that made me start to think about this post. I had a sample from the orignal version and thought how about how much I love this cover.

My Humps- covered by Alanis Morissette

And then there is this one, that I found at one pointa while ago and was able to put on a CD.

Baby, hit me one more time- covered by Travis

And this one I just found and opposed to the first two songs, I actually like the original song that this cover is based upon.

I kissed a girl- covered by Travis

YouTube Fridays

2009-02-27T21:28:00.003-06:00

So I am on a bit of a nostalgia trip here. Today I was thinking about these really bad '90s Saturday morning shows.

City Guys

California Dreams

And of course, the original that got it all started.

Saved by the bell

Blog P-I-M-P

2009-02-26T17:39:00.002-06:00

I wanted to post something here today, I am trying to write everyday at least something. So today I am doing a little blog pimpin'.

Have Camera, will be goofy by Lisa. I love reading Lisa's stuff since she was DCup and this has not changed. Plus being able to see the drive home with her and Mathman makes this post funner (funner is so a word).
Do you need a license to perform a vivisection on national TV? by Tengrain. Tengrain is one of the snarkiest and most entertaining bloggers I read and this post has Rachel Maddow in it, so that is really all I need.
Alcohol Bender: "Women" shouldn't drink? Wait a minute... by Figleaf. Figleaf is a really smart blogger. Although he would probably be considered a sex blogger, mostly he writes about gender issues and feminism and not just sex.

pumpkin-chocolate chip muffins

2009-02-24T21:22:00.003-06:00

Someone on Facebook mentioned that I was waiting for my pumpkin-chocolate chip muffins to cool and I said I would post it here. I love these muffins and am working on getting the recipe exactly the way I want it, so as I reprint the recipe here I will also add the notes I have found so far. I tried to do these in my new Kitchen Aid because I could and I wanted to play with the mixer attachment and it worked pretty well, although I found some spots on the bottom of the bowel that were jsut flour that I had to mix in with the rest of the batter. I am not sure if I didn't mix it long enough (which I was trying to be careful of so I did not overmix the muffins) or if I need to adjust the mixer so that it reaches farther into the bottom of the mixer or if muffins just should not be done in a stand mixer.

Pumpkin-Chocolate Chip Muffins

INGREDIENTS

* 3/4 cup brown sugar
* 1/4 cup vegetable oil
* 2 eggs
* 1 small can of pumpkin (the original recipe calls for only a cup of canned pumpkin, but I really like pumpkin and it didn't seem that pumpkin-y the first time so I upped the amount this time)
* 1/4 cup water
* 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour ( I used white whole wheat this time and it didn't affect the flavor or the density)
* 3/4 teaspoon baking powder
* 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
* 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
* ¾ teaspoon ground cinnamon (the original recipe calls for 1/2 teaspoons of cinnamon, but GG and I thought it needed a bit more)
* 1/4 teaspoon salt
* 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
* 1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F . Grease and flour muffin pan or use paper liners.
2. Mix sugar, oil, eggs. Add pumpkin and water. In separate bowl mix together the baking flour, baking soda, baking powder, spices and salt.. Add wet mixture and stir in chocolate chips.
3. Fill muffin cups 2/3 full with batter. Bake in preheated oven for 20 to 25 minutes.

Meat for a vegetarian

2009-02-23T19:56:00.003-06:00

As a vegetarian, there are times I want to be able to have a quick meal of burgers or hot dogs and fries. No, I do not want meat, but there are times it is nice to be able to just make a quick meal or healthier comfort food. Sure black beans and rice or lentils and rice can be comfort foods and I do like them a lot, but they are not as quick, at times as I would like. And it is nice to be able to use meat substitutes in recipes, so I tend to use veggie burgers or tofu pups or fake meat. Most of these fake meat things are just not very good, sometimes they taste weird and/or have a weird texture and sometimes they are just plain disgusting. I do eat fish, but the salmon burgers I have tasted are as bad as the veggie burgers. I do eat veggie burgers at times and they are OK, I have found I like Morningstar Farms stuff the best, but really these are only really sad imitations. When i am really lucky I am able to find restaurants who make their own veggie burgers like this place or this place. But really places that make their own veggie burgers and do not just use the same frozen patties you find in the grocery store are few and far between. But then something happens, you find a veggie meat product at the grocery store that is truly good. Well, I found one that I really like. The Trader Joe's Italian Sausage, GG and I had tried a little sample at the store a few weeks ago and thought it was pretty good, so we decided to get some and use them in a recipe. We made some of the sausage in some pasta sauce and put it over pasta. It was good, really good in fact, but the sauce was really good so maybe that was the reason they tasted so good. So, GG got the sausages again to try in Italian sausage sandwiches with some onions and peppers maybe. Well, we finally decided to have the Italian sausage, but no onions or peppers so just sausage on bread with some ketchup and mustard. MMMMMMMM...well the sausage was still really good. I was so happy and now will have to think about keeping this Italian sausage from Trader Joe's in the house for when we want a sandwich or to put in soups or in pasta etc. It seems so simple to just find a way to put good flavoring in the sausage, the herbs in Italian sausage is not exactly a secret and yet no one else has figured out how to do it, except whatever brand TJ's throws their label on.

So for those of you who are vegetarian or semi-vegetarian or who just want a lower fat alternative to regular Italian sausage try the Trader Joe's brand as a good alternative.

Interesting short film

2009-02-22T12:10:00.004-06:00

When I went to see Coraline, which was a great film by the way in case you cannot tell from the short review I did, there was a preview for a film called 9. I sat there with my jaw open and was in awe of the film, when it was over, I leaned over and told GG, "I want to see that." It is a feature length movie based upon a short film which was directed by Shane Acker. Well, now Tim Burton and Timur Bekmambetov are involved. I am sure most of you know who Burton is, but Bekmambetov is the director of Wanted and previously and much better the Night Watch/Day Watch sequence of movies. I loved the Watch series of movies and Wanted was interesting enough so I am excited to see what happens when he and Burton combine. So I looked up the short film and it is really interesting. The short film is like 10 minutes long, but if you have the time I recommend watching this film.

Kitty Sunday

2009-02-22T09:01:00.005-06:00

Although this blog is named for my dog and kind of focused on him at times. He is doing well by the way, there are two other special animals in my life, Kali and Pele. They may not often be mentioned on this blog, but today I thought I would show them.

This is the elder statesman, Pele. She is the oldest of the animals at 15 and still doing well for her age.

And here is my kitty, Kali. She is all kitten at barely over a year old.

I can't leave Logan off of this accounting of animals because he was the first of the pets that I got and he is my old dog.

Movie Review in 10 words or less

2009-02-21T17:20:00.003-06:00

Coraline. 3-D. creepy. cool. fun. not for kids.

Just a reminder

2009-02-17T18:05:00.002-06:00

Chrissie Hynde was protesting outside a McDonalds yesterday with PETA. Apparently many of the people did not recognize her, so I am here to remind you what she looked like and how much she rocked.

And now a bonus video of Hynde and Michelle Branch because I can and just to show off Hynde's amazing guitar abilities. Also to show a more updated view of Hynde.

What do you think?

2009-02-16T17:41:00.002-06:00

I firmly believe that there should be free speech for all, even those we do not agree with. I was reading this brief article about a student at a community college in Los Angeles who was berated by a professor for their stand on gay marriage. I saw the title and thought it was about a person who was pro-gay marriage, well I was wrong. The student gave a presentation about the fact that he thinks gay marriage is wrong. As you can see from my side bar, I am on the other side of him. I think that everyone has the right to get married and that there is no reason that the government should be involved in who and who cannot get married, but this student also has a right to his opinion. According to the article, the student says that midway through his speech he was cut off and called a "fascist bastard". And when the professor returned the grading rubric, rather than giving a grade he wrote "ask God what your grade is." Now maybe the student was blatantly hateful in his speech, but the article, of course, does not give us enough information to make a determination either way. So I have to go on that the professor reacted badly to the speech, by being childish by getting into a fight with a student and then refusing to give a grade. If the professor did not feel that the sources used were appropriate or that the student was being hateful or that the student was not respectful of others than there are ways to handle that, but to act childish is not one of those ways. I also hate the fact that this professor gives all liberal a bad name and just supports the whole notion that liberals are unfair to the opposition and unreasonable.

So my question is, if you are/were a college professor and a student wrote a paper or gave as speech and it was in direct opposition to your opinion on the topic, how would you handle it? The caveat I am going to add is that the student is not hateful toward you or other students, but has an opinion that may be unpopular or antithetical to your own.

YouTube Fridays

2009-02-13T18:41:00.005-06:00

This first song is dedicated to my blog older sister FranIAm.

Fiddler on the Roof- Tradition

This song is dedicated to my brother and sister-in-law who are going to see Avenue Q this weekend and to my parents who say it last weekend. This has been probably my favorite song since I first heard the soundtrack.

Avenue Q- Fine, fine line

New toy

2009-02-12T17:56:00.002-06:00

I got a new toy today. Well, I got it yesterday, but it had a scratch on it so I got a new one today. Yay!!

I have wanted a Kitchen Aid for a while and I finally found one at a good price so I snapped it up. I have one that was my Papa's and it is great, but it does not have the dough hook or the blender paddle and I was worried about trying to do bread or cookies or anything that was too viscose since all I have in the whisk. So maybe, now I can get back to making bread agin like I used to and really want to be doing.

What I learned in my teacher inservice today

2009-02-10T16:36:00.004-06:00

I had a teacher inservice today and the presenter was actually not too bad for most of the time. He was engaging, interesting and attempted to keep us awake by asking questions and encouraging us to ask him questions and then the last ten minutes of the presentation happened. He ended with some thoughts on boys. Ok so boys in education, I am a male and I know that the pendulum in education has swung toward the idea that males are not ready for schooling or some other such bullshit. Males are 1.5 years behind neurologically and so we are still developing and not ready for schooling. Anyway... so I learned other things today. All of this is either in the handout he gave us or he told this to it. He did emphasize that this is all on average and that no one single boy or girl should be used as an example. I am not making any of it up.

- Boys are not able to multitask.
- It can take up to 7 hours for a boy to process emotions, which really means that boys are not able to process emotions because hell we can't multitask so while we are supposed to be multitasking on emotions and something else of course the emotional processing gets lost.
- When trying to talk to boys about feelings, keep it short and simple.
- Boys have more cerebrospinal fluid, which is because "boys hit their heads more and like a football helmet evolution provided boys with extra cushioning."

Now I have no issues with looking at the differences between boys and girls and learning styles. There does seem to be some credible research that says that boys and girls learn differently. Boys tend to be more spatial and math oriented (although not this boy) and girls tend to be more language oriented. There is also research that suggests that boys tend to need more movement and tend to be tactile-kinesthetic learners. So ok to looking at the differences, but I draw the line at things that I see as blatantly stupid or wrong and that set back gender relations.

The whole boys cannot process emotion sounds like it was created by a man as an excuse as to why men have to be macho all of the time and can't show their emotions. Boys are not able to understand emotions so why bother with it. If they want to hit someone, don't even try talking to them about how that might make the other person feel, boys are too emotionally stupid to understand this. And if you absolutely, positively have to talk to a boy about feelings or emotions keep it simple. Don't overburden them with such girly things such as their emotions and feelings. Oh and boys can't multitask so don't bother asking them to be able to focus on more than one thing at a time. And neither the lack of the ability to multitask or the lack of the ability to understand feelings are their fault, they are made this way, so don't bother trying to fight evolution or God or whatever made them the way that they are. And evolution also provided men with more brain fluid as they are prone to banging their head on things and their brains need cushioning. WTF!?!

When I hear this shit about how boys can't learn, about how boys and men can't become emotionally aware and then bullshit like evolution provides a brain cushion for men because we like to bang our heads into things, I get annoyed. I waited several hours before I put up this post because I knew I needed to calm down a bit so that I could be at least somewhat coherent. But really people, What the Fuck?!? This whole ending on the bullshit about boys made me reconsider everything else this man said and I had to find some of the statistics that he quoted about other things. Such as the fact that apparently for every hour of Baby Einstein that a child watches they develop 6-8 less words. (If you do not know what Baby Einstein is then consider yourself lucky as I will not link to such an evil and horrible product.) I had to look up this fact and according to this article in Time magazine, this is in fact true, but really I didn't want to have to look up other facts when I got home but this fucking idiot had to make me do it when he starts talking total shit about head banging boys without providing a shred of evidence or research.

Something I never thought I would see

2009-02-09T18:07:00.003-06:00

Wonder Bread has now gone natural. Consumers have demanded that the company start to make healthier breads, so Wonder Bread responded and created a bread with no trans fats, no high fructose corn syrup and no artificial preservatives or flavors. It is truly amazing to me that this icon of unhealthy, highly processed white bread has done this 180, but I am also glad to see it happen as well. I am sure that this will not preclude the same company from making the unhealthy, highly processed breads as well, but still change is good. What's next all natural twinkies?

On a slightly different note, I love Mexican Coke. No, I am not doing illegal drugs. The Mexican Coke I am referring to is the Coca Cola that is produced in Mexico. It seems to have a cleaner taste, which I have figured out is probably because they do not use high fructose corn syrup in the drink just good ol' fashion sugar. I can find this around here pretty often since we have a large Latino(a) population. So hooray for Mexican Coke.

The Boxer Rebellion (YouTube Friday Weekend edition)

2009-02-07T19:09:00.002-06:00

I found (Mathman mentioned them at some point to me in a comment or on Facebook or somewhere and I followed up on it) this band and decided that of course I have check them out. Well, The Boxer Rebellion are really good, IMHO. I wish I could take any kind of credit for this, but since I have no musical bone in my body, I can't, but I am honored to share my name, of sorts, with them.

The Boxer Rebellion- Evacuate

The Boxer Rebellion- The Flashing Red Light Means Go (Live)

When was the last time we saw this

2009-02-04T18:04:00.002-06:00

"I screwed up" Obama says.

When was the last time our national leader admitted that he made a mistake? Oh yeah, at least eight years ago. I am not saying that Obama is perfect or that he hasn't royally fucked up considering he has nominated three different people for different cabinet positions who have had tax issues, but at least he admits that he makes mistakes and that is refreshing. Maybe there is some change going on although definitely not enough yet.

You're B.A.D.

2009-02-03T16:19:00.003-06:00

So today is Blogroll Amnesty Day. I am supposed to pick five blogs that are smaller than mine to suggest to people. Well, guess what... I don't think I could pick three that are smaller than mine. I could pick my five favorites, but y'all are my favorites so I guess I will just post my whole blogroll and if you are not reading anyone I am you should be because really I do not read that many blogs and most of you are reading each other anyway.

Yikes!
When will I use this?
That's Why
Phydeaux Speaks
Never what you thought it should be
Monkey Muck
Monkey Mouth
Mock, Paper, Scissors
Media Needle
Little Mary Sunshine
Little Bang Theory
Konagod
Goumet Goddess
FranIam
Driftglass
Darkback
Comerade Kevin
Cap'n Dyke
Brave Sir Robin
Blue Gal

Important news

2009-02-03T16:15:00.003-06:00

Traveler caught with pigeon in his pants. Is that what the kids are calling it these days?

The Kinky Llama delivers sex toys, products in a jiff. For when you have those 3 AM "cravings."

YouTube Fridays

2009-01-31T17:37:00.003-06:00

I didn't post on Friday obviously, but I have wanted to post this stuff for most of this week so I will do it today.

I have not usually watched American Idol as I find it too pop-py and annoying, but GG likes to watch it and it is a good time waster in many ways. So I have been watching the auditions this year and well "Norman Gentle" is possibly one of the funniest auditions I have ever seen. He knows he is a comedy act and as he shows toward the end he can sing when he wants to, but more importantly he zings Simon better than any contestant, I would dare say ever.

And then I had said in a question of the day earlier in the week that The Yardbirds were the best British band of all time. i know there are many arguments for the Beatles and I really like he Beatles too, but the Yardbirds just were one of these bands that I really like. I just get tired of the whole notion that the Beatles were the best band of all time ever in any universe, there are a lot of really great bands and The Yardbirds are one of the greatest, IMHO.

Is the Pope crazy or what?!

2009-01-26T17:27:00.003-06:00

The title is courtesy of my mom. She sent me this article about Pope Benedict's reinstatement of several bishops, one of which is a Holocaust denier. I don't understand the whole Holocaust denier ideology. I guess I am biased being Jewish and all, but really if there was no Holocaust, what happened to 6 million Jews and 16 million people total? Was there a mass alien abduction? Did 16 million people just disappear off the earth? Was this a world wide mass hallucination? If there was no Holocaust, was Hitler real? And if then Hitler is real, how is the Holocaust not real? Why do the survivors of the Holocaust have numbers tattooed on their arms? I had a professor who was a survivor and I saw the tattoo, was I imagining it? If the numbers are only from concentration camps, than how hard is it to make the leap to people being killed in these camps? The whole denial of the Holocaust is just beyond my grasp of understanding.

But maybe the biggest question we have to ask is, why did Pope Benedict reinstate this man specifically? As I understand from reading the article, there was a schism in the Catholic Church with several conservative bishops attempting to split off from the main Church (correct me if I understand this wrong) in the 1960s. This schism has bothered the Catholic Church leadership for the past 40 or more years as they are afraid that this schism continue to grow and weaken the Catholic Church. OK, so Pope Benedict who is much more conservative than his predecessor Pope John Paul II , was willing to forgive and forget, essentially, these priests who had created the schism and in fact wants to heal this schism, so he reinstates these four Bishops. But does he really have to reinstate all four of them to make his point? Is the point any weaker if he pardons three of them and not the Holocaust denier especially considering the shaky relationship between the Catholic Church and Jews? Pope John Paul II worked so hard to try and mend some of the wounds with so many groups including Jews and now Pope Benedict is trying to reverse all of the positive directions the Catholic Church had taken. No offense to you Fran or any other Catholic readers, but what is the point of pissing off a whole bunch of people by being a total asshat and basically taking the Catholic Church backward 50 plus years.

We have a long way to go to a gender neutral society

2009-01-24T22:01:00.007-06:00

I found this poem while looking at the magazine for the company Syracuse Cultural Workers. The original poem is by Nancy R. Smith and is below.

For Every Woman
By Nancy R. Smith, copyright 1973

For every woman who is tired of acting weak when she knows she is strong, there is a man who is tired of appearing strong when he feels vulnerable.

For every woman who is tired of acting dumb, there is a man who is burdened with the constant expectation of "knowing everything."

For every woman who is tired of being called "an emotional female," there is a man who is denied the right to weep and to be gentle.

For every woman who is called unfeminine when she competes, there is a man for whom competition is the only way to prove his masculinity.

For every woman who is tired of being a sex object, there is a man who must worry about his potency.

For every woman who feels "tied down" by her children, there is a man who is denied the full pleasures of shared parenthood.

For every woman who is denied meaningful employment or equal pay, there is a man who must bear full financial responsibility for another human being.

For every woman who was not taught the intricacies of an automobile, there is a man who was not taught the satisfactions of cooking.

For every woman who takes a step toward her own liberation, there is a man who finds the way to freedom has been made a little easier.

I am not sure there is much else I need or want to say about these two poems. The poem by Smith is still very relevant 35 years later, so much so that it is now being adapted for children. We have so much farther to go in creating a truly gender neutral society. Is this something that will ever exist? I am not sure, but I am trying to make sure that the children I work with realize that no matter what their gender they are free to express themselves however they want. Boys can wear dresses, girls can build with legos and blocks, boys can cook, girls can be good at math and science and boys should want to read. Girls should be competitive with the boys both academically and athletically and boys do not need to feel ashamed when a girl does better than them. Although a gender neutral society may never exist, I will continue to try and do my part to destroy the ideas of the traditional gender roles for those children that I teach. We need to go beyond women are weak and men are strong and recognize that we are all strong at times and we are all weak at times.

NOTE: Sorry for the weak title, but I think I used up all my creative energy writing this post and it is still early and I have not had my coffee or any type of food yet.

YouTube Fridays

2009-01-23T16:31:00.002-06:00

This YouTube Friday is brought to you by the black hat teens I saw on the commuter rail today.

Matisyahu- Chop'em down

Matisyahu- King without a crown

We have a new President

2009-01-20T17:31:00.003-06:00

Yes I know y'all know this already, but still I am saying it. Yay Bush is gone and Obama is now officially the President. And wow there were no riots as were predicted by the Conservatives. They were sure that all those liberals know how to do is riot, but it seemed to be pretty peaceful. Although GG does say that they may have been a scuffle at a porta potty, one can never be sure about that.

6 things about me meme

2009-01-19T14:00:00.003-06:00

I have been tagged by Little Mary Sunshine and since I usually do the meme, I will do it here, but I will not tag anyone, if you want to do it, go ahead.

The rules are simple. I'm going to share 6 things about me that you probably don't know. ~~Then I'm going to call out a few of my favorite blog buddies and ask them to do the same.~~

1. I think when I was younger I was more extroverted than I am now. I find myself more introverted and needing time alone to recharge before I have to interact with other people especially larger groups of people.

2. I get people claustrophobic at times. I can't stand being in a bar, restaurant, store or anywhere that I am supposed to be able to move around and not be able to do so. I feel as though the people are getting closer and closer to me and I start to kind of freak out where I need more of my own space. Oddly enough I can be in the metro in DC when I lived there for a summer or in the L here in Chicago during rush hour where you are stuck like sardines in a can and it doesn't bother me at all.

3. I really like to drive in the car and have the music up loud and just sing along. I can't sing worth a damn, but I like to do it anyway. I also will sing in the grocery store to, but much quieter.

4. I can't stand dancing. I think it goes with the whole people claustrophobic thing as places where you dance tend to be crowded. And I have little rhythm and it just bothers me to dance.

5. I have no interest in ever visiting anywhere on the continent of Europe. I could maybe visit Ireland or the Greek Isles, but on the actual land mass there is no where that I really want to visit.

6. When I was a junior in high school, I went through a phase where I was a libertarian. I had an AP American History teacher, that was a Libertarian and the ideas seemed to make sense to me at the time. My parents were understanding enough and did not even attempt to kick me out of the house, although I am sure it drove them crazy. I have grown out of this phase and am now just your usual radical liberal.

Being a vegetarian is hard

2009-01-18T00:41:00.005-06:00

I have kind of been thinking about this post for a while, but then tonight at a gathering that GG and I went to it kind of came to a head. Last week GG and I were out and about and we stopped at a Trader Joe's mainly so I could go to the bathroom, but we figured we would pick up some cheese while we were there. I picked up some Cowchego (Manchego made from cow's milk) and I picked up another type of cheese, but in looking at the ingredients I noticed that it had annimal rennet in it so I put it back down again. GG asked my why I had put it away and I said because of the rennet, and I said that if I was going to be a vegetarian I might as well "do it right." Now the rennet is not that big of a deal, but really if I am picking out cheese and I think about it I might prefer the non-animal rennet to the animal rennet just because the idea of animal rennet is mildly repulsive to me, but I am not going to look at every package of cheese to see what the rennet source is and I am not going to stop eating cheese because of the animal rennet and I am not going to not get cheese in a restaurant because I don't know the source of the rennet for the cheese. This is more of a, I am going to try, but not a big deal versus that whole not eating pork, beef or poultry at all thing I am doing. So tonight we were at a gathering and one of the women was discussing how she was a vegetarian and ate dairy, but had issues with eggs. She had stopped eating them for a while and then her husband had started making eggs in the morning for breakfast and she was fine with that, but then she had to separate an egg recently and that threw her off of eggs again. GG was mentioning how it can be hard to be a vegetarian and there need to be limits at times on how strict you can be unless you want to be a vegan, I guess. She mentioned the whole animal rennet versus vegetable rennet in cheese thing as this women is eating a veggie cheese burger and she just kind of was like, huh, what? I also have a coworker who is a vegetarian and thinks she is being really good if she gets a cheese sandwich at McDonalds as there is no meat, but then she get french fries, which at McDonalds are soaked in beef tallow to add flavoring.

I know many people have a variety of reasons for choosing to be a vegetarian, for me it is just about factory farming and corporate slaughter houses and for some it is about health and for some it is about not wanting to kill another animal. The woman tonight seemed to be a vegetarian because she had issues with the killing of animals, which is all well and good, but then maybe she should not be eating cheese either, at least not out. It does amaze me at times how many things you would think are just naturally vegetarian and aren't. It also surprises me when people that I would think would think about and maybe research their decision to become a vegetarian, but don't. It is so trendy now to be a vegetarian and yet it is almost easier in some ways to be a vegan. You know you will not eat, eggs, honey or dairy in any form. This seems to get rid of the whole cheese issue, but not really the McDonald's issue, but that was big news for a while and if you are not aware of the whole beef in the french fries thing, it is not my place to tell you. We all have out reasons for being a vegetarian, but does the trendiness of the decision overcome people's being informed about their decisions?

YouTube Fridays

2009-01-16T15:16:00.003-06:00

I was not sure what I wanted to do this week for YouTube Fridays and GG suggested Pinky and the Brain. I love Pinky and the Brain and I thought this was a great idea.

Here is the video that GG suggested, the parts of the brain. This is great if you are becoming a doctor or need to know all of the parts of the brain for some reason.

This is a video of Pinky and the Brain in Oz, again very funny.

Baby, it's cold out

2009-01-16T08:10:00.002-06:00

I realized this morning that I can't tell the difference between -16 degrees outside like it is today and -2 degrees outside like it was when we went out yesterday. They both just feel fucking cold.

I wonder things

2009-01-12T16:29:00.003-06:00

When I woke up at 1 AM last night and was trying to get back to sleep, I started to think about this article that the Obamas have decided that they are getting a Labradoodle or a Portuguese Water Dog when they get to the White House. The article goes on to say that now the hunt begins in the animal shelters of the D.C. area. Well I can save them some time and tell them that according to petfinder.com, there are no Portuguese Water Dogs closer than Georgia. I could not find a Labradoodle in the search on Petfinder so maybe there is one that is closer than the Water Dog, I do not know. I can't help, but think that it is going to be damn near impossible to find these types of dogs in a shelter or they have already found these animals that is why they are being so specific. If they truly are still looking, maybe they should try the rescue groups for these animals as neither of these types of dogs are ordinary enough that you will just find one at a shelter. Then I started to wonder how the search for a dog at a shelter would go for the Obamas. Is it just Michelle and the girls or does the whole family go out to a shelter and look at a dog? What are the security concerns with the Obamas showing up at a shelter even if they have scheduled an appointment with the shelter? Most of the shelters I have been in like the potential owners to fill out some paperwork essentially saying they are fit animal adopters and like the potential owners to spend some time with the animal to make sure it works out well for the animal and for the humans, is this bent for the president of the US? Will the shelter bring the animal to the White House instead of the Obamas having to go to the shelter? Does one of the staff members for the White House or the Obamas have to spend time calling the shelters of the area to find a suitable dog? And finally who cleans up after the dog, especially if they have an accident inside? I would assume there is a gardener and other landscaping staff who may have to clean-up the dog excrement outside, but inside does the maid have to clean it up? Would the Obamas be willing to clean it up themselves or is that too dirty a job for them?

This led me to thinking about other things as related to children in the White House. The Obamas have said that they want their children to have as normal a life as they can and I seem to remember the Clintons saying the same thing for Chelsea, but really how normal can the children's lives be? Malia is 10 and Sasha is 7 which means they are old enough to want to have friends and to be able to socialize with their friends. Those are still the ages where there are birthday parties to be attended or hosted, can the girls have a birthday party with their friends or more importantly can they attend the birthday party of a friend? I remember an article a while back that discussed, I believe, both Malia and Sasha were involved in a children's theater group here in Chicago. Can they get involved in extracurricular activities? I would like to say they should be able to have a relatively normal childhood to an extent, but do the security concerns outweigh the children's social lives? And if Barak Obama is able to stay in the White House of 8 years, that means they will be 18 and 15. This is when kids really want to be able to express some independence and friends become as important or more important than parents. They may want to date or hang out with friends, can they do this? Is it a bummer to be on a date with one of the girls and have a Secret Service agent right there as an additional chaperon? Then I started to wonder about the Secret Service agents, what are there jobs as related to the children? I know they are there as security and to keep them safe, but there seemed to have been a famous incident where at least Jenna Bush and maybe her sister were caught drinking underage in college. Were the Secret Service there? Do they not have to act as law enforcement officials and stop the underage drinking? And even if their job is not to actually arrest the children or even to interfere in their lives, if the job of the Secret Service is to keep the children safe, is underage drinking safe? Shouldn't the Secret Service step in at some point, maybe before the local police show up to say hey, stop drinking. I am not condemning underage drinking, hell I did it myself and it seems at this point it is a part of the college experience right or wrong, but how does the presence of the Secret Service affect this?

At this point I fell asleep, but this is what my mind wanders to when I am trying to fall asleep.

Return to Hundred Acres Woods

2009-01-11T11:45:00.003-06:00

For those of you who have children or if you remember your childhood well, you may remember that the Hundred Acre Woods is where Winnie the Pooh and his friends lived. Well, it has been eighty years since A.A. Milne first introduced the world to a bear of little brain and who loved honey in Winnie the Pooh. He followed up this book with The House at Pooh Corner, now there there will be a third book about Pooh, Tigger, Piglet, Owl, Rabbit, Roo, Kanga, Eyeore and Christopher Robin. It is being written by David Benedictus since A.A. Milne and the illustrator for the stories E. H. Shepard have both passed away. This book is the first book that has been approved by the Mile and the Shepard estates for publication since the first two books.

I am mildly excited by this new book. I have always really liked Winnie the Pooh and kind of think of my self as Pooh like. I have a bit of fluff and I am a bear of little brain sometimes. I am not going to get this book the first day or week or maybe month it is out or at least not rush out to go get it, but I will get it at some point. Although, it is supposed to come out in October and that is my natal month and it would make a good birthday present for me, just sayin'. There is more about the new book and a brief introduction by the author to the new book in this article. I will leave you with the Loggins and Messina song, House at Pooh Corner.

YouTube Fridays

2009-01-09T16:31:00.003-06:00

I felt like I needed some stand-up for this YouTube Friday. First, the ice cream bit from Eddie Murphy.

Second, the dork fish bit from Bill Engvall.

Lack of blogging

2009-01-08T22:11:00.002-06:00

It seems I have been missing out on my opportunities to blog this week, in other there has been a lack of blogging on this here blog. I apologize about that. It has been a tough week, getting back into the flow of having to go to work again after having two weeks off for the winter solstice. I also seem to be braking things lately, the couch, but this is still sit upon-able and a large nonstick soup pot, which is not usable anymore. These things have put me in a rotten mood and I just have not felt like blogging lately. I will return very soon. Thank you.

My pet peeves

2009-01-05T16:42:00.004-06:00

I have been thinking about this post for a while and didn't really want to post it as seems a bit whiny I guess, but I really need to just get this off my chest so that I can maybe start to move on or at least not think about it as a blog post. My first pet peeve is whiny people, hence why I didn't want to post this I do not want to sound whiny myself. There is this one person at work in particular who always seems to be whining about something. She whines because the kids in the classroom are not perfect angels and just sit and listen to the teacher. Well I hate to tell you sweetheart, but you work in a special education classroom, those children are in there for a reason. I know that she is a teacher's assistant and she did not exactly get to choose the room she is working in, but you are in there for this whole year, maybe you can work on getting moved to another classroom for next year, but the constant griping that the kids do not sit and are active i not going to change things. If you want things to change, than work with the teacher or better yet learn yourself, how to access these children at the level they are at and then find ways to help them to have better control over their bodies so they are not running around. Then she whines about the weather, it is too cold, it is too windy and worst there is snow on the ground. She hates to drive in the snow and in most cases refuses to do it and tells everyone over and over and over that if it snows on a particular day, she is calling in sick because she is not going to drive in snow. Well, guess what, no one likes to drive in the snow and yes it is damn cold outside and yes it is windy at times, but YOU LIVE IN FUCKING CHICAGOLAND, it is cold in the winter and it snows, get over yourself. If you want no snow and warm weather move to Florida, California or better yet the tropics. It is going to snow here so learn to deal with driving in it or not, but don't tell me every 3 minutes you are not coming tomorrow because there might be some snow on the ground. I do not care.

Second, it is a pet peeve when people use inexact language. As Horton said in Horton Hears a Who by Dr. Seuss, " I meant what I said, and I said what I meant." It drives me nuts when people say something and then when I try to get a clarification, they say ohh that is not what I meant. I know this drives GG crazy, she says I am being too literal. I do not try to be literal, but language is power and so when you say something you need to say what you mean and mean what you say. A great example of this, for me, over the holidays I was visiting with my parents and my mom was talking about the increase in the Latino population in the town that I grew up in. She was mentioning that there are a lot of little restaurants in the downtown area. So I asked if they were taquerias, little taco restaurants, that are really popular around us and in other highly Latino areas. Because if they were, I was excited and really wanted to try one. I love little taquerias, although they can be hard if you do not eat meat, but the whole little family restaurants are always really cool to me. So then she got annoyed at me as I was asking a lot of questions, something else I do that I know drives people nuts at times, and she went on to say that they were little grocery stores, what I would term a bodega. Well this is a whole different thing, a grocery store is different than a restaurant (sorry mom for using you for this). The other inexact wording that consistently annoys me are the signs in grocery stores that say things like Oriental food or Latin food. It is Asian Food and well, I am not sure exactly what the term for the foods of Latin America, maybe Latin American food, but not Latin food. Latin is a language and the area that the Latin language originates is Italy and that is not really tortillas, tortas or Mexican sweets. It is just that I try to use words exactly for the concept or idea that I am trying to convey and so when others use words or language inexactly, it bothers me. Most of the time I can get over it, but occasionally I just need others to be more exact. I am working on the whole not being as literal thing, as GG calls it, but language has power and correct language has more power and conveys your idea better than inexact language.

Thank you for letting me vent.

2008: A year of changes

2009-01-03T08:26:00.004-06:00

This past year, 2008, has been a year of changes for me. Although every year seems to bring new challenges and changes, this year brought some of the most major changes yet. I moved half way across the United States, for a girl no less. I moved in with someone I had only met in person one time when she came down to move me to her house. I went through three jobs. I have seen my dog grow much older in this year. I now live with two cats, one of which GG and I picked out together as a kind of joint pet. And I turned thirty this year.

All of these changes have been good and obviously many of the are tied to one person, GG. She and I started to talk for who knows what reason. She just struck my fancy, first on Shakesville and then on her own blog. And it was probably about this time in 2008 that we started talking about me coming up to visit her in the Chicago area. So in March I did visit her and after a bit of a shy start for both of us, we warmed up and got more comfortable with each other and started to have fun. It didn't take much longer for us to decide that we should move in together and since she had a house where I only had an apartment and she had the more stable and much better paying job, I should move here to Chicago. This was massive and the whole move and getting ready for the move took over my life for a while. And then getting a job here and finding a bit of a routine for me and for us then took some time, but after 6 months together and I have a good job that I am happy in, I think we have found that sort of rhythm to our daily lives.

In 2009, I don't want as many changes, I don't think. Change can be hard for me and moving half way across the country and moving in with someone after not living with anyone for 5 years was a tough adjustment, so a year of non-massive changes would be nice, thank you very much. But there are things I want to change for 2009. I want to get back to blogging more again. When I moved I got so out of my routine that it has been a struggle to get back into blogging, but I want to blog with more frequency again. But the big change I want to make is that I want to finally work my way to becoming a pescatarian, a fish vegetarian. I have working on becoming a vegetarian it seems my entire adult life since I was 18 and maybe a bit younger. I have been doing this in stages, first not eating red meat and pork, then chicken, or at least that was the plan. I did well with the no red meat and no pork, although I did backslide on pork somewhat where I did eat bacon occasionally. But I have not been able to stop eating chicken at least not entirely, I will go a few weeks without chicken and then I will eat some for a few days and then not and so forth. But since I have moved here and GG is so supportive of my dietary ideals, I have been doing a much better job of not eating chicken at home, but I still eat it out sometimes. I want to just finally stop eating chicken at all. I know I cannot give up fish and seafood, I like it too much, but if I can finally be able to say I am a fish vegetarian and it be totally true, I would be more satisfied with my self. I tell people I am a pescatarian already, but since I still eat chicken this is not entirely true. And then when I eat chicken around people who I have said that I only eat fish, I feel like I have lied or deceived them and myself. So this year will be the year of giving up chicken, well it shouldn't take the year, I have no intentions of doing this slowly, I will no longer eat chicken or any fowl.

So to everyone out there who reads this post and even to those who have not read this post, Happy New Year.

YouTube Fridays

2009-01-02T15:57:00.003-06:00

This is the Eddie Izzard edition of YouTube Fridays, except all of of the bits I am posting are him speaking and the action done in legos. The legos add tremendously to an already funny comedian.

The difference between U.S. and British movies

The Death Star Cantina

Anyone hungry?

2008-12-25T09:10:00.000-06:00

I know I posted this last year for Christmas, but it is one of the funniest SNL skits evah.

Since GG and I heard this when we went out for supplies yesterday, I now have to post this.

Merry Christmas to those of you who are celebrating it and to those who aren't have a great day!!

Can I just say...

2008-12-24T13:58:00.002-06:00

Indiana sucks. I don't mean to offend those of you who are form the Hoosier state, but really your state sucks. GG and I traveled east yesterday to PA to see my parents for the holidays and Indiana was the only state that couldn't be bothered to salt or plow the state roads. We were on the Indiana turnpike and it was just plain dangerous to drive on it. The roads were slick and you could not get any traction most of the time. We saw at least nine accidents where people were stuck in ditches because they had slid off the road. GG and I both did a little prayer when we got into Ohio and neither of us pray often, but we were glad to leave Indiana behind. Unfortunately, we have to drive back through Indiana to get back to Illinois on Saturday, but all we can do is try and be safe, but get through Indiana as fast as possible.

Ohio has the nicest service areas I have ever seen. Nice new buildings, we even found a Panera Bread in one station which meant we did not have to eat your standard roadside fast food.

Pennsylvania needs to have service station more often. We went over 50 miles without seeing one service station which means, of course, that when we needed to fill up on gas we had to get off the turnpike, pay the toll, get gas, than get back on the toll road to keep going east. I know it is mountainous and such, but really a small service station is not too much to ask and maybe a sign saying the fact that when we saw a service station that it would be 60 miles before we could see another one, we would have stopped and gotten gas at the one service station we saw, although that was earlier than we needed too if we had known there wouldn't be another one for so long.

Fuck you Pope Benedict

2008-12-22T19:05:00.004-06:00

That is all I have to say about his proclamations that there is a "gay threat". He says that saving humanity from homosexuality is just as important as saving the rainforest.

FUCK YOU POPE BENEDICT!!!!!!!

I know not all Catholics are homophobes, in fact I am sure many American Catholics are good people, but when the head of your church is so homophobic and bigoted, it is hard to get past that. This is not a good representation of your faith and IMHO faith in general. This is what leads to violence against homosexuals and against all people. Catholics need to stand up and tell their Pope that these proclamations are not acceptable and are not representative of their own views.

Happy Hanukkah!!

2008-12-21T15:14:00.006-06:00

But when they saw the army coming to meet them, they said unto Judah: 'What? shall we be able, being a small company, to fight against so great and strong a multitude? ...' And Judah said: 'It is an easy thing for many to be shut up in the hands of a few, and there is no difference in the sight of Heaven to save by many or by few; for victory in battle standeth not in the multitude of an host, but strength is from Heaven. They come unto us in fullness of insolence and lawlessness, to destroy us and our wives and our children, for to spoil us; but we fight for our lives and our laws. And He Himself will discomfort them before our face; but as for you, be yet not afraid of them." (The First Book of Maccabees)

Tonight is the first night of Hanukkah as many of you are aware of and some of you may be aware that Hanukkah is not a major holiday within Judaism or at least wasn't until the Jews started to assimilate and the little Jewish children saw their goy friends getting gifts for Christmas and they wanted to get into the action. So Hanukkah was born as a highly celebrated holiday within Judaism, it went from a minor holiday to what is considered a favorite if you ask any Jewish child. And with this honor of becoming a favored holiday and a holiday that is celebrated we had to create a story, a reason why it is worthy of celebration. As Jews we learn that the Maccabees defeated the Greco-Syrians and that the miracle of Hanukkah is that the oil in the Holy Temple which was only supposed to last for one day lasted for eight nights, but is this really a miracle? I grew up and for many years thought about the miracle as the oil and as I got older, the whole idea of religious freedom is added into the mix. The discussions become about how important religious freedom is as Jews who have been persecuted for our religion. Into middle and high school the discussion around Hanukkah still emphasized the oil as a miracle and religious freedom as the lessons we should learn from Hanukkah. Then in my freshman year of college a new lesson was proposed by a rabbi whose house I was at for a meal, the miracle is not the oil, the oil could have easily lasted for eight days, it is the defeat of a huge Greco-Syrian army by the small army of the Jews. It is the overthrow of a theocracy by a small band of rebels. I still think about that every Hanukkah, I think about how a small group can change the world.

I am really struggling to focus on this post so I will end it here and hope that maybe someone, somewhere will get something out of this post. I have been thinking about this post for a while, but today I just can't get it together. I had this whole paragraph likening the gay rights movement to the Maccabbees, but it just didn't work for me so it is gone now. Anyway, so I will leave you with a great modern adaptation of the Dreidel song to help you celebrate Hannukah.

h/t FranIAm

And in the Winter concert that we did at the public school preschool I work at, we did sing the Dreidel song, but it was not nearly as cool as this version.

YouTube Fridays

2008-12-19T18:33:00.002-06:00

This is the Neil Patrick Harris edition apparently. I have seen this Sesame Street clip before, but I really like and wanted to share with y'all.

I really like Les Miserables and I just found this clip of Neil Patrick Harris and Jason Segel from How I Met You Mother singing one of the songs from Les Mis and am mildly enthralled, I hope you enjoy this at least somewhat.

Snow Day!!

2008-12-19T11:11:00.002-06:00

We have no school today. It is a snow day. Yay, so my winter break starts a day early. No school for the next two weeks. I can now finally get over this cold that I have been fighting for a few weeks, But first we have some plowing to do. I hope everyone has a great day.

What do you expect?

2008-12-16T19:56:00.004-06:00

So as many of you may realize I now live in Chicagoland where it is fucking cold as hell, I keep waking up to 7 degrees on the thermometer, and I moved from NC where it never get this cold, well at least not this early in winter. But that is not what this post is about, it is about the fact that I since I live in Chicagoland we have to continuous coverage of the whole Blagojevich scandal. And I know that this is big news, a sitting governor being indicted on corruption charges and I know that he is an asshat, but really do the local news need to have someone stationed outside his house every morning just waiting for him to go to work. I am sure that every media outlet has someone around in case there is big news, but really do we need to see this reporter come on and say things like, "Blagojevich has not gone to work yet." "He is still at home." "He just waved hi to the reporters." What the hell do you expect him to say, "Hi, I suck. I tried to sell Senate seats and am a corrupt asshat." How about we just not show the reporter every ten minutes unless something really happens, not the man goes to work. What the fuck do you think he is going to do, sit at home and cry? He claims he is innocent, which is probably a lie, but still he is still the governor and hence he has to govern. So to the local Chicago news find more worthy new stories than stationed one person to do nothing but freeze their ass off waiting for a man to go to work.

Movie Review- Four Christmases

2008-12-15T17:50:00.002-06:00

Four Christmases is a movie about a couple, Reese Witherspoon and Vince Vaughn, who intend to go to Fiji for Christmas and avoid their families. They lie to their respective parents, but are caught in their lie when their airplane is not able to take off due to weather. They are interviewed by the local news and hence are found out by their parents that they lied about their Christmas plans. They then have to visit the parents, her mom, her dad, his mom and his dad. Hilarity ensues. Ok so it might not have been hilarious, but it was funny and there were some hilarious bits. Witherspoon and Vaughn actually do seem to have some chemistry. Their acting styles, or at least as I see it, were reflected well in their characters. Vaughn is a bit of an obnoxious goof where Witherspoon is a bit more subtle and mature in her character. They are surrounded by several great supporting actors in Robert Duvall, Sissy Spacek, Jon Voigt, and Mary Steenburgen as the parents and Jon Favreau as one of the brothers of Vince Vaughn's character. I also have to add that the other brother of Vaughn's character and the love interest of Reese Witherspoon's character as two country music stars who I would have never guessed were in the film. They were so well made up and looked so unlike themselves that I didn't even know they were in the film and was surprised when I just saw that they played the parts they did. Overall, this is a dumb, but enjoyable movie. GG and I recognized elements of our own families in each of the scenarios and I would venture that most other people would recognize either themselves, their family or people they know as well in each of the families.

Do the right thing- Fuck you Huckabee

2008-12-10T17:21:00.004-06:00

I just want to post this clip from Jon Stewart's interview with Huckabee about gay marriage. As usual Stewart was well spoken and got his point across that anti-gay measures are bigoted and mean-spirited. And as usual Huckabee was bigoted and mean-spirited and used the same tired lines about gay marriage redefining marriage taking away from the idea of one man and one woman. But it is a great interview and reason number (oh whatever number it is) that I really like Jon Stewart.

The Daily Show With Jon StewartM - Th 11p / 10c

Mike Huckabee Pt. 2

Barack Obama Interview
John McCain Interview

Sarah Palin Video
Funny Election Video