I'M HOOKED AGAIN

SIGH... YOU ALL KNOW ABOUT MY OBSESSION WITH TELEVISION REALITY DANCING. I LIKE "SO YOU THINK YOU CAN DANCE" BETTER THAN "DANCING WITH THE STARTS". DWTS IS KIND OF CORNY, SO I WASN'T GOING TO WATCH. BUT I GOT SUCKED IN ON MONDAY NIGHT WATCHING SOME PRETTY FUNNY STUFF. AND THEN TUESDAY MACY GRAY DANCED, AND, WELL, IF YOU LOVE MACY, YOU'LL ENJOY HER "OOPS" MOMENT WHEN SHE COMPARES DANCING TO LOSING HER VIRGINITY, BELOW:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zu_4wAZtnnA

My odds on favorite to win is one of the most corny people on reality TV. He appears as the cheesy martial arts master on "Iron Chef". I absolutely love him. In real life, he's the good looking, good dancing Mark Dacascos.

Caricature of Mark with the Iron Chefs (the Food Network)














Mark, dancing with Lacey Schwimmer




My "fandom" is downright embarrassing. Someone save me from myself !!!

I love this chick.

She got fed up with what is happening to many of us. No change in payment, no late payments, no overlimits... and B of A raised her interest rate to 30%.....after 14 years of being a customer.

Post Script... they called her and offered 16.99%. She said no deal, and got 12.99%.

The banks are villainous.

After reading Debby's post...

I really had an ache to write something that felt like I put a piece of my heart in it.. with the exception of some poetry (one that I wasted on Pearlsoup and one that I ...blush.. can't publish here) I have been newsy, chatty, politic-ie and cynical lately in my writings here. Enough.

Words from my heart.....

And I don't feel that way today, or for the last few days. I have spent some time telling someone dear to me something I never thought I would be saying. Something I needed to put out there (like the counselor said) and to not be wounded by it, or despair of it, or blame myself. Whole pages in history pale before the things that are left unsaid, the risks that are not taken, the fear that what you want the most may be jeopardized by something that is out of your control. Many great fiction novels (and perhaps autobiographies!) have turned on the twist of a plot, where something that needed to be said was never said.

I have made my speech, I have regretted the timing, the manner, some of the words...but I have thrown off the yoke of speechlessness, rolled the dice. It feels, somehow, cleansing.

You can fool yourself into madness, imagining what someone else is thinking, worrying it like a bone, preparing the "most likely 3 outcomes"...figuring how you are going to protect yourself from each outcome. Or, you can cast it all on the fire, trust your own spirit, do what is right and honest, and hope for the best. So, I do.

StraighterLine

With thanks to Andrew Sullivan, who pointed me to this article by Kevin Carey. It points to a future where the existing structure of college education, with its hefty pricetag, will crumble, as have the newspapers, in the face of technology.

To pique your interest:

Which means the day is coming—sooner than many people think—when a great deal of money is going to abruptly melt out of the higher education system, just as it has in scores of other industries that traffic in information that is now far cheaper and more easily accessible than it has ever been before. Much of that money will end up in the pockets of students in the form of lower prices, a boon and a necessity in a time when higher education is the key to prosperity. Colleges will specialize where they have comparative advantage, rather than trying to be all things to all people. A lot of silly, too-expensive things—vainglorious building projects, money-sucking sports programs, tenured professors who contribute little in the way of teaching or research—will fade from memory, and won’t be missed.

Read the whole thing here:

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/college_guide/feature/college_for_99_a_month.php

Happy Birthday, Luke!

Jennifer works for me, but in a city other than Tampa... her first baby was due in late November. About the same time they found out that Luke was a boy, they learned that Jen might have complications from pre-eclampsia. She began to see a specialist every other week, and continued when her regular OB quit (!) and closed his practice about 4 weeks ago. This week, she planned to interview two OB's to take her through the rest of her pregnancy.

It was not to be... on Monday, the specialsist told Jennifer her blood pressure was dangerous and immediately admitted her to a hospital (not the one she'd chosen, but the closest). Tests also found protein in her uterus. It was touch and go all week, with Jen hoping that she could get past the 30 week milestone next week, or conceivably spending 6 weeks in the hospital and trying to get past the 35 week milestone. With her cellphone and laptop, and help from her mom, I was able to stay in touch 2-3 times a day.

I was planning to call today when I got this text:

Luke was born this morning

at 9:26. He was 2.78#, 14.5 inches

long. We are both doing well

and recovering.

Please say a prayer for the health and improvement of little Luke, resting peacefully and still fighting in a hospital in Plano, TX.

YOUR AGE BY CHOCOLATE MATH:

This is pretty neat.

DON'T CHEAT BY SCROLLING DOWN FIRST!

It takes less than a minute . Work this out as you read .

Be sure you don't read the bottom until you've worked it out!

This is not one of those waste of time things, it's fun.

1. First of all, pick the number

of times a week that you would like to have chocolate

(more than once but less than 10)

2. Multiply this number by 2 (just to be bold)

3. Add 5

4. Multiply it by 50 -- I'll wait while you get the calculator

5. If you have already had your birthday this year add 1759 ..

If you haven't, add 1758.

6. Now subtract the four digit year that you were born.

You should have a three digit number

The first digit of this was your original number

(i.e., how many times you want to have chocolate each week).

The next two numbers are

YOUR AGE!

THIS IS THE ONLY YEAR (2009)

IT WILL EVER WORK,

SO SPREAD IT AROUND WHILE IT LASTS.

Eight years ago

Eight years ago, Vivian was trying hard to take calls but she couldn't concentrate. Her brother was a supervisor in one of the mailrooms in the south tower of the World Trade center. It took me awhile to clear it for her, but we managed to send her home to try and connect with her family in NY... at 11 a.m. Her brother, amazingly enough, had had jury duty in Brooklyn that morning and was out of harms way.

Eight years ago, my friend Fred was doing what he does, taking care of people, when he and another man formed a "hand chair" to carry a woman down 7 flights in the north tower and get her out safely. He received a commendation from Giuliani.

Eight years ago, my friend Grace fretted when she heard her husband's company was going south into the city to aid with the recovery near the WTC. She didn't hear from him for 18 hours. In all the work and confusion, he was treated for smoke inhalation in a midtown hospital, separated from the rest of his company. The hospital tried to reach her in the first four hours after his arrival, but all the circuits were busy and they couldn't get through. Her relief when he was able to reach her was palpable.

All three of my WTC "connections" lived. I was one of the lucky ones. To this day, whenever the anniversary arrives, I need some time by myself to think about how much of an impact that day had on me, on all of us. I have never quite had the same amount of trust in mankind.


Why do we pull the memory of 9/11 out of a box once a year, as a nation, and run our fingers over it? Not to advance the story. Not to deepen our understanding. But to keep the memory accessible. To make sure we know where it is. To remember where we were that day. To trigger little details that might be lost forever if we don’t touch them again this year.

~Ryan Sager

Frat Boy

He's 7 years older than me, but he didn't act like it tonight. The one on the left. Congressman Joe Wilson from the great state of South Carolina. As if the gov hasn't made SC a laughingstock of the political world, Wilson could not contain his little boy exuberance this evening, at a JOINT SESSION OF CONGRESS... as President Barack Obama emphatically denied that the healthcare reform bill will not cover illegal aliens, Massa Joe decided to enunciate loudly in the chamber ... "You Lie!".

Suffice it to say that I wouldn't have been a fan of this behavior if Joe had chosen the expression to give a shoutout to the Prez he is featured above with, when the man proclaimed that Saddam had WMD, or that we were not torturing our illegally held captives.

Because the behavior is downright juvenile. Like much of the activities surrounding healthcare reform. Dammit, these people we elect need to listen to the population of this United States when we say we must have health care reform. And then they need to roll up their damn sleeves and see if they can't make a contribution to make reform legislation a reality, all the while they are getting their own health seen to by a governmental health plan that Wilson and all of his colleagues from both parties enjoy by virtue of their positions in Congress. A great plan (run by the government) that has covered Wilson and his family since 2001.

He was elected to Congress in a special election in 2001 following the death of Congressman Spence. He won with 73% of the vote.

In 2002, he was re-elected with 84% of the vote.

In 2004, he won again with 65% of the vote.

In 2006 - it was 62.7%.

In 2008, his margin narrowed to 54%.

Let's hope the good people of South Carolina take him to task for his juvenile behavior and try not to let the door slam him in the ass when he leaves office in 2010.

Outrageous.

I'm always introspective

On these long weekends.

I find myself taking stock, looking back, looking forward.

I wrote about it in a poem for Pearlsoup.

Here:

http://www.pearlsoup.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=pearls.view&pearlID=20781

painting by Sheila Vaughn