This is the night, the first time it's totally pitch black at 5:30 pm, a weekend, and cool enough to try out the chiminea. I bought fireplace logs, cut one into quarters, spread the layer of white rocks into the bottom of the fireplace, and struck the match.
Ah.
Mia and I sat outside, listening to the neighborhood noises, watching the planes coming into and leaving the airport, sipping on my cup of coffee, and hearing the sirens suddenly appear on MY street!
First, several police cars punched it at the corner and went full throttle down the street. I didn't hear them stop anywhere on the street or at the intersection down the road. Then, a huge fire truck came lumbering down the road, lights and sirens ablaze, followed by an ambulance.
My first thought was crap, I'm going to get busted for having my tiny little fire in the chiminea in my backyard. I waited for the fire fighters to rush up the driveway, hoses in hand, but they stayed 2 doors down the street for 20 minutes or so before departing.
I'm hoping it was just a coincidence that the first time I have a fire in my chiminea the fire trucks show up as I really enjoyed sitting outside in front of my fire for the first time: I don't want it to be the last!
Saturday, November 8, 2008
Wednesday, November 5, 2008
Dead Motherboard
My son recently wrote a blog about his dead motherboard (I actually have no idea what that is, other than the fact that it pretty much controls a computer), but I have co-opted that little phrase to sum up my life in recent weeks.
I often chide students about their tendency to write what I call "shotgun essays," a poorly organized, poorly developed, scattered melange of content that is completely pointless. However, I have to respond to these essays, provide feedback to the drafts, and assign a grade to them, which is pretty much a waste of my time, talent, and training. After once again demonstrating the required outline that is to be completed before writing the essay, and receiving feedback during class that they don't need to use an outline, they just write, I'm done. Only final drafts of essays will be accepted through the end of the semester, rather than an endless stream of "drafts" they want me to "fix" for them so they can get a "good grade." That process is now a dead motherboard: deal with it.
The attendance issues with a couple of community college clientele were challenging, to put it mildly. Young people feel empowered to bully their way into making the adults in charge do it their way, not the right way. I did violate my own ethics and college policy by working with the students in an effort to meet their attendance needs, but the old I gave an inch and the student ran a marathon applies here. The end result is that my syllabus will now clearly state that upon the 3rd absence from class, the student WILL be dropped. It will apply equally to all students in all situations, and someone else will have to hear their pleas and deal with them because this issue is now a dead motherboard.
A person I have called "friend" for a decade recently assured me that I am the "most intolerant person" she knows, a comment that has rankled for a couple of weeks. The comment results from her asking me what I felt about Prop 8, the CA proposition restricting marriage to a male/female couple. She is gay, as are many of the people with whom I associate in one of the Gay meccas in SoCal, so I told her that I'd rather not have that conversation. She is gratingly persistent, so I finally said, "Okay," which I perhaps should not have done. She's entitled to her opinion, but I am only entitled to share her opinion: doesn't work for me. Dead motherboard.
Finally, here come the holidays, my least favorite season of the year. I used to love Thanksgiving because it was a time for incredible food, family and friends, but I began to hate the holiday when, instead of staying home where I wanted to be, we always had to drive to my ex-husband's family 500 miles from our locale! My daughter's birthday is at Thanksgiving, a special time for both of us, to say the least, and her ex-husband destroyed their marriage, her birthday, and the holiday last year. I'm glad he's a dead motherboard, but I'm devastated that he had to choose the holiday season as his weapon of mass family destruction.
Christmas has become a game of one-upmanship, a competition to see who can outdo whom in the gift-giving Olympics. My intent is usually in the right place, but it has become evident that I am the worst gift-giver in the world, especially when I care enough about a person to make a gift from my heart. My new policy is just send checks and/or gift cards: they want what they want, so let 'em go buy it. For me, 'tis a seasonal dead motherboard.
Yeah, as my years accrue, life just seems to keep poking its stick in my eye, and I'll admit I'm tired. Just once in a while, I'd like someone to care, but that's another dead motherboard: they have their own issues to handle, so don't need to add mine. I'm a giver living in a society of takers, so I have to accept that or move on, but it still violates some of my most basic beliefs.
When I called my financial advisor at AIG and asked him, now that AIG has received another huge financial relief package from the government (AIGs mismanagement goes back decades; my TSA was with another firm that was bought out by AIG just in time for the financial destruction to begin), is he going to put my money back into my retirement account? He was bewildered. I said, "I put all my money into the account during the last 30 years. Your company, through fiscal malfeasance, threw it away. Therefore, since I am the government and I've bailed you out so you still have a job and a 6-figure salary, how about putting my money back into my retirement account?"
He laughed, told me that was an interesting perspective, but it would not happen. I agreed: it wouldn't happen, but it should happen. I knew the conversation was a dead motherboard before I started it, but I'm the most intolerant person you've probably ever known, so get over it.
I often chide students about their tendency to write what I call "shotgun essays," a poorly organized, poorly developed, scattered melange of content that is completely pointless. However, I have to respond to these essays, provide feedback to the drafts, and assign a grade to them, which is pretty much a waste of my time, talent, and training. After once again demonstrating the required outline that is to be completed before writing the essay, and receiving feedback during class that they don't need to use an outline, they just write, I'm done. Only final drafts of essays will be accepted through the end of the semester, rather than an endless stream of "drafts" they want me to "fix" for them so they can get a "good grade." That process is now a dead motherboard: deal with it.
The attendance issues with a couple of community college clientele were challenging, to put it mildly. Young people feel empowered to bully their way into making the adults in charge do it their way, not the right way. I did violate my own ethics and college policy by working with the students in an effort to meet their attendance needs, but the old I gave an inch and the student ran a marathon applies here. The end result is that my syllabus will now clearly state that upon the 3rd absence from class, the student WILL be dropped. It will apply equally to all students in all situations, and someone else will have to hear their pleas and deal with them because this issue is now a dead motherboard.
A person I have called "friend" for a decade recently assured me that I am the "most intolerant person" she knows, a comment that has rankled for a couple of weeks. The comment results from her asking me what I felt about Prop 8, the CA proposition restricting marriage to a male/female couple. She is gay, as are many of the people with whom I associate in one of the Gay meccas in SoCal, so I told her that I'd rather not have that conversation. She is gratingly persistent, so I finally said, "Okay," which I perhaps should not have done. She's entitled to her opinion, but I am only entitled to share her opinion: doesn't work for me. Dead motherboard.
Finally, here come the holidays, my least favorite season of the year. I used to love Thanksgiving because it was a time for incredible food, family and friends, but I began to hate the holiday when, instead of staying home where I wanted to be, we always had to drive to my ex-husband's family 500 miles from our locale! My daughter's birthday is at Thanksgiving, a special time for both of us, to say the least, and her ex-husband destroyed their marriage, her birthday, and the holiday last year. I'm glad he's a dead motherboard, but I'm devastated that he had to choose the holiday season as his weapon of mass family destruction.
Christmas has become a game of one-upmanship, a competition to see who can outdo whom in the gift-giving Olympics. My intent is usually in the right place, but it has become evident that I am the worst gift-giver in the world, especially when I care enough about a person to make a gift from my heart. My new policy is just send checks and/or gift cards: they want what they want, so let 'em go buy it. For me, 'tis a seasonal dead motherboard.
Yeah, as my years accrue, life just seems to keep poking its stick in my eye, and I'll admit I'm tired. Just once in a while, I'd like someone to care, but that's another dead motherboard: they have their own issues to handle, so don't need to add mine. I'm a giver living in a society of takers, so I have to accept that or move on, but it still violates some of my most basic beliefs.
When I called my financial advisor at AIG and asked him, now that AIG has received another huge financial relief package from the government (AIGs mismanagement goes back decades; my TSA was with another firm that was bought out by AIG just in time for the financial destruction to begin), is he going to put my money back into my retirement account? He was bewildered. I said, "I put all my money into the account during the last 30 years. Your company, through fiscal malfeasance, threw it away. Therefore, since I am the government and I've bailed you out so you still have a job and a 6-figure salary, how about putting my money back into my retirement account?"
He laughed, told me that was an interesting perspective, but it would not happen. I agreed: it wouldn't happen, but it should happen. I knew the conversation was a dead motherboard before I started it, but I'm the most intolerant person you've probably ever known, so get over it.
Tuesday, November 4, 2008
Red, White, and Who Knew?
Pedro the Plumber needs to stop the leaks: it's 5:45 am in SoCal, the polls don't open for another hour, but we're already receiving EARLY ELECTION RETURNS from the East Coast states.
Really? I didn't know the polls were closing before noon on the Eastern Seabord.
Isn't there a policy in place that prohibits releasing election results until AFTER ALL THE POLLS CLOSE and certainly NOT BEFORE HALF OF THE 50 STATES' POLLING PLACES HAVE A CHANCE TO OPEN? People who believe their candidate is winning in a landslide may decide not to stand in long lines to cast their one little vote, while voters whose candidate is the underdog and needs every single vote may decide why bother: the results are showing it's a done deal and the other guy is winning.
The media told voters months ago that Obama will be elected in a landslide, but McCain continues to creep slowly up to almost even in many of the "done deal" states. The message today should be a consistent GO VOTE across all 50 states, with nary a breath of "done deal" allowed to surface, especially in what have to be phony "early election returns."
Really? I didn't know the polls were closing before noon on the Eastern Seabord.
Isn't there a policy in place that prohibits releasing election results until AFTER ALL THE POLLS CLOSE and certainly NOT BEFORE HALF OF THE 50 STATES' POLLING PLACES HAVE A CHANCE TO OPEN? People who believe their candidate is winning in a landslide may decide not to stand in long lines to cast their one little vote, while voters whose candidate is the underdog and needs every single vote may decide why bother: the results are showing it's a done deal and the other guy is winning.
The media told voters months ago that Obama will be elected in a landslide, but McCain continues to creep slowly up to almost even in many of the "done deal" states. The message today should be a consistent GO VOTE across all 50 states, with nary a breath of "done deal" allowed to surface, especially in what have to be phony "early election returns."
Sunday, November 2, 2008
Definition: Racist
Kathy Griffith, the brazenly red-haired, foul-mouthed, female comedienne, has defined racism for those of us too ignorant to know what it means without her interpretation.
Let's say a white person does not vote for a black candidate: that's racism.
Let's say that a black person does vote for a black candidate: that's racial pride.
Griffith's primary concern for Nov. 4 is that all the "racist white voters" will give the election to the white candidate, which she decries as unfair because this is the first time in history that we can elect a black President!
I thought this election was about the candidates' qualifications for office, not about the color of their skin, but it appears that it's only about qualifications if you're white, and skin color if you're black.
Kathy: don't give up your day job.
Let's say a white person does not vote for a black candidate: that's racism.
Let's say that a black person does vote for a black candidate: that's racial pride.
Griffith's primary concern for Nov. 4 is that all the "racist white voters" will give the election to the white candidate, which she decries as unfair because this is the first time in history that we can elect a black President!
I thought this election was about the candidates' qualifications for office, not about the color of their skin, but it appears that it's only about qualifications if you're white, and skin color if you're black.
Kathy: don't give up your day job.
Saturday, November 1, 2008
Another Perspective
This short video was posted on the blogspace of the local newspaper. When I played it, some of the thoughts in the back of my mind fell into place and said, "This is what makes me uneasy. The truth is being suppressed." Perhaps this tactic is justified by someone's belief that ignoring the past is for a greater good. However, if that's the goal, the truth cannot hurt; manipulating the truth to achieve a personal objective and then dealing with the fall-off after the fact undermines not just the person who lies, but the greater good.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LLL7vkx9ALU
Contrary to Jack Nicholson's great line, "You can't handle the truth," I do better when people are upfront, when they aren't manipulative, devious, or passive / aggressive. I can handle the truth, but far too few people share my point of view. In this case, I'm sure the Obama campaign realizes that if this video receives wide distribution, it will affect his candidacy -- perhaps negatively, which simply is not allowed by the Obama campaign and/or the media. However, the people deserve to see the whole picture of the candidate, not just the public persona that is being presented as representative of the whole, BEFORE the votes are cast, not afterward.
Sooner or later, as my mother used to warn me, it all comes out in the wash.
NOTE: I don't know how to insert the little viewer into an email, much less a blog, but if you want to see what I saw, cut and past the URL I've provided into your address and tell me what you think after you've watched the video.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LLL7vkx9ALU
Contrary to Jack Nicholson's great line, "You can't handle the truth," I do better when people are upfront, when they aren't manipulative, devious, or passive / aggressive. I can handle the truth, but far too few people share my point of view. In this case, I'm sure the Obama campaign realizes that if this video receives wide distribution, it will affect his candidacy -- perhaps negatively, which simply is not allowed by the Obama campaign and/or the media. However, the people deserve to see the whole picture of the candidate, not just the public persona that is being presented as representative of the whole, BEFORE the votes are cast, not afterward.
Sooner or later, as my mother used to warn me, it all comes out in the wash.
NOTE: I don't know how to insert the little viewer into an email, much less a blog, but if you want to see what I saw, cut and past the URL I've provided into your address and tell me what you think after you've watched the video.
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