CRYIN'

cryin', originally uploaded by goodbyepisces.

GRIEF

Mourning with you...sorry Washington about your Super Bowl loss...

MY FAVORITE THINGS

A&W Wuppets, originally uploaded by Neato Coolville.

Here's the short this of some favorite things (in addition to pom pom A&W Wuppets) --

First line to get rid of automatic indent

Running on a Saturday morning

Floppy-eared dogs

Contrast

Innovation

Piano music so beautiful it makes me cry

Playing with toys

The feel of paper

Hot bread & butter

Spiced Chai Latte

Making a new friend

Burying myself in the bed with a book

Pulling on comfortable shoes

Learning something new

Birthday parties

Taking snapshots

Telling stories

Originality

Color-drenched photographs

Vinyl LP’s

Words

A FLICKR FAVORITE

Autumn Walk, originally uploaded by moonjuice.

If you haven't checked out flickr, what are you waiting for? Stop by, pick a few favorites, join a group or two, maybe even start one of your own... Get goin', why don'tcha?

GOSSIP AND POLITICS

The State of the Union got me thinking about gossip and politics. Here are my thoughts.

Most people from Judeo-Christian backgrounds would probably profess to hating gossip. Even the gossips would admit that it's a vice needing repentance.

But what about Historians? Do they need to repent of their wicked ways? After all, isn't history just plain-ol' gossip about dead people?

And here's a similar thought I heard attributed to Jay Leno that I think bears repeating: Isn't Politics really just Show Business for ugly people?

Any thoughts?

FEVER

I've got the Fever...(but not for Pringles). I formed another group on flickr, bringing the total up to 2 within 24 hours. I sent out invitations, and people are joining! Fun, right?

So here are the links in case you want to check them out:

RECOLORED

WELCOME HOME

INVITATION

Here's an open invitation: Any and all are welcome to join my new group on flickr - Here's a link. I searched and couldn't find another one like it to join, so I made my own. The name of the group is RECOLORED.

PUNKY POWER!

photo snagged from soaresantiques.com

I was talking to Pauline about Kangaroo Tennis Shoes. As kids, we both had a pair of them. Mine had zippers on the side pockets; hers had velcro. I used the pockets to store 2 dimes - my milk money for the day. Do you remember those shoes? They looked stylin' with my tight-rolled jeans or my parachute pants, Ocean Pacific shirt, Swatch, friendship bracelets and friendship beads.

Dukes of Hazard lunchboxes...Izod shirts...Garbage Pail Kids stickers and cards...Transformers and MASK... Can you believe all of these things are sold at ANTIQUE STORES now? Can you believe that The Cosby Show and The Facts of Life are played on oldies TV stations now?

What do you remember about the '80's? Need to jog your memory? Check out RETRO JUNK. I especially enjoyed their video collections.

NON-EPIPHANY

Is there such a thing as the opposite of an epiphany? I'm not talking in a religious jargon sense about the manifestation of the Divine Christ. I'm talking about that instantaneous manifestation of mental clarity when you cry, "Eureka!" (not always in the tub like ole' Archimedes). Would it be an anti-epiphany? How would you know you were having it?

I'M CHERRY PIE A LA MODE

I'm propped up in bed, watching President Bush give his State of the Union Address, typing happily on my HP. I just took a couple of goofy online quizzes to see what flavors of pie and ice cream I would be. I glanced around the room, and I thought, "This is a moment I want to remember."

You Are Cherry Pie

You're the perfect combo of innocent and sexy Those who like you enjoy a contradiction

What Kind of Pie Are You?

Your Icecream Flavour is... French Vanilla!

You're a smooth and silky suave type! You exude class and you believe in tradition. A classical taste who doesn't like things to be too flashy or showy. Climb the Eiffel tower of taste with a spoonfull of you! Oui Oui!

What is your Icecream Flavour?

Find out at Go Quiz

WELL, HAVE YOU EVER?

What a swell party this is... (If you get that movie reference, then 5 bonus points for you.)

HAVE YOU EVER...

Smoked a cigarette: NO
Wrecked a car: NO
Stolen a car: NO
Gotten a speeding/parking ticket: NO
Been dumped: YES
Shoplifted: YES
Been fired/laid off: NO
Been in a fist fight: NO
Snuck out of your parents' house: NO
Been arrested: NO
Gone on a blind date: NO
Lied to a friend: YES
Skipped school: YES
Seen someone die: NO
Been to Mexico: NO
Been to Europe: YES
Eaten sushi: YES
Met someone in person you met on the internet: NO
Taken pain killers: YES
Had a tea party: YES
Cheated while playing a game: YES
Fallen asleep at work: YES
Used a fake ID: NO
Had surgery: YES
Felt an earthquake: NO
Experienced a tornado/hurricane: YES
Thrown-up in a public place: YES
Touched a snake: YES
Been robbed: YES
Broken a bone: NO
Slow danced with someone you love: YES
Petted a deer/goat: YES
Won a contest: YES
Hit a home run: YES
Been suspended from school: NO
Been in a car accident: YES
Made a speech: YES
Partied till dawn: YES
Had braces: NO
Gotten stitches: YES
Been spanked: YES
Sat/Stood in a corner: YES
Eaten a pint or more of ice cream in one night: YES
Witnessed a crime: YES
Swam in the ocean: YES
Climbed a moutain: YES
Been struck by lightning: NO
Flown: YES
Sailed: YES
Sung karaoke: YES
Snuck into a movie: NO
Paid for a meal with only coins: YES
Laughed until a beverage came out of your nose: YES
Been kissed under mistletoe: YES
Crashed a party: NO
Slept in church: YES
Worn pearls: NO
Had braces: NO
Slept in a cabin/tent: YES
Jumped off a bridge: NO
Eaten pet food: NO
Kissed a mirror: NO
Bowled a strike: YES
Glued your hand to something: YES
Done a one-handed cartwheel: NO
Cheated on a test: YES
Talked on the phone for more than 6 hours: YES
Skipped showering for a week: YES
Gone skinny dipping: NO
Picked and eaten fruit right off the tree: YES
Been told by a complete stranger that you're cute: YES

WE'VE SECRETLY REPLACED...

...today's post with **NEW** Folger's Crystals! Let's see if anyone can tell the difference.

SNL

I want to write for SNL. I'm funny about half the time, so I think we'd be a good match.

Here's an idea for a parody I think everyone would enjoy. You know Nokia's "It's Your Life in There" ad campaign. Blah...well anyway, picture Ed, the guy who sings along with his ringtone. Well, I'd cast Horatio Sanz in the part. Can you picture it? Just about the time he gets really into singing his "Good Old Boys" theme song, a hand should reach out from behind the camera and smack him. Or even better, the camera could swing around and Simon, Paula, and Randy could critique his performance. "I'm not being rude, Ed, but your performance was awful, the worst we've ever heard..."

Wouldn't that be sweet?

What commercial really gets on your nerves?

MY NOSTRIL

Stephen just bought a new digital camera. It's, like, a 5 megapixel or something, so the resolution is crazy astounding when compared to my sad 2.1 megapixel Sony. Ben took all of these stupid pictures with it yesterday. For example, he put the lense in his mouth and took one of his tonsils. But my favorite was the one he shot up my nose. I was blinded by the flash, but the end result was worth a little pain. I'm not posting the picture here, so you'll just have to use your imagination.

On a related side note, Jenny told me yesterday that film companies have stopped manufacturing black and white film. Is that for real? If so, I'm sad. Not that I ever used b/w, but I still hate to see it go.

GOOGLE IN CHINA

I just googled the word "Freedom." If I lived in China, I couldn't have done that search. What do you think about that policy?

If you have no idea what I'm talking about, please read these two blogs:

Google's official blog about it

Scott Adam's blog about it

CHALLENGER

I hate news articles. They take something personal and emotional and real. They slap the event onto a journalistic operating table, cut the heart out and sew the story back together as a Frankenstein’s monster of black and white facts and figures. I guess that’s why I prefer blogs.

Case in point: I just read MSNBC’s article on the Challenger accident. James Oberg’s angle seemed to be to write the piece as a “mythbuster” style expose, a “we know what happened better than you do, even though you were there” article. Here’s my least favorite quote: “Historians, reporters, and every citizen need to take the time this week to remember what really happened, and especially to make sure their memories are as close as humanly possible to what really did happen.” That just speaks volumes, doesn’t it? In effect, he’s saying, “Hey, I’m a journalist, so pardon me while I tell you what to think and what to remember about what happened to you.” Contrast that attitude with the typical blogger who says, “Hey, this event happened to me personally and this is how I remember it and feel about it.”

The article mostly just seemed to quibble over words and nuances, like the definition of “explosion.” Give me a break. I really had trouble with the main distinction Oberg tried to make between people like me who watched it live and most of the general population who caught it later that day on tape. He accurately points out that not many people caught the actual live broadcast, but I think he is missing the point. I mean, I wasn’t watching live TV when the planes hit the Twin Towers, but the deal was that I did see it happen on TV. A small time delay didn’t make it any less unreal or any more palatable. I think the same is true of the Challenger tragedy. Who cares when we watched it? We did, in effect, all watch it. And we all felt like we watched it together.

So in an effort to counter balance that historically revisionist article, here are some of the things that I remember from that day: 20 years ago today, I was an 11-year-old 5th grader in Mrs. Holcomb’s class. NASA had spent a lot of time and money that year on a campaign to sell the space program to America’s school kids, myself included. Knowing that mostly just school kids got to watch the launch via satellite made me feel like a dignitary. This was the kids’ launch, after all. NASA said so. They even went so far as to put Christa McAuliffe, a teacher, on the flight crew.

Their campaign was a success. We identified with the crew. We had studied their bios and drawn pictures of them to hang on our bulletin boards. The models we made of the space shuttle hung from yarn all around our classroom. My group of friends and I played “space camp” during every afternoon recess. Challenger filled our school culture. It filled our class time. It filled our dreams.

So when it suddenly went missing in a cloud of flames, it left my generation of school kids empty and hurting. Our cheers of joy died into shocked silence. I had talked about the space shuttle launch every single day from the time my teacher told me about it until the moment it happened. But after that day, I didn’t talk about it again for years. The crew’s pictures came down off the bulletin board and the models went into the trash. My friends and I stopped playing astronauts and went back to kickball. NASA had lost its place in our imaginations. It was the end of an era.

I can still remember the newspaper picture of the local teacher who just missed her chance of flying on the Challenger. I think she and I had a lot in common that year. With our feet safely resting on the ground, we found our hearts hurting and our dreams disappointed, our lives forever altered by the tragedy that was the Space Shuttle Challenger.

N'MIND

Well, the problem seems to have corrected itself.