Digi-Dreams and Link Love

It must be summer

sophmom — Sun, 22 Jun 2008 01:21:00 GMT

The days have been a bit of a trudge since I've returned home from my extended stay in New Orleans. I miss Dangerblond and Georgina and our routine, and just being there. Plus, back in the A-T-L, all my real world problems (problems? who has problems?), which didn't disappear despite my "working vacation" from them, have landed squarely back in my lap (imagine that!).

Middle Son is "home", staying with The Oldest in his apartment. He is looking for temporary work and (without much enthusiasm) studying to take the LSAT, which he's postponed (again) until October. He's been charged with 1) administratively supporting his father's entrepreneurial efforts (with one more to get through college, if y'all can figure out another way, I'd love to hear about it...) and 2) helping the aforementioned one more get through two semesters at a local community college, after which he (a/k/a The Youngest) will enter (God willing and the creek don't rise) a mid-sized regional university, not surprisingly located in, yes, a hurricane zone. He needs fifteen hours and decent grades and he can start in January if we can patch it all together. This would make me three for three, sending all three sons off to college in three different cities, each prone to hurricanes. But we're not there yet, taking one step at a time, so I'm holding my breath and crossing my fingers and formulating Plan B, just in case. He's got two classes this summer term. Lots of ifs.

Sis Bel is hangin' in there. She's started back on the "experimental" chemo she had one course of earlier this year. It was a desperate move when they started it and she's been off of it for a while, but it seemed to help her. She feels better now than she did last winter, even being on her third feeding tube. She doesn't have much energy and is unimaginably thin, but she's trying to do things that make her happy. Fortunately for us, this includes baking. One morning this week, I went to work with a fresh out of the oven blueberry turnover, made from scratch, to have with my coffee. Also, her old HS buds are flying her out to Austin for a 4th of July party. Our folks lived there briefly while I was in college, and she finished high school there, and stayed through her 20s. I worry that the trip will be too much for her, but I know she will love it, so it's well worth any risk. They've ordered special assistance, and she's flying to Austin a couple of days early so she can rest between the travel and the party. Her hostess, a best friend from high school, has spent the last four years caring in her home for her mother who passed a few months ago, so she knows exactly what she's taking on. It was all her idea. I'm thankful for that and really happy for Bel.

After first thinking I'd pass on the opportunity, I have been convinced to field a team in the summer college age baseball league at our home park. It's a very competitive league and we have our first game Sunday, June 22. The Youngest & his friend G promised to do the "organizing" (things like collecting checks and making sure the other players know when and where to show up), but they've gotten off to a slow start. I can't complain. I forgot to be talking to the one player I should have contacted. After doing exceptionally well my last five seasons as a GM in the regular 18U league, we got our butts kicked last summer. This time, we've tried to put together a roster with enough pitching to not get so killed this summer. I'll keep y'all posted on that.

I've also been binging on television when I'm not working, having discovered that I can watch TV, tweet on Twitter and feel sorry for myself all at the same time. I watched the whole 3rd season of Weeds On Demand. It took a couple of weekends. We're one episode into the 4th season, and I'm reduced to watching at a rate of one episode per week. Anyway, Season 3 of Weeds introduced a character with Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease (GERD). He burped all the time, not big belches but little burps, often. As a GERD sufferer, it hurt my feelings and made me laugh at the same time (alright, please don't take this to infer in any way that I burp one bit more than the next blogger... and it didn't really hurt my feelings).

Then, again On Demand, I watched two seasons of Dexter. It's very dark, but compelling and addictive. In between Weeds and Dexter, I watched HBO's elegant set pieces, John Adams and Recount, most powerful, especially when taken together. I can't help but think that HBO knew exactly what they wanted to say when they released those two pieces in the lead up to a presidential election. Then, they cast Tom Wilkinson as both Ben Franklin and republican strategist James Baker. They're going to air John Adams from start to finish on July 4th, for those of us who might wish to spend the holiday deeply immersed in a history lesson. Cap it off with Recount and it'll put everything in quick, and urgent, perspective.

I needed to spend Saturday night cleaning out the other side of my clothes closet, which is a mess. I got half of it done last weekend. Instead, just to keep up the good cheer, I decided to try again to watch We Are Marshall. I've posted about this before. I was a senior in high school, about to turn 17, living in Huntington, WV on November 14th, 1970 when that happened (It was Atlanta, then Hungtington, then Austin, then back to Atlanta, got it?). I've tried to watch it from the beginning before and had to change the channel. Then I skipped the early part and watched it from when they decide to try to field a team again, and found it comforting. Finally, this time, I was able to watch the whole thing. It made me cry, but in a good way. Moving away and going off to college, I kind of missed the healing part. One moment in the film said it all, when a funeral procession had to stop, to let another funeral procession pass. That's what it was like. That's when I figured out, it can happen to you. It was my hysterical paranoia that took it all the way to and it probably will.

There's been lots of talk this week about the tragic passing of Tim Russert. His memorial service Wednesday ended to the spirit-stirring strains of Hawai'ian Israel Kamakawiwo'ole's magical medly of "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" and "What a Wonderful World". On his Wednesday night show, MSNBC's Keith Olbermann commented that as the mourners exited, they were greeted to an actual rainbow (or two) arched across the Washington sky. Then he said they were "Stopped in our tracks." Great minds (click the link or just Google, "stopped in my tracks" - read, or just scroll down).

I had a dream last week about the old blind dog. I was driving off and looked into the rear view mirror to see her running after me, a flash of white, as happened so many times in her youth and prime. I pulled over and called her to me, happy to have her company, and she jumped up into the open car door for the ride. Of course, being old and blind that sort of thing doesn't happen anymore. She mostly just lays around and likes to take frequent, short walks. I woke up sad. She's been the very best dog and means the world to me. She's somewhere around 13, found roaming the neighborhood the day after my father died. Saturday, June 21 he would have been 100. I still miss him. Happy Birthday, Daddy.

Finally, and I didn't mean to bury this at the bottom of such a long post (goodness, I do prattle on!), but for both of y'all who are still reading this, I have this juicy gem:

Mark your calendars for the weekend of August 22-24 and start planning your trip to New Orleans for Rising Tide III, the NOLA Bloggers' annual conference.
More than just interesting speakers and topical panel discussions, the weekend includes a Friday night party and a Sunday public service component, great opportunities to break bread and share cheer with the NOLA Bloggers and those who come to learn about New Orleans, as well as to put hands on and do something.
Best. Time. Ever.
Blogerati! Lively Banter Guaranteed!

I need to go to the beach. Okay, I'm done. Finished whining. Finished shouting (for now - but mark your calendars). Peace, out, y'all.

As seen on television

sophmom — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 22:27:00 GMT

Salon.com has published a shocking excerpt from Paul Alexander's recently released Machiavelli's Shadow: The Rise and Fall of Karl Rove, How Karl Rove played politics while people drowned (h/t bigeasy). The selection reveals the intricately devised system of leaked lies that were carefully woven into blame for the purpose of ass covering, completely avoiding responsibility, and how this strategy was coldly executed with complete disregard for any human suffering that might be the result thereof. It exposes yet another example of the deeply embedded, narcissistic dysfunction that infects not only the current administration but also much of our culture, in which appearances are valued above realities and artistic spin trumps creative problem-solving without any consideration for the loss. Alexander writes:

As it turned out, the federal government's attempts to respond to the storm and flooding appeared frozen by inadequacy and ineptitude. Thousands of people were stranded in their homes, unable to make a better escape than to their rooftops to wave for help and hope emergency personnel in helicopters might rescue them. Tens of thousands of refugees were holed up downtown in the Convention Center and the Superdome, yet FEMA was unable to bring in even food, water, or ice, not to mention buses to evacuate them. Touring the Superdome on Tuesday night, [Louisiana Governor, Kathleen] Blanco was disturbed by what she witnessed: in short, no federal assistance whatsoever. All she saw was the Louisiana National Guard and the Louisiana State Police -- certainly not enough of a law enforcement presence to be able to maintain order without additional guardsmen and troops.
...Despite his expertise being politics, the administration had made Rove a central player in the handling of the disaster. "A light switch in the White House didn't get turned on without going through Rove," says Adam Sharp, an aide to [Louisiana Senator, Mary] Landrieu. "It was clear that Rove was the point person for the White House on this disaster."
...Instead of supplying relief to the city, Rove had devised a scheme whereby he could blame the failure of government to take action on someone besides Bush. "They looked around," Landrieu says, "and they found a Democratic governor and an African American Democratic mayor who had never held office before in his life before he was mayor of New Orleans -- someone they knew they could manipulate."

This is the same pattern of dysfunction that gave New Orleanians their failed levees in the first place, institutionalized in the U.S. Army, specifically its Corps of Engineers: buck-passing, ass covering, avoidance of responsibility, propensity for placing blame as shame's cover-up, and spinning reality to fit what the boss wants to hear without any regard for truth. These were the core behaviors that led to the inadequately designed and poorly constructed levees in New Orleans, "flood protection" doomed to collapse. It's a cultural flaw, a systemic pattern, and therefore national, coming soon to a government project near you.

In fact, it's precisely how we were duped into a vanity war in Iraq, our treasury drained, our military hobbled, our precious defenders maimed and lost, their families deprived of what was theirs, an entire nation that didn't belong to us virtually destroyed, our place in the world horridly besmirched, and, ultimately, our safety compromised by a fey president's delusions, dysfunction writ large on a global scale, to predictably tragic results.

It was obvious to all thoughtful people who watched, as the events in New Orleans continued to unfold into days four and five and six and August turned into September in 2005, that when a federal government as powerful as ours did not provide any kind of rescue or relief to the unprecedented suffering, it could have only been because they chose not to do so. Looking at it objectively, reading Alexander's step by step account of how that evolved, it's clear that we've been scammed, conned with a top-down structure that's dirty, diseased and desperately in need of disinfecting. We've gotten what we asked for: faux leadership weaving their script, elegantly executed, as seen on television. Go. Now. Read. Vote.

It depends on how you define safety

sophmom — Tue, 20 May 2008 00:46:00 GMT

Gary Hart to Wolf Blitzer on CNN, after having been asked if it's expected that the Republicans will continue to characterize the Democratic Party as being "weak" on defense (emphasis mine):

HART: A lot of us supporting Barack Obama have pretty long history of experience in national security matters. And I for one would yield to no one in this country in terms of my commitment to this country's national security, and new ways to achieve it. We're not living in the Cold War anymore. And to pretend that simply spending a lot more money on the Pentagon is going to make us safer was proved false by 9/11. This was an administration that was warned that terrorists were going to attack this country, and they did nothing. I am not going to listen to anybody in this administration talk about Democrats being weak on national security. They let this country down.

Finally! Shall we all say it again, and again and again? I've had quite enough of leaders who live by the old 1960s rule of let's not, and say we did, who live in a fantasy world in which what one says or calls something or someone is more important than how people and things really are, a world in which appearances trump actualities, in which spend-thrifts are called conservatives, a world in which the duped people of America buy this load of crap. It's over. It's time to call a reckless spendthrift a reckless spendthrift.

Our nation is dangerously in debt. Our defenses are worn thin and frayed from fighting a war for the benefit of Big Oil, Halliburton, KBR & Blackwater. The numbers of our enemies in the world are greatly increased. These are the threats to our security. It's time for the war-obsessed corporate plunderers to leave our looted treasury alone. It's time for some reality-based leadership to come in and clean up their mess, for the sake of national security. This time, our safety depends upon change.

Robert Greenwald's Brave New Films

Mother's Graduation Day

sophmom — Sat, 10 May 2008 19:03:00 GMT

Middle Son has been in New Orleans studying at Loyola University for four years and today he'll don his cap & gown (and bronze Cum Laude rope) and celebrate his graduation. While I've been here for the last month on assignment for ye olde KnockingShitDownCo, we haven't seen much of each other. His end of the year schedule (both work and school), my long hours spent working, Jazzfest and friends visiting from Atlanta combined to keep us from seeing much of each other. I think that's best, not wanting to intrude upon his end of college time. Now the family is arrived: his father (The Husband...) yesterday morning and The Oldest & The Youngest, yesterday evening. Today, Sis Mer from Houston, her husband and two of their three will arrive. We'll find each other at the ceremony, deploying our cell phones as locating devices in the Louisiana Superdome.

Of course, I cried like a baby at yesterday's Baccalaureate, a beautiful mass accompanied by exceptionally beautiful music, honoring the graduates. I doubt many could know how difficult it was to get here for us, how hard how many people worked to make it happen. His first couple of years of college were a time of crisis in our family and without help from extended family and, especially, Loyola University, we wouldn't be here right now. Mostly, I need to thank Middle Son, who worked so hard to not just make it happen, but to make it happen here, even when that meant working full time or close to full time for the last two years to contribute to his living and learning expenses. I couldn't be prouder of him. He chose the perfect University, and I have to include all of the difficulties that came along with being here during this time. We were lucky in the flood and its prolonged evacuation, losing only a semester of college, but I am quite sure that he wouldn't trade anything for having lived this history. It has all only served to make him, make all of us, love this city more. This is the perfect Mother's Day present. I'll be bustin' with pride and filled to the brim with gratitude today.

Happy Mother's Day, y'all. I know mine is. Peace.

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UPDATE:

The "good" pictures are in the camera (at least I hope they're "good"). The Youngest still has it (somewhere in the French Quarter - pray for them), but sometimes speed trumps quality, so here's the one I snapped with my cell and emailed to myself. The Youngest has his face all scrunched up but I think y'all can still tell how cute he is. Middle Son was so happy. So was I. It's been such a nice day. Dinner later with extended family at the restaurant where Middle Son has worked for the last two years. The one hit by one-hit-wonder Semisonic, "Closing Time" contained one lyric that I think perfectly describes the bittersweet nature of moments like this: "every new beginning comes from some other beginning's end."

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Another Update: I failed to mention one of the coolest things that Loyola did. Obviously, the Superdome is a huge venue and challenging for families, leaving from spread out upper level exits (maybe terrace level is the correct description?), to find their graduates. When the graduates exited on the lower level, a brass band was playing to greet them. The grads were able to call their families and tell them to follow the music, which continued to play for some time as everyone gathered. It was lovely. It was New Orleans. It was perfect.

Outside the fence

sophmom — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 04:53:00 GMT

Demolition. I sit, in my "mobile office", just outside the fence between two big 460s, watching Frankie* load the dump trucks almost lovingly with the bucket and the thumb, first dropping the tangles of rebar and concrete into the big empty trailers then reaching in with the butt end of the bucket to tamp down the rebar, finally catching and containing the errant metal strands with the thumb, the ones that poke up and would pierce the driver's tarp if not subdued. It's almost maternal the way a mother bird feeds a babe or even sexual, the way one lover tends to another, if I remember such distant things correctly. That first load hitting the empty bed reminds me to watch, as it shakes the truck's trailer, the ground and the car in which I sit, just outside the fence.

Then Otter* in the other machine, the one with the grapple, rips up the concrete foundation that once held these buildings, these bricks, these homes, stopping just short of removing the steps I surreptitiously photographed just yesterday. Their turn will come to be tossed in chunks onto a pile for loading later. His mechanical extension is as violent as Frankie's is gentle. I back the car away, out of caution.

Behind it all a local welder with his mask and sparks repairs the bucket's teeth on the last of the three biggest machines. The water cannon rumbles behind the bobcat, a mobile fountain to wet the streets our work has dirtied, streets that the firehoses will wash clean at the end of the day.

Truckers stop by to pick up their checks, the independents, crippled by the cost of fuel, eagerly. Clouds are building in the sky and the day has become gray, not a bad thing from my perspective, sitting in the car, running the air conditioning on idle. The wind picks up and blows the shirts of the men tending the grounds of the tidy Asia Baptist Church just on the other side of this street as a church employee stands on the front steps sipping a soft drink and folks wave as they pass. NOPD roars by, lights on, and an airplane pulls a fucsia "Hustler Club" banner across the gray sky as people gather just down the road to celebrate the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival. The only music I can hear is the roar of these machines and their payloads crashing into the trailer beds, the spew of firehoses fighting the dust high into the air and the rumble of the trucks as they carry away these homes, in smaller, more manageable pieces.

*The names have been changed to protect the operators.

Notes from the road

sophmom — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 19:45:00 GMT

I so haven't had anything to say since Ashley's funeral and haven't quite managed to make it home either. I've been working very long hours starting way too early in the morning on a special project (*ahem*) out of town (a few details here) since Monday before last for ye olde KnockingShitDownCo. The fun just never stops. (Those of you who've clicked the details link, perhaps are seeing Sophmom wink.)

Anyway, so many of the NOLA bloggers wrote so eloquently about Ashley, his larger than life, his beautiful family and his amazing funeral and wake that I can't possibly do it all justice. However, the always insightful Greg Peters of Suspect Device fame has said it perfectly right here. Please. Go. Now. Read. Follow his links (okay, please follow his links). Pics are here. If that's not more than anyone can bear, Ashley's wife, Hana, has taken to keeping up his blog, and has now invited a whole mess o' bloggers to her birthday party this Sunday.

As for life going on, there was a cookout with Dangerblond and Hana and the kids. Then last weekend was dinner out Friday and Saturday, making Sunday a true day of rest. This weekend there will be Jazzfest. Next weekend there will be Jazzfest. Weekend after that, there will be graduation (and in case you're the one person on earth I forgot to tell, that graduation will be cum laude *proud mama puffs out chest* - okay, stop it with the big boob jokes in the peanut gallery, please). I guess, after that, I'll be ready to go home, if I can still call it that.

In the meantime, I'm sitting on the side of the road in a well-wired "office" (read: rented Toyota), counting trucks and keeping a small army of independent haulers honest (and one boss man who's about to lose it, hopefully, on his best behavior and out of prison). Scroll down and you'll see my silly thoughts as they come to me (a/k/a "tweets"), let loose on Twitter, in my gutter, well hidden under my profile link. So.... Capt., Paula, John, Catty, Glenda, Fool, John-Ward, Mary, Kevin, Lisa (I know I'm forgetting somebody, my sweet wonderful regular commenters); y'all keep keeping the light on for me, please. I promise I'll be back (good lord willin' and the creek don't rise 'n' all that). I may never get caught up, but I swear I'll pick up where I left off.

Peace. Out. Y'all.

What happens next

sophmom — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 23:01:00 GMT

Ashley's funeral will be this Friday and there is information on his blog about the service, as well as about the memorial fund that's been set up to help his wife and three small children (5, 3 & 2 years old) defray these costs and move forward, somehow (donate buttons in this post and in my left gutter, please, if you can). Those wonderful geeks have built a whole website about him too. If you haven't a clue what I'm talking about, please see the previous post.

I'm posting Blake Haney's video, Blight Field Talks #1 / Rough Edit, Ashley and Oyster sitting in a field talking about blogging and about New Orleans.

For extra special heartstring pulling, try the tribute to Ashley and his (Czechoslovakian) wife, Hana (a/k/a "Soviet Block") at the Big Easy Roller Girls' blog.

Update: News obituary in the Times-Picayune (4/10/08).

Update (4/12/08): When in community with the NOLA bloggers, you can always expect pictures to emerge online, quickly. I haven't had a chance to find them all but Dr. A's fine shots of yesterday's celebration of Ashley's life are already here (including Sophmom and Dangerblond sharing a burger, and yours truly hoisting an umbrella in the Second Line - just keep clicking through). BTW, that's the Hot 8 Brass Band. Ashley had a send-off that would make any New Orleanian proud. In case you're wondering, that fine lady funk was provided by the Big Easy Roller Girls, representin', among whom Mrs. Morris is known as Soviet Block. Karen was first with pictures posted last night. I'm just now remembeering (I'll keep that typo - makes good sense). A great set of pics that give a beautiful sense of the cemetary by dsb nola (who can really take a picture!).

Peace, out, y'all. Regular blogging (or at least my version thereof) will resume. Later. *sigh*

Ashley Morris 1963-2008

sophmom — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 03:36:00 GMT

A bright light went out in the NOLA blogosphere and this world yesterday when The Perfesser, Dr. Ashley Morris, died suddenly. There is nothing I can say. His wife Hana, who survives him with their three young children, announced his passing on his blog and the many voices of the NOLA blogosphere are eulogizing him. Loki called him "the man most likely to call Ray Nagin a fuckmook to his face," and in the Tweeter Tubes declared that "an Ashley Morris day of Profanity laden blogging is in order for all NOLA Bloggers in his honor." Famous for many things, perhaps most especially his legendary "Fuck You You Fucking Fucks" post, he was, in Maitri's words, "Geek, educator, blogger, musician, but more importantly husband, father and a great friend of New Orleans." Greg said it beautifully:

The NOLA bloggers, rising in response to an unimaginable tragedy, quickly found themselves steering different parts of the beast, if I can mix my metaphors. There’s the head, the brains, the analysts like Oyster & Matt McBride and Tim Ruppert; the soul — poets like Mark Folse, philosophers like Michael Homan — and the guts, the workers like Karen Gadbois and the Zombie.
Ashley was fire. Ashley was the furnace where the rage was forged, where the steam pressure built, where raw anger began its conversion to power and motion.

In lieu of comments I ask that you go to his blog, read what he wrote, and visit the blogs of my dear friends in New Orleans who are mourning this terrible loss. I'm posting links to those who've written about him, many (if not most) with pictures, and I will add updates as posts appear. Please start with Greg, Ray (and with Councilperson Shelly Midura's homage before the council), Adrastos (and an audio tribute), Maitri, Schroeder, Loki, Liprap, Karen, Michael, Lisa, WetBankGuy (and more WBG), Mr. Clio, dsbnola, Bart, Dangerblond, Oyster, Blake, G-Bitch, Scout, Greg's made a video (take a hanky), Saintseester (beautiful memorial icon), Charlotte, Tim, Varg, Celcus, Animamundi, Alan, JudyB, Cliff, Cenlamar, New Package, Video of Oyster & Ashley (thanks to Blake), Barbawit, Nancy Nall with a unique and moving tribute and Ray talks about "playing it sad", Micheal Tisserand for Gambit Weekly, YatPundit's Kos Diary, Dangerblond's post about the newly established memorial fund has a great picture, Remember Ashley Morris (geek mourning activism)....

I glommed this picture from Maitri's Flickr (asking forgiveness rather than permission). Left to right: Ray, Sophmom, Loki & Ashley at Alan's apartment for the First Geek Dinner (July 14th, 2006 - the Hottest. Night. Ever.). Having only just "met" them, I felt like I'd known them forever. In honor of Loki's above referenced request: FUCK.

Or, just go to your rooms. Now.

sophmom — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 14:49:00 GMT

In Full Mom Mode:

Dear Senators Clinton and Obama,

Please promise me you know what you're doing, that both of you really are present enough to be a good president and neither one of you will do anything that might deliver this election to McCain. It's not so much that I hate John McCain, because I don't. He's a patriot who served his country nobly throughout his adult life. I don't even hold his widely acknowledged anger issues against him. Sometimes a little righteous indignation is highly motivating, as long as he demonstrates better impulse control than the inmate who's been running the asylum for the last almost eight years. We just really can't afford to stay on our current path. I mean, we literally can't afford it, can't pay for it, don't have the money to wage endless, expensive wars that, more than anything else, prove the points of those who hate us, fan the flames of anti-Americanism, make the world more dangerous for us and us lame broke. Haven't we had enough of leaders who say one thing and do the opposite?

Barack, Hillary, please just promise us you have a plan, that you'll drag this out only long enough to keep yourselves and your party atop the news cycle to fill this gap 'til the conventions, but that you'll do it without drawing too much blood. Then, find a way to make a true and lasting peace for the good, not just of your party, but of your country. Walk the damn walk. There sure has been enough talk. You can prove what great presidents y'all would be, prove it, by bringing peace and harmony to the Democratic Party. At this stage I don't care which one of you is atop the ticket, or if the other is on it, just that, whatever happens, it is genuinely without animosity (or you do a grand job of making it look that way - and that you make some important place for John Edwards). First, you must make peace. Kiss and make flipping up.

Demonstrate what a great president we're going to have, 'cause we're going to need one with the mess this disastrous administration has left for you to clean up. If y'all can come out of this forging party unity I'll believe you're more than just ordinary presidential candidates, you're patriots and diplomats, totally prepared to meet the challenges of the presidency.

I've been watching John Adams on HBO and I'm deeply touched by the enormous sacrifices our founding fathers and mothers (and their families) made when they gave birth to this country Their wisdom and commitment are now so clear in the difficult choices that yielded our republic, as well as in the well-chosen words that became their Declaration of Independence and our Constitution. We need the next president to respect the foundation on which this country is built and care about individual rights. Put the good of the nation ahead of your own goals and ambitions, and please start now.

So, stop pointing out each others' weak spots, or else the boys and girls on the other side of the aisle will be laughing all the way to the White House. Show us you're ready before day one. Really be living conduits for change. Take the high road. Both of you. Work it out. Senators, I believe that you each think you'd be a great president. I don't care which one of you it is. The good news is that you have before you a great chance to show us how it's done.

Either that, or both of you go to time out.

Yours, in Momness,

Sophmom

Nit picking

sophmom — Sun, 23 Mar 2008 23:06:00 GMT

I went to the pottery studio yesterday thinking I might just find my center there, but it was closed for the holiday weekend. I thought it might be, looked on the website and found nothing. I would likely have known if I hadn't been gone last weekend, to New Orleans. Since then I've found my center (or some reasonable facsimile thereof) in a short collapse into the internet with some basketball on the side.

I can't help but have a sense of wondering what's next, restlessness relative to work, yearning for something closer to my area of expertise, something challenging that could go someplace, mean more than just being a cog in someone else's machine. I guess it comes down to rate of return. I am grateful for the stability and the benefits and I resolved to stay until after the partner who was so sick had passed, believing I was genuinely needed. They've weathered that storm and I think it's time for me to begin preparing them for doing without me and me for doing without them. Am I naive for wanting some kind of meaning to work, a sense of some room for development or at least the possibility of increased reward? I have none of those where I am.

As I mentioned in the previous post, I've been twittering. I like it. With basic internet and email on my phone last weekend on my trip to New Orleans, the addition of twittering as a means of staying in contact, provided sufficient interaction. I needn't have taken my laptop, which never left its case. In the course of looking around for some sign of our beloved Blog-City's management because of Adrastos' spam problem, I wandered over to Alan's blog and found this very interesting video starring Google's own Sergey Brin, showing us all the cool new interactivity coming soon to a hand-held device near you (well, sooner if you're an ubergeek). I wonder if my little aforelinked mobile device can run this open source software.

I don't know if it's related to the spam problem, but the B-C interface is sluggish and slow today, noticeably more so than navigating elsewhere in other tabs and windows (so it's not my computer). I wonder if all those scary spam bots are dragging us down.

I'm cooking a ham (if you can call prepping Paula Deen's spiral sliced ditty, cooking) and Sis Bel, who seems to be feeling better a week out of her radiation treatments, is making au gratin potatoes. Not much of an Easter here. Mama came by earlier and left mad because I didn't feel like talking about not being happy at work right now. I still can't quite figure where she got to be the one who was upset when I was the one whose scab she was picking, but I'm way over trying. It just is what it is. She called a few minutes ago like it never happened. I wished her Happy Easter. She said she didn't want to come over for dinner.

The youngest is safely home from Hilton Head and Part 3 of John Adams is on HBO tonight. The Old Blind Dog is fed and walked and curled at my feet. Dinner is ready and, by all accounts, delicious. Who could ask for more than that?

Peace. Out. Y'all.

Blog lag

sophmom — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 19:07:00 GMT

I've always sworn never to blog about lack o' blogging, but it's been so long and I have so little to say, I feel like I must. I've stayed quiet as Clinton and Obama duke it out, because, well, I like them both about the same, and will support whichever one of them ends up being the nominee unless it just keeps getting weirder and weirder and becomes somehow totally disenfranchising (I can't imagine that though).

Some of you know that my younger sister (Sis Bel) with whom I've been living since completing the cohabitation phase of my marriage (although he seems to have made himself very comfy as a permanent helper/guest in our cozy little quarters), has been very sick. For a while this winter, she slipped into a very critical stage from severe weight loss as a result of cancer treatments (radiation and chemo) and we nearly lost her, but she's bounded back thanks to a feeding tube, to which she seems to have adjusted remarkably well.

Business is thriving at ye olde KnockingShitDownCo, so my work days have grown longer and I return home at night more weary, but that's all good. These are hard times in the building industries, judging by the long line of job seekers marching to my desk, and I'm very grateful to be employed by a concern that is growing when so many are folding around us. Job security is good, I think, although the lack thereof might be of some value in overcoming inertia, nudging me to change.

I'm still making pots, although slowly, as I don't have much extra time for it. I sneak over to the studio after work some evenings, but usually on Saturday afternoons, although not all Saturday afternoons. Like riding a bicycle, it's as if I'd never stopped, and a joy (I first typed "job" instead of "joy" - hmmm). Our Friday nights lost to the closing of our bar were quickly replaced by the migration of most (almost all) of the "regulars" to a new spot that is a regular grab takeout lunch and eat at my desk haunt of mine, but which is now opening at night, staffed by the former Paradise Cafe staff, patronized by the former Paradise Cafe patrons. While we still miss the funkiness of the old haunt (the Bistro is upscale by comparison), the community (funky enough all by itself) is what matters and that seems to have survived the PC's closing. That's a good thing.

Not this weekend, though. This weekend, I'm going to see Sister Mer (a/k/a the Professor) from Houston. We're driving towards each other and meeting in the middle. You might wonder where that is... well, it's our great fortune to be able to meet in New Orleans. I'm excited about seeing Middle Son for the first time since the holidays, and hoping to get the chance to visit with at least some of those from another favorite community. All of this babbling (who, moi?) is to say that I'm sorry to be missing what y'all've (gotta love extended y'all-based contractions) been writing recently and that I haven't a clue when I'm going to get caught up. If there's anything exceptional goin' on out there in the blogosphere, nudge me please and let me know.

Otherwise, peace, out, y'all.

Edit: Golly, I almost forgot. I've been Twittering. If any of you fine folks are looking for me on Twitter, I'm here. Now, peace, out, y'all.

Calm or control?

sophmom — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 02:36:00 GMT

It's easy to be serene amidst calm, at least easier than finding calm amidst chaos. I'm usually pretty good at both but seem to be losing my touch amidst the shit really hitting the fan. Not that I'm not well practiced, but it seems worse than even my usual. Additionally, I've come to believe that, sometimes, excellent stress management techniques do nothing so much as enable us to sustain, well, more and more stress. Sometimes I think it would just be better in the long run to become hysterical, declare the vapors, fall apart, give up, lean into nothing there. I just don't know how, and can't quite forgive those who do, being also slightly outnumbered by them.

I saw Michael Clayton this weekend On Demand and had opportunity to discuss it in comments to Dangerblond's insightful post about the film. Carefully woven into Tony Gilroy's tense story are themes of mental health and mental illness as they relate to moral ambiguity or clarity. Tilda Swinton and George Clooney both played characters locked in morally challenging careers. Tilda Swinton's Karen Crowder drowns in evil amidst a severely misplaced Herculean effort to maintain the appearance of professionalism, of control, of normalcy; while George Clooney's title character trudges forward, losing himself completely in trying to do what's right by his ex, his child, his brother and his job. Between them is Tom Wilkenson's brilliant Arthur Eden, obviously slipping into madness and the absolute certainty it sometimes brings. Clayton, desperately trying to bring in and control his AWOL colleague, confronts him in an alley, concluding, "I'm not the enemy," to which his old friend responded, "What are you then?" Arthur understood, even in his illness, perhaps because of it, what was right and what was wrong. Michael, so caught up in fulfilling the roles into which he had become entrenched, couldn't see. I empathize with that.

Ultimately, we get up every day and try to put one foot in front of the other. Sometimes mental illness comes with great clarity, other times it's more like just plain evil. There's a fundamental difference between maintaining control (or appearances) and answering chaos with calm, it's just not always so easy to know which is which.

Sad Anniversary

sophmom — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 20:41:00 GMT

It was a year ago this morning that The Oldest's dear friend Sean passed from this life. He is still so terribly missed; and his family and tender, loving soul remain in my daily prayers. I can't describe how sweet and funny and beautiful Sean was. His friends flew in and gathered last night in Wilmington, NC, where many of them went to college, to remember him.

This picture is of The Oldest (his NC friends call him Tommy) and Mike (left and right) with Sean standing behind them. It was taken on the UNCW Ad Club's trip to New York in the fall of 2005, a month before Sean's graduation, two before his diagnosis.

On January 28th, I received the letter copied and pasted below in an email broadcast by one of Sean's brothers from his family. In the letter, those of us who received it were asked to share it with as many others as possible. I have no better place to do this than here.

Family and Friends:

In honor of my brother Sean’s birthday (he would have been 25 today), I’m again requesting your help in the fight against blood cancers. To put what we're up against into perspective:

Every five minutes, someone in this country is diagnosed with blood cancer.
Every ten minutes, someone loses their fight.
Leukemia causes more deaths than any other cancer among children.
Lymphomas are the most common blood cancers.
The myeloma survival rate is only 32 percent.

You can become a potential bone marrow donor with only a small blood sample or a quick swab of cheek cells!

Although Sean lost his courageous 13-month and 13-day fight with leukemia, nearly 1,000 donors (Sean’s personal goal) have registered as a result of the bone marrow donor registration drives that Sean started. However, Sean's personal goal doesn't take into account the over 300 donors per week that are now registering at the US Marine Corps' "School of Infantry" (SOI). Since April of 2007, SOI's medical clinic has registered over 10,000 new donors.

If you're interested in participating, please go to the National Marrow Donor Program website at: Marrow.org (help).

Additional info, including some general guidelines for bone marrow donation, may be found at: marrow.org (join the registry).

To request a testing kit: marrow.org (join now / test).

Please pass this on to everyone and anyone...the registry needs A LOT more potential donors. Thanks so much for your support!

Sincerely,

The Williams Family

*********************************************************

Peace, out, y'all.

Super Fat Tuesday

sophmom — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 19:23:00 GMT

(Updated 2/11/08 - see below) My, there's a lot going on! As the primary election returns unfold from the television, Mardi Gras pictures and stories are cropping up all over the internet. I worked today at the KnockingShitDownCo with the NOLA.com Parade Cam open on my desk top. While we were very busy, it was nice to be able to glance over and see the parades roll down St. Charles.

The media called my state for Obama almost the minute the polls closed, although the rest of the country seems to be breaking in so many different directions that the end result, while not quite yet in sight, looks like it could be a dead heat. Hillary's talking about "the work of my life" lifted right out of Edwards' song book, and Barack is telling us that the people, not the special interest groups, are funding his campaign. Hell, it's like John's not even gone if you close your eyes. And those Republicans are a bucket of worms. At least the Dems only have to work through a two way tie. I think I'm better off going to bed early and just reading about it in the morning. Is it my imagination or is everybody declaring victory?

So, I'm sending y'all elsewhere, to those heartier than I who have pictures to share. I'll continue to post new Carnival & Mardi Gras pictures as updates to this post as I find them. For now, scoot on over to Maitri's where you'll find, not only Elvis, but very hot Diva Bloggers and their friends in beaded bustiers as they head out to protect endangered pleasures (as you might guess, there's a dangerous blond involved). Or go to Mr. Wet's Flickr pics of today's Krewe of St. Anne foot march in the Quarter. Karen's got a batch up on her Flickr doodle too. Yat Pundit has some great pics of Rex rolling down St. Charles this morning that give you a sense of just why it's considered one of the loveliest stretches of road not in America. At no extra charge he's thrown in a narrative that helps us outlanders understand a little more about Mardi Gras. Then stop over at for a Mardi Gras short at KatrinaFilm (decorated breasts warning). And of course, there's the motherlode at NOLA.com (living dangerously, offering many thanks for the pic below).

I'll leave you with a text message from Middle Son that I found when I woke up for Monday morning: "Hot 8 is playing in the middle of Dryads Street right outside of work. Gotta love this town."

It's way past my bedtime. Sweet dreams, y'all. Happy Mardi Gras. Peace. Out.

Update: Adrastos has chimed in with some Uptown Mardi Gras photos.

UPDATE 2: Ooooooo.... Really excellent pics (including Rex Ball pics) can be found by way of Gumbofile. Thanks for the heads up!

Poblano

sophmom — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 03:16:00 GMT

Meet Poblano, the most interesting new voice in the blogosphere, a self-proclaimed "data wonk" with a Kos Diary. In his Super Tuesday Preview, 1/31/08, he parses an astonishing amount of data, from polls and trends, endorsements (possible endorsements) and past voting patterns, projecting what it all means going forward, particularly in next week's Democratic primaries.

After a discussion of many variables, from Ted Kennedy's endorsement of Obama to the withdrawal of John Edwards (and a discussion of the importance of the frontrunners' California debate), he then breaks the facts down, state by Super Tuesday state, with a graphic summary for each. Here's Georgia:

He concludes with a delegate breakdown projection, five possible scenarios, and the odds thereof. If you read only one thing political between now and next week, this should be it. Seriously. (Go. Now. Read.)

Peace, out, y'all.

Thanks, John

sophmom — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 02:35:00 GMT

The Associated Press is reporting that John Edwards will drop out of the race for the Democratic Presidential nomination today in New Orleans. As reported by Yahoo!:

Edwards planned to announce his campaign was ending with his wife and three children at his side. Then he planned to work with Habitat for Humanity at the volunteer-fueled rebuilding project Musicians' Village, the adviser said.
With that, Edwards' campaign will end the way it began 13 months ago — with the candidate pitching in to rebuild lives in a city still ravaged by Hurricane Katrina. Edwards embraced New Orleans as a glaring symbol of what he described as a Washington that didn't hear the cries of the downtrodden.
Edwards burst out of the starting gate with a flurry of progressive policy ideas — he was the first to offer a plan for universal health care, the first to call on Congress to pull funding for the war, and he led the charge that lobbyists have too much power in Washington and need to be reigned in.

It is my hope that one of the remaining Democrats will pick up this banner and carry it into the White House.

Update: Y'all!!! The Republicans are having a contest to see who can say "Ronald Reagan" the most times!!!!!

Gone to pot

sophmom — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 22:48:00 GMT

The view from where I'm sitting (not half bad for my first time back):

Peace, out. y'all.

If you're looking for something more interesting, Ashley has it here. I sure as hell can't say it any better.

Good Company

sophmom — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 02:56:00 GMT

While we're on the subject, Greg Sargent at TalkingPointMemo's The Horse's Mouth also seems way bothered by the whole media ignoring John Edwards' candidacy thing, pointing out that the Edwards campaign has decided to have a little fun with it all, probably because continuing to complain about it can only make the candidate seem whiney; and they're still, well, trying:

Sargent concludes his post with (for those few of you who didn't Go. Now. Read.):

I understand that Hillary and Obama are historic figures and that editors often have to make tough choices about how to allocate resources and so forth. And I'm not at all arguing that the media is solely to blame for the Edwards camp's problems. Just saying again that we should all admit that in a broad sense Edwards got screwed here, because, well, that's exactly what happened.

I guess that's all I'm trying to say too. I'm an economy voter. The Bush years have been financially devastating for my little family. The Clinton years were great. Maybe it's all coincidence but I can't help but, well, notice how we've gone from very comfortable and able to indulge with the occasional luxury to barely making ends meet, since Bush was elected. But I really haven't decided who has my vote. I want the candidate best equipped to win in the fall. I want what's best for the country. While I'm solidly in line with Edwards' position that corporate greed has to be stopped in order to save America, the last time I heard a presidential candidate described with words like transformative, I was a little girl.

I came away from MSNBC's Las Vegas debate pulled towards Obama. Maybe it was sympathy because he got kind of hosed, like being the novice going first at Truth or Dare and saying way too much. When asked to cite a strength and a weakness, he actually did it, telling the whole world that he's organizationally challenged, keeps a messy desk and has to have top of the line administrative help in order to find things. Of course his competitors offered up weak-ass pretend faults like impatience amidst "passionate commitment to the nation" (Clinton) and a (presumably too) "powerful emotional response to the pain I see around me" (Edwards). Puh-leeze. It pretty much made up for the snarl that might have cost him New Hampshire.

I don't expect Obama's candor will help him in the long run, but it looked oddly genuine amidst so much caution. I settled in to watch with pen in hand, ready to take notes for the sake of blogging it and didn't write down one word. The media-anointed front-runners seem satisfied with themselves, happy to be rid of the other hangers on (and hoping to be rid of Edwards soon), focused now on the general election. I'm the hard core faithful and I thought it was a yawner.

Peace, out. y'all.

Straightalk from a mouth of the MSM

sophmom — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 23:50:00 GMT

From maybe tears to cries of barely discernible racism, both Clinton and Obama have managed to keep themselves and each other top of news, garnering gobs of free airtime and crowding, or attempting to crowd, John Edwards out of the national picture. I believe we're smarter than that, and apparently so do many Nevadans, as reported in this Reno Gazette-Journal blog (h/t GeorgiaWomenVote ):

Monday, January 14, 2008
New Poll: Democratic race in Nevada a dead heat

A new poll by the Reno Gazette-Journal shows a neck-and-neck three-way race among Democrats for Saturday's caucus. On the Republican side, U.S. Sen. John McCain has taken his first lead in Nevada of the election season, and Mitt Romney, who has been working Nevada harder than any other Republican, is trailing in fourth place.

A look at the top line results (more will be posted later this morning):

Barack Obama: 32 percent
Hillary Clinton: 30 percent
John Edwards: 27 percent

John McCain: 22 percent
Rudy Giuliani: 18 percent
Mike Huckabee: 16 percent
Mitt Romney: 15 percent
Fred Thompson: 11 percent
Ron Paul: 6 percent
Duncan Hunter: 1 percent

The poll was conducted Jan. 11 to Jan. 13 , with samples of 500 likely Democratic caucus-goers and 500 likely Republican caucus-goers statewide by Maryland-based Research 2000. The margin of error is 4.5 percent.

So, why is Edwards being frozen out of the MSM? On the first new Real Time with Bill Maher we've had in a long time due to the Hollywood writers' strike, it comes up again and again and again, without ever being properly addressed. Bill asked Rolling Stone political reporter Matt Taibbi (Go. Now. Read. Read all the way to the end.), essentially that question with, "I'm very curious - you cover this campaign - you must have seen John Edwards speak - it seems like he has the message that would do well in these times...why isn't John Edwards' message resonating?" Taibbi tried to blame the press as being part of that very privileged class that Edwards is accusing of fattening themselves on money siphoned from the middle class (I'm paraphrasing), but the panel (starting with Mark Cuban) wouldn't let Taibbi answer Bill's question. Taibbi tried again with, "I've seen Edwards a lot on the campaign trail and he does resonate..." before Tony Snow put a stop to it by talking and talking until the change in subject was complete. Again, for a third time the political reporter tried to suggest that Edwards as a candidate has a message that causes some discomfort for a press corps that's living the good life on the backs of the very gluttonous corporations that Edwards is attacking, before, again, Snow changes the subject.

Clinton and Obama, their campaigns rich with corporate/lobbyist dollars to begin with, are also rich in the free airtime that comes from our MSM. Edwards' message isn't accepted or promoted by the MSM because that very press structure that is deciding which parts of this campaign we get to see and hear (see: keeping Kucinich out of the debates) is owned and operated, wholly funded and brought to you by the very corporate structure that Edwards rightly tells us has bloated themselves on the backs of the ordinary folks.

I think Obama, Clinton and Edwards are all fine candidates. I'll be proud to support whichever one of them is nominated, but I believe we're all better off, that we're exposed to a healthier dialogue, the longer the three of them (and Kucinich) remain in the running. I can't help but think that the fact that the establishment media clearly wants to elevate either Clinton or Obama to "front-runner" status, ignoring the one candidate who has the guts to point out the enormous transfer of assets from public coffers as well as ordinary tax payers' pockets to the wealthiest among us, is, in and of itself, reason for me to support that candidate, John Edwards.

The discussion of Edwards starts about four minutes in:

As Taibbi himself said toward the end of the article linked above (just in case you missed the first Go. Now. Read.):

Both the Huckabee and Ron Paul candidacies represent angry grass-roots challenges to the entrenched Republican party apparatus, while the Edwards candidacy is a frank and open attack on his own party's too-cozy relationship with corporate America. These developments signaled a meaningful political phenomenon — widespread voter disgust, not only with the two ruling parties, but with a national political press that smugly enforced the party insiders' stranglehold on the process with its incessant bullying of dissident candidates.
But there was no way this genuinely interesting theme was going to make it into mainstream coverage of the campaign heading into the primary season. It was inevitable that different, far stupider story lines would be found to dominate the headlines once the real bullets started flying in Iowa and New Hampshire. And find them we did.

They change the subject and we get maybe tears and barely discernible racism.

Peace, out, y'all.

********************************

NOTE: See just how hard NBC's willing to fight to keep Kucinich out of the debate in Nevada.

Please don't throw me in that chaos

sophmom — Wed, 09 Jan 2008 20:47:00 GMT

The morning after Hillary Clinton proved to the world that pollsters don't always know what they're doing, I sat down at my desk to the Yahoo! headline, "Comeback kids create chaos". Chaos? I'll click on that. Puh-leeze. Ron Fournier writes for Associated Press, dateline Washington:

In the land of comebacks, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton and John McCain revived their sagging campaigns Tuesday night and catapulted the Democratic and Republican presidential races into a surprise state of chaos.
Neither could afford to lose New Hampshire. Suddenly, the fallen front-runners look like winners again.

Is it just me or is the MSM deeply disturbed because, novel as it may seem, this time it might take more than two li'l ol' states to decide who the nominees are? That's got to be much healthier than our usual, two and out system of allowing the voters in Iowa and New Hampshire the opportunity to meet all the candidates face to face and decide for all the rest of us whose television commercials we're going to watch ad nauseum for the next year or so.

Everybody's saying Hillary's nearly tears on Monday humanized her, at least to New Hampshire's women voters. I'm sure that had a little something to do with it. Personally, I believe it started earlier, during last Saturday's debate, when she coyly feigned offense taken to the question suggesting that she wasn't as "likeable" as Senator Obama, "Well, that hurts my feelings (pause), but I'll try to go on." More important, though (in my humble opinion) was Obama's miffed, humorless response, "You're likeable enough, Hillary," followed by a clearly unhappy expression. I think we want our candidates to give each other their due when points are scored, as they clearly were here. I think we want that because we want our presidents to be fair, to be endowed with not just intelligence but also generosity of spirit. He seemed as much like a spoiled sport as anything else.

I've made no bones about it. I'm supporting Edwards until he's out of the game. He's the only candidate who's made much of an effort to include New Orleans in the dialogue, although he failed to bring it up in last Saturday's debate. Also, I think he's right. I do think that corporate greed is out of control and rapidly eroding (eradicating) our nation's middle class. I'm pretty sure it won't be stopped by continuing in our present profit-obsessed track. They can say the money trickles down to those of us who are not CEOs or corporate board members all they want to, but no amount of saying it can make it so, if it doesn't actually trickle down.

After Edwards, I was really undecided between Clinton and Obama, seeing strengths in both of them, caring mostly that the Democratic nominees defeat the Republican nominees next November. I surprised myself last night, suddenly rooting for Hillary, not knowing exactly where it came from. It wasn't so much her almost tears, or her funny feigned debate pout. It wasn't even her experience or knowing what she's going to do on day one. It wasn't her being a woman and it certainly wasn't his being a black man. It was that expression on Obama's face when he looked down after she scored, that tell-tale sign of a spirit seeming less than generous.

It's still anybody's game; and, this time, in the primaries, some of us in the other states will take part in choosing the nominees. What a shame. I'm sorry that the MSM's in a tizzy and thinks it's chaos. It will be an interesting change to think my primary vote might count. Oh, please don't throw me in that briar patch.

Watch for yourselves and decide. Peace, out, y'all.

completely disjointed

sophmom — Sun, 06 Jan 2008 22:42:00 GMT

I've been kind of just trudging through since returning from New Orleans. I've had a cold, although it has thankfully stayed mild and (knock wood) its duration quite short, both of which I attribute to Zicam. I'm no stranger to situational depression and am way too skilled in stress management techniques for my own good, sometimes thinking that better stress management techniques simply allow us to tolerate more stress, when we might be better off with fewer/worse stress management techniques so that we can get to the point that it all hurts so much, we change something.

Change was a big theme in ABC's Presidential Debate broadcast live last night. It was interesting to have the Republicans and the Democrats back to back on the same stage; and seeing them greet each other on stage when the Dems arrived as the Repubs left was worth the price of admission: One Saturday Night. Having gone out with friends the night before and ODed on football a while ago, I watched the whole thing and took a few notes:

Using a convoluted formula only slightly less obtuse than the BCS selection process, they managed to exclude Dennis Kucinich but not Ron Paul, who seemed tired and repetitive. Paul suggested that there might be fewer people who wanted to wage guerrilla war against the U.S. if we didn't occupy so many countries and prop up so many totalitarian governments (I'm paraphrasing) and the other candidates laughed at him.
Charles Gibson is the hardest working man in TV news.
New Orleans was never mentioned.
Huckabee misquoted the Declaration of Independence and no one called him on it. He started alright, with "We hold these truths..." but sputtered a bit before muttering without segue, "inalienable rights...life, liberty..." throwing in a quick "created equal" as an afterthought at the end. If you don't know it cold, don't try.
Everybody ganged up on Romney and he just kept smiling.
Gibson, not the candidates, mentioned that "We're the only industrialized nation in the world that doesn't insure all of our citizens."
Both Edwards and Obama aimed at Clinton, asserting themselves as the candidates of change. Obama has managed to claim the mantle, but it seems to me that Edwards represents more, bolder. While all the Democratic candidates agree that our health care system needs changing, Edwards dares to suggest that this will not come easy and will require doing some battle with both the insurance and the pharmaceutical industries. I think declining lobbyist and PAC money and promising to keep all lobbyists out of his White House is brave. I can't help but agree with him that our middle class is being eroded by unabated corporate greed. If he's still around when I get my turn, he has my vote.
I love Bill Richardson and think he'd make a really fine Vice President, but he's a train wreck, a Saturday Night Live skit waiting to happen (maybe it has?). Even skipping the hairpiece and extra pounds (like I can give somebody a hard time for a few extra pounds), he's reciting his resume every time he opens his mouth: "As Governor of New Mexico...," "When I was Secretary of Energy...," When I was going head-to-head with the North Koreans...," "During fourteen years in Congress...," "I've been in hostage negotiations more civil than this." I was just waiting for Horatio Sanz (I know he's gone, but wouldn't he be perfect?) to take it one step further with, "As I discovered the New World...," "When I found the cure for cancer...," "When I became the first bald, portly, politician to fly to the moon, unassisted...." He's right. He does have the most experience, but he also has the weakest delivery.
They all seemed very tired, particularly the Democrats.
I just hope that our next President doesn't have a personality disorder. That just hasn't worked.

Big in the news around here has been the sad story of the young woman who disappeared hiking in the N. GA mountains New Year's Day. I don't want to become searchable for her name out of respect for her family but the "Person of Interest " who's been arrested was hanging out in my neighborhood for the last few years. He was taken into custody where I buy my gas, trying to rid his van of evidence in the very spot where I put air in my tires last Saturday in anticipation of last Sunday's drive. Even more frightening, when Middle Son, The Youngest and their gang (if you can call wussie private school boys a "gang") would encounter him while they hung out at Murphey Candler Park after school, they called him "Dogman" and thought he was creepy strange. Such evil has been right here, moving in the same small world in which we've moved at the same time, living out of his van (for years) in this upscale suburban neighborhood, blending in, getting sicker and sicker without any notice, until this. Very sad.

So, it's a new week and I'm glad to be still standing, still employed, still insured (the mother of insured children), even if I am surrounded by extreme dysfunction with no real plan for escape. I keep telling myself that if I just keep working hard and try to do what's right, it will all turn out okay. I might be a little bummed, but I'm just going to try to sit with that, experience it, pay attention to it and see where that takes me.

Peace, out, y'all.

Best. New Year. Ever.

sophmom — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 13:53:00 GMT

It was magic. It was way too fast and way too short. The drive down was way too rainy, but we got there, Middle Son delivered in time for work Sunday and Friend delivered to her fiance (hereinafter "Romeo"). New Orleans was crawling with the Hawaiians, unanimously judged to be among the nicest, most generous and most welcome tourists the city has ever seen. The Georgians arrived with us, a series of SUVs bearing "G" magnets and antenna flags (driving way too fast for conditions). There was a fight in a very neighborhoody bar called Lotsa-Luck and a gathering around the end of the bar for dinner and drinks with a bunch of Romeo's high school buddies (these folks are in their 50s now) at Lakeview Harbor. It ended with a tired hustle home New Year's Day night, exhausted with a cold, but very, very happy.

I remember last year posting about the Psycho Therapist's notion of consecrating the New Year and I can't help but think of it as 2008 begins. While I missed visiting with my dear blogger friends (I got a short visit with Adrastos and talked to Dangerblond twice), I had the time of my life, spending New Year's Eve as a guest, member of a party of six, in the center of the upstairs window overlooking the courtyard at Commander's Palace. Oh. My. God. All dressed up in thrown together evening wear (thanks, Kim, for pointing me in the right direction for the perfect black lace top that made it all work) with a most exceptionally gracious host, I couldn't believe it was really happening. He was greeted by name when we walked in the door, and again all along the way as we passed through the kitchen and up the stairs to our table. I felt like a believing child on Christmas morning. In the middle of the Turtle Soup the trio of musicians visited our table. With the bass within reach on my left and the clarinet (also within reach) just beside the banjo-playing singer, they struck up "Do You Know What It Means To Miss New Orleans?" and I couldn't help myself. I cried. It was a perfect evening. After twenty some-odd years of staying in on New Year's Eve, considering it "amateur night", I did something really different (really, really different, for me). Maybe it's a sign of change.

The last three months of 2007 were hard. The KnockingShitDownCo lost a founding partner after a long and courageous battle with cancer. Sister Bel, with whom I live, was diagnosed with the same disease. Money's tight and a lot of people are depending on me. I am heading into 2008, for lack of a better word, tired. But, filled with gratitude to Friend for encouraging me to go, to Romeo for introducing me to his wonderful friends and most especially to the one of them who was our host, I did something different this New Year's Eve and it was magic.

May 2008 be the Best Year Ever. Happy New Year, y'all. Peace. Out.

Merry Christmas 2007

sophmom — Tue, 25 Dec 2007 14:22:00 GMT

I've characteristically tried to do too much in too little time. What got done, got done and what didn't, didn't. We had a lovely Christmas Eve. Having wrapped until I can wrap no more, and having watched the Vatican Mass, I will sleep for a while and rise early to wrap a bit more and to cook. We'll have sausage rolls for breakfast, which will be late as my boys are too big to rise early for Christmas (thank goodness).

I work to practice being respectful and aware (h/t Dambala) rather than reckless and oblivious. I've decided that not being oblivious requires constant vigilance and is, at best, imperfectly achieved, as much a goal as a practice.

This will be a modest Christmas, excepting the food, and my focus will be a generosity of spirit (even - no, especially - with those family members who try my last nerve) and gratitude, because the last months of 2007 have been turbulent and marked by change, loss and illness all around me. I pray that the change is along the path on which I belong (respectful, aware and fighting reckless oblivion every moment), that the loss provides an opportunity for growth and that the illness is borne with grace.

Merry Christmas, everyone. Peace, love and great happiness to you all.

Bad Holiday Videos (adult content alert)

sophmom — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 15:22:00 GMT

There's a brutal, ugly and downright distasteful war going on in the NOLA blogosphere. After a difficult couple of weeks during which I've taken the holidays-what-holidays approach, tonight I finally had time to make my way around the participants in this brawl. I think Scout Prime started it over at First Draft and it spiraled out of control from there. I'm not sure what came when, but one thing is for certain: it is all bad. Some of it's smarmy, some downright dirty, lots of it is campy, but it's all bad, bad, bad. In no particular order, visit, if you dare: Oyster, Leigh (with a Hanukah twist), Celcus, Virgotex (with a peace offering?) and, with late (many say winning) entries, Greg Peters (oh, my!!). But I can't help it y'all, as far as I'm concerned, Scout won it with her second entry, hands down (so to speak). Note: I missed Ashley's late but very worthy entry. Note, Note: And Mark's (Yikes!) -- OKAY -- I've just looked at Mark's - off to take a shower.

Now, I'm not in their league and don't consider myself part of this fine competition, but I made two (obvious) suggestions in comments over at Liprap's, and she nudged me to jump in and post them. They're not bad like their kind of bad (like really no good) but they're both a bit naughty (one is "old days" naughty and the other, 21st century naughty). I'm sure y'all have seen them before but here they are again. In case you've been under a rock for the last year, the second one (in which Andy Samberg and Justin Timberlake fall off the deep end) contains very adult content and is not fit for work or children. I believe, despite the over-exposure, it's obviously deserving of a place in any compilation of bad holiday videos.

So, despite my predictable resistance, the holidays are upon us and I'm thinking I might as well try to enjoy them. Like sex and childbirth, Christmas is best when you relax into it. Peace, y'all. Relax into it.