Wednesday Randomness

Here is a lovely article in the Alaska Dispatch about the crazy people at Teamsarah.org. I assure you that what she describes is what is going on in any given day. Look at the comments for more examples of craziness from the nutjobs who frequent Team Sarah. These people cannot be excoriated enough.

Yesterday I spent the day in wonderment at the Blagojevich arrest for trying to sell Obama's senate seat, and other pay to play charges. The excerpts from his being tapped amaze and delight me. He sounds like Tony Soprano, except way stupider! Why would a guy who KNOWS he has been under federal investigation since 2003 keep talking on the phone and in his office about his outrageous schemes? Was he really thinking he was so above the law? I think he will have to plead megalomania in his insanity trial.

Meanwhile, Illinois residents and the world kick back and amusedly watch the proceedings with a bowl of popcorn. It's audacious, and delicious!

I feel a lot better this week, but sometime while I was coughing last week I either strained a muscle or cracked a rib, and it is interfering with my getting on with things, like working out, or sleeping through the night.

The best part of Christmas decorating is my Christmas Tree. Putting it up is a chore, as is stringing the lights--but rediscovering the ornaments every year is a delight. My favorites include a construction paper snowman with pipecleaner legs made by my nephew, Kyle, when he was 4, and the colored macaroni on black construction paper that he must have also made that same year. I of course also love all the ones my kids made when they were little, with their school pictures prominently displayed in the middle. These are somewhat comical, because our school has the worst photographer in the world. Each year, the kids have expressions as if they have been goosed or asked to smell a skunk, or that they have just arrived to the photo session from a wind tunnel.

A Cough Medicine Blog Entry

The fug that I got from the airplane nastiness has settled into my chest and voicebox, so today I have sat quietly and rested and occasionally tried to puzzle out knitting a hat with 4 double pointed needles. I took a child size portion of some codiene cough medicine that my son was given, and it seems to be doing a nice job of keeping me from cracking a rib coughing.

It is near midnight, and I am floaty and happy and a bit lonely.

I have a lot of love around me in my life. My older son is becoming more of a teenager every day, but we still enjoy each other's company, and he talks to me about stuff and I love it! Today we were talking about how to talk to girls. Middle school girls are foreign, foreign creatures. I won't reveal too much except to say that he is delightfully, innocently befuddled, and very sweet.

My younger son is a deep, quiet kid with great bursts of excitement. He is the sort of kid who looks at you with his big eyes while you are explaining something, and then ever so nicely will let you know that he figured out where you were going and went a few light years beyond while you finished your sentence. My favorite thing in the morning is waking him up. I talk to him softly, and kiss his face, and he slowly wakes up like a pleasant little baby chick. He is the nicest person to wake up in the morning!

My husband is an amazing person. I still don't know how I got someone so wise and yet so kind. He is also one of the smartest, hardest working people I know, and yet he still likes me. It boggles my mind. He about as blind to my faults as I am to his, which helps us both.

Well, I will float off to bed now on my happy cloud. I hope this cough will have gone away by tomorrow, or at least abated enough to get out and really talk to someone. I will be slightly embarrassed to have posted this, but seeing I don't get much traffic, it's just fine.

Flying the Nasty Skies

We just got back from a trip to North Carolina to visit my in-laws. It was a nice, low key trip, as it usually is. They live in the country, so time is spent in the house, in the garden, and out on the river fishing.

If only we didn't have to fly to get there. Flying just gets worse and worse. Not only are they charging for checked bags, not only do they want to charge you extra for a crappy pillow, not only do they charge you for a soda or water on shorter flights, not only does the airport security personnel treat you like a recalcitrant prisoner----They haven't CLEANED the insides of the planes at ALL! FOR MONTHS!

My older son was at the window seat on one of our flights, and the window was thick with greasy and dusty jeri-curl. Or maybe it was what he thought it was--hairy pus. Regardless, it was disgusting. We brought it up to the attendant and she offhandedly said, "Yeah, I have been complaining about that for about a month now."

Don't even get me started on the "magazine" pouch. The in-flight magazines (from September) were torn and full of spit out gum and ripped pages. Small trash from countless passengers was still stuck in each pouch on each leg of my flights, and I was not about to stick my hand in there to explore to expound on it.

The tray tables were grimy, the seats were dirty, the ceilings were visibly dirty. Who knows what we were inhaling, we all know that the air is recycled and has to be dirty.

And to top it off, they lost our luggage on the way back. It would be great to get our $15 back, but it ain't gonna happen.

Now I have a scratchy throat. Guess from where.

Next time I go on a flight, I will make sure I bring loads of wet wipes, small amounts of antibacterial fluid and wear a mask.

Maybe I can negotiate cleaning and sterilizing my seating area if they will waive the fee for losing my luggage again.

What other stuff I do...

For the past month, I have been hyperventilating about the election, and now I am successfully able to move on with my thoughts. Since I have never exposed much of my non-blog life on this blog, I thought I would do some of that today.

Here is a trailer for a low budget indy feature length film that I am in. It premiered at the Black Harvest Film Festival in Chicago 2008.


The film is called, "The Opposite of Life." It was written and directed by David Muhammad. The theme involves several couples dealing with unplanned pregnancies and the decisions they make. I play a really far-right conservative mom whose daughter has been raped and is pregnant. Just to add insult to injury, she finds out her daughter's boyfriend is, horror of horrors, black. Only one scene, but it is not a good day for this character. And part of it is in this trailer! John Vinopal, my indy film husband in several short films, is my intolerant husband. Good times. I haven't seen it yet, but I have heard it came out pretty well for a low budget feature.

I can't get the Modern Woodman commercial I did to load, so here is the link to their site:

http://www.modern-woodmen.org/The%20Card%20-%20Corporate.wvx

I am not as fat as I look like in this commercial, at least, not any more. It was filmed in March, actually. It was a hard winter. I am thinner now and I dress better, honest.

Other stuff I have been involved in for the past month but have no pictures of include doing a web/auto show promotion for GMC/Chrysler/Pontiac, and a brochure for GE Healthcare. I also did a comedic short with Kilamajaro Films. You can also look at my young friends at www.lookatrubbish.com and I am in several of their shorts, with varying degrees of success.

And let's not forget the knitting. I am going nuts for knitting lately. Here is my favorite thing so far:

It's an alien scarf, nearly invisible straight on, visible from the side.

So that gives you an idea of what else I have been doing while obsessing about the election and the economy.

You're welcome.

Random Stuff, it's a come down week

I spent most of last week in an extremely good mood.

Not only did Obama win, which made me smile goofily or tear up from time to time for days, but I also had a kick a$$ print job on voting day that makes me less of a financial drag than usual.

I also have spent the past week coming down from my election obsession. I don't have to be on the computer or have the TV on, and I seem to be able to get more done now.

My speech team started off the season well, and it was fun to see some of the kids break into finals and not be the first ones off the awards stage in 6th place or even 5th place.

Of course, I have peeked in to spy on the crazy ant farm at teamsarah.org, and they are angry and fearful and whiny and making up atrocious things to scare themselves. Obama has declared that he is king! Obama will force everyone to have an abortion! The financial situation is all his doing! He is STILL a muslim and will kill us all in our beds! Boycott Fox News they said something mean about Sarah! The conversation really didn't change, but now it bores me pretty fast. They are floundering, and most of them are not very bright. Still, I hope somebody besides me is keeping an eye on them. Crazy people for sure.

All is peaceful here. Sunny the cockatiel is perched on my shoulder with his head tucked under his wing. If he didn't poop so much, he would be welcome there all the time.

Now Neffy the cat has decided to perch on the back of the chair and Sunny awoke and started huffing at her. Neffy is not impressed or interested.

The kids are doing their homework, and when they are done we will have dinner and go work out at the Y.

I made pumpkin pies from scratch yesterday, and it was actually better than the pie one gets is stores. More work, but a better, fresher tasting pie.


Life is good. Breathe deep.


.

Whew. I say, whew.

I am so very pleased that Obama won.

I feel like I can have faith in America in general again, and the majority of Americans are not motivated by fear and smear tactics. It's a huge task to undo some of the damage of the past 8 years, and we have a huge job ahead of us, so celebration time is short. So today, I will have a little party going on in my heart.

I know I am not alone in feeling that the outcome of this election was keeping me awake at night for months.

John McCain is a great and honorable man, and he's one of my favorite politicians in Washington. However, his party had been taken over by some genuinely evil people, and there was no way for him to make it as his party's candidate without using them. I wonder if McCain had any choice about choosing Sarah Palin as his running mate, or if that was the final deal with the devil. I still think that he wouldn't have lived long had he taken office with her--he will have better and longer life because of this defeat. And we will need him.

They talked about "exciting the base"-- but what's left of the republican base after eight Bush years is truly some of the worst and most ignorant people in the country. Everyone else fled. It made a loud noise, but it wasn't a big enough group. Thank goodness.

Probably the best thing last night was the long faces and shaky voices at Fox News. They have been the perpetrators of the worst demagoguery and invective for the republican party, and now they can see that it was an epic FAIL.

I told my husband this morning that I feel like a big weight has been lifted from my shoulders, and he joked, yeah, we were all counting on you for this.

But perhaps all of us who voted so convincingly and overwhelmingly for Obama should feel that way. A new beginning can happen because the People spoke over the shouting.

I voted! Have you? It matters.

I was excited to vote today, and was pleased that I hit the voting area during a lull. I thought about getting there at 6:00am, but just couldn't make myself get up. Just as well, the election judges said it was a mad house then.


I would really like to get rid of the electoral college once and for all, but I hope that all will turn out well today.

Crossing fingers.

Palin hasn't apparently read the Constitution--still!

Palin expressed that the press criticizing her is against her first amendment rights.

Actually, she has it backwards. She can still say anything she wants, and the freedom of the press gives them the right to criticize it. Especially when it is deeply dumb and once again showing off how ignorant she is:

Check it out here.

6 Days and Counting

Oh, I sssooooo want this election to be over. I hate everybody.

Not really. I am just ready not to hear about it anymore.

Well, I hate the far-right "christian" "base" of the Republican party. That isn't anything new. They give christianity a bad name. What a hateful,vengeful, hysterical bunch of mouth-breathers.

I need to stop spying on the ant farm, Teamsarah.org. They are shrill, full of hate, full of fear, and just about none of them can spell worth a damn. They are a fascinating hate group disguised as Palin supporters. Should I be surprised? No, and I'm not.

Today, the craziness continued. The chat area is full of "We should boycott ___ because they support Obama" (Evangelicals and other conservative christians are BIG on boycotting as a culture.) If any of them were following their own boycott list, the only things for them left to do were to watch Fox News (the ONLY source of news they admit watching)or stare at a blank wall. You can't even watch "Jeopardy" because they used Obama as one of the clues. Lots of veiled and not so veiled threats of violence towards Obama on chat. No one says "black" but the code word is "muslim." Obama is the antichrist in several blogs, which usually are the ones with the poorest grammar and spelling and typed in caps. Lots of pro-lifers joined the site, as for many of them that is the only qualification they are looking for in a candidate. Never mind that McCain was pro-choice until he was against it.


It's distressing to see the Republican party turning in desperation into a true mob mentality, and catering to the basest of the base to have any support whatsoever. They deserve to lose.

After effects of a car crash and subsequent demon liberal actions

One definite effect of the hit and run car accident that my husband and I had summer 2007 is how much less I am interested in driving into the city at night. Past 10pm, you have significantly more erratic/DUI drivers to contend with, and I just don't like dealing with it. Tonight I had a chance to go into the city and spend some time catching some shows, hanging out with people, and I bailed on my plans. It makes me feel kind of boring and suburban and I resent it.

So what have I been doing? Well, one thing I am having fun with is "conversing" with crazy people at teamsarah.org. Actually, mostly I just look, sort of as if I am gazing at a hate-filled, dellusional ant farm. Among the posts are people wondering if Obama is hypnotizing them when they seem to agree with what he is saying(it's a sign of the anti-christ, you know), about a thousand posts saying he is not actually an American citizen, blogs yelling in caps he is a socialist/communist/Hitler (with no apparent clear concept of what socialist/communist or fascist means), and of course, Obama's unrelenting Ayers connected terrorism. I am peeking into this sordid little clique under an assumed name, and it amuses me how easy it is to make them angry. All you have to do is disagree slightly or ask questions. Oh, if you are not in lockstep for adoration of Palin, or if you are even taken aback with some of the vitrolic and hateful postings, you are an evil demon liberal.

Here is a sample blog to show you some of the inanity:

I got this in an email today. Who knows if it is true, but I loved it anyway and wanted to share it. It's priceless! :)

Today on my way to lunch I passed a homeless guy with a sign that read "Vote Obama, I need the money." I laughed.

Once in the restaurant my server had on a "Obama 08" tie, again I laughed as he had given away his political preference--just imagine the coincidence.

When the bill came I decided not to tip the server and explained to him that I was exploring the Obama redistribution of wealth concept. He stood there in disbelief while I told him that I was going to redistribute his tip to someone who I deemed more in need--the homeless guy outside. The server angrily stormed from my sight.

I went outside, gave the homeless guy $10 and told him to thank the server inside as I've decided he could use the money more. The homeless guy was grateful.

At the end of my rather unscientific redistribution experiment I realized the homeless guy was grateful for the money he did not earn, but the waiter was pretty angry that I gave away the money he did earn even though the actual recipient deserved money more.

I guess redistribution of wealth is an easier thing to swallow in concept than in practical application.

I pointed out that it was unnecessarily mean spirited to deny a poor waiter his earnings just because he disagreed with you. To which she replied heatedly:

I think raising my taxes is "mean spirited" too. I also would miss the money. As I am a single mom helping my my sons pay for their college education. You see, they did not sit at home expecting the good people of this country to take care of them, they got an education so that they can live the American dream and they are both serving their country.

To which I replied:

So you'd take it out on a waiter??? There is so much in the way of mean spiritedness on this web site, I just joined and I am disheartened by it. Are there blogs on here with a more proactive and meaningful way of spreading the message? I have a hard enough time defending my stance without others making republicanism the party of the mean, angry and spiteful. This isn't all that we stand for, is it?

To which someone else replied:

If you think (she) was mean spirited, just what do you call yourself for labeling her? The liberals are famous for namecalling when someone has a different opinion, you need to examine your feellings. By the way, just what do you think spreading the wealth is going to mean?

To which I replied:

LOL are you labeling me a liberal because I don't believe in sticking it to some poor waiter to make a point about Obama's tax plan? I don't believe in hurting people to make a point. If that makes me a liberal, then I guess I do have to reexamine what conservative is.

Keep in mind, gentle readers, that Obama's tax plan does not raise taxes on people earning under $250,000 a year. I did not point this out, I didn't want to raise awareness to my actually thinking or reading much. It doesn't work well with this group.

Her reply;

The point of this blog was to demonstrate the concept of spreading the wealth, also known as redistribution. McCain/Palin supporters are not objecting to this simple exercise; BHO supporters are. McCain/Palin supporters aren't referring to each other as mean, angry and spiteful. BHO supporters are.

The message of this blog was blatantly clear, and one that all hard-working Americans should fear: in a BHO presidency, your money will be taken from you and given away those who earn less.

If you're hungry, BHO will give you a fish; if you're hungry, John McCain will give you a fishing rod and encourage you to reel in your own fish everyday.

To which I kindly replied (without questioning what the hell she is talking about):

But I still cringe at the idea of someone really putting this into practice. That would be mean spirited, and there is no way around that, it just would be. And it would reflect badly on us, and not change anyone's mind. How would you make a point about how his life would be better with McCain/Palin would be better. But what could we do, to illustrate how the McCain/Palin plan is good for working class Americans? The rich will be fine no matter what, and there aren't a whole lot of them to talk to anyway. What is our positive message? Negativity isn't working.

It has been hours and hours, and no one has responded. I suspect that no one actually knows, since the message from the McCain/Palin camp has been one of unrelenting negativity towards Obama, and just about zero about what they are planning on doing to make things work again. Their supporters don't know, they just repeat what has been repeated over and over again to them, whether it makes sense or not.

I know that posting this may "blow my cover," but that's okay. I just heard on the news that Palin is going ROGUE, crashing through the forests, trumpeting, stomping on advisors and elevating Obama to communist dictator single-handedly with her trunk.

Quite a useless blog entry.

Well. I promised myself that I would write here about once a week. I don't have a lot to say this week, though. I have a cold. I am not sleeping well.

I am very fatigued with all the election brouhaha, so I won't go on with that. The HuffingtonPost.com is very interesting, check it out, and just to scare yourself, take a look at sarahsteam.org to see women who have willingly blinded themselves and turned off their brains just to belong to a club.

Random thoughts:

Pledge drive time on public radio. Pledge, get some cool goodies. The news and all the other shows are da bomb. G'wan, listen and learn, and be entertained without fart and dick jokes and general puerile humor on the MIX or other morning shows. Commercial free! Do it because Mancow is going back on the air, ready to lower everyone's IQ again.

Cold medicine sucks just about as much as having a cold. I am not sure which one makes me feel like I am in a floaty, unreal bubble.

Why are gigs and auditions so cyclical? I had nothing going on for 2 weeks, and next week I am doing something almost every day. How does my skin know this and decide to break out spectacularly every time?

It occurs to me that I really don't go into the artistic side of myself in this blog. It is the main passion of my life, outside of actual current events. I will remedy this in a future bunch of blogs. Too loopy right now.


This is lame, but it keeps my resolution going. Leave me some banal comments.

Final Debate--whew.

Well, aren't we glad it's over. So exciting! Wow! I needed a drink.

As I was pouring a glass of merlot, I thought about this final debate. McCain was on the attack, but still stuck mostly to his talking points and veered again towards sounding cranky and petulant. Obama stayed mostly cool and classy, but sounded like he was tired or suffering from low blood sugar.

I took a little sip. Ah...I started to calm down. Debates get me all excited...

I still like both of these men. I still think they give a great debate. McCain all fiery, grinding his teeth and huffing like bear into his microphone when he isn't speaking, Obama looking all geeky cool, trying to stay awake even when he is speaking--tonight anyway.

Memories of the debate swirl in my mind as I stare at the glass...

Kudos to Obama for not going there when asked about Palin and what he thought of her. She is her own one woman wrecking crew, she needs no help. Biden, according to McCain, has been wrong a lot. Good guy though.

McCain defended his decision to add Palin to the ticket. It sounded a bit forced, answering the question about what he thought would be good about her as a president if need be. He described her more like she would be good advocate for a large non-profit center for special needs kids, not as head of the world's most powerful government. It was lame, and maybe even he knew it.

McCain tried to look tearful about how his campaign has been portrayed as hate mongering lately, but hey, it's all on video and audio, repeatedly. Note to McCain-- John, no one buys that you are wrongly portrayed. It is just another backfiring strategy, cut it out and let's move on. Hopefully, no one will try to go after Obama, and you and Palin will not be criminally culpable for inciting people to violence. Really, dude, what were you thinking??!! Make sure you include Palin in on the memo for this change too, okay? She always seems out of the loop with these things...

Obama seemed worn out. I have never seen him have so much trouble getting his words out. He still got them out, though. I was a little concerned with a few questions that he would run out of time before he completed a sentence.

Who won the debate? Well, each side held their own. There were no real revelations. I am sure it will be spun this way and that. Probably it will lean more toward Obama, since all he had to do was hold his own. McCain had more to lose, but he gave this one a good fight and should feel good about it.

My glass of wine is gone astonishingly fast. My stomach is warm, my pulse is slowing. I decide against another glass. All things in moderation.

I am glad there were only four debates with presidential and vice presidential candidates. If there had been more, the public would be wretching with the rhetorical overload.

So there it is. Let's put a cork in it.

Sarah Palin, Hate Monger

(I'm a speech coach. Tuesday nights are advanced forensics night, where we do mini-classes and coaching with the varsity speech students. It usually goes on til a little past nine, and then we coaches catch up with each other. I figured the debate wasn't going to be anything new, and if something unusual did happen, it would get played ad nauseum today anyway. So, I can't add any thoughts today on what I saw, because I won't comment on excerpts.)

Mostly, today I am concerned with the McCain campaign's latest use of Sarah Palin as the hate monger. She has been stoking paranoia and apparently getting an audience that represents the "base" part of the base, who scream "Kill him" as she talks about Barack (Hussein) Obama and his crazy 1960s terrorist neighbor (with whom he once worked on a literacy program in Chicago Public Schools).

You don't have to be smart or accurate or actually know about the national issues if you are hate mongering. You don't have to have any solutions when you are hate mongering. You just have to repeat hateful things over and over again, and say it with a wink and a smile. It is an effective use of her talents, but I sincerely hope that this sort of approach will wake up more of the decent republican voters to be aware of how badly their party has been taken over by dirty,evil and desperate means.

I have some hope. As a friend of mine said, "I am still a republican, but we don't all drink the kool-aid." And indeed, poll-wise it seems many republicans feel the same way.

When are the fiscally conservative, socially more open minded republicans going to take their party back over? The W. Bush years and the latest campaign have robbed thinking republicans of any self-respect. John McCain sold his soul to the far right, so don't think he will be a help anymore.

Republicanism has degenerated to meaning one who believes in huge deficits, environmental rape, greed, expansion of the wealthy class at the expense of the poor, and spreading fear and paranoia as a diversion from substantive discussion of the real scary issues.

I realize the latest turn in the McCain campaign is a mark of desperation--but how far will it go to rouse the basest of their base? What are they trying to achieve? Is the McCain campaign inciting violence against their opponent? Do they think this is the only way the will win?

VP Debate

Haven't listened to the spin meisters. Glad to see it wasn't a gaffe-a-thon. Would have felt terrible if Palin imploded, glad to see that 5 weeks of sequestering made her perform credibly, even if sounding quite rehearsed, and noticably evasive answering if she was in unfamiliar territory.

I am always struck by the difference in looking/listening to Sarah Palin and just listening to Sarah Palin. If you just listen, she doesn't come off nearly as well as when you are also looking at her. You can also tell where she is over-rehearsed, and where she is panicking just with vocal tone. Look at her, it is harder to tell. Very interesting.

Joe Biden was the debate winner, but Palin may still be on the ticket as of tomorrow. She will still be an albatross around McCain's neck if they let her talk unrehearsed again. Don't fall for tonight's performance. The Couric, Gibson and Hannity interviews show us the real person.

Hmmmm....I could use about $150 Billion in Sweeteners too...

Here they are, trying to ram this "necessary" $700 billion bailout through Congress--the most expensive bailout for stupidly managed companies ever, and the elected oaf-icials are adding "Sweeteners" to the tune of $150 Billion EXTRA dollars, and still no real way to get the money back that they are "borrowing" from the tax payers. Important things like "tax incentives" and money for the movie industry and for children's archery toy manufacturers...if McCain or Obama think they aren't going to hear about that as part of what is wrong with them and with Washington, I hope everyone will give them what for. Now 541 pages long, it is now big enough to obfuscate any embezzlement from the American people that they wish. Gosh, I wish I had a lobbyist who could give me all that sweetness...

Instead, make some calls to your representatives today and tell them to get those extra expenditures out of this travesty of a bill. I hope that the House of Representatives hears from enough constituents about the latest travesty that they fear for their political lives if they do not vote it off.