News Briefs - How I get the news now, briefly

Rush Limbaugh is not news. I don't want to hear about him anymore. Enjoy your obnoxious little Mr. Potato Head, Spudlettes. He is a distraction, and I don't want to be distracted. Actually, isn't that the problem with the GOP leadership right now? Too many people want to be Zaphod Beeblebrox, no one actually wants to lead.

Jon Stewart's lambasting of the Cramer-dude from the visually unwatchable show, "Mad Money"(CNBC) was sort of weird. Sure, Cramer is a douchebag and gave awful advice, but he isn't the cause of the whole meltdown, or even the worst of soft headed, disingenuous "newspeople" that work with CNBC. Cramer was so contrite, I was worried he was going to start crying.

The thing is, to a certain extent, ALL the networks are far more concerned with appeasing their advertisers than anything else, including reporting truthfully and to the best of their abilities. All network programming caters to either pleasing the eyeballs of their watchers, or scaring the hell out of them so they stay focused through the commercial breaks.

A better paradigm would be to have a news source that is beholden to no one for monetary support. Kind of like public radio or public television, yeah. Except with less begging and pledge drives.

The Sears Tower will now be the Willis Tower. Already known better now as the "Whatchu talkin' 'bout Willis" Tower. Brilliant. Gives me all sorts of hope for the Willis Insurance Company moving in there from the UK. Apparently, they insure kooky hijinks and teachable moments.

A bit of a Dash

Now I am in the working world, I have even less time to think up bloggy things. I apologize.

Change can be Good

First and foremost, I must report that, much to my consternation, I (aka my fake identity) have been banned from TeamSarah.org. If you can't march in lock step with their "values" (which don't include free speech, apparently) you can't be on their site. I wasn't rude, just not agreeing with some people who cannot see reason. That was enough.

I know. I know. Where will I get my dose of illiterate conservatives blogging with sooo many spelling and grammatical errors? The hypocrisy of pro-lifers against regular birth control who revile low income parents who can't support their children? Where will I be able to stay updated on the latest on rumors that must be true because it was on the internets? I guess I will have to just watch Elizabeth Hasselback on The View.

I think I got dinged because I couldn't support worshipping Rush Limbaugh as King of the Conservatives. And I wouldn't apologize.

Well, I guess I will have to make do. It will make jumping over to the Huffington Post a little less like jumping into a cool freshwater spring after a hot miserable day, but that will be okay.

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I started back to full time employment in sales as of late last week. It is weird to go so easily back after spending so much time freelancing and full time mommying. It's an adjustment, but so far not so bad. Luckily, it's with some really decent co-workers and bosses who seem pretty drama free, logical and reasonable, so that makes it easier.

The only problem is pretty normal--which is, you have to go prospecting for clients before you can do any selling. This is the really tedious part of the process. Completely necessary, but oh, I hope to move out of this stage soon. The only way out is to do a lot of calling and networking. Anyone reading this need to plan a business meeting and are looking for some pretty awesome destinations and properties? Shoot me a note! Hotels have some mighty sweet deals going on....

My husband has had the opportunity to work part of the day at home lately, so he is there for the kids after school. They are not used to him standing around and asking them how their day went. I am not sure why this is freaking them out a little. I think they were hoping for unsupervised, unlimited video gaming time.

Overall, we are having some change going on in our lives, but change is good.

Another Wednesday Random

Yep, it's time for another Wednesday Random, since I am not satisfied with any of the essays I am constructing. I promised myself to be consistently posting, and I keep my promises.

•I hate to sound like I take sides,(snork, um yeah) but the difference between Obama and the GOP's "wonderkind" Bobby Jindal last night was pretty stark. Obama did what he needed to do, which was inspire the country while reminding us that it is going to take a new responsibility and some sacrifice. Jindal was dead-eyed and sing-songy reading the teleprompter (he should really take more lessons on how not to do that) basically saying that "government is bad, and I got folksy stories."

•And alright, I'll admit it. I peeked in last night on my favorite right wing nut web site, Teamsarah.org. The site has been pretty quiet except for the most extreme misspelling ALL CAPS typers. "Sarah Palin is our Esther" worship has been pretty muted lately, but there are still lots of tirades about Obama the Hitler and Obama the Antichrist. Some people are STILL writing daily about Obama's birth certificate, and William Ayers. Also, the latest boycott is Kohls because Ashley Judd is a spokesperson for their makeup line, and she said something mean about Sarah Palin's approval of hunting wolves from helicopters. Last night, even the most rabid right winger was only charitable towards Jindal. It could be because of his skin color though. They don't like dark people on TeamSarah.

•I start a new job tomorrow! I am excited about it, but also apprehensive. I haven't been a full time employee of someone else for many years. However, I worry about is still having quality time with my boys, which has been my main priority since I became the at-home parent so many years ago. They are pretty big now, though, so I can't really say they need me here all the time. This time I probably won't feel the crushing Mommy Guilt I felt when I was working full time when my oldest was a baby.

•On the personal front, all is calm, except my face. I am splurging on a fraxel laser resurfacing of areas of my face that have been marred with acne scars and melasma. Frivolous, maybe, but I am hoping for an excellent result. I did the first session of 3 on Monday, and today I look like I am in the throes of healing from a sunburn. In a few days I will see if there is some improvement already as I heal.

News Didn't Scare Me this Time

The front scream page of Yahoo News this morning proclaims that the US Standard of Living is going to permanently decline because of this recession. Credit is going to become harder to come by and wages will be lower, and prices may be lowering permanently as well. It was set up to look alarming, because if it isn't scary looking, it isn't news. On average though, this may be not such a bad thing, but an adjustment that has been way overdue.

I live by the credo that if you can't afford it right now with the money you have, you don't buy it. If you don't need it, don't buy it. My husband is the same way and I am sure we have avoided a lot of stress with the shared philosophy.

There is a difference between living in a culture of consumption and culture of satisfying needs. Americans have nearly bankrupted themselves as a nation not understanding the difference. Now, we will have to pay for that willful stupidity, and companies and people who tried to live beyond their means are learning some painful lessons on what it's like to live in true need, or maybe even desperate need. Companies may cease to exist, people will get distressed and adjust to survive differently.

Anyone who knows me or has read this blog with any regularity knows that I am not a fan of overconsumerism. It rapes the planet and no one is happier with all that "stuff." The Bush Administration encouraged it after 9/11 since it was distracting and it hyperinflated the economic numbers, but it also fostered greed, selfishness and flagrant irresponsibility. Even within his own administration, Bush took it to the nth level by unprecedented government growth and wasteful spending off borrowed money. Any republican or right wing commentator complaining about the present stimulus plan being "unprecedented governmnent spending" need only look back at the past 8 years and stick that in their maws and block their damn windpipes.

My concern is for those who were already close to the edge. People who through limited education, poor circumstances, age or bad health gave up on anything but the bare necessities even in boom times. These are the people I worry about most. These are the people that we as a society need to take care of and not, as some right wing nut jobs keep trying to do, blame them and tell them they had it coming to them. (Don't even get me started on the hypocrisy of pro-life/revilement of single parents who can't support their kids.)

I come from the perspective of someone fairly blessed--we haven't had any job losses in our immediate family, our health is good, and because we are naturally frugal, we aren't worried about bills because we've never overspent.

But as a nation, priorities have been out of whack, and now it is going to take a long time to adjust. I hope that the stimulus package, though it is also borrowed money will be a good move, and be used as a safety net and job stimulus and not just a way to keep the illusion of things being the same as they were. We do need to change our "standard of living" to be less consuming of the world's resources and more understanding of what is important to a society. We have to pay back what is owed, and it will take sacrifice over a long period of time by the whole nation. There is no way around it. It isn't a bad thing to take responsibility and accept sacrifice for our actions as a nation.

It sure beats the hell out of pointing fingers, blaming, and pretending everything is fine as long as we keep shopping.

Wednesday Random

Today is Wednesday Random. Included today is useless blather and pictures and a bit of a piano recital.

We can see the ground, thanks to a February warm up. Now it is muddy and gloppy, but by gosh, I can start imagining things growing in the swampy garden, and it makes me happy. I am starting some seedlings today of winter lettuce and whatever else strikes my fancy from the seed box. However, I will have them under grow lights and in the window for now. Temps in the 60s for one day can't fool me.

My high school speech team had Regionals for speech last weekend, and we managed to get 5 events to Sectionals this weekend, and Performance in the Round as well. Our Sectional is devilishly hard, probably harder than State. It would be cool to get one of them at least to State, but this year it is all the way down near the bottom of Illinois, so I am not sure how much we are hoping for it. Darn long trip.

I think on hold music should just be some rockin' radio station, not muzak. Yesterday at work I was put on hold with a very awesome music station, and it made me actually enjoy being on hold.

Children should be allowed to read whatever they want, even if their reading level testing indicates they should be reading harder books. My older son avoids reading for pleasure because when he was younger, he somehow tested into the 9th grade reading level and his teacher took this as gospel. There were very few books in his reading level in the school library, and the ones that were had content entirely over the head for the mind of an immature 8 year old, no matter how big his vocabulary. Even Harry Potter was considered off limits because it was in a lower lexile. It was rigid and educationally criminal, and it took a long time for him to have any joy in reading.

Sometimes, teachers are dumber than rocks.


Here is another striped scarf. It will be a gift to my friend Melody.

My kids did a piano recital last weekend. It was entertaining overall, even with over 40 performers showing their pieces. Here is the video (just the most important two performers):

A little party was had

The funny thing about this little blog is that people who read it call me up and talk about it instead of leaving a little comment. Good thing I don't have an ego...snork.

Anyway, I got to go out last night with some of my fellow speech coaches after a long tournament day and a long meeting afterwards to decide the last few entries on our regional team. I had a very fun time. I went off my usual beer-only rule and tried a shot of a delicious drink I think I will order more often--the Dirty Girl Scout. It is made with creme de menthe, coffee liquor, chocolate liquor and vodka. Delicious, just like a thin mint. Dangerous! I also got buffalo wings, which happens about twice a year. As usual, everyone else could comparatively drink me under the table, so I saw lots of other intiguing foo foo drinks as well. Most of the other coaches are female, and this is not my usual drinking crowd. Usually if I go out it is with improvisers, who are usually male and ordering PBRs. ( I haven't improvised for almost a year, so now you know how long it has been since I have been out.)

We stayed out talking long enough that I didn't have to fear for my sobriety, which meant hours of talking. I don't drive unless I feel 100% fine. The talking and laughing was the best part.

Today I feel a little more human, a little happier, and a little more optimistic. I had a little party. I may get through the winter yet.

SAD Sufferer Needs a Party

(Cue the dirge music)

After the high of the Obama Inauguration, there is presently nothing to look forward to for a while. I have a birthday in March, but February is one of those months that one just has to endure. Valentine's Day and President's Day don't count for much but candy and furniture sales, and I don't need either of them.

This winter has been closer to the winters of my youth. Winters of my younger years were dark and bitter. They were cold too.

When I was a kid in Ohio, we had winters that were unreasonably cold and had such deep snow we didn't see the ground for literally months. One year, in the last week of February, I went outside and dug in the snow in the back yard. I couldn't stand being stuck inside the house anymore, and I was frustrated with my family, starting the shift to pubescence, and just plain feeling SAD without knowing what it was. I dug and dug and finally could reach down a whole arm length and STILL could not find ground. I started to cry, and then I started to shriek, and then I started pummeling the snow. I kept digging and pummeling, and finally found the ground in a hole that, had I stood in it, would have come up near to my waist. Instead, I just bent over into it and cried my eyes out as I finally touched the frozen grass.

I'm not screaming into snowholes yet. However, it isn't February for a few more days. Right now I just feel more "meh" than usual.

Maybe I need to sit on the back patio in a bikini on a sunny day with a space heater or three, a pitcher of lemonade and a stack of seed catalogs. Oi. What a picture. My albedo is stunning.

I have decided that I want a party. I want a February party now. It must be bright, it must involve summer activities, and it must involve friends. I will do this! Who wants in? I will go shrieking into the tundra in a few weeks...

WOOOT! OBAMA! OBAMA!

I watched the inauguration with tears in my eyes with hope and happiness and resolve in my heart.
The inauguration had a very tasteful set of music (with my friend Ira Carrol's son playing clarinet in the quartet with Itzak Perlman and Yo Yo Ma!) and nice invocation and a lovely benediction that overshadowed the American Poet in its lyricism.

As much as I will always kick myself for not getting to Grant Park on Election Day, I am content to just have a little party in my heart here in Chicago, and an All-American meal of Chicago Dogs for lunch. I don't like traffic snarls, and fancy dressing in the middle of winter makes me cold.

Good Luck and God Bless our NEW PRESIDENT!!!!!!!!

Wednesday Random

• Feeling a little nostalgic for the Bush Administration already? Here is a lovely retrospective of the Bush years compiled by the Harper's Weekly that will put it all into perspective. It gives an alarming picture of how much the incoming administration has to work to undo the damage. I wish Obama the best of good fortune and my full and heartfelt support.

• I live in Ch-ch-chi-Chicago and it is c-c-c-old. Windchills of 40 degrees below zero tonight. How cold is it? My 13 year old actually wore a hat and scarf and gloves today and zipped up his coat!
  

• I have been taking a stage movement class the past couple of weeks, focusing on movement for plays in the Restoration and Georgian periods. It's fascinating, because I have always just guessed my way through period pieces, imitating what I saw in movies and on stage. It's been fun to find out the whys and wherefores of what was appropriate behavior for the aristocracy at that time--and plays written in that time period are almost exclusively about the aristocracy since they were the only ones that "mattered." The most interesting fun fact that I learned--because of the styles in that time period, when women sat down they splayed their legs wide open! This was to show off the skirts underneath the over skirts. It's disconcerting to be so slow moving, upright, showy and refined, and then sit down like a dainty trucker.

• And finally, may I put in a good word for the Public Library? Aside from when I lived in California, I have always been blessed with excellent public libraries in the cities where I have lived. Our entire family has been endlessly informed and entertained, for free and not just with books, but with movies, a toy borrowing program and even art. For our family, isn't summer without the local Summer Reading program, which provides incentives from area businesses and a cool t-shirt at completion. This winter, we've been there at least twice a week for fresh books. Towns and cities who take care of their libraries and fund them properly overall are the best places to live. When hunting for the best place to raise a family, look first to the local public library. Ours rocks!
  

Ya gotta GROW UP!

When I was a young actor in San Francisco, I was in a very touchy-feely navel-grazing-ish acting class based on the Lee Strasberg method acting school and a little more. The class not only worked a lot with sense memory exercises, and being in the moment, but also with exploring why we, the actor, did what we do in real life, what our "blockages" were and finding out where unhealthy or destructive patterns came from.

It was a real life-changer for me. I was young, in a new place, newly graduated, eager to prove myself and my defenses were tissue thick. I learned a lot about myself. I learned that being a soft and sensitive woman was not a weakness of mine, but a strength. It is amazing to me now, but that was a HUGE breakthrough in how I deal with life.

After about a year and a half though, I felt stuck, and left the class. The issue was dealing with our "inner child." This concept for self exploration and a whole school of therapy was first made popular by John Bradshaw in his book "Homecoming: Reclaiming and Championing Your Inner Child" in the late 1980s-early 90s and is still in use in some therapy circles today. The theory goes that inside of each adult, there is a little, vulnerable child who needs nurturing from all the ways your childhood was lacking or damaged or traumatized. (Hint: it's usually your parents' fault. Oh, joy.)

This is my inner child. Be nice to her, she is from Ohio.

There are some valid and exciting things to discover with doing this sort of exploration. You can remember where some negative beliefs or reactions have their roots, you can look at old hurts from a grown up perspective, and learn where it effected you and why they happened. If you get to that point, you can grow from there, change bad patterns, acknowledge and forgive mistakes made by yourself and others, and move on.

The problem is, for a lot of therapists (or touchy-feely acting instructors,) the exploration is so lucrative and can be made so mind-bogglingly complicated, that the solution step of learning from the inner child is either not revealed or not encouraged for years and years. Acknowledgement, forgiveness and perspective does not seem to weigh in soon enough.

The follower of this particular form of therapy can easily get stuck in resentment, helpless frustration, and a culture of victimhood.

The concept of exploring the "inner child" it is laudable that it gives a person working through issues a way to understand the basis of where their decisions came from in a non-threatening manner (i.e. the parents always disciplined by shaming and hitting and yelling and this effected how you saw yourself) but it is too easy to make a false connections (i.e. so you started drinking and became a drug addict and it is THEIR fault!). How you were raised is one thing, what you did with the baggage was NOT their choice in your life, but your own.

It is comforting, but false to make your own destructive choices someone else's doing.
It assumes that you have no free will, and your life was never your own.
Ultimately, it stunts your ability to see that change is up to you, and fixing things is up to you and not in someone else's power.
Blaming never fixed a problem.
Taking responsibility, plotting a course of action and following through fixes problems.

In regular life or in the development of an actor's craft, stagnation is not going to lead to a successful outcome. Growth and freedom cannot be claimed by hiding from change or self-actualization. And wallowing with your "inner child" instead of learning from it will not help you move forward.

In the end, being an adult means being responsible for how you are raising yourself.

More New Year's Blog

I thought I would let these resolutions be known too:

I resolve to figure out when to use "who," and when to use "whom." I will also try to think about this in the case of grammar.

I will decide if I think Daniel Craig is insufferably hot, or if he looks like a monkey. I keep going back and forth with this one.
Insufferably HOT!


...and looks like a monkey.



I will remember people's birthdays in the same month that they have them, and send cards in a timely manner.

I resolve to change my teen and preteen's room decor away from preschool to something age appropriate. This must be done before they start hiding girls in the stuffed animal corner.

I want to invent a cockatiel diaper. Sunny the Bird has no sense of propriety, and excellent aim.









More to follow...

New Year's Blog

Wow, this blog, with all its names, will soon be one year old! Happy Birthday, Blog!

I am pleased that I did keep up with my resolution to write at least one blog a week in article or essay format. This year, I resolve to write 2 blogs a week of some content, and to get out of my comfort zone and attempt writing plays and sketches again. I lack confidence, but if I don't do it, I can't improve. So there.

Other resolutions include the perennial losing weight (though I actually lost a few lbs. DURING the Christmas season, which is amazing) run another marathon, get back on stage in at least 3 shows, being a better and more giving person and knitter, and avoid crazy people. Which means among other things--no more spying on the crazy haters at TeamSarah.org.

Crazy people don't change. Observing or talking to them is a profound exercise in frustration. The main reason I did not pursue a masters in psychology after my bachelors is because there is no sound, scientific way to reason with or at least soundly and satisfyingly throttle an insane person into mental health. Crazy people without medical issues must be left be to crazy until they want to change and can take responsibility for it. It is an unfortunate part of my make up that I can't listen to people drone on about their problems or uninformed world views without offering many common sense solutions or finally telling them that they are f*king stupid idiots and why, and how they should just stop it right now.

I resolve to stop listening at once to anyone who uses the phrase, "drinking the Koolaid" because it is stupid, trite and generally overused by right wing nutjobs. This means a continued avoidance of Fox News. This is my easiest resolution.

Things I would like to see in 2009;

* An excellent start and progression of the Obama Administration
* My friends and family having a much better year that 2008 which, in general, has been a real bastard hellhole of a year.
* Environmental awareness and action becoming a real priority as a world, not just a nice thing to think about, hopefully while we can still do something before a disasterous collapse of the ecosystem.
* World Peace

Have a Safe and Happy New Year!

Merry Christmas WEEK!

We just got back from a visit to my side of the family for Christmas. My older son ended up having a stomach virus for most of the time, making it 2 holidays in row where he has been sick as dog and we make him come with us anyway. Bad Mommy! He mostly recovered and then my husband got sick. It still was overall a fun time, even if half of my immediate family couldn't eat.

On the way home, the kids made up a story as they often do on long trips. This is why we do not have a dvd player in our car. Tonight's story, had Alex, the youngest son, cast as a serf, named Alex Papadopolous, (great grandson of Gary "Ricebowl" Papadapolous,) who had stolen his lord's armor and horse and had started entering jousting tournaments and winning them. This afforded him something other than serf food to eat, which made him happy. He ran into a magical being named Jim, who was drunk, but able to perform amazing feats of magic if he was treated correctly. The problem with magical creatures in this story was that if they were drunk, they were dangerous, but if they weren't, they were useless. Getting Jim to be able to do anything was the hysterical half the story. Another third was intricate descriptions of each joust, and the rest was plot movement to get to the next tournament and conflict.

I think if these guys end up becoming writers, it may be part of their creative process to take long car trips together with nothing else to do.

But Christmas doesn't end there! We have a long tradition of doing our family gift giving on New Years Eve. This used to be moved all the way out to January 25th, when it was just me and Dan. In the early years, it took all our money just to get back to Ohio for Christmas, so we postponed our personal Christmas a month so we could get presents for each other without going into debt. It was a great way to spread out the season and take advantage of after Christmas sales.

So, it is Merry Christmas WEEK! Merry Christmas! Have safe travels, and good quality time with people who matter most!

Deb

Some pictures of what I was talking about...

This is the legged snowman who always graces my Christmas tree. I just posted it on my Facebook and embarrassed my nephew, who made it when he was 4. He is in college now.

I actually just finished this--it is a Noro Silk Garden scarf, two complementary skeins in a reversible knit one purl one pattern of two row stripes.