Random insomniac thoughts

I am more than disturbed by the amped-up hate rhetoric from the Fox "News" Network.

Sure, it gets ratings, revving up the right wing leaning folks, enraging the left wing leaning folks. It endlessly gets called out for lies, fabrications, racially inflammatory hate speech and plain craziness by the highly popular "Daily Show with Jon Stewart."

The "Tea Parties" that were sponsored and promoted by the Fox Commentary Network where covered as if they were news and not a sponsored event. Not as well attended as they hoped, but a great organizing tool for the reactionary folks.

Then, people were encouraged to act like Jerry Springer show wannabes at town hall meetings in order to get coverage and get on TV. Fox promised to cover it, and nothing else, and followed up with that. Shouting down and intimidating people with real concerns and questions was also encouraged. No First Amendment rights for anyone, but a great spectical!

Now there may be no public option to health care reform, taking care of some of the folks who have no care--like the idiot who tried to take up a collection for his medical bills after getting into a fight with someone at a town hall meeting because he was unemployed.

Beck and Hannity really seem to be digging this attention, but they have a tiger by the tail. There is a huge difference between catering to the lowest denominator for ratings and sound bites, and irresponsibly inciting them to violence, hatred, and crazy action.

The tabloid web site for Fox called "Fox Nation" goes all the way to crazytown and is commented on by some of the most vile and sick people who seem to be ready to go do civil war. They have their guns locked and loaded. They are ready to create one hell of a Fox News sponsored homegrown terror event.

Is it no wonder that I consider FOX the leading threat to our democracy?

Living with temporary slight disability

Earlier this summer, I thought I pulled a muscle in my back while weeding. However, it didn't go away.

I thought it may be an alignment issue, and since I had a good experience with the chiropractic school in Lombard, I decided to give the chiropractor/physical therapy unit of my medical group a try. He is a professor at the school, as well as being a naparopath and acupuncturist and a medical doctor.

He gave me the bad news that he thought I had a herniated disc. An MRI confirmed that a had a pretty significant one.

So, a couple weeks ago, I started chiropractic treatment. At first I was amazed--I didn't need to take any pain killers any more after just 2 treatments. I started to feel very optimistic. I was on my 5th treatment when I went to go work out afterward and the next day something was different.

I don't think I was crazy or anything, but I was getting more of my usual movement back and feeling like I could do a light non-weight bearing exercise, like use the stationary bike. I did a great half hour on it. Felt great.

But now I have a shooting pain down my leg. I have sciatica. It sucks!

Movement is improving, but the pinch is quite aggravating, and I am back on ibuprophen.

It is better today than it was before a weekend of rest, but I am getting impatient and a little self pitying. This is the best running summer ever here in the Chicago area, and I can't run even a little bit.

Mostly, I am concerned with my lack of physical activity. I had planned on running the Chicago Marathon, and getting really buff. Instead, I am barely doing more than walking around and I am starting to look like a doughy "before" picture.

I realize that I don't really have it that bad, other people have it worse. I just want to get back to feeling good again, and this is putting a huge crimp in my lifestyle.

I just thought I would share these. Paul Thomas went through the Second City Conservatory with me many years ago. and he is one of the funniest writers I know. The song "Tighty Whiteys" debuted during the Conservatory years, and the "Questionable Beef " song is performed with his band, "Lola Balatro." Musically sound and catchy, these odes are to common things made zany and hilarious.

Short notes

I was expecting the Michael Jackson Memorial Service to be completely L.A. (false, crass, and smarmy) but somebody engineered a little taste into it. Still, I wished that someone had been caring for him better so that this did not have to happen. He was a gifted, odd and needy person, but the people around him only cared what he could do for them. Fifty concert performances from a guy in fragile health who was over 50...someone wanted him to go crazy or die trying...

Sarah Palin. Ah, so much has been written. What else can I say? Buh bye? Go away?

I pulled a gluteus medius muscle a few weeks ago weeding the garden, and it isn't healing as fast as I would like. We are having some of the best running outside weather, and I can only walk or use the extremely boring elliptical machine. What a pain in the ass.

Today is an important day--Twenty years ago, my husband and I tied the knot. I am not making a big deal out of it for some familial reasons, and also because I don't feel like I am old enough to have been married that long. It has been really a happy time. Dan is the best, and if I could clone him and hand him out to all my single friends, I would make them all happy too.

In Other News...

...Last weekend's show went just fine, and my early onset dementia seems to have been cured by antibiotics and the renewed ability to breathe.

...I am shocked and saddened by Michael Jackson's death, because his music was in the background of my life for most of my teen and college years. I never had to buy his albums because all I had to do was turn on the radio and one of his songs would come up within a few minutes. His life seems so terribly sad. RIP Michael.

...I feel sad for Farrah Fawcett too, but she had given it the good fight, and also wish her well in the afterward.

...What, now Karl Malden? Well, he was 97. That is a pretty good old age. I hope he was ready to move along as well.

...Closer to home, my friend Jesus's mom passed away after a 7 month fight with brain cancer. For him it is sadness, but also relief, because it is no fun to watch someone suffer so much, and just have to wait for the inevitable. I hope she is exploring whatever it is that comes next, and that he gets to have some freedom from worry and strife. Grief will be natural, but so is feeling unburdened and lightened to a certain extent. RIP Chuy's mama.

To get away from death, this weekend we have a celebration of the birth of our country, so make the most of it! It's not perfect, and we are still some of the most ornery cussed people around, but we have a new beginning this year, and time will tell how it all goes. Have faith, and try to keep from dying so we can all see how it turns out.

A little bit of actor hell...

This weekend, we opened "Bounty of Lace" a very nice new play at the Lincoln Square Theatre in Chicago. I play "Geula" who is this wonderfully complex character in a play about Israeli women dealing with life, loss and choices.

The director is a young guy who is personally going through the seven circles of hell right now in his personal life--I won't go into it, but trust me, it would be really hard to be him right now and be able to cohesively put sentences together, let alone direct a show. But he did, and it was difficult, but we all worked together and got the play going where it needs to go.


So, last night, Sunday, was opening night. Here is where my little bit of hell came in--

I have been having a lot of coughing lately, left over from a cold a few weeks ago, and on Saturday it started to become something more than just a cough. My chest hurts. I am so freaking tired. And I can't often get a full breath.

This play was very hard for all of us to memorize, but for some reason, me most of all. I fear early onset dementia. My husband, going over the lines with me, noted that my character is not consistent in phrasing, and sometimes sounds like a native Israeli speaker and sometimes is very American sounding. This could be because she lived in America for a while, but the upshot is, it makes it difficult to memorize, especially with potential early onset dementia. And Geula talks a lot. In fact, she starts the show with a 6 minute monologue.

Before the show, I was terrified I would cough uncontrollably or wheeze or faint during the show. I was also feeling lethargy and chills. So, since I have no understudy, I took all the meds I could safely mix together without getting the shakes. I got them anyway, but I wasn't coughing and I could breathe.

I had my first bout with stage fright just before I went on. I breathed and reminded myself my heart was racing because of the sudafed and albuterol, not fear. I got out on stage and actually felt pretty good. I clipped through the monologue, going fine, then I got to the very last phrase of it, and blanked. Hard. Time slowed down. I stood there like a deer in the headlights. A halo of dark surrounded my vision. An eternity passed before someone dimmed the lights and the actress playing my daughter went up, as she should have once I finished the phrase, that I could not remember to save my life.

Talk about feeling stupid and humiliated.

The rest of the show went fine. In fact, people seemed to really enjoy it, and Dan, who is my audience safety blanket, was actually very flattering in what he had to say and said that it looked like a missed light cue to him.

It wasn't a missed light cue. It was a worm hole in time that went right through the memory centers of my brain, and the whole cast and crew knew it. Humiliating.

Little did I know there was a reviewer there. Once I found out, I felt even worse. However, this is all they had to say:

New Review (Theater and Comedy)

Bounty of Lace

Through 7/18: check with theater for repertory schedule,
312-458-9170
Theater & Performance

The most intriguing character in Susan Merson's drama is Guela, a weary Israeli mother and walking tangle of contradictions. At once adopting the yoke of tradition and chafing against it, she's envious, resentful, and proud of her independent-minded stepdaughter, whose affair with a Palestinian man has left her pregnant. The conflict between these two has promise, but Merson dilutes it by introducing two ancillary female characters--a goofy American ex-pat and a wise Ethiopian university professor--presumably meant to show a wider cross-section of women and the choices open to them. The effect, though, is an intrusion that bars us from fully delving into Guela's conflicted emotions. Jesus Contreras's production has a few nice, quiet moments, but too often the cast opts for yuks and bustle. Part of the Alcyone Festival. --Zac Thompson $10-$20, festival pass $50

To be fair, the show will probably not be as tending towards "yuks and bustle" in subsequent performances. Because of the place in his life that the director is in, at first he was directing the show to a very dour and loveless and dark place--once the artistic directors had a look at it, and had the playwright talk to him about where she saw the characters, we had to do a complete 180 degrees in a lot of ways in the space of a week. It could be that we swung a little too far the other way. I am sure that it will settle down by the next performance.

And save me, oh save me from any other wormholes in time...

Ohhhh, drama

Well, I seem to have blown my resolution to blog twice a week all to hell lately.

What I have found is that something had to go, and this was not really on anyone's compass besides my own as a must-do. Once things calm down, I should be able to go full speed ahead again.

Starting back to work full time and deciding (wrongly) that doing a new play in a new play festival with only 4 performances would be less time intensive than a full run (not in rehearsal!) while still being somewhat present for my family is just a lot to do. Blogs forgive. I barely have any readers. They probably will forgive too. (Thanks Mom and Dad.)

For information on the Alcyone New Play Festival check it out at www.halycontheatre.org
I am in "Bounty of Lace," which at the moment I cannot be sure if it is recommendable--we will see after this rehearsal.

Today I left work early because I was just too tired to be able to keep going from work to a six hour rehearsal. I would have ruined rehearsal because the first thing to go is my memory--and my character talks and talks and talks. Friday afternoons are usually a bust anyway at regular work. I am still hourly until the end of the month, so I think actually I am saving my employer money. I had a little rest that was sort of like sleeping, and I feel a bit more refreshed and less like a danger to the public when I get back behind the wheel.

So, my few readers, I will be back once I have some more time. I am sure you are waiting with bated breath.

Some suggestions for Thriving in a Cubicle Environment

I was thinking lately about how some office situations can be really decent, where others are like running a cheese grater over your brain day after day. The jobs may be similar, but one makes you dread going, and one makes you look forward to going to work.

Here is what has made working in an office fantastic for me, and should be strived for in all offices:

No-drama bosses. They are the best. Crazy people should never be bosses. I am working for some really cool people right now who are all business and no drama. I can't stress enough how great this is for my office morale and how much more I want to do well for them.

Office friendships and a culture of non-gossip amongst co-workers. Office gossip can be such a killer of joy in going to work. I have avoided getting to know people who even seem like they are gossipy, because it so often turns negative and cruel and someone ends up crying in the bathroom. I prefer it isn't me.

Laughter. Offices where people are encouraged be creative about making each other laugh make work much more enjoyable, and fosters a feeling of creative expression which just might lead to the next big idea. Pass that joke around, post a silly picture for everyone to caption. Make it a contest, make some area of the office fun, like in the break room, or by the coffee machine.
Creating a new Lettermanesque Top Ten list every week from suggestions posted by the coffee machine is also a lot of fun. If people are up for it, start brainstorming sessions with improv games and listening exercises.


This is my wish list for making working in a cubicle situation even less trying;

I would like an option to put a stationary bicycle in the cube for powering all my computer equipment in a manner that makes me motivated to exercise and less in need of walking around every hour or so in order to keep blood from pooling in my butt and legs. It's green, I really think that I would be more productive with this set up, and svelter too.

It would be really nice to have, in an office where no one is allergic, some office cats to lounge around and do cat things like sleeping and purring and occasionally providing some distractions by just being furry, gorgeous, and in need of petting. This will lead to folks being less stressed and less focused on only their own selves.

Vending machines should be outlawed, or only stocked with things that one would only eat if truly hungry, like packets of oatmeal, plain veggies and fruit. No dip.

Coffee makers should be self cleaning, so it isn't left to chance if someone will get grossed out before the coffee turns out terminally skunky and the machine corrodes.

A nap room for 10 minute naps after eating lunch when needed.

Mac environment. PC sucks. Just sayin',

Kooks and Teabags and Fox, oh my.

If anyone is in doubt that the "Tea Party" stuff going on tomorrow is not a totally Fox News manufactured event, take a look at any other news outlet and notice the lack of 'coverage.' On Fox, they are calling for a 'grass roots' uprising, with celebrities, about every 3 minutes if not more. Everywhere else--crickets. Actual news items.

I certainly hope that no Timothy McVeigh types don't take it into their minds to do something to hurt others tomorrow in the name of protesting "the obamanation." I also hope that in the best possible way, the teabaggers just get to have their protests and everyone else just ignores them or makes fun of them without being belligerent.

I will probably just go about my boring job, and read about it later. I don't get into "news" organizations organizing crazy people for manufactured "historical" anti-intellectual corporate driven protests.

One thing I can breathe easy about now Fox "News" has started up FoxNation.com were the articles and blogging are a strident and whiny slant to the far right wing of crazy.

My fascination with people I have absolutely no political commonality with is insatiable. It boarders on unhealthy, but I am not trolling the sites, no. I respectfully read and ponder what would have to happen to a person to believe some of the tripe I have read. Some of the conservative thinking is sound, and I agree with a lot of things, especially fiscally (pre-Bush II), though I don't think anyone has it right when it comes to fixing what 8 years of the Bush administration and rampant greed of financial institutions has wrought. I don't have any answers either, so I hope the Obama administration has it mostly right because I don't know what should happen.

It is easy to try to anthropomorphize the giant US Economy--it needs to stop spending and cutting down on its expenses, tighten its belt, stop spending borrowed money. Tear up its credit cards. Stop buying expensive shoes and make do with last year's wardrobe. Spend more time at home, live simpler.

But the US government is responsible for the livelihoods of an entire global village, and if it does not spend money close to what it was, people suffer and shops close down. And that effects all the villages around it. There are things that only it can provide, because it is the richest guy in town.

It is all very weird to me. I can't begin to think I know any answer.

Animal Magnetism = Clean Energy

According to Yahoo News, this may be why my garden hasn't had any animal pests; those huge powerlines in the easement behind the house is screwing them up:

High-voltage power lines mess with animal magnetism. Researchers, who reported last year that most cows and deer tend to orient themselves in a north-south alignment, have now found that power lines can disorient the animals.

When the power lines run east-west, that's the way grazing cattle tend to line up, researchers led by Hynek Burda and Sabine Begall of the faculty of biology at the University of Duisburg-Essen in Germany report in Tuesday's edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

They also found that cows and deer grazing under northeast-southwest or northwest-southeast power lines faced in random directions.

The research team studied cows and deer using satellite and aerial images.

In their report last August, Burda and colleagues suggested the north-south orientation was in response to the Earth's magnetic field.

The new study adds weight to the animals responding to magnetic effects, since power lines also produce a magnetic field. And the effect was most noticeable close to the power lines, declining as the magnetic field of the electric lines was reduced by distance.

Wind and weather can also affect which ways cows choose to face, but without such factors about two-thirds of them tended to align north-south when away from power lines.

The Earth's magnetic field is thought to be a factor in how birds navigate, and other animals also are believed to respond to it.

My garden runs east-west, as do the giant power lines. Rabbits hop around in my garden all the time, but don't touch my vegetables in any appreciable manner. They usually hang out with me when I am weeding and eat the weeds. They are completely happy and companionable. It could be that the power lines have created demented rabbits? I will take it.

I sent this article to my husband, and he had another wild idea. Leave it to the engineer.

I see a buttered cat array topper in this story.

(This was a psuedo science idea that tickled me in Omni Magazine in the 80s. The theory goes, all cats land on their feet. Buttered bread always lands butter side down. If you strap buttered toast to the backs of cats butter side up and drop them, they will not land but instead hover and rotate, and we can harness the power they expend like turbines. Back to the husband:

I'd call it the Lazy Susan Cow Grid. Put a bunch of cows on giant lazy susans under power lines that run both north-south and east west. Alternate the power to
the two sets of lines, causing the cows to turn to realign, causing the
lazy susans to turn, powering generators, which power the overhead
lines. I'd also put in a Dizzy Cow Station next door, where the cows
would go after an hour on the grid. That would just contain the lazy
susans with no overhead lines, where the dizzy cows would keep spinning
in circles for about an hour until their brains readjust.

Perhaps he has something there. We should go for some grant money. That guy is full of ideas.

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.

//////

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.