JordanCornblog Goes on a Trip

Just back (as of late Friday night) from a trip to Philly that was relatively brief and included such a range of experiences that I know I’ll be mulling it all for a long time.

The visit began with a trek to Citizen’s Bank Park for a Phillies game.  Sadly the wins are fewer and farther between than we’ve grown used to.  But, as everyone repeats like a mantra these days, “It’s early yet.”  And this particular game was a nice win … GO Phillies!

I spent Thursday visiting old haunts I haven’t seen for many years … starting with the Llanerch Diner and then walking the streets of familiar neighborhoods.  A very emotional experience, because the places are so familiar … and so changed … and they are not my places anymore.

Above is the gate we used to go to elementary school – must have gone in and out there a thousand times, full of whatever feelings the day portended, or elicited.  Sunny days, rainy days … days of magnolia blossoms and of snowflakes falling.  Something about the every-day-ness of the moments, as well as their gone-ness, was very moving to me.

I visited the two houses I lived in in Havertown – one in Llanerch and an earlier one, up in Oakmont.  Then I went over to Ardmore and Rosemont to see a couple of places I had lived after college.  The Ardmore House was still there – the Rosemont one (lovely, tree-shaded old place) had been razed.

From there I went back to Havertown … was hoping to get a hoagie at Terry’s Delicatessen but it had been replaced by a Pizza place (not at all the same).  Still, it was time for a hoagie, so I got one and then headed off to Glenwood Memorial Gardens to find my parents’ graves (again, juxtaposing the every-day-ness of a hoagie with the momentous gone-ness of a gravesite).

After quite a lot of searching I found them and spent some quiet time there, then, as it started sprinkling a soft rain, headed back to Swarthmore, where I joined up with some newly arrived traveling companions and we went over to the campus to wander and reminisce.

This was followed by a wonderful dinner out in Radnor with more old friends … and a toast to our friend/mentor/coach Eleanor Kay “Pete” Hess – whose memorial service was the actual impetus for all of this traveling on yours truly’s part.

And so, dinner was followed by the drive back to Springfield, a quick chat/mini-reunion with a later-arriving friend, then sleep.  The next day was a rush of breakfast, check-out, and then back over to the campus for some sunlit wandering and then the service … a melange of remembered faces and wonderful stories about Pete.  It felt good to honor her and the days we all shared.  (And I was especially pleased that I didn’t need to encounter my high school lacrosse coach, whom I’d fully expected to see there, and had spent some time preparing for … unresolved issues, ya know?!)

Goodbyes came next – preceded, of course, by a rush of picture-taking and e-mail-address-exchanging.  And then the long drive home, through Friday-afternoon mid-Atlantic traffic and construction.  The miles flew by, though, carried on wings of conversation and the rich imagery of remembered moments.

Yikes!

Where have I been?

The short answer … dunno.

The longer answer … working to carve out a sustainable daily schedule for myself that includes an increased range of activities, stretching beyond the staples … which include:

Sitting in front of a computer at work and sitting in front of a computer at home.

Moving various body parts is one such activity.  An imperative, IMHO, as I take in some of the new and inevitable realities of aging … one of them being the atrophy (and loss of function) which is a predictable outcome of …

Sitting in front of a computer at work and then sitting in front of a computer at home.  (Oh, and throw in sitting in front of a TV watching other people run around … or listening to the sounds of other people running around while working at the computer.)

So, one of the places I have been is on the treadmill or in the woods or running/walking the roads.  Not to give the wrong impression, this is not “Rocky” type stuff … but progress.

And then there’s “being in touch with myself.”  This has been an area of increasing focus as I make time to connect with parts of me that, for one reason or another, have been hidden, silenced, you name it.  Enriching, enlivening, eye-opening, and sometimes difficult – the work feels like piecing together a tapestry.  It’s all me – and all inside of me – but exists in disconnected fragments.  The work of knitting it all back together is an amazing journey, and one which feels precious to me.

What else?

• I’ve been dismayed, discouraged, frightened and pretty much disgusted by the shrill and shallow discourse coming from the GOP Primary fight.  I actually feel worried for the GOP, and sad for those reasonable folks whose party it had been.  It must be a huge and confusing loss for them.
• I’ve been entertained by Linsanity.
• I briefly dipped into Pinterest, then got scared off by the potential Copyright issues.
• I didn’t see all that many of the Oscar-nominated films … and am not enough of a film buff to really ‘get it’ about “The Artist.”
• I was chagrined at the (temporary) demise of WPS … hopefully the Oly’s will rekindle interest and the league will re-start on the other side.
• I’ve been getting psyched for the upcoming Phillies season … and thought that Josh Beckett’s apology for last season’s BoSox meltdown was utter crap.
• Have been reading more … a great treat!
• I actually followed a recipe from start to finish last Sunday … ask my housemates … that’s an accomplishment!
• Purchased a Mac and have not yet really figured out how to use it well (somehow, I think that using a Mac the way I use a PC just isn’t the point)!

I dunno – that’s not a lot to show for several months of silence.

Did I mention aging?  Moving slower … that’s for sure.

Oh yeah, and tonight there’s the start of Daylight Saving Time – that could set me back for WEEKS!

Hirsute Newt

Just because I happened to have some time on my hands … and here’s the link to the actual photo in Politico – my attempt to credit the source and avoid becoming ensnared in a long and costly lawsuit.

Here are some photos from the Men Who Look Like Old Lesbians site – can you guess who they are?  Oh, and please note the size of Newt’s hands … they really, really ARE small, aren’t they?

And this, from Jon Stewart … priceless stuff.  (Apparently Lindsay’s photo has been removed from the site.

http://media.mtvnservices.com/mgid:cms:item:comedycentral.com:233155

The Daily Show
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A Quick Soccer Note

Big game for the USWNT tomorrow night (that’s Friday 1/27) with an Olympic berth on the line at CONCACAF in Vancouver.

Apparently Hope isn’t 100% (thank you DWTS) … so it may be Nicole Barnhart in goal … which ain’t too shabby, given her record vs. Costa Rica (the opponent on Friday).

Universal Sports Network is providing live coverage of the matches … and here’s their website.

Kick-off is at 7:30 PM, with the Canada-Mexico match to follow.  The winners of these two matches head to London.

Oh, and well done, Carli, on your hat-trick vs. Mexico!

Grammatical Error

We’ve all been reading about Mitt Romney’s tax rate (which is a lot lower than yours and mine).

Apparently it’s 15% … to be precise.

And Mitt is speaking to the issue, sorta.  Here’s a blurb from MSNBC:

The tax burden someone like Romney would face cuts to the core of the fiscal debate that has roiled Washington over the past year. President Obama has called on the wealthy to shoulder a larger share of the tax burden, especially since they benefit from a more favorable tax rate on earnings gleaned from nontraditional sources of income, like investments, dividends or interest.

Romney addressed that argument to an extent, noting his opposition to Gingrich’s proposal to eliminate all capital gains taxes.

“You’d have individuals – the Warren Buffett argument — Warren Buffett, Bill Gates would probably pay no taxes at all,” he said. “Today they probably pay 15 percent. Very high-income people of this country pay roughly 15 percent of taxes if their resources are coming from investments and under their plan it would go to zero. I just don’t think that’s the right course.”

So, Mitt – really?  You say the rich “probably pay 15 percent” and “pay roughly 15 percent” as if it’s a guesstimate?  Why are you acting like you don’t know for sure?  Is it possible that you know the figure from … like … maybe … some kind of vaguely personal experience?

And was it maybe just a little pronoun error … a grammatical slip … when you referred to ‘the rich’ using the third person rather than the first?

Mitt, here’s some news for ya … the rich are not ‘they’ for you – they are ‘we.’  Practice it – own it – stop behaving as if ‘they’ are not you, okay?

The dude is such a damn slime ball, isn’t he?

New Hampshire’s HB 1580

So in all my earlier angst about the end of days, I forgot the craziness that I had sincerely wanted to share … New Hampshire’s House Bill 1580.

It’s brief and to the point, and if all goes well will be in effect for one month and 21 days before everything goes kerplooey.

STATE OF NEW HAMPSHIRE

In the Year of Our Lord Two Thousand Twelve

AN ACT requiring a reference to the Magna Carta on certain legislation.

Be it Enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Court convened:

1 New Section; Magna Carta References. Amend RSA 14 by inserting after section 39-a the following new section:

14:39-b Magna Carta Reference. All members of the general court proposing bills and resolutions addressing individual rights or liberties shall include a direct quote from the Magna Carta which sets forth the article from which the individual right or liberty is derived.

2 Effective Date. This act shall take effect November 1, 2012.

↔↔↔

Here’s a link to the full text of the Magna Carta, for those who are interested.

I was, personally, much relieved to read this:

“[10] No-one is to be distrained to do more service for a knight’s fee or for any other free tenement than is due from it.”

and this …

[16] No bank works of any sort are to be kept up save for those that were in defense in the time of King H(enry II) our grandfather and in the same places and on the same terms as was customary in his time.”

and of course, this … which I believe may have something to do with The Northern Pass …

[32] No free man is henceforth to give or sell any more of his land to anyone, unless the residue of his land is sufficient to render due service to the lord of the fee as pertains to that fee.”

Oh, and I might be mistaken, but this doesn’t sound like a good sign for the women of NH:

[34] No-one is to be taken or imprisoned on the appeal of woman for the death of anyone save for the death of that woman’s husband.”

And this seems to portend further cuts in State Government … right down to the bone, if I am reading correctly … back to how it all existed at the time of Henry II – who, I believe, predates the State of NH and then some …

[35] No county court is to be held save from month to month, and where the greater term used to be held, so will it be in future, nor will any sheriff or his bailiff make his tourn through the hundred save for twice a year and only in the place that is due and customary, namely once after Easter and again after Michaelmas, and the view of frankpledge is to be taken at the Michaelmas term without exception, in such a way that every man is to have his liberties which he had or used to have in the time of King H(enry II) my grandfather or which he has acquired since. The view of frankpledge is to be taken so that our peace be held and so that the tithing is to be held entire as it used to be, and so that the sheriff does not seek exceptions but remains content with that which the sheriff used to have in taking the view in the time of King H(enry) our grandfather.

To be continued …

2012

It’s my understanding, based on reliable sources, that the world is going to end on 12/21/12.

So that means I actually have less than a year left, and I haven’t even started getting into shape! Of course, one might also take the stance that there is little point to getting into shape if it’s all going to blow up in our faces on December 21.

The sad thing is, the way things are going, it really doesn’t seem entirely beyond the realm of possibility that 12/21/12 could be a watershed date. I mean, things have gotten really, really crazy.

Consider the New Hampshire legislature which has been busily dismantling state government and the safety net for months now. This was a process that got started under Craig Benson – the governor who put his paramour, Angela, in charge of homeland security for New Hampshire – but refused to pay for essentials like education, as I recall.

Fast-forward to today. I imagine the Craig Benson is enjoying a posh life somewhere, quietly (or not so quietly) spending money and playing golf, and screwing around with Angela or some other such person. What he started is being pursued with a fervor even more unhinged and even less informed than what he brought to the project of destroying New Hampshire.

It’s been a couple of years now that the entire 400-something member NH State Legislature has been composed of a large percentage of proudly-know-nothing-Bible-thumping-tea-drinking yahoos who happily pass laws allowing them to tote their guns into the Legislative Office Building, while simultaneously working to outlaw dangerous practices like gay marriage.

In their view, when the world ends in 2012 it will be because they somehow failed to eradicate the evil that keeps them awake and sweating (and one has to assume, fantasizing) at night. In reality, if the world ends in 2012 it will more likely be because there are too many guns and we’ve all shot another.

So my question is, should I exercise or not?

Haunting

One of the gifts that I got last year in my Christmas stocking was a calendar with a collection of facts, quotations, and interesting tidbits about Abraham Lincoln – one for each day. I’ve kept the calendar at work all through 2011, and have enjoyed what it’s had to offer.

Yesterday’s quote stopped me in my tracks. It’s one of those every day, throwaway details that subsequent events can make weighty.  Here’s what it said – “Allow Mr. Ashum & friend to come in at 9. A. M. to-morrow.”

These words were written in Lincoln’s hand sometime in the afternoon or early evening of April 14, 1865. A small thing – and yet, how momentous and poignant in hindsight!  By “9 AM tomorrow” the entire world had been turned topsy-turvy and Mr. Ashum and friend were forgotten in all the uproar.

But it made me curious about who Mr. Ashum was, and what he would’ve been meeting with Lincoln about.  I found a very interesting website about President Lincoln and his friends, which includes a blog (not recently active) and offers some insight into Mr. Ashmun (including the fact that the President apparently did not know how to spell his name).

Ashmun also met with President Lincoln at the White House shortly before he went to Ford’s Theater on night of assassination. According to White House staffer Thomas Pendel: “On the fourteenth day of April 1865, in the evening, just previous to the time when the President and Mrs. Lincoln were going to the theatre, George Ashmun of Massachusetts, called on Mrs. Lincoln, and I showed him into the Red Parlor, took his card upstairs, and soon the President and Mrs. Lincoln, with Mr. Colfax, then Speaker of the House, came downstairs and went into the Red Parlor where Mr. Ashmun was waiting. They all entered into a lively local conversation, and came out of the Red Parlor presently, and stood in the inner corridor. Their conversation was about the trip Mr. Colfax proposed to take across the continent. They then passed out of the corridor into the main vestibule, and stood in the main entrance, where they again chatted. Mr. Colfax bade the President and Mrs. Lincoln good evening, and went upstairs to see the Private Secretary, Mr. John G. Nicolay. Mr. Ashmun went out on the portico with the President and Mrs. Lincoln, said good-bye, and started off downtown. Ned Burke and Charles Forbes, the coachman and footman, respectively, drove over to a private residence, and took in a coach Major Rathbone and Miss [Clara] Harris, who was the daughter of Senator Ira Harris of New York.”1010

In their conversation that night, President Lincoln first rebuked Ashmun for seeking a commission to adjudicate a cotton claim and then promised to meet with him the next morning. By then, Mr. Lincoln was dead. Ashmun later served as a director of the Union Pacific Railroad.

There’s also quite a bit about Lincoln’s final day on a WordPress blog titled Symon Sez … lots of fascinating details!  And lots of other blogs … this could KILL my day!  This last blog is by Geoffrey M Elliott, who has studied and written about Lincoln for many years. The blog includes a review (by him) of a book titled A First-Rate Madness. The subtitle is “Uncovering the Links between Leadership and Mental Illness.”

The author is psychiatrist Nassir Ghaemi – a professor at Tufts School of Medicine. Lincoln is profiled, along with other leaders like JFK Franklin Roosevelt and Mahatma Gandhi. I absolutely loved the book Lincoln’s Melancholy, and am intrigued by the thesis that mental illness – and how individuals cope with it – can contribute to greatness.  Who knows what we’re medicating away – what kind of poetry, inspiration, and insight – as we try to protect people from the pain of the human condition.

Oh, and here’s something to look forward to … Daniel Day-Lewis as Mr. Lincoln … sometime next winter, I believe.

Not bad, eh?

And one final bit of trivia … Lincoln was once challenged to a duel … “but the challenger accepted his apology when the much taller and smarter Lincoln chose broad swords as the weapons for the duel.”

But enough of this. I’ve got to move on, set all this Lincoln talk aside, find a couscous recipe, and get my day underway!

Winding Down

Okay, so we’re winding down 2011 here. What to say about this year?

Maybe I don’t need to do this today – let it wait till tomorrow?  Nah, I’m sure there’s something I can say now.

It’s been a year of flying time and of finding my place. The moments speed by, and I am busier than ever, and yet when I slow down and am still, it can be so damn refreshing!

I feel like I have been gathering myself together this year – connecting with the little lost girl who stood on the outside looking in (even if that’s not how it may have appeared to others … it’s how it felt always and ever).

She has needed to talk to someone for a long, long time – and I’m so glad to be providing her with the opportunity!

And it’s been a year of craziness, as the Republicans play whack a mole with their candidates and as state legislatures around the country (New Hampshire is in the forefront here) dismantle any semblance of a safety net or of compassion or of sanity in state government.

It’s very scary, what’s happening – and sadly enough, football didn’t really provide any respite for me this fall/winter! The Eagles were weird and my fantasy teams pretty much sucked.

In terms of writing, JordanCornblog has suffered since I’ve been working in other venues. I miss the blog and continually hope to get back to it. Maybe as I carve out a better schedule for myself, 2012 will bring more JordanCornblog time. At any rate, I need to stop apologizing here, as I’m sure it gets tiresome.

On the personal income front, I’m encouraging HollyCornblog to start selling some of her photographic notecards, so you may see something along those lines here in the not too distant future. Also, quite miraculously, I heard that a JordanCornblog apron found its way into a holiday gift package this year. Christmas surely is a magical time, is it not?!

It’s great to see Boltgirl back in the saddle, as it were. Transition times suck, eh?

So anyway, 2011 is winding down and as you can see, no deep thoughts from this corner of the world.

I’ll keep trying, and will surely let you know if anything springs to mind.

A Painting and a Bold Prediction (or Two)

This is a painting sold at a charitable auction sponsored by Jimmy Rollins and other phantastic Phillies.

The painting is by a tattoo artist by the name of Seth Mushrush of Baker Street Tattoo out of Media.

CharlieHopbrew’s nephew was kind enough to give HollyCornblog and CharlieHopbrew a poster, made from the painting (and signed by J-Ro) for moi.  So psyched … and of course absolutely convinced that it means a World Series win for the Phillies (and also a win for the Eagles this Sunday).

Why?  Because it takes only the smallest hints from the universe to convince me of these things …;>)

PS  I wrote this on Sunday, late morning and am scheduling it to post Monday morning … so we’ll see if the Eagles’ part of the prediction comes true.

Sunny December Sunday

Ahhhh, so life is good.  The sun is out … we are preparing to thoroughly confuse the dogs by dragging a tree into the house (again), RPE is flying back to the States tomorrow (for 3 weeks – yippee), the UConn Huskies have a must-see-TV kinda game tonight, and the WPS is sanctioned again, just barely.

The requirements for WPS to continue beyond this year?

“No longer can the league contract and get away with still operating. One condition of the sanctioning: WPS must secure a sixth team for the 2013 season and field at least eight teams in 2014.”

No easy feat any time – and in this economy?  Hope they can do it.

I am considering going more paperless, as I look for ways to make info more easily accessible (than piles of paper in boxes in the basement might be).  As exciting as the concept is to me, I am finding that it takes time (of course) … so implementation will be a gradual process.

Scanned a few photos just now … this one’s from a dusty album.  Summer of 1956 … a lllllooooonnnnnggg time ago!

So, How’s it Goin’?

Yup, it’s December. We’re heading toward the winter solstice, yours truly is a year older, and RPE has visited home from Dublin, briefly, for the holiday.

I’ve been to the Lake and to HollyCornblog and CharlieHopbrew’s house.  We had a really nice Thanksgiving gathering of family and friends here at the house, including HollyCornblog and CharlieHopbrew, who drove over from New York (HollyCornblog with her hand all bandaged up after carpal tunnel surgery). And so it goes…

Oh, and I forgot to mention, the Eagles suck! (But being from Philly and all, you really do kind of get used to that.)

Earlier this week, while I was still on vacation, I went to see a really wonderful movie with my friend Alice. (Sadly, for now, the primary mission of this blog – entertaining Alice – remains more or less on hold, as Alice has been entertaining me more than vice versa. I keep hoping to change that and become more regular about my writing here, but apparently that doesn’t happen magically. Not fair, but there’s not much I can do about it.)

So anyway, Alice and I saw this great movie called “Hugo” – Martin Scorsese film that was absolutely magical. The only bad thing about it was we had to go to the local multiplex to see it rather than to Red River theaters. I highly recommend it though – an engaging story and an absolute feast for the eyes. You have the option to see it in 3-D, and is also a regular version showing there. I highly recommend the 3-D version.

Life rolls along, doesn’t it? Caleb is growing up into a great big bruiser of a Bassador. At 7+ months, he’s made his peace with the cats, seems to understand that he’s not supposed to pee or poop in the house, has learned about chipmunks and squirrels, much to his delight, and is generally becoming a pretty responsible citizen of the family. He doesn’t know it yet, but he’s going to be going to some obedience classes in a few weeks. ChristopherCornblog will be taking him, and we anticipate that it will be a male bonding experience, extraordinaire!

I had a good span of time off, and seem to have discovered, at least judging from my most recent two vacations, that free time throws me just a bit. I think it’s a result of being so busy in my day-to-day life. When I get a break, I’m really not sure what to do with myself.  So this vacation I became obsessed with “Friday Night Lights” and am up to season 4 as I write this.  (During the summer it was Jodi Picoult novels …) Normally vacation times are more productive for me – so it can be a bit challenging to feel like I’m “wasting” time. In reality, I suspect that I really do just need to relax.

So anyway, a new month! As I said, how’s it going? Me, I’m full of new resolve. Love that feeling of starting a new month.

What will it hold? I’m thinking eggnog, for sure. Some pudding shots, too … and THAT’S definitely a tale (and perhaps a recipe) for another day!

11/11/11

Back in the day, when many of us were wearing bell bottoms and granny glasses … when Vietnam was a roiling mess and many of us thought that we knew quite a bit more than we may think we know now … Veteran’s Day was not something that gave me pause.  Not at all – except maybe as more reason to be mad at the government, Nixon, and all the folks who were screwing up the world.

I knew my father was a WWII veteran, though he never talked about it much.  For me it was one more reason to feel judgmental and alienated from him.

And now I think how sad for me!  Can’t go back, but I’d have so many questions for him now, were he alive.  I wonder about what it was like to decide, as a 19-year-old college freshman, to enlist in the army.  I wonder about what it was like to ride a train to boot camp, then head overseas … what did he think about in the quiet moments?

We were raised to think that Dad was uninteresting at best.  So anything that he touched or that related to him took on a that cast.  My perspective was shaped by my Mother’s perspective … and it’s taken years to slowly remove that filter from my eyes and look around with more clarity.

So anyway, because of its association with Dad, Veteran’s Day is definitely an olive drab holiday in my ken … would be so even if the colors weren’t absolutely appropriate for the day.

But what does it mean to me now?  Well, the word duty comes to mind … a word I’ve thought terribly uninteresting for at least 5 decades … but am coming to appreciate more and more.  Is it personal growth, accrued wisdom, or simply the piling of the years that has made me see it differently?  (Like to think it’s the former … but not so sure it isn’t merely the latter.)

Anyway … Dad did what was necessary.  He did what he thought he ought to do.  He did his best.  I see that now.  He made everything possible, quietly, while Mom railed and complained and mourned the losses of what-might-have-been.  Flamboyant, mercurial, hurtful, dramatic … she was everything that Dad was not … and oh-my-goodness did she denigrate him!

So, from the vantage point of my family, Veteran’s Day, like Dad, never had a chance.  And while I cannot ever celebrate war or honor the men in suits who use the men in uniform as pawns … I do celebrate the people like my father who, as young men and women, do what they think is right.

Perhaps I wish that they would have developed a more nuanced and critical view of the world and its events, and would have found other ways to ‘do what’s right.’  But as I think about my father today, I feel great tenderness and respect for the 19-year-old who put down his books and his football pads and did what he believed he should.

Greeting the Immense Silence of the Morning

The immense silence of the morning. That’s the phrase that kept going through my head this morning as I stood in the dark waiting for Ruby and Caleb to do their business and come back in for breakfast.

The eastern horizon had a dim glow, illuminating the trees in silhouette as the stars slowly receded with the coming light. Looking out, looking up, all I could think was how immense the world is and how, ultimately, silent. All the noise of our activity, all the drama, all the strife – swallowed into the silence – in the end.

While that thought feels fundamentally true to me, I see how I dance around it, experiencing a whole range of feelings, often diametrically opposed to one another. Sometimes I find peace and sometimes terror in this train of thought.

Sometimes standing in that immense silence, I feel a part of the universe. Other times, I feel alone and at sea.

But the other thing I’m realizing, that feels so powerful to me, is that I have some choice in what I feel. When I embrace my feeling – even if it’s fear – I accept and explore and ultimately, come to some peace with it. When I try to avoid it or turn away, it dogs me, draining my energy and feeding my fears.

So greeting the immense silence of the morning feels like a positive stance to take in the face of everything – absolutely everything.  In the face of inevitability, there is always and ever … choice.

Along these lines, I’m very very psyched to report something that I learned from a friend yesterday. The amazing and wonderful book “The Finding Stone” by Christin Lore Weber is now back in print and available on Amazon.

If you’re interested in having a book that you want to keep and savor forever, nourishing yourself, and finding new meaning every time you dip into it, you want to give this as a gift to yourself.

PS Alice, Chris, and Holly (soon!) – I already got it for the Kindle!

DWTS and Hope

Well, let me say right from the get go, I kinda wish Hope hadn’t gone all nekkid on us … but then again, I am old(er) and perhaps a bit set in my ways.

Just the same, this commentary from Zennie Abraham is excellent and highlights the kind of anti-strong-woman sexism that permeates our culture.  Here’s the You Tube Video …

You can check out all of Zennie’s posts about Hope here.

And here’s last week’s dance …

Lots ‘o drama, eh?  Problem is, I can’t bear to sit through the show … but I do try to vote each week (just gotta do it before 11 AM on Tuesday at the ABC DWTS website).

I dunno … maybe we just need more soccer and less dancing …

Layers

Been thinking a lot about life lately.  Prompted by the untimely death of someone I’d known years ago, an approaching birthday, and basically just the passage of time.  As the seasons change, days pile, and wisdom accrues (of course … it has  to accrue, doesn’t it?) … I find myself looking back and wondering about the many-threaded tapestry of moments and memories that is my life.

If I pick out one thing … my mother, let’s say, just for discussion’s sake … I notice that my perceptions of her are prism-like.  Depending on the angle and the play of light, she can look like about 16 different people … adored, hated, and, as you may have guessed, 14-other things in-between.  Delving into the rich compost of memory and feeling, when I look in her direction, my view is determined entirely by my vantage point.

So, as I’ve pretty much always suspected, it’s all about me … in the end.

And yet, that’s no simple thing, because the eyes of the adoring youngster of 22-months can hardly comprehend what the snarly 17-year-old sees.  And then add in the eyes of the 50-something adult and you’ve got quite a mix!  Who am I and what do I see and feel … about anything?  There’s no linear logic that comprehends or contains it.

In fact, even if I start exploring single-mindedly, right now, why I am the way I am … I won’t ever ‘know’ in a clear or circumscribed way.  No, one door opens to another, and then another.  You peel away one layer, then the next and the next.  Maybe you get to the end, but then that simply casts new light on another layer … which in turn revises your understanding of the next.

I used to think (speaking of my mother again) that if I could just figure out why she was the way she was I could ‘fix’ it and things would be fine.  Now I’m coming to see that I’ll never know why she was the way she was. And even if I could, it wouldn’t make a whit of difference.

… because it’s all about me … and the layered mystery that I am.  Exploring, unfolding, coming to know and befriend myself at each turn.

Yeah, that’s it … and, as my father would say … “Oh, Geez.”

 

Saturday Morning Playtime … and Disturbing Information

This morning I started my usual routine a bit later than usual … ah the luxury of sleeping in!

So it wasn’t ’til 6:30 that I let Caleb out of his kennel and he and Ruby trailed outside to do their ‘business’ then raced back in for the excitement of BREAKFAST!

After feeding them I pulled out the old Flip video in hopes of catching some playtime.  Unfortunately, they were mostly either lethargic or overly interested in the camera (guess they’ll have to get used to being movie stars).

I finally managed to snag a couple of snippets …

… and will get better at this, I promise!

As for the disturbing info, it has to do with the carbon footprint of the internet.  I had been complacently thinking that somehow my obsession with gadgets was justifiable as the Kindles and Sonic G-Tabs of the world were helping us to cut down on activities that contribute to global warming.

Come to find out, instead, that those little thoughtless “Googles” that I do throughout the day are costly …

Say you do a Google search. Your query kicks into action about 1,000 servers at various Google data centres. Those computers scan billions of web pages already in Google’s archives and spit out an answer.

Total time elapsed: 0.2 seconds on average. Meanwhile, Google’s data centres are also constantly combing the Internet to update their archives of web pages.

All those computers have a voracious appetite for energy, especially for cooling equipment to prevent overheating.

Apple’s 46,000-square-metre iDataCenter is set to open in North Carolina this spring with a price tag of $1 billion U.S. It will use an estimated 100 megawatts of power – as much as about 100,000 Canadian homes.

Apple’s mega-facility is part of a cluster of gigantic new data centres coming on line in North Carolina that are powered largely by cheap and highly polluting coal power. Google has a 44,000-square-metre data centre in the state that will eventually consume an estimated 60 to 100 MW. Facebook has a 28,000-square-metre facility under construction there that will eat up 40 MW.

Greenpeace calls the three facilities “North Carolina’s dirty data triangle.” Coal, it says, is the most polluting of all fossil fuels and the world’s single largest source of greenhouse gas emissions.

“The technologies of the 21st century are still largely powered by the dirty coal power of the past,” the environmental group said in a report card on the IT sector in April, titled How Dirty is Your Data?

I am bummed … need to give this some thought.

Middle Ground

“Okay,” she says hesitantly, “I’m back.”

“Oh really?” you reply, eying her mistrustfully.  “Nice to see you …” turning back to the Parcheesi Board.

“No, I’m really back, I swear.  I’m over Bejeweled Blitz and Baseball and all that stuff.  Yeah, well, there’s Fantasy Football, but I’m not obsessed.  The Eagles kinda suck and my fantasy team loses pretty much all the time so …”

“So you have no place else to go and you’re back here expecting a big welcome are you?”

“Yeah, kinda.”

“Let me think about it.  I was pissed, you know.  The way you dropped out of sight was very, very irresponsible for a blogger.  Someone could have gotten hurt.  Know what I mean?”

“Not really.”

“Never mind.  Just tell me why I should trust you now.”

“Because I am telling you that you can?”

“Yeah … right.”

“Okay, just watch … you’ll see.  And it won’t be the kind of superficial crap that I’d been writing there at the end, either.  I’m getting too old to waste my time on stuff like baseball scores and Dancing With the Stars.  Nope – we’re going for deep thoughts and political commentary … the kind of stuff Alice likes … and Boltgirl writes about.”

“Boltgirl?  If you’d been paying attention you’d know that she’s been gone, too.  You guys both suck if you ask me, and I’ll believe it when I see it.  Deep thoughts … yeah … right.”

“Okay, fair enough.  Maybe deep thoughts and political commentary is a tall order, even for JordanCornblog.  How about we go for the middle ground?  I think you can expect at least 2 moderately engaging posts of at least 3 paragraphs every week.  And let’s just say, if one of the posts contains a thought that we can agree qualifies as deep, then that will count as two posts.  Can we go with that?”

“I’m not listening …”

Coach

“It is what it is … it will be what you make it.”

Pat Summit, quoted by her son Tyler.

… pretty much says it all.

Such a Long Time

Got back Sunday afternoon after a really beautiful weekend with HollyCornblog and CharlieHopBrew.  There was swimming and talking and reading and relaxing … oh, and of course a bit of beer tasting.

And then, at night, there was the opportunity to indulge in our tendencies toward pyromania … who could ask for more? And since we are older … and the beer tasting a bit more staid than it used to be, the house was never in any danger from the pyromania!

So, what’s up now? Well, the Breakers are in the play-offs … miraculously and, one has to fear, briefly.  The match against the evil Magic Jack will be televised tonight on the evil Fox (okay, not the really, really evil Fox … but, still …).  Let’s hope Kelly Smith is able to join the B’s for this play-off run … starting at 7:30 PM ET.

Otherwise, I am on vacation … sort of.  With a puppy in the house, “vacation” is a relative term.  I’m on duty pretty much all day … and thoroughly entertained by the antics of Caleb and Ruby.  Have learned that, it’s when it gets quiet that you need to stop-whatever-you’re doing and rush off to wherever that silence is coming from!