The Next Dark Age
We're in it Now
Freedom From Religion Foundation
The Chicago Tribune ran an article today about a campaign the Freedom From Religion Foundation is running in the city. I clicked on it thinking of my friend Bill, a self-described Recovering Catholic who has been writing about skepticism lately. Apparently, the Foundation has purchased advertising space on city buses to spread their gospel. 75 of the signs encourage people to skip church and sleep in. I absolutely agree with the Foundation’s co-president when he says that, “What the world really needs is a good night’s sleep“.
At the end of the article, we are asked, “Should passengers be encouraged to skip church and sleep or is the ad campaign just rude?”
Hm. Um..neither?
You know what I think? I think that the Freedom From Religion Foundation is not going to change any minds with this campaign. They might rattle a few cages and they might make a few people smile. But I can’t imagine this is going to forward their mission any. Wait. What is their mission? From their website:
“The Freedom From Religion Foundation, Inc., is an educational group working for the separation of state and church. Its purposes, as stated in its bylaws, are to promote the constitutional principle of separation of state and church, and to educate the public on matters relating to nontheism.”
It seems to me they just spent an awful lot of money on something that doesn’t seem particularly educational or promotional on the separation of Church and State. Although. They did just get me to visit their website. And blog about it. And link to it.
But I’m not giving them any money.
More About the Cupcakes
As I was saying, Washington DC has gone cupcake crazy and I kept missing the Curbside Cupcake truck. The last time I was here, someone in our office even ordered them for a meeting and I still missed them. So I flew in on Monday morning, and right when I arrived I marched over to Marsha’s office and demanded that she summon the cupcake truck. She went online and told me that it would be at our building on Tuesday afternoon.
30 Day TV Meme – Day 29
Day 29 – Current t.v show obsession
Now that Lost is over, (and 24 in its day) my only dealbreaker – the only “do not call when it is on” show – is a Bears game.
My aunt Bev is a football fan of the NCAA variety, but she knows the rules. She has been known to watch a Bears game so that she knows when it is halftime and thus safe to call my house. Since halftime only lasts 15 minutes, I think it is also the way she knows that she will not get tied up on the phone.
My brother and I have been know to call each other at halftime just to shout at someone about how great (or crappy) a game it is. Then it’s all, “OK, bye” and I get this from my mother:
Her: “Was that Scott?”
Me: “Yes.”
Her: “Well, what did he have to say?”
Me: “That Lovey Smith is wasting Devin Hester’s talent and Brian Urlacher is clearly still in pain.”
Her: “But what are the kids doing?”
Me: “Umm. Watching the game with him?”
Her: “Well, is he coming over next weekend?”
Me: “Dude. Call him yourself. But not now. Game on.”
30 Day TV Meme – Day 28
http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=leartojugg-20&o=1&p=8&l=bpl&asins=B000PFUAN2&fc1=000000&IS2=1<1=_blank&m=amazon&lc1=0000FF&bc1=000000&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifrDay 28 – First t.v show obsession
The real answer is Dallas. For discussion purposes, let’s say Voyagers! I thought I had written about it when it came out on DVD, but I can’t seem to find it. The premise was time traveller guy that…travels through time and fixes history. An orphaned kid’s dog ate his guide book, so the kid travels through time with him. And acts as his walking history book.
Yeah. It only lasted one season. And I was..what..seven years old? But this show rocked my world and I had a ginormous kid-crush on that Jon-Erik Hexum. He was so fab that I followed him to his next show, a private investigator show called Cover Up. He famously, accidentally killed himself with a prop gun. Not sure I’m going to watch that one on DVD.
30 Day TV Meme – Day 27
http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=leartojugg-20&o=1&p=8&l=bpl&asins=B00005JNOG&fc1=000000&IS2=1<1=_blank&m=amazon&lc1=0000FF&bc1=000000&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifrDay 27 – Best pilot episode
This is tough because they are getting better at this every year. Studio 60 had one of the best pilots ever but Sorkin couldn’t keep it up so as to keep his audience, so I can’t count it. Similarly, the first time I ever watched a pilot thinking, “This is the coolest thing I have ever seen” was Twin Peaks, which also couldn’t uphold the standard.
24 did. And so did Lost. I am picking Lost as the official answer because it drew me in with character development as much as OMG action. You see Jack Shepard the Hero on the island, taking care of everyone in crisis mode, and then you flashback to his real life where you can see right from the start that he is kind of an ass. And you think, “I hope he gets to go home, be happy and be a better person.” And whatever the action, whatever the mythology, that is really what the show was about.
I’m going to miss that one.
Return Trip
Yesterday morning, I kinda wanted to go back to the Little City Book Sale. There were so many tables that I missed and a bunch of inventory that they hadn’t even brought out yet. I figured if I got there right when it opened, I could get out before the crowd grew too big.
So I looked at my bookcase and said that if I could purge some right now, that I would go back. Between my TBR and my old books I found a dozen or so to donate to the library. Not enough to actually solve my space problem, but that wasn’t my mental deal.
I arrived a good 15 minutes before it opened and stood in line before the place opened. I was actually reading a book, and people were trying to talk to me. I didn’t want to talk to anyone, because I was still just a little bit embarrassed to be there. Who needs to go to the same book sales twice? I was hoping I wouldn’t run into anyone I know. Anyone that reads my blog and would know that I was here last weekend.
So we went in and I hit the spots I needed to hit and only had four books in my bag. I was about to leave when it started pouring. Hm. I went over to the Mystery tables to look for that Megan Abbott book. I nearly walked into my friend Kris. I haven’t actually seen her in a few years, but we keep up online. And she reads the blog. Crap. Then I remembered:
She was here last weekend, too. And her cart had three times as many books as I had. Although, she reads three times faster than I do.
Heh. It reminded me of a story from high school: one morning either because I was running late or because I had no clean clothes, I wore an old Bears jersey to school. I normally wore it to bed. I thought, “I don’t care. No one is going to know, anyway.” The first person I ran into that morning was Kris. Who knew. But what was this? She was wearing an old maroon, button down shirt of her dad’s. It was embroidered with his initials. She was wearing her pajamas to school, too! It was a kind of, “Let’s never speak of this again” moment. Until we got to first period and told everyone we knew.
So we caught up a bit, which was nice. And totally justified my return trip.
I Will Not Be Joining the Movement
You know, the Going Green Movement.
I have plenty of reusuable bags and while I don’t use them in every store on every day, I certainly use them for groceries. I made an effort to understand the ins and outs of home recycling and even posted about it. In fact, now that I am looking at it, this is the 17th time I have posted something under my Green tag.
I believe I have mentioned my daily calender for 2010 is 365 little ways to go green. They aren’t all little. And here is where I draw the bloody line:
June 3: “Make sure you are not overheating bedrooms at night. Not only is it a waste of energy, it’s considered unhealthy to sleep in a room that is too warm. Keep the thermostat at about 59 (degrees) F for adults and 64 (degrees) F for children and the elderly.”
First of all, people, if you use the “don’t sleep in a room that is too warm” argument, it hardly helps the A/C problem in the summer. And it is summer, so this advice is coming at the wrong time for the United States. Was it published in Australia? No. Wisconsin. But more importantly – 59 degrees?! The thermostat in my house is set at 69 in the winter and I still sleep under layers of flannel and down alternative. The other day when the temperature dropped, my house got down to 67 and I could barely get out of bed. I nearly turned the heat back on. In June. And 64 for children? Puleeze.
It is recommendations like this that ensure I will never really be able to get on the Bandwagon.
Progress
You know, mine is not close to the perfect home for him. He only gets out for a couple of hours a day and he really isn’t fond of Little Miss Bossy (that would be Kiwi). But if we can make this kind of progress by getting him settled and content, can you imagine what will happen when he finds the perfect family?
And P.S.: He is thisclose to being able to whistle the theme song to The Andy Griffith Show.
Summer Day Off
And this is when my Summer Days Off become more hectic than actually going to work.
First, a double appointment at the vet for Kiwi the Grey and her foster brother, Sigmund. Both are in excellent health. A lady in the waiting room, who had adopted from the Refuge, told me that Kiwi is just beautiful. Do you know what I said?
“Well, thank you. She certainly thinks so.”
Her feathers are near perfect. She is flighted and takes good care of them. She also grooms her beak and nails, so the vet tech didn’t have to take out the Dremel drill. She is very vain. And apparently, very hormonal. This is the time of year when she thinks about laying eggs and the doctor confirmed that her vent is dilated. Ugh.
Kiwi is normally a very sweet girl. Mischievous, but sweet. When she lays eggs, she becomes a holy terror. I shall remind you with a picture from two years ago:
Sigmund, of course, is a chronic feather picker. I saw his file – he has been a chronic feather picker for at least six years. Now he has feathers growing in. Feathers! The doctor’s notes said, “Keep up the excellent care.” Double underlined!
So I brought them home, fed them and headed out for a quick lap around Lake Glenview before a lunch meeting for the Used Book Store. I may have mentioned that the new library is nearly finished. They expect to shut down operations in mid-August for the move – re-openeing in mid-September. Our little core group was looking at blueprints and debating the set up. I was advocating simplicity. I just don’t think all of our volunteers are interested in resorting and shelving and knowing the difference between espionage/thriller/whodunnits in the Mystery section. But I don’t really care. The thing I am willing to fight about:
“I want an entirely separate section for Political Commentary. No more Michael Moore and Rush Limbaugh shall pollute the History section!”
There is another debate about whether to shelve trade paperbacks in the same space as the hardcovers. I would put them together. As a consumer, I like them together. Not willing to argue about that, either. We went on like this for two hours and solved…not much. But it is finally starting to feel real. We are going to get there!
After the meeting, I went to Costco. I have been putting off a trip for weeks because I refuse to go on the weekend. Yesterday I learned that I also can’t go on a Friday. No kidding. It is as bad as Saturday. The produce looked great, though.
That night, I was in the family room with the birds and my mother went to the kitchen to do dishes for the third time that night. Kiwi jumped from the perch, flew straight to her shoulder and bit her ear. Badly.
Apparently, Kiwi’s cranky hormonal fits have something to do with the kitchen sink. Thus ended my fabulous day off.
30 Day TV Meme – Day 26
http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=leartojugg-20&o=1&p=8&l=bpl&asins=B0016I0AGY&fc1=000000&IS2=1<1=_blank&m=amazon&lc1=0000FF&bc1=000000&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifrDay 26 – OMG WTF? Season finale
Since we are saying Season Finale as opposed to Series Finale, the answer is Bobby in the Shower.
For those that don’t know the story of the star-crossed lovers in Dallas:
Bobby and Pam were the Romeo and Juliet. Warring families and all. Bobby wore the white hat in the family, where J.R. wore the black hat. J.R. tried a thousand things to try to break them up. Then after a season of Bobby and J.R. fighting for control of the family business, Pam decided that Bobby had turned to the Dark Side and left him.
My heart was broken.
So Bobby went back to his childhood sweetheart, played by Priscilla Presley, and Pam found a really nice guy. But it was all so wrong. They finally figured it out at the end of season…8 I think? They got back together for about ten minutes before Bobby was promptly run over by a car driven by Pam’s crazy half-sister, Katherine. Died. The actor wanted out.
Got all that?
So. Nightmare of a season without Bobby. At the end, Pam was back together with the nice guy. I think she might have even married him. The end of the season was Pam waking up one morning and going into the bathroom. Her man is in the shower. She opens the door to greet him….and it’s Bobby. He says, “Good morning.”
And that was it. Dude was dead one season ago today and now he is in her shower. Go to black. I screamed like a little girl.
I was a little girl, actually.
Forget the “it was all a dream” thing. The beauty of this one was how they seriously kept it a secret. The acress that played Pam didn’t know what was going on – they were filmed separately. The crew that filmed him thought it was a shampoo commercial or something. There were theories on WTF all summer long.
So many cliffhangers are…well….cliffhangers. Did he or didn’t he die? Or…how many people died? This was different. All hopeful. It was beautiful.
For one more season until Pam was gone.
The Next Dark Age 