VDH

We really really really need to listen to this guy more:

Victor Davis Hanson - Ten Random, Politically Incorrect Thoughts

1. Four years of high-school Latin would dramatically arrest the decline in American education. In particular, such instruction would do more for minority youths than all the 'role model' diversity sermons on Harriet Tubman, Malcolm X, Montezuma, and Caesar Chavez put together. Nothing so enriches the vocabulary, so instructs about English grammar and syntax, so creates a discipline of the mind, an elegance of expression, and serves as a gateway to the thinking and values of Western civilization as mastery of a page of Virgil or Livy (except perhaps Sophocles's Antigone in Greek or Thucydides' dialogue at Melos). After some 20 years of teaching mostly minority youth Greek, Latin, and ancient history and literature in translation (1984-2004), I came to the unfortunate conclusion that ethnic studies, women studies--indeed, anything "studies"-- were perhaps the fruits of some evil plot dreamed up by illiberal white separatists to ensure that poor minority students in the public schools and universities were offered only a third-rate education.

Nineteen eighty-four

'Twas fully twenty-four years ago when this photo of me was taken:



Dang, I was green. There was so much I feared that needn't have been feared... so much I thought I knew that I really had not the first clue... so much that went untapped because I had so very little self-confidence and self-assurance.

I know exactly what I would tell her (if I could go back in time) because it's the same thing I tell my students every single day:

1. You are wonderful and beautiful and awesome, just the way you are.
2. You aren't now who you will eventually be.
3. Everyone else around you hates something about themselves, too.
4. No boy/girl is worth as much emotional energy as you expend on them.

I know it probably falls on deaf ears, or at least insensate ones. But I have to keep telling them in hopes that someone WILL hear and overcome all the needless angst I suffered through.

In college, I sat down to speak with a professor who also did one-on-one counseling. He told me something that literally formed the foundation of my emotional recovery: It's Not Your Fault. I was laboring under a huge burden that whatever was wrong must necessarily be because I failed somehow to reach my potential or my capability or whatever. He began the liberation process in my mind by freeing me from that responsibility.

These are things that I wish I could've grasped back in the fall of 1984 as a senior in high school. Alas, the innate self-centeredness of youth and the inherent assumption that everything's new and has never happened before EVER -- these are what prevented me from progressing. Maybe I'll make headway with a few others, maybe not. It's worth a try.

Carnival of Recipes: Holiday Gift-Giving Edition

Check it out over at Jen Weber's place... awesome! All kinds of jar-gifts, plus other great goodies to make for gift-giving. This just may be the year for homemade goodies rather than store-boughten stuff, what with the economy and all.

BOOMER SOONER!!!

BEDLAM 2008
OU 61, OSU 41

UPDATE: Shorthorns get shafted: Oklahoma jumps Texas in BCS standings to claim Big 12 South

Fam pix

My extended family -- my parents, my sister & her husband and their baby, and us.



Me & Pop. I know, I look just like him. It's true. I don't mind, actually. I think he's pretty darn awesome. He's been fighting Multiple Myeloma for about a year now, and the 'roids have made his face swell up, but he'll always be handsome to ME.



Me & Manita. Somebody had to get the looks in the family, right? She's spectacular. She works at a super-secret Lockheed-Martin facility in Fort Worth doing super-secret stuff. If she told me what she did, she'd have to kill me.



Isaac, playing in the leaf-burn pile. He kept tossing big armfuls of leaves into it to get it to flame up and smoke, and when the flames would get big he'd raise his arms and yell like a ninja.

Happy Thanksgiving, Y'all!

Heh

Saw this one over at Internet Bumper Stickers and thought it was rather humorous. It actually doesn't apply much to my crowd; most of us manage to get along pretty decently since we're only ever together once a year for just a couple of hours.

Tomorrow we're heading up to OkraHoma for our once-a-year shindig with my dad's fam. I always enjoy hanging with them and laughing about funny stuff and making fun of relatives who aren't there. We're a much snarkier crowd than my mom's fam, which is rather more polite and well-behaved. That's not a bad thing, of course. But I lurve a good snark.

Musical interlude

"Decode"
Paramore

How can I decide what’s right,
when you’re clouding up my mind?
I can’t win your losing fight
all the time.

Not gonna ever own what’s mine,
when you’re always taking sides.
But you won’t take away my pride.
No, not this time.
Not this time.

How did we get here,
when I used to know you so well?
But, how did we get here?
Well, I think I know how.

The truth is hiding in your eyes,
and it’s hanging on your tongue.
Just boiling in my blood.
But you think that I can’t see
what kind of man that you are;
if you’re a man at all.
Well, I will figure this one out
on my own.
(I’m screaming, “I love you so.”)
On my own.
(My thoughts you can’t decode.)

How did we get here,
when I used to know you so well? (Yeah.)
How did we get here?
Well, I think I know how.

Do you see what we’ve done?
We’ve gone and made such fools
of ourselves.
Do you see what we’ve done?
We’ve gone and made such fools
of ourselves.

How did we get here,
when I used to know you so well? (Yeah, yeah, yeah!)
Well, How did we get here
when I used to know you so well.
I think I know...
I think I know...

There is something I see in you.
It might kill me.
I want it to be true.

Been there, done that (100 Life Experiences)

Saw this over at Elisson's place. Boldface items are ones I've done.


1. Started your own blog
Isn't that one obvious?

2. Slept under the stars

3. Played in a band
Several, actually.

4. Visited Hawai’i

5. Watched a meteor shower

6. Given more than you can afford to charity

7. Been to Disneyland

8. Climbed a mountain

9. Held a praying mantis

10. Sang a solo

11. Bungee jumped
You have GOT to be kidding. Not a remote chance in Hadeez.

12. Visited Paris
Graduated from high school there. Oh, you mean Paris FRANCE, not Paris TEXAS, right? Yeah, I've been to the French one too.

13. Watched a lightning storm at sea

14. Taught yourself an art from scratch
Pretty much all of the ones I do, I have learned on my own. I can't actually think of any that were taught to me by anyone else except perhaps perspective drawing.

15. Adopted a child
Twice.

16. Had food poisoning

17. Walked to the top of the Statue of Liberty

18. Grown your own vegetables

19. Seen the Mona Lisa in France

20. Slept on an overnight train

21. Had a pillow fight

22. Hitchhiked

23. Taken a sick day when you’re not ill

24. Built a snow fort

25. Held a lamb

26. Gone skinny dipping
But I think I would if I had the opportunity. I don't know what that says about me, but I'm pretty sure I wouldn't want to know.

27. Run a marathon
Pshyeah, right.

28. Ridden in a gondola in Venice

29. Seen a total eclipse

30. Watched a sunrise or sunset

31. Hit a home run

32. Been on a cruise

33. Seen Niagara Falls in person
Twice. It's an awesome sight; I can recommend it if you're anywhere nearby. Drive a couple of hours up to Toronto when you're done -- that's a neat place to visit, too.

34. Visited the birthplace of your ancestors
Ancestors... if you mean England and Germany, yes, and if you mean Oklahoma and Texas, well, I never really LEFT those places to begin with, now did I?

35. Seen an Amish community
Yep! In Ohio.

36. Taught yourself a new language
I learned beginning Spanish via correspondence course and did quite well. I also have learned Haitian Kreyol and some rudimentary French. Right now I'm learning Japanese via a Pimsleur CD that I got from my Aunty Oh for my birthday. I LOVE languages and I like to think I have a bit of a gift for picking them up.

37. Had enough money to be truly satisfied
You want my honest answer? No, I never have. I know, I'm supposed to say that I am content, and I truly am -- but it's an uncomfortable sort of contentment, yanno?

38. Seen the Leaning Tower of Pisa in person

39. Gone rock climbing
Not my favorite activity, but I've done it.

40. Seen Michelangelo’s David

41. Sung karaoke
With SarahK, even!

42. Seen Old Faithful geyser erupt
One of the coolest things I've ever done.

43. Bought a stranger a meal at a restaurant

44. Visited Africa

45. Walked on a beach by moonlight

46. Been transported in an ambulance

47. Had your portrait painted

48. Gone deep sea fishing

49. Seen the Sistine Chapel in person

50. Been to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris

51. Gone SCUBA diving or snorkeling
I don't really ever want to. I'm a little afraid of being underwater.

52. Kissed in the rain

53. Played in the mud

54. Gone to a drive-in theater
I saw the first Christopher Reeve Superman movie at a drive-in.

55. Been in a movie

56. Visited the Great Wall of China

57. Started a business

58. Taken a martial arts class

59. Visited Russia

60. Served at a soup kitchen

61. Sold Girl Scout Cookies

62. Gone whale watching

63. Got flowers for no reason

64. Donated blood, platelets or plasma
The last time I did it, it did not end well.

65. Gone sky diving
Wouldn't do it if someone held a gun to my head. I mean that.

66. Visited a Nazi concentration camp
One of the things in my life I will never EVER forget.

67. Bounced a check

68. Flown in a helicopter

69. Saved a favorite childhood toy

70. Visited the Lincoln Memorial

71. Eaten caviar

72. Pieced a quilt
First time at age nine, with my great-grandmother. I still have the quilt, too.

73. Stood in Times Square
And a weird woman standing next to us just squatted down and started peeing on the sidewalk. We rapidly vacated that particular section of sidewalk.

74. Toured the Everglades

75. Been fired from a job

76. Seen the Changing of the Guards in London

77. Broken a bone

78. Been on a speeding motorcycle
Don't tell my mom or dad, okay?

79. Seen the Grand Canyon in person

80. Published a book

81. Visited the Vatican

82. Bought a brand new car

83. Walked in Jerusalem

84. Had your picture in the newspaper

85. Read the entire Bible

86. Visited the White House

87. Killed and prepared an animal for eating

88. Had chickenpox

89. Saved someone’s life

90. Sat on a jury

91. Met someone famous

92. Joined a book club

93. Lost a loved one

94. Had a baby

95. Seen the Alamo in person

96. Swam in the Great Salt Lake

97. Been involved in a law suit

98. Owned a cell phone

99. Been stung by a bee

100. Read an entire book in one day
The Harry Potter books, all four Twilight books... you bet. I will consume a book like a horde of locusts when given the opportunity. I love to read.

Our American Girl Store night out

Me, center, with my college buddies Shel, Deb & George and *some* of our kids (with *their* kids).

We all found each other again on Facebook and decided to get together tonight at the American Girl Store's Bistro. It was incredibly awesome to see them again -- some people you just love for a whole lifetime, even if it's twenty years in between times you see one another. And I sincerely hope it isn't twenty MORE years before we all see one another again.

And yes, being good Oklahoma Baptist University girls, we stood outside afterwards and did "Ka-Rip." We had to. It's just one of those things you have to do. If you never went to Oklahoma Baptist University, don't try to understand this because you just won't. It's a string of nonsense syllables that must be shouted at the top of one's lungs while clapping, and if you don't have it memorized during that first week of your freshman year, upperclassmen will humiliate you. Hence you memorize it and you NEVER FORGET IT. EVER.

We'll all probably be shouting it in our nursing homes and they'll medicate us to make us stop.

Smirches Ditch of Truth

The title is an anagram for the building we're going to visit tomorrow morning. It's also who's talking to me about being music/worship leader... hence my personal dilemma.

Do I really want to entangle myself on a church staff?

Certainly not one like I've experienced in the past.

But this particular group is of a very different, um, "flavor" than I've aligned myself with in the past, and seems quite unlikely to pose the same threat of sucking the life out of me.

Do I really even want to do the institutional church thing ever again?

Not so much. It might've been a mistake for me to read Frank Viola's books and The Shack, but it's done now and I've had external confirmation of my internal sense of truth. Can't put that toothpaste back in the tube now.

But I also don't have any prospects for participating in an organic church. In the meantime, this group has a lot to recommend it. I'm not getting the same overpowering sense of territorial protection and in-fighting that I was perceiving at the Tuft Rich Chips Brat .

I'm speaking in anagrams because I can, because I found a neato site that creates them automatically for me, and because I really don't want anyone from either group to be able to Google their group and find my blog saying things about them. It's just not necessary or helpful.

Any-hoo, I'm sure there's strife. It's an institutional church, ain't it? But I'm not emotionally invested in some institutional vision, I'm committed to The Church. That's a very liberating position to be in, actually.

But even at all that, am I letting our desperate need for money drive my decision? Because while it isn't a lucrative position, it IS a paid one. We've lost the income from the North Ruralville position (gladly, wiping hands on pants) and we're losing the income from me teaching the college night class.

Hence my dilemma.

I'll let y'all know. It isn't imminent; God usually makes these things obvious for us, so I'll be patient and let him show me what he wants.

BOOMer Sooner!!!!

Oklahoma 65, Texas Tech 21


Sam Bradford, Sooners QB

This 'n that

Sorry for the light blogging. I have a LOT on my mind, and I'm distracted in the evenings because Rick is working nights at the Wally-World Ginormously Humongous Distribution Center and I have to get kids showered and in bed without his help for most of the week.

And I have a decision to make that's kind-of important. I can't elaborate at the moment. It's not earth-shatteringly important... but important enough that I have a lot to think about.

And I'm tired.

And on a completely unrelated note, I have re-discovered my hip-bones and collarbones. Over fifty pounds down now.

SuperMassive!

"Supermassive Black Hole"
Muse
performed live at Wembley Stadium in 2007






Lyrics:

Oh baby dont you know I suffer?
Oh baby can you hear me moan?
You caught me under false pretenses
How long before you let me go?

You set my soul alight
You set my soul alight

(You set my soul alight)
Glaciers melting in the dead of night
And the superstars sucked into the supermassive

(You set my soul alight)
Glaciers melting in the dead of night
And the superstars sucked into the 'supermassive'

I thought I was a fool for no-one
Oh baby I'm a fool for you
You're the queen of the superficial
And how long before you tell the truth

You set my soul alight
You set my soul alight

(You set my soul alight)
Glaciers melting in the dead of night
And the superstars sucked into the supermassive

(You set my soul alight)
Glaciers melting in the dead of night
And the superstars sucked into the 'supermassive'

Supermassive black hole
Supermassive black hole
Supermassive black hole
Supermassive black hole

Chump change!

I swear to you upon anything left in the world that might have a trace of sacredness left in it, if I had $75 mil, this place would be MINE.

Along with a mute cabana boy to bring me fruity drinks with umbrellas in them.

YeeeHAW!!

Cowboys 14, Redskins 10

Don't think I wasn't worried about this one. I hate ---HATE--- losing to the REDSKINS, of all teams, and I wasn't too sure we were going to be able to do it.

But we did. Hooray!

Beautiful stuff

Circus Horse Rider
Marc Chagall (1887-1985)

Artistic time-waster

Bomomo

Kewl-tastic and chaotic and beautiful -- no score-keeping or tension involved, just fun.

Because we all need to laugh

I give you sons of window-dressers a little gratuitous laughter for your Sunday enjoyment:

NASA's Picture of the Day

Anticrepuscular Rays over Colorado

Crepuscular rays, in atmospheric optics, also known as sun rays, cloud breaks, sunburst, God's rays, God's Fingers, Fingers of God and Jacob's Ladder, are rays of sunlight that appear to radiate from a single point in the sky. These rays, which stream through gaps in clouds or between other objects, are columns of sunlit air separated by darker cloud-shadowed regions. The name comes from their frequent occurrences during crepuscular hours (those being dawn and dusk), when the contrasts between light and dark are the most obvious. Various airborne compounds scatter the sunlight and make these rays visible, due to diffraction, reflection, and scattering.

So, what's happening in the above photograph?

Although the scene may appear somehow supernatural, nothing more unusual is occurring than a setting Sun [behind the camera] and some well placed clouds. Pictured above are anticrepuscular rays. To understand them, start by picturing common crepuscular rays that are seen any time that sunlight pours though scattered clouds. Now although sunlight indeed travels along straight lines, the projections of these lines onto the spherical sky are great circles. Therefore, the crepuscular rays from a setting (or rising) sun will appear to re-converge on the other side of the sky. At the anti-solar point 180 degrees around from the Sun, they are referred to as anticrepuscular rays. Pictured above is a particularly striking set of anticrepuscular rays photographed in 2001 from a moving car just outside of Boulder, Colorado, USA.

Kewl, no?

The Ultimate Answer!

If you're color-blind, you're outta luck. Just wish me a Happy Birthday and that'll suffice.

I'm sleepy

I think I will go to bed early.

I feel really really bad for Rick, though. He worked until 3AM this morning, came home and slept a couple of hours, got up with us and took Alice to her neuro appointment in Dallas and spent all day down there. By the time they got back, he had to go to work again. No sleep at all.

I'm hoping tomorrow he'll be able to catch up.

In the meantime, nighty-night y'all. Tonight has been shockingly peaceful, so I know several of youse is prayin' fer me. Much obliged, I am.

Happiness

My furry four-year-old four-legged baby is snuggled up right beside me on the couch, warming up my leg.

It's nice to be loved so slavishly and devotedly. :) Not that I'd demand such from anyone, but it's kinda nice to have it freely lavished upon me on a regular basis. heh

Kidshrink

I spent a significant amount of time carefully documenting all the issues we've been dealing with at home, then I took her to her regular appointment with her psychiatrist.

After spending time describing everything we're seeing at home, the doctor determined that a short-term day-treatment option was appropriate. I have no idea how we're going to do this, but do it we must. In the day-treatment center, she will spend all day there and come home at night. They will provide her with a certified teacher to help her keep up her studies, plus they will closely monitor her behaviors and moods to help get a better handle on what sorts of meds will have a better efficacy than what we're doing right now.

And for that matter, it gets us a track record of intervention which, when and if things escalate for her, will stand us in good stead if we ever have to make a more drastic decision.

I'll find out more information tomorrow. It may be that there's a six-month wait for this day-treatment program... in which case I will be contacting the doctor again and reminding her that I will be promptly dropping my kid off at her doorstep for that six-month period.

Finished

It's not the Mona Lisa, but it's done.

Vulture kitteh

Dude loves playing on our stairs. He waits like the Snoopy Vulture, as if the person walking underneath him doesn't see him, and takes a swipe with his padded paw when you go by.

Thought for the day

The Year of the Rat

I just never got around to doing a Year of the Rat watercolor this year, but I wanted to. So I started on it last night:



It's technically the "Year of the Earth Rat" (taking into account the five elements that also figure into Chinese zodiac silliness), so I'm going with a brown-based theme:



That's where it's at so far.

Re-declaring my allegiances

McGehee was right. And I agreed with him at the time.

And I still do. Even more than I did then. I'm lifting an entire post of his -- but only because it bears MUCH repeating:

All politicians, political commentators, and politically inclined ordinary citizens, would you please be so kind as to leave me alone now?

I don’t mean just until the next campaign. I don’t want to hear from you at all. Ever.

Every time you start in, you manage to overstay your welcome long before anybody has even declared his or her candidacy. And again before the primary campaign has even started. And again before the convention…

You see where this is going?

Since the Constitution and its underlying principles no longer have any meaning, what say we throw it all over for a parliamentary system with all campaigns over and done with in six weeks? Sound good? Yes? No?

Whatever. Just don’t bother me with it anymore.

Y'all all go do whatever it is you're gonna do. Just stay the h*ll off my lawn. Yes, it has weeds and the fence is falling down (literally). It's MINE and I'll fix it myself.

And when you want my vote, you know what you have to do.

UPDATE: Don't think that this means I wish our new president ill. On the contrary, he is MY president too. Terizts --domestic or foreign, I don't care-- had better steer clear. If he fails as president, I want it to be because his ideas are wrong, not because he gets assassinated. Sheesh. Stay the h*ll offa my lawn and stay the h*ll away from my president.

Hmm... McGehee agrees with me on that, too. Kinda scary.

Notice to the Republican Party

Unless and until a party espouses Authentic Ronald Reagan Conservatism™, I will not support it or its agenda.

I am finished with equivocating and aisle-crossing RINOs. I supported you, Mister Maverick, and you let me down time and time again. Now your scummy handlers have the NERVE to run down Sarah Palin. Excuse me?!?

You people do not know ANYTHING.

CLUELESS.

That hockey mom is who bought you that close race. McCain is a war hero, but he's not a conservative and never will be. I didn't even get excited until Palin came along, and even then I had to keep reminding myself that McCain is OLD and that he might just kick the bucket in office leaving Sarahcuda in charge.

I am henceforth a PUMA Conservative. Maybe I'm alone in this. That's okay. I'm tired of trying to appeal to all you roadkill moderates.

When a REAL conservative shows up, y'all let me know.



(RINO= Republican In Name Only)
(PUMA= Party Unity My Ass)

Hey!! I'm four years old!!

In blog years, that is. And I totally forgot my bloggiversary, too (October 26). Thanks to my blog-compadre MaggieKatzen (who I loooove to hang out with) for reminding me.

And those links in my first post? I'm pretty sure they all still work. I know that I do still visit all those places regularly. Consistency hasn't been one of the personality traits I'd ascribe to myself, but it's nice to know that my favorite lurks are still up and running.

The Ultimate Answer to Life, the Universe, and Everything

Did you realize that, a week after this Friday, I will have reached Douglas Adams' Ultimate Answer?

Interesting ads from November, 1966

I was born in November of 1966. Here's a tiny picture of the world then, as viewed through some November 1966 car ads.

The only one of those cars I'd think of driving around today might be the Ford LTD... it's got a classy campiness to it. The '67 Chevy is kinda cool, too -- and appealing because of that eight-track stereo system WITH a FREE 80-MINUTE TAPE INCLUDED.

I wouldn't own the AMC Rebel or the Dodge Polara or the Pontiac GTO if you gave them to me, fully restored. That Oldsmobile Vista-Cruiser is pretty godawful, too... I'm seeing in that vehicle the beginnings of a long era of fugly.

The Plymouth Belvedere isn't terrible. I'd take a restored one if someone gave it to me.

The VW Bug ad is just funny stuff.

My parents had a '67 Camaro when I was a baby. It was kickass kewl.

I wish we still had it! I would drive one of these in a heartbeat.

Bizarre Foods

I can't bear to watch or listen to one more word about politics. I just don't care anymore.

We get the government that we -- as a nation -- deserve.

Instead, I'm watching Andrew Zimmern eat bugs on the Travel Channel.

I've got less than two weeks left

2 more teens abandoned under Nebraska safe-haven law

OMAHA, Neb. -- Two more teenagers have been abandoned at Nebraska hospitals under the state's much-criticized safe haven law, bringing the number of mostly older children dropped off to 26 since July, authorities said. The teens, both 16, were left at separate hospitals, according to the state Department of Health and Human Services.

...

Nebraska was the last state to enact a safe-haven law, which is intended to protect unwanted newborns from being abandoned. Some have interpreted the state's law to mean children as old as 18 can be abandoned because it uses the word "child" and doesn't include an age limit.

Health and Human Services officials, however, say they will not take in any children older than 17.

The Legislature plans to tackle the issue at a special session on Nov. 14. Speaker of the Legislature Mike Flood said he'll introduce a bill establishing a 3-day-old age limit.

Don't begin to think for one moment that this isn't the most tempting thing that's come to my e-mail in ninety-four forevers. My birthday's November 14th. It's a Friday. I could take that day off work and be in Omaha in ten hours.

Hi!

Me, with the guy who actually gets stuff done (Rick)

Something beautiful for the first day of November

"Murnau Street With Women" 1908
Wassily Kandinsky

This painting (can you see some of the obvious homage he pays to Van Gogh?) makes me HAPPY. If I ever find a large poster of it somewhere, I will buy it and frame it and put it in my house.

Ever seen the stupid commercial about the couple who comes to the high-falutin' architect and ask him to design a house around this dumb-looking faucet they've picked out? Well, if they had come to ME with a copy of this painting and asked me to design a house around IT, I think I could.