foodie

Last night I saw on the news how the city is starting this new garbage and recycling program.  Now a lot of what we think of as garbage has to go in the yardwaste bin to be used as compost.  This sounds all nice and wonderful for the environment, right?  Except that the city will now be sifting through your garbage to make sure you comply or they will fine you.  And apparently this will be for apartments as well.  Good luck figuring that out. 

I want people to want to help save the environment.  I don't want people to do it out of fear of "the man".  All that does is breed resentment and rebellion, and what suffers from that in this instance?  The very thing they're trying so misguidedly to protect. 

While I approve of doing things to help the environment, I don't approve of doing it as a competition with other cities in this country to become the "greenest" city in America.  I don't approve of having the government strong-arm people into complying with the threat of fines and fees.  Isn't there a better, friendlier way of going about this?

I was thinking about nicknames, and realized how many names you can get from the name Elizabeth.  Can any other name boast so many nicknames?

Lizzy/Lizzie
Lisa
Liza
Liz
Eliza
Elisa
Elise
Eli
Beth
Bess
Betty

No Bellatrix icon, so I used the next craziest character...

How come every time I watch OOTP, when it comes to the scene with Lucius approaching the kids and then Bellatrix joins him, I always think, "So that's what happened to Baby Jane..."?

Today I listened to President Obama take the oath of office on the radio while I was at work. What a great feeling it was! I wish I could have been home to watch it, but at least I got to listen to it.

I've been contemplating why we are all so enthusiastic about him. Is it because he's just so cool? Or personable? Or is it because he feels like he's one of us? Of our generation? Is it because he's a Democrat? I came to the conclusion, though, that it is because we are hungry. We are starving. Starving to be a part of our country. Starving to participate in the changes that must be made. People think our generation is a bunch of whiners and spoiled brats, but we've never been tested before. This is our test.

Over the last eight years, the mantra of "If you're not with us, then you're against us," has beaten us down. We feel we are not a part of the "real" America, because we didn't agree with the man in control. We were told that we were unAmerican to disagree, and that to disagree was dangerous to the point of allowing terrorists to roam freely in our nation, so we should just shut up and deal. So we did. We shut up. We went to sleep. President Obama helped us to wake up and start speaking again. And we spoke, and we yelled, and we screamed, and we cried. Tears of joy.

My hope for the next four years: I hope that we as a nation can find some middle ground on which to work. Before today, my attitude towards those who opposed Obama and remain so, and perhaps will always be opposed to him, was very much "Tag, you're it! I hope you feel the same pain and sadness and futility that we did the last eight years." But now that I think about it, I realize that I wouldn't wish those feelings on anybody. I hope we as a party can rise above the built-up anger and cynicism, and work to make sure that those people who fear Obama or disagree with him, never feel as unwelcome or as hated as we felt.

We all have hope for the future. It will be a long road. An uphill road. But we will make it to the top. So, today we party. Today we revel in the joy of our first achievement. And tomorrow, we roll up our sleeves, and get to work.

No, really, party like it's 1999! Not since the actual 1999 have these song lyrics been so true. 1999 was the last year before the Bush administration took over and nearly ran this country into the ground and ruined the world. It feels like today we hit the "control, alt, delete" buttons on the computer of this nation. There's definitely a feeling of starting over, and of course, hope...Will it be tough? Yes. Will it suck? Most likely. Will there be suffering before we start to see a difference? Yes. Will we make it through this? Yes. Can we do this? Yes we can...

On anther note, I am sitting here watching the entire I Have a Dream speech on tv and feeling a sense of amazement and sadness that people in my country had to fight so hard for so long for what was theirs. What should have been given to them freely, they had to take. They had to fight and die for it. I think about the event that will take place tomorrow, and wonder how we got there, 40 years later. It's a bit difficult to take it all in, really. Damn I wish he could be here to see tomorrow. But, I think he'll be watching it anyway, just a little further away.

This week a lot of talk on the local and national news has been devoted to an atheist sign placed in the capital building of the state. It's right next to a nativity scene. While I can't say I 100% support the idea of any ideological displays being put in a state building, I have to say that it's nice that if they're allowing for one belief system, they're also allowing for other belief systems too. But all of this has gotten me thinking about religion/spirituality in general. What is it in the human psyche or human instincts, that wants to create fellow believers of whatever it is you believe? Christians want to make more Christians, Muslims more Muslims, and Atheists more Atheists. Is it some desire to belong? Or a desire to feel safe in a large group? It may be a belief system, but it is also a culture of its own. Is this an extension of creating family units? Why is it that people can't just be content to believe what they believe without trying to get everybody else around them to believe it too? It is something to ponder...

I read an article on CNN.com today that had been posted in honor of Hunger Week that really opened my eyes. I'd always read about how beef consumption is aiding in hunger and pollution around the world, but it was always facts and figures, never real people starving, never real mothers choosing which children received rations and which ones didn't. The gist of the article was basically, "every time you eat beef, a child somewhere in the world starves to death." It didn't leave me feeling very good. Who knows, maybe this is a gross exaggeration and it's not really quite that dire. I'd rather not take my chances though, so, I am deciding to take a step that I know I should have been doing for a long time now, but never cared enough to. I'm going to cut meat out of my diet one day a week. I've chosen Saturday, because this is the day I'm most likely to eat fast food, and I'm hoping this will help curb that impulse. I love cooking and contemplating food, but I've never really considered the role it plays in a global sense. How what I put in my mouth can directly or indirectly affect people around the world that I have never, nor ever will, meet. The statistics say that if every American cut 10% of their meat consumption out of their diet, our country alone could feed the planet easily. This Saturday, I take that first step. Before, I would have considered doing this a burden and too difficult to deal with, but now, I see it as a challenge to overcome. I can do this. To paraphrase the President-Elect: "Yes I can!"

I've decided, that since the word "marriage" is now considered so sacred and precious that gay people aren't allowed to use it, then it should no longer be used in any other circumstances other than talking about a marriage of a straight man and a straight woman. So, no more describing things as "a marriage of this and that" or "all the flavors marry together well", that's apparently a sacrilege. Somehow, though "all the flavors domestic partnership together well" just doesn't have that same flow to it...Ah well, maybe some day we'll get to use the word again...

I've just seen pictures of a new planet they've found a kajillion miles away. It really makes you see the wonder and majesty of this universe, and how vast it truly is, and how minuscule our planet really is in the midst of all of it. And then I think about this fighting and arguing about letting gay people marry in our country. I'm just struck at the ridiculousness of it all. It's all so stupid. I guess it takes moments like these to give a person new perspective on it all.

It's 8:15pm on November 4, 2008, and I have already used up a second tissue to wipe away the tears as I celebrate the election of Barack Obama.  I have wanted this for so long and it feels so good to have it happen.  I know that not everything will change overnight, and not all of it may ever be completely fixed.  But this is a start.  A watershed moment in our country and I took part in it.  I was there to watch it.  What a great day...

I'd like to take just a minute of your time to remind all of you to get out and vote tomorrow.  We all have a wonderful chance to usher in a new era in American history.  Please take advantage of this and participate.  To help inspire you, here are a few lyrics from a popular movie:

Well after a few months of not writing a single thing, but continuing with my researching and doing things like creating a huge list of surnames, I finally wrote something.  My goal was to attempt NaNo again this year, but I don't think I can handle that pressure.  After each paragraph or two I write I have to stop and do some more researching, it's very slow-going.  I want to work on the writing though, but I'm feeling super overwhelmed at it all.  I just don't know where to start, or how to do it.  It's all so much harder than I first thought it would be. 

So, I started a piece, and managed to expand it quite a bit, and then it sort of fizzled, went nowhere.  I'd love feedback on it, and any suggestions on how to improve it or thoughts on how I could continue the piece.  Thanks!

( Zarik )

Why don't they make these most awesome theme songs anymore?  Can you just imagine what they'd come up with for Obama or McCain?  Sigh...I miss those good old days I never lived through.  Can one miss something they never experienced?


Text here

I must admit that this is the first presidential election I have really payed attention to on a daily basis.  I have always studied up enough to choose a candidate, but I've never really watched the news or read the papers about all of this stuff.  Is it a normal thing to question the readiness of a candidate?  One of the biggest "issues" the Republican party has against Obama is what they think is a lack of experience.  But the problem is, nobody who's never been president has presidential experience.  Unless you were a VP before running, you really can't claim to have any true presidential experience.  Is this something that has always been and I've never noticed before, or is this one of those codes the party is using?  I've been hearing about these "codes", which are words used to substitute blatantly racist terms, but which have the same meaning.  I wish there was a way to find out about this.

So, after last night's debate, I have come to see McCain in a new light.  I think he knows he's not going to win this election, no matter what he does.  So that anger we see when he's on tv, is the anger of a person who sees his dreams dying before his very eyes, and who is helpless to stop it.  Think about it, he's 72 now.  In four year he'll be 76, there's no way a person that old would be elected.  This is his one and only chance, and now it's slipping away from him.  It is sad, for him.  Not that I think he should be elected just cuz it would be nice for him, but I see his situation differently now.

So, last night's debate wasn't nearly as much fun as I had hoped it would be.  I got bored with each candidate about 30 seconds into each response.  Neither seemed to sound very coherent.  Or maybe it was the fact that I was reading one of my message boards at the same time.  Who knows. 

Good things for both sides:  Caribou Barbie managed to speak in full sentences.  Biden did the same.  He also did nothing to embarass himself too much, nor can he be accused of sexism or anything along those lines. 

Bad things for both sides:  Biden needs to learn to focus better when he speaks.  He actually does know what he's talking about, but it gets lost in the babbling.  Barbie tried too hard to relate to "Joe Sixpack" and the "Soccer Moms" of America.  Way too much of the "Golly gee willikers!" and dropping the "g" at the end of her words.  It just makes her sound uneducated, which if that's who she was appealing to, it would work, but call me classist or elitist, but I want somebody very well educated, and who sounds like it, running my country.

But those of us who are already decided, don't really gain much from these debates.  They won't sway us to the other side.  It's all about the Undecideds now.  This election depends on which way they'll vote in a month.  Those are the statistics to look out for and monitor.

A beautiful human being has passed away today.  I never knew him from the movies as much as I knew him from his food company.  A great actor, a great humanitarian, a great person.  Another one lost to cancer...just too many...

So, with crusty old McCain in the running for the presidency, the Republican party had to do something to enliven the party. Something to show, they're hip, and with it. So, they did what any other good sitcom does, they brought in somebody newer, cuter, and sassier. The Cosby Show brought in Olivia; Growing Pains, Family Ties, All in the Family, they all did this. When the original kids get to old, bring in newer ones to keep the show going. So, I have decided that this is why the Republican Party is like the Brady Bunch. Because Sarah Palin is the Cousin Oliver of that party. In which case, said party has truly jumped the barracuda bulldog pig shark...

So today's lesson is about the American political system, for those of you who may not be familiar with it.  We've enjoyed the "fun" that was the conventions, but now they're over.  What now, you may ask.  This is the phase after the conventions, but before the debates.  This is the super duper fun time that we get to listen to the candidates on TV as they whine and cry about who said what about who that hurt their feelings.  Each side tries to show themselves as the bigger victim.  You see, most Democrats and Republicans already know who they're going to vote to, so this is the time both sides pander to the undecideds.  These are the ones who will actually elect the next president.  So, by the time the election comes, we will all look at both parties, and decide which one conducted themselves in a way that disgusted us less than the other party, and vote for that party.  And this is how the President of the United States is elected!

But humble, ever so humble...

I just wrote this out now, cuz I was hit with inspiration somehow.  Maybe Divine inspiration, who knows...

Bible scenes Right-wing Style:

Jesus heals a blind man

22 They came to Bethsaida and some people brought a blind man and begged Jesus to touch him.  23 He took the blind man by the hand and led him outside the village.  “Why do you beg for healing?” Jesus asked, “Why don’t you have a job?  If you had a job you could afford proper health care and not need to ask for handouts from others.”  But Jesus took pity on the man.  When he had spit on the man’s eyes and put his hands on him, Jesus asked, “Do you see anything?”
24 He looked up and said, “I see people; and they look like trees walking around.”
25 Once more Jesus put his hands on the man’s eyes.  Then his eyes were opened, his sight was restored, and he saw everything clearly.  26 Jesus sent him home saying, “Go, and now that you can see, you are a valued member of society.  You can get a job and help support your family so that you no longer burden them or your community.”      

Scary thought huh?  If the Bible was written the way Right wing folks actually speak and act...