thyme is on my side

I moved states, I moved sites.

2009-06-05T09:59:00.002-04:00

drama, or, I'm tired

2009-04-24T19:53:00.003-04:00

In fact, I'm too tired to reiterate everything here, and it wouldn't really do much good, would it?

Opportunities to trust God are rarely calm moments.

I'm glad I have Nate... nobody else I'd rather have by my side to help vanquish questions and decisions. Go team us.

Bottom line: we're moving to Colorado, but the reason we're moving is sort of kinda maybe now defunct. But then again maybe not - lots of mixed messages. But we're still going, and it will be good.

thumbin' a ride

2009-04-12T22:56:00.002-04:00

So, Art History MA it is.

In the meantime, I'm hitchhiking my way to preparedness via iTunes U and podcasts.

nuke this phrase

2009-04-06T23:38:00.001-04:00

I'd like to eliminate the phrase, "these tough economic times," from the public vocabulary. I'm tired of hearing it.

from denver, where it is sunny

2009-03-31T18:57:00.002-04:00

Sitting in the Denver airport, waiting for my flight back to Dayton.

Observations about Colorado:
No one observes the speed limit.
No one tailgates.

While waiting through security I met a guy my age who is from New Zealand, and somehow ended up here after living in South America for the last ten months. He's flying back home, with stuffed toy rabbits for his niece and nephew. In awhile, he's planning on moving to Colombia. Says he loves the people, the culture. Eventually, he said he'll probably leave and wander more. I don't know how you do that... which is not to denigrate it. It's not like I ever had the wanderlust in me. I like home. I admire people like that, though, who can just up and go and see things. I wonder, why Colombia.

One hour until boarding time... I don't really want to leave.

Watching parents with their kids. I hope that someday I'll be as patient and well-disciplined as a few families I've seen.

men in velour want your money

2009-03-26T17:15:00.004-04:00

Apparently business is bad for Liberty Mutual. Every time I drive by the local branch, there are at least two employees dressed up as the Statue of Liberty. Light blue velour draped around them, Roman-toga-style, with blue foam spiky headbands. If you give them eye contact, they'll try to give you a Liberty Mutual foam frisbee. I don't give eye contact. Personally, this would not make me feel good about my insurance company, but we're not with them. I wonder what State Farm would look like, personified only by its name. A re-education camp?

I should be writing thank-you notes.

Lasagna is in the oven. Tea is in my mug.

My mom called today to ask if I wanted my grandma's rocking chair. I do, but in about five or six years - not now. The things I'm truly interested in, the vanity and dresser, are too big to haul down here and then haul wherever else we go. Don't know what I'll do about the chair... I'll regret not taking it.

going home

2009-03-21T09:20:00.008-04:00

rest in peace, Grandma... give Grandpa a big hug, finally, after all these years of missing him. I'm glad you are home.

the wrong william morris

2009-03-19T20:25:00.003-04:00

Today Nate and I went to the Dayton Art Institute to see an exhibit called "William Morris: Myth, Art, and the Animal." I didn't exactly check to see what the exhibit included. I just got excited to see some Arts and Crafts works. w00t!

Or not... I knew something was wrong when the brief bio in the program outside the doors to the exhibit placed the artist in the late twentieth century.

This William Morris does glass blowing and achieves some impressive results, to say the least. Birds and skulls were consistent motifs, along with tribal themes - think "noble savage." We weren't crazy about the skulls or the dead birds, but the sculptures of live birds were lovely and lifelike. There was a video showing him working with his team on a particular work, and the amount of skill it takes to create these things is amazing. It looked like incredibly hot, hard work, but the results are obviously worth it.

So, check him out: click here.

But... not the William Morris I thought! Disappointing. Maybe another time. At least it was "Free Exhibit Admission" Thursday.

waiting

2009-03-17T15:50:00.003-04:00

Do schools find it unnecessary to send rejection letters anymore? Or even rejection emails? Do they only let you know when you're accepted, and assume that everyone else will figure it out on their own?

Rejection/Acceptance emails are so weird... such a significant thing in such a flat and intangible medium.

The schools I'm waiting on are not live possibilities for us, practically, and I never entirely expected to gain admittance. So it won't break my heart, but it would be nice to know.

if I ruled the world...

2009-03-14T14:09:00.006-04:00

People who did not know how to operate a self-checkout machine wouldn't be allowed to use them.

south park, tudor style

2009-03-13T09:50:00.004-04:00

I'm reading about Tudor England for a class I'm grading. The current star is Cardinal Wolsey. Cartman keeps coming to mind...

U2

2009-03-11T13:45:00.003-04:00

Why did U2 have to hitch their wagon to Obama? That's not a slam against him or the Democrat party. I'm against the principle of the thing. One of the things I admired about the band was that it seemed to remain above the crowd and the press, aloof towards the powers-that-be. Their songs were laments about the world the way it is - Sunday Bloody Sunday, Miracle Drug, Refugee, Playboy Mansion - and never looked to a particular political position for an answer. Their humanitarian work was great and I liked their apolitical nature. In my opinion, they're tainted now, and I don't plan on buying their new album. It wouldn't matter if U2 and Bono had latched on to a Republican or an independent, by the way; I don't buy into any government message of salvation. I wish they hadn't, either.

In bigger news, personally, I changed my name. I have a legally new identity, and to cushion the shock of it I kept my maiden name as my middle name. The people at the Social Security office and the DMV had a hard time with that concept but they cooperated nicely. Another positive: I got a new driver's license photo and I actually like it.

So what is life now? Life is waiting and being busy. I found out the day before the wedding that I was accepted, with full funding, into Miami University. It's a sweet offer, but there's a few downsides: it's not the program I really want, the hubs and I would have long commutes, it's only a two year program meaning we would have to move again shortly, etc. I also know I'm in at Colorado, with a program I love. Lots of potential there, including a job for Nate. But I'm still waiting to hear on funding from Colorado, and waiting to hear from three other schools. Any time now, they'll send me an email.... aaaaannnyy time....

Keeping my email inbox open 24/7 doesn't help.

So we know I'm going to school, but we don't know where. Miami is the default option, and we'll make that work if nothing else happens. Our apartment lease is up June 1st, so we know when we'll move - just not where.

Because it's only a few months, we decided that there was no point in me looking for work right now. There is plenty to do: we sorted through wedding gifts and I dealt with returns; I need to write thank you notes; I need to read for the classes I'm grading (I really need to do that); I should iron clothes and do laundry; I made beef soup this afternoon and it is sitting in the crock pot. And there's all the legal and financial business of being married. I'm enjoying this time, though I wouldn't want it long-term. I don't know what I'd do with myself.

The cooking is fun. Yesterday I made blueberry-lemon scones and they are GOOD, I am a fan.

If you read any of this, please post a comment. I wonder if I'm talking to myself.

democrat left, republican right

2008-11-03T19:12:00.003-05:00

this has been in my head ever since I saw it the first time, and then I heard the original song on the radio twice today - making it doubly stuck!

best video of the election season - makes me smile. isn't this what it's about, anyway?

sewiously, pom-pom

2008-10-21T19:53:00.005-04:00

"don't know what the country's gonna do
but in Rome do as the Romans do"
[Dean Martin]

... um, seriously?

I have my issues with McCain/Palin, but, SERIOUSLY? That video is disturbing.

2008-10-03T08:59:00.001-04:00

In the Carboniferous Epoch we were promised abundance for all,
By robbing selected Peter to pay for collective Paul;
But, though we had plenty of money, there was nothing our money could buy,
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings said: "If you don't work you die."

Then the Gods of the Market tumbled, and their smooth-tongued wizards withdrew
And the hearts of the meanest were humbled and began to believe it was true
That All is not Gold that Glitters, and Two and Two make Four —
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings limped up to explain it once more.

[Rudyard Kipling, full text here]

one step forward

2008-09-23T20:56:00.002-04:00

grad school applications = pure, unadulterated bureaucracy.

I wonder if review boards sit giggling in the dark cobwebby halls of some poorly maintained Humanities building, inventing convoluted requirements in revenge for having to read pages and pages of statements of purpose.

.. two steps back.

up the stairs, down the stairs

2008-08-31T22:59:00.003-04:00

Over the last two days, we moved Nate and several others to new apartments. People have asked what else we've done, so we add that we've cleaned a lot. This apartment is where Nate and I will live after we get married, so I'm all excited and involved. He's sharing it with another guy for the time being, so I'm not too involved - not ours yet, but it will be...

I unpacked and organized the kitchen stuff, laid down the cabinet lining, put in extra shelving, and got in touch with my latent domestic side. I also learned how to operate a gas oven. My family has always had electric. (Can we turn on that burner? YES WE CAN!)

Only downside: this isn't ours yet! Only six months-ish. I am impatient. I'm ready to come home and find him there at the end of the day, or be there when he gets back from the office. I'm ready to get on with it. I'm learning patience and how I'm not good at it. Nate is better: he is the long-distance runner to my sprinter. Where I run at projects and decisions full force, he has a steadier pace. We work well together: two sprinters and we'd burn out, two long-distance runners and nothing would get done.

hail bob marley...

2008-08-25T07:23:00.003-04:00

Serbian cities are on a new kick: statues of pop icons to bring luck, cooperation, and peace. St. Francis and Madonnas are SO last century.

Lambeth and the Anglican communion

2008-08-02T22:14:00.003-04:00

I've been vaguely following the happenings at and around Lambeth, including the meeting at Jerusalem earlier this year. I have read about the potential for a split or for a "two tier" communion as a compromise, and that the worldwide communion may be ready to move without the consent of the US Episcopal church. So here's my question: is it particularly ignorant of me to just wish they'd split? I don't want a two-tier communion. The issues at stake are only about homosexuality on the surface level; there are other matters as well, including fundamental doctrinal issues. I realize part of being Anglican is maintaining the wholeness of the Church despite disagreements over peripheral things, and I have never loved the attitude of I'm-taking-my-doctrines-and-going-home. That said, I can't help but feel that a compromise would do nothing, not for the long term at least.

If anyone reads this and has thoughts on it, especially if you're an Anglican too but even if you're not, I'd appreciate your comment muchly.

2008-07-13T00:12:00.001-04:00

Everyone is telling me to relax, but everyone keeps giving me things to think about and things to do. Really, they need to be consistent.

I am a happy, happy girl. That is consistent. :)

2008-07-05T10:36:00.002-04:00

"I must study politics and war, that my sons may have liberty to study mathematics and philosophy. My sons ought to study mathematics and philosophy, geography, natural history and naval architecture, navigation, commerce, and agriculture in order to give their children a right to study painting, poetry, music, architecture, statuary, tapestry, and porcelain."

"When people talk of the freedom of writing, speaking or thinking I cannot choose but laugh. No such thing ever existed. No such thing now exists; but I hope it will exist. But it must be hundreds of years after you and I shall write and speak no more."

- John Adams

Jerusalem Statement

2008-06-29T13:37:00.003-04:00

Official statement from the Global Anglican Fellowship in Jerusalem.

to whom it may interest

2008-06-09T19:58:00.001-04:00

there's an entire course on Being and Time on iTunes U.

go to itunes --> itunes store --> itunes u --> UC Berkeley --> arts and humanities --> philosophy 185

did I mention that it's free?

wondering.

2008-06-04T19:45:00.002-04:00

Why is the most obvious answer usually the one that feels the dumbest? For example, a job application. "Why do you want to work here?" The real answer: a paycheck. I need money, I work for you, you pay money. But that's not a good answer, even when it's most appropriate (hourly jobs from high school or even the job you might have now.) So you come up with another answer. (Like the Starbucks reply: "I love coffee.") However lame, it feels better than showing your hand.

Same with a statement of purpose: why do I want to go to grad school? Because it's what I want to do. But that's not a good enough answer. Ok, developing: I want to teach. Why? Because I think it's about the best job possible: spread the knowledge of the things you love and get to study them all the time. It's a total high when you're teaching and someone gets it for the first time. Nothing like it.

Also: I've done something else for almost a year now, and I know that business/engineering/manufacturing isn't for me. I know what I want because I still want it. Can't tell how many times I've looked at my cubicle walls and thought, get me out of here. ("A funny thing happened on the way to grad school.") By the time the applications reach the hands of the review boards, I'll have been working in the real world for a year and half. It's been great, and I've learned a lot, and one of the things I've learned is just how much I want to advance my education. Not "go back" to school - I don't want to regress, I want to move forward. I'm far hungrier now than I was a year ago. Given the chance, I'll prove it.

double standards.

2008-05-31T08:44:00.002-04:00

It is an evil world when a gang rapes by marauding dictatorial armies are called war crimes but gang rapes by UN peacekeepers are called "incidents."

help with a title?

2008-05-27T17:37:00.006-04:00

If you know anything about jazz, help me out if you can:

Over the weekend I heard a session done in tribute to Charlie Parker, with some of the best musicians playing trumpet, piano, drums, etc. (Don't remember names, of course.) In the middle of the piece the director stops the pianist, who is in the middle of a solo, and says no, that's not Parker. Everyone laughs and the pianist starts playing again. I think (emphasis on think, I'm really not sure) that Charles Mingus was involved.

All my googling has led nowhere so any help would be cool.

a purposeful statement

2008-05-26T19:04:00.002-04:00

I'm writing application essays and using words I haven't used in almost a year: "dialogue," "conversation," "participant," and "interdisciplinary." At no point do I intend to include anything beginning with "neo" or "post" or even "paedo."

This is not the stuff dreams are made on but the stuff by which they are accomplished.

2008-05-25T00:17:00.001-04:00

Bottle of red, bottle of white
Whatever kind of mood you're in tonight
I'll meet you anytime you want
In our Italian restaurant.

people watching

2008-05-10T10:30:00.004-04:00

Boris was a Russian immigrant and a customer at the pool store where I worked for three summers. He was the stuff of store legend, an older balding man with a thick accent and a perpetually irritated look on his face. The man was never happy with us, but he kept coming back week after week. Our chemical readings were wrong, our recommendations were too expensive, we didn't know what we were doing. The machine was wrong. The chlorine was broken. These rants were usually spat out in Russian since he spoke poor English, and for the first two summers Boris' adult son accompanied him on every trip as a translator. When his son failed to show up, our dealings with Boris had the extra dimension of poor communication. Boris detested us girls in particular, and was always willing to listen to our male coworkers more readily than to us - even if they just repeated exactly what we had said. Difficult and rude, he was not our favorite customer, but he was a regular.

Then, the third summer, I stood behind the counter and Boris walked into the store. He was smiling. Not only was he smiling, he was pleasant - that day, and every day after. He began to joke with us, even the girls, and he learned our names. His English became clearer. We were stumped, and speculated that since Boris was now accompanied by his wife and not his son, his progeny might not have been as welcome or useful as we thought.

Today, I'm sitting in Panera with every intention of studying for the GRE and working on statements of purpose. My seat faces the door and about ten minutes ago, I glanced up and then looked again: Boris and his wife had just walked in the door. First through one door, then through the other, and up to the counter, out of sight. They wouldn't recognize me now, but I hope they're doing well. He still looks pleasant, in a cranky Russian sort of way.

Sighting of things past.
----
There are some things I miss about Cedarville: I didn't get a fork with my fruit cup but I don't want to abandon my computer and bag to go get one. Back in Cedarville, I could leave my stuff without a second thought; call me crazy but I'm still getting used to being perpetually suspicious of my fellow carb-o-holics. Eh, not "getting used to" - I simply don't like it, but that's how it is.

On to the studying and the sighting of things future.
----
Holy mp3 player, Batman!

2008-05-09T23:44:00.003-04:00

FYI, William Morris and Yeats were fascinated by Byzantium. (I am in rather good company.)

Once out of nature I shall never take

My bodily form from any natural thing,
But such a form as Grecian goldsmiths make
Of hammered gold and gold enamelling
To keep a drowsy Emperor awake;
Or set upon a golden bough to sing
To lords and ladies of Byzantium
Of what is past, or passing, or to come.

[From "Sailing to Byzantium," W.B. Yeats]

!!

2008-04-30T18:28:00.005-04:00

my book came yesterday.

supergirl

2008-04-26T08:12:00.003-04:00

Yesterday we went out for ice cream at a local place. It has a fenced-off area with free rides for little kids, the kind you'd see at an arcade, and a mini merry-go-round. There was a little girl on the merry-go-round, no older than four, who was wearing a Superman outfit complete with a cape. She sat on the hot pink composite pony and went around in circles while eating her ice cream and giving her dad a high-five every time she passed him on the circuit.

I wish you a day like that.

ahem

2008-04-23T19:14:00.003-04:00

Chris has said I don't have much to say here. Eh. I have things to say, but not here. :) There is plenty on my mind but nothing coalesces into something coherent. What can I say.

I'm looking on Amazon for Phaidon's "The Arts and Crafts Movement." It's remarkably hard to find. Whoa, found it... fifty dollars. Used. Rethinking...

I wonder, if and when I get to grad school, whether or not I'll be able to make myself care about certain things again. I've run across a few books on art and feminism and there's no spark of interest. Which is not to say I'll never write about it again (I will) or that I don't care (ha) but those books may well be too abstracted to be useful. I'm not up for useless-ness right now, not in that way. I don't know what I want to say.

Ah ha, "Byzantium Rediscovered."

Yes, my heart still skips a beat.

I don't want to go to school and study art and become irrelevant. (Don't laugh.)

Religious art is not irrelevant.

2008-04-12T10:45:00.001-04:00

Google ad:

the spelling is fearsome indeed.

Nominated, Seconded And...

2008-04-02T21:05:00.002-04:00

Several nights ago, we played a game of mafia where you were not killed but fired. We played not with Mafia, Sheriff, and Doctor but with Administration, Coalition of the Concerned, and the Blogger. If you don't get it, good. (And if you do, it worked very well.)

so you say you got a real solution

well you know

we'd all love to see the plan

you ask me for a contribution

well you know

we're all doing what we can

[the beatles]

NCAA and other things

2008-03-22T21:05:00.006-04:00

I love March Madness. Games all day, for days in a row, games that are beautiful to watch both physically (like soccer or figure skating, where you are amazed at what the human body can do) and emotionally (nothing like a sudden death tournament for a little energy.) My bracket is a mess, but I predicted Stanford would survive to the sweet sixteen, and they did - barely, just now, in overtime. Kentucky - let's not talk about Kentucky. I'll pull for Xavier.

Last Sunday, I remembered things from a year ago that I'd forgotten. It was specifically last Sunday for some reason - I haven't been hit with a similar flood of memories before or since. Neither pleasant nor unpleasant. A year ago, I'd have laughed if you'd have described me now. I'm glad to be here. I'm also glad to keep moving: grad program shopping has begun in earnest. I have ideas for papers and for life that still need to percolate for awhile.

And Kansas survives and advances, beating UNLV. Isn't there a Seinfeld or Fraiser episode that mocks UNLV? Could be wrong.

Oh, life.

while you were sleeping

2008-03-21T04:36:00.004-04:00

it's 4:30 AM.

I have a bad cold.

I haven't slept... at all. I'd love to, really, but it's not an option. It's my own dumb fault: last night, I thought taking nyquil wouldn't kick the sinus pain, so I took sudafed. Should have taken the stuff that makes you sleep, not the stuff that made sense to my foggy mind. When it wore off around 2:30, I thought that taking nyquil would prevent me from getting up in time for work, so again, I took sudafed. And here we are.

Well then.

Options for an hour from now:

1) Get up and go to work as normal: leave around 11 AM after a meeting: pick up kleenex and come home and sleep for a few hours.

Productivity? Minimal.

2) Get up and go to work as normal and see how long I last.

3) Call in sick around 7 AM, take the nyquil, and sleep until early afternoon.

I'm leaning towards Option #1.

Good thing this is a relatively slow weekend...

Hello.

2008-02-19T19:20:00.007-05:00

Tonight I invented dinner. I'm on my own for that today, so I cooked spaghetti, chopped up cooked chicken, and steamed carrots and vegetables. Ta da. Then I dug around the cabinets for something herbal to add, but that didn't get more exciting than parsley. I was pretty happy with how it turned out.

Music is a powerful thing: I love U2, and I've just started discovering Bob Dylan and Johnny Cash, but listening to too much of them puts me in blue, frustrated funk. I've been fighting it for a few days and I've been here before. Simple solution: set them aside. Listen to something else (Sinatra, Josh Groban, Postal Service, the Eagles, Sufjan.) Take two and call me in the morning. It works every time. Switchfoot and Relient K also send me looping into a strange, stressed mood. I have no idea why, nor do I know why other music pulls me out of it.

Last week at work, I was busy with a special project which happened to be in a building other than my usual one. It's a smaller place used mostly for prototyping, and it houses the service representatives we send to various locations all over the world. These are not easily impressed people. When one welder introduced himself and asked what I was doing, I explained that I was writing work instructions for the project as well as compiling the bill of material. He never cracked a grin as he said, "Well don't **** it up." I said I didn't plan to and tacked a "sir" on the end.

In the midst of such company another man introduces himself, a few days later. He is short and portly, with long hair and a knit cap pulled over his head. It was askew. He asks me what my name is and I said it was Kate. "Ah, like 'Kiss me, Kate'?" Mmm, something like that, I answered. He showed me what he was working on and I listened politely until I could break away without being rude. He was nice and interesting, but my project was on a tight time crunch. I went back to my own work and sat in a truck with my laptop to do some instruction-writing on the fly. A few minutes later, he was back. He asked how I got into this line of work, asked about my degree, asked which philosopher was my favorite, and when I said I was sort of into medieval philosophy, he got excited.

This guy loves Shakespeare. He asked which plays I'd read (I named a few) and asked if I had read Henry VIII (I hadn't). Now he's more excited. This is his favorite play EVER and every Christmas Eve, he stands up on his work table and recites Henry's victory speech. "Ask anyone here, I do it, they think I'm crazy!" I didn't believe him entirely, but since he was standing in front of the truck door I was a captive audience. That is, I didn't believe him at first.

"See," he said, almost jumping up and down by now, "That's why I said 'kiss me, Kate,' when you told me your name. Because right after that battle, Henry goes to marry Catherine, and he tries to woo her but she's not buying it, she's just not buying it at all..." and he proceeds to recount, with quotes, the entire dialogue between them, from Henry's pragmatic beginning to Catherine's final concession.

Then I believed him. I found out later that he was also responsible for the detailed line drawings of office workers that hung outside their doors throughout the building. At that point the messy hair and tilted hat weren't looking messy but deliberate, even artistic. (Always a fine line between those two.) I don't remember his given first name, but maybe it's more appropriate to remember him as Henry.

The Moral of the Story: You never know. You don't know who you're walking by or who's walking by you, presuming things about you. Who knows what we presume about the people we know well. But humankind can only bear so much reality, says Eliot, taken out of context. Life is short and I think the number of people we can know, embrace, and explore is very, very small. The rich reality of the world around us is too much for us to register, and we only take it in small doses.

Some Things

2008-02-11T18:11:00.000-05:00

it is cold.

I am cold.

fingers, toes, nose... all cold.

I think of things to write sometimes, but when it comes to the actual typing of them, all my thoughts seem better kept in my head.

At work, I'm a manufacturing/engineering technician (MET for short.) It's a far cry from Greek and philosophy and religious icons. I write work instructions for the production line, I track engineering-ish things, I take a lot (a lot a lot a lot) of pictures, and there's few limits on what my job can entail. This is good, since I don't like to be bored. It's a role I've grown into and sometimes it's a comfortable place to be, but other times I'm reminded of how illiterate I am to my coworkers and I wonder how on earth I got here anyway. I like the people I work with: we are the bridge between the white collars and the blue collars. It's a good place. It's an interesting place. Anyone who says we live in a classless society is full of crap.

I have found that after about 23 years of being around primarily Christians, I'm happy to be away from them. I work with some great people who simply are who they are. They do their job, and hopefully they do it well. In the real world, your coworker's friendship depends mightily on your results. If anyone wants a hearing, go do good work. No one appreciates a preacher without a work ethic.

I don't want to teach in a Christian school anymore -- all that happened at Cedarville while I was there and all that has continued to transpire tells me to run away. I plan on listening. The things that were argued (truth and certainty, the emergent church, proposition and narrative) are the skeleton to the body: doctrines uphold the structure but there is immensely more than that. It is all too possible to live in a world too small.

There aren't many Christians where I work and when we meet, it's a happy moment - whether Catholic or Protestant or Baptist or Anglican. It doesn't matter, because what we share is more important.

In some ways, I have far more in common with people here than I did with people at Cedarville.

The emergent church has it right in part. From the conversations I've had, our lack of love and our lack of humility is the single biggest thing that turns people away from Jesus.

It is convicting and enlightening.

2008-02-04T20:55:00.000-05:00

"three of these things belong together

one of these things is not the same..."

I Have More W2s Than You

2008-01-31T08:00:00.000-05:00

Six, to be exact: two jobs from school (2), Starbucks (1), the temp agency that connected me to my current job (1), that job (1), and the company that bought us (1). w00t.

I'm watching the CNN Republican debate from last night. Don't know what to think. I want to see some talk of VP candidates. (Make that "hear" some talk.) I'd also dearly love to see less lovesickness over Reagan. He isn't God. He wasn't when he was president and he isn't now. Almost every conservative commentator references him at least once, conservative think-tanks have near-religions surrounding his memory, and every candidate swears by his name and claims to have been a "foot-soldier in the Reagan Revolution." (With the possible exception of Ron Paul, but then, Paul is the possible exception to most things.) Bringing his persona - whether legitimate or recreated - into every facet of this campaign is getting to be entirely too much. Don't get me wrong; I recognize that he is the hero of the GOP and provides a ready standard by which to measure other candidates. I don't deny his greatness. But there are limits.

FYI:

2008-01-28T22:46:00.000-05:00

hello.

sometimes I use capital letters and sometimes not, but most often I mix them, as evidenced by my capitalization of "i" and nothing else. I wonder if that's habit or ego.

my camera went all impressionist on me in this picture of chris and lauren.