Even Lego-People are Giddy

It still feels a long time away (thought it's the day after tomorrow). And every time I think about the inauguration, I feel giddy. There are a lot of challenges in the world and reality always gets in the way of expectations and plans... still, I think there's a lot of good coming this way for the USA.

Part of the reason I feel this way is because the excitement and energy seems to be so broad to me. Even inanimate Lego-People are getting excited and showing up by the thousands for the inauguration:

http://blogs.reuters.com/oddly-enough/2009/01/18/the-inaugural-a-proud-legocy/

Two Fishermen

Forwarded to me by a co-worker:

Two men went fishing. One man was an experienced fisherman, the other wasn't. Every time the experienced fisherman caught a big fish, he put it in his ice chest to keep it fresh. Whenever the inexperienced fisherman caught a big fish, he threw it back.

The experienced fisherman watched this go on all day and finally got tired of seeing this man waste good fish. "Why do you keep throwing back all the fish you catch?" he asked.

The inexperienced fisherman replied, "I only have a small frying pan."

It's good to dream big sometimes. Even if you can't go buy a new frying pan.... you can still cut up the fish and fry it a bit at a time.

100,000

Today, I was at the largest Obama rally ever... 100,000 people showed up in St. Louis, today, to hear Obama speak.  Wow.

Here's what 100,000 people under the Arch looks like:

From 2008-10

And here's Barack Obama looks like!

From 2008-10

Mathematical Reflexes

One of the blogs I read regularly posted a reference to a Nature article about a correlation between a kind of mental reflex and mathematical acuity.

Take the NYT test

I got 14 out of 15 just like the blog author.  

How about you?

Midnight Conversations

[Actually 1:30 AM Conversations...]

"Daddy?"

"Yes"

"Daddy?"

"Yes."

"Daddy?"

"Yes..."

"Daddy?  Woody missing his arm."

"But they can sew it back on."

"Daddy?  Ellie's arm."

"Does it need a kiss?"

"Yes Daddy... Thank you Daddy."

Ugly Taste

[Unrelated forward: I've always found phrases like that, "ugly taste," -- phrases that mix sensory adjectives with a differen sense -- interesting.  I'm reading (via audible during my commute) Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series.  He does an outstanding job of this in a lot of different places.  In particular, there's one character who has the ability to communicate with wolves, but the wolves think in images and senses rather than distinct ideas, and senses that are different than human ones.  So, it's interesting to read.  There was a Star Trek episode kind of like that, too, where an alien race spoke in metaphor and allusion rather than with the same kind of "logical" sentence structures that we use in most human languages.]

I was watching Giuliani and Palin on the RNC tonight.  As Giuliani stood, back dropped by a twin-tower absent skyline of New York and spewed ridicule after ridule of Obama, the DNC, and anyone idiot enough to support him, I couldn't picture anything more than a school yard bully.  His language was ugly.  Admitedly I come from a different value-perspective, but some of his "jokes" didn't make any sense to me.  For instance, why is it so funny to the entire hall gathered there that Obama was a community organizer.  I guess I come from such a different place.  According to wikipedia, McCain stood up for other guys getting bullied at the Naval Academy.  Sure hope he stands up for Obama against Giuliani!  It nearly made me sick to my stomach that all the people at the RNC were laughing their heads off... not just cheering the superiority of their candidate, but laughing at the seemingly ridiculousness of the democratic candidate.  Wow.  How ugly.  Even if they believe someone isn't suited for a job, what kind of people make fun of that other person and laugh at their expense.  It made me sick.  Sick.

I don't have any respect for that kind of behavior.

I admit I want to go back and watch the DNC speaches.  I want to make sure I'm be fair in my emotional reaction.  It doesn't seem, in my memory, that the democratic speakers ridiculed and made fun of McCain, though.  They said "he is wrong about what we need to do."  They afforded McCain some decency.  Giuliani, and Palin to some less extent, just plowed into Obama and poked fun at him like his was only 1/2 human.  And everyone gathered laughed and laughed.

As I write, it makes me not just want to vomit, but want to go shake Giuliani.  That kind of bullying behavior actually makes me want to be violent.  ARG!

I hope there aren't too many people out there that think that kind of behavior is acceptable.  If McCain does get elected, I hope that the behavior of his party's strongest supporters doesn't rub off on him and that his a protector of the bullied.  

There's a Christian value question: "Do you put down and laugh at people who you believe to be at a disadvantage, or do you respect them for their contributions, their courage, and their potential?"

Still no pig

"Alas. No prob this end."
"We have cheese."
"Still no pig."
"Next."

Crack me up! Sarahlynn discovered the "drafts" folder full of unsent text messages on her phone. These were the last four message that she hadn't ever sent. Something makes me think thank her T9 didn't guess quite right on that second to last message.

I think this is almost as good as the infamous Lester-family game of Balderdash where Ben Jett defined "mopoke" as something like "what a red neck says when asking for a second helping of bbq, as in the quote: I said, mo' pork!"