Talking to her now before we both head out and face the day… after having called her six hours ago and waking her up.

I [heart] my mom.

Thursday
Another relatively fast day at the place of employment. And I (nearly) finished listening to Dirk Gently; I finished the last few minutes of it at home. And, tomorrow is Friday.

The Good…
I neglected to mention that Rana is home for two weeks. Jess and I got to speak to her for a bit Wednesday night. She was quite tired when we talked – she had been up for twenty-five hours at that point. Why she didn’t sleep on her flights is beyond me. She said that she is enjoying the Ukraine, but that she is glad to be home… even for a couple of weeks.

This morning, I sent an email to Talk of the Nation. In it, I made a few comments about Wednesday’s program (The Midwest and eBay). I also congratulated Neal Conan on winning his bid and I even asked if he would sign an issue of a book in which ‘he’ appeared. And then… off to work. I came home and I had not one, but two emails from TotN! One was from Megan Williams, a production assistant, thanking me for the email and saying that she would forward the request to Neal. The other… was from Neal Conan himself:

Sure. By far the least expensive would be FF#9 (the most recent series, natch). If you send me one, I’d be happy to sign and mail it back. Send it to me, at (the address).

Kick grass! It was apparently sent just after today’s broadcast.

NPR/PRI Programs

• The World
  • “Lost” Incan settlement discovered in Peru
  • Interview with Jake McNiece, Sergeant of “The Filthy Thirteen,” the men upon whom The Dirty Dozen were based. They also spoke with Bob Cohn one of the privates under McNiece’s command. Until yesterday, these two gentlemen had not spoken in 58 years, the day that they parachuted over France on D-Day; Pvt. Cohn had been listed as “killed in action.”
  • Masai Interview
    

    You may have had your fill of “Why They Hate Us” stories in the weeks after September 11th. Newspapers and magazines explained just how reviled we are and why. But you may be pleased to know that not everyone hates us. Kimeli Naiyomah is a Masai warrior from Kenya. This week, he and some of his fellow tribesmen expressed their solidarity with the United States in an unusual gesture. They presented the American people with 14 cows at a ceremony in his home village. Naiyomah, who’s studying pre-med at Stanford University in California, was in New York on the 11th. When he returned home to Africa last month, he met with village elders who had not heard of the terror attack. So Naiyomah told them about it.

    I realize that fourteen cows may not seem like much, by our standards, but the gesture from this tribe is awesome!

The Bad and the Ugly
Right. Now that we have those out of the way, I want to get a couple of things off my chest. I apologize if they seem a little disjointed; they are far more coherent than they would have been had I written this a few hours ago. A couple of things have been irritating me today. And, as Fate would have it, they are somewhat related issues:

• Kidnapping in Salt Lake City
  Elizabeth Smart was kidnapped, from her bedroom, shortly after 02:00 Thursday, 06 June 02. From. Her. Bedroom. This happened on the opposite side of the valley from where I live; it is not too far from where I stayed before getting my apartment. There are over 1,000 volunteers helping to search for Elizabeth. There have been reports of sightings of people fitting the abductor’s description, but they far too many people here fit the rather generic profile that was given. In all cases, he has been seen alone. Thus far, all leads in the case have come up negative.

• R. Kelly Indictment
  21 counts of child pornography. The actual charges are “Videotaping, producing or soliciting for child pornography.” If convicted, he could be sentenced for up to 15 years in prison. Apparently, copies of this video have been available for months. As yet, it has not been proven whether or not Mr. Kelly was a participant in the sexual acts.

  I’m somewhat torn here. I like a lot of R. Kelly songs. But, I don’t think that I want to listen to them if my mind is going to jump to thoughts of something that disgusts me. At what point does one separate the act from the person/personality, assuming that such a division is possible? While it is not quite the same thing, I am fairly certain that this is the kind of issue that members of the Catholic Church have been dealing with in the wake of the current scandal.

The common thread between these items: Children. Maybe it is naive, but I have little (closer to “zero”) tolerance for those who violate children or put them indiscriminantly in harm’s way. I think that children are sacrosanct. Out of bounds. Off limits. Period. I have no children of my own (the cats do not count), but I do have younger siblings, cousins and I am the Godfather to a couple of wonderful kids. If any of them were debased in such a manner, I would hope that God would have mercy upon the perpetrators because I could not honestly say that I would… or could. It’s a situation that I pray that I never find myself encountering.

::: end tirade :::

Thanks for listening. Please feel free to comment.

Peace.

Wednesday
Three down and two to go. More site-to-site hopscotch today. Surprise. Even so, the day passed quickly. We started listening to Douglas Adams’ Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency.

Congratulations to the U.S. World Cup Soccer Team for their 3 – 2 victory over Portugal.

NPR/PRI Programming

• Talk of the Nation spent the second hour talking about the phenomenon (do do do-do-do….) that is eBay. They talked about its history and what makes it so popular, among other things. One item of interest: The story about the man who created eBay to help sell his girlfriend’s collection of Pez® dispensers…. It never happened. That’s right, it’s a made-up story. A fabrication. Spin. Marketing. But, it did exactly what a good marketing campaign/ploy should do: It created a concept that stuck in peoples’ heads.

  Neil Conan bid on his first-ever eBay auction during the show. He won the auction, too! What did he win? 25 issues of the Marvel comic X-Factor. It seems that Mr. Conan is something of a comic book fan. In fact, he has even ‘appeared’ in issues of Fantastic Four and Uncanny X-Men; I own some of the issues in which he, or rather his likeness, appears.

  Another “Gee Whiz” note about eBay: Their eBay Motors division (used car sales) does $1 billion of business per year! One. Billion. Dollars. That fact, alone, is impressive. The fact that they do that with a staff of only five (5) people makes it even more impressive.

Quote of the Day: Today’s QotD is an excerpt from Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency…

The electric monk was a labour-saving device, like a dishwasher or a video recorder. Dishwashers washed tedious dishes, thus saving you the trouble of washing them yourself. Video recorders watched tedious television for you, thus saving you from looking at it yourself. Electric monks believed things for you, thus saving you , thus saving you what was becoming an increasingly onerous task – that of believing all the things that the world expected you to believe. Unfortunately, this electric monk had developed a fault and had started to believe all kinds of things, more or less at random. It was even beginning to believe things they’d have difficulty believing in Salt Lake City.

And now, goodnight.

Peace.

Tuesday
I have no idea why the workdays seem to be going by as quickly as they are, but I’m not complaining. More site-to-site hopscotch. And, I finished the book that I was listening to just before the end of my shift. Must remember to transfer a new book to the laptop.

Congratulations to and on their new jobs!

NPR/PRI Programming

• Talk of the Nation – The first hour was about Beer.
  

  Summer is here….the air is warm, weekends are lazy and in America, the beer is good and plentiful. What’s your favorite summer brew? Are you a fan of the mega beer or the micro-brew? Does the beer you drink say something about you? Does America’s love of beer say something about the nation? The social history and current popularity of beer.¹

  This was a rather in-depth segment. It wasn’t just an hour of Homer Simpson-like “Mmm. Beer;” they talked a little about the history of beer in America, how beer is made, and a few of the differences between “beer” here and in the rest of the world.

• The World
  • U.S. police officers getting anti-terrorism training from Israeli police units.
  • A new musical based on the life of the late Brazilian entertainer Carmen Miranda. This musical is apparently drawing favorable reviews… despite the fact that Brazilians were embarrassed by the stereotypical image that they thought that she projected.
  • Coda The last segment of the program highlights a musical group; each one is roughly five-minutes long. It has been interchangeably known as the “Musical Closer” or “Global Hit.” Last night, I wrote an email suggesting that they change the name to “Coda.” I figured that since it is a musical segment and the last segment of the show, the name “Coda” seemed more appropriate.

    This morning, I awoke to an email from one of the associate producers saying that the show’s producers liked the suggestion and would take it under consideration. This afternoon, Lisa Mullins, the show’s host, used it! I was shocked! Amazed! Flabbergasted, even!

• All Things Considered – Looking for the perfect gift for the person who has it all? Well, almost all. It seems that one of the prototypes for the Russian space shuttle is up for auction on eBay. Asking price: $75,000 (USD)

That’s it. Yes, that’s definitely it. There is no more. Move along, there’s nothing further to see here.

Peace.

¹ From the Talk of the Nation website

Monday
Yet another fast workday. This could be habit-forming.
A little bit of site-to-site hopscotch for the first half of the day. No biggie. Stayed in Seattle letters for the rest of the day… which made it easy to let Julia listen to Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban with me.

NPR/PRI
News items of interest…

• Talk of the Nation
  • India-Pakistan – and : One of the guests was Devin Hagarty from UMBC; he’s an assistant professor of Political Science. Do either of you know (or know of) him?
  • Mountain Climbing – This topic came up in light of the deaths of climbers on Mount Hood and Mount Rainier. They asked a few interesting questions here, such as: “Should new/inexperienced climbers have to take some sort of training before attempting a climb?” and “Should irresponsible climbers be charged for being rescued?”
  • Christopher Swain – Mr. Swain on Tuesday (04 June) will begin a six-month swim of the Columbia River, from the head of the river to the Pacific Ocean. He is doing this to raise awareness about the pollution of this (and other) rivers.
• All Things Considered
  • As part of Lost & Found Sound’s Sonic Memorial Project, All Things Considered features the people and stories of “Radio Row,” the neighborhood that was demolished to make room for the World Trade Center in 1966. The six-square-block area in lower Manhattan once formed the largest collection of radio and electronics stores in the world.¹ An interesting thing about this segment was hearing the nostalgic tones in the mens’ voices as they talked about their pre-WTC shops and neighborhood.
  • P.C. Police – Commentator Jake Tapper is outraged by two recent excesses of the P.C. (that’s political correctness) Police: the New York Regents English exam censorship of certain literary passages, and the decision by the producer of the new Tom Clancy movie, The Sum of All Fears, to replace the bad guys in the book, which included a fanatical Muslim Palestinian, with Neo-Nazi bad guys.²
• The World
  • Nepal Massacre Report – People in Nepal are marking a grim anniversary all this week. On June 1st last year, 9 members of Nepal’s royal family were gunned down by a young prince, who later shot himself. Among the dead were the gunman’s parents, the king and queen of Nepal. The traumatic events of a year ago have left a deep scar on the Himalayan kingdom, as the BBC’s Daniel Lak reports from Kathmandu.³
  • Afghan Women Interview – Women are hoping to play a role in shaping Afghanistan’s future, after years of living under the repressive laws of the Taliban. But despite some support from the country’s political and religious leaders, the equal rights movement in Afghanistan still faces serious obstacles. Recently, a mullah from Kabul’s biggest mosque announced he’s against giving equal rights to women. His statement reflects the country’s ambivalence towards gender issues, according to Marina Matin of the The Revolutionary Afghan Women’s Association or RAWA.⁴

And that’s the news from Lake Saline where the women climb mountains, the men don’t wear burkhas, and the children are swimming in the rivers. Goodnight, everybody! Thanks for tuning in!

Peace.

¹,²: From the All Things Considered website.
³,⁴: From The World website.

I have the coolest parents in the world.

Cool Site of the Day: Today, we actually have two, that’s right – TWO, sites that harken back to the lazy days of youth.

• Yesterdayland
• LUGNET (Lego Users Group Network)

We now return you to your regularly scheduled LiveJournal reading.

And so, the last Battlestar, Galactica, leads a ragtag, fugitive flee…..
No, that wasn’t how I meant to start this. Let’s try again.

Long ago, in a galaxy far, far…..
Dammit. That’s not it, either.

Space, the final fronti…
BAH!!!

Screw it. No introduction. Just entry. That’s it. Nothing else.

• Went to lunch with Jess, Peggy and Angie.
• Saw Undercover Brother with Peggy and Ang, after Jess went to work. Funny movie. It is like a blaxploitation version of Austin Powers. And with Neil Patrick (Doogie Howser) Harris, to boot. And he was funny, too.
• Went to Peggy’s to see Sadie (Peggy’s daughter) and Andy (Sadie’s bf). We watched the 4^th quarter and OT of the Lakers-Kings game. Andy cracks me up; some of the comments that he made during the game…. *chuckles*. I must have him around when I’m watching football this fall.

  We also caught the tail end of Bachelorettes in Alaska. Heaven help us. This show is like the mutant bastard offspring of Survivor, Elimi-Date, Change of Heart, Blind Date, Dismissed, and 3^rd Wheel. Stick 5 women and 9 men in the Alaskan wilderness and let ’em pair off. Then, have them pick who they want to attempt to start a relationship with…. oh, yeah… and who they want for a back-up. This is yet another indication that civilization is (this close) to circling the drain.

Quote of the Day: I told Andy that I wanted him around for football color commentary. His response: “You bring the beer and I’ll bring the stupidity!” Have I mentioned that he cracks me up?

Now I’m off to find something to waste more time!

Peace.

Sunday
Rainy mornings are ideal for sleeping.

…unless, of course, you have cats who like to jump onto the windowsill and peer out through the closed blinds. Or chase each other through the apartment. Or fight under the bed. But, it’s hard to stay mad at them when they jump on the bed and look at you, as if to say: Pet me!!! You know that you want to pet me! PLEEEEEEEASE!

Adam and Dad called shortly after this, so I got a bit of family chat this morning. Rana will be home next week for a two-week visit. We aren’t going to make the trip, but we’ll see her at Christmas. This also means that we’ll miss Adam’s graduation (BAH!!), but he will be going to Oklahoma State, so we may fly him out here for a few days this summer.

I have no idea what I’m doing for the rest of the day. Bike ride? Utter laziness? I think that I’ll head to B&N and do a llittle drawing after Jess goes to work. Who knows…?

Peace.

Midday light, the earth jump started
lying in a bed
No burning arms, no shivering back
there’s nothing in my head
The world revolves so fast around
don’t let it in the way
The gift that morning light has brought me is
just another day¹

Slept in this morning (and part of the early afternoon). Well, not entirely; I woke up around 11:00, because someone called. I stayed up for about 30 minutes, decided that it wasn’t worth it and went back to bed for a couple of hours. Why? Because, like Bobby Brown sang: “It’s My Prerogative.”

One short – but refreshing – shower later I’m ready to… to…. hmm. Well, I’m ready. I’m feeling rather lazy, but I am ready. For something. I guess. *shrug* That’s what weekends are for. Of course, now there are high winds and grey skies about. Perhaps this is the ideal day for being lazy.

Peace.

¹“Judas” by emmet swimming, from the CD dark when the snow falls

Friday
The end of “The Fastest Work Week in History.”
Let the revels and debauchery of the weekend begin!

NPR/PRI Programming

Talk of the Nation – Science Friday spent the first hour talking about the discovery of sub-surface water (ice) on Mars. While scientists are not sure exactly how much there is or how deep it goes (the probe can only scan to a depth of approximately 1 meter), they think that roughly 40-60% of the surface mass/volume contains water. A guest with a differing opinion said that he doubts that there is/was actually H₂O but liquid CO₂ (carbon dioxide).

During this entire segment, David Bowie’s “Is There Life on Mars?” kept playing in my head. Go figure.

Miscellany
I went to Borders tonight and did some drawing. While I was there, one of the clerks was putting away books, magazines and newspapers. She was about to shelve one paper when she realized that she wasn’t sure where it was supposed to go. She asked Charlie, the Cafè clerk: “Is The Washington Post for Washington, D.C. or Washington state?”

I said, loud enough for Charlie, and the people in the Cafè, to hear me: “Washington, D.C.” He relayed that to the other clerk… who didn’t seem to register it: “Huh?” So, he repeated himself. This may be a case of Mid-Atlantic snobbery (I don’t think so, though), but I was stunned that no one knew whence the Post originates. Stunned, I tell you! I am Ivory Soap® sure (99.44%) that most people, however, would have looked at the front page to seek some sort of clue. Again, I said “most people,” not “everyone.” I’m not so far gone as to make that kind of an assumption. Oh, well. C’est la vie.

Mars needs women….. (Pump up the volume!)
Mars needs women….. (Pump up the volume!)
Pump up the volume!
Pump up the volume!
Pump up the volume!
Dance! Dance!
Bonus points to those who remember who did this… and when.

Peace.