Union Pacific's Great Excursion Adventure

December 7th

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Friday – 07 December 2012
Today is the  71st anniversary of Pearl Harbor Day.

“…a day that will live in infamy.”

Today is also the day that Diana turns 15-months-old:

Diana

Stray Toasters

  • Soup. That’s what’s for lunch, late though it is. I’m having the Campbell’s Grilled Chicken and Sausage Gumbo. It has a little more “bite” than the Progresso Chicken Gumbo. Not to say that one is necessarily better than the other; both have their good qualities.
  • Best Art Ever (This Week)
  • I kind of covet this Dark Phoenix.
  • WWII War Paint: How Bomber-Jacket Art Emboldened Our Boys
  • Last Resort. I just learned today that it will be ending after its 13th episode. That’s a pity, it’s been a great show. But, according to one of the show’s creators, they will be able to wrap up the story before it ends.

Namaste.

Paradigm Shift

everyday glory, food for thought, history, politics and law, the world No Comments »

Saturday – 10 November 2012
This is a short post that I’m going to link to a long(er) post by someone else.

Namely, this post.

Why?

Well, because I can. And because I really like what the other poster had to say, especially in light of the way that so many users of various social media sites have polarized into “This is the Best/This is the Worst Thing to Happen in/to/for America” camps since the election.

So, read the post – or don’t; that’s your prerogative – although I’d seriously recommend reading it.

And consider what she has to say…

…and consider your reactions, positive and/or negative, since Tuesday’s results were announced.

…and consider what’s better: Finding a way to work together for the betterment of our nation or finding a way to point fingers at what “the other guys” are doing or have done wrong in the past.

Namaste.

September 11th

event, everyday glory, food for thought, history No Comments »

Tuesday – 11 September 2012
Today marks the eleventh anniversary of the terrorist attacks in New York, NY and Washington, D.C.

My friend, Joe – a former New York native  – posted a picture of the World Trade Center, the last one that he took before moving away from New York.

My two… favorite, I guess… pictures/memories of the towers are these, from 1999:

…and…

The first picture is me, atop 2 WTC, the South Tower (1 WTC, North Tower behind me).  I remember looking down from the roof, across to Liberty Island and thinking how tiny the Statue of Liberty seemed from that vantage point. I also recall looking out across Manhattan and thinking about the failed attempt to collapse the towers across Midtown in 1993.

The second picture is my friend, Peggy – who we led into the plaza between the towers with her eyes covered – as she took in just how tall the towers were. Her first words as her eyes lifted towards the rooftops: “Holy… shit…”  Priceless.

For my thoughts on the attacks and the aftermath, I again refer to these posts.

And, as I said in last year’s post:

Remeber the past.
Cherish the present
Look with hope to the future.

Namaste.

“The Camera Eye”

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Thursday – 26 July 2012
It’s another NBN Thursday in the valley.

Were she alive, my maternal great-grandmother would have been 112 today.

Last night, Sara! and I watched In Time for Movie Date Night:

To be honest, it wasn’t bad. It reminded me quite a bit of Logan’s Run, but had enough of a twist to make – and keep – it interesting. I was also quite surprised to see [REDACTED], [REDACTED], and [REDACTED] in the movie, too.

Chew on This: Food for Thought – Adventures in Parenting
As a parent, I’m always happy when Diana and Vanessa hit developmental milestones. One such achievement happened a few months back when the girls figured out how to roll from their backs to their stomachs. Sara! and I were delighted at this… um… “turn of events.” However, as the girls started making other advancements, we seemed to forget about the rolling over. Until recently. The girls have taken it upon themselves to remind us just how big a deal that barrel rolls are…

…when we are changing their diapers.

Vanessa is especially adept at this. Just as you get the loaded diaper open and bear witness the havok within, she decides that it’s time to roll  to her left. This usually results in a lot of under-the-breath expletives. And the thought processes – and physical gymnastics – of “How do I keep this from getting on everything?!”

So far, nothing has gotten to the point where we’ve had to call in Damage Control or Utah Disaster Kleen-up, but there have been a couple of instances where it’s taken both of us to get from dirty diaper to a clean one.

But, they’re still cute kids and I wouldn’t trade the experience/adventure for anything.

Reading time is still reading time… even if your book is upside-down.

Stray Toasters

Namaste.

“Style, it’s like a second cousin to class…”

business and economy, comics and animation, computers, education, everyday glory, food for thought, health, history, house and home, human of the day, LEGO and Rokenbok, people, politics and law, science and technology, space, style and fashion, workout 3 Comments »

Wednesday – 20 June 2012
The summer solstice has arrived.
And it’s new comics Wednesday.
And it’s Pasta and Movie Date Night.

Quite frankly, I think that sounds like “Win” all the way around.

Yesterday was a good day. With the able assistance of Dave and Steve, I was able to pick up some drywall – twelve sheets of it – get it home, bring it in (through a basement window that Steve removed) and put it in place for hanging. All told, it took a little over an hour-and-a-half, including the time it took to attach and detach Dave’s trailer to his Jeep. I offer up a huge “Thank you” to Steve and Dave for their time and effort.  And, I’m counting drywall-schlepping as yesterday’s workout, to boot!

Chew on This: Food for Thought
This is a series of blog posts from a local woman (with Retinitis Pigmentosa, which is important to the story), who encountered less-than-stellar – and more importantly, less-than-decent – treatment when she attempted to go shopping with her guide dog this past week:

  1. Disappointed in Ann Taylor
  2. Sharing
  3. Finding Lemonade

Stray Toasters

Namaste.

“I wish that I could live it all again…”

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Tuesday – 19 June 2012
This morning, Sector 2814 (at least the portion of it that contains our living room) is being protected by two members of the Justice League:

Vanessa, as a rookie Green Lantern

Diana, as Batgirl-in-Training (complete with her own… um… Bat-saucer)

Shortly after these pictures were taken, the mini-Leaguers decided to do some combat training (also known as: “Using Daddy as a climbing toy”). Since they are both cruising – and not always wanting to go in the same direction – this taxed my abilities to keep both of them in arm’s reach. Fortunately, Bonne was here to help keep up with them.

Stray Toasters

Namaste.

Father’s Day 2012

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Sunday – 17 June 2012
It’s my first Father’s Day. And, so far, it’s been quite good.

I’d like to wish a “Happy Father’s Day” to the fathers out there, as well.

The day started with Team DiVa waking up at 7:00. It was slightly earlier than I had wanted to get up, but that’s the way it goes with twin-fants. That was followed by breakfast and play time, which translates (roughly) as: “Climb all over Mommy and Daddy Time.” But, they are cute. And learning to walk:

…so that helps make it a lot more bearable. (And, despite the workout, it’s fun.)

I’m not sure what the middle of the day holds, but I’m hoping for a trip to the Garden of Sweden.  This evening, we’re having Sara!’s parents over for dinner. And tonight, there may be some gaming: I’ve had an itch to play/finish LEGO: Batman.

Stray Toasters

Team DiVa will be up from their nap soon, so I should probably wrap this up.
Namaste.

The Green… Nightlight?

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Thursday – 14 June 2012
Not only is it another NBN Thursday in the valley, but today is also Flag Day.

In Team DiVa news: The girls apparently want to skip crawling and go straight to walking:

Vanessa (l) and Diana

They are “cruising,” where they’ll hold onto something and attempt to use it to toddle around. But, anything that makes a sound sometimes distracts them, which leads to a problem with that pesky “balance” thing that they haven’t managed to overcome yet… and most often winds up with a gravity-induced sitting down.

Diana will… pseudo-crawl… but that’s usually only under duress and/or to get closer to someone who will hopefully pick her up. Go figure.

Last night, Sara! (a.k.a. “She Who Still Rules”) and I watched John Carter (not to be confused with Coach Carter) for Movie Date Night.

I haven’t read Burroughs’ A Princess of Mars yet, so I don’t know how faithful or far afield the movie’s plot was from the source material. But, it was an enjoyable film. Yes, we did wind up MST3K-ing parts, but… *shrug*… what’re ya gonna do?

Stray Toasters

“Long live the…” Oh, I totally misread that.

business and economy, computers, dining and cuisine, everyday glory, food for thought, games, geekery, health, history, kids, LEGO and Rokenbok, monkeys!, music, science and technology, the world, travel, Whiskey Tango Foxtrot...?!, workout No Comments »

Tuesday – 22 May 2012
Today’s another sunny day in the valley.
Tomorrow, however, there’s rain in the forecast, long with a nearly 15 degree drop in temperature. Yay.

There will (hopefully) be a new Adventure Babies: Team DiVa video short in the next few days… if I can catch them doing one of their new cute habits.

Stray Toasters

Namaste.

Almost done…

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Friday – 20 April 2012
It’s my “on” Friday. And, it’s also “4/20.” (Insert your own jokes here.)

Last night was my night to fix dinner. After wracking my brain over what to fix, I decided to head up to the local Whole Foods and see what they had in their meat counter. I returned home with four good-sized Parmesan Chicken breasts. While they were in the oven, I prepared some rice in chicken broth (and a little lemon pepper, for flavor). I added a salad for our vegetables and we called it a meal.

We watched Castle while we ate; it was a fun episode, with Nathan Fillion’s Firefly costar, Adam Baldwin, as a guest star. After dinner, I joined a couple of coworkers online and played a little MW3. And had my virtual ass handed to me. Repeatedly. But, it was still fun… despite the ego-bruising.

Stray Toasters

Namaste.

Something… Something… Something…

art, computers, dining and cuisine, engagement/wedding/marriage, everyday glory, family and friends, food for thought, history, human of the day, kids, movies and TV, politics and law, science and technology, travel 12 Comments »

Wednesday – 11 April 2012
Midweek, once more, is upon us.

Last night, because of their Uncle Logan’s birthday, Team DiVa stayed up a little past their normal dinner and bedtimes.

Vanessa (l) and Diana

They did nap a little on the way home; after a bite to eat, bottles and pre-bed wash-ups, they were still calm enough for a quick bedtime story. (Or, maybe they were just punchy.) But, they were out pretty quickly once they were in bed.

After they were down, SaraRules! and I split a piece of birthday cake (Raspberry Marzipan) and watched a little NCIS before calling it a night.

Stray Toasters

Namaste.

Another Wednesday in the valley…

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Wednesday – 21 March 12
Midweek is upon us once again. Today is apparently supposed to return warm(er) weather to the Land Behind the Zion Curtain. This would be a “good” thing, in my book… even if we are only two days into Spring.

Team DiVa are doing well. We’ve been working on their independent sitting; they are progressing well. We have also tried introducing them to Gerber Graduates Puffs. Vanessa seems okay with them, but Diana is not a fan. At least, not yet. But, she makes the most adorable “What is THIS?!” face while chewing and just before she spits it out.

Stray Toasters

Namaste.

 

Mittwoch

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Wednesday – 14 March 2012
Midweek…? Check.
New Comics Day…? Check.
Pasta and Movie Date Night…? Raincheck.  (We’re having company for dinner this evening; PMDN will be tomorrow.)

And, on top of all that, it’s Pi Day. (See also: The Pi-Search Page)

Last night was relatively quiet. Team DiVa didn’t go for a stroll, but there was some pre-bedtime playtime. After the girls were down and dinner was eaten, I got around to herding a bunch of free-range ‘Clix. I’d been negligent about sorting them for longer than I’d care to admit. After that, I made my way onto CoD: MW3 with a coworker. I had some horrible rounds. Seriously bad. I thought about changing my gamertag to “BulletMagnet” at a couple of points.

Stray Toasters

Namaste.

Halfway There (Part II)

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Thursday – 08 March 2012
It’s another NBN Thursday.
It’s also International Women’s Day (1, 2). And…

Vanessa turned 6-months old today!

Last night was fairly low-key around the house. The girls tried – and devoured – a new food: Pears. So, it seems that the only unpopular food (at least so far) is peas — Diana will grudgingly eat them, Vanessa flat-out refuses to. The girls woke up again in the middle of the night. No crying this time, but there was a bit of chatter in their room before they knocked out again.

Today, as usual: Meetings!  YAY!

And tonight, I’m picking up some material for Saturday’s basement framing extravaganza. And maybe (just maybe), I’ll be able to sneak in a little MW3 or DCUO.  We shall see what the evening holds.

Stray Toasters

That’s good for today.

Namaste.

“Take the last train to Clarksville, and I’ll meet you at the station…”

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Wednesday – 29 February 2012
Midweek. Check.
New comics day. Check.
Pasta and Movie Date Night. Check.
Leap Day. Check.

That’s right. It’s that one day we get every four years to balance out the calendar vs. earth’s orbit of the sun.

It also happens to be the birthday of my Aunt Mary and my Uncle Marion.  Having a birthday once every four years? And I thought that having twins with different birthdays was awkward!

And, it’s apparently Superman’s birthday, too.

Last night, on the way home from work, I stopped at the local Best Buy to pick up a copy of Justice League: Doom, DC Animation’s latest release, based on the JLA: Tower of Babel story.  (And, this is the last movie worked on by the late Dwayne McDuffie.) And, they were out of them. Well… at least the blu-ray, which I wanted. *sigh* So, I headed back home to hang out with SaraRules! and the girls before heading off to Guys’ Night Out. The girls went to bed fairly easily, allowing me a few spare minutes to run all over Hell and half of Georgia to a not-quite-so-local Best Buy. They had it.

Guys’ Night Out was good. Along with the usual suspects, we had a couple of new faces. Good food. Good beer. Good conversation. All the earmarks of a great way to spend an evening.

Chew on This: Food for Thought – Black History Month
Today’s item is: The Emancipation Proclamation, an executive order issued by United States President Abraham Lincoln on January 1, 1863, during the American Civil War using his war powers. It proclaimed the freedom of slaves in the ten states then in rebellion, thus applying to 3.1 million of the 4 million slaves in the U.S. at that time.

On September 22, 1862, Lincoln announced that he would issue a formal emancipation of all slaves in any state of the Confederate States of America that did not return to Union control by January 1, 1863. None returned, and the order, signed and issued January 1, 1863, took effect except in locations where the Union had already mostly regained control. The Proclamation made abolition a central goal of the war (in addition to reunion), outraged white Southerners who envisioned a race war, angered some Northern Democrats, energized anti-slavery forces, and weakened forces in Europe that wanted to intervene to help the Confederacy.

Slavery was made illegal everywhere in the U.S. by the Thirteenth Amendment, which took effect in December 1865.

The Proclamation applied only in ten states that were still in rebellion in 1863, thus it did not cover the nearly 500,000 slaves in the slave-holding border states (Missouri, Kentucky, Maryland or Delaware) which were Union states — those slaves were freed by separate state and federal actions. The state of Tennessee had already mostly returned to Union control, so it was not named and was exempted. Virginia was named, but exemptions were specified for the 48 counties then in the process of forming the new state of West Virginia, and seven additional counties and two cities in the Union-controlled Tidewater region. Also specifically exempted were New Orleans and 13 named parishes of Louisiana, all of which were also already mostly under Federal control at the time of the Proclamation. These exemptions left unemancipated an additional 300,000 slaves.

The Emancipation Proclamation was incorrectly ridiculed for freeing only the slaves over which the Union had no power. In fact 20,000 to 50,000 were freed the day it went into effect in parts of nine of the ten states to which it applied (Texas being the exception). In every Confederate state (except Tennessee and Texas), the Proclamation went into immediate effect in Union-occupied areas and at least 20,000 slaves were freed at once on January 1, 1863.

Additionally, the Proclamation provided the legal framework for the emancipation of nearly all four million slaves as the Union armies advanced, and committed the Union to ending slavery, which was a controversial decision even in the North. Hearing of the Proclamation, more slaves quickly escaped to Union lines as the Army units moved South. As the Union armies advanced through the Confederacy, thousands of slaves were freed each day until nearly all (approximately 4 million, according to the 1860 census were freed by July 1865.

While the Proclamation had freed most slaves as a war measure, it had not made slavery illegal. Of the states that were exempted from the Proclamation, Maryland, Missouri, Tennessee, and West Virginia prohibited slavery before the war ended; however, in Delaware and Kentucky, slavery continued to be legal until December 18, 1865, when the Thirteenth Amendment went into effect.

The Proclamation was immediately denounced by Copperhead Democrats who opposed the war and advocated restoring the union by allowing slavery. Horatio Seymour, while running for the governorship of New York, cast the Emancipation Proclamation as a call for slaves to commit extreme acts of violence on all white southerners, saying it was “a proposal for the butchery of women and children, for scenes of lust and rapine, and of arson and murder, which would invoke the interference of civilized Europe.” The Copperheads also saw the Proclamation as an unconstitutional abuse of Presidential power. Editor Henry A. Reeves wrote in Greenport’s Republican Watchman that “In the name of freedom of Negroes, [the proclamation] imperils the liberty of white men; to test a utopian theory of equality of races which Nature, History and Experience alike condemn as monstrous, it overturns the Constitution and Civil Laws and sets up Military Usurpation in their Stead.”

Racism remained pervasive on both sides of the conflict and many in the North supported the war only as an effort to force the south back into the Union. The promises of many Republican politicians that the war was to restore the Union and not about black rights or ending slavery, were now declared lies by their opponents citing the Proclamation. Copperhead David Allen spoke to a rally in Columbiana, Ohio, stating “I have told you that this war is carried on for the Negro. There is the proclamation of the President of the United States. Now fellow Democrats I ask you if you are going to be forced into a war against your Brethren of the Southern States for the Negro. I answer No!” The Copperheads saw the Proclamation as irrefutable proof of their position and the beginning of a political rise for their members; in Connecticut H.B. Whiting wrote that the truth was now plain even to “those stupid thick-headed persons who persisted in thinking that the President was a conservative man and that the war was for the restoration of the Union under the Constitution.”

War Democrats who rejected the Copperhead position within their party, found themselves in a quandary. While throughout the war they had continued to espouse the racist positions of their party and their disdain of the concerns of slaves, they did see the Proclamation as a viable military tool against the South, and worried that opposing it might demoralize troops in the Union army. The question would continue to trouble them and eventually lead to a split within their party as the war progressed.

Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address in November 1863 made indirect reference to the Proclamation and the ending of slavery as a war goal with the phrase “new birth of freedom”. The Proclamation solidified Lincoln’s support among the rapidly growing abolitionist element of the Republican Party and ensured they would not block his re-nomination in 1864

In the years after Lincoln’s death, his action in the proclamation was lauded. The anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation was celebrated as a black holiday for more than 50 years; the holiday of Juneteenth was created in some states to honor it.

Stray Toasters

Namaste.