spacellama

My kids wanted to play Endless Ocean. Mostly, they just like to "swim" around the ocean and look at fishes. The game should support this kind of play. Unfortunately, the dumb thing won't even let us off the bleepin sailboat until we "research coral reefs." You dip of a game, preschoolers don't want to research coral reefs! They want to swim around with fishies!! Adults, too. I wish I could just crack the game so I could do what we want to do with it, instead of what some lame-brained designers decide was "fun" (and totally is NOT).

/rant

The biggest chunk of my life-pie at the moment -- and probably for the rest of my life -- consists of my daughters, and this is excellent. I've had my priorities seriously out of whack in the past, but I think they're right-on at the moment. I'm comfortable with missing writing deadlines (not like I'm being paid for them, anyway) and turning down editing projects (occassionally, when they're very large) in order to be a better mom. I'm comfortable letting the laundry pile up a bit, not vacuuming every day or even every week, and letting my ear piercings close up because it's been years since I wore jewelry or worried over my appearance.

Yes, it's true: I've gone domestic, folks. And you know what? It's not nearly as suffocating as I always thought it would be. It's actually kind of ... liberating.

Dagnabbit, I've missed Audrey's birthday. And Binka's. Am sorry to be such a crummy friend, y'all! Argh.

Seriously, if I don't put things on my calendar these days, I forget them almost instantly. Which reminds me: I need to go put the laundry in the dryer before it starts to have a smell...

Some few of you folks know that by day I do some copy editing. I imagine that menial servicepersons in all industries have internal conversations much like mine:

Me: *deep sigh* Nobody even knows I exist unless I muck things up. Even when I do a good job, readers just assume that the writer is mechanically on top of things.
Me, too: Oh, shut up. You're speshul and a princess and totally Important (with the initial cap, even) to the world at large. There. Is that what you needed to hear?
Me: Yes, thanks ever so. Of course, you didn't have to be such a pfft about it.

So, yes, I've been pufting out my I-am-important feathers for a long time, holding on to standards like Use Serial Commas! and Oh God, Please No More While Phrases!

But you know what? I think that maybe I've been doing a disservice to my brain. What if mechanically messy, stylistically vomitous prose can be good communication after all? What if the story is bigger than a few misspelled words?

What if all this time I've been, well, pompous?

Oh, yikes.

Shall write with fragments more, I promise. And try not to cringe when I read "as to" phrases. Cross my heart.

...that everyone seems to be doing. Is a "duh," though some of the questions are interesting. I had to look up the ballet one afterward, just cuz.

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Most recent Supreme Court nominee Sondra Sotomayor sounds, to me, like all the other overqualified lawyers out there. I honestly don't know how a President seeking to make a nomination for the SCOTUS can winnow down the hordes, but that's neither here nor there.

Remember back when Bush was nominating folks, and Democats were calling them names and jumping up and down in the Senate like angry little lemmings? This is the Republicans' chance to, what's it those politicos call it? Change the tone in Washington? Just so. But I doubt they will.

Nothing in her resume disqualifies Miz Sotomayor. If Republicans whine about her, it's just another indication that their party is in a serious tailspin.

(And on a related note, it's a good thing I realized a long time ago that I don't have to espouse either party in this two-party system in order to be a good citizen.)

Well, I'm here on Dreamwidth. Let's see if this crossposting gizmo works. And then I have to figure out how to set up filters and stuff on here. Sometimes I think I'm getting too old for new technology...

And then I want to slap myself.

Thanks, Hathor, for the code.


Oh! And if you're on Dreamwidth, please comment here with your name there, and I'll add you to the thingy that is like a flist but isn't called a flist. You know what I'm talking about: It's technical.

Would like to stick a toe into Dreamwidth water, but I'm not sure it's worth the 40 bucks/year. Anyone have a spare code, so I could try it out first?

(OMG we just had a wild and wonderful weekend; will update later with more details, but I feel like I've been walloped over the head with Major Cuteness.)

I've been hip to the changes of technology, for the most part. I was surfing in '93, HTMLing in '97, chatting in '00. I've ridden waves of cell, mobile, Walkman, Discman, CD, DVD, DVR, and iPod in turn. But finally there's something that I just don't have any desire to adopt: the mass shoving of videos in my general direction. I don't want my news on video: I want it in succinct, edited text. I don't want to see other news-gatherers' "takes" on headlines: I couldn't care less what some boppy teen from New Hampshire thinks of the economic stimulus, and, frankly, I kinda worry about people who do.

When I read my flist page, I don't want to have to click on a youtube link ever.

When I get my news, I expect a text alternative to the streaming video crap.

When I surf, I sure as pfft don't want to see random ugly people flapping their jaws and imagining that they're remotely entertaining.

Oh, one exception, though: The Onion News service videos are sublime. I'll even turn on my speakers for those.

Thanks to Sulriel for linking me to this: State Department Listed Texas as Foreign Country.

I'm pretty sure this is a holdover Arkansas thing on the part of H Clinton. ;)

CNN.com (and others) are latching on to this story of a Christian minister who converted to Islam but wanted to remain a minister. The Episcopal church defrocked her. She doesn't seem surprised.

I think news services are reporting on this woman in order to make some statement about how Christians and Muslims aren't that different or can live in harmony or something. True, on all accounts. It is possible to have mutual respect.

( Some rambling about religions and the nature of God )

Don't know that this has any meaning in a geopolitical sense, but it's interesting brain-fodder for me this morning.

Purported by Microsoft to be the Rock Band killer...

Alpine Legend

Totally digging the limited edition Goat pack. Because, you know, I've always wanted to, er, immerse myself. With a goat.

I dig the technosavvy of this administration, I really do. The solicitation of questions online -- and the complicity of Google in the effort -- was brilliant.

Responders somewhat less so.

I asked, among other things, the following question of our President:

"A risk of spending -- especially deficit spending -- is inflation. How do you propose to limit inflation as you move forward with this federal spending initiative?"

Fair? This is something that will shortly affect all of us on a personal level. Or not, if he does have a good solution for keeping inflation down. Either way, it's a bit more relevant than the tons and tons of "woe is me; how will you/gov't help me" whining that was going on.

Still, 4 people found my question objectionable. I'm curious why, and since I can't ask them, I'll ask ... well, whoever's reading this. :)

There's an interesting Cafferty tirade up on CNN.com today, and oddly enough it fits in fairly well with my recent post on public education. Now, most times I roll my eyes a bit at Cafferty -- because he's a blowhard shock-jock type, that's why -- but sometimes he makes a good point, and I'll give him his due. In this article he says, among other things, "Maybe it's parenting that's on the decline, more than the schools."

The rest of the article degenerates into a rant because some kid in some restaurant was acting up. (I would have thought anyone with kids might have been there a time or two and would have more sympathy, but whatever.)

In the end, the article is interesting because he, like so many other folks (including me), lays a big portion of the blame for crappy public education at the feet of parents.

And as with all things fashionable, I'm wondering if it's as easy as all that.

For a laugh -- an an example of whoa how not to spice things up with metaphor -- read this. And don't forget to then reference the subsequent fan art.

I am inferring that Princess Bronwyn has pink hair, but I know pfft-all about leopard tongues, really.

As mom to two preschoolers, I have some interest in learning more about public education and its alternatives. I've read the statistics (too many, over the years, to cite): public school education in this country kind of sucks, and it's even worse in Texas than in some other states.

I don't like the statistics, I don't like the pattern, and our family is likely to make whatever sacrifices necessary to make sure our young'uns get a good education. In our case, and considering where our house is located, that means private school. I'm okay with that.

But the issue looms yet, unsettling anybody who thinks about it long enough: a lot of families don't have the means, even if they do make financial sacrifices, to choose private or home schooling for their kids. They're stuck with whatever crappy education their government dishes. Which means that some day, somebody is gonna have to figure out how to educate all these kids, else our country is going down the crapper.

I've heard folks claim that getting rid of teachers' unions could help. I'm not a union supporter, but that solution seems overly simplistic. (Here's a good article defending the teachers' union in California.) Similarly, rolling out bigger, more comprehensive standardized tests (or, alternatively, abolishing them) isn't going to treat the cause of ineffective education, helpful as it may be in reporting its effects.

I think that the root is the low priority we as a culture give to pro-education behaviors. We don't respect "nerds." We make fun of anyone who succeeds intellectually. We penalize success and reward failure/victimhood. We prize self-indulgence above self-sacrifice. One refrain that talking heads often turn to when discussing the sad state of public education is that the parents aren't involved enough. True. Our culture rewards parents who "do it all," which means that, by the zero-sum nature of time itself, if two parents work full time, go to the gym, cook healthy, take time for themselves, and have even minimal social lives, something has to give. With all of the advertising and pop-psych reinforcement for self-indulgence, it isn't surprising that educating the next generation is what most parents have sacrificed from their busy schedules.

On a personal level, I'm just starting out as a parent of educable little people. I hope I can keep their needs in focus, educationally and otherwise. They are so much more important than my hobbies or hairdos.

In the broader panorama, though, the problem of bad public schools remains. And I can't think of a good solution. Alas, neither can my elected officials. *doom*

Before I had human children, I had the furries: two superior little Chihuahuas, Louis and Xena. (Some of you might remember Lou from his failed Presidential bid in 2004, which defeat he blames on Canadian operatives and neo-contraltos).

At any rate, them pups were subjected to their yearly vet visit today, and I wanted to note the results here, just for future reference. They seem to be in good shape for a 15-year-old and a 12-year-old, respectively.

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I read Jodi Picoult's Keeping Faith and have a few things to say about it.

Once again, Picoult courted controversy and ethical gray areas (child custody and religious faith, in this instance), and once again the writing on a micro level was nice. This book, however, had flaws that I haven't found in her other books. Many of the scenes were written in this weird present tense with past-perfect patois. If you're writing in present tense and want to refer to things that have already happened, you use ... past tense (duh). Not past perfect. Every time she lapsed, it grated, and it happened, unfortunately, a lot in this book.

Also, I do hate to spoil the end, but I'm gonna do it anyway: nothing happens. Nothing alarming or gut-wrenching or even interesting. All the characters essentially wimp out. Instead of coming to definitive conclusions, they all meander and lollygag. Nothing changes, no one grows. It feels like you've wasted however many hours you've invested in this story.

Which is a pity, because Picoult's other books (the ones I've read, anyway) were so durned good.

Here was the proposal floated in an AP interview by noob Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood (wording pasted from the Washington Post article, but it has been reported all over, in both liberal and conservative sources):

I find the entire idea abhorrent. Not only would chipping and GPSing my car be an invasion of my privacy, but the tax (and he can call it whatever he wants: it's just a tax dressed up in fancy duds) is regressive on states that don't have efficient public transportation. In essence, it's a program for self-congratulatory east-coast politicians, by self-congratulatory east-coast politicians. Just like Amtrak, which the rest of us poor slobs are still paying for.

President Obama, however, reportedly slammed this idea, displaying surprising gonads by politically thwacking his own cabinet member. Here's to more of the same, Mister President.