I know that this is just a subset of life in general and that I'm sure I'm guilty of something similar in a different realm of my life, perhaps at times in this realm, but I'm flat out sick of snarky political talking heads like Keith Olbermann, Rush Limbaugh, Dan Abrams, Ann Coulter, etc., etc. They take a valid idea, smother it with rude comments, their own ego and an either-agree-with-me-or-you-are-a-baby-hater attitude, and finally spew it over the airwaves. And then we listen and soak up whatever.
(okay, this whole idea could really be about other things in life, too)
I've thought about this for a long time, why it happens, what purpose it serves. I've come to at least a partial conclusion, it's the same thing that goes on in junior high. It's name calling and back biting and putting someone else down to (supposedly) elevate yourself. Instead of just saying, "Hey, these are the reasons why I'm worried about this and this, don't you think these ideas are better?" I hear from liberals (like I did a couple weekends ago), "Those idiotic conservative know-nothings want this country to fail and want to get (expletive) richer all the while." And then I hear from conservatives, "The liberal blankety blanks are out to destroy our (expletive) way of life."
I'm sick of it. I'm sick of the juvenality. I'm sick of the name calling. I'm utterly sick of the lack of civil dialog--or dialog in civility.
We are not supposed to act this way.
There. I've said it. It's been broiling since, I don't know, April last?
As an added idea, I think part of the reason why this junior high pithiness happens is because we can't be sure of our politics. Wait!!! Before you freak out. I did not say idea/ideals. I said politics, meaning ideas/ideals in action. We have an idea, something that we really feel strongly about and then try to put it into action in this very imperfect world. Our uncertainty can lead us to be rude and childish, even if we really feel like we're totally, 100% so sure that we're like iron-clad right.
If our politics were perfect, why would we feel the need to improve this country? We've had democratic presidents with democratic congresses, republican presidents with republican congresses, whig presidents with whig congresses and federalist presidents with federalist congresses. Yet, we are not perfect.
No political party is perfect. No political idea is perfect.
But, then again, when did humility earn large shares of TV time?
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
Something stewing in my mind for months now
Saturday, February 7, 2009
My cousin on Ugly Betty
My cousin, Christian, is an actor. I found out a couple of days ago that he was on Ugly Betty during it's first season. I've never watched the show, but I wrangled up a copy so that I could show him off. He's listed as "Joel's friend." You'll see him in the background. He's the one with a blue shirt and blue tie.
Wendy says that laws dictate that I'm now famous b/c of this, and by the friendship rule default, she is now also famous. I'm not sure how legal this all is.
But here's the video:
New HP6 footage
I know, I'm crazy and somewhat obsessed. But there's some new footage mixed with the old in this trailer (Lavender macking Ron awkwardly shown below):
Triviopoly
So tonight at Aimee's game night we played Trivial Pursuit. Well, sorta played. We didn't have a board, so we used the Monopoly board, money, Chance & Community Chest cards, and the pieces (I was the iron!). It was by far the funnest Monopoly game I've ever played. If you get the answer correct, you get the Monopoly property space for free, otherwise you have to buy it. If you get the answer correct on a tax spot, you don't have to pay. We sorta made the rules up as we went along.
But really the best part of the whole night was this (paraphrased) question:
Which actor is afraid of antique furniture because he believes that he was attacked with furniture in a previous life?
Billy Bob Thornton
David christened this fear as ThisOldHouseaphobia.
**By the way, did you know that Bob Vila's a Cuban American? Just learned that searching for pictures.
Thursday, February 5, 2009
Scriptures & a Tragedy! ...poll
Last winter I started going to Brock's institute classes, which was way too much fun. The Book of Mormon teacher mentioned something one day about a B.o.M. with all references to God underlined that she or a friend had done. So I started one but added to it: counted the number of references and marked the bottom of the page, bracketed quoted words of God & wrote down all of His titles in the back of the book. It was one of those little red pocket-sized ones. I loved it. I had finished it a few months back and it was perfect. Except I no longer have it. I lost it somewhere in Sacramento over the weekend when it took a dive out of my sweater pocket. I am not happy. (GRRRRRRRRR!!) I have, however, decided that if someone finds it and thus joins the church, I will be okay with this fact. Otherwise, I will not conform to my loss.
So I got a new little copy tonight, but this copy is blue and not red. I'm going to start over. Perhaps I just needed to do the exercise again. I'm fine with this, because it was fun the first time and felt a great sense of loss when I finished.
This leads me to my poll: What set of scriptures do you prefer?
Big quad
Small quad
Big triple & separate Bible
Small triple & separate Bible
Extra large scripture set
Wednesday, February 4, 2009
Tuesday, February 3, 2009
Temporarily Permanent
Well after the adventures of a few weeks ago, I've been hopping around our new digs at the Advancement Building. I had no desk at first. Then I had one. Then they moved me. Then when I was in Sacramento over the weekend, I got moved downstairs. My new cubicle is actually nice and big. I'm trying to figure out what to do with all of the space. But my back is to the entryway and that's less than pleasant for me.
So I've decided that a bead curtain might be exactly what I need.
I became convinced, however, when I saw this particular version. How can I say no now?
