6 Years Later and Why I am Still a Peace Activist

She joined our peace group carrying a homemade sign. It wasn’t just a “Peace Now” sign or even similar to the six-foot “Pray for Peace, Act for Peace” banner that I brought. It was a sign made out of pain. It was covered with red paint, similar to blood, spattered on an attached doll. It was eerily similar to those cringe causing signs held at anti-abortion rallies. She wore a large hooded sweatshirt and an invisible wall of protection.

Over six years ago the tension was building, as it was evident that the neo-cons would start the war for which they hungered. I wasn’t an organizer then but I had a strong inner drive to seek out peace rallies.

The day after the Iraq war started the local Peace and Justice group held a riverside candlelight vigil. Year 2, I sought out a rally on the street while vacationing in Florida. Year 4 I traveled to Washington DC and shared the evening in the National Cathedral and marched to the White House with fellow Christians. In 08 the election motivated over 100 ralliers to 2 demonstrations in our city.

Everyone has a story, especially activists. People wonder where I get my energy to continue to plan rallies, talk on the radio and lead the local progressive group. I have my story. My drive was born from grief and fueled by the desire that others would not have to share my story. My 18 year-old son died in a car wreck 11 years ago. It was an accident but sending soldiers to a war is not an accident. I could not bear the thought of some mother, somewhere hearing that knock on the door that would forever change her and her family.

Year six started out quieter; maybe because Obama was president, maybe because there was a promise that this war would end and maybe because we were just all tired. This year we sang and prayed, sang and prayed for peace and healing. We were 13 strong, a veteran, a minister, a musician, a mother and child, four seniors, and three pacifist- 12 plus the woman with the sign. The minister led us in prayer, the musician led us in song, and the seniors held the banner. Each held a flower with a name of a fallen soldier from our district. We quietly read the names and placed it in the vase. 4924
Is not just a number, 10 lives were lost from our neighborhoods.

Then she pulled back her hood uncovering her long red hair that matched the picture of a child and the grown soldier on her poster. My mother’s heart ached and the group understood why we keep gathering year after year.


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More Animal Tails. . .

A friend of mine's cat had this cute litter of kitties, and I got the privilege of naming them (he'd run out of names after the first litter, the year prior). One of the kittens, a girl, was white, with very large perfectly round black polka dots. So of course she got a name I'd wished to bestow on a cat since Dick and Jane in first grade, lol! Spot. . . (This *isn't* her, but could be her double)

One of her siblings, a boy, I named Nixon due to his penchant for screaming bloody murder if he didn't get his way, and for climbing on the other kittens' heads and bodies in his attempts to escape their box. . . He was yaller. . . .

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BLINKY SHOES

These are the light-up shoes that Susan has sent to Ally. ♥
(This was the package that got stuck in my mailbox! LOL!)


As you can see, they will match perfectly with Ally's stylin' coolness.  ♥

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Critters

The other day when I was going to teach my class, I saw this goose in the middle of the parking lot. That struck me as odd, so, of course, I took out my phone and took a picture of it. And another picture, because I'm never positive that a picture has turned out until I look at it on my computer. So I have to take extras, as a sort of insurance. And if I try to take a picture with a decent resolution, it takes forever to save, so after I take the original picture, I get to spend a fair amount of time staring at a rotating hourglass icon before I can snap the emergency back-up picture. So it's always a very real possibility that the scene will have changed by that point.


By the time I was taking picture number two of the goose, I was starting to wonder if the little guy was okay. If he was okay, wouldn't he have moved by now? Just then, he lifted his head and let out a loud "HONK!"


I'm guessing that was a "Yes".

Another critter story. Remember I was telling you about the rat boys and their different learning curves? I continue to spend time interacting with them when I can, so that they are comfortable being handled by me. This afternoon, I took a couple of whole wheat pretzels, broke them into pieces, and brought them up to Daughter's room.

By now they know that I usually come bearing gifts, so as soon as I open the door to the room, I've got their attention. By the time I open the door to their cage, Dango is right there waiting. Today I decided that, rather than handing each of them a treat, I wanted them to walk over to my hand to get their snacks. Dango came right up to me, gently accepted the pretzel bit I offered him, and then hurried back into the cage to eat it.

While Dango was happily polishing off his snack, Vlad showed up at the door of the cage. He looked at the treat in my hand, paused a bit, and then climbed the outside wall of the cage in search of food on the roof. Because, after learning from watching Dango, he knew that's where the food was. And I thought, how weird! The food had been inches away from his nose--even if I'm overestimating his visual abilities and he didn't actually see me holding the pretzel bit, surely he must have smelled it. Yet he climbed up away from it, and searched all over the roof for food that wasn't there. Then it occurred to me, "Hey, he's making the 'A-not-B error'!" See, not only do I teach psychology, but I can be downright geeky about this stuff. ;)

And speaking of geeky, there's a bag of dry cat kibble (which I bought from a local health food store) sitting on our kitchen table. Its name, oddly (for a cat food), is "Spot's Stew". So for several days now, I've had Commander Data's "Ode to Spot" stuck in my head.

Felis Cattus, is your taxonomic nomenclature,
an endothermic quadruped carnivorous by nature?
Your visual, olfactory and auditory senses
contribute to your hunting skills, and natural defenses.

I find myself intrigued by your subvocal oscillations,
a singular development of cat communications
that obviates your basic hedonistic predilection
for a rhythmic stroking of your fur, to demonstrate affection.

A tail is quite essential for your acrobatic talents;
you would not be so agile if you lacked its counterbalance.
And when not being utilized to aide in locomotion,
it often serves to illustrate the state of your emotion.

O Spot, the complex levels of behaviour you display
connote a fairly well-developed cognitive array.
And though you are not sentient, Spot, and do not comprehend,
I nonetheless consider you a true and valued friend.

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Just to make your day...

A friend of mine posted this photo on Facebook.
Look at those eyes!  

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Jon Stewart ROCKED tonight

In case you missed it, you should check it out online.

The AP story: Stewart hammers Cramer on 'The Daily Show'

Apparently the interview went long, and had to be edited for broadcast, but the whole interview will be available on the Daily Show web site on Friday.

(By the way, I just clicked the Daily Show link and the site is down for maintenance.)

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Open Thread, The Sequel

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Open Thread

Someone added their own captions to one of those public restroom hand dryers.



Press button
Receive bacon
Enjoy bacon


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I think I've found it!

a post by subway serenade

OK folks, as always, please understand that I'm in the very early stages of this, but I've said the same thing about the several things that I've discovered that are now done science. So I expect that what I'm discovering now will be borne out in further study. So here goes:

(As always, I present my findings to this Community before Gizmo HQ sees them.)

In the video I posted last night, there are four Polarity Bursts, seen on the left. I remind you that the first time I experienced a Polarity Burst was at DFest, last year. Since the overload problem was solved these Polarity Bursts have increased in frequency, duration and intensity. It's only been a month since the software was updated to my specifications.

However, it's when the Polarity bursts dance back and forth above the scale, as it does near the end of the video, that the effect is most amazing. It feels as if my electromagnetic field is consciously attempting to climb a ladder.

At the same time the back and forth motion of the arrow feels like an electrical spark dancing between two filaments of an antique light bulb, just before it begins to glow.

Bottom line.

I think I've found it.

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Open Thread

I guess Cat Girl thinks I need her help when I'm teaching my class. (I left my laptop bag open, and she saw a cat-sized space.)

Didn't actually get any lecture prep done tonight, though. Feeling a bit under the weather, so I just played the Sims for a while. Leading me to ponder the question....



What IS this werewolf writing in his diary?

And while I'm feeling goofy, I will share the thought that led me to take this picture in the first place...


(The sign reads "Do not block fire exit".)

That's right. Get out of the way, stick figure dude! Can't you see the fire is trying to exit the building? Why are you blocking him?

Yeah, I know. "Say goodnight, Gracie." Or something.

Later, everybody.

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Irony

This is Dango, one of Daughter's pet rats. He's actually a "bonus" rat, because when I went out on Halloween to get a new little ratlet to be a companion for Vlad, I ended up coming home with two. If I was just going to pick one, it would have been Shiroyuki, because his mostly white coloring made him clearly distinguishable from Vlad. But I just couldn't bring myself to leave this little guy behind.

Anyway, getting to the irony part, Dango is what's called a "Dumbo" rat, because of the way the low-set ears sort of stick out. Yet Demetrius commented early on that he seemed to be the "brains of the operation". He was right.

Case in point, the critters live in a two story cage, and sometimes I set this toy farmhouse on top of the cage, and put some snacks in it. It's been interesting watching the boys trying to figure out how to get to the food. They can smell it, and it's clearly right above them when they're on the top floor of the cage. But there's no way to get to the food by going up. They have to go down to the bottom floor--where I've opened the cage door for them--and then climb up the outside of the cage. Watching them figure this out has been a major source of entertainment for me for the past few days. I mean, it's just so counterintuitive--having to go downstairs in order to access the yummy treats that are right there above their heads.

But the "Dumbo" figured it out pretty quickly, and once he had, he was off like a shot as soon as I opened that cage door. The first time he did it, I was caught by surprise--I'd only turned my head away for a second, and there he was on top of the cage, helping himself to the snacks in the barn. If I didn't know better, I'd think he teleported there.

Vlad figured out the process today. Poor Shiroyuki is still at a loss. So I pick him up and set him on outside of the cage, near the top so that he can climb that last little bit on his own and still get some treats. But I know the light bulb will go on for him soon enough.

I think the appeal for me here is the gratification of observing rapid learning and clearly measurable progress. That's something of a rarity for me.

Speaking of which, we have two meetings tomorrow about Son and some additional help we're pursuing for him. Wish us luck.

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Howard Dean back at DFA

Nice to see some familiar names over at the DFA blog celebrating Howard's return.


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So I *didn't* imagine this

I saw just a minute of something on the History Channel yesterday, and wondered if I was hearing right. Something about human intimacy in space, and, um, duct tape. But yes, apparently they did actually do such an episode.

Seriously--the History Channel? That sounds more like a topic for the Future Channel. Okay, as far as I know, there is no such channel, but still...

Anyway, I found this article about the show.

Theoretical physicist Michio Kaku and Vanna Bonta, novelist and inventor of the 2Suit, a flight suit that stabilizes human proximity for various forms of intimacy in microgravity environments, are among guests joining The History Channel for the television premiere of Sex in Space which will cover the topic from the sex act through birth, and may get to the bottom of the rumors to find out if space sex has already happened.

I found the video online, and it has some very entertaining quotes. Will try to post some of them after I get back from church. (Yes, I know how weird that sounded!)

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Haloscan update

This is from the official Haloscan blog:

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Active blogger comment thread.

Keeping the Home Fires Burning...

...costs more than it used to!

This photo shows Daughter's new hearth.
That's the very first fire ever in her blueblack Jotul woodstove
upon her new hearth, which she designed herself.
Hubby and I were there while the mason completed the work.

Here in Vermont, yesterday, our propane guy filled our tank again.
We have now received nearly all the fuel we pre-paid for this year.
Since we have very little revenues for more
we are being extra careful to wear slippers and sweaters
and keep the stove off most of the day when possible.

For the last three months our home business
has been running at 25% its usual capacity.
Our business is dependent on new product startups.
We were probably among the first to feel the downturn in the economy,
and we may be among the first to feel it picking up.
So far so good anyway. Stay tuned.


7:45pm: I spoke too soon, Renee.   And I can't see any of my posts of the last hour.  ~ listener

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Haloscan

Once again, Haloscan appears to be broken. Go ahead and use Blogger commenting for now.



7:15pm:  Renee, I was able to get in fine.  Perhaps it's fixed?  ♥  ~ listener


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Weekend Open Thread

more animals

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Question of the day

If you could spend a day just hanging out (as a welcome companion) with any person in history--or any famous person of the present time--who would it be?

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Return of Open Thread

more animals

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Open Thread

more music charts

(Decided to go with a GraphJam image in honor of Daughter having a math competition in the morning.)

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