I've had a lot of fun this past year reading what Vanessa's done to "green" her life. I've had a lot of fun doing some of that stuff myself.
The difference between Vanessa and myself on this whole "green" thing is that I didn't commit to a particular timeframe or a 1 thing each day during a timeframe, so I can't say when I'm done trying on the different "green" hats to see if they fit.
I doubt that she's done with it, either. I think there'll always be a little devil on her shoulder suggesting that she throw away her concerns about how the new LED nightlights came in enough packaging to kill two polar bears and an angel on her other shoulder suggesting that the wine she wants tonight was stomped by slave monkeys or something. Heh.
Good luck, Vanessa, and thanks a bunch for the fun!
Friday, February 29, 2008
Thursday, February 28, 2008
64 minutes with Obama and Google.
Getting close to primary elections here in Texas. I'm pretty sure we're gonna early vote today, but if we don't make it we still have tomorrow. Sunday, we're having a call party through Move-On.Org to (in particular) remind folks of how Texas has BOTH primary elections AND caucuses, so people who vote in the primaries need to return to their polling places on the evening of March 4th to vote AGAIN. Heh. We're ONE place where voting TWICE is not only LEGAL, but a sure way to get your candidate elected.
It's WONDERFUL that the 2008 election has included Texas. As you can see, we're REALLY turning out for this phenomenon.
Sunday, February 24, 2008
Post for #3. It's ALL for you today, son!
Valentine's day was a yo-yo!
NPR: Interviews Michael Specter: Count Carbon Along With Calories.
If that audio tickled your fancy, move on to Michael's article here.
How to Behave on an Internet Forum
Diebold Accidentally Leaks Results Of 2008 Election Early
Feel free to add more when you have time.
NPR: Interviews Michael Specter: Count Carbon Along With Calories.
If that audio tickled your fancy, move on to Michael's article here.
How to Behave on an Internet Forum
Diebold Accidentally Leaks Results Of 2008 Election Early
Feel free to add more when you have time.
Wednesday, February 20, 2008
Stand for Change Rally
Today, Em and I went to Reunion Arena for the Stand for Change Rally.
We took the TRE to Union Station and walked half a block or so to the Arena.
Once at the Arena, we were directed to the end of the line. I think someone said there were 17 lines (one for every entrance), but our line snaked up into the parking lot. We walked 25 minutes before we got to the end of it. We'd been told that the doors opened at 10:30, so we took the train that got us there at 10:31. Obama was to speak at 12 noon. Heh. We were still in line in the parking garage at 12 noon, so didn't know if we'd miss the rally or not.
We met lots of nice people in line, so we weren't bored at all. The crowd had LOTS of young people, but there were other boomers and even people older than us. We talked to these two girls and ran into them again when we got to the TRE to go back home.
It might have been 12:30 when the line REALLY began moving. In fact, we were encouraged to not run, but walk VERY fast the last 500 feet or so before the entrance to the Arena, as Obama would be speaking soon. Em's knees were about to give out at that point, and the volunteers were just about cheering us on, thanking us for coming to the rally.
Once inside, we found our way to some seats in the nosebleed section after stopping to catch our breath sitting on some steps which we (of course) couldn't block. We listened to the last bit of a speech by a previous Dallas mayor, some inspiration from Emmitt Smith (who I think plays football down here), and then about 1pm someone introduced Obama.
We hadn't been through security, because we were absolutely no threat at this distance from the stage.
By 1:30pm, it was all over. We left and followed the crowds back to Union Station where we talked to the girls again. TRE (as well as DART ) scheduled extra trains; we were very appreciative, as we'd just missed one.
It was a LOT of work to go through to attend a live rally for Obama, we discussed on the way home from the TRE station afterward. We could have seen HIM better from a chair in front of the TV at home, but (much like viewing live sporting events) we wouldn't have experienced the passion of the crowd. Doubt there'll be too many more years of political activism for us, though. Time for all those youngsters to pick up the torch.
UPDATE 2/23/08: Here's a video made by some folks we know about their experience (pretty much identical to ours) at the Stand for Change Rally:
Since this is "pay attention to Texas" week,
Chelsea Clinton (the blonde walking up the steps) held a question/answer session on the campus of UTA today. No. 1 took the photos and said that she really isn't a very good speaker. She also said that the crowd was mixed, with one "fan" sporting a sign that said, "Stop Hillary; Save America".
We didn't see anyone in opposition to Obama at Reunion Arena, but it's not like any of us felt that Reunion Arena was our home turf, either.
No. 1 stopped by tonight to get her voter's card and looked so cute I took a picture.
When she read this entry (which I'd just finished) she said, "You should know that Emmitt Smith is a football player! When we went to Norway, people learned that we were from Dallas and thought Em was the Dallas football player!" Heh. I've slept a few times since then.
We took the TRE to Union Station and walked half a block or so to the Arena.
Once at the Arena, we were directed to the end of the line. I think someone said there were 17 lines (one for every entrance), but our line snaked up into the parking lot. We walked 25 minutes before we got to the end of it. We'd been told that the doors opened at 10:30, so we took the train that got us there at 10:31. Obama was to speak at 12 noon. Heh. We were still in line in the parking garage at 12 noon, so didn't know if we'd miss the rally or not.
We met lots of nice people in line, so we weren't bored at all. The crowd had LOTS of young people, but there were other boomers and even people older than us. We talked to these two girls and ran into them again when we got to the TRE to go back home.
It might have been 12:30 when the line REALLY began moving. In fact, we were encouraged to not run, but walk VERY fast the last 500 feet or so before the entrance to the Arena, as Obama would be speaking soon. Em's knees were about to give out at that point, and the volunteers were just about cheering us on, thanking us for coming to the rally.
Once inside, we found our way to some seats in the nosebleed section after stopping to catch our breath sitting on some steps which we (of course) couldn't block. We listened to the last bit of a speech by a previous Dallas mayor, some inspiration from Emmitt Smith (who I think plays football down here), and then about 1pm someone introduced Obama.
We hadn't been through security, because we were absolutely no threat at this distance from the stage. By 1:30pm, it was all over. We left and followed the crowds back to Union Station where we talked to the girls again. TRE (as well as DART ) scheduled extra trains; we were very appreciative, as we'd just missed one.
It was a LOT of work to go through to attend a live rally for Obama, we discussed on the way home from the TRE station afterward. We could have seen HIM better from a chair in front of the TV at home, but (much like viewing live sporting events) we wouldn't have experienced the passion of the crowd. Doubt there'll be too many more years of political activism for us, though. Time for all those youngsters to pick up the torch.
UPDATE 2/23/08: Here's a video made by some folks we know about their experience (pretty much identical to ours) at the Stand for Change Rally:
Since this is "pay attention to Texas" week,
Chelsea Clinton (the blonde walking up the steps) held a question/answer session on the campus of UTA today. No. 1 took the photos and said that she really isn't a very good speaker. She also said that the crowd was mixed, with one "fan" sporting a sign that said, "Stop Hillary; Save America".
We didn't see anyone in opposition to Obama at Reunion Arena, but it's not like any of us felt that Reunion Arena was our home turf, either.
No. 1 stopped by tonight to get her voter's card and looked so cute I took a picture.
When she read this entry (which I'd just finished) she said, "You should know that Emmitt Smith is a football player! When we went to Norway, people learned that we were from Dallas and thought Em was the Dallas football player!" Heh. I've slept a few times since then.
Monday, February 11, 2008
Thursday, February 07, 2008
PC failures and priorities.
My PC failed this week. It failed badly enough that I had to call support. Roommate of No. 1 came over and spent an hour or two three days in a row doing what it seems I've forgotten (or never knew) how to do. He bought a new hard drive for me, but hasn't installed it yet. I need to document the software I use so he knows what to reinstall once he switches me over AND what he did yesterday to reinstall my video card driver fixed everything (for now)... and those are two key words.
Things I learned this week include:
1. No. 1's roommate could be making pretty big bucks doin' what he knows how to do in addition to or in lieu of his day job.
2. My PC is a big, big part of my life and I need to change that to provide more balance.
3. Hate to print stuff (just can't see wasting the paper or the ink), but I'm a list-oriented person, so all my lists are on the PC (with no backup). I need to suck it up, print some lists and start taking routine backups of my system of lists. D'OH!
4. Our area is unsupported by the Geek Squad. The phone book telephone numbers are ALL out of service. This brings me back to the FIRST thing I learned this week.
Got to go to update and start printing lists, burn backup CDs, etc.
Things I learned this week include:
1. No. 1's roommate could be making pretty big bucks doin' what he knows how to do in addition to or in lieu of his day job.
2. My PC is a big, big part of my life and I need to change that to provide more balance.
3. Hate to print stuff (just can't see wasting the paper or the ink), but I'm a list-oriented person, so all my lists are on the PC (with no backup). I need to suck it up, print some lists and start taking routine backups of my system of lists. D'OH!
4. Our area is unsupported by the Geek Squad. The phone book telephone numbers are ALL out of service. This brings me back to the FIRST thing I learned this week.
Got to go to update and start printing lists, burn backup CDs, etc.
Saturday, February 02, 2008
Color us healthier.
Em's feeling better this week, his cough is down to infrequent inconveniences, and he's STILL not smoking. He put that not smoking thing to a pretty good test Wednesday, as we drove to Winstar for the day. If you've ever smoked, you're aware of "triggers" associated with the habit. One of Em's triggers was driving. He drove
there and back with no problem with that trigger. He ALSO sat in a smoke-filled casino next to people smoking and didn't bum a cig. I don't think either of us is calling him a non-smoker YET, but he's doing awfully good, IMO, and I think this could be the end of it for him, just like my being sick for almost two weeks was the end of it for me three years ago.
Time to tear through some cleaning chores this weekend. Not what I might have wanted to do while North Texas is experiencing wonderful weather for this season, but something I want to get done before we host a Super Tuesday party next week for Move On Org. This office of mine has been pitiful for way too long and it's pretty much because I had intended on doing data entry for thousands of recipes I'd collected during the years when I didn't know how to cook. I HATE data entry, so those recipes sat around waiting and waiting and waiting for me to enter them into a database I'd created for them until I learned how to cook without recipes (which is pretty cool in itself). So, today I started office cleanup and the recipes went into an accordion folder willy-nilly, as their only purpose in life right now is printer paper (on the other side of the recipe).
Should be able to finish up most of my chores tomorrow while Em does Super Bowl Sunday somewhere else. I think all those years in IT created a deadline-oriented woman.
Time to tear through some cleaning chores this weekend. Not what I might have wanted to do while North Texas is experiencing wonderful weather for this season, but something I want to get done before we host a Super Tuesday party next week for Move On Org. This office of mine has been pitiful for way too long and it's pretty much because I had intended on doing data entry for thousands of recipes I'd collected during the years when I didn't know how to cook. I HATE data entry, so those recipes sat around waiting and waiting and waiting for me to enter them into a database I'd created for them until I learned how to cook without recipes (which is pretty cool in itself). So, today I started office cleanup and the recipes went into an accordion folder willy-nilly, as their only purpose in life right now is printer paper (on the other side of the recipe).
Should be able to finish up most of my chores tomorrow while Em does Super Bowl Sunday somewhere else. I think all those years in IT created a deadline-oriented woman.
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