Thor's Day!

Thor, A Primer.

I love my vibrating toothbrush.

And figuring out how waters works.

Yes, I sleep in funny positions.

I am afraid of thunder,and yes, I get the irony, I didn't name myself, human.

I love all creatures of the world.

I am a bit goofy.

You may worship me now.

Stuff

Easter cupcakes:

My new tee-shirt:

The Dangerous Life of SC Liberals:

This frog jumped on my chest when I opened the storm door this morning. And I didn't even scream. I think I lost my Southern Belle license:

Loki, and friend:

Thor:

Twosday!

I spilled an entire glass of wine into Jason's laptop the other night. No, I wasn't drunk. It was on a small table beside the sofa and the laptop was on the sofa and I bumped the table with my foot and the wineglass of course had to tip in the direction of the laptop. We think it may live, but now I have 20 pages of handwritten manuscript to transcribe (rekeying the rewriting). Yes, I can use the big computer, but only when Jason is at work because he needs it for stuff that actually earns money.

So, my ramblings shall be cut short today.

Random brothers who love each other pictures:

Dictatorship in Action

Long time readers know that poor women and children are of particular interest to me. Also that I believe we provide social services in such a way as to cripple and trap recipients in cycles of poverty.

So it will come as no surprise that I loved the work of Catherine Ferguson High School in Detroit, MI.

What was so amazing about this school was its success. Ninety percent of those enrolled graduated. ONE HUNDRED percent of those who graduated went to college. In fact, it was a requirement of graduation that you be accepted into a college.

So, these poor teen mothers will now go on to earn degrees, have jobs, and pay taxes. And raise their children without government assistance beyond what they received in high school.

Isn't that what we want? To give someone a hand UP, not a hand out?

Well, not so fast says the newly appointed dictator.

See, this is what happened. A lot Detroit schools were in horrible shape. Failing students, failing teachers, a horrible mess. No one is denying this. (Remember Catherine Ferguson High School was NOT one of the failures). So the governor made a law that allowed one person he appointed to oversee the clean up of the schools.

But those darn pesky citizen ELECTED school board members were just annoying the appointed one and hampering his efforts to rehabilitate the schools.

So the governor wrote another law that just allowed him to terminate all elected officials from town governments and let his appointee have complete power.

Now, to be fair, perhaps this appointee will be able to drastically turn around the Detroit school system and make everything great.

(But if he is going to make the bad schools good, why is this successful school being closed? A school for the deaf and a school for learning disabled children, including programs for autistic children are also on the chopping block? Why?)

But the real problem is that we sort of live in, you know, AMERICA. Where we democratically elect people to represent us. For better or worse.

And now, in Michigan, the people watch their elected officials set aside and they can only hope that the dictator set over them will be benign.

Also in Michigan, this law was used to dismiss the elected town government of Benton Harbor, a predominantly poor black town with lots of lake shore property. One issue was the large park on the lake front. And it just so happened that some civic minded real estate developers from the neighboring predominately white, upper middle class town JUST HAPPENED to have some plans laying around for converting that public park in the poor black town into a private golf course.

And now that the pesky citizen ELECTED government has just been put aside and a dictator, I mean, overseer, I mean manager appointed, they can do whatever they want.

More here:

And here.

Happy Easter!

What I Did Yesterday

Watched a hailstorm:


Saw (very pregnant) Mama Deer and the yearlings:


Thor sez: And took a picture of the cutest feline on the planet.

Thor's Day!

Classic Thor, the paw cross:

Loki Monday

Random Loki:

Do I Know You?

Dear Overhead Door Company of Charleston:

I received your postcard informing me that my garage door may be in need of maintenance.

I understand that regular maintenance is essential for any mechanical object to ensure optimal performance.

I appreciate your kind offer of doing this for the special price of $49.95.

The problem is: I don't have a garage. This can only mean that you sent this postcard pretending that we have an existing business relationship. That you meant to fool me into using your company by making me think that you were being so nice to remind me of something I may have forgotten in my busy day.

Now, if this $49.95 includes the installation of a garage and garage doors, I will accept your offer.

Thank you,

Annoyed that you killed a tree and wasted gas having the postman deliver this to me.

P.S.
I will tell everyone that I know that your company uses these slimy and pathetic business tactics.

Thor sez: Epic fail!

For Real Friday

The only thing that makes me feel more hopeless for the future of our nation than the Post and Courier readers' comments is the letters to the editor section. But at least with the letters, I can pretend that the most stupid or outrageous letters are chosen for hit count.

But sometimes I wonder. Have we completely lost the ability to critically think? Have we become a nation addicted to the sludge of hormone induced emotions by wallowing in the sewers of hyperbole and verbal vomit that mean nothing?

Take Mr. William Troiani, for example. Mr. Troiana felt compelled to pick up pen or power up the computer to write to the editor about President Obama's re-election campaign. Mr. Troiani seems to feel that by raising funds for the campaign President Obama is "buying" the election. He also seems to feel that the President should "have confidence that he will win re-election on just the merits of his performance in office".

Now, my memory is not the best, and perhaps Mr. Troiani has recently moved to Charleston and therefore I have missed his letters to editors in other cities during previous elections and he feels this way about ALL presidents, not just Mr. Obama.

My question is. Every president eligible for re-election has run a campaign for his second term. None have just done nothing.

Why is Mr. Obama being held to a different standard?

Should Ronald Reagan not campaigned for re-election? Jimmy Carter? George HW Bush? Clinton? George W. Bush?

Why is it that suddenly, now it is extortion and theft for Mr. Obama to have a re-election campaign?

Or was Mr. Troiana just spewing verbal vomit for the surge of endorphins?

Thor sez: You humans make me laugh.

Thor's Day

Why Thor will not be an Easter spokes-model anytime soon:


Thor sez: What? I was opening it for you.

Twosday!

Two things I am researching:

1. Neuro-linguistics.
2. Advertising vs. propaganda. (This is an interesting primer.)

Two things I am writing:

1. This. haha
2. Beginning re-write of Part 2 of work in progress.

Two decisions I have made:

1. Will wait to market Part 1 until Part 2 is finished and will market them together.
2. The tag-line for the two books: Falling in love is easy, staying in love is hard.

Two brothers who love each other:

Loki Morning Musings

I have added another link to help you in your civic duties. Mega Vote (What Are Your Representatives Up To?) brings Congress to your in box. Weekly emails let you know how your representatives voted on legislation.

More importantly, Mega Vote gives you an overview on what the upcoming votes will be, providing a "plain language" explanation of the bills, plus links to read more about the bill, who is sponsoring the bill, etc.

Too often we hear about some bit of legislation after it is voted on. This gives us a tool to let our representatives (and remember, they are your voice in government, don't remain silent!) know what we would like them to do on our behalf before the vote is cast.

This will also come in handy prior to elections, when you can easily see exactly how an incumbent voted rather than having to try to sort out campaign rhetoric. (i.e. Jim DeMint, our true blue, red blooded, American has consistently voted against bills that would help our veterans. Support our military? Maybe with his mouth, but not with his vote.

Now, with these two easy links, issues are delivered right to your computer/laptop/smartphone and you may write your representative immediately. Click, click, done!

Remember, powerful interests with lots of money can spend all they want on negative, slanted advertising, but you can get the calm, rational facts and make up your own mind without polluting it with the negative energy of political rhetoric.

We, the people, are still the ones who walk into a voting booth and push the button.

Keep reminding your representatives of this fact.

Have the courage of your convictions. Vote against people who refuse to represent you. Don't vote against the "what if" of another. Don't vote out of fear implanted by negative campaigns ads (for an interesting experiment, look into the psychology of fear based emotional manipulation and brainwashing and compare what you read to the wording and format of some of the PAC ads you are beginning to see).

Look at the voting record of the incumbent.
Look at the voting record of the incumbent.
Look at the voting record of the incumbent.

Let that be your sole basis of who you vote for.

Loki sez: Excuse me, but I thought this was supposed to be about me!

Dear Mr. President

My letter to President Obama:

Dear Sir:

Do NOT back down on this budget "crisis"! Please. We see it for what it
is - GOP blackmail.

My son is currently serving in the US Navy and he called to tell me that
he won't get his paycheck, but he'll be okay, he has savings.

He is upset because as he says, "Yes, I want my paycheck, but I don't want to
screw over poor people to get it."

I am a lonely little blue dot in the state of South Carolina. My
representatives won't even acknowledge my existence much less reply to my
emails. But I am suddenly not alone. Many, many of my staunch Republican
friends also see this current Congress as nothing more than the Trojan
Horse for corporate America to further their aims, to hell with what is
good for the people.

Tell America this plainly: We will not sacrifice the poor and the middle
class on the alter of capitalism. The GOP is serving the plutocracy, not
the democracy.

Stand firm! We are behind you!

Click on the link! Write your representatives! Remind them who pushes the buttons in the voting booths.

Thor's Day!

Thor has a shoe fetish.

Mad Genius at Work

Jason's cousin and her daughter are having a spring break in Beaufort, so Jason is driving down to see them today. Mad genius that I am, I told him to take my car.

Why:

Because I have to:

Write a query letter.

Write a synopsis.

Write an outline.

Write a one paragraph "hook" that sums up my entire manuscript in one or two sentences that will cause an agent to, hopefully go "hmmm" and not "vomit".

Do laundry.

And I will not do these things if I have any means of escape. That doesn't mean I won't find today the perfect day to scrape the peeling paint off the back porch or dust behind the bookcases or something, but it's an effort.

Thor loves rubber bands, bra straps and any other elastic, plastic things he can get his fangs in. So when I saw this plastic, kitten chewing safe worm at the pet store, I bought it for him. He tossed it in the air twice, sat on it once. Now it is ignored.

Twosday!

Two things confusing me:

1. I read an article on CNN about how Newt Gingrich says that President Obama's video being sent to solicit donations for his re-election campaign is "extortion". This is confusing: is Newt just flinging elephant shit because that's all he's got or is he so used to billionaires bankrolling him that he has forgotten all us little people who only have $10, $20, $50 to give to the campaign of our choice?

2. Trying to explain, to Jason, the Southern girls' relationship with the movie (and book) Gone With the Wind. Yes, it is horribly revisionist in its portrayal of slavery. That's a given. You just have to know that. But it's Scarlett that is endlessly fascinating. She's the absolute feminist (more in the book than the movie, starting her own business), but some point out, she used marriage to achieve her ends, yes, I point out, but in those times, it was often the only way to obtain the legal authority to do things. But on the other hand, she is so freaking ass stupid about men, ruining her life chasing after the impossible. I ended up telling him it was sort of like The Godfather for girls. Full of stereotypes and strengths and weaknesses. But GWTW has Clark Gable. Yum-O.

Two things I have to do today:

1. Drive my mom downtown for a doctors appointment.

2. Drive myself to a doctors appointment this afternoon. It'll tell you a little about how much fun arthritic knees are if you could see how happy I was to get an appointment to have two large needles jammed under my kneecaps.

The two reasons you keep coming back:

In Other News

My baby's getting married!
The ManChild will kill me for posting a fresh off the drive from hell picture, but The Girl looks good, so that's all that matters.

The ring:


The boyz say: We got a new toy! That's news too.

Loki Monday

Today class, we shall write a theme.


Wonderful, sez Loki, what type of theme shall we write?



What happens to kittens who jump and walk all over their humans at three a.m. every night?

My theme:

They get goofy pictures posted for the world to see.

Fantastic Friday

And why, you ask, is this Friday so fantastic?

Well, since you asked. See that little links thingie over there by my caricature? Long time readers will recognize the link to Home Ec 101. That link to that fabulous blog/website has been floating over there ever since I became aware of the site.

Now, just because the author, Heather Solos, is a real life, I'd know her on the street (but might hide if all the minions were in tow) friend of mine, don't think my opinion is biased.

A very wise editor saw Heather's blog a year or so ago and recognized that it is a great source of real information, all in the unique, sassy, zombie respecting, real life living Heather Solos style. And *wah-lah* (that's just for you, Heather), a book deal was made.

And a book was written. And published. Check it out.

This ain't Martha, people. This is real stuff for real women (and men) with real lives.

I'll not give a review yet because I haven't actually sat down to read it yet (other than to find the zombie apocalypse reference). But based solely on my knowledge of the blog, I have purchased a few, for me and for gifts.

So, if you know a young person just setting up house, getting married, or you just want to get better organized, this is the book for you.

And to satisfy those blogging disclosure rules, I have received nothing for this referral, I will receive nothing for the review.

I have, though, been a guest at the Solos house where I was served some pretty yummy food. And I once gave her children all my left over Halloween candy, but I think she's forgiven me for that.