Christmas Eve Spotlight: Clarice

Several times this season I’ve been approached on the streets of Santa Paula and very bluntly asked the question…”Gringo, who’s your pick for most attractive doe in a stop motion animation film?”. My answer never wavers, I do need not think twice about the answer-it’s gotta be Clarice. Clarice is the attractive little doe that inspires young Rudolph to come out of his crimson-hued shell and lets his individuality soar through the clouds and into our collective hearts. A modern day Howard Roarke rebelling against the establishment and excelling like no other reindeer…or architect.

And what really sets her apart from all of her peers is her confidence and her conviction when she tells Rudolph early in the film to get off your lazy butt, ditch the nose cover and learn to fly. “I think your cute” she seductively whispers to Rudolph which sends him into a frenzy like the amphetamine-riddled Johnny Cash of the early 60’s. She was the muse for Rudolph, she motivated Rudolph unlike others that surrounded him. Hermey the Misfit Elf and his delusions of dentistry was a mere nuisance to this petite siren of a doe. Hermey the elf dentist? An elf dentist?!? What’s next…a black president?

“I think it’s a handsome nose” she announces in a manner only Doris Day would be proud of. Now, either she’s nefariously setting him up to be completely ridiculed by his peers or she cares for him so much that she’s trying to boost his confidence thereby elevating him to new heights. My initial impulse is to believe she is as the Electric Light Orchestra once put it…an “Evil Woman”. However, since then I’ve come to the conclusion that Clarice has good intentions. I’m inclined to believe the polka dot bow on the top of her head represents symbolism at its finest! She's a present with a bow on top and a card which simply reads…

To: Rudolph
From: God



Am I becoming soft? Is there some deep fundamental change in my approach to the opposite sex now that I have daughters. This post is becoming very cathartic. It took writing the above paragraphs to take notice of this metamorphosis in my mind.

I hope Jeff doesn’t find out about this. He’ll kick me out of the club.

Happy Holidaze

Maybe all these women in my lives makes me appear more masculine. Perhaps me being the sole testosterone-laden carbon-based life form in the family makes me look tougher? Braver? Cooler?

Or just beaten.

One thing's for sure, I am not playing Barbies with any of them!

Parker and Jack

Jack and Parker. They're good friends, Jack calls her "Partner". Poor Jack needs a roadie to help him get setup properly. This is their first live acoustic performance. I believe they decided to stick with Americana cover songs for starters, then they'll move into more serious song composition exercises.

After paying some close attention to parkerJo's vocal "stylings" as of late, I think I can conclude that she is cursed with the bad singing gene passed along on her mother's side.

Laura made an appearance on the basketball court today. I guarded her all day, she's fun to play against-she plays tough but she's quite vocal when you make contact with her(a lot of ughs and moans and some odd sounding noises that I cannot explain). She shot well from the outside and played me hard on the boards all day. I must say, I was impressed by her. She's one girl playing with 5 other fairly tough guys and she was fearless, gutsy, and determined. Now fearless means she got rejected by her foes far too many times to keep count but still, she tried. And when she tries she has this smile/smirk she brings to the court that makes her look likes she's a 6 year old locked in overnight inside a candy store while she's shooting a jumper right in your face. I realized today just how thankful I should be for having a wife that possesses so many like interests. Laura is someone I can wrestle for rebound position with on the court, sing along with in the studio, engage in a fruitless argument which eventually devolves into a battle of wills with each of us seeking to be the one who gets the last word in, and she's always been a fun drinking partner at the bar as well (although I can't recall the last time that's occurred).

That's what I was thinking about today.

What Do I Want For Christmas?

I want this little girl to stop growing up so quickly.

An Open Letter To ParkerJo and Georgia

The both of you owe me big time! I have made a significant sacrifice in my life for you two. I hope these paragraphs get thrown in front of your eyes sometime in your life when you are mature enough to comprehend its importance. I used to be able to come home from work and relax a bit…call it “decompression”. That is no longer an option but I can accept that, a lot of the times I am anxious to see you two as well. Also, on weekends your mom and I cannot get anything done anymore and that will probably be the case for the next two to three years. I have halted all future projects on the house until it is deemed that there is ample time to perform the task. (Psssst….don’t tell your mom about that one).

The reason I’m writing this is partly for the cathartic aspect of it. The other is to stipulate my own shortfalls. I am selfish, yet selfless too. Hopefully you’ll catch on one of my “selfless” days but heck, roll the dice and find out, I’m usually accommodating. I know this post might sound like I’m frustrated and/or irritated but I’m really not. I think we as children all take advantage of our situation and do not credit our parents with the sacrifices they make for us. Some of those are altruistic and some are simply for their own benefit. For example, one might consider having children for the tax write-off, or simply as a future investment when they’re grown up and you might need a vital organ, or perhaps we’re making the investment now for some long-term elder care in the future. Me, I just want to be like Papa Spears and develop a couple of little child music prodigies and profit off of their popularity.

Someday when you read this you’ll know that I love you both and wouldn’t change a thing. You two have brought something to my life I never expected and I’m grateful for it. But Georgia, you’re close to 6 months old and you are not crawling yet-get to it! Your big sister was walking at 8 months so you’ve got to get moving or mom will be on the phone with Easter Seals in no time!! And another thing…the more you look like me, the worse off your luck will be in finding boyfriends.

The Effects Of The Economy Are Starting To Hit Our Household In a Very Serious Manner

My theoretical “sweet tooth” is wearing black today. Mother’s Cookie Company, the makers of those fabulous Circus Animal Cookies has shut down. They will not be making those magnifantastically delicious cookies anymore. Can this really be? The English Tea Sandwich cookies are also a favorite of mine, the Peanut Butter Sandwich Cookies as well. What the hell is wrong with this country? Is this because we elected a black President? We can bailout AIG, Bear Stearns, and the rest of Wall St. including the Big Three car manufacturers but what about Mother’s Cookie Company? They’re an institution that’s been around longer than the automobile! What’s next Oreos?

I've amended this post due to BREAKING NEWS just posted on Google News...

It’s not that bad, news came out today that Kellogg Company has finalized a deal to buy Mother’s Cookies. Additionally they have plans to reintroduce the cookies sometime soon. But they better not alter one thing about that cookie. I'm going to be checking to make sure the shade of pink is of an exact hue and the sprinkles are the exact size and color scheme of the originals. If even one little thing is different, Tony the Tiger better grab his shank, because it's going to be war.

Sick Of It All

I’ve been feeling ill off and on for the past week. PJ’s been sick too, last night she kept waking up crying about how her ear hurting thereby hindering my ability to sleep more than 3 hours straight. I crawled into work late a half hour late today and have been holding my head in my hands most of the time. I’ve been racking my brain trying to get a water rate study and survey done for the past two hours and I just gave up. I’d rather sit here at my desk and write about being sick. This is by far my least productive morning in a long time, well, this month for sure-I know, it’s only December 3rd.

Holiday Profile

Thanksgiving is over and the Christmas crunch has begun. I fear this is the year that Laura explodes with “geekiness” over Christmas lights. Sure, I like Christmas lights and I enjoy walking around the neighborhood looking at them but Laura is a complete nerd when it comes to these lights. My enjoyment is supplemented a great deal by seeing Parker’s reaction to them. If Parker weren’t around I wouldn’t be much into them at all I think. But Laura is on a different planet when it comes to Christmas lights. She needs to start a support group to grieve with others during the rest of the year when Christmas lights aren’t up. I’m telling ya’ the girl is wacko for these lights. When she sees them she “lights up” like a “Christmas Tree”. I’m just glad she doesn’t want to go crazy with our house, we’re busy enough this time of year.

More pics

Parker Feeds Georgia

State of the Union

Random thoughts:

-It’s a very natural and instinctive idea of raising your child to be much like yourself. Unfortunately, I think people value that notion entirely too much and it’s best we get a good grasp of that realization sooner rather than later. Celebrate diversity…unless one of them aspires to be a cheerleader or a Republican.

-I did a lot of babysitting this weekend. Yes, it’s considered babysitting if it’s your own child, I don’t care what Laura says. I think Laura and I should be grateful for our two daughters. Parker isn’t even three yet and she’s a great helper when it comes to Georgia. She’s also very understanding of the attention that Georgia requires and doesn’t get jealous much. And another thing that strikes me is that Georgia does not cry when she wakes up from her nap. She just wakes up and waits for someone to come get her, so calm so patient for a little 4-month old baby.

-Georgia is trying to talk…a lot. She constantly makes noises like she’s exercising her vocal chords. She seems really into PJ, she always has an eye on her and just a couple nights ago she was laughing at her.

-Obama won, I will be ceasing all election-related pontifications.

-Parker went to Sunday School for the first time yesterday. She only got a C+, I don't think she prepared for the test.

Pic of the Week

This photo caught my eye.

Happy Halloween

Three Laws of Motion - Hijacked For My Pleasure

I think I’m being suckered. And this exercise in making Scott a sucker is quite the long-term version of “Punk’d”. I came upon this while driving to work and thinking about my own childhood and the personalities of my girls that are already coming to the forefront.

I spend an inordinate amount of time right now with the girls. Albeit, in a limited cognitive capacity (Parker’s 2 ¾ year old and Georgia just turned 4 months old), the amount of time I spend with the girls is still a major investment on my part. Usually it’s easy because I want to spend time with them but there’s always those times/days/moments when I my own agenda that doesn’t include their participation.

The scientific theory in which I posit is called the Powers’ Three Laws of Parenthood. Crafted in the spirit of Sir Isaac Newton’s three laws of motion, these laws are interrelated and provide a brief insight into what it is to be a parent.

First Law of Parenthood - "A body continues to maintain its state of rest or of uniform motion unless acted upon by an external unbalanced force."

This encapsulates what I’ve been writing in this blog for a long time. I was in a state of rest during the pre-children era of my existence. This age of existence was very much uniformed until tidalwave Parker hit my shores and thus, the external unbalanced force (my new pet name for PJ) known as parenthood began. The point of this law is to understand where we came from…remember “those who forget their past are condemned to repeat it”. This law enables parents to understand things from a macro level….the big picture and such. With that said, it must be stated that my participation in this “parenting endeavor” is miniscule in importance as compared to Laura’s.

Second Law of Parenthood - "F = ma: the net force on an object is equal to the mass of the object multiplied by its acceleration."

Simply put, the more psychological weight thrusted upon me multiplied by the velocity of stressful occurrences due to parenthood and other life choices equals the net force of interminable pain.

Third Law of Parenthood - "To every action there is an equal and opposite reaction."

These “actions” make up the emotional investment we parents put into our children on a daily basis for approximately the first 12 years of the child’s existence. The Powers’ Third Law of Parenthood states that the child’s first 12 years make up the most important part of their emotional development stage. It is during that period that their interdependencies and self-sustainment abilities are honed and perfected. The next twelve years is the timeframe in which those very qualities are used against you and your children become incredibly independent from you and actually prefer the company of others rather than yourself..supero omnia!

I can see it coming, there's no doubt about it. I'm sitting here investing my time into the development of these two girls thereby creating a very special father-daughter bond...then...I just know they're going to turn into teenage girls, deem that their life is not reliant on me (except for $$), then proceed to throw me on a sailboat and send me adrift somewhere in the Pacific Ocean. I need to be prepared for that kinda stuff now rather than later.

Women...they'll break your heart if you let 'em.

How Long To Sing This Song

Happy 40th Birthday to me.

I'm the first to admit that eclipsing the 40th year of my life is not really a memorable milestone. It's like when Roger Bannister broke the four minute mile...big deal, all he did was run a little bit faster than his predecessors which continually happens to this day. There's much more important milestones in my life that should carry more weight than turning 40. It's all relative right? I chose not to number these milestones because it would take entirely too much cognition to prioritize by importance.

MILESTONE: When it comes to milestones the first one that comes to mind is the birth of child number one. The progression from husband to husband and father is ten-fold-accompanied with all the future responsibility it bears. It impacts everything about your life and forces you to question what were your priorities before parenthood. Once birth occurs there's this enormous amount of responsibility, concern, pride, fear, and joy which engrosses your state of mind. Definitely a major milestone.

MILESTONE: Age 17, soundcheck at Moggs. I can still relive the memory, setting up my new Pearl World Series 7 piece drum set on the stage at Moggs and the sound engineer calls for a soundcheck on the drums. I sit down, hit some half notes on the bass drum and right at that point is where my memory is as clear as can be. The power, the concussion of hitting that bass drum was better than any drug, of that I am sure. From there I played my drums for about 10 to 15 minutes for the engineer to get some good levels and embraced the noise.

It was that memory which taught me later in life the importance of listening to the music. What I mean is that at that age I did not have the maturity to play drums to complement the music-at that age it was complexity multiplied by volume equals good drummer. It took a long time to realize the importance of listening to the song and determining if drums should be merely a support role for the greater good(musical socialism)…the song. Regardless, playing drums in that atmosphere is a memorable aphrodisiac.

MILESTONE: Finding the relationship of a lifetime. There are plenty of people out there who have all the attributes and desire to be with another person yet due to circumstances, they never meet that person or they do and fail to advance their interests. Finding that complement is truly something momentous. I remember going through that sort of introspective evaluation with regards to Laura. I didn’t put it to paper and write down the positives and negatives. It was much more of a progressive, organic process. But really I didn’t need to go through much internal debate on the matter. It was all pretty evident and real to me right from the start that we were going to be together for a long time. Simply put, the fact that I get to experience the rest of my life with Laura by my side is a very definitive milestone.

Our Girls

Parker is such a good big sister to Georgia. I was prepared for jealousy issues however Parker has not really shown any jealous behavior. She did compete for my attention a little in the beginning. But most of the time, Parker is very concerned for Georgia's well being. Often she'll tell me to go get the baby when she's crying. She likes to pick out Georgia's outfit every morning. When I need to get something done, I'll ask Parker to babysit and she'll talk to Georgia (about 2 inches from her face).

The Pop Cultural Divide

Fertilicious

There's Too Many Women In My Life. I never thought I would have to say something like that.

Being patient with children…sometimes an exercise in fertility…uh…..no….futility.

Having two kids really does teach one about oneself if you just step back for a minute and analyze your actions objectively and honestly. And let me tell you, it’s a lot harder than it seems! I’m still trying to come to terms with how testy I can be getting home from work and not being able to vegetate for thirty minutes on politics or baseball or whatever t.v. has to offer at 5:30 in the evening. I think it’s going to be a lot easier when the girls get older and are more self-sustaining with regards to how they spend their time, but maybe I’m just being naïve.

I’m the first to admit I’ve never been into children that much and I really didn’t take an interest in them until we had PJ. Now there’s days when all I’d like to do is spend time with her. It doesn’t take much to interest her, a simple game of kickball, or “hide and secret”, or her favorite game she calls “get yourself” which involves me chasing her around the backyard-not too cerebral of a game.

I see a time in the future when the fact that three girls living in a house is going to be just too much estrogen under one roof. I’ve never lived in a house with more than one girl in it. I’m not sure how I’m going to deal with the endless struggles for the bathroom before school and the fighting over clothes and the fact that once they’re teenagers I won’t matter…things like that.

Who Says We Haven't Evolved?

The above advertisement is by far my second most favorite ever! It's an ad for coffee! In my opinion this ad does not eclipse the ignominious "4 out of 5 doctors prefer Camel cigarettes" or

the ad that shows a smiling baby and a Marlboro box...those are in a class by themselves strinctly in the hypocrisy department. But in the sexist, male domination department, the above ad is number one. I salute you, days gone by". It's nice to see that you existed at one time. You're an effeective reminder that things have changed and that human beings do evolve culturally and morally...well at least in some respects.

And one more thing...STAY AWAY FROM GRANDPA!!"

A Wordle

This Wordle is from a short story I wrote a few years back. Try it...

http://wordle.net/create

Will The Last Responsible Republican Please Turn Out the Lights on Nov. 4th?

I don't know how anyone with a mind whose opinion is based on logic and intellect can support the notion of Bible Spice being employed in any capacity in the Executive Branch. I dare to say it's treason to support her as VP. No way is it in the best interest of the country to elect her as VP. This is a case of John McCain doubling down with an eight and the dealer has a face card showing. I do not believe that anyone who supports her is putting their country over their party...purely partisan move, and quite Bush-league I must say (pun intended).

Her debate last night showed her for the vapid, uninformed, anti-intellectual, Joanna six-pack, and logically defunct person she is. How can someone stand in front of the American people in the largest VP debate in history and say "I'm not concerned about the causes of climate change, I just want to find the solutions"??? If a rock keeps hitting me on the head, the solution will be in the cause-will it not? What or who is throwing the rock at me? Is it coming from a tree or building overhead? Am I thowing it at my own head? Perhaps if I just cut my head off this would no longer be a problem??

Thankfully Joe Biden was there to explain to some degree the vast complexities that this nation is facing and will face in the future. He looked like someone I could trust with our foreign policy and I haven't felt that way since 1999.

One thing is for sure, Cindy McCain has to be careful. John has a history of dumping his current wife for beauty pageant contestants. His first wife can speak to that.

Meow-ch

RE: Market freefall – Congress can’t pass a bailout bill. Total losers.

Today’s the day I looked at my 401k from seven years ago and have found that it’s worth $643 more than it’s original amount. At one point it was worth about $28,000 more but those were different times. Thankfully I don’t need to touch for another twenty years. I wonder how older people closer to retirement are panicked over this.

Random Thoughts on First Obama-McCain Debate

Well, they debated for the first time on 9/26. Interesting evening…

-“Festooned?”…nice job by McCain to stick that one in although it’s a phrase he’s used in the past so it’s not like he came up with it off the cuff or anything. “Festooned with Christmas Tree ornaments”…nice imagery.

-Can Obama say uh..uh..uh. a little more? He set himself up for the perfect soundbite when he attacked McCain on his original pro-Iraqi invasion stance in 2003 with the following; “John, you were wrong about us being greeted as liberators, you were wrong about there being weapons of mass destruction, and uh…uh….uh….uhhhh, you were wrong about the war paying for itself”

-McCain looked and acted like the curmudgeonly old man at the nursing home. Or maybe more like a post-Civil War plantation owner having his first conversation wtih his newly-freed slave…”look him in the eye John, look at him!”.

-You measure the importance of a war and your support of said war by the number of bracelets you have on and the dramatic impact of the story behind the reason you are wearing the bracelet.

The Marlboro Woman

I love these ads, I can't get enough of them. It shows that our society is evolving culturally as well as morally. Look at the sad baby. Look at the sad baby!! I don't understand what the ad's referring to..."Yes, you need never feel oversmoked"??Hmmmmmmmm......

Just a Matter of Priorities

How many times do we have to hear:
We don't have ENOUGH MONEY to fix Social Security.
We don't have ENOUGH MONEY to fix Medicare.
We don't have ENOUGH MONEY to provide health care to ALL Americans.
We don't have ENOUGH MONEY to help out Americans losing their homes.
We don't have ENOUGH MONEY to help all our veterans returning from war.
We don't have ENOUGH MONEY to rescue "no child left behind".

BUT...

We DO HAVE ENOUGH MONEY to bail out Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
We DO HAVE ENOUGH MONEY to bail out Bears Stearns.
We DO HAVE ENOUGH MONEY to bail out AIG.
We DO HAVE ENOUGH MONEY to quickly pass a plan that takes on over a trillion dollars of bad debt on Wall Street.
We DO HAVE ENOUGH MONEY to pay for an unnecessary TRILLION DOLLAR invasion and occupation of a sovereign country.

This is a serious case of income redistribution. The CEOs and “higher-ups” at these institutions received multi-million dollar payouts upon their exits but the people who could really use some assistance form the government get very little. Remember the big push in 2005 from the Conservatives was to private Social Security…imagine where we’d be if that happened.

We're living in strange times.

Please, Mr. Postman

I miss letters. Not that I ever received too many of them but I miss my address scrawled out on the envelope. The twenty-three-cent stamp voided with grill marks. The folded looseleaf and lines of blue script. Chatty paragraphs from pen pals or long-distance friends updating me on their lives. I's dotted with stars; T’s crossed with squiggly lines looking like a worm moving across a wooden stick on the beach; the vague scents of foreign places; the one-way conversation. I don't remember the last time I've received a letter, and I don't remember the last time I've written one. It seems like a relic of a bygone century now, a time when we'd condense months of information and thoughts and emotions into a few pages a maybe a picture. A time when my mailbox contained more than wedding invitations, birth announcements, introductory letters from mortgage brokers and credit cards, and that awe-inspiring color now known as “Netflix-Red” sitting in my mailbox. Between cellphones, email, Skype, text messaging, Gchat, Facebook, Twitter, myspace, and oh yeah, Blogger, it's still not difficult to remain detached from people who were once a large part of my life. We're all within reach now more than ever but it still takes an effort to remain connected. Remember those hand cramps you’d get from writing a lot? These days our hands are so out of shape I bet I couldn’t write a half a page before feeling the fatigue and strain in my left hand.

However, with communication being so immediate, we've lost the chance for our thoughts to stew and develop. Say goodbye to the poetry of distance. And with this immediate ability to communicate it remains an intriguing notion, look at text messaging-what are these people saying to each other? My guess is they’re saying very little but enjoying the means and context of having a conversation with a friend while being anywhere.

What's Happening?!?!?!?

Just a few things...

-Received this email from Laura yesterday.

"Georgia just rolled over from her back to her stomache when I wasn't looking. Wow!"

-Writing songs for a new Magnificent Fantastic cd...nothing I've come up with is very exciting or inspiring though.

-Parker is still in a bit of a regression stage with regards to being potty-trained. She has an accident about once a day. S

-She's got a pretty amazing memory too. I was cheating while reading her one of her books last night before she went to bed. I skipped 3 pages with out her noticing at the time. After the fact Laura ratted me out and told Parker what I did so Parker took the book and showed me two of the three pages I skipped. Pretty impressive stuff.

-I withdrew from the Oxnard PD Finance Manager position for several reasons. The main reason is stress management. I've got it good right now and don't want to lose working in a somewhat-relaxed environment. I don't want to go through, nor do I want to put my family through living with me while I'm working at a stressful job (like Raytheon). The grass is not always greener.

-

Life's A Beach

Last week we took a little trip to the beach with Julie, Ella, and Ethan.

Who Me?

Had a mini-professional epiphany yesterday as I was being interviewed for the Oxnard Police Department Financial Manager position. First of all, I was surprised I was even there to begin with. I recall during the first interview I was incredibly close to not even going, then when I showed up at Human Resources and took a look at my competition I was close to leaving then. All these older men in suits talking to each other about their positions as CFO or Business Manager or some young good-looking fellow that just graduated from USC with an MBA. I was close to leaving…I was almost embarrassed to walk into that interview. I knew I wasn’t qualified for the position but I decided to stick it out and at least get some more interviewing experience.

Finally an interview where the questions seemed to be tailored to what I wanted to say. I brought up a lot of items in my opening monologue that ended up being part of the prepared questions they were going to ask me. Things such as tending analysis, incorporating seasonality into a budget, as well as my experience in marrying the operational to the financial aspects of budgeting and forecasting. It turns out I was second out of nine, therefore I made it to the next round of interviews.

So back to my mini-epiphany. I’m in the second interview yesterday listening to the Chief of Police tell me about how I’d be essentially at the level of Commander in the Oxnard Police Department and I get this immediate internal reaction…kind of like a mental earthquake. Me? A Commander in the Oxnard PD? Do I really want this? Is the grass going to be greener working here? I don’t know but part of me was hoping I come out number two in this process. It would make things much easier. I was just pleasantly surprised to be two of nine.
One must always be careful of what they wish for.

Sea Squirt the Booey

Parker started calling her blanket "Sea Squirt" the other day. She also refers to her blanket as "her". "I love her. Her so lovely."

Part of Parker's nightly bedtime ritual is to say a prayer. Parker really enjoys this. It's a time to reflect on the day and think about the things we're grateful for. Sometimes Parker gets off on a tangent, for example, for the last month she's said "Dear God, thank you for this day, thank you for my Paba...." and then she'll pause and wait for her dad or I to say, "What's a Paba"? To which she responds gleefully, "It has wings on it's nose and flaps on it's toes and a knot on it's toe". This was cute at first but I'm trying to redirect her back to what a prayer should be about.

The other night, Parker started in on a line of questioning beginning with "where is God?". Being that I wasn' t prepared to answer this question in terms a two year old could understand I reverted to some very cliche' answers. I told her that God was in heaven which made her in turn ask where heaven was. I told her it was up in the clouds and that God could see down from there and watch over us. She asked me "what is heaven?". I thought for a moment and thought well, heaven can be different things to different people, perhaps each persons idea of paradise is what they will experience when they are in heaven. So I proceeded to tell Parker that heaven is place you go when you die and it's filled with jolly jumpers where you can have lollipops for every meal. She asked me who was there and I told her other people are there. She then said, "Will you go there with me?" I felt like crying when she said this because the idea of being apart from Parker, even after death broke my heart.....I knew that even though Parker will grow up some day, she will always be my little girl. I had this flash that my heaven very well could be having my Parker as a two year old forever.

After my answers seemed to satisfy her we proceeded to say a prayer. Parker said something to the effect of, "Dear God, thank you for this day....and thank you for heaven and please help us not to die, but if we die we'll go to heaven and there's lots of people there and I can have lollipops and go in the jumpers!". As she said this her eyebrows raised up and she got very excited. I felt a little worried that I hadn't explained things properly, but I didn't know what else to say at the time. Hopefully as she grows she'll accept amendments to the image of heaven I created.

At Home With Parker and Georgia

Wake Up America

Unfortunately, Dennis Kucinich's "Wake Up America" speech a couple of nights ago at the 2008 DNC Convention didn't get any play in the "liberal" media. This should've been the keynote speech, Bob Casey's speech was as exiciting as David Brinkley on Ambien.

Recent Pics

In my dream last night I walked into Tower Records in San Francisco and a techno version of “Come Poo Poo Come” was playing inside the record store.

The Perpetual Debate

Inspired by the McCain/Obama “Saddleback Forum” (a presidential forum at a mega church held on August 16th), I’ve found myself internally tackling yet again the first and foremost topic of the forum…abortion. Obama has been getting a lot of flak for showing a “nuanced” answer with regards to the grand abortion question which to me shows that his cerebral cortex is still struggling with a clear, concise opinion. He stated that the answer is something scientists and theologians have been struggling with for a long time and the answer is “above his pay grade”. This brought up the question…is it the President’s job to legislate morality? Yet another “nuanced” question…I’m glad that things aren’t as simple as McCain claims it to be. Life is too complex to be simplified for the masses.

So when does a life begin? I think conception/the fertilized egg is a reasonable answer. However, when is it morally acceptable to abort? I believe there’s a vast difference between a fertilized egg and a six month-old fetus (organ development, brain activity, etc…). That doesn’t make it any easier answering the question.

Christians have championed the notion of conception being the point where all rights are bestowed and a person exists. Regardless of how simplistic that might sound, it is reasonable. What isn’t reasonable is the inconsistency of their respect for human life in the abortion debate. They lose their conviction when an American F-16 causes the death of thousands of innocent civilians (collateral damage) including pregnant Iraqi women, that’s not abortion, the pregnant women’s death was the product of a greater good. You would think Christian Republicans would be of a more peaceful ilk. Invading sovereign nations who did nothing to provoke this country is hardly a Christian moral.

I would never let a loved one get an abortion (unless rape/incest is involved). But it's the legal right to abortion is what's up for debate, not abortion itself. And believe it or not, 65% of the population think Roe v. Wade is acceptable. Even if it was overturned that just gives specific state the right to make it illegal.

Here's an example of how words can really muddy up the debate that's at hand. This is from an article I read in the Washinton Post August 20th, 2008.

"On paper, this campaign looks fairly standard. Obama, an Illinois Democrat, is staunchly in favor of abortion rights, while McCain, an Arizona Republican, has compiled a solid record over four Senate terms of opposing abortion. "

What it should've said...

"On paper, this campaign looks fairly standard. Obama, an Illinois Democrat, is staunchly in favor of abortion rights, while McCain, an Arizona Republican, has compiled a solid record over four Senate terms of opposing abortion rights."

Now FoxNews would report it as such...

"Obama, an Illinois Democrat, is staunchly in favor of abortion."

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A couple more Parker Word Jumbles...

"Plablo" - the name of a Backyardigan character
"Garella Bar" - granola bar
"Memolade" - lemonade
"Napsticks" - gymnastics