Thursday, 15 November 2012

Today we tried to make progress on Isla’s room. I took the day off from work and so, once Owen was at school and Isla was at her baby-sitter, we had the place to ourselves. We managed to get a second coat of paint on everything.

Of course, we broke for lunch. There’s an awesome Thai food restaurant about three blocks from our house. We’d only been there once before, but we really liked it. Since the best time to go to a restaurant is when our kids aren’t with us, we felt it was our duty to take a lunch break at a dining establishment.

After lunch, we accomplished a little more work in Isla’s room. Then Jennifer had to go pick up our daughter, and I had to get to class.

This evening, Owen assisted me in getting another coat of paint on the wall in the basement (which, believe it or not, actually helps us complete Isla’s room).

This weekend we plan to do more painting, and I’m gonna install a closet in the basement so I can remove my clothing from Isla’s room. Wish us luck.

Friday, 17 November 2012

This evening, the four of us sat down to watch a movie together. It is extremely difficult to find a movie that all of us will enjoy, so this doesn’t happen to often. I mean, we all sit down together on Wednesday and Sunday nights to watch the latest episodes of Survivor and The Amazing Race, but this isn’t ideal. For one thing, many of the commercials during the shows depict graphic violence and upsetting imagery. I’m not opposed to my kids seeing violence on TV (to an extent, of course), but these images really bother Owen. So we have to be on guard to change the channels. Also, Isla really couldn’t care less about the shows, so often our TV hour devolves into a scramble to keep Isla quiet and entertained.

Anyway, this evening we watched Winnie the Pooh. The one that came out last year (not the one from 1977). It has no scary imagery and, at 63 minutes long, it’s scarcely longer than a TV show, so that works for Isla.

I’m happy to report that the film was quite good. My wife complained of it being a little boring, which, I guess, it was. I pointed out to her that we weren’t the target audience. Of course, the best in “children’s’ films” is entertaining for adults, too (think: WALL-E), so this wasn’t in that stratosphere. But nor was it roll-your-eyes stupid fare that, in my opinion, is almost insulting to kids. There have been a few films like that – where I sat down to watch them with Owen, shook my head in disgust, then quickly packaged it up and whisked it back to Netflix. This movie was waaay better than that.

The film is very much in keeping with the spirit of Disney’s 1977 foray into the Hundred Acre Woods. The animation is hand-drawn. The characters interact directly with the text of Milne’s novels (e.g., piglet slams into a sentence and bounces off some words), and a narrator not only sets the scenes, but nudges the characters along.

Despite the short run time (at one minute shorter than Dumbo, it is the third-shortest film on my list of motion pictures I’ve seen), there are several interwoven plots: the gang is worried that Christopher Robin has been abducted by a scary monster, Eeyore has lost his tail and needs help finding it, and most of the characters fall into a hole that they dug. And, of course, Pooh is trying to obtain hunny (honey). It’s funny, witty, and poignant.  I’m kind of baffled that this wasn’t nominated for Best Animated Picture at this year’s Oscar ceremony, especially since Rango, a marginally logical welter, won the prize. But I have many issues with the Oscar selection process, so…whatever.  If you have kids under 10, this would make a great family flick to rent. Two of the extras include a short Pooh film, and a non-related story about the Loch Ness Monster. Both are also fun and appropriate.

Saturday, 17 November 2012

This morning, Owen and I went to the U of M along with a couple of his schoolmates (and their dad). The U’s College of Science and Engineering held a family day today.

Owen and I went to this last year, too, so there was quite a bit of repeating. This time we attended a presentation called “Energy and U,” which was fun primarily for the fact that the presenters blew stuff up about ten times. Owen thought the highlight was the five second clip from Star Wars where Luke blows up the Death Star using lasers.

We also went into the Exploradome. This is a big, blow-up contraption where you have to lay on the floor and you look up at the “sky” while they zoom you around the solar system and the galaxy.

This was my third time in the Exploradome. I first visited it when they paid a visit to my job (since my employer helps pay for the thing, they kind of owed us), and then again at an astronomy fest Owen and I attended in early 2010. It’s well worth the visit – if the Exploradomw is ever coming to your local school or library, take you kid. Or just go yourself if you don’t have any kids. It’s fascinating. Find out more here: CLICK THIS. Oh, and bring a pillow.

Sunday, 18 November 2012

More painting today. Actually, only Jennifer painted, as I tried to keep the kids entertained and out of her hair. I think some of the woodwork is now done being painted, although some of it will require another coat. Though I am a fan of colder, snowier Novembers, I am pleased that the past several days have been warm enough to keep the windows open to allow for venting of the fumes.

In a related story, I purchased and assembled a closet for the basement. Owen helped, too. This evening, I made a few trips from Isla’s room carrying my clothes downstairs. Having my clothes downstairs has the added bonus of being right next to the bathroom. Until now, I’ve had to grab my clothes for work the next day and carry them downstairs each evening and set them on the bathroom counter. If I forgot to do this, I’ve had to verrry quietly go into Isla’s room in the early morning and feel around for clothes, or use a flashlight and risk waking her up. No more. Starting tonight, I no longer have to pick out clothes the night before. Tomorrow morning I will wake up, go downstairs, and pick out clothes with the lights on and without having to tiptoe around. Yay for me.

The next step is to get the built-in closet out of Isla’s room. So…if you’re in the market for some closet shelving, now would be an opportune time to let me know.

Wednesday, 14 November 2012

I spent my lunch break today being interviewed, via telephone, on the Jesse Lee Peterson Radio Show. This is a very conservative talk show, with major markets in the Deep South. Peterson advocates for man’s rights (and I agree, more people should champion them)…at the expense of gender equality (here I disagree, obviously). My essay, “Losing My Head,” appeared online at Patheos recently, and evidently the show’s producers read it and thought I would make an intriguing guest.

Peterson was quite amazed that I don’t believe in gods. He asked me to clarify if I don’t believe in God, or if I don’t believe there is a god. I had to pause to consider the subtle difference here, but then concluded both statements were correct. He asked about my background as a Jehovah’s Witness, and I mentioned the stress and pressure of being a man in that religion. I figured that would appeal to his listeners. Peterson seemed to conclude from this that I left the religion due to the pressure. This, of course, isn’t true. I left the religion, not because of the stress, but because it isn’t true.

He then asked if atheists do believe in things, since they believe there is no god. I told him that many god-believers try to catch atheists on this, as if to say, “see, you do believe in something!” but that this is silly, because the word “atheist” simply implies the person does not believe in god. I compared it to belief in Santa. Non-belief in Santa is, I guess, a belief. But so what?

Peterson asked more about me abdicating my headship (as I discuss in my essay), and he seemed to feel that I stopped being the head of my house because I didn’t like the pressure. Yeah…I agreed with him…I suppose that’s part of it. But it was also stupid. He tried to uncover reasons why I didn’t want to be the head of my wife: Was my father a poor head? Did he set a bad example? Is my wife like my mom? My conclusion pretty mcuh was that my marriage is just fine without me being the head and, barring any evidence that he might present (and he didn’t), I had no reason to change back. At one point, he asked me if I have forgiven my mom for being insane. I laughed for several seconds, first because I’m not sure where he got that idea from, nor why he thought my mom would require forgiveness if, indeed, she was insane. The only remarks I had made about my mom were that she was not as calm and logical as my dad, and that she is nothing like my wife. Both statements are true…and neither one means she’s insane. He also said my wife can’t look up to me if I’m not her head, but I said I disagreed and I said we both look up to each other. He said my marriage has two presidents. I laughed an said, “No, we are co-collaborators.”

The best part of the show, though, is when a thickly-accented Mississippian called in and told me I should believe in God because the Mississippi River doesn’t run out of water. When I explained that the water cycle is very well understood and, even if it wasn’t, that wouldn’t mean the Christian God existed, he went on a five minute rant (separated in two by commercial break) saying that god cursed Adam for not having his wife in subjection and now there are no apple or peach trees growing on the side of the road. The host cut him off and I had no time to respond. Though I don’t think a rebuttal concerning artificial selection would have made any impact on the man. Peterson thanked me for being on his show, made some remark about Nancy Pelosi and the other congresswomen being a sign of the fall from Eden, and said goodbye.

In the afternoon, I headed over to the Church of the Open Door, a heterosexist enclave in the suburb where I work. My company held an all-employee meeting there today. I was first greeted with this enormous phallus (at right). Despite the name of the church, I was forced to get the door for myself when I walked in. One of the speakers referred to the voice-overs on the videos as “the voice of god.” A patient interviewed during one portion of the program looked up and apologized to god for merely thinking about a bad word. I think the word was “fucked,” but I’ll never know for sure. After explaining how the doctors, and our products, had saved his life, he said that someone “up there” must want him to live a little longer. Which, I thought, was a slap in the face to all the people who actually helped him survive. All in all, I was rather disgusted to be in the church, and even more disgruntled at the several references to a deity.

This evening, my wife told me about this story, of a woman who died in a Catholic hospital in Ireland when the staff refused to abort her dying fetus. The woman’s husband works for the same compant I do. Read it, and be disgusted. I hope everyone involved is removed from their positions, though I know this is unlikely given the we-do-no-wrong mentality of hospitals in general, and the overwhelming Catholic stench emanating from Ireland.

All in all, I’d say it was a pretty religious day. It’s fun to be on the outside of such a shared neurosis, but an overdose like this makes me ill.

Monday, 12 November 2012

This weekend, I found out my forthcoming book now has a Facebook page. I guess that’s pretty much what you have to do nowadays to advertise anything. So, HERE IT IS. If you like to read this blog, then please click “like” on that Facebook page, too. I assume it will be periodically updated with news and information about my book. Be sure to tell your friends and family about the book, too. (As you can tell, I’m really bad at promoting my book.)

I’ve also been dilligently striving to edit the final third of the book. The earlier portions of the book necessitated a greated number of edits, but most of them were easy…take out this paragraph, move this sentence over here, shorten this dialogue… But now I’m really struggling to come up with the best compromises and fixes here. My plan is to complete the edits and send them back over the Thanksgiving break, during which time I will have four straight days off of work and no homework. Wish me luck.

In other news, I came across this video today of a GOP poll watcher reporting from a Colorado precinct:

Meanwhile, Charles Darwin scored 4,000 votes against incumbant Broun in Georgia’s 10th Congressional District. I guess, when your other choice is a creationist, Darwin is the natrual selection.

Tuesday, 14 November 2012

So, one matter we need to care for in regards my daughter’s room is the large closet fixture in the room. Five months ago, we sold two-thirds of the closet space, but we still have one-third remaining. I use it for my clothes.

So our first plan was to just move that closet down into the basement. Makes perfect sense, really, becuase the bathroom, where I take a shower every morning, is downstairs. However, the ceiling isn’t high enough for this large closet fixture to fit.

We thus put the closet for sale on Craig’s List. No offers yet. Well, no reasonable offers yet.

Today, we went to IKEA to buy a new closet for the basement. No luck. This marks, like, the ten thousandth time I’ve gone into a store prepared to buy something(s) and left empty-handed. Every closet they had for sale was either too big, too expensive, or (surprise!) too crappy. Jennifer suggested I build my own closet space in the basement, which would be great if the combined total of the lumber and hardware didn’t exceed the cost of most closets.

So, for now, we’re in a holding pattern regarding the future of my clothing. As for Isla’s room, the closet fixture will remain in her room until we absolutely need to remove it, if it hasn’t sold by then.

Thursday, 08 November 2012

My class this semester is now two-thirds done.

As happens in nearly every class at Hamline, the syllabus schedule has gotten messed up, and the professor is now, as they say, “playing cath-up. I have five arrows on my syllabus showing where certain essays and books are to be relocated to other dates, and it’s quite confusing.

Today, everyone showed up for class not having read the two essays were we supposedly to have read. Only one student read the essays (not me), and when the professor asked for an explanation, I pointed out my arrows, which I drew at her direction about three weeks ago. She acquiesced after that, rearranged the next couple of days, and then moved ahead with class.

This is the point in the semester – and it happens every semester – when I begin to count down the days until it’s over.

In other news: We may have a 51st state soon.

In still other news: Isla is twenty-seven months old.

Friday, 09 November 2012

 After picking up Owen from school this afternoon, we first went to the corner drug store. We do this every Friday after school. There’s a parking lot on the opposite side of the street from the store, and I pull right in there and get a spot everytime.

The first time I took him to that store after school (in early 2011), I had no idea where to park. I turned left to be by the store’s front door, but there is only on-street parking there, and all three spots were taken. So then I drove around the block, first by trying to cut down an alley (which was blocked), then by going all the way around the block and trying to find a spot. Again, I couldn’t. So then I went around two blocks, and tried to find a spot. That time, I succeeded, but I had to wedge in to a tight spot and then, since it was winter, I had to help Owen get out on a busy street and up over a snow mound.

But now I know right where to go.

After going to the drug store, we drove to Ace Hardware. This is another place on a busy street with limited parking. The way it’s set up, I first drive past the store. About fifty feet beyond the store, I can almost always find on-street parking. If not, I go around the block, cut down an alley, and use Ace’s tiny parking lot, which usually has one or two spaces available.

Anyway, I just want to say that I think it’s great that, after over four years in this city, I am finally able to secure good parking at my frequent haunts with little difficulty.

Don’t ask me about Grand Ol’ Day, though. I’m not going there.

Saturday, 10 November 2012

Today we began, in ernest, to get Isla’s room ready for her to live in. Her crib has been in the room for months, but her room is still more of a closet than a room, and we hardly ever go in there except to lay her down to sleep at night.

Today we moved almost everythign out of the room. My clothes, which hang on the closet unit in the room, we covered with a blanket. Then we started sanding all the wood on the window frames. I removed all the molding and sanded that, too.

Thankfully, it was an unseasonably warm day (over 65 degrees), so we had the windows open and a box fan pointing out, blowing out all the dust from sanding.

In fact, it was such a nice day that I took the kids to the park – sans jakcets! – while Jennifer completed the sanding work. Our plan is to paint the trim and molding tomorrow.

Sunday, 11 November 2012

…But, unfortunately, it’s too cold to paint today. There’s about a 30 degree temperature drop today. Jennifer painted approximately 5% of one window fixture and then called it quits. The air was too cold with the windows open, and we can’t paint with them closed.

Of course, we try to get low-VOC paint, but that wasn’t an option for the windows. A look at the forecast shows the weather will warm up a bit again in the last half of this upcoming week, so we’re gonna try our darnest to get the VOC stuff on the wood by then.

I did make some progress on Isla’s room today (besides the tiny bit of painting): I installed an electrical outlet. Until today, there was just a box with wires sitting inside it. The previous owner had palstered that entire wall with closets and drawers, so it made sense for him to remove the outlet. But we sold that section of closet and, yesterday, I bought a new outlet cover.

I ran into the basement, shut off the two fuses labeled “Bedrooms,” then set to work installing the new outlet. It really was no trouble, and everything proceeded quite smoothly. As I was finishing up and screwing the outlet to the wall, Jennifer came in and flipped on the light switch. I stopped what I was doing and said, “Hm… it’s a little disconcerting that I shut off the power in this room and you just turned on the light.” She asked if I had checked to see if the power was dead before proceeding. I said no (or something like that). I then reached over and grabbed the box fan’s cord, and plugged it into the new outlet. It worked! Yay! And I didn’t electrocute myself in the process! I’m so proud of me!

Wednesday, 07 November 2012

Here’s a fact relating to yesterday’s elections that I haven’t seen reported anywhere else: President Obama has now become the third consecutive president to win reelection.

Has that ever happened before?

Yes. It happened once before. Or maybe twice. Or maybe thrice. Let me explain…

Way, way back in 1820, President James Monroe won reelection. He had been president since 1817, and he would continue to serve in that role until 1825. He succeeded James Madison to the Presidency. Madison, likewise, won – and served – two terms. And for those of you old enough to remember, Madison had succeeded Thomas Jefferson. Jefferson served two terms: from 1801 to 1809.

So here we have an unambiguous case of three Presidents in a row winning reelection: Jefferson, Madison, and Monroe.

Now let’s move forward in time to 1892.

In that election, Grover Cleveland won the election over incumbent Benjamin Harrison, and he thus became our 24th President. But…he was also our 22nd President. So he was reelected, even though his two terms were not consecutive. 

In 1897, Cleveland stepped aside for William McKinley to become Commander-in-Chief. McKinley was reelected in 1900. About a year later, McKinley died from an asssassin’s bullets (well, he probably died from gross medical incompetance, but that’s another story), and Theodore Roosevelt became President. In 1904, Roosevelt was reelected. Well, sort of. McKinley, left, discusses with Rosevelt his preference for not crossing his legs.

He had not won election to the Presidency before, but he was the President, and the electorate of 1904 put him back in the White House.

So here we have Cleveland-McKinley-Roosevelt: three consecutive Presidents who all won a Presidential election after having already been President. Does this count as three consecutive Presidents winning reelection? I don’t think so…but you can see why the situation is muddied.

We have a similar, but more clear-cut case in 1956. Franklin Roosevelt won reelection in 1944, then Harry Truman (who succeeded to the Presidency following Roosevelt’s death) won the election in 1948, and then Dwight Eisenhower secured reelection in 1956. So here we have three consecutive Presidents who all served more than one term…even thought Truman wasn’t really reelected.

“Sure,” says President Truman, left, to Dwight Eisenhower, “everyone likes you…but what about your choice for Vice President?”

So, there you have it: Clinton-Bush-Obama. The first bona fide reelection triumvirate since 1825. Sort of.