Who Killed The Electric Car?

I just watched this movie and I'm so pissed off.

Why are we not all driving electric cars by now?? There are SO many good reasons that we should: the environment, dependence on foreign oil, gas prices, health issues and perhaps most importantly is that we would be able to shape foreign policy based on what's best for Americans instead of what's best for the petroleum industry.

Everyone should watch this movie and then go buy an electric car (if you can find one) or at least a hybrid.

rut row... he's in trouble

Concert Ticket = Dance Lesson

I just realized the cost of one concert ticket = the cost of dance lessons for one month for one kid.

Van Halen is starting their tour in Charlotte on Sept 27.

Bush's Brain

Regarding the impact of Karl Rove's departure from Bush's White House:

"At the risk of sounding a bit too shrill (President Bush) goes from lame duck to lame brain."

-- James Moore, co-author of:
Bush's Brain: How Karl Rove Made George W. Bush Presidential

A Day at the Beach

One of the people in my office was on vacation last week, so I had no time for random thoughts. My brain is just now catching up.

First things first -- I have a friend who works for the MDA (Muscular Dystrophy Association) in Charlotte who is looking for volunteers to help with the telethon on Labor Day Weekend. They need people to work the phones, etc. If you are interested, please email me or leave a comment and I will put you in touch w/ my friend.

The weather report said we are done (for now) with the temps in the 100's. Yay. I never thought I would be excited about 93 degrees.

Had dinner with Matt & Michele Friday night at Red Robin in Ballantyne. They have good burgers but it's not a good place to go if you want a quiet dinner. It is however a good place to go if you want to hear the Happy Birthday Song five times. The Finnster is 10 months old!

Had dinner at Jen's & Joey's Saturday night. The food was incredible but we were surrounded by evil princesses. Debi and I discovered we like dates (the food, not the mating ritual). Got to see the progress on Jen's kiln. It's way cool. I can't wait to see the finished product and the pots that come out of it.

I tried to throw some mugs today. It seems I was not in the zone. Everything I threw was a disaster. I think the problem was that my clay was too hard. Well, that's my story anyway. I decided to just move on to other things. I made handles for some mugs I threw a few days ago. Even that went a little wonky. Of the four handles I made, only one of them seemed to be just right. Some days it doesn't pay to get out of bed.

I finally got around to updating our football pool for the new season. For those unfamiliar, it is quite an impressive spreadsheet (MATT, WAKE-UP). To all the pool parts - I emailed it today. Let me know if you didn't get the email.

The girls wanted to take an imaginary trip to the beach today. Although it was a chilly 93 degrees, Debi and I joined them. It was quite a site -- the four of us in their little blow-up pool in the back yard. I'm REALLY glad there were no paparazzi around.

Debi and I realized we missed another presidential debate on TV this week. Even Tivo can't keep up with these debates. Anyone know where I can find a schedule of debates that will be televised?

I think we're going to the arts & crafts festival in Blowing Rock this coming weekend. I hear it's a pretty good festival (and Jen will have a booth there selling her "puffy tiles"). Anyone want to come with?

No ranting about world events for now. I'm way too relaxed after a day at the beach w/ the kids.

Peace, Pottery & Heat

Debi and the girls have been in Louisiana all week - it's been very peaceful but almost a little unnerving. I guess you get used to the pandemonium. I miss my girls and I'm glad they're coming home tomorrow!

I haven't thrown anything in a few weeks so I was happy to have some time to putz w/ pottery while they were gone. I know Jen says that every potter is his/her own worst critic, but in my case, it's all true. My mugs seem to come out too big or too small or too heavy or uneven on the top, or just oddly shaped. And don't EVEN get me started on the handles. Good thing class will be starting up again in a few weeks. Anyway, I managed to make 12 mugs over the weekend. It will be interesting to see if any of them are usable after being glazed & fired.

The temperature outside is currently 95 degrees. With the heat index, I'm guessing it's about 159. This global warming thing seems more real every day...

Remember when?

We celebrated the birthday of a friend of mine at work today. We were having cake and chatting when the conversation turned to the crazy things we used to do when we were younger. No one 'fessed up to anything majorly embarrassing (we were at work after all), but the question, "when was the last time you were naked in public?" did come up.

Not like streaking or flashing. Just like skinny-dipping and such.

What I want to know is exactly when did I transition from doing fun & crazy things to talking about when I used to do fun & crazy things? I suspect it was sometime in 2001. C'est la vie.

One day before I die though, I will return to Concord, CA to see a very dear friend of mine run naked through the sprinklers of the ball field on Cowell Road.

Design Dilemma

What would a chair look like if your knees bent the other way?

How do we get out of this mess in Iraq?

I heard on the radio on this morning that Britain is pulling their troops out of Northern Ireland. When the troops first went into Northern Ireland in 1969, they thought it was going to be just a few weeks. It’s been 38 years. If the Protestants & Catholics in Ireland can keep a feud going for that long, just imagine how long the Shiites & Sunnis can keep it going. I don’t want the US to be still fighting this civil war in Iraq 38 years from now.

Not to belittle the progress in Northern Ireland… it’s great news that they have agreed to settle their remaining differences peacefully & diplomatically. I’m sure Bono was behind it. Maybe someday there will be a united Ireland.

Breaking News

Click here for the full story: Cheney’s Battery Replaced; Bush Sworn in as Temporary President

Key West Sunset

Edie & Sharon are going to Key West in a few days and I was telling Edie about the sunset:

It feels as if time is standing still and you can almost hear the sizzling when the sun drops into the ocean. The Key West sunset is the most beautiful I’ve ever seen. I’ve seen lots of sunsets in lots of places, but none were quite as spectacular. I think it’s because everyone stops whatever they are doing to enjoy it. You know how they say that beauty is in the eye of the beholder? Well, I think there are so many people beholding the sunset at one time that it multiplies the beauty of it.

Wow. I just went there for a few minutes in my mind. It was a great trip; therapeutic even.

Someone should write a self-help book and call it:
Let Your Troubles Set With The Sun: The Key West Relaxation Method.

TGIF

This has been one long, miserable week and I'm glad it's over.

You can't change the past

"You can't change the past, but you can ruin the present by worrying about the future." --source unknown

Sometimes I wish I could change the past, but I don't allow myself to devote too much mental energy to that topic. I do spend a good bit of time worrying about the future though. I think it's safe to say that I never worried about the future before having kids. Now, I worry about their future well-being & happiness, paying for college and saving for our retirement just to name a few. I guess it's all part of being grown up. I have to remind myself occasionally not to ruin the present.

One Day at a Time

"I try to take one day at a time -- but sometimes several days attack me at once."

Debi sent this to me. It accurately describes how I feel about Mondays.

Spyware shmyware

Somehow over the course of the past week, we've managed to get our computer infected w/ some really vicious spyware that's like your crazy Uncle Joe at the holiday party -- it just won't go away.

So you're thinking, "wow, is this some new bionic spyware that can get past a modern anti-virus/anti-spyware/firewall applicaiton?" No, it's not. I'm an idiot. We werent' protected. We've been practicing unsafe computing. Now you're thinking, "Scott, YOU? Didn't you know better??" The answer of course, is yes, I did know better, but I procrastinated.

When I replaced our primary hard drive a few months ago, I couldn't find the old anti-virus application and was anxious to get the PC back up and running, so I skipped that step thinking I would get back to it in short order. I didn't.

It's pretty amazing that we went this long without any problems really. Once infected it's nearly impossibly to get rid of spyware. I decided my time was best spent reformatting the hard drive versus trying to eradicate the evil monster. It seems I have reformatted the hard drive so many times that I've pretty much got it down to a science now. So, I'm in the process of getting everything reloaded and reconfigured. A pain to be sure, but not nearly as much of a pain as the ULTRA-ANNOYING spyware.

The moral of this story boys & girls?? Don't compute unprotected. Get yourself a decent anti-virus/anti-spyware/firewall application. It's worth the money.

Home Repair

It's really unfortunate that stuff has to break at your house. I know owning your own home is smarter financially, but I sure do miss the days when I could just pick up the phone and tell the landlord the ice maker is busted, please send someone to fix it right away.

Dilbert

At first I could not climb

"One day I went to the mountain alone. At first I could not climb; I lay flat on my face on the slope with the sensation that I was being completely absorbed by the earth. When I took the first steps up the slope, I had the physical sensation of walking with tremendous effort in some matter as thick as mud. Gradually, however, it all became easier, and in a few days I was able to negotiate jumps. I could climb vertical walls as easily as any goat. I very seldom got hurt, and I realized the possibility of a very subtle understanding, which I had not perceived before. Finally, I managed to take no false steps and to wander around quite easily among the rocks."
—Leonora Carrington

I stumbled upon this when looking up Mary Anna's quote -- the source said it addresses "getting stuck and pushing forward in artmaking." I agree this is an excellent metaphor for overcoming artist's block; it could just as easily describe tackling any task which at first seems insurmountable.

Art, Design, Craft

Mary Anna shared this with me:

"In all object making, that aspect which relates to it's conceptual interpretation is Art, that which relates the object to an intended purpose is Design and the quality of it's execution is Craft."
- Hella Basu

Has it been a year?

Wow. I was preoccupied by other things and before I knew what happened, a whole year zipped by. I won't attempt to recount ALL the things I've done in the past year lest you stick a pencil in your eye to avoid having to read it.

Here are some highlights:

• We just got back from a week-long vacation in Kissimmee, FL (aka Disney World). The kids had an AMAZING time. It was hot, crowded and expensive. Debi and I greatly enjoyed their sense of wonder at the whole thing. We hit most of the quintessential Disney attractions, but we let them decide what they wanted to see & do for the most part. It was nice visiting with Debi's family (brother-in-law Danny proposed to Sabrina) and great to see Zack (all the way from CA) again and meet his girlfriend, Jessica! I'll post some photos later.
• After leaving Orlando, I met my Aunt Ruby and her husband, Art, for the first time. Cool people. Enjoyed getting to meet them. Hope to see them again soon.
• Isabel performed in a York County Ballet production of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. She was a diamond. Very cute.
• Isabel completed her first year of school. She really loved kindergarten. She had a great teacher, who seemed to really "get it."
• Amelia was accepted for a K4 program for next year, but we haven't decided yet if we're going to send her or wait for her to start with K5.
• I've taken a couple of pottery classes w/ my friend & expert potter, Jen Mecca at Clayworks in Charlotte. First thing you need to know about pottery - it's very cool to make something useful out of mud. Now that I think about it, making pottery is a LOT like raising kids: once you try it you realize it's not as easy as you thought it was, it can be frustrating at times, you make a lot of mistakes along the way, if you work hard and care about what you're doing you can and will learn from your mistakes, you will eventually get it right and the end result will be worth all of the effort. I'm still a novice. I've made a couple of bowls that I'm not ashamed to bring out for company, but my mugs are mostly hiding on a shelf in the garage. I hope to get some time to practice this summer to improve me mugs.
• Got to babysit Finn a bit while mommy & daddy were also taking pottery classes. It was great to have a baby around again. Also very cool to be able to talk pottery w/ Matt & Michele.
• Niece Tiffany graduated from High School (WOO HOO) and is preparing to join the Marine Corps band in the fall. I'm nervous & excited for her. Nervous b/c of the war (hopefully they don't send the band into combat) and excited for the incredible adventure she is about to embark upon. Going out on one's own is an awakening. The discipline, comraderie, training, boot camp, meeting people with a wide variety of experiences and being sent to the far flung corners of the world (hopefully) are going to be AMAZING for her.
• Long-time friends, Valerie & Steve moved from FLA to York a few months ago on their way (eventually) to a nice mountain get-away near Asheville. I hope it takes them a few more years to finish their place in the mountains as I'm rather enjoying having them here.
• Whatever's left, I'll save for another time.

Later gator.