Fake Empire

On my playlist these days: Fake Empire by The National. It was used in Obama's Signs of Hope & Change video sans lyrics - but I'm thinking it might have been chosen because of the lyrics. Hmm... (Good work Obama campaign.)

Stay out super late tonight
picking apples, making pies
put a little something in our lemonade and take it with us
we’re half-awake in a fake empire
we’re half-awake in a fake empire

Tiptoe through our shiny city
with our diamond slippers on
do our gay ballet on ice
bluebirds on our shoulders
we’re half-awake in a fake empire
we’re half-awake in a fake empire

Turn the light out say goodnight
no thinking for a little while
let’s not try to figure out everything at once
It’s hard to keep track of you falling through the sky
we’re half-awake in a fake empire
we’re half-awake in a fake empire

"Is how we have been really how we want to be?"

Ailing economy a chance to teach kids something they'll have forever

I will definitely want to be reminded of this article when I am doing Christmas shopping for my own future children.

Our New First Lady

I'm not sure I have ever in my life been more excited for the next four years. Is it okay that I adore everything about the Obamas? Or am I just setting myself up to be disappointed?

I ♥ this article - hopefully every member of the news media will read it. Well done, Vanity Fair.

Welcome to the White House, Mrs. Obama!

Given all the other things Mrs. Obama stands for, do we really need to critique every dress, hairstyle, and daily make up job as if she were some teenage contestant on America’s Next Top Model? She is smart, hard-working, dignified, well-intentioned—and human.
. . .
Let’s let our new First Lady be a fully dimensional grown-up woman, with strengths and weaknesses and idiosyncrasies and unconventional quirks and adult sexuality and cranky moods and even—oh, the horror!—opinions that sometimes diverge from those of her husband. We accept all those things in the women we know in everyday life, but it’s still a radical idea to stop imposing absurdly hypocritical, quasi-Victorian standards on our First Lady.

Signs of Hope & Change: Election Night

RNC Protests

There's a whole lot to read about the protests during the RNC and the unwarranted violence and force used by police - not to mention the many, many illegal arrests. Feel free to check any number of alternative media sites.
http://twincities.indymedia.org/
http://www.minnesotaindependent.com/

But I'm glad to see that even the mainstream media is acknowledging the injustice - the video below is from the Pioneer Press. I'm guessing it's only because so many of their journalists were arrested but that's okay, as long as it's acknowledged.

It all makes me a little sick, really. I understand there's a fine balance between security and honoring the first amendment (and basic human rights, for that matter) but I'd argue that we definitely missed it this past week. I'm disappointed in you, St. Paul.

I'm a large medium roast with soy milk and splenda.

Number of possible choices available to a customer at the average Starbucks:

189,520

"Starbucks is one of the most prominent cultural examples of providing people with an opportunity to create their identity by providing practically unlimited choice."

Starbucks, the New Coffee Culture, and Why it Reflects Our Changing World

Perspective

If we can shrink the world's population to a village of only 100 people, keeping all existing ratios the same, that village would look like this:

there would be 57 Asians, 21 Europeans, 14 from the Western Hemisphere -- north and south -- and 21 Africans;

52 would be female;

70 would be nonwhite and 30 white;

70 would be non-Christian and 30 would be Christian.

6 of the 100 people would own 59% of all the wealth in the world, and all 6 of those people would be from the United States.

80 of the 100 people would live in substandard housing.

70 would be unable to read and write.

50 would suffer from malnutrition.

1 would have a college education.

Julian Bond
N.A.A.C.P. chairman
The New York Times: May 29, 2000

Over-stimulated

I mean, really. I have been feeling the strain of it quite a bit lately - maybe because of the season, maybe because work has been crazy (when has it not been crazy?).

Early summer moves slowly. Life (as we are accustomed to living it) moves quickly. And watching a crab apple tree grow leaves and flower over the course of several weeks reminds me how far we have strayed from what seems to be the natural pace of our world.

I just learned that dandelions and tulips close at nighttime. I don't know how I never noticed this. But think how slowly a flower must move - twice a day, every day - to be unnoticed.

Did you know that Americans are exposed to 247-5,000* ads each day?

*Even a measure of over-stimulation is over-stimulating.

Thank God I'm a Country Girl

Okay, so I'm not really a country girl. In fact, I start to feel out of place as soon as I get anywhere north of, say, Shoreview. But I understand the appeal of the small-town, slower-pace lifestyle and would love to move to the country - if only I could find a town with a progressive, free-thinking, socially conscious population. It's not because I believe that's the only acceptable way to approach life - there's value in differing beliefs and opinions - but it's just that I prefer to be around people who don't make me want to throw rocks at them when they speak.

Anyway, I've been a country music fan almost as long as I've been a music fan. And I think it's too bad that so many of us (especially in the city) avoid it. I appreciate the wholesome themes of true love, family, simplicity and faith in God.

So I share with you some of my favorite country music lyrics. (There are so many, it's hard to choose.)

I have wondered this world far and wide
I've been all around to the other side
But there's nothin' like comin' home
I wanna sit on my front porch and drink my lemonade
Cut my grass after church every Sunday
And go out on Saturday night
Live the simple life
Wake up in the morning to these fields of gold
And take a long walk down a gravel road
Carolyn Dawn Johnson, Simple Life

My grandma was a wise old soul
Took me by the hand not long ago
Said, "Son, what's your hurry, boy slow it down
Taste the wild honey, listen to the sound
Of the wind that's blowin' through the trees
Rivers flowin' to the sea
Yeah they're all headin' home just like you and me
Life's for livin' child, can't you see?"
Keith Urban, These Are the Days

'Cause it's the first long kiss on a second date
Momma's all worried when you get home late
And droppin' the ring in the spaghetti plate
'cause your hands are shakin' so much
And it's the way that she looks with the rice in her hair
Eatin' burnt supper the whole first year
And askin' for seconds to keep her from tearin' up
Yeah man, that's the good stuff
Kenny Chesney, The Good Stuff

There are also country music lyrics I hate, of course - songs about the U.S. of A. putting a boot in your ass, 'cause it's the American way. But I won't get into those, at least not in this post.

Thoughts over Alfredo Florentine

I have been thinking a lot lately about corporations (and highly recommend watching The Corporation to anyone who hasn't). These thoughts are with me specifically, now, as I'm eating my lovely frozen meal of Chicken Alfredo Florentine at my desk, as a temp, in the guest office at Anonymous Company A.

On a side note, one of my coworkers thinks it would be really funny if I changed my name to Guest (because that's what the nameplate says). He also thinks it's really funny to make jokes about temp workers killing permanent employees and hiding the dead bodies around the office. Haha.

I know corporations aren't an unchartered topic and I don't expect these thoughts to be revolutionary, by any means. But seriously, what's the deal with merging and acquiring? Is it some primal urge that we have? Do we need safety in numbers?

The goal seems to be building an empire with subsidiaries of affiliates and partners of holding companies. Why isn't it enough to be small and just do what you do really well? (And I pose this question mostly to the men of the world - because we all know that if solely women were running the place things would be much different.)