My perceptions and musings

[Disclaimer: I'm placing a link here to a photo that spurred this post, but the photo might be disturbing to some--finish reading the post before deciding whether you wish to click on it]

After seeing this photo, I find myself needing to write something.  This photo, as is mentioned in the description by the mother who posted it, is of the woman's infant daughter in her last moments of life.  It was taken at the urgent request of the mother who wanted to remember her lovely daughter who was here for all to short a time (just over two weeks).  [For those wondering whether to click on it or not, there is no gore or such awfulness in it, but it is inherently filled with raw emotion.]

In any event, seeing this reminds me how blessed danaewinters  and I, and so many others, really are.  In the middle of an economy like this, it's so easy to suffer some financial setback, or other disappointment and think life is so hard.  We get so wrapped up in our own difficulties, that we lose perspective on what real suffering is and forget to really count our blessings for the great joys our lives are filled with and which we all take for granted.

And in this season, of all seasons, I wanted to take a moment to remember how blessed I am.  For such a wonderful wife, two incredible and amazing (and thankfully, healthy) children, a small but deeply loved group of friends, an overexcitable but still lovely dog, a mellow cat that keeps my legs warm every chance it gets, a beautiful home in a town I truly love, a job that pays enough with trustworthy and generous coworkers, not just enough to eat, but great food, enough money to take care of our needs and a good deal of our (reasonable) wants and just about everything else we have, I am truly blessed.

After 15 weeks of the season, the perfect season had to come to an end in New Orleans and at the hands of the Cowboys, about as near as possible to the worst end as it could be; worse would have been losing in week 17 to Tampa Bay or Detroit, but a near-by team that has long scorned the Saints so very close to the end is only a bit removed from that.

And this is probably the worst thing that has ever happened to a team that I have rooted for.  And I am not exaggerating when I say that because this has meant so very much for New Orleans and the state of Louisiana and would have meant much more still if it had continued.  After all, even if they win the Super Bowl now, it will do a lot for the morale and economy of both the city and state, but neither has the same magic as an undefeated season.

And I wasn't even relying on them winning the Super Bowl, either. If they had managed to get all the way through to the Super Bowl undefeated only to face the undefeated Colts (since they're from the AFC), it would literally be the biggest football game of all time.  As long as that game ended up being a good one (which I imagine it would or will be), the Saints and their fans would have picked up an enormous boost that would have rippled far beyond the organization and its fans.

I'm not overblowing this either--if you have any doubt how much the Saints have meant to Louisiana, simply look at Harry Connick Jr.'s video segment of getting together with Drew Brees at the Musician's Village in New Orleans.  Connick is enormously famous, talented and wealthy, is one of Louisiana's most respected and loved sons (not only for his music, but as the son of the former head of the New Orleans PD), and he gushed and fawned over Brees in sheer excitement, as did so many others at the Musician's Village when Brees and such an immensely talented musician and the driving force behind the Village appeared.

Just think how many corporate sponsors would want to jump on board this.  Not only would this be one of the greatest accomplishments in sports (even if they lost to the Colts), but it also has feel-good story written all over it.  In addition, much as happens with other great teams, people from outside the area would start wearing Saints and Brees apparel and buying merchandise, with the royalties going back to the Saints and the New Orleans area.  More people would come from out of the area to go to games, more businesses would open to support the glut of fan support, etc.  It would simply be huge.

And this opportunity will never come back, either.  After all, the Saints were trying to become only one of four teams to even reach 14-0, of which one is the current Colts and the other two had undefeated regular seasons (and only Miami has ever had a perfect season).  In 50 years, only one team has ever gone completely undefeated, so the odds of this coming back soon, are tremendously unlikely, the odds of it coming back to the same team are astronomically improbable and the chance of having two teams in this same situation is so far beyond the pale of likelihood, C-3PO ought to be quoting it (except in this case, his odds would be true).

I thought for sure that when the Dallas kicker doinked the field goal, it was meant to be.  But no, Louisiana just can't get that kind of break, it seems.

Jeez, I can't wait. I totally have to see this in IMAX, anything else just won't do.

Really, I don't think anything more needs to be said here.

For those who saw the title of my post, this refers to the fact that I will not buy anything from Ralph Lauren ever again.  Why?  Because not only did he and his company retouch a picture to make a models waist smaller than her head (see below):



...but he also went after those who posted it in criticism, claiming that they were violating the DMCA in posting the image, despite the fact that they were clearly commenting on it in criticism, one of the deemed fair uses (story is here.  Sadly, Google acquiesced to their demand, deleting the post under Photoshop Disasters, but thankfully, Boing Boing hit back at them with the following:

"Copyright law doesn't give you the right to threaten your critics for pointing out the problems with your offerings. You should know better. And every time you threaten to sue us over stuff like this, we will:

a) Reproduce the original criticism, making damned sure that all our readers get a good, long look at it, and;

b) Publish your spurious legal threat along with copious mockery, so that it becomes highly ranked in search engines where other people you threaten can find it and take heart; and

c) Offer nourishing soup and sandwiches to your models."

I had never even heard of Boing Boing before this, but I'm going to look them up now and give them my support.  In the meantime, I already emailed Ralph Lauren about my intent to do without his crappy-ass clothes from now on, and I highly suggest others do the same.  So, as I said before, Ralph Lauren can bite my shiny ass!
 

So, it occurred to me that I don't think either danaewinters or I fully updated people with what has happened with the house.  Quite a bit has happened, so I'll go back over it.

A week before this last Monday, our buyer was due to release their contingencies.  For those not aware of what this means, this essentially finalizes the purchase of the house as it is at this point that they both show that they have the means and legally commit themselves to the purchase.  At that point, all that occurs is a wait for escrow to close.

Well, we hadn't had a whole lot of communication from their realtor, and we still weren't getting any as of this day.  So, our realtor had us sign a 48 hour notice to perform, essentially telling them to release their contingencies and show us the money, or risk having the purchase cancelled.  That same day, the realtor asked for a 2-day extension, apparently unaware of our notice, to which our realtor responded that we just gave them one.  Their problem was supposedly a matter of waiting for the appraiser's report, but since they had waited an absurdly long time (nearly 3 weeks) to get the appraiser over, it was hardly a reasonable excuse.

In any event, the deadline approached and within a couple of hours of the final moment (at which point, we would have kept their deposit if they backed out), they pulled out, due to issues with financing.  They said they still wanted to work on it, but there was no assurance at all that they even could. 

I wasn't originally aware of this as I was having a very busy day at work, but danaewinters was and was traumatized.  This was, after all, our salvation from this morass and we thought we were done.  Fortunately, however, our realtor hadn't been quite as assured about this buyer as we were and had had us showing off our house to "back-up buyers" when we didn't think there was any need.

So, an hour after this occurred, we had a verbal offer from one of the backups who had previously stated his interest.  An hour after that, at home, our realtor dropped off his offer...for $10,000 more (less a couple of credits).  And where the first buyer never seemed all that solid, this guy not only seems absolutely determined to have the house, he also seems to know exactly what he's doing and should have no difficulty with financing as he's putting close to half down.

Obviously, this is mostly a good thing for us, although this did make our closing date two weeks later than the original, which will make the end of the month a bit tighter than we originally thought.  And it also means we'll have to ask our landlord to work a little more with us, but since it's only pushing back the payment for last month's rent by six days (we already paid the deposit, and the first month's rent's coming out of our next payday) and it means our rent for October will be two days late, but I doubt that'll be a deal killer.

So, this morning, we're off to pick up the keys from our landlord and we have the next month to move stuff over.  So, for those of our friends who pray, please continue to do so that this all just goes through uneventfully.

So, I'm at work right now, sorting through packages while listening to music on my cell phone when on comes "Ribbons Undone", by Tori Amos.  Now, while danaewinters  might be a huge Tori Amos fan, I'm only one in passing (it's not that she's not good, but just that she usually doesn't speak to me very much) and so I don't have more than two of her songs on my favorites playlist, and the other is there more for the music than the lyrics.  But "Ribbons Undone" is different, because it speaks so very much of something that I know so well, the boundless wonder and joy of a happy little girl who you love so very much.

And as it came on, I started to think about how much joy she has given me and how very grateful I am to have her as my daughter.  I really am overwhelmed by everything that she is and how much her own delightfully tweaked, brilliant and yet still joyfully innocent little person.  To her, the world is a playground filled with love, light and life, and seeing it through her eyes reminds me of how wonderful it is.

And at the same time, I also thought of how absolutely amazing and so very different is my son, as well, who is proudly named after my father and grandfather.  He is just as smart (if perhaps a tad more distractible), filled with his own joy that often comes through in loud yells and physical bombardments.  And yet he can be brought to rest quite quickly with books he really loves and the most difficult puzzles imaginable that he still solves with ease.  Where my daughter looks at life like a playground, he seems to see things as a maze that he chooses to solve at his leisure (with occasional bounces off the wall).

These thoughts so consumed me that I felt an absolute need to write them down, to share them with my loved ones.  These two have made my life truly meaningful and I am so very, very grateful for them both, and to their mother danaewinters for giving them to me.  Life truly is beautiful.

Wow, just wow.

Disney to buy Marvel Comics

I didn't see this one coming.  This leads to several interesting thoughts, such as:

What does this mean for Quesada?  Could it (hopefully) mean that he will not long remain?
What happens to Universal Studios and all their rides and attractions named after Marvel characters?
Could we see Spiderman (or even more likely, the Watcher) or some other similar character in Kingdom Hearts 3 (or 4)?
And what would happen if Mickey Mouse gained the power cosmic?


This will definitely be interesting.

You know, I am sick to death of the conditional morality that has been embraced by some in the wake of September 11th.  Following the report released today that detailed a number of interrogations that clearly violated US law and the Geneva conventions and are clearly defined as "torture" by both (actions made to convince someone that they're about to be killed), I watched James Carville and someone on the GOP side talk about the report.  When Anderson Cooper asked her if she thought the actions were acceptable, she made some comment about looking back at the time, how we knew so little about Al-Qaeda, etc.

Since when did we, as a country, abandon the idea that certain things were wrong, period?  It used to be that we deemed ourselves a nation ruled by law, that we established laws to absolutely prohibit things that were wrong, clearly listed very rare exceptions (such as self-defense for murder), and relied on the decision of highly-educated and wise people (judges) to determine those exceptions.  And we weren't naive; we allowed a great number of things to be done in other parts of the world that weren't allowed here (such as use of the CIA, regular eavesdropping, assassinations and so on), allowed exceptions to various parts of the law, but only as guided by other laws (the FISA courts for warrants, for example) and so on.

So why did the reprehensible actions of others on one day (9/11) suddenly lower the standard of acceptable behavior on our part?  Why is okay to threaten to rape the children of terrorists, to set up scenes of apparent summary executions, to cause physical pain and outright terror to fight those who we deem terrorists?

What kind of claims to higher ideals can we truly claim when we abandon those ideals as soon as we are threatened?  After all, these dickweeds are claiming that they are allowed exceptions to their normal moral codes (as Islam explicitly condemns their actions) to perpetrate such awful abominations on others.  So how can we claim to be better than them when we do exactly the same thing?  How do we expect to set any standard of conduct for the people of Afghanistan or Iraq (or Libya, Sirya, Palestine, North Korea, Pakistan, etc., etc., etc.) when we ask them to do as we say and not as we do?

Look, it's tremendously simple; we cannot defend our nation by using tactics to fight our enemies that abandon the very ideals that form the foundation of our nation.  More than any other nation (save, perhaps, Liberia), our nation was formed on the basis of high-minded ideals.  I'm not ignorant of our history or the numerous times we've fallen short of those ideals, but we're supposed to be progressing as a nation.  To continue to progress, we need to remember the lessons of history (which we failed to do here), recognize our lapse (again, nothing) and do our best to prevent a similar such lapse in the future.

So to all that might have previously defended such actions, please, just stop the excuses, recognize that we embraced the tactics of the people we condemned and allow our nation to make it right and finally move on.

The title of this post refers to two separate issues going on today.

First, the pain, which refers to what's going on with the Lockheed fire up in Bonny Doon.  Although we aren't particularly close to the fire (probably around 15 miles away), today the wind blew in exactly the wrong direction and has filled up the entire county with a great deal of smoke.  It's been bugging everyone, making eyes burn and causing some illness because of the poor air quality.  It is, however, at least occurring in a mostly uninhabited part of the county threatening some homes, but not many and none (I believe) having actually been burned by it.  So it's far better than last year in that regard.

As to the glory, we just found out that our daughter is not only doing well in school, but is truly excelling.  danaewinters  was stopped by our daughter's principal as she picked up our son (who is now in the same school, having entered kindergarten) to talk about her.  It turns out that our daughter apparently scored the highest of anyone in the school on an evaluative test, scoring a score that he's only ever seen from 10 other children in his 20 years as an educator.  She may even have scored the highest in the district, although we're not entirely sure.

Needless to say, we are thrilled by this bit of news.  As a reward, we have decided to buy her a game that she was saving her allowance to get.  And now I am very much determined to not let anyone say jack about our parenting, family or no, given that our children are extremely happy, healthy, generally well-behaved (they are children, after all), responsible, thoughtful, emotionally stable and doing brilliantly at school.  If I had had this bit of news during the incident with danae's aunt, I'd have let her have it.

Still, we also took pains to ensure that she doesn't get some huge ego about this, telling her that everyone around her knows something that she doesn't and has things to teach her.  We also told her that the surest way to cease to be well-educated is to assume that she is the smartest person in the room and that while she doesn't need to hide that she's doing (and done) well, but not to boast about it either.

But yeah, I'm more than a little ecstatic about the whole thing, lol.

I've been watching all this utter bullshit being spouted...excuse me, irrationally screamed about the "evil" health-care reform at various town hall meetings and there is one thing that needs to be said that no one else seems willing to say.

SHUT THE FUCK UP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Now, before any one who has issues with the bill thinks I'm talking to them, take a breath and calm down.  I'm not referring simply to anyone who dislikes the plan, those who might have issues with the potential efficacy of the plan, nor the idea that it's not taking into account alternative policies, or anything of the like.  Those are all issues which, although I disagree with them, are reasonable and it's both wise and necessary to have those brought up for the purpose of well-crafted legislation and policy.

But I am sick to death of people who get their legislators coming to them (instead of sitting in DC ignoring them as congress has done so much over the last two decades or more) trying both to explain their viewpoints on the matter and hear their constituents views simply being shouted at.  Seriously, what the hell good is accomplished by a woman asking Sen. Specter how he would restore this country to what the founders wanted?  As my wife said, if that occurred, she'd be irrelevant and have no vote as the founding fathers didn't see fit to extend women the vote, nor a number of other people we consider vital parts of our political lives today.

But even disregarding that somewhat hyperbolic response to some other idiot's hyperbole, what is gained by her question?  When she stood to ask this, she never once expressed any point in the bill that was somehow reducing this country's greatness, never asked why this bill or any of its provisions were necessary in the senator's opinion, or in any other way expressed what problem she had with it.  Could it be because she doesn't really know what's in it, or care, as long as someone tells her it's "evil"?

Because that's where I'm at now, believing that every single screamer is an incompetent, ignorant moron who has their opinion given to them, like soma pills in Brave New World.  Seriously, you have your senator come to a hostile environment, you get a chance to actually point out problems in a bill you seriously detest, and all you do is scream at him, accuse him of being a "nazi" (as many have been accused) and otherwise froth at the mouth and expect him to consider your opinion as valid as someone who reasonably speaks of why it's necessary?  You accuse an Obama advisor who has been awarded numerous times by various medical organizations and who is admantly opposed to euthenasia of pushing it on others, all because of a hack article that for a hack paper that clearly misquotes and takes others out of context?

I'm far from against well-reasoned debate since I, as a congenitally mistrustful person, believe that only in the crucible of public debate can well-reasoned governance be formed.  But this is not only not well-reasoned, nor debate, but is the actual death of debate.  In essence, this is the verbal equivalent of the LA Riots with people simply setting everything around them ablaze, beating people that come to help them (like firefighters) and so on.  In fact, these tactics for opposing those found disagreeable are more akin to the nazis, the brown shirts and other totalitarian regimes, the very kind of thing that supporters of this bill are being accused of.

I implore every reasonable person out there to ask anyone they might know who is one of these shouters to similarly (if perhaps more diplomatically) also ask them to shut up.  I don't want anyone to refrain from looking at the bill, finding things they either find fault or virtue in and expressing this.  But this...this raving lunacy simply can't continue, not if we desire or expect this union to endure.  If we all really want what our founding fathers wanted, we'll find a way to all work together, despite widely-differing stances, through discussion and negotiation.  This is what formed our country, what has made it great and what must occur to preserve our nation.

We got the house we wanted!  They called earlier today and told us, so now the house is being sold, we know where we're going, I've got fairly steady work and we'll soon be out of debt.  Life is definitely looking up for us.

So, while the bulk of 2009 hasn't been good, the end is looking a whole lot better.

Had to post this after seeing it in faerydragonet 's post.  It is just plain awesome.

So, first for those who don't also read my wife's LJ, we have been in the process of selling our home for the last several months and finally have an offer.  It is for substantially less than we hoped, and even less still than we originally paid, but it is better than their first offer (they added more that they picked up from a first time home buyer program).  Most importantly, we'll never talk to our douchebag lender ever again, will be out of debt, have a great deal of money in the bank/investments and will, with my recent transition to being an in-house contractor at West Marine instead of an external temp (and the better pay and more hours that went with it), be able to not only pay our bills out of our income, but should also be able to put more aside in savings/investments.

It's not a perfect resolution, but it's far better than many people have had and leaves us in good shape.  And we now know what to do and what not to do next time we buy a house.

Importantly, it now allows us to live up to our promise to take our kids to Disney World in 2011 (our daughter's 10th birthday and our son's 7th) and to get back to Louisiana to see relatives for the first time in 5 years.

Now, if everyone could keep us in their prayers for finding a good place to rent (hopefully, the one we saw last night), that would be great.

You know, I haven't liked Michael Jackson for a long time.  For as talented a musical genius as he was, he did things with children that were at least inappropriate and at most, criminal and morally reprehensible.  After all, you don't just settle with people who call you a child molester, knowing that that will forever cling to your name unless they have something that will stick.

That's not to say I had no pity for him.  When I got stuck in the Virgin Megastore in Vegas with him several years back (they shut it down when he came in in order to keep out the near riot of fans), I felt a great deal of pity at seeing the leeches that hung on to him and derived fame and importance from being attached to him.  Having those kind of people constantly around you must do a great deal to warp your sense of perspective and must make you very lonely since you know they actually care nothing for you as a person.

But still, I held no particular sadness for his passing...until today.  Don't get me wrong, I still don't think all that much of him as a person and his passing itself doesn't hold that much significance for me.  But seeing his eleven year old daughter in abject sorrow is a different matter altogether.  Hearing her cry for her "Daddy" made me realize that for as much as the harsher side of me wants to think that they're better off without him, I can't be so cruel that I don't recognize that his children, much like I, were deprived of their father at a tragically early point in their lives.

And that's something that I will (and already have) shed a few tears for.  No matter how bizarre his behavior and no matter what I might think of him, it's abundantly clear that his children loved him dearly and that they've lost someone they deeply loved.  And for their sake, and for the sake of his family who really care (which obviously leaves out his father, who MJ himself seemed to despise), I will say the following:

Rest in peace, Michael Jackson.

So, I was reading this article today...

Palin story sparks GOP family feud

Anyhow, this brought back to mind the number of stories about the supposedly biased media.  Over and over again, those who didn't like the coverage of Palin kept claiming that it had to do with media bias.  Some groups even pointed to statistics showing that there were a far higher percentage of negative stories for her than the other candidates.

But look at the whole thing again from a different standard--did the McCain/Palin camp earn a higher percentage of negative stories?  ( Read more... )

The negative image of Palin wasn't the fault of the media, and it certainly wasn't the fault of Obama or his campaign (except maybe by contrast).  It was the fault of Palin herself and/or the campaign behind her.

So, the US lost as Brazil came back with three straight goals in the second half.  The first occurred nearly immediately after they came back out (in the 46th minute), the second midway through the half, and the last, heartbreaking one, came very close to the end (I believe it was the 85th minute).  Brazil might actually have scored another goal, as a ball was very close to being in the net, but the ref ruled that it wasn't a goal (but it's very close and was potentially a questionable call).

Thus, we are losers yet again.  But the fact is the US stayed competitive and played well, first against the best ranked team in the world and then again against one of the perennial favorites and possibly the winningest team in soccer (I believe).  I just hope that they continue to play well, so that maybe they can draw some lasting attention from Americans.

Still, for a few minutes, it actually looked like we'd shock the world.  Oh well.

I can't believe US is up 2-0 over Brazil!!!!

WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

And I'm a happy, happy man!

YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

And just for your enjoyment, I give you the following (for those who missed it):