Free association time: the last couple of days

RUN RUN RUN
NO idea how far I’ve gone
Dead Nike Ipod censor.
Rest in peace.
Running nowhere and no idea how far.
My kitty shredded my leg.
Work gave me a headache.
Slept it away.
Nike sensor known for having poor battery life.
PFFT. Ripped off or is 20 bucks every year or six months a good thing?\
SYFY = STU-PID!
Dandy Warhols= new album
Wilco=new album
Michael Jackson dead so no new album.
Oh who am I kidding? Greatest hits and unreleased crap albums in the works.
North Korea tested some missiles while everybody was distracted with Jackson
Palin still kooky. Shows her kookiness.
Apparently from all the twitter followers who unfollow after my Palin bitching, she’s still loved somewhere.

Sarah Palin has left the building

I heard about Sarah Palin resigning from her post as governor of Alaska in the same way that many people did: Twitter

I tried calling my friend Ang and got a voice mail so I texted her. “Palin’s out. Thoughts?”

She calls me later.

“WHAT HAPPENED?”
“I don’t know. She resigned.”
“Wow!”
“Yeah I know.”
“Somebody must have some dirt on her.”
“Did she say why?”
“She gave a statement but even the pundits are saying they still have no idea what she was saying.”

So I ended up going to Ang’s house and we found the video on the internet.

LORD! I do believe that Sarah Palin has lost her mind! The woman sounds like she’s about to cry or hyperventilate with all that gasping for air. Somehow she’s talking about Kosovo, her son Trig, and energy in the same speech.

I then found out about the Vanity Fair article. and found her written version of the speech on her website.

Now a hint on why she quit was this paragraph

Political operatives descended on Alaska last August, digging for dirt. The ethics law I championed became their weapon of choice. Over the past nine months I’ve been accused of all sorts of frivolous ethics violations – such as holding a fish in a photograph, wearing a jacket with a logo on it, and answering reporters’ questions.

Every one – all 15 of the ethics complaints have been dismissed. We’ve won! But it hasn’t been cheap – the State has wasted thousands of hours of your time and shelled out some two million of your dollars to respond to “opposition research” – that’s money not going to fund teachers or troopers – or safer roads. And this political absurdity, the “politics of personal destruction” … Todd and I are looking at more than half a million dollars in legal bills in order to set the record straight. And what about the people who offer up these silly accusations? It doesn’t cost them a dime so they’re not going to stop draining public resources – spending other peoples’ money in their game.

Honey, if you had really read “ALL” the newspapers, you would have been able to predict that something like this would happen based on the Clinton years. Remember the Clinton years. Since the 90s, the Clintons have been accused of all sorts of ethics violations and other wrongdoings like “White Water,” “Travel Gate” “Mena Airport” “Paula Jones sexual harassment trial,” “Murdering Vince Foster” … and oh yeah… “doing dirty deeds with Monica Lewinsky and lying about it”

So how many of them turned out to be true? Only the last one.

So how can she or anybody else be surprised at how Ms. Palin was treated? ARE YOU KIDDING ME? The whole vetting process that keeps being mentioned in the news is done for the sole reason that everybody and their mama knows that the minute someone hits the national stage, some investigative journalists will descend on the hometown like a swarm of locusts looking in every dog house, hen house, state house, out house, and governor’s mansion to find dirt or even something dark brown that can resemble dirt if held up to the light just right.

So honey, if you were surprised at how you were treated, the only person you have to blame is yourself.

So for Ms. Palin to get all up on her podium and talk about politics as usual and blood sports after accusing Barack Obama of being friends with terrorists and given tacit approval through her silence when people in the audience shouted “kill him” and going on and on about how he isn’t a real American. Bloodsport. “kill terrorist”

Oh honey. This is the part where you wink at the camera again like you’re shitting me, isn’t it? Am I being PUNK’d? ARE YOU KIDDING ME?

So she’s gone and I’ll wonder but not too much. I figure someone else will find out something or they won’t.

The Declaration of Independence –Happy 4th.

When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. — Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.

He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.

He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their Public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.

He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.

He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected, whereby the Legislative Powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.

He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.

He has obstructed the Administration of Justice by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary Powers.

He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people and eat out their substance.

He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.

He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil Power.

He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:

For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:

For protecting them, by a mock Trial from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:

For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:

For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:

For depriving us in many cases, of the benefit of Trial by Jury:

For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences:

For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies

For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:

For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.

He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.

He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.

He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation, and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & Perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.

He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.

He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these united Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States, that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. — And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.

(This was written by Thomas Jefferson. There, I haven’t plagarized)

Kitty update

After the whole kittens in a box debacle, my brother was so depressed that he went to the shelter and rescued this kitten. She’s a stunningly beautiful little kitty.

She likes to climb on things, including me. If she had her way, she would sit on my chest right below my neck fifty percent of the time. The other 50 percent would be a split between eating and drinking, sitting on the window sill looking out the window, and sleeping on this one particular pillow on one of the beds in the house.

I call her Buddha because when she climbs up that high and turns around her butt is literally in my face. I have said on more than one occasion, “get your buddha butt out of my face.” (because really anything three inches from your eyeball looks HUGE! at that angle). So then I just started calling her Buddha butt all the time. It got shortened to Buddha and now I have her a theme song to the tune of the Oklahoma “boomer Sooner” song. Yeah I’m weird.

Monticello gets national attention

The University of Arkansas at Monticello gets national attention in a TV ad for having the “stupidest mascot” in an ad for KGB.

Thanks to the Arkansas Times for pointing this out.

July goals and listy fresh.

“Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle.”

—Plato

I like this particular quote. It is something that I try to keep in mind in my daily dealings with people. Everybody has something going on in their lives.

Okay obviously I screwed up the National Blog Posting Month quest for last month. I think I posted the least amount I have posted since I started up this thing. The theme for July is ROUTINE. So I will post SOMETHING! every day for this month. It might just be a photo but dammit. I like to set goals and achieve them.

I have managed to miss a bit of blogging topics so you will get the list with the small topics.

1. Michael Jackson. Michael Jackson’s Thriller came out when I was 10 so I am the generation that pretty much grew up with Michael Jackson. I ate all of it up. I liked the Beat It Jacket and the moonwalk. I learned the Thriller dance. There for a while. Michael Jackson was it in my little preteen world. Also, one of his Aunts and some cousins lived in the town where I grew up. He was a genius. Also, I think he could serve as a cautionary tale about children being entertainers and working in a very adult industry. He’s a cautionary tale about child abuse. He’s also all about the music itself. Much like any other human being on the planet, he’s a bunch of contradictions balled up into one mass of energy.
2. I’m considering getting a bike. I love running but I have fears about my joints. I like exercising outside.
3. I got an email today that registration for the Little Rock Marathon has opened up for the 2010 marathon. Contemplating it. One of my life goals is to finish a marathon and I have already done the half there. It is hilly. Hrmm..
4. Remember Reality Bites. Well the apartment is for sale.
5. Yes I attended went to Hot Springs to attend the Bar Meeting. It was focused on technology which was real cool. It felt like an infomercial in the sense that all the folks talking about technology were also consultants or had technology products for lawyers. (yeah you see where this is going). I met a lot of people and overall it was a positive experience. Oh and my car broke down and I got to shell out four hundred dollars to get it fixed. Yeah that part sucked.
6. OH yeah Blake of “Blake’s Think Tank” got engaged to Jessica Dean of Choose Your News on Channel 7 fame. Congrats guys.
7. Rex Nelson talks about how to save the Delta
   

   Nelson argued that it doesn’t make sense for governments to perpetuate numerous small communities from a bygone era that were once home to hundreds of share croppers and boasted thriving commerce, but that are nearly empty today and are lucky to have a convenience store.

   “To be quite honest, there isn’t much reason for those communities to exist any more,” he said, adding that by propping up these tiny communities, “the government is sustaining misery” while wasting millions of dollars in public resources that could be directed elsewhere.

Father’s Day

My father is a much more mysterious presence in my life than my mother. From about the age of ten until well into my adolescence, he traveled for work. He managed to go to pretty much all 50 of the states. Before the age of 10, we were buddies. I would sit in his lap and he would tell me stories of going to the farm and shooting bears. He’d sing these hilarious songs including one about a boy named Sue. (I didn’t learn until years later that this was a song written by a man named Johnny Cash).

He builds things. He has one of those obscure sounding positions like construction manager or project manager or something or other. I know that he overseas other people and he gets phone calls. He also has to be onsite. We used to drive around town and he would show me the stuff he built over the years.

He was in the Air Force when he was a young man and developed a “work wardrobe” consisting of khaki pants and a short sleeved button down khaki short. He also likes to play the guitar. As a result of this, I thought my father was Andy Griffin when I was a kid. “LOOK MOM Dad is on TV!” Yep.

Dad likes to carve things over the years he has made my Mom quite a menagerie. There are a whole bunch of people around town who have “peachpit monkeys” and “Arkansas Razorback pendants”

He’s the guy whom every time he hears I’m going on a trip calls me to see if I’ve checked my oil lately. He gives me the “your car is like a horse” lecture. He’s also the guy who foot the bill for my piano lessons, dance lessons, band camps, and all that jazz.

So Thank you Dad for all you’ve done. I love you.

Funniest thing I’ve seen all month.

see more Lolcats and funny pictures

From LOL CATS = I can haz cheesburger

Bar Meeting round up for later but I got to give props.

My life has gotten ridiculously busy but I will say

If your car breaks down in Hot Springs while at an “annual meeting” or Convention

Burks and Mahoney are the wrecker service to use. They went above and beyond the call of duty during my unfortunate automobile difficulties while attending the Annual Meeting of the ABA.

Burks & Mahoney Wrecker Service
(501) 321-2232
1300 Malvern Ave, Hot Springs National Park, AR 71901 (there is the information.)

Also, these guys were amazing.

Automotive Service Center
(501) 623-8832
1540 Malvern Ave, #A, Hot Springs, AR 71901

I watched the mechanic do 10,000 different types of tests on my car. I eventually got tired and waited in the waiting room. When the original mechanic decided it might be the distributor, he got another mechanic to double check his work. I got to see enough of that process that I genuinely believe that is what happened. Also, they got a guy to drive me back to my hotel. They waited for me to pick up my car on Friday. It was close to closing time for them. They made special arrangements to put my car under an awning so that my car wouldn’t suffer possible hail damage during a particular nasty storm that rolled through.

I can’t say enough nice things about them.

Fitness and other craziness.

It’s amazing how the minute you commit to posting daily on your blog that life will suddenly get a lot busier so that you’re too busy living to write all the time.

I have made a new commitment to fitness. I am by all accounts fat. Back in the day (like high school and college), I was a “normal” weight so I’ve not always been fat and am definitely not accustomed to the sneers, snickering, and biases that fat people endure. To be fair, I’m not sure that anyone ever gets used to the abuse that people dish out towards the fat. People are MEAN! no wait.

MEAN

to fat people.

Starting June 1st, I committed to doing 45 minutes of exercise a day with a day of rest. This means 6 days of exercise. I’ve been doing running every other day or 3 of the 6 days. The other three days are something else.

I finally did my initial push up challenge. I managed to push out 5. My arms and chest hate me now.

I haven’t done the sit up challenge. I keep doing other core exercises other than bonafide situps. I’m not sure what I want to do about that. I’ll probably do the set up test tomorrow.

I also found via this site, the 200 squat challenge today so I’m thinking I can try that as well.

I figure that running and doing the situp, push up, and squat challenges with some yoga would be something I can do this summer that will shape me up. I have found that I can’t eat heavy before running and somehow exercise makes me eat less. No really. I had a big lasagna dinner the first day I ran and threw up. Okay that was TMI but it happens.

So that’s what I’m doing this month.