9/11 and other thoughts
Today is 9/11. Memorials will happen across the country, including one at ground zero. 9/11 remains a tragedy, but I can't help but contrast our one terrorist attack to the near daily ones that happen in certain countries of the Middle East. We have had one foreign terrorist attack in recent history and average a domestic terrorist attack every few years (i.e. school shootings, postal workers, etc.). In Iraq and other countries, they are lucky if they go a few days without a bomb killing innocent civilians. Sometimes I think an ostentatious show of our grief for one incident 6 years ago is a bit self-centered unless we also take a moment to think about the thousands of civilians who have died in Iraq, Israel, Iran, Pakistan, Sudan, and a whole bunch of other countries I'm forgetting right now. Some of which have died because our actions, direct or indirect. I know it's part of the human condition, but I think in the United States especially, we tend to look only at our own hurts and ignore or diminish the hurts of other countries. We're the rich kid on the playground that cries and throws a fit because we sprained our ankle and expect sympathy from the poor, malnourished child who gets beaten by his parents daily.
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Various items I wrote last Thursday or Friday, but didn't get around to posting until today:
Madeleine L'Engle died. For those not placing the name, she wrote the A Wrinkle in Time series and many, many other books.
According to reports, wrestler Chris Benoit suffered from a lot of brain damage, likely the result of too many chairs to the head. This sort of brain damage has been known to cause depression and changes in behavior. At least two NFL players are believed to have committed suicide because of this same type of depression, also brought on my too many hits to the head. This, combined with steroid use and the possibility of roid rage may account for what happened that weekend.
Just when you thought Senator Craig couldn't make himself look any more stupid, he is considering not resigning now. I know he couched his earlier announcement with it is his "intent" to resign, but no one was paying attention the that little word and his use of political double-speak at this point is not helping him. His PR staff must have ulcers. But I'm still glad for yet another homophobic politician turning out to be a closet case. It takes the punch out of the far right's arguments when major proponents of limiting gay rights turn out to have ulterior motives like denial and suppression. ^_^
Beer thieves attempt to distract store clerk with naked dance
Virginia tech professor, Ishmar Puri had a wonderful point about memorials. He stated that it is a human tendency to desire physical memorials to people and events, but intangible memorials can be just as meaningful. He hopes that they do not tear down Norris Hall, the place where he shared time and work with colleagues and instead, professors and students working there, striving to increase academic knowledge through research and learning would server to honor the fallen.
I'd say we should have a moment of silence for Luciano Pavarotti, but I think instead we should all go listen to opera.
Last night I did a different yoga workout on my DVD, the Lunar Flow (I had been doing Basic Flow). OMG. The first few sections of it felt amazing. It was like an orgasm for my back. You know when you get a back rub and a tense muscle gets released or when you get a hair cut at the salon and they wash it, brush it, and blow dry it and your back and/or scalp gets all tingly? That's what some of the sections of this yoga workout did. My back was all tingly. ^___^ Then I got to a particular section of it that I couldn't do and there were the beginnings of pain, so I stopped doing that and waited for the next section. I was introduced to some new yoga moves, some of which were things I did before not knowing it was yoga, I was just sitting pretzel-like because it was comfortable; however, I can no longer sit that way and I got a reminder that I'm not 20 anymore. ^_~
They've had to redraw world maps because of the global changes we have wrought.
I had my yearly review today (Thursday), which means free lunch at restaurant of my choice!!! What a fabulous start to my birthweek! ^^ I selected Georgette's a local coffee/lunch shop that is partially (or fully?) owned by the Sunshine Children's Home (a center for mentally disabled people) and part of the proceeds go there. There is also a Ten Thousand Villages shop in the back. For those who don't know, Ten Thousand Villages is a chain of shops that has a lot of hand made jewelry, art, crafts, furnishings, musical instruments, etc. that are made in third world countries and other marginalized societies. The cool thing is that the artisans actually get fair price for their goods! It's not, "Here's 5 cents, now I shall go sell this for 10 dollars." No! Instead it's "Here is five dollars, when it sells, I'll give you the other five dollars minus the cost of shipping it to the U.S. and putting it in a store." ^^
Okay, background info done. ^^ So I had a fabulous lunch there (much of their stuff is organic): tomato tortellini soup, half a chicken salad sandwich, and a chi tea steamer. ^_^ Happy, full tummy. Yay contentment. I bought a jingly belt and necklace in the shop, both will do nicely with a bellydance outfit. ^_^ The review went well as well.
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Various items I wrote last Thursday or Friday, but didn't get around to posting until today:
Madeleine L'Engle died. For those not placing the name, she wrote the A Wrinkle in Time series and many, many other books.
According to reports, wrestler Chris Benoit suffered from a lot of brain damage, likely the result of too many chairs to the head. This sort of brain damage has been known to cause depression and changes in behavior. At least two NFL players are believed to have committed suicide because of this same type of depression, also brought on my too many hits to the head. This, combined with steroid use and the possibility of roid rage may account for what happened that weekend.
Just when you thought Senator Craig couldn't make himself look any more stupid, he is considering not resigning now. I know he couched his earlier announcement with it is his "intent" to resign, but no one was paying attention the that little word and his use of political double-speak at this point is not helping him. His PR staff must have ulcers. But I'm still glad for yet another homophobic politician turning out to be a closet case. It takes the punch out of the far right's arguments when major proponents of limiting gay rights turn out to have ulterior motives like denial and suppression. ^_^
Beer thieves attempt to distract store clerk with naked dance
Virginia tech professor, Ishmar Puri had a wonderful point about memorials. He stated that it is a human tendency to desire physical memorials to people and events, but intangible memorials can be just as meaningful. He hopes that they do not tear down Norris Hall, the place where he shared time and work with colleagues and instead, professors and students working there, striving to increase academic knowledge through research and learning would server to honor the fallen.
I'd say we should have a moment of silence for Luciano Pavarotti, but I think instead we should all go listen to opera.
Last night I did a different yoga workout on my DVD, the Lunar Flow (I had been doing Basic Flow). OMG. The first few sections of it felt amazing. It was like an orgasm for my back. You know when you get a back rub and a tense muscle gets released or when you get a hair cut at the salon and they wash it, brush it, and blow dry it and your back and/or scalp gets all tingly? That's what some of the sections of this yoga workout did. My back was all tingly. ^___^ Then I got to a particular section of it that I couldn't do and there were the beginnings of pain, so I stopped doing that and waited for the next section. I was introduced to some new yoga moves, some of which were things I did before not knowing it was yoga, I was just sitting pretzel-like because it was comfortable; however, I can no longer sit that way and I got a reminder that I'm not 20 anymore. ^_~
They've had to redraw world maps because of the global changes we have wrought.
I had my yearly review today (Thursday), which means free lunch at restaurant of my choice!!! What a fabulous start to my birthweek! ^^ I selected Georgette's a local coffee/lunch shop that is partially (or fully?) owned by the Sunshine Children's Home (a center for mentally disabled people) and part of the proceeds go there. There is also a Ten Thousand Villages shop in the back. For those who don't know, Ten Thousand Villages is a chain of shops that has a lot of hand made jewelry, art, crafts, furnishings, musical instruments, etc. that are made in third world countries and other marginalized societies. The cool thing is that the artisans actually get fair price for their goods! It's not, "Here's 5 cents, now I shall go sell this for 10 dollars." No! Instead it's "Here is five dollars, when it sells, I'll give you the other five dollars minus the cost of shipping it to the U.S. and putting it in a store." ^^
Okay, background info done. ^^ So I had a fabulous lunch there (much of their stuff is organic): tomato tortellini soup, half a chicken salad sandwich, and a chi tea steamer. ^_^ Happy, full tummy. Yay contentment. I bought a jingly belt and necklace in the shop, both will do nicely with a bellydance outfit. ^_^ The review went well as well.