Rambling about "Merry Christmas" 2009

I do miss the days when saying Merry Christmas wasn't a point of contention. Then again, even way back in my childhood, when they took prayer out of school, and we were singing Christmas songs, I wondered that they let us do that. It didn't seem consistent. Kids like things to be consistent. Nobody was talking about it back then. I don't think I liked Rudolf the Reindeer. I think I felt ambiguous about Santa Claus. I know I wrote about Christmas being a about the birth of Jesus--I used to have the 2nd grade paper (I wish I still had it, but it's lost).

Now "Merry Christmas" is sort of a charged phrase. It has baggage. But I suppose I can enjoy the holiday anyway, and enjoy getting both kinds of cards--"the Merry Christmas", and "the Happy Holidays" sort, yes and even Happy Hanukah. I think Hannukah is cool. I don't get Kwanza cards (or the holiday), but I guess if I did get them I could be gracious about those too. Let people celebrate what holidays they want. (Within reason.)

But don't tell me I can't celebrate how I want! I guess that's part of what irritates people. Taking Christmas out of the Christmas season, and changing it into something else.

Christmas has probably long been a bit of a mixed bag. As I understand it, Christians took a pagan celebration and made into a religious celebration. It's not in the Bible any where, Christmas, or rather, any indication of what day Jesus was born, though his birth is described.

I have some fond memories of singing at Christmas time. I don't think I realized until recently how much I enjoy singing with other people. I like singing with people who can sing well. One groups of folks I used to sing with were folk-dancers. We had some really good singers in our folk dance group, many Jewish. I thought it kind of curious that Jewish folks enjoyed singing Christmas songs, but they did. I learned a Hanukkah song too (which at first seemed rather silly to me, it just did, I wasn't wanting to poke fun at the holiday). We actually all (all being some of the dancers) practiced for several weeks before we went Christmas caroling. I enjoyed that a lot. That practicing for caroling is not something I've ever seen done by a Church! But I have participated in some Church chorale singing (which involved practicing). I honestly would rather learn Christmas carols (some do benefit by practice).

So, Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, and Happy Holidays, to all!

The aches and pains

I had a difficult day yesterday. I had this horrible headache which kept me in bed most of the day. I kept saying to myself "oh my head, my head hurts". And I was welcoming sleep so I could stop doing that!

I feel much better today. I admire people who can forget about their pain and not complain about it. I mean like old people who don't tell you about every little ache and pain. I hope I can grow old gracefully that way.

The Fun Theory

I don't know if this will work but, I'm trying it. In the spirit of promoting fun and not being too much of a perfectionist to try things here is a link. I don't know why it isn't blue. Somebody sent me this email called Piano Steps:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2lXh2n0aPyw

The Fun Theory is a project thing Volkswagen is doing. The idea is that you can get people to do things if they think they are more fun. It really does look like it would be fun to go up and down those piano steps.

I wonder what kind of ideas I could come up with to make things more fun and make me what to do stuff that I don't want to do?

I remember working with someone on a boring job. We were hand-writing addresses on envelopes for a business (they employed us because they wanted to give the personal touch to a sale they were having). This person I was working with encouraged us to have races to see who could get the most done in a certain amount of time. It did make the time go by faster (and we got more done). We had thousands of names to go through. After a while it did get pretty tedious. He was good to work around because he also had a good sense of humor as well.

I used to not like washing dishes and now I don't mind it. In fact it is one thing I seem to get done regularly. I do them by hand because the dish washer is broken. I don't know how much fun it is for me, however. Maybe I like doing it because I like having it done. But I really don't mind it. I've heard many people who say they hate to hand wash stuff, they only want dishes and pans they can put in a dishwasher, and to use the dishwasher for everything no matter how many loads it takes. I wonder why. Maybe it is fun for me! I know I feel satisfied when it is done.

I also know people who hate to do hand sewing. Hand sewing is something I enjoy.

I also like peeling vegetables. I wouldn't want to have mountains of potatoes to peel like in those old army movies, but I don't mind doing enough to make a meal for myself or others. I find it relaxing.

During a period in my life when I was feeling stressed out a woman who I just had started to get to know was giving me a ride with her to Curves (a workout place for women). She was a neighbor who I just had waved hello to in the past. She suggested we go to the Dollar Store (a generic term) after our workout. In the store she went to the greeting card section, noticed some cards out of order, and she started putting them in their right places. She said she found that relaxing. Hehe! I thought I was the only one who did stuff like that!

But I have been having trouble with my quilting because of perfectionism, and I'm not sure what else. And quilting is fun. I think the most fun part is picking the colors and designing. I haven't gotten into a groove about quilting. Maybe I need to just do it.

Churchill liked to lay bricks and painting for fun. I think he enjoyed writing. I think he also enjoyed writing speeches (which seems like a distinct kind of writing). I enjoy writing. I have done painting in the past and have enjoyed it.

I've been reading about Churchill as I've said in previous posts. I haven't gotten very far in the first book I was reading, I got interested in Churchill more than the book written by him, and ended up getting into a library book about him. (I had gotten two actually but I took one back. The book I took back was by Churchill's granddaughter and seems like it would be worth trying again later. It was about lessons in leadership we could learn from Churchill.) The one I've kept is The Last Lion, Vol. 2: Alone 1932-1940, which were years during which everyone had dismissed and mocked Churchill as a man who had failed to live up to his potential and a reactionary not to be taken seriously. That would make another post.

I invented random

I was reading an old post on Down to Earth (a blog I follow, she has lots of followers). This particular post was about schedules. She had posted comments or something that other people had written in. One of the odder ones was someone who said she and hubby get up at noon and go to sleep at about 3 or 4, she said they don't work (maybe retired). One person said she is not much of a routine keeper.

That would be me at the moment.

I get up when I wake up (more or less). Sometimes I wake up at sometime between 3-6am get up for a while and then go back to bed. I don't really like to get up that early but sometimes I just can't seem to get back to sleep. If I do get up early then and go back to bed, I'm likely to rise between 8-11am. I take a bath and eat breakfast or I might do the it the other way around. I often listen to the radio.

I clean up dishes. I might eat lunch immediately after I finish cleaning up breakfast!

I walk or drive to my brother's house and get on computer. I might stay on the computer all day or a few hours. Sometimes I do some tidying up at his house. I vacuumed for him recently. I might turn on the TV. I might eat something (I bring food over sometimes). If I have stayed on the computer all day my brother might come home between 4-5 and want to take a nap. I might listen to the radio.

I might leave my brother's house and go for a walk. I might go home and cook. I might listen to the radio at my house some more. I might take a nap.

I have been sometimes doing some quilting when I get up early, in the morning or in the evening. Twice a month I go to quilt meetings if I remember. I have been remembering recently.

I have been doing some reading. Sometimes I get up and read when I wake up early. Sometimes I read before I go to bed, or in the evenings while I'm cooking and waiting for something to get done (like making brown rice which takes 45 minutes to prepare). Sometimes I refer to cookbooks. Sometime or other I go to wash my clothes at the laundrymat, sometimes I read there. I shop for for food most anytime.

This week I went to church on Sunday. I went to a fall festival on Saturday.

In favor of being well read

Apparently, the book I've been reading and posting about, is vol. 3 (I was thinking it was vol. 2) of The History of the English Speaking Peoples, by Winston Churchill. Vol. 3 is called The Age of Revolution.

I am an admirer of Churchill. He saw war coming and the need to resist Hitler before many others. I've gathered that from other stuff I've read. I had a pastor who liked to tell us about Churchill's speech to some English school children, roughly it went: Never, never, never give up.

I just read a few glowing reviews of this set of books. I think some parts of the book are a bit tedious. And I'm personally finding it rather challenging reading, lots of words I don't know, unfamiliar names I have a hard time remembering from page to page, and lots of descriptions of battles.

Churchill explains battles better than some writers, and I think it's apparent that this subject was of great interest to him. It's not a subject of great interest to me however. Perhaps his early interest in toy soldiers was helpful to him later in life. He could picture the battles and battle strategies.

I've been doing a bit of reading about Churchill and found out that he was not a very good student as a young man. Perhaps he just wasn't interested. What he did enjoy was playing with toy soldiers. When his father sent him to military school then he began to flourish. He really took to it. He entered the army and was sent to India where spent the hot afternoons breaks reading instead of napping, and educated himself reading Plato and such like. He began to develop a talent for writing.

I think it's interesting to read about successful people who overcame difficulties. His parents were wealthy and paid him little attention. He did have a nanny who he was close to. Perhaps that made a great difference.

I was telling someone about this book. I said that it appeared to me that Churchill favored war. I'm not sure if that is quite the right way to put it. He writes favorably about his ancestor Marlborough who was a soldier, perhaps showing a personal bias, I don't know. They seemed to me to be fighting about some silly stuff in some cases, some disagreement that might have been worked out with diplomacy. I don't know enough to say why France and England and I think some other countries got into a war about who should be the king of Spain. I think it had something to do with Catholics and Protestants. The book paints of picture of periods of engaging in war and then of becoming weary of war. But perhaps sometimes fighting a decisive battle is better than dragging out a long one, if it can be done with. What lessons can we learn from the past?

The person I was talking to said that she had been reading a lot of books about war. And she was clearly coming to the conclusion that war should be avoided. She didn't actually say that but I just took it that she felt that way. We didn't really get into that particular subject. When I said that I thought Churchill favored war she said she wouldn't want to read that book.

I wouldn't say that I am pro-war and yet it seems at some times wars are unfortunately unavoidable. It's hard to know what would have happened if history had taken a different course. If a certain war had not been fought, or a certain war had been fought, what would have happened. What would have happened if England did not fight Germany in WWI? What if England had not had a man like Churchill?

The women and I went on to talk of other books, and I must say that I was quite impressed when she said that she reads out loud to her husband who's eyesight is failing. I wondered how long did she read to read so many books, so I asked her. She really surprised me when she answered that she would typically read about 1 1/2 hours after breakfast, and after lunch, and after dinner. That makes about 4.5 hours a day of reading!

My Inner Movie/TV Critic

So, I created a new blog today. I was thinking of putting a bar with tabs in this "main" blog, but I didn't know how to to do it or what it would be called. I haven't posted on the blog yet. But I do often thinking about writing about stuff on TV or movies.

I've made a few changes in the format.

I added some labels to old posts.

I discovered that those bars with tabs are called tab bars or bar tabs, oh well, I realized this too late. Or maybe I'll do it in the future.

History Lesson

I've been doing lots of reading and writing recently. In my reading I'm into a book by Winston Churchill, the second volume of a series about the history of England. The other three volumes I do not have, once all four volumes were my parents, who had a lot of books, I remember them being around when I was young. Starting in volume two, or mid-stream, I'm finding that Churchill refers back to the first volume and is writing assuming the reader knows what he's already said.

I really don't remember much from history in school (about the English or otherwise), so that's no help. What is some help is some more recent reading and movie watching. Last year I read a book set in England that covered the period just before 1688 where Churchill's volume 2 begins. I also remember some things that I picked up from some movies, one in particular being Restoration.

The movie depicts a difficult period in England's history. In the years 1665 and 1666, England suffered the ravages of a plague that killed 100,000 people , followed in September 1666, by a fire that destroyed much of London, but however helped to end the plague. (I just wikipedia'd the numbers and googled the movie.) The movie follows the life a of a doctor, played, I thought, brilliantly by Robert Downey, Jr. Eventually, the doctor is brought into the court of the king, Charles II. The story is long and involved and I won't go into it. I will say that I enjoyed the movie but it does depict lots of debauchery (which was germane to the period of history). The title Restoration is somewhat a play on words in that the period of history was called the Restoration, and the doctor experiences a restoration in his own life.

In the book I mentioned, a king was killed and then some other people were in power and they were oppressively religious people. There was something about the queens and I have such a bad memory!

The cover shows a woman wearing a very elaborate gown and pearls, I can't remember the title, I think it might have had the word pearl in it. (Yes, I did several searches and it took several minutes but I finally found it, the book's title is Circle of Pearls. I also refreshed my memory some about the book. I read some on Amazon. Remembering Julia's name, helped, then Julia and Christopher Wren.)

The story is about Julia, starting from her childhood, the member of a wealthy family that opposes the current government and must hide their true colors. Julia's family are wealthy and live on a large estate. In their home they have hidden a gown that belonged to queen Elizabeth. The elaborately made gown was given to Julia's grandmother by the queen and is mentioned throughout the book. Mainly, I think the gown signifies the repressive nature of their enemies who would destroy it if they found it. Such things are considered too worldly. Christopher Wren, a real person is a main character. I knew the name from somewhere, he was an architect, among other interests. The writer does a good job of weaving fiction into history. She includes lots of interesting details about things like embroidery and lace, things which interest me, (anything to do with textiles), but which may be not that interesting to everyone.

If I keep reading this history and historical stuff eventually maybe I'll be able to remember it better. Another book I read, some time ago, a book centered in Holland is somewhat relevant. It covered part of the period of history when Spain occupied Holland. Many people in Holland suffered greatly under the Spanish. I never remember even hearing about that, although it's possible I had just forgotten. The Protestant Reformation which began in Germany had spread to the Netherlands and they were fighting about religion. All of this does have to do with England's history. In 1688, there is a revolution in England that leads to William of Orange (from the Netherlands) becoming king of England.

I wanted to read more about Dutch history after reading that book but couldn't find anything. My memory of that book is rather vague already. I wouldn't mind rereading the book, if I can remember the name of it! I remember what the cover looked like. This was a library book. (Wow! I got lucky searching for this title which I thought would be really difficult. It was called The Sea Beggars, by Cecelia Holland. I found it with just 3 searches.)

So, my book I'm reading, vol. 2, of Churchill's History of England begins with William of Orange already established as king.

Postscript:
Okay, so I looked it up some more of the stuff I couldn't remember, and scanning several wikipedia articles I found out the following. The "king that was killed" was Charles I, beheaded for treason in 1649. Civil war had been fought (two civil wars, 1642-45 and 1648-49) between the royalists (also called Cavaliers) and the parliamentarians, (aka Roundheads). The Roundheads, "the other people in power who were religiously oppressive," were so called because there were many among their number who were puritans that kept their hair cut short. The term Roundhead was derogatory.

Charles I, was the son of James I of England. James followed Elizabeth I (who died without bearing children). Elizabeth was the daughter of Henry VIII. Before Elizabeth reigned her half-brother, Edward VI, and then half-sister, Mary, I, reigned. ("The queens" that I mentioned).

England was briefly under the rule of Oliver Cromwell 1653-58, and then his son, Richard, 58-59, under the title Lord Protector. Before and after their rule, from 49-53 and 59-60 the country was under the rule of a Council of State. The monarchy was restored in 1660 with Charles' son, Charles II.

Whether the Parliamentarians, or Roundheads, were as oppressive as they are depicted in the book I don't know. It sounds like they were. After the civil wars the old allegiances still continued and the two groups were very at odds with each other, disagreeing on religious and political grounds. In the book, the Roundheads seize many of the estates of the royalists under some pretext I don't remember. I suppose that was based on real life.

I was trying to read wikipedia on The House of Orange. It's too complicated! Maybe I'll get back to that another time. I like the sound of the name, it makes me think of the color and the fruit. I wonder if the color has anything to do with the Irish orange. Yes, in Ireland, the color orange stands for Protestant, and comes from William of Orange. Green stands for Catholic. Google and Wikipedia to the rescue again.

Well, one thing leading to another, and although this only connects to anything I've been talking about by a hair, I include it. It's the Irish song, "The wearing of the green," one version of which follows:

O Paddy dear, an' did ye hear the news that's goin' round?
The shamrock is by law forbid to grow on Irish ground;
St. Patrick's Day no more we'll keep, his colour can't be seen,
For there's a cruel law agin the wearin' o' the Green.

I met wid Napper Tandy and he took me by the hand,
And he said, "How's dear ould Ireland, and how does she stand?"
She's the most distressful country that ever yet was seen,
For they're hangin' men an' women there for the wearin' o' the Green.

Then since the colour we must wear is England's cruel red,
Sure Ireland's sons will ne'er forget the blood that they have shed,
You may take a shamrock from your hat and cast it on the sod,
It will take root and flourish there though underfoot it's trod.

When law can stop the blades of grass from growin' as they grow,
And when the leaves in summer-time their colour dare not show,
Then will I change the colour, too, I wear in my caubeen
But 'till that day, please God, I'll stick to wearin' o' the Green.

But if at last our colour should be torn from Ireland's heart,
Her sons with shame and sorrow from the dear old isle will part;
I've heard a whisper of a land that lies beyond the sea
Where rich and poor stand equal in the light of freedom's day.

O Erin, must we leave you driven by a tyrant's hand?
Must we ask a mother's blessing from a strange and distant land?
Where the cruel cross of England shall nevermore be seen,
And where, please God, we'll live and die still wearin' o' the green!


The land beyond the sea is America. A caubeen was a hat. People supporting revolution wore shamrocks in their hatbands.

Search Overload

I like the commercials that are running now that poke fun at people quoting things they've learned by web searching. They've even come up with a name for the phenomenon, "search overload," I think it what they say in the commercial. It seems we've all become researchers these days. And I know the feeling. Somehow lots of searching leaves all these facts loosely floating around in my brain in an unconnected sort of way. I don't know if it actually comes out in how I talk, but it's there in the way I'm thinking. How the content of media and the forms of media affect the way we think is an interesting subject for thought. Before the internet, and I'm old enough to remember well "life before the internet," I guess I might have suffered similar results from say a visit to the library and rifling through an assortment of books, or perhaps reading through a dictionary or an encyclopedia.

It's hard to know exactly how exposure to something affects my thinking. I remember years ago noticing that after reading Mark Twain I had started using speech patterns that he used in his writing, talking, or rather thinking in my head, like Huckleberry Finn or Tom Sawyer, I'm not sure which. I can't think how that is, how they talked, I can't do it without going and "searching" for a copy of one of those books that is. I am sure I could find out easily enough, certainly those books are available online. We have so much information available at our fingertips! How does that affect my thinking? Does that matter?

It's hard to know, as I was saying. It's hard to have that much perspective. I've found myself thinking like a reporter or writer. I think I've done that for years however. I'll think something and then I rewrite. I recognized that habit in the movie about a reporter and a homeless guy, I can't think of the name just now, or the actors names. I'm completely drawing a blank, but I'm sure I could go find it. Stop and check my facts and then finish writing this. Sometimes I do that. Sometimes I don't really want to interrupt my flow of thought, but I want to have my facts right. Even though I probably don't need to worry too much about that in this blog. I don't think I have a very high readership.

That's another subject, the subject of the accuracy of what you find when you do searches. Who knows who wrote some stuff, how much they really know what they are talking about, and if they are just rewriting what someone else has posted somewhere else. I think a lot of inaccurate statements get circulated that way.

In the movie, about a reporter and a homeless Juilliard-taught violinist (I just searched how to spell Juilliard), the reporter guy keeps rewriting, rewording his story in his head. That's something I do.

And then it's just that everything I'm doing can become something to report about. I'm writing. I'm writing about writing. I'm writing about writing and I have a tv on in the background. I'm going to stop writing now. I'm going to click on the publish post button. That sort of thing.

Some thoughts on fishbowl romance

I'm still thinking about it. This episode of More to Love. I guess it touched a few nerves in my own life. Stuff about falling in love. But it's more than that.

I just watched the finale, so I didn't ever see any of the other girls than the final two, Malissa and Tali. I'm not sure if it was Malissa or Melissa, but I saw Malissa somewhere. And the fellows' name was Luke.

This is obviously just my opinion, but for looks I thought the fellow not all that good looking. But, although the women were overweight, I thought they were pretty. And for personality, I didn't see the appeal of the fellow either. He did how ever have a good job, a successful real estate investor, I think they said. But I just watched the one episode, so I might change my mind if I had seen more of him.

I tuned in somewhere after the beginning. Luke was in the process of taking each girl home to meet his parents. Since his parents were divorced, first it was his father and grandmother and some other family members, and then his mother. Tali was first. The father prayed over the meal and made comments that made it clear that he was a Christian. Since Tali is Jewish he asked her questions about her faith. I wish I remembered exactly what was said. He was fairly direct and clearly making her uncomfortable. But they seemed like legitimate concerns to me. How do you feel about marrying outside of your faith, what about having children, how will you raise them, that sort of thing. Tali handled the questions fairly well. She said something about faith being more important than which faith. I don't know what that could mean. She said she would want any children they might have to know about both of their faiths.

Malissa was never asked about her faith. Or they didn't show that on the show, I guess that's possible, but I kind of doubt it.

After meeting both young women, the father indicated that he thought that Malissa was the better choice. I found myself rooting for Tali. I guess I just liked her better. After his mother met both of them, she sided with Tali.

It was never clear to me if Luke is a Christian, or if Malissa is a Christian.

I guess I'm wondering what people who aren't Christians would think about all of that.

Both women were shown as they put on the finishing touches of their make-up and looked themselves over in the mirror before the final dates. The one, the date where each would find out if she was to be proposed to or rejected.

Malissa said that Luke made her feel beautiful. She was radiant as she walked toward him. She was radiant as she gazed into his eyes...until he told her that she was not the one, then her countenance changed. It was dramatic. I wanted to tell her that she is still a beautiful woman no matter whether she was chosen by this man or not.

I wonder if it's really a very good way to meet someone, in the public eye like a fish in a fishbowl.

Why do they always fall in love? I haven't followed much of these shows but I've never heard of anyone who didn't "fall in love" on them. One person has choices and the others always seem to fall for the one, this one who is after all just a random person.

Funny

I just read this story about a woman who regained her sight when they put some kind of artificial eye, a lens, in one of her teeth and then they placed that in her eye. I thought I wonder if they used her eyetooth. Guess what? Yeah, they used the eyetooth! It's a wonderful thing for the woman I'm sure. But the humor of seeing with an eyetooth is just cracking me up. I keep giggling to myself.

I also heard this story recently which I found humorous. Two girls fell in a drainage hole and they used a cell phone to text a message to one of the girls' facebook page. Then they waited for someone to see it and notify the police. Never thought of calling 911? I don't know. They had to wait some seven hours to be rescued.

General Rant about Movies

I've rented some lame movies lately. If I mention them by name or even discuss them someone might want to go rent one of them. That would be a waste of time. On the other hand I've read some interesting books. I like both genres, but sometimes I just want to sit back and watch a movie. I guess it's hard for movie makers to constantly and consistently come out with good stuff. I guess. But some of the movies I've seen lately, I don't know why anyone would have wanted to make them.

I've seen a couple of movies that I could describe as good but deeply disturbing also. One of the movies I rented was good in parts but really stupid in parts. I'm afraid the stupid outweighed anything very meaningful. The movies featured actors who I have enjoyed watching in the past, who have acting talent. They did a decent job given the scripts, but their talents seem to be going to waste. I guess I could mention names here but I'm reluctant still.

As for disturbing movies. I think there is a place for them. Sometimes things happen in this world that are very difficult. People make movies about those things. Crimes of all kinds are such a frequent subject. I'm being quite vague intentionally. When you know that a story is based on real life, it's more upsetting. But I wonder if we aren't often jaded by exposure to so much of that.

Curiously, I've watched a whole lot of movies about the holocaust. That's a disturbing subject. But I usually seem to enjoy them. I can't explain it. Maybe its that Jews know how to tell a good story. Not always. I don't think that's it. I could name a really stupid movie here but I won't.

I'm wanting to rent a movie. I've been renting from Red Box, because it's so inexpensive. But the selection, at least at the moment is also limited. And I don't really want to watch another of the sort that I've been describing. Even comedies have been rather disappointing. I can't think when I've found a movie really funny, the kind of movie that caused me to laugh out loud watching.

Sometimes I have enjoyed movies done by Christian film makers. Sometimes I enjoy them. Sometimes not. I saw one in the Red Box and didn't choose it. Later when I decided to give it a try it wasn't there anymore.

I guess I could go read a book.

I have been reading, "Undaunted Courage: Meriwether Lewis, Thomas Jefferson, and the opening of the American West", by Ambrose Stephen. It's about the Lewis and Clark Expedition, primarily through the eyes of Lewis.

The author begins developing the story by taking the reader through Lewis' birth in Virginia in 1774, his formative years as a young man eager to get an education, and his early manhood, (at the age of 18 he bore the responsibility as the head of the family estate).

Something, I didn't know or remember was that before he embarked on the famous expedition, Lewis had served as the personal secretary to Jefferson and even lived in the Whitehouse with Jefferson (who was single). Jefferson was a mentor to Lewis. It struck me that that alone might have been considered a noteworthy accomplishment by some.

But there was much more to come. I felt the excitement that Lewis and Jefferson must have felt as they spent time discussing and planning the expedition. Among other things that needed to be done, Jefferson had to provide for funding. He was not a spendthrift as President, but he felt this endeavor to be worthy. So, he set about trying to convince congress. Jefferson meanwhile was working on another project, an offer to Napoleon for the United States to purchase New Orleans. Napoleon offered not only the city of New Orleans, but also France's whole claim to lands known as Louisiana. Jefferson took the offer. Curiously, neither Napoleon or the Americans had an exact mapping or knew the exact extent of the land involved in the transaction. Louisiana was vaguely construed the area encompassing the Mississippi River and its tributaries.

With the successful completion of that enterprise, the purchase of Louisiana, Jefferson had even more reason to request funding from Congress for the exploration of the recently purchased lands. Jefferson also envisioned that a water passage to the Pacific, the so-called Northwest Passage, could be found.

When congress did approve the trip, Lewis received basically a carte blanche, letter of credit for supplies and expenses. (What's new, the expenses of the trip were greatly underestimated.) Reading about Lewis' purchases of supplies, and deciding on what would be needed for the trip, I could only imagine what would have been like to buy anything he wanted. And I thought of my own anticipation before trips trying to pack light and usually not successfully. He must have been trying to think of everything that would be needed, reviewing what he had bought and trying to think if there was anything else they would need. The list included, nourishment, medicine, journals, arms (rifles and ammunition, etc.) for hunting and protection, items for trading with the Indians, many tools of various sorts, and what not, for many months travel and camping. And then packing it; it amazed me to think of all of that being packed into a boat.

The first of the boats purchased could hold many tons of goods, it was not one of the sort of canoes that I had always pictured them traveling in. I must admit I'm not very familiar with boats and that I had a hard time picturing the vessels although the book describes them in some detail. I would like to see pictures, or better yet see them in person.

Waiting on a drunken boat builder to complete the boat he had ordered caused Lewis several weeks delay. But he had to wait, he was dependent upon that fellow's services because no one else around had the skill to finish the job. I could feel his anxiousness to get going and his frustration. He had a long way to go before winter set in. It was already August (of 1803).

By the time he did get going, (he was on the Ohio River at this point), the river was too low for easy passage and the boat had to be dragged at several points. He then purchased some canoes to help share the load. There would be several more boat purchases along the journey. They also made some boats.

As part of his preparations, Lewis had also spent a good bit of time learning about botany, and how to make geographical measurements using the sun and stars for references. Jefferson wanted him to keep records about a vast array of subjects including not only records of new plants and animals seen, and the geographic records, but also detailed descriptions about the various Indian groups and their trading practices.

An interesting note about Clark: Lewis chose Clark to accompany him and wanted him to have equal position with him as a captain. He hired Clark and sent notice of his request that Clark be made a captain. But when the papers finally came through, he found that Clark had been designated as Lieutenant. Lewis told Clark that he wanted him to be a captain and they didn't tell the crew any different.

It must have seemed like such a grand adventure as Lewis set out from Pittsburgh. And they must all have been filled with excitement when Lewis and crew met up with Clark and his men along the Ohio River, and again when they reached the Mississippi, and really at some many points along the way until they finally achieved their goal and reached the Pacific.

Not only Lewis, but Clark and the crew kept journals. One thing one can't help noticing in reading the various excerpts is the spelling and punctuation. The spelling was typical of the spelling of the time, there were no absolute standards. Even the well educated found it difficult to choose the proper spelling of words. I found the many variations in spelling for the same word rather amusing. But then I thought about the fact they would not have been carrying around dictionaries (and certainly did not have spell checkers). I'm not sure that there were dictionaries yet.

Much of what we know about their journey is through what they recorded in those journals. Naturally, there were many frustrations and difficulties along the way. There were dangerous encounters with Indians, with the elements, with grizzly bears, and mosquitoes, sickness, injuries, hunger, cold, anxieties and uncertainties about where they were and which way to proceed.

In one way, I was impressed with Lewis' bravery over all, and in particular in encountering the Indians. I just wonder what those meetings would have been like. I suppose that he must have had a forceful personality to not only make the initial approaches but to be welcomed and to continue in the company of all of the different Indians they met. In other words, I think they must have liked and respected him.

I could admire his bravery, but then again, I was saddened by the way Lewis and the rest of the party viewed and treated the Indians. For one, he was trying sell the story that they, as representatives of the United States, were just friendly visitors. Jefferson and Lewis had fixed their stories as to what they would tell the Indian tribes. Lewis had his agenda and he stuck to it, pretty much. One version of the story was that Lewis's group were merely on a scientific expedition (they were, but that was only partially true), and another was that they were just hoping to establish trade with the Indians.

Invitations were extended to the chiefs to meet their "father" Jefferson. They urged peace and cooperation between all of the other Indians and with the Americans. I wonder if their words were met with any skepticism by the Indians? If so, rightly so. It would nice to have a record of those visits through the Indian's eyes.

I felt saddened especially when they reached the Pacific Northwest learning that the Indian tribes that they spent time with there would mostly die off in not too many years, due to small pox.

I really disliked reading what Jefferson told someone in a letter, essentially that he was hoping to pacify the Indians by creating dependence on the United States through trade. He said, if the United States could put the Indians in the position of buying trade goods on credit, they would likely soon go into debt and then they would likely pay off they debts with their land.

The Indian way of life, including their notion of "ownership" of land, being a sort of fluid thing, would soon be coming to an end. In some ways the Lewis and Clark expedition might have served the purpose of notifying the Indians of the changes that were coming their way.

It would be easy to romanticize that way of life, but then again they were warring peoples, not only fighting white men but also among themselves. As one of their young men remarked fighting was their way of proving their bravery, how else could they do it? It's difficult, if not impossible, to imagine the Indian way of life continuing the way it had been.

Paring down, editing my memories

I've been going through my stuff endlessly it seems.

Anyway I was looking at some old journals that I wrote one in 1992 and one in 1995.

It was interesting to me to see the ways I have changed and the ways that I am still so much like I used to be. I kept talking about marriage. I wanted to be married then and I still do have that desire. But I feel perhaps I worry about it a good deal less.

I rewrote some of it and decided to throw away the old stuff. I had forgotten some people's names that I was glad to see written down. I wrote a few things that I care to share. One thing I thought was funny and one poignant.

I wrote: I have decided that I need to lose weight. That explains why I am eating this whole container of Haagen Daz. LOL.

After returning from the trip to Hungary, I wrote that I felt when I came back that I was like a bird put back in its cage, singing "Is this where I belong?"

Interesting that I had a forgotten a lot of the painful stuff and the joys as well.

Are you ready for this?

Is there a maxim about never blogging angry?

Take a deep breath. Sigh.

Are you ready for this the receptionist asked me? Then she told me how much I owed. $1800! I had already paid a $200 deposit.

$2000.00! That's how much the first of my vet bills is. And I have to do a follow-up visit.

The vet told me $600, and I know there was no misunderstanding, so he lied to me straight-faced $600.00. I thought that would be a big pill to swallow but I could manage it.

I'm pretty angry with that fellow.

Ok. I've had my rant.

If he had told me the truth I might have had him put down even though I had already spent the money for blood-work and x-rays. I love my dog, I really do, but he is just a dog.

I brought his sweet little smiling face home today thinking about how much he was costing me. It took me several minutes to stop shaking. I'm still upset.

Take a deep breath. Sigh.

A wee small further rant on about my income earning potential, I've never had a job that paid more than $12/hour and most of the time I've earned less, and if I had a job at the moment, which I don't, it would take me a long time, maybe a year, to save that much money.

Well, it's true I have got myself here by putting off looking for work. How hard I've always found job hunting, how insecure I am, I don't know, all the reasons for it.

But that doesn't mean that this doesn't hurt.

I wonder if that fellow would care at all if he thought about all of that.

The House that Roone Built

A few years ago a local bookstore was going out of business and I bought several fat hard-bound books; books I might not ordinarily have chosen for reading matter.

I just finished reading one of those books, The House that Roone Built: the Inside Story of ABC News. I'm not sure why I picked up this book, except that I had happened to catch the funeral service for Roone Arledge on C-Span. The book published in 1984 describes the highlights of Roone's career at ABC and in the process, as the title indicates, give you an inside view of ABC news.

Did I have any particular interest in ABC news? Well, yes. For one, I had a sort of celebrity crush on Peter Jennings, and too I have watched a good bit of ABC news. Certainly much more than CBS or NBC news.

At one time I watched only PBS news. This was because I didn't have cable and I could only get two stations with my rabbit ears (yeah, with the coat hangers and foil). And it was a hassle to change between the two stations and realign the antennae. I usually stuck with PBS. I think ABC may have been the other channel, I don't remember for sure.

As for PBS's Newshour: one thing I really liked then and still appreciate is that there are no commercial interruptions. Among other things this means that they have time to go into stories in depth. On the other hand maybe I'm not really that deep! I find my mind often wanders listening to "talking heads" on PBS (or anywhere). Sometimes I would try really hard to make myself focus; only sometimes successfully.

Since I'm discussing news, I could mention that I also used to have a subscription to Time Magazine at the time. In the beginning I tried to read it from cover to cover. I found that this required that I have a dictionary at my side. That's cool, beef up my vocabulary. However, I finally realized even armed with a dictionary there was no way I could keep up reading all of the stories. The longer stories sometimes seemed to be not that substantial once I had deciphered the big words. Some interested me but didn't seem so important. I think I liked most the editorial posts. They were generally short and unambiguously biased.

And I used to get the Sunday paper too. I would save all of the issues of all of my magazine subscriptions (non-news varieties as well) and the Sunday papers (well I am a pack-rat of long-standing). And I would try to stay informed about the news. I don't think I was very successful really. I always read the funnies first. I would look at the pictures, generally scan the headlines and read what interested me. I'm not sure how much "news" I was really taking in.

In truth I fear I may have just the sort of short attention span that most of the news broadcasts seem to pander to.

If on the one hand, I do find myself getting frustrated when I hear a short blurb about something, maybe one or two sentences and on to another subject. It often seems I'm still wondering about the last story and then miss the next one. For one thing, I'm thinking why did they even mention that; I don't really know much more than before I heard the blurb.

On the other hand, I have a hard time trying to keeping track of the facts of stories, who is who and what is what and listening to long discussions about stuff I can't quite follow. To be fair this is true no matter what news source I'm using.

I have thought sometimes I have some instinct for what will make a good story subject, what local stories will make the national news. I don't know what this amounts to but I do have some kind of curiosity or fascination with the whole news making process. So I guess after all that it makes sense that I would read this book.

I've been trying to figure out what kind of job I would be good at. As I was reading this book I joked to myself, maybe I should have been a network president! (Ha!)

It seems that Roone was a man with many faults. One that irritated many people was that he would not return people's phone calls. (I do that! I'm afraid I'm apt not to return phone calls. I don't even have the excuse of getting many.) He let problems go, blamed other people and was indecisive. (I can relate to that.) He had a tendency to make everything about himself. (Um well, yeah I do that pretty often). He tried things that were a big flop. He sometimes went for the showy and the sensational. In the end perhaps it was his extravagant expenditures of money that led to his being pushed into a role of figurehead. As the book describes it, that is what his being named chairman amounted to. (Spending extravagantly sounds like fun, but it hasn't been my experience). Roone retired about 4 years before he died in 2002. So, the book doesn't cover the last 4 years of his career.

He had faults and failures. But he also tried some things that worked and he recognized talent. He went after the major stories and if he spent a lot of money, he often delivered. At his funeral I recall that people were saying that he pushed people to become more than they thought they could.

I guess those are the main things I got out of reading the book. There was a lot of competitiveness and politics behind the scenes--surely no surprise. And I suppose reading this book just reinforced the reality of the humanity of our news people; those on screen whose names and faces become familiar to us, the anchors and reporters, and all of those people off-screen, the little people and the big-wigs who are behind the scenes, all of those people who are responsible for bringing the news to us.

As a sidenote:

I have had this idea for news, now that news can be kept up with on the Internet. It's kind of vaguely in my head. Someway to help people know what they really would like to know about the news, get caught up on stories they've missed. But then again maybe that's already being done. Perhaps a person can find out about just about anything that they really want to, hm, well to a certain extent anyway.

The Old Woman

"She's pretty", said the woman standing at my side. We were watching an older lady make her way through things piled up at a flea market.

Pretty? I said to myself. And I wondered if there was something lost in translation. The woman speaking to me was Hispanic and I thought perhaps she couldn't think of the correct word.

The older woman was obviously of person of limited means. She was wearing an orange and brown print skirt that didn't at all match her too big yellow and green plaid blouse. The stringy brassy-blonde ends of her hair were neatly pinned against her head with bobby pins. The top half of her hair was gray. Her face was well-wrinkled and pocked. Her teeth were crooked. She picked up a pen and some other item that were marked with low prices.

"She's pretty", my new acquaintance, repeated.

I thought about it some more and thought maybe she didn't mean at all the outward appearance but rather than inward one.

I don't know if I understood her, but finally, I said, "I know what you mean."

Tough Choices

I am not living on government assistance and don't qualify for it yet. But it sadly seems to be a good possibility for me not too far down the road. I'm not sure how long I can make the money I have now stretch. I heard that many Americans live paycheck to paycheck. I don't know what the statistics are. Unlike some folks I really hate the idea of depending on assistance.

I need a job. I'm not sure what kind of job I should be looking for. I may end up working at McDonalds. That was where I worked when I first graduated from college with my degree in Religion and Philosophy. It was not a very practical thing to get a degree in. Neither was my first choice for a major when I started college. After trying then to consider my strengths I decided upon an art major. I didn't really have drive for art however. I don't know if I have ever had a drive for anything. I did really want to get married. I thought I would have children.

And wanted to go to college from when I was in Junior High School. I knew I was smart enough. So maybe that was the main reason I wanted to go. My mom had gotten a college degree, worked a few years and then she got married, and quit working when she had me. I guess I was supposing that I would be like her, marry soon after college and be a well educated mother. I didn't really have any strong ambitions for what I wanted to do as far as employment. I have had a very hard time figuring out what I'm really good at.

Advice about how to get hired and get your resume noticed seems hard for me to take. On this one talk show they were saying you should put your achievements on your resume. The guy said and everyone has achievements.

So far I've tried to think of what sort of accomplishments I could put on my resume and nothing much in the way of achievements has come to mind. Even people who have been in jail get jobs. So I guess there must be something out there for me somewhere. I have stayed out of jail so far. I am reasonably intelligent. I read Les Miserables last year. That was a bit of an achievement, I think it took me about 2 months. I have read books about grammar for fun and tried to work at my writing skills. I'm thinking that and $5 bucks will buy me a cup of coffee at Starbucks (if I was willing to pay that much).

I just found out that not only does my dog (one of two) have a broken leg, but he has heartworms also. Arg! How do you put a value on a dog? He is the best companion and most loyal and affectionate dog a person could ask for. And he seems to really like my company, he actually wants to be around me. I'm not sure if any humans like my company quite so much. I don't have to do anything special and he just likes hanging around. Isn't that great?

With times the way they are I guess it's true that a lot of us are having to make tough choices.

I'm not the only one who does it

My brother remarked to me recently that there was no accounting for the reason why I save some of the things I save, but weren't there some things I could throw away? Something to that effect.

I do save a lot of stuff. One reason I save stuff is that I really do hate the idea of how much stuff is buried in the land fills. And once there it probably isn't going to be used again.

And I do recycle everything I can. I just read that some recycling places do recycle vitamin bottles, I'll have to investigate if my county takes them.

Anyway here's a list of some of the stuff I have saved: plastic bottles of all kinds, large and small; water, juice, vitamin, spice, pill bottles, etc. Non-bottle plastic containers such as the kind that hold potato chips, and cocoa, etc. Oatmeal boxes, and similar such cardboard containers. Plastic spice "tins" (not the bottles). Bottle lids. Cardboard tubes from paper towels and toilet paper. Altoid, and similar tins. Keys. Old clothing of all sorts. Plastic bags. Paper bags. Gift bags. Newspapers. Tissue paper. Wrapping paper. Ribbons.

Reuse ideas. I just spent a good bit of time googling reuses ideas. Here are some I found. Some I had thought of myself.

* I found a place to send keys. Wind chime. Weights for the hems of curtains or table cloths to be used outside.

* Lots of people thought of using the small plastic containers for storing paper clips, beads, buttons, etc. (Yeah, I had thought of that.)

* Clean, food-safe bottles for lunch boxes to put nuts, or salad dressing.

* A chandlier. The chandelier I saw made of various plastic items--not at all attractive, I havta say. I have thought of trying to make some kind of sculptures.

* A soda bottle greenhouse. The greenhouse made of 2 liter bottles looked pretty cool. A "green" greenhouse.

Some of my own ideas.

* Cut-up old jeans to make quilts for charity.

* A small plastic vitamin bottle makes a good place to put broken pins and needles.

* Put small plastic spice containers filled with water in the freezer to use as ice packs. I use the ice packs both for packing food and for pain relief. (Ice is good for reducing inflammation, and the bottles don't drip as much as bags of ice.) This also also a good to fill up the freezer. It's supposedly more energy efficient for some reason.

I have thought of trying to open up a warehouse or something that just collects such things so every conscientious person who had more plastic vitamin bottles, etc. than they need could take them there. And anyone would needed such stuff for a craft project or whatever could just come and get what they needed. And the stuff wouldn't just go the the land fill. I haven't been able to think of a way to cover the expenses however. I wonder if it would be worth it to the county to keep so much stuff out of the landfill?

Michael Jackson

Today there was a memorial service for Michael Jackson. I didn't watch it. I don't know what to think about MJ. I was never a big fan of his music, I never really listened to it.

I did have a look at a tape of him being questioned about the molestation charges. One person whose blog I like to read has posted about MJ a few times. He says that he thinks of MJ as being child like and innocent and put a link to the video I just mentioned. I guess we "read him" very differently. I don't have any strong feelings regarding his guilt or innocence of the charges. Maybe he just enjoyed being around children. I like to keep an open mind. I'm afraid I probably don't make a very good juror because I have a hard time deciding who's right.

But looking at his facial expressions in the video I wasn't seeing child-likeness. Well sort of, but its seems more like a kind of strange childishness. In the interview he wrinkles his eyebrows in sort of a look of surprise at one the questions. Then he covered his face and then there was this smile. He looked to me more like someone feeling shame and embarrassment for whatever reason. I felt that he was feeling conflicted about something. You hear a lawyer is telling him not to answer some questions. The lawyer throws another element into the mix.

I like to think I can read people's faces pretty well. I was fascinated by the several episodes of the show Lie to Me that I watched this season. The show is basically based on the idea that you can read involuntary expressions in people's faces that are universal. A hand at the brow means shame. Some smiles indicate guilt or embarrassment. I'm probably not that good at reading faces, to the point of having learned those things scientifically.

I also thought MJ looked a bit like the Joker in Batman. That probably could be the result all of those plastic surgeries. I'm sorry for him that he felt driven to change his appearance. I don't know if the surgeries did it, but all of his expressions seem exaggerated. Like a caricature.

I do feel sorry for him. His childhood sounds difficult. He said in one interview that he loved best being on stage. All of that attention. People "loved" him. Maybe they really did love him, I don't know.

Dirty Diana was trending on twitter. I didn't know it was a song, or anything, so I googled it and listened to the song and then read the words. Several people said they loved the song. Who knows what made him write that song. A real personal experience?

Really only God knows our hearts, all the motivations for what we do and say.

I felt a lot of emotion about John Lennon's death, maybe because I did like some of his music. By comparison, I feel rather numb about MJ, probably because I never was a fan.

Independence Day, the Whole Story has not been told

This is the 4th of July, 2009.

I didn't go to a parade today, and I'm probably going to spend the whole day by myself. Sigh!

However, here's a bright spot in my day. I listened to a good Independence Day broadcast on my local Christian Radio station on Janet Parshall's Talking it Over.

Listening to the program I was reminded how much so the United States of America was founded by Christians, yes there were other folks also. But there were many strong Christians who based their thinking on the Bible. It's generally not pc to talk about such subjects so it isn't being told enough (I think). When I hear about them, the sacrifices they made and the ideals they upheld I feel so thankful.

It supposedly violates an ideal of the separation of Church and state to talk about these people in schools today. So if you want to know you have to do some investigation for yourself.

I need to do some more reading before I can do any justice to talking about this subject. But I think a good place to go would be the Wallbuilder's website for all kinds of information along these lines.

The life of the land is perpetuated in righteousness.

Let's remember and be thankful to God for our freedoms this 4th of July (and the rest of the year)!