Translated from the original Hebrew, Greek and Aramaic.
It snowed last night! While this may not be newsworthy to our more northerly friends, anytime it snows in Atlanta, the city shuts down. Granted we're getting more freezing rain than snow at the moment, but check out the pics of the snow from our balcony. Brrr!
To: All Employees
From: Todd
Re: Restroom Decorum
I'm back on jury duty today and tomorrow. Wish me luck. Ugh...
Update: I was there for 3 days, not the usual 2. B-o-r-i-n-g. I'm actually glad to be back at work today!
Bailey is our new 13-week-old teacup Poodle. As you can see, his coloring is mostly brown, with lots of cream and black thrown in. He currently weighs almost 2.5 pounds and will probably max out at a whopping 4 pounds. We think he's just adorable!
Being a bundle of energy, he loves playing chase and fetching his toys, and from all indications he's a smart, smart pup. He already knows one trick -- he walks on his hind legs. Potty training is going well too, and he isn't a nervous dog at all. (Poodles get a bad rap for being, among other things, yappy dogs, but the ones I've seen are anything but.)
For more pictures, go to his Gallery
Happy Weekend y'all! I took a vacation day today and learned the particulars about burning DVDs on my fancy new DVD burner. I also tried to get the photos together for the "big" announcement, but I wasn't successful, so you'll have to wait until tomorrow, maybe Sunday for the news. Sorry to be a tease. I'll explain the delay when I announce.
Have fun this weekend!
I'll go ahead and jump on the "mystery" bandwagon that some others have used and let you know that I'm working on an announcement for my blog. I need to get several photos just right before I post it, however, so I'll further the mystery by hinting that the subject of this announcement will change my life and Kevin's life for the next, oh, 12-17 years.
Intrigued? I hope so. I should have the announcement ready on Friday, so check back in!
Maybe it's just me. If so, please bear with me.
What is it with people running red lights? I'm not talking about the cars who plow on through the intersection while the light is changing from yellow to red. I'm talking about true red-light runners.
On my way to work this morning, an SUV (natch) was first in line at the intersection after a vehicle turned right on red. The driver then looked both ways (thankfully) then drove completely through the intersection! All while the traffic light was red!
I see this happening more and more often.
Now, my Napoleon complex may be showing here, but what gives her the right to do that? Who does she think she is? Is this only an Atlanta phenomenon? What happened to obeying the rules?
Sorry if I sound cranky. I lost a glove yesterday and broke my sunglasses this morning. Is this the universe's way of telling me I need to go shopping??
Thanks to Andrew Sullivan for this quotation.
"Perhaps it is easy for those who have never felt the stinging dark of segregation to say, "Wait." But when you have seen vicious mobs lynch your mothers and fathers at will and drown your sisters and brothers at whim; when you have seen hate-filled policemen curse, kick and even kill your black brothers and sisters; when you see the vast majority of your twenty million Negro brothers smothering in an airtight cage of poverty in the midst of an affluent society; when you suddenly find your tongue twisted and your speech stammering as you seek to explain to your six-year-old daughter why she can't go to the public amusement park that has just been advertised on television, and see tears welling up in her eyes when she is told that Funtown is closed to colored children, and see ominous clouds of inferiority beginning to form in her little mental sky, and see her beginning to distort her personality by developing an unconscious bitterness toward white people; when you have to concoct an answer for a five-year-old son who is asking: "Daddy, why do white people treat colored people so mean?"; when you take a cross-county drive and find it necessary to sleep night after night in the uncomfortable corners of your automobile because no motel will accept you; when you are humiliated day in and day out by nagging signs reading "white" and "colored"; when your first name becomes "nigger," your middle name becomes "boy" (however old you are) and your last name becomes "John," and your wife and mother are never given the respected title "Mrs."; when you are harried by day and haunted by night by the fact that you are a Negro, living constantly at tiptoe stance, never quite knowing what to expect next, and are plagued with inner fears and outer resentments; when you know forever fighting a degenerating sense of "nobodiness" then you will understand why we find it difficult to wait. There comes a time when the cup of endurance runs over, and men are no longer willing to be plunged into the abyss of despair. I hope, sirs, you can understand our legitimate and unavoidable impatience." - Martin Luther King Jr, in his "Letter from Birmingham Jail."
I wanted to make some observations about the Cynicism post I wrote a few days ago.
Note: observations are about the post itself and the writing process. My cynicism still exists, but I'm not feeling so dark about it now. Being cynical is a more or less constant "condition" for me.
This was my first foray into the "darkness" of Todd, so I was a bit apprehensive about opening myself up so much. But after it was completed and posted, I actually felt much better. Ah, the therapy of getting one's thoughts out seems to actually work.
I have to comment on the use of the third person. I had several starts on that post using the first person, and the words just wouldn't make it out. After reflection, I believe that I had to put it in the third person to separate myself from the emotions. Now that's a revelation, and provides some insight into me and my mind's inner workings. But after I switched the point of view, the post almost wrote itself.
Posts like that won't happen very often; putting those feelings (whether good or bad) doesn't come easy for me. Practice, practice, practice will improve my writing, I'm sure. Anyway, just wanted to share my thoughts about that post a few days after the fact.
I can't say I disagree. I also agree with the rabbi who was interviewed on NPR's Morning Edition this morning. Perhaps God isn't omnipotent. Perhaps God couldn't do anything to prevent the earthquake and tsunami. If God is a loving God, that's the only logical explanation.
A photo shoot for the entertainment industry was taking place on McDaniel Street. A few people gathered on the street. A police officer told them to clear the sidewalk so the artist and crew could get to the next photo location. Everyone moved except one 19-year-old woman. 'She started getting smart, saying, 'If they can't give me a hug, then they need to get the hell out of my 'hood!'' the officer wrote.
The officer repeatedly asked the woman to move. Still, she refused to budge. So she was arrested for obstructing a public way. During arrest, police found a razor on her. The woman kept yelling, telling the officer, 'I see why people kill y'all all the time.'
Klassy!
Cynicism. An ugly word, at least he thought so. But it described his worldview perfectly. He didn't like being cynical. It seemed to be his fate, however, regardless of his efforts to be the same sunny happy person on the inside as he appeared to be on the outside.
It could be said that cynicism is a consequence of a lack of faith. It certainly fit him. Practically gone were his faith in God, his faith in others, his faith in the inherent goodness of people, his faith in justice, in karma. All withered or withering away into a gnarled dry piece of emotional driftwood.
He didn't start out being cynical; does anyone? Over the years he had tried to pinpoint the moment in his life when his cynicism was triggered. Was it the unwanted move to a new city and state where he knew no one? Was it just a symptom of his depression? Is it even a moment, or is it a process, like evolution, happening so slowly over time that it isn't noticed until the difference is so radical, it's obvious something has changed?
Who knew? All he knew was that he despised the cynicism that had seeped into his soul and eroded the person he used to be.
Feeling like a cliché, he didn't know what to do to cleanse himself of this negativity. He had thoughts of instant cures: moving to a place (Toronto? Manhattan?) where he fit in better; changing jobs; taking a nice vacation in the form of in-patient psychotherapy. All involved spending money he didn't have, however. And he knew taking those steps wouldn't really change anything. They would simply block the feelings temporarily while preoccupying his mind -- like Demerol, only more expensive and not as convenient.
Is everyone like this? Is the world full of people who stomp these kinds of feelings to the pavement in order to be the least bit productive? The questions swirled around his head like an out-of-control disco ball.
Last I checked in with him, he hadn't found the answers. But he was nonetheless maintaining a drop of hope that happiness would rain on him once more.
With the coming of the new year comes a new benefits plan at work. A more accurate term may be non-benefits plan, however.
My company, for the last two years, has raised our health insurance rates and lowered services by an incredible amount. As a self-insured company, the big-wigs claim their costs are skyrocketing, and that they must take these measures. But I think their talk is just rhetoric; I don't believe them. I think they're simply incredibly greedy people (this large company's more or less family-owned).
The breakdown of my health insurance plan:
