Me with Jack Johnson!

Check out my new BFF!

Ira Glass on the Creative Process

Fairy Shrimp

This video was taken by my colleague, David Celebrezze. They are one of the many species that thrive in vernal pools, which are seasonal wetlands.

Summer Movies at the Ohio Theater

One of my favorite summer events in Columbus is the Summer Movie Series at the Ohio Theatre. The 2008 series runs from June 6 – July 27.

2008 highlights include 12 series premieres, one double feature, one silent film, two Saturday morning features, and one late night showing. With 22 movies, there’s something for everyone—action (Thunderball, 1965, and Back to the Future, 1985), suspense (Notorious, 1946), film noir (The Third Man, 1949), romance (Sabrina, 1954), comedy (His Girl Friday, 1940), drama (The Color Purple, 1985), sci-fi (Planet of the Apes, 1968), and musicals (Oklahoma!, 1955, and Shall We Dance, 1937).

I plan to go to a ton of these, so please let me know if you want to join me. They are $3.50 at the door. Discounts in advance and for buying a strip of tickets. Here's the full schedule.

How well can you pay attention?

Happy St. Patrick's Day

redneck family tree

We've created a monster

We love our darling puppy. However, she has started to walk all over us. Literally.

At first we said that she wouldn't sleep in the bed. She's pretty big at 60 pounds. Then Jim caved. We compromised and let her on the bed, but she had to give us a little bit of space to sleep ourselves. Usually she curls up at the bottom of the bed, so it's not so bad. Well, yesterday she decided that the foot of the bed wasn't good enough. At about 2am, Miss Maddy walked to the top of the bed and promptly laid across our heads. Since we are reasonable people, we decided she could sleep on our pillows, as long as she would share with us. It's hard to sleep with giant dog butt on your head.

Spit and vinegar

A Couple of years ago I worked on a political campaign, after 8 years of working for a political lobbyist. After what was a pretty brutal experience I finally came to the conclusion that working 80+ hours a week for a cause, no matter how much I believed in it, was not helping me or the cause. I noticed I was becoming a mean person without provocation, the whole political process necessitates you villanize your opponent and their supporters. On more than one occasion I found my friends the target of my, or my campaign's, attacks. Consequently, I gave up working for campaigns and campaign style organizations. To date this year I had been enjoying watching the presidential race unfold from the sidelines, it's the first year I didn't know who I was going to vote for and I was kind of enjoying prognosticating from an impartial sideline.

Recently, I settled on a candidate, I was originally a Biden supporter, who shall remain nameless for this post. Since making a decision I have noticed a bit of a change in my own orientation to the opposition candidate. Every accusation they make about my candidate I find myself uttering a bitter response under my breath. Every time I hear the opposition candidate talk about how they do one thing or another better or have a better plan for some other thing I find myself rationalizing how that doesn't matter. I'm not sure if it is left over instincts from campaigning or my own competitive instinct coming through but either way I'm not terribly happy with it.

More importantly I'm not terribly happy with the way campaigns have created a world where we can't talk about politics without knock down drag out dogma wars. I want to talk politics freely without someone having to be right at the end of the conversation. Why do we have to win political battles based on who has the most successful branding and who comes out on the correct side of each sound bite war?

Not that I have any grand solutions but there are a couple of things I think could help tame all the spit and vinegar coming out of campaigns. I would like to see each candidate give a couple 30 minute, nationally televised, speeches on the most important issues, as voted on by all of us. Of course I think the debates are an important gauge of how they deal with confrontation, so we should keep those around. Finally, I would like to see us take a lesson from the French and tell them all to shut up and let us think for a little bit by putting a media ban on political campaign for 30 days before the election.

I know this post doesn't hold together from beginning to end, but I just needed to get that off my chest.

Ava Pictures

Recent pictures of Ava, Jim's niece, at 6 months

Bonnaroo, Baby!

We finally figured out how to spend our honeymoon... at Bonnaroo! I know that all of you are into the hip music scene and I don't need to explain this, but Bonnaroo is a hugemongous music festival in Tennessee. We'll certainly be meeting a ton of friends there, so let me know if you want to join. It's from June 12-15.

Here's a selection on the lineup SO FAR:

Pearl Jam
Metallica
Jack Johnson
Kanye West
Robert Plant and Alison Krauss featuring T Bone Burnette
The Allman Brothers Band
Willie Nelson
Death Cab for Cutie
B.B. King
Ben Folds
Aimee Mann
Jakob Dylan
Janeane Garofalo

C'est Fini

So the main part of the staircase is finished, that is to say you can walk up and down the stairs to the attic.

StumbleUpon

Stumbleupon This is a fun way to surf the web for random stuff that other people like. All you do is download the toolbar and answer a couple of quick preference questions. Then you can click the stumble button and it will guide you to random stuff you might enjoy. So far, I've liked 75% of what I've seen like a website where you mark what you have in your fridge and it tells you what to make for dinner.

If you sign up, then make me your "friend" and we can share the ridiculous stuff we find.

Why Can't I Own a Canadian?

Published in the Utah Humanist, October 2002

Dr. Laura Schlessinger is a radio personality who dispenses advice to people who call in to her radio show. Recently, she said that, as an observant Orthodox Jew, homosexuality is an abomination according to Leviticus 18:22 and cannot be condoned under any circumstance. The following is an open letter to Dr. Laura penned by a east coast resident, which was posted on the Internet. It's funny, as well as informative:

Dear Dr. Laura:

Thank you for doing so much to educate people regarding God's Law. I have learned a great deal from your show, and try to share that knowledge with as many people as I can. When someone tries to defend the homosexual lifestyle, for example, I simply remind them that Leviticus 18:22 clearly states it to be an abomination. End of debate. I do need some advice from you, however, regarding some of the other specific laws and how to follow them:

When I burn a bull on the altar as a sacrifice, I know it creates a pleasing odor for the Lord - Lev.1:9. The problem is my neighbors. They claim the odor is not pleasing to them. Should I smite them?

I would like to sell my daughter into slavery, as sanctioned in Exodus 21:7. In this day and age, what do you think would be a fair price for her?

I know that I am allowed no contact with a woman while she is in her period of menstrual uncleanliness - Lev.15:19- 24. The problem is, how do I tell? I have tried asking, but most women take offense.

Lev. 25:44 states that I may indeed possess slaves, both male and female, provided they are purchased from neighboring nations. A friend of mine claims that this applies to Mexicans, but not Canadians. Can you clarify? Why can't I own Canadians?

I have a neighbor who insists on working on the Sabbath. Exodus 35:2 clearly states he should be put to death. Am I morally obligated to kill him myself?

A friend of mine feels that even though eating shellfish is an abomination - Lev. 11:10, it is a lesser abomination than homosexuality. I don't agree. Can you settle this?

Lev. 21:20 states that I may not approach the altar of God if I have a defect in my sight. I have to admit that I wear reading glasses. Does my vision have to be 20/20, or is there some wiggle room here?

Most of my male friends get their hair trimmed, including the hair around their temples, even though this is expressly forbidden by Lev. 19:27. How should they die?

I know from Lev. 11:6-8 that touching the skin of a dead pig makes me unclean, but may I still play football if I wear gloves?

My uncle has a farm. He violates Lev. 19:19 by planting two different crops in the same field, as does his wife by wearing garments made of two different kinds of thread (cotton/polyester blend). He also tends to curse and blaspheme a lot. Is it really necessary that we go to all the trouble of getting the whole town together to stone them? - Lev.24:10-16. Couldn't we just burn them to death at a private family affair like we do with people who sleep with their in-laws? (Lev. 20:14)

I know you have studied these things extensively, so I am confident you can help. Thank you again for reminding us that God's word is eternal and unchanging.

Your devoted fan,
Jim (not THE Jim)

Men Invented Everything

Call me Reverend (did I spell that right?)

Wanna be a priest, and perform marriages, it's easy just follow this link

http://www.themonastery.org/?destination=ordination

Sunflower

I finally found a grocery store in Columbus that I like. It's called Sunflower, and there are only 3 in the city. It's like a mini Whole Foods, but with the prices of Trader Joes. They taste all of the food that they sell, and there aren't any trans-fats in the whole store. It's worth the drive.

By the way, here's some petty torture you may enjoy. If you can't figure out the 15th floor, you can cheat by looking at the hints written below the starting screen.

Freecycle

In Columbus, and cities across the country, there is now a group called Freecycle where you can get rid of stuff you don't want and take up other people on their offers of free stuff. It's amazing and simple. All you do is post an email saying you have something free to offer or that you are looking for something free. About 1000 people read it every day and someone is bound to offer. I got rid of a couple of small kitchen items and gained a box of kids books for my niece. It's a Yahoo group, so just go to http://groups.yahoo.com and search for your city.

Another great source of free/cheap stuff is Craigslist. They are in most cities across the country. You can also sell stuff here or look for jobs, etc.

Both of these resources are a lot of fun to play with!

Almost stairs!

The framing is done most of the external drywall!!! The upstairs is 10 degrees warmer than it was this morning.

Here you can see the drywall in 3 stages - latheboard, insulation over the frame, and drywall on the underside (which is over the 1st floor stairs).

Next we will add drywall to the inside of the stairs and place the actual steps.