Enough madness already!

Great words from the prophetic Rabbi Michael Lerner:

The central message of both Chanukah and Christmas is the affirmation of hope for a renewal of goodness in the midst of a world that is increasingly dark and fearful. For the ancients, that was expressed through holidays of light—burning the yule log or lighting candles as a sign that even while the days had grown shorter and the sun seemed to be less available, we believed that it would return. Chanukah taught the world that a small group of people (the Maccabbees) could fight the overwhelming power of the Hellenistic empire, and triumph. Christmas brought the message that a little child, always a symbol of hope, could bring love and kindness to the world, with tidings of peace and generosity.

This year, we need to get back to those messages of hope. In a world in which our Senate has just signaled, through the confirmation of an attorney general who couldn't muster the courage to acknowledge that waterboarding is torture, that the Bush Administration need not respect international law, and in which our Congress keeps spending hundreds of billions of dollars to fund a war that the vast majority oppose, and in which our presidential candidates are unable to commit to bringing all the troops and advisors out of Iraq before 2013, there is a desparate need for ordinary citizens to experience of hope for a world of peace, generosity, and ecological sanity.

Read the full text here.

Your site has a few problems

I received a mailing today from Keller Graduate School of Management. Normally I throw these things away. Today I felt like taking a look. I typed in the URL but could not find anything but minimal information on the various degrees. There are small descriptions but you can't click through there or anywhere else for more detail on degrees, tuition, etc. But you can fill out a form for more information on their MBA. What if you're not interested in an MBA but something else? Why should I have to give you my information in order to get information from you?

Aaargh. End of today's rant.

Bumper sticker fun

I saw this bumper sticker today. I usually refer to Wal-Mart as The Devil's Little Sweatshop.

This and more at StampAndShout. Stocking stuffers!

This is meant for kids?

Krista, a friend from work, received this birthday present, as a joke, from her husband. A faux Barbie Happy Hour Play set. It's meant for kids.

Well that's a good idea!

This caught my attention on the Idea Sandbox blog:

Look beyond immediate conclusions. Break it down - the problem, your customers, a project - into smaller chunks and examine alternate solutions. It may sound completely different than you expected.

I have some breaking down to do.

Word of the day: vapid

Vapid -- it can be mean to say and it just sounds good.

According to dictionary.com:

1. lacking or having lost life, sharpness or flavor
2. without liveliness or spirit

In German the word can be fad or fade (fa-da), words which can said just as patronizingly.

I am Midnight?

I stole this idea from Julia's blog. This explanation is about 40 percent true. Unusual habits? Experiment with lifestyle? Huh?

You Are Midnight

You are more than a little eccentric, and you're apt to keep very unusual habits. Whether you're a nightowl, living in a commune, or taking a vow of silence - you like to experiment with your lifestyle. Expressing your individuality is important to you, and you often lie awake in bed thinking about the world and your place in it. You enjoy staying home, but that doesn't mean you're a hermit. You also appreciate quality time with family and close friends.

What Time Of Day Are You?

New baby!

This is my new nephew, Cohen. I was there for his birth last week. It was amazing. He is the sweetest little baby in the world!

Wake up annoyances

Waking up to an alarm stinks. It's alarming and annoying. But here are three other noises that, to me, are worse.

• Car alarm
• Hair dryer
• The dog throwing up
  

Excel is afraid of Roger Waters

I was attempting to help a colleague with formulas in Excel. It wasn't working so I went back to my desk to mess around with the file. Before I opened the file, I turned on my iPod and chose Pink Floyd. Presto! The formulas worked!

A must-have shirt

I saw this on the Mental Floss site. It made me laugh out loud. If you don't know Lady Macbeth, check her out on Wikipedia.

Mental Floss is the best magazine ever. How could you not love a magazine that has this subtitle: Feel smart again.

How well do you know your side affects?

Mental Floss has a great new quiz: Popular Drugs, Ominous Labels. In the U.S. there are many, many pharmaceutical ads on TV and print. The ads on TV are particularly funny since they have to read out the possible side affects. They are often horrifying.

Take the Mental Floss quiz and see how well you know your drug side affects.

Sophie and the toads

Sophie got her first taste of toad over the weekend. There are many in the garden around my parents' house. Sophie stuck her face in this particular plant (nice and brown from the frost). When she pulled her head out, she was licking her lips like she'd just tasted something awful. Even so, every time we were by that plant she'd go in for a check. Maybe she thought that only some of them taste terrible.

Swag!

I was at the MIMA Summit (Minnesota Interactive Marketing Association) earlier this week. It's one of those events that, when you leave, it feels as if your skull was forced open. In a good way.

One of the great things about marketing conferences, besides the great info you glean, is that you usually get some pretty cool swag. At the MIMA Summit attendees received a swag bag full of the cool and useful items at right.

The conference was packed with design, Web, tech and marketing geeks. The presentations were all about how the Web is changing how we live and what that means to marketers -- how to use the Web and e-mail in new, cool and effective ways. The morning keynote was by a guy from the Pew Internet & American Life Project. He talked about trends in Web use and provided lots of stats (I love stats!) about Internet use, type of use, etc., by various segments of the population.

One of the presenters, from Schematic, had the most brain-busting presentation. He talked primarily about how we'll be navigating the Web in the future. Take a look at the Schematic site and you'll see what I mean. The first part of the presentation was so out there I felt disoriented. (Like I was walking in eight-inch heels through deep mud on a listing ship.) After I got acclimated I was fascinated.

I work at a school that is part of a larger church. MIMA gatherings are full of people who do things we could only dream of. But that's the beauty of it. The ideas open up my mind and push me to keep learning and growing. And it's just plain cool.

Mean about cats

My brother Mike has a t-shirt with "Cats, the other white meat" printed on it. I wanted to take a picture of it but he wouldn't let me. He was in a very foul mood.

This is exceedingly mean but I'm still working off a bad cat experience. A college roommate had an evil Siamese cat. He would jump up and bite people in that fleshy area between the nostrils until you pried him off.

The shirt at right is for sale at CafePress.

Goodbye stress, hello happy place

I love popping bubble wrap. At a summer job in college we used to roll over the bubbles with our office chairs. It was the most fantastic sound.

Bubble wrap makes a nice stress reliever and allows me to regress the days before responsibilities -- a career, a mortgage, etc. I don't get many things in bubble wrap any more. Schade! (bummer)

I was so excited to see this on Boing Boing! Although you can't roll over the Puchi Puchi Electronic Popping Bubble Wrap Toy with a chair, you still get that lovely sound. You can go to your happy place for just $7.20 (5.12 Euro). Available in five colors.

Valkyrie

The movie Valkyrie is due for release in 2008. It's about the July 20, 1944 plot to assassinate Hitler. The main character is Claus von Stauffenberg, one of the leading players in the plot. (The plot also included Dietrich Bonhoeffer*.) Who gets to play the martyred Von Stauffenberg? That chump Tom Cruise. Yes, you read that correctly. How is one to take the movie seriously with him in the lead?

This reminds me of a story I heard in my theology of Bonhoeffer class. Dr. Burtness , a Bonhoeffer scholar, told us that David Soul, yes that one from Starsky & Hutch, wanted to make a movie about Bonhoeffer. And who did he want to play Bonhoeffer? Himself. Oh good lord.

*Bonhoeffer was already in prison in July 1944. After the failed plot the Nazis discovered his involvement. He ended up at Flossenbuerg where he was executed, by Hitler’s specific order, on April 9, 1945. It was just three weeks before Flossenbuerg was liberated. His brother and two brothers-in-law were also executed for their parts in the conspiracy.

Oh, I thought you were....

Sophzilla and I walk in the morning and the evening. We see many people and their dogs. The other day, one of the regular walkers (a human) was wearing black sweatpants and a black, hooded sweatshirt. The hood was up and his face was partially covered. (It was quite chilly that morning.) He looked like a death eater. Good thing the school bus had already passed. There might have been screaming.

Poo Poo on Monday -- Arrested Development

Kelsey, one of my work colleagues, shared this with me. I've only seen snips of Arrested Development. It's completely mental.

In this scene the baldish guy, Tobias, who thinks he's an actor, is auditioning for a store's fire sale commercial.

Death at a Funeral

"Death at a Funeral" is one of the best movies I've seen in ages. It's hysterical. The action takes place over one day at the home of the deceased. One thing after another goes wrong, usually embarrassingly so. I laughed so hard I was almost in pain.

It's one of those movies where you see the character rather than the actor ("Hey, that's Hugh Grant.") Even so, I recognized two of the actors from two of my favorite films: Pride and Prejudice and A Room with a View. And the actor who plays Simon played Steve the Pirate (so incredibly silly) in Dodgeball.

Here is the trailer. I'm happy to report that all of the good bits aren't in the preview.