Geekdom: missed it by that much

According to this: Gadgets Every Geek Should Have I'm just a portable gaming console short of true geekdom. Darnit.

More books please

Seeing my guy and baby girl like this never gets old. Literacy rocks.

Sent from my Nokia phone

Letter to McCain-Palin: unsubscribe

Somehow I ended up on the McCain-Palin e-mail list. I know: it's like opening up the mailbox and finding a gag subscription to Jugs Magazine. When I clicked the link to unsubscribe, there was a box for explaining why. Here's what I put.

I was never a McCain supporter by any stretch of the imagination and feel that the two people on this ticket want to take the country in exactly the wrong the direction.

You have spent the summer sowing divisiveness and fear amongst voters who actually share the most American of hopes and dreams: a family-wage job, a good education for their kids, and assurances that the country is headed in the right direction and that those at the top are also thinking of those in the middle and at the bottom when they make policy decisions that affect us all. You have actively worked to pit Americans of different economic means against each other. That is not putting country first.

You first dismissed the valid concerns and fears of people across the country who have struggled to make ends meet in one of the toughest economies in decades. Then, seeing a way to turn that to your advantage, you stoked uncertainty and fears about domestic affairs and conflated them with nebulous threats from abroad, all in an effort to bolster support for your candidacy. Rather than trying to bring us together as a country and show how much we share instead of where we differ, this ticket has actively worked to turn neighbor against neighbor. That is not putting country first.

Finally, your VP pick is both laughable and insulting: laughable not only because of her cringeworthy verbal aimlessness in interviews or her stint on SNL, but because she has obviously been put into a situation far beyond her capabilities, education or ability to compensate for shortcomings. Since she’s so fond of sports, as they say in football, she’s out-kicked her coverage. By a wide margin. Her selection is also a clear illustration that the Peter Principle (that in a hierarchy every employee tends to rise to his level of incompetence) could just as aptly be called the Palin Principle.

The selection is insulting because you apparently actually believed anyone in a skirt would do. That is insulting not only to women nationwide of any party, but especially to the many Republican women in particular who are far more qualified, accomplished, thoughtful, experienced and ready to lead than Palin. Her selection was not done with the aim of putting country first.

I hope you two will finish up the final two weeks of this campaign with the honor you so frequently espouse by not continuing to play to people’s worst instincts or continuing to try to vilify your opponents. But I doubt it. Because that would mean putting country first: something you two seem to have given up on actually doing.

I do not know how I ended up on your mailing list but please take me off.

That should open up a spot on the Christmas card list.

Creating a reader, one book at a time

After months and months of reading bedtime books to Ava with varied levels of interest on her part, she now points to the books at bedside when she wakes up and when we put her on the bed indicating she wants one. She either flips through it on her own or we read it to her. Favorites are Where Do I Sleep?, a lullaby book featuring animals from the Pacific Northwest, Dr.Seuss classic Oh The Places You'll Go, both of which we received at her shower, and as of its purchase two weeks ago, I Love You Because You're You, which pleases me to no end.

I LOVE books and held out hope that she would come to love them too, but I didn't want to be too insistent for fear of turning her off of them. So far, the steady, consistent use of fun, interactive titles seems to be working. Yay! We'll be getting her a library card in no time.

Sent from my Nokia phone

Get Out The Vote!

At a GOTV training. It's packed. Standing room only!

I want a thoughtful leader, not a gimmicky campaigner

Great op-ed about how Republicans love to campaign and have learned how to use divisiveness to win at all costs, but they apparently hate to govern, which is why many we've seen so many messes during their tenure in power. Governing is really where the rubber meets the road. Unfortunately, they've run us off the road into a ditch. Palin's ascension shows GOP's lack of interest in governing

Scary house

Out walking with friends & spotted this scary house. Um, into Halloween much?

Pen porn

I love fountain pens! And I hate using pencils. I use fountain pens whenever possible and I'm particular about the ones I have.  If someone in a meeting or out and about asks to borrow a pen, I carry a loanable/loseable ballpoint for just that purpose. But I don't consider myself a collector because I actually use mine regularly.

I have all the pens I need and can use right now, but like anyone who is into a particular type of item (shoes, cars, watches (hi J.!), clothes, insert personal lust item here), I love looking at pens, reading about them, seeing what's new on the market, and generally drooling over them.

Just as folks who are into fashion peruse Vogue, GQ, InStyle and Lucky, pen folks peruse Stylophiles, Pen World, and Pentrace. I also include the catalogs of Levenger and Fahrney's which all fall under the general heading of "pen porn."

But given the current economic malaise and the need to save for our future life endeavors and Ava's future scholastic efforts, I have instituted a personal moratorium on pen purchases. Which makes the periodic appearance of the aforementioned catalogs all the more special. They have appeared. So if you need me, I'll be holed up for a bit at my desk "having a moment" with the latest edition and leaving noseprints and pen longing in my wake.