Auspicious start of my 41st year

First, gratuitous dog photo:



Loki running in the snow. He was running toward the door to get back inside after taking care of business. I guess he wanted to catch a few snowflakes on the way. Snow is a rare treat in these parts. Texas A&M will be delayed until 10:00 am tomorrow. This is assuming I even feel like going in at all. I celebrated my 41st on Sunday; in addition to some neat gifts, birthday greetings and hearing an excellent dharma talk, I got a cold.

I have plenty of sick leave and my work is not so terribly important that its worth infecting others.

Today, I felt like getting dressed and off the couch. Even stood on the porch to film the snow. Yesterday, it was bed or couch. The oddest thing about yesterday is that I channel surfed for hours and did not catch one bit of Law & Order, not even one little donk-donk. I made up for it today by watching part of an episode of Law & Order: SVU.

I tried to watch some Olympics because I've become rather fascinated by curling but all the NBC-Universal stations that my cable provider carries were acting up.

Would it kill NBC to have a commentator explain curling or at least provide a crawl with a definition of terms & how the scoring works? I suppose I could drag my laptop to the couch and look up this stuff while watching but I don't feel like doing that and what about the viewers without wireless networking?

I become fascinated by curling every four years because of the absurdity of the sport.

This blog got a shout-out from uuworld.org: the interdependent web.

Real life & online life intersects

We had a guest speaker at church today. I figured out who she is in the middle of her sermon. Oh wow, it's Lizard Eater! That wasn't the name she used for church. I introduced myself after the service and had to use my alternate name. Now we know each other's real names, not that I make much of an effort to hide mine, but I wonder if this is how spies feel after they retire and they can reveal themselves. The nature of the relationship really doesn't change with this new knowledge but more of a fleshing out of a person or they seem more real. I don't know.

If your church is looking for a guest speaker, I would recommend Lizard Eater. She is a very engaging speaker and you don't need a sound system. She drowned out a train. To be fair, it was one of the quieter trains but still didn't need to take a train pause. I did wish that she said 'love train' instead of 'love jar' while the train rolled by but that is a comedian thinking not a minister. I can get comedy anytime, ministry (in the broadest sense of the term) is a more precious commodity.

Some of the things she has described in her blog about seminary come through in her speaking style. She has a bit of pentecostal in her. We all need a little pentecostal.

This online - real life intersection was a neat experience.

Shout Outs!

I need to get the bit of promo for "The Word" app that airs at the end of the Colbert Report to put on my website. It's the second one where Stephen points to and says the phrase, 'A Perfect World'. Happens to be the name of my comic and the domain name: aperfectworld.org.

Why dot org? When I bought the domain name the dot com version was being used by a male enhancement company. perfectworld.com is a MMORG. aperfectworld.com has nothing on it.

I subscribe to UUpdates feed. Below a list of individual blogs on UUpdates that I always read (no particular order):

• Ms. Kitty's Saloon and Road Show http://mskittyssaloonandroadshow.blogspot.com/
• it's all one thing http://shetterly.blogspot.com/
• CUUMBYA http://cuumbaya.blogspot.com/
• Beauty Tips for Ministers http://beautytipsforministers.com/ (odd since I'm neither a professional minister or interested in fashion)
• The Chaliceblog http://chalicechick.blogspot.com/
• Tete-a-Tete-Tete http://tete-tete-tete.com/ (Sorry, too lazy to look up the html for accented characters)
• The Journey http://uuminister.blogspot.com/
• The Wild Hunt http://wildhunt.org/blog/ (another odd one for me since I'm not a pagan. Proof that I do read word press based blogs)
• Pfarrer Streccius http://pfarrerstreccius.blogspot.com/ (I skip the Illinois politics posts)
• Yet Another Unitarian Universalist http://www.danielharper.org/blog/
• Orcinus http://dneiwert.blogspot.com/

Thank you to each of you for sharing your thoughts.

I felt like making some recommendations since we all have a limited amount of time. I feel the above blogs are a good use of my limited blog reading time.

Looking over the list I notice a majority use Blogger and hosted by Blogspot.com. I use Blogger and this blog is hosted by Blogspot.com. I wonder if my list would be different if I used WordPress or a different platform?

Why I don't read your UU blog?

• Congregation specific (nothing wrong with that.)
• Read entries that grab my attention but not a regular reader
• Location specific
• Just not interested in the topic

Lack of quality is not a reason.

Lunch Time

I spent half of my lunch hour reading UUpdates. Most of the blogs were about the shooting in Knoxville. After I finished reading, I could not draw a cartoon (my usual lunch hour activity). The temperature in my office played a role (my thermometer reads 76 degrees but I have a vent that blows air on me all day and I cannot get out of the stream no matter how I arrange my office) in my desire to get out and take a walk. An office is too cold if a walk outside in near 100 degree temperatures feels good. The afternoon walks help my body get back to a normal temperature.

I haven't been to a service this month. Walter and I heard saw the news on CNN as we sat in McDonald's. We headed to my mother-in-law's house to celebrate her birthday. I followed events on the cell phone.

After reading all the blogs and news stories my thoughts turned to my own church. I went over a lot of these while on my walk. I could not draw with these things churning in my head. I thought about Tim, Claudette, Martha, Doug, Sharon and others who have stood in the foyer greeting people coming in. I've greeted people in that same foyer. People who don't join the service until meet and greet. All of us on the front line if a person decided to come to the church to do harm. I thought about the layout of our sanctuary, the lack of pews to hide behind but plenty of avenues of escape and chairs to throw. I thought about Dave, Judy, Lauralee, Sharon and other mobility and visually impaired people. I know that other members would have helped them escape. I thought about the current board and other UU church boards evaluating their emergency procedures.

I thought about the shooter in Knoxville. Doesn't look disturbed. They never do. Wanted suicide by cop. What a coward. Could be one of us.

I thought about Ken and Wayne, always walking into church with an instrument case. Others bring instruments all the time. Where two or more UUs are gathered together there is a guitar.

I thought about what I would do in such a situation. I'm sure others have or will do so as they head to church next Sunday. In my head, I'm quite brave. I hope and pray that reality never calls my bluff.

Several blogs included parts of the hymn, Gentle Angry People. Appropriate given the stated motivations of the shooter. I never cared for that hymn but now I have to reevaluate.

I will go to church next Sunday. I will try to keep the scary thoughts at bay, resist the urge to unlock the sliding glass doors, and resist lifting a chair to check its heaviness. Despite these thoughts, I will feel safe at my church. I will pray that the members of the TVUUC will regain their sense of safety soon.

Mary Worth approaches relevance

Mary Worthless Mary Worth - Day 16
Hoo boy! Someone needs to read Surviving the Workday, pronto! The archives have articles addressing this situation except done at a brisker pace and without strange background changes and people.

Drew groans because someone (Vera or Ryan) has crossed a line that he will not cross. He knows that path leads to more than mere heartache.

I'm trying to assume that Vera went from Clerk-Typist to a director position by her own merits and skills. I really don't want to think that Vera gained her position through other means but she did not acquire marketable skills until Von threw her out and cut off her portion of the inheritance and going from a job that no longer exists in the real world to director of marketing (or something like that - I don't feel like researching it and have devoted that brain cell to something more relevant) so quickly seems a bit suspicious.

My god, could this be a plot line addressing workplace dating and the consequences inside and outside the workplace? A plot with some substance that can be fully explored without the pressures of a 20 - 45 minute resolution that television demands? This could be entertaining, relevant and possible educational!

Oh, wait this is Mary Worth.

I found the background person with the glasses in panel two more interesting than the foreground characters.

How Privileged Are You

Found this at Ms. Kitty's blog

From What Privileges Do You Have?, based on an exercise about class and privilege developed by Will Barratt, Meagan Cahill, Angie Carlen, Minnette Huck, Drew Lurker, Stacy Ploskonka at Illinois State University. If you participate in this blog game, they ask that you PLEASE acknowledge their copyright.

Bold the true statements.

1. Father went to college.

2. Father finished college.

3. Mother went to college.

4. Mother finished college.

5. Have any relative who is an attorney, physician, or professor.

6. Were the same or higher class than your high school teachers.

7. Had more than 50 books in your childhood home.

8. Had more than 500 books in your childhood home.

9. Were read children's books by a parent.

10. Had lessons of any kind before you turned 18.

11. Had more than two kinds of lessons before you turned 18.

12. The people in the media who dress and talk like me are portrayed positively.

13. Had a credit card with your name on it before you turned 18.

14. Your parents (or a trust) paid for the majority of your college costs.

15. Your parents (or a trust) paid for all of your college costs.

16. Went to a private high school.

17. Went to summer camp. It was a day camp

18. Had a private tutor before you turned 18.

19. Family vacations involved staying at hotels.

20. Your clothing was all bought new before you turned 18.

21. Your parents bought you a car that was not a hand-me-down from them.

22. There was original art in your house when you were a child [kid's work is original!]

23. You and your family lived in a single-family house.

24. Your parent(s) owned their own house or apartment before you left home.

25. You had your own room as a child.

26. You had a phone in your room before you turned 18.

27. Participated in a SAT/ACT prep course.

28. Had your own TV in your room in high school.

29. Owned a mutual fund or IRA in high school or college.

30. Flew anywhere on a commercial airline before you turned 16.

31. Went on a cruise with your family.

32. Went on more than one cruise with your family.

33. Your parents took you to museums and art galleries as you grew up.

34. You were unaware of how much heating bills were for your family. Not so much as heating as air conditioning but still unaware.

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I am grateful for the privileges, acknowledge that others were not as privileged, hope more would get to experience the same privileges, try my best to treat everyone with respect but I will not be made to feel guilty for what I received and what I have.

Disappearing Bags - the non-brown paper variety

Where did Vera's bags go? The ones that she had yesterday which prevented her from holding her phone in a non-awkward way.

You're not a plugger if you call someone to tell them you're sending them an e-mail, you're very annoying. This level of annoying required a new Plugger species. I wonder if the dog Pluggers get along with the cat Pluggers? Or is cat and dog Plugger segregation the last frontier of prejudice to overcome in Plugger society?
Another entry for the New Yorker redraw Eustace Tilley contest. I created both entries using CorelDraw and a mouse. Eustace drinks a latte and thinks he's dressing ironically.

Judging from the typing scores appearing in the UU blogosphere, I'm the slowest typist in UUdom. Setting the bar low and making everyone else look good - one of many ways I serve my fellow humans.