Geeky Mom

I was going to do a nice Friday Random Ten with “London” or “England” or something, just like Rana did. But I don’t have any “London” or “England” songs. Can you believe that? So sad.

I’m honestly killing time here. I’m listening to Lenny Kravitz’s “Freedom Train” which gave me the idea to use “Freedom” as my Random 10 word of the day. I also added “free” to fill it out:

“Cry Freedom” Dave Matthews Band
“Freedom ” Blues Traveler
“Freedom For My People” U2
“Freedom Hangs Like Heaven” Iron & Wine
“Freedom Train ” Lenny Kravitz
“Free Man Now” Southern Bitch
“Free Until They Cut Me Down” Iron & Wine
“I Shall Be Free ” Bob Dylan
“I’m Set Free” The Velvet Underground

And for the opposite:

“Masters Of War” Bob Dylan
“Radio War” Iron & Wine
“Rene And Georgette Magritte With Their Dog After The War” Paul Simon
“Talking World War III Blues ” Bob Dylan
“The War ” Melee
“War Dance” XTC

random10, fridayshuffle

I can’t really add anything of substance to the London bombing news. I have to say that though I was saddened and disgusted and angry, I was not surprised, not the way I was with 9/11. I’m frustrated by our administration right now because I believe it’s partly their fault that this kind of event occurred at all. I’m frustrated by a lot of things regarding our administration. I’m very interested to see Tony Blair’s and the British people’s reaction to this over the next few days. Will Blair be forced to rethink his Iraq involvement or will it only strengthen his resolve to remain there? Will Bush want to be the cowboy hero and go blow some other country up? Will he concoct a connect to Iran this time? I’m dismayed, really, by our administration’s lack of imagination in their response. John McGowen has one of the more interesting responses to the attack I’ve seen. It is a war of rhetoric. And sometimes that rhetoric is represented by bombs instead of words.

“If, as you live your life, you find yourself mentally composing blog entries about it, post this exact same sentence in your weblog.”

via Frogs and Ravens

On the way home from work this evening, I heard this report on NPR. I was incensed after listening to it. I’ve been following the Intelligent Design/Creationism story for a while, though not as thoroughly and closely as PZ Myers. He could speak about this much more scientfically and less emotionally than I. This story got me more than others because the people who spoke struck me as incredibly unthoughtful and yet, aggressively pursuing the spread of religious beliefs through schools and elsewhere. I was thinking lots of things as I was listening and yelling into the air. First, I was mad at NPR for giving the Christian right so much air time without explaining, for example, that a scientific theory is not just someone’s opinion as the speakers asserted. Why couldn’t they tell them or us that gravity is a theory too? Do you see yourself floating into space on a regular basis? One girl explained that there was no evidence for evolution, but there was for creation. I was all ears. What was it? “The creator is in my heart.” Ack! Well let’s open you up and see. Metaphors are not evidence. Why couldn’t there have been a discussion about what constitutes scientific evidence? Unbiased reporting is one thing, but letting such statements stand really bothered me.

Second, I was mad about the way they talked about needing to get religion into the schools and that it was important for children to learn it or they will be lost. Fine, you believe that, teach your children those things at home. Go to church and Sunday school or send your kids to a religious school of your choice. They did have one person, a parent, who essentially said the same thing, but no one made any statements about issues of separation of church and state.

The story also made me think back to *the* point in my childhood when I began to not believe, primarily in organized religion, but eventually in God. I was in the car with my best friend and her father. We were being taken somewhere and somehow the conversation turned to starving children in Africa. My friend’s father said something about how there was nothing we could do for them because they didn’t believe in Jesus and so weren’t going to heaven and so we shouldn’t help them. Not sure how the logic worked exactly, but I remember thinking that I had thought the whole point of Jesus was that *everyone* was saved. No matter what. So those African children, I thought, if Jesus and heaven turned out to be true, they were in. If not, none of us were in and it didn’t matter. Suddenly I saw, though, that to many people, it mattered specifically what you believed. Otherwise, you were out of luck on the whole afterlife deal. That just didn’t seem fair to me. And so began my rocky road to atheism.

The thing is, I don’t care what anyone else believes. I respect whatever others believe and I believe that religion is a personal matter. It’s something you decide for yourself and perhaps share and celebrate with others who are like-minded. When it starts to bother me is 1) when people start pushing religious views on others and 2) it starts clouding people’s thought processes so much they can’t think clearly. It’s fine with me if you don’t want your kids to study evolution at school. Send in a note that says they’re exempt; they can sit in the library and read the Bible while the rest of the class studies evolution. Let’s see how they do on the state exams, on the SAT’s, in college.

I drove through Dayton one time quite by accident. We missed a turn and ended up on 75 instead of 40 and to make our way back, we drove through Dayton. We went around the very courthouse where the Scopes trial was held. We ended up on a ferry across the Tennessee. It was stunningly beautiful and kind of sad.

We trekked into downtown Philly with Geeky Girl in tow, our neighbors in awe of our adventurous spirit. It’s a 30 minute train ride, followed by a 15 minute walk, not too adventurous in my book, but okay. We somehow ended up on a main route over to Ben Franklin Parkway. We usually are snaking our way through back alleys. We hit the street vendors earlier than usual, shouting out, “Water, one dollar. Glow lights, one dollar.” Everything’s a dollar, except the t-shirts, five dollars. The crowd is impressive and the streets have been cleaned maybe, five minutes before. We move through the crowd toward our usual area, a little to the left of the stage, pretty far back on the lawn. And when we get there, it’s standing room only. What the . . . (as Geeky Girl would say). We had hoped, I guess, that there wouldn’t be Live 8 leftovers. So we had to move a little further back, which was fine.

We were wandering around during the entire Bryan Adams set (2 whole songs). Then Wayne Brady and some other guy (couldn’t see him) talked a lot about AIDs. Then Rufus Wainwright came out. I was completely shocked. He wasn’t listed on any program I’d seen. Two whole songs. Couldn’t hear them well. Really need to get to an actual Rufus Wainwright concert. Things really didn’t get going until Patti LaBelle came out and then the whole crowd was standing, including us way back in the back. And finally, it was Elton John! It was awesome. I mean, he was really good, even though we were way back in the back. We could make out the jumbotron and could hear just fine. He played four songs, including “Tiny Dancer” to which our own tiny dancer produced quite the routine, complete with glow sticks. He ended with the requisite “Philadelphia Freedom” which was also awesome.

Some observations:

1. What’s up with all the boys (between the ages of 14 and 25) posturing. I mean, seriously. Does all that strutting and posing really get you anything? I note you move in crowds and there are none of the female species with you.

2. To the couple on the left who drank too much and were thus passed out for Elton John (actually passed out before Patti LaBelle). I’m sad for you, really.

3. To the couple in front of us, about the same age (maybe early 20s) as the couple to the left, you know how to celebrate! Dancing, singing, having fun.

4. To the huge Indian family next to us, your kids are beautiful and well-behaved and seemed like they were having a great time. Good sparklers too!

5. Apparently, for certain people between the ages of 14 and 25, it is not cool to have a good time. You are required to stand and not move to the music, not clap or shout or give any indication that you are nothing more than a robot. Maybe you are a robot.

6. There were lots more people this year (one million), which meant lots more obnoxious people on the train ride home. When it’s standing room only on a train that you can’t get off of easily, you don’t want to see a fight break out because someone said they were a Giants fan just to get someone else’s goat.

7. Interesting conversations overheard on the train:

“He was just out with her like, two days ago and now he’s out with her again. What’s up with that?”

“All I need is my laz-y-boy and some beer and I’m good.”

From a less-than-20-year old next to me: “When you’re young, you don’t know what love is.” Buddy, I got news for you . . .

It was a good 4th! Pictures when I get to work. Update: pictures. Click on the image to see the whole set.

Mr. Geeky and Geeky Girl are still snoozing away. Me? I have been up since 7:30 goofing around on the computer. We’re not morning people here. Even though I get up early, I don’t like to do anything too strenuous before say, 11. Plans are to get the office into workable form. I have grocery shopping to do to help us properly celebrate the 4th. We’ll go downtown and see the big concert–including Elton John–and eat expensive junk food, maybe drink beer and/or wine. The fireworks really are awesome. We love it! Yes, it’s crowded, but it’s still fun. It’s the one time we’re not completely uncool and keeping to our little suburban area. Most of our neighbors go to one of the many nearby events rather than fight the crowds and stay up really late. I say, pishaw. You’re right near the birthplace of the nation and you stay home! Where’s your patriotism! Of course, one of the things I like about Philly’s concert/fireworks is its recognition of the many ways people express patriotism. There are no speeches about supporting the troops or waving your flags. It’s just a party filled with diverse people: blacks, whites, latinos, asians. All kinds of people enjoying the day and celebrating–freedom, prosperity, etc.

Given recent events–Sandra Day O’Connor’s retirement, revelations of Rove’s role in the Plame case–we should be encouraging the kind of patriotism that allows different voices to be heard and allows us to question our government. That’s what we were founded on, not particular religious beliefs or moral values. We are lucky to be in a place that lets us speak and lets us question. We should continue to fight to keep that freedom. Just something to think about as you eat your hot dogs and watermelon and watch the sky light up.

One minute after I posted that last post, the internet went down and has been down since just now. Here’s some stuff (besides blogging) that I couldn’t do:

1. Find nearest really cheap store–Kmart, Wal-Mart, etc.–to buy some temporary curtains for new office space.
2. Price said curtains.
3. Map route to said stores.
4. Look up a phone number.
5. Find out what’s going on with Live 8 and 4th of July festivities.
6. Check movie times.
7. Look up things in the Wikipedia to prove I’m right in the middle of disagreements.

How I circumvented these problems:

1. Called a friend who lives nearby some cheap stores. We chose Value City.
2. Had to drive around and look.
3. See #1.
4. Drove over to house to retrieve child without calling ahead.
5. Still haven’t accomplished
6. See# 5.
7. Have now forgotten what we were arguing about. Like how long the Nile is or who came up with the way the population is increasing exponentially.

Sheesh. I know I did all these things prior to the internet, but man, is it easier now. Everything is essentially at my fingertips.

So here’s the office plan so far. Before replacing the windows, we are putting in curtains (very temporary 7.99/panel) and building the wall and putting in a ceiling fan. We’ll move all the “office” furniture down and I’ll decide if I want to make it permanent. Then we’ll do the windows and make the room more energy efficient. We were telling our neighbors about the plan and they said that it was that way before the remodel. So we’re basically rebuilding what was there before. And yes, have no fear, there will be before and after pictures.

The internet has been sketchy over the last couple of days. Dang internets!

Mr. Geeky came up with a grand plan to give me my own office. He’s a totally cool hubby! We’re converting the front porch into an office, putting a wall between the entryway and the office, putting in a ceiling fan and eventually insulating the whole thing with new windows and whatnot. Should be pretty cool. We’re doing a few home improvement projects this summer, having spent two years in the house without doing anything. We’re adding a shed for the kids outdoor stuff and doing the office. Eventually, we want to redo the bathroom and we have to think about more space for the kids (their rooms are tiny!).

I was thinking yesterday about how lucky we were to be able to do stuff like this and how long it’s taken us to get to this point. Maybe we’ll appreciate more for having taken the long way.

July, July! The Decembrists
4th Of July U2
South American Summer Fivehead
Summertime Janis Joplin
Summer In the City The Lovin’ Spoonful
Indian Summer Maplewood
Summer Romance The Rolling Stones
Summertime The Sundays
Indian Summer Sky U2
Hotdogs And Hamburgers John Mellencamp
This Ain’t No Beach Party Cruiserweight

random10
fridayshuffle