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neurotwitch

Wednesday, July 07, 2004

hope for democracy?

Kerry made the best choice for running mate. With his choice of Edwards for VP, I was startled to notice that I was actually feeling some hope for November. For maybe even the next sixteen years.

The one thing I don't understand, though, is why all the windbags are clucking about Edwards being inexperienced, lack of foreign policy expertise, etc. and blah blah blah. Like Bush had any experience in foreign relations? Even the mighty Clinton was a governor -- not exactly well-versed in foreign relations. Nor did the recently sainted Reagan come to office with a track record in foreign relations.

What Edwards has is decency and brains. He's already more than amply demonstrated that he has the ability to learn fast and think on his feet.

So now that Kerry has chosen Edwards, I'm actually getting excited about this campaign. Which makes me think about the windbags claiming that the person running for VP doesn't influence who voters select. It matters to me, and I hardly think I'm unique. I think it will matter to a lot of voters who were having trouble warming up to Kerry.

Yep, John Edwards is a great choice for Vice President. I already ordered my Kerry-Edwards bumper sticker.
posted by lee on 07/07/04 at 10:29 AM

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Tuesday, July 06, 2004

A Thief of Time

Oh joy! PBS is premiering A Thief of Time on Sunday. So far Robert Redford et al. are doing an excellent job on Tony Hillerman's novels. We weren't even expecting it until November -- I greedily hope they hurry up and do the rest of the novels.

Hillerman's next Leaphorn/Chee novel is called Skeleton Man. I have no idea what it's supposed to be about. It's not due to be published until the end of November 2004. I've already pre-ordered it.
posted by lee on 07/06/04 at 10:39 PM

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HISTORY OF FIREWORKS ON INDEPENDENCE DAY

Fireworks on the 4th of July is an old (by US standards) tradition: A Capitol Fourth . History of the Fourth | PBS

On July 8, 1776, the first public readings of the Declaration were held in Philadelphia's Independence Square to the ringing of bells and band music. One year later, on July 4, 1777, Philadelphia marked Independence Day by adjourning Congress and celebrating with bonfires, bells and fireworks.


There. Now back to work w' me ...
posted by lee on 07/06/04 at 12:27 PM

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Monday, July 05, 2004

really bad acting

Stanley got three right, I got one right, and neither of us could figure out one of them playing Good Scenes Gone Bad 7: Death Scenes -- from I Am Bored -- a site that lists sites to go to when you're bored. Mostly very stupid stuff.
posted by lee on 07/05/04 at 11:03 AM

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Sunday, July 04, 2004

ah, i’d forgotten about this site

I remember going through You Grow Girl: Gardening for the People some time ago -- or at least I think I did (maybe a site with a similar name or purpose?) I was glancing through The Morning News's Editors' Awards for Online Excellence, which I got to through, oh hell, the trail would be almost stream-of-consciousness beginning with a Design by Fire entry I started reading ... oh yeah, a debate about liquid- vs. fixed-width page design. I'd gone through most of the comments when I realized it's a stupid debate (my take is you use what the site needs -- and sites rarely need to be liquid).

Anyway.

My big-leaf philodendron is not doing well at all. Not at all. So I've been googling around looking for a diagnosis. I thought maybe this sight might have some tips (if it does, I sure can't find any -- it's quite extensive and not very well organized). But I read a couple of "The Adequate Gardener" columns and laughed and decided to post this site so I don't forget about it again.

I'm glad it's supposed to rain tomorrow -- I am tired of the fireworks. The dog is exhausted; it takes a lot of energy to quiver for hours.

I wonder who got the bright idea to legalize fireworks in Connecticut again? Is there a sparkler lobby? Or maybe the legislature thinks the state is over-populated and legalizing fireworks is one way to thin the herd, or at least maim the herd so it can't reproduce as prolifically. I'm not talking about the fireworks displays various cities and organizations produce. I'm talking about fireworks you can buy down at the abandoned CVS so you can bring stuff home to blow up in your own back yard.

Maybe the same people buy them that don't mind sitting in traffic for two hours for the chance to park in a spot that cost $30 per car, sitting on the beach for an hour listening to lousy band music, watching a 20-minute display where the only cool part is the final three-minute "let's get rid of this crap and go home" extravaganza, then sitting for another two hours in traffic ... you get my drift. I wonder how this rather bizarre tradition started -- fireworks for Independence Day, I mean.

We watched two movies this weekend: Secondhand Lions and Panic. (I mean, besides Spider-Man 2, which was great.) Secondhand Lions was hokey as hell but very good, very funny. The cinematography was wonderful. Panic, the one starring William H. Macy and about his character going through a mid-life crisis (I'm over-simplifying, but not by much), was kind of strange. Very slow in parts and, in the end, not very meaty. There wasn't enough about anyone to make me care about the outcome. Or maybe I was just not in the mood for watching yet another middle-aged white man with a good life sitting on his pity pot. I mean, just because he couldn't tell daddy he was really, really quitting the hit man business ... The more interesting story in this whole thing was Macy's mother, who set up his father in this family business. What is that all about?

One more day of weekend. And hopefully I'll have time to come up with comp two for a project we're working on -- it's running around in my head (and I'm fairly pleased with comp one, so maybe it's a good sign) and just waiting to be put down on photoshop.
posted by lee on 07/04/04 at 11:13 PM

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Saturday, July 03, 2004

lazy july saturday

There are a lot of things I want to write about: seeing Spider-Man 2 last night (it was great), launching a new website (www.castlekeepadvisors.com), the hideous cost of the prescription creams I need to keep my psoriasis under control, politics, this, that. But I'll save those for another time, particularly the new site launch.

Instead, I want to post some photos. I haven't done that in a while. Sooner or later I'll actually get around to putting up galleries, but for now, this will have to do.

Twitch has been, well, twitchy lately, though it doesn't appear that way in either of these pictures. The first is of Twitch daydreaming when he's supposed to be supervising. Below, he contorts himself to try to catch that last ray of sunshine.

daydreaming cat

If there's a patch of sun coming through a window, Twitch will find it.

Twitch cat twisting in search of sunshine

I didn't do much of anything today. We slept in. I swept 25 pounds of dog and cat fur off the kitchen floor. I worked a bit on our company website because certain things were really bugging me. Then I went outside to work in the garden a bit, water the parched plants, throw the Frisbee for Ginger. It's one of those perfect, lazy summer Saturdays that seemed to last forever when I was a kid.

Ginger couldn't decide whether to stay in or go out.

sad eyes

She loves playing football -- I toss the football up the stairs and she guards it until I disappear from view, whereupon she sneaks it down the stairs and waits for me to chase her. She's pretty good at dodging.

ginger guarding her football

The only bad thing about today is that there are going to be fireworks tonight here in Norwalk, which will turn Ginger into a quivering mass of terror.

a view of the porchAfter a very slow start, things are starting to look summery. I will have a bumper crop of cosmos, it looks like. I planted some hellebore under the wisteria, and they seem to be doing quite well. The verbascum and rose campion that I planted last year were quite pretty when they bloomed, and the dianthus survived the winter even though I forgot I'd planted them and didn't mulch. The coral bells didn't bloom, though the plant is healthy. And there's a catalpa seedling that seems to sprout a foot overnight after I cut it back.

The cleomes are kind of iffy this year, but the nasturtium is starting to bloom and the blossoms are exquisite. The shrubs we received from Rare Bird Nursery seem to be taking quite well, except we really need to pick a place and just plant the black cherry.

impossible orange nasturtium

One of these days, I'm going to do a website using nothing but nasturtium colors and white.

purple flowerI think this flower is marsh mallow, but I'm not sure. Or it's some kind of a geranium. I'm poking through google trying to figure out what it is. I remember planting it a couple of years ago, but it didn't bloom until this year, and I just can't remember what it is. It's quite beautiful next to our cobalt blue glass birdbath, and oddly enough, doesn't look so bad next to the China red roses. (It's not a combination I would've planted deliberately.)
posted by lee on 07/03/04 at 04:25 PM

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