Ok… How to do this without offending anyone ? Well, here goes. I had an epiphany today… Somehow the debate on wednesday pierced the thick skin of my protective bubble. I was doing my weekly news debrief with jon stewert and Stephen colbert tonight when i learned of the samual jackson video WTFU. I guess I’m hearing of it about a week after the rest of the planet. Im not going to put a link here because a) some will find it deeply offensive.. And b) you’ve probably already seen it. That foul mouthed and amateurish video, which was produced by a liberal PAC run by folks like me (liberal, jewish, irreverent ) was talking right to me. It was funny and brilliant and It made me realize that like most folks i know, im sleeping through this election…watching romney and obama debate tax policy the other night almost put me to sleep…this video truly woke me up. The stakes couldn’t be higher in this election….. Is a clear choice between two very different ideologies… Though both candidates are pandering towards the middle to influence swing voters….listening to them, you could be lulled into thinking that it doesn’t matter which guy wins… But it really does. Romney would take us back to the principles of trickle down where the self interests
Of the wealthy factor more in policy than the needs of the most vulnerable. We cant have that….im not a huge fan of the Administrations track over the last 4 years.. Here were many things promised which were left undone…. But.. Given the impasses in congress and the economy, obama and crew have accomplished quite a bit. More importantly, obama’s heart is in the right place. I believe that he truly cares about the welfare of all folks… And i don’t believe thats true of his opponent..
Now, i know its dicey to talk politics with friends… And i consider you all friends…you can and some will disagree with with me.. But even if you disagree with my politics… Ou too need to wake up to the big choice here.. We all need to WTFU and make sure our voices are heard in November
End of sermon
Hello from Higher Ground. I worked hard toDay, so im rewarding myself with some live music. I saw that dj shadow was playing tonight. And decide to go
Right now I’m Listening to a really good remix warmup guy . I’m twice the age of everyone else here. Dj shadow is coming up next . He was one of the first remix guys way back in the early 90s. I’ve been listening to him for more than 20 years .his stuff is so cool that Gabe listens to remixes of his remixes ! I’ve probably written more code listening to this guy than any other artist.
I’m blogging on my phone so I’m not sure I can relate
All the weird stories I have around his music. I’ll try to tell one story. One day, 2 weeks after Sam died I was driving in central Vermont. I was alone and crying my eyes out listening to the radio. I said out loud ‘ Sam where the f*ck are you ?!?!’ at that exact moment dj shadows song ‘organ donor’ came on the college station (wruv) I was listening to. I just started laughing. You have to heAr the song to understand
But hey… I’m an old guy blogging on his phone when I should be dancing
Gotta go
Nite all, nite Sam !
-me
Ps. He’s playing organ donor now… This ones for you Sam !
5 different people approached me today with weird science questions.. most were friends.. but others were folks i didn’t know. When friend M. asked me one of these questions (about electric fields and viruses.. pretty cool ) I asked him.. ‘why me’ .. Now this is a guy I’ve known for a while through work.. but we have never met face to face as he lives in Europe. His answer was that I look like a scientist :-). I thought about that for awhile.. and realized that it’s funny.. the goofier I look , teh more like a scientist I feel.. it’s like the way I look is influencing the way I act and .. i suspect visa versa.. Folks say art imitates life and life imitates art. I’d have to say science imitates life and life imitates science ..
Oh.. the debate is on.. I gotta sign off.. more tomorrow !
Another crazy packed day.. one bright spot was an early morning meeting to kick off the United Way campaign at work. I’d been asked to be sort of a mascot at the event, which was a nice thing to be able to do. Our company has a good arrangement with the United Way and manages to raise a fair bit of support for local charities. Today we had a few visiting dignitaries in from head quarters and some representatives from some of the local agencies that the UW supports. Those speakers were really compelling.. One woman represented COTS, The Committee on Temporary Shelter.. She said it’s the most misnamed agency in the world… because their whole mission is to keep people out of temporary shelter. She gave some pretty heartbreaking statistics for our area.. For example she said that t there are about 141 homeless school aged kids in the Burlington area..that’s a tough thing anywhere.. but really hard in this climate.. Most of those kids live in shelters or overflow motel rooms. Pretty sobering.. We also heard from some of the other UW agencies.. As I sat there I was remembering that we’d been on the receiving end of United Way generosity when we stayed in the Ronald McDonald house after Sam’s accident. Thais the thing.. you never know who you’re helping when you donate to the United Way.. it might be a neighbor or friend.. or it might even be you.. If you’re able to, please support the United Way..
