Wednesday Ramblings

Gosh it’s hot. It certainly doesn’t feel very “Octobery” outside. Still, I find solace in Summer’s reprieve. While I do look forward to cooler weather, there’s something about swimming other outdoor activities in a time when others areas are supposed to be bundling up. It’s one of those “love it or loathe it” deals. 4 seasons would be nice, but I’ll take 80 degrees and a sunny day at the beach... if I must.

I’ve come to the conclusion that big media isn’t satisfied until they’ve completely removed your every reason to live. Scary must sell great. Between the housing market (that scares the bejesus out of me personally) or terrorism, or global warming, or hurricanes, or god forbid, the presidential race... we’re all scared of something. There’s a lot to be said for being blissfully ignorant.

With the coming holidays (even though the weather isn't exactly cooperating) I start to think about get-togethers with family and friends and that of course requires food. I admit to being a bit of a Food Network Junkie, mostly because my "crap tolerance" pegs out within 2-3 minutes on most other shows. Somehow watching other people cook is more tolerable to me. Anyway of all the shows on the Food Network, Good Eats is the one I like the most. Alton Brown mixes entertainment with pertinent information like no other and his knowledge and presentation make me more apt to try his recipes (which have all been great so far). At least they aren't trying to scare me on the cooking shows... yet.

Norah Jones

I know she’s been overplayed in every grocery store and elevator the world over, but Norah Jones has more talent in her little finger than most bands have in the their collective bodies. I had the chance to watch her performance on Austin City Limits last night and her show only solidifies my opinion. Folk, Jazz, Blues, Country, hell she could probably front a Heavy Metal band if she really wanted to. She sings, plays the piano and guitar, writes her own music and she’s fairly easy to look at too.

No fake dubbed over lip syncing, no pyro or anything else really. Just real, honest, soul touching music. If you missed the performance last night, look for it to repeat some time in the future. Simply amazing. The following clip isn't from ACL, but it does give a great representation of her abilities in a live setting.

For Sale?

If this story doesn’t scare the living shit out of you, then nothing will. One could easily fill in the name of several Bluffton area developments/neighborhoods with the one in the article. I’m trying not to lose any sleep over this as I feel I’m relatively safe (key word being relatively), but honestly the real estate/new home construction market is just about the only game in town. How this area will survive is beyond me, but then again everybody has got to live somewhere. I wonder if banks are considering getting into the home rental business.

And yet they keep building new homes here…

Classic Film Friday: Calendar Girls

This is yet another fairly new movie (technically not a classic), but it’s one that merits a review here. I guess I’m just a sucker for the inspirational movie based on a true story genre.

When Annie (Julie Walters) Clarke’s husband John (John Alderton) dies with cancer, her oldest and dearest friend Chris (Helen Mirren) comes up with an idea to raise money to buy a new sofa for the waiting room of the local hospital in his name by producing a calendar complete with nude pictures of them and their Women’s Institute friends. Scandalous as that sounds it also happens that these women are no younger than 50 and most of them are otherwise modest, socially conservative “church ladies”.

These innocent women seek to bring attention to a greater cause by publicly sacrificing their modesty, privacy, and morals by baring it all in the name of charity. The journey they take from small town Knapely, Yorkshire doldrums to million dollar Hollywood celebrity is inspiring and humorous all at the same time. The story hits close to home for any that have witnessed the torturous embrace of cancer, but it also shows how real beauty comes from within. John Clarke himself says "The flowers of Yorkshire are like the women of Yorkshire. Every stage of their growth has its own beauty, but the last phase is always the most glorious.”


The clip below shows the women seeking a photographer with the right qualifications, artistic talent, and will to help them accomplish their project. Easier said than done…

School District to Tackle Obesity

I just so happened to catch some of the school board meeting tonight. There’s not a whole lot going on, but one thing that stood out to me was the new health initiative the district is looking at implementing. I don’t have specifics or links as this is a real-time deal, but the gist of the presentation (that played like a broken record 3 times…I love it when that multi-million dollar technology they use makes them look like a 3rd world country) was that many kids are obese and the school district is going to tackle the problem through education, limiting bad food choices, and increased exercise. Sounds good right? Not so fast. Some of it made sense, most of it was downright laughable (like placing the responsibility on vendors like Sodexho to teach nutrition).

Here’s the problem, a lot of kids are fat, but honestly it’s not JUST the school that’s making them this way. Forcing teachers to implement and document some 15-20 minutes of extra exercise a day (rubric and all) isn’t going to erase that bag of Doritos and zombification sessions in front of the TV for hours on end once these kids get home. What this will do is put an even higher workload on teachers, who already have more than enough ineffective paperwork to chase and it will take away from academic instruction time.

This is nothing more than a “feel good” program that will not effectively curb adolescent obesity, but it’ll give those folks up top something to pat their own backs about.

Here We Go Again

New boss, new plans, same problem. It seems the construction of the new Red Cedar Elementary School is over budget by a paltry $3 million and behind schedule (look for it around 2010). So what happened?

Well you’d think with the passage of an “Emergency Referendum” complete with special election that the folks in charge would have moved diligently but in fact they screwed up the design by not accommodating for enough kids and they pussyfooted around finding adequate land to build on (land they already had elsewhere, but anyway). So an emergency building up since 2005, culminates into a possible solution by 2010. Remember the 2000 referendum for a high school in the northern part of the county has yet to break ground (and really isn’t even wanted by the majority of the county now).

Exactly how does someone screw up the design of a school in an area literally bursting at the seams? Easy… there was always a second school in the plan. The district rigged the game so people will feel they have no other choice but to vote for yet another school, and better yet, they can add a smorgasbord of related items to the “urgently needed” school referendum to bilk the tax payers out of millions of dollars, and thus take care of family and friends for years to come with sweetheart contracts, not to mention crony admin jobs at the new schools once built.

Meanwhile schools in surrounding areas have plenty of empty seats. Adjusting the attendance zones county wide would be the most psychologically painful, yet most financially responsible decision we could make. Yes it would mean “tearing” kids away from their friends and exposing them to a different environment, but we are already a transient community. Look around, how many of your neighbors are still around that were there when you 1st moved to town? Better yet, how many of us have “moved up” because of a real estate windfall in the area? One more move isn’t going to kill our kids, but it could very well save us a considerable tax burden, not to mention cut the travel time to and from school. There is no better charity than the altruism in taking care of your own.

Adjusting attendance zones means alleviation from overcrowded schools, shorter bus rides, and lower taxes by minimizing the need for new construction... all for the children.

Burma

The government oppression in Burma is disheartening. I don’t like the fact that our president has used this as a political distraction from the problems his policies have created elsewhere in the world, but I can’t think of a regime more despotic than that of Burma/Myanmar.

Seeing the images of protesting monks and the accounts of ruthless beatings (and murders) by the police on those who are simply voicing their opinion is worlds away from anything we’ll ever have to go through. It forces me to wonder if we could ever overcome the brutality of a crushing military state. Our liberty fosters our own apathy. I doubt very seriously that many of us would have the gumption to rise up if we found ourselves under a totalitarian ruler’s thumb.

My heart pours out to these people, who are willing to die for their freedom. Which is more than I can say about the intentions of the public we interact with through our nation building activities in other countries. Then again countries like neighboring China or India could do more, but seem satisfied to just to rub salt in the wound. Big business is more than willing to exploit the situation there. Just another reminder that human rights are a luxury most other places don't enjoy.

Click here if you're interested in learning more about the United States Campaign for Burma.