MAKING GOOD MONDAYS

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2011-11-08T13:10:00.000-06:00

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Russian crash clouds space station operations

2011-08-28T09:07:00.001-05:00

The recent Russian Suyoz crash puts the international space program in somewhat of a bind. Though the International Space Station has enough equipment and supplies to go well into 2012.

The unpiloted Soyuz-U rocket, which fizzled out five minutes after blasting off from the Baikonur launch pad, closely resembles Russia's Soyuz-FG model used to transport astronauts to the orbital station in the absence of a U.S. shuttle.

According to MSNBC and Reuters, changing out ISS crew members will not take place on the planned schedule:

The next space station crew launch, which industry sources and foreign officials say will now be postponed from Sept. 22, was to be the first since the U.S. space agency ended its 30 year shuttle program in July.

This crash is another in a series of space craft failures. A Russian commission will investigate the incident to determine the cause before another attempt at any rocket launches. And in the U.S. there will be additional pressure on our commercial efforts to fly a cargo supply vessel as soon as possible. The shuttle program is over; there will be no more of those launches. Therefore, launching our own crew members into low earth orbit is somewhat further away. Until then, we remain dependent on the Russians.

Posted via email from Make Good Mondays

There is no doubt that global warming is my reality

2011-08-24T12:22:00.003-05:00

[8/24/11] - There is no doubt in my mind that global warming is a scientific reality.

There is little doubt that it has been caused by humankind, more specifically excess greenhouse gases.

I have experienced the warmest summer ever, here in north central Texas. It has been so difficult that we have had to change our routine behavior to accommodate outdoor activities during the coolest (relatively) parts of the day.

We go to the grocery store early. My husband plays golf at the crack of dawn. Our pet Corgi goes out only when necessary, and for the shortest possible time. I do not use the oven with which to cook. And we use the dishwasher after we have retired for the evening.

My relatives in Wyoming got almost all of the cool wet weather that Texas did not. Their gardens suffered because the growing season started so late.

It is my topsy-turvy world now. I will be ever so glad for the arrival of fall.

Technorati tags: Climate change

My Other Blogs: Check out my Amplify blog for synopses of current news stories. My news and political blog is South by Southwest. Follow me at Twitter. And Carol Gee - Online Universe is the home page for all my websites.

This and that from the recent past:

2011-07-21T01:02:00.001-05:00

From my regular contributor, Jon:

Just Amazing!
NY-born twin friars die on same day at age 92 - Yahoo! News (6/5/11).
Study: Man's Best Friend Is Also a Mind Reader - Yahoo! News (6/13/11).

Speaking of Excess . . .
What Does a $500 Million Golf Course Look Like? - Yahoo! Travel (6/19/11).
The American Police State is the 'New Normal' - Yahoo! News (6/26/11).

Texas tidbits:
The Cracks in Rick Perry’s Job-Growth Record - Swampland at Time (6/27/11).
Texas debt growing at faster rate than Federal government's - Ft. Worth Star-Telegram (7/13/11)

Jon adds, "I would like to hear little Ricky explain this."

And from Diane of Nevada:
Growing vegetables in your yard against the law? - Natural News Alert (6/17/11).

Thanks, as always.

Posted via email from Behind These Links

This month: little gems from my regular contributor, Jon.

2011-05-30T08:25:00.002-05:00

Texas' Headlines -
Texas Governor Rick Perry says he will consider running for president (5/27/11), is from the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.
A Texas Log Cabin for $4 Million is from Yahoo! Real Estate (4/25/11).
Guest column from the Texas Tribune: Don't mess with my district, (4/25/11).
Pier 1 and Radio Shack: Which is on better footing for the future? (4/23/11) is from the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

Headlines from elsewhere -
Blackbeard's anchor is recovered off the North Carolina coast (5/27/11), is from Yahoo! News.

Activist Post: 10 Indications the United States Is a Dictatorship, (5/10/11).
War Dog - A Photo Essay by Rebecca Frankel, from Foreign Policy Magazine (5/4/11).
Officials: A popular cop in Alaska is an illegal immigrant (4/23/11) is from Yahoo! News.
Poll: Americans strongly oppose some deficit proposals (4/20/11) is from the Washington Post.
The super rich see their federal taxes drop dramatically (4/18/11), from Yahoo! News.

via ScribeFire

Posted via email from Behind These Links

This was a special birthday

2010-11-19T11:38:00.002-06:00

In Nebraska on November 19, 1915, my mother, Lavina Catherine was born. Her middle name has been passed down in the family for generations. Her first name was uncommon. People often mispronounced it. .

Family - Her parents were Molly and Roy. It was Molly's second marriage. Her first husband, George, died leaving her to raise their son Leonard. Molly and Roy's first child was a son named Norval. Lavina was thus, the baby of the family.

Lavina and Norval were both "redheads," a seemingly remarkable trait for those who knew them. Other traits they shared included a lively sense of humor, sociability, willingness to work and adaptability. Because I loved my mom dearly, I also adored my Uncle Norval, as they were so much alike.

My mom's rural upbringing was relatively conventional for a western farm kid. She learned to do housework at her mom's side. The men and boys worked in the fields. They all spent time "neighboring" with those nearby, sharing work, visiting, having fun, marking passages. . . and moving farther west. My grandfather sometimes was able to make a living, sometimes not. When things got too bad, he found another place to farm and the family came along. Mom graduated very young from a central Wyoming high school. She moved west again with her parents and married in her early twenties. I was her firstborn, arriving in 1937. Eventually Mom had five children 13 years apart -- one boy and four girls. Our upbringing was also mostly rural or small town. I moved to Texas to go to college, married and started my own family.

After Mom and Dad's kids had all left home, they also moved to Texas to be nearer to our four children. Over time they had nine grandchildren and several great-grandchildren. Each of her kids and grand kids always got a birthday card with a dollar or two dollar bill in it. And we all came to her house for Easter dinner and egg hunts. Thanksgiving and Christmas were with us while they lived in Texas. Mom was the best cook and gardener I ever knew. Home made bread and fancy Christmas candies were her specialties, along with the fresh vegetables and fruit from her ever present garden. Art work and needlework were her passions, however. She painted, sewed, crocheted, did embroidery and made quilts. Handwork was her constant companion. From before I was born until she made her last quilt shortly before passing away at the age of 93, she was making beautiful things.

Mom was also a dedicated diarist who left us all histories of her life, travels and activities. My own writing was inspired by my mom's, even to the point of trying my hand at poetry when I was in my 50's. I wrote several poems for or about my mom, who was a faithful member of the Lutheran Church. I composed the following piece when Mom was 84 and added to it when she was 87.

A Sign from the Lord

12/18/99
“He’s not through with me yet,” says this indomitable lady.
A bushel of yarn, passed on from one who is now dead,
Was the banner the maker of colorful warm things saw ahead.

2/28/03
They moved once again to his hometown, the man and the red-haired lady.
“It must be a sign from the Lord.” But then the heart-broken daughter fled.
Calling on faith in the Lord, she turned to quilts and her old crochet thread.

Time passed for the couple. The lady learned how to cope, the man took ill.
Many folks prayed to the Lord. There were fears it might be his deathbed.
But he rallied, vowed to come home. The indomitable lady was overspread.

“I don’t think I can do it by myself,” says the lady, now fragile herself.
Her changed mate and his many medical needs must have spelled dread.
He wants to come home. “He’s not through with me yet,” she must have said.

“Nothing’s broken this time, at least,” says the lady of her confused mate.
He fell, “a crisis.” She alone cannot get him up; he’s just out of his sick-bed.
She adjusts ONCE AGAIN, as he needs his own place to lay down his head.

“He’s not through with me yet.” Will the lady to see a sign from the Lord?
She wants far-flung kids to be in on the plan; they delay decisions instead.
No offspring live in town, so for now, kids get Helpers to act in their stead.

So the far-flung wait and keep in close touch. For this tough little lady,
Partner roles have reversed. She will now have to decide for this hard head.
So as in the past, she’ll wait for her sign from the Lord to give the go-ahead.

Two more poems (in pdf) conclude today's post honoring Mom's birthday:

"Everyone ought to have a Princess time" was composed in 1999 whild Mom and Dad still lived in Texas. Not long after that the folks moved back to Wyoming to the small town where my dad was born and where they met and married in the mid Thirties. Mom became a widow there, and it is where they both now rest in peace side by side.
"Honoring your years" was written in honor of Mom's 90th birthday. My Wyoming sisters gave her a big party at the assisted living facility in central Wyoming, where she spent several happy years. The celebration included a "card shower" with dozens and dozens of greetings from Lavina's friends and relatives from far and wide.

Blogged with the Flock Browser

2010-11-18T20:32:00.001-06:00

Newsweek: Elon Musk on the future of space flight http://ping.fm/P27hL

On writing about books and authors --

2010-11-07T10:46:00.001-06:00

Writing about books is not the primary focus of my blogging. For that I recommended, in a post in October of 2009, a literary blogger who maintains the Maud Newton: Blog. Here is one of her posts about a reading of one of her essays in a published collection titled Love Is a Four Letter Word. Newton is a great writer and a reviewer of books of all kinds.

Since I learned to read I have consumed and cherished good books. As a reader I joined the popular website, GoodReads. Over the years I have written a few reviews myself, nothing to compare, of course. And I have written about authors as well, not formal reviews, but with a focus of what they had written that interested me. As a blogger, my posts are generally about national politics and world affairs. In that vein the first such piece, written on July 19, 2005 was about the book, The World Is Flat, by Thomas Friedman. Luckily ". . . cliff notes" was in the post title. It landed my post in position #10 of 104,000 in the Google search. I was surprised and pleased by the popularity of my post, and have been writing about good books ever since.

My first formal book review was written on November 9, 2007. I was offered a review copy by the publisher of Stone Cold, written by David Baldacci. (Here is Amazon's current info about the book). I have no idea how they found me, except that I have long blogged about the Middle East, national security and national intelligence subjects. Stone Cold is a novel touching on those themes. Being an anxious-to-please first time reviewer, my review was timely to the date of publication and, for a few days it remained in the top 20 of a Google search. It has since disappeared from the first few pages in a current search.

What seems to make terrorists tick has always been an area of fascination for me. After having watched a great C-SPAN feature on the subject I wrote a whole series of posts. I concluding it March 18, 2008, with a post on Leaderless Jihad. Forensic psychiatrist Marc Sageman was the author of the book about Middle Eastern terrorists on which he presented so brilliantly on TV. (This is the current info from Amazon about the book). Today my post remains at #17 of 5300 in a Google search.

Nonfiction is the literary form I prefer, and I remain fascinated by political biography and autobiography. One of my (s)heroes is the first female Secretary of State, Madelaine Albright. She served under President Bill Clinton, another of my heroes. Her memoir is entitled Madam Secretary, and I wrote at length about her fine book in a post on January 8, 2009. (Here is Amazon's info about the book). Today, I often refer to her memoir when I want to find out about the background of the Camp David peace negotiations that happened just before President George W. Bush's inauguration. I started blogging in March of 2005 in an oppositional reaction to the aggressive invasion of Iraq by the Bush administration.

The author of my most recent book review written on August 31, 2010, also had a negative reaction to the war in Iraq. Barefoot In Baghdad, was written by Minal Omar, an American Muslim woman born in Saudi Arabia who came to the U.S. at the age of 6 months. Here is more about the book, a memoir that tells of her living and working in Iraq on behalf of women during the early years of the war. It is now #56 of 103,000 in Google search. I highly recommend this book, by the way. Omar has returned to the United States. We are on the way out of Iraq and the Middle East peace process is still stalled. According to the well-respected Palestinian negotiator, Saeb Erakat, Camp David still has a bearing. However, Erakat recently stated that President Obama's midterm election losses will not affect the current peace process.

Image via Wikipedia

My review was another case of being sent a review copy by a publisher, who somehow found out my areas of interest and my contact information. I seem to be on a number of types of Email lists. I get news releases from publicists who want my readers to know about expert speakers who are out and about. I still get a significant number of offers of books to be mailed to me for review. I do not accept any books about which I am uninterested. And I must confess that I do not always get reviews written about the books I receive. Some I cannot finish out of boredom, some I find to be pretty inadequate and not worth the effort to write even a negative review. It has been an interesting side benefit of blogging and one with which I always try to operate in good faith, even if imperfectly.

[11/7/10: Post date]

My Other Blogs: Check out my Amplify blog for synopses of current news stories. My creative website is Making Good Mondays. Follow me at Twitter. And Carol Gee - Online Universe is the home page for all my websites.

Posted via email from Make Good Mondays

Simplify your life this holiday season - Start with some basics.

2010-11-05T07:40:00.001-05:00

It is now November. Haiti is in the middle of a hurricane today. Let us hope that their rainbow comes soon.

For us here in the United States the elections are over. For Republicans it is the rainbow. For me as a Democrat I guess the storm is over.

And, for all of us, the Next Big Thing will be Thanksgiving.

The Family Circle Magazine published some helpful ideas for learning to simplify your life, saying that "it can be easier than you think."

Four general simplification processes are key:

Conquer the clutter around the house. Coming into the season of giving, start by giving away items you no longer need. The author suggests that you start small with short periods of this activity, enlist the support of friends when you get stuck and give yourself a deadline and a reward for finishing.
Overcome your work overload. Unless you practice stress management*, you could be on the way to burnout. Perfectionism, over-achiever tendencies and inadequate time management leave us exhausted and vulnerable to illness. The author suggests focusing on what bugs you at work and at home, fixing what you can and letting go of the rest. Delegation can improve your situation and so can a healthy support network.
Free yourself from mental clutter. Remembering to think positively, giving yourself credit where it is due and writing things down can be helpful, says the author.
Learn how to say "no." Some of us were conditioned to please others. We do not want to appear to be selfish, we automatically say "yes" to demands or requests. Here are some tactics the author suggests: Learn to say, "Let me get back to you." Or become less available. We all have had to learn how to express our own needs. But it takes application and practice.

*Things you can do to handle stress: Talk it out. Work it off. Watch what you eat. Don't depend on drugs or alcohol. Get plenty of rest. Take a break. Do something for others. Make a change. Accept the things you can't change. Don't try to be perfect. Be a good problem solver.

Next in this series: "Simplify your life this holiday season - You are what you eat."

Posted via email from Make Good Mondays

DRMSTREAM posts "When You Grow Up Deaf." Check it out here.

2010-09-26T09:47:00.001-05:00

"When You Grow Up Deaf" is a powerful poem published at the website, DRMSTREAM. Here are a couple of excerpts:

When you grow up deaf there are so many things you don’t know.

The sound of rain on the roof.

**********

When you grow up deaf you worry that you’ll never really know the world, that every moment your back is turned some thing irre place able will pass you by. When you close your eyes, silence.

The piece includes an evocative photo illustration. Click the link above and enjoy.

Posted via email from Make Good Mondays

Tweet writers shine again.

2010-09-22T15:05:00.001-05:00

"Feeling grateful that high school Student Council prepared me to be governed by overambitious weirdos." (9/18/10) By PourMeCoffee

John Dickerson wrote this,"Sometimes the theories to explain Obama start to sound like refrigerator magnet poetry." (Sept. 18th).

Joseph Cirincione reports: "Just got off a call with 40+ NGOs, all working very hard to ensure a strong, bipartisan vote for New START this week." (Sept. 14th)

"And Obama offered up his familiar Slurpee riff: Dems digging economy out of a ditch while Republicans watch, just "sipping a Slurpee," was written by my favorite White House reporter, Mark Knoller on Sept. 18th.

ProPublica tweeted on Sept. 18th, "Watchdogs: Gov’t Spent $196 Keeping Secrets For Every $1 Spent Declassifying Documents, http://bit.ly/c5paFE"

Katrina [vanden Heuvel], Editor of Nation Magazine says, "Happiness= having purposeful life & meaningful work," July 8th.

John Dickerson, again (May 25th): "With this oil leak, the entire country is on the line and BP is tech help."

via ScribeFire

Posted via email from Behind These Links

Links to the latest news about the Shuttle Discovery --

2010-09-21T10:33:00.001-05:00

Space Shuttle Discovery Takes One Last Trip to Launch Pad ...The space shuttle Discovery began its last journey to the launch pad Monday, six weeks before the spacecraft is due to lift off on its final mission to space. Sept. 21, 2010

Gallery: Boeing Joins Start-up Companies in the Private Space Race | 80beats ...the space shuttle program, selecting a backup crew in case it needs to make a rescue mission for the last scheduled flight in February. While the space shuttle close draws nearer, the race to replace it gets stronger. Now Boeing has entered the fray, unveiling the design of a spacecraft it will build for the task of taking astronauts t... Sept. 20, 2010

NASA Selects Astronaut Crew for Possible Extra Shuttle Flight...ever space shuttle mission next summer, should Congress approve the extra flight. SPACE.com Sep 16, 2010

Rare Shuttle Rollover Photo Op Evokes Sadness, Pride ...parked Space Shuttle Discovery outside its hangar for several hours to allow employees to take pictures. Sep 13, 2010

Hat tip to Space.com and Google Reader for these links.

via ScribeFire

Posted via email from Behind These Links

Moon-Watchers Welcome at 3 NASA Centers Saturday

2010-09-18T07:05:00.001-05:00

Skywatchers with the moon on their minds can get their lunar fix tonight (Sept. 18) at three NASA space centers as part of a global moon-watching event.

NASA centers in California, Alabama and Maryland will welcome the public tonight as part of the first International Observe the Moon Night, a worldwide project to spur interest in the moon among the public. The space centers are just some of the participants in the skywatching event. Some 370 venues across 30 countries are expected to host moon-watching parties of their own, NASA officials said.

"We're participating in a truly international event to share knowledge and information about the moon," said Kim Newton, a spokeswoman for NASA's Marshall Space Center in Huntsville, Ala., where scientists will be waiting with telescopes to share moon secrets with the public. "We're looking forward to a great turnout." [10 Coolest New Moon Discoveries]

Hundreds of other local moon-watching events are planned around the world tonight. To see if an event is planned near your location, visit the International Observe the Moon Night project website: http://www.observethemoonnight.org/getInvolved/attend.cfm

Here's a look at the three NASA centers opening their doors for moon-lovers tonight:

MARYLAND: Goddard Space Flight Center Visitor Center

The Goddard Space Flight Center Visitor Center in Greenbelt, Md., will hold moon observing events from 6:30-10 p.m. EDT, weather permitting. The events includes guest speakers, hands-on activities and for early attendees a tour of the center's laser-ranging facility. Tours of the laser-ranging facility, used to help determine the position of the moon and NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter currently in orbit around it, are open to the first 100 visitors.

Goddard officials will show photos of the moon taken by the LRO spacecraft, encourage moon observations and discuss the moon's phases, history and appearance. For more information on the Goddard events and schedule, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/visitor/events/observe-the-moon.html

Location:

Goddard Space Flight Center
800 Greenbelt Rd.
Greenbelt, Md., 20771

Click here for local directions.

ALABAMA: Marshall Space Flight Center/U.S. Space & Rocket Center

NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center is teaming up with the Lunar Quest Program to host a moon-watching event at the U.S. Space & Rocket Center in Huntsville, Ala., from 5-8 p.m. CDT, weather permitting.

Several large amateur telescopes will be available for the public to view the moon, along with an inflatable planetarium and an "astronomy van" that will offer 3-D views of the moon as it would appear through the windows of a spacecraft command module, Marshall center officials said.

Astronomer Rob Suggs, NASA Space Environments Team lead and manager of the Lunar Impact Monitoring Project at Marshall, will be present to discuss the latest moon discoveries with the public. For more information on the Marshall events and schedule, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/centers/marshall/news/news/releases/2010/M10-120.html

Location:

NASA's Educator Resource Center near the rocket center complex. Take Interstate 565 to exit 15 for Madison Pike toward Sparkman Drive/Bob Wallace Avenue. Keep right at the fork, follow signs to the Space & Rocket Center. Take the first left after the Marriott entrance.

Click here for detailed directions.

CALIFORNIA: Ames Research Center

At NASA's Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, Calif., event organizers plan to aim more than 40 telescopes at the moon for visiting skywatchers. The event will run from 7-11 p.m. PDT, weather permitting.

NASA scientists will be available to discuss recent lunar discoveries, including the existence of water on the moon, the upcoming Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer mission and other moon-watching projects.

Speakers will include David Morrison, former director of the National Lunar Science Institute, Barry Blumberg, a Nobel laureate and former director of the NASA Astrobiology Institute, and Greg Delory, LADEE mission deputy project scientist. For more information on the Ames events and schedule, visit: http://lunarscience.arc.nasa.gov/articles/international-observe-the-moon-night

Location:

NASA Ames Research Center Parade Grounds
Moffett Field, Calif.

Click here for directions.

10 Coolest New Moon Discoveries

How to Observe the Moon Saturday Night

Poll: Where Should Humans Land on the Moon Next?

Telescopes for Beginnersspanspan

via space.com

Think about going if you are anywhere near any of these locations. Take the kids.

Posted via email from Make Good Mondays

Changing to a new aggregator is a tough thing to do

2010-09-14T21:34:00.000-05:00

Image via CrunchBase

My old favorite feed reader, Bloglines, is going away as of October 1. Its parent company, Ask.com, has decided that feed readers/aggregators must be a thing of the past. They have decided that social media is the way to go, whatever that means.

So now all my feeds have been migrated to Google Reader. The only thing I have left to do is to save (via Emails to myself) a good number of special stories or post that I had stored in Bloglines since 2008. Hope I have the time to do this, as I would hate to lose those "keepsakes" or favorites from long ago, and sometimes far away.

Wish me luck.

[post date - 9/15/10] Technorati tags: blogging

My Other Blogs: Check out my Amplify blog for synopses of current news stories. My news and political blog is South by Southwest. Follow me at Twitter. And Carol Gee - Online Universe is the home page for all my websites.

Tweets to make you smile--

2010-09-08T15:03:00.001-05:00

Today's little roundup consists of a few of my very favorite tweets, saved meticulously over the last few weeks. Enjoy.

* From McClatchy DC -- "'Star Wars: Year by Year' illustrates effect on pop culture:http://bit.ly/9KZmdz

8:37 AM Aug 12th via twitterfeed -- This article reminds me of why I love this paper.

* From pourmecoffee - "Moments I'm officially getting sick of: 1) Teachable, 2) One Shining, 3) Defining".

11:35 AM Jul 24th via TwitterGadget -- This writer is so consistently funny.

*From freegaza.org -- "gaza moments http://t.co/Z1Bj6RG a beautiful look at Gaza in August 2010"

1:28 AM Sep 6th via Tweet Button -- This is an 8 minute video that will make you appreciate the resilience of struggling Palestinians, particularly the featured children.

*From John Dickerson -- "Embarrassment Parenting that's a method, right?5:39 PM Jul 18th via TweetDeck -- Dickerson writes the most delightful tweets on parenting.

via ScribeFire

Posted via email from Make Good Mondays

2010-09-08T14:17:00.001-05:00

Obama, the juggler President: a lit birthday cake, a watermelon, a saber, a basketball and a hand mic..all at the same time. Must be tiring.

Pick up this book --

2010-08-31T17:48:00.001-05:00

You may not be able to lay Barefoot in Baghdad down for a while. This book will capture your interest. It is a memoir that will take you to a place and time in Iraq that, for some years, was the life of Manal Oman, an American woman of Middle Eastern descent. Actually I had difficulty with my day to day responsibilities because it was such an intriguing read. To quote from the book's back cover,

[she] moved to Iraq to help women as she could to rebuild their lives. She quickly found herself drawn into the saga of a people determined to rise from the ashes of war and sanctions and rebuild their lives in the face of crushing chaos.

Written by Manal M. Omar and published just this month by Sourcebooks, the author explains in her subtitle that it is "a story of identity -- my own -- and what it means to be a woman in chaos." And it is very timely, given that August 31, 2010 is the official end of U.S. combat in Iraq.

This new book is in paperback. It and has exceptional readability, with an enthralling narrative style. To quote another Iraq war writer, Christina Asquith, the book is:
A fascinating, honest and inspiring portrait of a women's rights activist in Iraq, struggling to help local women while exploring her own identity. Manal Omar is a skilled guide into Iraq, as she understands the region, speaks Arabic, and wears the veil. At turns funny and tragic, she carries a powerful message for women, and delivers it through beautiful storytelling.

Though I am a great deal older than this author, I found Omar's book about her work with Iraq's women oddly familiar. The author knows both East and West because she grew up in the United States, arriving with her Saudi Arabian parents in Texas at the age of 6 months. Having spent her summers in the Middle East, she calls multiculturalism "my own secret super power."

I have also straddled two cultures, having grown up in a western state, and going back to visit there from Texas almost every summer. Much of my adult life in Texas (both professionally and as a volunteer) was spent working on behalf of women's issues. My little culture shocks can never compare to the life changing experiences of Minal Omar, and the women she came to know, and with whom she connected, as she went barefoot in Baghdad. We all share the same gender, but what I came to understand more deeply through this book is this. As far as women experiencing cultural uprooting, our sisters in Iraq suffered incomparably more during the past decade than did most of us.

Manal Omar's multicultural identity is, in my opinion, one of her key strengths as a writer. Readers will learn immeasurably more about the country of Iraq and its wonderful people than could have been learned over the past decade from consumption of news from the mainstream media. We now know all too well, that view can be risky. For example, in the run-up to the U.S. invasion of Iraq, we took our reality from the powers that be, and we were dead wrong to do so.

The author had a great deal of ambivalence about the invasion in 2002. Omar said in her introduction, "As an American I was speechless. I could neither attack nor defend my country, although I found myself desperately wanting to do both," But she was not deterred by her mixed feelings. Shortly after the United States went to war in Iraq, the author went to work for a nongovernmental organization (NGO) based in London, Women for Women International (WWI). Its CEO and founder, Zanaib Salbi, whom the author characterizes as "an adrenalin junkie," was an important mentor to Manal. Their work together began with a wild road trip to Baghdad. To quote the head of Omar's NGO, Salbi summarized the book well:
Manal Omar captures the complex reality of living and working in war-torn Iraq, a reality that tells the story of love and hope in the midst of bombs and explosions.

The author's time in Iraq, which she called in an opening chapter "a place of fantasies," was from 2003 to 2005; it was only rarely calm or peaceful. Her WWI NGO work was about helping Iraqi women who had been marginalized by the Saddam Hussein regime and the subsequent U.S. occupation. Through an amazingly courageous WWI effort in a country that eventually became too dangerous for the NGO to remain, almost 2000 women received various kinds of NGO program assistance, support and training towards self sufficiency.

The author and her WWI staff made themselves homes as best they could, and always lived out of the Green Zone. With unflagging support from her Iraqi core staff members (4 males and one female), Omar recounts a moving story of loyalty and bravery in the midst of the country's descent into full blown civil war. It is also a wonderfully told love story. However, my lips are sealed. I can reveal that the mystery of how it unfolded was threaded through the book and very effectively handled by this talented author in the 245-page book's final chapters.

I encourage you to read it all for yourself.
Barefoot in Baghdad will not disappoint you.

Reviewed by Carol Gee, 8/31/10.

Author of:
Southwest Postings, a political blog
Make Good Mondays
, a personal blog
Member of Twitter, a social network

Posted via email from Make Good Mondays

Confessions of a (non-nuclear) proliferator

2010-08-25T19:36:00.001-05:00

My previous confessions have focused on my being a collector, which starts with collecting and saving stuff. It serves the psychological purpose of avoiding the actual project, while mulling it over, organizing, and general wool-gathering.

Proliferation is a bit different. It is an extension of collecting, which then moves into making a lot of variations of those collected items. It involves very little discarding of material. My favorite categories in the past when I was employed were often to-do lists, action plans and jotted-and-saved ideas. After my retirement in 2002, some health issues intervened. I quickly went to very little organizing or planning. It was no longer necessary. I could pay attention to my own needs and be more creative at the same time. I loved being involved with the internet, with the magic of the web.

In 2005 I went "back to work" -- as a volunteer, a blogger with two sites on Blogspot. And the proliferation began in earnest. I started using Internet Explorer as my browser, discovered Mozilla Firefox which then became too unwieldy for blogging. Now I have switched to Google Chrome, which turns out to be a big improvement over Firefox.

Over the years I wrote entries at a number of blogs that were communities of progressives, Daily Kos and TPM Cafe, for example. And I started more of my own blog sites, as well. I was invited to be a regular contribute to a couple of blogs. I was invited to do book reviews. I did this for several years. Then the administration changed, and I no longer had an adversary. After President Bush left office, the blogosphere and progressive politics had changed and I had changed.

Despite organizing, making plans, and scheduling, it eventually became too much. The readership at my regular blogs dropped. I was no longer doing any book reviews. And I was now involved with social networks. My writing had suffered; the job was too big to handle, and I asked myself for what was I working?

My proliferation has had to change. I stopped contributing to other progressive communities. Shorter and more frequent posts are now the norm, and my long and link-filled posts that did not fit that model are now infrequent. I am active on Twitter and Facebook. I post original material at a few sites which then auto post to a number of my other sites. I am micro-blogging, and I will be writing a book review by the end of the month.

"In recovery," my work is leaner and meaner. I have avoided proliferation on social media. My readership is up and I am less "driven." I am trying to get back to a routine that embodies what I always loved about the blogosphere, and one that utilizes my strengths. The themes of my day at the computer are consolidate, delete, clean, clear and organize downward.

It seems to be working better, for the time being, at least.

Posted via email from Make Good Mondays

There is a bottom line here.

2010-08-24T08:53:00.001-05:00

The following ProPublica article is something that I wanted to republish, because the principle is so very important. The principle to which I refer is enshrined in the Bill of Rights Amendments to the U.S. Constitution:

Article I - Freedom of religion, speech, of the press and the right of petition. -- Congress shall make no law respecting the establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

**********

Experts: Argue All You Want, Mosque Project on Firm Legal Ground

by Marian Wang ProPublica, Aug. 17, 2:58 p.m.

For all the anger, political strategizing and stabs in the heart that the plans to build a Muslim community center near ground zero may have brought about, land-use and zoning experts say opponents of the project have very little legal basis on which to rest their argument.

The discussion draws in First Amendment arguments about the constitutional right to freely practice religion. But on a more basic level, the community center must adhere to zoning laws, as none other than Rush Limbaugh has noted.

On zoning, here2019s what New York University law professor Rick Hills had to say about the proposed site, 45 Park Place in lower Manhattan, two blocks from ground zero:

Focus for a moment on basic rule of law: 45 Park Place is located in a C6-4 zoning classification ("General Central Commercial") where houses of worship are allowed "as of right." Assuming that this particular proposed house of worship meets the setback, height, and bulk requirements of the Lower Manhattan special zoning district, the city's denial of a zoning compliance permit would be flagrantly ultra vires: Building inspectors, after all, cannot simply fabricate a new "honor-the-9/11-dead" zoning district on the spot.

The New York City Department of Planning confirmed with me that the proposal is 201Cas of right,201D meaning it 201Ccomplies with all applicable zoning regulations and does not require discretionary action" to get approval. (What The New York Times described as a 201Clocal zoning dispute201D was an effort by some to get the city2019s Landmarks Preservation Commission to designate the building now at the site2014previously an old Burlington Coat Factory2014as a landmark, to prevent it from being torn down and replaced by the proposed Islamic center.)

Other land-use experts pointed out that if the city were to try to block the mosque based on zoning, its actions could be illegal based on a federal law that was passed unanimously by both houses of a Republican Congress in 2000.

201CIf the City of New York denies the zoning approval sought for this site, it will blatantly violate [the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act] and expose the city to one whopping lawsuit that is extremely likely to succeed,201D as Chicago attorney Dan Lauber told Chicago Sun-Times columnist Lynn Sweet. "A federal law adopted by a Republican Congress makes the denial the Republicans seek blatantly illegal."

Several high-profile opponents of the mosque plan2014including the American Center for Law and Justice and the Anti-Defamation League2014have in the past defended the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act, arguing that it 201Cprotects religious land uses from discrimination."

Marci Hamilton, a professor at Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law, is opposed to the federal land zoning law, saying it 201Chas been a hammer that has been held by one religious developer after another.201D In her view, the First Amendment is sufficient to 201Cplainly prohibit201D such discrimination against the mosque project. She admitted, however, that if the zoning law serves to protect the project, it 201Cmight, this once, actually be doing justice."

**********

Other useful references:

A link from my regular contributor, Jon: A Fox News co-owner funded the ‘Ground Zero mosque#, ’ according to a report at The Raw Story. There is enough hypocrisy in this whole shameful episode to fill another Great Lake on our northern border. The bottom line is that the New York mosque can be built on the private property of choice, as long as the owners follow the law. No if's, and's or but's.

via ScribeFire

Posted via email from Southwest Postings

I've learned to stay inside - but I am left with questions.

2010-08-02T10:43:00.001-05:00

Often because of inclement weather, and for other reasons, I came to prefer being inside the house to being outside. My nickname in the family was "the houseplant." Growing up in Wyoming meant a considerable number of days in the winter when it was too cold to be outside. Living all my adult life in Texas has meant a considerable number of days in the summer when it is too hot to be outside. Stay by the heater or stay by the AC, those are my perceived choices over spending time out in the weather being uncomfortable. Far too cold or far too hot, what's to do?

In Texas where we have relatively few snow storms, kids and adults alike cannot wait to get out in the snow to make snowmen, slide down hills or brave the freeways. I do not like cold feet, stinging eyes, skidding or falling down. I'll skip those pleasures, thanks. But what if I run out of groceries?

I will also skip swimming in the lakes, hiking in the woods or golfing on the links. I found out about golf in the summer in Texas one August many years ago. As a young wife of an avid golfer, I felt duty bound to learn the sport. I was fitted with clubs, cleated shoes and my own single glove. Off we went, for a fun day. And I was miserable. It only took me one day to give up the sport, and embarrassed about the waste. This houseplant just couldn't do it. Knowing I am un-athletic, why did I even try?

I am left with relatively short and perfectly beautiful spring and fall seasons. And Texas has many beautiful or interesting outdoor places, including at my own house.How can I change old habits so that I don't skip those good outside experiences?

Of late, however, I find myself occasionally outside in the hot sunshine for a bit of Vitamin D, to go with my calcium, to go with my mild osteoporosis. And my skin gets freckles, just like when I was a kid. Or they age spots?

Maybe there is yet hope for me.

-- Post date 8/2/10 by *Carol Gee,*

Author of: *Southwest Postings <http://carolgee1southwest.posterous.com/>*, a political
blog. Member of *Twitter* <http://twitter.com/GeeCarol>*,* a social network

Posted via email from Make Good Mondays

More on the Gulf Oil Spill

2010-07-29T10:37:00.001-05:00

Though things are becoming far better regarding the Gulf oil gusher, There is still a long way to go. That is because a lot of bad things have happened. Here, hat tip to my regular contributor - Jon, is a news item roundup of a few things you might have missed:

"Rig's Final Hours Probed#," is from The Wall Street Journal (7/18/10). Summary: Spill Investigators Focus on 20 'Anomalies' Aboard Doomed Deepwater Horizon.

"BP Ran Magazine Article Extolling Relations With Libya As It Secretly Lobbied For Terrorist's Release#," is from Think Progress (7/16/10). Jon has a question: "I wonder if 'Smoky Joe' Barton would still apologize to BP after knowing this? If so, than he SUPPORTS TERRORISM!"

"AP IMPACT: Gulf awash in 27,000 abandoned wells#," is from Yahoo! News (7/7/10).

"Marine biologist claims US Coast Guard involved in Corexit spraying#," is from The Raw Story (7/5/10).

"Millions of birds set to fly into Gulf oil mess#," is from MSNBC (7/1/10). Summary: 'They won't be safe on their fall passage,' says Audubon official.

CBS: Jindal holds up deployment of National Guard to fight spill is from Daily Kos (6/25/10).

"Reasonably high chance BP files for bankruptcy,# is from The Atlantic. (6/22/10).

"Judge held stock in rig owner#," is from Politico (6/22/10).

"BP burning sea turtles alive#," is from The Raw Story (6/20/10).

"Republican candidate: Obama, BP ‘colluded’ to make oil spill happen#," is from The Raw Story (6/18/10).

"The Environmental Legacy of the Gulf Oil Spill#," is from Newsweek Magazine (6/17/10).

"Texas lawmaker accuses White House of BP shakedown#," is from Yahoo! News (6/16/10). Jon's comment:

Joe Barton is a jack(...). I guess he would have the impacted people to just absorb all the loss themselves. UNBELIEVABLE -- No, I forgot, just SOP for Rethugs. Scumbag Barton needs to be run out of office.

via ScribeFire

Posted via email from Southwest Postings

Going paperless

2010-07-18T10:13:00.002-05:00

(Illustration: Free Images)

Relying on having access to only digital archival information necessitates adopting a very different mindset for me. I have been used to having the information I need stored in my file cabinets. Yes, I have more than one, even though I am retired. Or it is in a set of office sorting trays, or a cardboard file box, or even in a stack. There are several advantages for me to go digital. Plagued by procrastination, I seem to be much more motivated to keep my digital files cleaned out and organized so that my computer runs faster. I also love the magic of the "search" box. I prefer typing and editing on a computer keyboard (using ScribeFire in the Firefox browser), to composing on paper. I do not know how I got along before I discovered cloud computing on Evernote. My computer is even preferable for simple notes and scribbles, signified by my reliance on a nifty little application called Note Mania. Therefore, the trick for me has been to have fun and useful tools - applications - that work better for me than the old way of writing. But writing is not the only thing associated with retaining information. Reading is equally important.

Giving up the local newspaper means we will not have the paper delivered to our front porch every morning. We will not read today's headlines, articles of local interest, wedding announcements, or obituaries. The files I am going through these days include lots of old newspaper clippings associated with my history. And I cannot throw some of them away. They had value then and they have value now. How could we discard the obituaries of our forebearers? The reason is emotional attachment, which is the core driver of hoarding, by the way. As with preferring hardback books to reading lengthy pieces online, I still prefer reading the paper form of our local news organ. But we cannot afford it any more. So I get all my news from television or online like everyone else. And I will have to figure out something else to use for mailing packing material, for protecting the floor when we paint the walls, for training the puppy or for lining the birdcage. There are definitely some ways we cannot go paperless. More importantly, I am fully aware that news organization reporters (predominantly print journalism) are responsible for gathering and publishing the original news items to which we bloggers so casually link.

Trashing old paper files signifies literally not being able to get your hands on a piece of information you thought important enough to save at some time in the past. My question is always, "What if I need (or want) this in the future. I am a keeper of information, not someone who would qualify as a hoarder, though some might disagree. And I love to read from original materials. It is that emotional attachment thing again. What can compare, for example, to the original halting letters and spacing of my granddaughter's first grade penmanship blue book? She is now well into her 20's and long past blue books. What could be more precious than a mushy yellowed 1955 telegram from my boyfriend, now my husband of 54 years? You can begin to see my problem. But I am making progress. I now know that I neither need nor want 1986 United Way training handouts on how to be a manager. I have no regrets at being retired from that kind of activity. And those old handouts would not tell me how to manage our Corgi dog who wants to run the household. They are now dog-eared and faded copies that should go into the recycling bin. Recycling, by the way, has helped me more easily make trash. Stuff is not "wasted," another of my mental barriers to going paperless.

Forgoing extra copies implies the risk of losing the original document. The rule is that if the documentation is easily available elsewhere, do not keep the original or even a copy. I must remind myself that not every piece of paper is a valuable document. Throwing the extras away gains valuable storage space for those essential originals the IRS wants us to keep for a time, or those identity documents that mark for your heirs your passage through this life. Yes, I am at the legacy stage of life, age 73. I have provided my fair share of original recipes for those family or local club cookbooks. My old scribbled pencil copy can go away. The cookbooks are now all digitized, even if they show up in spiral notebook or paperback form. I can always order another one, such as the Junior League club cookbooks that I collected as travel souvenirs for many years.

Getting off mailing lists indicates that I could miss out on potentially important information from outside sources. It also means accumulating less paper to throw away. Remember the advent of the lists offering to help remove your name from junk mail lists bought and sold for the purpose. I did that but the effort must be maintained. Rarely is it now that merchandise is not available online. I do still enjoy beautiful slick catalogs. However, they are rarely free. The thrill associated with the arrival of the Sears or "Monkey Ward" catalog goes back to living in the country in Wyoming as a child and looking forward to the free Montgomery Ward Christmas catalog coming in the mail in November. These days the mailing lists from which I remove myself are those unending press releases that all proliffic bloggers receive. Even when I am trying to live paperless, I still get junk Email I must handle/delete. Spam filters do not work when mailers acquire your name legitimately.

Posted via email from Make Good Mondays

Blog writing in transition. . . at an intersection

2010-07-13T14:24:00.001-05:00

My blog writing has been in transition for a few monthsbecause I am bored with my Blogger sites. They are not as user friendly as Posterous, but they are probably better looking, according to Heather. Posterous publishes to most all my websites, however, with just a few keystrokes. And Posterous gets a lot more traffic than my Blogger sites. So much of my dilemma is a matter of trade-offs.

Today I am writing this post using Yahoo! mail for the first time, rather than Gmail. Via About.com reviews (see previous two links), and my writing experience, I am researching which platform is the most stable and user friendly for composing blog posts. Both services provide autosave to draft, which seems essential to me. There is nothing worse than working up a complex, lengthy or creative post -- only to lose it when my computer crashes. This will happen on using the Posterous website for composing; there is no autosave yet.

My Yahoo! Mail Platform has become a habit for keeping in touch electronically, perhaps it could also serve for blogging, another way to keep in touch. My phone service is with At&T, so I routinely write and receive Emails via Yahoo!, "the world's most visited homepage." I have three separate "boxes," web addresses as a way of managing my communication. There is a "public" box for the bulk of the mail, a "private" address for friends and family, and a "social" box for everything connected to social networking.

Facebook is a hybrid form that hosts both Email (messages) and blogs (updates). Twitter is also a kind of combination. A writer can compose a mini-post of 140 characters, as well as send "E-mail" (what you are doing) to followers. So, to my readers I say, have patience. I am at the intersection of Blog Road, Email Avenue and Network Boulevard, waiting for the light to turn green again.

Posted via email from Make Good Mondays

Learn something new today --

2010-07-10T13:52:00.001-05:00

Today's post at Make Good Mondays focuses of a few handy new things I have recently learned. You might want to try out a few of them to make your online experience richer and more effective. These are ideas, applications or tactics that I have tried and found useful during the past month.

Mozy - Online Backup, Data Backup and Remote Backup Solutions. For just under $5 per month, you can back up all the information you would hate to lose from your computer. Once the initial backup is complete (which could take many hours), you can adjust the settings to back up only what has changed at the same time every day, or you can set it to back up info a certain number of times each day. By purchasing one year of service, I got one month free. I found the application to be easy to implement and it appears to be a solid company.

HootSuite - People who use this social network Twitter often find the original website lacking in functionality. I first tried TweetDeck, but I like HootSuite better. An excellent Twitter platform, it calls itself "professional," and it is free. The features I like best are the tabs, that organize my entire set of Twitter lists (streams) into specific categories. For example, my "Daily Scan" tab displays these streams: Mentions, Direct Messages (inbox), my Web-Friends (a private list), Media-Darlings, Bloggers-&-Blogs lists, and my Facebook feed. A second tab displays my lists entitled, Newspapers-&-magazines, Television-newsletters, Writers-&-Reporters, Earth-&-Space Folks, Civil-libertarians/good-causes, Officials-&-Government, and Texas-Twitterers. A third tab "Other Lists," displays a couple of lists to which I subscribe, and my own lists called, Check-out-occasionally, Good-advice, and Utilities. The last tab is "Collections," and shows my own Sent-tweets, Favorites, Direct-messages (outbox), my ReTweets, Featured-Tweeps and Unseen-followers (another private list). Thus all who follow me, and all those I follow get put on a list at some point. No one gets lost and I only have to read the tweets that are most important to me. I can find what I occasionally need or want and ignore posts that are of lesser interest.

Additional References: Links regarding the general subject of education from my regular contributor, Jon#:

"US college degrees: Still the best among world's top universities?#," is from Yahoo! News (6/2/10).
California passes bill to counteract ‘disturbing’ Texas curriculum#," is from The Raw Story (5/30/10). Measure ensures Texas standards don't 'creep into our textbooks,' senator tells Raw Story.
"Today's College Students Lack Empathy#," is from Yahoo! News (5/28/10).

(date of post: 7/10/10)

by Carol Gee

Author of:
Southwest Postings, a political blog

Make Good Mondays, a personal blog

Member of Twitter, a social network

Posted via email from Make Good Mondays

Making this a good Monday

2010-07-05T11:23:00.001-05:00

Welcome to my redesigned website, using the new Posterous options.

For now, I imported all the posts from my old Blogger page. I changed the template colors and added an explanation of my reason for posting. You may see some further changes, if I feel a bit more creative on down the way. I may add some "pages," for example.

As of now I am, indeed feeling this is a good Monday. How 'bout you?

Posted via email from Make Good Mondays

Favorite Fathers Day Tweets

2010-06-20T10:06:00.000-05:00

KatrinaNation (Katrina vandenHeuvel): "Best Father's day gift: Generations in the Balance - http://nyti.ms/bwxPY1 ." A wonderful Op-Ed dialog between Tony and Daniel Judt, Baby Boomer father and Bright Teen son.

jdickerson (John Dickerson): "When you were a kid, how many degrees of separation were you from the guy who had the father with the musical car horn?"

donnabrazile (Donna Brazile): 1) "Let us honor our Dads, Fathers, Brothers & others who made a difference by saying thanks. To my Dad Lionel, brothers Chet and Kevin - Luv u!," 2) "And to all the men who treat women & girls w/ respect & dignity -2 those who honor our inner beauty, GRACE. Peace, blessings & much luv Boo."

huffingtonpost (Huffington Post): "Father's Day: The 12 Weirdest Father's Day 'Awkward Family Photos' (PHOTOS, POLL) http://huff.to/aVHj9p."

NWF (National Wildlife Federation): "Happy Fathers Day! Read why the Giant Water Bug is the most misunderstood dad: http://bit.ly/ccbhkj #fathersday."

Hegemommy (Jessica Pieklo): "Making breakfast while @phonetical sleeps upstairs. Have I mentioned it's good to have him home? It is." "Phonetical" is Mom's hubby.

sfoshee1 (D. Scott): "Dads - they're not around forever. Just pick up the phone. Today. #FathersDay"

[Post date: 6/20/10 ]

My Other Blogs: Check out my Amplify blog for synopses of current news stories. My news and political blog is South by Southwest. Follow me at Twitter. And Carol Gee - Online Universe is the home page for all my websites.

When Mondays get off to a bad start, reboot.

2010-05-24T11:15:00.000-05:00

Bunches of us have been bummed in recent weeks. BP ruined our Gulf of Mexico. Relative and friends have been having worrying troubles. At home, the one dish meal burns when the heat source is too high and dust bunnies are peeping out from under the bed. One appliance or another goes on the fritz. Out home temperature is too hot or too cold. We run out of milk and lose one of our sneakers.

Let me tell you my Monday story, only because it has suddenly become a Good Monday tale of triumph at the keyboard. Such hyperbole is in order because I am an occasionally technology-challenged blogger. This morning I awoke early, got on the computer and one of my favorite applications would not open. Which one is not important.

I depend on my favorite applications to work as I have configured them. They are to remember their places, mere tools at my disposal, not entities with their own agendas that waste my writing time.

When I became stymied I first did my magical thinking bit, doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. Nothing. Going online to the home page of the application's website, I explored the technical support section, hoping to find an already prepared simple answer. Nothing. Then I downloaded the application and tried to reinstall it. Nothing. "You already have this updated version installed," it said. Reading the latest posts in the users forum, I did not find another soul with my same problem. Nothing there.

Well, you're up against it I told myself. The only thing left to do was to send an Email that would languish for days in some far off boiler room, leaving me hanging and frustrated.

Dear Sir: Help, help. I love your application. It is my favorite, I promise. I just can't get it to open. Here's the sequence of what has happened over the past few days and what I have done so far. Etc., etc. SEND.

And wonder of wonders, I got an immediate response, signed with someone's name. I was told to uninstall the offending application, download a fresh one, reinstall it, reboot and start over. Does that mean I will loose all the work I have done in the past using this app? I was afraid that would happen. I reminded myself that I probably had no choice in the matter. Take the chance, I told myself, which I did.

Voila! Ureka! It worked, after a bit of balkiness. All my old stuff was still there, as if by magic. What a relief. Thank you, thank you.

As I think about it I realize that my problem was probably a standard complaint. It was perhaps so standard that I received an automated response. Or perhaps the person at the help desk was very quick to reply to my entreaty. It does not matter. It worked and I am back in business.

I was able to make a good Monday out of a really bad Monday start. Hope the same good fortune happens to everyone who is in the midst of a shaky start.

Posted via web from Make Good Mondays

[Post date: 5/24/10]

Technorati tags: technology blogging

My Other Blogs: Check out my Amplify blog for synopses of current news stories. My news and political blog is South by Southwest. Follow me at Twitter. And Carol Gee - Online Universe is the home page for all my websites.

Making good weekends, when there's not a perceivable weekend

2010-05-16T13:07:00.000-05:00

Week by week -- Back when I worked five days a week for pay, there was an observable weekend. I thought of it as two days off. But it never was that, really. I merely was not required to show up on time at my workplace for two days at the end, or beginning, of every week.

Work or play -- I worked at home. And it was a real work day. Like so many others, I felt I had to catch up on the weekends, or get a leg up on the next week - again, depending on how one sees it. On Sunday there was an occasional bit of a letup on my internal "should-do and ought-to" messages.

All the same -- by now I have been retired for 8 years. And I lost my weekends, or now the week is one long weekend, depending on how it feels. And I do not work nearly as hard. Nor do I have as much money. But I do have a very welcome amount of free time. It is a good thing I am OK with that idea or I would be beset with guilt.

As it turns out -- how I spent my time during the week or on the weekend was always my free choice. I merely had to be willing to accept the consequences of my decisions, just as I do now.

Make good choices -- People who make the best weekends for themselves are mindful of the actual range of their choices, not the conventional wisdom. Do not wait until you retire to become wise. Start now while you have lots of time ahead of you.

[Post date: 5/16/10]

Technorati tags: weekends time management retirement

My Other Blogs: Check out my Amplify blog for synopses of current news stories. My news and political blog is South by Southwest. Follow me at Twitter. And Carol Gee - Online Universe is the home page for all my websites.

Regarding a journal.

2010-04-10T16:08:00.000-05:00

For as long as I could read or write I have been keeping a journal. When I was a young child I called it writing to "Dear Diary." Now I use the computer or a beautifully decorative small book with plain paper pages. In all cases I pay attention to giving it good quality for when I reread it. My words matter and I should honor myself by making the writing the best I can.

What constitutes "quality" in a hand written journal? In my opinion, one could look at the journal, the object itself. It should have a pleasing decorative cover and good quality paper. It should be dated at the very front with what period is covered. Each individual entry should be dated, and often I note the time of the day, also. I use a pen rather than a pencil, as not erasing discourages too much self-editing.

My computer journal is also beautiful. I carefully designed a private blog hosted by Blogger. In honor of my quilter-mom, the background is a beautifully pieced quilt. I use tags and, often, images as illustrations. And I have a little piece of html "boilerplate" for each post that has helped my journal writing a great deal:

My feeling is --
Biggest thing of the day --
Contacts --
Gratitudes --

Beginning with writing honestly about feelings is one reason that regular writing in my journal is so very therapeutic. Noting the biggest thing of the day is a way of looking at my priorities. Contacts-- helps me keep track of the most meaningful communications I had with other people. Noting that for which I am grateful helps me keep my feet on the ground and my spirit uplifted.

If you never reread your journal entries you will miss out on several unexpected psychological benefits. You will not be able to gain the perspective that, "My, I have come a long ways since then." You would not be able to give yourself credit for honesty, or perseverance or courage. Nor would you be able to say to yourself with a grin, "Now, that was dumb," and forgive yourself. This is what I mean about the therapeutic benefit of keeping journals.

I began keeping a journal when I was ten. My first diary was given to me for Christmas, according to its front inscription, by my younger brother, N. I was 10 years old and in the fourth grade, he was almost 7, our sister D. was 5½, and our baby sister G. was just under two months. The first two entries follow [brackets enclose my adult explanations to you the reader]:

1 - On Jan. 1, 1947:
[The first entry talks about what “us kids” played that New Year’s day]. N. and I "played house," I cleaned out N’s closet, and “found 3 old dresses, and I gave one of them to D., “and G. was our girl” [child].

2 – [My next diary entry reports that] “we went for a walk up in the rocks. Mama and G. went too. Mama and I went over to [her dear friend] J’s to see how she was.

My first messages to "Dear Diary," clearly qualify as actual journal entries in that small black book from the Dime Store. As I reread what I wrote in pencil in careful longhand, I now know that "playing house" was the biggest thing of the first day about which I wrote. Going all together for a walk to a special place, and going visiting were the biggest events noted in the second entry. I also recorded my contacts on both days -- my siblings, and my mom and her dearest friend. Back then I had not yet learned to regularly record my feelings or voice gratitudes. But I still remember the warm feelings that going together for a walk in the country engendered in me.

Connecting times long ago with those of the present is one of the benefits of long term journal writing. We begin to understand patterns and intuit continuity as the years are recorded. I remember well, for example, the pleasure in a visit my sister and I made in recent years to another of my mother's oldest and dearest friends. I learned how to be a friend from watching my mother do it so well, and for that I now have gratitude. And I am grateful for my free weekend cell phone minutes that allowed my to have a lovely long distance visit with my dear brother, N.

In conclusion, you must know by now that I have high regard for the practice of journaling. Whether you intend for anyone ever to read yours or not, it is never to late to start by saying on paper,
Dear Diary:

Blogs: My news and political blog is at South by Southwest. My general purpose/southwest focus blog is at Southwest Progressive. And Carol Gee - Online Universe is the all-in-one home page for my websites.
Technorati tags: journal writing

Killer Apps - Pros and Cons

2010-04-09T17:08:00.000-05:00

People who have computers and spend time surfing the web develop a favorite set of applications to which we happily turn. Today's post is about some of my old favorites among "killer apps," applications that run well, effectively do what we need to do, are beautifully designed and that are user friendly. For me it also means they are all free. . . as well as mostly "bug free." If you subscribe to the C Net newsletter, I have found that whatever apps they recommend are safe to download.

Browser - Mozilla Firefox***** features a stable and robust platform, with tons of add-ons for easy customization. I have added a bookmarks toolbar, as well as the other standards.

Email - My ATT.NET**** is powered by Yahoo! I have separate addresses for: 1) friends and family, 2) general web contacts, and 3) social network contacts. I also use Gmail** for regular newsletters and saved articles.

Pictures on the web - Yahoo! hosts my Flickr pics**** my web albums are hosted by Google's Picasa***.

Search - Google***** just cannot be beaten. A healthy percentage of my readers find my blog posts as a result of Google searches.

Social Media - FaceBook**** connects me to personal friends and family, as well as web friends. HootSuite**** organizes the lists of people and sources I follow on Twitter***** for quick and easy news headline gathering, status updates, or well-written views. Any included links will get me to the full story.

Group blogs - RedGage*** pays money for all kinds of content from contributors, , but it can be a bit "clunky" at times. The blog TPM Cafe***** attracts some of the brightest and most interesting thinkers on the web to its fascinating posts and comment threads.

Blogging hosts - Blogger**** is my primary blogging "home" where I post regularly to South by Southwest (political), and Making Good Mondays (personal/creative). Posterous***** and Amplify*** are quicker and easier to use, and they "broadcast" to any of my other sites I wish to specify#.

Aggregator - Bloglines**** is my favorite gatherer of feeds from a wide variety of websites. I sort them into categories for reading or saving. It is also very quick and easy to mail articles to my Gmail address for use in blogs, or just to read later. I have used it for many years, and am thus habituated to it.

Organizers - Digsby**** loads when I first boot up, having collected all my IMs and unread Emails for scanning, reading, deleting, etc. Evernote***** is a wonderful and powerful host site for my notebook collections of info to keep from my hard drive, archived blogposts, my daily journal, to-do lists, etc. And Note Mania** is a great little organizer and sticky-note app that I just recently discovered. Be careful of the RSS feed tool, however, as it might just shower you with little link notes.

Utilities -WinUtilities**** is an excellent maintenance tool for my computer, though its defragmenter is pretty slow.

DSL Modem - ATandT Motorola**** is reasonably priced, easily installed, and with good support service.

#My Other Blogs: My general purpose/southwest focus blog is at Southwest Progressive. And Carol Gee - Online Universe is the all-in-one home page for my websites.

Technorati tags: technology internet blogging

Little Gems From Some Of My Favorite Tweeters

2010-04-07T20:01:00.000-05:00

Many of us love Twitter. We have all those we follow and we have our favorites, too. I've collected some to share:
Jane Hamsher - Exxon generates $10.3 billion in pretax income, owes no taxes & gets tax benefit of $1.1 billion http://bit.ly/afzGsW, posted on 4/6/10.

John Dickerson - When a method for passing legislation sounds like the funds transfer process outlined in an email by a Nigerian banker, that's tricky, posted on 3/16/10. Also, Palin referred to a list on her palm during an interview. Big deal. Helps explain why she said "The country needs butter, eggs, milk & o.j.," posted on 2/8/10.

Chris Hayes - Operating on the theory that if I ingest enough calories it will stop snowing. We'll see!, posted on 2/10/10. Also, I've been remiss in updating my archives, but thanks to @northlauren, everything I've written can now be found here: http://bit.ly/7k2xa8, posted on 1/21/10.

Catherine Fintor - A computer is almost human - except that it does not blame its mistakes on another computer, posted on 1/19/10.

Ezra Klein - I've routinely found that the worst analytical mistake you can make in DC is assuming people have some sort of plan. http://bit.ly/7jrQKY, posted on 1/12/10.

Richard Engle - "on embed.. in remote frontline afghanistan.. few roads.. but internet seems to work.. very odd feeling," posted on 2/2/10. Also, "un-stuck off base.. its good.. funny.. was on the road yesterday dexter describes in nytimes today..," posted on 2/8/10.

Check out Twitter for yourself here.

Blogs: My news and political blog is at South by Southwest. My general purpose/southwest focus blog is at Southwest Progressive. And Carol Gee - Online Universe is the all-in-one home page for my websites.

The power of the picture

2010-04-02T18:09:00.001-05:00

"Between Dallas and Austin, " the title, is all I know about this photograph. It is in the public domain. It looks as if it were taken sometime in the 1930s. The rest of what we can know of it must be supplied by one's imagination, or lots of difficult research. So let's imagine.

Dad is the photographer on this trip, proud of all his girls. Mom and the kids pose easily for this shot - on the way to or from. They are neat and tidy folks of modest means, but we do not know just how modest. Somehow, I do not think this is all they own. I sense this is an early version of an RV.

What do you think?

Blogs: My news and political blog is at South by Southwest. My general purpose/southwest focus blog is at Southwest Progressive. And Carol Gee - Online Universe is the all-in-one home page for my websites.

Five years of blogging today --

2010-03-29T10:20:00.001-05:00

Celebrating "blogiversaries" is a tradition in the blogosphere. This is the fifth year I have been posting at South by Southwest, a blog about politics and government. The areas of focus were citizen activism, civil liberties, Congress, the Middle East and the space program. I also devoted a lot of page space to the administrations of George W. Bush and Barack Obama. I worried that the previous administration did not adhere to the rule of law. And I have worried that the current administration was too quick to adopt some of the more questionable national security policies of their predecessors. Overall, however I am a happy citizen these days.

Posting at several blog sites -- I came to writing regularly on my own and others' web pages. I began to expand first with a more personal and creative site called Making Good Mondays, as well as a round-up site called Behind the Links. More recently I joined a couple of social networking sites, Facebook-(private) and Twitter. Each venue had distinct advantages. When I felt the need for a piece of nonpolitical writing, I turned to MGM. And I came to the practice of posting to BTL the interesting links my readers who became blog buddies sent me via Email. At present I am drawn to the social nature of Facebook. I keep up with personal friends and family as well as friends and acquaintances I made on the internet. Twitter turns out to be the perfect way to do a quick scan of the very latest news, as well as read some of my favorite writers who have mastered the 140 character format.

Joining blog communities -- For several years I cross-posted my original political pieces at several "big" and 'little' group websites. The blogging communities I joined include Daily Kos, Texas Kaos, TPM Cafe, The Reaction, Sirens Chronicles, Red Gage and Political Voices of Women. Like most other people in the blogosphere, I came to favor each group for different reasons. Kos and TPM are cutting edge, Texas Kaos is more local. Reaction writers are among the best progressive voices; Sirens were wonderfully edgy and occasionally outrageous. Red Gage is a friendly community where contributors earn money for the work they post. Political Voices of Women spans the ideological spectrum. These days I have stopped posting on most of the group sites. It became too time consuming. I also felt a little burned out, which made me question the caliber of my writing for these high quality group sites.

My posting frequency has changed over the years, expanding and now contracting. During the early years, there was no lack of issues about which I was passionate. You see, I had a discernible opponent. I am a progressive Democrat and President George W. Bush provided me with many things about which I could rant. I did not know I was ranting at the time because I was a "newbie." I just knew something was wrong and that I could speak out. And I did, almost every day. My goal, however, was to try to balance criticism with positive recognition, though I have not always kept that balance equal. Since President Obama was elected and Democrats became the majorities in both houses of congress, I am much less critical of those in charge. And somehow I have not felt as driven to write as in the past.

Five years of rather regular writing has been a wonderful challenge, which I have not always met as I would have liked. I have often felt the pressure to produce -- something very good or something to meet a deadline. That is possibly a recipe for burnout. However, the writing members of these communities were unfailingly supportive, accepting and intellectually stimulating. I am sure I have gained more than I gave at each site. Now I am about assessing where I am and what I want to do in my writing future. I do know for sure that I will be around. Stay tuned.

[Post date - 3/29/10]

Blogs: My general purpose/southwest focus blog is at Southwest Progressive. My creative website is at Making Good Mondays. And Carol Gee - Online Universe is the all-in-one home page for all my websites.

Technorati tags: blogging news blogs writing

Posted via email from Southwest Postings

It is hard to put into words.

2010-03-23T13:08:00.001-05:00

Because it feels like a very important day, I must try to express it, however feebly. The health care bill signing ceremony at the White House is the occasion for my full heart.

Almost 5 years ago I started writing my blog, South by Southwest. I had a lot to say then, not so much now. And much of what I had to say about politics and the circumstances of my country was pretty negative. I came to learn the meaning of the blogosphere term "rant."

In recent years I haven't had nearly as much reason to rant, because my party captured the leadership roles in Congress and the White House. For whatever reason, I developed an internal calm about the potential well-being of our country with Democrats in power.

Today marks one of the reasons I had confidence. It is the day that health care for all Americans becomes a right and no longer a privilege for the "haves." It will need to wait on Senate reconciliation action this week to be in its more proper form. But, even if it has to go back to the House for another vote, it will happen, because it was supposed to happen. It is now high time.

On this bright morning President Obama dedicated the occasion to his late mother. He also recognized many others from the past and present who had helped to make the long awaited new health care law possible. It came too late, however, to help his mom and others in attendance who had lost loved ones before this momentous signing day. Let us hope that it has not come too late for "Natoma," who came to symbolize the plight of thousands of very ill people who do have not the benefit of health care insurance.

At last change has come however. The promised change will happen incrementally, and with fits and starts. It will be accompanied with hand wringing "No!"s by those motivated by loss of power, anger at "others" and fear of change. Narrow visioned pundits will spend countless hours examining the miniscule bits of so-called "news," casting everything in the light of politics. And members of my party will make many more mistakes as they try to do the right things and hold on to power at the same time.

In time, in other words, everyone will be exposed as merely human. God bless us all.

[Post date - March 23, 2010. Image credit: Wordle.net]

See also Behind the Links, for further info on this subject.

MAKING GOOD MONDAYS

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Going paperless

Blog writing in transition. . . at an intersection

Learn something new today --

Making this a good Monday

Favorite Fathers Day Tweets

When Mondays get off to a bad start, reboot.

Making good weekends, when there's not a perceivable weekend

Regarding a journal.

Killer Apps - Pros and Cons

Little Gems From Some Of My Favorite Tweeters

The power of the picture

Five years of blogging today --

It is hard to put into words.

Major legislative threat to civil liberties filed with Senate Juciciary Committee.

March is Women's History Month -- Honors to Women of Courage

Just start writing . . .

2010 will mark the end of the NASA shuttle program.

New Breeds at the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show - Photo Essays - TIME - StumbleUpon

STS-130 shuttle launch scrubbed due to clouds

Cloudy weather halts STS-130 shuttle launch -- from the New York Times.com

FACTBOX: Endeavour to carry final space station hub, cupola: story

Shuttle set for Sunday launch amid space plan shift, carrying node & cupola: http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE6151JD20100206

Hoarded Ordinaries -- "Of a certain age," by Lorianne DiSabato

RIP-reclusive & iconoclastic author JD Salinger. Slate Mag. has links to good articles from their archives.

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Handy-Dandy: "Del.icio.us" Tips and Links

The coolest and clearest

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UN appeals for $560m in Haiti aid

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The Color of Green

Russia to try to build a nuclear powered spacecraft

NASA Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer snaps its first picture | Space News from The Huntsville Times - al.com

By Shelby G. Spires

January 06, 2010, 2:28PM

When do they celebrate New Year's on the International Space Station? - By Brian Palmer - Slate Magazine

When do the astronauts pop open the champagne?

The next decade - a post about possibilities

Home for Christmas

What Health Care Reform Means for: ‘Young Invincibles’ - ProPublica

FT.com / In depth - Books of the year

Health-care bill wouldn't bring real reform - washingtonpost.com

Incredible New Hubble Image Full of Stars | International Space Fellowship

Obama argues for strong financial watchdog agency | Reuters

Tweeps are terrific writers - some samples

Democrats Agree To Tentatively Trade Opt-Out For Trigger, Medicare Buy In, And More | TPMDC

National Journal Magazine - Putting Faces On Attitudes

G.E. Makes It Official - It Will Sell NBC to Comcast - NYTimes.com

The Lost World of Old Europe: See It in New York - Origins

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