Shae and I are both feeling a bit sick today. Must be bird flu.

I have a solution (see below)

I’ve been marveling over the past few days at the really awesome radio advertisements on my favorite AM station, KPOJ. They had aired different spots about how to teach your children to deal with anger by dealing with it appropriately yourself, and how to just interact with your kids. Their mantra is, “You don’t have to be perfect, to be a perfect parent.” I love it.

Well today they aired a different one: “Terrorism forces us to make a choice. Don’t be afraid… Be Ready.” Yes. That’s right. We should all be prepared every day because we might be attacked by a terrorist. Did you know that more people died of the flu in 2001 than in all the terrorist attacks on U.S. soil that year? Including the World Trade Center?!?! But no. We should still walk in fear of a terrorist attack. See it for it what it is. Please. Forgive my broken thoughts here but I’m completely incensed at the audacity of the Department of Homeland Security. A child’s voice comes on the air and says, “Should I stay where I am and wait for you? Or go to Gramma’s house?” Sure kid. Just make sure to look both ways and don’t take candy from strangers because you’re more likely to get killed crossing the street or kidnapped. C’mon guys! How about you fix those damn levies first, eh? Sure would hate to see Willy Wonka 2: The Underwater Chocolate City. Sequels always suck.

http://www.ready.gov/

It’s a very sad week. My debate partner, Nik, and I gave our last fight at a tournament last weekend. We had an awesome year though, making it into elimination rounds nearly every single tournament we competed at. I feel good, even though we didn’t win, because we put up great arguments, had tons of fun, and ended up holding the top 3 strongest records with only a single loss in preliminary rounds. Plus, the team that actually did take the trophy home… yeah… we beat them in prelims. So no hard feelings.

Beyond that I’m also very excited about new beginnings with my debate career as a coach for the team next year. So, although I won’t be taking the class for credit any longer, in the words of Mark Twain:

I have never let my schooling interfere with my education.

EDIT: Found the video on Google so I’m taking the link down for the one on my server. I’ll put it back if Google removes the video.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-869183917758574879

Cellar door is a combination of words in the English language once characterized by J. R. R. Tolkien to have an especially beautiful sound. In his 1955 essay “English and Welsh”, commenting on his affection towards the Welsh language, Tolkien wrote:

“Most English-speaking people…will admit that cellar door is ‘beautiful’, especially if dissociated from its sense (and from its spelling). More beautiful than, say, sky, and far more beautiful than beautiful. Well then, in Welsh for me cellar doors are extraordinarily frequent, and moving to the higher dimension, the words in which there is pleasure in the contemplation of the association of form and sense are abundant.”

Just to clear up the confusion: This was Tolkien, not that drunkard Poe. (in jest)

Source

Now that I’ve been getting in to this history book required by class, I’ve seen how quickly they tend to cover large areas of history. I have a hard time with subjects where several political leaders or philosophers are described in one or two sentences. Heck, I’ve even seen one of the most powerful African tribe leaders, Shaka Zulu, rise and fall in a single paragraph; And he got a detailed account! Most of the people mentioned only get their one sentence.

Which leads me to todays question: What do you want your sentence to say?

I’m serious, keep it to yourself or post a comment, but I hope that everyone reading this thinks about it for a second.

Do you think the rest of the world doesn’t like us? Well, so does our government. Here’s what they propose we do about it:

The reputation of the “Ugly American” abroad is not, however, just some cruel stereotype, but - according to the American government itself - worryingly accurate. Now, the State Department in Washington has joined forces with American industry to plan an image make-over by issuing guides for Americans travelling overseas on how to behave.

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