The day the punk music died

My friends were in a band they called The Skullcranes. I just found out on their blog that they are done being a band. I’m not even sure how I feel but I know I’m pretty freakin sad. RIP Skullcranes.

Things That Make Me Sorta Sad

WARNING: Some links in this post take you to web sites that blare ‘Melt With You’ really loudly.-Just thought you should know.

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I never see commercials these days, but I was preparing dinner while watching tivoed content and was not forwarding as usual through the commercials.

Melt With You, by Modern English was the background music for ‘sexy’ new ritz crackers with vegetables.

Apparently, it’s also licensed for online usage.

Double Whammy

Yesterday was a double whammy day.

South Dakota banned abortion and Kirby Puckett died.

I’m from South Dakota. I can tell you I’ve never been proud of that fact. I had a hard time growing up there because I’m a bit of a freak. Freaks aren’t very popular in small towns in South Dakota, in case you were wondering. I got out of there as fast as I could and as soon as I could. It’s funny because recently friends and I have been talking about moving back. It’s cheap, it’s vast, it’s got some potential……. Well, yesterday was that hit you over the head reminder for me, I can’t go back there. Not only is it just as closed and scary as I remember, now it’s worse. I saw one of the legislators talking about this on television and I couldn’t believe the things he said. He was likening women that have abortions to Scott Pederson. You know, the Scott Pederson that was convicted for killing his pregnant wife. Yeah, I can see how that’s the same thing…..(sarcasm).

It was the New York Times quote of the day today:

“The sponsors and supporters of this bill believe that abortion is wrong because unborn children are the most vulnerable and most helpless persons in our society. I agree with them.

“
- GOV. MICHAEL ROUNDS, of South Dakota, after signing a bill that largely bans
abortion.

I wonder what kinds of plans the governor has in mind for caring for the unborn children once they are born. This is the thing that always get me about ‘respect for life’ is that life doesn’t get respected after birth. How do we feed, clothe, educate, and love these children? We don’t have respect for life in this country. The facts and figures about homelessness, hunger and disregard for the poor in a country that is drowning in abundance prove it.

and then Kirby

He was one of those bright stars. He had so much talent. He gave a ton. He knew what he wanted, he always talked about knowing he wanted to play baseball since he was 5. His career was taken from him early as was his life. It’s really sad. It’s a loss for humanity.

I didn’t grow up with baseball. I learned it when I got older. My husband was patient and taught me over time how to really love the game. I never saw Kirby play, he was before my time in terms of my consciousness around baseball. I did get to witness his induction into the Hall of Fame. We were in the dome with my husband’s family when it happened and they showed it on the big screen. He was one of those people that has so much they just burn out way too early.

Yesterday was a rough one.

MPR is the Man?

I found something out yesterday that i want people to know. Garrick told me about it. It’s pretty upsetting actually. MPR just finished another fund drive. They do that often to get money to run the station. I contribute to them. I’ve always felt it was a valuable resource. I was not in agreement with the recent big spend to build a big building. I’m somebody that works from home. I believe that things can be distributed and cost less. I got a fundraising call for the new building and I explained that I already gave a significant amount monthly and I didn’t think they should be building the new space. OR at least felt that enough viable options, meaning distributed options were not considered. I mean, why not set Mary Lucia up with a microphone from the comfort of her own home…..

i digress because that’s not what I found out yesterday……..

Garrick pointed me to Tod Maffin’s blog post.

Apparently some of that money that they needed to fund raise is going to the laywers. This is not how I want this money being spent. Al Gore started a TV station last year and it’s called Current. MPR is suing because that radio station that plays cool music is called The Current.

As if ‘current’ is something that PUBLIC radio owns or even could own. It’s public radio. It’s supposed to be for me. I mean, I’m paying for it. This is so disheartening. Only laywers win when people sue. This is not good public behavior. Doesn’t public mean things like participate, share, not sue for stupid things……

All I can say is i’m not happy and my contribution to this is definitely in jeopardy. My husband and I are going to try and be fair. We’ll write a letter, try to get both sides of the story, but if we are not satisfied with the response, we will show our disapproval via a donation withdrawal. At least I feel like I can do something. People need to be called when they behave unacceptably. I don’t think it’s MPR’s place to ‘protect its intellectual property’ of a word. I get all the stuff about brand. I worked at a global ad agency. I still don’t think this is ok.

It’s Just Too Hard

It’s really just too difficult to come up with anything to say. There is so much pain happening in this country and there are so many reasons it doesn’t have to be that way.

Let’s just say this for now, the people in power are greedy. They don’t care about the poor people they are supposed to care about. We have government for reasons like hurricane Katrina and we were failed.

I just have one question, for all of those that voted for the man in charge right now.

Do you feel safer? Are you glad you didn’t change horses mid-stream?

I’m sure glad we made that choice! (SARCASM)

February now, crawling toward spring

I always have a hard time in January. It’s a cold, dark, depressing month. Even though my birthday is smack dab in the middle of it, I still struggle. Today when I woke up and realized it was February it lifted my spirits. We are crawling toward spring. This is good news.

This January was particularly tough because I started a new job in which I work from home. Now the working from home part is fantastic. But working from home in January was a bit of a shock to my mental state. I barely got out of the house to see anyone during the week. A big part of that is the fact that it was January. It’s just harder. If you live in another part of the country or the world where it isn’t mind numbingly cold during the winter this might be hard to understand but if you live in this kind of climate, you probably feel my pain.

So as the days pass and get longer, it warms up. And we crawl toward a more palatteable weather pattern that doesn’t have such an oppressing affect on the brain. I’m happier today, it’s February and the winter will be a memory soon because spring will wash it all away.