Connor's big brain

I woke up this morning and turned
on CNN as usual. I was watching as the helicopters were trying to land with
Arafat's coffin. I
watched with my mouth hanging open.

I was grateful for the opportunity to have
Connor watch this. I explained as briefly and as simply
as I could the history of Israel and Palestine. I explained the role that
the US has had with the fighting there and with Iraq, Iran, and
Afghanistan. He at first had a reaction of "those bad
Palastinians", then started to understand why they feel the way they
do, and why Israel feels they way they do.

I love
that he really enjoys watching CNN and The History Channel and asking
questions. I love that he is passionate about world events and history and
wants to be able to discuss them knowledgably. I adore his open mind and
compassion for others. He wants to immediately take a side, but when I try
to explain both sides, he really tries to understand. He is simply the
coolest kid ever.

 I know a lot of this is more than he can process at age 10,
but he is a lot more interested in it than I was at his age. I wanted
little more than books, cartoons, and swimming at age 10.

 

Oh, you say the sweetest things

lj-security:  friends

Again, I need
contact with the outside world (aside from the sass I am getting from my
customers), and cannot view LJ at work (I am posting via email).

Take time from your busy day and email me at marilyn.gerber@stephendukes.com.
Show me love.

(no subject)

Interesting story regarding blogs and postings about voter
fruad

The e-mail
messages and Web postings had all the twitchy cloak-and-dagger thrust of a
Hollywood blockbuster. "Evidence mounts that the vote may have been
hacked," trumpeted a headline on the Web site CommonDreams.org.
"Fraud took place in the 2004 election through electronic voting
machines," declared BlackBoxVoting.org

Ben Kweller

My sister came home with a new cd one day, Sha Sha by Ben Kweller. I think she heard
him on Austin City Limits
one Sunday night.

He is from Greenville, Texas and now lives in
NY. He has this really amazing sound. He has songs that sound like Weezer,
Smashing Pumkings, Toadies, and the Beatles in addition to his own cool
sound. The first song, How it Should Be (Sha Sha) has the neatest lyrics
<lj-cut>

<sub>when i was a movie star,
an asteroid had hit the earth and prematurely ended my career. i thought
out loud, but no one heard me saying:

"nothing isn't
nothing, nothing's something that's important to me. that's right. and
everyone's a little nothing, that's ok, that's how it should be."

that's right. that's right. sha sha. sha doo.

when i
was an astronaut, i bought a fancy charm. i thought you liked it but you
called it cheap and at my feet it fell like:

"so sue me,
it's up to me if i decide to be what i think is right. and don't bother me
when i'm watching 'planet of the apes' on t.v."

that's
right. that's how it should be. sha sha. sha doo.

"so sue
me, it's up to me if i decide to be what i think is right. the sound, it
found the ground and it hid it for free."

that's right.
that's how it should be. sha sha. sha doo</lj-cut></sub>

I catch myself walking around and singing them all the
time, wanting to giggle. I love to belt out "Lizzy" while I am
in the car by myself.

I want to get everything else he recorded.

Rod Paige

Thank goodness! Rod
Paige is resigning or being kicked out or whatever...

I don't
care. I am just glad to see him go. He can take Bush with him.

---

This day was flying by...now it is dragging. I feel like I am
going to fall asleep at my desk. <lj user=dark_happiness> and <lj
user=jsjeep4x4> have been kind enough to email me and keep me
entertained for a bit. I need the weekend. I still have all those things
to take care of at home, but man, I just wanna nap.

But it SHOULD!!!

Amusing call just now. Damn these people are dumb. This man calls in
about his loan. He has a voice that just sounds
stupid. His mommy gave him two checks made payable to him so that he could
pay his car loan. He is 28 years old. His payment was due
on the 4^th. It is 5 pm and we assess a late fee 10 days after
the due date. He is getting a late fee Monday. It is past the cutoff time
even if he were to do a check by phone or make the payment at a branch
this weekend. The 14^th is Sunday, not a business day.  He
wanted to know if he could mail the checks to us. Um..no the checks are
not made payable to us. After talking to him for a while and trying to
figure out what the hell he was talking about, I realize he is wanting to
get something in the weekend so it is postmarked before the
14^th.  I explained that the postmark has nothing to do with it.
He said, "It should!" and I told him, "But
it doesn't." He said, "It should!" I said,
"I understand , but it doesn't matter what the postmark is." He
said, "It should!"

*sigh*

I said,
" I understand that you think it should,
but it doesn't" He said, "This is why I left Bank one.
"

I said," You left Bank One because your checking account
was charged off and closed after you were $407 overdrawn"

*click* hrm... wonder what his problem was?