Nope

     Chick-fil-A.  Who would have ever thought that a fast food chicken restaurant would cause such a rift in the fabric of this nation.  Until recently the only people that Chick-fil-A pissed off were mall employees on a Sunday.  Now everyone has opinions and ultimately it's not going to matter what we say on Facebook because in a week or so social media will have moved on to another hot button issue.
     I live in Alabama, but I am pretty liberal.  I don't have a problem with what Dan Cathy said because he does have the freedom to express his viewpoints.  On the other hand, the rest of the population has the right to make a big stink about it.  It's not great for business what Cathy said.  Pissing off any portion of the population that is in your target audience isn't business savvy.  That's Public Relations 101.
     I have made the decision to not eat at Chick-fil-A for the foreseeable future.  Not because the CEO in his ivory tower said something I disagree with but my "beef" with the company stems from money.
     I don't want to give my money to a company that in turn gives a portion of it to PACs, Super PACs, and lobbyists that campaign for discrimination.  I have problems with businesses giving money secretly to organizations that I, the consumer, disagree with. 
     And yes it's discrimination that is going on.  When a certain portion of the population is not allowed to do something that another portion of the population is allowed to do based solely on their sexual preference, that's discrimination.  There is no other way around it.  All citizens should be treated equally under the laws, and that is not happening right now.
     Growing up in Alabama has exposed me to lots of uber-conservative people.  People here are never going to accept homosexuals let alone allowing them to get married.  There are people who are still raised to hate black people.  I know them.  I went to school with them.  So to expect the majority of people in the South to open their minds to something different is almost asking the impossible. 
     So do what you want with your chicken.  Eat it or not.  Life will go on as it always does.  One thing that this controversy has done is allow you to see which of your friends don't want gay people to be treated fairly and equally, because really who am I to tell anyone they cannot get married to the person they love.
    

Tears of Joy

     Last night was the first time that I can remember crying tears of joy.  I had surgery on my lower back yesterday to relieve some pressure on the nerve that was causing pain and numbness in my left leg.  I woke up about 3:30 am last night because my pain medication had worn off.
     I lied in bed for a little while before I got up to re-up my medicine.  I was drinking some OJ in the kitchen noticing that there wasn't much pain in my hip and leg where there had been just 24 hours earlier.  I picked my left knee up and there was no pain.  No pain.  NO PAIN!!!
     There was a rush of emotions, and then the tears came.  All of the pain I was silently enduring for over six months was gone.  I felt normal again.  I know it is only one day, but I have hope that someday I will be able to feel normal again.

Writing: Day Four

     Today is the fourth day of writing.  I didn't much actual writing done, but I did get some sort of outline completed (and a set up up for a sequel).  I printed out what I had so far and let Paige start to read it.  She read a little and then asked me what the hell was going on.  I summarized what I had so far, and we came up with a rough outline.  It seems like a decent story line, but we will have to see how much effort we can both put into the work.  I really want Paige to help with this because I want her to get back to being creative again. 
     The next thing we have to decide is what pen name we want to use.  I want something really cool but not too cheesy.  We are currently taking suggestions and will make a decision later.

      Lastly we added a new family member yesterday.  She is black and white and a kitten.  Her name is Molly.  We figured we would just name everything in our life after Beatles' songs. Here's a picture of her.

Writing: Day Three

     Today is my third day of writing.  I am not sure what I really did to the storyline as a whole, so I am going to have to go back and read it.  I never really liked reading anything I had written once I had penned it.  It was tough to not have to read growing up because my writing wasn't that great.  Now I find myself not editing my writing especially for class.  Often Paige will edit my grammar, but nothing major.  I think I have finally become a good writer.  My sister would be proud.
     On a completely different note, I got to thinking today and it occurred to me that there were things that I had done that I would probably never tell Lucy.  There's nothing too bad like killing a hooker, but there are things that I have done that I'm not proud of, and I don't want my daughter to think it is okay.  That also got me thinking about what my parents have done and not told me.
     My conclusion was that there are things that our children will never know about us.  That's okay I guess. 

Firsts in Life

     One of the perks to being a first time parent is experiencing first times with you child.  Often times I find myself remarking to Paige every time Lucy does something for the first time.  I find that we are having firsts more and more each day.  The old adage is true - they do grow up fast. 
     Memorial day weekend saw another first as Lucy took her first boat ride.  She loves when wind blows in her hair so we figured she would have a good time.  Well here are some pics, and you can see for yourself.

Writing: Day Two

     Today was the second day of my writing adventure.  I have added 700 words since the last post.  So far it has been loosely based on some parts of my life.  There are, however, some things that are very different from my life. 
     I have yet to show it to Paige yet.  I am not sure how she is going to take it or if she will even like it.  We work very well together in creative ways.  We act as an editor for one another often times, and it is helpful to have the ability to bounce ideas off of an equally talented person (hopefully that will score some brownie points).
     Recently Paige has been doing some PR work for a new restaurant, Skys, that has just opened up in downtown Gadsden.  By the way we had lunch there today and it was pretty damn good.  You could taste the quality in the ingredients that the chef used.  Paige told me that people come eat at the restaurant just because he is the chef there.
     Any who, she was rewriting the mission statement, and I was giving her suggestions of what to change each sentence to when I realized that I could totally do public relations.  I am a good writer, and I know what people want to be told.  I understand advertising language and tactics used to entice people. 
     So all of that means someone needs to give me a job in public relations.  I am pretty good...and cheap.

Writing

     Today I started some free writing.  When I get bored I like to play around on StumbleUpon.  One of my likes is writing, and often I stumble onto pages where people are talking about writing.
     I have had the desire to write some type of story for some time.  I have been so busy with school the last couple of months that I have not had any time to do anything intellectually that wasn't school work.
     My May class ended a couple of days ago, and know I have a month free from school to have some fun with my mind.  I have been thinking about ideas to write about, and I got my first inspiration from NPR.  There was an interview with a movie director, and his movie gave me an idea of something I could write down on paper with relative ease.
     To this point I have written about 1,300 words in my story.  I am not really sure where I want to end it at because I keep finding ways to continue the story along. 
     I forgot to mention that I am having surgery on my back next week.  Next Thursday I will go under the knife and have a bulging disc in my back repaired.  I figured my recovery time could be utilized writing some type of story.  Hopefully by the end of June I can have something to publish on the Kindle library, because in July I start another summer class. 
     I hope that I enjoy writing as much as I think I will.  I feel like I am a creative and talented sort, and I have been putting off showing my talents off with the rest of the world.  It has come to a point where I need to put up or shut up.

Karma vs. Justice

     Karma is a bitch.  My favorite cliché of all time.  Such a simple statement it is.  It implies that someone who has done something wrong has had something bad happen to him/her. 

     Too often in our society we feel that someone must write every wrong in the world.  Somebody has to stick up for the wronged of all types.  Sometimes it is important to stand up and fight, but sometimes it is easier to brush it on and move on with life.

      Recently I saw a story on CNN about a gay bar owner who was starting a ban on bachelorette parties.  His bar, which was holding 6 or so parties a week, would implement the ban because he and his patrons were tired of having marriage rubbed in their faces.

     Paige was watching this with me and her first response has, “Oh hell no!”  We discussed his rights as a bar owner and the rights of the women to have parties.  I finally summed it up for Paige with this.

     If he bans bachelorette parties then he could see a decline in his bar sales.  This could lead to a loss in profits which could ultimately lead to him going out of business.  This is a form of karma.

     If you do bad things then the universe will find some way to punish you.  It may not be obvious as my example, but you’re gonna get it.  The best revenge in life really is living an awesome life. 

     Let me sum it up in one statement: Sometimes you have to let karma be your justice.

My New Green Life

     Growing up my father taught me how to live a green life, and I was never aware of how much he taught me until I became a father.  This is my daughter's second summer, and she is just now getting to an age where she can appreciate nature.  Paige and I decided this spring that we were going to make some lifestyle changes to teach our daughter those values.
     We first started with saving our aluminum cans to sell as scrap metal and make a few bucks.  Paige then suggested we keep a bag of our plastic recyclables outside as well.

 

     Soon after that we started keeping a box of our old newspapers seeing as we got a daily subscription.  Our old magazines and office paper also go in here.

      Our old carboard boxes were next to go into a recyclable box.

     We don't use much glass in our house, but it is easily stored alongside our metal cans.

 
     Growing up my dad always had a compost pile. We would through our kitchen scraps and yard clippings.  It was often a chore to take the compost outside and dump it.  I wanted Paige and I to start doing this so that Lucy would always know these green practices as I had.  Our goal with the compost pile is not necessarily to produce compost for our garden, but it is more to keep as much trash out of the landfill.  All we were doing was feeding the birds at the dump.  Here is a picture of our set up.

 

     Our latest project was starting a garden.  Now we live in the city on the side of a busy highway so we can have any extravagant.  My dad grew some tomato plants from seeds this Spring, and he had given me his last two plants.  We love hot things at our house so jalapeno plants are a must in our garden.  That's all the room we have in our backyard, but we have two container plants, a strawberry plant and gebera daisies.  Even though we have limited space were are trying to do our best to live a green life for our daughter.  Here are some pictures of our garden in progress.

     Paige and I are doing our best to live a greener life and instill in her some of the values my father instilled in me.  Our trash output has significantly dwindled.  We used to average 4-5 bags of trash a week, and now we are down to 1-2 bags of trash each week.  The steps we took to make our life greener are very easily implementable.  You can check out my wife's blog where she has a similar entry about this topic. 

Shrimp Bisque Recipe

Here is a very easy recipe for Shrimp Bisque that was given to me when I was in high school.  It makes about 15 cups of soup give or take some.  It is a great recipe for feeding several people.  Hopefully you will enjoy!

INGREDIENTS

1          stick butter

3          green onions OR     

¼ cup chopped onion

4 cans cream of potato

4 cans cream corn

2 cups heavy whipping

             cream

1 cap    shrimp & crab boil

Dash    Creole seasoning

1 bag    small, cooked shrimp

  

DIRECTIONS

1.  Melt butter, cook onions

2.  Add rest, simmer until warm throughout.

3. Serve

William Wordsworth - Lucy Gray: Summary & Analysis

     William Wordsworth and Samuel Coleridge published a collection of works titled Lyrical Ballads in 1798.  Two years later the second edition to Lyrical Ballads, a sequel of sorts, was published that included new poems as well as the originals.  It is in the second volume that we find the poem “Lucy Gray.”  It is important to note that this poem is not included in Wordsworth’s “Lucy poems” even though it talks about a girl named Lucy.  In the poem’s footnote we learn that Wordsworth wrote the poem while he was in Germany and that the poem is based on a true account of a young girl that drowned (qtd. in Greenblatt 8: 227).  The poem is written in a traditional ballad theme with a rhyme scheme of a, b, a, b.

     The poem centers on a young girl who went out into a storm one night and was never found again.  The opening stanza sets up the poem, introduces the title character, and foreshadows saying, “I chanced to see at break of day/The solitary child” (3-4).  In the second stanza we learn about Lucy, “no mate, no comrade…the sweetest this that ever grew” (5, 7).  Lucy is a sweet, young, loner of sorts who lives in the moor with her family.  In the third stanza we learn the Lucy is no longer alive, “But the sweet face of Lucy Gray/Will never more be seen” (11-12).

     The fourth stanza starts telling the story of Lucy’s disappearance.  Her father had her go to town one night during a storm and carry a lantern to “light/Your mother through the snow” (15-16).  It is not clear whether she was going to town to pick up her mother or not, but we can infer the former because lines 33 and 34 say, “The wretched parents all that night/Went shouting far and wide” (33-34).  She obliged and took her lantern with her as her father got more fuel for the fire.  Lucy is the epitome of a sweet, innocent girl.  Wordsworth says about the girl, “Not blither is the mountain roe/With many a wanton stroke…” (25-26).  He is saying she was happier than any deer trudging through the snow that night.  However, as she is out that night the storm came on early than it was supposed to “and many a hill did Lucy climb: But never reached the town” (31-32). 

     Line 33 of the poem is when the reader’s mood changes, “The wretched parents all that night/Went shouting far and wide…” (33-34).  Her parents searched for her in the dark but there was no sound or sight to help them with their search.  They cry out, “in heaven we all shall meet” knowing that they will never find her.  But wait, footsteps, Lucy’s footsteps in the snow.  They follow the foot prints in the snow down a hill, through a hedge, down a stone-wall, across a field, and over to a bridge.  They then followed the footmarks across the bridge then “further there were none” (56).  It is clear, even though it is not said in the poem, that the sweet, little girl had fallen off the bridge into the frigid waters below.  Line 56 killed any hopes of finding Lucy Gray that line 43 had given the reader. 

     The reader can find solace in the next to last stanza, “Yet some maintain that to this day she is a living child; that you may see sweet Lucy Gray upon the lonesome wild” (57-60).  Wordsworth is saying that even though she is physically dead, she lives on in spirit.  She might even be seen on the moors trudging along singing her sweet song.

     “Lucy Gray” shares a similar theme as “We Are Seven” which was in the first publication of Lyrical Ballads.  The two poems share the idea that even though people are no longer physically in the world, they are with us spiritually.  In “We Are Seven” the little girl the speaker talks to seemingly cannot completely understand death saying in the last line, “…Nay, we are seven” (69).  However, another way to look at the concepts is that maybe children understand spirituality more than adults do because they have not been corrupted by the world yet.  We see the idea of innocence in "Lucy Gray" when she is out in the storm plowing through happier than any mountain deer. 

     It is also important to note the solidarity of Lucy Gray.  In early lines of the poem we are told that she does not have any friends, but she is the happiest, sweetest girl.  In a way she is not connected to the human community.  She only knows the company of her parents.  It is almost a fitting end to her life that she goes out alone.  She was able to find joy in nature without the influence of society.

     On a deeper level, the bridge where she vanished has a symbolic meaning.  Since her footprints did not go all the way across the bridge this means that point is not an end.  She does not look back as she has made the transition to “the other side.”  She is now fittingly part of nature, “…and sings a solitary song/That whistles through the wind” (63-64).  There is not a stress on her death; rather, one can take that she has been unified with nature as she was a great lover of it.

         He might not have known that people 200 years later would still be reading the poem, but he probably hoped she would forever live on in our readings and debates.  Whether you like the poem or not you will never forget the poem or the story associated with it.  Things like this happen every day, and we often forget the name of the children who have passed before their time, but all shall remember the name Lucy Gray.  

Citations:

Greenblatt, Stephen, et. al.  8th Edition, Volume D: The Norton Anthology of English Literature..  New York: W.W. Norton, 2006. 227.

Wordsworth, William. “Lucy Gray.” 8^th Edition, Volume D: The Norton Anthology of English Literature. Ed. Stephen Greenblatt.  New York: W.W. Norton, 2006. 227-229.

“We Are Seven.”  8th Edition, Volume D: The Norton Anthology of English Literature..                           Ed. Stephen Greenblatt.  New York: W.W. Norton, 2006. 248-249.

Touch Screen Fever

     As my “About Me” states I am a first time father of a current 16 month old.  It has caused me to look at the world differently, and I now have a greater sense of awareness of the world my daughter will eventually inherit.

     I am a frequent listener to NPR, which might seem odd to people my age.  I especially like to listen to their programming during my commutes to and from school.  I usually catch the first hour of the Dian Rehm show and this morning’s show was “Touch-Screen Devices and Very Young Children”

     The early portions of the show surprised me when the guests for that day qualified most of their arguments with the fact that there were no studies on the effects of these devices on young children. 

     This would have probably freaked my wife out, but I pride myself on being the more rational one in the relationship.  As I usually do during the show, I started commenting to myself and working through how I felt about the topic, and here’s where I ended up.

     We own a Kindle Fire of which my daughter has played with a little and enjoys watching her favorite cartoon when the opportunity presents itself.  As previously mentioned she is only 16 months, so she is not far enough along to really enjoy and utilize the games and puzzles available.

     However, she is fast approaching the age where she will become more interested in the device as well as be able to play with it as it were intended.  She has already learned some picture word associations from using a touch screen device, so I can already see what benefits touch screen devices have on young children.

     As more research is conducted we will have a better understanding of what goes on in children’s mind when they use touch screen devices, but no matter what the results are I am still going to let her have access to it.

     For one reason I want my daughter to use and understand technology.  The world we live in is becoming more technologically advanced every-day, and she needs to keep up with the ever evolving world around her.

     I want to prepare her for school the same way school prepares us for entering the workforce.  Schools are becoming outfitted with more electronic devices, and I want my daughter to go in with a basic understanding of different technologies.

     Lastly I want her to understand moderation.  She will never know a world without computers and microprocessors, so it is important that we start her at a young age.  Demonizing useful devices because they can be abused is not the way I want to raise my daughter. 

     There is still an importance for learning in the classical style that I took part in.  No matter what the results of future studies may prove moderation will always be the best policy.

Occupy the System

The recent NATO conference in Chicago saw protesters filling the streets in opposition to the Afghanistan War.  American citizens have the right to peaceful protest, but sometimes those protests turn ugly.  The recent Chicago protests turned ugly with police officers dressed in riot gear using their batons to fend off angry protesters.

     Some of the angst is driven by the Occupy movement.  I support the Occupy movement, although I wouldn’t dedicate my life to the cause because let’s be honest I would love to be in the 1% one day.  Whatever name you want to call it, there is unfairness to the system.

     I understand unfairness is a part of life.  One of my mother’s favorite quotes growing up was “Life’s not fair learn it now.” The top bracket should pay more because trickle-down economics only works in a utopian society. 

     The idea being that the rich “job-makers” need to have a tax break so that they can employ more workers stimulating the economy.  However, the tax breaks usually go to padding the pockets of the board and CEO.  Our economy is strongest when middle class individuals have the ability to own their own businesses and make a profit from them.

     Having said all of that, I will finally get to the point.  The Occupy movement doesn’t really work.  Protesting works on smaller more direct means, not in on a large, universal scale.  The policy makers aren’t really listening to the people in the streets.

     The Occupy movement has to move into the political arena.  It can’t bring about the necessary change making clever signs smoking pot in a drum circle.  The Occupy members need to take a book out of the Tea Party handbook of bringing about change.

     I am not suggesting that the Occupiers take their place as the antithesis of the Tea Partiers, but let’s face it, they are.  The Occupy movement needs to start endorsing candidates, regardless of party affiliation.  Young people have become disenfranchised with the system, and the Occupy movement needs to bring those people back to the voting booths.

     One day the generation of Occupy influenced people will be the policy makers in this country.  The Jon Stewart audience needs to do more than get high and shake their heads at the new crazy thing to come out of Bill O’Reilly’s mouth.

     Let me finish this will a story about some people I know.  One day I was trying to talk about some politics with a couple of guys who were Ron Paul supporters.  They were going on about how he was this brilliant man with all of these awesome ideas, and the American people are idiots if they don’t elect this guy.

     I was listening quietly taking in all of the misguided things they were saying (not all of Ron Paul) when I asked them a simple question, “So where are you guys registered to vote at?”  They just looked at me with dumb expressions and said, “Oh, we don’t vote, the system is rigged.”

    Now the system is rigged I will give you that, but these are the people we need voting in this country.  If the Occupy movement can convince these people to get up and do something about the problems in this country, then maybe we can turn this country around.