Required Viewing

In case there's anyone out there who hasn't seen this yet:




Those are John Stewart's thoughts, but damn, I cosign. That and a buck fifty will get you coffee.

Where I've Been

First, busy. Busy, busy, busy. Friends, family, celebrations and crises.

Second, traveling. Loooove Spokane. Love it. Expect a post over on Stilettos soon. But it did mean I had all of 4 days at home. Got into town last Sunday. Leave again tomorrow.

Third, work. Work has gotten deliciously busier. More challenging in the best ways. I'm back to learning things and being science-y.

Fourth, hospitals. Lithus had a scare that took us to the ER (kidney stone - it passed and all's well). But my heart's not as fixed as we thought it was. My loop recorder is picking things up. Several appointments this past week. Echo-cardiogram. Stress test. All crammed into 4 days. Results positive enough that I get to leave town tomorrow with Lithus still. We think we know what's going on, but we will meet with my wonderful Dr. Morin when we get back in town. The best news is that it's not structural. If you want to look something up, feel free to google preventricular contractions. A perfectly normal thing in a perfectly normal heart. But mine isn't. So, we wait until next month to meet with Dr. Morin and see what happens next.

It's life. It happens. But it's busy.

Those are Pobble Thoughts. That and a buck fifty will get you coffee.

Screaming Liberal Post #9

I've been quiet up until now about Ferguson, MO and the Michael Brown shooting for lots of reasons, but I'm writing about it today.

First, I highly ~ highly ~ recommend my white readers click this link by Derrick Clifton. It says a lot of what's been rolling around in my head, as I've listened to the conversations around Brown's shooting. Also? It's good for those of us who are white to make sure our only sources of information aren't. Another excellent link for white folks is here, by Kate Harding.

Now that those calm recommendations have been made...

Are You Fucking Kidding Me?????

1. I don't give a good goddamn if Michael Brown was part of a strong-arm robbery before or not. He was, at the time he was murdered, an unarmed kid walking down the street. The cop who killed him didn't know about the robbery, anyway. And even if he had that doesn't give him the right to kill Michael Brown as he walked down the fucking street.

Stop talking about it. It is fucking irrelevant. What happened before has no bearing to being gunned down, unarmed. Period.

2. Why are we talking about looters? Shut the fuck up about looters. Focusing on them detracts from the real blight in Ferguson: the attacks by police on peaceful protesters. Pretending everyone is looting, or arguing that a few bad apples ruin the whole barrel, is a distraction at best, and a derailment at worst. Police are tear gassing peaceful protesters. Why the fuck are we talking about looters?

3. Stop asking why he ran, or if he struggled, if he'd done nothing wrong. Open your goddamn eyes already. Black people, black men especially, are the targets of white America. They are being killed for carrying Skittles, wearing hoodies, playing music, and asking for help. Yet when a young black man sees a white cop, he's not supposed to be afraid???? Are you fucking kidding me? We live in a world where black parents have to talk to their children, especially their sons, about how to be arrested, about how to stay safe, and we white people want to know why he was scared and might have run? Might have struggled? How was he supposed to feel anything but threatened????

Yes, we must talk about Michael Brown's killing and what's happened in Ferguson since. But we also must make sure we're having the right conversations.

Those are Pobble Thoughts. That and a buck fifty will get you coffee.

Remember this:

~ People will use your fears against you

~ People will use your words against you

~ People will change the rules to fit their game

~ People will dish it out, but won't be able to take it

~ People will blame you for their issues, and then blame you again for standing up for yourself

~ People will try to twist the truth to fit their lies

~ People will hold you to one standard, and themselves to a lower one

~ People will use tactics they have called out when they are the ones in the wrong

~ People will lash out if you call them on any of this.

You can still be right. You can still stand strong. You can still know the truth. You know this.

Remember it.

Those are Pobble Thoughts. That and a buck fifty will get you a Starbucks mocha.

Nerdgasm

This morning, we were waking up, watching Fareed Zakaria's GPS on CNN. It's one of the few shows I can watch on CNN any longer. It was, as I expect anything that includes Zakaria, respectful and informative. And then, his next guest came on. Neil Degrasse Tyson.

Think about that for a moment.

Fareed Zakaria andNeil Degrasse Tyson. Together. 

Beautiful men. Beautiful minds. Oh what a beautiful morning...

It's going to be a good day.

Those are Pobble Thoughts. That and a buck fifty will get you coffee ~ and a solid dose of intelligent conversation.

I Do This Thing...

...that I never really considered before, but have recently been asked about. Several times. So it got me thinking about it.

If I see a potential issue or problem on the horizon, I mention it to anyone else who might be involved. I'm not creating the issue. I'm not accusing anyone of anything. I'm not making an excuse. I'm not even looking for a solution in the moment. I'm saying "I see this as a potential thing, so if it comes to fruition, let's not be blindsided by it,and if we can avoid it, lets do that!"

Too often, I found myself saying "damn, I was afraid this might happen..." and the people around me were, justifiably, upset that I hadn't said anything. Hadn't given us a chance to avoid it. So, now I do.

I've done this thing for years and years. Only in the last two months, or so, about 3, maybe 4 times, I have had the person I'm speaking to ask why I would even bring it up yet. Well...because it might happen, and it's either easily avoidable, or at least something we can kinda sorta expect. Each time, it was a different person, different gender, different situation. So, I don't know if doing this is uniquely Pobble, if it's gender based, if it's part of being a Type A planner... I don't know.

I'm intrigued that after years of no one commenting one way or another, it's been noted upon a handful of times now.

Those are (terribly uninteresting) Pobble Thoughts. That and a buck fifty will get you coffee.

Another Video

But also totally worth it, for completely different reasons.


'

Safety first, people!

Those are amused Pobble Thoughts. That and a buck fifty will get you coffee.

Something to Think About

...next time you grab a bag of M&Ms...

So fascinating.




Those are Pobble Thoughts. That and a buck fifty will get you coffee.

Booky Things

I snagged this from my friend, Ian. He got it from somewhere official and writery, but since I got it from him, he gets the credit here. He is, after all, official and writery himself.


The Book I Enjoyed Most In School: I can't remember being assigned a book in school that I really loved. There weren't many I hated, either (although Frankenstein was shockingly bad for a "classic"). But while I was in school, my mother gave me a book titled Chocolates for Breakfast. It made me feel like I had a secret, in a good way, and I loved it. I have never wanted to revisit it, just in case it isn't as stunning as a grown-up.

A Book I Read In Secret: Flowers In The Attic. I'm the generation that read this first. We whispered about it. Read it at sleepovers. I still remember spending the night with Tina, in Austin, and the two of us reading this, hoping her mother wouldn't catch us.

The Books I've Read Over and Over: The Harry Potter series. The Autobiography of Henry VIII, by Margaret George. The Other Boleyn Girl, by Phillipa Gregory. The Father Blackie novels, by Andrew Greeley. The Three Musketeers, by Alexandre Dumas.

A Classic I'm Embarrassed to Say I've Never Read: This would be easier if it was a question about movies, because there are a bunch of those. There's one, but I'm saving it for the last question and I feel like using it here, too, would be kind of cheating so...Ah! The Seagull, by Chekov. I really, really should have read The Seagull back when I was a theatre person. Yeah...shame.

A Book I've Pretended I've Read: Crow and Cats are about to headdesk, but The Chronicles of Narnia, by CS Lewis. I've read The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe, but never the full chronicle. I fell so deeply in love with the characters in Lion that, when they weren't in the others, I wasn't interested. As an adult, I've just never revisited them. I know; I'm ashamed here, too.

A Book I Consider to be Grossly Overrated: Again, I could cheat and simply repeat Frankenstein, but I won't do that. Anything by Hemingway. He's a hack. His characters are 2 dimensional caricatures; his plots are contrived. And let's not even talk about how he writes women, or people of color (happy native, anyone? Ugh.).

The Books I Wish I Had Written: The Father Blackie novels. Those are so much my style, they actually made me wish to be a writer.

My Favorite Movie Versions of Books: As much as I think they're overrated, and as sour a taste as they leave in my mouth for personal reasons, I think Peter Jackson did a damn fine job bringing the Lord of the Rings trilogy to the screen. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, but not the other 6. Oh, and 101 Dalmatians. Mind you, I did this one backwards. I saw, and adored, the animated movie as a child, then read the book by Dodie Smith.

What I Am Reading Now: Marketing compliance guides, and medical journal abstracts. My life has taken a very strange turn in the last year...

How about you?

Those are Pobble Thoughts. That and a buck fifty will get you coffee.