I'm Gonna Live Forever. Light Up the Sky Like a Flame!

Fame! It's been a recurring theme around my house lately. First, and somewhat randomly, it came up in my 14 Things list (or was it my appended 25 Things list?) on Facebook, when I wrote that I've never had any desire to be famous. I'm sticking by that, by the way, but we'll get back to that later. Next, it has been an ongoing topic with Mia, who definitely wants to be famous. For what? you might ask. And, being 7, she doesn't really have an answer. She just knows she wants to be famous.

Finally, it came up on the radio today. Listening to our local public radio station on the way home from the gym this morning, I heard John Aillei say something that baffled me and brought all my recent fame musings bubbling to the surface.

So, Aillei is talking about a cello performance that's taking place this weekend in Austin--and he mentions that the program will be made up of cello sonatas by Mendolssohn. And then he says something along the lines of "By the way. I heard a sad story about these cello sonatas. They're all dedicated to Mendolssohn's brother Paul, who played the cello. Of course, we all know Felix Mendolssohn's name, and his sister Fanny was somewhat famous as well, but nobody has ever heard of Paul." Then Aillei moves on to his next topic, and I'm thinking WAIT! What about Paul? Did he die a tragic death? Did he suffer from a wasting disease that made him unable to play the cello he so loved? What about the sad story? And then I GET it. That WAS the sad story. Paul Mendolssohn wasn't famous.

Now as many of you know, I have no great love for John Aillei. I don't often listen to him because I know his pretentious prickishness is bound to tick me off in one way or another. But what the hell? Do normal people really think it's "sad" that someone wasn't famous?

So what's the deal? Am I in a minority because I have no interest in fame? Am I missing some natural human drive? Or are we divided? Do some people have some base desire for fame and others don't? And why?

It's not that I don't want to be "known." I absolutely do have that drive. I want to the people around me to know me and to understand me. And when I'm dead and gone, I would like to be remembered by my friends and family. I've also had dreams of being a performer of some sort--but that was more about being really good at something and less about "fame."

But the thought of strangers recognizing me and talking about what I do and when and how I do it? The idea of people broadcasting details of my life to the whole world? Having to hear and read about the details of my mistakes and failures in newspapers and magazines? That all sounds truly awful to me. I honestly don't understand why anyone would want that.

But try to explaining that to a 7 year old. . .

And Because I'm Apparently in Touch with My 12-Year-Old Boy Side

This headline on MSNBC today amused the hell out of me.

How to know if the stimulus is working

Unfortunately, the actual story isn't nearly as funny. . .

Bored

I think I'm bored.

No, not this very minute. In general.

Maybe that's why everything I think I might write about strikes me as too boring to merit the cyberspace.

YAWN.

More later.

And While I'm Bragging About My Kids. . .

Last night Mia and I were out having dinner at her current favorite Panda Express (sigh). We were chatting about school, and she told me her second-grade class was working on fractions. "I can do ANY fraction," she said, clearly enthusiastic about her new skill. "Give me one!" I didn't know exactly what she wanted, so I asked what I needed to give her. "Well, if Ms. Waters [her teacher] tells me there's a circle divided into 4 sections and 2 of those sections are colored in, I can tell her it's two-fourths."

"Oh, I see," I said. "but do you know what else that is?" She thought about it for a few seconds, and then she gave up. "I don't know what you mean," she said.

So I picked up the paper plate in front of me and divided it into 4 sections with a pen. Then I shaded in two adjacent sections. "So, what's that?" I asked her. She smiled and answered immediately, "two-fourths." "Exactly, but what ELSE is it?" She looked at it for a minute, and then her face lit up. "Oh my gosh, it's one-half!" "Yep," I said. "And look what happens if I subdivide the four sections to make eight sections. Nothing changes. It's still one-half and it's still two-fourths, but what ELSE is it?" "Four-eighths!!!" says Mia.

And then she looked up at me, really excited, like we had just discovered electricity or something, and she asked, "Do you think Ms. Waters knows about this?"

I was mightily amused.

"Up in Smoke" or "Another Great Moment in Parenting"

Zoe has been working on a writing assignment for a while now. It has taken longer than it should have because we left the country in the middle of it and then it was forgotten. The assignment was to write a letter to an imaginary cousin from the Old Country either suggesting that they come to this country or not. To do it right, the kids had to put themselves in the character of a child of the early colonies over 200 years ago.

For some reason, this assignment really spoke to Zoe. She started out putting "-eth" on the end of all her verbs and taking a silly "old-fashioned" approach. But at some point she got pretty serious about it. She did a little research into the appropriate language of the time and corrected her draft accordingly. She found some manilla construction paper to use as parchment paper for her final draft. She painstakingly wrote her final draft in "old-fashioned-looking" cursive script, with curly-ques between the paragraphs. She brought her beautiful final draft for me to admire, and then said, "I don't think it looks old enough" as she crumpled it into a ball.

That's when I had my great idea. "We could burn the edges to make it look even older!" She loved it, and we got right to work over the kitchen sink. I started out small, singing a corner her, a hole there. But the third time I touched the lighter to the paper, I didn't blow the flame out quickly enough and things got out of hand. As the flame grew and started to race across the paper, I realized that I was burning up hours of my daughter's work. As I frantically blew at the growing flame and considered turning on the faucet to make it stop, I knew that she was going to have to redo the whole thing.

Aggggghhhh.

I finally put the fire out. The bottom left-hand eighth of the paper was gone. No getting it back. I looked at Zoe, knowing she was going to be furious. But she was grinning from ear to ear. "That looks GREAT!!!" she says. "So you're not mad?" "NOOOOO! It's COOL." I pointed out that you could no longer actually READ a good part of the letter, but she said she was going to present it as an artifact and she would read from her rough draft and say it was the version she decoded during her research.

Strange bird that she is, I've got an amazing kid.

Exactly!

Click HERE for more great behind-the-scenes inauguration photos from Newsweek.

Yes!

History

I can't watch anything about the upcoming inauguration of Barack Obama without dissolving into tears. I've never been prouder to be a citizen of the United States of America. I don't know whether or not Obama will be able to turn things around, and I fear that people's expectations for what he should be able to achieve may be unrealistically high. Nonetheless, the simple fact that this man will be our president speaks volumes about the potential of this country to improve itself.

I was talking to my girls this weekend about what a big, big deal this inauguration is, and I realized that there's no way they can possibly understand the enormity. And frankly, that makes me very happy.

It's Been Over a Month, I Know

I really *should* try to write something. Maybe tomorrow.

Thinking about buying a Dell? Well, good luck with that!

I've been trying to sort out a small problem with Dell, and really, their customer "service" is so bad, it's almost funny.

Davy's brother asked for a Dell gift card for Christmas. Easy, right?

I ordered it on Saturday, during an hour window when I placed 5 or 6 other online orders from other sites. Thursday evening I realized I hadn't received a shipping notification, although I had received notifications for everything else I bought from other vendors that day. Then I realized I never even gotten the order confirmation e-mail. So I started to question whether I'd even placed the order, so I checked my credit card, and sure enough, there's a charge.

So, I figure that maybe I entered my e-mail address incorrectly when I placed the order, and I try to call Dell to make sure the card has been shipped. And this is where the fun begins. . .

Dell customer "service" uses a system where your call is initially answered by a "reception" rep, to whom you explain your problem and they connect you to the correct person to deal with your problem. Unless you don't have an order number because you never got your confirmation e-mail. Then, apparently, the joke's on you.

Hahahahahaha.

In the event that you don't have an order number, and they don't understand your problem (which they are likely not to, as none of them seem to be native English speakers), and they connect you to the wrong department, you have to start over in the cue from the beginning.

Last night I spent 34 minutes on hold, being shuffled from one clueless person to another until I was finally transferred to a department that was closed.

This morning I called that department, which turned out to be (surprise) the WRONG department. So I was sent back to the customer care reception cue where I held for 15 minutes, was then transferred to a "supervisor" where the phone RANG (old school, ding-a-ling, no hold music) for 10 minutes and nobody ever answered. There was no way back to the system, so I had to hang up and start over.

Then I held for 21 minutes, during which I was connected to two more wrong departments (incentive sales and financial services) each of which sent me back to the cue.

I finally spoke to a person who sounded like she understood the problem, but she connected me to a department called "credit card services," where I held for 19 more minutes before I hung up.

My next call will be to my credit card company to cancel the charge.

And then I'll call my BIL and let him know that he definitely does NOT want a Dell.

As much as I love my Dell laptop, I can say with confidence that I will not be purchasing another Dell product.

Ever.

I can haz draw Pig

My pig

But why??

So, we've discussed plastic surgery before--here and --oh never mind. I won't link to the second instance because it disturbed so many of you. But, as you may or may not recall, I'm not a big fan of plastic surgery. I simply don't see the point of risking your life to look a little bit "better." And "better" is really quite relative, considering how screwy some people look when they're done.

With "risking your life" being my major sticking point, at least for argument's sake, you might guess that I wouldn't have a problem with the latest rage in cosmetic enhancement: post mortem plastic surgery.

Well, you'd be wrong.

Who is so damn vain that they need work done after they're dead? It's certainly not going to do anything for their self esteem.

Some Jokes Never Get Old!

From my favorite magazine, The Week (November 28, 2008 issue):

A British publisher translated Philogelos: The Laugh Addict, a 1,600-year-old joke book from ancient Greece. One gag that presages the Monty Python "Dead Parrot" sketch concerns a man who complains that the slave he just purchased has died. "By the gods," replies the seller, "when he was with me, he never did any such thing!

(I don't know why, but this amused the hell out of me!)

If, and ONLY if, the Sun Refused to Shine

Bah!

"Zeppelin" Considers Touring Sans Plant

Clearly, they're all senile, or they wouldn't even be considering the possibility.

On Second Thought

My venting done and friendly support received, it occurs to me there is nothing to be gained by leaving my previous post on the internet. God forbid the wrong person should come sliding down one of those internet tubes and discover it. . .

I will say that the simple act of writing the post, plus thinking about some of the questions posed in your comments, lead me to a personal discovery today. Don't know that it will change anything, considering that 40 years of cumulative damage has already been done, but I actually did end up with a bit of insight.

What do you know. . .

Next up--my letter from Jimmy Carter. I found it in that box too. I'm going to scan it and post it later.

It turns out that Jimmy and I are friends.

A Perfect Day in Austin

Today was perfection. Every single person I have seen or spoken to is in complete agreement--today is one of those days that makes you say "THIS is why I live in Austin, Texas!" Blue skies with a few fluffy white clouds, 75 degrees, and a comfortable breeze that periodically sent the fall leaves whispering through the air. A perfect day to be outside finishing up the girls' clubhouse. And it's all done. Even the checkerboard paver floor.

The girls say it came out even better than they expected. Zoe is trying to figure out how to build a bench and a table out of the wood scraps. She has a design, but I believe it's going to require a bit of adaptation to make it work--some brackets or something to keep the legs from spreading out and snapping off as soon as she sits on it. But that's a project for next week.

For now we're all pleasantly exhausted and looking forward to a quiet night at home.

In Austin.

How did we get this lucky?

Tardy!

I just got home from dropping the girls off at school--one hour late. When you take your kid in late these days, you have to sign a log and give the reason for tardiness, e.g., "doctor's appt," "overslept," whatever. Today my reason was "Up late witnessing history." The secretary looked at me a little askew and said, "Hmmmm. Well it's still unexcused."

That made me chuckle.

Yes We Can!

I think almost everyone I know voted early, but if you haven't yet, go do it.

Today's the day to make a choice. And for all the rhetoric and divisiveness that has marked this L O N G campaign season, I believe that either option is better than what we've had the last 8 years. As long as the election is DECISIVE, we come out better with a better leader than we have today.

Of course, my strong preference is well known. And although my vote will most definitely turn out to be meaningless in the state of Texas, I was happier to make it than I have been in any election since I turned 18.

Obamanos!

Economics Lesson

Apparently this is a quote that's making the rounds on Starbucks cups nationwide. It's certainly an interesting take on economics and puts the Republican "spreading the wealth" fear-mongering bullshit in perspective. The quote is attributed to noted economic expert and comedian Steve Martin.

If you’ve got a dollar and you spend twenty-nine cents on a loaf of bread, you’ve got seventy-one cents left. But if you’ve got seventeen grand and you spend twenty-nine cents on a loaf of bread, you’ve still got seventeen grand.

That spoke to me on a level I can't quite explain.

I'd write more, but I'm off to find a loaf of that twenty-nine cent bread!

In Case You Missed It

There are no words to express how badly I want this man to be our president.