Today was Halloween. Yesterday we carved pumpkins and today was trick-or-treating. I am too tired to really write about anything, but here are some pictures. Full set available on my Flickr site.
Super Girl and Wonder Woman pose for a shot:
Wonder Woman aka Gillian with a bag of treats:
Erin getting ready to accompany her sisters to trick-or-treating
Super Girl aka Isabella posing
Erin Carly Taverna entered this world at 9:42 PM Friday October 19,
2007. She weighed in at 8 lbs 2 oz. Everyone is in good health and
great spirits. We are all enjoying our time together as a family of
five!
Picture Set on my Flickr site.
Today’s post is a part of Blog Action Day:
My family and I do our best to be environmentally friendly. Karen is our leader in providing us inspiration and guidance towards being better to the environment. I have to admit that convenience and cost would leave me destroying the environment without even realizing it. It is interesting, and sad, that the most cost-friendly options are often the most environmentally unfriendly. Want to buy organic food because it is not laden with pesticides? Expect to pay up to 300% more than the “regular” product. Want to only purchase items from responsible companies that provide their workers with a living wage and don’t pollute the environment making their product? Better stay out of any big box store with low prices. It often seems that our market is set up to punish people who wish to make informed decisions about what they purchase and consume. Having access to environmentally friendly goods is not enough. These goods must also be affordable. In the continuing class battle that is occurring this is just another way that the middle and lower classes are being held back. Parents should not be forced to decide between paying a bill and buying healthy food for their children and themselves, and yet this is precisely the scenario when organically grown food is so much more expensive than chemically treated food.
The government should level the playing field and remove all corporations off of welfare. The fact that corporations are given tax breaks and subsidies is appalling to me. These giant corporations and factory-farms are not helping the country. They are responsible for the ever growing outsourcing of everything and the undermining of the ability for a working class citizen to earn a living wage capable of supporting a family. How does this relate to the environment? Our government is allowing these mega-corps to outsource everything to countries with little to no environmental regulation. Can’t dump your toxic waste in the USA? Simple, outsource your operation to a country where they don’t care where and what you dump. Sure it may not be in your backyard anymore, but pollution is a global concern and any pollution in the world will affect us sooner or later. We are destroying the world and maybe things will be OK in our lifetime, but do we really want to leave a smoking husk of a world to our children and grandchildren?
We are still waiting for baby to arrive, and the waiting can be frustrating. Will today be the day? We thought it would be, but now it doesn’t seem to be. Baby will come when it’s ready, but in our over-scheduled world it is hard to accept something will just happen without your planning or knowing exactly when it will happen.
I am finding it hard to get motivated to write about Fahrenheit 451 for the Big Read. I’ve written a few drafts for part one, but nothing really sticks. I don’t want to continue on with reading part two until I have written about part one, so this may take longer than I originally anticipated.
In the meantime here are some things I have come across on the interweb:
The Hello Experiment (via In Java Literally): Remember that Lionel Richie video with the blind girl making a creepy Lionel Richie bust out of clay in the Hello video? Well this is a bunch of people trying to do the same.
Right Brain or Left Brain (via techyum): Which way do you see the dancer spin? That is supposed to tell you which side of your brain is dominant. I mostly see clockwise spinning, although the first second is counter-clockwise and then it switches.
Barbie pushes credit cards to kids (via Consumerist): This commercial and product display everything that is wrong when capitalism and consumerism are taken to extremes. “You never run out of money!” one of the children says in the commercial. Of course not, just keep using that credit card to buy, buy buy! Don’t worry about looming debt or crushing bills. Don’t worry about selling your future for instant gratification. Just swipe the card and shut up! Great message Mattel.
I can’t remember where I stumbled upon this game, but it is kind of fun. It is a satirical look at the fast food industry and what it does to the world.
The XKCD comic has an amusing take (for techie types anyway) on naming your child:
For my 200th post on this blog I wanted to post something amusing. I chose this compilation of Wilhelm Screams: (YouTube link)
It’s funny how an in-joke between sound designers can encompass so many movies and years.
The Big Read is an initiative of the National Endowment for the Arts designed to restore reading to the center of American culture.
This year the Big Read book being read by Chautauqua and Cattaraugus counties is Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury. I heard about this program through SUNY Fredonia and decided I would participate by reading and blogging about the book.
Since the book is separated into three parts I expect this series of posts to have four to five posts: this introduction, a post for each of the three parts, and possibly a conclusion.
I dug out my old copy of Fahrenheit 451 last night so I could start reading it. Out of curiosity I checked the date and that copy was produced in 1986. Which means when I read it for the first time I was around 11 years old. I know I read it again in high school, but then have not read it since. It is funny how I remember it being a long book, but looking at it now I figure I will read a part a night and be done by the end of the week, barring any life events such as the arrival of a baby that might delay my reading 
. I am trying to figure out why I remember it being a long book, since it is not. I read a lot as a child and a book that is less than 200 pages is not one I would normally consider long. So why does my memory tell me otherwise? I suppose it might be because of the social commentary in the book, which is more than I would have been used to as a youngster. Or perhaps it is because it is not broken up into chapters, simply three parts of about 60 pages each, and I do not like stopping a book mid-stream; I much prefer to stop at a chapter or section break, and since there are only three breaks in the book perhaps that is why I remember it as long. At any rate, as perplexing as that memory may be I only remember the basic story line so am looking forward to re-reading this book as an adult an perhaps catching more than I did the last time I read it.
It an not unexpected move, King George wielded his mighty veto pen, this time denying health insurance to the future of our country. It is scary that this man will spend billions of dollars on war but will refuse to spend 1/15th of that on health insurance for low income children. I just can’t believe that he is still president. Where is the call for impeachment? Are we supposed to just wait it out and see how messed up he can make things?
Here is a link to a story on the BBC news website about this. It’s slightly ironic that the best article I found is from a British news source.
Here is a link to a petition to override the veto.
