Sunday, June 8, 2008 | by nathan

Weekly Reader: 8 June 2008

8 June 2008 

Crossover: Office Space Meets Rambo

"This is a security cam video of a guy who, to put it lightly, is sick of working in a cubicle farm. If you’re looking to get yourself fired in a way that’ll legally prevent you from ever entering the office or interacting with any of your former coworkers again, with a free room at the county correctional facility tossed in for good measure, throwing a computer monitor at a coworker and then systematically destroying the entire office is a pretty good way to do so."

Tornado Forming

Ree, over at Pioneer Woman, took some absolutely unbelievable photos of a tornado forming on her ranch. Driving home the notion that, unless a tornado is coming RIGHT DIRECTLY AT US RIGHT NOW OH MY GOD RUN, Oklahomans are just more apt to watch that sucker than anything else, and bonus points if you get out a camera.

Is West Virginia Welcome In Your Democratic Party?

A fantastic essay addressing the people who proclaimed, before the Appalachian primaries, that we didn’t need "those people" to win in November.
"You don’t have to understand the ignorance. You don’t have to be one of us. You don’t even have to be anything like us. Just stand with us to change it. Facing the last vestiges of racism and homophobia and the worst illiteracy and poverty and all that we hoped was in the America’s past may be hard for urban progressives, but those of us who call rural America home will stand with you, if you will only stand with us."

BANG BANG BANG!

It was created on MS Paint, but it’s still my favorite internet video of all time. "Look at animal, take walk!"

Sunday, June 8, 2008 | by nathan

“a pain in the ass, sometimes ill-behaved, and a woman who changed history”

I didn’t vote for Hillary Clinton. Nothing against her, really; I honestly think she’d have been a brilliant president, certainly a better one than her husband was, and, interns and DOMA and welfare reform aside, I think he was a pretty damn good president. I didn’t vote for her because I think the 90’s were a kind of a political poisonous time in America; I think they led, in large part, to the morass we face today. I didn’t vote for her because as much as people like to poo-poo it, I think the kind of inspiration and alchemy that Barack Obama offers represent something tangible, important, and much-needed in America.

I will say that over the course of the last 6 months I’ve lost quite a bit of the respect I once had for Bill Clinton. I didn’t vote for Hillary, but this piece by Rebecca Traister for Salon almost makes me wish I had, if for nothing else than to piss off all the people I know who hate her for no good reason:

Clinton was such a hard-ass that she turned her butchest male critics into the hysterical harpies they accused her of being. What fun, during that final debate, to hear Obama grouse (justifiably) about the ludicrous questions he was facing, while next to him, the broad who had, in an earlier debate, been asked about the fact that nobody liked her cheerily removed the shiv from her thigh and used it as a toothpick. Sure, many people moved quickly from the thrill of having two historic candidates to the hair-pulling headache about how much damage their contest was doing to the party, but get over it! When was the last time we had so much fun in an election year?

Anyway, if you didn’t watch it, you can see Hillary’s wonderful concession speech below:

Anyway, on to November. And if you’re thinking of voting McCain, I just have to say, um, don’t.

Saturday, June 7, 2008 | by nathan

Somebody Make A Salad!

…and the harvest begins.

Friday, June 6, 2008 | by nathan

Go On Back To First Grade And Get Yourself A Blue’s Clue

Friday, June 6, 2008 | by nathan

Sam Fridays: Experimental Sam

Last week I addressed a comment by reader TKG, who suggested that Sam was whining at night because he wanted to sleep in the bedroom with us. At the time I dismissed this suggestion out of hand, saying, oh, no, he stinks, he smells bad, he’d keep us up, it’s never gonna happen.

Well. Almost the minute I posted that I began to wonder to myself what the hell I was thinking. Sam does smell bad when he’s got his long winter coat, but since we gave him his summer haircut the only thing that stinks about him is his breath. OH AND IT DOES. And anyway, I wondered, how could a smell keep us up any worse than the whining?

Anyway, I thought that we at least owed it to Sam and to ourselves to give it a try. I washed a blanket that he’d been sleeping on and we folded it up at the foot of our bed, left the door open at night, and sure enough, at bedtime he followed us up. He won’t go in the bedroom unless we’re in there; he doesn’t like to climb those stairs. But it’s become one of his favorite habits to lay at the foot of our bed every night while we lay there before sleep, me reading, usually, and Brian playing his Nintendo DS.

He’s up and down all night, and I’m vaguely aware of it as I’m a light sleeper in the summertime. What’s funny is that he’ll usually come upstairs with us and lay down, but when we get up in the morning he’s back down in the office like usual. But there was no whining, there were no late-night pleas for attention or requests to go out. In general, it’s been an entirely positive experience. So, I can freely admit here that I was wrong. LOOK AT ME LEARNING AND GROWING.

I did notice a few disturbing behaviors that first night. Our upstairs bathroom has no door, and once in the middle of the night I woke up to the sound of Sam drinking out of the toilet. My bad for not putting the lid down. AHA! I thought. That’s why he puked on the floor that one time I let him roam the house while I was at work!

So - I tried another experiment. Leaving for work the next morning, I made sure all toilet lids were down, all appealing dirty dishes and edible trash were out of reach, and the doors to the bedroom and bathrooms were closed, but I didn’t shut Sam up in the office. And he’s done great!

So - thanks to TKG and my own begrudging willingness to admit when I’m being a moron, Sam’s now got a lot more freedom and his separation anxiety seems to have largely vanished. Now, he’ll even go in the bedroom when we’re not there. No, here’s proof!

Oh, also, last week I bought him a new bandana. Whaddaya think?

Friday, June 6, 2008 | by nathan

My First Ripe Tomatoes

Here they are - the first ripe tomatoes of the season. There are about 6-8 of them total. Last night I pulled the ripest one off the vine and Brian and I split it. (I know, right? I WAS SO FULL.) I wish there was some way to make webpages scented, because if there was, this website would smell like tomatoes ripening on the vine.

Thursday, June 5, 2008 | by nathan

Just As I Am

I have a question, and it’s one to which I’m not sure I want an answer, because frankly, the answer frightens me:

"What did people who work in cubicles/offices do before the Internet?"

Because here’s the deal: my boss just now was trying to video chat with me. Despite the fact that we are literally sitting 10 feet apart, him in an office, me in the hallway in a cubicle. What was funnier was that it wasn’t working. Finally we figured out the kinks and iChat started spinning. So, in the interest of … well, okay, I’m not sure. But anyway, here’s the sight that greeted him when my video chat came up:

Don’t ask me why there’s a painting of Woodrow Wilson behind my desk, BECAUSE I JUST DON’T KNOW. Clearly, though, he does not approve.

Just after this photo was saved on my desktop I was made aware of the Sweetney.com Come As You Are Challenge. If you’re not reading Sweetney, you should be, and what better way to introduce yourself to one of the internet’s better bloggers than by taking a photo of yourself with office supplies jammed into your head? WHAT BETTER WAY.

Anyway, I resubmit my original question. What did people in offices/cubicles do before the internet? Work?

Thursday, June 5, 2008 | by nathan

Anvil

For Erica’s birthday we went to a restaurant outside Newcastle called Halftimes. It was late evening, and the place had a huge bank of windows in front; when the sun dipped below the horizon the staff opened the windows up wide and we saw this thunderstorm building up on the horizon. It’s already reached the "anvil" stage, which means that it’s at its strongest but that it’s probably not going to be around *too* much longer. I got some more photos that were zoomed in further - here I’m out as far as I can go - but for some reason I thought this a better photo; it captures how these storms are such isolated events, and how big the sky is here. Seriously, sometimes in Oklahoma, in the country, I feel like I’m about to just take off flying.

Thursday, June 5, 2008 | by nathan

Fist Bump, Baby, Fist Bump!

I’ll be the first to admit this is a perfect example of the kind of ABSOLUTELY RIDICULOUS "political reporting" that makes this country’s media the laughingstock of the entire universe, but - BUT! - I was watching the Obama acceptance speech and when I saw the "fist bump" I thought it was the cutest "couple moment" between a candidate and his or her spouse that I’d ever seen. Way better than Al Gore grabbing Tipper and making out with her. I mean, really. Just adorable:

Wednesday, June 4, 2008 | by nathan

The First Hydrangea Of The Year