Sarah Palin in 30 Seconds

She has nothing of substance to say and does a pretty poor job saying it. Ladies and gentlemen, a potential President of the United States:

Sarah Palin: an unqualified, inarticulate, superstitious, hypocritical marionette of the right wing.

DIY Knee Rehab

This post has been moved to the Move Aware blog.

a brief word from our sponsors

I watched episode 407 of The Office on NBC’s web site tonight, which couldn’t have been interrupted more than 5, 6, maybe 7 times by commercials. As they hoped and expected from a young male representative of the 18-35 demographic, I was left feeling entertained and oddly compelled to buy a new Mazda coupe and/or kill Middle Easterners for the US Navy to support our petrochemical-based foreign policy… neither of which, I reckon, would benefit the world’s second largest corporation and owner of NBC, General Electric, a prominent defense contractor for the US military. I used to think these guys just made toasters.

When you’ve had a few years of relief from constant exposure to commercials, watching a program laced with them feels like getting smacked over the head. They’re relentless.

Let’s all shed a tear…

…for poor Paris Hilton.

Fresh fish!

The 21st Century Tithe

“Information wants to be free.” That phrase has popped into my head every time I’ve seen someone selling a set of teachings. There’s the fundamental necessity of needing to make ends meet, and I understand that that would play into an author’s motivation to charge for their work. The struggle for me is that non-free information always arouses a bit of suspicion and skepticism in me, especially when it comes to anything spiritual.

If you have a set of spiritual teachings that you truly believe is of benefit to anyone who would hear it, why would you put up any barrier at all to its dissemination? Wouldn’t you be more inclined to go out of your way to get that information into as many hands as possible? Why should only those with $20 for a book, $100 for a workshop, or $400 for a weekend seminar be privy to the enlightenment it would provide?

Access to the Internet isn’t free and universal yet, but it’s trending that way. Things that strike a chord with people spread exponentially to reach millions with incredible speed, and I think it’s de-legitimizing traditional publishing methods. Yet these books are still flying off the shelves. Does the adage “you get what you pay for” apply to everything, including spiritual insight?

I think it’s hypocritical to breathlessly advocate love and giving to others while guarding such wisdom with a price of admission. How many people neglect the best interests of their families or themselves by giving what they can’t afford to spiritual teachers? Are they any less deserving of the hope that these people are selling than those that have disposable income?

Some spiritual teachers have made very lucrative careers for themselves. Sylvia Browne and Deepak Chopra come to mind. I’d like to know by what process they have come to reconcile their message with their lifestyle. Does their message endure by its own power, or does it need a price tag, a mention on Oprah, and a spot on the New York Times best seller list?

a tale of e-mail and E coli.

The restroom at work was completely silent just now except for the unmistakable sound of the guy in the stall next to me furiously thumb-clicking away on his Blackberry’s mini keyboard. I wish I knew who it was, if only to remember never to borrow his phone to make a call.

Salon.com review of The Secret

Salon.com is running a review of The Secret, a book that I haven’t read and now never intend to. This review strikes a chord with me when it addresses what I think is a fault in a lot of modern New Age spirituality:

“Secret”-style belief is a perfect product. Like Coca-Cola, it goes down easy and makes the consumer thirsty for more. It’s unthreateningly simple, and a lot more facile, sentimental and, perhaps paradoxically, intractable than the old-fashioned kind of belief. Like Amway, it enlists its consumers as unofficial salespeople, and the people who constitute its market feel like they’re part of a fold. It’s indistinguishable from, and inextricably bound up in, the Oprah idea of self-esteem, the kind of confidence you get not from testing yourself, but from “believing” in yourself. This modern idea of faith isn’t arrived at the old-fashioned way, by asking questions, but by getting answers. Instead of inquiry we have born-again epiphanies and cheesy self-help books — we have excuses for not engaging in inquiry at all. Let other people schlep down the road to Damascus; we’ll have Amazon send Damascus to us.

I think there’s more value in following spiritual guidance from those who have experienced spiritual abundance in their lives (the stuff that really matters) without becoming materially wealthy in the process.

Can’t we have teachers who give away their knowledge for free, or for the cost of subsistence of a relatively simple life?

Aren’t the best teachers the ones that can maintain a connection with their students through common lifestyles and shared hardships, rather than those that preach from the ivory tower of the New York Times best seller list?

D-E-F-I-N-I-T-E-L-Y

This is perfect for a grammar and spelling Nazi like me. It’s spelled “definitely.”

While I’m on the subject, I might as well complain about the astonishing prevalence of the substitution of “your” in place of “you’re” for a contraction of “you are.” Damn it, damn it, damn it! IM is ruining the English language. LOL.

a ridiculous amount of snow

Tried to jump it after filling up at Marge’s Amoco. Not enough juice in the jump pack. Got a ride back there after recharging the jump pack during tonight’s performance and cast party. Success!

Stalled at Henry and Gilman. So close to home, I could taste it. Not enough juice. (!) Got a jump from a helpful stranger. Made it up the steep incline of the driveway ingress. Couldn’t make it all the way back to the lot behind the house. Rocked back, forth, back, forth…and now it’s overheated.

This is the feeling of resignation and defeat. It sucks that the driveway can’t be plowed until (unless?) my car is moved, but for tonight, that’s where it’s going to have to stay. Right in the way. For tonight I am that guy. Can’t wait to get up in 2 hours to spend all day drumming in Racine in this mess.

happy February 15th

I made it all the way through yesterday without wishing someone a happy Valentine’s Day or otherwise acknowledging it. It’s not that I don’t care about anyone; I do. I just think the holiday is distasteful and that expressions of affection given on that day are diluted somewhat.

When the last VD (an unfortunate acronym, yes?) rolled around, I was on the Katrina relief trip. When I announced to my ex, whom I was still “seeing” at the time — or something…I’m not sure what we were at that stage — that I would be in Mississippi rebuilding homes for that week, she got mad. Apparently that wasn’t an acceptable reason for missing her Valentine’s Day.

I called her from Pass Christian on Feb. 14th to wish her a happy V-Day and to tell her that I loved her, but she didn’t answer her phone because she was on a date with someone else. Aww, isn’t that sweet?

I think the idea behind Valentine’s Day is great. I also think it can be genuinely expressed without being such a financial windfall for sellers of flowers, chocolates, and greeting cards — 1 billion cards every year. Some people even like to give and receive plush things that make noise (common at Walgreens).

Ahh, sweet catharsis.