"Security is mostly a superstition. It does not exist in nature, nor do the children of men as a whole experience it. Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. Life is either a daring adventure, or nothing. " -Helen Keller
BlogHer Bound scroll to the bottom to listen to the original
I'm sitting at my computer station.
Gotta get a ticket to my destination.
Checking out my facebook fans my laptop and iPhone in hand.
Finally, finally the trip is planned for this wordsmith, ain't life grand.
BlogHer bound,
I wish I was,
BlogHer bound,
BlogHer where my thought's escaping,
BlogHer where all the tweets are singing,
BlogHer where my friends are waiting
Impatiently for me.
Ev'ry day's an endless stream
Of tweets and pins and online zines.
And no blogs look the same to me, ingenuity despite the memes
And ev'ry friend I've never met reminds me that I long to be,
BlogHer bound,
I wish I was,
BlogHer bound,
BlogHer where my thought's escaping,
BlogHer where all the tweets are singing,
BlogHer where my friends are waiting
Impatiently for me.
Tonight I'll write a post again,
I'll play the game and pretend.
But all my words come back to me in shades of mediocrity
For writer's block attacks me, I need someone to inspire me.
BlogHer bound,
I wish I was,
BlogHer bound,
BlogHer where my thought's escaping,
BlogHer where all the tweets are singing,
BlogHer where my friends are waiting
Impatiently for me.
Impatiently for me.
Y'all, the effort to teach our kids that drugs don't pay has been dealt a serious blow and the blow was frakking hilarious! When we were down at my parents' house, we all went to see Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted together. I honestly can't tell you who liked the movie more...the kids or the adults. I think this might have been the best of all the Madagascar movies. We all laughed so much and, during more than one scene, I was convinced that they has to have been on hallucinogenics to even come up with something like that. As the credits rolled, Marty looked at me and said "They forgot to put one person in the credits...they forgot to include their drug supplier."
As the credits were rolling, Gabe decided he desperately had to go to the bathroom so my dad headed out with him while the rest of us gathered up our stuff. As we walked out of the theater, I heard shrieks of laughter coming from the bathroom...shrieks of laughter that I KNEW were coming from Gabe. I was almost afraid to find out what was going on. Turns out that the shrieks of laughter were my dad's fault this time. He cracked Gabe up when he started doing this "you have to move it, move it" dance while they were drying their hands. I think he must have had a contact high from watching the movie.
I can't even begin to explain how much fun we all had. It really was a trip. And, while the teaser trailer and the second trailer gave you an idea what the movie is like, the true insanity of Madagascar 3 is captures in this Afro Circus Remix...you have to watch it...
Going with my theme from yesterday, I have to share this video. I'm sure most of you have seen it by now but it makes me smile...it makes me laugh...it makes me cry...it makes me happy. Take a few minutes and enjoy the world's most incredible proposal. This guy has set a standard no one else will be able to match.
Family values, family tradition, and espousing faith over fear, these are all things you would think a religious school would be proud to support. These are all things Dominic Sheahan-Stahl believes in. Dominic is engaged to be married and he is respected in his community.
Dominic and his brother are the third generation of their family to attend Sacred Heart Academy, a Catholic school, and Dominic was invited to speak at the graduation this year. Dominic was looking forward to speaking to the students about placing faith over fear, pursuing their dreams, and the bright future ahead of them. He was especially thrilled to get this opportunity because his brother is graduating this year. Sadly, Dominic's invitation to speak has been rescinded.
See, around the same time Dominic was sharing the exciting news about speaking at his brother's graduation, he was sharing some other thrilling news with his Facebook friends, the news of his engagement. Dominic recently got engaged to his partner, Nathan, and was understandably proud and excited about their engagement. The officials at Sacred Heart were less thrilled with that news. In fact, they were so less than thrilled that they couldn't even be bothered to give Mr. Sheahan-Stahl the news in person. They called his mother and told her that her son was no longer welcome to speak at graduation. He was no longer welcome to speak simply because he was too openly gay for them.
I completely understand that the Catholic church is a private entity and they have every legal right to have who they want speak at one of their schools' graduation ceremonies. I understand that many churches believe that homosexuality is against the word of God and is therefore a sin. I also know that the new testament of the Bible clearly says that you should not judge other people unless you want to risk judgment yourself. When Sacred Heart Academy rescinded Dominic Sheahan-Stahl's invitation to speak because he was too publicly gay, they were passing judgment. When they didn't even give him the courtesy of telling him of their decision personally, they were taking the coward's way out.
While it is certainly the church's right to disapprove of homosexuality, if you believe in God and believe that the Bible is the word of God, it is not our place as Christians to judge someone because their sexual preferences. Rescinding Dominic Sheahan-Stahl's invitation was certainly a judgment of the most public kind and I believe it was wrong. The unfairness of this judgment is compounded by the fact that Dominic Sheahan-Stahl has been living as an openly gay man for years and had no reason to believe SHA didn't know about that when they tendered the initial invitation. It would be understandable is Dominic was hurt by this situation. It would be understandable if Dominic angry about the situation. It would even be understandable if Dominic lashed out. Instead, Dominic is expressing his hurt and disappointment with eloquence and grace. He is using his voice to spread the word and promote discussion. He is exhibiting the very traits that Sacred Heart Academy should be proud to see in their graduates.
Dominic, I would be proud if my sons grew up to be men like you. I'm sorry you are facing this discrimination and pray the officials at SHA can move past.this and rise above the dictates from the bishop.
If you support Dominic, here are a few ways you can add your voice to the discussion...
Share this post on Facebook, Twitter, and anywhere else you can think of.
You can also write your own post about Dominic's situation and, like the fabulous JW Moxie who brought this to my attention said, please let me know about it and I’ll help spread your words, too.
When I was a student at Duke, one of my favorite things to do was listen to The Pitchforks perform. The Pitchforks are an all male a capella group and they were (and still are) fabulous. One of my favorite songs they did was Sam Cooke's "Another Saturday Night". Sadly, I lost all my Pitchforks tapes I got in college but, thanks to the wonders of youTube, I've found a video of Sam Cooke singing that song and a a few videos of the newest incarnations of The Pitchforks...
Sam Cooke's "Another Saturday Night"
The Pitchforks performing "Some Kind of Wonderful"
The Pitchforks performing "Save the Last Dance for Me" Have you ever listened to a capella music? If so, what is your favorite song or group?
Welcome back to a very special edition of What The Fuck Wednesday brought to you by the atozchallenge and the letter O. What The Fuck Wednesday is the prime location to read about products, items, and events that make your head snap around and your mouth utter the phrase "What the fuck is that?"
I saw a commercial on TV tonight. Odd is about the mildest thing I could call the commercial. Fucked up, twisted, weird...those words all apply too. Sadly, it's not some risque product in this commercial. No, the commercial is about pop tarts. Seriously y'all...my husband and I did a double take after seeing this commercial and asked each other if we really saw that or was it some unknown force working on our brains to make us hallucinate the commercial. Take a quick look and tell me if you can figure out what demographic could possibly be targeted in this commercial. The only answer I came up with were consumers high on hallucinogens.
So, two questions...1) what demographic did this commercial target? 2) have you seen anything, heard anything, or read anything that made you say What the Fuck lately?
For those of you who aren't sure about this tribute, check out the second paragraph of this post. For the rest of you, sit back and enjoy this tribute to our very own Stirrup Queen, Mel, and her mad baking skillz. Just a warning befor eyou click play, this is from South Park.
Since I tormented y'all with Voldemort themed erotica, I thought I'd share some truly funny Harry Potter things I found. Y'all remember Harry Plopper from The Simpsons Movie, right?
Well, I found a poster someone created using Harry Plopper's image...
And, while that gave me a good giggle, the video I found had me laughing so hard I was crying. I can either blame it on the fact that I was watching it at 2 am or I could simply admit I have the sense of humor of a 12 yr old boy. Give it a watch and tell me which reason you think wins out.
Do y'all have anything funny you've run across recently? I'd love a link.
*BTW, the video below is relatively safe for public consumption. It doesn't go too far off the acceptable track.
Welcome back to What The Fuck Wednesday the prime location to read about products, items, and events that make your head snap around and your mouth utter the phrase "What the fuck is that?"
Once something hits the big time, people start putting their own spin on it. It doesn't matter if it's a tv show, a movie, or a book, if it's big enough and popular enough, people spoof it, create tributes to it, or write FanFic about it. Honestly, I can understand loving something so much that you want it to "live" on past the original incarnation. What I'm not sure I can wrap my mind around is when someone takes a thoroughly unlovable character and writes FanFic that places them in an, ummmm, errrr, very "loving" situation. This next youTube video/TV show clip does just that. It's erotic FanFic about the most unlovable character I can think of, Voldemort, and, to add to the whole surreal nature, Ralph Fiennes, Lord Voldemort himself, is reading the FanFic. If that doesn't scream What The Fuck, I don't know what does.
If you've found a what the fuck Wednesday worthy moment, throw up a post and tell us about it. If you don't want to post, share your What The Fuck moment here.
Hey y'all, I am beat but for a good reason this time. We had Joey's birthday party today and it went off without a hitch but I'm exhausted. Since I am once again without the mental power to write, I'll leave you with a song.
Welcome back to What The Fuck Wednesday, the prime location to read about products, items, and events that make your head snap around and your mouth utter the phrase "What the fuck is that?"
Last Friday night, I was on my way to the high school to pick Marty up from the football game and I was listening to the radio. I heard about something I just KNEW I had to check out and, OH MY GAWD, I couldn't stop laughing except when I stopped to say What The Fuck? May I present this weeks What The Fuck Wednesday item...
William Shatner *Singing Bohemian Rhapsody
I was laughing so hard that tears were running down my face. I think this is a brilliant piece of fucknuttery...pure GOLD humor! My What The Fuck reaction was made even worse when I stumbled across this Billboard piece that announced that "William Shatner boldly goes where he never has before ... to ... No. ... 1 ... on ... a ... Billboard ... albums ... chart!" And, then inspiration struck. We're going to help Mr. Shatner pick the songs for his next album. I think we should start a twitter campaign. We are going to campaign for Shatner to cover the songs we pick. Our hashtag will be #songsShatnershouldsing I've decided it would be pure comedic gold to have Shatner cover Sir Mix-A-Lot's Baby Got Back. So, join me in the campaign and tweet about this.
If you've found a what the fuck Wednesday worthy moment, throw up a post and put the link in the comments. I'll add the links to the post through Sunday evening. If you don't want to post, share your What The Fuck moment here.
After the emotion and remembrance of National Pregnancy and Infant Loss Awareness Day, I feel the need for something a little lighter and more uplifting today. Rys showed me this fabulous video yesterday. The video features the residents of the Clark Retirement Community in Grand Rapids Michigan lib dubbing Michael Buble’s cover of the 1965 hit song “Feelin’ Good.” After you watch the video (and please, please watch it), you can read the story about hos the video came to be at mlive.com.
Have you run across any uplifting or just plain FUN videos lately?
We all know how quickly things can blow up into a flame war or a tweet war but there was a tweet war this week that was note worthy. Fox News representative (from the show Red Eye) Andrew Levy took a shot at Chris Brown of R&B/Rihanna fame. Evidently, Andrew Levy has taken shots at Chris Brown before but this one set Chris Brown off and Brown and his stellar crew of supporters fired back.
This time around, Chris Brown tweeted "No more planking for me unless it's on a sexy lady! LOL" (sorry couldn't find a screen shot) and Andrew Levy responded by retweeting and adding a "correction"...
Andrew Levy has previously mentioned he's taken these tweetshots at Chris Brown because he feels people act like they've forgotten what he did. Do you see the humor in this whole situation? Or do you think Andrew Levy took it too far? Please chime in with your opinion and let's keep it civil folks.
*I am NOT a Fox News fan. There have been too many incidents with them claiming no bias and then showing bias as bad if not worse than the other news stations. I have NO respect for that.
******************************
Remember that I've opened the floor for any and all questions. Ask away.
Andy Warhol said we all get 15 minutes of fame. I guess that means I have 14 minutes 50 seconds left. Here's the piece from the Australian News that I got interviewed for...
My traveling companion and dear friend Kristi appears at :39 secs and I show up at about 3:19. I said all kinds of nice stuff about Eden and this is the part they used.
I woke up at about 7 am on Thursday. Excitement rushed through me and it felt like I just couldn't sit still. Not only was I going to BlogHer again but I was traveling with two of my YaYas, my best friends, my sisters by choice. I had managed to convince Jennifer and Kristi that BlogHer in San Diego sounded like a wonderful way to spend their vacation. Our trip from NC to San Diego was completely trouble free.
Planes loaded and took off on time. Turbulence was minimal.
Jennifer and Kristi - 2 of my YaYas
And, our flight attendant gave us free cookies. also, despite my camera issues (briefly mentioned in my Back to Reality post), I got some phenomenal photographs out the plane window on the way to San Diego...
We were picked up from the airport by my twitter hook-up. Yes,twitter hook-up. I went trolling for a 4th for our room at BlogHer and found the incomparable Shauna who writes Cooking in the Burbs and can be found on twitter as @cookingnburbs. I couldn't have found a better 4th for our room if I had picked from people I've known forever. Shauna fit in with us perfectly. We got the the Marriott and discovered we had this view from our room...
And, San Diego, oh my God is it ever gorgeous. The weather is fabulous. The sites are amazing. I even got to see a gorgeous hibiscus and I haven't seen a really pretty one since I moved away from Hawaii.
I could live there if I hadn't sworn that I would never, ever move again.
Before we started the full BlogHer experience, our whole group went out to dinner with a friend of mine from college, Dr. Dr. Mike Wilson.
sorry about the sucky picture, my cell phone camera obviously likes taking pictres from planes better than indoor shots
I met Mike during freshmen year at Duke and it's completely his fault I joined the Rescue Squad and became a paramedic. Mike is a truly fabulous friend and it was nice to know that the three of us (me, Kristi, and Jennifer) could still make him blush in about 10 seconds flat.
Jennifer, Dr. Dr. Mike, Kristi, and Me
We laughed, traded stories, caught up with each other, and, I think we were entertaining enough that we didn't bore Shauna to tears. Honestly, with company that fabulous, I would have been happy eating anywhere which made our dinner at The Fish Market a true bonus.
yum, yum The Fish Market's famous Dungeness Crab Cioppino
After dinner, we drove over to Coronado and were lucky enough to watch the fireworks over Sea World from the beach on Coronado. Sadly, it was soon time for us to head back to the hotel so Mike could grab his car and head out...he said something about being on call (ER duty) that night.
When we got back to the Marriott, we ended up parking under the North Tower (a truly serendipitous occurrence since the parties were right upstairs). As we headed for the elevator, we stumbled onto one of the hidden treasures of the Marriott...an unlocked storeroom with a giant wooden clown in it. By that point at night, we were all a little punchy. Weeeellllll, at least us three east coasters were punchy, I'm not sure what Shauna's excuse was. We decided we simply HAD to pose with the clown and trooped on into the storeroom.
While we were laughing and giggling and taking pictures, we got busted by a Marriott employee. Luckily for us, she was in a good mood and just rolled her eyes and laughed at us. It wouldn't have been good for Dr. Dr. Mike's reputation to get in trouble right before he had to be on call for the local ER. Once the clown induced photo session ended, Mike headed back to his car and we headed upstairs to the parties. My only regret about the first part of our evening is that Mike's lovely wife had a previous commitment and couldn't join us for dinner.
Our first day away was capped off by the incomparable People's Party and the truly fabulous Queerosphere. We only had a very short time at the People's Party but we did get to see the Bloggess and I got her picture with my crocheted traveling companion (more about that tomorrow). Once the brief photo shoot with the Bloggess was over, we headed over to the fabulousness that is Queerosphere. Deb Rox did a truly amazing job again this year. The drag queens were over the top fabulous, the entertainment was awesome, the emcee was rocking her heels, and my crocheted one eye wonder had his picture taken about a million times.
The Fabulous Regina Styles emceeing at Queerosphere
Queerosphere has a permanent place on my BlogHer agenda.
Come back tomorrow to read about BlogHer with Beanis: Day 1.
There are times you can see the train wreck coming and, you just can't help yourself, you have to give in...you have to laugh your ass off or give in and say something...even if you are going to pay later. Sadly, that internal censor between my brain and my mouth loses it's fight for self preservation far too often. My long time readers have heard about my epic fail of my internal censor that led to the naming of Damn Duck. Go ahead, go read the story and get a good laugh at my expanse. I'll wait for you to get back.
Ok, are y'all back? Good. Now, on to another story about the failure of my internal censor or maybe I prefer to think of it as the victory of my sense of humor over stick in the mud adulthood. Let's hop on the wayback machine and take a trip to the spring of '03.
It was early morning (but not too early) in the spring of '03. I had Marty, his friend Will, Will's sister, and little (at the time) Joey in the van. We had just picked up Will and his sitter and were headed to school. All I could hear from the back seat was whispering, giggling, and something that sounded vaguely like Yankee Doodle. In an effort to be a good mommy, I asked the kids what they were talking about and they said "We're not talking. We're singing." Well, of course I had to ask what they were singing...I should have known better. This is what they were singing...
Yankee Doodle went to town
a-riding on a *Sam
stuck a father up his butt
and called it macaroni.
I knew I shouldn't.
I knew it was wrong.
I knew I would pay for it seriously...but, I did it anyway.
I laughed my ass off.
The payback was that I got to listen to their version of Yankee Doodle for months and months on end.
That wasn't the first time my internal censor failed and it certainly wasn't the last. I'm also sure there will be many more censor FAILS on my part.
Have you ever said or did something you knew you shouldn't but just couldn't help yourself? ****************************
In the spirit of things we shouldn't laugh at but do, here's the video of my mom teaching Gabe her version of Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star (you can read the whole story here)...
You Gotta Serve Somebody or Serve Yourself? Beatles or Dylan? Dylan or Beatles?
I'm a big Beatles fan. I love all their music and I even followed their solo careers (especially Lennon's). I admit, I'm not the sort of fan who can tell you which song is what track on which album but lemme say there were some memorable nights in college that had their very own Beatles soundtrack. Dylan was never a big favorite. I have to admit his voice grates on me. But, I've found one instance that Dylan truly outdoes Lennon. Heresy you say?!?! Hold on, I'll prove to you I'm not crazy.
Shortly after Dylan became a Christian...hold on, don't run away if you aren't Christian. I promise that's not where I'm going with this. Shortly after Dylan became a Christian in 1979, he wrote a Grammy winning song called You Gotta Serve Somebody. It has 7 verses followed by the chorus and the basic gist of it was...
You may be a state trooper, you might be a young Turk
You may be the head of some big TV network
You may be rich or poor, you may be blind or lame
You may be living in another country under another name
But you’re gonna have to serve somebody, yes indeed
Lennon's rather dismissive response was to turn around and write the song Serve Yourself which went like this...
You say you found Jesus. Christ!
He's the only one
You say you've found Buddha
Sittin' in the sun
You say you found Mohammed
Facin' to the East
You say you found Krishna
Dancin' in the street
Well there's somethin' missing in this God Almighty stew
And it's your mother (your mother, don't forget your mother, la)
You got to serve yourself
nobody gonna do for you
You gotta serve yourself
nobody gonna do for you
Well you may believe in devils and you may believe in laws
But if you don't go out and serve yourself, la, ain't no room service here
Now, I'll admit that Dylan's lyrics were a lot more simplistic than Lennon's lyric. I'll also admit that I prefer Lennon's voice over Dylan's. But, I have a serious problem with the sentiment behind Lennon's song, Serve Yourself. And, honestly, it's not that he seems to dismiss the importance of belief in a higher power. Everyone is entitled to believe what they want. What bother's me is the lyrics of Serve Yourself seem to say put yourself before all others. This world is hard enough to live in without supporting each other and being there for each other. By serving others, by taking care of others, we take care of ourselves. So, in this case, while I'll listen to Lennon, I live by Dylan's words.
Tell me about a song that speaks to you...whether it's through lyrics or music.
Thanks to last week's last minute tweet plea, I have this weeks Saturday Spin ready for you bright and early. This Saturday's pick is brought to you by the wondermous Wishy of Wishing4One. She picked Book 3 (spanish artists), Disc 75 (Segundo Romance by Luis Miguel), Track 11 (Somos Novios)...
