Harriet Miers Withdraws Nomination

Headlines
Huge news – Harriet Miers has withdrawn her Supreme Court nomination. Back to the drawing board for President Bush. The history major in me guessed that she was the only person to ever do this, but it turns out that seven of the 150 nominations in the court’s history have been withdrawn.

Daylight Saving Time
Someone once said "they" need to quit changing the time back and forth and just leave it the way God made it. But I’m not complaining because when we set our clocks back this weekend, we’re going to get an extra hour of sleep! I’ll take every second I can get.

Actually I shouldn’t have reminded you. It would be funny if you get to church an hour early Sunday a.m. and have to do the whole “call my Pastor’s wife to see if she answers so I know I didn’t miss the rapture” thing.

Anyway, this site shares more than you ever wanted to know about the time change. For example, did you know it is Daylight Saving Time (no s on Saving)?

Places I Surfed Today
Twenty people were fined for using letters not in the Turkish alphabet (W and Q) at a Kurdish celebration.

A woman found a bullet in her pork loin casserole. Anybody read Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle? I did. And became a vegetarian. For about four hours.

Pet Owners Can Have Their Rats Groomed

Serial Killer or Programmer Quiz

Best Western Auctions off Hotel Stays for Katrina Benefit

Poetry Contest

Duct Tape Use #374
Over the weekend our college & career class volunteered some time on a local Habitat for Humanity house. For safety reasons, everyone had to wear front and back name tags. Guess what they made our name tags out of?

Hilary in 2008, Egocasting, and God Billboards

White Sox win the 2005 World Series. Complete coverage at The Benchwarmer(s).

Gas Help
Gas prices drop about a quarter! Never thought I’d get to this point, but I’m looking forward to paying $2.50 a gallon.

Want to know which stations have the cheapest gas in your neighborhood? This site collects data from over 90,000 stations and is updated daily. Just plug in your zip code and it lists the gas prices around you.

Word of the Day
Spigot – This is just a fun word to say. Find a way to throw it around in general conversation. It’ll be fun.

Technology
A technoculture critic was recently interviewed regarding her study of egocasting. Check out the interview for a much different look at how technologies affect us socially. Here is an excerpt:

TiVo, iPod, and other personalized technologies are marvelously good at providing us with a sophisticated array of entertainments, and there is nothing wrong with being entertained. But we are spending an increasing amount of time entertaining ourselves in this way, and there are only so many hours in the day. In terms of how we choose to use our free time, some technological entertainment is fine; but if that is all we are doing, there are opportunity costs that will be felt in other areas of our lives—particularly our relationships with our families, friends, and communities.

Other
Remember the God billboards? Well, Starbucks tried something similar. As part of the 2005 "The Way I See It" marketing campaign, Starbucks put Rick Warren quotes on coffee cups among quotes from 63 people from diverse walks of life. On that note, check out this article that analyzes why Warren has been successful versus the secular take on it.

Politics
I don’t know what a FOX News poll would show, but CNN’s poll shows that President Bush couldn’t win if it was an election year. Not that it would matter since he’s already in his second term. And again I ask: who can stand up to Hilary in 2008?

Rosa Parks

Headlines
Wilma hit Florida hard with major power outages and at least six fatalities. Meanwhile Cancun’s damage after the hurricane is compounded by looting.

The draft of Iraq’s constitution passed as the 2,000th American casualty is reported from the East.

An aide in Cheney’s office is now implicated in the CIA probe, suggesting that even Vice President Cheney was a figure in the leak. No significant response yet from the White House.

Rosa Parks
Rosa Parks died at age 92. She has been called the mother of the Civil Rights movement for her demonstration on a Montgomery bus fifty years ago.

On the eve of Parks’ passing, I had to reflect on the differences between her generation and mine. I find her generation submerged in turmoil, and yet defined by it. Mine is an apathetic generation. Are our times so much better and our society so far advanced that civil action is unnecessary? Or is the fiber of the American character so changed that civilians won’t shake off apathy to take action for a cause?

NinetyandNine News
Lately there’s been a lot of back and forth about Ninetyandnine’s survey question on notable Apostolics finding success away from the platform. Frankly I’ve been completely surprised (and not necessarily in a good way) at the people who’ve taken offense. It comes across as though only people in platform ministry can be successful, and everyone else should disavow any type of achievements and shun anything that might be considered “successful”–gasp! Okay… I’m exaggerating, but that line of thinking did crop up in some letters.

I mention all of this because I want to point out another opinion on the topic from this month’s blogger. Please check out this post before formulating an opinion on the issue. Can we all drop our insecurities for a moment and take another look at the spirit of the question?

Sushi for Newcomers

So Cuz, Roomy#1, and I went out for sushi last night. This was my second sushi experience, but it might as well have been my first try because the official first try was with my boss at the time, and I only did the polite “pick at your food and nod approvingly at appropriate times” thing. (Sorry but today is a run-on sentence day.) Sushi is something that should first be experienced with close friends for the following reasons.

Reason #1 – Share the culture shock factor. I like to think of myself as somewhat literate, educated, and appreciative of high art and culture. However, that whole Dixie thing kicks in at times and I realize that I don’t always have the sensibilities to appreciate things outside of my comfort zone. Fast forward through all the redneck jokes about “we call sushi bait” and jump to the fact that I somehow thought they were joking about that whole raw fish bit. Y’all, it turns out they’re serious.

Reason #2 – I would have been embarrassed if anyone besides the roomies had seen me with the chopsticks. Roomy#1 offered to get me the kids’ chopsticks, at which point I became mortally offended for all of about ten seconds and refused them. This was unfortunate because had I overcome the pride factor and used them, I would have actually been able to eat my food rather than chase it all over the plate the entire meal.

Reason #3 – Help pronouncing Japanese words. Since I am queen of the “if I say it louder, they’ll understand better,” I opted for Roomy#1 to order rather than me scream broken syllables at our defenseless server. I do, however, require the help of a higher power. I asked our server what the restaurant name (Ichi Ban) meant in Japanese. His translation was “number one.” However, I’m suspicious that he just made this up to see if I’d boast to my friends later and then look like a complete idiot if he pranked me on the translation. So do we have any Japanese scholars among the ranks? Anyone know the exact translation of Ichi Ban?

Well the moral of the story is that trying new things is fun, especially when you’re with close friends who know you well enough to laugh at you about it for months to come. So your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to find a good sushi restaurant in your neighborhood and treat some special friends. You’ll enjoy it, especially if someone in the group is too proud to use the kiddie chopsticks.

Take Back Your Time Day

October 24 is the national Take Back Your Time Day, otherwise known to me as “Project My Company Is Least Likely to Participate in This Year.”

Did you know that U.S. employees log more hours of work per year than most other industrialized nations? Did you know that we take less vacation time also?

I wonder if this is a reflection of our pursuit of the "American Dream" or just a reflection of our gross materialism. Is there a difference? On one hand it sounds noble to be hardworking. I remember "if you don't work, you don't eat" being one of the most often quoted scriptures in my childhood. But there's got to be a line somewhere. At what point are we neglecting our friends, family, and personal needs because of the time we're giving our jobs?

The Take Back Your Time Day project is sponsored by the Center for Religion, Ethics and Social Policy (CRESP) at Cornell University. I wish I could participate, but I'll be too busy working.

On a Related Note
We don’t all take good lunch breaks either. And this is no American phenomenon. The University of Toronto is promoting a Take Back the Lunch Break campaign. It seems that not everyone enjoys scarfing down vending machine fare over a keyboard and stack of paperwork. …And all this time I thought it was just me.

World Series
The big one is underway. Check out Ninetyandnine’s The Benchwarmer(s) for complete coverage.

Storm News
Wilma is expected to hit Florida. Thankfully the storm has been downgraded to a category 2, but it still holds the potential for devastation to southern Florida. I hope for a lessening of the storm.