Why can't every day be like today?

Today was so awesome....woke up excited, connected with several people at church, went to a birthday party and got stuck under a tarp with a dozen laughing people I barely know when the rainstorm hit, came home and took a bath, and our friends are on their way to jam and eat Don's curry chicken...
I'm realizing that telecommuting, as awesome as it is, has the drawback of being a lonely occupation. And I don't realize how fully drained and unmotivated I feel until I get out and mingle, chat, connect, make plans, laugh, hug and love PEOPLE. I so need that.

"We can't meet 21st century challenges with a 20th century beaurocracy....Change doesn't come FROM Washington, it comes TO Washington!" ~ Barack Obama

Says Obama...WHAT CHANGE LOOKS LIKE:

-A tax code that doesn't reward the lobbyists who wrote it, but the American workers and small businesses who deserve it, rewarding businesses who create jobs here in the US with tax breaks. Eliminate capital gains taxes for small businesses and startups that will create the high tech job for the future.
-Cut taxes for 95% of all working families.
-In 10 years, end our dependence on oil from the middle east. Tap our natural gas resources, safely harness nuclear power, invest in clean coal technology.
Help auto companies retool so fuel efficient cars are built in America. Invest 150 billion in the next 10 years in affordable, renewable energy.
-Invest in early childhood education, higher salaries for teachers, higher standards. Help with college for service to community or country.
-Lower premiums for existing healthcare coverage, and if no coverage, opportunity to get same healthcare as members of congress. Tougher regulation for insurance companies.
-Paid sick days, better family leave.
-Change bankruptcy laws, protect social security, equal pay for equal work.
-Close corporate loop holes and tax savings. Eliminate programs that don't work in the federal budget.
-Provide care and benefits veterans deserve. End war in Iraq responsibity. Rebuild military. Renew direct diplomacy. Build new international partnerships. Restore moral standing so America is respected in the world again.

Brought to you by inspiring Moments (Paul and Janece):

What would Jeeves do?

I can't get enough of P.G. Wodehouse these days, early 20th century English humorist, author of all of the Jeeves and Bertie Wooster stories but many other short stories, plays, lyrics and essays. This guy is amazing and I can't wait to read everything he's ever written. I found 'World of Jeeves' at a yard sale many years ago and have collected all I could get my hands on ever since. He just appeals to the smartarse in me, I suppose - the perfect mental vacation I need after being immersed in Winston Churchill's series on World War II history.

This says it best - a Newsweek article I ran across, June 2007, where David Gates writes:

"Wodehouse’s true appeal doesn’t lie in his “timeless” stage sets or his “inimitable” stock characters, but in his language — a pure well of English dazzlingly defiled. [Wodehouse} takes, and gives, so much pleasure in the manipulation of words and idioms, tones and dictions... “I was pushing a bit of breakfast into the Wooster face at the moment,” Bertie tells us in “Jeeves and the Yule-Tide Spirit, “and feeling fairly well-fortified with coffee and kippers, I decided to break the news to Jeeves without delay. As Shakespeare says, if you’re going to do a thing you might just as well pop right at it and get it over.” When such meticulously calibrated play ceases to give us joy, let the nukes fly, the icecaps melt and the Great Irksomeness begin."

And on the BBC site:

It is worth pointing out that, despite Wodehouse's repeated intention only to write entertainment for entertainment's sake, his work has long been revered for its richness of language. Any one of Wodehouse's stories contains an astonishing variety of vocabulary, a capacity for literary allusion to satisfy the most intellectual of tastes, a wealth of witty dialogue, and an unsurpassed talent for simile.

Gotta love the Ionicus illustrations in the earlier editions:



And for your reading enjoyment, a few Wodehouse excerpts and quotes:

After breakfast I lit a cigarette and went to the open window to inspect the day. It certainly was one of the best and brightest.

"Jeeves," I said.

"Sir?" said Jeeves. He had been clearing away the breakfast things, but at the sound of the young master's voice cheesed it courteously.

"You were absolutely right about the weather. It is a juicy morning."

"Decidedly, sir."

"Spring and all that."

"Yes, sir."

"In the spring, Jeeves, a livelier iris gleams upon the burnished dove."

"So I have been informed, sir."

"Right ho! Then bring me my whangee, my yellowest shoes, and the old green Homburg. I'm going into the Park to do pastoral dances."

~ The Intimitible Jeeves, 1923

I was standing there, hoping for the best, when my meditations were broken in upon by an odd gargling sort of noise, something like static and something like distant thunder, and to cut a long story short this proved to proceed from the larynx of the dog Bartholomew.

He was standing on the bed, stropping his front paws on the coverlet, and so easy was it to read the message in his eyes that we acted like two minds with but a single thought. At the exact moment when I soared like an eagle on to the chest of drawers, Jeeves was skimming like a swallow on to the top of the cupboard. The animal hopped from the bed and, advancing into the middle of the room, took a seat, breathing through the nose with a curious, whistling sound, and looking at us from under his eyebrows like a Scottish elder rebuking sin from the pulpit.

~Weekend Wodehouse

He looked like a bishop who had just discovered Schism and Doubt among the minor clergy.

Into the face of the young man who sat on the terrace of the hotel at Cannes there had crept a look of furtive shame, the shifty, hangdog look which announces that an Englishman is about to talk French.

Big chap with a small moustache and the sort of eye that can open an oyster at sixty paces.

Come to find out, my mom read Wodehouse books when she was pregnant with me....maybe that's where my love of salsa and pizza comes from?

Obama-Biden 2008

Go ahead and say it out loud...it's fun...Obamabiden, Obamabiden... kinda flows, yes? I have to admit that I wasn't surpised when I heard the news this morning. I figured Obama would choose someone with extensive foreign policy experience, someone who was older and wiser, someone who 'knows the ropes'...just the logical attributes that would compliment him and make him a more attractive choice to those who still have questions and concerns. 'You complete me'...I'm imagining the scene in Jerry Maguire but with Barack and Joe...but I have to stop now because it's slightly disturbing.

So who is Senator Joe Biden, this guy who will likely be our VP for the next four years?



Joseph Biden was born in Scranton, PA to a working-class family. At age 29, he was one of the youngest ever elected to the Senate and was elected to his sixth term in 2002. He has run for president twice: 1988 and, ironically enough, 2008 (though he dropped out pretty early in the game). Here's where it gets interesting. Biden had called Obama "the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy", for which he apologized later 'cuz it sounded so lame. During the primaries, Biden also claimed Obama was "not yet ready" to serve as president. WHOA mama! There's a sound byte we'll be hearing over and over...and over.

Here is some of the the stuff I read that meant something to me regarding Biden's voting record:

*He helped write legislation that set up shelters and a national hotline for abused women, the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA).
*He helped pass a resolution observing Yom Hashoah, Holocaust Memorial Day, and calling on the remaining member countries of the International Commission of the International Tracing Service to ratify the May 2006 amendments to the 1955 Bonn Accords immediately to allow open access to the Bad Arolsen archives.
*He introduced a bill that's currently scheduled for debate, the 'Combating Child Exploitation Act of 2007'.
*He introduced a bill a few months ago to increase public confidence in the justice system and address any unwarranted racial and ethnic disparities in the criminal process.
*He introduced the 'College Affordability and Creating Chances for Educational Success for Students Act of 2007'.
*He co-sponsored legislation that was recently signed into law to authorize $48 billion for the worldwide fight against HIV/AIDS and other deadly diseases.
*Through his work on the Foreign Relations Committee, Biden has sought to promote the use of American power to stop dictators who commit crimes against humanity or genocide.
*He voted yes to more funding for operations in Iraq and Afghanistan in May 2008 (say what you will about the validity of this war, I believe our troops deserve the best we can give).
*He voted to table (kill) an amendment that would cut all federal funding to the National Endowment for the Arts in 1999.
*He voted yes to pass a bill that reauthorizes and expands the State Children's Health Insurance Program.
*He voted yes on expanding research to more embryonic stem cell lines in April 2007.

Here are a few of a million and one sites to do more research:

http://www.votesmart.org/voting_category.php?can_id=53279

http://www.ontheissues.org/Joe_Biden.htm

http://biden.senate.gov/issues/voting.cfm

http://civilliberty.about.com/od/ussenators/p/joe_biden.htm

Transcript of Sen. Biden's speech today after the announcement:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=93913125

The Warmth

I'd like to close my eyes go numb
but there's a cold wind coming from
the top of the highest high-rise today.

It's not a breeze cause it blows hard.
Yes and it wants me to discard
the humanity I know
Watch the warmth blow away.

Don't let the world bring you down
Not everyone here is that fucked up and cold
Remember why you came
and while you're alive
experience the warmth
before you grow old

Do you think I should adhere
to that pressing new frontier
and leave in my wake a trail of fear?
Or should I hold my head up high
and throw a wrench in spokes by
leaving the air behind me clear?

The Girl Effect

I found this on my friend Janece's site - I love stuff that makes me think and this was some of that 'stuff':



For more information, visit GirlEffect.org

Sing a New Song

Who are all these happy people? I have no idea, but this church is really great. We've been going for a few weeks and LOVE it.

Daily dose of Engrish...

The Underlings

Ok, I'm biased....my sister's man is the bassist of the Underlings out of Eugene, but that's where my prejudice ends...these guys are GREAT. I'm a musician, nothing outstanding, but I have a long history of playing/writing/recording, so I feel at least a little qualified when I say that this band is worth going to see. Not only do they sound incredible, they're three of the coolest, humblest, doing-it-for-the-love-of-the-art guys you'll ever meet. Can't wait for the next show....come meet us there! Sam Bond's Garage, Sept. 13 at 9:30pm in Eugene. Check out their MySpace at http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=19419564.

Joe Strummer Tribute

I'm totally blown away by this guitar I won at a raffle Saturday night at the WOW Hall. So we're there, watching the Underlings at this Joe Strummer tribute concert (they kicked ass, by the way....more about them later) and Don and I bought some raffle tickets for different things, the coolest of which was this custom Fender Telecaster guitar. They called my name for the first raffle for an Element skateboard (amazingly enough, we were going to buy one for our 9-year-old's birthday in October) so I thought there is NO way, statistically, they would call my name again. Seriously...right? Meanwhile, Don has gone to the ATM to feed his obsession with winning this guitar....I think he bought like 15 tickets. So the moment comes and they SAY MY NAME, just like that... Ronni Deam...I'm stunned and Don is behind woopin' it up. I keep replaying it in my mind - stuff like that just doesn't happen so I'm gonna squeeze every good feeling outta that moment that I can! Then ZZ Clash (a.k.a. Spanish Balls) plays it for a few songs.....icing on the cake. GREAT night.

Seriously...

Life as we know it has changed forever.....we are Oregonians, not Californians or Washintonians or flavor-of-the-month-ians....we're done moving around and have settled in our chosen tribe and nation - Thurston OR. I'm committed to this place ... I want to be an integral part of the community: drink in everything it has to offer, pour myself out for what it needs, watch our kids invest in life-long relationships with the security that they won't be uprooted. Don't get me wrong, we've experienced so many great things by living in the places we have and I don't have many regrets, but the time has come to drop our anchor. We have officially changed the course of the Deam Family for generations to come.