Yes, We Do Have Responsibilities

Weblogging is a form of publishing, so we need to take our responsibilities fairly seriously.

Checking through my blogroll this evening, I read Buzzbait's post on getting a letter threatening legal action from a developer he'd posted about on his blog Stupid and Wrong.

Then, I checked the Blogger Buzz site and found a timely link to the Electronic Frontier Foundation and its Legal Guide for Bloggers.

Funny how these things tend to coincide.

A Tie Will Be Just Fine

A commercial just ran on my local cable outlet suggesting that folks "take Dad to Hooters on Father's Day." It features a scene with a cute little blond child lisping an order of wings and a soda for her Daddy to the nice lady (in the short shorts and tight top).

There's a billboard in our area for the Hooters in Rehoboth Beach. It announces that kids eat free on Tuesdays. Right.

Are we re-branding here? Not really.

Karen, Colleen, and Christina, pay no attention. A tie will be fine. In fact, maybe we should go out to Big Fish Grill for Father's Day.

It's a Wonder The Food Doesn't Kill People

When I got home from the City Council meeting this evening, Karen and Colleen were watching Hell's Kitchen, a Fox reality show in which hapless wanna-be chefs are verbally abused by a professional Chef as they compete for a prize that appears to be their own restaurant.

I saw about half the show. Two teams of contestants competed to fill restaurant orders (for real customers) while "Chef" yelled and swore at them. The point of the show seems to be to see who will break under pressure, break out in a string of obscenities, or break down in tears.

Questions of emotional voyeurism aside, what I found myself wondering was "how can the food they are making be anything other than horrible?"

I have no scientific evidence for this, but it seems to me that when people make food while under intense emotional pressure -- angst, unhappiness, hatred -- some of that bad feeling must make its way into the food.

There's an angry woman who works in the local convenience/sandwich shop up the street from my office. Sometimes she's behind the register and sometimes she's making sandwiches.

When she's on the sandwich line, I go for the fruit cup.

I'd Like to Suggest A Song

I don't plan to get into MP3 blogging, but wanted to point out a song that I have not been able to get out of my head.

John Vanderslice is offering a free MP3 download of the song Trance Manual from his new album Pixel Revolt. The album is due out in August.

I hadn't heard much of Vanderslice before finding this song on his web site. I now can't stop listening to it. It's soft and dreamy with an insistent chime as a drone tone. The melody is beautiful and the lyrics are just on the other side of clarity.

I like it.

Please, Permit Me to Brag

Colleen, our eldest daughter, was inducted into the National Junior Honor Society this evening.

Colleen is finishing seventh grade at the Southern Delaware School of the Arts. She started there in first grade the first year the school was in existence and has made some great friends.

Miriah Hearn (center) and Emily Southmayd (right), joined Colleen (left) in the Honor Society. These three have been together for seven years now and will finish out the eighth grade together next year.

The girls also have friends in the current, graduating, eighth grade. Many are already in Honor Society and they had the pleasure of welcoming Colleen and her classmates into the group this evening.

Caitlin Owens and Rachel Southmayd, the two on the left, are among those eighth graders. That's Nikki Mook next to Colleen. She taught most of these kids in second grade and returned tonight to see her former students honored. On the right is Erin Bunting, another great kid who joined the Honor Society.

Here's Colleen with Michelle Norton, Miriah, Stephanie Keller (8th grade), Rachel, Arias Davis (8th grade) and, peeking over the top in back, Wayde Marsh (8th grade).

Karen and I are hugely proud. Colleen is 13. She drives us nutty almost every day. But she's very bright, hard working, and creative and she's simply shining in school. Academics. Music (she sings and plays bass and flute). Dance.

And her sister, our young Christina, is following right in her footsteps. Click on by again in another four years and I bet you'll see a very similar blog entry.

Three Things I Noticed Today

The soles of my sneakers hold heat.

When I can, I devote my lunch hour to a workout at the Dover YMCA. Often, I set myself to at least a half-hour, brisk walk on a treadmill. (I read the news-scroll at the bottom of the cable news show as I walk). Afterwards, as I stretch, I notice that the soles of my sneakers (tucked in turn into opposing thighs) are noticeably warm. They've accumulated heat by friction as I walk.

Spinner hubcaps look silly on a minivan.

No kidding. I passed a beat-looking Ford-type minivan on Delaware Route 113 this afternoon. It had spinner hubcaps. Wrong. Just . . . wrong.

"Fruitful confusion" is an intriguing phrase.

In an interview on All Things Considered this evening, Norwegian Jazz Pianist Tord Gustavsen used the phrase (at least as I heard it) "fruitful confusion" to describe the benefits of the access we now have to music and art from different cultures from all over the world. I was struck by that phrase, and briefly considered using it as a Blog title. But a Google Search turns up quite a few uses of the phrase, some of them in reference to the information management practices of the Bush administration. So I guess I'll leave it alone.

Still, it's nice to be struck afresh by an unexpected combination of words.

Weekending for the Work Week

Mark Cutrona (over at To Seek A Newer World) posted the other day about working for the weekend; the idea that the working week is just a thing to be gotten through to get to the weekend.

Well. There comes a time in life when that formula gets reversed and you find yourself longing for your quiet, restful workday. Don't get me wrong, I work hard. It's just that life with growing children gets mighty hectic, no more so than at this time of year when the school year is winding down and the band, choir, and dance classes have end-of-semester performances to get through.

Let me outline our weekend for you.

Friday Night.
The school's dance classes held their spring dance performance. Karen and the girls stayed down at the school and I stopped by home to pick up my mother- and father-in-law. They had come into town that morning for a wedding in Ocean City on Saturday. The performance was wonderful. I got to see my little girl, becoming my grown-up daughter, dance on point and dance very well.

Saturday.
We start with the neighborhood yard sale. We had not planned to take part, but I couldn't help putting out a few large things that I'd like to get rid of. Only a few people stopped by, leaked from the neighbor's garage, which overflowed with stuff. Several folks seemed insulted that we had so little out. One guy needed a broken down rusty bike, though, so I made a few bucks.

Saturday evening, Baba and Grandpa headed down to Ocean City for the wedding of an old friend's kid. Karen and I went to Ocean View for the retirement party of the principal of the girls' school, the Southern Delaware School of the Arts, where Karen also works. Great fun, good food, nice people, and a heartfelt send-off for a guy that folks seemed genuinely happy to work for. But it was a late night.

Sunday.
Karen was due to play a flute part at church. I was due to mow the lawn. There was also a teen to drag out of bed and set to studying.

Once up and studied, Colleen was headed to see the movie The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants with several friends who had all read the book. I got to drive the group to the theater.

After I dropped that group off, Karen, Christina and I headed down into Rehoboth Beach for Christina's Ninth Birthday Party (two months late) at the Wacky Bear Factory. She and several friends made teddy bears (below), ate ice cream sundaes, and played games for several hours.



After two hours of fun, we headed home again to gather up Colleen (since dropped back home by one of the other parents) to get ready for her performance as part of Roadshow; the show band of the Southern Delaware School of the Arts. They were due to play at dusk at the Bethany Beach bandstand.

We loaded up an electric bass and headed out again. The Roadshow performance was fun; 5th though 8th graders playing a big-band style mix of hits from the fifties, sixties and seventies. Colleen is a very talented bassist. There are other very good players in the group and their shows are fun.

But we were not back home until about 9:30 p.m.

I'm headed to bed. And I'm looking forward to a quiet workday tomorrow. Of course, this week also holds another band concert Monday night, Honors Society Tuesday night, Dance Recital rehearsals Thursday and Friday nights, and the recital itself on Saturday.

A Dad's work (driving and waiting) is never done.

Oh. Dear.

From today's News Journal: Man, 78, accused of trying to shoot neighbor.

Willard Werner thought he had a good reason to try to kill the man; the guy was trying to keep Willard from marrying his 16-year-old daughter.

Some kind of reverse-shotgun-wedding?

According to the story, the girl was also against the idea of a marriage. That shows good sense.

It's All Just a Bureaucratic Game

I wonder -- just slightly -- about the symbolism here. The public square in front of the Municipal Services Building in Philadelphia is strewn with gigantic game pieces.

Odd.

Bummer

The Oasis Restaurant, in Austin Texas, apparently caught fire in a lightning storm last night. It was mostly destroyed.

I had dinner there last fall as part of a professional organization meeting and caught a decent sunset photo, which was one of my earliest blog entries.