What I've been reminded of so far today

Above all, in the blogosphere, top of the list of "things one needs to know" is to have a HUGE list of blogs listed on your own blog.

As you might have noticed, my own list is, well, paltry in comparison.

I have, though, added a blog to my list today.  I like to read a few posts to see if I feel the same as I did when I first viewed it.  With Jesus' General, I'm now a big fan with this post from today.  I could not stop giggling first in humor then in horror.

I know I'm not as funny as the General, so I'm not going to try.  God bless the General for lifting up the rock and pointing to the scurrying things found under that rock!

Speaking of the spiritual, Deepak Chopra was on yesterday's Ellen.  I'm not the biggest Deepak fan, but I can definitely get behind the website and the vow which was mentioned indirectly during the interview.  I signed on to this pledge a while back and have likely broken the vow way too many times to count (in thought . . did you think I was supplementing my unemployment checks with street fighting?); however, the exercise of reaffirming the vow regularly is better than continuing to think and act as I've done before.

I'm sure the whole "peace & love" thing will pay off more in the long run . . either that or I'll have to get pissed off at someone.   Oh, crap . . back I go. 

Prayer

Here's the prayer I've been looking for!  With thanks to the Anglican Church. (btw, "made redundant" means "laid off" in American English)

All around the blogosphere for 1/6/09

The biggest challenge I have when posting a blog entry is to write about something that hasn't been written about yet or to provide a fresh perspective on a topic that's been blogged into pumpkin butter.

So, I skipped around the 'net and checked in on a few of my favorite blogs and even took a base-jump into the Fox News website.

Fox News: I was so curious to see if, as I have seen noted tongue-in-cheek in many a blog lately, Bill O'Reilly's head had already "exploded" at the news of Al Franken's certification as winner of Minnesota's U.S. Senate campaign.  A visit to O'Reilly's Fox News page shows a link to a Wall Street Journal Opinion piece on Franken's election.  The column does not list who wrote it, unfortunately.  The writer's opinion, written about twelve hours before the Minnesota Canvassing Board certified Franken as the election's winner, noted that most of the rulings issued during the two month vote count were in favor of Franken and it is no surprise that Franken won because of this.  

Though I was not able to find any summary on-line of judgments and how each ruling favored and to what extent each candidate was favored, the Minnesota Star Tribute has a nifty "do it yourself" center with some scanned-in contested votes and some basic data on challenged ballots and vote count totals.  Coleman is well within his right to challenge the Canvassing Board's results, but I cannot figure out at this point how he hopes to change the vote total to favor himself.

One of my favorite blogs from last year had an adorable post earlier today about new Senator Mark Begich, President-Elect Obama and a sweet, feel-good photo.  The blogger, in true blogger tradition remaining unnamed, really has a talent for getting involved in the postings and effortlessly blending personal observation and compelling writing.  Check the other postings itself for a first-hand look at one of the most fascinating states in the Union for politics.

No news posted yet on the L.A County Sherrif's site on what was happening around the corner yesterday.  Whatever happened to cause six patrol cars, a motorcycle and a helicopter to circle around 24 hours ago has not yet been reported in any of the local news sites or anywhere.  It may be a few days before anything is posted, if at all.  I'll write something up once I find it.

. . and a much better afternoon!

Got out of the house this afternoon and cleared my head a bit. Getting the unemployment check didn't hurt my outlook any, either.  On my way back home, however, there was a swarm of LA County Sherrif's Deputy patrol cars at the corner nearby the apartment complex, plus another couple of cars at the next block, preventing me from parking in the complex AND a circling helicopter.  Even for our neighborhood, this was excessive!

I'll try keeping an eye on the 'net to see if this event warranted any coverage.

Also was enjoying watching a new Olbermann tonight.  Very cool quick story he did on this fellow in New Zealand and on some outrageously pricey upgrading to the Secretary of the Interior's office.  So nice to see the world is spinning around as always ?

The slowest get back to work day EVER

OK, maybe not EVER.  But, for the first Monday of the New Year, when most M-F 9-5ers are back to work, my upstairs neighbors have been oddly silent so far today (it is quite normal to hear lots of bumps, bangs, clangs and thumps from above throughout the day).  

TV today has been entirely uninteresting:  Perez Hilton on the View was surprisingly safe and dull - he even stopped dyeing his hair unnatural colors.  News today has been mostly about following Barack Obama around Washington D.C., including still photos of his daughters' first day at school (I just don't care at all and sincerely hope today was the last time I see/hear/read anything about his daughters.  I went to a few new schools as a child and that in itself is stressful enough.)

Employers are just starting to list all of the jobs they want to fill.  The last two weeks of job hunting has been like deer traipsing through the woods looking for leaves to eat in the dead of winter.  Like I do every day I check the job postings, I did submit applications at several employers.  This process was so monotonous I have no recollection of where my applications went and cannot recall the new job posting site at which I posted my resume (though I will see e-mails from them daily).

The "honesty" research will continue later today.  I've gone through the Senators from A to Maine and I'm still not sure what I'll conclude when I'm done.