Googlemap Katrina

This is cool - I wish I'd thought of it:

Hurricane Watch

Borrow a Bias

I think the Swedes are onto something. It's not so easy to say or think hurtful things when the person you're generalizing about is sitting right in front of you.

(Malmoe, Sweden) A library in a small community in southern Sweden has started a novel program to promote diversity and break down stereotypes.

In addition of borrowing books on different cultures the Malmoe Library is now offering people.

The living library project is called ‘Borrow a Bias’. It allows townsfolk to borrow any of nine different minority people. Borrowers have 45 minutes to confront the prejudices in the library’s outdoor cafe.

“You sometimes hear people’s prejudices and you realize that they are just uninformed,” said Ulla Brohed, the chief librarian and the person who conceived the idea.

The group includes a lesbian, a gay, an imam, a Muslim woman, a journalist, an animal rights advocate, a Dane, and a Romany or Gypsy and one other to announced later.

Although Sweden has civil rights protections for gays and recognizes same-sex couples with partner rights many Swedes, especially in smaller communities, have little knowledge of gay issues including the desire to marry and adopt children.

“It’s a fun idea. Prejudice is something you have when you don’t know each other. If you confront each other, then the prejudice is broken down,” said Lilian Simonsen, the Dane who will be on loan.

A similar project is already underway in Copenhagen, Denmark.

(original article here)

China (is now almost certain to be) a go!!

I just heard back from Jason, my uncle's friend who teaches in China. He said (and I quote):

"I'll be happy to recommend you for a job here, but it will be a few months before any concrete progress can be made. I should be able to secure you a job here pretty easily, but before I do, we'll have to wait until the staff here has finished processing this semester's new teachers and they begin the job of arranging for next semester."

I think that means I am in like the proverbial Flynn. Who the hell Flynn is, I don't know, and I really don't care. I am patient, I can wait, and I am going to China.

The saga of Office Depot Center

I got a call around 11:30 Wednesday night from my friend Jamie. She and some friends of hers ("Billy" and "Susannah") had gone to the System of a Down concert in Sunrise and came out to the car to find that it wouldn't start. She asked me if I could come pick them up. Of course I said yes - which I still would have done even if she hadn't a) driven me to and stayed with me at the ER during the pudding incident and b) driven my drunk ass home last time I got sick on a playground and then drove me back to Delray to pick up my car. And I like driving, and I couldn't sleep anyway, and I was happy she thought enough of me to call me.

So, I got up, got dressed, and drove down to Sunrise. Now, you'd think that a big arena wouldn't be hard to find - but in the dark, in the middle of the night, it's a lot more difficult than when there are a million people headed there for a concert with lights and signs and noise. So, I drove around for a little bit until I finally went the wrong way and saw a sign pointing back the other way. Eventually found them in parking lot A60 (which is NOT completely obvious and easy to find, by the way) and offered them the welcome respite of my air conditioned car. By this time it was about 1:00. They had called Triple A (or should I reference it as AAA?) prior to my arrival and were told that the tow truck would get there shortly. Shortly was not forthcoming. So, they called again, and were told that he'd be there no later than 1:51 AM. Awfully precise, yet still fallacious. 1:51 AM, by several clocks, and still no tow truck. Called again - at 2:12 we were told that he'd be there in exactly 15 minutes. Finally - at 2:30 the two truck pulls up. Scary Tow Truck Driver gets out and tells us that he's got to pick up a Volvo on Glades Road, and that Volvos and Mercedeses and cars like that have to go up on the bed, so he is going to put Jamie's car on the bed for now and then when we get to Glades he will take it off the bed, put the Volvo on the bed, and hook up Jamie's car behind. Yeah. At this point none of us really care, we just want to get the damn thing towed and go home.

We had previously discussed that Billy, being the male in the group, would ride with STTD. We agreed to meet them at the dealership (the agreed-upon drop off point) and proceeded to drive north. About 20 minutes later, we get a call from Billy, telling us that STTD couldn't find the Volvo but was currently involved in negotiations in Spanish with a family standing under a bridge who wanted a ride. Susannah, understandably tired and upset, told him to tell STTD that he was NOT giving anyone a ride, he needed to meet us at the dealership. We finally all meet there, STTD gives Jamie the total, and then makes a fuss about giving her a receipt. She left her car there and we all drove back to WPB.

Fun times, kids, fun times. Got home at 4:00, woke up at 10:00, made it to work at 11:15. Thank God for understanding bosses.

Simple pleasures

You might not think that 9 adults could play hide and seek for 3 hours in a 2 bedroom townhouse. If you thought that, you would be wrong. It's nice to revisit childhood experiences, like suffocating in the closet waiting to be found. We turned off all of the lights in the house to make it more fun.

I think my best hiding place was under the comforter on Glen and Mandy's bed. It seemed like an excellent idea until I realized, about a minute and a half after I hid, that it was an extremely warm down comforter. Now don't get me wrong, I love warmth and cuddly-ness more than most - but there were a LOT of people in the room. Body heat + south florida heat + adrenaline rush from hoping you don't get found = very, very, very hot and hard to breathe.

I think Mike may have had the best hiding place - inside the closet, on top of the hot water heater. Nobody thought he could get in, but he proved us all wrong. Granted, his back may never be the same, but he still didn't get found. Christian managed to squeeze in between the fridge and the wall, and then put a blanket over his head.

Hide and seek is awesome.

Picture Issues

I think they've been solved. Not perfectly, as I'd like to have maybe two in a row instead of each pic on its own line, but at least they're small enough to view the entire page comfortably again.

Help!

OK...so the pictures are up, but clearly they are too big and throw off the entire look of the page. I checked the link and there seems to be nowhere that I can change the sizing. Because of my relatively slow connection at home, it would be a big hassle to have to reload them all - does anyone know how to resize the pics? If you do, can you tell me?

And is it possible to get the damn Hello program to just save the pictures somewhere instead of posting each one as a new blog post, thus making me have to go back and manually delete and add the URLs to the blog?

These are things I'd love to find answers for. The search continues.

This is what it's like when friends leave the country

Our friend Jason got a job teaching English in Tokyo. He flew out two weeks ago, but we had a "last hurrah" the night before he left. We started out with food at Hurricane Alley and then moved to Banana Boat for drinks. Here are some pictures of his going away party.



Wendy, Monkey, and Brian



Another Jason (Brown) - but this one isn't leaving



Wendy, Monkey, Jason and Brian



Wendy, Monkey and Jason



Big Pimpin'



Phil, Brian and Jason



Brian and Jason



Jason and Liz



Christian and Dennise



Jason, Brian and Christian



Step 1 - get the car bombs to the table



Step 2 - hold them up at the same time



Step 3 - drink!



Christian and Sean



Christian, Sean, Dennise, Jason, Brian



Christian, Dennise, Sean, Jason, Kathleen, Phil, Brian, Jason, Liz

The L Word

I watched the pilot (episodes 1 and 2) of The L Word the other night. It was a commitment of 2 hours, but I don't regret it. In fact, I think I may be hooked. Especially fascinating is the Jenny+Marina subplot (I think that ends - at least I know that Karina Lombard isn't in the cast anymore, but I've tried to avoid reading spoilers) and Shane. Shane is hot. The dialogue in places left something to be desired, but overall the show gets four stars from me. I'll update if my opinion changes.