Linky Winky

I was on someone else's blog today, and they had a bloggy moment of silence for Ronald Reagan, who passed away 2 years ago Monday.

Now before I get to the quote she'd posted, which was very good, I have to confess to you (and this is bad) that I sort of forgot he had died.

I may be the only one who does this, and I'm embarrassed. But sometimes they'll announce on the news that a public figure has died, and everyone will talk about it that day and be appropriately sad and philosophical, but then little by little I forget. It's not like a friend or family member where you feel their absence every day. I lived my whole life with no Ronald Reagan in it, so it wasn't too weird that he wasn't around. Soon I forgot he had died. But then today when I saw that, first I had to look it up to make sure it was true--yep, in fact, it was--and then I felt a little sad again. Aw. How sad. Of course, I had already done this once, the whole "Aw, how sad" thing, so a little redundant.

And that got me thinking about how when something bad happens to you, a loss of any kind (whether it's as bad as death or just something that bums you out, like a totaled car or that a friend is mad at you), you go through times where you forget about it. You feel good, until suddenly you remember and you are sad all over again.

I hate that.

Then eventually you forget less and less often, until it's just something that you know without a doubt, and that's sad, too, in its own way.

But anyway.

Here's what Ronny had to say:

Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn’t pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same, or one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children and our children’s children what it was once like in the United States where men were free.

Ronald Reagan
1911-2004

That strikes fear in my heart, oh yes it does. Probably not for the same reasons as the person who posted the quote, or maybe not even for the same reasons Ronny said it, but that just means it's a good quote.

Sometimes I worry we'll tell our grandchildren about the days when there was no (?) corruption and that our police helped us and kept us safe (again, ?, relating to whether or not race has to do with it). What do you worry we'll have to tell them about? (This is the part where you write me comments....)

I forgot I was going to mention this hi-LAR-i-ous blog that was recommended to me: Captain Picard's Journal. It's a fictional journal written by (who else) Captain Jean-Luc Picard of the U.S.S. Starship Enterprise from Star Trek: The Next Generation. I may have to add it to my links. (Hee hee, the theme song just popped up into my head. Ooh, now it just changed into the Spaceballs music.)

Another blog I came across had an entry about the Duke rape trial that started talking about eyewitnesses for trials, and specifically whether white witnesses are even able to accurately identify African American suspects, because they're usually not as familiar with black faces and less able to tell the differences between them.

Anthropologically (I don't think I have ever used that word before, at least not written... hmm.. big day) speaking, it makes sense--the faces you're used to looking at, you get to know the intimate differences between individuals. For people outside your group, the main thing you notice is just that they're different than you, and you don't notice the little details.

I think I used to have a harder time telling Latinos apart, but since living in Ecuador and just generally making more Latino friends here, I hardly ever have trouble telling hispanic people apart now. When I was in Ecuador, I even got good at telling what country they were from, just from their faces. So just another example to go with the comments people made on the blog.

Since I don't know many black people and don't really know black faces, I figure I'd be just as bad an eyewitness for a trial involving a black suspect as any other white person. The last few days I have been trying to practice looking at black faces. Tricky business, because basically I'm just staring at people all day. I'm trying to be sly about it, but I do look at each person for kind of a little while as I try to decide, for example, "Hmm, now would that skin color be classified as light-skinned, caramel, light brown, or dark brown?" I'd be creeped out if I were them and saw this white girl staring them down from the back of the bus. But all in the name of cultural awareness, right?

I decided to check in with Wandering Scribe today. She's got a place to live now! Funny--in some ways she says she's so happy she's pinching herself to see if it's real, but in other ways she misses living in her car. Bet she didn't plan on that. Anyway, give it a read.

Look at how much entertainment I am providing you with! Not just my own blog, but links to other blogs you can hop around between all day long. If you work in a cubicle, how grateful are you?

Speaking of working in cubicles, mine is decked out as well as I can do... snack corner which serves as the pantry for our little cube colony over in our section of the floor, a blanket for when I get cold which doubles as a seat cushion, a not-exactly-comfy-but-non-pain-causing metal chair (which I had to steal, remember?), an extra sweater, and cereal boxes so I can eat breakfast at my desk. But I have to say, it is becoming a problem how hard my desk is. Specifically when, if I stay late at work, a wave of extreme tiredness comes over me and I have to take a nap right then (don't worry, guys--this is at like 6:00 pm). When I was teaching, I could grab a sweater, ball it up, and fall asleep on my desk for 1, 2 hours at a time, no problem (again, after the kids went home--jeez). Woke up a little floopy, with sweater marks on my face, but a good deal all around. But now at work, it's so dang uncomfortable I can't really get to sleep, or if I do, I wake up after 10 minutes with a cramp or pins and needles in some part of my body. Not cool.

Big Event of the Day: Was going to be go to Jewel, but then I realized I could just stop at Walgreens on the way home instead of making the big trip, since I didn't need anything very fancy.
Percent Chance: I'd estimated it at about 50% for the Jewel trip, so yay me, although since I downgraded it to a Walgreens, I don't know how you'd count it. Inaccurate data collection. Sorry.