Tag: fun

My Google Reader reflects this state perfectly. I currently have 38 subscriptions to blogs divided into nine folders and I currently have 126 unread items. In ideal life, I would read every single Leonard Pitts, column as well as keep up with the super awesome Multnomah County Library blogs and read all of the Portland-centered posts of the Portland-centered blogs I follow as well as all the tiny house blogs and all my friend’s blogs. But in reality? I make it a priority to read the friend blogs and flip through some of the others when I have time to kill. Google seems to understand this, as I think it only keeps the last month or so of blog posts in the Reader before it stops linking to them. At first I didn’t like that, but now I find it comforting as there is no way to keep up with all my online interests without giving up too much of my “away from the internet” time.

All this is to say that I try not to have too many things I follow with any regularity. However, I am posting this to heartily recommend that everyone follow the Vlog Brothers. My friend Sara, who seems to follow many, many more things than I do online, sent me one of their video blogs back in October. It was so smart and witty that I had to find out more. They publish videos three times a week. Their videos are less than four minutes, creative, and funny. Like every other Nerd Fighter, I love them and I think you will too. This last week has been great:

Hank starts out the week by talking about 5 Conspiracy Theories. Hank is the more spastic of the two, I think. Of the two, I would marry John, but would be happy to have Hank as my brother-in-law.

Then John comes back on Wednesday with Top Six Conjoined Twins, inspired by a very large zit on his head. This is also the John Green, author of the YA books Looking for Alaska and An Abundance of Katherines.

On Friday Hank comes back with Top 5 Actual Conspiracies:

Here is the video blog before the first one I every watched (the first one I ever watched makes more sense when you’ve already seen this one)

And the first one I ever saw:

Also, if you need a workout, you could do the Fitness for Nerds, which is making me laugh so hard right now I can’t type. And I’m just listening.

At any rate, if you, general public, are feeling grumpy and blue or just need some smart talk, I recommend some viewing of Vlog brothers videos

Beginning this year, the Timbers, our minor league (not sure if that is the proper soccer term, but it get the concept across) will be converting to a major league soccer team. It’s a big deal and the Timbers Army is excited. To celebrate this big conversion, there are billboards all over town with real Timbers fans on them. One of the real fans happens to go to the school where I work. He has enjoyed all the publicity and I enjoy seeing him at the foot of the Broadway bridge when I ride home from work.

See this link for an interview with Cian and a picture of another billboard where he is shown by himself:
http://www.portlandmls2011.com/news/2011/01/we-are-timbers-cian

You can also see this local news interview with him and some of his friends talking about the billboards:
http://www.kgw.com/sports/Young-Timber-fan-becomes-billboard-star-114695174.html

So John Green clued me in that I could balance the budget and spoke eloquently as to why it’s not as easy as it looks. I took his challenge and fixed the budget. You may thank me later.

Want to do it yourself? Go here (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fyHR0XnU9DQ) which has John Green’s video and also the link so you can fix the budget. You can just click on the link without watching the video.

Those who know my bleeding heart liberal tendencies won’t be surprised to learn that I solved the deficit by increasing taxes (67% of my choices) vs. spending cuts (33% of my choices.) I figured I would go through and mark the “easy” choices and then go back and make the hard choices, but by the time I got to the bottom, I had all my squares colored in.

Want to know what I chose? Okay, here goes:

• Eliminate earmarks (I think that everyone says they want to eliminate these while at the same time cheering on their representative when that representative brings home the federal cash. I never hear anyone point out that discrepancy.)
• Eliminate farm subsides (I know, I just lost the midwest)
• Reduce nuclear arsenal and space spending.
• Reduce military to pre-Iraq war size and further reduce troops in Asia and Europe
• Reduce Navy and Air Force Fleets
• Cancel or delay some weapons programs
• Reduce noncombat military compensation and overhead. (I checked everything in the military box)
• Reduce the number of troops in Iraq and Afghanistan to 30,000 by 2013
• Enact medical malpractice reform
• Reduce Social Security Benefits for those with high incomes
• Tighten eligibility for disability
• Modifying Estate Taxes, President Obama’s proposal (even I, stick-it-to-the-rich rabble rouser that I am can’t see reducing the estate tax to the Clinton-era levels. That sucker needed to be increased a tiny bit, but certainly not the way it was done, giving rich old people a big incentive to off themselves this year.)
• Investment taxes: back to the Clinton era
• Bush Tax cuts: allow expiration for those making over $250,000 per year. (I was going to go back and make them all expire, if I needed to, but I didn’t need to.)
• Payroll tax: subject some incomes above $106,000 to tax
• Millionaire’s tax on income above 1 million
• Closing tax loopholes, I chose eliminate loopholes, keep taxes slightly higher
• Reduce mortgage deduction and others for high-income households.
• Carbon Tax
• Bank Tax.

One of the moms at school works for OMSI giving presentations to classrooms. Today, she brought in the snakes and lizards. I’ve never handled a snake, but this corn snake was mighty friendly.

It liked to knot itself around things and also tried to crawl up my sleeve.

Tara also liked the corn snake and soon we were joined.

In some cultures, I think we’d be married by now.

My favorite thing about K/1 Read Away the Day Day at school is that I get to call it Read Away the Day Day. Yes, that last day is superfluous, but like those people who enjoy misusing quotation marks, I enjoy superfluous words.

My second favorite thing about Read Away the Day Day, is that people come in costume to read. For this day, no one had volunteered for Kristen’s class, and so I was pulled into duty. The costume is all Kristen. I said I would wear whatever, as long as I didn’t have to think of the whatever. Kristen happily whipped me up this Sam costume. Do you like green eggs and ham?

Watching elementary school students ballroom dance. If you don’t have access to your own, you can watch Mad, Hot Ballroom.