Friday Fragments - October 22, 2010

Aaaaaand... here we are.  It's Friday, yet again.  The day blogosphere gets to defrag their week courtesy of Mrs. 4444's.  Join up and check out everyone else sharing the bits of their lives.

*I'm a little shell shocked it's Friday already.  I have spent all week in meetings.  I'm hoping I can actually get something done today.  Geez.  It's like... TUESDAY... or something.  I'm seriously screwed up.

*Ian had his Halloween costume all planned out to be a zombie soldier which was really cool because he all of the components laying around in the house.  NOW he thinks maybe he should be Napoleon Dynamite.  Uh, dude, that involves a wig and a Vote For Pedro tshirt... you know, things that AREN'T already in our house?  Stuff we have to BUY?  I hate costumes that require major purchases, and yes a curly wig is considered a major purchase.  Oh okay, here's my dirty secret - I'm not a shopper.  Going out to find a wig for my son just sounds like drudgery.

*Speaking of Halloween, neighbors have already carved their pumpkins.  Unfortunately that's just too soon and now our street is lined with pumpkins that look like they need dentures.  I giggle at the thought every morning when I leave for work.  Our pumpkin will be carved on the 28th at the earliest.

*Carved pumpkin means PUMPKIN SEEDS!  I'm a serious seed fanatic.  That's my addiction.  I took up eating sunflower seeds in college when everyone else was lighting up cigarettes.  In a night of drinking when my friends start lighting up I can plow through a whole package of seeds.   Now sunflower seeds are my addiction but I love pumpkin seeds, pine nuts and just about anything else that can be roasted and salted.  I avoid most tree nuts due to an allergy, but almonds are the exception so they get lumped in my seed addiction.

*It's cold outside!  I'm pulling out the sweaters and boots.  I'm not usually excited about needing to dress warmer, but my cooler clothing was getting a little boring.  I felt like I was wearing the same thing week after week so now I'm switching it up.  YAY!

What's Your Source?

Don't you hate when you walk into a store and encounter a fast talking salesman?  Someone who oozes smarminess from across the store and yet, you cannot seem to avoid him?  They come in all shapes and forms and they sound mighty convincing, but you know better.  That whatsywhoozit they're peddling is over-priced and over-hyped.  And don't you want to scream at the old lady gobbling up his bullshit as the gospel?

I feel this way about politics.  Don't get me wrong, I totally enjoy a healthy political debate, but at the end of the day it's just a lot of hot air.  A game.  I have my opinions and I can be rather passionate about them.  As long as my debate opposition can stick to the argument at hand and not question my intelligence, patriotism, faith, ancestry, sexuality, humanity, or whatever else can be questioned, then I can come out on the other side still respecting them.  I think that's rather fair, no?

But there are people out there, amazingly a lot of them who have been fed the koolaid and fall for the smarmy salesman hook line and sinker.  If it weren't so serious, it would be down right funny.  Well, okay, it's still a little funny.

My undergrad degree is in history.  To most people that means I studied names and dates... ha!  This woman can barely remember her own name, rarely the names of her own children and I have some sort of number dyslexia, so no, my history degree is not the study of names and dates.  It is about the study of sources, collaborating data and proving theories.  When I delve into political debates I dust off that history degree and want to read the original document or quote in question and derive my opinions based on my own interpretations, however flawed they may be.  And herein lies my amusement.  And frustration.

Just because Mr. WhoopieDeWhoo on TEEVEE said it's so, we're supposed to believe it?  My ears are nearly bleeding from the pundits telling me what the "American Public" is feeling.  Um, hello, I happen to be part of that "American Public" and so are my friends and my co-workers and the lady at the Walmart checkout and not a single one of us share that opinion.  Who asked us?  The past several years, yes, even before the current President, I have suspected that we have been told what someone wants us to believe.  We have been told and reminded and hinted and told again that all of our neighbors believe this platform or are scared of this certain outcome or are nervous about something that we, yes even me, start to wonder if maybe we're missing a detail.  Our inner-lemmings want to jump on the bandwagon.  Suddenly people who don't give a rats ass about anything politic are repeating the rhetoric.

Like I said, there is an amusement factor to this.  A zombie-esque following, chanting the same phrases over and over and yet not one of them is willing to break ranks and search for an original source.

I do love a good zombie movie.  I just watched ZombieLand and LOVED IT!  Husband hated it, oh well.  At least he isn't questioning my intelligence, we have agreed to disagree, and really that's how I prefer it.

So keep drinking your koolaid and ignore this smirk on my face, zombies amuse me.