I just got back from two hours of walking around downtown and soliciting silent auction donations from local businesses. I’m on the Board of Directors of a small arts organization and our fundraiser is next month. It went well and I got about 5 or 6 donations. But between yesterday and today, I haven’t gotten much writing done. Since I started writing regularly, I try to do a page a day. I got a little done today, but tomorrow I need to get back on task.
Man, I’m fried. The party went off better than I thought. I think I had about ten people show up, including a couple friends from law school who I hadn’t seen in forever. I meant to take pictures, but I got distracted and it just didn’t happen. Maybe I could have been more spontaneous if I had a digicam. Oh well, something to work on for the Second Annual Thirtieth Birthday Party. And next year, I’m expecting all of you to come.
From The Guardian: Disabled Hero Wins Oxford Place. Hero being the name of the young woman, not a term of condescension, thankfully. It’s good to see that Oxford is willing to admit students with even the most severe disabilities. I sometimes wonder how my own life would have been different if I had come of age in the 50s or 60s instead of the end of the twentieth century. Decidedly less pleasant, I think. Even today, students with disabilities who are accepted into some of the finest institutions of higher education still have great difficulty finding employment after graduation.
I think everything is ready for my party. Food: check. Beer: check. Film for suddenly antiquated 35mm camera: check. Decent weather: hopeful.
I need to catch up on my e-mail. Allison and Amy, you’re on my list. And a big shout-out to my friend Anna, who is apparently wasting her time reading this drivel of mine. Anna, Amy and I are proud graduates of St. Norbert College. Located on the shores of the beautiful Fox River, SNC is a fine liberal arts college with a not-so-liberal student population. That fact always seemed a little curious to me. When I got to the U of Minnesota, I remember experiencing a little culture shock because everyone was so much more…like me. Not to say that there weren’t any liberals at SNC, but I think we were a little outnumbered. Another funny fact: when I graduated from SNC in 1995, maybe one or two buildings were equipped with automatic doors. For the entire four years I was there, I relied on my fellow students to help me in and out of most of the buildings. When I came back to visit a couple years later, accessibility had dramatically improved around the entire campus. Better late than never, I guess.
The other day I had to buy a new headset for my cordless phone and it got me thinking. I have one headset to emulate the mouse on my computer. Another headset to give verbal commands. Yet another for the phone. Most of my interaction with the world around me occurs via my head. You could probably cut it off and put it in a jar a la Futurama and I could still have a fairly productive life. But I think I’d miss my body and all of the sensations associated with it. People often wrongly assume that I have no capacity for sensation, like someone with a spinal cord injury. In truth, I can’t imagine what that must be like. Sitting here, I can feel the smooth varnished wood of my desk under my left hand. In my right hand, I can feel the rough textured surface of my thumb switch. I do live in my head quite a bit, but I’m grateful that I have a body that can experience all the pleasures, both crude and sublime, that this world has to offer.
Looks like I’ll be going to a Monday night Packers game in November. W00t!
As someone from a state that just emerged from four years of a very bizarre governorship by a former pro wrestler, I can only shake my head at Schwarzenegger’s announcement that he’s running for governor in California. Look, the Terminator movies were fun, but all of his other movies pretty much sucked. Remember Eraser? Neither do I. With that kind of track record, what makes him think he can do any better as governor? Does he plan to solve the deficit by turning Sacramento into one big T3 theme ride? Will Stallone be Lieutenant Governor? Will he open a really tacky chain restaurant in the governor’s mansion? People of California, don’t buy the hype! It may seem like good clean fun Election Day, but you’ll just wake up with a nasty hangover the day after. And the jokes about your governor from friends and family in other states will not stop. Ever. Trust me.
I’ve never been a huge fan of Joe Lieberman. He is always so eager to seem like Bush’s slightly more liberal Jewish uncle. After reading his statements in this NYT article, I like him even less. I’ve decided to firmly back Dean. If he wasn’t in the race, the Democrats would be a nonstory. Dean is no radical liberal, but he’s the only candidate that seems to have a clue about grassroots organizing, which is what Democrats will need to do to have any chance of winning in 2004.
I started writing the background and character sketches for my comic. I haven’t had this much fun writing in a couple months and I’m looking forward to the actual scripting. Even if it never sees the light of day, it will be interesting to try writing for a different medium.
I wonder if I can copy this guy’s idea to get a date with Garbage lead singer Shirley Mansun.
Another blog by a fellow SMA Revolutionary in the UK. One step closer to world domination.
I’m hoping to get a chance to visit with my brother in the next couple weeks. He is a Ph.D. candidate at Cornell. Yes, all three of us Siegel kids are overeducated brats. With a Jewish father and a professor mother, it was unavoidable, I’m afraid. My brother is leaving soon to study abroad in Europe for a year, so this may be my last chance to see him for a while. My sister will be studying at the Sorbonne in the spring. Je suis tres jaloux.
I spent some time browsing through the Dictionary of Cultural Literacy earlier today. It makes for interesting reading, even if it is a little heavy on the Dead White Males, especially in the Literature section. Cultural literacy is a bit difficult to define, I think. Couldn’t it include things like baseball, The Simpsons, The Godfather, etc.? Or is pop culture literacy something different from serious, academic Cultural Literacy? Discuss amongst yourselves.
I belong to a labor union and right now we’re in the middle of contract negotiations with the state. It’s not looking good. Minnesota has a big budget deficit and the state is proposing cutting our wages and jacking up health insurance premiums. The last state worker strike was just two years ago and I don’t think it will come to that this time, but you never know. If we do go on strike, I’ll have to start thinking of other ways to keep the money coming in. Blogging is fine and dandy, but it won’t pay the bills. Maybe now’s the time to launch my career in the adult film industry. I know I can write at least as well as some of the writers currently in the business. I’ll talk to Susannah and see if she can introduce me to some people.
Not much to write about today. Trying to flesh out my idea for a comic. In the meantime, this series of pictures is worth checking out…