(this is) durkin.org

Indiana Considers Synchronizing Its Watches. It’s about time, no pun intended. I don’t so much care about Indiana’s time issues, but it is nice to see another state look foolish in the eyes of the world. Go Alabama! We may be last in almost every major category of public health, education, social services and government (among others), but at least we have Daylight Savings Time! But really, we did earn a higher grade on how states manage government. Whatever that’s worth. In related news, another state gets out of the flag issue for good.

CNN gets Dissed.

REM fans, I don’t have any news about the new album, but I do have the URL for the Unofficial Polish Website of R.E.M. (slow-loading pages, but worth the wait). Which is really quite good. Really. Check out the multimedia section, in the Mp3 area you can download entire concerts.

WEGL, Auburn’s student radio station, has a new web site, and a new live feed (choose “Auburn University from the pull-down menu). It’s about time. I would like to point out however, that they still have not added my name to the list of alumni djs. No respect.

Oh - Sup? to the boys at Krumbdiek A+I.

Cool, the Beastie Boys have a new toy on one of their web sites: you can download loops from their songs, some software, and make your own remixes. Very nice.

We were listening to an old mix tape in the car last night, and I was amazed at the music, at how much I enjoyed hearing those songs again. This morning, I dug out some of the albums I used to make the tape, and brought them to work today. One in particular, The Charlatans - Up To Our Hips, was great to rediscover.

I received a letter from the ACLU yesterday, asking former members to rejoin for the W years. It will be money well spent. Have you joined the ACLU?

Things have been quite a bit busy around here and there these days. I’ve had to travel for work, and that wasn’t planned, so I’ve been away.

The birthday party was great, perhaps more later. Today is not so good, MR is sick, and we don’t know with what.

My Life as a Seinfeld Episode: So I was given a pair of shoes from Jarman for my birthday back in July, right? And I had to return them to get a larger size, and then we had to order them because some other mutant bought the size I need. That was in August, and in November I noticed the sole splitting right across the ball of the foot. So, I took them back (several times, it seems that managers are the only people allowed to think at Jarman; and they are always away from the store…) and the guy just gives me a new pair! Six Months Later!

Needless to say, I am very pleased. The Sienfeld moment came here: I say, “So, there was something wrong with them, huh?” Or something innane like that. He winks at me and says, “I just want you to be a satisfied customer.”

If I were George or Jerry, I would have spent the next several days pouring over the wink (What did it mean? Why did he wink? What is the meaning of the wink?) Eventually, I am sure I would have taken the shoes back and demanded my old pair, no doubt calling the guy several names in the process.

Thank God I’m not them, I just scored a brand new pair of shoes.

I’m probably the last person in the galaxy to finally see this, but it was worth the wait: Lucas in Love. Just in case the deep link won’t open, try this one. (This is me admitting to a shameless fasination with anything at all to do with Star Wars.)

The feed was a bit jumpy, but what do you expect, right? The storyline is well worth the eight minutes or so it takes to watch the short. Enjoy.

We are off to Athens, Georgia this weekend for Mary Reed’s grandfather’s 80th birthday. He is an incredible guy, and is in amazing shape. I never imagined that someone in their 80s could seem so…young. (Perhaps he’s in with those guys from Cocoon?)

And, although I have not read Tom Brokaw’s book, I always think of Reed when talking about people from that generation. Here is a man from Georgia, who joins the Army during World War II, becomes a paratrooper, volunteers for Pathfinder (scroll down to the “Landings” section; he was in the 82nd Airborne) duty (one of the elite unit who landed on Normandy in the days before the beach landing to scout and set coordinates for the ships), and then ends the war as some kind of secret agent. Then he went back to Georgia and joined the workforce, and is now living out in the country. I am stunned when I think of the things he has been through, and to him it’s nothing out of the ordinary. He seems very matter of fact about life, and is just thankful to still be here.

Not to pick on the high school kids, but thinking about Reed, and then about the kids from class Wednesday kind of brings a whole new perspective to the generation gap…I mean, they think they have it rough? (I thought I had it rough?)

First - W.’s First Broken Promise.

As promised, more on yesterday’s teaching: In short, First Look uses volunteers to teach classes to high schoolers about the value and importance of community service (what we as a community gain, we as individuals, etc). Then, First Look also supplies the kids with serivce opportunities. There is a five-part course we teach, with different modules designed to help the students see the world in a new way, and to nudge them into thinking that community service is a really good idea, and maybe a fun way to spend a Saturday.

Yesterday’s class was Perspective, wherein we challenged the students to see the world in a new way, or, more importantly, to see other people’s views of the world as valid. Through some exercises and discussion, I think we made a dent.

Don’t get me wrong, I don’t think I’ve changed the world, but there were sparks of recognition and understanding from a few of them.

It’s an iteresting situation - we were teaching in one of the wealthiest school districts in Alabama (no snickering, please) (and, yes, First Look does go into all schools), talking to freshmen about community service. Not to sound cynical, but fourteen and fifteen year-old white righ kids aren’t the easiest sell. But I digress…

The weirdest part about the whole thing (besides the fear of running into my ex, who teaches there) was actually being back in high school. I felt like a freshman all over again. Worse, because I was wearing a suit. And not to sound older than my years, but holy shit these kids can’t dress to save their lives!

I may be digressing again, now I’m no longer sure of my thesis, if ever I even had one. But our kids were good. Very quiet at first, but they warmed up to us as the hour wore on. The teacher is a fellow of Mideastern origin named Mr. Sheik. No shit. Anyway, he gave us a great introduction and talked about how these kids have everything given to them on a platter, and that First Look would be a great way to give back. They ignored and/or made fun of him. I felt badly for him, mostly because I can see myself as one of his students, and I think I would have at least ignored him as well. And then, years later, I would go back and visit him and talk about him as a great guy. He just has that way about him, like Mr. Cleaver. He has some important things to say, but his delivery and his whole sense of youth culture is *so* wrong that you just can’t get past it. But what the hell do I know about it?

As we were leaving, he commented to his class that he has watched some tv the night before and saw Dharma and Greg, and that my wife and I reminded him of the title characters.

I’m still not sure how to take that.

This morning I volunteered with my wife’s organization, First Look, and taught a class of freshmen for an hour.

While I have never *never* considered teaching a pushover or easy occupation, spending some time in a high school today renewed and broadened my respect for teachers. What a job. Details to follow after a big, and potentially ugly meeting today.

I think I may understand what was bothering me yesterday: it wasn’t that I was supposed to do something, but that something was going to happen.

And for some reason I keep singing Eddie Brickell songs in my head. For days. So maybe everything is not ok. I don’t really know.

I love the NY Times. A Modest Proposal, indeed! Go for it, Bill. And Can John Ashcroft Overcome His Ideology? I don’t think so, but what the hell do I know?

I feel like there is something very important that will happen today, or that I should remember to do today, or that has already happened and I don’t know about it. I’ve had this feeling about today since early yesterday afternoon, but I have no idea what the hell it is. Any ideas?

Ron touches one the upcoming trouble with Cabinet confirmations in the Senate on leather egg today. And the NY Times has had some rather scathing things to say about it as well, about Ashcroft in particular. The man scares me, and he embodies exactly the reason that I didn’t want W in the White House. But you can’t always get what you want. And true to form, Alabama’s Senators are not only supportive of Ashcroft, Jeff Sessions is even holding strategy meetings with him.

My wife and I were talking this morning while Matt and Anne (Katie was out) were detailing the Chavez situation, and I commented that it’s amazing that Bush has garnered so much positive press for appointing such a diverse cabinet - never before have so many minorities and women been appointed - but they all think just like him, or worse. I mean, Chavez is a woman who doesn’t think that America has a glass ceiling, and that men don’t make more than women for the same work. Is she living in the same America as the rest of us? Superficial example? Maybe, but I think as time goes on, we will see the true ultra-right/conservative nature of this adminsitration revealed.

God, do I sound like one of the lone gunmen, or what?

On a much more positive note, NPR presented a terrific interview this morning of the Indivisible Project, with Tom Rankin, head of Duke University’s Center for Documentary Studies. Basically, they explored localized grassroots organization and politics in various settings in the US and present the documentary, a travelling exhibit and a book to “offer hope in America, because there are people out there who are working to make a difference in the lives of others. It’s really quite remarkable.” Amen.

Found this quite by accident today online. Hee-he.

We finally caught up on a few films this weekend. Movies, I should say. We saw Summer of Sam, which was OK, Scary Movie, which despite myslef I found hilarious, and High Fidelity, which, of course, was wonderful.

Only in Alabama will a (not so) dead deer rise and be reborn (in the presence of a minister of all people!). I think Flannery O’Connor would have a feild day with this one.

So, I have dropped Blogger, and will proceed for the time being working with FrontPage and Tripod. Laugh if you must, that’s OK by me. Now I just need to find a way to order this mess…Too bad I’m not more of a programmer, this could be a really cool opportunity for me to express my posting-self in an interactive and original layout and design concept.

But that’s just not going to happen. Later, I’ll try to rewrite the really cool Mardi Gras entry that Blogger zapped. But for now: lunch.

Make Blogger faster? Hell, I’d be happy if it worked. I’ve lost somehow three long fun-filled posts in the last two days, and I think I’m done. I’ll either try out greymatter, a la leather egg, or keep on this way, as does ggwoo.

Details at eleven.

Weeeelllll, I wrote a big ole post yesterday about the New Year and all that…it just didn’t seem to make it through the cyberprocess to this place. Sorry.

In short: The New Year’s Event went very well. We invited several folks over for dinner, and had a great night. The meal came off without a hitch, and everyone enjoyed themselves mightily. Some a little too mightily, but not me. And, thankfully, nothing in my house was broken this time around. (The last time we had a party, someone broke the bed in our guestroom…not nice.)

Around 11:00PM on December 31st, it started to snow in Birmingham. Heavily. Since I wasn’t working for days, I have no idea how the roads were, but I heard they were not good. The point is, it snowed here for the second time in a month. A good, quality snow. I mean, the ground was white, that has to count for something. I know, I know, in other parts of the country they deal with much more snow more often and much better than we do. I know, and I understand. Just don’t rain on my parade, OK? Snow in Alabama is a big deal. So back off.

Where was I? Oh, New Year’s… On New Year’s Day, we got up (!), cleaned house (!) and folks came back over to watch the Auburn - Michigan State Bowl game. We lost, but it was a damn good showing, so I’m happy enough. All in all, it was a great five days off.

Happy New Year everyone.