A series of weak moments

I recently posted a rather embarrassing video of myself on my facebook page.  Call it a moment of weakness or better yet a series of weak moments.  Before I tell you anymore, I should fill you in on the backstory...

About six weeks ago I was invited to dinner with a friend at her sister's place.  While we were visiting it came up that the sister, the sister's son-in-law, and the sister's ten year old grandson all routinely use an item called the "neti pot".  I had not heard of a neti pot before and so made the mistake of inquiring more about it.  It was described as a pot used to hold a warm water and salt mixture that then gets poured into one nostril and come out the other!  

I thought they were joking.  Next thing I knew they were showing them off to us.  Yes, they actually traveled with them.  I still couldn't get over the concept.  I just thought it sounded so funny.  My friend kind of agreed and it became a running joke between the two of us.  If one of us cleared our throat or had to blow our nose, they other would chime "better get a neti pot!"  

Well, fortunately it was coming up to Christmas and I knew exactly what I wanted to get my friend--yes, you guessed it--a neti pot.  And in my first moment of weakness in this tale, I actually bought it and gave it to her.  Her reaction was priceless.  Her family was excited.  I still thought the whole thing was amusing.  Until later when we were back at her place and she decided we should try the neti pot, recording it as proof for her family.  Now that still wouldn't have been too terrible except the experience didn't go as smoothly as it sounded which resulted in a hilarious and truth-be-told quite disgusting video of her.  So she insisted I try it too. And with a deadly combination of curiosity and weakness (number 2) I agreed.  

My video of course was no better. Unless you're talking entertainment value.  It was so horrible it made us laugh until we cried.  Deb went off and within an hour she had both on youtube with the privacy function, or so I thought.  She sent them off to her sister who sent them to her son-in-law and every one got a big kick out of it.  Belly laughs were had by all I heard.  Again, I didn't think to much of it. Until...

The next morning we got up and went over to work on the computers (I'm staying with this friend a couple of weeks to work on video projects on her mac).  I started on my video editing and she checked her email.  Next thing I know, I look over and she's on the youtube site.  "I guess I didn't make those videos private" she reports, "there's 18 hits on the your video".  I quickly did some math, her sister, the son-in-law, the grandson--that's three, that would mean they would have had to each watch the video 6 times--oh crap.  I knew complete strangers had now seen me with a spout jammed up my nose with face contortions even a cartoonist couldn't imagine.  

Sure enough, on closer look it was revealed that people from all over the world had watched my video.  There were hits in New Zealand, Belgium, Italy, France, Germany and of course the United States.  I was at a critical turning point.  I could either be completely embarrassed about this fact or I could just accept it and go with it.  It's never been easy for me to laugh at myself and I tend to take life a bit too seriously sometimes.  Since it was the New Year I opted to take the adventurous route.  "Let the video be out there" I said and I tried to convince myself it was going to be all right.    

That morning when a friend IM'd me on facebook I thought I'd test the waters, so I shared the link to the video.  She said she had tears running down her face.  She shared it with her husband who is a colleague of mine at school and his response was "I know what I'm showing at your retirement party".  At that point in what I call my third and final moment of weakness in this saga, I plunged full-heartedly into the "laugh and the world laughs with you" route and posted my video on facebook.

I'm still not sure if that was the right decision or not.  It's not good to have embarrassing evidence out there as the article linked below will attest.  But done is done.  And from what I've heard, and from what my friends have reported on my facebook wall, a good laugh has been had by many.  I'm happy to report this time I'm laughing with being laughed at.

Tips for budding politicians on how to avoid embarrassment on Facebook. - By Abby Callard - Slate Ma

Santa Claus is Coming to Town!

Ho Ho Ho!! Well it seems Santa Claus is coming to town. Or in this case, Auntie Kari is coming to town! I spent a good part of yesterday and this morning sorting through the gifts I've purchased for family and friends and then set about the task of wrapping them all. This used to be on all day event until I discovered Christmas bags! I love them. It goes so much easier than trying to find a box for those odd shaped gifts and then dealing with all the wrapping paper. Although, I still feel somewhat guilty about taking this route. Not sure why. Afterall, it's not the packaging that really matters. So they say.

My friend tells the story about how she was home for Christmas a few years ago and went with her family to the church service on Christmas Day. The church had gotten a new pastor since she had been there last and so this was her introduction to him. She recounts how his homily started that day. This is now second hand, but it went something like this, "This is the time of year when alot of time is spent on pondering gifts and worrying about wrapping them up just right. But we shouldn't worry about what's on the outside. It's what's on the inside that really matters. Why just the other day I received a gift that came wrapped in a plain old newspaper. I can't remember what the gift was but..." My friend said she and her siblings couldn't look at each other for fear of setting off the dreaded laugh-that-must-but-can-not-come-out. Apparently he should have used the other cliche for his homily "It's not the gift itself but the thought that counts" since the gift was rather forgettable.

That's kind of been a fear of mine. I don't want my gifts to be forgettable. I work very hard at picking out just the right items for people. Which is why I think I feel compulsive about then taking the extra time and care to "wrap it with love" versus just throwing it in a bag. But have you tried loading up a car full of gifts in a manner that won't squish any bows? It's an engineering puzzle for sure. And then the gifts just get ripped into anyway right?

Maybe there can be a happy medium somewhere in the gift-wrapping world. That's the place I tried to go to this year. I put some gifts in bags and wrapped others. Although I have to say my most memorable Christmas wrapping year (and the one I'm most proud of) was the year I focused on recycling. I didn't use any store bought wrapping or bags. I used material from my mothers endless fabric collection (years of well-intentioned projects that never saw a sewing machine), old newspapers, and other miscellaneous and creative coverings.

So whatever you choose to wrap your gifts with this year just remember it's not what's on the outside that really mattters...unless it does!




I'm counting my hour of shoveling as exercise today!
Post post note: According to calorielab.com I just burned around 340 calories. So heck, I am for sure counting that as exercise!

Time--A guest blog by Larry Kellerman

The following is from an email sent by Larry Kellerman, Librarian at Central Lakes College. The email was sent on December 16, 2008 to faculty and staff at the college. The following is used with his permission.


The topic is time. This is an academic institution where we teach English grammar. Yet, one particular grammatical error shows up in much of what we post on the walls and in other documents. The time. More examples later. First some facts:
Meridian means “noon" (mid-day).
Anti- means “before.”
Post means “after.”

Anti-Meridian abbreviated is “a.m.” (lower case a, period, lower case m, period.)
Post-Meridian abbreviated is “p.m.” (lower case p., period, lower case m. period.)
Capital “A.M.” mean amplitude modulation (great sound).
Capital “P.M.” means Prime Minister. Also used for Post Master, Provost Marshall and Past Master (of a lodge).
Lower case “am” without periods is a form of “to be.” I am …
Lower case “pm” has no meaning.

The number and the colon have different meanings if the a.m. or p.m. are not included.
9:18 could be a ratio of 3:6 or 1:2.
9:18 a.m. is a specific time of morning.
9:18 am is a ratio of who you are.
9:00 (with the double zeros) is also important. It indicates “o’clock.”

The hour number without the double zeros, but with a.m. or p.m. is also acceptable, but less specific.
Without the period, 9 am could mean “9 am going to do something.” Also bad grammar.
(All of the above is based on the O.E.D. (that’s the Oxford English Dictionary).

My Homemade Christmas Gifts

I've spent this last week working on a homemade Christmas gift for my family. I was originally going to work on my Egypt videos but since we ran into a wall with that because they were recorded with a Sony camera that records unto mini-dvds in file formats that is not compatible with any editing software, I moved onto the Christmas gifts. My friend Deb on the otherhand has continued to work on the challenge of finding some conversion software that will allow us to edit my hours and hours, no make that days and days, of recordings. The closest we've come is being able to get it into a new file format but sound and images are off, and not by a little, by about 6 seconds!!! Stupid camera! Any other video recorder would be just fine. So frustrating!!!! Just had to complain about that for a little bit...now back to my topic on hand...while Deb worked on researching and trial and error attempts, I worked on my Christmas gift. Surprisingly, it took alot more time than I expected but it's done. I also think it turned out quite well. I'd tell you what it was, but I don't want to ruin the surprise for my family. Let me just say--I had to use my computer to create it!

I wanted to blog about it for a couple of reasons. First, some of you were probably wondering what was up that I hadn't blogged for awhile. Second, I wanted to talk about homemade gifts. As a child, I recall homemade gifts as being less than desirable. It was kind of right up there with gift cards. As a kid, none of my friends wanted a gift card. We wanted stuff. I can remember adults making comments about gift cards showing a lack of effort or thought. Now, that's almost all my teenage relatives seem to want. In fact, it's also what some of their parents recommend we get. So here lies my delemna...what's the current perception on homemade gifts? I hope they like it. I think they will. I put in so many hours of time and care and love trying to make it just perfect--will it be appreciated? Or will it be looked at as less than desirable?

I guess looking back at my thoughts on homemade gifts is influencing me now, making me overly worried about all of this. Maybe karma is coming into play or maybe it's just my paranoid personality. But hopefully they'll like it--I think it's kinda cool. And after Christmas, I promise to let you in on my Christmas gift secret and then you can judge it for yourself.



Other questions for thought:
What homemade gifts did you receive that you really liked?

Did you get any that you weren't real excited about?

What influenced your opinion on the gift?

EGYPT: There and Back Again

"THERE AND BACK AGAIN: A TRAVELLER'S TALE"

Click on this link to read the article about my trip to Egypt published in CLC' newspaper, The Westbank Journal: CLICK ME

The article/interview was conducted by student Westbank Staffer, Hannah Allen.  It was published in the May 7, 2008 issue (pages 6,7, and 9).  Published here with permission of Westbank Journal Faculty Advisor Mike Soderlund.

The Sights and Symbols of Christmas

This evening my friend and I did a little "drive around" to see the sights of Christmas. We like to do so in the evening when many of the houses are lit up with those special decorations that come out only once a year. There was fresh fallen snow today and I guess we were just in the Christmas mood. Although the economy is sluglish, there were still several houses that seemed to have gone all out. We were not disappointed. It was a wonderland of Christmas with all the typical symbols and colors that go with the season.

Then of course, there also seemed to be an over abundance of those white-light deer. If you're from Minnesota you know exactly what I'm talking about. For some reason, people seem to confuse wood deer with santa's reindeer. They look different folks!!! Maybe there's a Christmas deer story out there that I just don't know about. Or perhaps people know there is a difference but figure they're in the same animal class so "close enough". But really wood deer are not Christmassy. But this is when they're put out. Think about it. Come January the white deer will be gone, packed away with the rest of the Christmas decorations. I find that funny. It also makes me wonder if it's only in Minnesota that this is done. I can't seem to picture them being put up all across the United States. But for whatever the reason the fad started, those perky and sometimes animated deer seem to be just as populous here in Minnesota as the real ones that run through our forests and jump out in front of cars (two friends of mine have collided with deer this week alone!). And when the fake ones are all lit up, they just seem to blend right in with all the other colorful Christmas yard decorations.

However, the biggest kick of the evening came when we drove through a little town called St. Hilaire which seemed to be glowing. House after house was decked out with lights and decorations. Then as we approached the last house on the block admiring the usual festive symbols, we turned the corner and there it was with all the other luminous Christmas flair. At first I thought "wow that deer has an awfully long neck" and then it hit me. "That's no deer--it's a giraffe!" A Christmas giraffe! I kid you not. And of course, I didn't have my camera. And no I hadn't been drinking (well ok I had one beer with supper but that had been HOURS previous to our little Christmas adventure).

I might have to go back tomorrow night to get a picture. I was going to go back tonight but it was already 10:30 pm and by the time we drove home, got the camera and drove back (an 18 mile round trip) I was afraid the home owner would turn out the lights and the trip would be for naught. But that little visit got me thinking about Christmas and the influence culture has on the symbols people associate with it. Think about the colors, the shapes, the smells, the food. Think about what you would see on an average drive down a typical neighborhood at night the week before Christmas. Even Santa one of the biggest Christmas symbols is culturally unique. He has different names in different countries, he wears different colors and different clothing in different places, and I hear his behavior can change from region to region. But nowhere in my studies of Christmas symbols have I heard of the Christmas giraffe. But I gotta admit--I liked being surprised! So that's my reality for today!

If you want to know more about how Christmas is celebrated all over the world here's a great website I found: http://www.santas.net/aroundtheworld.htm

"A Date Which Will Live In Infimy"

Today marks the 67th anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor.The attacks that started around 8 am on that morning and lasted about a couple of hours resulted in 2,403 American deaths (68 of which were civilian) 21 US ships damaged or sunk, 159 US aircrafts damaged and 188 aircrafts totally destroyed according to the Department of Defense. As most know, this event was the impetus for the United States to enter World War II.

The sneak attack on Pearl Harbor and the 9-11 attacks on the United States in 2001 have many similarities. However, the technology and the forms of media used in 1941 and 2001 are not as similar. Even since 2001 there have been substantial changes. This becomes apparent when analyzing the timeline surrounding the Pearl Harbor attacks and message disemination thereafter and thinking about how those messages would have been communicated today. It's crazy to think about especially when you think about the fact that it was only 67 years ago.

One of the most famous messages that came out of that time period was President Franklin Roosevelt's "Day of Infimy" speech delivered on his first address to the nation after the attacks. He addressed a joint session of Congress and the Nation via radio at 12:30 pm on December 8th. The following link has the timeline as well as a link to his speech: http://www.authentichistory.com/ww2/news/19411207-8.html

Contrast that with how people got their information about what was happening on 9-11.

Pictured in this blog is President Roosevelt's Reading copy of his famous speech. According to the National Archives at http://www.archives.gov/education/lessons/day-of-infamy/ President Roosevelt dictated his speech to his secretary, Grace Tully, at 5:00 Pm. "President Roosevelt then revised the typed draft—marking it up, updating military information, and selecting alternative wordings that strengthened the tone of the speech. He made the most significant change in the critical first line, which originally read, "a date which will live in world history." Grace Tully then prepared the final reading copy, which Roosevelt subsequently altered in three more places." (National Archives www.archives.gov/education/lessons/day-of-infamy). A typewriter! Most of my students have probably never used a typewriter.

Although some might dispute this, I don't consider myself that old. I remember typing research papers on a typewriter and the planning and organization it involved. I also remember the frustration of what finding one spelling mistake meant to a completed paper. Heaven forbid if you wanted to add a word or two--it could mean having to retype the entire paper. And don't even get me started on footnotes!!!

So yes, technology has changed greatly in less than a person's lifetime. And yes, within this timespan we as a nation have experienced some major tragedies and defining moments that altered our history--the attacks on Pearl Harbor and 9-11 are just two. And it is because of both the similarities and the differences in these two "moments" in history that they can and should be compared.