Did someone say Hail Storm?

Check it out!

This is pretty good


... sorry Skog.

37,846 Signatures!!!

That is all!

So they're wrappin up early?

I see SD Healthy Families is calling in all the "repeal HB1215" petition signatures early to avoid any legal challenges. Any guesses as to how many people signed? I'm guessing 40,000 or so.

And the chicken was tasty too...

So I just got back from the Second Annual Epiphanies...Central High School's Theatre Awards (aka the CHS Players Award Show...aka a really cool gig)

It opened with a nice social half-hour with background music courtesy of JFAT's latest album (aka my personal favorite...aka a really good CD).

Move on to dinner...it was tasty...

Then to the awards portion of the evening...

It opened with an awesome video synopsis of the year. I can't believe the second year topped the first, and although Justin is really sick of hearing this...I have no idea how CHS Players are going to top this year...but they will...because last year I said the same thing.

Then there was a great duet by Justin and Jenn...bravo you singers...bravo.

As a rule, awards shows tend to drone on and are full of people who thank others because they have to, but are really standing there and saying, "Look at me! I rock!"

Now these students had more than a right to do just that, because they do rock.

But that's not what they did.

It was amazing. EVERY SINGLE WINNER stood before the crowd humbled that their peers would honor them in such a fashion. They thanked other people, and I know they meant it. I find it incredible that young men and women at that age already have an understanding that one person doesn't shine without the support of others. Cheesy to say, but they all realized that it takes a village. Props to the faculty in the department for helping young people comprehend something that takes others years to understand.

That's right...Central High School Drama is a village. And what a village it is. I'm excited to visit that village again next year. Some people are moving out of the village, and others are moving in. However, because of what has happened in that village, they all will call it home regardless of where they move to in the coming year.

And that's wicked cool.

Oh yeah, and the chicken was tasty too...

World Leaders Exchange Tips

On an early trip to Great Britain,
George W. Bush had a meeting with Queen Elizabeth.
He asked her, "How does one manage to run a country so smoothly?"

"That’s easy", she replied, "You surround yourself with intelligent ministers and advisors."
"But how can I tell whether they are intelligent or not?" he inquired."You ask them a riddle," she replied, and with that she pressed a button and said, "Would you please send Tony Blair in".
When Blair arrived, the Queen said, "I have a riddle for you to answer for me.
Your parents had a child and it was not your sister and it was not your brother. Who was this child?"
Blair replied, "That’s easy. The child was me".
"Very good," said the Queen, "You may go, now".
So, President Bush went back to Washington and called in his chief of staff, Karl Rove.
He said to him, "I have a riddle for you, and the answer is very important. Your parents had a child and it was not your sister and it was not your brother. Who was this child?"
Rove replied, "Yes, it is clearly very important that we determine the answer, as no child must be left behind. Can I deliberate on this for a while”?
"Yes," said Bush, "I'll give you four hours to come up with the answer".So, Rove went and called a meeting of the White House Staff, and asked them the riddle. But after much discussion and many suggestions, none of them had a satisfactory answer. So he was quite upset, not knowing what he would tell the President.As Rove was walking back to the Oval Office, he saw former Secretary of State Colin Powell approaching him.
So he said, "Mr. Secretary, can you answer this riddle for me?Your parents had a child and it was not your sister and it was not your brother. Who was the child?"
"That's easy," said Powell, "The child was me".
"Oh thank you," said Rove, "You may just have saved me my job”!So Rove went in to the Oval Office and said to President Bush,
"I think I know the answer to your riddle.
The child was Colin Powell”!

"No, you idiot!" shouted Bush."The child was Tony Blair!"

Bored this summer?

It's almost the end of May, which means it's almost the start of June, which means it's time for the PLAYZOW (That's Eekerz for Playhouse).

The lineup is way solid:
1. Play It Again, Sam
2. A Chorus Line
3. Fiddler on the Roof
4. The Man Who Came to Dinner
5. Hay Fever

There are lots of friends that will be down there, which means there are lots of friends who should go visit?

This friend right here...I'm pointing to myself...is on the Board, which means this friend right here...again pointing to myself...is selling Season Tickets. Let me know if you want a book, ten or twenty. I also have forms you can fill out so your park pass can be mailed to you. On that very same form (the very same one!) there's also a chance to write down a donation amount you want to give to the BHP.

Woot!

Sarah

Owl

Your left break light doesn't work.

So Sven and Ole go to the beach, and after a couple hours Sven says, "This ain't no fun. How come the girls aren't friendly to me?"

"Well, I tell you, Sven, maybe if you put a potato in your swim trunks that would help."

---So Sven does, but he comes back to Ole later, and he says, "I tried what you told me with the potato, but it doesn't help."

"No, Sven --- you're supposed to put the potato in the front."

check this out!

Its wicked cool

This was in the Letters to the Editior... I thought I would share

Most enjoyable

Last night I was privileged to experience the Central High School's Performing Arts' rendition of "Les Miserables." The voices, the cast, the sets, makeup, costumes and the orchestra - it was hard to believe this was a high school group! Absolutely outstanding!

A special thank you to Justin Speck, Clayton Southwick, Bruce Knowles and Joey Lore. Your love of the arts and dedication to education was manifested in a very special way in this very challenging production.

Thank you to all the young people - "a cast of thousands" - for a most enjoyable evening! We are truly blessed to have this caliber of performance in our local high school.

DEAUN WEST

Rapid City

I can't help myself

This was the title in one of my spam messages today:

Make yourself Claire more attractive to other Claires



...priceless

Friday's Caption Contest

CAPTION ME...US....CAPTION US!

Reprise: Built In Conflict

Here's why we're capable of understanding the whole socio/political spectrum. It comes from inside our psyches.

Notice that the tribe forms itself into aspects of the individual personality. Then civilizations roll out along those same lines. Here I've shown society evolving from the self through the Tribal and Agrarian Societies to the Industrial Age. There is also a new level of society beyond Industrial just taking shape. There is a separate conflict circle for each heading. I'll put them up as we go along.

For now, just look this over and see if it makes sense to you.

BOF

Oh the places Eekerz shouldn't go...

It's official. Eekerz shouldn't vacation in Miami.

"My Life" by Skoggle

Okay, so the title has already been used...

So I just read an article that says 68% of Americans think that their lives are worthy of a book.

Is it a valid survey? Probably not.

Anywho...it still got me thinking...what would the title of my book be? What would be the most compelling chapter?

Here's my spur of the moment idea for myself: "Mein Liten Vida" by Skoggle

Most compelling chapter: Chapter 19 - Sverige OR Chapter 1 - The Giant Baby is Born

What about your book?

S

Sidenote: Yes, the same article also says that 23% of those surveyed said they had sex tips they could share. Here's mine: Never play leapfrog with a unicorn. Okay, it's not really a sex tip, but not following the tip could lead to no sex.

Lilac Party!

Wednesday Night: 6:30
Good food, good smells, good folks, good times.

See you there

I'm still stunned by it.

That wasn't a "high school play" it was a work of art.

A masterpiece.

I said to Ethunk, Spinny and Chop, "that was the real thing".

And Ethunk said, "that may be one of the few times we'll ever see the real thing."

She's right.

Last time I had a buzz like that was in Paris, standing at the back of Notre Dame Cathedral when the bells went off and the pigeons ascended through the ancient, yet futuristic, flying buttresses — literally pulling a stream of tears from my whole being down into the River Seine.

That same thing happened to me yesterday during the solo — sung with such mature insight, genuine passion and pure poetic brilliance — as the actor's compatriots slept before battle.

I was right back there in Paris.

I could hear the bells.

I could smell the blood, roses, perfume, sweat, and gunpowder.

I could taste the offal and carnage on the Seine River bank.

I could feel our combined hearts, ripped to shreads, then halfway mending...for all the wrong — and all the right — reasons.

And yes... at long last, I could hear us — all of us — "We the people" sing.

..exactly what Eekers had in mind, I presume.

Thank you, thank you, thank you, Eeks, Giant, et al.

Bravo.

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!!!

So I know for a fact that I wouldn't be where I am today if it wasn't for the love of my Mom, who rocks.

So to all the moms out there...thanks for being an inspiration for your children and HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!!!

Grrrrrrrr....

There's something about the Spave...it makes my Internet Explorer tell me there's an error and then forces me to close the window.

So I can't read and participate in the Spave.

Did somebody put some weird video clip on here that makes it freeze? Is it only me that has this problem? Where are my pants?

Yeah, so.... Its GOOD ok?

And now...it's arrived!

Holy crap! It's here, it's arrived. Wow - boy, am I exhausted. Break-a-leg everyone! I love you all. I sincerely hope you can all make it to this amazing epic. The chills have already begun. Can you hear the people sing?

The cool part

The cool part.

Spinfly will put one last color wheel up, and we'll finish this thing up here, right Spinny?

This is powerful.

Hey Chop...

You owe me $3. Just pay your sister, who bought me a Diet Coke on Saturday.

Holler.

Oh Yeah... It Happened.... She's Not All Talk After All

Happy Birthday!

Have a wonderful day, Jenn! What a great day of baseball, badmitton and BBQ.

Round 3 Anyone?

These are freakin' AWESOME!!!

I'll give three whole dollars to anybody that can tell me when I can aquire some.

Color Wheel

Friday's Caption Contest

CAPTION ME!!

Ok, here comes the circle idea, takin' it slow.

When we talk about politics whether its National, Local or even within Families, we tend to think of the spectrum of possible positions as existing somewhere on a line with liberals on the left and conservatives on the right, moderates in the middle. And we tend to think of ourselves a occupying a position (a specific point) somewhere on that line, right?

Let's start there and see if everyone basically agrees with that general construct.

And let's also add these two definitions.


lib·er·al·ism
n.
A political theory founded on the natural goodness of humans and the autonomy of the individual and favoring civil and political liberties, government by law with the consent of the governed, and protection from arbitrary authority.



con·ser·va·tism
n.
A political philosophy or attitude emphasizing respect for traditional institutions, distrust of government activism, and opposition to sudden change in the established order.


We think of "moderates" as being somewhere in between the two poles, and "radicals" way out at the far ends, both left and right – the left and right "wings". I mantain that there is something seriously wrong with looking at things this way and that it leads to our not knowing where were really at politically sometimes.

After we discuss this a little, we'll get to the circle idea.

He Was Off His Nut Anyway

Sooooo Sibby quit the Blogmore huh?

Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg compares Republican and religious right court critics to "Soviet Union"

Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg said Tuesday that a Republican proposal in Congress to set up a watchdog over the federal courts is a "really scary idea."

"My sense now is that the judiciary is under assault in a way that I haven't seen before," she said.As an example, she mentioned proposals by senior Republicans who want an inspector general to police judges' acceptance of free trips or their possible financial interests with groups that could appear before them.

"It sounds to me very much like the Soviet Union was .... That's a really scary idea," said Ginsburg, who was put on the court by President Clinton and is one of its liberal members

...this is straight off Americablog.com

Skoggle???????????????????????

This makes me ill.

Warning: Extremely F*&%ed up lady.

Snaps for Spin, Chop and Mini-Spin

Snaps for Spin, Chop and Mini-Spin. Why? Because they came to my softball game this evening.

Sidenote: No snaps to Owl, who called them and made them go over to his house, so they couldn't stay for the second game.

Sidenote II: We REALLY lost the second game, so Owl is forgiven.

Anyway...snaps to my friends for coming out and watching me do something I love doing. I bestow upon them this photo of the Friendship Carebear. If they want to, they can print it out and color it.

However, if they do that, I would like to see them scan a photo of the finished product and post it on this here blog.

Word. --S

one of those things in the middle of South Dakota

in·ter·ro·bang also in·ter·a·bang Pronunciation (n-tr-bng)
n.
A punctuation mark in the form of a question mark superimposed on an exclamation point, used to end a simultaneous question and exclamation.

Poll Time...

Moment of honesty...

Who's excited about THIS?

I KNOW I AM!!

My turn!!!

This is pretty good...