June Bug

During this short Holiday week I usually take a couple days
to attend some of the most recently released movies.
I have a short list of those I want to see before the awards shows ruin
them for me.
First on my list was Juno, and if I don't see another movie this year I would be
fine with that.

Juno, the story of a 16 year old girl,
an outcast at her High School.
It brought back so many memories to me.
I knew this girl in school she was a friend of mine
through my Sophomore year.
Then she got pregnant and quit school to get married.
I didn't see much of her until about 5 years ago when we started communicating
again.
I wish she was here today so we could have gone to this movie together.
but she died last year from cancer.

So as I sat in the theater I thought of Sue
and I laughed and I cried,
and I wondered if Sue had followed Juno's path
would her life have been more meaningful.

Juno played by Ellen Page was so wise for her young years.
I don't know if credit can be given to Ellen's outstanding performance
or a script magnificently written by Diablo Cody.
I just know that Juno is hard to forget and I'm sure there are a lot of Juno's
in schools everywhere today.

Diablo Cody a former stripper in Minneapolis clubs,
is Hollywood's hottest screen writer right now.
She has two or three movies in development, and
is writing a TV series for Stephen Spielberg.
I look forward to seeing anything of hers they put on screen.
Her writing is beyond compare to anything I have read.
I do worry about her, she did not have an easy life and
I suspect she was Juno.
She well deserves all the praise she is getting.
I just hope she can handle the pressure of such an overnight success.

I give this movie 4 stars, and recommend it to anyone who has
teenagers in school, male or female.

Happy Christmaka!!

Letter from Joy

I received this letter from My sister in law. We will be spending Christmas day with her and my brother and their family.

Click to enlarge:

Traditions

Here I sit drinking Oprah's favorite
Pomegranate Martini with my own twist,
she uses way to much Pomegranate juice.
My version is

2 shots vanilla vodka,
1/2 shot Triple Sec
2 shots juice
Very tasty, and it might be my new favorite holiday drink.

We had our family Christmas today, and it went by way to fast.
All the preparation for just a few hours, but it was
so fun to see the Grand kids and listen to their lives
It's different when there is only one cute little 5 1/2 year old
Princess Amalia.
The joy of Christmas is because of children.

The rest of the G kids are age 13 to 28 and their lives are so busy.
Two of our Granddaughters had to work, so we missed seeing them.
I hope we can catch up sometime in the next couple weeks.

We played a couple games to exchange gifts and I enjoyed them very much,
something better then just sitting and opening gifts.
In the past when our 3 oldest Grandsons were young, we would end the night playing Trivial Pursuit, or cards.
But now every one is in such a rush and it is hard to try and find a relaxing way
to spend the holidays.
Trying to make things less stressful is stressful in its self.
Next year we will have another Granddaughter in law
and she has a few tricks up her sleeve already for next Christmas.
Our second oldest grandson will be getting married on Memorial day weekend.
Their daughter Princess Amalia will be the flower girl.
She is growing her red hair long and
if I have my way she will wear a crown.

Christmas day we will go to my brothers family celebration,
one member of his family won't be there.

We will all be thinking about her.

CC Eaton

It was 45 years ago today That my Dad left this planet.
He was just 56 years old.
Since his death 2 Grandsons carry his name.
My son born 3 months later KC, and my Nephew CC Eaton, who
was born a few years later.

It seems strange it has been that long and
so strange I couldn't get through this day
without thinking about him every few minutes.

I think that was the year that my Christmas Spirit
died and now I just go through the motions.

Friday I helped at a lunch after the funeral of a woman who died at age 56.
While watching everyone at the luncheon, I realized another family was going to lose those feelings of joy that we all use to feel when we were younger.

Today I volunteered for my Womans Club,wrapping gifts at our local shopping mall.
Wednesday, some of us are taking a friend to lunch for her birthday.
A friend I have had for 40 years, who suffers during the holidays because
she lost her son then her husband a few years later, both in the month of December.

You have to go on, its just so hard sometimes when you see so much pain in this world.
I think about all those families in Iraq suffering because of loss's.

Yes, there are many Christians there celebrating the birth of Christ.

Something many people forget, that the middle east is where HE was born.
That, the real message of Christmas is.
"Peace on Earth, Good will toward Man."

It just seems that many in this country have forgotten that.

Kenny Kenmore

After waiting all day on Monday, service plus came around 3:30.
Diagnosis was quick, it was the heating element on the defroster and of course he had to order the part.
He spent about an hour with a heating gun melting the ice on the coils, and told me it would be fine for a couple days.
I left everything out in the garage anyway.
When the part came, I called and rescheduled and they came back Tuesday around 4:00.
So my latest bump was taken care of and thanks to Service Plus we didn't have to pay the couple hundred bucks it would have cost.
Bill the Repairman told me I should have a few good years left on Kenny Kenmore,
but being the skeptic I am,
I think I'll be shopping next spring.
Now back to my original plans.

Thanks for the good thoughts.

BAH HUMBUG!!

Don't you get pissed when you think you have all your eggs in a row and then one of them breaks?
Last night I noticed my freezer wasn't cooling properly so I turned it up.
Denial, because I had this week planned.
Got my groceries yesterday and was going to do some pre-cooking and freeze a few things to make quick meals next week.
Well this morning the freezer wasn't any better and the refrigerator wasn't cooling either.
I farmed out my freezer supplies to a neighbor and put the Fridge stuff in a cooler in the garage.
I called Service Plus, and they will be out tomorrow morning.
I am hoping it can be fixed because the last think I need is to go shopping for a major appliance and listen to Ho Ho music at the same time.

KEITH BELONGS ON NETWORK TV

MORE SECRETS

Every time I turn on the news lately there seems to be more
illegal activities going on in Washington, under Bushes watch
The latest information is about the CIA destruction of at least 2 videotapes
documenting the interrogation of two Al-Qaida operatives.
Tapes that should have been turned over to the 9/11 commission.
According to sources the videotapes may have shown
severe interrogation techniques, including water boarding,
in plain English torture.
President Bush says, yesterday was the first he knew about the tapes.
Ya Sure!!
I hope that the Democratic congress does not ignore the CIA's obstruction of justice
It is time to get at the truth, it is time for people to demand accountability
of those in charge.
If they don't they are just as culpable as the White House.

MEET TECHY FLASH

Author of 'liberal' blog may lean left, but he aims to be right
By Charley Shaw, Legal Ledger Staff Writer
December 3, 2007

Don't get Kurt Schiebel wrong. The St. Paul blogger known as Flash who writes the Centrisity blog is admittedly left of the political center.

He identifies himself as a Democrat; he's supporting New Mexico Gov. Bill Rich-ardson's bid for the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination. And Schiebel's liberal stance runs in the family: his mother, Jean, served as one of 10 U.S. Electoral College "electors" in Minnesota for Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry for the 2004 election.

But Schiebel, 47, often takes heat from fellow liberals in the blogosphere on a host of issues ranging from Minnesota's smoking ban to welfare policy to the war in Iraq.

"I guess the small 'l' libertarian has come out of me. I think I recognize that government doesn't necessarily dictate everything we do in our lives. But they do have a role to play," Schiebel says.

Schiebel's penchant for intra-party controversy was evident on Nov. 20 when his Centrisity blog linked to a news article about a captured al-Qaeda leader in Iraq who reportedly joined the insurgent group because of financial incentives rather than a devotion to ideology.

Schiebel wrote that if Iraqis are joining the insurgency, especially for financial and not religious reasons, that's an impediment to the U.S. winning the war in Iraq – a war that, contrary to what most liberal bloggers advocate, Schiebel believes the U.S. has to and can win.

"We need a new leader who is serious about winning this war, and I don't think we can wait 14 months to get it. But at this rate, the stagnation will continue and we will have to redefine victory just to save face," Schiebel wrote.

"This mess continues to be mismanaged," Schiebel continued, "and the few of us left supporting this war is becoming fewer yet." (Schiebel's blog is at centrisity.blogspot.com).

Schiebel's criticism of President Bush coupled with his hope to secure victory in Iraq was received like heresy by his fellow bloggers on the left. Charley Underwood, who writes at the liberal Minnesota Blue (www.mnblue.com), quickly joined the fray at Centrisity.

"Flash, you and I have a long history of disagreement about this war. You continue to be concerned about 'mismanagement,' while I find the entire war morally wrong and flawed in its basic conception. I celebrate that our disagreement has been polite and respectful, with none of the name-calling and dismissiveness that has often been typical of these discussions," Underwood wrote.

Fellow bloggers echo Underwood's sentiment that Schiebel is controversial but not confrontational.

Mitch Berg, a conservative who writes at Shot in the Dark (www.shotinthedark.info), has known Schiebel for more than 15 years. They used to baby-sit each other's children, and Berg introduced Schiebel to blogging more than five years ago.

"He gets flak from both sides. I think he might be one of the last of the Kennedy Democrats out there," Berg says, referring to the foreign policy of former President John F. Kennedy.

Schiebel celebrated Centrisity's fifth anniversary on Nov. 19.

When he first started writing the blog, readers informed Schiebel that he was spelling the word "Centricity" wrong. So Schiebel put his own definition of Centrisity at the top of his blog: "Being right, even tho you lean Left."

A computer technician for the St. Paul public schools, Schiebel typically gets up at about 5:30 a.m. and reads the papers. He then writes and saves his work. En route to work, Schiebel takes time to think over his writing and then, after reflection, dispatches his posts into cyberspace.

He doesn't usually blog during weekday evenings or on the weekends, when he makes his family life his priority.

"I call myself a blue-collar blogger. ... I'm not like other bloggers where that is their social life," Schiebel says.

He lives in the Midway area of St. Paul with his second wife, Andrea. He has raised four boys, one biological and three step-sons. The two youngest boys are in high school, one recently graduated and the oldest is in the Marines stationed in Florida.

Schiebel was born in St. Peter and raised in Brooklyn Center. He received a bachelor's degree in finance from St. Cloud State University in 1985. He wanted to be a stock broker, but stock market declines in the late 1980s convinced him to move in a different direction.

Growing up in Brooklyn Center, Schiebel was exposed early to politics, especially DFL politics.

He used to cut former state legislator and U.S. Congressman Bill Luther's grass in the 1970s. He interned for Brooklyn Center DFLers Luther and Bob Ellingson at the state Capitol.

His mom, who's long been active in DFL politics, is his political role model.

"Mom's involvement showed me that you could make a difference without having to be an elected official," Schiebel says.

His father, an accountant, was a Republican. The senior Schiebel served as a campaign treasurer for former House Speaker Phil Carruthers, a Democrat formerly from Brooklyn Center.

Schiebel has other interests besides politics. In particular, he enjoys marching in drum and bugle corps. He started in 1978 by learning to play the two-valved soprano trumpet. He has marched most often with the Minnesota Brass, but in 2005 Schiebel marched with the Govenairs from St. Peter, the drum corps in which his father marched in the 1950s and 1960s and his grandfather in the 1920s. Due to the demands of family life, however, Schiebel stopped marching in 2006.

Blogging fills up Schiebel's free time now. And while he credits Berg's influence in turning him on to blogging, he doesn't give his conservative friend any leeway when writing about politics.

"We don't get along online but we get along off line," Schiebel says.

Through blogging, Schiebel has interviewed big-name politicians like Gov. Richardson of New Mexico and gotten to cover major political events.

In October, Schiebel and two other bloggers spent an hour interviewing U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn.

Schiebel sees bloggers gaining more recognition aside mainstream political journalists. He now consistently gets media credentials and Internet connections that enable him to blog at political events. Three years ago, this didn't always happen.

"The new media is starting to become a part of the respected media. There was a time two or three years ago where we were not part of the respected media," Schiebel says. "What's really going to be interesting is what happens next year at the Republican National Convention (in St. Paul)."

Schiebel counts the debates he's had with people from diverse political perspectives as the benefit of his five years wrangling in the Minnesota political blogosphere.

"The neatest thing is all the people I've met from both sides of the aisle. ... Regardless of how brash they can be or how sensible they can be, they're all the same in the sense that they want what's best for our country and our state and our world. The difference is how they get there."