Greetings, and welcome to another Fuzzy Friday open thread.
It being Friday I've again stepped into my litterbox and am straining to come up with something worth sharing. Oh well, I need to relax and just let things come naturally. I've heard that fiber helps.
Speaking of fiber, I've taken some fiber to help overcome my artistic constipation-- fiber in the form of natural fiber brushes and linen canvas. Yes, after too many months of nuthin', I'm finally dipping my paws in the oil paints again. Its slow going; I'm out of practice, but here's a look at what I've gotten done so far:
Yeah, not off to a real graceful start. The main thing is that I've started. I can't yowl about my lack of progress if I'm not doing anything, now can I?
I still managed to allow myself to waste a great deal of time on political tail chasing this week. There's just too much going on in politics in the Czech Republic and the jolly ol' USA for one starchy, stale political addict like myself to not wake up this morning in a pool of my own verbal goo, wondering where my shoes are and knowing that I'd probably be better off not knowing which ingredients make up this taste in my mouth.
It has been a long, rough week in politics.
A few of my fuzzy-headed thoughts are below the elegant ginger hairball.
My cool uncle, you know-- the one who can wiggle his ears, posted a link to a Climate Progress article about Scotland's admirable and impressive use of renewable energy. Turns out they're on schedule to have all of their electricity needs met using their own renewable energy sources by 2020.
And while over on that site I clicked through to read an article on Think Progress about a curious and important gain in the struggle for true freedom of religion in the USA.
The uproar over the interview on Czech Radio with President Miloš Zeman that had even the Washington Post taking notice is still raging over on Facebook. It may have dropped off the headlines, but I recommend keeping half an eye on this story. There's a group on Facebook that is organizing a protest-- calling itself (translated) "I'd like to speak with you, Mister President". People are signing up to attend a rally that is set to coincide with Zeman's scheduled appearance on November 17th at the memorial commemorating the Velvet Revolution of 1989. The stated goal of the group is to let Zeman know that they disagree with the way he has been representing the Czech Republic. I mentioned keeping an eye on this protest because when I was invited by an old colleague to join it a couple of days ago there were already over 4000 people who had confirmed their attendance. Now there are over 11,000 confirmed. There are other, opposing groups on Facebook producing petitions of support for Zeman... and yes, this is the same group of Zeman fans that didn't manage to make a blip on the radar for any of their candidates during the elections that took place a year ago.
Has it been a year already?
It'll be interesting to see if the numbers on that protest page continue to grow in the ten days until the 17th. One thing I just noted from revisiting that page is that they actually have a fairly clever plan for a calm, respectful protest. And this being Europe, what else but a whistle from the ref and a simultaneous raising of red cards into the air. They'll be suspending Zeman from the game.
I like a protest with a sense of humor.
Anyway, I eagerly jumped into a deep pit offered to me by a self-described Thatcher-ite in one of the discussions around one of the petitions-- the wording of which was sickeningly nationalistic. I enjoy a spirited and lengthy debate, I really do. It's good to have someone making sure I get my addled facts straight and more often than not I find myself agreeing with more than I had thought possible. I learn stuff. I thought everything was off to a grand start, but as so often happens in these things, rather than concede points as I had done (hey, no problems here with criticism of American foreign policy), I found my partner in this dialogue resorting to bizarre flights of speculative fantasy with a "And I know that you know that I am right." tossed in to frost the nonsense cake. I was served anecdotes about friends who had an opinion on one of the subjects-- not an opinion about the point of the subject we had disagreed on, just an opinion related to the subject. Yeah, it got strange.
Maybe the best part for me was that my own little Iron Lady signed off her latest (and oddest) comment with an apology for a partial reply because she was heading out the door to attend the opening of a LGBTQ film festival. Ah, yes-- film...
Which just proves that there's a lot of room for opinions in one human brain. Most of them never even have to meet each other there's so much space in there. I suppose there must be a few incompatible notions that I'm not even aware of rattling around in my own skull, although the ones I am aware of are enough to keep me entertained.
If I'm going to engage in more of these flush and gurgle arguments in the intertubes I need to learn to type faster.
What a way to spend an afternoon...
The other wrinkly pea rattling around in my pod is a video that a friend shared with me. It was basically a somewhat shortened version of a clip taken from a television show I've never seen. The show is called "The Newsroom" and there are many versions of the clip that have been posted to YouTube. I saw it as sort of an attack on the idiocy that is nationalism that then dissolves into nostalgic nationalism, a derisive jeer to American exceptionalism followed by a cheer for the American exceptionalism that once was... I find it rather hard to swallow in one piece. I'm wondering if I'd enjoy this show if I watched a full episode. Any fans or detractors of "The Newsroom" out there? I just watched another clip which seems to be an editorial about the Tea Party in which our anchorman calls himself a Republican which sort of contradicts his position of cautious, professional neutrality from the rousing "America" clip in its longer versions. Character arc, or just more space for rattling peas?
I think I'm watching too many videos.
Today will be more productive. I'll get some work done and I'll be sending out invitations to the family for Thanksgiving dinner which we host every year. Later on, I'll be off to the ball. #1 Son is enjoying the grand Czech tradition of most adolescents, on their own free time, attending a ballroom dancing class. Tonight the class is opening up the ballroom for other folks to attend a ball, where the students will be showing off what they've learned and the rest of us will be encouraged to crowd them and step on their feet.
I'm good at that last bit.
I'll hope to see you in the comments after the ball is over. I might actually be back before this diary posts, I doubt we'll stay for more than a couple of hours. Like I mentioned earlier, it's been a long week.