holocaust remembrance

just a few moments ago, a siren blast could be hear throughout the city. a sound which lasted for two minutes, a sound which silenced the signs of life. cars stopped in the middle of the road, people commemorated the moment by shutting off the world for two minutes. no conversation, no work, no movement.

and even though i was in my office while this happened and obviously could not observe the stillness of the city in its entirety, i was still able to feel the sorrow that was wrapped around this loud noise, that covered the city like a thick blanket of pain and remembrance, honoring the lives lost and condemning the injustice of a cruel world.

may it serve us as a reminder that the value of human life is no different no matter who or where you are.

to all those who suffer today, who are persecuted, who struggle within the shackles of injustice - i honor you. and i hope that one day we can all live in a world where this siren is merely a reminder of the past, not a realization of the present.

welcome soraya

i would just like to take a moment, now that i'm so much more mature (read: no different) than a few days ago, to welcome soraya to the world of bloggers.

i am assuming that after a certain someone, let's just call them dr. j for the sake of anonyminity, suggested using blogs as a way to communicate with people, soraya finally decided to enter the blogosphere. i am sure it doesn't hurt that she had a horrible day and what better inspiration is there for the writer than hard times...

let's all hope she keeps up the blogging, and keeps her colorful broomhead hair :)

also, feel free to call her edith when you stop by her blog. it's her new nickname.

a message to me

i just had to share....the first one so far, commemorating this painful event for me.

from john:

Date: Thursday, April 20, 2006 5:18:00 PM
Subject: Happy B-Day!
Message:
This makes you like 18 right, wow you are getting old. Prettysoon I will be able to take you down to the bar and buy you adrink, like milk. I hope Israel is treating you right, don't getblown up. Do you get hazard pay for working there? Anyway,have a good birthday near the birth place of human civilization.

i'm gorgeous (as a mucha)

i was blog window shopping - randomly wandering around and ended up at the blog of amelia tyson who had this webpage to contribute to my daily amusements.

something is up with my computer and uploading images to blogger. i'll have to resolve the issue, but take my word for it. i'm gorgeous as a mucha, or a botticelli...take your pic (get it, without the 'k' - pick/pic, because it's about a photo. man, i'm cracking myself up here...)

laughing, at someone else's expense

yesterday i was sent a brilliant forward that i would like to share with you all. thanks theresa.

for anyone who has had one of those bad airplane travel experiences, you will undoubtedly be able to empathize with the plight of this gentleman. here is a scanned copy of his official complaint letter for the seat of 29e, on a continental airlines flight.

copy and paste http://msgboard.snopes.com/travel/graphics/seat29e.pdf into your web browser for a guaranteed improvement on your current mood. previous link did not really work as planned, so hoping this will be a success.

and for all those who are wondering, yes this is for real.

forgotten tunes

i guess when you have over 50gb of music, its hard to keep track of it all.

each time that i rediscover my favorite old tunes is like a whirlwind of emotions takes over me. these are songs that take me back, like the smell of play-doh or a certain cologne. songs that, much like an old friend, comforted me in those terrible moments when i couldn't bear to face the world. songs that cheered me on as i sped down the motorway, that complimented the subtle movements of my body in my chair, that pushed me onto the dancefloor when i just wasn't really in the mood. songs that rebelled with me against the authorities that existed merely to inhibit my teenage freedom. these songs are my friends, my memories deposited into a little white box that every so often repeats the melodies that have become my life.

the cheese stands alone

you know its a funny children's game, the farmer in the dell. think about it. it starts of with everyone holding hands in a circle, all singing a song in unison "hi ho the derry-o" - one child in the center of the circle, "the farmer." then, the farmer takes a wife, and removes one child from the circle, bringing them to the inner ring. the wife takes a child and on and on and until a nurse, cow, dog, cat and a rat later...the cheese stands alone. an outsider. the circle has been broken. no one picked the cheese to be a child, dog or rat.

fear not, because in the farmer in the dell, the cheese merely becomes the new farmer (talk about reincarnation...) and gets to start the whole game over in the center of the circle, the instigator of an entirely repetitive set of events which ends, once again in a single child's isolation.

sad little game, don't you think. so can anyone tell me what the moral of this little nursery rhyme is?