Stuff White People Like

Except it's really more, stuff middle class yuppies like, but a lot of them are white, and it is amusing all the same.

what with one thing and another

Today was the English class where I usually lend a hand. Now that Ramadan is well under way, we have more students in class. I'm impressed with their stick-to-it-ness, I find it hard to do things when I'm hungry. Today there was a different teacher standing in, and I have to say that experience really makes a teacher stronger. It's easier to work under someone who is confident in what they are doing.I took these pictures on the way to class. I love this part of town. Just being there makes me happy.
I was naughty, and stopped in a charity shop on the way home (my alleged purpose was the buy something for a friend whose birthday is this week). The nifty bit was that I ran into someone I know. This happens so rarely, it is well worth mentioning. I love running into people I know. It is one of life's simplest pleasures.
I suspect that Kenny Loggins might drive me to drink too. I think this is cute though, because it may potentially backfire as anti-advertising. Someone who is like me may go to find out who Kenny Loggins is and (unlike me) really dig his music.
This wasn't on the way to work, this is in a nearby bit of greenspace which I fancy. I'm all over the paint not bombs. Whenever I see the adverts for that movie, Righteous Kill, I always wish I was the vandalising type. It just seems painfully ironic that a city rife with teen gang murders would have posters plastered everywhere that say, "it's okay for someone to get shot, if it's the right person."

Still, it was a day of simple pleasures.

Simultaneously it's been a week of reflecting on big and complex wrongs. I had dinner with a friend who just got back from being in Palestine with ISM. She wants to go back even though she abhors covering her elbows, because the hardest thing is coming back to security, privilege and comfort and feeling useless. I just learned that a woman in my church (the same woman who lost her daughter this summer) has a tumor on her spine. It is equally difficult to know how to respond to injustice from God and injustice from human beings. Please pray for us.

two good things

When I was home in August, my mom's downstairs neighbour had a home birth the same morning that my posse and I descended on her flat for brunch. As such I was privileged to hold a 5 hour old baby in my arms. Her mom (a ob/gyn nurse) was tickled to show off the many miracles of a new baby, such as a still throbbing umbilical cord. It was miraculous.

Just now I registered to vote by mail in ballot, which was way easier than I anticipated. I always get excited by opportunities to vote. I like democracy, flawed though it may be.

If you've got more to give than you've got to prove

" Stand up
We shall not be moved
Except By a child with no socks and shoes
If you've got more to give then you've got to prove
Put your hands up and I'll copy you
Stand up We shall not be moved
Except by a woman dying from a loss of food
If you've got more to give then you've got to prove
Put your hands up and I'll copy you

We still don't understand thunder and lightning
Flash back to when we didn't fund the dam
Didn't fund the dam levee? No wonder man
Now our whole damn city's torn asunder man
Under water but we still don't understand
We see hurricane spills overrun the land
Through gaps you couldn't fill with a 100 tons of sand
No we still don't understand
We've seen planes in the windows of buildings crumbled in
We've seen flames send the chills through London
And we've sent planes to kill them and some of them were children
But still we crumbling the building
Underfunded but we still don't understand
Under God but we kill like the son of Sam
But if you feel like I feel like about the son of man
We will overcome

So Stand up
We shall not be moved
Except By a child with no socks and shoes
If you've got more to give then you've got to prove
Put your hands up and I'll copy you
Stand up We shall not be moved
Except by a woman dying from a loss of food
If you've got more to give then you've got to prove
Put your hands up and I'll copy you

I said Put your hands up and I'll copy you
Put your hands up and I'll copy you
If you've got more to give then you've got to prove
Put your hands up and I'll copy you

We shall not be moved
Except By a child with no socks and shoes
Except by a woman dying from a loss of food
Except by a freedom fighter bleeding on a cross for you
We shall not be moved
Except by a system thats rotten through
Neglecting the victims and ordering the cops to shoot
High treason now we need to prosecute

So Stand up
We shall not be moved
And we won't fight a war for fossil fuel
Its times like this that you want to plot a coup
Put your hands up and I'll copy you
So Stand up
We shall not be moved
Unless were taking a route we have not pursued
So if you've got a dream and a lot to do
Put your hands up and I'll copy you

I said Put your hands up and I'll copy you
Put your hands up and I'll copy you
if you've got a dream and a lot to do
Put your hands up

Now shake, shake
A Polaroid dream
nightmare negatives develop on the screen
We sit back and wait for the government team
Criticize they but who the fuck are we
The people want peace but the leaders want war
Our neighbors don't speak, peek through the front door
House representatives preach "stay the course"
Time for a leap of faith
Once More

Put your hands up high if you haven't abandoned
Hope that the pen strokes stronger than the cannon
Balls to the wall, Nose to the grindstone
My interrogation techniques leave your mind blown
So Place your bets lets speak to the enemy
Don't let em pretend that we seek blood
And who's we anyways Kemo Sabe?
Mighty warlord wanna-be street thug
a threat for a threat leaves the whole world terrified
blow for blow never settles the score
word for word is time need clarify
We the people did not want war

So Stand up
We shall not be moved
Except By a child with no socks and shoes
If you've got more to give then you've got to prove
Put your hands up and I'll copy you
Unless were taking a route we have not pursued
So if you've got a dream and a lot to do
Put your hands up and I'll copy you

I said Put your hands up and I'll copy you
Put your hands up and I'll copy you
if you've got a dream and a lot to do
Put your hands up"
-Stand Up, the Flobots

what disturbs me most

I watched the Daily Show the other day for the first time in a million years. It helped me realize that what disturbs me most about the upcoming election in the US being spread all over our media for the last couple of months, is that we've lost sight of what's still going on in terms of foreign policy, specifically in Afghanistan and Iraq.

We've lost sight of trying to even vaguely keep Bush accountable these last months in office. He is, or rather his policy makers are, still doing damage. But there isn't even the cold comfort of listening to Jon Stewart make fun of him anymore.

wee bugs

My previous post wasn't a metaphorical question. It's the time of year when bugs are sneaking or openly flying, into the shelter of our old house. The other day I trapped a spider (almost) as big as my palm under a mug, and successfully threw it outside. Who knows how long it will be before it sneaks its way back in though. I also saw some moths flying around, and would have liked to get rid of them (as moths have been desecrating our woolens lately), but they get drawn to those dang lights, totally out of my reach. I guess they'll die there anyway.

I would like to share more deeply than about the present insect invasion, but most life experiences feel too complex for words. I'm hate taking the risk of belittling them.