Owner: Blogga-Looba! URL:http://bloggalooba.blogspot.com/ Join Date: Thu, 19 Jul 2007 22:46:29 -0500 Rating:0 Site Description: A collection of inspiring and often humorous essays and observations about life, parenting, politics, culture and personal growth by an experienced psychotherapist, humorist and stumbling student of life. Site statistics:Click here
Good Dog Smell 2007-02-28 21:17:00 For most of my life I’ve had a dog hanging out somewhere close to me. For the last several years my joy has been a beautiful, loving lab-chow mix named Nala that we adopted from a local animal rescue agency. She’s softly snoring on a blanket near me now. For awhile she accompanied me to my office and slept in the corner while I saw my clients, but I finally stopped bringing her. Even though I Read more:Smell
Harry Potter Chafes My Ass 2007-08-02 21:14:00 I’m surrounded by rabid HarryPotter
fans – both my kids and even my wife raced to read the last installment of the saga of the boy wizard. They breathlessly discuss it with each other, their whispers of excitement charging the household air. They have seen all of the movies several times each, of course. I almost feel as if Harry, Ron, Hermione and all the rest of the Hogwarts characters are
Fullscreen Metaphor 2007-08-01 04:30:00 I saw a list of DVD movie sales recently and noticed that the "fullscreen" format continues to sell briskly, sometimes even outpacing the widescreen version of the same movie. I have a theory about why people continue to watch fullscreen rather than widescreen formats when they have the choice. I think that a lot of folks don't like the blank spaces at the top and bottom of the screen so much Read more:Metaphor
Coughing, Screaming, Crying: Atlanta's Code Red Smog Alert 2007-08-08 17:39:00 Atlanta is now three days into a “code red smog alert”, in which the Environmental Protection Agency has determined that Atlanta's air quality is literally not fit to breathe. The combination of 100 degree heat, a stagnant high pressure cell and the absence of any wind or rain has resulted in an atmospheric "dome" over the region that is holding in all of the pollutants generated by the millions Read more:Atlanta
, Alert
Seeing A Wounded Deer While Kayaking 2007-08-06 21:29:00 This past weekend I had a kayaking lesson with my son and sister-in-law on the Little Tennessee River in western North Carolina. A kayak is such a snug fit, floats so low in the water and is so maneuverable that the relationship that I experienced with the river became dramatically more intimate than I had previously known. We began the long process of learning how to "read" the river, and to Read more:Seeing
, Kayaking
Trudging to The Awakening 2007-08-10 16:23:00 Last year my family and I went to Washington, D.C. for an enjoyable week-long vacation. At the ages of 7 and 11 my kids were neither too young nor yet too old to appreciate all of the historic attractions the area has to offer. We toured both the White House and Capitol, rode the elevator to the top of the Washington Monument, gazed at the Declaration of Independence at the National Archives
Bourne To Be Free 2007-08-18 22:30:00 My wife and I just saw "The Bourne
Ultimatum", the latest in the series of Matt Damon flicks about a rogue CIA agent with some serious memory issues struggling to come to terms with his past while continuously outfighting and outsmarting a cabal of higher-ups who want him dead for the threat his gradual return to common sense represents.
I'm not going to spend much time commenting on the
Poison Me Elmo 2007-08-15 11:37:00 The co-owner of a Chinese toy manufacturer hanged himself after almost one million Sesame Street toys his company produced were recalled for containing lead-tainted paint. According to the CNN.com article about the incident, "It is common for disgraced officials in China to commit suicide." This morning I saw the CEO of Mattel make the rounds of the news shows to "apologize to the American Read more:Poison
Pretending to Talk On The Cell Phone 2007-08-22 20:37:00 I wonder if I'm the only one who occasionally pretends to talk on a cell phone in public to escape a sense of anxiety, but I bet I'm not. Sometimes when I stand or walk alone in a public space I find myself feeling a little too self-conscious for my own comfort. It might happen when I am by myself while lots of people around me are talking as couples or in small groups. Or it might occur when
Who Let The Dogs Out And Then Killed Them? 2007-08-20 14:34:00 So Michael Vick, the $130 million face of the Atlanta Falcons, agreed today to enter a guilty plea on federal dogfighting charges. His co-defendants had all turned on him amid mounting evidence that he not only financed an illegal dogfighting gambling ring but that he personally participated in killing dogs that under-performed in the ring.
Make no mistake about it: Michael Vick is being Read more:Killed
Who Let The Dogs Out And Then Killed Them? 2007-08-20 14:34:00 So Michael Vick, the $130 million face of the Atlanta Falcons, agreed today to enter a guilty plea on federal dogfighting charges. His co-defendants had all turned on him amid mounting evidence that he not only financed an illegal dogfighting gambling ring but that he personally participated in killing dogs that underperformed in the ring.
He is being persecuted because he is a successful Read more:Killed
Mother Teresa: Spirituality In The Absence Of Faith 2007-08-25 23:27:00 I am feeling both deep pain and great joy to learn that Mother Theresa, who ministered to the needs of the poor, sick, orphaned, and dying for over 40 years, spent virtually that entire time without sensing the presence of God in her life. If you haven’t learned about these startling revelations, see, for example, the article in Time titled “Mother Teresa
’a Crisis of Faith
”. It reports in Read more:Spirituality
, Mother Teresa
I Am The Sign Guy (Koo Koo Ka Choo) 2007-08-25 21:11:00 For the past three years I’ve been in charge of putting up the messages on the marquee that faces the street at my daughter's elementary school. I performed the same duty for four years before that at our previous school before we moved intown.
I’ve posted many hundreds of messages over the past seven years, generally never going more than 4 or 5 days before changing the sign. I’ve grown so
A Long Way From Shawshank 2007-08-24 07:57:00 I just finished watching "The Shawshank Redemption" again on DVD. The acting does a mighty fine job carrying the film over the numerous holes in the plot. Several scene remain inspiring, such as Tim Robbins crawling through the waste pipe, emerging in a stream during a thunderstorm and holding his arms wide in triumph as the camera pans from above. Yet for all the attempts to show the
When Cruising Is Confusing: How Senator Craig Can Seek Sex With Men in Bathrooms And Not Be "Gay" 2007-08-31 09:03:00 It's all over the news that Idaho Senator
Larry Craig
was arrested in a Minneapolis public restroom for signaling his desire to engage in anonymous sexual behavior with an undercover police officer. The country is now getting an unexpectedly graphic education about bathroom "cruising" signals such as foot tapping, hand motions and other subtle forms of nonverbal solicitation. I bet many men Read more:Cruising
, Confusing
Found Poem: Friendship Bread Starter 2007-08-29 15:06:00 I love the idea of "found poetry", which occurs when words, phrases or entire passages from other sources are reshaped for their inherent poetic potential. I recently received an email that I thought was a beautiful example of this.
My wife Gina sent a batch of yeast starter for Amish FriendshipBread
, along with the recipe, to my daughter's art teacher, "Miss Heather". Soon afterward, Read more:Starter
Sentences I Never Imagined Hearing 2007-08-28 19:53:00 This is a topic that I'll probably come back to occasionally as other examples present themselves. From time to time I hear a sentence that strikes my ear as being very.....unusual. If I somehow had the chance to predict a million sentences that I thought I'd come across in my lifetime, this wouldn't be one of them. I hear one every couple of months, but I almost always forget it soon Read more:Hearing
I Want To Marry Imitrex 2007-09-26 07:18:00 For most of my life I've suffered from debilitating migraine headaches. When they hit me I develop nausea, extreme sensitivity to light and sound, and increasingly excruciating pain in various parts of my head and neck. For years I could only retreat to bed with an ice pack and a bowl or bucket for hours at a time until I either threw up or eventually went to sleep. The more I took Read more:Marry
Football Dad Follies, Part II: Pump-Up Music 2007-09-23 11:12:00 My son's football team is doing very well so far this season, with 3 wins and no losses. I've previously written about the youth football experience, but today I want to post an addendum about music as a motivator, because I just compiled a CD of "pump-up" music to fire him up before a game.
Lots of athletes use music to get them in the mood for competition. He and I have fallen into the Read more:Football
, Follies
, Music
Why I Don't Shop "The BrandsMart Way" 2007-09-19 20:08:00 There is a small chain of appliance/electronics stores in Florida and Georgia called BrandsMart where I've never shopped and probably never will. I'm sure the prices are very competitive but their advertising drives me nuts. Everything about it annoys the piss out of me. The announcer screams for the entire commercial and the price of every item ends with "88". (Hey, I wonder if they know
Train Horn Blues 2007-09-16 22:17:00 I think my neighborhood is mighty fine, but houses that are for sale here tend to stay on the market longer than average because of the adjacent railroad crossing where freight trains pass by more than 40 times a day with their horns blaring. It took me about two years to get used to their extremely loud noise, especially at 3:30 in the morning. It’s funny how I can now sleep soundly through Read more:Train
, Blues
As A Parent I Sometimes Struggle..... 2007-09-13 21:11:00 As a parent I sometimes struggle to be firm without being punitive, fair when doling out expectations and consequences, and able to find teachable moments in the daily interactions and dramas of family life without coming across too preachy or pedantic. An example presented itself to me yesterday involving my son, my daughter and a book of Roz Chast cartoons.
My 8 year old daughter wanted to Read more:Parent
, Sometimes
Football Dad Follies 2007-09-11 14:18:00 My 12 year old son plays on a youth football team and I care way too much about how well he and his team do. I know in my heart of hearts that it's no big deal if they win or lose (and I especially repeat this to myself over and over when they lose). Still, I am very happy for him when they are victorious.
This past weekend his team, the "Vikings" won their season opener 21 - 0. With Read more:Football
, Follies
Neuroses of Oz 2007-09-09 12:53:00 I hold a special place in my heart for The Wizard of Oz. In my childhood it came on television about once a year and that night was always special in my household. I became gradually able to watch it all the way through without escaping to the safety of the kitchen at the sight of the flying monkeys or the apple-throwing trees.
Now that own a copy on DVD I occasionally watch a scene or two
That Creepy Nasonex Bee 2007-09-07 07:03:00 One benefit of maintaining a blog is the opportunity to vent feelings I might not otherwise discuss, even if the topic seems trivial. It's like the old axiom known to midwives for hundreds of years that goes "better out than in." So here's my rant against the creepy Nasonex Bee.
Maybe the fact that I have an opinion of this advertising character means that I watch too much television. I
Personal Search Histories: "B" 2007-09-06 10:19:00 Here's another in a series that lists terms I've searched for on my web browser over the last two years. I think it provides some interesting psychological and historical insight into my interests and has some poetic value as well. Today's letter: B!
Babaluba
Beck loser lyrics
babel fish
baby hot car
backgammon
baking recipe with splenda
balancing egg equinox myth
ballyhoo define
Baltimore Read more:Personal
, Search
Date Movie Bulls-Eye: Once 2007-09-05 21:12:00 Guys, if you want to score major points with your woman and you live in a big city that gets limited-release movies, take her to see Once. The link that is highlighted in the previous sentence is to a movie review website which lists this Irish indie film to have an almost unprecedented 97% positive approval rating among reviewers.
Fellows, let me warn you the plot ain't much. It's about a
Personal Search Histories: "W" 2007-09-04 14:24:00 As a "palate cleanser" to my last heavy post, I'm including the first in a series of lighter-hearted "search history" posts. My internet browser saves the phrases I type when I am searching for something online, so that if I begin typing the same letters in the future it will automatically bring up the term I previously used. I haven't cleared my cache in well over a year and the terms I've Read more:Personal
, Search
Acknowledging the Apocalypse 2007-09-02 19:18:00 Rarely does a week pass that I don't imagine a scene of apocalyptic devastation erupting suddenly all around me. Usually this occurs when I am in a location where large numbers of people are going about their business, such as a shopping mall. I find myself surrounded by humans going about the countless normal activities that make up an uneventful day. Some are talking on their cell phones, Read more:Apocalypse
Adapting to the Drought 2007-09-30 20:38:00 There seems to be mounting evidence that the dire environmental world of the future is upon us today. This week the director of Georgia's Environmental Protection Agency has banned all outdoor water use for the northern third of the state. The azalea bushes I've been nurturing alongside my driveway for the last two years gasped in horror and plaintively asked me what I was going to do. (Like Read more:Drought
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