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
Gross 2007-10-12 21:12:00 This is all about gross stuff involving a variety of different species and the things that come out of them. You have been warned.
Gross
story #1: When my kids and I walk our dog Nala through the neighborhood I'm the designated pooper scooper in the crowd. I've gotten pretty handy at using a plastic grocery bag as a kind of glove to grab up her droppings to carry until we either finish our
ACTS: My Other Blog Site 2007-10-09 21:42:00 I have fun writing these various observations and commentaries, but some people don't know that I also maintain a separate blog site devoted my thoughts as a therapist, called Atlanta Counseling and Therapy Services. While that's not a very exciting name it has the advantage of showing up fairly high in search engines when people type some combination of the words "Atlanta", "counseling", and "
Songs That Reference Other Singers or Bands 2007-10-06 17:48:00 For no particular reason I began noticing songs that contain lyrics referencing other musicians, singers or bands. I began writing a few down, and the list has continued to grow. I bet there are scores of other examples that I hope other people will post. Here is my collection, in no particular order.
The format is:
"Song Title", by Artist
"Lyric mentioning other singers or bands"
“ Read more:Singers
, Bands
Gut Feeling 2007-10-03 20:11:00 Earlier this year we decided as a family to help each other focus on healthy eating choices in order to reduce our body mass index (BMI) which was a little too high for all of us. We decided to weigh ourselves twice a week and my son developed a graph to chart our progress. Gina and I had weight-reduction goals, but we wanted the kids to just maintain at a stable level so that their body Read more:Feeling
Embrace Your Inner Squanto 2007-10-17 22:29:00 I sometimes develop a kind of “word tic” in which I become temporarily infatuated with the sound of certain words that I then repeat over and over for no particular reason. It’s not like a Tourette’s thing, just a personal peccadillo of mine, a harmless obsession. A recent example is “mer-people”, which I first heard from my daughter. I went through a period where I’d wander around saying “
Butt Cake 2007-10-22 19:04:00 My wife Gina is a family nurse practitioner ("FNP" for short, or as we say around here, "f...in' P!") who works (and I mean she flat-out big-time double-dog works) in the women's division of the Infectious Disease Program of Grady Health System, the local public hospital/healthcare system in the Atlanta area. She treats some of the sickest individuals I have ever heard of, who are all some
Halloween Pictures 2007-10-31 10:01:00 Enough with boring Halloween
decorations! I've decided that this is a good holiday to let part of my "shadow" side emerge, so I've begun arranging pumpkin tableaux that have a bit of an edge to them. It started in 2005 with the following scene that shows a pumpkin in one of Gina's old lab coats sawing into the head of one victim and drilling into the head of another, while a decaptated head Read more:Pictures
Bruce Springsteen's "Magic" 2007-10-30 13:46:00 I can't remember the last compact disc I bought. I generally purchase any songs I want to hear online or just listen to XM Radio a lot. But while I was in Starbucks this weekend I saw BruceSpringsteen
's latest release, "Magic
" and so I yielded to the impulse to purchase it. Just for fun let's both pretend that you care why I bought it and what I think about it.
I had read several glowing Read more:Bruce Springsteen
Movie Review: Michael Clayton 2007-10-29 12:47:00 I don't get to the movies very often so when I do I want to feel like it was time well spent. I admit I generally go to the Rotten Tomatoes website to get a sense of what's worth seeing at the moment, which is how I wound up watching "MichaelClayton
" this weekend. I highly recommend it.
Probably the worst part of this movie is simply its title. Can you think of anything less inspiring for a Read more:Movie Review
Disaster Porn 2007-10-27 20:08:00 The news coverage devoted to the California wildfires this past week certainly seemed justified due to the obvious historic importance of the tragedy. Still, I felt uneasy about long camera shots of houses in front of the encroaching fire lines that would combusted on camera until they were totally engulfed in flames. CNN even gave the option of going to cnn.com to watch such images Read more:Disaster
12:34 2007-11-02 23:39:00 I wanted to post something short and couldn't decide what to write, when I looked at the clock and found the answer: 12:34.
12:34 is the coolest time of all. If I happen to look at a clock when it is 12:34 then I am a cool guy. Notice 12:34 and you are cool too. There's just something about that "one two three four" that is deeply pleasing.
12:35 is too late (sorry, but you can try again in
Taking The "Select A Candidate" Quiz 2007-11-07 22:45:00 One of my friends sent me a link to "Select
A Candidate
", a quiz that helps people determine which current Presidential candidate is most representative of their views. Apparently I'm a fan of Chris Dodd and didn't know it (Gina thought he was "that guy on television", but it turns out she was thinking of Lou Dobbs).
The first thing I learned about Dodds is that his website is terrible, Read more:Taking
A Fantastic Front Porch on the Sun 2007-11-05 19:32:00 I've had a bizarre image in my head for over two years, so maybe writing about it will lessen its hold on me. It started in the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Katrina when President Bush toured the Mississippi Gulf Coast (not far from where I grew up). Surveying the damage, he said:
"The good news is that out of this chaos is going to come a fantastic Gulf Coast, like it was before. Out of Read more:Fantastic
, Front
, Porch
Movie Review: Serenity 2007-11-10 19:30:00 I was flitting around on Netflix looking for a film to watch as a family when I stumbled upon "Serenity
", a 2005 PG-13 science-fiction movie that I totally missed on its theatrical release. Since the reviews for it were uniformly positive I got it for our family movie night and I'm very glad I did. It's a thoroughly enjoyable, adventurous, brisk and action-packed movie with good special Read more:Movie Review
My Wife's Sword Wound 2007-11-17 22:44:00 This is the best kind of story: short and funny. A few months ago Gina cut her finger while slicing bagels with a sharp kitchen knife. The angle and depth of the cut made it necessary for her to go to the hospital emergency room for a few stitches. The good news is that it healed quickly and left only the faintest scar.
A few weeks ago she received a phone call from a representative of her Read more:Sword
Praying For Rain on the Capitol Steps 2007-11-14 21:14:00 Georgia Governor Sonny Perdue, along with representatives from a variety of faiths — Christian, Jewish, Muslim and Hindu — conducted a prayer vigil on the steps of the state capitol yesterday to petition God to end the historic drought we are experiencing.
I have partly cloudy feelings about this. I wish he would have widened his circle by inviting a Native American to perform a rain dance, Read more:Capitol
"Yves Meatless Skewers" : Giving Ugly A Bad Name 2007-11-20 22:32:00 I've written before about my vegetarian lifestyle, including the travail of trying to get enough protein sources into my kids (loyal readers will remember I'm now the house cook). We recently held a veggie burger cook-off where I served up a variety of vegetarian hamburger patties to determine which ones were the house favorites. Almost all received high marks but the winners were the Boca "All Read more:Giving
Bugs Bunny and Opera 2007-11-28 22:49:00 I was reminiscing about the hours of enjoyment I had as a kid watching the "Bugs Bunny
Roadrunner Hour" on Saturday mornings. So on a whim I went to YouTube and immediately found some of my all-time favorite episodes which I still vividly remember almost 40 years later. The picture quality is pretty marginal but the laughs still hold up, as my kids can attest.
Anybody who watched this great Read more:Bugs Bunny
Little Old Lady Land 2007-11-25 18:06:00 I just returned from visiting my elderly mother who is slowly descending into Alzheimer's disease. This affliction claimed both of her siblings and I reckon it's going to come after me someday. I won't go without a fight, though. I'm going to work hard to keep my brain active and sharp, under the adage of "use it or lose it."
My mother is blessed to have round-the-clock care that allows her
Billy 2007-12-04 17:52:00 I've been playing around with the idea of adding a "y" to my name and becoming "Billy
". I doubt this will gather much traction but it's interesting to notice the desire within myself to alter my name. When my Uncle Charles was in his 60's he changed his name to "Chuck", and now that I am approaching my second half-century I think I can appreciate his motive.
I was never Billy as a child,
Who's Afraid of a Large Billboard of a Black Man? 2007-12-01 17:36:00 My faith community (the Atlanta Friends Meeting) has been addressing the topic of racism for quite some time now. I have concern about the general chest-thumping stridency with which the topic tends to be addressed, but it has helped me to hone my awareness of racially insensitive stereotyping I harbor within myself. I don't think it's possible for anybody to escape the pernicious effects of Read more:Billboard
, Black
Lost In The Wilderness 2007-12-09 20:23:00 An old high school friend just asked me by email if I was one of the people she remembered had been "lost in the wilderness and had to be found". I'm going to answer that question here as part of my recent ongoing effort to wear my life on the outside for anyone to see rather than keeping so much of myself unavailable to others as I've done for so long. I'm going to try to make this tale short, Read more:Wilderness
Another Noteworthy Sentence 2007-12-07 22:35:00 Some time ago I wrote about sentences I never imagined hearing. My idea is that if you had long enough to dream up a million sentences that you could possibly imagine hearing in your lifetime outside of a Bob Dylan song, life would still catch you off-guard from time to time if you only paid close enough attention. Today I heard another one to add to the list: "Close the baby giggle completely Read more:Sentence
Another One-In-A-Million Sentence 2007-12-22 15:37:00 Here's the latest entry in my list of actual sentences which I wouldn't have predicted saying or hearing in a million guesses:
"Did you hear about the blue man and the cloned glow-in-the-dark cats?" Read more:Sentence
Big God/Baby God 2007-12-16 23:28:00 My recent experience of learning about Reiki has opened up yet another new level of awareness regarding my ever-shifting relationship with my "Higher Power". (I'm going to use the word "God" from this point forward despite my historic reluctance to do so because of its anthropomorphic connotations. I don't reckon that I'll ever have a definitive grasp on what "God" means since by definition I
Movie Review: Before The Devil Knows You're Dead 2007-12-16 08:29:00 Many reviewers have lined up in a high-kicking chorus line of praise for Before The Devil
Knows You're Dead, so Gina and I went to see it this weekend. It's the story of two brothers (Philip Seymour Hoffman and Ethan Hawke) who decide to rob their parents' jewelry store as the perfect non-violent crime, but of course everything goes awry and many people die before the credits roll.
The Read more:Movie Review
Fitty 2008-03-09 18:15:52 I turned 50 years old yesterday.
Fifty.
"Fitty".
Half a century.
Officially not-young.
Old fart.
Closer to death than birth.
Supposed to be wise by now.
Full of remorse for choices made and not made.
Feeling like I should be more grateful because I'm not dead, imprisoned, infirm or insane.
For most of the day I just wanted to bang two heads together, 3-Stooges style, and I wasn't
Kilt-a-looba 2008-03-06 21:03:27 I bought a kilt.
Having been steeped in the tribal drum circle experience for many months I've been moved to find clothing that is more spiritually expressive, culturally transcendent and physically free-flowing for dancing and drumming. I just ordered some wrap pants, also known as fisherman pants or Thai fisher pants. I looked at some cool "Sufi pants" but the wash/care instructions are
There Are No Ordinary Moments 2008-03-03 19:41:50 (Note: This entry is being simultaneously posted on my professional blog site.)
My family and I recently watched "Peaceful Warrior", the 2005 movie starring Nick Nolte that sank like a stone at the theaters but which has since developed quite a little cult following due to its message. It is based on the "Way of the Peaceful Warrior: A Book That Changes Lives" by Dan Millman. The movie tells Read more:Moments
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