Ifferjenn Independent

That’s it. I give in. I’ll go to the doctor tomorrow. Perhaps I’ll even post something witty and insightful about it too. In the meantime, it took me nearly two hours to get home today. And I’m losing my voice.

And to make this a Jenn-ism, I called John from my polling place, the Big Y at the end of my street, literally a mile away. The most insightful thing I could do was whine, “I feel like I’m never going to get home!”

So John and I are having a serious political discussion via GMail today. In the midst of talking about Scott Brown’s apparent naked centerfold, I get these link suggestions:

More about…

Dog Booties »

Dog Diaper »

Dog Shoes »

Dog Socks »

Really? What do dog diapers have to do with Republican centerfolds? Wait, never mind. I don’t want to know.

We continue our conversation, and as I’m getting ready to go for the day, I get another group of suggested links. At this point, I don’t know who Google thinks I am:

More about…
Eat Children »

Dog Snow Boots »

Get Rid of Hoarse Throat »

Throat Hoarseness »

Whatever other weird habits I have. Eating children is NOT one of them. Though at least I can use the throat hoarseness links.

I went to Ithaca College for Drama, so I lived most of the time in Dillingham Hall. Dillingham is undergoing a big restoration now, so they’re doing a huge fundraising effort. For $100 donation, you get a piece of the old Red Carpet, which is being replaced.

Guess who sent in her donation?

Oh, yes. It is on my new altar.

Also, I’m not quite sure how to screen my ads on Google just yet, but I see that I’m currently showing an ad for Scott Brown. And I would like to point out that I do NOT support Scott Brown for the special election in Massachusetts. Aside from the fact that I’m pretty far left on the spectrum, and Mr. Brown is a republican, but there was this one quote I caught on NPR before his last debate with Martha Coakley (D) and Joseph L. Kennedy (I). It said something to the effect of, “It’s really a two-party system here. And it’s a shame that we can’t have a debate directly between myself and Martha Coakley.”

I’ll admit I didn’t do a good job (any job) of researching the exact quote, but that was the gist. And really, my reaction to that is FUCK YOU. Let’s face it, Scott Brown, if you do go work in the Senate, you’ll have at least two Independents in there you’ll be working with. And guess what? Your party wants to woo those Independents away from caucusing with the Democrats. So by saying that the Independents have no say, it’s not hard for me to interpret that to mean that you don’t recognize that they should be in the Senate.

Thank you Mr. Brown. I am now solidly voting for Martha Coakley.

Picture of the blogger and her boyfriend… Well, their feet, at least. Via a fun-house mirror.

One of my favorite museum shows ever. This is the largest Van de Graaff generator in the world, on display at the Theater of Electricity at Boston’s Museum of Science. My favorite trick with this one is where the presenter gets inside this cage, raises it to the generator while it is running, and takes some direct hits. Even better! As shown here, the electrical current only runs outside the cage, so it’s safe to stand inside the cage and touch the inside.

So. Want. To. Do.

Also, I liked this presenter particularly, as I got to geek out with him over Benjamin Franklin.

The only background you need here is that Ethan is playing Mario Galaxy for the first time in nearly a week and a half, because he had a GREAT day at school today. We even got a note from his teacher about how GREAT his day was!

Me: What do you want for dinner?

Ethan: I don’t know. That’s why I’m thinking about it while I’m playing.

Me: You’re focused on playing your game because you haven’t in so long.

Ethan: Yeah. But I eat a lot.

Me: (laughs) So you don’t need to think about what you want for dinner as much as your game?

Ethan: (brightly) Yeah!

The last time I was at the Museum of Science in Boston, I came across this display case in the childbirth area. The hand in the back is that of a normal, full-term baby. The hand in the front is like Ethan’s, a baby born two months premature.

Which just brought home for me how I don’t have a “normal” view of many things. To me, babies are born with hands that tiny, so I’m always amazed when I hold a full-term baby and think, “Wow…Ethan was three or four months old when he was this big!” It’s even worse when I see those hearty children who are the same size as Ethan, but only 4 years old. Just…wow…

Hopefully I’m tugging at your heartstrings just a little, so you’re motivated to click the March of Dimes button on the right there. Ethan and I will be walking again this year, on April 25th. We’re also working on organizing a team this time around, so if you’re in the area and would like to join us, let me know! You can also sign up yourself by clicking on that button as well.

So I’m going with YouTube, I suppose. At least until the quality improves, methinks. But without further ado, the Ethan Show, episode 1!

What happens when you have a child whose mother was a former social studies teacher and whose Pépère is traveling the globe for work? Well…something like this:

For Christmas/Yule this year, Ethan’s Pépère collected up the best of his spare change from around the world, put them in little display cases, and gave Ethan a world map to mount them on. Only I had to figure out how to mount them. Which is interesting…considering that Pépère has been to Singapore many times, and it’s kind of hard to mark off Singapore on the map with the coin display without covering up Malaysia and a number of other countries. So, I started using my vast supply of yarn to mark off the individual countries. See Europe, for example:

(And Turkey as well.)

I’m rather pleased with the final outcome! Now I just need to finish collecting the rest of the world…