31
Here it is:
Obama submits troop withdrawal plan with deadline set for March ‘08
Now I have to seriously get my hiney up and go to work.
31
I’ve read a lot about folks having an extended version of Blue Monday. I’ve even had it. January is such a weird month. The freezing, bitter wind yesterday literally took my breath away when I stepped outside, almost challenging me to breath.
I’ve been nesting lately. Staying at home, saving money for my property taxes and needing a break from the world around me. Someone, it may have been Scout, mentioned yesterday that I’m becoming more of a homebody. That’s fair. I think that the weather and the expectations of a new year is overwhelming and those expectations, for me at least, come from somewhere deep within me in a place I didn’t even know existed. I feel sometimes I’m at a crossroads because there is so much I want to do but real life puts limitations on what can actually be done.
Or am I putting those limitations on myself, fearful of failure and that being the motivating factor that keeps me in place. You see, I don’t want to stand in place any longer, but the only one keeping me there is, well, … me.
So I’m doing other things. I had a great conversation recently about photography. I’ve always felt like I was limited to a severe lack of equipment but then I go look at this guy taking amazing photos with cameras similar to ours at the paper and I got to thinking.
There are no crutches in life. The only person who limits our own creativity is us. So I called my editorial staff into my office and we looked through them. Then we looked through a vast array of other photographic pieces at flickr and I said to them that we need to push ourselves to the limit. And there was some excitement and respect of other people’s art forms. And I went home, feeling pretty good because we had all made a commitment to get better, realizing that it was up to us.
Yeah, I have serious issues of letting my job define me, but I’m moving away from that. Sitting in court yesterday, I realized that there are some things I’m really good at, somethings I have some natural ability at and other things around me that is just background noise. The conference in Memphis a couple of weeks ago also set some examples of me using crutches to limit myself.
I’m going to start throwing the crutches away.
I’m done with that, I think. I’m human. I’ll make mistakes but the time has come to step up and move. And grow.
So, I’m on a journey. And because there are no rules and the journey is within myself, it’s pretty scary. I have no idea where I’m headed, but what the hell, my bags are packed. I’m ready to see what I’m really made of. I realize none of this makes any sense, but I’m up for what’s behind the next curtain on the big old game show of life.
Yeah, I’m being reflective.
31
Want to see inside Putin’s private jet?
Man, there is some bling going on here.
Head to this link. (and you’ll need Babelfish.)
(H/T Boing-Boing)
31
Okay, lots of people in Dresden are kin in some way or another (and shut up. It’s not what you think so stop it). I’ve known Lowe Finney since the day he was born, but I never really thought about him being related to Ned McWherter (I always connected him to former public service commissioner Casey Pentecost) but Pete Wickham from the Jackson Sun brought it up two thousand times during the election. His parents are hip. His grandparents were so cool (and I love Ms. Marie.)
He’s more than just Ned McWherter, but MSM can’t get past it for some reason.
Don’t get me wrong. I can see Ned telling Lowe not to start out what you can’t hold out and I know they are kin, but big media people, enough is enough. He’s just answering the questions your asking.
Lowe will be fine, or not, on his own.
Just saying.
Photo from here.
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Now for some rural media stuff that you probably don’t care about but I’m going to write about anyway.
I spent the day with Scout at a trial in our home courthouse. The trial was your average Meth Gone Amock sort of thing. I had received prior permission from the judge to take a couple of pics and we’d been following the case because a man not on trial but this guy’s buddy is being heavily investigated on federal charges. You watch those things.
Anyway, your average drug trial.
So I get there and the courtroom is filled with potential jurors, many I know. See, that’s the weird thing. It’s like social time before you hit the courtroom in rural America but then the judge hits the room and everyone gets all respectful because that’s what you do in court. As a member of the press, I have always been reverant of the judicial process.
The guy on trial, name unimportant, was one of those guys that you just look at and go, here we go. The thing is, I thought his defense attorney had a very good point about his client’s actions, but his client did him no favors. And being his attorney is someone I really dig, I wanted to throw my reporter’s notebook at his client, because the case had a lot of circumstantial evidence that could have gone either way although I must say that there was a lot of evidence that a juror had to weigh because both sides had a case.
It wasn’t easy, but then again it was. I was pretty objective walking in there, I knew the case but didn’t inundate myself with it because I didn’t want to have an opinion walking in the trial. I needed the information from his affidavit of complaint, nothing more. I needed to experience it with the jury, if that makes any sense.
Apparently the defendant didn’t take it very seriously. He should have. His attorney did but in the end, he was convicted and is looking at 12 years. But he was too busy playing rock star outlaw boy and pretty much mocked the court process in small, significant ways that made the difference.
And it does make a difference.
He kept turning toward his current amore in the courtroom, throwing discreet little kisses, rolling his eyes at his former girlfriend who testified IN HIS BEHALF, and then threw a shit out in his testimony and verbally assaulted the judge. (Did I mention the judge wears an amazing hat when he’s outside the courtroom? If I didn’t, I should have.) Anyway, the jury, in which I was sitting catty-cornered to, saw everything I was privy to. This guy had not considered that jumping your bond (which he did), getting arrested in the past (more times than I can count)and boasting about eluding police making them “work for their money” wasn’t doing himself any favors with the jury.
Do I think he committed the crime he was accused of, well, I’m still not sure and that’s a reasonable doubt but I didn’t serve on the jury either. They thought he did and that’s what they were there to do. I’m working on one hell of a cold and I was trying not to drip snot on the baliff sitting next to me and remember, I’m there to cover the trial, not to convict or advocate for this guy. My job is to report what happened. I will also say that listening to the chemical components that are attributed to methamphetamine production and then hearing a chemist break it down from the DEA was interesting to me.
I know, I’m a weird person.
So, he’s convicted of a felony, acted like a turd and testified in his own behalf (and cleared the courtroom twice). Did he commit this one? Probably (but I’m always like this after a trial. I try to weigh it out but the evidence was pretty stacked against him) but I do know that Squid Billy’s actions were not what you do in a courtroom with parents of kids (the jury was pretty much balanced with more women, people of color and of age) who are wondering if the War and Peace sized folder was an indication of past and future history. And apparently with their conviction they felt like he did the crime he was accused of.
So it was interesting. There may be some lawyers out there who would kick my ass on this assessment, but I’ve sat through hundreds of trials. And the bottom line is the evidence convicted him, but so did the fact that he was disrespectful of the very process set in place to give him a fair shot.
Rolling his eyes at his very own witness. Stoopid.
30
Bigfoot violence must be stopped.
Bigfoot has been found, but his feet are missing.
Police in the suburb between Seattle and Tacoma said an anonymous tip led to the discovery of the 8-foot, 400-pound wood carving with red reflector eyes on Wednesday beneath a pile of debris in a back yard about a block from where it was stolen.
Now that’s just not right.
I have this weather channelly thing on my laptop that I have no idea to get rid of, but this morning it made this thunder sound so I decided to look at what it had to say.
Snow. Glorious beautiful white snow with a winter storm watch to boot that is supposed to head through the rolling hills of northwest Tennessee starting tomorrow.
Milk, break and chili makings will fly off the shelves at the grocery store, I imagine, but I’m just tickled pink we might have some of the white stuff.
Woot.
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Tonight, artist and best buddy extraordinaire, Badger, are coming to Nashville next week. Tammy Lynette might come, but we aren’t sure. Badger is looking so forward to this, and quite honestly, so am I.
We are looking for cool fun, extradonary company and on top of everything, we sort of in the Music City to work.
We have a couple of engagements, (you know who you are) but we dig fine beer, groovy dialogue and the fact that Squirrell Queen might make a surprise engagement.
Yeah, we all gotta get busy.
(If you’ve never met me, I bite my fingernails like a professional, have insanely curly hair and look like a soccer mom from hell. Of course, that, my dear sweet campers is deceiving.)
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Forbes has named the top 25 web stars. Although I do disagree with Number One, it is a pretty comprehensive list. There top five are:
Jeff Jarvis comes in at six with Instapundit’s Glenn Reynolds taking the seventh spot. One thing I will say. Jarvis does respond to people on his comments (he did me once which I appreciated although we respectfully disagreed with each other although I did get a little hot. Sorry Jarvis.) Reynolds doesn’t on his blog which I think he should. John H. told me last time I saw him that people can do what they want to on their blogs which was food for thought and so Reynolds has that right I guess.
The most interesting part of the Forbes breakdown is the those guys who didn’t quite make it and then those folks who were “unintentionally” made into web stars. (Tron man, anyone.)
It’s worth a gander.
H/T to Jack Lail
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As if anyone was surprised.
Joe Lieberman drops a bombshell. Not.
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Because Ivy is groovy, I just added The Zero Boss to my blogroll. I’ve been edumacated about things cooler than me.
And this is also a public admission of my idiocy about certain things.
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Reason 435 why I really dig Steve Goodman.
[youtube=http://http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wf5ZPX2HefY]
Photos From Hoots
