Bringing Out the Crazy

Why Obama will win the election. I thought the McCain/Palin madness was a once in a lifetime event, granted Obama had a real fight on his hands because that combination brought out a very mobilized crazy. I think he won, in part, because there IS something about Obama that brings out the crazy in fringe American voters. And that crazy fringe scares the shit out of the rest of us. Most people are in the middle and care about people and want to move forward as a country instead of backwards. The Republicans are so terrified of losing that they are making the terrible mistake of embracing this fringe that most people are so scared of. And now that campaign season is on, the crazy is back. Donald Trump, thank you. Please be Romney's running mate!

I subscribe to Forbes. I find it interesting and most of the columns infuriating, which is partly why I read the magazine. One column is particularly infuriating to me. The author tries to explain the 99% movement as anti-creativity and entrepreneurship. Needless to say, I believe she misses the point. The 99% movement, which I identify with, is anti- the concentration of power and disenfranchisment of American voters and taxpayers through overly large corporations and the political players that support them. It is FOR small business owners that help to create and keep alive our communities, which means it supports the creativity and hard work to sustain these business. And is AGAINST the creativity it takes to remove power from everyday people for larger and larger wallets for fewer and fewer people. There is a big difference in this and what the author of this column states.

Granted I agree it can be difficult to learn about the 99% movement's message when you see fights in the streets, hippies in drum circles, and dirty people on the news. (Even if the cops around the country are taking a ridiculously harder stance on this movement than in other movements such as say the anti-choice movement that actually kills people. But that's a story for another time.) The 99% movement sometimes looks like something other than what it is. As a very very liberal person myself I too am annoyed by the people I see and hear in the movement. There was a photo running around last year among my friends that said I hate drum circles but I hate corporate greed more.  I've attended Occupy NOLA meetings and all they do is fight about how all they do is fight. I haven't been back. But sometimes we have to look beyond the messenger. Though we may not always like who is saying it, the media should be looking beyond partisan stereotypes in order to explain what is truly being said by the 99% movement. Yes, I understand this is just an opinion column, but it is also a misinformed one in a magazine that has a lot of influence.

This was my favorite cafe in Montreal. One of the best espresso's I've ever experienced. A smooth velvet of earth and sunshine in a tiny little porcelain cup.  Another reason to have my own shop.

And . . . blueberries are back!

Ciao,
Reneé Claire

No Sleep Till . . .

Montrel!

Off to Canada today for a conference where I have to speak on a panel. In front of people. About IT and climate change. s.c.a.r.y. We'll see how that goes. And all my shoes have Georgia bites in them. Will need to find a new pair once I arrive today.

I got to watch actual tv last week instead of Hulu or Netflix. It was strange not having total control over what comes next and to watch the news. I think I've seen this before but for some reason I remember it more this time. The news reports on what is trending on Twitter. I think that's interesting but I also think  . . . are you fucking kidding me? Maybe when there is a revolution happening somewhere in the world and you can report on where the most tweets are coming from on this issue and by what demographic and the content of those revolution based tweets. But to report on rhianna being a trending twitter topic on the NEWS!!!  makes me sad for humanity.

Au Revoir
Reneé

It's Like That, And That's The Way It Is

Edmound's appeal is set for May 30. Remember Edmound is the Lebanese comic who was recently sentenced to 30 days in prison for indecent behavior while raising money for a children's health organization. Sami, Chief Editor of Executive Magazine and a friend of a friend in Beruit, recently wrote about the situation.

Jay-Z Likes the Gays

My mom thought Jay-Z was the hottest thing around, next to Lil Wayne. I'm not kidding. Today mom would salivate over him just a little bit more.

Also, thanks to Opal and Harvey for passing this great book along to me. Diane Rehm recently interviewed the author of Wild. It's a great book about a woman who hiked the Pacific Crest Trail in 1995 four years after the passing of her mother. 

here is a small excerpt:
(page 89)

"You're doing fine, Cheryl," he said. "Don't worry about it too much. You're green, but you're tough. And tough is what matters the most out here. Not just anyone could do what you're doing."
"Thanks," I said, so buoyed by his words that my throat constricted with emotion.
"I'll see you up in Kennedy Meadows," he said, and began to hike away.
"Kennedy Meadows," I called after him with more clarity than I felt.
"We'll make a plan about the snow," he said before disappearing from sight.

I hiked in the heat of the day with a new determination. Inspired by Greg's faith in me, I didn't give quitting another thought. As I hiked, I pondered the ice ax that would be in my resupply box. The ice ax had allegedly belonged to me. It was black and silver and dangerous looking, an approximately two-foot-long metal dagger with a shorter, sharper dagger that ran crosswise at the end. I bought it, brought it home and placed it in the box labeled Kennedy Meadows, assuming that by the time I actually reached Kennedy Meadows I would know how to use it - having by then been inexplicably transformed into an expert mountaineer.

By now, I knew better. The trail had humbled me. Without some kind of ice ax training, there wasn't any question that I was far more likely to impale myself with it than I was to use it to prevent myself from sliding off the side of a mountain. On my trailside breaks that day, in the hundred-plus-degree heat, I flipped through the pages of my guidebook to see if it said anything about how to use an ice ax. It did not. But of hiking over snow covered ground it said that both crampons and an ice ax was necessary, as well as a firm grasp of how to use a compass, "an informed respect for avalanches," and "a lot of mountaineering sense."

I slammed the book shut and hiked on through the heat into the Dome Land Wilderness, heading toward what I hoped would be an ice ax crash course taught by Greg in Kennedy Meadows. I hardly knew him and yet he had become a beacon for me, my guiding star to the north. If he could do this, I could, I thought furiously. He wasn't tougher than me. No one was, I told myself, without believing it. I made it the mantra of those days, when I paused before yet another series of switchbacks or skidded down knee-jarring slopes, when patches of flesh peeled off my feet with my socks, when I lay along and lonely in my tent at night I asked, often out loud: What is tougher than me?

The answer was always the same, and even when I knew absolutely there was no way on this earth it was true, I said it anyway: No one. 

Ciao,
Reneé Claire

Monday Morning Soundtrack

Every Chance I Get - T.I.
Drop the World - Lil Wayne
Make Me Proud - Drake
Dirt off Your Shoulder - Jay-Z
How Do You Want It - 2Pac
Quiet Storm - Mobb Depp
Your Shoulder Lean - Young Dro
No Matter What - T.I.
How We Do - The Game
We Be Steady Mobbin - Lil Wayne
Dead Presidents II - Jay-Z
I Get Around - 2Pac

Thanks 2Pac Pandora station for making the writing of a powerpoint presentation on the IT industry and climate change into a chair dancing party!

Hair o Beausoleil

Sweet Monkey

Photos From Lebanon

Here you go.

Disclaimer: These are unedited and I've only put a handful of descriptions in there.

I"m Not the Asshole, They're the Assholes!

That is my new favorite line. Stated by Sami after I called him an asshole for yelling at random city workers in Beirut. He seemed to believe they were trying to cut down the trees, though no tree cutting equipment was around. I think he may just be angry and that's not just because he told me so.

Anyways, I'm back in the states without jetlag. I had been staying awake until 2 or 3 am and sleeping until 9 or 10 am, which is crazy bizarre for me. I usually go to bed around 9pm and wake up at 530am. I told you I'm practicing to be an old lady sitting on the porch drinking whiskey. Quite shocking I'm single, I know. I guess I need to meet a man who is also practicing to be an old man sitting on the porch drinking whiskey. But I can only see actual old men sitting on the porch drinking whiskey from my front door. Must find new porch on which to sit and drink whiskey.

Here are a couple things I found today:

New Orleans Teenage wins Science Fair 3rd year in a row - she disproved that magnetic bracelets help build healthy cells when she was a freshmen and this year did some other crazy shit.

Escort Has Message for Wall Street: Your Bad in Bed - shocking.

Louisiana Ranks Last in Something Else - still shocking

Awesome video from Gulf Restoration Network two years after the BP Oil Disaster