19 May 2008

FROM MY DAD…

0830 by Jeff Hess

I could never bring myself to forward all the email jokes, cartoons and other Internet comedy that land in my inbox. But then I started posting the ones my dad sends me. Judging from my comments and emails, my dad has become one of my greatest blogging assets. So for your morning blog chuckle I present: From My Dad.

Customer: Hi, good afternoon, this is Martha, I can’t print. Every time I try, it says ‘Can’t find printer’. I’ve even lifted the printer and placed it in front of the monitor, but the computer still says he can’t find it…

Posted in From My Dad, Humor | No Comments »

19 May 2008

FROM MY CHAPBOOK…

0230 by Jeff Hess

Found in my electronic chapbook.

If a pill exists that will remove someone”s taste for extreme skiing and cause her to finish her papers on time, does she have an obligation to take it? Doctors, whose goal is often to minimize suffering, might argue that she should. If her goal is to maximize joy, perhaps she should not. p. 112

From The Midnight Disease: The Drive to Write, Writer”s Block and the Creative Brain by Alice W. Flaherty.

Posted in Chapbook | No Comments »

18 May 2008

GOOD MORNING MYANMAR…

2030 by Jeff Hess

Perspective can not lessen the the horror and suffering that is Myanmar today in the wake of Cyclone Nargis, but it may serve to bring some hope to remember what was before and what can be again. More than 50 years ago writer Daw Mi Mi Khaing told a western audience about his People Of The Golden Land in the pages of The Atlantic.

That there should be a Burmese national character is not very remarkable. Our fields of green rice paddy, our broad rivers, the bare sands of the hot central plains, interspersed everywhere with the particular Burmese grouping of palms, low roofs, high monastery and higher pagoda spire-with always on the east and west horizons the line of blue hills-have produced their own inimitable synthesis of human characteristics.

To our neighbors in India, as far back as the times of the Buddha, Burma was known as “the golden land.” And so it still seems to the Burmese today, who, as figures for emigration will prove, have no desire to live anywhere else. This national contentment has its roots in the facts of our geography, our religion, and our history. Continue Reading »

Posted in Free Burma, Myanmar | No Comments »

18 May 2008

MUCKING OUT THE BLOGPILE…

1430 by Jeff Hess

I’m constantly tossing interesting websites into what I call my blogpile. Some of them find their way here in the form of regular posts, but more often than not they languish and get buried deeper in the pile. The end result is that I have to go back and do a bit of shoveling. Today’s item is Instructables: Spice Mister.

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18 May 2008

A POST SECRET TEACHER’S MOMENT…

0930 by Jeff Hess

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18 May 2008

FROM MY DAD…

0830 by Jeff Hess

I could never bring myself to forward all the email jokes, cartoons and other Internet comedy that land in my inbox. But then I started posting the ones my dad sends me. Judging from my comments and emails, my dad has become one of my greatest blogging assets. So for your morning blog chuckle I present: From My Dad.

Tech support: Good day. How may I help you?
Male customer: Hello… I can’t print.
Tech support: Would you click on ‘start’ for me and…
Customer: Listen pal; don’t start getting technical on me! I’m not Bill Gates.

Posted in From My Dad, Humor | No Comments »

18 May 2008

FEED THE HUNGRY, CLOTHE THE NAKED…

0805 by Jeff Hess

Blow up the rest…

Posted in Superstition & Ignorance | No Comments »

18 May 2008

I DOUBLE-DOG DARE YOU…

0732 by Jeff Hess

Posted in Post Secret, Social Justice & Advocacy | 2 Comments »

18 May 2008

FROM MY CHAPBOOK…

0230 by Jeff Hess

Found in my electronic chapbook.

“There”s a time to go to the typewriter – the way a dog before it craps wanders around in circles – a piece of earth, an area of grass, circles it for a long time before it squats. It”s like that – figuratively circling the typewriter,” James Thurber. p. 107

From The Midnight Disease: The Drive to Write, Writer”s Block and the Creative Brain by Alice W. Flaherty.

Posted in Chapbook | No Comments »

17 May 2008

THELONIOUS MONK, BLUE MONK, 1966…

2359 by Jeff Hess

Posted in Music Videos | No Comments »

17 May 2008

WON’T YOU BE MY NEIGHBOR…?

2130 by Jeff Hess

Posted in Social Justice & Advocacy | No Comments »

17 May 2008

GOOD MORNING MYANMAR…

2030 by Jeff Hess

According to the Associated Press, the military dictators of Myanmar have doubled their official death toll from Cyclone Nargis to 78,000 with a further 56,000 still missing. Aid groups dispute that low-ball figure, putting the death toll at 128,000. My contact in Myanmar emailed me to tell me that they’re headed back to the United States to raise relief funds.

Dear Friends and Family:

Greetings.

I arrived in Thailand yesterday, and will return to the US on Sunday. I will return to Myanmar in July. Most of the city is still without power, phone, or internet access.

Thanks for all your prayers and concern. It was hard to leave the country that I love so much. My primary aim this summer will be to fund raise and get the word out on how the world community can help.

The Myanmar people need your help.

[Redacted]

Please visit here for news on what”s happening, with updates and links to organizations that I can guarantee are already working in the country with teams already mobilized. We are quite creative in finding ways to get the food and supplies to the people and cash into the country, including strapping 100 dollar bills to breasts! :-)

What the media doesn”t tell you is that there are small groups of citizens and expats banding together to help. There are amazing stories of bravery and courage, and I am inspired by the Burmese people.

If you”re interested in a photo album of pictures of the relief work that some of us are participating in, please let me know and I”ll send you a link to the album.

Love and peace to you all.

I chipped in $100 (I couldn’t resist the image), please give what you can.

Posted in Free Burma, Myanmar | 1 Comment »

17 May 2008

IT’S NOT TO EARLY TO START THINKING KINKY…

1808 by Jeff Hess

Posted in Politics, Social Justice & Advocacy | No Comments »

17 May 2008

MUCKING OUT THE BLOGPILE…

1430 by Jeff Hess

I’m constantly tossing interesting websites into what I call my blogpile. Some of them find their way here in the form of regular posts, but more often than not they languish and get buried deeper in the pile. The end result is that I have to go back and do a bit of shoveling. Today’s item is Tip To See If Students Are Really Listening In Class.

Posted in Blogpile | No Comments »

17 May 2008

FROM MY DAD…

0830 by Jeff Hess

I could never bring myself to forward all the email jokes, cartoons and other Internet comedy that land in my inbox. But then I started posting the ones my dad sends me. Judging from my comments and emails, my dad has become one of my greatest blogging assets. So for your morning blog chuckle I present: From My Dad.

Tech support: What’s on your monitor now, ma’am?
Customer: A teddy bear my boyfriend bought for me at the 7-11.

Posted in From My Dad, Humor | No Comments »

17 May 2008

FROM MY CHAPBOOK…

0230 by Jeff Hess

Found in my electronic chapbook.

For Roland Barthes, the conflict between writing and truth arises by definition: a creative writer is someone for whom writing is a problem. p. 107

From The Midnight Disease: The Drive to Write, Writer”s Block and the Creative Brain by Alice W. Flaherty.

Posted in Chapbook | No Comments »

16 May 2008

GOOD MORNING MYANMAR…

2030 by Jeff Hess

This is a bit far afield since it steps back from the horrible aftermath of Cyclone Nargis to look at broader issues of tzedakah, literally justice, but in the Jewish tradition a word that has come to mean fulfilling the mitzvah (commandment) to care for the orphans, widows and strangers at our gates. Are we so short of attractive blond women?

From Freakonomics:

Indeed, donations to Myanmar so far are very low. Considering how unevenly disaster aid is often distributed, maybe this isn”t so terrible. But still: if you are the kind of person who donates money to people in need, isn”t the family of a cyclone victim in Myanmar as worthy of your charity as anyone else? The political or narrative forces of a disaster shouldn”t change our response to the need, should they?

We might like to think that we donate almost blindly, depending on need rather than our own response to the particulars of a disaster. But the growing economics literature on charitable donations shows that isn”t the case.

In a narrow but very compelling piece of research, John List argued that if you are trying to solicit donations door-to-door, the single best thing you can do to get large donations is to be an attractive blond woman.

Dubner’s piece is filled with important and enlightening links so be sure to follow through for the entire piece.

Posted in Free Burma, Myanmar | No Comments »

16 May 2008

WHAT SHE SAID…

2029 by Jeff Hess

Alice Walker wrote:

[Barack Obama] is, in fact, a remarkable human being, not perfect but humanly stunning, like King was and like Mandela is. We look at him, as we looked at them, and are glad to be of our species. He is the change America has been trying desperately and for centuries to hide, ignore, kill. The change America must have if we are to convince the rest of the world that we care about people other than our (white) selves.

True to my inner Goddess of the Three Directions however, this does not mean I agree with everything Obama stands for. We differ on important points probably because I am older than he is, I am a woman and person of three colors, (African, Native American, European), I was born and raised in the American South, and when I look at the earth’s people, after sixty-four years of life, there is not one person I wish to see suffer, no matter what they have done to me or to anyone else; though I understand quite well the place of suffering, often, in human growth.

I want a grown-up attitude toward Cuba, for instance, a country and a people I love; I want an end to the embargo that has harmed my friends and their children, children who, when I visit Cuba, trustingly turn their faces up for me to kiss. I agree with a teacher of mine, Howard Zinn, that war is as objectionable as cannibalism and slavery; it is beyond obsolete as a means of improving life. I want an end to the on-going war immediately and I want the soldiers to be encouraged to destroy their weapons and to drive themselves out of Iraq.

I want the Israeli government to be made accountable for its behavior towards the Palestinians, and I want the people of the United States to cease acting like they don’t understand what is going on. All colonization, all occupation, all repression basically looks the same, whoever is doing it. Here our heads cannot remain stuck in the sand; our future depends of our ability to study, to learn, to understand what is in the records and what is before our eyes. But most of all I want someone with the self-confidence to talk to anyone, “enemy” or “friend,” and this Obama has shown he can do.

Hat tip to reader Cailin for the link.

Posted in Election 2008, Social Justice & Advocacy | No Comments »

16 May 2008

WE CAN… BUT ONLY IF WE GIVE UP OUR TOYS…

1901 by Jeff Hess

Hat tip to Tony Montana for passing this along.

Posted in Environment, Global Warming/Climate Chaos, Social Justice & Advocacy | No Comments »

16 May 2008

TWEET…

1827 by Jeff Hess

Stephen Baker wrote:

How could tiny Twitter ever become such a titan? It’s not the core technology, which is simple, but instead the community. Twitterers find and follow the people they care about on the service. Late in April, following one of Twitter’s outages, TechCrunch’s Michael Arrington wrote: I realized that in the last two months a subtle shift occured: I now need Twitter more than Twitter needs me. Arrington, who has nearly 17,000 people following his Twitterstream, continued. “It is now an important part of my work and social life, as I carry on bite-sized conversations with thousands of people around the world throughout the day. It”s a huge marketing tool, and information tool. But it is also a social habit that”s hard to kick.”

Posted in Maths, Science & Technology, What They Say... | No Comments »

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