Yes, in spring, the color we all long to see is green. Here in upstate NY, I will be very happy when green replaces the brown – and, unfortunately, the occasional white – that is the outside right now.
In honor of spring, I joined an ATC – Artist Trading Card – swap at The Latest Trends in Mixed Media. Unfortunately, I had to bow out of the actual swap as I didn’t get my ATCs in the mail in time, due to work, but here is the work. The theme was monochromatic green.
I will admit that I am not a big one for economics. I took macro and micro in college but that was 25 years ago or so. Still, I have to say that I just listened to President Obama and his take on the auto industry.
I understand how Obama may feel that General Motors is too large to fail. I also realize that those who are employed extend far beyond Detroit. There are parts manufacturers, dealers, financing companies. The number of jobs that are lost in the US economy for every auto industry job that is lost in Detroit is an additional 9 I believe.
My problems with what President Obama had to say today evolves around throwing good money after bad. Why pump additional funds into any auto manufacturer if you are discussing bankruptcy restructuring in the same breathe? Also, Obama spoke in relatively broad terms – “enough operating capital” for 60 or 30 days. By whose estimation will this dollar figure be arrived at?
It has beautiful here in upstate NY this weekend so a lot of my NCAA path to the Frozen Four has been clips at the end of the night. None the less, as I am watching the first weekend of the NCAA Division 1 Hockey Tournament, I am impressed by the number four seeds in two of the four regionals upsetting number one seeds last night.
I am just one year removed from having been at the Northeast Regional in Albany at the Times-Union Arena where my daughter’s university team played one of those number one seeds that was knocked off last night.
Today, as I am getting ready for popcorn and beer during tonight’s Bemidji State versus Notre Dame game, I am looking at what is up with the soon-to-graduate Purple Eagles.
PurpleEagles.com shows that two of this year’s players are being reunited in Reading with a former teammate to play in the ECHL. Go Rocco and Sullivan!
No, I do not live in NY’s 20th Congressional District. I do, though, watch major television stations that cover the 20th. Normally, this would not bother me as I find it intriguing that I live close enough to Pennsylvania that I would get ads for their elections on television, close enough to the 20th that I would get ads for their election. I live in the 22nd Congressional District which actually borders a lot of other NYS congressional districts.
Back in the fall, I was seriously sick of the ads for now US Senator Kirsten Gillibrand and her challenger for the 20th congressional seat she use to hold. It took me some research to even figure out why these ads were playing on Binghamton, New York television – price and proximity.
Imagine my pleasure when the RNC and DCCC poured money into the special election to fill Gillibrand’s congressional seat for advertising. My joy was tempered but fairly loud as I read release from both organizations saying the ads would run out of Albany-based media. Yippee!!! I would not have to listen to the dirt-throwing, mud-slinging campaing that was certain to come.
Well, the election is in four days – this coming Tuesday. And, just like in November, I cannot wait to not have to hear daily, actually many times a day, about Scott Murphy and Jim Tedisco. I am not thrilled anymore when I read CNN, or other national media, reporting that national money-raising groups are pouring more money into the campaigns. The most recent CNN report has the DNC running ads stating that President Obama has endorsed Murphy for the seat.
Thank heavens April is around the corner!
I read a column by a Yahoo! sports writer prior to the start of the NCAA tournament. It was all about being invested in a team and having them let you down. Well, at least Dan Wetzel still has his dog in the hunt, having fallen hard for Syracuse this year.
I, on the other hand, am looking at a final four that only two of the teams can possibly show up. To top that off, they will have to play each other so there is a possibility that I will have the wrong team and have no team in the final.
I am not a huge college basketball fan. I follow “my” team – my alma mater, West Virginia University – which is no small feat living less than 100 miles from Syracuse University. I hardly ever get to watch WVU on TV. The SU games come first here.
I do not get into the local, now Division1 university’s play either. Great that they have managed to move Binghamton University from D-3, then called SUNY-Binghamton, to D-1, definitely it is. Worth the parking hassle and cost of tickets, definitely it is not.
Anyway, my Mountaineers broke my heart this year. They were hot before the tournament but not super hot. They were in and out in the first game, a game I didn’t even get to watch as our local CBS affiliate played the entire Cornell-Missouri game even though Cornell was losing beyond recovery by five minutes into the second half.
My bracket is rather ugly at the moment. After the first and second rounds, my Midwest region was shot. After last night, my West region is done. I am holding out for Pitt and Syracuse to meet in a semi-final game that I will not be watching as it is high school drama weekend. Hopefully, to help salvage my guessing this year, Pitt will prevail and go on to win it all.
So I spent a wonderful morning with “the girls” from Binghamton.MomsLikeMe.com. I come home to an inbox that is full, writing to be done and a new, re-designed web site announcement from Tom Suozzi. For those of you who do not live on Long Island, or for that matter in New York State at all, Tom Suozzi is county executive of Nassau County, New York. Before Suozzi took office, Nassau had the distinction of being named the worst run county in the nation in 2002. Suozzi has brought the county back from the brink.
I am not thinking the web site is exactly what is needed for a re-election campaign for Nassau County Executive. Suozzi, with his social media links and his newly designed site, is vying for a different position in NYS. He is eyeing a run at governor of New York.
While I would literally say that I didn’t think there was a politician out there who would want to run for governor next year, I could be wrong. The current office holder, David A Paterson, is going to attempt to fun on his own. He was not elected governor but became governor upon Eliot Spitzer’s resignation. There are others out there looking at the position, also. You can see the posturing. The problem is the financial landscape that would be inherited by any new governor. Few would want the problems. Even fewer would want the difficult decisions that need to be made.
Suozzi may be the one person who would want to be governor and who has a proven record of turning around dysfunctional governments. Suozzi is also not afraid to take some of the pain on himself, having just cut his own salary by seven percent.
Anyway, if you are interested, Tom Suozzi has a new, re-designed web site. Check it out at http://www.tomsuozzi.com/content/home/
The day was an actually nice looking for early March as my father’s funeral was held. Considering there had been snow earlier in the week, the sun was a welcome distraction. The pictures from the day can be seen at the local paper’s web site or below.
My father worked at the local paper, hence the photo gallery on the paper’s site. I, somewhat like my father, love to take photos but most of what is below were taken by one or more of my children.
Yes, I was watching the presidential news conference last night. Did I watch it with the same gusto I watched the first debate of the past election season? Not a chance. I have seen enough of President Obama for March. I am not talking about enough clips on nightly news or cable news networks. I am talking prime time. I want to, by 8 or 9 at night, sit in front of the television with a good book and have mindless drivel on the tube. This past week alone President Obama has interrupted my guilty pleasure of watching junk way too many times. Yet, I watched the presidential news conference last night.
I was surprised that Obama, who in my mind was on prime time TV to help get what his Treasury Secretary had just asked for that morning in a Congressional hearing, wasn’t more emphatic in answering the opening question. The Associated Press reporter wanted to know why the American citizens should trust the government with this new, sweeping powers. While Obama did point out good reasons why the powers were needed, he was not emphatic enough. He did not change my mind in thinking I do not trust Tim Geithner enough to think these new powers are a good idea.
When Chuck Todd of NBC asked about individual sacrifice, Obama – who as a candidate, if I recall correctly, thought individual sacrifice would be necessary and would be asked for if he were to become president – mouthed the same general drivel about sacrifice that had come out of his predecessor’s mouth. He did not say that the sacrifice needed was more spending. He did not say that the sacrifice was to help your neighbor who may now be unemployed. He did not even say wear a sweater and lower your thermostat. He did not mention any sacrifice, just normal every day living.
While the press conference definitely focused on many of the recent days events – the Obama budget, AIG, new Treasury powers, the Mexican drug war in the US – there were a few oddball questions. The funniest thing is I think that Obama, while he didn’t stumble, seemed less certain of his answers on these questions. Obama took one question about race. That answer seemed flippant to me but I am not black so maybe I was missing something.
Obama took one question on embryonic stem cell research. This was the question that I think he seemed most unready to answer. He did answer it but his answer involved more pauses to be sure he was not saying something wrong and more ums. To me, this shows he had prepared for certain questions – and who wouldn’t – and not for others.
The final question of the press conference came from a French correspondent – or should I say a correspondent from the French media. It was about Israel and Palestine with the new Israel leadership. While Obama answered the question, he tried hard to answer it without answering it. That was a good move on his part, turning the question into a lesson on persistence instead of specifics about the Israel-Palestine issue. For a president just a little over two months into his term, tackling this huge issue head on would probably have caused an international scene.
image courtesy of howitworks.com
I have blogged plenty this late in winter regarding my desire to have a garden this summer and fall. Part of my desire stems – pun intended – from the wonderful produce I received the one summer I was in a CSA, community-supported agriculture. Another piece of the puzzle is that I love fresh veggies and they cost a fortune at the local grocery and are not all that good. I try to frequent our local farmer’s markets – yes, I said markets plural – but the schedule is not always convenient.
Late last week, I picked up the new edition of Mother Earth’s News. This is a magazine I use to read all the time as a freshman in college but hadn’t picked up in years, decades to be precise. I have some additional ideas on what I can grow where I live and what will grow easily. I also have done extensive research on container gardening. Imagine my joy at receiving an email this morning with an article attached that detailed a Beginner’s Guide to Fruit and Vegetable Gardening.
You can never have too much knowledge. Click the links. Read the articles. Stop by if you want to borrow an issue of Mother Earth’s News. Let me know if you want to read Animal, Vegetable, Miracle.
I have tried, in my lifetime, many different types of diets. I have found, with age and through trial and error, that diets themselves do not usually work. Healthy eating habits and exercise help a body to be at its optimum weight and strength for the life that body leads.
Fortunately, this means something different to each person as each person leads a uniquely different life so needs different eating habits and different exercise habits. Certain “requirements” help with your overall fitness but please beware fads that promise quick weight-loss or quick inch loss. Please beware fads that swear that it works for anyone.
This morning I read an interesting article on Sparkpeople.com. It is 12 ways to spot a fad diet. Worse thing is that I have probably, over the last 20 years, tried diets that meet most of these ways to spot a fad. It has taken me a long time to get to a point where I know what I need to eat to fuel my body and not gain weight, possibly even losing weight.
