I Have A Dream...

We all know the famous "I have a dream speech" of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.  Most people can quote at least part of it.  "I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character,"  is one of my personally favorite lines.  I have so many dreams for my children.  I always have, even when I wasn't sure I wanted to have children because of the kind of world that I would be bringing them into.  There are so many hopes I have for the future.  So many goals I hope that mankind can attain in the way our societies function within the world.  So many scientific achievements I'd love to see brought forth for my children and their children and for all future generations.

Some of my dreams seem as simple as Dr. King's statement, I have a dream about the character of my children and of those whom they will come in contact with.  I have spent the entire lives of my children molding them in such a way that they will have the manners and outward thinking necessary to permit them the choice of a future in any career they may chose, whether that leads them to the white house or a tree house in the woods.  I desperately hope that those who spend any time with my children find them to be a pleasure and truly enjoy having them around without the need to worry about the state of their house, yard, or other personal property before or after our visit.  As such I love to take my children out to meet the world.  To help to practice in all that I want them to project.  Yet, there are still many elements, those pesky sub cultures, that run contrary to that which I want my children to project.

Equal But Not The Same

"We hold these truths to be self evident, that all men are created equal."  If more poignant words are held in such esteem in this country, I don't know what they are.  Even people with only a basic understanding of American government know these words, "all men are equal."  It's a great start for a government.  The idea of living in a world of equals, wow.  Where each person has the opportunity regardless of what their parents chose to go anywhere and do anything that they can reach for.

In the not so distant past these words led people to decry slavery, to decry segregation, to bus together kids from different neighborhoods so that all would have the same opportunity to learn in the prominent public school system.  A system that started as the brain child of the same man who penned the declaration that all men are created equal.   It was his idea that all children should receive a basic education that would provide for them the fundamentals of reading, writing, and maths, which would enable each citizen to knowledgeably vote in government elections, to be able to follow the news of the day, and to figure ones own taxes.

Something just clicked

We recently finally took our first family camping trip.  Totally weird given my background.  I mean I have a degree that involved extensive study of most things living outside of our modern society (and a few things within).  One summer I spent the entire summer living out of a tent!  It was an amazing summer.  Full of great times and memories.  I loved it!  Except I missed my then boyfriend (now husband) and I totally couldn't leave my kids like that now.  The pay wasn't even that much less than I make now, and I've taken several jobs since where I've made less.  Heck if you count the food we were provided I probably made more then!  That was even the summer we won our tent at the bank.

My camping wasn't limited to that summer.  I spent 10 days in the largest continuous wilderness area in the lower 48 states!  It was for a class, and we did have structured accommodation for part of it (a research station), but there were several nights of sleeping with nothing but a bag and the stars.  Before all that "higher education stuff" there were a myriad of yuppie camping (uh I mean car camping and KOAing) as a kid.  I have nothing but good memories!  Driving all day, then setting up camp and cooking dinner before the sun set.  Mom would bring things like stew we had frozen in advance of the trip (the ultimate camp dinner - well ok, steak is good too).  We'd set camp and eat and wash up.  Mom would be scared of the threat of bears.  My sister and I would share a tent.  Sometimes we'd brave the showers.  Sometimes there wouldn't be flushies.  Usually, we'd be there for the night and after breakfast we'd break camp and be off to the next site!

Hi I'm KtC, and I'm a Fox News Addict

Normally I prefer to get my news overseas or at least from as neutral of a news source as I can find.  It's not always possible and I am horrendously lazy about such things, as I've already posted.  Still I don't know whether it's my human obsession with the extreme, or my desire to know the odd.  Maybe it's my wandering along insanity's sharp ravine that makes me crave those stories.  Makes it so I can't stop reading.  So there I sit opening tab after linked tab.

I know there is better things I can do with my time, but it's just so compulsive.  I've even taken to opening a separate browser for my habits so as not to mess up the 30 or so tabs I keep open in the main browser (yes I've abused tabbed browsing for probably a decade - I used to use Opera).  I just can't help it.  I have to learn about the depravity and the heroism, the odd discoveries and the side notes.  I used to be a loyal reader of News of the Weird, and now I find it all on Fox News.

Observations of: Google Ads

I <3 Google Ads, I LOVE 'em.  The genius behind ad words gets a big high five!  The whole idea of scanning text to see what is being discussed and then attempting to tie in to the interests based on keywords to post an ad, well it definitely can be the bringer of admittedly hours of entertainment.  Sure sure, sometimes it's spot on, something way cool and totally appropriate wanna know more kinda stuff, ka-ching.... absolutely working!  Other times, well that's when we let the good times roll.

Surely you've seen it.  You are chatting along on a forum, or reading your email (if you use web mail) and then in the corner, down at the bottom, there are these little ads.  They advertise things many times the likes of which you have never heard of.  There are some great ads for toilets and toilet accessories if you happen to be on a thread discussing lots of crap.  If you are talking about weddings or babies or any of those major markets, WOW!  Oh baby!  Bring on the advertisers.

A Rare Find

There are different cultures and subcultures all over this planet.  Briefly I have already mentioned my own frustration in belonging to a culture and that I also associate highly with geek culture.  This is all still very true.  I strongly identify with the geek subculture.  I feel my parents are closeted geeks who still struggle with allowing their inner geek to come out.  My husband is a geek and several of my real life friends are geeks.  My inlaws are not geeks, my poor husband.

I feel most at ease with people who also associate, at least on some fundamental level as geeks.  Sure I have other things that aren't geeky about me.  Yet, over my life my closest friends have been those that are geeks.  This has posed a real problem for me.  As many of you are starting to guess, that has meant most of my friends are men.  Now I have nothing against my geek-guy friends.  I love them dearly and we have some great discussions, but it is a unique and wonderful day when I meet and am able to befriend that rarest of finds, another She-Geek.

Thanks GeekDad

Not too very long ago Wired's GeekDad wrote a review of a book about Adult Lego Fans, LEGO: a Love Story by Jonathan Bender.  In their post they offered an copy of the book to a fan that replied.  I was that lucky fan.  I never had LEGOs as a kid, but my Dad let my sister and I build with his American Bricks (pre-Playskool).  You can check those on ebay if you don't know what they are.  Eventually one Christmas my sister and I were awarded our own tub of "generic bricks".  Which were cool, but not compatible with LEGO pieces.  Anyway, it wasn't my bemoaning my childhood bereft of the "cool bricks" that got me the book.  It was the random number generator.

Not having much time to read has made my active reading list rather light.  In fact I wasn't reading anything when my copy of the book arrived.  I set to reading it right away, even though it isn't the kind of thing I'd buy for myself.  I'm more of a sci-fi reader (and lately been reading kid's fantasy), but I did really enjoy the book.  I connected with the author on more than one front.  That longing for bricks that I never had, the projects my bucket just couldn't build, and those summer days spent doing nothing but building and playing.  Then my husband, who still has all of his LEGO bricks from childhood despite moving across the country a couple times, read the book.