What would God say?

New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin has been taken to task for asserting that New Orleans would once again be the "chocolate city" and for proclaiming that God is "made at the United States." What would God say? Would He agree that He has ravaged the United States with every conceivable natural disaster in the last year because we misbehaved? I'm not sure if that is the case, but if you are spiritual in nature and have read the Bible I am sure that you have questioned over the last several months if we had reached Armageddon and that the end was near.
Mayor Nagin's comments were questionable however, due to earlier assertions by Funadamentalist preachers and followers who suggested the destruction in New Orleans was a result of the city's history of a place of ill-repute - be it true or false both comments should have been well thought out before being uttered.

Unseasonably Warm

Today I am marveling at the weather. The official high I believe was 56 degrees which is very uncharacteristic for Cleveland. Although scientists and doctors purport that going without a coat and dramatic changes in temperature do not cause cold and flu symptoms, I would bet a large number of northeast Ohioans will be suffering in the days and weeks to come.

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Oprah Hoodwinked!

Yesterday my "inbox" was crawling with emails about the Queen of Talk being duped by James Frey, author of the memoir A Million Little Pieces, which the Website The Smoking Gun is calling a fabrication. The tales Frey has allegedly concocted would not even make for a good novel.
If the claims are true, it begs the question "How did he get this book into print?" And at a major publishing house like Doubleday to say the least. I'm sure there are a number of writers who have struggled to get legitimate fiction published due to a myriad of reasons, but a work of alleged embellishments soars to the top of the Bestsellers list, and no one seems to be backing down from their role in creating this monster!
Well I'm signing off now, I must go read up on the Confirmation hearings and Mrs. Alito's breakdown yesterday.

Off to a Bad Start

Well the holidays are history! Although this is stated as an exclamation, it is one of sadness and relief. You see, the holidays, particularly Thanksgiving through Christmas, are my favorite time of the year. This year just happened to be an exceptionally challenging season for a number of reasons from family dysfunction to financial embarrassment, but I am happy to say I got through them and "this too shall pass".

The New Year - 2006

Over the last couple of weeks I have had the opportunity to read a few blogs with great interest, especially when it comes to New Year's Resolutions. I am not big on resolutions, or should I say on making a list of the things I am going to do. The approach I tend to take is to try and make some changes, but not to really broadcast them. After reading Tayari Jones's blog with her list of Resolutions I began to wonder, "If you put them in writing does that add a level of accountability to your resolutions?" If you are a task oriented person and you know that there are still things on your "To Do List", which is down on paper or screen I would suppose the answer would be yes. Also, if you are like me and just want to achieve some things, having them in writing would prompt you to at least attempt to get them done.

I'm not going to take this time to compose a long list of "to do's", but I will briefly state that the goals I set for this year included organizing my home and work offices, becoming more fiscally responsible and kicking the ultimate of bad habits - smoking.

The home office is coming along, you can now see the floor and many of the surfaces but I have found that I just have a ton of paper and books. There are some things that I just have a problem getting rid of - first and foremost books and secondly notes and files on articles I have written in the past. As I begin to seriously try and get back to writing I'm afraid that I might throw out some good research, but on the other hand I begin to think that I'll look at any old topics from a new vantage point sans previous notes.

Books on the other hand are everywhere. They are in my office, in my bedroom and in my craft room. For a number of years I have said that I needed to take an inventory of what I actually have, but I've never gotten around to it. Instead I just continue to add to the numbers. Today I decided to just take a quick count of the books I could see in my office and I counted 190 titles. That's a lot of books, and it does not include the four bookcases in my craft room.

I'm going to add to my list and make a concerted effort to purge some of the books in my collection, mainly the paperbacks that I know I will not read, or have read and will never reread.

Signing off to continue my task of decluttering my life!