There is a book at the library that someone thinks is funny.

It is called An Insect's Life. They said isn't it funny, an insect probably has such a boring life.

But then I was drinking coffee out of a jar on a ledge outside of this same library and an ant crawled into the creamy brown liquid.

At first I thought it was a leaf and I just drank around it.

But then I noticed that its legs were moving and I got freaked out and rescued it with my coffee stirrer (I had stolen it from the cafe).

The ant ran away, drenched in coffee.

I didn't know that Ball State in Muncie Indiana was founded on money from the Ball mason jar company.

But then someone was saying trivial facts about Indiana and I found out.

My friend is researching Ball Lightning, I have no idea what it is, but it sounds exciting.

Swimming in the north pole?!

Interesting tactic to highlight global warming, frightening that it is possible:

Swimmer rises to Arctic challenge

Jena 6

Just heard about a case in Jena, Louisiana where six black high school students are being charged (and one now convicted) for attempted murder for a school yard fight involving a white student. The facts and background are staggering... Democracy Now did a special on the case yesterday, featuring the voices of some of the accused, their families, and a feature of a forthcoming Big Noise documentary about the case.

Synopsis of the events on Pursuing Holiness
This blog is very good on keeping up-to-date on the case, a good one to watch.

Photo essay on While Seated
Opens with a photo of the infamous tree at the high school which was "traditionally" used by white students, symbolic of the racial tensions in Jena that allegedly set the stage for these events. Includes some videos and the promise of upcoming multimedia projects.

Democracy Now on Tuesday devoted entire show to the case

Its not time to make a change,
Just relax, take it easy.
You're still young, that's your fault,
There's so much you have to know.
Find a girl, settle down,
If you want you can marry.
Look at me, I am old, but I'm happy.

I was once like you are now, and I know that its not easy,
To be calm when you've found something going on.
But take your time, think a lot,
Why, think of everything you've got.
For you will still be here tomorrow, but your dreams may not.

Finally feels like summer. Swimming, trespassing, cold beer, long walks, sticky jogs, moving heavy furniture. Dustin bought a construction site worthy boom-box that screams summer and cut his shorts so short that you can see his underwear.

Toby pants the day through and sheds fur like a flustered old man. He chases cats in the new neighborhood and finds chicken bones to eat, licks my knees when I get home from work with sweat and dirt on my legs. I'm starting to feel settled in the new neighborhood, being with Toby helps, he instantly warms the neighbors to me. The kids down the street have tiny dogs that look like toys and they giggle when they learn Toby has the same name as their stepdad. Later I walk by their house and they're strapped onto ATV's and motorbikes screaming "Toby! Toby! Who will be the leader?" and Toby cocks his head, but they're yelling at their stepdad. The neighbors two houses down drink Miller Lite from coozies and listen to "There's a tear in my beer" on their truck stereo while admiring Toby for being a "fluff-ball" and a "big ole baby"...

Really, who could resist?

Fugitive Days

Also wanted to share a review of Bill Ayer's Fugitive Days that I wrote for my reader's advisory class...

Fugitive Days (2001)

Author: Bill Ayers

Genre: Nonfiction (Memoir)

Plot Summary: One of the founding members of 1960’s radical anti-war group, The Weather Underground, Bill Ayers tells his side of the story in Fugitive Days without boastfulness or apology. Beginning with his childhood explorations of drugs and youth culture, the adventurism of the late 1950’s and early 1960’s, Ayers paints a picture of a childhood of privilege and picket-fences lusting for life experience. After high school at a boarding school and years of dabbling in college, Ayers finds his political calling in philosophical texts and the Vietnam anti-war movement. Ayers describes his political and social philosophies in depth, taking time to quote political thinkers and rethink his positions of the time. From his early days in SDS to his more militant days in The Weather Underground, Ayers boldly and sanely gives a rationale for his motivations. As Ayers describes it, The Weather Underground was formed in response to a growing notion that anti-war activists should “bring the war home.” Indeed The Weather Underground, and all the cells it spawned, brought the war home to military recruiting sites, police precincts, and most famously the Pentagon, using homemade bombs and crude explosives, leaving their signature claim letters for the press and public to find after the fact. Terrorists to many, heroes to others, The Weather Underground disbanded after the end of the Vietnam war. This narrative is largely the story of getting to the point of desperation where violence made sense, living underground, turning oneself in to live a more public family life, and finally committing this hundred-mile-an-hour life to paper, reflecting, connecting.

Geographical Setting: various cities, United States
Time Period: 1965-1975

Appeal Characteristics: The themes of political radicalism and activism, socialism, communism, anarchism will appeal to readers interested in folks who have committed their lives to struggles for social justice. Further, explorations of white privilege, anti-racism and ethical activism abound. The setting of 1960’s America in the midst of a political and cultural revolution will appeal to both those who lived it and those who look back for lessons. Discussions of memory and the practice of writing a memoir, what is truth, will appeal to readers with a literary sensibility, as will the passionate and sometimes flowery prose. The pacing of the novel is perfect, even though it is obvious that Ayers has lived through and seen a lot, his narrative is cohesive and coherent while still suggesting there’s more to the story. It moves at an even pace and keeps the reader interested through personal relationships, discussions of politics and history, and a subtle humor and wit that becomes characteristic by the end of the memoir.

Read-alikes: Readers who enjoyed learning about The Weather Underground would greatly enjoy to see The Weather Underground by Sam Green and Bill Siegel, a fascinating documentary about the life and times of the group including interviews with numerous past members, most notably Bill Ayers and his wife Bernadine Dohrn. Readers who would like to read a more straight forward and scholarly history of The Weather Underground would enjoy Outlaws of America: The Weather Underground and the Politics of Solidarity by Dan Berger. Readers who enjoyed a more erudite political and philosophical memoir about growing up during the Vietnam-era would also enjoy Michael Albert’s Remembering Tomorrow: A Memoir which explores his childhood, politics, and involvement in SDS, which The Weather Underground splintered off of, as well as his assessment of the future. Albert’s narrative is a little bit more sober, but would still appeal to readers interested in this time period and moreover, the politics involved, namely anti-capitalism. Readers more interested in discussions of anti-racism and white privilege would enjoy Stokley Carmichael’s memoir, Ready For Revolution that explores the Civil Rights Movement, which is peripheral but important in Fugitive Days . Further, readers who enjoyed the time period and discussions of the Vietnam war and U.S. policy would probably enjoy reading about it through the eyes of someone who was immersed in the reporting for it. John Hess’ My Times: A Memoir of Dissent, is the memoir of a reporter who worked for the New York Times during the Vietnam war.

Red Flags: Profanity, discussions of sexual liberation, drug use, radical politics, violence against the state, anti-capitalism.

And then there's the New Castle prison uprising -or- the problems with prison privitization

Had enough time today to read the papers and discovered that there was a prison riot here in Indiana that, according to the reports, seemed to stem from conflicts caused by good ole Mitch Daniel's prisoner-importation program. Now they've distributed the "problem" prisoners all over the state. Brilliant. Way to be proactive. This would be a good time to look at systemic issues rather than shipping prisoners from Arizona all over the state of Indiana. Huh?

Here's some links:

Associated Press story

Indianapolis Star w/ tons of discussion