My 5th grade class was taking a test when the principal pulled us all into the lunchroom. There was a TV set up and we all sat on the floor. They didn’t explain or say anything. They just started playing a tape.

“Awesome,” I thought. “We’re going to watch the space shuttle and skip the test.” Then came the utter confusion of those streams of white. One kid screamed, but I didn’t get it right away. I don’t remember the adults’ exact words but I eventually understood that it had blown up. No discussion. No context. Just the announcement.

We filed back silently into our room, sat down in our seats, and took back up our pencils to finish the test. I was young, but even then, I knew everything about that morning was messed up.

Do you remember your story?

Well truthfully, I don’t feel I have done a lot for my country. Sure I pay my taxes and vote, but I have not really had to sacrifice or serve or endure hardships for the security and prosperity of my country.

There have been a few economic downturns but I’ve gotten through them (/knock wood). I’ve also lived through several wars with very little inconvenience. (Frankly, that just seems ridiculous to me.)

But now, our country is broke. Our states are broke. Our cities are broke.

By all accounts, the 2% Illinois income tax increase is going to go through soon. According to the numbers, this tax increase, which is scheduled to go for four years, will give us a surplus by the end of that time. Our $13 billion deficit will be erased.

No, it’s not a perfect solution, but it is one that can work. Can’t we just stop arguing and whining and just do this? It’s an extra 2% of my income.

This time, I’m willing to sacrifice.

Let us be brave. Let us be stalwart. Let us leave the next generation of leaders a new start and an even ground instead of a hole.

We, the citizens of Illinois, need to insist that all subsequently elected legislators hold spending and cut costs where they can. No increases in spending. Reductions as we go. And yes, they can have the increased collection of revenue.

It’s four years. Surely we can do this.

In a democracy, we always get the government we deserve and to stand around pointing fingers is meaningless. We all let the debt happen. We were too busy. We were too lazy. We were too apathetic.

We didn’t want to try.

Now, we can actually solve this problem with relatively little effort. If we can really hold additional spending (meaning no new programs), we won’t even have to do any work. It’s sit around and let the math work itself out.

Yes, 2% will hurt. But it will hurt a whole heck of a lot more later.

1. This is the 150th anniversary year of the American Civil War. That’s my bread-and-butter event as a history nerd. I’m looking forward to it, although I am not looking forward to what will surely be the political gamesmanship that will go on rather stupidly both in and through the media.
2. I’m going to restart my quest for 100 push ups.
3. What’s in a Name Reading Challenge: Only six books, but I barely finished last year. I have to designate earlier and keep to my list this year. It’s easy to get sidetracked and forget the categories.
4. I need to continue reading interesting books and watching interesting movies.
5. Even more seriously than all of the above, I really must get my career path figured out. I have options and ideas swirling around, and I really should just make some decisions.

I am extraordinarily blessed to just have to deal with these mundane matters and not have to take on any real, pressing emergencies. I am truly grateful. May we all have health, adventure, and prosperity for 2011!

I’ve failed on the givens: “spend less, save more, lose weight, blah, blah, blah.” Isn’t that a kick in the pants?

I did much better on my weirdo ones.

1. I didn’t learn what I expected to learn about Napoleon. I thought I’d find out about his military campaigns and the battles that made him a legend. Instead, I learned more about his civil administrations and his impact on European society. My slight headway into this hither-unexplored area of history has whetted my interest though. I’m sure I’ll come back to it if I don’t get carried away by something else.
2. I got through 33 out of 100 push ups, and then things got busy. I have to start all over.
3. “Do Something for Others Day” also didn’t turn out like I planned. Inevitably, the one designated day a month would just have nothing happen in it. So I just went back to trying to be good and nice in general… and beat myself up should I failed at it.

I realize that this is a really stupid end-of-year post, but I need it to satisfy my completion complex. This closes out my previously set goals, and I can start again tomorrow. Ha!

I realize that this is somewhat controversial as I’m absolutely against steroid use. I consider steroid use a cheating on mankind because it distorts what we are already amazingly capable of.

Personally, I think any Olympic athlete who tests positive should be banned for life, and his/her name goes on a permanent List of Shame. The same should apply to the US pro league athletes.

But since I have no say on these things, I suppose if you are going to dope, you may as well do it in:

• a sport that calls upon you to ride up mountains for hundreds of miles a day for several weeks in a row.
• a sport within which smaller genitalia could possibly give you a competitive advantage.
• and a sport where ‘roid rage could result in major road burn with a total loss of skin or perhaps even with the flipping off the side of a mountain.
  Note: Not that this crash was his fault. I’m just pointing out that falling off a mountainside (and crashes in general) happen with regularity here already. One does not need to be further distracted.

Still, the Tour doesn’t need all that. It’s an extended event where we get to know the players. There’s teamwork, strategies, grueling breakaways, and always the timed chase for the yellow jersey (color worn by the race leader). Over the weeks, we learn who is the team leader, who are the vital supporting team members, and who are the specialists.

There’s this British sprint specialist, Mark Cavendish, who is absolutely amazing. He’s a contentious figure because he is so cocky and aggressive. All the riders of the Tour of Switzerland just mass protested him.

For a casual viewer like me though, the guy isn’t arrogant because he delivers on everything he promises. If you win when you say you will, it’s not boasting. It’s just the truth. At the sprint finale, the sprint specialist has to ride the entire leg of the race (150-250 kms) and be close enough to the front at the end of the race for his team to form the slipstream that will whip him into the final dash. It’s an insanely entertaining and chaotic build-up into an intense finish.

Then, Cav takes over and blows everyone away. He’s amazing. If he’s in place to make the effort, he’ll win it. And one of his closest rivals is Thor Hushovd. Come on! Thor! Hushovd!

If an everything-to-prove Lance Armstrong and the cutie contender Andy Schleck do not interest you, how about guys named Thor and Jurgen and teams named Liquigas?

Nope. It was all the Hawks sweaters and t-shirts around. Contrary to stereotypes, I saw several African-American Chicagoans sporting the hockey paraphernalia as well.

I imagine this display was helped by the victory parade that took place earlier in the day. What a mad house. Two million people! After forty-nine years, the Hawks gave their fans, both long-suffering and newly-hatched, a championship.

Ya hear that, Cubbies!?!

Unlike most of Chicago, I didn’t watch one playoff game. I was excited and didn’t want to avoid the coverage, but I just don’t normally watch hockey. It seems like a lot of commitment to spend hours with it now.

And yet, I will be watching two completely non-local events in the near future. I have no idea what the status of the soccer (football) world is, but I usually find myself watching extended stretches of random World Cup games if the time zones work out.

I’m actually typing this as I wait for the USA/England game to start.

I’m fascinated that there are many countries out there that live yesterday’s Blackhawks mania for a whole month. Life stops, and communities gather around the broadcasts. I can feel that energy when the teams play. The games feel significant even though the significance is not mine.

Have you seen this Nike commercial? Even though I don’t know who most of the people are, it’s 3:04 worth of awesome.

And later in July, I’m really looking forward to the Tour de France. But more on that later.

Thanks to the Nerd? Geek? and Dork? Test, I can now definitely calculate out the mix of my being.

I know there are various ways to differentiate the three, but in the generalist of terms, here are my understandings:

• nerd—loves the book learning and the being a smarty at large
• geek—really, really good at and into something that’s on the fringe of everyone else’s consciousness
• dork—clumsily unable to act according to the rules set by society

So what am I?

Modern, Cool Nerd
83% Nerd, 70% Geek, 35% Dork

Why thanks, Test! I couldn’t have hoped for a better result.

The write-up:

Nerds didn’t use to be cool, but in the 90′s that all changed. It used to be that, if you were a computer expert, you had to wear plaid or a pocket protector or suspenders or something that announced to the world that you couldn’t quite fit in. Not anymore. Now, the intelligent and geeky have eked out for themselves a modicum of respect at the very least, and “geek is chic.” The Modern, Cool Nerd is intelligent, knowledgeable and always the person to call in a crisis (needing computer advice/an arcane bit of trivia knowledge). They are the one you want as your lifeline in Who Wants to Be a Millionaire (or the one up there, winning the million bucks)!

A’yup, that’s pretty much me. :) What are you?

Little Women was the first book I ever bought with my own money. This book was mine, and the first addition to what was surely to be the magnificent library in my future.

I recently read a review of this book at Page Turners, and it brought all these memories back to me.

I remembered that for years, I would come back to this book. During middle school, high school, college and beyond, I would reread Little Women for the pure enjoyment of it.

Then one year, and I don’t remember how long ago it was, I couldn’t make it through. I got annoyed with it. Did it somehow lose its resonance with me? Was I so changed that I no longer wanted to read what is arguably the most influential book of my life?

I still don’t have that answer. It surely can’t be that I’m too old for it or that its simplistic world view no longer applies to my life can it?

I’ve gotten rid of a lot of my book collection. That dream of having a Henry-Higgins-like library has been replaced by others, but I still have my original Little Women. Surely it will come back to me.

Here’s a photo of Thunder dog. You can see in the painting just how much more gray he has around the muzzle now. The poor guy is getting really curmudgeony for all his cuteness. He’s grumbling more and finds puppies annoying. I’m sure he’d tell the punks to get off his lawn if he knew the cliche.

Thunder has an arch-enemy in our building. The boyfriend did a holiday art commission of that dog and commented how much they are really built alike. We people have always known that, but somehow the two dogs believe they are worlds apart.

On February 11, I helped staff a conference so it is hard to tell if I did anything out of the ordinary. Technical difficulties always arise at these events so I was running around a bit to get everyone up and going. Then I tried to pay special attention to the VIP keynote speaker, but when an event has as many moving pieces as this one did, I think it’s hard to keep attitude in mind instead of just solving problems.

So I don’t think I was as gracious or graceful as I really should have been. This was not a particularly good Do Something For Others Day.

Random.org tells me that I’m on again for March 8.

Related:

• Do Something For Others Day: Report No. 1