Okay, I found this on the Yahoo!  Buzz webpage (http://buzz.yahoo.com/buzzlog/92162?fp=1).  Check it out:

“On Becoming a Jedi
This one’s for all you Star Wars nerds*.  USA Today reported on an upcoming toy that “will let you test and hone your Jedi-like abilities.” What in the name of Jabba the Hutt does that mean? Well, according to the article, the Force Trainer “comes with a headset that uses brain waves to allow players to manipulate a sphere within a clear 10-inch-tall training tower.” The wireless headset will read the person’s brain activity “and the circuitry translates it to physical action.” It sounds like something from “The Onion,” but we assure it’s the real deal. This fall, you can pretend to be Yoda for about $100.”

Han Solo was the one part of Star Wars that I was always able to appreciate...

I once had a personal belief that the two things on Earth I was most incapable of understanding were football and Star Wars.  For some reason, nothing about either ever computed in my brain no matter how long I watched and was regaled with talk of first downs, intergalactic battles, lines of scrimmage, Luke Skywalker’s lineage, etc.  However, I

*I'm pretty sure Star Wars nerds includes this guy. If only I had his email, I could send him the link. Who am I kidding? He probably invented the damn toy.

find myself on this Saturday morning counting minutes until the Steelers’ playoff game tomorrow afternoon, so maybe there’s a chance for me to become a Jedi warrior yet.  Regardless, any toy that allows you to move things with your mind is something I must own.  I mean, are we seriously in the realm of being able to move things with our minds?  Thank god someone’s finally using all the scientific knowledge we’ve amassed for something truly cool.  I’ll take this over a new use for my cell phone any day.

Speaking of football, I imagine there’ll have to be all new rules if The Force becomes widely available.  Better enjoy the game while we can…

I went back to work today for the first time since the holidays started, and I have to say it was nice to get back to my routine.  For one thing, I ate like a normal person instead of cramming baked goods and chocolates into my mouth on a continuous basis.  And, I was able to get rolling on some other resolutions, too.

I signed up on Chemistry.com this weekend.  I’m not sure how it’s going to go, but I decided it’s worth a try.  Maybe I’ll find love, or maybe it will simply give me fodder for some priceless blog posts.  Either way, it will be contributing positively to one of my resolutions, so that’s something.

I’m going through a period right now where it’s almost shocking just how much money I owe this month to everyone under the sun.  However, I refuse to panic.  I have some financial things that could come together to save me and then there are the unseen forces in the universe that I’m choosing to put my faith in.  I’m just not going to give myself an ulcer over it.  It will work out.  Somehow it always does.  And, yes, maintaining that attitude about life is also a new goal for this year. 

By the way, Rock of Love Bus?  Awesome.

Number one New Year’s Resolution at the moment is to stop ignoring my blog.  I don’t know if that’s number 1 in order of importance or anything, but it’s number one chronologically because it’s the first thing I thought of a minute ago when I decided to write down my resolutions.  And, see how committed I am to my resolutions?  I started working on this one mere moments after conceiving it. 

My friend told me that she doesn’t think of her resolutions as resolutions, but as goals.  She thinks that helps her to take them more seriously.  I can see what she means since everyone basically knows that New Year’s resolutions typically don’t stick around long enough to see Groundhog Day.   My sister is a pastry chef, and she’s thrilled that it’s finally January because she knows her job is going to be really slow for the next few weeks as everyone swears off dessert, but that inevitably by the end of the month everyone will be ordering cakes and brulees after dinner again like that whole healthy eating kick never happened.  So, yeah, resolutions are notoriously lightweight.

What was my point?  Oh yeah, writing more of these scintillating posts.

The other night I was out having many drinks with a friend and came home and scrawled these resolutions/goals on a tiny piece of paper I’d found on my coffeetable as I balanced a plate of pizza and a flute of champagne on my lap.  Here goes:

• Be more generous.
• Organize my bills and finances.
• (Something that was so scrawled I couldn’t read it.)
• Finding love, a husband, start a family (all in the next 12 mos., apparently)
• Become rich.
• Get in shape.
• Have more fun.

God, it almost hurts to see in print what a total cliche I am.  But, cliches exist for a reason, I suppose.  Instead of beating myself up, I’ll just accept it as proof that I am one with the universe and all the other resolution-makers out there.  Namaste.

____________________________

So, I was just making some dinner and thinking about this post and it occurred to me that a lot of the things that I want (mainly to fall in love, to write) are the same things I’ve wanted for the past 10 or 15 years.  And, it occurred to me that if my attentions have been focused on those things for so long, I really need to get my shit together and achieve these Goals (yes “goals”, not resolutions, and with a capital “G” I’m starting to realize) already.  So, then I started to think about examples I could use in this post of things that I wanted in my 20’s that I don’t want anymore, to prove that there were plenty of things that were important to me then that don’t matter so much now, so clearly the things that have lasted are what I truly want.  But, honestly, I can’t really think of too much that I wanted when I graduated from college that I don’t still want.  I don’t know if that’s depressing or if it’s just proof that I knew who I was when I was 21.  And, it’s not like I haven’t achieved any of the things I wanted then, but the things I haven’t achieved yet are still important to me.

I guess it’s really the goal of writing that sticks out to me.  It’s still here.  Although, I let it flounder for a long time; it left me for years and years and now it’s back.  And, as far as falling in love goes, I guess the fact that I still want that is just a function of not having found it.  If I had, I would have crossed it off by now.  It’s not that I would have lost focus on it, it’s just that I would be living it.

If you’re still reading this, you must really like me.  This has truly become the most self-indulgent post ever, but isn’t that what blogs are for?  I have to keep writing this embarassing post so it can stand as proof of how much I really need to stop being so f-in lazy and get my shit together and stop seeing my laid-back attitude as a virtue, instead of as an excuse to pussyfoot through the rest of my life.

Yes, I realize I’m too old for this kind of stuff, but I think it’s fun.  Shoot me.  Plus, some of the answers were hilarious and some were uncanny.

Rules
1. Put Your iTunes/Windows Media Player/ETC on Shuffle.
2. For each question, press the next button to get your answer.
3. You must write that song name down no matter how silly it sounds.
4. Put any comments in brackets after the song name.
5. Put this on your journal or blog or whatevs.

1. If someone says, “Is this okay?” you say:
   “Don’t Let’s Start”
2. How would you describe yourself?
   “I Would Die 4 U”
3. What do you like in a girl/guy?
   “Certainly (Flipped It)”
4. How do you feel today?
   “Kiss”
5. What is your life’s purpose?
   “Medication”
6. What is your motto?
   “Pot Kettle Black”
7. What do you friends think of you?
   “Heavy Metal Drummer”
8. What do you think of your parents?
   “Expecting”
9. What do you think about very often?
   “Stupid Girl”
10. What is 2+2?
    “Seven Nation Army”
11. What do you think of your best friend?
    “Yes”
12. What do you think of the person you like?
    “What’s So Funny ‘Bout Peace, Love, and Understanding”
13. What is your life story?
    “Dear Prudence”
14. What do you want to be when you grow up?
    “Riders on the Storm”
15. What do you think of when you see the person you like?
    “Sugar Daddy” 
16. What will you dance to at your wedding?
    “Drama”
17. What will they play at your funeral?
    “Let’s Call if Off”
18. What is your hobby/interest?
    “Electioneering”
19. What is your biggest fear?
    “Little Ghost”
20. What is your biggest secret?
    “So Cruel”
21. What do you think of your friends?
    “Three Little Birds”
22. What song would you play during your first kiss?
    “One Minute Man”  [Depressing!]
23. What will you post this as?
    “Frontin’”

Because it always cracks me up and because Justin Timberlake is my not-so-secret boyfriend. My favorite throwaway line from this for some reason has always been “backstage at the CMAs…”

Wow, is he drunk in this clip. Somehow he manages to get the lyrics wrong in spite of the fact that he’s lip-synching. Still not sure how that happened, but “when the sun comes to cover the ground” in the first stanza is incorrect. Hmmm…

No cheesy visuals of Dean drinking and leering, unfortunately, but a good listen nevertheless …

Wow, it’s been almost a month since I posted?  Why has it been so long?  Yes, these are questions for my readers to answer.  As usual, I’m waiting for the world to tell me what the problem is.  So much easier (and less effective) than figuring things out for myself. 

Well, let’s see…I got permanent work.  I posted awhile back that I was afraid that getting permanent work instead of the temporary work I was doing would make me take my eye off my goals of writing more and finding love.  And, that prediction proved to be true.  However, my temp. work was making me insane with its general inconsequence to the world and I really like my new job and am finding it quite fulfilling, so it hasn’t been a bad thing, just a trade-off, I guess.   

How nice it would be if I could focus on all the things that are important to me at once, but I always seem to do just enough to appear more or less respectable to the world around me without quite accomplishing the Big Things that could make real change in my life.  I fear that I have a streak of laziness in me that would eventually lead to true sloth if my parents hadn’t done such a good job of hitting me with the one-two punch of  work ethic and Catholic guilt.  Better stop playing the lottery.  Who knows what kind of decline a big win could lead to…

So, yes, this is the first time I’ve written in months and I still keep forgetting to fall in love.  (Must focus!  Do not get distracted by the flashing green and red lights!)

Should I make one of my public promises to post every day for a randomly-chosen number of days?  That always seems to help me get my gears turning.  Plus, it’ll help me to get a jump on my New Year’s Resolutions.  Okay, I promise a new post everyday til Christmas Eve.   

One more thing, speaking of Christmas, I am listening to a Supreme’s Christmas album that my parents played every year during the holidays when I was growing up.  My dad got a friend of his to somehow burn the LP to disc for me.  Diana Ross has her issues, but listening to her swoon and croon her way through the Christmas classics is definitely a treat.  It’s right up there with my favorite Dean Martin Christmas CD from childhood that had “Marshmallow World in the Winter” and a particularly lecherous version of “Baby, It’s Cold Outside” that is still a favorite.

I’m not going to say that I don’t see color or anything like that, because I think that’s a ridiculous statement.  Everyone sees color, especially in this country when race is such a huge issue.  However, I try not to judge anyone based on color (or ethnicity or religion or sexual preference), and for the most part that isn’t difficult for me.  I admit that sometimes I do find myself having a prejudicial reaction to someone or something, but it’s something I work hard to eliminate when it happens.  Even having said all of that, I find myself looking at African-Americans differently since Barack Obama was elected. 

It starts in an unsurprising, even predictable way.   As a white person, I realize I can never understand just what this election must mean to them, so when I see African-Americans I find myself wondering how they feel changed by the election.  And, that’s when a change happens to me.  I find myself looking at them as people who must have such great hope and a world of new opportunity open to them and I feel happiness for them.  I look away with a good feeling.  This might be really controversial to say, and I don’t mean it to sound condescending, but I don’t think I felt those things when looking at your average African-American person that I passed on the streets before.  I think I usually started wondering what their lives were like in the same way you wonder about anyone when peoplewatching, but that would turn to wondering in what ways their lives might be hard, and then what things they might have to deal with because of racism that I would never know.  I would turn away feeling sadness or possibly guilt. 

Everyone acknowledges that Obama’s election signals a huge shift in how we view race in this country.  Now, I think many of us are wondering how it will make far-reaching changes that will improve people’s everyday lives in concrete ways.  I think in most ways Barack was right when he said in his victory speech that his win isn’t the change itself, but gives us the chance to make the change we need.  Regarding race, however, I think the change is already in motion in unseen ways that we might not even be able to put our fingers on. 

Fleeting thoughts like what you think when you look at another person might seem small, but they’re actually huge.  Because in this world perception is often reality, the nature of our thoughts has huge consequences.  All that “think positively” stuff isn’t just bullshit.  It’s the reason why people who are abused learn to hate themselves, and people who are praised learn to succeed. 

When we look at others our reactions to them accumulate in our minds until those reactions become ingrained, they become the shorthand our minds attach to that person (or group of people) every time we see them.  Nice.  Smart.  Funny.  Sad.  Opressed.  Right now people all over the world are experiencing a huge change in their perception of what African-Americans can achieve in this country, and that has changed our reality in a large way that we can identify and in small ways we haven’t even registered yet.

Considering how political my blog was getting over the past few weeks, it might seem odd how long it’s taken me to post since the election.  Needless to say, I am thrilled that Barack was elected.  Not only was it what I hoped for, but I honestly can’t even imagine our country going on with another Republican president.  We were so clearly in need of serious change, and I’m so grateful that we’re getting it.  I guess I just haven’t even known where to begin as far as writing a post goes.  So much has been going through my mind and I’ve been feeling so many different emotions and absorbing so many other people’s reactions that the idea of trying to sum it all up has seemed daunting.  But, it’s either never post again, ignore the election completely and go straight to a post about Gossip Girl, or tackle the task of writing an election post.  The first two choices seemed pretty ridiculous, so here I go with choice three:

I watched the returns come in at a good friend’s house.  She’d invited friends and family and there were ten or so of us present, ranging in age from 3 to 80.  All of the adults were Democrats, and were therefore all hoping for the same result.  We knew exactly what to watch for as the returns rolled in.  McCain pretty much needed to win all the toss-up states and one more to win the election, so any traditionally red state ending up in Barack’s column was going to signal a win for him.  The pundits had been saying for weeks to watch for Virginia.  There were thoughts that it might go blue at 7:30 or so, and then we’d all know Barack won, even though the networks wouldn’t be able to announce it since not all the polls would be closed.  However, Virginia didn’t go blue right away, and we were left to wait and wait for a telltale sign.  For the longest time all the typically red states were coming in red, and all the blue states were coming in blue.  I was thrilled to see Pennsylvania stayed blue (imagine finding myself living in a red state!  eek!), but while that was a good sign, it wasn’t definitive.  And, the longer we didn’t have a sure sign that he was going to win, the more panicked we began to feel.

Perhaps the greatest sin of the Bush administration is that Americans no longer can trust their election process.  In spite of Barack’s high numbers in the polls, and the increasingly blue electoral map projections throughout October, and the hundreds of thousands of people Barack was drawing to his rallies, I still felt he might lose because I truly believed that the Republicans might try to steal the election again.  I believe in my heart that had this been close at all, they just might have done it again.  How shameful to have such little faith in your government, but that is the extent of the damage of the past eight years.  Thankfully, this time the call for change was too loud and too far-reaching. 

Finally at about 10:30, my brother called me on my cell and told me that Fox News had called Ohio for Barack.  I announced it to the room and everyone fell silent and just looked at each other.  Ohio going blue was more than we could have ever hoped for, and here was Fox News of all channels calling it?!  We were afraid to celebrate it for a moment, but before I even had to work my way through the awkward pause on the phone, MSNBC, the channel we were watching announced the same thing.  We burst into cheers.  It was all over.  Ohio’s electoral votes brought Barack to 207 and with the guaranteed electoral votes from California, Washington, and Oregon that would be announced at 11:00, he would be over 270 votes. 

After that, it started to snowball with Florida and Virginia both being called for Obama over the next 20 minutes or so.  Ohio and Florida and Pennsylvania all going for Barack?  It was practically unheard of.  And, every announcement made us feel more empowered and more hopeful for the future.  After eight years of oppression, of watching our Constitutional rights be disregarded and our young people being sent to fight a pre-emptive war the origins of which no one can justify at this point, the ruin or our economy, the excessive partisanism that has effectively told half of the citizens of this country that we simply don’t matter, the destruction of our country’s reputation and good-standing throughout the world, we finally have reason to hope again.

Seeing him come out on to the stage with his beautiful family to make his victory speech was so gratifying.  Every morning the past couple of months, I’ve woken up wondering if we could make it through another day without him falling to outrageous and demoralizing Rovian campaign tactics.  And, they did throw shit at him repeatedly, but finally the American people were too smart to fall for it.  How heartening to see the citizens of this country leaving the drama to the TV writers, and demanding substance from their presidential candidates.  Many people said that Barack should get tougher and play dirty, but the fact that he won this election without stooping to that level sets a new standard for politics and hopefully will help to change the face of campaigns in our country. 

Of course, everyone has been talking about the historical impact of Barack’s being the first African-American president.  But, really that’s just the cherry on top.  President-elect Obama (god, I love the sound of that!) triumphed because of his fierce intelligence and integrity, his well-articulated plans for our country, and the confidence he inspires that he is fully capable of bringing the change he promises.  It seems that Dr. King’s dream has finally come true.  In his quest to become president, Mr. Obama was judged not by the color of his skin, but by the content of his character.