a bunch of little blogs

Instead of bombarding you with a bunch of little blogs (blogettes), I lumped a bunch of the together.

Part One: "You cannot always trust my mother"

I've talked about my thoughts on people who think their great grand mothers were Cherokee Indians in a past blogs, but the topic has reared its head again. I was talking to my mom last night about me looking for job at the university level, and I told her I was afraid schools were looking for a more diverse populations of teachers since the field is disproportionately white.

Mom: "You should tell them that you are Native American." (lie 1)

Me: "Why would I do that?"

Mom: "Because you are. It says on my birth certificate that my father was born in a Native American location." (lie 2)

Me: "It says Oklahoma, mom, and people other than Native Americans are ALSO born in Oklahoma."

Mom: "Well, it also says that he is a Native American." (lie 3)

Me: "It does not, mom. Why didn't you say that first? Show it to me the next time I come down there."

Mom: "Its on there! I'll have to find it, I've got it locked away somewhere and don't remember where it is right now." (Lie 4)

Me: "Mom, I'm skeptical and I'm your son, just think how skeptical a hiring committee is going to be when I walk in fish belly white with green eyes."

Mom: "Well, I can't help that. I know what my father was."

Yep. . .if nothing else, pigheaded stubborness will see us through.

Part Two: "I like to think of them as simulations"

For the holiday season, reports are out saying that video games are still violent and that they are training kids to kill people. Other reports say that video games are getting even MORE violent, but I'm not sure about that, since the first video game I played was Doom and in you used a chainsaw to rip people up. . .its hard to out-violence that.

However, they may be onto something in regards to training us. I was in the army and we had video games that we used for training and we called them "simulations." Along that line of thinking, I agree with Thomas Jefferson that a government should be afraid of its people, not the other way around. . .maybe our blood lust video game training will keep them on their toes.

Part Three: "(Sigh) Hello, Laura Beth."

I increased my jog today back up to five miles and I was sucking wind. . .hard. I've been doing 3 miles for too long, I guess. It was cold today so I wore a black sweatshirt, shorts, and a black tobogan/stocking cap.

As I lumbered up the stairs breathing very much like an overweight man who just jogged 5 miles, my nextdoor neighbor, Laura Beth, came out of her apartment. She has a knack of catching me at my most awkward, vulnerable, clumsy, goofy moments. And to her credit (and usually to my detriment), she is outgoing and not shy.

Laura Beth: "Hey, Daniel. Still jogging?"

Me: (panting) "Yeah. . . .Hello, Laura Beth."

Laura Beth: "Dressed like that, you kind of look like a World War II British commando."

Me: (gasping) "Really?"

Laura Beth: "Actually, more like a World War II re-enactor, maybe."

She might be thinking of that scene in Animal House where John Belushi dresses in black to do a night mission. . .