Pimp my Nutcracker.

Sometimes I think it's kind of fun that the internet is so chock-full of crap simply because "it's there" and because there are so many people who have nothing better to do.

I'm not sure where I saw this or how I came across it, but for some very odd reason I find a small bit of pleasure playing "pimp my Nutcracker" at: pimpmynutcracker.com

Blogger beta.

I'm logging in to the blog by way of their new "Blogger beta." I have to sign in using their link with gmail.

I don't have a problem with this, but I'm not sure I like the look of this yet ... the dashboard and other back-end features. Is anyone else using the new log-in format?

Star Trek.

TV Land is having a Star Trek marathon.

It's funny... I own every Star Trek episode (from the original series) in some fashion (DVD, Video Tape, Laser Disc, etc) and I don't watch them too often. But if it's on television, I'll likely watch it over just about anything else. Why?

International Shakespeare...finally.

For those of you who may be interested, I finally posted my thoughts on the Shakespeare performances I attened at the Lit Moon World Shakespeare Festival in Santa Barbara, CA last month. You can find it by clicking on "my complete profile" and then clicking "My Theatre Journal."

It was a lot of fun, with some great work being done in Eastern Europe.

A classy kind of thievery.

The idea of art theft seems like something of movie fiction, and a high class sort of crime. But I can't halp but wonder what sort of persons buys stolen art? It's not as though you could display it publicly, and if you can't show off what you own, what joy do you get from it?

The recent theft(s) of Munsch's The Scream, have been noteworthy, and in today's New York Sun comes notice of a Goya painting stolen while enroute from one museum to another.

As an art lover, and someone who has spent more money than I should (or even could) for original works of art, I don't understand art theft.

But don't believe everything you see on TV...

I received a note from the local high school principal congratulating me on my win for the school board seat. After seeing the news on television last night, with me listed as the loser, I settled in to the idea that I had not won.

But... according to the Minnesota Secretary of State's web site, I won by 10 votes.

Election update.

According to one of the local television stations, I did not win my bid for school board member. I lost by seven votes to the candidate nearest to me.

Election Day.

I voted today. Did you?

Actually, not only did I vote, but I brought my 11 year old daughter with me. I figured that she's at the right age to bring along. Training a future voter, is how I think of it. She gets to see that there's nothing difficult to it. She sees me participating.

Hopefully, then, not only did I vote todaty, but I've helped to keep the voting process alive for at least another generation.

Appreciating Disney. ...Really?

Alright, I have to admit it, I'm appreciative of the good folks at Disney Studios.

"Why?" you might ask, and rightly so. But if you've got any pre-teen children, chances are that they have tuned in to the Disney Channel after school.

First, let me say that the television watching in our household is fairly restricted. No television zombies here (and we do not own any Xbox or Playstation type devices). But for my daughter, who just turned eleven, there are very few opportunities for extra-curricular enjoyment.

Although she's in middle school, she's too young still to take part in any of the competetive sports, other than as the occassional "practice" (the one exception is basketball, which she played last year and plans to play again this year). She is in Girl Scouts, which she enjoys but isn't all consumed with.

At home, her brothers might watch the Cartoon Network or something on Nickelodeon, but those shows are mostly beneath her. As she was growing up, the Olsen Twins made a number of movies that were aimed at the pre-teens (or "Tweens" as they are referred to these days), but but now that the Olsen girls are older and in to some health problems, they've become inappropriate viewing.

Regular television shows offer fare such as Gilmore Girls, which isn't really appropriate, and so comes the Disney Channel, with shows such as: That's So Raven, Hannah Montana, The Suite life of Zach and Cody, and a few others.

Now I personally am not too fond of these shows (in fact, I can't stand the acting on Hannah Montana), but they are well written for their target audience, the Tweens. The shows deal with issues of friendship, trust, respect, dating, and other, basically harmless issues but issues that are affecting children of this age. And these shows are doing it in a sit-com setting, so the morals aren't being thrown in the face.

I really do appreciate that the Disney Channel is able to reach children, like my daughter, on these topics, in ways that the kids will pay attention. Of course, too much of anything is not good, and I don't want my daughter veggie-ing out in front of the television, but for that hour in the day when she's done her homework and doesn't have Scouts or basketball, or whatever, it's nice to know that she'll turn on a show that I'm comfortable allowing her to watch.