...I would invite every one of my handsome, adorable, clever neighbors to my apartment for Thanksgiving dinner.
If I could, I would expand my list of invitees, like a sparkling balloon, to include parents, children and all manner of pets. How I would love to be introduced to them all.
If I could, I would alter the design of my dinner table into something Dr. Seuss or Lewis Carroll might design - curving into space, higher and higher - until it had lengthened sufficiently so that every one of you could find a place.
If I could, I would alter the space continuum so that my kitchen would be BIG ENOUGH to accommodate the positively epic, Edwardian dinner I would plan for you.
If I could, I would alter the time continuum so that my far-flung precious ones would be able to find their way to the Aubrey domicile with ease and economy. And yet still be able to travel first-class.
If I could, I would place a glass of flower-like, art nouveau proportions at each place setting. It would be full of champagne, and glittering at the bottom would be either a diamond bracelet, or a brace of diamond cufflinks. They are for you.
If I could, I would arrange the champagne toasts thusly: they would not be to your hostess, to your family, or to your loved ones. You would not toast this innocent North American holiday. You would, instead, toast yourselves.
Because words fail me.
Happy Thanksgiving, all.
“Burma VJ,” Anders Østergaard
“The Cove,” Louie Psihoyos
“Every Little Step,” James D. Stern and Adam Del Deo
“Facing Ali,” Pete McCormack
“Food, Inc.,” Robert Kenner
“Garbage Dreams,” Mai Iskander
“Living in Emergency: Stories of Doctors Without Borders,” Mark N. Hopkins
“The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers,” Judith Ehrlich and Rick Goldsmith
“Mugabe and the White African,” Andrew Thompson and Lucy Bailey
“Sergio,” Greg Barker
“Soundtrack for a Revolution,” Bill Guttentag and Dan Sturman
“Under Our Skin,” Andy Abrahams Wilson
“Valentino The Last Emperor,” Matt Tyrnauer
“Which Way Home,” Rebecca Cammisa
First, we're happy to announce that the team has identified and fixed the issue with the YouTube conduit; you can now find and add videos from YouTube to your library and posts. As always, thanks for your patience!
The other news we have today is about a new addition to the Six Apart family: TypePad Micro, a new free level of TypePad that is streamlined for microblogging. We see a new form of blogging emerging that lives between the quick status updates of Twitter and Facebook and the long-form posts of "classic" blogging; TypePad Micro is designed to meet that need. You can read more about TypePad Micro in Chris Alden's post on the Everything TypePad blog.
A lot of the new capabilities we've added to TypePad this year were actually inspired by some of the best things about Vox: favoriting, member profiles, a dashboard to follow other bloggers, and easy ways to post content from other social media sites. But the things that make Vox different from TypePad are still there: Vox has always been -- and still is -- the best place for "friends and family" blogging, where you're in control over who sees what. TypePad, on the other hand, is built for the blogger who wants, no, craves, attention.
Do you have a passion or interest you want to share with people beyond your Vox neighborhood? If so, we'd love it if you tried out TypePad Micro. Maybe you've always wanted to start that obsessive blog that's just about waffle restaurants. Or want a place to share videos of your favorite band (Jonas Brothers, anyone? Anyone? ...). TypePad Micro's great for those topic-specific blogs. Take it for a spin and let us know what you think.
On the Vox front, our designers are working on some cool new themes (coming soon!). We'd also love to hear your thoughts about where we should take Vox in the coming year. What are the key things you'd like to see for Vox? If you've had a chance to use TypePad this year, what are the features there that we should bring over to Vox? And, if you're thinking big thoughts, how could we connect the Vox and TypePad communities in order to bring together bloggers and their shared passions? Your feedback is really important to us, so please leave a comment here, or shoot me a message.
And again, thanks for your patience as we found and fixed the YouTube bug!
~ daisy
As many of you have noticed, the YouTube Conduit is not working. I am so sorry about this; I know how frustrating it is.
The team is looking into how to get this fixed and I will update you as soon as I hear something. In the meantime, not all is lost... There is a work-around for posting videos.
When you're in the Compose Screen, just click on "embed." Ignore the fact that it says "Widget" before everything because you can definitely use this to embed videos as well. You'll just need to input the embed code from the video, enter a title (if you want) and hit OK.
It might not show up perfectly in your compose screen, but when you hit "Save," your video should appear just the way you wanted it to.
Hopefully this will allow you to keep posting videos while we figure out what's happening on our end.
As always, thanks for your patience.
When "speck" is defined as a noun, it is 'a very small mark, or amount', it is 'a bit'.
But when "Speck" is the name of a cat, it is defined as "Get out of my room":
As a future tense, it is defined as, "I don't have to tell you what will happen if you don't":
Poor Carrie Prejean, you are another victim of the anti-Christian majority minority. You said, “No one came to my defense really.”
How true. How true. No one came to your defense really ... other than:
The people who applauded you when you gave your answer,
Donald Trump who said you could keep your job even after the Pageant Officials found that you had breached your contract,
The National Organization for Marriage who sang your praises and booked you at their events,
All the other groups who have hired you as a speaker for all those events you’ve been (not) going to,
The legion of right wing radio talk show hosts and all their devoted fans who called in and praised your bravery and devotion,
Every anchor and guest on Fox News including Sean Hannity who had you on his TV show right after the hoopla began and wrote the forward to your book,
Which reminds, the publishers of your book, who paid you big money to state your opinion again,
Umm, your family, I presume, like the sister you mentioned on Hannity who you said was disgusted by how you were treated,
And Jesus.
Jolly, Carrie, don’t any of those rich, powerful people count?
Not even Jesus?
Carrie Prejean wants us to know that her sex tape of her as a minor masturbating isn’t that bad a thing because she “loved and cared about” the guy she sent it to. And that when you think some guy “is the one,” it’s understandable that you’d do something like this. Even Hannity suggests that “a boyfriend you loved” is something that should be considered when we look at the act of creating such a recording.
So just to recap, according to Prejean and Hannity, loving and carrying about someone, who you think is the one, is a justification for creating and distributing child porn, but not for allowing consenting adults to marry each other if they are of the same gender.
Thanks for clearing that up, kids.
LOCATION: Lake Tahoe, California
TIME: August, 1963
SUBJECT: Mother
ACT ENGAGED BY SUBJECT: Swimming
b. Dogpaddle
IDENTIFYING MARKS: Dark Sunglasses
CURRENT CONDITION OF SUBJECT: Fabulous
Amazon is having a having a sale on their science fiction material and in the 60% or more off section of the scifi sale section, they are selling The Lost Tomb of Jesus, described on the site thusly:
Product Description
The feature-length widescreen Director’s Cut of the Discovery Channel special – executive produced by James Cameron. In 1980, a bulldozer accidentally uncovered a first-century tomb in Jerusalem. Of the ten ossuaries (stone coffins) found inside, six bore inscriptions: Jesus son of Joseph, Maria, Mariamene (the name by which Mary Magdalene was known), Joseph, Matthew, and Judah son of Jesus. Dismissed by archaeologists as coincidence, the ossuaries were warehoused and forgotten. Twenty-five years later, filmmaker Simcha Jacobovici and his team took a fresh look at this astounding cluster of New Testament names. Granted unparalleled access, they went in search of the ossuaries…and the lost tomb. What they found may well be the most controversial archaeological discovery of all time.
Features 80 minutes of exclusive bonus materials including:
Interviews with executive producer James Cameron and director Simcha Jacobovici
Expert Interviews: The Discovery 1980, Judeo Christians, The Early Christian Cluster of Evidence, The Sign of the Cross, The Chevron Symbol, Mariamne
The Recreations: Behind the Scenes
The Lost Tomb of Jesus Epilogue featuring James Cameron and Simcha Jacobovici
Photo GalleryTrailer
It’s right between Hunter X Hunter, Vol. 2, the manga based story of a boy who trains for his Hunter license that will allow him to hunt magical treasures, mythical beasts and even people, and Dreamscape, a film about psychics who battle in the realm of the President’s nightmares with the threat of a nuclear holocaust hanging in the balance.
Thank you, Amazon, for putting the Jesus myth in the same category! You are decades, if not centuries, ahead of your time. Prepare for the hate mail that I'm sure will end once you've explain that it's only there because it's producer, James Cameron, also directed The Terminator. Yep, Fox News and the wingnuts will completely fail to see an anti-Christian conspiracy.
Also super cool was that there were a lot of photos on the site for the recreations of biblical scenes that were included with the DVD. The recreation photos were entitled things like “Recreations - Jesus preaches in market,” “Recreations - Mother Mary & Mary Magdalene morn Jesus' death,” and “Recreations - Jesus' family and followers grieve, skeleton is prepared for ossuary” and then there was the photo captioned "Recreations - Simcha directing Jesus."
I think we all remember that scene in Luke, chapter 12, were Simcha Jacobovici told Jesus to try the scene again but this time with more feeling. And it is great to see that it has been recreated for this DVD.
The poppy is an uncomplicated creature. It has one color. It is not parasitic or solitary. It grows simply, and in groups, like schoolchildren.
But its symbolism is rich, with a magnitude that has spanned many countries, and many centuries. For such a little flower it carries meanings that are vast and weary; that are eternal and quiet in the earth.
In Greece and Rome the poppy meant sleep and death - worlds beneath the cold eyelid. Opium was extruded from its seeds and sleepy breaths colored ancient dens and palaces. Poppies decorated the tombstones of their dead, welcoming the lengthy sleep. In Persian literature, the poppy is called the eternal flower - for emotions unrelenting and without end; for loyalty without limit.
The poppy fields in The Wizard of Oz were billowing and fearsome, promising an everlasting sleep. In Egypt opium was daubed on the neck and wrists like a hypnotic perfume.
It wasn't until 1915 that the significance of the little red flower passed into Europe as well, when the ground was already red. Towards the end of the year a poem was published - a trifle sentimental, a little maudlin, as most affairs of the heart are - and its beginning is familiar:
"In Flanders Fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses row on row...
The fragrant drops of blood growing amongst the white purity must have been a shocking sight to the soldier; in a poem it might be less awful but no less meaningful. The poppy had become a part of their spoiled landscape.
"That mark our place: and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below
1915 was a terrible year. Gallipoli - Ypres - Nueve Chapelle - Loos - The Battles of the Isonzo...the poppies must have shuddered in the stinging breeze.
"We are the dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved, and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders Fields
When the war was over, and the hardness and the bitternress had set in, the poppy had adopted another symbol - the four blasted years that had called the Edwardians in from their play, that had rubbed the gilt off the lily. Its brave, bloody image was burnt on the dying soldier's eyes.
On Veteran's Dan/Remembrance Day the popppy is worn, sewn into wreaths, displayed in houses (Aubrey does this): it is still held high.
"Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields"
