Bev's Blender Brain Blog

Jingle Bells

Merry Christmas!

Here we are - the last day of the 11 Blogs of Christmas! This, by the way is the first day of the 12 days of Christmas, but I won't be blogging about that. I need a rest, and from what I've heard so do many others who are getting tired of Christmas music, tinsel and lights. It seems that all the holiday hoopla reverses its charm and gets on our nerves after awhile.

But before you turn your radio dial back to All Elvis All the Time as an annecdote to Christmas overload, here's a bonus track for you. At the end of Starry, Starry Night, 30 seconds into track 11, you will hear me saying "are you ready?" Greg saying "no!" Then me again saying "one, two, three, four..."

Jingle Bells. Featuring Kevin on trumpet after two months of lessons. Stephen on piano. Me on a very out of tune flute. Laura on the jingle bells.

Here you go... one last download to top off your Christmas season, from our house to yours...

Download Jingle Bells

Happy birthday mom - there's nothing better to be thankful for

My mom's birthday often falls on or around Thanksgiving. Today, Thanksgiving 2008, is an "on" birthday. So I'm going to get a little mushy here, be forewarned. Today, I am most thankful for my mother.

I've been thinking a lot about the mother daughter thing lately. My own daughter is 17 and in the midst of applying to colleges, which means I have less than a year to enjoy her then she'll be gone.  My step daughter will be 18 in four months and is working very hard to be independent, which means we have even less time with her. Mother and daugther relationships are tricky business indeed.

My own relationship with my mother has developed as I suppose most do over the years. I've grown to appreciate so many wonderful qualities and insights that she has, things that I was not able to see when I was younger and she was annoyed by the greasy cold water left standing in dirty bowls in the sink (and yes, now I complain about that to my own kids).

My mother is an artist - a wonderfully sensitive and creative artist. Her works in watercolor and hand made paper now adorn my walls and I think of her every day as I enjoy them. Even though I never call to tell her that. Although I didn't realize it while I was growing up, I know now that she's had a tremendous impact on the way I view the world. Seeing through the eyes of an artist means everything is possible, everything has beauty and everything can be shaped into something new.

One of the most touching and loving things my mother has ever done for me was to send me a note in the mail after a phone conversation we had, which told me she understood one of the most difficult decisions I've ever had to make. With the soft image of hyacinths, she wrote this Persian proverb:

If you of all your goods are suddenly bereft,
and of your worldly store two loaves alone to thee are left,
sell one and with the dole
buy hyacinths to soothe your soul

I love you mother. Happy Thanksgiving, and happy birthday.

The "salad dressing guy"

Earlier this year I lamented that my daughter said she didn't like Meryl Streep, identifying her as the evil woman in The Devil Wears Prada. She had no idea about the actress's prior 30 or so years of great roles.

Here we are again. We had a rare family bonding trip to Krispy Kreme yesterday morning (another story - had to explain that now that they are taller than us they are no longer eligible for free donuts hot off the conveyer belt). In the car we mentioned that Paul Newman had died. One clueless teenager said to the other "who's Paul Newman?" The other clueless teenager said "The salad dressing guy."

The salad dressing guy??? 

In their defense, at least they eat salad. With good dressing. And the movie buff teenager wasn't in the car, he was at home sleeping. But still, I think I'll send them here to watch a few clips from Paul Newman movies like Cool Land Luke and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.

And we could all learn a lesson from Paul Newman's outlook on life. This, from the New York Times article on his life and death.

“We are such spendthrifts with our lives,” Mr. Newman once told a reporter. “The trick of living is to slip on and off the planet with the least fuss you can muster. I’m not running for sainthood. I just happen to think that in life we need to be a little like the farmer, who puts back into the soil what he takes out.”

But, back to the salad dressing... read more about Paul Newman's shamless exploitation in pursuit of the common good. Then go buy some really good salad dressing and watch your favorite Paul Newman movie.

The campaign of change, in so many ways

I'm watching the Democratic National Convention, like millions of others tonight.

My husband Greg was in Chicago during the 1968 DNC. To say we've come a long way is an understatement. There is the obvious milestone - that we've nominated the first African-American presidential candidate. But this campaign is about so much more.

It's about young faces in the crowd in Times Square tonight. Faces that are decided NOT all of European descent. Its about my 20-year-old step son who is bummed because he has to work so he can't watch the convention live, and making us promise to DVR the entire evening so he can watch every minute when he gets home.

Mostly it's about the much needed change that Barack Obama will bring to our country, and in no way do I want to diminish the importance of that fact.

But I'm also struck by the social and cultural changes that are unfolding before our eyes. I know I'm not the first person to compare Barack Obama to John Kennedy, but my reasons are a bit different. I'm reminded of the 1960 presidential campaign that we discussed in my mass communications class at San Jose State University.

John Kennedy was the first Roman Catholic to be elected president, and that was a very big deal. It was a big deal to people who were afraid, and found it easier to think what they were told to think rather than to think for themselves. John Kennedy was the youngest presidential candidate, and he was flanked by an older, experienced running mate in LBJ.

And in 1960, the new medium of television made a tremendous impact on the election. The Kennedy campaign was all over it, the Nixon campaign was not.

And so in addition to the revolutionary change that Barack Obama promises, here we are at another communications revolution as well. This campaign is also about Twitter, Facebook, text messaging and blogging. Its about the entire country being exposed to the new communications revolution of social networking.

Its about the fact that I got this picture off a TwitPic update from @bongofury, an Internet radio broadcaster I don't know, who is sitting at Invesco Field tonight uploading photos from his mobile phone.

1700 Miles and 400 Meters

My daughter Christine is extremely competitive. In sports, in academics - she gets very unhappy when anyone gets ahead of her. This past weekend, she qualified for the USATF Jr. Olympics Nationals in Omaha, Nebraska July 22 - 27. Her event is the 400 meter hurdles.

Being the good, social-media savvy mom that I am, I hatched a plan to launch a blog called 1700 Miles and 400 meters - the distance from Campbell, Calif. to Omaha, Nebraska plus the distance of her event. The idea was that she could blog daily about training and getting ready for the meet, and accept donations to help defray the expenses of sending her to Omaha on two weeks notice with airfares that are through the roof. I figured if 100 people gave her $10 each, she'd have it covered.

We were just about to hit "publish" on the blog when she remembered she has to maintain NCAA amateur status. She's in the process of narrowing down colleges, has already received several recruitment inquiries from various track programs and she's begun the process of registering with the NCAA. To determine amateur status, however, one of the questions asked is whether the student athlete has accepted money for expenses related to an organized athletic event from anyone outside their family.

Well, it was a nice idea. And you family members who read this blog know who you are :-)

But since we can't launch the blog as planned, I wanted to share my "About Christine" page, anyway. Its a mother's prerogative to brag, after all. Even if there's no money in it.

When worlds collide

One of the catalysts for starting Bev's Blender Brain Blog was to somehow unite my seemingly disparate worlds of high tech marketing, independent acoustic music and family life with teenagers.

Sometimes these worlds collide.

Today I'm working from home but my office is still being renovated, so I'm sitting in my bedroom with my laptop. Being the first week after school got out, my 16 year old daughter and 17 year old step daughter are draped across my bed, being lazy. Its a bit like having a couple of Labradors hanging around, but the girls are much cuter.

Anyway, I received word this morning that one of our researches discovered and reported to the Internet security community that Photobucket had been hacked. I thought the girls would laugh at the headline of the article that appeared in the Channel Register, Photobucket Tipped Over by Turkish Hacker, so I read it to them out loud.

One said "So THAT's what happend to my MySpace... I used to have a picture there and now it just says Photobucket." The other one said "yeah, that happened to lots of people."

Then they feigned interest in what caused it but when I started my explanation with "the DNS was hacked so that when you type in the Photobucket URL it redirects..." but they were gone by that time.

At least now I can get some work done without them sighing about being bored.

The Millennials: everybody gets a goody bag

Last Sunday 60 Minutes aired its update to the November 2007 story on the new generation of American workers - the "millennials."

"They were raised by doting parents who told them they are special, played in little leagues with no winners or losers, or all winners. They are laden with trophies just for participating and they think your business-as-usual ethic is for the birds. And if you persist in the belief you can take your job and shove it."

I admit it, its partly my fault.

At my kid's birthday parties, everyone got a goody bag. They played on sports teams where the coaches gave everyone an award of some sort so everyone would feel special - "Most Prompt" isn't exactly on par with the Heisman Trophy.

Now that they are teenagers, I'm seeing the effects of these mistakes. We thought we were making them feel secure, when all we acheived was to give them a sense of entitlement that is now backfiring.

Example: Its Saturday morning around 9 am, they are asleep so Greg and I take a little drive to Starbucks. When we get home, vente's in hand, a bleary eyed teenager comes down the stairs and says "You didn't bring ME any?"

We've sent them on service trips to build houses in Mexico and Mississippi, and they've fed the homeless in downtown LA and downtown San Jose. But somehow this hasn't affected their belief that they deserve a grande carmel latte, just because they exist.

So, future employers, consider this my official apology. They are smart and they will do their jobs. But they will check their MySpace and Facebook accounts at work and look at you with disgust if you question them about it. They will watch anime on You Tube and play World of Warcraft before the 2pm staff meeting. And they will bring the company car back with no gas, and they won't tell anyone.

But please don't fire them, because then they'll have to come back home to live with me, and I can't afford the lattes anymore.

3000 minutes is never enough

We have a Verizon Wireless Plan that provides 3000 family share minutes per monthly billing period. Verizon feels that three children is enough, so their family share plan only allows for 5 phones. My youngest is the least active user, so he's on his own plan.

But the rest of us are sharing the 3000 minutes. You'd think that would work, especially when in-plan calls are free and we have unlimited texting.

But nooooooo. Its May 13, eight days shy of the end of our billing period, and we've hit the 3000 mark for peak minutes. Total including the in-calling and non-peak minutes is more than 5700.

Lately we've been sounding as rediculous as those television ads where the parents are more concerned about the phone bill than the kid wrecking the car. Maybe its because we've become immune to kids wrecking cars. And the occaisional French Horn.

But I digress.

Every other month or so, I have a meeting with the nice lady at Verizon who goes over my plan and tells me how to upgrade so I won't have overages next month. Then the two or three months later, I'm back on the phone with another nice lady at Verizon doing the exact same thing. No matter what we do, we will ALWAYS go over our plan. I'm convinced of that.

The Telecommuniations Research and Action Center (TRAC) has listed some guidelines for people thinking of "cutting the cord." That is, eliminating their land line and going totally mobile. Number one on their list of "Don't Cut the Cord" situations:

"Teenagers in the House: If you have teenagers in the home, you know you can't afford a wireless phone."

So for this month, I've texted each of our teens and told them we've exceeded our minutes, so that between now and May 21 they will be charged .25 per minute that they use. The only exception is to call us, because those calls are still free. Yes, I know all Verizon-to-Verizon calls are free but I don't want to give them an opportunity to say "but she SAID she was on Verzion..."

I got two replies:

"wow"

"that sucks i dont even talk on my phone"

And by the way, the French Horn cost less to fix than the last two months of overages on Verizon.

Guns Save Lives?

Waiting in the circle to drop off my 16-year-old daugther at Westmont High School this morning, she pointed out a bumper sticker on the truck in front of us.

Guns Save Lives
2.5 Million Defensive Uses Each Year

We laughed nervously at the irony.