Borkness continues

Published by Helen | Filed under Random

I continue to be affected by a spam injection problem. Laughing Squid went in and cleaned up much of the malicious code–they are the best hosts ever–but it’s still there. Cry! The result is that I am going to have to take down the site again. I’m sorry. I’m starting a new blog elsewhere soon, and will be reconsidering what to do with this site.

Fixing the borkness

Published by Helen | Filed under Fail!

This is partially a test post to see if certain issues are resolved. Apparently, something got into one of my wp files making me appear to Google as a sales person of some male enhancement product, as well as posting my articles “as” Google instead of myself. Now that I’ve uncovered the hack, I’m busily hammering things back into place.

‘Snow Laughing Matter

Published by Helen | Filed under Fail!, Health, Life

It’s been the worst weekend ever. My teenage self would probably say different, but here’s how the weekend has gone. With something like 28″ of snow falling between Friday and Saturday, it’s been hard to get anything accomplished. But on top of that I spent the weekend with a nasty cold that evolved into a case of pink-eye. Twitter friends turned me on to a remedy for that, which turned out to be something my own body happens to be making: breast milk eye washes. I know, it sounds crazy! But it worked!

So now the cold is better and the pink-eye has abated, but the heating oil truck that was supposed to come yesterday never came. I called and was told “I’m in the queue” but that some of their drivers were not able to make it into work, so they are running really behind. The tank, which was at a quarter full last week, is now sitting on empty, and I turned it off to avoid needing to have it primed. We thought we’d be able to get some kerosene to put into the tank to hold us overnight, but every single store is sold out of containers for transporting said kerosene. So the furnace stayed shut off overnight.

Jesse is now wearing two sets of pajamas and napping fitfully under two fuzzy blankets. Kieran is holed up with a space heater. I’ve busted out my own layers and am running the oven on the cleaning cycle. Dean has gone into Northern Va to swap out some work files, and hopefully will find some kerosene in case the truck can’t make it again today—which is entirely possible, given that it’s already snowed a bit here…

But we’re ok, if a bit cold. Jesse doesn’t seem to have been affected by my being sick, and everyone else is doing just peachy. I realized why this cold hit me harder than they usually do: I’m accustomed to being able to sleep all day when I take sick—and Jesse no longer sleeps all day, so that’s a lost cause.

But with no Momma’s helpers around—sitter and FIL are even more snowbound than I am, and Kieran’s only useful as a babywatcher when said baby is asleep—I’m staying busy.

And the day goes on — I wrote the above much earlier today. At 6:30, I saw a truck go by from my oil company, and wilted as it pressed on down the street–knowing it couldn’t have stopped even if it wanted to because there was so much traffic stacked behind it and there was no clearance for it to pull over because of the snow piled up there, as tall as 5 feet in places because of digs and plowage. But I compartmentalized the house so that the heaters are strategically placed and everyone has a warm place to sleep and the pipes won’t freeze (I hope). And lo, there is more snow falling here, work is closed again tomorrow, and I remain behind on work AND school because of all of this. Missed my entire week, assignment wise, of an online course–and doubtless will be graded down for it. But if I can rock the course for the rest of the term, I might be able to pull it out. We’ll see. And the web site at work is languishing. Hopefully tomorrow, with Dean home, I can catch that up.

And after all, if it has been the worst (extended) weekend ever, things can only get better, right?

RIGHT?

Oil watch now on day 6. Snowbound day 5. Help!

JK Rowling on the benefits of failure

Published by Helen | Filed under Authors, Link of the Day, Pictures

JK Rowling’s 2008 Harvard Commencement speech. Found via TED.

J.K. Rowling Speaks at Harvard Commencement from Harvard Magazine on Vimeo.

It’s been ages…

Published by Helen | Filed under Politics

…since i blogged here. It’s mostly because pregnancy and childbirth and now infant-rearing are taking up so much of my energy that it deserved its own blog, but even that has lost steam as my window of uninterrupted time not devoted to either work, vocation, family or homemaking has become smaller and smaller.

But during the house cleaning, I found this gem from October of 2000, that I’d written during a conversation with a few folks about the choices we faced that year:

I mean, really; the fractiousness of multipartisanship would lead to the worst gridlock ever. When the democrats were hard liberal and the GOP was strictly to the right, nothing got accomplished; but if any one of those parties had been in complete power, we would have steamrolled into an existence that would have caused turmoil to a significant portion of the population, and flip a coin to see what side you would have been on.

I *like* the movement towards the middle, because I see it as having brought about progress. Maybe not all of it was perfect, but my life is better, and I don’t feel THREATENED by my own government. I don’t know that I’d feel that way if the right got hold of the government, but I also know that lots of people would feel that way if the left did. And often enough, they’re people I have to deal with on a day to day basis.

Now, I can’t make any statements about politics one way or the other nowadays because I work for a magazine where it’s important to not be political. But this quote is just creepy no matter what side of the fence you’re on with regard to what has transpired in the nearly ten years since I wrote it.

50 Concerts

Published by Helen | Filed under Music

[I'm starting to get tagged for memes on FB more often. It's ok, I haven't been blogging here enough lately, right? Pregnancy is so distracting. Anyhow, I've forgotten more concerts/shows than I can remember--life of a former music critic, I guess.]

Here are the rules. Test your memory and your love of live music by listing 50 artists or bands (or as many as you can remember) you’ve seen in concert.

Should you choose this challenge, here’s what you do (if you’re doing this through Facebook, anyway):
Copy my note. Click on “notes” under tabs on your profile page. Select “write a new note” in the top corner. Paste the copy in the body of the note. Make your list. Change the number at the top, and add your title. Once you’ve saved, don’t forget to tag friends (including me) on the right.

1. Duran Duran
2. Depeche Mode
3. Sting
4. U2
5. Nine Inch Nails
6. The Damned
7. Nick Cave
8. Radiohead
9. Siouxsie and the Banshees
10. The Faint
11. Cyndi Lauper
12. Bella Morte
13. Gary Numan
14. VNV Nation
15. GWAR
16. Conjure One
17. Dead Can Dance
18. REM
19. Poison (Mike Nelson’s brother was responsible for this.)
20. Psychedelic Furs
21. Concrete Blonde
22. David Bowie
23. Peter Murphy
24. The Rollins Band
25. The Cure
26. Tapping the Vein
27. Erasure
28. The BoDeans
29. Apoptygma Berzerk
30. The Pixies
31. Low
32. Strawberry Switchblade
33. Corrosion of Conformity
34. Apocalyptica
35. The Dresden Dolls
36. Social Distortion
37. Covenant
38. The Smithereens
39. Love Spirals Downwards
40. Debbie Harry
41. And One
42. Carfax Abbey
43. Cracker
44. Ego Likeness
45. black tape for a blue girl
46. Stromkern
47. The Gossip
48. Voivod
49. Rufus Wainwright
50. Voltaire

My Life According to Duran Duran

Published by Helen | Filed under 80s, Memery, Music

Because Kelly A. tagged me, and I haven’t done this one in a while and for some reason have never picked my first favorite band:

Using only SONG names from ONE ARTIST, cleverly answer these questions. Pass it on to at least 15 people and include me. You can’t use the band I used. Try not to repeat a song title. It’s a lot harder than you think! Repost as “my life according to (band name)”

Pick your Artist:
Duran Duran

Are you a male or female?
Girls on Film

Describe yourself:
Notorious

How do you feel:
Hungry Like the Wolf

Describe where you currently live:
Planet Earth

If you could go anywhere where would you go?
Ordinary World

Your favorite form of transportation:
The Chauffeur

Your best friend is:
Friends of Mine

What’s the weather like:
Hold Back the Rain

Favorite time of day:
New Moon on Monday

If your life was a TV show, it would be called:
All She Wants Is

What is life to you:
What Happens Tomorrow

Your fear:
Come Undone

What is the best advice you have to give:
Reach Up for the Sunrise

Thought for the Day:
New Religion

How I would like to die:
Red Carpet Massacre

My soul’s present condition:
Shadows on Your Side

My motto:
My Own Way

[Tags will appear in Facebook. But if you're one of my blog readers who doesn't regularly tune in to Facebook, consider yourself tagged too, but only if you want to be.]

My god, It’s full of stars!

Published by Helen | Filed under Family, Life, Reflections

Someone said to me the other day that I picked a good summer to be pregnant. It’s true. I don’t have air conditioning and to tell the truth I’ve only missed it on a couple of days when it’s gotten really miserable. But for it to be late July in NW Virginia and under 70 degrees at night is kind of amazing! And it’s really been like this all summer long, one of the mildest I can remember, honestly.

I guess sometimes I take for granted how beautiful it is where I live. I don’t always remember to notice it, living right in the middle of town. D’s parents live on several acres about 10 miles south of here, outside of town and right underneath the mountains. We spent the day there, along with my son, and my stepdaughter, who brought a friend along. After a cookout and lots of frisbee time for the guys, D took the kids down to the creek to build a campfire, where they made S’mores.

I mostly sat by and watched, augmenting my recipe collection from various magazines that have been piling up, when suddenly I was ready to keel over and nap. Wasn’t really up for the campfire anyway; the smoke is overwhelming for me even when I’m not pregnant. But it really was campfire weather–as I slept and the sun went down, the air actually took on a chill.

The kids woke me up around 10 pm. You lose track of time out there–I have no idea what time I conked out, but when a passel of tweens and teens come charging through the house demanding ice cream (the S’mores, it turned out, had not gone so well–the chocolate had turned out to be of the unsweetened baker’s variety). After some time relaxing in the living room, with D curled up next to me, murmuring silly things to my thumping belly, Elder Son on and I got ready to go–hubby and his daughter were sleeping over.

As we walked out to the car, an overwhelming feeling of peace came over me. I looked up in the sky and thousands of stars… THOUSANDS! were scattered across the sky in patterns that came back to my memory easily. I said something to Elder Son about it, pointing out the Big Dipper, and he said, “Wow, you’re right, I’ve never seen it so clearly.” Coming across the sky, I pointed out Cassiopeia, and Perseus. Elder Son asked about the bright star dead center overhead, and I said, “That’s Vega. It’s a star in the swan.” “Cygnus?” he said. Yep. (except I’m wrong: it’s actually in the lyre, right next to the swan. but not bad for dredging up information I hadn’t looked at since Elder Son was about 9.)

Then I pointed out the swath of mist in the sky behind these summer constellations, explaining that it was the Milky Way, and not a cloud at all. That it’s full of stars, stars so finely grained and clustered that they look like a thin wisp of atmosphere, stretched in a ribbon from one side of the sky to the other.

I’ve long said that one of the joys of parenthood is transmitting a sense of wonder at the world and the universe. We had one of those moments tonight, and it’s so rare with a teenager that I’m pondering on it tonight. We’ll have many of those moments with Bunky, after so many missed with Elder Son and Lil’D, my stepdaughter, because of custody stuff. But each of those moments that we share with our children is a gift, one that will carry them into adulthood, as they get in touch with their own sense of wonder and transmit it to their own children some day.

Church 2.0

Published by Helen | Filed under Faith, Networking, New Media, Religion, Social Media

I hadn’t seen that this had been released, which I find a bit disconcerting because I expected to get an email at least when it was. But since I’ve found it, let me point you to Andrea Useem’s excellent “The Networked Congregation: Embracing the Spirit of Experimentation, “ a guide from CongregationalResources.org on Web 2.0 in the faith world. I was one of her sources, having attended a focus group at the Alban Institute shortly after starting helenmosher.com–and I know it was soon after because the invitation was one of the first emails I ever got at the helenmosher gmail address.

It’s interesting because I’ve been asked to start coordinating the acolyte schedule and training-type things at church, so revisiting some of the comments I made over a year ago when I was much more active in the church-2.0 conversation was kind of funny. One of the things I said (from here):

Mosher pointed out that if a congregation doesn’t set up a Facebook group, someone else will probably do it on his or her own. While someone taking such an initiative is great, it’s a potential negative if the effort is unsupported by the congregational leadership and may duplicate or even muddle other communication efforts.

The positive approach is to actively engage congregational members who are proficient at new technologies. This can be a new form of ministry. “If a college kid in your parish can set up a Facebook group, then that’s their version of hosting coffee hour,” said Mosher. “It’s good for church staff members to engage people like that and recognize their knowledge as a ministry and say, ‘We can collaborate on this.’”

And just as a shout-out to Christ and Grace, the church of my youth, this quote here reminds me that much of church, especially for young people, is community:

Helen Thompson Mosher faced a challenge in her teenage years that involved not time but geographic constraints. “When I was fifteen years old, my parents changed churches, and I lost all my friends,” she recalled. “Shortly thereafter, I stopped going to church—for about fifteen years.” Mosher imagined what could have happened had the online tools that exist today been available to her then. “I might have been able to continue to interact with those friends and stay connected to my church community, and I might not have vanished off on this fifteen-year detour.” Mosher has since reconnected with her childhood church, reading its newsletter online. “I’ve realized this is the church of my heart in many, many ways.”

Wow, I’m so vain, I think this post is about me. Ha! Read the whole thing (this link will take you to a PDF version if you find the navigation confusing), because there are a lot of good quotes from a lot of neat people–including my Episcopal Cafe colleague the Rev. Ann Fontaine and my former RevGalBlogPal colleague the Rev. Jan Edmiston.

Missing DJ Helcat

Published by Helen | Filed under Creative, Family, Life, Music

Even though I didn’t actualize on my DJness until this past decade, I actually got my start at WMWC, the a.m. college radio station at Mary Washington. My friends Beth and Jason helped me produce a comedy/commentary show we called “The Montana Report,” and I was Montana Fountainbleu–probably my first of many alter egos that I’d later parlay into internet-pen-names and various short-story protagonists. I’m not sure that we were ever as funny as we thought we were, but we sure entertained the hell out of each other, at least.

Elder son is attending a radio camp at WGMU next week, and I can’t wait to ask him if they still have pots and carts–that is, potentiometers and NAB cartridges. I doubt it. I was on the tail edge of analog production in those heady late 1980s-days, both with regard to yearbook layouts and radio show logistics. I went the print route, and as such, I know all about how desktop publishing completely changed publication production. But aside from being much more comfortable with CDs and mp3s than with vinyl (even though I originally learned to spin and mix on vinyl), I haven’t kept up with what’s happened in broadcasting over the years.

And since Elder Son has been ruminating over producing a podcast–possibly even two–and I really like his ideas, I thought I’d give him a leg up on understanding how broadcast radio works. The best podcasts generally seem to come from folks who have an understanding of radio broadcast, and if Elder Son takes a liking to the medium I’m willing to invest a little money in making sure he has the tools to capture content to his heart’s content.

So watch this space. Elder son might be making a venture into new media before his 17th birthday, and he has just the mom to help him find his audience.

In the meantime, I think it’s time I turned my attention back to producing a podcast of my own.