My spanish teacher is kind of a richard

I'm trying to teach myself some Spanish by ripping some Learn Spanish tapes into MP3s and listening to the lessons on my daily run. I'm sure amongst the Spanish speakers who are within earshot as I jog by I'm known as the crazy man who runs around repeating "Why don't you have it for me?" and "I am hungry. I want something to eat." I obviously haven't reached the important lessons where they teach you to say things like "If I had anything to declare, do you really think I would tell you about it?" or "I always travel with a suitcase full of limited reserve Patron. Why do you ask?" These particular tapes are set up with an instructor teaching two students. You the listener are sort of the third student. What strikes me is the instructor is clearly deferential to his female student. She is his star pupil and can do no wrong. The male student on the other hand can barely get a couple of words out before he is cut off and corrected. It's okay for the female to drop an "it" or a "that way" but if the male so much as neglects an over emphatic emphasis on "puede" or "quiero" he gets the verbal slap upside the head. So when I'm not jogging down the sidewalk asking in Spanish "Can you see it? Why can't you see it?" I'm generally getting frustrated and yelling at my virtual instructor to back off my classmate. "That's what he just said! Jerk!" Good thing I'm not getting a grade in this class.

You're On Notice

WFMR

If you knew Death's Door you know what the acronym in this Blog title stands for. We have billions in infrastructure problems, a failing(ed?) school district, a race-baiting, vindictive manipulator on the Parks Board (and I'm not talking about Frances Semler either), that same idiot has been made chairperson of the infrastructure sales tax initiative and what is our City Council spending the afternoon doing? Asking Ticketmaster why some people couldn't get Hannah Montana tickets. I'm going to go lie down now...

The DiaTribe Has Spoken

Every now and then I do some purging of my Google Reader. As of this morning I had subscriptions to 78 blogs! Of course I don't read them all, I'm more of a scanner. Some of the serious newsy ones like National Railroad News or Wired Energy I can pretty much blow through the headlines without even bothering to check the synopsis. Green Car Congress and Capt. Spaulding's World at least make me check through the opening lines of the posts. GCC because I want to know when I can afford an EV in my driveway, and CSW because he's a weather geek like me and keeps me up to date on hurricanes and even local storms without screaming at me to take cover and put helmets on the kids and animals. There are some blogs that have finally been voted off my Google island. I've had it with the "I know you are but what am I?" crap of the Democrats versus the Republicans. For that matter the Democrats versus the Democrats, or the GOP versus the neo-conservatives and any other permutations you can think of. Look, I like a good old-fashioned "Nuh unh - Yunh huh" discussion as much as the next guy, but I'm just getting tired I guess. I can pretty much determine the content of the posts based on the source, so why bother? Democrat "Progressive" Blog : Republicans = Bad Republican "Conservative" Blog : Democrats = Bad So now I'm down to a svelte 59 blogs. Oh yeah, and I dumped TheKansasCityPost.com. I hate that guy...

Friday Rant: You're On Notice!

Blogging allows you to try new things. Sure most writers develop a style, but blogs evolve over time. And there's no end of unsolicited advice from well-meaning(?) individuals looking to help you improve. Why even last night I received some instructions about how I should run TheKansasCityPost.com lest I allow it to become a "mouth piece" for viewpoints this person disagreed with. In the same paragraph he also managed to complain that he wasn't selected to "my" light rail committee. So thoughtful! Anyhoo, thanks to new daddy Laz over at heycameraman.net I found this really funny "You're On Notice" sign generator. Maybe I'll make it a regular Friday appearance? Maybe I'll receive more "advice" not to.

And the monkey flipped the switch...

I'm sure Greg Beck would not have wanted the blogging community to pause too long over his loss. He lived life in the now, as I wish I did more and more each day. Last week I attended the funeral of an old acquaintance who was shot in his own front yard. They say these things come in threes. God I hope that's not true. I first met Greg at a local watering hole. In my early, early days of blogging I read three; Tony's Kansas City, BlogKC and Death's Door. I remember looking across the bar and seeing this mountain of a man with a gorgeous woman on his arm and I thought "That has to be that Death's Door guy." I introduced myself and found out my suspicions were correct. He was a little cool at first but when he found out all the mutual friends we shared he softened a bit. I found out much later that Greg was flattered at having been recognized by a complete stranger but a little creeped out as well. Such is the price of internet fame. At a deck party at Eric & Michelle's place I had the advantage of sitting next to Greg the entire evening. I peppered him with questions about post after post. He asked me advice on writing and if I thought he'd "lost his edge." I told him anyone that could come up with this was f'ing brilliant and that he should just keep writing. I asked him where he came up with "and the monkey flipped the switch" and he said it was from the Lost In Space movie when the pilot was complaining that even a monkey could fly a rocket and when he proceeded to launch the craft he turned to the rest of the crew and said "and the monkey flipped the switch." We had a fun evening and probably would have been out there for many more hours had Greg's date not drug him away. The next morning I had an email from Greg apologizing to me for "talking too much." Huh?! That's just how Greg was. Always self-deprecating. Always worried about everybody else's feelings with no regard for his own. Our community is a lesser place without Greg. He will be missed.

Don't let the door hit you on the way out

It's no secret our mayor is a political novice. But no one seems to have noticed that as of late he's actually handling the Frances Semler situation quite well. Unfortunately for the mayor, Ms. Semler is also a political novice who can't read between the lines. Deanne Smith over at Prime Buzz reports that Frances Semler remains steadfast that she won't resign from the Parks Board. Aside from the fact that Aggie Stackhaus is truly the most horrible Parks Board member ever (hyperbole alert!) and shouldn't be given the dignity of a resignation, she should be publicly fired... What was I talking about again? Oh yeah, Frances Semler. Anyhoo. Look at what Mark Funkhouser recently said in regards to Frances Semler. Once again, credit to Prime Buzz. Mayor Mark Funkhouser said he understands if Semler wanted to resign after Council of La Raza and the NAACP both said they were reconsidering holding their conventions in Kansas City because of her membership in the Minutemen Civil Defense Corp. “If she feels like it’s more than she wants to deal with, I’m not going to force her to do it,” Funkhouser said. Not exactly an overwhelming take it to the mattresses show of support. "I understand if you resign" is not "I stand by you no matter what." Keep in mind this is the same Mark Funkhouser who was refusing to accept Semler's resignation just a few short weeks ago. In perhaps his best political work so far, Mark Funkhouser is saying Frances, I really can't double back on a decision I've made because it will make me look weak, but you would really be helping me out if you would resign. But is Frances listening? It doesn't look like it.