It's been a long time since I've posted here on Daddyo. Brother John will tell you it's because I am spending my time on Facebook instead. (Dare I mention that Brother John has not posted to his blog since last November?), But while Facebook is a big distraction, that's not the reason for the hiatus.. After keeping this blog moving along for eight years now, I just decided to take a little break. But now I'm back. For those of you who are new to daddyo, hi, my name is Scrappy, what is yours? To my regular readers (and both of you know who you are), hold on to your hats, I'm planning on posting here on a regular basis again.

One of those aforementioned regular readers is my dear friend Ed. Ed is not only a great friend, but a prolific poster of comments here on daddyo as well. Just yesterday I read the first entry on Ed's very own blog, The Edroom. Reading through his words, I thought to myself, "this is cool, I should start writing a blog myself." So spurred on by Ed, the musical boy genius, I'm back.

As to today's post title, it dawned on me that in March, Daddyo.com turned 13! That's right, my domain has reached its difficult pubescent years. Expect some awkward and self-conscious posts from the now teenager. Oh, and I'm also thinking of having Daddyo try growing one of those wispy teenage mustaches.

Posted by Scrappy| Category: Site_News | Comments (1) | Permalink

I get why people enjoy and use Twitter, Twitter just never held any interest for me. Maybe now that His Holiness, The Dalai Lama is now using Twitter, I just may give it a try. How cool would it be to know that HH is heading out for a cup of tea with some other monks over in Dharamsala. Maybe we'll learn that HH can kick butt in MariovKart.

Just as I have been slow to get Twitter, I was also slow to get Facebook. I had a Facebook account for two years and had not done anything with it until my older Brother, John suggested that we use it as a way to stay in touch. Well that was all I needed, and now Facebook is part of my daily routine. Perhaps it can be the same with Twitter. Say I'm having a hard day and need some support because my shenpa is causing me to act out. I'll just twitter HH and see what HH thinks. Say I need a little support that day, just send out that info on Twitter, and then HH and the rest of my posse can do some Matri for me. I like that idea.

Posted by Scrappy| Category: Spirituality | Comments (1) | Permalink

After a period of silence, I'm back with this video posting.

I don't even know what to say about this clip that Caleb shared. It's stunning and terrifying at the same time. I can't even imagine jumping from the high board at a pool, so the idea of these guys tumbling off cliffs into a free-fall is beyond my conception.

Posted by Scrappy| Category: Environment | Comments (2) | Permalink

Just to prove to their Dad that they have actually visited this site before, yesterday Sasha gave me a hard time for not posting here recently. Jeremy started to do the same, but quickly stopped as soon as he realized that he barely ever posts to his own blog, the one that his Daddyo pays a hosting fee for.

For you my loyal readers who have been wondering why there has been a dearth of postings here lately, let me explain...

Often times my posting strategy is to save a link along with a title into the software that I use to publish Daddyo, with the intent to go back later and write a full post. In looking for something snappy and fun to post here quickly (so as to placate my children), I found that the only things I had sitting in reserve to be published were about the election and about politics.

"So, Scrappy," you ask, "you are a freakin' political animal. Why have you not written anything about the election recently? Why in god's name have you not mentioned how you feel about it?"

That's a good question, I'm glad I pretended to be one of my readers asking that.

Well, here's the answer. Yes, the election of Barak Obama as President has struck me the way it has so many Americans (and people all over our little blue marble). There has been a collective sense of happiness and hope that I have never felt with anything other than a World Series or NCAA basketball championship. And while I've had lots of thoughts about the whole deal and what it means, I've felt no need to write about it because I'm hoping that (at least for a little while), that this is a time for action, not words.

My feeling is that for once I will put down my snipe-filled pen and just watch and hope for a while. While I am not so naive as to think that Obama is the great liberal (and certainly not leftist) hope, for the first time in my life, I DO feel a sense of political hope. I feel that for once, things might truly shift in a direction I believe in. And it's not about the new President, it's about the larger crisis we find ourselves in. We're entering a time that Naomi Klein talks about in her book Shock Doctrine, a time like after September 11th when the American populous is open to potentially large changes.

So right now, I want to watch. I want to hope. And for once in my life, I don't want to opine about politics. We'll see how long that lasts.

Posted by Scrappy| Category: Politics | Comments (3) | Permalink

There are lots of wonderful greatest lists out there, but I absolutely love Out Magazine's list of The 100 Greatest, Gayest Albums. Yeah, there are oodles of predictable choices here like Madonna (way too many of her albums on the list), David Bowie, Queen, Pet Shop Boys etc. But there are also some great surprises. Nick Drake and The Beatles make the cut. But then there is th inspired choice of Antony and the Johnsons, I Am A Bird Now, which comes in at #10.

Antony Hegarty has a high tembling voice which you either love or hate. Me, I love his voice and all the vulnerability he exposes. According to Out Magazine:

"With unflinching passion, a desperate desire for human connection, and a tremulous voice redolent of Nina Simone, cherubic Antony Hegarty -- with help from Lou Reed, Rufus Wainwright, and Boy George -- delivered a sparse set of some of the saddest, rawest songs ever recorded. In I Am a Bird Now’s 10 tracks, the singer meditates on the lonesome “middle place” between life and nothingness (“Hope There’s Someone”); gender mutability (“For Today I Am a Boy”); sadomasochism (“Fistful of Love”); and, on the album’s breathtaking climax, “Bird Gerhl,” the sublime freedom of flying alone."

Posted by Scrappy| Category: Gay_Rights Category: Music | Comments (0) | Permalink

From Kim we have this brilliant video pointing out the hypocrisy of the religious right's opposition to Gay marriage.

Posted by Scrappy| Category: Gay_Rights | Comments (1) | Permalink

Cynthia sent along this wonderful poem from a Detroit Area 5th grader. It's great to read something so straightforward and honest. It reminds me not to overthink.

Advice to the Next President

Always help the homeless.
Watch out for pointy hats.

Remember to share cucumbers.
Give the rich to the poor.

Keep your shoe out of your ear.
Follow your instincts.

Don’t help half of the world.
Help all of the world.

Don’t bail on us.
Stay strong.

Love the people.
Make this a new world.

– Talandra Royal
5th Grade, Mark Twain Elementary

Posted by Scrappy| Category: Peace_Issues | Comments (2) | Permalink

A year and a half ago my friends Annie and Alison gave me an tabletop HD Radio that they had won, but didn't need. Since then my bedroom has been filled with the pure shining goodness that is HD Radio. I've so fallen in love with HD Radio that I went out and bought an Add-on HD Radio for my car. Recently my friend Linda asked me about my thoughts on my HD Radio, so I thought I'd share with the faithful daddyo readers, the information I passed along to Linda.

Posted by Scrappy| Category: Radio | Comments (0) | Permalink

Recently Robin sent me a link to this online portfolio of the work of Callie Shell.

In the portfolio we see Shell's work covering the Obama campaign these past year and a half. These images are as stirring and beautiful as photojournalism work I have seen in many years. I was particularly moved by the photo of Obama's shoes and the image of he and Michelle on the campaign bus.

Whether you support Obama or not, do yourself a favor and look over Shell's work, you'll be glad you did.

Posted by Scrappy| Category: Art/Photography | Comments (0) | Permalink

From Robin we have the following:

Hey, want to actually feel like you understand why the financial system is falling apart? Want to understand the commercial paper market and credit debt swaps?

You gotta listen to this week's This American Life. It's a free download at iTunes or you can download or http://www.thisamericanlife.org">stream it at their website.

The show is called Another Frightening Show About the Economy. The "Another" in the title is a reference to their show from a few months ago called The Global Pool of Money, which actually explains the subprime mortgage market and mortgage backed securities. If you haven't heard that and you are still scratching your head about those things, then you should listen to that as well.

I'm not kidding, this show is amazing. And frightening.

Also, the folks who have been producing these financial stories for TAL have started a daily podcast called Planet Money, which I haven't been listening to. That's likely to be very helpful, but this TAL episode is the place to start

Posted by Scrappy| Category: Financial | Comments (0) | Permalink

From Robin we have this brilliant link to a Maureen Dowd Op-Ed piece where "West Wing" creator Aaron Sorkin documents what would happen if Barak Obama showed up at (fictional) former President Jeb Bartlet's door asking for advice.

The bottom paragraph so articulately says what many of the left feel, that the Dems need to stop being so concerned with being genteel. They need to take off the gloves and beat the living crap out of the G.O.P. using the G.O.P's own words as the tool with with to pummel them.

OBAMA What would you do?

BARTLET GET ANGRIER! Call them liars, because that’s what they are. Sarah Palin didn’t say “thanks but no thanks” to the Bridge to Nowhere. She just said “Thanks.” You were raised by a single mother on food stamps — where does a guy with eight houses who was legacied into Annapolis get off calling you an elitist? And by the way, if you do nothing else, take that word back. Elite is a good word, it means well above average. I’d ask them what their problem is with excellence. While you’re at it, I want the word “patriot” back. McCain can say that the transcendent issue of our time is the spread of Islamic fanaticism or he can choose a running mate who doesn’t know the Bush doctrine from the Monroe Doctrine, but he can’t do both at the same time and call it patriotic. They have to lie — the truth isn’t their friend right now. Get angry. Mock them mercilessly; they’ve earned it. McCain decried agents of intolerance, then chose a running mate who had to ask if she was allowed to ban books from a public library. It’s not bad enough she thinks the planet Earth was created in six days 6,000 years ago complete with a man, a woman and a talking snake, she wants schools to teach the rest of our kids to deny geology, anthropology, archaeology and common sense too? It’s not bad enough she’s forcing her own daughter into a loveless marriage to a teenage hood, she wants the rest of us to guide our daughters in that direction too? It’s not enough that a woman shouldn’t have the right to choose, it should be the law of the land that she has to carry and deliver her rapist’s baby too? I don’t know whether or not Governor Palin has the tenacity of a pit bull, but I know for sure she’s got the qualifications of one. And you’re worried about seeming angry? You could eat their lunch, make them cry and tell their mamas about it and God himself would call it restrained. There are times when you are simply required to be impolite. There are times when condescension is called for!

Posted by Scrappy| Category: Politics | Comments (0) | Permalink

It occurs to me that as a leftist blogger, by posting so many items related to Sarah Palin, I am merely doing own little bit as an American to add to the deafening cry that Sarah Palin makes Dan Quayle look like an intellectual powerhouse.

Our latest post has to do with the G.O.P.'s proposed replacement for Cheney responding to a series of questions asked by the the conservative Eagle Forum. Their series of questions were asked of all 2006 Alaskan Gubernatorial Candidates.

Here in question 11 we have the following:

11. Are you offended by the phrase “Under God” in the Pledge of Allegiance? Why or why not?

SP: Not on your life. If it was good enough for the founding fathers, its good enough for me and I’ll fight in defense of our Pledge of Allegiance.

Ummm, Sarah, The Pledge of Allegiance was written in 1892, and furthermore, the phrase "Under God" was added in the 50's during the height of Anti-Communist hysteria.

Even my 14-year-old son Jeremy knows that the Pledge and the phrase "Under God" have nothing to do with our founding fathers. But then it's not fair comparing Palin's knowledge to Jeremy's - after all, my kid is really, really smart.

Posted by Scrappy| Category: Politics | Comments (1) | Permalink