April 5th = Bette Davis Stamp Release Date

"To fulfill a dream, to be allowed to sweat over lonely labor,

to be given a chance to create, is the meat and potatoes of life.

The money is the gravy."

~ Bette Davis

My New Baby

I'm finally joining the rest of America...

NY State Summer Writers Institute

Well, I didn't win a scholarship to attend the NY State Summer Writers Institute.

I'm disappointed, but I am still thrilled that Dr. Gylys nominated me--- knowing that my mentor believes in me enough to "put me in the fight" is encouraging and means the world to me.

There will be other contest....

Letter to Senator Dan Moody

Yesterday, I mailed a letter to Senator Dan Moody who voted against H.B. 1027. (Please scroll down to see my last post about Senator's Moody vote or click here.) I want to encourage all GA citizens to take a moment to write Senator Moody. I firmly believe we must hold our elected officials accountable for their political decisions. Feel free to copy any or all of my letter to Senator Moody, and please share the information regarding Sentator Moody's vote!


Friday, March 21, 2008

Senator Dan Moody
3977 Merriweather Woods
Alpharetta, GA 30022


Senator Moody

I contact you to express my extreme disappointment in your vote against H.B. 1027, a bill to require offenders to take certified anti-DUI courses, rather than dubious ones offered on the Internet and elsewhere. As if voting against a bill that benefits in and assists in ensuring the safety of Georgians is not bad enough, I am appalled that you based your vote on the attire of another elected official.

On more personal note: I think most people know someone who was injured or killed because of a drunk driver. Your vote against H.B. 1027 is an insult to those injured or killed and their families and friends.

I plan to contact as many of your District 56 constituents as possible to ensure they are aware of your vote (and your reasoning) against H.B. 1027.

Thank you for your time.

Cordially,

Dustin Brookshire

Blue Jeans Just Make You Vote No!

I am shocked and furious that Senator Dan Moody's voted against H.B. 1027, which is a bill to require offenders to take certified anti-DUI courses, because the presenter of the bill wore blue jeans. No, I am NOT making this up (see the AJC article below)!

I am happy that Senator Moody is not my elected official; however, I will send him a letter none the less. I think every person, if he/she searches her mind can think of someone who was hurt or killed in an DUI incident, and Senator Moody's vote against H.B. 1027 is a disgrace to those hurt or killed and their families.


The great Senate blue jean debate

Thursday, March 20, 2008, 04:54 PM
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Tradition is taken seriously in the state Capitol. Lawmakers do not address themselves by name, the better to avoid fistfights. Governors may enter legislative chambers only by invitation, the better to avoid coups.

The place is also one of Atlanta’s last bastions of formal business attire, for both women and men.


Thursday saw a rare, public confrontation among lawmakers over this last point. Sen. John Bulloch, a farmer from Georgia’s southwest corner, had just taken the well to present H.B. 1027, a bill to require offenders to take certified anti-DUI courses, rather than dubious ones offered on the Internet and elsewhere.

Bulloch was dressed in a jacket, a tie, white shirt — and blue jeans with creases so sharp they could pare an apple.

State Sen. John Bulloch (R-Ochlocknee) in blue jeans on Thursday. Elissa Eubanks/AJC
Sen. Dan Moody, a Roswell engineer, got to his feet. Moody is quiet but intense. He read to Bulloch the Senate rule that requires members to act with dignity and decorum.

Listen to the entire three-minute exchange by clicking here.
But here’s a condensed version:

Moody: Senator, do we have casual day in the Senate?

Bulloch: No, sir. I think the decorum rule that you just read says that we shall be appropriately dressed.

Moody: Do you consider yourself appropriately dressed today with a pair of blue jeans on?

Bulloch: I sure do. There a hundred percent cotton, they’re clean, they’re pressed, they have a seam in ‘em, and I think they’re just as appropriate as anything else I may wear….

Moody: Senator, would you consider tabling this bill and bringing it back another day when you’re appropriately dressed?

Bulloch: No, sir, I feel that would be a waste of the great people’s time — of the state of Georgia — and especially my fellow senators in this chamber.

Moody: Senator, would you mind if I vote against this bill because of your inappropriate dress today?

H.B. 1027 passed by a vote of 36 to 12. Moody indeed voted against it. Lawmakers often go one
another in tongue-in-cheek fashion from the floor, but — afterwards — the Roswell senator said this wasn’t one of those instances.

“I was very serious. We don’t let pages wear blue jeans,” Moody said. “I’m very protective of this chamber’s reputation.”

Bulloch noted that, in his part of Georgia, farmers grow cotton, not Dacron. And he’ll wear his pants whenever and wherever he sees fit.

Aside from the private — and in this case, public — condemnation by peers, enforcement of tradition at the Capitol is a chancy thing.

The late state Sen. Culver Kidd of Milledgeville was a famous, flamboyant inebriate. Zell Miller once said he could tell the time of day by the degree to which Kidd drifted from the perpendicular.

In 1992, Kidd went to the well to speak for a measure praising Mothers Against Drunk Driving. He wore a suit made from 160 cloth bags in which bottles of Crown Royal whisky were sold.

He’d had a tailor stitch the suit together. Presumably, Kidd emptied the bottles himself.

“Go get that S.O.B. off the floor,” Lt. Gov. Pierre Howard ordered Wayne Garner, then a senator but now mayor of Carrollton.

“I already looked,” Garner replied. “The rules say jacket and tie. They do not describe make or model.”

Kidd gave his speech in his Crown Royal suit. He later said he was going for irony.


Senator Moody's Contact Information
District Office:
3977 Merriweather Woods
Alpharetta, GA 30022
(404) 463-8055

Email:
dan.moody@senate.ga.gov

Turn to page 123, find the fifth sentence

CK me tagged for a meme a week or three ago. I've been meaning to participate, but my web activities have pretty much been limited because I only have "medical stuff" in my office at work. In this meme, you pick up the work of fiction closest to you that has 123 pages or more, turn to page 123, find the fifth sentence, then post it and the next three sentences.

The air was already thick with cigarette smoke; Caroline produced a new pack from her purse and tore away the cellophane wrapper with unsteady hands.

"It's fucking hot out," Caroline said. "Our damn air conditioner is broken." She handed Judith a half-empty glass flask.
from The Space Between by Kali Van Baale

Let's hear from Lisa, Brent G, & Rick.

96.1-- Crossing a Line?

This morning I changing the station and stopped on 96.1 after hearing "Breaking News." As it turns out it wasn't breaking news----REM's Michael Stipe released a statement announcing he is gay, and the radio station was having a little fun with the announcement-- which they can't be blamed for.... come on, everyone knows Stipe is gay. However, Stipe wanted to announce his homosexuality because he feels it is beneficial for gay youth to be able to see/look up to OUT celebs.

After making the expected jokes about Stipe's statement one the morning DJs commented that Stipe always looks sick, and he added that Stipe has never went on the record as saying that he has had any diseases. Then the DJ goes as far to say if you put a picture of Stipe beside a picture of Tom Hanks's character from Philadelphia, you wouldn't see much a difference.

I changed the station.

LIMP WRIST is almost there...

Limp Wrist is almost ready for the public eye. The talented MM has done a superb job with the website-- actually, it is beyond superb. I need to write an ode to his web designing brilliance.

I spent a huge chunk of time reviewing the website today. I'll review more on my lunch break and try to wrap everything up after work.

I'll keep everyone posted!

NY State Summer Writers Institute

Please, send positive vibes and energy my way!

Dr. Beth Gylys nominated me for a NY State Summer Writers Institute Scholarship. I submitted my application yesterday, and I will find out on March 20, 2008 if I will receive a scholarship. Even if I don't win a scholarship, I won't be too disappointed because I am honored that I was nominated. It means the world to me that I was thought when Dr. G was asked to nominate a student.

Since 2005 to 2007, 58 students received the full scholarships from colleges such as URochester, Temple U, Brown U, Cleveland State, Connecticut College, Stanford U, Sarah Lawrence, Washington U, Wellesley College, Yale U, UMiami, Bennington College, NYU, UMichigan, Boston U, Portland State, and UMaryland. I'd love to be able to slap GSU to the list.

OK... wish me TONS of luck-- I need it! ! !

"Why Do I Write" ~ Laure-Anne Bosselaar

WHY DO I WRITE ~ Laure-Anne Bosselaar

"Two years ago, I read Orhan Pamuk's Nobel Prize acceptance speech and so loved one particular part of it that I copied it in my journal. Here, very slightly edited, is his response – which, I feel, could also be mine and one so many writers would make theirs. (I did add – in italics -- one more reason I’d have given!) So, most respectfully quoting Orhan Pamuck:

The question we writers are asked most often, the favorite question, is: Why do you write? I write because I have an innate need to write. I write because I can’t do normal work as other people do. I write because I want to read books like the ones I write. I write because I am angry at everyone. I write because I love sitting in a room all day writing. I write because I can partake of real life only by changing it. I write because I want others, the whole world, to know what sort of life we lived, and continue to live. I write because I love the smell of paper, pen, and ink. I write because I believe in literature, in the art of the novel, more than I believe in anything else. I write because it is a habit, a passion. I write because I am afraid of being forgotten. I write because I like the glory and interest that writing brings. I write to be alone. Perhaps I write because I hope to understand why I am so very, very angry at everyone. Perhaps I write because there is so much I want to sing and love. I write because I like to be read. I write because once I have begun a page I want to finish it. I write because everyone expects me to write. I write because I have a childish belief in the immortality of libraries, and in the way my books sit on the shelf. I write because it is exciting to turn all life’s beauties and riches into words. I write because I wish to escape from the foreboding that there is a place I must go but—as in a dream—can’t quite get to. I write because I have never managed to be happy. I write to be happy."

(Click here to read the whole speech.)