The only thing we have to fear is our fear mongering president

From the Nation:

"As I watched the celebration of Washington's WWII memorial just two years after 9/11, I was reminded of how, during the despair of World War II, a greater threat to the existence of our country than what we face today, President Roosevelt gave America a vision of hope--not fear. Just a decade earlier, during the Great Depression, another grave threat to the country's spirit and unity, Roosevelt told a fearful nation that we had nothing to fear but fear itself. Today, we have a President and his team working overtime to convince the American people--through a barrage of historically inaccurate analogies--that there is nothing to fear but the
end of fear itself".

Dang commercials

I'd like to thank NBC for ruining the last 100 laps of the Richmond race this last weekend. For the last hour there was a couple of times where they returned to the race for literally three to five minutes and then returned to a commercial break. For a race that they advertised was so important for the final playoff run they sure short changed their viewers by not allowing us to feel the rhythm of the race's final laps. It was a joke. If you are going to assault us with commercial do it earlier, NBC. The last 100 laps at Richmond are always exciting. This race may have had an exciting lat 100 laps but I couldn't tell because you botched the coverage. I was swearing so much my neighbors probably thought the president was giving a speech.

Learnin' Learnin' Learnin'

Yesterday I taught a class called "Selling your garbage on eBay." Seven people showed up and it was a challenge because the seven ran the gamut from a woman who had a seller's account ready to go to a Vietnamese couple who could barely use a computer. It took about half an hour to get everyone on the same page and off we went. When I prepare a class from scratch it's always a leap of faith. I'm never sure if what I have ready is enough or too much. I can't anticipate all the questions I am going to get. Well, on that note, if I teach it again I'll probably get another set of questions unrelated to what I got yesterday. I also run across things I omitted that I will need to add if I do it again. Sometimes it's the simplest item that I can't believe I overlooked. The classes we teach are scheduled for two hours. I always figure I prepared well if we are still rolling along with instruction and questions with fifteen minutes left. Yesterday that happened.

Teaching these classes is very hard for me. I get very nervous beforehand. Nervous enough to almost wish my car won't start in the morning. But each time it starts and things go well it becomes very rewarding. It's a cliche but it is fun to watch people get excited about learning a new skill. Now there are seven new eBay sellers out there. I sure hope they don't get ripped off.