Pawprints From Space

Just finished reading a book. Good book. An excellent piece of literary journalism in fact. But now I am annoyed. The book was published in 1997. I want to know what happened to the child the book focuses on. Is she still alive? Is she still being cared for by her family? Did they have to hand her or to a care facility? Web searches thus far have only turned up info on the book, its author, various articles addressing the same topic including terms papers. The book is: The Spirit Catches You And You Fall Down (A Hmong Child, Her American Doctors and the Collision of Two Cultures) by Anne Fadiman It is as I've said, an excellent book. Unfortunately it leaves you wanting to know the rest of the story. Wanting to learn more about the Hmong culture. You share so much of this family's pain and confusion that you want to follow-up on their lives. So it is frustrating but it also a testament to the author and the quality of the work.

Well yesterday the Governor came to open the Obama campaign's new Allen County office. An estimated 200 people showed up - so many that they had to move the speech making outside. Pretty impressive for a Republican stronghold. But that is the interesting thing. This county is staunchly Republican, has been since the mid-1930s. This is not a bad thing although it is a curious one. I often find it interesting when voting trends hang on for such a long period of time, but that's just me. Anyway, at the Obama rally in the spring there were easily 300 people, when the primary office opened it was flooded with people... now this turn out. Seems as though the Democrats are finally coming out of the woodwork. I lived here FOR EARS before I knew there was a Democratic Party Chairperson for this county. Heck, the Republicans even have an office that is staffed all year every year. The Democrats don't even have a consistent mailing address. Or if they do, I can't find it anywhere....

Not forever, but how about going technology free for one day? How about Sunday? I'm going to try it. I'll probably have to "ease" into it and decide what the heck I mean by "technology" before I'll have any success. Already I do not answer the phone after 8:00 p.m. on Sundays so I shouldn't have any trouble extending that to the whole day. I do have caller ID so if it's "important" I can pick up but the thing is when I stop answering at 8:00 I cut out the "what if it is important panic" caused by a ringing phone by simply turning off the ringer. Which of course means that caller ID will be worthless if I can't hear the thing ring. Hmmm... I have started to leave the computer alone but that's mostly because it is too nice outside and I just haven't gotten around to installing the wireless card so I can surf and chat outside instead of at the desk with the laptop. Okay so that I can do: no blogs, no email on Sunday. ...