The Royce Files

The audition process was long and competitive but I wholeheartedly but myself into it. The crowd energized me and I summoned those memories of discos from days of yore and then the hardhat fell off. In fact back in high school I won a disco dancing contest. This was long before Napoleon Dynamite pulled that stunt. I forget what I won but I suspect it was an LP of some kind. I was not sure I'd make the cut. I tried to put it out of mind. But then I started to imagine doing "Macho Man" and having scores.....then it I heard it- my name. I ran to the stage, accepted, and joined the others in a rousing rendition of "In the Navy" followed by the barn burner "YMCA." It was out of this world. Disco is stayin' alive!

On October 1st the Captain and I hosted a little Pod Reunion BBQ at lunch. The whole pod plus the adjunct and new pod members were able to attend. James unfortunately was not there for the pictures. With the fall weather co-operating, we devoured brats and hot dogs and even some Andouille Sausage (thanks to Matt) at the plaza behind my workplace. I had been wanting to do this for a while but finally had the time to plan it. I think the Pod had great time and it felt great to bless some people. Unfortunately I forgot the NKTOB cups for the root beer. The Pod in the picture is as follows (L 2 R) Tasha, Matt, Beth, and The Captain.

I had intended this Autumn holiday at Breezy Point to be one where I could do plenty of writing. The only problem- no particular place to write in the unit. The best place to write would have been the kitchen but the loud television made that absolutely impossible. I tried to make a nightstand into a desk in the bedroom. No go. It fit the laptop but was just a bit cramped. I did research instead- reading Christmas stories from the Guidepost book I referred to a few entries before. In the past I have written quite a bit at Breezy Point. But blockage kept me from the task. I wonder if Sinclair Lewis experienced any writing blockage the summer he spent at Breezy Point? Apparently we was able to write Elmer Gantry during his stay: Sinclair Lewis during the early Breezy era, rented a cabin on Pelican one summer and wrote his novel Elmer Gantry. His book would become a movie and take its place among the finest of American literary achievements. One family member close to the Lewis-era in t...

I suspect many of you may know or have heard of Ralph Nader. He's been a part of every Presidential election of this century and is an outspoken critic of corporations but a advocate for consumers. I wrote a few days ago that Ralph was coming to my town. I was unable to see him due to that lost keys fiasco (they are still missing.) A friend of mine did attend the rally and said Ralph was top notch. I just read an interview with him done by Amy Goodman back in June. Amy pretty much does a good job of getting Ralph to discuss lots of his positions. [ed. note Amy Goodman would generally be characterized as far left liberal or perhaps a more pleasant term, progressive according to her wiki bio . Let's just say she has some baggage that some would be uncomfortable. She shares many of Ralph Nader's positions. From this interview you can see that she is rather friendly towards Ralph and doesn't challenge him on any points. Amy has enough material for another blog article but ...

Well, it's a day late but since I usually write about Ireland I'll post the link to from the Combat Poverty Agency giving the usual rundown of poverty definitions and causes. It also has a list of effects of poverty and on the list was social exclusion. That would be interesting to study exclusion. Also interesting to study would be the increases in relative poverty as the Republic of Ireland's economy flourished during the 1990s into the 2000s. The organization has an unique curriculum to teach about poverty called Counted Out . Aimed at students, I've never seen anything like it.

As expected, the debate started on the topic of the economy. Both Obama and McCain reiterated the superiority of their plan. I checked out to do a little research on each candidate's stance on poverty. They both agreed combating HIV/AIDS worldwide should receive more government attention. Obama specifically wants to double annual funding of such projects. McCain supports the President's Plan for AIDS Relief program. So what's the connection of HIV/AIDS to poverty? To answer I will take a quote from an United Nations document. Globally, the highest HIV prevalence rates are found in poor countries, but within regions such as Africa, it is not necessarily the poorest countries that have the highest prevalence rates. Nevertheless, poverty increases vulnerability to HIV/AIDS and exacerbates the devastation of the epidemic. Poverty deprives individuals of the means to cope with HIV/AIDS. The poor often lack the knowledge and awareness that would enable them to protect themselves ...

A really well designed website, www.buyameter.org , concerned about getting access to clean water to some residents in Hale County, Alabama. The people who did some of the design of the site spent some time down in the area. The photographs are stark, yet stunning. I appreciate clean water and I'm sure there are some there who would be very glad to have it. You would think this would be a problem in the States, but it still is. I suspect this kind of relates back to last year's topic, the environment, because pollution and heavy chemical have made some water sources unfavorable for human use.

Today is Blog Action Day. I hope to get a few posts up about this year's issue: poverty . The wiki entry states that about 1/2 of the world lives in that condition. The symptoms include malnutrion, lack of shelter...or in other words a laundry list of basic necessities. I think access to education also fits in there, too, as education may allow more informed decisions to be made. Looking at the "backside" if the wiki poverty article (a.k.a. the talk page ), I get the general sense that poverty is not a simple condition to alleviate by just restributing resources or managing resources better. Numerous POVs were being debated while trying to create a neutralish article. While complex, I don't think that it is too complex a problem to do something. So who is doing something? I'm going to give props to an organization called Rosa Loves . They have been around for only 2 years (they marked 2 years yesterday) and don't intend to be famous or rich but like what they...

It's rare when a candidate is making a stump for themselves and they never compare or mention his or her opponent. Every soundbite I hear has some comments about the other candidate. I cringe when I hear them. Or even better, bash the President. The Democrats seemed to fare well with that strategy in the mid-term elections. Not to say the Republicans haven't used the same rhetoric before, but Bill Clinton came out pretty unscathed. If you can create certain perceptions about a candidate close enough to an election you may lead the public to uncritically assume these are reality. Most of the time its a half truth painted nicely. Right now a prevalent strategy is portraying someone guilty by association. Dems do it by associating Republicans as being in bed with George Bush. Enough people perceived this to be true last election and swept in lots of Democrats into office. It probably was a bit uncritical because there were no doubt some Dems who voted or agreed with Bush policy, ...

The marmalade eating bear from Darkest Peru celebrates his 50th birthday today. Google thought it worthy to deck out their portal with a Paddington theme. Paddington and I go way back. We met somewhere when I was in elementary school. My mom was working in the thriving 1980's St. Paul downtown. That year Dayton's adopted a Paddington Bear theme in their children's department. Dayton's didn't do movie tie-ins. They almost always did themes based on books or public television shows or in this case a British children's book. My mother bought me a medium sized Paddington Bear and the abridged book. Paddington still resides with me. He sits uponn my book case along with Airman Bear. I'll need to post pictures. Why is Paddington so enduring? Well, I guess he's a smart bear that attracts young and old alike. I perhaps a while ago some Paddinton books and they were no easy readers. These were chapter book of about a hundred pages each. So why is he still with ...

I haven't done one of these in a while but I really think I should write about this one. The other day I was getting ready to go someplace. I remember placing the keys to my auto in my pocket. I vividly remember it. Well, some time passes and I finally make it out to the car, I have no key in my pocket. Strange, I knew I put them there but how on earth did they fall out? I don't remember removing the keys nor do I remember exactly which pocket I placed the keys. I scoured the car (it was open) and then the garage and then the apartment and then do it all over again. It takes nearly 2 hours and anxiety is creeping up my back. I give up and use the spare set. The keys are still missing. That sucks!

My 2nd foray into Blog Action Day is coming up. My entry for last year was tripe. Not very compelling commentary on the environment. But what can you do when you don't do the research? I guess you just make up things or as journalists might label it- spin it. Well my apologies to those who read it. Of course, Phil won't care. He's not that type of guy as I found out earlier today. But really, my contributions to help us become more sustainable are probably worthy to recount. So far I've been biking to work and almost everywhere in town. It cut down on the carbon as well as saves me money. Another factor in there could be that it keeps me healthier and doesn't tax the health care system. I enjoy biking too. Does been greener have to suck? Over the last year I have been cutting down on my plastic bag use by using a re-usable bag or recycling those darn plastic bags at the market. I wish they could extract oil from them bags to make some type of fuel. Finally, I re-us...

Looks like presidential candidate and consumer advocate Ralph Nader is set to appear in my town this weekend. I might want to take a peak at what he has to say. He espouses a few things which I agree although is bit more progressive than I. I admire his drive to keep campaigning for President. I think this is like the 5th or 6th time he is running. I think 2000 may have been his best showing. I doubt I'll get any interviews but maybe a snapshot. It would be cool if him and Ron Paul had debates.

Well, I'm a bit late on this breaking story but I will put my 2 cents worth in. Was it expected? Well, maybe. A friend of mine told me a number of months ago that according to economic forecasters, we were probably due for a major re-adjustment a.k.a. depression soon. I guess nobody was listening or had the gall to offer a response. I guess he was probably basing it on patterns in flooding in the RRV. Every hundred years there typically is a massive flood and the levels are tracked and used to determine how to better deal with the next big one. In the RRV they built higher dikes and built more flood control ditches. Let's hope the lessons learned during the Great Depression gave our leaders better ideas as how to deal. Just reading some of the Wiki article on it is like deja vu. Are we in for a big one? My concern is whether McCain or Obama are ready for this test of balance as domestic issues are flaming while on the international front embers are still burning. Neither man ...