Tonight I was remembering the first time I conciously heard a poem and was captivated by the words and the form. It was read or should I say performed by James Hazard a prof at the UW Milwakee campus. The poem was Fog by Carl Sandburg. It was a summer class and I was probably between sixth and seventh grade at the time.

Fog

THE fog comes
on little cat feet.

It sits looking
over harbor and city
on silent haunches
and then moves on.

There isn’t a huge difference between flurries and fog, assuming that you aren’t shoveling.

Wikipedia noted a Milwaukee connection to Carl Sandburg, namely he lived in Milwaukee and worked for one of the early Social Mayors of Milwaukee. Socialist Mayors in Mailwaukee! Gadzooks! Reality is that Milwaukee had 12 Socialist mayors, the last one until 1960. Can you imagine that today? Fox News would go nuts.

• Merry Christmas! Peace on earth good will to all! – now back to watching holiday classics and shoveling snow. #
• Going to the dump today, holler if you want me to drop or pick something up for you. #
• Complete your holiday shopping today – buy my 36" screen door for that someone special http://bit.ly/7Osbxt #
• Woohoo – I got two cars in the three car garage. #
• I wonder if I can make non dairy creamer at home? I might have to make a trip to Office Depot for white-out. #
• Today's dairy experiment was sour cream. It came out very smooth with a nutty hint. #
• I love making Christmas presents for other people – why do other people panic at the idea of exchanging hand made gifts? #
• Four fingered swipes? No Way! Too cool! http://bit.ly/8AnVRZ #

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I just watched a Charlie Brown Christmas with the kids. Unbelievable what a fantastic little cartoon this is. I picked up the DVD so I wouldn’t have to watch it out of sync and with scenes cut to make way for commercials. You heard that right, the networks cut scenes in the cartoon parable decrying Christmas commercialism. They also seem to have botched other holiday specials by getting voice and video out of sync or trying to speed up dialog and getting the pitch messed up.

Funny reading the Wikipedia article pointed out that network execs were sure this cartoon would be a flop in 1965. I guess network executives have always been morons.

• Turns out you can make Montreal Steak Seasoning at home http://bit.ly/8P107f #
• I have never really wanted figgy pudding. #
• I really want to see the StarWars Holiday special at Bryant Lake Bowl – warm house or cold car and really bad movie? Tough call. #
• Cash for Caulkers seems like a bailout program aimed at comedians http://bit.ly/8DY0GG #

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• When was someone going to tell me that the band Architecture in Helsinki was from Australia? #
• Cooking a batch of read beans and rice for tomorrow. #

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I’ve been checking out some of the creative apps available for a mac. One that caught my eye is called Ommwriter. It’s a really simple text editor that aims at creating a quiet environment for focusing on writing. It has a nice simple high key photo and you simply start typing in black text. It offers up a hint at start-up that you should wear headphones. This is because it has a sound track for writing. I love the idea of a writing application with it’s own soundtrack. I can start iTunes and play a selection of music I love, but the act of opening iTunes allows me to consider making a new play list or checking out some new music or playing a new album – all of which can distract me from the goal at hand – writing. With the word Omm in the title of the application you can already guess that the music is new age.

After using it for 15 minutes I have to say that they really have struck a nerve with this application. Today’s computer desktop has a ridiculous number of distractions. Each email sound a chime or shows a preview in the corner of your screen and the internet with it’s ridiculous number of distracting time sinks is just one click away.

I give this app a rating of strong potential depending on pricing and stability. If it becomes popular I wonder how they will keep people from requesting the usual slate of features and turning it into a normal application with all the distraction and none of the omm.

• I don't watch many commercial but I am in love with the new Kindle commercial http://bit.ly/8xnNFP #
• Anyone have a fave laptop case for a mac book pro 13 inch? I'm intrigued by this customizable one http://bit.ly/7POSec from Renaissance Art #
• People delivered mail six times a day in London – maybe Jane Austen was twittering? http://bit.ly/5SO5ME #

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