Great Weekend

Hope everyone had a great weekend, b/c I did ! It started Friday night when I went to my first ever Russ Martin/105.3 White Trash Party. Before hand, I met two new friends, Krisitie and Jimmy at Lee Harvey's. Even though we met at 7:00, they were already drunk enough that they arrived by taxi! We stayed for about an hour before going to the concert.

Once at the Paladium Ballroom (formerly Gilley's), one of the most fun parts of the night was trying to determine who was wearing costumes and who were actually not but looked like it! We met a really nice older couple, and I told them that Krisitie and I were married and celebrating our 5th anniversary, and she totally played along! We kept up the antic all night and people were totally buying it. I finally dropped them off and got into bed myself a little before 4.

Saturday was spent nursing an all day hangover. I never ventured out besides having brunch with Kristie and Jimmy. I was planning on kicking it at my new crib just watching videos, but my friend Staci offered me a free ticket to see Bob Schneider at the Granada--wow ! I had not even heard of him until a couple weeks ago, much less ever listened to his music or seen him live. If you don't know, he is from Austin and dated Sandra Bullock and his music is amazing, especially live! Check him out if you don't know. So that was my really good weekend !

Dallas Peace Center

So last night was one of those events that I will probably always remember: I went to my first ever war protest meeting. I was on myspace last month, and came across a random comment on a random profile. Which in turn led me to a new website, Dallas Rally. I had just missed the February protest they had organized, and was bummed out. That is, until I discovered they were organizing another, bigger one for March 19th.

Last night was the planning meeting for this upcoming march/rally. I met a bunch of really cool people. Most of who were from Dallas Peace Center. They have been around since the 80's, but I had no idea! So glad that I met so many great people last night, and found out about their organization. PS--more details on the march coming soon. Our route will take us right to where the new Bush Presidential library will be !

Wags Update

My dog wags came back home! He has been missing since Friday. My mom went outside first thing this morning and there he was asleep! His left leg is hurt, so she is at the vet right now. She said that he went straight to the water bowl and drank for about 10 minutes straight!

Come Home Wags

I am really bummed out right now as I sit here writing this. My beloved dog Wags has been missing for about 36 hours now. He is very unique (like me!): a basset hound mixed with lab. Yes, you read that last part right! This past January, I have had him for 5 years, and he was 3-4 years old when I adopted him from a shelter. My mom has been taking care of him for me over the past year, in a small country town in Louisana. The good news is that it is such a small town, the chances of finding him are a lot better. I know there are a lot more terrible things going on in the world right now, and probably even for some of you who are reading this. But I still want Wags to come home!

Movie Update

Can you believe that it is March already? The year is flying by. Thought that I would update you on how my movie project is coming along. I blogged a while back about how I have finally been inspired to begin work on my very first script.

I found this video on youtube this week, and it is a good summary of what my script will be about. Writing a film is a lengthy process, of which I have just begun. I am still just in the research phase right now, but already have some great ideas. There is so much information and so many details to this story, the hardest part is deciding what to include and what to leave out! But like any great story, it will find a way to be told. And like many great story tellers, I feel like this story chose me, I didn't just choose it.

The Ehren Watada Story

While reading bloglines this week, I came across this story from MTV News. Ehren Watada is the first active solider to refuse deployment to Iraq. "The court-martial of Ehren Watada, an Army lieutenant who refused to deploy to Iraq, ended in a mistrial Wednesday (February 7) after a judge ruled that the soldier misunderstood a document he signed admitting to some of the charges against him. Military judge Lieutenant Colonel John Head, who set a March 12 date for a new trial, ruled that Watada intended to acknowledge that he did not go to Iraq with his unit in June but never meant to admit he had a duty to go there."


And you can watch this story on youtube here.


There are tons of videos about him on youtube, and here is his official website.

Love Your Enemies

Been inspired by my friend Mike and his blog lately. He's been reading a book called Nonviolence: 25 lessons from history. Thought I would post these here and see what you think:

1. There is no proactive word for nonviolence.
2. Nations that build military forces as deterrants will eventually use them.
3. Practioners of nonviolence are seen as enemies of the state.
4. Once a state takes over a religion, the religion loses its nonviolent teachings.
5. A rebel can be defanged and co-opted by making him a saint after he is dead.
6. Somewhere behind every war there are always a few founding lies.
7. A propoganda machine promoting hatred always has a war waiting in the wings.
8. People who go to war begin to resemble their enemy.
9. A conflict between a violent and nonviolent force is a moral argument. If the violent side can provoke the nonviolent side into violence, the violent side has won.
10. The problem lies not in the nature of man but in the nature of power.
11. The longer a war lasts, the less popular it becomes.
12. The state imagines it is impotent without a military becuase it cannot conceive of power without force.
13. It is often not the largest but the best organized and most articulate group that prevails.
14. All debate momentarily ends with an "enforced silence" once the first shots are fired.
15. A shooting war is not necessary to overthrow an established power but is used to consolidate the revolution itself.
16. Violence does not resolve. It always leads to more violence.
17. Warfare produces peace activists. A group of veterans is a likely place to find peace activists.
18. People motivated by fear do not act well.
19. While it is perfectly feasible to convince a people faced with brutal oppression to rise up in a suicidal attack on their oppressor, it is almosty impossible to convince them to meet deadly force with nonviolent resistance.
20. Wars do not need to be sold to the general public if they can be carried out by an all-volunteer professional military.
21. Once you begin the business of killing, you just get "deeper and deeper," without limits.
22. Violence always comes with a supposedly rational explanation - which is only dismissed as irrational if violence fails.
23. Violence is a virus that infects and takes over.
24. The miracle is that despite all of society's promotion of warfare, most soldiers find warfare to be a wrenching departure from their own moral values.
25. The hard work of beginning a movement to end war has already been done.