Nobody Knows Anything

Welcome to Diane Patterson's eclectic blog about what strikes her fancy

Syncopated Circadian rhythms

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Last night at 8 I read a Curious George book to Sophia before turning off the light. When we were all done, she wanted another one.

“No, honey,” I said. “I’m going down to my bed now.”

And I did. Well, I probably turned off the light at 9, when I couldn’t keep my eyes open a moment longer.

Darin didn’t come to bed until 2.

I got up at 3 when Simon woke up.

At 6 Simon woke again and this time he woke Sophia up too. I got up to be with them until 9, at which point Daddy got out of bed. Simon was cranky, so I lay down to nurse him for a while…and the two of us ended up sleeping until 11.

Last time Simon took a 2-hour morning nap: 5, 6 months ago. Last time I did: never.

We finally woke up and the family went out to lunch, although it was clear Sophia was already fading. She didn’t eat lunch, she wanted the people at the table next to us to leave so she could stretch her feet out on their part of the bench, she cried when we left because she hadn’t had a chance to eat her meal. (Evidently she wasn’t counting the previous hour we’d been there.) She fell asleep the second we got in the car.

It used to be that Sophia could take a nap and still go to bed at 8; now it’s take a nap OR go to bed at 8. She used to take her nap at 4pm; now she’s falling asleep at 11am.

Simon used to sleep until 7 or Sophia woke him up. Now he’s waking her (and us) up a good hour earlier.

Everyone’s sleep cycle is off. I don’t know how it got started or what we can do about it. Well, I’m considering black-out blinds for the kids’ room.

Darin will probably fall asleep around 6 this evening. Sophia may just do an all-nighter.

I’ve had my coffee, that’s the important thing.

A guide to my blogs I

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I have so many blogs in my blog rolls that even I don’t know what’s there. I can’t blame you for feeling overwhelmed and scared at the idea of wading through them. Actually, I’m a little overwhelmed by them sometimes, which is how I came up with the idea of going through them and figuring out why I like them and nudging you in that direction too. Or deleting them off my blogroll, whatever.

So forthwith, I give you a tour of my blogs. It will take a few days to get through all of them.

Web Logs

This is the catchall blogroll, the one where I put blogrolls that don’t go in one of my other categories.

Boing Boing: Eclectic collection of links, primarily high-tech oriented. Also, everyone links to Boing Boing, and I hate to be left out

Bookslut: If I’m going to claim to be a “writer,” I should at least have one site primarily devoted to writing, no? Writing, writers, books, book reviews, snarky remarks about pseudo-intellectuals. Also: the term “bookslut.” What’s not to love?

Ceejbot Ceej’s weblog. What, I have to explain this?

Copyfight A blog dedicated to intellectual property issues. Happens to be an interest of mine at the moment.

Gawker A weblog devoted to Manhattan. Its self-description: “a live review of city news, and by news we mean, among other things, urban dating rituals, no-ropes social climbing, Cond� Nastiness, downwardly-mobile i-bankers, real estate porn — the serious stuff.” This is completely accurate.

Language Hat A blog devoted to language! Finally, my degree in Linguistics comes in handy. Actually, no, it doesn’t—most of the time I haven’t the foggiest what language hat is talking about, but this is one of those occasions where I like that feeling, because I might learn something.

Late Night Thoughts… A truly smart, excellent journal, filled with great writing. Lefty, with a highly personal slant.

Long story; short pier Excellent writing. Highly political and personal. Has thoughtful analyses like this.

Paper Bent A new addition, still being analyzed. To the good: writer, mother, good sense of humor, like me interested in homeschooling. To the bad: refers to self as “Household vice-president,” husband as “Household president.” Leaves me squicky feeling.

Patrick Nielsen Hayden A blog about random stuff, along with a lot of political stuff. More personal than a political blog, which is why it’s here instead of my list of leftie blogs. Plus: a great list of links.

Pepys Diary The required reading of the blog world. I should check it more frequently than I do. Probably that “should” feeling is what’s keeping me from doing it.

Peter David Writer, talks about shows I like. What’s not to love?

Political State Report A multi-poster blog keeping track of political developments around the nation. Not a daily check for me, but somewhere neat to check to see whazzup.

Rebecca’s pocket Definitely eclectic collection of links. The sort of blog I expect most blogs to be, only better.

Riba Rambles Rambling and ambling around, picking up links here and there, making personal comments on them. I’m not deeply in love with this blog, but I’m keeping it for a while.

Soapboxgirls Found this one by hitting a random button. It’s pretty much what it claims to be, “women’s passions and politics,” without being aggressive or in-your-face like so many political blogs.

Surfin’ Safari Dave Hyatt’s blog devoted to his work on Safari. My hubby works on Safari. Do the math.

The Flick Filosopher MaryAnn Johanson does it with style. “It” being watching movies and style being text like this: “Are there three more terrifying words in the English language than “Jerry Bruckheimer Presents”? (I know, you’re thinking, “What about ‘A Michael Bay Film'”? But that’s four words.)” She evidently sees all movies and has a witty word or two (or hundred) to say about them.

the talking dog Okay, for one thing, the font size is too small. And that dog pic: man, that’s aggressive. But it’s odd and funny and has lots of links.

While putting this list together I cleaned up my list of blogs (shortened it a bit) and figured out what I like about these. I know I have to split this up even further, I just can’t figure out how. So for right now the first list of blogs is the “random assortment list” and that’s how it’s going to stay.

I (heart) the Guardian

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This isn’t a political journal—basically, when it comes to screeds about politics you can find about fifty blogs in my list o’blogs over there that can do it much, much better than I can (and I’m not talking about the ones listed under “The Right”).

But I draw your attention now to an editorial in The Guardian newspaper, a reaction to the recent State of the Union:

We know, of course, that the pomp of the state of the union address barely hides another reality: an economically divided, unequal and uncertain country, with a substantial anti-war movement of its own, and whose citizens remain sceptical about their president’s wider strategies. Despite warm words about helping the poor with a system of “mentors”, and a big chunk of money to fund research into hydrogen cars to help the environment, his old conservatism shone through, with calls for an end to abortion. When he spoke of bringing forward his massive tax cuts, it was notable that only half of Congress rose to applaud: stone-faced Democrats sat that one out.

and this:

For Bush, the world community at the UN is interesting; but not very interesting; and certainly not essential.

He is the only person in the world who can afford to think this way. He has the muscle that no one else comes near to possessing. His menaces and his stare are easily mocked, but they are also impressively scary. I would not have liked to have been an Iraqi general watching that speech. We caricature today’s America as a flabby, divided and sentimental empire, led by an idiot; but it is also, at moments, the warlike republic of old, with a self-certainty no other country has known for generations. Today the UN is the flag and theory of the world order: but America, like its Coke, is the real thing.

I haven’t read anything similar on the pages of American papers. In the political blogs, yes, but not by leading opinion makers.

For Tony Blair it’s very different. Britain has not yet been attacked in the same way; indeed many people here believe attacking Iraq makes terrorism at home more likely, not less. The anti-war chorus is growing ever louder, both outside and inside the Commons, where the prime minister’s insistence yesterday that British troops would only be committed to war by “our government, our House of Commons, our country” was met with roars of disbelief.

I would love to have a country where the reported leader was made to face some opposition instead of getting softballs lobbed at him. Where he couldn’t hide behind the weaselly non-answers of his Press Secretary. Where pundits could ask hard questions without being asked why they hate America so much.

Can you imagine our Congress reacting with roars of disbelief, rather than scripted applause?

Didn’t think so.