July 26, 2005
Newsworthy
Current events junkies, don't miss this news story by Larry Brinton of WSMV tv, Nashville
Posted by Anna at 3:44 AM | Comments (0)
July 24, 2005
Lets see those big toothless grins!
This headline caught my attention this morning. Living in "middle Tennessee" for the last three years I've made comments to the effect of not meeting a native tennessean with a full set of teeth. (I've also never met a native tennessean who wasn't ready to kick someone's @$$, but that's another post entirely.) My observation left me pondering the reasons for such poor dental care in this part of the country, was it due to poverty, genetic predisposition, lack of education on the importance of dental hygiene, or maybe something in the water (or not in the water, such as flouride)? It also reminded me that I'm overdue for a cleaning!
Posted by Anna at 12:16 AM | Comments (1)
July 21, 2005
Time for a happy dance
Exactly one year to the day I took out a loan to buy my car with, I paid it off! Next on the agenda is saving the down payment for a house!
Posted by Anna at 1:52 PM | Comments (2)
July 20, 2005
Career Track
In my next career, I want to be a consultant.......
just stand around and tell everyone how I would do it.
Posted by Anna at 4:33 AM | Comments (1)
July 19, 2005
Without Sanctuary: Lynching Photography in America
Several years ago I worked for an auction company in Minnesota. Part of my job was helping to empty the house and arrange the property for sale. While we were boxing up a bookshelf some papers and photographs fell out of one of the books, and we gave them to the property owner, an elderly lady. She showed us one of the photographs, and it left an indelible print on my mind.
The photograph was taken following the unjust lynching of three young black men in Duluth, MN. Surrounding the lifeless bodies of the victims were several men, obviously jubilant at being part of the crowd. Since seeing that, my mind has been full of questions, mostly centering around what drives people to commit such horrible acts.
"Without Sanctuary: Lynching Photography in America" is one of those "lest we not forget" moments. The photographs are chilling, the stories behind them, even more so. How "civilized" people can behave so barbarically without the slightest regard for another human being is something I doubt I'll ever be able to wrap my brain around. This book is sure to change the readers view of the world as we know it, it surely did mine.
Posted by Anna at 1:11 PM | Comments (0)
Welcome to Anna's Slant
I'm glad you've landed on my planet in cyber-space. Hopefully you will find the lifeforms here interesting, and worthy of further study. I know a good blog should have a mission statement of some sort, whether the blog exists for some deep and meaningful purpose, or simply to post cat pictures. Unfortunately, I had other plans the weekend of the "Writing Effective Mission Statements" workshop, and we all know the only thing worse than no mission statement at all is an ineffective mission statement, so I'm afraid for now my blog will remain mission statement-less.
Be sure to take a moment to sign my guestbook so I'll know not to post anything bad about you.
Posted by Anna at 1:00 PM | Comments (4)
July 1, 2005
The Introvert Advantage
If you ask me on Monday how my weekend was, I'm likely to answer "good". If you ask me what I did, I'm likely to answer "read a book". If you give me an odd expression in return I won't mind. I'm an introvert, and I'm proud of it.
Thanks to this book, given to me by my equally introverted cousin Ruby, I now understand that just because my idea of a good weekend involves a lot of reading interspersed with frequent cat-naps does not mean there is something wrong with me. Author Marti Olsen Laney, Psy.D. has done an exceptional job of exploring the inner workings of the introverted mind, and provides valuable advice on not just surviving in a world of extroverts, but using your strengths as an introvert to thrive. "Innies" and "Outties" alike will gain insights into their own personal energy renewal sources, and perhaps come to a better understanding of one another.
Posted by Anna at 3:09 AM | Comments (5)
Freakonomics
One of my favorite words is "Why". I love to ask questions, even if I don't ask it outloud. What makes this work? What caused that? Why won't that work? Is there someway to make it work better? How can I keep that from happening? What happens if I try this? Every question is an opportunity to learn something I didn't know before. Everything I learn leads to new questions, and better questions.
The opportunity to explore "the hidden side of everything" was irresistable, so I ordered the book "Freakonomics" off my favorite used book site (half.com) and waited impatiently for it to arrive.
Authors Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner tackle a number of seemingly unrelated topics; crack gangs, real estate agents, school teachers, crime rates, and the Ku Klux Klan to name a few. You would expect a book written by an economist to be incredibly dull, but I was fascinated, unable to put it down for the entire five hours it took me to read it. And, of course, it has left me with even more questions!
Posted by Anna at 2:32 AM | Comments (1)