The Republic of T.

There’s one Michael Jackson video I forgot to add to the previous post. I thought of it because I found myself humming it yesteday.

I guess the lyrics spoke to me.

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In everything I do  but especially when I’m doing something for the sole reason that I find it rewarding , enjoyable, and want to do it — but something that no one particulary needs me to do — I’m am always running out of time.

In fact, that pretty much sums up many days: Out of time.

Granted, my ADD means I have (have always had and will always have) issues with time management.

But is that it. Or am I trying to do things I ran out of time to do long ago?

I take the DC Metro almost every day — once in the morning and once in the evening. But not yesterday.

Investigators are trying to determine why a Washington commuter train rear-ended another train stopped on the tracks Monday, sending one train on top of the other, killing seven people and injuring at least 70.

On Tuesday, District of Columbia officials lowered the number of fatalities in Monday’s fatal accident from nine to seven. D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty said during a Tuesday morning press conference that officials are “going to let the investigation run its course” and added that hopefully the number will not exceed seven by the end of the day.

Fenty has called the crash the deadliest accident in the history of the Washington transit system, which connects the city with its suburbs in Maryland and Virginia.

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And along my route, these are the signs.

I meant to add these two videos to the previous post, but time (as usual) was not on my side.

I have the last post in the series I wanted to write two weeks ago but only started at the end of last week — because the other post I wanted to write had already been written several times over and there was nothing much more to say.

I’ll try to get it posted this afternoon.  (Does anyone read blogs on Friday afternoon?)

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Got both the kids at home today, and a conference call in the middle of the day — when Dylan’s napping and Parker has a friend over for a playdate — so it’s very likely that I’ll get about as much writing done as I did yesterday.

If I’m lucky, I’ll get to catch up on last week’s news, so I can have something to write about next week. Or at least material for another digest post.

In the meantime, all that put me in the mood to compile a playlist of some of the videos I’ve made.

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If you’ve read this blog for any length of time, you know I have a tendency to write long, deeply-linked, and researched posts from time to time. You also know that my quantity of my posts (though I hope not the quality) has gone down in the past couple of years.

In light of this, it occurred to me today that I probably only have it in me to do one of those types of posts — which I admit are my favorite to do — per week.

Case in point, I’ve been working on a post about the murder of George Tiller as it relates to the concept of the conscience clause and its use in recent years. I’ve been working on it for about a week, and it looks like I won’t post it today. Maybe tomorrow, if I’m lucky.

That got me wondering. Is there a good time, from the readers’ perspective, to publish a longer post? Is Monday a better time because it’s more likely to be read? Is Friday almost guaranteed to mean it disappears into oblivion? I guess this is really a question about your reading patterns, in an attempt to adjust my writing rhythm.

So, If you care to help me figure it out, take the poll.

Oh, and if you want the back-story, it’s after the jump.

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She meant well, I know.

Years ago, after I got a letter from my mom. Also in the envelope was a newspaper clipping. I unfolded it to find it was an article about a company that made lifts for short men to wear in their shoes, in order to achieve a few inches of height. When I spoke with her on the phone, she asked me if I got the clipping, and I confirmed that I did. I didn’t have the heart to tell her that, as a gay man, I’d never hear the end of it if I got caught wearing lifts. I’d be better off just wearing heels or platform shoes.

That wasn’t the first such exchnge between my mom and I. When I was in college and home for a weekend visit, she handed me a newspaper clipping about fashion tips for short men. (One that I remembered was to avoid wearing cuffed pants. Reason: the cuff breaks the line of the leg, shortening it even further.) Again, she meant well. My guess is that she knew men of less-than-average height are generally at a disadvantage, and wanted to help me out if she could. (Studies have documented heightism in employment and politics. Plus, short kids are more likely to be bullied.)

And once, while watching television, we came across a 20/20 program about how short men get, well, short shrift.

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Shelly Palmer asks a rather disturbing question.

How many people are now looking for jobs that no longer exist? If you used to be a computer photo typesetter, you were replaced in the 1980′s with desktop publishing. Now, if you had that skill set, you probably could have opened a boutique desktop-based print pre-production house and done fine. Or, you could have looked for work in the transportation or food services industry. They are all about as related.

Perhaps you’d like to be a theme music composer for television or a graphic designer for the broadcast industry. How about a gig as a professional studio trombone player, or a cameraperson on a remote three-person news crew?

All of these jobs still exist in some form, but they are far from dream jobs. In fact, these production skills have been commoditized and practitioners can look forward to making about the same kind of money as they would waiting tables in a good restaurant.

So, what’s the right answer?

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Earlier this week, in the middle of a conversation in which it was said that someone or another was “born to do” something or another, Parker interjected, “And Daddy was born to sing!” I hugged him, and even teared up a bit.

I’ve been singing to Parker for a while now, whenever it’s my turn to put  him to bed. It started with a couple of songs and as I added to my repertoire, grew into something special between us, in part because his favorite is one that has a special significance for me. But also because Parker’s requests brought me back to a love of singing that I haven’t pursued for a while.

One of my long-held, unfulfilled ambitions is to be a professional singer. I don’t remember when I discovered I had a voice. But, by the time I was in the second grade, I thought maybe I had something. Plus, I had the confidence of second grader, at the time.

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The term “hamster wheel” has been stuck in my mind all day.

Just one question. How does one get off the crazy thing?

I seem to be coming up with more of these lately…

Hillary Clinton surprised me when she said, on a recent trip to Mexico, “Our insatiable demand for illegal drugs fuels the drug trade.” Strong words, and more intentionally honest than George W. Bush’s declaration, during a trip to Mexico in 2001, that, “One of the reasons why drugs are shipped, the main reason why drugs are shipped through Mexico to the United States, is because United States citizens use drugs.”

The difference is that Clinton couldn’t’ be more right and, of course, knows it. But if moment of clarity is followed by the same old enforcement-based approach to the drug problem, we will continue to fail at reducing our “insatiable demand.”

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Let me ask you something. Do typos bother you?

OK. Let me ask you something else. Why?

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