Erin Ruffin’s Weblog

Love anything and your heart will be broken.

If you want to make sure to keep your heart in tact you must give it to no one - 

not even to an animal.

Lock it up safe in a casket.  But in that casket – safe, dark and motionless – it will change.

Your heart will not be broken, it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable.

The alternative to tragedy, or to the risks of tragedy, is damnation.

Since the only place this side of heaven where you can be free from all risks of love is hell.

-C.S. Lewis

I. Love. This.

Eco-Graffiti using moss.  The artist calls the project “Mossenger”.

See her website here.

About a year and a half ago I read Barack Obama’s book Dreams From my Father.  I was mesmerized by his story and shortly after I finished it I read The Audacity of Hope.  I knew from reading those two books that I would vote for him if I had the chance.

I followed the news, read the articles, watched the debates and talked about this election probably more than was healthy.  I devoured it mostly because I believed the opportunity to vote for someone like Obama is rare, probably a once (hopefully twice)-in-a-lifetime event.  The poignancy of his words, the promise and hope in his leadership, and the understanding he has for the average American sets him apart.  For these reasons, I hardly slept Monday night before Election Day.  On Tuesday, I was up before the sun and at the voting booth early along with a mass of other excited, early-rising Brooklynites.  The energy in New York City was electric even at 7 in the morning.

I said a prayer.
Then I voted.
And I walked out of PS 196 on Bushwick Avenue in Brooklyn with a smile on my face and so excited I thought I could explode.

That evening, we watched with the rest of the world as the overwhelming majority of America elected the first African-American to be president of this nation.  We listened to the speeches, cried, hugged, screamed, and jumped up and down.  Swarms of people poured into the streets shouting with excitement, smiling, and united by the fact that the majority of our country had put an “X” in the same box.  It was an X that stands for our belief that Barack Obama and Joe Biden will make this country better.  It was an X that stands for so many things we want to see changed and improved.  But in that moment the X we all put in the same box stood for those millions of faces flooding the streets in NYC, packing out the city of Chicago, and celebrating all over the country.  The first change in this country happened that night – it was those few hours after Obama accepted the nomination for presidency in which we were united and smiling.  The words “united” and “smiling” have not been used to describe this country for a long time.

There is hope here again.  I can feel it.  And while, we’re not even close to approaching the finish line, I trust that our decision yesterday will put us on the right path.  And I pray that Obama is given the strength and the wisdom he needs to lead this country and to do the right thing regardless.

God bless America.

Vive le Obama.

Thanks for voting.

obambulate

Pronunciation: (o-BAM-byuh-layt)

Meaning: To walk about.

Etymology: From Latin ob- (towards, against) + ambulare (to walk). Ultimately from the Indo-European root ambhi- (around) that is also the source of ambulance, alley, preamble, and bivouac. The first print citation of the word is from 1614.

ORIGINAL

POPE

SOUP NAZI

BOB HOPE

AMY WINEHOUSE

John McCain

HAIR SALON

See the rest in a slideshow here.

Oh yeah, and don’t forget to VOTE tomorrow!!!!

Because sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do just to get through the day.

Read top to bottom.

Emails on September 4th, 2008.

Me:

Do you like Brooklyn Pale Ale?  I got some last night thinking it would be a nice easy beer to drink.  GROSS.  I almost puked.

So you can have it if you like it.

Otherwise we’ll just leave them in the fridge because I guess it’s the right thing to have Brooklyn beer in the fridge, you know?

Caroline:

well, i’ll have to taste-test a few, of course, to make sure it was a good batch and that I still like them.
If nothing else though, it can keep the Coors Light company.

Caroline again:

Do you purposefully choose Courier New as your signature email typeface?
Or just for today maybe?

Me:

Yeah I changed it to courier new for a couple weeks.

Next stop on this Type Train: Verdana.

Caroline:

I just looked for you on facebook, but you weren’t there.

Me:

What’s Facebook?

Caroline:

it’s for former pageant queens and runners-up.

Me:

Why the hell am I not on it, then?

Caroline:

that’s what I’ve been SAYIN’!

Me:

For my profile pic, can you take a Holga picture of me in my pageant dress with my sache and crown?

Caroline:

yes. i promise promise.

Me:

Standing in front of a cream satin backdrop, please.
Caroline:

cream satin looks best with your skin.

Me:

That’s what the former Miss. North Dakota from 1987 told me.
Caroline:

well, she was right for your skin tone.
and a beauty in her day.
she has taken a turn for the worse (beauty-wise) lately, though I don’t like to be the one to gossip.

Me:

Yeah ever since that (sigh) botox-gone-wrong job…she just hasn’t been the same.

And her 10 kids with a truck driver.  I mean what’s she trying to say?

Caroline:

her as a child…

Me:

Yes. Yes. that’s her.

What a sad sad story.

I was listening to NPR the other day and heard this story about a man who I’m sure you’ve heard of. I really didn’t care to know any more about him than I already knew – that he’s a sordid, exploitive jerk. But then I heard this story.

You’ll never believe who said the following excerpts in different speeches he’s given.

The tax cuts proposed by the president are obscene – what the hell is he giving someone like me a tax break for? The argument for the tax package is to give people back their money so they spend it and put it back into the economy. Here’s what’s stupid: the rich people can already afford what they want to buy. Do you think if I get a check back in the mail that I’m going to buy something? If I want to buy something, I’m going to go out and buy it! Don’t give ME the money! Take that money and make sure that every citizen in the United States of America has health insurance. THAT’S where you spend the money! If we would get that message across to the citizens of Ohio (AMERICA!), I don’t care how republican your district looks, they will say, “Uh huh, that relates to me!” That’s what we stand for! We are right on the issues! That’s what drives me insane when I watch the news and I see this garbage…well, I’m the KING of garbage! I KNOW garbage!

……..

Yes the government is responsible for protecting us from violence and terrorists, but there is another form of violence they should be protecting us from. It’s the violence of a pink slip on a Friday afternoon saying you’ve been laid off and now you don’t have enough money to take care of your family… Job insecurity, health insurance, the fact that you have to choose: should I take my medicine this month or should I buy my kid a coat for the winter?

…….

Any job I’ve ever had has had the same constituency; it’s been middle and low-income people that need a voice, that need help, that need whatever. Even in my entertainment, that’s my base. It was my base in politics and when I practiced law.

…….

54 years ago this week I came to America. I was 5 years old and most of my family had been killed in the Holocaust in camps in Germany and Austria during WWII. We came over on the Queen Mary January 19 – January 24th a 5-day voyage in 1949. When we arrived my first memory was my mom waking me up and saying, “Jerald, we have to go up there on the top deck,” (one of the top decks on the Queen Mary) and all I remember (the rest has been told to me, I was only 5) but I vividly remember everyone standing out on top of the ship, on the deck – there were about 2000 passengers on board. Packed together! Packed together! And what I remember was that it was freezing and that nobody said a word. It was absolute quiet. We were passing the Statue of Liberty. My mother told me later as I got older (obviously I wouldn’t have remembered what I’d said) but she remembers me asking her, “What are we looking at? What does it mean?” And she said to me in German, “One day, everything!” The Statue of Liberty means everything! We take it for granted today! We take it for granted. Remember the Statue of Liberty stands for what America is… This is a place of protection. This is not a country of bullies. We are not an empire. We are the light. We are the Statue of Liberty.

-Jerry Springer

This post will serve as the Opening Ceremony to the 2008 Summer Games Brooklyn Style.
Some things to know before we begin:
All sporting events are fictitious (fake sports are better).
There are only about 4-6 athletes who compete in all the events (I only have about 4-6 friends).
The results of all the events are rigged in my favor (hey, I post the results…).
There may or may not be steroids involved (I mean, just look at us…).

Event #1 – Darts
The intimidating photo below is of “Team Ten Days A Week” who seem to be taking the dart world by storm. They are expected to win the gold medal for the dart competition in the 2008 Summer Games Brooklyn Style.  That could be because these games are not real and we will (by default) win every competition we enter – or it could be because we are really that good at darts.  

Composite photo designed and produced by Caroline Mitchell – www.carolinemitchelldesign.com
Soundtrack by Andrew McConkey of Last Go - www.myspace.com/lastgo
Motivation and Innovation by Davey Spens – www.daveyspens.com 

It’s sunny today.

It’s the Friday before a 3 day weekend.

And I found my favorite song of the month.

Basia Bulat – In the Night

Listen to it….

THEN download her album and just TRY to stop yourself from dancing…just try.