Cinco de Mayo

The Fifth of May quickly approaches and Tucson is preparing for many Cinco de Mayo festivals.  One of my favorite things to do is ask random people what Cinco de Mayo is, because most people don’t know.  To be honest, up until a few years ago, I though it was Mexico’s Independence Day.  However, that day falls in September, and again in November.  Mexico celebrates the 16^th of September because that was the day in 1810 when independence was declared from Spain.  November 20^th is celebrated because that marks the Mexican Revolution, which began in 1910.  Cinco de Mayo has nothing to do with Mexican Independence, and is hardly celebrated in Mexico itself.  In fact, it is probably celebrated more in the US than in Mexico.

Here is my history lesson for today.  Napoleon III ruled France in the middle of the 19^th century, and one of his dreams was to see a return of the powerful French Empire.  Napoleon III sought to create, and rule, a union of all Latin-speaking peoples (people whose language developed from Latin).  Since those in the former colonies of Spain in the Americas spoke Spanish, the term Latin America was coined.  Napoleon III looked for an opportunity to invade, but the Monroe Doctrine of the United States presented quite the obstacle.  The Monroe Doctrine stated that any interference with independent states in the Americas would be seen as an act of aggression.  However, an opportunity presented itself in 1861 in the form of the American Civil War. 

Mexico was heavily in debt, and in early 1861, President Juarez of Mexico declared that in order to improve the economy, they would suspend payments of foreign debts.  France, along with Spain and Great Britain set sail for Mexico to demand payment of debts.  The United States was occupied with its own war and did not have the resources to protect Mexico.  Spain and Great Britain worked out a deal with Mexico and returned home, but France used the opportunity to invade and establish French authority. 

 

France’s military landed in Vera Cruz and began its march toward Mexico City.  Being one of the greatest militaries in the world at the time, the French troops did not take the Mexican soldiers seriously.  The Mexican troops however were defending their homes, and when they met the invaders near Puebla on May 5, 1862, the outnumber Mexican forces routed the French troops and forced them all the way back to Vera Cruz. 

The victory was huge for Mexican morale, but short lived.  Napoleon III sent reinforcements and a year later occupied Mexico City and installed Maximilian I as emperor of Mexico.  As soon as the American Civil War was over, the United States began backing Mexican interests and by 1867, Maximilian and his main generals were killed, leaving Mexico to be ruled by Mexicans.  While the battle of Puebla was one of many battles that Mexicans fought, Cinco de Mayo represents the battles and struggles that the Mexicans had to fight to ensure their independence and the spirit of the holiday echoes the spirit of the revolution.  Viva la Mexico!

 

All of this aside, Cinco de Mayo represents for me the birth of my baby brother and is a time when I can reflect on how awesome he is; so Happy Birthday Quentin.

Daddy-Daughter Weekend

This past weekend might have been the best one I have ever had.  Vanessa was out of town, creating the first ever daddy-daughter weekend.  This was the first time that I have been able to spend more than a long afternoon with her since she was nine months old.  Vanessa left on Thursday night and Friday was a pretty normal day.  Saturday however, was a blast.  I got her up before six and we hit the ground running.  We got to the Desert Museum right at seven.  I wanted to make sure we got there before it got too hot, so that the animals would be more active.  A couple of kids from her day care class met us there, which made my morning a lot easier.  She loved it.  She really loved the wolves, and kept howling all weekend.  When we got home, we went for a bike ride and checked out a couple of garage sales.  Charlotte got a new (to her) slide fort and a scooter.  After a record long nap (from me; I was exhausted), we went out and got some pizza.  I finally got her to be around nine.  She let me sleep late on Sunday.  We played a round of disc golf; her first time.  We drove up to Windy Point and climbed around on the rocks for a while.  That evening, her little friend next door came over and they played on her new slide until it was dark.  When I finally got her to bed around eight, I laid down on the couch to rest.  I barely blinked and it was two in the morning.  As tiring as it was, it was the best time.  I’m happy Vanessa is coming home tomorrow, but I can’t wait until the next daddy-daughter weekend. 

The only problem, I got absolutely no homework or cleaning done.  I don’t know how single parents do it.  I’m so grateful for my wonderful wife.

Senioritis

Uof A Campus

It's a real thing.  This May will mark fifteen years since I graduated high school.  To celebrate, I'm finally graduating from college.  Graduation is less than a month away and I feel like I'm stuck in quick sand.  I don't want to do anything.  Unfortunately, I need to pass my last few classes.  One of which is LRC 320.  I'm not even sure what LRC stands for; Language Reading and Culture maybe.  Anyway, the class is called Teaching with Technology and it is designed to teach us ways to use modern technology in the classroom.  To force the issue, it is only offered online.  One of the requirements is that I create a blog and a couple of posts, hence this post.  I have missed writing here and this is as good a reason as anything else to get me back on.  So if anyone still reads this thing, I'm back (for at least two more posts.)

I heard part of the Diane Rehm show today and it sounded like they were talking about Betty Draper's suicide.  I haven't seen last weeks episode yet so I turned the channel as soon as I could.  I'm not sure if I heard them correctly, but I definitely could see that character killing herself.  She is really depressed this season.  It seems that her new marriage and her new weight are bringing her down.  If this is a spoiler for anyone, sorry.  Like I said, I'm not even sure if that's what they were talking about.  You know Diane Rehm, I can hardly understand anything she says anyway.  I'm sure that whatever happened to her to cause her to talk like that was a tragedy, but how can she still have a job in radio.  I guess other people can understand her better than me.  Vanessa says that she always has great guests and is a good interviewer, but I can never listen long enough to enjoy the show.

I think I'll go watch Mad Men now.  Thank goodness for on demand.  How did we ever get by without it?

Oh yeah, I have a blog

Random thoughts:

-Five more months and then Chalotte can go to nursery. I think that will make church a lot more enjoyable.

-I watch all these kid on campus and wonder if I was as annying as they are.

-I love being in school, but I hate all the work that is required.

-me: What do you want for breakfast? Anything besides Brueggers.
Vanessa: Why did you say that? Now it's all that I can think about. You incepted me.

-Getting in shape sucks. I guess the key is to not get out of shape.

-I think the perfect job for me would be retirement.

-I get to start teaching the Scouts how to play tennis this week. That should be pretty fun.

-Charlotte is walking everywhere now. I don't know how she got to be so big. It seems like yesterday we were tiptoeing around the house trying not to wake up the baby, or hoping we could get three hours of sleep.

-I think it's fascinating that the Qur'an seems to hold Ishmael in higher esteem than Isaac. My theory is that Islam approves having multiple wives and Ishmael is Abraham's first son, and therefore claims the birthright, regardless of who the mother is.

-I wish laptops were banned in all of my classes. The sea of facebook is extremely distracting. I saw one guy chatting with the girl beside him. Am I the only one who want to hear the head of Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Tel-Aviv lecture on the creation of the Israeli state?

-I might try to post on this thing more often. I have no idea if anyone even sees this.

Laser Cats

This is Seamus, pronounced shay-mus. We adopted this eight month old tabby last Saturday from the local humane society. We were looking at all the cats and they were all laying around and sleeping like cats tend to do, but this guy saw us coming and knew he had to turn up the charm or he was going to be stuck in that little cage. The cage had a glass door and he was rubbing up against it and you could hear him purring. The worker at the humane society opened the door for us and he and Vanessa clicked. I was happy too because I've always wanted an orange tabby kitten and I was afraid that Vanessa would want a long haired cat so this worked out for both of us. For the past few months I've been telling Vanessa that I wanted to name our next cat General Beauregard and I think Vanessa was actually convinced but when I saw this guy, the name didn't fit. Because of the orange color I thought an Irish name would work and I've always liked the name Seamus, so I pitched it to Vanessa and got the approval. Because last Monday was a holiday, we couldn't get Seamus until Tuesday. They had to neuter and vaccinate and install the microchip. Vanessa went to the humane society after work to pick him up and on the way home, noticed the paperwork said he had tested positive for either feline leukemia of feline aids. Either of which is highly contagious and drastically shortens the cats life. As soon as she got home we put Seamus in the guest room and contacted the humane society. A cat who tests positive for feline leukemia is generally put down and a cat testing positive for feline aids requires a series of medications and the people adopting the cat have to fill out special forms to make sure they know what they are getting in to. We didn't have to fill out any special forms and Seamus was alive so we were hoping it was a mistake, especially since we had already formed a connection with him. Vanessa finally got a hold of someone at the humane society and they said that it was probably a clerical error but they would have to check the test results and would get back with us the next day. Meanwhile, we were worried about Cole catching something so Vanessa made an appointment with the vet for first thing in the morning to get Seamus tested and get Cole vaccinated. He was vaccinated as a kitten, but that was ten years ago and we just thought, better safe than sorry. So I slept in the guest room with Seamus to make sure he had some company. Seamus tested negative for both conditions and the SPCA called us to confirm it was a clerical error and sent us a new copy of the paperwork with the error corrected.

Now the real test. How was Cole going to react to his new housemate. The first night was miserable. Cole slept on the bed with us and every time Seamus tried to come in the room I was awaken to growling and hissing. After a few day though, they are actually beginning to sniff each other and I think it won't be long before they are playing together. It's been a while since Cole had another cat around and he's never been the dominant one, so it's really interesting to see how he acts. Animals in nature are just amazing. They know their place. Cole knows he's senior cat and Seamus reacts accordingly. All in all, he's a great kitten and I'm really happy we got him. It's been so long since I've lived with a kitten. I've forgotten how much energy they have. It's so much fun.

Sorry it's been so long since I last posted. It seems that everyone is too busy with facebook to blog anymore. I miss the constant updates. I guess I'm actually going to have to call some of you sometime. School started this week. I feel like the semester just ended. I'm working on my next post. I think it will be my Oscar predictions tied in with my best of 2008. See you then.

Yes We Can

So Congressman Barr didn't even get a mention on the news today, but to be honest, who expected him to. I have no great dream of a strong Libertarian party but more than two choices would be nice. On the other hand, if you have too many parties, then a candidate with 22% of the vote or something could win an election. Then you get what the French had in the late 1940's with it's 4th Republic. The communist party received 25%, the socialist party received 22%, and Charles deGaulle's party (I can't remember what it was called) received 25%. These three major parties tried to rule the country equally, but of course none of them could get along so nothing could get done. So maybe two parties make it possible to accomplish more. I just wish I had more in common with one of them or that they had more in common with my views.

I'll be honest though, I'm excited at the prospect of change. I don't know that Obama is the change I was personally looking for, but he dominated the election and he's our president. All we can do is pray for the best. And in this transition time before he takes office I'll give him a blank slate. His speech last night moved me and as much I hate saying this, I'm glad that the rest of the world is approving and excited about Obama. I care about this country first but I recognize that in 2008 we live in a global society. I hope that Obama can use his popularity in foreign lands for our good instead of his personal good. I think that the republican party deserved the defeat for nominating John McCain. I'm not saying that I would rather the democrats to win, but to nominate someone like McCain was just asking for it. I think the republican party should be kicking themselves for not nominating Romney. I don't know that I would have supported him, but with the economic troubles now, I really believe he could have won.

Anyway, I just wanted to say that for now, Obama has my support as President-elect of the United States of America. I recognize the historical importance of his win and couldn't be more proud to be an American. To think that 150 years ago this great nation not only approved of but profited in the trade of human lives. To think that 50 years ago forced segregation was a reality for millions. To think that yesterday a black man was elected president of the United States. This is a great leap foward for the race and I only hope that he and the democratic majority in congress don't lead us too far towards socialism. I do believe however, that things will only get worse before our Lord returns and faced with the upcoming armageddon and the whole Earth being cleansed with fire thing, socialism doesn't look that bad.



This is my favorite thing I've read all day:
Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said Obama's victory was a landmark for equality.
"Twenty-five years ago Martin Luther King had a dream of an America where men and women would be judged not on the colour of their skin but on the content of their character," Rudd told reporters. "Today what America has done is turn that dream into a reality."

I'm confused. What year did the good Dr. King pass away?

I Love It

It's just seven minutes. Check it out.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Im0Wqj3BSvU