Purple Blues

Good Grief

Second week in November. We've been practicing in preparation of  basketball for a week now already.
This Senior girl comes to me and wants to be on squad. She's already 6 months pregnant.
Why wait until the last season of you Senior year?
I dunno?
Why do you want to cheer?
It'll look better on my college applications.
Uhuh.
And my probation officer wants me to do it.
???!!!

Almost there

I'm not quite sure what else I need. I don't want to go too far, but it hasn't told me that it's finished yet.

What I did on my lunch break

A veritable potpourri of pictures. Very therapeutic.

Day Three

It will be interesting to see where this painting takes me tomorrow. I know that it's not where it needs to be just yet. I know his eyes need to be darker. At least I'm getting some serious layers, range, contrast, and density- these are what a monochromatic painting should demonstrate. Check in tomorrow afternoon to see what happens.

19 yr old Senior's eligibility ran out

I wrote this to a Senior who cheered for football this year, who hasn't been in school for a week or more.

Hey kid- get well and get back to school.

You were making so much progress in Drawing, I'd hate for you to regress in skills.

I'm really looking forward to having you mascot for me too. You're awesome at encouraging the crowd, I think you'll be a great mascot.

Take some Vitamin C or echinacea or something.

Nasty rumor going around today that you're so despondent about not being able to play basketball that you're thinking about dropping out. I sure hope that's just a rumor. You're way too smart for that. Plus you can't play basketball in college if you don't go to college and you can't go to college if you don't graduate from hs.

You know you can always talk to me about anything. I'm here to listen. I know Ball meant a lot to you. Hang in there.

Lots of love, 

Coach Mal

Unfortunately, the email bounced back-

Mail Delivery Subsystem 

Delivery to the following recipient failed permanently:

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Google tried to deliver your message, but it was rejected by the recipient domain. We recommend contacting the other email provider for further information about the cause of this error.

Presidential Painting

Here are the first two days' progress on a new watercolor painting I'm doing. The assignment I gave my students is to create a monochromatic portrait, and include a value scale along the side.

I tried to find a fairly serious photo of the President. I wanted to avoid cheesy, overly exuberant, or angry. I think the one I found was pretty somber- although I suspect that my own disappointment in yesterday's mid-terms may  be intruding because he looks particularly melancholy. I was looking at the photo upside down, trying to render it as clinically and visually analytically a manor as I could. It will be interesting to see how this one progresses through the week.

Vote for Culver to Get the Job Done

Thanks to state investment under Democrats, Dubuque now is top city in America
DES MOINES – Forbes Magazine came out with their latest rankings on the best small cities to raise a family, and topping the list was Dubuque. They found that it is large enough to have a thriving business environment, yet small enough to not be overcrowded.

Under Governor Chet Culver, the state worked with local leaders and officials at IBM to bring the multi-national technology company to Duqubue. Thanks to the Iowa Values Fund, our successful public-private partnership, we were able to bring 1,300 good-paying, technology jobs.

“My administration has worked hard to bring new jobs and new opportunities to communities large and small all across Iowa, and no place highlights the success of our efforts more than Dubuque,” said Governor Culver. “We brought 1,300 jobs to this community with IBM. And through I-JOBS, we are improving the infrastructure of this community and laying the groundwork for future growth with an $8.1 million investment in 32 projects in Dubuque County. This new ranking confirms that the Culver/Judge Administration is getting the job done.”

The ranking by Forbes is one more top national ranking for the state of Iowa. Thanks to Governor Culver’s leadership, Iowa is now ranked:

1st in children’s health care thanks to our investments in HAWK-I and Medicaid

1st in renewable energy

2nd in fiscal situation

3rd best-run state in America

3rd best employment outlook in the nation

Top financial rating with a AAA bond rating

Iowa is the 6th top state for doing business

Iowa’s economic performance is the 8th in the nation thanks to I-JOBS

8th lowest unemployment in the nation

Des Moines and West Des Moines both rank in top ten best cities to relocate in America by Sperling’s


“When you rank in the top ten, why would you throw out the coach?” said Governor Culver. “Terry Branstad says that our record speaks for itself, and it certainly does. Under the Culver/Judge Administration, we have become one of the top states in America for kids, financial strength, and business. We are working hard to make our state the best in America, and I respectfully ask for your vote today so we can continue to move Iowa forward.”

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Paid for by the Chet Culver Committee.

Vote for Campbell

Get out there and vote

Today is Election Day!

Find your polling place here, think about when you'll vote and how you'll get there, and bring along three friends to vote with you: http://pollingplaces.raiseyourvote.com

Every Progressive needs to read this book

Don't Think of an Elephant: Know Your Values and Frame the Debate--The Essential Guide for Progressives by George Lakoff


My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Fascinating. Lakoff is a "cognitive linguist," some of his observations remind me of the symbols and archetypes of Carl Jung. Enlightening.

If there's 3 things I like it's psychology, good writing, and politics. This book has all 3, but don' t let my comment about Carl Jung put you off- this is a breeze to read. Fun and easy.

Lakoff explores the perceptual "frames" or world-views of the left and the right and explains why language is so powerful. He thinks that it is important to be able to articulate your values clearly and speak in terms of positive assertions rather than negative criticisms or reactions.

His basic preface is that there seems to be two basic world-views in America right now, the "Strict-Father Family" model and the "Nurturant-Parents Family" model. At first I thought it correlated with Thomas Hobbes and John Locke- but now I realize that it is much more like the differences between the Puritans and the Quakers. On the right you have the punishing rugged individualism of James Dobson's "Focus on the Family," and on the left you have the empathetic, community-orientation of Jim Faye's "Love and Logic."

I really think that this book would be good for both liberals AND conservatives, and even independents. I don't think that he maligns or libels conservatives, if anything, I believe he just clarifies what most Republicans already know about themselves and in many cases already admit about themselves.

What I wish would happen is that other, "casual" conservatives and independents would read this book and have their eyes opened- so that they'd become aware of the broader strategy and the powerful propaganda that the far-right has been using to take advantage of them. But as soon as they find out that it was written by a Berkley professor- I'm sure that their "frame" would kick in and not let them even give it a chance.

I hope you'll give it a chance because, bottom line, he explains why & how they've been winning for the last thirty years and what we progressives need to do to compete more effectively in the marketplace of ideas.

View all my reviews >>

Pappa Bear; This is the Doghouse

Performing at the town band shell at the culmination of the Homecoming parade.

This is the Doghouse
X X X
Big Blue and White
X X X
This is the Doghouse
And we know how to fight!
Clockwise, starting with the Mascot; Erin (inside the costume) the Irish red head I had a big crush on, Chris my Freshman roommate who stole a girl from me, Tasha our Captain, Pete who ended up being an elementary principal in Hawaii, Tonya who bought me at the annual "slave auction," Jamie my stunting partner, Jim a misogynistic pervert, Amy, and me with big 80's hair. (I've withheld their last names to protect their privacy.

Go Big Blue!

I attended the little college on the prairie. Concordia Teacher's College was a Missouri-Synod Lutheran school in Seward Nebraska, founded in the 1894. I say "was" because like you can
't go back to Constantinople, because now they call it Istanbul, you can't find CTC because Sophomore year it dropped the "Teacher's" from it's name and became simply "Concordia College, Seward," and upon their centennial was renamed "Concordia University, Nebraska." CU is one of ten Concordias nationwide, from New York, to Selma, and from Portland to Austin. They're Christian colleges that offer liberal arts and business programs, but specialize in preparing professional church workers.

I starded out planning to become a commercial artist (Seward's art department rivals the Chicago Art Institute) . I struggled with whether to go pre-seminary to become a Lutheran pastor, but eventually wound up with a Bachelor's in secondary education with a double major in History and Art.


Mission Statement
Preparing Servant Leaders for Church and World

Alma Mater
Dear old Tow’r that shines above us,
Dear hearts that catch the gleam,
Though miles and years remove us
Of you we’ll always dream.
From Plum to Blue and yonder,
We rise Concordia’s own
To praise as far as we wander
The good that on us shone


Fight Song
On, Concordia, On, Concordia,
Pep that team of yours.
Fight, Concordia, Fight, Concordia,
‘Til we win this game.
Rah! Rah! Rah!
On, Concordia, On Concordia,
Pep that team of yours.
Fight, fellows, fight
And we will win this game