Many thanks to Paddy at Political Carnival for the video. This is truly an excellent commencement speech, and not just for the snippet everybody is quoting:
“Failure is the key to success for so many great people… Oprah was demoted from her first job as a news anchor, and now she doesn’t even need a last name!
And then there’s this guy, Barack Obama, who lost — {crowd cheers} — I could take up a whole afternoon talking about his failures, but — he lost his first race for congress, and now? He gets to call himself my husband.”
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What’s on the agenda for the ragged remnant of the weekend?
raven
Ugh, just came from a neighborhood association pot luck (they liked my jambalaya). Have to go to a birthday party for a 30 something with Elton John karaoke at 8. They don’t have one song from Tumbleweed on their list. Double UGH!
Hill Dweller
The President’s speech at Morehouse this afternoon is also very good.
gogol's wife
Looking forward to seeing how Aggie’s romance with the window dresser progresses on Mr. Selfridge tonight.
My life is a whirl of excitement.
raven
@Hill Dweller:
MomSense
@gogol’s wife:
I just couldn’t get into that show. I do love Bletchley though.
raven
@MomSense: Call the Midwife?
Mnemosyne
I’ve been struggling with the whole Weight Watchers thing because I have to pre-plan my entire week’s worth of meals in order to be successful (eating on the fly doesn’t work when you’re impulsive) and they took that functionality away from the website a few years ago. :-[ So I’m going to try Slender Kitchen‘s sample menu for a week and, if I like it, I’ll probably subscribe.
geg6
PENGUINS! What else is there? Around here, nothing.
Well, some food (am trying a very tender steak, filet, to see If I can manage it, steak fries with sour cream and chives from our deck, and green beans and tomatoes). And wine. And German chocolate cake.
But it’s all about the hockey.
Ultraviolet Thunder
I just finished my yard work, which I’m too exhausted even to describe.
Gotta get it done because I’ll be out of the country from 5/27 – 6/7.
raven
@geg6: worse than Elton John karaoke.
imonlylurking
It marked me as spam again! Apparently FYWP doesn’t like our new dog.
Yatsuno
@geg6: I LIKE PENGIES!!
Nicole
Was feeling bummed about Orb losing the Preakness yet another year going by without horse racing having a Triple Crown, but seeing as how the winner, Oxbow, has a 50-year-old jockey (who just came out of retirement in January) and a 77-year-old trainer, it’s too much of a feel good story to be too disappointed. Though I guess the betting angle for the Belmont should be picking a horse with a one-word name that starts with “O.”
I wonder if Overanalyze will be running…
Yatsuno
@imonlylurking: I blame Tunch.
catclub
Spurs Win!
MomSense
@raven:
I am hooked on Call the Midwife as well!
Oh but I have the commentariat here to thank for my recent obsessive viewing of Doctor Who. I don’t know why I never watched before–but I do love it now.
Paddy
@Hill Dweller: Video- President Obama’s Complete Speech at Morehouse Commencement 5/19/13 Very personal, heartfelt and wonderful
Suzanne
@Mnemosyne: I have been doing it for the past 4-5 weeks and I am really liking it. However, I am struggling with how to compute restaurant meals. I don’t typically eat at chains, and most independent restaurants don’t have nutrition info on their meals. How does WW recommend to do it? I have been trying to take a best guess at portion size and point values based on ingredients, but I have the suspicion that I am waaaay off sometimes. I’ve lost weight every week that I’ve done it, so maybe it doesn’t matter that much.
WereBear
Thanks to the mentions of The Liberation Trilogy, about WWII. I got all three Kindle books this weekend, since I’m sick and cannot do much else, and they are absolutely riveting!
Mathguy
The best commencement address I’ve heard-David Foster Wallace’s famous Kenyon College speech: http://vimeo.com/theglossary/thisiswater
Yatsuno
@efgoldman:
You take back that unforgivable blasphemy NAOW!! Or I’ll sic your daughter on you!!
gogol's wife
@WereBear:
I would really like to get that for my husband, who is constantly reliving WWII in his head, but he never reads anything non-work-related. If I could just get him to relax every once in a while, I think he’d enjoy that trilogy.
SiubhanDuinne
@Paddy: Looking forward to watching the POTUS speech at Morehouse, and thanks for the link.
Loved the First Lady’s address, but I was distracted by the grumpy-looking guy over her right shoulder. He never cracked a smile, took his time standing up when everyone else did, and didn’t even applaud her at the conclusion of her remarks. Anyone know who he is and what crawled up his ass?
MikeJ
ABC’s hed for this story? “Michelle Obama Makes Light of President’s Failures in Graduation Speech”.
JPL
@SiubhanDuinne: I noticed that also. Maybe he was auditioning for the secret service.
SiubhanDuinne
@MikeJ: I hope you’re fucking joking. But I imagine you’re not.
SiubhanDuinne
@JPL: Oh, that didn’t occur to me. He might well have been a SS guy in disguise as an academic.
Emma
@Mnemosyne: I’ve been doing WW online for a year. Lost 40 lbs so far, even through two surgeries. I’m not a good planner either. What I do is keep enough pre-prepared things around that I can grab something on the fly if I don’t have leftovers. Dinner is the only meal I plan in detail. On Saturday and Sunday I cook both lunch and dinner for 2; one meal, one leftover for lunch.
aimai
Watched the last episodes of Lost Girl season 3 with my daughters–what a fantastic role model the heroine is for this generation. Made a (very non WW) meal of little cheese purse ravioli sauced with garlic, bacon, tomatoes, kale, pine nuts, thyme, roasted potatoes, and corn. I usually drizzle it with a littel pomegranate molasses to give it a little sour/sweet. In addition to three kinds of cheese. Guess I should go back on WW myself.
Mnemosyne
@Suzanne:
You can either add all of the ingredients up (and then I usually add at least 2-3 Points for things I don’t know are in it), or you can look up the points for a chain restaurant’s similar dish and use that. You really don’t need to stress about it unless you hit a plateau — as long as you’re in the 1/2 pound to 2 pounds a week zone, then what you’re doing is working.
Mnemosyne
@aimai:
Well, you’d have to cut back on the cheese and they’d probably want you to use turkey bacon or Canadian bacon instead of real bacon, but otherwise that sounds like a pretty WW-friendly meal, especially once you work the magic word “kale” in there.
I gained 15 pounds after a knee injury and I’m at what I call my “eating junk and not exercising” weight. I really want to get back to 130 pounds, which isn’t very low since I’m only about 5’3″ (if I round up).