Um. I know this is probably a silly question. But er... is there any real cause for concern over what these crackpot scientists are going to be attempting in Switzerland on Wednesday? Only... not that I'm one for complaining or anythin'... but I'm supposed to be meeting londonronnie and JD for lunch in The Lost Village of Luxborough on Thursday and it sounded like a lot more fun than bein' sucked into a black hole. Just saying...

The farmworkers told deputies the suspect woke them Saturday morning by rubbing spices on one of them and smacking the other with an 8-inch sausage.






I...have no words that are any good at all.

Been offline a lot lately. No, that's not true, I've been online following the RNC.

It's been weird to watch. I wondered why it was getting to me. I wasn't upset, or especially surprised, I just thought about it more. It's their sales pitch - they're not me.

Me, in this case, is someone who doesn't wear jeans much (or lipstick for that matter). I don't talk the way I'm supposed to talk. I'm interested in things, but they're not the right things. My black slacks and dresses aren't usually bought in the mall, they're usually just picked up at thrift stores or the odd boutique. Tea's what I dink most often of an evening... I can't even make a blog post without using the words 'of an evening!' I'm not married, I don't have any kids. It's possible I won't ever have that life. I like me' books and the local library (no, that's not a dig at Palin, that's just me saying I'm a library sort). I drink beer, but offhand I couldn't tell you the last time. Cheap bottles of wine are more my speed.

Turns out there's a reason why the RNC felt at once so comfortable and yet so eerie. I already have a word for when I spend four days being told I don't dress right or talk right, or live in the right part of the world. It's called Thanksgiving.

The RNC was a celebration of all the people in the world who let me know I was less than them. With my weird language and my not-wearing-jeans, I'm not real. I don't count. I'm not here. The important priority - at least from all the signs - was that we put America, and by extension Americans, first. My tax money's okay and I grew up in Ohio playing girls' softball on ten teams, and soccer and basketball and volleyball and cheerleading for seven others, so I had the potential to exist, but then I went to my East coast college and took a West coast job. I stopped being.

What I liked about Obama's speech was that it seemed to be about everybody. Everyone who's here, come on down! We're making a country - it's a big idea and we'll need all of us to make the U.S. I'd hoped the conservatives we're gonna put the ball in the air after that. They were gonna talk about smaller government and paying down debts and how that works out good for everybody. It's not naivete, I know telling people you'll never have to worry about 'them' gets votes; them that make you uncomfortable by the way they dress and talk and where they live. Hell, you're already better than all those millions of them! We've a God given right to rule those people! A vote for us is a vote for real people!

But I was hoping for a barn-burner. If the conservatives had brought their A-game, advocated Why and not Who, that would've been a sight to see, I mean a sight to see. I mentioned to a conservative friend this feeling, that a lot of the content involved pointing who does and doesn't count. His response was "What do you care? It's not like you were going to vote for him." I care because I'm here too - just please God don't put that to a vote. Maybe I'd be surprised by the result, but I wouldn't give me good odds.

It's weird being expatriated in your own country, but at least it's familiar. It's another awkward Thanksgiving.

And I do mean the snail mail. To those I have promised stuff in the mail.  I will try to get it ou t this week if at all possible.  Life has been killing me and I am way behind on my plans.

Also to those I have e-mailed.  If you haven't recieved e-mail from me in ages, it ould be because hotmail hates me.  silver_jade I have sent you a few e-mails but I think hotmail is eating them.  Did you get my last one?? It was long and included my address.  Stupid e-mail.

So if you want to contact me do send me an e-mail or respond here and I will get back to you by any means necessary!

I apologise again for being unreachable.

I like this quote.


"...Compassion diminishes fright about your own pain and increases inner strength. It gives you a sense of empowerment, of being able to accomplish your tasks. It lends encouragement.

"Let me give you a small example. Recently, when I was in Bodh Gaya, I fell ill from achronic intestinal infection. On the way to the hospital, the pain in my abdomen was severe, and I was sweating a great deal. The car was passing through the area of Vulture Peak (Buddhataught here) where the villagers are extremely poor. In general, Bihar State is poor, but that particular area is even more so. I did not even see children going to or coming from school. Just poverty. And sickness. I have a very clear memory of a small boy with polio, who had rusty metal braces on his legs and metal crutches up to his armpits. I twas obvious that he had no one to look after him. I was very moved. A little later on, there was an old man at a tea stop, wearing only a dirty piece of cloth, fallen to the ground, left to lie there with noone to take care of him.

"Later, at the hospital, my thoughts kept circling on what I had seen, reflecting on how sad it was that here I had people to take care of me but those poor people had no one. That is where my thoughts went, rather than to my own suffering. Though sweat was pouring out of my body, my concern was elsewhere.

"In this way, though my body underwent a lot of pain that prevented sleep (a hole had opened in my intestinal wall), my mind did not suffer any fear or discomfort. It would only have made the situation worse if I had concentrated on my own problems. This is an example from my small experience of how an attitude of compassion helps even oneself, suppressing some degree of physical pain and keeping away mental distress, despite the fact that others might not be directly helped.

"Compassion strengthens your outlook, and with that courage you are more relaxed. When your perspective includes the suffering of limitless beings, your ownsuffering looks comparatively small."

Mind of Clear Light: Advice on Living Well and Dying Consciously by His Holiness the Dalai Lama, translated and edited by Jeffrey Hopkins, Ph.D.

this is my PG-13 picture- I saw it on my car and freaked out. Then I went to get a camera and make a picture.
:)

ಠ_ೃ SMALL FANDOM MEME
TO MAKE NEW TOMODACHIS with SIMILAR INTERESTS


um...kotor, bus gamer, stigma, wild adapter, honeycomb, loveless, peacemaker kurogane, etc.

Frank totally sang right to us. Mostly because the kids on the barrier were fucking lame and we were behind them rocking out and screaming back at him. He totally looked ciel_vert in the eye and threw the mic to her.

Frank = fucking amazing frontman.

I've run across a couple posts on my f-list this week about people tired of reading posts about politics. I hit post number three this morning, and now I'll say something.

There's a lot in this journal. For the last five years I've been posting about fanfiction, school, Buddhism, meta, doctors, commander fuzzhead, gaydar reports, ice cream, jazz in the park, my apartment search, car break ins, my family, and politics. I went through my tags and learned first that, I need to be a little more consistent and watch the typos, and second, that I post mostly about fanfiction, followed by school, followed by politics.

Or as one of my tags reads, politcs.

I figure all of you do what I do when I hit a post I don't want to read -- skim. During the Democratic convention I grew awfully tired of ObamaObamaObama posts (yes, I'm voting for him, yes, it got repetitive). My down-arrow key solves that. Occasionally I run across a political post that cause me to stop, blink in horror... and then I move on. Chances are I wouldn't like this person's taste in shoes either, but it's their personal space, they can wear what they please, and fortunately their taste in shoes has nothing to do with their fine fanfiction which is what I read for anyway. Skim, skim, skim.

I'm certainly not going to suddenly cut tag my political posts. Why would I do that? I wouldn't ask that of you. Besides, I want you to know what I think!

But in case it gets repetitive, here's the short form. Then you can go back to skimming my political posts, which, if you've friended me, you've probably been doing for years.

Democrat or Republican? Democrat. I would cheer if a hunter took out Cheney.
Obama or Hillary? Hillary, even though I've never liked her, but Obama's good enough.
Health plan? Hillary's!
Gun control or gun rights? Surprisingly, gun rights. I prefer the government fear its citizens. (WG points out that a handgun doesn't mean much against an F-16.)
Pro-Iraq war or Anti-Iraq war? Live with a military analyst. Anti-Iraq war for its sheer military stupidity. Will believe the success of the troop surge if it continues to be a success in January, since most of the killings in Baghdad were purges by Al-Maliki and his cronies.
Al-Maliki? Corrupt bastard who will likely be hung in the next 20 years.
Offshore drilling? No. Let me quote my favorite senator, Maria Cantwell: "The US has only 8% of the world oil reserves. We can't drill our way to energy independence."
Drilling in the ANWR? Hell no.
John McCain? Hot-headed loose canon but I kinda like the guy. Do I think he'll make a good president? Oh... hahahahahaha!
Sarah Palin? For PTA chairwoman. In hell. Or that cult she belongs to, which sounds like a close approximation.
China? Scary. Current owner of our manufacturing base, thanks to the WTO types (I include Bill Clinton in this), soulless corporations, and eight years of George Bush.
Tibet? Deserves its country back.
The economy? We're in deep shit, largely due to, 1) Bush's massive deficit spending hurting the dollar, 2) utter corruption in the housing industry due to lack of regulation, 3) huge tax cuts which have helped my capital gains but hurt the future of the country.
Globalization? Good for corporations, bad for me.
Housing crisis? Am I the only one who noticed these were the same institutions who touted Enron?
Oil prices? High because of Bush's deregulation, not supply and demand. Which is why the trickle of oil ten years from now from the offshore drilling will make no difference.
Net neutrality? The future depends on it.
India? Mixed. This is my field, so I understand India. Not too happy with our service sector being shipped there because, one-- jobs. Two-- India has always some of the worst service in the world.
Global warming? We're so fucked.
Gay marriage? Does that even need to be a question? *g*

Now WG's defrosting the fridge so, gosh, looks like we have to eat all the popsicles.

Yesterday I saw Wall-E. It's a wonderful gem of a movie, packed to the brim with great animation, good storytelling and some of the most adorable little robots I've ever seen.

My favourite was the little cleaning robot that obsessively cleaned up after Wall-E onboard that space-ship. And of course the crockroach. I didn't know that such a creature could be adorable and yet there it is, wagging its tail (or whatever it has that can function as it) and jumping about like a puppy.

And yet it is not saccharine. There is a world that has to be mended, and a small group of humans, the last ones actually, that have to step up and take some responsibility. It all ends on a hopeful note though, and I have to say that if one needs an antidote against the vague feeling of nihilism that might grip one after seeing The Dark Knight, one should go and see this movie.

I'm gonna go back and see Wall-E more times.

After all, I've seen The Dark Knight twice and needs all the good feelings that Wall-E gave me.

One needs balance.

I love this:

I have no idea why a LOLObama is so reassuring.

Currently: writing Out Of Bounds. Downloading the next SGA ep. *taps foot impatiently*

Ah, Gloria Steinem. I don't always agree with you, but this time you are so very right.

Palin: Wrong Woman, Wrong Message

It's insulting. A woman with close to zero experience nominated for the vice presidency? The Republicans want a second first lady.

Palin's experiencing her political honeymoon right now. But wait till people find out about her book banning, her view that the Iraq war is a "task from God," and the $22 million debt she left in tiny Wasilla.

So the past few days I have been sick. Not like really sick, just cold like symptoms that don't want to fully develop into anything. I have congestion in my chest, but my nose is not stuffy (except for in the morning, but for me that's pretty normal) and my sore throat mostly went away yesterday. So... I dunno do I have half a cold or what the hell is the matter with me?

Tuesday I went to Karate and had a spaz moment during warm up. My foot tweaked out and I faceplanted in front of four black belts, my sister and Keava (the nerdy guy who bugs the crap out of me). Well, for some reason Keava fell too... only he did it twice, and as far as I know he has nothing wrong with him. "At least I'm not the only one that fell," he said.

Gade: "Well, you're the only one that fell TWICE." He didn't like that pointed out, but I had to laugh under my breath.

Went to karate last night because we are tip testing next week. I was tired from working all day and feeling off because of my "cold" so Cassie told me not to participate if I didn't think I could do it. Well, I felt okay enough that I pulled through almost everything.

Cassie was intentionally kicking the target I held for her very hard in an attempt to get me to stop and go sit down. She was thoroughly enjoying herself... until she stepped on her gi pantleg and fell on her butt. I couldn't help but laugh, and she laughed too. It was really funny. After that she stopped kicking me so hard, lol.

Toward the end of the class Gade was going over the techniques we are doing for our test Tuesday (the last one we just learned Monday!) and my brain went into shut down mode. I stood there rubbing at my eye and trying to figure out why in the hell I couldn't figure out how to do "mace and shield" with Gade helping us. Gade stopped and confronted me. "You want to go get a drink of water? You look a little out of it." I just mumbled that I didn't want to sit down. So he smiles at me, waits for a minute to be sure I am not gonna die on him and continues with the technique. My brain still is not figuring it out so I am just standing there waiting for my body to cooperate with me. Cassie growls at me to go and sit down because I can't drive home if I pass out. Gade tells me it's fine and lets me step off the mat for the rest of the class.

So I feel like a dork for not finishing class last night. I've never had to step off the mat like that before (not even when Mr Robinson was teaching me nine years ago, lol). I hope this "cold" goes away soon.

0_o Beware of Google EULA as among others, it included this rather controversial point
"give Google a perpetual, irrevocable, worldwide, royalty-free, and nonexclusive license to reproduce, adapt, modify, translate, publish, publicly perform, publicly display and distribute any Content which you submit, post or display on or through, the Services." .
Some users have pointed out that it could be interpreted as we are signing away our rights of whatever content we posted through Chrome (ie blogging, art) and could be re-used by Google as their own.
Google had acknowledged the issue and updated the EULA for Chrome as they are basically using the same EULA across all Google products, but some people are still not convinced on the privacy issue, due to the fact Google's Omnibar can access user's keystroke