"The Hack, The," she mis-quoted Sideshow Bob

Zweite Ein Small Postage from Zazzle.com

2011-02-01T11:39:00.000-06:00

Zweite Ein Small Postage from Zazzle.com

How Surprising!

2009-05-27T20:25:00.002-05:00

Thanks to Shawn for this link. It references a not shocking article about how "Hacks and IT workers [are] boozing themselves silly" - as if the world didn't know.

*Grin*

Notes on a book...

2009-04-21T23:23:00.000-05:00

"...'Dear Celebrity,' these letters begin.

Dear Charitable Organizations,
If you're reading this, please know that I no longer even open your
envelopes before pitching them.
Sincerely,
Anonymous celebrity"

(Exerpt from Ted Koppel's book "Off Camera: Private Thoughts Made
Public" ©2000)

--
Sent from my T-Mobile Sidekick®

Testing, testing...

2009-02-12T14:28:00.001-06:00

This is merely a test to see if I set up the mobile posting section of
my blog correctly with my new number. Setting it up was quite difficult
and unintuitive. Merely changing my mobile number should have been
sufficient and a piece of cake. Ha! I wish...
--
Sent from my T-Mobile Sidekick®

Sore and ... (I love PJ Harvey)

2008-10-30T00:48:00.002-05:00

I just posted a widget from Amazon just in case anybody who ever comes across this feels like making a disabled woman who went from near death at 110 pounds (I'm 5'8" - I have not weighed that little since high school) to not fitting in my clothes that I've had for over fifteen years.

So my wish lists are the thing that make me have hope that gifts shower down on me in a way that gets me to making more prints.

Heck, I'll trade gifts for photos of mine printed professionally in exchange. Now that should give me incentive to shoot more nature and nudes. Right?

I think I know who I want to vote for

2008-01-31T07:23:00.000-06:00

Here are just a couple links to things that might help detonate the idea that Obama is less experienced than Hillary or Edwards:

Via my friend "fightingwords" on LJ here are two great takes on why this is bull:

What Makes Obama Run?

Lawyer, teacher, philanthropist, and author Barack Obama doesn't need another career. But he's entering politics to get back to his true passion--community organization.

By Hank De Zutter
December 8, 1995

which I read ages ago and have meant to transfer to here this whole time from her post on January 8, 2008 at 4:32 p.m. - Note the date of the article. 1995.

I have more that I think about all of this that I will save for my site, AF, but I thought I should check in here and let the world know that for every person who thinks Hillary Clinton has more experience, they should maybe read a little more.

Of course I could have it all wrong. But I know where my votes intend to end up.

Where to start?

2007-08-27T03:03:00.000-05:00

Penny Arcade Expo was AMAZING. Best Con out of the three I've been to this year by far. The most well organized, the best "Enforcers," most of the best panels that were thought provoking (even if some of them pissed me off beyond belief).

Wish I had the nerve to try Rock Band - we ended up buying it for the PS3 and LOVE IT.

I am going to write some of what will eventually be going up on my Artistic Fetishes site here until I can get that really up and running.

I have articles backlogged and I need to start getting them out and into the world.

The old white men running the gaming industry with them wanting to pry money out of the pockets of 12-year-olds while not realizing or caring they're putting the onus on the parents.

And why was there a panel on "Women in Gaming" but not "Blacks in Gaming?" as one woman on that panel asked? There needs to be more diversity. And so I have hundreds of photos to sift through, about four hours of movie footage to break into montages and short pieces, and interviews that I'll be working on in the near future.

For now, let me leave you with this excellent tribute to the genius of xkcd.

Wil Wheaton shares the geek love of xkcd with the rest of us silly gamer types.

This rant needed to be ranted:

2007-08-13T02:22:00.000-05:00

I just wanted to write that I'm very glad that people think of me enough to lend me the books they lend me, but I have to let you know that I have no interest in them.

To me it is the same as reading a book on Creationism written by a "Creationist Expert" and while there's nothing wrong with it, I just have no interest.

Telling me that the car accident was my desire (or Kathy's or Delia's) or that my Fibromyalgia is all in my head is just insulting to me and I believe better of people (or want to) than that.

If you're a person who truly believes that when my roommate and new friend died because one of them fell asleep for a split second that it was our will/desire to have what happened happen (and I'm not saying you do, but I've had people say this to me in the past fifteen years) it makes me just as ill now as it did then.

My friends and family have my love and my true and honest desire for them to be happy. But all of you (!) please stop pressing your beliefs on me. Your systems do not work for me and I do not believe in them. I am glad that some of you have found love and somebody to share your interests with. I am also glad that some of you feel healthy and at peace. But what works for you will most likely not work for me.

Please understand that I mean no disrespect. However I feel quite disrespected by people ignoring the gentle hints and things I've said enough to lend me a book that makes me so angry and nauseous I can't fall asleep. It actually caused a full fledged panic attack because of how angry it makes me that anybody would ever say that Delia and Kathy (and my other friends who have died due to random chance) wanted to do so. They didn't. They were young and full of life and full of love and they damn well deserved a better end and later end than they got.

So my husband is falling asleep beside me while we both wait for the two Ativan to make their way through my system enough for me to stop fixating on the book that is downstairs, sitting on the counter. Not wanted. Not asked for. In fact, asked to please let me ignore it with it's pseudo-science and lack of actual physics knowledge.

Nobody deserves to be gang raped as a young child. Nobody deserves to be molested and then raped as a child. Nobody deserves to fall asleep in a car only to either be one of the two dead or the last survivor having the scent of dirt and blood in their nostrils fifteen years later because of a book on a table. Just leave it be. Leave me be. And I will do my damnedest to leave you and your (to me) psychotic wish dreams of a world with meaning and faith alone. Because in my eyes you're just delusional and I'm alone and awake with this knowledge. It doesn't make me happier. But it makes me at least feel in touch with reality.

Battle at Kruger

2007-08-13T02:21:00.001-05:00

This is an interesting video. A friend shared it and I think it is an amazing bit of nature.

Testing out the phone blogging system

2007-08-09T14:48:00.000-05:00

This is very expensive food from a very expensive but worth it restaurant in San Diego. It's called something that begins with an "S" and is vegetarian that also has vegan and raw options. Yummy!

It's blurry here, but it was a very delicious and weird mix that had live flowers as edibles.

Their Lavender French Fries were truly amazing. Especially with the white dip. Yum! Highly recommended...especially as a romantic date.

Locked out and now I'm not...

2007-07-10T19:20:00.000-05:00

I was locked out of the account for some weird reason for the past four months, but now I'm not and I caved in and got a gmail account so will be able to start posting more frequently.

Which is good. I've been reading a lot of consumerist.com lately and I really love the work they're doing. Between my disability case still being on hold (this has been going on since mid-October 2004) and my not being able to really do much modeling or photography due to the pain levels escalating, I'm just going to focus on writing more.

Considering all the bad that has happened health-wise, having things like this to look forward to give me nice feelings.

It's the weird quotes that catch you off guard:

2007-02-26T21:55:00.000-06:00

"She learned her lesson. Program your dealers into your phone," Meadows said.

Story here.

From my Organic Consumer Monthly...

2007-02-22T22:01:00.000-06:00

ALERT OF THE WEEK:
DEMAND A NEW "TRUTH-IN-LABELING" STANDARD FOR VITAMINS/SUPPLEMENTS
Your favorite vitamin and supplement brand may label itself as "food-based" or "natural", but the overwhelming majority of today's supplements are actually laced with synthetic chemicals, genetically engineered ingredients, or even nanoparticles. The FDA, in accordance with the wishes of the large pharmaceutical companies who supply the feedstocks for 90% of all dietary supplements, allows vitamin companies to label their products as "natural," "food-based," or even "organic," even if these supplements are composed of 90% synthetic ingredients, including genetically modified organisms. The Organic Consumers Association (OCA), along with the Naturally Occuring Standards Group, is launching a new "truth in labeling" campaign that will enable consumers to distinguish between those vitamins and supplements that are truly natural or organic, and those that simply claim to be. You can read more about the Naturally Occurring StandardIn a nutshell, the new Naturally Occurring Standard (NOS) will allow consumers to know whether a vitamin/supplement product:

* Contains synthetic ingredients.
* Contains genetically engineered ingredients.
* Only contains ingredients found in nature.
* Only contains ingredients that are sustainably harvested and fairly-traded.
* Is organic.

In order to make clear to the $20+ billion supplements industry that consumers want truth-in-labeling for vitamins & supplements, please sign our petition here (http://www.organicconsumers.org/nutricon/nutripetition.cfm). And stay tuned to the Nutri-Con section of the OCA website for further developments.
__________________________________

HOW "NATURAL" OR "ORGANIC" ARE YOUR VITAMINS & SUPPLEMENTS?
OCA is building an expansive database of companies that meet strict NOS standards for being 100% naturally occurring and organic. To find out if your favorite vitamin/supplement is truly natural, please submit that company's name when you sign the Nutri-Con petition (see above). We will be posting an online database over the next two months, listing how the various companies rank.
Learn more: http://www.organicconsumers.org/nutricon/nutripetition.cfm

__________________________________

I'm tired and in a lot of pain. I believe that, yes, if you're claiming your stuff is organic or food based it should actually have the truth and whole truth and not just good marketing backing it up. So this is a belated post since I haven't felt much like sharing here. I'm too ill and unbalanced too worry about the fact I've heard what people really think of women who shave their heads (I'm bald again, thank you very much) ever since the Brittney Spears debacle. Screw her. Some of us do it because we photograph GREAT with a shaved head (either side of the camera). Not because we're drugged out of our minds or what have you...

Door to Door Atheism Proselytizing:

2007-01-02T19:27:00.000-06:00

Anti-Proselytizing Because Some People Like to Sleep In, Dammit!

Dear God

* PS: Somebody wrote that Tricky did a version of this...anybody know of it or have a copy? I would LOOOOOVE to hear it *

From Nicotine: A metaphor that I adore (What Would Hank Do?)

2006-12-27T16:13:00.000-06:00

This morning there was a knock at my door. When I answered the door I found a well groomed, nicely dressed couple. The man spoke first:

John:
"Hi! I'm John, and this is Mary."

Mary:
"Hi! We're here to invite you to come kiss Hank's ass with us."

Me:
"Pardon me?! What are you talking about? Who's Hank, and why would I want to kiss His ass?"

John:
"If you kiss Hank's ass, He'll give you a million dollars; and if you don't, He'll kick the shit out of you."

Me:
"What? Is this some sort of bizarre mob shake-down?"

John:
"Hank is a billionaire philanthropist. Hank built this town. Hank owns this town. He can do whatever He wants, and what He wants is to give you a million dollars, but He can't until you kiss His ass."

Me:
"That doesn't make any sense. Why..."

Mary:
"Who are you to question Hank's gift? Don't you want a million dollars? Isn't it worth a little kiss on the ass?"

Me:
"Well maybe, if it's legit, but..."

John:
"Then come kiss Hank's ass with us."

Me:
"Do you kiss Hank's ass often?"

Mary:
"Oh yes, all the time..."

Me:
"And has He given you a million dollars?"

John:
"Well no. You don't actually get the money until you leave town."

Me:
"So why don't you just leave town now?"

Mary:
"You can't leave until Hank tells you to, or you don't get the money, and He kicks the shit out of you."

Me:
"Do you know anyone who kissed Hank's ass, left town, and got the million dollars?"

John:
"My mother kissed Hank's ass for years. She left town last year, and I'm sure she got the money."

Me:
"Haven't you talked to her since then?"

John:
"Of course not, Hank doesn't allow it."

Me:
"So what makes you think He'll actually give you the money if you've never talked to anyone who got the money?"

Mary:
"Well, He gives you a little bit before you leave. Maybe you'll get a raise, maybe you'll win a small lotto, maybe you'll just find a twenty-dollar bill on the street."

Me:
"What's that got to do with Hank?"

John:
"Hank has certain 'connections.'"

Me:
"I'm sorry, but this sounds like some sort of bizarre con game."

John:
"But it's a million dollars, can you really take the chance? And remember, if you don't kiss Hank's ass He'll kick the shit of you."

Me:
"Maybe if I could see Hank, talk to Him, get the details straight from Him..."

Mary:
"No one sees Hank, no one talks to Hank."

Me:
"Then how do you kiss His ass?"

John:
"Sometimes we just blow Him a kiss, and think of His ass. Other times we kiss Karl's ass, and he passes it on."

Me:
"Who's Karl?"

Mary:
"A friend of ours. He's the one who taught us all about kissing Hank's ass. All we had to do was take him out to dinner a few times."

Me:
"And you just took his word for it when he said there was a Hank, that Hank wanted you to kiss His ass, and that Hank would reward you?"

John:
"Oh no! Karl has a letter he got from Hank years ago explaining the whole thing. Here's a copy; see for yourself."

** From the desk of Karl **

1. Kiss Hank's ass and He'll give you a million dollars when you leave town.
2. Use alcohol in moderation.
3. Kick the shit out of people who aren't like you.
4. Eat right.
5. Hank dictated this list Himself.
6. The moon is made of green cheese.
7. Everything Hank says is right.
8. Wash your hands after going to the bathroom.
9. Don't use alcohol.
10. Eat your wieners on buns, no condiments.
11. Kiss Hank's ass or He'll kick the shit out of you.

Me:
"This appears to be written on Karl's letterhead."

Mary:
"Hank didn't have any paper."

Me:
"I have a hunch that if we checked we'd find this is Karl's handwriting."

John:
"Of course, Hank dictated it."

Me:
"I thought you said no one gets to see Hank?"

Mary:
"Not now, but years ago He would talk to some people."

Me:
"I thought you said He was a philanthropist. What sort of philanthropist kicks the shit out of people just because they're different?"

Mary:
"It's what Hank wants, and Hank's always right."

Me:
"How do you figure that?"

Mary:
"Item 7 says 'Everything Hank says is right.' That's good enough for me!"

Me:
"Maybe your friend Karl just made the whole thing up."

John:
"No way! Item 5 says 'Hank dictated this list himself.' Besides, item 2 says 'Use alcohol in moderation,' Item 4 says 'Eat right,' and item 8 says 'Wash your hands after going to the bathroom.' Everyone knows those things are right, so the rest must be true, too."

Me:
"But 9 says 'Don't use alcohol.' which doesn't quite go with item 2, and 6 says 'The moon is made of green cheese,' which is just plain wrong."

John:
"There's no contradiction between 9 and 2, 9 just clarifies 2. As far as 6 goes, you've never been to the moon, so you can't say for sure."

Me:
"Scientists have pretty firmly established that the moon is made of rock..."

Mary:
"But they don't know if the rock came from the Earth, or from out of space, so it could just as easily be green cheese."

Me:
"I'm not really an expert, but I think the theory that the Moon was somehow 'captured' by the Earth has been discounted*. Besides, not knowing where the rock came from doesn't make it cheese."

John:
"Ha! You just admitted that scientists make mistakes, but we know Hank is always right!"

Me:
"We do?"

Mary:
"Of course we do, Item 7 says so."

Me:
"You're saying Hank's always right because the list says so, the list is right because Hank dictated it, and we know that Hank dictated it because the list says so. That's circular logic, no different than saying 'Hank's right because He says He's right.'"

John:
"Now you're getting it! It's so rewarding to see someone come around to Hank's way of thinking."

Me:
"But...oh, never mind. What's the deal with wieners?"

Mary:
She blushes.

John:
"Wieners, in buns, no condiments. It's Hank's way. Anything else is wrong."

Me:
"What if I don't have a bun?"

John:
"No bun, no wiener. A wiener without a bun is wrong."

Me:
"No relish? No Mustard?"

Mary:
She looks positively stricken.

John:
He's shouting. "There's no need for such language! Condiments of any kind are wrong!"

Me:
"So a big pile of sauerkraut with some wieners chopped up in it would be out of the question?"

Mary:
Sticks her fingers in her ears. "I am not listening to this. La la la, la la, la la la."

John:
"That's disgusting. Only some sort of evil deviant would eat that..."

Me:
"It's good! I eat it all the time."

Mary:
She faints.

John:
He catches Mary. "Well, if I'd known you were one of those I wouldn't have wasted my time. When Hank kicks the shit out of you I'll be there, counting my money and laughing. I'll kiss Hank's ass for you, you bunless cut-wienered kraut-eater."
With this, John dragged Mary to their waiting car, and sped off.

What Not to Look for in Your New Eye Doctor:

2006-12-15T22:17:00.000-06:00

When you call and get an answering machine before closing hours stating that not only are they closed, but that also they'll be closed for the rest of the Thanksgiving weekend.

And you get this answering machine message TODAY (Friday, December 15, 2006).

Thus, I can not recommend Tech Ridge Vision here in Austin because if they can't change their answering machine in this time, I doubt I want to trust them with my eyes.

Just call me Mrs. Picky. I don't mind...

2006-11-10T22:05:00.000-06:00

Hello World

I figured I would show the world me. So here I am in all my hideous and old glory. :-P

I used the ugliest change I could. I love it for the very reason it looks like a brain near some point at the end.

Heh.

2006-10-05T02:05:00.000-05:00

Olbermann's special commentary on Clinton vs Fox

Via Pharyngula. Excellent. I can't believe how strong a commentator Oblermann has grown to be.

Congratulations, sir. Congratulations.

2006-10-05T01:57:00.000-05:00

Me go-go dancing for Seth Lazarus...

This was me go-go dancing to a song NOT the one you hear. No it was not Screamin' Jay Hawkins "I Put A Spell On You" that I heard.

Nice editing though ... for most of the video you can't tell that I was dancing to a different song.

Heifer.org

2006-09-22T16:43:00.000-05:00

They do a lot of good things and we've taken to giving to them as gifts for other people. Most people that we've offered to do that for seem quite happy to have us donate in their name as a gift. Only a few think that it's "selfish" in some way.

Which to me is the weirdest thing in the world. I donate money in your name so that it's from you as a gift and it's "selfish?"

Weird.

Anyway, I haven't been keeping up with this blog because I've literally been avoiding as much politics and news as I can. I keep up with it through The Daily Show and The Colbert Report but really reading about it all just makes me feel so frustrated.

The whole Diebold mess is disgusting. Six years later and it's only NOW getting some news. Grrrrr. Thus I've been avoiding the news because my stress levels have been through the roof. Mostly I've been staying with LJ and Model Mayhem and focusing on art and photography.

I have four pieces up at a gallery in Dallas. I have shoots this weekend where I'm modeling and where I'm photographing. Really, right now it's all too much for me.

When it comes right down to it I will probably have to move to the morphine for the pain. And it's not a happy thought.

But so it goes.

2006-07-12T12:08:00.000-05:00

Keep Jesus Off My Penis

A cute, funny and very freaking true song I got from my friends off Livejournal. Thought it would make for a good return to the land of the Blogger.

Things have been insane and sad. My two ferrets died, one of a genetic issue, the other of what can only be described as loneliness. We tried our best and the vet said we did more than anybody else they had ever seen.

But at least we tried.

So here's something cute, funny and good.

Because it's just too sad and frustrating and now I'm sick

2006-04-21T13:14:00.000-05:00

I have not updated in a long while because I have too many things on my plate.

First I have fibromyalgia, an anxiety disorder and ADHD. Only I don't have the last one being treated and the other two I'm having just sort of taped up rather than really fixed in any way, shape or form.

My photography is taking off, in a non-paying sort of way. Models are starting to queue up to model for me and I have both women AND men that want to work with me.

Not only that, but at the end of March I came up with an idea for an alternative erotica site that functions on a NON-hardcore premise (no penetration, or anything like that and I refuse at this point to shoot, "pink" as it is termed in certain circles) and found a female with a mind that works well with mine and though she has CFIDs she also is ex-Army and has an e-commerce degree (as well as two years in the sex fetish industry). So I came up with an idea, threw it at her, it passed muster and we had the barebones of a site up within one week.

Already with no upfront pay (we're paying models based on revenue they attract, which might seem less fair upfront, but is far more fair in the long-term toward them) we have almost the entire fifteen models we need to comfortably start. I have the outline of what my PHP engineer needs to build and the style for my designer to work based on. And I have photographers (the non-jerk ones, I have to add, I've already met a couple real jerks online) that I respect onboard and shooting for us.

Incorporation should happen shortly. I shot twice this week, I'm shooting this coming Sunday, Monday, Wednesday, and then we're flying to Boston to drive up to NH (long story) in order to shoot one of my best friends in the world's wedding.

It may kill me ... all of this working beyond my body's capabilities. Gods know I'm freaking sick as all hell today. But I have today and tomorrow to literally just lay here in bed and not do anything other than mentally keep myself as shut down as possible.

Anyway, other sites do a better job than I ever could of doing a take-down on the things that matter to me politically, scientifically and even culturally.

So for now, this will be once again relegated to when something so upsets me that I can't stand it ... I need to scream it out from here.

Yes, I consider this spamming and ban-worthy:

2006-03-27T00:13:00.000-06:00

From an alleged zine on my myspace bulletin board (all typos left intact):

Subject: "Interesting indeed"

Body: "Billy Graham's daughter was interviewed on the Early Show and Jane Clayson asked her "How could God let something like this Happen?" (regarding Katrina) Anne Graham gave an extremely profound and insightful response. She said, "I believe God is deeply saddened by this, just as we are, but for years we've been telling God to get out of our schools, to get out of our government and to get out of our lives.
And being the gentleman He is, I believe He has calmly backed out. How can we expect God to give us His blessing and His protection if we demand He leave us alone?"
In light of recent events...terrorists attack, school shootings, etc. I think it started when Madeleine Murray O'Hare (she was murdered, her body found recently) complained she didn't want prayer in our schools, and we said OK.
Then someone said you better not read the Bible in school . the Bible says thou shalt not kill, thou shalt not steal, and love your neighbor as yourself. And we said OK.
Then Dr. Benjamin Spock said we shouldn't spank our children when they misbehave because their little personalities would be warped and we might damage their self-esteem (Dr. Spock's son committed suicide). We said an expert should know what he's talking about. And we
said OK.
Now we're asking ourselves why our children have no conscience, why they don't know right from wrong, and why it doesn't bother them to kill strangers, their classmates, and themselves.
Probably, if we think about it long and hard enough, we can figure it out. I think it has a great deal to do with
"WE REAP WHAT WE SOW."
Funny how simple it is for people to trash God and then w onder why the world's going to hell. Funny how we believe what the newspapers say, but question what the Bible says
Funny how you can send 'jokes' through e-mail and they spread like wildfire but when you start sending messages regarding the Lord, people think twice about sharing.
Funny how lewd, crude, vulgar and obscene articles pass freely through cyberspace, but public discussion of God is suppressed in the school and workplace.
Are you laughing?
Funny how when you forward this message, you will not send it to many on your address list because you're not sure what they believe, or what they WILL think of you for sending it. Funny how we can be more worried about what other people think of us than what God thinks of us.
Pass it on if you think it has merit. If not then just discard it... no one will know you did. But, if you discard this thought process, don't sit back and complain about what bad shape the world is in."

You know what? Katrina turned out so badly because people ignored what scientists told them would happen. Well, yes, that's only part of it, but it's a very large part. And that's what I wrote to the person who used what I thought was an "underground music zine" to proselytize inappropriately. So I removed them. I also removed somebody who wrote racist and eugenics based trash. You know what? I don't care what you believe in just so long as you act like a decent person. But when you start judging the world based on what I consider trash and ignoring my rights to NOT BELIEVE (what ever it is you might believe in) you're gone. I have no patience with bigots. Nor should I. There's enough pain and suffering happening in the world and I've seen it happen to people who believe just as often as I've seen it happen to don't. Actually that's a lie. By statistics more people who believe have bad things happen.

I actually had a relative tell me tonight that I just think I'm an atheist because I do good for the sake of doing good. That's right. Apparently real atheists don't do good.

You know what? Fuck that noise. I've had enough. PZ Myers is right. The religious are mostly tools and bigots. There's no point to even trying to have a dialogue with most of them. They're not interested. And it's just sickening.

Working on an essay: Part 1 of debunking The pH Miracle

2006-03-13T01:52:00.000-06:00

I received the book (The pH Miracle) from my sister and immediately started drinking the greens and eating avocados as well as trying to cut back on dairy and sugar while reading the book.

I've found several fallacious statements, and the fact that they use pure anecdotal evidence rather than any "real" research should let people know that this is not actual science or medical help he's practicing. And anybody who says to sneak multi-vitamins and minerals by the numbers he and his wife mention into a hospital setting while somebody's healing in supervised care without telling the doctors what's going on is just completely irresponsible.

The idea of him talking about his "research" with a group of 12 West Point students to the point of having such lax control that he uses a "magnetic pendant" at the same time (so you know, it could be that and not the diet that worked!) and talking about "healthy" versus "unhealthy" blood in the manner he does just screams fraud to me.

My sister's an actual medical doctor but she is very willing to try alternative treatments and doesn't understand research or control groups or even how to follow basic statistics. I feel the Young's feed into that sort of mentality.

1. On the first page of the book, the author introduces the premise by stating,"It's all about balance. The universe operates by keeping opposites in balance, and the universe contained within your body is no exception." Starting off with a completely backward statement means that this whole idea and Mr. Young behind it have nothing to do with science and everything to do with marketing. The universe does not "keep" opposites in balance. Opposites stay in balance because otherwise they would cease to exist. Take the orbit of the earth, for example. The earth does not stay in a balanced orbit around the sun because the universe forced the gathering of particles into a ball and placed that ball into a perfect orbit, forever checking to make sure it didn't fall out of balance for some reason. The earth spins around the sun this way because out of the immeasurable amounts of particles, the ones in just the right environment to support it, gathered into a ball (the earth) spinning around a much bigger ball of particles (the sun). The remainder of the particles in that cloud either got sucked into the sun or just went on their way, not getting close enough to the gravity pull of the entities around them. So...the universe does not "keep" things the way they exist today, things exist today the way they do, in a seemingly balanced state, because they would not exist otherwise.

A simpler example: if you have a cup hanging from a string in the middle of the room, open end up, and hurl a bucket of sand into the air, some of the sand falls into the cup. You did not force that specific sand into the cup, but do you see any other sand at that height in the room? No! Because it had nothing keeping it there and fell to the floor instead.

2. In Chapter 2, Mr. Young states that when certain ratios of acids and bases meet, they "cancel each other out" by which I assume he really means "explodes or otherwise reacts violently." Remember the baking soda and vinegar volcano from grade school? Acid + base = violent reaction.

** More later **

Don't mess with Texas standards (ripped from an lj friend):

2006-03-02T12:48:00.000-06:00

A friend wrote in their journal:

"I spend a lot of time at my job (working at home today, so I can tell you this -- then I really have to get back to work) going through various states' language arts standards. Since we're attempting to create a curriculum that could be used nationally, we have to try to hit as many state standards as possible. This is a little tricky because every single state in the union has different standards. Some states have well-written standards that seem age-appropriate and reasonable and philosophically consistent with the field. Some states do not, and you have to wonder if anyone who touched the document had ever met a second grader in their lives. Which is sort of sad, because they're all essentally saying the same thing.

But I just had to note this one. While it is commonplace to state that kids should be able to answer various levels of comprehension questions (even though I have a problem with the idea that if you can answer a comprehension question, you understand what you have read), Texas is the only state whose standards say this:

Grade 3:
Practice different kinds of questions and tasks, including test-like comprehension questions.
Grade 4:
Answer different types and levels of questions such as open-ended, literal, and interpretative as well as test-like questions such as multiple choice, true-false, and short answer.

Yes, in the fine state of Texas, taking a test is a LEARNING STANDARD. That blows my mind. Talk about teaching to the test.

As Marge Simpson would say, 'I am so sick of that tautology!'"

I commented:

"Hello! Why do you think if we adopt there's no way our child(ren) will go to school and instead will be homeschooled? It's fucking sick here. Molly Ivins has written about it repeatedly through the years and many, many teachers have tried to fight the test standard as the be all and end all here in this state.

Ugh. It's pretty f**king horrible, I can tell you that.

Friend commented back:

"It's as bad in California, I'm afraid. Sign of the times. The pendulum will swing back soon (it always does), hopefully by the time we have kids in school...sigh.

Me again:

"Actually it hasn't swung in years here ... basically ever since Bush was governor and started cementing the whole thing in place. That's what his "No Child Left Behind" initiative here did. All these Texans screaming, "Look at what he did to us before you even think of voting him in charge of the US!" and people either ignored or (really) most of the MSM didn't even write about it. And he has done to the country as a whole what he did to Texas on a smaller scale while in charge. Taking a place in the black and putting it in the red all the while cutting things left-right-and-center and helping ruin education here.

If you ever get a chance to read Molly Ivins co-written book about life under Bush here in Texas that she put out right before he got elected (ha-ha) in 2000 I highly recommend it."

Border Drama (from a friend's journal):

2006-02-27T13:14:00.000-06:00

Welcome to the new state of the border into Canada. Where a woman giving a ride to two friends becomes targeted and her car ripped open.

"I was going to let this drop, but after taking a good look at the interior of my car today, I'm fucking livid.

Saturday Afternoon I brought the Canadians back to the Greyhound station in Windsor so they could get back to Toronto. I dropped them off and immediately headed back to the tunnel - I was still a bit hungover bust mostly I just had a nasty cold coming on, all I wanted to do was get back into the US and crawl back into bed for a bit. I figred coming back alone was going to be simple. I know border procedures well. Don't look like shit, have a clean car and have all your papers in order. Aside from myself looking a bit ill, I was dressed sedately, my car was immaculate (fresh from carwash and vacuum, no packages or bags or trash, no music on, hatch cover open so the back was in plain view) and passport and license were out.

The first screener started off with the usual schpeel, then escalated into how long I knew my friends that I was dropping off, how I knew them, how I met them, where I worked, what my title was, and then it got weirder - why I was traveling with alone with two non-US men (wtf?????). Why there was no other females in our group...were one of these men my boyfriend? Do I have a boyfriend? How would he feel if he knew I was with two men from out of the country? (At this point this shitbag probably sensed anger off me, as anyone who knows me at all knows I don't take blanket gender stereotypes well...but I wasn't about to get into a philosophical discussion with this guy, I just wanted to go home and take a nap.) I was *never* short with him (even though I wanted to bite his head off), I was truthful (we went to a concert, yes I have a boyfriend, yes, he also knows them) then he just laid into me "why do you look so nervous" (I don't feel very well and just want to get home) and again repeating himself ... ("I'm really not nervous, I'm just coming down with the flu, want to get get home...)

He slapped the orange tag on my windshield and I was off to be searched. This isn't the first time it has happened - probably the 4th - but NEVER to this extent. I was instructed to leave everything except my money, leave any cell, blackberry, any kind of communication device, all pens and paper, purse - then they were all weird that I didn't have a purse - "where is your purse" - "I don't always carry one, everything is in my pockets" - "what kind of girl doesn't carry a purse?" - "uhhh, everything fits in my coat pockets" Then I had to empty my coat pockets. What kind of girl? WTF.

So I go into that awfully fluorescent lit room, present my ID again, they ask me the same questions but then really start into me "why are you nervous "why are you so nervous...people are only nervous who have something to hide...what are you hiding... WHY are you so nervous?!?"

Again and again I said I had nothing to hide, I just didn't feel well and wanted to get home. (I was coughing like I was going to lose a lung, this wasn't some mystery illness in my head.)

At this point they break out the dogs, they're jumping around like mad in my car, this escalates the internal freakout to about a + eleventy billion. Let me preface this by saying I have never had ANY form of contraband in my car. Ever. I don't smoke cigarettes or anything else (yes, I admit I have in the past, but my asthma has gone apeshit over the last year and a half and I've totally quit any of that.) So I should have no worries, right? BUT I was the only one thus far who was being searched who had NOT been hauled off to jail yet. They had found something on *everyone*. They were just hauling one guy off for having ONE pot seed under his floormat. SO I'm thinking shit...I have had passengers...what if something fell out of a pocket...what if something had fallen off a passenger of the the person I bought the car from...I've only had it for about a month...what if they are planting shit on people? I know I had no rational reason to worry but at this point, they were using what I realize now were just intimidation tactics, which were bordering on abusive. I couldn't jot down a badge number, couldn't call anyone...

I've now been detained for about an hour.

They went on with the "why are you so nervous...what are you hiding" for even more, somehow I kept it together and was just honest with them and stated that "I have been diagnosed with anxiety disorder, I am prone to panic attacks when I feel out of control of a situation, and when I do not have my phone or belongings, I feel out of control." I didn't want to get into my whole fucking psychological history with these people, but as my heart was doing about 180 and I felt like I was going to pass out, I didn't have much choice.

Finally after sitting there for another 15 minutes, the dogs were done, their demeanor immediately changed 100% - ok, Ms. S****, have a good night, and told me to go.

They didn't find anything, of course.

So I was pretty "off" for the rest of the day, trying to get rid of the panic attack, was about to put it behind me into the "shit happens" category...then this morning I actually look at the interior of the rear of MY NICE NEW FUCKING CAR and it is completely destroyed. There are holes in the door (through the pleather and into the foam/body of the door), holes in the seat, rips in cloth, my cd changer in the back doesn't work at all, won't recognize it - hopefully it is just a wire that got ripped out. nail scratches all over the interior. Carpet cut on the floor. I was so pissed off to see this I haven't documented it all. This was the first time I've had something nice and new (well, new to me, I know it wasn't new but I got it in immaculate condition). I can't bitch to anyone, I have no names, no badge numbers and like I'm going to go complain to these scary motherfuckers? Yeah, that'll blacklist me forever. I hate this intimidation shit, I hate this fucking country, I hate that they can just rip your shit apart and assume you have crap on you when you don't, make absurd generalizations about gender and just be douchebags."

The scary thing about this is that in the comments from friends of this person, one person had even the doors removed from their car. Their car looked like the nun car in Up in Smoke and they had no fucking recourse. Apparently this is happening more and more between here and Canada. And that freaks me out and bothers me immeasurably.

"Freedom's just another word for nothing left to lose..."

I die with a little help from my friends:

2006-02-09T12:56:00.000-06:00

This story via Yahoo news (actually it's a Reuters story, but god DAMN they make it hard to find it on their site) via a friend talks about how the internet has made it easier for suicidal people to find one another so that they can go through the process of killing themselves together.

Weird and interesting and yet oddly compelling. Another friend is studying suicide on the internet and this just goes to show that there's a lot more out there than probably she even realized.

I've wanted to write about the whole Coretta King funeral uproar, but so many people have done such a better job than I could already.

Steve Gilliard, Digby, Firedoglake ... Well, especially Mr Gilliard. I'm not Black and my husband's only partially Native American (he didn't grow up on a reservation like at least one person I know did) and my closest Black friend doesn't believe in racism (he's psycho though ... he also believes in astrology at the same time as studying for his doctorate in mathematics) so I think that Mr Gilliard has the most true and honest and fucking right on feeling regarding this whole thing.

I saw Reverend Lowery give a speech that held true to the precepts of his church, his people and his friends. Fuck Bush if his trying to go somewhere he wasn't wanted made him uncomfortable. And fuck his wife for sitting there after every single person in the church has stood in admiration for the words and heartfelt sentiment. It's obvious she only stood after she was forced to before the cameras cut from her sitting down long after the tumult had reached it's plateau.

Between the right-wing racist attack on this and the Alito confirmation and the NSA syping mess ... it sure feels good to be an American.

A little deconstruction of the received hate email:

2006-02-03T15:17:00.000-06:00

I want to deconstruct this little email of hate and pure psychopath and write what I would write if I could write back to this a**hole.

If you don't like our ad, ignore it. Why waste your spell checker on us? Though Shawn likes the snark of "...chips on your shoulders..." quite a bit. It shows you can use your mind if you want to.
I'm disabled. So wishing I die of cancer's a really nice touch of hate. What if I have cancer and already am dying of it? Do you do the touchdown dance?
My husband works full-time and then some. In case you're unaware, working half-time from home means he works from home half the time he works. Or do you have no clue about how some computer jobs get handled?
Trust fund? Our parents bought this house? Don't make me LAUGH. As if. That's the stupidest part of all the stupidity of the whole email.
You don't like the fact we want to ask our roommate to have similar tastes or at least respect our mores? Well, have fun hooking up a Christian with a Scientologist with a Satanist. I thought being up front with our house rules would weed out morons like you.
We don't want drugs because we're actually druggies and lazy to boot. Okay, I was wrong. There is a more stupid statement to be found. This is it.
Oh, sending all this hate, vitriol, wanting me to be raped and me and my husband killed using your email with your name? If this does turn out to be your email and your real name I can not WAIT for the cops, hotmail AND craigslist to get in touch with you. Seriously.
My friends have my back. They really do. So you can just go back to your little militia hideaway where nobody ever moves from where they're from (oh, and we moved here from upstate NY, not CA, though we have lived there, but we've also lived in London and spent time traveling, which is obviously more than I can say for you) to any place else, because god forbid they might get COOTIES.
Oh, and you're a foul-mouthed mouth-breathing cretin. Just to reiterate your head up your ass status.

This is the right-wing America:

2006-02-03T12:41:00.000-06:00

I had this lovely email in my inbox this morning regarding a post I have up on craigslist (austin):

------- Original Message --------
Received: (qmail 8351 invoked from network); 3 Feb 2006 08:53:47 -0800
Received: from localhost.localdomain (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by mxo1s.craigslist.org ; Fri, 3 Feb 2006 08:53:46 -0800 (PST)
Received: from hotmail.com (bay7-f17.bay7.hotmail.com [64.4.11.17]) by mxi1s.craigslist.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 71A8710DDD for ; Fri, 3 Feb 2006 08:53:46 -0800 (PST)
Received: from mail pickup service by hotmail.com with Microsoft SMTPSVC; Fri, 3 Feb 2006 08:53:46 -0800
Message-ID:
Received: from 70.113.97.68 by by7fd.bay7.hotmail.msn.com with HTTP; Fri, 03 Feb 2006 16:53:45 GMT
X-Originating-IP: [70.113.97.68]
X-Originating-Email: [mfosmoen75@hotmail.com]
X-Sender: mfosmoen75@hotmail.com
From: Mark Fosmoen
To: hous-XXXXXXXX@craigslist.org
Subject: Your ROom For Rent
Date: Fri, 03 Feb 2006 10:53:45 -0600
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed
X-OriginalArrivalTime: 03 Feb 2006 16:53:46.0279 (UTC) FILETIME=[65D49B70:01C628E2]

A hearty and healthy FUCK YOU to you and yours. I like how you want someone
to pay for a room and then you want to dictate thier lifestyle. Must be a couple of cocknobbers with no self esteem and a boat load of inherited money
from parents. Just coasting along, drinking & drugging but doesn't want a
renter doing the same for as to not remind them of thier lazy shitty life that they've become.

You sound like 2 arrogant assholes who I hope get cancer, robbed, raped (in front of the husband, who halfway through gets a bullet in head when he attempts to be the hero). Hell, I hope you miss some insurance payments and your house burns down. I hope you are left outin the street with nothing but the chips on your shoulder and you both fight over them b/c you're so hungry. I hate California assholes like you and I wish the fuck you'd go BACK TO CALIFORNIA because you make Austin a worse place just by you living here. You incompetent, lazy, hippy, silverspoon assholes, FUCK YOU AND FUCK OFF!!!!!!

Mark

_________________________________________________________________
Express yourself instantly with MSN Messenger! Download today - it's FREE!
http://messenger.msn.click-url.com/go/onm00200471ave/direct/01/

This is the new, better, shinier America. Where somebody who posts a request for a roommate who won't eat meat or smoke in the house gets accused of not only the most insane things, but also a wish for them to be raped, our house burnt down and both of us killed.

It's been forwarded to both hotmail and craigslist and we've called the Austin police. Under the new laws? This counts as terrorism. Oh, and I just want to put the email here so that any possible employer doing a search comes across the name and email here at some point. Because even if this is just a troll, it's so beyond troll (the first paragraph would have had me ignoring this) that they deserve the police on their ass.

** Update **

Sent to abuse@hotmail.com and abuse@craigslist.org -- Husband's calling the Austin police department to find out what our next step is.

** Second Update **

APD counts this as "terroristic" and is cross-referencing it. Husband's on the phone with APD finishing up filing the report. I'm still pretty freaked out, but knowing this is getting handled and the police are involved makes me feel a LOT better. Yes, I'm a bleeding heart liberal, and I know people who've been beaten by the police, but I've also known some good cops and had some really excellent consideration from the ones I've called in the past. In this case I'm GLAD to have them on our side. Seriously.

Bahahaha! It's only February...

2006-02-02T17:02:00.000-06:00

But I've found the best post of the year.

The take down is just brilliant. And it's snarky as all hell. I love me some snark. Well, some well delivered and righteous snark anyway.

First a Cute Kitty, Then the Rape

2006-01-31T13:35:00.000-06:00

Purrbarella takes life gracefully

From The Rude Pundit:

Everything Means Less Than Zero:
(Updated below)
In Brett Easton Ellis's 1985 book Less Than Zero, after we've read about the narrator, Clay, snortin' coke 'til his brain bleeds, fuckin' meaninglessly left and right, watchin' his boyhood friend - now a male prostitute - gettin' fucked by a john, and simply allowing the entire world to decay, all of a sudden Clay walks into a bedroom where all the L.A. posers and rich boys have gathered around a nude, drugged-out 12-year old girl tied to a bed, and they're getting ready to run a train on her. Clay confronts Rip, in whose apartment the rape's about to occur. Haltingly, Clay says, "I don't think it's right."

Rip responds, "What's right? If you want something, you have the right to take it. If you want to do something, you have the right to do it."

Clay answers, "But you don't need anything. You have everything."

To which Rip says, "No, I don't."

Clay asks, "Oh, shit, Rip, what don't you have?"

"I don't have anything to lose," Rip says, before he heads into the bedroom to join in the rape. Clay walks out of the apartment. He doesn't call the cops, he doesn't rescue the girl, he doesn't even try to stop anyone. He just leaves. And in the pathetic realm in which the characters exist, it can be seen as some kind of mighty gesture of strength and character. If one wants to be blindly optimistic, it can be seen as a moment of change for Clay, a moment when he will become a different, better person. But, after Clay leaves, even if he's washed his hands of it, that little girl's stranded in a nightmare.

Rude Pundit than talks about how by refusing to vote for the filibuster, certain Senators that then voted "No" don't get to walk away and feel better about themselves, because they just left that 12 year old girl tied to the bed to deal with the nightmare continuing.

So a big FUCK YOU to the Alito confirmation. Which means a big FUCK YOU to all of us minorities, disabled, women, miners, medicare needers, etc. Because this is the stealing of America from those of us who have become without voice.

Tied to the bed about to get raped by those who have everything and nothing to lose.

From Jesus' General:

2006-01-23T13:02:00.000-06:00

The petition:

Dear Yahoo!, I am joining with others in boycotting your organization for the part you’ve played in recent human rights abuses. I have been a previous user of your services, but as of today I will be taking immediate action to discontinue my e-mail accounts, as well as the use of your search tools. I will also discontinue use of all Yahoo! affiliates such as HotJobs and MusicMatch. It's Yahoo!’s policy to abide by the laws of those countries wherein it does business. While this sounds innocuous, this policy recently in an example of why this policy is unacceptable in today’s global marketplace. By turning over Shi Tau’s identity to the Chinese government, and their subsequent imprisonment of him, you have shown the world in the worst way how business compliance with an oppressive government can result in catastrophic injustice. Shi Tau committed no crime other than exercising his freedom of speech—-a freedom that is severely curtailed in China. By revealing his identity, you committed a shameful act, and you have clearly shown that you value profits over human rights. As a response, I will do my small part in negatively affecting Yahoo! profits to show my disapproval of this policy. My hope is that enough people will do the same in order to get Yahoo! to modify its policies so they will not allow any government, foreign or otherwise, to interfere with certain inalienable human rights, such as the freedom of speech. If Yahoo! were to reverse this policy, they would be, once again prove themselves a leader in their field, and will regain my respect and my patronage.

I added this:

I've gone back and forth with your company for years. My husband almost worked for your new product 360. And I have to say that I'm appalled at your behavior. This will make the second time I've had to stop using your site. Considering I belong to several groups that I enjoy taking part in and will have to desist makes me sad. But it's nothing compared to having to go to jail for something I wrote.

I expect Yahoo! to be a leader in freedom of expression. Especially on the Internet. Your behavior has shown just how little respect you have for the customers whom have helped create your profits.

It's a petition with few signatories and some misspellings, however I believe that it's a sound issue to promote.

Part of why I hate BIG BUSINESS

2006-01-16T11:45:00.000-06:00

The drugs don't work

· The global spend on pharmaceuticals has risen 25-fold over the past three decades, from $20bn in 1972 to more than $500bn in 2004. '[In 2002] the combined profits for the 10 drug companies in the Fortune 500 ($35.9bn) were more than the profits for the other 490 businesses put together ($33.7bn),' Dr Marcia Angell writes in her book The Truth About The Drug Companies. The breakdown of pharma finances for 2003 is: 14% on research and development, 17% on profits, 31% on marketing and admin, the rest on manufacturing and distribution.

More gets spent on Marketing and Admin combined than on Research. Any time I read somebody saying that the sick and obscene costs of my medications are due to Research I plan on slapping them with those numbers.

That's sick and twisted and making money out of other people's miseries.

Read the whole article. It's worth it. And I plan on buying the book when it comes out. It looks like a doozy.

Phone records to the person with a credit card

2006-01-12T14:39:00.000-06:00

Any person with a credit card

You believe in conservative values? Do you? Than why are Americans being spied on and our phone records for sale to anybody with a credit card? Big government has to go the platform for the Republicans? When the spending of the party has gone up while cutting the taxes of the richest Americans?

I know who believes in my rights as an American to privacy and [it] sure is NOT my representative. And I'm just going to get one more form letter telling me politely to piss off in not so many words.

Other than missing the [it] I just sent that via Moveon.org to my representative. I'm so fed up with the political state of the nation.

On the plus side AMERICAblog has done some fine reporting for "just a blog." And has started an excellent grass roots movement (again) to get people to realize just how much our liberties are being encroached.

Go here to sign the petition Moveon.org has to try and get our phone records protected from any back-stabbing bastard with a credit card and our numbers.

Sign the anti-DRM pledge to boycott Sony

2006-01-09T01:09:00.000-06:00

Pledge to Boycott DRM!

You can bet I signed this sucker and fast!

DRM severely restricts our rights as users, creators, and members of the global community. We will not stand by and let fair use grow extinct as a consequence of poorly thought out technology and the laws that support it.

I've been keeping up with the ongoing saga through boingboing.net

Monday, December 5, 2005
Sony rootkit ripped off anti-DRM code to break into iTunes
Sony's DRM supplier XCP ripped off a free software project so that it could defeat Apple iTunes.

Remember when Sony got nailed for including code an open-source crack for iTunes in its rootkit DRM? Princeton researcher Alex Halderman has been patiently teasing apart the rootkit, looking for an explanation. Why would Sony's arms-merchant rip off an anti-DRM program for its DRM?

Halderman concludes that the XCP -- the Sony rootkit -- was intended to be used to crack open iTunes and insert Sony's music into it, without allowing Sony customers to convert their music into MP3s along the way.

This exposes one of the things about DRM that most people miss: it doesn't really matter what permissions a given DRM grants or prohibits (as fun as it might be to point out the absurdity of a DRM that keeps you from listening to your own music). The important thing about DRM is that it gives the company or consortium that controls the DRM control over who can use the DRM.

So Apple can make an iPod and shut Real and Microsoft and Sony out of it. Napster can make a subscription music service and shut Apple out of it. And so on.

Reverse-engineering Apple's DRM is hard, but not overwhelmingly so. Jon Johansen and his pals generally went through each new release like a hot knife through butter (Jon's got a new job and says he's putting his Apple-coring hobby on hold for a while, so the iTunes 6 version of DRM has stood for longer than its predecessors).

So when Sony's arms-dealer was making its munitions, it added an attractive new feature for Sony and others: the ability to break DRM to sneak music into iTunes.

So yeah, definitely sign this Pledge because it's useful as a movement to get people more aware of our rights as consumers.

Damn the Man!

a little love for the non-existent audience

2005-12-25T18:25:00.000-06:00

A happy 2006 for those of us in the radical atheist/pro-choice/anti-torture/pro-skeptic/anti-abuse of power field (decided to edit it down to a few, rather than more). May life grant the light of understanding to those in the dark. And let the ignorant ones try to find their way to a better, more comprehending place.

As if they can. *heh*

Words to live by...

2005-12-23T01:05:00.000-06:00

Fuck christmas, by the same person who gave us fuck the south.

Personally, my husband and I plan to spend the 25th eating good food, enjoying our house and singing carols to Cthulhu.

Yeah.

Living in Texas feels quite weird. Sometimes I like it. Sometimes I don't.

But at least there's a lot out there to read to help me survive the trauma of idiocy running rampant all around.

*Heh*

online protester, that's me:

2005-12-13T12:57:00.000-06:00

american edit mashup

dean gray tuesday

24 hours of civil disobedience with over 200 protesters linking to the album.

i also included two other mashup albums just to make it easier on those who want to hear a diversified mashup voice.

you may see my link in the group, you may not. they're doing a random mix each time the page loads to give everybody's servers a break.

go and take a listen. it's pretty damned awesome. at least in my ears it is.

You put up a manger, he puts up a hanged santa...

2005-12-08T20:32:00.000-06:00

Blindfolded Santa Hanging From Noose At Home Upsets Neighborhood

A large blindfolded Santa hanging from a noose from a high tree in a man's yard has angered homeowners in a Florida neighborhood, according to a Local 6 News report.

***

This should probably not entertain me as much as it does. But it does entertain me. Somebody tried to bring "lynching" into the mix as though this should offend for reasons other than "oh! the children!"

But it's his right to put this up ... just like it's a church's right to set up a manger ... or what have you. Christ on a cross, Santa on the end of a rope...

bill, you ignorant slut...

2005-12-05T18:04:00.000-06:00

here's where you sign up to tell o'reilly (as in fox's chief ho and typical right-wing slut/hypocrite and not the uber-geek publishing firm) that you wish to be added to his list of evil left-wing liberal bloggers. yay for killing x-mas. when the pest control person wished me merry christmas i promptly took the clipboard out of his hands and smashed him into the cement in front of my house before dragging him out to the truck and forcing him to ingest his chemical load.

just kidding about that ... i accepted, responded and wished him a happy new year as well. i couldn't care less, but how else can i keep my socialist cred? HA!

now i barely write in this, but this idea (which i saw on first draft) makes great sense. and it's fun too.

which reminds me. taking part in dean gray tuesday.

doing photography which makes me feel odd in a weird sort of way. how to explain that i'm a non-nra gun person? i detest the nra, but appreciate guns? so i did a shoot for a pro-gun calendar yesterday that's more james bond than bikini babe with rifle.

bwahahaha!

2005-12-04T00:30:00.000-06:00

i love hp lovecraft. i really do.

also i love the reality community i consider myself a part of. sometimes the surrealist community even.

so this made me very happy:

It's too damned hot here. I want to go to hell!

2005-11-11T11:34:00.000-06:00

The temperature of Heaven can be rather accurately computed. Our authority is Isaiah 30:26, "Moreover, the light of the Moon shall be as the light of the Sun and the light of the Sun shall be sevenfold, as the light of seven days." Thus Heaven receives from the Moon as much radiation as we do from the Sun, and in addition 7 x 7 (49) times as much as the Earth does from the Sun, or 50 times in all.

The light we receive from the Moon is one 1/10,000 of the light we receive from the Sun, so we can ignore that.

The radiation falling on Heaven will heat it to the point where the heat lost by radiation is just equal to the heat received by radiation, i.e., Heaven loses 50 times as much heat as the Earth by radiation. Using the Stefan-Boltzmann law for radiation, (H/E)^4 = 50, where E is the absolute temperature of the earth (-300ºK), gives H as 798ºK (525ºC).

The exact temperature of Hell cannot be computed. However, Revelation 21:8 says "But the fearful, and unbelieving ... shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone." A lake of molten brimstone [sulphur] means that its temperature must be at or below its boiling point, 444.6ºC.

We have, then, that Heaven, at 525ºC is hotter than Hell at 445ºC.

[From the blog Jesus' General via http://cabbageskings.blogspot.com/ - this was too good a post to just not share]

Disenfranchised...and we're not even in Florida. Or Black:

2005-11-08T19:38:00.000-06:00

we got purged from the voting rolls. fucking disenfranchised.

we pay our taxes. we've lived in texas for over a year and a half. i can't comprehend how this happened.

we voted the first year we moved here. last year there was only three things on the ballot that we could vote for and nothing we researched was on that ballot!

i don't know if you've ever had your vote stolen but this year, tonight, i'm crying and i feel like somebody punched me in the stomach.

you want to talk about democracy? representation? THIS IS NOT IT! this is thievery and stealing.

when shawn and i made our decision four years ago that we should move to new zealand we should have stuck by that instead of getting sidetracked.

so we're putting the house on the market (shawn's already talked to our realtor) and we're out of here as soon as we can get a good price and the money and paperwork together to go.

we won't have a vote there either, but at least we'll have a valid reason for it -- instead of this thievery.

Petition signing...

2005-09-29T11:17:00.000-05:00

a note i added to the new harry reid petition:

Most people understand that we have issues with refinaries and the like, however with record profits, you should work with the American people to get through this time instead of ignoring their need. If you call yourself an American, than work with US. Don't use and abuse your fellow citizens.

places to help, things to view:

2005-09-02T16:53:00.000-05:00

we already posted that we have space available to both http://www.hurricanehousing.com AND http://www.shareyourhome.org to see if we can find people to open our doors to. no responses yet, but god only knows what and when we'll find a match through the case workers. we signed up for both yesterday.

seeing trolls attacking texans makes me angry. i wonder if this means i've become texan? i mean we've only lived here a year and a half and we came within a split second decision from moving to nola instead of purchasing this house, but i think that buying the house has made a huge difference in my outlook. meeting all the people coming here to give me price quotes on things we need to have done and so many stories ... i know we have no money and a hell of a lot of debt, but if we can help people (a person?) have a stable safe place for a few weeks, we'll offer it.

and i don't think it's just because i'm some wishy-washy socialist with warped morals that comes from a long history of living in "blue" states. i think it's some human's nature to care and want to help others with less.

** for viewing and hearing **

Nagin speaks his fury (an .mp3)

from the rude pundit: mr bill foresees the future

Poverty rates rise for fourth straight year:

2005-08-30T16:22:00.000-05:00

Overall, the nation's poverty rate rose to 12.7 percent of the population last year. Of the 37 million living below the poverty level, close to a third were children.

that really says it all.

my husband and i just purchased our first house. my fibromyalgia has made for a rough move in many ways. but we have much to feel thankful for in the midst of all the depression and desolation in the world around us. and i think we both really know it.

*snark*/
(oh my! an atheist has morals AND can see her place in the world? this can not be!)
/*snark*

fuck this racist, homophobic noise!

2005-08-09T13:15:00.000-05:00

...at my sister's party last friday we spoke of how we're moving to manor, pronounced "may-nor" and got into a fairly funny discussion about the way texans pronounce things.

see, they have a street here in austin titled "guadalupe" but they pronounce it "guadaloop" and laugh at you if you try to say it with a mexican accent on the e at the end. there's another street similarly mispronounced. so when we said, sure, but you know texas was part of mexico until we, ummmm, STOLE IT, some cut-up said, yeah, but we won so they have to say it the way WE want them to now.

and that my friends just about sums it up.

trust me, i love the weather, we're making some decent friends finally (very few, but some) and i feel quite happy to buy a house and pronounce the damn town maynor. but some of the racist and close-minded hits have come a little too close to home and it perturbs me.

as a white girl with a german jewish heritage (oh, another joke at the party, somebody said to me "you don't meet many of your types, and my sister and i said at the exact same time "that's because we killed all of us" or something to that effect. we cracked up ... the other few people kind of got that shocked and sorta glazed look on their faces) i don't have a lot to complain about with regard to racism against me. doesn't really happen. can't.

but that doesn't mean i can't hate it when i see it and want to fucking spit. acid. in faces.

you know i know a lot of people of color and a smattering of native americans and they do not want to fucking live in the ghetto or reservation or whatever. they don't deserve pity and they don't deserve white fucking people telling them that they should be happy making minimum wage working at a bk or what have you. a smattering turn to drug selling and use and ghettos become born. they become dangerous because if you can't protect yourself you're fucked. and then some whites end up there due to bad decisions (same as the blacks but generally more stupid since they usually have more fucking choice about these things) they start to get their racism really ingrained in them.

and they think they can say, "well i live here and see this all the time so i can say shit about such-and-such a race."

well fuck you. no you can't. you get stolen from your country and turned into slaves. you get segregated against and spit on and hung from a tree because of the color of your skin. then try to find jobs when all the schools in your area don't have the funding because they don't have the money the better off generally white districts have (because you know, segregation meant you had to live on either this or that side of the track). then see if you don't say fuck this and start shooting up drugs that make you feel like maybe you can cope with it. and you find out you can make more money dealing than you can doing fucking bk.

this explains why we decided against new orleans. i want a multi-cultural group of friends. i want to feel like that shit doesn't matter when we're all hanging out. and there it's very segregated and here it's somewhat. perhaps i should freaking just move back to sf. we probably will when we can afford it.

because this racist, homophobic country has got me down and at least there i can pretend it's not like that.

Hate crimes 'rise after UK bombs'

2005-07-28T09:20:00.000-05:00

you know what?

this IS part of what the terrorists want.

fivefold rise in two weeks in attacks on muslims in the uk.

keep it up. muslim leaders are starting to warn of a backlash to the media inspired lash out at people of one certain faith and color.

a great ad for ...

2005-07-25T17:14:00.000-05:00

true majority.

good flash, good break-down of where our money goes, good break-down of our "opponent's" money toward their equivalents of the pentagon, not so fantastic sound.

liked it. a lot.

on white bread vs brown bread:

2005-07-12T14:33:00.000-05:00

the bombers/terrorists = british nationals.

three from west yorkshire.

my hubby said, "you saw this one!" and well, yes i did.

something stank the same way it stank in oklahoma city.

alleged web sites alleging responsibility means diddly-squat.

and, oh, btw: lots more dead in iraq. but we don't care about that, do we?

hypocrites.

c'mon, please?

2005-07-10T15:02:00.000-05:00

skippy needs a million hits!

i admit i don't read skippy nearly as much as i should ... i find myself more charmed with hullabaloo, jesus' general, the rude pundit, james wolcott, and the like. when i want a quick update on the day i go to atrios, and when i want a girl's eye view i hit dc media girl. but i want in on this action, even if nearly too late and so here the fact i have nobody reading my damn barely updated pages can turn and bite me in the ass.

ha!

can we please just stop the ride NOW?

2005-07-07T14:25:00.000-05:00

what's wrong with this picture?

Bali, Istanbul, Madrid and Casablanca have all borne the same hallmarks - multiple bombings indiscriminately targeting civilians in heavily populated areas.

The 2002 attack on night clubs in Bali, claiming 202 lives, was blamed on a Indonesian extremist group Jemaah Islamiah, which is allegedly linked to al-Qaeda.

In November 2003, Istanbul was hit by two co-ordinated attacks in 10 days, the first against synagogues and the second targeting UK interests.

Western Europe was struck in March 2004 with the train bombings in Madrid that left 191 dead.

There have also been multiple attacks in Saudi Arabia, Kenya, and Morocco causing extensive casualties and disruption. Pakistan, Yemen and other Indonesian targets have also been hit.

It has for some time been almost a commonplace to say that Britain was "due" an al-Qaeda strike like that on Madrid. Britain's unflinching support for the Bush administration's foreign policies, particularly in Iraq and Afghanistan, make it an obvious target for al-Qaeda.

gee, could it be the fact that we have NO reason to know al qaeda did these attacks other than a random web site that could have connnections and says it does? how about the fact that several of those places hit in the above bbc site article have mainly islamic populations?

this assuming attacks were done by middle eastern men with heavy beards has gotten out of control. as out of control as the bombings themselves.

i have friends there. i have friends in london who had friends end up in the hospital. i have a very close and beloved friend who has not let me know he's okay yet (and knowing him it might take a day or two from me to hear from him if he's okay). and i have a ton of acquintances who i see when i go visit who i have no way of knowing if they're okay. i guess i'll have to wait to see the death list when it comes out

watch the yellophants play...

2005-06-17T17:03:00.000-05:00

image from serephin on daily kos.

idea from jesus' general.

how many like this, i wonder?

2005-06-13T00:45:00.000-05:00

from postsecret.blogspot.com ...

some links on organic news and other things to look at...

2005-06-08T23:49:00.000-05:00

how many we need to blow up the world, and how many we have in an excellent sound/visual combination: http://truemajorityaction.org/bensbbs/

a new scent for trust: http://www.organicconsumers.org/corp/trust.cfm

the toxic toll of rigidity: http://www.newstarget.com/007701.html

truly organic vitamins, finally: http://www.marketwire.com/mw/release_html_b1?release_id=86928

our response to the stem cell issue...

2005-05-27T00:59:00.000-05:00

"every sperm is sacred" from monty python's the meaning of live should become the progressive's battle cry of mockery.

of course the whole movie has some damn good lessons on what we should respond to them with. them being the religious right-wing fascist brand. yes, i include the neocons.

about to head off to bed. but watching monty python just made me think about how mockery and sarcasm (and satire) can work wonders for showing the other side for just how stupid they act.

killing children through neglect of our own infrastructure, not to mention the murder of innocents in other countries.

no links. search for yourself. as usual.

plus de choses changent, plus ils restent la même chose:

2005-05-26T14:57:00.000-05:00

DURHAM -- Three large crosses were burned in separate incidents across Durham Wednesday night, the first time in recent memory that one of the South's most notorious symbols of racial hatred has been seen in the city.

Yellow fliers with Ku Klux Klan sayings were found at one of the cross burnings.

now this bothers me. a lot. but not as much as the last line in this graph hidden way near the bottom of the article:

Gutknecht noted that on May 9, members of Westboro Baptist Church of Topeka, Kan., picketed outside St. Luke's, among other churches, as part of a protest against the performance of "The Laramie Project" at Durham School of the Arts. The play is about the murder of a gay man, and the Westboro protesters carried anti-gay signs with slogans including "God Hates Fags" and "Thank God for 9/11."

"thank god for 9/11???" did the queer-hating fascists on the right discover some new conspiracy that i have yet to hear from?

does it matter? no.

2005-05-23T12:21:00.000-05:00

the weather here in texas has started to really heat up. almost time for me to go swimming in the community pool.

it bothers me, this whole bullshit right against left thing. i have so little in common with either "side" that it bothers me that my choice for the past election was between a yale man (skull & bones) only a little older from another yale man (skull & bones). one did fight and come back and work as a senator whilst the other played business tycoon and failed time and time again (unless you consider his failing helped some people make a LOT of money).

i want real choices. not made up ones. not media picked choices. i want (god-dammit) old-time election type situations where more than two people actually went for the "prize" of presidency. where the second place person becomes the vice-president so that policy moves more on a less partisan party divide.

*ugh*

i try not to think too much about the things going on in the world. the news about the beating to death of prisoners or the creating of a false sacrificial goat with newsweek telling a two-year old story and still getting it's throat cut. how about the downing street memo that it appears nobody in the msm reported on? or the alleged removal of galloway's testimony from the senate's site?

not bothering to link to any of these travesties because anybody who reads this (as if anybody does) will find that they can locate these on the web easily enough. research on your own. a good lesson for today for everybody i think.

fucking hell. just learn to read and research. it helps make all of this seem just like mere "farts in a jacuzzi." so to speak.

enough lying...

2005-05-05T09:54:00.000-05:00

so focus on the family (aka beat the family black and blue) gets abc to show their true colors.

abc did not turn down the diversity ad the united church of christ wanted to place due to a no-religious ad policy. they turned it down because of a no-diversity in the church policy!

i signed the damn petition to try and get nbc and cbs to start showing some respect. now we just have to wait for abc to get nailed by some heavy duty backlash.

please?

not hst, no. not hst.

2005-02-20T22:43:00.000-06:00

he meant the world to me and i wanted to some day impress him with my writing or my music or something. and instead he shoots his head off.

it does not seem like anything i would expect of him. not having read his writing of the past 40 years. so why?

i barely write in this because it all seems so worthless. the hacks just keep getting more virulent.

but hst? no, he should not show me this path to get away...

where to shop and why

2004-12-15T13:42:00.000-06:00

this year we spent our holiday money at michael's, hobby lobby and shutterfly.com because i made almost all of our presents by using photos i have taken and inexpensive frames.

some links for deciding where to shop, which has meant we no longer shop at circuit city, waaaah, for instance and now buy gas only from shell of all places:

http://www.buyblue.org/
http://www.choosetheblue.com/main.php

we have vowed to donate $25/week to a different cause we believe in and so far we have given to these fine places:

organic consumers association
the international rescue committee
amnesty international, usa
defenders of wildlife
the green and libertarian donation fund for the recount

we use charitywatch.org and give.org to figure out who to safely donate to. for some reason my brain forgot to force me to check on organic consumers association and i just wrote to them to find out why they have not signed on with either of these two fine donation filters?

this week i think we mean to give to the comic book legal defense fund - after we hear back from them about their actual financial break-down. as it stands, a minimum of 65% toward actual issues with 35% toward admin and fundraising stands as the division we should look for.

next week? who knows...

from a mutant's photojournal

the dog wants to stay purebred...

2004-12-12T12:14:00.000-06:00

so, imagine you have a beautiful purebred bitch. say, um, a pembroke welsh corgi. and you see a mutt coming toward her when she's in heat. now, almost every single breeder will do anything they can to keep their bitch away from the mutt.

so.

imagine a racist. a believer in the purity of their race. since blond hair and blue eyes lose out almost every single time, they have a severe hard-on for keeping their "race" pure.

since my friend with a spanish background had a daughter with a japanese man their child turned out to have extremely asian features. another friend, caucasian, had a son with an asian woman and that child also has extremely asian features.

another friend, my age, has an african father and a filipino mother. guess who he favors with regard to skin color?

so what does this mean? that racists consider themselves nothing more than breeding dogs. they fear the loss of their skin color. it has naught to do with culture. it has everything to do with terror of their bitch getting caught by a mutt.

but why? not to diss blonds with blue eyes, but it, as a feature, seems the weakest of the batch. our genetics ... obviously does not want to stay blond with blue eyes. we should only keep those types around as we would a beautiful purebreed ... for looks ... but we have no other real reason.

i admit it, i have a thing for blonde guys, no matter what the color of their hair. but the one thing i can not stand is a recessive chin.

what does this have to do with anything? nothing. except the fact that as a strong chinned woman i from now on call a moratorium on every person with a weak chin and they should all get sent back to where they came from. washington, dc.

oh please. you should look at the bright side...

2004-12-10T17:56:00.000-06:00

so it comes out that laptops cause a huge drop in sperm count in men. and my sexy boi tells me that he has read terrified posts about it all over the place today and i do not understand.

you would think that men would LOVE the fact that they have their own geek version of birth control. to the best of my knowledge sperm counts go back up again after a bit of time. so why stress? feel happy that the warmth on your lap may help you get some play without rubber with your long-term and tested sweetie.

if not for the fact i have a new rubber thing to insert so can try to not have condoms in about a month, i would make sexy boi have his laptop strapped to him at all times.

wait.

he does.

woohoo!

must.not.read.news.

2004-12-10T13:52:00.000-06:00

the depression and pain got weird this week. reading about social security going up in smoke and o'reilly and his madness just sort of overwhelmed me.

we had two moving companies come by already and in ten minutes i expect another one. the cost of moving to new zealand seems overwhelming, but less so than staying here. i hate this situation.

went to hear a speaker on texans for medical marijuana at the local universalist unitarian church in austin. it came to my notice due to an email i had sent to me by an ex-journalism student i knew in long beach. we almost co-edited the paper together, but the sexy-boi and i moved back to san francisco thus giving up power and prestige at the local community college. when we turned our back on me co-editing the paper, and us building and maintaining the website for the smart-ass fraternity who knew where we would end up?

me a fibromyalgic housewife and he the webmaster for the supercomputing department of a huge south-west university.

i read about the media manipulation going on with o'reilly and rumsfeld and all of it and it makes me want to get a billion dollars of my own in order to start my own cable news company. let us use lies and flash just as much as the right-wing does! it sells! people love it! even people i know who hate it can't seem to turn it off!

perhaps in new zealand i can actually convince myself journalism means something. because other than project censored, i find it very hard to motivate to believe anything most journalists write.

a statement of purpose

2004-12-05T23:21:00.000-06:00

my head wants to explode and it wants to take out everything around it. so, in order to save my sanity, i decided to sever the part which wishes to destroy those who have declared people like me "the enemy."

screw them. i have ten family members in my history (give or take a couple) on my mother's side that fought in the american revolution. so, i have thought about and even checked out the daughters of the american revolution. i, on one side of my family at least, come from here and want to say to all you bastards who question me as a "liberal" and where i belong - you get the hell out of here. it's my damn country too. and if you don't like the secular go to a fundamentalist country or, better yet, go somewhere to aid the starving.

so i do not drink the kool-aid. i leave it to those who believe a questionable 2% equals a mandate. right. when as large a portion of the country did not vote, i call it more of a whimper.

so i stand here (well, recline, want to write this whilst comfortable) and say to the people who say we must leap into war after war, following the guideline of a hawk group, "you fucking traitor." any more ad homynym attacks you want to throw my way? i refuse to take them.

you, my dear fundamentalist ... who matches any fundamentalist anywhere in the world ... are the traitor. you have belied the history of this great nation and try to drag it down in to the mud.

and i will use this little piece of cyber land carved out for me and rinse my brain of the bitterness it feels. my diary? something else entirely. i think i like this idea.