Karen's Blog

Meet Blaze

2012-01-16T07:19:00.002+03:30

Meet Blaze.

Pretty boys...or, some of my favorite actors to lust after.

2011-11-26T09:06:00.007+03:30

In no particular order:

Aidan Turner (II)

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm2636108/

Johnny Depp

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000136/

Eric Bana

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0051509/

Good bye, Spike

2011-11-18T11:00:00.000+03:30

Spike died...probably of coccidia; which the vet didn't find until another ferret developed it. . He just got so sick, that he stopped eating, wouldn't take his medicine and just got sicker and sicker.

ferret weigh in

2011-11-13T08:55:00.003+03:30

Enkidu: 2lbs 9.5oz; 1.176kg

Wolfie: 2lbs 0.25oz; 0.014kg

Spike: 2lbs 4.25oz;

Spike joined us on January 26, 2011.

(Loki left us on January 2 , 2010)

Dear Senators and Representatives... Re: Monsanto and other companies that are monopolizing the world's food supply

2009-08-21T09:04:00.003+04:30

Dear Senators and Representatives,

I am quite concerned about companies, such as Monsanto, patenting genes, which is essentially patenting life. Not only is Monsanto patenting its genetically modified crops, but it is also applying for patents on natural seeds and animal genes that make up both our natural heritage and our food supply.

The multinational corporations are preventing farmers from planting their own crops. With current patent law and court precedent, the wind (or a Monsanto agent) could place some GMO seeds into a farmer's field, without the farmer's knowledge, and then sue him or her for having Monsanto's patented product on his or her land. This is unfair to farmers who have never purchased nor desired Monsanto products.

It is essential that these multinational corporations be prevented from controlling the world's food supply!

Please fully endorse and openly support "H.R. 6636 Genetically Engineered Food Right to Know Act" and work for a moratorium on GMOs and their byproducts!

Thank you,

Sincerely,

Karen

***********************
Monsanto Patent for a Pig

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Part 5

Doing better

2009-08-02T20:19:00.002+04:30

I'm currently visiting my folks and have been pretty close to stable since arriving. It's good to be in an environment with minimal emotional triggers. Although Ty and I had spent a week together here, this place isn't nearly as saturated with memories as my own apartment.

Currently, my thoughts are in two places:

1) I want to go abroad for at least a year; preferably somewhere where I could teach English and learn Arabic. Since I have funding from the university this year, I'll not leave until next.

2) Because of planning to leave in a year, getting into another committed, potentially long-term relationship is not really a good idea.

The various permutations on these thoughts are still rather numerous and will need some more consideration before implementation.

Relationships end.

2009-07-30T19:42:00.000+04:30

For those of you who only keep in touch by reading my blog, here’s the update. Ty and I broke up on Monday. It sucks. It was more or less mutual and is probably for the best in the long run, though. I’m alright most of the time, but still have inconsolable crying spells, usually at night.

I’m currently thinking of leaving town for a while. We’ll see.

Demonizing the other

2009-07-05T03:00:00.004+04:30

It never ceases to amaze me how people from opposite political ideologies can take the same argument and use it against each other. I posted on Martin Niemöller's poem of injustice on the part of the Nazis and the enlightened self-interest involved in speaking out against injustice. In the comments section, someone just posted this:

That poem is one of the most heart-wrenching writings in the Western world. It makes an irrefutable point about moral clarity.

I just wrote to a woman, an enthusiastic supporter of the current american president, and mentioned this poem. She said, "I don't study war history."

I was stunned! These are the people who put a non-citizen in our White House.

My response:

Actually, Obama is a citizen. http://www.snopes.com/politics/obama/birthcertificate.asp

I think that we all need to speak up, though, when we see injustices taking place, regardless of political orientation.

Talk about being stunned! Usually, I wouldn't consider someone this xenophobic to (need to) take the part of Niemöller against a more liberal individual. I would also hope that the more liberal individual wouldn't disagree with the sentiments expressed in the poem; of course, taken out of context, it's impossible to know with what exactly the woman alluded to was taking issue. As far as not studying history, I suspect that there are many of all ideologies guilty of this.

It's the normal thing, at least in the United States, to accuse the other side of ignorance or malice. I suspect that we probably all have more in common than we are led to believe by those seeking power through the spread of fear.

Michael Moore on converting GM's production capacity to greener products

2009-06-01T19:55:00.002+04:30

Sounds like a good idea to me.

Goodbye, GM
by Michael Moore

June 1, 2009

I write this on the morning of the end of the once-mighty General Motors. By high noon, the President of the United States will have made it official: General Motors, as we know it, has been totaled.

As I sit here in GM's birthplace, Flint, Michigan, I am surrounded by friends and family who are filled with anxiety about what will happen to them and to the town. Forty percent of the homes and businesses in the city have been abandoned. Imagine what it would be like if you lived in a city where almost every other house is empty. What would be your state of mind?

It is with sad irony that the company which invented "planned obsolescence" -- the decision to build cars that would fall apart after a few years so that the customer would then have to buy a new one -- has now made itself obsolete. It refused to build automobiles that the public wanted, cars that got great gas mileage, were as safe as they could be, and were exceedingly comfortable to drive. Oh -- and that wouldn't start falling apart after two years. GM stubbornly fought environmental and safety regulations. Its executives arrogantly ignored the "inferior" Japanese and German cars, cars which would become the gold standard for automobile buyers. And it was hell-bent on punishing its unionized workforce, lopping off thousands of workers for no good reason other than to "improve" the short-term bottom line of the corporation. Beginning in the 1980s, when GM was posting record profits, it moved countless jobs to Mexico and elsewhere, thus destroying the lives of tens of thousands of hard-working Americans. The glaring stupidity of this policy was that, when they eliminated the income of so many middle class families, who did they think was going to be able to afford to buy their cars? History will record this blunder in the same way it now writes about the French building the Maginot Line or how the Romans cluelessly poisoned their own water system with lethal lead in its pipes.

So here we are at the deathbed of General Motors. The company's body not yet cold, and I find myself filled with -- dare I say it -- joy. It is not the joy of revenge against a corporation that ruined my hometown and brought misery, divorce, alcoholism, homelessness, physical and mental debilitation, and drug addiction to the people I grew up with. Nor do I, obviously, claim any joy in knowing that 21,000 more GM workers will be told that they, too, are without a job.

But you and I and the rest of America now own a car company! I know, I know -- who on earth wants to run a car company? Who among us wants $50 billion of our tax dollars thrown down the rat hole of still trying to save GM? Let's be clear about this: The only way to save GM is to kill GM. Saving our precious industrial infrastructure, though, is another matter and must be a top priority. If we allow the shutting down and tearing down of our auto plants, we will sorely wish we still had them when we realize that those factories could have built the alternative energy systems we now desperately need. And when we realize that the best way to transport ourselves is on light rail and bullet trains and cleaner buses, how will we do this if we've allowed our industrial capacity and its skilled workforce to disappear?

Thus, as GM is "reorganized" by the federal government and the bankruptcy court, here is the plan I am asking President Obama to implement for the good of the workers, the GM communities, and the nation as a whole. Twenty years ago when I made "Roger & Me," I tried to warn people about what was ahead for General Motors. Had the power structure and the punditocracy listened, maybe much of this could have been avoided. Based on my track record, I request an honest and sincere consideration of the following suggestions:

1. Just as President Roosevelt did after the attack on Pearl Harbor, the President must tell the nation that we are at war and we must immediately convert our auto factories to factories that build mass transit vehicles and alternative energy devices. Within months in Flint in 1942, GM halted all car production and immediately used the assembly lines to build planes, tanks and machine guns. The conversion took no time at all. Everyone pitched in. The fascists were defeated.

We are now in a different kind of war -- a war that we have conducted against the ecosystem and has been conducted by our very own corporate leaders. This current war has two fronts. One is headquartered in Detroit. The products built in the factories of GM, Ford and Chrysler are some of the greatest weapons of mass destruction responsible for global warming and the melting of our polar icecaps. The things we call "cars" may have been fun to drive, but they are like a million daggers into the heart of Mother Nature. To continue to build them would only lead to the ruin of our species and much of the planet.

The other front in this war is being waged by the oil companies against you and me. They are committed to fleecing us whenever they can, and they have been reckless stewards of the finite amount of oil that is located under the surface of the earth. They know they are sucking it bone dry. And like the lumber tycoons of the early 20th century who didn't give a damn about future generations as they tore down every forest they could get their hands on, these oil barons are not telling the public what they know to be true -- that there are only a few more decades of useable oil on this planet. And as the end days of oil approach us, get ready for some very desperate people willing to kill and be killed just to get their hands on a gallon can of gasoline.

President Obama, now that he has taken control of GM, needs to convert the factories to new and needed uses immediately.

2. Don't put another $30 billion into the coffers of GM to build cars. Instead, use that money to keep the current workforce -- and most of those who have been laid off -- employed so that they can build the new modes of 21st century transportation. Let them start the conversion work now.

3. Announce that we will have bullet trains criss-crossing this country in the next five years. Japan is celebrating the 45th anniversary of its first bullet train this year. Now they have dozens of them. Average speed: 165 mph. Average time a train is late: under 30 seconds. They have had these high speed trains for nearly five decades -- and we don't even have one! The fact that the technology already exists for us to go from New York to L.A. in 17 hours by train, and that we haven't used it, is criminal. Let's hire the unemployed to build the new high speed lines all over the country. Chicago to Detroit in less than two hours. Miami to DC in under 7 hours. Denver to Dallas in five and a half. This can be done and done now.

4. Initiate a program to put light rail mass transit lines in all our large and medium-sized cities. Build those trains in the GM factories. And hire local people everywhere to install and run this system.

5. For people in rural areas not served by the train lines, have the GM plants produce energy efficient clean buses.

6. For the time being, have some factories build hybrid or all-electric cars (and batteries). It will take a few years for people to get used to the new ways to transport ourselves, so if we're going to have automobiles, let's have kinder, gentler ones. We can be building these next month (do not believe anyone who tells you it will take years to retool the factories -- that simply isn't true).

7. Transform some of the empty GM factories to facilities that build windmills, solar panels and other means of alternate forms of energy. We need tens of millions of solar panels right now. And there is an eager and skilled workforce who can build them.

8. Provide tax incentives for those who travel by hybrid car or bus or train. Also, credits for those who convert their home to alternative energy.

9. To help pay for this, impose a two-dollar tax on every gallon of gasoline. This will get people to switch to more energy saving cars or to use the new rail lines and rail cars the former autoworkers have built for them.

Well, that's a start. Please, please, please don't save GM so that a smaller version of it will simply do nothing more than build Chevys or Cadillacs. This is not a long-term solution. Don't throw bad money into a company whose tailpipe is malfunctioning, causing a strange odor to fill the car.

100 years ago this year, the founders of General Motors convinced the world to give up their horses and saddles and buggy whips to try a new form of transportation. Now it is time for us to say goodbye to the internal combustion engine. It seemed to serve us well for so long. We enjoyed the car hops at the A&W. We made out in the front -- and the back -- seat. We watched movies on large outdoor screens, went to the races at NASCAR tracks across the country, and saw the Pacific Ocean for the first time through the window down Hwy. 1. And now it's over. It's a new day and a new century. The President -- and the UAW -- must seize this moment and create a big batch of lemonade from this very sour and sad lemon.

Yesterday, the last surviving person from the Titanic disaster passed away. She escaped certain death that night and went on to live another 97 years.

So can we survive our own Titanic in all the Flint Michigans of this country. 60% of GM is ours. I think we can do a better job.

Yours,
Michael Moore
MMFlint@aol.com
MichaelMoore.com

One of my favorite facebook quotes from a colleague

2009-05-03T04:00:00.001+04:30

C... will be on the 13th floor of [Our favorite campus building]. All day. There are unanswered questions about Ezekiel's use of Egypt. I'm going to invent them and answer them. That's what a scholar does.

It's funny, because it's true!

Another Workout

2009-04-29T00:56:00.002+04:30

20 minutes Airclimber
3 minutes pacing
10 minutes Airclimber
5 minutes pacing

5 children a day accused of being witches in Nigeria - EVERY DAY!

2009-04-28T10:31:00.005+04:30

Photo: ©Robin Hammond

And being accused of being a witch means a horrible life, or often death for the poor child.

If the parents aren't willing or able to pay a preacher to chase out the devil, then the child is abandoned, or mutilated, or killed, or a combination of that.

"The deeply held belief by the people of Akwa Ibom State and the Efik speaking communities in Cross River State cuts across all tiers of society. Widely read and travelled academics and local villagers fear such children. This fear stems from the belief that a spiritual spell can be given to a person through food and drink. The soul of the person who eats this spell will then leave the body to be initiated in a gathering of witches and wizards. The initiated person will then have the power to wreak havoc, such as causing diseases like HIV/AIDS, malaria, hepatitis, typhoid, cancer. All accidents, drunkenness mental health problems, smoking of marijuana, divorce, infertility, and misfortunes are seen to be the handiwork of witches and wizards. In recent times it is believed that children have become the target for initiation by the elderly witches as they are more susceptible to their spells and are quicker in action."

Children are chopped with machetes, burned with acid and buried alive. All this is done in the name of Christianity! If you are a Christian, please demand that your church take a stand against such practices by other so-called Christians!

Below are links to a documentary on this atrocity "Dispatches: Saving Africa's Witch Children"..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EUJSME0TORw Part 1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u7C8Znyf510 Part 2

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wE8epBkSPfo Part 3

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NYG-h1avVrc Part 4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0nH8ZJbJ9lY Part 5

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BXUKF8dHf4A Part 6

To donate funds to care for these abandoned and traumatized children, go here:

http://www.steppingstonesnigeria.org

Working out some more!

2009-04-26T02:05:00.003+04:30

15 minutes Airclimber
1 minute pacing
15 minutes Airclimber
4 minutes pacing

This is my best workout since getting the Airclimber. :)

I'm hoping that my weight-loss will continue. At the beginning of the week, I was down 10lbs from the previous month. A couple of days later, it looked like 5 of those pounds were back - maybe it was just severe dehydration. I haven't been eating the best, so I need to work on that.

But anyway, I just worked out and need to take a shower and go somewhere to work. My internet at home is out at the moment, so I'll have to wait to post this until I get somewhere with a connection.

*update* As you can see, I found an internet connection. Time to work!

Argh! Don't be so damn cryptic.

2009-04-20T22:09:00.009+04:30

So, a while ago, this guy from my social circle caught my attention. He's incredibly intelligent, funny, and sensitive; not to mention reasonably good looking. He's not perfect, but of course, nobody is. We met for coffee and talked for a while. At some time around then, I asked a mutual friend to find out what this guy thought of me. The answer: ‘It’s not that he’s not interested in you, but that he needs to work on himself first and isn’t interested in anyone right now.’

Alright fine. A bit more time passed and I called the guy and asked him if there was any sort of possibility for something between us and he said no.

After that, I interacted with him as I do with my other guy friends, but he had become more distant. *shrugs* No big deal; it’s not like he owes me anything. It’s really not that strange for me to have had a little crush on most of my guy friends and then move on to a completely platonic friendship, though there’s usually still hugging and perhaps a little flirting, though I’ve been told before that I’m flirting even when I don’t think I am. Anyway, from my point of view, all is well. The status quo is maintained.

Around Christmas time, I briefly toyed with the idea of trying to start things up with my ex-boyfriend, Reynaldo, again. And then I thought about this guy, and even knowing that he wasn't at all interested in me and I wasn't going to pursue him further, I realized that I couldn't be satisfied with Reynaldo after having met someone like this guy. Actually, I kinda feel sorry for anyone who I might meet in the future who would be interested in me, because this guy is a sort of a measure for what I want. Fortunately, a week or so later, I stopped thinking about relationships and everything went back to the status quo, with me comfortable with being single and OK with waiting for someone else to come along in due course.

So, fast forward to Monday night / Tuesday morning at about 2am. I’m suffering from insomnia and log on to facebook. This guy is online too and we start chatting, which is pretty unusual until now, probably because we’re just not usually online to chat at the same times of day or don’t have anything in particular to say. At some point in the conversation, he says “I think I owe you a story.” And that “people sometimes react … strangely,” to it, for which he apologizes. At this point, I’m completely surprised, because I don’t think that he owes me anything and I can’t imagine that he would have anything that he would need to apologize for. The story ends up being something about his previous love life, which I’m not going to share here. So, at this point, I’m thinking, wow…he’s talking to me about relationships, and he felt that he owed it to me to do so. Then he says a bunch of cryptic stuff about ‘affirming each other’s value as members of the opposite sex’. There’s more cryptic stuff that I didn’t understand the meaning of well enough even to have a clear enough sense of it to paraphrase, and by the time I figured out that I was going to have to analyze the conversation further, we were far enough along that facebook wasn’t keeping a record of the beginning. At some point, still really confused about what he means, I ask what he means. More riddles. So, I ask “So you mean a completely platonic relationship with hugs?” like I have with our mutual friend. He says ‘it’s more grey than that’. So, by the end of the conversation, I’ve taken him to mean that he doesn’t think that a relationship really has a chance, but that he’s willing to find out. And we have tentative plans to go to the zoo.

Cool. Here’s this really great guy showing interest in me, and it’s mutual. I begin thinking of him as a potential partner, rather than as just one of the guys. I realized that if I spent too much time thinking about him before getting to know him better, I was going to start creating an idealized person in my head, who doesn’t really exist, so I read whatever I could find that he’s posted online. I find a lot after some digging and still like what I see.

So, all week, I’ve got that hopeful beginning of a relationship feeling, something that I hadn’t felt since breaking up with Reynaldo 6 years ago. It was great.

The only thing is, this guy is confusing me. On Tuesday night, I go to a social gathering where he is going to be, but he seems kinda distant. And then he doesn’t make any effort to contact me later. So then, I’m thinking, what the hell? He brought this up! Here I am with him stuck on my mind and he doesn’t seem to be moving on this at all. I mean, I wasn’t even going to go to the social gathering on Tuesday, because I have so much school work to do, but I wanted to see him.

Of course, I talked to various friends about it, and they suggested that he was just shy and might feel a bit awkward. “Skittish” is the word that one person used. So, then I’m thinking, OK, he needs some space – I should wait for him to come to me, otherwise, he’ll start thinking that I’m desperate and be scared away.

Then I get the bright idea to suggest on facebook that someone should invite me out, to see if he’ll go for it. He doesn’t, but three other friends ask if I’d like to join them for supper. It’s good to have friends! I saw him online and asked what his evening plans were. He said that he’d be eating with his parents and then didn’t know what he would be doing. I asked if he’d meet me for dessert, and he said maybe, but he couldn’t remember if he had somewhere else he was supposed to be, and that he’d call when he had it figured out. So, I go eat with Yang, who prepared some very delicious Chinese food.

He finally calls, after I get home, to say that he’s just now leaving his parents’ house, but it’s late, so he’s going home. I was a bit disappointed, but needed to finish writing a paper anyway. Still wanting to get a chance to talk with him in private, I asked him if he would give me a ride to another social gathering on Monday (today). At first, he was reluctant, since I generally want to leave places before he does. I said that if I needed to go to bed, I could call a cab or crash on a couch. Then he insisted that he would take me home before letting me do either of those things. So, I said that I'd just drive myself if it was going to be too much trouble, but then he said that he’d give me a ride, and we’d just see if it worked out.

When he logged onto the internet a bit later, we chatted some more. Finally, I say something to show my interest, and he is bothered by it. Again, I’m confused and ask him to tell me whether he is interested or not so that I can react accordingly. He finally speaks plain English: “I'm not interested in you romantically. I would like to hang out with you more often.”

There it is. The entire week of fretting for nothing. All one big misunderstanding. If he’d been so clear on Monday night, none of this would have been an issue. As it was, though, he’d inadvertently gotten my hopes up. And it was so good the feeling that I had, when I thought he might care about me that way. It’s just been so long. So, even though I would have been fine hearing that from him on Monday, hearing it yesterday was hard, because it smashed all those raised expectations to pieces. I couldn’t help but cry. It’s not that I was crying because I’d lost him; you can’t lose what you never actually had. But it was because I let myself be vulnerable. I was a fool going on like a giddy school girl with my friends. I let emotions that are usually tucked away take over. I wasn’t able to concentrate on my school work because I couldn’t get my mind off of him. All of that, and then finding out that it was a misunderstanding. And it would have been perhaps satisfying to have been able to blame him for it, but despite the result, he was actually trying to be open and honest with me; he was just too cryptic for me to understand what he was trying to say, and since I didn’t really understand, I must have read into it what I wanted to hear. I mean, jeez, he framed the conversation by talking about romantic relationships!

Of course, he probably had no idea what was going on in my head, and didn’t realize that he’d led me on, so he couldn’t understand why I’d been coming on to him and then been upset when he said that there was no romance there. I didn’t want to be mad at him, but was still very upset and it hurt so much. So, I logged off and cried inconsolably for about an hour. Then I went to bed and read a book.

For the most part, I’m over it now. I think I’ll be fine just being friends with him, as I would have been if none of this had ever happened. The whole experience has just been very emotionally draining, and now I’m under even more stress, because I have to make up the work that I should have been doing last week, but wasn’t able because of his confusing presence on my mind.

I had a dream

2009-04-18T19:16:00.006+04:30

I was at a Walmart (at least I think it was Walmart), and I saw that they had soft-sided mesh pet carriers. I noticed that it looked like there was something moving inside one of them. I looked closer, and found that it was a young black ferret. I was upset to see that there was no litterbox in there, because the carrier was just too small. I pulled him out of the carrier and was trying to decide whether I should buy him, to save him from pet store life, or if that would just encourage the maltreatment of more ferrets. Also, I was considering the limit on the number of animals written into my apartment lease.

Then I noticed that more of the carriers had animals in them, and at some point, there were wire cages. There were a couple of other ferrets, rabbits, and guinea pigs (I think).

Then I realized that more than animal was in the cage that I'd pulled the ferret out of. Suddenly, there were rabbits on the floor hopping away. Meanwhile, the ferret had clawed his way onto my shoulder, and I was trying to get a hold on him to put him back in the cage so that I could chase after the bunnies.

I tried to catch them, but failed. Then someone else said something to the effect of it being "their problem" (whoever "they" are?).

Anyway, then I woke up and am happy to report that I have 3 cute ferrets of my own living in much nicer surroundings than a tiny petstore cage.

Natural Woman

2009-04-18T18:56:00.005+04:30

Note: You probably don't want to read this if 1) you are a man, or 2) you get hung up on natural body functions, or 3) you have any sense at all.

You've been warned.

OH MY GOD! HOW DO WOMEN DO IT???

Let me back up a bit. A decade ago, I started taking Depo Provera, the 3-month birth-control injection. One of the side effects for many women is the lack of a period. For me personally, I usually had no period for about 2.5 months and then a lingering, but light flow at the end of the 3 month cycle. A minor annoyance, but for the most part, I didn't even need to buy feminine supplies.

Well, last month, I missed the injection window, because I was out of town. Basically, if you get the shot late, the doctors make you pee into a cup to prove that you're not pregnant. I hate that! So, I thought, ya know, I'm single. I've been single for 6 years. I probably don't need to worry much about birth control at the moment. Besides, Depo Provera has the lovely side effect of an average of 4 pounds of weight gain per year and does ... well, no one really knows what it does long term to the body.

So, I decided to go natural; let my body get back to normal, whatever that is.

IT SUCKS! I've bled more in the last few days that I had in the last few years! Mom tells me that she used to have to replace her tampon everytime she went to the bathroom, which I really had no sense of before, but I do now.

And the cramps! Make it stop!

And the addled brain. For the few days before I started menstruating this time around, I couldn't type in passwords. Seriously, it routinely took me 3 tries to get a password right that I've been using for the last 5 years or so. Also, I couldn't conceptualize the next step in writing my paper. There's lots to do; all I had to do was pick something and start, but I couldn't.

Based on what Mom has said, horrible, icky, long lasting, heavy, painful periods run in the family. Sure; I get the propensity to be fat from Dad, and the periods from hell from Mom. *grumbles* Though, to be fair, I have no idea how the periods are for Dad's sisters - maybe that's from his side of the family too.

So, we'll see... I'll wait this period out and see how bad it is and then maybe decide that it's OK to go through it again in a month.

Or maybe I will suddenly have a need for birth control again; one can always hope.

10 things that my addiction to the Twilight series of books has brought to my attention (Now with all new bonus reflections!)

2009-04-13T00:51:00.007+04:30

1) Wow…look, that’s that plot curve thing that they talked about in high school…is the really long flat part an extended exposition or really slowly rising action?
2) The opportunity to live vicariously through the romantic lives of imaginary people while my own life is limited to surviving grad school.
3) The realization that my disagreements with the casting in the film adaptation are evidence of everyone reading a different story, even though they’re reading the same book. I greatly suspect that I’m not reading the story that the author wrote, but I really like my version of it!
4) Relatively cheap thrills. I’ve been reading and rereading the same books for the last few months.
5) Improved Spanish skills through my reading of the series in Spanish.
6) Basic literature courses might be more effective at encouraging reflection on literature if they start with pop literature that people would actually enjoy reading multiple times. How much do you really see of a book the first time through, particularly if you don’t care to read it?
7) A reaffirmation of the effectiveness of formula fiction and the tastes of the masses. The first time I realized that everyone might like something because it was actually gratifying was when I read Anne Rice. Before that, I’d been rather elitist, assuming that if the masses loved it, I shouldn’t bother.
8) I really am annoyed by inconsistency in imaginary worlds. It’s OK if pigs fly, but they had better always be able to fly or have a good reason for not being able to do so!
9) Not all translators are created equal. It’s possible to be a professional translator without mastery of the source language.
10) German books are more expensive than English or Spanish books.

And a bonus reflection: Reading the stories in languages other than my own (which is the original) has caused me to read more slowly. I find myself stopping to consider what a foreign word might have been in the original English. Reading it in other languages creates the necessary distance to contemplate more than just the plot, but rather the phrasing as well. Also, I've noticed more foreshadowing (though this might just be an artifact of having read the same story multiple times.) It will be interesting to see if my experience reading it in English feels different after having read it in Spanish and German.

And another: I've had many discussions with colleagues about the dangers and merits of using American media translated into German for the purpose of teaching German. Arguments against such a thing are that translations do not use the same sorts of phrasing and structure as German works and they do not have the same cultural relevance. My thought is that, at least at the lower levels of language learning, that it doesn't really help to read only stuff originally in German with the ideal of developing native-like sensibilities and phrasing. Frankly, if you continue with the language, then you will have plenty of opportunity to work on that. However, for introductory study, I think that it makes a lot of sense to read things written by people from the learner's culture because such works are likely to express things that the learner would like to be able to express. Maybe a native German would never think to say X, Y or Z, but I would, and it would be nice to know how to make myself understood. This isn't to say that you shouldn't read German works by German authors when learning German. Of course it is important to have authentic materials to learn cultural understanding. On the other hand, if you are reading a best-seller in translation, I think that the argument could be made that it has become part of the German culture as well, or at least part of a subculture. I mean, to take an example from music, I think that the Beatles are as much a part of German culture as they are of American, though the exact place that they have varies by such things as whether the person understands English or just hears the music and probably also the age of the listener.

My social life - or - how I owe everything to Ty

2009-03-29T13:41:00.012+04:30

My social life is better now than it was for the first 4 years that I've lived here. I've got a regular group of folks who I hang out with and play board/card/strategy games with on Tuesday nights - or who allow me to sit on their couch and grade my students' homework while everyone else plays games.

I have a related group of people who come to my place to sing folk music about once a month. I love that; it's something that I've always wanted, and I don't know if they realize how happy it makes me that it has become a reality.

So, I have a rather large circle of positive acquaintances, some who I would consider friends.

I have a very small circle of people who are really good friends. These are the ones who have gotten to know me despite my rough edges. Actually, a couple of them have told me something to the effect of having been pretty sure that I was a bitch when they first met me, but now they think that I'm one of the nicest people they know. I'm sure that some would find this hard to believe, but other people have thought that I was joking when I told them that I was hard to get along with. I guess individuals come in all points along the compatibility spectrum.

I'm pretty socially awkward. After 27 years of always being unpopular and often being mercilessly teased all through school, I'd gotten pretty used to the idea of being a social outcast. I'm really glad that I met Ty over the summer, because he was my link to the rest of my social life here.

Until I met Ty, I really didn't know that many people, who were friendly to me here. Of those I did know, only one was someone who I could call on anytime, day or night. Fortunately, he lived right across the hall.

Since I'm a full time grad student, I don't get out much. Most of the people I've known here are the people I work/attend classes with. Unfortunately, I got off on the wrong foot with a lot of them the first year that I was here. Part of it was my fault. Part of it was the pack mentality that had developed among them (really reminding me of junior high boys), which excluded me, because I was on fellowship and wasn't teaching, and didn't have the same schedule and responsibilities and therefore wasn't seen as one of them. I hadn't realized that I wasn't part of their group. I did things that for an in-group person would have been minor annoyances, but for an out-group person were blown way out of proportion. From my perspective, it also appeared that they assumed that I was being malicious. The other day, the department head said something that I really liked: "Never attribute something to malice that can be attributed to incompetence." I was, and to some degree still am, socially incompetent, but I'm not mean. It's not like I set out to see how many of my colleagues I could piss off. And what really sucked, was the harder I tried to find opportunities to socialize with them outside of the office, so that I could get to know them and they could get to know me as a person, the more they pushed me away. Of course, I also did a lot of stuff that first year, which looking back on it now, I can tell was pretty stupid, and I wouldn't choose to repeat. Anyway, first impressions and all, that left a bitter taste in many of my colleagues' mouths, so no matter how much I have changed; and I do think that I've changed quite a lot since then; it really doesn't matter. Tensions have calmed, but I'll still never be accepted into that social group.

I've had multiple conversations with James about this. Depending on the day, I either decide that it's hopeless, so why bother, or I decide to make a conscious effort to be a more likable person. 27 years of socialization (or lack thereof) is a pretty difficult thing to counter, so the chance of drastically changing my personality is of dubious reality.

So, I guess in sum, I've got an awesome social network now, but as far as my colleagues go, I'll still always be on the outside looking in, which is too bad, because of lot of them are really interesting people. Fortunately, I have other people in my life.

F*cking Ferrets

2009-03-27T09:02:00.002+04:30

I let Loki out before finding Enkidu. They started fighting behind/under the couch. Enkidu's back-end emerged, so I grabbed it and pulled him out. His teeth were attached to Loki's face. So, I got them separated and set Loki down. Loki attacked my ankle, so I've got some punctures there, a couple of which are bleeding. So I grabbed him up again and held them both by their scruffs for a minute or two. Then I stuck them back into their respective cages.

To be fair, Enkidu was probably just minding his own business sleeping, and Loki found him and attacked. I had tried to find Enkidu before letting Loki out of the cage, but wasn't able. I should have just not let Loki out until having located Enkidu first.

my new T-shirt

2009-03-26T00:50:00.005+04:30

Front text:
Language is a tool!

Back text:
"No form of language is
cognitively or linguistically
superior to any other in any
absolute sense outside of
particular contexts"
(J. Cummins, 2000; p. 77).

Front:

Back

Good bye, Chaos. You were the coolest ferret ever!

2009-03-14T14:19:00.010+03:30

Chaos had been getting weaker and weaker. He couldn't get his back legs under him anymore when he was walking on the hard kitchen floor. He always shook and his entire little body moved when he breathed. His top half was completely emaciated and his bottom half full of tumors. He was also developing some pretty serious cataracts, leaving him partially blind. He had lost most of his fur, except for some on his face and legs.

I took Loki to the vet after work yesterday to get his blood-sugar checked. He was OK. While there, Chaos fell asleep with his head on my hand. He seemed to be putting an awful lot of energy into breathing. Also, when he was awake, no matter how I scritched him, he didn't seem to be comfortable; at least he never licked me the way that ferrets do when you find the right spot.

I spoke with the vet, and decided that his quality of life was probably not very good given the state of his emaciation and the high dose of pred (steroid) that he was on. I had been considering this for weeks already, but hadn't actually made a decision until then.

He was so emaciated, that the vet couldn't find a major blood vessel for injection. He ended up having to anesthetize the little guy so that he wouldn't feel anything, and then he injected him as close to the heart as possible. He never woke up.

I called Ty and he met me at home. Then he drove me and Chaos to Margaret's. Margaret boiled enough water to thaw out the ground and dug a little hole for him in her flowerbed. When I took him out of the box that he'd been sent home in, it was the first time in months that I was able to hold him and know that he wasn't in pain. I set him in the hole, curled up as if in sleep - he looked so peaceful. I kinda wish I'd taken a picture, but I didn't have my camera with me and didn't think to borrow Maragaret's. Being able to place him in the ground myself was much more comforting than it would have been to have just left him with the vet.

After burying him, Margaret and Ty took me out to eat and cheered me up.

This morning I woke up and started missing the little guy, but I think I did the right thing; everyone keeps telling me I did, anyway. That doesn't stop me from crying, though.

I remember the first time I saw him. I had brought Fuzzball to the ferret shelter to find a buddy. There he was in his prime. He tried to play with Fuzzball, but she didn't know how to take that. When I held him, he didn't squirm at all. The first thing he did when I brought him home was climb up on the couch and onto my lap. I was so happy! After a few days, he and Fuzzball started playing together and were the best of friends.

Other memories I have of him include taking him for walks on campus. He found the opening to something's burrow and decided that it was his job to dig it out. He spent a lot of time on different days trying to do so. One time, he climbed up on the edge of the fountain by the library to drink.

Everyone loved Chaos. He was the perfect PR ferret.

Now I have to let Chaos go. It helps to have two other healthy, active ferrets. As I was typing this, I watched Wolfie take the lid off of an empty copy paper box and move that around for a while. It was hilarious to watch. Now, Wolfie and Enkidu are playing. Loki is asleep in the cage, but will surely wash my face and left ear for me as soon as I next hold him.

Not a bad way to spend a Sunday...or something.

2009-03-09T04:37:00.007+03:30

Today was interesting.

I woke up at about 3am and couldn't sleep anymore. So, I picked up my copy of Luna Nueva (New Moon by Stephenie Meyer) and started reading. Around 5am, I noticed that my heart felt weird, that my left arm was tingly, and that I had heartburn. Also, on Thursday, I had been told that my blood pressure was 140/100 when I went to Urgent Care for a sinus infection. With all the heart problems in my family, particularly on the paternal side, even though I'm relatively young (though about as old as Terri Schiavo was when she had her vegetative state inducing heart attack), I got worried, however, I couldn't decide how worried to be. I figured I'd wait until 8am when the clinic down the street would open and then go in and have my vitals taken. Then, around 8am, I realized that it was Sunday and the clinic down the street would not in fact be opening. Then I called my parents to ask them for their advice. They agreed that I should probably go to the emergency room to get checked out.

So, I go the ER at around 8:30am. They checked me in and proceeded to run about every test known to man on me. They started with the least invasive things, like blood pressure, the thing where they put the clamp on your finger, and taking my temperature orally. There was also an ECG (EKG, if you prefer the German abbreviation).

Then they stuck an IV needle in the back of my left hand. The first nurse couldn't find the vein, so they sent in another guy. The needle itself wasn't too bad. The worst part of it was the tape thing that they use to hold the the needle to the hand. Apparently, I'm allergic to the adhesive, so after a while, it started feeling like the irritation that you get when a mosquito is left to bite for longer than a second or two. They took their numerous blood samples and then shot saline solution into my hand. Now the back of my hand is all bruised up. The bruising probably wouldn't have been so bad, except that a nurse came in and took my blood pressure again after the IV had been removed and while she was doing it, the IV site hurt really bad! I think she might have broken the vein open. I had all the other blood pressure measures done on the other arm after that.

They took chest X-rays and gave me a CT scan, which reminded me of sticking my head through a Star Gate, but there were no aliens, and the machine doesn't actually have you pass all the way through to the other side.

Later, they had me do a stress-test on a treadmill. The volunteer lady who brought me up on my gurney didn't know where to go exactly and we ended up going to what looked like a completely empty floor. She walked around saying "hello?" for a while and then took me back to the ER. They sent us back up to the empty floor, telling us that the lady would be waiting for us. It turns out that the nurse in cardio was down a couple of halls behind a couple of closed doors, so you'd never be able to find her if you didn't know exactly where you were going.

At the end, they determined that my heart is healthy and that I have a sinus infection, but that it was still a good idea to go in and get checked. It was probably just a combination of an anxiety attack, sleeping on my arm wrong, and having indigestion.

When I first got there, the doctor said he wanted to run all these tests and that it would probably take about 3 hours. I was there from about 8:30 to 2:30; just a bit more than three hours. On the plus side, I was able to kick back and read my novel while waiting to be brought to the next test, which I've now almost finished. It was actually quite a relaxing way to spend the day, just getting interrupted occasionally to be wheeled about and/or poked and prodded.

All the staff were really nice, and I was impressed that they took me seriously enough to run all the tests, considering that my dad was pretty much turned away when he had his first heart attack and had to fight to get checked out.

When I got home, I took my medication and medicated the ferrets, ate some leftovers, which was all that I'd had except for a cup of water all day, and then went to bed. I got up again around 6pm, checked email, went out to get V8 juice, lean pockets for work, and some oranges. Then I ate a bowl of French onion soup and started editing video for my study.

Yep...exciting day.

Forced divorce of gays for the benefit of their children?

2009-03-05T19:46:00.002+03:30

Here are some bits of info from the Human Rights Campaign.

Dear Karen,

This morning, before the California Supreme Court, Ken Starr will argue for the forcible divorce of 18,000 loving same-sex couples who married before Proposition 8 passed.

Starr has said the marriage ban should stand because of the state's role in protecting the welfare of children.

The hypocrisy of "protecting" children by divorcing their parents is unconscionable. Yet this is just one in a parade of outrageous lies by right-wing extremists.

So HRC is launching a new campaign to expose this dishonest fear-mongering against equality – to counteract the lies with respectful dialogue and grassroots action.

Sign our first petition at EndtheLies.org – Tell Ken Starr to stop using lies about child "welfare" to divorce loving parents.

Since it's no longer as acceptable to display open bigotry against LGBT people, the right-wing has resorted to lies and fear tactics. Take Ken Starr's statement that same-sex marriage amounts to "seizing and hijacking the marriage relationship in order to achieve apartheid-type values."

HRC's EndtheLies.org campaign will help us combat these untruths in the media, in Congress, in our statehouses, schools, workplaces and faith communities. And that will be key during the brewing battle over hate crimes legislation – which the right-wing is already trying to drag into the gutter.

*

They say that hate crimes laws will criminalize pastors and "do away with our freedom of speech."
*

They spent millions during the Prop. 8 campaign telling Californians that marriage equality was corrupting schoolchildren and eroding their "moral character."
*

They're running absurd ads that suggest transgender anti-discrimination measures will lead to men attacking women and girls in public restrooms.

We've exposed dozens more outrages at EndtheLies.org – check it out and sign our Ken Starr petition today.

Right-wing extremists will keep spreading these lies as long as no one holds them accountable. They will continue to raise money hand-over-fist and use lies to block hate crime and workplace protections, marriage equality, HIV/AIDS funding, and the repeal of Don't Ask, Don't Tell.

That's why YOUR action is so critical. These lies aren't just offensive – they stand in the way of basic fairness and equality.

End the Lies – starting with Ken Starr's!

Last night, HRC joined with other groups to sponsor Marriage Equality USA's "Eve of Justice" vigils across California. Today, hundreds of protestors will gather outside the courthouse in San Francisco during the oral arguments. The court will issue a ruling within 90 days. This is one of those rare moments in our movement when we can shine a light and change hearts and minds – please spread the word to family and friends.

Warmly,

Joe Solmonese
Joe Solmonese
President

And another letter that the HRC sends out.

Hi,

Have you noticed that since it's no longer acceptable to openly discriminate against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people, right-wingers are resorting to lies and fear tactics?

The Yes on 8 campaign spent millions to convince California voters that marriage equality was corrupting schoolchildren and eroding their "moral character." Anti-LGBT groups say that hate crimes laws will end freedom of speech and put pastors in jail. They even argue that forcibly divorcing same-sex married couples will protect their children!

http://www.endthelies.org is a new website showing some of the worst offenders, and I wanted to pass it along. I just signed their petition. I hope you'll join me.

Just go to http://www.endthelies.org and sign the petition in the red box.

Thank you!

I want my mommy.

2009-03-01T20:17:00.008+03:30

(click to see a larger version of the comic)

I put a rib out during the night. I'm trying to decide if I should call to see up an appointment for an emergency chiropractor visit. *grumbles*

UPDATE: After some stretching, followed by some sitting, the rib appears to have moved back into place! Yay!

(Of course, I'd still appreciate some pampering :) )

recipe for yummy

2009-02-28T18:37:00.010+03:30

Well, I'm currently enjoying something that I threw together last night:

1lb ground turkey,
a robust dash of Tony Chachere's Creole Seasoning,
1 package southwestern veggie blend (corn, black beans, chopped peppers),
a bit of V8 juice,
1 cup whole grain noodles (uncooked),
a bit of cheese crumbled, cut, or otherwise made small (1/2 cup?),
a can of pineapple,
salt and pepper to taste.
(water or milk to keep everything moist as needed)

Brown the ground turkey with the creole seasoning and maybe some salt and pepper (do not drain)
Add water, juice from pineapple, and a splash of V8
Add noodles and cook until noodles are about half-way done
Add veggie blend and pineapple
Add cheese and mix in until melted into sauce
Cook until noodles are done and the sauce ceases to be soup.
Enjoy.

The cheese and the tomato aren't identifiable as such in the finished product, but they definitely add to the flavor.

Very tasty. Probably could feed about 4-6.

Wolfie takes an interest in SLA

2009-02-23T06:22:00.000+03:30

Here's Wolfie perusing my Second Language Acquisition shelf.

Note on the distinction between living and dead languages

2009-02-21T09:05:00.002+03:30

If you aren't able to watch a mainstream movie in the language that you are studying, then the language you are learning is not a living language.

(unless, of course, it is a language that simply isn't spoken by enough people with enough money for them to have made movies in that language.)

Let's take some examples:

Italian: yep, you can watch movies in Italian
Latin: nope...no mainstream movies in Latin
Modern American English: yep, you can watch movies in English
Old English: nope, not a living language (Think the original Beowulf.)
Egyptian Arabic: yep, you can watch movies in Egyptian Arabic
Classical Arabic: nope, not a living language - try watching a movie after you've figured out how to read the Qur'an...you'll be sadly disappointed.

Independence in America becomes isolation and loneliness

2009-02-18T18:03:00.003+03:30

I've been saying this for years. Now I'm hearing a program on the radio about a book that says the same thing:

The Lonely American by Jacqueline Olds and Richard S. Schwartz.

Basically, we spend so much time being being independent that we forget to have connections to people. Then we wonder why we get depressed.

Anyone else find this hilarious (or really disturbing)?

2009-02-15T22:33:00.004+03:30

Here are a bunch of children singing "There's a Coach Comin' In"

And here it is in it's original context from the movie Paint Your Wagon (which is why it's hilarious that the kids are singing it!)

More fun than a...

2009-02-14T19:50:00.003+03:30

...ferret in a box lid!

Fuzzy Ferret Frenzy!

2009-02-10T00:04:00.003+03:30

Here are Wolfie and Enkidu going at it again! It's so nice to have happy ferrets in the house!

Forced divorce?

2009-02-09T19:20:00.003+03:30

I understand that in a divorce situation, not everyone necessarily goes into it willingly. Sometimes one partner forces the divorce, leaving the other without an option. That makes sense to me; both partners have to be willing to be married to have a marriage work.

What doesn't make sense to me is having the government force divorces. If a couple is committed, then what right does the government have to break up a stable family unit? Even if they happen to be gay. That's just wrong.

"Fidelity": Don't Divorce... from Courage Campaign on Vimeo.

Hi,

Have you heard that Ken Starr -- and the Prop 8 Legal Defense Fund -- filed legal briefs defending the constitutionality of Prop 8 and attempting to forcibly divorce 18,000 same-sex couples that were married in California last year? The Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in this case on March 5, 2009, with a decision expected within the next 90 days.

The Courage Campaign has created a video called "Fidelity," with the permission of musician Regina Spektor, that puts a face to those 18,000 couples and all loving, committed couples seeking full equality under the law.

Please watch this heartbreaking video now. If you have the same reaction that I did, you can help spread the word by sharing it with your friends ASAP -- before the Valentine's Day deadline:

http://www.couragecampaign.org/Divorce

The more people who see this video, the more people will understand the pain caused by Prop 8 and Ken Starr's shameful legal proceeding.

After you watch the video, please join me and over 70,000 people who have signed a letter to the state Supreme Court, asking them to invalidate Prop 8 and reject Starr's case.

Thanks.

Happy, Playing Ferrets!

2009-02-03T06:57:00.007+03:30

Here's a short clip of Wolfie and Enkidu wrestling.

And another.

Meet Beowolf

2009-01-24T04:45:00.003+03:30

Here is my newest fuzzy. His name is Beowolf. He is probably older than a year, but probably not older than 2 years.

Since Enkidu is finally comfortable enough here to want to play, I really had to get him a buddy. I've seen Enkidu trying to get Chaos to play, but Chaos is just too old/sick to be interested.

Loki is still a butt. I introduced Beowolf and Loki, and Loki attacked, so I separated them again.

Enkidu and Beowolf hit it off at the humane society, so I'm happy.

Beowolf seems kinda afraid of Chaos, but I think that might have more to do with Loki's previous attack than Chaos.

--------------------------------------------------------------

I took Loki to the vet this morning. He hasn't been very active lately, he had a sore on his belly at the base of where they cut him open for the surgery and his poo has been neither plentiful nor solid. The vet found that his blood sugar is low and that he is down from 3.25lbs to 2.9lbs. Now Loki will be on prednisolone and metronidazole just like Chaos.

Workout #10

2009-01-12T08:09:00.002+03:30

I worked out today while everyone was at church. I didn't do as much as I've done in the past, but I had also taken a couple of days off, so that was probably to be expected.

10 minutes Airclimber
2 minutes pacing
10 minutes Airclimber
3 minutes pacing
5 minutes Airclimber
5 minutes pacing
35 situpy things
35 pushupy things
stretching

I still look nothing like the chic in the photo, but I suspect that it would take at least a year of intense workout, good diet, and a different bone structure to achieve her look. Anyway, I don't think that I'd like to look that buff... If I could lose 80 lbs, I'd look great!

Workout #9

2009-01-08T19:48:00.002+03:30

This is my first workout at my parents' house. Since I'd been off for a couple of days, I had to ease off a bit. However, this is still better than when I first started.

10 minutes Airclimber
3 minutes pacing
10 minutes Airclimber
2 minutes pacing
5 minutes Airclimber
stretching
situpy things
pushupy things

This thing in Gaza has to stop!

2009-01-07T06:46:00.003+03:30

Yes, it is really bad that Hamas is attacking Israel. However, Israel's response has been way disproportionate. Hundreds of non-combatants, including children have died.

I came across this blog post from a young Palestinian woman by way of the public radio show Here on Earth.

...

I've had a lot of time to contemplate, the last few days, and looking at my siblings, I wonder how the rest of the world envisions the people who occupy the most despondent and unruly military zones in the world.

My younger brothers spend their free time out with their friends, or playing basketball and soccer at youth clubs. They are passionate about sports, play station, and music. They play the guitar and are exceptional students. My brother who's in collage is obsessed with computers and gadgets, he's an engineering student who comes up with the most ingenious projects for his classes. He listens to music and plays the guitar and prays regularly. He's an honor student who has big goals and big dreams.

So please understand why I am infuriated when I see how we are portrayed on television. Hordes of bearded, teeth-gnashing, stone throwing blood thirsty savages in rags and tatters. And please don't blame me for feeling utter rage against the state of Israel, that has been intentionally targeting the unwary, guiltless, promising children and youth of the Gaza Strip in its vicious attacks over the past 5 days. Already, between 40 and 50 children are dead while hundreds lie in the hospitals, seriously injured or disabled for life.

...

Today the temporary halt of rocket fire coincided with the restoration of power to our home, at least for a few hours, at about 5pm. My brothers went to their rooms and played their videogames, I sat on the couch and read, and my sister went to take a nap. We tried to busy ourselves with regular daily activities in a situation that is anything but commonplace.

I think that this post highlights the necessity of knowing people as individuals and not just as statistics or as "them". If we saw "the enemy" as our own brothers and sisters, it would not be possible to look away as they are murdered.

I have never been in favor of Hamas. I am also not in favor of the Israeli treatment of non-Jews. The oppressed has become the oppressor. I suspect that if Israel would provide equal rights and privileges to everyone within its borders, regardless of religion or ethnicity, then the violence would stop. The Palestinians don't want war. As individuals, they lie on a sprectrum of disapproval to tolerance to support of Hamas only because their current situation is untenable. Treat the Palestinians as human beings and they will stop Hamas for their own self-interest. Until then, to whom can the Palestinians turn for help?

Twilight

2009-01-06T10:09:00.004+03:30

I'm hooked. I read the first 150 pages or so the other night and then finished up Twilight by Stephenie Meyer last night.

It's a masochistic endeavor, to read this book as a single woman. It's so enthralling! It's about an awkward girl who enters into a relationship with a guy who is beautiful, smart, funny - and oh, he might accidentally kill her by drinking her blood. The sexual tension is amazing!

The first few chapters were kinda slow, but after that I found it to be quite the page turner.

I'm definitely going to get the next book ... maybe the next couple of books ... in the series. I don't know if the bookstore in my hometown will have them or not, so I'll have to stop in another city on the way there to pick them up. And the store doesn't open until 9am! That means that there's no sense in me leaving until 8am, but I'm kinda awake at my friend's house now. Oh well.

I read the teaser for the next book and wanna know what happens next!

Silly me :)

I've heard the movie is a disappointment, so I'll have to think about whether I want to see it or not.

Here is a way to talk to Obama

2009-01-05T10:53:00.007+03:30

I received this email about a week ago:


	Dear -----, We recently launched a new feature on Change.gov called Open for Questions. Thousands of you responded, asking 10,000 questions and voting nearly a million times on questions from others. Now that we've answered some of the most popular ones from the last round, we are open for questions again. Ask whatever you like, and vote up or down on the other questions to let us know which ones you most want the Transition to answer. Get started now at http://change.gov/openforquestions. We're looking forward to learning about what you want to know. Thanks, John John D. Podesta Co-Chair Obama-Biden Transition Project --- Please note that replies to this email will not be answered.

This email was sent to:-------

To unsubscribe, go to: http://www.change.gov/unsubscribe

Cows for Widows

2009-01-05T05:18:00.005+03:30

I recently heard about this US Marine program in Iraq from a show on Public Radio.

Basically, the Marines bought 50 cows for 50 Iraqi widows in Anbar Province to help empower the women and keep them from becoming desperate enough to become suicide bombers. The idea actually came from local Iraqi women, which meant that it was an Iraqi initiative, facilitated by the US Marines. Another interesting quirk about it is, that it's mostly female Marines involved.

I really like the idea, which reminds me of Heifer International.

Happy, Sleepy Loki

2009-01-04T21:20:00.002+03:30

I took the other ferrets out of the cage and put Loki into it. I also gave him his lover for company. He appears very happy to snuggle up with it in the hammock!

Workout #8

2009-01-04T02:28:00.004+03:30

I was lazy yesterday and didn't work out at all. Today, I must admit that I spent most of the day in bed, but then I got up and popped in Annie and started working out. I increased my routine by 10 minutes today. I don't know if this will be the norm now or if I will have to back off a bit tomorrow.

10 minutes Airclimber
3 minutes pacing
10 minutes Airclimber
2 minutes pacing
10 minutes Airclimber
5 minutes pacing
stretching
25 sit-upy things
25 wall push-ups

The Airclimber has multiple resistance settings and I'm at the lowest, so if I get up to 30 minutes straight without any pacing in between, then I'll up the resistance level. I suspect that I would have to work my way up again from shorter segments to larger segments.

I'm not having to stop to breathe, but because my calf muscles are so tight, I have to take breaks to pace to loosen them up.

Loki's Den

2009-01-03T22:30:00.005+03:30

Since Loki Butt is such a butt and can't be trusted alone with Chaos, it occurred to me that I could just wall off the front hall for him to sleep in at night. That way, he's in a safe place, where he can't get into anything that could damage himself or anyone else. Since he's perfectly litter box trained, I don't have to worry about messes, which is more than I can say for the other two ferrets. I've been keeping him there overnight and when I exercise for the last few days.

Yesterday, I found him in the cage during play time. He was snuggled up with his lover. Oops! I'd forgotten to put his favorite toy in his den! Now he has it and most likely all is well.

set and sprung!

2009-01-03T08:08:00.003+03:30

So, I was driving down University, which has three driving lanes, a bike lane, and a bus lane, which are one way, traveling west posted at 25mph. I was coming up behind a police car (depicted here in white) and slowed down like everyone else. (That red blob over there should indicate me - though there should be lots of other cars behind me and in the other lanes as well.) Anyway, the police car was in the left lane and signaling a left turn. He slowed down and looked like he was going to make that turn. Instead, he waited for the guy ahead (shown here as the yellow blob) to speed up to what couldn't have been more than 35 mph. The officer turned on his flashers and swept across all three lanes of traffic to pull the guy over in the right lane.

Fortunately for me, though I was planning to speed up, I had decided to wait until AFTER the officer made his turn.

Anyway, I couldn't help but feel a little sorry for the guy who miscalculated.

Chaos

2009-01-02T10:41:00.000+03:30

Chaos seems to be still interested in exploring the various bags and stuff in the living room, but seems to not be incredibly hungry. Hopefully, he's just too excited to eat and will eat after he has played a bit.

Workout # 7

2009-01-01T23:25:00.001+03:30

Today:

10 minutes Airclimber
3 minutes pacing
10 minutes Airclimber
2 minutes pacing
5 minutes Airclimber
2 minutes pacing
stretching
50 wimpy situps
25 wall pushups

Today's film: Cat Balou

Workout #6

2009-01-01T01:51:00.003+03:30

Well, I'm up to double sets of 10 minutes on the Airclimber. Today:

10 minutes Airclimber
3 minutes pacing
10 minutes Airclimber
2 minutes pacing
5 minutes Airclimber
2 minutes pacing
stretching
35 wimpy situps
25 wall pushups

Today's film: Newsies

Workout #5

2008-12-31T03:34:00.004+03:30

Today's workout was not nearly as intense as previous ones, since my right calf is pretty sore. I paced back and forth across my apartment for an hour. For half of that time, I was doing upper body exercises with a can of condensed cream of mushroom soup (10.5 oz; 297 g)in each hand. That was surprisingly tiring. Multiple reps, even with a small weight works the muscles.

When I was done pacing, I stretched out, did some mini-situps (basically just got my shoulder blades off the ground), and did some push-ups off the wall.

Now I feel tired. Of course, I felt tired before I started, but it's a different tired after physical exertion! I've lost somewhere in the neighborhood of a pound and a half. It's slow going, but we'll see how long I can stay motivated to keep at it!

Workout #4

2008-12-29T11:52:00.002+03:30

So, I still am having trouble sleeping, so I decided to get up and work out some more. I suspect that this frequency of workout isn't maintainable, but for now it seems to be working. I'm pretty sure that I won't have time to work out during the day Monday (which is technically already today, but we'll just consider Monday to be sometime after 6am). It's probably just as well. I suspect that my legs would rebel. I'll be doing laundry and cleaning the ferret cage, so that will probably count as exercise anyway.

This time, the configuration of my routine was not quite as active as the last time:

10 minutes Airclimber
5 minutes pacing
5 minutes Airclimber
5 minutes pacing
5 minutes Airclimber
5 minutes pacing

This time, I was moving to a music CD, and of course the last two minutes of the final Airclimber segment fell on a relatively high tempo song, which of course influenced my pace, and I thought my legs were going to give out on me. I'm happy to report that this fear was not realized.

Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood

2008-12-29T08:37:00.004+03:30

I've just finished watching Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood. It was a cute movie, but was very different from the book. In the book, the daughter, Sidda, has sequestered herself at a friend's cabin in the Seattle area, where she is able to page through the scrapbook. In the movie, the Ya-Ya's, minus her mother, kidnap her and take her to Louisiana and tell her stories.

Basically, the entire modern day story of the film is different than that of the book. There is also a lot that was left out of the film.

Some things were changed as well. In the book, it's an elephant ride that teaches Sidda not to be afraid. In the movie, it's an airplane ride.

*shrugs*

I recommend the book, and the movie isn't bad either.

I think that the book is more in the tradition of Fried Green Tomatoes.

Workout #3

2008-12-29T07:16:00.004+03:30

This time, I worked out during the first half hour of the Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood. I finished reading it last night, so I can watch the movie now.

My routine today was
5 minutes Airclimber,
1 minute pacing,
10 minutes Airclimber,
2 minutes pacing,
5 minutes Airclimber,
2 minutes pacing
5 minutes Airclimber,
and then stretching

10 minutes at a stretch is the best I've done so far! I couldn't do 10 minutes at a time even a couple of days ago. Go me! I'm working on endurance. By the time I'm done, I'll be doing the whole half hour at a stretch, maybe even a whole hour. We'll see. That's pretty far from now. (I don't look nearly as good as the model in this picture - in fact, if I could get halfway between where she is weight-wise and where I am now, I'd look hot!)

A Poem.

2008-12-29T06:11:00.000+03:30

Under the Covers

Cozy, melting into the sheets
The pillow is soft against my face
The comforter wraps around me just right
The mattress holds me in its perfect embrace

Then I reach for you
And I realize

The pillow is too lumpy
The comforter is too thin
The mattress is too soft
Cold, empty sheets

Being Single Is Getting Really Old

2008-12-29T05:13:00.007+03:30

I had a dream, in which my ex-boyfriend was in one of my classes, but we were at a university that I'd never been to before - but in the way of dreams, that wasn't strange. I saw him with another girl, but I didn't know if they were a couple or not. I remember crying in the dream.

When I woke up, I decided to call him; something that had occurred to me a few times in the last few days. However, the voicemail message was generic, so I didn't leave a message, just in case he'd switched phones since the last time we'd talked. Instead, I wrote him an email:

Hi ------------,

How's it going? I had the weirdest dream that you ended up in one of my classes at a university that I've never attended. How's that for crazy?

Anyway, I just thought that I'd write to see what you're up to in life.

I'm still at grad school in ------------. I should take prelims next semester. I've currently got 3 ferrets, one of which (Chaos) is decrepit with cancer, another has a tumor the size of a golf ball that makes him super aggressive towards the others (Loki), and one that seems perfectly healthy, but doesn't like being held (Enkidu). That's my family.

So, have you become CEO yet? ;) Wife? Kids?

~Karen

We'll see if he responds. He probably will. I've been hoping it's him every time I hear the email program chime. I need to not care as much.

I did an online search for him and found him listed on a singles site. I suspect that neither of us has had a serious relationship since the two of us broke up on March 19th, 2003. It was a Wednesday. It was also the day that Bush said that he was invading Iraq, even though Wikipedia says that the invasion didn't begin on until the 20th. It was definitely a Wednesday, because I was teaching a class on Wednesday nights and remember hearing about the invasion on the radio on the way home. My ex-boyfriend was visiting me at the time and was afraid that his flight would be affected.

Anyway, I've been feeling pitifully single today, getting all teary-eyed and everything. I can't help but wonder whether it's him or being in a relationship that I really miss.

I am fairly certain that we would be married and probably have a whole parcel of kids by now if we'd been in my grandparents' generation. I'd have either dropped out of college or continued where he was when he had to move for his education. There's a part of me a couple of times a year that wonders what would happen if we were to meet up again. What would happen if I were to take a trip down to Texas? Would we find ourselves once again madly in love with each other?

We were always so good together. I think. It's hard to tell what is real in one's memories and what is idealization. I only have one friend left from the time that he and I were together and she is pretty busy with her family, so I don't get to talk with her as much as I might like.

The problem that led to our breakup was that when he moved away, we had trouble finding anything to talk about on the phone. With the distance and poor verbal communication, there wasn't enough to build the relationship on.

I don't know...whenever I've tried talking to him on the phone since then, I've just ended up feeling annoyed, so maybe I should take that as a sign.

On the other hand, we just always did so well in person!

In a couple of days, I'll probably have moved on again and not be all torn up. Right now, though, the break-up feels fresh.

I suppose the test will be to see what happens when I become involved with someone new. Then I'll know whether it's my ex-boyfriend that I miss or being in a relationship.

Workout #2

2008-12-28T01:50:00.001+03:30

So far so good...Can I get some cheerleaders?

First Workout in Forever

2008-12-27T12:03:00.005+03:30

So, I decided to put my insomnia to use. I've gotten way too heavy and have developed high blood pressure.

I decided to put in a movie (The Muppet Christmas Carol) and work out a bit.

I finally used my Airclimber that I got back in August. It's quite the workout, I can assure you! I'm so out of shape right now, that I was only able to use it for 5 minutes at a time. I had to trade off between using the Airclimber and pacing back and forth across the floor. Anyway I kept going for half an hour and then stretched out.

Unfortunately, my workout did not go off without a hitch. I put all the ferrets in the same cage tonight. Loki decided that he should molest Chaos, so I had to interrupt my workout to separate them. Then he decided to get into a tussle with Enkidu. Enkidu pooed to show how upset he was, so I cleaned that up before it got spread around. Then Loki pounced on Chaos again, so I pulled him out of the cage and held him while I was airstepping. I put him down when I decided that I had to walk to loosen up my leg muscles! So, he went and hid behind the easy-chair. When I got back on the Airclimber, Loki came out to see what was "hissing". He took a long time approaching, because every step produces its own pneumatic hiss. I thought he was going to give himself whiplash! He kept advancing and then jumping back with each hiss. Funny boy. Well, then he got up the nerve to get close enough to get his nose thwacked by the back of the pedal.

And then he decided that he had to bite at my feet. Fortunately, I was able to scoop him up before he inflicted any damage and had to hold him for the rest of my five minutes on the Airclimber. When I stepped down to pace a bit, he tried to bite my feet again, so I had to carry him around for the next five minutes as well. Then he started getting sleepy, so I put him back in the cage. I'm a little concerned that he may have opened up his wound inside. I'll have to check him again before I go to bed. I'm afraid of internal bleeding. He squawked when I touched his belly.

Anyway, that's been my night thus far.

Update: Loki looks fine. He's eating (as usual!)

"First they came..." by Martin Niemöller

2008-12-27T00:45:00.005+03:30

"First they came…" is a poem attributed to Pastor Martin Niemöller (1892–1984) about the inactivity of German intellectuals following the Nazi rise to power and the purging of their chosen targets, group after group. (Wikipedia)

There are various versions of this poem. This is the one that is listed as the original at Wikipedia. Other versions include other groups such as the Catholics and the homosexuals. The idea is the same, though. If we don't speak out when we see injustice, we may be next!

Original:
Als die Nazis die Kommunisten holten,
habe ich geschwiegen;
ich war ja kein Kommunist.

Als sie die Sozialdemokraten einsperrten,
habe ich geschwiegen;
ich war ja kein Sozialdemokrat.

Als sie die Gewerkschafter holten,
habe ich nicht protestiert;
ich war ja kein Gewerkschafter.

Als sie die Juden holten,
habe ich geschwiegen;
ich war ja kein Jude.

Als sie mich holten,
gab es keinen mehr, der protestieren konnte.

Translation:
When the Nazis came for the communists,
I remained silent;
I was not a communist.

When they locked up the social democrats,
I remained silent;
I was not a social democrat.

When they came for the trade unionists,
I did not speak out;
I was not a trade unionist.

When they came for the Jews,
I remained silent;
I was not a Jew.

When they came for me,
there was no one left to speak out.

Xmas gifts

2008-12-26T03:22:00.003+03:30

I've got such cute things for Christmas! They are both very cute and thoughtful and perfect for me!

From the family of the kids I tutor:

From Ty:

Loki Update

2008-12-24T12:09:00.002+03:30

Here are pictures from the last couple of hours of Loki post-surgery.

Loki's Surgery

2008-12-23T02:57:00.006+03:30

Poor Loki Butt!

He underwent surgery today. Going in, everyone was hopeful that his adrenal tumor would be removed and his personality would improve.

Well, there's a problem.

A healthy adrenal gland is about the size of a lentil. Loki's tumor enhanced adrenal gland is about he size of a golf ball. It's also wrapped up with a kidney. The vet felt that removing the tumor would likely lead to the little guy bleeding to death, so we opted to leave it in. She did remove some growths on his pancreas, so hopefully that will prevent insulinomas.

Anyway, the little guy is all drugged up now and resting.

The vet recommended using Lupron to try to control his tumor symptoms (hair loss and aggression), since the melatonin implants have failed. The vet gives him 3-9 months to live.

relaxing day

2008-12-22T03:44:00.002+03:30

I took my car to Tires Plus to get the alignment done and was informed that they don't have any openings until Wednesday. This was new for me, because the last time that I'd wanted to make an appointment, they wouldn't do it, so it was odd that they were booking up through Wednesday. Anyway, that put me on the side of town that my friend James lives on, so we got together and did some shopping. Then we hung out for a while at his apartment. It's nice to be able to just relax and talk - something that we really haven't been able to do for the last few months. Currently, I'm sitting in his room while he discusses some things with his roommate.

I didn't get to bed until about 4:45 am because I was ripping my music CDs to my new computer. As a result, I'm tired now and have a headache, but at least I'm relaxed. I have a paper to turn in tomorrow. It's not as good as I'd originally envisioned, but I think that it's good enough to submit without it being a complete embarrassment. Fortunately, I only need to get a B in the class to keep my funding, which shouldn't be a problem.

I have to get up really early tomorrow to put Loki in a separate cage without food at 6am. Then I have to take him to the vet by 8am for his surgery. Hopefully, the vet will be able to remove the tumor on his adrenal gland, which should help his behavior problems. Best case scenario, he stops being a butt to the other ferrets and Enkidu learns to like, or at least tolerate him. Worst case scenario, he dies under anesthesia. However, I have a lot of confidence in this vet. She is the same one who operated on Chaos in April of 2007. Unfortunately, ferrets are tumor prone, and it's likely that Loki will relapse, but hopefully it will take a while to get as serious as it is currently.

Anyway, it's nice to just be able to hang out. I still have to work on my dissertation proposal, but I'll take a few days to do nothing first. Fortunately, I have some more time, since I'll be doing prelims in the spring semester instead of in January.

Hypocritical much?

2008-12-20T07:56:00.005+03:30

I just heard a lady on a call-in radio show who is asking for book advice. She is OK with her kid reading Lord of the Rings, but not Harry Potter. WTF? She says that she wants something more appropriate for Christians without the "magic". Last I checked, LOTR also had tons of magic and mysticism. I mean...central characters in both series include...hmm....let's see...what do we call them...WIZARDS! *rolls her eyes*

wiz⋅ard
/ˈwɪzərd/ Pronunciation [wiz-erd]
–noun
1. a person who practices magic; magician or sorcerer.
2. a conjurer or juggler.
3. Also, whiz, wiz /wɪz/ Show Spelled Pronunciation [wiz] Show IPA Pronunciation . a person of amazing skill or accomplishment: a wizard at chemistry.
–adjective
4. of or pertaining to a wizard.
5. magic.
6. British Slang. superb; excellent; wonderful: That's wizard!
Origin:
1400–50; late ME wisard. See wise 1 , -ard
Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1)
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2006.
Cite This Source

I am obviously insane.

2008-12-19T11:15:00.002+03:30

It's 1:45 in the morning. Up until about half an hour ago, I was reading an article for the paper that is due tomorrow, but I've been spending the last 30 minutes or so ripping music from my CD collection onto my computer, now that I finally have a hard drive big enough to handle it. (I don't have that many CDs, just had a really small hard drive!)

On a side note, I find it rather frustrating that not all of these CDs have their artist and title information on the disc, so I have to manually enter it, which I will do at a later date for the most part, but I want to at least label each folder as I copy the CD so that I know what album to look at for information at that time.

Right. I think it's time to drug the ferret and go to bed!

Compaq Presario CQ50-142US Notebook PC

2008-12-15T19:09:00.009+03:30

Yesterday, I purchased a new laptop, the Compaq Presario CQ50-142US Notebook PC. I pulled it out of the box and started trying to get it set up for my needs. This involved changing the power settings and uninstalling the programs pre-installed with a trial period. So far, the entire process has been incredibly frustrating. Since changing the power settings, the restart has taken forever. Uninstalling stuff seems to make it worse. I'm trying to uninstall and then restart after each step, since I've already had to restore the factory settings twice, since the computer started wigging out after making changes. The last time, something in Vista was able to "fix it", but that involved half undoing some of the uninstalls, but only enough to leave it on the computer, but to provide error messages when the uninstall was reattempted, because of missing elements.

Anyway, I've been waiting for the computer to restart since before I began writing this entry. It just now finished shutting down.

I got the new PC because I was sick of my current computer being unstable and slow. So far, the behavior of the new machine does not bode well.

BTW, I've had time to search for, save and upload the laptop picture and the new machine has not yet finished rebooting...

Is anyone else finding Vista to take forever to boot and shut down?

--------------------------------------------

Update: It looks like the problem was also the solution. Vista appears to have been downloading updates in the background and installing them. Either the un-patched status of the original factory installation or the fact that updates were being installed was probably what was slowing everything down, because now the computer runs well.

Marriage in the Bible

2008-12-15T10:54:00.002+03:30

This is an excerpt from an article from Newsweek. I like it. I encourage you to read the full article.

COVER STORY: GAY MARRIAGE

Our Mutual Joy

Opponents of gay marriage often cite Scripture. But what the Bible teaches about love argues for the other side.

By Lisa Miller | NEWSWEEK

Published Dec 6, 2008

From the magazine issue dated Dec 15, 2008

...

In the Old Testament, the concept of family is fundamental, but examples of what social conservatives would call "the traditional family" are scarcely to be found.

...

Ozzie and Harriet are nowhere in the New Testament either.

...

Heifer International

2008-12-14T22:33:00.007+03:30

Give a gift that keeps on giving. If you'd like to gift something, please contemplate giving livestock to a poor family somewhere.

Heifer International has been featured on Public Radio, on Forbes.com, and other places.

Give here.

Elephants are friggin' cool!

2008-12-14T09:02:00.003+03:30

Take a look:

If the elephant recognizes the elephant that he paints as an elephant, than that means that he is able to make the connection between reality and symbol. Of course, this ability to make symbolic connections has already been demonstrated by the fact that elephants can be trained to respond to words.

Dogs also have this ability. Dogs that have been sufficiently trained can accurately identify various items by the words that their trainers use to identify them (i.e. they know the difference between "get your ball!" and "get your bunny!"). It's actually pretty cool.

Loki is superstitious

2008-12-14T08:43:00.002+03:30

Loki's internal monologue:

If I just stay on this mat long enough, chicken baby food will appear!

Chaos' internal monologue

2008-12-14T03:54:00.005+03:30

"I was going to clean my face on the carpet - you really didn't have to scoop me up and wipe the extra chicken baby food off of my chin with a towel before I could get there!"

camo.

2008-12-14T00:50:00.003+03:30

I thought that it would be cute to take a picture of the two of us in our camo shirts.

The Flavor Bible

2008-12-13T07:03:00.004+03:30

If you feel inclined to purchase something for me, I think that I could really make good use of The Flavor Bible. (Hmm...A guy I know named Kelsey would probably really appreciate it too.)

It's a book that tells you which seasonings and ingredients go well together, so you can more consistently be successful when engaged in experimental cooking.

Really? Anti-Prop-8 Protesters and Terrorists in Mumbai are the same?

2008-12-11T22:08:00.003+03:30

Pat Boone thinks that those protesting in favor of gay marriage are like the terrorists in Mumbai, because they want to use sometimes violent methods to impose their radical view on the majority.

Here's an excerpt from his little bit of propaganda:

Are you unaware of the raging demonstrations in our streets, in front of our churches and synagogues, even spilling into these places of worship, and many of these riots turning defamatory and violent? Have you not seen the angry distorted faces of the rioters, seen their derogatory and threatening placards and signs, heard their vows to overturn the democratically expressed views of voters, no matter what it costs, no matter what was expressed at the polls? Twice?
I refer to California's Proposition 8. You haven't heard about the well-oiled campaign to find out the names of every voter and business that contributed as much as $1,000, or even much less, in support of Prop 8? You haven't heard about the announced plans to boycott, demonstrate, intimidate and threaten each one – because they dared to vote to retain marriage as between one man and one woman? You haven't seen, on the evening news, prominent entertainers and even California Gov. Schwarzenegger, urging the demonstrators on, telling them they should "never give up" until they get their way?
Assuming you have become aware of all this, let me ask you: Have you not seen the awful similarity between what happened in Mumbai and what's happening right now in our cities?
Oh, I know the homosexual "rights" demonstrations haven't reached the same level of violence, but I'm referring to the anger, the vehemence, the total disregard for law and order and the supposed rights of their fellow citizens. I'm referring to the intolerance, the hate seething in the words, faces and actions of those who didn't get their way in a democratic election, and who proclaim loudly that they will get their way, no matter what the electorate wants!
Hate is hate, no matter where it erupts. And hate, unbridled, will eventually and inevitably boil into violence. How crazily ironic that the homosexual activists and sympathizers cry for "tolerance" and "equal rights" and understanding –while they spew vitriol and threats and hate at those who disagree with them on moral and societal grounds.

Um...yeah...I don't see unbridled hate here... If anything, the hate is from those who are so intent in their ideology of a traditional religious definition of marriage that they would deny that societal security to others, just because they choose a partner of the same sex.

What really gets me is Boone's suggestion that the Black Civil Rights campaign was conducted differently than the gay rights campaign.

Slavery was abolished, blacks and women obtained the rights to vote, and these true rights were not obtained by threats and violent demonstrations and civil disruption (though these things did occur, of course), but by due process, congressional deliberations and appropriate ratification. This was democracy in action, not mob rule. As noted journalist Thomas Sowell has said, there never was "a right to win." In America, at least the America we've known till now, rights are earned and won in a deliberative, legal way – at the polls.

Sorry, Boone, but I don't see the difference. Gay rights activists are engaging in peaceful protests and also pursuing due process through the courts and the legislative process.

Here is a response from the Human Rights Campaign.

Chaos' Head.

2008-12-11T10:00:00.005+03:30

Chaos seems to have gotten himself a tonsure...

I guess it's just ferret pattern baldness and no religious statement after all.

He also has cataracts and is licking his chops in anticipation of supper.

blah.

2008-12-09T07:29:00.002+03:30

A replacement driver's license costs $14. A new university ID costs $25. Stopping payment on a check costs $30. That's the costs in dollars of replacing stuff from my wallet. I probably had anywhere from $10-30 in it in cash as well. *grumbles* It'll be interesting to see if it ever appears again.

The lady who wrote me the check that had to get canceled is annoyed with me for causing her to have to deal with the bank to cancel the check. She's particularly upset that I asked her to ask the bank if they could wave the fee. Maybe the bank will do it, maybe they won't but I figure it couldn't hurt to ask. Of course, from her point of view, it's my problem and not hers, since the feel will just be taken out of the next check that she writes. *sighs* I almost started crying right there (not because of having to pay the fee, but because she was upset with me and I'm not exactly stable right now).

On the bright side, I was able to get a new bus pass, university ID, drivers license and check card today. I also still have a couple of other credit cards that usually reside somewhere other than my wallet, so I'm not without financial means. It's just frustrating to have had to drop so much money on everything.

The Chocolate Isn't Helping

2008-12-08T20:13:00.003+03:30

huge variation in stress level from prelims stuff,
upcoming Depo-Provera injection (i.e. odd hormonal levels at the end of the previous cycle)
end of the semester deadlines
lost wallet and all that is involved in replacing it
laptop that occasionally overheats and manual shuts itself off
winter and its lack of sunlight
irregular sleep
difficulty concentrating on reading
wanna cry/beat someone/crawl into bed and never come out

I'll get over it, but it kinda sucks right now.

Keeping the Chaos Boy Warm

2008-12-08T07:24:00.004+03:30

Here's my snoogly-butt! He wouldn't tolerate this shirt when he was healthy, but it's staying on him now. It's probably cold enough now that he finds it cozy.

+1 time; +5 sanity

2008-12-04T20:10:00.002+03:30

I've decided to postpone prelims until the spring semester so that I can take the time to do a better job and not lose my sanity in the process.

That means that I'll be taking another class in the spring, but will also have more time to read articles.

It also means that the pressure is lifted in the here and now, so I can schedule a folk song night in December afterall.

Chaos, the not so fuzzy

2008-11-30T07:54:00.002+03:30

Poor little guy...he was out exploring the hallway this morning, though. Life isn't completely gone out of him yet.

updates

2008-11-23T19:58:00.002+03:30

Ferrets:
Chaos is sneezing.
Enkidu is coughing.
Loki doesn't seem to be sick yet.

Enkidu and I went for a walk outside last night in 20is degree weather. By the time that it was too cold for me (5 or 10 minutes), he was still happily exploring. Of course, he had his fur coat and I just had a hoodie over a t-shirt, thin pants, and flip flops on. The expedition had started simply as a romp up and down the hallways of the apartment building, but he really wanted to go outside.

Cooking:
Made a green bean casserole with a can of green beans, ground beef browned in salt and pepper, caramelized onions, brown rice and cream of mushroom soup. Very tasty.

Thesis:
I entered a bunch more articles into my database. I do have to read them, though, before they will be of any use to me.

Insomnia strikes again -or- I'm right, dammit!

2008-11-17T11:13:00.009+03:30

So, one of my greatest failings is the inability to let someone think that I am in the wrong when it just isn't so. Before I go any further, I'd like to establish the following:

1) This insomnia is not a result of the topic that I am posting on, but rather of the 3 cups of chai after 6pm and the fact that I slept most of the day.

2) Although I am aggressive in maintaining when I am correct, I am also willing to admit to being wrong - but only when I'm actually wrong.

3) Mom, I don't need any more parables about when you were in grad school and upset people because you wouldn't just let it go. It's not subtle and it doesn't help.

4) Dear Friend, I am not trying to get you riled up, and you are not required by any means to comment further (though you are welcome to, if you'd like). This is my soapbox, though, and I'm going to use my little corner of the web for me. You can say whatever you'd like in your own corner of cyberspace, but this one is mine.

--------------------------------------------------------

So, now that that is taken care of, let me just comment that there have been a couple of people with whom I have had relatively heated exchanges in the last week or two; one of them a good friend of mine and the other a developingly antagonistic co-worker (which antagonism, to be fair, is partially my fault due to an earlier encounter, where I felt that he was rude and confronted him about it).

--------------------------------------------------------
So, I'll start with the co-worker, because there is less to say there. Basically, this guy, we'll call him Claude, is on a committee in charge of organizing foreign language conversation tables. I had made a pdf version of the schedule for said conversation gatherings, stating when and where these weekly gatherings were to be held, by cutting and pasting a copy of the sheet used for folks to sign up to hose the thing - so it looked rather ugly, but effective - and shared it with another of my colleagues, who really seemed to appreciate it, so that she too could send a single document on her course website, rather than send a number of emails. When there was a change made to the schedule, I updated the pdf schedule and sent that version out to the email list of fellow teachers and interested parties. I got an email back from Claude accusing me of "butting into other committees' business" by sending out a schedule that he was supposed to send out at some point, so he was upset about the pdf "which looks terrible and is inaccurate" (there was a minor error on it; I couldn't remember the end time of the last event, so I didn't change it from the originally sheduled time, though the start time was still right). He also said he was upset about receiving emails from me about a graduate organization (relevant to folks in our department) and about a notice about an opportunity to help a ferret shelter charity by working a concession stand at a university football game. He also was upset that I supposedly wasted everyone's time (and especially his, because he had to correct the misinformation) by emailing about a "supposed problem" with an in-house website that allows folks to upload and share documents relevant to teaching (basically, the problem was that the links to upload stuff and give feedback were missing). And he told me to stop sending out email about my personal business, because everyone was sick of receiving those emails.

Well, the "supposed problem" was a problem. It did exist. And due to my immediately notifying the tech guy, it was apparently fixed before Claude ever even saw it, so Claude just assumed that I had been mistaken or misleading in telling everyone that there was an issue. This happened almost 3 months ago, and at the time, I let it go, when Claude insinuated that I was giving misinformation, because I figured it wasn't worth addressing. This time, I went into my old emails and forwarded him the email from our tech guy thanking me for informing him of the problem, telling me that it was fixed, and apologizing for any inconvenience.

As far a the other issues, I responded to him with this email:

Hi Claude,

I'm sorry that you feel that I am stepping on your toes. It is not my intent. I was just passing on what I have been using for now until you send out the more formal version. Others have found the PDF schedule useful, and I thought I'd share it with the rest.

As far as the [grad organization] emails, those are legitimate emails about a group that other grads in [our building] and in [our union] (and the [organization concerned with teaching languages]) supported. As a grad in [our building], you are entitled to that information, but if you'd like, I can take you off the list. Others involved in planning include A[...] in our department and B[...] from [other department], if you'd like to ask them about it. Last year, C[...] and D[...] ([other department]) were also involved in the planning of activities. I'm just the one responsible for sending out information, but that doesn't make it my "personal interest".

The ferret shelter charity is more of a personal thing. However, it is a charity, which I will not benefit from, and it is at a University function, which may have been of interest to other people. I didn't send it out as a [grad organization A] or [grad organization B] email.

Thank you for sharing your perspective with me. Hopefully this has helped clear up some misunderstanding. I think that you guys are doing a great job with [Conversation hour]!

~Karen

So, that issue has hopefully been addressed and won't resurface. I doubt that Claude will like me any better, but such is life. If things go really well, then maybe he'll apologize, but I suspect that he will remain indignant about the whole affair, whether he decides for himself that he's made a mistake or not. I think that I've already made all the apology necessary.

--------------------------------------------------------

The other situation was of a more academic nature. I have been studying linguistics for the better part of the last decade. I'd like to think that I know something about it. In fact, I think that it's fair to say that I know a lot about it, considering that I am about two months away from officially becoming a dissertator (unless I don't get my proposal done on time! eek!), though there is always more to learn!

So, the question came up of whether the word "correct" can be applied to language or not. To be fair, in the context that my friend was presenting it, I knew exactly what he was getting at, and am certain that he had no ulterior motive in talking about correct pronunciation. However, I take issue with the concept of "correctness" or rather "incorrectness" being applied to speech produced by a native speaker. If it has to be used at all, then all utterances produced by native speakers under normal circumstances (i.e. normal speed, unfiltered, unscripted speech) are correct, because they are systematic and follow the internal rules of the language.

This topic has been revived after having almost gone away, because I noticed a conversation that he'd been having about it on Facebook with a couple of other folks. They hadn't gotten the key to what I was saying, because he hadn't stated it, and I couldn't let it go without making sure that they saw it, whether they chose to believe it or not. Namely: native speaker utterances under normal conditions = correct. I only felt bad that I hadn't noticed the exchange a few days ago when it was all fresh, because I was also ready to just not discuss it anymore with this friend, and unfortunately, the way that Facebook works, he got notified of my clarification and was annoyed that I was bringing it up again. So, my friend invoked his other friends and a mutual friend, who is a linguist (though I suspect that he's only taken a few undergrad linguistics courses), and again stated that he doesn't agree with me. That's his right. *shrugs*

Through my linguistic training, I have learned (been taught and have observed) that native-speaker speech is systematic. Every single native speaker of a language speaks his variety of that language perfectly, meaning that each native speaker follows the rules internal to that variety. Period. All varieties are equally correct and valid for their native speech community. Speaking a different variety than the "standard" or preferred variety of a given social class does not mean that the speaker is linguistically handicapped. It simply means that his set of rules is not the same set of rules as the standard imposing group.

However, this is not to say that all varieties are equally valued socially or are equally appropriate for any given situation. Linguistic varieties can be viewed as tools (which my friend has overtly stated that he does not agree with). For example, a hammer, a screwdriver and a wrench are all tools and are all equally valid as tools. However, the claw of the hammer is going to be the most effective tool for removing a nail, but not overly effective for inserting a screw. In the same way, the variety of speech used on an inner-city street would not be effective for a job interview, however, the variety of speech effective in a job interview would not be effective for maintaining one's street cred. So, although both varieties serve a purpose, it is to the advantage of the speaker to select the most effective variety for a given situation.

Each individual is proficient in a number of speech varieties varying from differing registers (such as in the example above), to different dialects (think extreme New York City speech vs. extreme up-north Minnesota speech) or even different languages (e.g. English vs. German). Each language is made up of several dialects and each dialect is composed of several registers and each individual has his own idolect, with its own consistent system. Just as it is ridiculous to say that English is superior to German or that Spanish is superior to French, it is also ridiculous to say that one dialect is superior to another or that one register is superior to another. Each is systematic. Each serves a purpose.

Given that all varieties are of equal value, it becomes necessary to understand why we view some varieties as better than others. Humans have been making judgments about speech for centuries, likely since the beginning of language. However, languages were first standardized fairly late. For example, Andrew Jackson, in the 19th century, was quoted as saying, "It is a damn poor mind indeed which can't think of at least two ways to spell any word." So, spelling was variable, as was (and is) pronunciation. Even when languages were finally formalized and standardized, this was all done in writing. There was no way to standardize pronunciation, since there was no way to preserve and transmit that standard, being that there were no tape recorders at the time (a favorite refrain of many teachers). But those with ability to force their view convince others that they have a monopoly on "correct" language.

This is relevant, because my friend's original comment was something to the effect of it being more correct to pronounce [cant] for "can't" than [can'] (pronouncing the /t/ as a glottal stop, or even losing it - and sometimes the /n/ as well [ca~] - all together). His argument is that it is more correct, because everyone knows that it is more correct, because when they say "can't" emphatically, they say [cant]. I would argue that no one (at least in American English) will say [cant] in the sentence "I can't go to the store", unless they have artificially slowed their speech. Therefore, it is highly unlikely that a child acquiring language could hear [cant] (and not [can'] or [ca~]) often enough to internalize it as the way this word is pronounced. But then, how do we distinguish between "can" and "can't"? Basically, it's the way that we pronounce the /a/. Since every dialect handles vowels a bit differently, I can't say for sure how you personally pronounce each one, but in my Mid-Western dialect, "can" is pronounced with the mouth closed a bit and the mid part of the tongue raised higher (closer to the /e/ in "bet"), and "can't" is pronounced with the mouth further open and the tongue lowered (closer to the /a/ in "bat").

So, why do we want to think that [cant] is more correct? Because, when we see how it's written, we assume that this is the way that it should be. It takes literacy to cling to this idea of "correct" speech. This is also a key to why varying social classes are assigned their particular degree of social approval when it comes to the "correctness" of their speech. Naturally, the uneducated (illiterate) classes have been allowed to naturally acquire language and pass it on to their children without the imposition of "learned" pronunciation, taken from writing, but rather have learned from the way that people actually talk. So, language has been used as a divider.

Many of the earliest modern style manuals were written during the colonial era (though we have attestations from Ancient Rome and Greece). Why? Because there was a market. Because wealth no longer was a reliable social distinguisher between the "commoner" and the nobility, the nobility sought to distance themselves through language. Writers of style manuals weren't stupid. They each tried to out-do each other, collecting rules of speech from their own intuitions, fancy and other languages. For example, the prescriptive "rule" in English about never ending with a preposition is preposterous. English, throughout its entire history has had so-called "dangling prepositions". Although some dialects of English make more use of them than others, there are some phrases in all dialects, including the "standard", in which it is impossible to avoid using them. Try thinking of another way to say "He thought it over" without changing the verb or sounding like someone trying way too hard to sound cultivated (which would be an example of "hypercorrection").

At this point, I'd like to mention that writing is not the same as speech. It is not simply speech transposed. If it were, then we would not need special courses in writing as children and composition as young adults. There is a reason why it is tedious to listen to a speech that is read from a paper. There is also a reason why it is tedious to read a natural conversation that has been written down verbatim from a recording. Writing is a stylized form of communication, that is not immediate in the same way that oral speech is. Writing, at least in the English tradition, is characterized by being concise and precise. It is also held to rules of punctuation and structure, such as the sentence. Speech, however, is full of repetition and incomplete sentences. These are some of the reasons why some individuals, who are perfectly capable of communicating orally, sometimes fail miserably when it comes to writing coherently and/or pleasantly. Online chatting often is a prime example of writing that more closely approximates speech, and is often close to, if not completely, incomprehensible, if the person doing the typing doesn't alter his text to fit into written norms for structure and punctuation.

It is also important to mention that letters are not the same as sounds. Take for example, the letter "g" in the following words: goal, geography, enough. It's very clear that what is written does not directly correspond to what is said. It is interesting that we do not enunciate "enough" by saying [in^gh], but we insist on keeping some sounds indicated by letters in other words, even if they were never there in the original, or have since ceased to be pronounced in natural speech. So, writing is an abstraction of speech. It also has different conventions than natural speech.

One should also keep in mind that language changes over time and space. This is why it is difficult to understand Shakespeare's English until one has been sufficiently exposed to it. It's also why Shakespeare likely would have also had difficulty with Chaucer's English, which is even older, and we all find the English used in the composition of Beowulf to be incomprehensible. This doesn't mean that our English is better or worse than theirs, though. It simply means that our varieties of English are separated by time. Languages are constantly in flux, just as the shape of the Earth is. It it just as ridiculous to say that it is "wrong" for language to change as it would be to say that a volcano creating a mountain and that a river creating a ravine is "wrong".

--------------------------------------------------------
Anyway, why do I get so passionate about this? It goes back to the fact that "correct" speech is assigned by the dominant social group. As a result, anyone who does not speak according to the "rules" of the dominant group is considered deficient. Not only does this come down from above, but the people in that subordinate group come to believe it themselves. That is why so many people believe that there *is* correct English and that they speak *poor* English. It's a social construct, the same way that racial "whiteness" and "coloredness" is a construct. Couldn't we just as easily say that "black" is the standard and that people of European descent are "bleached"? During the 19th century, the Irish and Eastern Europeans were not considered white in America. That only changed when they came into political power and thus entered a higher social class. Little black children (and little white kids with dark hair and eyes - myself included) often grow up believing that they need to be blonde-haired and blue-eyed, otherwise, they aren't as good. Why do they think this? Because that's what society has told them. It seems obvious to most of us now that the concept of racial inferiority is a fallacy, however we still cling to the idea that there is linguistic inferiority.

What is the result of this? People from areas where varieties are spoken that are farther away from the "standard" believe that their speech is somehow worth less than that of people, whose variety is closer to the "standard". In this country, many (but hopefully less and less every day) consider black people to be stupid, because they don't speak "proper" English, even though English (albeit African American Vernacular English) is their native language. Many black people have come to believe that as well, the same way that many likely believed that it was their lot in life to be slaves once upon a time, and the slave owner believed that he was superior.

That's why it matters.

My friend insists that it has nothing in common with slavery. I beg to differ. It is a socially determined form of stratification that leads to the elevation of some and the degradation of others.

So, does that mean that I advocate everyone being super proud of their native variety and ignoring the standard? No. Of course not. The artificially constructed standard serves a purpose, just like any natural variety. It is a tool. If I want to do well at home, with family and friends, then I speak the variety of hearth and home. If I want to do well in academia, then I speak, or at least write, in a more prescriptive variety.

--------------------------------------------------------
Speaking of writing for academia, I wish it were as easy to write my thesis as it is to write about this! I'm off to bed now, to try to get some sleep, so that I can master the part of the brain that formulates written language well enough to make some headway on my dissertation proposal tomorrow! I think I've emptied my brain suffiently now.

On Proposition 8 (California's ballot measure banning gay marriage)

2008-11-16T06:07:00.003+03:30

James just sent me this clip, in which Keith Olbermann of MSNBC asks those who support Proposition 8, and similar legislation banning gay marriage, why, and also to consider historical precedent. I think that this is incredibly well stated and that everyone should watch this and think and consider it.

Loki makes me laugh.

2008-11-11T22:27:00.003+03:30

Loki found a dish of vinegar on the floor that I'd been using for cleaning. He dipped his nose in it and then backed up and shook it off. Then he tried it again from the other side and came away shaking his nose, looking rather disgusted. Chaos had a similar experience and so did Fuzzball. I guess ferrets need to be sure that their senses aren't deceiving them!

And then I called Loki a bit later with the squeaky toy. He was in the kitchen by the fridge and I was by the cage. He came racing around the stove, but didn't quite make the turn. His little feet went out from under him on the linoleum. I laughed so hard and have been laughing again every time I think of his little ferret exploits this morning. Schadenfreude.

Ferret Adventures

2008-11-11T05:58:00.003+03:30

Loki once again found the door on the cage that I forgot to close this morning. The little guy was out exploring the apartment when I got home. He was quite the busy bee. He got a paper towel out of the bathroom trash and dragged the plunger and the toilet brush to the bathroom door. I hope that he has developed enough anti-bodies to survive such adventures! He seemed to be one happy little camper. (During all this, both of the other two were apparently still sleeping in the hammock in the cage.)

Lately, I've been wearing pants with rather wide legs. Enkidu keeps trying to climb up inside them. Very cute; not very effective.

Chaos is still trucking along.

Progress on the Fuzzy Front

2008-11-09T08:17:00.002+03:30

When I got home this evening, I found both Loki and Enkidu in the same bed in the ferret cage. This gives me hope that they will soon tolerate each other well.

Enkidu is currently curled up in the ferret condo and Loki is making happy ferret noises in the crinkly tube.

Chaos is less than fuzzy.

2008-11-08T08:14:00.002+03:30

Choas is not nearly as fuzzy as he used to be and has become rather emaciated on the front end and full of tumors in the back end.

All voted.

2008-11-04T00:38:00.003+03:30

I just got home from voting a bit ago. There were 3 people ahead of me in line; pretty painless, considering that some folks have been waiting hours to vote. There is something wrong with a system that makes voting that difficult.

Anyway, I voted for the Democrat ticket, school funding, and universal health-care.

I almost missed the two referendum questions, but fortunately, when I asked the clerk if I only had to mark one thing if I marked the party, she reminded me about the two yes/no questions at the bottom.

The Costume.

2008-11-02T08:02:00.001+03:30

Here is what I wore this year for the Halloween party.

I'm confused...

2008-11-02T02:03:00.003+03:30

Reading essays by foreign-language students is always an interesting experience. In an assignment to write a letter of introduction for a practicum, one of my students produced this sentence:

Bei dieser Arbeit habe ich viele wichtige Ordenskleidungen gelernt; Arbeitsethik, Pünktlichkeit, und Leutegeschicklichkeiten sind nur ein paar.

That translates to

'At this job, I learned many important ceremonial robes; work-ethic, punctuality, and people skills are just a few.'

I'm guessing that Ordenskleidung (ceremonial robe) was probably not the word that the student intended here. Now the question is, what word did he type into an online dictionary that produced this gem?

As an example, if a student wanted the word "well", then it would be possible to find words such as

Brunnen = well from which one draws water
wohl = well as in good
Bohrloch = well as in drilled hole/shaft

It's of course a good skill to be able to pick the right one. Not everyone has mastered that skill.

And the answer? I think that "habits" is likely what the student wanted.

The Consitution is NOT a Perfect Document

2008-11-01T19:58:00.006+03:30

A bunch of folks seem to have gotten their shorts in a knot because Obama has advocating changing the Constitution through Amendment.

Just a reminder to those folks; changing the Constitution is nothing new. Here are all changes to date to the United States Constitution (source: Wikipedia):

#	Amendments	Proposal date	Enactment date	Full text
1st	Freedom of religion, of speech, of the press, to petition, and to assemble	September 25, 1789	December 15, 1791^[1]	Full text
2nd	The right to keep and bear arms	September 25, 1789	December 15, 1791^[1]	Full text
3rd	No quartering of soldiers in private houses during peace time, i.e. no Declaration of War has been announced	September 25, 1789	December 15, 1791^[1]	Full text
4th	Unreasonable Searches and seizures; warrants	September 25, 1789	December 15, 1791^[1]	Full text
5th	Indictments; Due process; Self-incrimination; Double jeopardy, and rules for Eminent Domain.	September 25, 1789	December 15, 1791^[1]	Full text
6th	Right to a fair and speedy public trial, Notice of accusations, Confronting one's accuser, Subpoenas, Right to counsel	September 25, 1789	December 15, 1791^[1]	Full text
7th	Right to trial by jury in civil cases	September 25, 1789	December 15, 1791^[1]	Full text
8th	No excessive bail & fines or cruel & unusual punishment	September 25, 1789	December 15, 1791^[1]	Full text
9th	Unenumerated rights	September 25, 1789	December 15, 1791^[1]	Full text
10th	limits the power of the Federal government	September 25, 1789	December 15, 1791^[1]	Full text
11th	Immunity of states from suits from out-of-state citizens and foreigners not living within the state borders. Lays the foundation for sovereign immunity.	March 4, 1794	February 7, 1795	Full text
12th	Revision of presidential election procedures	December 9, 1803	June 15, 1804^[2]	Full text
13th	Abolition of slavery	January 31, 1865	December 6, 1865	Full text
14th	Citizenship, state due process, applies Bill of Rights to the states, revision to apportionment of Representatives, Denies public office to anyone who has rebelled against the United States	June 13, 1866	July 9, 1868^[3]	Full text
15th	Racial suffrage	February 26, 1869	February 3, 1870^[4]	Full text
16th	Allows federal income tax	July 12, 1909	February 3, 1913	Full text
17th	Direct election to the United States Senate	May 13, 1912	April 8, 1913	Full text
18th	Prohibition of alcohol (Repealed by 21st amendment)	December 18, 1917	January 16, 1919	Full text
19th	Women's suffrage	June 4, 1919	August 18, 1920	Full text
20th	Term Commencement for congress (January 3) and president (January 20.) (This amendment is also known as the "lame duck amendment".)	March 2, 1932	January 23, 1933	Full text
21st	Repeal of Eighteenth Amendment; state and local prohibition permitted	February 20, 1933	December 5, 1933	Full text
22nd	Limits the president to two terms	March 24, 1947	February 27, 1951	Full text
23rd	Representation of Washington, D.C. in the Electoral College	June 16, 1960	March 29, 1961	Full text
24th	Prohibition of the restriction of voting rights due to the non-payment of poll taxes	September 14, 1962	January 23, 1964	Full text
25th	Presidential Succession	July 6, 1965	February 10, 1967	Full text
26th	Voting age nationally established as age 18 (see suffrage)	March 23, 1971	July 1, 1971	Full text
27th	Variance of congressional compensation^[1]	September 25, 1789	May 7, 1992	Full text

The idea that the Constitution could be perfect is flawed, if one takes as a starting premise, that man is imperfect (as per the Bible, in which most of these 'perfect Constitution folks' tend to believe). If man is imperfect, then it would be impossible for man to create a perfect document (or perfect anything else).

Proposition 8

2008-11-01T08:59:00.002+03:30

Dear Californians,

Please vote NO on Proposition 8.

If you have friends and family in California, please contact them right now, and ask them to vote NO on Proposition 8. ...

We need to make sure people keep in mind that gay people are part of every family and every community — that like everyone else, gay people want the same rights to commit to their partners, to take care of each other and to take responsibility for each other. We shouldn’t deny that, and we shouldn’t write discrimination into any constitution in any state. Certainly, we can’t let that happen in California after the highest court in the state granted gay and lesbian people their full equality.

-Anthony D. Romero

Is Palin really that physically attractive???

2008-10-30T23:56:00.002+03:30

I'm just not seeing it. She's not ugly, but she certainly isn't drop-dead gorgeous!

You saw it here first!

2008-10-30T16:24:00.001+03:30

Monday, October 27, 2008: The Daily Show did bits on stuff that I'd already blogged about. I'm not the only one!

Maybe socialism isn't such a bad thing...
http://alenaae.blogspot.com/2008/10/is-it-just-me.html

Palin and labeling...
http://alenaae.blogspot.com/2008/10/palin-and-definition-of-terrorist.html

Why Al Qaeda Wants McCain for President

2008-10-30T04:35:00.001+03:30

Here is an article explaining why Al Qaeda likes McCain. Basically, he's awesome for Al Qaeda recruitment.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/26/opinion/26kristof.html?_r=1&em&oref=slogin

So tired...

2008-10-27T19:05:00.002+03:30

Last night, I was feeling sleepy, so I went to bed and read for a bit and then shut out the lights. Then I woke up again an hour later, to visit the facilities. This pattern continued all night; sleep about an hour, wake up to visit the loo. Apparently, eating lots of veggie soup during the day means lots of water retention until night.

Around midnight or 1am, I heard knocking and got up to make sure that it wasn't at my door. It was at the neighbors' across the hall. It was a police officer. I watched for a bit from the peephole and gathered that 'there had been things on the table' the last time that the officer had been there. The lady was arrested and the guy left right after; I can only assume to meet a friend to get money to make bail, but it was hard to tell. It was none of my business, really, but I couldn't resist eavesdropping.

Anyway, I had trouble sleeping the rest of the night and had all sorts of weird dreams, integrating multiple ferret apparitions, the neighbors and other random stuff that I can't even remember now. Crazy stuff.

On making vegetable soup with a blender

2008-10-27T03:17:00.004+03:30

When you decide to make soup by first boiling veggies to death and then liquefying them in a blender, remember that you will need about an equal amount of water as boiled veggies, so one crock pot full of boiled veggies will yield two crock pots full of post-blender soup.

Loki the Horrible

2008-10-27T02:49:00.004+03:30

Loki just has been getting more and more aggressive. I invited the neighbors over to have some of the giant batch of veggie/ham soup that I made. I let the lady hold him and he was fine. Then as they were leaving, I set him down and he sunk his teeth into the top of my foot and drew blood. I think it must be over-stimulation with other people. He doesn't generally bite me otherwise. After biting me, he went and abused Chaos. Poor little guy...he's just too old for that. I'm not sure what to do about this.

Is it just me?

2008-10-26T08:44:00.003+03:30

I'm hoping that they won't come with the torches and pitchforks, but I'm still not convinced that socialism is anti-American. I don't see how socialism would conflict with life, liberty and the the pursuit of happiness for all.

We already have a lot of socialism in our society. We've got the postal service, for example, and the public highways and parks. I really can't say that I find that to be a problem.

I also can't see how socialized medicine would destroy America. It would certainly change America, but I think that the change would be positive. For those who argue that it would result in job-loss in the insurance sector, well, all I can say is that there has been all kinds of job loss, much of it related to folks being too sick to work, and no one seems to be crying about that. Societies are always restructuring. Let's plan this one to provide health care for all, which I personally view as a human right, and not a luxury.

Chances are that no matter what we do, no one will be happy all the time. Sure, spreading the wealth might lead to some diminishing of happiness for the top 5% of the population. On the other hand, it would likely increase the happiness of the other 95%. I suspect that a lot of the rich probably wouldn't even really miss whatever wealth might get redistributed. That said, I can see how this idea might make some people uncomfortable.

*shrugs* I don't want Soviet style communism, but I don't think that socialism is a dirty word.

Ferret Joy

2008-10-26T03:28:00.003+03:30

I've gotten kisses from all three ferrets today.

Loki always kisses, so from him, it is no surprise.

Chaos has become more and more disinterested in human interaction and almost never kisses, but today, I got a couple of licks.

Enkidu has been too nervous to really be held, I think. I took him out into the hallway of my building this evening and let him bounce around, which he seemed to have really enjoyed. Then I brought him back into the apartment and scritched him behind the shoulders and he gave me some kisses.

It's good to feel loved. :)

Palin and the Definition of "Terrorist"

2008-10-25T02:40:00.008+03:30

ter·ror·ist (těr'ər-ĭst)
n. One that engages in acts or an act of terrorism.

adj. Of or relating to terrorism.

ter'ror·is'tic adj.

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition - Cite This Source
Copyright © 2006 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

ter⋅ror⋅ism
/ˈtɛrəˌrɪzəm/
–noun
1. the use of violence and threats to intimidate or coerce, esp. for political purposes.
2. the state of fear and submission produced by terrorism or terrorization.
3. a terroristic method of governing or of resisting a government.
Origin:
1785–95; terror + -ism
Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1) - Cite This Source
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2006.

I concur with a friend of mine, when he writes that he "definitely knows that abortion clinic bombers are in fact terrorists".

Brian Williams: "Is an abortion clinic bomber a terrorist under this definition, Governor?"

Sarah Palin: "There's no question that Bill Ayers via his own admittance was one who sought to destroy our US Capitol and our Pentagon. That is a domestic terrorist. There's no question there. Now, others who would want to engage in harming innocent Americans or facilities that it would be unacceptable to... I don't know if you're gonna use the word 'terrorist' there, but it's unacceptable and it would not be condoned of course on our watch."

Terrorism is discussed in the first 4 minutes and again starting at 5 minutes and 10 seconds.

Read a news release here.
--------------------------------------------------------

OH! Bonus! The "Hockey Mom" isn't going to label herself or anyone else as anything! (Starting in video above at 5:58)

Brian Williams: "Governor, are you a feminist?"

Sarah Palin: "I'm not gonna label myself anything, Brian, and I think that's what annoys a lot of Americans especially in a political campaign is to start trying to label different parts of America, different backgrounds, different...I'm not gonna put a label on myself..."

Isn't this the same woman who talks about the "real Americans"?

Note to self...

2008-10-24T20:09:00.001+03:30

Sew up bottom of pocket on pants so that keys don't keep falling out on the floor.

Palin is just like you and me...

2008-10-24T03:38:00.003+03:30

that is, if you have been known to spend $150,000 on clothes in 2 months. (News article)

Do you need to spend that much to look good? I'm pretty sure that all of the very well dressed people I know personally don't even make that much money in a year.

How can Palin talk about how she and her husband are hurting while she throws away that much money?

WTF.