Blather, rinse, repeat

I promised (myself) an epic update, and then never delivered. So hey, what's up, LJ? Haven't seen you in a while, there.

I've been getting some awesome hours at work this past week, which has gone a long way to offsetting the loss of hours the week before. I hope it continues, although I will be needing Halloween off.

So two nights ago, the HitRECord Fall Formal that I was so excited about last year, until it was canceled, (and rightly so,) finally took place. In L.A.

Honestly, I felt pretty bummed about it. I totally understood the cancelation, but when you're re-scheduling the show for the following year, why not have it in the same state? This way, people who were going to go the first time, could, you know. Go? And it was epic. Gary Oldman was there, Neil Patrick Harris. There was singing, dancing, all sorts of revelry. At one point, apparently, even I appeared on the big screen: This clip got screened at the show. I appear at :42 seconds in. ^_^ ) Cool, huh? Still, I wanted to go.

So I went on HitRECord and said, you know, it would be really awesome if you could bring the show, or something like it, to NY. And hey, just think about it! Halloween is coming up. Masquerade ball, NYC? Is this tickling any fancies?

And then, yeah, that happened. So! I need to finish my costume. I've already got my tix. Also, I'm hoping that my wonderful internet friend of, like, 11 years or so, will be flying out too. We could even spend a few days together and it would be nothing short of epic.

So that's that! This all just happened today.

I've been a bit preoccupied with Occupy Wall Street, too. This is the revolution that I was afraid would never happen. I've signed on for any local meet-ups. You can also send food, clothes, other necessities to the people actually occupying Wall Street. It's really easy to send a pizza or something; anyone can do it from anywhere in the world, via online order form. One thing they don't tell you on the website though, is that they ask for a cross street. The cross street is Wall Street.

I also promised I'd talk a bit about the movie 50/50, which I did get to see the weekend it came out. I knew it was going to trigger every neurosis I own, and of course, it did. Because it's the true story of a young man who does everything right, takes care of himself, etc. and then starts getting this nagging pain in his back that obviously ends up being cancer.

And while it did literally trigger every neurosis I own (my own nagging back pain started that very night, and while logically I knew exactly what it wasn't, it still kept me awake for about three nights in a row,) it was actually quite an awesome movie. I legitimately laughed and cried. It's not often I can say that totally without irony. The entire cast was pitch perfect. Seth Rogan's timing is spot on. He was so inappropriate that you kind of had to enjoy him.

The rest of it was kind of bone-jarringly brutal, at least in some places. One second it would be funny, and the next, so honest that you were sitting there cringing.

I can't say enough praise about Joe, obviously, so I'll try to scale it back a bit. He was just really fearless like he always is in roles. It seems to me that when I really enjoy an actor or actress, that's the quality I find myself commenting on the most. They can put aside that fear of being judged or whatever, and just tell the story. I have no idea how they do that. Joe does the Kicked Puppy thing insanely well, also.

However, I think that Angelica Houston stole the show. There was one part with her (OMG, the part where she wants to make tea,) that made me tear up. It felt so much like something I would do in that situation. And then, towards the end – I don't want to really give out any spoilers. It was harsh. And the whole arc with her husband / his father. Wow, it's hard to describe how a movie could kick you in the nuts so often and with such force, then turn around and tickle you.

Now then, what else? I've been hanging out with Jo-chan, had an awesome time hanging with Wonderful Glassworker (we watched Dexter, the Dr. Who episode Blink, and we had the most gorgeous pizza ever, and utterly badass ice cream from Snowflake.) I'm almost to the end of the Tenth Dr.'s run, and I keep putting off watching the last few episodes.

Oh, I know. I finally had a chance to talk to the Gold Dragon for a really long time the other night. That's because he saw my Mom at her work, and they got to talking for a while. Then all my Mom's girl friends who work with her came stalking over all like, "OMG WHO WAS HE, HE IS SO CUTE, THAT SMILE, THOSE DIMPLES" etc. and she was just like, "yeah, whatever. :D " Anyway, so I had to call him to tell him this and we ended up on the phone for over an hour, trying to figure out a day when we're both off work so we could get together. We must have laughed for about ten minutes straight; I seriously could not breathe and had tears streaming down. Finally he said, "Damn, I really miss this. I miss us." So that settles it, we're just going to have to make the time. ^_^

I really need to stop starting my new paragraphs with "Oh, I know." Or actually, maybe I should implement that in my novel. Instead of chapter breaks, I'll say, "Oh, I know what else," or maybe, "Anyways." That would go over well, huh?

Speaking of, I got one more rejection for the query. Did I mention that already? But I also found a few other agents who rep what I write. So I still have some cake. I just have to cut the slices really thin.

Also, I got re-tweeted by William Gibson the other night, and I think that's a sign. :D (We were playing "fairy tales minus one letter." I did: Now White, Earskin, The Fro Prince, The Rave Mound, Taterhood, Twelve Moths, The Two Bothers, Fair Bro, Fondling Bird, The Old Itch, and The Red Hoes. He liked "Now White" but honestly, my favorite was "The Fondling Bird.")

A few days ago it was upwards of about 80 degrees, but today it's chilly, blustery, rainy, windy, and just a tad raw. I took the plants in on October 5th this year.

And that's that, I think. There's one more thing that I want to post, but it's going in a separate entry.


BLEDELEHLEHLEH of course, there is one more thing I have yet to update on: Work. I'm at my 6 month anniversary already. :) For my anniversary, I asked if we could get rid of that one horrible CD that haunts me. Actually, it is kind of funny in that one of the other therapists there likes to troll me by putting the eversucking thing on repeat.

CAN HAS HEALTH CARE REFORM. Yet, Yahoo's top story is somehow about Jessica Simpson's dress. What the hell.

I mean, people are making a huge deal, and it is historic, but I'm hearing things like "The civil rights movement of this century" and "health care for EVERYONE AND THEIR PET FISH!!!1111" and I'm not yet convinced (have heard even from other libs and Dems) that it's not gonna be too huge a change. OTOH, what I love is the part about not denying insurance to folks with a medical condition. Sweet. And that the companies can't up and cancel your insurance when you get ill. Because seriously, WTF.

Either way, I'm happy. It's something. Change is good.

Yesterday I went for a jog in the ridiculously 70 degree weather, before dinner. For a few minutes, I felt like it was summer. I jogged again today, and decided to experiment with different kinds of running. Not something like running with my hands behind my head, or flailing, or shooting rounds from an AK47 or dodging behind trees like a ninja or anything. But experimenting with different stride lengths. I was totally surprised to find out that the balls in my other pants pocket strides make a bit of difference guys. I absolutely feel a different kind of fatigue and muscle-ache when I lengthen my stride than when I shorten it. And then I decided to run for the last stretch, instead of jogging. Like, leaning forward and going somewhat faster kind of running. Not, like, sprinting like hell. Although I used to like sprinting, in college. Maybe I'll give that a shot, too.

Don't anyone think that I'm some kind of runner or am seriously into it or anything. I know people who run five miles a day. Shoot, I'm lucky if I do a half a mile. And honestly, it's not totally fun, either. Those first few strides are always awesome, like, "Ahh, wow, running, feel those muscles working, this is nice, what a rush." And then literally 70 strides into it—I counted—it's "This blows. When can I stop?"

What else did I do today, let's see. I bathed both filthy dogs, and did a crap-ton of reviews on the OWW, and submitted my new chapter, too. The email I'd gotten about the Editor's Choice told me (and the other three writers who were chosen) that the reviews would be up on the 20th. I stayed up past midnight last night waiting, then I wrote to one of the other three and asked if he'd heard anything. He's been there much longer than I have, and he informed me that they usually put up the new choices on the 1st, not the middle of the damn months, and he didn't know why they'd told us the 20th. He advised me to sit tight until the 1st of April. I hate sitting tight but honestly I'm still stoked. I read up some on the editors' choice thing. They choose you out of hundreds of entries because they think you've got potential. And they used the words "Congratulations to this month's authors." Oooooh, I like congratulations! This seriously makes my month!

Also, I called my brother and we talked for a long time. I guess we're both still having some pretty rough days, and as it gets closer to the summer, it seems to get worse instead of better. Well, I expected that in a way. And I expected to feel this way when April was on the horizon, too, because of Gran. But I just can't seem to reckon how, I don't know, after Gran died I just figured on being upset around April. And then—I don't know, it's so weird to say this and I don't mean it like it sounds, but—it's strange to feel nostalgic for a time when I had only lost Gran. I mean, last Spring was so awful. But it was still so ridiculously much better than losing Dad that I feel nostalgia for that awful time. It's terrible, to miss a time when things were bad enough already.

Well anyway, that wasn't the point. I just got onto a grief tangent again, and I didn't mean to. Totally wrecked the mood of this entry, which was supposed to be light-hearted and somewhat goofy.

Anyway, getting back to the phone call with my brother, he said something so weird I have to write it down. We were talking about dreams (most of them aren't so good, as I'm sure everyone can imagine,) but he mentioned one that he had a few night ago that made me go O_O . My brother works as security in this high-profile building, and so the other night he dreamed that he was at work and someone gave him a gun. He told me, "Here's the weird part: The gun was, I don't know, on backwards. The barrel faced the wrong way. And I realized that if I ever had to kill someone with it, I'd have to flip the hilt over."

Okay, so I'm possibly the only anime geek here so maybe no one else gets it, but it's weird because Mom and I have been (obviously) watching Kenshin, and I've been reading the books before bed. And a few nights ago I was fixating on one panel with Kenshin flipping the hilt of the sakabato. And for anyone who doesn't know, the character has a sword with the blade on backwards, to prevent him from killing anyone.

The point of that is that my brother and I always have had this weird mental connection. I can't explain it; I just think it's weird. We also have the same birthday.

I know I'm flipping from subject to subject like a mad subject-flipping thing, but why the hell is my mollie Lucrezia shaking herself back and forth? I don't remember seeing her ever swim like that before. She's just wiggling and wiggling in one place. I wonder if that's a mollie thing or if something's wrong. I hope nothing's wrong, 'cause she's my favorite. And I'm afraid to google "wiggling mollie" because, you know, the internet.

Okay, I just did some searching. Apparently mollies get a disease called "shimmy" when there's something up with the water. I just had to add an ammonia filter and the water is nice and clear. Gosh! It never ends. I have to look for a product called "Mollie Bright" or "Shimmy Blocks" because they like brackish water. But will that be okay for my betta Leon? Is it because Leon's chasing her? What?

Off to Petco again tomorrow, I guess. :/

Also:

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GOD what an annoying sound.

I'm writing this before I've even finished Stephen King's novel Under The Dome because I can't hold it back anymore. I get like that sometimes.

I love this behemoth. I think it's one of the best, most subversive-but-not-really pieces of work he's ever written. I say this as an admitted long-time King fangirl. Sure and he's written stories that've made me go “meh” but this is not one of them and Imma tellya why.

First let me say that it's not King's ability to write male leads that I always fall in love with—although he does—that gets me so into this book.
You just gotta love Dale Barbara. (Not in the same way one falls in love with Roland Deschain, but still.) King is such a master at taking the mundane and making it epic, at taking normal people and making them into heroes and unthinkable villains, it seems effortless when he does it. And he writes a good scare, and he's not afraid to get really dirty and gross and horrific with the body fluids, guts, rot, and general nasty stuff like that. I appreciate a good gross-out almost as much as I appreciate a good scare. And I envy his ability.

But none of that is what is really getting me so excited by Under The Dome. What's got me worked up enough to devote an entire LJ entry to it is the premise and how he handles it.

So, there's this small town and a dome randomly covers it. No one can get in or out. It's a national tragedy. Throw in some good guys, some bad guys, and a small-minded dictator, and you've got a political tragedy.

After this devastating event locks the entire town down, King's as-yet most evilest ever Bad Guy decides that he's the only one fit to rule the town. It's 'cause he's a good Christian, see, everything he does is for the good of the Chu'ch, for the good of 'Murrika the town. Never mind that he and his henchmen are involved in some really filthy side-businesses that make them tons of money and destroy the health of the rest of the citizens. It's all for the good of the town. And don't think they don't struggle with their decisions. But the Big Bad, he gave his heart to Christ, so he prays a lot. You know, in order to get guidance, to do what he does. For the good of the town.

The Dome isn't enough of a unifying tragedy, since some forward-thinking townspeople are still against him and his cronies. So he creates more tragedies in order to pull them all together (for the good of the town.) And any turr'rist citizen who is really against him, why, they are easily gotten rid of. Then he can frame them for his crimes, and those of his henchmen, and lock them in prison, trying to force them to confess under the threat of waterboarding. For the good of the town. And he gets his son, and all his son's friends, on the police force in a state of martial law, in order to create and enforce order, and repeals the citizens' rights to carry weapons. Because you have to give up your rights sometimes, when it's, you know, for the good of the town.

After another tragedy strikes, most of the citizens start wearing yellow ribbons blue armbands to show their solidarity, and support of the good men of the police. Even the folks who are against him and his group have to wear the armbands in order to blend in, to not be lynched.

And I really can't go much further with my own take on this here, because otherwise I'll be e-lynched, and probably by a few people I even know. There are certain opinions that are still taboo.

King made some cagey decisions to save his own ass, or at least that's what I think he did. The hero of the story is an ex military guy. There is a sympathetic and sane Christian character – although she's secretly agnostic; and a sympathetic, sane and heroic Republican – although the newspaper she writes is called “The Democrat.” King's obviously no dummy, but neither am I. I know a token when I see one.

So, I haven't finished the novel and I really have no idea of how it's going to end, but I love him for this book. On the one hand I think it's not timely enough: it should have been written in 2002. On the other hand, I perfectly understand the impossibility of releasing this book even a year ago.

Well done, King. Bravo for seeing and saying what so few people have the balls to see, or if we do see it, to say. And then to use your obviously HUGE voice to write a great big novel about it. Beautifully carried out. I know a few folks in my own circle who are devout conservatives who probably won't even see what's going on here.

We see what we expect to see in novels. In many things, really. That goes for me, too. I could be wildly misreading his intentions here.

But I'm not. ^_^

Security forces are hunting for bloggers using location/timezone searches. If anyone is on twitter, set your location to Tehran and your time zone to GMT +3.30. The more users at this location, the more of a logjam it creates for forces trying to shut Iranians' access to the internet down.

And a few more helpful tips, if you want to help out Iranians.

Well, in other news, I am home tonight because A) I was running superfly late as it was, and then just as I was going to do my last round of bird feeding before I left, my grackle (the one with the cut up face) fell off his perch and started doing the death-huddle in the corner of his cage. He had never feathered well and never wanted to eat on his own, but I still thought he'd be okay. He ended up having worms (even though I wormed him so many times) and he just couldn't shake them. (For worming, I have started using cayenne pepper, because my panacure was way past its date.) I tried force-feeding him, but he only lived for about an hour after that and then he died in my hand. I felt so bad; he was my favorite of the batch this year.

So anyway I had to clean everything, disinfect all his bowls, change the paper towels under the cages (it's pretty clean usually so I don't have to change them every day,) etc. I hate missing Kung Fu. Damn.

Today I was studying for the myo written midterm tomorrow, when I got a call from emergency about another bird.. I put my books down and went to pick him up. It's a pissed off fledgling catbird (i LOVE them,) with an eye infection. I actually think he might be blind in that one eye, or maybe he just doesn't see very well. Hard to say at this point.

Here's something that's a huge bitch. So as I've whined about for weeks, my old hard drive is dead and I lost a bunch of stuff, including the new TBS album and some songs I'd downloaded. They were on my iPod though, but as anyone knows, you can't upload songs FROM your iPod TO your computer. Uhh, yeah. So I had also gotten the iPod touch for free, so last night after school I spent most of the night ripping a ton of CDs, old and new, and I also re-purchased the album and the songs that I had lost. ITunes kept saying, "You already bought this, you know. You sure you wanna buy it again?" and I'm like, "YES, DICK, BECAUSE IT IS GONE." I synced the Touch and then I plugged in the nano to sync and charge it as well.

You could imagine my surprise when iTunes said to me, "Oh hey, you have a bunch of songs on this iPod; do you want to put them into your computer?" I stared at it for about fifteen minutes.

EFF. But at least I did get that one Faye Wong song back that I couldn't find again.

*sigh*, I hate missing Kung Fu.

Well, I guess I could study some more (I never did finish reviewing my facial muscles; although hopefully by now I can tell the difference between levitator labii superior and levitator anguli oris etc.,) and then continue to try to sync Mac Daddy with, you know, my life. It's amazing how much I rely on a hard drive and the things on it. It's amazing how in the, what, thirteen years since I've had a computer, have changed the way I document things.

And I hate Mac's writing program and this VMFusion thing is wack. Do I need to put Windows in here first? I dunno, nobody told me this! It's confusing.

First: Yesterday I posted about my feelings re: Obama's stance (or lack thereof) on Iran. As I stated, I was torn about how I felt he should handle it, mostly because I don't think there's anything for him to handle. But I thought it would be decent if he spoke out against the ridiculous, insane violence that is going on there.

Today, he did. He saw the same videos we all saw and I really believe he feels the same horror:

"I have made it clear that the United States respects the sovereignty of the Islamic Republic of Iran, and is not interfering in Iran's affairs," Obama said. "But we must also bear witness to the courage and dignity of the Iranian people, and to a remarkable opening within Iranian society. And we deplore violence against innocent civilians anywhere that it takes place."

I agree with him on that. McCain said of him: ""The president of the United States is supposed to lead the free world, not follow it. He's been timid and passive more than I would like."

I hate this midset and I always have. No, McCain, Obama is not supposed to lead "the free world." He is supposed to lead AMERICA. And that is a small part of what I hate about that Republican mindset. That America is the Hero to the rest of the world, we just have to lead those poor, lost bastards because obviously we know the way things should be done 'round these parts. And 'round your parts, too.

That whole culture needs to learn to stay the hell out of everyone's parts.

But anyway. Today is an historic day because this is hopefully to be my last LJ post on Windows! My computer was waiting for me when I went to pick up the dogs today, and I'm going to spend the rest of the night attempting to set it up (the easy part,) navigate it (probably fairly intuitive: it's a Mac,) and then get my internet and email set up. (PROBABLY MANY IRRITATING PHONE CALLS AND SUCH.)

Speaking of irritating:

THE DOUCHEBAG CHRONICLES.

Yes, it is Tuesday, which means I spent most of my day with my eyes rolled so far into my head I could practically see my brain, the whole while thinking, "THE FUTURE OF HEALTH PROFESSIONALS, LADIES AND GENTLEMEN."

Guido Midget wasn't there today (much to the relief of much of the rest of the class, who seem to feel the same way that I do about him and avoid him like a raging yeast infection.) But the other two douches were there. Yes, there are three total now. I mentioned the new one a few weeks ago, wondering if he was "inoffensive," but since then he has spent every break talking about all of his girlfriends and what a big stud nice, sweet, loving man he is who just loves women. In the smarts department and in how he presents himself, he's kinda like Ted Theodore Logan, without the intentional comedy or cultural significance. But, we'll just call him Ted.

Today, Ted sauntered in an hour and a half late (like half of the class tends to do, in fact.) Right before lunchtime, Ted decided that the middle of an A&P2 lecture was the best time to make a night-night. So he propped his feeties up on the lab table, propped his chair up against the wall on its back two legs (wait for it,) and went nappie-byes. As I'm sure you have all imagined by now, it wasn't long before his chairiepoo went BANG! against the floor, taking him with it, his two bare, dirty feet poking up over the lab table as he tried to get up.

There was a lot of "OMG ARE YOU ALL RIGHT?!" but honestly all I could do was just bust a gut. That's what you get.

Of course it wasn't just him today; The Atomic Douchebomb (henceforth ADB) was also in attendance, with his frequent, blowing yawns (he puckers his lips, puffs his cheeks out and goes, "WHOOO! WHOOO!" to yawn,) and his enlightening questions and commentary.

I took notes on them today, because they were truly all sparkling gems. Bear in mind, any time he needs to say something, he raises his forefinger to the professor. This is his signal that he's about to share something truly exceptional. We're doing a broad overview of the lymphatic system and immunity, and these were his first four questions on the subject:

1: "Why do fluids have to move around your body? Why can't they just stay there?"
2: "Why don't the lymph nodes themselves move around?"
3: "Is the spleen a pump?" and
4: "Do blood nodes get stuck in your blood stream?"

These all stumped the professor, who, I have mentioned, is way more patient than he should be. His response to that last one was similar to mine. "Blood nodes?"

Later, ADB on seeing a picture of a lymph node: "WHOA! Is that a parasite?"

A few hours later we moved on to cancer. A few questions on cancer (always preceded by that upraised forefinger: )

1: "What's the proper word for when cancer cells become cancerous?"
2: "So you're saying that cancer is just a swelling effect?" (Yes, that's right, everyone. All of this panic is for nothing. Cancer is really just a swelling effect.)
3: (OMG, this one is my favorite.) "Is there a movie or a trailer you could show us instead of a lecture, about cancer? Just so that we can watch it happen? I'd be curious to watch that happen."

Personally, I prefer a lecture, and moreover, I'm not really curious to "watch cancer happen." What I am curious to watch happen, though, is me punching this guy in the facehole.

Okay, just one more! This one is my favorite! We got into immune response to a virus, and a really broad overview of what a virus is, how it functions etc. The professor posed the question, "So, how does a virus get past the cell wall into the cell?"

ADB: *raises forefinger* "Wind?"

People, now you know. You have wind inside of your body, and it blows a virus clean through the cell walls. I'm so sure that after that, it sets fire to the cell, kills its mother and rapes its dog, before the wind carries it somewhere else.

A future health care practitioner, boys and girls! Let's have a big round of applause.

Am I really too mean? Am I? Or would you all have rolled your eyes too, and either laughed or hit him with a studded clue-bat? Or is it really just me?

Well, I want to end my time on Windows on a HAPPY note, so I will say, umm, YAY for Mac Daddy, and from here on in everything is going to be peachy! ^_^

I'll start, I guess, with the politics, although I don't think this goes under "politics" as much as "human rights" or something more along those lines.

I see a lot of people criticizing Obama for not taking a stronger stance on the situation in Iran. (And that whole thing has still been on my mind all day, as I go about my priviledged life with a president that I helped choose.) In a way, I agree and part of me would love to see him stand up and say how wrong this all is, you know, power to the people, really take a stand!

But on the other hand, part of me appreciates the fact that he's not pulling the usual, chest-beating, self-aggrandizing "The USA must take this country in hand and school it on how to do things like the way WE do" nonsense that always annoyed me. I'm really torn on this. What's going on is so wrong, it would be awesome of him to acknowledge it in some really strong words. But on the other hand, what can he do? Or what can any of us do aside from watch?

I dunno.

So that's my mana'o on that. Now back to my priviledged life, where my vote counts and no one shoots me in the chest for standing there.

Kung Fu tonight was great, with Gold Dragon leading the first class in a pad-drill with one of those knock-out ending strikes designed to take the other guys' face off. I'm all bruised and my arms are shaky. I got paired with Otaku-chan, a young 16, and everyone knows that if you're going to get accidentally hurt, it's going to be by someone young, or someone new. But, he did a good job. He's come a long way. In blackbelt, we did a drill that had everyone withering by the end of the class. It was a great drill, led by the Empress. Also, it was about 85 degrees in the kwon, and wet. It's cool outside (hi, summer? Anytime, please!) but hot as hell in there. By the end of the class, Mellow Homeboy (he used to live here, but moved away to FL and comes up for a few weeks every spring,) grabbed the front of his shirt, twisted it, and wrung more sweat out of it than you'd've thought likely.

So as we are leaving tonight, it's me and Empress in my car leaving first, and Gold Dragon and Mellow Homeboy in Gold Dragon's car right behind us. I'm getting ready to pull out of the parking lot and I see Otaku-chan sitting on one of these posts by the highway (where the nearby Chinese restaurant has these big lion statues out there.) And crossing the street in front of me, and going over to where Otaku-chan is sitting (waiting for his Mom to pick up up,) there's this homeless man with a shopping cart. Old guy, stooped over, with an unlit cigarette in his hand. Epmress and I look at each other with similar looks of "I feel sympathy but what are we gonna do, jump out of the car and offer him money?" What if he wasn't really homeless, or he would have been offended or something?

Anyway, the guy goes directly up to Otaku-chan and I say to the Empress, "Okay, this is getting weird; I'm going to stick the car in park, roll down the window and keep an eye out. Of Gold Dragon wants to go around me or leave by the other exit, he can." And I see Gold Dragon back up his car and pull away like he's going to use the other exit. Meanwhile I'm watching Otaku-chan talk to this guy, who shook his hand, and Otaku-chan looked a little bit out of his element.

Then Gold Dragon yells, "Otaku-chan!" (Only he uses his real name.) "Come over here and get in the car." Which he does.

The old guy turns around and finally sees me and I beckon him over. He comes over and I ask him, "What's up, what did you want with that kid?"

He goes, "Can you spare a dollar or two?"

So I tell him, "Yeah, sure," and I give him two bucks from my change purse, figuring, well, okay so that was harmless. (A lot of people say you shouldn't give money to homeless people, because they might spend it on an addiction [which assumes that all or most homeless people are addicts--not true,] but instead you should give them food or drink. Well, A) I don't happen to have that stuff on me, and B) gosh, what if he wants to pick out his own food? What if it was me, walking around with a shopping cart feeling hungry, and all I wanted was a 99 cent burger and a soda or something?)

Then he leans around me and looks at the Empress and goes, "And what about you?"

OMG, the kid doesn't even carry a purse. I'm like, "She doesn't have anything; I'm just driving her home."

And the guy goes. "Well... Okay. But do you two want to come and drink with me? Or maybe smoke with me?"

Umm, yeah, lemme just park my car, and then take the sixteen year old kid with me to a bar somewhere with a stranger so that we can drink and smoke together. WTH? Obviously I told him, "No thanks," and I really begin to think that I want the kids to wait for their parents indoors with the other people, (there's a class after ours,) like they used to in the winter time. Which is kind of a shame, because they do like to sit outside by the lion statues and act all cool in their black Kung Fu clothes. And I don't blame them either. ^_^

Oh, just as I was typing this, my good friend in Seattle called up to ask some questions about an injured baby crow. We got to talking, and evidentally she is coming back to the east coast! WOW! She said, "You know, I've been here for nine years...." and I spent about five minutes gibbering about, "No, stop lying, it is NOT nine years; I remember the day you moved, seriously that was only about five years ago, shut up, there's no way it was nine years..."

IN A BLINK.

To quote Beavis: "Time sucks."

Anyway I have to get up at ass o'clock tomorrow for A&P2 (the douchepocalypse,) and then the eastern nutrition midterm tomorrow afternoon. Laki maika'i!

I very much apologize for double-posting today.I hope I'm not being an LJ pest to my f-list. But this doesn't belong with my last post, and I still wanted to post it because it's important and I know a few of you on my F-list are interested in knowing things like this. Probably most of you, actually.

The attorneys for Fox, owned by media baron Rupert Murdock, successfully argued the First Amendment gives broadcasters the right to lie or deliberately distort news reports on the public airwaves.

In its six-page written decision, the Court of Appeals held that the Federal Communications Commission position against news distortion is only a "policy," not a promulgated law, rule, or regulation. Fox aired a report after the ruling saying it was "totally vindicated" by the verdict.


What the HELL? It's "only a policy?" Oh, well I guess that makes it all right then. I want to spit in Bill O'Reilly's eye (actually I would love to do much more than that, involving a fishbat,) but hey, that's just my "policy."

The other night I was driving the Empress home from KF, and we chatted about all manner of things on the way home (as we usually do.) When we got to her house, I saw that the plow trucks had piled the snow up so high that it nearly covered her front gate, and was higher than their cars. (It's just the same out here, too.) I am just about done with witner, to be honest (I always am around March; though I really don't begrudge winter its parting wallop; gotta hand it to winter.) But anyway, still dismayed by the mountains of snow when I thought Spring was on its way I told her, "Look at these huge mounds of snow! There's no way this is going to melt soon. It'll still be here by April."

"No way," the Empress said. "Do you really think so? Nah, it has to melt before then."

Well, that was a brief and fairly meaningless semi conversation but while I was driving home all of a sudden I remembered this part of Sei Shonagon's Pillow Book:

"Well," said Her Majesty, "how long is that mountain [of snow] likely to last?"

Everyone guessed that it would be ten days or a little more.

"And what do you think?" the Empress asked me.

"It will last till the fifteenth day of the first month," I declared.

Evem Her Majesty found this hard to believe, and the other women insisted that it would melt before the end of the year. I realized that I had chosen too distant a date; the mountain would last until the first of the year at the outside, which was the latest day I should have given. Yet there was no taking back what I had said: though I knew the mountain was unlikely to survive until the fifteenth, I stuck to my original prediction.

Towards the twentieth it began raining. There was no sign that the snow was about to melt, but the mountain did shrink a little. "Oh Goddess of Mercy of Shirayama," I prayed frenziedly, "Do not let our mountain melt away!"

Haha, so neat! Because I code-name Empress "Empress" because of the historical figure depicted in that book, naturally! Anyway, I thought that was cool.

This, however, is not so cool:

( The Subversion of Liberty Narrowly Averted by Naomi Wolf )

Please read that article; really take it in! And I'm not convinced that this was actually "narrowly subverted" or was subverted at all. I've always thought that the Bush Administration wasn't just one man voted into power by half of a terrified and manipulated country: I feel like the Bush administration has roots far deeper than most people know, and farther back into history than we suspect. This wasn't just some guy who happened to get voted in. If that sounds paranoid, well, maybe so did some of the stuff listed up there before these files were released a few days ago.

So I don't think anyone can afford to sit back and go, "Whew! Wow, we skirted that one!" Because those sons of whores will be back for more. Like my friend who sent me this said: the pendulum swings. But it has never swung this far in America before. Who knows but that it might swing even farther in eight years? I'm still afraid of Bush. Cut off the head of the dictator and the body will grow a new one.

I'm sorry to end this note on such a downer, truly I am. But anything I say after this will look paltry and insignificant (kinda like the rest of this journal. ;D )

First let me get this out of the way: Obama releases secret Bush anti-terror memos.

The legal memos written by the Bush administration's Office of Legal Counsel show a government grappling with how to wage war on terrorism in a fast-changing world. The conclusion, reiterated in page after page of documents, was that the president had broad authority to set aside constitutional rights....

"First Amendment speech and press rights may also be subordinated to the overriding need to wage war successfully," Deputy Assistant Attorney General John Yoo wrote, adding later: "The current campaign against terrorism may require even broader exercises of federal power domestically."

While I'm glad that this is (at least for eight years,) OVER, how the hell is it that Bush and his ilk are still making me want to tear out my hair and scream and rant and rave? GOD, I hate him and everything he stands for, hate with every darkest corner of my psyche.

*Whew!*

Anyway. So the March Lion brought me two things today,and failed to bring me other things. It brought me a snow day! HURRAY! And it brought me a viewing of House as it airs, since Kung Fu is closed tonight. Honestly I'd rather be at KF, but what the hell, you take what you can get.

So we got about 10 inches of snow in some places, and the wind blew it even higher in others. And it's still coming down. It is a true blizzard; there were moments of white-outs. Today I was craving a cupcake so hard. SO HARD. Like irrationally craving an effing chocolate cupcake. So I dug my damn car out of two feet of snow (and my Dad came by with the snow blower to really clear out a path,) and decided that I needed to go to the store today. I did need a few other things anyway that I was out of, so I figured I should just up and go. The roads were terrible (they always are,) but I made it there and I went right to the bakery. Everything there looked so beautiful and I found that it wasn't a damn cupcake I wanted, but some of their cookies. Holy crap they looked awesome. Gooey, huge, organic, freshly baked chocolate chips and chocolate chocolate chunk ones. The girl behind the counter asked what I wanted and I told her I'd have to get back to her. I wanted to finish my real shopping first and then decide.

So off I went and did my shopping. I came back to the counter and the bakery girl was nowhere to be found. I really wanted those cookies. They looked so good, but she was nowhere to be seen and I was thinking, "Maybe it's a sign that I shouldn't eat one?" I waited and waited and there was no one even to ask if I could buy something. I guess I probably just stood staring in totally mournful desire at those cookies, absolutely wistful and self-pitying because I could not get to them.

As I stood there, going up an aisle behind me was this dude, and I kid you not when I tell you that he was so drop-dead freaking gorgeous that I think I just stared, slackjawed for a second. He looked to be some kind of Native American/Asian mix and he had this shoulder-length dark brown hair and beautiful skin, not to mention being around 6'1" or something with a really cute winter hat and bulky coat that did not cover up the fact that he was that perfect combination of slender and broad.

I believe that stared at him in exactly the same way I had looked at the cookies.

Well anyway, some pictures of this March Lion. Actually, mostly of my dogs in the snow.

( This gives you an idea of how much snow there was without the wind blowing it into drifts. )

( That's outside the lower window of my bedroom. )

( I love this one of Sano; he looks like some kind of snow wolf or something. )

( Can you spot the white hound? )

( How about now? :) )

Like it or not, I totally owe another post with pictures, of stuff like Boychild's birthday, and these admittedly freaking awesome Kung Fu photo-manips I've been doing.

LOL I said "nips."

More later.

I've been having these crazy dreams. And obviously they are related to my playing RE2 late into the evening just before bed. I may have mentioned that the game is really well done for its time, even though for me it is a few steps backwards. It is also mega-scary. At some parts, it comes close to Regenerator scary. Okay, not quite, but sort of. Two nights ago I had a dream I was Leon and the alligator was chasing me down the hallway just like it does in the game. It's a narrow hallway and even though Leon is eight way directional he is goddamn hard to control because a) you have to use the pad instead of the analog, and b) he can walk backwards but not run,and in order to get him to actually run in the other direction you have to turn him with the control pad. The controls are something between FFVII and FFVIII. So anyway, it's a scary little part of the game and I dreamed that the alligator was chasing me/Leon down that hallway and I couldn't run quickly enough. I could feel the floor shaking behind me and the alligator snapped at my heels and then I woke up.

Last night's dream was even weirder. I might have talked about this one aspect of my dreams before; I can't remember. But I do this so often in dreams that it bears mentioning. Often I'll be dreaming of the hero of a story and he'll find himself in trouble. This is where I always step into the dream. I tell myself, "He can't handle this; I'd better do it until the crisis is over." And then I'll become the character. Usually it's men; there are very few women in my dreams and when there are, they are taking care of business themselves. In my dreams, men can't handle it and so I have to solve their crises. O_O I'm not sure precisely what this says about me but probably not something good. According to my friend Kim, however, the gender of the character doesn't matter since every character in your dream is really you: after all it's your mind and you have created the scenario and the characters, even if they resemble anyone else. So in her logic, the "hero by proxy" is just my way of solving a problem using another aspect of my own mind. Which I think is really neat.

Well, anyway. So in this dream, once again I'm playing as Leon Kennedy and there are zombies all around. A few have bitten him. (In the game when you get bitten or injured, you can no longer run; instead you hold your side and limp along, which makes every consecutive battle even harder!) So he's limping along inside this big factory, actually more like a grainery because there was definitely some grainery action going on, zombies everywhere but these were more like the Ganados of 4 rather than the zombies of 2. At the top of a silver staircase is a huge white dog. I realize that this dog is the german shepherd Jimmy, the one who I trained and finally got placed in a dog sanctuary (anyone remember how angry I was at Douche Ex Boss over that, when he kept threatening to put the dog in the pound and he made it my problem even though it was his business? And I had to care for the dog myself and finally drive it to Lindenhurst etc.? Well anyway, I was crazy over this beautiful dog and I cried when I had to say good bye to him. This was the dog in my dream.)

So there was Jimmy at the top of the stairs, and he was being used as a guard dog to protect the zombies' grainery. O_o Every few days they would throw him the arm of some person they had killed. He was chained up at the top of the stairs and he started growling at Leon. I was watching from behind a wall; I knew that he would not be able to get past Jimmy. But I also realized that Jimmy would recognize me even if I had to take Leon's place in the story. And I knew that i had to or they would both die. So I jumped into Leon (O_O) just as one of the zombies was going to feed Jimmy. Jimmy finally saw me / us and started barking. I waved my (our) arms around and said, "Jimmy, it's me! I placed you years ago, why did they put you here?" I immediately knew it was Douche Ex Boss's fault. Well, Jimmy recognized me and started barking joyfully. The zombie went to hit him, and Jimmy bit the zombie's arm. He started twisting it around until he bit the arm off totally. The zombie started to scream at him and that got the attention of all the others. They started to run towards, not Jimmy, but me / Leon. I ran up the stairs towards Jimmy where everything was suddenly so bright, and I grabbed him and hugged him really hard.

Zombies started to throw bars of soap at us. It was white soap; suddenly everything was white. Beyond the door there was a field of white flowers and we both ran into it. I kept hugging Jimmy and saying that I hoped he was okay and I missed him.

The scene changed and I was outside of what used to be my grandparents' front yard but is now my cousins' front yard. Jimmy was still with me, only he looked more Saluki-ish and I said (to no one in particular,) "This dog was the reason I got a different white dog. Otherwise everything would be different. It's like he's the grandfather, or maybe the prequel to the line of white dogs."

Then one of the zombies told me that if it hadn't been for the white dog, the entire story of Resident Evil wouldn't make sense, and that if I paid enough attention, the white dog would show how 2 became 4 and 4 became two, like a story with no ending.

And then I effing woke up.

WTF?

Let's see, let's see. Okay, I love the drill we're doing in Kung Fu, in blackbelt. It's got some steal-steps, a binh-choy, a side kick to a back-kick, then two head-removing hits, the cup choy and sou choy. (I can only hope I'm spelling those right.) I was so happy because I was doing them tonight and Sifu said I was doing a great job. Pretty much made my night!

And just because I don't want to forget this: U.S. "war on terror" eroded rights worldwide: experts

( Under the cut )

THANK YOU.