Surfacing for a Breath

While I clunk my way through Vista on Tom's laptop, our broadband is up for a few moments and I had to steal away to blogger to check in and say hi. [Update: as soon as I went to hit the publish button the BB went down. It should be fixed now.]

It's official. We gave notice to out landlady, who is, without a doubt, the best landperson in my long history of landpeople.

I sent an email out to the graduate list-serv on campus and already have someone coming to look at our place tomorrow. I hope the visitor likes it and likes the deep red paint in the kitchen and the pale gray paint in the bathroom. It would be nice not to have to paint before we exit.

The conference I am attending is coming up quickly. I have not started my paper, have not transcribed the interview about which the paper is to be written and hope to bejesus that the audio file of the interview is still on my laptop when it returns from the hospital. Yeah, I didn't backup my hardrive prior to taking it in and refused the $100 they wanted to charge me to make 3 cds of my computer gobbledygook.

I had a great thought the other day that I wanted to share with you all.

I am one of those people who, while an insufferable optimist, tends to anticipate the worse outcome from bumpy circumstances. And since life is jam-packed with bumpiness, I can be a bit of a spaz. But I realized the other day, for no apparent reason as I was not mid-spaz, that I have never once freaked out about something going haywire and been justified in that freakout.

Things *always* work out.

I cannot think of one time when they did not.

I hope you find the same in your life. We all deserve a little comfort knowing that no matter hard life may seem to throttle us, change for the better is always waiting while we catch our breath from our tantrum and pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off and start all over again the next time.

The next time we have a day when we drop everything we pick up (numerous times), hit every red light, get behind the slowest person at the grocery store, our computer crashes when we need to pay bills online, the person at the bank needs to change the receipt tape but doesn't know how, congress continues to be shitheads, Rush Limbaugh *still* has not had his fatal heart attack, and it feels like a sauna when we step outside.

Ain't life grand?

Despite my spazzery, indeed it is.

Read more...

Technical Difficulties

Our computer shituation is just that-- a shituation.

Our broadband keeps crashing, our desktop keeps crashing and my laptop is in the hospital undergoing some minor surgeries.

Tom got a new laptop this week but it has Vista (*groan*) and he needs it for work. Also my laptop cannot connect to our router... so even if I did have it, I couldn't connect with you all anyway.

Riveting stuff, huh?

Can I confess something?

I have no idea how I ever lived without email, internet, blogger and google.

Ever.

We made a crazy decision to move into a new house in August.

I think I am one of those people that needs chaos in order for things to be normal... (don't tell my parents).

Nothing says "fun" like going through boxes of paperwork and junk I have been hauling around for about two decades now.

This will mark the seventh time I have moved in 17 years.

I am not in the witness protection program, either.

It is feeling pretty good to purge old photographs from eighth grade graduation, donate unused items, and pitch raging junk in general.

Hope you all are well.

Take care all.

Sorry to have been absent for so long now.

Read more...

Need a Lift?

I know I do...

Today, celebrate the resilience of humanity in the midst of turmoil, sadness, and uncertainty.

The oldest musical instruments were found in Germany according to a Science News article written about on Man With the Muck-Rake's blog.

Incredible.

The discovery of those flutes some how civilizes humanity in a way I hadn't thought possible. How far we've come, huh? [note sarcasm, or don't, take your pick]

Today, try to listen to something that reminds you of happy times, of better times.

And if you feel like it, shake your booty a little, too.

I could write something like "Do a little dance. Make a little love. Get down tonight" but that would be too cheesy, right :).

Happy Friday All.

PS: Don't tell any of my friends I posted this picture of us reenacting tribal dance moves from 35,000 years ago :). Sidhe, I think you were in this one.

Read more...

With or Without You (Congress)?

One of my professors (who just so happens is Iranian-born) said: "Americans live with the illusion of democracy. The pretense of choice. We choose between two (or three) people. That's choice?"

I was doing some dishes yesterday and thinking about the sad state of things given that we sent our leaders a pretty strong mandate last November.

I am not sure what the rest of you voted for, but I voted for these things ( short list to be sure):

1. To close Guantanamo Bay.

2. To give those inmates fair trials under US law.

3. Health care reform.

4. Education reform.

5. Ending the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

6. Getting American manufacturing back on track.

7. Working toward peace in the Middle East and ending bigotry against all peoples.

8. Gay Marriage and gay rights in every sense of that term.

9. Lower taxes for the working and lower classes.

10. Better environmental policies that at least *attempt* to minimize the damage that global climate change is having and will continue to have for centuries (any f*ckwad who wants an argument about that, I'm the lass that'll oblige you. My husband [a physicist] works on ice core samples from Antarctica with a group at Berkeley. Climate change is not a hoax or some political ploy to get you scared into recycling and using less carbon fuel).

So, as I pondered how slowly things change, if at all, a thought occurred to me: Why should the "powers that be" give the people *anything* they want?

Why?

What would happen if they did?

It would put them out of business and make their roles as wedge-drivers obsolete.

They would actually have to get real jobs and get in the trenches with the rest of us.

And the media?

What would they have left to do?

DING, DING, DING, DING.

Nothing.

Once they are in their ivory towers up on the hill, within the beltway, they live in a bubble that mutes all the cries of suffering and anguish and anger of their countrymen and fellow citizens of the world.

I suppose I am going through a phase of disillusionment. I don't expect our President to fix everything instantly. I did expect him to be different. To hold himself to higher standards and maintain his integrity.

Our country is having an identity crisis. Are we the moral compass of the world? (See any number of family-men-politicians who have gotten caught diddling someone other than their wife. The answer: Ummm, no.) Are we peace-makers or bullies? Do we care about our fellow countrypeople and want everyone to have a shot at a decent life beyond the worries of health care and shelter and food and a decent education? Do we give two shits about what is happening to our climate and the burden our actions are placing on generations across the world?

Why should things change?

Because its about the f*ck time things changed.

If our politicians won't wake up, Americans must recommit to making things change, with or without them. Even if we have to drag them kicking and screaming like children.

The time for the tug-o-war is over.

Read more...

The "Free" Market: Death Sentence for Health Care Reform

"Free" applies only to the few.

I have to admit, I am completely frustrated. Angry. Frustrated.

Polls say 72% of Americans want a public option for health care.

But Congress is dragging their proverbial entitled asses and harkening to the jingling coffers of big Pharma, insurance companies, etc.

The petition I wrote has tuckered out. I have emailed everyone I know asking for support.

I posted it to my facebook page and promoted it in every way I know how without having money to host it on a congressional email service page.

I appreciate all 44 people who signed it.

I have written letters. Made phone calls.

Spinning my wheels...

I cannot tell you how helpless this makes me feel.

The worst part is, thirty-six states have initiative systems... mine is not one of them.

I think the GOP has beaten us as the Dems beat themselves.

They've convinced too many people that things can't be fixed.

That we don't matter.

That the American people who put their asses where they are could fall off a cliff and they wouldn't throw any of us a rope even to let us hang ourselves.

They have turned their backs on us.

Again.

But have deep pockets and a big balance sheet?

Whatever you wish is your command.

Tom and I talk about moving to another country often. We talked about it a lot before the election last fall.

I don't understand this America.

And am getting more and more convinced that I don't care about it anymore than it cares about its own people.

Read more...

If You Need More Proof

Thanks to Seeing Eye Chick over at Apocalyptics Anonymous for emailing me the link to this article.

Some quick excerpts from the Reuters' piece:

"WASHINGTON - Americans are struggling to pay for health care in the ongoing economic recession, with a quarter saying they have had trouble in the past 12 months, according to a survey released on Monday.

Baby boomers — the generation born between 1946 and 1964 — had the most trouble and were the most likely to put off medical treatments or services, said researchers at Center for Health Care Improvement, part of the health care business of Thomson Reuters.

The study found that 17.4 percent of households reported postponing or delaying health care over the past year."

[...]

"Thomson Reuters — the parent company of Reuters news agency — used its annual Pulse survey that queries 100,000 households to get information about health behavior.

Gary Pickens, George Popa and colleagues at the Michigan-based center interviewed more than 6,000 people in March and April about job losses, what health care they had used and their plans for future treatment."

40 % of those surveyed plan to postpone medical treatment over the next three months.

Think about that for a moment.

Unemployed people, already under economic stress, are being forced to stop taking medication for chronic illnesses, like diabetes, asthma, etc.

Consumer Reports Health Blog reports that medical related bankruptcies are up 50% since 2001 according to an identical survey done by the same researchers of the American Journal of Medicine. 62% of bankruptcies in 2007 were due to illness and/or medical bills.

If you haven't yet signed the petition I created online, please sign.

I am researching ballot initiatives and am working on a post about it.

Thanks to those who have signed and to those who have passed on the link to others. I created a red button for the petition that you are welcome to download and post to your blog. Depending on your blog-platform, you may also be able to link to the petition via the button.**

We need to reclaim our national legacy of a government "of the people, by the people, and for the people" (Abraham Lincoln, Gettysburg Address, 1863).

**[For blogger bloggers, right-click on the button and then highlight and click the "save image as" option and save it wherever you want on your computer. In the layout screen of your blog, click "Add a Gadget" wherever you want the button to go. Add it as a "picture." A box titled "Configure Picture" should pop up. Upload the image from your computer using the "browse" button to locate it where you saved it. Then you can copy and paste the petition link into the "link" box and the petition will then be linked to the button on your blog.]

Read more...

I'm Sick and Tired

Congress gets free health care on your's and my tax dollars.

Why should they keep it and not have to pay for it themselves?

We know they won't vote to cancel their own benefits.

Today, I started a new petition to let Congress know that just because we elected them, doesn't mean they have the right to play politics with the health care of millions of Americans.

Here's the petition I created:
http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/help-make-congress-work-for-our-health

I signed. Please pass this on to those you think would be interested in it.

Happy Saturday all.

Read more...

Kissinger Supports Obama's Neutrality

My apologies for the poor quality of this video. I refuse to embed Fox links.




The House bill passed today, which basically says: "Let freedom ring, but let America tell you how long and when and why to ring that bell."

Read more...

Mike Pence: Another GOP Nincompoop

Sad to say, Pence is from the state where I currently live.

Does he not realize that he is criticizing the President for doing something he (Pence) is urging the Congress to do?


He claims that the US needs to support *freedom* everywhere.

True.

But we also need to keep our big red, white, and blue noses out of it officially.

Wasn't he among the uber pissed that the rest of the world threw their support behind Obama? "How *dare* they try to support the man they like" (which the GOP is trying to play politics against the man in another country whom none of us like).

And that's what our President has been saying since earlier this week:



I just wrote a letter to Mr. Pence (who I am glad to say does not represent my district in the House):

Dear Mr. Pence,
As a concerned constituent I have been appalled by your current press announcements criticizing our President for not getting *more* involved with the Democratic process in Iran. Can you even understand the hypocrisy in that very notion?

As an American, you should appreciate the importance of allowing a nation to determine, for itself, the outcome of its own elections.

How would you have reacted if any other country tried to tell the US the outcome of the 2000 presidential race?

Whether you (or I) think the elections were fair or not, the Iranian people are *not* asking the US for help. They deserve to let these events play out on their own soil, in their own time, and manner *by their own people*. Yes, we can verbally offer our support of their process, but to intervene in any way further officially gives more leverage to those who are critical of the aggressive tendencies of the US administration so prevalent under Bush 43.

Please *think* before you speak for the rest of America. We are not interested in getting further embroiled in more US imperialism in the middle East.

Why not focus on the mountain of issues here in your own state and nation? Unemployment? Health care? Education?

From the things you have been saying it is painfully obvious that you have *no* idea what you are talking about.

Sincerely,
Skyewriter (but, of course, with my real name)

I wish I would have added,

"Mr. Pence, please stop talking about the Iranian people as if they were children. The Persian civilization has been around since 4,000 BC. That's about 5,800 years longer than the US. If you believe your creationist fellows, Iran was there at the beginning of the earth, roughly 6,000 years ago."

For anyone interested, please see this link to write Pence yourself.

What. an. ass.

Read more...

Our Bodies? Ourselves?

Seeing Eye Chick over at Apocalyptics Anonymous wrote an excellent, poignant post that got me thinking about how our culture judges people based on their appearance while teaching us how to think about ourselves in damaging ways.

I come from thick German stock on my dad's side. My mom's family were fair, teeny eastern European. All five of us kids got a weird mix of genes.

Great skin, cheekbones and hair from mom; body image issues from dad.

Don't get me wrong. I love my dad. But his unhealthy body issues definitely influenced all four of his daughters.

Here's why it haunts me to this day (and I speak only for myself and none of my sibs):

After my parents got divorced and we (mom, bro, me) moved away, part of the divorce decree was that I spend some time during the holidays and summers with my dad.

My very first visit I was ten. My brother and I took the train down to our old hometown and the very first thing dad said after not seeing me for months was: "Wow, you've gotten heavy."

I. was. ten.

I had never even considered my body really before then and frankly, have not been able to stop since.

One night, the last summer I spent there, dad made a bet with me while eating dinner.

He said: "I'll give you two bucks for every pound you lose in the next three months."

I took that bet and I have to say I am glad I did. But perhaps not for the reasons you may think.

Dad wanted a weigh in for the baseline.

I was thirteen. I weighed 109 pounds and was five-six.

109 pounds and my dad was calling me fat.

As summer passed I rode my bike (sometimes twelve miles at a time), swam, and just spent time outside. Dad literally counted every slice of cheese, every cracker, every bite of food I took and made me feel guilty for every. single. one.

Then came the end of summer.

And with that came the weigh in.

I weighed 107 pounds. I lost two whole pounds that summer (despite growing half an inch) and dad promptly paid me four bucks of cold, hard cash.

I am turning 38 next month and despite evidence to the contrary in this post, I don't blame my parents for any of my psychological issues.

Women feel pressure from everywhere to look a certain way. We are praised (or punished) for our looks and rewarded (or demeaned) for them. I know. I modeled for a while (and boy, that's about the worst business for trying to develop a healthy self-image as a girl).

I still have an unhealthy relationship with food and struggle with body image issues from the moment I wake up to the moment I go to sleep. It doesn't control me the way it used to, but I know that my dad's critical voice will always be there in my mind as an echo. Always.

I even get nervous before I see him. My own dad.

I can't help but think: Will he love me a little bit less if I am over-weight?

Would he love me more if I dropped ten pounds?

I forgave him a long time ago for his shortcomings as a father. He had a poor role model for his own dad for a while in his teenage years. I understand why he is how he is.

I don't want you to leave this post thinking my father is a monster, a jerk or a bad person. Nor do I want you to feel one moment of sorry for me.

His cynicism toward just about everything has driven my own ambition in ways I never thought possible. For that I am grateful.

Almost as much as for those moments when he told me I was beautiful. In the parking lot before my brother's wedding. While we danced at my niece's wedding six years ago. Three summers ago while we sat out on his deck.

This is one of the hardest blog posts I have ever written and I know it would hurt my dad terribly if he knew I had written about this online. For any family visiting, please don't ever tell him I wrote this. He knows how I feel. Believe me. He knows.

Hope you all are well.

I miss my daily interactions with you all and my temp job is nearing the end.

I'll post something more relevant ( and less depressing) soon.

I promise.

Read more...

We're Just Not That Into You

I know this is a futile endeavor, but I keep trying to figure out why the GOP keeps saying the most ridiculous shit.

John Boehner: "This is the first step in the Democrats' plan to import terrorists into America" June 2009.

John Boehner: "This is a blueprint" March 2009, while holding a blue-covered, empty packet of papers that was intended to "look" like the GOP version of a budget.

Eric Cantor: "We have no judicial precedents for the conviction of someone like this" June 2009 on the trial of Guantanamo detainee Ahmed Ghailani, accused (along with four already tried and convicted accomplices) of bombing the U.S. embassies in Tanzania and Kenya.

Michelle Bachmann: “It’s like Thomas Jefferson said, a revolution every now and then is a good thing. We are at the point Sean, of revolution” March 2009.

These are easy targets, I know.

But the GOP is incessantly yowling and trying to keep their tantrums at a fever pitch with bigotry riddled accusations that Obama is a Muslim (Frank Gaffney, Washington Times June 9, 2009). That he is aligning himself with terrorists. That our president is eager to support terrorist regimes and that in fact, President Obama is part of a vast global conspiracy to destroy America, because after all, he's not a "real" American.

I think I may have figured something out.

See, when an individual starts dating a person and realizes that he/she isn't interested in the other party, there are the typical non-responses to voicemails, emails, and such.

Crickets.

The GOP doesn't get it.

They are like a bad date that never ends. You can't seem to avoid that person, or make them understand that "it's not you, but it is you."

Please, GOP. Take a hint, finally.

We're just not that into you.

Seems your base sort of feels the same according to a recent Gallup poll: 38% of Republicans view their party unfavorably.

Read more...

Skye Enchanted

Tom and I took in a nice summer evening yesterday with a stroll downtown a few blocks from where we live.

Every few years our local art museum sponsors an acrylic animal painting showcase. Anywhere from 30-45 sculptures are scattered across sidewalks and tucked into landscaping within city limits.

The sculptures draw visitors to our ever struggling downtown. On any given weekend you can see clusters of people, families, friends, walking around looking at them and some taking pictures of them, too. Adults love them almost as much as the kids do.

My first year here it was pigs. A couple of years ago it was frogs.

This year it is dogs.

One dog in particular howled blog post:


The placard reads:


There are always problems with vandalism. Some from the frog year disappeared. And a few dogs have already been taken despite being bolted into the concrete--- one of them from in front of a bank on a very busy street. Consequently most will be removed (except for those in the immediate downtown area) and put into the museum to prevent more thefts and vandalism.

In the fall, the sculptures will be auctioned.

We can't afford to be patrons of the arts at this point in our lives.

At least we will have these pictures, taken before the dogs get kenneled.

Read more...

Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf? Not Me.

Sorry to disappoint the usual crowd of gun-lurkers who keep coming to this blog even though, according to them, I suck, as does this blog.

There are some wolves drooling on my blog's doorstep waiting to pounce.

I love my statcounter because I get to see the shenanigans of people who would seek to abuse me on my blog if should even mention the word "gun."

I've learned a lot in the last 8 months about blogging.

One important lesson: bullies don't deserve the time of day; particularly delusional bullies who think my life is spent obsessing about them and guns.

*You* gun-lurkers are the ones obsessed with guns. That's all you can comment about.

Given the details provided by my statcounter, I am not among the obsessed.

If I am obsessed with anything, it is trying to find some sense of normality in these crazy times, when doctors are killed for providing legal health care services or soldiers are killed at recruiting offices (or anywhere in the lose-lose wars we have sent them into) or unarmed museum goers are attacked and murdered because they are trying to expose themselves to history.

Those people are the good guys. Compassionate doctors. The brave women and men in our military. The intellectually curious. The ones who go about their daily lives trying to improve themselves or help keep us safe or save the lives of others.

The closest thing you'll ever read about armed whackos on this blog is just this general commentary (whether they are armed with knives, bombs, lies, firearms, or hate).

I care that people are losing their lives for senseless reasons, spurred on by unscrupulous media opportunists and terrified isolationists.

Sorry to you frothing wolves. Huff and puff and put on nana's sleeping cap all you want.

You'll get no satisfaction here.

Read more...

Perhaps a Light is Turning On

Seems like someone at Fox has a brain (or maybe a conscience, even):




I am trying to get together a compilation of the "Scariest rhetoric against the President" (or ethnic groups, religious groups, pro-life groups, etc.).

For the full story, see this Huff Post post from yesterday.

Read more...

Really Quick, I Promise

Seriously, who turned Tuesday into Wednesday?

This afternoon I asked a woman at the scoring center what day it was.

Without pause she answered: "Wednesday."

We were both completely confused and asked another scorer.

"Wednesday," he said, looking like he had space-time continuum sickness.

I cannot make this shit up.

Read more...

The Monkey

I opened a "New Post" box on the dashboard of my blog and realized I have very little to write about.

Emma is at the vet with Tom as I write this. She seems to be a bit under the weather, but she is eating, eliminating and sleeping as much as she ever does. She just seems unenthused most of the time. She also has been listing a bit to the right when she first stands up after napping or laying down; the other day she even bumped into the workbench in our kitchen that stands-in for an island.

I find I am having such mixed feelings about this.

Those who have read this blog for a while know how much we love her and know the story.

It's been a long haul, but one that is never inconvenient. She has always been a loyal, hilarious friend to me, especially in dark times.

She has always had that instinct when I am upset; she's on my lap or following me around. When I went through chemo she slept *on my pillow* curled around my shiny bald head. I used to call her my nightcap.

She responds just as much when things are going great.

These days, though, something is off.

I know we have been so fortunate to have her with us for as long as we have. The vet told Tom three months ago after her last checkup that he had never had a patient last this long, doing this well (and our vet has specialized in cats for over 30 years). She is at the two year mark since she was diagnosed and bags of fluid, bottles of blood pressure meds, tubes of potassium, and tons of special food later she is still kicking.

I hope the vet keeps telling us she is one for the record books. In our eyes she always will be.

Read more...

The Consciousness and Conscience of Humanity

Our President has been traveling in the land of the Pharaohs and into the heart of Europe.

His efforts and visibility are unprecedented in presidential history.

But you can't please all people all of the time.

No matter how modern this President, no matter how mindful he is of our current conflicts and those of the past... he cannot win.

Today marks the 65th anniversary of D-Day in Normandy. Some critics are saying Obama "snubbed" our European allies by going to Egypt first during this period of remembering our nation's "Greatest Generation."

Still others criticize him for being candid. Open. *Honest.*

Why can people not view his travels as a way to draw a sharp comparison between the present-day wars, driven by ethnic and ideological hatred, to those of the past?

Are our allies only to be those in the West?

Why can we not bridge canyons of cultural differences and millenia of bloodshed to close the distance between all that divides us?

I keep thinking: have we really come so far?

As a species, Homo Sapiens Sapiens has accomplished so much.

We've mapped the surface of the Earth with almost micro-millimetric precision.

We have sent our technology to the distant stretches of our local solar system.

We have walked on the moon and seen pictures of the russet, arid, Martian landscape.

We have found life finding its way in the harshest and darkest places in the depths of the oceans.

We have cured diseases, harnessed the elements for power, created masterpieces in the Arts and Humanities.

But we still have not learned to stop killing each other.

*We still have not learned, as a species, that nothing good ever comes from killing.*

Perhaps that is the message that our President is trying to convey.

We still have a long way to go. If we cannot learn to live together, we will die together.

But he still believes that we can live together, that there are many who work toward peace despite the pessimism of mistrust.

He believes we can be mindful and purposeful in our actions toward others.

And that there is hope that we may one day (soon) stop blaming *them* for what is hindering us from being a species with common purposes, one promise of greatness, uniting all people on Earth.

Read more...

Thank "Good" I Know It Is Friday

This post is another one that has been percolating for a while.

What I am going to share is nothing new, earth-shattering or innovative.

Given the ongoing hatred and violence all perpetrated in the name of "god" I have been thinking about it a lot-- "god" that is. Which is unusual for me since I consider myself a full-on agnostic.

I would never presume to know something as personal and as completely unprovable as "god" much less push that "knowing" on another person or do harm to them because they don't subscribe to my version of why we are here.

I can tell you one thing-- anything that is in the business of creation is not in the business of destroying, killing, or maiming. That's simple logic.

I am trying to keep this on a general level and not slip into binary comparisons of good and evil, because what I know is that I don't know what, if anything, is "out there."

All I know is what is "in here." Inside me.

I don't look at the world and people and see evil or enemies or "satan."

I do see people who make choices, some that are not entirely of their own volition due to chemical imbalances, but who isn't a little chemically imbalanced these days? Have you ever looked at all of the ingredients in packaged food we eat? Also at the companies making that "food"? Or turn on the boob-tube; you will find a smörgåsbord of blood, suffering, and violence on which to feast your eyes.

I suppose my point is that so many people have *no* idea what goes into their bodies and who manufactures it for them. Is religion any different for some?

It can feed a person's need to feel superior. To feel that somehow they are better suited to decide what you and I get to see, think, hear-- even who we are allowed to love (or told we should hate).

I know all religious people are not nuts in a clinical sense.

Why do people who commit such atrocities in the name of "god" think "god" wants them to do such things?

What does "god" mean to them?

I was raised Catholic and I can recall as a young child sitting in the pews every Sunday not only wondering why I had to be there in my little dress, white socks and patent leather Mary Janes, but why did I have to look at that dead, bloody guy hanging over the altar? That guy was going to *save* me? No thanks. He looks like he's been through enough already.

I never got it, even with a primary and secondary education in the Catholic school system.

But really, seeing images of death and violence is what some people are programmed with from a very young age.

If the world doesn't suit it, then perhaps some people feel the need to make it that way.

If "god" is as I would assume most people would like to think "he" is, then "god" is not against us-- "he" is our greatest fan. "He" wants good things, heck "he" even *makes* good things.

Unless I suppose you think people are generally wrong, dirty, or perverse then your "god" is like *you*, not the other way around.

I don't know if there is any kind of superior being (or beings), but I am pretty sure that if someone believes in "god" that "god" is not interested in being like those who bomb medical clinics, buildings, or kill other people in "his" name.

Basically, I think most people are intelligent enough to dress and bathe themselves. They are perfectly capable of tying their own shoes. That people can, in the main, obey the speed limit, smile every once in a while and share a laugh with friends and family.

Across the world there are *billions* of people with these basic abilities.

I for one am not ready to write humanity off because of a few disturbed people.

If I were to "have" a "god" I would know that I don't *own* the sole rights to proclaim to everyone else what that "god" is.

"God" isn't something external that we possess like our cars or homes.

If anything, "god" is in us, made by us. Some people just choose to make "god" an excuse or reason for why they hate others. Kind of funny and sad, huh?

I don't know about you, but I am glad it's Friday. And no, I won't be going to church this Sunday. But if you do, put in a good word for me... my mind isn't closed, I just don't think an organized hierarchy of humans, created by humans, should tell me what to think.

I believe in "good" and I know that's one 'o' too many, but I'll stick with that for now.

PS: Thank you all for the comments to Tuesday's post. It's so great to come home from scoring really poor exams about bacteria and genetics to nice comments from you.

Read more...

What Makes Tuesday Feel Like Wednesday?

I am sure there are scientific, psychological, rational explanations for the mysterious phenomena that make certain days feel like certain days of the week.

All day long I keep thinking it is Wednesday.

Sometimes on long week-ends (with Monday off) Monday feels like Sunday.

Rarely does it ever feel like Saturday on the wrong day.

But really, Wednesday? What makes any day feel like Wednesday?

And while we're at it, what is up with the spelling of Wednesday?

It should be Wendsday.

And February should be Febuary.

Have you ever said or heard anyone ever pronounce it "Feb-ru-ary"?

I googled images for Tuesday and this is one of my favorites:


Funny thing is, I went to the car wash today and it wasn't anything like this.

Maybe because it feels like Wednesday to these nekkid, strangely hairless men, too.

I leave you with a giggle:

Read more...

Yes, I'll Have Dessert. Hold the Meat, Please.

WARNING Carnivores: beware all ye who enter here.

Vegans and Vegetarians, you will be more deeply committed to your eating habits after reading this post.

I only recently started watching the Food Network show Iron Chef, and saw one last night (way late, through bleary-eyed insomnia) with a challenge involving "Steak Skirt" I mean "Skirt Steak." Try saying that five times fast.

First, I don't care how many times that Good Eats dude says skirt steak is flavorful and blah and blahddy, blah, blah.

It's tough.

And cheap. And cheap because it's tough.

What really shocked me was the *chef* who made Frozen Beef Bone Marrow Crème Brûlée as an accoutrement for the main course.

Gagging yet?

But wait.

The dessert course was Meat. Ice. Cream.

Let that sink in a moment.

Ice cream

assaulted

with meat flavor.

I'm no gourmet, but I do consider myself a gourmand.

And an omnivore.

And a risk-taker.

But no thanks on the meat in my dessert.

Frankly, I was so disgusted that I immediately tromped to the kitchen, scooped some Mint-Chip ice cream into a bowl and consoled it.

Uh huh. Ice cream consoler. That's me.

There are no calories when consoling food.

Only when food consoles you, right?

Especially if it's a late night consolation session.

Calories eaten in the name of food integrity do not count.

Read more...