It's. freaking. snowing.

Wow, how much more can you hate your own users?

Live Journal bigwig shits on LJ users.

(Thanks, I think, atypia...)

Please check out these links:

http://act.credomobile.com/campaign/support_tibet/

http://www.avaaz.org/en/tibet_end_the_violence/

This is important. Tell your friends.

Saudis to Execute a Woman for Witchcraft

I've heard of this story, obviously, but this morning leorising1959 posted a link to a petition you can sign to encourage the King of Saudia Arabia to halt the execution. This is a legitimate petition. I don't know if it will work, but it's very respectful and moving -- I'm sure that it will at least give the Saudis food for thought.

Sign the Petition

Thank you.

Finally! A meme for those of us out of not only high school, but college. Thanks, darkpoole!

( cut for her pleasure )

Not reading LJ last few days. The Project from Hell has eaten my life. Well, actually, I've enjoyed most of the actual work I've done, but the deadline is killing Leslie, so it's at least wounding me. >_<

The book WILL go out today, by the gods. Just waiting for Leslie to send a pdf, then we talk, then I go in, and by all that's holy we will send this $@#!* thing off to Korea!

Then we shall all get drunk.

And there was much rejoicing.

*yay*

I've basically been surfing deviantart this morning, and came across these cartoons, and thought, damn, darkpoole would enjoy these!

Read them in this order:

http://libraryninja.deviantart.com/art/Raising-Robin-11-67569036

http://libraryninja.deviantart.com/art/Raising-Robin-12-67728904

Okay, okay...well I thought they were funny...

Thanks to darkpoole!

Go to the Wikipedia home page in your preferred language and click "random article." That is your band's name. Click random article again. That is your album name. Click random article 15 more times. Those are the tracks on your album.

My Band Name: Kyjov
My Album Name: 1914 in organized crime

Track 1: Tohoku Broadcasting Company
Track 2: List of French cruisers
Track 3: Stop (Eurovision song)
Track 4: J. P. Beaumont
Track 5: Qui vive
Track 6: Rocky, Oklahoma
Track 7: Joseph C. Boteler III
Track 8: Protocetus
Track 9: VFW VAK 191B
Track 10: How to Be Popular (novel)
Track 11: Caribbean Festival of Arts
Track 12: James McManus (rugby league footballer)
Track 13: Fitz Motorsports
Track 14: Balearic People's Union
Track 15: 2-chlorobenzoate 1,2-dioxygenase

I'm pretty sure I've taken this test before, but I think I got a better score this time. ^_^

Your Body Image is 8% Unhealthy, 92% Healthy

You have a great body image. You know that no one looks perfect, and you're happy the way you are. Also, you don't judge other people on their looks... and it helps them feel better about their own bodies!

And then there's this. ;-)

You Are a Retro Bikini!

You prefer a bikini that's flirty and feminine, not flashy. You look sweet and sexy - a rarity on the beach these days!

Much better today. I took two naps yesterday, and felt better after the second. I actually walked to the store, as the cupboard was verily bare. This morning it was a real struggle to get out of bed, but now that I'm up, I don't feel so bad. My throat is still itchy, which makes me cough sometimes, and I'm stuffy, but I don't feel so brain dead. So I'll be back to work today, though I will probably give the gym another miss -- I can just see me on the elliptical snorting and coughing...

So, I have paying work, so I'd better get to it. ^_^

I have a cold. Ooooh, yeah. I got a sore throat Saturday, and though I did go to the Portland Christmas Revels (which was WOOOOOOOOOOOONDERFUL as always), later my throat did get to the point where I thought I should stay in, and thus I missed Denise's Hanukah party -- for the second year in a row, dammit! Yesterday was slow and tired, but not too bad. Last night SUCKED.

I woke up about 2:20-2:25. Next time I looked at the clock, it was 2:40. Then 3:20, then 3:28, then 3:38, then 3:59...you get the idea. It was the Night That Never Fucking Ended!!! It was just roll over, nod off for 5-10 minutes, wake up (sometimes with a start), try to stick my feet out further, twitch, fidget, roll over again, nod off, try not to wake up Elf...for hours. I couldn't even think of interesting things to occupy my febrile brain; it was all just kind of a haze of fidgetting and worrying that I wasn't sleeping. I finally gave up and got up with Elf at 5:10, all honking and headachy. I watched a couple home shows and a "Ghosthunters." Now I'm just skimming LJ and posting this, and when I've got the cats fed, I'll go back to bed. Hope I can sleep!

Meanwhile, here's a silly thing from cheesepuppet for your delictation:

1. Your rock star name (first pet, current car): Jingles Prius

2. Your gangsta name (fave ice cream flavor, favorite type of shoe): Peanut-Butter-and-Chocolate Birkenstock (shouldn't this be my hippy name?)

3. Your Native American name (favorite color, favorite animal): Blue Cat (I can live with that)

4. Your soap opera name (middle name, city where you were born): Marie Ashland

5. Your Star Wars name (the first 3 letters of your last name, first 2 of your first name): Strika (this is not how I first learnt Star Wars names, but it produces something less odious...)

6. Superhero name (2nd favorite color, favorite drink): Green Milk to the rescue!

7. NASCAR name (the first names of your grandfathers): Charles Robert (or Eldon Robert, 'cause Grandpa Scripter always went by his middle name)

8. Stripper name (the name of your favorite perfume/cologne/scent, favorite candy): Rose Dark Chocolate

10. TV weather anchor name (your 5th grade teacher’s last name, a major city that starts with the same letter): Snyder Sacramento

11. Spy name (your favorite season/holiday, flower): Autumn Rose (that's nice!)

12. Cartoon name: (favorite fruit, article of clothing you’re wearing right now): Cherry Clogs

13. Hippie name (What you ate for breakfast, your favorite tree): Oatmeal Aspen

Heh. Now to finish scanning, feed the Ravenous Maws^tm, and then SLEEP!!!

I used to have the "Gashleycrumb Tinies" poster, even!

The Hogwarts Tinies

After vetoing a bipartisan law to give health insurance to millions of Americans, mostly children:
"'Poor kids first,' Bush said. 'Secondly, I believe in private medicine, not the federal government running the health care system.'"

WHAT THE FUCK??!!

What the living hell is he thinking?! Yet another mind-boggling case of "do they even listen to themselves?"

I swear to the gods, I could literally slap someone right now. Hard. Or commit serious property dammage. (Yeah, that might sound kind of wimpy, but coming from me, it's like saying I could stab someone in the neck with an icepick.)

Furious? Outraged? Ready to slash the tires of the next Hummer with a "W" sticker? If not, go here for the rest of the story.

my gods, when will it stop? when will people GET it?

Many thanks to winterbadger! ^___^

LOL Cthulhu!

From winterbadger comes today a comment on a disgusting little bit of grave dancing and postumous libel that really ought to make you sick: Soldiers fighting the war aren't smart enough to write their own op-eds, much less form a reasonable opinion on the war.

Support the troops, kids -- unless they disagree with your pet delusion!

This is a little rambling: it's been hard to put all this together.

In response to a friend's post on 9/11:

I had completely forgotten what day it was (which is not unusual for me in general), until I read winterbadger's entry here. Then, of course, at the gym, CNN was all over memorials. I confess that my initial reaction was resistance – this war is so wrong and this administration is so corrupt, that while by no means do I "blame the victims" or would wish to downplay the bravery of the police and firefighters and civilians who risked their lives to help, I seem to balk at media-driven mass-mourning. Personal grief I can sympathise with, but sometimes I just think that the US, as a whole, is using 9/11 as an excuse to wallow and play victim and make everything bad Not Our Fault.

And that's not fair to those who did help and those who lost loved ones in the attacks and in the rescue. I tried to take a deliberate moment to look at the situation more clearly, more "neutrally," in a way, and reflect on the horror and sacrifice and courage of that day. I did do this, but I'm sorry to say that my day-to-day concerns pushed it all out of my mind more quickly than I'd like to admit.

A friend who posted yesterday said that “six years later, the events of 9/11/01 barely seem to register in mass media. I was at the zoo today ($2 Tuesday) and people were out, having fun, watching the animals. I didn't notice flags lowered … or anything else.”

And then I thought, why shouldn't people enjoy the zoo? When do we move on? If six years is too short a time to remember 9/11 with national grieving and lowered flags and closed businesses, when is long enough? Should we have a national holiday, like Memorial Day or Labor Day? Should we replay our fears and grief and anger every year for the next 10? 20? 100? And if so, how do we avoid 9/11/20xx from fossilising into just an excuse to feel self-righteous in our victimisation? Or, conversely, how can we keep the date from being a center of internal bickering, name-calling, and hate-mongering?

What happened on 9/11/2001 was evil. The people who planned and carried out those attacks were sick and, yes, evil – I don’t care what the alleged provocation was. But we are not unique. If every country ground to a halt every time there was a terrorist attack on its soil, there would be many nations that would have simply collapsed under the weight of their own pain. It is not morally worse that it happened in NYC that in Dafur or Bosnia or Palestine; it’s just scarier to us. Our surge in unity and compassion towards the victims was accompanied by an equal surge in hate and violence. Retribution – well we’ve seen how well it works in, say, Israel, eh?

I think one thing we have to do is take our collective head out of our asses. We are not the best, most righteous, most intelligent nation in the world. The US does not “deserve” peace and prosperity any more (or any less!) than any other country. We need to step outside our smug little glass bubble and take a look at how our actions and policies affect other peoples and how those same actions and policies might come back to bite us. Find the reasons and causes, not just lash out with violence. Sometimes I despair, but I have to believe that we can learn from this.

My heart is with all those lives were changed irrevocably by 9/11. I am proud of the people who rushed to help regardless of their own lives. I salute everyone who helped in other ways – with food, water, money, blood donations, or just a compassionate heart and willing hand. May we not forget what happened, but may we see it clearly, so we can prevent it from happening again.

PLZ NOTE!!! This icon, though constructed by me, is a total rip off of a t-shirt idea by yarrbunny over at deviantart.com -- go see her original here. Thanks, yarbunny! =^__^=

Okay, civilisation is officially dead:

http://www.luvcube.com/enjoy-love/hymen-repair-hymenoplasty.htm

http://www.luvcube.com/enjoy-love/labiaplasty-plastic-surgery.htm

http://www.luvcube.com/enjoy-love/vaginoplasty.htm

This entry is about my reactions to the Body Worlds 3 exhibit at OMSI. Some of the descriptions may be disturbing, so if you're kind of squeamish about dead people and descriptions of dead people with the skin off, you might want to skip this. (Actually, if you're squeamish, don't click the "Body Worlds" link above, either!)

( Read more. )

It's not something I'm not likely to forget soon, yet at the same time I'm not sure I really absorbed the whole thing properly. It feels a little like it was a dream I had rather than a real experience.

If you ever get the chance, and you're not squeamish, I highly recommend the exhibit. I, personally, am squeamish when it comes to "live" surgeries and stuff on tv, but I did pretty well with this, except for the unreality factor (^_^;). It helped that you knew these people were dead and there was no liquid -- everything was dry-looking and stiff.

Wow.