Friends

So today is a slow day at work. Ask me a question! Extra points for interesting or humorous ones. I will answer in a subsequent post. :-)

To all animal lovers!!! Russian cats asking for your help!

Please give your voice by clicking on the botton on the right side (the secret code needs to be inserted as well - just copy it from the top botton).

If this auction wins, a shelter in Moscow with hundreds of abandoned and rescued kitties will receive 250 kg of free food from the auction organizers.

Click here:
http://gonka.utkonos.ru/carts/?vus=1424&plc=2

Your vote counts...
Crossposting is appreciated…

Squee! What a cute baby.



A newborn black Jaguar, Panthera Onca, who is two-month-old and yet to be named, plays at the Huachipa zoo in Lima, Monday, May 5, 2008. The cub is the third black Jaguar born in captivity in Peru. (AP Photo/Martin Mejia)

( 2 more pix from Yahoo )

Whee, my super witch, whose name I'm going to keep secret for now thoroughly spoiled me - I got lots of lovely things:



( pics )

Thanks for all the well wishes yesterday, they must have helped. :-) The interview went really well I think (hopefully my perception matches reality) and it did go overtime, which I think is a Good Thing. After the interview I headed over to campus, changed out of my suit (oh, you should have seen me, I was so professional!), had lunch and headed over the library to study. I called one of my classmates who met me there later and we crunched the flashcards I made for the slide list over and over again until we knew it. I think it paid off because I was able to identify all of the slides by name, date, title, catagory, everything. It was a pretty grueling exam, including 6 essays, 2 of them long but I think I did well. I am really glad I took the class (Late 20th century Modern Art) I do think I came out of it with a much better understanding. It's fascinating stuff!

So now I can relax somewhat, even though I'll be on pins and needles about the job for the next week - they have two more people to interview. What a life.

Forgotten Florida By Amanda Baird Book Preview

So I've been riding my bike to work more often lately. Suddenly, that has given everyone in the office carte blanche to relay to me their "cyclists are such rude assholes" rants to me. Because I ride a bike, I get to hear snarky comments about how the cyclist ran the red light and gave them a dirty look for not yielding, or "how can these cyclists expect me to be nice to them when they can't follow the rules of the road!"

So, basically I have become the cyclist whipping child for my co-workers. Everything their perfect driving habits would love to scream at the offending cyclist becomes a lecture to me.

How did they know that my helmet is part of a Portland-wide satelite network that relays messages to other bikers in town?

BEGIN TRANSMISSION
"Alert, fellow cyclists. One of us going southbound on NE 20th gave a dirty look to a car driver making a right turn onto NE Irving. She is upset with all of us. Please remember refrain from giving dirty looks. Thank you.
END TRANSMISSION

I tell them that I ride my bike as well as I drive my car. They can interpret that as they will.

I'm in a bit of a pickle.

I've been asked to be a Guest of Honor at the biggest Canadian Anime convention (which is also in the top three North American Anime Conventions) - Anime North.

However, I don't yet have a passport.

They just asked me last night, and the con is in two weeks (Memorial Day Weekend). My research shows no reliable way to assure I can get a passport in two weeks, even if I wasn't on my way out the door to go to another convention (which I won't be back from until Monday, making it a week and a half turn around time.)

I'm exploring options. The TSA/Homeland Security website says that at this point US Citizens can travel back and forth by air with /either/ a passport /or/ a valid state driver's license and certified copy of US Birth Certificate. I have my ID and BC, /but/ at least the first airline I called said I /needed/ a passport (regardless of the HS rules. However, it was 10pm here and I was speaking to someone who was obviously not a native English speaker, so I'm going to check more later.

It is, however, pretty clear that to cross the border by /land/ is fine with ID and BC. However, it's a 2 hour drive from the nearest US airport (which I think is Buffalo, NY) into Toronto.

So, I'm asking - are any of my Buffalo area friends going to Anime North? If I made arrangements to fly into Buffalo, could I hitch a ride with someone to the con and get a ride back to the airport in Buffalo? I would be happy to help with gas money, etc.

Alternately, does anyone know of an airline that /definitely/ allows US citizens to fly into Canada and back on just the State Issued ID and Birth Certificate combo? Bonus points if you're a married woman whose name has changed, because (of course) my birth certificate has my maiden name, not my married one, and while that's not addressed on the website, I ran into problems with that when I got my state ID in Massachusetts (they required a certified copy of the marriage license as well (which I don't currently have) even though it said nothing about that on their paperwork - thus my paranoia.

I'd love to guest at Anime North, but am just not sure how to make this work on such short notice. I'd love to hear from those in the Buffalo/Toronto area who might have suggestions.

I just read an article by some idiot decrying the "feminization" of men. What with the crying, sensitivity, and beauty upkeep of the new generation of men. She touches briefly on how objectifying men wrongly doesn't make all the traditional objectifying of women better--two wrongs don't make a right--which in general is sensible (although if you're going to objectify someone else, it'd do you good to know what it's like to be objectified yourself). But what's with the berating men who collapse in tears in public as "girly"? What, it's so contemptible for men to style themselves and cry and stuff while it's not when women do it? I think it's equally contemptible when women get wrapped up in it, too. Why not berate those cry-baby, weak women? I don't see why we should condone it as long as someone has a uterus.

The end of dogmatic stiff-upper-lipped machismo and homophobia is a good thing. Men are humans. If some of them turn into blubbering idiots, well it's a side effect that has to happen for a while. And they were probably cowards to begin with--now it's just more acceptable to exhibit it to the world.

The most hilarious part of the article is when she laments "the decline in the male libido." Are you SHITTING me? There's no fucking decline in men's libidos. More men ADMIT to not being interested sometimes, which I thought was good because this whole pretense where manly men are always horndogs 24/7 was rather tiring. What a retard.

Meanwhile, there are plenty of other articles whining about how women have turned themselves into masculine ogres, what with the having their own careers, objectifying men, playing rough sports, daring to sweat and all that. Women are humans, too. No one likes living up to some stupid stereotype, and those who do are kinda weird, frankly.

Men who are sissies have always been like that, it's just that they make it more apparent to the world now. Women who are sporty can now pursue their drives. Hiding crap behind a facade doesn't make it go away. If you want to teach yoga and be vegan and dickless then more power to ya for being who you really are. I'd rather that than have all those women marry what they thought were manly men who later turn out to be homosexuals or useless gits. At least you get what you paid for.

okay, so there's a collection of ernest hemingway's "nick adams" stories. great. but why doesn't jean stafford's Emily Vanderpool character get the same treatment?

Please read this piece - amazing, unforgettable journalism:

The True Story of the Missing Jewish Women in Block 24 by liz_marcs.

The Holocaust is not very far in the past, yet so much has already been forgotten, ignored, even willfully denied.

People share knowledge and memories in the comments as well. Not to be missed.

Firefox now will not run at all on my computer. I tried reinstalling it. WHAT THE HELL.

It's called keppen-lubinsky syndrome and I believe it was recently discovered. This little boy has it and seems to be the only case I can find on the internet. He has a website dedicated to his syndrome.




http://daniele.giovannifiorenza.com/ehome.htm

I'm moving my workouts to the morning. This morning I got up ridiculously early so I could eat something before my workout, bummed around packing food for the day and so on, and did my laundry. (Sunday I thought I'd be clever and do it in the morning, when theoretically all the squares are at church and all the slackers are still in bed, but fucking everyone was doing their laundry! At 7 a.m.! But I got it done this morning, no problem.)

Then I lifted, did two circuits, almost died, finished with some intervals, and died. I was then resurrected from the dead, took a shower, toweled off, and WAS STILL SWEATING. That's fucked up. It was moderately warm out (and I get to walk to work...that warms you up more), I was already hot, and then I got to put on my still-hot-from-the-dryer clothes before I left for work.

Of course it rained on the way back home, so I guess it evens out. (I got a ride back, though. Take that, weather.) It just goes to show that when I remember to fully encase myself in sunscreen in the morning, it ends up cloudy.

Oh yeah, and everyone's all, "You can sip a protein drink during your workout to help fuel your muscles." If you're working hard, this just makes you want to barf. I almost passed out this morning; I don't need to feel woozy AND nauseous. Bleh. I'm lucky I had a low-volume breakfast, too.

( Boring crap. )

On tripadvisor.com the Bisbee Ghost Tour is #3 of Arizona Attractions, the Tombstone Ghost Tour is #10 of Arizona Attractions.

Yes we rock!

Hi,

Just in case anyone was planning a last-minute dive into the Villainess group order, which has hit free shipping, I am closing it tomorrow - if you're going to jump in, it would be great if you could let me know to hold on for you, as otherwise I will order once the existing participants have all paid.

(I've exams and a job interview in the next few days, hence my hurry for closure, but I don't want to miss anyone out by ending it earlier .)


Thanks!

I want to thank all those who voted for me so far. THANK YOU SO MUCH it means a lot to me!!! :) 

for those who don't know what I'm on about LINK

my nomination LINK

Lease renenwal is accomplished. Yay.

Took some Valium to get over the stress of it. Combined with not having slept well last night, I am sort of sliding sideways in my chair.

Not a pretty sight.

“Me and My Shadow” sung by Frank Sinatra and Sammy Davis Jr. just finished playing…made me think of my morning routine with Brahm. Which I will now share.

Currently Brahm wakes up either when my alarm goes off at 6:10 or by himself at 6 exactly. I change and feed him, which takes about half an hour. Sometimes I read to myself while he eats but not always—now that he’s more aware of his surroundings, the sound of pages turning is enough to make Brahm crane his neck and wave his free hand around in an effort to grab the book. (He is in love with crumpling up paper and cramming it in his mouth. Chad gave him a useless catalogue the other night and watching the boy destroy it was one of the funniest things I’ve ever seen.)

After I’ve fed him, I take him with me to the bathroom and plunk him down on the floor with a toy while I brush my teeth and put in my contacts. These mundane tasks are made immeasurably more fun when I can glance down at my baby any time I want and share a huge grin about each other’s existence.

Having put myself together, I transfer Brahm to either his saucer or playmat by the kitchen and go to kiss Chad awake. We all have breakfast—if Brahm isn’t too tired yet, I’ll give him a bit of rice cake or toast or something too—read Ozzie (that's Oswald Chambers to you), and put Brahm back to bed if we haven’t done so already. He’s only good for about an hour of wake-time at that point in the day, and often sleeps for two or three hours more once he’s been put back in the crib. Then I can get dressed (not a good idea to have work clothes on during mealtime with baby), fill my Trader Joe’s tote with lunch, water bottles, reading material, and other necessities, and head off to work.

I try to be on the road by 7:45. If I leave any later I risk being caught behind the lady who drives a massive wood-grain-sided station wagon—in our household she is acknowledged to be the worst driver in the world—or having to wait at the first stop sign for the school bus to ingest its quota of obnoxious middle-schoolers.

After an exhausting commute down Jamestown Road that takes anywhere from 5 to 8 minutes, depending on how I hit the lights, I park on Newport Ave and walk the remaining 500 yards to the Law School. When the students are around the side doors are unlocked by the time I amble up, but during the summer they often don’t get around to it till after 8, in which case I let myself into the main office with the key Gloria gave me. I say hi to Evelyn as she goes about her daily cleaning of the kitchen and emptying out of our office trash cans, turn on my computer, and start my day.

There now. Didn't you want to know all that?