| More Politics, Some of it Funny and/or Good News |
[Sep. 21st, 2008|12:36 am] |
Talking with ![[info]](http://www.journalfen.net/img/userinfo.gif) grlnamedlucifer about the VP debate craziness reminded me I need to try to keep track of the many ways Senator McCain is proving my crackpot theory right. So, here's my current list of ...
John McCain's continuing efforts to throw the 2008 Presidential Race:
- Asking Sarah Palin to be his Veep
- Confusing the SEC and the FEC
- Threatening to fire the Head of the SEC, when he can't do that
- Annoying (and possibly infuriating) Spain
- Claiming the economy is fundamentally sound in the middle of a huge economic meltdown
- Admitting his running mate is unable to debate and arranging special rules for her
- Phil Gramm
- Claiming he's not for bank regulation, when he has been for forever
- Claiming he does not want to privatize Social Security, when that has been one of his main goals for years
- This: "Opening up the health insurance market to more vigorous nationwide competition, as we have done over the last decade in banking, would provide more choices of innovative products less burdened by the worst excesses of state-based regulation."
- Confusing the National Guard with the Army
- Forgetting how many houses he owns
- Lying (so many times I can't list them all)
- Running attack ads that were so vile even Karl Rove called him out on it
- Publically trashing his major backers over the financial crisis
- Claimed repeatedly last week he intends to reform the fed. Government by throwing out … well, himself.
Am I missing anything?
In other news, on Friday, one of my Republican co-workers insisted to me that a Judge who is refusing to set one of her motions for hearing must be doing it just to be mean and evil because "she is one of the newly elected Democrats." I was like, "Bzuh? She's been on the bench for years!" I was right. The Evil, Mean Judge has been on the bench since 1989. And is a Republican. That's pretty much how things are politically at work. As you can imagine, I feel a little freaked out and frightened by my co-workers these days. Mostly people don't talk about the upcoming election, but there are ugly little notes and newspapers articles left around and when they do talk about it ... oh, boy!
Also, Ahahahahaha! Gotcha, Cheney! He'll probably find some way to wiggle out of it, but it's still nice to see someone in our current government try to uphold the law.
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| Hurricane Ike/I-ching |
[Sep. 13th, 2008|11:00 am] |
This is crazy, or even kind of creepy. My I Ching for today was "Creative Power" and this is the image for it:
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| Friday Five, Project Runway, Top Design |
[Sep. 12th, 2008|10:40 pm] |
thefridayfive:
1. If you were to die today, what would your last words be?
Good bye. Remember I love you all even if I’m not physically here with you. And please vote for Obama.
2. What would you want your epitaph to say?
Liz:
born - 1960; moved on to the next great adventure - 2008.
3. What song would you want played at your funeral?
I would rather my friends have a party and do something fun and adventurous in my honor than have a funeral. However, I understand that funerals are more about the survivors than the deceased, so maybe they could do something funeralish while they are doing something fun and adventurous. I would like the songs to be more comforting to them than anything to do with me. After my grandmother died, I listed to Escape Club’s I’ll be There a lot and it provided me a lot of comfort, so that would probably be my first suggestion.
4. In lieu of flowers, what should loved ones do in your honor?
I wouldn’t object to donations to groups that legitimately promote literacy, especially for minorities or to groups that support equal rights for women. However, I would also be happy if people used the money they’d spend on flowers to do something they haven’t done because they were afraid of trying it.
5. What unfinished business would you wrap up?
If I only have the one day, there’s not a lot I could do. I’d call family members and friends and tell them I love them and pay bills. I’d clean up my home. I’d find a new home for D Kitty. I suspect that would take most of the day. If I had a couple of days, at least, I’d probably either take my dad and go visit my sister or maybe try to get all of us someplace crazy and adventurous in addition to taking care of bills and D Kitty.
( Project Runway )
( Top Design )
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| Nightmares, Project Runway, Top Design |
[Sep. 4th, 2008|11:29 am] |
I don’t know what happened to NPR, but they’ve gone all Mr. Hyde on me. This morning I had to turn my clock radio off because they kept repeating the most offensive parts of the Palin speech on a continuous loop. Or maybe NPR hasn’t gone as Mr. Hyde as I thought and they’re subversively repeating the worst of it in order to get the sane people who want to help get this country back on its feet all riled up. I know they got me riled up.
After I turned the radio off, I went back to sleep briefly and had a horrible nightmare. In it, there were white fuzzy caterpillars all over my condo ceilings. And one of my bathrooms was completely inoperable. I wanted to spray the caterpillars to kill them, but 1) the bathtub and sink in the inoperable bathroom were overflowing and the shower curtain had fallen down and 2) I was afraid the caterpillars would fall on me and sting me. Then a sudden mutant ladybug infestation started and I woke up abruptly as I was trying to get out of there without touching a caterpillar or ladybug.
( Project Runway )
( Top Design )
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| Wank-Style Politics |
[Sep. 3rd, 2008|10:44 am] |
Does cancelling an interview and refusing to appear on a cable channel because they were Big Meanies count as a flounce? I think it counts as a minor flounce, but not a ~Grand Flounce~.
So far we have had sockpuppeting on Wikipedia , and now this flounce (and a near-miss with Snacky’s Law). I am still on the lookout for claims it was all a social experiment, the appearance of a Super Nanny, fake original artwork, soulbonding or astral plane marriages and accusations of password/identity theft.
Am I leaving anything out?
ETA:
LULZ! The Mean GirlsMedia won’t leave them alone! *Waaaah*
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| My Most Expensive Bus Ride This Year |
[Sep. 2nd, 2008|11:28 am] |
This morning was not a good start to the work week.
I slept late - just 2 minutes, but that’s enough to mess up my routine sometimes. By the time I was dressed and in the kitchen, I had just about 1 minute to get my stuff together and leave. So no coffee for me this morning. I ran out the door to the bus stop and the bus was pulling up. As I boarded, I realized I’d left my Monthly Pass for September in its envelope on the shelf by my front door. The bus driver was my usual driver, and he’s a great guy and he knows I always have a pass, plus his money-taker was out of service, so he said, “It’s okay – just go sit.” When I got to Mockingbird Station there was a big crowd at the stop fo the 21 bus, which meant the early bus was late, so I ran over to the ticket machine in hopes of buying a ticket before it pulled up. The machine took my $20 (which was all I had) and then beeped at me, impatiently. The bus pulled up. I finally realized the ticket machine was telling me it had no change. I tried pressing cancel and it didn’t work, so I ended up pushing the “authorize overpayment” button. Then my $20 day pass and I boarded the bus.
Things have been okay since I got here.
*knocks on wood* *crosses fingers and toes*
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| Political Volunteering |
[Aug. 30th, 2008|07:31 pm] |
Volunteering didn't go as expected.
In fact, this whole day didn't go as expected. I had a funny I-Ching throw this morning, that didn't make much sense to me. Tonight, looking back on this day, it makes perfect sense. The throw was "Decrease." I couldn't imagine at the beginning of the day what I would lose today, but the most interesting thing is that the source I use for I-Ching interprets Decrease not so much as loss, but as the path to increase. In short, the atmosphere has to absorb water from the lakes and rivers before it can produce rain to replenish them.
So, I left my bag with my MP3 player in it in a friend's car and had to do without it at the gym this morning. That meant I couldn't drift away in my music and instead spent the hour thinking, hard. When I left the gym I forgot to get my key from the front desk. I haven't figured out how I really benefited from this, except in that I had to do a little extra walking to get the key back, so I got some more exercise.
Then when I arrived at the voter registration event, there was no one there. I waited from 1:30 to 2:15 and only met two other volunteers -- no one organizing the event. The other volunteers were pretty cool, though, and there's an anime con going on so I ran into some really great cos players. I gave up at 2:15 and headed home. On the way back at Mockingbird Station I came across a really nice SMU exchange student who lives across the street from me and was completely confused about the bus routes and schedules and the layout of our area. So I drew her a map and explained the bus schedule, and we rode home from the station together.
When I got home I decided not to be upset about the non-event, and instead emailed the person supposedly organizing it and said I'd be glad to help at other events or in any other way I can. She emailed back immediately, explaining that she had attempted to put an ongoing exhortation to folks to go register voters at this particular DART station, not hold an event herself. She also told me about some upcoming organized events and asked if she could pass my information along to my precinct chairman. I said yes. And I've heard back, very quickly. So, not much volunteering today, but lots in the future and having nothing has led to having a lot!
Speaking of voting, my silly poll is still going on. Please vote!
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| Another Important Update -- My Sister's Book!!! |
[Aug. 29th, 2008|10:19 am] |
A month and a weekend from now, on September 29, my sister’s book will hit the shelves!
Here’s a link to the website for her book and here is a Wall Street Journal article about it by Jeffrey Trachtenberg. And here is her author facebook page.
I know I have obvious sister bias, but I genuinely think it is a wonderful book. It is not a stale, boring book about accounting or business management, but a fascinating, in-depth look at a man of tremendous influence.
I am so proud of you, A!!!
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| Something Important for a Change |
[Aug. 28th, 2008|07:14 pm] |
Move On is hosting/promoting a voter registration drive in Dallas this weekend. I'm going to help out at Union Station, and would love to have anyone local join me, but there are also other places and times where we can help.
I'm sure there are similar events going on in other cities throughout Texas. I hope that, if you are a Texan, you will consider participating. And if you're not a Texan, please pass this info along to any Texans you may have on your flist. And of course, please consider helping out wherever you are.
Texas has long been considered a gimme for the the farthest right of the Neocons. However, the last election we held here, while a local election, went solidly Democrat. I have seen some indications that the Neocons and hatemongers don't consider Texas quite so much of a gimme anymore.
I think that if we work hard enough, we can turn things around in this state. At the very least, we can make the Thugs devote considerable resources in terms of time and money and turn this state into a battleground state. I honestly believe we can do more than that and help elect Obama and many other progressives.
Pass it on! |
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| DNC, Fitness, Activities |
[Aug. 27th, 2008|02:22 pm] |
Joshua Green of The Atlantic apparently watched a completely different speech by Hillary Clinton last night than the one I saw. I am boggled by this review of her speech. I thought she was marvelous and impassioned.
I did have to laugh over Green’s description of Dennis Kucinich (a man I greatly admire) as a “meth-addled smurf.” He was bouncing around a bit.
After watching Senator Clinton’s speech I left the room my TV is in and went back in my office to goof around on the computer. I could still hear the TV and it sounded like the MSNBC folks were screaming at each other. I distinctly heard a gentleman screeching and shouting about Joe Biden. I’m kind of sorry I missed seeing it, as it sounded like the posturing before a wrestling match.
On an even more humorous note, someone playing Sims 2 Apartment Life has posted on the thesims2 comm about a very funny glitch they’ve had.
Last night my trainer took my measurements for the first time since the end of April. I’m a little disappointed that I’ve only lost 1 /2 inch from my upper arms and maybe 2 inches from my bust. But I’ve lost 3 1 /2 inches off my hips, 2 3/4 off my thighs and 5 off my waist. They got a new scale at the end of July and when I weighed on it my weight was actually up 5 pounds so I was depressed and didn’t weigh again until last night. Fortunately those 5 pounds were gone, but unfortunately that was it in terms of pounds lost. But at least I am moving in the right direction again.
More importantly, my range of motion and ability to move (especially walking) have increased exponentially over the last month. I’m hoping that and that little bit of weight loss mean my metabolism will kick up and I’ll make more progress this fall.
I need to be more active, in general, not just work out more. I’m planning on getting back into gardening this fall. I’d like to plant some rose bushes on my patio and clean up some of the junky stuff that is out there. And I need to do some weeding. But I’m looking for some other non-sedentary activities to take up, as well. I like crafting, but it’s pretty darned sedentary. Reading and movies are, as well. I’ll think of something.
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[Aug. 20th, 2008|07:02 pm] |
I created a Shelfari account today. Looks like fun, maybe? Anyone else using it?
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| Weirdness, Workout & Diet Stuff, More (Weather) Weirdness |
[Aug. 18th, 2008|07:26 pm] |
When I just tried to open www.livejournal.com a few moments ago, I got nothing but someone's icon with a really ugly female Sim and the text, "This is my happy face, bitch." I have no idea what that was about. When I hit refresh, LJ came up.
Happy news: I made it through 5 minutes on the stairmaster tonight. I thought I was going to die at one point, but I did it. Also, I figured out something to make tuna salad work. I was a fan of the kind with mayo (I know, I know, gross!) and I'm okay with a little vinaigrette, but tonight I used tzatziki sauce and it is perfect! I have that and a spinach, arugula and baby greens (plus some microgreens) salad and a little of the spinach & artichoke hummus and spelt flatbread I had yesterday for dinner. Yum! D Kitty's happy cause he got some tuna.
It is raining and 76 degrees in north Texas in mid-August. I haven't seen any pigs go flying by yet, but maybe the cooler temperatures are because Hell froze over???
Oh -- and I got some new pants today that are the exact same favorite pants I took to my sister's wedding in April, only they are 4 sizes smaller. And they fit! |
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| Weekend, Olympics |
[Aug. 18th, 2008|11:26 am] |
After Friday’s diversions, I ended up totally wrecking my weekend. I didn’t work out on Saturday at all. Spent the day having a headache and kicking and hating myself, instead. Then I ordered one of those new whole-wheat crust pizzas from Pappa John’s. It was not very good. Actually, it was kind of awful. I also ate a brownie. But at least the brownie was good. Then I stayed up until almost 4:00 a.m. watching two Russian women play for the tennis gold medal. Of course, I slept in on Sunday after that, and then couldn’t get to sleep last night. The only good things I did were going to Central Market for some very healthy groceries and cooking up a bunch of chicken breasts. Now I am exhausted, but determined to be good and treat myself well this week to make up for it. I know one weekend won’t wreck my previous hard work, but I’m still mad at myself, especially since I don’t feel good as a result of what I did and didn’t do.
I did watch a little Olympics besides that tennis match. I saw parts of the women’s marathon, the men’s 100 in track (wowza!) and lots of gymnastics last week. Watching Michael Phelps win his eighth gold was exciting. I was very impressed with the whole team on that relay. They were all incredible. And those new suits have changed the sport of swimming forever. I kind of feel like all the new world and olympic records should have asterisks beside them, because it doesn’t seem right to compare the pre-new-suit records to all of those set this year and onward. However, if I never see another beach volleyball match again in my life, that will be fine with me. It seems like every single time I turn the TV on, there is hours of beach volleyball.
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| Horoscopes, Fannish 5, Berries/Berry Recipes |
[Aug. 15th, 2008|11:54 am] |
Is today a bit gray, ELIZABETH? It is very likely. You won't be able to see how you can get out of your current situation. You may have some financial or physical problems at the moment. If this is the case, it is because you don't rely enough on your own abilities and good sense to pull you through. Of course, it is possible that you don't take care of your body as well as you should, but that's easily remediable.
No, astrologer, it is because it is raining.
It's hard to see where your life is leading these days, yet you believe that you would be happier if you knew for sure. Your thoughts are weighted down by responsibilities, so it's difficult to imagine a solution to your current blues. Paradoxically, accepting the truth as it is -- even if it's less than your ideal -- can put an end to your moodiness.
No, other astrologer, not really. I am not blue, or feeling weighted down. But it is raining.
thefridayfive is a set of music questions that I can’t answer, because I don’t really deal with music or relate to it in a way that works with the questions. And that sounds really weird, but I don’t know how else to explain it. It’s just to personal to me to be able to answer questions about it.
Today’s fannish5 is:
Name 5 books with the most compelling first chapters.
I’m just going to put down the 5 books with first paragraphs that I can remember off the top of my head. I don’t think that makes them great, necessarily, but if I can remember them that easily, they must be compelling to me.
1. Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone
2. The Haunting of Hill House
3. The Bible
4. Pride & Prejudice
5. Macbeth*
*Probably technically cheating since it’s a play, but I read the play before seeing it performed, so I’m counting it.
Since berry season is coming to a close, I’d like to buy extras this weekend and make some things I can store frozen that include them. I’m also considering making a blueberry clafouti. I would like to make a blackberry or blueberry sauce that is not a dessert sauce, but I’m not sure what to serve it on. The first thing that came to mind was venison, but I doubt I’ll have any in the near future. Panna cotta is another idea and I can make it and the sauce with splenda and have a low carb dessert. Any other ideas, flist?
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| Project Runway, Food Meme |
[Aug. 14th, 2008|01:33 pm] |
( Project Runway )
And now – A Food Meme!
1) Copy this list into your blog or journal, including these instructions.
2) Bold all the items you’ve eaten.
3) Cross out any items that you would never consider eating.
4) Make recommendations of specific places/products when possible
( The VGT Omnivore's Hundred: )
I watched a lot of Olympics over the past 3 days but I’m going to have to post about it later.
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| Olympics: Opening Ceremonies, Fencing, Beach Volleyball, Men's Gymnastics |
[Aug. 9th, 2008|08:58 pm] |
I think I had better write down a semi-coherent version of my impressions of the Opening Ceremonies before time erodes my memory of them too much, so here goes:
( Longer Version of My Impressions of the Opening Ceremonies )
Okay, that taken care of, let's move on to the FASHION SHOW!!!( Parade of Nations: )
( Fencing )
( Beach Volleyball )
( Men's Gymnastics )
Back to watching. More later.
Edited to change the wording on the transition from artistic portion of the Opening Ceremonies to the Parade of Nations, because it unfortunately appeared that I considered the artistic portion unpleasant, which is very much untrue. Sorry!
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| Olympics: Opening Ceremonies, Fencing, Beach Volleyball, Men's Gymnastics |
[Aug. 9th, 2008|08:58 pm] |
OMG! I have *pages* of notes from the Opening Ceremonies. I'll type them up tomorrow. But for now... OMG!
And now, thanks to the wonder that is the Internet, I am watching Dressage online. Joy! I am slightly concerned I may be up all night.
( Live Blogging the Dressage a bit ) |
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