To Do This Summer

(With thanks to Acephalous for the idea).

1) Rest up from nursing school.
2) Lose 35 pounds (mostly nursing-school related).
3) Revive my massage practice.
4) Resume doing housework.
5) Blog daily.
6) Colonoscopy.
7) Refrain from detailing colonoscopy on blog.
8) Wardrobe triage.
9) Finish one of my stories intended for publicatiuon and actually send it round to magazines.
10) Gird myself for the resumption of nursing school.

//The Magic Eight-Ball says, "You know what you need to do."\\

Concrete in Bloom

I was looking at old posts today, reading about summers past, when the back yard became an extension of the house, and especially the summer of 2004, when the street was torn up and excavated so deeply that we could walk along with the curb at eye level.

It's summer again, and the back yard is living space again, but with a difference. Waldy's friend Lisa is camping out there with her puppy, to facilitate training him.

There's fresh pavement again, too, but this time just a few slabs of the sidewalk on the Tenth Street side of the house. Kathe and I rounded up some 2006 pennies and covered them in silicone caulk, and butried them under the gravel. Now there's fresh concrete on top of them, and most likely nobody will ever see them. But maybe....

Maybe when the time comes to break up those slabs and replace them, someone will happen to turn up one of those pennies, brush of fthe crumbling remnants of silicone, and find a bright, shiny 2006 Lincoln cent.

Maybe they'll pass it around among the crew, and one of them will say, "I think this was put here on purpose."

And someone else will look thoughtful and say something like, "People were very religious back then."

Elsewhere in the news, George W. Bush remains impeachable. Let's get on it.

And here's why: http://peacetakescourage.cf.huffingtonpost.com/animations/wwjd.html

//The Magic Eight-Ball says, "Yes."\\

Weighing In, June 2006

They're tearing up the sidewalk on the 10th Street side of the house. It's nothing like the great excavation of 2004, but it's a small disruption in our routine, and interesting to watch. We also picked up a ton or so of new broken-pavement flagstones for the yard, thanks to the kind co-operation of the sidewalk workers.

When I started nursing school, I knew that it would be hard enough going to school and working 40+ hours per week. I knew that some things would just have to be allowed to slide.

One was housework (thanks, Kathe!). Another was my massage practice (I've had only a handful of appointments this year). A third was my weight.

I deliberately avoided scales. It was painfully obvious just to see my belly (or to lug it around the house) that I was getting fatter, a lot fatter. But never mind: suck down the sugared coffee and munch the Mexi-Snax chips and get the homework done, worry about it later.

I weighed myself earlier this month and found I weighed 234 pounds -- almost as much as the last time I resolved to get my weight down. Oh, well, time for a new project.

You can tweak the amount of exercise you get, or the composition of your diet, but in the final analysis, the only way to get your body to metabolize its stored fat is to enter the state nurses call "altered nutrition: less than bodily requirements", and that state is acutely painful.

I'm having migraines almost daily, partly from the weight loss and partly from going off caffeine. Oh, well. I'll just have to get through it.

//The Magic Eight-Ball says, "One thing at a time."\\

Save the Voting Rights Act

From time to time, I'm reminded that our current difficulties with Little Mister Too Big For His Codpiece is not the worst indicator of this nation's health.

For instance, there's the fact that we actually have to ask whether the Voting Rights Act should be reauthorized.

If your own mind is clear on that subject, sign this petition.

And if it's not...well, in that case, go screw yourself.

//The Magic Eight Ball says, "Choose wisely."\\

Awful Green Things

Awful Green Thing #1: I had occasion several times this month to pass by a certain reception desk which was decorated with numerous frog-related memorabilia in all the major tchotchke groups: plastic, porcelain, semiprecious stone and plush. In response, I went downtown to Merlyn's Games and bought a Heroclix figure of the Toad. To make him fit in better, I painted his brown and purple costume green. I left it at said reception desk, which happened to be unoccupied at the time. One more message in a bottle released into the world.

Awful Green Thing #2: The swamp-spawn known as Katherine Harris, to say nothing of her fellow Creatures From the Far Right. Watch the NARAL video here.

//The Magic Eight-Ball says, "It's not easy being green."\\

How To Strengthen Marriage

From : http://leftinthewest.com/index.php/2006/06/05/six-policy-solutions-to-truly-strengthen-marriage/


If you want to do something that actually helps marriages, then

1. Raise the public’s consciousnesas of the dignity and importance of women in our still deeply patriarchal society.

2. Provide every couple with a guarantee of health insurance that spares them the relational strains inflicted by devastating illness and an inability to pay for medical care.

3. Increase the minimum wage and offer tax breaks to the working poor so that spouses can see each other for more quality length of time, rather than briefly passing eachother on their way to two jobs.

4. Cover mental healthcare in medical insurance policies so that serious emotional difficulties can be prevented from tearing marriages apart.

5. Encourage family planning.

6. Set aside resources for dealing with domestic abuse. Well, at least, that’s a start.

//The Magic Eight-Ball says, "What you say you want and what you really want are not always the same thing."\\

2996

The 2996 Project is dedicated to memorializing the people who died in the terrorist attacks of September 11th, 2001. All two thousand nine hundred and ninety-six identified deaths.

Watch this space, for September 11th, 2006.

//The Magic Eight-Ball says, "Remember."\\

Dear Doctor Frist

Please schedule a vote on stem cell research.

Act like a doctor for once.

//The Magic Eight-Ball says, "Unlike Doctor Laura, he really is one."\\

Mmmm...Bacon....

Jake sent me this:
http://mgrsti5395q.seamlesstech.biz/Merchant/2005TGP/BOM%20pages/bom.html

//The Magic Eight-Ball says, "This is your lamest post yet, John."\\

A Spit-Take Question

Molly Ivins asks, "Have the Republicans lost their moral compass without Tom DeLay?"

Okay, now that you've finished your disbelieving snort at such an absurd thought, consider how much worse they've gotten since he left.

//The Magic Eight-Ball says, "Many a truth were first spoken in jest."\\

How They Support Our Troops

Gradually adjusting to life without school -- will I ever be able to go back? Starting to do housework again, which I had let slide. Also starting to try to lose weight (ditto).

Kathe sent me this, a link to the weirdest commercial ever: http://www.boardsmag.com/screeningroom/commercials/2971/

She also sent me a link to another stolen - laptop - full - of - your - personal - information: http://shakespearessister.blogspot.com/2006/06/quite-odd-coinkydink.html


She also sent it to Jake, who responded with: http://ask.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/06/20/006211

So...just how many times can they have the same "accident" before we're allowed to become suspicious?

Christy Hardin Smith at Firedog Lake reveals that they're doing a heckuva job: http://www.firedoglake.com/2006/06/16/your-republican-government-at-workor-not/

//The Magic Eight-Ball says, "Surprise".\\

I've Always Wanted A Hidden Passageway in My Home

http://hiddenpassageway.com/

Haven't you?

//The Magic Eight-Ball says, "If I have a secret exit from this thing, I'm not telling."\\

Thank God He's On Our Side

Kathe sent me some links:

Look who's on the side of righteousness now: Burt Bacharach.

Consarn entertainment-industry leftists....

Tom S. Disch on Satan as a Teenager: http://tomsdisch.livejournal.com/22431.html?mode=reply&style=mine

The art, science and mathematics of origami: http://langorigami.com/

I found this one on my own: COMMON MONSTERS of the United States

//The Magic Eight-Ball says, "The world does indeed need love."\\

*Who* Said That?

Kathe sent me this, under the heading "Now Don't Laugh":

“The weight of international leadership is not borne easily, but we as Americans are more than equal to this challenge, and we must be, for if we imagine a world without American leadership we are led inescapably to this solemn conclusion: If America does not serve great purposes, if we do not rally other nations to fight intolerance and support peace and defend freedom, and to help give all hope who suffer oppression, then our world will drift toward tragedy…We go into the world not to plunder but to protect; not to subjugate but to liberate; not as masters, but as servants of freedom.”

Condoleeza Rice said this at the Southern Baptists Convention



My response: "Is it all right if I sigh deeply?"

//The Magic Eight-Ball says, "Is it all right if I puke?"\\

I Don't Like Feeling This Way

It's very un-Quakerly of me, but I'm starting to think that the world would be a better place if Congressman John Murtha bloodied the nose of the next person who calls him a coward.

//The Magic Eight-Ball says, "Is the fault in you, or in the world?"\\

The Physics Chanteuse

Jake sent me this link:
http://www.scientainment.com/pchant.html


Yes, Lynda Williams is cool, easily Bill Nye-worthy, but I still think Echo's Children is the best for scientific music, especially Cat Faber's literally awesome "Word of God"

//The Magic Eight-Ball says, "The rocks themselves cry out."\\

Down the Blackwell Again

Back in 2004, I made a reference to votes that disappeared down the Memory Hole, "or as it's known in Ohio, the Blackwell".

Well, the lightless maw is wide open again for 2006, and this time its tongue has extra tentacles for snatching even more ballots.

So, in the words of Boss Tweed (a Democrat, which shows how times have changed), what are you going to do about it?

[Note: You don't have to live in Ohio to be concerned, and you don't have to live in Ohio to take action, either. Let them know the whole world is watching.]

//The Magic Eight-Ball says, "___________" [Comment not found]\\

Dear Mary Cheney

I heard you on the radio today, saying that you continued to support George W. Bush in his successful* bid for re-election, in spite of his calls for a Constitutional amendment that would deny you the right to marry, because you sincerely believed that he was the one who should be President.

I hope that's true. If you really did make a stand on principle, and weren't just acting out of expediency, then it will be a lot easier for you to deal with the fact that there are millions of people out there who will never, ever forgive you.

//The Magic 8-Ball says, "Lie down with dogs, get up with fleas."\\

Just Fill the Prescription, Fellah

The lady already has a father.

//The Magic 8-Ball says, "Deal with it."\\

It's Not Funny Anymore

Look...

(deep sigh)

Let's just close the Guantanamo torture camp right now, okay?

We can talk later about war crime trials and civil rights lawsuits and truth and reconciliation committees, but for now...

Let's just stop, okay?

//The Magic 8-Ball says, "You know what you need to do."\\

Dear Dr. Frist

For once, act like a doctor.

//The Magic Eight-Ball says, "Sure, why not?"\\

Happy Jesus Day To All*

And to all a "Good grief!"

//The Magic 8-Ball says, "Jesus H. Christ!"\\

The Original Artists

I'm embarrassed to admit that it took me until now to find out that "Al Qaida in Iraq" is actually an entirely separate organization from Osama bin Laden's group.

It reminds me of that old joke about those record albums that promise all songs were recorded "BY THE ORIGINAL ARTISTS*!"

*["The Original Artists" is the name of a band under exclusive contract to ConCo, Inc.]

Oh, well, I guess I'm not the only one to be a tad confused. Our local newspaper ran a cartoon depicting Al Qaida as a two-headed snake, with the OBL head looking alarmed at the sudden removal of the Zarqawi head.

//The Magic 8-Ball says, "If you call a sheep's tail a leg, how many legs does it have?"\\

Credit George W. Bush With Another Abortion

The understandably anonymous author of What Happens When There Is No Plan B? adds "Not really" to the above attribution, but I don't think I want to cut him any slack on this one.

And the worst thing about it is that, yet again, the problem is not hate, but rather the true opposite of love: indifference.

Bush doesn't hate women. He doesn't want to hurt them needlessly. He just doesn't care.

Last lecture today. Finals on Monday and Tuesday.

//The Magic 8-Ball says, "Look to your own heart."\\