August 9, 2004

長崎

9th of August, 1945.

So when I’m about to post a wu, sometimes I have to figure out how to do things. Not the simple things, I can italicize and bold. I can even make lists and center paragraphs. But sometimes, more obscure code is required. Namely, for symbols.

In any case.

This afternoon I was going through my mail. Two credit card offers and three bills. I dislike bills. Especially when my paycheck is several days late and the balance in my bank account is less than ten times the number of hours I spent online today. Suffice to say, I absolutely loathed bills this evening. And I didn’t want to pay them. So I didn’t. I put them aside and covered them with yesterday’s paper.

Then I went to escape.

But, while increasing the difference between my bank account and logged hours this evening, I couldn’t for the life of me remember what the code was to create a diamond in html. I just couldn’t.

Questing time.

I started searching. Google first, but I got very lazy very quickly. With over a thousand pages to search and no promising leads in the first ten results, there had to be an easier way. After several minutes of blankly staring at my homenode, the answer came.

One more quick check… yes, Firefox has that feature. Promptly I began a new search, this time without the help of Google. Everything2 would be my teacher today, and all I needed to do locate a writeup that featured a diamond. Or something like it.

It only took a couple of minutes.

There it was. What I had been waiting for. It was beautiful, there, between the two paragraphs. The node: On Neptune, it rains diamonds. I remember reading it long ago, but now the meaning of the words are twofold. I was almost too excited to execute the new plan. How could something so ingenious, nay, so simple, never have occurred to me before?

Slowly, I moved the cursor up to the top of the screen. The node in front of me, I clicked on “View.” One more step. My heart was beating, this was the moment of truth. Seemingly without my leave the cursor moved down to “Page Source,” and clicked.

Needless to say, I was shocked. What possible rational explanation could there be? Was there someone out there who was watching me through the window in the front room? This isn't possible.

Right in front of me, in that sadistic green type that denotes a comment in html, the page source for the node "On Neptune, it rains diamonds" was telling me to pay the bills. More specifically, it said “hey kids! Time to pay the bills.” And that was all.

Not knowing what else to do, I went and got out my checkbook.

Wow...I made blueberry muffins today that REALLY sucked!! I hate when a recipe looks really good, then blows chunks. First off, the recipe called for 1.5 c sugar and 2 c flour. I'm sure many great recipes exist with this high sugar to flour ratio (I made very scrumptious pumpkin bars last week that had a ratio of 1:1), but that seems a bit much to me for a muffin recipe. Maybe I'm wrong? Also, the recipe called for 4 teaspoons of baking soda!!!

I can't blame everything on the recipe, though. I did burn the first batch while putting my son to sleep (he awoke in the middle of the baking time). Those muffins were pretty dark. However, they didn't really taste burnt...if the recipe wasn't so bland I think I would have saved them from the trash. And I used butter instead of margarine, even though the recipe called for margarine. Could this have contributed to the muffins' demise? They tasted essentially like baking soda, sugar and blueberries, hardly rose, and collapsed in the middle.

Anyways, other than the muffins sucking monkey butt, I think I had an okay day. Isaac and I had a few minutes to burn before church, so we played at a park for a bit. There, we met a sweet black on white kitty who looked very lost. Someone obviously loved this kitty, as he appeared well fed (but not fat) and well groomed, and had been declawed. However, he wore no tags or collar. The kitty played with Isaac's feet as he swung on the swings. I love to hear my little guy giggle. That almost made up for the fact that my husband wouldn't come to church (I appreciate that hubby's asking questions about his faith, but I wish he would actually search for the answers).

The kitty and I made a deal; if he was lost, he would wait for me at the park and I would return after church to help him find his home.

While at church, I left Isaac in the nursery. He's 7 months old now, so he doesn't sit quietly like a good parishioner like he use to. I missed singing worship while holding him, maybe next Sunday I'll deposit him in the nursery between worship and the sermon.

After church, Isaac and I returned to the park to find the same sweet kitty, waiting for us. After briefly checking the surorunding neighborhood for missing posters, we took the little thing home.

As cute as the kitty is, it did not thrill my hubby to find him in our bathroom. Hubby declared that the kitty was not welcome overnight (I had planned to keep it up to a week while searching for its owner). So I called the Humane Society to ask a few questions, and I was informed that harboring a stray is illegal! So, alas, the kitty currently abides at the local Humane Society, where I can only hope it finds its way home. Maybe I'll post flyers in the neighborhood anyways, informing readers where the kitty is.

A headline on CNN.com states "Internation team to monitor presidential election. Observers will be part of OSCE's human rights office." I don't understand what the big deal in this is. A quote "Democractic members of the House of Representatives, raising the specter of possible civil rights violations that they said took place in Florida..."

Great, the POSSIBLE violations that the Democrats SAID took place in Florida, where the election was "stolen" from them.... I'm so glad through the United Nations, the place that can't keep the Oil for Food program free and needs to inspect itself, is sending help to inspect our elections. Doesn't make sense to me.

Well now that OSCE is comming does that mean King George I as people call him, can't steal the election? What happens if there is another close race and he wins again? Does this eliminate all possible violations because the OSCE is overseeing the elections? Does this make everyone feel warm and fuzzy?
"The presence of monitors will assure Americans that America cares about thier votes..."

I feel so much better about the election