Heyo,

Our community is in a sad state. Not to mention our country and world. Anyways, it's for sure you can't count on big business or the government to do what is right for people. Business' that have made money are laying people off so the fat cats can make even more profit. People with valuable skills are terminated...while the dead weight just keeps piling up. It's not what you know...it's who you know.

It all comes down to greed, lack of compassion, selfishness. Ignorance? Evil? We were taught how to share, and how to get along well with others. There is no excuse.

We need food. We need health care. We need a place to live. We need education for our children. We want to work.

It could be worse. This isn't exactly The Great Depression. But it could be better.

Good luck finding a job everybody!


Actual letter sent to former co-workers' mailing list. Around 50 of us got the axe in IT alone.
In a move that surprised no-one more than myself, I asked Leslie to marry me last week.

...and in a move somehow more difficult to believe, the fool girl said yes.

No dates or anything, we're going to take our time with this. And, you'll probably need a plane ticket to get there, whenever it happens.

...

I will never have enough words to describe the beauty I see, every day I that spend with her.

The alarm goes off and I snooze it. It's cold again. Cold and raining. My bed is so inviting. I'm beginning to wonder if putting the alarm across the room was such a swell idea. It seems to compel me back to the comfort of my blanket and pillow. I step out into the cold room and then scurry back to bliss.

It's my last morning as a free woman. I keep telling myself I should just hunker down with Mr. Vonnegut and relax today. Too much to do. Though, if I don't take today for me, I might end up regretting that decision.

I've drawn up some plans for a desk I would like to build for Madison. Something just his size. In my plan, it's convertible for the sake of growing with him.

Perhaps it would be more in keeping with our new life to have him help me build it. Decision made...I'll play Jesus tomorrow

The first “snow day” of the year here in the heartland!

Actually it started Sunday evening when borgette and I were sitting around watching television. We had gone to the Ohio State University women’s basketball game during the afternoon and all morning long the news kept briefing us about how much snow we could expect and when it would arrive. ( I don’t know about you fine folks, but where I live, there seems to be some kind of morbid fascination with all things weather related. It’s really strange, we spend more time talking about weather we don’t get than we do about how things actually are. But anyway…) This time, the forecasters were pretty much on target and by the time all was said and done, we got between 5 and 6 inches of the fine white powder I think it was around 7:00 PM when it was announced that schools would be closed the next day. Borgette kinda looked at me with this evil sorta grin spread across her face and asked if she could stay up past her usual bedtime since there was no school the next day. I saw no harm since she would probably sleep in the next day and allow me to get a few more winks of precious shuteye.

As morning dawned the next day, the skies were gray and overcast. After a breakfast of French toast, orange juice hastily prepared by yours truly, it was time for a rematch in the newly acquired skills needed to play cribbage. (A fine game btw!). At around 10:00 AM the real fun would soon begin…

After getting dressed in our snow gear, it was off to the outdoors to frolic in mother nature’s latest gift. About five or six hours later, after going through many a pair of pants, every pair of gloves in the house, changes of socks and many helping of hot chocolate, it was time to take inventory on the thing we had done and built. We had what seemed like a never-ending snowball fight. We made snow angels. We built tunnels large enough for a couple of kids or one semi-overweight adult to crawl through. ,We built snowmen of varying heights and girth. We built snow forts that protected us from the ravages of other neighborhood kids and to protect and stash our growing arsenal of snowballs. We built an igloo, replete with a roof and windows to both warm ourselves in and look out upon the beauty the snow had created. We built more memories…

As I put borgette through her regular bedtime ritual and I tried to massage my stiff and aching muscles, it crossed my mind that’s there was one thing amongst all of those things that I know we didn’t build. We didn’t build any walls to come between us.

I know many of you are probably thinking this sorta stuff is either kinda sappy or just plain hogwash and while that might be true in many cases and you can call me an old softie if you want, it’s what makes my life all the more better in so many ways.

More snow called for later today! ALL RIGHT!

The following is a fine rant I posted at linkfilter.net. I'd like to share it here as well. No? You no like for me to share here? I share anyway. Links to sources below rant. One of my favorite rants in a while.


Oh joy...

Posted by gnosis23 on Jan 26, 2004 08:29am

...yet more ad hominem attack nonsense disguised as opinion for simply questioning the same old uber-ultra-patriotic jingoistic horseshit.

Even more amusing is when no-name reporters try to fan the flames of alleged controversy disguised as political opinion to further their careers. I wonder if 'reporters' like her spend that much time wondering whom is famous enough for them to attack to garner recognition?

*yawn*

What an easy target, anyway. People expect thespians to have concise, well rounded opinions that fit neatly into sound-bites? When in all of the known history of this good Earth did any complex issue ever boil down to a soundbyte, much less one from a harried, hounded, and dim-witted actress? What, are these actors and actresses all minoring in political science whilst at film school or something? You're telling me that these political views and opinions are so fragile and hollow that it matters what she or any other airheaded actor/actress says?

What an insane world this is. Where's the goddamn reset button? It's time.

"Ooo! Look! I'm smarter than a scatterbrained actress! Ooo! Ooo! Lookitme! Attack! Attack! I can't think of anything constructive to say, so I'll just pick an easy target! Ooo! Look! See? Attack! I told you all those people questioning the motive and authority of the Federal Government (though it has been wrong before, it can't possibly be again! What are the odds? SHHHHH!) are all weirdo scatterbrained hypocritical losers! See! I have an example! Since her opinion parrots this other persons opinion, they must all be equally scatterbrained!"

*beleaguered sigh*

Is it too late to go back to the fucking trees yet? Yes? Whattya mean you burnt them down for cattle grazing land? McDonald's?!? What the fuck is that? Eww! And you eat that shit and willingly call it food? Right. I'll just keep moving. There just has to be some nice trees with some nice fruit to go hang out in somewhere. I hope.

I'm so sick to death of all this incredibly foolish and wasteful assgrabbery. (It's not even *fun* assgrabbery. At least if it were fun it would have purpose and not be wasteful. Go fly a kite for fuck's sake. Go bowling. Go take a flying fuck at the moon!)

So much jingoistic bullshit on all sides of every fence. So much semantic bullshit. Linguistic "framing". Ad hominem attacks a go-go. Semantic incivility.

What an insane pother of wasted breath, this fearful and juvenile questioning of every single quirk and nuance of any and all humans around them who might just possibly think about or see things differently.

God forbid we allow anyone the freedom to be different. We all know that just leads to terrorism. "Oh Dear GOD! Are you questioning the God-granted authority of our dear President? HE MIGHT HEAR YOU! YOU'LL JINX US FOR SURE YOU FILTHY COMMIE BASTARD!"

We're all complicit, every single one of us, of allowing a pervasive culture of unqualified fear, loathing and doubt to fester and swell beneath our very feet and threatening the fabric of (western) society itself. The rarely questioned ideals of the nearly invisible "social contract" itself is threatened in the process.

Wherever there is pervasive fear and suspicion, violence follows shortly after.

Whatever. I'm pretty sure we're fucked. Maybe I should just save my breath, err, keystrokes.

Pissing upwind in a blizzard has never been a good idea, anyway, unless you savor piss-cicles.


Article in question is here, and I doubt it is a permalink, but the major points can also be found at the second link: http://www.jewishworldreview.com/michelle/malkin.html

Full linkfilter blog article and comments are here: http://linkfilter.net/?id=38428

Elections are stressful, and today is especially stressful because my candidate -- Howard Dean -- will be made or broken by the results. A win here would be a tremendous victory, and a close second place will keep the campaign alive. Anything less will mean the end of the Dean movement -- which too Democratic activists by storm last summer and promises great change in the party if Dean gets the nomination. We’ve been under attack by the Democratic National Committee since fall, and today could be the blow that finally kills us.

Although I think Dean can still win, odds are that John Kerry will be the victor. Kerry, I’ve said before, is a terrible candidate -- he has an inconsistent voting record, and was an unexceptional Senator, having never introduced a single piece of legislation during his two decades in the Senate. Mark my words, if Kerry is our nominee, Bush will beat him to death on several issues: 1) Kerry is an elitist patrician, but unlike the President, he doesn’t make an effort to sound like a normal person; 2) John Kerry is a liar and an exaggerator who flip-flops on the issues; 3) Kerry is without any convictions, essentially a political opportunist.

No amount of military service will change this -- this is the same strategy the Republicans took to bash Al Gore, and it will work just as effectively with John Kerry.

But a Kerry win is just what the Dem establishment wants -- at least, it’s what the people in power want. Word from some professional campaign workers I know here in Washington is that the DNC is willing to give up this election to Bush so as to ensure a Hillary run in 2008. That beating Bush in 2004 was never their goal, and the fact that Dean has so effectively provided an outlet for the party’s general discontent with the President is a mere inconvenience in their overall strategy. They want Bush to win, and they don’t care that he’s doing his best to cripple the Federal government -- power is their only concern, and now is not the right time for their candidate to ascend to the throne.

The jury’s out on whether or not I believe this conspiracy theory -- given my level of cynicism and disillusionment with the Democratic Party, it wouldn’t surprise me if it was true. I’m not sure they’re organized enough to cripple their own chances for a White House win, but they’re probably cunning enough to do it.

Mmmm yum, I just had a Kebab roll. The pizza joint around the corner makes them, and they are delicious!

They consist of a large round tortilla-like bread, made fresh out of pizza dough when you order one, layed out flat and loaded over with lettuce, tomato, onion, cucumber, hot peppers and the grilled beef sliced off one of those huge rotating grills. All is splashed over with the sauce of your choice (garlic for me), and then rolled together inside some foil. Hot, strong and great with beer.

I'm enjoying this cheap danish beer too, brewed localy by Carlsberg. All in all a happy culinary experience.

In order to put daylogs where they belong

I now have a livejournal account.

You can in future find any trivial waffle that I choose to exude over there. No more daylogs on e2 from me.

That is all. Thank you.

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