I hate you. Cause you're not a daddy long legs. I like them.

Screw you, you nasty evil spider! You're welcome to feast on the bugs on my front door at night, but OH MY GOD don't you come in my house! I hope drowning in Tilex was PAINFUL. I know it was damned slow enough. F*^$*&g bastard... My maniacal laughter at your demise woke my husband! Ok.. so it was.. whimpering. HE WAS LIKE TWO INCHES FROM MY SHOULDER!!! I love spiders. But I'm still human. Poor husband :( He came out to smoosh it. Now I'm all... creepy crawly. /whine

Life 9, Diet -4.5. Well, almost even...

So, I FEEL like a lazy bum, but today I went to the university to set straight when I really need for the nursing program's entrance qualifications (based on my transcripts); got fat on Dairy Queen (score!); deep cleaned the spare bathroom; put away laundry; washed and hung laundry; made the bed; researched class times for spring; got ahold of the bank about my MISSING 401k; stopped being stubborn and started Ogre Tannin/Free Knot grinding like I should have been from the start; and gathered mats for the DMV on Odinsday. I also ate three candy bars, a whole head of celery covered in green goddess dressing, and drank half a liter of diet soda, and skipped the gym... Today the diet failed, but life prevailed. I say we're even.

Every time I watch 'Bones'...

Every time I watch an episode of Bones I remember the first time I got to go to a Museum. I went with my class, and was something like 8 or 9. We went to see an Egyptian exhibit. Of all the things a child remembers, this day is burned in my head and crammed with wild images. I'd been excited to go; my mom had shown me a picture she snapped with a disposable of the bust of Nefertiti, on viewing in a museum in Berlin. The picture was dark and slightly fuzzy, but the picture was beautiful. That was around the time I also read "The Egypt Game" in school. A bunch of kids create a club in an abandoned shop, and they all dress up like ancient Egyptians. I LOVED Egypt. I remember cases of gold, odd bits of trinkets and bones, a ten-foot statue of Bast that I just stared at open-mouthed (wonder if She's why I love all things 'cat' so much...). I even bought a keyring in the shop, a miniature of that statue. I still have it in my 'box of precious things'.

At the museum the class got to sit through a presentation given by a woman with a skull and a brain spoon. She told us all how the ancient Egyptians prepped bodies for mummification. She showed how they took that slender spoon, jabbed it into the nose (breaking the small bone blocking its passage to the brain) and scooped out the brain "piece, by, piece" (she punctuated each word with a scoop and flick of the wrist and spoon.) I was rapt. The whole day was unreal and yet so real I could have drowned in the air.

I've thought about that day more often than I can count. I insert the memory into books I've read, especially if there's a main character in a museum! I see them as me, looking at everything, lining the walls, sticking their noses over glass cases. The numbers of young-adult novels I've read about Egypt and other ancient cultures numbers WELL into the double digits.

Anything ancient fascinated me. I remember sitting in fifth grade history class, flipping through the textbook and finding a comparison between the current alphabet and the ancient Phoenician alphabet, and beside it, the ancient Greek alphabet. I memorized that Greek alphabet. It was missing some letters (J, which is important, as it's hard to write your name in a new ancient alphabet you learned when your name starts with a letter not present in said alphabet) and invented the letter using a connect 'C' and 'H'. I figured since our 'J' sound is very like our 'CH' sound, that the substitution made sense!

I later tried to teach myself the Egyptian Hieroglyphs, that proving a bit more difficult and I later was forced to put it aside if I wanted to have any brain cells left. I did know how to glyph my name at least. I remember loving ancient myths from Greece ('Arrow and the Lamp', an Eros and Psyche myth is a favorite), Egypt, Aztec. If you can find it, I remember a fiction called 'The Jaguar Princess' being awesome when I was 14! I still love myths and legends, and the stories we have now that are based on them. You can see the evolution of almost everything in the ancient things people have forgotten. From Tristram and Iseult, to Arthur and Gwen, to Romeo and Juliet. Most of the religions in the world are reincarnations of older ones, shaped and and remolded for new audiences over the centuries. History has fortold our future, but we only see it in hindsight.

Everyone likes a good crime drama. The good guys win, the bad guys pay, and you always think you know whodunnit before the characters (giving the viewer a keen boost to the self-confidence for the day!) Is it seriously weird that when I see someone examining bodies, crime scenes (old ones, more puzzle), and the process itself that figures it out, I get a kick out of it more than when they do the door-kicking in? Ok, that part's cool too... Bah I went all tangety again. Grain of salt, yadda yadda yadda.

It's no wonder that I like the SCA so much. A place where history is literally alive (only without the plague!) We attempt to reconstruct food, culture, clothing, from a period most people hardly realize built what we have today.

Taking this soc' class is giving me a renewed interest in some of this stuff again, though the class is focused very much on current Western economical sociology. I remember my high school soc' class being a bit broader. The teacher used a lot of tribal and older (if not ancient) sociological examples. I liked that. Toss it all in there with my enjoyment in taking bodies apart (I WAS one of the only girls in my classes who LIKED dissecting), and a love of digging in the dirt... I could totally have fun in so many of these branches. Too bad most of them require doctorates just to get started.

It's ok... I got time.

Freedom is Slavery. - Nineteen Eighty Four

This whole thing makes me sick. In the videos embedded in the first link, you can see the man's privates jiggle. Yea. Imagine your 5 year old son in that machine. Imagine your 5 year old daughter being exposed like that.
Tracking as I go.

http://www.optoutday.com/ Posted by friend Bryan, first I heard about this full body scanner and the pat-down procedures.

The TSA and the full-body-scanner lobby | Washington Examiner
The TSA and the full-body-scanner lobby | Washington ExaminerPresident Dwight Eisenhower tried to warn us about the growth of a "military-industrial complex," but these days we also have to worry about a Homeland Security-industrial complex. September 11th, the creation of the Transportation Security Administration, and the Department of Homeland Security may slow us down when it comes to boarding planes, but it has accelerated passage through the government-lobbying revolving door it appears.


TSA encounter at SAN Posted by some friends on Facebook.
Full account of a man refusing to be sexually assaulted in order to take a flight. It's awful.

I kept thinking, if a Muslim woman was subjected to this there would be political outrage. Trying to find the laws of Touching for Muslim women (I know men can't touch them, unsure about Western women touching them). I, found this...

Obama Gives a Pass: TSA Won’t Touch Muslims’ Junk

CAIR said Muslims who object to full-body scans for religious reasons should know their rights if they are required to undergo a pat-down, including asking for the procedure to be done in a private place. In addition, CAIR offered a “special recommendation” for Muslim women who wear a hijab, telling them they should tell the TSA officer that they may be searched only around the head and neck.


“Before you are patted down, you should remind the TSA officer that they are only supposed to pat down the area in question, in this scenario, your head and neck. They SHOULD NOT subject you to a full-body or partial-body pat-down.”

Reasons I despise today's early-20-somethings.

Tuesdays I am forced into the middle today today's American University Culture, and I despise it. Half of them have a Starbucks coffee, playing bad music on their media phone (on speakerphone, so everyone can see how Hip they are), and others ride their bikes and boards through the breezeway (clearly marked Walk Only).

Today:

-Someone honked at me as I slowed down to take the very tight turn onto the one lane street where my Parking Garage is. Bad move on their part: there's no way to move around me so I slowed to a horrifying crawl. I then even Sharked a parking space, just to make them wait longer.

-Walking on the 2-person sidewalk on the righthand side (walk like you drive...) two persons walking abreast toward me, the one in my path is the male. Chivalry, decency, common courtsey, aaall dictate the male should have made way for me, the smaller female hugging the very edge of the sidewalk to begin with. Instead, deep in important conversation with the female he hoped to bone later, he simply continues forward and almost shoves me off onto the grass. Seriously? -.-

-Walking to the building, which is a no-smoking area btw, a young woman in a white belted mini-dress (mid thigh hem) stands smoking, with her right leg up on a bench, clearly showing she wore no shorts beneath her dress (which MIGHT have allowed her to stand thusly and not seem a total indecent whore.) Really?? Between this and Husband's recent tale of a woman regaling the study-hall with her random sex in a bathroom, with a stranger, at a party, and pouring out the details of her sex acts.. I am simply disgusted and astounded.

Is this really considered acceptable behaviour now? Is this worldwide, or just freaking Boca? Either way, I want out.

Ignorance overshadowing beauty.

Anne Carberry Loppnow Poor kid.

Janna A. Kepley ‎...I would like to 'dislike' your comment. This photograph is beautiful.
You have no context for the photo and assume to lament a child based on the their people's religion. Shame on you.

To Vote... or not to stick my nose in it...

Not to sound ignorant, but, if I go vote on the Florida Constitutional Amendments (based on the nifty info I found onhttp://www.ballotpedia.org/, do I HAVE to vote for House of Reps etc etc. It's kind of insane to think I could make an informed decision with so many different people to sift through (even if I hadn't taken a fancy to thinking about it 12 hours before cutoff.) But I don't want to do something insane, like just take the NRA "Personal Voting Card" down and just check off everyone who likes guns. I like guns. But I'm pro a bunch of other things that don't always jive with the stereotypical gun toting voter.. -.-

PS. Florida should consider itself lucky that I'll probably oversleep and not vote (I never vote the first year I live somewhere anyway :P) cause these are what I've got so far:

Amend 1 = NO
Amend 2 = YES
Amend 4 = Yes
Amend 5 = Yes
Amend 6 = Yes
Amend 8 = NO
Florida Federal Budget Advisory Question = Yes

Governor: Rick Scott
Lt Gov: Jen Carroll
AttnGen: Pam Bondi
House: Deutch
Senate: Meek
And the rest is lost on me.

Edit1: My Sister in law tells me I can leave stuff blank. YAY!

Edit2: Well, since it turns out the voting place is literally 2 blocks away, open til 7pm, I already have a voter card for here, AND I've picked out some opinion placements... suppose I rather HAVE to go now. :P

Edit3: Since I have the results already (just 12 hours later) I'll add them on. I DID go vote today, aaaand here's how we did.

Amend 1 = NO BZZZZZZT It passed.

Amend 2 = YES --Passed

Amend 4 = Yes BZZZZZZT It failed.

Amend 5 = Yes --Passed

Amend 6 = Yes --Passed

Amend 8 = NO BZZZZZZT It passed.

Florida Federal Budget Advisory Question = Yes. --Passed

Governor: Rick Scott / Jen Carroll. At this time, no news.

AttnGen: Pam Bondi. According to Florida Independant, she Wins.

House: Deutch. I can't find a definittive answer.

Senate: Meek. Lost to Rubio, who wasn't in my Top 3.

And for those REALLY interested: a list of what those are.

*From http://ballotpedia.org

Halloween 2010

Managed to get the day off for Halloween, though we weren't sure if we were going to get a lot of trick or treaters, being at the end of a cul de sac. Turns out it's even worse as we don't have a street light so our street is reaaaaaally dark. AND it's a Sunday night. Our only child was early, and he was the kid from across the street. Otherwise we had 4 groups of young teens, none of them with costumes. A group of young black girls (complete with the one in tail talking on the cell phone) took HUGE handfuls of candy. I swear they got a pound of candy between them. We only bought two bags, a combined four pounds. After the last group of teens, in the dark, I closed up shop.

We head to the store and saw tons of cute princesses and pirates on the streets, just not down our dark cul de sac. Boooo. I made the door all neat and bloody and murder scene like. I tried a "Skipper, the Country Club Killer Housewife".

Today I completely forgot to eat real food and ate soooo much candy that I made myself ill! Spent the rest of the night watchin' Bones (kinda dry, I know, but it's the job I wanted to do when I was younger. Too bad I realized it required a doctorate and couldn't afford it.)

PS: A quick dish on the dishes:
Breakfast: Baked Eyes (whole eggs, baked in biscuits), and Pumpkin Pancakes (oh what a disasterous recipe THAT was.)
Lunch: Mummy Dogs and Bloody Bandages. Well, more like Anaconda-attacking-dogs and I forgot the cabbage :P
Dinner: Bloody Birdie and WHO NEEDS VEGGIES! I stuffed the hen with cranberry sauce so it would bleed when I carved it. And yes, I forgot veggies all together. We ate lots of beans to make up for it. Cocoa beans. Or candies derived from them. LOOK OVER THERE!

Happy Samhain!