More than meets the I

Sorry ... inside joke. ;-)

First performance has come and gone; it went well. :) Video hopefully in a week or so.





See? I haven't been lying this whole time. ;-)

How ironic, coming from me -- for most of my life my head has been so far buried in the sand that I think I sniffed mantle. But not anymore.

Martial law. Martial law. Does that have a terrifying ring to anyone else? First it was the "sure, it's okay to torture anyone we feel like calling a terrorist" bill. Now, Bush has signed this Martial Law bill (full thing here; look for section 1076). Have you heard about it? Seen it trumpeted on the news perhaps? No?

"This is how democracy dies: with thunderous applause." Well, we need to STOP APPLAUDING. And we need to find those dolts that ARE applauding and get it through their skulls exactly what all of this means. Bush is slowly feeding himself more and more power; he is a parasite growing fat on our diminishing freedom RIGHT IN FRONT OF OUR EYES. And because he calls his actions "saving" our freedom rather than destroying it, because the media assures us that yes, we should be terrified and those in power are "protecting" us with these measures, the public remains quiescent. Detention camps are being built under our noses! George Orwell may have been two or three decades off, but boy did he seem to be right on the money. Big Brother is moving into your life, into all of our lives, and we need to stop it now.

I have never voted before. I registered to vote for the first time this year. I will vote. I believe the first step is to wrest some measure of control from the severely right-weighted federal government. Put some oppostition in front of the nascent dictator. There are limits on the president's power for the very same reasons that Bush is trying to get rid of those limits -- to keep the would-be emperors in check.

But dammit! Why have the Democrats been pussies for the past several years? I keep listening to debates and interviews on the radio, and with few exceptions they just don't have any sort of plan to get this country back on track. The critics are right: the Dems' primary argument is "elect us; we're not Republican!" And this is not going to get them anywhere! The Republicans' plans may be terrible and terrifying, but at least they've GOT one, and therefore they are able to get people behind it. How can anyone get behind the battle cry "we're not the other guys?" They need to be taking a cue from Obama. There is a smart guy. I sure hope he runs in '08. Nonetheless, it's frustrating to me that currently, realistically, we only have the choice between mediocre and awful. Fuck you, Machiavellli, why did you have to be so right?

I don't think I've ever gotten this worked up over politics before. Don't get me wrong, I still hate it. I don't think many people up there are looking out for the interest of the people they are supposed to be serving. But it's going to get a lot worse unless we start standing up and shouting about the things we know are wrong. I don't know a lot about what goes on in politics; I can't cite a lot of specific examples to prove my points. But I think it's pretty clear we are headed in a very scary direction, and maybe if enough people stand up, shake the sand off, and start clamoring we'll be able to stop it.

Vote. Do it. Please. Stop Big Brother before he is unstoppable. I like not being spied on, don't you? I sure like not being tortured. Vote.

Is sex necessary? Well ... yes. ;-)

This all makes perfect sense from a biological standpoint, of course. I wonder if this research was just for fun? I, for one, was amused by the term "mineral delivery system." Baby, I love it when you talk ... clean ... um.

At least you have a conclusive argument against that tired old headache line now!

I have a new linky at the bottom, folks, and I'll include it here for good measure:

http://kateandbentoeurope.blogspot.com

These are two of my favoritest people in the whole world, and I want to share them with you. Not to mention the fact that Ben has the finest writing style this side of ... of ... other good writers and/or landmarks.

Dig it!

I suck at posting lately. I don't feel too bad, though, cause nearly everyone else I subscribe to does, too. ;-)

So, this will be a boring and brief news post.

1. I am officially hired away from the temp agency at the magazine company where I've been working the past five months as of Friday. I now have a for-real job. And, what's more, they put me in the finance department -- I am officially a Financial and Administrative Assistant, or "mini bean counter" for short. I still dream of working for Google one day but this will do for now. ;-)

2. My first belly dance performance for real people ever is this coming Sunday. I finished making my outfit last weekend. Which is to say, I covered a bra in velvet and sewed some shiny things onto it, and started working on a belt but then miraculously found a hip scarf that matched the bra I had made and thus got to throw the belt out the window. It looked like ass anyway. I really need to learn to sew! In any case, I'll be doing a veil piece (which it turns out is not unique -- seems most every one of the students is doing something with a veil; hopefully the audience won't get bored!). There will be pictures and hopefully some video I can throw onto GooTube, if it turns out all right. ;-)

3. I have discovered "Battlestar Galactica." I think my nerd quotient has just gone up by 50 points -- but it's a surprisingly good show, and our friend has sweetly loaned us the whole first season on DVD so we can watch it whenever we want. I do enjoy this whole TV-on-DVD thing. I am sincerely anti-TV, but I must admit that now and again something decent comes out (what was the aphorism my mother gave me? "Even a blind squirrel finds a nut now and again") and it pleases me that I can watch it on my own schedule and without inane commercials.

4. I will be in Phoenix over Christmas. Okay, Thanksgiving too, but I'm only going to be there for a family-centric three days or so then, and I'll be there for much longer over Xmas, which is why I'm not making any promises for T-day. Cliff and I are driving both times.

I think that's about it for now! I'll try to post something more thought-provoking (for someone, at least) next time. :) Oh, yesterday was Mole Day. Happy belated Mole Day!

So. Yesterday was my one-year blogging anniversary. "Blogiversary?" *shudders* Astute readers may note that my archives only go back to November; I am including my brief Myspace-blogging career as well as this one here.

I did a "one year ago" post recently, so I don't feel the need to do so again quite so soon. However, I would like to say that I think this blogging thing has been a success. I started this online journal as a way to chart my own soul-growth, and by being conscious thereof perhaps expedite the process. A year later, I feel radically different from the person that started this blog. Perhaps even more amazing is the fact that I managed to keep it up fairly regularly in the first place; I'd never been able to keep a diary in my life before this.

To achieving goals!

From XKCD:

We have switched to a new radio station that plays all the music that was popular when I was 12 or so, and I just confirmed that yes, I still do know all the words to "Baby Got Back."

I don't know whether to be proud or ashamed.

Huzzah for independently owned coffee shops. Cliffle and I are sitting in a Sufi coffee shop, the back of which is a veritable bower of grapevines, roses, and other lovely plants, with peaceful music and fucking awesometastic coffee. Y'all know how much of my life I've spent in coffee, and I've never tasted anything better than the Kona Cliff is currently adoring. My cardamom mocha ain't half bad either. Not bad a'tall!

So, I am not much into politics. I find myself more into it lately than I was for the first 25 years of my life, but I don't talk about it much because I don't know enough TO talk about it. I find myself in the unfortunate position of having opinions without having much data to back them up. Which is not to say the data's not there, certainly; which is to say I haven't done the research to be able to fire off facts at whomever might challenge my opinions. I am not a huge fan of sounding like an idiot, so I mainly keep quiet.

However, I don't need to know a lot about politics to be able to point my finger at terribly irresponsible news organizations. I'm sure if you pay attention to the news at all lately you've been hearing about Mark Foley. I haven't read the transcriptions of his conversations; I've seen enough blurbs to know I probably don't want to. But Fox News has gone too far. On everyone's favorite bigot, Bill O'Reilly's show, they labeled Mr Foley (R-Florida; honestly, Florida has some issues) as a DEMOCRAT. THREE TIMES. (Link goes to a rather noisy and ad-ridden yet informative blog, with screenshots.) And called it an "honest mistake." Now, I have my doubts about how "honest" of a "mistake" that was, but come on, Fox, at least own up to it in a highly visible fashion. When NPR makes mistakes, they say very clearly "we made an error and here is the correct information." Fox? They just dropped it like it was hot and never referred to it again. Just removed the label from future broadcasts (and did NOT replace it with the correct label, you'll note), which is something I suppose, but no apology, no "we said this but the truth is this." So some percentage of Fox's audience, however small and truly idiotic, is now going around thinking that child-molesting Foley belongs to those awful Democrats rather than the oh-so-pristine Republicans. You cannot convince me that this was not a deliberate decision by someone on high.

This is just ridiculous. Responsible news organizations own up to their mistakes. (I hope!) They don't shrug their shoulders and say "oops, well, everyone knows he's a Republican so we don't have to own up to making a mistake." This is absolutely unacceptable! Why does Fox continue to get away with doling out bias and misinformation right and left? It's just disgusting and I pity the people that get their "news" there. Maybe Murdoch will kick the bucket one of these days and we can start cleaning up the mess he's made. If it's possible at this point. It makes me sad.

Beware of the hazards of SEXUAL HARASSMENT!

Hello friends, yesterday was a day of fun and exhaustion and I thought I'd share.

I am a terrible resident. I have missed out on the major attractions of nearly every place I've lived, with few exceptions. Arizona: I went to the Grand Canyon once when I was five or so, and never again. I can't even really count it because I don't remember the trip at all; I've just seen pictures proving that I was there. I spent some time in Sedona, but missed out on the New-Ager-renowned vortices. Chicago: Hell, I barely did ANYTHING in Chicago. I did go to the Chicago Art Institute somewhat regularly, but that was it -- no aquarium, none of the other museums, none of the neato blues nightclubs, nothing. Atlanta: hmm, what did Atlanta have to offer? I did go to the Coke museum with Don, and that was a lot of fun, but I'm sure Atlanta had lots more to offer than I took advantage of, too. The thread running through all of these places is that all their attractions, touristy or otherwise, were THERE -- I could go any time I wanted, the whole time I was living there! And so I didn't. And looking back, I regret it. (Chicago especially.)

In light of all this, I have decided that I should stop ignoring the neat things around me because I could go there whenever I want, and ACTUALLY CHECK THEM OUT. Yes! I will be a tourist in my own city, especially when "my own city" is San Francisco, which is 40 miles north of me and might as well be a touristy destination for me anyway. Now, I haven't actually acted on this much so far, which is why I was tickled when the opportunity to tackle San Fran Hawaiian-shirt-and-zinc style showed up yesterday in the form of Cliff's parents. (Note: no actual Hawaiian shirts or zinc were worn.)

Side note: I adore Cliffle's folks. They are awesome. Y'all know how much I talk about adoring my boyfriend; well, he's quite the chip off the old block. I am looking forward to a super set of in-laws. Envy me!

Anyway, yesterday we whirlwinded through SF at a pace I could barely keep up with. We caught a train into the city and then stood in line for over half an hour to ride the cable cars (at one point I was actually hanging off the side of one! Whoo!) We bopped around Chinatown, which was amazingly cool, as I'd never been there before (despite living here for six months). More cable cars, a trip to Fisherman's Wharf for yummy crab, a harbor cruise under the Golden Gate Bridge and around Alcatraz, hot chocolate and a sleepy ride home on the train. I went into a coma about six minutes after arriving back home, but it was a GOOD coma. ;-) It was such a great time, and I think I'm finally starting to get a map of SF ingrained into my head. Maybe. What a fantastic day.

And on top of all this super happy fun time, I found the greatest thing that anyone has ever found in the history of finding things, ever, while waiting for the train. I took pictures of it for you. Heidi, can you help out? ;-)













What supportive friends! How come none of my friends have ever been this supportive of MY digestive processes? Where's the love, people? Sheesh.