I still don't get how you can carry a baby almost to term and not know you're pregnant. What, the kicking is some wicked gas for months? (link)

Rasputin!

oooooooh! Too bad I'm broke again.

This should surprise no one.

Robo-domination wha?

I want one of these too. I've had horrible itching all this winter.

Custom-ordering sides for the mattress seems like a bad thing. Probably because I don't have a specific side (turning wouldn't work either because of the zones on this thing, head to toe and top to bottom).

heh.

Stargate goes MMO

Star Wars Mythbusters

Space stuff

The end of paper--how they gonna pay out our tips the end of the night in a cashless economy?

To the suits at TBS: Why aren't you airing Groundhog Day on Groundhog Day!? C'mon, it's tradition! What's next, do I have to go buy a DVD of A Christmas Story instead of getting to watch the marathon on TBS this Christmas?

From the Kunsan base newspaper:

The Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act of 2005 amends the military manual for courts-martial, making the punishment for using a prostitute the same as that for being a prostitute...

Under the new act, any servicemember convicted of patronizing a prostitute can receive a dishonorable discharge, forfeiture of all pay and allowances and one year of confinement...

Whether people realize it or not, most women involved in prostitution are there against their will, he said, and supporting that industry – even by going to a strip club or bar that allows prostitution – supports the worldwide human trafficking industry. “If you spend money there, you’re giving money to the traffickers, and traffickers are criminals,” he said.

What the hell kind of cracked logic is this? It's the same logic as the ONDCP ads that tell you if you buy a joint from the kid down the road who grows a couple plants you're supporting terrorists. Wha? (And we'll ignore that those opium poppies that make the terr'rists their livings are also sold by tons to our government and medical research companies to make, umm, MEDICINE)...

Visiting a strip club that looks the other way when a girl gets a little closer than Kosher supports human-trafficking pimps? Wha? (And we'll ignore that in a lot of Europe and parts of Nevada, prostitution is entirely legal and a choice grown women make for their lives--nope, all prostitutes have been sold into slavery now).

Eliza, where the devil are my slippers?

Soft stove. Trippy.

Surf around We Make Money Not Art if you've got a while. Some really neat, trippy, and bizarre stuff.

I know I sleep better with background noise. If Spirit's around while I sleep I can (usually) sleep peacefully to no other sound than his breathing--but anyone else I've been involved with hasn't had that effect and I've still needed music or noise to sleep well. The post is about white noise, but the first bit also helps explain why a radio or TV set might help me sleep as well. Some of it's just that I can sleep better with a distraction from my own thoughts.

I think wristbands are last year's trend. This is still kinda nifty.

Two good opinion pieces from the New York Times on the State of the Union--not the actual state of our union nor the current president's speech, but the institution that the speech is.

Sharkey arrested--this campaign is cool news, but may not be the best thing that ever happened to that family.

One last piece from BoingBoing before I go finish the laundry: Prosecutor demos BDSM in court. Yeah, with asphyxiation play or other play that limits responses, I can see a sub having a heart attack that goes unnoticed until it's too late. However, responding by chopping up the body is just a Bad Idea (tm).

Wax divinations

Found the site while googling to clarify a point. Looks excellent.

Also, lots of Wicca books on Overstock.com

If I ever get out of debt and have a little shopping money, I love bidz.com and overstock.com.

SongTapper. Tap out the rhythm of a song with your spacebar and it'll tell you what the song is. Probably no help if you sing "Where da hood at" to the tune of "Karma Chameleon,"1 but for the rest of us, who occasionally ask, "What the hell is this song in my head!? You know, it goes da da da daaaaaaa de bop bop la la la..." this is a great tool.

1. I love that ad.

One heck of a career move.

Oh, hell no. A private diary, fine. But if my kid is young enough for me to feel the need to monitory his/her IM conversations, s/he sure as hell isn't going to be locking me out of 'em. These aren't phone calls or letters with friends... this is a medium over which communication with lots of strangers is possible and one that makes it easy for predators to make contacts. I'm all for the internet and IMing, but different cautions are necessary than with other forms of communication. If I were worried enough that my kid was hiding something and s/he got something like this to keep me out of it, I'd be responding by severely limiting computer access. And keep in mind, I'm really liberal when it comes to kids being allowed to act as adults as far as they're capable. I think kids should be taught to handle alcohol in a social setting from preschool age by being allowed to drink it (with sharp limits, of course, but an ounce or two of weak wine isn't harmful to a child), and I was deeply offended when a piercer told me the other day he thought it was immoral to pierce a sixteen-year-old's navel because of the inherent sexuality of it--at no point since the dawn of man has a 16-year-old not been a sexual being, however our society wishes to infantilize adolescents and even young 20somethings at times. But there are trust and responsibility issues at stake here. I like the idea of a password-protected flash drive--I'd buy 'em myself if the price were right--but I don't like the way this is marketed.

These are cool.

Fat virus?

Cory Doctorow sums up drug prohibition beautifully.

I want some of these.

Wow.

Y'all remember that Sharkey guy who's running for governor of Minnesota on a vampire platform? His wife has been fired from their local school district, apparently for being a pagan. I'd expect that crap here in SC, but how did Minnesota not get the memo that religious discrimination against public employees is against federal law? More here.

If I ever get out of the credit card I have now, I am never getting another.

A subject of discussion this week has been power/totem animals. I think we've identified Spirit with the Raven, and I've always identified with owls.

Car-lighter sex toys?

You mean Sleepless in Seattle wasn't a horror flick all by itself?

Because God forbid we be comfortable or have fun while we're learning!

Ahhh. Irony.

Duh.

This is a neat idea. Surfing things you'd like to keep private on a public/shared computer, less so.

Chewbacca blog.

I've wanted to do something like this at times. Right now it's enough that I know what I believe.

Modern knitting!

Who makes these things?

I think I'd like to try these.

OK, I take it back. I do have a few links for today.

Self-heating canned hot chocolate. And the kids' version of same. I note the picture also shows Chai and green tea varieties of the adult one. Wish I lived near a Target. I'd try some. Not gonna drive an hour for it.

Yet another kitchen tool I'd love to have even though I never cook any more. I'm going to be hunting back through this blog to find the cooking implements someday when I am in a more, err, domestic situation.

Petabyte storage arrays are now a reality.

Smart is the new black. Speaking of custom shirts, there were two I wanted to find or have made, and lo and behold, they're both out there. I really, really do want the Spongmonkeys one. It's broken for checking out right now. And the exchange rate might kill me.

Ahahahahahaha!

Thank you, Spirit. I'm glad they had to be re-delivered... I was in exactly the mood to need that bit of romantic gush today--not that it would have been less appreciated a week ago.

For the peanut gallery, the card says, "Your eyes are the stars of my Universe. Happy Valentine's Day!" Valentine's Day is a touchy subject 'round here, being my former wedding anniversary, and I'm a little touchy and emotionally wrung-out in only the way holding your best friend's or sibling's new-born baby can cause today. Only really baby-phobic or adamantly childless women can hold new babies (save their own) without feeling a deep sort of longing, even if they aren't really planning on having (more) children in the near future (or at all). I have too much to be really sad about it, but am still emotionally on edge. My friend's new baby is adorable, though. Only about 2/3 the size mine was at birth (and the lucky mom had about 4 hours of labor and no tearing or episiotomy--we should all be so blessed!) and sweet and sleepy--I see now why all the nurses remarked so much on how alert mine was in the days after birth.

Thank you for the update, Mr. Martin. Also, thank you way in advance for continuing Arya's storyline in this book. I enjoyed Feast. I did. Especially the way Cersei's part finished. And the deeper look at Dorne. But the next one promises so much more of the parts I'm most attached to... (Personal friends who're here because I promised to put all my links here--you may not care about the above unless you've actually started reading the books I left yas--and Spirit, I know you're on other books for now).

Anyway, that's it for today. This isn't usually my personal forum, but I'm tired, and not really surfing, so my messages for the world today are more personal than usual.

Blessed be,
Cricket

Hey, little boy, do you want some candy?

I find CandyBlog's chocolate reviews fascinating. They read like wine reviews, but when I taste wine I "get" what they're talking about when they say something has an oaky flavor or chocolate notes or (...). When it comes to chocolate, I don't get a lot of the descriptions. Some of them I do, but getting cherry or grape notes from a good chocolate bar is beyond me. It's still awesome that someone else does.

Ewwwwwwwwwwwwww.


I'm torn by this. I don't actually know whether a weekend at a posh hotel or this would be a nicer gift. Guess that makes me halfway to really cool.

Ohhhhhhh I need a bag of these. I'll need chocolate to brace for the onslaught when the ex starts feeling maudlin about what would be our 8th wedding anniversary. I still have some Ghana mild/extra cacao bars, too, but might as well treat myself to something seasonal. Hey, does anyone with any pull know who we have to... kiss up to... at Hershey to keep the Cookies 'N' Mint bars around? When they go, they're gone for years.

These seem a little naughty. All the good really-naughty candy companies seem to have gone.

Whenever I see furniture that looks simple yet appealing, it turns out to be really expensive (by my own definition and means).

This looked like a simple social-engineering type experiment from the name--but it looks clear that except for the title and the nod to it in the form "X people have broken the rules..." they actually are asking people to call.

It's about time.

Now there's security.

Making staves.

Duh.

Speaking as someone in a military town who loves a military man, a whole lot of people with those yellow ribbons aren't sacrificing "two Wolf Blitzer shows a day"--they're sacrificing precious months or years with their loved ones, their fathers (or mothers, yes), their children. Not all of them support the war (or voted in a way that pushed for it), but not supporting the troops would mean deeply betraying those we love. Not supporting the war means we disagree with the political climate. It's not a wuss or incompatible position.

No word on geek moms yet.

Lots of one-line posts today. Anyway, it suddenly occurs to me that Zen Koans and Aesop's Fables have a lot in common--stories that for some are pointless, short, and go nowhere, and for others contain the treasured wisdom of the Ages.

A comment on AskMeFi struck me deeply. I think I'll meditate on it.

This doesn't strike me as a great idea, yet somehow I can think of a few people for whom it would be a perfect gift.

One of the big stories the last couple days is about Chinese Google. Best comment so far: "Most of my favorite web sites would blind a Chinese potato farmer."

I've seen this before without quite the same level of cute. Still worth a smile.

This L.A.Times article on the Papal encyclical strikes me as both right and wrong. If instead of taking sex casually, we use the physical side of love to connect with the spiritual side of it--not confusing or connecting it with the kind of emotional love that creates a long-term commitment, but using the heart of sex to get in touch with ourselves and the greater Spirit--then eros by itself can be worthwhile. The connections they make are right, but twisted in the way that certain Churches twist everything.

This is dead on. My stupid customer story for the week: "What's this in my blue cheese?" "Appears to be a shred of lettuce, sir." "Can I get a new one?" "Of course, sir." Took me 5 minutes to get it because once I got into the kitchen I lost it laughing. God forbid the man get LETTUCE in his salad.

Postsecret is an excellent blog (I only wish the archives remained accessible each new week). Two of them reminded me of someone close to me this week (you know who you are, I'm sure): this one and this one.

Some people are really bored, I think.

Seeing Saturn.

Utah needs to go get laid or something. The whole state.

This looked more fun with the toys with a real person at the other end. NSFW and YMMV.

How do you stick a playstation controller--never mind. I don't wanna know.

From the folk who brought you Demotivators (and trademarked the frowny face emoticon) come BitterSweets! Valentines for yourself or that horrid Ex... While you're there, check out "DespairWear." I'm thinking I'd like an "Unleash the power of Mediocrity" tee.

This is one hell of a design statement.

Speaking of candy hearts, All your candy are belong to us!

Real Men of Genius parodies

Some people are seriously geeks. I think I'm in love (just kidding babe!)

WTF?

This is interesting. I find that naturally my body wants a pattern where I sleep from about 3-4AM to 10Am and then again from about 3-4PM to about 6, which is more bimodal than what this guy is talking about and is also impossible to actually do as I have to hold a job and be with my kid.

Also interesting. Lists as "nonpartisan think tank." Opinions on that?

This guy should probably be the envy of every straight man in the world.

I agree with this. The school was stupid, though--it would've gotten old and gotten no attention after about a week if they hadn't decided to get all censoring on him. But the bottom line is if everything's covered then let people wear what they freaking well want. It will be less distracting to the learning environment if you don't make a big deal. I'll exempt Daisy Dukes and micro-minis here; I do see where those cause a distraction.

No shit, Sherlock. Why d'ya think everyone's been up in arms about a possible draft when there's been little to no government discussion or acknowledgment of the possibility?

Huh??

I'm not sure if I've discussed gays in the military on this blog or not (suddenly I'm reminded of Nathan Lane in drag saying, "Well THERE'S a silly issue! Those uniforms! Those haircuts!! I mean, who CARES!?"), but it's one of those things on which I'm very opinionated (just a few of those out there--I know I've gone off on the Crusade against Drugs before)--here's an article on the military losing a lot of healthcare professionals and other officers to their own policies on gays. Interesting point that after the beating-to-death of PFC Winchell (by others who believed him to be gay), 1/6 of the discharges related to homosexuality a couple years later were at that one base. That suggests to me that a lot of people came out either in support or fear at that point. Anyway, I've known military guys who were gay, and I hate to see what that does to them. There was a gay guy in my high school, the valedictorian of the senior class when I was a freshman, whom everyone knew was gay but his family, who were very involved in the church and for whom "knowing," as opposed to the uneasy denial, would've meant making the hard choice between Church and family. The NT does say to abandon your family and follow Jesus. But the Church is not Christ. The Church is not even the Body or Spirit of Christ. And how many churches now drop even the pretense of worshiping God the Father or the Triune in favor of direct and sole worship of the Christ? Jesus himself, the miracluous Rabbi of the Gospels, would call it blasphemy.

Ew. It was bad enough the time I had to buy TP at a bus station in Korea.

Point of discussion--is it OK to throw leaves, banana peels, apple cores, and other natural biodegradables by the roadside?

Out of 300 men in a class-action, 284 were in arrears on child support? Aside from the part where having been in jail made them more likely to have been behind, I don't think it's statistically likely that that many prisoners have kids and are separated from the mothers--is it?

"Money means nothing to me?" You know, if that's true, I'd be more than happy to take some off your hands. Or you could've donated the ticket to charity before cashing it. No? Then the money means something.

The major question this raises is, where did they find enough people who still believe what politicians say to do this study?

Deals:
Great price on a 320GB HDD

Best Buy takes its rebates digital.

_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_

E3 takes itself too seriously, organizers now officially no fun.

One more: friggin' AWESOME bookshelf

It's naptime, to be shortly followed by get ready for work time. Have a great day!