Behind

I've been behind on a lot of things, not least updating this. I've actually been updating my blog on MySpace, believe it or not (that links to my real persona more than I would like to do here, so I am not going to link it). In the meantime, if you'd like something to read, I highly recommend Desiderata.

Also high on my recommended list:
Diana Gabaldon's Outlander series
Harry Potter! If you haven't gotten into Harry Potter yet, now is the perfect time to start so you can be in with the cool kids at the Midnight Magic party, Friday night 20 July/Saturday morning 21 July... And if you're already one of us, read 'em again. I made some new connections this time (especially given that at our committee meeting--yeah I'm on a Harry Potter Committee so what--we saw the cover of the Brit adult edition, and apparently the cover always relates directly to the title, at least strongly implying that Slytherin's locket is a Deathly Hallow).
The Wednesday Wars. It's a teen (ish) coming-of-age story set in the Vietnam era. It's not exactly out yet, but when it is, read it.

See there? Now you have things to read when your favorite blogs don't update.

News of the freakin' inappropriate

First, families in Holtsville, NY, looking to see The Last Mimzy were treated to the opening scenes of The Hills Have Eyes 2. Oops.

Next, south to Jersey, where a school district is investigating Pay-Per-View porn purchases to the tune of $250 made after hours on a cable box in the Union City Board of Education building ("We have five cable boxes in case of an emergency!").

Back to NY, an NYC Department of Corrections worker managed to milk $100/month out of a city comptroller's Worker's Comp account, also for porn.

Just for fun, a Google News search for Porn

This is what I think school should be.

Perhaps even college--If there were true liberal arts degrees left, where I could go back to school for two years or four and take classes as they appealed to me, not two years of iteration of what I already know because my credits are too old to count or because of all the incompletes I had or because I've learned things outside of a credit setting, and come out with a degree that shows how quick and well-rounded and open-minded I am, rather than how good at regurgitation of facts (at which, as a matter of fact, I excel, but that is not the point), I'd be back in school in a moment. Degrees as they are, on the other hand, show specialization, and at that I am not very good. I can focus on what I am doing, but I require an environment where many of my talents can be shown. I'd want a degree because it would help me get the jobs where I do shine, which are management jobs; I can show that I have all the talents and abilities of the people I supervise and train them on their duties, but also show talents for organizing myself and those others and preparing us all to do what needs to be done.

Actually, if I did have the time and the money right now for full-time school, I'd look into primary education. I know about the politics, but I'm OK at those, I'm a reasonably good teacher at all grade levels, and with younger students, there's more variety in what you teach them--and learn from them. Come to think of it, though, I wouldn't mind teaching high school math or English, either.

I know Spirit would support it, too, and if I did it in the next few years, it would allow him more leeway at retirement than me working retail. Maybe we can work it out when he does retire so I can do school full-time and work part time, or something. I just feel like I can't walk away from what I do now right now.

I was reading Slate while waiting for some files to download from drivethrurpg.com, so I ran across this article saying the Cavemen might get their own show. Can't wait!

Also, vote!

I'm really punchy. Time to try for some restful sleep, a concept I have admittedly almost given up on right now.

This is interesting.

And for the love of God, people, I'm trying to get you your drinks in less than a couple minutes. Your sandwich is being made by someone else twenty feet away from me. Why on earth do you expect me to have you a hot grilled sandwich ready to go by the time I hand you your drink? How many places do you go where you don't expect the drinks first? If I held your drink for the minutes until your sandwich was ready, not only would I fail all our benchmark tests, you'd be even more pissed off standing there without your single-shot extra-sweet nonfat extra-whip white chocolate mocha with a pump and a half of toffee nut. Try waiting five minutes. If your sandwich has been more than eight minutes (enough time for two full rotations on the grills), then let me know, by all means. Haughtily informing me that you also had a food order when I hand you a drink is going to get you polite explanations of the process and apologies that you might have to wait 45 more seconds, but it's not going to endear you to me.

Fat rant

Who doesn't think that girl's attractive? Fat isn't a matter of weight or size, it's a matter of shape. She's got nice curves.

Blessed Ostara

I was in a wonderful fog of a place at work all night. If I had the kind of job in which I could stop and take notes of what was in my head, I'd have had some great material, but I just can't think at all.

I'd always thought in this case that the banner was actually shown at school. Sorry, but public schools have no say over what their students do on their own time. Now, the bigger news is, Pat Robertson and the ACLU are together on the same side of a U. S. Supreme Court case. I think the world may end soon.

I'm sleepy, but I wanted to post that link and wish all my Pagan buddies a Blessed Ostara.

A modest proposal

If you're paying attention, you know I'm generally pro-legalization.

So, I have a plan that will allow for legalization and decrease use among the young (ignoring the evidence that simple legalization or decriminalization will do that anyway):

1. Legalize, or at least medicalize and decriminalize, most illegal drugs. This will have the immediate effect of taking them away from the province of gangsta and underground culture, which, unsavory as the reality may be, has been romanticized beyond all reason.

2. After fast-tracked medical testing (after all, long-term data on safety isn't that hard to get once users don't have fear or prosecution), prescribe liberally for ailments mainly associated with the elderly wherever and whenever appropriate.

Voila, you have just made most street drugs as cool as grandpa's heart medication.

Let's teach religion in schools.

Happy Pi Day!

Interesting: on getting more women into adult games

Grrrrrrrrrrr.

So, 300 is doing what the Homosexual Agenda (r) never could and turning more-or-less-straight dudes gay?

Geek movies for this summer

Also, the last Harry Potter book, 7/21, be there or be square (and no one wants to be square on Pi Day!)

What a summer to be geeky!

He loves sweaty basketball players

I wanted to watch the Comedy Central-aired roast of Shatner, but didn't have Comedy Central at the time. Turns out, I really missed something. Watch Takei here. (When brutha come outta the closet, he really come outta the closet!)

The problem with postage

MPAA = evil incarnate

This is the opposite of the right answer. To break email addiction, stop worrying whether your inbox is empty. That's right; just leave it there. It will wait.

Wii rocks!!!

That's all for today. Lots to do, lots to do. For those of you who deny yourselves something for Lent, take heart--only forty days to go! For those of you who'd give up sex for Lent--well, I've got no help for you. (Movies aside, some people really do it).

Any chance that I might at some point get in to 24 just died.

TWBA, as I feel like dirt today. Time for a shower and some warm jammies.

If you care at all about the state of the War on Drugs or the treatment of crime in this country, read this.

See also (linked from above article)

Since it seems to be drug war day on Reddit, here's one more

And more libertarian ideals, from the Reason.com folks

I read a lot of servers' blogs, even though I'm bad about updating mine. Here's a pretty good post from Buon Appetito.

As a closing bit of interesting politics, we should have an open border so politician's kids don't have to make beds in hotels.

Site parodies day

Forget Second Life...

Create your Useless Account today!

Brains 4 Zombies

ExtortR

Hugeurl.com

Whitehouse.org (the real site is www.whitehouse.gov)

And, for the obvious religious candidates:

Betty Bowers is a better Christian than you; she goes to Landover Baptist

God hates figs

Everyone needs to read this Junkfood Science article on media spin and the creation of "epidemics."

This, too. I'm not fat to look at--on the plump side, but shapely--but I meet the medical definition of "obese" and have been damaged by doctors who refuse to see my problems as anything but weight-related, not to mention my sister, who is visibly obese but who has problems with overheating to the point of passing out on almost any exertion, along with several other medical problems.

I'm feeling pretty rotten this week, so will save the rant on doctors, recognizing that it would come out as an incoherent ramble and might name names that would get me in trouble.

Shout-out to my pagan friends, blessed Imbolc!

Imbolc recipes

This year, the bounty of spring would appear to be pizza, chicken pesto rotini, and a frozen burrito my kid decided he'd rather go to bed than eat. But the idea is there.

Amazing eBay feedback

I hadn't heard this one, but for those too young to have any idea about Shatner's turn as a Rock Star(tm), here's Rocketman

Also, White Rabbit, Star Trek-style (these two links from WWdN)

Note to the tattoo artists of the world: Don't ever do this. Seriously, WTF?

Poster, every book some guy has ever read: Good lord, that looks like a small number to me. How much do other people read? I have a vague notion that it's "less than I do," but more than that--and there's no way I would ever think of every book I've read for such a project. I'd just keep surfing and clicking. I mean, do you remember every Choose-Your-Own-Adventure you had as a kid? Every book you picked up and read at a friend's house? Of course, I was the kind of kid who'd take the novels of said friends' shelves and have them done by the end of the visit. But still...

"Conditions in Tampa were not favorable for the formation of large balls of ice..."

Danae is my hero.

Also Patti LuPone, I scored a free CD of hers at work today. Yeah!

Attention, lawmakers of South Dakota: go screw yourselves.

"You have to live in Alaska..."

I'm damned tired, and I didn't even work my full shift today, since I had to rescue my sick kid from the panicking caregiver. I guess that makes it bedtime.

42 questions to which we don't know the answers (I love the black hole one; I think Drs. Hawking, Thorne, and Preskill spend time on black hole research more as a very geeky form of gambling than to further the cause of science, and gentlemen, I love you for it)

Also, I'm moving to Virginia just so I can vote for Jim Webb.

Hallelujah, the "Think Method" isn't a joke after all!

I was looking through a ton of links, but it wasn't getting me anything I wanted to blog about. This Friday: new tats!

OK, one more for all you pagans

sex advice for women, c. 1917


I started ranting about doctors on an email group earlier. I'm tired and in pretty significant levels of pain right now. So that's all I have, sorry.