Parent Notification Laws Backfiring?

I remember a class assignment in H.S.; I went home and asked my mother, a fundamentalist Christian, what she would advise me if I had gotten myself pregnant. (I remember the feeling of being a slimebag cause I knew there'd be no chance in hell, I'd get pregnant but I had to ask my mother as if this was a possibility)

My mother didn't even bat an eye as she replied looking straight at me, "I'd tell you to get an abortion."

I sputtered. How could this be? She explained, "If you got pregnant, your whole life would be ruined. You'd have no future, and most likely, I'd end up taking care of your child. And you'd still have no future. No, an abortion is the only way to make sure you'll be okay later in life"

Apparently, my mother wasn't the only fundamentalist Christian with a thoroughly pragmatic outlook on this decision.

...in three states — Arizona, Idaho and Tennessee — the percentage of pregnant minors who had abortions rose slightly after the consent laws went into effect.

I would like to sign up all those abortion clinic protestors, put them in a database and line them all up as soon as possible to adopt all those children in the foster care system. These people seem to think unwanted children should be born. So let them take care of the entire system.

If I'm to be Responsible, Get the Hell Out of My Way

So when this guy started at work, I asked him to keep track of the plans that we have. He was great at it and everytime someone asked him where a set of plans were, he knew where.

Well, he got busy... and stopped paying attention to plans. Which is a reasonable thing.

I kept asking him if he needed help. He kept waving off the help until recently. Which is not so reasonable. But hey, he's a guy, whatdya expect, they're just dumb that way.

So recently, a boss got upset that he didn't know where plans were. Very reasonable. He asked me, EVEN THOUGH HE KNEW I WASN'T KEEPER OF THE PLANS... so I said, go ask this other guy. Well he, of course, wasn't organized. So this boss decided okay, I'm to be keeper of the plans. Again, reasonable.

Well, as soon as I started taking responsibility for the plans, this other guy has been trying to organize plans. I'm like, hey, what the hell are you doing? He's says, well you ask me where plans are when others ask. I said, not any more.

I am NOT a shirker of responsibilities (unlike some people who live near me).

This guy didn't understand why I wanted his mitts off the plans. My position is this. If I am to be responsible for the plans, I don't want anyone else touching them before they are logged in. That way, I know which ones are logged. If they are missing after that, NOT MY PROBLEM IF PEOPLE DON'T TELL ME. But it IS my problem if they don't get logged in the first place.

[Addendum] I guess if I were to look at it charitably, my co-worker is trying to prevent a clash between that boss and I. This IS a distinct possibility. But then, if that is what is going on, the clash has to happen or it won't resolve itself. Either that or I'll be leaving my job soon (maybe that's what he's trying to prevent - who knows). Either which way, the responsibility of logging in plans is now firmly in my lap; therefore get out of the way, I don't need a grown boy in my lap.

She's Dead...

Life goes on.

[Added] sorry for the short post.... I was in shock that Ossie died, though I was expecting it. Had a good cry on Bratworse's shoulder and now I can write more.

Ossie was by far, the coolest and neatest pet we've ever owned, either together or separately.

Even though she was a secretive and nocturnal animal, we learned so much from just observing her, interacting with her, providing her with love and care. I hope one day, they'll evolve to creatures that outlive a year. That's when they'll take over the world.

The End is Near...

...for Ossie the Octopus that is.

When I woke up this morning, I did my usual morning routine. Go to the fish tank, turn on the lights and feed Flit, the green chromis and Gascon, the shrimp. (I actually think Bratworse misnamed the shrimp, it's supposed to be Sebastian from Little Mermaid.)

As soon as I feed them, I peer into the tank, into her den and see if I can see through the little hole. Usually I can't see into it because her body is in the way. This morning not only could I see through it, I couldn't see her breathing (which is usually how we tell she's in there).

Bratworse came over to look and unlike me, she looks around inside the tank and declares "Ossie's out and about." Sure enough, there was Ossie over on the opposite side of the tank.

She's much paler than she was, and she looks shrunken. Since she's entered into the age of senescence for octopuses, her tentacles are all curled at the ends. Someone once described the look as curly-q's or corkscrews, which is accurate. Her breathing is regular and her eyes still appear quite bright. We are hoping that she will live for a few more days so we can enjoy her, but the end is definitely coming soon.

Ossie has got to be one of my all-time favorite pets.

Imagine...

Imagine having the fortune of being with someone you love for 16 years.

Imagine that person dying 3000 miles away from you.

Imagine going to collect his body and having someone ask you, who do you think you are?

Imagine being called on the day of his funeral to be asked who gave you the right to authorize the cremation.

Imagine it no more, for it happened.

This is my biggest fear for Bratworse - that I will die, and shitty ass people will question her right to decide what my future is, when she's going through the worst time of her life. I'm not afraid if the reverse happened, because I'm too full of anger to LET this happen to me. I'd be screaming bloody murder and making a scene like you wouldn't believe. But Bratworse? She'd look around at all my grieving friends, and wouldn't make a fuss.

All of you who are against gay marriage: May you rot in hell forever.

This Imbecile is the Leader of the Free World?

What have we unleashed onto the world? And will the world forgive us?

Just what we needed. Bush pawing the Chancellor of Germany Angela Merkel.

Being one of a handful of women in a male-dominated fields before, I've often dealt with unwanted touches. I used to do things like get a crew cut so that the touches would be directed to a part of my body that didn't bother me when groped.

I would say that the massage is probably one of the worst offenses because it's usually masked as non-sexual. I can't tell you how many men have grabbed my shoulders.

Then the conversation usually goes like this:
Asshole: You're so tense!
Me thinks: Yeah, cause you just friggin grabbed my neck! For all I know, you're planning on choking me to death.
Asshole: Here, let me relax you.
Me: Umm, no, you're just making me more tense.
Asshole: But why! This is supposed to be relaxing.
Me thinks: Not when I barely know you. Get your mitts off me!
Me: Umm, you won't be able to budge my shoulders... four rear-ends with resulting whiplashes will make them granite-like.
Asshole with a gleam in his eye: You should let me work on them, I could get rid of them for you.
Me screaming in my mind: How about I poke you in the eye... THAT will relax me!

EVERY time, I've been groped like this, it's been in a public setting, usually professional. Therefore, I can either look like a psycho, screaming at this dweeb who's "trying to relax me" or I can just make my shoulders tenser until their fingers hurt.

Whaddya Know, Falsifying Records Does Work

Read this:

1288 B.C. Pharaoh Ramses II was soundly defeated by the Hittites at the Battle of Kadesh. Undaunted, the Egyptian ruler built a memorial to his magnificent "triumph." The monument endured, the Hittites died out, and generation upon generation of historians paid tribute to Ramses' military victory. Only recently have archaeologists unearthed the truth about the Battle of Kadesh and exposed Ramses' 3,300-year-old "Big Lie."

Wonder if this is what Bush/Rove is hoping what the outcome of our current war will be.

Bicycle Made for Two

Finally replaced the bike that got stolen 8 years ago. The new (used) bike isn't as nice as the old one; that one cost $500 and had suspension on both front and back. This one is light, 21 speeds, nice new seat and gears. Frame's a little beat-up, but that just gives the bike some personality.

Now Bratworse and I can sing "Daisy, Daisy" as we're biking around on weekends. And maybe some of this jiggly unappealing globs of flesh will wither away.

Alas, Despite Best Efforts...

... the octopus babies didn't survive.

Hopefully, the ones at UC Berkeley's marine biology dept. will.

Talk about Picky!

I'm a really picky eater. But I have NOTHING on these octopus babies! Apparently, they have be fed several times a day and several types/sizes of food to try and ENTICE them to eat.

Boy, did I pick a project for myself here. Esp. with these eyes that just started needing bifocals a year ago.

I shouldn't be surprised. Ossie was a fairly picky eater. She LOVED red crabs, enjoyed red-legged hermit crabs for a while, but left the surviving one alone. I believe it's still in the tank. As for ghost shrimp, the very first day we saw her devour two in front of us. Most ghost shrimp were gobbled up the day we put them in her tank.

With luck, some of these hand-picked delicacies will consumed.

...To Go To Script

Four words that seem ordinary on the surface, yet in Hollywood, those four words are magical.

Big announcement in a couple of weeks. (Don't want to usurp the publisher's role here).

Man, we're just raking in the good karma this past week.

Baby Octopus Movies!

Here are two movies we took of the octopus babies. The first one is from before we scooped them out of the tank. They're swimming near the surface.


The 2nd movie was taken after we separated out the babies into individual cups. In this one, you can see a baby swimming happily in its cup.

Baby Octopus Pictures!

Here are a couple of baby octopus pictures. Remember that these guys are in 10 oz clear plastic tumblers. In one of the photos, there's an orange thing floating above it. That's the food - a tigger pod. One of them has so much personality that it does a flip whenever I'm peering into its cup.

Leaving the Nest

Today, we will be donating most of the babies to U.C. Berkeley's Marine Biology department. 6 of the octopus babies have been given away to a cephalod enthusiast over in San Francisco and another 5 will be given to a cuttlefish breeder in Alameda. We will be keeping 3 of them (and who knows how many are still left in the tank. This morning, there was one fast little bugger that I couldn't catch).

5 did not make it.

Ossie waved at me this morning when I waved at her. I cried because I felt she was saying goodbye. Bratworse scoffed; she said Ossie's saying Hi. Ying and Yang.

We've separated out the babies into individual plastic cups. The routine is, feed them 1-2 tigger pods a night, and change the water every 2 days. So far, the ones that have survived are looking fairly hardy. I've already picked out two I want to keep. Bratworse is going to select another 6 and of these, 5 will go to the Alameda breeder.

I keep wanting to stay in their room and observe if they're hunting the tigger pods or what. Bratworse keeps telling me to leave them alone. They are incredibly cute.

One of the ones I want to keep, got so excited at the prospect of tigger pods, that he did a somersault, then turned pink then stretched out to twice its size before setting off in pursuit of the tigger pod.

Hopefully, the three that we do decide to keep, we'll have the 75-gallon set up for them as their new home.

Karma - the Mysterious Workings of the Universe

I am now convinced that there was a reason to why stuff happened to us.

It was so that we could try and help raise these octopus hatchlings.

If we had gotten either the 40 gallon tank or the 75 gallon tank set up, most of these hatchlings would have disappeared into the filter or protein skimmer and died immediately.

If the insurance people had taken care of it sooner (more on this later - don't want to be upset this morning), we might not have had the ability or frame of mind to be looking after hatchlings right now.

If we hadn't gotten to know the Tonmo people or people in the area who are interested in cephalopods, we wouldn't have scored a HUGE supply of free food for the babies.

If ....

So many ifs that if one of them hadn't happened, we wouldn't be sitting here with 25+ hatchlings right now.

More and more, I am seeing what happened to us as the Universe's way of killing two birds with one stone: it gave us the opportunity to help save a species from the decimation of the oceans AND it's giving retribution for my neighbor. (yes, I still believe that we got caught up in her bad Karma; the difference is, I see the positive side now as a motivation for these occurances instead of a side-effect.)

OMG! Ossie's a Mom subtitled Baby Octopus Galore

Woke up this morning and started my morning routine. Went to turn on the aquarium light to feed Flit our green chromis as well as the crabs inside the tank when I noticed tiny blobs swimming about our tank. Some were translucent, some were pinkish-purple.

Rubbing my eyes, I took a closer look. There are about 15-30 baby octopus in our tank; our small 5.5 gallon tank which is WAAAAAY too small to handle this many octopus.

This should be the first batch. I believe there might be as many as 3-5 more batches coming to a total of over 100 babies.

Most are going to die. We're hoping to be able to save one or two to raise. Wish us luck!

Cars - The Movie and the Game

So yesterday we went to see Cars, the new Pixar movie. Admittedly, I walked in not expecting much since in my mind, nothing could ever ever top Finding Nemo. I was, however, expecting to enjoy it enough that we went and bought the video game before we even saw the movie.

On a scale of 1 to 8 (let's be weird in our standards, k?) I'd put this at a 5-6. It's likable, but predictable. The whole story is one seen in many stories - big city star has to crash (literally) in a small town, gets in trouble in small town, learns big life lessons and becomes a better person through experience. (One of my ex's produced a movie just like this - Doc Hollywood)

There were SEVERAL spots where both Bratworse and I laughed out loud, but I would say that they were mostly at throwaway lines/scenes.

Overall, it's a decent movie. I'm glad I paid matinee prices; I felt like this was a good deal for my money.

As for the video game (we got the PS2 version and the graphics was a little lacking if you're used the shine and sheen of Grand Turismo) - unless you have younger children, don't bother. The only thing I liked much about the game is that the story part of the game takes place AFTER the movie and builds on what happened in the movie. Too often, games based on movies just rehash what had happened within the movie and that's about the game equivalent of reading novelizations of movies. This was a welcome change.

Aside from that, the driving skills needed for the game is almost minimal; it's too easy to come in at 1st place on the earlier levels. I haven't explored enough of the game to know because frankly, after an hour and a half of playing, Bratworse and I both got bored.

Boys Will be Boys or How Stupid can They Get?

From the NY Times:

The video game publisher Take-Two Interactive said yesterday that it had received a grand jury subpoena from the Manhattan district attorney's office, seeking information about a range of its business practices dating back to 2001 and the inclusion of sexually explicit material in one of its games.

Edward Nebb, a company spokesman, said the district attorney had not told Take-Two whether it or any of its executives or directors were targets of the grand jury investigation. A spokeswoman at the district attorney's office declined to comment last night.

If Take-Two is the focus of the investigation, as the depth and nature of the questions it is being asked by prosecutors suggests, it would be the first time that a criminal inquiry into the activities of the company and its directors and executives had come to light. The company, which is based in New York, said it was cooperating with the investigation.

So basically, we have here a company that has a "bad-boy" reputation in the gaming industry. How does one get a "bad-boy" reputation? First, by creating a game that defies all conventional thoughts - The Grand Theft Auto series is about stealing cars and doing other anti-social behavior. Secondly, within the game itself, hide a section for the uber-dweebs for them to "uncover" so to speak. This scene will have sexually explicit material. Then lastly, lie about inserting the section.

Don't get me wrong, I like the Grand Theft Auto series. I own three of them and one of them on two different platforms.

But the company needs to grow up. If your hand is caught in the cookie jar, admit it! *sigh* but then look at our administration. Maybe these producers at Take Two looked at the Bush administration and said, hey, they lied about WMDs and look, they're still not getting subpoenaed.

Take Two, I hope you're being open and honest with the courts because I do not want to see your company go bankrupt or stop producing games. You've made some really great games. Good luck with this subpoena

New Blog

As if I don't have enough to do, I added a new blog. One that ruminates some of life's more.... quirky questions, let's just say.

It's called Questions that Make You Go Hmmm.

Toll

Ugh! Had to turn down a seminar tonight as well as volunteering for Gay Day activities this weekend because of poor finances. The bridge toll would've been too much.

I hate miscalculating like this... esp. since we were going to visit with friends we'd love to spend more time with.

Oh well, as the Buddhist Abbot we visited last weekend said, it's all impermanent. We are not supposed to deny ourselves the frustrations for then, we also deny ourselves joy. Just realize that it's all impermanent and that this is a passage.

So, hopefully, the passage into July will be quicker.

Trust

This YearlyKos attendee described the experience as building trust - no, that's not quite it. Just go read it.

I got back into the field of comic books after experiencing "the real world" for 10 years. While I was in the real world, I found out how it operates: it operates on distrust. Think about it: Why do you have to put your John Hancock on everything? Why do you make copies upon copies of everything?

I went back to the field of comic books because I felt that there, I could relax and not have to fill out forms in triplicate because someone might be out to get me. I felt that most of my peers grew up on "Truth, Justice and the American Way" and had the same idealism I had, the same principals I had.

To a large degree, they had. This is the kind of field it was: my boss and the attorney CEO/publisher were talking over a contract at a convention and neither bothered to take notes. I repeat, they were NEGOTIATING a contract, and neither took notes. They looked at me in surprise when I suggested (partially because I didn't really trust that particular publisher, but partially because the convention was noisy and distracting and I wanted to be sure no points were missed) taking notes. Both of their responses were, "But I trust him."

Name another field that's like that.

BTW, I'm not sure today's comics pros are like that. After all, these are the ones who grew up on the ilks of the Punisher and Lobo. Not exactly hero-inspiring material there.

More and more, the world is saying in little tinny voices just below hearing - trust no one. I am so sick of that message. I think I'm going to participate in Daily Kose a bit more, if that is what they're hoping to build - trust.

The Internet is for Porn

What Can $25 Million Buy?

So I'm over at Crooks and Liars clicking on videos and I came upon this interview with Michael Berg, the father of Nicholas Berg who was beheaded in Iraq, presumably by Zarqawi. The interview itself is FASCINATING. Michael Berg is a pacifist who understands the repercussions of revenge. (You would too if you grew up on Shaw Brothers kung-fu movies)

But I digress. What really caught my attention was, about a third of the interview in, Soledad mumbles something about Zarqawi's #2 or #3 who turned him in.

[Double-take time]

Excuse me?

All day, I've been hearing and reading about the $25 million dollar reward they're going to honor. There was a $25 million dollar reward for information leading up to Zarqawi's death and/or arrest, I believe.

So, we are going to hand $25 million to Zarqawi's #2 or #3 man. Who is part of Al Qaeda.

Read that again.

I'm just wondering who's being played for a sucker here. Is it the government, who is just going to hand over $25 million to the NOW #1 or #2 man of Al Qaeda in Iraq? Or is it us?

Now ask yourself, who benefits from unrest in the region. Which industry(ies) has been using the unrest in the area, to make massive profits?

Follow the money.

I don't want to pause! I want it to stop!

42 years old and starting menopause.

At least I think I am. I can't tell anymore. I've been on and off crying for the past month. Bratworse is at wit's end.

I wonder what the statistics on divorce rates during menopause is.

Can we change the marriage vows or civil union vows or whatever the hell you call it... can we change it to "in sickness or in health, through menopause"?

I've barely eaten the last few days. I want to just bang my head against a wall or just hurt myself. I hate feeling so adrift.

I want my thirties back. I felt good about myself. I feel so stupid nowadays.

It would help so much if we had a living room to enjoy, and a little extra money. Last three days, we had zero $. It's been quite some time since we had zero $. But between driving down to L.A. twice for a funeral; between fixing our neighbor's unit when our tank flooded (which we took care of right away unlike someone else we know); between purchasing stuff for a 40 gallon tank, then purchasing stuff to take care of the drying out stuff, then purchasing stuff for a 75-gallon tank; between miscalculating when Bratworse would get the 2nd half of her student loan; we kinda lost track of our money and boom, there we were - negative $24.

I looked up classes to attend, but realized we wouldn't have the money. *sigh* I keep telling myself, in two more years, bratworse will be out of college and we'll be able to enjoy ourselves. But only if Bratworse can put up with me pausing.

We Voted...

... Have you?

The Best Day

Recently, as Bratworse's life continued to expand outwardly and mine shrunk inwardly, I'd been anxious about being left behind. For a couple of weeks, we'd made progress about alieviating my concerns by vowing "The other comes first."

But on Friday, with an impending lawsuit and feeling totally icky about having to do it, with my period being on the verge of happening, with just everything in my life, I lost it.

So we talked. On Friday night. On Saturday. And then on Sunday, I woke up to her looking at me with a grin.

I thought I recognized the look. I thought the look meant, "Someone asked me to go to [insert name of 6 hour long dungeon run here], I know I told you I'd spend all day with you, but they NEVER go on this run and I really want this one thing that drops ONLY in [said dungeon] and you don't mind do you?"

I was wrong.

Bratworse had thought long and hard about it on Saturday and had apparently come up with a plan to surprise me.

It started with coffee and toast in bed (though I did help a bit). We took naps together (well, she napped and I played fight night). We played games together in the living room, breathing in mold and mildew. And the whole thing worked. We were like these two the whole day.

So, thank you Bratworse. There are times when I really don't deserve you. (not often, but there ARE times)

Boogie Man

BOO!

Did I scare ya?

I didn't? I should! According to the President of the United States, I should. Bratworse and I are SOOOOOOOO scary, that on Monday, he's going to make a speech about how scary we are. See, we gays and lesbos are SOOOOOOOOO scary that it's going to take a CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT to take care of us.

Now THAT'S scary.

Apparently,

• fixing FEMA in time for Hurricane season
• getting body armor for our troops
• making a deadline for withdrawal of our troops from harm's way
• fixing the national deficit or for that matter our economy
• stemming this tide of corruption
• making sure everyone is covered by healthcare
• giving every child a DECENT education

isn't as important as stopping Bratworse and I from marrying.

See, if we marry, apparently, all Hell'd break loose so, why bother fixing FEMA, the budget, our economy, the inequality of health insurance, the armor for our troops? I mean, we'd be fighting back the hordes of Satan himself! Therefore, it is IMPERATIVE, that a constitutional amendment be adopted so Bratworse and I could never ever be protected legally, if one of us should die in South Dakota, or Texas, or any of the states that thinks we're less than human.

[Added] Just saw this at Pam's House Blend

The proposed amendment reads: "Marriage in the United States shall consist solely of the union of a man and a woman. Neither this Constitution, nor the constitution of any state, shall be construed to require that marriage or the legal incidents thereof be conferred upon any union other than the union of a man and a woman."

Andrea Lafferty, executive director of the Traditional Values Coalition, and others say the second sentence leaves open the option that gays and lesbians could enter unions other than marriage; and that's a deal breaker for them.

Wow, these people are out to punish us. Not just stop us from using the term "marriage." They want us not to have any legal rights such as hospital visitation rights, property rights, etc. Whatever happened to "judge not, lest ye be judged yourself"?

These people are perversions of what Christ taught. The Christ I grew up with, was more Gandhi than anything else. Turn the other cheek? Follow the spirit of the law, not the letter of the law? This is the man who HEALED the lopped off ear of a person who came to arrest him!

If there IS a judgement day, and I am found wanting, my consolation is, these perversions of a good man's teachings will be burning right alongside me.

Personal Responsibility

Apparently, my upstairs neighbor likes being a victim.

Somehow, she is the victim here because my walls are still wet and apparently, we're being irresponsible because we aren't taking care of the problem.

Point one: The water came from HER dishwasher.

Point two: We have no money. How are we going to fix things? We have one income, am borrowing money for Bratworse's education and am late with our monthly payments on bills.

Point three: We have no insurance and even if we did, we don't have the money for the deductible.

Point four: Since May 5th, we have seen her three times, and heard from her one extra time. She has responded to my messages by calling up OTHERS to dump her problem on, like the association.

Point five: She ASKED us not to approach the association and therefore we didn't. According to her, the offsite manager is a "bully" and therefore she didn't want to deal with him.

I've heard through the grapevine that she's trying to play victim, saying "I'm not the bad guy."

Well, lady, (and I use the term VERY VERY LOOSELY) when our tank leaked, over the course of a WEEKEND, we approached our neighbor 4 times to ask if there was anything else we could do. THAT is how you show responsibility.

AND, how is it that WE have to pay for damages YOU incurred?

Wonder if her worldview will change after a judge says that she IS responsible for the damages to my property and that because she told us not to contact the Association as well as make it seem like it WASN'T her fault that the dishwasher leaked (apparently her ex-boyfriend tried to fix it a month prior, due to leaking) so much so that her insurance (lousy as it is) denied my claim, that she has to pay for extra.

I bet her worldview would be akin to those of conservatives: Waaaah, it was rigged, the judge didn't like me, I'm a victim.

These are the same type of people who saw starving people in New Orleans taking food, and condemning them.

I'm SO THANKFUL... subtitle It Does Pay to be Nice

An attorney client of my company has agreed to write the opening letter to my HOA's mangement co. He feels that their insurance would have the best shot of fixing our condo soon.

This was the first guy I learned of, when I started to work. He and my boss had been friends for a long time and I believe this guy gave my boss his start. Apparently, the attorney had been disgruntled at the "help" so I was given instructions to make him happy.

I took extra care over the next three years because I knew how my boss felt. And I must say, this attorney has been pleased with the special care I take, of his clients. And he's willing to meet with me, and write a letter on my behalf for free. If it requires a next step, then we're going to be talking fees.

I am absolutely grateful that my boss pointed this attorney out to me from the very beginning, I am absolutely thankful that some progress is going to happen.

And to thank this attorney, I'm hoping to send tons more business his way. So if you have a problem with a construction defect or home repairs and you are in the Bay Area, California, look up Robert Bruce Bybee at 925.977.9600. He WILL fight for you. And be REALLY nice to his assistant. She's the one who made sure to pass my calls to him.

Warning! Don't Get First American Specialty Insurance!

So you know that leak from the upstairs unit? The one that started right after my neighbor started her dishwasher, stopped when her dishwasher stopped, and that left a trail of water from the dishwasher out? Well, according to First American Specialty Insurance, there is no proof that the water leaked out of the dishwasher.

What does this mean?

If you are insured by First American Specialty, and if there is an accident like the one that occured, YOU ARE LIABLE.

That's what First American Specialty just told me. They are most likely going to decline liability because of the lack of proof.

Therefore, most likely my poor upstairs neighbor will have to dish out $ for my repairs. Doesn't that suck?

So ALL OF YOU CONDO OWNERS, their liability policy basically SUCKS!

Get First American Specialty at your own peril. What good is this condominium policy? This means though they will repair my upstairs neighbor, they won't repair my unit, which has the extensive damage. Which means my upstairs neighbor has to pay out of pocket the repairs.

So now, I have to get a lawyer to get what is rightfully mine, and her insurance rate will go up. Sure sucks to be a little person here in America, doesn't it?

Don't say I didn't warn you.

2 Great New Stoner Games for Mac & PC

It's actually the same game but two different versions. The first one, released about 3 months ago, is called Huntsville. That link will take you to MacGameStore where I'm currently buying most of my games. However, you can also download the games from any game site include Pogo.

The second one, Prime Suspects, you cannot get through MacGamestore yet. You have to go to the publisher BigFishGames and get it directly from them.

Both games are $20 each, and work on the same premise: the first part of the puzzle, you are given different collaged scenes. Within the scenes, you have find any number of items, like 3 bats. The 3 bats could consist of 2 critters that are bats, and a baseball bat. After you find the missing "clues", you get to the second stage which is a little puzzle.

I'm preferring Prime Suspects because they have this neat part where you have to find a battery in one of the other scenes, then use the flashlight to find out the other "clues" in the darkened room.

Two great stoner games.

Gay Men and Misogyny

I love gay men. Ask any of my friends, they'd tell you I'm a fag hag in drag.

But a lot of gay men are misogynists. They don't think they are, but there's a hatred there that stems from being lumped in with girls - as in being called sissy boys.

I've had to deal with them constantly because frankly, I have sensibilities more like a gay man's than a typical dyke. I love Opera, musicals, Judy, Babs, Patsy, etc. and therefore enjoy conversations with gay men more.

But there are times when during a conversation, I feel like I've been punched in the gut.

John Aravosis' post about Pat Roberts - comparing him with Patrick Henry, is a good post. Except he likened Pat Roberts to "a big girl." Which was a put down.

Then his response to his readers who said, waitaminit John, don't do like they (the Repubs who call men they consider weak as girly men) do, his response was to pooh pooh them all.

This was the final straw. I used to recommend Americablog to everyone I knew, but no more.

What makes me a liberal is, when I see my actions as being similar to others I condemn, I apologize and try not to repeat my mistake. This is how we learn tolerance.

How can John Aravosis dig in his feet like this? He says we're ignoring the big issue, that Roberts and what he said was the issue. No, John. We are not ignoring the big issue. We're agreeing with you on that. We're just not agreeing with you on your choice of words.

You say that it's part of the gay vernacular and get over yourself. I can just picture John Aravosis snapping his fingers thrice, each time higher above his head. I know this action well. This is a gay man's reaction to being caught wrong, and refusing to admit the mistake. "Get over yourself, Maryjane."

Well, John. You lost yourself a reader today. Not because of your poor word choice. It's okay to make mistakes. You lost a reader because you told me to get over myself and on this, I can't. All my life, I've fought the image of girls = weak. All my life I was told, but you're one of the guys, Resigned Idealist. No, I am NOT one of the guys. I am a girl. I am a woman. And I will not stand for the equation women/girls = weak anymore. Use another goddamn metaphor.

Hopefully

With any luck, my late afternoon is going to look like this:

Drawing a Line

I spoke to my nephew for the first time today since Christmas. It was nice and polite and civil despite the past.

A line was drawn and he had crossed it. Honestly speaking, I had actually allowed him to cross the line numerous times in the past and had redrawn it. But when he brought the problem into my house, but when he tried to convince me that it was okay to make his mother worry because the worst could never happen to him - a delusion I threw back into his face, but when he dared to compare his addiction with my life with Bratworse, I let the line remain broken.

The reparation to the line is available to him, but it will not be immediate. Years has to pass before repairs can even begin, but it has to start somewhere. I was honest with him on the phone. I wish him well and strength. I hope that we will have our friendship again.

I actually have no doubt that one day, my nephew and I will have warmth towards each other. I just hope that the path there will be smoother than not.

"I Don't Read Comics"

I shouldn't be insulted but I am. This was just said to me, by the same guy who said there's no such thing as global warming. This is also the same guy who thought Da Vinci Code was great and original. Should I have told him that the concept contained within the Da Vinci Code, I first came across in Preacher by Garth Ennis, which was many years prior to the Da Vinci Code, so when people all around me were all agog with the blasphemous concept, all I could manage was Ho-hum?

[Added] I just remembered that this guy keeps quoting from his favorite movie: The Crow, starring Brandon Lee. Do I have the heart to tell him that it was based on a comic book, that had a small cult following (the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles had a much larger following and actually TMNT started off being a satire before becoming what it mocked)? Half the stuff popular culture thinks is cool, had its dang origin in comic books.

No Global Warming...

... that is, according to my well-read neighbors.

When I asked, oh, why do we put on 60 SPF sunblock now when back in the 70's 15 SPF was considered excessive? Apparently, it's because science has advanced so much that we can call skin cancer what it is. Back then, we didn't know what skin cancer was.

Another said, even if there was global warming, it wouldn't impact our daily lives. I said, okay, tell that to the people in New Orleans. Oh, and btw, don't bother to put on sunscreen when you go out. And don't bother bringing tissues, cause hay fever isn't more potent due to global warming.

Yet another said, we will never see Antartica thawed out during our lifetime, as if only the ENTIRE thawing of Antartica would have human impact.

I guess I'm just plain wrong. I mean, these neighbors of mine won't believe in global warming so how can I? These hundreds of scientists all over the world just must be making things up.

Ossie the Octopus doing the Dance Dance Revolution

She put on quite a show for us tonight. And the kewl thing? We got some of it on video.


She kept doing this weird dance along the glass perimeter of the tank. She wasn't going after the shrimp I had put in; she was just dancing.

Oh earlier, I had put in shrimp for her and as I dipped the net into her tank to release the shrimp, her tentacles flew out to explore the net. For a second, it almost looked as if she was going to climb into the net. But she lost her curiousity quickly and released the net from her grip, slinking away to her den.

She is way too cool!

Long Distance Spies

I picked up my phone and was about to call AT & T, to cancel my long distance with them when I did a "D'OH!"

We had switched from Pacific Bell Long Distance to Working Assets about 2 years ago. After we switched, Pacific Bell became SBC which is now AT & T. I am SO sorry I won't have the chance to collect my $1000 from AT & T unless they gave out records stemming back to 2002. Which, of course is very possible knowing this bunch of spies in the White House.

By the way, Working Assets is a fantastic liberal company. Part of their profits goes to charity; in addition, you can choose to overpay your monthly bill and have that go to charity. At the end of the year, they will tell you how much you're contributing, then ask you which organizations you want to contribute to. They have everything from Nature Conservation to Breast Cancer to AIDS to well, a ton of organizations.

So, here - click on the following link. And know that Working Assets would fight the government tooth and nail rather than roll over for the government.

Dread No More

Bratworse almost made it a full year. It was July last year when she traded in straight hair for dreads but she couldn't take it anymore. Even after buying some new hair products, it was taking too long to maintain a decent look.

Honestly, though I loved her looks with the dreads, I didn't like the dreads myself. Smells got trapped too easily in it; and running your fingers through hair just isn't an option.

Not that her current condition leaves that as an option. Bratworse has returned to being my Dopey! *beams brightly*

She has shorn her locks. Well, actually, WE shorned (is that a word?) it together. She cut off each dread and when I realized she was nicking herself with the razor, I took over and first clipped her hair, then shaved it down to skin.

She has such a pretty face and the bald look just brings out the beauty, I think. But if she puts on a beanie, then pushes up the beanie to expose her ears making them stick out, she looks just like Dopey!

I'm thinking of shaving mine too. I miss running my hand over my shaved head. But I think I've gained too much weight and am starting to look my age too much to get away with a bald look.

Out of My Mind

I have now walked three times into the kitchen to get myself a pepsi... and returned empty-handed each time. Not only that, but it has taken me at least 5 minutes to realize that I never did get a soda.

My mind is gone.

I am walking around dazed because the enormity of the situation we're in keeps banging against my noggin and knocking my mind silly.

We have to replace the living room floor.

We have to get someone to look between the walls to make sure the wiring is okay and that its been dried out properly.

We have to get someone to examine the kitchen cabinet and see if the wood is rotting from the damage.

We have to get someone to replace the linoleum on our kitchen floor, which is bubbling up from the moisture.

We have to wait.

According to First American Specialty, they have legally 40 days to come inspect the property. On their website, they say they will pay liability if the owner is sued and then found liable. The adjuster further told me that only if the owner was "legally negligent" would they pay liability.

So I've contacted a lawyer and am waiting to hear back from them.

Waiting...

I hate waiting. Bratworse can attest to that.

Apparently, the insurance claim is for liability only, which is why they're taking their sweet time about it. I hope mildew and mold grows upstairs. I'm sure it will because she didn't take the time out to dry out her padding. According to her, the carpet didn't get that wet. Then maybe, my upstairs neighbor will be a little more enthusiastic about getting this taken care of.

I keep wanting to reassure Bratworse that we're not going to get fucked. But I myself am panicking that we're going to get fucked on this.

All we wanted was a living room we enjoy being in. You want to know what the damn thing about all this is?

Only ONE week ago, did Bratworse take a Monday out to make the living room very nice and livable. We got to enjoy the living room for about a week before the weather turned a tad cold and we went back to the bedroom. And then this happens. And of course, every day since then, has been a wonderfully warm day (except yesterday). And we're back to being confined.

ARRRRRRGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHH!

People keep saying Karma, cause of our flooding our neighbors two weeks ago.

But we took care of our neighbors IMMEDIATELY. We ran over to find out what needed to be done. We REASSURED them that we'd take care of EVERYTHING.

What did my upstairs neighbor do? So far, all of our conversations I had to initiate. And she wonders why all this shit keeps happening to her. I think we just got caught up in HER karma, unfortunately. Because no matter what, in the long run, she was liable. And the longer it takes for us to replace our stuff, the more it'll cost cause mold spreads.

Bratworse and my attitude is the same: if we caused harm/damage to someone else, we take care of that FIRST. Our neighbor's seems to be, well, if I leave it alone enough maybe no one will notice I caused it.

I want my living room! I want my new 75 gallon tank cycling! I want action started on this.

Argh

Systems That Don't Work

There's got to be better systems than these:

You pay x amount of dollars each month to insure that if anything goes wrong, it'll get taken care of. Yet the company you pay the monthly fee to, their whole objective is to make money. And if they pay out less, they make more money. Therefore, they aren't there to help you, just to collect your money.

You pay a therapist money each session to get better. Yet, they make money if you don't get better, cause if you do get better, you stop going. See the catch?

Pharmaceutical companies make money if you are on a long-term solution. If they can get you to spend regularly on something that makes you "feel" temporarily better, yet have to continue to take it to feel better (drug addiction anyone?), what is the incentive for them to come up with medicine that actually cures your ailment?

We elect officials to be our ears and voices in governments. Yet the people with the most access to them are "lobbyists" who work for organizations. So what are our ears and voices in government seeing and listening to? Not us.

I'm so sick of systems that don't work.

DNC and $100

So last night, I get a call from the folks over at the DNC. "Resigned Idealist," he tells me, "we need YOUR help to make those people over in the White House accountable. For just $100, we can put that to good use in making sure we get a majority in the Senate and the House of Representatives."

So I said, "Is the DNC going to come out in favor of gay marriage?"

I was greeted with a "huh?"

So I said slowly, "Why should I get the DNC's back, when the DNC won't get my back?"

"Well," came the reply hesitatingly. "you see..."

I cut them off. "When you guys are willing to go to the mat for me, I'll be willing to go to the mat for you. Thank you. Have a nice day."

I will vote for Democrats cause I believe the time came a LONG time ago for some accountability in Washington. But $100? HAH! I'm willing to put $100 into Mark Warner's (hear that Hillary?) pocket when the time comes, because he had the balls and tits to come out in favor of gay marriage, to say that anything less has to do with making gays and lesbians sub-humans. Those words are worth dollars.

And you know something? My money is worth a lot more to the DNC than my vote cause I live in a democratic state, in a democratic town. My vote means very little in that sense.

Bad Luck comes in Threes? Hopefully?

So hopefully, this will be the third in our bad luck series.

The first was when our rental car broke down en route to L.A. for my best friend's Mom’s funeral.

The second was when we returned a few days later to an empty 40-gallon aquarium (the replacement of our neighbor’s padding, and drying out of the carpet cost us a minimal amount *whew*)

This past Friday, disaster struck a third time.

Bratworse and I had planned this day to be the day we set up our 75-gallon aquarium. Around 6:30 pm, we were on the phone coordinating the delivery of the tank and its stand, the pick-up of the water, etc. when I noticed that our house line was getting very very staticky (is that a word?). In the meantime, I was starting to lose internet connectivity as well. My first thought, as any good paranoid would, was, “is the government spying on us again?” Please note the repetivity of that thought.

After 15 min. of struggling with trying to connect to the internet, of picking up the phone to see if there was a connection, I finally got up to see if any outside forces could be interfering. Lo and behold, what did I see when I went into the living room? Buckets of water pouring out of the light socket in the dining room, as well as water seeping through the light fixture in the kitchen.

Needless to say, all of Bratworse's hard work on the living room floor is pretty much gone. We’re going to have to replace half the floor in there, perhaps the cabinets in the kitchen as well. As for our new aquarium, well, since the designated space for it was on top of the ruined floor, we can’t set it up until after the floor is replaced.

So, how was YOUR weekend?

Captive Audiences

Looking at some of the feedback Editor & Publisher has gotten on Stephen Colbert's vitriolic & virtuosic perfomance at the White House Correspondence Dinner, it seems that some people found it distasteful that Stephen Colbert would take aim at his captive audience.

How many funerals and weddings have I attended, where the priest/preacher overtook the ceremony to launch into a sermon about how we should accept Jesus? How's that for a captive audience? This is the BIGGEST thing about weddings and funerals that I hate. I am there to honor the couple, or the deceased. Why the hell should I have to sit through a friggin' sermon? But because the priest/preacher COUNTS on us having good manners, enough not to diss the one honored (unlike the priest/preacher who are dissing the ceremony) we're a captive audience. (yes, I am STILL furious at that damn priest last week who spoke at Mom Wilson's funeral).

What was TRULY bad taste (and I thought so at the time) was Bush doing a slide show of him looking around the WH for WMDs. Now that was truly tasteless. Bush's lies = 2200+ deaths and 10,000+ wounded. Stephen Colbert's truthiness = burned Bush and singed reporters (metaphorically).

Borne of Refugee Parents

I can't imagine what it's like to be so despondent over your country's futures that you are willing to risk life and limb to enter into another country illegally. However, my parents can, and did.

They did not enter the United States illegally, but they did enter both Macao and Hong Kong illegally. In fact, until my mother became a citizen of the United States in 1973 and until my father became a Singapore citizen sometime in the 1980's, neither of them had citizenship anywhere. They both carried a H.K. permanent residence card and a Singapore permanent residence card and my mother had a green card (an American permanent residence card) as well.

What did this mean? This meant that though they paid taxes to all THREE states, neither of them had any representation in government, though all three belonged to democracies.

As for all of you who think that aliens, illegal or legal are taking away your jobs and should go home, why don't you get pissed off at the real culprits? You know, like that Exxon guy who just retired with 4 Billion? Think of how many people that could hire just off $10/hour. Think of Enron. Think of Bush giving billions of dollars back to THOSE assholes who could've housed all of the New Orleans refugees with one wave of their checkbooks.

They're Alive!

First, a little bit of backstory:

Last weekend was probably one of the worst in my life. It certainly holds no water (pun to be self-explanatory later) to the weekend where one of my best friends' life hung in the nether world betwixt life and death, but it came decently close enough to qualify.

We had gone to L.A. for the weekend to attend my best friend's mother's funeral. That, in itself, was devasting. En route, our rental car broke down on the edges of beautiful Buttonwillow. The gas station attendents were extremely nice; so were the Enterprise reps. But 4 hours in the middle of nowhere with a little stiff wind blowing will entice the bacteria in one's body to act up, which they did. The next day, both Bratworse and I were deep in misery. That very night, I spewed all over.

The drive home was relatively uneventful; however, as I opened our front door, instead of being greeted by a nice waterfall sound, we were greeted by angry buzzing noises that didn't sound muffled by water at all. We dashed in to find an empty 40-gallon tank with pumps and filter still running.

Luckily for us and unluckily for our next door neighbor, the water had run away from our unit into theirs. We paid for all the damages of course, but all the live rock were dead and so were the live sand, which was the most expensive investment we had put into the aquarium.

Not only that, but I figured the 50+ blue legged hermit crabs which I had purchased the week before (to help cycle the tank as well as provide nourishment for Ossie the Octopus) were goners for sure.

First three days after the trip, I hadn't the heart to work on the tank. Finally last night, I went and got buckets to put the live rock in, as well as the sand. After removing the rocks, I was about to start on the sand when I blinked and could've sworn I saw something moving among the sand. I blinked again and sure enough, little tiny movements could be seen.

Lo and behold! 20+ crabs survived the drying out of the tank. I scooped them up and threw them into Ossie's tiny tank hoping for the best. We observed Ossie hanging outside her den but not much more. Since she had inked and seemed shy after we had taken that flash photography, we're not anxious to put more stress on her. Hopefully, she likes her new temporary tank mates.

Ossie gets the snail

The following is a minute and a half movie of our octopus, Ossie. Please be patient, we're trying the embed command for the first time to see whether we should use it. But because we are using Geocities to host the movie, you may see just a question mark. Come back later and hopefully no one will have visited the site during the past hour. Actually, it's more than likely no one will have visited in the past hour LOL.

Well, our Geocities experiment failed. Therefore, we moved it to YouTube but the quality of the video has dropped considerably since it's now a flash animation. Still, you can see Ossie, especially in the latter half of the movie.



Enjoy!

Ever Notice...

... That it's becoming common-place on print ads, internet ads and on television/movies to see a white man with a different colored woman,

but you RARELY get to see a different colored man with a white woman?

I just saw an internet ad showing an asian woman with a white man asking "Good match?"

Quick, name the last time you saw on a screen, a couple consisting of an Asian man with a white woman; or a black man with a white woman; or an hispanic man with a white woman.

Time's up. Did you think of one? I couldn't, even though in my family alone, there's been more males marrying whites than the reverse.

Isn't She Beautiful?

Here's a picture of Ossie the Octopus in full color.
Click on photo to enlarge.

Lost Judas Gospel in National Geographic

I am having WAAAAAY too much fun reading the forums for this article.

1) I am a former christian, who finally had it with the inconsistencies;
2) I am also a self-taught scholar of the Gospel times, choosing to focus on the area communities, that is the Romans and the Jews; and
3) I understand the mindsets of the two communities clashing on the boards only too well.

Let me explain. In a short time, National Geographic will publish an article giving what translation they could get from 1,000 pieces of parchment which had originally contained the Gospel of Judas. This will contain the head-exploding tidbits of details like Judas actually had the blessing of Jesus. (Which, honestly speaking, was hinted at when in the Gospel of John, that Jesus told Judas something like, go do what you have to do and THIS was one of the inconsistencies I couldn't deal with)

Because of the three facts above, I scurried over to the forums as soon as I realized there were forums, and delved into my first one. I am having a HOOT!


In one corner, we have the people whose world-view would somehow collapse if anyone ever had a dissenting thought. We call them fanatics. We call one of them George Bush but I digress.

In another corner, we have the ones who research everything (I happen to fall into this group). We call them the logicians. Or the faithless.

In yet another corner, we have the people who are feelers. They're the ones who have no research to back them up, but they *could* see where this gospel came from because they'd always felt in their heart of hearts, no one could betray the Good Master. Of course it had to be consentual! Feel gooders.

On the third page, I noticed a back corner... the pick-upers. The women seemed to put their first names, the men included an authentic looking email. By the fourth page, I was falling over laughing realizing I had stumbled upon the virtual equivalent of the "going to church to find me a date."

BTW, I work with a bunch of white guys. Out of the ones who've come and gone, about 30% told me they went to church to meet a prospective bride and after they got married they stopped going to church. About 30% still went to church and the other 40% hasn't said anything. Makes you wonder, eh?

Anyway, hope you enjoy the fireworks as much as I do. Me? I still subscribe to my personal theory that Jesus didn't get resurrected at the cross, that Satan did and showed himself to the disciples at the tomb. All he had to do was show up a few more times (if you believe Acts) and the snowball got rolling. Bet I'll get flamed for that one.

And yes yes, I know I'm going to hell. Wasn't it predetermined from you guys that I was unsavable unless I give up sex? Since it's predetermined anyway, why shouldn't I just screw up more? See, this was another illogical point that couldn't be resolved. The inability to count days was another. HOW is there 3 days between Good Friday and Easter?

One day I'll write about the inconsistencies and illogic of the Christian belief/Bible.

OH! That reminds me, that was ANOTHER thing I was having fun with. See, most logicians don't come from a faith background. Therefore, to them, because Catholics are the biggest sect, they reference "the church" or "the pope" as if it applies to all Christians. But the truth is, Christianity is as diverse today as it was back during the days of the Gnostics. And most Americans aren't Catholic even if they might be the majority group. The Protestants as a whole outnumber the Catholics. That's more people not believing in papal power than believing. Therefore by referencing the Catholic Church, your post automatically gets put into the "bunk" pile.

Double OH! Yet another thing I was having fun with was seeing the Mormon Church get slapped around. To a mainstream protestant (from Lutheran to Methodist to Catholics to Baptists), the Mormon Church is akin to devil worship. Nevermind that it's the richest church in America AND it's among the fastest growing.

Anyway, can you tell I'm THOROUGHLY enjoying this? Taa! Back to reading the forum for me.

Your Republican Party...

Oh yeah, the party of values:

• a Majority Leader who's under investigation for bribery, who's two former aides and possibly a third has already pled guilty to charges of bribery
• a U.S. Domestic Policy Advisor arrested for STEALING FROM TARGET
• a Top Gun who gets convicted for taking bribes and mind you, this is the guy who proposed to Congress that flag-burning should be illegal
• a U.S. representative of Ohio lying on her resume, and mind you, this is the gal who called Murtha a coward
• A Homeland Security Press Secretary who tries to seduce a 14-yr old girl over the internet

Oh and there's more, I just can't think of any more. And all these just within the past 3 months.

And these guys have the friggin gall to tell me, MY lifestyle causes harm? That if I get married to Bratworse, I will cause the downfall of the sanctity of marriage?

Give me a friggin break! As if there's any things left sacred to them. Please! 14 year old girls? Stealing from Target? Sheesh! At least steal from Walmart. That would at least give you SOME redeeming qualities.

Singing to Get Off

So we got an obscene call the other day. Person called back after I said, "*@!% off" and hung up. Well, I let the answering machine get it - now please understand that to help me never to forget a friend who had died, I sing an obnoxious song and our current message is sung to the tune of "Darling Clementine".

Well apparently, our obscene caller was fairly desperate to be heard, so he sang into our answering machine. I am SOOOOOO sorry I didn't keep a copy for you to listen to - I mean, this guy literally had to sing to get his rocks off.

The other thing I'm truly sorry for? That inspiration didn't hit me during, and that I didn't pick up the phone mid-song and ask, "So! Do you have to sing for your supper too? BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"

Wha, me attitude? Not Ossie the Octopus

This week was a nail-biter for Bratworse and I. On Sunday, the crabs seemed listless, Ossie didn't make an appearance and we got really worried.

For the next three days, we could see Ossie moving in her den, but never out nor showing any tentacles. I started doing daily water changes of 20% on Saturday, but the ammonia levels still remained high.

Sunday through Wednesday, every day, twice a day, I'd stare into her tank, removing any thing that might produce ammonia in hopes of trying to control the levels. Tuesday, I decided to leave the light on inside her tank while we were out in hopes that some bacteria would start growing. Tuesday, I also stopped the daily water changes.

Finally, Tuesday, I got the ammonia levels down to .25 but the nitrate levels were rising (seemed to have skipped the nitrite stage). But further good news occurred. Her tentacles batted away a nearby shrimp that was close to one of her entrances.

Both Bratworse and I breathed better that night and the next day, Bratworse saw her tentacles when she was cleaning out the tank.

However, we were most concerned because we couldn't really find any evidence of feeding. Yes, it seemed like the hermit crab population was dwindling, but was it because we couldn't find some of the crabs? Yes, the ghost shrimp we were putting in seemed to disappear too, but was it cause they were drowning and bristle worms were getting to them?

By Wednesday night, we had convinced ourselves that Ossie was doing worse, even though the levels of ammonia had remained at .25, the nitrate and nitrite wasn't rising and I was buffing the water to ensure the ph at above 8.0. Sad and disheartened we went to bed.

The next morning, after a little disturbance, we finally saw a tentacle, proving that she was alive. (It's amazing how pms will work to convince one of the worst possible scenario).

Last night, we had decided to buy some frozen shrimp since we weren't convinced she was hunting for herself (despite the fact that we can only find 7 of the 15 crabs). Bratworse hovered over the top of the tank for half an hour, holding a shrimp with chopsticks, near the various entrances of her den. Suddenly, she let out a shriek. "Ossie grabbed the shrimp!"

A tentacle had darted out, grabbed the shrimp and was trying to drag it down the crevice. Excitedly, Bratworse waited for a while, but the shrimp was too big for the hole. So, I took over, and got a smaller shrimp. Sure enough, Ossie grabbed that and pulled it into the hole as I tried to stuff it down.

10 minutes later, Bratworse got another shrimp and was waving it around the entrances. The older shrimp comes flying out the bottom entrance (we realized that that's her trash chute) and a tentacle reaches out and drags the new shrimp into a hole, effectively plugging it up.

Then when we put the older shrimp near the crevice again, a tentacle darts out, pulling that one into and plugging that hole up. As we continued watching, two tentacles came out the bottom hole, and pulled two shells over the entrances.

Well, that told us!

Laughing, we left her alone, feeling much better. Three hours later (after SEVERAL rounds on Fight Night Round 3), I went to go check on her. And there Ossie was, hanging in her crevice, giving me the eye. I shook Bratworse awake and we watched her hanging there for about 5 minutes before letting her sleep.

This morning, ph was down but everything else was the same. I will try to get some pictures this weekend.

A New Addition

I know it's been a while since I wrote, but the world's been a bit discouraging, y'know? I mean, with a government that admits to law-breaking, and getting away with it, with all this injustice in the world, I just felt that if I kept writing about it, I'd just never stop being in a rage.

But this past week, something took me away from all that.

We have a new addition to the house: Ossie.



See her lurking there behind the rock near the glass? The eyes are on top and the mantle (a bulbous shape) is towards the bottom.

She's an octopus. Why did we get an octopus? Beats me. But we did end up with one, and we're loving every second of it. We've been having a bit of trouble getting the levels just right in the tank, but we're apparently doing something okay today.

One of the things I did this afternoon was let the sun hit the tank directly for about an hour. This seems to have stimulated some growth on the rocks which seems to have stimulated the crabs.

Another reason we think things are going to be okay is, we got to witness Ossie hunting!

After we had turned off the lights for about 1/2 hour, we decided to check on her. Bratworse went to use the flashlight, covered with red cellophane and discovered Ossie outside her den. I convinced her to turn on the inside lamp, which was still the red bulb and to our surprise, Ossie didn't budge. After about 20 minutes of observation, we think we figured out why she wasn't moving. She was munching on something - we think it was a snail that had been hanging out near her den.

Well, I tried to snap a few shots of her but one time, I left the flash on. Three seconds later, she was back in her den. We turned off the lights for about 15 minutes, then turned the red light back on, and found her poking her tentacles out of her rock playfully, as if to entice the ghost shrimp we had put in earlier. That trick didn't work as the ghost shrimp had found a safe haven in a little plastic cage ball I had put in for Ossie to play with.

As we watched, Ossie came out of her den to hang inside an enclave in her rock. From what we can tell, this is her favorite place to hang out, so to speak. She must've hung there for 40 minutes (yes, we watched the entire time) before deciding to move.

One of the things we had done was add backing to the back of the aquarium. She seems to have loved this. She glided along the back of the next rock until she reached an overhang I had set up. Slipping up the back, she perched there, tentatively reaching a tentacle out to inspect the plastic cage ball. A shrimp hung near the top of the ball, seemingly oblivious to her presence.

Ossie gripped the ball with one tentacle, then struck at the shrimp at the top of the ball. Twice, she attempted this, but both times, the ball thwarted the attempt. She flung the ball away from the rock so that it could float around the tank (it had been hung up by the top of the overhang, thus giving the shrimp a stable haven).

For a while, Ossie perched behind the overhang, waiting for the shrimp to swim by. One shrimp found safety above the pump; the other swam with the floating ball. At times, the shrimp would swim close to where Ossie was waiting to spring into action but never stayed long enough or near enough for her to strike. She moved closer to the top of the overhang but by the time she was near the tip, the floating ball had gotten hung up near the pump.

To my eyes, it looked as if one of the shrimp was actively swimming to hold the ball in place.

With both shrimp hovering safely out of reach at the water pump, it seemed Ossie reached the end of her patience. She glided along the back wall, then lept for the side of the pump. A strike of the tentacles was followed by a brief struggle, then Ossie swam back to the overhang with two quick flicks of her mantle.

Bratworse and I quickly assessed the situation. One of the shrimp was still safely on top of the water pump. The other was swimming around the top of the now freed ball. It seemed it was three strikes and Ossie was out.

Ossie didn't even bother to slide along the rocks. It definitely looked as if she was miffed and was stalking off along the back wall towards her den. She hung in her crevice for a few seconds, then slid insided her den. Bratworse was about to turn off the lights when I said wait a few.

Sure enough, our sulking Ossie slid back out, and hung in her crevice for about 10 minutes. Then she went to hang out back and that's where the photo comes from. A few minutes after the photo, we decided to leave her alone.

There are plenty of crabs for her to eat. It seems that she has taken to grabbing all the crabs and throwing them into a corner. How else to explain that when we turn off the lights, they are scattered, and when we wake up, they are stacked in the corner. Alive, but stacked.

She seems to be enjoying herself for now. I had the eeriest feeling, she was watching me as much as I was watching her, and that somehow, we had passed the test.

Will keep you all updated.

Pissing Off the NRA

I'm a betting woman and even if you gave me 500 to 1 odds on the current Administration pissing off the NRA, I wouldn't have taken the bet.

There was no way in hell that these guys, with their chickenhawk, shooting fish in a barrel attitudes, could ever piss the NRA off unless they were arrogant beyond belief, careless and inept.

Apparently, this Administration managed to do it - piss off, perhaps not the NRA itself, but certainly many members of the association. And exactly due to their ineptitude, carelessness and hubris.

Power in Numbers

There's been a reason why I haven't posted as much, well, several reasons why.

Mostly it's because I've taken to watching this seismic shift that's unfolding before my very eyes. What shift?

Look around you. America and Americans are waking up. I, being a resigned idealist, had wanted the slumber to be over sooner of course, but the fact is, we are waking up to the fact that we're being tools, we're being saps and we're getting tired of it.

There's powers in numbers and the numbers are starting to stack up against the Bush Administration.

There's the numbers involved in Iraq. Billions spent. Hundreds of thousands wounded. Thousands killed. And those are just the numbers involving Americans. Then there's the worst number involved, that elephant in the room that is just starting to appear to people: infinite involvement.

There's the numbers involved in Katrina. Hundreds of thousands displaced, a large percentage never to return to their roots again. Billions in property damage. Minimum wage of $5.15/hour cut but restored after furious outcry. You probably can provide better numbers than I can.

There's the numbers involved in the corruption scandals. See TPM and its related site for information on that. They cover it extensively.

There's the numbers involved in George Bush's personal life. Approximately one year AWOL from the National Guard. Over 400 vacation days. Seven minutes of being dumbstruck while our nation was attacked and he was our commander in chief. Number of falls from bicycles and for that matter, number of incidents that happened while he was on his bicycle.

There's the numbers involved in the confirmation of Alito. 72 to 25 BRAVE senators. Twenty-five senators who listened to their constituents.

Lastly, the numbers in deaths and wounded. There are of course, the deaths and wounded from 9/11. And then the military deaths and wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan. As this number grows, the seven degrees of separation will ensure that sooner or later each one of us will be touched by these senseless (yes senseless!) deaths. May this number never get here. Then there are the journalistic deaths and wounded. From Daniel Pearl to (may she get home safely) Jill Carroll, to the civilians and media people accompanying them... sooner or later each one of us will see a name we recognize, felt some kinship with. For many of us, it is Bob Woodruff.

All these numbers are seeping into the national consciousness and all of them add up to one big headache for the Bush Administration.

Me, I'm just sitting back watching these numbers emerge with escalating frequency, wondering when the numbers will finally add up to several indictments (some of which have happened already - hi Jack Abramoff! Hi Duke Cunningham! Hi Scooter Libby!) AND ONE nice impeachment.

Thank You Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer

Today, I am very very proud to call these two ladies my senators.

Both of them heard our voices and voted no on cloture for Alito. Boxer, of course, came out swinging first and declared her intent days ago, maybe earler than that. Feinstein, bless her, changed her mind and heard us.

I called Senator Feinstein's office on Friday. When I tried around 3:30 pm, the Los Angeles office (as referenced by Sen. Feinstein's website) seemed to be a wrong number, the San Fransciso, Sacramento, and San Diego offices were busy but I managed to get through to her Fresno office.

I managed to stammer out my reasons for wanting Sen. Feinstein to vote no on cloture, saying that dang it, I want the opposition party to start acting like an opposition party and as someone who voted her into office, I want her to represent me.

Thank you both, ladies. For the first time in a very long time, I feel like I'm being represented.

BTW, in case you don't realize why this vote today was important, first off, go read Digby's post, then bookmark Digby. He manages to rise above the Hullabaloo. To make his point short, the score today of 75 to 25 is like a bowler with an average of 120 bowling a 700 series. The improvement/change is remarkable.

Comparing Market Forces and Hijacks

This past Saturday on KCBS here in the Bay Area, CA, Bratworse and I heard an editorial that basically compared the oil companies profits to the housing market. The guy said in effect, don't blame the oil companies if the markets make it that profitable. You don't blame your neighbor for driving up the housing market and you don't begrudge him his 500% profits if the markets bear it, do you?

Both Bratworse and I shook our heads, disagreeing with this sentiment.

This morning, it finally hit me why the comparison doesn't work.

The comparison works ONLY if the following conditions in the housing market were met:

1. The houses were all owned by a handful of corporations;
2. Blocks of houses were slowly disintegrating and NOT being replaced;
3. And, there were no rentals available to people.

See, what drives the housing market are HUGE numbers of people willing to participate in a free market situation.

However, what drives the oil market are a few companies holding the entire populace hostage.

BTW, I predicted that there would be record profits here. Nice to know that no matter what happens, the fat cats will still get fatter yet, eh? NOT!

Mid-Life Crisis

I think I finally reached my mid-life crisis.

For the past five years, I have wanted nothing but turmoil-less life.

For the past two years, stability in the Cholotto household has pretty much been reached. Yeah, we quibble and we fight. Yeah, there are times when Bratworse can strangle me, and there are times when I would consider stopping the car and leaving her whereever we might be. However, the times that are peaceful, loving and supportive far outweigh the bad times.

As for my professional life, I wanted a life of ease, of no stress, of having a job (not career). Well, I managed to hook one of those jobs. I get to work a 38-1/2 hour week, go home and forget about work, work at my own pace, what else should a woman ask for?

Well, it turns out that my wishes don't seem to fulfill me enough.

I'm bored and need some new challenges. Bratworse wants me to write. I kinda do too, cause there's a euphoria that comes with writing. But at the same time, writing scares me dreadfully.

*sigh*

Hope Bratworse can put up with my listlessness and put up with the fact that I'll be perking up on Feb. 14th, but because of Fight Night Round 3 release and not VD.

Pride in Our Youth

You guys have to check this out.

Alberto Gonzales went to Georgetown to speak... and the law students there stood up and turned their backs to him in silent protest, and a few more wearing black hoods came in bearing this sign.

America isn't lost yet.



Don't worry guys, not enough people come to my site to hurt your site so hope you don't mind that I borrowed your image. I'm just so proud of my fellow Americans here.

Why I Live in California

Reading this article about a policewoman who had to BEG to leave her benefits to her partner, I am once again reaffirmed in my belief that California is the place for me.

Yeah yeah, I know California doesn't allow same-sex marriage yet, but at least, if I put down that Bratworse is to get all my life insurance (if I had any), this state would recognize that we are a union.

*sigh* Imagine giving over 25 years of your life to a community, and then having to BEG that community to ALLOW you to leave your benefits to the person of YOUR choice.

Oh yes, America IS the land of the free. (Hope the sarcasm dripped off my words and off your screen).

The Best Thing to Happen to a Writer

Is what I'm doing right now.

Last week, the publisher of washingtonpost.com who was involved in a live chat about their "ombudsman" (I use quotes because though that's the actual title of her job, she's actually doing the job of Republican Shill) - well Jim Brady dropped a one-liner that in the midst of all that heated talk, was the only one to heat me up.

He said that Dan Froomkin would be back at his job on Tuesday. That's today!

Me, I can't wait. I'm very very happy for Dan Froomkin and his wife and new son, but I've been jonesing for good reporting. And it seems that the only CONSISTENT place of that happening (aside from blogs that is) is Dan Froomkin's column.

As for you Washington Post people who say he's a column and thereby cannot be considered as a "reporter", I say this to you. If you can consider Deborah Howell to be an ombudsman (who is supposedly there to respond to readers and how does she do it? She throws a hissy fit and refuses to respond. You know, I'd give her several red marks on her annual review.) I can consider Dan to be a reporter. At least he cares about whether his words will come back to bite him in the ass.

So Welcome Back, Dan! I'm refreshing the damn politics page until I see your column up.

[update] IT'S UP! Gawd, I feel like such a groupie.

Bwahahahaha - he slipped in a little dig

"But McClellan's continued attempt to portray the Abramoff scandal as bipartisan doesn't exactly help his credibility on the question of White House meetings. His assertion flies in the face of the facts and is a Republican talking point espoused only by the most partisan or most credulous."

GO DAN!

Too Good Not to Pass On

Can't.... stop... laughing....

Go! Go read this.

Current Obsession

"Gee, Brain, what are we going to do tonight?"

"The same thing we do EVERY night, Pinky, try to take over the world!"

Disconnection Doesn't Just Happen in the White House

Just got a call:

"Hello, is Mr. H.... in?"

"No, I'm sorry he's not, he'll be in later this afternoon."

"Oh, does he check his voicemail often?"

"Yes he does."

"Okay, can you tell him that So-and-So called and can you tell h -?"

"Umm, excuse me, but he checks his VOICEMAIL, not me."

"Oh, can you transfer me please?"

I did not realize that my title has become 'voicemail'.

Santa, I Know It's Early, But....

Please Please Please, can I have one, no, two of these please?

Impressed with Di Fi

Okay, I must admit right away that I am not too big of a Dianne Feinstein fan. I'm much more enamored with Barbara Boxer and her gumption, and honestly, Feinstein's ties to corporate money makes me ... shall we say, carry grains of salt with me whenever I hear her proposals.

But reading ReddHedd's account of DiFi's questions for Alito... well color me impressed.

My Type of Holiday Story

Intolerance, take that!

The WH Forgot to Add "Sir" or "Dame" to the Names

Here's the list of official recess appointees by the White House?

What is that you ask? You see, usually in the normal course of events, the President asks Congress to approve of his appointees. This is part and parcel of what is known as "checks and balances." The writers of the Constitution wanted to make sure that no ONE person could just say this guy is going to run things and that's that. (Check here to see the AP piece on this, it's even scarier than I thought.)

The purpose of the recess appointees is for emergencies that happen when Congress isn't in session - as in someone died and the position needed to be filled immediately.

However, this list? This list is what I call the Bypass List. The White House ran into snags in Congress with these appointments, and so they're bypassing Congress to make sure these people get in. (This is more like a checkmate and inbalance)

Remember, this is the team that appointed Michael Brown, just cause he was the college roommate of the former FEMA chief.

Feel safe? Feel protected? Welcome to the New America, home of King George.

Off the Wall Question #1

In high school all those many years ago, one of my teachers - in the introduction of students to teacher - asked us to describe ourselves in one word.

So! How would you describe yourself in one word?





















Now for the real off the wall question: Did you use an adjective or a noun to describe yourself? I was the ONLY person in a class of 30+ girls who answered it with a noun, not an adjective. I said I was a dreamer.

Was I the only weird one? No, don't answer that.

Want to Get Caught Up in the Abramoff Case?

I love blogs. Where else can you find such in-depth reporting as this special page about Jack Abramoff and his connections? So, when your rube of a neighbor says that oh, Jack Abramoff gave money to BOTH democrats and republicans, this is the page you sent the rubes to, okay?

Just remember this. The WHOLE idea of the K Street Lobby was to set up lobbyists with direct ties to the majority party. The intent? Why bother courting people with no power?

And who has been the majority part in Congress this past 10 years? Give you a hint: It's the party who obsesses about blue stained dress, about non-existent WMD's and comatose women.

An Aspect of Being a Female Asian I Don't Like

So to bring in the new year, Bratworse and I fired up the Sims 2 on both her computer and mine and created new characters to play (screw) with.

Well, I didn't like the direction mine were going in, so I made up new chars on a more populated neighborhood. As I was creating them with Bratworse's help, she asked, "Can I make the house too?"

My initial reaction (which is typical of any Asian females) is "Sure, why not?"

As she started to get into laying down the foundation for a huge-ass mansion, something inside of me spoke up. At first I didn't recognize it because we were taught from birth to never pay attention to those voices. But as it grew louder, I realized I was getting disgruntled, and it was coming out in passive aggressive ways towards Bratworse.

Finally I turned to her with a guilt-ridden face, "I'm sorry, you know how I said it was okay for you to build the house? Well, I didn't realize it, but it's really not okay, and I want to build it but now I'm feeling extremely guilty for even asking for it back."

Thank the stars that Bratworse recognizes this is a major part of me I'm working on. She replied with a "Don't worry about it, and stop feeling guilty!" She knows I have an extremely hard time saying no to people, and then on top of that, to voice what I actually want.

Under her breath, she muttered, "No wonder you were getting pissed off at me in the past about stupid shit like this."

I like having an understanding partner.

Fishing & Gambling - that same feeling

Often when I go fishing, I will see fish jumping around the boat, but do I get one on my hook? Nooooooo.

So, what happened at Vegas? Bratworse and I sit down at one of the old-fashioned nickel slots (they took a maximum of 3 coins. Ask anyone who's been to a casino recently, how likely is that?). I give her $5 and myself $5 and sit down to waste some time. About 8 minutes later, an older filipino lady sits down next to me and within 5 minutes, I hear a gasp and the unmistakable sounds of winnings being totaled up. I glance over and of course, that lady hit the major jackpot (it was a progressive carousel we were at). $212 on friggin nickel slots.

Fishing and gambling: two sides of the same torturous coin.

God I Love Geeks #1

I just said to my pal who's a fellow WoW'er and I meant it literally:

"Have fun storming the castle!" (Quick name that movie - i know, it's an easy one).

He's planning on doing MC runs all weekend.

Happy Birthday, Beethoven (In Loving Memory of Charles Schultz)

A Good Laugh

Okay, found this on the Huffington Post today. It's an interview with Saul/Paul of Tarsus.

At around 10 years old, I was struggling with this great theological question and to this day, pretty much the only answer given to me was "You just got to have faith."

My question was a reasonable question, though the reactions to it made it seem like it was an unreasonable question. It was, "Why did God/Jesus bother to have 12 disciples but then had to use a weird angry person like Saul to start the church, someone who never met Jesus?"

Think about it, folks.

And on that note, I have a book to recommend to you all: Lamb, The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal.

Diluting the Washington Post's Reputation

Yeah, I'd say the Washington Post's reputation has been diluted. But not by Dan Froomkin who is my FAVORITE columnist. Try looking around at your biggest star there. Yeah, Woodward. Wouldn't you say that he was the biggest dilution to their reputation this past year? Mr. Bend Over Bob?

Bad Days

I am really beginning to detest November and December. Nothing is ever good enough for either, juggling becomes the fashion and the drums in the background staccato out anger. November & December are the months out of the year that we are driven to unpack our luggage and deal with our moth-eaten garb from the past. Will we learn that the clothes don't fit anymore? Or do we try them on for size, refeeling anxieties of yore? Guess what human nature dictates?

Not Unreasonable

But apparently I am.

Kurtz Poses a Dumb Question (Of Course)

Instead of focusing on the part of Howard Kurtz's article that *REALLY* steamed me, (the part where he talks about the Dems in disarray or the part where the media is biased in terms of Murtha - Hey Howie, how about paying attention to the polls? When America was gung-ho for war, how much did you media types put emphasis on giving voice to those of us screaming that there were NO connections between Al Qaeda and Iraq? Huh? What's that? Less than your paper's giving voice to Joe (I've got my head up Bush's ass) Lieberman?) I'm going to focus on the trivial.

Simply cause it really isn't so trivial.

In this current post, he talks about Jennifer Aniston forbidding photos (through an attorney) that were taken WITHOUT PERMISSION from a papparrazi to be published on the internet nor any magazines

This is what Howard the Yuck says:

Observation No. 1: They're already on the Internet.

Observation No. 2: How come it's okay for her to pose for a topless shot (only partially hidden by an arm) for the cover of GQ?

Okay, Howie. How about I come over and take a picture of your wienie for publication? You have problems with it? Why? Cause you didn't give permission? Cause you don't want people to see it?

Look, it was okay for her to POSE for a topless shot because it was her decision you DOLT! Do you even friggin realize that the equivalent of your inane question is: just cause someone had sex before, it's okay to rape her/him.

Too Good to Last?

So at 3:20 pm today, I glanced down at my watch and realized Bratworse should be getting out of class. Soon after, I realized that a good mood had snuck up on me and that a smile spread across my face. Now at 3:58 pm, I'm starting to think that me in a good mood was a bad sign and it's too good to last and that the next call I'm going to get, instead of being her asking me to pick her up, is the police calling me to identify her body.

So, PMS much?

Fun Fact #1

Fun little fact I learned recently. Did you know that glass, even in its solid state, still flows? If you go look at medieval castles and if they still have their original panes, the glass is thicker at the bottom (cause of gravity) than at the top.

Cool, ain't it?