it's thanksgiving today.

here is a short list of things i am thankful for.

• nathan, aka, the one i live with, who is sleeping on the sofa next to me, looking cute as can be.
  
• my seester who worries with me about whether or not the refrigerator in our back yard has any dead bodies in it.
  
• my mom and dad who let my puppies come over and make messes and eat thanksgiving scraps.
  
• my grandma, who is old and teetery and prone to sudden naps, but still pretty much all there.
  
• sig, who laughs at my jokes and thinks i'm cute.
  
• m., k., baz, and mali. babies babies babies babies. none of which are mine, but at least three of which i get to be drooled on by on a fairly regular basis.
  
• the parents of aforementioned babies who seem to think it's a bonus to have the kid drool on someone else.
  
• james, who sends me email about once a week that makes me laugh so hard i hurt myself.
  
• working on three different conventions and having all three of them go more smoothly than expected so far.
  
• my sweet happy healthy puppies.
  
• having figured out how to housetrain the new puppy.
  
• more friends than i feel comfortable trying to list, because i'd forget someone, and that would be no good.
  
• both my house and my car are in good working order.
  
• and you, there, reading this. i'm willing to type into a vacuum, but it's nice to know that someone is reading.
  

have a happy rest of the week, okay?

i'm watching screensavers with nathan. why do they not have me on this show? i can answer all of these dumb questions. gee whiz.

okay, now i am fed up with the dumbness of it and going to bed.

you know, i don't recall november hurting like this.

i just have this one minor thing to say about it.


ow ow ow ow ow fuck ow.

thank you; drive through.


my hips are aching, my knees are cranky (which makes taking the dog out kind of exciting...), and my wrists are cranky. soon there will be painkillers and sleep.

Muslim Political Participation - Views of the Scholars

Muslims, voting in American elections is halal if it will help Muslims.

al-muhajabah, who wrote the quote above and compiled the quotes for the pdf above, is a kucinich supporter, and i am a dean supporter, but i expect that we both wish that you (in general) would get registered and vote for anyone who will start to undo the work that bush has done.

Gen. Franks Doubts Constitution Will Survive WMD Attack:

Gen. Tommy Franks says that if the United States is hit with a weapon of mass destruction that inflicts large casualties, the Constitution will likely be discarded in favor of a military form of government.

why isn't this news?
(thanks, jeanne.)

USATODAY.com - U.S. extends support to Georgian government:

The Bush administration had been highly critical of Shevardnadze's government in the three weeks since supporters of the president were declared winners of parliamentary elections.
The administration said Thursday the official results of the election 'do not accurately reflect the will of the Georgian people' and said the polling was marred by 'massive vote fraud.'

irony is not dead, people. just in case anyone wasn't sure.

what i learned today.

RGH Pharmacy E-Bulletin:

The major difference between sulfonamide antibiotics and othersulfonamide-containing drugs is that sulfonamide antibiotics have an aromatic amine group at the N4 position of thebenzene ring. Therefore, sulfonamides are divided into two groups: aromatic and non-aromatic amines. In addition,sulfonamide antibiotics have a substituted ring at the N1 position of the benzene ring.

chunga: You are curious, yellow?

my friend lynnielynn got married yesterday! this was a surprise to everyone, possibly even to the two of them.

if you know her, please feel free to pass on your congratulations and total bafflement.

LOVERS
"the synthesizer of dualities, polarities,
and opposites"
You have extraordinary gifts working with people of
all ages. You can access your deep
understanding, application, and synthetical
abilities dealing with the concept of paradox,
polarity, and opposition. Relationships are an
important focal point for personal growth and
development-- you need to feel things changing
in a relationship. You have the ability to do
multi-level thinking. You have great insite
and perception of what is going on with people.


which major arcana of the thoth tarot deck are you? short, with pictures and detailed results
brought to you by Quizilla

life here at my new job is nice and sedate so far. i read documentation, and the dogs bark at strangers and pee on the floor.

my new desk got delivered today. my shoulder and my wrists are sooo excited that i cannot even begin to tell you. this current desk arrangement is fine for occasional gaming, even occasional weekends full of gaming, but eight hours a day five days a week makes my hands want to fall off.

the josie dog, the wonderful and cute and funny josie dog, stepped on a power strip today or last night. and it turned off. sadly, this was the power strip controlling our access to the outside world via the internet.

pesky dog.

Newsday.com - The Names They Still Won't Mention

if this is a just war, a war that needs to be fought, how come the government isn't honoring those who died? why aren't they announced, and their sacrifices celebrated?

i do not agree with the decision to start this war. i think that we are harming both ourselves and iraq and afghanistan more than we are helping, and that we need to do something about that-- we broke it, we need to fix it.

but i don't think we're doing that.

i think that unless something changes and real damn quick, these people have died to make the world a less safe place.

but i still think that we should acknowledge them. and that the government who sent them off to die should damn well publicly appreciate that sacrifice.

in lieu of that, here's their names. the dead deserve to be remembered by name.

Staff Sgt. Paul J. Johnson
Spc. Paul J. Bueche
Pvt. Jason M. Ward
Spc. John P. Johnson
Capt. John R. Teal
Spc. Jose L. Mora
Sgt. Michael S. Hancock
Spc. Artimus D. Brassfield
Staff Sgt. Jamie L. Huggins
Pvt. Joseph R. Guerrera
Lt. Col. Charles H. Buehring
Pfc. Rachel K. Bosveld
Pfc. Steve Acosta
Pvt. Jonathon L. Falaniko
Sgt. Aubrey D. Bell
Spc. Isaac Campoy
Sgt. Algernon Adams
2nd Lt. Todd J. Bryant
Spc. Maurice Johnson
1st Lt. Joshua Hurley
2nd Lt. Benjamin J. Colgan
Sgt. Daniel M. Bader
Sgt. Ernest G. Bucklew
Spc. Steven D. Conover
Sgt. Anthony Dagostino
Spc. Darius T. Jennings
Pfc. Karina S. Lau
Sgt. Keelan L. Moss
Spc. Brian H. Penisten
Sgt. Ross A. Pennanon
Sgt. Joel Perez
lst Lt. Brian D. Slavenas
Chief Warrant Officer Bruce A. Smith
Spc. Francis M. Vega
Staff Sgt. Paul A. Velazquez
Staff Sgt. Joe N. Wilson
Sgt. Paul F. Fisher
Sgt. Francisco Martinez
Sgt. lst Class Jose A. Rivera
Spc. Robert T. Bensonm
Chief Chief Warrant Officer (CW5) Sharon T. Swartworth
Chief Warrant Officer (CW3) Kyran E. Kennedy
Staff Sgt. Paul M. Neil II
Sgt. Scott C. Rose
Spc. James A. Chance III
Staff Sgt. Morgan D. Kennon
Staff Sgt. Mark D. Vasquez
Spc. James R. Wolfe

The Dialect of the Appalachian People

The dialect spoken by Appalachian people has been given a variety of names, the majority of them somewhat less than complimentary. Educated people who look with disfavor on this particular form of speech are perfectly honest in their belief that something called The English Language, which they conceive of as a completed work - unchanging and fixed for all time - has been taken and, through ignorance, shamefully distorted by the mountain folk.

The fact is that this is completely untrue. The folk speech of Appalachia instead of being called corrupt ought to be classified as archaic. Many of the expressions heard throughout the region today can be found in the centuries-old works of some of the greatest English authors: Alfred, Chaucer, Shakespeare, and the men who contributed to the King James version of the Bible, to cite but a few.

yay, linguistics geeking!

our doorbell is possessed, i tell you. (it's also unplugged, at the moment.)

Man says CIA sent him to Syria for torture - The Washington Times: United Press International:

Unidentified officials told the Washington Post the case apparently occurred under a secret presidential 'finding' that allows the CIA to send suspects to other nations without due process to allow those countries to obtain information by torture.

i cannot believe that my country, my country is doing this.

a picture, hosted by atrios, of bush signing the so called partial birth abortion ban.

(set your drinks down, ladies and gents.)

The Fifty Minute Hour:

Even if we were to accept the premise that a fetus is a person, it may have a right to life, but it doesn't have the right to subject another person against her will to painful and dangerous medical consequences. If I needed a kidney transplant, I might be able to get the organ I needed to survive by stabbing someone and forcibly removing one of theirs. But even if they recovered with no ill health effects after the attack, I'd be guilty of a moral (and legal) wrong for subjecting them to it in the first place. Those people who want to consider fetuses person must remember that even another person with a right to life doesn't have the right to that life at the expense of another person, not even if that person is the child's parent. Being pro-life can't mean being in favor of saving one life by allowing it to hold another hostage for 9 months.

a very good point.

DefendAmerica News - Article

Serve Your Community and the Nation
Become a Selective Service System Local Board Member

The Selective Service System wants to hear from men and women in the community who might be willing to serve as members of a local draft board.

the draft boards haven't been fully staffed since i was born. but don't worry-- the draft won't be starting up again any time soon, says the bush administration.

(certainly not until after the 2004 elections...)

we take our pets to Minnehaha Animal Hospital. in case anyone was wondering.

i'm not sure if i've posted about miz josie yet. here is a picture.

we rearranged the house this weekend. hurray! i feel so industrious. also, tired and snot filled, since rearranging the furniture kicked up a lot of dust.

but now the living room is where the dining room was, and vice versa. this leaves us with enough room for an armchair (mmmm) and the sofa is in the big bay window.

nathan has gone all martha on me and wants to do fancy window treatments. i say that i only want enough curtains so that i am not any friendlier with the neighbors than i mean to be, and past that, i want to let light in. ah, well. we'll figure it out.

josie is settling in and using the puppy pads. what a fine dog she is. goes well with pirate.