or not. i can't find my install disk. grrrrrrrrrrr!

i'm about to start reimaging my system. so for some unspecified but probably short since i'm an addict amount of time i will only be online from work. fyi.

i have the chicken dance music going through my head.

you're welcome.

i am home from alt.polycon 12, and i had a fabulous time. i am very tired, however, so more exciting commentary will come later.

village voice > people > Free Will Astrology by Rob Brezsny:

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): In a recent study, researchers could not train blue jays to postpone their desire. After a thousand repetitions, the birds still kept gobbling down a tiny chunk of food instead of waiting a short time for a much bigger piece. Many scientists believe that humans are similarly hardwired for instant gratification. If that's true, Libra, you must resist it with all your power in the coming week. A better, more substantial prize will soon become available if you can stop yourself from grabbing the meager treat that's in front of your nose right now.

yes, dear.

pesky rob brezsny.

does your screen need cleaning? mine did.


www.clean-your-screen-for-free-now.com

my new bed is here, and now i am off to go sleep in it. mmm!

okay, not only is livejournal down, the only thing that people will post about for three days once it comes back up is the power outage. which will be dull to read about. waaa!

things i am going to do today instead of reading livejournal, by betsy, age 32.

get my new bed delivered. woo!
go to the open house my parents are having and help host it.
sleep on my fantabulous new bed.
do laundry. lots and lots of laundry.
knit.

the enb.

Molly Ivins - Molly Ivins: Bush continues to do battle against truth - sacbee.com

Cheez, I go to all this trouble not to call the president of the United States a liar -- perhaps misinformed, did not seem to know about, no one has told him, etc. -- and then he just comes flat out with a whopper.

Drolly enough, he prefaced his latest with the unlikely statement, "As a matter of fact ..." before he proceeded to do battle against truth: "... by the time today's workers who are in their mid-20s begin to retire, the system will be bankrupt. So if you're 20 years old, in your mid-20s, and you're beginning to work, I want you to think about a Social Security system that will be flat bust, bankrupt, unless the United States Congress has got the willingness to act now. And that's what we're here to talk about, a system that will be bankrupt."

Let's try this again, slowly, for those who, like the president, seem to be having difficulty with reality. Social Security will not be bankrupt, will not be flat bust in 2042 or 2052 or even, as the president has also claimed, by 2018. According to the deliberately alarmist projections of the fund's trustees, it will have exhausted the trust fund in 2042. According to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, Social Security will be able to rely on the trust fund until 2052 and after that will still be able to pay 81 percent of scheduled benefits.

And that's if no changes are made to the current system.

i am appalled and tired of this. so go read molly ivins, she still has words left on the subject.

ah, minnesota.

weather.com - Aches & Pains - Local Forecast:

Minneapolis, MN (55406)
as reported at Minneapolis, MN, Jan 13 01:53 p.m. CT

0F
Fair
Feels Like: -23F
UV Index: 1 Low
Wind: From the West Northwest at 22 gusting to 29 mph
Dew Point: -12°F
Humidity: 50%
Visibility: 10.0 miles
Pressure: 30.15 inches and rising

an a to z quiz. oh, the excitement.

A - Accent: solidly minnesotan.
B - Breast size: 42f or thereabouts.
C - Chore you hate: anything involving slime. so dishes and sink/bathtub cleaning.
D - Dad's name: lorman
E - Essential make-up item: lip goo
F - Favorite perfume: um. i use lush's red rooster soap, does that count?
G - Gold or silver: silver
H - Hometown: hastings, minnesota
I - Insomnia: nope. frequently too dumb to go to bed, but no insomnia.
J - Job title: central systems administrator 2
K - Kids: no human kids yet. however, i have two puppies.
L - Living arrangements: the downstairs of an up and down duplex.
M - Mom's birthplace: i actually have no idea. but i would bet on virginia, minnesota.
N - Number of apples you've eaten: none recently.
O - Overnight hospital stays: none since i was born.
P - Phobia: bugs and dead things.
Q - Question of the day: what?
R - Religious affiliation: lapsed discordian pagan
S - Siblings: younger yet taller sister
T - Time you wake up: the alarm clock goes off at 6:46am. the time i get out of bed is wildly varying, however.
U - Unnatural hair colors you've worn: purple, various reds.
V - Vegetable you refuse to eat: okra
W - Worst habit: there are too many contenders here, so i'll just say that i'd love to stop chewing on my fingers.
X - X-rays you've had: hand, knee, mammogram.
Y - Yummy foods you make: spinach marie
Z - Zodiac sign: libra

okay. limeade? best thing ever.

considering i'm actually 32, not too bad.

You Are 31 Years Old

31 Under 12: You are a kid at heart. You still have an optimistic life view - and you look at the world with awe. 13-19: You are a teenager at heart. You question authority and are still trying to find your place in this world. 20-29: You are a twentysomething at heart. You feel excited about what's to come... love, work, and new experiences. 30-39: You are a thirtysomething at heart. You've had a taste of success and true love, but you want more! 40+: You are a mature adult. You've been through most of the ups and downs of life already. Now you get to sit back and relax.

What Age Do You Act?

two adorable babes.

(one of them is me, one of them is my very small friend xander.)

so, i went and took the OkCupid! Death Test.

According to our research, you'll be dead by February 2058 at age 85
- probable cause -
cancer.

As you can plainly see, you have more health & vitality than the average woman.

WHY YOU DIE?
56% cancer
24% ulcers/bowel toughness
13% loneliness
5% drowning of the lungs
2% wounds

deeply cheery, eh? i think it's telling me that i'm going to die of cancer because i eat too much bacon. but, you know, bacon!

i think that the government should provide a safety net for people who need it.

i think that people who have jobs should be paid sufficiently so as to not need it.

The New York Review of Books: Inside the Leviathan:

One of the most telling of all the criticisms of Wal-Mart is to be found in a February 2004 report by the Democratic Staff of the House Education and Workforce Committee. In analyzing Wal-Mart's success in holding employee compensation at low levels, the report assesses the costs to US taxpayers of employees who are so badly paid that they qualify for government assistance even under the less than generous rules of the federal welfare system. For a two-hundred-employee Wal-Mart store, the government is spending $108,000 a year for children's health care; $125,000 a year in tax credits and deductions for low-income families; and $42,000 a year in housing assistance. The report estimates that a two-hundred-employee Wal-Mart store costs federal taxpayers $420,000 a year, or about $2,103 per Wal-Mart employee. That translates into a total annual welfare bill of $2.5 billion for Wal-Mart's 1.2 million US employees.

shop at target. or kmart.

i hate hate hate hate it when i flake on therapist appointments. i like my therapist. he is currently instrumental in the whole keeping my shit together bonanza that is my life.

i had an appointment yesterday. was i there? no. should i have been? yes. can i wait until next week? yes. with gritted gritted teeth.

oooooh, it's being a hard few weeks here. i expect that i will live through them, however.

but i think my new goal is to make it through a week without crying at work. so far, this week is right out. i have high hopes for next week, however.

if the strib wants you to log in, use cpunks/cpunks.



Editorial: Social Security/An emerging plan to cripple it:

[...] the Congressional Budget Office has estimated that average benefits from a personal account and a shrunken Social Security would be smaller than what the system offers today, even considering its projected solvency problems. Some workers might come out better, if they got lucky in the stock market or made wise investments. But some would come out much worse. In either case, the original principle behind Social Security -- that society should provide some basic foundation of income security for the elderly -- would be eviscerated.

did you know there's an income limit on social security? if you make over 87,900$ a year, you pay no social security on the 87901th dollar, and on the 87902nd dollar, and etcetera. eliminating the income limit and reducing the tax percentage that everyone pays would leave us with the same amount of money going into social security. keeping the tax percentage the same would greatly increase the amount of money going into social security, and postpone, if not eradicate this alleged crisis of social security running out of money.

wow. after reading this, i am too furiously incoherent to do a good introduction to this piece because i would end up saying something that i would regret later involving the best use of objectivists and worldwide famine.

The Ayn Rand Institute: U.S. Should Not Help Tsunami Victims:

The United States government, however, should not give any money to help the tsunami victims. Why? Because the money is not the government's to give.