Tuesday, August 30, 2005

Mother Nature Is a Bitch.

I've just been looking at some of the coverage of the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. (Wikipedia has a lot of information, including a link to this helicopter footage of the Mississippi Gulf area, for which there are absolutely no words, other than perhaps "Holy fuck.")

Seeing things like this really puts into perspective how utterly trivial my own nearly-nonexistent problems are, I gotta tell ya. It also, quite irrationally, makes me want to take everything I own and care about and clutch it protectively to my chest. Not to mention making me really, really glad to live in New Mexico, where the weather stays relatively tame and boring.

If you feel so moved, you can donate to the hurricane relief fund at the Red Cross webpage. I'm just off to do that now.
Murphy's Law: It's the Only Thing in This Universe That You Can Really Count On.

Lately, they've had the air conditioning at work cranked up to sub-Arctic levels. It's 100 degrees outside, and inside people are huddled up in sweaters. It got so bad on Sunday's night shift that I actually turned on the little space heater we keep under the desk. So, last night, despite my feeling that it's just fundamentally wrong to be taking long-sleeved clothes out of the closet in August, I grabbed a sweatshirt and hauled it in to work with me. So, of course, the A/C was broken, and instead of being uncomfortably cold, it was uncomfortably warm. Sigh.

I really wish I had a clue how I ought to dress tonight. I suppose I should just follow the usual tactic for changeable desert climates and dress in layers.

Monday, August 29, 2005

Hey, The Advice You Get From your iPod Is Probably At Least As Good As What You Get From Your Friends.

Saw this amusing meme somewhere... It was labeled "iPod Eightball" or "iTunes Eightball," but, iconoclast that I am, I have a Rio Karma instead, so I don't benefit from the alliteration.

Anyway, you hit "shuffle" and ask the music-generating device of your choice to answer the following questions:

What do you think of me, iPod Karma?

"Factory Girl" (The Chieftans & Sinead O'Connor)

Well, that seems to be an answer, but damned if I know what it means.

Will I have a happy life?

"Rappin' Ronnie Reagan" (The Simpsons)

Uh... Is that a yes or a no?

What do my friends really think of me?

Long Live Rock (The Who)

They think I should live long! Like rock!

Do people secretly lust after me?

"Bullet the Blue Sky" (U2)

I'm not sure, but I think that's a no.

How can I make myself happy?

"Slave Girl" (The Goo Goo Dolls)

Is it telling me to get one, or be one? Either way, I am, uh, dubious.

What should I do with my life?

"Ojibway Square Dance" (Georgia Wettlin-Larsen)

I should learn square dancing! Of course!

Why must life be so full of pain?

"Speak to Me"/"Breathe" (Pink Floyd)

Yes, Pink Floyd understands the pain that is life.

How can I maximize my pleasure during sex?

"Inveraray Castle/Calum Beag/Lucy Cassidy" (Battlefield Band)

I should play the bagpipes? Kinky!

Will I ever have children?

"Cabin Down Below" (Tom Petty)

I'll have kids after a wild weekend in a cabin the woods with Tom Petty, apparently. Which doesn't sound like a bad time, all things considered, but why have I forgotten the protection?

Will I die happy?

"Tuesday Afternoon" (The Moody Blues)

Apparently yes, I will. On a Tuesday afternoon.

Can you give me some advice?

"Polka Power!" (Weird Al Yankovic)

Well, you can't get better advice than that.

What do you think happiness is?

"Complainte de la Butte" (Rufus Wainwright)

Damn it! The secret to happiness is in French! It just bloody well figures.

What's my favorite fetish?

"The Star Spangled Banner" (sung by Bleeding Gums Murphy)

Betcha had no idea I was that patriotic, did you?

Sunday, August 28, 2005

I'm Honestly Not Sure How I Feel About That.

Adam
54% amorality, 27% passion, 72% spirituality, 45% selflessness

Interesting.
Do not be fooled by his rough exterior; Adam was much deeper than most
have given him credit for. Like most, he sought answers to the harder
questions of existence: who am I? what is my purpose? You might ask
those same questions, yourself.

Like Adam, you're calm, and dispassionately work to achieve your ends.

Also, you may just have a nuclear core.

Congratulations!

If you enjoyed this test, I would love the feedback! Also, you
might want to check out some of my other tests if you're interested in
the following:

Nerds, Geeks & Dorks

Professional Wrestling

Love & Sexuality

Thanks Again! -- THE 4-VARIABLE BUFFY PERSONALITY TEST

My test tracked 4 variables How you compared to other people your age and gender:
free online datingfree online dating
You scored higher than 25% on morality
free online datingfree online dating
You scored higher than 0% on repose
free online datingfree online dating
You scored higher than 76% on spirituality
free online datingfree online dating
You scored higher than 52% on selflessness
Link: The 4-Variable Buffy Personality Test written by donathos on OkCupid Free Online Dating

Saturday, August 27, 2005

Space Blog!

For the space exploration enthusiasts, there's a new blog hosted by The Planetary Society that looks worth following. (Well, OK, relatively new. It's been around for a month, but I'm a bit slow these days, apparently.)

From the description in the Society's newsletter:
People seemed to like the weblogs I wrote for the landing of Huygens and launch of Cosmos 1, so we decided to make a weblog a permanent feature of the website. I'm using it as a space to make a note of whatever space events or photos grab my attention, from Mars launches to comet encounters to flybys of Saturn's moons. I update it nearly every day, so please visit often to keep in touch with what's going on in space exploration!
Sounds pretty cool to me. I've added it to the blog links. (Which I desperately need to update properly, I know.)

Thursday, August 25, 2005

I Will Now Stand Around and Talk About My Character Issues.

So, as I believe I mentioned before, I've been watching the final season of Buffy on DVD. And I've been enjoying it; there are some really great episodes early in the season. But, nine episodes in, I'm starting to remember one of the reasons why it kind of annoyed me the first time around. I never, ever, ever want to watch another scene where the characters stand around and talk about their Issues. (And, oh, man, do I know that there are going to be more of them.) OK, introducing a psych-major vampire to head-shrink your main character in insightful, funny ways between bouts of fighting... that works, if you do it right, because it's amusing and clever. But if you're gonna do something like that, TV, writers, milk it for all you can, because unless your character is actually in therapy, it should be the last bit of head-shrinking you do for, oh, at least a season.

Don't get me wrong. I love shows that give us insights into characters' psyches. That's one of the best things you can do in a story. But there is a certain amount to be said for the old writerly adage of "show, don't tell," and there's a great deal to be said for a little thing called subtlety. One of the themes of the season is that Buffy is feeling isolated by her power? Show us that. There are lots of ways to do it: Write her scenes where she struggles on her own to make decisions, let the actor bring out that emotion with her expression and body language, give us some camera-angles that emphasize her aloneness. Whatever. Long speeches about the loneliness of power? Not really the best way to go, especially when they come off as self-pitying, rather than as evoking our pity. Which, y'know, often tends to happen when you have people talking about their problems rather than just having them.

Oh, and writers? So, let's say you have some interesting insights into a character's romantic relationships. That's great! But, working these into the story by having someone basically come up and say things like, "So, I've had some interesting insights into your romantic relationships" is really not the most sophisticated and effective method, y'know?

Wednesday, August 24, 2005

I'm a Dork, a Geek, and a Nerd!

Outcast Genius
69 % Nerd, 69% Geek, 69% Dork

For The Record:
A Nerd is someone who is passionate about learning/being smart/academia.
A Geek is someone who is passionate about some particular area or subject, often an obscure or difficult one.
A Dork is someone who has difficulty with common social expectations/interactions.
You scored better than half in all three, earning you the title of:
Outcast Genius.
Outcast geniuses usually are bright enough to understand what society wants of them, and they just don't care! They are highly intelligent and passionate about the things they know are *truly* important in the world. Typically, this does not include sports, cars or make-up, but it can on occassion (and if it does then they know more than all of their friends combined in that subject).
Outcast geniuses can be very lonely, due to their being outcast from most normal groups and too smart for the room among many other types of dorks and geeks, but they can also be the types to eventually rule the world, ala Bill Gates, the prototypical Outcast Genius.
Congratulations!
My test tracked 3 variables How you compared to other people your age and gender:
free online datingfree online dating
You scored higher than 80% on nerdiness
free online datingfree online dating
You scored higher than 87% on geekosity
free online datingfree online dating
You scored higher than 97% on dork points
Link: The Nerd? Geek? or Dork? Test written by donathos on Ok Cupid
A Bunch of Linky Thingies

Loyal Reader LDH sent me a link to this article about experiments involving a drug that can reverse the effects of sleep-deprivation, with the comment that it made him think of me. Aww!

Beloit College has released their Class of 2009 Mindset List. They do this every year to remind people what kind of a world the year's newly-minted college freshmen grew up in. These are absolutely guaranteed to make any one who is no longer college freshman-aged feel really, really old. I was doing OK, though, until I got to "54. They never saw the shuttle Challenger fly." I mean, holy freakin shit! That just ain't right.

What could be more fun than Klingon Fairy Tales? "Old Mother Hubbard, Lacking the Means to Support Herself With Honor, Sets Her Disruptor on Self-Destruct and Waits for the Inevitable." Classic.

Doctor Who Bobbleheads!
RSS Update

OK, everything seems to be working now! If anybody is still having problems, please let me know. I will add a link to the site feed over in the sidebar later on, when I don't have to go and get ready for work.

Tuesday, August 23, 2005

I'm Sure Nobody Wants to Hear Me Going on About my Boring Domestic Issues Yet Again. But Too Bad! Bwahahaha!

Well, the plumbers have been and gone, and I now have shiny new bathroom fixtures that do not leak. Yay!

On the downside, they also took all my money (well, OK, a large chunk of what was in my checking account, anyway), and left ugly cuts in the wall where they had to make a hole to reach the pipes.

Disturbingly, my first thought about that latter point, was, "Ooh, you know, if I was going to buy a dishwasher, it would go right in front of that spot, and then I wouldn't have to fix it. And I'd have a dishwasher!" Then, of course, I reflected upon the former point, which caused me to shrug philosophically.
Now, a Whole New Way to Read Maximum Verbosity! I Hope.

Loyal reader Fred of Occasional Fish was encouraging me earlier to consider setting up an RSS feed for this blog. This, I know from pretty much nothing, but I've followed his tips, and thus, I am able to present you with a URL:

http://maximumverbosit.blogspot.com/atom.xml

Those of you who use such things, let me know if it works, hmm?

Monday, August 22, 2005

Also, Nothing Rhymes With Me.

I'm Mr. Orange!
You're Mr. Orange!


Which Reservoir Dog Are You?
brought to you by Quizilla

Sunday, August 21, 2005

A Couple More Random Links

Because it's always time for Random Links!

Powells.com has an interview with Neil Gaiman in which, among other things, he talks about his forthcoming novel Anansi Boys. I want to read this more than ever, now. (Note: there's a spoiler for the book in the middle, but it's clearly labeled so you can skip over it. I did.)

Art Face-Off: Two paintings, completely unidentified, go head-to-head. Vote for your favorite! See if people really prefer do prefer paintings by the acknowledged masters, or if it's the artists you've never heard of who make the cut.

Saturday, August 20, 2005

I Do Both of Those Things!

Apparently this is me as a robot:
Being Engineered for Troubleshooting and Terran Yelling

Friday, August 19, 2005

Homeowner's Update

The roof is supposedly fixed again, for real this time. The roof guy said it looked like something had just come loose, which happens sometimes, but that if they did, in fact, get it fixed, it should stay fixed. He also asked me, unprompted, whether there had been any damage inside, and reminded me that if there was, it was their obligation to fix that, too. It doesn't look to me like there was, other than one very small hole that should be fine with some spackle smeared over it, so I told him it probably wasn't necessary, but I really appreciated his attitude. (That's New Horizon Construction in Socorro, by the way. I figure I might as well give 'em a plug, since I'm pleased with them.)

Sadly, I'm much less pleased with the progress (or lack thereof) in finding someone to consult about my subsidence issues. I asked my real estate agent (or, technically, her assistant) if she knew any structural engineers she could recommend, since I figured, hey, it must occasionally come up that someone wants to consult such a person before buying a house. Well, apparently it doesn't come up often, but she eventually gave me the name of a company in Los Lunas. I called them once: no answer. I called a second time and got forwarded to a really terrible cell phone connection where I was eventually able to hear the person on the other end well enough to understand that she was telling me the person I needed to talk to wouldn't be around until Thursday. Thursday, as it happened, turned out not to be a good day for accomplishing much of anything, but I called back on Friday, and got an answering machine. I left a message, but never got a call back. That was a week ago. I'm pretty much drawing the conclusion now that these aren't people I particularly want to deal with, anyway, but I really don't know how to go about finding someone else. Well, someone at work mentioned that there are some civil engineers in town. I don't know whether they handle this kind of stuff or not, because I really have no idea how much specialization there is in this particular field, but I guess I should try getting in touch with them, and, if nothing else, maybe they can recommend somebody. I'm seriously considering putting it off for a few weeks until I'm on evening shift again and am actually home and awake during business hours to call people, though. Sigh. I really do want to get some decent professional advice on this stuff before too much more time goes by...

Oh, and the latest problem is that my bathtub faucet is leaking. Actually, "leak" makes it sound like it's just sort of dripping, whereas it's really putting out a constant stream of water. Hot water. So I called the plumbers, who said, well, they're really busy this week, and was it an emergency? Which I couldn't justify it as, even to myself, so they're not going to be out until Tuesday. I'll probably just see if I can get 'em to replace the fixtures entirely. They're pretty old, and the knob that turns the water flow from tub to shower leaks, too, though only when the water's actually on.

With all of that, though, it's still better than living in the trailer.

Thursday, August 18, 2005

I'm not Playing Poker, I'm Playing Chess!

I want this.
"What the Gravity-Agenda Scientists Need to Realize Is That 'Gravity Waves' and 'Gravitons' are Just Secular Words for 'God Can Do Whatever He Wants.'"

Hee! I love the Onion. I totally do. And I've been saying for years that if the Fundamentalists are going to go after evolution for being "only a theory," they ought to go after gravity, too, because it's "only a theory" in precisely the same sense. Then again, these are the same people who make a big stink about that line in Leviticus about how "detestable" homosexuality is, but have completely failed to launch a crusade against the equally forbidden practice of having sex with a woman during her period, as delivered a few lines above. So, y'know, rational consistency is clearly not their strong point. (And I know I've probably horribly offended at least one reader with that comment but... Well, no, anything else I could say in my defense would doubtless be even more offensive, so never mind.)

I'm just hoping this doesn't give the people in Kansas ideas...
Complain, Complain, Complain...

Apologies for the relative lack of blogging lately, but, really, it's just as well that I've mostly been quiet, except for stupid quizzes, because if I was posting anything, I'm pretty sure it'd only be yet again more bitching about how much I hate morning shifts. And I do hate them with a passion, oh, yes. I spend all day feeling half asleep, no matter how many hours of sleep I may actually have gotten, and the point in the evening where I finally start to perk up is just about the point where I have to start thinking about shutting down so I can get to bed. And going to sleep isn't much of anything to look forward to, as it just means that the next thing I'll be conscious of will be having to haul my dragging ass to work. Also, I always seem to be in the middle of some strange, vaguely unpleasant dream when my alarm goes off, and even though I forget the specifics pretty quickly, it tends to leave a disturbing emotional aftertaste that lingers.

Sigh. Well, I suppose the good thing about shiftwork is that it always gives you something to look forward to. When I'm on days, I keep thinking, "Thank goodness, I'll be off of this and onto night shift soon." And when I'm on night shift, I tell myself that it's OK, because soon I'll be on evenings.

Tuesday, August 16, 2005

Aww, It's Cute as a Bug!

Your Summer Ride is a Beetle Convertible

Fun, funky, and a little bit euro.
You love your summers to be full of style and sun!


Actually, I would be delighted to drive one of those, except for the relative lack of cargo space.

Sunday, August 14, 2005

Yep, "Unusually Smart," That's Me! Also Modest...

Very Well-Rounded

You have:
70% SCIENTIFIC INTUITION and
62% EMOTIONAL INTUITION
The graph on the right represents your place in Intuition 2-Space. As you can see, you scored above average on emotional intuition and above average on scientific intuition. (Weirdly, your emotional and scientific intuitions are equally strong.)


Your Emotional Intuition score is a measure of how well you understand people, especially their unspoken needs and sympathies. A high score score usually indicates social grace and persuasiveness. A low score usually means you're good at Quake.

Your Scientific Intuition score tells you how in tune you are with the world around you; how well you understand your physical and intellectual environment. People with high scores here are apt to succeed in business and, of course, the sciences.
My test tracked 2 variables How you compared to other people your age and gender:
free online datingfree online dating
You scored higher than 99% on Scientific
free online datingfree online dating
You scored higher than 99% on Interpersonal
Link: The 2-Variable Intuition Test written by jason_bateman on Ok Cupid

Saturday, August 13, 2005

I Don't Think I'm Having a Good Day

First, I was awakened at 8 AM by a cat jumping from a windowsill onto my bed with all of his claws extended and managing to rip a chunk out of my toe in the process. Owie.

So, OK, I got up, had some coffee, checked my e-mail, took a shower... I wasn't exactly awake, but otherwise things didn't seem too bad. Then, of course, I made the mistake of using the toilet. Now, the toilet had lately started doing this thing where it wouldn't shut off unless you reached in and pulled the float arm up the last little way. And I, of course, was getting sick of doing that. "Hmm," I said to myself, maybe if I can just bend it upwards a little..." Snap! Damn, but those toilet components are fragile.

So, I had to go out and buy toilet parts. And, of course, you can't just replace the arm with the floaty ball on it, because they don't hardly make those any more. It's all this new fangled toilet technology now. So I had to replace the whole valve thingy instead. Which wouldn't have been a problem if anybody but me ever actually paid attention to the instructions on toilets where it says to hand-tighten the freaking nut! It took me half an hour, a can of WD-40 and a pair of pliers to get the damned valve out so I could replace it, during which time I grew tired and sweaty, managed to splash water all over my clothes, and both reopened an old cut on my hand (from a previous encounter with an evil metal filing cabinet) and scored a couple of new ones, which will probably now cause my fingers to rot off, having been infected by disgusting toilet water. Gaaah.

I believe I am going to take another shower now. And then I am going to put my pajamas back on and do nothing for the rest of the day that involves any activity more strenuous than typing. Or maybe, if I get really ambitious, doing the dishes. Yes. That sounds like a plan.

Friday, August 12, 2005

Whenever Life Gets You Down, Mrs. Brown...

Today's link: A Study of the Galaxy Song by Eric Idle. I once calculated the orbital velocity of the Earth to check the figure for it in this song, myself, and it's nice to see that I'm not the only one who's that big of a nerd. (For the record, 19 miles/second is, indeed, correct.) I recently read Idle's Greedy Bastard Diary, in which he mentions that he's periodically updated the figures in the song to keep up with current knowledge, thus proving that the guy cares more about scientific accuracy than, say, all the writers of Star Trek: Voyager combined.

Wednesday, August 10, 2005

Estivation

Aargh, I have got to stop sleeping this late. I'm supposed to be rolling over onto morning shift next week, and my sleeping patterns keep drifting in the wrong direction. But, man... You know how sometimes, in the winter, your body does that thing where it just wants to eat a lot of starches and curl up in bed and sleep? I seem to get that at the height of the summer, as well. I wonder if I have, like, the opposite of SAD. Is it possible to get too much sunlight? I know I often find myself wishing the damned sun would hurry up and set, but that's mostly just because it's so freakin' hot.

Monday, August 08, 2005

Homeowner Update

Well, I still haven't gotten hold of the engineers to tell me what to do about my subsidence problems. But the roof guy did call me back. And not only did he not give me a hard time about the warranty (which I was half-expecting), but, he already knew more about my problem then I did. "Is it in the back, by a skylight?" he says. Why, yes. Yes, it is. "We had that problem before, and we thought we fixed it, but it sounds like it came back. Or maybe we didn't actually find it. But don't worry, we will this time! We'll be right over." Cool! Of course, I then had to dash off to work, but he assured me that, reasonably enough, they wouldn't need to be able to get inside the house to fix the roof. So I should have a non-leaking roof when I get home. Yay!
That "Current" Thing Again

Current clothes: I am, in fact, sitting here in a towel, because I just got out of the shower and I'm too damned lazy even to dry myself off. Instead, I just walk around in a towel for a while until the moisture evaporates, and then I get dressed.

Current mood: I have passed through "nervous" and "annoyed" lately, and rolled all the way back around to "calm."

Current music: Most recently listened-to actual music was, I think, some random playlist again. But the most recent thing I listened to on the mp3 player was Ron D. Moore's commentary podcast for the last Battlestar Galactica episode.

Current annoyance: Living in a house that doesn't have self-repair nanotechnology.

Current thing: Alternating bursts of productivity with bouts of incredible laziness.

Current desktop picture: A screencap of Scotty, which I put up in memorial to James Doohan. Here:


Current song in head: "Somebody Told Me" by the Killers. I don't know what it is about the Killers, but they've got, like, the stickiest songs ever.

Current book: Just started Sewer, Gas & Electric by Matt Ruff.

Current video in player: It was the aforementioned Battlestar Galactica episode, which I have been taping for a cable-deprived co-worker, but I actually remembered to take it out of the machine so I can bring it to him.

Current DVD in player: Disc one of season 7 of Buffy.

Current refreshment: Nothing at the moment. Most recently, coffee and some toast.

Current worry: A whole raft of stupid homeowner shit.

Current thought: Hmm, I'm starting to dry. I guess I need to think about getting dressed and getting on with my day.

Sunday, August 07, 2005

Remind Me Why I Wanted to Own a Home Again?

Aargh, now I've got a leak in my roof! OK, it seems to be a fairly small leak. And the roof, which was replaced shortly before I bought the place, is still under warranty. Assuming the problem is the roof and not water getting in through another crack somewhere, of course. *whimper*
Actually, I Prefer Pepperoni.

Cheese Pizza

Traditional and comforting.
You focus on living a quality life.
You're not easily impressed with novelty.
Yet, you easily impress others.


Man, am I that boring?

Saturday, August 06, 2005

A Visual Meme

I don't use Blogger's new image-hosting service nearly often enough, so here's a post that goes above and beyond the call in, um, rectifying that. How I believe this works is, you type the answer to each of these questions into Google's image search, pick the image you like best from the first page of results, and display it proudly, inviting the populace at large to guess what the answer actually was, and cackling when they get it wrong.

Disclaimer: None of these images are mine. They are shamelessly snurched from various people on various places around the web. I sincerely hope nobody shows up wanting to sue me for this, especially as I really haven't got any money, anyway.


1. The age you will be on your next birthday.



2. The place you live.



3. Your favorite color.



4. The place you want to get married.



5. Your first love.



6. Your favorite fruit or vegetable.



7. Your favorite animal.



8. The last name of your favorite actor or actress.



9. The name of a pet.



10. Your favorite song.



11. A bad habit of yours.



12. Your middle name.

Friday, August 05, 2005

Yet Again Still More Random Links

A long interview with Joss Whedeon: Some talk about Serenity and Buffy stuff, but also a lot about his job as a script doctor on various movies.

Gmail Tips: Handy tips for users of gmail. At least, they're supposed to be handy. I haven't tried any of 'em out yet. (By the way, if anybody wants a gmail account, let me know. I've got 50 invites to give away.)

Too Much Coffee Man: Yeah, like it's possible too have too much coffee. *twitch*

Optical Illusions: Three amazing illusions demonstrating the relative nature of human color perception. (I think I'm probably the last blog on the net to link to this, but what the heck.)

Thursday, August 04, 2005

Mmmm... Jesus Cake

So, there was a woman sitting outside the Post Office earlier today selling baked goods, and, sadly, she managed to catch me on an empty stomach, which made said baked goods look really, really tempting. She even waved this gingerbread-cake sort of stuff under my nose and told me all about how she used fresh ginger!, and, damn, but it smelled good. So I gave in to weakness and bought some. And, along with my cake, I got a little religious flyer. Plus a piece of paper with a Bible verse on it under the cake, where you might normally have a bit of cardboard or something. I thought about being mildly annoyed by this, but, hey, reading the pamphlet was optional, and the only thing she was forcibly proselytizing me about was ginger, so I figured it was cool. Sort of like the difference between getting a junk flyer in your PO Box and having a telemarketer call you, you know? The latter makes me homicidal, but the former doesn't bother me at all, 'cause I can just chuck it out. Anyway, so, yeah, I decided to be amused rather than annoyed, and sat down to enjoy a yummy slice of what I had promptly dubbed Jesus Cake. Except, sadly, the Jesus Cake didn't taste nearly as good as it smelled (which, admittedly, given how it smelled, would have been hard).

What's really disturbing me is that now, many hours later, I'm sitting here at work desperately craving some of that Jesus Cake, even though I didn't actually like it all that much. I'm starting to think Jesus Cake has some scary, addictive ingredient. Man, those Christians are insidious!

Wednesday, August 03, 2005

Quote for the Day

The Brothers Grimm, in the introduction to the second edition of their fairy tale collection, on the subject of stories, censorship and Thinking of the Children:
...[I]t has been noted that this or that might prove embarrassing and would be unsuitable for children or offensive (such as the naming of certain situations and relations -- there are those who do not even want them to hear bad things about the devil) and that parents might not want to put the book into the hands of their children. That concern might well be appropriate in certain cases, and then one can easily choose selections. On the whole, it is really unnecessary. Nature itself is our best witness, for she has let these flowers and leaves grow in these colors and shapes. Whoever fails to find them right for certain needs, unknown to nature, can pass right by them, but ought not to demand that they therefore be colored and cut in a different fashion. To put it another way: rain and dew benefit everything on earth. Whoever is afraid to put plants outside because they are too delicate and could be injured, instead preferring to moisten them indoors can hardly demand an end to the rain and dew.

No particular point there. I just happened to encounter this bit while reading The Annotated Brothers Grimm, liked both the sentiment and the analogy, and wanted to preserve it.

Monday, August 01, 2005

But, Sadly, I Don't Look Nearly as Good in a Skin-Tight Catsuit.


You are Seven of Nine. You are an outcast learning to cope and understand the ways of those around you. Your blunt honesty and intellectual capacity cause others to mistake you for egotistical...when really, you ARE just smarter than everyone else.

Take the Star Trek Quiz