Mabe Tomorrow

old news now, I guess

2009-10-15T22:27:13Z

but well said.

What Whoopi Goldberg ('Not a Rape-Rape'), Harvey Weinstein ('So-Called Crime') et al. Are Saying in Their Outrage Over the Arrest of Roman Polanski

not the Badger Badger Badger you're used to...

2009-08-18T06:05:31Z

A snake!

not spoiling anything, but...

2009-07-11T07:38:21Z

ZOMG.

It is 1:30 in the morning, and I am dead tired. Just finished watching Day Five of Children of Earth. The ETA for day six to finish downloading is still about 2.5 hours. This just might kill me.

Such a bad place to stop.

I really should just leave it and watch tomorrow. But how in the world am I supposed to sleep after that?

I'm normally not even that fond of Torchwood - I mostly just watch it because I love Doctor Who, so I feel I must for loyalty sake. But COF, wow. I think the mini-series format works for them.

oops

2009-06-16T22:46:19Z

So. I just sent a post meant for here to a rather large community because I forgot, yet again, to change the destination dropdown box in Deepest Sender. Go me!

I've been using Deepest Sender for years without a problem. But this having to remember to actually tell it where I want my post to go seems to complicated to me. I want something that defaults to here instead of to whatever community I last posted to.

What do you guys use to post?

how can you not read a book with this title?

2009-05-25T04:13:10Z

OMG! someone actually wrote this? Wait, that isn't actually surprising, since if it can be written, someone out there will write it whether or not it should be written... but seriously, someone actually published it?

I want it to be wonderful. It should be wonderful. But I'm avoiding it now because I'm afraid that while the concept is hilarious, the actuality will just be stupid, and I don't feel like facing that disappointment right now. But some day I most likely will pick it up.

Also, I secretly wish that I'd written it. Think Wuthering Heights* would be improved by the addition of werewolves?

Subject line borrowed from one of the many reviews that absolutely hated the book.

* I'm leaving that uncorrected because "Wuthering Heights with Werewolves" just sounds so much better than "Jane Eyre With Vampires,' but in hindsight I've never actually read Wuthering Heights and was in fact thinking of Jane Eyre. I think werewolves would fit wonderfully in Jane Eyre (vampires would too, for that matter), but the name just isn't as good without the alliteration.

on the subject of Twilight...

2009-04-24T18:41:06Z

HAHAHAHAHA

on nerves and tastebuds and the secret plots of dentists

2009-04-10T05:50:13Z

I think that few would disagree that the perfect ending to the day is going to a late afternoon dentist appointment in which a cavity will be filled and a wisdom tooth, which happens to be right next to the tooth with the cavity so why not take care if it with the same freezing, pulled. I also think that it is pretty obvious that just as once a few decades ago I whited out the definition of "idiot" in my dictionary in order to replace it with my little brother's name, I have no re-defined "perfect" to mean "extremely crappy."

Thankfully I freeze easily, and the wisdom tooth came out quite easily, so not a big deal.

And it lead to to the fun discovery that cold root bear tastes hot and salty during the period in which the freezing has almost, but not quite completely, worn off the tongue. What made the experience especially strange was that only half my tongue had been frozen, so on the unaffected half it tasted normally cold and sweet while at the same time on the other half, as I mentioned, it was hot and salty.

And so went my evening, in the form of a recursive function,

int root_bear_experience(int sips_left)
{

   sips_left = sips_left - 1;

   thought_1 = "strange";

   thought_2 = "and also, kind of yuck";

   thought_3 = "this is just really wrong. Not drinking any more until it tastes right.";

time_passes = 1;

   thought_4 = "was it really as strange as I remember?;

if(sips_left > 0)
        root_bear_experience(sips_left);
else
     return 0;
}

And I wish I could blame this entry on the pain meds making me loopy, except I haven't actually taken any since, like I said, it really wasn't that bad and where I had the wisdom tooth doesn't hurt at all.

On the other hand, my fun salty hot root bear sensation has now been replaced by "ow ow ow" searing pain through the tooth that had the filling put in whenever I take a sip of my soda.   It's a little concerning as I don't think this is supposed to happen, is it? It's been well over a decade since I last had a filling put in, so I my memory isn't clear, but I don't recall anything of this sort before. Perhaps it is just because the filling is so new and it will clear up on it's own by tomorrow? Is my dentist even open tomorrow if it hasn't? Is it a really bad idea to get stuff like dental work done late in the day immediately preceding a four day weekend? I can, at least, answer the last question: why yes, it probably is.

At least this only happens when I take a drink of root bear so far, not that I have tried to eat or drink anything else since the numbness went away. Hey, that's right - I haven't had anything else. Maybe it is just the soda, and my dentist did it on purpose in order to make me quit the sticky sweet cause of the cavity that needed filling.

Because, you know, while the hot-salty thing just made me say I wasn't going to drink any more in the same way I used to say I wasn't going to touch my tongue to 9-volt batteries any more, but yet I always would again because I just couldn't believe that it could feel or taste that strange without experiencing it again, the searing pain thing really did make me stop.

So, um, oh wise Dr. Eljay, in yoru vast experience, is this normal?

I am amused

2009-04-02T06:03:02Z

In a the most recent post on amazing_ink , there is a picture tattoo of a topless woman that has had little black ovals photoshopped over where her nipples would be. The owner of this tattoo is a male who is also topless in the picture. His nipple is clearly visible.

So, the lesson we learn is,

real male nipple = a-okay

drawing of female nipple = OMG WON"T SOMEONE THINK OF THE CHILDREN!

Oh, and the topless woman is really only the top of a woman, as she appears to have been torn in half. Her guts are hanging out, but thankfully just a bit of intestine and nothing too insanely graphic as no attempts have been made to cover them with photoshop's helpful black ovals.

Our society = all sorts of messed up.

(and won't someone please think of the children?)

(and also, why is Deepest Sender suddenly not inserting user/community links when I tell it to? I can't be expected to actually type the tags myself, can I? Oh, the humanity)

Seriously, March, W.T.F.

2009-03-10T01:06:24Z

Okay, okay, so breaking a long silence just to whine about the weather also really sucks.

But seriously, this is just plain wrong. And I'm dreading going out in it tomorrow morning.

I mean, seriously?

HA HA HA HA HA HA

2009-01-26T05:19:16Z

Um..

I'm sort of watching "A Very Duggar Wedding." You know, family with a million children, Josh and Anna get married, all that. I say sort of because really I'm messing around on the Internet while it's on, but this bit caught my attention:

"Sponsored by Plan B, because sometimes the unexpected happens."

Say what?

eight years in eight minutes...

2009-01-18T17:14:07Z

speaking of resulutions

2009-01-02T00:02:59Z

In 2009, perseph resolves to...

Go to the books every month.
Tell my family about online journals.
Backup my agnosticism regularly.
Learn to play the npr.
Cut down on my arguing.
Be nicer to jateke.

March? What was that?

2008-04-05T18:55:57Z

Hmm.. seems I missed a month. And now I'm just posting for help because my browser is doing something screwy.

So in Firefox, Yahoo now looks like this:

WTF? At first I thought I'd blocked images by accident, but further exploration shows that is not the case. It's been doing this for a few days now. Any clue what is going on and how to fix it?

What was I thinking?

2008-02-27T23:30:37Z

Seriously need to stay off petfinder. I don't even know why I started looking. We absolutely can not get a dog right now.

But I think I'm in love.

of laundry come undone

2008-02-19T10:12:59Z

I am brilliant. In the sense that I R DUMB.

Just a few hours ago, I went downstairs to get the laundry. I took the sheets from the dryer, folded them neatly, and set them on top. Next I moved the clothes from the washer to the dryer, then turned the washing machine on again and added detergent for the next load. I then proceeded to start pushing freshly clean sheets from the top of the dryer into the washing machine. I got four in before realizing what I should be doing and that I hadn't set the next dirty load on top of the dryer, as I often do, and that I should be putting in clothes from the basket by my feet. DUR.

If anyone has seen my brain tumbling about, please post it back to me. I'll pay for the shipping. It's been missing quite a while, and I'm just not doing well without it.

Baby Bear's sheets were among those now wet and soapy, and I hadn't washed his other set yet. Of course this was well past when I should have put the kids in bed. I was a bit desperate when I remembered an extra set of Munchkin's sheets I just keep around for emergencies since she bled all over them once from a scrape on her leg and the stains didn't wash out.

So my sweet little boy is now sleeping in lavender sheets clutching his baby doll. I think his purple My Little Pony might also be in there with him. Take that, gender stereotypes. I do find this a bit amusing, other than the gross bloodstains and the laundry mess that caused the situation.

But seriously, my brain. I think it would help if I got more sleep. Alas, I won't get it tonight. My sweet little boy woke around midnight (perhaps he objects to the purple sheets?), and since a little light doesn't keep him from going back to sleep, I took Wally Lamb's She's Come Undone in with me when I went to lie down with him. I've been reading it a little bit at a time between other books, but it was a bit boring at first, so despite having it checked out for a month so far, I hadn't made it very far. Tonight it drew me in, so I read from page 70 to 217. And now here I am at three in the morning. Foolishness. I think I've been swearing to quit reading in the evening since I was twelve or so, but somehow I just never seem to learn.

melting

2008-02-15T21:46:48Z

I thought the weather report must be a mistake when I checked it this morning to see if I should take Munchkin's snow pants to school (they play outside when it's warmer than -15 C with wind chill, which it hasn't been on a school day in quite a while). Tuesday and Wednesday were still pretty cold, and I didn't go outside yesterday until quite late, so it just didn't seem possible that that temperature could be back above zero with possibility of rain.

But it is! There is standing water on the roads. It's going to be great fun driving home tonight after it re-freezes...

It's so beautiful out. It's sunny and warm with rain no longer a possibility since there isn't a cloud in the sky. I can't believe that just two weeks ago it was nearly -50.

How much has living here changed my perspective? A few years ago, this sort of weather would have me bundling up and still shivering. Now I don't even see the need to bother with a sweater (well, so long as I'm only out for a couple minutes before getting in the car) much less a coat.

perseph @ 2008-02-14T13:16:00

2008-02-14T20:18:23Z

Um... yikes.

A prequel to Anne of Green Gables?

I just don't know what to think.

too many options

2008-02-12T07:42:36Z

Latest excuse: "I can't clean up my toys because I am very, very small."

Also, when it was time to go to the front of the video store and pay for rentals, she ended up back in the kids' videos because: "woah, wooooaaaaah, the wind blew me down here." Relayed by M, since I wasn't there.

I'm gaining a new appreciation for the old standard being assigned a school by map location, and that is where your kid goes, unless you are rich enough to afford private. This open boundary thing is confusing.

On the other hand, I'm concerned about the school closest to us, so I'm glad we're not stuck there. Though it would be nice to be able to walk to school in less than five minutes. I haven't entirely ruled it out. There is also a Catholic school just a little farther but still within walking distance that I briefly considered, but religion is a big part of Catholic school of course, and I worry that might be confusing when she's so young. There is a third school I've heard good things about also in walking distance (on nice days, at least, too far for bad weather), but it involves crossing a major road which makes me nervous.

I'm also attracted by elements of the Cogito program and the Caraway program which are polar opposites. The Cogito is super structured and has the advantage of teaching strong basics such as proper grammar which seems to get passed over in most schools. They also wear uniforms, so less angst over labels and clothes. On the downside, they seem just a little too strict, and they have homework right from the start of kindergarten, and then too much. The Caraway program is more like homsechooling but in school. Very Alfie Kohn. They have a mixed age classroom which is very open to parents and family, lots of parental involvement, and are project based and student lead rather than teacher directed. I read the Cogito stuff, and the teacher lead thing seems to make a lot of sense to me. Then I read Kohn and the Caraway stuff, and that all sounds wonderful. My conclusion is that I'm easily swayed and bad at choices.

There is also French Immersion where she would be taught completely in French.

Other languages too. though not as common. There are Christian schools too, though we aren't considering any of them. On the other side of town, there is a school that focuses on the performing arts, or another school which provides professional dance training along with the normal academics. There is also a specific hockey training school which provides flexible scheduling to kids playing hockey, and another with flexible scheduling for sports in general. And returning more to the academic focus, an elementary school which focuses specifically on science.

It's all a bit mind boggling.

And the most mind boggling bit of all is that in just about seven months my baby will be starting kindergarten.

perseph @ 2008-01-30T09:56:00

2008-01-30T16:58:47Z

For my next car, I definitely need a remote starter.

My poor baby doesn't like it when I go out to start the car without him. I came back (a minute and a half later) to find him with his boots on standing by the door crying for me. Boots and pajamas since I hadn't gotten them dressed yet.

Off to run and do that now while the car warms up. I hate wasting the gas, but it takes a while when it's still -27 C (-17 F). Or -36/-32 when you add in windchill...

Only a few more days of this, then it's supposed to warm up a bit for the weekend. Please, no more. I hate the feeling of the inside of my nose freezing every time I step out the front door.

Be glad you aren't here right now.

2008-01-28T22:39:20Z

It's currently 30 C out. That's -22 F, which makes it sound a little better even if it means exactly the same thing. Feels like -43 C / -45 F with wind chill. You know it's bad when you get low enough on the scales that the number for the temperature in F is less than for C.

Tonight's low is supposed to be -38 C/ 36 F before windchill. ZOMG. So staying inside.

Expect more whining soon. It just comes with the weather.

ouch

2008-01-07T04:09:14Z

On the front page of Parade Magazine this morning: "Is Benazir Bhutto America's best hope against al-Qaeda?"

I'm pretty sure they prepare these things weeks in advance, so perhaps it was even printed already before the 27th and there was really nothing they could do. But still. Ouch.

baaaaaa

2008-01-06T05:37:27Z

90% Dennis Kucinich
88% Mike Gravel
87% Chris Dodd
86% Barack Obama
84% John Edwards
83% Joe Biden
81% Hillary Clinton
74% Bill Richardson
34% Rudy Giuliani
24% John McCain
22% Ron Paul
19% Mike Huckabee
17% Mitt Romney
16% Tom Tancredo
9% Fred Thompson

2008 Presidential Candidate Matching Quiz

everyone having a baby but me

2007-12-20T23:41:45Z

How I heard it was that Lynn Spears was writing a parenting book and was abandoning it after the news of Jamie Lynn Spears pregnancy. How the actual news stories make it look is that it was more just a story about their life rather than parenting advice, and she's finished writing it but now the Christian based publishers are postponing the release. The first version is funnier.

I don't particularly care that Jamie Lynn is pregnant. She's sixteen and she screwed up badly - it happens. At least she has plenty of money so her children won't want for food or safe shelter or material needs. I just hope she's a better mother than her older sister.

But I think Lynn Spears should go ahead with her parenting book. It will be like that woman from one of the Douglas Adams. She lives in a dirty cave with tons of flies and overwhelming bad odors, and Arthur has been told to seek her out for her wise advice. When he approaches, she photocopies her life story for him. She tells him to read it carefully, examine all the choices she made, and whenever he is faced with similar choices to always choose the opposite of what she did so he won't end up in a smelly old cave full of flies.

So just make the opposite choices of Lynn Spears and you can be assured that your daughter won't be wandering around in a short skirt and no underclothes or far worse (since the panties thing is gross, but doesn't make her a horrible person or anything, just wish I hadn't seen the pictures) trying to kill her kids every time she takes them in the car by completely throwing out any safety guidelines.

And conveniently timed for the subject of this post, Munchkin just appeared from her room bent backwards a bit with her belly sticking way out in front and informed me that there was a baby growing in her tummy. I blame her depravity on the bad example set by Jamie Lynn Spears. Never mind that she's never seen Zoey 101 and has no idea who the girl is. It's clearly the fault of TV. As is her unfortunate habit of running around with her panties on her head. At least she remembers to wear them, one way or anther.

read anything fantastic lately?

2007-11-20T07:29:38Z

I need a pick for bookclub. I'm thinking The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho, but I'm just not a hundred percent sure.

Anyone read it? Anything else I should look at?

We've done Life of Pi (fantastic), Poisonwood Bible (my pick, even though I've read it a zillion times), Stones from The River, Angry Housewives Eating BonBons, , Kite Runner (brilliant), The Birth House, The Memory Keeper's Daughter (we don't get why everyone raves about it since none of us thought it was all that good), Girl from the South (sucked), House of Leaves (my pick again, and everyone was like WTF, but I liked it), Atwood's Moral Disorder , Patricia Cornwall's Predator (boring and annoying), and Middlesex .

We're reading My Sister's Keeper right now (soooo sad, but good). Next is Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye followed by whatever I pick, and then Wild Swans by Jung Chang. We're trying to pick several months in advance now to make it easier on those of us who have to sometimes have to contend with long library hold lists and so those who buy online can order enough at a time for free shipping.

ahem

2007-11-02T16:33:29Z

Munchkin can't clean up her toys today because "it makes me tired."

Also, she wants everyone to know that "it's hard being a little girl."