I dislike Juicy being dormant. This is a place-saver post, to be updated with the awesome pictures I will soon be taking of the "end of the world" snowpacolypse/snowmageddon. Silly DCers. Or, instead of the pictures (because let's face it, I'll never get around to either taking them or posting them)...

Why do I laugh whenever I see a monkey? I'm recalling the endless amount of time spent watching them at the Edinburgh Zoo with Kara and Eric...

Papers run Onion story as real news

I just can't help but laugh at this.

"We didn't know the Onion was not a real news site."

The Sun, The Moon & The Stars

Alrighty.

There needs to be more posts. Even if its just about WoW or how my ankle is hurting me, or maybe that I've picked up a 3-cup a day coffee habit over the past two months. Things with me are the same. Maybe this is why I haven't written. But I choose to live the life of the rubber ducky. Floating on the great sea, riding the waves staying afloat without much effort. Even in these tumultuous times my rubber ducky philosophy has been a source of strength and comfort. But thats probably a story for a different time.

So yes, not much is new. I did go see a doctor recently. And now I have glasses to wear. Apparently I'm far-sighted. And like when I was in the office and everything it was amazing seeing so clearly. But now, that I'm reasonably rested and everything, my right eye which everything was blurry, isn't that bad, and I can read without my glasses. If I put them on I get all like WHOA whats going on here. I dunno, maybe my eyeballs change daily. But thank god for insurance so I didn't have to pay all that much for them.

So in the world of WoW, I'm still with the same guild. Its been nearly a year. Which is amazing. I was bouncing from group to group to group because they were all pretty much lame and childish. But yeah, good group of folks. We are working on 25-man Yogg atm. I think we'll get him within the next 30 - 40 attempts, but we are pretty casual and only raid 3 days a week. So not a lot of time if we get hung up on like Mimiron for a night to really work on him.

I have no lover atm. Just me and the dog, which isn't a bad thing. I've given up the rampant drug usage, wild promiscuous sex and overall reduced risky behavior in general. Which is a good thing! You'd think tho that with Massachusetts decriminalizing marijuana this past year there would be dealers on every corner, but no, its all quiet. Although I do smell more weed walking down the street than usual.

Um, alright, I think thats good for now. Maybe help get the ball rolling with some of you other people.

Contraception = abortion?

I hope to god I'm not reading too much into this, but somehow I doubt that.

WASHINGTON — The Bush administration wants to require all recipients of aid under federal health programs to certify that they will not refuse to hire nurses and other providers who object to abortion and even certain types of birth control...

The proposal defines abortion as follows: “any of the various procedures — including the prescription, dispensing and administration of any drug or the performance of any procedure or any other action — that results in the termination of the life of a human being in utero between conception and natural birth, whether before or after implantation.”

Read more....

(emphasis mine - AMA identifies implantation as the beginning of an established pregnancy, but let's just ignore science and medical experts in favor of popular opinion).


Read a different article, that goes more into what this could mean for choice in reproductive health.


Allowing such an arbitrary and unscientific definition of what constitutes abortion is complete and utter bullshit, to say the least, and will likely result in health care professionals opposed to abortion who are "legally" able to refuse even contraceptives on the basis that they are abortificants.

Anyway, read and decide for yourself what you think this means. I, obviously, think it's horrible. If you feel like objecting, Planned Parenthood has a handy little email form here.


Contact info for Dept. of Health and Human Services:

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
200 Independence Avenue, S.W.
Washington, D.C. 20201
Telephone: 202-619-0257
Toll Free: 1-877-696-6775

or:

HHS Secretary Mike Leavitt
Office Phone: 202-690-7000 or 202-205-4708
Email: mike.leavitt@hhs.gov
Fax: 202-690-7203
Correspondence Secretary: 202-690-6392

Kara's Wedding Photos link

Here are my pics from the crazy weekend just gone. Great seeing everyone!

Safe

Hi there all,

Reading that previous blog by Sam, I'm suprised myself how much things have improved in a short time. Still no power, water, phone at home, but the city is moving on. Aid isn't getting in, but now the focus is on China, so Myanmar will once again be forgotten. My school cancelled the last three weeks of the year, and so I'm done, but am sitting here in a limbo state waiting to see if a World Vision volunteer position will materialize or if I'll head off on my myriad of excursions for the summer. Hope to see you all at Cara's wedding, if I get there!! :)

Google Design

Google held a contest for K-12 graders to design a new logo. The theme was "What if...?" Some of these are really neat. Vote for your favorite at the link above.

Kiwi ok.

Nat responded to my email. She's fine.

"The roof above the upstairs bathroom was ripped off, and all the windows on the north side of the house were blown off or had broken windows, so that side of the house was flooded. We still have no power, no water, no phone, although apparently water came back today, but it won't change anything for me because I have no pump!!"

"There's been widescale rioting and looting, but haven't seen it myself. All those people in big apartments have generators, but diesel is running low... it was around $15 a gallon today, and the wait at the service station for the allotted two gallons was around 5 hours (snaking lines up the streets). The port's blocked off, so infrastructure of the city is going to crumble. Drinking water is the biggest worry at the moment, as is sewage."

"The American, Korean, and Thai embassies have all recommended evacuation, and so our school is probably going to close down, but as we only have two and a half weeks left, many things are up in the air (my shipping, for example!!). The kids commenced their AP exams today, but they're the only ones in school. It'll cost around $2500 per day per generator to keep the school running, and we have around 1 week of diesel stockpiled."

Kiwi Check

Yo Nat-This is a check on your safety. Though, come to think of it, you probably don't have power so this is entirely worthless. Word is 4,000 or so are confirmed dead with another 3,000 missing in Myanmar from the cyclone. Crossing fingers that you're not one of them.

Funding.

Hey, all you people who attended grad school... any of you familiar with the Graduate PLUS loan? Comments, alternative options, etc? I'm going to need another loan in addition to the Stafford to cover cost of attendance.

Love Letter to America

So. This blog I check occasionally has an interesting stream of comments for this post. Of course, all the posts have interesting comments, but I thought I'd share this one... as you get to the end of the comments, they start mentioning Obama. I recommend reading the other insights the author has... yesterday's was titled "Segregation, apartheid, and the interpenetration of race and class."

If anything, the "about" the author section is worth a read. http://leninology.blogspot.com/2004/01/about-lenins-tomb.html

"McCain surges ahead in primaries"

Go McCain! Ok, well McCain is going to be the Republican nominee. Now, we just gotta see who the Democratic one will be - that is one close race. To all the Obama supporters - can you post comments as to why you want to see Obama as President? I'm curious as I am having a hard time finding good reasons.