Sponsor an executive today!

I love Canadian comedy.

This is just wrong

Is it just me, or does it seem that favoring a former head of foreign government over the President-elect of the United States when it comes to the use of the Presidential guesthouse just might be a major breach of protocol?

Especially when the President-elect was denied use of the guesthouse before said former head of said foreign government was booked into said guesthouse? (Or so said Margaret Carlson to Rachel Maddow on MSNBC. I have yet to find other sources backing this up, but let's just say I wouldn't put it past Bush & Co. to do this and then juggle people and things in an attempt to make the denial look legit.)

Blair House is HUGE - 119 rooms, 35 bathrooms. Howard and the Obamas couldn't have shared? Howard couldn't have stayed in a hotel? The Australian Embassy? The freakin' White House? But no, Bush and his cronies had to snub the incoming President and his family, including two little girls about to start out in a new school.

Fourteen more days to go, people. Only fourteen more days.

Januaryish

Cold, but no precipitation. Ground and sidewalks mostly clear and dry. Am eagerly awaiting spring. Also, this postnasal drip and tickling cough can go away now, kthnx.

Cold updatery

So my head cold decided to do what head colds usually do in my case, which is travel south and attempt to set up housekeeping in my lungs. I hate that. So I curled up in bed last night and sent DH out to Nature's Bin to get me some Elderberry extract. It's been shown to have antiviral properties, and man, the stuff works! I spent the rest of last night - I mean basically ALL night - dosing myself with it at about 3 hour intervals, and this morning as well. By mid-afternoon, I felt pretty much normal, except for a somewhat stuffy nose. I can live with that. What's more, it means I get to go to the Christmas caroling party I've been looking forward to after all. Yay!

Five things make a post

I have:

1. an annoying winter bug, fortunately now reduced to "mild", confined to my head/nose/sinuses, and hopefully on its way back to the outer darkness from whence it came;

2. nearly four yards of 43" uncut (wale-less) cotton corduroy in forest green, and nearly two yards of the same in a beautiful cranberry-crimson, both obtained for $2.79 a yard at JoAnn (yay for 60% off clearance pricing!);

3. an itch to make some pretty garb for myself using them (though it needs to be fairly simple);

4. discovered that I have all day tomorrow to sew, and

5. no idea what type of outfit I should make.

*sigh* Maybe it's time to try some Italian Ren.

With apologies to Bill Gates... on second thought, NOT

I'm currently on IM with my friend Steve. To wit:

Summer: lol @ the Microsux commercial on tv
Summer: it's talking about Vista and Mojave, focusing on photos, and says, "you can even blow it up and frame it, to give as a gift"
Summer: quoth DH: Blow up Vista and give it as a gift? LOL
Steve Mann: xD
Summer: That would be a gift. "Here, I blew up Vista for you and got you a real OS."

Welcome to December... already?!

Seriously, where has this year gone???

I should be working on my final portfolio for English, but my brain decided I need to take a break. Good idea, brain. Now just be sure to make with the other good ideas that need to go on paper this afternoon...

I have houseguests: There are two young men sleeping in my living room, and I'm being quiet so as not to disturb them. My online friend Steve and his roommate Andy, on their way back to Notre Dame from Thanksgiving break, drove in from Philadelphia and arrived here around 2:30 AM. After some chatting and whatnot, they crashed out on the futons around 3 or 3:30, while DH and I went to bed. DH got up at 6 AM to go to work, and I slept in until around 11 AM, when my friend Jeff called me. Steve and Andy are still asleep, however. Long drives are tiring!

So I'm sitting at the dining room table, drinking my second cup of coffee and trying to get my brain back into academic mode. I think I'll take Latin next semester so I can concentrate most of my personal creativity on the writing I choose to do, and have something more cut-and-dried on the academic front for a change. No, I don't technically need it for my degree, but I've always wanted to study it, and although part of me balks at spending money on a course I don't completely need, the other part of me justifies it by pointing out that 1) I can probably make it fit some elective requirement I still haven't filled, and 2) it is one of the few courses remotely connected with my academic goals that is offered in a format that won't require me to either be in class until 8PM or 10PM two nights a week next semester or else have to try to arrange with an employer (I really need a job) to allow me to work nonstandard hours in order to take a day class at least two days a week. Flex Latin is something I can do mostly on my own, with only a one-hour tutoring session each week with my prof, so that makes it extremely attractive to me right now. I think I can probably get an employer to agree to my taking a long lunch one day per week, provided I make up the time. (ETA: Or, I could take an Urban Studies course online to get one of those pesky Social Diversity requirements out of the way. Of course, what I really want is to do an Independent Study course on some aspect of writing in my chosen genre. Sigh... I wonder if I can make that happen?)

One thing I've definitely noticed is that going back to school, even part-time as I have done, is turning out to be more of an adjustment than I expected. I think I started with the wrong course to some extent, but on the plus side, I have made some great new friends in this class (including my friend Tim whom you Cleftlanders reading this may remember for his Katharine Hepburn impressions at Muldoon's), and some of us are starting our own writers' group together. So the frustration I've been feeling is worth it, I think. Now if I can just get a decent grade for this course.

Say what?

So I looked at my gas bill today, online. Dominion East Ohio's website had the following "advice" on its homepage:

"Energy Saving Tip #59
When you’ll be away from home for more than four hours, raise the thermostat 5-10 degrees or more."

Umm, say what? You're the GAS company. This is CLEVELAND. Where it is NOVEMBER, and temperatures are in the 30's. It's been SNOWING.

Profit, profit, uber alles.

I can has Roomba ride?

I can almost picture Moey doing what this cat does, but Mina would hide under the bed for days, I think!

Dare we hope for at least some of this?

Apparently, a group of pranksters put together a rather elaborate spoof of a special edition of the New York Times dated July 4th, 2009. They not only put it online, but also printed out over a million copies and handed them out.

See the spoof website. And yes, the links on it work. This thing is good!

And here is the actual New York Times coverage of the story.

Political humor goodness

OMG, another piece of priceless stuff here. Just read the entry. I cannot even begin to describe the awesomeness that is this post on John Scalzi's blog, so go and see for yourself. Make sure you don't have any beverages in your mouth while you read it, if you value your keyboard.

What's Really Going On With Joe Lieberman

The Bard's Hokey Pokey

(snurched from a friend in an online discussion forum I visit)

First, the original version:

The Hokey Pokey

Put your left foot in,
Your left foot out,
Your left foot in,
And shake it all about.
You do the hokey pokey
And turn yourself around
That’s what it’s all about.

And now, Shakespearean Style:

The Hokey Pokey

O proud left foot, that ventures quick within
Then soon upon a backward journey lithe.
Anon, once more the gesture, then begin:
Command sinistral pedestal to writhe.
Commence thou then the fervid Hokey-Poke.
A mad gyration, hips in wanton swirl.
To spin! A wilde release from heaven’s yoke.
Blessed dervish! Surely canst go, girl.
The Hoke, the poke -- banish now thy doubt.
Verily, I say, ’tis what 'tis all about.

I have cool friends, don't I?

Aaaand the winner is.... OBAMA!!!!

*does happydance*

Because sometimes words aren't enough.

Get out and VOTE

I did.

Very punny

Groannn...

Sunday's "Pearls Before Swine"

Meme for a Thursday morning

As seen everywhere, here's the “7 Random and/or Weird Things About Me” meme:

1. I built toad cities in my sandpile when I was a child. The toads were less than amused.

2. I grew up thinking it was perfectly normal to mix Swedish phrases into everyday speech.

3. I saw a UFO when I was about ten years old.

4. I have hyperextensible thumbs, both of them green. ;-)

5. I once turned down a chance to study in France for a year, when I was not quite seventeen. No, really - I used to be an idiot. But I got better.

6. I don't like roller coasters. In fact, the only amusement park "rides" I really like are water slides.

7. I wanted to go into space from about the age of three. Not surprisingly, this coincides with my father introducing me to Star Trek.

Share your own list in comments if you feel inspired. :-)

Random thought...

How pathetic am I when I can be sitting at Melt, drinking a beer and watching several Pink Panther cartoons back to back, and then suddenly realize that I'm keeping track of how many laws of physics have been broken per episode?

*sigh*

McCain on Healthcare

McCain's "Plan" for Health Care: Do the same for that industry as Deregulation did for Banking

Excerpt:

[The] McCain plan would give people a tax credit — $2,500 for an individual, $5,000 for a family — that could be used to buy health insurance in the individual market. At the same time, Mr. McCain would deregulate insurance, leaving insurance companies free to deny coverage to those with health problems — and his proposal for a “high-risk pool” for hard cases would provide little help.

So what would happen?

The good news, such as it is, is that more people would buy individual insurance. Indeed, the total number of uninsured Americans might decline marginally under the McCain plan — although many more Americans would be without insurance than under the Obama plan.

But the people gaining insurance would be those who need it least: relatively healthy Americans with high incomes. Why? Because insurance companies want to cover only healthy people, and even among the healthy only those able to pay a lot in addition to their tax credit would be able to afford coverage (remember, it’s a $5,000 credit, but the average family policy actually costs more than $12,000).

Meanwhile, the people losing insurance would be those who need it most: lower-income workers who wouldn’t be able to afford individual insurance even with the tax credit, and Americans with health problems whom insurance companies won’t cover.

And in the process of comforting the comfortable while afflicting the afflicted, the McCain plan would also lead to a huge, expensive increase in bureaucracy: insurers selling individual health plans spend 29 percent of the premiums they receive on administration, largely because they employ so many people to screen applicants. This compares with costs of 12 percent for group plans and just 3 percent for Medicare.

No way would this benefit the American people.

Edit: I see I'm not the only person looking at McCain's health care plan today.

*snork*

Found a link to this over on Making Light, and it was just too good not to share with the folks who read my LJ...

A Letter To Moloch

Bwahahahahah! Oh, and be sure to read the comments; they're the best part!

Watching the debate? Play Palin Bingo!

Palin Bingo




And if that's not quite your speed, there's also the Vice-Presidential Debate Drinking Game.