I know there are worse things that can happen, but having a nasty stomach bug over Christmas truly sucks.

You have to understand -- Christmas day at my parents' place is my number-one all-time favorite experience in the world. Usually there are somewhere in the neighborhood of 30-40 of my favorite people (my family) all gathered in one place. Spontaneous wrapping-paper fights, caroling before we open the gifts, piling my parents high with presents that take hours to open, trapping the little ones as they try to distribute presents, sharing wonderful food and corny puns -- there is NOTHING I love more. Nothing.

And this year, for the first time in my mumblety-seven years of existence, I had to miss it. Started throwing up Wednesday night & have been improving, but only slowly, ever since. Even if I had felt up to going, I had no desire to infect everybody I love with such a nasty bug. I wound up throwing out the lemon meringue pies I made Wednesday night (right before my symptoms hit) -- I had no appetite for them, and odds were good that they might spread my sickness if anyone else ate them.

Feeling somewhat better this morning. I might even try to make it to another family gathering later today if there aren't any symptoms left. But it won't be the same.

I just have to keep reminding myself -- I am extraordinarily blessed to have such a fantastic Christmas to miss in the first place.

Figures that the only chance I've had in over a year to appear on stage is the only time I completely lose my voice. I'm playing the Jester in the "Elizabethan Yuletide Feaste" at our local taxpayer money pit the Lodge at Geneva State Park -- more or less the MC of the event. And I have almost no voice.

I've ordered a new PC -- for the first time, ordered one without having to pay the Windows tax.  I ordered it from http://www.stitzcomputers.com with Linux Mint preinstalled and no Windows at all.  It's supposed to take about two weeks for delivery.

Now if only I could stop checking my email compulsively every few minutes to see if there are any delivery updates ... 

I realized just this evening that I haven't posted anything since July.  Nor have I been following anybody else's posts since then, for which I apologize.  No excuse, I just really had no idea it had been so long.

Here are some highlights from the past several months (mostly reposted from Facebook):

( Read more (LONG)... )

answer these questions, don't answer these questions, see if I care

1. Can you cook?
2. What was your dream growing up?
3. What talent do you wish you had?
4. Favorite place?
5. Favorite vegetable?
6. What was the last book you read?
7. What zodiac sign are you ?
8. Any Tattoos and/or Piercings?
9. Worst Habit?
10. Do we know each other outside of lj?
11. What is your favorite sport?
12. Negative or Optimistic attitude?
13. What would you do if you were stuck in an elevator with me?
14. Worst thing to ever happen to you?
15. Tell me one weird fact about you:
16. Do you have any pets?
17. Do you know how to do the macarena?
18. What time is it where you are now?
19. Do you think clowns are cute or scary?
20. If you could change one thing about how you look, what would it be?
21. Would you be my crime partner or my conscience?
22. What color eyes do you have?
23. Ever been arrested?
24. Bottle or Draft?
25. If you won $10,000 dollars today, what would you do with it?
26. What kind of bubble gum do you prefer to chew?
27. What 's your favorite bar to hang at?
28. Do you believe in ghosts?
29. Favorite thing to do in your spare time?
30. Do you swear a lot?
31. Biggest pet peeve?
32. In one word, how would you describe yourself?
33. Will you repost this so I can fill it out and do the same for you?


(From lamuella  and angelchrome )

Drifts of accumulated hair in the corner of the stairs, an open carrier, a litterbox not cleaned nearly recently enough. Half-dried food in the dish, an emptied prescription bottle, idle claw trimmers, a depleted spray bottle of pet scent remover. A jar of treats barely started, a bag of litter never opened, a dish of tuna water scarcely touched. A broken ceramic dwarf among the chewed-up houseplants. A bottle of flea shampoo used only once. A bedraggled bag of dried catnip.

These do not sum her up, but these are all that's left.

( Read more... )

There isn't much time -- only a matter of days before Ohio Governor Ted Strickland wants to slash library budgets in half statewide. This would mean branch closings, core services eliminated, no money for new materials, severely restricted hours, and staff layoffs. Many smaller libraries, already struggling after recent cuts, will have to close their doors altogether.


Find out more ( Find out more )

Douglas at 9:44pm June 5
"Our choice is of no importance. There comes a time when our eyes are opened and we come to realize that mercy is infinite. We need only await it with confidence and receive it with gratitude. Mercy imposes no conditions. And lo! Everything we have chosen has been granted to us. And everything we rejected has also been granted. Yes, we even get back what we rejected. For mercy and truth have met together..."
9:43pm · Comment · Like
-- from the movie "Babette's Feast"

Alan at 11:48pm June 5
So if mercy is infinite then "Do what thou wilt" is the whole of the law?

Douglas at 1:48am June 6
Don't take my word for whether mercy is infinite; take up the question with minds better versed in theology (and souls, no doubt, in better standing) than mine -- such as Swedenborg, Thomas Merton, St. Faustina, St. Augustine, Pope Pius XII, and St. Therese of Lisieux, all of whom have described it as such; as does the Catholic liturgy, here for example: http://www.dailycatholic.org/issue/archives/1999Jul/141jul29,vol.10,no.141txt/jul29dc2.htm

The first seven paragraphs of this comment (through "I do not understand. It is a mystery") summarize my own thoughts on the matter as well as (or better than) I could:
http://eirenikon.wordpress.com/2008/04/10/bishop-hilarion-gods-mercy-is-immeasurable/#comment-224

Douglas at 1:54am June 6
The comment, I think, is consistent with the quote from the movie if we take the "receive it with gratitude" as the acceptance of Grace.

Alan at 12:09pm June 6
Then the choice is of importance, contrary to the quote. And the mercy is infinite, if the repentance is genuine.

Douglas at 12:24pm June 6
Ah, I see what you're getting at. In the context of the film, the choice he's referring to is one of life and career paths, not one of moral choices.

ADDED:
Douglas at 12:51pm June 6
Thinking more about it ... I think even with moral choices, mercy is infinite, and offered, even if the repentance is not there. There is no limit to God's mercy; the obstacle is always and only our refusal to accept it.

Here is how I imagine it works. Because we are limited, we cannot "accept it with gratitude" unless we repent. I don't think it's possible to feel genuine gratitude for something one takes as an entitlement. To receive it with genuine gratitude, one must be aware that it is mercy, i.e., that it is something undeserved; and to be aware that it is undeserved, one must recognize one's sin and repent of it.

 This is one of the silliest things I've ever read.  And not in a good way.

The coloring book in question, which you can download here, may have been created in response to 9/11, but it's actually a fairly sensitive treatment of the general topic of disasters (with only one page showing, but not discussing, the Twin Towers specifically).

(The artwork is crappy, in my opinion, but it generally is in coloring books, especially in ones that are generated by a committee.  But that's hardly reason enough to pull it from the web site, especially when other coloring books are left up.)

There isn't much celebrity news I really care much about one way or the other, but this saddens me. Godspeed, Bea, and thanks for many happy hours of laughter.

Bea Arthur, stage, film star of 'Mame' and TV's 'Maude' and 'The Golden Girls,' dies at 86

Amazon Deems Gay Books 'Adult', Strips Sales Rankings

It's Amazon.com's right, as a private entity, to make this sort of decision. And it's my right not to spend a single penny buying anything from them till they rescind their decision and publicly apologize.

Here is a list of the titles that have been found so far to be affected.

Here is a possible explanation -- though it strikes me as neither altogether plausible nor to my mind exonerative, even if it's true.

Here are the rules - post this list on your profile (in Notes) replacing my answers with yours. Add a question if you feel so compelled.. Invite your friends to do the same thing. Do it. Join the cult.

1. WERE YOU NAMED AFTER ANYONE?
Yes indeed. Billions of people, actually, were named before I was.

2. WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME YOU CRIED?
I don't know yet. Hopefully there'll be plenty of time left in my life for further crying (though hopefully few occasions for it).

3. DO YOU LIKE YOUR HANDWRITING?
I like my hand whether it's writing or not.

4. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE LUNCH MEAT?
That strange green chewy stuff they used to serve back in high school.

5. DO YOU HAVE KIDS?
Not lately. I've run out of good recipes to try.

6. IF YOU WERE ANOTHER PERSON, WOULD YOU BE FRIENDS WITH YOU?
Oh definitely not. We're too much alike.

7. DO YOU USE SARCASM?
To do what?

8. DO YOU STILL HAVE YOUR TONSILS?
Mine and many other people's. I collect them.

9. WOULD YOU BUNGEE JUMP?
Yes, but only if I was starting on the ground.

10. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE CEREAL?
Hay and gravel.

11. DO YOU UNTIE YOUR SHOES WHEN YOU TAKE THEM OFF?
Shoes are an abomination.

12. THERE IS NO QUESTION 12.
Is this a trick question?

13. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE ICE CREAM?
Artichoke Surprise.

14. WHAT IS THE FIRST THING YOU NOTICE ABOUT PEOPLE?
That they aren't lampposts.

15. RED OR PINK?
Why isn't chartreuse ever an option?

16. WHAT IS YOUR LEAST FAVORITE THING ABOUT YOURSELF?
My tendency not to take surveys like this one seriously.

17. WHO DO YOU MISS THE MOST?
Whoever moves fastest when I'm trying to aim.

18. DO YOU WANT EVERYONE TO COMPLETE THIS LIST?
Yes. And if they don't I will badger them mercilessly till they acquiesce. It's step one in my plan for world domination.

19. WHAT COLOR PANTS AND SHOES ARE YOU WEARING?
Wearing?

20. No question 20.
Another trick question?

21. WHAT ARE YOU LISTENING TO RIGHT NOW?
Little clicky noises coming from my keyboard as I type. I think it's some kind of code. Maybe somebody's trapped in there ...

22. IF YOU WERE A CRAYON, WHAT COLOR WOULD YOU BE?
Plaid.

23. FAVORITE SMELLS?
I don't know what my favorite is smelling right now.

24. WHO WAS THE LAST PERSON YOU TALKED TO ON THE PHONE?
I don't talk on the phone. Every time I do, somebody else can hear me! It's creepy!

25. DO YOU LIKE THE PERSON WHO SENT THIS TO YOU?
Wait, that was a person?

26. FAVORITE SPORTS TO WATCH?
Flamingo croquet.

27. HAIR COLOR?
Chartreuse.

28. EYE COLOR?
Chartreuse.

29. DO YOU WEAR CONTACTS?
I tried, but I found it's much easier just to keep them listed in an address book.

30. FAVORITE FOOD?
Edible.

31. SCARY MOVIES OR HAPPY ENDINGS?
There's a difference?

32. LAST MOVIE YOU WATCHED?
I'm not sure of the title, but it was incredibly boring. The whole thing was just this blank screen. I finally gave up watching it. I mean, the power was out anyway, so what the hey, right?

33. WHAT COLOR SHIRT ARE YOU WEARING?
It's hard to tell through all this bloo-- er, I mean, um, cranberry juice.

34. SUMMER OR WINTER?
Construction.

35. HUGS OR KISSES?
Not much of a range of choices, is there?

37. MOST LIKELY TO RESPOND?
Probably not President Obama. He's kinda busy right now.

38. LEAST LIKELY TO RESPOND?
Anyone who doesn't know I posted this in the first place.

39. WHAT BOOKS ARE YOU READING NOW?
I'm not reading a book, now, I'm posting a note to Facebook. Sheesh. Try to keep up.

40. WHAT IS ON YOUR MOUSE PAD?
A little mouse futon and little mouse track lighting.

41. WHAT DID YOU WATCH ON TV LAST NIGHT?
See #32.

42. FAVORITE SOUND(S).
The last time I answered this question I wound up being taken in for questioning.

43. ROLLING STONES OR BEATLES?
It's hard to roll Beatles, so I'd rather roll stones.

44. WHAT IS THE FARTHEST YOU HAVE BEEN FROM HOME?
Alpha Centauri. At least that's where the alien abductors said they were taking me.

45. DO YOU HAVE A SPECIAL TALENT?
I can stand on one toe while sitting down.

46 WHERE WERE YOU BORN?
Somewhere very near my mother's location at the time. I think.

47. WHOSE ANSWERS ARE YOU LOOKING FORWARD TO GETTING BACK?
Forward? Back? Make up your mind!

48. HOW DID YOU MEET YOUR SPOUSE/SIGNIFICANT OTHER?
In the police lineup.

49. ARE YOU HAPPY WITH THE CHOICES YOU'VE MADE SO FAR IN LIFE?
Luckily I've managed to avoid making any choices at all.

50. WHAT, IF ANYTHING, WOULD YOU GO BACK AND CHANGE IN YOUR LIFE?
I'd have gone with the lemon meringue at that one restaurant back in 1978.

Using ONLY SONG TITLES from ONE artist, cleverly answer these questions:

Pick a band/artist: Bruce Springsteen

1. Are you a male or female: Part Man, Part Monkey

2. Describe yourself: I'm on Fire

3. How do you feel about yourself: Your Own Worst Enemy

4. Describe your ex boyfriend/girlfriend: Brilliant Disguise

5. Describe your current boy/girl situation: My Lover Man

6. Describe your current location: Living on the Edge of the World

7. Describe where you want to be: Where the Bands Are

8. Your best friend is: She's the One

9. Your favorite color is: Darkness on the Edge of Town

10. You know that: It's Hard to Be a Saint in the City

11. What’s the weather like: Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out

12. If your life was a television show what would it be called? A Good Man Is Hard to Find (Pittsburgh)

13. What is life to you: Life Itself

14. What is the best advice you have to give: Take 'Em as They Come

15. If you could change your name what would you change it to: Pony Boy

The origin of beehive hairdos is discovered:
</div>

Think of 25 albums that had such a profound effect on you they changed your life or the way you looked at it. They sucked you in and took you over for days, weeks, months, years. These are the albums that you can use to identify time, places, people, emotions. These are the albums that no matter what they were thought of musically shaped your world -

***Don't just name your 25 favorite albums.***

***No being cool, which albums have you actually listened to thousands of times?
Readers should feel free to guess (or ask) why particular albums are there. ***

In No particular order...


1.Choir of Westminster Abbey – Palestrina's Missa Papae Marcelli and Allegri's Miserere
2.Lena Willemark & Ale Möller – Nordan
3.Jackson Browne – I'm Alive or Running On Empty (it's a tie... so technically my list is 26 long. Shh!!! Don't tell!)
4.John Gorka – I Know
5.Phantom of the Opera (original London cast recording)
6.ABBA – Greatest Hits (don't laugh!)
7.Minstrel Spirit – Enter the Woods
8.Thy Majestie – The Lasting Power
9.Billy Joel – Innocent Man
10.Queen – Night at the Opera
11.Robert DeCormier Singers – The Folk Album
12.The House Jacks – Naked Noise
13.Thiel College Choir – I Stand Here at the Gate, I Quake as I Enter In
14.Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra – Jean Sibelius: Orchestral Songs
15.Enya – Watermark
16.The Flirtations – The Flirtations
17.The Manhattan Transfer – The Very Best of the Manhattan Transfer
18.Meat Loaf – Bat Out of Hell
19.Sigur Rós – Ágætis byrjun
20.B-52s – Cosmic Thing
21.Les Miserables: The Complete Symphonic Recording
22.Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir – Arvo Pärt's Te Deum
23.Duncan Sheik – Duncan Sheik
24.Klemetti-Opisto Kamarikuoro -- Toivo Kuula's Sekakuorolauluja
25.Bruce Springsteen – Darkness on the Edge of Town

Honorable mention: Anúna -- Anúna

Listened to thousands of times? Literally? Hard to say. Possibly several of the above, but the size of my collection is such that I haven't had time to listen to many albums that often and still listen to anything else at all.


(Cross-posted on Facebook)

Rules: Once you’ve been tagged, you are supposed to write a note with 25 random things, facts, habits, or goals about you. At the end, choose 25 people to be tagged*. You have to tag the person who tagged you. If I tagged you, it’s because I want to know more about you.

1. I can be very verbose. Also prolix, talkative, loquacious, wordy, and long-winded.

2. I take being silly very seriously, which includes this survey, so expect some goofy answers.

3. In that vein (which is a really odd figure of speech, if you think about it; I mean, we don't ever say "in that artery", because the mental image is rather gruesome), I love puns and wordplay. People think I always make puns, which is simply not true. Sometimes I'm asleep.

4. Speaking of which, I detest sleep. Or rather, I sometimes really enjoy sleep, but I detest the fact that I have to sleep. I hate wasting 8 hours of my day in which I "go comatose for a few hours, hallucinate vividly, and then maybe suffer amnesia about the whole experience". http://xkcd.com/203/

5. I don't, however, mind wasting huge parts of my day with silly things like webcomics or word games. Or online surveys such as this one.

6. I didn't write this poem, but it's one of my favorites, not least because I think that it describes me (well, except for the "cured" part):

For My Contemporaries

How time reverses
the proud at heart!
I now make verses
who aimed at art.

But I sleep well.
Ambitious boys
whose big lines swell
with spiritual noise,

despise me not!
And be not queasy
to praise somewhat:
verse is not easy.

But rage who will.
Time that procured me
Good sense and skill
Of madness cured me.

-- J.V. Cunningham (1911-1985)

7. Though I may not indeed be cured, I am still a ham.

8. Ham is one of my favorite foods. But then, you are what you eat.

9. Which makes me wonder why I'm not made of chocolate. Which is my very favorite food.

10. Of course, if I were made of chocolate, since I have no self-restraint, I'd probably be eaten alive, and that wouldn't be pleasant. Besides, once I'd eaten my stomach, there'd be nowhere for the chocolate to go when I swallowed it, and that would just be messy.

11. Which is not to say that I especially object to messes; as witness the state of my housekeeping (i.e., Ohio.)

12. Housekeeping by Marilynne Robinson is one of the best novels written in the English language.

13. I've read a few novels in other languages, notably Spanish and especially French. At different points in my college career, I majored in each one of those two languages. If I had known then that there existed a college that offered a degree in Finnish, I bet that that's what I would have done, but alas, I found out too late, and it would simply require too much packing to move now.

14. That's because I am an inveterate pack rat.

15. I thought about having a yard sale to get rid of a lot of my stuff, but I don't even have enough room to organize for a yard sale. I have to get rid of stuff just to be able to get rid of stuff.

16. I'm fond of paradoxical statements like the above. The trouble is, sometimes I get mixed up and say them wrong. And sometimes I get so mixed up I can't even say them wrong right.

17. It just occurred to me that being physically mixed up would be really pretty unpleasant. Especially with the mixer at really high speeds.

18. I have been accused of driving at high speeds, but that (A) is no longer true, (B) never was, and (C) was Mario Andretti.

19. Someday I'd like to try driving on the Autobahn. I would not, however, like to try driving on the Audubon, because that's no way to treat one of America's premier artists. Besides, he's dead. (Which I suppose doesn't make it harder to drive on him, but the fact that he's buried does, at least if you want to drive directly on him. Why you would want to do that, I don't know, but that's just the sort of person you are.)

20. As a Christian, I'm not particularly afraid of death. Pain, now, that's a whole nother question. (Actually, it's not a question, it's just a noun. Or sometimes a verb. I'm pretty sure it's never a preposition, at least in English. If you put two dots over the a [like so: ä], it is a postposition in Finnish, which is like a preposition except you put it after the word. It takes the genitive case, in case you were wondering. [In "case" you were wondering. Get it? Get it?])

21. I am overly fond of parenthetical digressions (or didn't you notice that I even digressed from the digression in #20 above? -- but I digress).

22. Did I mention that I would have majored in Finnish if I could have? Oh. Right. I did. Well, in which case, let me point out that I'm one-quarter Finnish, one-quarter Swedish, one-quarter Scottish, one-quarter German, and one fifth of Scotch.

23. Actually, I don't especially like Scotch. I am, however, fonder of wine than is good for my wallet. Or my waistline.

24. Did you notice the alliteration there between "wallet" and "waistline"? I like alliteration. I think it's lovely. Lots of lyrics I love have an alliterative lilt.

25. I have apparently failed to follow the instructions, because they asked for 25 random things, and the 24 things above are mostly linked, in various ways, to the thing before them. (#1 is not linked to the thing before it, which would be a little disturbing, since there is no #0, much less #-1. And don't even get me started on imaginary numbers like i or irrational ones like pi. Which rhyme. Kind of like seven and eleven, only less real and less whole, respectively. Which is not to suggest that 7-11's are not real and whole. I don't think I've ever seen a 7-11 that was in pieces, though I've seen many a peaceful 7-11, and in my previous job I worked sometimes 7-11 -- 7 a.m. to 11 p.m., that is -- after which I slept peacefully. So ... um ... what was I talking about again?)



* I tag whatever friends of mine want to do it.  Which probably means I haven't tagged 25 people. Please don't tell. I don't want to be put in jail. I'm too pretty for jail.

angelchrome has inspired me. So here's my list of 100 things to do in 2009 (in no particular order).

( Let's see how many of them I follow through on ...  )

Your results:
You are An Expendable Character (Redshirt)

An Expendable Character (Redshirt) 75% Uhura 65% Geordi LaForge 65% Jean-Luc Picard 60% Will Riker 60% James T. Kirk (Captain) 55% Worf 55% Deanna Troi 55% Data 54% Chekov 50% Mr. Sulu 50% Spock 49% Beverly Crusher 45% Mr. Scott 35% Leonard McCoy (Bones) 30%

Since your accomplishments are seldom noticed, and you are rarely thought of, you are expendable. That doesn't mean your job isn't important but if you were in Star Trek you would be killed off in the first episode you appeared in.

Click here to take the Star Trek Personality Test

... whether the library is even relevant in the era of the Internet. Here's an excellent news item on just that topic.