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Aug. 7th, 2012 09:23 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
gwydion* 170 people died in fighting in Syria today, mostly in fighting in Aleppo and Damascus. Syrian Army jets are targeting heavily populated residential agents for bombing in Aleppo. People are going hungry and there are very few Doctors left because of the governments policy of targeting hospitals and medical personnel. There is a serious shortage of food and fresh water. The Free Syrian Army has taken 48 Iranians prisoner. Iran blames us for this along with the Iranians killed by government shelling, presumably on the grounds that the US controls both all the decisions made my the Assad government and the Syrian army simultaneously despite that making no sense at all.
* There is major flooding in Manila after more than a day on no stop heavy rains. 20000 people had been evacuated.
* Congratulations to NASA on the amazing Mars probe!
* I see Mitt Romney is lying about the President again. The reality: The lawsuit is to stop a newly passed Republican Law in Ohio designed to suppress the vote by cutting down early voting in a state where people have to wait hours in line to vote. The point being if you make it so people need to take a whole day off from work to vote. The law also targets national guard, active duty, and reservist votes by making military ID illegal for the purposes of voting. So the Republicans are trying to take away the vote from active duty military and veterans. President Obama is suing to restore it. What is Romney saying? That suing to restore the right to vote is a wicked attempt to take it away. No really. He offers no proof as to why restoring early voting and the ability to use military ID for voting suppresses the vote, but he swears it's true. Riiiiight.
* On Fake Outrage motivated by Sexism and Racism: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26315908/#48561798
* On Islamaphobia, Ignorance, Racism, and the Sikh Temple Shooting: http://thelastword.msnbc.com/_news/2012/08/07/13166427-lessons-to-learn-from-sikh-temple-shooting?lite
* The Tuscon shooter has pleaded guilty in exchange for him not being put to death.
* "With Christians Like These, Who Needs Satan?:" http://neo-prodigy.livejournal.com/1084950.html
* Somewhere between Seattle and the off ramp at Samish Way, my power steering went out. I honestly didn't notice until I suddenly found myself in a battle to get off the ramp and onto the surface road. I was almost home, so I simply strong armed the car the rest of the way, as I knew our mechanic would likely not be able to fit us in without warning. I was right, so I'm taking it in tomorrow. As irritating as it is, the timing could have been so much worse, like it could have failed in Seattle while I was circling in on the hospital. Of course, I fucked up my arm and back, which weren't in good shape to start with, so I'm having one of those move slow and coddle the pain days. I had to break out the serious meds, but that's normal after travel anyway. I also anticipated my general lack of mobility and stocked emergency foods when I went shopping Sunday. I've already worked out contingencies for tomorrow depending on how expensive and how much time is involved in fixing it. I can talk to them about the other two minor repairs I need while I'm there, and I'll see how the budgeting on that works out.
* The black cats are in cuddle mode, but not in an over the top way, which I appreciate. LM spent yesterday mostly in hiding, but coming out now and then for pettins. Hector is going the inconsolable howling root. He also tried to steal the algae wafers again while I was gone, but couldn't break in. (Hector thinks fish food tastes better than cat food, and is most aggressive about stealing algae wafers. He's a special, special boy). There was some vomitting while I was gone, but not in my bed, for which I am grateful, and they did not trash the apartment, for which I am also grateful. We've been experimenting with hairball treats. The boys liked the hairball+ brand, LM will eat them, Mache hates them. Three of them had an extremely enthusiastic response when I tried the Pet Naturals brand today, acting like I was offering them kitty crack, with LM being a touch dubious at first, but eating it quickly once she decided. LM is the hardest to treat with Laxatone and is a major impetus for this experiment. Unfortunately, she is the most likely to randomly turn up her nose at treats of any kind. Her eating it is a good sign, but I'll have to see how the long term works out. It's early days yet to see if they actually cut down the vomiting.
* Short form on Medical travel: It looks like I'm going to San Fransisco instead of Colorado, but won't have travel dates until I finish probate. If my California peeps want to hang out when I'm there, I would be thrilled, but I know y'all have lives of your own. Anyway, I'll post when I have things finalized.
* I'm going to talk about pole vaulting and Skye here, so you know what not to click:
It's always a little intense for me watching pole vaulting. Skye was of course a vaulter in High School and for U of O. He was an extremely strong supporter of title nine and the mark he wanted to leave on the world involved helping to build up women's pole vaulting, because in our age group women still weren't allowed to vault, and that wasn't fair or right. He was so excited the first year they were allowed to compete in the Olympics and as a coach at the high school and college level, he was dedicated to attracting women to the sport and to giving them the same quality of coaching male athletes got. It was huge for him to send vaulters to State and to regionals. He put all this effort into fund raising for equipment and doing pole exchange programs with other teams in the area. (Poles have various heights, weights, and flexibility. You need a variety of poles at various lengths depending on the height, weight, strength, and skill skill of the jumpers and an individual athlete has different needs as they progress in the sport. As individual team members arrive, progress, and graduate, you need a different set of poles for those athletes. Teams that are smaller and less well funded may have extra poles they can't use that year, but desperately need poles they can't afford. Skye built a regional network that allowed the poorer school districts to lend poles to each other, sort of like a decentralized library system. I was still getting occasional calls from vault coaches for him a year after his murder, from further away areas where they hadn't heard the news). The exchange program was particularly important for women vaulters because there not having been generations of women vaulters at a school often meant they didn't already have the right poles to train with and with the small equipment budgets, the women were more likely to be short changed and thus unable to reach their potential as athletes. He was all about fairness and giving people the opportunity to achieve excellence and excel at a sport they loved. So I watch those women fly over the bar and I think of him and how exited he'd be to see how far the sport has come.
*Total Recall:
I watched it Saturday. It looks like they went back to the original story instead of remaking the Schwarzenegger movie, which is why it's so different. Blade runner is also a Philip K. Dick story, and common themes in his work are Indentity and what is or isn't real, which you can definitely see in this more faithful version of "We Can Remember It for You Wholesale," Blade Runner, and the brilliant A Scanner Darkly. I really loved the way the went with a visual design style similar to Blade Runner, and the acting quality was excellent. It wasn't all that deep as Dick adaptations go, but it was fun to watch particularly watching Chekov's guns fire one after another.
* "Women in Science Fiction Week: The Problem with Female Representation in Science Fiction on Television:" http://www.fangsforthefantasy.com/2012/07/women-in-science-fiction-week-problem.html
* "Face Off: Tropes We Want to End:" http://www.fangsforthefantasy.com/2012/07/face-off-tropes-we-want-to-end.html
* How to turn a Barbie into a Weeping Angel: http://wich-crafts.blogspot.com/2011/03/dont-blink.html
* Pastel cake: http://www.cakewrecks.com/home/2012/8/5/sunday-sweets-a-peck-of-pastel-pretties.html
* Snerk: http://curbed.com/archives/2012/08/06/breaking-and-entering.php
* Scary thing? If I had known that kid back then, I would have wanted to be his friend because I totally would have thought he was cool: http://awkwardfamilyphotos.com/2012/08/04/the-count/
* There is major flooding in Manila after more than a day on no stop heavy rains. 20000 people had been evacuated.
* Congratulations to NASA on the amazing Mars probe!
* I see Mitt Romney is lying about the President again. The reality: The lawsuit is to stop a newly passed Republican Law in Ohio designed to suppress the vote by cutting down early voting in a state where people have to wait hours in line to vote. The point being if you make it so people need to take a whole day off from work to vote. The law also targets national guard, active duty, and reservist votes by making military ID illegal for the purposes of voting. So the Republicans are trying to take away the vote from active duty military and veterans. President Obama is suing to restore it. What is Romney saying? That suing to restore the right to vote is a wicked attempt to take it away. No really. He offers no proof as to why restoring early voting and the ability to use military ID for voting suppresses the vote, but he swears it's true. Riiiiight.
* On Fake Outrage motivated by Sexism and Racism: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26315908/#48561798
Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
* On Islamaphobia, Ignorance, Racism, and the Sikh Temple Shooting: http://thelastword.msnbc.com/_news/2012/08/07/13166427-lessons-to-learn-from-sikh-temple-shooting?lite
Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
* The Tuscon shooter has pleaded guilty in exchange for him not being put to death.
* "With Christians Like These, Who Needs Satan?:" http://neo-prodigy.livejournal.com/1084950.html
* Somewhere between Seattle and the off ramp at Samish Way, my power steering went out. I honestly didn't notice until I suddenly found myself in a battle to get off the ramp and onto the surface road. I was almost home, so I simply strong armed the car the rest of the way, as I knew our mechanic would likely not be able to fit us in without warning. I was right, so I'm taking it in tomorrow. As irritating as it is, the timing could have been so much worse, like it could have failed in Seattle while I was circling in on the hospital. Of course, I fucked up my arm and back, which weren't in good shape to start with, so I'm having one of those move slow and coddle the pain days. I had to break out the serious meds, but that's normal after travel anyway. I also anticipated my general lack of mobility and stocked emergency foods when I went shopping Sunday. I've already worked out contingencies for tomorrow depending on how expensive and how much time is involved in fixing it. I can talk to them about the other two minor repairs I need while I'm there, and I'll see how the budgeting on that works out.
* The black cats are in cuddle mode, but not in an over the top way, which I appreciate. LM spent yesterday mostly in hiding, but coming out now and then for pettins. Hector is going the inconsolable howling root. He also tried to steal the algae wafers again while I was gone, but couldn't break in. (Hector thinks fish food tastes better than cat food, and is most aggressive about stealing algae wafers. He's a special, special boy). There was some vomitting while I was gone, but not in my bed, for which I am grateful, and they did not trash the apartment, for which I am also grateful. We've been experimenting with hairball treats. The boys liked the hairball+ brand, LM will eat them, Mache hates them. Three of them had an extremely enthusiastic response when I tried the Pet Naturals brand today, acting like I was offering them kitty crack, with LM being a touch dubious at first, but eating it quickly once she decided. LM is the hardest to treat with Laxatone and is a major impetus for this experiment. Unfortunately, she is the most likely to randomly turn up her nose at treats of any kind. Her eating it is a good sign, but I'll have to see how the long term works out. It's early days yet to see if they actually cut down the vomiting.
* Short form on Medical travel: It looks like I'm going to San Fransisco instead of Colorado, but won't have travel dates until I finish probate. If my California peeps want to hang out when I'm there, I would be thrilled, but I know y'all have lives of your own. Anyway, I'll post when I have things finalized.
* I'm going to talk about pole vaulting and Skye here, so you know what not to click:
It's always a little intense for me watching pole vaulting. Skye was of course a vaulter in High School and for U of O. He was an extremely strong supporter of title nine and the mark he wanted to leave on the world involved helping to build up women's pole vaulting, because in our age group women still weren't allowed to vault, and that wasn't fair or right. He was so excited the first year they were allowed to compete in the Olympics and as a coach at the high school and college level, he was dedicated to attracting women to the sport and to giving them the same quality of coaching male athletes got. It was huge for him to send vaulters to State and to regionals. He put all this effort into fund raising for equipment and doing pole exchange programs with other teams in the area. (Poles have various heights, weights, and flexibility. You need a variety of poles at various lengths depending on the height, weight, strength, and skill skill of the jumpers and an individual athlete has different needs as they progress in the sport. As individual team members arrive, progress, and graduate, you need a different set of poles for those athletes. Teams that are smaller and less well funded may have extra poles they can't use that year, but desperately need poles they can't afford. Skye built a regional network that allowed the poorer school districts to lend poles to each other, sort of like a decentralized library system. I was still getting occasional calls from vault coaches for him a year after his murder, from further away areas where they hadn't heard the news). The exchange program was particularly important for women vaulters because there not having been generations of women vaulters at a school often meant they didn't already have the right poles to train with and with the small equipment budgets, the women were more likely to be short changed and thus unable to reach their potential as athletes. He was all about fairness and giving people the opportunity to achieve excellence and excel at a sport they loved. So I watch those women fly over the bar and I think of him and how exited he'd be to see how far the sport has come.
*Total Recall:
I watched it Saturday. It looks like they went back to the original story instead of remaking the Schwarzenegger movie, which is why it's so different. Blade runner is also a Philip K. Dick story, and common themes in his work are Indentity and what is or isn't real, which you can definitely see in this more faithful version of "We Can Remember It for You Wholesale," Blade Runner, and the brilliant A Scanner Darkly. I really loved the way the went with a visual design style similar to Blade Runner, and the acting quality was excellent. It wasn't all that deep as Dick adaptations go, but it was fun to watch particularly watching Chekov's guns fire one after another.
* "Women in Science Fiction Week: The Problem with Female Representation in Science Fiction on Television:" http://www.fangsforthefantasy.com/2012/07/women-in-science-fiction-week-problem.html
* "Face Off: Tropes We Want to End:" http://www.fangsforthefantasy.com/2012/07/face-off-tropes-we-want-to-end.html
* How to turn a Barbie into a Weeping Angel: http://wich-crafts.blogspot.com/2011/03/dont-blink.html
* Pastel cake: http://www.cakewrecks.com/home/2012/8/5/sunday-sweets-a-peck-of-pastel-pretties.html
* Snerk: http://curbed.com/archives/2012/08/06/breaking-and-entering.php
* Scary thing? If I had known that kid back then, I would have wanted to be his friend because I totally would have thought he was cool: http://awkwardfamilyphotos.com/2012/08/04/the-count/