• Reading!
  

  The Wheel of Time turns, and Ages come and pass, leaving memories that become legend. Legend fades to myth, and even myth is long forgotten when the Age that gave it birth comes again. In one Age, called the Third Age by some, an Age yet to come, an Age long past, a wind rose around the alabaster spire known as the White Tower. The wind was not the beginning. There are neither beginnings nor endings to the turning of the Wheel of Time. But it was a beginning.

  Having read #1 – #11 of Wheel of Time from 9/8 – 10/16, I now have my hands on The Gathering Storm. I’m gonna try to savor this one a bit more…

• I’m a bit… disturbed by my TX Government prof’s extra credit offering: Attend the Tea Party Express II rally downtown. On the one hand, it is political activity, and an example of how citizens can participate¹ – on the other hand, ew. I’m also a tad bemused that he played an entire Fox News segment (which I can’t find right now and it’s driving me crazy) on the arson investigation around Cameron Todd Willingham’s execution; Perry’s dismissal of the whole thing on the grounds that Willingham was a “monster”. Yeah? So? Assuming the evidence shows that he didn’t set the fire, then he didn’t kill his daughters. While he’d never win any humanitarian awards, he’s still not guilty of the specific crime he was executed for. That’s Not Right in my book. </end digression> Anyhow, yeah. Fox News.

• Videogames: Finished Fable II. Five times. Well, I had to play good! And evil! And good turned evil. And evil turned good. And good turned evil turned good. And then there’s the sex change potion…. Now I’m playing Lost Odyssey, the game I told Rob repeatedly that I did not want to play. I’m over 80 hours in now. So now he thinks that I’ll change my mind on Oblivion! But, even though I’ve apparently changed my mind on turn-based games *cough*pokemon*cough* I still say I don’t like first person that much. Still, maybe Fallout 3 will convince me, if I decide to try it. In DS news, I beat Professor Layton & the Diabolical Box, but I still need to finish more of the puzzles. Haven’t played much Pokemon (Diamond/Pearl/Platinum) lately, but ToysRUs is giving away Arceus soon, so I’ll dust it off for that. Still waiting for HeartGold/SoulSilver, but I’m not sure which one I’m going to get. On my “finish dammit” to do list is a couple of the GBA pokemons, but I’m not sure which ones I finished and which ones I didn’t. And by “finish” I do not mean “caught ‘em all” because I am just not that obsessed. (Shut up Rob.) Pearl is closest to completion, and I’m happy with that.

• My husband threw a glass of ice water at me today! Well, ok, he knocked it over on me while we were at the restaurant. And, ok, maybe it was because I asked him to hand me the very thick and heavy copy of the above mentioned WoT book. Still! Ice! Water! ²

• Now you must see an incredibly adorable picture of George, The Sweetest Cat On Earth™!

He was standing on my palm with all four feet, kneading and trying to stand on his head. Aside from leaning against my chest, he was supported solely by my one hand. He was also purring like mad.

¹Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

²No books were harmed during the events described.

I just got a letter from Planned Parenthood today:

In response to the anonymous email message circulated back in September during the presidential campaign, urging people to donate to Planned Parenthood in honor of Gov. Sarah Palin, Planned Parenthood (nationally) has received about $1 million from 40,000 donors. Locally we received over 275 gifts totaling close to $5000! Thank you so much for supporting Planned Parenthood!

Fuck yeah.

The international community now has a potent new motivating tool to dissuade world leaders from engaging in tyranny and aggression — tell them they’ll be like George Bush if they do it:

Nicolas Sarkozy saved the President of Georgia from being hanged “by the balls” — a threat made last summer by Vladimir Putin, according to an account that emerged yesterday from the Elysee Palace. . . .

The Russian seemed unconcerned by international reaction. “I am going to hang Saakashvili by the balls,” Mr Putin declared.

Mr Sarkozy thought he had misheard. “Hang him?” — he asked.

“Why not?” Mr Putin replied. “The Americans hanged Saddam Hussein.”

Mr Sarkozy, using the familiar tu, tried to reason with him: “Yes but do you want to end up like [President] Bush?”

Mr Putin was briefly lost for words, then said: “Ah — you have scored a point there.”

Originally published at Jen’s Corner. You can comment here or there.

You know, lots of times I think “hey, I should post about that” but then I never remember to actually do it. I ought to make notes or something. It’s not like I don’t have nifty gadgets to do it with.

====

Rob’s birthday was today, so he wanted Thai. He’s also off the rest of the week, so we might go to the zoo tomorrow. If it’s nice, and also if Pandora eats ok. She’s been… iffy on eating. She’ll eat fine one day, and refuse food the next. She looks fragile and slightly scruffy – and we’ve been in to the vet several times. I hope she’s going to be ok – she’s pushing 15, and hasn’t been in the best of health.

====

So, I’m kind of the non-moderator for a political email list that’s been around since 1994. It’s called NoRules, which means I don’t actually “moderate” it at all, it’s just that I’m the one that finally bitched and nagged enough to get them moved off of “reply to all” onto what finally wound up as Yahoo Groups. It used to be a really good group – interesting, lively, and informative. Now – well, it’s not as bad as a YouTube comment thread, but it’s all the same the same the same – I could pop in there any time and it’s the same stuff from the same people and it’s usually just crap. I only mention it because I made the mistake of reading a couple of emails tonight. Someone forwarded the Michelle Obama/Lobster thing tonight. //shakes head// That’ll teach me to look at it.

Maybe I’ve changed.

====

I’m sitting here at the computer and Fred is wedged between my back and the back of the chair, with her front legs just draped over the arm of the chair and her head hanging over it. She tends to reach for things on the desk, so I have to keep moving them out of the way. Every once in a while I reach around and scritch her belly, which is really all I can reach, and she purrs.

It’s late, and soon George will come in here and meep at me. They are quite certain about when I should go to bed.

====

Well, there’s 400+ words about nothing interesting at all!

I win!

Aha! There’s George. ‘Night!

Originally published at Jen’s Corner. You can comment here or there.

I’m hearing some people say “get rid of the electoral college” – I don’t think that’s necessarily a good idea. Here’s what I would say, if I got to make the rules:

• Electoral votes should be split – popular vote by district.
• ALL primaries have to be on the same day.
• Black out news coverage until the last polls close. None of this “calling” a state with 10% of the vote counted. Wait for it, dammit!

Hey, look! Sean Tevis is at 50% for Kansas House! Neat!

Now back to chewing fingernails…

Onslaught of dirty tricks as Election Day nears

In the hours before Election Day, as inevitable as winter, comes an onslaught of dirty tricks

]]> http://www.robandjen.com/jen/2008/11/03/gnawing-fingernails/feed/ 0 http://www.robandjen.com/jen/2008/10/19/dear-sarah-2/ http://www.robandjen.com/jen/2008/10/19/dear-sarah-2/#comments Sun, 19 Oct 2008 10:22:00 +0000 jenbooks http://jenbooks.wordpress.com/2008/10/19/dear-sarah/ Originally published at Jen’s Corner. You can comment here or there.

Dear Sarah
A message to Sarah Palin from the young women of America.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0XRee3xcMG8

- click here for the code to post this video -

]]> http://www.robandjen.com/jen/2008/10/19/dear-sarah-2/feed/ 2 http://www.robandjen.com/jen/2008/10/03/i-am-joe-six-pack/ http://www.robandjen.com/jen/2008/10/03/i-am-joe-six-pack/#comments Fri, 03 Oct 2008 15:50:00 +0000 jenbooks http://jenbooks.wordpress.com/2008/10/03/i-am-joe-six-pack/

I am Joe Six-Pack. I am not who they think that they are talking to. Are you?

Most amazing piece of writing I’ve seen in a long time.

Please to be excusing the following burst of profanity:

Fuck you HOA, and your compulsory display of false patriotism with your fucking Made in China plastic “American” flags. Just, fuck you. Not in MY front yard, you don’t.

Our so-called “Homeland Security” failed miserably. FEMA is a joke.

Is this the response when there is advance notice?

So what’s it going to be like when CA gets hit with the Big One? Or a nice little suitcase nuke gets set off somewhere?

Yeah.

BTW – there’s incredible coverage at http://www.wwltv.com

Also, you really should read the Times-Picayune – you can get pdf pages of the paper here:

http://www.nola.com/hurricane/katrina/pdf/090205/a1.pdf (They’re available for 8/31 and 9/1 so far. Pages a1 – a13 (or more – extrapolate the link))