Hi all.

I didn't do the times square thing I was gonna do, so I didn't get to meet dracosolaris and tell her who I was and see her look of shock when she realized she didn't like me, but it turns out she wasn't there anyway, so....

And my mom is pissed because "I said I would go with you and you turned me down"

Um, yeah. Because your foot is bad and it would mean a lot of standing around. And I didn't think it'd be that much fun for you. Heck, I didn't think it'd be that much fun for ME, I just wanted to laugh at draco! And, if you haven't noticed, I didn't go ANYway, so what on earth are you whining about?

And she got into a snit at Jenn's, god only knows why. *sighs* Apparently, Jenn, you weren't firm enough in your offers to play cards.


In happier news, I stole Jenn's cleaning CD. She's got me ruined, I can't clean without it. Unfortunately, now I'll have to clean :(

And Xiggy's gotten her visitphotos developed. Which reminds me. PUT OUR BABY PICS ON YOUR SITE!

Okay, Jenn? BIG favor.

Well, not so big. I need you to take piccies of:

1. You, 'dul, and Ana
2. Seth and Lizziey
3. Me in my new glasses (possibly with either Seth and Ana or you and Lizziey)
4. Next you see her, Mommy.

Then I can post 'em for people I know to see! Pretty please? Xiggy already promised to put them up!

Oh, and for everyone else...

I'm going to bed. But before I do, I thought I'd ramble a little. After all, I'm nearly asleep, what better time to go on a babbling spree than when you know you're not making any sense?

I read the new Tamora Pierce book, Trickster's Choice. VERY good. For those who don't know, Tamora Pierce, one of my favorite authors, has two distinct series going on, the Circle books and the Tortall books, split up into quartets. Very much fantasy, both of them, but set in different worlds.

Anyway, Trickster's is a Tortall book, the first of the new quartet, possibly her best one ever. The first quartet focused on Alanna, typical "girl pretends to be boy to be knight" thing, except better than that synopsis makes it sound. The next one was after the first ended, with Daine, who's got what's called wild magic, and was therefore a bit of an outcast before the books started, she's no knight or knight wannabe, though, just a mage. Then there's Kel, in the third quartet, she's the first OPENLY female page, with the typical problems you'd expect from that, except written so well that it doesn't SEEM typical. But this one, Alanna's daughter Aly, she's DIFFERENT. For one thing, it starts later in her life, she's 16, not 13 or so when the series starts (though she may be older when it ends than the others were, I don't know). And unlike all these driven kids (wants to be a knight, no matter what; is pissed that her mom was murdered and pissed also at being rejected by her entire village for her oddness; ALSO wants to be a knight no matter what) she's just FUN, it's all about having fun with her, nothing serious. And she didn't plan this adventure, she got kidnapped and sold as a slave while trying to avoid her mom for a bit. I just *like* her more than I liked the others, and I thought I liked them! But she's not so... determined, y'know? Anyway, I'm not gonna tell the plot, so shoo all those who want spoilers!

Also, the new Diane Duane, A Wizard's Vacation, that's damn good. Best out of the new books. Her Wizardry series, the first three were written 10 years before the more recent ones, but, rather disconcertingly, there's only a summer between the last of the first ones and the first of the new ones... but the cultural references all update by 10 years. That means the music, the computers, everything. *shudders* And they got WEIRD. They're still good (except the last one before this, I take exception to the idea in A Wizard Alone that people can just "become" nonautistic. *rolls her eyes* And that this HAS to be a good idea, of course! Besides, it was missing something, I don't know what, but it was....) This one was good. It was funny in the appropriate spots, serious when it needed to be, and nothing about it seemed lacking or strained, unlike some of the other ones recently. And our characters are a little more three dimensional than they had been. You didn't even know you were missing it until you see it like this. Amazing.

So, go read those books. If you haven't read Tamora Pierce, you *can* start with Trickster's Choice, it's certainly a fun one to start with, and each quartet can be read alone, you won't miss much, but you're still probably better off starting with Alanna: The First Adventure. Stupid name, but there it is.

And for Diane Duane, you DO have to read the whole thing from the beginning, unlike Tamora dear, so go read So You Want to be a Wizard. It's by far the best of ALL of them. But you can pretty much skip all the new ones until Vacation for all the use they were to me. Oh, and there's two about the cats of grand central out, same universe, different characters. These aren't in the kid's section, people, you have to actually go out into the scifi/fantasy books.

Read a silly murder mystery as well, one of Mommy's abandoned series that she doesn't bother with anymore. I can see why, it was SO off. Especially compared to those marvels up there. *sighs* Oh well. Night all!

*laughs*

Okay, Jenn? You were right. I didn't lie on that stupid quiz. EVERYONE ELSE DID. Go read the most recent posts

Some of those, though, ended up getting bookmarked, I'm gonna peruse what they say VERY CAREFULLY. Some of them are FUNNY. Might post some if I get bored enough, and think they're worth you all seeing.


While I was reading, I also saw a LOT of quizzes. I have a theory that you can find out more about a person by seeing the sort of quizzes they take than by analyzing the results of said quizzes. Hm... So I'm going to test this theory on myself, semi-randomly picking a quiz a day to do. Today's quiz is:





You may be a very happy person, or just like to
take quizzes. Idiot? No, probably not. Why did
you take this? You have your own reasons.
You're just a quiztaker who would take any quiz
to probably just see what the results are or
you feel like it. You find them...interesting?
Perhaps. Well, go on and take another quiz. You
don't have to waste your time on this one. =)


What Kind of Idiot Are You to Take This Quiz?
brought to you by Quizilla




*grins*

Bored again. Bye all!

I post far more than my other friends....

In doubt? Go to my friends'page to see for yourself. I hope this doesn't bother anyone, I just really like typing, it's certainly easier than talking, and it's the best way for me to think. You could all just ignore me, I guess....

(update) I went to the forums at neocolours, checked to see who had the third most posts there (I already knew Jazzy was first, I was second). Now, Jaz's got 1734. I have 1620. And the third most prolific poster (Hi joey!) has... 732. Get that? I have more than twice as many as Joey, and she's number three. I burst out laughing to see that, I really didn't realize exactly how much I post until just now... Not that I'm changing, I just thought it was interesting. (end update)


ANYway, to keep this from being a completely wasted post, time for the idiot of the day!

*dies laughing* How stupid do you have to be to keep a pet tiger and a caiman, that's like an aligator or a crocodile, folks, same family, in your apartment?

*stares* Okay, this is scary....

So, just for fun, I typed "walloon" to search for people with that interest. In case you don't know, Walloon is the language of my ancestors, before it pretty much died out. I'm thinking of making a conlang loosely based on it... Loosely is the key, I can't actually, y'know, SPEAK walloon.

Anyway, one of the two people with that in their interests, I'm browsing her blog, and I come across the phrase "Bronx High School of Science". Eh? So I go to her info. Who woulda thunk, one of two people on LJ with Walloon as an interest, and she lives in Queens. I'm some sort of Belgian-immigrant nexus, aren't I? Sheesh! I'm cursed....


Ki tot vos våye bén!

Well, another 9/11 political type link

If you don't like me being the critical cynic I am, go away.

Go here to see a nice long summary of one journalist's comments on Bush's behavior on 9/11. Then back here for me to yell at the shrub-boy.

It's completely true, of course, you can find footage anywhere on google about how long he spent reading to those kids after he found out what was going on. I mean, seriously, WTF? Your country is ATTACKED, it's not a transient thing, it's clearly been plotted for a VERY long time, and you sit there and keep reading, you're being FILMED, while we're all thinking we're gonna die? BRILLIANT. Really. And yet, it's been basically FORGOTTEN by the mass media, even those which aren't so "fair and balanced" as others....

If that were the only thing, I'd be fine with it, pretty much. Really, how persnickety can I be, I don't even LIKE politics! But let's review some critical facts here:

When we attacked Afghanistan, they said they'd be willing to hand over Bin Ladin... if we could prove he did it. Bush's response? He didn't need proof. Not that Bin Ladin DIDN'T do it, he likely did, nor that the Taliban were wonderful people who deserved to be in power, but we attacked before we confirmed that it was the right thing to do. Incidentally, what's going on in Afghanistan? It's pretty much further from people's minds than Bin Ladin is. Probably because journalists aren't allowed in there anymore. Freedom of the press, y'know, it's a dangerous concept. (well, actually, that might be different now, this is 6 month old news, but it's not a good rant without it, forgive!)

Sadaam had no links to Al Qaeda. I know a lot of people THINK that, that's because Bush kept pushing the link... and very few people called him on it, certainly nobody in the media. If I'm wrong, tell me. I want proof. People? That's called the BIG LIE technique. Say the same stupid lie over and over again, make it so impossible it has to be true, and people will believe it. They don't WANT to take the time to think otherwise. Fact is, Sadaam was too secular for any of Al Qaeda. So, no link. So, no connection to 9/11. Actually, what was it, ALL the terrorists then were from Saudi Arabia? You know who has a connection to the Saudis? BUSH AGAIN! WOOHOO! It's amazing.

And then there's Bush's lying after the fact about Iraq. Before, it was "well, we know where they have their WMDs". Now it's "well, they wouldn't let inspectors in". That was on 7/14 of this year. BUSH! ARE YOU ON DRUGS??? It's a matter of public record that they SAID they'd let inspectors in, and you decided that this wasn't good enough! And yet, when I tell people about this, even fairly well-informed people, they've never heard of it... you'd think this would be headline news, and yet, it wasn't.

And, finally, there's the whole outing of the CIA agent scandal. They were apparently mad at some diplomat, so they mentioned that his wife was a CIA agent. This happened over a month ago. I'm just reading about it mainstream media now.

Now, I don't want to say I'm as conscientious with reading the news as I should be. But you'd think we were entitled to a bit more of an outcry over these events than we got, wouldn't you?

Okay, the Board of Ed. here needs to learn how to speak...

Apparently, not all schools are reciting the Pledge of Allegience anymore. Now, my personal feelings about this run thusly:

1. Lots of kids memorize that, say it every day, and have no idea what they're saying. They say it by rote, messing the words up or adding "you may now be seated" at the end because they think that's how it goes.
2. You're asking kids to make a promise they may not be willing or able to keep. How exactly does one define "allegience" to a flag? Or a nation, even? Does disagreeing with this nation constitute a lack of allegience? What about emigrating, have you broken your promise? I don't like promising things unless I know what I mean, why should kids be coerced into doing the same?
3. The whole under God thing... yeah, well, it's called COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT. Congress does NOT have the right to add the words "under God" to a piece that was written without it. Yes, that's right, it was originally written NOT to say that. Besides, to some religions, the Pledge of Allegience constitutes a prayer... to a flag... and is thus a violation of the first and second commandments.
4. *laughs* I don't care if you say students can opt out, first off, they're not going to want to because, really, who likes to stand out for their beliefs, and second, what, kids can opt out but teachers can't? Yeah, THAT'S a fair working environment. Besides, people really CAN'T opt out, not without getting a lawyer. Stupid teacher types make a fuss because they know they can get away with it. Don't argue, I've done it. Haven't said the Pledge since the 6th grade, not since I realized most people didn't realize what they were saying, and those that did often chose to interpret those statements jingoisticly, not patrioticly.
5. Seriously, if you want something patriotic to say every day, try The American's Creed (betcha never heard of that, did ya?). I mean, compare:

"I believe in the United States of America as a government of the people, by the people, for the people; whose just powers are derived from the consent of the governed, a democracy in a republic, a sovereign Nation of many sovereign States; a perfect union, one and inseparable; established upon those principles of freedom, equality, justice, and humanity for which American patriots sacrificed their lives and fortunes.

"I therefore believe it is my duty to my country to love it, to support its Constitution, to obey its laws to respect its flag, and to defend it against all enemies."

to the Pledge of Allegience:

I pledge allegience to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, (under God), indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

The flag is a minor player in the Creed, as it should be. Far more important are principles we want to uphold and a reminder to support the constitution. It doesn't even say that defense against all enemies has to be military, so even pacifists can say this without being dishonest.


Anyway, that part aside, the whole reason this article is interesting is what the Board of Ed. said:

"A Department of Education spokesperson told the paper that schools will be reminded that reciting the pledge is not optional."

Um... seriously, sweetie, the way you put that sounds too Orwellian for my tastes. Are you sure that's the way you wish to present yourself?

"Reciting the pledge is NOT optional. Loving the country is NOT optional. Joining the army is NOT optional. Believing what I have just said is NOT optional."

Okay, poll-type-question here!

As I post so much *blushes* I've decided I really need to start making some of my posts "memories". Other people can read those, right? If not, tell me so I can abandon this idea. Anyway, this way I wouldn't worry so much about posts being pushed off before sporadic friends show up to read them. Not that I post *that* much, but with only 20 on a page at a time.... Anyway, my question:

What sort of posts should (or should not) be memories? This is completely open ended, feel free to give examples from my blog (or those of other people, of course, so long as you link).

And I hadn't meant to update again today, either...

But this guy Tsiankiio is like some weird guy-version of me! At least, according to his interests he is... he's got interests there that I've got too, just haven't bothered putting on my list.

I'm scared....

Okay, so he's got some interests I don't... but that could be a trick, a way to hide the fact that he's trying to steal my soul!!!!!

Or something....


Should I tell him he scares me, or just stalk him?