mysid

So, my brother forgot to buy me a Christmas present...

Sat, 29 Dec 2012 01:07:28 GMT

I can't complain; I had a very nice Christmas. We went to church Christmas Eve as my son was singing with a choir in the late-afternoon "Family Service"--that's the one with a Christmas Pageant and in which crying babies are OK--and I got to do a good deed by taking care of the children in the nursery during the 7pm service. (Husband and two kids went to that service to enjoy the music/candlelight while Daughter and I handled the nursery.)

The next morning, the kids let my husband I sleep in. (Truthfully, the teenager would have enjoyed sleeping for a few more hours.) Then my in-laws came over so we could all open gifts together and have brunch. I forgot to put the egg casserole in the oven until we'd almost finished the gifts, but everyone was nice enough not to moan, "I'm so hungry." Then after some down time, we went over to the in-laws' house for Christmas dinner. Everyone had a very pleasant day enjoying each other's company. Plus, everyone gave gifts they'd selected with thought, and the recipients all seemed grateful.

( Christmas Part Two )

Is New Year's Eve here yet?

comments

Video Rec: Top Ten Creationist Arguments

Sun, 16 Dec 2012 15:14:54 GMT

While my family is at church, I'm at home "surfin' the internet" and discovering "must watch videos" like this one from The Thinking Atheist. (Fair warning: It's quite snarky in it's anti-religion commentary, but the evolution vs. creationism points are well presented.)

(And no, I don't spend the time my family is at church actively searching for atheist-themed videos; it's just coincidence--but a good one!)

comments

Veterans' Day

Sun, 11 Nov 2012 15:48:32 GMT

In honor of all who served, a passage from The Charioteer, a novel by Mary Renault, set during WWII:

* * * * *

"Has something happened?"

"Yes," said Alec. "It's Bim. I thought, as we were passing...I wasn't sure if you'd heard."

Ralph said "No." He stared at the glass in his hand, and drank as if it were a routine duty he was absently carrying out. "No, I'd not heard. How was it?"

"Over Calais somewhere. He was seen to hit the ground; he hadn't baled out. There seems no doubt about it."

Ralph didn't speak. It was Bunny who said gently, "Poor old Bim. I ran into him only the other day. It seems like a few hours."

"He had a long life," said Sandy, "as it's going now."

comments

YAY! Thank You, Voters!

Wed, 07 Nov 2012 15:16:37 GMT

I was so nervous last night watching the election results that I actually threw up. No lie. Thank goodness they declared President Obama the winner before I went to bed last night, or I wouldn't have slept a wink. I wanted to do a Snoopy-esque happy dance, but my husband and I have a tacit agreement not to exult too openly when the other's candidate loses.

But I did feel like dancing in the streets, waving a rainbow flag, when I heard that not only did President Obama beat Mittens, but four states, FOUR, either voted in favor of marriage equality or voted against an amendment banning it.*

To quote Debbie in Queer as Folk: “A word of advice, my sweet Emmett - mourn the losses because they are many. But celebrate the victories because they are few.”

For a complete roundup of significant votes, see this entry by gehayi.

*Minnesota voters defeated a ballot measure that would have made marriage discrimination part of their state constitution, and voters in Maine, Maryland, and Washington voted to legalize marriage equality.

comments

"DON'T Remember to Vote Today, Sweetheart!"

Tue, 06 Nov 2012 18:17:43 GMT

It's Election Day here in the USA, and all over the country, people are reminding their friends and loved ones to go vote. At my house, we have a different tradition: My husband and I very carefully mention nothing about the election until after the polls close, each hoping the other will forget to vote. We have never supported the same candidate for president, and we both tend to vote along our different party lines in other elections as well.

He likes to vote on the way to work, and as I don't work on Election Day, I like to go a bit later in the morning when lines are shorter. I saw in the polling book that he'd already voted today, so my hopes--slim as they were--that he'd forget to vote were dashed.

Wouldn't it be nice if Republicans all across the country simply forgot to vote today? Yeah, I don't think it very likely either.

So many people have said that they can't wait until the day after Election Day: no more political ads on TV, no more rebo-calls from politician's campaigns, etc. I'm only looking forward to tomorrow if President Obama wins; my stomach is in knots until then.

comments

Halloween Costume Idea

Mon, 05 Nov 2012 01:53:26 GMT

My teenage daughter went to a costume party tonight. (It was supposed to be last Sunday, but got postponed by the hurricane.) One of the girls went as "God's Gift to Men". She wore a large bow and a gift tag that said, "To: Men, From: God".

comments

Safe, but powerless

Wed, 31 Oct 2012 01:30:54 GMT

We lost power--and the internet--shortly after I made my last post, and we still don't have them back. We're part of a very small, and all residential, power outage, so we're low priority for repair. We've been given estimates to get our power back ranging from this Friday to next Wednesday.

The good news is that we have relatives in the area, and they have power. We relocated this evening, and I once again have internet. Yay!

comments

Common Sense--NOT!

Mon, 29 Oct 2012 15:37:57 GMT

Borrowed with permission from gehayi.

comments

Video: You Don't Own Me

Sat, 27 Oct 2012 18:28:45 GMT

comments

Chick-fil-A is EVIL! Didn't you get the memo?

Sat, 27 Oct 2012 16:20:45 GMT

My daughter plays in the pep band at her high school's football games. (Not enough band-geeks to have a marching band, so they have a small pep band instead.) My husband and I decided to go to last night's game, the second I've attended this year.

I hadn't been there long before I noticed something highly disturbing: People returning from the refreshment stand were carrying food in wrappers with the Chick-fil-A logo. Either the school bought a bunch of Chick-fil-A food and was reselling it, or they had a deal with Chick-fil-A to supply food for the refreshment stand and to split the profits. Either way, Chick-fil-A was making money off our school.

This isn't right, people! Chick-fil-A is evil! They donate corprate profits to anti-gay hate groups! We have gay kids in our school. I'm sure they love seeing their classmates purchasing Chick-fil-A items.

comments

I like Big Bird

Sun, 07 Oct 2012 11:52:49 GMT

My brother, a staunch Republican, knowing that I'm just as staunchly Democrat, said to my twelve year old son, "Try to convince your mom to vote for Romney, would you?"

My son, "I wouldn't do that."

"Why not?"

"Because I like Big Bird."

comments

Bar set low to be "Notable Republican"

Wed, 03 Oct 2012 20:55:44 GMT

True confession time: I'm married to a Republican. Shocking, I know, but he does have some good qualities.

I mention it because today he received a letter from Mitt Romney. I begins, "I am running for President of the United States, and because you are one of America's most notable Republicans, I want to personally let you know why." (Emphasis mine.)

Now what, you may ask, has my husband done to make him so "notable", and in fact "one of America's most notable Republicans"? Well, he's registered Republican, and he almost always votes in primaries and general elections. That's it. He's never held public office, never made political contributions, never even appeared on Fox News. Wow. Way to set the bar high, Mitt.

Does his campaign staff really think that such obvious ass-kissing is really the way to soften someone up before asking for a contribution? That's insulting the intelligence of everyone who got the letter.

Oh, and if you are wondering what Mitt reveals about his reasons for running for Pres, the two he put in bold type are: "I am sick and tired of BIG GOVERNMENT," and "I am running for president to bring true and lasing fiscal discipline to Washington." Since his version of "fiscal discipline" in the private sector was to fire people and ship jobs overseas, I'm not too enthused with the possibility of how he'll do it to the whole country.

comments

A lot of people misuse "alot"

Thu, 06 Sep 2012 01:49:30 GMT

I saw this on eqfe's LJ, but I'm not posting it for the same reason he did. I know there are many on my friends' list who agree with this boy (and his grumpy face):

comments

REC: "Call Me Maybe" Video

Tue, 31 Jul 2012 22:01:17 GMT

Why didn't any of you tell me to watch this?

I've sung along to "Call Me Maybe" on the radio--cute, bouncy, easily forgotten by next summer--but I'd never seen the video. I was in the car with my son, talking about the Olympics, when this song came on the radio. I mentioned that I'd seen that some of the USA athletes had filmed their own video of this song while on the plane to the UK. My son said that he'd seen the official video of the song, and in telling me the plotline told me the surprise ending. Then I HAD to see the video.

You can fast forward to the end to see why I enjoyed it so much, but I strongly recommend that you do NOT fast forward through the lawn mowing portion of the video--not if you enjoy some very nice eye candy of the beefcake variety.

comments

Chicken Marinated in Hatred

Sun, 29 Jul 2012 16:21:36 GMT

So...I've got this Chick-fil-A gift card. (A student gave it to me as an "end of the school year" gift.) I have no temptation to redeem it, because (A) my family and I have never really liked the food, and (B) I don't want to patronize any business that financially supports anti-gay causes. (And no, those aren't listed in order of importance.)

However, if I leave it unredeemed, Chick-fil-A gets to keep the money that my student's mom spent on it, so I kind of want to redeem every penny of it. But as much as I want to do that, I can't even stomach the thought of setting foot in the place.

I thought about mailing it to my sister-in-law as I know she'll have no qualms about eating there, but encouraging her to go seems wrong. I don't go into Philly on a regualar basis, but when I do, I always see panhandlers at certain intersections. Maybe I'll give it to one of them the next time I go. I know it'll get spent, and he/she will get a hot meal.

comments

Really just an excuse to post photo

Sun, 22 Jul 2012 14:02:39 GMT

I was reading the recent spate of "Gay Pride Oreo" (aka "Rainbow Oreo") themed fics in the QaF fandom, and in commenting on one, I was led to double-check the fact that Oreo is made by Nabisco. (It is, and Nabisco is currently owned by Kraft.)

But while on Oreo's Wikipedia page, I learned something new. I'd always believed that Sunshine's Hydrox cookies were copycats of Oreo, but it's actually the other way around. Huh. You learn something new everyday. I guess I was wrong to favor Oreo over the copycat Hydrox.

But until Hydrox gets as cool as this:

I guess I'll stick with Oreo.

comments

She's a Super Cool Exploradora!

Sat, 21 Jul 2012 21:22:12 GMT

If you've ever told Swiper, "Swiper, no swiping!" you MUST watch this "movie trailer" for an action-packed, live-action, Dora the Explorer movie:

It cracked me up, big time.

comments

She's going to Disney World!

Thu, 19 Jul 2012 19:31:14 GMT

I just read about a four-year-old girl, McKenna May, who has spent half her life battling leukemia. The Make-A-Wish Foundation offered to fund her wish, a trip to Disney World. Unfortunately, they can only pay for the trip if both parents agree, and her idiot father didn't. He said that she wasn't "sick enough" to deserve it, despite the fact that she's gone though hell for the past two years and is still not in the clear. (One copy of the story here.)

Rather than tell McKenna what a dickwad her father is, they told her that the trip was just a little "delayed", and then her family and friends started fundraising so McKenna's mom could take her. (McKenna's parents aren't married.)

The story went viral--today apparently--and they've already exceded their fundraising goal. YAY! (The fundraising page is here.)

comments

I like my movies with popcorn; hold the nut bar.

Sat, 14 Jul 2012 00:02:17 GMT

With all the talk in the media lately about a certain actor who shall remain nameless [*cough-TomCruise-cough*], his controlling behavior toward his soon-to-be-ex-~~beard~~-wife, and his whack-job religious beliefs, I reflected on the fact that I've had zero interest in watching any of his movies in a very long time. (I would however, probably watch Risky Business if I should happen across it on cable TV.)

I started to wonder, how much is my disinterest in watching anything recent with that person or several others (John Travolta, Mel Gibson, Jon Voight, Kirk Cameron, etc.) created by my dislike of their beliefs and actions due to those beliefs?

So let me ask you, if you were to learn that an actor had said or done something you considered racist, homophobic, or bigoted in any way, or if you were to learn that he/she belonged to a religion that you have serious issues with because of it's actions, or perhaps he/she was throwing his/her support behind a politician who you felt was serious trouble, to what extent would that effect your desire to watch that actor?

Would you still enjoy watching him/her as an actor, or would you be unable to separate your dislike of the actor from the character he/she plays?

Would you decide whether to go see his/her latest movie based solely on whether it looks like a film you'd enjoy, or would you be reluctant to to go see his/her new movies because you don't want to contribute to box office totals and thus indirectly fund actions that you find bigoted, hateful, or harmful?

Would you be willing to watch old reruns of his/her movies or tv shows, but be unwilling to go see his/her new movies for the reason above?

Presumably, it might all depend upon how severe the harmful/hurtful things he/she has done are. So how bad would he/she have to be before it effects how you regard him/her?

comments

REC: Mytho Logique

Sun, 08 Jul 2012 17:18:39 GMT

Do you like myths? Bawdy humor? Animation? Any two of the above? Go watch the video Mytho Logique. I was especially amused by the inital meeting of Zeus and the poor little satyr protagonist. (I don't think Zeus minded too much.)

It's in French with English subtitles, but I only had to pause and back up once because I missed something on screen while reading the subtitles.

comments

REC: Josh Lanyon books

Thu, 05 Jul 2012 11:47:54 GMT

Thanks to my Nook, and the ability to immediately download the books I want, I just read the entire Adrien English mystery series by Josh Lanyon. Not satisfied, I then read another Josh Lanyon title, Fair Game. I will soon begin reading even more of his books, and I recommend that you read his books too.

I love reading mysteries, and the idea of reading mysteries with a m/m romance was a definite plus, but I wouldn't have read past the first book if I hadn't loved it.

One aspect I loved about the five book Adrien English series is that as much as they are mysteries--and the mysteries do keep you turning the pages--the series is also about the development of Adrien's relationship(s) with his lover(s). (I'm going to try to be vague enough not to spoil anything.)

I recently read somewhere--I can't remember where--that the key to good stories is that the main characters have to change enough to deserve the rewards they get at the end, that they became capable of gaining the rewards at the end. That's what Josh Lanyon does over the course of the series with his protaganist, Adrien English, and with Adrien's lover(s).

( My favorites in the series )

( Fair Game )

( PS )

comments

"this is a good one" I doubt it.

Tue, 26 Jun 2012 14:12:44 GMT

Occasionally, I'll find a good story on FF.net, so I go shifting through the summaries from time to time, looking for something worth clicking on. Today, I found this riveting summary:

"this is a good one i work on it all day"

Care to guess how tempted I was to click on that story? "How do I know I'll loathe thee? Let me count the ways."

comments

Legal Question for UK

Thu, 14 Jun 2012 20:45:47 GMT

I've got a HP plot bunny I'm working on, and I need to know about same-sex parents' adopting in the UK. Specifically, if one person is the biological parent of a child, can his/her same-sex partner adopt that child? (The other biological parent has given up parental rights.) If the answer is yes, then do you know in what year that became legal?

I did try looking it up, and I will gladly research it more later, but I thought someone might already know.

comments

Some parents just deserve a stake in the heart

Wed, 13 Jun 2012 23:40:30 GMT

Is it just me, or is the name "Renesmee"--the name of the vampire baby in Twilight--one of the most hideous names ever bestowed on a baby girl? I think it's supposed to be a mash-up or Renee and Esme, but I can't seem to pronounce it any way other than "Renee-Smee", calling to mind images of a fat pirate in a striped shirt.

Smee

Perhaps Bella gave her daughter such a horrible name in revenge for her difficult birth. After all, having your spine broken during labor and then being bitten and ripped open probably doesn't leave you feeling all warm and fuzzy about your fanged offspring. "Let's name her Renee-Smee! Mwahahaha!"

So, I'm going to give Bella pass on this one. Usually when I hear an atrocious name, I think, "Those parents deserved to be slapped for doing that to their kid." But given the bloody slasher movie scene that was this kid's birth, I think Bella's been punished enough by her own baby.

We should probably still stake Bella for being an insipid, weak, pathetic excuse for a book/movie "heroine". And let's do Edward while we're at it, because, "He's a creepy manipulative controlling overprotective stalker".

comments

Random Trivia for Glee fans

Tue, 12 Jun 2012 14:41:27 GMT

While strolling through the interwebz, I happened to stumble across a trivia page about deer. (Don't ask.) One answer seemed to be of interest to fans of Kurt Hummel on Glee.

Q: Some red deer stags do not grow antlers. What are these non-antlered deer known as?

A: Hummels. Hummels are known to grow larger than normal antlered males. It is thought this is due to their bodies not having to use resources to form the antlers. The reason the antlers do not grow on some red deer is still unknown, but it is suspected that malnutrition during their early life may cause this to occur. The male offspring of Hummels do grow antlers.

So, a hummel is a male deer with a feminine appearance. Coincidence? I think not.

comments