"The states are not free, under the guise of protecting maternal health or potential life, to intimidate women into continuing pregnancies." -Justice Harry A. Blackmun, Roe v. Wade, 22 January 1973

It would be impossible for us all to share one unifying opinion about abortion, but I hope that in the future everyone can agree that it is a woman's choice and a woman's choice only what she does with her body, and that neither an individual nor a governing body can make that decision for her. If you "would never", then that's great, and I support that. I really do. I don't know if I could go through an abortion, either, and thankfully - because of classroom education and my mother teaching me about how to make safe choices while I was growing up - I've never had to make a choice so difficult. But one woman's "I could never" is not license to say to another woman, "You can't ever, either". We need to support one another in the choices we make, without judgment, without vitriol, but with love and understanding.

I don't believe that a man has the right to force a woman into a decision one way or the other, because carrying a child to term and birthing it is a physical experience he is incapable of performing. This is not to say that men don't necessarily have a place in the abortion debate; I just feel that their opinions tend to be more speculative. Unless you face the very real possibility of pregnancy, I don't think you can know for sure.

I believe in comprehensive sex education. It is not a question of morality; it is about providing young adults with enough information to know how to deal with the world as social creatures, and that not only involves knowing how pregnancy occurs and how to prevent conception, but how to minimise the likelihood of disease. It is as crucial to adult functioning as is knowing how to make a budget, shop at the grocery store, pay bills on time, and how to be tactful and polite to the people around you. If it is not taught at home, and sometimes it isn't, I think there is definitely a space for it in school curriculum (and I believe learning how to manage money should be taught in high school, too). An abstinence-only program creates problems where there could be awareness and solutions. Encouraging a teenager to sign a vow of chastity and then turning them loose into a world full of highly-sexualised images (mostly of women, but reforming this world into one which does not demean and objectify women is another huge undertaking altogether) just doesn't work. Teaching them about preventing disease, contraception, and showing footage of childbirth grounds them in reality, or at least gives them a place to start navigating the choppy waters of human sexuality.

I also think that if people are going to be loud and proud about being pro-life, then they might consider being more supportive of single mothers. You cannot proclaim the sanctity of human life in one breath and then direct epithets to women who either choose to parent alone or are not given that choice, with the other. I find it interesting that the judgment and blame for single motherhood, in most cases, falls soley on the woman; what of the man? I know a very bright young teenager - a minor - who is now about five months pregnant to a boy who is most definitely not a minor. I would not call him a man, because he cannot and will not step up to his responsibility. He gets off relatively scot-free, despite impregnating not one but two girls (his other baby is due in February), with no-one calling him out, or whispering behind his back that he must be a whore. He does not have to live with rumour and slander and changing diapers and not getting a full night's sleep for upwards of two years. He was caught having sex with yet another girl just in the past month. He hasn't got it into his head that there are repercussions, nor does he know anything about respecting a woman, nor does he seem to know about using protection. The girl in question also had responsibility, but she never learnt about it in school, and was rebelling against her mother by going out with this boy in the first place (so one might wonder if she would have listened anyway). A more academic study of sex ed, as would be presented in school, stands a far better chance of "taking" than does the more informal "birds and bees" talk so many teens have with their parents. It also eliminates the personal feelings of embarrassment that a teenager, in the throes of serious hormonal upheaval and brain/body development, might have when even thinking about asking his or her parents for advice on the matter. I feel very much that unplanned motherhood and abortion rates would decline if religious fervour were seperated from study and teenagers were allowed to learn about human sexuality in schools.

It is so hard to gather my thoughts on this matter without being longwinded or drifting off my point. I just wanted to write about why I'm pro-choice and pro-education on this very imporant anniversary, one which I hope can be observed for a long time to come instead of being thrown out with the trash, as I believe our current administration would like it to be.

P.S.: Mr. Bush, you can't declare this day "Sanctity of Human Life Day" if your political track record regarding the death penalty, erroneous wars, and not giving one iota of care to marginalized citizens (veterans, working-class, lower-class, poverty-level, single mothers - the list goes on) is to be believed. Good day, sir.

I flove the Carlton Dance. And quite possibly, I flove you, too.

"i just want to crawl into a hole and not deals. right, toki?"

Happy birthday, dearest Erica. I hope it is a wonderful, lovely day filled with glitter and sparkles :)

So now the Shuffle is even teenier, has a clip on it, holds 1 gig, and is $79? Effin' figures!

Even when I go for the lowest rent iPod available I still get screwed by the forward march of technological genius. Sigh.

BEST. CARTOON. EVER. MADE.

Equal rights for zombies!

Happy birthday to the incredibly awesome thelovehater. I hope your day is filled with fashion and fabulosity and that you have a wonderful cake - you deserve it! ♥

Found via bias_cut: ( myheritage.com celebrity-lookalike collage under cut )

Things like that are so fun. I'm glad the myheritage.com site has the cute collage option now!

Can I have a holiday, please?

Actually, we do have a trip on the agenda, as long as we buy tickets in time - we're going to do Gigantour again. They have an Oklahoma City date and this one will be an actual outdoor gig instead of cramming it all into Gwinnett Arena as was the Atlanta date last year. I'm quite looking forward to Arch Enemy, mostly because you don't really find much estrogen in or around death metal.

But, as awesome as Gigantour will be, it's not exactly a peaceful relaxing getaway of any sort. (I'm definitely bringing earplugs this year. In fact, I might bring a mass quantity of them and hand them out to fellow wussy-concert-goers.) I don't know what I want to do or where I'd like to go. I'd just like to not think about the world or work or the creeping futility of depression that simmers away gently in the back of my mind. If money were absolutely no object I'd like to catch the next few August dates for Jamiroquai. That'd be nice, but I'm not flying to Europe* without at least a frigging book to pass the time!

I haven't drawn in two days. I feel kind of hollow.

Well, back to being a pointless automaton. I have to be at work in less than seven hours. Yippee!

*hypothetically, as I don't have the money to even fly domestically

Because hand-washing is like, my least-favourite chore (and I just spent a good hour cleaning toilets, even including the use of a used - and never to be used again - toothbrush), the bra ball looks fantastic.

Enough procrastinating, I have more mould to conquer. Au revoir! ♥

now I ded from cute. FERRETS! IN A HEART SHAPE! I'm going to keel over from the adorability.

[click to see larger version, as always]


In other news, we saw "An Inconvenient Truth" tonight. I wish it could stay in theatres longer. I wish more people cared. I wish I could help spur more people into trying to make a difference. The whole thing makes me hopeful and heartsick at the same time. Sigh.

...or running out of Jose Cuervo, but I stopped crying about that hours ago.

Anyway, I discovered that although Boodie (cat #1) is mostly a sloth and will lay very still for very long periods of time, if I sing the chorus of "Loving You" by Minnie Riperton, she will get up and start circling around and bump her head into me and lick my hand. I'm not sure if she's trying to comfort me because she thinks the falsetto is actually a cry of pain, or if she just really, really likes Minnie Riperton and is trying to get me to buy a greatest hits album.

I have to be up in five hours or so to go to work. The NO SLEEP EXPRESS TRAIN is about to board. I will say that it generally helps the work day go a little faster if I'm in a state of sleepless wonkiness, though I apologise more because I'm more likely to accidentally throw things at people... packs of cigarettes, credit cards, handfuls of change. *bonk* "Oops, sorry about that..."

I think I'm going to draw s'more and try to take a nap on the comfiest of sleeping spaces, the livingroom floor.

♥

Poll #770719 Two shiny things enter... one shiny thing leaves.
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 20

Glitter or Sparkle? (just go with your instinct)

1. Last night we were watching one of those "To Catch a Predator" shows on MSNBC. I can't help it, we get stuck on them whenever they're on (wasted an hour or two on a couple while we were in Denver in February, too). Obviously it's not awesome when creepy guys specifically set out to have sex with underage girls, but, one of the chat decoys from Perverted Justice used the username "snakesonagirl" in one of the trapper-chat things. Heh. Cracked me up big time.

2. On that note, we saw a trailer for "Snakes on a Plane" today. It started off with a bunch of text about how all the movies this summer will have superheroes and action and pirates and blah blah blah, but none but one will have... SNAKES ON A PLANE! Faaaaaaaaantastic.

That's about it. I'm thinking of posting some more drawings as I managed to put my scanner to good use yesterday and got a bunch of stuff out of my sketchbook and onto the computer. If you're sick of art and don't like mermaids I promise I won't be offended if you turn away during the next few posts.

i dream of bacon Drawn while waiting for a BLT sandwich at Jimmy John's. I should note they don't heat the bacon there (or at least not at that particular JJ's). It was kind of disappointing, but still baconlicious.

minkey boodle & boodie cuddling One time we came home from somewhere and the babies were on the couch. Usually Boodie growls and fusses when Minkey comes anywhere near her, but she's started to come around on the cleaning issue (usually she has to employ a rag on a stick; now Minkey Boodle sort of sticks to her like a suckerfish and helps her get all those hard to reach places, like the back of her neck). They can be found like this quite often these days, well, until Boodie starts growling and then runs away to be alone.

Bold all of the following TV shows which you’ve ever seen 3 or more episodes of in your lifetime. If you want, add up to 3 additional shows (keep the list in alphabetical order).

( all the shows I'll cop to watching, under the cut! )

Aside: Shana, you've never seen any/at least three episodes of "Northern Exposure"?! How? It was so awesome..!

Happiest of all happies to dearest Sarah, aka cranberrysoda. A dear friend, a wonderful confidant, and my co-conspirator in all things arty and procrastinatey. Love you bunches and I hope you have a fantastic day with a wonderful cake to top it all off :) ♥

...grumpy, tired, lazy, annoying, annoyed, clueless, ditzy, discaculate, uninspired, disgruntled, moody, torked off, and to finish the list, hygenically clean but feel physically dirty (probably because a stranger touched my hair).

i've been trying to write this essay/soapbox rant/whatever but it's not gelling. i wish i could remember how to write coherently. the crux of the essay is about my hair colour and its transformation into this weird... thing. previously friendly people have become distant, people i wouldn't expect to talk to me have been talking to me, i've actually become a lot better - in just a month - at gracefully accepting a compliment. it's this whole mess of stuff that i want to get down, but i haven't given myself much practice in actually writing essay-style in the last few years, so it's frustrating. anyway. i'm dumb.

today i sold a lady two cans of red bull and a can of mountain dew. she held the soft drink and gave a can of red bull each to her two kids who looked like they were under six years old. i'm not even sure how to assess this.

i think i'm going to have a shower and try to undo the damage of being touched by skeevy strangers.

♥

How do my interests seem to come together like this? I'm a bit of a Mary Engelbreit enthusiast; and I've been thinking of buying a crockpot/slow cooker. Hence, this item has my name all freaking over it. How does that happen? Also, where do I find a spare $60.00 for an item I'm pretty sure I don't actually need right now, but want to grab up as soon as possible so I can a) hug it, b) squeeze it, c) love it, d) call it George, and e) make a delicious beef stew?

I'm lightly toasted. Still trying to work out the proportion of ice to mix & tequila - dang that tricky new blender that actually crushes ice to a pulp! - but I'll get it eventually. Meanwhile, cranberry juice does add a lovely new dimension to an old favourite.

Bleaching out the roots
Originally uploaded by sammygirl.

Bleaching by myself was a somewhat anxiety-inducing experience. The moment my hair started getting all crackly I wondered if I was going to have to just chop it all off. But it worked, and then I used toner (unlike last time) to take out the yellow/brassy colour leftover. I almost left it like this until Nathan pointed out the root growth would look really obvious, heh.

Manic Panic Cotton Candy Pink & SPX Virgin Rose
Originally uploaded by sammygirl.

And then I used the lighter pink on top and Virgin Rose on the back. It looks a lot more vibrant in person!

I also cut my hair tonight. I just chopped off some length from my ponytail and snipped some of the front to make it even. I suppose I could go get a 'real' haircut, but I'd rather spend my money on books and at Sally Beauty Supply (where I now have a discount card thingy... ha).

First of all, I want these, because if bacon makes everything better, surely wrapping its likeness around my cut or injured finger would boost healing by at least 50%.

Second, I want to make my fridge look like oranges! (Thanks to sarahparah for that find.)

Third, I'm working on a micro-"comic" format entry on my thoughts on meals I have loved, inspired by Sarahparah, as it happens. She asked what my favourite meal was and I really had to think about it because for a very long time my relationship with food has been completely warped. I've come up with a few things, though, and I'll post it as soon as it's done.

Fourth, we watched "Hostel" last night. We had to take anxiety breaks (okay, they were for me). I watched some parts through the ruffle on my pillow, and I was completely swaddled in blankets. rockgeisha, your future husband is a sicko! But, he's also very cute and very funny (we just started watching the accompanying documentaries). So I'll give him a pass for the sickness.

Fifth, I dreamed last night that I was having a tea party with Sara (inherbarefeet) and Leesa (ex- lovelylight). It was really sweet dream, and I reckon it would be really fun to do that some day. *shakes fist at vast amounts of distance*

Sixth, ♥

(Seventh, my cable company was being a douchebag last night so I don't know if this posted twice, but I had to update it after I woke up anyway.)

Fun things from the past week:

- on one of my breaks at work the manager from the pizza joint came over while I was eating dinner and reading "Entertainment Weekly" and asked if I was reading "that women's lib magazine again ", and I wondered for a brief moment whether I'd been transported back to the '70s, because isn't that the last time someone used the phrase "women's lib" sincerely?

- my in-laws loved my hair (or at least pretended really convincingly that it wasn't hideous), which gave me a huge boost of confidence re: walking around in public with a pink head, and I'm already planning my next colour, though I want to boost the hot pinkness some more before I go trying Virgin Rose.

- also, my roots have started to show in a huge way. Apparently I have very fast-growing hair.

- I found "Children's March: Over the Hills and Far Away" by Percy Aldridge Grainger on iTunes. I'm really stoked, because I seriously, seriously love that piece. Youth band might have twisted me a little bit. I also bought "Shepherd's Hey".

- in other iTunes news, I got "Faster Kill Pussycat" by Oakenfold feat. Brittany Murphy. It's pretty great, though the remix I wanted to get is "EP only", which quite frankly sucks and undermines the whole bloody point of iTunes, which is people shouldn't have to buy a whole album if they only enjoy one or two songs, but whatever.

- "X-Men: The Last Stand" was totally awesome, though I went in without having read any reviews or spoilers so that could be why I liked it so much. I especially enjoyed Kelsey Grammer, the man is freaking awesome. I love listening to him talk.

- I'm trying to decide whether to go out and forage for dinner or buy a bottle of Scotch. Scotchy scotchy scotch. Probably dinner, though.

   

	Before
( after )

Yeah, I can't quite believe I finally did it, either. Nathan actually said he wasn't sure I'd go through with it!
I look slightly ridiculous but overall I'm pleased. ♥

Dear Stomach Bugs/Food Poisoning/Generic Gastric Distress,

Whichever one of you is responsible for the sickness of the past week, please go away. I'm sick of feeling like crap and vomiting when there is nothing left to vomit is truly one of life's most unbearable experiences.

Seriously considering buying stock in Gatorade,
sammy

Dear Arby's Roast Beef Sandwiches,

You can stay, but the aforementioned stomach bugs/whatever mightn't really care for your presence, no matter how tasty, so tread lightly in there.

Yum,
sammy

Dear Work Management,

When we order every single flavour of Gatorade, and plenty of other beverages and cold items, please don't go ahead and double the order. I've worked tirelessly to make sure there's room in the cooler for us to move around and share space with the adjoining pizza place, and also keep our things organised, but this is just bullshit. I have no place to put my products and then the other vendors come in and further contribute to the mess because, hey! If it looks like a fridge exploded in there, why should they pay attention to my organisation efforts?

Have you guys even worked here before?
sammy

Dear Various Vendors,

If there is already a case of something, say fruit juice or soft drink or whatever, open on the shelf in what looks like a nice, organised fashion, all ready to be put on the shelf when there's an opening? Don't bring in and open a brand new case. It throws me off, screws up our organisation, and puts product out of date. Also, don't precariously stack full boxes/crates of stuff on top of half-full boxes/crates. It's dangerous and bloody annoying.

This is my cooler, you just deliver to it,
sammy

File under boring, but that's pretty much my week. Although we did get "Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy" on DVD for ten bucks at Target, and my boss is awesome and let me go home early today so I could take a nap, so there's that.

♥

I had this massively elaborate nightmare that was more like a horror movie than a subconscious barrage of symbolism and guys insisting that they wear the cheese, the cheese doesn't wear them. I'm thinking of trying to get it down in story form but I'm also kind of lazy and I'd rather go out and eat a roast beef sandwich. The gist is that myself and a bunch of my high school friends - all of driving age at this point, but apparently still living with our parents - went to what was supposed to be an old abandoned liquor store at night, for shits and giggles. Turned out some people lived there, and they were having a party, so they invited us in. They fixed us alcoholic drinks made in Gatorade bottles, and while we were all sitting out at a table drinking, one of the girls poured some out in her hand and noticed a powder settled at the bottom - some sort of drug. I immediately started feeling really weird, and while I still had my wits about me suggested we should try leaving. We got the three guys who hadn't partaken in drinks to take care of the car keys and all tried to get into groups to leave, but all of our cars had been disabled in some way. One was on fire, the other had people in it, and mine had these spiky things embedded in the tires. We were corralled back into the house and basically kept hostage, where the people there used us as psychological playthings... but there was also an element of mysticism and some paranormal things going on, too. It was quite strange.

Now I think I'll go about seeking that roast beef sandwich.

Albino squirrel!!!11!!

sugarandbrine, too?

This isn't a late birthday shoutout to the lovely and glittery Mallory - nope. It's just my special way of extending the birthday joy beyond the generally accepted 24-hour window in which birthday greetings are generally bestowed. Because Mal is so awesome she really should get a two-day birthday!

Hope it was a great one, sweetie..! I hope to actually send the card I got you sometime in the next month :P

♥♥♥

I got a bright blue dot in the mail this weekend. Thanks bunches, rockgeisha! ♥

GIANT BUNNY ALERT.

(Domokun is alarmed by the size of this animal.)

Book stuff:

Last book I finished: "Delta Style" by Delta Burke. Autobiography (with co-writer), 1998. Half autobiography, half style manual (actually very interesting; I don't really care about makeup or hair, but I did glean some interesting tips about hairstyling and flattering clothes). RIFE with pictures, which I love in a celebrity autobio. Delta has been gorgeous from the time she was born to the current day, no matter her weight, size, whathaveyou. She's just stunning. One of my favourite pictures of her in the book was one taken of her on a camping trip sans makeup - it was totally cute!

Currently reading: "The Childless Revolution: What It Means To Be Childless Today" by Madelyn Cain. The author (a mother of one) touches on the different kinds of childlessness - voluntary and involuntary, and has compiled the stories of childless/childfree women to try and break down the walls that still exist between "normal" societal expectations and perceptions (that at some point or another, all women will want to give into a so-called maternal urge; women who choose not to have children are "selfish") and the reality of women today. It's an interesting and refreshing read, so far; I'm only about halfway through.

TV stuff: LJ-cut for spoilage, discussion of "Degrassi: TNG" follows:

( Whatever it takes... I know I can make it through! )

Rad Customer Stuff:

I have this one customer who comes in for flavoured Camel cigarettes and other sundries sometimes, and today when he came in he was wearing a shirt that said, "Is your name summer, because you're hot!" I told him it was a cute shirt, and he remarked that it was so trashy that it became good again. I said, "That's why I love "Glitter", with Mariah Carey," and he said, "Or "Showgirls"!" and I exclaimed, "EXACTLY!" I never expect to find that kind of attitude re: trashy things and so-bad-they're-awesome films in a natural setting, outside the internet. Not that this isn't a natural setting for me, because it totally is. But you know how it is. You'll be watching a movie in the theatre and laugh at something completely inappropriate because you know your friends on LJ/messageboards will find the same inappropriate things funny, and everyone around you will glare and huff and you'll feel like an idiot until you get home and post for a bit and find out you're not alone. Wonky analogy, but there you go.

Totally Un-Rad Customer Stuff:

The guy who came in and asked me what we at the store thought about all this immigration stuff and I looked at him and went, "Well, I don't know, I'm an immigrant" and he looked slightly disgusted and went, "Yeah, but you're not one of THEM", and proceeded to go on a nasty, bigoted tear about Mexicans, until I wanted to throw his shit at him and tell him to get the hell out of my store. I merely blinked a lot and stared at him and went "uh huh" and "okay" until he left.

"Say What?" Stuff:

When I was reading "The Childless Revolution..." at work yesterday, Gidget - one of the pizza-place manager's daughters - came over to say hi, and she asked about the book, and I told her I found the title in a magazine I read, "Bitch", the most recent copy of which I had in my bag. So I gave her the mag to have a look at, and she looked at the cover and read aloud, "Feminist response to pop culture", at which point she stared at me and said, "Wait, you're a feminist?" and I'm like, "Uh, yeah, so?" And then she goes, "What is a feminist, anyway?" and I tried to give the best condensed version of this essay that I could. She seemed to accept that and wandered away with the magazine. A bit later I saw her mother take a gander at the mag also, and then I heard an exclamation of "ew, gross!" which I took to mean that she'd seen either a) an ad for Glad Rags or b) an ad for a dildo shop, and later when Gidget returned the magazine she said, "That was scary", and told me that when her mother saw "this ad, and this ad, and then this one", she'd said that she'd never be buying the magazine for her. I explained that even though I know not everyone likes the advertisers in the magazines - even sometimes prudey old me is a bit shocked - that at least the whole thing isn't like "Cosmopolitan" - where there's ads for makeup and bettering the self through outside appearances, and articles about sex that focus on relationships or soley on pleasuring men, because sometimes women aren't always in relationships and need to know how to take care of themselves, too, if they want. (I think I put it a little less bluntly, because I don't want to piss off anyone's mother!) Gidget seemed to take that bit of thought on board. I hope I'm putting up a good front for feminism. Because I see this country kind of winding backwards in that regard, and the current generation of teenage girls need to stay educated, and be given the guidance to learn for themselves and think for themselves.

</soapbox>

Argh, I have to be at work in three and a half hours. Better get a nap. Night! ♥

Et tu, letterbox?

Did everyone just ignore my princessy decree about notification before journal deletion? Okay, I jest, I jest.

But I hope you're okay, Lindseypants.

(* or only half-way crazy, and maybe a little sad)

Due to our recent viewing of the new "Doctor Who", I felt compelled to tell Nathan about how since I was a kid I've had the "Doctor Who" theme and "Rock and Roll Part II" by Gary Glitter somehow inextricably linked in my head, to where if I hear the latter my brain is adding the following lyrics: "Doctor Whoooo-ooo, hey! The Tardis". It took me about five minutes of hysterical laughter to try and explain it to him, at which point he was all, "Wow... crazy", and I'm like, "I don't KNOW why!"

So, after stomping away in a half-hearted huff because I thought he was laughing at me, I consulted Google and found this and this (scroll down to the bottom). As soon as I read "like a mash-up of the "Doctor Who" theme and "Rock and Roll Part II" and "charted highly in Australia" and "1988", I had my light-bulb-zing-AHA moment and yelled, "JUSTIFIED!"

In the spirit of confession, I think it only appropriate to add that I am a giant nerd. In case you didn't know. I don't want anyone to miss out on it.

Meme of words starting with K coming as soon as I find five more words that start with K!

♥ bears




(click to enlarge)

♥ Ginger People brand Natural Sushi Ginger. OMIGOD YUM, seriously. It is so great. I can't believe I found it in a local supermarket and not in the health food co-op.

♥ The way the trees have seemingly come to life in full green bloom, swishing beautifully in the warm summery breeze. It's as though they swept away winter in the blink of an eye, even whisking away the white spring blossoms in what seemed like a matter of hours.

♥ Jelly Belly jelly beans (if forced - forced - to pick a favourite flavour, I'd say the buttered popcorn ones are my fave)

♥ Being defended and backed up by my boss in the face of a screaming, cussing, jackhole customer

♥ ...and as far as work goes generally: bagging ice, stocking drinks, and making the cooler look nice and pretty

♥ "Degrassi: The Next Generation" (and subsequently getting so sucked into an episode that I uttered a completely involuntary "OH NO HE DIDN'T" in a particularly wrenching scene)

♥ "Futurama"

♥ iTunes, and having some credit left over from my birthday gift card

And I'm going to make it her version, too - post a picture of something (anything as long as it's not gross*) in your comment and then...

1. I'll respond with something I like about you.
2. I'll tell you what song/movie reminds me of you.
3. I'll name something we should do together.
4. I'll say something that only makes sense to you and me (or just me).
5. I'll tell you my first/clearest memory of you.
6. I'll leave you a quote that is somehow appropriate to you.
7. I'll ask you something that I've always wondered about you, if I have such a thought.
8. If I do this for you, please post this on your journal so you can do the same for other people.

*okay, this bit is mine!

Google does not want to co-operate right now, otherwise I'd be posting another picture of a slumpy polar bear (probably much to the delight of baggylettuce!). I'm not really in a funk, per se, I'm just kind of tired and slumpy and in a wanna-hibernate kind of mood. A friend asked me tonight, "Are you depressed, or what? 'Cos you look like it". Nah... I'm just lazy. I want to read and eat candy. For a living. Is it so much to ask?!

Speaking of reading, here's what I'm currently into: I just finished Cybill Shepherd's autobiography, "Cybill Disobedience", for about the third time. There's something I love about it that I really can't put into words. I just enjoy her stories and experiences in showbiz and the behind-the-scenes trainwreck that eventually saw the end of her namesake sitcom. (A sitcom I LOVED and won't apologise for loving!)

Right now I'm reading "Feminist Chauvinist Pigs: Women and the Rise of Raunch Culture" by Ariel Levy. It is really, truly fascinating. It articulates some of the thoughts I've been trying to put together about how '60s/'70s feminism split into so many paths, and how we've somehow arrived at a dichotomy where the right-wing, anti sex-education element seems to rule this country yet "Girls Gone Wild" is the new aspiration for a lot of young girls. I'll probably have it finished by the time I go to bed tonight. I can't put it down.

The library also provided me with a book about how to survive as a starving artist (half advice, half humour), one about the rise of Google, and two movies - "Rain Man" and "Pretty Woman", the former because I've never seen it all the way through (but I know it's one for the Tom Cruise Tantrum Collection) and the latter because I last saw it when I was ten and was reminded of it while re-reading "Screening Party" by Dennis Hensley.

And finally...

slumpy polar bear I'm in a slumpy polar bear kind of mood.

Happy Easter, and may your Cadbury creme eggs not melt and your chocolate bunnies be tasty. Amen.

Actually, for the first time in about six years I actually did celebrate Easter in a proper Christian-themed way, rather than just as a pagan pigout on jellybeans (seriously, American friends, what's up with the jellybean thing? Is it because they're vaguely egg-shaped?). I went to my first Easter Mass last night, and it was pretty awesome. My mom-in-law teaches RCIA classes (Rite of Catholic Initiation for Adults) and my father-in-law was sponsoring a chap who had already been baptised in another Christian church but wanted to convert, so apart from Easter being pretty much the apex of the Christian calendar anyway, it was extra special for them.

Highlights for me included the lighting of candles from the Easter candle, which had been lit by the perpetual flame; the incense; being flecked with holy water; watching the baptisms (the first time I've seen non-immersion baptism); learning about how a new Catholic chooses his or her saint name; and participating in the communion - not actually receiving communion, not being Catholic and all, but being blessed in its place. That was pretty neat.

I'm still not feeling that spiritual "thing", but I definitely appreciate a solemn ritual now and then.

In other news, since I found out that the Rosetta Stone dynamic immersion language learning system is so expensive, I'm cribbing what I can from their demo on the site, heh. I want to learn a bit of latin American Spanish, since I do live in an area where having that second language would be handy (my skills so far are limited to "hola", "gracias", and "por favor"). Not that I think being able to say "el nino esta saltando" ("the boy is jumping") or "el hombre y la mujer estan caminando" ("the man and the woman are walking")* is going to be a great help, but every little bit makes my language skills *that* much more interesting.

And to conclude, both WalMarts I went to tonight were either completely out or only had one box left of Edy's Whole Fruit bars, and that makes me slightly grumpy.

* fully without proper accents since I don't know how to do that yet!

David Blaine is NOT a magician, he's a famewhore. Get it right, news folk. GOD.

I really ought to have a shower and go to bed. I have to be up at 9-ish. Guh.

♥

I hope you have a fantastic cake, get to see a wonderful movie, and perhaps buy the best pair of shoes ever made! Much love! ♥

Just a two simple requests I'm sure we'd all like to make every once in a while...

#1. If you're going to delete your journal, say something first. Some people get sad when they look at their profile and see names with a strike through them, or at least confused.

#2. If you're going to switch journals, say something first. Sometimes people clear their friends lists out of names with strikes through them, only to not know at a later date that a strikethrough'd journal has been resurrected, and then find out months later that they are out of the loop!

That's really about it. Number #2 has happened to me recently and I'm kind of all, how am I supposed to know that someone's going to dump their current LJ and bring a particular LJ account back? It's sort of like if someone's been back in town for a while but I didn't know about it and so I couldn't drop by and say hello, so now I feel like a jerk, and self-conscious about tracking them down. If that makes any sense.

Okay, seriously, I'm backing away from the computer now.

As well as making select full episodes of "Degrassi: The Next Generation" available online, The N also has episodes of "O'Grady", which is cool and funny and weird and has from time to time featured voices as diverse and awesome as Amy Poehler, Rachel Dratch, Conan O'Brian, and Rob Corddry (of "The Daily Show"). Stooooooked! <---- that's what I am right now.

Also, I love Livejournal's new icon-maker feature. Noice. It's how I made my "Abby Wilde at 30" icon.

Painting class tonight. I started a portrait of Captain Meow in acrylics. It's a bit tricky getting used to the concept of layering colour, and also going at it without bold outlines, but it's still fun. I took a picture but the batteries in the camera are on their last wheeze, so I'll upload it soon.

In other news, we're planning a summer one-or-two-day trip to Dallas, Texas (for the hell of it), and possibly (cross fingers) a fall trip to Portland, Oregon. I'll bring the booze and a copy of "Showgirls", ladycakes!

Now, do I go to bed or do I stay up and watch episodes of "neat"?

...and 2/3 almost all of it is Canadian!

1. Who got an utterly ace pack of pizza-flavoured Spitz in the mail today? Lucky me! Thanks a zillion, zooby..! I appreciate it. LOADS. ♥

2. Hey negiplease! You guys! Anyone else who might care! DEGRASSI ON DEMAND! Aieeeeee!

3. Apparently some of the stuff Nathan ordered for my b'day didn't arrive on time, and I got the second-to-last installment today: ginger dusting powder, a Glitterbug massage bar and a Love Bug sparkle bar from Lush. It's my first anything from Lush and I'm quite chuffed. I am extremely sparkly right now. Like ridiculously sparkly. It's so awesome. The Love Bug bar is golden and you would think perhaps it might err on the side of tacky, but once you rub it in, there's this lovely, ethereal, glittery glow. I love it. Jury's out on the Glitterbug for a little while yet. (Also, turns out the Lush order was shipped from Vancouver, so we're going 3-for-3 on the Canadian goodness!)

I'd better go and decide if I'm going to be extremely productive with my evening (ice skating + house cleaning), a little bit productive (house cleaning), or slothful (sit on the couch and eat hot pockets while clearing out the queue on the DVR). Decisions, decisions...

Edit: ice skating is out, I checked the rink schedule and they've got a hockey tourney on right now. Drat. Sooooo... I guess I'll find something to clean. I've found that setting incentives works pretty good - last night I couldn't watch Degrassi until I cleaned off the computer desk. Maybe if I clean the fridge and do some dishes I can have a glass of wine. But before you start thinking I'm all swanky... it's wine-in-a-cask. Sometimes getting one's buzz on is a humbling experience.

Coca-Cola Blak: I liked it. Pretty much everyone I work with or around thought it was straight-up nasty, but I thought it had a pleasant, sweet flavour without being overpowering. Not very bitter, like I was expecting. It was more like a combination of Coke and these coffee-flavoured hard-candies I used to eat in high school, though I can't remember the name (vanadamme, you might remember - it seemed like Ammy always had a bag of them with her). It's too expensive to drink every day, but I'd probably pick one up every once in a while.



Dr. Pepper Berries n' Cream: it may have been slightly chilly in hell today, because I drank and enjoyed a Dr. Pepper beverage. I know. Usually I think Dr. Pepper is totally gross, but the berries ('n cream) flavour seemed to pick it up a bit and added a mellow, ice-cream like dimension to it. I'll probably drink it again, as long as it stays on sale at my store.

And that was the week in soft drink. You stay classy, livejournal.

I'm just a tad wee tiny bit belated ;)

Hope you had a lovely day and that you enjoy your sexy, sexy new Nigella measuring bowls. They're so pretty!

♥♥♥