More Random Than Average

Happy Thanksgiving

2009-11-26T11:52:00.000-07:00

I'm thankful for all the wonderful people I've met through my blog and facebook. I hope this day brings you and your family together and that you don't eat so much that you get sick.

Happy No Complaint Day

2009-11-25T13:02:00.002-07:00

For reasons that aren't really all that important, I didn't get to buy the dinner supplies till today and so I am very, very, very thankful that Wal*Mart hired more checkers this year. It was a zoo but there were no lines. Yay!

Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to find a recipe or two that seems to be misplaced. Hope you are having a great day!

Evil in America

2009-11-24T14:32:00.003-07:00

Okay, I'm not one for conspiracy theories but I have seen a number of reputable sources that confirm two things are true.

1. "The Family" is a right wing Christian group that controls a lot of what some of the top republican senators think and do and also seems to cover up for them when they screw up. I have also heard that they fund a lot of trips by US politicians to African countries.

2. There is a law in Uganda in the process of being passed that would put convicted homosexuals to death.

This last point I'm not positive about but seems to be true.

3. "The Family" has something to do with the Ugandan Law.

I first heard about this on Fresh Air, and I'm having a hard time confirming the last fact so let me know if you have any information about that. I sincerely try to see conservative perspectives on most issues, but this is just plain evil.

Silly Drugs

2009-11-22T17:52:00.002-07:00

We don't have regular television but we do watch TV on the computer and there are commercials. One of them that I've seen a few too many times is for a prescription drug to make your eyelashes thicker. Never mind fake lashes or mascara, you can pop a pill to give you longer, thicker lashes. Am I the only one who thinks this is insane? One of the side affect listed in the commercial is permanent browning of the iris, so it could solve the pesky problem of me having blue eyes too.

As long as we're taking prescription drugs for cosmetic problems, here are a few I would like to see.

1. A freckler. I would like to have more freckles without risking skin cancer.

2. An anti-calorie pill. "Take two of these with your cheesecake and don't worry about it."

3. A pill to get rid of those white spots on your nails that are supposed to have something to do with calcium deficiency even though your nails are made of protein.

5. A pill to get rid of leg hair.

6. A pill to cause my hair (on my head) to grow exactly however long I want it. For instance, two inches would work about right for me.

7. A pill to give me cool cat-shaped pupils. It would probably increase my night vision too.

8. A hair color pill. I'm afraid I'm slowly going gray. I'd rather not. Maybe I could slowly go pink or blue (not old lady blue.. more of a navy). Nobody would notice till one day Jasmine would look up and say, "I didn't know your hair is purple." That would be fun.

9. How about a pill to turn my fingernails shiny red without actually having to polish them?

10. A pill to make my skull magnetic. I could stick my keys to my head and then I'd never loose them.

Let me know when you see a commercial for one of these. They probably won't be covered by our new health care plans, but that's okay. I would save up if it meant never shaving my legs again.

Sarah Palin

2009-11-20T21:26:00.003-07:00

Another worthless post. A guy on NPR said that mentioning her name would drive up my site stats. I don't really keep track of my site stats here though... so it doesn't really matter too much.

I will try to post something worthwhile tomorrow. And definitely get around to blogs I've been missing. I've been in a bit of a funk but I am trying to pull myself out of it.

I should probably post something

2009-11-19T10:16:00.003-07:00

I mean, what's the point of having a blog if you don't post to it? So, in that spirit, here are ten links to things I like, in order of random.

1. Comedy Central

2. A webcomic

3. another webcomic

4. LOL cats

5. Hulu

6. A blog

7. Another webcomic

8. Deviant Art

9. Comic Fury

10. Colbert on Comedy Central

Okay then.

Breast Cancer Conundrum

2009-11-16T17:50:00.003-07:00

Have you heard the news? The Preventative Care Task Force says that you don't need mammograms till age 50 and that self exams are a waste of time. Whew! That's a doozy of a recommendation there. That's the kind of thing that causes the public to heave a collective sigh and say, "scientists are idiots that can't make up their minds".

Here's the problem from my perspective. The scientists are looking at the big picture. I mean the really big picture. They are looking at huge groups of people statistically. For my money, a false positive is way better than a non-discovered cancer. On an individual level, for me and the women I care about, I think a self exam and a mammogram is a better bet.

The minuscule bit of improvement in survivorship is worth it. After all, death is pretty permanent.

NPR article

Garlic Soup

2009-11-15T13:10:00.003-07:00

This is my new favorite thing to cook when I'm not feeling well. I've made it several times now and it always turns out yummy. Jasmine likes it better than my homemade chicken soup because it doesn't have carrots, celery, or onions in it. Garlic is supposed to have antiviral and anti bacterial properties. I have no idea if that's true or not, but I feel better after a bowl of this.

Ingredients

One head of garlic, separated into cloves, peeled, and mushed up however is easiest.

3 cups of water

2 T. Olive Oil (Extra virgin is best. Olive oil has a chemical in it that's suposed to work like ibuprofen)

salt & pepper

Feta Cheese (about 4 oz., or to taste)

2 cups of plain yogurt

2 eggs

Combine the oil, water, salt & pepper, and garlic in a saucepan and bring to a boil. Let it simmer for about five minutes. Remove from heat. Add Feta and yogurt and stir well. Then return it to the heat but don't let it boil. Beat the eggs in a separate bowl. Add some of the hot soup to the eggs and mix well then slowly pour the eggs into the soup while stirring. Heat gently for a few more minutes and serve it up with some crusty bread to dip in it.

Note:
Feta is kind of expensive and you could probably make this without it, but since the meal doesn't have any meat I feel like the overall price is reasonable... especially of you bake your own yummy bread to go with it or get some nice markdown bread. Bread doesn't have to be super fresh to taste nice dunked in soup. If you try this, let me know how it worked out for you.

Happy Saturday

2009-11-14T09:40:00.003-07:00

I have a cold. It's not so bad that I'm uncomfortable sitting at the computer or anything, but it is bad enough that all I really feel like doing is whining about it. I got myself some library books and some wellness tea and I figured I would convalesce today but the books I picked out aren't so good. See? I'm just unpardonably whiny.

Veteran's Day

2009-11-11T08:15:00.001-07:00

Thank you veterans, for risking and sometimes losing your lives on the battlefield to protect the country I love and my freedom.

Health Care

2009-11-09T08:39:00.001-07:00

Dear Congresspersons,

Stop the bickering. Ignore the vocal minority, and do something.

Love,

Marilyn

Sparkly Pink Ninja

2009-11-08T12:06:00.004-07:00

'Cause ninjas are cool and sparkles are shiny... but really, I wanted to try drawing Anime. It's something I never did before. If you want to, you can visit her at my deviant art thingum. Even if you hate her, deviant art is a cool place to see the work of very talented artists (not just Anime but all kinds of stuff).

Saturday Randomness

2009-11-07T13:32:00.004-07:00

It's a lot harder for me to write a poem every day than I thought it would be- especially to a prompt. I've always written poetry late at night, right before I go to bed. My brain seems to want to run in circles then so it's a good time to just let it... sometimes, though, I look at that prompt and nothing comes to mind. I can usually write what I consider to be a decent poem that needs a lot of revision about then, but I may have to change the way I go about things if I want to write to a prompt.

***

I cannot make my voice sound masculine. When I try, even with the help of audacity, I end up with a voice that sounds suspiciously like a gay man. Since I am working on a project that is likely to be considered offensive, that's a problem. I think it's time to just roll with it and hope that nobody minds too much about the voice. Hopefully, the content will distract from the delivery.

***

We are living in the most mind boggling age in all of history. There are so many opportunities for any average person to create something wonderful without even spending any money on it, that it's hard to fathom. Granted, it's harder to be seen in the crowd, but the opportunity is amazing.

Fort Hood on Peace Day

2009-11-06T13:35:00.004-07:00

I just want to offer my condolences to the people who were killed and wounded in the Fort Hood shooting and to their families. It saddens me to hear of all the recent shootings all over the world. Just this morning I heard of two other shootings, one in Japan and one in Russia. I know peace is possible. It just feels very unlikely.

Dona Nobis Pacem

2009-11-05T00:01:00.002-07:00

There will be lots of words of wisdom in the blogosphere today, both original and quoted. All I really have to offer is my globe and good thoughts... and this animated video I prepared for the occasion. It's about three minutes long and I thank you in advance for watching it. This is my first attempt at animation. I created it using artwork I made in Gimp and animated it using Creatoon. Please visit the musician's website www.joyscream.com if you enjoy the music. This song is available as a free mp3 download there. Of course, you should also visit Mimi at mimiwrites.blogspot.com because she is the genius behind the BlogBlast for peace.

I'm baaack

2009-11-03T16:02:00.003-07:00

Just a couple more days till the Blogblast for Peace!

***

Instead of NaNo, seeing as how I lost three days, I'm thinking of doing this. And anyway, even if I never do anything with all the poems I write, it will be fun. Chapbook Challenge

***

My new motto is, "lets try something new". After all, what I've already done didn't quite work out the way I had hoped. Who knows what might happen if I do new and different things. A sales presentation I heard once said that if you want to increase your success rate you need to increase your failure rate. Nobody cares how many times you fell down. They only care about the times it all came together and you crossed the finish line.

Manic Friday

2009-10-30T09:09:00.003-06:00

After two days of snow things are supposed to clear up today, which is good because I have a lot of end-of-the-month errands that I've been putting off. Today's the day to get them all done.

***

Going to see my husband this weekend. It was planned that we'd leave today but since the roads are still icy we'll leave Sunday. Don't know exactly when I'll be back but probably Tuesday. I'll set Future Post up so that nothing can stop my Nov. 5th post... though probably I'll be here for that.

***

Wondering why every piece of legislation these days is called Landmark. They can't all be landmarks, can they? Some of them have to be landscape.

IF: Fast

2009-10-28T07:50:00.005-06:00

Trying something new again... trying to figure out how to, "sing in my own voice". Anyway, I really like the way this turned out and I think I'll do a few more along these lines.

More fast illustrations at Illustration Friday.

And now for today's nonsense

2009-10-27T08:39:00.002-06:00

I finished my peace project last night and now I'm going through the postpartum stage where I pick it apart and wonder why I thought it was going to be so great. This is a good reason to procrastinate. If I had finished it November 4th, I wouldn't have time to hate it before the whole thing was over with. It really is a pretty neat thing, considering I've never done anything like it before. I have one other project in the works that I'll use this same software for (CreaToon) and then I think I may move on to some more sophisticated software. I know myself well enough to know that planning too far ahead is silly.

We are supposed to get snow Tomorrow, so there are several things I need to finish while I have sunshine; some sign projects and redoing the stripes on my truck. I'm going to Denver this weekend and I want my truck to look nice for the trip.

Hope you all have a great day.

Free Speech or Safe Speech

2009-10-26T09:00:00.005-06:00

Remember those Muhammad cartoons that caused all that violence? Jytte Klausen wrote an academic book about the cartoons that covers much of the politics that went into the reaction to it. This is the kind of book that's peer reviewed and probably not the kind of book that most of us would pick up at the local bookshop.

Anyway, the book was all set to be published by the Yale University Press when somebody at the publisher started wondering if the book itself would incite more violence, so they asked a panel of experts who all agreed that it would. The thing is, the experts they consulted didn't actually read the book.

So now they are publishing a book about the cartoons without the cartoons in it. In reference to the cartoons a woman on NPR is quoted as saying; "People don't see this the same way they would see a swastika or they would see the N-word. They see bigotry against Muslims in a separate category as they see bigotry against other races or religions."

But in this country would we require an author to take the swastika out of a book about the Nazis? I know the N-word is left in a lot of the older books at our library. Nobody is protesting Tom Sawyer as hate speech. This is an issue of free speech and not an issue of bigotry.

The NPR article.

Nano Anyone

2009-10-24T12:05:00.003-06:00

I'm thinking of doing Nanowrimo again... but taking myself a lot less seriously. How about 100,000 words in one month, in first person, working in twenty random words from the dictionary each day.... Why?

I'll think of a reason as I go.

Meanwhile, I'm working on something spectacular for Blogblast Peace Globe Day... tune in on November 5th. Better yet, head over to mimiwrites.blogspot.com and get in on the peacefulness yourself.

Vampire in the house

2009-10-23T14:05:00.002-06:00

What Would Jesus Do?

2009-10-22T10:01:00.005-06:00

We've been uninvited from the Halloween party we were all looking forward to because... well, it's all very odd.

Andy has (had) a close friend who throws this awesome Halloween party every year. She and her partner only ever throw this one bash and I got to go, and bring Jasmine, for the first time last year. Jasmine has been talking about making a costume for it for months and then Andy and his buddy had a discussion about theology.

I guess you think you know your friends till something like this happens. She was speaking to the family member with religion, imagine if she'd been talking to me... anyway, we aren't Christian enough to go to the party I guess.

I asked Jasmine if she was disappointed and she told me that it was all okay, as long as I'd still buy her some vampire teeth. I got her the teeth yesterday, the only ones the Wal-Place had that weren't neon pink or green. They came with some make-up. Jasmine's been wearing the teeth and make-up around the house since... The pictures are all blurry because I had the camera set wrong, so you'll have to wait till tomorrow to see her in her bloody glory.

I have a pretty neat kid.

Snow!

2009-10-21T09:09:00.003-06:00

I woke up this morning to see my car and yard covered in hideous white effluvia. That's not my favorite way to wake up.

So, since it is my new goal to blog every day and to not be constantly depressing, I went off into the wilderness of Google to find something snowish and fun to post about. I found this nifty little website that lets you make snowflakes the old fashioned way with a new fangled twist.

It's a flash graphics thingum. When you get there you see a bunch of snowflakes other people made. Click on the "make a snowflake" link to the right of the screen and a white piece of paper comes up and a pair of scissors. The paper folds itself up and the scissors make an initial cut then you are all on your own to create a masterpiece.

My snowflake was prettier in the program than after I saved it because it went all blue on me, but the site has an option to save the flake as an eps file, which means I could make vinyl versions for you to stick to your windows if you were interested.

There's a warning about making offensive snowflakes, but I couldn't figure out how to make mine offensive. If you make an offensive one, show it to me. Okay?

Link: Make a flake

One Single Impression: Conquer

2009-10-20T09:27:00.004-06:00

(image: Gato by Marilyn Glazar(me))

On My Attempt to Conquer the Bills

A hungry cat
climbs a tree
for dinner
and learns
the birds can fly.

More conquer poems at One Single Impression.