how hard can it be?

Give a cat a fish, and he'll eat for a day. Show him where you left your boat, and you're opening up a whole 'nother can of worms.

see more lolcats at icanhascheezburger.com

politics, flowers and gifts

El Tinklenberg is not in our district, but we're happy to see Michele Bachmann (Republican, MN 6th congressional district's Rep.) digging her own political grave with her outrageous comments about Barack Obama being 'anti-American'. Apparently the backlash is giving Tinklenberg an edge he needs in his run for her seat. I heard a fellow interviewed while I was listening to MPR yesterday, who said he was a Republican who had been planning to vote for her (again), but said he'd vote for ANYONE other than Bachmann now, so he'd been researching Tinklenberg and thought he looked better than he expected.

This article about Minnesota's former governer also made me quite happy when I saw it yesterday:

Carlson endorses Obama, spurred by Bachmann remarks

The former governor said Obama represented the best hope for an America facing an economic crisis.

Star Tribune
Last update: October 23, 2008 - 8:57 PM

Former Republican Gov. Arne Carlson endorsed Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama on Thursday, saying Obama represented the best hope for an America facing an economic crisis and criticizing Republicans for waging a mean-spirited campaign that has "been going down all these side roads."

Speaking at the State Capitol, where he was introduced by U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., Carlson said his party had strayed from the moderate philosophies of past Republican leaders such as Ohio Sen. Robert Taft and President Dwight Eisenhower. "I consider myself a Republican maverick," Carlson said in explaining his endorsement of Obama.

[snip]

Carlson also took aim at U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann, saying that her controversial remarks of the past week suggesting that Obama may have anti-American views, had led him to endorse the Democratic nominee. After hearing Bachmann's comments, he said he telephoned former Vice President Walter Mondale, the Minnesota Democrat, to tell him of his plan.

(read the rest of the article on their website)

And our local news reports that outraged people keep calling the local Bachman's gardening stores, asking if they're related to Michele Bachmann.

Any connection between flowers, 'anti-American?'

"Larry Pfarr with Bachman’s says Congresswoman Bachmann’s statements have caused a flood of phone calls and e-mails, from those wanting to know if Bachman is tied to Bachmann. "I can reassure everybody that she is no relation to Bachman’s Home Gift and Garden," Pfarr said."

[snip]

Bachman’s is staying out of Bachmann’s political controversy. They want both Republicans and Democrats to buy flowers here.

(Here's the rest of the article and accompanying video)

I haven't been following Tinklenberg's campaign as closely as those in our own district, but I got a chuckle out of this video, care of Tinklenberg For Congress.

daleks for Obama

see more hipster robot webcomics and pixel t-shirts

One of the web comics I follow regularly is Diesel Sweeties. My Mister and I got an extra chuckle out of this particular strip because I've joked about moving to Canada (or Australia for that matter) if the Karl Rove camp stays in power after this election cycle.

But heck, we're in the middle of trying to buy a house. We've made a lot of friends with some really amazing people here in the Twin Cities. We've both got good jobs here, it's a beautiful place to live, and we expect to be in Minnesota for a good long while. So, in all seriousness, we're not going anywhere any time in the foreseeable future.

That said... there are three words that could change my mind. "President Sarah Palin".
*shiver*

Just kidding.

I think.

Nineteen

more at icanhascheezburger

Zero G fan post

IRON MAN: A WALK IN THE STARK
- "THERE ISN'T MUSHROOM IN THE
SUPERHERO BIZ FOR A FUNGI !!"
Originally uploaded by zero g

I'm crashed on the couch with my lymph nodes in my neck swollen up to obnoxious proportions, watching a dog show and wandering around flickr.

Ya'll probably already know I'm a fan of Zero G's photography, sculpture, radio show (when I can catch it - dude, podcast already! *wink*) and amazingly creative brains.

I couldn't roll a saving throw against being amazed by his work with Sculpey if I had a feat that guaranteed it.

book meme revisited

Just picked up this meme from kambrieloktober.

* Grab the nearest book.
* Open the book to page 56.
* Find the fifth sentence.
* Post the text of the sentence in your journal along with these instructions.
* Don't dig for your favorite book, the cool book, or the intellectual one: pick the CLOSEST.

My response -- cross posted from my reply on her LJ post to here:

I'd just grabbed my purse to answer my cell phone when I read this thread, and my current purse book is: Assasin's Quest by Robin Hobb.
"The case would proclaim me as that to the chance acquaintance."

If I'd been catching up with my rss feed reader 10 minutes earlier you'd've ended up with a quote from The Workbench Book: A craftsman's guide to workbenches for every type of woodworking by Scott Landis.

Fifth Annual Birdaversary Extravaganza

I'll call you back later
Originally uploaded by Pockafwye

Friends and family have probably already seen this video.

As of today I've been married to this wonderful, playful man for 5 years, and living with him for 8 years and change. I should not have been surprised when he pulled this little stunt in the middle of our wedding ceremony.

Yesterday was his birthday, or "bird day" in the family vernacular. With the two dates back to back like that, he's taken to calling the 10th and 11th of October as the Birdaversary Extravaganza.

Did I mention I love my Mister?

Dalek Mission Complete

Don't look behind you...
Originally uploaded by Pockafwye

I knitted a dalek for my sister for her birthday. It was a few weeks late getting to her since it took me longer than I had expected. I had to learn a couple of new knitting techniques I hadn't practiced before, which always involves some frogging and re-knitting.

I based my design on EXTERMIKNIT! by "Penwiper", with some modifications of my own.

Bunches more photos of it on flickr. Or see it on ravelry.com if you're a member there.

50 words for today

From the BBC News website...

50 of your favourite words

Story about man who read the OED in a year
Lots of sesquipedalians out there, judging by the response to our feature on the man who reads dictionaries for fun, Ammon Shea. We asked for your favourite words and were overwhelmed with nominations. Here we list 50 of the best.

Read the rest of the article here

I have to admit at being pleased by how many of these words I actually knew. And enjoyed all the many spiffy words that were new to me. My favorite word on this list is "tintinnabulation".

One of my (many) favorite words that didn't make their list is:

uxorious
–adjective
doting upon, foolishly fond of, or affectionately submissive toward one's wife.

First one that came to mind, just randomly. Has nothing to do at all with tomorrow being my wedding anniversary, I'm sure.

I guess that makes 51 words for today.

Canada: Liberal, Secular, Not as cold as you think

(insert guilty, uncomfortable laughter)

Fairy Comfort

Christmas Day
Originally uploaded by harrip

Been a long day. Tense about the upcoming elections. One of those days when , if you're me, you spend a few minutes on flickr looking at photos of comfort food.

When I was a little girl in Australia, I learned about the simple treat that is fairy bread. White bread (often without crusts), butter, and hundreds-and-thousands (aka rainbow sprinkles).

I made fairy bread for some friends at a party last year, and while most of them nibbled it only to humor me, there was one devoted convert by the end of the afternoon.

Now, excuse me while I go rummage in the cupboard for some sprinkles... I might need some fairy bread if I'm going to watch the presidential debate tonight.

Fark Equations

One of many, many funny variations on this meme:

Obama = ? Biden = ? McCain = ? Palin = ?
You've seen the meme, here's the thread (voting enabled)

My Mister and I both thought the 2+2 = chair was too funny not to share.

I'd pay to see that

Excerpt from Peter Woodward: Straight from the Shoulder, text of a 2002 interview by Alex von Thorn.

You have such a diverse body of work that during my research, I had trouble getting a handle on it all. If we could imagine a definitive Peter Woodward magnum opus, what would it look like?

I would be stark naked. I would be carrying a very large sword, on a stage, being filmed, and with a History Channel executive fretting in the background.

dose of cute

small cat on stairs
Originally uploaded by studio.nuovo

Dad's new kitten. Too much cute in one photo!

superpowers

Got a good chuckle out of Wil Wheaton's most recent post, great moments in instant messaging. My spelling-fu has always been pretty strong. Except that instant messengers appear to be my kryptonite.

Which geeks among us haven't pondered what superpowers we'd most like to have? For me, it was telekinesis, and the power to converse with animals.

Though, honestly. Really. The most welcome super power for me as a kid would have been the ability to grok the kids around me, so I could walk in their social circles without sticking out. To be a social chameleon.

This would, of course, have had to be accompanied by a native ability to play school yard games. You can't blend in when the dodge ball teams at PE are arguing over who will be stuck with you; and the teacher - despite their pleading - won't let the team that you end up on take a handicap to compensate.

I didn't necessarily want to BE like them. I enjoyed reading for pleasure, and was glad I'd lived and traveled in more countries by the second grade than most of them would see in their whole lives. It was super cool having computers in the house before most of the neighbor kids had even seen a computer. Being a Star Trek fan, and an avid watcher of nature and historical documentaries on PBS were not things I'd've willingly abandoned.

It would just have been awful handy to have been able to avoid the inevitable shunning that kids are so good at when there's a misfit in their midst.

This morning...

Wake with a sinus cold. Just what I did NOT need right now.

Confirmation that the world is watching our presidential campaign with interest. Last line in an email from an Australian friend of mine... [We are] taping the debate. Guess that means we get to yell at the TV tonight.

As if Rickrolling wasn't bad enough. This morning my Mister Obamarolled me. Ouch... my brain.

I switched the channel from KSTP morning news to WCCO after KSTP's "Truth Test" segment. On the very small number of things covered by the Truth Test segment, they included Biden's statement about climate change as "unknown", because of an unspecified quote from National Geographic saying that climate experts disagree. Rather than, say, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) which has stated:

There is new and stronger evidence that most of the warming observed over the last 50 years is attributable to human activities.

And:

Furthermore, it is very likely that the 20th century warming has contributed significantly to the observed sea level rise, through thermal expansion of sea water and widespread loss of land ice. Within present uncertainties, observations and models are both consistent with a lack of significant acceleration of sea level rise during the 20th century.

Even the Republican platform includes language accepting that human activity is at very least contributing to global warming.

You can technically claim that there are still scientists who disagree on the causes of global warming. You can technically argue that there are scientists who believe in Intelligent Design, too. But giving someone a negative mark on a political fact checking segment (and that big question mark is effectively a negative since it contradicts what Biden was saying) because there are a few scientists who are still in disagreement with the majority of the scientific community strikes me as irresponsible and misleading reporting.

Snippets of Woodwardian Goodness

My sincerest thanks to a good friend in Australia, who pointed me in the direction of this video on au.youtube.com.

It took a LONG time to finish buffering the video (I guess the interwebs were slow from Australia tonight). But for a Peter Woodward junkie like m'self, it was well worth the wait, since it includes a few snippets of his work that I hadn't seen before.

GleeeEEeeEEeEEEeeee!!!

Pssst... There's a very little tiny bit of swearing in one of the clips. Just so you know.

Veep Debate Bingo

Yes. Yes indeedy. I will be playing Vice Presidential Debate Bingo tonight.

There are a couple of bingo cards out there for download. I got one in an email from a friend. Here are a few links to some others I found by checking the googles.

• Backup Brain
• Newsweek
• Palinbingo.com

I'll be playing along with VP Debate Bingo card in hand, and I'll post to Twitter when I fill a row, since that seems like the equivalent to shouting "Bingo"on the intertubes these days.

Night time

The cats are zooming around the house like they're in some kind of kitteh relay race. It's 47°F (8°C) outside, the windows are open, and the air smells like Autumn.

The Mister is playing World of Warcraft with some guildies. I'd be playing except I'm going to shuffle off to sleep early (as in any minute now), to try to make it to work early tomorrow.

So instead of playing I watched Ghost Hunters. It's a little guilty pleasure of mine. The Mister won't watch it. He rolls his eyes when I watch it, in fact. But it's my favorite ghost show, and I admit to watching quite a lot of shows about hauntings. NOT Most Haunted, though. Can't stand a show that features ghost hunters who all freak out every time an old house creaks, or a spider web brushes their faces.

I believe in ghosts, but I don't believe in an awful lot of the things people on TV take as evidence of hauntings. Even so, I can enjoy shows about hauntings even if I'm highly skeptical about the "hunting" methods employed in said show; or programs that are just recountings of tragic events, rumors and annecdotes, mixed with spooky background music, old photos and a melodramatic narrator for extra flavor. I've got a high tolerance for silliness when it comes to this kind of show. But I can't stand a bunch of "investigators" who get hysterical when anything vaguely unexpected happens.

Why does that draw viewers? Would a show about spiders or snakes do well if the host flipped out every time they found a creepy critter? Or if they assumed every rustle in the underbrush was a man-eating viper of mamoth proportions, and they fled instead of trying to determine the truth of the matter?

Oh, and before you point at me and say, "Hey, don't you have problems with nightmares? Should you be watching ghost shows before bed?" I can assure you that if my nightmares were about normal nightmarey kinds of things like ghosts, I'd go cold turkey on episodes of Ghost Hunters at bedtime.

Speaking of which, it's past time to get m'self to sleep.

Pasta In the Night

Pasta in the Night by *Jiggsokeken on deviantART