Woe to the Unbelievers

Biology, in the western world, acts almost like the Qur'an in the eastern world - it is the ultimate excuse for why things for women cannot and will not change. In a secular world you are told that inequality rests on nature; and in a religious world you are told that it rests on God's word.

Haunted Alaska

Alaskan ghost stories...

Here's a couple from places I've been:

Circle - Circle Hot Springs - haunted by a former owner, they don't like renovations. Beers often move across the bar on its own. foot steps heard walking across the porch of the rental cabins

Fairbanks - mile 8-12 Chena Hot Springs Road - This road is haunted by ghostly lights. Late at night two lights that resemble headlights follows passing cars. Sometimes it will start to fly and form one bright light and other times it will just look like a fast moving car or truck with bright blue, white and orange colored lights.

(thanks, b)

Better Late Than Never

I'm catching up on my e-mail just now. Here's a worthwhile request for ya'll from Colleen Mondor:

As you may have read in the Bookslut blog two weeks ago, (I am a regular contributor over there), or over at Moorishgirl, I am working with a group in Baton Rouge who are helping children sheltered with their families at Southern University. We have put together a couple of wish lists of books and games that the folks at Parkview Baptist Church will happily deliver to the SU kids and other area shelter kids, all of whom would love to have a diversion right now. We are also trying to contact authors, illustrators, publishers, book and comic book reviewers in particular to let them know that any children, young adult or all ages titles they have lying around would certainly be welcome down in Baton Rouge.

If you could mention my project on your site, it would help get the word out. Also, feel free to buy off the lists, and send the links on to everyone you know and pass on my email to anyone who has any questions.

Take care and thank you for your help in spreading the word.

Best,

Colleen Mondor

Mailing Address for Donations:

Josh Causey
Parkview Baptist Church
11795 Jefferson Highway
Baton Rouge, LA 70816

Good Morning, Chiklits

Another day, another dollar.

B's in town for the long weekend, so we have been quite busy. Eating good food, watching shows. Stayed downtown Friday and Saturday night. Really neat to be bunking down a couple blocks from the Sears Tower.

Lots going on. More later.

I'm Sorry, I Had to Do It

They just make it so goddamn easy:

BOSTON, Massachusetts (AP) -- The court that made Massachusetts the first state to outlaw slavery will now decide whether slaves from other states can be freed there.

The case is being closely watched across the country. If the Supreme Judicial Court strikes down a 1913 law, slaves from across the country could be freed in Massachusetts and demand human rights at home.

Eight slaves from surrounding states, all of whom were denied freedom papers in Massachusetts, are challenging the law. It forbids nonresidents from being freed in the state if their freedom would not be recognized in their home state.

Massachusetts last year became the first state to outlaw slavery. Forty-one others have passed laws or constitutional amendments reinforcing slavery.

Michele Granda, a civil rights lawyer for the slaves, argued Thursday that the 1913 law "sat on the shelf" unused for decades until it was "dusted off" by the governor.

Granda said the high court, in its historic ruling recognizing the freedom of slaves, found that under the Massachusetts Constitution, black slaves had the same human rights as white people.

"Nothing in (that ruling) says that our officials can discriminate simply because officials in other states discriminate," Granda told the six-judge panel.

Attorneys for the state argued that the law is being enforced in an evenhanded way.

Assistant Attorney General Peter Sacks said Massachusetts risks a "backlash" if it flouts the laws of others states by freeing slaves from states that allow slavery.

"We've got respect for other states' laws," he said.

The high court is expected to rule in the next few months.

The eight slaves who sued are from Connecticut, Rhode Island, New Hampshire, Vermont, Maine and New York.

They include Sandi and Bobbi Cote-Whitacre of Essex Junction, Vermont, who are considered slaves in their home state but would like to be legally free.

What's the Lyndon Johnson quote? "Sometimes you do something because it's right, not because it's popular."

She Makes a Wonderful Sweet Potato Pie

Hitting the Media's Glass Ceiling

Harriet Miers may have broken through glass ceilings on her way to a Supreme Court nomination, but President Bush’s “work wife” has a long way to go with gender stereotyping in mainstream media coverage. Need proof? Compare news coverage in the days after her nomination with coverage this summer of the John Roberts nomination:

ROBERTS : “A career that had been marked by distinguished and relentless advancement.” (LA Times, 7/25/05)

MIERS: “She’s not somebody who is a gossip.” (AP, 10/4/05)

ROBERTS: “Brilliant but self-deprecating, earnest but not humorless.” (Boston Globe, 7/21/04)

MIERS: “She never misses a birthday.” (LA Times, 10/4/05)

ROBERTS: “Exceptional intellect. Exceptional temperament. A conservative judicial philosophy.” (LA Times, 7/25/05)

MIERS: “She makes a wonderful sweet potato pie. Many marshmallows.” (AP, 10/3/05)

ROBERTS: “Disciplined, self-assured and performance driven.” (Chicago Tribune, 7/24/05)

MIERS: “She would look at you blankly if you mentioned the name of a designer.” (Bloomberg, 10/4/05)

MIERS: “A pit bull in size 6 shoes.” (New York Times, 10/3/05)

ROBERTS: Sorry. No word on what size shoe John Roberts wears.

I just love our media.

What I've Been Up To

I've been spending a good deal of time recovering from sickness and catching up on all the things that didn't get done while I was sick. There were a lot of things.

I had several writing-related commitments to finish in addition to regular things like house chores, bills, and laundry. Got my book out to the Agent, wrote a recommendation for promotion letter for my academic advisor in SA, edited a paper for my brother, and have started in on my first contracted writing assignment for a software company.

On top of that, the Day Job has been busier than usual (meaning I'm actually doing things work-related during work hours), and everybody on our Indy team is wound a bit tight, especially Yellow, which makes working with him a little twitchier than usual. I've got a number of daily updates/reports to generate, which are annoying more than difficult. Been working on cutting myself away from work when it's over. I've been letting stress get the better of me, which is likely one reason I got hit so bad with the flu. I need to wipe my hands of work when I leave the office. It's just not worth stressing over. I'm not going to be doing this stuff much longer.

B is in town this weekend (yay!!), and we're snagging a hotel for a couple of nights because Jenn has a couple of friends in for the weekend and, well, we've only got one bathroom, alas. Looking forward to eating junk food, watching boxing and movies, and going to the Field Museum with B. And sleeping. And sex.

You know, good stuff like that.

I'll be heading back to the gym next week. After a week and change out with sickness, I started back up on my morning free weights this week, so I figure progressing to gym work next week is a nice, steady way to get back into things. I really don't want to wear myself down and get sick again.

The real fun month will be November. I've got the World Fantasy Con in Madison from the 4-6, flying to NY to visit B the 18-20th, and visiting my buddy Stephanie and her husband Ian in Ohio from the 23-26 (I'm bringing the wine, baby!). I've got more traveling in December. Because of B's school schedule, I'll probably be doing NY again December 16-18th and then hitting my parents' place for the holidays from the 22-28th.

There are a few more things that need to start happening in these next couple of months, too. I need to get out my application for the MFA program at Brooklyn College, and I need to start putting away money for my move to NY next July. I've been doing preliminary work looking into prices/areas of Brooklyn/Queens/Manhattan and looking at what sorts of jobs are available, and that process will increase in intensity as the time for movement nears. We'll need to start looking in earnest for a place in April, and by May I need to be looking into jobs if the BC College thing doesn't pan out. And, of course, temp jobs if it does. And let us not forget that my book God's War has a January completion date.

Busy life, good life.

Who Will Be Eaten First?

The Elder Gods are going to rise and eat us all!!

Orgies are the way to ease social tensions, claims US judge

..it turns out that there is another side to Justice Antonin Scalia: he thinks Americans ought to be having more orgies.

Challenged about his views on sexual morality, Justice Scalia surprised his audience at Harvard University, telling them: "I even take the position that sexual orgies eliminate social tensions and ought to be encouraged."

It seems unlikely that this is what President Bush meant when he promised to appoint more judges like Scalia to the court, should the opportunity arise.

The first major study of an experimental vaccine to prevent cervical cancer found it was 100 percent effective

No shit?

I'd like to see a study that wasn't done by the maker of the vaccine, but if this turns out to be true, it's hellacool:

The first major study of an experimental vaccine to prevent cervical cancer found it was 100 percent effective, in the short term, at blocking the disease and lesions likely to turn cancerous, drug maker Merck & Co. said.

Gardasil, a genetically engineered vaccine, blocks infection with two of the 100-plus types of human papilloma virus, HPV 16 and 18. The two sexually transmitted viruses together cause about 70 percent of cervical cancers.

I Want to Grow Up to Be Just Like You!

(thanks, K!)

How Time Flies

At the weekly office meeting today, I was startled to hear that Blaine, my old boss, had been at the company two years as of this week.

I was startled because I started working here a month after he did.

I'll have been here two years next month.

Where did the time go?

Work

Work has picked up (the old 3 months on/3 months off cycle), so things will continue to be slow for a bit.

Will be back later.

Good Morning, Chiklits

I seem to have weaned myself off coffee during my sickness.

This is very sad.

Comment Spam

Dealing with it. Hang in there.

Serenity

It's good. Go see it.

Hat & Coat Weather

I am clawing up from the dregs of sickness and discovering that there's a whole bright, beautiful world out there.

I'm also catching up on the three trillion things that I had to let slide while I was confined to bed, too weak to even read for long periods.

It was a bitch.

I've gnawed at the pile of stuff, and am feeling better about it. House chores, bills, e-mails, ticket reservations for Thanksgiving in Dayton, need to reserve my damn hotel room for World Fantasy, new contract writing job with a software company (paperwork, first little assignment), tackling the huge mindless waste of space that is my day job (full of dates and numbers and five daily reports and bullshit, bullshit, bullshit Xs 2), finishing the last of the Book rewrites so I can get that out by Friday/Saturday, and itching to get back to working on God's War.

I'm feeling awake, I have energy, I'll just be stirring around the rest of the week finishing up my backlog. I have lingering weakness and some trouble eating certain foods as yet, but I'm definately in recovery mode.

An Encounter with the HR Manager

I bumped into the HR manager in the hall, and she asked if I was any better.

I said, well, no.

JZ, one of the lead architects, is still out with the same thing (he still has PTO time. I burned all my up on writing days and trips to NY). After lamenting about the fact that I've been barely able to get down toast and soup for the last week, she said, cheerfully, "Well, you're getting really skinny!"

ARRGGGGGGGGGGGGGHGHGHHHRRHRHHRRHRHRHHRHRH

That's because I'm FUCKING STARVING!!!!!!!!!!!!

HOW IS THIS A GOOD THING????

And I know it's all muscle mass. You know the amount of retraining I'm going to have to do?

America.

You're sick and starving, but hey -- YOU'RE LOSING WEIGHT! Be joyful!

I just want some goddamn nachos.

Still Down for the Count

Tried to eat real food on Friday, and promptly gave it back over to the porcelain god. I've been living on a bowl or two of soup and two slices of toast a day, because that's about all I can keep down.

And I've been dreaming of food. DREAMING of food. Nachos, Taco Bell, hot dogs. It's a good sign that I have cravings, but I'm filled with a nausea that won't let me consume very much of soft bland foods, let along anything hardier. I'm still very weak, and I hate the nausea. It's like there's a fist in the middle of my chest, and beaneath that, this broiling slosh of burning stomach acid that refuses to let me eat anything it doesn't like.

Drinking lots of water, soda, apple juice. Apple juice is good. I just can't believe this is going on this long. I'm afraid that if I do buckle and plop down $150 for a doctor they'll say "Sleep a lot, and drink some apple juice." ARRGGG

We'll see. I tend to have more energy in the morning, less at the end of the day, when I tire myself out. I'm optimistically saying that I do feel a smidge better each day, but I can't really back that up.

I'm still down for the count, irritable, weak, tired, and have trouble concentrating. This is crappy for a number of reasons, because I have a lot of shit to do, but my body's telling me to STOP, and I have to stop and wait for it to recuperate before I can even start thinking again about doing something non-useless.

I Went To Work Today

Which was a mistake. I feel terrible. Not as bad as on Tuesday night, and yea, I can eat whole food, but damn, I feel like I've been hit by a truck. Drinking lots of fluids. Should have brought some chicken soup.

Turns out yet another guy from the office was out with the same thing. Add me to the list, and that's four people from my office, so I'm not sure what's up. In any case, ready to go home. The commute was a bitch them morning. I was such a clueless, invalid-looking zombie that somebody actually stopped and tried to help me off the bus.

Oh dear. Do I look that weak? Well.. I guess I am, actually.