a hero is someone who understands the responsibility that comes with her freedom.

i am going to hear one of my living heroes speak tonight. her name is marilyn waring. she was an mp in new zealand. she writes books that john galbraith thinks are on the money. (ha!) she's an economist who looks at the gdp and says 'who's counting women's work?' and 'why is an oil spill good for the economy?' she is hardworking, smart and determined. she is also lively, creative and funny. claire is coming with me. i am excited.

resemblance?

spongebob, originally uploaded by slo___mo.

we are stardust, we are golden

i wanna go to the shoreline festival. i think that it would be fun. we can pretend that it's woodstock - we can camp out on the land and try and get our souls free.

the boy who cried wolf.

this scared the pants off of me. i wrote an angry letter to city hall. then i found out that it was a hoax. or an experiment. i didn't like being used as a guinea pig for smelly architecture dorks. fooling me and making me feel dumb only makes me more apathetic and less likely to act if something like this does happen.

coutesy of the smoking gun

Terri Schiavo Autopsy Released

Blind, irreversibly brain-damaged; death cause still undetermined

JUNE 15--An autopsy of Terry Schiavo was unable to determine to any "reasonable medical certainty" what caused the 41-year-old Florida woman to fall into a vegetative state. According to the below report issued today by the Pinellas-Pasco Medical Examiner, there was no evidence that Schiavo, whose medical plight triggered a national debate, had ever been abused. Opponents of Schiavo's husband Michael, who successfully fought to have Terry removed from life support, claimed that the woman had been severely injured at her husband's hands. But while Michael Schiavo contended that his wife's eating disorder likely caused her to go into cardiac arrest, the autopsy does not support that claim. The blind Schiavo, whose brain was about half its normal size at the time of her March 31 demise, died of dehydration (and not starvation) 13 days after her feeding tube was removed. She had been in what some doctors termed a "persistent vegetative state" since February 1990. (9 pages)

i'm sure she's very nice.

Hi Mo,
Congratulations on being admitted to Law School! I have been assigned as your "upper year buddy" - the person that can give you the low-down on everything that goes on at school, good and bad; I'm the person that can give you some "CANS" to guide you through your (and explain what "cans" are - I won't keep you waiting...condensed annotated notes); and I'm the person who can help you to figure out the big and mighty city of H* - where you will be spending your next 3 years (Don't worry, I've been here for 25 - and still love it).

The one thing that I can guarantee you is that law school flies by. I'm going into my 3rd year and it feels like yesterday that I was receiving a similar email from my buddy. It's a lot of work, a lot of fun, and you'll meet a lot of wonderful friends (in fact, you'll hear the term 'Weldon High School' more than once, and probably will use it a couple of times).

I'm sure you have a few questions, so let me know! Where are you from and what's your background (what degree(s))?

Cxxxx.

and from my collection...

'homeland security' humour courtesy of ces.

ORDERING PIZZA IN 2008 (in the U-S-of-A)

Operator: Thank you for calling Pizza Hut. May I have your national ID
number?

Customer: Hi, I'd like to place an order.

Operator: I must have your NIDN first, sir.

Customer: My National ID Number, yeah, hold on, eh, it's a ...
6102049998-45-54610.

Operator: Thank you Mr. Sheehan. I see you live at 1742 Meadowland Drive,
and the phone number is 494-2366.

Your office number over at Lincoln Insurance is 745-2302 and your cell
number is 266-2566. Email address is [ mailto:sheehan@home.net. Which number are you calling from sir?

Customer: Huh? I'm at home. Where'd you get all this information?

Operator: We're wired into the HSS, sir.

Customer: The HSS, what is that?

Operator: We're wired into the Homeland Security System, sir. This will
add only 15 seconds to your ordering time.

Customer: (sighs) Oh well, I'd like to order a couple of your All-Meat
Special pizzas.

Operator: I don't think that's a good idea, sir.

Customer: Whaddya mean?

Operator: Sir, your medical records and commode sensors indicate that
you've got very high blood pressure and extremely high cholesterol. Your
National Health Care provider won't allow such an unhealthy choice.

Customer: What?!?! What do you recommend, then?

Operator: You might try our low-fat Soybean Pizza. I'm sure you'll like
it.

Customer: What makes you think I'd like something like that?

Operator: Well, you checked out 'Gourmet Soybean Recipes' from your local
library last week, sir. That's why I made the suggestion.

Customer: All right, all right. Give me two family-sized ones, then.

Operator: That should be plenty for you, your wife and your four kids,
your 2 dogs can finish the crusts, sir. Your total is $49.99.

Customer: Lemme give you my credit card number.

Operator: I'm sorry sir, but I'm afraid you'll have to pay in cash. Your
credit card balance is over its limit.

Customer: I'll run over to the ATM and get some cash before your driver
gets here.

Operator: That won't work either, sir. Your checking account is overdrawn
also.

Customer: Never mind! Just send the pizzas. I'll have the cash ready.
How long will it take?

Operator: We're running a little behind, sir. It'll be about 45 minutes,
sir. If you're in a hurry you
might want to pick'em up while you're out getting the cash, but then,
carrying pizzas on a motorcycle can be a little awkward.

Customer: Wait! How do you know I ride a scooter?

Operator: It says here you're in arrears on your car payments, so your
car got repo'ed. But your Harley's
paid for and you just filled the tank yesterday.

Customer: Well, I'll be a #%#^^&$%^$@#

Operator: I'd advise watching your language, sir. You've already got a
July 4, 2003 conviction for cussing out a cop and another one I see here
in September for contempt at your hearing for cussing at a judge. Oh yes,
I see here that you just got out from a 90 day stay in the State
Correctional Facility.

Is this your first pizza since your return to society?

Customer: (speechless)

Operator: Will there be anything else, sir?

Customer: Yes, I have a coupon for a free 2 liter of Coke..

Operator: I'm sorry sir, but our ad's exclusionary clause prevents us from
offering free soda to diabetics. The New Constitution prohibits this.
Thank you for calling Pizza Hut.

4th25

"Members of the rap group—who serve with Task Force 112—express things that soldiers usually keep bottled up in their album 'Live From Iraq.' Warning: Contains graphic language and violent images."

this is crazy stuff. sit down and take a deep breath. violent images. very violent images.

i am going to work in my garden now.

the times, they are a changin'

dinner parties are awesome and i am going to eat drink and be merry. cooking, eating, talking, drinking. good times.

whodunnit

Eleanor Rigby

here's a little teaser. if you like douglas coupland, then you will like this book. go find it and read it.
....
Where does the loneliness come from? I'd hazard a guess that the crapshoot that is family has more than a little to do with it - father's a drunk; mother's an agoraphobic; single child; middle child; firstborn; mother's a nag; father's a golf cheat... I mean, what's your own nature/nurture crapshoot? You're here. You're reading these words. Is this a coincidence? Maybe you think that fate is only for others. Maybe you're ashamed to be reading about loneliness - maybe someone will catch you and then they'll know your secret stain. And then maybe you're not even sure what loneliness is - that's common. We cripple our children for life by not telling them what loneliness is, all of its shades and tones and implications. When it clubs us on the head, usually just after we leave home, we're blindsided. We have no idea what hit us. We think we're diseased, schizoid, bipolar, monstrous and lacking in dietary chromium. It takes us until thirty to figure out what it was that sucked the joy from our youth, that made our brains shriek and burn on the inside, even while our exteriors made us seem as confident and bronzed as Qantas pilots. Loneliness.
....

olvo, i hate you.

not just a radiator hose.

replacing?

power steering pump
block heater
exhaust gasket
and a brake light.

cost?

$750.00

i cannot afford this at all.

oh, olvo what am i gonna do with you?

my car is broken. it's just a radiator hose, but still. it was gross, with green goo spraying everywhere. it was like a horror movie. and there was a lot of steam. pleh. it will be better tomorrow. probably. and if not, who cares?

dynamite

i'm reading a book by douglas copeland (not the terry fox one). it's called eleanor rigby and it is fucking great so far, but you know, 'all the lonely people' and all... it is like spying on a life i will never understand. i have never been solitary. i am always surrounded by other people, and mostly i am glad. solitude freaks me out. it makes me antsy. of course, i'd like to have the opportunity to explore it - it's like a foreign country to me, a place to be explored.

i won't confuse solitude with loneliness. if solitude is a foreign country, then loneliness is a debilitating illness. i have been lonely and it was... well, i thought it would kill me. there are few things i fear more than loneliness, and i hope to escape it for a good long time.

speaking of lonely, dil and i watched napoleon dynamite last night. what can i say about it? it was very good. like on a report card, i'd give it an A-. we laughed a lot, but in a lot of ways it was actually a pretty sad movie. it is fairly accurate picture of life in high school and this can be heartbreaking to witness. it's the 'wonder years', or more accurately, the 'wonder how anyone survives it' years. god.

my books and movies seem to have a running theme of loneliness and quiet desperation lately. what does that mean?