Week of 21 Oct

Remember these?

Over the weekend, I'd watched an odd movie entitled Yasagure anego den: sôkatsu rinchi, or Female Yakuza Tale. Ignoring the fact that women really aren't respected by yakuza members (generally), & that women aren't permitted to be members of a yakuza clan, I'd found many oddities in this movie & had asked a "Japanophile" friend if he could elaborate. Well, he couldn't give me any specifics, but explained that because women aren't permitted into the yakuza, the whole thing was fantasy. He'd also included an interesting little article written from the Japanese perspective: Yakuza, the Japanese Mafia. Check it out.

Wow! Burford, England. Nice.

In Soviet Russia, Lake Contaminates You. Don't let this happen to you!

We hear about this all the time, but it appears to be true: The Future Is Drying Up.

Earthhaven, in the North Carolina blue ridge mountains, is a community off-grid. It's well planned, & it really looks peaceful. Of course, it rains a lot there, which leaves me out -- too much moisture in the air makes Angus' skin & sinuses very unhappy. Sure looks nice, though.

Very cool: Typographic Marks Unknown.

Ever wonder what rhetoric really is...?

Thanks to Patrick, I make you all aware of a Best of Craig's List post entitled: A Letter From The Blue!

Originally Posted: Fri, 24 Jun 11:54 PDT
"Dear Red States..." A Letter From The Blue!
Date: 2005-06-24, 11:54AM PDT

Dear Red States...

We've decided we're leaving.
We intend to form our own
country, and we're taking
the other Blue States with us.

In case you aren't aware,
that includes Hawaii, Oregon,
Washington, Minnesota,
Wisconsin, Michigan, Illinois
and all the Northeast. We
believe this split will be
beneficial to the nation, and
especially to the people of the
new country of New California.

To sum up briefly: You get
Texas, Oklahoma and all the
slave states. We get stem cell
research and the best beaches.
We get Elliot Spitzer. You get
Ken Lay.

We get the Statue of Liberty.
You get Dollywood.
We get Intel and Microsoft.
You get WorldCom.
We get Harvard.
You get Ole' Miss.
We get 85 percent of America's
venture capital and entrepreneurs.
You get Alabama.
We get two-thirds of the tax
revenue, you get to make the red
states pay their fair share.

Since our aggregate divorce rate
is 22 percent lower than the
Christian Coalition's, we get a
bunch of happy families. You get
a bunch of single moms.

Please be aware that Nuevo
California will be pro-choice and
anti-war, and we're going to want
all our citizens back from Iraq at
once. If you need people to fight,
ask your evangelicals. They have
kids they're apparently willing
to send to their deaths for no
purpose, and they don't care if
you don't show pictures of their
children's caskets coming home.
We do wish you success in Iraq,
and hope that the WMDs turn up,
but we're not willing to spend
our resources in Bush's Quagmire.

With the Blue States in hand, we
will have firm control of 80
percent of the country's fresh
water, more than 90 percent of
the pineapple and lettuce, 92
percent of the nation's fresh
fruit, 95 percent of America's
quality wines (you can serve
French wines at state dinners)
90 percent of all cheese, 90
percent of the high tech
industry, most of the U.S. low-
sulfur coal, all living redwoods,
sequoias and condors, all the Ivy
and Seven Sister schools, plus
Harvard, Yale, Stanford, Cal
Tech and MIT.

With the Red States, on the
other hand, you will have to
cope with 88 percent of all
obese Americans (and their
projected health care costs),
92 percent of all U.S.
mosquitoes, nearly 100 percent
of the tornadoes, 90 percent of
the hurricanes, 99 percent of
all Southern Baptists, virtually
100 percent of all televangelists,
Rush Limbaugh, Bob Jones
University, Clemson and the
University of Georgia.

We get Hollywood and Yosemite,
thank you.

Additionally, 38 percent of
those in the Red states believe
Jonah was actually swallowed by
a whale, 62 percent believe life
is sacred unless we're discussing
the death penalty or gun laws, 44
percent say that evolution is only
a theory, 53 percent that Saddam
was involved in 9/11 and 61
percent of you crazy b*****ds
believe you are people with
higher morals then we lefties.

By the way, we're taking the good
pot, too. You can have that dirt
weed they grow in Mexico.

Peace out,
Blue States
[Sorry, folks. I don't make the rules.]

Lovely! New technique coming to your corrupt government & military soon: Memories Selectively, Safely Erased In Mice.

I'd had a flash earlier this evening. You know, some odd idea pops into your head, & you either dismiss it, or -- as I tend to do -- try to think of a way to use it in my writing. The idea was to ask you, if you found a time machine (sign over head reading something to the effect of "Single Use Only", implying that you weren't coming back), would you use it? If so, would you go to the past or the future? Would you want to witness some historical event? Would you, rather as I would do, go to a simpler (non electronic/computerized/ globalized) time period where there was no television or pollution? And, if you chose the past, would you pull a "Save Lincoln" stunt in hopes of making the future -- the future from which you've just come & cannot return -- better? Then I find this. Yeah, Hakan Nordkvist went to the future & brought back only video. He was able to get back, though. In my scenario, there is no coming back. Common, now. Let's see those comments.

More fun with English: 10 Insulting Words You Should Know. I can think of many instances when I would like to use bemute...& Phalloncus! There's a good one for Bush. Oh, warning! If you read that page & don't know what it is, "2 Girls, 1 Cup" is not for the squeamish. Don't click the link if you spew easily.

I know there's no way round it, but this is what happens when you let your government run your country -- & your economy.

Interesting stuff about Marriage during the Middle Ages. I like the feasts best.

Heh. A Russian social (services?) office ripped off Nazi's for their Web site.

Week of 14 Oct

I knew I wasn't entirely alone.

Did you know In 1582, October 5 Never Happened? Those wacky xians.

-Work-work-work-work-work. Busy this week.-

Russia's got its problems -- what country hasn't -- but it sure looks entertaining.

She is too fair for any man
To see or hold his heart's delight,
Fairer than Queen or courtesan
Or moonlit water in the night.
-Oscar Wilde -La Bella Donna Della Mia Mente

Illusion is the first of all pleasures.
-Oscar Wilde

Here's one Laura might find interesting for her future...patients? Or is that...clients? Anyway, A dietary approach to treating addiction seems worth investigating.

Must Be Something In The Water is an article about something I've been bitching about for a long time.

Mouse over & click, & click again, on lots of things in PalinAsPresident.us. Fun stuff.

Finally, something worth reading: Expat Interviews With People Living In Countries Like Japan - Holland - China - Thailand And A Lot More. And I think, after reading Marie's description of Lake Chapala, Mexico, I may just have to start saving to go, though not to live in one of the gated communities she speaks of. Sure, lots of places in Mexico look good to me -- I'm not that picky. The area round this lake has all the modern conveniences we've all grown to live with, as well as the opportunity to get a house & land (for a damn site less than one would pay for something similar here in the US) not far enough away from town to be inconvenient, yet far enough away to not constantly be reminded that it's there. Nice, eh? Mexico just keeps looking better & better. Any suggestions of other places in Mexico like what what's above, do let me know.

Yeah. I got distracted by Mexico. Now, why would Mexico be on my mind this week...? Must be that dark haired lady of the desert I've seen in my head for so many years. ...Lovely lady of the desert...inspiring...delicious! Ah, well.

Week of 7 October

We're living in darker times than you think. Let Naomi Wolf connect the dots. It's a little long, but well worth watching. Won't one woman -- a citizen of another country (like, especially, northern Europe?) -- take pity on me?

Nice. Words in English. OK. It's only nice for those of us who like studying language & think rather highly of the English language.

Left. Always left.

I think that having the Nuclear Weapon Archive readily available on-line a good thing. It's like knowing history, or, rather, not. If we don't know these things, being that we humans are a very stupid lot, we really are doomed to repeat past mistakes. Look, especially, at relatively recent British history, for instance. They'd made the same mistakes in the same order in at least three colonies, each approximately one hundred years apart, & not only lost those colonies, but a lot of lives. Had they simply paid attention to what they methodically were doing wrong, they might have saved lives, & held onto those colonies -- or at least would be on better diplomatic terms with them.

Sur la Lune is a comprehensive source for everything fairytale related. Some really good stuff.

That list guy who's site I've borrowed from before now has a new list of interest -- to me, anyway. While I'd rearrange these pics, & I've only seen part of one of them, this list of Top 5 post apocalyptic movies isn't bad.

Damn. This guy needs a little harsh reality in his life.

Can you imagine going without food for long periods? In my twenties -- & even in my thirties -- there were times, due to poverty, or by choice (I used to fast for one month a year), when I had money only on payday & couldn't afford enough to get through the week. It amazes me I didn't starve to death. But, despite the annoyance or sadness of having to go without, I think it does us good to deprive ourselves from time to time. See what some well-fed people who'd accepted a challenge to get by on $25.00 a week for food.

You know this doesn't surprise me. University Students Demonstrate Just How Easy it is to Rig an Election.

On such a night as this
When no moon lights your way to me,
I wake, my passion blazing,
My breast a fire raging, exploding flame
While within me my heart chars.
-Tr Earl Miner, Ono no Komachi's Poetry

Bwahahahahaha! Diet Coke is a spermicide.

Week of 30 Sep

Kate Nash Foundations. I think I'm in love.

This is how the rich expect us -- the undeserving 99% -- to live. All this political talk of "affordable housing", for those who qualify -- granted, a growing percentage -- is a rather small percentage of the majority of us. Besides, would you want to live in such a building? Here, in Seattle, most of what is being built are condos & hotels. Where do the rich decide to build these condos & hotels -- neither of which can the majority of us afford, let alone want to live in -- that only the rich want? They're building them where the older -- & often with character -- buildings in which we are or have been living. Is this really the world in which we want to live? Really?

What the hell has happened?

Good or bad, Private rocket achieves orbit on fourth try. Isn't it something? We'll soon be raping the hell out of other planets even before we've exhausted the usefulness of the one we're on now. Doesn't it make you all warm inside knowing that the rich will forever get richer?

Wait a minute. Ignore the fact the girl appears to be taking notes in this pic. What I find curious is the size of the example penis. I really wonder if any guy with such a narrow penis would actually find a woman who would even bother to have sex with him, let alone wait the time it would take to put the condom on -- assuming condoms come in such a small size.

I really like it when experts are stumped. Check out these 10 Most Puzzling Ancient Artifacts. Love it. And wouldn't The Dropa Stones really ruin the day of evangelicals if...?

While I don't agree with oppression, I have to admit that I miss those times. I still think of Europe as it was back then, & I wish it were a little more like that now (though without Stasi, or KGB, etc.

I'd been looking for one of these back in the 80's. You wouldn't believe the looks I'd get from sales people. Was I really the only person to ever ask for an upside down map...?

Finally. An important document defining how to Bypass Internet Censorship.


Natalie explains the connection between joggers & corpses.

Wow!
Yeah. I've been watching Roswell.