Happy Thanksgiving

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Health Care

Dear Congresspersons,

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

Love,

Marilyn

Sparkly Pink Ninja

'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

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

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

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

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.