Legos

When I was but a youngling I played with Legos and they looked something like this...



And I built things that looked a bit like this...



But welcome everyone, to the 21st Century of Legos!



My little cousins big presents this year were all Lego related. And I must admit, I was a bit jealous... they've some sweet Lego projects. Apparently, Legos are no longer the giant box of little tiny 2x2 or 2x3 or 2x whatever sized blocks. Now they're full on architectural mini projects of wonder, complete with color instruction booklets and all the blocks necessary to build the Taj Mahal completely out of Legos. My youngest cousin got some kind of Anti-Terrorism mobile airplane thingy and his older brother got this robot that you build and can program from the computer. It's all kind of amazing to me.
The only little tiny problem I have with this new generation of Legos is that it kind of take some of the fun of creativity out of the mix. Sure, my Lego creations never came close to the splendor of the Lego Eiffel Tower you can buy on Ebay now for $180 USD, but I had fun in conceptualizing my own designs for spaceships or houses and then coming up with a totally unique (plus some other adjectives... abstract, ugly) final project.
But on the flip side, I suppose this teaches them how to follow instructions and all that fun stuff. Plus they seem to enjoy it and my mother seemed to enjoy helping them find the right pieces, so I'm not going to complain.

A quick post on Atheism

Watch the video from 1:3o on.

The Colbert ReportMon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c

The Word - The Unbearable Lightness of Supreme Being

Colbert at Christmas
Colbert Christmas DVD

Green Screen
Bill O'Reilly Interview

Text from the sign:

At this season of THE WINTER SOLSTICE may reason prevail.

There are no gods, no devils, no angles, no heaven or hell. There is only our natural world. Religion is but myth and superstition that hardens hearts and enslaves minds.

I'm not sure how I feel about this sign. While I think that they should absolutely have the right to put it up, I question the wisdom of doing so. It comes off as a bit hostile. There are ways and means to achieve converts and equality, but this is not it. It will just create outrage.

Dinosaur, post 2

And now for the big question:



Dinosaur or Cleopatra?

I was talking to my mother last Friday after taking a shower and the conversation went a little like this:

Rachel: This head towel thing makes me feel like a Dinosaur.

Gwen: You look more like Cleopatra.

Rachel: Cleopatra? She didn't go around with towels on her head, did she?

Gwen: I don't know... someone back then did I'm sure.

So which is it? You be the judge.

Cleopatra

New Layout!

It is nice and wide now! Though, not as colorful as I might would like.... I will probably switch back soon.

Dinosaur, post 1.

I also agree with T-Rex. I don't buy into the whole theory that gender neutrality in language will lead to more gender equality (Chinese patriarchal society and female infanticide debunks this pretty well I think), but I enjoy using they as a third person singular just as a matter of convenience.

Ten things that make me happy.

1. Not being in school.
2. Showers.
3. Family coming for the holidays!
4. PRESENTS.
5. San Pellegrino.
6. Knowing I've been accepted to college.
7. Honeybread.
8. These yummy Zicam dissolving thingies that make me fee better.
9. Having the time and will to read.
10. TEA!!!
    

Because of religious intolerance...

I had the day off school!

Oh dear.

I've just finished writing my latest English paper. In doing so I've made an astounding discovery. Everything I've written this year (with the exception of my short story... but there is still time to change that) has been about how the main characters of all these works are suffering from some kind of existentialist crisis and life has no meaning. I fear I may be getting predictable.

VOTE MUNGER FOR NC GOVERNOR!

Also...

... be sure to vote in Minatory Swimmer's first ever blog poll!

In the meantime...

I know it pains you all that I don't write as often as I perhaps should. So, to help ease any withdraw symptoms you may be experiencing I give to you: http://groovo.org/

This is a nifty little player run by the extremely good looking people over at trianglerock.com. I'm a fan of local music and find this to be a great resource for bands and upcoming shows. The player is updated every weekish, so be sure to check back for new stuff often!

Fairness...

I ragged a little on Joe Biden in my last post, so I guess it is only fair I make a little jab at Sara Palin.

“It is from Alaska that we send those out to make sure that an eye is being kept on this very powerful nation, Russia, because they are right there.”

Yikes! Are you sure they speak English in Alaska?

It has been a while....

I know that I didn't finish my last series of blogging, and probably never will. Suck it up.

To make up for my prolonged absence, I bring you amusing articles!

The first on here is from Reuters, which is always good for a laugh... article here. Summery quote:

An underdog in Sunday's election for governor of Bangkok punched and kicked a television journalist Thursday, saying he was provoked by tough questions during a live interview.

What would America have done if Sara Palin had just decked Katie Couric halfway through that interview instead of sputtering her way through it...

But let's step away from politics for a moment here.

Now, I could write a nice witty passage right now leading into the next bit of news I want to share, talking about how, in light of politics and the elections, we sometimes lose sight of the people that really contribute to our society. But, I'm not going to. Instead, I'm just going to tell you that it's time for this years Ig Nobel prizes to be awarded! Check out the official website here. Previous awards have gone to:

• Karl Kruszelnicki of The University of Sydney, for performing a comprehensive survey of human belly button lint -- who gets it, when, what color, and how much.
• Karl Schwärzler and the nation of Liechtenstein, for making it possible to rent the entire country for corporate conventions, weddings, bar mitzvahs, and other gatherings.
• Jack Harvey, John Culvenor, Warren Payne, Steve Cowley, Michael Lawrance, David Stuart, and Robyn Williams of Australia, for their irresistible report "An Analysis of the Forces Required to Drag Sheep over Various Surfaces."
• Robert Faid of Greenville, South Carolina, farsighted and faithful
  seer of statistics, for calculating the exact odds
  (710,609,175,188,282,000 to 1) that Mikhail Gorbachev is the Antichrist.
  [REFERENCE: "Gorbachev! Has the Real Antichrist Come?"]

I love all of these parody awards, one day I hope to own a Golden Raspberry Award for bad film work of my own.

And finally, does anyone know if "It has" can be abbreviated "It's"?





OH! and Quote of the Month: "When the stock market crashed, Franklin D. Roosevelt got on the television and didn't just talk about the, you know, the princes of greed. He said, 'Look, here's what happened.'"

Haha, Joe Biden.

Tennessee Trip: Days 2&3, Pt. I

I'm tired, but really want to give you a good analysis of days 2&3, so you'll have to wait for part II for any real substance. I forgot my camera connector thing, so all I have from my trip at the moment are the following two pictures taken off my phone:
Taken Just before the Toga party and...

This... a real life White Castle, taken in Nashville this afternoon. I also saw a Mellow Mushroom in downtown Nashville. I hadn't realized that there were others... though it is possible the Nashville and Raleigh versions were not affiliated. The Nashville one was different looking... I wish I had been able to snap a picture of it.

Tennessee Trip: Day 1

I'm currently writing from my hotel bed in Murfreesboro, Tennessee... a lovely city and #84 on Money's 745 best cities to live in list.

There is very little to say about the trip thus far... got to the airport without incident... has some disappointing Caravel soft serve... slept on the flight... got a rental car and all that nonsense, it was all very easy. The two most exciting bits I suppose were me getting stopped and yelled at by security because I ran through the metal detector and I had my phone in my pocket and our cool waiter at Outback. I got grilled pineapple and he was a very nice guy, a student, and Ron Paul supporter. I also made a tower out of the coasters on the table.

In more interesting news.... Barack Obama runs for public office in Brazil... six of them actually. Article Here.

A Victory for the Minatory Swimmer

Today I accomplished a feat that none has dared before!

I went and entire day at school BAREFOOTED... and got away with it! None of the authorities said a word to me about it... not one! It was beautiful.

Unfortunately it was cold and rainy today, so my poor feet were a bit chilled by the end of it, but it was worth it.

I really want a pair to red Chucks... sigh...

A Quick Thought About the Election...

In browsing the headlines and news tags, one can't help but be assaulted by hundreds of mediums saying, in effect, "OOO! SHE DID THIS!" or "THIS IS WHAT SO-AND-SO SAID ABOUT HIM!"

It makes me wonder... who do they think they're writing to? I think what is happening is more preaching to the choir than anything else. They're writing for an audience that already agrees with them, and audience to will read their articles and say "YEA, SEE!?! I TOLD YOU!?!". They're not going to convince anyone like this... the people that oppose their views are just going to stick up their noses and launch another "But your candidate did this!" and nothing will have been accomplished.

I feel sorry for the people who have yet to make up their minds. It must be incredibly boring/ frustrating.

A Victory for the Penguin!

There is a lovely article in today's N&O. I particularly like Dr. Munger's statement on the last page, speaking to those who might feel a vote for Munger is a "throw away" vote. Article Here.

Swimmer's Gotta Eat Too Man!

As anyone who watched the Olympics at all this year probably has a pretty good idea, by way of Michael Phelps, as to how much a swimmer must consume to survive.

This is the best defense I can give for Kirsty Coventry, who recently took 100,000 USD from Zimbabwean President Bobby Mugabe. In case anyone has been in a coma the last few years, here is a little taste of the current situation. Price Controls and other idiot moves have pretty much left the country's currencey worthless and their economy in shambles.

But don't get mad at Kirsty. Get mad at Mugabe. For many things. Not just this. But also for this too, because if you can shell out 1ook to an Olympic swimmer, you ought to be able to throw a little bit of that towards not killing the rest of your country. Story here.

Intro/Two Party System Biases

Hola, I'm Garland as Rachel so graciously described in her previous post. Although, she did forget some of my previous incarnations such as Howard Hughes, Richard Franklin Lennox Thomas Pryor III, and of course, my most famous stint as Martin Luther King Jr. I have tried to spread fair independent ideology throughout the ages which i will continue with on tonight. The libertarian party, recognized as a legitimate third party as well as the largest political party outside of Democrats and Republicans, has been prevented from putting their candidate, Bob Barr on presidental ballots in Oklahoma and Pennsylvania. In Oklahoma, a lawsuit was filed due to its restrictive ballot access rules, which "are contrary to the First Amendment right to petition one's government for a redress of grievances."(Bob Barr Wiki Page). Also in Pennsylvania, the issue lies with the GOP filing a lawsuit to prevent Barr from taking his rightful place on the ballot; they claim that the Libertarian Party waited too long to place his name on teh ballot. The hypocritical notion of this is that in 2000, when Bush lobbied unsuccessfully to get McCain's name off the primary ballot, McCain said of the situation, "I would never consider, ever consider, allowing a supporter of mine to challenge Governor Bush's right to be on the ballot in all 50 states." Now, how is this any different from challenging Bob Barr's right to be on the ballot? And why challenge it? Because he filed it past the deadline. However, the Democratic and Republican Party have not even submitted their packages to be on Texas' ballot and by the own logic of the GOP Party, McCain's name should not be on the ballot there as well. Also, there is a lot of debate, about just that...the presidential debates and whether or not Bob Barr should be allowed to participate in these debates. Why should a legitimate political contender in the presidential election not be allowed to participate in debates and get his party platform and help get the main parties to adopt parts of their politicies? Over 70% of independents polled say that he should be allowed to take party, and a majority of Republicans and Democrats agree as well. This country needs more of a challenge to the two party system if we are to maintain any kind of political integrity and more importantly, to get more and exceedingly diverse ideas and solutions to our nation's problems.

我們歡迎你！！

I would like to take this time to official welcome my dear friend, partner in crime, Minatory Swimmers personal poet and now co-blogger, Garland, to Minatory Swimmer.

A brief Biography:

Garland has always been. It is possible to trace his many incarnations throughout history. From that little mishap with the dinosaurs, to helping integrate baseball as Jackie Robinson, Garland has left his footprint on the course of existence.
Famed for his great, and sometimes dangerous, sense of humor, Garland made perhaps some of his most lasting impressions as the great wit, author and printer, satirist, political theorist, politician, scientist, inventor, civic activist, statesman and diplomat, Benjamin Franklin and in perhaps his most famous avatar, Yeshua , sometimes known as Brian, the prominent early CE carpenter and stand up comedian. Due to some unintended consequences, Garland does not like to talk much about the former persona, but if you are interested, a biographical film may be found here.
As for his most recent incarnation... well, I'll let him tell you about that. To be sure his poetic accomplishments ( see Theodore Seuss Giesel) and numerous other talents will be a marvelous addition to this establishment. We are lucky to have him.

Change of Plans

I originally planned on writing a lovely piece on censorship (or Censorshit as I like to call it) and the Chinese censors recent infatuation with website blocking but got halfway through and lost interest. So instead I give you this, which is much more entertaining:



In other news, cable.

Recently we just got our cable "upgraded". We did not ask for this upgrade, I believe I speak for my entire household when I say that we were perfectly happy with our old cable. This new "upgraded" cable however, is crap. It keeps on restarting itself, taking several minutes out of program watching and deleting things off the DVR. I would like to take this time to express my great displeasure with Time Warner Cable and with the government. I know it is more convenient to have a cable monopoly but I can't help but feel like we would get better and cheaper service if the consumer had more choice. There was an article in the paper about the numerous complaints the companies have received regarding the new service, but thus far nothing has been done to fix problems. We are not amused.

On a happier note, OLYMPICS!

I have yet to decide whether or not I want Phelps to make history... I keep going back and forth on the issue. All I know is that holy crap!?!?! Where did the Chinese Women's 400 Free Relay come from?

It's Bastille Day 2008!

Surrender your puny native minority languages and Donnes-moi tes chaussettes. Maintenant!

The Midwest is a Lovely Place!

I had an excellent 4th of July vacation, partying it up with the family! I also went on a college visit to Carleton (the alma mater of a lot of my family) and learned some sweet things about the Midwest!

First I learned that the people on the Northern Peninsula of Michigan talk cool! The various Midwest accents have always made me happy. They also remind me a bit of Welsh accents. Anyways, one of my cousins told me about this movie and I kind of have to see it... just watch the trailer.



Also.. Ice Shantis.

Apparently they are far cooler than I originally realized.

They have these festivals that are kind of like the Burning Man of the Northern Midwest. Well, not really... but it is still pretty cool!
More pictures here.

The Carleton visit was cool... I really liked the atmosphere of the school. I don't know if I could handle the weather though. In the words of the admissions officer: "We only have about 2 weeks of life threatening cold here..." O_o!

(PS, the robot is an ice shanty, the picture just was not cooperating with me...)

Oh, It's On!

I am not a confrontational person. I rarely get in fights or arguments of any kind. Now, admittedly, this is not because of my sweet, pacifistic nature. It is because most of the time I don't care.

Well now I do.

SUBJECT VERB AGREEMENT PEOPLE!!!

Spending a week in hell (aka, Tar Heel Girl's State) really opened my ears to problems of this nature. At first I figured the problem stemmed from idiocy. I then scolded myself and decided that it must have to do with either poor education or linguistic backgrounds rooted in nonstandard English.

But then I spent a week with my family in Wisconsin.

AND THEY DO IT TOO! These are well educated affluent people! WHAT HAS THE WOLD COME TO!?!?

Now, in all fairness it isn't all the time. In fact, it is only one very specific situation. Maybe two, depending on how you look at it.

And that situation is as follows:

"There is" or "There's" followed by either a plural noun or a series.

It drives me mad.

I was explaining to one of my cousins how this was a pet peeve of mine and he asked me to give an example of a subject verb agreement mistake. I did and he look at me and asked, "That's incorrect?" I wanted to cry.

As the week went on I noticed that almost everyone around me made these mistakes at one point or another and I now have two additional theories as to why this mistake is so prevalent.

• With this particular construction the subject follows the verb so the speaker does not consider it when conjugating the verb. He/she speaks one word at a time instead of considering the sentence as a whole.
• We love contractions. "There's" is easy to say and rolls off the tongue with ease. "There are" on the other hand is awkward and difficult for some people to say without disrupting the natural flow of speech. I myself tend to say something closer to "Thererrr" when talking with family and friends.
  

I think what really put me over the edge on this particular issue was an article in the economist. I'm not even sure what it was about... Mugabe I think... some issue that made me angry to begin with. But what really got me fired up were 5 grammar errors I found, including one "There is/are" subject very agreement mistake.

So I have decided to declare war on the improper usage of "There is" and "There's".
I beseech thee, JOIN MY CAUSE! Whenever you hear someone make a "There is/are" mistake, please correct him/her!

Disclaimer: I know my grammar is not perfect, and I'm sure you could find plenty of mistakes made be me, but for the most part I think I do pretty well by the English language!

Also, I kind of wish that English had a neutered 3rd person singular article. I am always saying "they" when I know I should say "he or she" but I just can't help myself!

Mwahahaha!

So, I'm pretty much on a blogging roll here.

I just got an email from a coach wanting to know when would be a good time to call and talk to me.

So, like a good college student hopeful I went to the beacon of knowledge known as Wikipedia to learn more.

Found out the basics... nothing too appealing, Roman Catholic Affiliated, 4,000-ish undergraduates (a few more than I would like), dark blue and gold colours.

But then I saw this.

A college with a master plan? I don't even care what it is, the fact that they are calling it "the Master Plan" is beyond cool. Sign me up!!

3!?!?!?! Aka: A link to someone who can put the horrors of Girl's State far more elegantly than I could ever dream of doing.

From the lovely Miss Jessie Freese: I'm Proud to be an American (Murican!!)

Bless her (in a totally non religious way...), she even spelled Murican right!

I hope she doesn't mind me mooching off her. I feel that it is necessary though, in order to give a comprehensive overview of exactly what Girl's State is and prove that the horror was not just in my mind.

Also... JESSIE RULES! (and is a ninja)

Zmog! 2 posts in one day!?!?!

Someone who shares my feelings about Bob Barr from KPC, one of my favorite blogs. Post here.

My post here.

Looking back at it I'm kind of disappointed in myself for not mentioning the stache...

Depressing stuff from the U.N.

I'm not going to pretend to know a great deal about the going ons of the U.N.

But this particular article has not done much to contradict the many negative things that I have heard about them.

You can find the article:
here

"The ban came after a heated session on Monday, when the representative of the Association for World Education (AWE), in a joint statement with the International Humanist and Ethical Union, denounced female genital mutilation, the penalty of stoning for adultery and child marriage as sanctioned by Islamic law."

Now I could understand why Egypt, Pakistan and Iran would get all up in arms if they were criticizing Islam for something like praying towards Mecca or their belief that Allah is the only god, but female genital mutilation (a dangerous, painful and basically cruel practice)? The stoning of adulterers (something that only applies to females in most places and the burden of proof for a man accusing his wife of adultery is really a joke)? Child marriage (I kinda want to put parenthesis after this one because I put them after the other two, but I don't really think that I need to elaborate)? These are legitimate issues that can/are causing harm. Oh, yea and free speech. That one is important too.

Real Quick...

I'm tired.

I'm sunburned.

But I am home.

A few quick links before I hit the bed...

RIP George Carlin. http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSN2339172520080623

Zimbabwe is a scary place. http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSL2026827820080623

Nap time

List of good things about this camp so far

At my mothers suggestion I have decided to think positively. Here are some of the good things about girls state:

• The Female soldier speaker was really interesting. I enjoyed hearing about here experiences in the military. She had a very unique point of view and I think she did an excellent job of addressing us.
• The speech by the dean of admissions at Catawba. While he gave no new information, his speech was entertaining none the less.
• Singing in the chorus. I'm not all that good and totally inexperienced, but it is fun all the same!
• Drawing during meetings. See previous post.
• Hanging out with my friends, I've really enjoyed messing around with my RCHS friends and the new ones that I have met through my roommate.
• The food. SO GOOD! (Chalifoux ref.)
  
• Free time
• The weather is nice... not boiling and not too cold.
• The campus is really pretty.
• Listening to the different regional accents.
  
• Elephant poo paper. Google it.
• Other things...
  

On the bright side...

The artistic fruits of this week.

Girl's State, day 2

Boring and not fun. I'm eating way too much. It isn't healthy.
I do enjoy some of the people here. My roommate and her friends are really cool, as are my school friends.

We broke into committees today to try and come up with some bill ideas... it was kind of a fiasco.

I tried for a while to get people to make bills that actually had substance. Topics included: lowering the drinking age, making the Gardasil (sp?) vaccination compulsory for middle school girls, limiting eminent domain and annexation, the creation of a school voucher program, banning the display of cigarettes in gas stations (which Canada did), and the legalization of civil unions/ gay marriage.

My thinking was that I need not necessarily support these bills, just come up with good and interesting things to debate. In fact, I didn't agree with half of what I proposed (the only things I agree with are lowering the drinking age, legalization of civil unions/ gay marriage and limiting eminent domain and annexation in case you were wondering... actually I'm not sure how I feel about school vouchers). NOT ONLY did I have to explain to EVERYONE what voucher programs and eminent domain were but they just... gah!!! It was like I was speaking a foreign language! So I ended up just giving up and doing some awesome doodles while my group members wrote bills allowing only cute boys to come into our state and requiring that all lifeguards be hot. I continued to doodle, occasionally stopping to help them express their middle school ideas in heightened vocabulary or just in general bill format. It was really depressing. At least I got some cool doodles out of it.

The whole program is majorly flawed though fundamentally which I will expand upon later.

Went swimming. That was good. Talked to someone on the Catabwa team... she loves it and I'm going to meet the coach Thursday.

Girl's State and Fun links!

I'm going to be at Girl's State till Saturday, so I'll try and give daily updates about the goings ons here in addition to some fun current events stuff.

First Girl's State.

Can't say I'm enjoying the program to much as of right now. I have described it to several people as a kind of American Hitler Youth and have found no objections to that label thus far. So maybe that label is a bit harsh, but lots of things about this place scare me. They're all ultra patriotic about everything and lots of the counselors are ill informed. One of them was unable to verbalize the differences between Republicans and Democrats.

Most of the people running this joint are pretty religious too. It's kind of annoying. We keep hearing "it'll get fun later on in the week!" and "you'll start enjoying yourselves later" but I'm not convinced. My counselor is not cut our for being a leader in my opinion. She is timid and just can't handle all us girls.

Another thing that has been bothering me is the language usage. A number of the staff (especially this one girl) have horrible oratory grammar. Well, not horrible I guess... better than my Spanish grammar... but still, it is kind of painful to listen to. She says things like "There is red and blue shirts..." and "most favorite". I'll discuss why I think she makes the first mistake tomorrow (this comment not directed at Jessie if you are reading this as I have already discussed it with you at lunch today!)

Good things:

I really like my roommate. She is nice and fun to talk to. I also like being able to hang out with my friends on occasion. I joined the chorus which is really fun, even if I don't have a clue what is going on. The songs we are singing are all patriotic (not that there is anything wrong with that...) except one. I know pretty much all of the patriotic songs but since I'm and alto I have to sing it in a funny way that I have not encountered before. It makes for an interesting effect.

I also like hearing the different accents and speaking quirks people from different areas have. My room mate and her friends who are all from the beach like to use nouns and adjectives and there are also slight pronunciation differences between different people, especially on the vowels "a" and "o".

Now link of the day from Language Log (one of my favorite blogs!)

http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=248

great story!

Reuters Reels in the Alliteration!

I'm not entirely sure how to pronounce "Reuters". Rooters? Royters? I like that last one because it sounds a bit like "Coyters". Pronunciation is however irrelevant in my world... well, so long as I'm doing it, it is (I will pronounce "facade" "fack-aid" dammit!)

So, back to the original reason I mentioned Reuters in the first place. I have a Reuters oddly enough subscription on my Google homepage, I get three of their headlines. It's pretty 1337.

This story caught my eye, simply because of the alliteration. I have a thing for alliteration and also... ummm does it seem to anyone else that the Mumbai government is acting like a 3 year old? If there is a legit risk then I don't see a problem with a government warning its people about it. Even if the chance of something bad happening is so miniscule less than 10 people have died in recent years (no mention of injuries that did not result in death) there's no harm in being warned. So suck it up Mumbai!

Also, It was a smellly, smoky (more alliteration!) day in the triangle. I woke up and was like, hmmm. I can't breathe. Breathe being a word I'm not sure I have ever typed before and was not sure how to spell it until Firefox told me there was an "a" in it. Story (about the smoke, not my spelling) here.

Modest Mouse and The National

Just got home from seeing Modest Mouse and the National open for REM. It was quite excellent.

I didn't stay for REM for two reasons, 1) I'm not a big fan and 2) I have to wake up absurdly early and my family wanted me home at a reasonable hour.

We had lawn seats which were quite excellent, possibly better than regular seats, and much cheaper.

The National played first. We got there a bit late so we missed some of their set, but what I heard I have to say it was just OK. Not terrible by any means, but only fair. It was enough to please established fans such as I, but I don't think they made any new fans.

Modest Mouse on there other hand was FANTASTIC. They had a very energetic and banjo filled set that could keep me from dancing. All in all it was a great show.

On a personal note, we had a girl who joined our team in the fall die last night. She had a rare agressive bone cancer that spread from her liver to her lungs and killed her in about 8 months. She was 9 years old. I can't begin to imagine what her family is going through. Life is not fair.

When food's involved...

Amazing things can happen as evidenced by this story.

I think this deserves a ROFLMAO

Money Quote:

"It's cratering," she said of the restaurant system. "Candidly, I don't think the taxpayers should be subsidizing something that doesn't need to be. There are parts of government that can be run like a business and should be run like businesses."

Get up, get out

Raleigh (my town) has a pretty ballin' music scene. Just this year I've really grown to appreciate local music.

Quite possibly my favorite local find thus far has been The Rosebuds. They have a pretty sweet, kind of electronic, kinda of... a lot of stuff. I don't know how to describe them... they kind of vary a lot. Get Up Get Out for example is a very dance worthy song, where as Silja Line (my favorite of their songs) is slower... darker. There is without a doubt a lot of New Wave and Dance influence in their music and I kind of love it.

I suggest checking out Night of the Furies (their more recent album) on iTunes.

Bob Barr on the Colbert Report

I occasionally enjoy watching an episode of the Colbert Report or the Daily Show. They're good for a laugh.

A few nights ago while watching an episode of the Colbert Report, I was delighted to see they were interviewing Bob Barr, the Libertarian presidential nominee.

My delight was heightened even more by the fact that Colbert called Barr on his support for DOMA and the Patriot Act as well as his switch on Medical Marijuana.

The interview itself did not to do much to improve my opinion of Barr... he came off a bit boring in my opinion but I think he did a good job of handling the questions posed to him about the Patriot Act and Medical Marijuana. He made no comment regarding DOMA, much to my disappointment. I'm not really sure there is anything he could say to satisfactorily defend his support of that particularly vile bit of legislation. He scares me, I'm not gonna lie.

I wanted Mary Ruwart to get the nod, and I will be unable to vote in the upcoming election so it doesn't make a great deal of difference what I think about Barr. I'm just scared that my party is going to be run over with social conservatives... Linos? before I'm even legally allowed to vote. I'm all for us getting more attention on the national stage and drawing in more support but not at the expense of the party's identity.

A significant number of Libertarians are... unsatisfied... with Barr. Many were quite upset that he was nominated and did not show much of a willingness to support him in the general election. Hopefully this does not lead of any splintering or other things that could damage the party in the long run.

Best quote from the interview: “Bob Barr has a long, Libertarian voting record. In Congress, he supported such privacy-friendly, small-government initiatives as the Defense of Marriage Act, which made the government small enough to fit in a bedroom.”