Happy Halloween!

This is an old one of my hubby on his favorite day of the year. Check out the phone. I'm sure he's calling in dead to work.


Josie made these little guys. I think they're telling people stories around the campfire. Gather 'round kiddies and I'll tell you some stories about the mysterious third dimension.

This is not kid safe, so shoo them out of the room and prepare to laugh so uncontrollably you are rendered incapable of speech, or possibly even bladder control. Check out The 30 Most Unsettling German Halloween Costumes over at Cracked Magazine.


(It wasn't obvious to me how to go to the next page on that site. There is a series of little grey buttons at the bottom of the post. One of them is a next arrow.)

Bad Bad Putty Tat!

Indoctrinate U

After the lengthy excerpt below (which you're allowed to skip, I'm not watching) is a deleted scene from Evan Coyne Maloney's Indoctrinate U which covers free speech issues on college campuses. I saw a good deal of this film while it was still called Brainwashing 101, and it was on his website. The film is provocative, but the delivery of the message is lighthearted. He's a fair and polite libertarian guy, and I appreciate the way he interviews people and approaches the issue of diversity of thought on college campuses.

Here's an example of that fairness in his discussion of "groupthink" with Newsbusters. (Boldface mine.)

NewsBusters: Yeah, I think that's right. As far as some of these problems go, in the film you talk about that you think that if conservatives had control of academia that we would see similar instances, almost as common of liberals being, having their speech trampled on. Expand on that.

MALONEY: Yeah I think that's probably true, I mean I don't have any way of testing the theory but my theory is basically this: that it's not necessarily just ideology that causes people to do some of the things that the campus left is doing to suppress dissent today. I think that part of the problem, unfortunately is a natural human tendency towards group-think. We've seen plenty of examples throughout history of group-think and I think we've seen enough examples that you can't say that group-think is limited to one point in the ideological spectrum.

So I think yeah, I don't know what the exact numbers would have to be for the same problem to exist in reverse, but I'm sure that if there were the number of conservatives on campus equal to the amount of liberals that there are today-so in other words, if the roles were exactly mirror of what they are now-if conservatives were in the vast majority, I don't have particularly good faith that things would be much better. I think the problem is group-think that the size of the group, as it becomes more and more ideologically uniform, I think that's what ultimately results in the problem.

So yeah, I think that's why it's important to respect free speech in the abstract because, just because you might be calling the shots on campus today doesn't mean that you will be tomorrow. And if you create an environment that doesn't respect speech, well it's not going to be very good for you if that environment exists when other people are running the campus. So I think it's important purely for selfish reasons to support free speech and free thought on campus in the abstract and not have it be an ideological battle. There is nothing inherently ideological about free thought. Everybody should be actively engaged in it.

I remember back when in the Brainwashing 101 days he did a good bit of filming at the University of Tennessee. I would really like to see this documentary come to Knoxville. In order to get a screening he has to get enough signatures from your city. The Sikh student in the trailer below, Sukhmani Singh Khalsa, (in the turban obviously) is from UT.

Dora

I wonder if Mad TV has done a spoof on Dora the Explorer. I mean what kind of idiot can't solve her dilemmas. I can like solve them so freakin' fast. Jake said it right. "Dora's for idiots." And she's so freakin' loud and demanding. "Say Backpack! Say Backpack!" Well what are you going to do about it if I don't?! I want to just kick her butt. And I don't even need a map!

Alec Baldwin agrees with me.

Meow. Meow. Meow.

My kitty is spoiled. He meows a lot. His bowl never empty. Most of the time he just wants us to get up and walk down to the bottom floor and show him to his bowl. "Here my precious and most Honorable High Puttie Tat, here's your food, see?" Then he eats it while laying down. I'll have to get a picture of it.

Remember this Little Guy?

What's worse than going into your daughter's room and finding a diving beetle? Cleaning up your daughter's room and finding the jar with his badly decomposed carcass floating around. You know that little dance you do when something icky crawls over your foot in the middle of the night. My dance comes with a noise too. I'm doing all of that.

Peaceful Protest III

Of course these anti-globalization thugs have never been very peaceful, or rational. So they've hurled a brick at an Abercrombie and Fitch salesgirl. Now, I've certainly met a few smart ass little sales girls that I've wanted to thwack with a blunt object, but I don't think it would solve the world's inequalities, and I'm a nice person.








You know it could be a disgruntled customer hiding amongst the protesters. She probably got that look from the sales girl. You know the one that says "Yeah, those jeans would look nice if they weren't cutting your fat ass in half. Maybe they have something for you at Kmart." Now that's worth hurling a brick over.

Yes, I do fantasize a fair bit.

From Instapundit again.

Maybe the Little Captain Isn't So Absurd

We're watching "Say Anything". John Cusack and Ione Skye just broke up. She's crying in the car.
Jake says, "When I grow up, I'll never break up with anybody."

I said, "Well, you'll need to. Sometimes it hurts, but you have to look around before you find someone you want to stay with. I broke up with a few boys before I met your dad."

Then he looked across the table and said "They have to speak to your heart."

"Yes they do."

Spinning Lady

Okay, now that you're done looking at her nipples, check out which direction she is spinning. If she's going clockwise, you're a right brainer. If she's going counter-clockwise, you're a left brainer. For the life of me, I can't get her to go any way but clockwise. Hubby is convinced I'm insane and there's no way she can be going clockwise at all.

Here's the article. It tells me how I think. I don't see myself as having of right brain ways of thinking, since I see myself as a facts-oriented individual, but maybe I'm just too right brained to "get" the list. The part about knowing an object's function rather than its name does apply to me though, and I do fantasize a good bit.

Got this from Ace.

Update: When I read the paragraph and look back up at her, she starts going in the other direction.

This Guy Must Know My Husband

Here's a quote from a blogger in Australia...

Am I the only person talking about the real issues in this election?

Nearly one whole week has passed and I have yet to hear a single candidate from any party say word one about the pressing, clawing, biting issue of the Undead.

The writer is John Birmingham. I wonder if Australia has a Zombie Squad?

Got this from Instapundit of course.

Here's a link to the whole article. You should really read it. If you know my man, then you'll get a real kick out of it. Can hubby be living a double life down under in some journalistic zombie hunting Australian militia? Anything is possible. But I think we should keep our Zom-boys closer to home.

I know the Instapundit link isn't working. Dunno why. Bush's fault I guess.

I Struck Internet Gold

with this website.

I accidentally happened upon it through a strange episode of serendipity. Among other things like art, people, and my kids, I love two things: watching "You Are What You Eat", and playing around with my guitar. I'm trying to eat healthier so I can have more energy to deal with just about everything, so I watch the TV program. The guitar part includes searching the web voraciously for guitar tablature, audio, and video. I have a very hard time finding tab on the web, especially with alternate tunings, so this takes up a good deal of time I could be using to actually play.

So today, I was watching "You Are What You Eat" on BBCAmerica, and thought I might look up Gillian Mckeith's recipe for seed loaf (It's like a meatloaf, but made from beans and seeds). I typed "gillian seed loaf what you eat" in my search engine. The first site that came up was Howard Wright's. He exposed this Gillian McKeith lady as a bit of a flim flam artist; who not actually a medical doctor, but uses the prefix Dr. before her name. So she was misleading me a bit. Well I do love the truth too. I never felt the need to send off my family's poo to Ms. McKeith to find out if we're going to have heart attacks in our sleep, but she does show me some interesting ways to prepare vegetables. So I'll still watch, but I'll be a bit more skeptical of her apocalyptic declarations.

Anyway, I noticed on the top line of this blog, there were links to a massive collection of his guitar tabs. Oh heavens! Some of these tabs are Joni Mitchell, and her alternate tunings. Then links to other great music sites. Unfortunately there were no recipes.

I'll be spending a lot of time there using it as a search engine, so I'll put his site up on the links in my sidebar. He has piano music on there too. Check it out. I know some of you will really like the music selection, because I actually know some of you. You know who you are.


OH. Maybe someone (Ron?)can answer a tab question for me, since I didn't see it on Howard's tab instructional. I'm learning a song right now and one measure confuses me. There a part where I'm supposed to pull off from the second fret to the open string. But I don't know how to play it just right because I haven't encountered this particular thing before. It shows me the 2, which I play, but between the 2 and the 0 there's a little 2 in parentheses. Like this 2 (2)-0.

Einstein Talking

This is so cute to me. My favorites are "Lookitchoo! You're all wet!" and "Shake shake shake, shake your booty." He would probably get annoying after a while, but apparently his owner is a real sweetie, because that's all you hear coming from him. Or I think it's a her.

Makes me wonder what my parrot would say if I had one.

Probably "Joe-See! Hey Jake! Hey Jake! Hey Jake! You know what? You know what? You know what? AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH! SORRY! SORRY! SORRY! GetcherbuttinhereNOW! I said I was SORRY! Hey Jake, hey Jake, hey Jake, you know what?!"

I'm not sure I want a parrot this verbal.

So, dear friends, what would your parrot say?

High Levels of Lead in Lipstick

Here's the article.

Excerpt:

ATLANTA (Reuters) - Lipsticks tested by a U.S. consumer rights group found that more than half contained lead and some popular brands including Cover Girl, L'Oreal and Christian Dior had more lead than others, the group said on Thursday. The Campaign for Safe Cosmetics said tests on 33 brand-name red lipsticks by the Bodycote Testing Group in Santa Fe Spring, California, found that 61 percent had detectable lead levels of 0.03 to 0.65 parts per million (ppm).

Lipstick, like candy, is ingested. The Campaign for Safe Cosmetics, a coalition of public health, environmental and women's groups, said the FDA has not set a limit for lead in lipstick.

One-third of the lipsticks tested contained an amount of lead that exceeded the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's 0.1 ppm limit for lead in candy -- a standard established to protect children from ingesting lead, the group said. Thirty-nine percent of the lipsticks tested had no discernible lead, it said.

When I was pregnant with Josie, I worked selling cosmetics at a department store. Ultima II is a Revlon company, so I will check them out. There was also the Iman line, she had really pretty lipsticks. I don't know who owns that company. Color Me Beautiful was my line, I wore two colors Cinnamon and Terra Cotta by the Color Me Beautiful line just about every day, and if it came off, it was reapplied. I never wiped off my lipstick before I ate either. After working there for so many years, I just thought I looked sick without makeup. I wonder how much it costs to get a tube of lipstick tested for lead?

This is the bit of the article that really got my attention:

Lead can cause learning, language and behavioral problems such as reduced school performance and increased aggression. Pregnant women and young children are particularly vulnerable to lead exposure, the group said in its statement.

Well, that's pretty much what we're dealing with.

Update: It may all be a bunch of hooey.

Captain Absurd Questions The Physics of Peanut Butter

Mother, wouldn't it be cool if peanut butter could melt heat?

Captain Absurd, In Awe of Dust

Mother, did you know dust has parts of people in it?

Yes, dear son. I imagine dust has parts of most everything in it.

Even broccoli?

Yes, son. Even broccoli.

More Illustrations

First the froggy waits.

Then the froggy jumps!

Bye Bye Ponytail

I got a cut and a color. Big deal, you say. But I've looked like a ponytail soccer mom for far too long. I'm an arteest for crissakes! So I got this really edgy thing done- red on top, dark brown underneath, and choppy. When I got home, my husband told me that my hair looked Scully on top and Milla on bottom, then he acted like he needed to leave the room:) I guess that's a good thing.

I got the cut and color in exchange for a drawing I did a while back. I would never have spent the money I got for drawing a portrait on a hairstyle. It would have been frittered away on stupid stuff like batteries and barrettes. So it kind of paid for me to do the barter thing this time. I've had bad luck with bartering in the past, but this time it worked out.

Yes, I like my hair. That's what makes this post blogworthy. I mean how often do you hear any girl say she likes her hair?

On ChimpyMcHitlerBurton and His Ilk.

There's a new study out of Germany that says when chimps are given a choice, their decisions are rational, and driven by self-interest. That wouldn't have sent up such a red flag to me if there hadn't just been a similar published study on Liberals and Conservatives and how they make decisions. Even the term "homo-politicus" was used in the title of the article.

I'm waiting for the grand conclusions that will be drawn from this study. The one with the hypothesis that since conservatives are driven by self-interest then chimps are conservatives, and therefore George Bush is actually more or less a chimp.

You know there are folks already gathering their chimpanzee subjects and putting them in simulated voting booths.

That's funny to me.

Then on the other hand I seem to remember the Nazis were very fond of painting Jews as driven by greed and self-interest, and also had a strange fixation with the caricature of the Jew as a gorilla. It always troubles me how less rational elements of the left use that same Nazi propaganda tactic when protesting Bush, painting him up like a chimp.

History: lather, rinse, repeat.

Yes, I know Americans used similar propaganda, but today we look upon it with scorn, unless that is, the propaganda is used against someone like the President. We certainly wouldn't paint the terrorists who intentionally kill innocent people as raging gorillas. That would be intolerant.

Oh wait. I think the study says that chimps are more rational than humans. Makes sense. Never mind.

Ernesto Tamayo

For Wenso because she let me know he would be in town. Here's a YouTube. So fast! Does it sound La Cuckarachish to you? (There's no official spelling for that, so I did my darndest.)

Ouch.

Makes my stomach sink.

Dream On by Aerosmith on Classical Guitar

I don't know what the "crowd's" damn problem is. But he must be playing at a freekin' Wal Mart or something, because this loud ass lady won't stop chuckling with her girlfriend and that limp-wristed applause makes me think the audience not only didn't have a musical bone in their body, it's very possible they had no soul. But if you can cope with the morons, you're in for a treat. Played a bit imperfectly, but the listeners didn't deserve perfection anyway.




What a fitting title. If I ever tell you I can play like this guy, that will be your response. "Dream on, Chica."

My Fish Soup

With the kids out of town I was able to go to the grocery store and get everything I need. Usually I'm trying to get in and out as fast as I can because they distract me so badly that I get nervous that I will forget something. If I move quickly, I'm less likely to forget, right?

I also have had the opportunity to experiment with recipes this week since the picky ones are out of the picture.

Today I made some very healthy fish soup.

Here's the recipe. I don't measure. I also don't know a damn thing about fish. There's salmon, shellfish, then there's everything else. So I used tilapia, cause it was on sale.

Two filets tilapia
onion
zucchini
fennel bulb
vegetable broth (I used chicken, because that's what I had)
dry white wine (mine wasn't quite dry enough, so I drank it, then my glass was dry and I was sad. I did put some in the soup.)
garlic
thyme
tomatoes (we don't do tomatoes in my house because hubby is instituting an anti-tomato pogrom, which coincides with zombie preparedness and religion somehow, so I used prego tomato sauce which doesn't count because the tomatoes have already been brutally pulverized, and this pleases hubby greatly.)

Slice the fennel bulb lengthwise thinly. Chop the onion and zucchini. Put it in the saucepan with vegetable stock, garlic white wine. Bring to boil. Reduce to med and simmer for 10 minutes.

Add the fish and tomatoes (or sauce) and thyme. Then cook for 5 minutes.

All done.

I ate it and thought it needed a little lemon herb seasoning. Then I got really adventurous and added some Jim n' Nicks habanero sauce.

It was good. I'm sweating.

An Illustration

Here's an example of one of my unfinished illustrations that will be in an as-yet-unpublished yoga book for children.

(I hope someone from a big time publishing company is reading this blog.)