Good Quote

"If you have come here to help me,
You are wasting your time...
But if you have come because
Your liberation is bound up with mine,
Then let us work together."

- Aboriginal Woman

thanks to Chris, for passing it along

Deadlines

Why do people need deadlines? Why is it once I promised someone a book review on Aug 10 2002, that made me actually sit down and read the book? Is it a compulsion to keep one's promises?

See? I'm almost done.

Oldtimer, New Blog

Hey, Faz has a blog. Absolutely beautiful design, just beautiful.

faziarizvi.net

eMusic

Chris recommended eMusic to me as a great site for downloading legit mp3's. It's subscriber based, and I signed up last night for a trial membership. After one CD download, I'm pretty sure I'll stick around. Download was easy, though to get a whole CD at once [instead of personally clicking one song at a time] I had to download and install Zinf, a FreeAmp player that works in Win and linux [yaaaaay]. Sure, the download of the CD took forever, but that's because I was dialed in using a 56K modem. What'd you expect?

Taking the downloaded mp3's and burning them to a minidisc was a piece of cake, once I looked up where the playlist was.

Oh, what CD? Liona Boyd, The Spanish Album. I love 'latin' music but never buy it because I just don't know the genre.

Wedded Bliss

I stood up with my parents this past Saturday as they tied the knot -- literally, as a handfasting was part of the ceremony. The immediate family gathered together [meaning direct offspring and their families, basically] and sent our parents off on the Cruise Ship O' Marriage. [The LOOOOOOOOOVE BOAT, dee dee de de de da da duh dum...]

It was great. I can't believe they're married! It's so cute!

Everyone mostly managed to hold it together, weepy-wise, which is good, because every last one of us forgot tissues.

All That

I was watching "She's All That" on TV last night (why? because I can't read and knit at the same time, that's why), and there was just a fabulously funny line early on in the film.

To explain, The Most Popular Guy In School (and Smart, Too) for reasons I shan't go into, tries to become friends with the Angry Unpopular Secretly Beautiful Arty Girl (Mourning Her Lost Mother), and at one point, AUSBAG(MHLM) turns around as TMPGIS(aST) is, from her perspective, basically stalking her, and asks,

What is this, some sort of Dork Outreach Program?

Just one of those little throwaway cinematic moments you treasure for a lifetime.

Rancho Lotsa Cats

I just got a plea for money from Evelyn Gray, who I know because of past WebGrrls affiliations. She's been doing animal rescue for some time and has just finished a big project that involved saving 200 cats, many of whom are feral.

70 of them have been placed at a volunteer facility called "Rancho Lotsa Cats", which is in Valley Center in San Deigo County, California, USA.

RLC was full before they agreed to take this new batch, and being volunteer-run they need money and supplies. I know it's tight for some of us and more tight for others, but any amount would help. Those donating in international funds, please contact me to get in touch with Evelyn. I'm sure we can work something out.

Checks for any amount in US funds can be made payable to "Rancho Lotsa Cats" -- please note "Monterey Park Cats" somewhere in or with the check -- and sent to RLC directly at

Rancho Lotsa Cats
27932 Valley Center Rd.
Valley Center, CA 92082

for those in the area, their phone number is (760)749-1710.

From Evelyn:

This may piss you off. Write me off, but please send money anyway. You may have your own animals to support. Please send money anyway. You may know that I have been involved in cat rescue and helping feral cats since 2000.

For the past few weeks I have been working 24/7 with a small group of people to help an 86 year-old woman keep her home and save close to 200 cats. The cats were going to be killed if we could not place them. The rescue community rallied and we got them all out, but one sanctuary, Rancho Lotsa Cats saved 70 of the feral cats. This was a very generous act on the part of this sanctuary because they are full, they knew these cats cannot be placed in private homes and they would have been killed. The cats will live their lives out naturally in a safe environment with caring people.

I am now asking for your generosity. I need to keep my promise to Rancho Lotsa Cats and send them some much-needed money to support these cats we rescued. I am not going to sugar-coat it --- I would like at least a $25 check made payable to "Rancho Lotsa Cats" (tax-deductible) but please give more, forego Starbucks or Jamba today and send $5 or $10, but please send something.

Rancho Lotsa Cats
27932 Valley Center Rd.
Valley Center, CA 92082

(760)749-1710

don't forget to mark your checks "Monterey Park Cats".

We Have Come A Long Way After All

For those days when you feel like feminism has made no advances:

• Wives
• Another Woman
• Play House
• Your Mother

Doesn't mean we're done -- no evolutionary process is -- just pointing out that my, yes, the world has changed in many ways, hasn't it?

From This Modern World.

A Good Idea

"I find empathy a much better foundation for morality than faith."


Unknown

Only In America

I'd like to suggest to every citizen that we spam the TIPS program. Call in everything. "My neighbor's dog looks at me funny, it must be a terrorist." "My apartment got trashed, it must have been terrorists". And the ever-popular "He/She looks Middle Eastern, they must be a terrorist."

'Cause that's really what it's all about, kids. Irrational fear, especially of things we don't understand, like cultures whose immigrants resist assimilation while still striving for the American dream. Oh, the horror.

Let's just get it over with and illustrate the sheer stupidity and logistic impossibility of a program encouraging half the nation to snitch on the other half.

This is America, dammit, the land of the free and home of the brave. Show some frickin' backbone.

You want to do something to make the world a better place? Safer for you, your family, your community? Join the Peace Corps. Join Habitat for Humanity. Work to end hunger, educate and improve the lives of others. Strive for racial equality. Stop terrorism from even starting by easing the burdens that lead so many to hate. Add hope to the world, and that hope will be delivered back to you tenfold.

Published

A short story by yours truly will be appearing in issue 16 of Peridot Books, an online magazine. Weeeee!

Talk About eXtreme Sports

Rock climbing? Tap dancing with piranhas? Jumping out of airplanes with or without parachute? Chicken squat.

You want a sport? I'll give you a sport.

SpamAssassin-baiting.

Yes, the latest in a long line of Geek Sports ™, SpamAssassin-baiting encourages you to think fast, push the envelope of spamlike content, all while writing something a human being would be willing to sit still and read.

SpamAssassin-baiting™

The goal: to write a human-readable email that makes something resembling sense, while garnering the highest possible SpamAssassin score you can achieve.

Bonus points for: how funny you can be doing it.

[Tweaking SpamAssassin in your favor is frowned on, so don't do it.]

Kudos to Senor Dollmont, parent and patron of the fine art, sport, and alternative lifestyle of SpamAssassin-baiting.

The Reverend Sidra Vitale

I received my official ordination documents today from the Universal Church Triumphant of the Apathetic Agnostic. I'm so pleased, proud and honored.

For more information about the Church......

Ordered Moss

NASA Science News for July 16, 2002

Samples of fire moss that travel onboard the space shuttle do something odd: they spiral. Scientists say its a clue to the fundamental inner workings of plant cells.

Full Story >>

18 Years Later

My folks have decided to get married[*]. I think this is terribly cool, and extremely cute. Not many kids get to stand up with the 'rents when they tie the knot.

Yes, this is mostly a matter of Papers Governments Find Important -- namely tax returns and health care -- which is one of the reasons they hadn't married before -- but who cares. I'll get all weepy during the ceremony no matter what.

[*] Why, yes, if you do the math you may note that I and my twin are either:

a) not related to both parents in question -- were we left on the doorstep at the age of 13 by Kurdish yak traders? Or was it a Mongol horde? Details are fuzzy.
b) illegitimate -- a concept that eludes me as a rule, it's not like we're purebred puppies, so what gives?
c) some other option not springing immediately to my mind -- feel free to be imaginative!

Pick the one you like most (or least).