I'll say.

Maple Syrup and Monday.

I, being one of alliteration's biggest fans, have aptly named [most of] the days during the week to indicate what we'll be doing for the night. This was a creative way for me to address the rigidity that is my youngest son, who not only puts the H in adHd but also has trouble modulating sensory input.

Tub Tuesdays and Thursdays were born out of needing a way to set his expectation that I would in fact be performing an exorcism on those nights that required I douse him with water while he screamed "it buuuurrrrrns" while flailing about.

Fort Fridays and Wii Fit Wednesdays are our fun nights where we build a fort for watching movies and compete in Wii downhill skiing, respectively. These were designated so that he would quit asking to build a fort and play the Wii on multiple days of the week: "No silly, Wii Fit is for Wednesdays." It works, don't judge me.

I have, however, never been able to come up with something suitable for Monday. Tonight, the young spawn asked why we didn't have something for Mondays. I told him that I couldn't figure anything out. He thought a moment, then declared, "I've got it. It's Maple Syrup Monday. We eat waffles today."

And so it is.

All hail the Maple Syrup Monday!

All work and no play makes Greta a dull girl.

I have been super-stressed at work. Tomorrow will be the 13th day I have worked without a day off. I am salary, mind you, and I don't get paid or reimbursed for overtime. But, let me be honest ... no one is "making" me come in. They're not telling me "work the weekend or get fired", they're only moving deadlines back two-weeks with two-days' notice, that's all. That doesn't mean I HAVE TO work any more than normal. I just do it b/c I love my job. No, really. Maybe.

Those of us who are working our little fingers to the bone know why: it all boils down to The Bob.

Yes. We have a "Bob" at work. He seems like a nice enough fellow on a fact-finding mission, looking for the answers to important questions like ... why aren't we making money? Or, you know. Annoying questions like THAT. Anyway, no-one's gotten laid off (yet), but somehow he seems to have single-handedly caused mass-Melvins (aka panties in a wad, cotton in yer crack) in people that can't seem to reach around and pick it out on their own. *sigh*

His seemingly logical line of questioning has management in a tizzy. Departments are passing blame and infecting everyone with their incoherent furor faster than the Swine flu. Well, we allllll know what happens when management gets in a tizzy, right? That's right. They delegate their tizzy.

Turns out, The Bob has tickled the ass bone (mgmt) - which is of course connected to the back bone (the drones) - so the already stressed, overworked, underpaid backbone drones have to one-by-one shoulder the delegated blame and work faster than the Prozac will.


If I make it out with my job and my sanity, I will be lucky. I think.

My bad.

D0MB

Apparently I had some stupid rule in place that required I approve comments on posts older than 14 days. And then apparently there was no email being sent to me to alert me of the new comments.

So anyway here I am, with my head finally out of my ass, approving comments from the last couple of months.

Ewwwww. What the hell is that smell???

Flu shot, schpu shot.

<FluRant>

It's that time of year. Not flu season, but flu shot season. I get hassled every year by doctors, friends, family - get the flu shot, get the flu shot, get the flu shot. You have asthma, you HAVE to get the flu shot!

I ain't getting your stinkin' flu shot.

My disclosure comes tainted with a slightly rosy tint of shame because it creates a commonality between me and my foe on all other accounts - Rush Phlegmball. I can't believe I agree with that douche nozzle, of all people. Alas, I do. To hell with the flu shot, and anyone telling me that I HAVE to get it. I won't conform!

Each time I've gotten the flu shot, I get the flu. The medical community will offer some blah blah about how there are different strains blah blah and how the vaccine can't protect against ALL of them blah blah. To them I say BLAH BLAH. I don't enjoy this yearly pressure. When I get the flu, I don't just get the flu. I get bronchitis, pleurisy, pneumonia and about six nice long months of flat-out fatigue. So yeah, pardon me for not jumping on this bandwagon.

Plus, I'm not in the market for any more neurosis. Got a basket full, thanks.

Did you hear about the woman that now suffers from irreversible dystonia, purportedly after getting the flu shot? That's some crazy shit right there. But what is crazier is that now the doctors are going all defense - on Fox"News" of course - dismissing her claims and making claims of their own: that her dystonia is psychogenic, that it was not due to the shot. Why? Because there has never been such a reaction on record, silly. Right. Well, there has been other neurological disorders documented as serious reactions to the flu shot, namely Guillain Barre, and before the first occurrence of that one there had never been such a reaction on record either. I'm not saying ... I'm just saying. Who knows why that happened, if it was due to the shot or not? Maybe it was due to her high fever. Maybe it was just a freak occurrence. It's still scary as shit.

Oh, and double forget about convincing me to get the H1N1 shot. Too quick to market for my tastes. I do NOT want to turn in to one of these guys:


But, hey, you should totally get yours if you want (to look like that ^).

</FluRant>

A woman's right to privacy? Pfff.

First, let me start this post with an address to the conservative, bible-thumping IDIOTS of the world that use God as a reason to hate, practice bigotry, infringe on our civil rights, proselytize and even, murder:

FUCK THE FUCK OFF YOU FUCKING FUCKS.

I am so enraged at the infusion of your backward ideologies into American policy in so many ways - but the invasion of a woman's basic civil rights is infuriating beyond measure. Your idiocy has been a large contributing factory to my long-since gladly-retired Southern Baptist religious indoctrination and also to my choice of a much more intelligent approach, one you are perhaps unfamiliar with: REASON.

As a reasonable person, I cannot wrap their head around this: New Oklahoma law will publicly post details of women’s abortions online.

How is this not an infringement of a woman's right to privacy?

I am so sick and tired of this "abortion debate". The fact that it is even a consideration in government politics and policy makes the separation between church and state and America a laughingstock to the rest of the civilized world. Elected government officials should in no way be allowed to make this an issue in their campaigns, if we were to truly uphold our nation's constitution.

The religious right in this country like to claim that America was founded on religious principals. They, in their ignorance, often cite such things as our currency being printed with "In God We Trust", actually only added by Dwight D. Eisenhower who, after being raised as a Jehovah's Witness but baptized in the Presbyterian Church in 1953 after taking office. It is this past president that ingrained religion in to politics by adding "One nation under God" to the Pledge of Allegiance in 1954 and "In God We Trust" to our currency in 1957, not our founding fathers.

America was founded as a secular nation, allowing for the "freedom of religion", which includes the right to practice many religions or the right to practice no religion at all. People came to America to escape religious persecution, not to incite it. Shame on the American people for allowing such behavior to persist in the rhetoric of our elected officials and in to our every branch of our government, resulting in the laws that allow for said religious persecution.

That aside, let me make something clear. I believe everyone has a right to believe in what they choose. What I don't believe, is that we have a right to push our beliefs on to other people. Doing so in conversation is one thing, making it law is quite another.

Idealistic and naive as it might be, I sincerely hope that one day women of all beliefs and backgrounds will realize of how such a law truly affects them. Don't think it does not affect you because you don't live in Oklahoma, or that it doesn't affect you because you infact do not believe in abortion. It affects you because it restricts your rights based on your gender, period.

But then maybe this doesn't bother you if you are a woman with a deep Christian faith. You are a woman, after all. You were made from a man's rib - the spawn of evil because you ate the apple, and persuaded man to eat of the apple. You destroyed our immortal existence and brought to the earth sin, pain, death and destruction ... didn't you? Perhaps you like that fact that the Bible paints you a lesser human being. Maybe you are. Personally, I don't believe that, not even of you. But, like I said, you are entitled to your beliefs and I mine.

Take the specificity of the law out of the equation. Would you support such an infringement?

"New ... law will publicly post details of women’s [private lives] online."

Of course you wouldn't. Or. Would you?

State of the blog.

My absence as of late is not due to a lack of anything to say, but rather being overwhelmed by too many things to say to just choose one. My mind is racing. My heart is racing. My fingers can't keep up. So, the brain is under construction and the blog is at a bottleneck. Here's what is caught:

Religious extremists
Atheism
Humanism
Racism and prejudice
The ignorance in politics
The ignorance in people
My financial future
Plans for the future
Alpacas
Goats
Men Who Stare at Goats
Healthcare
Nutrition and supplements
Vaccinations
Reading
Thinking
Discipline
The prospect of losing my mother
The prospect of losing my father
The power of a baby's giggle
The power of a hug
Home maintenance
Friends
Enemies
Hate
Forgiveness
Depression
Oh, and, Pulp Fiction

Well there's this passage I got memorized. Ezekiel 25:17. "The path of the righteous man is beset on all sides by the inequities of the selfish and the tyranny of evil men. Blessed is he who, in the name of charity and good will, shepherds the weak through the valley of the darkness. For he is truly his brother's keeper and the finder of lost children. And I will strike down upon thee with great vengeance and furious anger those who attempt to poison and destroy my brothers. And you will know I am the Lord when I lay my vengeance upon you." I been sayin' that shit for years. And if you ever heard it, it meant your ass. I never gave much thought what it meant. I just thought it was some cold-blooded shit to say to a motherfucker before I popped a cap in his ass. I saw some shit this mornin' made me think twice. See now I'm thinkin', maybe it means you're the evil man. And I'm the righteous man. And Mr. 9 Milimeter here, he's the shepherd protecting my righteous ass in the valley of darkness. Or it could mean you're the righteous man and I'm the shepherd and it's the world that's evil and selfish. Now I'd like that. But that shit ain't the truth. The truth is you're the weak. And I'm the tyranny of evil men. But I'm tryin', Ringo. I'm tryin' real hard to be a shepherd.

*AH MAN*