There are old folk tales about fairies coming and taking away a baby or small child and replacing it with a fairy child, a changeling. You could tell the baby was a changeling by its odd look, it's strange habits, etc. Changeling children weren't necessarily always bad, but to the superstitious people of the Middle Ages, they weren't good.

It seems I've got a fairy child, but I'm taking it a lot better than my Medieval ancestors would have, and I'm in a far, far better position to help her fit into the world around her. I've always known that Zoë is eccentric and quirky, but in the past few months it's become clearer and clearer that she's more than just eccentric.

Continue reading "Zoë the Fairy Child"…

Got a spam in my spam filter today with this subject line:

C:\Documents and Settings\BigMattie\Desktop\N-ssp\subject-camera.txt

I have got to stop listening to the news. I never used to, because it frequently upsets me. It's always bad news, but lately, it's been horrible. Right now I'm sniffling after I sat here and cried over the death of a Palestinian child I never knew and never would have. I think what got to me was the big sister, maybe six or seven, who looked so very sad as she held up a picture of her beautiful, smiling little sister, now dead. It just broke my heart.

I don't understand why people think war is so great. It's not great. It's bloody awful. God, I hate people. I really do. I hate that people wage war on each other, that they kill each other like they do. I hate that they commit horrible crimes in the name of whatever government, religion, philosophy, or movement. I hate that a little girl, sitting in her own house minding her own business, is shot by random bullets. I hate people. I hate war.

Call me unamerican if you want to, I couldn't care less. If hating war (ALL war, not just the current one in Iraq) makes me unpatriotic, I couldn't give a flying fig, and you know the phrase I'm REALLY thinking here (I'm keeping it clean because I choose to do so, not because I don't know plenty of dirty words and foul language, and in multiple dialects and a couple of languages). War is evil. Some would argue it's a necessary evil, but evil is evil, necessary or otherwise.

People, in general, are evil, too.

I've got to stop watching the news. I really do. I've got enough stress from my own stupid little life without taking on the stress of the world. Oh, damn. I'm crying again...

"To announce that there must be no criticism of the president...or that we are to stand by the president right or wrong...is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public." --Theodore Roosevelt

I'm not into conspiracy theories in the least. That's what makes the content of of The Project for the New American Century really scary. It's not made up, it's not paranoia, and it's not fantasy. It's real and many of the people who worked on it and set it into tangible form are now in the Cabinet of the President of the United States.

Maybe you won't find it as chilling as I did. Honestly, if I didn't know this wasn't a conspiracy theory site or some sort of joke site, I wouldn't have believed it, though...

If there's one thing that the Web has changed about modern communication, it's that we've at long last done away with the archaic idea that publishing is the private playground of people who have ideas, experiences, and opinions. As thousands of online journals and weblogs have demonstrated, the important thing is to make sure that you let your friends and the world at large know what you're doing and thinking, even if you're not actually doing or thinking anything.

So say the Brunching Shuttlecocks. And to make that job easier, they have created The Apathetic Online Journal Entry Generator to produce such great entries as:

Not much on my mind to speak of, but such is life. Today was a total loss, but I guess it doesn't bother me. Whatever. Pfft. My life's been basically boring recently, but that's how it is. I can't be bothered with anything these days.

You've probably seen this, but in case you haven't:

You know the world is going crazy when ...
the best rapper is a white guy,
the best golfer is a black guy,
France is accusing the US of arrogance,
and Germany doesn't want to go to war.

Geez! I just got flamed for being on the same side as someone! I apparently confused him with sarcasm or something, because he really tore me a new one, and for NO REASON!

My post was in response to one about how some group of people have repeatedly taken down Al'Jazeera's website with Denial of Service attacks. My sarcastic reply was that it was childish (and I wondered if they'd hang toilet paper on the Iraqui Embassy next) and that they weren't really doing anyone any good, they weren't helping the Coalition troops, and they weren't promoting any sort of "American" values by this action. Mind you, I was a little bit less clear because I was being sarcastic in that way that I do, tongue firmly in cheek.

However, because I have previously voiced less than 100% support for George W. Bush (look, I didn't vote for him, and I'm under no obligation to like him, all right?), this person assumed I was making anti-American comments. I wasn't. I was making anti-morons-who-take-down-servers comments.

You know, I'm getting really sick of being accused of being anti-American. I AM an American! I don't go around telling people I'm Canadian (although I could, and it'd make my life easier), I haven't said anything nasty about the troops (in fact, quite the contrary!), and I haven't advocated violence or any other sort of negative action.

I'm to the point where I feel resigned to this war and there's nothing more to be done about it, so all I can do is hope and pray it comes to a swift and merciful end as quickly as possible. I do support the actual men and women who are fighting, as well.

Is it really now a requirement that you like George W. Bush in order to be a "real American" or something? If that's the case, when I get my Australian citizenship in a few months, I may as well give up my American citizenship, because it's a requirement I can't possibly meet. I don't like him now, didn't like him before, will probably never like him. That doesn't mean I hate America or hate Americans. It doesn't mean I like terrorists or support Saddam Hussein. It doesn't mean I'm ashamed to be American or that I intend to stop being American (unless they really do enact a "like George W. Bush" clause in the requirements). I'm proud of my American heritage, and of the fact that my family has a long and rich military tradition.

Damn, this is pissing me off a lot more than it should. *sigh* See, I don't mind getting bithched out for stuff I really DID do or say, but getting reamed for something I didn't say just because someone has made the assumption that I'm saying something I truly am NOT... that really angers me. It's an old and tender "trigger" of mine, this assume and abuse tactic.

Where is Raed? is a weblog maintained by an Iraqui living in Baghdad. It hasn't been updated in a while, though. Probably he's without internet service. Still, it's a great read and I'll keep an eye on it waiting for him to come back. If he comes back. For all we know, Raed was in that marketplace where so many civilians died...

Iraq's mobile network - Qualcomm to follow the tanks? Granted, this does appear in The Register, which isn't the most errr... unbiased of publications. Still, it's quite something to read. Some people's stupidity knows no bounds.

Guess who the Featured Artist of the Week is at Poser Pros?

If you guessed ME, well, you'd be absolutely correct.

Got this today from my ISP (Telstra Bigpond, Telstra being the biggest, partly government-owned phone company). I just thought I'd share. I found it somewhat amusing.

A number of members have written recently to ask why Telstra BigPond is randomly displaying advertising windows on their computer screens while they surf the Web.

The short answer is: despite all appearances, it is not us!

Let us explain what is really happening.

Almost all Web sites feature advertising. Most Web sites rely on "banner" advertisements - those long, rectangular adverts you see across the top and bottom of Web pages.

However, a new trend in Web advertising is "pop-up" advertisements. These are adverts, of varying sizes, displayed in their own Web browser window. They often look like mini Web pages (rarely occupying more than a quarter of the screen).

These pop-up adverts generally appear at set intervals - either as soon as you access a Web site, after you leave the Web site (by clicking on a hyperlink that takes you to a new site, or by closing the Web browser window), or after you have been on the site for a few minutes.

As the pop-up adverts appear, seemingly randomly, in their own window, and because most members use Web browser software supplied by Telstra BigPond (which display a branding statement along the lines of "brought to you by Telstra BigPond" at the very top, left-hand corner of the Web browser window), some members conclude that the advertising is put there by Telstra BigPond. It is not.

Telstra BigPond has no control over the content of advertisements displayed on non-Telstra Web sites, or over how they are presented.

My only comments to this, other than a bemused smirk, are: 1) Since when are pop-ups "new" technology?! 2) "Almost all" websites have advertising? Where the heck are they browsing? Most of the sites I visit don't have banenr advertising on them. 3) That's what they get for branding their distributed browsers.

"Can't we skip all that disturbing night-vision bombing stuff and go straight to the jubilant liberation footage?"

If you are pro-war, you may not be amused by this week's issue of The Onion. Well, you might be, if you have a sense of humor about it all, I guess. I found it pretty funny, personally, but I really like satire and it's well known that I love The Onion.

Most amusing headline (to me) is the Point/Counterpoint, which goes like this:

Point: This War Will Destabilize The Entire Mideast Region And Set Off A Global Shockwave Of Anti-Americanism

Counterpoint: No It Won't

Then again, "Sheryl Crow Unsuccessful; War On Iraq Begins" is also pretty amusing. Quoting the article, "Making the decision to go to war is never easy, but it's that much harder when you know Sheryl Crow disapproves," White House press secretary Ari Fleischer said at a press conference Monday.

Fact is, The Onion makes fun of most things, including anti-war sentiments. Fortunately, I have the uncanny ability to see the absurd in almost any situation, and I don't mind laughing at myself...

And you know, I'm sure that John Howard and George W. Bush are both profoundly moved by the things I write about them here in my blog, too. I'm sure they're reassessing their positions on, well, everything, because it's known that I think Dubya is a shockingly bad diplomat and Howard is a brown nose...

I just read a statement, written in absolute seriousness, that since many of the performers who were appearing at the Academy Awards had spoken out against the war and yet the government was sending National Guard to keep an eye on the proceedings, the ones who had spoken against the war (which, of course, means you're anti-American) should "stay home" and shouldn't be allowed to have that protection.

In other words, for exercising the very American virtue and right of freedom of belief and freedom of expression, you should be ostracized by the government.

Or something.

Oh, and they ended their message with the phrase, "America. Love it or leave it."

Funny, I thought that the United States was the sort of nation where people were allowed to speak out, even against the government, without having to give up their citizenship.

How foolish of me to think that the Constitution and the Bill of Rights applied to people who disagree with George W. Bush.

Guess I'll just have to leave, eh? Oh, wait, I beat them to it...

It's an animated game of strip Russian roulette. Yes, really: Strip Or Die. WARNING: It's on the gross side (blood spattering, etc.) and if you lose (i.e., you shoot yourself), your opponent laughs at you. Oh, and there are people taking their clothes off, but, errr, it's pretty low resolution and not particularly realistic. Still, if you're offended by animated nudity and violence, give it a miss. Otherwise, it's actually fairly entertaining (at least, I found it to be, but I've got a twisted sense of humor).

Lovely. Hate mongering in the name of Jesus. Apparently, Mr. Rogers was bad because he didn't talk about homosexuality (and declare it to be wrong, of course), and since acceptance of homosexuality is why God has done so many horrible things to the United States recently (dunno why He did it in the past, but now it's homosexuality, apparently), Mr. Rogers' failure to condemn homosexuality made him complicit in the terrorist attacks of September 11 and the recent shuttle crash.

No, I'm not making that up.

Of course, this IS the infamous and vile Pastor Fred Phelps and his evil little flock of hatemongers, so I'm not all that surprised, but to blame Mr. Rogers for the acts of foreign terrorists? That's just sickening. Fred Phelps has always made me sick, but this really, REALLY turns my stomach.

Normally, I'd never presume to speak for God or His appointed representatives, but I'm absolutely positive that Jesus guy wouldn't have much good to say about Fred Phelps and his followers.

"The biggest problem facing any democratic system of government, and the concept of majority rule, is that the majority of people are idiots."

Hehehe. I think that about sums it up, at least from my point of view. I think that basically about 80% of people suck, but then, I'm cynical as hell and I don't really like people all that much (although I do frequently like individual persons).

Unfortunately, I don't have a name to attribute that quote to. I mean, I know who said it, but the only name by which I know him is a nickname. I think I'll ask him if he'll let me have his actual name so I can toss the quote into the database.

I've mentioned many times that I'm a military brat. I've probably mentioned that my first husband was a military man, too, so I've been a military wife (and two of his siblings served in the military, plus one sister was married to a career military man). I don't think I've mentioned that my father served in Viet Nam.

I was quite little at the time, about five years old. I knew he was "going to Viet Nam" but I didn't really have much idea what or where that was. I used to wave at every plane I saw going overhead for the entire time my father was away, because we had taken him to the airport and I thought he might be on any plane I saw (and he was in the Air Force, so there's kid logic for you). Most of my friends had fathers or uncles or older brothers who were going there, too, so it was pretty normal to me.

My father wasn't really on the front lines, but if his stories can be believed (and some of them can; I think he exaggerates now and then but the substance is correct and true), he was in real danger more than once. I sometimes wonder how my life would have been different if he'd been killed in action, but that's a fruitless pursuit of thought because it didn't happen. He came back after his tour of duty and went on to eventually retire with a chest full of ribbons and a sleeve full of stripes.

In fact, the military tradition in my family is very strong. My maternal grandfather was a Navy pilot who died during WWII. A couple of great grandfathers on various branches were servicemen in WWI, and the tradition goes on pretty far back. My mother, in fact, is a Daughter of the American Revolution, which means she can prove that at least one of her ancestors fought in the Revolutionary War (in fact, she can prove more than one).

So, as much as I may think George Bush has made a pig's breakfast of his apprently blind desire to take out Saddam Hussein (and I do think he's a shamefully poor diplomat), and as much as I think war is a great human tragedy that causes untold heartache, trauma, and pain, I have absolutely no animosity toward the people who actually have to be out there doing the fighting.

When you join the mlitary, you don't have the ability to say, "Oh, sorry, I find this politically inappropriate, so I'm just going to sit this one out, okay?" You can't say, "I object on ethical grounds and I won't participate." That's desertion, and it's punishable by time in prison. When you join the military, you understand that you're going to do your job, and if that job is fighting in an unpopular war, well, you still have to do it. Popularity isn't really a good reason for being discharged from the military (although desertion will probably get you a dishonorable discharge, as well as the prison term).

So when I see anti-war protestors being hateful to military personnel, it bothers me. Just add insult to injury, why don't you? They're doing their job, and they may feel about it the same way you do (military personnel DO have brains and feelings, you know, and they may have opinions that are contrary to those of the government), but they don't have the option of protesting in the streets or throwing eggs at the Prime Minister's car. They can voice their opinions if they want to, but they'd better go on to do the best job they can, because that's the contract they have with their employer, the government. They don't deserve abuse because the war is unpopular. They'll get plenty of trauma and damage just doing their job.

There's a good reason for the saying that "war is hell". Don't take out your anger and abuse on people who have been to hell and back. Direct your anger where it belongs, and that's to the governments who are engaging in all of this. Right, wrong, or indifferent, they're the ones who have to bear the responsibility. That sergeant in a tent in the desert with a gas mask in his pack is just some guy from some remote part of the United States who saw the military as an opportunity to get out of his small town and get an education. He didn't plan or choose this war (and he might not have, had he been consulted).

So if someone asks me if I support our troops (and in this case, "our" includes American AND Australian troops, because I'm pretty much bi-cultural now), I'd say I absolutely do. I worry about their families, and I hope they and their families come through this awful war in one piece and with their wits intact. I do care, and I do support them.

As for the governments that have sent them there and the utter and complete lack of diplomacy that led to this war... Well, there aren't too many diplomatic ways to say what I think of George W. Bush, Tony Blair, and John Howard at the moment.

Molly Irvine's Who's next on the insult list? is an interesting read. Who would have thought the United States could seriously piss off the Canadians? That George W. Bush sure has a knack for making people mad at him. What a guy.

I am not a liberal. I am a very solid MODERATE, with slight liberal tendencies in some (but not all) areas. I've been a moderate for many years. I am not a Democrat, nor am I a Republican. I've been registered as an Independent every election in which I've voted.

I just really wanted to say that. I'm getting really tired of the ad hominem attacks I keep seeing from conservatives and warmongers (and I use that term to mean those who seem to like the idea of war, not necessarily for those who simply believe it's necessary in this case). War is ugly, painful, traumatic, and extremely violent. You don't have to be a "liberal" to understand this fact and to be deeply sorrowful that it's come to this...

This is an actual exchange from a place on the web that I won't name (nor will I name the participants):

Person 1:
WTC attack was by Bin Laden, not Saddam.

Person 2:
So we should JUSt go after al-quida and leave the rest of these wonderful Terrorists alone. Untill they attack us, then we can go after them huh? Yes your right we should wait around untill there are thousands of dead Americans twitching in the streets from VX gas or Anthrax before we do anything. Great solution.

Do you see this kind of brilliant slippery slope thinking here? One person says "those attacks weren't carred out by Saddam Hussein" and the other moron immediately attaches a bunch of crap on there that was never stated nor even implied.

Here's an analogy:

Person 1:
I don't eat red meat.

Person 2:
So you think we should all become vegans and stop wearing leather and eating dairy products, is that it? We should all start protesting in the streets and chaining ourselves to trees? Great plan.

This is why I don't participate in political arguments in forums. Dare to disagree, or even just point out facts, and suddenly you're giving aid and comfort to some real or imagined enemy. Idiots. Bloody idiots.

Oh, and lest you think I'm just blowing smoke, here's another actual comment (and it was apparently completely serious) from another brilliant mind at the same forum:

Not that I support the U.N one Iota, it's full of Commies. That are against the U.S. and the other free Nations.

Oh, and just for the record, I do respect honestly held opinions if they're based on someone's intelligent perception of facts, even if I disagree entirely. However, "The U.N. is full of Commies," isn't quite what I consider an intelligent observation...

Clay Bennett sums it up with this cartoon.

John Howard, Australia's Prime Minister, is giving a press conference as I write this. George W. Bush called him this morning and Howard has officially committed Australian troops to war. Oh, yes, he says that we're not officially "at war" and he's giving a bunch of statements about how Australia (and the United States and Great Britain and whomever else is going to get into the fray) don't need the United Nations to approve, that there's legal basis to just invade and drop bombs. I have to wonder about this. I'd like to know what these legal grounds are, frankly.

Some 94% of Australians are dead against Australia acting without the approval of the United Nations Security Council. Howard is acting against the will of the people and against the will of the international community.

That's all I'm going to write. I've started to write more and have to keep going back and deleting it. I'm deeply, profoundly saddened and not a little bit angry.

Regular readers will be aware of my position on George W. Bush and his impatience to start a war. In a nutshell, I DO think Saddam Hussein is dangerous and a dictator, but I don't think he poses anything like an immediate threat to the world and he is disarming (slowly, reluctantly, yes, but it does seem to be happening), and, well, I happen to think that maybe the United Nations Security Council is a body worth listening to. I also think that issuing big ultimatiums to the world is not the act of a capable statesman...

Anyway, I don't want to rant about that. I want to give a link to an article I found fascinating: Addiction, Brain Damage and the President: "Dry Drunk" Syndrome and George W. Bush". Agree or disagree (that's certainly your prerogative), the article is a very interesting read in any event.

I've always thought that George W. Bush has a lot in common with my father (who was never much of a drinker, but who has all the qualities of an abusive "dry drunk"). Now that I've read this article I see just why Dubya has managed to piss me off so much, when normally I don't actually give that much weight to matters of politics. The reason Dubya ticks me off so much is because he reminds me so much of dear old dad. Yippee.

According to the Sex Goddess quiz at emode.com:

Heavens above -- you are an absolute goddess in bed! Your deeply sensual nature and sexual confidence drive men crazy with desire. Persephone, goddess of the night, is your inner deity and she guides your every move.

Well. There you go.

Okay, this is kinda weird and sneaky. cool-2b-real.com is a website that looks, at first glance, like your basic adolescent girl general interest site. But a bit more investigation shows something a little more, well, strange.

On the front page, notice the sponsor in the lower left corner (you may have to scroll down to see it). Then check around the site a little. There's a poll that asks "What kind of beef do you most like to eat with your friends?" (Huh? Like teenaged girls think about dead cows a lot?) Then there are some "fun, easy" recipes (and that page has a "hamburger" motif on the background image, I should note), where ALL the recipes include beef. The "fitness" information of course includes lots of resaons why you should eat beef, and you can create "party invitations" with such "themes" as "Burger Town".

And let me guess, if you eat beef you'll be popular, pretty, and get better grades, right... ?

At least they told the truth with this spam. Subject line:

No penis enlargement exercise required

Australia's most famous painting is Chloé. Well, it may not be the most famous (I think there are a few by Tom Roberts and Sidney Nolan that are better known), but it's probably the most infamous.

In a nutshell, it's a picture of a naked young woman. It was painted in 1875, and eventually ended up in the National Gallery of Victoria, where it managed to attract a lot of controversy and negative attention from certain moral extremists (typical of the later Victorian era).

The thing that makes this remarkable is not this story, which isn't particularly interesting. It's also not the picture, which really isn't that unusual. The thing that I think makes this story uniquely Australian is that this very famous and valuable painting is now hanging in a pub in Melbourne.

To be fair, it is a pub with a significant history, and it's a nice place where you can get a good meal, but it's still a pub.

Naturally, I've eaten there and had a look at Chloé (which is how I know it's not that remarkable as paintings go). It's a really big painting, just for the record, and in the frame it's probably eight feet high. And it's hanging right there on the wall in one of the common rooms in Young and Jackson's.

I dunno, it just says something about Australian culture to me. Just what, I'm not sure, but I like the fact that one of Australia's most famous (and valuable) paintings is hanging in a pub...

This was the subject line on a spam that got caught in my filter today:

A clean intestine is your friend.

Really? Is that anything like "You've got a friend in Pennsylvania?" or "Can we still be friends?"

In one DAY, AOL blocked one billion spam messages. This doesn't count how many got through the blocking filters to users, either. On an average day, AOL users report 5.5 million messages via AOL's "report spam" option.

What this means is that it would take one person hitting the delete key every second for 31.7 years to delete all of the messages! With ten people hitting the delete key every second, it would still take 3.17 years. That's over 3 years of doing nothing but hitting the delete key- no eating, sleeping, or anything else. (Thanks and acknowledgement go to John Hoagland for that interesting bit of mathematical information, btw.)

And people wonder why we spam haters hate spam so much... ?

I should know better than to make political comments in certain forums. I really should know better.

Yes, I think George Bush has an agenda, and that he's willing to defy the United Nations to carry it out. Yes, I think he's one of the worst statesmen I've seen in a long time. Yes, I think his running the national debt into the trillions is irresponsible. I'm hardly alone in these opinions.

HOWEVER, I ALSO think Saddam Hussein is diabolical, dangerous, and a repressive dictator. I've never thought otherwise. I don't think he's a nice guy. I don't think he's fully complying with U.N. requirements to destroy weapons. I do think he's a threat to an awful lot of people. I am totally undecided on the link to terrorism (haven't seen any convincing evidence one way or the other), but I definitely think he's a rabid dog who would happily ravage the entire region if he could.

I'm pretty sick of being called a "Saddam lover" or whatever stupid thing people want to accuse me of. I hate to break this to the feverish pro-war types but just because I think Bush is going about this rather stupidly does NOT mean that I support, like, or admire Hussein.

The world is not black and white. Someone can, despite some people's beliefs to the contrary, be against something without necessarily being for its opposite. This kind of primitive thought is known in formal logic/argument as the Fallacy of the False Dichotomy, and there's a reason it's a fallacy.

What is so damned difficult about using apostrophes?

I'm not talking about stuff like the it's/its controversy. That's difficult to remember. I have a mnemonic to keep them straight, and that's "his/hers/its". Meaning, if it's a possessive (belonging to it) it doesn't get an apostrophe, because his and hers don't get them either. If you use an apostrophe, you're saying "it is".

But what the hell is it with putting a damned apostrophe in EVERY word that ends with an S? Who decided this was a good idea? Why can't people see how bloody stupid it looks to have apostrophes all over the place?

The one that bugs me the most is when people use an apostrophe for "hers". They write it as her's. HELLO?! Do they also write hi's? (I hope not.) The worst thing is when I see this misuse of apostrophes in advertising copy, which makes it look legitimate (well, to some people; to me it just looks like the people writing and producing the product or ad are morons).

The world is becoming more and more text based. As people use the internet more, text and spelling is becoming more significant as a means of communication. So why then do written communication skills seem to be going right down the gurgler?

End rant. Sorry. It's just one of those things that ticks me off. Or perhaps I should I say it tick's me off...

1. If you love something, set it free. If it comes back, it will always be yours. If it doesn't come back, it was never yours to begin with. But, if it just sits in your living room, messes up your stuff, eats your food, uses your telephone, takes your money, and doesn't appear to realize that you had set it free....... You either married it or gave birth to it.

2. Reason to smile: Every 7 minutes of every day, someone in an aerobics class pulls a hamstring.

3. They keep telling us to get in touch with our bodies. Mine isn't all that communicative but I heard from it the other day after I said, "Body, how'd you like to go to the six o'clock class in vigorous toning?" Clear as a bell my body said, "Listen fatty....do it and die."

4. My mind not only wanders, it sometimes leaves completely.

5. The best way to forget all your troubles is to wear tight shoes.

6. The nice part about living in a small town: When you don't know what you're doing, someone else always does.

7. Just when I was getting used to yesterday, along came today.

8. Amazing! You hang something in your closet for a while and it shrinks two sizes!

9. Sometimes I think I understand everything, then I regain consciousness.

10. I read this article that said the typical symptoms of stress are eating too much, impulse buying, and driving too fast. Are they kidding? That's my idea of a perfect day.

(Thanks to Xena for these.)

Hey, if you get an email promising you millions of dollars from Nigeria, don't fall for it. It could lead you to commit murder.

I found the Human Virus Scanner kind of interesting. It tests to see which symbols/images you recognize. I don't know that I necessarily believe the results, but here are mine:

Human Virus Scanner

The virus that have infected you will be show here along with their cures, if known.
Viruses you suffer from:

Linux
Install the latest version of Microsoft Windows. Learn to love it.

Junkfood
Eat some real food. Something which you can identify the source of every ingredient, not the point of manufacture.

Gaming
Life is not a game. Roll 3D6. On a 4 or more go out and do something with your life.

Religion
Read "God's Debris" by Scott Adams (yes, the Dilbert guy)

Politics
Stop caring!

Brand Names
Having a well-known name doesn't make it good.

Hippyism
Free love is passe and potentially dangerous, and patchouli smells like cat piss.

Environmentalism
Consume more stuff! It's easier to buy new stuff than to recycle.

Viruses you might suffer from:

USA (70%)
Rule, Britannia! Britannia rule the waves! [repeat]

Free BSD (90%)
The GPL isn't that bad really. Adopt a penguin at the zoo.

Discordia (90%)
Buy a suit. Invest your money. Eat hotdog buns on a friday.

Computer Games (60%)
Stop staring at the screen and get some fresh air. You should see a doctor about the RSI in your thumbs.

Macintosh (60%)
Use a mouse with more than one button.

Gosh, I was SO fooled by this subject line:

lunch tomorrow? 7200347 2324qKMl3-669Tr-14

I actually thought that one of my friends was sending me a lunch invitation and adding on a bunch of random numbers, so I opened the email and immediately wanted to do business with the person who sent it to me!

NOT.

I took the Harvard Dialect Survey and it was really interesting. Looking over the results, I see that my dialect is primaily Northeastern and Midwestern (big surprise there; I spent most of my life in Illinois, and a good chunk of it in New York, plus my mother is from Ohio and my father is from New York City).

If you're American, go take it. It doesn't take that long and it's quite fascinating. I ended up having to put "other" and make a comment for a lot of them. My dialect is kinda mixed. And now it's actually somewhat mixed with Australian dialect, as well...

Mr. Rogers has died. I wept. When I told my best friend (who is, in case you haven't been keeping score, American), she cried, too.

Mr. Rogers was a wonderful role model for me. He was always polite, he was kind, he was gentle. He was never condescending (although people joke about that with "Can you say sarcasm? I knew you could!"). I learned stuff from Mr. Rogers, believe it or not.

Mr. Rogers tod me that I was special, that he was proud of me, that I was liked just the way I was, that I was unique and that being unique was a good thing. Certainly that's not something I heard from my parents. I don't think I realized how much Mr. Rogers' words affected me until I started thinking about some of his songs and noted that I could still sing them pretty much from memory, songs I haven't heard since I was a little girl. Next to my Grandmother, I think Fred Rogers was probably the strongest postive influence in my childhood. How strange, how sad, but how wonderful that he was able to reach me, a child he would never physically meet, and touch my heart like that...

His death felt like a personal loss to me, like I'd lost someone I knew and loved. And I did know him, in a way. And I certainly loved him.

The person who shot the last female California condor to be born in the wild and to remain living in the wild deserves a special place in Hell. Possibly someplace that their eyes are continually plucked out by condors would be good...