Normalizing

Well, it looks like I'm not being scrutinized quite so closely anymore, so back to regularly scheduled cathartic babbling...

I've been tending to neglected sides of my independent business, things like ensuring my backups are in order and everything is running just right. My pet projects are getting attention again, I caught up on van-goth today as well as all my other unread mailing list mails. I've been archiving old files off of my server, getting through my backlog of accounting, and fishing for new clients.

Tharsis and Jazz certainly (who are ganging up on a crane-fly at the moment) seem to appreciate having me around all day again. And I appreciate working with a cat draped over the monitor while another snoozes on the carpet nearby. Much more civilised than a grey cubicle. There is an opening in the gallery two doors over (quite good landscape paintings, very vibrant) which now has me inspired. I can't wait for my book to show up (Lorra, you can read it while you are house-sitting).

I'm thinking of using this glut of free time to start seguéing out of pure tech and into more creative stuff. Time to start really pushing what I know about Flash. I've dabbled and done some technically interesting things (like a Flash front end for filling out Domino based forms) but I think it is time to start looking at it as an artistic medium.

I wish Heidi hadn't carted my Flash book off to Toronto by accident. That's why I hate lending books. All my Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy books ended up in Alberta by similar circumstance. It's funny, I swear this hoarding of books thing of mine is genetic and I have it from both sides of the family. I inherited all of my father's books and there were a lot of them. It took me years to psych up to getting rid of the crappy fiction I knew I would never read, and I still have boxes of books that I know I probably won't get around to reading for years yet I still refuse to get rid of them. Meanwhile, my mother was telling me just the other day that because she is moving again she has once again packed up all her books that she has been dragging around for decade. My siblings don't seem to have this affliction... it must be an recessive gene - if you get it from one parent you are unaffected, but if you get it from both you are doomed to shlep around and ever increasing library for life.

And in other news I had to tell Shannon that things are back on with Ivana. That was actually yesterday. She was good about it, since things hadn't really gone anywhere yet, but still, the "there is somebody else, I hope we can still be friends" thing always sucks, no matter how sincere the latter part may be. Of course a kiss and a smile from the elf to kill dragons for makes everything else unimportant.

What a Dumbass

Nor will we forget the citizens of 80 other nations who died with our own. Dozens of Pakistanis, more than 130 Israelis, more than 250 citizens of India, men and women from El Salvador, Iran, Mexico and Japan, and hundreds of British citizens.

What about us, George? What about that country that shares about 5,000 miles of border with you and represents nearly 50% of your foreign trade? What about the as yet undetermined 35-60 Canadians that were there? What about the estimated 200,000 Canadians in NYC right now? Way to go. Way to forget about your neighbours.

America has no truer friend than Great Britain.
Once again, we are joined together in a great cause.
I'm so honored the British prime minister has crossed an ocean to show his unity with America.
Thank you for coming, friend.
On Sept. 11, enemies of freedom committed an act of war against our country. Americans have known wars, but for the past 136 years they have been wars on foreign soil, except for one Sunday in 1941. Americans have known the casualties of war, but not at the center of a great city on a peaceful morning.

And way to show your ignorance of your own history, George. Nice how you praised the British and strategically failed to mention that it was them (and us) doing the attacking 136 years ago. Also way to forget about the Japanese landing on the Aleutian Islands. Did you forget about Alaska, George? That's part of the states too you know. Seems like you have a pretty major blind spot that starts at the 49th parallel. Idiot.

They hate what they see right here in this chamber: a democratically elected government. Their leaders are self-appointed.

And in case anyone's forgotten what happened in the last election, ain't this a fine example of the pot calling the kettle black? Here's a little reminder:


I'm all for going after the Taliban, it should have been done well before this. I'm just glad the Brits are involved to keep this idiot in line. Before the war really gets going, how about Giuliani for president? Or even Hilary Clinton? Or anybody with a brain.