banner pic courtesy of astropod_five and jessickah at hafkas

Spent a while finding & crunching numbers this morning and came up with the following. Not new to those on FB or twitter, but, hey, might as well spread the word, right?


2,792: deaths in 9/11 attacks
about 25,000: children under age 5 who die of hunger-related causes per day (that's 73 million children since 9/11/01)
$311 million: military spending ONLY in Iraq and Afghanistan per day (average since 2001). This doesn't include the operating cost of the military elsewhere.
$25 million: federal money on all foreign assistance per day (2005 estimated average). This doesn't take into account as much as 50% of spending that basically gets mismanaged into oblivion before it even makes it out of the US.

Drink when:

Ryan gazes into the middle distance while a client is talking to him
Ryan looks like he might be about to burst into laughter while a client is talking to him
Ryan wears something that makes you want to suggest a Paranormal State/What Not To Wear collaboration
A medium confirms everything the team has already discovered
Serge looks concerned about something Ryan proposes to do (drink twice if Ryan actually takes this into account)
Ryan introduces the solution to the case with an apparent non-sequitur, like "I'm remembering that ..."
You're tempted to fill in the space after "Director's log" with "Supplemental. Stardate ..."
Chip queens out
Michelle is AWESOME
Chad flips his shit (drink twice if this occurs outside of dead time; chug if he "has to get some air")

Drink once for each participant who casts out a spirit/demon/etc. in the name of Jesus or St. Michael

Chug when:
PRS does their briefing around a table at an (ostenstibly) local restauraunt
Ryan does something other than gaze into the middle distance or look vaguely amused
You're convinced the case was actually thoroughly researched
You're convinced that the solution is legit
Someone actually shouts "THE POWER OF CHRIST COMPELS YOU"
The client is so crazy that s/he actually manages to upstage Ryan


Bonus Lolligagger Section:
Drink when:
Chase says "Huh-UH" (max. 3 drinks/segment)
Josh says "She is just SO DAMN PRETTY" about Katrina or the client in the "soul collector" episode

In the spring of 2005 4 5 I really think it was 2004 it must have been 2005, I was driving up to the Gerbe's in Columbia (read: still the best grocery store ever) when a rare set of lyrics, rendered with unusual tunefulness, caught my ear:

... Before time takes each year
Like a knife cuts it clear
It's school then work and then life, and that just sharpens the blade
I think about time for fun
I think about time for play
Then I think about being done with no resume
With no one left to blame
What about fortune and fame? ...

It's like what John Mayer was trying to say in No Such Thing! I thought. I sat in my car while the song finished. Carbon Leaf? I didn't really like that other song of theirs [Life Less Ordinary], but THIS ... this was about as perfect as radio music could be.

( I went on to discover... )

( I had high hopes for their next release. ) ( It just didn't jive. ) ( I was positive that CL had jumped the shark, that the band I loved was now a closed chapter. )

( So when I saw Carbon Leaf scheduled at the Lincoln for the day after my birthday, I put on a happy face and tried to get excited. )

( And then... )

This is one of probably innumerable pleas you have received of late to VOTE. I am not, however, asking you to vote for anyone in particular. In fact, I am not even asking you to vote in the federal election!

What, then?

I would like you to vote for Panda Force.

A number of reasons why I would like you to vote include:

1. Their music is awesome. Three subsets of this postulate:
1a. They are good musicians
1b. They are a good band
1c. They play good songs. QED.
2. In this generation of arty indie shit*, the world needs more balls-to-the-wall college rock.
3. Their "History" (it's in the Info tab of the voting page.)
4. I have a totally unsecret and completely ridiculous crush on Aidan, the frontman lead singer (also in the Pevey box), and seeing him on MTV would make me giggle for like a month. :D

* Which I totally love; however, this does not negate that the world needs more balls-to-the-wall college rock.

So say 'shut up' to those pesky moral qualms about voting for people you've never heard live or even met! Vote early! Vote often! (Really, do vote often -- apparently MTV counts every single click, even if you've clicked before.) THE PANDAS WILL REJOICE!

"As long as Plum Island shall faithfully keep the commanded post, notwithstanding all the hectoring words and hard blows of the proud and boisterous ocean; as long as any salmon or sturgeon shall swim in the streams of Merrimac, or any perch or pickerel in Crane Pond; as long as the sea-fowl shall know the time of their coming, and not neglect seasonably to visit the place of their acquaintance; as long as any cattle shall be fed with the grass growing in the meadows, which do humbly bow themselves down before Turkey Hill; as long as any sheep shall walk upon Old-Town Hills, and shall from thence pleasantly look down upon the River Parker, and the fruitful marshes lying beneath; as long as any free and harmless doves shall find a white oak or other tree within the township, to perch, or feed, or build a careless nest upon, and shall voluntarily present themselves to perform the office of gleaners after the barley-harvest; as long as Nature shall not grow old and dote, but shall constantly remember to give the rows of Indian corn their education by pairs; so long shall Christians be born there, and being first made meet, shall from thence be translated to be made partakers of the inheritance of the saints of light."

-- from the diary of Samuel Sewall, Puritan colonist, ca. 1690's

With the upending bottle of Red Stripe my thoughts flick to God for the first time today. God, we are going to speak truth to power. We want to speak your word to the structures and shackles and seductive confines of the world. As we call on you, let us know our need for you more and more. I hope we're ready. I hope we're listening.

Memety guessety thing gacked from arthenadent!

Please respond to this post with an anonymous comment that has 3-5 facts about you. I'll then have three chances to guess who you are. If I get it wrong, please add another fact.


Watch this space (with the little thumbtack thing) to get comment notifications in your message box!

( INTERESTS COLLAGE OF AWESOME )

Every time I saw a userpic collage, I would think "I wish you could do that with interests." Well, THE TIME IS NOW.

Thanks to the inside-joke-with-myself nature of my ints. list, there were a few that really didn't have anything I wanted. So I just picked pretty pictures instead :D

angelofthenorth is starting a new comm!

roadtravelled will be a group for spiritual writings & critiques. Please see the associated archive page for some ideas about where the comm is heading and what it is about.

Commwise, this is something I've been thinking about for a while - so now she's gone and done it, because, as the Blues Brothers say, the Lord works in mysterious ways.

Happy birthday, John Wesley!

I don't know what you'd think of the Internet or all us crazy folk who have invited ourselves to your Holy Club, but we think you're swell.

                                                             John Wesley, we hold you in high regard! Way to go!      John Wesley, we hold you in high regard! Way to go!      John Wesley, we hold you in high regard! Way to go!

Mr. Wainwright wished for me to notify you that he will be incommunicado via LJ until such time as he gets himself out of the Internetforsaken hovel that is Macon. He further wishes to add that his cell phone is a good way to reach him, and even gets reception most of the time.

Thank you.

I got THE JOB. Starting 7/1 or thereabouts. Woo!

Happy birthday to this journal. 5 years. Yes, everyone go back to May of 2001 and check out my hello crazy teenage angstiness. ::snickers at self::

eta Actually, save yourself the trouble; I'm pretty sure this was the first thing I wrote that was actually worth reading. That entry has stuck with me for four and a half years, and I don't know how I did it, but what I said before I knew anything -- it was absolutely true.

Ever through the changing
Of sun and shadow, time and space,
I will walk beside my love
In a green and quiet place.
Proof against the forms of fear
No distress shall alter me
I will walk beside my dear
Clad in love's bright heraldry.

Sound the battle's loud alarms
Any foe I shall withstand
In the circle of his arms
I am safe in Beulah Land.
Passion fades when joy is spent;
Lust is lure for gold and crime.
Beauty's kiss is transient -
Love alone is fixed in time.
Death cannot divide my love;
All we sealed with living vows.
Warm I'll sleep beside my love
In a cold and narrow house.

Never shall the mourning dove
Weep for us with accents wild;
I will walk beside my love
Who is husband, father, child.
As our earthly eyes grow dim
Let the ancient song be sung:
I will change along with him
So that both are ever young,
ever young.

This is the last aria from the opera (Ballad of Baby Doe). It's nowhere to be found online in its entirety, so I thought I'd post it here. It's not the same without the actual music, but I like the words too.

YOU NEED TO READ THIS. Or at least, I do.

From http://www.heiyou.com/tribe/148/163104.shtml.

( Attention Deficit Trait )

this is a bad dream
this is a bad dream
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this is a bad dream
this is a bad dream this is a bad dream this is a bad dream this is a bad dream this is a bad dream this is a bad dream this is a bad dream this is a bad dream this is a bad dream this is a bad dream this is a bad dream this is a bad dream this is a bad dream this is a bad dream this is a bad dream this is a bad dream this is a bad dream this is a bad dream this is a bad dream this is a bad dream this is a bad dream this is a bad dream this is a bad dream
this is a bad dream
this
is
a
bad
dream.

tonight's hysterical discussion:

"You want us to set a trap for croissanwiches? ... But ice cream doesn't have bones! ... The wheel just came off my jetski! ... "
" ... EAT A. D. D. PILLS!!"

Todd, Tyler and Aaron just finished hanging drapes from the windows of the tower... it looks quite classy, and the symbolism gives me little chills.

Prof - I'll miss you, even never really having known you. Thank you for - well, everything.

Now to go finish a few things, to think and live and let life go on.