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[Sep. 5th, 2008|12:17 am] |
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Hi, I'm visiting Calgary now. If any of my Calgary friends want to meet up before Friday night, drop me a line. |
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| The Punishing Election Season |
[Sep. 4th, 2008|04:18 pm] |
Down south in election circles Obama seems to be Biden his time, while McCain is Palin in comparison.
Travelling north we are doomed for another election too but I am no Harper, because I have Layton tendencies though feeling a little green too but that seems to Dion the cross in the end.
Vote often and vote early. |
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| Amusing eneough |
[Sep. 4th, 2008|07:15 pm] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| |  amused | ] |
I was called in to work for about three hours, and time for Sunday, both of my days off; I will take it for the touch of extra money. Apprently, one of our number was let go... IE fired. For theft. With full camara's in use. Idiot.
More hours for me ^^ |
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| Post-Con Depression - Combatted! |
[Sep. 4th, 2008|10:35 pm] |
Is it just me, or are most furs who went to EF now coming down with the dreaded leurgy? Poor Bunni has been in bed for the best part of 24hrs now, and I hear that others are in similar straits. Thankfully I've managed to avoid it so far, but that's probably down to my immune system being jacked up after the recent bout of pneumonia. Poor ill furs - I hope you all get better soon!
In other news, I'm battling my post-con depression with a deluge of purchases! Bunni went and got me a surround sound system in advance for my birthday (HUGE kisses to him), and I added to it with a blu-ray player and a squat rack. They seem to be doing a great job of keeping my spirits up, even though we now realize that we have very little left to buy for the house. I have my eyes on a new sit-up bench for the gym, but then I guess its time to start saving for our wedding in Spring 2010.
PS. Oh, and before I go, happy birthday to our good friend Lupus! I know you'll like the prezzie that myself, Bunni, Washu, & Tungro got for you. Its just a shame you'll have to wait until the next LF meet for us to give it to ya! :p
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| Foot |
[Sep. 4th, 2008|12:43 pm] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| |  hungry | ] |
So I broke my foot again. Well, just a stress fracture really. Been in this stupid boot for a couple weeks now, after unknowingly walking on said fracture for like a month and a half.
The doctor said to make an appointment for four weeks after I had gone a week in the boot without pain.
So I decided an easy way for me to keep track of whether or not I had pain on any given day is to make a note of it in my LJ.
So expect daily, boring, potentially short posts saying "Pain today" or "No pain today". I'll try to add other shit too, but sometimes my days are just too boring.
In other news, Ky painted a gorgeous portrait of Telarion. ^.^
( omg hawtness ) |
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| Why the hate for community organizers? |
[Sep. 4th, 2008|01:11 pm] |
I watched Sarah Palin's speech at the RNC last night mostly out of morbid curiosity. I wanted to see how she would act on a national stage, what information she would present regarding her little known self, and how she might address what the McCain campaign have lamely branded as "sexist" attacks on her and her family.
Thirty-seven minutes later I was fuming. Her speech was crass, sarcastic, and unbecoming of a politician placing him or herself on national platform. What I particularly didn't understand was the RNC's general theme of belittling community organizers. First Guiliani did it, and the entire audience sneered right along with him, and then Palin triumphantly declared that such people have no responsibilities. The crowd went wild at that.
It would appear that the RNC, and perhaps republicans, as a whole has no idea what community organizers do. Let me give you an example of a community organizer:
My mother is the head of voter registration for the League of Women Voters in Houston. This is a backbreaking job for which she is not paid a single cent. Her responsibilities include organizing voter registration drives, putting together voter information packets, and rallying volunteers to help in non-partisan voter education and events.
Every month, a naturalization ceremony is held in Houston to swear in new citizens; approximately 2500 people are naturalized at each ceremony. Last year, my mother took the initiative and got together with Homeland Security (who provides the materials in new citizenship packets which includes the letter from the president), the post office (who supplies passport applications), and the Department of Labour, to have the LWV put together these new citizenship packets. She would drive all over Houston collecting the envelopes and everything that goes into them, and she and her volunteers would package them. Then, she would arrive at the venue at 5am, well before Homeland Security or even the judge, to set up tables and have the doors and entrances well manned so that these packets could be handed out efficiently. Afterward, she and her volunteers would collect voter registration applications. Prior to my mother's efforts, approximately 300 people would register to vote. For the last year, at least 2000 people have registered at every naturalization ceremony, and the media is always there to cover it because my mother requested coverage.
The LWV has a very good relationship with NALEO, who has always asked for help with voter registration. Early last year, I believe, my mother's friends who work in community outreach at NALEO introduced her to groups like La Raza and Ripley House, the former being a Houston establishment which engages youth to become involved in their communities. My mother started reaching out to schools with La Raza programs and to Ripley House, asking them to donate time to put these new citizenship packets together. About 20 middle school aged kids would donate one day after school a month, and my mother and Naleo and Homeland Security would often give a talk on citizenship and how the system works. As most of these kids tended to be children of naturalized citizens themselves or had family that was currently going through this process, they truly found it intriguing.
So, my mother essentially holds a full time job for which she is not paid. She manages an incredibly large group of volunteers, sits on the board of directors, and provides a priceless service to many, many people. Yet, according to Sarah Palin, she has no responsibilities. I think the college student who spends half an hour on the phone with her trying to make heads or tails of how she's supposed to vote from out of town would beg to differ. I bet the new citizen who embraces her and cries while handing in their voter registration application would slap Palin in the face.
I say screw Palin and Guiliani. My mother's a better person than either of them will ever be, and she does more to service the average American then either them ever will. |
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| an important thing to realize |
[Sep. 4th, 2008|04:42 am] |
Just because they sucked at being parents
doesn't mean they didn't love you.
Love for you and skill at parenting (or even suitability) are not directly connected. There's no test, no liscence, no requirements for becoming a parent. And as our parents are fond of saying. there's no instriuction manual either (or rather, there's so many to choose from that there might as well not bed one).
Chances are pretty good that they love you very much, that they looked at your tiny newborn self and vowed to try to do right by you, come what may. No matter what you think of the job that they did, give them credit for the right intentions.
It might be that there's no perfect way to parent. It might just be that no matter what, children grow up to think their parents did a lousy job of parenting them. Sooner or later, you find out that your parents, the gods of your world, are just finite human beings, and all you can think about is everything they never did for you, and all the things they did wrong.
And maybe you're never truly grown up until you forgive them for being human and see them as just people, grownups groping through life just like you are.
Maybe they did a lot of things wrong. Maybe they couldn't give you everything you needed. Maybe they were, to be honest, quite terrible at the job. Maybe they were flawed, weak people barely qualified to take care of themsleves, let alone a child or children.
Maybe they couldn't show love. Maybe the only thing you ever got from them seemed to be rules, anger, and tension, and attempts to control you. But you have to ask yourself : what was behind all that? Were they just sadistic ogres who liked to make you suffer? Or was there another motivation?
But we don't get to pick our parents. All we can do is try to understand them, forgive what we can forgive, and try to move on.
Some of you, I just realized, will find these words very upsetting. You might not be willing to give up your anger towards them yet. Maybe you're jsut not ready. Maybe you're mad at me now, for even suggesting this. If so, I'm sorry.
But ask yourself : are you ever going to get the reckoning you want? What, exactly, is your anger awaiting for? They may never admit that they have done anything wrong. Realizing one's imperfections as a parent is a very hard thing to do, because you want so badly to do well. You may never get more than a "Well, we did the best we could. " out of them.
And you know what? They probably did. They did the best job they knew how, as bad a job as that might have been. At the end of the day, even with a job as vitally important as parenting, all anyone can say about any task is "I did the best I could. "
And we never stop to think about all the problems they didn't have as parents. You only need to talk to a few other people about their upbringings to figure out all the mistakes that your parents never made. So who really knows how good a job they did compared to the average parent? Maybe you lucked out, and never knew it.
So try to forgive them their imperfections. They're not God, and they're not the Devil... they're just some people who had a kid and tried to raise them right. Maybe they had no business even having kids. That's a moot point now... here you are.
No matter how shitty a job they did at being parents, trust that they loved you and were trying.
That's all any of us can do. |
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| * * * |
[Sep. 4th, 2008|01:10 pm] |
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[Sep. 4th, 2008|01:17 am] |
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| Sarah Palin |
[Sep. 4th, 2008|12:25 am] |
McCain's VP choice has received a number of both applause and criticism. So have called it a disaster, the worst possible, other; bold, stunning, and the best possible. I end up in that second category. Sarah Palin is THE best choice that McCain and the GOP could have made to strengthen the ticket.
Palin brings in the outsider quality that many people who support Obama have said they want. No more Washington insiders, we want reform and all that can now be answered by Palin, who arguably can say she has done more reform and is more of an outsider then Obama is. Her dealings with energy in Alaska, mainly in cleaning up its involvement with politics, is greatly desired by many, and needed in Washington. She has not been afraid to take on corrupt Republicans, something desperately needed by the party, and something that could intice people back to the GOP after the numerous scandals (though both parties have had major issues with this in the past four years).
Her experience in reform, energy and being from small town America will grant her great appeal to many Americans. But, as one can see from the past five days (yes its only been 5 days since she was announced) many criticisms have also surfaced.
While the main criticism seems to be experience, one must remember that she is running for VP, and that she has been the Governor of the largest state in the country for two years and a town mayor before that. While yes Alaska has different issues then the lower 48, the experience gained by running a state and a town (executive experience) makes commanding institutions nothing new. Many Democrats will there for argue that you cant criticize Obama then, I strongly disagree. The point with Palin is that she has enough experience to be VP, not necessarily president, while I would say the same thing for Obama (could be a VP but not enough for Prez). Experience in the Senate should not count for nothing, but it is a different kind of experience.
Palin's daughter has been the other issue and today and yesterday make it clear that this issue will likely die in the very near future. Most Americans seem to believe that this is not something that should be discussed on the national stage but is rather a personal matter. I agree. If it comes out that Palin forced her daughter to marry the father or pressured her into not getting an abortion, then that is different. But, other then that this has no stanind in regards to Pain's qualifications or should it in anyway count against her.
The trooper gate, her initial support for the bridge to no-where and her ear marks will be an issue for them. Trooper gate could blow up, though CNN and others have said from what they have seen it does seem that she is not in any way majorly at fault. The emails were released but I have not read them yet. The bridge to no-where will be an issue solely because of it being the best known earmark and its easy to put it in a commercial. The small ear marks might be an issue, but I strongly doubt it will.
While I do think as said that Palin is a great choose (most popular governor in the US as well), personally she is way to conservative. Her strong support for getting creationism into the classroom, pro-life standing and support for gun rights (plus sueing the government over the polar bear designation as an endangered species just cant look good no matter how you play it) is WAY to conservative for me. My ideal ticket (i think) would have been McCain-Lieberman, but the GOP and the Democrats would have had heart attacks, and while moderates would probably support them by wide margins, it isnt realistic. |
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| EF XIV aka EF14 aka Horrorfurence |
[Sep. 3rd, 2008|08:32 pm] |
Well, I'm not going to say too much here - I don't want to write a whole report. Plus it'd probably piss people off! So I thought I'd bullet-point the best bits...
- Erfurt Hbf has a lovely mini pizza selling shop! It's near the stairs to platforms 3+
- Upon arriving at the hotel, having chosen the early arrival I was expecting maybe about 30-50 furs around. Instead, over half the con seemed to be there and registration had already opened! So it was a case of checking in, register, dump bags, come back down to the bar and socialise!
- The con in general was excellent, as usual! Top marks!
- Mountain Dew! Yay! Thanks so much Fawks Beaumont!
- The 2 vs Kage (and Jibber [sp?]) show was great - I thoroughly enjoyed it! Even when 2 received some "boos" from the crowd when he overstepped the mark
- Meeting up with so many friends I hadn't seen in ages! And new ones too! Was great to chat to you guys - every one of you!
- The pawpet show was great, although the benches in the stage area weren't (I had a rather sore bum by the end of the show). It wasn't the best ever, but by god it was good! By the way guys, the end song, based on Nightwish' "Amaranth" was even better than Nightwish's version because you used the strings for melody rather than Nightwish's vocals, and I personally think that worked a lot better! Seriously guys, I'd love to have that song available to download, so I can stick it on my MP3 player!
- The location (Suhl) is absolutely amazing! The hotel, on top of the hill, surrounded by wonderful woods, being able to see for miles and miles... it really is the type of place I could live in! I only went for two walks though in the area - one with Footpad, Elfasi and Mischa, and the other with a whole bunch of furs to head down to the Tiergarten
- The Tiergarten (lit. animal garden) was good, but the company was better! Thanks to Albrecht, FatKraken, Lupestripe, Wolfie, Washu, Pinky, Munchie and everyone who went there!
- We wanted to go for a drink and a meal at the Crazy Horse but it was fully booked when we got there (moments after Cheetah and the rest of the EF staff arrived). We went instead to a little restaurant... and were glad we did! They served some amazing food for us all! I had some escargots (snails) and a really lovely pork chop with lots of lovely East European stuff! We're definitely returning there next year! Presuming EFXV is in Suhl!
I guess I should point out some of the bad points too...
- The train from the airport to Erfurt had a problem and we had to change trains at Frankfurt Hauptbahnhof. So we left about 9min late, and then lost time all the way. By the time we hit Erfurt, we were 20min late and missed our connection
- There wasn't enough time to do everything!
- No S'Mores at the bonfire ;.;
- The bar staff weren't as good. André was promoted and was no longer behind the bar, but the new staff were not great. I got charged at least three different prices for the same cocktail, and once I had to remind them I had ordered something and that I had paid... they had forgotten why I was standing at the bar X.x I'd make a suggestion and ask that André be in charge of the barstaff and be behind the bar as much as possible next year. I know officially he is doing a different role, but seeing as he did such an excellent job last year...
- The snack bar was a good idea, but the food on offer was rubbish. Either a burger and chips, sausage in a bun or some cold chilli was all that was on offer, meal-wise...
- The restaurant was a-la-carte for the evening meal, and although that was fine, it was the same menu for the whole duration of the con
- No food apart from the snackbar on the last day of the con, after breakfast ended at 10am!
- I really want a fursuit now ;.;
I'm still working on getting the videos up there, but my photos are uploaded! See here!
Enjoy!
EDIT: Cheetah just announced it... EF15 is in Suhl again! Yay! From 26/8 til 30/8!
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| Bush and the Economy |
[Sep. 3rd, 2008|03:07 pm] |
Interesting article on Bush and how he has effected the economy, from someone who appears to be non-partisan.
"Yet Democrats cited no good evidence for their claims that the administration has produced a stagnant economy, widening disparities of income and wealth, high unemployment, and a heavy burden of government debt (supposedly resulting from an unwise military intervention in Iraq)."
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122039890722392873.html?mod=rss_opinion_main
Looks like he has done somethings better then Clinton, some things worse, but compared to many other countries over the past 8 years we have faired pretty well. |
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| Obama vs Palin on qualifications |
[Sep. 3rd, 2008|02:39 pm] |
SEN. BARACK OBAMA, (D) PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: My understanding is, is that Governor Palin`s town of Wasilla has, I think, 50 employees. We`ve got 2,500 in this campaign. I think the budget is maybe $12 million a year. We have a budget of about three times that just for the month.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BECK: Did he miss that she`s the governor now? Why would Barack Obama compare his current job with her former job? Why not compare apples to apples?
Maybe this is why. We crunched the numbers. Sorry. And since he announced his candidacy, Barack Obama has raised about $21 million a month. That`s a huge organization for sure, unless you directly compare it to Sarah Palin, who is handling revenues of 47 times as large, over a billion per month.
Barack Obama says 2,500 employees. That`s what he`s got working for him. And it is a lot. Unless you directly compare it to Sarah Palin and the Alaskan government with its over 77,000 employees or around 31 times as many as Barack.
So if, as Barack insinuates running an organization the size of his campaign is a sign you`re qualified to be president, Sarah Palin is somewhere between 37 -- or 31 and 47 times more qualified than him.
Halliburton is what your friend will say. It`s a tough task to convince your friends that they are thinking like an idiot, so sign up for my newsletter at glennbeck.com and get the concise winning arguments to the awful dumb points that your friends and apparently Barack Obama are saying. It`s free at glennbeck.com.
From New York, good night, America.
END
http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0809/02/gb.01.html
(See the very bottom) |
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| I'm curious |
[Sep. 3rd, 2008|01:07 pm] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| |  curious | ] |
I was wondering what ever happened to those pictures that were taken of me and Sirrah in the Cub Hub Crib? Anyone know how to contact the photographer? I've been itching to see those pictures |
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| Silly Pictures |
[Sep. 3rd, 2008|04:04 pm] |
Saw these in Germany... they've not been image edited in any way!
Mmmmm... ass tuning...
Choking hazard! |
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| Fish to give away! |
[Sep. 3rd, 2008|07:53 am] |
| [ | Current Location |
| | Calgary | ] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| |  tired | ] |
As most folks know, Trixstir and I are moving to Saskatchewan. We're about half-way there, still moving furniture (and pets) from Calgary. Trixstir is taking our cat this time, and once I secure a proper trailer, I'll be taking the horses. What we need, is a new home for our fish. Apparently, fish don't travel well over long distances, so we'd like to find them a new home here in Calgary (or area).
This is for the FISH ONLY, not the aquarium or any accessories. We plan to set that up again in Saskatchewan with new fish. We have three fish that need new homes: Two Silver-Dollars of a decent size (about 3-4 inches) and a LARGE Algae-Eater.
The fish are FREE for the asking. I'd like to keep the Silver-Dollars together as they've been together FOREVER, but the Algae-Eater could go separately if need be.
If anyone's interested, please let me know. They need to be gone ASAP! |
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