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20080324

dishwasher

To my good friend, who told me how wonderful dishwashers are.

You put the dishes in, she says. It fills up, she says. You turn it
on, she says. Dishes get clean, she says. Easy, she says. Neat,
she says. Out of sight, she says. Love it, she says.

You don't use Dawn, she didn't say. You idiot, don't you read? she's
now saying. No, I don't, I say. I figured a small amount just to
loosen stuff up was a GOOD idea, I say. I was WRONG I say. Shoulda
used Jet Dri, I say. A bit late, we both say. Is that even the
right stuff? I think that's for drying, I say. WTF do you use for
washing then? I ask. Memory seems to say "cascade" or somesuch, I
think.

Thankfully the suds started filling the kitchen just as Whitney
walked in to see them oozing all over the floor and attempting to
make their way underneath the washer, counter, and floorboards.
Thankfully, Whitney trusts NO machine, let alone unfamiliar ones.
Thankfully, Whitney happened to be putting stuff away all over the
house to make sure she'd be checking IN on said new machines (washer,
dryer, dishwasher). Thankfully, Whitney keeps LOTS of towels just
around the corner in the bathroom. Thankfully, all the dishes were
in the dishwasher, not the sink, so Whitney had a place to PUT the
sudsy dripping wet towels while she finished mopping up said great
mess!!

Now to figure out how to get all those suds out of the dishwasher...
A few rinses, perhaps? ::helpless look::

In other news, Dale and I fixed the bad outlet in the upstairs
bathroom without electrocuting ourselves, made a pretty but
unacceptable job of the shower drain (i.e., it still leaks but now it
looks like someone worked on it), and still haven't finished moving
crap from apartment to house. Our landlords refunded our deposit
already (talk about trust), tomorrow I'm plowing through the rest of
the apartment except the walls because I plan to steam-clean the
whole place, and oh yeah, the new tenants want to move in on the
28th, so now I REALLY have to do this tomorrow even though we're told
we shouldn't feel pressured... because, I say, I love these people
and if it helps their new tenant somehow, it helps them, and they've
been good to us so I might as well get my arseky in gear and clean
FAST. Besides, then it'll be over that much quicker. I wish I had
Wednesday off. LOL

Ah, the stresses of moving. But it's been pretty good, really. The
downstairs (aside from suds on the kitchen floor) is very nice
already. We've both made an effort to neaten the upstairs and it's
coming along nicely. Really cannot complain. For new home-moaners,
we've got it awesomely good.

And so it is, that I'm going to go figure out the dishwasher mess
now, and finish putting stuff away.

~nv

20080311

Bonnie Tyler vs Elijah Wood

I got curious about this singer named Bonnie Tyler so I went looking for her history and stumbled across pictures of her, too.  I kept thinking, dang, she looks familiar, but not in a "oh yeah I've seen Bonnie before" way.  (You know I know her voice, though!)

Finally, this picture hit me:

OMG, I thought.  Elijah Wood.  Something about the eyes, the almost babyish face when she smiles, reminds me of him.  Or vice-versa, lol.

So I looked up photos of Elijah, and sure enough, found some that would convince me they're related should I not know better.  Here's one:

Weird, huh?

~whit

20080306

Prolife argument

They say that words are mightier than swords.

Well, these words will cut like swords for some folks out there.

Tonight I got into a rather strong debate regarding abortion. Yes,
debatable subject anyways, but in my eyes there is one thing that to
me is not debatable: The right to choose.

This especially holds true for any woman who becomes pregnant because
of rape. Having been once mortally terrified of childbirth myself,
or even carrying a child, I cannot even fathom the concept of being
raped, learning you're pregnant, and being told you must carry the
rapist's child to term and give birth to it.

Arguments I've heard tonight state such things as "The woman can
report it and take the morning after pill so she doesn't get
pregnant, thus it's her own fault if she's pregnant." I've heard
"The baby shouldn't be killed, it's not its fault." There's "She can
give it up for adoption if she doesn't want it."

Bullshit. The first is just assinine. Even if that pill can be
successfully used, the "law" would not hold up if, hm, the woman was
kidnapped and raped a few times before she COULD report it. There
are many women who are so ashamed of what happened, so confused, so
embarrassed that they do NOT report it for a while, if ever. There
are women worried about not being believed, and ridiculed instead
(what, it does happen).

The second is based on faith and faith alone. There is no logic.
The reasoning is that the baby is life and can feel. This is not
known because the baby cannot speak. I don't advocate abortion as
birth control for the exact same reason - we don't KNOW the baby can
NOT feel, either. But in the case of rape, I see a woman under
stress, not wanting a child, without any fault of her own being
forced into being pregnant. What of HER feelings? What of HER pain,
which will go on for nine months (or however long she knows of the
pregnancy), then childbirth? And even if she gives it up for
adoption, do you think she won't think about that child? Wouldn't
she potentially regret having given it up later on?

Maybe I'm too simplistic (ha) but to me, a killed foetus means end of
suffering. There is no chance of it being mistreated by its adopted
parents, no chance of it, too, being raped down the road and
suffering, no chance of it ever hurting again. The woman is scarred
for life already without having to worry about a bunch of hard-assed
prolifers (many of which kill OTHER forms of life, mind you) telling
her what she can or cannot do based on their beliefs. SHE knows what
she's going through. She's feeling NOW.

I've been turning this over and over in my mind ever since the
discussion ended and even looking at it logically, without my innate
feelings about the matter, it still makes no sense to me, these
thoughts these people have. People controlling other people has
always pissed me off anyway, and this is one of those examples in my
mind.

One of these folks made the feeble argument that if abortion was
allowed for rape victims, then who's to stop he and his girlfriend
from saying she was raped just so she could have an abortion.
Hello? Who said it would? Are you going to penalize a true rape
victim just because two youngsters are stupid? Should those two
youngsters be having children anyway? I think they might be good
examples to their peers. If they do this thing, they'll have gained
valuable experience. The girl might feel the pangs of loss over the
chemical nature of the abortion for one. She'll never be the same
and might be able to better advise other girls to be more careful
than she was about allowing herself to get pregnant in the first
place. The guy might witness this change in her and feel bad himself
somehow and be of help to fellow guys so they don't allow their
girlfriends to get pregnant.

In all honesty, I think each case is different and unique, and no one
possesses a right to tell anyone that they can or cannot decide for
themselves. Just because I feel a rape victim should have this right
doesn't mean I'd tell them they had to have an abortion. Some might
be healed by the experience, those who love children. Me, I don't
know how I would feel, but I suspect that I'd be torn in a million
different directions. If I got the abortion I might feel relieved
but guilty. If I had the child I'd feel like shit for nine months,
go through childbirth and get ripped apart against my will... then if
I kept the child, I'd have a constant reminder of that day/night. If
I gave it up, I'd constantly feel horrible and wonder if the poor
thing was getting raped somewhere itself.

And then, I'd wonder if that child was going to turn out like its
father and inflict a similar pain upon someone else. Like its mother.

I would be interested to know if pro-life women who think that rape
victims have no right to abort their rape-babies would feel
differently if a rape-baby grew up and raped them. Poetic justice,
maybe, but what a horrible eye-opener that might be. Not to mention
whatever that child might have had to fight its whole life if we're
all wrong about complete free will and it really had no choice but to
follow its genes, even though it may have been raised better than to
give into ill will.

Aight. I've got most of THAT out of my system. Now that I've
completed my view of the bigger picture, I find food. Wait. Food
has found me. Thanks, Dale!

~nv

20080305

Blue Toiletries

I had a weird dream last night that a bunch of people and myself were at a coworker's place for something.  My mom was there and I started joking around a bit trying to be funny and my coworker told me this was "grownup" talk and to be more serious.  So I excused myself and went to the restroom down the hall.  It was a beautiful room done in deep blues with fica plants everywhere but I saw no toilet to speak of.  I then realized there was an EZ chair there instead of a toilet.  I shrugged and prepared to figure it out and discovered that the seat was a latched door and it swung downward when sat upon to allow for... uh...

Anywho, I won't explain what you're supposed to do then with a "toilet" like that but suffice it to say I questioned her choice of toilet fixtures for that room, I mean, an EZ chair?  If you dare to be different at least make it something easier to get in and out of!

Right now I'm questioning my own mind... although it is dawning on me that my mother being in the dream explains the toilet that doesn't look like a toilet.  She's always wanted to turn a bathroom into a living room complete with thunder and lightning.  Perhaps the EZ chair fits after all.

I'm gonna have to have a talk with her... LOL

~nv

20080304

You know you're a geek when...

...you pack up your computers in their original boxes, and end up
with a chassis box, mobo box, cpu box, ram box, psu box, cdrom box,
sound card box, video card box...

Okay, so I didn't go /that/ far. I just used the original chassis
boxes, I figure that's good enough and there's no mistaking what's IN
them. Even if the picture didn't explain it, the weight would.

But I did find the original CPU box for Selene today, as well as her
original keyboard box. :)

~nv

20080303

How to fold an underwear

Okay, I never thought I'd see this anywhere... and wouldn't have
known to think I'd see it until I'd seen it:
http://www.ehow.com/how_2183757_fold-an-underwear.html

It explains how to fold underwear. It states that it can be
addictive. Great, another thing for me to fight becoming addicted to!!

I can see this now:
Moderator: "Mrs. C, please stand if you will and introduce yourself
and why you're here with us at UFA."
Me: "Oh, yes, of course." (Stands up.) "Hi, I'm Mrs. C, and I'm
addicted to folding underwear."
Group: "Hi, Mrs. C. Welcome to Underwear Folders Anonymous."

Yeah, great. Thanks, eHow. And all I wanted to know was why I'm
full of static cling and Dale is not. I suspect my liquid intake
could have something to do with it, but... it seems just as bad even
when I drink a lot of water in hopes of fixing the problem. So that
theory isn't quite right...

~nv