hello friends

Did you know that in England, they can arrest you just for sitting in Starbucks while dressed as a zombie?

I... I don't think I want to visit England any time soon. The United States is a fucked-up place, but at least I can go outside without wondering whether they declared it a temporarily arrestable offense to be wearing or doing whatever I happen to be wearing or doing at the time.

Yesterday mechamom and Quentin came down to take me grocery shopping and bring me some stuff that was up at their place in Indy. Turns out that there was a gun show in town, though, and since Quentin was driving, that means we wound up driving around a little until we found the fairgrounds where said gun show was being held. It was a fascinating experience to follow Quentin around and listen as he extolled the virtues of various firearms, many of which I had no idea how he could ever tell them apart. For a while I followed mechamom around too but she just looked at some crocheted baby clothes and stuff that were over to one side, which was boring. I bought genuine gun show beef jerky! It is branded "Boone's Choice" and the inkjet-printed label has a picture of some guy presumably pretending to be Boone. Yum beef jerky.

I only saw one guy with Confederate flag merchandise. That was something, anyway. There was one vendor who apparently felt the need to warn me and mechamom to be careful around his politically incorrect merchandise, I guess because our delicate female sensibilities might be overwhelmed by the sight of bumper stickers reading "I LOVE My Country / I FEAR My Government", but eh.

At another table there were little stickers reading "PROTECT YOUR COUNTRY -- BUY A GUN". I, uh. I don't think purchasing a firearm actually increases the protection level of this country in any way, fellas. By your logic, every time someone buys a pistol with the sole intention of armed robbery, he is still somehow making the country safer because, hey, he bought a small machine that was designed expressly to kill. What a patriot!

I have nothing against gun ownership. But you're not providing a public service by owning them, and you need to reexamine your priorities if an instrument of death seems the best way to "protect" your family. Guns are kind of neat; it is fun to take them to a shooting range or an isolated bit of land and blast at a target (or in my case the ground). Just please stop worshipping them, k? K.

As the three of us were driving back to town proper from the fairgrounds, Quentin joked that we should go to the Army/Navy store and then a strip club, thus completing the trifecta of turning me into the son he never had. Oddly enough mechamom was not interested in such a plan! Man what is with chicks anyway, they don't know how to have fun. Or something.

Eventually we were done grocery-getting, and the mechaparentals bid me good day and left. Then I took my new gloves that I mentioned in passing a few days back, and the needle and thread that mechamom provided me with since I can't find my own needles anywhere, and I stitched off the fingers that Quentin cut off for me. I don't think they were going to unravel any more than the little bit they already had -- certainly the pair he did up for himself some time ago is holding up -- but I was paranoid. So now I have Army-style wool gloves, with the thumb and first two fingers cut off at the tips, and the raw ends stitched up neatly. Hooray for dexterity.

That more or less was Saturday.

[00:42:05] d**************u: I know what kage, ho, kaze, and a bunch of other words mean.
[...]
[00:46:19] The Jennybork: I KNOW WHAT 'HO' MEANS TOO
[00:46:24] d**************u: What?
[00:46:41] The Jennybork: IT'S THE THING THE PIMP SMACKS AROUND
[00:46:46] The Jennybork: HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA
[00:46:51] d**************u: No.
[00:46:54] d**************u: It means 'fire'.
[00:47:04] The Jennybork: SET HER ON FIRE IF YOU REALLY WANT I GUESS
[00:47:09] The Jennybork: THAT'S FIFTY BUCKS EXTRA THOUGH
[00:47:13] The Jennybork: Ohh, I'm going to hell.

I also got to reference this, which is seriously one of the best xkcd comics ever. I love you, Randall Munroe. Have my non-raptor babies.

Finally, a letter.

Dear Approximately Half Of Virginia:

What the fuck. No, seriously, WHAT THE FUCK.

If there were any justice in the world, tomorrow you would all wake up with deer heads stuffed in your mailboxes. Every single one.

Hate,
Jenny.

That's about it.

So mecha, being the filthy liberal type that he is, was eagerly watching the Democratic senatorial primary in Connecticut. Lieberman versus some new guy with wacky ideas about giving poor people access to health care, or letting women decide what happens to their own bodies. The new guy won, and so in celebration we had Ned Lamont Victory Chili for dinner tonight. See, 'cause mecha got this book of state-themed chili recipes out from the library, and there was one for Connecticut. And there you have it.

Or rather HERE you have it: pictures of our delicious repast.





It were mad tasty. Thank you, Mr. Lamont! Your victory inspired our dinner.

The following is my comment to this post, only expanded a bit to become a post in its own right, kind of.



I am totally behind the curve on this one, but YES.

wing_zero_ew and I see way too many parents these days who seem to think that it's not only their right, but their DUTY to pop out as many kids as they physically can -- whether or not they actually have the time or energy to give those kids the attention they need; whether or not the money is available to properly support them. And, naturally, once they've done the world the huge favor of having those kids -- why, they've got no obligations left, have they? They don't need to teach their children how to behave. Let the schools do that. Let the neighbors. And if the schools and neighbors and society won't do the hard work, it's certainly not the parents' fault when their kid turns out to be a thug. They already did THEIR part, right?

I also get tired of my roommate's mom telling me that I will never be a complete person until I have children. I'd like to think that my status as a PERSON is defined by, um, ME. Not by the presence or absence of small screaming things that share some of my DNA.

There should be a test you have to pass to be ALLOWED to procreate, with questions such as the following:

If you take your small child to the grocery store at 10 at night, and he throws a tantrum, is it
A) His fault, so yell at him and snap at him and threaten to leave him in the store if he doesn't stop.
B) The media's fault, because of all those awful awful video games that it's a damn crime for them to make, that you buy for him because you can't be bothered to read the cover and see that it's marked M for Mature and therefore wholly inappropriate for your child.
B) YOUR FUCKING FAULT FOR EXPECTING A SMALL CHILD TO BE AWAKE AND NOT CRANKY AT 10 AT NIGHT YOU IDIOT

Or:

R-rated movies are:
A) Totally acceptable for little Timmy. Sure, he'll get scared by the spooky bits or the loud noises, and start crying, but still, nobody should dare suggest that you and Timmy leave the theater.
B) Okay for little Timmy as long as you are there to loudly reassure him throughout the entire movie that everything is fine.
C) NOT OKAY FOR A SMALL CHILD WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU THINKING

And of course:

Teaching your child how to act in society is the responsibility of:
A) The schools! Even though you hate paying more than a pittance in taxes to provide the salaries of the people who you expect to raise your child for you, and the tools they need to do the job.
B) The child himself! He's too young to understand now. He'll get older and figure out on his own that screaming "I WANNA GO BATHOOM MOMMY I NEED GO BATHOOM AGAIN MOMMY PLEASE MOMMY MOMMY" in a crowded restaurant is not appropriate. You don't need to react in any way to this.
C) YOU. Because it is YOUR CHILD. IDIOT.

If you can get these questions right, you get to spawn. Otherwise, you get spayed or neutered.

For more thoughts on this topic, see the comment that mecha will no doubt be making when he sees this post!

We¹ live in a country where our once-beloved Constitutional rights are being signed away one by one.

Our soldiers are continuing to pay with their lives so rich oil execs can get richer and we can keep filling the tanks of our vehicular penis compensators.

Pharmacists are allowed to refuse to dispense prescriptions they don't approve of, and yet still keep their jobs, even though it means they are NOT DOING THEIR JOB which is TO DISPENSE PEOPLE'S PRESCRIPTIONS.²

The Vice-President SHOOTS A MAN IN THE FACE while possibly DRUNK and the immediate party response is to MAKE JOKES ABOUT IT.³

AMERICAN CITIZENS are being IMPRISONED WITHOUT CHARGES OR TRIAL, which is apparently OKAY because they JUST MIGHT be "enemy combatants".⁴

And what's the big news story that they keep coming back to on the news here?

Some basketball coach down in Bloomington resigned.

WHAT. THE FUCK.

Indiana, you LOSE at EXISTENCE.



1. Where "we" is "Americans". Everyone else, you get a free pass from the SUCK.
2. I wonder if people who don't believe in using any modern medicine could get pharmacy jobs? That'd be sweet. Sit there reading a magazine all day; someone comes up to the window, just say "nope, sorry, it's against my beliefs to dispense whatever it is you want." Apparently that would be okay!
3. Has he even apologized for it yet? It's been the better part of a week. Taking responsibility is not the same thing; it's perfectly possible to say "yeah, I did it, it's my fault, and I'm not a bit sorry and would do it again in a heartbeat".
4. Keep in mind, when other countries imprison people without telling them why or giving them trials, it's never okay. But we're SPECIAL!

I have a question.

What if the purpose of a comment is to disagree with someone? It is somewhat difficult to support an opinion at the same time that you are disagreeing with it.

Is it simply against the rules to comment if you don't agree with a post?

I want to give myself a personal backup of this, the better not to forget its existence and/or lose track of it, so.

( all of it but the last paragraph, which I really like, hidden behind this cut )

I imagine that Jews, collectively, look at Christianity, collectively,
the way an alcoholic's ex-wife whose broken bones still ache looks at
a social drinker. Sure, maybe it's harmless. Maybe it won't be like
that any more. This time. Maybe.


(this parenthetical and the following are back to me again, not this Louann Miller person)

I will eventually tell you why there is a baby being dropped, don't worry.

It involves Sims and low mood bars.

*evil grin*

I just made myself some lovely fresh-brewed iced tea. It was this fancy green tea we got a tin of a few months ago. I heart full-leaf tea.

The mood is because I'm wondering why mecha hasn't called saying he's off work yet... poor mecha...

"Size 6: The Western Women’s Harem"

She's got a good point. You can look like whatever you want under that veil. But here in the oh-so-glorious Western World... don't deviate. Just don't. And teach your daughters well: the world has only so much space allotted for you, and it is a cell you must inhabit all your life. Shrink yourself small and weak enough and perhaps you'll have room to breathe.

I'm thirsty. Perhaps I should do something about that.

(Oh, and did I mention that we're officially moving soon? We're officially moving soon. To the west side of Indy. Sorry, nidoking.)