Who wants to know what’s going on? (Sorry–brief movie flash)

It’s been a strange week. I’m actually quite busy at work, with a substantial project on my desk right now. But it’s a fun project, so I’m not upset, I just feel like I’m firing on all cylinders all day long.

As far as school goes, I’m working on my paper/project, which is on the ethical/legal issues of Euthanasia/Physician Assisted Suicide. Although it’s not the most cheerful subject out there, it’s not quite as depressing as you’d think. There are two questions I’ll need to answer: Is PAS legal and is PAS moral? Interestingly enough the answers to those questions will not necessarily be the same, but my biggest challenge will be separating my opinion from the conclusions I draw. Of course there is no way I can completely separate my morality/ethics completely from the subject, but it is my job to look at this with an open mind, to see the arguments presented by both sides.

Precisely unlike how things work during a presidential election.

You MUST read this post from Making Light.

I’d comment myself but:
No time! No time!

Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Though wise men at their end know dark is right,
Because their words had forked no lightning they
Do not go gentle into that good night.

Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright
Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,
And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way,
Do not go gentle into that good night.

Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight
Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

And you, my father, there on the sad height,
Curse, bless me now with your fierce tears, I pray.
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

–Dylan Thomas

When you see this, post poetry into your journal.

(1)
If Paul as an apostle
wrote epistles to his misses
should Ephesians take as gospel
all he said within his missives?

or as skeptics would we wonder
(while with God and stuff we blunder)
why epistle apostolic,
intellectually cause colic?
— Lenny Aniello

or if you prefer…

(2)
A crash reduces
your expensive computer
to a simple stone
— Unknown

or even….

(3)
I believe in coincidence.
Coincidences happen every day.
But I don’t trust coincidences.
— Elim Garak (Cardassians)

When you see this, post poetry into your journal.

(via Erin)

What on earth was I thinking when I bought so many bulbs?

Yes, I planted bulbs this weekend. Four types of daylily, five types of iris, two different types of daffodils, tulips, anemones, firecracker flower (Dicholostemma), and something else I can’t remember, but that had tiny bulbs and came in a package with a ridiculous number of bulbs. I’m sure I thought that was wonderful at the time.

Now I just have to hope that the weather stays cool. It should be okay–temperatures have mostly been in the 60s during the day. As long as we don’t have a week of really warm days it should be fine. I just really didn’t want to wait two more weeks until it’s freezing outside to be planting bulbs.

And on the lines of gardening, my burning bush is just starting to turn. Hopefully it will have as much color as it did last year.

I went grocery shopping this morning at Giant Eagle. Picked up what I needed and then got in line behind a well-dressed middle-aged gentleman who was holding back somewhat in one of the two open lines. He had a bottle of Bushmill’s in his cart (I noticed because I’m partial to Bushmill’s myself) that was set aside as a separate purchase from the rest of the items in his cart. I realized that he was waiting for 9am, when liquor sales begin. Throughout the whole process of ringing up and paying, he chatted and joked with Edith at the register and was quite pleasant. Your typical middle-aged man who looked to be getting ready for a party.

After he left I was chatting to Edith when a man got in line behind me. Like the first man he was middle aged—probably in his 50s or 60s—but unlike the first, this man looked the worse for wear. He also looked as if he might not smell very good. His general demeanor was of a man to whom life had not been very kind. The only thing on the conveyor belt was a large bottle of cheap rum. As I glanced back, I noticed that although his hands were resting on the edge of the conveyer, both arms were visibly trembling.

As I said goodbye to Edith and pushed my cart away, I heard him ask, in a rough voice, for two packs of cheap cigarettes.

It was 9AM. They were just two middle-aged men buying liquor, but they could hardly have been more different.

There was a letter to the editor in Monday’s DA that had me fuming, so I went home and fired off a letter to the editor of my own. Yesterday there was a very elegant response, so I assumed that my letter was not going to be published, but they did print it today.
(more…)

Great. The vote fraud in WV has now reached even unto the BBC.

In the state’s deep coal-mining valleys and small towns full of old style barber shops and “gun and loan” stores, money still changes hands every election year.

According to several people I spoke to, the going rate for a vote these days is $15 or a pint of whisky.

Logan county may be the middle of nowhere, but it now could be the most famous middle of nowhere in West (by God) Virginia.

And just like S, no one’s offering me anything yet. But as a note to all you vote buyers out there: if it’s good whiskey, I’m willing to listen.

(via Hillbilly Sophisticate)

An update on politics and pregnancy…

Jeanne at Body and Soul has also been writing about abortion trends in the US, and according to her:

The short answer seems to be that national numbers for 2000-2004 won’t be available for awhile, but some states have posted statistics and they suggest that the trend has reversed itself: The abortion rate has increased during George Bush’s presidency in most of the states for which numbers are available. The author of the linked article, a Christian ethicist, and father of a severely handicapped child, suggests that the reasons for the increase are probably the economy and lack of access to health care.

From the article she cites, I’d like to quote the following paragraph.

Economic policy and abortion are not separate issues; they form one moral imperative. Rhetoric is hollow, mere tinkling brass, without health care, health insurance, jobs, childcare, and a living wage. Pro-life in deed, not merely in word, means we need a president who will do something about jobs and insurance and support for prospective mothers.
— Glen Harold Stassen, The Courier-Journal

I’m so excited!

I got tired of lugging my personal HTML and CSS books back and forth to work, so I finally asked the boss if I could buy copies for work. She agreed, and so today I recieved:

HTML & XHTML The Definitive Guide
Cascading Style Sheets The Definitive Guide
Dreamweaver MX 2004 The Missing Manual

I’m so excited!

Now, if only I had time to read my new books…

I have to say that the sunrise was absolutely beautiful this morning.

Ali and I were walking at the Rec center, and every time we’d come around to the window, the sky would be more beautiful than it had been before–peach and purple and orange just starting to light up the dark sky.

Maybe it was because it has been so foggy the past few mornings that you haven’t been able to be the sun come up at all, maybe it was something else, but it was lovely this morning.

Made getting out of bed at 6am and walking in circles for 50 minutes almost worth it.

Myths and Legends of Japan (1913) F. Hadland Davis

Although I prefer Royall Tyler’s Japanese Tales (1987), this Dover collection is still well worth having if you like folk tales. There is a discussion and history of the Gods of Japan, as well as a section on Buddha legends, both of which were unfamiliar to me.

There was also a collection of fox legends, which immediately made me think of Erin, who loves fox stories.

Read More about Myths and Legends of Japan

People of the Lie M. Scott Peck

Considering that the book was written in 1983, there were several passages that I found particularly striking.

When it no longer bothers us to see mangled bodies it will no longer bother us to mangle them ourselves. It is difficult indeed to selectively close our eyes to a certain type of brutality without closing them to all brutality. How can we render ourselves insensitive to brutality except by becoming brutes?

Read More About People of the Lie