This is hilarious. As a promotion for Aqua Teen Hunger Force - a great cartoon on Adult Swim - lighted boards had been put up around major cities in the US, and for some reason in Boston, they were thought to be bombs and they ended up closing several bridges and part of the Charles River. As Ignignokt would say, "We do whatever we want whenever we want, at all times."
But seriously, this fear of terrorism is out of control. Curse you, Bush Administration!
Over the weekend we went to Indiana to a baby shower I hosted with a friend for my sister and her husband. We hooked up a web cam, since they couldn't travel to the party, and it was really fun. It was like, there was this big party, and my sister was in this one corner of the room - and everyone virtually mingled. Web camming is so fun! I'm so excited that we're going to be able to talk face to face (as it were) from now on! Maybe flying cars are next. (When I was a kid, I thought The Future would be all about video phones and flying cars.) 
Yesterday was Blog for Choice day - I've been catching up on some of the writings from various feminist sites. I think my friend D. said it best, "I am for Choice because I believe women are human beings. As such, they deserve to have the ability to make their own decisions." It steams me that women's rights aren't protected in this country. I myself have been given the run-around just trying to pick up my birth control at the pharmacy (not to mention the times in my life I could barely afford it because it wasn't covered by my insurance). Attempts to over-rule Roe v. Wade are just indicative of this country's (and an unfortunate number of its populace's) refusal to see women as full human beings. 
Late last week, I became peripherally aware of several football games, the importance of which was impressed upon me by my brother-in-law's blog and this crazy lady at the Post Office. 
exploration, as in a tango number between Turk and Carla where she complains about how he doesn't know her middle name and that she's Dominican, not Puerto Rican. But the show wasn't really very musical, despite being written by two composers from Avenue Q, and came off like a high school production (I'm not sure that wasn't the intention, actually.) The only person who seemed to have any real vocal talent was Aneurysm Woman (Stephanie D'Abruzzo, also from Avenue Q), and Sam Lloyd (Ted), who occasionally sings as part of a barbershop quartet. 
...I have the personal faith that mankind will somehow rise up to the occasion and give new directions to an age drifting rapidly to its doom. In spite of the tensions and uncertainties of this period something profoundly meaningful is taking place. Old systems of exploitation and oppression are passing away, and out of the womb of a frail world new systems of justice and equality are being born. Doors of opportunity are gradually being opened to those at the bottom of society. The shirtless and barefoot people of the land are developing a new sense of "some-bodiness" and carving a tunnel of hope through the dark mountain of despair. "The people who sat in darkness have seen a great light." Here and there an individual or group dares to love, and rises to the majestic heights of moral maturity. So in a real sense this is a great time to be alive. Therefore, I am not yet discouraged about the future. 
But, most of all, the whole story is just completely implausible because I find it hard to believe that underwater people would ever have bangs. Like a group of advanced sea creatures are going to be like, "Oh, I need to cut my bangs, I'm getting hair in my face." Ridiculous.
Yesterday my dad and brother came up for a basketball game at UIC against "a true Hoosier team" (according to D-van), Butler. Butler is supposedly 13th in the nation, but they lost to UIC last night, in what was probably one of the most boring games I've ever seen until the last 20 seconds, when they finally started hitting baskets, tied up the game and went into a mildly exciting overtime. I wasn't compelled to jump to my feet or anything, but other people did. Basketball has changed a lot since I've been to games, which I used to do in... high school. It was really commercial. Every time there was a time-out, the cheerleaders had to haul out all these advertisements thinly disguised as games for the crowd. Also, they threw t-shirts into the crowd and gave away pizzas. One was apparently meant to scream their head off for these valuable items. Like I'm gonna shout for a piece of Domino's pizza. Side note: the cheerleaders had much better aim with the t-shirts than the basketball players with the ball.
My friend A. turned me on to this song Code Monkey by Jonathan Coulton, who, I discovered after further research, wrote a song a week for a year. It's like he looked deep into M's soul and wrote a song about him. Like how he's not crazy, just proud. And refers to code as "elegant." Oh, that cracks me up. You can download the song, and you can watch a bunch of videos made by nerds on YouTube, although, IMO, there's not really any stand-out one, not even the one mashed together with scenes from the Matrix, so don't get excited.
OMG, so, I'm flipping channels, and I see a rerun of the single most disturbing television show of my youth - this Little House on the Prairie in which Pa, for some reason, is driving his covered wagon next to this other family, and the other pater familias is not a skilled wagonsman like Pa, and their wagon goes careening down this slopping hill and they die! And Pa runs over to their wagon, and you see the other dude's bloody hand hanging out, and Pa lifts up the cloth of the wagon, and then, ugh! He has to look away! Oh, that haunted me - what did their mangled bodies LOOK LIKE? Meanwhile their two adorable children stood by, weeping with their mouths hanging open. One interesting tid-bit: Before they began riding down the hill, Pa says he'll drive his own wagon down, then come walk back up and drive their wagon down. That's kind of rude, right? Then, before the other guy drives his wagon down, he says to his wife, "Let's 'get 'er done'!" Get 'er done!?!? Is Little House on the Prairie the impetus for that?
But I am excited about Nancy Pelosi becoming the first woman speaker of the House. The world still has a long way to go before women see real equality, but this is a good step in the right direction. There are only 82 women, or 15.3%, in the 535 seats in the 109th US Congress.
