favorite quote today:

"what a hypocrite. he [Jerry Falwell] totally lied about his own remarks. i can't wait to go to hell so i can kick his ass."

my mom asked me last night, "Have you donated blood yet?" she didn't know that i'm not allowed to do so, even if i do like being punctured by needles. bloody Red Cross.

also last night, my nephew had his second soccer game. before the game started, the only thing anyone talked about was this week's events. the game started. everyone cheered the kids (and cheered their chosen star just a little louder), forgetting for an hour that anything terrible had happened. afterward, talked turned to praise of the kids and calls for ice cream.

i've decided that the opposite of destructive explosions is a group of 5 year olds running around a field chasing a ball in a game they barely understand.

always the voices of reason.
[via akafrankgreen]

hey now, we didn't harbor him. he was, more or less, just passing through.

miss the Groosalugg? read a DragonCon chat with Mark Lutz and check out that photo. grrrr!

or maybe you prefer the demonic visage of the Host. his photo gets a double grrrr! (the second photo, silly).

although this provided the office with a brief distraction from much greater tragedies, ET says it's not true.

it's a little bizarre that piece of bad news actually provides respite.

Did you know that Pat Robertson can leg-press 600 pounds! How does he do it?

Pat Robertson's Age-Defying Shake!

a woman threatened a DJ at a local radio station this morning because he refused to agree that we're 'training terrorists' at Spartan School of Aeronautics here in Tulsa by allowing the A-Rabs to attend.

my first thought yesterday, when i heard something about terrorists and a tower at WTC collapsing, was 'wtf?' my second thought was something along this line. i worry less about another terrorist attack or war than i worry about what we'll trade away to gain an illusory feeling of security.

i really wish Dan Rather, et.al. would stop speculating on who and why. they did this when the Murrah Federal Building was bombed in OKC, and they were wrong.

i really wish they'd stop putting "experts" on the air. i don't think these experts know what they're talking about.

i really wish the people around me would stop proposing the complete annihilation of [insert group/ethnicity/nationality being blamed]. i'm sure that the other people around me who are members of whichever particular group/ethnicity/nationality are neither comfortable nor thrilled with such proposals.

i really wish our leader didn't look and sound so panicked. it's not confidence inspiring.

my five year old nephew had his first soccer game on saturday. he scored a goal and had two almost-goals. i'm certain he'll end up being a goalie since he can't keep his hands off the ball.

it was really a nice experience to watch the game. the parents of both teams cheered and praised all of the kids. there was no unpleasantness from the spectators, sidelines or players. i'm guessing they save all that for later in the season.

bloody hell. someone's listening to that damned hamster dance song.

and on the subject of controversial books, a school board member in North Charleston, SC visits two high school libraries and checks out and keeps Catcher In the Rye to prevent "great damage to the minds of young people." i like the idea of sending replacement copies to the high schools (though i'm sure they'll buy their own with the fee they get from the guy). i think i'll do the same with some local high schools just to make sure they have copies. and i'll send a couple of copies of To Kill A Mockingbird to the Muskogee high school library. yay! i'm getting activist-ey! [link via Metafilter]

i'm sure it's a temporary condition. i'll return to my apathetic state soon.

hmm. contrast this and this

i showed up at work Friday to find that our network was down again. tech and supervisors were panicked, but the boss offered us the chance to take the day off. i bit. yay for three-day weekends!

after calling in outside help, they blamed everything on a virus. yay for viri that shut us down! if that's all it takes, i think i'll spend my free time at work hunting for viri and infecting as many computers as possible.

spent a lot of time with Video Store Guy this weekend. his sarcasm and my bitter anger at the world seem to complement each other well. the only bumps we've encountered so far are that he didn't care for Dude, Where's My Car? and he hates vegetables. i'm not sure which is worse, but i think i can deal with both.