Duel and Duality

Title unrelated to any hilarious Rowan Atkinson comedy.

So yeah, I was recently reading Julia Sweeney's blog and stopped on the phrase 'baby jesus'. I stopped because it seemed odd to me that she would use that term as she is an atheist. And then I stopped even more and really thought about the idea of baby jesus. As opposed to adult jesus as opposed to zombie jesus. In particular I wondered at the idea of 'making the baby jesus cry.'

Because, really, didn't baby jesus grow up into boy jesus who went through puberty and eventually became adult jesus? So how ridiculous is the idea of baby jesus being made to cry anyhow? Answer: very.

On the spot I decided that Christianity is more than just a quatratheistic religion. If you count baby jesus, adult jesus, zombie jesus, old testament god, new testament god, the holy ghost, and satan you have a 7 member pantheon. If you start trying to tally up various angels, it's as polytheistic as they come. If you throw in Mary and the saints (for Catholics) you've got a horde of supernatural agents to make the Forgotten Realms campaign setting look downright stingy with the gods.

Man do I ever hate the Forgotten Realms campaign setting. But I'd play in that setting given half a chance at this point. How old should I let the Grimmlet get before completing her geekamorphosis with RPGs?

Bzzzzzzzz! Bzzzzzzzz!

Why do I ever drink anything with caffeine? Midnight and I am awake. And paranoid. And jumpy. Perfect. I'm sure this will make me highly productive at work tomorrow.

Reading the Laura Ingalls Wilder books to the Grimmlet. It kind of blows me away that the story take place about 130 years ago. And that the land they settled which was then open and wild may well be a Wal-Mart parking lot now. Progress!

Not sure what to do for my NWN submission. Freakin' writer's block!

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Update: I realize now that the coke I hade at 2ish in the afternoon is not the culprit. The Iced Heroine with Mint that I had at 7ish in the evening on the other hand... Crap! I totally meant to order it decaff. There should be a law that baristas have to ask if you REALLY want a caffeinated drink after 6.

Not that it really matters, of course.

But the problem with going away and not telling anybody and then suddenly reappearing with a *poof* sound effect and a puff of plaid smoke is that either people turn around because they heard the *poof* sound effect and only then realize that you have been gone or they don't hear the *poof* sound effect at all and never look at you again.

But who cares! Kr4ster's here! Well, really there, I suppose.

Which has nothing to do with the fact that some kid from my old high school left me a message urging me to donate money to some fund or other. Not somebody I knew, mind you, but some current student they have put up to cold calling alumi. I feel so sorry for that kid.

Do they have 15th year reunions? Cause I sorta missed my 10 year and I'd hate to have to wait for 20th to see those people again.

I'm baaaack.

Like some horrible poltergeist I rattle my chains at you and give rise to hopelessness and despair.

Anyhow, Mexico was awesome. Thanks for asking. Getting sick while traveling with a child who was also getting sick (different kind) is the pits. I don't understand why so many people recommend it.

Now I am mostly better. I'm able to breath for minutes on end without attempting to cough out one of my lungs. Yays!

And I remembered my blog. But I'm not sure how to count the time I was absent. Because I have an excuse, but no doctor's note.

This is a Test

Of the Emergency Blogging System. If this were a real emergency, you probably wouldn't be reading this blog. Unless it were a blog emergency. Or a potty emergency while reading this blog. But neither case would actually warrant use of the EBS. It is to be used ONLY when I run out of cookies. Cause, damn. No cookies.

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Update: Okay. So I can post through e-mail. But no labels. So I may (pending internet cafe access) post in the next week. But I'm not counting on it.

Implementing whirling

School districts in Konya province, Turkey are tiptoeing into compliance with province law requiring a daily moment of frenetic reflection.

November 4, 2007
BY ECMEL KUTAY Staff Writer
A time of reflection, a way to think about the day ahead, or just a brief opportunity to get really dizzy -- it's the kids' choice.
Mustafa Pamuk made that perfectly clear a few weeks ago when he explained to his Kemal Middle School students that each school day would begin with a moment of silent spinning.


Sixth-graders at Kemal Middle School observe a secular moment of spinning prior to the start of Mustafa Pamuk's science class on Thursday.
(İSMET HAKKI AKANSEL Staff Photographer)

"At first, they were kind of confused at the idea of spinning like tops," said Pamuk, who teaches seventh- and eighth-grade Science at the East Konya School District school. "I told them to take 30 seconds to think about their goals for the day, something they can put into practice, as far as good behavior while they rotate. Or it can be a time to get revved up for the day, because it can be really boring before school in the morning."

Earlier this year, lawmakers voted in favor of switching the province's 38-year-old voluntary moment of whirling -- the Spinning Reflection and Student Dhikr Act -- to a mandatory one in all Konya public schools.

Mayor Tahir Akyürek vetoed the legislation, but the Assembly voted to override the mayor's veto on a 74-37 vote, and the bill immediately became law three weeks ago.
The law requires a teacher to observe a brief period of turning at the opening of every school day with the participation of all pupils assembled.

The law does not specify the length of time, so as little as 10 seconds will work. Still, some school administrators are unhappy.

A number of school officials claim there are religious overtones to the bill; others express concerns on constitutional grounds; and still others complain about it being a new mandate, said Nurettin Sözen, a spokesman for the Konya Association of School Boards, which took no position on the bill as it moved through the legislative process.

"I'm sure this will get aired out in the judicial system," Sözen said. "That's where it will get cleared up."

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I don't know why people think this is a joke. I assumed the moment of silence in Illinois was a joke. I mean, come on, seriously?

Uh oh...

Well, I guess if I post this in the next...19 minutes I will not have gone the entire weekend without posting. Which would be, for me, the first step down the short road to procrastinating about posting to and eventually deleting this blog. Yes, Trinity, I know I've been down this road. Please shut up.

So this post is really more of an exercise in not procrastinating than anything else. Wheee! Woo hoo! Doing something produ...aw, nuts. I just remembered that I have laundry to fold. Gotta go!

Things that make you go, "Bwuh?"

I'll try to get my reaction shot up later. Cause, WTF?

Probably Not^3

Would Les Miserables be easier to get through if I didn't already sort of know the story? I got stuck for a bit in the Fantine section where I had to read Tholomyes' barrage of BS. He's the sort of person who I would want to punch in the face in real life. Repeatedly. But I got past that section, so, yays!

Did they start out being called flutterbys? I've always wondered that. It makes a whole lot more sense if you think about it.

Should I be spending so much time recently thinking about the mechanics of terraforming? I don't have a story idea, so why am I thinking about it so much? Stop, brain!

We will wock you

So after reading my post from earlier, I decided to go find the video that resulted in the Grimmlet being a Queen fan. Here it is:



It is very cute and sung by children which likely heightened its appeal. After clicking to find it I turned the volume down a lot so as not to be heard listening to it. That lasted about 30 seconds. She bounded out of bed and came and sat in my lap and demanded that I start it from the beginning.

There are some that call me TMI?

I know what kind of underwear Grimmlet's teacher wore today. I didn't really need to know that. Out of the corner of my eye I thought I was witnessing a bad case of plumber's crack. Forced by morbid curiosity, I turned to confront it fully. But it was, in reality, a bad case of plumber's thong.

The Grimmlet's favorite Queen song is We Will Rock You. She likes to do the beatboxing for the stomp/stomp/clap part.

Also, puppies! They are furry and cute. They are slightly less cute when they are playfully tugging on your disemboweled entrails.

Greetings

Well, here it is. My fresh, brand-spanking new blog. May it experience more posts (if no more traffic) than the old blog. Probably not, though. ADD and experience inform my opinion that I will probably post here for about a week and then get bored and forget.

I just realized that as I have no audience, I need not introduce myself at all. ... And that this whole exercise is mental masturbation of the highest order. Yays!

Everyone's a critic. Blogger informs me that 'yays' is not a real word. Fuck off, blogger spell check. I likes my words like I likes my women! Uh...garbled, yet cutesy?

Okay, so...news. I got nuthin'. I dressed up as a Geico Caveman for Halloween. One of the women with whom I work thought I looked like a scary serial killer. She wouldn't talk to me for the whole day. It's funny too, I figured with the crazy beard and my crazy eyes I could do a serial killer. Then I went through every image on wikipedia and learned that, in general, serial killers seem to eschew facial hair. So I went as a caveman who was mistaken for a serial killer. I did win 2nd place in the costume contest. Go me!

Okay, that was good. I need a cigarette.