Seems as good an idea as any.
Topic: Fun

Japanese businessmen hold a service aimed at fending off viruses and glitches for their computers in a purification ceremony conducted by a Shinto priest according to Shinto rituals at Kanda Myojin shrine in Tokyo January 6, 2004. REUTERS/Haruyoshi Yamaguchi

Topic: Fun
In a rare moment of candor, Washington insiders reveal something you NEVER thought they would!

From San Diego's STAR100.7 radio station site...

Topic: Fun
What happens when you have:

1) nothing to do;

2) a sharp knife;

3) a large lime;

4) a patient cat;

5) too much tequila and

6) it's football season?

Are You Stresse?

"Stress sneaks upon us so easily, that so very often we're not even aware of it when it hits. Take this self-stress test by hitting the link below. You might be surprised as to how stressed out you really are."

This might prove to you that you're needing a vacation.

Topic: Cute

A pony rubs his nose on a cat in the Budakeszi game park near Budapest, Hungary on Wednesday, Jan. 7, 2004, after snow started to fall in the morning hours in some parts of Hungary. (AP Photo / MTI, Mate Nandorfi)

You know in the Lord of the Rings movie, when Elrond's people were leaving Rivendell in droves?

Right.

Would you say, while looking at the emptied Rivendell, that...

"Elves have left the building"?

Topic: Personal

The good-luck bamboo in my office shriveled up & died. Should I be concerned?

Topic: Opinion
Dudes, WTF?

"BAN THE SLAUGHTER OF HORSES FOR HUMAN CONSUMPTION
Your help is urgently needed to prevent the continued slaughter of horses!" ----ASPCA advocacy call

Now I love animals, I generally support the ASPCA, but this is a tad...inconsistent bordering on hypocrisy, non? There is nothing anywhere on the ASPCA advocacy site about saving cows or chickens or clams from slaughter, although we eat them also. As I read further on the page, I encountered this passage:

"Americans don't eat horsemeat so it may be a shocking revelation to many people that thousands of horses are slaughtered every year to please the palates of the French, the Belgians and the Japanese." A-HA! Clearly we must save our special, darling, American animals from these aberrant foreigners, who will eat anything.

This suddenly reminds me of the stink run up by that French actress has-been...now what's her name again? a couple of years ago bashing the Koreans for eating dogs: "on November 28, 2001, French actress-turned-activist Bridget Bardot implored South Korea to stop their practice of eating dogs. According to Reuters, she said, "Korea needs to listen to what foreigners say about the eating of dog meat as it harms Korea's image... Though Koreans do not eat their pet dogs, eating dog meat is part of Korean culture." She argues, "Dogs are humans' friends, not animals for food, helping the blind walk, so eating dog meat is like eating humans.""

Okaaaaaaaayyyyy. Clearly the Koreans are inferior and cruel for not aligning their legitimate cultural practices to the newly minted,[yet to Ms Bardot] superior Western way of life.


Why can't these misguided souls just keep their self-satisfied, hypocritical, biased and essentially racist bourgeois morality to themselves instead of constantly trying to stuff it down other culture's throats like so much narcissist, solipsistic foie gras? So what if the Belgians and Japanese eat horseflesh and the Koreans eat dogs? I don't see anyone working up a froth trying to save the clams from cruel consumption in America's clam chowder restaurants.

Topic: Opinion
Stephen King National Book Awards Acceptance Speech

V. good speech. Esp. bit about bridging popular fiction and literary fiction,[NB: i.e. Harry Potter/Terry Pratchett v. Angela's Ashes/House of Sand & Fog, etc.] Delicious jab at snotty critics who want to "get social or academic brownie points for deliberately staying out of touch with [their] own culture".

I used to think that something is wrong with me, because I like pop. fiction but not lit. fiction, vis. am I an inferior reader? Alas, no more. I like fun, I like adventure, I like satisfying endings. I don't want dissection of pain and lost longing and I don't want to spend time on other people's either. If that makes me shallow, then so be it.

Topic: Personal
Love being married to R. Love it, love it. Besides his taking care of money, laundry, dishes, and the car, there are a thousand little things that makes me love this state of being. Example: when we're both in bed, about to drop off to sleep, he'll reach a hand over under the covers and put it on me somewhere - on my leg, over my back, whatever - and fall asleep like that, as though he wants to make sure I'm there even when he's falling from the edge of sleep.

So sweet and just v.v. lovely.