I hate to say it, but ( Read more... )

Typically something along the lines of "Uh-oh. This can't be good." Because it usually isn't.

There simply aren't words to express the relief I feel at exam week concluding tomorrow at 8 p.m.

Progress to date:

Papers written: 3
Word count: 6,971
Exam taken: 1

Yet to go:

Papers: 1, and final revisions on another
Tentative page count: About 22
Exam left: 1

God, but I'm ready for this semester to be over. Tomorrow evening I'm going to stop by the grocery store, treat myself to a bottle of wine and a pizza, and then go to bed. I plan on getting up again some time mid-morning Wednesday.

It feels like an intimidating amount of stuff left to do, but considering how much I've gotten done over the last four days, not too shabby. Here's hoping that exams are progressing smoothly for everyone else as well! :)

The School of the Americas, recently renamed the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation, is better known to many as the School of Assassins. It's a special school at Ft. Benning, GA where the Army trains Latin American soldiers and officers in areas such as torture techniques, commando tactics, military intelligence, psychological operations, etc. Bascially, it's a place that teaches them how to squash dangerous events in their country, such as nuns and priests trying to teach people to read and how to better feed themselves.

Father Roy Bourgeois has dedicated quite a few years of his life (including some time spent in prison) leading peaceful protests against the SOA and trying to keep the travesties perpetrated by the school's graduates in the public eye. What started out as a protest of a few dozen people in the 1990s last year drew almost 20,000 people to the annual demonstration last month.

Today Father Roy was kind enough to spend about 45 minutes talking to our class. He's inspirational, and an absolutely amazing human being. I'm so thrilled to have gotten to talk to him, even for just a few minutes.

The SOA Watch group is sponsoring an online petition to President Elect Obama to have him close the SOA by Executive Order early next year. Please consider hitting the Web site and signing the petition. There's absolutely nothing good going on at the SOA, and it's long past time that we admitted it and closed its doors for good.

http://www.soaw.org/index.php

Firefly!

Browncoats forever!

Found this at Slate and had to repost here. I say "here here!" and "It's about damn time!" :)

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By far the worst game we were forced to play was Murder Ball. It was basically dodge ball, but our PE coaches had us play for blood. If you could knock someone down with the ball, you were congratulated. Several of us wound up bloodied or bruised in one way or another.

No surprisingly, the students who enjoyed murder ball the most were the Football Captain, the Head Cheerleader, and the Mean Girl - maybe because they had no qualms about beating up other kids. Those of us who were a little less...bloodthirsty...tended to hang around the periphery and claim to be hit even when we hadn't be in order to get out of the game.

My favorite sports were archery, bowling, and badminton, because I turned out to be really good at them. No one was more surprised than I! All, in all though, P.E. definitely qualified as "pure hell" by the time I was in high school because my class drew the dreaded first period slot. So, spend all that time in the morning getting ready for school, and then screw up your 'do get all sweaty in first period and then spend the rest of the day smelling like a sweaty gym sock. Yummy! :)

Oh, yeah. It's going to be a drastically reduced holiday season at my house. While I'm not a big "holiday person" in that I do NOT get up in the middle of the night to stand in line outside of stores the night after Thanksgiving or any of that stuff, and I don't look forward to December all year long (quite the opposite, actually) one of my very favorite things in the world is to give gifts to friends and family. It's something I tend to do throughout the year, whenever I see something that I think a loved one might like, but particularly at Christmas time I enjoy spoiling those I love.

This year, however, I'm clipping coupons and cutting way back - even on groceries. Part of that is due to the economy, and part of it is due to the amount of money I'm currently shelling out on food and vet care for the cats-that-don't-belong-to-me (Photos pending. This is an adorable bunch of fuzzies, let me tell you.)

So, Christmas is going to be lean. I'm thinking lots of baked goods and coupons good for house-cleaning, gutter-emptying, dog bathing, and things like that. If anyone's got suggestions about things that are cheap/homemade that make good gifts, I'd love to hear them!

In other news...my horoscope for the day:

"You have a job in front of you that you're not exactly dying to dig into. But the longer you delay doing the work that is necessary, the bigger your challenges will become. So try to get started on your work as soon as you can, today. If you just dive right in and work steadily to get things over with, you will lessen the amount of stress in your day and keep things from getting any more complicated. Skip lunch if you have to -- the more you do today, the less you will have to do tomorrow."

Roger that! Two weeks to the start of the exam period and I can't even see a hint of light at the end of the tunnel. I'll go tuck into that paper I've been avoiding now!

I'm usually tempted to go in-store if I need to either try something on, or if I've heard about a new product that I want to sniff, handle, etc. before making a purchasing decision. I typically prefer to make most of my purchases online, especially as the holiday season approaches.

There are two stores in particular that are among my favorites, and that I also absolutely hate to go into. I find that the customer service people at both Bath & Body Works and at Victoria's Secret very obnoxious.

I do not like to be jumped upon when I walk into a store. Let me look around for a minute. I'm a grown-up girl and everything, and I'll ask for help if I need it.

I typically shop with a very small purse - i.e. I don't carry a big bag that might reasonably give a clerk the impression that I might try to take something. Shopping for lingerie is a bit of a personal thing for me, so BACK OFF. Yes, I know what sizes I wear, and yes, I know what the new product is, and yes; I'll probably get around to checking it out, but I have no desire to do so while standing beside and making awkward small talk with a perfect stranger.

And I'm pointing at *you* Sales Lady Number 2 when I say that after I've already given Sales Lady Number 1 the go-by, and you saw me do it because there are only the three of us in the entire store...don't you start in on me either!

Doing retail customer service work is no picnic, and it can be frustrating and aggravating to deal with rude customers. I understand that; but not all of us who come into the store do so to cause you a problem. Sales people can be so annoying, to the point that I often change my mind and leave the store without making a purchase. So for that reason, I do lots of online shopping. All the fun without any of the aggravating clerks or parents who don't keep their children in check! And the goodies comes right to my house. Sweet!

I just don't understand things sometimes.

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My personal wish list of items that would make it easier to swallow not getting a raise:

* Flex time

* Working from home

* Healthcare, healthcare, healthcare. I'm young and healthy, and can't afford to get sick. I have no idea how people who have health problems manage to keep themselves afloat.

* Allowances for things like childcare, etc. I don't have children of my own, but I know so many people who use up all their PTO doing things like taking children to the doctor, etc. It doesn't seem fair that parents (especially those with small children) are penalized in a way for having kids. Kids get sick.

* Take your dog to work day! My puppy girl is 13 and arthritic, and quite the little drama queen. She doesn't like to stay home too many hours in a stretch. She *loves* to come to work with me, and is the hit of the office whenever she's here. It's awfully nice to be able to let her hang out with us during the day. I love my office!

* The one thing I'd really like to have is voicemail. We're not allowed to let calls roll to voicemail, and we get so many stupid calls from the same people that we've already said "no" to. They keep calling. I'd really like to be able to dump them into a voicemail cue and let them talk all day to the machine if they want to. Also, here's a tip to all the job seekers out there: When the job ad says "No phone calls, please" and people call anyway...those people do NOT get the job. Demonstrating one's inability to follow basic instructions'll knock you out of consideration almost every time. ;)

My horoscope for the day:

"You're entering a vibrant time in your life, which means it's a great time to begin exploring a new hobby, interest or career opportunity. Your brain is open wide to new ideas and new ways of doing things, and it's ready to put in the practice or research required for you to excel. Stepping out of your comfort zone is usually a bit scary for you, but today it will feel downright invigorating to go where you've never been, see something you've never seen, and taste something you've never tasted."

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Just a few things seen and heard recently that were too good not to share.

From Ben Smith's Blog at Politico:

September 04, 2008
Categories: Barack Obama

Palin raises $8 million — for Obama

Obama's coffers have been filling since Sarah Palin attacked him repeatedly in St. Paul last night.

An Obama aide confirms Drudge's report that Obama has raised about $8 million from more than 130,000 donors and is on pace to raise $10 million by the time McCain reaches the stage tonight.

UPDATE: Obama spokesman Bill Burton says, "Sarah Palin's attacks have rallied our supporters in ways we never expected. And we fully expect John McCain's attacks tonight to help us make our grass-roots organization even stronger."

http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/0908/Palin_raising_for_Obama_.html

And From Heather's most excellent blog This Fish Needs a Bicycle at iVillage:

Overheard:

"My boss is seven months pregnant. A new guy just asked if she might be pregnant."

"Might be?"

"Yeah, dude, the alternative is she swallowed a globe. My god, is there nothing too obvious for a man?"

"It's why their genitals are on the outside... so they don't miss them completely."

"Damn fine call."

http://thisfish.ivillage.com/love/archives/2008/08/might-be.html

Yeah, it's a Friday afternoon after a horrendously long week and I'm so exhausted I'm slapp-happy. Both of these items make me do the happy dance. Color me delighted!

I'll be honest, I can't answer this question directly at the moment because I am truly seething with anger at the way PalinGate is being handled in the media and by pundits on both sides of the aisle.

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One of my bosom friends and I undertook a new project two weeks ago tomorrow. We joined the gym and promised each other that we would, in fact, go a minimum of five times per week.

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 Just found this link on perezhilton and want to spread it as many places as possible to put the word out to animal lovers who might not have seen the coverage this organization got recently on NBC.

http://www.tailsofhopefoundation.org/

I lost my baby Friday (8/22/08) to liver cancer. It took her down so quickly that I had no idea she was sick until the night before she died. I don't think she knew it either as everything continued to be normal with her until just before the end. She was a rough-coated tri-color Collie that I had since she was eight-weeks-old. She would have been six years old this past Tuesday (8/26/08). She was ever the charming, funny duchess for whom she was named, and I miss her terribly.

Most attention paid to diseases like cancer is focused on the human aspect. And it's not that I'm debating that, certainly. But that doesn't mean that those of us who live with and love animals don't see them as very much parts of our families, and don't grieve for them just as we do for people when they leave us. The house is dimmer this week without her light, and the other dogs and I aren't quite sure what to do with ourselves. How nice it would be if some day, down the road, in addition to finding a way to keep people from suffering from diseases like cancer, that same blessing could be spread to our companion animals too.

Easy! Jimmy Hickok. Because he's hot!

Darling Diana is hosting a blogathon fundraiser through LJ to support rescue horses. Check it out!

http://tyrblogathon.livejournal.com/