Tuesday, July 4, 2006, 09:27 AM
I had a really odd dream last night:
There was a world that was mostly arid and hot. It was run by a rigid caste system where certain people enjoyed great power and freedom while others were little more than slaves. There was a shopping mall where I was trying to find my sister. I remember being able to understand what the various signs meant even though none of them were written in English.
The shopping center was absolutely crawling with rats of all sizes and colors. They weren't one bit afraid of people. But I sure was afraid of the rats! All of the stores were dingy and filthy.
One of the stores was a pharmacy, and a security guard threw me out because I walked in through a door reserved for someone of higher caste.
There was a clothing store in which the floors were caked with rat droppings. I noticed that there must have been another sentient species that lived in this world, for the store had a clothing section for people who had to have been very slender but also be 12'-15' tall! I didn't see any of these people, but they must have existed. It also explained why the ceiling was 20' high.
I had to fight off three rats that tried to bite me. One of the salesmen said to "not worry about it, that EVERYONE gets bitten once on a while". Well, I'm not just everyone!
I found my sister in the back of the store. She looked dirty, too thin, and had the look of someone who had been worked too hard for too long. When she saw me, she had this strange expression that told me that she hadn't seen me in a long, long time. (Where had I been, I wondered?)
I led her out of the store.
I looked out into this filthy strip-mall that sat in this filthy town which lay on this filthy, hateful world, and decided that I wanted to leave.
Suddenly, everything became foggy and indistinct. I grabbed my sister's hand and started walking. I knew, somehow, that I was walking *away* from this place, this world. I had the power to walk between worlds by calling down mist and walking in a certain direction in a certain way.
We left the rat-infested hell-hole world behind. And for a minute, there was only white mist around us. But then, I saw the shores of another world ahead. As I entered it, I knew a few things about it: the apex predator was the wolf (not the rat); the most common rodent was the gerbil; it had a wider variety of insects than the previous world; the world had a large number of shallow inland seas; the climate was a heck of a lot more temperate.
I (and my sister) emerged from the mist on the shores of an inland sea. It appeared to be a fishing village dotted with simple wooden homes. It was not schorching hot and there was plenty of water to drink. More importantly, I instinctively knew that my sister would be welcome here, taught a trade, and have a happy life.
So why wasn't I staying? I did not know. But I felt a calling to *walk* somewhere else to help someone else. I guess that was *my* job.
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( 3 / 1112 )Sunday, July 2, 2006, 06:37 PM
Well... After six months of Doug dieting and me excercising, here's what we've accomplished:
-- Me: 25 pounds.
-- Doug: 30 pounds.
I am really proud of Doug. He was able to keep up with me the whole time in New York this weekend (and I really walk fast!) He can buy off-the-rack clothes now, instead of having to buy clothes out of a catalog. He doesn't get tired all the time anymore either. Doug is just doing SO WELL!
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( 3 / 1174 )Friday, June 30, 2006, 09:05 PM
I had a pretty creepy defendant roll through Pretrial today. He was accused of murder (1st degree / premeditated). Apparently there was some guy he had an argument with previously and he responded by coming by later when the victim was parking his car. The defendant pointed a shotgun through the car window and pulled the trigger.
The victim was completely obliterated! You could bury him in a shoe box. Ugh!
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( 3 / 913 )Sunday, June 25, 2006, 02:49 PM
I've been really happy over the fact that the Bishop picked a really nice, highly talented interrem rector to serve at St John's church for the past 19 months. But today was his last day. I was genuinely sad to see him go.
With a name like Bruce McPherson, one might guess that he was highly Scottish. He had both a Scott's humor *and* temper. For better or worse, it was never *boring* having him around!
Unlike the wretched man he replaced, Bruch was genuinely likable and really seemed to be a man of God. I wish him well.
To tell you what a breath of fresh air he was, you have to understand how bad his predecessor was. Reverend Shifflett (aka "RevDocBS" since he always used both the Reverend and Doctor titles.)
RevDocBS was a spendthrift with other peoples' money (evidenced by building a huge, money-losing private school on church grounds). He loathed the poor. He wrote lousy, long, rambling sermons that never really seemed to be about anything. He never gave the music program a proper budget. He and the Choir Master had an enmity that lasted nearly 20 years. I remember vividly how he actually slammed his office door in my face once. He chewed up secretarial staff like nobody's busines because he was such an evil, hateful man.
Bruce McPherson on the other hand is kind, engaging, and certainly never one to slam doors in people's faces. He and the Choir Master got along well. He also had an appreciation for music, poetry, and fine literature. He liked Robert Frost and JRR Tolkien. He wrote engaging, memorable sermons. In the past 19 months, I'd estimate that church attendance went from 40% to around 70%. I know that *I've* been attending church more!
I hope our permenant rector is more like Bruce and not at all like RevDocBS.
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( 3 / 1149 )Friday, June 23, 2006, 09:01 PM
I had this odd dream about a one-eyed submarine captain. The odd thing is that he didn't have an eye patch or anything like that. He had just the one eye -- in the middle of his forehead. He was a cyclopse.
Now, just because he was a cyclopse didn't mean he was a bad guy. He wasn't. He used to have two eyes as well, but some sort of undersea monster somehow stole one of his eyes.
He commanded a really fascenating submarine. It was some kind of experimental model, one of a kind. It looked vaguely like a gigantic pepper mill. Along the outer hull, a sort of revolving luminescent cable swung around it, like a barber pole stripe. It propelled the sub by creating an electromagnetic effect that pushed the sub. This was a nearly silent propulsion system.
Inside the submarine, the cyclopse captain announced that the ship was going to try to find the creature that stole one of his eyes. The ship entered "silent running" mode, which made most of the interior lighring flicker out. I assumed that the intense electromagnetic effect from the experimental drive also made the lights malfunction.
The ship dove to some incredible depth. Perhaps it was in one of the deep trenches (like the Marianis Trench).
The water around the submarine was perfectly clear, yet black as night. Even though I don't really have a sense of touch when I dream, o intellectually knew that the water was very pure but also very cold.
The submarine had a remote sensor it used to scout ahead. It found the creature. It looked like a gigantic venus flytrap that had a huge single eye (presumably the captain's). Unfortunately, the eye had grown proportionally with the plant. So I had no idea how the submarine caprain would ever use that eye again. His missing eye was as large as the captain's entire head!
I don't know what happened next, since I woke up.
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( 3 / 1181 )Friday, June 23, 2006, 08:54 AM
I had a clever idea after a haughty bitch in a Hummer H3 flipped me the bird after parking her land-yacht in such a way as to take up two parking spaces (leaving no space for me). Hybrids actually generate a lot of electricity. My 1st Generation hybrid produces 144 volts, while some of the 2nd Generation models produce between 330v and 500v. What if all this excess power could be used to drive a portable, handheld EMP gun? That would be cool.
The great thing about EMP weapons is that they fry electronics but don't harm human beings. So the hybrid owners of America could rid our country of the SUV plague just by zapping them with an EMP. The land-yachts' ignition computer would fry and the vehicle would be rendered inert.
You could then recycle the Hummers for scrap metal (to produce more hybrids, hopefully!)
Alas, such a dream could never come true since EMP weapons are illegal, as is malicious destruction of property. But it would make great pulp fiction!
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( 3 / 1143 )Tuesday, June 20, 2006, 08:28 AM
I've seen a few news stories lately about how most of the hospitals in this country have critically overcrowded ER sections. Since Bush was elected, the number of ER visits at most hospitals has risen over 40%. Have people suddenly become sicker and more accident-prone over the past six years?
Hardly.
What HAS happened is that Bush scaled back enforcement of illegal alien hiring practices by 95%. Over the past six years, our country has become flooded with illegal aliens who are both extremely poor and devoid of health insurance. When these "guest workers" [trespassers] get sick or are injured on the job, they have no recourse but to go to the nearest hospital ER.
As the flood of illegal aliens has systematically driven down wages, many American citizens have also found themselves impoverished and without insurance. After all, what Bush-supporting megacorporation is going to pay an American citizen $12/hour plus insurance, plus workers' comp, when that same company can pay an illegal alien $5/cash under-the-table, not pay taxes, and not pay health insurance? When American citizens are forced to compete with illegal aliens, the Americans either lose their jobs, or simply take a drastic pay cut and lose their health insurance.
But Bush likes illegal aliens. Bush likes a steady stream of disposable workers who do dangerous, backbreaking work for pennies on the dollar. Bush, I believe, likes the idea of slavery and his immigration policy is a close second to that idea. He doesn't care who he has to make poor in order that the wealthiest 1% can become even obscenely richer.
So our hospitals take the brunt of this policy. You can die waiting in the ER because the hospital waiting area loks like some Third World hell hole.
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( 3 / 1256 )Monday, June 19, 2006, 07:14 PM
Every once in a while I get this sort of migraine attack that has all the features of a migraine headache, except for the headache part. In other words, I get dizzy, my stomach gets upset, I feel weak in my legs, and my vision fills with a torus of green fire.
This usually only lasts ten minutes or so. But after it goes away, I feel totally wiped out. I think it's called an "occular migraine", since it affects vision, but doesn't hurt.
I think the trigger for it today was that it was just ROASTING hot today, and the air conditioning was on the fritz last night. This made me sweat all night, which dehydrated me. But then after work I foolishly tried to do 5km at the gym. I got about halfway through it before I got sick. Ugh. It really sucked.
At least I only get the full-blown migraine about one every 18-24 months (whereupon it lasts for for 30-45 days!)
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( 3 / 1190 )Monday, June 19, 2006, 12:29 PM
I have to confess to a certain piece of almost inexcusable vanity. I dye my hair. [Shock... Horror...]
The problem with being of Irish descent is that my hair started going grey in my early 20s. Lemme tell ya: it sucks looking 45 when I'm only 36. That's why I dye my hair. Oh well. Is vanity one of the seven deadly sins? I can never remember.
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( 3 / 1171 )Sunday, June 18, 2006, 03:43 PM
I was both saddened and outraged today as I was watching CNN at the gym during my workout. CNN has a "Fathers' Day" segment in which soldiers in Iraq could make a 15-30 second greeting to his/her families at home. Some of the soldiers had been in Iraq for the whole three years without a break or a duty rotation. Some were badly injured.
The field hospital segment was pretty ghastly. Nothing's too good for Bush's political contributers, but the Administration didn't seem to be spending a lot of cash on our soldiers' medical care.
One of the Fathers' Day calls was from a terribly wounded soldier who was being treated for a grenade injury. He was trying to convince his yound daughter that he was going to be okay even though he was bleeding from a dozen wounds.
I pray that George W Bush can be made to pay for the lives he has ruined with this endless, pointless, illegal war. I hope that the Democrats take both houses in November, and that the Bush/Cheney/Rumsfeld triumvarite will be tried for war crimes and imprisoned -- forever.
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