We're doing shots of all sorts over here, bitches!

ETA And yes, the bayonet IS totally necessary.

this was cute!



not as cute as this, obviously.



i'm at work, board opping a remote. i'm gonna have to hang out here til like ten pm. so i'm gonna finally get around to watching the new star trek movie. happy new year, yaaaay. and you know what else? fuck it. i'm eatin chicken wings. IT'S NEW YEARS EVE, DAMMIT.

subject line.

I know I'm a few hours early here in the Eastern time zone but whatevs...

H a p p y   N e w   Y e a r    ! ! !

2010, is going to be awesome, isn't it? One of my resolutions is to try to write more entries for my poor little LJ. I think I can... I think I can...

You kids stay safe n' warm out there tonight, y'hear? And best wishes to each and every one of you for health, wealth, love & happiness this coming year...


As for me, I'm going to enjoy a quiet dinner with my wife & kids, maybe rent a movie and - most of all - try to put 2009 behind me forever. What a shitty, god-damned year it's been. Yeesh.

A question for all the outraged right-wingers out there directly blaming the Obama administration for Northwest Flight 253 and whining about the Justice Department trying Umar Farouk Abdulmtallab in a criminal court...

Where were you people when Richard Reid smuggled the very same type of explosive onto American Flight 63 and Bush's Justice Department tried him in a criminal court?

I wonder if Michael J. Fox is doing funny heart attack impressions right now.

you guys, i just saw this on thesovereignty

call this number, and don't choose english or spanish. don't choose anything. wait about ten seconds. use the other options. DON'T MAKE ANY NOISE. it's genius.

1-800-295-0051


seriously, this is the best one eight hundred number ever. so many lulz. and toll free!
subject line.


edit: it has been apparently changed. sadly, not there anymore.

A great dad-daughter date today, starting with a terrific lunch in Chicago's Little Hanoi at Dong Ky, a visit to Uncle Fun for some kitschy toys and a stop for homemade Italian Ice at Anthony's...

Then, the best part of the day: A trip to the Tree House Humane Society - an old, single-family home transformed into a no-kill, cageless shelter for injured, stray & abandoned cats - to deliver cases of food, cat toys and a big donation check.

Jessi n' I got a VIP tour of the entire place, including their in-house clinic, surgical center, kitten & adult cat rooms and even a special area where they house FIV-infected kitties. These are truly terrific people, responsible for placing 587 cats in good homes this year alone!

Here's my girl delivering the goods to operations manager Carol Nordstrom:



( Furry Friends Galore Under The Cut! )
P.S. (Speaking of terrific people): We couldn't have made today's donation without your generous support of Jessi's hoilday food drive. Thanks again to everyone that pitched in to help out this year (and for those of you that didn't get a chance yet, Jessi is still accepting donations here until January 10th).

It's already that time, isn't it?

2009 has been a pretty damn good year for me. The biggest and best news is that after months of stressing out, caffeinating myself, and making my friends take me out for venting sessions/drinks, I was finally accepted to graduate school.

I celebrated this awesome news on a FABULOUS vacation with bular: A CRUISE!

I saw Charlie's last show at school before I left.

My mom and I participated in Detroit's Race for the Cure together.

In what was probably the most stressful weekend of my life, I went to Boston to search for an apartment. Thank goodness Kim and Julie went with me. They really kept me calm, and everything worked out in the last possible second.

I saw my last Tigers game as a MI resident. They won.

I supported my friend's family as they raised money for a cancer awareness marathon. Also, their mom is now in remission!

After dealing with a hefty apartment deposit and a salary cut, I tried to earn some dollars to help with the move to Boston. That's where I had to say goodbye to all of mom's animals.

My friends and family gave me an amazing send off.

I had an awesome last night in MI with mom and Charlie. They helped me pack up the truck. Then it was time to go on a road trip with dad to my new home.

sydelbow was my first visitor! We made lots of food and ate ice cream, and explored.

Yasmeen visited Boston and we had LOTS of laughs, wonderful adventures, and a trip to Cape Cod.

I got settled in Boston, made some fabulous friends, and went to my first Red Sox game.

Naj was my next visitor. We had drinks at Cheers and played tourists. We also went whale watching and saw U2 from the first row. Again.

I saw Blue Man Group and STOMP.

I had the honor of standing next to one of my best friends as she was made an honest woman. Ha!

Tin was my next visitor. Again, we played tourist.

I settled for an un-Wings game.

I met nanachic and attended Boston Veg Fest.

I learned to love my new home and new people.

I studied. A lot.

I spent my first Thanksgiving away from home. But it was with Tin! In NYC!

Wednesday evenings were spent with a new friend, whom I adore, drinking hot chocolate. My favorite new tradition.

I studied some more.

I saw Mamma Mia and my first televised comedy show.

And for the first time ever, I had to take a plane to get home for the holidays.

Yup, it's been a pretty great year.

It's a slow week here at work, but my backlog being what it is, I have plenty to do.

The living room looks like someone set off a cruft bomb. Stuff is everywhere. This will take a few more days to clean up, I think. While we appreciate gifts, especially for our daughter, anything that comes into this house is too much. [Small House Blues.] We also came up with two bags of girl clothes and one bag of boys clothes. (We'll pass the boy clothes on. They are too small.)

This telephone is going to wake me up in about three hours and 45
minutes.

ADVENTURE!!11!

...another right-wing "Sanctity of Marriage" asshole ditches his wife (his second wife, no less), and this time it's none other than Turdblossom himself...


What'dya wanna bet he's already schtuppin' a pretty young lobbyist? I hope his ex takes him for everything but his suspenders. ☺

P.S. Perhaps it's time we follow John Marcotte's lead in California and get to work on outlawing divorce, eh? After all, "what therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder"...

Ain't that right, Karl?

I love how all the monitors in the terminal here (VT's downstairs) are
off, and there are no attendants on duty.

That's very useful. It certainly prevents worry about delays and
connecting flights. (no information= you can't worry)

Perhaps we should employ a similar technique with my company's medical
software. If we don't tell users about missing immunizations, then
they can't worry about them! Genius! Also, if you close your eyes
really tightly, it is impossible to get tuberculosis.

I am Continental 3285 and 3153. But the sun is SHINING, so I'm sure
everything will be wonderful.

>>

Sully and His Alien Love, Mournful that the Big Mac Does Not Come With
Bacon

Please do not tear down Mother Tree and destroy our culture! ...
Unless you are planning on putting in a McDonald's. 'I See You...', I
also see golden fries.

Hat-tip John Aravosis...


Welcome to what it's like to be gay in the military, Congressman Kirk (R-IL).

To be more precise, welcome to what it's like for any military member, gay or straight, living under the military's anti-gay Don't Ask Don't Tell policy. People talk. And you spend a lot of time worrying what people are saying about you, whether you're going to lose your job, whether your career is now in doubt, rather than focusing on your job...

Wouldn't it be nice if no one cared if you were gay, Congressman?

Then again, you care if people are gay, Congressman. You think that gay people shouldn't serve in the military. But you're an officer in the Navy Reserves. And now some people are saying that you're gay. If you are gay, you're quite possibly violating the DADT policy, Congressman. A policy you defend. That puts us in the uncomfortable position of not caring if you're gay, but caring very much if you're a hypocrite.

So which is it, Congressman Kirk? Is your sexual orientation irrelevant to your job performance in the military, or are you, Congressman Kirk, a potential threat to the morale and cohesion of the United States armed forces during a time of war?

By your own standards, the American people deserve a straight answer.

At the beginning of last year, I had thrown out almost all of my novella and redrafted. I had 5k of usable text. As of now, I am mostly through two more drafts, and I have about 75K words. It's been hard work, but I feel like I am getting somewhere. I am making something of this far more than I ever expected. There's still more work to do, of course. I think that I'm actually seeing what thing thing could be.

I am also working on the basis on the next novel. This helps me shape what is important in the current novel. Some thing simply belong elsewhere, and this helps me place things in the appropriate place. I'm on draft #12 of that project. I'm still waiting for the project to stop shifting about so much. However, each change that I make really helps. As it turns out, I am nowhere near any of my initial ideas for a book. At this point, the introduction of something into the work greatly effects how the work expresses itself, so you would expect that things change about alot.