BlogFerret

I always like to see Kathy Griffin do well. I especially enjoy it when she pokes fun at the “A-list” celebrities, even if she’s using that to make herself into a sort of celebrity.  HOWEVER, check this shit out:

http://www.atheists.org/action/alert-13-sep-2007.html

Ms. Griffin, who is an open Atheist, told those attending the awards ceremony that “a lot of people come up here and thank Jesus for this award. I want you to know that no one had less to do with this award than Jesus … Can you believe this shit? Hell has frozen over. Suck it, Jesus, this award is my god now.”

While these remarks may constitute free speech, they can also be considered extremely offensive to Christians. I understand that true free speech often offends, but check out what Ellen Johnson, the President of American Atheists, said of Griffin’s speech:

It’s permissible to make religious comments at the Emmy Awards and other public events as long as they do not criticize or threaten the self-appointed ‘Religion Police.’ Celebrities can go on national television to ‘thank’ Jesus, or Allah, or Scientology for their success, but an Atheist cannot make an honest and forthright statement that their success came from developing their talents and working hard…

This statement has a problem, and no, I’m not referring to Johnson’s incorrect pronoun agreement. The fact is that Griffin did not make an “honest and forthright statement that [her] success came from developing [her] talents and working hard.” She was doing fine up until “Suck it, Jesus.” It’s okay to say that Jesus didn’t have anything to do with one’s triumph if that’s what one believes… And it was pretty funny what she did say. However, the atheists really can’t be that surprised that the academy wants to censor Griffin. I mean, what if someone got up there and said, ” Yeah I got here because of my love for God. You atheists are nothing but fuckstains on the moldy mattress of humanity.” Then who might be calling for censorship? NOT because of religious remarks, but because maybe it could be considered extremely intolerant of atheists?

Thanking Jesus for an award does not automatically insult atheists, just as NOT thanking Jesus doesn’t automatically insult Christians. And yes, Griffin is a comedienne, and yes, “edgy” shit these days involves being extremely impolite and perhaps offensive. Still, I think the atheists could hitch their wagon to a better phrase. “Suck it, Jesus,” while it might have a ring to it, doesn’t really portray an educated, mature, or thoughtful point of view, nor does it present a tolerant stance. I would think that atheists, often being people of science and careful thought, might want to get behind a more, um, for lack of a better word, “classy” statement? Of course, I’m all for free speech.  Even if it makes people look like jackasses to advocate free speech sometimes.

But I don’t. I’ve been thinking about posting for some time now, but I haven’t. All I think about is school and my Nintendo DS, lately. I wonder if I get the DS browser if I could post to Wordpress with it? I bet even if I could I still wouldn’t have anything to say.
Yes, I am very inane today. I made salmon teryaki tonight and it was delicious. People don’t know what they’re missing when seafood goes on sale and I’m cooking.

I have been watching ST:TNG season 1. I loved the way they handled drug addiction and society’s response to it. Episode 23, Symbiosis, involves a wealthy, sort of “yuppy” society whose only support is gained from providing another planet’s society with “medicine” to combat the “plague.” It turns out that the “plague” once really existed in the people of Planet #2, but now it doesn’t and the people remain physically and psychologically dependent on it. Picard won’t violate the Prime Directive by keeping the shipment of the drug the Enterprise becomes involved with from reaching Society #2, but he informs that society that its dependence on the pharmaceutical is no longer survival-based. He ALSO refuses to violate the Prime Directive when he won’t help to repair the vessels responsible for shipping the drug. Both Society #1 and Society #2 are going to lose a great deal, in various ways. Dr. Crusher is upset because she could have eased the withdrawal of Society #2, and all Picard did was take away their cars and force them to make their own choices. Some of People #2 will remain addicted, obviously. Others, it is assumed, will realize that they won’t die from lack of the drug and stop using it. Ah, Star Trek, you teach us such valuable lessons about ourselves.

I am sort of manic, and yet, I am enjoying myself. Is it a form of recreation to deprive oneself of sleep, or is that just my disease? Is oneself a word, really? If it isn’t, spell check doesn’t catch it.

How to test if your radio station is playing the most current hits that appeal to the average mouth breathing teen:

Turn on your radio. Listen to the song - anything from My Chemical Romance to Lost Prophets to Jimmy Eat World.  Can you do the swimmer to it? (123 and 123 and 123 and 123 and…) Then it must be the most popular crap around.

Let’s all do the swimmer!

Okay, having begun to knit in 2005, mostly to have something cheap to do with my hands while James was in New Orleans trying to get back into our neighborhood after the stupid hurricane, I have now become proficient enough at it to need real supplies.  Right now I have a long plastic needle case with a few different needls of various sizes and a small yarn “stash” - I don’t think you could even really call it a stash, though.  Every skein of yarn I have (and some I don’t have) is already alotted to a project, or it’s a bit of a skein from a different project.

My point is that I’ve decided I need an entire set of double pointed needles, circular needles, and straight needles, and I also need cable needles of more than one size and I really really need a place to put it all. Right now all the knitting stuff is organized in plastic bags stacked up inside a wicker hamper thing with a lid I got at Big Lots.  My ferret Mab likes to scale it like MT. Everest, in hopes of reaching still greater heights, but I moved it away from the kitchen table, so she is routinely disappointed.

The only reason I say this is that I’m tired of getting a new pattern only to discover that I not only need yarn, but I also have to buy needles.  I guess that’s why James has all those drill bits.  He just likes to be prepared.

Yep, that’s right. I’m going to be reduced to one of those people who starts fights on the internet. No, I’m not a forum troll, although I have annoyed quite a few people in my intermittent forum rovings: I may have to fight over 30 bucks with an online merchant.

Read the rest of this entry »

I would love to make my first post in a very long time one of clever insight, great content, and pithy sayings. Instead I will whine about how other people whine on their blogs.

****I am a big fat meanie in this post. You have been warned. If you don’t like it you can’t say I didn’t warn you. It’s my blog, and why should I be the only person who doesn’t post self-indulgent, meaningless, uninteresting crap on her blog?****

This post makes me a big fat hypocrite, because I whine on my blog all the time when I can be bothered to write in it. I actually have interesting things to write about in my blog instead of whining, because I have been out living my life. Unfortunately, I have no time to write about the interesting stuff, because I have been out living my life. Now that I have free time for a few minutes, I will spend time whining about myself as a whiner, and other people as whiners. I’m such a whiner.

I did have time to do slacking Google searches, however, and came across a blog about someone who had infertility problems, got IVF even though she couldn’t really afford it, and was busily complaining about how badly everything was going. The whole infertility thing is a hot subject, and I’m reluctant to comment on how I specifically feel about it — even though I’m already an asshole here, because I don’t feel sorry for a person who couldn’t have kids, and so made herself very sick and poor so she could have one, then was unhappy about it. Still what struck me is that the woman wanted to know how much she had to “prostrate herself to the universe” (I think those were the words) in order to “deserve” to be a mom.

Well, it sounds like she got what she wants, but now she “don’t want what she gots.” Something I learned in my mid-20’s or thereabouts: Life is not about what you deserve. People never get what they deserve. Really nice people get shit on all the time, and supreme bottomfeeding pursesnatching assholes get Mazeratis and six figure incomes. It’s not about “deserve”, it’s about your response to the hand you’re dealt in the cosmic card game of the universe.

The Ancient Greeks had this concept of fate, which was really “whatever the gods want to do with you.” The gods put you on sort of a “fate wave,” which left untampered with, would deal out to you over your lifetime a certain amount of happiness and a certain amount of suffering. It was only when you tried to mess with it, i.e. take more than your fair share of happiness, that you increased your suffering. We are dealt whatever life we are dealt. This doesn’t mean we should not use our talents and abilities to try and live the life we desire, but sometimes we need the self-knowledge to realize when something we want is our fair portion - that is, our lot in life - and when we need to adjust our response to the hand we’ve been dealt.

Or in other words, if you have a phenomenal verbal SAT score but your math score is low to average, don’t go to college with the intention of becoming a Mathematics PhD with a specialty in differential equations. According to the Greeks, you will only bring suffering upon yourself.

I finally decided to try this. This post was created using Avantgo and my faithful Sony Clie T615C.

…because the first thing I thought when I saw an ad for this was, “my pants.”

It’s the end of the quarter again, guys.  I’ve been up for 30 hours - mostly because I drank a pot of coffee last night and instead of leaving my paper alone after one revision, stayed up all night re-re-revising it.  So just give me a break.

… And maybe I’ll get it in the next couple of months or so. Now back to your regularly scheduled ferreting.

Boardgames are fun. In fact, boardgames are probably the only reason I wish I had more friends — usually I am so misanthropic that I don’t care that I don’t have many friends. I must admit, though, that the larger number and variety of friends you have will ensure that you can find SOMEone who will play a certain game with you.

I have to mention here that just because you have friends who like boardgames and will play them with you doesn’t mean you always have friends who will play a certain game with you. For example, to make Settlers of Catan fun, you must have 3 or more players. If you manage to find enough people, ALL of your problems aren’t solved, though! Someone who enjoys playing Carcassonne won’t necessarily like Settlers. This means that even if you can find someone besides your husband to play one game with you, that’s not a guarantee that that same person will like another game.
Now seems like a good time to talk about boardgaming in general. First and perhaps most importantly: “gamers” vs. “non-gamers.” Read the rest of this entry »