commotiocordis: (carmen)
Harry Potter's Daniel Radcliffe gives major donation to The Trevor Project

The Trevor Project is "the only nationwide, around-the-clock crisis and suicide prevention helpline for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and questioning (LGBTQ) youth", among other related services.

I still say this manchild is a gay. Not that being an ally means you're a homo, obvs, but because he sort of just feels like it to me. Idk. Claiming to like only "older women", and he's so polite, stuff like that. Maybe just because he's cute with guys in my head.

I'm interested to know what made him choose this organization to donate to. I hope it's not because he has a friend or somesuch who has benefited from such services, because that is sad. Also sad is that he will probably feel the need (or his publicist will) to make several high-profile appearances with a "female acquaintance" to temporarily stop rumors that he is gay.



Back from the DMV--totally forgot I needed to renew my license (didn't actually run out until September 19th, but I'm fairly sure I won't be back on a weekday before then and idk if I can renew it in a different county). Ran around all morning trying to find appropriate proof of residence. My name's not on any of the utility bills or other government documents with my parents' address. They say you can just bring one of the parents' items, but that you might need a signed statement or something as well (saying what they don't specify, natch), and I know I've never had a problem with it before, but the last time I was at the DMV was when I was actually getting my license for the first time, so Dad was with me. Also had to find the birth certificate, remember that my social security card was actually in my wallet from when I was looking into donating plasma and they had to have your card for whatever reason, etc. etc.

Want to guess what the lady asked me for? My old license. That was it. Last time, even just to get my actual license I think all I needed was the birth certificate and to tell them my social. I've decided that the entire purpose of the new "Show Me Proof" Missouri bring-a-bunch-of-crap-to-get-your-license-renewed program is just to intimidate people into not trying to renew your license if. . . idk, you've somehow un-naturalized in the interim or something.

Got the glasses restriction taken off my license, though, just to prove the guy at the Lenscrafters wrong (and, you know, because I went to the gym at 8 this morning to watch The West Wing and went by the DMV straight from there without grabbing my glasses like I'd intended to just in case I couldn't pass the eye test). This eye doctor man a few days ago was giving me the third degree about whether I wear my glasses driving or not (90% of the time, not; usually only going to and from Springfield and often not even then)--I told him yes, but for some reason he didn't believe me (perhaps because I didn't bring them and he didn't realize that my mom was his next patient and therefore, natch, I didn't drive). I swear, he was about to try a citizen's arrest or something. All "you know that's illegal!" I was like "yeah, but I'm pretty sure it's not a felony." I always figured that if somebody pulled me over and actually looked at that and cared, I could just claim contacts (and the once that the guy of non-turnlane-usage hit me, I don't remember if I was wearing them but I doubt it because I was on the way to the gym, and the officerchick didn't say anything).

Anyway, I'm only 10 past the limit (it's 20/40, I'm 20/50 or something), so I just faked it on the little machine thing. I was totally shaking afterwards, though, because I knew I got a bunch of them wrong--I focus really slowly, but usually if I stay there long enough, my eyes can get there. So I was on the the third set of letters (I think it was a second distance set at a different depth, while the middle was near) when the first distance set popped into focus, and I was like "oh, shit. She's going to call me on it," but I hadn't wanted to go slowly because then I'd arouse suspicion. (I'd already tried to get away with just reading the middle set, but was told to read all the way across). Nope. There was nobody in there, really, and everybody was all laid back, and it was fine. The picture wasn't even too bad though my Chinese food-induced vomiting yesterday caused, as usual, the petechial hemorrhages around my eyes that made me look like I'd been socked in the face.
commotiocordis: (butterfly)
In other news, aunt of a friend of mine got murdered in what looks so far to be a random attack (ETA: though, unfortunately, "the sexual-minority task force has taken a particular interest"). Not only that, she died after fighting the guy off long enough for her partner who had already been stabbed (and whom she was making plans to marry in September) to get out. They both eventually managed to make it out, but she died in the street in her girlfriend's arms.

Every interaction I've had with their family has shown me that they're some really loving people--Jenny, who was in my high school Spanish classes and now goes to the same uni as I (though I've never seen her down there), is one of the nicest people I know (and I'm not just saying that--I really can't come up with anyone I know that's nicer to everyone off of the top of my head)--so this is really tragic.

So, Teresa Butz, this one's for you. Way to kick ass, girl. If I ever, god forbid, go out like that, I should only wish that I'd be able to at least do it so the news people can lead in with "she died saving the love of her life," like they are for you.

FYI, she's sister of Norbert Leo Butz, if you follow the musical scene at all (OBC Wicked's Fiyero) and of Jim Butz of my Shakespeare Festival "Spot the Butz" fame (though, you know, that's just me). Pretty big St. Louis family (11 siblings in her generation, LOL), so this is fairly big both in Seattle, where it happened (also where NLB was rehearsing a summer show, the opening two nights of which have now been canceled) and down here.
commotiocordis: Green on black, an animated depiction of a normal heart rhythm on an ECG monitor. (Default)
Democratic lawmakers opposed to federal funding for abortions said Tuesday the House leadership's health care bill contains a "hidden mandate" that would allow taxpayer dollars to be used to end pregnancies.

God, that's a hard question. (Though first of all, I'd call it a loophole rather than a mandate--the bill just doesn't say anything about abortion, which means that insurers that already cover it will continue to do so, possibly funded by the public subsidies of low-income subscribers.)

I've hashed this out before--I'm pro-birth control and sex education and extremely anti-abortion, but I'm more or less reluctantly pro-choice because data says that if it's illegal, it'll still be done, just criminally and unregulated and people will die. (Like pot.) I take a more practical aproach to the whole issue--reduce the number of unwanted pregnancies, and soon abortion won't be an issue. (Kay, that's really optimistic, but we can reduce the need for it drastically.)

If we change something, that's government interference with private companies, which people scream about. (Mostly the Republicans, which is probably why the article I read talked about how it's Senate Democrats making a fuss about closing the hole, LOL.) 90% of private insurers cover abortions (which flabbergasted me until I realized that they probably just cover it some minimal percentage that they cover any gynecological surgical procedure by an approved provider), so the government just steps in and is all "Umm, sorry. Change your practice. You don't get to cover that anymore, even if you have no publicly-subsidized clients, because, you know, how can we tell that you have no subsidized folk?"

And on the other hand, I'm way not comfortable with my tax money (that I pay way goddamn too much of for a kid who's only income is a freaking scholarship--I'll bitch about this again; I've got a full ride, room/board monies included, and all of that went straight back to the school, but because they didn't, idk, waive my tuition or something, they actually deposited money into my account, I had to pull some > $600 out of my savings to pay the taxes on it) going to abortions. And since the money goes to people who can then use it for whatever insurance provider they want, the only way to ensure that I'm not contributing to this is to stop all of them from covering it.

Huh. Legally, infringing the right to an abortion is a no-no, so they're just going to end up having to not do anything and leave the loophole or whatever in, but it might be yet another interesting fight to derail the healthcare bill (that I'm not paying nearly enough attention to considering I'll prolly have to buy into it when I age out of my parents' plans and still have mounting education debt).


Also interesting, a study from the Department of Transportation that was blocked from release in 2003 and just gotten under the Freedom of Information Act says that your driving sucks just as bad whether you're talking on a regular cell phone or a bluetoooth, handsfree thing. Makes sense--I mean, most of the distraction is cognitive. More so if you're a business type person or taking important calls, it says, because you've got to pay a lot more attention to that. At first, I was like "Okay, so places with cellphone bans move to banning even hands free stuff, but then isn't having a conversation with somebody in the car going to be just as bad? How about listening to NPR or other high-brow talk radio? Ban that too?" But you really can see how

It's funny, because most of the time when they talk about cellphone driving laws, it seems directed towards the stupid teenagers, when according to this, it's businessfolk that are the problem. Except for texting, natch. But it's not like you can really get caught texting like you can get pulled over when they see you with a phone in your ear, so that's rather impossible to enforce.


Moar news.

Prometheus Laboratories v. Mayo Collaborative Services et al. is heading for the federal circuit in early August. Hells yes. I've long been of the opinion that medical patenting has gone WAY too far. For instance, what this case is about: testing for metabolites of a drug to see how well the drug is working in somebody's system. Sure, patent your little kit for doing so, whatever, but if a lay person can walk up and say "Oh, because if there's lots, it means there's lots of drug being metabolized!" and get it just like that, it's way too common sense to patent the process.

If Prometheus wins, I kinda want Obama to step in there and be all "Dude. Judge-types. We're over here trying to make healthcare less expensive and you're on the other side of the beltway screwing us over by making sure that every one of this whole category of tests has to be run through your company. WTF. See if I put any of you on the Supreme Court now." I can see it coming out as sort of a compromise decision--the company gets the patent on testing for this drug because Mayo's simply changing the threshold numbers the test looks for is too derivative, but. . . I don't know. Mayo's kinda been a sneaky little bitch by trying to avoid the patent like that, but in my world, that kind of a patent is invalid anyway. I mean, what, can only one company in the word do a CBC too? Counting eosinophils, we did that in microbiology, should we have to have licensed that process first? No way.


And finally? Interesting food fact. I tried this out when we had a fire in the backyard a couple of times this week (it's been unseasonably cool and wonderful lately) and didn't feel like pigging out on s'mores but also didn't want to lose the opportunity to make them for later, so I made a bunch, wrapped them up (some in foil, some in wax paper--the latter first just because I couldn't find the foil at first, but then switched when I did because I had to tape the wax paper to get it to stay, and the tape didn't stick well) and froze them. I made the mistake of trying to eat the first two when they were still frozen, and then the graham cracker just turns to powder in your first bite, though the innards are good, but the other two I'm eating right now, and I let them thaw first and it's marvelous. So. Has discovered that that works. I mean, you lose out on the warm and gooey, but I can still taste that campfirey-marshmallow flavor. Win.
commotiocordis: Green on black, an animated depiction of a normal heart rhythm on an ECG monitor. (Default)
You cannot define one of the "factors that influence pathogenicity" as "Virulence (degree of pathogenicity)". Seriously? That's like me saying "You know what influences how hungry I am? The degree of my hunger."

Also, things are not "adapt". They may be "adept," but fail.

/Microbiology teacher hate.

THINGS THAT ARE WIN, HERE THEY ARE. My E. coli guys. I transformed the Rad23 bit that I'm looking at into them with three different tagging vectors, and there's embedded in the swap-in bit for all three a gene for antibiotic resistance. That means that if it didn't transform the new DNA into the E. coli correctly, they wouldn't have the resistance so when I put them on the media plates with the antibiotic in the mix, they'd just be killed off. I had 6 batches, one of each of the tags plus a control for each of the tags with just the E. coli and all the other enzymes and such but without the Rad 23 segment inserted, and I went to check today and the ones that were supposed to grow grew and the ones that didn't, didn't. So win, especially considering I thought this stage had been ruined (and I would have had to go back several steps as I didn't have enough of the prepped R23 plasmid left over) when it was left incubating way too long at one stage because Dr. Smith left instructions to leave the instrumentation room unlocked, but there are two of those and so the wrong one was open and I couldn't get in to pull them out of the incubator. [livejournal.com profile] bleakone and I (I dragged her along as we were on the way to the gym and it was only supposed to be a 15 minute stop of pulling the vials out of the incubator and putting them on the antibiotic plates and putting those back in the incubator) were in there for several hours as I tried to find a way to break in there. Turns out that in the evening on a Monday there's nobody in that building with a key. At all. I felt bad because then Dr. Smith had to come back in, but by the time he got my message, we had already given up and left, so he plated them for me.

Oh, and in news. US crew members have retaken their hijacked ship from the Somali pirates. That's right, suck it. I think we should fix our economy by becoming pirates, by the way. As a nation. It'd be awesome.
commotiocordis: Green on black, an animated depiction of a normal heart rhythm on an ECG monitor. (Default)

British, French nuclear subs collide in Atlantic

Way to go, guys. There are times I thank god I live in Missouri.
commotiocordis: Green on black, an animated depiction of a normal heart rhythm on an ECG monitor. (Default)
O. M. F. G.

Marburg hemorrhagic fever, imported case, UNITED STATES

LOL at how they retrospectively diagnosed it, though.

Atm, I'm in the first floor of the biomedical sciences building while my gel runs upstairs because I've got a shitload of work and no time to do it. I've been getting maybe 4 hours of sleep each of the last three days, which doesn't make me happy as with my 8 and 9 am classes, I was trying to be in bed by midnight. Yeah, that worked until I got, idk, actual homework.

And now I'm swamped, between the lab and mock trial right now. The former is new and weird. Though this is only my third day working in there, so it's understandable, and I am really getting the hang of things because I know what I'm doing, just not where everything is, LOL; keeping the notebook is the hard bit--I'm not sure how much/what to write out. As there's a large continuum of detailedness in procedure, especially since it's all written out for me already as standards and I only really have to mark down changes I make (different buffers, annealing temperatures for the PCR, etc.) And I'll definitely have enough to actually write it up when I'm done, but I'm not sure how much the supervisor wants in terms of that kiddish bullshit regarding actually enumerating every item you ever even think about touching in the materials section, etc.

MT is. . . interesting. We're just prepping every witness just in case, which is what I'd been advocating forever, but now we have enough people to do it. I'm pretty much pissed at most of the people, though, as they just jumped in on Sunday so they could get to go with us to Columbia for the competition. And worried, as I've never heard any of them do anything mock trial-y. And one of them not even talk, really. I'm worried about him the most, as he's not even in Phi Alpha Delta (the pre-law fraternity that's sponsoring the MT team) and. . . doesn't really strike me as intelligent. I mean, at all. But as a result of this last-minute thing, we don't have an overall case strategy, nobody's working with each other to coordinate examinations (because sometimes you've got to make sure somebody says something earlier so you can get in what you want later), etc. So we're pretty much going to get our asses kicked, which I severely dislike. Because I'm good at this mock trial stuff, but I'm having to spend all my time just trying to get everybody (or even some of everybody) in the same room at the same time. We had both of the other lawyers and one of my two definitely-going-to-be-used witnesses not show up to the meeting on Sunday, so I can only hope that they didn't just quit on me or something. I don't understand why people here think they don't have to make any kind of comittment--it's only since the president of PAD intervened for me and started browbeating people that anybody would show up, since I've got no incentive/disincentive to enforce to ensure attendance. But seriously? Nobody seems to get that you've got to make the meeting times fit, you can't just say "oh, I've got work, can't show"--it's called asking off, seeing as how MT'll be over in a few weeks, it's not like it's going to be forever.

And I've got my microbiology test tomorrow that I'm going to fail since I still can't get the book (they're out at the bookstore; they offered to order me one, but I'll be damned if I'm paying the new price much less also the "having to ship it in" fee that I've heard they tack on)

And a psychology test that I'm going to spend all of 5 minutes looking over stuff for because I'm fairly certain I can take this class's final right now and pull at least a 97% but still adds to the stress

And chemistry lab (and thus in-lab quiz and writeup) tomorrow.

And journal entries due for Hero and Quest reflecting over material I haven't actually read all of. These being that which I was up until 1 and then from 3:30-6ish doing two weeks worth of last night (and it actually did take me that long, because of both the ADD from hell that's decided to be a bitch this semester simply because my doctor moved to Wisconsin so I've got no way of getting my meds for it reupped again), but it turns out that even though we didn't have class at all the third week, we've still got to do one.

And to add insult to injury, I was all excited about lunch today because it was some French theme and one of the counters was going to be fruit and cheese dessert. Which I thought might mean decent fruit (berries and such instead of the standard apple/orange/pear/banana/grapefruit rotating selection they've got of fresh, and nasty mushy sugary frozen/canned other fruits). With no interest in dinner (chicken strips and mashed potatoes/macaroni and cheese in both dining halls, blech--since they're for some reason killer popular, that's all it would have been at all the counters and in both places on the same day, which just seems stupid to me), that was going to be it for me for the day, but no. That dining place has a power outage.

And the chairs that I'm in in the computer lab have the most worthless backs in the history of chairs. Which would be okay if you just didn't use them, like stools; painful but doable. But no. The seat is slanted backwards so as to tip you back towards the back, which then leans so far back that I'd probably fall asleep if I stayed that way for more than a few seconds.


On a less-whiny (okay, still whiny, but different topic) note, House last night. How long after all the hoopla was that last scene supposed to have taken place? They didn't establish any kind of time passage, I think, which is fail. Because really? Not so much with the sexing after all that medical shit goes down. (Plus, erm, not really a fan of the 14.)
commotiocordis: Green on black, an animated depiction of a normal heart rhythm on an ECG monitor. (Default)
Clicked on a featured story on the Yahoo home page (one of the mini!featured stories listed in little links under the real featured one, actually; "Designer brings pajamas to the street" below "$43,000 suit sells well during recession"). And the tab that popped up (I haven't opened it yet) says "Yamamoto brings sleepwear onto t. . . " and whatever after that. Presumably Yamamoto is the aforementioned designer. And all I could think of was "but we killed Yamamoto!" LOLOL, West Wing geekage.

Finally got around to watching all of the Face of the Enemy BSG webisodes. The Gaeta plot twist in last night's episode makes more sense now, though I'm going to watch the webisodes again because I was (as per usual) sort of half paying attention and thus wasn't clear on the whole Gaeta/Sharon/people on the planet deal.

Let's see, what else. Umm, pissed that I'm not home this weekend, because it's the weekend of the open call for extras for Clooney's On the Air that's filming in the STL. To add insult to injury, the open call's at the mall that's all of a 10 minute walk from my house. And I can't just fill out the form and send it in because they need a picture as well, and I don't have a color printer here. May try to make the family do it for me and just drop it by the casting office (right down the road from aforementioned mall) once I pick out a picture (I don't have any recent ones that make me look oldish, which I have the feeling is what they're looking for), but first I've got to figure out the answers--I spend most of my time in t-shirts and workout pants now, both because of the comfort factor and the way my weight keeps bouncing around, so I've got very little idea on my clothes' sizes, and absolutely none on a dress size (especially because I'm still quite busty, so though I'm okay in pants and shirts because I can size them individually, I might have to go up one or two from the size for the rest of my body to find a dress that'll fit my chest).

CDC's sexually transmitted infections report came out a bit ago. Still not ever going to have sex in St. Louis, kthx: #1 again in gonorrhea and chlamydia. Umm. . . at least we're not the most dangerous anymore? Though LOL, I suppose that depends on how you define "danger".

Heard some people talking at brunch this morning (meaning, erm, yesterday morning) about the inauguration (a word which I still cannot spell--I leave out the first 'u' every time) music being taped. I think they misinterpreted the story, though--thinking, I believe, of the story with the little girls in China where one sang the anthem and another lip-synched it because the first wasn't attractive enough. This is Yo Yo Ma, Itzhak Perlman, Anthony McGill, and some pianist whose name I didn't recognize but is undoubtedly of the same caliber. There is no one else who could stand behind them and play that music while they waved their bows/fingers. It was still them, just prerecorded.

And still. Have you ever tried to play in the cold? I have, fairly often with Fiddlers. Think about how your fingers feel when they're exposed in the winter. Stiff and painful, no? Now add to that your instrument gumming up in much the same way and bitter wind blowing around while you're trying to pull a light wood-and-horse-hair bow in a smooth line across a very narrow target that will produce the optimum sound. From what Yo Yo Ma says, that's SOP for these events--they did it at Bush's goodbye thing a few days ago as well.

Oh, and so I don't forget. Was in Dillon's (grocery store down here, part of the Kroger chain, none of which we have in St. Louis) and picked up a Star Trek Magazine issue to flip through. At the end of Nana Visitor's interview, she says something about how cool it would have been to have there have been (wow--spend too long looking at those last few words and you'll really get confused) a switch between Kira and Intendant Kira that nobody knew about, so at the end, you've got everybody running off in different places leaving her in charge, and imagine all of the mischief she could have gotten up to with Ro Laren. Now I really want to write that, maybe tying it in with the Annika overthrowing her in the Dark Passions books (as the impetus for her semi-permanent defection to our realm), but I'd have to watch the 7th season again--I haven't seen most of the whole plotty section of DS9 with the war and all, just knowing it through fanon and the semi-canon of the novels. Still. Would be great.
commotiocordis: Green on black, an animated depiction of a normal heart rhythm on an ECG monitor. (Default)
Many "reply all" fiascos result in mere embarrassment, but American diplomats have been told they may be punished for sending mass responses after an e-mail storm nearly knocked out one of the State Department's main electronic communications systems.

A cable sent last week to all employees at the department's Washington headquarters and overseas missions warns of unspecified "disciplinary actions" for using the "reply to all" function on e-mail with large distribution lists.

The cable, a copy of which was obtained by The Associated Press, was prompted by a major interruption in departmental e-mail caused by numerous diplomats hitting "reply all" to an errant message inadvertently addressed and copied to several thousand recipients.

Reply-all e-mail storm hits State - Yahoo! News

O. M. G.

People keep drawing comparisons between the Obama administration and Matt Santos' on the West Wing? Well, evidently the administration before on both sides CONTAINS MARGARET ("You lost me at raisin muffin")!

This excited me. That is all.

Edit: "Anyone who disregards these instructions will be subject to disciplinary actions," Kennedy wrote in the cable, which begins: "Please ensure widest distribution of this message.

So evidently forwarding is okay, then? LOLOLOLOL.
commotiocordis: Green on black, an animated depiction of a normal heart rhythm on an ECG monitor. (Criminal Minds)
An internal intelligence assessment, obtained by The Associated Press on Wednesday, says the high visibility of the event, the presence of dignitaries and the significance of swearing in the country's first black president make the inauguration vulnerable to attacks.
Feds say inauguration attractive terrorist target - Yahoo! News

I bet we paid them a lot of money to come up with that profundity, too. File this one under "no duh", joint FBI and HHS task force.

And in other news, OMFG, I just made one of the most delicious dinners I've ever eaten totally by accident. It was one of those spontaneous, "What do I have in the fridge? Ooh! this will be good added in" things: just fresh broccoli all chopped up and softened in the microwave for a minute with spaghetti sauce my dad made (that was actually not one of his better batches, as the spices were wrong), that I ended up adding a bit of corn, a cooked and chopped up egg white and half a slice of fat free sharp cheddar cheese to. Warm it all up, mix it together, and I tried to fix the spices a bit--the thing was that Dad made the sauce for the meatballs he also made that were both delicious and sort of spicy, so to compensate the sauce itself was rather bland as the meatball spicy leeched out, but I got mine from the non-meatball batch, thus insufficiently spiced. I figured it needed more oregano, but though I'm a fan of that in the spaghetti in small amounts, by itself not so much, so when I picked up the jar and sniffed it, I decided a no on that one. So instead of trying to make it really spaghetti-saucey, I threw in some cumin and more garlic (because garlic:me is like butter:Paula Deen--everything needs more) AND SOMEHOW IT WAS AMAZING. And then just to make it more food, because it looked kinda small (and because I watched Top Chef at the gym and decided to make it into a blintz even though I've got no idea what a blintz really is, because this felt like one) I split the mixture in half and wrapped each bit up in a lettuce leaf that folded up all nicely like a cool wrap/sandwich(/blintz). But since it was Dad's sauce and the philosophy in our house with spices is that there is no measuring involved, there's going to be no way to recreate it.

Still. Man. Delish. Kinda dampened by the fact that before I ate it, I had to run to the bathroom so I stuck the whole wrapped thing into the microwave on half power for a minute while I ran there and back, and though the lettuce stayed decently crispy and the insides stayed warm, it was enough heat to cause the vegetable cooking phenomenon of doom: everything gets watery. And because it was all wrapped up and in a dish, I didn't notice until I carried it back to my room and picked it up to eat. While sitting on my bed. For whatever reason, I'd pulled over this section of newspaper to set the dish on, and thank god for that because otherwise there'd have been reddish tomatoey water all over my sheets. So flavor still magnificent, presentation got killed a bit there.

And in other, other news: DIE, UTERUS. That is all.
commotiocordis: Green on black, an animated depiction of a normal heart rhythm on an ECG monitor. (Default)
NASA reports new details of Columbia deaths - The Columbia Tragedy- msnbc.com
The report lists events that were each potentially lethal to the crew: Loss of cabin pressure just before or as the cabin broke up; crew members, unconscious or already dead, crashing into objects in the module; exposure to a near vacuum at 100,000 feet (30,500 meters); and crashing to the ground.

Is this not a clear example of CJ's principle of "it's the fall that's gonna kill you"?  I'm fairly certain that it really only took one of the above to kill them.

commotiocordis: Green on black, an animated depiction of a normal heart rhythm on an ECG monitor. (Default)
From Jerry Brown asks California Supreme Court to void gay-marriage ban

Voters are allowed to amend other parts of the Constitution by majority vote, but to use the ballot box to take away an "inalienable" right would establish a "tyranny of the majority," which the Constitution was designed, in part, to prevent, [California Attorney General Brown] wrote.
. . .
In an interview, Andy Pugno, the lawyer for Protect Marriage, called Brown's argument "an astonishing theory."


Bullshit. That's nothing astonishing. That's an argument I made in PoliSci 101. (Actually, it's 110, but whatever.) That's an argument that 90% of the rest of my mostly-oblivious PLS class could have come up with as well. You know why? Because it's basic and it's true.

Oh, and in computer news? CD drive doesn't work. I don't remember if I mentioned that. I'm pissed.
commotiocordis: Green on black, an animated depiction of a normal heart rhythm on an ECG monitor. (Default)
News blurbs.

A Young Life Changed Forever by Iraq War

Really? Just one? Total fluff piece. I mean, not fluff like it's a happy subject, but come on. Human interest piece, I suppose, is the phrase.

Thing that annoys me? Top Chef commercial claiming that NY invented the ice cream cone. Uh, bitchplease. That's ours. According to, you know, every Missouri history lesson every MO child has had to sit through for all 13 years of their public schooling career (as confirmed by Wikipedia), in the 1904 World's Fair in St. Louis, they were out of bowls at the ice cream booth or whatever, and the waffle guy whose booth was next door was like "Oh, let me iron a waffle into a cone shape and let you put your ice cream in there!" Or something. Whatever; it was ours. QED.


In other news, my 6th grade math teacher (the one who sent me out into the hallway for saying that the Rams weren't going to win the Super Bowl--I very nearly cried, because he was serious, and I had to sit out there with the other teachers thinking I was in real trouble for the rest of the period--but otherwise I remember thinking he was cool) got arrested for "innapropriate contact" with a student. I've known about the situation for a while now, as Tyler's friends with the girl in question, but he got arrested during the school day yesterday.

On the one hand, I think it was unfair for the police to take him away at the school. That was unnecessary; they've been investigating since October, they could avoid making a scene in front of a whole bunch of middle schoolers. It's not like he'll ever work in education again whether he's convicted or not, but that's still not something that needed to happen. If they were worried about the safety of a student right then, sure, but for god's sake, since October.

On the other hand, I've got the girl's back. People aren't believing it because he's a popular teacher, and they're bashing her, which is bullshit. If she were some student of his who found out she's failing his class, yeah, I'd be suspicious. She's 16. It's been happening for years (he's the high school track coach, so he's up there enough). There's no immediacy there that I know of, no overt motive apparent, and she had the strength to come forward anyway. People are spreading all kinds of rumors about her reputation re: truthfulness, so idk what's going on there, because there are also comments condemning them as rumors, but whether she's spread attention-seeking info in the past, I'm pretty sure that the police usually wait until, you know, they've got enough evidence to try a case before arresting somebody.

So guess what. Every single member of the "Free Mr. Wilder" Facebook group? You disgust me. Yeah, you may have liked him. Yeah, he was a good track coach and a personable guy. Yeah, the girl in question has a reputation (at least according to a couple of FB posts on that group) for not being the most truthful. But this is the reason that more girls don't come forward when they're being sexually assaulted. I've got a friend who recently also spoke out after being molested, and she's having a bitch of a time of it, frankly. It's hard, and you're not making it any easier by posting messages like "how does this girl live with herself. . . he's the most awesome guy ever" or even the most disgusting "What's the chick's name? We should all go cut her head off with a kite string!!!".

The more rational ones are stepping above it, asking "Is this what he would want us to do?" which I appreciate. Though it sort of makes him sound like Jesus, LOL, the way they're putting it. Still. I leave with this: you don't know. There are two people who know what really was happening, and until he's proven guilty or not, don't discourage people from coming forward by ostracizing those who do.

Still. The girl who posted the kite string comment? You make me sick, and I sure as hell hope somebody takes that to the principal and gets your ass suspended. Has the Megan Meier case just a few miles from where this is going down taught us nothing about the power of internet speech? If you don't care about being a bitch, care that you could get hauled into court and taken for all your parents' money. (Though that's something else about which it seems I'm the only one who cares.)
commotiocordis: Green on black, an animated depiction of a normal heart rhythm on an ECG monitor. (Default)
Commentaries on teh nooz.

Rooster arrested in Benton, Ill.
"Police Chief Mike O'Neill says the rooster has been bothering people lately, trying to keep them from getting where they want to go. O'Neill says officers had enough on Monday and took the rooster into custody after what he described as a brief scuffle."

Cape Girardeau woman kills man who returned to rape her second time
You go, girl. And at age 57, too.

I did not know we had low-density lipoprotein (LDL) apheresis machines for, you know, public use. And in St. Louis, too--though I suppose I shouldn't be that surprised about either, as it doesn't seem like too much of a stretch from all the other apheresis machines, and what St. Louis doesn't have in being a huge population center, it makes up for with being huge in biotech lately. Only worth it for familial hypercholesterolemia and other such non-responsive to medications, but still cool to have around.
commotiocordis: Green on black, an animated depiction of a normal heart rhythm on an ECG monitor. (Default)
Wow.

Pages from an Israeli astronaut's diary that survived the explosion of the space shuttle Columbia and a 37-mile fall to earth are going on display this weekend for the first time in Jerusalem.

Watching SNL. Can Amy Poehler get any more pregnant? LOL.

Re: Palin's "Palling around with terrorists" comments. They weren't kidding when they were talking about the gloves coming off.

Gasoline is $2.86 here. I'm thinking about buying a car. I'd want to do it back up at home so I could make Dad help me kick the tires and all, naturally, but I've been playing around on used car websites. I assumed it'd be too expensive, especially if I didn't have a job right away, but I'm so crippled down here without one (there's no public transportation to speak of) in terms of everything from actually getting a job (as my scholarship bars me from all work study stuff, so I can't get anything on campus) to going out on the weekends to simply going grocery shopping. I'm still too cheap to shell out enough money to get a decent one (read: one that does anything but sometimes run in a forward direction), though, so I don't know how/if it'll ever work out.

Bowling yesterday. We weren't in the aisle against the wall, so I had a lot of problems with how I spin too much on the followthrough and end up either shooting it way to one side or way to the other when I overcompensate. So the first round of two (we put our names down twice, sometimes thrice on each game, so we end up spreading our two free games into more) pretty much sucked, but I got better after warmup.

Updated score chart (each date line is one game, multiple names in one game -> comma'd values):

Week

[livejournal.com profile] crashcart9

[livejournal.com profile] bleakone

09/26/08

71, 124

57, 52

09/26/08

99

74

08/03/08

56, 64

81, 67

08/03/08

101, 116

72, 50

commotiocordis: Green on black, an animated depiction of a normal heart rhythm on an ECG monitor. (Default)
Re: the 71 year old who backed his car up over the hood of the police car that was pulling him over (can't find a link to the story online yet, but they just reported it on CNN). A $200 fine and a defensive driving program? That's assault with a deadly weapon. That guy needs thrown in jail.
commotiocordis: Green on black, an animated depiction of a normal heart rhythm on an ECG monitor. (Default)
Palin meets her first world leaders in New York

I'm sorry, but this should not be an event just occurring for the first time for a vice presidential candidate 41 days before the election.
commotiocordis: Green on black, an animated depiction of a normal heart rhythm on an ECG monitor. (Default)
From the Google News thing.

Obama votes 'Present' on new economic rescue plan for now
Los Angeles Times - 1 hour ago
CORAL GABLES, Fla. -- Sen. Barack Obama today met with some of his many economic advisors and made an announcement that he was not going to make an announcement about any new plan to plan plans.

But the link to the actual story isn't working, sadly. Still. Must have been intentional hilarity, that.
commotiocordis: Green on black, an animated depiction of a normal heart rhythm on an ECG monitor. (Default)
Moar Wikipedia learnin'.

The president of Turkmenistan's name is Gurbanguly Mälikgulyýewiç Berdimuhammedow.

Woah.

And when I get my Wikipedia article about me, you all have to work to make sure I stay classified as "Category:Possibly living people".
commotiocordis: Green on black, an animated depiction of a normal heart rhythm on an ECG monitor. (Default)
Re: troopergate.

How do you just "not honor" subpoenas? I say just throw the whole lot of them in jail for contempt. Reaffirm to America that working for the government doesn't mean you can flout its laws.

'He also said the employees would refuse to appear unless either the full state Senate or the entire Legislature votes to compel their testimony.'

Erm, I would be like "Speak for yourself, Republican Attorney General and appointee of Governor Palin Talis Colberg, sir! I, as an employee not wanting a jail sentence, will cooperate fully. I don't even like this Palin person."


Re: House promos. 58 seconds in to this one on YouTube (with annoying watermark, grr).

Probably just in House's head, I think most of us have pessimistically decided. (Is this not irony, however, considering what I just posted about earlier today re: Remy and patients?) But the question is which episode is this occurring in? I'm thinking next week's; this was a pre-premiere promo, thus not giving them too many finished eps to draw footage from. Plus, I've been looking at cast credits, and I think she resembles Christine Lucas, possibly? But I've never been good at that.

And her name is now "Rena"? It took me so long to get used to "Remy" because that's such a weird name. Thanks, tptb. Looks like somebody on the House crew just screwed up, as it was changed on the website and then changed back.

Well, however it plays out, Olivia Wilde needs to stop being so hot. (What is this strangeness, you ask? Alexandria's got the hots for a celebrity who's not at least 1.5x her age? I know, innit?)

In other news. As of 8am this (Wednesday) morning, citizens of Baytown, TX (where my family is) can now in an hour and a half get their booze on again, after alcohol sales were prohibited last Thursday by emergency Mayoral order. Because hurricane survivors and looting and such are hard for a police force to manage. Drunken hurricane survivors (and drunken anybody in a place where water/food are questionable or you have to do special stuff to make sure they're comestible) would be hell to deal with.

And speaking of weather, O THANK YOU WEATHER GODS. Because since that nasty storm, it's been beautiful. As in, high of 57 one day beautiful. And will continue to be so, if forecasts are to be believed (they are not) until the middle of next week. When it gets rainy again, guh.
commotiocordis: Green on black, an animated depiction of a normal heart rhythm on an ECG monitor. (Default)
Re: the Denver game last night Sunday (because fail at hitting post). This Subway commercial is oddly prophetic, innit? I didn't actually see the game, which sucks (I mean, how often is a coach gutsy enough to go for the 2-point conversion rather than take the guaranteed tie with the extra point), but from hearing everybody complain about it (including all the football recappers on TV), this seems to have been the scenario.

And LOL at what's the top listed "most popular" story on Yahoo atm: Doctors say leg pain can signal deadly blood clot. This is part of an ad campaign for House's season premiere, I am thinking. Kay, prolly not, but still. Made me smile when I opened up the news page.

And these bits are from today:
Dream of cracktasticness.

So, evidently my subconscious wants to sleep with Jackie Onassis. Slash is doing so. Because in dream, I ended up having to tell her kids that Kennedy was dead (though it was nowtimes, she was young like it was thentimes) because we were all relationshippy. There was comforting. Not the sex type, though. Very platonic, except in that way that you just know that it was not. And then I ended up not getting around to telling my brother because I was doing something else (I think bringing back food from random cabinets in the symbolic dining hall that was actually off of a landing in between flights of stairs), but then I was in my kitchen and I hear this random loud sob. My initial response is "Oh, somebody told him," because he's sensitive about this people dying type thing. But then he runs up the stairs, shirtless, holding his hands out cupped in front of him. In the hands? Potato chips. The plain, flat, translucent with grease, white Lays kind. My dreamself's next thought is "They must be hot or something," but I hadn't gotten around to wondering why he didn't just drop them when [livejournal.com profile] bleakone's phone call woke me up.

More crazy fast weight gain. I'm getting worried that it's some kind of hormonal/metabolic thing, because it's now up to 10lbs. Water weight from having access to soda at every meal?

Random observation: I just glanced down at my left arm (because it itched) and there's a significant sized pockmark/hole by my antecubital vein from the last time I gave blood. Like a dent in the skin. Fail, healing.

No real thoughts yet on the House episode. Except no flirting with patients, Remy. That's not cool. Because I refuse to allow myself to ship doctor/patient unless they're recurring or otherwise notable (read: played by an actor/actress I like), and so that's a waste of the network's miniscule allowed homosexual flirtage quota.

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