month by month [via Sandra ]

instructions — copy the first sentence that you posted in each month of 2006.

january

well, here we are in 2006.

february

after having the most hectic week ever, i was really looking forward to my episode of lost tonight which, according to last week’s teaser, afforded some new intrigue into those poor castaways. (note: boy was i pissed!)

march

will winter ever be over?

april

after looking at the stashes of some of my favorite knitters, i wondered just how much yarn i owned.

may

the socks are done! (note: sockapaloooza!)

june

if you’ve done the tubular bind-off please raise your hand.

july

aaahhhh, four day weekends.

august

well, i have to say that there’s probably nothing worse than being sick during the summer.

september

i think that the title of this post pretty much says it all. (note: title was “SF pt. 1: how to bust both your knees in less than 7 days”)

october

the eviction notice was posted and being the good tenant that he is, baby N packed his bags and made his way to the real world this saturday morning.

november

can you believe it’s november?

december

sorry that i have no knitting content except to say that i’m into my third ball on the noro shawl and by all accounts (thanks to math!) i’m going to need 11 balls to finish this sucker so i ordered another one from ebay over the weekend. (note: wow, that’s one run-on sentence!)

how was your year?

###

hi everyone! in an effort to organize the apartment in anticipation of more organizing (and agonizing over) this space we live in so that we can make room for baby, i’m having a small stash sale. if you’re interested in any of the following, please leave a comment stating which you’d like to purchase. paypal only! once you’ve indicated which yarn you would like, i’ll package it up, get a quote on the shipping from the post office, and then have it sent to you once payment clears.

all amounts in US dollars.

more updates to come after the weekend.

thanks!

assorted cotton yarn – $8 + S/H SPOKEN FOR! mom wants this

3 skeins bernat handicrafter cotton (2 dark brown, 1 cream); 4 skeins sugar ‘n cream cotton (2 white, 2 white with grey flecks); 2 skeins sugar ‘n cream lily worsted weight cotton (red)

japanese 50/50 wool/acrylic – $10 + S/H

2 skeins grey, 2 skeins pink, 1 skein (plus approx. 3/4 of another skein) purple

assorted debbie bliss cotton dk – $20 + S/H

1 skein each of turquoise, light purple, white, orange, dark purple, and red

karabella souffle – $18 + S/H

4 skeins (108yds each) 90% extra fine merino/10% silk in dark green

patons kroy sock yarn – $8 + S/H SPOKEN FOR!

2 skeins (192yds each) 75% washable wool/25% nylon in windsor tweed

berroco softtwist – $14 + S/H

approx 2 skeins (100yds each) 41% wool/59% rayon in graphite, grey, and pink. the second skein of each is missing about 20yds so altogether it’s about 180yds of each.

tahki cotton classic – $18 + S/H

5 skeins (108yds each) 100% mercerized cotton in color #3747, lot #499. i used this for my kyoto if you want to see more pictures.. check the progress shots gallery.

lana grossa altro – $18 + S/H

6 skeins (108yds each) 75% super kid mohair/25% polyamid in cream

###

this post is severely lacking in progress or pictures, sorry to say. i actually broke down over the weekend and started working on the second sock for KP. he’s been so patient waiting for these socks that i feel i should just knit on them and FINISH THEM ALREADY! i’ve been working on them far too long and i feel guilty when i glance over at my WIP bag and see them languishing with the clapotis. so since the last massive update i’ve done one more repeat on clapotis, 4″ of the second kyoto sleeve, and a few inches on the second sock for KP.

on saturday, KP and i rented a car and drove up to connecticut to visit our family for the day. while he played frisbee with his brother, i knit on one of the lounge chairs and chatted with my father and mother in law. i got a little flack from one of the guests but i think that he just wanted to know more about what i was doing so after a few jabs in the ribs, he was asking about how i learned to knit and everything was ok after that. the problem with driving to any destination, though, is that i’m always the navigator and have to give directions and watch for signs AND i get car sick easily so i can’t knit in the car. saturday was pretty shot knitting-wise.

sunday, i got a chance to see lisa and veronique’s new, cute apartment before lisa and i headed over to jess’s place for some world cup action. i must say that i’m pretty happy with my world cup participation this time around. KP and i watched almost every single game (except for that one that KP accidentally deleted from the DVR! oh well) at home after work. we managed to avoid most spoilers during the day so it was as if we were watching them live with everyone else. the univision coverage was SO much better than ABC. yeah, i don’t understand a lick of spanish but at least i don’t have to listen to american color commentary which is repetitious at best. i watched the last game at jess’s in english and was surprised at just how bad it is! ugh. jess and her lovely husband put out a great spread of cheese, crackers, chips, dip, fruit, wine, and beer. they were great hosts and all their friends were nice to hang out with.. though i found myself surrounded by france supporters and i was rooting for italy.

anyway, i’m very VERY happy that italy won! i love italy. our trip there was probably one of the best trips we have ever taken. the people we met there were warm and welcoming, the food and wine amazing, and my maternal grandfather is italian as well. i have much to love about italy. the more i think about it though, they got really lucky at the end. if zidane hadn’t flipped out and headbutted materazzi (i love the announcer in this clip.. “POUR QUOI? POUR QUOI?” jeez, what does it look like?), the french team may have been able to pull through in the penalty kicks. from what i’ve seen online today, zidane flipped out because the italian player was talking smack at him? give me a break! this is a professional sport filled with testosterone. if you can’t take the trash talking, you might as well not play. you have to be able to turn away or tell the other player his mother is a goat. anything but give in and resort to hitting or striking another player on the field. materazzi may have insulted him but zidane should learn to control his temper.

anyway, i have a full work week ahead of me but next week, KP and i are off! we’re going to visit friends and family around the tri-state area and make a trip to cape cod! i can’t wait. i really need a vacation and some extended knitting time.

###

MICHELLE!!! you lucky girl! you’ve been winning contests all over blogland recently. ok, i’m devising a little something to give you. i THINK that i know what you would like

thanks to everyone for all of your comments and for just being there.. out there.. on the internet, reading my ramblings and giving such great support. every comment that i have received on this blog has meant the world to me (except for all of those spam comments, damn spammers.. die!) i just can’t believe that i surpassed 1000! recently, i was having trouble with the commenting system not sending me emails when a new comment was posted and my ISP suggested that i delete some of my old comments because they were causing the system to spike and die before sending the emails. DELETE THE COMMENTS?! i said they were crazy and i wouldn’t dare get rid of any of them. oh well. i deal with the lack of emails by checking bloglines frequently. hehehe, ANOTHER reason to waste time when i should be working!

###

my good friend kat in tokyo is always talking about having to do interviews (or turn down interviews) for the japanese media on knitting in the big city. her tokyo s’n'b has received plenty of fame for doing something rather radical by japanese standards.. and the japanese are just eating it up! we here in NYC are the subject of much chagrin to felllow new yorkers. people walk by the point on a friday evening, look in the window, and point. some make such a scene that it’s hard to concentrate on what you’re doing. two or three weeks ago, some tourist thought that it was the weirdest thing he had ever seen and took four or five pictures to prove it to the friends back home that, oh my god, people knit! IN PUBLIC!

so it came as no surprise that a news crew showed up at the point on friday night.

¿usted hace punto?

what did surprise us was 1) the news crew was from/for a spanish news channel and that they were hoping to elevate the craft of knitting in spain by doing this piece, 2) they avoided the spiders table till the very end. do we look intimidating or what?

(more…)

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oh yes, there was champagne and many other drinks

well, here we are in 2006. the world hasn’t ended (once again..) and it’s same old same old. i’ve been reading everyone’s 2005 sum-ups and 2006 resolutions and i’m happy to say that i think that mine are still attainable one week after setting them. thankfully, i don’t feel the need to go back and edit that post.

ok, i have my first finished project of 2006. of course, i started it way back in 2005 but here we have it done. it’s the sleepy mitered square pillow in all its glory!

(more…)

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this may very well be the last post of 2005! it’s been busy around here for me these past couple of days. what with spending all of saturday and sunday with family and then monday through friday off from work but running errands or having plans everyday, i’ve neglected the blog but i haven’t neglected many other things! i actually updated the 2005 completed projects list. i made sure that there was the correct information for every project that i did this year and organized them better. my next hurdle is to work on the progress backpack but that shouldn’t take too much time. i don’t have much going on right now.

i did finish a hat this past week!

KP hat #2

yarn: morehouse merino 3-ply in black and charcoal

needles: US8 denise circular needles

pattern: my own… k3, p1 ribbing with stripes

(more…)

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well, it’s christmas morning here at chez gleek and it seems as if i was a good girl this year! i got one of the geekiest presents possible from KP and i’m loving it.

yep, that’s the start trek DVD boxed set! yep, that’s one of the best gifts ever and i’m not joking. (i’m sure you’re all shaking your heads.) anyway, we trekked out to new jersey yesterday to visit my uncle’s house for christmas eve dinner. i got a chance to take some pictures of his serious nutcracker collection.

(more…)

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because they hadn’t updated their feeds in a long time and i was missing all of these entries for DAYS!!! it was really annoying. so i downloaded sage (thanks hammy!!) which is a firefox lightweight add-on for RSS feeds and figured, to hell with bloglines and all these online RSS services that can’t be trusted, i’ll do it on my own. and sage is pretty cool but having to manually synch up all of my reading between home and work is a bit of a pain as is checking RSS feeds from a computer that i don’t own.. so sage is nice but, alas, not bloglines. then i received word from bloglines:

We are currently moving our machines to a new network facility that will enable us to update feeds as soon as the publisher tells us there is something new. For feeds that don’t tell us when to check for new articles, we’ll update every hour or less.

this is good news as now i no longer have to write about how bloglines sucks. i can save that rant for the future should they ever suck again (and i wouldn’t put it past them.)

(more…)

###

i haven’t blogged since i’ve been back because…

1. i’ve actually been updating my reading site since i read a lot on my trip. i have one more book to put up there in the next day or so.
2. this jet lag business really sucks. i spent the entire weekend wondering where i left my brain. my body had obviously made it to new york but my brain was somewhere over the pacific still. i wish there was some way of getting over jet lag quicker. has anyone used that melatonin stuff?
3. i went to a party at amanda’s on saturday night with the rest of the spiders, had a great time, drank a lot and then left my camera there. hello?! i took that camera ALL OVER JAPAN and didn’t manage to leave it anywhere but i had to leave it at amanda’s where it would be thoroughly abused and held hostage for $1m? see? evidence that my brain is still somewhere over the pacific.

i had a great time at that party though. i managed to snag marie’s gift in the white elephant exchange and got some sock needles and two skeins of her own brooklyn handspun!! along with the socks socks socks book. the spiders were also super sweet and got me a gift certificate to school products as a thank you for taking care of the website and recruiting. awwww, so sweet!!! now, gotta think about what i’m gonna buy with that. perhaps some aurora 4 for this?

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Your Birthdate: January 18

You are a cohesive force – able to bring many people together for a common cause. You tend to excel in work situations, but you also facilitate a lot of social gatherings too. Beyond being a good leader, you are good at inspiring others. You also keep your powerful emotions in check – you know when to emote and when to repress.

Your strength: Emotional maturity beyond your years

Your weakness: Wearing yourself down with too many responsibilities

Your power color: Crimson red

Your power symbol: Snowflake

Your power month: September

What Does Your Birth Date Mean?

snowflake? that’s my POWER SYMBOL? i HATE snow. almost as much as i winter, that crappy season i was born in. i’m glad my power month is september. it’s a more likeable month.

by the way, did you see that i finally got around to updating my keitai gallery? for months, i let my images just sit on my mobile phone because bluetooth on my powerbook was too damn flaky but i really needed to empty it so that i can take lots of keitai pictures in japan like all the japanese! so i paired it up with my computer and, wow, since i’ve updated to tiger the thing works like a charm. no more turning the phone off and then back on again in order for my computer to recognize it. and boy am i glad that i use cingular and not verizon in this case. verizon INTENTIONALLY CRIPPLES their bluetooth phones so that you can’t download/upload images or ringtones to them. you have to use their site and pay for the trasfers over the network. what a scam.

anyway, here are a few of my favorites from the gallery.

this was sent to me by keith during a really sweltering hot day in the summer. the squirrel was so hot that it had to lay down.

look at this beautiful child using a treo! holy crap! i remember the first computer that required that i use a mouse and i couldn’t get the hang of it for months!

kat and joy. this is the night that i met the founding members of the spiders and my life was changed forever.

yes, your eyes do not deceive you. that is a 4″x6″ battlestar galactica poster in my office. love ebay.

KP as cheese. this is a VEGAN man who had to spend four weeks in wisconsin. they all thought he was nuts.

more photos of strange things in the gallery. i tend to take a lot of pictures of food that i eat so some of it may be boring. other things are just downright strange. enjoy.

ok, packing commences in full force tonight for the trip to japan. we’ll be spending the majority of our time in tokyo, walking the streets, shopping, visiting temples, and observing tokyoites in their native environment. we’re planning on making a few day trips to nikko and kamakura but tokyo is HUGE! i’m sure that the two weeks we’re there will be only JUST enough time to see all the worthwhile stuff. i’m anxious (really, i’m nervous!) to break out my nihongo and wow KP with my linguistic skills. i’m sure that i’ll choke up and not be able to speak for days. hopefully i’ll be getting together with kat and martine and another cool girl, stephana, all who i’ve met through this here blog.

the question of vacation knitting was really weighing heavily upon me these past few days but i think that i have it all figured out now. i’ll be bringing the aminami shawl (the current ball of yarn and another), the mitered square project (two balls of yarn to make a total of four as i’ve already finished two), socks that rock with a couple of patterns since i can’t decide what to do yet, and five balls of DB cotton DK in different colors to make amigurumi! it’s just enough projects to keep me busy when i don’t want to read. as for books, i think that i’m going to re-read the ender series by orson scott card and possibly brave new world.

oh! almost forgot… i’m near the completion of another pair of turkish slippers! this time i am double-stranding the yarn for added coverage during the winter months. i’m using some funky acrylic that i got from katie at the yarn swap this past weekend.

it’s the black and multi-colored skein near the bottom of this picture. i’m calling them the uno slippers since all of the colors remind me of uno cards! gotta finish them up tonight and bring them with me to japan tomorrow. you won’t find many posts here while i’m gone. KP is bringing his ibook though so i’m hoping to update maybe once or twice over the next few weeks if only to let you know that i’m alive and happy. in the meantime, be of good cheer.

###

as i was so poignantly reminded, today is veteran’s day in the U.S. i’d like to take a moment to introduce you to my lovely grandfather, louis, who (pictured above with his wife of 60 years, jean) fought in WWII as a navigator/ bombadier. he reminds me often that he was one of the first to use radar to facilitate the bombing runs over germany and that he lost many friends and colleagues while fighting for freedom in europe. this is a man who is dedicated to his country. when he returned from service, he devoted the rest of his career to the IRS (”don’t cheat the government!” is one of his favorite sayings) and still does taxes for his friends to this day (though i can’t see how any of them get any write-offs past louie.) he is kind and persnickety and a good father and husband. though he fought for many years, i know that he does not advocate war. he did his duty and that was that. we disagree on many things, he and i. i’m liberal, he’s conservative. we’re from different ages but he’s still my family.

so if you have a chance, take a moment today to pause and think of all who have fought in wars, in the past and at this very moment. take a chance too to think about how we can stop war from ever happening again. so many have been lost and so many wars were just downright uncalled for. today can serve a dual purpose: to remind us of how far we have come as human beings and how much more we have to learn. write to your local goverment and tell them that there’s no need for further deaths. tell them we need to find peace so that our grandchildren can have some place to live when they grow old and have grandchildren of their own. thanks for listening. regular (knitting) content to resume after the weekend.

###

holy smokes people! LOOK at this!

looks like october was good for this here blog! i’m glad to see that the bucks that i’ve been shelling out to pair are finally going to good use (i’ve been with them since 1999.)

actual knitting content to come after the weekend. i’ve been slowly plugging away on mom’s second cabled sock. i’m almost to the heel flap. i’ve also started on my second mitered square, and i’ve come up with a possible design for a shawl which will be made with all that lovely grey nubby cashmere i have. the real pondering around here has been “what knitting will i bring to japan?!” lots of socks, i think, and possibly some *gasp* crochet animals (a.k.a. amigurumi). i’m still thinking on it. don’t want to bring anything big but i MUST have knitting for the trip.

###

i got a good kick out of this one: which scifi character are you? apparently, i don’t believe in the no-win scenario. i spit on kobayashi maru!

“An impassioned commander with more respect for individuals than for authority, you have a no-holds-barred approach to life and its obstacles.”

what cracks me up the most about this is that i actually know the reference to kobayashi maru AND TK421. dad would be proud.

also, my blog seems to be worth a lot more than i thought…

eh-hem, i still have not been tagged for the knitting meme floating around. wonder when that will happen? *hint hint*

###

your eyes are not deceiving you. yes, gleek.net has gone black and white and every shade in between. to tell the truth, i was really sick of orange and that funky little font i was using for the logo and sidebar headers. i was also sick of verdana and geneva. verdana gets enough play on the web nowadays and my two favorite fonts, trebuchet and century gothic, seemed to get trampled on. no matter. i’ve taken it upon myself to do something about it.

here are the improvements i’ve made:

added a top navigation – i’ve moved about and contact to the top nav where they should have been all along. these are two important sections for people who just found my site and need the quick and dirty of it all. they should never be relegated to the sidebar. i’ve created a patterns section (actual content to come) and put the gallery up top too since that seems to be what gets the most traffic around here. the archives dropdown was also missed quite a bit hanging out on the side so i moved that up top too. by the way, you can always click on gleek.net to get back home.

shortened the sidebar – really, who needs all those links in the sidebar? the only important information are the recent posts, search, and what’s going on on the reading site, no? all the rest is fluff. the important fluff, i determined, were the del.icio.us links and the webrings. everything else could go.

limited to 3 recent postings – traffic on my site spiked high in october! i couldn’t believe it when i saw the chart but i got almost twice as many visitors as the previous month. thanks to all who have stopped by! i hope you’ll come back. in order to keep the weight of the homepage down, i’ve limited the number of postings to three. all the other posts can be perused using the archives menu at the top or by the using one of the eight recent postings links in the sidebar.

i also upgraded moveabletype to version 3.2 which has great comment spam handling improvements. i no longer need mt-blacklist (though it has served me well over the years, thank you very much) but i’ll leave the blacklist.txt at the root in case anyone wants to borrow it. it’s huge but has worked so well over the past four or five months i’ve barely had to touch it.

the gallery and backpack pages have been updated too (man, was i busy this weekend!) i’ve uploaded pictures of projects in progress, yarn i’ve bought, and stuff i’ve been up to. posts on all those things to come. the backpack pages (see the sidebar) have been split into three to better manage the sheer amount of craftiness that goes on around here.

there’s much more going on but i’ve reached the point where i don’t want to look at my computer anymore this weekend. it’s time to sit back and cast-on for mom’s second sock. no second sock syndrome for me! mom expects these for christmas, don’t ya, mom?

###

1) wallace and gromit are coming to your local cineplex!!!

back in the good ol’ days when i was a student of film studies at michigan state university (i majored in telecommunications with an emphasis in film studies) my favorite professor, bill vincent, introduced us all to wallace and gromit and their love for cheese. well, these two lovable clay figures have made it to the big screen in wallace and gromit: the curse of the were-rabbit so go see them. i’m sure you won’t be disappointed.

2) yes, i am still riding the subway to work despite the terror alert. how else would i get around?

3) it’s official! KP and i are going to japan! we’ll be there for two weeks in late november over the thanksgiving holiday and KP’s birthday. so far, we’ve only made reservations for a stay in tokyo but we’re hoping for a day trip to kyoto and possibly a stay in hiroshima. i now ABSOLUTELY MUST knit up that cozy shawl so that i have something to keep me warm in our travels. i’ll have to save a few sock projects for the trip.

###

font size increase.

good for aging eyes.

had to do it.

was feeling small.

that is all.

###

almost forgot to post something about this and then i saw that someone had searched for it recently… i have received my pink (and other colors too!) hair accessories from my secret pal! she lives in holland and really went ALL OUT on my gift. i’m not sure if she has a blog so hopefully she’ll come and comment and introduce herself.

she packaged up the hair accessories and included the dutch translation of numbers on each packet of hair clips.

and when they were all open, i was ecstatic to see what i received!

thanks swap partner! i’m so very happy!

also, my secret partner received the goods that i sent her and posted pictures to her blog.

p.s. if you haven’t noticed already, i’m HORRIBLE with remembering people’s names which is why this blog is mainly anonymous! it’s not because i worry about people’s privacy, it’s because i’m completely blanking on your name.

p.p.s. i’m thinking about getting new digital camera that i would keep with me all the time. i LOVE my leica. it takes gorgeous pictures but it’s bulky and doesn’t fit in my pocket… or my purse for that matter. i’m looking for something non-sony (i absolutely refuse to buy their proprietary memory cards), small, and adjustable.. i’d like it if the camera could be put on almost full manual (shutter speed, aperture, film speed) but that’s not a requirement. any suggestions?

###

i was bit by the non-talk bug last week. it was just one of those weeks when i would have preferred it if i hadn’t had to utter ONE WORD. i wasn’t feeling social and definitely wasn’t feeling nice about it. i tried putting on my headphones at work and ignoring the world but it was insistent. oh world, why must you constantly ask for my attention?

so i haven’t had much to say lately but today i feel it all coming back. first, i finished my book so that means another update to the reading site is in order. i’m getting farther along with my one sock that i’ve been working on for, oh, eons (and to think that i actually have to make another one! hopefully the second sock will go much faster.) i’ve started making a messenger bag and need to take some pictures of the progress tonight. i’m also working on a website for my friend marc and will be finishing up round two of design when i get home tonight. there are movies to watch, books to read, and i also have to make it to the gym three or four times this week. where do i find the time?

correction: my mom called the other day to say that i was mistaken in my post, i want to fly! well, not always. i actually flew for the first time “by myself” (meaning without parental units) with my younger brother when i was 10 and he was 8. my mom was in orlando on business and we flew down to meet her for some disney fun. we had to change planes in newark and i called grandma from there. at 13, i really did fly all alone to space camp. that’s not a hallucination. it really did happen.

###

well, it’s a sad day here in new york and a seriously sad day for gleek. i feel slighted and entirely sick. none of the food i tried to eat this morning tasted good or smelled right. everything is just a little sour. i guess the rest of the country just doesn’t understand what an idiot bush is. i saw this picture of him on cnn this morning laughing like an evil clown under the headline “kerry calls to concede.” *sigh* i suppose america needs another four years of hell in order to wake up from this dream that everything is ok. i need a vacation from this place.

oh, and please don’t judge all americans by what you have seen here. we’re not all homophobes (those gay marriage bans in the south are really ridiculous) nor are we all looking to take over the world. i think that the popular vote numbers say it all. we’re a country divided and we certainly don’t agree on everything.

ok, it’s now time to stop talking politics and start talking sense. anyone seen any good movies lately?

###

as k10 said this morning, “today is the day we send the mofo back to TEXAS!!” ok, i’m opening up this thread earlier in the morning than usual so that you can write in and tell me how things are going in your state. this is your chance to do some on-the-spot reporting especially if you don’t have a blog like i do. here in new york, things are peaceful. the train was not packed this morning as most city employees have the day off. KP is sleeping in late, voting in manhattan, and then going to work to watch over the Board of Elections servers and make sure no one hacks them (meaning, he will sit and nothing will happen.) i’ll be heading back to brooklyn around 5.30pm to vote at the local primary school then proceed home to watch the results with a bottle of wine. don’t forget that it’s a special 1 hour daily show tonight with john stewart!

some more links to watch today during the big showdown:

http://www.wnyc.org/

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/

write in the comments and let the world know that you are taking part in the most influential election of that last 50 years.

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heart pounding? shaky hands? loss of vision in either eye? you could possibly be afflicted with election day jitters. yes, the election is only one day away and the recount not that far behind. i’m beginning to feel extremely nervous and worried that i won’t get anything accomplished in the next day or the next week for that matter. a repeat of election 2000 scares the shit out of me. to know that gore won the popular vote but the electoral votes went to bush gives me no comfort that this year will be any different. i will seriously be in bad straits if bush wins.. you may never hear from me again as my brain will have exploded from the sheer injustice of it all. here’s hoping the left makes a mighty comeback or me and this blog are moving to amsterdam.

two sites to watch over the next day:

comedy central’s the daily show with john stewart (indecision 2004, can you dig it?)

electoral votes and the latest polls

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i’ve kept a lot of my own opinions about politics in the background for so long because i felt that, hey, tons of people talk politics and it’s usually pretty boring. this year, though, i have actually become involved in several discussions along the line of “who is more evil: bush or kerry?” or similarily “who is the lesser of two evils: bush or kerry?”

the evidence that i use to support my vote for kerry is the way that america is now portrayed overseas. bush has taken the good name of the united states and smeared it with mud. americans are looked down upon abroad as being troublemakers, war-mongers, and out-and-out liars. why? all because our commander-in-chief decided to take the only surplus we have had in ten years and squander it to invade a sovereign country. he took that beautiful pile of cash that we could have used to help the homeless, foster education, and fix health care and instead used it to buy weapons and kill civilians. KP asks me, “will kerry do it better?” and i say, give the man a chance. even if he is elected and runs for say two terms we may not see the benefits of his administration for years because we have so much to fix that bush damaged. just look at reagan and clinton.

ok, putting administration difficulties aside, let’s take a good look at bush and see who we are dealing with. i received some damning evidence from my friend andrea about bush’s religious affiliation… like the fact that he thinks that god speaks to him. can we say, voice in our head? andrea writes, “the fact is clear

that president george w. bush does not honor the separation of church and state and may in fact believe that he speaks for god. no matter where you stand on religion, you cannot deny that this country’s forefathers made it a priority to separate religion from state thanks to religious persecution in england by the state established church.” consider this evidence:

“I trust God speaks through me. Without that, I couldn’t do my job.” — President Bush, quoted in the Lancaster New Era, during a private meeting with an Amish group.

http://zzpat.tripod.com/cvb/oct_2004/bush_god_speaks_through_me.html

Bush believes he was called by God to lead the nation at this time, says Commerce Secretary Don Evans, a close friend who talks with Bush every day.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2003-04-01-bush-cover_x.htm

“According to Abbas, Bush said: ‘God told me to strike at al Qaida and I struck them, and then he instructed me to strike at Saddam, which I did, and now I am determined to solve the problem in the Middle East. If you help me I will act, and if not, the elections will come and I will have to focus on them.’”

http://www.commondreams.org/views03/0630-04.htm

this is just a short selection of quotes. here are some more links to sources that show bush’s reliance on a “higher power” in order to make reallife decisions.

http://www.counterpunch.org/domke09102004.html

http://www.commondreams.org/views03/0630-04.htm

http://members.tripod.com/~candst/tnppage/uwood.htm

http://www.burntorangereport.com/archives/001880.html

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/17/magazine/17BUSH.html

having just given you a ton of evidence not to vote bush in for another term, i am now calling out to our democrats abroad who may or may not have received their absentee ballots. this election is crucial and so are your votes. we saw what happened in 2000 and i’m afraid it will happen again. i’m linking here to a salon.com story about absentee ballots and how the administration is surely fucking them up again. what with damnable nader trying to get on the ballot in several swing states, the absentee ballots have gone out late and, in many cases, are in error. therefore, my overseas readers, please use the FWAB (federal write-in absentee ballot) if you have not received yours yet. i also encourage any overseas bloggers to link to the online ballot so that others can find it as well.

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ever since i was a young girl, i have wanted to change my last name. no offense to my papa or his family, it’s just that we share a famous last name with that guy in the white house and i’m forever reminded of it. i’ve lived through years of being asked if i was related to him or his father and i’m happy to say that i’m not. our family’s last name was changed when my great ancestors entered the US. so, when i met KP, i was happy to tell him that should we ever marry (which we did!) i would gladly change my last name to his.

little did i know how much work that would actually be. last week, i tried to go and change my name at the local social security office and was impolitely told to take my request to brooklyn. yes, i live in brooklyn but hello! social security is a federal agency and it shouldn’t matter where i change my name. my protests fell on deaf ears. the government here would rather screw you than help you. i must find time to sort out where the brooklyn office is and then go there later this week or next week.

of course, that’s only the beginning of my name change. i have to change it on all of my credit cards, bank stuff (checks and account info), domain name registrations, internet shopping arenas (amazon), and the dreaded passport which i’m sure will take the longest of them all. this morning i went to the DMV at the corner of 34th street and broadway to change my driver’s license. i arrived at 8.20 am just 10 minutes prior to it opening and there was already a line of 100 people on the street outside! luckily, though, the DMV has service down to a science. after shuffling through two lines and getting my picture retaken for the second time this year, i was promptly helped and sent on my way. i was at work a good ten minutes before i usually show up. for once, a painless experience. i’d give it 4 out of 5 stars (one star deducted for the soft rock “music” piped into the waiting area.) high-energy techno is really the only acceptable choice in this instance.

i’m thinking about changing a few things on gleek.net. i love my underlining in the text area but it makes it hard to post pictures in the entries. i may 86 it in favor of photos, which i’m taking more of now that the wedding is over. i’m also thinking of starting a vegan/vegetarian food/photo blog. i hear tons of misconceptions from people about how “vegetarians don’t get enough protein” or “you can’t eat a balanced diet without meat” which are all bullshit and fed to the public by the meat industry. i’m dying to show off the wonderful and nutricious meals that KP and i enjoy at home. there is a reason why i’m one of the healthiest people that i know. i have been sick only once in two years and everyone else i know gets sick two or three times a year (i used to be the same way until i became a veggie.) i’m also going to upgrade MT in a week or so. if anyone thinks that i shouldn’t, please leave a comment.

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