She Makes the Best of What's Around

I just can't believe this. Or rather, I can, but it makes me mad enough to chew a handful of steel and spit out perfect nails. Lingerie store back on the agenda. The part that is killing me is in the very last three paragraphs. I shall quote!

"Randy Sharp, director of special projects for the American Family Association, was involved with drafting the current ordinance that justices backed in 2000. He said it should be defended.

“It is disappointing that Seductions has chosen to bully its way into the county through litigation,” Sharp said. “The simple guidelines established by the county do not and were never intended to prohibit Seductions from operating legally or lawfully,” Sharp said.

When Craighead County’s chief legislative body voted for the ordinance, he added, it did so “to protect the county from negative secondary effects of sexually oriented businesses.” AFA therefore wants the Quorum Court to back its existing regulations to protect the safety and well-being of residents, he said."

So essentially, the reason this LINGERIE STORE (they keep referring to it as a "sexually oriented business" when it clearly does not meet the intention of the ordinance, which was to keep out strip clubs) is having so much trouble in our little backwater town is the American Family Association. Part of me might be surprised that they care enough, but it's a small part. The rest of me knows NO ONE'S business (either actual business or their own personal goings-on) is safe from James Dobson.

In an unusual turn-around, Bryan pointed out the bit of optimism in this for me. The director of special projects for the AFA helped draft the current ordinance. Early on in the news story, we find that the attorneys for the city said "If you go to court with Seductions over this ordinance as it stands, you will not win."  Essentially, the attorneys told them the ordinance is not a legally tenable position. Likely this is because the wording is INTENSELY vague; it refers to the "know it when I see it" method of characterizing what is a "sexually oriented business" and never actually defines it at all. Again, I'm split on this. The optimist in me who believes in the good of human nature wants to say "Oh, they didn't leave it intentionally vague; they just assumed everyone would know it meant strip clubs near schools". The realist, on the other hand, realizes that this is the way the AFA plays; they'd want to leave it vague so they could apply it to every single thing they might object to, and bring it up to cover a huge swath of businesses. Not to mention, the realist Hillary says, you can't allow things to be "assumed" in government, no matter how local. That's asking for misinterpretation, abuse, and trouble.

I am left with one question, and it's the question I am ALWAYS left with after these things. The baffling, unanswerable query in my mind, echoing off all my bemused little brain cells, who can never come up with anything plausible in answer.

Why in the world do some people seem completely terrified of the concept that someone, somewhere MIGHT BE HAVING AN ORGASM?!

Wow. This story really made me feel warm & fuzzy: what's happening with the dogs rescued from Michael Vick's fighting ring? The answer might surprise you.

It hadn't occurred to me that they might actually try to save those dogs, but they did. The dog who is the main focus of the story is actually on his way to becoming a therapy dog for nursing home settings. Something about that just strikes me as immensely "right". There was a horrible situation. The dogs were tortured and forced to do things that were entirely unnatural to them. The people responsible were caught and justly punished, and now the dogs are free to live happy lives, and even give back to society in ways their irresponsible, sadistic, arrogant previous owner could never even have dreamed. Good on you, Hector the Pit Bull.

01. What types of portable audio devices do you use?
I have three that I use routinely: my 30 GB iPod (Morpheus), my orange iPod shuffle (Niobe), and my iPhone (Smith). If laptops count as portable (and they should), I use my PowerBook (The Oracle) often, preferably with my JBL Soundstage micro speakers.

02. What format of music do you listen to most often?
Definitely jam rock. Essentially that's bands that have more than 2 guitars+drummer+vocals and usually sound better live than in-studio. Dave Matthews Band, O.A.R., Derek Trucks Band, and Blues Traveler fall into this category. I also listen to Béla Fleck & the Flecktones but they defy genre so hard I don't know WHERE to put them sometimes. They may not just "defy" genre. Like English does with other languages, they hunt down genres in back alleys, clock them on the head and riffle through their pockets looking for cool things.

After that, video game music arrangements & remixes, often by fans. My favorite VGM albums are "Brink of Time" by Yasunori Mitsuda (an acid jazz arrangement of the music he composed for the game Chrono Trigger), "Celtic Moon" by Nobuo Uematsu (Celtic orchestral arrangment of the Final Fantasy 4 music), and "Time and Space: A Tribute to Yasunori Mitsuda" produced by OneUp Studios. I am a big fan of theirs. I am actually a mod on the forums which I never visit anymore, which bites because I love those people and I really should.

03. How do you get your electronic music files? (pay service [i.e Napster, iTunes, eMusic, etc.], file sharing, artist/label web sites, etc.)
I usually either buy from iTunes or download entire discographies from Bit Torrent. A lot of my live DMB stuff is traded, so it came via bittorrent legally.

04. What type of headphones do you use?
I usually use the ones that came with whatever iPod/iPhone I'm using. I have a nice pair of Sony ones for use with my laptop, actual "headcans" that go outside the ear. Very nice size, soft padding, great tone. I can't hear a bloody thing when I'm using them though, so if we ever have a fire & I'm listening to DMB on those, I'm dead. ^_^
 
05. What is currently on your portable music player that you are using? (Post artist, album title, please.)
Right now I'm on my laptop, and I am listening to "All Over You" by Live off the album "Throwing Copper". Great album, by the way. Good band; I remember they were pretty popular when I was in late high school.

WOW, people. Just wow.

Manolo Blahniks for men...just say no.

Oh my. Go check out the upcoming line of menswear from Prada. Somehow, I don't see this catching on among the high school math teacher set. Indeed, Bryan does not seem the body type for a butt-flaring tutu over sequined pants.

Good gracious. *shakes head*

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Just now I was listening to this song ("The White Tree" from RotK soundtrack) and had this weird, transportive moment. Is that a word? It is now. This song comes to a climax, and as far as I recall, it's that point in the movie where Gandalf & Pippin conspire to light the beacon and call for Rohan's aid without Denethor's permission. Anyway, the music gets higher and faster and louder and it just SWELLS as the beacons are lit all the way from Minas Tirith to Edoras. With about 30 seconds left, it reaches this peak that absolutely makes you want to stand up (synaesthesia again: it makes me feel like I'm surging to my feet; as though I were sitting and I am standing up quickly and emphatically, as tall as I'll go. It actually makes my legs tense up.) and then it ends on a minor note, very urgent.

Anyway, I was listening to it in the library on the Oracle via headphones, and for one weird second, I was confused that there was no applause. ^_^

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And now, because I am about to be off to class, I leave you with this wonderful bit of loldog that just made my whole world giggle this morning.

moar cute puppy pictures

I would love to have two of these, one for me & one for Bryan. The Ladiez have been talking about bento lately, inspired by Pixelfish in my Utterz circle. She does bento. I'm looking up all sorts of dishes I could make for it; steamed veggies & rice, fried rice, noodles with chicken & sauce. Leftovers seem like they could go really well in bento, depending on how concerned with the aesthetics you decided to be. For example I've got some shepherd's pie in the fridge (more on that later; it was the first time I ever made it), and it would do quite well in a bento, if you didn't mind that it's not very beautiful. Maybe if you surrounded it with steamed broccoli to cover up the ragged potato edges. Steamed veggies, well, you can't really get prettier than that. It would really be fun & challenging to make up bento boxes. Regardless of the validity of the "yin vs. yang" discussion, the fact is, I do want more slow-cooked, heavily spiced, non-raw things during the winter, and I do want raw food and salad and veggies more in the summer. In July, a salad with farmer's market tomatoes and vinagrette dressing sounds amazing, and in December, very little sounds as good as a bowl of my mom-in-law's beef pot pie with lots of gravy & squishy potatoes. ^_^ So that would be yet another concern of the bento, if I were going to follow the "yin & yang" of the season with appropriate foods. Really interesting, and I can see myself getting into this.

I had the dumb yesterday. I took my first quiz in biochemistry and I was fairly sure I bombed it. It was due, though, and I had to get it done even though I haven't got the book yet. My "dumb" happened when I found, AFTER I TOOK THE QUIZ, that the professor had provided us with the powerpoint presentation notes she gives in class. -_- Obviously I downloaded the next couple of chapters and will be teaching myself biochem at some point today.

I'll be all day in Newport again tomorrow, so you might expect more Utterz. I do love the whole mobile blogging thing. I live in Nowhere, Arkansas. Everywhere I go is small and sometimes broken down and abandoned. But as I was taking last Thursday's photo of the radio station in Newport, I realized that these things I look at every day are brand new to someone else. Nothing of my life is ever seen in the media. Nothing in Newport, Arkansas, ever makes it onto CNN, and nothing of Weiner is evident in sitcoms or teen dramas, and if in some strange fluke it does appear, it's always derogatory. I complain, but it's not that bad here.  There's a large proportion of undereducated, proudly working class people here, but that doesn't make them bad or less worthwhile (though it does make it difficult for me to talk to them; they think I use "$50 words").  My life is lived out in a culture that very few people know about, even though it's right in your back yard. So I take my pictures & make my Utterz and let you guys see a little of what you'll never see on the television.

It looks like we may be going to Little Rock after school tomorrow. There's a CompUSA there, and as CompUSA is going out of business, they're having great sales. Bryan is looking for something specific (likely RAM) and wants to take a trip down there. Newport is on the way to Little Rock, so while we're there we might as well take advantage.

This morning I have created a monster. Ganon ate half a bowl of oatmeal and absolutely would not eat anymore. I sighed and gave up, 'cause what else am I going to do? I grabbed myself a very healthy breakfast of a Newman's Own "Ginger-O", and that's where the trouble began. Well, I was having one so Ganon wanted one. So I let him have one. Then I dipped mine in my coffee, looked up, and found him watching me. Instantly he was right at my knee, wanting to dip HIS in my coffee, too. I crouched down and let him. He did, and gobbled the dipped portion. Realizing it was squishy now, he was pretty excited. He kept coming back to dip every single bite.  You know, just like every kid in the world discovers about Oreos, only they're not dipping it in highly caffeinated Kenyan coffee. So in one fell swoop, I have given my toddler a potentially messy new food and a taste for coffee. Grand.

Last night, I made shepherd's pie for the first time. Recipe!

6 or 8 small potatoes, golden (can't remember exactly how many, but the biggest one was fist-sized)
1 tsp ground mustard
Little milk
1 lb ground turkey
1 can turkey gravy
2 cups cooked carrots (these were leftovers from the last roast I did)
Shredded sharp cheddar
Seasonings & some junk

I cut the potatoes into chunks & let them boil for 25 minutes, until they were good & mashable. Mashed them with a little butter, a little salt, a little milk, and that tsp of ground mustard for flavor (that worked out REALLY well; they had an awesome subtle flavor). Meanwhile, I browned the turkey, then added the jar of turkey gravy (those things are really useful), the carrots and some seasonings (black pepper, salt, Mrs. Dash). I let that cook for a while, then spread it in the bottom of my square Wilton silicone baking dish. I don't know if it's an 8" or 9" square, but anyway. I sprinkled it with the shredded cheddar (not much, just enough to be even), and then I topped it with the tasty potatoes, and then I browned it in a 350º oven for 20 minutes. It came out REALLY well. Bryan liked it, Ganon liked it, I liked it, and it made enough for leftovers, so Ganon & I will have it for lunch as well. (Bryan has the chess team today at lunch, so he needed to bring something that wouldn't need microwaving.)

Well. Mr. Overlord is clamoring for attention, and he seems to want to play with the Badtz Maru blanket. It makes me giggle that Bryan bought me that blanket when we were dating because I loved Badtz Maru so much, and now our kid carries it around the house. That's just sitcom-cute.

I do a lot of experimenting with recipes. I like to put unexpected ingredients in traditional foods & see how it comes out. I like to put veggies into things that don't call for them. We eat a lot of things by wrote that we could be adding to, making them more delicious and more nutritious at the same time.

This afternoon for lunch I wanted egg salad. Really craving it. I had a good one on Saturday, but I thought I could do better, so I gave it a shot. Lo and behold, for the adventurous eater, what I came up with is a GREAT variation on the egg salad theme.

2 eggs (hard boiled or whatever; I poached mine in this little microwave poacher thing I've got)
1 tbsp Miracle Whip Light (I always use Light 'cause the regular tastes too "heavy", but use whatever you use)
1 tsp spicy brown mustard
1 tsp ground mustard (b/c I like a heavy mustard flavor)
and here's the kicker
1/4 cup chopped apple

I know that sounds nuts, but it has the whole sweet & spicy thing going on and it's GOOD. I got the idea from the grapes, apples, & pecans I see people adding to chicken salad sometimes.  Plus, egg salad is notorious for having a boring, squishy, lifeless texture. It's why people always put it on crunchy lettuce. This one doesn't need that! It's really very delicious. I'm having it on whole grain bread. Bonus points for all the mustard opening up my sinuses like crazy. Now that I'm thinking of it, I think this would benefit perhaps from a tbsp of dill relish or chopped dill pickles. I definitely see myself adding chopped apples to tuna salad in the future as well.

Might I also recommend a soda? Or, well, not a soda...I don't know. It's an Izze beverage, one of those carbonated juices. This one is blueberry. Never tried it before, but it is really, truly good. One of the best "sodas" I've ever had. I also noticed something new at Fresh Market yesterday: Izze Esque. They're lower-calorie, but not calorie-free, Izze drinks. The company that makes Izze insists there be nothing artificial in the drinks, so they can't use sucralose or aspartame or what-have-you to make their "diet" versions. The ingredients stated "granulated fructose" which I suppose is just fruit-derived sugar. Didn't try those, but I will next time. They have black raspberry and that's definitely on My List.

No inclement weather last night. Alas, Bryan had to go to work. We're holding out hope for the end of the week, however. He did take the Element, just in case and because the CR-V is ridiculously low on gas. He coasted home practically on fumes on Friday, and we never managed to get gas for it over the weekend. If I go in for Ladiez night this evening, I suppose I'll take the gas can and get him enough to make it to a station tomorrow.

Now for something that annoyed the crap out of me. For those of you reading me on Vox, I will explain: I live in Small Town, Arkansas. Specifically Weiner, but that isn't far outside of Jonesboro. Jonesboro is Less Small, but Not Large, and certainly Not City. We are in the middle of the Bible Belt. I frequently post letters to the editor that appear in the Jonesboro Sun, Jonesboro's only newspaper, because they show a bit of the type of people who live around here. We have good and kind and tolerant people, but unfortunately, the ignorant, judgmental, self-centered racists are louder. And more likely to write, bad grammar and all, into the Letters Section of the Sun. Here's today's Letter that Hacked Me Off.

Background: The paper recently did a series on some people who've overcome hardships to get their lives back on track. Overcome an addiction, recovered from an illness, etc. The woman indicated in the following letter, Ms. Crump, overcame an addiction to crystal meth.

"More information?

I read both articles about Jodi Crump, and what a fine job she did straightening her life up.

The last article showed a picture of her and her youngest child but not once did it mention anything about her trying to get her other children back.

I don’t understand how any mother can turn her back on her kids. Can anyone explain where her other children are and if she plans on getting them back?

Sheryl Warford
Mountain Home"

See, when I said "judgmental" this is what I was talking about. *exasperated sigh* Let's see how many factors we can come up with that MIGHT explain why Ms. Crump is not attempting to gain custody of her older children.

1) Perhaps her kids are older and more settled in their current environment, and it would do more harm than good to uproot them now.
2) Perhaps she IS trying to get her other children too, but the news story chose to focus on the youngest, who is presumably adorable and would sell papers if put on the front page.
3) Perhaps she does not currently have the financial ability to care for more than one of her kids, and will regain custody of the others over time.
4) Perhaps she does not currently have the financial means for the legal battle it may take to obtain her other children.
5) Perhaps the older children are old enough to have noticed and been harmed by her addiction, and have no interest in living with her again.

That's what I've come up with off the top of my head. You might be able to think of more. Given that Ms. Crump has obviously had hardships and is obviously still striving to move past them and on with her life, what good did it do for Ms. Sheryl Warford to be so judgmental and chastise Ms. Crump in such a public forum as the letters section of a newspaper?! Parenthood is difficult when you do have your life straightened out. It must be infinitely more so when you have battled an addiction or an illness or some other hardship that may have taken your focus off parenting for a while. Does Ms. Warford believe that since she, probably Arkansas' Mother of the Year, publicly proclaimed her inability to understand how Ms. Crump could turn her back on her children that Ms. Crump will suddenly have an epiphany and go and get her other kids so they can be a big, happy family again, with nary a cloud in the sky?

I'm really trying to decide if I should write some semblance of that into the paper myself.

Trip to Memphis was pretty good, except for the total lack of Sontava hot sauce at World Market. I'm sorry Jeremy!

For those who don't listen to the Utterz I post, earlier I made one that contained a picture of a little motion sensor at Wal-Mart. This was interesting only because I'd never seen one before, and I found it to be such a strange thing to see in Wal-Mart in Trumann, Arkansas. Trumann is very little larger than Weiner, and only notable at all because it is in Poinsett County on Highway 63, minutes from Jonesboro--and Poinsett is a wet county. Thus, you can drink booze & eat food simultaneously. (Not that that's rare anymore in J'boro.) Anyway, as you walk into the freezer aisle, you notice that there are no lights in the cases. Then, as you walk up, these motion sensors blink and the lights spring to life, showing you whatever is directly in front of you. They go off again as you walk away from the sensor. It saves money on energy, and saves energy as well. Good public relations from greening up their stores as well as saving money on electric bills. This sounds perfectly suited to Wal-Mart. As for why it's in Trumann, Arkansas, I can only guess they're trying it out in very small, out-of-the-way stores before they go anywhere else with it.

In a marginally related note, the Utterz troll got me! This afternoon, someone called "itactici" started popping up on Utterz' front page, mostly with a bunch of utterz calling people "faggots" and talking about how "gay" the utterz site was. Evidently he also went back & forth on the "recent utterz" list, trolling people with more insulting comments. Again, mostly calling people "gay" and "f---ing faggots." He totally posted on my Utter about the Wal-Mart motion sensors! Only it was a pretty sad trolling.

1) "F---ing faggot." I'm sure he said this at least 5 times. Does that insult apply to women? I am clearly female: my profile, my photo, and my voice all point to this. Even if you're going to consider that an insult, you need to change the gender. "Dyke" could be what you're looking for, perhaps. Misfire on that one.
2) "Weiner". Seriously, dude. It's in my profile! If you're going to call someone names that revolve around homosexuality, YOU'RE MISSING A PRIME TARGET. Come on! Not a single Weiner comment? I'm disappointed.
3) "No wonder you were in the ice cream aisle" he said. However, I said freezer section, and was in fact in the aisle with the breakfast foods and veggies, as you could tell if you listened to the utter. I mention frozen waffles, french fries, and broccoli. No ice cream in sight. Plus, this insult is lost on a woman who routinely calls herself fat and hasn't the slightest problem with it. That's like calling me "redheaded" or "Arkansan" or "freckled" and expecting me to cry about it. Again, misfire.
4) "Voice". The very concept of Utterz meant that he could hear my voice! It was right there, out in the open! If you're going to troll, do it right. I have a very pronounced Southern accent; it's not the thickest out there, I grant you, but it is there and it's obvious! Shouldn't you--I don't know--call me a stupid hick? If you're gonna troll someone with a Southern accent, you HAVE to make fun of the accent. It's standard protocol.

*sigh* So that was that. The instant I replied (saying some of this) to Brendajos, the page refreshed and the comment was gone. Quite sad, as I was attempting to figure out how to delete comments to my Utterz, and that would've been a prime candidate. This troll was no Meaty Whale, that's for certain.

So now we're home, hanging out. Ganon's in bed, and we're watching the radar. It appears we may get a little winter weather tonight, and Teacher Bryan is hoping perhaps he'll get a snow day. Freezing rain, sleet, snow--any of it will net him a day off. We don't get this weather much here, and even the slightest bit makes it difficult to drive because we're in such a rural area. Inside cities the roads are cleared relatively well, if not exactly quickly, but out on the highways, between cities, and on the gravel the ice just sits there. We have a 4-wheel drive Element, but the CR-V is two wheel drive. If Bryan's gotta go in, I'll insist he take the Element at least. I hope he gets a day off.

Wow. I can really hear that sleet coming down now.

Okay, I'm not a puppy, and I'm not Puppy (my husband's nickname) but I am sick. Or at least I was; I woke up this morning feeling quite a bit better.

Specifically I had one heck of a lot of congestion. I was stopped up in the sinuses, but with me, it never ends there. It always has to go migrating to my chest so I can't take a whole breath and I always feel like I'm going to pass out from not getting enough oxygen. I must confess, I used Afrin (oh noes!!!) and Bryan's albuterol inhaler a LOT yesterday.

But today we are better, and I was trying to decide whether I still wanted to take a trip to Memphis or not. Bryan is out of school today for MLK Jr. Day, and we considered a trip. I was lazing around in bed thinking about this decision when there was a knock at the door. Momma with the dogs, of course, so I opened it. "Where are you guys going today?" I asked. They only give me the dogs when they're planning on being gone all day long, and I assumed cabinet job in town or something similar.

"We're going to Memphis to get Kelsey's motor," Momma said.

Oh! I told her about our possible plans, and she said to call when we got into Memphis. So this could be good. Jeremy, if I go to World Market, I shall stock up on Sontava hot sauce for you. <3!

Since I was so sick yesterday, I really do feel like getting out some. We have a grocery trip we need to make, and it would simply make my whole week to be able to do it at Wild Oats. So! I'm hopping up to make my coffee now and then we'll decide what's going on today.