RedJen's Rearview Mirror

Thing I’m hating right now: Eve’s Sony Vile (Vaio) – the stupid thing can’t remember how to access its own CD-ROM drive. The pain in my ass is still there, although I just forced it to read the drive, so the tide has turned and I will win.

Good stuff:
* My manager sent the department home at noon today to start the holiday weekend early.
* The North Carolina Exotic Animal Show is this weekend. I want to go check out the exotic cat breeds.
* Blue is curled up with me and I should have time to take a nap while Eve’s laptop finishes the current scan.
* There are no big plans for the weekend. No weddings, no trips to Ohio, no bookclub meeting, nothing to do except sleep in late and relax.

Other:
Some new pictures are in the photo album, family shots (mostly my nephew) from my trip to Ohio and the sky on my way home earlier this week. The new pictures are in the Family and Summer 2004 albums.

A lot of sleep, a couple of naps, a quick dinner and over 24 hours later, the vile is back up and running. The operating system is current, over 300 pieces of spy-ware and 2 removed, a new anti-virus and firewall installed, and it can access the wireless network. I’m sure there’s something that will need tweaked, but I’m tired of messing with this thing for the weekend. Once I make sure it can do a smooth shut down and start, I’m putting it away and calling it done until Eve gets a chance to use it. If she finds anything that needs tweaked and tells me about it, I’ll check it out.

(My parents sent this to me)

We convince ourselves that life will be better after we get married, have a baby, then another. Then we are frustrated that the kids aren't old enough and we'll be more content when they are. After that, we're frustrated that we have teenagers to deal with. We will certainly be happy when they are out of that stage. We tell ourselves that our life will be complete when our spouse gets his or her act together, when we get a nicer car, when we are able to go on a nice vacation or when we retire. The truth is there's no better time to be happy than right now. If not now, when? Your life will always be filled with challenges.

It's best to admit this to yourself and decide to be happy anyway. Happiness is the way. So, treasure every moment that you have and treasure it more because you shared it with someone special, special enough to spend your time with ... and remember that time waits for no one.

So, stop waiting ...
Until your car or home is paid off.
Until you get a new car or home.
Until your kids leave the house.
Until you go back to school.
Until you finish school.
Until you lose 10 lbs.
Until you gain 10 lbs.
Until you get married.
Until you get a divorce.
Until you have kids.
Until you retire.
Until summer.
Until spring.
Until winter.
Until fall.
Until you die.

There is no better time than right now to be happy. Happiness is a journey, not a destination. So work like you don't need money, love like you've never been hurt, and, dance like no one's watching.

Unless a person wishes to ignore the world going on around them, it would be hard to miss the commotion going on about the legal recognition same sex relationships. In 1996, the government passed a bill called the Defense of Marriage Act. I’d like to think that the original authors of the bill had done their homework before putting this before Congress. It is blatantly obvious to me that this bill premature. I’m not saying that I agree or disagree with it, but rather that there is a lot of stuff that needs to be addressed before someone tries to define marriage.

As of 2002, 47 of the 50 United States allow individuals who have sexual reassignment surgery to have their birth certificates altered to reflect their new sexual identity following surgery. So once John is legally Joanne, according to the laws of most states, Joanne should be able to able to marry any man she falls in love with, in any state where she falls in love, regardless of the new state’s view on transgender individuals. This is primarily because the courts have shown a historical commitment to the “Full Faith Credit Clause” of the U.S. Constitution. If John was born in Maine, later has surgery to become Joanne and has legally had her birth certificate updated to indicate her status as a female, then by the Full Faith Credit Clause, Joanne is a woman in every state of the Union. As such for all intents and purposes, Joanne is a woman.

This puts quite a twist on the Defense of Marriage Act. If you define marriage as between a man and a woman, Joanne would qualify as the female half of this couple, but unless her man was born female, the authors of the DoMA don’t think this works. So where does this leave the Defense of Marriage Act? From what I’ve been able to find, it leaves things in a complete mess. To define marriage as between a man and a woman is fine, until one of the individuals wasn’t born that way.

What makes this even murkier is that the courts have a commitment to the Full Faith Credit Clause of the U.S. Constitution. The Full Faith Credit Clause of Article IV of the Constitution holds that laws and other actions of one state shall be recognized in other states. So even in states that refuse to acknowledge same sex unions, unless they are willing to ignore the Full Faith Credit Clause of the Constitution, they are bound to honor the decisions made by other the states.

For the record, my aunt Doris is married to my uncle Helen. Legally Helen is male and is recognized as the husband and father in his family, but he does not live as a male. I’m sure this confuses more than a few people.

The Defense of Marriage Act is looking weak in the face of more recent events. I’m fairly certain there are worse things going on in society than the sexual identities of a part of the population. Some would argue that what makes a man or woman is the contribution they can make in the procreation of the species. If that is the case, where does that leave someone who is unable to contribute to this activity? A lack of the ability to procreate is not limited to those who undergo gender reassignment. Taken strictly, this would mean that any woman who has gone through a hysterectomy is no longer female and any man who has lost his testicles is not male. This would also mean that even without surgery, anyone who is medically sterile is neither man nor woman.

Would we have a third sex, which was neither male nor female? Until you can prove that you contribute to the gene pool, you cannot claim to be one or the other. If all that makes a man is the ability to “father” a child, what happens when someone engineers a child from the DNA of two women? Which one is the father and thus male?

Yeah, the world can be a messed up place. It seems ironic that the nation founded on the ideal of freedom from oppression jumps so quickly to deny that which it cannot understand. I don’t believe we are quite ready to join John Varley on his Steel Beach, but I’m not sure that ignoring the changes embraced by a subset of the culture is going to keep anyone safe from the reality.

I find it humorous that something referred to as Full Faith holds such problem for the religious right in this case.

By way of RantingVirgo

If someone gave you 3 new goldfish today, what would you name them?
I don’t name fish
What's the worst movie you've seen this year so far?
Val Helsing comes in a close second, but Hellboy
If given the chance and you could pick the person, would you want to switch lives with someone on earth for one whole day?
With that kind of control, you bet!
What's your favorite season? Name 2 things you love about it.
Summer
1 - The feel of skin exposed to the sun and being warm to the core
2 - Long days and balmy nights
What is something you frequently buy that you don't really need?
Jujubes
It the election were tomorrow, who would you vote for?
Mickey Mouse sounds good
What are the main things that lead you to vote for a certain person?
Consitency and follow through, voting record
Where do you get your info on the candidates?
Internet, newspapers, radio, gossip, television
If you could choose anyone, dead or alive, to be president, who would it be?
Gotta go with ShaeSin - Eleanor Roosevelt
What is your favorite sort of music?
Angry chick music and singer songwriter
What is your least favorite?
Vulgar Rap – Insane Clown Posse
What was the first CD you ever purchased?
Not sure, but the first one I had was Def Leppard – Adrenalize, which I got as a door prize.
What was the first concert you ever went to?
U2
Do you sing in the shower?
Sometimes
Do you remember your first kiss?
I remember the statistics (where, when, who and why), but not the “feel”
How old were you when you had your first kiss?
5-6
Where did your first kiss occur?
My room

I've never met this guy, but I have the feeling we could sit down and be talking as if we met in grade school.

His article Living a life as a Myers Briggs INTJ, voices many of my own thoughts. It is nice to know that I'm not the only one...

Bush by numbers: Four years of double standards By Graydon Carter
03 September 2004

Giving a hand up to the advantaged

$10.9m Average wealth of the members of Bush's original 16-person cabinet.

75 Percentage of Americans unaffected by Bush's sweeping 2003 cuts in capital gains and dividends taxes.

$42,000 Average savings members of Bush's cabinet received in 2003 as a result of cuts in capital gains and dividends taxes.

10 Number of fellow members from the Yale secret society Skull and Bones that Bush has named to important positions (including the Associate Attorney General Robert McCallum Jr. and SEC chief Bill Donaldson).

79 Number of Bush's initial 189 appointees who also served in his father's administration.

George Bush: Tax cutter

87 Percentage of American families in April 2004 who say they have felt no benefit from Bush's tax cuts.

39 Percentage of tax cuts that will go to the top 1 per cent of American families when fully phased in.

49 Percentage of Americans in April 2004 who found that their taxes had actually gone up since Bush took office.

88 Percentage of American families who will save less than $100 on their 2006 federal taxes as a result of 2003 cut in capital gains and dividends taxes.

$30,858 Amount Bush himself saved in taxes in 2003.

Employment tsar

9.3m Number of US unemployed in April 2004.

2.3m Number of Americans who lost their jobs during first three Years of the Bush administration.

22m Number of jobs gained during Clinton's eight years in office.

Friend of the poor

34.6m Number of Americans living below the poverty line (1 in 8 of the population).

40 Percentage of wealth in the United States held by the richest 1 per cent of the population.

Security and Foreign Policy

1 Number of Bush administration public statements on National security issued between 20 January 2001 and 10 September 2001 that mentioned al-Qa'ida.

104 Number of Bush administration public statements on National security and defence in the same period that mentioned Iraq or Saddam Hussein.

$1m Estimated value of a painting the Bush Presidential Library in College Station, Texas, received from Prince Bandar, Saudi Arabia's ambassador to the United States and Bush family friend.

0 Number of times Bush mentioned Saudi Arabia in his three State of the Union addresses.

1,700 Percentage increase between 2001 and 2002 of Saudi Arabian spending on public relations in the United States.

79 Percentage of the 11 September hijackers who came from Saudi Arabia.

3 Number of 11 September hijackers whose entry visas came through special US-Saudi "Visa Express" programme.

140 Number of Saudis, including members of the Bin Laden family, evacuated from United States almost immediately after 11 September.

4 Rank of the United States among countries considered to be the greatest threats to world peace according to a 2003 Pew Global Attitudes study (Israel, Iran, and North Korea were considered more dangerous; Iraq was considered less dangerous).

43 Percentage of the entire world's military spending that the US spends on defence. (That was in 2002, the year before the invasion of Iraq.)

237 Minimum number of misleading statements on Iraq made by top Bush administration officials between 2002 and January 2004, according to the California Representative Henry Waxman.

10m Estimated number of people worldwide who took to the streets on 21 February 2003, in opposition to the invasion of Iraq, the largest simultaneous protest in world history.

2000 Year that Cheney said his policy as CEO of Halliburton oil services company was "we wouldn't do anything in Iraq".

$4.7bn Total value of contracts awarded to Halliburton in Iraq and Afghanistan.

$680m Estimated value of Iraq reconstruction contracts awarded to Bechtel.

$2.8bnValue of Bechtel Corp contracts in Iraq.

$120bn Amount the war and its aftermath are projected to cost for the 2004 fiscal year.

35 Number of countries to which the United States suspended military assistance after they failed to sign agreements giving Americans immunity from prosecution before the International Criminal Court.

92 Percentage of Iraq's urban areas with access to potable water in late 2002.

60 Percentage of Iraq's urban areas with access to potable water in late 2003.

55 Percentage of the Iraqi workforce who were unemployed before the war.

80 Percentage of the Iraqi workforce who are unemployed a Year after the war

A soldier's best friend

40,000 Number of soldiers in Iraq seven months after start of the war still without Interceptor vests, designed to stop a round from an AK-47.

$60m Estimated cost of outfitting those 40,000 soldiers with Interceptor vests.

George Bush: Military man

1972 Year that Bush walked away from his pilot duties in the Texas National Guard, Nearly two years before his six-year obligation was up.

$3,500 Reward a group of veterans offered in 2000 for anyone who could confirm Bush's Alabama guard service.

600-700 Number of guardsmen who were in Bush's unit during that period.

0 Number of guardsmen from that period who came forward with information about Bush's guard service.

Factors in his favour

69 Percentage of Americans who believed the White House's claims in September 2003 that Saddam Hussein was personally involved in the 11 September attacks.

34 Percentage of Americans who believed in June 2003 that Saddam's "weapons of mass destruction" had been found.

22 Percentage of Americans who believed in May 2003 that Saddam had used his WMDs on US forces.

85 Percentage of American young adults who cannot find Afghanistan, Iraq, or Israel on a map.

11 Percentage of American young adults who cannot find the United States on a map.

30 Percentage of Americans who believe that "politics and government are too complicated to understand."

This is an edited extract from "What We've Lost", by Graydon Carter, published by Little Brown on 9 September

As a counterpoint to an article sent to a list I subscribe to, there are a few things I’d like to bring up. (Click here to read a copy of the article)

First of all, politically, I’m firmly entrenched among those labeled as Independents. While I am not fond of many of the decisions that have been made by our current president, I believe that he does hold the office and deserves a bit of respect because of that. This is not to say that he’s perfect, for no one is, only that he had to do something right to get to where he is. I have and continue to be a registered Republican, mainly because that way I get to vote in the primaries. If I could register as a Democrat at the same time, I’d do so in a heart beat. My views are primarily fiscally conservative and socially liberal. To me that means if money can be used to address a problem, then spend it, but make sure you are fixing the root problem, not just the surface scars. A quick fix that leads back to the same problem isn’t fixed. A free lunch may help in the short term, but unless the underlying problem that created the need for that lunch is fixed, the same situation will exist tomorrow. We need to treat the disease, not the symptoms.

Statistics are numbers and you can make them say anything you like. With the right spin anything can sound positive or negative.

If you were elected to an office and had to appoint people to positions that you would be working closely with on a daily basis, would you be more likely to choose from friends who you trusted? Telling me that Bush appointed 10 people from a secret society at Yale to important positions sounds like propaganda. The fact that the author names the secret society takes some of the credibility from the statement. It maybe true that they were members of the same group, it probably is, but why does it matter? If I were an elected official, I would make sure that people I trusted were the one closest to me. Does this mean that others shouldn’t be engaged or listened to? No, but it means that I want people I can speak freely with close to me. The President lives in a very public spotlight, to criticize him for including people he has known for years and trusts is unfair.

I know many of the people my parents know. If asked to recommend someone for a task/job/position, those people are more likely to fall on my list than complete strangers. It makes sense that many of the people the current president nominates are familiar from his father’s term in office. It is human nature to embrace the known, rather than seek out the unknown. When dealing with someone I know my parents trust, I am more likely to trust them as opposed to a complete stranger. It’s human nature.

As you can probably tell, this is my opinion and I claim the right to have it. My advice is to always ask where the numbers come from and who provided them, because given the right spin statistics can be truthful without telling the all of the truth.

If you don’t like where things are headed, then get involved, because silence is assumed to be assent. The point of a representative democracy is that the representatives convey the voices of the people who elect them. If you don’t use your voice, how will anyone hear you?

Unemployment
* March 11, 2000 – October 9, 2002 – the Dot-Com Crash
Many experts equate this event to too much growth too quickly. The “new” economy that was being built by the Dot-Com was being created based on grandiose ideas and very little real world structure. Dot-Com millionaires were called Paper millionaires for a reason. When pushed to show profits and compete in a shrinking tank of sharks which vied for venture capital funds, very few had the structure to withstand the competition. As these companies folded and the CEOs moved back into their parents’ basements, people lost a lot of jobs. I have a hard time laying the blame for this upon President Bush. The train toward this crash started well before he ran for office.

*September 11, 2001
Thousands of lives and livelihoods were destroyed on this one day. Only nine months into his term, can we honestly say that President Bush caused these tragic events? Hind sight is 20/20 and we have all been changed because of this day in our history, the question is who were we on September 10th?

Halliburton oil
Government contracts are awarded based on a bidding process. In the case of Halliburton and the multi-billion dollar contracts awarded in Iraq and Afghanistan, this relationship was already in place prior to the contract being given to Halliburton. When oil wells are burning, there just isn’t enough time to go through an entirely new bidding process. The contract was awarded based on previous bids for government contracts.

Iraq
The United States had its fair share of growing pains in breaking away from Mother England. To expect less from such a deeply rooted culture would be naïve. Will they be able to transition into a stable democracy? I don’t know, I hope that it will come to pass. I do not believe that Iraq should become a Muslim U.S. of A, but if they can learn to build on the strengths of their people, their contribution to the world will be immense.

Bottom Line: Speak up and get involved or be treated as the sheep you are!

I realize you were mugging for the camera because ShaeSin asked to you in this picture and you probably hate it, but for some reason it makes me smile when I see it, so I'm using it here. (How's that for a run-on sentence?)

Sometimes you find the truth where you least expect it.

Sometimes you just have to give yourself a hug.

In one of the most annoying bits of SPAM to date, I got email today from me, to me with a subject of "Make her scream tonight. Details here 5s". Somehow I don't think I'm going to believe this is real.

Or so I was thinking earlier today as I was perusing through the blogs I follow. Then I realized that my blog has been quiet as well. So I guess I shouldn’t complain about something I’m not doing a good job of myself.

Lately most of what I’ve been reading has centered on politics and the weather. To be honest, I’m getting bored. In short – if you are eligible, vote. Make the world a better place and do something nice for someone else. If a category 4 hurricane is heading in your general area, you are in the wrong general area.

On an Impala: VLAD THE

I had a couple of times yesterday when I thought of stuff I could post here, but the urge passed before I did anything about it. Here are some random updates…

Omega, Neko and Blue: As Blue tries to establish his place in the pecking order, I’m getting confused. When Brewster was here, it was clearly a case of Omega, Neko and then Brewster. Omega taught Neko how to whip Brewster’s butt and together the girls kept him in his place. With Blue, things have been thrown into a bit of a twist. Neko was always quicker than Omega to swat at anything and Blue is no exception. If there is something inborn that helps cats to know the pecking order, Blue has got to be confused. When Blue tried to show dominance to Neko, she kicked his little white butt and has since decided that a daily butt whipping is good for Blue’s soul. Omega on the other hand has yet to let Blue have it. She growls at him, but refuses to engage him. I’m not sure that this will be enough for him, I think she’s going to have to turn around and hand him his butt before he stops.

Work: Things are going good. If I could just move the time I get in up by about 20 minutes, I think that the last chink in my armor would be hidden. The person I’d been having such a hard time dealing with, has unbent quite a bit. I’m not sure if it was me laughing at myself or inviting her to commiserate on a common frustration, but her hostility level has dropped, which has lessened the undercurrent of tension between us.

Personal: Why is it that with me it is either famine or feast? Earlier this year, I was a magnet for guys who had sometime at least slightly “off” about them. None of them were happy where I called them on it and trust me, I wasn’t upset when they dropped off the face of the earth.

Guy one: This one who kept trying to get me to invite him to my house when we’d never met in public, who called me judgmental when I said no thank you; you’re giving me the creeps. He also happened to be divorced, have a psycho ex-wife, be unemployed and be into alternative fuel sources. (I threw the last one in to say something nice about him.)

Guy two: Had built this huge romance in his head, when we’d never been alone with each other and he continued to be surprised by things even my acquaintances already knew. He is also divorced, has a son, called me babe, was shorter than me, is way into strippers, wanted to give my lifestyle to his son and assumed a lot. (He can be an awesome guy for someone else, but he’s not for me.)

Guy three: Liked to discuss explicit things at all times. I’m not such a prude that I don’t enjoy a bit of banter, but this guy went from zero to 60 in one word. I’m skilled enough at bantering that I can deflect most things that I don’t want to discuss, but this guy didn’t push the limits of good taste, he ignored them. At first he was amusing, but that quickly faded when he couldn’t find another topic. He also didn’t seem to understand that when I said, I was at work and large purple font was highly noticeable on my screen, it meant tone down the flashy colors or the topic. It may have just been me, but when his font was twice the size of the one I was using and he was using purple to my minimalist black, the word anus just seems to jump off the screen and beg to make trouble while I’m at work. He never managed to send me a picture of himself, after promising to do so. Thus, he failed my number one trust test: doing what you say you are going to do. This one is also divorced and has a child.

For a while, I was considering dropping the never been married requirement from my list and even backed off on it, thinking that maybe it was keeping me from meeting a quality potential. Looking back at the last three in this category, I think it stays.

I was going to update this more, but I’ve gone off on a tangent that is turning into a Musing.

Back soon,

RJ

I think the thing I miss most about being in a relationship is the freedom to play. I grew up in an environment where I learned how guys interact with each other. No matter how old they are, guys use physical interaction to communicate with each other. Friends will have mock tussles to show their strength and to test each other. New acquaintances will puff up their chests and display their colors as a part of introduction. It is extremely frustrating for me that I cannot get into this play without changing its dynamic. When we were ten, it was fine that I was in the middle of things, but along came puberty and with it came an awareness of the things that made us different. It was as if every guy I knew was given an apple from the Garden of Eden and suddenly they realized that our equipment wasn’t identical. Maybe I was the one that got the apple, but I heard from too many guys that it was impossible to just be friends with women without adding sex to things in their head. So I’ve become cautious about physical interaction with guys I’m not dating. Hugs are great, hugs are generally safe, but anything beyond that moves into a grey area that I’d rather avoid, instead of risk introducing another dynamic into things. Don’t get me wrong, I can give as good as I get, I just don’t instigate things.

Call me a chicken, but I try not to get people in trouble. In the case where the guy is dating someone, things can get really messy if she doesn’t trust both him and me. I can imagine trying to explain to someone’s girlfriend… Honey, I know your friend Sue saw me wrestling on the floor with Jen, but there’s nothing going on, it’s like I was wrestling with Joe. That goes over like a ton of bricks.

I miss the play. I miss the banter between buddies. Women don’t seem to have similar interactions. On Friday, I had a coworker notice that I was wearing a polo shirt with an Ohio State insignia on it. He’s a big NC State fan and the two teams played yesterday. He took a step back and jokingly said, “I didn’t realize you were the enemy.” I laughed and replied, “If I were your enemy, I wouldn’t have told you about the change in HR policy.” This banter went back and forth and ended when it was time to get back to work. His final comment was, “Too bad you won’t have a good weekend, with your team losing and all.” My reply was, “I hope Sunday gets better for you, I know that Saturday is going to suck when NC State loses.” There’s very little chance I could have had that conversation with another woman. Not only would another woman have been highly offended at the joking threats behind our banter, but most likely it would have been taken personally. Ohio State won, so I sent him an email offering my condolences and hoping his day improves. He’ll get a laugh out of it.

I got to tinker with things at work today. I’m working on putting together a server and application set together to replace a bunch of manual and tedious admin work. If it works as I suspect, it should say time and DASD, so real dollars saved and time saved at the same time. Double bonus for me, I get to be cool with very little work.

I have discovered that recounting my mishaps can be humorous to people without being threatening. If I run out of things this week, I may even put it here.

Last night included dinner and a show...

Where: In the middle of the sushi restaurant
When: After dinner (about 8:00)
Why: For $1.25

You are the Justice card. Justice preserves the harmony of the world. Working with opposite forces, Justice does not seek to criticize or condemn but rather to accept. The idea behind the card justice is that opposite forces are complementary; you could not have good without evil or light without darkness. Justice's position is to make sure that if a thing is out of balance, the weight of its energy is realigned with its opposite force. This card is also a card of humour, for it is in pointing out contrary positions that humour is often found. The attitude that is found in the humourous person, being able to shift perspective and flow with an instinct, is important in the maintenance of good balance. Image from The Blue Moon Tarot Deck

Which Tarot Card Are You?
brought to you by Quizilla

INTJs behave in a very self-restrained manner with strangers, never showing initiative first and always maintaining a long psychological distance. Their speech is very clear and logical and they always follow a logical progression. They also have a tendency to emphasise key words. When defending their concepts and ideas during a confrontation their logic can become solid and absolute. They cut out all irrelevant details that may cloud the argument.

Although the first impression of INTJs is that they are emotionless, when they become inspired during conversation an emotionality previously unseen begins to emerge. Their eyes start flashing with a fanatic light and their passion increases as the conversation progresses. However, they still try to maintain their self-control. INTJs sustain conversations only if they find them interesting. They prefer to keep silent rather than give an opinion on a subject to which they are indifferent.

INTJs always give others a chance to say what they need to say. They consider that everyone has got talents and they try at least not to interfere. They do not refuse any proposals immediately, preferring to examine them first. INTJs are very reserved and usually do not take the initiative in talking about their interests and private life. This can lead others to think that they have no private life at all.

INTJs have a very characteristic tendency to independence and can only accept a whole freedom. In work matters they combine their need for freedom with a feeling of responsibility. INTJs are not very demanding. They are often indifferent to food and its presentation. It can be simple but must be fresh. When involved in something interesting they can completely forget that they need to eat. In everyday matters INTJs are modest and are happy to have a minimum degree of comfort.

INTJs usually have an interest that stays with them for a long time and are absolutely indifferent to what others say about it. They never endorse their position in life. INTJs live in a world of their own conception. They simply ignore rules, concepts and directives that do not suit them. Most people do not understand INTJs and try to keep away from them.

My Bloginality is INTJ!

And imagine that, there's more...

As of late I’ve felt much like an island in a storm tossed sea. So much is happening around me, emotions, changing relationships, perceptions, there is so much change going on that I have no idea what the landscape will look like when it all settles. My island is fairly calm, the occasional wave will crash up on the shore, but only in a way to let me know that it hasn’t forgotten me. The wind that batters the waves and turns them into spray blows gently by me, on its way to its next destination. A soft caress again to let me know I’m not forgotten.

It is not my time to battle alongside the sea or the sky, so here I sit on my island, watching, waiting and only able to offer to other what I see from here.

I’ve learned that…

Much fun was had last night. It’ll probably take a few days before all the stories come out, but everything appears to be intact.

For those who didn’t attend, you missed the extremely rare occurrence of seeing Dragonfly and I both highly intoxicated. Some highlights include Karaoke, Twister, wrestling, torn clothing, Weird Al, squirrels hurling acorns, backrub torture, three man and the adorable Ninja Kitty. Next step, find my camera and get the pictures uploaded.

According to two horoscopes that were sent to for this week, this was apparently a very good weekend to have a party and I’m not about to argue.

Trust your instincts, and explore your impulses freely. Take care, however, that you're not crossing the line and endangering others.

Weekend Update: Jupiter’s entry into your solar fifth house of fabulous flirting and flamboyant fun makes Friday a personal turning point. You’re such a dreamy, responsive romantic this weekend. You drop everything unrelated to love, passion or creative expression, and concentrate all your energy on the truly good stuff. You also wax philosophical, and may go against accepted tradition. Because you have a different view of religion, politics and morality than the rest of the herd, you sometimes feel like the black sheep. This weekend, however, supports your unique views with growing evidence. You might actually get the last laugh, Gem. Saturday keeps you on your toes. Loads of preparation and last minute adjustments may seem somewhat disruptive, but also strangely invigorating. A financial matter turns in your favor. On Sunday, Mars moves into Libra, turning practically everything into a competition. This is not a bad thing, btw. In fact, it increases your passion and determination and creates plenty of interest and enthusiasm in nearly everything you do.

...are up from last night in the Triple Threat 2004 album.

Forgetting to take your medication can lead to a reverse hangover if the medication has withdrawal symptoms that mimic a hangover. When I woke up Sunday, I felt fine, but as the day went on, I started feeling achy, nauseous and developing a major headache. Funny, once I remembered that I hadn’t had my medication and took it, I started feeling better in 20 minutes.

Evites have gone out for the Halloween Party. If you suspect you were missed or if you've changed email addresses, let me or ShaeSin know.