RedJen's Rearview Mirror

Necess1ty just put up new pictures of Maggie (the dog) and Invention. This one is my favorite.

While clubbrian.net appears to be down, as long as http://www.redjenosu.com is active, you can still tune in to his Ultimate Rants at http://abms.redjenosu.com.

I feel obligated to inform the world that three of the most protective people I know are of a like mind on what to do with their feet. For the foreseeable future, if you know one of these women, I would suggest not acting like a moron or a horse’s ass toward any of the people they care about. Failure to heed this warning has an extremely high chance of earning you a foot placed forcibly up your ass.

Warning signs that you are about to earn a souvenir:
- A tall, exotic featured, brunette Virgo is brandishing a shoe at you.
- A blue-eyed, redheaded Gemini appears to be mentally calculating the distance between the midpoint of her ankle and your bellybutton.
- A petite, brunette Libra with blue-gray eyes and timeless features gives you a half-smile while stroking her left index finger just under her lips and slightly raising her left eyebrow.

If you have a tendency toward boorish behavior and encounter any of these women, run away! They have no desire to punish those who are smart enough to recognize their own faults.

Anyone refusing to respect the force of these women will find themselves identified, critiqued, judged and left lying facedown by the road with unmistakable footprints decorating their posterior.

You have been warned!

Just when you think 100 things are enough, someone has a list of 200 things. I found this at Jay Allen's Daily Journey

Having a list of 200 things and indicating which you have done is a lot easier than coming up with a list of 100 from scratch. I can admit to the ones in bold.

01. Bought everyone in the pub a drink
02. Swam with wild dolphins
03. Climbed a mountain
04. Taken a Ferrari for a test drive
05. Been inside the Great Pyramid
06. Held a tarantula.
07. Taken a candlelit bath with someone
08. Said 'I love you' and meant it
09. Hugged a tree
10. Done a striptease
11. Bungee jumped
12. Visited Paris
13. Watched a lightning storm at sea
14. Stayed up all night long, and watch the sun rise
15. Seen the Northern Lights
16. Gone to a huge sports game
17. Walked the stairs to the top of the Leaning Tower of Pisa
18. Grown and eaten your own vegetables
19. Touched an iceberg
20. Slept under the stars

21. Changed a baby's diaper
22. Taken a trip in a hot air balloon
23. Watched a meteor shower
24. Gotten drunk on champagne
25. Given more than you can afford to charity
26. Looked up at the night sky through a telescope
27. Had an uncontrollable giggling fit at the worst possible moment
28. Had a food fight
29. Bet on a winning horse
30. Taken a sick day when you're not ill
31. Asked out a stranger
32. Had a snowball fight
33. Photocopied your bottom on the office photocopier
34. Screamed as loudly as you possibly can
35. Held a lamb
36. Enacted a favorite fantasy
37. Taken a midnight skinny dip
38. Taken an ice cold bath
39. Had a meaningful conversation with a beggar
40. Seen a total eclipse

41. Ridden a roller coaster
42. Hit a home run
43. Fit three weeks miraculously into three days
44. Danced like a fool and not cared who was looking
45. Adopted an accent for an entire day
46. Visited the birthplace of your ancestors
47. Actually felt happy about your life, even for just a moment
48. Had two hard drives for your computer.
49. Visited all 50 states
50. Loved your job for all accounts
51. Taken care of someone who was shit faced
52. Had enough money to be truly satisfied (money != satisfaction)
53. Had amazing friends
54. Danced with a stranger in a foreign country
55. Watched wild whales
56. Stolen a sign
57. Backpacked in Europe
58. Taken a road-trip
59. Rock climbing
60. Lied to foreign government's official in that country to avoid notice

61. Midnight walk on the beach
62. Sky diving
63. Visited Ireland
64. Been heartbroken longer then you were actually in love
65. In a restaurant, sat at a stranger's table and had a meal with them
66. Visited Japan
67. Bench pressed your own weight (Only 88% so far, but not bad for a girl)
68. Milked a cow
69. Alphabetized your records
70. Pretended to be a superhero
71. Sung karaoke
72. Lounged around in bed all day
73. Posed nude in front of strangers
74. Scuba diving
75. Got it on to "Let's Get It On" by Marvin Gaye
76. Kissed in the rain
77. Played in the mud
78. Played in the rain
79. Gone to a drive-in theater
80. Done something you should regret, but don't regret it.

81. Visited the Great Wall of China
82. Discovered that someone who's not supposed to have known about your blog has discovered your blog
83. Dropped Windows in favor of something better
84. Started a business
85. Fallen in love and not had your heart broken
86. Toured ancient sites
87. Taken a martial arts class
88. Sword fought for the honor of a woman
89. Played D&D for more than 6 hours straight
90. Gotten married
91. Been in a movie
92. Crashed a party
93. Loved someone you shouldn't have
94. Kissed someone so passionately it made them dizzy
95. Gotten divorced
96. Had sex at the office
97. Gone without food for 5 days
98. Made cookies from scratch
99. Won first prize in a costume contest
100. Ridden a gondola in Venice

101. Gotten a tattoo
102. Found that the texture of some materials can turn you on
103. Rafted the Snake River
104. Been on television news programs as an "expert"
105. Got flowers for no reason
106. Masturbated in a public place
107. Got so drunk you don't remember anything (well about 5 blocks)
108. Been addicted to some form of illegal drug
109. Performed on stage
110. Been to Las Vegas
111. Recorded music
112. Eaten shark
113. Had a one-night stand
114. Gone to Thailand
115. Seen Siouxsie live
116. Bought a house
117. Been in a combat zone
118. Buried one/both of your parents
119. Shaved or waxed your pubic hair off
120. Been on a cruise ship

121. Spoken more than one language fluently
122. Gotten into a fight while attempting to defend someone
123. Bounced a check
124. Performed in Rocky Horror
125. Read - and understood - your credit report
126. Raised children
127. Recently bought and played with a favorite childhood toy
128. Followed your favorite band/singer on tour
129. Created and named your own constellation of stars
130. Taken an exotic bicycle tour in a foreign country
131. Found out something significant that your ancestors did
132. Called or written your Congress person
133. Picked up and moved to another city to just start over
134. …more than once? - More than thrice?
135. Walked the Golden Gate Bridge
136. Sang loudly in the car, and didn't stop when you knew someone was looking
137. Had an abortion or your female partner did
138. Had plastic surgery
139. Survived an accident that you shouldn't have survived.
140. Wrote articles for a large publication

141. Lost over 100 pounds
142. Held someone while they were having a flashback
143. Piloted an airplane
144. Petted a stingray
145. Broken someone's heart
146. Helped an animal give birth
147. Been fired or laid off from a job
148. Won money on a T.V. game show
149. Broken a bone
150. Killed a human being
151. Gone on an African photo safari
152. Ridden a motorcycle
153. Driven any land vehicle at a speed of greater than 100 mph
154. Had a body part of yours below the neck pierced
155. Fired a rifle, shotgun, or pistol
156. Eaten mushrooms that were gathered in the wild
157. Ridden a horse
158. Had major surgery
159. Had sex on a moving train
160. Had a snake as a pet

161. Hiked to the bottom of the Grand Canyon
162. Slept through an entire flight: takeoff, flight, and landing
163. Slept for more than 30 hours over the course of 48 hours
164. Visited more foreign countries than U.S. states
165. Visited all 7 continents
166. Taken a canoe trip that lasted more than 2 days
167. Eaten kangaroo meat
168. Fallen in love at an ancient Mayan burial ground
169. Been a sperm or egg donor
170. Eaten sushi
171. Had your picture in the newspaper
172. Had 2 (or more) healthy romantic relationships for over a year in your lifetime
173. Changed someone’s mind about something you care deeply about
174. Gotten someone fired for their actions
175. Gone back to school
176. Parasailed
177. Changed your name
178. Petted a cockroach
179. Eaten fried green tomatoes
180. Read The Iliad (pieces)

181. Selected one "important" author who you missed in school, and read
182. Dined in a restaurant and stolen silverware, plates, cups because your apartment needed them.
183. …and gotten 86'ed from the restaurant because you did it so many times, they figured out it was you
184. Taught yourself an art from scratch
185. Killed and prepared an animal for eating
186. Apologized to someone years after inflicting the hurt
187. Skipped all your school reunions.
188. Communicated with someone without sharing a common spoken language
189. Been elected to public office
190. Written your own computer language
191. Thought to yourself that you're living your dream
192. Had to put someone you love into hospice care
193. Built your own PC from parts
194. Sold your own artwork to someone who didn't know you
195. Had a booth at a street fair
196: Dyed your hair
197: Been a DJ
198: Found out someone was going to dump you via LiveJournal
199: Written your own role playing game
200: Been arrested

I saw something last week that really bugged me. I saw a man deliberately run a truck into the side of a woman’s car, then proceed take a swing at the driver as he ripped a child out of the backseat. Because of this man’s actions, I saw 6 vehicles involved in a single person’s temper tantrum and the only thing that kept me from being one of the 6 was a single car length.

Had a nice walk outside tonight. I owe ShaeSin email, so Shae, I haven't forgotten, I'm just tired.

I know he thinks this is odd to have a website as a hobby when I spend so much time working with them as my job, but it's my time. I'll web it I want to...

Tuesday – Got home from work and found two books I ordered from Amazon (Cerulean Sins & Incubus Dreams).
- Finished reading the book I had just started.
- Started reading CS
- 1:30 am - Notice odd chirping that is coming from outside my bedroom
- Finally determine sound is coming from a smoke detector in the hall with a low battery, but not before dismantling the one attached to the security system and setting off the alarm. (Poor Eve was asleep when this started.)
- Read some more CS
- Stopped reading after I’d finished half of CS and went to sleep at 3:00 am.

Wednesday – Got up at 6:45 am and went to the gym.
- Got home and started reading CS while waiting for the shower to get warm.
- Looked up half an hour later, stopped reading CS and took a shower.
- Got ready and went to work.
- Held a class to show my team how easy a new tool was. (Really, in order to have them believe they were going to learn something, I scheduled 4 hours, because they wouldn’t believe it would only take 1 hour.)
- Met my former officemate and her family for a walk around one of the local lakes, where I was very good and kept my complaints about how her husband was ignoring the whiny kids and leaving her to deal with them on her own. He went so far as to walk on without them, as if he wasn’t a part of their group. (Must control fist of death)
- Watched CSI: New York
- Continued reading CS.
- Finished reading CS at 1:00am and went to sleep.

Thursday – Got up and did the work thing
- As I was leaving work at 7:30 pm, I called ShaeSin at work to see if she wanted to veg out to CSI and Without a Trace together.
- Got home, collected Blue, left to go through Chic-fil-A and meet ShaeSin
- Chat, food, TV, play with kitties (King, Mona, Felicity and Blue)
- Go home, go to sleep.

Your aura shines Orange!


What Color Is Your Aura?
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Moderation in all things, excess in nothing. -- Epicurus

Imagine that the Girl Next Door moved to the big city. Think of Meg Ryan in When Harry Met Sally. She's America's sweetheart with an urban sensibility. She's a post-Christian spiritualist, a pre-Monica Clintonite, and a dues-paying member of at least one social-change organization like NOW, Planned Parenthood, or the Sierra Club. You won't find her at an Earth First or PETA meeting, though. Those are the Granola Girl's stomping grounds. Progressive Girls want the world to be a better place, but they live out their politics in a moderate, left-of-center way.

If you are going to date a Progressive Girl, the one sin you can commit is to be a chameleon. Molding your opinions to fit hers will lose her respect. One very positive thing you can do is offer her new experiences -- the Progressive Girl is fearless about trying new things. Whether it's pluralism, skydiving, Asian peanut sauce, or this book, the Progressive Girl is always looking for new ideas.

She Might Be a Progressive Girl if:

1. She drives: a small SUV but really wishes it got better mileage; once she can get a good hybrid, she will. (I really looked at the hybrids before buying my car, but they aren't ready for me yet...)
   
2. She can talk for more than ten minutes about: just about anything. (Guilty)
   
3. She begins her sentences with: "Susan Sarandon says..." (Not usually)
   
4. She'd never: pass up the chance for a new experience. (Guilty)
   
5. She owns any of the following: a water filter, a tabletop fountain, an acre of rain forest, a mutt from the pound. (Yes, yes, no, yes - but she's a cat)

Tater Salad Saturday!

Well, it’s only 10:00 and so far I’ve managed to blow away the operating system on my personal computer. Luckily I brought my laptop home from work or I’m not sure I’d be sane right now. (insert lots of grumbling noises) The (censor) stupid file corrupted. So there go all the files, but on the up side, it’ll be a clean install.

I was over checking out jBat's Cave, when I ran across her commentary on Pierce Brosnan and Die Another Day. I have to admit, I noticed the *gobble* first in the Thomas Crown Affair. While I’m not one to advocate for or against body augmentation, I have to say this is a case where I was tempted to write and plead with him to seriously consider it. Brosnan is still hot for a man his age, but honey get that lifted and you can remove the "for a man his age" qualifier.

I’m torn about what I want to talk about. I’ve been avoiding something that’s been on my mind most of the week, because I’m not sure whether or not I really want to put it out there for the rest of the world. The one thing I’m not worried about with this is that it has nothing to do with anyone other than me. As far as collateral fallout is concerned the topic should be safe, unless someone forgets that this is about me and not anyone else.

The number on the scale is at a point that I’m not happy with. The funny thing is that as far as things go, I’m feeling really good about myself in spite of what the scale says. Actually the fact that I didn’t get upset about the scale was a surprise to me. I guess this means my self-image isn’t completely wrapped up in the numbers.

I had some fun today and made these for…

ShaeSin:

Dominion:

Desufnoc:

And Me:

Well, this is entry 600 for my journal. To be honest, I didn’t expect that I’d do such a good job of keeping up with things when I started out. I’ve tried keeping a paper journal before, but always got to a point where I stopped. Anyway, yes, there is a lot of drama coming to light in my immediate area, but it isn’t mine and unless it escalates to a point where staying out of it is worse than acting as the referee, I’ll be over here.

I’m not sure how many people who know me from actually interacting with me read this. For those who do, I have a quick reminder:

In order for me to dislike you, I either must have liked you at some point or you’ve hurt someone I care about. If you never fell into one of these two categories, I may be aware that you exist, but you don’t affect my life. If you don’t affect my life, then as long as you operate within the laws of the land and generally polite society, feel free to live your life as you see fit, I honestly won’t care one way or the other.

If you fall into the category of people who do have a direct affect on my life, then you may have noticed that I tend to be aware of things that other people miss. I still would like to see you live within the laws of the land, but I also want what is best for you. I’m not going to tell you how to live your life, but realize I’m aware.

The comment function for this site is down, but I'm working on fixing it...

Update: I'm getting closer. You can comment and the comments will be queued for review. I'm still working on this

Update: Comment function restored (10/18).

There is a lot of stuff going on around me, but it isn’t about me. I may talk about it later, when it isn’t so fresh to the people involved, but right now they need to deal with things without me creating a public announcement of my take on things. (This would be me staying out of things.)

I woke up last night with a migraine, luckily I remembered where I’d put my medicine and was able to get to it without breaking anything. I think I’d been building up to this headache for the last week. I’m hoping that taking it easy today will be enough to recover from it. I spent today feeling like I went on a real bender last night. If I’m going to feel hung-over, I’d really like to have the fun involved with getting to that point. If I have to suffer the punishment, I’d really like the opportunity to actually do the crime.

Off to sleep, hopefully I won’t wake Eve up screaming in pain. I almost did last night, but caught myself in time.

Current frustration: Young does not have to equal stupid, but sometimes it seems that way.

Well, tonight has been taken up by figuring out the differences between MovableType versions 2.66 and 3.11. I think I like the look, it'll take working with it a bit longer before I know how I really feel about it. On the up side, I finally got all the files to rebuild with the new values that were missing by virtue of being "pre-upgrade".

Nothing big going on here, I've been playing Techi-Geek this week with the site. Cross you fingers, I'm hoping that I won't lose any more entries...

www.ColorQuiz.com

Your Existing Situation
Acts in an orderly, methodical, and self-contained manner. Needs the sympathetic understanding of someone who will give her recognition and approval.

Your Stress Sources
Resists any form of pressure from others and insists on her independence as an individual. Wants to make up her own mind without interference, to draw her own conclusions and arrive at her own decisions. Detests uniformity and mediocrity. As she wants to be regarded as one who gives authoritative opinions, she find it difficult to admit to being wrong, while at times she is reluctant to accept or understand another's point of view.

Your Restrained Characteristics
Trying to calm down and unwind after a period of over-agitation which has left her listless and devoid of energy. In need of peace and quiet; becomes irritable if this is denied her.

Willing to become emotionally involved, but demanding and particular in her choice of a partner and in her relations with those close to her. Needs reassurance and is careful to avoid open conflict since this might reduce her prospects of realizing her hopes.

Your Desired Objective
Needs to feel identified with someone or something and wishes to win support by her charm and amiability. Sentimental and yearns for a romantic tenderness.

Your Actual Problem
Greatly impressed by the unique, by originality, and by individuals of outstanding characteristics. Tries to emulate the characteristics she admires and to display originality in her own personality.

Your Actual Problem #2
Seeks to avoid criticism and to prevent restriction of her freedom to act, and to decide for herself by the exercise of great personal charm in her dealings with others.

Dangers lurk around each and every corner, but you can avoid them if you simply take the time to plan ahead. Expect the unexpected.

---
And this differs from every other day how?

Leave it to me to decide to upgrade my installation of MovableType to version 3.11 the day before SixApart releases version 3.12. I did manage to find a MAJOR glitch during this exercise. I created an extra journal so that I could see the new templates and default blog settings. Since I don’t need another blog, once I checked things out, I deleted the extra blog. The good news was that the new blog was correctly removed. The bad news was that Dominion’s blog was also killed at the same time. Luckily, none of the archive files were lost, so everything still exists, but I lost patience as I was trying to make it come back. (Sorry Dom, my patience is not infinite.)

Last night was spent split between two places. For the first time in quite a while, I spent the evening with Desufnoc and Cupcake. They’ve settled into their new apartment and oh, the nesting that occurring there… Given that they are expecting a baby in January, that makes complete sense, but seeing Desufnoc in such a domestic environment was new for me. (Sorry Desufnoc, but there was a time when we thought you’d never leave the frat house atmosphere.) Dinner was nice and the company was relaxed. Least anyone be confused and assume that Desufnoc’s hand was in the nesting, Cupcake’s eye for putting things together was obvious.

After excusing myself from the domestic bliss, I joined ShaeSin and was reminded that I’d introduced her to Pilates the day before at the gym. So before joining her to work with her on her blog set up, I dutifully stopped by and picked up something to drink at the store. I realized as I walked into the store that Sibling1 needs to grow up so we don’t need to make extra trips to the store for things she can’t buy yet. Anyway, four hours later, I’ve wrapped up most of the updates on Ranting Virgo’s blog and as it is after 2 AM, it is definitely time to go home.

So if anyone is wondering why I haven’t been posting much to my journal this week, I’ve been doing a lot of work on it, just not writing anything. Sometimes you just have to take care of the structure that supports everything, even if no one can see you doing it. The alternative is to ignore the passage of time and discover too late that the rock you once stood upon has become a single grain of sand.

Now I just need to clean my actual house…

I found out on Thursday that I'd been spotted at the State Fair by a friend of mine from college. We haven't spoken in years, but he saw me as I was leaving (he was arriving) and tracked down my email address. For those wondering, this wasn't someone I just knew, but someone I would claim as a friend and still will, despite his continued appreciation of Barry Manilow. (Shh, I occasionally play his music on my Rhapsody subscription, so I don't have any stones to throw on this one.)

Maria Bamford – I’m not sure why she amuses me, I’d want to kill her if I had to listen to her voice every day.
Gabriel Iglesias – The five level of fat: healthy, large, substantial, fluffy and damn
Carlos Mencia – Includes the Prime Minister of Japan calling Osama Bin Ladin on September 12 th and informing Osama that he was screwed, look at what happened after they attacked Pearl Harbor.
Stephen Lynch – Folks songs with twisted lyrics.
Dane Cook – in my opinion the worst of tonight’s line-up.
Lewis Black – Spite in person.

My arms are so sore! I joined the same gym that ShaeSin has a membership at and I’ve been going to their group classes since last Wednesday. Well, when you join this gym, they give you three new member orientation sessions with one of their trainers. I had the first one on Sunday. The trainer I worked with talked with me for a bit, then showed me how their cardio equipment worked and followed that with putting me through a challenging biceps, triceps and abdominal workout. I’m fairly certain his favorite type of exercise is the superset. He had me doing four sets of every arm exercise, which translates into 144 bicep curls per arm and 96 tricep presses per arm. My arms hurt like hell! I knew it was bad when I almost yelped in pain as I reached across my body and felt a burning pain on the reaching arm. I can tell that I really worked my abs, but it is a dull ache and barely worth mentioning.

So after abusing my arms on Sunday, I got up this morning and went my gym appointment. I’m not sure if it was a smart move, but I worked up a good sweat while there. I followed all of that by taking a kickboxing class with ShaeSin tonight after work. I really enjoyed the class, the energy was great, damn it was hard. I think I lost half the water from my body during the class.

I’m taking Tuesday morning off, but ShaeSin and I are going to try the Hip-Hop class tomorrow night. Hopefully by then my arms won’t be quite so sore.

In case anyone is wondering, I really like working out so hard that I feel it the next day. I like to be challenged and pushed past my perceived limits.

Things are getting interesting around me. Halloween is almost here. Saturday night we’ll celebrate a little early on All Hallows Eve-Eve. It should be a great night, the weather is supposed to warm up into the mid-70’s toward the end of the week, plus we’ll also be gaining out Daylight Saving Time hour that night.

Blue spent today at the vet’s office. I was really wondering what they were planning on doing while he was under sedation, when I set up the appointment the tech told me they would want to keep him overnight. When I took Brewster in to be neutered, they vet let him come home that same afternoon. Heck, when I took Neko in, they took her girl parts AND her leg at the same time. They let her come home that day. Well, it turns out the tech was smoking something herbal, because the girl who took care of Blue this morning told me to call in around noon if I wanted to check on him and that I’d be able to take him home in the afternoon. So he’s home, although he apparently doesn’t metabolize sedatives very quickly. He’s still walking with a bit of a sideways slant. Poor baby…

There is something big going on at work. Right now I’m under orders to keep it under wraps, so I’m not going into any details here yet. As soon as I can, I’ll let the rest of the world in on it.

ShaeSin is gathering ideas for Truth or Dare. If you have any, feel free to post them...

ShaeSin found another quiz

(Only I would score so close to so many other types...)

eXpressive: 1/10
Practical: 5/10
Physical: 5/10
Giver: 5/10

You are a RSIT--Reserved Sentimental Intellectual Taker. This makes you a Archetypal Older Child.

You are a hard nut to crack. You have a wicked sense of humor. Despite your reserved nature, you are more comfortable (and successful) in the meeting and courting mode than you are in a long term relationship. You feel misunderstood, and usually you are.

When you're in a good mood, you're funny, fascinating and a sexy firecracker, but when you're in a bad mood you are moody, broody and impatient. In courtship mode, you don't have to let anyone see your moody side. If you had your way, even in a long term relationship you would have enough time apart to deal with your bad moods yourself; unfortunately, it rarely works that way.

You stifle *a lot* of anger and frustration -- from all areas of your life -- so when it comes out it comes out nasty. More than any other type, your conflicts tend to turn on one tiny thing -- the dishes, the laundry -- that's really a scapegoat for your larger dissatisfactions with your relationship. You're baffled that your partner just can't do the dishes -- your partner is baffled that it's such a big deal. The only way around it is to let the dishes go entirely and try to get at the real root of what's bothering you.

I'm making you sound like a bear, but the fact is that you're so warm and charming most of the time that it effectively offsets the times you're unhappy.

You will make a weirdly good parent.

Don't pair up with someone who'll make sexual demands of you. That's just not going to fly at all.

1. Do you believe that Democrats can get away with more questionable activities than Republican? If not, why?
   I believe that upon being caught in questionable activities Democrats have fewer consequences and are less likely to be crucified by the media. If there is one thing the media loves, it is being able to run a conservative through the mud. Many Republicans run on platforms of morality and values, so this makes them hunted media targets.
2. Is it okay under any circumstances to bring up a candidate’s family? (ie - Cheney’s *Lesbian* Daughter)
   If I could figure out how Mary Cheney is relevant to the election, I’d be more inclined to support bringing the candidate’s family into the election circus. Mary Cheney is an adult, who has been living her own life for several years. Both of her parents have expressed public and private support for her, I fail to see how this has any bearing on the election at hand. If someone could find a non-Jerry Springer correlation to the type of Vice President Cheney is and the sexual preference of his daughter, maybe it would be a valid discussion point. As it stands, there’s no reason to highlight the fact that Dick Cheney’s independent, adult, contributing to society daughter happens to be a lesbian.
3. Which party do you agree with most? Democrat, Republican or Other? And why?
   I tend to agree with the ideals of the Democrats, but the policies of the Republicans. I agree that things need to happen for the good of society as a whole (help the needy, support the arts), but I also believe that things should be done in moderation. To me the Democrats get too caught up in issues of passion and tend to jump into things without thinking through the ramifications of their proposed actions. The Republicans are weights holding the Democrats back from throwing the baby out with the bath water.
4. If you had to name one politician that you admire or even think they are one-of-a-kinda. Who would you pick and why?
   Benjamin Franklin – he was involved in so much that formed this country, but was never really thought of as a politician.
5. When was the first election you were able to vote in? Was it presidential or not? And did those people you vote for, get in?
   1992 - the Presidential race was Clinton/Bush #1 and I didn’t vote for Bill.
6. Do you have a strict view of the constitution or are you willing to be more liberal with our national’s more honored document?
   I am more strict than liberal, I wish to have change take place slow rather than quickly. To change to quickly risks loosing the ideals the country was founded upon.
7. Will there be a draft and if so – would you go if you’re number is called?
   There isn’t going to be a draft. If there were I’d go. I don’t believe in asking someone else to do something I’m not willing to do myself.
8. Should Same-Sex Marriage be legal in ALL 50 states?
   I believe that Same-Sex Unions should be legal in all 50 states. I do not believe that it is necessary to call these partnerships marriage.
9. What about our economy? Is it up or is it down?
   I believe it is slowly crawling up and that the markets are readjusting to the changes in the global economy. Until those adjustments are made, the economy will be unsettled.
10. Why do you think people dislike President Bush so much?
    He relies heavily and publicly on his faith and this makes people uncomfortable. For the Democratic Party, he’s a nightmare; he’s already had a very public fall from grace being a recovering alcoholic, so he’s proven himself to be human, which is usually their forte when dealing with the public masses. He’s also not the polished president that makes everyone happy.
11. Best President the United States has ever had?
    George Washington, because he didn’t ask for the job.
12. Is there a politician from your state – that you wish would crawl back into whatever hole they came out of and if so - why?
    Paul Pfieifer, Ohio Supreme Court Justice – he represented a woman in a wrongful death suite against the Wynford School District. The woman’s husband was killed in a truck meets school bus accident on a rural road, when the husband ran a stop sign and pulled into the path of the bus. What’s the problem? Well, the school bus was on its normal route, but he argued that the school bus shouldn’t have been there, because if was foggy. The punitive award given to the woman has had the school district on the brink of bankruptcy for the last 15+ years. The man ran the stop sign and crashed into the bus, but it is the school district that was ordered to pay millions of dollars. In what crazy world does that make any sense?
13. Do you think military should be our number one concern and if you don’t think so, why not?
    I think our people should be our number one concern. This means having a strong military to stand between the people and those who would cause harm. Priority 1: establish a safe environment in which to build. Priority 2: make sure the minimal needs of people can be met. That does not mean that all the needs must be met, but just that they can be met. If someone refuses to have a need met, that’s their choice.
14. The Patriot Act – do you have something to hide, that you don’t want Uncle Sam finding out about you?
    Nope, all my skeletons are on file somewhere, so if Uncle Sam is interested, the information is there. Do I think the Patriot Act is too gung-ho? Yes, but that doesn’t mean that it affects me.
15. Are you going to vote on November 2nd, 2004 … human?
    Yes

You know that nightmare where you are trying franticly to find someone/thing before something happens? I lived it last night.

Never tell a teenager that they may invite anyone they like to an event without strict guidelines. I assumed way too much awareness on her part, but since I didn’t spell things out this falls squarely on me. If I ever host something like this again, no one will be able to bring guests unless expressly cleared by me. To the outside world, it looked like a successful party. To me, it was one big cluster-fuck.

This will probably piss people off, but here’s the rub: I DON’T F-ING CARE!

Last night was NOT fun for me. It did have a few decent moments, but they don’t make up for the damage done. If I had yesterday to do again, the lights would be out, locks changed, doors locked and security system armed.

Eve and I have talked. Actually, I talked a lot and she listened. I’ve asked her to come back and give me her feedback on what I told her once she’s had a chance to think about everything. A time limit has been set on how long she has before I expect to hear from her.

Things that should be noted: I am neither mad nor upset with Eve. I have been highly disappointed in some of her behavior, but I’m not mad. I’m leaving her future up to her. I’ve given her option of living with me and that hasn’t changed. I have certain expectations surrounding her activities and what she does while living here. Whether or not she is willing to continue to live with me is completely up to her. If she is willing to make the behavioral changes I need, then she is welcome to stay. I have set the conditions, what she chooses to do in response to them is completely up to her.

I hope she got it. Maybe this time I’m not kidding myself. I hope.