Vote Democrat!

If you are choosing to vote for a Democrat this election cycle, then you're in great company.





I'm sorry... but if you're casting a vote for anyone on the Left, you're un-American. It's that simple. The Democrat Party is no longer the party of Harry Truman, or even JFK. It's the home of the most fringe elements in our society, the most extreme lunatic viewpoints.

If that's how you feel, if you agree with these freaks, then why are you still here? The very same America which allows you to spew your stupidity is the one you're working hard to kill. I'm telling you folks, the alternative ain't pretty. Not that any of you care... but I don't see any of you leaving, either.

GO SOMEWHERE ELSE where the political climate is closer to your own. Bet you won't like it so much.

[stepping down off soapbox]

And now, for something completely different

A little Monty Python, for your enjoyment...

Today's English lesson

Let's dabble in punctuation for a while, OK?


From EnglishPlus:

Using Periods

Periods end declarative sentences and requests or mild commands.

Declarative: His name is Joshua.

Request or Mild Command: Please be sure to tell her I am coming.

Periods are used to end most abbreviations except for acronyms and abbreviations which are pronounced.

If a sentence ends with an abbreviation, no additional period is needed. If the sentence requires a question mark or exclamation point, one may be added after the period.

Incorrect: Please make the check out to Roland N. Payne, D.D.S..
(Second period at end not needed)

Correct: Please make the check out to Roland N. Payne, D.D.S.

Correct: Do I make the check out to Roland N. Payne, D.D.S.?

A period is used after numbers and letters in outlines.

Outline:

I. Punctuation

A. Periods

1. End sentences

2. Abbreviations

3. Outlines

A period always comes before a closing quotation mark.

Incorrect: George said, "I don't get it".

Correct: George said, "I don't get it."

Today's fortune cookie

Abolish Halloween?

That's what Steve over at Hog On Ice says. Don't go read it if you're easily offended; Steve has never really played nice. He has a good point, though:

Halloween sucks, by the way. Ever since the Tylenol scare in the early 80's, Halloween has completely blown. When I was a kid, we left the house at dusk and got back at around one. Our parents stayed [expletive deleted] home, where they belonged. Now kids go out in the afternoon with their parents hovering behind them with flashlights. They stop at two or three houses where they're fairly sure they won't be poisoned. Then they go home, and their parents make them throw the candy out. What a load of crap.

...Some idiot told me the other day that Friday was Halloween. Friday, the 27th. Because some eunuchs and bearded ladies at the school board had decreed that it was so. Kids were supposed to go out for like 15 minutes after school, escorted by armed guards. And somehow, everyone in the area was supposed to know this and be ready for it. My response? "Looks like they're screwed."

Halloween is October 31. Period. Come on any other day, and you get nothing. NOTHING. You can move Washington's birthday if you want, because no one gives a [expletive deleted] about it anyway. Halloween STAYS PUT. If you want me to suffer through the local TV news just to find out where some bureaucrat moron has unilaterally moved the holiday, you better stand over me holding a gun.

I think it's [expletive deleted] nice of me to produce free candy on ANY day. Especially now that Halloween is complete crap. Out by four, in by four-fifteen, and have Homeland Security inspect the candy. Especially the funky halvah the Muslim dentist's wife passed out. You call that Halloween? It's about as much fun as a draft physical.

[snicker] I love when people are brutally honest...

Familiar to any of you cube-dwellers?

I think that Savage Chickens is one of the funniest e-cartoons out there... Doug's sick sense of humor usually makes me smile. Dunno what that says about me. Anyhoo, I thought of my sister, locked away in a cubicle at Lockheed-Martin, when I saw today's cartoon:



Any psychopaths in YOUR office space? hehe

Hey, I missed it

The 26th was my Blogiversary #2! Two years of blogging, and 1,884 posts.

It's been fun so far. I've met quite a few interesting folks through blogging. I didn't go into it with the idea of making money, just finding a space to say stuff I felt like saying. A small creative outlet, nothing more. I think it's filled that niche nicely.

Drivers license lady

I wanted you to meet the nicest Drivers License Lady that I've ever met. Her name is Shirley and she works at the DMV in Sherman, Texas. On Friday, Rick and I stood in line forEVer, and when we finally got up to the counter, she was just as cheerful and good-natured as she must've been when she arrived -- not a hint of impatience or irritation, but actual friendliness. Note the time on the clock behind her: it was already fifteen minutes past closing time, but she still served us as if we'd been the first ones of the day.

All DMV officers should take lessons from Shirley. She actually made our time pleasant and enjoyable there.

Moving again

Just a few blocks away, mind you. North Ruralville isn't a big place.


This house is next door to the church Rick is supply-preaching at, and it is owned by one of the church members (who has assured us that, even if we do not stay at Teeny Tiny Church, we can continue to live there). The house is about the same size, but it's in much better shape AND it'll cost us a hundred dollars a month less.



For a hundred dollars a month, I might be able to resign myself to walking on this delightful pink shag carpeting.



It'll be rough, I know, but I suppose having a hot tub in the sun room will be okay.



Peppermint! Smells terrific when you walk over it.



And the only thorns we could find were these lovely tea roses. Here's an October blossom for us all to enjoy. Hey -- beats a yard full of sandburrs, for sure.

Bring Out Yer Dead! Bring Out Yer Dead!

"I'm getting better."

No you're not. You'll be stone dead in a moment.

"I'm not dead yet!
I think I'll go for a walk. I feel happy! I feel happy!"

You're not fooling anyone, you know, Fidel.

Congratulations!!!!!

Congratulations to my cousin Jessica's husband John Tidwell -- he's a Southern Gospel quartet singer, and he's accepted a position in the Monument Quartet in Nashville.

Nashville, Tennessee.

My cousin Jessica gets to move to NASHVILLE. My cousin Heather already LIVES in Murfreesboro, near Nashville.

[insert Napoleon Dynamite voice] LUCKY! [/Napoleon Dynamite voice]

I'm still waiting for MY big break (snicker), but in the meantime, I am so happy for John and Jess and Baby Brooksie-Boy, and I hate that they're moving away just as I finally get down here and have the chance to hang out with her. I have lots of VERY cool relatives, and a few excruciatingly funny ones as well, and J&J go in both categories.

Bargain hunting

I can pick up these three items for a nice brown ensemble, and would only spend about $300 altogether. I think that's pretty good. Of course, I say that with tongue firmly in cheek -- maybe the East Coast set would think that's a good deal, but unless I could get all three for under $100, I probably would never be able to let myself do it. We just don't make that kind of dough, yanno?

My best friend, the One Who Knows Fashion, is probably gagging over the non-pointed-toe boots. I just, for some reason, have never been fond of the way pointy-toed shoes look. They just don't look nice, to me. I'm uncomfortable wearing them, perhaps because I have such short legs and I'm not terribly graceful. Besides, I'm quite fond of my very small feet and ankles -- it's the only petite thing I have besides my height. Why would I want to make my feet look bigger?

Dangerous!!!

Once this summer, while shopping with JoeMama, she remarked to me that I'd be dangerous if I were thin and had money.

I suppose God protects us in whatever ways He has to... but I do have high-class taste and a perfectionistic streak, hence my extensive (and cheap) t-shirt collection. I can't afford the good stuff, and I don't really like much else, so why bother caring?

If money were no object, I'd probably have to pick up this lil' number. I need a new purse for winter anyway.



That's Prada. Shearling, mink and leather. Just $2229.

Yep, I'm dangerous.

Who Care's?

Actually, a few of us do care about the demise of decent, CORRECT punctuation.

From nostrich.net:

Punctuation, online at least, is dying. It's so badly misused that it's a rare occasion when I can catch up on my feeds without flinching at some of the horrendous punctuation. The worst part of it all is that nobody seems to notice this gradual decline; or care. I fear it may be the latter.

Go ye, therefore, and read it all... it's worth your time.

Homecoming traditions

Okay, when I was teaching up north, I described a tradition I'd grown up with, and the girls in that high school just could not believe I was serious... a Homecoming Mum?

Well, here's the proof:



I know that the girl in the photo wouldn't have minded my posting her picture, but I'm not going to do it anyway, just to protect her privacy. At any rate, I'm not making fun of her at all -- this was a beautiful Homecoming Mum and I snapped a photo of it so all you Northerners (and whoever else doesn't do this) would know what I was talking about. It's a corsage, usually of silk flowers now (although it was often fresh when I was younger, just because silk flowers were crappier back then) and it has satin ribbons hanging to the knee or thereabouts. Some of the ribbons might have a teeny cowbell tied to it, or a little gold football, or even sometimes twinkling lights (!!)

Nobody at the Other High School Up North wore anything to the game... most of them didn't even go to the football game, to be honest. They did go to the Homecoming Dance, which was very much like a Prom in that everyone wore formals. Down here in North Ruralville, there was a dance afterward, but it was casual.

What were YOUR high school's Homecoming traditions?

Did you know...

Did you know that squirrels will eat birds?

I didn't. Well, not until now. Check this out, from the ContraCosta Times Online:

Bird-toting Squirrel

Dear Gary:

I saw something the other day that I can't get out of my mind and if I didn't have someone else with me, no one would believe it.

My sister and I were admiring a red squirrel running up the tree right outside of our kitchen window. He seemed to have something in his mouth so I commented to my sister that he had a big nut to store for the winter. When I got closer and he looked at us through the window, I saw that he had a yellow finch in his mouth!

I couldn't tell if the bird was dead or not but he was carrying it up the tree. He looked so diabolical that I can't seem to get his expression out of my mind. Whoever heard of a squirrel eating a finch?

I thought I better get the scoop on this guy so when I am out walking the trails of the Open Space and see one of these frisky so-called nut-eaters, I won't have to run away for fear of being chased.

Michelle in cyberspace

Dear Michelle:

While fox squirrels primarily dine on nuts, fruit, young leaves, new buds and bark, they also need animal protein in their diet.

Squirrels supplement their diets by robbing an occasional baby bird or egg out of a nest. They also nibble on the fresh remains of road kills and other dead animals when they come across them. Your squirrel probably found the dead finch and was carrying it up to its nest to eat.

Unless you're dressing up as a giant peanut for Halloween, I don't think you have anything to worry about from those frisky little nut-eaters.

See? They're evil, maniacal bird-killers too! Skwerls = bad, bad, bad!

Okay, so pink isn't my color...

It's still fun to wear, anyway, dahling.

Go Vipers!

Martha's volleyball team... fifth- and sixth-grade girls. Quite a fun bunch! Martha's having the time of her life, truly. It's the first thing she's been able to enjoy AND experience a little success at. I'm really proud of her.

She's signed up for basketball this winter, and can't wait. Me, either. I never had a single interest in any sport, so it's a new arena for me (pun intended), but I'm enjoying being a Sideline Mom for her and for Isaac. Wahoo!

Outside my classroom window

The loading/unloading door to the high school cafeteria is just outside my classroom window. I spied this truck a couple of days ago and thought that the notion of "chemicals" and "restaurant supply" sounded odd together. We already suspected that the steak-fingers weren't really steak OR fingers, but now we have more evidence of this.

In front of my house the other day...

Yep, a cow with big horns, patiently waiting in a cattle trailer parked right in front of my house.

Welcome to Texas, ladies and gentlemen. Moo, y'all.

I Kid You Not

This is a high school football stadium. Precisely, it's the stadium for Little Elm High School in Little Elm, Texas. Yes, that's right, ladies and gentlemen: it's got skyboxes.

I just can't find any words.

The Geek Squad to the rescue

My lil' laptop has just returned from the Geek Squad, who managed to remove all the crap from my hard drive and start it all over again with the original specs.

O happy day! (O happy day)
O... happy da-ay! (O happy day)
When the Geek Squad washed... (the Geek Squad washed)
Mmm... when they wa-ashed... (the Geek Squad washed)
Yeah the Geek Squad washed... (the Geek Squad washed)
The spyware away (O happy day)
Mmm, happy day (O happy day)

And I bought and installed Webroot's Spy Sweeper. Let's hope we can stay clean this time.

Dog talk

There are benefits to having a tiny toy poodle... obviously, she doesn't eat much, and she doesn't take up a lot of room. She's great for cleaning up random spills and the odd crumb. Tonight, however, I'm reminded of another one. Playing fetch with a dog this sized doesn't mean we go out into the backyard. No, I can toss a beanie-bear across the living room ten or fifteen times and she's winded. She's really one of the sweetest little doggies I've ever had; she loves BIG even though she's tiny. She's a great dog.

Sunday, Sunday, Sunday

Haven't posted a title like that in a while, have I?

I have to say that my feeling of dread was completely absent this morning as we went to Teeny-Tiny Baptist Church. Watching Rick up there teaching, telling what's been on his heart for so long and what's been aching to get out... well, it reminded me very much of when I first met him. He hasn't preached regularly since then, and I can see now that he was really born to do this. Not the haranguing, rhythmic speaker... not the pulpit-pounding, red-faced blusterer... he's a teacher. He wants the people in the room to hear and understand what he's found in the Scriptures, and he truly loves and cares about the people.

I've never been very good at the pastor's-wife persona, however. Maybe now that I've had a few years to ripen, I'll be better at it.

One of the little ladies at the church came tonight with several bags full of food for us. I'd forgotten how sweet and kind people can be; I guess I'd gotten a bit jaded.

I don't know how long we'll do this, but for now, I'm okay with it.

Annoying commercials

Obviously, the HEAD-ON commercial would have to come in first, but a close second for Most Annoyingly Stupid Commercial would have to be the Woolite carpet-cleaning thingy: "Squeeze, Rub, Groom and Done!" I won't be buying that stupid thing, just because of their idiotic commercial.

Question

If you could go back in time and tell your 12-year-old self something, what would it be? No stock tips or gambling aids...

If I could tell my 12-year-old self something, I think it would be this: "You are beautiful, and you are not fat."

Or maybe, "Draw and paint more, and play more music."

I dunno. What would you tell yourself?

Target or Wal-Mart?

Okay, so we know how Steve Olsen feels about it. He'd much rather go to Target. And he says that serial killers and terrorists frequent Wal-Mart because they can be with their own kind there. So what does it say about me that I prefer Wal-Mart?

Don't answer that!!

No, seriously, though, what do you think? I know that when my sister lived in Arlington, Texas, she said she hated going to WM and almost never did because it was invariably trashier and scarier than Target. And once, when I visited her, I went to WM and I could see exactly what she meant. The WMs in the DFW metroplex seem to be more like the K-Marts have always been -- sleazy, unkempt, ugly and generally unappealing. So when I'm in the metroplex, I tend to gravitate toward Target when I have to shop for general supplies.

However, WM in other places has always been a source of friendly familiarity for me. The employees at WM in smaller communities tend to be congenial and even cheerful, while Target exudes an aloof boredom. That attitude is great in a big city, but in a smaller city, it's snooty.

Target is usually much cleaner and has wider aisles, but I find that their product selection isn't always as deep, and their prices have historically been higher. That may be changing as Target seems to be ramping up its efforts to compete with WM in the superstore niche.

The one clincher for me, though, is that perhaps the reason there's more crime reported at WM is because most WMs are open 24 hours a day, while Target closes at night. The fact that WM won't be closed when I drive there -- that's a big incentive for me to shop there. I can tolerate the narrower aisles -- made even more un-navigable late at night due to the pallets of new stock being unloaded -- knowing that I can go whenever I need to.

That, and except for my OU Sooners, I have never been a big fan of red. Just doesn't do it for me. And there's just too darn much red in most Target stores.

Better

My ears were much better today. To celebrate, I had some pistachio-almond ice cream from Braum's. There isn't much that can't be improved with a little Braum's.

Tomorrow is the Whitesboro Peanut Festival... wahoo!! I will be taking pictures, but until my laptop is repaired, I have no idea when I'll be able to upload them and post them.

I appreciate the steadfastness of this old iMac that just keeps on plugging away, but the old OS9 is very glitchy and IE likes to 'splode at regular intervals. Most web sites will load, sort-of, but not well and certainly not accurately. Most of the normal Blogger features just aren't available to me.

Meh.

It's not as if I don't have plenty of other stuff to do.

Rick has, I think, accepted the position of pastor of Teeny-Tiny Baptist Church, at least temporarily. I wasn't happy about it, but it's less odious to me now than it was before. There are possibilities that exist, which I'll elaborate upon more as time goes by and as I see what evolves. We may also be moving to another rent house here in North Ruralville, one that will cost us less per month AND which will have the added benefit of NO SANDBURRS IN THE YARD. The one huge drawback to this other house, besides the odd layout, is the house-wide pink sculptured-shag carpeting. Just the ghastliest stuff you ever saw; I'll photograph it and post it so you can get the full, lovely effect. The one huge BENEFIT to this house? A hot-tub on the sun-porch. Another huge benefit is that it's one block away from the kids' school, so they actually can walk there safely.

Anyway, my level of angst and anxiety has leveled off for now. Let's see what kind of mayhem and crisis erupts tomorrow? I'm glad God already knows what's there before I do. As Betsie ten Boom said nearly seventy years ago, it's enough for me to know that He's there. Well, I *want* it to be enough. Sometimes I don't *feel* it, but my heart knows it anyway.

The Holiday Sweater -- JUST SAY NO

The super-fantastic one himself, The Manolo, he agrees with me yet again.

Holiday Sweaters



As the Manolo says:

Trust the Manolo, if you wear this and no one tries to stop you, you have no friends.

So, listen to the advice of the Manolo, and make this the season of joy by giving your holiday sweaters to the garbage man.

Oklahoma skwerls

I have a Yahoo news alert for every article containing the word "squirrel", and every single day I get alerted to a power outage somewhere in these United States due to a suicidal skwerl. I usually ignore them, but this one was notable because it's in the town where my grandparents and my Aunt Patti live.

Durn varmints. You'd think somebody'd figure out how to keep the rats out of the electrical works. They sure do cause a lot of inconvenience when they decide to electrocute themselves in the substation.

I'm okay

Yes, the tinnitus is still present (and severe), but I scheduled an appointment with my doctor on Monday afternoon. If it subsides before then, I'll cancel it. I've been keeping close track of my BP and it has been inching upward... today when I came home from school, it was 169/102 -- and my morning has been anything BUT stressful. The kids in my classes (even the squirrely ones) (and I say that with all the added meaning you'd like to imbue it with) have actually been fairly respectful and have been very quiet, so I haven't had a terrible day or anything to blame high blood pressure on.

Thanks for your prayers.

Make it stop!!!

The tinnitus is only getting gradually worse. All voices sound like Darth Vader on helium now. My blood pressure is slightly up from where it usually is (which is high anyway), but that could be caused by the roaring instead of causing the roaring itself. My blood sugar levels are normal, falling between 85 and 115 regularly.

I could barely hear today at school. If it were just deafness, it wouldn't bother me so much, but it's like having some kind of loud motor-hum right by my ears. It worsens significantly whenever there's someone speaking. I can get a little peace when there's silence in the room; there's still a hum, but the echo-chamber robotic voice goes away. The radio and the TV absolutely kill me. All music sounds out-of-tune; each note I hear combines with an added quarter-tone to give the effect of a honky-tonk piano.

Hey... I just tried plugging my ears, and the robot-voice effect went away. Now I'm going to go hunt down my good earplugs and get some relief.

NOPE. Didn't work. Voices still causing problems.

Okay, I'll shut up about it for now. Doesn't seem to help to rant about it, that's what.

Tinnitus

For the past two days I have been suffering -- yes, literally suffering -- from an intensely loud, low-pitched ringing in my ears. Tonight it has gotten so bad that everything I hear sounds as though it were being fed through a synthesizer to give it a metallic edge.

I went to CVS and asked the pharmacist if there was anything over-the-counter that she could recommend, and she showed me a box with some sort of supplement to increase the circulation in my ears, but it was nearly thirty dollars for a box of 100 --and-- I'd have to take it three times a day. Hmmm... if it really worked, it would be worth it, but I have a hard time justifying spending thirty bucks on some herbal something-or-other.

And in the meantime, I can barely hear over the thunderous din. It was miserable today at school because I had quite a time trying to understand my students when they spoke to me! It does seem to increase when there's more ambient sound; perhaps I should find my earplugs and try to block out some noise and see if that gives me some relief...

Any suggestions you might have (based on actual experience) are welcome.

But the side effects are somewhat problematic...

Researchers studying squirrel brains believe they have pinpointed the mechanism which puts the squirrel into such a deep stasis during hibernation, and believe it will help improve stroke victims' chances of recovery.

Keeping the people from compulsively burying their food in the backyard is one side effect they haven't figured out yet. Not to mention the embarrassing habit of "shaking their bushy tails."

In an Egyptian prison?

This week, Rick was contacted to fill in for a local pastor who was going to go on vacation. He wanted us to come visit the church today, and wanted us to lead the singing. He had been serving as the "interim" pastor of this little church since February.

So this morning we traipsed down the street to a tiny brick building here in North Ruralville.

We were greeted warmly at the door by the five or six senior citizen members of the church. The sanctuary was tiny, almost suffocating in its minisculity. The interim pastor, whose horrible hairpiece made me look away instantly, spoke to us as if we were the immediate answer to the church's need for a permanent pastor.

We "led the singing," as it were; it's always fun to play, but I almost hated to do it because I felt like a June bug being pounced upon by hungry ducks. The people practically begged us to stay, and all I could do was smile demurely and try to extricate myself from the tarpit.

We came home for lunch, and during my afternoon nap I had a horrible nightmare. I was at school, but nothing was right. My classroom was the same, but my green wall had been painted back to plain white, and different students were showing up -- students who didn't belong, even students who weren't the right age. I went out into the hallways and they had been painted a different color. Many of the students in my classroom were being extremely disruptive, and there weren't enough desks for all of them. I went into the teacher workroom to look for help, and it was completely different. The principal and the secretaries and the registrar were all in there, and I asked them if this room had always looked this way. They laughed at me and said, "Duh, yes." I realized right then that I was having a psychotic episode and that I was going insane, and I felt this overwhelming sense of panic and fear.

Rick came into the room and woke me up. "It's five o'clock," he said.

Have you ever had such a vivid dream/nightmare that you just couldn't shake the feeling even after you woke up? That's how I've felt all evening. We went back to the Tiny Church this evening, and were once again enveloped in suffocating desperation.

I'm sure that Joseph (from the book of Genesis) didn't enjoy being thrown into prison in Egypt, and probably felt as though he were being punished for something he hadn't done. I'm feeling the same way right now. Surely this isn't where we're supposed to be. Oh please, God, not this. I know I told You I'd do whatever You asked, but surely You're not asking us to do THIS.

Repair hiatus

No, I won't stop blogging, but there won't be a daily fortune cookie for a while until my laptop is repaired because I'm having to use this old iMac with ancient OS9, and Blogger just *barely* supports it. I can't format my posts with pictures or even bold or italic type because those functions aren't available to me on this browser.

I continue to be quite aggravated with Toshiba's product. The laptop has been great, no problems, but the Recovery CD they issued to me, which gives simple instructions for wiping the hard drive and using the CD to start over, did not work and was horribly glitchy. My hard drive "wiped" I think, but would not recover.

I hate viruses and spyware. There's a special level of Hell for those who propagate them.

Today's English lesson

From EnglishPlus:

disOriented

Orient or Orientate?

The word orient, as a noun, means "east." It may be capitalized when referring to the geographical location of the Far East. Its opposite noun is "occident," which refers to the West.

Example: Hong Kong is located in the Orient.

Orient as a verb means to "find direction" or "give direction." The noun form of this kind of orienting is orientation.

Sometimes people in their speech will form an imagined verb from orientation and say orientate. At best, orientate is a back-formation used humorously to make the speaker sound pompous. The correct word is the verb orient.

Incorrect: Melanie is helping me get orientated to the new job.

Correct: Melanie is helping me get oriented to the new job.

Orientate is more widely accepted in the U.K. than in the U.S.A., but it should be avoided in any formal or standard writing.

Today's fortune cookie

We Must Do Something

From the Assyrian International News Agency:

Mosul, Iraq (AINA) -- On Monday, October 9, a prominent Assyrian (also known as Chaldean and Syriac) priest, Fr. Paulos Iskander (Paul Alexander), was kidnapped by an unknown Islamic group. His ransom was posted at either $250,000 or $350,000. This group had demanded that signs be posted once again on his church apologizing for the Pope's remarks as a condition for negotiations to begin.

Father Alexander was beheaded on Wednesday.

An email from a priest in Sweden, Adris Hanna, describes the Muslim terror campaign against the Christians in Iraq:

The Syriac-Orthodox priest Paulos Iskandar was kidnapped this Monday, October 9, and beheaded today Wednesday October 11.

The Bishop in Mosul wrote me an email tonight and told me that the funeral will be held in Mosul tomorrow.

Christians are living a terrified life in Mosul and Baghdad. Several priests have been kidnapped, girls are being raped and murdered and a couple of days ago a fourteen year old boy was crucified in the Christian neighborhood Albasra.

I have also spoken to a group of nuns that were robbed and treated brutally on their way between Baghdad to Amman in Jordan.

The murder of Father Paulos is the final blow for Christians, and now only hell is expected for the Christians of Iraq.

We the Oriental Christians in Sweden and the rest of the Western world must protest against the genocide. We must do what we can to stop the rape, threats, hatred, robberies, murders... We must do something.

These latest murders continue an escalating pattern of attacks against Iraq's Christians. On October fourth a bomb ripped through an Assyrian neighorhood, killing 9.

_________________________________

History will judge us very, very harshly if we do not stop this, if we sit on our hands and pretend nothing is happening. I just finished reading a literally RIVETING book called Left To Tell, written by Immaculee Ilibigaza, about the atrocities that occurred during the Rwandan genocide in the 1990s. If you run across this book, read it. It took me less than a day because I literally could not put it down. Some of the dates in the book, I could think back and remember what I was doing right about that time... living in blissful ignorance, failing to pray for my oppressed and persecuted brothers and sisters all over the world. Shame on me. I do not wish to sit idly by while it continues to happen.

In my 10th grade classes, we are reading the non-fiction novel The Hiding Place, which is the true story of Corrie ten Boom and how she and her family hid Jews during the Nazi occupation of Holland. There seems to be a theme, here... I don't believe that God arranges things haphazardly, and if nothing else, He has orchestrated these books for me to read all at once to remind me to pray for the strength of my fellow Christians in bondage, who must live hidden lives in China and Saudi Arabia and North Korea and Cuba.

I will pray, and I will do anything else God brings across my path to do. I hope you will, too.

Today's English lesson

From EnglishPlus:

We've Only Just Begun

Using Just andOnly

When using the word just as an adverb meaning "no more than," place it directly in front of the word it modifies.

Similarly, place the word only directly in front of the word it modifies.

Vague: Just give me three more days.

Correct: Give me just three more days.

Vague: I only have three dollars.

Correct: I have only three dollars.

Today's fortune cookie

Tag! I'm it!

I've tagged myself, actually. I saw this meme over at Aunt Murry's place and thought I'd add it to my collection:

3 smells that I love:
CK-one cologne
Freshly-bleached sheets
Rainstorms

3 smells that I hate:
Tomcat markings
Celery
Cough medicine

3 jobs that I have had in my life:
Girl Scout Camp Counselor
US Postal Service Remote Encoder
Worship music consultant

3 movies that I could watch over and over:
Ferris Bueller's Day Off
The Breakfast Club
Ocean's Eleven

3 fond memories:
My best friend's birthday party, three years ago
Bongo Java
The day Isaac was born

3 jobs I would love to have:
Professional pianist
Professional artist
Anything where I could pull at least $100K and not have to talk to anyone

3 places I have lived:
Texas
Oklahoma
Iowa

3 things I like to do:
Play music with cool people
Watch DOG: The Bounty Hunter
Paint with watercolors

3 of my favorite foods:
Pork roast
Rib-eye steak
Haitian bean sauce

3 places I would like to be right now:
Under a palm tree
On the beach
In Tahiti

3 websites I visit daily:
FARK
Laurence Simon
IMAO

3 things that make me cry:
Being severely embarrassed
Being rejected
Being lonely

Tag! You're it!

I hate PCs

I never had this kind of trouble with my Mac. In fact, our long-outdated iMac is sitting right here, waiting to take up the slack when I wipe the hard drive on my Toshiba Satellite laptop and start over.

Yep. Wipe the hard drive.

Because I got a stoopid Trojan Horse and can't get the bleepin' thing off my computer.

Do you KNOW how irritated I am?!? Can you possibly sense the gnawing vexation? The striations in my flexing jaw muscle as I grind my molars into dust?

It's all the fault of the University of Phoenix, really. They were the ones who insisted I have a PC in order to take their online classes.

GROWL!! I'm mad.

Guaranteed personal space

Ever felt crowded in on the subway or city bus? Here's a great way to ensure you're given a wide berth from now on:

Self-Help Book Covers

You put one of these lil' numbers over the real book jacket of whatever you're reading, and no-one will disturb you... ever... again. [snicker snicker]

Today's English lesson

From EnglishPlus:

So, A Wise Guy, Eh?

-Wise as a Suffix

Coining new words with the suffix -wise may be clever and cute (put up two fingers on either side of your head and make imaginary quotation marks in the air), but it is nonstandard.

Incorrect: He did well this quarter saleswise.

Correct: He did well in sales this quarter.

Today's fortune cookie

Mark Houghton

Just got the news this evening that Mark, lead guitarist for SoulFire, has gone home to be with the Lord. He had battled cancer for the past several years.

Enjoy Heaven, dear Clicky. We'll miss you, but we know you're partying like crazy up there, and we look forward to joining you one day.

Supplemental Services?? I need some!!

My daughter brought home a form this afternoon. The front was in English, the back in Spanish, but here's what it asked for:

FAMILY SURVEY

Your child may be eligible for supplemental services if he/she qualifies as a migratory student. To help us, please answer the following questions. If you qualify, we will contact you for further information. Please return this form to your child's school as soon as possible.

School:
Grade:
Name of student:
Name of parent/guardian:
Home address:
Telephone:

Has your family left the school district to look for work in the last three years?
If yes, from (city, state or country) to (city, state or country)
Did you move in search of work?
If YES, did you look for or obtain work in any of the following activities (X those that apply):

___Agriculture (Preparing soil, planting fruits/vegetables, irrigating fruits/vegetables, harvesting fruits/vegetables, transporting fruits/vegetables, packing fruits/vegetables, canning fruits/vegetables)

___Livestock (Horses, deer, cows, herding, feeding, loading and unloading livestock, transporting livestock, processing, packing meat)

___Chicken (Building/cleaning coops, feeding chicks, gathering eggs, transporting chickens, processing chickens, packing and icing parts)

___Fishing (Washing nets, sorting and cleaning fish, shrimp, oysters or crawfish, filleting fish, marinating, canning, labeling fish, transporting fish)

___Dairy cows (Calving, feeding calves, herding, milking, building/repairing fences, transporting)

___Nursery (Irrigation, potting, cultivating, planting, weeding, cutting trees for Christmas)

Was the work ___Temporary or ___Seasonal?

School District:

________________________________

I am continually shocked and amazed at the evolution of public education. It seems to me now to be merely rewarding those who are best at filling out forms and documenting this or that. Forget actual TEACHING, and forget STUDENTS. It isn't about them anymore. At least, not the ones who behave themselves, whose families pay taxes and keep regular jobs, or who excel academically.

I'm just dumbfounded that so many of my peers just blindly and blithely go along with all of it. I am truly beginning to see that those in the teaching profession are being punished from every angle. Nevermind the abysmal salary. Or the fact that there's really no way one can actually accomplish the task unless you arrive at 6AM and leave at 6PM. It's our fault that Johnny can't read. I was actually berated by the DRAMA coach last week because the kids can't write a formal letter. This is MY fault?!?

He marched into my classroom today and asked for a Grammar textbook so he himself could teach them to write.

I have had these kids for a total of nine weeks, and the best I can get is about a 10% rate of HOMEWORK COMPLETION. "I didn't do it. I had Volleyball practice." Heck, I'm just trying to get them to finish a bleeping assignment... how -- nay, when -- am I supposed to teach them to write?

I am so tired, and I'm not even staying up late the way I used to. Last Thursday, during the last period of the day, everyone was reading quietly and I sat at my desk to do something. My head was pounding, and I put my head in my hands for a moment. The next thing I knew, the principal was standing over my desk.

Today I received a very stern official warning that I have to sign and return, to be put into my permanent file. Sleeping in class is unacceptable, and is a terrible example to my students as well as a serious safety risk, blahblahblah. Copied to the superintendent, to be followed by administrative action if I make some other kind of mistake somewhere, yaddayadda.

I wanted to die, right there on the spot. I just can't win. Is there some kind of target painted on my back or something?

Can I have some of those supplemental services now? I'm tempted to fill out that form and answer Yes... let's see... herding (check), feeding (check), loading and unloading livestock (do kids count?)... yep. Call me Migrant Mom, and hand over the checks. Se habla espanol.

Two commercials you MUST see

And then this one, which has been deemed "too hot" by GOP leaders...

Have you ever...

Have you ever felt an almost overwhelming urge to get in the car and just drive and never come back? And never tell anyone where you went? Just disappear?

Obviously, I won't, but there are days here and there that pop up, days when I just feel like it's all way too much. Days when all I can do is just cry and wonder how there can possibly be any tears left in there, but they just keep spilling out. Days when my acute inadequacy stares me down and makes me cower in the corner.

This is one of those days.

No, you can't help. It'll pass, I'm sure.

Today's English lesson

From EnglishPlus:

Number or Amount?

Use the word amount with quantities that cannot be counted and number with quantities that could be counted one-by-one.

Examples:

He had a small amount of ammunition left.

He had a small number of bullets left.

Today's fortune cookie

The Amazing Skidboot

Today's English lesson

From EnglishPlus:

That? Which? Who? Huh?

That, which, and who when used as relative pronouns each have a distinct function.

In modern speech, which refers only to things. Who (or its forms whom and whose) refers only to people. That normally refers to things but it may refer to a class or type of person.

Examples:

That is a book which I need for the class.

These are the books that I need for the class.

He is the man who will be teaching the class.

They are the type of people who would lie to their mothers.

They are the type of people that would lie to their mothers.
(That is OK here because it is a class or type.)

Some teachers also tell you that that should be used with restrictive modifiers and that which should be used with nonrestrictive modifiers. Historically, there is little evidence that this "rule" ever had a significant effect on English expression, but writers should be aware that some correspondents have been taught this practice.

Sometimes using which for a restrictive modifier can make a sentence sound better, especially if the sentence already uses the word that (as in the first example above).

This "rule" can cause confusion with multiple clauses, questions, or certain constructions and compounds which use that. It is better to communicate more clearly than to worry about a questionable "rule."

Today's fortune cookie

[snicker]

Haute couture...

Ever wanted to slink down a catwalk wearing a white chain-link fence on your head?


How about a chain-link fence with dirt and leaves in it? And a pair of black wax lips?


Then you'll want to purchase YOUR next ensemble from Brit designer John Galliano.

You're welcome.

Of course, if chain link isn't your cup o'tea, how about a pirate sword?



This poor waif appears to have undergone some sort of long-term abuse. She's down to wearing Iron Chef Mario Batali's bib-front apron... along with an alien-mucus amulet.


Now *this* outfit I actually like... but that's only because it reminds me of my patchwork pants I used to wear when I was in the second grade. This is the second instance of patchwork I've seen on the catwalk this season; I'm guessing it might be a trend that will show up in stores.



Ladies and gentlemen, it's the woman from Gustav Klimt's painting "The Kiss."



Bettas, gouramis... they're both tropical fish from the family Anabantidae, and they build nests of bubbles in which to lay their eggs. Obviously this designer was inspired by this family of fish when he created this little number:


Gotta love high fashion.

The Texas State Fair

The reason I didn't post a "Today's Fortune Cookie" or a "Today's English Lesson" yesterday was because the North Ruralville school district gave us a State Fair Day and gave us all free tickets to the fair... so of course, we went! Thought you'd enjoy looking at a few pictures of our day yesterday.

Howdy, folks!! Welcome to the Great State Fair of Texas!!
Ya just gotta love ol' Big Tex.

We love funnel cakes!!!

Three new Texas residents enjoying listening to Big Tex

MamaSue, chillin'

Isaac was thoroughly fascinated by the caricaturist. A future artist, perhaps??
Mommy can hope so...

I love the Art Deco architecture at Fair Park in Dallas.

The Cotton Bowl! Wheee!!

Isaac saw this place and thought it was weird to advertise "French Creeps."
I thought it was odd, too. hehe

What the heck IS this Ford creation?

The guys in the mariachi band took some time off from their strolling to check out the new cars.

Members of Dallas' finest, patrolling the Escalade display. Yep, his shirt reads "Gang Unit." The DPD's Gang Unit was all over the auto building like bling on a pimp. And I was thankful; let's keep the State Fair a place where I can bring my kids and not find myself in the middle of a gang war... even though Fair Park is actually located in a rather rough neighborhood in Dallas.

The midway... we tried to steer clear of the rides and the hucksters in the game booths. Not our thang, y'know.

We're Sooner fans... yeah, I know, they lost, but hope springs eternal, and there's always next year. Boomer Sooner! Barbecued Bevo -- a tasty State Fair treat!

Welcome to the Cotton Bowl!! But what the heck is that sign over to the side?


So what if I feel faint during the second quarter? Am I out of luck?