messages to pitbullshark:
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from jeff240 :
Very powerful entry. I remember my mom's comment after Grandpa died: "We are now THE generation." But like your dad, we never left anything out. We said it all. It's wonderful not having any regrets in that regard. Like my mom, her sister and brothers, you now carry the torch. Someday it will be my turn. And I hope I'm as fortunate as you are -- fortunate to have had the time with your dad (and mom), and to have done your very best to make them proud parents. I'm trying my hardest to make my parents proud. Feathers in his wings. I like that. I know how they feel.
from jeff240 :
What an awesome entry! You touched on so much of what I had been saying about the two boys, and the analogy of the Wild Man is brilliant. And yes, I thought about cell phones, email, etc. It's not like they didn't have the wherewithall to contact their parents. This very fact raises some excellent questions, but we will never hear any (accurate and truthful) answers.
from jeff240 :
I love your description of the kindergartners slowly emerging to come over to you, and then hug you. As I'm reading, I envision my encounter with two spotted fawns that were in the middle of the street. When I got out to shoo them away, they came over toward me. I guess I wasn't threatening enough. Maybe, like children, they can see the good inside of us. And a hug is a just reward.
from jeff240 :
I'll keep your dad, you and your family in my thoughts and prayers. It's always hard when you know the end is near. As for the dumb bitch who keeps calling, I had a similar situation, only the number showed up. I programmed my phone so there was NO ring when this idiot called. Since I don't use my phone a lot, it didn't bother me, other than "Missed call" showed up a lot. Some people are just plain dumb! Where did Darwin go wrong?
from milkmaid :
You saw MICHAEL FRANKS???!!! My favorite Michael Franks story - I was eating at a trendy place in WeHo or BH and there was a couple at the next table - an overweight white guy with a fugly goutee and his date, a Chinese gal from China, I think. Anyway, he was reciting and explaining "Popsicle Toes" to her, all the while, farting loudly! I'll NEVER hear the name Michael Franks without remembering that guy - and that poor unfortunate girl!
from milkmaid :
Thomas - I'm so very sorry for your loss. What a beautiful tribute to your wonderful mom. I'll be keeping a good thought for you and your family. Hugs. D.
from moonsphinx :
I'm so sorry for your loss. Your family sounds wonderful. *hugs*
from jeff240 :
Another excellent entry. I couldn't add a single word to what you said. I anxiously wait for your new diary entries, and always find them not only thought provoking but educational and entertaining. I was going to post an entry with a similar PC vs Freedom of Speech message, based on something someone said to me today, but my day drained all creativity from me. Maybe tomorrow.
from moonsphinx :
Wow, I really liked this post, especially the atheist what's-wrong-with-thanking-the-Universer part. I agree. People need not worry so much about being offensive and offended. We just need happy healthy attitudes that know there's room for everyone. Diversity includes even the "main stream" stuff. Instead of feeling guilty ask, "What do you do?"
from milkmaid :
Have I told you lately that I love you??? Thanks for cheering me up once again... and I hope your ganglion-less hand feels much better soon.
from moonsphinx :
Oh so wise. This post came just in time for me. I have been feeling down in the dumps b/c I will be graduating with a Master's in Social work and I can expect to find a 20k-30k starting salary waiting for me and a friend of mine is just starting his Master's degree work in Electrical Engineering and is looking forward to his future 6 figure salary. I have been feeling like I am wasting my time and will never amount to anything b/c I won't be "successful." I just need to realize it's all how you look at it. Is it better to make money or put lives back together. Thanks for making me feel like all my hard work has a purpose.
from jeff240 :
Your comments to my post are always written in a way that I hope to be able to capture someday. Thank you for the many kind words. Maybe someday I'll be able to complement as well as compliment your diary entries as eloquently as you do. Thank you, Tom.
from jeff240 :
Apple sauce, huh? I wish I knew that. But I don't know. What was coming out was thinner than...well, you don't need that information. I think I'm OK now. But next time, Dr. Mott's will be with me. Hell to a driver with diarrhea: "Next exit 20 miles!"
from wench77 :
yo! Nice to see you back! I havent' read all of your long IHOP entry yet, but I wanted to say I TOTALLY empathise with your disciplinary nature getting in the way of all the things you want to do, but if you let yourself do what you WANT instead of what you SHOULD then you get a lot done. I like how you put it. I am the same way. And your Living Will software dig was funny as heck. I'll read more later (I'm having a wee breaky from work... no I don't have an Easter break, I have an easter rush!)
from moonsphinx :
I agree about the whole protestor deal, although I don't think I need to tell you that wacky leftist liberals are the only ones who run amuck. (Have you ever been to an abortion clinic? Sometimes women need escorts to get in there!) You're not really charming people when you make them late to work or if you keep them from getting home to thier families. I like protesting and think it is an effective way to get out some anger and assemble the masses to say, "Cut the crap!" However, they made sidewalks for a reason.
from milkmaid :
As usual, you rock... Thanks for helping me to clear my head with your guestbook entry. Sheesh, that old programming is wicked. Of course that's it. Shit happens. It's bad for some and good for others. Shit happens! I love it! (I've been saying it for years, but this is the first time I ever really "groaked" it!) Thanks!
from wench77 :
Hullo! that was a fun entry! Christmas tie on the wrong day, blond moment in the parking lot LOL! Christmas tie on the right day and a nice time with eggnog (hope the lowfat kind is drinkable!!)... very fun. I enjoyed it alot! hehe, I suppose I"ll eventually get into the spirit! :)
from wench77 :
Wow, you should be doing promo for this movie! Glad you were so bowled over. I hate to say but I'll probably see it on video in three years, if at all. I am so not good at getting my ass downtown to a theater. Cheers!
from moonsphinx :
I wonder why you did not feel happy about posting your last entry. It's one of the most open and personal entries I've read from you in a long while and I really like that. It really demonstrates your humaneness. You are correct, COMPASSION is the key. With my life, gettin' through it all, and going for social work, I often think anger is what drives me but compassion is what compels me. Anger is useful for spuring action but action should not be made in hate.
from milkmaid :
You are too gracious to the American people! LOL! THEY might not have voted for Bush, but THEY are sitting, picking their asses while he pretends to be the President again! GAAAAH! But I am glad to hear I'm not going to be nuked due to someone elses Karma - and I'm really happy to hear that my thoughtful explanations have been used on a freakin' tv show! GAAAAH! again! LOL!
from wench77 :
oh yeah, as for the Diebold machines.. it might just pay absolutely handsomely to have them fudge the results. Just think how much $ just went into election campaign... how much would Bush or someone else be willing to pay to get even a few machines that disregarded 50% of the Democratic votes for instance, in a few key areas? hmmm? I think there would be an enormous market, more so than for a machine that actually tells the truth. Sort of like phone psychics who tell you what you want to hear. So much better than a good friend who you are not paying who will tell you the truth which might not be very sympathetic at all! eek! tah!
from wench77 :
hear ye hear ye re the television remote thing and the cell phone. I don't have a cell phone and I have not watched anything on my tv I think (except for several rented videos) since the day they first bombed Baghdad.. ie nearly two years. I WILL admit to being addicted to my computer instead, but I leave it at home! LOL! I too hate all that distraction in a public place. Totally kills interaction, and one scarcely even notices the meal one has paid for. cheers!
from wench77 :
ooo just read day six. Sounds lovely. I totally agree with your shopping attitude... eewk re all the people hawking you wares so aggressively and the bases with touristy gook written on them. I hope that you didn't lead Romina on, she sounds like she was courting you big time, the sweet thing. And good thing that it wasn't so busy, waitresses who dote on one customer cuz they strike their fancy are very annoying (to everyone else. hehe)... I'm still very glad I haven't watched that Pirate movie... yup, I was betrayed by pirates which is why I am still single. I don't find it amusing at all at this point. I would likely have kicked in my tvset if I'd watched it on video. The yogurt sounds like a brilliant idea. Absolutely brilliant. I'm glad you had such a great cruise. Sounds just lovely (albeit too chocolatey!!) tah!
from soldiergirl :
Thank you Tom for lifing my spirits this week. It's been a rough nine months with Bubbles. But tonight we had a break-through. He finally spoke his mind, revealing past hurts and disappointments. And now healing can take place, at last. What I've learned in my forty some years on earth... we all just want to be loved and understood for who we are, what we dream.
from moonsphinx :
Hurrah for the sphinxs! Yeah, if you in Egypt instead of crusing around Mexico I would be 10x as jealous. =)
from wench77 :
hehe, I am guilty of reading many long things (not usually novels, since I don't like plot surprises given away) but nonfiction things, all over the place... skimming til I get to something interesting, then backing up to finish the start of the page, then backing up to finish the start of the chapter. I am sure that if the writer intended it that way they wouldve put the pages in a different order, but it is one of my quirks esp when I am tired or stuck for time! cheers and happy cruise!
from milkmaid :
Nah. I'm screwed. I got all the information from NOLO. They rock. The DMV won't any more allow a name change without the court stuff. This is their part in combating terrorism, even though they give out drivers licenses to god knows whatall illegal aliens! GAAAH! Any way, I contacted a family attorney who told me that the custody order becomes moot if I croak over. He gets her, lock stock and barrel. So, I just won't die!
from wench77 :
ps, I look to see how long an entry is when I am rushed for time or tired. And no, I don't usually look immediately at "olders" to make sure I am reading "in the right order"... if I feel I am missing something, or wonder what happened first, don't worry , I will go back and read what I've missed. But on Diaryland I certainly don't expect people to read entries in order... same with my comics site. I expect they'll read the current page, and if they like it, go back to read the "preamble". i think it is much like meeting a person. You get to know how they are today, and then as you spend more time with them, they may fill you in on their life history. :)
from wench77 :
Well, I suggest that one is sentient in the womb which is not the same thing as conscious... I think it is a continuum. Pollen is not a seed is not a plant. But a seed has a plant embryo within it. Eating a bean with an embryo (which after all is exactly the equivalent of a fetus) is not equivalent to trampling up and tearing out someone's bean harvest. Same with people. A blastula is not an embryo is not a fetus is not a baby. Sentient ... embryos respond to stimuli such as sound, light, movement, chemicals. But then does a frog who has had his head chopped off. And the last month or two in the womb there is actually no difference between a baby inside and outside in terms of development of feeling I would guess. But the baby outside may die since its lungs should be not working to provide its' body's oxygen yet for example, nor its digestive system ready to digest food vs having it come in by the umbilical cord. But a 7 month or 9 month fetus could be born naturally, and survive, and so I would imagine if holding it in mom's arms as she walks is enjoyable to it (and enters into its memory in the same way as waving its arms around enters movement of its body into its memory... ie builds brain network connections) then so would walking around with it in the womb. In fact most wisdom about young babies is that sounds replicating the heartbeat rhythm, swaddling that restricts their space similar to being in the womb, and rocking movement similar to being inside a moving mother, calm, comfort and relax the baby. A newborn baby wouldn't respond to rocking due to a mother walking with it on her back, rather, a baby would respond to a mother walking with it on her back since it replicates the feeling of the mother walking with it in her stomach. So same thing. But it starts way before the baby is popped out. And has absolutely nothing to do with abortion or souls in the first months of gestation.
from wench77 :
haha, nomadic huh? How about 9 months sloshing around in someone who walks around??? That might account for the great sleep nah? Sorry I am too tired to read what I scrolled down to see is an incredibly long entry. I shall return, have no fear! Enjoy your rolling slumber! (personally I totally dig trains)
from moonsphinx :
Hey, I DO read your posts, but believe me, if I did leave responses, the would be more ungratifying than my silence. I'm not as smart as you! =P
from wench77 :
Hey, yeah, I wish more people thought so. Horribly ,the runnerup choice, Kerry, also doesn't believe in gay marriage. BTW did you read my other two entries tonight? I just remembered I forgot to link to them in the Bush entry, when you left your comment. Tah!
from moonsphinx :
Thank you for your kind words about my friend Tina. You're right, there really aren't right words but your thoughts and kindness is so much appreciated. I want out 4th of July gathering to go on. Our group needs to be together now more than ever.
from wench77 :
well, you can write me an email in Sept and send me a check then. It comes out in September. jeesh it is hard to drill 1/4 inch holes in half in plywood to match up perfectly with 1/4 threaded holes in a piece of metal. If they are the vaguest bit crooked, the bolts won't go into the threading. grrrrr. Back to drilling. i'll read your entry closer to bedtime for a break ok?
from wench77 :
haha, you are probably so right there on that spoon thing! haha! I want to be DONE by a knife. LOL! well they're not all that wrong about THAT part but gee, maybe the knives want to be TOGETHER! :) Did you see the far north drawings? I realize that people who don't look so often miss them.
from milkmaid :
Your vacation sounds like it's gonna be great! I've always wanted to go on a cruise (like on 'The Love Boat'). You should have fun in those tropical paradises (paradeese???) lol!
from moonsphinx :
OMG, that sounds awesome! I would just love to see all the old Mayan temples and I have always wanted to trek the Mexican Penninsula. I think it is so great that you read upon where you are going to go; you are so very educated. I wish you bon voyage and hope you have the best time!!
from wench77 :
mmm, a Carribean cruise sounds lovely (though I am leery of Texas). I hope you have a wonderful time. I'll come back and actually read vs browse your entry later when I feel up to it. tah!
from wench77 :
Hey! Thanks for doing my threeof survey! It is the LONGEST one. I liked your "things that make you feel loved" it is true... people wanting to talk to me is a good thing. heehee re "perfecting my body (again)" I think if I go into stasis vs decline I will be happy at this point. I hope you get to publish a book! MMM< you sound like a good person to invite to a party! Those are not answers other people gave at all! Who is M.R. (sounds like a horrid ending) and I am sorry about the cat (another horrid ending)... may i recommend my cat minicomic (I have a sad cat story... it sounds bad but people like it). I like the reintegrate all ages idea. yup. I agree. a lot. I am always fascinated by the "things I used to hate, wanted to do" etc that change... isn't it interesting how fluid we actually are in many ways! As for the "leave undone when you die".. most people said things like "my dishes, my taxes, my todo list, learning everything I want to", hehe. Since it seems like no matter what you are doing that is important those are never done. Though I suppose I could suddenly drop dead JUST as I finished the dishes for once ! Now THAT would be a surprise! I must chuckle at this:"spiraling downward into things like hip hop music, piercings and tattoos, and other inferior defilements of human genius and beauty."... i suppose that those who work hard writing hiphop music, or the illustrator I know who became a tattoo artist (and who does GORGEOUS work, and says there is nothing more amazing than a living canvas and that it is environmentally friendly art to boot) would disagree. Inferior defilements. hehe. Anyways, yeah, hard. I guess that is what I meant by "long survey"... it took me like ten minutes to make up those questions, and then about an hour to think of the answers when I did it myself. But I think it is one of the most interesting, informative and revealing surveys I read the answers to! Definitely the most fulfilling that way to me, the survey writer. Thanks for taking the time (though I must say your survey answers are always interesting and indepth) tah!
from coldooze :
yeah, editing messages would be nice. of course, i meant 'diaryland' he. he. just ignore me, really. i'm sorry to have bothered you. i feel silly now. and i want a margarita. with salt.
from coldooze :
alrighty. thanks for responding. i had no intention of insulting your knowledge of html. :) before you dismiss me, please check out my page. i made this with you mind. btw, are you having trouble with diarland lately? it seems to me that images don't load. i haven't seen a banner all day. more love,
from coldooze :
here is the thing. i just opened a site where i help people to schnazz up their diary a little bit. not with a whole new template but with new color and font and the like. why don't you let me help you out in this way? it's a free service and you might just like a little autonomy. love,
from wench77 :
Hey, yeah, I wanted to buy that Natural Exhuberance book... I looked it over more than once in a bookstore, but it is an expensive tome. And yeah, isn't it silly to say "oh, it's unnatural" and then say "they dont know what they are doing" when you point out it happens in nature?? Either it happens in nature and therefore is natural, or it doesnt happen in nature and therefore is human. Um, as far as I know animals don't read the bible so that is unnatural too. jeesh. But you gotta admit that such a rabbit statement is ludicrous even within itself. "animals dont do that so you will be reincarnated as a rabbit since it is wellknown that they do that". duh!!
from wench77 :
Hey, congrats, mr director, photographer, film editor, producer! Wow! That sounds so satisfying! Sounds like you have found your calling (or rather another one of them, on top of teaching et al.!) You worked so hard on that, it's great you are getting the appreciation you deserve! tah.
from moonsphinx :
Wow, you put a lot of "umph" into that video project. I'm so happy you and everyone got so much satisfaction! BTW, theempress- was in your neck of the woods today and tomorrow...San Fran and L.A.
from wench77 :
come back come back we miss you! How is that video going? are you done? is everyone wowed? Have you succumbed to the lures of your Berkeley education and you are changing the world instead of writing here? Or only buried under year end paperwork? Hope to see your name light up soon!
from wench77 :
Gee, your 1.1 day's work of stuff coming in everyday feels exactly like my days! The only time I actually go "yay, on top of things" is when I take like a month of doing nothing but paperwork, bookfiling, etc etc. I could do nothing but, but then I wouldn't garden, have a social life, eat, etc. Just do my real work, then my other work (comics etc) and then paperwork and tidying and organizing. AAGH! I don't know about the 100 yr old slaves though... It has been more than 100 years since we have slaves to look at. hmmm. As for guilt, see my entry last night. Getting elected... helpful to have it be the family business and be born into how it works with the connections and money. OMG this is a long entry... I am only up to "thinking about the meaning of america" and I have run out of time... aagh! Must run must run. rabbit rabbit rabbit with a pocketwatch!! ps I'm sure the video will be great great great like your aboriginal art lecture.
from wench77 :
Hey I totally think that it is not to worry about... the video editing equipment can take care of that. That's why they do digital these days... kind of like photoshop I guess.. take out the bad reflections and shit. Just make sure you're not erasing something really important, like evidence of a murder reflected in the window, that will catch the perp! hehe. One never knows what incidental bits one gets! Good luck with the editing, and it sounds like a great project that the kids are really into. Hey, are you safe here at the new place (vs the problems with the old and the school??)
from moonsphinx :
Password: open sesame
from wench77 :
Hmmm, if you're overworked and understaffed you line people up naked to simulate gay sex? Gee, bet there is a lot of that in Canadian hospitals then with the stressed out workers. Not. Sorry... ended up reading your notes. Though I agree with soldiergirl about Lynndie. When in front of a camera smile. Who was behind the camera?? Where are you pitbullshark? Did you get lost in that wonderful computer store, or lost in your video transfers? You haven't updated in a week! Come back!! :)
from soldiergirl :
I leave messages for Tom... um pitbullshark. Thanks for commenting on my prison abuse entry. I think PFC Lynndie England is a young woman who was in the wrong place at the wrong time. And unduly influenced by an older fiance who worked in a civilian Penn State prison and should have known better. Her finance, father-of-her unborn child had criminal charges filed against him by his ex-wife. I think both he and Staff Sergeant Chip Frederick, a soldier of 20 years, should have the most culpability. They, the older, wiser Non-commissioned Officers, should have known better. Lynndie didn't work there. Was smiling for the cameras to please her boyfriend. Just my humble opinion. Their unit had also been extended past a year, and had their departure dates changed three different times. Another important point to note: There are severe personnel shortages over there and in the U.S. Army. The public has no idea of the critical shortages. And those on Capitol Hill are either in denial or refusing to face the hard known facts in a 2004 election year. Overburden, understaff a unit with 12 hour work days, and no recreational outlets, and see the results first-hand. They find appropriate/non-appropriate, sick ways of entertaining themselves. Keep writing your insightful messages and journal entries. You are a valued on-line friend.
from wench77 :
hey, how come no one else leaves notes?? anyhews sounds like you got some great video project going there! Totally fun! I only did some tiny wee bit of video editing in a workshop back in 1989 and it was so fun. Have a blast! And you are so lucky to have a computer store like that with competent personnel. Here the one I used to go to is hopeless hopeless hopeless and half the time doesn't have something as simple as ink for my printer (which they sold me). Takes 20 minutes, three machines networked in three different rooms and two pieces of letter size paper to make a receipt for me buying 5 blank cds. Incredible. Yours sounds the greatest!!
from wench77 :
Excellently inspiring essay and I think it is fantastic that you are getting so much recognition for that Aboriginal Art lecture. Now *I* am dying to hear and see it! Doesn't sound like it was the "last performance"!! yay! Congratulations! BTW if you don't blow your own horn here on diaryland we ain't gonna get wind of it, so you better do it yourself! Yay and double Yay, and it is SO GREAT that all those people praised you in FRONT OF those administrators.
from wench77 :
What kind of pills does her dog take? Mine has been on glucosamine and chondritin since 1999, and is now taking Metacam (meloxicam) daily as well. It is a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug in liquid form. Costs me an arm and a leg. Glad you got use of your arm back!
from wench77 :
"For example, he said that neurology was one branch of medicine in which THERE IS NO MEDICAL CURE FOR ANYTHING, it is strictly diagnostic. And wouldn't you know it, I ended up with a serious neurological condition that resulted in a paralyzed left arm for almost half a year. I ended up with a DIAGNOSIS, as Crichton said. My diagnosis was "a single demylenative episode." But there was no medical cure. However, my BODY cured it on its own and everything is fine, now. But neurology could offer nothing but the diagnosis." But what is wrong with that? It won't change if they don't study neurology, it can only go forward. If you go to the doctor and he diagnoses you with the common cold there is a diagnosis but no cure either. Same with many many diseases and conditions. Without a diagnosis, you wouldn't have known if you had had a "single demylenative episode", if you had brain cancer, or a stroke for instance, all of which have different prognosis and treatments. No cures for any of them, but I still would be happy to have a diagnosis. Esp if it was something you could do something about. If you know you have a cold (vs say a lack of vitaminB in your diet or protein) you will be able to know what to do to help prevent it next time... like eating better, maybe taking echinacea, or avoiding people who sneeze at you. :) Given that we have only been able to actually study living brain cells for a very short time, I'd say, we're doing pretty well. Medicine should be a complete understanding of the interelatedness of the body's health, lack of health, prevention, nutrition, healing, death, environment, pathogens etc... not an instant cure-all. :) Back to agreeing with you that a mixed naturopathic sort of alternative medicine coupled with traditional medicine and healthy life choices is a good thing. tah!
from cadwaladr :
I am not familiar with the gay S&M flag. Hold on, let me look for it. Hmm, that is interesting, and I see what you mean. I wonder how many others might draw the comparison.
from wench77 :
Hmm, rereading your comment, which ironically now only exists in my email, not in any "comments", you say that it is hard to contemplate not needing anything to hold up the long arms on the satelite (obviously there is no force on one side not countered by a force on the other as with gravity on earth)... but it is the same as if you stand a book up on its edge. You don't need supports on the west side of it to keep it from collapsing west since the air on east and west, and gravity on east and west are the same pressure (let's forget about wind... take a calm room). If there was no gravity which is only up and down, then up and down would be the same as side to side in the world we are used to. Seems easy enough to contemplate. We don't look at a bridge and say "there are no supports to keep it from flying into the clouds" hehe. We accept that perfectly fine. Just extrapolate that to underneath as well. :)
from wench77 :
Hey that is not fair. I deleted that entry and you read it anyways. I was thinking of the earth turning towards the west, which of course it doesn't, it turns towards the east but I was too tired to rethink and rewrite the entry so I saved it elsewhere to rethink. Yes, in a vacuum there is no atmosphere up there. But that is out of the atmosphere... which requires huge amounts of energy (satellites are pretty small) as well as materials capable of leaving and reentering the atmosphere, with living people aboard. Very very expensive, and way more costly than sending someone on an airplane. (if you don't explode and burn up hehe) I don't see how passively waiting can be any faster than the time zones for the earth to go by. It goes by 1/24th of the earth per hour, ie one time zone. So if you are six time zones away, it will take six hours, no matter where you are (since the time zones would be shaped like orange segments) if you are not moving and the earth is rotating. You are limited to that speed. Whereas with airplanes you "lose time" or "gain time" but you still have been in the plane six hours. Going to London, in a plane, you travel for 6 hours, but actually you end up "losing" 12 hours ie leave here at 7pm and arrive there at 7am. Whereas if you sat above the earth like you propose, London would be directly below you after you had waited 18 hours. Starting your trip today at 7pm it is 1am London time on the next day, and add 18 hours, it would be 19:00 hours London time when you landed. Not only would you double your travel time, you would arrive in London 12 hours UK time later than if you had taken an airplane. Plus all the time and energy to shoot up out of the atmosphere (which takes more complicated math and planning) I think we should just hope that we are not dead of overpopulation, and that there is still some resources left that are usable without killing us (ie nuclear). Not that there might not be something cool in the future. Of course there is time dilation, but that is another story.
from wench77 :
haha, we are so funny, writing huge missives concurrently. Glad you got rid of your ants. On the insects I use Murphy's oil soap in water. I dunno... it is in my "107 ecological garden solutions" hehe. I think the problem is simply that you can never get every single last one in a crevice so they repopulate. Now I know why some of those plants I picked up off the curb were on the curb. gll. Another thing to write a comic about.
from wench77 :
Ah, we are sitting in the same canoe and paddling on the same side of it to go the same place. We all know what happens then. First ... the fact that human beings survived 40,000 years without giving birth in hospitals means nothing. Out of every 100 spiders that hatch, I believe something like over 90 of them are eaten by the others. That leave 10 happy spiders to go on and each lay eggs that hatch another 100 spiders. Same with human beings. Many societies didn't even have naming ceremonies for babies til they were a year old cuz so many died before that... they weren't even considered to have souls yet. A guy on his fourth wife cuz the others died will have maybe 14 kids. Drop a wife here and there what the heck. Hasn't hindered him from reproducing the human race eh. So that is just a bad argument. Good for the human race, and bad for individual people. Same could be said for heart surgery, vaccines for polio and smallpox etc. Hell a plague here and there, even in the past couple hundred years, with no hospitals and we are more populous than ever! The funny thing is that maybe we survived BECAUSE so many women died and babies died...and people in general. Now we're not gonna survive cuz we are overpopulating and eating up our ressources. A thought. But I never said either than women should be in hospitals or flat on their backs or drugged to the gills. I don't think anyone has argued that since the 60's or so. Simply there is this myth that a natural birth with Lamaze and all will be a wonderful no-problem experience, and many women have come out of it going "what the fuck, i am a huge failure cuz it didn't work that way" or "i asked for drugs after 20 hours of labour and I probably damaged my baby, i am a shit" guilt. urk. No, I think that advances are great. Here they have birthing rooms with families present and midwives. So we are in the same canoe, ok. Just this mythologizing that goes on about "well 40,000 years of eskimos can't be wrong"... There is another side of the coin. BTW it is fascinating that you say how medical doctors are not geniuses and are often wrong, whereas you use the fact that Crichton went to med school to say he is so smart and couldn't be wrong. That is arguing both ways. I don't know. Crichton could be as out to lunch as the doctors who put women up on stirrups. I don't know. But it all sounds like the preaching I would get when inseminating. If it didn't work "naturally" like a charm "like so and so" then I was doing something wrong. Like these women screaming in pain. Anyways, yeah, i'm discussing again. But remember we agree. Hospitals are for sick people, and women in labour are not sick. Healthcare systems need overhauls. But a lot has changed already in the western world of birthing. Gurus are good but I am as sceptical of medical ones as religious ones.
from wench77 :
oh it is so nice to read about someone obviously less technically savy and more emotionally unbalanced than myself! Though I did nearly cry when I discovered today that not only had i not gotten rid of my scale insect problem but that it had spread to plants in my studio now. Nothing like small things like bugs and wires to frazzle one's nerves. Ahh.. An apartment pool. I live in Montreal. I forget that apartments some places have pools. Well here some have them in the basement... ritzy buildings downtown. We have an outdoor pool filled with hundreds of children two blocks away. Does that count? Here it is very hot in july and aug... like 80-100� F in concrete. mmm.
from wench77 :
Ah, click "done!" and it'll come, i knew it. You have a POOL??!!
from wench77 :
hehe you know how to put Bob at ease don'tcha!! EEK all that technology. If you were here I'd getcha to show me how to use Excell... it has been in my computer for 5 yrs now and i have no clue. I don't think i have even opened it. My Word crashes upon opening it with a type 1 error though. yay. I was going to say something else about the start of your entry but I forgot. So bye!
from wench77 :
hehe. I am looking up "devil's claw for canine arthritis" and found out : "Hottentot, Bushman and Bantu women applied it during labour to relieve pain."... and went and looked back at your Eskimo parenting entry... and then had this silly single panel cartoon idea (I have been reading this book on single panel cartoons) of an Eskimo mother doing the waterbirthing thing up there in the north... right into this hole in the ice and the baby blue and icy... and maybe a mother seal watching and going... poor things, they really need more baby fat... beside her round baby seal. (of course baby seals aren't born in water either... they actually drown for the first while so their mothers keep them out of the water). Hmm. silliness.
from wench77 :
What pitbullshark wanted from santaclaus was an i-book with however many gigabytes! hehe that was a funny ending. Very cool about the preverbal dream art. Hmm. Sounds like an excellent lecture. But yeah, technology breaking down really brings the point home. I also like to point out how if low technology things break down we can fix or reshape them ourselves or use them for other things. A digging stick can be just about anything, and in the end you could burn it for heat. But a computer broken? They don't even make em flat so you could use the monitor for a side table! I did once see knitting done with cassette tape, but I don't know what it would be good for. A fish net maybe. Hmm. I have been thinking alot about a book I loved in the 80's called "Design for the Real World", ie that radio that winds up and doesnt use batteries so you can use it anywhere in the world. Things like that. I think of that when I see the recycling bins with stuff blowing all over the sidewalk in the wind. I think. Bad design. Empty packaging in a wide open container set out in the elements. duh. hehe. well, this is not about aboriginal art so i'll leave off now! tah!
from wench77 :
Hmm, that was an interesting entry. Do you read Sasori-gal?? She is a teacher in Japan, and seems to be running up against similar bizarre teaching plans like you are. In that they are not taking the strengths and knowledge of the teachers into mind. She taught a dance thing to her grade 4? class last year, and now the director wants this year's teacher to do dance, whereas the new teacher doesn't dance and sasorigal does. It is so stupid. Why try to equalize, when you get dance teachers teaching art they don't care about, art teachers teaching music etc. So silly. You'd think the students would benefit the most of a teacher's personally accumulated passion and experience. So so dumb. I have a friend here in Montreal who was very gungho teaching and she got called in by the principal and told to stop going above and beyond the curriculum, since she was stepping on teachers toes in the higher grades (ie reading them a book with vocab they were supposed to learn 2 yrs later). Now anyone with a brain would think, great! they learned something with no vocab drills no pushing, in a fun context, and 2 yrs ahead of agenda. Nope no good. Isn't standardized. Duh. Imagine if they "standardized" university! hehe. Or the real world and had karate teachers teaching flamenco etc at the community center and vice versa. yay. BTW the end paragraph about the aborigines just being people and let the world around them and nature be beautiful instead of trying to "make beauty" was fantastic. Strangely humans are always convinced they have "made beauty" when they badly do something nature does already. Ie rip fur coats off living beings where they are long in the right places, short in the right places, hair the right direction etc, and even sheds to be thinner in summer and thicker in winter, in order to make a "fur coat" for a human. Duh. Gll. Anyways, thought provoking entry as always. tah!
from moonsphinx :
Hey! I KNOW you! I thought I had a new admirer but then I started to read here I was thinking, "This looks like...this sounds like...It is!" House warming greetings to your new spot on the www. I hope to have the March story finished ASAP...but I am sooooo busy. Thanks for keeping in touch!
from wench77 :
Oh, I wanted to say thanks about the comments on the gymnast. I couldn't open that link you sent (it gave an "error" page in both browsers) but I have redrawn and sent the sketch... I DID make the arms a bit more obviously muscular. I don't know about the hands. Sigh.!!
from wench77 :
Thanks for doing my gettinolder survey. Ah, like the lattitude and longitude on a map... of course that info is of the utmost importance as to climate, direction, probable destination, state of the craft related to distance since previous map coordinates etc! :) No explorer, traveller or sailor will tell you otherwise! I like that you say that you "beat yourself up less". me too. Very interesting about the milk. I have bad knees too. I drink mostly organic milk now.. don't know what sort of cows. I dunno about the food/aging thing. I think it is both. All plants, animals, bacteria, even radioactive isotopes have natural shelf-lives, though that can be shortened by BAD food and environment. :) HAHA about the brandnew baby parts of the brain. Those cells are as old as any others. Like women who never had kids, their eggs etc are just as old. Though I don't know how the brain actually works in that if it makes new neuron connections when you use it. There ARE studies showing that people who use their brains actively as they age keep it in better shape. Your answers to #13, where you talk about the three parts of aging is brilliant. Would you mind if I perhaps copied and pasted that as a quote into an entry??? It deserves to be read. Hmmmm re the rest of it. Thoughtful and interesting. Thankyou! Always a pleasure to get such rounded out answers! tah!
from wench77 :
Well, they ARE giving us a share of sales... most children's books work that way. But since there is a delay of like 2 years between the work done and the first royalty check (I did the drawings July-Nov 2003, and the book will come out in May or June, the first accounting will end in Dec, and the first check come out by end Feb 2005) creators get an "advance on royalties"... ie a set amount that is deducted from the first check they get. Ie they were supposed to pay me $1000 on signing the contract, $500 on finishing the sketches (a good month or two work) and $500 on delivering the finals (another 6-8 weeks fulltime work) and $1000 when it is published. Then if it makes $3500 in the first year, they would deduct the $3000 advance so I would only get a check for $500 next february. Now I don't know about you, but I personally think that 8 weeks work for $500 is ALREADY an investment in the future. So if they don't even pay that for 6 months, it is just crummy. They have paid me $1500 to date, but haven't paid the author a penny. If she pulls out I am screwed. There is no reason why printers and secretaries, art directors and their rent should get paid and not the advance they have a legal obligation to pay the creators. BTW I added to the entry you just read.
from wench77 :
Hey! thanks for doing my dimmemories survey! I didn't know that about the sargeant pepper's album. I think I still have it so I'll see. I suspect my needle arm lifts at the end. Sigh! But I'll try it out! Wow, you are a bit older than I am if you couldve been drafted into vietnam! :) Haha, those duck nephews were fun. Archie was pretty tame as a comic. I am not even sure there was kissing, just lots of mooning around with hearts in the air! I have those ducks in a comic in SWEDISH! LOL! Hmm, you should know who the Bay CIty Rollers are after reading my entry! And I don't know if I know that Barbra "baby" song. I'll google it. OMG I admit i laughed totally out loud about the computer paper dorm scene! Sorry to hear about the boyfriend dying of aids! :( I admit I miss the phone company taking care of the phones and phone lines. It was great to have oneshop responsibility. As for "fax" I think the word was "telecopier". OOO OOO! I WORKED as a carhop in an A&W!! delivering those HEAVY frosty mugs and putting them on cardoor windows. It was really busy after a football game in the summer. Hmm, about banking. Here we live for bank machines. Even if I use my direct payment bank card at the grocery store sometimes, mostly I get cash at the bank machine and deposit my checks there. There are bank machines dispensing cash everywhere. Being self-employed, I get checks from assorted companies and individuals I wouldn't give my account info to. When I go to the teller to deposit US$ checks etc, there is just a counter. No bulletproof glass etc. We Canadians really are.sweet and nice eh!! Wow re the car thing. I still don't drive a car with electric windows. Pain in the bloody ass I tell ya. :) And I prefer stickshifts. Thanks for all your interesting thoughts on technology. (just think how easy it is to LOSE your whole cd collection in one ipod!) I agree with the weird way of the masses of energy spent on developing new computer games vs something like the common cold or safe water. We are gadget obsessed. I went through parts of Ontario and Michigan when there was the power outage, and cuz of everything electronic, nothing worked. Not water faucets or toilets, or door openers, or air conditioning (windows couldn't be opened), not telephones or lockers for suitcases. It was insane. We are trapping ourselves by our technology. Well, thanks again! :)
from wench77 :
ps, you can discuss back eh! :)
from wench77 :
HAHAHAH! Totally laughing out loud: "and what she reads she DISCUSSES" hehe! Too funny. Your entry today once again didn't disappoint... started with a Fedex rant, continued with firefighting feeders (does the govt pay for the steaks?? or are they independently wealthy?) forward and onward to homeland security and the draft, and ends up being a critique of sales methods of computers and finally advice about card companies (see the guy earlier WAS right when he talked about a different shipping address being "for your protection"... I thought that right off... if you get a big ticket item shipped to an address NOT the cardholder's address then they wonder if it isn't stolen and could refuse the charges. It does sort of make sense, but I didn't know you could bypass that problem by calling the card company). I sympathise with the computer deal... my computer sales store is hopeless... most of the time they don't even have printer cartridges, but have some system that takes 20 minutes, two rooms and three machines to spit out a receipt for two blank cd's, all within an atmosphere of hightechnology and richesse as you describe. Sorry about your bad Fedex experiences. I once shipped to and fro a farm in the wilds of Wisconsin with n'er a problem... they'd leave the stuff "in the greenhouse" if I said a signature wasn't necessary. Hmm. Perhaps it is the individual (like your UPS guy just sounds like a logical sweetie, whereas I have UPS horror tales!) hehe, is this discussing again??? :) nite nite!
from wench77 :
Ah, me YET AGAIN! I am the pitbull when I get onto a topic. I am still googling Ashley Montagu and I have stumbled across a mention of a book I loved which you should check into. "The Chalice and the Blade by Riane Eisler , which Ashley Montagu claimed was "...the most important book since Darwin�s Origin of the Species"." There you go. check it out. You'll love it.
from wench77 :
OH, I am back yet again! I have found a great link for you to add in your diary for that book (which I googled, since of course it interests me. Here it is: http://www.humaneparenting.com/Ashley/Synopsis.htm There is a funny quote about having the baby at home though. He says :"the family, a nest of warm and loving human relations". HAHAHAHAHA!! From Cain and Abel onward, myths, folklore and true human relations everywhere have proven that to be an ideal that is often not attained. Baby spiders eat each other. Other baby animals will fight over the teats of the mother, often leaving the runt to die. Siblings compete for attention, nourishment, and finally spouses and land etc. Parents often fight or disagree. Even Adam and Eve mustve had a horrible family life once Eve was considered responsible for God throwing them out. Many cultures, the men are allowed to beat their wives, or kill their sons or daughters. Let me repeat HAHAHA. Hmm. It is a really nice warm thought though.
from wench77 :
Oh, I forgot to say, in Mother's Day is Over book, I am reading now about how the writer totally believed in breastfeeding, joined laleche, it was going great with her perfect happy baby, who started suddenly after a few weeks to lose weight? Turns out that the baby was starving cuz the milk wasnt coming in enough, and she had to start adding formula to its diet. She was freaked out cuz she thought it NATURALLY worked, and that she mustve been doing something wrong. Nope. Naturally, most babies of bugs, dogs, guinea pigs, and human beings die. hehe. Only when we start to have medical care that overcomes so many of the natural causes of death do humans start to so completely overpopulate. And now we will be like every other species that does so. Sigh. BTW my mom's next door neighbor was in labour without pain meds for over 24 hours. People have difficulty with a headache. Imagine severe abdominal cramps for 24 hours. Why WOULDNT the women want pain relief?? She calls the idea that they should do without "female machismo". Oh damn, see, now you've got me started!! hehe.
from wench77 :
Hmm. I will look into that book. Interestingly what you are saying directly meshes with the book "Mother's Day is Over" that I am reading, where it says that in general mothers NEED time and space from their kids, that the "oh it's natural it shouldn't hurt" is bullshit. (Hell, my own father told me that the only reason I got period cramps my first period was cuz I "believed the old wives tales" whereas it was the OPPOSITE!! I believed that it WOULDNT hurt cuz those were old wives tales, and it totally took me by surprise... the nausea, the cramps etc. The old wives apparently had a lot of experience. JUST the cramping from giving birth is painful... it is like period cramps but hard enough to expell a baby's head through pelvic bones that PART!! eek! In the "natural" days, it was not unusual for women to DIE during childbirth, and babies too. It was a major joy that the woman and child both survived. (one reason there are so many fairy tales with stepmothers). I agree that the lying on the back position is nuts and was invented for doctors to have a better view. But the logistics of that body coming out of a woman are still there. Prostaglandins make the cramps. I have had experience with those by injecting sperm into my uterus. They cause unstriated muscle tissue to cramp, also nausea etc. Every woman and every birth is different. I once watched a cow die from a breech birth. After hours of pain and hemoraging the owner could only shoot it. The baby had already suffocated in the womb. Not to say giving birth in water isn't a lovely thing. As for the baby on the back thing, that is cool and many people here now buy those baby snuggy things, so kids DO get transported with the mom and on their backs. Personally I cannot believe that a baby stuck all the time on its mother's back does not get frustrated. I am sure that a baby reaching for a bone needle is going to be denied by its mom, or you are gonna end up with one dead choked baby. And it is going to be frustrated. Anyone who has picked up a small child cuz you've got to walk faster or go someonewhere to have them SCREAM in frustration knows how easy it is to make a kid angry. I suppose in the far north there are fewer items lying around to hurt a child. But what happens when he picks up a rock and goes to bonk his sibling over the head? Does mom go "oh all right", or how about when the child wants to go outside and there is a huge storm coming up? Or when the child wants to see the pretty seal and it is on an ice floe that will drift away and drown it? I am sure that the children are taught and corrected somehow. Perhaps in a quieter way. Perhaps being told that they will die if they go out on the ice. But that is still a correction, and a denial of what they want. How bout when the family is dealing with starvation cuz they didn't find a seal or walrus for weeks during bad weather? How do they give the child what it wants and needs instantly? How in such a harsh climate can a parent be so perfect? This doesn't jive with what Peary's wife wrote in her diary, that a young woman had left silently with tears when Peary asked if she had any younger children. Another woman had said the young woman had been widowed and had strangled her smallest child because with 3 other children she needed a man to marry her, and no man would take a woman who had a child still on her back. I suppose babies don't cry if you kill them in order for a man to come along and feed the other three. I think sometimes we idolize and build up aboriginal peoples in completely unrealistic ways that could never be possible. I suspect that their forbidding climate and the fact that so many people died easily make people coddle their kids, make kids appreciate having parents, and make them listen or end up dead. Well, now I've written an essay.
from wench77 :
Hmm, that is very interesting about the spacial relations thing with inuit babies. Do you have any documentation on that? I'd be interested to read more. Tah!
from wench77 :
oooh! the first message! I like the pitbullshark profile! That is so EXCITING!! a new Mac convert! yay! I think Mac's are the greatest thing since mozarella cheese. Drag and drop seemlessly. Coolarama. And the windows on it look so much better than Windows windows. anyways, congrats! Sometimes I wish I had a laptop to take with me to work at the coffeeshop... lots of people do that. But then I would never get ANYTHING done! hehe. Welcome to your new diary!

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