Goodnight, sweet Fairy

I called her Fairy, because I’ve never liked the name Fay. The first time I saw her — on my second day there — and realized what had happened to her, I sat on the floor and sobbed for about 45 seconds, before I pulled my shit together, and she happily licked my hands while I cried.

Everyone always felt so sorry for her, but she was a rock star. She had no idea that she was disfigured, and she never seemed to be in any pain. She just knew that everyone gave her kisses and peanut butter and loved her. If you sat on the floor in front of her, she’d keep licking your face until the sun cooled, given the opportunity. They called her Smiley Cyrus.

No matter which section I worked in, I always went to say good morning and good night to my Fairy, and steal my kisses. Brave little girl. I was looking forward to the day I’d see her at a fundraiser and get to hold her on my lap and hug her again.

Good night, Fay. Rest well. I hope I’m wrong, and I see you and many of your fellow former fighters again. It was an honor to know you.

Love,
Aunt Tanya

Funny Peculiar or Funny Ha-ha?

I saw this headline on my iGoogle, er, headline list, and my immediate thought was ‘Sweet!”

Israel to Build 700 Homes in East Jerusalem

Israel plans to build nearly 700 new apartments in disputed East Jerusalem, defying demands by the United States and the Palestinian Authority for a freeze on settlement construction. While Israel has imposed a partial freeze on construction in the West Bank, government spokesman Mark Regev says that does not apply to Jerusalem, which Israel says is the eternal capital of the Jewish people.

“I want to be very clear. In the Jewish neighborhoods of Jerusalem, there is not going to be a freeze, there cannot be a freeze. We never promised to freeze construction in those areas,” he said.

I get that this is against American “demands” right now, but frankly, America isn’t Israel’s friend right now. Some of us remain so, but not by policy. Simply because we understand what friendship means. (Israel is the only country on earth that would steadfastly defend us against any foe, and that deserves to be reciprocated, no matter how you feel about their politics.)

Anyway. I could have said as much on twitter. But this is what made it neglected-blogworthy:

Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said, “This decision to build new housing units in East Jerusalem undermines the credibility of those involved in making the peace process continue.”

HAHAHAHA!!! Palestinian negotiator! Credibility! Peace process! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!

*cough*

That is all.

2009

Merry Christmas from Us to You

We can talk about this healthcare crap later. Grr.

Also…

Incidentally, this is what Crow looks like when he’s awake. And more than six inches away from the camera, which is harder than it sounds.

Zap!

When I was a kid, there was this brilliant antique game in the Penny Arcade at Disneyland. It was from the early 1900s like most of the games there — many of the others were those hand-crank movies with pictures on cards that flip past. Love those.

It had an electrical coil inside, under glass. You grabbed the two metal handles that stuck out from the front, and it sent an electrical shock through you, and continued getting stronger until you let go, or the dial reached the top. I never managed to stay on it the whole time. After 15 seconds or so, I’d guess, it really started to hurt. And you could see the muscles in your forearms twitching.

So I’m guessing it’s not there anymore.

Thanksgiving

Internets, meet Crow.

He’s asleep under my desk. (I put all of the cords in a box, just in case.)

Happy Thanksgiving.

Cooking with Molecules

Ok, this isn’t really what I was talking about when I was overanalyzing Diamond Age. Molecular makes much more sense than atomic. But it’s still really cool.

Update: Actually, re-reading that post, I think it might be the definition of my personality.

Save The Boobies!

I can’t believe I forgot to mention this until now. I tweeted it on October 1st, and then completely spaced.

It’s the 8th Annual Boobiethon!!!

This started out as a lark — one friend trying to raise money for a plane ticket to get another friend to Florida for the holidays, via blegging. It worked so well, they had money left over. Instead of keeping it, they decided to donate it to Komen. And so, a cause was born in 1991. The Boobiethon.

Both of the friends were also friends of mine, at the time — though we’ve since grown apart — and so I’ve been a supporter for 7 of the 8 years. (The one year that I missed, I had just moved to St Louis, and paypal couldn’t validate my new account in time. This is back in the stone age, when paypal only allowed checking accounts for funding.) I’ve also sent in pictures several years, but I’ve never told which years, and I’m not going to start now.

It’s just everyday bloggers, girls next door, sending in flirty but not offensive pictures of their cleavage — in exchange for your donations to Komen. They’re fun and sexy, but no faces or names are shown. And there’s a special page, if you donate $50 or more (which I always do), which shows a lot more skin. This section tends to be even more clever and creative, but my favorite of any year so far is just saran wrap. Sounds boring but it works. Some of the pictures in all sections are simple, some are artistic, some are fun, all are boobies.

The main page (linked above), and the page with instructions on how to donate, are always work-safe. The rest, uh, no.

Go check out the pictures, and then donate. Who doesn’t love boobies? Who doesn’t hate breast cancer? And really, after the year I’ve had, the life you save may be mine.

Hurry! It ends tomorrow! (But in the past, the pay-per-boobies password has worked for a while after the end.)

Zzzzz

Ugh, what a weird dream. I dreamed this elderly female zombie, with a thick New York accent and wearing a Chanel power suit, was chasing me through London.

I haven’t had one of those slow motion running dreams in a long time — where they keep catching up with you no matter what you do. *shudder*

(Now that I’m awake, she was physically rather similar to Juno from Beetlejuice, but older, and without the spunk and with more low-key, oozing creepiness.)

Shalit Lives

I would never have believed it. Never.

Gilad Shalit is apparently still alive. I’ve actually commented in several places, before today, that exchanging palistinian terrorist prisoners for another bag of bones was absurd, because it was impossible that he was alive. I can’t even imagine how they kept him alive for three years among those monsters. He must have been isolated, and it must be something approaching a miracle.

Or it could be an imposter, and the details tortured out of him before he was murdered. Call me a cynic. But how can they not trade a thousand murderous bastards for the chance, now? Damn it.