Sure, Why Not?

January

Lots of car research and test drove the Mazda 3. Finally narrowed down my car choices to that, the Ford Focus, and the Hyundai Elantra, the last of which I hadn’t test driven yet. On one unusually warm day, went to anti-war rally to table for NYRA with Alex and Scott, where my NYRA bumper stickers made their inaugural tabling appearance. I also saw our new NYRA office for the first time. I believe our forum raiding also began that month. At work, lots of changes were made, making stuff follow stricter protocols in order to follow federal guidelines. If only the guy organizing all this wasn’t an idiot, wouldn’t have meant quite so much more work for me. Oh, well. Was getting quite addicted to the Weatherscan channel by then as well. It’s the Weather Channel derivative on Comcast that just shows local forecast over and over. At this point, I’d memorized the order of the different background music. Haha.
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Final score.

Dallas 6
Washington 27

Mmmm… good.

Soooo good.

In fact, let’s look at that one again.

Dallas 6
Washington 27

Oh, man. That is just soooo sweet. Such a beautiful sight.

They think they’re so great. Then they come to us for the final game of the regular season.

Let’s look at it once more.

Dallas 6
Washington 27

I’ll never get sick of that. Mmmm… yeah.

So I was looking at one of the little political polls they have on Facebook these days, asking various questions about what people’s stances are on issues. One of them I saw was “Can a woman President be as effective as a man?”

While significantly lower than those who said Yes, there were quite a lot who said no! Perhaps one out of every seven respondents said no.

You mean people like that actually still exist? I mean, I can understand people saying no specifically because they don’t like Clinton, but that wasn’t the question. It was just in general, if there were anything inherent about all women that made them unfit for presidency, some way that isn’t an issue for men.

President must have a penis? Something about that determines how the commander in chief handles foreign policy and other important matters? Something about having a vagina hinders this?

I don’t get the logic. Feminism has come a long ass way, but there is so much more that must be changed still. Can’t people just learn already? It is exhausting giving the human race any credit and being so continually disappointed.

Another year has gone by. Today, on this 4th Day of Christmas, the Fortress is two years old!

This is the 257th entry in Sure, Why Not?, by a wide margin the most often updated section (and what many believe to be the only thing on this site). The other sections I update whenever I feel like it. So they aren’t a whole lot different from poor, all-but-forgotten Science Village. Oh, well.

Time for a third year! Yay Fortress!

And now, for a cosmetic, beautifying edition of…

YOU SUCK!!!!

We’ve all seen it. In The Breakfast Club, it was the Ally Sheedy character being remedied by Molly Ringwald. Countless Disney movies have done essentially the same. It’s the desperate need in more movies than I care to count, for fear of vomiting, to make the plain girl a pretty girl, for that is the only way she can be happy or desirable.
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And now, for a geriatric, helpful version of…

Here’s to You!!!

So I raise my glass and say “Here’s to you, Maxine!”

Maxine’s my sister. Yesterday, I mentioned my grandma has been sick. She came back from the hospital late last night, and I had to work today, but dad and sister have been taking care of her. I got home and helped out, too.

My sister, however, has been willing to jump right up and do any, um, dirty work. I won’t go into further details, as I’m certain neither you nor I really want to! But she’s amazing. She’s been so helpful. I try to help, too, but she’s quicker at stuff while I tend to hesitate in confusion.

I suppose it takes situations like these to really see what those around you are made of.

I sure do feel bad seeing as I said yesterday I didn’t think this was a particularly bad Christmas in spite of this. I’m definitely the only one who feels that way!

Another Christmas has come upon us! Joy to the world!

I tell you, was a gorgeous Christmas Day here. Sunny and clear and quiet outside. Better than last year when it was raining. Made me think of the Emerson, Lake, and Palmer song “I Believe in Father Christmas”. First line goes: You said there’d be snow at Christmas, you said there’d be peace on earth, but instead it just kept on raining, a veil of tears for the virgin birth.

But, yeah, that was last year. This year, was a nice day. True, snow would have been way better, but not a bad day still.

Just one little issue. Grandma got sick about five days ago and hasn’t been well since. And after this morning she fell down after getting out of bed, and was too weak to pick herself back up and was on the floor for THREE HOURS, something was really wrong. Don’t know yet. Also been running a fever.

Could be something. Could be nothing. This afternoon, my dad and aunt and the rest of us decided it was time she went to the hospital. Dad, aunt, sister, and cousins took grandma to the hospital, and I stayed home to keep track of things here, plus I’m the only one who has work tomorrow and can’t do the late night if it came to that.

Interesting thing, though. I still feel like this was a good Christmas. If you’d told me before that we’d have something like this happen on Christmas Day, I’d shudder at the thought, feel like that would ruin it for sure. But it doesn’t feel ruined. Nor do I feel like this happening today made this any worse in particular. Magic of Christmas right there, I guess. Christmas still came all the same despite some adversity. I feel like a Who!

And, like the last two years, here’s my Christmas videos!

UN: xmas
PW: tree

Yeah, I know, it’s the same as last year even though I had said it was temporary. Whatever.

Have you heard the sound of the angel voices
Ringing out so sweetly, ringing out so clear?
Have you seen the star shining out so brightly
As a sign from God that Christ the Lord is here?
Have you heard the news that they bring from heaven
To the humble shepherds who have waited long?
Gloria in excelsis Deo, Gloria in excelsis Deo!
Hear the angels sing their joyful song.

He is come in peace in the winter’s stillness
Like a gentle snowfall in the gentle night
He is come in joy like the sun at morning
Filling all the world with radiance and with light.
He is come in love as the child of Mary
In a simple stable we have seen His birth
Gloria in excelsis Deo, Gloria in excelsis Deo!
Hear the angels singing “Peace on earth!”

He will bring new light to a world in darkness,
Like a bright star shining in the skies above
He will bring new hope to the waiting nations
When he comes to reign in purity and love.
Let the earth rejoice at the Savior’s coming
Let the heavens answer with the joyful morn.
Gloria in excelsis Deo, Gloria in excelsis Deo!
Hear the angels singing “Christ is born!”

And now, for a festive, decorative edition of…

Here’s To You!!!

So I raise my glass and say, “Here’s to you, Christmas tree!”

I pretty much did much of the decorating of the tree since my grandma can’t lift her arms too much at a time. The other night, I was putting on the lights, after telling her not to worry about it. I began putting them up, but then she kept coming over and moving them, in her way of saying to me YOU ARE DOING IT WRONG!

Then she got sick for a few days, so there wasn’t much done in the way of Christmas preparation.

Today, seeing as the tree only had some lights on it and nothing else, figured we’d better get it done. So that’s what I spent the evening doing.

We have SO many damn ornaments! It got to the point that in several places there were three to a branch. And more and more kept being put on. Shit, no wonder the tree has been known to tip. We’d need like three more trees to fit all these. And that’s with the fact that many still didn’t get put on.

Maybe some sturdy garland around the house to hold even more.

Yay! Christmas!

On another note, the moon is bright tonight! Clear night, full moon. The “midnight clear” is a day early, hehe.

It started innocently enough when Kathleen visited the NYRA forums for the first time in two years. Quickly disgusted, she left me a note on my Facebook profile that she found she didn’t miss the forums that much and was amazed that I could put up with the idiocy all the time. I told her it was a legitimate concern, that I’ve either gotten used to it, or I just have to rely on my coping methods which, as I put it, consisted mostly of abuse of moderator powers whenever Alex wasn’t looking. She replied, amazed that I’d be able to do anything without Alex looking, wondering if he wasn’t as dictatorial as he once was. I responded saying that, no, he still watches my every moderatory move (and threw in a comment of “and to think he thinks I’M the one stalking HIM, but that’s another stupid story entirely…”).

Alex then saw the Wall-to-Wall between me and Kathleen, so saw this back and forth, so he left a comment on her profile saying he’s always watching. Then the following ensued, read it from the bottom up to get it in the right order: alexkathfacebook.png

So, naturally, I posted that screen cap on the NYRA forums in a thread I’d made not too long ago specifically for memorable conversations.

And just today, I realized that’s true. Alex is ceiling cat. He is Ceiling Alex. And here’s what he does: Ceiling Alex

And here’s what I do: Ceiling Alex and Me

Good times.

So the other night, my dad was commenting about the Charlie Brown Christmas special, and how it’s different from all the other specials in that it mentions Jesus. This was, of course, accompanied with some whining about “oh noes, Jesus can’t be mentioned because the Jews and Muslims would complain!”
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Now, for a knocked-up, scandalous version of…

SHUT THE HELL UP!!!!

Okay, so the media and commentators have been shitting themselves over Britney Spears’s 16-year-old sister being pregnant. We all know that a teenager being pregnant is like the worst sin in the world for some reason, but now it’s all over the asstarded celebrity news. For that reason, I’d leave it alone, but then again, kind of a youth rights issue, so I have to chime in.
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I hereby decree…

Supporters of school uniforms are closet pedophiles.

I’ve been thinking about the issue of school uniforms earlier. Then I realized something. What kind of perverted jackass supports them? You hear the same old excuses they pull out of their asses about wanting students to be more equal, so the poor kids wouldn’t feel like they have shabby clothes while the rich kids have nice expensive clothes. That’s about all they come up with and they convince themselves over and over that it is a bullet proof argument, despite the very many factual errors. Such as schools with uniforms typically requiring uniform fees, for one.

No, they support it because they enjoy the idea of young kids being dressed in clothes they like to see them in. You just know these perverted old assholes are getting off at the thought of ten-year-old school girls in a little plaid skirt. They believe children are not people, but little beings for them to control for their own personal pleasure. So what do they do? They want to dress up the little “dolls” for their own gratification, in little outfits of their choosing.

Funny how the people most vocal about perverts on the internet will wholeheartedly support school uniforms. Talk about missing an obvious haven of pedophiles. Then again, protecting children in that sense is hardly their biggest priority.

And you people think those in charge really see children as innocent beings. You are quite fooled.

And now, for a matrimonial session of…

YOU SUCK!!!

I hate weddings. They’re so stupid and ridiculously expensive. You’ve got these gay ass little traditions that everyone expects you to follow, and every little thing costs a lot of money. I mean, you could side step much of the expensive, but, goodness, the bride and groom couldn’t be expected to do that! Not on the happiest day of their lives!
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I’m seeing a disturbing trend among people around my age, and it is something that has always been expected of us, and it happened to every generation before us. It is the disregard for what came “after our time”.

I grew up on the cartoons of the late 80’s and early to mid 90’s. Good stuff. Or at least we say so now. Our old Saturday morning shows and after school specials now sit among sitcoms on the shelves of Best Buy as DVD collections. Nice.
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It’s nice to have moments throughout the holiday season when you can truly feel the spirit of it. I had one of those today. I went to see my friend from college, and her husband and infant son, and a couple of their friends, for the usual monthly game day.

There I was standing with them in their kitchen. She was baking cookies along with her housemate. We randomly started singing “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree” and then “Let It Snow”.

In their living room, the Christmas tree was up (and they had a rather interesting ornament on it, of a half-naked Santa Claus with a ball in his mouth and strapped to a couple of giant candy canes, LOL!), and they had a string of lights long their ceiling edges.

And we sat their playing games and listening to twisted Christmas carols.

Mmmm. ‘Tis the season. Christmas time with nice people. Love such moments.

Made it even nicer when I saw on their table they had received the NYRA holiday card I’d sent them. Hehehe.

Ugh. This news story just got posted on NYRA.

Source

Canadian Muslim Teen’s Dad Charged in Her Murder; Friends Say They Clashed Over Head Scarf

TORONTO — A Canadian man has been charged with murdering his own daughter, and her friends say the two clashed over her refusal to wear a Muslim head scarf. Police have not commented on a motive.

Aqsa Parvez, 16, of Mississauga, Ontario, was rushed to hospital in critical condition Monday after a man made an emergency call in which he claimed to have killed his daughter, police said. She died late Monday night.

The emergency call “came in from the father saying he had killed his daughter,” police spokesman Wayne Patterson said. “Police arrived and rushed her to hospital and she passed away.”

Patterson said they are working at determining the motive and refused to confirm it was over the head scarf.

The girl’s friends said in interviews Tuesday that Aqsa loved shopping for clothes and clashed with her family over her reluctance to wear the hijab, a traditional veil or head scarf for devout Muslim women.

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Holy crap, what an awesome movie. It was just on NBC, so with all the ads, it got stretched into three hours. Hooray for writer’s strike! Take off all the crappy sitcoms and just play Christmas specials every evening!

In a strange sense, it’s kind of pro-youth. You’ve got this young George Bailey guy always determined and always willing to do the right thing, even at his own expense. Even when just 12 years old, saved his brother from drowning which made him half deaf, he yelled at that old Potter guy defending his father, and stopped his boss from poisoning a kid by mistake even though he doesn’t point out the error before he gets the shit slapped out of him. Everyone around him is screwing up, so it’s up to him to be the solid one, the responsible one, the rock.
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And now, for a heavily medicated version of…

SHUT THE HELL UP!!!

I’m so tired of these stupid ads for prescription drugs all the time. It’s like “are you sad sometimes? do you feel loss of energy? are you not doing the things you used to? then you need Superdangerouspointlessdrug, or SDPD, because even though the side effects are heart attack, stroke, liver cancer, impotence, and rectal bleeding, it just might make you feel a little bit better, so tell your doctor to prescribe this for you.”
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And now, for an inspiring, reality-based edition of…

Here’s To You!

So I raise my glass and say “Here’s to you, Kid Nation!”

When I first heard about this show, I figured they were just recreating the original Boys’ Town for reality TV. Give some kids a town and say “here’s a town, run it”. No one is there to pick them up when they fall down. They have to pick themselves up. No mommy and daddy to do everything for them. It’s up to them to keep things going themselves.
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