Gave in and admitted that there's way too much furniture in our living room. One of the end tables has gone into storage and the bookcase has been moved upstairs to a bedroom. The CD rack is destined to be emptied and stored. The TV and entertainment center is in the corner instead of in front of the window, and has shed two surround speakers, the ( Read more... )

The annual mortgage dance has been completed. At the end of every September the escrow account attached to my primary mortgage holds onto the cash for the homeowners and flood insurance until the last possible day. This triggers warning letters that are sent out to me, to the primary mortgage holder, and to the second mortgage/home equity loan (at ( Read more... )

PDF of Putative Father Registries by State

I'm against these registries. They're passed through the legislature with rhetoric promising that father's rights will be protected, but the language of the laws makes them a hidden hoop to jump through that's used to deny parental rights.

Here's the story of a guy in Idaho whose pregnant fiancee left, ( Read more... )

So my happy fish icon has been replaced by a red-eyed Hound of the Baskervilles with the name 'KIRA' under it.

I don't know why. Perhaps I'm being haunted.

I read this post on slactivist yesterday and then saw a bumper sticker on the way home that read : "Annoy a Liberal : Work Hard, Succeed, Be Happy ( Read more... )

I dreamt last night that prayers were being answered, but that the queue for prayers to be answered was backed up to the dawn of civilization, such that it didn't matter what you prayed for as you'd actually receive whatever an ancient Sumerian wanted.

I got a goat. Tried again and a river flooded.

There's a new US Citizenship test out. Applicants get 10 questions and must answer six correctly to pass. Here's my 6 correct answers :

What does the Constitution do?

Sits in a display case at the National Archives

What do we call the first ten amendments to the ConstitutionThe First Amendment, the Second Amendment, the Third Amendment, etc ( Read more... )

From someone on Fark who claims it came from Democratic Underground:

Dear Wall Street,

Hi, this is the lobbyist for a group called The Taxpayers, Debtors, and Insured People of the United States. Now that we've rejected the first bailout plan, I'm sure that in the spirit of tough, free market capitalism, and spirited negotiations, you'll consider our ( Read more... )

First time I saw this particular drawing, it didn't have a name attached. It's reappeared a number of times on various political forums, often enough that I gave it a name (to fill in the blank).

Turns out it's called Praying for Peace

I've been calling it 'Divide by Zero Error'.

Windows Vista fails to supply a sound recorder that can use anything other than Windows Media Files, and fails to provide a utility that will convert WMA to anything useful.

Fail! Fail! Fail!

How many utilities do I have to add to Vista so I can record from the microphone input and have MP3s?