Just Kristin

“I deeply resent the destruction of federalism represented by Hillary Clinton’s willingness to go into a state she doesn’t even live in and pretend to represent the people there,” Keyes said. “So I certainly wouldn’t imitate it.” - Alan Keyes, FOX News, March 2000.

What a hypocrite. Keys, sit down and shut up.

I have some questions for y’all:

How did you choose teams or decide who was “it” when playing tag, etc. as a child?

We did “eenie meenie miney mo”, with children from more socially advanced families using “tiger”…Often, the main fhyme was followed by something like “My mother said to pick the very best one and you are noooot IT!” I don’t know what purpose this served other than to prolong the suspense.

What did you call the one decided safe place that, when touched during a game of tag, made you immune to the person who was “it”?

“Gool”. One could be on “gool” and anything could be made “gool”.

What is the earliest true memory you have?

I think I remember my parents’ room being a family room (so this would be before Laxity was adopted), and I remember my Aunt Donna staying in there - or at least being in there - and her taking me for ice cream. Boring, I know. No birthing “moving toward the light, out of the safety of the dark, warm womb, my lungs burning with the air of my first breath” kind of shit, unfortunately. :P

For you, is blood thicker than water? Do you put more value on blood relations than on chosen relations?

No. No way. Not at all. Reasons for this will be a post in and of itself.

Have you ever felt strong attraction to a fictional character? Who? At What age?

Robin, from the Batman comics, when I was 10 or so. There may be more. This, too, could be a post.

What is the oddest article of clothing you possess?

Perhaps my Ren Faire garb? My bondage dress? Hmmmm. Maybe my panda shoes, if shoes count. They are my favorite shoes ever.

Ok, who’s next? Answers? Any questions for me?

Here I sit, at work but not working, taunted (or encouraged, depending on my mindset) by writers but not writing. I don’t know why I succumb so easily to lethargy, to ennui. Every time I sit down to write, I feel an incredible sense of déjà vu and hearken back to high school and college: “I have these 4 papers and 8 projects to do, but the laundry seems far more urgent, and I really should can some tomatoes.”

On top of the DVDs (tonight it is Family Guy) and the web browsing (check out how to fold a shirt, “Keep your Jesus Off My Penis, another funny Jesus and LiP Magazine (a new favorite of mine in print, with a lot of good stuff on the web as well)), I am also distracted by all the things in my bag…must….sort….and….shred…..

Metta Prayer by Lama Surya Das
May all beings be happy, content and fulfilled.
May all beings be healed and whole.
May all have whatever they want and need.
May all be protected from harm, and free from fear.
May all beings enjoy inner peace and ease.
May all be awakened, liberated and free.
May there be peace in this world,
     and throughout the entire universe.

Bad day at the good dentist’s office…came away melting out of novocane and into pain, so I called him back to find out that I may be abscessing. Now I am on vicodin and amoxicillin, but I am not sleepy. I should be - Benadryl usually kills me. I would like to be, since I’d most likely be more comfortable sleeping. Dammit.

No “Standing O” in this post. I cannot adequately express the disgust I feel for the company US Search, all other companies like them (and by “like them,” I mean any corporation that will be so filthily unscrupulous in their dealings), and the politicians and lobbyists that work to make what they do legal.

Brief explanation: An extremely sad, demented, pathetic excuse for a human has, in an attempt to force her way into an “oper” position on a certain chat network (Personal note to said fucktard: “Denise,” sweetheart, you are obviously too psychotic to realize that no person in their right mind would give a position on DALnet requiring any amount of trust to a threatening, self-absorbed, cerebrally-challenged skank like yourself. Your actions are sad to me - almost as sad as the thought of you basing your entire life’s worth on whether or not you get to kick other people out of chat rooms. Did you have a bad crank-call experience as a kid? Did none of the other reindeer ever let you play their reindeer games? Just for the records you are keeping, sweetheart, you don’t scare anyone here, any DALnet staff, anyone. At best you are a sad annoyance. There are both children and adults laughing at you and pitying you, alternatingly. Did you get all that down? Good. I can continue with my post…), threatened one of the staff members of the network, reading off all the information she was able to dig up, most likely using a service like that provided by US Search. With this information she has attempted - and failed - to make changes to numerous services in this person’s name. Despite this, US Search refuses to assist him in tracking her down, citing her privacy as their concern. US Search, if you are reading this, know that I will work with all my might to stop your ability to shield felons from the consequences of their actions. I hope that you realize that he is prepared to implicate you as aider and abettor in his reports on these incidents with both the police and the FBI. Your slogan, “Reuniting America Two People At A Time” is a joke, and while expecting shame from a corporate entity is impossible, introducing its employees to it is not: shame on you all. Prepare to be lobbied against, and lobbied against HARD.

Anyway, as I mentioned before, all this has turned out to be is an annoyance, albeit a felonious one, for the poor recipient of the sorry bitch’s inadequatly evil plot and substandard intellect. “Denise,” you may think that you have friends, but judging by your actions and your goals in life, you do not. I highly suggest that you get yourself some therapy and some meds. I cannot wait to hear the next installment of this sad little quest of yours. Have a wonderful day.

I am not sure whether I am more disgusted by this announcement, made via a 37-page document and written by men with input from a few female “consultants”, that feminism is the root of all evil, especially the evil trend of gays and lesbians demanding equal rights, and the evil decline of “traditional” familes and their values, or the commentator on NPR’s All Things Considered who quite cheerfully consoled us (women) by saying that the Dope has finally decided to “allow” us to pursue careers as well as our more suited and traditional female roles of mothers and nurturing caregivers. I only wish that said commentator had come up with a decent answer to Mr. Naylor’s final question regarding the possibility of the Vatican release of a document outlining acceptable male roles. “Well,” he should have answered, “the Vatican understands the need to keep every possible financial donor to the church happy, or at least in their place. We figure that as long as we keep the men happy and in power, the women we can simply emasculate - heh heh pun intended. The men have never gotten uppity with the Church, after all, and need no Papal bull,” he might have concluded hitching up his pant leg just far enough to show, beneath his fishnets, a tattoo of a heart containing the inscription “Who’s Your Daddy”, and flanked by a priest in black latex and a ball-gagged altar boy.

Mark Morford, where are you when we need you? Come back! We miss you!

My Nights — My Nights!
Logged in to see
If night will bring
Me misery!

Futile the game
In its preprod state–
Stump QA testers,
Stall release date!

Eyes on both NetSaint
And MRTG!
Might I pass tonight
Drop-free!

Ok, bad parody, but it kinda sums up how I spend my nights at work, at least when I have no project to work on. Most nights I come in, catch up on email (a task that takes about 30 minutes every day but Thursdays - the first day of my work week - when it takes up to 3 hours), chat with whomever was manning the NOC before me, and, once they are gone, log onto the main machines and fire up all the monitoring sites and scripts. The rest of my nights consist of keeping one eye on the games, one eye on whatever coding project I may be working on, and one eye….wait a minute… :)

Anyway, many nights, D and possibly Wags and Smoo, come to sit with me and watch DVDs. I love when they visit.

Anyway, this slice of my nights brought to you by a few lulls in my current shift. More later.

Spring always promises, is always promised. It likes to keep its options open, sometimes hiding while the whole world seeks, other times rushing in to startle all slumbering creation awake. It sings and babbles and polkas about. Autumn, on the other hand, whispers through leaves as it sends them on spectacular downward-spiraling ballets. It blankets us in greys and clays and teaches all flowing veins to slow.

Today I hit the used book shops, originally searching for a bit of Celine and a dollop of e e cummings, but since I couldn’t find either of those, I ended up consoling myself with the following purchases:

• An Exaltation of Forms: Contemporary Poets Celebrate the Diversity of Their Art edited by Annie Finch & Kathrine Varnes
• The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love by Oscar Hijuelos
• A Billion for Boris by Mary Rodgers
• The Key by Tanizaki Junichiro
• Deliverance by James Dickey
• The Book of Common Prayer by the C of E
• Stardance by Spider & Jeanne Robinson
• The Selected Poetry of Blake edited by David V. Erdman
• The Sayings of Confucius translated by James R. Ware
• Perfume: The Story of a Murderer by Patrick Suskind

I also bought copies of Walden and She’s Come Undone to release into the wild, a booklet called “Kabuki Drama” put out by the Japan Travel Bureau in 1938, and Issue 8 of Morbid Curiosity. I hope it is as good as I hope it is. :)

Confucius is a misogynistic poop, but he told so many good one-liners I felt it was a worthy purchase. :P Deliverance is also most likely not a very open-minded book, but I keep putting off seeing the film, and figured that perhaps the book would be better? The Book of Common Prayer should serve as an inspiraiton in writing prayer-like poetry, and the England Speaks book is quoted in a lot of newer books on England. All in all, an interesting lot. Happy Happy.