Gonzai Gallery

I ask because there seem to be an awful lot of people out there who think it is. I have been set off by an op-ed in today's Sun (I'll spare you the details; it was written by Christianist far right whacko) who claimed that liberty has been restricted by 'don't ask don't tell', same sex marriage, contraception, et al. Meanwhile the Republicans are busily trying to make sure the 'wrong people' (read young, liberal, and esp. non-white) can't and/or don't vote. I don't understand this insistence that granting freedom to another person takes it away from someone else; I only see it as another person gaining freedom.

So what's the deal here?

After picking up a badge for the internship, I headed out for the final day of New Year's gaming. Getting into and out of games didn't work very well, and I wound up in a cooperative game (I don't like them) that took forever just for me and it kept going for another hour after my character was killed. I tried another game and managed to lose the whole game on the first round. Did eventually land in a game of On The Underground, which I won for the first time ever.

But the real entertainment was yet to come. I had parked two blocks away and walked in with another gamer, Richard, who is disabled and needs crutches and braces to walk. On the wayin , I noticed a lot of trash cans and folding chairs in the street blocking off parking spaces, which is illegal in Maryland. We figured that's why Richard had to park so far away. Well, late in the afternoon one guy goes out to his car to get something and comes back with a letter, purportedly signed by a dozen residents of the street. The letter was rude bordering on nasty, and went on at length about what horrible people guests of this house were for parking on their street and demanding we park on Street B insted of Street A. We all went out & checked our vehicles, all but one had the same nasty letter. (If you guessed I was the oddball, you're right. So I stood in the street and announced that I was insulted and outraged that everyone but me gets a nasty letter. That'll confuse 'em.) The vehicles that had the letters included Richard's handicap-placarded car, a motorcycle, a states attorneys' car with with a universal permit and several cars that were parked on Street B, where we were supposedly supposed to park. Unfortunately for these nitwits, it's a public street; everyone parked in a legal spot; as noted, blocking off parking spots is illegal; and to top it off they claimed we were denying them their 'livelihoods' when there's no zoning or permits for a home business in that neighborhood. And now they've pissed off several attorneys and a disabled guy. Richard is filing an ADA complaint tomorrow. It's war. And gamers know their wars.

For this afternoon's entertainment, I get to babysit my printer. As it has to print a 2100 page document. That is not a misprint. And the attorney who told me to do it didn't bother to see if we have the paper or the toner for it before ordering me to do it. Emergency Staples run. Still on the first third and already the printer is struggling, it's running so hot I'm burning myself on the paper. Sheesh.

Speaking of sheesh, how is it that 4 weeks into the NFL season, the only unbeaten team is...the Kansas City Chiefs? (!!!!) Oh, and the St Louis Rams are leading their division. I'm hornswoggled...

But at least the Cardiac Kids delivered yesterday. That's what I'm calling the Ravens now. Apparently they're going to play every game on the brink of disaster. I hope my heart can take it.

Note to the pregnant woman I saw at Michael's yesterday: If you can't keep track of the kids you already have (at least 5 in the store with her and at least 2 wandered off at any given time) you have no business producing more. PS - to the woman who just moved in across the street - same thing.

Miraculously, I am semi-caught up on the television. Still behind on Spooks and have yet to see Boardwalk Empire, but otherwise on track. On the other hand, I'm not in the same hemisphere of 'caught up' when it comes to sleep.

Mom continues to refuse to do her exercises and won't bathe, even though she's cleared for it. Meanwhile her dog refuses to do her business outside. Between the two of them I'm beginning to think homicide can be justified.

I know we needed the rain - last week - but enough already.

Back to my poor printer.

Yep. I put in 11 straight hours in the art show yesterday. There were precious few volunteers available, so I stayed all day, except for when I was off on emergency supply runs. Never even went upstairs.

BTW - artists are morons. Not speaking of myself, as I can read basic instructions, use common sense and ask questions if I don't understand. But 80%-90% of them - morons. I unpacked and hung art for 9 mail in artists - 1 sent return postage. Another didn't send return postage but otherwise her mailing was correct. The other 7 - one disaster after another and all of the artists' making because they didn't read the freakin' instructions, use common sense or ask a question. Oh, and when everything related to the art show says you must register for it by May 1? That means you register by May 1. Not walk in at dinnertime Friday and say 'here's my art'. There is no room left. We gave it all to the people who registered. And oh yeah, if you don't pay for the space? You don't get the space. Period. Gack.

( Daughter claims father is a hero )
I've got news for you, lady. Your father was plenty of things. A narcissist, a tax cheat, an abuser, an arsonist, a murderer and a terrorist. He was emphatically NOT a hero. Deal with it.

OK, upfront here, I used to have partial season tickets for the AAA Richmond Braves. Yes, I drove 3+hours each way to see a minor league baseball game, 10 or so times a season, to a fan-unfriendly and unfriendly fan stadium that looked like the wrong half of a UFO had landed on a train track. And I broke my ankle in their then-unpaved parking lot. Haven't been down there in a few years, but the crappy ballpark finally caught up with them and the Atlanta Braves vamoosed, leaving the stadium empty last year. This year, Richmond succeeded in swiping the Norwich Navigators' AA franchise and will play this year as the AA Eastern League Flying Squirrels.

Yes. Flying Squirrels. For real. Hey, guys? A bizarre nickname and logo will not cover up a crap stadium with obnoxious fans (half of whom are smoking like chimneys).

FTR, the (swallows hard) Flying Squirrels logos. Someone, help us.

Now that I've spent gobs of money I really can't afford on an assortment of internal and external hard drives, things STILL aren't sorted. I still can't get the 750GB internal recognized by my computer, the 500GB internal that the computer will recognize is nowhere near big enough, and the 640GB external I bought last Saturday? I thought that would be big enough, but...a new version of ITunes came out a few weeks back, and when I upgraded, it reset my defaults. And I didn't notice. And everything I have added or imported to ITunes in the last month (and there was a LOT) was stowed by ITunes on the main drive, instead of the 500GB drive. So I had almost 100GB of music unaccounted for when I bought the 640, so now that's not nearly big enough, and they won't let me return it (in spite of it still in shrink wrap) because it was on clearance. I'm just about to pound my head against the wall time now.