Awesome Tampon Ad

The best I've ever seen.

http://i.imgur.com/OEEx3.jpg

Today I paid my property taxes, got them reduced by 550 bucks, paid my water bill, got the weird name snafu involved with my water bill fixed, changed my address on my driver's license, went to the dentist and yet somehow still feel like I didn't get much done.

Jeri Smith Ready says there's a hurricane on the way. I obviously haven't been paying enough attention because it looks like Earl is due to hit here on Friday and be crazy strong. I pray this won't be a repeat of Isabel, which flooded so much of our area. Even now, nearly seven years later, there are many houses on the market that won't sell because they are so badly water damaged.

This video doesn't look like much until about 45 seconds in.

In Which I am a Terrible Person

I shouldn't think this story is funny but I do. These poor people. I can just imagine what went through their heads.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20100827/od_uk_nm/oukoe_uk_britain_ba_emergency

Many links!

Let us close some tabs shall we?

The lady who dumped the cat in the trashcan is sorry, I suspect mostly because people on Facebook want to murderize her... http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-coventry-warwickshire-11087061

Maureen Johnson gives super awesome advice on how to move into a dorm, including a playlist so peppy it should be registered as a weapon of mass destruction. http://www.maureenjohnsonbooks.com/2010/08/25/how-to-move-into-a-dorm/

50 years of slut shaming, courtesy of the Onion. http://www.theonion.com/articles/local-water-tower-celebrates-50th-year-as-reposito,17958/

St0re says oops, sorry, we don't really think you're a suicide bomber. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-south-west-wales-11097516

Is that a tiger cub in your carry on or are you just happy to see me? http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-11104948

More Shoplifting Woes

I don't know who writes the Facebook/Twitter posts for my county police department but I'm often fascinated (and deeply saddened) by the posts. Here's another great example of someone getting into a lot more trouble by trying to get out of trouble.

http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=417555137114

If the shoplifter had dropped the goods, apologized and walked out of the store chances are nothing would have come of it. Even if the police had been called, charges pressed, a trial etc, the crime wasn't terrible.

Instead he assaults the clerk, flees and ends up at Shock Trauma.

Officers approached the suspect, who took off running. A citizen observed the suspect running, exited his vehicle and began to chase the suspect. The citizen was closing in on the suspect, who was paying attention to the citizen and did not see the police vehicle turning into the parking lot. The suspect suddenly changed direction and ran into the patrol car. The suspect was treated at the scene by fire department personnel and transported to Shock Trauma for further treatment of non-life threatening injuries. At this time, the 19-year-old male suspect from Pasadena remains at Shock Trauma under police guard and will be charged with Robbery, Assault, Theft and Disorderly Conduct upon his release.

You just have to roll your eyes.

Daydreams

The cutest pictures in the world can be found here. Courtesy of Pat Cadigan.

http://milasdaydreams.blogspot.com/

Good Article About Miscarriage

http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2010/aug/22/pregnancy-miscarriage-lesley-regan?CMP=twt_gu

This is a good piece about miscarriage, although it has a ridiculous title. One of the things the article doesn't go into are the silly things people say to someone who loses a baby, like "You can always have another one". People are uncomfortable with death and a pregnancy loss is so mysterious it makes them even more uncomfortable. There aren't any easy answers.

A visit to the dog park

Chris and I took Mal to the dog park today and had an awesome day. I was a little nervous as his breed has a reputation of not getting along with other dogs, but he was fantastic, even earning praise of "perfectly behaved" by a very kind woman with two Jack Russell's.

One dog was aggressive to him but he either ignored the other dog or gave it a puzzled look when it nipped him in the shoulder. Another dog was in an amorous mood (amorous with all the other dogs, even a huge mastiff) and Mal looked confused but didn't do anything mean. Even with the Jack Russells, which I was afraid might trigger his prey drive, he was fine, racing up to them then skidding to a stop and looking at them.

A little girl who was six (with a new tooth and one about to fall out) had a marvelous time playing with him.

We stayed for about an hour and a half then I got kind of worried about heat exhaustion and we took him down to look at the river for a bit. Here Chris found the most gorgeous garter snake; about three feet long and emerald on top and pale spring green on the bottom. We also saw two fawns, nearly as big as full grown does but still with the spots. Then we came home and there was a bunny in our front yard.

Also Chris saw a jellyfish, which is less exciting and not so cute.

I don't know if I blogged about the shooting at the dog park near our old house in Severn, but it was all the talk of the dog park in Annapolis. Apparently the owner who shot Bear Bear had his dog on the leash in the park, which you aren't supposed to do as it makes the leashed dog feel cornered, which can make it more aggressive. You're supposed to take it off the lead in what I call the air lock then let it sniff butts and sort things out on its own. This guy didn't follow that rule and shot and killed the dog he says was aggressive to his dog. It's sad and frightening.

Speaking of sad, Calliope, my three year old rat, passed away this week. She was my last remaining girl and I'm bereft without them. For the last five or so years I've had a rat on my shoulder for quite a lot of my writing and I've given them all my tomatoes (I don't know commercial tomatoes) and it's just weird not having them anymore.

Cameron has decided to stay on in Alaska for a bit. He's not sure how long. Maybe one semester. I imagine he'll get tired of the winter and the lack of light pretty quickly. He's been there plenty of times so it's not exactly new and exciting and the part where he lives is just a big suburb so we'll see.

Chris goes back to NYC for more school soon and then it will be me, Cullen, Brandon, the two cats and the dog. I think I'm going to have to teach the dog to weed the garden...

What Killed Lou Gehrig?

Maybe not what you might think.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2010/aug/17/lou-gehrig-disease-baseball-death

Here is an interesting piece that looks at brain injury of various athletes and causes of death. Recent research has indicated that even minor concussions can add up to a significant amount of cumulative damage.

Could Mr. Gehrig's death actually have been from repeated blows to the head caused by baseballs?

New Lawnmower

Now that I'm a homeowner I needed a couple of things, including a new window air conditioner and a lawnmower. Lots of things came with the house, including a gas lawnmower that didn't work (and a set of false teeth!). The previous owner said it would be fine if we got it tuned up but we weren't too thrilled about using a gas mower and were looking at better alternatives.

Then I saw this notice http://www.neutonpower.com/content/admin/aqi/balt_res/index.html and we signed up. It went great. We took the last appointment of the day so we didn't have to wait in line and had no troubles at all. We were only at the stadium for fifteen minutes top and then were on our way home with an awesome battery powered mower.

Then we came home and Cam had a LAN party for eleven of his friends, which went great and everyone, including our mooch of a dog, had a great time.

The topper of the day was my blood test, which only required one stab, as opposed to the six the last test took.

Tomorrow I may head off to the Basilica in Baltimore. We'll see.

This is good

Here's a cute essay about how someone's toddler is really upholding Ayn Rand's philosophies, not acting like a little brat.

http://www.mcsweeneys.net/2010/8/12hague.html

Since the day Johanna was born, we've worked to indoctrinate her into the truth of Objectivism. Every night we read to her from the illustrated, unabridged edition of Atlas Shrugged—glossing over all the hardcore sex parts, mind you, but dwelling pretty thoroughly on the stuff about being proud of what you've earned and not letting James Taggart-types bring you down. For a long time we were convinced that our efforts to free her mind were for naught, but recently, as we've started socializing her a little bit, we've been delighted to find that she is completely antipathetic to the concept of sharing. As parents, we couldn't have asked for a better daughter.

Never mind

I changed my mind about my last post. Here's a link to some cute fat ponies instead.

http://www.thelwell.org.uk/

This is so true

I have this problem often when I go to the UMBC website. I can't find the academic calender to save my life. When is spring break? Nobody knows.

http://xkcd.com/773/

Interesting Article From the Financial Times

Here is an interesting article from the Financial Times about the squeeze on the middle class. It details how the rich getting richer, stagnant wages, etc have made life precarious for much of the middle class in the US.

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/1a8a5cb2-9ab2-11df-87e6-00144feab49a.html