Stamping in Sepia.

So I have this butterfly stamp I bought for like 25 cents but still hadn't used, and some thank you cards that needed jazzing up... so a day of stamping began!

I didn't have a stamp pad, and had planned on buying a chocolate brown, but went with sepia for sentimental reasons :)

After I decorated my thank you notes with the butterfly, I decided to make a stamp of Peanut's paw print because he hates signing with his own paw in ink. Last time I made him do it, I made some photo copies of the print. So I cut out foam & put it on the back of another homemade stamp made of a piece of foam core board, and got this:

It's pretty cute & looks like his own print, or close enough. Now I can sign letters in his name without bothering him with an inky paw.

When I was buying the ink, I saw this adorable "Handmade" stamp. I couldn't justify $8 on a stamp, so I'll wait for a sale/coupon, but it is really cute:

...and would look good in sepia, which is good since it's the only ink color I have :)


I felt so nervous about the dentist today, even after I was in the office and had taken the Valium they gave me- the drill noise just vibrates in my skull.

Mom found me a copy of Audubon and I read an article on "backyard" birds, then poured over the accompanying fold out poster of like 100 different birds, in color in fine detail, with male & female of course since many birds vary greatly by sex. I've been spending more time watching the birds on the back porch feeder- but we didn't have Woodpeckers last year, or those red throated finches I've only seen at Petsmart until last week when several came to our feeders (there are always lots of pretty yellow finches though).

The actual dental procedure went fine because he does laughing gas and on that you could stab yourself in the thigh and laugh- he drilled & injected me (I don't like needles), but whatever part of my brain freaks out about pain and anxiety was turned off. If breathing in laughing gas all the time didn't cause nerve damage, it would make a wonderful (but dangerous) anxiety medication. I know I felt better :)

Earning my "Obama-Care"

Click above thumbnail to see the full image: The 3 Presidential Active Lifestyle Awards I've earned so far, and one week of six towards my 4th.

Top weight @ Spring 2005 (Freshman 15? Try 50!) 308lbs

Besides above,
Weight since 2002 - Fall 2010......................... 250-260lbs

Current weight............................................................................................223lbs!

I can't wait to get under 200lbs. I have not weighed 100-something since I was a child.

I'm shooting for 150-160, which according to all the BMI Calculators I find say even 150lbs is either marginally overweight or just barely in the normal range... I don't know, I guess I'll just have to see what my body does.

ANYWAY POINT OF THIS POST:

I'm doing what I need to do to stay healthy, for myself, and for my country. We can't all sit back & buy pills- more than anything we need to get up, outdoors ( - and socialize with people face to face, but that's anoher rant, haha) and way more exercise. We've all gotten way too lazy and I'm working to be less lazy- and I am so thankful for the part of Health Care Reform that extended coverage of dependents that allowed me back onto my parent's insurance as I am still very dependent (sigh, again, another rant). So while I have access to all these doctors and information and ways to benefit my health, I'm going to do everything I can to maximize those benefits.

I hate being a fag hag.

"Some are plain Janes who prefer the honest affection of homoerotic boy friends; others are on a determined crusade to show gay boys that normal coitus is not to be overlooked. A few are simply women in love with homosexual men; others discover to their chagrin that their male friends are charming but not interested sexually."

~The Queen's Vernacular: A Gay Lexicon, by Bruce Rogers

I guess now I'm free. Terrible, heart wrenching freedom.

I

ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME????

If you're going to ride an airplane, get ready to be SEXUALLY ASSAULTED and COMPLETELY HUMILIATED.

Full-body scans, pat-downs upset airline passengers (click here for full article)

"Across the country, passengers simmered over being forced to choose scans by full-body image detectors or probing pat-downs. Top federal security officials said Monday that the procedures were safe and necessary sacrifices to ward off terror attacks."



Terrorists have won, America has lost, and once again I am disgusted by misguided American practices.



What I wrote to the TSA, who are acting like real terrorists, in their "Suggestion" box:

"Suggestion: Please stop sexually assaulting everyone who has paid to go visit their families for the holidays. Anyone, especially any person once victim of sexual assault, will feel humiliated, degraded, and reminded of their painful experience whether with your pat down or full body scan- both invade privacy in a psychologically detrimental way. The only effects of this are those of terror- so either the terrorists have won or the TSA are terrorists- because I am damn terrified for my basic privacy."

I also forwarded the above message to Rep. Jim Cooper. Maybe this will finally be something he will agree with me on.

Tennessee is so beautiful...

BUT-

I wish it wasn't full of rednecks

that descended from the militia

that forced out the Cherokee

who loved this land for all it's splendor

and hoped that one day their decedents

would care for this land as they did.

If you take care of the Earth, to all,

living and non-living,

with kindness, respect, and honor,

the Earth will take care of us.

BUT-

We done f-ed up big time.

Another example that most Tennesseans have no respect for this land:

Constitutional Amendment Results

Passage of this amendment would allow the citizens of this state to have the personal right to hunt and fish, subject to reasonable regulations and restrictions prescribed by law.

*Results are submitted by county election commissions to the Tennessee Coordinator of Elections, Mark Goins.

Constitutional Amendment
Yes	1,255,840
No	181,465

Yes, Tennesseans now have the constitutional right to hunt and fish.

And nobody's hunting for food. They be hunting for (drunken) fun.



I swear, if Palin is President in 2012, I'm moving to Canada. And when I have enough money, back to Holland.

What Can Green Do For You?

Not to mention it's use in farming as a great rotation crop- it's roots go deep and pull nutrients up, so the field that was depleted from crop growth can be used again after the hemp harvest, and it will have enough nutrients left over in the shallower parts, for crops whose roots can only grow so far to find food. More information at HEMP TIES IT ALL TOGETHER

protests succeed. eventually.

Read from a blog from a link via email via my ecology group (I learn so much from these guys).
Read the whole blog & the articles (s)he refers to here.

Example: Vietnam "Conflict"

"let’s look at a group of protesters who thought they had failed. The protests within the United States against the Vietnam War couldn’t prevent it killing three million Vietnamese and 80,000 Americans. But even in the years it was “failing”, it was achieving more than the protesters could possibly have known.

In 1966, the specialists at the Pentagon went to US President Lyndon Johnson – a thug prone to threatening to “crush” entire elected governments – with a plan to end the Vietnam War: nuke the country. They “proved”, using their computer modeling, that a nuclear attack would “save lives.” It was a plan that might well have appealed to him. But Johnson pointed out the window, towards the hoardes of protesters, and said: “I have one more problem for your computer. Will you feed into it how long it will take 500,000 angry Americans to climb the White House wall out there and lynch their President?” He knew that there would be a cost – in protest and democratic revolt – that made that cruelty too great. ... Those protesters went home from those protests believing they had failed – but they had succeeded in preventing a nuclear war. They thought they were impotent, just as so many of us do – but they really had power beyond their dreams to stop a nightmare."

So thank you to all who were able to attend the Rally to Restore Sanity/Fear; we do need to chill out, be more moderate and give in to reasonable compromise to keep our country safe and at peace.

*Note- if you've seen the 1999 movie Dick (a more comical look at Nixon & the Watergate scandal than the excellent drama of 1976's All the President's Men), you would know that peace talks were made between Nixon and General Secertary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, Leonid Brezhev. What made these sit downs successful? The chilled out, we're all on this Earth together feeling provided by some "special" baked goods made for relaxed compromise and a friendly outlook and attitude. Can't we all get along? Another thing Green can do for you.

Scrooge & Stephen Colbert would be friends.

Still wish I could go to Stewart/Colbert Rally at the end of the month, but quitting my job was the last nail in that coffin. An interview with a Tea Party politician made me look up & re-read a section of A Christmas Carol:

"it is more than usually desirable that we should make some slight provision for the Poor and Destitute, who suffer greatly at the present time. Many thousands are in want of common necessaries; hundreds of thousands are in want of common comforts, sir."

"Are there no prisons?" asked Scrooge.

"Plenty of prisons," said the gentleman, laying down the pen again.

"And the Union workhouses?" demanded Scrooge. "Are they still in operation?"

"They are. Still," returned the gentleman, "I wish I could say they were not."

"The Treadmill and the Poor Law are in full vigour, then?" said Scrooge.

"Both very busy, sir."

"Oh! I was afraid, from what you said at first, that something had occurred to stop them in their useful course," said Scrooge. "I'm very glad to hear it."

"Under the impression that they scarcely furnish Christian cheer of mind or body to the multitude," returned the gentleman, "a few of us are endeavouring to raise a fund to buy the Poor some meat and drink and means of warmth. We choose this time, because it is a time, of all others, when Want is keenly felt, and Abundance rejoices. What shall I put you down for?"

"Nothing!" Scrooge replied.

"You wish to be anonymous?"

"I wish to be left alone," said Scrooge. "Since you ask me what I wish, gentlemen, that is my answer. I don't make merry myself at Christmas and I can't afford to make idle people merry. I help to support the establishments I have mentioned -- they cost enough; and those who are badly off must go there."

"Many can't go there; and many would rather die."

"If they would rather die," said Scrooge, "they had better do it, and decrease the surplus population. Besides -- excuse me -- I don't know that."

Hmm, just what don't you know?

You have the Republican solution to "Obamacare," tah-dah!

civilazations need to evolve

If you are so conservative that you want to reinstate the ways of the "Wild West," I suggest you move to Texas so the Reasonable United States of America can build a giant fence along our shared border- or dislodge the state and send it to Mars.

Prop 19 You go Cali

Paul Oakenfold in Nashville (& StL)

Hurray, Paul Oakenfold is coming back to me.

Nov 17th in Nashville @ Limelight

Nov 18th in STL @ Home Nightclub (?)

Tour Dates

What are we gonna do, America?....Roadtrip?

The answer clear:
Rally to Restore Sanity/Satirical Fear, Stewart/Colbert Rally in Washington DC Oct 30th.

Hey, maybe I could pick up some medical mj while I'm there? LOL Eugh nevermind, dispensaries won't even start opening till next summer. :)

I wish I could go and will probably even crunch my numbers to see if I can, but I kinda doubt it. If I can't even afford to see William on his birthday, how can I afford to get all the way to DC and back like 3 weeks later? Especially since I keep quitting my job... sigh.

If the President can get medical mj, why can't I?

Why can't we have these laws nationally?

I wish our gov't was reasonable and about safety of the people, but it's all earmarks and bill riders.

So read below from NORML's site about legal medical cannabis in D.C.

They're collecting taxes and there's even a sliding scale for low income!

This is some bullshit, Tennessee- you hear me Jim Cooper? End this senseless prohibition of cannabis!

*Note: I have signed petitions to this effect to Rep. Cooper, emailed personally, and mentioned it during one of my phone calls to his office (you never get to actually talk to him, your message is dictated and passed along). He has emailed back to say he "hears" me- but says the rest of the state doesn't agree. BULLSHIT Let's put it to a vote, Jimmy!


District of Columbia

SUMMARY: D.C. Council Members enacted legislation in May 2010 authorizing the establishment of regulated medical marijuana dispensaries in the District of Columbia. On Monday, July 26, members of Congress allowed the measure to become law without federal interference.

The law amends the Legalization of Marijuana for Medical Treatment Initiative, a 1998 municipal ballot measure which garnered 69 percent of the vote yet was never implemented. Until 2010, D.C. city lawmakers had been barred from instituting the measure because of a Congressional ban on the issue. Congress finally lifted the ban in 2009.

Under the law, D.C. Health Department officials will oversee the creation of as many as eight facilities to dispense medical cannabis to authorized patients. Medical dispensaries would be limited to growing no more than 95 plants on site at any one time.

Both non-profit and for-profit organizations will be eligible to operate the dispensaries.

A separate provision enacted as part of the 2011 D.C. budget calls for the retail sales of medical cannabis to be subject to the District’s six percent sales tax rate. Low-income will be allowed to purchase medical marijuana at a greatly reduced cost under the plan.

It will likely be several months before Health officials establish a patient registry and/or begin accepting applications from the public to operate the City’s medical marijuana production and distribution centers.

The medical use provisions in the District of Columbia do not include reciprocity provisions protecting visitors from other medical use states.

Duct tape dresses are so 1990s

Check out these dresses and costumes made from balloons!

Kids on the Internet

Eugh, Al Gore, why did you have to invent the internet? :)

Jeremy likes to watch YouTube videos about video games or marble mazes or whatever, usually someone talking through a video game he has, which helps him when he plays it because he gets frustrated sometimes.

ANYWAY, obviously content on YouTube can be questionable, but I figured he'd be fine. This morning he's watching someone playing Mario Kart or something, but the guy who is playing keeps saying "FAGGOT" over and over.

So I had to go in there with my angry voice and ask if that boy on the video was saying "faggot," and then I asked Jeremy if he knew what that meant. I started with witch burnings, but I guess they don't get that dark in history till middle school, so I skipped it and just said that it is a hateful and mean word that people use to talk about gay people. I told him Harrison was gay and good and kind and nothing like a "faggot," and if he hears that word again he needs to speak up and say that's a bad word that hurts people and definitely never use it himself.

I hope it doesn't become a problem, I wouldn't think so, but I am prepared to see to call Jeremy a "bastard", as he has no dad, and see how much it hurts him. Hopefully we will never get there... but I have a feeling middle school is going to be rough.

He's a good kid... really. I just worry.

On my second birthday...

May 13 1988 Chet Baker jazz trumpeter, falls to death out of a hotel window at 59.

"At about 3:00 am on May 13, 1988, Baker was found dead on Prins Hendrikkade, near Zeedijk, on the street below his second-story room at the Prins Hendrik Hotel in Amsterdam, Netherlands, with serious wounds to his head. Heroin and cocaine were found in his hotel room, and an autopsy also found these drugs in his body. There was no evidence of a struggle, and the death was ruled an accident."

Happens to the best of us.

Charley would call me a cab sometimes, have the driver meet me in front of Prins Hendrik Hotel. It's right across from Central [train] Station. Too busy to find Charley's taxi at Central.

Shiny Toy Guns Electro Dance Remix?! Live in NASH?!

Yes, finally, a dance party just for me.

Thanks Nashville.

Fri Aug 27th 9PM
Shiny Toy Guns @ Limelight

Shiny Toy Guns - HybriDigital is the electronic dance remix version of Shiny Toy Guns performed by found members
Jeremy Dawson & Chad Petree (Vocalist)
with live visual artist WildChild World.

Self Help.

j/k

Friends. Tyler's friends.

F-feeling worried?
R- relax and feel good,
I- inner thoughts,
E- explore thoughts,
N- nice work so reward yourself,
D- don't forget to practice,
S- stay calm, you know how to cope.

For Cereal? Double Take on this one.

For serious? Who eats hemp?

For Cereal?

Eugh, what do you mean it's only Monday?!

SNL/ Kristen Wiig's Penelope

I love Penelope. Watch her:

@ Therapy

@ Traffic School

@ a Wedding Reception

I heart PBS

Watching Scientific American Frontiers: RobotPals.

The ones that are supposed to make them love you by being cute look like Gremlins, so I'd be afraid it's going to turn all crazy on me.

Mmm, I wish I could figure out to screen capture my sexy NASA boyfriend in this episode! He's working on puppeteering "Robonaut" a human looking robot out in space.

Ugh and his boss just talked shit about him on PBS! What a jerk :/

It's okay Josh, my NASA boyfriend who only has a year of puppetry experience, I still think it's cool.

You can send the robot out to do the dangerous stuff like fix the outside of the ship/space station, or, go drill into a comet that is hurling towards Earth and Liv Tyler. You know, whatevs comes up.


P.S. Am I the only one who thinks Ben Affleck and Matt Damon are gay for each other? I've read that they're long time "friends" and I even heard they are cousins (?), but I think their body language says it all.

cute updates on the dogs

Charlie got a summer shave, also known as a "puppy cut." He's so cute.


Jeremy got Peanut a friend, who he named "Cousin Micheal Jackson" (no idea why), that is an oversized dachshund that Peanut sleeps with and sometimes uses as a pillow.

Uh oh, looks like Cousin Micheal Jackson is watching him sleep! Creepy/adorable :)

Feasible? Probably not. Can I dream? Yes I can.

So, who wants to visit Harrison in NYC Labor Day weekend?

Me!

Let's Dance @ Electric Zoo
Benny Benassi
ATB
Paul van Dyk
Kaskade
Markus Schulz
Armin van Buurn
Above & Beyond

Edit on 7/29: So I crunched the numbers on this experience, and even without a rental car (which I'm pretty sure I'd have to do), it is completely unfeasible. :'(

I need to dance :'(

:'(

:'(

:'(

Sigh.

Finally, I can dance (even if just in my own room)

I didn't have a chance to walk Peanut around the dog park while I was in town at work today, so I didn't really get any exercise in.

I've re-started the President's Challenge (for the second time, but more importantly I'm still trying) and already finished my first week successfully-

Thanks to dancing in my room listening to:

AfterHours Radio: Progressive Trance.
Nothing like progressive trance for an energy boost :)

I wish I had money to buy art.

I wish I could afford some art by Ben Prisk - he does the background illustrations for Adult Swim's Squidbillies.



This print is available from Acme Archives in a small 20x24" canvas (unframed) for $159, which is beyond my current decorating budget of... nothing. Maybe I'll ask for it for Christmas? :)

Wish I could try this...

Kava Cola... the closest thing I've heard would be grog, but without the bad taste. I'd buy it!

Haha, the anti-energy drink :) Watch their commercial.

Oh apparently there is an American version: "Mary Jane's Relaxing Soda"

Wanna Just Dance

I just want to dance; why can't Nashville facilitate that?

Bright lights.

Dark room.

Driving beats.

I'm not "cool" enough to get into the hipster clubs, but they're too stuck up to be what I want.

Don't judge. Just dance. Be free.

I am a fan: less packaging.

I saw this new packaging at Kroger & bought a pack of granola bars. No box, just rip off a bar when you want it!

* You may break your bar in half the first time, as I did, by slowly and uncertainly tearing the bar off, however, if you rip it off quickly and with confidence, the bar will be in one piece. It's like learning to crack an egg without getting bits of broken shell in it.

I do like not having to recycle the extra box, but I don't like that I still have to throw away the individual wrappers and the amount of waste the individual wrapping causes for the sake of freshness and convenience.

Bigger picture: Quaker is rethinking their impact on the environment, and I like that.

Implicit Association Test

This is really fun/interesting- it's like a quiz for my unconscious mind.

I saw this on PBS's Scientific American Frontier w/ Alan Alda, as I restlessly tossed and turned till 5AM. After getting some sleep between then and this afternoon, I decided to test myself:

Do I hate gays? Short answer: Kinda.
"Your data suggest a moderate automatic preference for Straight People compared to Gay People."
So I answered like 1/4 of all others:
















This was the first test on the page; there are many more including ones on race, sex, career, disability, religion, even young vs. old people.

I think that's my next one:

Do I hate old people, or young people?
Let's find out.

"Your data suggest little to no automatic preference between Old and Young."

Strangely (to me), gay people are getting more love than old people, as the results show very little people have preference to old people(4,2, & 0.4%) like they do to gay people(7,6, & 3%):



To take any of these tests yourself (they take about 3-5 minutes), go to Project Implicit, click on Demonstration (then continue to Demonstration, then I wish to proceed) and then you will be able to select a test. Are you as accepting and impartial as you think you are? It's interesting to find out.

Dental woes have turned me into a Phantom

So I finally had that back tooth pulled. Maybe someday I'll win the lottery and get an implant. Ha.

It was my own fault, but really I wasn't planning on needing my teeth, or living that long.

Long story short, Peanut did very well at his first training at the Dentist office, I got laughing gas which helps sooooo much, and I didn't need the Valium b/c I had Peanut. Tooth pulled, Hydrocodone taken every 4 hours to keep me asleep/ away from the miserable pain I felt when I had this tooth absess last year. I finally locked that pain away away so let's keep it that way.

I did sleep through/forgot to take my meds yesterday and didn't realize it till I woke up from really terrible nightmares. I was in this experiement but when I found out I was in it I just got trapped back in but it was worse b/c I knew but I couldn't get out/wake up. Also I had to keep going back to that rapist's house. I think I was enumerating there (in my dream) the address was something 254? 18254? -251? Now I can't remember. I had to tell my supervisor over the phone- she called to make sure I had completed an interview for that address. I think the respondent refused. I may have had to talk to him but I think his Dad was home and his Dad usually tells him to let me go. The experiment part of the dream was far more intense, and I've blocked out most of it, but when I figured out it was an experiment, they showed me rooms. One with people testing on rats; one with rats testing on humans; and one table that had us all, the whole building/area of the testing all in scale. All the sudden I was the scale tiny me, and I took the opportunity to escape. I knew from being large me that I could climb off the table and out of a window. I think I made it outside into a tree but was captured and brought back. Possibly to school/transition to finishing school nightmare.

Now I will let the nice pain killers over take me, and sleep with this ice pack strapped to my face, which makes me look like the Phantom of the Opera.

Froad living under a rock under a maple tree in my backyard.

Is he a frog or a toad? Or maybe one of those poisonous froads I've been hearing about...

Well after brushing up on my frog science (frogology? hehe) Herpetology, I've confirmed that this guy here is a toad, HOWEVER I also learned all toads are frogs. Both are under the order of "Anura," (meaning "tail-less") under class "Amphibia," (meaning "on both sides of life," i.e. spending life cycles in and above water).

Also, thanks to my brushing up on uh, Peafowlology? Ornithology (to my knowledge, which is small, there is no "-ology" term specifically for Peafowl), I was able to impress a resident I was visiting for work. He had THIRTY Peafowl, i.e. 15 Peacocks and 15 Peahens. I think we need some at home, but of course Dad doesn't agree. He never wants any strange animals living on our his property- he's no fun :P

Here's a video I made of the Peacock alerting my presence on the property- they make excellent guard... birds. I've seen other fowl as guard birds around here in the psuedo country, but none as pretty as the peacock. Mostly Guinea Fowl which aren't nearly as pretty:

Rain

It's raining. At first I think it's just the wind picking up, but I look out the windows to see ripples from falling rain in a small puddle in the front yard by Mom's wildflowers. Then comes loud hard rain, sheets of it.

There goes working outside today, I thought.

But as quickly as it came it was gone again. The dark clouds above hold their water as they continue pushing North.

Bye clouds.

It snowed!

cute doggies

Charlie and Peanut share bed.




Harrison, Ruthie, and Peanut.

by Jeremy

The pupa stage is my favorite.

How a butterfly grows up and makes more butterflies!

I have a butterfly "house," and when it gets warm we'll be raising some from eggs.

You can too! Get free milkweed seeds and butterfly eggs from: http://www.freebutterflyeggs.com/

Want to know more about how to raise your own butterflies? See these easy steps.

Miss Peanut got her package!

Although I couldn't give much, I wanted to do something for a senior dog (other than my own) this holiday season. We found "Jasmine," a 10-12 yr old female dachshund, being fostered in Mississippi by the Simpson family and the All American Dachshund Rescue. (see entry below)

After getting in contact with "Jasmine's" foster family, we found out that she had acquired the name Peanut during her seven month stay (foster mother said she was too spunky to be a "Jasmine"), got their address, and (eventually) sent a care package of treats. (See our package taste testers!)

Today I got an email from "Miss Peanut's" foster family saying they got the package and loved it. They also sent photos of Miss Peanut eating the homemade sweet potato treats, which I love:

Adorable.
<333

Exercising with PAL

2010: let's try this again.

Hello new decade. Rosh Hashanah was more romantic, but today I'm thinking this year will be better than last; I certainly feel more prepared for it. For another tomorrow.

So resolutions? How about some goals:

- Obtain 501(c)3 non-profit status for the dog project (or, equivalent state of working organization)
- Participate and complete the President's Challenge. I'll show Obama I deserve health care.*
- Love my family, friends, and fellow wo/man everyday.
- Be awesome because I am.

*My exercising PAL? the Presidential Active Lifestyle, of course! :

"The Active Lifestyle program shows you how to make a commitment to staying active and how to stick to it. The program helps you set realistic goals to encourage fitness for a lifetime. The rules are simple. You can choose from all kinds of activities. We'll also give you a personal activity log to guide you every step of the way."