As a result of my doctor's appointment and getting my brakes fixed yesterday, my emotional state has taken a turn for the better and I don't feel so "oppressed" today.

I wish I could say the same for my physical state, though. Once again I am feeling run down and exhausted, even though I have done minimal physcial exertion other than doing laundry with Fire Lupine and taking a walk around Millvale, peeking into various shops. Walking up the back steps to our house feels like a mile hike.

I'm making Bachelor Chic curtains today, out of used (but washed) canvas dropcloth from when we painted the house. It's so ghetto, it's art.

I expect to drop off Fire at work, afterward helping Cam move some stuff from his apartment. I'm working on a plan of taking one trip a day around town picking up various and assorted sundries from Craigslist and Freecycle. We'll have this joint decked out in no time.

After a long illness and several weeks in the hospital, furry artist darkwolfie passed away this morning. His wife tashabear posted the following on his Livejournal:

Long time fur and artist darkwolfie succombed to complications stemming from the H1N1 virus this morning a little after 6am.

The entry in his journal is set to "friend's only" at the moment, but it is shared here in Giza's journal: http://giza.livejournal.com/566481.html

My heart goes out to his wife tashabear, his family and his friends.

2009 has just been full of suck! :(

Swift

My buddy cadpigjr in an effort to continue to practice drawing and challenge himself is offering silly cheap, full body, hand drawn and colored commissions for just,

$2

Yes, you read that right. Two dollars U.S.!

If you'd like the original shipped to you, send another $5 as that is how much it costs sillies!

Hes' got 5 commission or trade slots open so hit him up!

Here's wishing a Happy Birthday to two more equines!

A very Happy Birthday to my loving wife, trixstir ! Not going to say how old she is, but she's younger than me! ;)

And a belated (by one day) Happy Birthday to altivo ! Sorry I missed you yesterday, but I didn't even get online all day.

Ahhhh, so many Saggitarians! As I said before, I'm in good company! :)

x-posted to atheist


Asheville City Councilman Cecil Bothwell believes in ending the death penalty, conserving water and reforming government -- but he doesn't believe in God. His political opponents say that's a sin that makes him unworthy of serving in office, and they've got the North Carolina Constitution on their side.

More here...

Perspective: It's North Carolina, and I'm not surprised. Stories like this only strengthen the stereotype of ignorance and religious fanaticism in that region. What does surprise (and disturb) me is to find my current residence of Pennsylvania also has a similar provision in its constitution.

This on the heels of Houston's election of its first openly gay mayor. I am under the impression that the GLBT movement is a couple of steps ahead of Atheists in terms of social acceptance, especially in the South. Maybe they have better PR.

Thoughts?

I woke up around 8:30 to my phone ringing. Still groggy, I picked it up to hear Panger on the other side. An ice storm had developed overnight and shut down the bus lines, stranding him downtown halfway through his commute.

After a few minutes trying to get my own train out of the station (four hours sleep with a sleeping pill still working it's magic), I managed to get out to find my own porch rather treacherous. I work my way out to the main drag to find what little traffic going it really slow. I see cars and even a bus on the side of the road. I could feel my own truck doing a little fishtailing here and there, so I took it easy.

I find Panger holed up at a 7Eleven at 8th and Liberty. We come back to discover that all the bridges had been closed, but they didn't get to the 16th Street bridge before I did. We stopped at a local gas station for some ice melt so I can salt our porch, taking care of the neighbors' while I was at it.

Still tired, I get back into bed, and what remained of the sleeping pill continued to do its thing. It was slow getting back up this afternoon, but here I am.

An interesting little Meme. I think I did pretty well, answering the questions as honestly as I could. The financial things would be better if I were not trying to get three different businesses off the ground. I expect that aspect will be greatly improved by this time next year. It might be interesting to repeat this test in a year (if it's still available) and see how things change.

Have mercy, my fingertips are so sore. I just got off another hour of practice (third hour for today) and I continue to catch up from the last several years of neglect. My fingers are in the process of re-building callouses, and in the intervening time, they burn.

What's freaky about my progress is how natural it seems to be coming. I literally stumble on certain concepts and just go with the flow. Sometimes within a few minutes, I can take that concept and turn it into something nifty. Finger positions I found difficult or impossible before are much easier now, and I anticipate positions that are difficult now will become easier soon.

My refinement and accuracy continue to get better, insanely fast. More often I find my solos are coming out clean, more natural sounding. I'm focusing on two simple chord progressions for now to practice technical accuracy, but I can't wait to change it up to see what else I might be able to come up with.

I cannot stress this enough: I have dwelled on a plateau for over a decade making virtually no progress, and within a week I have busted through and am flying. It's almost like the last ten years of lessons and demos are finally catching up to me all at once, freakishly quickly.
I'm not complaining, but man, it's kind of freaking me out!

The problem with feeding your dog real food, IE: meat and bones like they'd actually eat in the wild, is that you get the side-effects of such a diet. To wit: Dogs fart, and sometimes they barf stuff up. Nash has been able to clear a room in the past, but this morning that mutt (loveable, yes, but still a mutt!) produced a stench that would uncurl your hair if it was curly, frizzle it otherwise, burn the hair out of your nostrils, and make your eyes almost bleed! We thought he had just cut one, but I later found out that he had yacked up something on the throw-rug in the Kidling's room. So, I did what any reasonable adult would do in such a situation:

I opened the window a little, and shut the door!

Hey, not my dog, not my mess, not my problem! It's the Kidling's dog, let him clean it up! ;)

And he did too, without even having to be told to do it. Fortunately for him, his nose was so stuffed up that he couldn't even smell it. All he saw was the pile of glop, which he disposed of. Come to think of it, I think the little bugger "disposed" of it in the household trash, rather than taking it outside... I can't smell it anymore, but Trixstir thinks she can. I'll have to find out in the morning what he did with it, as it's after midnight now and I'm not about to wake him up to ask him.

We had two parties at the bowling alley tonight; One from the local feed shop, and the other from the school-bus drivers group. Everyone seemed to have a really good time, and the sales were good. I don't know if people just don't pay attention, or if we need more prominent displays, but this was the second time someone asked if we served hard liquor as well as beer. Umm, yeah... See all those bottles, and the sign that says "Hi-Ball Mixes" ?? Ah well, once they find out that yes we do sell the hard stuff, they buy a good bit of it. I'm really glad we got that dispenser, it makes pouring the drinks so much easier. If hi-balls continue to be this popular, it may even be wise to get one of those mix-dispenser nozzles, rather than dealing with bottled sodas. We wouldn't have to pay for it, they're generally provided by the soft-drink company so long as you're selling their product. I just wonder how long the syrups last in the containers? Definitely something to look into, it might be a better choice than the vending machine and bottled drinks.

*breathes a sigh of relief*

I just got back from opening a checking account at a local bank (yes, a bank, not a credit union, sue me). Citizens has yet to put my name into CheckSystems so all is well for now on that front. The whole time I was there, I was riddled with anxiety that the computer would come back with something and the clerk would bust me out of the building, insulting my heritage and spitting upon the ground I walk on (I exaggerate, but you get my drift).

For the last three years, one of my safeguards was refusing checks, using debit cards instead. This time, I'm cutting up the debit card when it comes in and dealing with cash or online banking only. I refuse to go through another round of this bullshit.

Oh, and I'm going to use the contract for bathroom reading, all 97 pages of it.

If you had to pick the song or songs to be played at your funeral right now...what would it/they be?

If I was picking songs at my funeral right now, I suspect the crowd would be running out of the funeral home in abject terror at this zombie metalhead teddybear making requests of a horrified DJ.

Seriously, though, I couldn't give a shit, I'll be too dead to care. But what the hell, I'll play along.

Eaten Back To Life by Cannibal Corpse. You can't get rid of me that easily.

Here are a few that I like to play while I am alive:

Lust For Life by Gamma Ray.

Eye Of The Tiger by Survivor

Eagle Fly Free by Helloween

Long Since Dark by Sanctuary

I see a pattern...