Focus on the Family says: Don't be homosexual, fondle our balls!

Focus on the Family has announced their plan to distribute 5000 "stress balls" during Thursday's Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, each decorated with the URL of their website, a website devoted to "cures" for being gay. These balls are to be thrown into the crowd by FOTF flunkies.

2 large cloves of garlic, minced fine
1 2.5x2.5 cm piece of ginger, minced fine
Handful of fresh Thai basil leaves, shredded
1 small red hot pepper (Thai "demon pepper" type), chopped, with as few or as many of the seeds removed as you like OR 1 small spoonful chili-garlic sauce (sambal oelek, not Sriracha)
fresh ground black pepper, to taste
1 stalk lemongrass, chopped fine

I'm rereading Robert Silverberg's peculiar novelization of Isaac Asimov's story "The Positronic Man," which I think appeared (also) as "The Bicentennial Man." An interesting subplot to the book is the protagonist's struggle to achieve legal recognition as a person in the broadest possible sense, although the protagonist is a robot known as "Andrew Martin." Andrew Martin, however, is a very unusual, capable robot, with quite humanlike capabilities -- and he wants to be considered human by legal

Here is a picture of the pumpkin I carved this Hallowe'en, mostly because I'm a maniac (and I was tired of my friend Chad having the geekiest pumpkin at the party).

Hey there, Perfessors Interrobang and Multigeek here with very important, life-altering questions...

Are you getting enough borflnerb in your diet?

It's midnight. Do you know where your borflnerb are?

Are you borflnerb than you were four years ago?

Is our children borflnerb?

Are you borflnerb more now and enjoying it less?

Voulez-vous borflnerb avec moi ce soir?

Hey, everyone. I am sticking my head out of the grave here to tell you that our dear Perfessor Multigeek, long absent from these here virtual parts, and fondly missed, will be visiting me starting at about 3PM tomorrow! Woo!

Psychopathic fun for the whole family -- the Aim A Hurricane Game!

Try this at home, kids. There are multiple options to choose from, cheesily neat sound effects, and the graphics don't suck. Also, it's possible to arrange the high and low pressure systems and the hurricane starting point such that one can take out the entire Eastern Seaboard. *chortle*

(The first 2Perfessor joint.)

The Perfessor and I were talking about Hurricane Katrina and the reactions thereto, and I mentioned a telling comment that one of the CNN reporters had made, a Freudian slip of the worst order. The reporter was in the midst of the devastated zone, and said something like, "When we get back to the States..." Keith Olbermann also came out with the line "Somewhere, in the city of Louisiana," as though the US Gulf Coast were some sinking city-state, a drowned

I had an idea. We, as Canadians, have some collective sins to atone for (we'll get to some of the other ones later), one of which being the expulsion of the Acadians in 1755.

A Brief Historical Digression:: From the Centre Acadien --

A week ago Friday, I submitted my resume to Fanshawe College, as they were apparently looking for instructors for their Continuing Education department, in either English or Technical Writing. (I thought, "I could do that!") On Sunday, I got an e-mail back from someone asking if I'd be interested in interviewing for a position teaching Business Communication in their day-school General Studies department. On Tuesday, I went for my interview. On Wednesda

There's a lengthy thread going on the TECHWR-L technical writers' list about using free and open source (FOSS) applications particularly for technical writers. While it seems that the field is shaping up nicely in terms of tools (this is gratifying to know, considering that I intend to set up an entire tech-writing kit on a Linux system), it still has some problems. This, you might say, is a plea from a non-developer user of FOSS to the development community, asking you to consider deliberate

Coincidentally enough, given the topic of my last JE (steaming away at 27 comments as I write this), Rustin and I were talking about the NCL conspiracy which eventually led to the destruction of streetcar lines continent-wide (when they tore up the streetcar tracks here in London, they claimed it was so that they could use the metal for the war effort), and Rustin asked me if I'd be able to put together 3000 words on it or so for a pocket guide. I said that oughtn't to be a problem.

*(91.3 cents/litre)

Since I've been in a fairly cranky mood lately, I'm getting a little annoyed with Americans griping about high gas prices. Their gas prices are hovering right around $2/gallon, and they think they've got it bad.

Constant Readers, I am in mourning. For the last eight years, I've gone to the Pennsic War for the first two whole weeks of August. This year, due to being in the Small Business Development course, and being paid grant monies to be here and develop my business (such as it is), I'm not going this year. On the other hand, I'm not exactly being philosophical about it. It's bumming me out incredibly.

Since I'm not going to be at Pennsic this year, unless some miracle appears between then and now, I've sent a blank book with Myfanwy for people to write messages in. Thanks to my friend Maugorn for the idea. The book will be residing primarily at House of the Three Roses, E13, for those of you who want to leave me a message and sympathy.