the actual biggest loser

um, for all you biggest loser watchers out there, i think i need only say one name: joelle. this woman is completely delusional. she's like a sociopath - did you look in her eyes? nothing. it was actually a little bit shocking. i feel sorry for her. most people take that time on the ranch to really figure it all out, but this woman walked around the gym, watched everyone else work out, and was shocked that she only lost, oh, ZERO POUNDS! the group gave her so many chances because they loved her partner, carla. oh, i love carla too. [on a side note, carla is a missy elliott clone!] carla was the biggest girl they'd ever had on the show. she lost 25 lbs in 30 days all by herself - the most of any of the players that had been sent home. joelle stood there while everyone lost double digits all around her -- bob said he could feel the shame coming off of her. i don't believe it. she still, to this day, thinks she did her best. her and carla are no longer speaking to one another. i don't blame carla; i think she needs to get away from that woman if she wants to be successful. i bet carla will be in the running for second place. she was determined and i hope she kicks ass! as for joelle, i hope she loses weight for her own personal being, but i really hope that she realizes she needs some psychological help. and what so we have here? jillian with only 3 teams left, bob with 5. 2 blue teams were in the bottom 2 last night -- jillian produces winners, people. actually, i think all the winners have been jillian's. bob is adorable and awesome, but stats don't lie, folks. oh, have i mentioned i want to kiss jillian? oh, i have? sorry.
is the media and right wingers really busting president obama's balls because he chose 3 people for his cabinet that had some tax evasion problems? what? really? for the last 8 years our government stole from us, made billions of dollars at our expense and sank a trillion dollars into a war they manipulated us into! i mean it. i'm appalled.
what about my portland trailblazers? down 20? on the road? no problem. coming from behind and beating the new orleans hornets was quite a feat. it put them in sole possession of 4th place in the west. i know it's early for playoff hopes given we haven't even had the all-star break yet, but i think our guys need to feel that so they don't lose their drive. they want to win, they want to be in the post season. so do i. tonight, dallas. easily done. take care of them, guys. i'll be watching, of course. let's go blazers let's go!

speechless

i can't even put in to words this overwhelming feeling of change and hope.
on this day...
tears of joy...
tears of hope...
my friends and i gathered around the tv...
johna jenn helen jana sharon diane...

where were you?

peace.

44

barack obama - the 44th president of the united states of america

on another note...

can you believe george bush wants to come on tv and "say goodbye"? what a pompous ass! doesn't he know that people are literally counting down seconds until he's out of there? doesn't he know? he's acting like people are going to miss him. him and all his tears on tv about leaving office! i'm not falling for it! george w. bush, you will ALWAYS BE THE PROVEN WORST PRESIDENT IN THE HISTORY OF OUR COUNTRY. always. i can't imagine there could be anyone worse. all he's done was maneuver us into the worst economic crisis since the great depression, started 2 meaningless wars and manipulated, lied, deceived and committed treason against america and americans. he should be in jail. anyone else would be. he believed he was above the law and he made it so he was.
tuesday won't come soon enough. hope is upon us. i know that obama is not the answer to all of our problems - he can't fix everything. it's going to take years to get back on track. but we have to keep fighting for civil rights, our environment and democracy. president obama thinks we can do it. he believes in america. i also think we should re-visit the constitution of the united states. i know president obama will uphold the founding principles of our fine nation.
here's to hope.
peace.

equality for all

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hnHyy8gkNEE

the video above is the most amazing thing i've heard about gay marriage. as keith says, it's not about gay marriage, it's about EQUALITY for everybody.

everybody.

true that tj

"All, too, will bear in mind this sacred principle, that though the will of the
majority is in all cases to prevail, that will to be rightful must be
reasonable; that the minority possess their equal rights, which equal law must protect, and to violate would be oppression."

- Thomas Jefferson, the third President of the United States, the principal
author of the Declaration of Independence, and one of the most influential
Founding Fathers

civil rights part deaux

check out this article from the los angeles times. people are taking to the streets regarding prop 8. i love it. this is what i'm talking about people! this is america! we are proud to be american again! this proposition is unconstitutional and you know it. all of you hate mongers out there - you know it's unconstitutional. if you want to protect america you will help repeal this proposition. we ("the gays") are getting tired of being treated like second-class citizens and after taking such a huge step electing BARACK OBAMA PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES, letting 8 pass just doesn't make sense. like president-elect BARACK OBAMA said, "it's our time."
be part of the revolution.

sad day

dear california,
i'm disappointed and disheartened at the too large a margin pass of proposition 8. 52.2% in favor, 47.3% opposed. it totally killed my obama buzz today as every time i got too excited, i remembered that you voted for discrimination, hate, and un-equality for everyone. we just went out in droves to elect the first african-american president, who 200 years ago would have been kept as a slave, and you can't let the homos have their little weddings? i paraphrase, mrs. ellen degeneres when i say that saying gay people can't be married is the very same as saying "you, sit in the back of the bus," "you,, can only use this bathroom," "you can go here but you can't go there." it's wrong. DISCRIMINATION IS UNCONSTITUTIONAL! the constitutional amendment sadly also takes away rights that had already been won. i'm hoping for a repeal on this ridiculous ban. kudos to all who were married prior to the election, as their marriages will remain legal and valid. to those opposed, guess what we are still gay. we are still going to commit to one another. that won't change. so take that california!
all my love, california,
caryn

election night

holllaaaa! we did it. as john mccain said, "the american people have spoken"! what an amazing few days. i am speechless (for once). the people came out in masses. they waited in lines for hours - losing pay - to vote. we have elected the first african-american president and our lives and the lives of our children, will be different. my neice and nephews will grow up in a world with racial barriers broken. not even just racial - it's for all of us. for all the minorities, blacks, asians, latinas, gay, trans, women - i could go on. but THIS is what MY america is all about. i'm overwhelmed by emotion. i just keep bursting into tears - i can't seem to control it. as 8:00 pm came and keith olberman called barack obama the next president of the united states, i ran outside and there was my neighbor jillian and her friends celebrating. i was so overwhelmed with excitement that i embraced and cried with perfect strangers. it was unbelievable. then i called my parents, of course! they knew it was me. i've been crying with joy and excitement and hope - i did it again this morning seeing the front page of the oregonian ... OBAMA's Time is what it says. but like he said last night, it's OUR time. we can't let this excitement wane and president elect obama can't do it alone. this is a revolution and i for one plan to be a part of it.

i'm having a slight problem with the closeness (still) of proposition 8 in california. i can't believe the residents of california can support that kind of hate and discrimination. not all the votes have been counted but it's 88% of precincts in and it's 48%-52%. this reminds me of oregon's "one man/one woman" of 4 years ago. constitutional measures like this are dangerous. it's been proven that the same sex marriages that have been celebrated over the summer have no effect on anyone except the people who love them.

however, i'm not going to let them get me down today.

the countdown begins ... 1/20/09

computers fairyland cage matches

carlos is going to try and work on my computer again! i have faith he can fix it.
while i was at ikea this weekend i saw this vw wagon with this fairyland bumper sticker and i got giddy inside! i had to take a picture. my parents used to take me and kris all the time to fairyland in oakland. i know there's a few of you out there who remember fairyland - the plastic keys? awesome!
don't forget to tivo or watch biden and palin go at it in a cage match tonight. it should be fun to watch biden try not to openly berate or humiliate palin and for palin not to come off like a total idiot. i mean, if you can't tell katie couric which publications you get your information from, you know you're in trouble. don't worry, people, she has her "sources."
hey, don't forget to register to vote. IF YOU'VE MOVED YOU MUST RE-REGISTER!
NOVEMBER 4, 2008
VOTE FOR CHANGE

biden v palin [grrrrr...]

hey, don't forget to watch joe biden kick palin's ass all the way back to alaska on thursday at 6 pm for the one and only vice-presidential debate. it should be a hoot. i thought the good old boys would want to start WWIII before they let this woman speak on national television. biden's gonna kill her. i can't wait for her to make a complete half-wit of herself. i truly hope the undecided voters are really watching these debates and seeing for themselves how a vote more mccain is a vote for bush. as for palin? eve ensler summed it up for me best ... "I don't like raging at women. I am a Feminist and have spent my life trying to build community, help empower women and stop violence against them. It is hard to write about Sarah Palin. This is why the Sarah Palin choice was all the more insidious and cynical. The people who made this choice count on the goodness and solidarity of Feminists." amen. vote november 4, 2008. vote for change. vote obama. peace.

eve ensler ... swiped from ro's blog

"I am having Sarah Palin nightmares. I dreamt last night that she was a member of a club where they rode snowmobiles and wore the claws of drowned and starved polar bears around their necks. I have a particular thing for Polar Bears. Maybe it's their snowy whiteness or their bigness or the fact that they live in the arctic or that I have never seen one in person or touched one. Maybe it is the fact that they live so comfortably on ice. Whatever it is, I need the polar bears. ** I don't like raging at women. I am a Feminist and have spent my life trying to build community, help empower women and stop violence against them. It is hard to write about Sarah Palin. This is why the Sarah Palin choice was all the more insidious and cynical. The people who made this choice count on the goodness and solidarity of Feminists.?? ** But everything Sarah Palin believes in and practices is antithetical to Feminism which for me is part of one story -- connected to saving the earth, ending racism, empowering women, giving young girls options, opening our minds, deepening tolerance, and ending violence and war. ** I believe that the McCain/Palin ticket is one of the most dangerous choices of my lifetime, and should this country chose those candidates the fall-out may be so great, the destruction so vast in so many areas that America may never recover. But what is equally disturbing is the impact that duo would have on the rest of the world. Unfortunately, this is not a joke. In my lifetime I have seen the clownish, the inept, the bizarre be elected to the presidency with regularity. ** Sarah Palin does not believe in evolution. I take this as a metaphor. In her world and the world of Fundamentalists nothing changes or gets better or evolves. She does not believe in global warming. The melting of the arctic, the storms that are destroying our cities, the pollution and rise of cancers, are all part of God's plan. She is fighting to take the polar bears off the endangered species list. The earth, in Palin's view, is here to be taken and plundered. The wolves and the bears are here to be shot and plundered. The oil is here to be taken and plundered. Iraq is here to be taken and plundered. As she said herself of the Iraqi war, "It was a task from God."?? ** Sarah Palin does not believe in abortion. She does not believe women who are raped and incested and ripped open against their will should have a right to determine whether they have their rapist's baby or not.?? ** She obviously does not believe in sex education or birth control. I imagine her daughter was practicing abstinence and we know how many babies that makes.?? ** Sarah Palin does not much believe in thinking. From what I gather she has tried to ban books from the library, has a tendency to dispense with people who think independently. She cannot tolerate an environment of ambiguity and difference. This is a woman who could and might very well be the next president of the United States. She would govern one of the most diverse populations on the earth.?? ** Sarah believes in guns. She has her own custom Austrian hunting rifle. She has been known to kill 40 caribou at a clip. She has shot hundreds of wolves from the air.?? ** Sarah believes in God. That is of course her right, her private right. But when God and Guns come together in the public sector, when war is declared in God's name, when the rights of women are denied in his name, that is the end of separation of church and state and the undoing of everything America has ever tried to be.?? ** I write to my sisters. I write because I believe we hold this election in our hands. This vote is a vote that will determine the future not just of the U.S., but of the planet. It will determine whether we create policies to save the earth or make it forever uninhabitable for humans. It will determine whether we move towards dialogue and diplomacy in the world or whether we escalate violence through invasion, undermining and attack. It will determine whether we go for oil, strip mining, coal burning or invest our money in alternatives that will free us from dependency and destruction. It will determine if money gets spent on education and healthcare or whether we build more and more methods of killing. It will determine whether America is a free open tolerant society or a closed place of fear, fundamentalism and aggression.If the Polar Bears don't move you to go and do everything in your power to get Obama elected then consider the chant that filled the hall after Palin spoke at the RNC, "Drill Drill Drill." I think of teeth when I think of drills. I think of rape. I think of destruction. I think of domination. I think of military exercises that force mindless repetition, emptying the brain of analysis, doubt, ambiguity or dissent. I think of pain.??Do we want a future of drilling? More holes in the ozone, in the floor of the sea, more holes in our thinking, in the trust between nations and peoples, more holes in the fabric of this precious thing we call life?" -eve ensler

no gas tonight in my hot water heater...

...no gas tonight on my stove. it's true. bear's been cut off of the gas supply. because my hot water is paid for through HOA and i only dust my stove, i never switched the gas bill into my name. hell, i didn't even know i was supposed to get a gas bill. the sweet guy on the other end this morning informed me that the soonest someone could come out was thursday. what? i asked him how i should clean myself. i've been offered showers at sharon and johna's but i really wanted him to tell me -- not everyone is as lucky to have friends who will allow me to clean at their house. well, sharon probably didn't know it'd be for 2 days. well, i got a shower in after i power washed everything in sight yesterday afternoon; so after work today i go to sharon's to clean rsq off of me. scully is so muddled in mats this summer that i think another shaving is in her future. this time, i plan on really trying to get into a routine of brushing her when she doesn't have mats. she needs to know that brushing can be enjoyable, not just when she has mats and it hurts. because she has such long hair i have to be able to maintain it. i know she's old and you can't teach an old cat new tricks, but i think scully is the exception to the rule. it only took her a month to realize she could walk right through the screen at the back door. jen's cat moe took about 10 minutes to come on in and help herself to a snack and cat nip - but that's my monster. i've retrieved my iTunes from sharon but not all the music is there - some of it just never made it. soooo, i've been going through, seeing what's missing and making spreadsheets. some of it is lost, some of it is on my c drive and some cd's i lost in the divorce. the ones that are lost that i've downloaded from iTunes really gets me bothered. i feel like since it's been purchased digitally there should be a way to get them back. i can't seem to figure out how to contact iTunes regarding this matter. perhaps it's just not possible. i guess i have to figure out which ones i can't live without. my iPod is full of the old iTunes library so i may just keep my iPod as is. here's a question - jason, perhaps? once i've gone through and replaced existing files with my hard copies, can i plug my iPod into my computer and upload new songs without the ones on the iPod that are not in my library anymore going away? does this make sense? so many questions, so little time. well, everyone, things are getting serious. we must vote in droves to keep out the oldest guy to run for president and the pit bull with lipstick. this woman makes me ropable. i normally tell people i don't care who they vote for but i do this time. obama for change people. get out in the streets and make sure "they" don't steal the election again. because they are already trying. make sure your vote, and ALL votes, are counted! get registered. if you live here in portland many local restaurants and cafe's have become places to register. hell, even rsq is registering people. we are also showing our support for obama...

vote november 4, 2008. vote for change we can believe in. vote barack obama.