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Heaven and Hell on Earth (every LJ needs a pretentious title)  Happy Christmas to them as celebrate. And a repost of papersky's fabulous little retelling of the Nativity story from Joseph's point of view. A sensible, practical carpenter who doesn't actually believe any of Mary's nonsense about being pregnant with the Son of God, but is trying to make the best of a bad situation. Just read it, okay. Even if you're not a believer, it's just really *neat* to see it from his POV.
As an update to my previous post, the missing teen I mentioned has been found. Alive, thank God, which is why I'm not mentioning her name in this follow-up post. She's in hospital with her mom and a counsellor, and with any luck the bastard will get nailed to a wall, metaphorically speaking. And no, while I don't have any details beyond the above, imagine if you will my stunning lack of surprise that the cops got it wrong in their assumption that a young working-class girl of colour who vanished *must* be a runaway, as opposed to something bad having happened to her. Anyway, thank you to everybody who boosted the signal. You guys rock. And boy oh boy it sure is nice to have a semi-cheerful ending to that story. I mean no, she's obviously not okay-okay right now, but she's still alive and she's getting help. She will be okay eventually. When I posted the link yesterday, I was feeling very gloomy about her prospects. Sometimes it's just plain awesome to be wrong! Midwestern LJ folk especially, have you seen 15-year-old Brianna Lacey? She's a relative of someone I know on LJ, and the Chicago police are treating her disappearance as a runaway (which means no Amber Alert publicity). But her family suspect she may have been kidnapped. Edited to add: Law enforcement does not have the best track record in terms of taking seriously the disappearances of people of colour (even when they're children) who aren't upper middle class. So let's boost the signal a little, see if we can increase the likelihood of someone seeing Brianna, recognising her, figuring out what's really going on, and getting her help. Have some crack. queenofthorns wrote How Tim Riggins Saved Humanity, a totally awesomely hilariously cracktastic crossover of Friday Night Lights and Battlestar Galactica. Saul and Ellen Tigh move to Dillon, Texas and join the Panther Boosters as part of their cover. Very very very vague spoilers, not really spoilers. Just read it. I'm in Canada, not the US, but a lot of my f-list are Americans. Pretty amazing post (re: health insurance reform south of the border) by Shark-Fu entitled There must be a line. Over on LiveJournal, holzman has more. This is so depressing. Reason #1 I have a dog in this fight: Someone on my flist (an American, natch) is something insane like $150,000 USD in debt at the moment because she and her husband both developed severe health issues (in her case cancer) round about the same time, and then she lost her job (which was problematic, because her husband was covered through her). They also have a child, who's the only healthy person in the household right now. The rest of the "have" countries got their shit together *decades* ago re: healthcare. Reason #2 I have a dog in this fight: I'm someone who's suffered with chronic, potentially life-threatening if not medicated health problems since I was 11 years old (I'm now 33, so two-thirds of my life). If I hadn't been lucky enough to grow up in Canada (thank you, dead Tommy Douglas, and I'm sorry your only grandson turned out to be such a putz). Where was I? If I didn't live in a country where the ability to receive appropriate medical treatment was not tied to my earning capacity at the time the treatment was needed, chances are I'd be dead right now. If alive, on permanent disability or welfare, unable to better myself because if I went back to school or got a job, I'd lose my healthcare. My health problems have been pretty much stable for several years now (with medication), and I figure I've got at least another 30 years of full-time work at a decently-paid job with which to pay INTO the system. But if the government hadn't picked up the tab back in the day, I wouldn't have a university degree, I wouldn't be a homeowner, I wouldn't be a taxpayer, I wouldn't be spending too much money on my pets or my new TV or buying original pieces from not-yet-famous artists. I *hope* I'd still be alive, but my quality of life would be very different, and I wouldn't be a productive member of society now. Canada's taxpayers made an investment in my future back then, and thank God for it. Because now I make too much money for the government to pay for my meds, my pharmacy costs are 80% covered by my extended healthcare benefits at work (i.e. by a private insurance company with whom my employer has contracted. And this company still makes money despite Canada's socialised healthcare system). And the other 20% I can cover out of my own pocket (though with a certain amount of reflexive grumbling at the expense). The above is not meant to be self-congratulatory. I know damn well I've been lucky, and I'm only in this good position now because of an accident of geography. Reason #3 I have a dog in this fight: I'm a dyke: the chances of me needing an abortion are pretty damn slim. However, I'm sure I've mentioned this before, but it bears repeating. Over a decade ago my first cousin (doesn't live in Canada, but in another "have" country with a sane system) had a second trimester abortion because she was diagnosed with cancer. She was 29 years old, recently married, eldest of my uncle and aunt's three children, a keen amateur field hockey player (she met her husband because he played for another team in her rec league). She had a LIFE. And she was devastated by the decision she made to abort her wanted, planned pregnancy. To this day she wears a pendant with three stones in it. Her husband gave it to her shortly after she got done with chemo, on a very emotional day for both of them (it would have been her due date). The three stones represent her, her husband, and the baby they lost. She's healthy now, has two healthy kids who probably would never have been conceived if she hadn't had that abortion. She wasn't guaranteed to die if she stayed pregnant. But t he odds of her carrying to term and delivering a healthy baby were really crappy. The odds of her ever being able to get pregnant again were pretty much non-existent. It was a rough time for her, and I can only imagine how much worse it would've been if she and her husband had also had to worry about how to pay for the surgery when her insurance refused to cover it. Or if they'd had to drive to another state to find a doctor who was willing to perform it and a hospital willing to let him do it. Do I want to buy Farscape the complete series for $132.99 Canadian? Normally I'd start with season 1 of a show and go from there, but I've heard good stuff about it from SO many people on my friendslist. Not that I'm ready to buy it or anything else *just* yet, but I asked all my family members for Chapters gift cards for Christmas, so I'm planning ahead. The Wild Beast has developed a new thing over the past few days. He stalks over to Miss Savannah Weaver, usually when she's sprawled out on the floor being utterly inoffensive, stands over her and bites her throat. It scared the hell out of me the first time I saw it, and I broke it up. I threw a paperback at them, which spooked WB for hours. He freaks if you throw stuff in his direction. But freaking him out was kind of the point because I was convinced any second now he was going to RIP HER THROAT OUT RIGHT IN FRONT OF ME. But he's done it multiple times now,a nd while she squawks in protest, she doesn't struggle, and eventually he takes his fangs away from her neck and stalks away. It creeps me out, but I've checked her neck for injuries every time I see it happen, and he's not breaking the skin that I can tell. Miss SW does have a small scab on the back of her head, probably from him scratching her, but nothing that seems like a bite wound. Yet. I knew WB was troubled, but I wasn't expecting him to embrace vampirism in his old age, damnit! The good news is I finally managed to get the photos from my camera's memory card and now I have the pics. WIll upload sometime this weekend. Also, I need to remember how to erase pictures from my camera, because it won't let me take new pics, owing to the memory card being full. THe other good news is Miss SW had her very first taste of salmon, and she is a HUGE fan. I was out of canned food (I run out a hell of a lot faster with two than one, and Miss SW eats like a horse) so tonight I opened a can of salmon (the cheaper kind with the skin and all the gross bits). I hope they don't puke. Also, work has me on the verge of a nervous breakdown. Yeah, yeah, what else is new, but come on, I need a little frakking breathing space once in a while and it's go-go-go right now. If it doesn't calm down in the short week inbetween Christmas and New Year, I may kill someone. It's not that work is BAD or anything. My co-workers have been being fabulously nice to me lately. It's just super-duper-busy. Edited to add: Okay, message received, Farscape is fantabulous. But $133 CDN is a bit much considering Amazon.com has it for $57 USD, which is cheaper even *with* cross-border shipping. Christine Baranski was, as expected, hilarious, and Kaley Cuoco's comedic chops are developing nicely. I liked that Sheldon had no immediate response to getting kissed by his roommate's mother beyond silent shock. Yes, Jim Parsons is hilarious and if they'd given him a line I'm sure he would've done a great job with it. However, from a comedic point of view rather than a "let's give Jim some material" view, it worked that Beverly's line about the busboy ended the scene. I desperately want Parsons to get the Lead Actor in a Comedy Series Emmy (maybe next year), but I also like that the show remains an ensemble, even if Sheldon is the break-out character and Parsons the break-out star. ( Read more... ) I am curious, though, having seen both Dr. Hofstadter and Mrs. Cooper onscreen fairly recently, as to whether Leonard and Sheldon would've been happier if switched at birth. On the one hand, I think yes, because Sheldon is probably far better equipped than Leonard is to deal with Beverly and her soon-to-be-ex-husband's wire monkey parenting techniques. And while I imagine Leonard would be driven near-homicidal by Mary's noisy religiosity, he'd probably make the best of it for the sake of an affectionate parent. ( Read more... ) But both thrive when people challenge them emotionally, make them push past their numb, sterile comfort zone. i.e. We have little sis Debra who expects Dexter to act like a human being, and yells at him if he doesn't, and lo and behold Dexter fakes it until he makes it. And along the way, the faking kind of turns into a passable imitation of the real thing, passable enough for his stepkids, wife and sister to love him. Penny and the guys challenge Sheldon (okay, sometimes they coddle him) but they usually push Sheldon to go past his self-imposed boundaries and act like a damn human being instead of a green-blooded hobgoblin. If Beverly had raised Sheldon to be all intellect and no emotion (instead of mostly intellect with some emotion, like Mary and Meemaw raised him), it could've been destructive like Harry raising Dexter. P.S. Why don't I have an icon with that quote and a kickass woman of colour? I must remedy that deficiency. You guys are awesome. My thanks to: suzvoydevildollingridmatthewsAnonymous mfirefly10lizardbeth_jancarettsabaceanbabeninhursagand catdancerz
It's the 20th anniversary of the Ecole Polytechnique massacre, and commodorified has a pretty amazing post on the subject.</a>
Wild Beast is sulking up a storm because I grabbed him, stuck him in the bedroom and shut the door, then went out onto the patio to hang the new suet cake. The birds kept hopefully flying over to the (empty) suet feeder and ignoring the other feeder (with the boring dry birdseed instead of peanut butter suet and seeds). So I took the hint and decided to make them happy. Cutting for The Big Bang Theory meta, specifically about The Guitarist Amplification and The Adhesive Duck Deficiency. ( Read more... ) Please note: I have not yet seen tonight's Big Bang episode, because it hasn't aired on the West Coast yet. Cutting again for meta re: last week's Melrose. Shut UP! I am allowed to watch popcorn TV. ( Read more... ) Baby beluga in the deep blue sea, you swim so wild and you swim so free. Heaven above and the sea below, and a little white whale on the go. I'm having a fit of nostalgia for my childhood here. Don't mind me, it'll pass soon. Plus, behind the spoiler cut, observations on the most recent Big Bang Theory, V, and Melrose Place: ( Read more... ) |
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