Just as I was coming to post this, I saw a news story of a shooting at Fort Hood, with seven reported dead.

Going from an inspiring photoessay following a baby screwup who enlisted and became a commended soldier through his entire 27 months of service to wondering what could possibly have happened is a shock to the system.

Please go HERE and vote for Chaucer's First Winter.

If "because Mynuet told me to!" is not sufficient reason, then do it because it seems like a really cute book that you want to get with your Cheerios, and because you're combating someone else's ballot box stuffing and making things more even.

But, really, do it because it'll make me happy.

So, there's a show on Lifetime called Drop Dead Diva. The premise is that a brainless model named Deb dies and comes back in the body of Jane, a pudgy lawyer. There was kind of a plot hole, centered on a line Fred says, so I kind of noodled around with it, then put it aside since I hadn't seen anyone else talking about the show. But, then, idreamofdraco mentioned it, so I'm posting this here for her.


( Memories Remain With the Soul )

So, am I supposed to dislike Robin? Because I think she's out of her depth, and I can see how her habit of talking constantly could get grating, but the more they show people bitching and moaning about her, the more I kinda want her to hang in there.

Jersey Mike needs to go die in a fire - mister "What's a bernaise sauce?" has NO business talking trash about ANYONE. And Eli can just freaking bite me - what a silly little petulant child. That Jen was sitting there indulging in the little scallop and whine festival dropped her about fifty miles in my estimation. And then freaking Mike V! What the crap was that? He's been a douche before, but then this week he outdid himself, being a total juvenile jackass with Eli and a skunk to his brother.

Bryan and Kevin seem like the only decent human beings in that competition. Luckily, they're also head and shoulders the best chefs, so hopefully one of them will win. Of course, we all know that total second-rate hosers can win (see: Ilan, Hosea), so we'll see.

I think one of the worst parts of being sick is the hot feeling in your eyelids, when you know your skin shouldn't be that temperature but you can't do anything about it. I mean, yeah, my muscles hurt, I'm tired and dizzy, my throat is absolutely raw and my nose is stuffed up, not to mention the occasional cough that presages trouble. All that's a given and it sucks, too, but somehow it's the eyelid thing that makes it truly cross the border between well and ill.

I'm going back to bed. When I wake up, if someone in this household has any money, I think nyquil is called for.

Anyone out there a manager? For an assignment (due in about 11 hours, hello procrastination!), I have to:

Interview a manager and compare his or her answers with the description [from the textbook] of what is needed as a present and future manager. Be sure to ask what your interviewee thinks will be needed in a manager in five to ten years.

20 Years After Tiananmen Square, Fang Zheng Dances for Democracy

Fang Zheng sent a human rights message to China today, by way of a waltz. Fang, 42, was back on his feet -- and dancing, no less -- for the first time today since a tank sheared off his legs in the uprising at Tiananmen Square 20 years ago. ...

Fang's legs were crushed beneath the tank; his right leg was amputated midway at his thigh and his left below the knee. A newspaper photo taken moments afterward captured the horrific, bloody scene. Chinese doctors were able to save Fang's life but not his legs, leaving him wheelchair-bound -- and blacklisted as a political dissident.

Fang said that authorities investigating the case urged him to deny the government's role in his accident, and blame his disability on a random event.

"They wanted me to keep quiet about the fact that a tank had crushed students. But I refused," he testified.

The Chinese government finally allowed him to get a passport after almost 20 years in order to keep him from talking to reporters during the Olympics in Beijing. He and his family moved to the U.S.

"At this point, what I'm thinking is stay here, settle down and get a happy life here. Because my daughter and my wife, they both love America. And it's much more convenient here for me in the U.S. For example, with a wheelchair, I can go anywhere," Fang told us by way of a translator.

His next move: getting back on his feet. Fang said that after his accident, Chinese health care professionals told him his legs were too short for prosthetics, confining him to a wheelchair for 20 years. [Prosthetics manufacturers who work with soldiers donated artificial legs and taught him to use them.] ...

"Just to have a walk, with my daughter and my wife, that would be the best," Fang said.

But he's already ready to dance, and today at the Capitol, he did just that. For the first time ever, Fang waltzed with his wife, however gingerly. And he did it for all the world to see, in front of an audience of lawmakers, and broadcast to China via YouTube.

Fang, 20 years after Tiananmen, is standing again.


[He talks about Tiananmen here. And while the music is bombastic and there's gruesome footage of people being hurt in the aftermath, including Fang Zheng's mutilated legs (contrasted with an apparatchik swearing no one was hurt), this video includes footage of Fang Zheng walking in DC - and dancing with his wife.]

Now, the site in general is about pop culture/Hollywood from a conservative perspective, so it may not be your cup of tea. However, this particular article is strictly about writing, and is damn good as well as being apolitical.

Heroic Hollywood: Charlie, the Kid and the Cop

It uses the lobby card for Charlie Chaplin's "The Kid" to discuss the narrative framework of a screenplay, starting with the first three questions:

1) Who is the hero?

2) What important thing does the hero want?

3) Who will strongly oppose the hero from getting what he wants?


While most of us write fanfic and not screenplays, good writing is good writing, and I thought this article did a good job of laying out the basics of writing good conflict. Highly recommended.

OMG, y'all, if you ever get the chance to watch a movie called Connie and Carla, do so. In fact, go watch it on youtube. Or contact a friend who might loan it to you (and I feel very friendly towards you if you want to watch this movie).

I am literally hoarse from laughing so much.

I keep forgetting - a theme with me, it seems - so there's a couple of things to say.

1. ginnylovesdraco - go now! There is a new contest starting up, on the theme of time turners. Real prizes! New fic! What's not to love?

2. Woohoo, FIA will live! lyndsiefenele found us a new host, and we got enough to pay for a year! The heroes of FIA (who agreed to be publicly thanked) now have little gold stars next to their names at FIA as an acknowledgment. For the record, they are: Jessica K Malfoy, SparklingDark, kr1164, Jaden Malfoy, Embellished, and Londe312. (If I didn't say your name, tell me!)

3. I have a new RP! (Okay, there's a group of us and we have a new RP.) It's post-DH and has some of the same characters as si_muove_rpg but is a separate universe. And, of course, it's still D/G all the way, because persephone33 and I are still playing them and, well, D/G is not optional.

Since this RP has less of the baggage that Si Muove has acquired, we're leaving it open until and unless someone gives us a reason to feel we need to do otherwise. It's at turn_left_rpg, and you're totally allowed to make comments on the scenes if the spirit should so move you. (This is what's known as a hint.) So, please check it out and make me smile.

Lastly, a meme! ( Come look at my handwriting. )

Rivals cooperate on touchdown for player with Down syndrome

With about 10 seconds left in the game, and Benton trailing 46-0, McCamy called his final timeout, told an assistant coach to organize the team for the “Matt play” and ran across the field to the Maryville defensive huddle — and to some puzzled looks from the opposing players.

“I’ve got a special situation,” McCamy remembers telling Maryville freshman defensive coach David McEnaney. “I know you guys want to get a shutout. Most teams would want a shutout, but in this situation I want to know if maybe you can let one of my guys run in for a touchdown.” ...

Mike Ziesel, Matt’s dad, a longtime high school coach and the athletic director at Benton, was standing near the top of the bleachers Monday when a spectator told him it looked like Matt was about to enter the game. His wife, Patty, was at home. She hadn’t planned on Matt actually getting on the field Monday.

Neither had McCamy. As he headed across the field to talk to McEnaney, McCamy wasn’t sure what the reaction would be. He asked the players to avoid physical contact with Ziesel but to make it as real as possible for him.

“The (Maryville) players, they didn’t hesitate at all,” McEnaney said. “They jumped right on board.”

And so Matt Ziesel ran a sweep to the right and just kept going. This time, it was McCamy making sure he was close enough to be heard — running down the sideline alongside Matt, yelling as loud as he could.

“Come on, Matty! They’re coming!” McCamy yelled, making the play as real as possible for Ziesel.

Benton lost Monday’s game 46-6, but those six points made a bigger impact than McCamy could have ever imagined.

Just now:

*soft knock*

Me: *pauses headphones*

leaper182: Can I come in?

Me: Yes?

Leaper: *leans top half of body into the room* I just wanted to let you know you are an evil sadistic harbinger of doom and I HATE YOU.

Me: *blinkblink*

Leaper: My period started, as you'd said it might earlier today.

Me: *dead from laugh*

FIA's currently down. I got an email from the hosting company that we're using too many resources, so they moved us to a different server temporarily, while we figure out what to do to get back under the allotted server resources. They recommend going to a dedicated server, but given that's $100/month, I'm not signing my name on the dotted line to be financially responsible for that - I can't afford it.

So, I'll keep you posted about what's going on, but that's the story thus far as I know it.

Why I oppose socialized health care, in a nutshell: Doctors [in the UK] left a premature baby to die because he was born two days too early.

Miss Capewell, 23, said doctors refused to even see her son Jayden, who lived for almost two hours without any medical support.

She said he was breathing unaided, had a strong heartbeat and was even moving his arms and legs, but medics refused to admit him to a special care baby unit. [...]

She said she was told that because she had not reached 22 weeks, she was not allowed injections to try to stop the labour, or a steroid injection to help to strengthen her baby's lungs.

Instead, doctors told her to treat the labour as a miscarriage, not a birth, and to expect her baby to be born with serious deformities or even to be still-born.

It's standard practice in the US to count a baby as born alive even if they only took one breath. It's standard practice in the UK and Canada to count a baby as stillborn even if they live for hours. This mother was in the position of holding her living baby and being told it was already dead.

For those of you who don't know/remember, Milo was born at 33 weeks gestation, but required more than three weeks in the neonatal intensive care unit before he could come home. I can't even fathom the pain of being in that woman's situation, told that your child is worthless because he would cost the state money.




</i>

My son Milo is new to the Chatham County School District, and has already been failed by Chatham County Schools thanks to the inefficiency of First Student in general and specifically by Ms. Ebony Reed, a manager of First Student's routing department. Because of their actions, Chatham County is not providing my son with transportation until some nebulous future date, which means that Chatham County is not providing my son with his federally mandated free and appropriate public education.

A mistake in coding by [the school] had Milo listed as a regular education student rather than a special education student, which I only found out - after two weeks of attempting to contact First Student - by driving down to their offices. After establishing that, I took my son to [the school], where [the lady at the school] corrected the error and gave me a printout confirming that he was indeed in the system. After attempting to call First Student, again, and being disconnected by First Student rather than getting to speak to anyone, I went to their offices again.

The first person I spoke to, who did not give me his name, told me that I should just let him give a message to the routing department and they'd take care of it. I refused to leave without speaking to someone in the routing department, which is when Ms. Reed came out. She informed me that, because the school had only fixed their error today, it would be at least two days before they would even begin to process Milo's information, and it would be some time after that when he was assigned a bus. When I reacted in disbelief that anyone could possibly be this inefficient and unwilling to help, Ms. Reed grew even more condescending and intransigent, telling me that I had to wait, because it would only be fair.

Now, I understand that Chatham County has a lot of students who must be served, I can only speak for my child, who cannot speak for himself. It was not my mistake that caused the issue, and I have been trying to resolve this for weeks without receiving any call back or any interest in helping my child from First Student. A company this grossly inefficient and incompetent, and so outright hostile to the idea of customer service, should not be allowed to continue to operate with free rein to ignore their responsibilities.

My son is entitled to have a school bus come get him and deliver him safely to school. It is the Chatham County School Board's responsibility to ensure this happens. First Student is not interested in fixing the problem, and so I need an answer from the School Board about what the plan is to redress this issue.

[No love,
Me]

And I'm exhausted. Epic tale of Paolo fabulosity will come sometime when I don't look and feel like I spent 14 of the last 31 hours on the road.