Funny Teach The Controversy t-shirts

Also, arg - this article about the innate biological differences between girls and boys frustrates the heck out of me. Yes, they acknowledge that socialization is sometimes a factor, but mostly they're saying "but we socialize them that way because they're naturally that way!" (insert frustrated/confused "buh-wha???" boing sound effect here)

While I'm generally not a fan of false binaries (nature vs. nurture, for example), in the way that they say "It's one or the other, not both", I am willing to say that one might often have more weight than the other. In this case, I think that this article is a lot of excuses for why sexism (in *both* directions) is so prevalent and insidious.

I remember watching my nephew, when he was 4, put both his hands together, out in front of him, and yell "pow! pow!" as he shot an imaginary target. The whole freaking family marveled that "wow, boys really are just like that!" while I, slack-jawed (because my family is normally much less dense than this, as a whole) merely pointed at the Lilo & Stitch dvd that was playing, showing a scene of Stitch shooting a gun. I also pointed out that we'd watched his father teach him how to replicate that merely moments before...

Are there differences between "men" and "women"? Clearly. All they all the result of socialization? Unlikely. Are they largely cultivated by socialization? I'm going to go with a big fat YES. And then I'm going to think about all of the times that my mother had to force me to learn to make eye contact, to try to remember what different facial expressions were supposed to indicate to me, and all of the times she had to prod me to tell her details about my day (because it never would have occurred to me otherwise). And I'm going to send a silent prayer out to some unknown "sissy boy" who would rather draw nouns with color than verbs with black and blue.

(kommishoner, it's times like these that I'm most grateful that you are parenting).

Ooh, lastly (many edits in this post), speaking of men/women - NSFW (audio) but damn it's funny:

This is what happens to my knee when Spike decides to make a *very*
abrupt pit stop while running (with me holding his leash) next to my
bike. Ow!


(ETA: that's a picture that I took on, and emailed from, my iPhone - neat!)

Hey everyone, let's give a very warm LJ welcome to our very own, beloved, long-haired, heavy-metal, philosophizing dude from Santa Cruz - 1hoser!

Vignette from the Avenged Sevenfold concert a little while back:

At one point in the show, the band started playing a familiar riff - Pantera's "Walk" - and the crowd went wild. The singer looked into the audience and asked "Who here knows the words? Do you? [points to some dude] Do you *really* know the words? REALLY? Because you're gonna come up here and sing."

A semi-tough looking young man then ran up onstage, grabbed the microphone, and started pacing around during the opening chords, clearly psyching himself up (he even rolled up his t-shirt sleeves - I wanted to hug him). He started to sing, and did indeed know all of the words, but his delivery wasn't all that strong, although I give him props for guts. Then he walked to the side of the stage, and the singer addressed the audience again.
"Now everybody here is thinking 'I coulda done better'! Well, could you? Could *you*? [points] OK, get your ass up here and show us!"

And as the second guy ran up to the stage, I turned to Jon, and said "... Does that make this a Walk-off?"

wah wah wah

(Dude 2 did a pretty damn good job, by the way, and it was such a great moment overall - I love it when bands do stuff like that. I mean, they sang onstage with Avenged Sevenfold - and they sang PANTERA! And it sounded great! I'm so jealous!)

OK so yesterday I got in my car to go to work, and the radio was tuned to 107.7 The Bone; they were playing some power ballad, interspersed with audio clips of a man talking about his child's illness, and how Children's Hospital had saved his son's life. The radio station is doing a fundraiser, and I nearly called in to donate yesterday, but I was driving, and busy, and besides they wanted a promise of $20 a month instead of a one-time donation, and so on.

So today I got in my car, and they were still going - except this time, it was a woman, talking about her baby, who weighed 2.2 pounds at birth, and they had interspersed it with JOURNEY... Don't Stop Believing. And I realized, as I was driving towards Jamba Juice and Starbucks for my morning necessities, that I could probably forgo one or two mornings of smoothies and coffee TO SAVE A CHILD'S LIFE, and then I even thought "what if it was your little baby that you probably want to have some day, huh?", so I called, because of the power of Journey. And guilt. But mostly Journey.

But now they're interspersing SWEET CHILD O' MINE with a LITTLE GIRL talking about being extra tired after soccer practice, and that is when I turned the radio OFF because there is such a thing as just TOO MUCH. I mean seriously.

Anyhow, yay for little babies, and their well-being and stuff. I'm officially on spring break now, so I get to spend tonight and tomorrow morning attempting to memorize the RICA prep book, and then take the test tomorrow afternoon and then go to a concert. And then do my next assignment for NDNU, and grade everything for all of my students, and write up lesson plans for the next six weeks, and finish the summer school/fall scheduling, and mail that out, and do more NDNU work, and then go back to work. :P

But yay, SPRING BREAK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Why can't I update to GarageBand 4.1.1? Is it because I'm still on Tiger? I want to be able to make custom ringtones! Help pls?

Lots of restaurants/fast food/being fed elsewhere as of late, or subsisting off of leftovers, but tonight food came out of the kitchen again. Jon had suggested the Jimmy Dean Sage Sausage that I had in the freezer, and maybe some rice. Of course that didn't sound like enough for me.

So. While Jon watched "Mega Disasters: Gamma Ray Bursts" on some HD channel:

I thawed the sausage and then threw it in the big frying pan.
I also threw two cups of jasmine rice into the rice cooker.
Once the sausage was cooked, I pushed it to the side of the pan, and then poured in a little bit of olive oil.
Threw some pine nuts on the olive oil, and let them get sizzling for a bit.
Found the basil/"herb blend" paste in the fridge, and poured the rest of that over the sausage.
Added some grated parmesan.
Salt and pepper.
It seemed a bit dry, and I wasn't liking that, so I poured about 3/4 a cup of beer (Sierra Nevada Pale Ale) in with the sausage and pine nuts and stuff, then turned the heat way way up to cook it off.
Then I found some more fresh(ish) sage leaves in the fridge and threw some in.
Then I put a lot more parmesan on it.
Then I took the rice and put it in the big pan with the meat and stuff and stirred it around.
Drizzled some extra olive oil over the rice.
Serve!

It was delicious, if I do say so myself. Yum!

Ryca’s Wishlist March 8 2008
OK, mom and Jon won’t stop asking me what I want, and “I’m happy with what I’ve got!” doesn’t seem to help. SO, I went through all of my old wishlists, and got kinda OCD about it, and here’s what I’ve cobbled together. This is collated from many places, and probably won’t be in any kind of order such as “most wanted” on top or anything helpful like that. This is part of why I’ve tried to stop asking for things... once I start it gets all kind of out of hand... I’m a very, very, very lucky person, and I don’t need anything more than what I have, I swear! But apparently I’m managed to collect a whole lot of “well that would be nice” over time...

( Read more... )

Mind-Reading Game Headset to Hit Market. Of course, this might be a hoax, but Discovery News tends to be somewhat reliable. And I get why it would be good, but...





Anybody else remember this episode of Star Trek?? ;P

Bwahahahaha - priceless.

copied from shinga
How many times has someone on your friends list posted about something and you were really confused, but you didn't want to ask because you knew you SHOULD know? How many times have you felt 'guilty' asking a close LJ friend a question that should be 'obvious'?

Well, here's your chance. If you've missed a few things, or missed an entry and are confused, ask me anything. Even something EXTREMELY basic, like where I live! I'm not going to get irritated at any of the questions - we've all missed things before, so ask away!

Also, I'm not exactly a private person. You can ask stuff that seems prying, too; if I don't want to answer, I just won't. :P
--

Comments will be screened unless they are harmless enough, then I'll unscreen them. ;)

Although with any luck I'll soon find that I have brownie mix in my kitchen. And YAY, Jon just downloaded the free trial of PUZZLE FIGHTER II on our new Xbox 360 *Elite*. Hopefully we'll figure out how to actually buy stuff on it soon.

Anyhow, more pictures of Teddy, because playing with Photo Booth is always fun (even though it takes weird backwards/mirror image pictures); I wish I had done this more with Becky. Although, she was always so camera-shy that it was hard to get *any* pictures of her. He's not particularly shy, it seems; it's just hard to catch him being *still*. ANYHOW, onward!
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Also:
4:01:09 PM J: all i'm going to say is i like him but i want to live with him a bit longer before committing
4:01:14 PM Ryca: ok
4:12:34 PM J: just so you know i dont have a perfect dog in mind, he fits all my requirements and i know i would love him if we kept him. Its really up to you whether you want him, i will support you either way
4:12:54 PM Ryca: thank you


EDIT 11:34 pm - DENIED on the brownie mix in the kitchen. It was CAKE mix, and dude - The CAKE IS A LIE!!!

Anyhow, this link led to this brownie recipe, because I realized that I had cocoa powder and various and sundry other ingredients (although no baking *powder*... arg). So they're in the oven now, and they look weird and the batter tastes all wrong (so I ended up messing with it, which probably made it even weirder, because a cook I am not), but maybe if I adjust my perceptions they'll be the very best bad-for-me energy bars I'll have ever had!

Meantime, I'ma go make me a milkshake. Bugger all thys for a larke. ;)

Jon's right; I could have gotten a lot more done if I thought about it less. :P

However, getting another picture of Teddy seemed like a better idea.

I think I'm going to "suggest" that Jon take me out to dinner tonight (his fault for not saying what he would want for dinner...).

Anyhow, here's Teddy!


He's a cutie!

Sorta paraphrased from an email I sent to Jon, and a conversation that I had with fiatlouis.

( notice the lack of pauses (or in this case, line breaks, or whatever would make this more readable) - kept in for the sake of accuracy )


For the record, Jon finished unpacking/moving in about a week after we got started. He's ALL DONE, and it kills me. The *only* thing he has left is the general A/V set up (we just got the tv and the xbox, etc)**, and then I need his help with some of "my" stuff that could be "our" stuff (folding millions of sheets and towels, putting up those shelves, etc.)


( ** )

Meet Teddy

( clicky )

( too lazy to reformat/edit/rephrase/whatever )

	Becky, Kalvin and Tante Ryca Family vacation in Carmel, CA, July 2006.
	Good morning, baby girl! We stayed at Doris Day's dog-friendly hotel.
	Wake up! Sleepy girl.

I have a:
HP Photosmart C4280 all-in-one
wireless network using airport extreme
little black macbook running os x 10.4.10/tiger

I want to be able to sit on my couch and scan something that I put on the scanner bed earlier in the day. I can *print* wirelessly - why can't I scan wirelessly??? I don't want to have to dig around the desk area to unplug stuff and hardwire it to my laptop!

Help? Danke.

Family to Adopt Dog Partner of Slain Marine Son

"A U.S. military dog whose handler and best friend was killed in Iraq got a new assignment for the New Year -- retirement with honors in Mississippi to live with the young Marine's family." They had lobbied hard for months to adopt the dog, whose relationship with their son was so strong, it took several Marines to pull it away so that medics could attend the soldier's body.

(CNN)
-- A U.S. military dog whose handler and best friend was killed in Iraq got a new assignment on Friday -- retirement with the late Marine's family.

It took the family months of lobbying to get the adoption approved by the military.

Lex was beside Cpl. Dustin Lee when Lee was killed in a mortar attack in Falluja.

In spite of his injuries, the dog didn't want to leave Lee's side after the attack, according to the Marine's father. Other Marines reportedly had to pull the dog away from the young man's body so medics could reach him.

Lex attended Lee's funeral in March, playing games with the 20-year-old Marine's younger brother on the sidelines.

Although some shrapnel remains in his body, Lex recovered from his wounds and returned to duty at the Marine Corps Logistics Base in Albany, Georgia.

Friday, the 8-year-old bomb-sniffing German shepherd was turned over to Lee's family to live out the rest of his life in Quitman, Mississippi.

"This is to certify that military working dog Lex, having served faithfully and honorably, was discharged from the United States Marine Corps on this 21st day of December 2007," a Marine read at a ceremony interrupted by occasional barks.

Afterward, Jerome Lee, Dustin Lee's father, crouched down and shook Lex's paw.

Lex seemed oblivious to his 15 minutes of fame as he lay at the feet of a Marine during most of the ceremony.

Jerome Lee had lobbied hard for months to adopt the dog. Marine officials initially told Lee that it would be no problem to get the dog. But persuading the service to give up Lex before the dog's mandatory retirement at age 10 proved to be a challenge.

"Since Dustin's death we've been trying to get his dog, Lex, from the Marine Corps, and needless to say we've had some difficulty there," said Lee, a Mississippi Highway Patrol officer. "This thing went from colonels to generals all the way up to the commandant of the Marine Corps, and it almost went to the secretary of defense."

One issue was making sure the dog was not "overly aggressive." His behavior with the Lee youngsters -- Lex played tug of war with 13-year-old Camryn at his brother's funeral -- seemed to assure that wouldn't be a problem. Marine officials also said the request had to go through the Air Force, which is the approving authority for all military dogs.

Finally, on December 13, the Marines agreed to let Lex go live with Lee's family. It was the first time the Marines have released a dog before its retirement to a former handler's family.

"Lex has had two tours in Iraq," Jerome Lee said. "He's been through a lot, and we just want to get Lex home to our family and let him have a happy life."

Well before joining the Marines, Dustin Lee was known for his devotion to his country. A member of Quitman High School's cross-country track team, Lee and three teammates participated in the Americans United: Flag Across America Run after the September 11, 2001, attacks.

It was no surprise when the young man joined the Marines out of high school in 2004, nor when he went to Albany to train military police dogs. He reportedly was inspired by his mother's work with search and rescue team dogs when he was a boy.

An animal lover who also rode horses, the boy played hide-and-seek with his mother's dog, Jerome Lee said.

"He would let the dog get a sniff of his clothing and then go hide to see if the dog could find him," the elder Lee said.

At the logistics base in Albany, Lee said, he "worked with all the dogs and became the kennel master."

The Marine and Lex had been stationed in Falluja for nearly five months before the fatal attack. When the Marine's body was returned to Quitman in March, hundreds lined the streets waving American flags to say a tearful goodbye. And Lex was there.

In Albany on Thursday, kennel master Mike Reynolds led Lex through his paces for the last time in his military career. But it's time for the old pro to learn some new tricks in civilian life.

Jerome Lee said he hopes Lex's presence will make his other two children feel closer to their missing older brother.

"There's always going to be that missing link with Dusty gone," he said. "But part of Dusty is here with Lex."

Truly. With teleprompters emptied by the writers strike, Conan O'Brien, Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert have been transformed into a bloodthirsty, if well-dressed mob.

The trio appeared on each other's late-night TV shows Monday in a mock feud over who "made" Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee.

...

And after too many slights (O'Brien called Colbert the "temporary host" of "The Colbert Report"), the trio congregated Monday, roaming across three shows and two networks.

Eventually, blowtorches, bricks, stunt doubles and even a little dancing were employed."

Love.

Oh, and because my classroom is currently filled with someone else's 2nd period students (it's my prep, but everything is disrupted because of the stupid CAHSEE), and as they filed in this morning, one asked me for a newspaper. When I handed it over, I heard another student say "who got California???", and they began to discuss the election and the issues. America - not dead yet!

They are quite smart - in addition to "vote for your favorite of our many Superbowl commercials this year" (clever, investing the viewers and giving them ownership), and "email this link" and "download", they have a link to "post"! So handy!
( apparently I have committed the heinous sin of trying to share something cute that made me happy - so very, very sorry )