The Great Flood of 2008

Found this on a Flickr Set. There are some crazy pictures coming out of Fredericton and Oromocto. I almost wish I was there to see it, and I'm glad everyone I know is doing well and no major damage has happened.

To those who aren't familiar, the downtown core of Fredericton, NB is on the flood plain of the St. John River. It floods every year to varying degrees but occasionally there is a major flood. This year the water reached well above flood level and closed down most of downtown Fredericton. The above picture shows the water about 3 meters above where it should be.

New Colours

Based on this:


I'm not sure what I think of it.

Ch-ch-changes

Turn and face the Strange...

I've discovered a site that generates codes for colour palettes. It allows you to enter the URL of an image and it will give you the hex values for the main colours.

The current colour palette is based on this picture:


I may be experimenting over the next little while, so forgive the inconsistency.

1st Drunk Post!!!

Husband, Doodles, C and I are a little drunk right now... Sourpuss + Ouzo + Japanese Beer + Chocolate Beer = Weirdness.

C was posting on LJ so I felt the need to post here. Husband keeps grabbing Doodle's boobies, I'm a little freaked out. Now he grabbed mine. Doodles seems to be locked in the bathroom. We are trying to order pizza, I'm not sure how that's going to work out.

Deep Philosophy for the day..

What the hell happened to Saturday morning cartoons? I'm watching ABC Saturday morning programming and although it's good, I miss the cartoons. On CBS they seem to have resurected my favorite cartoons from childhood. I have seen parts of Care Bears and Strawberry Shortcake. Apparently gardens need love, and Peppermint Fizz is a moody, emo bitch with an iguana.

This is the Strawberry Shortcake I remember.

This is Strawberry Shortcake as she appears now.

I'm so confused. Saturday morning shows are back to the touchy-feely girly shit of the 80s. Most of the main characters are female and they always "learn" stuff. At least in the 80s we had Transformers to balance out the girly crap. Sometimes I want to see giant robots kick the crap out of each other. Right now the Saturday morning line-up feels like a combination of the TGIF line up and the Saturday morning line up of the early to mid 90s. I'm half expecting to see Boy Meets World on next.

My First Cache!

Husband, Doodles and I went GeoCashing today. We went looking for three and found two. We went to the beautiful park in town. There were a lot of people out today since it was the first nice weekend we've had in a while. Here are some pictures!



We climbed up Jacob's Ladder, walked to the waterfalls, and got very tired. We finally made it to the reservoir.

"FREAKS UNITE AGAINST CENSORSHIP!"

In a feat of censorship worthy of a crazy, conservative, right-wing government the Alberta Liquor and Gaming Commission has banned the Monsters of Schlock!, a stunt/comedy show with some "extreme" content from a bar in Grand Prairie. I found the press release at ModBlog, the best body modification blog ever(NSFW).

The ALGC shut the show down the show using a law that allows complaints about "Entertainment that has the potential to be considered bizarre, grotesque or offensive" to be referred for approval to the commission. In this case the bar was informed of the commission's decision to ban the show at 4:30pm the night of the show, which had been well advertised and was sold out.

According to the press release I linked to above this show has been performed across Canada "to thousands of satisfied viewers" with little complaint. Most people who are interested in a show like this are going to be forewarned that it is not for the squeamish. Since the show was booked to perform at a bar I would assume that everyone who planned to be in attendance was an adult, capable of determining if something was too "bizarre, grotesque or offensive" on their own.

We don't need to state to censor events that are clearly meant for certain audiences. I highly doubt that anyone who bought tickets to this show would have been offended by the content, they may have been a little squicked-out but that's part of the reason for going to these shows. People who are easily offended have the option of not purchasing tickets for shows they might find offensive.

The state has not right to be the morality police. Our rights are not violated by events that we have the option of not attending. If the show were performed in a very public place, such as on the steps of the legislature, then the government has a duty to intervene. In this case consenting adults who were undoubtedly aware of the potential for the grotesque hard the right to see this show and the government had no right to shut this show down.

WIPs

I haven't posted about my crafts in a while. I'm still trying to learning how to knit. This is a bandana kind of thing I'm working on. It's to practice increasing stitches. I think I'm doing quite well. I'm going to try to knit Husband a hat soon. It'll be orange and black.


This is part of a blanket I'm making for a wedding gift for some friends who are getting married in August. I need 12 big granny squares, 2 are going to be solid turquoise and the rest are the blue-green variegated colour.

I'm going to try some more amigurumi, I'd like to have a bear or an elephant.

An Ode to SPAM

Dear Friend,
We groped in the club
The larger your manhood.
will show February.declared himself King of Jerusalem.
how serious you are.
In a few weeks you'll start noticing
and when she felt the size of my manhood
University Degree it made her unbelievably horny
add inches today
I got your contact address after my extensive search via your country white
consumers," said John Conyers, the sub-committeefinancially
Get University Degree within weeks without stress, exams, and long years of studying.
the more women want you
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which is the only hope of survival . When i got your address, I prayed and
admiring glances shot at your groin
Initiate positive transformations in your close relationships!
Consider our method as your fastest and safest way to huge dimension!
Get yourself a tool that will be to her liking!
In walked the billionaire and his associate.
no one around him ever remembered Soros talking about how important123
A Cheap Price for Freedom
content is now delivered mainly in the form
pages for a God-fearing and trust-worthy person to bestow this transaction
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Just imagine how your gf will be happy to see this large love gun!
Article 26 of the African Customs Union (SACU), hemagazine on 15th
Due to new improved enhancement solution, your gained centimeters will stay for a lifetime!
She also proposed conditions to protectprogramming
you should be the rightful person to help me .
Sincerely,
Steven Theede.

The above is completely copied from the text of spam emails I had in my inbox this morning. I reorganized the phrases to compose this lovely little poem. I didn't include the German Spam. I hate spam.

So Much to Say, so Little Time

This caught my eye today while I was reading Feministing. The link was posted in response to an article at CNN about sexual incompatability.

It's about becoming a "Surrendered Wife". I shuddered and threw up a little bit when I read the title. Apparently this is a rather large movement encouraging women to resume traditional gender roles to foster a more loving and romantic marriage. The general idea is that a woman should completely relinquish control of household decisions amd finances as well as being a door mat and accepting her husband as the leader in the home. According to the author women who wish to follow this (shudder) "philosophy" (I'm not loving this wisdom, can you tell?) should stop criticising their husbands, accept gifts graciously and embrace their vulnerability.

Some of those points are valid. Criticising your husband for the way he leads his life is harmful, unless it has a negative impact on you and your children, such as with drug abuse or alcoholism. He deserves to be respected as an adult capable of making his own decisions. If you don't respect him chances are he won't respect you.

Accepting gifts graciously is just common courtesy. Embracing your vulnerability is not necessarily a bad thing, but taking things too personally is.

But there is a difference between sharing responsibility and allowing your husband to make all the decisions. I've only been married 6 1/2 months and we have no children so I haven't faced the 10+ years of a disfunctional marriage but after more than 5 years with my husband I know that he does not like to be in control of everything, so we share.

Women do need to be willing to share and compromise but we should not be willing to discount our opinions and feelings. Without a few disagreements, how can you have that oh-so-good make-up sex? I did not agree to give myself up when I married him. I am allowed to disagree with him respectfully. I am allowed to manage our house respectfully and I am allowed to expect that my husband will participate in our life while we maintain seperate identities. Every wife is allowed to do that, and should not have to become subserviant to her husband unless they both get off on that kind of thing. I will not "surrender" to his every whim, nor should any other woman.

I think my big problem with this is that I am so possessive of my self and my identity. Being an individual gives me more power than being someone's wife and as much as I love my husband and love being his wife I am my self first and foremost. I'm not "his wife, Mary" I am "Mary, his wife".