Found via clayshaper, an interesting article that points out that while homophobia isn't new, christians have long had a place for Gay Marriage all the same. Who Knew?

http://www.jinxiboo.com/blog/2009/5/3/when-same-sex-marriage-was-a-christian-rite.html

Sooj is playing in Olympia this Thursday.  Who's planning to come to the concert?
Thursday April 30, 2009 — 7pm 
Sage's 
903 Rogers St NW 
Olympia, WA 98502
Sage's is next to the West Side Co-op. 
$6-$10 suggested donation. 
with Betsy Tinney on cello!

Omnomsexual. adj. Involving, related to, or characterized by a sexual propensity for people who look nommy; of or involving sexual activity with a person or people who look nommy, or between individuals who look nommy.
(original post here)

- Describe me in one word... just one single word. Positive or negative or whatEVER.

- Leave your word in a comment before looking at what words others have used.

- Then copy and paste the meme to your journal to find out how people will describe you when limited to one word.

This is an excellent start to Obama's administration!

Yesterday, at around 11:30 a.m. (EST), President Obama signed an executive order to close Guantanamo Bay detention center. In addition, the order formally:

1. Bans torture and inhumane and degrading treatment of detainees by requiring that the Army field manual be used as the guide for terror interrogations. 
2. Closes the CIA’s secret prisons and ends the Bush administration's CIA program of enhanced interrogation methods that have included abhorrent procedures like water-boarding. 
3. Provides the International Committee of the Red Cross access to all U.S.-held detainees. 
4. Establishes an interagency task force to lead a systematic review of detention policies and procedures and a review of all individual cases.

We applaud our new president for taking this important step on his second day in office. UUSC believes that any government-sponsored acts of torture, under any circumstances, are profoundly immoral, unjustified, and illegal. These practices can and must be ended now.

President Obama expressed the values and beliefs of all Americans of conscience in his inaugural speech when he stated, “We reject as false the choice between our safety and our ideals. Our founding fathers, faced with perils we can scarcely imagine, drafted a charter to assure the rule of law and the rights of man, a charter expanded by the blood of generations. Those ideals still light the world, and we will not give them up for expedience’s sake.”

As instructed by mlerules:

* Grab the nearest book.
* Open the book to page 56.
* Find the fifth sentence.
* Post the text of the next two to five sentences in your journal along with these instructions.
* Don't dig for your favorite book, the cool book, or the intellectual one: pick the CLOSEST.

"Thanks," Cliff said.
"Yes, thank you, Goldie."
Now that he had her attention, Cliff stared down at his coffee, avoiding eye contact. "I have a fairly good notion of how you're feeling just now."
from 204 Rosewood Lane, a romance novel by Debbie Macomber that is set in a fictional small town near Bremerton, Washington

I finally got a dragon egg of my own:
Please click on it a couple of times. It needs a certain number of views, unique views, and clicks in order to hatch, and then again in order to grow up. Please only click on it a couple of times per day -- it will get sick if the average views/clicks per person is too high.
Thanks!

EDIT: I got another egg that needs clicks too!

And I found some eggs that belong to someone else that need clicks as well -- all of the offspring of Zuan. Here's one: dragcave.net/viewdragon/3Kml

We've talked about it for a while now, and a few hours after aekajin2 gave me his mom's wedding ring to try on, I finally told him yes!
We're not setting a date yet, but I promise to let you know!
Here's his post: aekajin2.livejournal.com/422167.html

With thanks to glitch25:
It's the damp-dampiest season of all

Look up your birthdate on Wikipedia.  List 4 events, 3 births, 2 deaths, and one holiday

With my birthday coming on September 15, my grandmother asked me for a birthday list.  I started the list with the most important things -- kisses, hugs, more kisses -- but I knew she would insist on giving me tangible things as well.  I don't really want much in the way of things at the moment, so I put down a carwash card and tickets to Phantom.  Today she called me and said she apologized that it wouldn't be a surprise, but she figured I had better get the tickets myself for a performance that would fit my schedule, and she would pay for them -- Would that be all right?  Of course!  She specified that the tickets were for me & aekajin2, so I got the tickets after checking that he would have the time off work:

Phantom of the Opera - Seattle
Paramount Theatre, Seattle, WA
Thu, Sep 11, 2008 02:00 PM
Seat location: section MEZ 21, row M, seats 8-9

If you are going to that performance too, let me know where you're sitting & maybe we can hook up!

Can You Say "Hero"? - one man's multi-day interview with Mr. Rogers

15 cool facts about Mr. Rogers

For those who were disappointed with Whedons' ending for Dr. Horrible's Sing-along Blog, you may wish to read this alternate ending written by a fan: http://amaliedageek.livejournal.com/279788.html?page=1#comments
I like it better, as do most of the people who have commented. 

I will not be going out of town as I had planned, so I will get to enjoy much fun here in the PNW: Wiggles & Thumps, Tricky Pixie at Danceworks, & Faerieworlds -- YAY!
.   The reason I am not going out of town is less good.  I had planned a river cruise in Russia with my parents, but my mom is experiencing moderately severe back & leg pain to the point that we decided to cancel the trip rather than go and not really enjoy it.  Because they had purchased trip insurance, my parents will get most of the money back.  Now I'll just wait to see what we can do for my mom's pain.

After 1 1/2 hours in the dentist's chair (and $741 more), my mouth hurts worse than it did before the root canal.  My jaw aches, my cheek is swollen, I feel exhausted, and the area around the tooth in question is more painful than before.  Not fair!  I think applying ice just makes it ache from the cold, and I'm not supposed to take any more Vicodin until 4 hours after the 800 mg of ibuprofen they had me take just before I left the dentist's office at 3:30.  I just want the pain to stop!!
*whimper*

 "I lose track each day of how many times I smile when I think of you." - aekajin2 in an email I just received