Only anarchists are pretty...

The passage of the Stupak Amendment has soured any positive feelings I might have had about the passage of the health care reform bill in the House of Representatives. See my Twitter page for more reaction.

For those who don't understand why I'm furious and downright sick about this, check out the full text of the amendment. Here's what jumps out at me:

No funds authorized or appropriated by this Act (or an amendment made by this Act) may be used to pay for any abortion or to cover any part of the costs of any health plan that includes coverage of abortion

Can you see how broad that is? As Planned Parenthood states: "The Stupak/Pitts amendment would result in a new restriction on women’s access to abortion coverage in the private health insurance market, undermining the ability of women to purchase private health plans that cover abortion care, even if they pay for most of the premium with their own money."

Make no mistake: House Dems (65 of them) that voted for this amendment have voted to throw women, especially poor women, under the bus in order to be able to say they passed health care reform.

This is it. When I re-register to as a Michigan voter, I will be registering as Independent. If the Democratic Party refuses to fight for me, then I refuse to fight for it.

This seems to happen with more and more frequency as I get older. I find out that someone to whom I used to be somewhat close, someone with whom I've lost touch, has passed on. And I feel this sort of gentle, yet building, wave of regret that I didn't find a way to stay close, or get back in touch.

So...Stuart. You were a friend in the giddy old days, when we would stay out all night at clubs and house parties, doing lots of substances represented by initials that were so bad for us but felt damned good at the time. You were someone I had a good time with for so many nights back in the mid/late 90s. You were someone I knew I could trust and feel safe with in terms of letting go of control and inhibitions back then, which was a sometimes-rare thing. You were the guy it was so easy to get silly with, and who just appreciated people, all people. I remember one night when we were hanging with our usual affection, and we talked about you being gay and my being straight, and you smiled and shrugged and said, "I just like cute people." A simple little statement, but one that said something about your openness and disposition. I remember running into you years later in Chicago, and us being happy to see each other, but distant. Time had passed, and the days weren't so giddy anymore, and that reckless abandon with which we'd lived life before was replaced, as it should have been, by cautious sensibility. I thought at the time that maybe we'd never had much in common beyond partying. I wonder now if we would have found common ground beyond partying if we'd tried. I don't know. Now we'll never know.

Goodbye, Stuart. I wish I'd had the chance to know you again before you left. You were a bright light when I knew you. I hope you're in a better place now.

Just a couple. :)

Friday night: She-Hulk:



Saturday night: Gothy-girl:

To get in the spirit of things...here are a few of my favorite fun clips that join 2 of my favorite things: Horror/spookiness and Muppets.

This year's Halloween mix is finished, and, if I do say so myself, it rocks. Thanks to Hype Machine for helping me find tracks I didn't already have (and turning me on to some new artists).

( Halloween Mixes 2009 )

Halloween plans:

Tonight:
-House party
-Perhaps Control at Rocky's

Tomorrow:
-Perhaps Bowloween at The Clique
-KH gig in E. Lansing

I'll be in my She-Hulk costume tonight:


But I still haven't decided if I can handle being green tomorrow night, too. I may just fall into my old standby: Gothing out and being my evil twin.

Have a spooky weekend, all! I'll have this year's Halloween mix listing up later today (hopefully).

U.S. LJers: The Great Pumpkin is on tonight at 8 p.m. Eastern on ABC. The Peanuts pumpkin patch is most sincere, I'm sure.

But of course:

You Are a Vampire

Like a vampire, you can be a bit cold and heartless at times. You are very calculating. You think with your head, and you know better than to follow your heart. While you are as thick skinned and resourceful as a vampire, you aren't necessarily as evil. You can easily manipulate people into doing what you want. Whether you actually choose to manipulate them or not is a different matter.

Hmmm...not quite (but I do like white pumpkins):

You Are a White Pumpkin

You are sweet, cute, and a delight to see. People seem to instantly adore you when they meet you. You believe that life's too short to be negative. You always have a smile on your face and a skip in your step. You see the best in others. In fact, you tend to be easier on people than they are on themselves. You love it when the people you're closest to are happy. You'll do what you can to support your friends... whether that means being a cheerleader or a therapist.

Maybe?

You See Halloween as Scary

You are an outgoing person who's a bit of a showoff. It's likely that you dress up for Halloween every year. You definitely think of yourself as someone who has a dark side. And part of having that dark side means not showing it. Your inner child is stubborn and a bit bossy. You truly fear the dark side of humanity. You are a true misanthrope. You're prone to be quite emotional and over dramatic. Deep down, you enjoy being scared out of your mind... even if you don't admit it. You are a traditionalist with most aspects of your life. You like your Halloween costume to be basic, well made, and conventional enough to wear another year.

I just made spicy peanut noodles using this recipe from Food & Wine.

Of course, me being me, I played around with the recipe a bit: Could not find toasted sesame oil at the store to save my life, wasn't wanting to mess around with the fresh ginger and garlic this time, and am not a fan of celery or cilantro. So I found some sesame sauce from Ty Ling that contains soy sauce, garlic, ginger and sesame oil (among other things) and substituted that for the sesame oil, soy sauce, garlic and ginger in the recipe. I left out the cilantro and celery (but would maybe throw in some carrots in the future). Not having a blender , I melted the peanut butter in the microwave to make it more liquid, and mixed the sauce by hand with a whisk.

It turned out well, and I'm liking the sneaky spiciness that contrasts with the sweet, salty and nutty flavors. Not quite as good as my favorite restaurant cold noodles in Chicago, but a pretty damned good substitute.

(If you decide to make this, remember that once the sauce cools, it tends to solidify, because of the peanut butter. If it's too solid to mix when you get it out of the fridge the next day, shake the noodles in their container to remix it. Or heat it up to mix it.)

It's a funny thing.

If someone hurts me, I do to eventually forgive and will likely end up at least on civil terms with that person. (I almost never forget, but then, I'm the sort of person who remembers most things.)

If, however, someone hurts a loved one? THAT is when I hold a major grudge, and I'm quite likely to cut the person who hurt my loved one out of my life completely.

If it's just corny, it'll get a groan out of me, which is good enough for most people.

If, however, it's not merely corny, but offensive in some way, I try to speak up, even if only to say I don't find those sort of jokes funny.

DO YOU REMEMBER THESE FILMS? At of the height of the razors-in-apples hysteria, films like these ruined Halloween in classrooms everywhere. Now it's Art of Bleeding's turn to slash and adulterate...

Win.

Via caseystratton:

Taken from the randomly generated Infinite Teen Slang Dictionary.
Look up another word:-

Never doubt that I will artemiswinter all over your ass.

The best thing I've read today, hands down. Ah, autumn, how I love thee...

I'm coming up on the 2 month mark of my move from Chicago to GR. As I mentioned before, it's been a fairly easy transition. While there are definitely things I miss about Chicago (hanging with friends, wandering around the neighborhood on foot, Ping Pong, Piehole, a Borders with a great bargain section in every neighborhood), I've found things to sort of replace some of the Chicago stuff (hanging with family/friends, wandering around town in my car, XO, Fratelli's, Schuler Books).

I was in Chicago this past Saturday to get my hair cut/colored (it was so long overdue, and I feel so much better for doing it), and managed to meet up with many of my girlfriends for brunch (Yolk, highly recommend) and another friend for drinks later. I found myself comfortable as always to be in Chicago, but quite ready to get home by the evening. The pace really is slower here in GR, and I'm liking it. Chicago already feels a little to frenetic to me, now. But it will always feel like home, too.

So, here's what's being going on in my life for the last couple of months:

Work: Still working remotely for my Chicago firm, and looking for a full time gig here in GR. Hoping that some recent leads will pan out here, but happy to still be able to work from home for awhile.

Family/friends: As many of you know, my brother J will be marrying his fiance H in about a year. And now I can share that H has asked me to be her maid of honor. I believe my verbatim answer was something like, "Absolutely, of course, if you think I won't screw it up." But I bought a couple of books so I have some guidelines, and my friend S, the queen of wedding etiquette, is my not-so-secret weapon. And it's going to be early next October - theme: Halloween. A Hallowedding! What fun. It's been nice to be able to regularly see and hang out with my family and friends here, too.

Apartment: Still need to build a couple of bookcases I bought, fill them, and then buy more bookcases. Also will need a living room chair at some point (when the books are finally unpacked), and a bench for the bedroom near the window. And I need to frame one big poster I've had forever, and hang a few more things (including curtains). But other than (all) that, mostly done with the place.

Halloween: I have decided on this year's costume...She-Hulk:

Thank you Neil Gaiman and Comics Alliance for the idea. She-Hulk is a lawyer by day. It's perfect for me (and easy). I'm also working on collecting music for this year's Halloween mix, which will be back with a vengeance this year. Still up in the air as to whether I'll be heading to Chicago on Halloween night (thinking about logistics of where I'm going to stay if I do, etc.).

Autumn: The leaves are finally changing, and I'm loving it. I need to take a drive up north a bit to see more. And while it has been a bit too chilly for October, I'm still glad for the chillier temperatures. I love this time of year so much.

1 year ago tomorrow, I wrote this post (and many after) about my youngest brother M, now 19. He had taken a fall off a deck onto some construction debris the previous night, hitting the back of his head and severely injuring his brain. After over 5 weeks in the hospital, he was moved to a rehabilitation center, where he stayed for over 7 weeks. Once he was released from the rehabilitation center, he continued with outpatient therapy for many months. What a long, incredible journey it's been for him and for all of us. In the past year, M has made a miraculous recovery, and we're all so grateful every day that he has. Now he is healthy, happy, relatively independent and doing extremely well.

As I look back, I feel so blessed and thankful for the support you all gave me and mine in such a tumultuous year. Thank you, and may this autumn be more peaceful than the last.

Not until the editing/revision process. When I first write something, I just let it fly to where it goes. I only start wondering what others will think when I've got the first brain flow out and over with.

I like to sit at the back, but not so I can make a quick getaway. I like to be able to see the whole room, and all the other people in it.

As for focusing when I'm not interested...not so much. Which is why I always have something else to do with me.

Via Shakesville, quoting Rep. Alan Grayson (D-FL):

America understands that there's one party in this country that's in favor of healthcare reform, and one party that's against it, and they know why. They understand that if Barack Obama were somehow able to cure hunger in the world, the Republicans would blame him for overpopulation. They understand that if Barack Obama could somehow bring about world peace, they'd blame him for destroying the defense industry. In fact, they understand that if Barack Obama has a BLT sandwich tomorrow for lunch, they will try to ban bacon!

As a grammar geek, this is probably my favorite TFLN so far:

(919): Learn some fucking English or leave me alone! "Your" is for something that belongs to you, like 'your herpes'. And "you're" is a contraction for "you are", like "you're not sleeping with me".