Monday, September 29, 2008

while my ukelele gently weeps

My second favorite you tube video

Where the Hell is Matt? (2008)

MY favorite video on you tube. Be sure to check out his website too www.wherethehellismatt.com He is from Seattle enjoy

Thursday, September 25, 2008

Wednesday, September 24, 2008

Ok so here is a game for everyone. So ask your significant other what one food they would take to a desert island and post your response too. I'm wondering how compatible we would all be. Mark said bread I said cheese, good match I'd say :)

Tuesday, September 23, 2008

Excuse me while I throw up in my mouth a little

Peta has suggested to Ben and Jerry's that they use human breast milk in their products to lessen pain and suffering of cows and their babies. Read on...

http://www.wjactv.com/foodnews/17539627/detail.html

Okay call me crazy but the thought of drinking another humans bodily fluid makes me gag. I don't like milk either but Puhleeze!

Thursday, September 18, 2008

Why I Don't Want to Vote

I don't particularly want to vote this year. I guess I've felt this way for the past couple elections. See the thing is that I am an Agnostic. I think mostly I am an Atheist but since I cannot prove or disprove the existence of God I choose to identify myself as Agnostic.

I usually am reluctant to identify myself as such because when I read some of the rhetoric from Atheists it comes off as condescending and arrogant. "You silly little people believing in God. How dumb are you?" is usually the vibe, that's not me. The whole Flying Spaghetti Monster thing. It belittles those who choose to believe, which is not my thing. Yes, if I were to be honest and get in conversation about it I find the whole religion church thing rather ridiculous. I think the concept of believing in the Bible strange. I wonder sometimes if 2000 years from now someone will pick up Harry Potter and believe that cast of characters is divine too.

At any rate I don't "Believe" but really I don't have any problem with those that do as long as they don't try to convince me I should believe. I will do the same for you. If you want to debate it we all know I love a good debate but you won't change my mind. I grew up with a Pastor for a Father and from the youngest age I can remember none of it rang true to me. I was told that "our" religion was the "true" one and that sooner or later all would come to realize that....

Really?

Well what about a tribe in the deepest part of Africa? Will they suddenly realize that Melissa in Bellevue Washington knows the "Truth"? I doubt it. Well we are right and everyone else is wrong...

Really?

See I don't "believe" that. So back to my original point. The last few years I haven't wanted to vote and here is why...religion has become too involved in our politicians agenda. They all have "religious advisors" and talk about "God's Will" and frankly it creeps me out. I want the leader of my country to make decisions based on facts and logic not belief and faith.

But hey that's just me.......

Tuesday, September 16, 2008

I met Mark on Match.com but before I did I blogged about the experience for a few interested friends. I may delete the blog but here is the link. Oh and Mark is Harry Potter :) There are only 9 and should be read in order


http://poorlittlematchgirl.blogspot.com/

Saturday, September 13, 2008

Our Night Out

You know your social life has gone down the toilet when 2 hours out for dinner is the highlight of your week, no offense to our charming dinner companions,. We went to dinner with Travis and Curtis tonight and had a wonderful time. Although I was promised Drag Queens and lots of "Fancy Lads" and saw none, so THAT was a big disappointment :)

I kind of felt like they were us in a parallel universe...or we were them...whatever that type of talk makes my head spin. See they felt to me to have a similar dynamic to Mark and I. Strong, silent technical type with more outgoing creative type. It was fun to see that dynamic played out in gay younger form.

However, we were driving home and Mark said "Do you think they see us as peers or as an older couple?" I said "Well I didn't feel any generation Gap" and he said "Me neither but do you think they did?"

Oh Horrors! Are we the older couple?



Breed Bans


There is a group in the area who is once again trying to ban Pitt Bulls.
I agree that breed's should not be painted with a broad brush but.... most stereotypes have some basis in fact.

These dogs have been adopted by a certain type of people in certain areas of the country. Some cities have to automatically euthanize because the breeding lines have become so contaminated with lines of dogs bred for ill tempers, large heads and musculature rather than healthy good tempered dogs.

They are not a "beginning" dog. They take a experienced owner to handle them. You can probably adopt a Lab do little training and pay little attention to the dog and get away with it. Not true of a Pitt, they require training and attention. Not a good candidate for a dog who spends most of his time outside alone.

They have a high prey drive. Which means little things that move fast and squeak could be in danger. This describes a lot of things that may be in that dogs household...small dogs, cats, rabbits, and yes children. They need supervision and again training.

So while I agree that painting with a broad brush isn't fair to the dog the alarm regarding Pitt Bulls isn't totally unwarranted. However I would say there are several breeds who also require a lot more time attention... Standard Poodles, Cattle Dogs, Chihuahuas, Shiba Inus just to name a few. Read up on a breed before you adopt and be sure what you want is what you should have. Remember any dog can bite given the right circumstances. The picture above was done by a 30 pound deaf dog and trust me it hurt

Thursday, September 11, 2008

9/11
I'm watching a documentary about 9/11. It has a lot of archive footage that I've never seen before and I have to say it's horrifying. Mark and I were talking about how we would feel if one us had been lost in a plane or in one of the buildings. He said he probably hate all Muslims forever and would never get over it. Would want all Muslim countries vaporized.
I guess I understand that. I can't say that I wouldn't feel the same. But were it me in the building I guess I would want him to forgive and be happy than feel vengeful and unhappy. Maybe I'm nuts.

Monday, September 08, 2008

Palin: wrong woman, wrong message
Sarah Palin shares nothing but a chromosome with Hillary Clinton. She is Phyllis Schlafly, only younger.
By Gloria Steinem September 4, 2008
Here's the good news: Women have become so politically powerful that even the anti-feminist right wing -- the folks with a headlock on the Republican Party -- are trying to appease the gender gap with a first-ever female vice president. We owe this to women -- and to many men too -- who have picketed, gone on hunger strikes or confronted violence at the polls so women can vote. We owe it to Shirley Chisholm, who first took the "white-male-only" sign off the White House, and to Hillary Rodham Clinton, who hung in there through ridicule and misogyny to win 18 million votes.But here is even better news: It won't work. This isn't the first time a boss has picked an unqualified woman just because she agrees with him and opposes everything most other women want and need. Feminism has never been about getting a job for one woman. It's about making life more fair for women everywhere. It's not about a piece of the existing pie; there are too many of us for that. It's about baking a new pie.

Join the reader discussion on Gloria Steinem's Op-Ed article
Selecting Sarah Palin, who was touted all summer by Rush Limbaugh, is no way to attract most women, including die-hard Clinton supporters. Palin shares nothing but a chromosome with Clinton. Her down-home, divisive and deceptive speech did nothing to cosmeticize a Republican convention that has more than twice as many male delegates as female, a presidential candidate who is owned and operated by the right wing and a platform that opposes pretty much everything Clinton's candidacy stood for -- and that Barack Obama's still does. To vote in protest for McCain/Palin would be like saying, "Somebody stole my shoes, so I'll amputate my legs."This is not to beat up on Palin. I defend her right to be wrong, even on issues that matter most to me. I regret that people say she can't do the job because she has children in need of care, especially if they wouldn't say the same about a father. I get no pleasure from imagining her in the spotlight on national and foreign policy issues about which she has zero background, with one month to learn to compete with Sen. Joe Biden's 37 years' experience.Palin has been honest about what she doesn't know. When asked last month about the vice presidency, she said, "I still can't answer that question until someone answers for me: What is it exactly that the VP does every day?" When asked about Iraq, she said, "I haven't really focused much on the war in Iraq."
She was elected governor largely because the incumbent was unpopular, and she's won over Alaskans mostly by using unprecedented oil wealth to give a $1,200 rebate to every resident. Now she is being praised by McCain's campaign as a tax cutter, despite the fact that Alaska has no state income or sales tax. Perhaps McCain has opposed affirmative action for so long that he doesn't know it's about inviting more people to meet standards, not lowering them. Or perhaps McCain is following the Bush administration habit, as in the Justice Department, of putting a job candidate's views on "God, guns and gays" ahead of competence. The difference is that McCain is filling a job one 72-year-old heartbeat away from the presidency.So let's be clear: The culprit is John McCain. He may have chosen Palin out of change-envy, or a belief that women can't tell the difference between form and content, but the main motive was to please right-wing ideologues; the same ones who nixed anyone who is now or ever has been a supporter of reproductive freedom. If that were not the case, McCain could have chosen a woman who knows what a vice president does and who has thought about Iraq; someone like Texas Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison or Sen. Olympia Snowe of Maine. McCain could have taken a baby step away from right-wing patriarchs who determine his actions, right down to opposing the Violence Against Women Act.Palin's value to those patriarchs is clear: She opposes just about every issue that women support by a majority or plurality. She believes that creationism should be taught in public schools but disbelieves global warming; she opposes gun control but supports government control of women's wombs; she opposes stem cell research but approves "abstinence-only" programs, which increase unwanted births, sexually transmitted diseases and abortions; she tried to use taxpayers' millions for a state program to shoot wolves from the air but didn't spend enough money to fix a state school system with the lowest high-school graduation rate in the nation; she runs with a candidate who opposes the Fair Pay Act but supports $500 million in subsidies for a natural gas pipeline across Alaska; she supports drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Reserve, though even McCain has opted for the lesser evil of offshore drilling. She is Phyllis Schlafly, only younger.I don't doubt her sincerity. As a lifetime member of the National Rifle Assn., she doesn't just support killing animals from helicopters, she does it herself. She doesn't just talk about increasing the use of fossil fuels but puts a coal-burning power plant in her own small town. She doesn't just echo McCain's pledge to criminalize abortion by overturning Roe vs. Wade, she says that if one of her daughters were impregnated by rape or incest, she should bear the child. She not only opposes reproductive freedom as a human right but implies that it dictates abortion, without saying that it also protects the right to have a child.So far, the major new McCain supporter that Palin has attracted is James Dobson of Focus on the Family. Of course, for Dobson, "women are merely waiting for their husbands to assume leadership," so he may be voting for Palin's husband.Being a hope-a-holic, however, I can see two long-term bipartisan gains from this contest.Republicans may learn they can't appeal to right-wing patriarchs and most women at the same time. A loss in November could cause the centrist majority of Republicans to take back their party, which was the first to support the Equal Rights Amendment and should be the last to want to invite government into the wombs of women.And American women, who suffer more because of having two full-time jobs than from any other single injustice, finally have support on a national stage from male leaders who know that women can't be equal outside the home until men are equal in it. Barack Obama and Joe Biden are campaigning on their belief that men should be, can be and want to be at home for their children.This could be huge.Gloria Steinem is an author, feminist organizer and co-founder of the Women's Media Center. She supported Hillary Clinton and is now supporting Barack Obama.

Saturday, September 06, 2008

Tuesday, September 02, 2008

Okay so Mark makes up jokes and he insisted I post a few....

What do call it when you bring a dead animal on a plane?

A Carrion!

What do you call a small magic elf who lives downtown?

A metro gnome!

What do you call a hip hop onion?

A Rap Scallion!

Where do bad grapes go when they die?

Raisin hell!


the carrion joke was yesterday and the rap scallion was a few days after I met him. I knew then he was the one for me :)
The Bee that's Me



Melissa meaning-

In Greek mythology Melissa is the name of one of the nymphs who helped save Zeus from his father, Cronus. She hid him in the hills and fed him milk from Amalthea and honey. When Cronus discovered this, he turned her into a worm. After Zeus came into power, he changed her into a queen bee, not being able to change her from an insect form.

I have always been the bee. Even at three I was the bee (see Eric I can rhyme too) I collect bees...stuffed ones, potholders, little boxes, jewelry (that is my favorite) a certain "toy" we won't talk about (my second favorite) curtains, plates, glasses anything and everything bee. When I turned thirty I got a bee tattoo. I thought and thought about what to get to mark myself forevermore and that was the only thing I could live with forever. Mark calls me the bee. Or B.O.D (bee of death) If I'm mad.

So that's who I am...the bee :) Bzzzzzzzzz


These are the plans for the house when it is finished. I have no idea when that will be but isn't it cool?

Monday, September 01, 2008

SEX!!!!!!!!

This whole Sara Palin has got me to thinking about why I didn't end up in a similar situation as a teen. I grew up in an extremely religious family. I knew from an early age that I didn't believe the same thing that the rest of my family did. The religion I grew up in does not condone pre martial sex.

Now I realize my mother is wise. She never had that conversation in a way that made me think the only reason not to have sex was for religious reasons. I found her diaphragm (please god never let her see this) at a very early age and asked about it. She told me quite frankly what it was. Kind of just matter of factly imparted information to me. Told me she didn't believe it is right to have sex out of marriage but just so I knew this is how it's done, this is what you do to protect yourself and that she got pregnant the FIRST time she didn't protect herself. FIRST?? Holy shit.

I held on to my virginity for a very long time. Not because God wouldn't love me but out of fear that I'd get pregnant. I can honestly say I have NEVER been carried away and not protected myself. I also knew at an early age I didn't want children and I have never had a pregnancy scare.

Why can't people understand that merely imparting information in a non judgemental factual way can be a powerful tool. Knowing what to do didn't make me do it. It made me NOT do it. I knew how to protect myself.

Maybe Sara Palin would have still gotten herself pregnant and I really don't know what her mother did or didn't tell her. But if she follows the pattern of these religious right folks that conversation was probably laced with threats, guilt and judgement. Teenage girls are famously recalcitrant and these tactics can have the opposite effect that the parents desire. I could go on and on about how angry these abstinence programs make me and how ineffective they are. Sex is like one of the best things EVER and remember how it was when you first figured that out?

Be honest and factual and leave your personal agenda at the door. If you have raised your children right in all other aspects of their lives that will reflect in this choice.

Conundrum
So Mark and I live on the South Fork of the Snoqualmie River, high up above the river. He owns the property from the house all the way down to the river but you can't build down below because it's a flood plain.
So here is the conundrum. People come from across the river and set up little fishing parties on his property. They seem completely unaware that it's like if we came to their house and set up a Hibachi in their backyard. It's pretty far away so it isn't too intrusive in our everyday lives, it just seems a little arrogant. There is no road or trail to get to the little sandy beach and you can clearly see the house. Tonight there were about six people down there with chairs yucking it up and fishing. It seems unfriendly to put up a "No Trespassing" sign but at the same time it feels a bit weird to have them there. Maybe "Smile, you are in our backyard!" What do you think?