For the last few days, I've been reading snippets of political blogs talking about the military's war-for-porn scandal. Aside from liberal staples like Plain Dealer, but it seems like the story has come and gone. Of course, I don't watch much tv.
I still don't have all of the details, but the pictures posted on Americablog make so ashamed. The U.S. is in the middle of a deadly occupation, one in which it's trying to convince the world of its virtue, and soldiers in Iraq are trading gruesome pictures of Iraqis for free pornography.
Simply unbelievable.
Some of the pictures feature dismembered bodies. Others, just limbs and organs. There is a section of a pornographic website that encourages visitors to "guess the body part" in the submitted photos. One photo has a partially nude Iraqi woman with a limb blown off, headed by an obscene caption refering to her exposed vagina.
It's stories like this that make it that much harder for me to appreciate soldiers who serve with integrity, because I can't get past the shame of the ones who don't. And it doesn't help that this garbage is tolerated, and that little, if anything, will happen to rectify the damage. I am so disgusted. I'm at a loss for words.
...but not officially. I'm still classified as a "visitor," but I'll be at work at 9 a.m. tomorrow. This has to be the strangest hiring process I've ever experienced. But I guess it's better to be in limbo than at the PWSNBM (place which shall not be mentioned). As annoyed I am with this weird pseudo orientation, the change of scenery has already done wonders for my blood pressure. That's something to celebrate.
Last Friday I ended my run at the Pleveland Plinic completely exhausted, but totally relieved. At about 6:30 in the evening my nightmare finally ended, and I'm now on vacation for a week. I celebrated my freedom yesterday by sleeping in until 10:30 and staying in my pj's until noon. It was the best day off I've ever had.
Today I'm feeling a little sorry for the poor girl that took over for me. During her training last week, she looked completely exasperated (did I spell that right?) when she found out how much there really was to do. I don't think it will take her long to start getting mean like I did. By the time I left, I was fighting some pretty fierce road rage.
I'm all better now.
I'm looking forward to starting at my new job next week. I have a meeting on Thursday to discuss some stuff with the head of the lab. Then come orientations... Hopefully it will only be a day or two before I actually start doing some research, or at least training for it.
By the way, I'm still tinkering, so if you find any little bugs, let me know so I can squash 'em. I know about the "Remember me" problem in the comments. Working on it.
Lately I've been getting bored with the look of this website, since it's remained unchanged for a while now. I came up with something different, though not necessarily better. It's just a new look, but right now it's giving me a little trouble.
The comments will not really be working for a while, until I figure out how to fix them. And there will probably be a few changes in the next few days, so don't get too attached. Also, please email me if you see anything else that needs fixing or editing. I didn't test in other browsers because I'm just too lazy. Thanks.
New pictures n' things. That's about it for now.
MORE Looks like the comment section is working, though I'll have to work the code a little bit to clean up the appearance (and to bring back the smilies that we all love so much). That, of course, will be whenever I've got time. I'm starting a new job soon --more on that later!
How can one lose 6 pounds in a day, especially after eating Chin's Pagoda on movie night at Sarah's?
By the way, disregard what I wrote on Tuesday.
I'm really starting to get frustrated with my new fat war. After being so thrilled to lose 20-some pounds and seeing previously "fitted" (the fat girl's favorite word) pants slide off of me, nothing more has changed. I skip the chips, hit the Y every other day (sometimes working out so hard that I hurt myself in the process) and... nothing. Not another single, solitary pound is willing to leave me.
Now, I have to admit, I do cheat on occasion. I cheated on Sunday when my family gathered for the weekly Vurbic lunch and my mom bought KFC (damn those buttery biscuits to the fiery pits of hell where they belong!) but such were only isolated incidents, I swear. And for almost two months, I haven't even stopped by the ice cream shop where both my sister and sister-in-law work. Seriously now, that takes self-control... the kind I didn't think I had anymore.
It's just a bummer that this isn't working anymore. Today while hitting the treadmill, I watched The Biggest Loser on NBC, wondering how the heck these guys lost 25 in two weeks. That took me three months to do! Not fair! So not fair!
All I want to do is lose this weight that I've been accumulating for so long. I want to get rid of the college dorm weight; the high school emotional crisis weight; the Saturday night movie and popcorm marathons weight; the bored out of my mind weight; and most especially, the insecure schoolgirl who wants to blend in weight. But at this point, I'm not really sure how. It's just not happening.
Silly rant over.
For monster
I'm growing tired of reading music reviews that claim an artist is "taking it to the next level." It's old, it's tired. Stop using that phrase. Please.
After losing 25 pounds by skipping the Wendy's #6 combos and shaking my booty at the YMCA, my scale has been stuck on the same number for weeks. I've been lunging, biking, and lifting so much that it sometimes makes me dizzy, but can't seem to shake the weight. Man this is hard.
For the last three days, I've been scouring the web for pictures of Hurrican Katrina's aftermath. They're not really hard to find. There are whole websites devoted to posting them, full of mud and sewage and destroyed homes and dead bodies. I'm not sure why I feel so compelled to look at them, like I need evidence to believe that all of this really happened. Living in Cleveland, I'm so far away from all of that devastation, debris and muck. I feel uncomfortable because I'm too comfortable here, living in my nice house that is still standing and viewing my bank account activity online. It's hard to really comprehend how hard it must be down there. That must be what it really means to suffer.
Does anyone have a Cleveland Plain Dealer from August 28th? I want to find the page on which Sonafide.com was mentioned.
And at the risk of making this blog look like the PD classifieds, I'm also in need of a concert buddy. None of my friends like good music. They're all into the Dixie Chicks and Lifehouse, and I have nobody to go concert hopping with me. There's a My Chemical Romance show at Celveland Scene Pavilion on September 16th that I'd like to see. Please, come with me.
A warning from 2002, published in the Times Picayune.
What's even scarier than this, some purported Christians are praising the devastating effects and loss of life from the hurricane. A pastor from Louisiana believes that God chose to ravage the poor neighborhoods of New Orleans and drown children because of Mardi Gras.
Meanwhile, actual Christians are responding to the devastation by sending food, water, diapers and love. How cool is that.
I'm amazed by the rest of the world's response to hurricane Katrina. The Swiss are sending money to us, the richest people on Earth. France, the most hated country in America, has offered heartfelt condolences and aid. Even the President of Venezuela, who days ago learned that a powerful American televangelist called for his head, offered to send oil to help stabilize things here. The world is really amazing.
What I love:
