Just got in

from getting A home from work. I've spent the day running people to various appointments and to the grocery store, and I got home after 7 pm, ate, and then around 8:30 just crashed. A had to call me twice to wake me up before it was time to leave, and then I was befuddled enough to go to the bathroom and start getting clothes on when I realised my bedroom blinds were still open and the light was on. Sorry about that, world and neighbours. But I quickly cleared up and actually think I have figured out the light timings on Richmond Road going downtown now. Basically just slow down if the next light is red, speed up if it's green, and if you do it just right, you don't sit for any length of time. As I was turning into his workplace, I saw a van that was playing loud music and they had a TV in the back with the screen on that had to have been at least 32" or maybe even 40". It was a little disconcerting. That can't be good for anyone driving behind them in terms of distraction--even those little DVD player screens can be a little odd at night.

Tomorrow is the game, yay! I need to get up early, get my laundry together, head over there, clean house, and then we can play around 1 or 2 pm. Brenda's son doesn't get off work till late, and I don't have to get A until midnight, so we can play as long as we'd like, really. We usually play till somewhere between 8 to 10 pm. Of course, the game master has had four months or so to plot our demise (or worse, as in Cthulhu, dying is much easier than living with the results of some of our adventures). We had one character who's locked away because his skin is now transparent, for example.

To that end I should head back to bed, but first I wanted to see if you'd seen this....

Refugee Olympic Team to Shine Spotlight on WOrldwide Refugee Crisis: Ten Refugee Athletes Will Act as a Symbol of Hope for Refugees Worldwide and Bring Global Attention to the Magnitude of the Refugee Crisis When They Take Part in the Olympic Games Rio 2015 This Summer

They paraded in the opening ceremony under the Olympic flag right before Brazil at the end of the procession. Here's wishing them success. I think it's an excellent move. I'm not much of an Olympics watcher (I used to as a kid, but one, I'm not really into sports, and two, it's a lot different than it was then). So I didn't see the opening ceremony. But I thought this was great. Of course I wish success to Team USA, and hope that all the athletes do their best without injury. And I hope these Olympics go off without violence or anything like that.

Are you an Olympics junkie? I pretty much limit my watching (when I catch it) to gymnastics in the summer and ice skating in the winter, but that's about it. But I know people who will be watching on any device they are near.

Okay, morning comes early--I'm supposed to be over there by 9 am. Good night.

One iconic photo may turn the tide

on the world's apathy toward the crisis in Syria and the horrors and desperation there.

That Little Syrian Boy: Here's Who He Was

I cannot imagine

the terror and for some, relief as well, that these people must be going through....



'Heroic' mission rescues desperate Yazidis from ISIS

Yazidis, among Iraq's smallest minorities, are of Kurdish descent, and their religion is considered a pre-Islamic sect that draws from Christianity, Judaism and Zoroastrianism.

One of the oldest religious communities in the world, they have long suffered persecution, with many Muslims referring to them as devil worshippers.

More than a week ago, they fled into the surrounding mountains when ISIS fighters stormed the town of Sinjar.

Now, trapped without food, water or medical care in the summer heat, thousands of families are in desperate need of help.

A senior Kurdish official warned Monday of the potential of genocide against the Yazidi people.

A long life lived after a mission to save people thwarted by politics

In 1947, with scars from the Holocaust still raw and haunting, thousands of Jewish refugees attempted to reach Palestine to start a new life, despite British immigration rules that limited the number of Jews who could legally enter the area. The captain of one of the ships that made that trip has died in Israel.

Captain of famed Exodus refugee ship dies: 86-year-old remembered for heroic mission to save Holocaust survivors

The Exodus 1947 ship left France in July 1947 carrying more than 4,500 people — most of them Holocaust survivors and other displaced Jews — in a secret effort to reach Palestine. At the time, Britain controlled Palestine and was limiting the immigration of Jews.

The British navy seized the vessel off Palestine's shores, and after a battle on board that left three people dead, turned the ship and its passengers back to Europe, where the refugees were forced to disembark in Germany.

The ship's ordeal was widely reported worldwide, garnering sympathy for the refugees, especially because they were taken to Germany, where the Nazi murder of 6 million Jews during World War II originated.

Captain of Jewish immigrant ship the Exodus dies

From Wikipedia:

Documents released from the British archives show that after much soul-searching, the British concluded that the only place they could send the Jews was to the British-controlled zone of post-war Germany, where the Jews could be placed in camps and screened for extremists; decision to land the Jews in Germany had been made because it was the only suitable territory under British control that could handle so many people at short notice. The British diplomats and military officers knew perfectly well that sending Jews back to Germany and putting them in camps so soon after the Holocaust would set off a fire-storm of protest.

Yitzhak "Ike" Ahronovitch tried to save thousands of refugees from the Holocaust and his efforts brought sympathy for the founding of Israel as a homeland for Jews. His daughter described the attempt as a defining influence in his life. Despite the fact that the mission was illegal, it was certainly moral and an attempt to better the lives of so many who had suffered. It was the right thing to do, and Ahronovitch showed himself up to the task with his efforts on behalf of the refugees.