Where I stand

on this eve of election day and looking towards next year's presidential race, I took the Select Smart test to find out who I'm closest in ideology to. My plan for the primary has been to vote for Kucinich, but let's face it, he will not be the nominee, so I wondered which of the Big Three (Clinton, Obama, Edwards) I came closest to. Here are the results:

2008 President Selector Rankings:

1. Theoretical Ideal Candidate (100 %)
2. Dennis Kucinich (71 %)
3. Barack Obama (67 %)
4. Wesley Clark (not running, endorsed Clinton) (63 %)
5. Hillary Clinton (61 %)
6. Joseph Biden (61 %)
7. John Edwards (61 %)
8. Al Gore (not announced) (61 %)
9. Christopher Dodd (60 %)
10. Alan Augustson (campaign suspended) (55 %)
11. Bill Richardson (52 %)
12. Michael Bloomberg (says he will not run) (52 %)
13. Mike Gravel (47 %)
14. Ron Paul (40 %)
15. Elaine Brown (37 %)
16. Kent McManigal (campaign suspended) (30 %)
17. Rudolph Giuliani (29 %)
18. Mike Huckabee (28 %)
19. Mitt Romney (26 %)
20. John McCain (25 %)
21. Alan Keyes (23 %)
22. Tommy Thompson (withdrawn, endorsed Giuliani) (21 %)
23. Chuck Hagel (not running) (20 %)
24. Tom Tancredo (20 %)
25. Duncan Hunter (15 %)
26. Sam Brownback (withdrawn) (14 %)
27. Fred Thompson (13 %)
28. Newt Gingrich (says he will not run) (11 %)
29. Jim Gilmore (withdrawn) (10 %)
30. Stephen Colbert (campaign ended) (6 %)

I'm amazed at how close I came to both Kucinich and Obama, yet they really aren't all that alike. Hmmmm...

Cool

After 3,300 years, face of King Tut is unveiled

I miss Cerys

It's just not the same coming home to an empty house. This weekend I washed the bedclothes for the first time since she died, so they no longer have her scent on them. I have to admit I was overcome with emotion and cried a little. I'm still very much in mourning, I suppose. It's amazing how much grief you can have when a pet dies. Cerys was a wonderful companion for sixteen years. She shared many ups and downs with me and got me through a difficult time in my life. I wish we could do something to keep those we love--people and animals--young and vibrant for a long time, but of course life doesn't work that way, and I suppose that's good, as it forces you to greater appreciate the time you have left.

I had to look this up

because neither my podiatry office nor the radiology office over at St Joseph East automatically use lead aprons.

Is gonadal shielding necessary?

The answer seems to be no, given improvements in x-ray machines these days and the very low doses received, especially when doing exposures on the extremities. I feel a little better.

(I know, I'm unlikely to reproduce, but still, what can I say, it's a concern fueled by years of lead aprons.)

I have been poked, prodded, and positioned

spending about five hours today seeing to my knee, which I hurt in that fall on Monday. It was complicated by being workman's compensation rather than my normal insurance, so there was a lot of paperwork (and I'm not even counting the calls I made ahead of time.) Dr Nesbitt noticed (I hadn't) that I was bruised along the whole front of my lower leg, too (it was a very light discolouration), so he ordered views of my knee, my tibia, and my fibula. He also gave me a prescription for Darvocet for night-time, since it's been bothering me then, but to be honest I may just be okay with ibuprofen. It's not that painful as long as I stay off it--although I have to admit, after going through the exam and testing the range of motion, it did hurt quite a lot, and then after being given assisted yoga in getting the x-rays and then walking a long trek back to the car around some construction, I was ready to go home and rest for a bit.

That's been my day so far. Now I'm getting ready to go do laundry, do notes, and work on character sheets, so I'll be off both foot and knee for that. Then there's the big grocery run I take a friend on when he's paid, and that's definitely time for the boot. I'd hoped to get some stuff at home taken care of, like the dishes and some of the paper that's lying around, or even watch a DVD that was given to me weeks ago, but I didn't expect the medical stuff to take quite so long (I was figuring maybe three hours. Silly me.) Oh, well.

Would you like to know what moon phase you were born under?

In the game, our gamemaster has adapted some of the ideas from White Wolf's Werewolf: the Apocalypse for the developing a system for witchcraft. In that game, a werewolf has one of five Auspices based on the moon he or she was born under. It determines some of the gifts a character has and some basic personality traits. The Auspices are:

New Moon--Ragabash--Trickster (my character Carol is this)
Crescent Moon--Theurge--Shaman/Seer
Gibbous Moon--Galliard--Bard
Half Moon--Philodox--Arbiter/Mediator/Judge/Counsellor
Full Moon--Ahroun--Warrior

We don't use the titles of Ragabash, Theurge, Galliard, Philodox, or Ahroun, but the characters who are witches in the game do have these Auspices.

So, seeing a perfect half moon tonight, I thought I'd check a moon phase utility from Sky and Telescope that gives the moon for an historical date to see what I would be under this system. Turns out I'm a day past the waning half, not quite crescent, so I'd be a Philodox.

Then I put the members of the game in and came up with a Galliard, three Philodoces, and a Ragabash.

That was a bit of fun. The utility also goes into the future. Also note that the box in the article is merely an illustration. To get to the actual utility you have to follow the link at the end of the article that says 'Click to open our Moon Box Utility'. Enjoy.

How strange

I'm missing a post, one that included a radioplay of 'The Copper Beeches' which was mislabelled in my collection as 'The Missing Bloodstain' (actually they were switched, with 'The Missing Bloodstain' called 'The Copper Beeches' in error). I listened to 'The Missing Bloodstain' yesterday. 'The Copper Beeches' was a week or two ago, either right before or after the cubicles came in. I wonder what else I posted that day? I went back to correct the post and it's gone. It's not even cached somewhere in Google. Oh, well, c'est la vie. But still, it's annoying.

Sorry I didn't post last night

I'd thrown up rather awfully out of the side of my car whilst picking up some friends (who quickly moved to the back seat and called for Lysol) and went home and slept to let the dizziness to subside. I wasn't sick with a virus. It seems to have been either 1) emotional, 2) I ate something bad 3) my period or 4) some combination of the above. I also managed to blow a blood vessel in my eye, which is now quite red.

Is it just me or am I becoming more of a danger to myself lately?

PS Burritos not as good coming up as they are down. Fortunately I had a couple tonight that seem to be sitting better on my stomach.

Today I didn't really dress up for Halloween beyond wearing black, but when trick-or-treating started at work (the kids come 'round the offices, which have candy for them, all coordinated by the rec therapy folks), someone let me borrow a Jason masque and I put the hood of my jacket up and apparently was suitably scary. Of course, I had to go without my glasses to wear the plastic masque, so I had to be a little careful when putting the candy into sacks and pumpkins. It was great fun. :)

Second work was uneventful except for some malfunctioning pumps that those affected handled with great aplomb, for which I'm grateful, as all I could really do is refer them to the manager and bag the pump so no one else could use it.

Tonight I finished up my notes for the month and then got some meds from the pharmacy, came home, and then I gave a pomegranate as offering to Hekate along with some mead, a departure from the regular honeyed burgundy, since tonight is a special night. Although She is considered a Graeco-Roman Goddess and She is my Patroness by mutual choice, my heritage is primarily Celtic. We've worked it out over the years. So even though the year dies and is reborn in Celtic tradition tonight, rather than at the various times found in the Greek or Roman world, I worship Her tonight on Samhain a little differently than I do all other nights. Besides, she's not really Greek, but older than that, some say Karian, or Thessalian, but She is associated with wild magic and death, both associated with Halloween. All I know is that She has made a wonderful difference in my life, and so tonight I thanked Her for the blessings of the last year and entreated fortune for the coming one.

In my office is a line drawing of Hekate, with the following Orphic hymn's translation:

I praise lovely
three-formed Hekate Enodia,
saffron-veiled,
of Sky, Earth, and Sea,
who celebrates
Bacchanalia at the tomb
with the souls of the dead,
Daughter of Perses,
Lover of solitude,
honored with cakes,
Nocturnal One,
Protector of dogs,
Invincible Sovereign,
heralded by the roar of wild beasts...
Keybearing Queen of the whole Cosmos.

I can't say I oppose it, but

shouldn't the number one thing that is done is parents accompany and watch their own children, regardless of who they're trick-or-treating from? Because there's lots of people out there who haven't ever been convicted who can be a danger to a child. My kids (if I had any) wouldn't be going alone, that's for sure--and I wouldn't necessarily trust my kids with anyone I barely knew accompanying them, either. I'd rather go myself.


Sex offenders locked down, in the dark for Halloween

I hope, with enough lawsuits, they bankrupt them

Got problems with gays and want to be outspoken? Sure, that's your right under our Constitution. But picketing a dead soldier's funeral (especially a non-gay dead soldier's funeral) just because you're sure America needs to hear that its troops are falling in war because God is punishing it for the sins of homosexuals and the support of the homosexual agenda? That's ludicrous, wrong, illogical, tacky, disrespectful, unpatriotic, and it should be illegal in all jurisdictions. I don't think funerals are truly public in the sense of letting anyone with a placard and a lungful of hate speech in. Funerals are for the respect for the dead. Military funerals are for the respect of those who have fallen protecting our country--straight or gay. So, I was happy to see:

Fred Phelps' church ordered to pay $10.9 million for funeral protest

It's been my experience that those who hate gays the most tend to be those who secretly realise that they have homosexual urges. I'm not saying Fred Phelps is one of these people, of course. But I do wonder why such vehemence against gays? Why is he threatened by their existence? What have they really done for him? It's such a strange whacko turn for someone who started out of all things as a civil rights attorney for blacks. Now he hates gays, pickets military funerals, and runs websites saying God hates (insert country here--there's already Ireland, Sweden, and Canada). And with his church, most of whom are related to him by blood or marriage, he has others to carry on the hate speech when he dies. I guess he'll find out then if he really is part of the elect or not. I'm not Christian, of course, but I have actually read the Bible from cover to cover--something many Christians fail to do, including those who like to quote it--and it seems to me Jesus was primarily about loving others. It's not a particularly gay-friendly text, true, but at the same time, you have to wonder where someone full of that much hate really belongs in God's design, don't you?