Just so you know

we weathered the storm pretty well. I slept through it, actually, waking to a telephone call--my mother checking up on me. Some of our schoolkids were sent home because they were on emergency power and there was wind damage and downed lines, but all in all it was very mild. A friend of mine had her window screens blown off, and she, her husband, and son huddled in the bathroom since their house isn't rated for a lot of wind.

Other parts of the state and surrounding ones didn't fare so well. There's a college in Tennessee whose main dorm complex was virtually destroyed. In another town they found a baby covered in debris but alive, with no word on its parents. One woman in Arkansas was found yards away from her family home next to the body of her 14-year-old Labrador. She'd been in the hallway of their trailer. The rest of ehr family survived, at least. Scary.

Of course, one of the most dangerous things to be in if you're hit by a tornado or high winds is a trailer. When I was a kid, we lived in one at my grandmother's and actually as part of base housing when I lived in South Carolina. I hope never to live in another--they just aren't safe. I know other houses and buildings can go to kindling, but they don't normally lift up and wind up yards away from where they'd been.

In the apartment building I live in now, I'm on the first floor and have a couple of interior rooms I can go to, like the bathroom and kitchen, away from windows. If the roof came off, I'd more than likely be okay. Of course, I slept through the storm, so who knows...

To those injured or affected by the storms, and certainly to those who lost loved ones, my thoughts are with you.

Storms brought devastation

See what happens when you aerosolise pig brains and blow them onto people?

A Medical Mystery Unfolds in Minnesota

You could not pay me to do this job, even without the nerve damage.

Cool

An Altar Beyond Olympus for a Deity Predating Zeus

It is very W-I-N-D-Y and

67 degrees in February, storming slightly--although some of my friends have already lost power tonight, and now it's back on--but look what's coming towards us (Lexington is printed in orange--click to enlarge):



I can tell the thunder's getting closer. It's hailing and my lights keep flickering. That big red line is a little scary. I just hope my power stays on. I'm parked next to the building rather than the trees, at least. And most of all, I hope we don't have any tornadoes like those that have been hitting some of the surrounding region.

Two random Christmas videos in February

Because I like them...

'New York City Christmas' by Rob Thomas


'Christmas Greeting' by Graham (somegreybloke)

So this week I lost five pounds

making it a -15 for the last couple of months. My secret? Peanut butter. Lots of peanut butter sandwiches, because since I've been paying a $100 a month dental bill for a few months it's been pretty tight moneywise. But I'll be finished with that in March, at least. This week has been peanut butter sandwiches, small cheesy baked potatoes, macaroni and cheese, a little tuna, and one splurge thanks to a friend of Vietnamese food from Pho BC in Regency Centre off of Nicholasville Road. The last was really good. I had fried tofu in tomato sauce over white rice, two vegetarian egg rolls with tofu inside, and I split an order of tofu fried rice. It was surprisingly mild but they had chili sauce you could put on it to spice it up. Hmmm...nummy.

So, nutritionally speaking it's probably not great--no real fruits or vegetables--but I hope to rectify that in a week and a half. Still, I can't say I'm disappointed in the weight loss at all. At some point last fall I was at my all-time greatest weight--291. Now I'm 275 and losing. Yay. Now if I could just get to the gym...

I was in a Pogues mood

For Bill, who introduced me to them.

'Young Ned of the Hill' by the Pogues



'Turkish Song of the Damned' by the Pogues



(Okay, nevermind that the actual video is from Gangs of New York...I love the music but I couldn't look at Shane MacGowan's teeth for too long. (He's the lead singer.))

'Thousands are Sailing' by the Pogues



Warning: Shane MacGowan's teeth do briefly appear in this one in a really goofy picture.

I don't have perfect teeth, either, but my God, it makes me want to go brush. He was raised in England and Ireland. Do they not have dentists?

The live ones aren't great in sound quality. I may have to take my copy of 'If I Should Fall from Grace with God' to work and listen. :)

Óiche mhaith. (EE-hah WAH) ['Good night.']

I didn't realise

that Saad Eskander, the director of the Iraq National Library and Archive, is a British citizen who returned to his native Iraq to do what he could to save the library, which was heavily damaged early in the war and maintains a precarious positon in Baghdad. His story is remarkable, as is that of his staff, who have stayed despite the hardships. He is also a Kurd trying to build a library to serve all of Iraq's people, regardless of ethnicity.

Baghdad's brave librarian

You don't see that defence every day

Man Says Exorcism Led to Wife's Death

Did you wear your red today? I did.

(Even thought it's an awful colour for me.) Okay, technically it was a female thing, so you guys are off the hook. But just in case you wondered why some many women were wearing red today, check out the American Heart Association's Go Red for Women website. February 1st was National Wear Red Day in hopes of raising awareness that heart disease is the number one killer of women.

(Now if I can just find a cause that has you wear purple, my favourite colour and incidentally one of the best ones for me to wear. Purple ribbons are worn for a host of causes; I guess I could pick one of them.)