-- spidermoon cobweblog --

dear friend,

sorry to hear about the foot injury. must have been very painful to drop that heavy wooden cabinet on it.

it will heal. drink lots of carrot juice w/garlic. i admire your lack of fear. sometimes accidents do happen, but to take the chance is to live.

two days ago i did the same sort of thing. i purchased a folding table at a furniture store, a couple miles where i live from. the delivery fee was too expensive to consider, so i was forced to risk my health to get the table home myself.

instead of hiring a taxi to haul it, or trying to get it on the bus, i made it a two-day, two-trip affair and carried it home piece-by-piece. balancing the tabletop and then the folding legs/stand on the footrests of my chair, got it home that way, with only a few more near-death experiences than usual. thank goodness.

sometimes we win -- injury free, and sometimes we pay for it in flesh. but isn't furniture such a great thing to endanger our very existences for, after it's all over and done?

at the moment, and especially since i am now enjoying my new furniture (such materialism) and i hope you are enjoying yours. i can think of nothing better. maybe it's that overall quality of strength and solidity, with that irresistable touch, however so slight, of ever-present danger. it's comforting in some strange, practically unbreakable way.

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jezebel 10:21 - [Link] - Comments ()
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happy birthday
Scorpio 2002
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I believe that following the golden rule is not just a virtuous way to live, but also the best way to ensure the success of your selfish goals. "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you" is a potent magic spell equaling anything you could learn in a shamanic initiation or book of wizardry. This amusing truth is now your secret weapon, Scorpio. I urge you to experiment with it freely. Just to cover all your bases, you might also want to mess around with the silver rule, formulated by my reader LizaL: Do unto others as you would do unto your new convertible sports car that you bought at the apex of your mid-life crisis to attract an innocent who shares your sexual orientation.

--http://freewillastrology.com
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jezebel 12:46 - [Link] - Comments ()
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dear innocent,

i suggest any more dictation you hear from this doctor should be treated as highly toxic.

whoever is feeding you this dictation is spewing things that would make a really good ramones song.

microcephally means "tiny brain" as far as i can guess.

(i had hydrocephalus at one time. it seems the spinal fluid could get in my brain, but it couldn't hardly get out) caused from basilar impression, (no neck) but the labotomy, 'er i mean, the shunt, cured that problem.) even so, at the time, my brain was too big, not tiny.

blindness is the lack of vision. my vision was also affected by the above condition, but i'm far from blind, i see double (corrected by x-ray specks).

scoliosis is curvature (sometimes extreme) of the spine. (nah, nah! mine is more twisted than yours.)

multiple joint contractions? imagine someone opening and closing their hands, gnashing their teeth, twisting their ankles and wrists back and forth, and kicking their knees and flailing their arms, all simultaneously. it could happen.

mental retardation is what happens when you live too near to three mile island, or when you listen to western medical practitioners talk into dictation machines.

the day i realized most western-medicine doctors have no idea what is going on with me as a patient (and most other people -- OI or not), is the day i started understanding what is really happening in my life.

things are not what they seem. smart people aren't smart. dumb people aren't dumb. humans can rarely be diagnosed with handbooks and manuals because they are so diverse.

what was it they said in the x-files, "trust no one?" well, i think it's ok to trust some people. just whatever you do, don't believe them, because half the time, even they don't understand what they're saying.

-imho,


jezebel 21:04 - [Link] - Comments ()
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sent to "adults with OI" @ yahoo groups:

"gather round, my dreamlets ..."

in conversation with a friend the other day, this book, Geek Love came up. i recommended it to him and realized i should make it known to readers of this group as well.

this book impressed me deeply when i read it, and i'm not usually that impressed by movies or books.

i read it at a time when many things were changing for me. i had just previously gone thru shunt brain-surgery to alleviate OI-related basilar impression and looked at life as a gift that should be treasured, any life, no matter how normal or strange. it was a time for me much like rebirth, after surviving the events before that surgery.

this is one of my favorite books and i recommend it highly to everyone, disabled or not. as a person with OI type III/IV, i felt an empathy with the characters in this book and became so attached to them that i didn't ever want the book to end. so i read it as slowly as possible. i felt like (or maybe i pretended) i was one of the characters, like a member of the family.

this book is also excellent to read for other writers, or those who aspire to be writers. it is magically written, as it inspires memories and thoughts in the reader, no matter who is reading it, that relate to their own lives in sometimes amazingly unimaginable ways.

the author, katherine dunn, was at the time reported to be a cigar-smoking female boxer. a very strong personality, the type i see when i see many people with OI.

the book deals with self-image, society, survival and the celebration of life. it is an important piece of literature for all humanity. plus it is very enjoyable.

again, i highly recommend ths book, Geek Love, by Katherine Dunn. it's like filling your vitality tank up to full, and after reading it you know you will never run on empty again.

the following is a short review by Allyson Zipp of Strange Words reviews.

Katherine Dunn's Geek Love is a chilling, hallucinogenic study of the horror side of human behavior. And that is merely one facet of this complex text. Dunn also considers childhood, family, body-image, self-image, love, sex, power, and more, all infused with her deeply disturbing, Fellini-on-acid vision. While neither easy nor comfortable reading, Geek Love is truly unique. Strange Words guarantees Katherine Dunn's Geek Love is a book you won't soon forget.
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jezebel 20:49 - [Link] - Comments ()
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here's one chess match that is nearing completion (as of this date).



meke vs. jezebel

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i found the following quotes at the link below.
   
"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." --Benjamin Franklin
    
*****

Under the US Patriot Act, individuals may be placed under electronic surveillance without their knowledge or consent, and without any court order. We have no way of knowing whether this is in fact taking place, and if we did, we would be violating the US Patriot Act to specifically notify readers. We recommend all readers assume that they may be under surveillance while surfing the Web or using any form of electronic communication.

-- Project Censored

*****

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and here's a relatively new match.


mulan69 vs. jezebel


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jezebel 07:55 - [Link] - Comments ()
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for the past couple days all i've been doing pretty much is chess. i ordered a new set of pieces andit is turning into a big soap opera, of course. details later maybe.

but i decided to refine this chess journal thing a bit more here. i'm just gonna be leaving a link to each match one time from now on instead of leaving lots-o-links with each move.

its easier to just remember the date and come back to the link any time since it stays updated, silly me.

if you come back a long tme later then the match will show up as completed and you can replay the whole thing move-by-move. i'm so clever. but it can also be replayed up to the current move so no need to worry about waiting till its over. i know there are people biting at the bit to observe this....

this particular match is one from a league of teams. this particular team, the one i'm on, is called bountyhunters. try not to get too excited about all this.



jezebel vs. whitedeath
team league match


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jezebel 14:38 - [Link] - Comments ()
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xxx

jezebel 01:00 - [Link] - Comments ()
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--

To announce that there must be no criticism of the president, or that we are to stand by the president right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public.

-- Theodore Roosevelt

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jezebel 07:05 - [Link] - Comments ()
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Just Say NWO
to Vamperialism


happy voting day. if you are not a young person, the article below still may apply to you. the same tactics are used for whatever category voters fall into. for example, "disabled," or "italian-american," etc.

Are Young People Too Smart to Vote?

By Steven Hill and Rashad Robinson,
AlterNet

November 4, 2002

This election season, once again young people will not vote in very great numbers. In the 1998 midterm election, only 12 percent of 18- to 24-year-olds and 8.5 percent of 18-19 year olds voted, and this year will be about the same.

And yet a recent study funded by Pew Charitable trust found that young people are volunteering in their communities more than ever. Young people are not apathetic, but most find little connection between
volunteering and voting. While volunteering is viewed as a way to "give
back" and help one's community, voting doesn't inspire the same sentiments.
So why don't young people vote? Perhaps young people don't vote because they have a better sense than adults that our political system truly is broken, particularly from the point of view of a young person.

For instance, a recent survey conducted by Harvard University found that 83.5 percent of 18-24 year olds said that they had not been contacted by any political party during the 2000 election season. On the other hand it is well documented that both parties went out of their way to connect
with the 65-and-over population.

Why are candidates going after one group of voters and relegating the other to the political sidelines?

One obvious reason is that seniors vote in greater numbers than young people. Politicians court likely voters, and that creates a vicious cycle: Young people don't vote because they aren't courted, and they aren't courted because they don't vote.

But a more careful reading reveals something more broken about our "winner take all" political system. In close electoral contests -- such as our last presidential election, or in a handful of races that will determine control for the U.S. House and Senate -- a small minority of voters has much greater influence than the rest of us. This is the group known as the almighty "swing voters." Swing voters are undecided voters, and in close races politicians court them because swing voters decide which candidate will win.

It just so happens that, not only are seniors more likely to vote than young people, but also many of them are fiscal conservatives who are more likely to be swing voters than young people. Think back to the presidential election, what were the issues that mostly were addressed -- Medicare, prescription drugs and Social Security lockboxes. All important issues, but there were a lot more issues out there and constituencies that cared about them, yet they were overlooked. Why?

Because in the zero-sum game of "winner take all" politics, polls and focus groups are used to figure out which group of voters to talk to, and which group of voters to ignore.

As one twentysomething said during the last presidential campaign, "I feel like if you are not 65 years old and have arthritis, these candidates have nothing to say to you."

"Winner take all" campaigns have become a matter of targeting the right demographic using polls and focus groups. But as Mario Velasquez, president of Rock the Vote, which registers young people to vote, has
said: "Demography, I like to say, is the death of democracy. If you have precision demographics, you are only talking to people who vote, not to the entire country."

Young people aren't the only ones being left out by the "precision demographics" of our "winner take all" system. Racial minorities and poor people also usually are excluded from candidate appeals. The
incentives of our "winner take all" system fragment our nation, as politicians and their consultants use polls and focus groups to slice and dice the electorate. In the process, whole swaths of people -- potential voters -- are dropped from the invite list of our 'invitation-only' elections. Demographics, it turns out, is destiny.

Change certainly is needed. Other nations experience much higher voter turnout rates because they don't use our "winner take all" system.

Instead they use what is known as proportional representation, which creates multi-party democracy where voters have more political choice, more competitive elections, and more people's issues are addressed by the various parties and their candidates.

Other necessary changes include instant runoff voting, Election Day as a national holiday, Election Day voter registration (Prop. 52 on the California ballot) and public financing of elections. Not surprisingly, nations that employ these practices enjoy much higher rates of voting among all people, including young people, poor people, and others who are left out of our political system.

More than adults, young people seem intuitively to recognize that our political system is broken. And they register their awareness on Election Day by not bothering to participate in what to them is a pretty meaningless exercise. So when you see the low numbers for voter turnout this time, don't think of it as apathy. Think of it as the wisdom of youth.

Steven Hill is senior analyst for the Center for Voting and Democracy and author of "Fixing Elections: The Failure of America's Winner Take All Politics" (Routledge Press). Rashad Robinson is the Center's field director.

************************************************

"Let us lift our vision high
enough to dominate the problem."

- - Pierre Teilhard de Chardin

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jezebel 07:25 - [Link] - Comments ()
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coronation george

(mommy's influence uncontested)

bush calls it quits on democracy, opts for more convenient dictatorship.
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jezebel 08:34 - [Link] - Comments ()
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once in a great while an article appears that is written well and even understandable, and begs passing on to others.

the following, allegedly written by a former marine, is quite compelling. here is just one of the quotes:

"U.S. interventions since WWII have not been done in the name of the world's people (although that is always the claim), but for the preservation of concentrated power. The fact that they have been carried out against the tenets of international law (i.e. the rights of non-intervention and self-determination), in itself deflates their validity. If the U.S. government were held to the FBI's official definition of terrorism ... their list of victims since WWII alone would include:

Cuba, Haiti, Dominican Republic, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Honduras, Guatemala, Panama, Mexico, Chile, Granada, Colombia, Bolivia, Venezuela, Uruguay, Paraguay, Ecuador, Zaire, Namibia, Lebanon, Egypt, Greece, Cyprus, Bangladesh, Iran, South Africa, the Philippines, Korea, Vietnam, Laos, Iraq, Cambodia, Libya, Israel, Palestine, China, Afghanistan, Sudan, Indonesia, East Timor, Turkey, Angola, and Somalia."

find the complete article here.
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and then, there are amazing words like these:

"The truth is useless. You have to understand this right now. You can't deposit the truth in the bank. You can't buy groceries with the truth. You can't pay the rent with the truth. The truth is a useless commodity that will hang around your neck like an albatross?all the way down to the homeless shelter. And if you think that the million or so people in this country that are really interested in the truth about their government can support people who would tell them the truth, you got another think coming. Because the million people in this country that are truly interested in the truth don't have any money." (Bushwhacked, P. 162) -- jeb bush

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jezebel 09:58 - [Link] - Comments ()
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The following [allegedly] is an actual question given on a University of Washington chemistry midterm. The answer by one student was so profound that the professor shared it with colleagues via the Internet, which is of course, why we now have the pleasure of enjoying it as well.

Bonus Question: Is Hell exothermic (gives off heat) or endothermic (absorbs heat)?

Most of the students wrote proofs of their beliefs using Boyle's Law (gas cools off when it expands and heats up when it is compressed) or some variant.  One student, however, wrote the following:

First, we need to know how the mass of Hell is changing in time. So we need to know the rate that souls are moving into Hell and the rate they are leaving. I think that we can safely assume that once a soul gets to Hell, it will not leave. Therefore, no souls are leaving.

As for how many souls are entering Hell, let's look at the different religions that exist in the world today. Some of these religions state that if you are not a member of their religion, you will go to Hell.

Since there are more than one of these religions and since people do not belong to more than one religion, we can project that all souls go to Hell. Because birth and death rates as they are, we can expect the number of souls in Hell to increase exponentially.

Now, we look at the rate of change of the volume in Hell because Boyle's Law states that in order for the temperature and pressure in Hell to stay the same, the volume of Hell has to expand proportionately as souls are added.

This gives two possibilities:

1. If Hell is expanding at a slower rate than the rate at which souls enter Hell, then the temperature and pressure in Hell will increase until all Hell breaks loose.

2. Of course, if Hell is expanding at a rate faster than the increase of souls in Hell, then the temperature and pressure will drop until Hell freezes over.

So which is it? If we accept the postulate given to me by Ms. Teresa Banyan during my Freshman year, that "...it will be a cold day in Hell before I sleep with you", and take into account the fact that I still have not succeeded in having sexual relations with her, then, #2 cannot be true, and thus I am sure that Hell is exothermic and will not freeze.

The student received the only "A" given.

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today's featured website is media whores online. i dont know exactly why. i just really like the name.
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jezebel 09:02 - [Link] - Comments ()
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