huh.

what are the odds of this? housework can help prevent breast cancer in women. woman, bake me a pie. because i care.

(deep?) thought of the night

a woman is like a steel pillar: she can be an unbreakable support when you need her, or a heavy anchor if you try going anywhere she doesn't want you to.

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas to all, with a special shout out to my good buddy JC.

random thought

normally, i don't like playing games with my parents so much. i'm too competitive/focused, which means i usually end up pissed at some point. but during cranium tonight, with the combination of two thirds of a bottle of wine and my team making a huge come from behind win, times were good.

like peanut butter and jelly

my new favorite combination: Jägermeister and Apples to Apples. although really, you could substitute just about any alcoholic beverage for the Jager and it would still turn out well.

as if we needed more proof...

red, after some careful research, points out exactly how ridiculous the IRS is.

hooray!

i've brought another friend in the fold: kate-lynne is addicted to firefly. well, maybe not addicted. but she does "like it a lot." which is great, because it gives me an excuse to watch it again. mission accomplished.

Have you given yet?

There are still 10 days till Christmas, and Child's Play could use your help!

chalk one up for the weatherman

so, the for today predicted a 100% chance of precipitation. and precipitate it did, to the tune of about 12" of snow. and it's still precipitating, albeit much slower than it was earlier today.

hopefully i'll remember to get more pictures with some sort of reference later tonight, but here's some i took a few minutes ago:



the first was taken using the flash, and shows the left side of our front sidewalk; the second did not use a flash, and shows the right side.

this kind of weather makes driving to work quite interesting. my morning commute includes pine canyon (that link will put you about the middle of the canyon... switch to aerial image and zoom out a bit to get a better picture), which is a drop of about 2000 feet over 8 miles or so. It has its share of wrecks under the best of conditions, and right now it's completely covered in compact snow. i think the boss is already planning on everybody being late tomorrow, which is good, because we probably all will be.

castro dead?

this report is still unconfirmed, but if it proves true, it should mean some better days ahead for the people of cuba.

time for a fresh start...

from the spambox

from: Thyrza Aden
subject: Re: forbad bedpos
description: The robobar supplied our drinks. He drained his while I was just orange and white. Closed and...

that's just depressing...

sadly, this is a real article:

Condoms too big for most Indian men

Fri Dec 8, 6:40 AM ET

NEW DELHI (AFP) - Indian men's penises do not match international sizes and most condoms on sale in the country are too big, according to a medical study.

The Indian Council of Medical Research, the country's top health research institute, found 60 percent of men in Mumbai had penises at least 2.4 centimeters (one inch) shorter than international condom sizes, The Times of India newspaper said Friday.

For 30 percent, the gap was five centimeters (two inches), said a researcher quoted in the article headlined "Indian men don't measure up".

The institute surveyed 1,400 men visiting family planning clinics across the country to conduct the "Study on proper length and breadth specification for condoms".

The study was carried out in a bid to improve the sizing of condoms, which have a failure rate of up to 20 percent in India.

"While improper usage is one of the reasons, there is also condom slippage or tear, which is associated with the size of the condom in relation to an erect penis," said Dr Chander Puri, director of the councils National Institute for Research in Reproductive Health.

The effectiveness of condoms in India, which has a growing population of 1.1 billion, is an important issue as they have emerged as a vital safeguard against sexually transmitted diseases such as HIV-AIDS.

India has the world's highest HIV-AIDS caseload, with 5.7 million people living with the illness, according to UN figures.

who knew there was an international norm for condom sizes? also, they really shouldn't have shown any of those men's faces... they'll probably never live this article down.

h/t say anything

things that are cool

1) Medieval II: Total War
2) The Battle of Thermopylae; and, by extension, 300
3) Penguins

oy

as of today, i've been sick for 8 days, which is my excuse for the light posting. started out last saturday with a nasty sinus infection, and then monday morning i woke up with infective conjunctivitis, a.k.a. pinkeye. on their own, either of those things probably just would have been annoying, but together, it really sucked. i actually ended up missing the entire week of work, putting my sick days to good use.

luckily, things seem to be clearing up now. i got some eyedrops for the pinkeye on thursday (we don't have a local doctor anymore, so one commutes up from wenatchee a few days a week... thursday happened to be the day they were in) and some antibiotics for the sinus infection yesterday, and i think they're doing their job. which is good, because the other regular teller at work is out on vacation next week, so things would really suck if i weren't able to make it in.

also, roald amundsen was the man.