The White Tower, also from the Thames

Big Ben and the houses of Parliament, from the Thames

i may have been wrong, but kerry still sucks

wow... could've sworn i put up some stuff saying what's wrong w/ kerry's plans for our country, but i guess not. in the meantime, a friend has pointed out that two of my arguments are inaccurate, and, in an effort at fairness, i'll include his counterpoints.

1) kerry is complaining about outsourcing american jobs, yet he wants to raise the minimum wage. employers, not wanting to take a cut in profits, will either: A) fire employees to save money; B) raise the cost of goods and services to save money; or C) outsource jobs to save money.

--counterpoint: forrest totally shot down point C by saying that minimum wage jobs are pretty hard to outsource. i hadn't actually thought of that, but it makes sense. burger king would have a pretty hard time doing any thing if all its burger-flippers were in some small third-world country, like cambodia, haiti, or southern california.

2) john kerry has no idea what he's talking about when it comes to the economy. he says that he will create 10 million new jobs in his first four years; but according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, there were only 8.2 million unemployed people as of june 2004. is he planning on unemployment going up by 2 million in those 4 years?

--counterpoint: yeah, he kinda shot this one down too. i can't believe i hadn't thought of it, but he said the population would probably have increased by then. i checked into that, and the US Census Bureau projects that by 2010, there will be an increase of what i would consider the working age (20-64) population, to the tune of about 19 million people.

3) kerry has no confidence in his chosen VP candidate.
--"In the Senate four years -- and that is the full extent of public life; no international experience, no military experience, you can imagine what the advertising is going to be next year.... When I came back from Vietnam in 1969, I don't know if John Edwards was out of diapers then." --John Kerry, January 2004
--"John Edwards is ready for this job. He is ready for this job." --John Kerry, following the Edwards announcement

i didn't actually argue that one with forrest, but i'm sure he would've had some complaint about it. oh well. he may be a confused individual, but he's still a pretty cool guy.

i think thats about enough complaining for now... assuming i still know how to do it, i'm gonna put up a few more random pics from my trip, and then go attempt to have some fun.

And I thought I was just being sarcastic when I said it was probably on the other side of the island...

Tropical Medicine?

there we go

so i got the whole picture thing figured out again... kind of. turns out i just wasn't adding a caption like it wanted me to. but i still can't figure out how to make them all part of the same post, which could get really annyoing.

This was actually part of a lotion ad, but I thought it was pretty funny.

A funny sign from York.

d'oh

or maybe not. that program isn't working as well as it did the first time, so i might have to wait before more pictures go up.

random pics from england/scotland

well, i'm still figuring out this whole picture thing, so hopefully this will work right. if not, they'll appear in the next post. oh well.

The Abridged Silmarilion

i found this over at thinkgeek the other day, and thought it was pretty funny. and it actually fits the book fairly well.

The Silmarillion - in 1,000 words
Of the Rings of Power and the Third Age

ELVES: Wonder what's going on over the ocean. This crafting deal is pretty sweet, though!
DWARVES: Yeah, seriously.
ANNATAR: Hi, elves! Wanna learn some cool stuff?
ELVES: Okay!
SAURON: They fell for it.
SEVEN DWARVES: Thanks for the rings! . . oooh, GOLD! MUST HAVE GOLD!
NINE MEN: Neat rings. . . Hey, didn't Mom die like six hundred years ago?
CELEBRIMBOR: Okay, how about we do three more and call it a wrap?
SAURON: How about I do one more and claim them ALL?
ELVES: AUGH!
SAURON: Bwa ha ha!
LAST ALLIANCE OF ELVES AND MEN: Push off.
SAURON: Make me.
ISILDUR: Whack.
SAURON: Ow.
ELROND: Hey, you got his ring. Let's ditch it.
ISILDUR: No.
ELROND: This sucks.
ISILDUR: Tell me about it. *dies*
GONDORIANS: *change calendar*
CIRDAN: Hi, wizards! You in the grey, catch!
SAURON: Okay, that's long enough. Movin' into Dol Guldur.
SARUMAN: It's not him. Also the ring's lost at sea.
RING: No I'm not.
THE WISE: Augh.
THE WEAK: Bad ring! Volcano for you!
RING: *melts*
SAURON: AUGH!
MORDOR: BOOM.
GONDORIANS: *change calendar*
ELROND, GALADRIEL: Road trip!
GANDALF: Hi Cirdan! Still got your ring!
CIRDAN: Cool. Let's go to Valinor!

there were, of course, some very key moments left out. but what did you expect for 1000 words?

Damn the PC Police

the title says it all. hopefully. i'm still figuring out how to make it work. so if it doesn't show up, i'm complaining about the PC (politically correct) police, people who go around changing things to make them PC. in this case, they got ahold of the song "proud to be an American"... it's a rather cheesy song, but still a good one. you all know the line "and i won't forget the men who died, who gave that right to me." but "men" is, of course, way too strong of a term. it now reads (at least in the version i heard at the wenatchee fireworks show last night) "and i won't forget the ones who died...." i realize that women have also died for our country, but changing a song so we don't leave them out is just ridiculous. if the PC police really cared, they would write a new song about patriotism that reflects the growing role women have in our society. it's just like the democrats... hammering the republicans for anything that goes wrong, but never offering a solution of their own.

Cool. Just figured out the picture thing, so here's one of me and some friends.

--me: "hey mom. kate-lynne left some clothes in the back of my car, so i'm gonna go drop those off now."
--mom: "is this something i want to know about?"

--me: "i think these belong to you."
--kate-lynne: "thank you."

--elaine (her mom): "when did you get here danner?"
--me: "just a minute ago. kate-lynne left some clothes in the back of my car last night, so i just came to drop them off."
--elaine: "that sounds really bad. did you want to rephrase it?"
--me: "umm... nope. that's pretty much what happened."

i thought that was a fairly humorous series of conversations, worth recording for posterity. or at least as long as i continue to write in this blog. though the situation does sound pretty bad, it was actually perfectly innocent. we were both working at the 4-h booth during the demolition derby last yesterday. it gets pretty hot during the afternoons, but it's almost always windy and chilly by the time it gets over; so, she came in shorts and a tank-top, and brought along jeans and a long sleeved shirt to change into later. which she did. but when we went back to her house afterwards (to watch saturday night live, you pervert), she forgot them in the car. other than explaining it to both moms, that was the end of the story. it was actually kind of boring. but i'm really bored right now, so you can either put up with it or leave.

on another note, today is our nation's 228th anniversary/birthday. congratulations America. happy Independence Day.

slowly but surely, my country is going down the tube. what has happened to our great nation? legislating from the bench. for those of you unfamiliar with the term, it's when the court system--usually either a state or the federal supreme court--decides that they should be doing congress' job, and pass laws. a fairly recent example of this was the ruling in massachusetts, where the state supreme court said that the legislature had to pass a law allowing gay marriage. more recently, and just as frustrating, the federal supreme court decided that the detainees at gitmo (guantanamo bay, cuba) can have access to american courts. and american lawyers, who will be paid for with american tax dollars. so that kinda pissed me off. also, i don't believe that the supreme court is right in this case... not even close. the detainees/prisoners/whatever-we're-calling-them-now are not US citizens, so the constitution and the idea of constitutional rights do not apply to them. neither are they signees of the geneva convention, which means that it also does not apply to them. so, theoretically, these guys should be SoL (sh-t outta luck), but our supreme court apparantly thinks the "rights" of terrorists are more important than our national security.

yeah, sorry i've been a little slow on the updates. i've been busy filling out job applications like there's no tomorrow--which is entirely possible if i don't get a job this summer. oh well. stuff happens.

in the meantime, i realize my reader ("fan") base is probably pretty small, but i want to urge anyone reading this to NOT, under ANY CIRCUMSTANCES, pay to watch michael "i'm not fat, i'm big-boned" moore's new film farenheit 9/11. that man is a disgrace, unworthy of being called an American. at this critical moment in our nation's history, he is one of the best allies the terrorists we are hunting down could hope for.

i realize this effort may be pointless. there is a good chance that my friends are the only people reading this, and they wouldn't watch the "movie" anyways. if anyone else receives this message, remind your friends to avoid supporting mr. bin laden. i mean moore.

Drinking Games; or maybe just drinking

Ok, so the last list of drinks i did didn't turn out looking like it was supposed to. so here is the new, updated version.

Good Drinks
--Strongbow: a hard apple cider. apple-y enough that it tastes good, but alcoholic enough that you know what you're drinking
--Smirnoff Ice: vodka with a hint of lemon; and, at only 5% alcohol by volume, something you can drink quite a bit of. apparantly it's better here than in england, so i'm looking forward to it.
--Smirnoff Black Ice: similar to "regular" Ice, but with more citrus flavor.
--Raspberry vodka: somebody had a really good idea with this. if you like berry flavored stuff, try this.
--vodka (double shot) with lemonade: i've been told i was a girl for liking this, but she was kinda drunk at the time, so we'll ignore that comment. i'll have to compare it to a hard lemonade sometime.

Decent drinks
--Mead: honey wine. one of those things i kept reading about, so i figured i had to try it. i could still taste the wine a little to much (don't really like wine), but it had a nice honey aftertaste.
--Guiness: one of two things that i absolutely had to try while in england (the other was a cuban cigar). i have to say i was a little disappointed; but i've heard it's only good in ireland, so i'll have to give it another go someday.
--Kaluah: i'm normally not a big fan of coffee flavored stuff, but this was pretty decent.
--Rum & Coke: i had never had rum before, and i don't like coke, but i have to say that they mix pretty well.
--vodka (Absolut): definitely better as a mixer, but not too shabby on its own. i can see how alyssa was corrupted by those russian ballerinas.

Bad drinks
--Jack Daniels: in its defense, it was served to me on the rocks. but if i'm just taking whiskey as a shot, i'm not going to waste money on something like Jack.

i'm sure i've forgotten something, but those were the basics. now i can get back to updating about other stuff, whatever that may be.

Also, rather belatedly I realize, I'd like to make a small tribute to the late great Ronald Reagan. If anyone reading this could observe a moment of silence in his memory, that would be great.

damn. i started a post with "well" again. one of these days i'll get away from that.

Well, believe it or not i'm still alive. unfortunately, jet lag does seem to work both ways. i've been waking up really early in the morning, because my stupid body clock still thinks it's 8 hours later than it really is. oh well.

needless to say (but i will anyways), the trip was awesome. if you ever have a chance to travel to britain, i would recommend it. just make sure to avoid glasgow. it's got one really nice park, and that's about it's only redeeming factor. hopefully at some point i'll have a full rundown of the trip, but that may be a while in coming... i still need to finish my journal up, and i'll probably be working out of that. also, hopefully i'll be able to get back into a regular pattern of updating this; we'll see. for now, farewell.