CNN:
"The Philadelphia Citizens Crime Commission, with the help of a Philadelphia blogger, have launched a reward fund for information leading to Latoyia Figueroa, a 24-year-old pregnant mother of one who has been missing since July 18."

All Spin Zone:
"Because of the wide publicity this story has received in the blogosphere, All Spin Zone, in conjunction with the Philadelphia Citizen's Crime Commission, has established a reward fund for information on Latoyia Figueroa. More details here. Five or ten bucks each from the thousands who are reading this post today will make a tremendous difference."

This is not your average publicized missing persons case. Why? Latoyia doesn't have blond hair. She doesn't have white skin. She's not a cute, caucasian teenage girl. She's a dark-haired, brown-skinned, 24-year-old woman who is 5 months pregnant and has a daughter wondering where her mommy is. According to the news, only blonde, suburban teenage cheerleaders and little white girls in pink dresses get abducted.

Hmm.. where is all the media coverage?

I have to wonder, why does Natalee Holloway get the Nation's spotlight and the Swedish Airforce looking for her while so many other people go missing every day? Media sensationalism is ridiculous. You'd think that Natalee was the only person missing, anymore. Natalee gets 5600 hits on Google, and Latoyia get a total of 2. Regardless, I do wish the best for Natalee and her family.. and I wish a slow, painful death to anyone who may have caused her harm in this situation.

The goal, now, is to spread the word about Latoyia. Simply post about it in your LJ, or other blog. What's it going to hurt? It only takes one person to see the picture and identify her. I don't live in Philly.. I don't know Latoyia.. and my chances of ever seeing her a slim to none. But who can be sure? You could give a woman her life back.

(Feel free to repost; I got the image from here, and figured I'd host it so photobucket doesn't take the whole brunt. If you can, please use either save that image and upload it to your own space, or use the photobucket one. While I like to lighten the load, photobucket still has more bandwidth than I'll ever have.)

I was reading a forumopolis thread and one of the poster's avatars was boogeying down perfectly to the last song on Winamp -- Crazytown's Hollywood Babylon.

Dance on, li'l guy!

Apparently the gluten-free market is the latest burgeoning marketing craze. Good news for people like one of my husband's friends, who are gluten intolerant but usually have a hard time finding any non-gluten bread products that don't taste like ass.

St. Louis f'opolis meet was fun. We were going to do a barbecue, but that was discussed before the weather decided to go tits up and give us 115+F heat indices all weekend. So, we ordered in Papa John's, picked up some more soda & chips & stuff, and geeked out in our basement instead. Later that evening the geekfest was added to by J's UMSL friends. I've now happily seen Batman Begins and the third Harry Potter movie, both good.

Sunday we went to see my parents so we could give 'em back their electric heater/cooler we borrowed for our CO trip, and give my dad belated Father's Day swag. Talked to my mom the night before, and... KITTIES! My parents' cat Teddy died last summer, just shy of his 17th birthday. My parents were on the fence on whether to get one or two kittens, and my mom wanted to wait until summer when she'd be home a ton so it or they could get all socialized and lovey and stuff. They ended up getting a pair: 4-month-old brother and sister. The boy kitty is a totally black shorthair, and the girl kitty is a smoky black longhair. Both have gold eyes, and the girl kitty's lower belly looks like she's been dusting a fireplace, so fluffy grey it is. I forgot to bring our camera, so I won't be posting pics until my mom emails me some. They're so playful and cuddly and soft and eeeeee!

Still haven't logged into WoW. It's whispering to me, and yet it's been 3 weeks since I last logged in at all. Not sure why. I guess I keep figuring that 9pm is a bad time to start playing when I have to get up at 5:30 for work, so I've just been doing random other stuff. I totally got 7 hours of sleep last night though, so no naps for me today! Must get some exercise after work though. Hrm... exercise for an hour starting around 4:30 (indoors, thankyouverymuch), then shower & food, then WoW. Definitely. Even if it's 8pm, must play for an hour or two. Not sure whether to play my old or new char though.

It's not even 90F here, and the heat index is 101F! Blargh!

I guess I can be glad I'm not living in the southwest, but still... they're talking heat index readings around 112 for today and 114 tomorrow. Yuck!

Anyone else who started into the Saga of Recluce series by L. E. Modesitt may be interested to know this as well. We ended up borrowing pretty much the entire series from our friend Will, and the last book we have is what I'm reading now, the Magi'i of Cyador. J was musing a week or so ago that there have to be more books since then, wondering if Will had picked them up recently. Well, I'd realized I needed to update my "current reading" section and was looking up the ISBN for that, and found there are two new books: Wellspring of Chaos and Ordermaster. They're pretty recent, and also both already available in paperback.

Now I just need to cruise through the Amazon listings to see if there are any between Magi'i and Wellspring that I didn't see. Mmmm, love this series.

(As an aside, I managed not to update my reading list long enough that it never mentioned my having read Scion of Cyador. Oops. Missing an entire book is pretty amusing, even if I did tear through it pretty fast.)

In honor of the fact that today's date, 36 years ago, was made famous for the very first manned moon landing, Google has adapted its Google Maps to use NASA images of the moon. It marks all six of the Apollo moon landings, and you can slide the image around just as you can in their regular Google Maps.

(Any of you who hit Google on a daily basis probably already saw this, 'cause they changed their main logo as well and that's where it's linked from. But I figured I'd point it out anyway.)

Not to mention, it cost a lot. We went grocery shopping tonight, after not having done so for at least 6 weeks, probably more. We almost hit $200! But we were out of everything. When we got it all home, we also ended up having to clean part of the fridge. The top 3 shelves are metal rung shelves, but the bottom shelf is solid 'cause the crisper drawers slide into it between it and the bottom. Well... we'd had a mostly empty bag o' salad in there, and it was rather old. Quite nasty, more brownish liquid than solid anything. It'd had a chip clip on it and been folded down several times, but it managed to leak a bit anyway. Ewww... that's what'd been smelling a bit off in there. So, after we got all the frozen stuff in and a lot of the fridge stuff, I pulled out the crisper drawers and bottom shelf, and I started on those while J started on the bottom of the fridge. There'd been other unknown stuff that'd leaked & dried as well, that was much older and unstinky, so that got wiped too. Dow scrubbing bubbles to the rescue! J had to use super ultra mega hot water and lots of elbow grease with the scrubby-surface sponge to get a spot in the bottom in the right-hand edge, as well as a few small spots on the bottom shelf I couldn't get with my regular sponge. I got water everywhere spraying the drawers in the sink with the sprayer after they were washed, hehe.

All in all, we now have a full and clean fridge, with a bunch of stuff tossed. There were 2 bags o' salad that had gone soupy unopened, 3 little bags of carrots, two open, that had gone... grey, and a bunch of yogurt cups that while completely unopened were several months old, so I pitched those too, along with a package that had 1 or 2 eggs in it that had a date well in the past.

We shouldn't need to go grocery shopping for a good month or so, which will be nice.

The iRiver H10 20GB costs $20 more than the H10 6GB. So instead of paying $280 for 6GB of storage one could pay $300 for over 3x the storage, same size, everything. At prices like that anyway, why would anyone bother buying the 6GB model? Their 5GB model is $250... I guess if I were going to go with one fo their H10s and didn't want 20GB I'd go with that one rather than the 6GB, 'cause $20 for only 1GB more seems kinda dumb. However, $40 for 15GB more than the cheapest H10 seems like a double plus good value, so I'd still go with that.

Also, I am bummed that only their H340, with 40GB of storage, supports OGG files. Not that I really have any, but more options = GOOD. But it's $400. I dunno... I could probably fill that one, maaaaybe, but that's an actual $100 jump from the 20GB model. However, the $40 jump from the 5GB to the 20GB is $2.67 per GB, whereas the $100 jump from the 20GB to the 40GB is $5 per GB. If it were the same as the other jump, that'd mean the OGG support would have to be worth $47 by itself. And... it's not. So, I guess I'd have to still skip the H340. That extra $100 could be better spent, given I wouldn't have to be all that picky when filling up 20GB anyway. I will only have, after bringing the thumb drive tomorrow, just under 3GB on the work comp. That's being very picky though, and only stuffing a thumb drive to bring every few months so I have more on the play list to listen to.

We have a ton of music at home that I haven't brought yet, but some of it is stuff I don't like. (I'm not a big techno fan, I don't like most of the rap stuff J has from his cousin's albums, etc. Not to mention, I'm not bringing DDR tracks around with me. If it's a song I like, I'd much rather have the entire thing than just a small slice.) So I could easily do 20GB, but not so easily that I'd have to be very very choosey, but 40GB might be a stretch after cutting out what I don't like.

Aaaanyway, I've decided I'd rather have an iRiver than an iPod. I don't want to have to install iTunes just to move stuff from my hard drive (or my husband's via the network) to my player. I don't want to have to forcefully reorganize the stuff on my hard drive or my husband's just to move stuff to my player. So for $300 I could have a 20GB iPod that does all that "for" me, or I could have an iRiver that lets things alone. And instead of extra image file support that I don't care about, or games & calendar & alarm, the iRiver has an FM tuner which is more important to me by far. It's a music player, I don't need it to be a partially functional PDA.

Now, what to do: do I just buy it myself? Do I try to get it as a birthday present for my upcoming 28th in a month? If I go the latter, do I drop hints to J or my parents?

I think I caught up on my sleep from Sunday night and got a decent amount on top of it for last night. We had dinner earlyish last night, then when we got back J wanted me to listen to the Dropkick Murphy's he'd just gotten, which I did for a bit. Just when I'd heard 'em all and J was getting ready to play WoW I felt quite sleepy, so I went upstairs. And slept from 6:30pm to 10pm. I got up and took my nightly allergy med, then decided since my nose was being a bit pissy and I was now fully awake to play games for a bit. I played spider solitaire, doing rather poorly for a change, then played a little Zuma once I got a few solitaire wins in. Went back to bed with Zephyr coming up for a little lovin', finally falling asleep around 11:30. Slept through until 3 something when Zephyr fell out of the window (he never jumps out from that spot on purpose, given the crash-bang the trashcan there gives him, and he was kinda freaked out). Scared me awake, then I pet him to calm him down, and he came up to purr and get loved on some more, and I settled back into sleep. J came in maybe an hourish after that, super late 'cause Pele was, miracle of miracles, sleeping on his lap. Given she's not a lap kitty he was loath to move until she got down. Then I slept to my alarm going off at 5:30. All told I think I got 9.5 hours of sleep. Add that to the 5.5 from the night before and I'm averaging 7.5 hours a night! It's a new Sun/Mon record, hehe.

In other events... I'm stupid. I decided I wanted some Aerosmith as part of my work play list, slapped it on my thumb drive from J's comp where he's put all our stuff, then that didn't take up much so I added some Annie Lennox and Bangles to fill it up. Closed out the windows, locked the comp, turned off the monitor... and didn't notice until a few minutes ago that the thumb drive is still at home, sticking out of the front USB port on my comp. *facepalm* I'll bring it tomorrow, but damned if I wans't looking forward to getting those into the rotation.

I wasn't all cool enough to get to go to the Comicon with all the cool folks, but I did have a great weekend just the same. J and I went to the Cards game Friday night. His uncle's brother bought the tickets, then his mom was able to snag two more so his stepdad's sister and niece could go, and even got 'em fairly last minute seated with us! There were fourteen in all: J's grandma and her friendly neighbor, J's aunt & uncle, J's younger brother & stepdad, J's stepdad's sister & cousin, his uncle's brother and his wife and two kids, and J me.

J and I were the only two who used the Metrolink to get to the game, and it went into extra innings. Very edge-of-your-seat. It was tied 2 to 2 at the top of the 13th inning when Houston scored. So in the bottom of the inning the Cards had to get 1 run to go on, 2 to win. Eckstein walked, then Edmonds struck out making an admirable attempt to crank one (he had a couple good fouls if I remember right). Then it was 11:30 so J and I left 'cause we didn't know what was gonna happen with the Metrolink. (They tend not to stay open really late, and I've known friends who almost got stranded 'cause two different trains made 'em get off before they got to their stop, 'cause they weren't making anymore stops... finally they found a train to go far enough. Not talking 3am or something either...) So we were waiting with a relative handful of other people for the next train when we first heard cheering, then a pause, then really, really loud cheering. Definitely sounded like a home run, and sure enough someone got a call from a friend still at the game telling 'em that Pujols had gotten a homerun to win the game. Then everyone else got their phones out to call other people who'd already left to let 'em know, and they even announced over the intercom at the station that we'd won, and again on the train one stop down.

Slept way late on Saturday; meant to get up at 9 but turned off J's alarm and we didn't get up until 1pm. Got showered, dressed, & packed, then went off to Northwest Plaza to hit up Bath & Body Works for a real (not gag) birthday gift for his mom. Then we had a quick lunch at the food court and drove out. Got to see, in addition to his one aunt and cousin, his other aunt who was in town as well. They were finishing up a really late lunch/early dinner when we got there around 5, then we watched Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, the one with Gene Wilder of course. There was margarita drinking and beer drinking, tasty and fun but not wild or anything. Then later we had burgers & brats & cheese brats with corn on the cob and chips and salad all available. A ways after that we started National Treasure at about 11:15pm, which ran until a little after 1am. Played with the extras, including unlocking the DVD easter eggs for it, which was neat. J and I were the last to hit the sack, 'cause J was playing with all the easter eggs, then he turned it all off so he could pull out the foldout couch and throw sheets on it. Ended up turning out the light at 2:30am.

Sunday started earlier than I'd have liked, about 9:30 for good (I was awake for a while before that, but groggy and too sleepy still to get up right away). Had breakfast of pancakes, bacon, sausage, eggs, and various fruit (the peaches were yummmmmy!). Hung around a while so people could take showers and J's parents with his help could get sand into their pool's sand filter now that they could actually start filling it (looong story, don't ask). Left around 12:30 or so for Hannibal and wine country. We stopped at two wineries to taste and buy some, then hit Hardee's for a really late lunch. At that point J and I separated from the rest who were going to hit one more winery before they went back. We drove J's parents' old van to his grandma's on the way home, and since I hate driving anything remotely big (his Sable was too large for my liking, really), he drove the van and I drove his car. I still suck at shifting kinda. I just need to drive it more often. Anyway, we got to his grandma's with no incident, came in for a minute or two to say hi and cool off for a bit, then headed on home. I think we got back home around 5:30, give or take a half hour.

I think it's been at least a full two weeks since I've really gotten to play WoW. On the few evenings during the week where I could've started playing early in the evening, say 6 or 7pm, I've been super tired and needing to go to bed way early, so I just did random other stuff, like play Zuma and work on the LJ layout I'm going to write. And of course the last two weekends have been busy with us hardly home at all, which doesn't lend well to that. It's been calling me, and yet I just haven't had the 3 or 4 hours straight to be able to sit down and play for a while, so I haven't done that yet. Hopefully some time this week I'll get to. Tonight really must be grocery shopping night, but hopefully we don't have anything else pressing. I also got more than 3 hours' sleep last night (short still, 5 and a half hours or so, but still good for a Sunday night) so perhaps I won't be spending all week playing desperate sleep catchup either.

Yep, still forgot something in all that long gibberish. I was heading to work today, and Blinded by the Light came on the radio. Now, I've always had the lyrics, specifically the second line, wrong, and today was no different. I've always heard that second line as "wrapped up like a douche, another roller in the night." Yeeeeah... now, I know, and always have known, that that's wrong. That cannot be it. So I finally looked it up, and that line is actually "revved up like a deuce, another runner in the night." So if you were wondering about what those lyrics actually were like I was, there ya go. If you knew already, and think I'm a silly silly warped-minded girl, well you'd probably be right.

And since I've been sitting on some of this stuff and not posting it, it's gonna be a doozy.

I went to the doctor yesterday to see what all these red spots on my stomach and back are (they weren't on my back much Tuesday). Not ringworm, which is good. Also, not permanent, which is also good. However, it's not something directly treatable; it goes away on its own. Unfortunately, it can take up to 4 weeks to go away. Fortunately, the only symptoms from it are typically itching on the red spots, and they're apparently histamine in nature so the reason I haven't had them itch at all is because I'm on Zyrtec, which he said is pretty much the kind of stuff they give people samples of to hold it off. Also fortunate is the fact I don't parade around in a bikini and wear midriff bearing tops, so I'm not going to be upset about something I have to stop wearing. The doc said the best guess doctors have as to the cause, is that since it always shows up in people in the summer, and (only) goes away on its own, is that it's some virus. It won't make me sick or kill me, so it's all good. Just... not attractive, but J's seen me at my worst anyway. This way he doesn't have to put cream on the spots on my back, hehe.

Girly moments: I bought three nail colors at Beauty Brands yesterday; two are for an eventual first attempt at the french manicure, the third I'm wearing right now. It's a sort of bronzy orangy color, that I've been surprised at how much I like it. Some time this weekend it'll be hitting my toenails, methinks. Also, I was out of my Biolage detangler, and the bonus is that BB is holding one of its "liter sales", where they mark down most of their liter sized products (shampoos, conditioners, etc.). So I bought a bottle of that. Plus I decided that on the off chance I wanted to blow dry my hair straight(er), I needed a good brush; all the ones I have are insufficient and crappy plastic ones, so I picked up a wide oval-shaped boar's hair brush. Dunno when I'll try that out. I also threw out all the old crappy brushes I had: three varying sized rectangular, vented, plastic-bristled brushes and two "curling" skinny round brushes that only were good at getting my hair wrapped around and tangled.

We went to Walgreens so I could fill the Elocon scrip I also picked up at the doc's (I'm horrifyingly low after 3+ years of that tube, and what's left separated on our trip), and when I picked it up I got my Aussie Moist which I was also almost out of, plus an actual french manicure kit (the plastic thingies you temporarily press on so you can get a clean line between pink and white). Also we grabbed this sort of neck pillow kinda thing that feels a bit like memory foam to squish, so I can see if it'll work as a lumbar support pillow at my computer desk. It's a bit big, and I need to figure a way to get my chair not to lean back so far when I lean back on it, but it might work. I was stupid though, with the Walgreens run. I knew I was forgetting something, which I figured out in the shower this morning. I forgot to buy face wash, and I think I have one or two more uses left of what I have. D'oh! I looked at BB, but they only had 2 brands, and holy shit was that expensive. I am not paying $26 for 6.7oz of face wash! So I was going to look at Walgreens... forgot about it by the time I'd dropped off the scrip, went to Bandanna's with J (mmm barbecue, so good!) then gone back to get the scrip.

I cleaned out my purse last night. I was in the kitchen trying to dig out the old tube of Elocon, which I'd brought to the doc's so I could see about getting another one. I wanted it out of my purse, and I wanted to compare it to the much bigger new tube to see just how big a difference there was (old tube: 15g, lasted 3+ years; new tube: 45g, will probably last 10 years if it doesn't go bad first). I couldn't find the damn thing, in spite of the fact that it's not that big a purse and I don't have half the stuff in it a lot of women carry in that size or bigger. Got frustrated, upended the purse and dumped everything on the kitchen floor. First to get separated away: CC receipts. Receipts receipts receipts! Soooo many! I started sorting the piles into things that go back in, things that are trash, and things that are not trash but not going back in. I ended up throwing a bunch of stuff away, which after I was otherwise done included old receipts I'd sorted out that didn't have the whole CC# on 'em. Also, after I was done sorting out the purse stuff, but not having cleaned up anything, I went through my wallet. It is now rather... floppy. All that stuff in it kinda stretched out the leather a bit, so now that it's not so full of stuff it's a little slack. I took out old dental and medical cards, extra bank receipts from the bank that no longer needed keeping, old business cards and/or appointment cards that weren't relevant, old CC cards of accounts that don't exist, etc. Everything's nice and neat now, both in my wallet and in my purse. Now there's just my phone, wallet, keys, sunglasses, little mirror, a couple appointment cards, lotion, contact lense holder, chapstick, and ibuprofen. Woohoo I can find things in it now!

Baseball game tonight, yea! Cards vs. Houston, 7:05pm. Oh yeah, our tickets are also in ze purse, but not for long. I'm already wearing a red t-shirt, may or may not switch to shorts when I get home, depending on the weather. Gonna pick up face wash at Walgreens on the way home, put another coat of polish on a few of my nails that I didn't know I'd put too thin a coat on last night, have dinner w/ J (fast food or cooked, haven't decided yet), then head to the N. Hanley Metrolink station to go downtown for the game. Figure on getting there around 6:30 and meeting up with J's family once we get there. Should be fun. Go Cards!!

J's stepdad's sisters, and possibly the husband of the one who's married, and his niece & nephew of one of his brothers, are all gonna be in town. Some were supposed to get in to J's parents' Wed. night, some Thurs. night. J's mom was gonna see if she could get a couple more tickets for 'em if they wanted to go with all of us going to the game (J's stepdad is going, but his mom isn't 'cause she's going to stay home with J's little sis). Anyway, we'll be visiting J's parents' house this weekend to hang out with his aunts & cousins while they're in. I like 'em, let me tell ya, lotsa fun. Dunno yet if we'll be staying out there Sat. night (they'll already have 4-5 people staying with 'em, so we might not even though it's over an hour and a half drive each way; don't wanna make things harder on 'em), have to talk to J about that tonight. Now I'm wondering if we'll be hitting Central Dairy... mmmm, hand-made, seriously yummy ice cream!

We got another contractor at work today, woo! He accepted late last week or early this week. He's in the cube between me and our team lead, and it's funny 'cause his name is the same as my team lead's name. Who's not in today 'cause he's on vacation yesterday and today. And we only found out when he was leaving Wed. and said "have a good weekend" instead of "have a good night." My coworker in the cube on my other side was all, "Hey, wait a minute... you gonna be gone or something? I didn't get an email, did the rest of you guys get an email?" T'was quite funny. Aaaanyway, once our contractor's set up with his company login on the PC, and he's all settled in, he'll be helping us bang out code for the new system, which will be a very good thing. Also, we have another contractor who will start two weeks after HR "formally" extends the offer to him, which I would imagine would be soon, perhaps Monday. Yea, we might actually make our March 2006 deadline!

Speaking off... back to work. Need to get fake data into the new system for the section of stuff I'm working on, which means finishing the text file that runs through our load process then pointing the load process in our regular test environment to the other database ID for the new dev test environment and making sure I changed all the codes properly so that the data actually comes through intact.

Oh, and I'm taking the plunge to write my own LJ layout from scratch. I'm designing a static file now to figure out what it'll look like, the CSS and HTML classes & structure, etc., then I'll be delving into coding it in LJ-speak. That should be... fun. Gonna be private, probably will give myself a way to change a few things in the regular "customize - advanced" area, but I doubt it'll be a lot.

I need to put me some Aerosmith on this PC to have it added to the mix of what I listen to at work. I heard Eat the Rich on the radio the other day, and that reminded me that I've been remiss about that.

For those who are Doctor Who fans, and who have seen all the episodes of the new season that finished earlier this year, I have a cute little gem for you. It is a take-off of the llama song and quite amusing. (Watch the llama one first if you haven't and would like the reference.) Be warned: the video is a touch behind the audio, a fraction of a second out of sync.

If you haven't seen the new season, and are planning to, I suggest you bookmark the link somewhere instead of watching it, for there are quite the spoilers, particularly of the last episode. If you don't plan on watching it, but know what Daleks are and are curious, go at it. (If you don't have any idea what Doctor Who is, well... get thee to Google, followed by a visit to Amazon to get yourself properly acquainted. I'm sure the new series isn't available yet, though I could be wrong, but all the old series are probably available for purchase.)

(I also made an LJ icon for this one, I just had to. )

Going to bed, but I had to whine about being awake.

J and I had a good ol' fun romp in the hay, which is a great way to go to sleep. Except my sinuses decided they needed to itch enough to keep me from enjoying that hazy afterglow that can have me snoring in minutes. So... turned on the light to get back up for a bit, and to look at a mosquito bite I'd found itching on my thigh. Found that, also found a rather telltale patchy spot an inch or two away. Grr. I'd found a bit of patchiness on my stomach and chest, but I'm approaching my next Depo shot and for some unknown reason I get zits and small random red spots there anyway during that last few weeks. However, they hadn't looked quite right. That plus the mark on my leg probably means ringworm. Damnit. I'd say probably from the float trip Friday (more on that at a more civil time in the morning), but a little research showed me the incubation for it is 1-3 weeks. So heavens only know where that came from. Anyway, yea trip all the way out to St. Chuck in afternoon rushhour to be rid of it.

Aaaaand writing that last sentence took extra time 'cause I just burst out sneezing. Damnit. All I want is for a few hours' sleep. Got about 3 last night, from sleeping like ass. I was looking forward to almost 6, but no, my sinuses can't stop itching. And I'm taking my stuff, too. *sigh* I guess J and I will be vacuuming the loads of Zephyr fur off the comforter tomorrow. It would seem that can't be put off any longer.

Oh, and the MySQL databases at my webhost have been down since at least 7pm, so I can't stick this on my site until that clears up. Joy.

Why are terrorists of some flavor or other bombing London at the start of the G8 summit? I mean, did they just need some big event, any event, to have an excuse to be utter fuckwads? Y'know, something specific to associate their crimes to? Or is there really that much hate for the summit? And why? Someone tell me what the hell is so bad about this summit?

I'm confused, and very very sad.

Edit: OK, so it looks like the big issue isn't the G8 Summit disruption, but to call out the UK for still having troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. The group claiming responsibility (definitely not verified, at this point) also calls out Italy and Denmark by name to also remove their troops.

Fuck. I still think it's a horrible thing to do. And why would anyone want to remove troops? The whole reason troops are still there is to stabilize the country. I guess terrorist types, despots, and the like, wish for instability so that they can better step in and control things by force alone. *sigh* Thankfully it's unlikely their threats will succeed.

My heart goes out to those who lost family and friends in London.

Nifty folding technique, that looks deceptively easy, and I'm sure I'm going to screw up the first dozen or two times I try it.

Also, as an unrelated side note: Barreling through the Bruno archives late at night as the last thing before bed, on a night you know you're going to have a hard time sleeping anyway, is a subpar idea. I was looking for something specific, and as such I didn't stop and read too many of them, but... yeah. Needless to say, that's almost all that ended up in my half-conscious dreams, nothing coherent, just random images and thoughts and still with me when I got up. However, it would be nice to sit down and go through all the books I have, which is essentially going through all the archives save the latest set I don't have yet. But none of this will be done near bedtime.

Yet further unrelated, I decided I wanted a Get Fuzzy LJ icon, so I went and made one. Not the best quality I suppose, but I like it.

On our way back home from our trip, right around Kingdom City along I-70 (where US 54 comes in) two semis decided they needed to do 90+ to the exit. After one was done passing us it kicked up a rock high enough to hit the windshield of J's car. It hardly made a scratch from the impact itself, but instantly we had a 4-5" crack. No problem, it was down in the bottom lefthand corner. Except then it spread. Then Sunday and Monday it spread further, with the car just sitting in the driveway. It's at least a foot long if it were straight (it's curvy in a couple places).

It's going to cost us $500 to replace, and only that little because our insurance is covering it and that's our deductible. The windshield alone is $628, then there's the cost of labor. Total it'll be $800.

J's cousin Kevin is in town for a week, yea! He got in early Saturday afternoon, and J picked him up. We had a fun time, watched Spiderman which he'd brought with him, etc. J had his friends over and stuff. Kevin stayed the night, then J and I picked up donuts Sunday morning (well... I guess it wasn't morning anymore), and his parents came and picked him up around 5:30. We'll get to see him, his parents, J's whole family, etc. on the float trip this coming Friday and at his grandma's (I think) on Saturday. (It's his mom's birthday, so ssssh! )

We're gonna have dinner w/ my parents tonight. My mom picked up filet mignons for my dad to grill, so that'll be yummay.

The NE hunter I started on Cenarion Circle is only level 12, almost 13, 'cause I haven't had time to play much (she's gonna be pretty much built the way my original hunter is, 'cause I like playing her a lot). My NE hunter on Whisperwind did make 57 right before her BRD run last week. Dun remember if I mentioned that, and I'm too lazy to check. But anyway, my CC hunter, Brennh, is being smart about her skills and leveling up first aid and cooking alongside herbalism and alchemy, though the cooking has been slow 'cause most of her questing hasn't involved her killing stuff that drops cookable food. I need to do that now, 'cause she finally has a pet and cats don't eat herbed baked eggs.

I got to play around in Black Rock Depths last night. My husband, I, and 2 other guildies made a date on Sunday to find one other high level character and go into Black Rock Depths. J had gone in a few times, and another guildie had gone a few times as well.

It turns out one didn't make it (ironically, the other who, like I, hadn't gone yet and specifically wanted to do BRD). We waited an hour, then J started recruiting in IF. He was going to take his mage, but found a rogue and another mage who wanted to go, so he brought his druid as healer instead.

It was a very good group. I was the lowbie at level 57, the mage was 59, and the other three were 60. I didn't have all the quests, but then it takes a few successful runs to get everything done anyway (even takes dying to talk to a ghost to complete one of 'em!).

That was fun, but since we didn't end up starting till 8pm or so, we got done pretty late. Our guildie had to leave around 10, 10:30 'cause he was getting up at 4:30am (!), but the rest we did we actually did pretty well anyway... J was good enough at the healing thing that he kept my pet healed so he could tank, and we always had the mage sheep one of the elites and the rogue sapped when there weren't the dogs (they kept the sap from working when they were around). Quite a successful group. Would play with the mage and rogue again. Still, we wiped by opening the last thingy in the room with all the big shaky rock dudes (hey, I've only been once, and I'm running on< 5 hrs sleep, so I can't remember names & such). Got murdered, totally. I'd say that's a 10-man raid task, not a 5-man party, much less 4. Aaanyway, we wiped a few times early on to a few patrols (when you're already fighting 5 guys with a plan, then 5 more show up, that's kinda bad...) but otherwise things went swimmingly. Logged out at 11:45 after the mage showed us J and me a secret bridge/tunnel thingy (rogue had logged out by then).

I can't wait to get back in there. I also am itching very much to go to Dire Maul.

I don't think I posted about this before, when I originally learned about it, but basically there's a teenager who goes by Zach on his myspace.com blog who came out to his parents, and they forced him to apply to a place called Love In Action. This organization is a disgusting place that claims through very blatant brainwashing that they can "cure" a person of being gay. Zach's blog can be found here, which includes a copy of the complete rules of the program that were sent to his parents.

Anyway, to the article in question. Tennessee had started an investigation into LIA to check allegations of child abuse. It closed the investigation stating that they found no grounds for the allegations. However, it has now started a new investigation based on the possibility that they're operating illegally according to other laws.

The crux of the article:

The state of Tennessee continues to probe Love in Action, the Memphis facility that has drawn protests since a 16-year-old known as "Zach" blogged that his parents were sending him there for treatment intended to change his sexual orientation.

The Tennessee Department of Health has sent a letter to Love in Action notifying the group that it is suspected of operating illegally, according to Andrea Turner, communications director for the department.

Turner said that if the program is strictly faith-based it would not require licensing by the state, but that according to the group�s Web site, Love in Action has licensed counselors and provides services related to alcohol and drug addiction on site.

"If this is the case, they are required to be licensed as a drug and alcohol treatment facility in Tennessee," Turner said.

If employees there are providing counseling on homosexuality, it is possible that they are operating outside their area of expertise, Turner added.

Legislation giving the health department the authority to issue cease-and-desist orders to unlicensed alcohol and drug treatment facilities goes into effect July 1. Turner said that the health department is considering whether the Love in Action facility is causing harm.

Rachel Lassiter, of Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen�s communications office, said that the Department of Mental Health & Developmental Disabilities has also begun research on Love in Action and is writing a letter of inquiry to the facility to determine whether an official investigation is warranted.

Lassiter said that only licensed professionals should provide mental health care in Tennessee and that the state has an interest in making sure that whatever services are offered are beneficial.

Last week, the Department of Child Services investigated allegations of child abuse at the facility and determined that the allegations were unfounded.

Dr. Warren Throckmorton, a psychologist at faith-based Grove City College in Pennsylvania and a leading advocate for the view that sexual orientation can be changed, said that he believes that Love in Action is mixing ministry with treatment and that people can be damaged by sexual reorientation therapies offered by unprofessional practitioners.

Throckmorton emphasized that while a parent might compel a teen to attend church, a professional counselor is bound to obtain informed consent from a client and should not treat a minor solely because his parents are upset about his sexual orientation.

Love in Action advertises a therapeutic environment in which professional counselors help people overcome "addictive behaviors including homosexuality."