Is it just me?

Am I the only Orioles fan who's already sick of Gary Thorne?

Cat plays the piano - really well!

This is amazing:


and there's an even more amazing sequel:

Welcome to the Fascist States of America

Naomi Wolf lays it all out in the Guardian, 10 easy steps to fascism.

Count how many we've already achieved, and be afraid.

This just seems to be what my hair is meant to do

So remember back in January of last year? When I hadn't had a hair cut since the previous March, and I donated to Locks of Love?

Well, here we are in April of 2007, and I just got my hair cut. Yes, just the first time since January 2006.

So what do you think I did again? Yep, donated again.

And still didn't think to take before and after pics. D'oh!

I'm a what now?

You Are the Thumb

You're unique and flexible. And you defy any category. Mentally strong and agile, you do things your own way. And you do them well. You are a natural leader... but also truly a loner. You inspire many but connect with few. You get along well with: The Middle Finger Stay away from: The Pinky

What Finger Are You?

(via Snay, who I apparently would get along with)

One hundred days update

Today is the end of my hundred days, which started here . So what progress have I made?

Having now done almost 4 months of Radiant Recovery, I'm amazed to find that I'm much calmer. I now understand what serene feels like. I no longer have that raging itch of anxiety and depression crawling under my skin. I'm beginning to lose the constant worry about things in the future, especially things that I have no control over. I'm not obsessing over the little things like I used to.

Like my weight. I’m nearly back to my heaviest weight, and I’m not worried about it. I feel so much better now that I’m eating to feed my body, instead of trying to starve it. Normal diets just don’t work for me. I now get that even Eat to Live, which is an incredibly healthy diet, wasn’t going to work for me in the long run, because it left me without the ingredients to keep myself stable and sane. I bought fat pants again, and I’m OK with that, because this path, fat pants included, is the one that will help me continue to heal. I’d rather be fat and sane than thin and crazy.

I even have a modest exercise streak going. It’s amazing to see how different exercise looks when I’m doing it from a place of calm. When I was doing Weight Watchers, I dreaded exercise, because I knew that even a little bit would leave me starving. I had the choice of exercise and blowing my points, or exercise and hunger. Neither left me inspired to move.

But now that I’m eating real food again, and I know there’s no punishment looming if I eat moderately when I’m hungry after working out, I’m excited about getting myself in motion.

And I am eating real food again. A real egg, instead of Eggbeaters – who knew that could be such a joy? Whole grain breads and pastas, which were not worth the points in WW, are now staples in this eating plan.

All of this has led me to a place of sanity, somewhere I’ve never been before. This is truly terra incognita. I’m learning that what I often see as feeling flat is really feeling sane, calm, serene. I’m learning that the excitement of sugar-induced drama is utterly not where I want to live my life.

And I’ve really only begun to see the edges of the territory, and I’m excited to see what lies ahead.

One step at a time.

Stifle it

Read it and laugh - and weep.

The 2007 Jefferson Muzzle awards have been given by the Thomas Jefferson Center for the Protection of Free Expression.

What a world we live in.

Lambs to the slaughter

Try reading Glenn Greenwald's column from today without getting pissed off. If you can, you're a better person than I am. We were so incredibly mis-led in the run-up to the war on Iraq, by the media as well as the government.

I always had the highest regard for Peter Jennings, and now I really wonder if he knew that what he was reporting about the connection between Iraq and the post-9/11 anthrax attacks was untrue. It pains me to think he might have known, and chose to report this story anyway.

We were truly lambs to the slaughter, and I don't think I will ever again truly trust my government or the media.

Now I know how survivalists end up off the grid in cabins in the middle of nowhere. Relying on one's own resources is very appealing when nothing else can clearly be trusted.

All them bad apples

From Firedoglake: an interesting article on the Republican Party and its issues with right and wrong. Fascinating ...

The rise of depression

There's a fascinating article on the Guardian Unlimited site by Barbara Ehrenreich on the relationship of the rise of urbanism and of Calvinism and the increase in anxiety and depression.

She's also the author of Nickled and Dimed: On (Not) Getting by in America - if you haven't read it, you owe it to yourself to. It should scare the living daylights out of you ...