The Mandelbear's Musings

There's a Party at Grand Central Starport today. The drinks are in the tub, the cheese is out, and the meat (ham and chili) are in progress. All we need now are guests.

Meanwhile, yesterday wasn't a particularly good day, though I did manage to be moderately productive at work. A lot of the afternoon and evening were spent dealing with the ongoing drama in Seattle, one side effect of which was being removed from a "friends" list. For the second time. Disappointing, but not nearly as disappointing as the person herself.

*sighs* On a more cheerful (?) note, here are a thought-provoking cartoon (some more good stuff in the comments) and a thought-provoking political post.

(Note: I started this one last night, but either got distracted or fell asleep before writing more than the first paragraph. So...)

I started the day discovering that resetting the broadband connection only got me about an hour's worth of good connection. Rebooting the router, OTOH, seems to have done the trick. Next time I'll start there and save myself the aggravation of navigating through AT&T's site to find the link that connects me via IM to some guy in India.

Went to Trader Joe's to stock up on lunch items for my desk. Apples, dried apricots, chocolate (1lb 72% - yum), trail mix (candied ginger, macadamias, almonds, dried cranberries - YUM!). One serving of tofu spring rolls.

Work was busy, as I'm gradually settling in to my new project.

A lot of links. Most, this time, are on the subject of rape, "date rape", and consent. To quote this article, "I always argue that anything short of an authentic, honest, uncoerced, aroused and sober Hell, yes! is, in the end, just a no in another form." That.

I'm not sure what they're teaching kids these days. Probably, now that sex education has been eviscerated by budget cuts and the Religious Right, not a whole lot more than I got in the early '60s from my parents' bookshelf. (I seem to have missed the Sexual Revolution, between the Pill and AIDS, almost completely, but attitudes were very different then.)

Just to clarify, kids, not only does "no" mean no, but no answer means no, "maybe" means no, "oh, ok" means no, and alcohol means Hell No! One party under 18 means "Hell no! and we'll talk about this again when you're old enough to know better." "Right ****ing now!" means "let's talk about it afterwards, and by the way what's our safeword?"

Go look under the cut -- there are more of them.

Kind of a rough day. Maybe the best thing that can be said for it, psychologically, was that I recognized the depression rather quickly. That's a real improvement in my self-awareness.

Not that it helps a whole lot.

Retail therapy didn't help all that much, either, though I did get a nice pair of Keen slippers from REI's clearance rack. And Colleen really appreciated the bunch of tulips I got her at Safeway, along with the chicken, eggs, and cottage cheese. Dinner included a really yummy roasted cauliflower dish from Not Your Mother's Casseroles.

Realized with regret that I don't seem to have any local friends I'm close enough to that I'm can be comfortable talking to about what's been going on. I'm getting a lot better at making casual friends and acquaintances, but close friends is another matter and much more mysterious. Is a puzzlement. And a problem.

Links include elf's 3-part series on "Turning Pirates Into Customers".