Author: Heather Meadows

Concerns have been raised about the US’s new crowd control “ray gun”.

The Active Denial System weapon, classified as “less lethal” by the Pentagon, fires a 95-gigahertz microwave beam at rioters to cause heating and intolerable pain in less than five seconds.

The idea is people caught in the beam will rapidly try to move out of it and therefore break up the crowd.

But New Scientist magazine reported on Wednesday that during tests carried out at Kirtland Air Force Base in New Mexico, participants playing the part of rioters were told to remove glasses and contact lenses to protect their eyes.

In another test they were also told to remove metal objects like coins from their clothing to avoid local hot spots developing on their skin.

I’d say the best thing to do would be to fire it in very short bursts…but I’m leary of microwave rays in general, and unless the device was built so that it wouldn’t fire within a certain period, I’m not sure if it’d be a good idea to deploy it.

Well, I’ve watched some more Friends. Finished off season 1 and started on season 2. Ah, Ross and Rachel, how you torment me!

I also ate more than I should have. It seems that once I started eating, I had trouble stopping. I ate eggs over easy and toast, and not too much later I had two hot dogs. I’m still burping up hot dog taste. Yeeeeccck. That wasn’t everything I ate, either, but I don’t feel like listing it all. At least today wasn’t as bad as yesterday.

Before Sean got home, I ran a couple of errands: I faxed a resume at the UPS Store, and dropped off all my oversized pants at Goodwill. My car didn’t want to start, initially. I let it cool off some and it finally worked. I just need a new starter, I guess. I have no idea how much that will cost.

After Sean got home, I split my time between Friends and cuddling in bed with him. Well, cuddling isn’t the right word; it’s freaking hot, hot enough that even Sean felt it and was only wearing shorts. So we sat/lay around and were affectionate with each other. We talked and kissed and gave backrubs and such. Sean was messing around on the laptop, too.

My computer’s been running slowly, so I archived a little today, and deleted temp files, and ran virus and adware scanners, and updated Windows, and all that hoopla. I’m almost done. Hopefully my computer will behave a little better after all this special treatment. I really need to buy some more DVD-RWs, though. I have something like 115 gigs of stuff to archive. (I’ll need another CD rack, too…:P)

The job front doesn’t look any better today than it did yesterday, or the day before. I did get another rejection letter from Columbia County today, woo hoo. I’ve applied for a few more things, but I haven’t heard anything yet.

I would really like to see more Kyou Kara Maou. Like, all the episodes after 45.

And that’s about it.

:)

My cousin Carl is in Africa right now, doing some sort of volunteer work. I’m unclear on what it is specifically, but it seems to involve missionaries, teaching English, and health care. He recently spent a day assisting in surgeries, and his recounting of the experience is eye-opening.

The first was an old man having prostate problems, which is not unknown to me, and had to have it removed. In america it’s an outpatiant process done with lasers. A steel tube up the peepee and zap, however, here it is something different. It is cutting in through the abdoment, moving through the bladder, and removing it… with you hands. I watched as David McAdams reached into the body of a man blindly and had to shift as he manually, with his hands, removed this mans very large prostate.

It’s something completely new to me, and though I watched probably with wide eyes, I was amazed at what sacrafice even surgeons are making when they give their time here. They sacrafice proper tools, proper procedures, and fifty years in medical advances to go back to the dark ages of surgery.

There are some pretty sad stories in that post, but also some uplifting bits.

Teacher whacks student with kendo sword

Kashiwaba?!

Female worker trapped in haunted house’s bath

It’s not a real haunted house, like I first assumed. Also, the headline doesn’t indicate that the woman was seriously injured. She was.

‘Matsuri’ will make East Village comeback after 10 years

I would love to go to a Japanese festival in New York City! How cool would that be?

Hiroshima peace museum to display Einstein’s letters on A-bombings

I’m not sure what they mean by “Albert Einstein’s letters to the late translator Seiei Shinohara that show the physicist defensive over the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki”.

Op/Ed: Tourists must not be allowed to ruin Shiretoko

Whenever a beautiful place gets world recognition, it’s in danger of being overrun and spoiled by tourists. Hokkaido’s Shiretoko peninsula seems to be facing that possibility now.

Get ready for a trip down memory lane.

Internet phenomena. Memes. Grist for the e-mail forwarding mill. Whatever you call them, Web fads are entertaining, unintended consequences of life on the World Wide Web. Once the masses could put anything online easily, they turned up weird fetishes, hilarious parody, jaw-dropping narcissism, and moments of brilliance. And over the past 10 years, some of these ideas broke through to the mainstream. Whether it was dancing hamsters, a kid enjoying his day as a Jedi Knight, or the sudden ability to publish your thoughts online with just a few simple clicks, the following 10 Web fads still make us laugh, make us wonder, or make us feel guilty enough to update our blogs.

Ah, Hamsterdance…

This article at the New York Times (via Drudge) describes Bush’s selection process via the testimony of one of the candidates, plus insider reports.

Judge Wilkinson’s conversation with the president about exercise and other personal matters in an interview for a job on the highest court in the land was typical of how Mr. Bush went about picking his eventual nominee, Judge John G. Roberts, White House officials and Republicans said. Mr. Bush, they said, looked extensively into the backgrounds of the five finalists he interviewed, but in the end relied as much on chemistry and intuition as on policy and legal intellect.

“He likes to have the info, he likes to have the background, but he also is a field player,” said Dan Bartlett, the counselor to the president, in a briefing to reporters on Tuesday night. “He likes to size people up himself, make his own judgment.”

Here’s an amusing article on CNN about a British comedy troupe called the Hollow Men. Reading their banter reminds me strikingly of Fred and George from Harry Potter.

“We’re constantly changing things as we get on stage — tweaking things, adding bits,” says Armand.

“Often without telling each other,” says Spedding.

The four met as students at Cambridge University, where they were drawn to the drama department. “Gradually, we found each other and found out we shared a kind of common sensibility,” Tanner says.

“Plus, no one else wanted to work with us,” Armand adds.

These guys have a show on Comedy Central, with a six episode run. Makes me wish I had cable ;_;

CNN: Canada legalizes gay marriage

Alex Munter, national spokesman for Canadians for Equal Marriage, which has led the debate in favor of the law, was triumphant Wednesday: “It is a signal to the world that Canada is an open and inclusive society that believes in the notion of full citizenship for all.”

I did go back to McDonald’s for a Quarter Pounder, and I also got a smoothie at R. Gabriel’s, and between those and the rest of the snacking my total calorie count for today is not pretty. The scary thing is, even as I was finishing off the Quarter Pounder I was still hungry, wishing I’d bought a second one. I’m not entirely sure where all this food is going. I ate a granola bar not long after that, and just a few minutes ago I was suddenly overcome with desire for WifeSaver fried chicken.

Thank goodness they close at 9.

I think I’ve been having food cravings like this more often than I’d realized. I’d thought each time that I was pregnant, or that there was something wrong with me. But Brooke remarked casually earlier about a friend of hers who goes through the same thing during the first days of her period. She calls them “house” days because she feels like she could eat a house.

So apparently this binge urge is perfectly normal, and it’s just something I need to learn to deal with.

I guess I’d gotten used to not going all wonky every month, what with not having a period for something like five years. Now I’m pretty much normal, thanks to the hormone replacement therapy, and I need to get readjusted.

Of course…I never had healthy eating habits back when I had natural periods. It might be difficult to change.

But at least I know what it is now. Somehow, knowing that this is just a hormone thing, a period thing, makes it seem like something I can face.

So…I’ll start trying to face it.

Tomorrow.

This is positive, sort of.

Well, it’s fun, at least.

AIM Fight

My score as of this posting is a moderately respectable 2676. One of my buddies is over 8000!

And yet, somehow, inexplicably, unfathomably, I want to eat.

I feel like I need to fill myself up with something.

And yet, I’m full. I don’t understand how I could possibly be hungry.

All I can think of right now is running out to McDonald’s to get that Double Quarter Pounder I was hoodwinked out of at lunch. Or maybe just a regular Quarter Pounder. No need to go totally crazy, right?

Today is just a piece of crap, in general, and I’m sure you are all tired of hearing about it, so I will stop here, and not post again until I have found something positive to say.

It might take awhile.

BBC: London blasts cause chaos on Tube
CNN: Bombs a ‘significant breakthrough’

They weren’t quite able to pull it off this time, and hopefully this botched effort will lead investigators directly to the terrorists. I’d say that this lack of finesse indicates at least some desperation on the bombers’ part. They wanted to keep us reeling, so they staged an attack they weren’t prepared to carry out properly. Thankfully, this effort backfired, although as a terrorist action it was still effective. (“I am still shaking,” says Sofiane Mohellebi.)

Saw a questionnaire over on slackv’s blog, so of course I have to take it, even though many of the questions are repeats from other questionnaires I’ve taken.

Previous posts in this vein: March 12, 2005; April 01, 2005; April 16, 2005; June 4, 2005

1. What is your occupation? Unemployed loser

2. What are you listening to right now? The two fans in the office, and the air conditioning, and the sound of my typing [dup]

3. What was the last thing you ate? Two Filet O’ Fish sandwiches, and fries. ;P

4. Do you wish on stars? I haven’t in awhile. Haven’t seen a shooting star in awhile, and those are the ones I wish on. [dup]

5. If you were a crayon, what color would you be? Periwinkle ;P [dup]

6. How is the weather right now? Hot, though marginally less hot than it was yesterday–I know because my car actually deigned to start. [dup]

7. Last person you spoke to on the phone? The woman in charge of my internship paperwork. [dup]

8. How old are you today? 27

9. Favorite drink? Water, because it doesn’t have calories :P [dup]

10. Favorite sport to watch? Nothing. I tend to change the channel after about 20 seconds. [dup]

11. Have you ever dyed your hair? Yes. When I was at GSP, I wanted to dye my hair “auburn” (you know, like Anne of Green Gables–anything Anne wanted was ideal to me). However, my hair is blond. Adding red hair dye did not make it auburn. At first it was just kind of strawberry-blond, and then I went swimming and it turned pink. Fortunately, I thought this was cool.

12. Do you wear contacts? I used to, but they’re, like, old now. Someday I should really go to the optometrist again. I’m sure I need a new prescription. [dup]

13. Pets? No pets; Sean considers them too much of a hassle, and I’m fine with not having to clean up after anything but him. [dup]

14. Favorite months? It depends on where I am. I’ll just say, generally, that I love weather that breathes change. Northern Hemisphere-centric: Spring and fall are great, and I love the first cold snap, the first snow. I’m not a fan of the hot summer months because it’s hard to get out and do anything, although that limitation applies here in the South more than it does elsewhere.

15. What inspires you? I wish more things inspired me to act. As it is, I’ll get fed up with a situation and only then put out a burst of activity to shape things up. The rest of the time, when I feel inspired, I am mainly only inspired to appreciate things, like a good story. I don’t usually end up doing anything about it, other than perhaps gushing 5 million times on my blog (cf. any posts about Kyou Kara Maou). Beauty in general is inspiring, but again, it’s wasted on me.

16. What is the last movie you watched? Last night I watched The Wedding Singer with Adam Sandler. I started watching John Carpenter and Dan O’Bannon’s Dark Star, but it put me straight to sleep, so I switched off. The most recent movie I’ve seen in the theater is Batman Begins, which I highly recommend. It feels like a serial, but in a good way.

17. Favorite day of the year? I don’t really have one. I have always loved Christmas, so that’s up there for me; I always try to make that a special time. I also always remember March 25, my “bone marrow birthday”. My regular birthday is really only special to me, and while I try to recognize it each year, I’m losing the will to continue. Who cares? January 4, the day Sean and I got married, is also a special day, but we don’t really do anything to celebrate other than go out to dinner. I kind of feel like any day can be special, and that holidays and anniversaries are fairly arbitrary. If you enjoyed a particular day, why can’t that be your favorite day of the year? (Today, by the way, is most certainly not my favorite day.)

18. What do you do to vent anger? I seem to be pretty passive-aggressive, but I’ve been trying to work on it. There is something I’m angry about right now that I have no idea how to deal with, though. [dup]

19. What was your favorite toy as a child? Brownie. [dup]

20. Fall or spring? That’s hard! I love them both! I think, at this moment, that I will choose fall, but I don’t know if that would always be my answer.

21. Hugs or kisses? I said hugs before, and I think I’ll stand by that. After all, anybody can give you a hug, which means they’re multi-purpose. I am uncomfortable with receiving kisses from anyone other than a very select few, on the other hand. [dup]

22. Cherry or blueberry? Blueberry

23. Do you want your friends to mail you back? If they want to.

24. Who is most likely to respond? I dunno, Dawn likes doing these things.

25. Who is least likely to respond? Pretty much everyone, because this quiz is such a dup. [dup]

26. When was the last time you cried? I almost cried this morning. My period seemed to have begun yesterday, but then nothing seemed to be happening. It’s very obnoxious to be unclear about whether or not you’re having your period. So this morning I went to the bathroom and saw nothing on my pad, and I started thinking–yes, you know what’s coming, and yes, I realize this is getting old–maybe I’m pregnant. However, this time, instead of trying to steel myself for the worst, instead of trying to talk myself out of my foolish hopes, I actually stopped, clasped my hands together, and prayed, “Please let me be pregnant. I’ve never wanted anything as much as I want this, right now.”

Then I wiped, and there was blood.

As I was leaving McDonald’s today, I thought to myself (again) that I only want to be pregnant so I can hide from life. That I’ve been given an opportunity. That I’m supposed to do something great. I’m scared of that. I’m scared of being responsible for greatness in my own life. It would be so much easier for me to devote my life to someone else.

[dup]

27. What is on the floor in your closet? Shoes, laundry baskets, purses, and duffel bags. There is organization, I tell you!

28. Who is the friend you’ve had the longest? AJ. He was my best friend, of sorts, when we were growing up. We grew apart, mostly due to my own snobbiness, during middle and high school, but after my first year of college and my ordeal with cancer we became close again, and I am really happy about that.

29. What did you do last night? Umm…watched Friends, ate dinner, sat around pouting, ate ice cream.

30. Favorite smell? Right now, it’s a tie between the smell of a fresh spring day, and the slightly fishy smell that reminds me of trips to Uncle Lewis’ place near Lake Cumberland. [dup]

31. What are you afraid of? Never being able to live in Japan, never accomplishing anything, failure, never being able to have children, and watching the people I love die. [dup]

32. Plain, cheese, or spicy hamburgers? Not sure I’ve ever had a spicy hamburger, so I’ll have to go with “cheese” for now.

33. Favorite Car? Right now I’m a big fan of PT Cruisers, but really, anything that is fairly small and cute. Like slackv, I’d prefer air conditioning, but my current car doesn’t have it…

34. Favorite dog breed? I like big dogs with wolfish features. We grew up with a Belgian Malinois named Misho, so I’ve always idealized that breed.

35. Number of keys on your key ring? Three keys (ignition/door, glove box, and gas cap) on the car ring, four (apartment, Sean’s parents’ house, my parents’ house, apartment workout room) on the “other” ring. They connect to each other by one of those fake climbing thingies. I also have nail clippers and a pool pass on my “other” ring, and a tire air pressure gauge on my car ring.

And Now You Know.

36. How many years at your current job? What a horribly presumptuous question!

37. Favorite day of the week? Saturday

38. How many states have you lived in? Three. Kentucky (~24 years), Alabama (9 months), and Georgia (2.5 years and counting)

39. How many cities\Towns have you lived in? Three again! Nicholasville, Huntsville, and Augusta. Haven’t moved much, have I?

I wanted to totally blow my diet on a Double Quarter Pounder with Cheese. But when I got home, I discovered that McDonald’s had given me two Filet O’ Fish sandwiches instead.

So, I blew my diet on two Filet O’ Fish sandwiches.