Dumb Test

This one comes from GodWasAMonkey.

Intelligence Test Part 4.

I got nine total in about five minutes. I haven't taken the time to really think through them all. Acording to GodWasAMonkey, you can be her best friend if you get #2 & #17... which I did.

Ouch!

Crap, I'm not a kid anymore. I was dancing with little Becky last night and I did a move that she was supposed to counterbalance me on, we've done it before, well she missed it or something, and by the time I figured out I was going down, her 90 pounds was NOT going to support my 180, at least not with a head start towards the floor. I couldn't even fall well because I might as well been ice skating, my feet just kept slipping out from under me, so I hit the floor pretty hard.

Last fall I had that hurt was the ice skating fall, it might be on this blog somewhere. I'm not exactly over the hill, but I am getting old enough to understand why the elderly have such a fear of falling.

So ouch! My shoulder hurts. I need some heat, some tiger-balm, and some TLC... and NOT from Kevin. :-)

Keep your math skills handy

Signs seen while shopping for fireworks last night:

Spray Fountains:
$2.22 each / $6.79 for a 3 pack

Roman Candles, 10 count:
$1.23 each / $6.19 for a 4 pack

I spent less than I could have.

Spanky, Mae, and I set them off in the street, I bought a lot of little things, they bought fewer things that were cooler (read more expensive). Spanky got one piece, it looked like a big box of crayons, and it shot off the little missiles in rapid succession, it was very cool. Mae got the same sort of things I did, but different because I didn't buy the same things they did. Fountains and flowers and "Dragon Rising". My roman candles came complete with fire-proof fuses and a need for viagra... Maybe I should have tried the four pack.

We are individuals, not members of a subgroup

My mother was a hippy. I was brought up by her to believe in the equality of every human being, regardless of whatever sub-group of people you or I want to attempt to shove them into or attempt to pull them out of. I have attempted to embrace this philosophy, with various degrees of success because I, like everyone else, am mostly only capable of seeing things through the eyes of my cultural upbringing and cultural choices. Generally, it works out to this, if I like you, it's because I like you, take it personally, if I don't like you, well take that personally too... it's not because you are ____ (you fill in the blank).

I love you my friends, not because you are ______, but instead because I value you as human beings. I am not going to like all your choices, and I may not be able to publicly or privately support you in them, but I am not going to abandon you if it becomes convenient to do so.

So, what's my point? A couple of things I have seen from otherwise intelligent, rational human beings lately drives me CRAZY!

One:
Blindly supporting your best friend can be risky enough. I certainly hope none of you do that for me, and I'm not even sure I like the explanation "oh, that's just Eric". If I am being a moron, than I am being a moron, and I need you, my friends, to help reign me in. I hope I do this for you.

So if this is risky behavior, why would anyone publicly throw their support behind someone they A) don't know, B) has questionable situation, motivation & reputation, and C) is in obvious crisis? Especially when you work in a field that day one of your training had to be about staying rational about people in C? Not guilty is not the same as innocent, and no one is/was.

Two:
Hating half the human race? This pendulum swings both ways, because I've seen it from a number of people on either side. Heterosexual men who hate women and heterosexual women who hate men. What is the freakin' issue? Some of you evidently aren't aware of this, but we CAN all be friends. I think it especially odd because I have seen this type of behavior from people who would absolutely rip me to shreds if I made it clear that I didn't like gay men because I felt threatened, yet they feel so threatened that they are unable to maintain or desire (I don't know) a relationship (lover, friend, acquaintance, person at the checkout counter) with a person of the opposite sex.

You won't find a fulfilling relationship (lover, friend, acquaintance, person at the checkout counter) with someone of the opposite sex while you are running away from every one of them you meet.

Seriously I could go on for hours about a bunch of things, but really it boils treating everyone as an individual and realizing your issues are YOURS, not everyone wants to share them.

Thanks in advance for any well thought out responses.

Sweaterbugs Night Out

It's a tradition that I didn't know about... at least one summer night a year the air conditioning has to be out at JNO.

Since I like it hot, and I think sweating is good clean fun, I thought it was great. I got enough warning on it to get some gatorade, but not enough warning to wear shorts and a light shirt. So I sweated and danced slowly, and got plenty to drink. I didn't even think it was really that hot.

People were leaving left and right, and center calling it too hot. Maybe 40 people stayed, the hardcore dancers :-) it was fun.

Nothing else was interesting, although in a rare feat I pulled a Maegmariel and snuck out without saying goodbye to anyone.