Tag, You're It!!

Angel has tagged herself:

40_is_the_new_30

anime
art
artdeco
atheist
austen

beauty
blogging
blogs
blonde
blueeyes
bookclubs
bookcrossing
books
bridgetjones
brunch
btvs
buckvbell
buffythevampireslayer

california
chanel
chicklit
chocolate
coffee
colinfirth
cupcakes

dailyshow
dancing

eating
esfj
evanovich

fashion
flowers

harrypotter
helenfielding
homestarrunner
hugging

internet

janeausten
janetevanovich

kathygriffin
kissing

lefthanded
lefty
libra
literature
love
luismiguel

magazines
moulinrouge
movies
music
myspace

nintendo

pancakes
pizza
prideandprejudice
purple

ranma
reading
rejuvenile
relaxing

scrapbooking
shag
shopping
sims
spanish
stacylondon
starbucks
stephanieplum

tall
tea
teengirlsquad
television
thesims
thumb_tribe_oyayubizoku
travel
traveling
truth
tv


videogames

whatnottowear
wii
writing

Kim Jong-il has the bomb. How do you grab someone's attention?

How are you gentlemen !!
All your base are belong to us.
You are on the way to destruction.

You have no chance to survive make your time.
Ha Ha Ha Ha ....


Click the hypertext to see the video

Do you eat grits? Please consider carefully before answering.

Grits is good! Dive right in!

Giant Robot or Radioactive Monster: Who are you cheering for?

R-O-B-O-T Robot!

Welcome to the Global Economy! Please choose a gigantic international corporation to ally yourself with.

Discounted books meets point-click-ship shopping. Amazon.com, the little "gigantic international corporation" that could, is my ally of choice. The company started out in a garage. It took nearly eight years to turn a profit, and several "experts" predicted its imminent demise. Now, it sells everything from diamonds to defibrillators, cheese graters to chess sets.

What are you going to be for Halloween?

Erin Esurance, secret agent!

How did you discover the Web?

Al Gore told me about it.

If you controlled the weather, what would it look like outside today?

If all of the raindrops were lemon drops and gum drops, Oh, what a world this would be. I'd stand outside with my mouth open wide, "Ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah." If all of the raindrops were lemon drops and gum drops, Oh, what a world this would be.

If all of the snowflakes were Hershey bars and milk shakes, Oh, what a world this would be. I'd stand outside with my mouth open wide, "Ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah." If all of the snowflakes were Hershey bars and milk shakes, Oh, what a world this would be.

What is your signature move?

Um...does mouse-clicking count as a "signature move"?

What target demographic are you a part of?

I'm a REJUVENILE.

I read Harry Potter, watch anime, and secretly lust after Hello Kitty stuff. I've managed to extend my childhood waaaaay beyond its intended expiration date and just don't know when I'm ever going to put down my toys and grow up!

What do you want for your birthday?

Despite the fact that I have, like, the longest Amazon.com wishlist known to man, what I'd really like for my birthday is a trip to Paris. My beloved and I would walk hand-in-hand down the famous Paris streets, stopping off here and there for coffee and croissant, whilst vaguely Parisian music is (magically) piped in in the background, and, somehow, no one is rude to us. Then, he'd buy me some little bauble that I spied in a quaint locals-only-type store as a souvenir of THE. BEST. BIRTHDAY. EVAR!

Why do your friends like you, and why do your enemies hate you?

My friends love me because I can be very sweet, fun, and keep up my end of the conversation. My enemies hate me because I'm very particular about how things are done and I don't suffer fools gladly.

What do you want to see in your fortune cookie?

"The best is yet to come"

That would bring me "good fortune" on sooooo many levels!

(Anyone else add "in bed" to the end of their fortunes?)

What Jeopardy category would you dominate?

I'll take Potent Pocrastinators for $1,000, Alex.

What is your favorite toy?

I liked those Fisher-Price play sets. You know, the farm (when you opened the barn door, it made a "mooing" sound), the yellow school bus (with the retractable stop sign), and the garage (it had a hand crank that lifted up the little car, elevator-style, to the second floor).

P.S. Technically, these toys belonged to my younger brother but, face it, didn't the boys always get the cooler toys?

Other than the souls of small children, what do you collect?

Quotations. I am a voracious reader and, consequently, come across many clever, thought-provoking, funny statements made by other people. The collection is completely random and consists of pretty much whatever I find to be worthy of inclusion. As a result, something said by Strongbad from Homestarrunner.com is nestled up against a statement by Sophocles, while a beautiful bon mot by Pee-Wee Herman hangs out next to verbiage by Voltaire.

What is the worst mistake you ever made?

In retrospect, skydiving probably wasn't such a good idea. Thank goodness for excellent health insurance!

What skeletons live in your closet?

This one! Isn't she so cute?! I have one in every color...

Big Crunch or Endless Expansion: What is your theory on the fate of the universe?

Well, from this angle, I'd say "Endless Expansion"!!

Where are you headed?

For the hills!!

What civil rights are you still missing out on?

The right to be dead honest with people about their kids:
"Congratulations, Mrs. Smith. By refusing to hold your son accountable for his actions, you've raised a fucking sociopath."
"Mr. and Mrs. Jones. Your lack of class and good grammar has prepared young Morgan here perfectly for a job mopping up the back room of a 24-hour porn shop. You must be so proud."

On what do you spend too much money?

Fresh food.

The $2.49 loaf of bread that gets tossed after five days with several slices uneaten, the week-old head of $2 lettuce I used only a few leaves from before throwing out, the $3 unopened can of soup that I got rid of because I couldn't remember when I'd purchased it.
If you add it all up over the years, I must have misspent hundreds of dollars on food that went uneaten because it was no longer fresh.

What's the worst trouble you've ever gotten yourself into?

When I let my two "friends" talk me into going on an "adventure" to Candy Mountain...

Guest workers: a worn-out labor idea

Such programs are bad for immigrants and hurt U.S. workers as well.

By John J. Sweeney and Pablo Alvarado,

JOHN J. SWEENEY is president of the AFL-CIO.

PABLO ALVARADO is executive director of the National Day Laborer Organizing Network.
April 10, 2007

CORPORATE America has made an expanded guest worker program the cornerstone of its preferred brand of immigration reform, and no wonder: It will assure a steady flow of cheap labor from essentially indentured workers too afraid of being deported to protest substandard wages, chiseled benefits and unsafe working conditions.

Such a system will create a disenfranchised underclass of workers. That is not only morally indefensible, it is economically nonsensical. We've had plenty of bad experiences with such shortsighted answers to a complicated problem.

The notorious bracero program all but enslaved immigrant agricultural and railroad workers in the years after World War II. Today we have H-2A and H-2B visa programs to remind us that "temporary" immigration employment models rest on a faulty foundation.

The H-2 programs bring in agricultural and other seasonal workers to pick crops, do construction and work in the seafood industry, among other jobs. Workers typically borrow large amounts of money to pay travel expenses, fees and sometimes bribes to recruiters. That means that before they even begin to work, they are indebted. They leave their families at home, and they are essentially "bound" to employers who can send them home on a whim and who do not have to prove a need to hire them in the first place.

According to a new study published by the Southern Poverty Law Center, it is not unusual for a Guatemalan worker to pay more than $2,500 in fees to obtain a seasonal guest worker position, about a year's worth of income in Guatemala. And Thai workers have been known to pay as much as $10,000 for the chance to harvest crops in the orchards of the Pacific Northwest. Interest rates on the loans are sometimes as high as 20% a month. Homes and vehicles are required collateral. Handcuffed by their debt, the "guests" are forced to remain and work for employers even when their pay and working conditions are second-rate, hazardous or abusive. Hungry children inevitably checkmate protest.

Technically, these programs include some legal protections, but in reality, those protections exist mostly on paper. Government enforcement is almost nonexistent. Private attorneys refuse to take cases. And guest workers, especially the poorest, the least educated and those with the least English, end up with no choice but to put their heads down and toil, innocently undermining employment standards for all U.S. workers in the process.

This doesn't mean that there is no solution to the immigration crisis or no good way to deal with workers and families who will want to come — and who we will need to come — to the United States to work.

In 1997, the U.S. Commission on Immigration Reform validated our belief that a "properly regulated system of permanent admissions serves the national interest" and warned that another temporary-worker program would be a "grievous mistake." This means that everyone who is admitted to work must immediately be on a track toward permanent residency or citizenship.

Yes, employers who can prove that they tried and failed to find U.S. workers should be able to hire foreign workers. But no, they shouldn't be able to bring them in under abusive conditions that have a negative effect on the wages and working conditions of other workers.

Yes, we should have caps set to limit the number of employment-based visas issued each year. But no, they should not be determined, as the H-2 quotas are now, by political compromise or industry lobbying. The number of employment-based visas should be set each year by the Department of Labor based on macro-economic indicators that establish the needs of particular industries.

Employers should not be allowed to recruit abroad, a practice that invites bribes, exorbitant fees and potential abuse. Instead, employers should be required to hire from applications filed by workers in their home countries through a computerized job bank.

Foreign workers should enjoy the same rights and protections as U.S. workers, including freedom to form unions and bargain for a better life. Labor laws must protect all workers, regardless of immigration status. If we leave undocumented workers without any real way to enforce labor laws, as our laws do now, we are feeding employers' hunger for more and more exploitable workers, relegating them to second-class status. That hurts all workers.

Scholars have long recognized that the genius of U.S. immigration policy throughout our history has been the opportunity afforded to immigrants for full membership in society. That is the solid foundation on which a morally and economically sound policy can be built, and it is the foundation we are working together to build.

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Over and over again, people who KNOW that the "guest worker plan" is just another "bracero program" tell us it's a TERRIBLE idea. Don't give in to the fear of being called a racist, just because you don't want an influx of cheap labor imported to our shores! Really, it is LUNACY to expect that, once here, these "immigrants" will leave voluntarily once the guest worker program ends, because they didn't leave in the 20s the first time, and they didn't leave in the early 60s the second time. It's easy to find article after article recounting what a debacle our government caused by trying this before, but the Center for Immigration Studies says it best: "Guest worker programs have failed wherever and whenever they have been tried".

I've Never Seen So Many

So, today I woke up with this phrase being shouted rythmically inside my brain: "I've never seen so many!"

So many WHAT? I wondered. I lay there, trying to think of what I'd never seen so many of. Quickly, I realized it was a song. My brain was trying to remember a song.

Um...okay. Now I have snippets of thousands of songs in the hard drive that is Angel's Brain. Needless to say, Access was DENIED.

I decided to put my snappy new DSL connection to the test. I told Chuy to fix me a cup of coffee and set to work.

First, I went to Google and typed in "I've never seen so many"+lyrics. Not it.

Then I typed "I've never seen"+lyrics. Lots more hits, but not the ones I'm looking for.

Then, some firewalls came down after the coffee hit them with the one-two punch of caffeine and sugar. It's a South Park song!

So, I went to Amazon.com and searched South Park soundtrack. I clicked on the "Listen to All" option. I got to Track 17. SEVENTEEN! And YES, I did listen to all of them!

There is the voice that was shouting at me 15 minutes ago!

But the 30-second clip did not hold that phrase my mind was echoing over and over again. Must Have More.

So, I noticed the name of the group, D.V.D.A. I went to Yahoo! and searched "What Would Brian Boitano Do"+lyrics. First one was a no go. Then, finally, Finally, FINALLY!!!

I FIND OUT WHAT THE VOICE WAS TRYING TO TELL ME!!!!

Blog Against Theocracy

Is conformity of sentiments in matters of religion essential to the happiness of civil government? Not at all. Government has no more to do with the religious opinions of men than it has with the principles of the mathematics. Let every man speak freely without fear--maintain the principles that he believes--worship according to his own faith, either one God, three Gods, no God, or twenty Gods; and let government protect him in so doing, i.e., see that he meets with no personal abuse or loss of property for his religious opinions. Instead of discouraging him with proscriptions, fines, confiscation or death, let him be encouraged, as a free man, to bring forth his arguments and maintain his points with all boldness; then if his doctrine is false it will be confuted, and if it is true (though ever so novel) let others credit it. When every man has this liberty what can he wish for more? A liberal man asks for nothing more of government.
~~~John Leland, "The Rights of Conscience Inalienable, and Therefore Religious Opinions not Cognizable by Law" [a pamphlet], New London, Connecticut, 1791.

I don't know why, but this ring raises my heartrate. Wanty!!

Diamond Skull and Crossbones Ring

I'm Off Crutches!

Yay!!!! I'd do a little jig but my right leg is extremely weakened from four months of disuse. Currently, I'm limping around like a pirate on shoreleave. It'll take a while to get back my strength, but
I AM SO DAMN HAPPY TO BE ON MY OWN TWO FEET!

Which Tarot Card Are You?

You are Strength

Courage, strength, fortitude. Power not arrested in the act of judgement, but passing on to further action, sometimes obstinacy.

This is a card of courage and energy. It represents both the Lion's hot, roaring energy, and the Maiden's steadfast will. The innocent Maiden is unafraid, undaunted, and indomitable. In some cards she opens the lion's mouth, in others she shuts it. Either way, she proves that inner strength is more powerful than raw physical strength. That forces can be controlled and used to score a victory is very close to the message of the Chariot, which might be why, in some decks, it is Justice that is card 8 instead of Strength. With strength you can control not only the situation, but yourself. It is a card about anger and impulse management, about creative answers, leadership and maintaining one's personal honor. It can also stand for a steadfast friend.

What Tarot Card are You?
Take the Test to Find Out.

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This quiz had 11 questions, each of which offered a myriad of answer choices. It even allows you to elect which tarot card set is displayed for your results. Although I would like to have had the option of seeing what the other possible outcomes were, I feel that my quiz results are reasonably accurate. Highly recommended.

How long can you expect to live?

Angel's results: 88

She doesn't smoke, hardly ever drinks, and wears a seatbelt. But, oh, how that stress and bad diet will take their toll!

Chuy's results: 84

He doesn't let stress get him down and doesn't do drugs, but that car accident in February took off a year!

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This is one of the most entertainingly executed, not to mention HELPFUL, surveys I have had the pleasure of reviewing. My very highest recommendation!