another victim of Liberalism

I had a friend--a woman--complain yesterday about the relative lack of "ladies' nights" at bars here in Seattle when compared to cities in, say, the Midwest. Ladies' night is when bars sell drinks to women for extremely cheap prices (or for free), and to men for the regular price (this is how the bars rake in the money, of course).

She's a dyed-in-the-wool socialist liberal, so I don't know why she was complaining. Here in Seattle, men and women are equal! No special treatment for the fairer sex. If you want that kind of thing, you have to go to the backwards fly-over conservative states.

Family

Here's some flowers from my grandparents' front yard:


And my mother taking a photo of a poppy. She has a better macro setting than me:

By the way, the lens is pointing right at the blossom. It rotates.

And my grandparents' cat:


My dad, his sisters, and their parents:


Just my grandparents:


The view coming back to Seattle, along Lake Keechelus:


Oh, and here's the Yakima River just west from their farm (another highway shot):


Quiet conversations. Lots of cameras: mine, Mom's, Dad's, an aunt's, and a cousin's. Five cameras for ten people!

Just Asking

Now that Pedicularis has his own blog, does this mean he'll stop emailing me all the time? Because most of his emails were quite bloggish, but to a limited audience. . .

Four feet good! Two feet bad!

Today is the Holy Day of Névazhíno, God of Animals. (As if you didn't know!)

Névazhíno created all the animals way back when. Be nice to animals or else Névazhíno will get mad. You don't want to see Him mad. Some people sacrifice animals to Him, but I'm not sure if that's a good idea.

Névazhíno loves all animals, except for dragons, which has put him at odds with Kérasa over the years. Névazhíno especially loves gnats and deer, and they love Him right back.

Névazhíno is the brother of Hívuítoví, who got all jealous of Névazhíno's animal-creating skills. She retaliated by stealing fire from Zhíanoso and giving it to the mortals. Don't ask me to explain it. She's a goddess. Maybe She just wanted something to extinguish with Her rain. Névazhíno went on to marry the first mortal woman, who made a whole mess of things. . . but that's another story.

Happy Névazhíno Day!

Gods!

For the past couple days, instead of writing, I've been distracted by gods. Or more precisely, by godchecker.com, a website devoted to providing a comprehensive database of all the gods, saints, and slightly-divine creatures of the entire human sphere of knowledge. A big task, but they're getting there. Quite impressive.

Of course, I'm thinking about Narakan gods as I peruse. I've made a family tree of all thirty-two gods of the pantheon, working off the little bit I'd done years ago. For instance, did you know that Hivuitovi, Goddess of Rain, is the daughter of Zhake, God of Rivers, and Rihivi, Goddess of Poisonous Water?

Anyway, here's an excerpt from godchecker.com:

ATHENA: Famed Greek Goddess of War, Wisdom, Art, Technical Skill and Creative D.I.Y.

The daughter of ZEUS and METIS, she almost didn't get born at all after GAIA predicted that doom, woe and Olympian take-over bids would be the result. ZEUS, remembering how he'd overthrown his own father, grew nervous at the thought of having a daughter with attitude.

With the birth rapidly approaching, he finally hit upon a plan and swallowed METIS just before the crucial moment. But it wasn't long before strange tapping and banging noises began to emanate from inside him. What on earth was she doing in there? He was getting a headache.

A little while of this and the pain began unbearable. HEPHAESTUS, hearing the cries of agony, came running in and bashed his dad over the head with an Olympic wrench.

And from the split in ZEUS's skull sprang forth his daughter ATHENA. She was fully grown, fully dressed and fully armed with newly forged weapons and helmet. That's what all the noise was about.

Although wise and thoughtful, ATHENA is no shy maiden. Her best friend is NIKE, the Goddess of Victory, and she carries the Aegis, a flashy-looking device for zapping enemies.

She is, of course, highly skilled in arts, crafts and matters of intelligence. Her symbol is the owl, and in matters of wisdom she is always right. After all, who's going to argue with a War Goddess?

See also PALLAS.

Is Fleetwood Mac racist?

Because, of course, their song, "Don't Stop (Thinking about Tomorrow)" is based upon a Future Time Orientation, which not all cultures share. So says the Seattle Public Schools, who want to make life easy and happy for the "(Sha-la-la-la-la-la) Let's Live for Today" crowd headed by the Grass Roots.

Serbia declares independence from itself

Serbia is now the sixth former Yugoslav republic to declare independence. The only probem, though, is that they have nobody left to be independent from!

Slovenia left (with no war), Croatia left (with a big war), Bosnia-Herzgovina left (with a bigger war), Macedonia left (with a smaller war), and just a few days ago Montenegro left (with no war). They all declared independence from Belgrade.

So what were the legislators in Belgrade thinking when they declared independence? Oh, I know, they had to lower the S-M Federation flag and raise the Serbian banner in its place. But did they really have to go through the formal declaration? It seems a waste of time.

10:30

By the middle of the morning on a Monday, I am quite ready to leave work. I get a taste of freedom (the weekend) and three hours here is too much!

I'm fine, thanks

Still a little sore in the lower back and hamstrings, but that's okay.

Israel Caves In

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said in a speech earlier this week, "One more suicide bombing and I'll give them whatever they want." If the Palestinians don't end their terrorist attacks, "whether outside a popular nightclub in Haifa or in a crowded marketplace in Be'er Sheva," then the Israelis will just have to pack up and leave. "Even as I speak, the full might of the Israeli military is standing by to surrender should another suicide bombing occur."

Call me a cynic, but this doesn't ring quite true. Maybe I should check my source. The Onion is a reliable news organization, right?

It's Friday

Where's my donut(s)?? Gimme gimme gimme!!

Frank

Is Frank happy? Is Frank sad? Who can tell? This is Frank:



Frank camped with us over Memorial Day weekend. Nice dog.

Movie Idea

I'm surprised nobody has yet made a cross between _The Sound of Music_ and _Friday the 13th_ . . .