World AIDS day

if you can spare it, please take a moment of today to remember those people who have died of AIDS, or who are struggling with it today. these are your rock stars, your artists, your family, your neighbor, your loved ones. when one dies, all are diminished.

praise God for their lives.

update!

wow, the long weekend went fast!

i do feel better rested, but man do i wish for another long weekend coming up!
as i get older, i feel i need my vacations more....or maybe i just get them less.
there was a lot of hanging out on the couch and knitting and watching star trek next gen with ross this weekend. we both just seemed to need to vege out a bit.
i did go out on saturday with corrin and get new work shoes (BADLY needed), winter boots(i live in minnesota), and did some xmas shopping and hanging out at her place.
we got our xmas wreath from the boyscouts and hung it, but i haven't done any serious xmas decorating yet. i still have so much to clean! maybe i'll get to it this coming weekend. my desk did get ...half clean though.
ryan came over last night and we shared a meal and ross fixed his computer.

ross is working tonight so maybe i'll get the xmas candy done.

i did get lots of knitting done. a few more gifts to check off the list! i finally finished ross's hat. it's too bad that it sucks! brioche stitch is simply beyond my skill level right now. the hat is attractive...it just doesn't look like it was supposed to. it would figure that the one time he asks me for something it is the hardest thing i've ever done.
ross loves it anyway, which is nice...but i will make him another one after the holidays are over.

stolen from keisolo

this is REALLY hard.
Rank these values as far as their importance to you.
Then explain in 3-5 sentences your top five choices.

Salvation
True Friendship
Wisdom
A Comfortable Life
An Exciting Life
Freedom
Self-Respect
Happiness
Mature Love
A Sense of Accomplishment
A World at Peace
A World of Beauty
Equality
Pleasure
Social Recognition
Inner Harmony
Family Security
National Security

this was really hard for me....and all of these things are good things, so it seems silly to talk about the things that are most important. it makes more sense to talk about how we chose what WASN'T important. this excercise made me face that i am pretty selfish. it may be simply human nature to want things for yourself before you want them for other people, but i still feel guilty about it. on the other hand.
equality: is low on my list because it can mean so many things. if we are talking about equal respect and equal rights? i'm interested. but if we are talking about SAMENESS, i really have no interest at all, and this is what a lot of people mean when they talk about equality. i don't think women should be treated like men, or vice versa. i don't think every religion can be treated the same, although all people should have the right to practice their religion as long as it doesn't impinge on other people(no human sacrifices, for example). i think we should all be accorded the same respect....but men don't have the RIGHT to bear children just because women do...for example. i celebrate the differences between us. they are wonderful. i want respect. but i don't want sameness.
national security: this is impossible. life is not secure and i don't really want a world that is, even though insecurity is scary. if people want to bomb us they are going to. if people want to find a way to hurt us, they are going to. and there is no way to out-guess everyone. because of this, it is a waste of time imho to spend all your life worrying about it. sure, be saavy. but don't waste your life. i am against the patriot act. i am against ridiculous airport security. i am against having a threat level color broadcast that no one is brave enough to reduce. to me, this is a way of keeping the masses afraid so the government can do whatever it wants.
family security: this is low on the list because i don't really understand what it means. it is not a pair of words i would ever put together. does it mean your family loves you? does it mean your family can bail you out of jail?
does it mean you haven't been kicked out? does it mean that your family is okay? i want my family to love me. i am concerned for their safety. but life is not about never taking risks and always being safe. and that goes for them as well as me. i want them to be well..but not at the expense of not living their lives.
inner harmony: i also don't know what this means. to me this is a hippy concept for the kind of peace that comes from getting stoned. not a priority for me. nice, but not a priority.
social recognition: again. nice, but not necessary if we are already assuming i have the true friendship and the mature love listed above.
pleasure: this is harder. i like pleasure. a lot. but it isn't primarily what motivates me...which may be a bad thing. not sure. anyway it isn't as important as those other things....but it's hard to separate them because those other things give me pleasure.

(no subject)

seeing jupiter and venus tonight was TRULY awesome. just after sunset they were hanging out with the moon. :)

also.

all you people with the lay-offs are in my prayers.