good riddance to 2009 - the most difficult year of my life thus far. 2008 was a year of extreme highs and lows. The first half was dominated by my complete fascination with the elections, the second half was completely violated by the fact that my sister was in critical condition and nearly died 3 separate times. in contrast, 2009 was just...long. and difficult. Many hour-long drives to and from the hospital. Trudging through the Taubman Center past the desk clerk who looked like Ulysses S. Grant, because University of Michigan Hospital was designed by a drunkard's 5 year old brother, who was also drunk, and they decided it would be a great idea to put the parking structure on the exact opposite end from the actual hospital. Many days spent staring at cafeteria food, trying to decide what would make me want to vomit less. The nursing home that smelled like it was regularly washed with a mixture of urine and tears. Begging, pleading and finally giving up with my sister over painkillers, physical therapy and just plain eating. Four hours a day, three days a week sitting in dialysis. My father abruptly dying after I spent almost a whole year of worrying about my sister dying.

There has to be some respite from this. You can't help but believe that 2010 will be better, because it can only be worse if a sadist is running these things.

1. Stop talking about politics for a moment or two.

2. Post a reasonably-sized picture in your LJ, NOT under a cut tag, of something pleasant, such as an adorable kitten, or a fluffy white cloud, or a bottle of booze. Something that has NOTHING TO DO WITH POLITICS.

3. Include these instructions, and share the love.

HOLY SHIT I FORGOT THE CLOCKS CHANGE BACK.


i just looked at the time and it was totally 1 am again and i was like O_O

and then i remembered, and the fact that i get a whole extra hour of sleep for this very special day made me make the exact face in my icon.

personally: I don't believe McCain is trying to calm down anyone with his half-assed reversal of tone today. So he says we should not be "scared" of Barack Obama. Big fucking deal. That is the most blatant weasel-wording I've seen from the campaign anytime recently.

I was told a long time ago that if I had to dispel the "Obama is a Muslim" rumors I should respond with an emphatic "Obama is a Christian", NOT "Obama is not a Muslim." The reason for that is it only reinforces in the person's mind that there is a linkage between the two, even one that is negating the association. The word needs to be completely detached from their first impression upon hearing Obama's name. McCain goes out there and uses the word SCARY in his pathetic little attempt at spitting out the wildfire he started, and I bet we hear more of that in the coming days. I bet we hear an awful lot of the word scary and Barack Obama in the same sentence. And all that does is create the narrative in the average person's head that anyone thought he was scary in the first place. All it does is create a new question. Wait...Obama was scaring people? Hmm...

so I was reading this post about the frosty reception of Barack Obama on DailyKos in 2005, and it reminded me of this post announcing Heathus Christ as the Joker on ONTD, which led me to capture possibly the best screenshot ever:

I'm not the right person to ask, but this was amazing.

Watch Palin's debates in Alaska and then watch tonight's debate and tell me her folksy peasant bullshit was anything more than cynical, shameless pandering to an electorate that (surprisingly) appears to be smarter than even I give them credit for. You don't see any "dontcha know"s and "dagnabbit"s in her days in Alaska. There's none of that golly-gosh-gee-whizz, wide-eyed, apple-cheeked, hardworking-white-American punkassery she's displaying now. I mean, her voice was still annoying as FUCK, her answers were still one crayola short of 120 colors, but she wasn't trying to act like she spent the whole day forcefeeding herself apple pie and boilermakers while whistling fucking Dixie. didn't we go over the whole fake-populist thing with Hillary Clinton? didn't it fail then, too?

where IS Hillary, anyway?

I think it's fair to say nothing will ever beat the inherent awesomeness of this picture. EVER. Someone could snap a photo of Jesus banging Elvis at a 7-11 and I'd just be like, meh...it's no Obama holding up a Red Wings jersey.

Help me out here...

So, I've never voted before. I was 17 in 2004. I'm looking forward to voting this year, however, the place I am registered to vote at is not an address I live at anymore. I moved in May and haven't changed my address on my driver's license or voter's registration yet. Do I need to rush and do that before the election? my old address is in a different town, but only about 15 minutes from here, however I'd be polling at a different place than my family, and it still might cause problems, obviously.

KEITH OLBERMANN LIKES FUTURAMA???


Why am I not married to this man yet?

This Sarah Palin shit is a blitzkrieg of fun (and right when I needed this) but seriously now. Maybe we should get back to business. I have to wonder once again for the infinitieth time what the fuck is wrong with my country. It's not so much the policemen arresting people for INTENT TO RIOT (with no prior evidence) and then firing rubber bullets at peaceful protesters. That really isn't anything new in America, although it certainly shouldn't happen. but why doesn't anyone CARE that it's going on?

I love Dan Abrams. He lost his show but he's on right now and covered the protests at least a little. It's a start, at least. I don't care what anyone says about MSNBC. The truth has no slant, and I want to see the naysayers dispute facts, not whine about bias.

I want to see fucking batman SO FUCKING BAD. someone hold me back. see, I have it on my computer. a fairly good cam version. I know, I know, a cam is not gonna do it justice. if I mention I want to watch a cam of it, whoever I'm talking to stops and stares at me in horror, like a pair of penii have sprouted out of my ears or something. but I'm not allowed to see it in theaters. my older sister is in the ICU (also why I am never on LJ anymore, I spend every night in her room reading books and magazines while she sleeps so I can press the call button for her when she wakes up and needs something. it's like a nurse dog whistle. i press it and the nurse just materializes in the doorway. but consequently, my non-hospital hours are packed with essential every day activities that sadly enough do not include ONTD...or batman, but still) and all of us siblings (5 in all, including me and her) are supposed to hunt down a theater still showing batman once she's out and go see it together. not a one of us have seen it yet. and yet here I am, staring at this file and willing myself not to click. can't I just watch it and then go to confession? even though I don't believe in god?

I am a creature of weakness :(

I have been EXTREMELY busy lately, for awhile there it was dawn to dusk, and even though it's settling down a lot I was finding it hard to get back into my old routine. but last night...I dreamt about ONTD. the big blue pages and all. I dreamt I went back there and found out Ozzy Osborne died and I was like WHAT????!!!! so I went on Wikipedia and they hadn't updated yet and I was like LOL, ONTD KNEW BEFORE WIKIPEDIA.

that is all.

the Red Wings are up 3-1 in the Stanley Cup Finals and could have the goddamn Stanley Cup TONIGHT. Obama's coming up to the last 2 primaries and could have the goddamn delegates to clinch the nomination TOMORROW. If both these come true...I'll die of joy and won't be able to actually revel in it.

I seriously need to STOP going to websites full of people who are perfectly happy saying they won't vote in November cuz their candidate won't be on the ballot...or worse, will vote for McCain. I wonder how many people regret sitting out the election in 2000, or voting for Nader, because "Gore and Bush are exactly the same! Democans! Republicrats!"? That certainly bit them on the ass. Haven't we learned ANYTHING? Refusing to vote because you don't like the choices brings fucking countless dead Iraqis and over 4500 dead soldiers - and if you refuse to vote this year, you can double, triple, quadruple that number. Who wants blood on their hands? McCain has plenty of it to go around.

I LOVE horses and I hate horse racing (BECAUSE of shit like this), but I cant help it:


Clinton: bet on the filly


and now...


Big Brown wins Derby; filly Eight Belles euthanized

Imagine that you were REALLY BUSY last night and didn't finish up what you were doing until around 4 am. Now imagine that you felt like you really needed a shower, but it was just SO late and you could take one tomorrow. Now imagine that tomorrow rolls around and you go into the bathroom, but when you turn on the water, no hot water comes. Now imagine that you put your clothes back on and trundled downstairs to the basement to check the water heater to find that the pilot light is out and water is gushing out of the bottom.

The only upside to all this is sponge baths are really not as bad as I had previously thought.