things

So, I bought a lawn mower. And mowed the lawn. I also got my compost heap transfered from the bucket of doom to an actual outdoor pile. It smells pretty bad (thanks bucket of doom...) but hopefully a couple of days in the outdoors not made half of organic matter and half of water will take care of that. I do need to get some sort of metal fencing to surround it and keep it constrained. Also did laundry. Matt was doing his, so I tagged along and ran everything that I own that needed any cleaning.

We have a hose. Need another. I'm trying to decide on how much I am willing to pay for a grill. Also need some lawn furniture and indoor shelving.

I'm going to read Mouse Guard soonish. I want to recommend it (or not) as a comic and or game for a friend who needs such things. As it stands currently it looks like the Redwall books but less morally objectionable and stupid. (The game is supposed to be an incredible introduction to role playing and such for littleish kids.)

I'm obsessing over a gazebo. I have the cash for it, but then I wouldn't be able to do anything else. It would be awesome to have some summer gazebo parties, but I can buy lawn furnature or a gazebo, not both. And probably I shouldn't buy either.

I read Dresden 11 the day it came out. Now I want Dresden 12... I have some mutters about this book, but none that aren't spoilers and none that matter. Mostly things I wanted to have happen not things that he did wrong. Morgan and Molly are incredible together. Harry might be getting over one of his cases of the stupids. Thomas!

As much as this is false, I want another Mab book. (I don't want a mab book, but I want a mab book.

Work still sucks. I want to work where I can wear decent clothing. I need something that pays enough that I don't have to anguish over the gazebo.

FMLA is going smashingly. But without any actual smashing.

psa

Remember. If someone invites you to a teabagging party, there are two groups of people who will be there. Tea baggers and tea baggees. If you go to one of Glen Beck's parties, check your income statements. If you made more than 250,000 dollars, you are a tea bagger, if you made less than that, then you are a tea baggee. While neither position really appeals to me, keep that in mind before you put yoursellf in a situation where tea bagging is an expected activity.

ZJD!

Happy Zombie Jesus Day, wherein Jesus was crucified, died, and was buried, and on the third day, he arose again in fulfillment of the scriptures, to overshadow local rites, pass out chocolate bunnies, and eat your tasty tasty brains. Gir Arrgh An acquaintance of mine was complaining about the zjd jokes, how those who perpetuate ZJD wouldn't ever do that sort of thing to other locally smaller faiths. I'm not horribly fond of being painted with the liberal touchy feely wuss brush. Right here, right now, I'll tell you, did I know enough to draw similar parallells about key figures and stories in faiths that aren't the overwhelming majority in my country, I'd do it in an instant. Actually, in the name of holy irreverence, let's do that (for if there is anything holy in this world, it is not taking things too seriously) Post a key event or person from the religion of your choice along with a more modern cliche/concept that they match up with.

fmla

Hi, my name's Michael and I'm a feminist.
Yes, that is a y chromosome there on my sleeve.
No, I don't mean ally. Ally is a term for someone who supports a group but can't be a member of the group.
Nope. Not that either.
Yes, I'm straight, genderwise I'm cis, and no, I'm not here to get laid.

I'm not sure that I'm the newest member to write one of these things, but if I'm not then it is just by a matter of weeks. To be honest, I started coming here as something social to do on a regular basis right after take back the night, and in large part because the meeting time worked with my work schedule while WSA's meetings were completely unworkable for me. That's probably pretty good, since I doubt I would have attended a third WSA meeting. I'm much more comfortable with the informal collaborative atmosphere we tend to have hereabouts. I don't deal nearly as well with highly structured meeting styles where one person (or small group of persons) absolutely drives the agenda and the tone. Well, honestly with our recent meeting sizes, maybe I'm comfortable with the small group of persons thing when I'm part of the group. Who knows?
The FMLA, as I see it, and we have had some spirited disagreements on this matter, works best as a support structure for individual members' personal activism. We get together, we discuss what the FMLA is going to be doing, but at the same time we talk about the particular issues and events on the horizon that particularly interest us. A personal example. I came here a little before Christmas break and sort of went off on a tangent about needing to call our assorted congress critters in support of the Freedom of Choice Act because I had some friends who were already beginning to mobilize in opposition to it. I figured that everyone present would possibly call their congress folk and thus act as a force multiplier. So you know, one voice becomes five. A couple of weeks later we had a huge stack of post cards for assorted congress folks (and I'm sorry, I can't remember who organized that feat. I know it wasn't me.) So instead of getting a few new voices, the FMLA increased my voice by an order of magnitude, possibly two.
As I see it, our basic mission here is memetic or informational. We talk. We talk to and thus provide support for each other, which is pretty important if you want to be an activist who doesn't either lose track of how other people thing or burn out early. We also talk to other people. We help organize awareness marches, we help host the Vagina Monologues, we create a newsletter, we support other groups and people who are also talking. We make people aware of feminisim as a matter of justice and way of life instead of a caricature of shrill, sexless/slutty, and angry women and downtrodden men that the movement has allowed its opposition to create in the minds of society as a whole. Feminism is, as I see it, essentially an issue of cultural memes, and if we want a feminist society, then we need to talk. We need to speak with not one voice, but with five, with ten, with thousands.
Hum this isn't really a paragraph so much as it has paragraphs... I fail once again at brevity. So in brief, welcome to the FMLA. My name is Michael Phillips, I'm your webmonkey until you find someone better. Enjoy the pie.

As always
Michael Phillips
roninkakuhito@gmail.com
thebellfeminist.wordpress.com
roninkakuhito.wordpress.com

question

I am looking for a word. I am not sure what it means. I think it means a pause in conflict, but I could have it exactly backwards. It is spelled something like but not exactly "dente."
Unfortunately both google and my online dictionaries correct dente to al dente without suggesting the word I want.