Shooting at church

There’s been a church shooting at a UU church in Knoxville TN. One man is confirmed dead, two others were treated and released and six other adults are clinging to life as I write this.  The shooter opened fire with a 12 gauge in the sanctuary.  He doesn’t appear to be a member of the church; I would be willing to bet he’s an evangelical with mental health problems, doing the world a favour by shooting Unitarians.

Love each other while you can.

Sunday roundup of stuff

Man pepper sprays dogs. He should be pepper spraying the gd owners. And, not to put too fine a point on it, but Lighthouse Park is an offleash zone and Jeff and I saw and smelled MUCH doggydo.

Shoot, any teenager can do this when you ask for the chores to get done. Frog can tune its hearing to specific frequencies.

You can simply NEVER have enough Evil Dead.

A collection of improbably unphotoshopped pictures.

Try the BBC Sensory Challenge. I got 14 out of 20, I’m sure you can do better than that.

Jupiter is one cool looking planet.

Why can’t somebody do one for Canadian politics?

A list of reference sites on the internet. May I point nautilus3 at the Dictionary of Popular Cultural References? Also the Illustrated Dictionary of Jewels is molto cool.

Great pictures of cool light phenomena. ABSOLUTE best pic of a ‘hula dancer’ I’ve ever seen. I have seen this phenomenon only since I moved to BC, and the best one I ever saw was in Courtenay – it happened in the fall and lasted a good half hour. The hula dancer is referred to as a circumhorizontal arc in the list of pictures, which is technically what it’s called, but sailors and fishermen of the coast call them ‘hula dancers’.

Everybody should have a prof like this, and that’s no lie.

Hope everybody has a loverly Sunday.

Came home from drinking with coworkers last night

And there’s a block for all the knives, a new toilet seat, and, in the freezer, chocolate ice cream. It’s like I live at Hogwarts and every time I turn my back the house-elves have done something. Go Jeff.

Said goodbye to Liz and Klaus last night. Liz is an Irish lass who was with us in HR very briefly but memorably and honorably (and if I say why she was memorable, that would be indiscreet) and Klaus is a German lad who was with the company for about the same length of time as me. Like everybody who’s been at BigCo for more than ten minutes, he has an Allegra anecdote; faithful readers of this blog will know that I write Valentine cards for coworkers every year. One year his read, “I love you as much as I love the company ERP” which is kinda like saying you love boils, plague, cedar splinters and popped collars. He sought me out afterwards and with a classic everyman WTF expression on his face BEGGED me to reveal what in God’s name he’d ever done to deserve such a card. Everybody in earshot hearing this for the first time burst out laughing…especially the people from Finance.

I spent 50 bucks on jugs of beer and nibblies, and some of the folks there coughed up some money, so I only ended up spending what I would have spent on myself, so it was more than satisfactory.

I am making chocolate waffles. My happiness is tempered somewhat by the knowledge that somewhere, lurking in the batter, is a piece of eggshell. I hope I get it and not Jeff.

Ooh, I just remembered. Ian M. gave me a lift home and he’s got a brand new Prius. Silver, of course. What a sweet ride that car is!

I took the Steampunk Personality Test bwa ha ha

You are Arcanist-Major Edmund Ras of the Praxian Alliance, assigned as liaison to the Legion of Peace.  You are a scholar, a scientist, and a sorcerer, in a city that distrusts the first two and despises the third.  Though you are kind-hearted and concerned about the betterment of others, the hostility you routinely encounter has left you jaded and sardonic.  You have a sharp tongue and a very dark sense of humor, and you delight in mocking those with irrational fears and prejudices.  Your outlook on life teeters between the optimistic and the resigned, and you still can’t decide if humanity is worth the trouble.  Still, even if humanity is doomed to self-destruction you are willing to risk your life to give it just one more generation.

Off to the back doctor this afternoon

My life has basically become a very unpleasant place, and my sleep is getting worse and worse, so off I go.

Cousin Gerald is now a grampa times two. Hurrah! More deets as I get them.

Youtube Bingo last night was great… Jeff and I learned about Jon Lajoie. If you already know about him, great; if you don’t, well, let’s just say his ability to keep a straight face while singing lines that make you spew your beer in all directions (one of us, I won’t say who, actually did have a beercident) makes him an instant classic. Not safe for grandparents, sorry. Or anybody with pretensions to taste and decorum. Not.

Family here

Keith and Paul and Jeff and ScaryClown and I had a whole salmon and garlic bread and salad for dinner.  No dessert but blueberries.

It was really pleasant; we ate on the back deck in the dying sun and watched ScaryClown get along really well with Gizmo, and we played Youtube Bingo after supper, and that was loads of fun too.

Star Wars floppy & other news

I don’t know why I thought this was so funny, but I did.

Chipper got her dvd of puppy power but has not reported back yet. I’m bouncing from one foot to the other wanting to know.

Paul’s back from the Adirondacks. Tish and Terry are doing fine. Paul says he had a really tough time keeping up with Terry, but he’s been saying that for 25 years so I don’t think this represents a change. Terry always seemed to be a secret new power source anyway. And sing yip and whoo hoo! Paul quit smoking! Seven days no smokes, let’s all think positive.

No word from Katie, but I imagine somebody would have called me if any further insanity had taken place that I really had to know about.

I just made french toast. How amazing! Jeff has just gotten up! Good, otherwise I might end up eating it. Time to put on the bacon. Jeff doesn’t drink coffee anymore, but he misses it. I say things like “I can’t live without coffee” but of course I can. I’d be learning how to roast chicory as a substitute.

A death and an incident involving lots of blood

I light a candle for my beloved worksibling Tanya’s grandmother, who passed at RCH today.  Go gentle across the rainbow bridge, elder.

Ahem.  So I get this cryptomundo text message from Katie saying that she’s been living in a horror movie.  OF COURSE I immediately assume that it’s Dax, and it very plainly turns out not to be, in fact, Dax behaved with more calmness and civility than anyone could credit him with, considering that a guy with a dirty great knife was alternately trying to stab him and kick his door and his HEAD in.  End result.  One of Dax’s roommates is homeless, with about 7 criminal charges pending, Katie is fine except for the strained muscles you always seem to get when some drunken animal is trying to kill you with a knife, Dax had to have stitches, the culprit had to have reconstructive surgery because he was so fecked he sliced himself across the tendons in three fingers. Katie is here, helping me cook spaghetti and vibrating gently.  Dax put his life on the line, literally, defending Katie, and has been the soul of gentlemanly courtesy since, so I am much obliged to him.

The perp is an ex drug addict (now just a drunk) who is normally a really sweet guy.  He also has brain damage from having been electrocuted and he was already on disability.  Oh yeah.

Katie and Dax cleaned up the house.  There were apparently torrents of blood… I’m debating whether to ask Dax for his cell phone footage, as he filmed what the place looked like afterwards.  Schadenfreude, anyone?