Man, I'm a grouch :P. Universe, you've been warned.

CJ

Actually, Jim, trusting what you cannot touch, taste, hear, smell, or see is ultimately how you'll touch, taste, hear, smell, and see the most.
And we're talkin' all that glitters, giggles, and gallops, for starters....
Giddy-up,
The Universe

Yeah, Jim, you almost need to be a freak of nature, but it's so in you.

Oh, apparently, they have no idea. :)

Happy May Day!

David and I are pretty much out of touch. The cable genii showed up before the paycheck did this month, so if you need us, try the cell phone(s); else, we'll see a lot of ya'll on Saturday.

Love Ya'll.

Jim

It's Opening Day at Emerald Downs (yay!) and it's bloody snowing in Everett. Yup. April 18th, and it's snowing and sticking. About 1/4 an inch right now. Bleagh.

CJ

Really I do. My landlord will be over to mow the neighbor's lawn (elderly dementia-inflicted cat lady), and mine looks like a jungle. I went out to try and mow it today, and I was too weak, physically, to start the mower. Looks like 2 weeks of coughing my lungs up and running 100+ degree fevers has kicked my ass. Are there any white knights out there who might be able to come help?

I watched a bunch of alternately suit-clad or red-necked men with mousy little fat women saying nothing standing on a street corner, with 'Support the Troops' and 'We're winning the War!' signs. They were also bearing Big Tobacco advertising, Budweiser tshirts, Republican paraphenalia, and Christ Loves Our Troops signs. I also watched them scream and rant and call a bunch of WWII veterans 'pussies', 'faggots', and 'unpatriotic', blasting them with air horns, and honking to drown out their message, because the group of older men were politely and in an orderly manner, protesting the war.

Ladies and gentlemen, not a single man in the first group looked old enough to have been in Viet Nam or young enough to have been in the First Gulf War....huh. Ironic, huh?
Would've served them right if one of the REAL veterans would've got up and just punched the shit out of one of their smarmy, smiling faces.

I wish to every god I know, sadly enough, that some drunk driver would've ploughed into the lot of them. Is that wrong of me?

CJ

Asketh [Unknown LJ tag]: What, exactly, would identify a conservative Pagan? Are we talking someone who eats meat or someone who votes for (shudder) George Bush?

I do not try and answer all his questions, though perhaps I should...how do I identify?

I think those of us who know me well know I'm an outrageous mix...I'm pro death penalty, but also pro very strict standards before it's enforced. I'm also pro removal of threats to society LONG before they get to maximum security prison level. These people are expensive and wasting my food and oxygen. Does that make me conservative?

I'm pro-choice, and some of you know the reasons I hold such a choice so rabidly dear. Would I EVER want to see a friend of mine have to make that choice? No. Should it be her choice? Yes. Hell yes. Does that make me a liberal?

I'm for small government that keeps its nose out of my business, but I'm also for socialized medicine, universal schooling, and the elimination of college loans/scholarships...there should simply be education for anyone who wants it. If we can pump billions into a war that means nothing, we can pump some money into education. Or just seeing that every single American gets fed and sheltered every night. Am I a social radical?

I'm anti-war, and pro-military. I'm anti-church and pro-religion. I'm for more sex in movies and less violence. I'm for more art in public and less advertisements. I'm all for holding true idiocy and small-spiritedness up to public ridicule...white supremacists amuse me to no end...they're free to have their views, but I should be free to point out how small their peepees are in public without fear of retaliation...and if retaliation happens, damn, but I want my chance to retaliate back! Sometimes, I think everything resembling true human community behavior has gone out of the window in our modern society...does that make me a conservative?

Eh. We're all liberals somewhere, we're all conservatives somewhere.

You're feeling: Sick

To your left: Mug

On your mind: Ghosts

Last meal included: Cookie

You sometimes find it hard to: Clean

The weather: Outside

Something you have a collection of: Dragons

A smell that cheers you up: nag champa

A smell that can ruin your mood: catpee

How long since you last shaved: yesterday

The current state of your hair: Wolverineesque

The largest item on your desk/workspace (not computer): comb

Your skill with chopsticks: Good

Which section you head for first in a bookstore: Occult

Something you're craving: Soup

Your general thoughts on the presidential race: OMGWTF

How many times have you been hospitalized this year: Zero

Favorite place to go for a quiet moment: desk

You've always secretly thought you'd be a good: undertaker

Something that freaks you out a little: fear

Something you've eaten too much of lately: fastfood

You have never: died

1. My username is ______ because ______.

Thatcaptjim because I've been /that/ captjim for ages on the internet (for a while, there were two of us using captjim, the other was a fishing charter guy down in Florida). Started as a joke, about me being the captain of the landlocked urban pirates...and as a pirate captain that was terrified of water and boats, well. The joke's (along with the group of friends that inspired it) long forgotten, but the name remains. I'm not actually the captain of anything by my soul.

2. My name is _____ because ______.

What it is because traditionally in my family, the eldest son gets his father's name reversed.

3. My journal is titled _______ because ________.

Sailing the seas of life because I am. Also, there are occasionally movie reviews, when I have the money to see movies.

4. My friends page is called ____ because ____.

A posie of other's flowers - only the thread is my own. It's a paraphrase of the opening of the original Barlett's Quotations: I have gathered a posie of other men’s flowers, and nothing but the thread that binds them is mine own - John Bartlett.

5. My default userpic is __________ because _____________.

One of my first attempts at a photoshop. It's the Skull from the promo literature for Pirates of the Carribean: Dead Man's Chest, with 'Deadmen tell no tales' on it. Because well...it's true.

Or, as I said to DSO: "I think Charleton Heston must've passed away."
DSO replies: "Why? Because it's so hard to tell, when he's just sitting there?"

Ah. High fevers bring the lulz.

I'm not sure which I've done...offended the snot-gods...or become their favorite. Either way, it sucks to be me. Wow, am I glad I did not spread this to the entire community tonight...it wouldn't've been very sporting.

In other news:

A compendium of dreams I've had since this fever started:
-A severed head, in the corner of a creepy stairwell, moaning about how cold it is.
-Everyone being given the power to mint their own coins...so I put Dave's mom on mine.
-Eating a cracked black pepper muffin. Mostly cracked black pepper.
-Playing the Game of 1000 Cards with Thor, Mercury/Hermes, Apollo, and the Dark Lord.
-They were doing something with baked potatoes...and I'm not sure if it was what I thought it was...but it wasn't right.
-Getting a history lesson from Hermes about the term 'hermaphrodite'. Yeah. TMI.
-The Horned Lord going 'hey baby'...but I was too full of snot and deth to wanna play.
-Something to do with a festival somewhere...gah. I've forgotten that one. Bummer. It was cool.

Other highlights of this round of the deth:

-Waking up to find my pillow COVERED in drool...at least I hope it was drool...
-Hearing someone strange talking in a creepy voice over my head: waking up to find I'm talking in my sleep.
-Waking to find the cat batting at my face...to make sure I was still alive.
-Snoring. While awake.

Wow. This has flattened me like a freight train...but the high fever has produced some fascinating dreams. To whit: Do NOT play the game of 1000 blank cards with the gods. It's just a really bad idea.

Thank you.

And have currently just taken -2hp damage from a vicious sneeze/cough combo that is doing an additional -1hp damage per round from continued snot-fountain dripping down my chest. For a 1st/1st level cleric/bard multiclass, that's a BAD thing. I'm just sayin'. A really bad thing.

Let the truth, Jim, be your greatest source of comfort. Because therein lies every possibility, hope, and second chance one could ever imagine.

The Universe

PS Not to mention the truths, Jim, about who you are, all you've achieved, and how much you're already loved. - TU

Mm. Belated, but oddly comforting. The Truth is coming through loud and clear in my dreams as well.

First: Happy birthday, u2rgoddess!

Second: First day of work at new job. Rocked. Awesome. I will be working 9-5:30 for now. Have an hour lunch.

Third: I am finally succumbing to festival crud. I feel like crapola as of about 5:30 this evening. Sad. So sad. Happy Pirate has run out of Happy.

That is all.

CJ

1/2 lb ground beef
1/2 medium onion, roughly chopped
1-1/2 cups of your choice of veggies, cooked
1 can cream of anything soup (except maybe tomato)
3 cups mashed potatoes
2 tbsp oil
3 tbsp hard cheese, grated
2 tbsp medium cheese, grated
Salt, pepper, garlic, other herbs & spices to your taste

Preheat oven to 350ish. Brown ground beef, sautee onions in drippings. Use additional oil if necessary, add to bottom of casserole dish. Layer veggies on top (I prefer carrots, peas, celery, mushrooms, and corn). Sprinkle each layer with some of the hard cheese (I prefer parmesean). Mix can of cream of anything soup (I prefer cream of mushroom or cream of celery) with 1/2 as much water as usual, gently spoon over vegetables in an even layer. Sprinkle with garlic powder, salt, pepper, some more hard cheese. Carefully spoon on mashed potatoes to make an even layer. Drag fork over potatoes to smooth them down and create pleasant presentation. Pop in oven for 15-30 minutes, till potatoes are just a little brown on top, and casserole heated all the way through. Remove from oven, sprinkle with rest of cheese, salt, pepper, paprika, and whatever else you like on top. Let sit at least 10 minutes to marry flavors and cool off so it's not lava hot. Enjoy!

CJ

Okay, it would have to be my second one. My first one's for completely other reasons...but this image rocks so much...

The Alkonost and the Siren

Yup. I'm hungry. And bored. This is NEVER a good combination with me. Either I'm going to eat everything in the damn kitchen...or I'm going to experiment with food.

Either way, dangerous, as I said.

Someone rescue me? I hear the cabinets calling.

CJ