Eclectic Amateur

No longer beginning … I’m really hating Blogger template mangling …

Beginning … to … hate … Blogger … templates …

At least the HaloScan comments seem to work. I’ll have to try to recover template sanity later.

Roy Jacobsen points out a bit of wisdom in today’s Pibgorn comic.

Which led me to this gem from All Hallow’s Eve:

Repress the urge to sprout wings or self-ignite! … This man is an Episcopalian! … They have definate views.

(sigh) If only.

(see Spong, John Shelby, Borg, Marcus, and Williams, Abp. Rowan)

Wow

“Psst! Who are all these people coming through the blog, dad?”

“Don’t worry — they’re probably just friends of Mark.”

“Oh.”

Thanks to everyone who’s shown up to read the pro-life ad. And thanks to Mark Shea for the link.

The Pro-Life Ad I’d Like To See

[Scene: The reception area of some sort of medical facility.  People

	in scrubs are bustling about, looking grim and hurried.  The

	place is done in Institutional Drab, and the lighting makes

	everything look a touch like the Twilight Zone.

	Center on a teenage girl, maybe 15, stylishly

	grungeish/punkish  and with a few strategic piercings (extra

        earrings, an eyebrow ring, something). She's obviously

	exasperated, as is the nurse at	the desk who is speaking to her.]

Nurse:  "I'm sorry, but we really can't do this kind of elective

        procedure with a minor without some sort of parental consent.

        Not to mention insurance, contact for familiy doctor ..."

Girl:   [Now looking a bit scared and panicky] "But I need to get this

        done!"

Nurse:  "I'm sorry, but those are the rules."

Girl:   "But the counselor told me I wouldn't need that!"

Nurse:  "Counselor?"  [light bulb moment]  "Oh!  I thought you were

        here for another piercing."

Girl:   [Shakes head 'no'.]

Nurse:  [Lowers voice, says more sympatheticaly] "Abortion?"

Girl:   [Lowers eyes, nods 'yes'.]

Nurse:  [Perks up a bit, puts a bit of forced cheerfulness in voice]

        "Oh, you're at the wrong desk.  Abortions are down that hall

        and to the left.  Just sign in there, they can take care of

        you without any paperwork at all, as long as you can pay cash."

Girl nods, disappears down halway as we fade to black.

To make it a bit more election-oriented, we follow on with a white-text-on-black-background-with-voiceover, and the following:

"Ridiculous?"

"Jennifer Granholm doesn't think so."

"Abortion is a serious medical procedure, with risks of severe side

effects."  [Insert scary medical statistics here.]  "But Jennifer

Granholm supports giving abortionists an exception to the standards

that all other doctors and nurses must uphold.

"Leaving scared teenage girls to face the medical system and possibly

severe physical side effects -- alone."

"And Jennifer Granholm calls this 'women's health care'?"

"Let's elect a governor who'll really protect the health of the young

women of Michigan, by holding abortionists who practice on young girls

to the same high medical standards we expect for everyone.  Vote Dick

Posthumus on November 5th."

(Paid for by nobody-at-all, because no one will ever actually make and air a commercial like this.)

Look! A Googlewhack!

"bubble bubble" Catholic homeschool

I feel so affirmed in my uniqueness.

CERN scientists create antihydrogen atoms.

This is very interesting, although we are nowhere near needing to engineer dilithium crystals to contain the awesome power of Warp Drive™ technology. But still, it must be fun to be a physicist with real, actual, measurable antimatter to play with.

Viking Kittens!

If you haven’t seen them already, check out the Viking kittens. “Fear them, for they are mighty.”

(Warning: Flash animation with audio component. Don’t try this at work if you’re in a Dilbert zone.)

This time for sure!

Our six angelfish are still happily frolicking in the (now crowded) community tank. That would be our original pair, their two children that we saved, and two new (white blushing) angels that we bought.

So far, the two we saved have both turned out to be female, giving us one male, three females, and two still unsexed. I’m hoping that we have at least one male with the new angels; I’d like to see what a cross between the blushing and the light marble looks like.

No pictures of our fish, but Angels Plus has some examples I can borrow.

Our Papa Angel:

He looks almost exactly like this, except he’s got a damaged top fin and is missing one of his trailers. But we love him anyway.

Our Big Mama Angel:

She also has a damaged top fin. But I can’t get rid of her; she’s our first angelfish. She actually lost her entire top fin to fin rot, and I thought she was a goner. But, with a little treatment she recovered, and actually regrew her top fin! I was so impressed. Unfortunately, I think one of the other fish picked on her while it was growing back, so it came in bent.

The Next Generation:

Our one daughter looks just like Mom (without the fin damage, of course). The other one is a heterozygous marble, with a very nice silver/black pattern. I can’t find a good match, but she’s something like this:

except with a bit more silver to her pattern, and without the blushing.

The Newcomers:

I had a tough time finding a picutre, but Google came through:

Ours have a more distinctly white body with black fins, and the blushing is not quite as pronounced.

Arrgh!

That’s two posts that Blogger has eaten!