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Your result for The Golden Compass Daemon Test...
Independent Soul.
You are calm and logical, but not unemotional. You are an introvert, at heart, preferring to read alone than be subjected to the crush and noise of a big party or bar. You have a few friends and family, whose presence you welcome - to a point. Even they can wear on your nerves eventually, and you need to retreat back into your personal space for a while so you can recharge. Your energy comes in bursts, after which you need a long nap or a couple of evenings at home to recuperate.
You are comfortable with yourself, and reasonably confident. You want the friendship and goodwill of others, but you are not willing to sacrifice your principles in order to get it. If your close friends need something that you can provide, however, you will be the first to offer it.
You are a good and sympathetic listener, and are aware of your friend's emotional states. With your very close friends, you will open up, but rarely - you don't like to burden people with your problems. At the same time, though, you are honest and are not willing to alter the truth for the sake of convenience. Among strangers you are reserved, and may resort to making jokes to disguise your true feelings.
While you are not afraid of conflict, you do not seek it, either. When you are hurt or insulted, you feel that you have a choice to make. You can choose to take the up on it and defend yourself, or you can let it pass. Your decision may depend on how well you know the person, how personally you take the insult, or simply what mood you are in that day. Your friends may not always know how you are going to react, for that reason. Whatever you reaction, though, you will be logical, rational and unnervingly accurate: a measured strike.
Your daemon's form would represent your calm, introverted nature, your cool logic, and your impatience with crowds of people. He or she would probably whisper ironic comments in your ear, give logical advice and try to hide his or her soft side from everyone, even you.
Suggested forms:
Peregrine Falcon, Snowy Owl, Snow Leopard, Siberian Tiger, Osprey.
We're converting to gas, and are currently stuck with a full tank of oil...
Suggestions are also welcome - one person mentioned she's seen posts on Craig's List, so I might try that.
http://www.bostonmagazine.com/artic
Edit: someone appears to have added a comment of ******(etc) that messed up the formatting of the article. If you're interested, it's readable if you copy and paste into something else, like Word.
But it installs SecuROM (hoopy not-cool spyware) on your computer, so I'm going to pass. Ah well...
http://www.moreawesomethanyou.com/smf/i
"From the Dallas News:
"At the Republican state convention, a booth hosted by Republicanmarket.com was selling a pin Saturday that says: 'If Obama is President will we still call it the White House?'"
http://trailblazersblog.dallasnews.c
If you go to their website (don't bother, I did it for you) you'll also see the full flower of Rebublican mysogeny on display with buttons like "KFC Special: 2 fat thighs, 2 small breasts, left wing." and "Life's a bitch, don't vote for one"
"
I point you towards Suricattus' post for more coherent commentary. From me: grr...
It goes on at length about how hard it is to do even when both parents are agreed that they want to share equally. Towards the end, it compares research done on heterosexual couples and lesbian couples, (I guess there isn't a large body of research -yet- on homosexual male couples and parenting) and one of the observations is that:
"There is one pocket of American parenting in which equality is the norm or, at least, the mutually-agreed-upon goal. Same-sex couples cannot default to gender when deciding who does what at home. How these parents make their decisions, therefore, sheds some light on why married men and women act the way they do. They are the exceptions that both prove and challenge the rules.
“Heterosexual couples can learn from gay couples about sharing housework and child care,” says Esther D. Rothblum, a professor in the women’s studies department of San Diego State University whose comparative study of the relationships of 342 couples — lesbian, gay, heterosexual — was published in the journal Developmental Psychology in January. “They are good role models.” "
I expect that as the body of research on homosexual male couples grows, we'll see the same trend in that population - that when you take traditional gender roles and traditional cultural expectations out of the division of labor question, you see an equitable arrangement based on each person's strengths and preferences (with plenty of compromises) rather than struggling against the "well, you're *supposed* to do the housework/bring home the money..." dichotomy our culture still encourages.
***
( slight rantiness )
- Mood:
thoughtful
mmm... blueberries :-D (no, they probably won't be fruiting for a year or two, but the idea makes me happy!)
- Mood:
cheerful
Rep. Kucinich Calls For Bush Impeachment
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/washingt
and some discussion:
http://suricattus.livejournal.com/89873
Just put in an application for a loan to let us get our furnace replaced. Of course, it's not *just* the furnace. Is it ever?
Furnace:
The furnace is approximately 40 years old, and was kinda wonky last winter. It also runs at about 60% efficiency (eek). It's also an oil furnace, and we'd much rather go with gas than oil, for a few different reasons.
Ductwork:
Even when it's running, no heat gets upstairs - the upstairs was freezing all winter, and of course that's where our bedroom is... there's really only one room that has a good supply from the forced hot air ducts. The people who've looked at it all made mention of the fact that we need *a lot* more air returns in order to get the air actually circulating and the furnace acting as efficiently as it can. So we really need new ductwork. Which is going to be a pretty extensive job considering the state it's currently in.
Central Air Conditioner
Since we need to upgrade the ductwork anyway, it would be really nice to put in central air, and just have the ductwork done up to the standard needed for both heating and cooling. Also, the air handler on the furnace and the air conditioning unit work together, so if you get an air conditioner a lot of its efficiency depends on being matched with an appropriate furnace, so it makes sense to get them at the same time. I also expect it to be cheaper overall (and more effective) to have everything done at once than to have some done this year, some done next year.
Hot Water Heater
If we're switching from oil to gas, we need a new hot water heater too, since it makes no sense to switch to gas heat and still get oil deliveries for hot water. Also see the "get it all done at once rather than piecemeal" argument.
Fuel Tank Removal
Switching from oil to gas means we don't need the old fuel tank, and don't want it taking up space and possibly becoming a hazard. It'll have to be taken out eventually, so...
Electrical Panel
We essentially need to have an electrician come in and see if we can run the system we want on our current electrical panel, or if we need to upgrade before we can have it installed. In which case, the price goes up by however much that will be.
Humidifier
It's a relatively small thing, but we also want to get a central humidifier on the furnace. The little room humidifier we have works ok, but of course is only in one room, and requires lugging water around to fill it every day when we're using it in the winter time. I definitely like the idea of a central humidifier to keep the whole house comfortable.
so... we'll see. I'm hoping the financing works out so we *can* do this. Waiting and saving definitely has some attraction, but the main arguments against that are:
a) not feeling confident the furnace will last the winter so we can do this next year
b) sky-high oil prices and a 60% efficiency heater mean we'll probably be paying 2x what we did last year for heat. Upping to a 96% efficiency heater, even if gas prices go up as much as oil prices do, will mean a *BIG* savings over the winter...
- Mood:
nervous
"you will receive your economic stimulus check on or before 5/16/08."
So, today we mowed the lawn for the first time this year, and started the process of opening up the pool, including getting the cover off, replacing the sand in the filter, and getting everything hooked up. It's currently filling the rest of the way, and then we'll shock it and start the whole thing circulating.
Last weekend, I did a ton of cutting and pulling, getting the jungle under control. I still have a lot of weeding to do before I can plant anything I actually want to grow - and it might be too late at this point, though I don't think so. Maybe for some things but not others...
I really want to plant blueberry bushes, so if I don't get around to it this year, I'll at least prep the area where I want them so it's easier to get them in next year.
this is a very cool service, except for the fact that I don't want to pay $400 for a kindle. But I'd love to pay $10 for a $17 book and read it tonight instead of a week from now...
I realize that it's probably the only way to push kindle sales, but I wish they'd sell the darn things as plain e-books too, to read on whatever computer/pda/etc you already have...
free to read the stories, PayPal donation if you like them and can spare the $.
I've read Wildling and Xenosomnabulism so far, and both were excellent!
(partly because I can't quite see her getting her own coffee)
but it does appear to be.
Amusing, though I'll admit your first time confronting one of those machines could easily be confusing.
Very cute - I love the last line :)
"I imagine there are people out there who got a dog when what they wanted was a baby, but I wonder if there aren't other people who had a baby when all they really needed was a dog."
Of course, I see this as applying to your pet of choice - whether dog, cat, ferret or other :)
http://dsc.discovery.com/
Whee!
But what would perfect be? Able to do everything I or my loved ones want, every time, to the satisfaction of everyone involved...
Yeah, that's why nobody's perfect.
- Mood:
spazzy
Essentially they're doing a subscription service where you get one free book a week. This week's is Four and Twenty Blackbirds by Cherie Priest.
I haven't looked at it yet, but I've got the download for when I have time - and free is exactly the right price to get me to try something new.
Next week's book will be Spirit Gate by Kate Elliott.
Oh, and there are free SF and F themed wallpapers each week too :)
