Happy New Year

Happy New Year everyone, and RIP Dan Fogelberg

South Park Personality Quiz

NaNoWriMo Winner!

I have finally done it! I'm a 2007 NaNoWriMo winner! I've achieved the ultimate goal of writing a 50,000 page novel in just 30 days! Well, OK... I actually wrote 50,101 words so far. And I say so far because the novel isn't exactly completed. It will end up being much longer. Now here's to hoping I can stick with it to finish it. But I do hope to be doing more blogging again now that November is over. Maybe at some point I'll even post some excerpts from my book.

"Lesbian" Worms

clipped from blogs.nature.com Scientists have created ‘lesbian worms’ in a new development that some are suggesting could shed light on the nature vs nurture debate over sexuality “The conclusion is that sexual attraction is wired into brain circuits common to both sexes of worms, and is not caused solely by extra nerve cells added to the male or female brain,” says biologist Erik Jorgensen The ‘lesbian worms’ line is a bit of red herring. There aren’t true females in the C. elegans nematodes used, only hermaphrodites and (rare) true males. “A hermaphrodite makes both eggs and sperm,” says Jorgensen. They also took hermaphrodite worms and turned on the genes that determine maleness, these then became the famous ‘lesbian worms’, chasing after other hermaphrodites. Jorgensen calls hermaphrodites “females” because they reproduce independently.

I'm a bit confused how hermaphrodites can be lesbians, and why the fact that they "reproduce independently" is justification for labeling them females, but I still found this to be interesting.

GLBT History Month Daily Icon

Weird Japanese Products

The Japanese do have some of the weirdest products on the market. lol... Maybe that's why I love Japanese culture so much.

clipped from my.mmoabc.com "Man Smell" Gum Beer for Kids A Mother's Milk: Breast-tasting drink! Panty Vending Machine The Most Weirdest and Funniest Japanese Products!

Yahoo! Mash

Mash is Yahoo's latest beta project, intended to rival MySpace and Facebook. I thought that Yahoo had the same intention for 360, not that it even came close to living up to that purpose. And 360 still hasn't made it out of the beta stage.

So now that Yahoo is working on Mash, what will become of 360? Will it become an abandoned project, doomed forever to remain in the beta stage? Or will Yahoo pull 360 out of beta and allow it to be what it pretty much has already become -- an extended Yahoo profile with online networking overtones.

One of the reasons 360 never really took off was because Yahoo failed to incorporate into it one of the things that made MySpace such a hit in the first place -- an almost endless ability for personalization. Sure, Yahoo thought about the whole networking thing when they made 360. But what about the ability to add music, videos, games, quizzes, flashy graphic comments, or by simply copying and pasting a little piece of code into one of your profile sections, to completely change the layout of your page so it becomes truly, uniquely you. Yahoo missed the boat in those areas.

But what 360 lacks, Mash promises to deliver... or so it seems. Mash is not only still in its beta testing stage, it is also currently available to the public on an invitation only basis. I managed to get an invite and checked it out. Like MySpace, Mash offers a great deal of customizeability. As of yet, you can't do nearly as much with it as you can with MySpace, but that's because of it's currently small user base. And let's face it... what enables people to so greatly personalize their MySpace profiles is due largely to third parties creating all those extras and making them available to MySpace users via external websites. Mash doesn't have all these third party designers and developers yet. Most people don't even know about it yet. But I believe that Mash offers an equal or greater potential for personalization compared to MySpace.

Rather than requiring users to search out third party websites for their personalization needs, Mash offers it all right on the Mash website in the form of modules that anybody can create... much like you find on Google's personal home pages. And also like on Google's personalized homes, you can simply drag and drop your modules to rearrange your layout. So there's no need for searching out code to add to your profile when you want to rearrange or completely remove a section, like on MySpace.

Another major difference is the ability for users other than the profile's "owner" to modify the profile. On MySpace, your friends can leave text, graphics, videos, etc. as comments which are then added to your profile. On Mash, by default, there's the ability for anybody at all to do anything at all to your profile... or at least anything that you yourself would be able to do. But you are able to change your settings so that rather than anyone being able to edit your profile, only your friends will have the ability... or you can turn off the feature all together so that nobody but yourself can make changes. It's up to you whether you want your profile to be yours or whether you want to enable others a wiki-like freedom to contribute to it.

So basically, Y!Mash is kinda like a mash-up of MySpace, Google Personalized homes and a wiki. Yahoo was at the forefront of the internet revolution. It's great to see them finally joining in on the web 2.0 evolution.

If anybody would like an invitation to join Yahoo! Mash, feel free to contact me at pooge0287@yahoo.com, and I'll hook ya up.

I clearly have no "spiritual skills"...

I suppose it's no surprise, really. I never exactly considered myself a spiritual person, aside from a couple of years in my life when I thought I was in training to be a guardian angel. (what? it's not that crazy!)
Let's take a look at the individual traits indicative of spirituality, and see how I score..
a deep-seated sense of meaning and purpose in life -- NO
sense of belonging -- NO
acceptance -- NO
integration -- NO
wholeness -- not sure exactly what's meant by this one, so I can't say.
being self-reflective and honest -- I'd like to consider myself both, so one up for me:D -- YES
being able to remain focused in the present -- ummm... sure... as long as by present you mean my life time... but basically... NO
alert -- NO
unhurried -- YES! (who woulda thought I could get kudos for procrastination)
attentive -- I suppose I'm attentive to somethings... I'll give that a MAYBE
being able to rest and relax -- YES! I can sleep all day long! (and sometimes do)
developing greater empathy for others -- NO... oddly, my empathy for others seems to be decreasing as the years go by.
finding courage to witness and endure distress while sustaining an attitude of hope -- well life has taught me that I have the courage to witness and endure many, many distressful things... but while sustaining an attitude of hope??? Hardly! NO
improved discernment -- in general, maybe... in regards to their example... NO... I tend to speak when I should remain quiet, and remain quiet when I should speak.

clipped from www.rcpsych.ac.uk Spirituality involves a dimension of human experience that psychiatrists are increasingly interested in, because of its potential benefits to mental health. It is not necessary to hold formal religious beliefs, or engage in religious practices, or belong to an established faith tradition, to experience the spiritual dimension. spirituality is identified with experiencing a deep-seated sense of meaning and purpose in life, together with a sense of belonging. It is about acceptance, integration and wholeness. Spiritual skills include: being self-reflective and honest; being able to remain focused in the present, remaining alert, unhurried and attentive; being able to rest, relax and create a still, peaceful state of mind; developing greater empathy for others; finding courage to witness and endure distress while sustaining an attitude of hope; developing improved discernment, for example about when to speak or act and when to remain silent;

Clitoraid... Adopt a Clitoris!

From the same folks that brought you Clonaid comes Clitoraid!

Remember Clonaid and the Raelians? Well if not, I'll give you a quick refresher course. Back in 2002, the "human cloning company" Clonaid claimed to have successfully cloned a human embryo, and further more, claimed the cloned human baby was born via c-section. While such claims were never verified, it turned out that the head of Clonaid is a bishop in the Raelian church. The Raelians are a UFO cult headed by some former French singer/auto-racing journalist who changed his name to Rael, and apparently Clonaid is closely associated with the Raelian movement as their tool to achieve immortality through cloning.

Ok... so... the Raelians don't believe in God, but they do believe in intelligent design... with the intelligent designers being extra-terrestrials, basically. And the Raelians believe cloning is the key to their immortality. But what's any of this have to do with sponsoring a clitoris?

Well first, let's clarify what's meant by sponsoring or adopting a clitoris. In many parts of Africa, it is customary to perform clitoral excision (a form of genital mutilation sometimes referred to as "female circumcision") on young girls. What this means is their clitoris is removed, which of course takes most of the pleasure out of the act of sex. Amongst the Raelians' beliefs, are beliefs in sexual freedom for men and women alike. So the Raelians are attempting to raise money for the surgical procedure required to RESTORE these women's clitorises, hence Clitoraid and the adopt a clitoris program.

Is it possible to restore a woman's clitoris once it's been removed? I have no clue... but sounds like a noble cause led by a bunch of nut jobs, to me. Seems to me I remember Oprah doing a show on female genital mutilation in Africa a couple of years back. You don't suppose Oprah's a Raelian, do ya?

For more information on the Raelians, you may wish to check out some of their many official websites.

Still kickin'

Hey there... it's me again. Still alive... still not smoking... and still really bad at keeping my many blogs up to date. I thought today might be a good day to start updating them, tho. Or at least updating this one. Why? Because I'm trying to fight off the urge to rip off my clothes and run naked through the streets of East Lansing, and this seemed like the perfect way to keep myself otherwise occupied.

I was looking through some of my old posts. The one about Anna Nicole Smith's son dying caught my eye. I remember when that happened. Something about it seemed so weird and... unfair. Little did I know how much stranger the story was gonna get. Throughout the investigation into Anna Nicole's own death, throughout the fight over who would decide where she would be buried, and throughout the custody battle over her infant daughter, I thought many times about blogging about it all. I figured since I had made a post about the son death, might as well follow the continuing saga. But like most things in my life, I never got around to it.

If you look through my blog, you might notice that there's an awful lot of posts about my not posting in a while. When a person has nothing more to say other than mentioning that they've had nothing to say, is it really worth maintaining a blog? let alone... how ever many blogs I have now... I don't even know anymore. The answer is yes... yes it is. Cuz if I didn't have all these blogs, what would I do on days such as today when I need something to prevent me from breaking the law or otherwise going against the long established norms of society? Hmmm... actually, I go against the long established norms of society on a daily basis regardless... but I don't like breaking the law. So instead, I blog.