Toadfish Monastery

Was anyone else struck by the resemblance of the Higgs Bosun particle to the Flying Spaghetti Monster?

Follow this link to the Highly Sensitive Person test.

I don't know how accurate the test is, really, but I wondered if the results would show a general tendency toward high sensitivity here in the Toadfish Monastery. I wonder if people who are interested in finding more peace and tolerance in the world are extra sensitive.

Just curious!

This poll is open ended, you can change your vote, and you can only see the results after you have voted.

I was ruminating on Aggie's topic of Highly Sensitive People when I remembered this old XTC song called Senses Working Overtime. It's been playing in my head and I had to see if I could find it online.

XTC was a pretty cool band.

This topic has been moved by request.

In the USA we are celebrating Martin Luther King Day. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was a Toadfish of his time, leading peaceful protests that helped the cause of Equal Rights in the USA and around the world.

Have we given him an honorary HOT membership, yet?

Last night I was watching BBC news and was somewhat taken aback to hear Katty Kay generalizing Americans as gun-toting maniacs, even though I think she said that something like 44% of Americans own guns. I know that's a large percent, but it is not all of us. I was saddened to think that my country was being slammed as being full of gun-wild ye-haws. If 44% of us were Hindu would that make us seen as all Hindu? And what about the gun owners who agree that we need tougher gun laws? They do exist.

I'll admit, there is a lot of utter carp going on here, but there are wonderful things about my country, too. It is a beautiful land. There are good things produced here. We have lotsa art and great writing and design. Technically we can oppose our government without being thrown in jail. Women can get an education. The people here don't seem any more good or bad than anyplace else, as far as I can see.

It made me feel a bit insulted. (But not so much that I went and bought an AKA47 at the convenience store to shoot the TV.)

Hey-o! We had a little money this Yule, so we finally got the Opsalette something she has been wanting: a Wii player. It was on sale, and we figured we don't always have the money, but we did this year so why not.

It came with "Just Dance 4" and we have been really enjoying it. Last week I started doing the 10 minute workouts each morning, and this week Th'O'lette has had off from school (exempt from exams because of excellent grades), and she has joined me doing the 25 minute workouts. We do the dances too, but the workouts are well-designed, starting slow with warm-ups, moving to more energetic dances, and then cooling off with yoga stretches.

I have really been needing aerobic exercise, but am not a gym person (couldn't afford it, anyway), and found regular exercises extremely tedious. But these are so much fun, the music is lively, the graphics are colorful, the dances are challenging, plus the routines change  according to how much energy the machine senses you are expending. It estimates how many calories are burned, and gives points for matching beats, which add up to winning prizes such as new avatars and new challenges.

I am hoping that I will keep up the regimen I have started. All ready I have a spring in my step. I was a little sore (but not hurting) at first, and then again when I upped the workout, but I felt like I warm accomplishing something.

I hope that this will help me get my heart rate up each day, so my heart will be healthier.

Anyone else tried it?

Well me hearties, we've been practicing the Toadfish Vows for seven years, as of January the 6th, 2013. So what have we got to show for it? Well, we have made good and trusted friends here, and maybe have learned some useful ways of coping in real life, too, and we will continue to learn.

It is wonderful to know that our Toadfish Siblings are in here to help us to celebrate our happy times and mourn our losses, to consult with when we are confuddled and to nurture when we are needed. We share information and play together, and let each other know what's going on in each of our  little corners of the globe. This is a nice, safe connection to the rest of the world. When we come here, we know we are loved. That sounds really sappy, but it's true. It's nice to have such a place, and I am happy that you are part of it. Thank you.

Yesterday we visited a retrospective of the work of Chinese artist Ai WeiWei. His work is on view at the Hirschorn gallery in Washington DC, and is the first retropective of his work in this country.

This guy is amazing. He has true classical artistic talent, as seen in his Chinese zodiac heads which ringed the circular courtyard area, but also incredibly powerful conceptual work, such as his Ceiling Snake, which is made up of children's backpacks and is a cry of outrage over lives of children lost through an earthquake due to poor school construction. Another protest about that is an installation of rebar from the buildings mangled in that earthquake, which he arranged into a huge fault line.

One of the most bothersome pieces for me was a series of ancient pots that he slathered with hideous clown-colored paints. I wanted to avert my eyes from them, they bothered me so much. But instead I confronted them and discussed them for a long time with my sister and a passer-by, and this turned out to be the most satisfying intellectual exploration of the show. (I often find this sort of thing to happen, that what turns me off at first at a good art show can become something wonderful if picked to pieces with a friend.)

If this show comes anywhere near you, I highly recommend attending it. Looking at Ai WeiWei through his works is a moving experience. He is an artist, an activist, a hack, an asshole, a genius. The world is better for his being here to observe and comment on it.

Following Griffin's lead, let's start a post linking to online petitions to the US government.

Here are two I found today:

Sign to urge congress to get their behinds in gear on the budget:

US Chamber of Commerce Fiscal Cliff Petition

This one I am very proud of, as it was organized by students at my former High School. It is for stricter gun laws:
Keep America Safe from Guns

According to Joshua Green at Bloomberg Businessweek:

"Immediately after House Speaker John Boehner's Plan B fell apart Thursday night, Dow futures plummeted and the media freaked out (Huffington Post headline: "END OF THE WORLD"). Boehner and his deputies skulked out of the Capitol, humiliated. His Hail Mary plan to create leverage for Republicans in the fiscal cliff negotiations with Republicans lay in tatters. Soon, his speakership may, too.

But Plan B's demise doesn't ensure we're going over the cliff–it simply narrows the options. And there are two bits of good news embedded in the failure. First, if we do go over the cliff, a resolution will arrive sooner than it would have otherwise. That's because Plan B's biggest effect, had it passed, would have been to inoculate Republicans against the charge that they blew up the economy to protect "millionaires and billionaires" from tax hikes. Now that they're vulnerable to that charge, public pressure will be much more intense and likely to elicit a quick concession.

Second, it's now clear that the only way to avoid the cliff is through a bipartisan bill that can pass the House, probably with substantial Democratic support. The GOP's self-defeating revolt will shift the center of gravity to the left. Here's where things get tricky: Boehner has said he won't bring a bill to the floor unless it has the support of the majority of his caucus. Lost in Thursday night's disarray was that the overwhelming majority of House Republicans — all but 30 or so of his 241 members — supported Plan B's tax hike on millionaires. So it's not impossible to imagine him gaining the support of 121 Republicans (he'd actually only need 217 because of vacancies) for a deal that raises taxes on households earning, say, $400,000 or $500,000, especially if that deal also contains cuts to entitlement programs and removes the dreaded sequester.

But gaining that support is far from a sure thing. It's what Republicans and Democrats are now frantically trying to gauge. If Boehner can't get a majority of his caucus on board, then he'll truly be facing the end of the world — or at least the end of his speakership. The conservatives I polled Thursday night agreed (contra some media chatter) that Plan B's failure doesn't threaten Boehner's job. But they also thought that if Boehner were to pass a cliff bill without a majority of his caucus, he'd be doomed.

In a drama Aaron Sorkin might have scripted, Boehner may soon be faced with the choice of holding firm and hurtling everyone into the abyss or saving the country from chaos by passing a Democratic-friendly bill with only a minority of Republicans — at the cost of his speakership, which (more Sorkin drama!)  is up for a vote on Jan. 3.

Either way, though, there's a little more certainty this morning that things will end sooner rather than later. So despite the hyperbole and market turmoil, last night's vote actually brought some good news."

While the news of the latest violence in the Connecticut school just washed over me on Friday when it happened, it is slowly eating into my heart.

I know it does no good to ask why this carp happens time and again. It's just another unstable person acting out his aggression. It could happen anywhere. I'm not feeling paranoid that it could happen here, of course it could, but think of all the places it didn't happen. What bugs me is all the suffering. I just feel so bad for all those parents of children that got in the way of the nutboy's bullets.

I try not to dwell on it too much. I try not to imagine too well how I would feel if Th'Opsalette happened to have been one of those kids. She is safe. I try not to torture my mind. But I know that somewhere tonight, there's a whole bunch of people with their hearts just massacred. They have no answers and likely never will have closure. I worry about them.

I wonder if my mind could take such a blow.

Thanksgiving Day in the USA is on Thursday November 22 this year. (I don't know why we have it on a Thursday every year.)

I am thankful for all the inspiration I get from my wonderful Toadfish Siblings. I think of you often and am glad you're in my life.

Love,
Opsa

Ahhh yes, it's presidential election day here in the U.S. of A., and I am so happy it's finally here.

This morning Mr. Ops and I will drive to the polling place past a ridiculous number of signs littering the roadway. You'd think we would have been able to see the first hundred identical signs with the same message, but I guess they are afraid we might have missed them. We will park the car and walk by little clusters of cold people gathered around tables of the opposing parties. They will call to us on behalf of their preferred candidates, We will be cordial and noncommittal. Hands will be shaken. Doughnuts will be waved at us, as if that might change our minds. We will take pre-printed ballot sheets from each person that accosts us and toss them in the trash the moment we get inside.

We will stand in a short line. This is because we live in a small town. Even in a huje turnout year we generally do not have to wait long to vote, thank TGE. We'll be asked for our names and addresses and IDs by people that know us. We will go to a booth and will vote. We will get little "I Voted" badges and wear them for the rest of the day, as talismans against those who would try to change our mind with more doughnuts and hand-shakings. Too late: I Voted.

We will have some lunch and congratulate ourselves for exercising our rights, even if it is futile.

This evening we'll watch the news and see if anything we voted for is ahead. We will likely go to bed before we know any results.

Tomorrow we will wake up and it will be over: the incessant robo-calls and grating political ads on TV. Someone will have won, but even if it is not our candidate, life will seem just a little more quiet for a little while. We will have to cope with the outcome, no matter what happens. But we'll know we tried.

Hey hey hey! Anyone out there in the spirit?

Our theater group was asked to haunt our local community center as a fundraiser this weekend, and we had a blast. The young actors came in costume and I dressed as the dead dowager (I found a dress worthy of Margaret Dumont for a dollar at a yard sale) and lead the tour. It was amazing how brave, and how chicken people can be! At the end we did a spooky flash mob dance to Vic Mizzy's "Gomez". It was a hoot and a half!

Whatchyoo been doin'?

I read about these in the Washington Post recently. The Chamomile Tea Party is against partisan politics in the USA and has created posters for their cause in the style of the great commie propaganda posters of yesteryear. I gotta say, some of them are brilliant IMHO.

If you loved Julia Child, you gotta check out this cute video that was made in honor of her 100th birthday, which would have been today. Go to the second picture down and hit the play button.

I just happened across these tech monk teacups on the Archie McPhee website. Someone must be onto us, cybermonks!

Not that I was in any danger of eating at a Chik-Fil-A in the first place, but now that the overtly Christian organization has made a public statement against gay marriage, I can guarantee I won't even go near the place, even to placate my carnivorous friends.

Don't get me wrong, I am not anti-Christian. I know of some Christians that are tolerant people. But I have to say that there is a creepiness factor set in my beloved country the United States of America that has thickened like a layer of mould over my lifetime, and personally I find it uncomfortable and un-American, in the sense that we purport to have been founded on religious freedom. I have a sickening feeling that some people interpret that notion as being freedom for their religion only, not all religious ideas (including atheism). Knowing that many of the founding fathers were Unitarian (as am I) I know that they meant that people should be free to follow what spiritual path calls to them if they wish.

I recently was invited to join a service club but found that people are expected to stand and pray in the name of one particular savior. I do not understand why, but I have decided to find other ways of helping my community that do not involve enforced praying to someone else's idea of god. The worst part is that I know that some of these people cheat on their spouses. So much for family values. This is hypocrisy. I aint gonna do it. There, I've said it.

Maybe the president of Sick-Ful-A has every right to his own opinions about what he supposes a family should be "as defined by the Bible" (as I heard it described on the news). Never mind that the Bible also says "Thou shalt not kill" and then does not specify what one is not to kill. What if I interpret that as thou shalt not kill anything, including chickens? The main point is that who the heck are these people who make gross public statements like this and then act like they are being persecuted?

Maybe it's just a big publicity stunt. I'm not going to give him any of my business or my attention. I'm not going to support any kind of carp like this. Ever.

G'AAARRRRRRRRGH!

A recent thread was enjoyably hijacked to the subject of such things as X-Ray Specs and Sea Monkeys. Let's continue it here, where it presumably belongs.  

When I was a kid I was fascinated with electric walkie-talkies, which I had been allowed to use on a hike, once. Now we don't use them as much, since a lot of people have cell phones. I asked my parents for one several years in a row, but they never complied, preferring to give me something they could also give to my sister, who was a year and a half younger than me, the fiends! Imagine my excitement when I found an ad for a set of walkie talkies for just a buck and a half (as I recall), plus postage. Naturally, I sent for them.

After a wait of what seemed like an eternity (maybe six to eight weeks), they came. The box was suspiciously light. Inside I found two pressed tin gizmos that half-heartedly tried to look like real walkie talkies, connected by a four foot string that had to be kept taut for proper reception! I'd made superior things out of paper cups! Shock, disbelief, embarrassment, and lesson learned.