TOO FINE A POINT Saturn’s moon Janus obscures part of the planet’s A ring as the Cassini spacecraft looks toward the main rings and the thin F ring. Janus (111 miles across, and 1.6 million miles away from Cassini) appears as a dark oval to the left of the center of the image. (Photo: NASA via the Telegraph)
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| — | Jodi Picoult |
★ discovered on imgfave.com (social image bookmarking)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-csGDoSSZyc
Well.
The Dutch are not schleps. Whew. These people iron their clothing. I would go as far as to wager a day’s pay on ironed undergarments. Not one of the shoe stores I’ve passed — note that I did not say ‘entered’ as that would no doubt be a dangerous exercise — has a pair of ugly shoes. All good. Good shoes everywhere.
Everyone seems to speak English well and everything is nice. Even the light switches are nice. The bread is really fantastic here, which will inevitably be the vice I chose to indulge in at EVERY meal. I brought my breakfast upstairs to my room and the one slice of bread I left turned to a cracker in about 2 hours. No preservatives (you were right, Lesh!)
The city is beyond beautiful. It couldn’t be any more lovely to look at.
And the weather has been mild. No snow on the ground and a bright sun in the sky. I’m pretty nervous to spend my first day alone with Teo tomorrow. I didn’t expect European cities to be on grids like Toronto or New York, but MAN is this one tough for a gal like me. You know when you’re driving and you have to take three rights instead of one left? That’s what this whole place feels like to me. Today Mistaya pointed to our hotel from the dance theatre ACROSS THE STREET saying, “that’s it right there. Just cross over the bridge.” Yeah. I got lost. With the damn building in SIGHT. I’m kinda screwed. But, you know what they say relieves the stress of navigating a spider-web like maze with ADD and neurosis? Having a restless 20 month old with you. I have my work cut out for me. When he’s not saying “NO NO NO NO NO” and marching around like a drunken soldier, Teo likes to spend his time calling every animal a cat (“CHAT!”) and smearing spaghetti on his face and shirt. The good thing is that he’s a happy baby, thank GOD, and SO funny and cute.
The city is not as expensive as I thought it would be. It’s about the same as Toronto, I think. Architecturally, I expected the city to be more Americanized or modern or something. That’s about it for misconceptions so far.
The canals are so cool! I have already spent a great deal of mental energy on 1- what I would throw in them regularly if I lived here, 2- what people have probably thrown in already, 3- how to keep a toddler from jumping in them.
And hey World, you weren’t kidding about jet lag. She’s a bat outta hell! Ol’ Regular Tired ain’t got nothin’ on Sweet Mama JL. I went to sleep at 11 pm last night having had a total of about three hours sleep in the 24 hours prior, only to wake up at two am, wide eyed and confused. I fell back asleep by seven am for a couple of hours and since waking have been in a altered state I like to call New Me.
So, hey guys, I’m in Europe!
It rules, really.
More to come…
I was raised in a deeply-religious setting with the belief that homosexuality is sin. However, homophobia has been deeply entrenched in the Black community for… ever. The down-low man wouldn’t be as prominent if Black men weren’t masquerading as straight men with wives and girlfriends, while getting dicked down outside of prison.
As fun of an experience it can be, high school is probably the most shameless experience a human being’s life. Either you’re one of the select few creating the status quo or the many who follow the status quo. Unfortunately, there are many who also suffer because of the status quo.
I know I’ve called enough dudes faggots or questioned their sexuality or said they were going to hell.
That’s easy when you don’t really know or understand the choices people make. Or you don’t know people. I never had any gay friends, so it was easy to proclaim all gays and lesbians were headed to hell, while ignoring the straight killers, robbers, liars and cheaters.
And then, right after we graduated from high school, one of my closest friends came out of the closet. It’s not as easy to torture your best friend. Going away to college, meeting members of the LGBT community, being in Atlanta, put faces on the people I had condemned to hell.
The mirror was turned on me. These people were genuinely good people who lived honorable and lawful lives, I have a better chance of going to heaven because I like vagina?
I’m still religious. I believe Jesus Christ is my Lord and Savior. And as my Lord, I follow his life of loving all. I no longer want to spit church doctrine, when some of the lives in church are even more twisted. The Holy Spirit will deal with whatever is going on in your life. God is the only one who can judge any of us.
I’m glad I finally grew up and got a clue.
