A huge turn-off

World Wildlife Fund's Earth Hour is catching on across America following the tremendous success of last year's event in Sydney, Australia. This global phenomenon will spread across six continents in 2008, including hundreds of communities like yours in the United States.

Chicago will serve as the U.S. flagship city for Earth Hour in 2008, with Atlanta, Phoenix and San Francisco joining as leading partner cities. But everyone throughout the US and around the world is invited and encouraged to turn off their lights for an hour on March 29 at 8 p.m. local time--whether at home or at work, with friends and family or solo, in a big city or a small town.

What will you do when the lights are off? Why not change out those old energy-wasting light bulbs to new, inexpensive and efficient compact fluorescents. Earth Hour is also a perfect time to consider what you and your family can do in the days and months to reduce emissions and live more sustainably. They have lots of terrific ideas to get you started.

To alter the course of climate change we must act now. The U.S. is the world's leading emitter of carbon dioxide—over 20 tons per person every year. One person committed to reducing energy consumption can make a difference, and millions of us working together can change the world.

Let everyone know that you're a part of Earth Hour - sign up on the site and become part of the movement.

One hour, America. Earth Hour.

And Baby Makes Three!

After all this time with nothing to post, this is what I come up with.

Labor of Love

"To our neighbors, my wife, Nancy, and I don’t appear in the least unusual. To those in the quiet Oregon community where we live, we are viewed just as we are -- a happy couple deeply in love. Our desire to work hard, buy our first home, and start a family was nothing out of the ordinary. That is, until we decided that I would carry our child."

Basically, it's a normal, happy couple who are expecting their very first child. The only thing that makes it something the entire nation is yapping about is that it's the husband who is pregnant.

Because he is a legally-recognized male, it's noteworthy. Obviously, he was born as a female and did not have his girl-bits removed. So most of society is throwing a fit as if it was truly their business. I think it's sad that they can't find a doctor to help them, but I also think most of the time, pregnancy and childbirth is better off without tons of medical intervention anyway. If there's a problem, then by all means utilize the medical system - if you're healthy and have no complications, have a birth attendant (such as a midwife) and have your baby in a natural, loving environment such as a birth center or, (gasp) your home.

That would be my suggestion to this valiant, unconventional couple. Hire a midwife; have your baby in a birth center or at home. And by all means, keep your chins up - the world is gonna judge, but then again, doesn't it always? It takes a strong person to live a transgendered life with pride and security, and obviously this man and his wife have vast amounts of courage to take this step to have a family... and to go public with it.

On an aside... he's due the same day as me! How cool is that??

The ones you didn't get

Here's the movies no one guessed:

#5. Under the Tuscan Sun

#9. The Thirteenth Warrior

What a fun little game! Now, back to your regularly scheduled lives.

Wanna watch a movie with me?

1. Pick 15 of your favorite movies.
2. Go to IMDb and find a quote from each movie.
3. Post them here for everyone to guess.
4. Strike it out when someone guesses correctly in the comments, and put who correctly identified the film.
5. NO Googling or using IMDb search functions.

These are in no particular order of favoritism, and I have many more favorites than these, of course...

MOVIE #1: On the subway today, a man came up to me to start a conversation. He made small talk, a lonely man talking about the weather and other things. I tried to be pleasant and accommodating, but my head hurt from his banality. I almost didn't notice it had happened, but I suddenly threw up all over him. He was not pleased, and I couldn't stop laughing. Jerm knew this - it's Se7en.

MOVIE #2: My brains, his steel, and your strength against sixty men, and you think a little head jiggle is supposed to make me happy? Again for Jerm, an easy one: The Princess Bride.

MOVIE #3: They had enough of Nicky. They had enough. I mean, how much more were they gonna take? So, they made an example of him and his brother: they buried them while they were still breathing. Way to go, Carrie! She got Casino.

MOVIE #4: You don't got nothing to do with your life. Why don't you get a job? Work with lepers. Blind kids. Anything's gotta be better than lying around all day waiting for me to fuck you. This one was Scarface, again with Jerm's expert knowledge.

MOVIE #5: What are four walls, anyway? They are what they contain. The house protects the dreamer. Unthinkably good things can happen, even late in the game. It's such a surprise.

MOVIE #6: He wants to make money. You know - live in a nice house with wide windows and locks. You can't expect him to live forever with his sister and the nipple-twisting that goes on there. Jerm says it's The Wedding Singer.

MOVIE #7: Nothing to it is there? Remember, they love money so pretend like you own a gold mine and you're in the club. This one was Titanic. Carrie "sunk" it, har-har.

MOVIE #8: Those giraffes you sold me, they won't mate. They just walk around, eating, and not mating. You sold me... queer giraffes. I want my money back. James got this one! It's Gladiator.

MOVIE #9: The All-Father wove the skein of your life a long time ago. Go and hide in a hole if you wish, but you won't live one instant longer. Your fate is fixed. Fear profits a man nothing.

MOVIE #10: Don't blame me. I'm an interpreter. I'm not supposed to know a power socket from a computer terminal. I tried to pick an obscure quote from this one, but alas, Jerm nailed Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back.

MOVIE #11: Ain't logical. Cuttin' on his own face, rapin' and murdering - Hell, I'll kill a man in a fair fight... or if I think he's gonna start a fair fight, or if he bothers me, or if there's a woman, or if I'm gettin' paid - mostly only when I'm gettin' paid. I was thinking something HAD to be wrong if Cory didn't get this one! It's from Serenity, of course.

MOVIE #12: I believe in America. America has made my fortune. And I raised my daughter in the American fashion. I gave her freedom, but I taught her never to dishonor her family. She found a boyfriend; not an Italian. She went to the movies with him; she stayed out late. I didn't protest. Two months ago, he took her for a drive, with another boyfriend. They made her drink whiskey. And then they tried to take advantage of her. She resisted. She kept her honor. So they beat her, like an animal. An easy one for the Jerm-man, The Godfather.

MOVIE #13: As the sound of the playgrounds faded, the despair set in. Very odd, what happens in a world without children's voices. A newer flick, but apparently Jerm just watches movies all day. This one was Children of Men.

MOVIE #14: It is most gratifying that your enthusiasm for our planet continues unabated. As a token of our appreciation, we hope you will enjoy the two thermonuclear missiles we've just sent to converge with your craft. To ensure ongoing quality of service, your death may be monitored for training purposes. Thank you. Now this one was easy. I knew Jerm would get Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. I just didn't think he'd get almost all of them. Rock on, buddy!

MOVIE #15: Son of a bitch. I mean, it's not bad enough that he's trying to kill me. Now he's trying to turn me into a drag queen. Why couldn't he have said you were going to have the operation? Yes, James, this is a quote from Weekend at Bernie's! It's the first one - I love this goofy little movie but I despise the sequel.

There's a tear in my gas...

Just blowin' through records on a daily basis, we are. Three months ago, the ever-present Economists (supposedly the experts on the subject) were saying we'll never hit $100 a barrel in this country, because our economy, though strong, could not support the resulting surge in prices at the pump.

Blah-buh-blah buh-fucking-blah.

So today prices shot up above $109 a barrel in trading, and show no signs of slowing down. When we broke $3 per gallon at the pump last year, it was all over the news and no one could stop talking about it. It didn't last long, although it never really dropped very far after that. This year, long before the spring/summer driving rush, it breached the $3 mark again and no one even blinked. Yet, folks keep buying and buying, because they have to.

From MSNBC.com:
Where oil goes from here is anybody’s guess. Many analysts expect prices to moderate, while others predict oil could keep rising to $120 a barrel, or higher. And with demand for gas expected to rise as warm weather arrives, analysts say pump prices will likely spike as high as $3.50 to $3.75 a gallon, regardless of what happens with oil prices.

That doesn’t sit well with some consumers.

“I’ve got to say, if they ever go up to $3.50, that would be the point where I’d feel angry,” said Alex Magby, a Morrisville, Pa., resident who was gassing up near his New Jersey restaurant job one recent afternoon. “I’d feel cheated at that point.”

Cheated? I don't feel cheated. I feel like I am being screwed up the ass without the courtesy of that other petroleum by-product, Vaseline.

Personally, I don't buy like I used to - of course, I used to be able to budget $6o every two weeks for gas, which at the time put me pretty close to a full tank. That would last at least two weeks, if not longer, depending on where I went. Unfortunately, life having gotten harder and harder these past few months, I can now only eke out $20 or $30 for gas every two weeks. Now it doesn't even put me to half a tank, and I can ONLY drive to work and stop at the store on the way home, or I won't make it until the next gas-ration day.

If it goes up to $3.50 a gallon, $30 of gas won't make it two weeks for me, no matter how little I drive. Work isn't going to suddenly move closer. At $3.75, I am not sure what I'd do. My beloved, responsible DH** is again amongst the ranks of the unemployed (gnashing teeth) and so I already do not make enough for our ends to meet, so to speak. How can those schmucks out there who are, like me, classified as "working poor" possibly make it in a world where regular gasoline is $3.75 a gallon?

Because that means diesel will be well over $4 a gallon. And everything that we buy (including the gas itself) gets to us either on diesel-powered trucks, trains, ships or all of the above. Trickle-down economics, or the ol' shit-rolls-downhill verbage, certainly applies here. I flipped out the other day when I saw that my WIC checks now allow $4.80 for eggs - that means I can get two dozen eggs again, like I'm supposed to be able to get. (Usually, the allotment is at $4, which won't get two dozen eggs.) I saw milk at Walmart on sale for $3.50 a gallon and, after I dry-heaved in shock, found myself thankful that I was at least able to get MOST of my milk on WIC as well. (That's the Walmart brand, too... the name-brand - which probably comes from the same set of cows - costs over $5 a gallon. And people are BUYING IT!!!)

Well, all you can do is hang on... and hope something happens sooner or later, I guess.

**DH stands for Dear Husband or Darling Husband on most mommy-oriented chat boards I frequent. However, it also stands for Dick Head, which is the term I prefer to apply in this particular situation.