Shannon Larratt is Zentastic

I'd mentioned that we rented a dumpster for BMEfest cleanup (and the house too). Anyway, this was the smallest one they had. It's half the size of a railway car. Pretty gigantic. That said, as it turns out we'd have overflowed a smaller one.

Other than that, the dumb dogs ran away a couple days ago and were then kidnapped. The old woman who lives across the street knew that there were two boxers that someone a half hour away reported missing a month ago, so when she saw our dogs down by her place she captured them and was about to return them to the wrong owners… we found out just in time!

Because they like to run away and are far too stupid to find their way home they have to be tied up when they're unattended — and before you say “Oh, Shannon, they're not that stupid… I'm sure they could find their way home…”, let me illustrate their brilliant escape plan.

That's right. It's not “gnaw on the leash”, “pull really hard”, or anything like that… It's the “let's dig a hole to China” style of dog logic. After walking around the tree until they had only little short leashes, they decided the only way out was down. It was an unsuccessful escape to say the least.

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In the news, there's a strange back and forth going on between the White House and the intelligence community over these various claims made about Iraq that we now know are false (such as the WMDs, nuclear weaponry, al Qaeda ties; more, and so on). Bush has blamed the CIA, then told them he forgives them (more, more), then the CIA is saying that no, they did in fact inform him (more, more) along with many others backing them up (more), and then Bush scales it back to “this is silly, let's just move on!” But basically it looks like Tenet is going to play the patsy to keep Bush and the Cabal from being tried for treason as they should be. (Australia is playing the same game by the way; more)

I thought it was mildly amusing that Comical Ari's last day in office is Bastille Day (more). This story on the other hand, about another Camp X-Ray victim trying to hang himself after being kept in a small wire cage for a year and a half by the Americans, is not so amusing (more). This story about a trained assassin (“The Hunter”) stalking US troops in Iraq, however, smells like a hit movie (now that the Jessica Lynch movie has been cancelled)!

Chock full of lies.

PS. Keep an eye on Rumsfeld. He's dangerous. (more)

I did some work on BME/Risks this afternoon. I'm still horribly behind on it, but I'm finally starting to get caught up — I'm going to be fiddling with it and the glossary quite a bit now because I'm planning a 100% re-write of them soon:

Anyway, the following items have been added:
Bell's Palsy, Bloodborne Pathogens, Blood loss, Cancer, Ear Reconstruction, Enlarged nipples, Green soap allergy, Lobe Circulation, Loss of Hearing, Lymph Node Extraction, Numb Nipples, Shock, Tattoo Scars

I've also made changes and updates to the following items:
Boils, Epidural, Gum Recession, Ink Allergy, Keloids, Lidocaine Toxicity, Mastitis, Scrotal Infection, Self-harm, Shallow Industrial, Small Nipple Rings, Torn Lobe

People send a lot of stupid messages to me regarding the Risks section. Below are a giant pile of examples (about 70% of what I get are just questions — most that are already answered of course, 20% is crap like this, and 10% is positive feedback):

From: lilcutie7
Subect: infection Poletivine, Navel piercing

It is when you get ANYTHING pierced with a bad earing you will die. Die a slow and painfull death

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From: booty
Subject: Regarding Keloids

this is so stupid. If someone wants to get there nose pierced like me let then dummie!!!

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From: ROCKSTEADY434
Subject: Thinning

I THINK U ARE STUPID TO LET UR BODY TO KEEP GOING ON WITH INFECTOINS AND THE PAIN! YOU SOULD JUST TAKE IT OUT, I FIND IT UNATRACTIVE TO SEE THAT, AND ALSO THAT YOU SHOULD TAKE CARE OF IT, LET IT GET BETTER AND IF YOU REALLY WANT IT ,DO IT AGAIN AFTER IT IS HEALED AND DOES NOT HAVE A PUPLE INFECTION!

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From: bonybob
Subject: Thinning

i think this is rediculoes and i think things like this should be band

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From: Angelus Fate
Subject: Penis splitting related infection

Why the hell would anyone in their right mind want to do that?! What woman would want a guy with a dick that looked like that?! That's just nasty looking, and I'm sure it don't feel too good.

~Fate~

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From: rocksteady434
Subject: Shallow industrial

no affence but after reading and seeing all the information i have today i think that u should complain and take out the peircing let it close or heal and then do it again for better or worse to be happy with ur self!

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From: Joseph
Subject: Broken Dick

I want to know what to strike the penis so that I can break my penis with a hard blow during an erection in order the my penis to be broken and what cracking sounds like would be able to take sych risk so that i don't need medical treatment.

I want to break my dick like really bad I tried bending it back as far as I can wth all my might and try twisting it as hard as I can with all the strength I have so what do I do next stiking it real hard with a hammer of any kind signed risk taker.

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From: milf169
Subject: Broken Dick

I was masturbating a few weeks ago and when I was getting out of the shower I lost my balance and planted my foot outside the shower and hit my penis straight on against the tile wall. I didn't hear a snap and I didn't get a lump or a bruise but my penis just can bend more when I have an erection, and it is more flexible. Please tell me what it is and or what I can do about it. Thank you.

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From: devilmaycry321
Subject: Regarding Broken Dick

how u get your dick broken

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From: susanne91770
Subject: Regarding Broken Dick

dumb asses, thats all

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From: Morrgan
Subject: Tattoos, Parent Kicks Your Ass

Minor gets a piercing, tattoo, or other mod in a visible area. Parent notices mod; severely beats child. Other complications may include grounding and/or prompt and sometimes painful removal of jewelry by said parent.

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From: dj poo masta
Subject: Poo risk

u will poo ur pants. then you will die of pooing ur pants. it will smell really bad when u poo ur pants.

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From: KoCo
Subject: Penis splitting related infection

this is absolutly disgusting.Doesnt look like he will be getting any anytime soon.

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From: Rabz2005
Subject: Penis splitting related infection

THATS THE NASTIEST THING I EVER FUCKING SEEN IN MY ENTIRE LIFE AND TAKE IT OFF THE FUCKING NET IM SCARED FOR LIFE NOW!!!

I don't even know why I bother sometimes. I just hope that for every hundred idiot out there that think BME/Risks is a horrible idea that there's one person who gets helped by it in some way… Anyway, I'm sure there are horrible typos and perhaps even technical errors in these posts. If you spot some, or have feedback in general on anything in Risks, please submit it (via the forms on the Risks pages).

First of all, to all of you posting it over and over ;-) please read this BabyInk link. While I realize there's someone on IAM going around telling everyone that they took their kid there (for body painting, not tattooing), it's most definitely not real!

Last night at dinner sitting across from us was some joker blabbing on about the secrets to entrepreneurial success — all just quoting from some book he'd read of course. It was incredibly annoying to hear someone spout off “the four laws of success are…” or “the six rules of customer relations are…” while the whole time saying that it was all “backed up by statistics, and if you follow these rules you will succeed!” Dude, if that's true, go out and do it! Blabbing about it in a cheap restaurant doesn't make you an entrepreneur.

The part that really got me is when he started to talk about “creativity”, of course beginning with the statement “the four laws of creativity are…” I just wanted to get up, punch him in the gut, and yell, “YOU IDIOT! THERE ARE NO RULES TO CREATIVITY! THAT'S THE WHOLE FUCKING POINT!!!!”

But meh… I guess some people go out and do things, and other people read books about doing things. It's not as if I don't have a zillion books on things I'll never do, and it's not as if I haven't talked loudly and excitedly (and maybe even ignorantly) about them — probably more so about things far removed from my day-to-day life. So in hindsight I was being an ass to have those thoughts.

Anyway, I've got a whack of new features that I'm building for you today… Finally building a complete set of gallery management tools that should make life much easier for a lot of people.

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Finally, in the news, I'd like to attract attention to this story in the Washington Post, in which Rumsfeld admits that the US had no evidence of WMDs in Iraq and simply invaded because they figured 9-11 gave them an excuse. Here is the direct quote:

"The coalition did not act in Iraq because we had discovered dramatic new evidence of Iraq's pursuit. We acted because we saw the evidence in a dramatic new light — through the prism of our experience on 9-11."

Not that it matters… They're saying “but it was justified because (insert reason here)“… The big question now is will the American publlic forget that they spent two years being lied to in order to achieve this goal, whether they agree with the outcome or not.

But don't worry — the defense contractors (like Cheney) are getting very rich.

And that's what matters, right?