Monthly Archives: December 2004

I should be packing right now

Wednesday, December 22, 2004


“It's amazing I won. I was running against peace, prosperity and incumbency.”
      — George W. Bush

I don't tend to write about it much here right now, but I wanted to remind people that the election fraud is still unravelling (that link is to a concise blog tracking it). Add to that the war crimes case against Bush continuing to grow — there really is a strong conservative movement trying not only to oust Bush, but to bring him up on the charges he needs to be brought up on. Not that it'll ever happen, but it's good to know there's at least a little resistance on the inside.
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Can't talk now, moving…

Wednesday, December 22, 2004

I think we have about a day and a half left to get everything cleared out of here; Elaine, Marty, Badur, and Clive helped us get a lot of it out yesterday. Today it's mostly garbage and stuff that has to go to other people's houses, and then Christmas is Mexico. Our flight doesn't even land in the US, so hopefully security won't be too unpleasant.

I'd also like to mention the rather hideous and quite possibly tasteless dress on the right. The girl who designed and wore it was kicked out of her school prom for it and its racist implications. As much as I'm far from down with racists, I'm not cool with this. Personally I think she should be allowed at prom even if she wants to wear a KKK dunce cap.

13 stars represented the 13 lost tribes of white Israel.
Red was purity of blood.
White was the color of our skin.
     - Floyd Cochran

There's more coverage over at the American Constitution Society and various newspapers, but it's a case that has implications for young people with piercings and tattoos as well since it addresses where the edges of personal expression are. That said, she's being represented by white power lawyers, so this is probably not a case that I'll be quoting any time soon in my writing.

Anyway, I'm going to get cleaned up and back to work.

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Let me speak of vomit

Tuesday, December 21, 2004

They say that about a third of people have some sort of digestive upset when visiting Mexico — it's not so much Mexico that is problematic, but that it has a slightly different microbial ecosystem and the borders of different microbial species and territories are delineated differently (in part due to the way their food is prepared, but that's an entire entry in and of itself). Anyway, when your own microbial ecosystem (which as I've mentioned before constitutes 91% of your biomass) merges with that ecosystem, there is a period of adjustment.

Anyway, I'm sick pre-Mexico.

On July 12, 1996 I had a beef burrito from New York Subs in Toronto. Not long afterwards I was feeling sick, really sick. I didn't live far away so I decided I should just walk home and lie down. When I was about five minutes away I started to feel delirious and everything started to spin — pardon the scatology, but suddenly that burrito was erupting from every hole. It was probably the grossest thing that's happened to me (after I grew out of being an infant anyway).

Since then I've had an upset stomach regularly. I never did before that.

On January 1, 1998 they gave me a mixed bean and potato burrito which contained a piece of glass. I don't know if I should be happy or upset that it was a fairly large piece of glass, but it got me a free burrito. Probably not an offer I should have accepted.

A few days ago I had another, and they made it way too spict-hot. I've been feeling a little off since then, a sort of deep pain in my stomach that feels half way between hunger cramps and a deep nausea. I had a slice of pie last night, and woke up this morning feeling even sicker… I hate waking up sick, but from a scientific curiosity point of view was quite surprised to find that the pie had barely been digested and didn't taste any less sweet than the night before as it reversed its traverse into my guts and came shooting out of my throat.

The moral of the story is that it's extremely important to nurture that 91% of you that's non-human and your interface to the rest of the world. I'm healing, and I'm healthier now than I was in 1996, but I haven't been quite the same yet and it's still going to be quite a while before I'm where I want to be. Once your microbial makeup gets whacked far enough off, you can't always get it back, especially not in this modern world of antibiotic-everything.

(Or you could point out that the real moral of the story is don't eat at places that aren't approved by the health board.)

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2004 STAFF SHIRT

Monday, December 20, 2004

I'm 99.9% sure this is the final design for the 2004 staff shirts, although the color may change (or it may be up to the person depending on how Ryan's stock issues are). Anyway, it's got that “I know that's incredibly dirty, but I'm not entirely sure what it is” vibe that I like so much. If you really have to know what it is, click here (a combination of heavy genital cutting and saline work).

These are going out to the top experience reviewers, the top contributors, core staff, and others who've directly helped make BME possible in 2004 through their efforts. The article with those names will be posted some time before the new year I hope!
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Tis better to have loved and lost…

Monday, December 20, 2004

Well, the Corvette is on its way to its new home (Badur helped me with an emergency jumpstart). I'm very sad to see it go, but am hopeful that its new owner enjoys it as much as I have. For the curious, it wasn't sold, it was given away to a friend who's helped here a great deal behind the scenes. Left to right you can see first the rescue, then waiting for and loading onto the truck.

I also have the year-end shirt done, but I'm going to stare at it for another hour or so before I actually post it, because it's not the first time I've thought I had a final design!

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