Random stuff...

I've got a lot of little things in my mind that either aren't long enough or interesting enough to merit their own entry, so I'm going to lump them all together here.



Foremost in my mind:



I really need to get internet access at home again. Between missing out on reading Prayers of the People at church this morning because I didn't know I was supposed to (haven't been able to check my e-mail for about a week) and random men making special trips to stare down my top this morning, I'm DONE with using the library's computers. (And no, I am not exaggerating on the cleavage-peek thing. Jesus, people, my top's virtuous enough to have earned me several compliments at church. I'm obviously not putting myself on display.)

Thank God for mobile internet and ol' Murphy's fart story. I've managed to wrangle his blog and a couple of others into appearing on my phone, but it's another story whether I can get them properly. I have to wade through something like 14 screens to get to Ambo Driver's actual entries, for instance.

I added two blogs and The Sub Report to my sidebar. I'm considering adding a couple more blogs, just need to see if they update more often than I do. Check out TSR for pix of the USS New Hampshire (SSN 778), just christened in Groton. Dunno where it's going to be homeported. The amazing thing about it? It was delivered ahead of schedule and under budget, made even more phenomenal by the fact that subs are built by two separate companies. If you're really bored, you can also check out The Stupid Shall be Punished for a pic of the new Servie Dress Khakis. Excuse me while I giggle myself sick imagining Rob's ex-roomie Larry Barkesdale in that uniform.

I updated my MySpace page. If you've got way too much time on your hands, send me a friend request. I'm at http://www.myspace.com/sabraellen MySpace Mobile works just fine for me, so I'm there a lot.

It rained here yesterday. Sorta. For about five whole minutes. Not enough to actually get anything wet, mind you. MattG and a few others will remember the soaked June we had here in Texas last year.

LawDog's entry about Juneteenth mentions that celebration of the holiday has spread to 29 other states. If my reading of USA Today was interpreted correctly, New York is one of 'em. I can imagine that conversation. "So, what are we celebrating today?" "The day the slaves in Texas were told they were freed." "Er, wha? Why?" It's always interesting to note that Lincoln only freed the slaves in territory over which he had no control. We weren't taught this in high school; it wasn't until I lived in Virginia that I learned it. (Oddly, at the same time I learned I share a denomination with Jefferson Davis.) Fort something-or-other in Newport News was under Union control during the whole of the war, and the slaves there and in other Union-occupied territories weren't given freedom until much after the fact.

It strikes me as odd that this statue has been complained about because it is "too confrontational." (Sorry for posting a link instead of the pic itself, but I'm not the copyright holder & I don't know who is.) I realize Dr. King was known for his nonviolence, but he was nevertheless somewhat confrontational by circumstances.

Riding the race rails...There's been a startling...noisiness...of anti-Mexican sentiment here lately. OK, let me offer a clue. You live in a city called...wait for it...San Antonio. Not Saint Anthony of Padua. It is in the southern part of a State named Texas (from Coahuila y Tejas). A State which used to be part of...wait for it...Mexico. So, um, exactly what do you expect to find here? C'mon, y'all, if you can't handle the fact that a city in this location, with this history, has a mostly Mexican population...Leave. Go the hell back to Louisiana or whatever racist hole you dug yourself out of.

That said...Can we all remember that San Antonio is also, from an historical standpoint, very strongly German? We're not Neue Braunfels (yes, I did that on purpose) or Fredericksburg, but we're just as German as we are Mexican, culturally speaking. Listen to conjunto music if you don't believe me. You think they got the idea to play polkas all on their own?

I am going to get home and realize I've forgotten about twenty things I intended to add to this. Sigh.

Remembered one while I'm still here:

I was talking at church this morning with an acquaintance who works for one of the hospital systems here. His wife, who is an RN, just got hired on in recruiting for the hospital. He said, "Come talk to her in a couple of years, she'll welcome you with open arms." I'd been joking with Rob that I could probably get on with their hospital because of knowing them from church. I did not expect to get a job offer before I even start college. (I know, not quite an offer, but close enough to be amusing.) I think it's a great idea to put an RN in a recruiting position, by the way. Eric said that one of the issues they've run across in trying to hire nurses is that they'll ask the recruiters questions that HR personnel just don't have the answers to.

Another one:

The very fact that gay people want to get married, to me, is enough reason to let them. I'm pretty sure homosexuals marrying in MA wasn't the reason for the downfall of my union.