Glimmerings of Wakefulness

Meme: My Life According to Flogging Molly

2009-09-29T23:37:27Z

Using only song names from ONE ARTIST, somehow answer these questions. You can't use the band I used. Try not to repeat a song title. It's a lot harder than you think! Re-post as "My life according to [band name]".

Pick Your Artist
Flogging Molly

Are you a male or female:
Factory Girls

Describe yourself:
Punch Drunk Grinning Soul

How do you feel:
Another Bag of Bricks

Describe where you currently live:
Far Away Boys

If you could go anywhere, where would you go:
The Kilburn High Road, Tobacco Island

Your favorite form of transportation:
With a Wonder and a Wild Desire

Your best friend is:
Sentimental Johnny

You and your best friends are:
Us of Lesser Gods, The Wrong Company, Screaming at the Wailing Wall

What's the weather like:
Whistles the Wind

Favorite time of day:
The Rare Ould Times

If your life was a TV show, what would it be called:
The Story So Far

What is life to you:
The Light of a Fading Star

Your fear:
Don't Let Me Die Still Wondering

What is the best advice you have to give:
Tomorrow Comes a Day Too Soon, Every Dog Has His Day

Thought for the Day:
Wanderlust, The Likes of You Again, You Won't Make a Fool Out of Me

How I would like to die:
If I Ever Leave This World Alive, Devil's Dance Floor

My soul's present condition:
From the Back of a Broken Dream

My motto:
Swagger

Shisha Smoking Studies

2009-09-23T07:45:41Z

I've been tooling around doing some cursory research on the health implications of smoking shisha vs. cigarettes. The general conclusion is that more study is, of course, needed for any truly conclusive results (am I allowed to use "conclusion" and "conclusive" in the same sentence?) There are, of course, some knee-jerk reaction articles out there along the lines of "smoking is bad, so smoking shisha can only be worse" without much-if-any quantified information to back up these claims, but I found this one particularly interesting (if nothing else, because it seems to be one of the more balanced articles I've found . . . they present their study results and the tentative conclusions while qualifying their statements with full admittance that further study is needed . . . I think a sign of a good study is that it leads to more questions. (i.e. - hookah water showed higher levels of lead than cigarette filters, but does that mean that we're inhaling more lead or that the water is filtering more out?)

Yes, of course smoking tobacco is bad for you. No argument there. The question is how the health effects of smoking shisha compare to smoking cigarettes.

I probably know more shisha smokers than your average bear, and I thought you might find this worth the read:

The Health Hazards of Smoking Shisha

P.S. Also, some of the articles (namely rah-rah pro-shisha articles) claim that there is no tar in shisha smoke, while others (namely the knee-jerk reactionary types as mentioned above) claim there is exponentially more . . . any ideas?

Huh?!

2009-09-05T18:46:02Z

I'm really confused as to when "Stay in School, kids" became a "socialist ideology" . . .

Backlash Growing over Obama School Speech

C'mon people, reeeeally?! This makes me sad beyond words.

"Something More"

2009-08-07T20:44:09Z

Pretty sure I've already posted this . . . but it's particularly applicable today.

Something More
Monday, hard to wake up
Fill my coffee cup, I'm out the door
Yeah, the freeway's standing still today
It's gonna make me late, and thats for sure
I'm running out of gas and out of time
Never gonna make it there by nine

[Chorus:]
There's gotta be something more
Gotta be more than this
I need a little less hard time
I need a little more bliss
I'm gonna take my chances
Taking a chance I might
Find what I'm looking for
There's gotta be something more

Five years and there's no doubt
That I'm burnt out, I've had enough
So now boss man, here's my two weeks
I'll make it short and sweet, so listen up
I could work my life away, but why?
I got things to do before I die

[Repeat Chorus]

Some believe in destiny, and some believe in fate
I believe that happiness is something we create
You best believe that I'm not gonna wait
'Cause there's gotta be something more

I get home 7:30 the house is dirty, but it can wait
Yeah, 'cause right now I need some downtime
To drink some red wine and celebrate
Armageddon could be knocking at my door
But I ain't gonna answer that's for sure.
There's gotta be something!

[Repeat Chorus]

~Sugarland

Soon . . .

2009-08-05T04:10:36Z

Toes
I got my toes in the water, ass in the sand
Not a worry in the world, a cold beer in my hand
Life is good today. Life is good today.
Well, the plane touched down just about 3 o’clock
And the city’s still on my mind
Bikinis and palm trees danced in my head
I was still in the baggage line
Concrete and cars are their own prison bars like this life I’m living in
But the plane brought me farther.
I’m surrounded by water
And I’m not going back again

I got my toes in the water, ass in the sand
Not a worry in the world, a cold beer in my hand
Life is good today. Life is good today.

Adios and vaya con dios
Yeah I’m leaving GA
And if it weren’t for tequila and pretty senoritas
I’d have no reason to stay
Adios and vaya con dios
Yeah I’m leaving GA
Gonna lay in the hot sun and roll a big fat one
And grab my guitar and play

Four days flew by like a drunk Friday night as the summer drew to an
end
They can’t believe that I just couldn’t leave
And I bid adieu to my friends
Because my bartender she’s from the islands
Her body’s been kissed by the sun
And coconut replaces the smell of the bar and I don’t know if its her or
the rum

I got my toes in the water, ass in the sand
Not a worry in the world, a cold beer in my hand
Life is good today. Life is good today.

Adios and vaya con dios
A long way from GA
Yes, and all the muchachas they call me “big poppa” when I throw
pesos their way
Adios and vaya con dios
A long way from GA
Someone do me a favor and pour me some Jaeger
And I’ll grab my guitar and play

Adios and vaya con dios
Going home now to stay
The senoritas don’t care-o when there’s no dinero
I got no money to stay
Adios and vaya con dios
Going home now to stay

Just gonna prop up by the lake
Put my ass in a lawn chair
Toes in the clay
Not a worry in the world a PBR on the way
Life is good today. Life is good today.

-Zac Brown Band

21 Guns - Green Day

2009-07-26T03:02:22Z

21 Guns
Do you know what's worth fighting for?
When it's not worth dying for?
Does it take your breath away
And you feel yourself suffocating?

Does the pain weigh out the pride?
And you look for a place to hide?
Did someone break your heart inside?
You're in ruins

One, 21 guns
Lay down your arms, give up the fight
One, 21 guns
Throw up your arms into the sky, you and I

When you're at the end of the road
And you lost all sense of control
And your thoughts have taken their toll
When your mind breaks the spirit of your soul

Your faith walks on broken glass
And the hangover doesn't pass
Nothing's ever built to last
You're in ruins

One, 21 guns
Lay down your arms, give up the fight
One, 21 guns
Throw up your arms into the sky, you and I

Did you try to live on your own
When you burned down the house and home?
Did you stand too close to the fire
Like a liar looking for forgiveness from a stone?

When it's time to live and let die
And you can't get another try
Something inside this heart has died
You're in ruins

One, 21 guns
Lay down your arms, give up the fight
One, 21 guns
Throw up your arms into the sky

One, 21 guns
Lay down your arms, give up the fight
One, 21 guns
Throw up your arms into the sky, you and I

~Green Day

Healthcare Through the Ages

2009-07-02T01:13:37Z

Blatantly kiped from Mark Covington.

2000 B.C. - "Here, eat this root."
1000 B.C. - "That root is heathen, say this prayer."
1850 A.D. - "That prayer is superstition, drink this potion."
1940 A.D. - "That potion is snake oil, swallow this pill."
1985 A.D. - "That pill is ineffective, take this antibiotic."... Read More
2000 A.D. - "That antibiotic is artificial. Here, eat this root."

Hey, Lookie What We Little Midwest Farmers Can Do . . .

2009-05-23T17:39:55Z

"May Other States Join Iowa as Beacon of Equality"

In summer 1991, a young, visually impaired gay man named Joel Larson was gunned down in a park near his home. Originally from Des Moines, he had lived in Minneapolis for only a few months.

A group of friends, family and budding activists held a memorial for him blocks from Iowa's Capitol. As a staff member of Minnesota's (then) only gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender social-service and advocacy agency, I was asked to speak. I hadn't been to Iowa since I was a child, but it was important to honor the man's memory and his all-too-short life.
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The pain in his friends' eyes was unspeakable. Activists were angry; family members simply wept. Shaking hands with Joel's father, I found myself at a loss for words. His son was killed because of his sexual orientation by an aspiring serial killer. "What do we do to stop it?" he pleaded with me. "We pass laws preventing discrimination," I grimly replied.

At the time, downtown Des Moines and the area around the Capitol were pretty rough. Smug and superior, I looked around and couldn't see how Iowans would ever pass protection based on sexual orientation and gender identity any more than they would revitalize their largest city. I happily admit I was wrong on both counts. And Iowa went one step further: In a stunningly sensible way that we Midwesterners have, the state's Supreme Court unanimously found that civil marriage cannot be denied to couples of the same gender. It is unconstitutional.

My Iowa roots run pretty deep. My mother was born in Dubuque and cousins still live there. I drove back from Joel's memorial that night through an awesome thunderstorm, Shakespearean in its power, the lightning illuminating the beauty of the northern Iowa landscape. It was as if nature was unleashing its fury over this man's senseless death.

Since then, Des Moines has become one of my favorite weekend getaways. I rave about the beauty of the state capital and extol its museums, restaurants, art galleries and historical sites as well as the sheer beauty of Iowa's environment. And I never cross the border without thinking about Joel Larson.

Like me, many remain cautiously optimistic that Iowa will not stand alone in the Midwest as a beacon of equality for long, but the record is mixed in the region and elsewhere. In 2006, Wisconsin and South Dakota passed constitutional bans on marriage equality. South Dakota's ban passed by only 52 percent after a remarkable grass-roots campaign fighting the ballot initiative with the simple slogan, "Good neighbors don't discriminate." This year, an effort to ban discrimination in North Dakota went down in flames. However, both Maine and New Hampshire passed marriage-equality legislation recently. Marriage equality in my home state of Minnesota may be litigious rather than legislative.

At the federal level, gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender citizens enjoy no civil-rights protections, receive no federal recognition of their marriages and cannot serve openly in the military. We are second-class citizens.

Since Joel's memorial, I've spoken on human rights at Central College in Pella and the University of Iowa. I attended the 2008 presidential caucuses. I've made close friends and even had a beau in Cedar Falls, all as an openly gay man. Not once did I suffer a slur or even a side-long glance. I am proud of Iowa for that.

When gay friends around the country had asked me what I thought would happen with the Iowa Supreme Court case, I always said, "They'll do the right thing." And they did. I also expect that after a short while the furor will die down - that's how we roll in the heartland. There is soil to till and crops to plant.

And soon the wedding invitations will appear in the mail. I can't say I'll be able to attend every nuptial, but I can promise you this. At every single one, you'll find a kindred and sweet spirit of a man who was once called Joel. May he now, finally, find rest and peace.

Born Country

2009-05-16T18:43:05Z

Born Country
Clear creeks and cool mountain mornin's.
Honest work out in the fields.
Cornbread in my momma's kitchen.
Daddy saying grace before the meal.
Family ties run deep in this land.
And I'm never very far from what I am.

I was born country and that's what I'll always be.
Like the rivers and the woodlands wild and free.
I got a hundred years of down home running through my blood.
I was born country and this country's what I love.

Moonlight and you hear beside me.
Crickets serenadin' in the yard.
What more could two people ask for.
Laying here in love beneath the stars.
Now this is where I wanna raise my kids.
Just the way my mom and daddy did.

I was born country and that's what I'll always be.
Like the rivers and the woodlands wild and free.
I got a hundred years of down home running through my blood.
I was born country and this country's what I love.

I was born country and that's what I'll always be.
Like the rivers and the woodlands wild and free.
I got a hundred years of down home running through my blood.
I was born country and this country's what I love.

I was born country

~Alabama

Louisiana Saturday Night

2009-04-26T18:18:05Z

One of my all-time favourite songs. . .

Well, you get down the fiddle and you get down the bow,
Kick off your shoes and you throw ‘em on the floor.
Dance in the kitchen 'til the morning light:
Louisiana Saturday night.

Waiting in the front yard, sitting on a log;
Single shot rifle and a one-eyed dog.
Yonder come my kin folk in the moonlight:
Louisiana Saturday night.

Well, you get down the fiddle and you get down the bow
Kick off your shoes and you throw ‘em on the floor
Dance in the kitchen 'til the morning light
Louisiana Saturday night

My brother Bill an' my other brother Jack,
Belly full o'beer and a possum in a sack.
Fifteen kids in the front porch light:
Louisiana Saturday night!

When the kinfolk leave an' the kids get fed,
Me an' my woman gonna slip off to bed.
Have a little fun when we turn out the lights!
Louisiana Saturday night!

Well, you get down the fiddle and you get down the bow,
Kick off your shoes and you throw ‘em on the floor.
Dance in the kitchen 'til the morning light:
Louisiana Saturday night.
Yeah, you get down the fiddle and you get down the bow,
Kick off your shoes and you throw ‘em on the floor.
Dance in the kitchen 'til the morning light:
Louisiana Saturday night.

Get down the fiddle and. you get down the bow,
Kick off your shoes and you throw ‘em on the floor.
Dance in the kitchen 'til the morning light:
Louisiana Saturday night.

~Mel McDaniels/Don Williams/Alabama/Et cetera . . .

Literary Geeks Unite!!! . . . Looking for a Book Title . . .

2009-04-13T23:30:50Z

Edit 4.19.09: I totally win! Google is a beautiful thing! The book, Ladies & Gents, is The Wump World by Bill Peet! I FOUND IT!!!! http://www.librarything.com/work/55155

Okay . . . looking for a book title . . . I figger maybe the combined GeekPower of this collective of people might be able to remember/deduce it.

The information I have been given is that it is
- a children's book, as in picture book.
- it is about a society of wombats . . . or possibly beavers. Or possibly even some other "rodent-like creature".
- a spaceship lands, they think they remember. And "aliens" (a.k.a. humans) overrun the furry little creatures' world, use it up, and leave a polluted wasteland in their wake.
- this is not a Dr. Seuss book.
- probably published in the late 60's/early 70's . . .

Ideas?

It might make you Laugh . . . It might make you Cry . . .

2009-04-11T18:44:50Z

(Especially for you, ravenbow!) =D Hehehehe . . .

Bohemian 8-bit Rhapsody

Missin' it . . .

2009-04-10T21:45:50Z

19 Ritz Camera stores, including all Proex locations - closing

2009-04-10T21:24:40Z

http://twincities.bizjournals.com/twincities/stories/2009/03/30/daily59.html

Say Thank You to our Troops

2009-03-21T21:36:35Z

It's fast. It's free. Most importantly, it's desperately needed and desperately appreciated by those on the receiving end.

Xerox company has teamed up with this website; go to the site, pick a card, hit send, click a message or enter your own. Xerox will print it and send it for free to a serving man or woman at random.

http://www.letssaythanks.com/Home1024.html

"Stop-Loss" . . . Because Apparently They Don't Already Do Enough for Us . . .

2009-03-19T03:00:57Z

They're so excited that they're "cutting back" on forcing our Service Men & Women to extend their tours . . . perhaps we should just cut back on the wars?

$500 bucks a month . . . that's less than I used to pay in rent. *spit*

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090318/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/army_tours;_ylt=Am_Koa3wwss6gogZYf_gAjrZn414

Wednesday, March 18, 2009
"Army Cutting Back on Forced Extended Tours of Duty" - Pauline Jelinek, Associated Press Writer

"

WASHINGTON – The Army this summer will start cutting back on use of the unpopular practice of holding troops beyond their enlistment dates and hopes to almost completely eliminate it in two years.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates said, though, that it may never be possible to completely get rid of the policy called "stop-loss," under which some 13,000 soldiers whose time is already up are still being forced to continue serving.

"I believe that when somebody's end date of service comes, to hold them against their will, if you will, is just not the right thing to do," he said, noting that officials will still retain the legal power to involuntarily extend soldiers' service if needed.

"I felt, particularly in these numbers, that it was breaking faith," Gates told a Pentagon news conference.

He said that he hoped any future use after 2011 would only be in "scores, not thousands."

Critics have called "stop-loss" a backdoor draft because it keeps troops in the military beyond the end of their enlistment or retirement dates. But the military has said it's a necessary tool to keep unit cohesion in times of war and to keep soldiers with certain skills needed in those units.

Soldiers and their families strongly dislike stop-loss and it was the title of a 2008 Hollywood movie in which a soldier who served in Iraq goes AWOL rather than following orders to stay longer in the service and return to combat.

Rep. John Murtha said earlier Wednesday that 185,000 troops had been forced to stay in the military since the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks under the policy. He said the military had agreed to begin $500 monthly payments to troops serving under stop-loss.

The payments are planned to soften the effects of the practice, which makes it impossible for troops to make lasting work and family plans.

"This is a victory for soldiers and their families," said Sen. Frank R. Lautenberg, D-N.J. "After months and often years of risking their lives, our troops deserve to know when they will return home. The military made a deal with our men and women in uniform and will now live up to that commitment."

To be fair, the Army is also planning to pay a still-undisclosed amount of extra money to those who extend their services voluntarily.

The policy can keep a soldier in service if his or her unit deploys within 90 days of the end of the soldier's commitment. The time soldiers have been held in service has averaged five to eight months, officials said.

The Army has said 1 percent of the Army is affected by the forced extensions. As of January, the roughly 13,000 soldiers on stop-loss included 7,300 active-duty Army, about 4,450 in the Guard and 1,450 reservists.

Under the Army plan approved by Gates, the Army Reserve in August will begin mobilizing units that don't include stop-loss soldiers and the Guard in September will do the same.

The active duty Army is to deploy its first unit without stop-loss in January, he said. The goal is to reduce it by 50 percent by June 2010 and end its regular use by march 2011.

Though the practice has been virtually ended in all other service branches, the Army has said it still needed to use it as remained under severe strain fighting the two ongoing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

"We would be off stop-loss tomorrow were it not for the demand for Army forces worldwide — not just in Iraq and Afghanistan — worldwide," Lt. Gen. Michael Rochelle, head of Army personnel said in a separate Army press conference later. He said President Barack Obama's decision to draw down troops in Iraq has taken off some of the pressure.

Officials say it is possible to gradually reduce the number of stop-loss soldiers now also because the Army has grown, retention is good, and officials are changing the way new units rotate — something that gives units scheduled for combat more time to get the people with the skills they need as opposed to holding in service soldiers who have that skill. The most needed skills are in infantry.

Officials acknowledged that there is a risk without stop-loss the Army would not have enough troops if another emergency arose — such as deterioration of the situations in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Effective this month, troops will get $500-per-month payments for extending their service and it will be made retroactive for those who were on the stop-loss roles as of last Oct. 1. Payments before were not possible, officials said, because Congress did not appropriate funds for that. The costs for the payments for the budget year that began Oct. 1, 2008, are about $72 million.

___

Associated Press writers Kimberly Hefling and Lolita Balder contributed to this report."

llythefaerye @ 2009-03-15T16:09:00

2009-03-15T21:11:58Z

I believe Life does not get much better than the first 50-degree day of the year with bright, clear sunshine & open windows to shoo away the winter and work must & dust, combined with Ol' Blue Eyes on new (to you) speakers . . .

And I was able to restore my ipod, so whee-hoo! I am music-ful again! =D

"I Stand for You"

2009-03-13T06:02:08Z

. . . also taken from the below-mentioned source. I have e-mailed the contact on the page for the original source info so as to give proper credit, but did not want to wait to post the actual words. Due credit will be updated when I receive a response.

"I Stand for You When terror grips you, and the fabric of civility tears,
I stand for you.

On foreign soil, where peace is but a whispered hope,
I stand for you.

As bullets fly like bees, and hateful bombs explode
Threatening to steal my sanity –
I stand for you.

I carry broken bodies back to be mended, and No matter how hard I try –
The tears fall like rain, and still through all the pain,
I stand for you.

That is until I fall, and I wonder, as I lay cold and Still...
Will you remember,
and stand for me?"

"I disagree of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it."
- Voltaire(1694-1778)

The Canadian Soldier

2009-03-13T05:56:23Z

Taken from the posting wall of "Petition to Remove "Soldiers are Not Heroes" from Facebook".

The Canadian Soldier
THE CANADIAN SOLDIER
------------------------------
He is profane and irreverent, living as he does in a world full of capriciousness, frustration and disillusionment. He is perhaps the best-educated of his kind in history, but will rarely accord respect on the basis of mere degrees or titles. He speaks his own dialect, often incomprehensible to the layman.

He can be cold, cruel, even brutal and is frequently insensitive. Killing is his profession and he strives very hard to become even more skilled at it. His model is the grey, muddy, hard-eyed slayer who took the untakeable at Vimy Ridge, endured the unendurable in the Scheldt and held the unholdable at Kapyong. He is a superlative practical diplomat; his efforts have brought peace to countless countries around the world. He is capable of astonishing acts of kindness, warmth and generosity. He will give you his last sip of water on a parched day and his last food to a hungry child; he will give his very life for the society he loves.

Danger and horror are his familiars and his sense of humour is accordingly sardonic. What the unknowing take as callousness is his defence against the unimaginable; he whistles through a career filled with graveyards.

His ethos is one of self-sacrifice and duty. He is sinfully proud of himself, of his unit and of his country and he is unique in that his commitment to his society is Total. No other trade or profession dreams of demanding such of its members and none could successfully try.

He loves his family dearly, sees them all too rarely and as often as not loses them to the demands of his profession. Loneliness is the price he accepts for the privilege of serving.

He accounts discomfort as routine and the search for personal gain as beneath him; he has neither understanding of nor patience for those motivated by self-interest, politics or money. His loyalty can be absolute, but it must be purchased. Paradoxically, the only coin accepted for that payment is also loyalty.

He devours life with big bites, knowing that each bite might be his last and his manners suffer thereby. He would rather die regretting the things he did than the ones he dared not try. He earns a good wage by most standards and, given the demands on him, is woefully underpaid.

He can be arrogant, thoughtless and conceited, but will spend himself, sacrifice everything for total strangers in places he cannot even pronounce. He considers political correctness a podium for self-righteous fools, but will die fighting for the rights of anyone he respects or pities.

He is a philosopher and a drudge, an assassin and a philanthropist, a servant and a leader, a disputer and a mediator, a Nobel Laureate peacekeeper and the Queen's Hitman, a brawler and a healer, best friend and worst enemy. He is a rock, a goat, a fool, a sage, a drunk, a provider, a cynic and a romantic dreamer. Above it all, he is a hero for our time. You, pale stranger, sleep well at night only because he exists for you, the citizen who has never met him, has perhaps never thought of him and may even despise him. He is both your child and your guardian. His devotion to you is unwavering.
He is a Canadian soldier.

DUCIMUS (We Lead)

CANADIAN INFANTRY MOTO

One Marine, One Ship

2009-03-01T23:03:26Z

Everyone should read this.

http://www.tysknews.com/Depts/Our_Culture/one_marine_one_ship.htm

"One Marine, One Ship

by Vin Suprynowicz

OCT. 22, 2000

Oct. 26 falls on a Thursday this year.

Ask the significance of the date, and you're likely to draw some puzzled looks — five more days to stock up for Halloween?

It's a measure of men like Col. Mitchell Paige and Rear Adm. Willis A. "Ching Chong China" Lee that they wouldn't have had it any other way. What they did 58 years ago, they did precisely so their grandchildren could live in a land of peace and plenty.

Whether we've properly safeguarded the freedoms they fought to leave us, may be a discussion best left for another day. Today we struggle to envision — or, for a few of us, to remember — how the world must have looked on Oct. 26, 1942. A few thousand lonely American Marines had been put ashore on Guadalcanal, a god-forsaken malarial jungle island which just happened to lie like a speed bump at the end of the long blue-water slot between New Guinea and the Bismarck Archipelago — the very route the Japanese Navy would have to take to reach Australia.

On Guadalcanal the Marines built an air field. And Japanese commander Isoroku Yamamoto immediately grasped what that meant. No effort would be spared to dislodge these upstart Yanks from a position that could endanger his ships during any future operations to the south. Before long, relentless Japanese counterattacks had driven supporting U.S. Navy from inshore waters. The Marines were on their own.

World War Two is generally calculated from Hitler's invasion of Poland in 1939. But that's a eurocentric view. The Japanese had been limbering up their muscles in Korea and Manchuria as early as 1931, and in China by 1934. By 1942 they'd devastated every major Pacific military force or stronghold of the great pre-war powers: Britain, Holland, France, and the United States. The bulk of America's proud Pacific fleet lay beached or rusting on the floor of Pearl Harbor. A few aircraft carriers and submarines remained, though as Mitchell Paige and his 30-odd men were sent out to establish their last, thin defensive line on that ridge southwest of the tiny American bridgehead on Guadalcanal on Oct. 25, he would not have been much encouraged to know how those remaining American aircraft carriers were faring offshore.

(The next day, their Mark XV torpedoes — carrying faulty magnetic detonators reverse-engineered from a First World War German design — proved so ineffective that the United States Navy couldn't even scuttle the doomed and listing carrier Hornet with eight carefully aimed torpedoes. Instead, our forces suffered the ignominy of leaving the abandoned ship to be polished off by the enemy ... only after Japanese commanders determined she was damaged too badly to be successfully towed back to Tokyo as a trophy.)

As Paige — then a platoon sergeant — and his riflemen set about carefully emplacing their four water-cooled Brownings, it's unlikely anyone thought they were about to provide the definitive answer to that most desperate of questions: How many able-bodied U.S. Marines does it take to hold a hill against 2,000 desperate and motivated attackers?

The Japanese Army had not failed in an attempt to seize any major objective since the Russo-Japanese War of 1905. Their commanders certainly did not expect the war to be lost on some God-forsaken jungle ridge manned by one thin line of Yanks in khaki in October of 1942.

But in preceding days, Marine commander Vandegrift had defied War College doctrine, "dangling" his men in exposed positions to draw Japanese attacks, then springing his traps "with the steel vise of firepower and artillery," in the words of Naval historian David Lippman.

The Japanese regiments had been chewed up, good. Still, the American forces had so little to work with that Paige's men would have only the four 30-caliber Brownings to defend the one ridge through which the Japanese opted to launch their final assault against Henderson Field, that fateful night of Oct. 25.

By the time the night was over, "The 29th (Japanese) Infantry Regiment has lost 553 killed or missing and 479 wounded among its 2,554 men," historian Lippman reports. "The 16th (Japanese) Regiment's losses are uncounted, but the 164th's burial parties handle 975 Japanese bodies. ... The American estimate of 2,200 Japanese dead is probably too low."

Among the 90 American dead and wounded that night were all the men in Mitchell Paige's platoon. Every one. As the night wore on, Paige moved up and down his line, pulling his dead and wounded comrades back into their foxholes and firing a few bursts from each of the four Brownings in turn, convincing the Japanese forces down the hill that the positions were still manned.

The citation for Paige's Congressional Medal of Honor picks up the tale: "When the enemy broke through the line directly in front of his position, P/Sgt. Paige, commanding a machinegun section with fearless determination, continued to direct the fire of his gunners until all his men were either killed or wounded. Alone, against the deadly hail of Japanese shells, he fought with his gun and when it was destroyed, took over another, moving from gun to gun, never ceasing his withering fire."

In the end, Sgt. Paige picked up the last of the 40-pound, belt-fed Brownings — the same design which John Moses Browning famously fired for a continuous 25 minutes until it ran out of ammunition at its first U.S. Army trial — and did something for which the weapon was never designed. Sgt. Paige walked down the hill toward the place where he could hear the last Japanese survivors rallying to move around his flank, the gun cradled under his arm, firing as he went.

The weapon did not fail.

Coming up at dawn, battalion executive officer Major Odell M. Conoley first discovered the answer to our question: How many able-bodied Marines does it take to hold a hill against two regiments of motivated, combat-hardened infantrymen who have never known defeat?

On a hill where the bodies were piled like cordwood, Mitchell Paige alone sat upright behind his 30-caliber Browning, waiting to see what the dawn would bring.

One hill: one Marine.

But that was the second problem. Part of the American line had fallen to the last Japanese attack. "In the early morning light, the enemy could be seen a few yards off, and vapor from the barrels of their machine guns was clearly visible," reports historian Lippman. "It was decided to try to rush the position."

For the task, Major Conoley gathered together "three enlisted communication personnel, several riflemen, a few company runners who were at the point, together with a cook and a few messmen who had brought food to the position the evening before."

Joined by Paige, this ad hoc force of 17 Marines counterattacked at 5:40 a.m., discovering that "the extremely short range allowed the optimum use of grenades." In the end, "The element of surprise permitted the small force to clear the crest."

And that's where the unstoppable wave of Japanese conquest finally crested, broke, and began to recede. On an unnamed jungle ridge on an insignificant island no one had ever heard of, called Guadalcanal. Because of a handful of U.S. Marines, one of whom, now 82, lives out a quiet retirement with his wife Marilyn in La Quinta, Calif.

But while the Marines had won their battle on land, it would be meaningless unless the U.S. Navy could figure out a way to stop losing night battles in "The Slot" to the northwest of the island, through which the Japanese kept sending in barges filled with supplies and reinforcements for their own desperate forces on Guadalcanal.

The U.S. Navy had lost so many ships in those dreaded night actions that the waters off Savo were given the grisly sailor's nickname by which they're still known today: Ironbottom Sound.

So desperate did things become that finally, 18 days after Mitchell Paige won his Congressional Medal of Honor on that ridge above Henderson Field, Admiral Bull Halsey himself broke a stern War College edict — the one against committing capital ships in restricted waters. Gambling the future of the cut-off troops on Guadalcanal on one final roll of the dice, Halsey dispatched into the Slot his two remaining fast battleships, the USS South Dakota and the USS Washington, escorted by the only four destroyers with enough fuel in their bunkers to get them there and back.

In command of the 28-knot battlewagons was the right man at the right pla4ce, gunnery expert Rear Adm. Willis A. "Ching Chong China" Lee. Lee's flag flew aboard the Washington, in turn commanded by Captain Glenn Davis.

Lee was a nut for gunnery drills. "He tested every gunnery-book rule with exercises," Lippman writes, "and ordered gunnery drills under odd conditions — turret firing with relief crews, anything that might simulate the freakishness of battle."

As it turned out, the American destroyers need not have worried about carrying enough fuel to get home. By 11 p.m. on Nov. 13, outnumbered better than three-to-one by a massive Japanese task force driving down from the northwest, every one of the four American destroyers had been shot up, sunk, or set aflame, while the South Dakota — known throughout the fleet as a jinx ship — managed to damage some lesser Japanese vessels but continued to be plagued with electrical and fire control problems.

"Washington was now the only intact ship left in the force," Lippman writes. "In fact, at that moment Washington was the entire U.S. Pacific Fleet. She was the only barrier between (Admiral) Kondo's ships and Guadalcanal. If this one ship did not stop 14 Japanese ships right then and there, America might lose the war. ...

"On Washington's bridge, Lieutenant Ray Hunter still had the conn. He had just heard that South Dakota had gone off the air and had seen (destroyers) Walke and Preston "blow sky high." Dead ahead lay their burning wreckage, while hundreds of men were swimming in the water and Japanese ships were racing in.

"Hunter had to do something. The course he took now could decide the war. 'Come left,' he said, and Washington straightened out on a course parallel to the one on which she (had been) steaming. Washington's rudder change put the burning destroyers between her and the enemy, preventing her from being silhouetted by their fires.

"The move made the Japanese momentarily cease fire. Lacking radar, they could not spot Washington behind the fires. ...

"Meanwhile, Washington raced through burning seas. Everyone could see dozens of men in the water clinging to floating wreckage. Flag Lieutenant Raymond Thompson said, "Seeing that burning, sinking ship as it passed so close aboard, and realizing that there was nothing I, or anyone, could do about it, was a devastating experience.'

"Commander Ayrault, Washington's executive officer, clambered down ladders, ran to Bart Stoodley's damage-control post, and ordered Stoodley to cut loose life rafts. That saved a lot of lives. But the men in the water had some fight left in them. One was heard to scream, 'Get after them, Washington!' "

Sacrificing their ships by maneuvering into the path of torpedoes intended for the Washington, the captains of the American destroyers had given China Lee one final chance. The Washington was fast, undamaged, and bristling with 16-inch guns. And, thanks to Lt. Hunter's course change, she was also now invisible to the enemy.

Blinded by the smoke and flames, the Japanese battleship Kirishima turned on her searchlights, illuminating the helpless South Dakota, and opened fire. Finally, standing out in the darkness, Lee and Davis could positively identify an enemy target.

The Washington's main batteries opened fire at 12 midnight precisely. Her new SG radar fire control system worked perfectly. Between midnight and 12:07 a.m., Nov. 14, the "last ship in the U.S. Pacific Fleet" stunned the battleship Kirishima with 75, 16-inch shells. For those aboard the Kirishima, it rained steel.

In seven minutes, the Japanese battleship was reduced to a funeral pyre. She went down at 3:25 a.m., the first enemy sunk by an American battleship since the Spanish-American War. Stunned, the remaining Japanese ships withdrew. Within days, Yamamoto and his staff reviewed their mounting losses and recommended the unthinkable to the emperor — withdrawal from Guadalcanal.

But who remembers, today, how close-run a thing it was — the ridge held by a single Marine, the battle won by the last American ship?

In the autumn of 1942.

When the Hasbro Toy Co. called up some years back, asking permission to put the retired colonel's face on some kid's doll, Mitchell Paige thought they must be joking.

But they weren't. That's his mug, on the little Marine they call "GI Joe."

And now you know."

A Girl's Guide to Geek Guys

2009-02-23T03:45:27Z

Stolen from ravenbow.

A Girl's Guide to Geek Guys

(blatantly stolen from ) By Mikki Halpin and Victoria Maat (at http://www. electric-escape. net/node/526 )

So, your crush on the bass player from Vibrating Sandbox has finally died a whimpering death and you're wondering where to go from here. All the sinister dudes are either dating a series of interchangeable high-school riot girls in baby doll dresses and an overdose of manic panic, or permanently shacked up with some bitter old lady who pays all the bills.

Which will it be, a wifely prison or a humiliating one night stand? Into this void of potential mates comes a man you may not have considered before, a man of substance, quietude and stability, a cerebral creature with a culture all his own. In short, a geek.

Why Geek Dudes Rule

1.

They are generally available.

2.

Other women will tend not to steal them.

3.

They can fix things.

4.

Your parents will love them.

5.

They're smart.

Where The Geek Dude Lurks

While they are often into alternative music, geek dudes tend not to go to shows too often. Instead you'll find them hanging out with their friends, discussing the latest hardware revolution or perfecting their Bill Gates impressions. You know how some people wear t-shirts with their favorite bands on them, thus showing that they went to certain shows? Well, geek dudes wear t-shirts with the logos of different software companies on them, thus showing that they are up on the latest, um, releases. A small, though convivial, rivalry may be detected here amongst the geek dudes. Try wearing one yourself and see if he strikes up a conversation.

Of course the best way to meet a geek dude is through the Internet. All geeks harbor a secret fantasy about meeting some girl in cyberspace, carrying on an e-mail romance in which he has the chance to combine an activity he is comfortable with, computing, with one he is very uncomfortable with, socializing. To many geek dudes, cyberdating is just an advanced form of some kind of video game, but they are frustrated by a lack of players. Their lack is your strength.

Imprinting

You might notice that these men harbor some strange ideas about how the world works and some particularly strange ideas about women. There is a reason for this. Because they've had limited interpersonal experience, geek dudes must look elsewhere for behavior models. Lacking a real world social milieu, geeks often go through a transference stage with such narratives, and try to model their interactions on them. Thus, certain media images and themes come to have an overly cathected, metaphorized reality to them, while the rest of us view such programming as mere entertainment. Case in point, our next topic...
The Trek factor

If you're not up on your Star Trek, you can forget about getting or keeping a geek dude. And I'm not just talking vintage-era Captain Kirk and Spock either. You've got to be up on your Next Generation, your Deep Space Nine, your Babylon 5. Armed with your own knowledge of Federation policies, you can better gauge when and how to act. The sexual politics of Star Trek are pretty blunt: the men run the technology and the ship, and the women are caretakers (a doctor and a counselor). Note the sexual tensions on the bridge of the Enterprise: the women, in skin tight uniforms, and with luxuriant, flowing hair. The men, often balding, and sporting some sort of permanently attached computer auxiliary. This world metaphorizes the fantasies of the geek dude, who sees himself in the geeky-but-heroic male officers and who secretly desires a sexy, smart, Deanna or Bev to come along and deferentially accept him for who he is. If you are willing to accept that this is his starting point for reality, you are ready for a geek relationship.

Once You've Nabbed Him

Of course, catching that geek guy is only half the battle. Keeping him by your side is another story altogether. I was privileged to speak with Miss Victoria Maat, who not only got herself a geek guy but was also clever enough to marry him just a few short months ago.
She interrupted her newlywed bliss to give us a few tips on the care and feeding of a geek man:

"Geeks are sensitive and caring lovers and husbands. If you can hang with the techno-lifestyle, they make the best mates. They are the most attractive people, not flashy or hunky, but the kind who get cuter and more alluring over time (I told you she was a newlywed). Definitely give geeks a chance.
"
Geek Cuisine

Geeks tend towards packaged, junk foods since they prefer to work and think and aren't all that into cooking for themselves. Make sure that your geek understands that you are not merely a replicator, and provide him with home cooked food. A batch of chocolate chip cookies will let him know that you love him. You do have to monitor your geek for weight gain; however, remember that most of their days are spent sitting and staring at a monitor.

Geek Lifestyle

The geek dude has long work habits and tends to bring his work home with him. He seems permanently connected to his hard disk. You must at least appear interested in his work. Generally, a solid understanding of the computer is a must; if you cannot master this, you should at least be able to talk the talk. Remember most geeks are anal and they get stressed about details which appear insignificant. Be understanding, put on your best Deanna Troi face (see above) and empathize.

To relax, geeks love to play the latest computer games. Let him play Myst or Chuck Yeager's Air Combat for hours if he wants to. Act concerned if he's stuck or has just been ambushed by three MiGs. My geek loves to try to help people on the Internet who say that they are stuck in Myst. He comes up with clever riddles instead of directing them point blank. Geeks also like to go to sci-fi and Japanese animated movies, again, a basically harmless vent for your man.

Geek Buddies

Many geeks extend their work friendships into what they jokingly refer to as RL (Real Life, also known as "that big room with the ceiling that is sometimes blue and sometimes black with little lights"). The greatest thing about your geek's buddies is that you can feel secure in setting them up with your girlfriends. They may feel awkward around females at first, so don't overwhelm them. In time they will come out of their shell and realize that you are into the same things they are.

Post-It Note

I thank Victoria for the above advice. I must say that when she read my draft of the piece, before writing her section, she asked her husband which one he thought she was more like, Deanna or Beverly. Howard, the devil, immediately replied that he had always thought Victoria was actually most like Ensign Ro Laren, a cute character with a slight authority problem who is always had trouble (this is fairly apt).
This exchange is interesting for several reasons:

*

Howard had already thought about who she was most like.

*

He could summon up characters from seasons past with ease.

*

Victoria actually knew who he meant.

Folks, I think this marriage will last.

One Last Thing

Because they have been so abused and ignored by society, many geeks have gone underground. You may actually know some and just haven't noticed them. They often feel resentful, and misunderstood, and it is important to realize this as you grow closer to them. Don't ever try to force the issue, or make crazy demands that he choose between his computer and you. Remember, his computer has been there for him his whole life; you are a new interloper he hasn't quite grasped yet.

Geek dudes thrive on mystery and love challenges and intellectual puzzles. Don't you consider yourself one? Wouldn't you like a little intellectual stimulation or your own? We thought so.

I may be a horrible person . . .

2009-02-22T00:30:55Z

. . . but I'm staying home tonight. :) It never fails that after months (or more) of a complete & utter lack of anything remotely resembling a social life, I suddenly have no less that 4 things that I could/should go to tonight. In the ensuing dilemma of trying to decide which, if any, to attend . . . I came to the conclusion that a) it's cold out there and b) I just really don't want to go anywhere tonight, as much fun as all of the respective shindigs sound . . . So I'm home. It's quiet. I like it. *nods*

Ah, Universe . . . We Still Miss You, Chase . . .

2009-02-22T00:14:31Z

I just popped on to check my MySpace page. MySpace now has that "people you may know" feature.

Chase popped up.

I clicked over to his page (how could I not?), which I admittedly haven't looked at in a little while. The outpouring of love is still there. Continually. I can't leave a comment, because we never got around to "friending" each other before he was gone.

Tonight, a drink to a Bright Light extinguished far too soon, yet remembered every day by so many he touched.

Follow Your Bliss.

Capitalism & Cows

2009-02-21T01:48:29Z

(Stolen from a forward, admittedly . . . but *I* found it amusing . . . )

Capitalism & Cows
TRADITIONAL CAPITALISM -- You have two cows. You sell one and buy a bull.
Your herd multiplies, and the economy grows. You sell them and retire on the
income.

AN AMERICAN CORPORATION -- You have two cows. You sell one, and force the
other to produce the milk of four cows. You are surprised when the cow drops dead.

FRENCH CORPORATION -- You have two cows. You go on strike because you
want three cows.

A JAPANESE CORPORATION -- You have two cows. You redesign them so they
are one-tenth the size of an ordinary cow and produce twenty times the milk. You
then create clever cow cartoon images called Cowkimon(tm) and market them
world-wide.

A GERMAN CORPORATION -- You have two cows. You re-engineer them so they
live for 100 years, eat once a month, and milk themselves.

A BRITISH CORPORATION -- You have two cows. Both are mad.

AN ITALIAN CORPORATION -- You have two cows, but you don't know where they
are. You break for lunch.

A RUSSIAN CORPORATION -- You have two cows. You count them and learn you
have five cows. You count them again and learn you have 42 cows. You count
them again and learn you have 12 cows. You stop counting cows and open another
bottle of vodka.

A SWISS CORPORATION -- You have 5000 cows, none of which belong to you.
You charge others for storing them.

A HINDU CORPORATION -- You have two cows. You worship them.

A CHINESE CORPORATION -- You have two cows. You have 300 people milking
them. You claim full employment, high bovine productivity, and arrest the newsman
who reported the numbers.

AN ARKANSAS CORPORATION -- You have two cows. That one on the left is
kinda cute.

ENRON CORPORATION -- You have two cows. You sell three of them to your
publicly listed company, using letters of credit opened by your brother-in-law at
the bank, then execute a debt/equity swap with an associated general offer so
that you get all four cows back, with a tax exemption for five cows. The milk rights
of the six cows are transferred via an intermediary to a Cayman Island company
secretly owned by the majority shareholder who sells the rights to all seven cows
back to your listed company. The annual report says the company owns eight
cows, with an option on one more. Sell one cow to buy a new president of the
United States, leaving you with nine cows. No balance sheet provided with the
release. The public buys your bull.

ARTHUR ANDERSON, LLC -- You have 2 cows. You shred all documents that
Enron has any cows, take 2 cows from Enron for payment for consulting the cows,
and attest that Enron has 9 cows.

P.S.

2009-02-19T01:31:22Z

P.S. I know some people here better/longer/et cetera than others . . . but in light of everything, I know lots of people have lots of "schtuff" going on in their lives. I'm not going to apologize for it, but I am forewarning that I will be picking up here, if at all . . . I'm not going to read back months in people's journals to figure out what's going on! So forgive me if I seem a bit of of the loop (if you care) . . . 'cause I am! :)