The Gumby Cave/La Grotte de Gumby

(Notes by the tireless and wonderful mechanteanemone )

NeVaga enquires a bit about Manager Karlson’s regular habits; he seems to hang out primarily in low-grade Muster social circles when he’s not “actively recruiting” unskilled labour or supervising crews. After a bit of discussion, Aquilegia and NeVaga agree that approaching him at this point would just tip the opposition.

Once the travel preparations are complete, Aquilegia’s ship Maya’s Light heads out towards the jumpgate. About a day into the trip, it’s shipboard night and Aquilegia is getting a late bite to eat when she runs into a frightened Etyri cowering from her! Astounded, she tries to calm the crouching, trembling, babbling Etyri, speaking to him in his language; behind her, a man wearing an eye patch appears, pointing a laser pistol. Aquilegia calls out in alarm and outrage, waking NeVaga, as a third stowaway reveals herself, dropping from a ventilation shaft. NeVaga sneaks up on the armed man and puts her kraxi knife to his throat, but the third stowaway, a young girl of sixteen, convinces her companion not to shoot anyone.

When things are finally sorted out, Aquilegia and NeVaga learn that the young woman is Dame Alicia Silvers (whose name Aquilegia recognizes as reputed to be the Emperor’s illegitimate daughter), her bodyguard Imperial Eye Agent Constultius Fortitude Zebulon "Snake" Plissken, and Harr’ha’ukee Thuuri, an Etyri Cha'arkut merchant who was embroiled in their escape. Dame Alicia is running away from her uncle and legal guardian John Hawkwood, who she believes is part of a conspiracy to assassinate the Emperor before he is crowned, have her recognized as Imperial Heir, then act as regent to rule the Known Worlds. She reasons that as long as she is free and her whereabouts unknown, the conspiracy cannot afford to kill the Emperor.

By the time the story is told and Aquilegia check whether an alert has been raised about the fugitives, Plissken and Thuuri’s mug shots are being broadcast through the system as kidnappers and slavers. Aquilegia asks NeVaga to arrange a distraction through her Cumulus Station contacts. NeVaga is quite willing, concerned that a search for the escapees could turn up her smuggled vial of unknown contents. She calls her uncle on Cumulus Station, tells him about the searches, and arranges to have some poor schlock the Scravers are dissatisfied be turned loose and become a distraction.

The Maya’s Light makes it to the jumpgate six days later without further interruptions, and lumps toward Criticorum. However, soon after they arrive into the Criticorum system they are stopped by an al-Malik cruiser that orders them to heave to and prepare to be boarded. NeVaga hides the stowaways carefully before al-Malik forces board. Despite Aquilegia’s protests, the ship is seized under claims of piracy and sedition, and they are taken planet-side to Criticorum.

There, Aquilegia is informed that her sister Lina has apparently made a name for herself here by helping a faction of independent fishermen, who refuse to join a guild or pay dues, fight off the attempts of the Fishermen’s Guild to annex them forcibly. If Aquilegia can get her sister to leave this fight, the ship will be returned and they will be allowed to continue their trip. Aquilegia agrees none too graciously; after recovering her crew and belongings – and speaking loudly while doing so in order to warn the stowaways – she is taken to the beautiful coastal city of Isfahan to try to locate Lina Masseri.

Aquilegia requests of the al-Malik that they supply her with a small fishing boat so they can venture out and make it easier for Lina to contact her. This takes a few days to arrange so in the mean time Aquilegia and NeVaga spend some time talking to fishermen. When people learn of another Masseri they react strongly with animosity or approval of the sister of the famous pirate/hero. Aquilegia and NeVaga question many in order to piece the picture. The Fishermen’s Guild previously had a policy to leave independents alone but about a year ago this change and no one knows why. The Guild has even hired Muster forces to help them in this struggle, and the al-Malik have refused to support the freemen. The whole conflict seems far more brutal and expensive than it should be.

One night Aquilegia receives a note to be in the alley behind the inn alone at midnight. She passes the note to NeVaga so that her bodyguard can keep covert tabs, then goes to the assigned place and time. While she is keeping watch, NeVaga hears a voice whisper: "Gund dashedi myr tant"; she whispers back, "Bont tavi kormig rivga Sukara." A young Ukar man steps forward, his hand extended, and she hands him the contraband vial. He leaves as silently as he arrived.

Aquilegia waits for a long time, but no one comes to meet her. Certain that this must be a distraction to search, bug, steal, or bomb their room or possessions, she returns to the inn but finds nothing amiss even after turning the room inside out.

Aquilegia and NeVaga barely had time to get any sleep when they are awakened again by a commotion in the early morning hours; the al-Malik authorities are demanding to see NeVaga. It transpires that an Ukar has turned up dead nearby and the authorities want to question NeVaga. She and Aquilegia are taken to see the body and NeVaga immediately recognizes the body of the young Ukar she handed the vial to the night before. Questioned about whether she knows him, she firmly denies ever seeing him before.

The al-Malik nod and are about to let them go, shrugging. It’s clear however that the dead man was stabbed multiple times, so Aquilegia volunteers NeVaga’s services to examine the body. The al-Malik authorities agree with some suspicion. NeVaga sees from his ritual scars that he was from Kordeth and belonged to Clan Morwec, well known as closely aligned with the al-Malik. Half of her own clan (Nolent) sympathizes with the Morwec while the rest are strongly opposed (including NeVaga’s own line).

She can also tell that he was stabbed by kraxi blades from at least three directions but never had a chance to defend himself. He has been thoroughly searched and robbed, and the vial is gone. It seems he must have been killed very shortly after she first encountered him. NeVaga cautiously informs the al-Malik and Aquilegia that the dead Ukar was from Kordeth and was killed by three people before being robbed, but omits the rest of the details.

When the boat promised by the al-Malik finally shows up, with an independent fisherman called Mustapha at the helm, the two visitors head out to sea. Several days of sailing, watching the horizon line, and questioning Mustapha and any other fishermen they encounter (all independents) reveals nothing new.

At long last late one night after Mustapha has started heading back to port because his boat’s holds are full, Aquilegia is awakened by the sound of another boat sailing close. She quietly shakes NeVaga awake, moments before a bright spotlight turns on them from the other vessel, another fishing boat slightly larger than theirs. Lina Masseri’s voice calls out so Aquilegia calls back. Questioned, she explained that the al-Malik demand that she discourage Lina from helping the “rebels” but Lina cheerfully refuses – this is not about a fishermen’s guild war, she says.

After quick introduction, Lina kills Mustapha in cold blood and announces that he was an agent of the al-Malik secret police. She urges Aquilegia and NeVaga to quickly move to her own boat; the vessel’s wooden paneling is rapidly jettisoned, revealing a sleek racing boat underneath, and they are off in a roar!

In response to this week's Facebook witnessing, I have posted a quote honoring great Ganesha.

Various events conspired to prevent me from cooking the turkey for a couple of days, but I finally got it into the oven on Thursday night.

It came out pretty good.

I used the Alton Brown recipe found here. I omitted the onion from the aromatics and used cranberries instead. Overall impressions -

1) Since we have a single element, top heating gas oven, the bird got a little overbrown on top during the initial half-hour at 500 degrees. On the other hand, the bird was a bit underdone on the very bottom at the end. Next time I'll put a foil shield over the bird during the first half hour. That should eliminate the overbrowning, and should slow the cooking on top so that the bottom can catch up.

2) Despite brining in it for a couple of days and having some stuffed into the cavity, the bird did not taste much of apple. The cranberries doubtless added moisture, but I didn't detect any real flavor addition because of them, though they did make the bird smell nice during cooking.

3) Overall though, I give it an 8/10 - 1 point off for not being cooked all the way through, -1 point for not enough apple taste. Still a very good bird.

Mellézuhantam, átfordult a teste
s feszes volt már, mint húr, ha pattan.
Tarkólövés. – Így végzed hát te is, -
súgtam magamnak, – csak feküdj nyugodtan.
Halált virágzik most a türelem. -
Der springt noch auf, – hangzott fölöttem.
Sárral kevert vér száradt fülemen.

Szentkirályszabadja, 1944. október 31.
Miklós Radnóti

I fell beside him; his body turned over,
Already taut as a string about to snap.
Shot in the back of the neck. That’s how you too will end,
I whispered to myself; just lie quietly.
Patience now flowers into death.
Der springt noch auf, a voice said above me.
On my ear, blood dried, mixed with filth.

Szentkiralyszabadja, 31 October, 1944
I came across this yesterday and thought I would put it up. It is one of the few extant examples of holocaust poetry.

Rather than discuss it extensively, I think I will wait until others have read it and perhaps commented on it, and let it stand on it's own for the moment.

"ALBANY, N.Y. — New York lawmakers on Wednesday rejected a bill that would have made their state the sixth to allow gay marriage, stunning advocates who suffered a similar decision by Maine voters just last month.

The New York measure needed 32 votes to pass and failed by a wider-than-expected margin, falling eight votes short in a 24-38 decision by the state Senate. The Assembly had earlier approved the bill, and Gov. David Paterson, perhaps the bill's strongest advocate, had pledged to sign it."

Link to full article.




Step forward, step back. It's like the chicken dance of civil rights

It took a bit longer than I had expected to get the brine cooled to the point that I could drop the turkey in, but the bird plunked into the solution yesterday evening, and floats there even now, like the Titanic in it's final moments.

Today I need to get the cranberries, crabapples, and apples to stuff the bird with. I am debating whether to cook the bird tonight or let it sit in the brine for awhile longer and cook it tomorrow. At issue is not only the bird itself, but some leftovers from last night's dinner that I may want to get out of the fridge. On the other hand, the container with the bird in it is taking up a good half of the refrigerator at the moment, and we had to dismantle two of the shelves in order to make space for the gigantic pot. I can see why most people prefer to brine in ice water in a bucket out in the garage, but I can't do that here owing to a cat door that could admit raccoons into our garage (theoretically - I have yet to find a raccoon in the garage - but who wants to risk a turkey?)

In other news, my therapist called in sick this week, so I shall have no angst to spew at you until next Wednesday. For those of you who look forward to my angsty posts, my apologies. For the rest of you, let the rejoicing begin!

My online buddy b_hamsterno26 , has become hooked on Aion, the new game by NCSoft. Its one of those games that is way too high end for my computer to handle. I got a chance to see it over the weekend, and the graphics are really nice, but I just don't see spending $600.00 or so on my system so I can handle it. It is a little bit of a disappointment for me, of course, but I rather knew this would happen sooner or later. My system has been barely keeping up with City of Villains, and frankly I am surprised that it has hung in as long as it has. In the world of online gaming upgrades are the stuff of life. That and subscription fees.

I have started working on a Google Group for my Inquisitor game. I sure hope that after the work I put in for this the game doesn't go tits up again! Once I have things looking decent I will send out invites.

A friend of mine posted on Facebook recently about her disastrous Thanksgiving turkey, which she described as "19 lbs of 'never again'". I decided to tackle a turkey myself to see if I would have better luck.

We purchased a Diestel organic free-range turkey, and this morning I made up an apple-sage brine for it (the brine is currently cooling on the counter top). Tomorrow I will make up an apple-cranberry stuffing to go in the bird and will roast it using a foil shield over the breast. We'll see how it goes. I noted at the co-op this morning that there were local crabapples in, so I might toss in a few for flavor.

While reading up on brines, I came across an interesting idea - once you have brined your bird, leave it to air dry in the refrigerator overnight before cooking. The claim is that this makes the skin more crispy. I'm not going to try it with this particular bird, but it is certainly something to remember for the future.

After the restart of my Inquisitor! game I have been really excited about the campaign in general, and wanted to do some reading about the Warhammer 40K universe in order to get more of the "feel" of the setting. I had previously read the "Eisenhorn" series by Dan Abnett, which I thought was good, if not great literature, and was looking for more. My initial thought was the "Ravenor" series, which also deals with the Inquisition, but the local Borders was out of stock. I was on the verge of ordering online when I stumbled across the first two "Gaunt's Ghosts" omnibuses (omnibusi?) at a used book store in Eureka for $6.00 apiece. Seven books for $12.00 looked like a pretty good deal to me, so I picked them up and settled in for some heavy immersion into the 40k setting.

I won't bore you all with a long, detailed description of the books themselves - that's what wikipedia is for after all. It's good, crunchy, military science fiction, clearly influenced by authors such as David Drake, and drawing a lot of its inspiration from military actions of the 20th century. There's lots of shooting, lots of explosions, lots of blasting of heretical chaos scum, and from that perspective it's a fun read if you are into that sort of thing.

More important for me, there are lots of good descriptions of various exotic locales within the Imperium that I can use - from the shrine world of Sabbat (where worship of the Emperor and Saint Sabbat have a decidedly Tibetan flavor), to firefights in the heavily industrialized Vervanhive during a chaos insurrection, to airborne assaults on the vapor mills of Phantine there are a wide variety of locations that give a feel for the diversity of the worlds of the Imperium.

Most of the actual fighting is beyond the scope of an Inquisitor! game - PCs should not be bogged down in wars of attrition or spend their time sniping at nameless chaos mooks - but the books certainly give a feel for what life in the Guard is like (though one gets the impression that Gaunt is one of those "kinder, gentler" type Commissars who would never stoop to shooting one of his troopers in the back for cowardice). There are also a wide variety of characters that can be stolen as NPCs, and though most of them are, as one might exect, Guardsmen, there are also some Inquisitors, Clerics, nobles, and even some Scum that are sufficiently developed for use as NPCs.

Of course I can't read the series without thinking of my old Rogue Trader era Imperial Guard army, back in the days when "Imperial Guard" meant "Cannon Fodder, and lots of it!", when tanks were things that your flamer operator wore on his back, and if you could put together a scratch force of squad strength at the end of the game to keep your company banner flying you had probably managed to win some sort of pyrric victory. Those great old days of Imperial Guard Beastman platoons, when the Guard actually had medics, and your officers flew around on jetbikes before tumbling out of the sky in a horrible fireball.

Memories....

Aside from their utility as a mine for RPG material, I don't think I could recommend the books unreservedly. If you liked the "Hammer's Slammers" series, you will like these books. If you are looking for something with a bit more depth, try the Eisenhorn series instead.

The Emperor protects!

For dinner we had locally caught albacore tuna, baked with locally produced mango-jalapeño glaze, sauteed local parsnips, garlic bread (made with locally made bread and locally grown garlic), and an apple crisp (made with locally grown apples and local honey).

I was somewhat dissatisfied with it.

1) The garlic bread was a bit oily for my taste. My fault - I made too much of the topping and just slathered it on too thick.
2) The parsnips were great. Nice, solid recipe, made many times.
3) The albacore - I don't know what was wrong with the albacore, but I didn't enjoy it. I have been eating a lot of fish lately on my doctor's instruction, and maybe I just blew out on fish yesterday. It may also be that at some level I wanted turkey. Anyway, I was not entirely satisfied with it, but for no reason I can really pinpoint.
4) The apple crisp was a new recipe, selected because it was partially sweetened with honey, which we can get locally. I fooled around with it a bit, and I thought it came out reasonably well for a new recipe. It needs a bit more tinkering before I can really be satisfied with it, though, as I found it a bit sweeter than I would have liked. I'll give the tinkered recipe below.

Overall I thought that the meal was fine in terms of everyday fare, but was not up to the standards of a Thanksgiving meal. Good, but not great.

Anyway, the apple crisp

Shosuro Kando's experimental apple crisp
(modeled on "Tom Carrolan's Apple Crisp" from the Apple Cookbook by Olwen Woodier, given to me last year by liminaut 's wife.)

8-10 medium apples (I used a mix of Pippin and Clennendon, but any tart apples will do)
1 T. honey
1 T. lemon juice
3/4 cup brown sugar (not packed)
3/4 cup flour
1 t. ground cinnimon
1 t. ground ginger
1/2 cup butter

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and grease a 2-quart casserole dish.
2. Mix the honey and lemon juice in a small container.
3. Peel, core, and thinly slice the apples. Place in the casserole dish, and drizzle with the honey/lemon mixture.
4. Mix the flour, sugar, cinnimon, and ginger in a small bowl. Cut in the butter with a pastry cutter until the mixture resembles small crumbs. Sprinkle over the apples.
5. Cover the casserole dish with aluminum foil and bake for 30 minutes.
6. Remove the aluminum foil and bake for 30 minutes more.
7. Remove from oven and let stand 15 minutes, then serve.

Ideas for future experimentation.

a. Replace ginger with 1/2 t. nutmeg
b. Reduce amount of apples and replace with rhubarb
c. Eliminate honey and replace with 1 cup raisins
d. Eliminate honey and lemon and replace with 1 cup raising soaked overnight in rum

My original plan was for a pretty standard skillet fry, using ground beef instead of sausage and tossing in some spinach. Local conditions forced me to somewhat modify things, however, as the local chickens are molting at the moment (and hence not producing eggs) and there was no local spinach - or onions for that matter.

Instead I made the skillet fry with local potatoes and local shallots, seasoning it with locally made hot sauce, locally grown garlic, and locally produced cheese. The only ingredients not local were the pepper I used for seasoning, and the canola oil that I cooked the potatoes in (if I had been thinking I would have gotten 80% lean ground beef, and cooked the potatoes in the grease from that). Washed down with locally roasted (decaf) coffee sweetened with locally produced cocoa and locally produced cream, it was quite a tasty way to start the day, and filling enough to fortify us until dinner time.

I decided that for this year's Thanksgiving I was going to try to put together an entire day's menu that was entirely local (or as close to it as I could manage). Today I went to the co-op to see what I could find in terms of local ingredients.

In terms of main course my choices were beef, seafood, and cheese. Luckily the co-op had just gotten some locally caught albacore tuna steaks, so that made my choice of dinner main course easy. In the produce section there were plenty of choices for local potatoes, and a smaller selection of local vegetables (including Brussels sprouts, parsnips, cabbage, kale, turnips, and rutabagas). It turns out that our local chickens are molting at the moment, so local eggs are unlikely.

At present I am thinking of the following in vague terms: breakfast will be some sort of potato scramble with hamburger, or possibly cube steaks and potatoes. Lunch will be grilled cheese sandwiches on local bread. Dinner will be albacore, parsnips, Brussels sprouts, and garlic bread, with an apple crisp or something similar for dessert.

My big problem is finding things to drink other than milk. We have some local wines that might go with dinner, but nothing locally produced in terms of beverages (with the exception of a local herb tea made for pregnant women, which I think I will pass on serving). I will need to explore this further.

Posted to Facebook -

http://www.cnn.com/2009/OPINION/11/23/dawkins.darwin.atheism/index.html

Digging a foxhole and waiting for the return barrage.

Nearly three weeks now with no significant caffeine (aside from once when I slipped and got a soda for lunch, and the tea I had at a Chinese restaurant the other night).

THE DECAF! IT DOES NOTHING!

Yesterday I told mechanteanemone that I would gladly commit premeditated, cold-blooded murder for a soda.

One more week. One more week. One more week. One. More. Week.

Somebody please kill me now.

(Notes by the ever industriousmechanteanemone )

NeVaga receives an invitation from her uncle Valkolm to come to Cumulus Station. Valkoln Nolent greets NeVaga warmly, then gets down to business: he needs help from an outsider to Cumulus Station. Contraband is transiting through the station, but not through the Scravers Guild; he fears a Guild Member might be moonlighting and he wants discreet investigation. The Inquisition is beginning to sniff around the matter and the Guild does not want the Church on board the station. Interrogations of the Charioteers involved show they had no knowledge that their ships were being used for smuggling. The contraband merchandise usually consists of drugs, portable goods, etc., and comes from various systems, including Byzantium Secundus itself.

The Inquisition has arrested a stevedore from Cumulus Station, Thadross Marv of the Muster Guild, and made him disappear; Valkoln asks NeVaga to obtain Lady Masseri's help in investigating and keeping the spotlight off the Guild. He wants the operation stopped for good, but if possible would also like to learn how it was done.

Meanwhile Aquilegia receives a request for an audience from the Imperial jester, a Gannock named Stukeneneer, on a matter of some discretion. After a pleasant but meaningless conversation, Aquilegia invites Stukeneneer out for a meal at a low-key restaurant. At the end of the meal, he passes her a note asking for help; his family is being threatened and he is afraid of going to anyone. In addition are two more notes written on cheap paper in what may be blood, ordering him to tell no one and be ready for contact.

After they part company, Aquilegia checks society columns and gossip to find out more about Stukeneneer and Gannocks in general. He is unusual among Gannocks for even being away from his family (which is still on Bannockburn); he has no known friends although he is well-known and considered amusing. When NeVaga returns, Aquilegia tells her the story, shows her the notes and asks for help in investigating. NeVaga agrees in exchange for help in investigating the Cumulus Station contraband ring.

Aquilegia then contacts Bishop Demijanik and asks her to find out how she could gain access to the suspect (Thadross Marv) which was taken by the Inquisition. She spends the remainder of her time examining the information available on the smuggling ring. The contraband is all material that is not particularly extravagant, but is profitable - power cells, power equipment, medical supplies, intoxicants, drugs, proscribed holovids - things that would either be proscribed for general use or heavily taxed.

NeVaga asks Valkoln to have the threat notes discreetly analyzed; the ink is Gannock blood, several months old, written on paper made from plants native to Bannockburn. She then investigates who would have access to Stukeneneer's quarters (a large number of servants and officials); but three maids, 15 security people, a valet, and a cook are the most likely candidates to have had access to Stukeneneer's quarters.

Bishop Demijanik sends what she has been able to find on the Inquisition's investigation of the smuggling ring: Thadros Marv was arrested by an Avestite Inquisitor and has been sent to Pyre for trial, for trafficking in contraband goods - specifically untaxed holovids of "Stan and Stultzy" - as part of a current investigation of contraband goods being smuggled into Byzantium Secundus. He was remanded to the Inquisitorial court on Pyre for interrogation and trial.

NeVaga investigates the background of the various palace personnel and finally identifies one as a promising lead: a maid, Xanna Hamilton, who has in recent months taken a few unusual trips to Veredian University. Moreover, her brother Ravi is a member of the Muster posted on Bannockburn. NeVaga has to wait for a couple of days until Xanna finally has a day off and ventures outside the palace to run errands. NeVaga inconspicuously follows Xanna around but notices no one skulking or watching, and Xanna's activities are wholly mundane.

Aquilegia asks NeVaga to stage a scene with street urchins robbing Xanna, so she can come to the rescue and have an excuse to talk to the maid. She takes her to sit and have some tea, and after some conversation and a good deal of effort, Aquilegia gains Xanna's timid confidence: the maid passes a note saying: "help me they have my brother." It is getting late so Aquilegia lets the maid go back to her post.

Next, Aquilegia speaks to Sir Thoktika'a to ask for her opinion or a suggestion of trustworthy authority to take this to. He advises her to pursue this on Bannockburn, and agrees to watch over Stukeneneer and Xanna while she is gone. Aquilegia discreetly leaves a note for the Gannock to let him know where she is going, and manages to meet Xanna again. She learns that Xanna has received threats from Muster Manager Karlson, telling her that unless she obeyed his instructions, her brother Ravi would be posted on Stigmata and never seen again. She has to visit Veredian University every couple of months to receive her orders. On two occasions, she was given notes to leave in Stukeneneer's quarters; she did as she was told and did not read the notes. Aquilegia instructs her to memorize or copy any future notes and pass them to Sir Thoktika'a while she is gone.

NeVaga visit Valkoln Nolent on Cumulus Station again and informs him that her charge is about to leave for Bannockburn; he had mentioned some time ago that he had goods he wished to move unobtrusively under cover of Lady Masseri's travels. He gives NeVaga a phial of clear liquid, enjoining her not to let it be found or damaged. It must be taken to Criticorum, where an Ukar will approach with the phrase "Gund dashedi myr tant" ("Fire rains on our enemies"); NeVaga must answer with "Bont tavi kormig rivga Sukara" ("Let our swords send their broken spirits to the judgement of Sukara.") Finally, he refuses to disclose the contents though he says they are instantly lethal, but he warns NeVaga that if Aquilegia should ever discover the nature of the contents, one of them must die.

On Byzantium Secundus, Aquilegia visits Sergeant Jake Wilkinson of the Muster, to ask him what he knows of Manager Karlson. She learns that the man is a Slaver of pretty high level, though not the kind of man likely to have put this scheme together; Wilkinson dislikes him intensely and would be happy at a chance to let him get what he deserves.

"No public option, or I'll give you SUCH a filibuster... buster."

As mentioned the other day, my therapist sucker punched me with a homework assignment to think of a small thing I could do for myself that I have really been resisting doing. I came up with my assignment Thursday, and have been contemplating it off and on.

I'm not going to drag out the long and boring details, because I think that most would consider it TMI, but the short version is that I have needed to buy some new boxers for a long time now, and have been really putting off doing it.

What has been interesting about the whole thing, and the part that I found most intriguing, is my reaction to it. Very soon after identifying this particular thing, almost as soon as I sat down to think about it, the idea crossed my mind "This is silly, just go out and buy yourself some new boxers for heaven's sake!" And I almost did.

I almost sabotaged my homework.

The focus of the homework wasn't on doing, or not doing, some little thing for myself - that decision was optional. The real task of the homework was to examine my resistance to doing this little thing for myself. But as soon as I started examining the basis for my resistance, my resistance disappeared. I was completely ready to go out and do the thing that I had been putting off doing for months now - rather than look at why I was resisting doing it.

A perfect example of defense mechanisms at work.

Tomorrow or Tuesday I will head out and buy myself some new boxers. But more importantly, I didn't buy them before I had a chance to think about my resistance to buying them, and that has granted me insight.

Since I have staggered back onto Facebook, I have noticed a new and disturbing trend. There are several people on my friends list who seem driven to put up biblical quotations in their status boxes each day.

Now of course it is their right to post whatever the hell they want in their Facebook status boxes (as long as it doesn't violate Facebook policy, of course). But I wonder how they would react if I started putting up daily comments by Christopher Hitchens, Stephen Fry, et. al?

"The day will come when the mystical generation of Jesus by the Supreme Being in the womb of a virgin, will be classed with the fable of the generation of Minerva in the brain of Jupiter."
- Thomas Jefferson