tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-244726692024-03-13T21:41:32.651-07:00Missing In IraqThis is for Kirk von Ackermann, missing in Iraq since October 9, 2003.Meganhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14479511398245538907noreply@blogger.comBlogger578125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24472669.post-78243853994122885322010-04-04T16:56:00.000-07:002010-04-04T17:07:40.112-07:00ChangedDone!Okay folks, anyone interested come on over to the new digs.Doing It WrongI won't be taking this one down or transferring the files - Missing in Iraq will stay just where it is and maybe I'll post here now and then on things that are related to Kirk or Iraq or missing people or any of those many things that have been so important over the last six years or so.But it's definitely time for Meganhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14479511398245538907noreply@blogger.com49tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24472669.post-44782909901292979002010-03-23T21:06:00.001-07:002010-03-23T21:41:48.159-07:00ChangesChild 2 is going to kill me if I don't post - long distance, just with the the sheer force of its personality. Child 2 is not to be trifled with.See, the thing is that for the past... I don't know, month or two or more I have been feeling a little, well, cramped around here. The title of the blog, the reason I began it - it's not that I felt like I had outgrown it necessarily, just that there Meganhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14479511398245538907noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24472669.post-54753843013865934332010-02-22T12:00:00.000-08:002010-02-22T12:00:01.369-08:00Meganhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14479511398245538907noreply@blogger.com16tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24472669.post-61465798483685571032010-02-21T20:17:00.000-08:002010-02-21T20:20:57.421-08:00BreathingFelled by flu, but still alive. Just.Stoopid flu.More later, but just to prove life goes on in the pest house.Children 1 and 3 are out back with a couple of friends having built a fire in the fire pit. One of the friends apparently was assigned a paper on piracy for some class or other and is, for reasons unknown, reading it aloud.Which is why Child 3 just bolted through the house to retrieve itsMeganhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14479511398245538907noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24472669.post-6803445300114426632010-02-08T16:58:00.001-08:002010-02-08T17:15:27.320-08:00SuperSensitiveBowlWatching the super bowl with Child 1. I haven't watched the super bowl in... hmmm.... ever? But this year we had a Party with Food and People (okay, two extra people) and a Large Television (not mine) with American Football on. Child 1, having recovered from its experience in the Happiest Place on Earth sat in a comfortable chair happily stuffing its gob with sweet pepper slices and meatballs (Meganhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14479511398245538907noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24472669.post-84053108509416752992010-02-03T06:23:00.000-08:002010-02-03T06:39:13.501-08:00TrivialI offer, in lieu of anything of substance or entertainment value, the following utterly random and totally trivial facts about ME. Because what's more exciting than things you never wanted to know about someone you have possibly never met? NOTHING.1. I once bit my sister. While we were in the library. Why? Because you can't scream in the library. Which I totally knew, and so when she went first Meganhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14479511398245538907noreply@blogger.com24tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24472669.post-60257670351160518932010-01-27T05:52:00.000-08:002010-01-27T05:57:51.470-08:00Things I Learned in Grad School: An Ongoing Series1. It only takes one week back in college to begin seriously arguing that pub mix is so a food group.2. Noun style is bad, usually. Sometimes it's good, but only when it's well done. Verb style is good, except when it isn't. Bad, good and well done are totally subjective and you shouldn't use them (except when you should). Semi-colons however are always awesome and indicative of great Meganhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14479511398245538907noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24472669.post-68859426664838730402010-01-22T05:47:00.001-08:002010-01-22T09:47:29.929-08:00BiblicalDid any of you see this?A U.S. contractor producing gun sights for the military has been engraving bible verse references on them. Really. Now, the follow up story is that this company has voluntarily decided to stop doing this which, in my opinion, at least upgrades the execs from 'underpants on the head loony tunes' to 'capable of comprehending the concept of organizational meltdown,' so, well Meganhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14479511398245538907noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24472669.post-71934599642590711672010-01-21T05:51:00.000-08:002010-01-21T06:02:12.299-08:00Things I Learned From My Required ReadingPossibly a continuing feature! Aren't you excited? I know my family, with whom I already shared a number of fascinating items, are totally thrilled.Anyway.1. No one should ever produce a design text book because students (meaning me) will inevitably spend all their time being snotty about the examples (as in - 'this example sucks!') rather than oh, say, learning anything.2. Text books still say Meganhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14479511398245538907noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24472669.post-81471483416310070592010-01-20T06:06:00.000-08:002010-01-20T06:29:32.511-08:00Mo-To-The-JoIt was the first day of school yesterday.Which immediately brings images of white socks and pig-tails and metal lunch boxes (mine always had rows of banana stickers on the inside of the lid because nothing is quite so valuable and important to save in a neat row as the Dole sticker off a banana).I had been so excited when I registered. I was going to do this just for me, make a plan and look Meganhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14479511398245538907noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24472669.post-42010897199766665892010-01-15T14:10:00.000-08:002010-01-15T14:18:36.118-08:00IrresoluterYou see!I make these non-resolution things with every intention of not doing them, or kind of doing them, or saying I was but then not or saying I wasn't but really meaning to all along AND having one or two up my sleeve that I was totally going to do but wasn't going to tell anyone about so I could be secretly virtuous and stuff.Only it never works that way, does it?So here is my short, in orderMeganhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14479511398245538907noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24472669.post-70769674912434656482010-01-11T07:49:00.000-08:002010-01-11T08:50:12.256-08:00UnpluggedChild 3 is experimenting. This sentence has sent a frisson down the back of all adults who know Child 3, so I want to clarify at once:1) The experiment is ON ITSELF2) It does not involve any explosives at all. None3) Nor does it involve fire, projectiles, spinning things or combustion engines4) Except incidentallyWhat happened was last week some time Child 3 looked up with innocent blue eyes and Meganhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14479511398245538907noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24472669.post-44350386457851861372010-01-06T06:37:00.001-08:002010-01-06T08:10:11.045-08:00IrresoluteI don't DO resolutions and I reject the idea that January 1st is some mythical magical time to get over your bad self and Change Everything. However for some reason this week a sort of, kind of... we'll call it Not A List at All set of things has been building itself in my mind. Viz:1) I'm not in shape. I'm not OUT of shape, I'm just not in shape either. I've not been as good as I was about Meganhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14479511398245538907noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24472669.post-26478348496910571712010-01-04T19:54:00.000-08:002010-01-04T20:14:32.309-08:00NeujahrPhew.That was a year, that was (points, big ones, to anyone [outside of immediate family] who gets the reference ).It was though, wasn't it? I mean, here, in this house, it started a bit slow, then picked up rather much and then there was a sort of Whoosh, BANG!! at the end. In fact, I'm still sort of recovering from all the whooshing and banging and I'm not quite sure where the dust will Meganhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14479511398245538907noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24472669.post-39319657944577202722009-12-30T08:10:00.000-08:002009-12-30T08:13:33.246-08:00Hostage release - Peter MooreAfter two and a half years held hostage in Iraq, British hostage Peter Moore has been safely released. Meganhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14479511398245538907noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24472669.post-62946932189805525382009-12-24T12:56:00.000-08:002009-12-24T13:13:13.740-08:00YulisciousIt's been... a year. A lot of year. A whole lot of GoodBadGoodBad year. But, and I'm deeply, truly, unbelievably grateful for this, it has been a more good than bad year. That sounds so simple and banal so I have to repeat it - this, this year, has been MORE GOOD THAN BAD. For the first time in six years this year, as tumultuous as it has been, has been a good year.I'll do a summation later but Meganhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14479511398245538907noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24472669.post-82065835707320307522009-12-15T10:04:00.000-08:002009-12-15T10:20:16.054-08:00Game OnRight, so say you're sitting in a hospital waiting room on the surgery floor having been told, two hours ago, that it would take two hours for the be-surgeried person to be put in a private room. And say you were also told to keep an eye on a nice monitor which would scroll your be-surgeried friend's patient number past every few minutes and magically change the background color when the haven ofMeganhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14479511398245538907noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24472669.post-62773435858768419642009-12-14T10:22:00.000-08:002009-12-14T10:33:49.607-08:00ThanksgivingnessDidn't intend to disappear.In fact I had a nice post all written about how nice it was to sit down at Thanksgiving with this small circle of people I care for and just talk and laugh and eat together. And it was, very, very nice.But then there was this call one morning, a 6-in-the-morning call which is just late enough to be probably a work thing: someone calling in sick or someone with a Meganhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14479511398245538907noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24472669.post-61018625620312645152009-11-20T09:38:00.001-08:002009-11-20T11:05:59.303-08:00Mastering - updatePhew! Right, here's where I've gotten:1) Taking the GRE ... DONE! Last Saturday.2) apply for a masters program ... DONE! Sorta. I'm off-cycle with admissions so I'm going non-degree this Spring and being all official in FallI've also3) Registered for Spring classes and gotten everything I wanted to get4) Met with the faculty member I'd like to chair my committee and gotten enthusiastic approval Meganhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14479511398245538907noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24472669.post-23789257409687501242009-11-12T10:11:00.000-08:002009-11-12T11:02:05.550-08:00Last WordsWell, I hope last for a bit, but this was on my mind this morning so...Someone sent me a link recently to a post on the Passive Aggressive Notes website. You can read the post itself here, but here's the text of the posted note:Hi – you don’t know me but I’ve noticed that you go into #360’s apt late @ night & I sometimes see you coming out in the morning. & it’s obvious that you sleep Meganhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14479511398245538907noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24472669.post-41352364278762882492009-11-10T14:07:00.001-08:002009-11-10T14:17:22.887-08:00MasteringRight, although it is dispiriting (and... well, we'll say irritating as that sounds mild and sort of like a rash rather than something soul sucking and stress-producing and generally end-of-the-worldish) that things are still a bit nebulous and uncertain when it comes to time, last night when faced with the option of a) fretting and b) deciding that All Was Lost because it is far easier (somehow)Meganhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14479511398245538907noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24472669.post-15337238793767603402009-11-09T18:21:00.000-08:002009-11-09T19:22:29.233-08:00ClaimedPhew - that was fun, wasn't it!Yes. There is a great deal I feel about the election in Maine. In fact, it's a bit split - rather like the vote. On the whole I'm going to take it as a good thing that the election was so close. Of coures, I can do that because it's not my family on the line - I can say that it's positive that an election like this was, technically speaking, within the expected Meganhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14479511398245538907noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24472669.post-41596974291788701542009-10-29T06:44:00.000-07:002009-10-29T08:56:28.467-07:00EmpathyThere are many Mormons who are not concerned with the actions of the church. There are others though who are torn, people I know and people who have written about the fact that they feel a great deal of internal conflict about their well-loved church asking for donations and publicly calling for members to vote in a particular way on the rights of people who are not even members of their sect. Meganhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14479511398245538907noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24472669.post-12271891527934460362009-10-22T21:00:00.000-07:002009-10-26T20:21:53.903-07:00CommonalityIt's hard to say exactly when polygamy started in Mormonism. There is no official record for what is generally felt to be the first plural marriage (by non-Mormon historians and Mormon historians alike. Please note that of course there are dissenters who do not accept this marriage). According to journals and notes however, Joseph Smith married Fanny Alger, aged 16, in Kirtland, Ohio some time inMeganhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14479511398245538907noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24472669.post-34674012686038283132009-10-22T19:04:00.000-07:002009-10-22T19:50:36.200-07:00Uncensored IISo what outed me?Proposition 8.I know.Me and how many others? But it's important, because in some ways the fact that the church got involved in an election in California over the civil rights of a minority, the rights to pledge a commitment to each other, to publicly pronounce that they were a family hits a pretty tender nerve.Some of you might not have been following this whole drama (maybe? HowMeganhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14479511398245538907noreply@blogger.com28