Don't Fear the Memer

1. Go into your LJ's archives.
   
2. Find your 23rd post (or closest to).
   
3. Find the fifth sentence (or closest to).
   
4. Post the text of the sentence in your blog along with these instructions.
   

Survey says:

Andy thinks it turned out well; I'm a bit dubious about the flour.

For the morbidly curious, the full entry is here. And now I miss Thena again.

Lighthouses

[Cross-posted to the usual suspects.]

Some of my recent posts have been unhappy, to say in the least. They have been in response to legislative nonsense which is literally threatening the lives of my friends in various states (in the Union, not states of mind ;). It's sort of odd, being insulated as I am, because while everyone around me is more or less the choir when it comes to debating issues, I can get my hopes up that maybe things aren't so dire. The weddings held around the country were an incredible boost.

And then suddenly a bill comes up and often even gets passed by at least one twig on the legislative branch, and suddenly the fight for lives is once again on. I often succumb to despair, because I don't understand how so many people can be so blind as to what these politicians are trying to do to people whom they cleverly dehumanize by affixing a label. It doesn't even technically have to pass house/senate or be signed into a law; the fact that it actually became a bill is scary enough.

However I do have the fortune of knowing many wonderful people. More importantly, I know many wonderful people who are doing something, rather than just flailing around blindly. One of them is fighting perhaps the scariest of the "Kill them all and let God sort them out" bills; the Conscientious Objector Policy Act which passed in the Michigan house on April 21st.

( Background information. Note that all links provided within the cut as well as the one above are to the bills/laws themselves, not to interpretations thereof. )

So anyway, political stuff aside, the friend I mentioned before is Jeff Huo, who graces LJ's presence under the username turnberryknkn. Some of his entries are silly; some are romantic; those about his family and friends are warm; and those about medicine are fervent. Jeff took a "vacation" from medical school in order to get a PhD (for those who have never suffered through or seen someone suffer through a PhD, note that this is about equivalent to taking a break from dangling over pits of rabid rats in order to dangle over pits of aggressive deadly snakes).

Once Jeff finishes his PhD (on how certain cells/genes/something (IANAD) are more susceptible to diabetes) he will return to medical school to become a doctor for children with cancer. For an idea of his dedication to this path, see this entry. In his copious spare time he's a medical activist who is very passionate about funding for health care for those who can't afford it and other "quality of life" issues.

However, this post is the reason for the title of my current post. One thing I can count on is that there are people like Jeff who are doing everything possible to fight all of the nastier sides of humanity, and that he is thankfully nowhere near alone. In fighting HB 5006, Jeff is representing the Michigan State Medical Association -- meaning that most doctors will ignore this law in order to uphold their Hippocratic Oath.

( If you get near a point, make it. )

Brief House News

At 2pm callicrates and I are going to the owner orientation to our house. As of about ten seconds ago, the status page does not have "Ready for buyer orientation" checked.

Wherein My Previous Accomplishments Bite Back and Fun With Recipe Adaptations

It turns out what we were doing to today wasn't buyer orientation; it was a final walk-through so we could add our concerns to Pam's. I'll leave the rest of the house update to callicrates, except to note that our final radiant heat stuff may not be done by our real orientation, which is on Wednesday at 15:00.

Today I turned in our rent check and 30-day notice; Andy plans on us being completely out by my sister's birthday, May 31st. Anyway, we were both bears of little brain; we signed the second page and initialed the first, but didn't sign on the first. Luckily Toby thinks we're nice freaks, so we're ok. I'll probably turn it in on the way to KC tomorrow.

I also found, thanks to Toby, the name of the tree which will be going in our courtyard as soon as I can get my hands on one -- a Bradford Pear. As a bonus, it appears on the list of water-wise flowering trees. I fell in love with it in NC and was so happy to see it literally all over the place here. It's a non-fruit-bearing tree which has white flowers before and a little bit mingled with very pretty green leaves. I'm not sure what I'll do with the tree currently in the courtyard, possibly put it in the side yard or something. I had planned, since we first signed on for the house with the courtyard, for a Bradford Pear to be the centerpiece, or at least the focus. I just didn't know what it was called.

Kitty City was nigh on silent. There's a huge adopt-a-thon going on this weekend (it started today, hence the ghost town effect) and all but Muffin and Sylvester are there. Sylvester was feral as recently as a month ago and is still prone to snapping; Muffin was abandoned in an apartment and not found until the cleaning folks went in, and we think she was abused before that. She tends to snap at sudden motions. Apparently the real reason she didn't go, though, according to Jill, was that she said "Please don't take me; I don't want to go". Translation: Growl hiss snap hiss <draw blood> snap claw bite. Or, as Jill said, "Look who won."

( A lot of food geeking. )

( More KC stuff plus scary fangirl geeking. )

( Just for extra measure -- if you have even less of a life than I do and have not seen *Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl* (POtC:COtBP) yet, the last sentence spoils an early scene. )