The internet can be a misleading place. With Rick Rolls on every other YouTube video, spam emails full of lying propositions and shady offers, ads and websites offering everything from supposedly legal prescription drugs to male sexual enhancement, it's something like the dark back alley of a questionable street at 2am. Like all communities of people who have come together it has its bright sides as well; the art museums and universities dedicated to higher learning and the entertainment games no more sinister than a Putt Putt Miniature Golf course.

But as I said, the internet can be very misleading. Ever did an image search on google and clicked a picture only to have it redirect you to a porn site? It happens. If the site it redirects you to is a child pornography site, this makes you a criminal. Why? Because it's impossible to prove intent on the internet.

There was recently a series of arrests in Florida as part of a child pornography sting. In Hillsborough county on Wednesday there were 4 arrests. Two of the arrested each were charged with exactly 14 counts of possession of child pornography. One of the others arrested was charged with over 1500 counts of possession.

Peer to peer transfer online is usually run through a secondary program which connects together people looking for files with people who already have these files. Much like Napster of the turn of the millenia, LimeWire is one of these such programs. P2P transfer is based entirely on trust. You only have the file name and possible customer reviews to go on when you download a file and expect it to be one thing - it could be anything. Something labeled a video of the Simpsons theme song could end up being a snuff film involving two midgets and a donkey. There's no way of knowing until after you download something about what it might actually be.

And if the police break down your door early in the morning before you even have a chance to look at the file you set to download before going to bed last night, well then you may just go to jail without ever even seeing the content in question, because possession is all it takes to be a criminal, whether you know about it or not.

A person who has an interest will usually have a vast collection of the item in question. I have about 300 funny kitty pictures on my computer along with several hundred images of flowers. Both of these are among my interests. The two arrested men (and I use the term men lightly because one of them was 16 years old) both had exactly 14 counts of possession. And I'd be willing to bet they were the same exact 14 pieces of child pornography because I'm pretty sure they both downloaded them the day before the arrest. Which leads one to ask how the police knew that the accused would have downloaded these pornographic files the day before.

With the accuseds' computers in the hands of the police, we have only the word of the involved officers about the contents of the computer. And while the people entrusted with law enforcement should be the most honorable and honest people in the world, the paranoid conspiracy theorist in me just doesn't trust the people who have a vested interest in making a charge stick with the sanctity of information.

If the police put those 14 child pornography files on LimeWire with the intention of finding sexual predators, they are guilty of distribution of child pornography. If they did it under false pretenses, putting a different name or description on the file to be downloaded, then it's entrapment too.

May showers bring a ridiculous amount of blossoms to the Amaryllis.

Late in April, Greebit came in from outside a little stiff.  Over the course of the night, it became apparent that it was his leg that was injured and unhappy and I eventually found a hot swollen spot where he had a wound - a bite from another cat.  Took him to the vet the next day and the vet gave me antibiotics, told me it was infected, and we scheduled an appointment to have him fixed so that he wouldn't want to go outside and fight with other boy cats anymore.  Greebit had just turned a year old in April.

Antiobiotics administered, he recovered nicely and when it came time to get neutered, he had the surgery done and a handful of vaccinations brought up to date, including his rabies vaccine.  When I picked him up from the Vet's office they told me that he was a little slow waking up from the surgery but was otherwise fine.

Since then, he's been a little lethargic, a little less affectionate, a bit less playful, and a bit pickier with his food.

A few days ago, I noticed that the lymph nodes under his jaw were swollen and the usual lethargy (since the surgery) was more marked.  There was one night last week where he was laying on the floor by my feet and he started yowling and panting.  His heart was racing and he pooped on my thigh while I was holding him.  After he pooped, he seemed much better, if really freaking tired, and he was okay for a day or two.  I didn't take him to the vet then because I didn't know how to explain what was wrong with him.  He spiked a fever the next day and was sometimes very tense when we picked him up.  It was intermittent though, so while I was watching him very carefully, I wasn't ready to whisk him off to the vet.  He had been off his food a bit, so I was feeding him a big ol' can of tuna every day, which he was quite happy to chow down on.  I knew he wasn't drinking much water, but hoped the water the tuna was packed in would be enough to keep him healthy.

It wasn't.  He spiked another fever and was showing signs of dehydration.  Not severe dehydration, his eyes and mouth were still moist and he was still peeing, but he'd lost a lot of the elasticity in his skin - when you pinched up a section of his skin it took a while to spring back to the normal cat shape.  The yowling and then struggling to make a poop thing happened again, while my mom was here.  Again, after that poop he seemed much recovered and his panting and fast heart rate settled down.  The next time his fever spiked, I got a syringe (not hypodermic, just the syringe) and carefully squirted water into his mouth.  That's when I noticed that his tongue was extremely pale and my first thought - and as it turned out apparently correct thought - was anemia.  He was willing to swallow and took 6mL of water and showed an almost immediate improvement.  We gave him more water later and it triggered one of those attacks of panting and stiffness and wild heartbeat.  He pooped again, soft and small this time, and recovered.

I got him to eat some raw hamburger, hoping the red meat would help with his iron.  Getting water in him helped with the color of his tongue and gums too, but they were still only pale pink (instead of almost white) and not the deep pink that a healthy cat has.  I thought we might lose him that night, but he made it through and the next day was a *lot* better, frisking around and acting like his usual self.  Then he had another attack - this time it was much more gradual and much longer lasting, without the pooping that seemed to relieve him before.

We've been giving him water and his appetite has been better - he ate a fair amount of chicken breast today (about half of a KFC-sized breast) and even drank some water on his own this morning.  He hasn't drank since, so I gave him another 6mL of water via the syringe and now he's curled up sleeping peacefully on Jay's laptop.

After I'd seen to him and settled him down, I went to look up anemia in cats.  After a few general-knowledge things, I came across a really good site about  Feline Infectious Anemia.  And that's where we are now.  I found on another site that it causes enlarged lymph nodes as well and that's what clinched it for me, and I'm sure it's what he has.  If Jay takes tomorrow off (which he wants to for an entirely unrelated reason) then I'm going to be taking him into the Vet's.  The prognosis for recovery from this is pretty good, especially with good home care (which he's already gotten and will continue to get) and antibiotics.

The acute phase of FIA lasts for 2 to 4 months, so it may be that long that I'm having to give him water by syringe and strip chicken into tiny easy-to-eat bits for him.  Intermittently during that time, he could have these attacks where he pants and his heart races and he's all sore and feverish.  After that time, he'll no longer show symptoms of it, but he'll be a carrier for the disease.  It's not known how long they carry it - could be years, could be for life - but it does mean that Greebit will be my only kitty for as long as we have him.  I wouldn't want to risk getting a new cat, him biting the new cat, and then the new cat having to go through all of this again.

So... yeah.  Neuter your boy cats.  Before they're old enough to want to fight with other kitties.  I have always, and may even continue to be, very hesitant to do a medical procedure unless it is needed.  I very much tend to prefer to not change the natural order of things until it becomes a necessity, but if I'd gotten Greebit fixed 3 months ago, he might not be sick now.

Fireflies (Lightning bugs)
Helicopter leaves/seeds
Pony rides
Hanging upside down at the playground
Climbing Trees
Running through sprinklers on a hot day
Swinging high and then jumping out and hoping you land okay
Sliding down the stairs on a pillow
Jumping on the bed
Playing hide & seek
Hand-clap games
Playing dressup and pretending to be big
Practicing kisses and giggling about boys
Playing in the snow
Jumping over waves at the beach
Shake 'n Bake and I Helped
Jumping Rope
Puppy Love
Believing in Santa
A quarter being a lot of money


There may be more.  That's enough for now.

I suppose that works.

A friend of mine has set up a Buffy community, and while I myself do not partake of the madness, I know a lot of you guys out there do.

(this is the same friend Lillith posted about, but I have some different people friended than she does so it couldn't hurt)

So go and enjoy the Buffy joy.

www.circleoftheblackthorn.com

It's a little surreal watching your home team, who was suck-ass last freaking place in the league last year, vying for the World Series this year.  Now, I am not a baseball girl, I don't think I've watched a full baseball game since Cal Ripken Jr retired from my Orioles back when I was a little girl living in Maryland.  But what's even more surreal than Tampa being in contention for the World Series is watching them blow their attempts at clinching that spot - over and over again.

I stayed up until 1:30am watching game 2 go into the eleventh inning and end with the Rays up.  I was delighted and downright giddy at our 13-4 win over the Rays Sox in Fenway.  And then I watched in horror as our 7-0 lead in game five dwindled away until Boston managed to tie it and then take it, without us able to score another run.  And then tonight's game, where we had the advantage of batting in the bottom of the inning (Baseball is one of the few places where I love being on the bottom) and inning after inning, we just didn't score.  We just... didn't... score.  The World Series on the line, and they couldn't pull it together.

So now, after being last in the league last year, and after having this miraculous 3-1 lead in the ALCS where we actually just might be able to do this, we've lost two in a row and put ourselves on even footing with the Sawks.  So on to game 7, and we'll see whether the first pitch of the world series happens at Tampa.... or at Boston. :(  8pm tomorrow at our very own Tropicana field, we'll either become another miraculous comeback story for the Sox, which have been behind in a series before and gone on to win it, or we'll have the cinderella story for Tampa Bay that I find myself so desperately wishing for.

And I don't even like baseball.

Also happening in Tampa tomorrow night at about the same time is my Bucs playing against the Seattle Seahawks.  Moobs, baby I love you and all, but I hope your team dies a horrible burning death at the hands of my team.  Figuratively, yanno.  I'm not going to have much fun with the games tomorrow.  Because the baseball game starts at 8:05 and the football (FOOTBALL!) game starts at 8:15, I'm going to be watching the Bucs and worried and distracted about the Rays.  And knowing my pessimistic husband, if either of my teams lose tomorrow (or god forbid both), it's going to be him who takes the blame squarely and wholly. 

So please, if you're not a Boston fan (and no one really should be :p ), please, please, please think happy thoughts for the Rays.  And if we happen to get to the World Series, I won't even think bad thoughts about the Phillies.  Not too bad anyway.

Go Rays! Ack ack ack.



This amused me far more than it should: http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a150/quisalas/tfb.jpg

Nabbed from kolers.

Only two rules-- and you MUST follow them:
1. You can only say YES or NO.
2. You aren't allowed to explain anything unless someone asks you.

( memetastic )

How's that for a complete lack of real update? ^_^ I'll get around to it.

Just a quick post to let everyone know that we made it back home. Con was a blast, will post more eventually.

Ta.

Stolen from Wombat, Amp, Doris, Adra, Owen, Raeyn, so on...

Take a picture of yourself right now. Don't fix your hair... just take a picture. Post that picture with no editing. Post these instructions with your picture.




I cheated - I did let my hair down and I rotated the picture in Window's image preview thingie.  But otherwise, there's me, right now.

The hell is wrong with me today? I was looking up Father's Day crafts to do with the kids in the morning, while Jay is sleeping, and while I was reading this poem, I just started bawling.

"Walk a Little slower, Daddy." said a little child so small.
I'm following in your footsteps and I don't want to fall.

Sometimes your steps are very fast, sometimes they're hard to see;
So walk a little slower Daddy, for you are leading me.

Someday when I'm all grown up, You're what I want to be.
Then I will have a little child who'll want to follow me.

And I would want to lead just right, and know that I was true;
So, walk a little slower, Daddy, for I must follow you!!

I read a couple more poems and again, each one I read made me tear up and start crying. I'll admit to being a softy in the right circumstances, but I am not usually like this. I know there are lots of babies happening on the Dragonmount boards, and maybe that has me more aware of my own kids getting older, but really! Now I'm going to have to worry about dissolving into tears while doing little handprint paper plates for Jay and that's just going to be weird on the kids.


Oh well, my sanity aside, I hope all of you have a wonderful Father's Day, whether you celebrate it for spawn, parents, or just because it's Sunday.

Funny email forward is funny.

Which Ajah are you best suited for? created with QuizFarm.com

You scored as The Brown Ajah You are best suited for the Brown Ajah. Dreamy eyes, and ink stained fingers are the mark of this Ajah. These Aes Sedai are the historians, librarians, scientists, and engineers of the White Tower. They are in charge of the Tower Libraries and as such are usually more negotiable than probably anyone else. These Aes Sedai are usually so caught up in their studies and research projects that they are oblivious to current events in the world. The Brown Ajah 95% The Green Ajah 85% The Blue Ajah 85% The Gray Ajah 75% The Yellow Ajah 70% The Red Ajah 70% The White Ajah 55% The Black Ajah 45%

XD This should make Rae happy...

Jei: What are you up to?
Quisalas: Playing feeding frenzy now. I was reading
Jei: Ah. You're still on the Robert Jordan books, right?
Quisalas: Almost done with the last one. o.o
Quisalas: Although there is also the prequel to read
Jei: Po' Crystal.
Quisalas: ::sniff:: I wonder when Brandon Saunderson is going to start writing 12
Jei: He hasn't even started? Oy... that may make a lot of folks mad.
Jei: I hope this isn't one of those long convoluted things that takes years and changes writers and publishers and junk like that.
Quisalas: Jordan died in September 2007. Sanderson was chosen to write the next book, with the written chapters and outlines and a recorded oral telling of what happens from Jordan himself. As of the last time he said anything on it (about when I started reading them in late Feb) he was going to reread all the books and then get too work.
Quisalas: get to work.
Quisalas: It's supposed to be done December 2008, and published in the fall of 2009.
Quisalas: http://www.dragonmount.com/Books/Memory_of_Light/
Jei: Well goody, maybe by the time I'm finished the series will be ready or almost ready.
Quisalas:
Quisalas: It will not take you a year to read the 10,000 or so pages of book.
Jei: Did you like, hear yourself say that or read yourself type it?
Jei: I mean, it shouldn't 'cuz I'm *me* ::bragbrag::
Jei: But seriously It will not take you a year to read the 10,000 or so pages of book
Jei: You should be ashamed to have so flippantly typed that sentence.
Quisalas: It took me 3 months.
Quisalas: And I didn't read this last book very attentively.

Happy Birthday, Alan.

Books, glorious books.  It's been so long since I had this amount of reading to do, all in one big chunk of paper, sitting on my shelf waiting for me.  I've read about 2300 pages, and I'm barely a third into what I bought, the first nine books, and there are still two more books out there.  Another, whenever Jordan's replacement gets around to finishing A Memory of Light.  I do so love having books to read.  And each of these books, 700, 800 pages long, so much story it feels like a full thanksgiving meal (complete with leftovers the next day) for the mind - and I have nine of them to read!  In a row, just one right after another, with no break in time between turning the last page of one and eagerly, greedily snatching up the very next book.  It is how I have always preferred my books - it's how I read Dean Koontz' 30-some odd books that one summer (he's written more since that I haven't read), it's how I read The Dark Tower's beginning, just when book 4 was released.  It's how I read Jason's Discworld and Brian Jacques books, and if I ever get around to it, it's how I'll be with Xanth and Myth and whatever else I may find hidden in his boxes of treasure.

Wheel of Time is engaging and entrancing and so enjoyable.  It may not be the best books ever, but it very well may be.  The man has such a way with words, i find myself picking up mannerisms and speech from the books without even realizing it.  I feel the story wrapping itself around me until not only can I not put down the book, I don't want to either.  His description of detail and depth, which some list among his flaws, brings the world he paints in word to life.  The fashion of the nobles in Tear, the humor of the Aiel, the cool pride of the Aes Sedai, all of it, every last people have such a rich tapestry of culture and personality and values it's just... breathtaking.  The complexity of it all, the sheer grand scale of his world.  He puts such life into his writing that I gasped when the Horn of Valere was blown because it was such an epic and amazing thing.  This world I hardly knew of two weeks ago, its legends and myths come to life felt awe-inspiring because I identified with and understood the impact of those actions, to the characters.  I began reading the books only so I would be able to roleplay with Raeyn, and I find myself unable to put down the books long enough to work on the character I wanted to roleplay.  And I find myself drifting from the character I had in mind originally, each time I find out more about another Ajah I want to make a character for that to, to experience their world in that way as well.

It's just.. amazing.  And thank you again, Rae for turning me to the books.  I loves dem.

I was sick all last week.  Fever, coughing, sneezing, queasy, whole nine yards.  Jay has it now.  103.6 degrees.  The poor guy look so miserable and barely alive, it's hard to not worry more than I should.  I know fevers are a good thing - raising the body temperature above what the invading organism can live through - and I know peoples can get by just fine with no damage at all until the temp gets to 107.6, but watching him laying there weakly on the bed with a cold cloth on his forehead and him being so out of it he can hardly put a whole sentence together.  I still am not "better" but the fever part of the cold has already passed me, now I'm just coughy and congested. 

I hope he's okay, and the fever comes down soon.

I'll admit, it was slow to grab me.  It took three tries at reading it to get beyond page 5, and that was with skipping the rest of the prologue that second try.  But I kept at trying to read The Eye Of The World because I trust Lillith's judgment, and sure enough, the book has me hooked now.  I've just gotten to chapter 7, I'm still at the very beginning of the book, but it has gotten good and it's gotten good quick. :)

I'm off to go read some more.  Things I have to post about soon:

School Psychiatrist & Shaun
The New Computer
Shelves
Shaun's Night Terrors

Other things of note:
I have my camera back!
I have a webcam! (first time ever)
I am finally over the Cold From Hell, hopefully. 

Powered By Womens Toys


Yeah baby.

So far, so good.  I've stopped picking up the empty pack of cigarettes now and I just look at it when i realize it is why I'm feeling restless.  I'd bought some cans of diet coke the same time I bought my last pack of cigarettes, because I knew if I had sugar soda with me I'd drink way too much of it and would end up with issues replacing cigarettes with calories, which might actually be more dangerous to me than smoking was.  But anyway, I've done pretty good by doing lots of kitty book reading.  I'm going to run out of books to read very soon, more than halfway through my last novel, with only the two kitty manga left after this. 

I don't think I've been too crazy yet.  Poor Jay has to put up with IMs from me with things like "Will you get me cigarettes on your way home? I don't want you to get me cigarettes. Yes I do.  I need you to be strong and not give in to me.  I think if you bought a pack of cigarettes and only gave me one per day, it'd be nice.  I just want one for bedtime, since that's when I'm the most stressed with the kids. I'm glad you didn't get me any cigarettes on the way home."  Poor Jay.  He's holding up well, though.  I think he's decided I am crazy, which means he can just ignore me.

In related news, the gunk I'm coughing up is icky.  Yesterday it was almost all thin, colorless goo, today it seems to be goo from deeper in my lungs and there's actually more wheezing and gurgling when I breathe.  Jay thinks the cessation of smoking has allowed the goo to loosen up and it's now free enough to be coughed up, instead of stuck in my lungs.  So hopefully coughing up nasty shit is an improvement in this cold, 'cause I am freaking TIRED of being sick.  My throat is more sore since I quit as well, and it's sore in a very specific reminds-me-of-strep kind of way.  I'm hoping I don't HAVE Strep, since my mom is coming back into town on Sunday, but I guess it's better to have the icky cold when she's coming back from visiting the newborn baby than when she's going to the newborn baby.  I'll need to go visit Vicki soon to see the baby.  I wanted to go right after mom got back, and be there in DC for Prom next weekend, but it just wouldn't work out. :(  So now I don't know when I'm going to visit Vicki, but it ought to be sometime soon.  I want to me my baby nephew!

Next week is Jay's birthday.  29 years old, on Thursday.  His mom wants to do his birthday party this weekend, on Sunday, along with his brother's, since his brother's bday is the 25th.  I just hope Charlotte is willing to do the party early enough, because I have to pick mom up at the airport at 5:30 and then D&D is at 7.  It's Jason's party, she's going to have to be willing to accommodate him.  I dunno what to get Jay for his birthday.  There's so much we're going to be buying right now with the tax money, it's hard to differentiate what is a gift for him and what's not.  I suppose he could get the PS3 now... that's a pretty cool gift.  I wish I had something superawesomecool that I could surprise him with, but he's been so vocal about what he wants, none of it can be a surprise.

Rambling now. :)  I'm going to go back and be sociable in radio chat now.  I've been lurking pretty hardcore just lately, wrapped up in these kitty books.  I <3 kitty books.


Unrelated, Skippyjon Jones is an adorable read-along book.  If you have kids, find a copy of it.