Happy Halloween

From ghoulies and ghosties
And long-leggedy beasties
And things that go bump in the night,
Good Lord, deliver us!

Let's Go Red Sox!

Let's hear it for the

BOSTON RED SOX

2007 WORLD SERIES CHAMPIONS

WE WON! WAHOOO!!!!

This is a RED SOX NATION!!
Second four game sweep in four years!!!!

Show me what Democracy looks like (this is what democracy look like)!

Yesterday morning I joined a group from Rutgers and thousands from around the region to protest the US illegal occupation of Iraq and its policies of imperialism. The day was rainy and kept some in, but we were motivated. I rode in with some members of RAW and the Central Jersey Coalition Against Endless War and met up with the student contingent. Following a march in some parts of the city with which I'm less familiar (that being anything below 14th street - bourgeois, I know).

Following that I went with a friend to have lunch with some members of Solidarity in the New York area. Very interesting and extremely informative time. As someone far less familiar with the labour movement than I should be, it was extremely enlightening.

Ended up going out for a drink with someone I met at the group to learn more about a women's conference being planned and later met up with a good friend from York who is working at Columbia for dinner.

Now for the pictures... they aren't great in part because of the weather and in part because I really wasn't paying attention when I took them.




The president in his native dress.

So evidently,I didn't take this one.
Or this one...




Amazing bookstore (around Broadway and 14th



Let it rain! Let it pour! Together we can stop this war!








Some guy was dressed up as V.


And of course, the live shots!!! The guy hold the banner yelling is Ian. He is awesome (and not as crazy as he appears in this shot).






Longer and better....

The opposite of war isn't peace, its creation.

Why demonstrate?

This is a frequently asked question, posed by both those in and outside the activist movement, a question that I often asked myself, and, in full disclosure, as this is my journal, this entry is as much, if not more for me than anyone else who may or may not read it.

I spent yesterday morning with about 10,000 other people standing in the rain.. We yelled, shouted, and waved our signs, and sometimes, I have to wonder for what.

What do demonstrations accomplish? When I was in the DC area we would protest the capitol and the White House -- on a Saturday. I could understand wanting to obstruct regular business as occurred when the Rutgers walk-out closed down one side of Rt. 18 last year, but most of these don't. They don't change legislation, and they seldom seem to change the way our legislators vote. My first demonstration was just before the invasion of Iraq in 2003. A went with a group from my church. Close to half a million people showed up to proclaim their opposition to this illegal and awful war.

Turns out we were right, for whatever thats worth.

So why do I still go to these things?
Aside from feeling like part of something and knowing that others feel the same way. I know that letter writing, hassling congressmen, etc is more effective (yes, I do that too), but this is far more energizing, and reminds that we are not alone.
A friend of mine was on the organizing committee of the Campus Anti-War Network. I asked him what his point is?
The first of course is that feeling of togetherness, and unity.
Next, is for networking. Connections help keep a stronger movement with more voices. Similarly, its gets new people out and keeps them out. It makes them unified with other groups.
It also lets different movements know what other movements are doing -- student groups, labor groups, women's groups, etc. and also lets different groups know what other group are doing (or that they exist) if they aren't on mailing lists.

So is it worth it, yes. It reminds us and the world that we are part of something and that we are here. It helps us stay motivated and brings out new people, lets us know what others and doing, and if nothing else, makes us a bit of an inconvenience.

Pics forthcoming.

Prayer Request

Just a quick prayer request for my roommate and her family.

I've known Suzannah since 9th grade, and her older sister Nicola was one of my best friends. Nicola died in a car accident about 4 years ago.

S's mother was diagnosed with breast cancer this week. S is handeling it surprisingly well, but it clearly upset at the possibility of losing someone else so close. To make matters more complicated S is also a pharmacy student and has some major exams this semester that she needs to pass.

Anyhow, her mother has surgery scheduled for Tuesday and they are doing to check her lymph nodes etc. then. Her mother has a number of medical conditions and adding this clearly wouldn't help. They found this in her first mammogram in ten years, so if nothing else, its good that she had to get one.

So prayers please, this family has had a huge number of burdens and they need all the prayer they can get.
thank you

Best work in scrabble

I just scored my highest point word in scrabble-- airplane for 158 points. Its a bingo that crossed two triple word scores. Thats about 80 points higher than anything else I've ever scored... and its 12:18 at night (playing online) so there really isn't anyone else to share it with, so I'm sharing it with you.

Wild Turkey's take to suberbs and cities

The Boston globe reports:

On a recent afternoon, Kettly Jean-Felix parked her car on Beacon Street in Brookline, fed the parking meter, wheeled around to go to the optician and came face to face with a wild turkey.

The turkey eyed Jean-Felix. Jean-Felix eyed the turkey. It gobbled. She gasped. Then the turkey proceeded to follow the Dorchester woman over the Green Line train tracks, across the street, through traffic, and all the way down the block, pecking at her backside as she went.

"This is so scary," Jean-Felix said, finally taking refuge inside Cambridge Eye Doctors in Brookline's bustling Washington Square. "I cannot explain it."

Notify the neighbors: The turkeys are spreading through suburbia. Wild turkeys, once eliminated in Massachusetts, are flourishing from Plymouth to Concord and - to the surprise of some wildlife officials - making forays into densely populated suburban and urban areas, including parts of Boston, Cambridge and, most recently, Brookline.

Read it all....

COMMENT: There was a stretch of road on my way to high school that would be crossed by a line a wild turkey's at 7:55 every morning. (School started at HR started at 8, so if you were running late you were either screwed or had to remember to take a different route). They are smelly and nasty and ew.

Maybe the Turkeys in Mass. just want to enjoy the World Series as much as the rest of us

Rainy Day meme swiped from Jess D

What is your favorite adjective? Be creative (and please don't pick "cool")

Video

Here is the promised video of Dennis reading the letter from MP. As I said before, I didn't realize my phone records audio, hence the randomness of the clip.
enjoy.

Open mouth, insert foot?

edit: Photos in next post down


This could likely be the motto for my life, and may be the reason I came across as "quiet" on Monday. Yes Tarin, Jacky, Anna, etc, I was as described of being "quiet and shy"... go ahead and laugh.

However, as we all know, I have rather severe head to mouth control issues... I'm working out.
But in the most recent one, I actually told someone that he was "nicest activist I've ever met." Who says things like that?!

Oh wait... me.

I'm not sure who felt more awkward after that comment.

Or in class when the dowdy substitute doctoral student asked what we thought the professor was doing in Wisconsin, drinking beer? (his disertation was up for some award) and I shouted back (its a large classroom) I'm sure that [drinking beer] is at least part of it.


or the, "she doesn't want a guy who thinks she sucks, she wants a relationship...."

and these are the tame examples...



Yeah.... working on that whole head to mouth control thing.

Okay... now back to my regularly scheduled homework (its 1:25am)


Oh, and we just started an organization at Rutgers focused on raising money and awareness for medical supplies for women in Burma, and are scheduling a RAW concert, so I can blame that for a bit of the procrastination... kinda....


Oh, and demonstration in the city on Saturday WAHOO....
I was going to go protest Horowitz at Columbia on Friday, but I was asked to play acolyte/chalicer at a wedding at GraSP, so I'm all about that instead (so, I guess I can be bought?).

okay, back to homework... really...


oh, and I love ellipsis....