nope, not yet.

mmm...okay, i guess i wanna get a few more things off my chest.

while talking with leah about this earlier, we both worried about the supreme court. with as many as three justice nominations looming and a congress controlled by the republicans, it looks as if issues like same sex marriage and abortion could be a thing of the past. sure, it may not happen right away, but it still could very well happen. with so many conservatives in congress, who will veto his ultra-conservative justice nominations? justice nominees who will definitely be anti-gay and anti-abortion. and as leah pointed out, things like bans on gay marriage and bans on abortions are RESTRICTIONS to our freedom. rights that we've taken for granted could be lost and that's what scares me the most. the almighty government may one day be able to tell me exactly what i can and cannot do with my own body and who (whom?) i can and cannot marry. tell me that that doesn't scare you.

i've been online reading other blogs and whatnot. i've been reading this blog by andrew sullivan, who had a lot of pretty insightful things to say.

i liked what he had to say about federalism and i took a small bit of solace in what he had to say about accountability. i cut and paste snippets of both pieces but the first time i published this entry, it ruined my entire page so now i'm cutting them out. but you should definitely read both pieces; they're short and he makes some very good points.

but what i liked the best is what he had to say about being hopeful and having faith: But one more thing is important. The dignity of our lives and our relationships as gay people is not dependent on heterosexual approval or tolerance. Our dignity exists regardless of their fear. We have something invaluable in this struggle: the knowledge that we are in the right, that our loves are as deep and as powerful and as God-given as their loves, that our relationships truly are bonds of faith and hope that are worthy, in God's eyes and our own, of equal respect. Being gay is a blessing. The minute we let their fear and ignorance enter into our own souls, we lose. We have gained too much and come through too much to let ourselves be defined by others. We must turn hurt back into pride. Cheap, easy victories based on untruth and fear and cynicism are pyrrhic ones. In time, they will fall. So hold your heads up high. Do not give in to despair. Do not let the Republican party rob you of your hopes. This is America. Equality will win in the end.

such utter disappointment

in this country. i mean, what is wrong with half of this country? moral issues?! you voted bush into another term because of MORAL ISSUES?! you think gay marriages and abortions are going to be this country's downfall?! are you kidding me?? if you want to talk about moral issues, why don't we ban britney spears and vegas weddings? and what about the non-existant WMD's and the pretty much non-existant relationship we have with the rest of the world? why do you people not think about those things?! whyyyyy??

while it's true that many people voted for kerry just out of spite for bush, i think that says a lot about how much people vehemently disagree with this president. that they would rather go with ANY alternative than stay with someone who clearly lacks any sense of leadership and, well, common sense. what a jackass. what more obvious sign do you need that there needs to be a HUGE amount of change in this country than the fact that people are voting for your opponent out of clear spite for you??

and what about the debates? did anyone even take anything from those?? bush looked like the complete idiot he is in those debates. but people are willing to vote him back into office just because of his religious values. oh but wait a minute - what about that little thing called separation of church and state? i guess we can't be bothered with that pesky little ideal when we have to "stay the course" and bring "freedom" to iraq. but how can we bring freedom to another country when we clearly lack it in our own country? how is banning gay marriages and abortions freedom? please tell me because i'm dying to know. such hypocrites.

and then there's prop 66 - the limits on the three strikes law. i can't believe that people actually allowed themselves to be duped by schwarzenegger and his scare tactic ads into voting no. people!! you really think the jails will just open up and rapists and murderers will come flooding back into society? please! the three strikes law was never a good idea to begin with. you're telling me that you're willing to spend millions of dollars to imprison people for twenty years who have just stolen a pack of beer or some other ridiculous little crime? yes, we do need to keep violent felons in prison, but this isn't the way to do it. the three strikes law is ridiculously unjust and a waste of our money.

watching all the election coverage on the news last night was interesting though. particularly seeing how the entire west coast was blue and pretty much the entire landlocked areas were red. i was listening to some of the radio coverage too and someone brought up the old joke that maybe we should just secede from the union. it's just a joke of course and no one would seriously bring that idea up, but it's interesting to ponder. because, clearly, our values are just the polar opposite of the rest of the country's. well, that's not entirely fair since many of the states' votes turned out to be very close 50-50's (52-48, 51-49, etc). but still. what is it about the west coast that makes us so different? oh right, we actually let people live their lives the way they want to live them. ugh.

okay, so there's my rant. it's out. i can move on now.

we're off to see the wizard! 

creating debra's glinda costume. we made mike wear the skirt so that deb and i could pin the tulle onto it. heehee. 

happy halloween!

may you all gorge on lots of sweets tonight and suffer from a sugar hangover tomorrow.

last night, went to a halloween party at aaron's. i was dressed as the wicked witch of the east, debra was glinda the good witch (of the north), mike was the tin man, and david was the cowardly lion. we were originally thinking of him as the scarecrow but deb and david found some furry yarn and decided to use that to make a mane for him. it came out quite well. ha came as evil red riding hood who killed dorothy and took her place in the story. pictures to follow after this entry. plus, i'll upload some on yahoo after this. so check those out too. got some pretty funny pictures. ;D

you'll have already seen the picture where deb is pinning tulle onto a skirt-wearing mike. there was a really funny moment where we were done pinning all the tulle and suddenly realized that we couldn't get the skirt off of mike. all the safety pins had made it impossible for us to stretch out the waistband. so finally, it took me, david, and debra to get the skirt off mike by pulling it over his head.

i just finished handing out candy to a bunch of trick-or-treaters an hour ago. didn't buy that much candy to begin with since i didn't expect many kids. also, was a little overzealous with the candy giving for the first few kids which resulted in half the bowl being gone in about twenty minutes. but i did get rid of all the candy, which is a first, so yay. one little kid, in particular, cracked me and mike up. he came with a bunch of other little asian boys and when i opened the door, they all yelled "trick or treat!" or "happy halloween!" or some variation of that. this little boy, however, yelled out, "SMELL MY PANTS!!" hahahahhaa. i think he meant "smell my feet." at least, i really hope that's what he meant to say.

okay, time to upload pictures.