In my family, I am pretty much the golden child with the smarts and all. The oldest child on my mother's side. The children on my dad's side are mostly in India and not as educated.

My husband's family is the same way. Most of the relatives back in Honduras are relatively poor and uneducated. BIL, very much their golden child, finshed his PhD mainly because it was expected of him. It brought him lots of anguish while he was finishing and now he works in a totally different area.

Luckily for DH, the military was strongly revered in the family and DH is an officer, so he sort of gets a pass on the whole super-education thing.

I love that you can only detect cockroach pheromones with an actual cockroach antenna.

Does Radio Shack carry those?

Clients!

TWO WEEKS AGO, the big client emailed me about upcoming grants. He mentioned one with a 2/21 postmark deadline. I looked on the grantor's website, and saw nothing whatsoever about such a deadline. On the contrary, it mentioned that applications would be available beginning 3/1. So I immediately emailed the client back to say, "Hey, my information is different than yours. Am I looking at the wrong grant? Let me know. Also, is this how you want to proceed with these other things?"

He eventually followed up on the other things, but didn't mention the 2/21 vs. 3/1 issue, so I foolishly assumed he'd checked the info and I was right.

JUST NOW he emails me about the 2/21 deadline. I still have no idea what he's looking at that has that date on it, but God help us if he's right and I'm wrong, or the foundation has two different programs and I'm looking at the wrong one! I don't want to write a complete grant application over the weekend! Why the hell couldn't he have paid attention to my email and confirmed this one way or the other TWO WEEKS AGO?

And he wants my input on whether the program budget looks appropriate! How the hell am I supposed to know? I'm the writer. I've never put on a dance production!

Yes, your insoles are farting.

Does Radio Shack carry those?

No, you gotta pull 'em off the boy roach. However, they stay alive for hours after removal. Which is the cool and/or freaktastic part.

And he wants my input on whether the program budget looks appropriate!

You should tell him the thing about the cockroach antennas.

Just because.

After taking yesterday off, I keep thinking today is Monday. Then I get the delightful zing of "Not only is it Friday, but it's payday and a three-day weekend!" Doesn't suck.

Would the heathens/pagans/Others care to explicate their stances and/or spirituality?

I've probably done the Erisian Sermon before. Lots of folks consider Erisianism/Discordianism a sci-fi joke, but as the original writers of the Principia Discordia said, "We thought we were joking, then we kept nodding and saying, That makes sense."

In a nutshell: There are two main balances, distruction and creativity, order and chaos. If you follow an all-order path, you have to accept destruction and creativity, likewise will an all-chaos path. However, if you want to follow an all-creative path (generally believed to be the best choice), then you have to accept both order and chaos. Life is very difficult without the order of traffic lights, for example, and it's boring without occasionally wearing a tiara to Taco Bell.

The universe is supposedly built on order: the DNA code, atomic structure, etc. This, however, ignores all the random chaos out there. Many people can't deal with accepting chaos into their lives, so they accept destruction in the name of an orderly existence. I'm sure I don't need to name the examples.

Personally, I don't--necessarily--believe in a separate cosmic entity called Eris. She is the manifestation of forces, and, fortunately, she has a sense of humor. I've been known to pray to her, as a convenient target. I don't expect her to intervene, but it helps tremendously to know I've got cosmic-level sympathy on my side.

In regards to faith informing a moral structure, I don't fear hell. I don't think it exists. Life can be hellish enough, and the afterlife is either nirvana or peaceful blankness. If I don't exist, I'm not going to be there to be upset by non-existance. Maybe there's reincarnation. If the board's still around, maybe I'll get back to you on that. Anyway, at the end of days, I'm going to have to stand before the universe in all its glory, with all my faults and deeds hanging out. I'm hoping to only have to do a minimum of, "Yeah, that was pretty freaking stupid, wasn't it." I am willing to say, "I know, not the most honorable of decisions there. Here's my reason, I stand by it."

I should bookmark this and copy it and hand it out to the missionaries.

If I don't exist, I'm not going to be there to be upset by non-existance. Maybe there's reincarnation. If the board's still around, maybe I'll get back to you on that.

I'm planning on posting here while I'm on my deathbed, so I'll tell you all if I see a light, and or Moses or something....

Actually, my last post from my deathbed will probably look like this:

Huh. My heart just stopped beating. Weird.

eta: SLUT!!

Hec, thanks for those links. Neat stuff.

Cindy, whatever it is you're writing up, feel free to paraphrase or directly quote me. I'm not worried about citations. I do have a Livejournal but there's no need to link to it in your writing or what have you unless you want to.

My agnosticism is borne mostly of disinterest; my life is overwhelmingly full and complex already--I don't need a definitive answer on the existance of God or the lack thereof, and I just don't care very much either way. I don't think my life would be fuller if there were a God or emptier if there weren't. Many, many more questions are more compelling to me.

Edited to add that I can understand why it's a compelling question to a lot of people, and a compelling belief to those of faith, everyone should believe their own truth, nothingwrongwiththatcakes.