The birds in my neighborhood start saluting the dawn at 3am. I heard a hardy cardinal at 2:20 this morning. Um, birds, the sun doesn't rise until 6:30 or so right now.

Nature am dumb.

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Ear plugs. IJS.

Mack's wax? Not a night in the last 20 years I haven't hadem in the ears. They are of the gods.

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I'd gladly trade birds and squirrels for the UNBELIEVABLY LOUD construction going on on the floor below me.

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I will suggest:

closing windows, wearing earplugs, being happy that we still even have birds, ambient noise machines, getting to bed earlier (except flea, b/c 2:20 is insane-o).

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The only 6 am noise I get is the garbage truck once a week. But I don't hear it with the windows closed.

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God, I hate the world today. Between bug-related trauma last night, and debunking stupid urban legends that are just thinly disguised racism this morning, I am not Little Miss Sunshine.

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My windows have been closed, and like I said, my street gets noisy at night, too. BAH. Earplugs weird me out, in theory -- I don't think I've ever actually used any.

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Alias is going to be available on itunes.

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So, anyone want to download and analyze some census data?

No?

I am stupidly angry at my one "regular" class this semester -- it meets every week, has a midterm, final, and paper, and I just can't take it!

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At least I know I shouldn't like it--that counts for something, right? It's just that when it's that short, the bubble doesn't look so bubbly. Or something.

Yeah, but that's on a manequin. If a woman has junk in her trunk and muscular thighs, that'll change.

A Scientologist on Celebrity Baby Blog explained the whole thing in a way that actually made sense, if you ignored the reasons behind it (which I still think are fairly kooky) and just focused on the process itself.

Plei, can you remember what it was? I read something about it in the last week, and it said something about not wanting the baby to associate the trauma of birth with mom's voice. And I can see that as an argument for a silent delivery (like you, I mostly turned inward during my deliveries, but with Ben's delivery, there were a few, "Oh God" and "I want my mother" comments). It wouldn't convince me, but I could see the rationale, at least. I cannot see it as an argument for the mother's silence for a week or two (or however long it is) after the birth. If I were Katie, I'd be talking to that baby every time I was alone with it. Actually, if I were Katie, it wouldn't be an issue, because I'd be out of there, so I'll shut up about other people's lives, right now. *sigh*

McClellan's resigning. He's going to take an easier job as a human target for a blind knife thrower.

*chokes*

The 100 unsexiest men in the world: >[link] At least one of the writers should have been a woman. Jay Leno and Jerry Seinfeld aren't going on my sexiest list any time soon, but they're funny enough that they wouldn't land on my 100 unsexiest list.

Also, the northeast (with the exception of Maine) seems to have more religious people than the southeast.

Well, there is a lot of religion, here. We're so long settled. Most towns are here, because they were founded around a church. My town was founded by settlers requesting permission to move here, and at the time, what you had to do to settle a town was to have 11 men. Ten would tithe. The 11th was the preacher, and the first order of business was to build a church. In New England when you see a First [something] Congregational Church (although some of them are either U.U. churches now, or have been sold off) it's likely that church is somehow tied to the founding of its town.

Also, there are a lot of Roman Catholic people and attending church is taught as an obligation, and the RC understanding of baptism means children born to RC parents, even those who aren't terrifically religious, will be baptized, which enrolls a person in the church body.

There are also a lot of religious choices here. In general, many of them are more liberal, but my little town has (this list is from memory of congregations I know about, so I may be missing some):

• 1 Conservative Jewish Synagogue
• 3 Roman Catholic Churches
• 1 Episcopal Church
• 1 U.U. Church
• 4 various flavors of Protestant Churches
• 2 Eastern Orthodox (one Romanian, one Serbian although I think they've just sold their building)
• 1 Buddhist Temple
• 1 Charismatic Congregation which rents space in a town-owned building for services
• 1 (I don't know what they are) Congregation that has just started to do the same

There is also an elementary/middle school parochial school run by one of the Catholic Churches in town, and then a Catholic Girls' High School, run by a community of nuns. This is in a town that isn't quite 8 square miles, with a population of about 25,000 people. The bordering in which I grew up, which has about the same population, in about five square miles is not much different.

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