I like department stores for some reason. I just can't remember what it was.

Right! Underwear. Good place to see an assortment of underwear. Also hose. I don't buy much other clothes in them, since they're nonsensically arranged. I want all the pants in one place, not all the Elie Tahari. Who the fuck is she anyway?

What's CM? Criminal Minds?

Yep.

At least I hope so.

Alas, again in a skipping-lots-ignoring-ongoing-conversations-and-poking-my-head-for-a-short-time manner, but still, it's that time of year again, and, yeah, still in a risk of sounding a bit strange:

On Sunday evening (as most of you clever people probably already know) starts the Jewish holiday of 'Yom Kippur', which means 'Day of Atonement'.

This is a day of soul searching, of trying to better define to ourselves our faults, and try to accept it upon ourselves to become, at least a little, better people. A day of repenting past wrongs we did, looking and finding it in our hearts to forgive wrongs done to us, and trying to remember to learn from this process in the rest of the days of the year. The holiest day of the year for practicing Jews.

On a rough division, there are two kinds of wrongs people can do: against G-d, and hurting their fellow human beings. In Jewish tradition, if the person committing a sin against G-d is truly sorry for what they did, repenting and taking it upon themselves to try and avoid repeating it, G-d forgives those sins. The deeds which hurt other people, though, are not so 'easily' and personally forgiven. If somebody did anything to harm another person, they would not be able to cleanse themselves from that deed, no matter how much they'd pray and be sorry and repent and try to do good in the future, unless they make amends with the person who was hurt by that deed. As long as peace between people is not achieved, the 'sin', so to speak, is not 'erased from the books'.

Regardless of the date in the year, I'd hate to think I'd offended somebody here (or everywhere else, for that matter). I don't think that the attempts of becoming a better person than one already is, is something that needs a date or a certain holiday for it, of course. It's just that, for me, having a certain day in the year to stop my daily runnings around, and think of nothing else but the really important things, is a good reminder of the order of priorities I'd like to have in my life.

So, since Monday will be, for me, this day of soul-searching, of trying to create a new start in my on-going effort of 'becoming a good human being, or at least a slightly better one', I would like to ask all of you here, if I ever offended anybody, or hurt any of you lovely people, to tell me about it, and give me the opportunity to apologize, fix it if possible, and also learn from my mistakes, and try to not repeat them (there are so many new ones to practice, why repeat old ones?...).

In case I offended anybody, and can't communicate directly with them about it (for whatever reason), I can already say that I'm truly sorry. I can honestly say that I didn't mean to - you're all so considerate and thoughtful and generally all-around foamy, that there's absolutely no room for such a thing here. However, I might have had a slip of a keyboard, or mistaken somebody's intentions, or many other possible so forths. Especially now, after meeting some of you in face-space, and having somewhat less computer (and online playing) time, there are so many more opportunities for mistakes and misunderstandings and hurt. Y'all are so understanding, you probably didn't take offense anyway, but I want to make sure, all the same.

Please don't get me wrong - I'm definitely not trying to go around in a 'holier-than-thou' show off, or force my personal beliefs on others, or make statements which may be understood as criticizing anybody else's beliefs and way of living. If anything, being around here, among such a rich versatile group of kind and clever people, exposed me to a lot more ways of choosing to lead one's life than I've ever had a chance to see before, and showed me much more of the beauty and richness that is the world we live in.

{{Buffistas}}

[Edit: each year I hope I'll be able to make it less long and less ramble-y, and each year I realize once again that I completely lack the ability to write anything concise. At least I'm consistent.]

I love Nilly.

And thanks for the card sweetie, sorry I am so late in responding to my emails.

I love Nilly.

Seriously. The only thing in your life that is offensive to me is all the work that keeps you from hanging out here! And I can't really fault you for that, so.

PR: I love that they kept all four! I think it was kind of ballsy of them. I mean, I'm sure that Michael and Jeffrey (and do we think they're actually Mike and Jeff in real life? The full-name thing is a little weird to me) were the favorites going in to the last challenge, and it seems crappy, in the typical way of reality shows, to insist on axing one of them over one dress at the very end.

PR: Keeping all four of them seemed like a cheat, but a good one! It was nice to see the judges saying, "You know what, they all deserve this, we really want to see what all four of them can do." And have the chance to win, since all four of them would have been showing anyway.

I don't know what happened to Michael. Maybe Nazri is his muse. But I agree -- he's sucked at evening gowns so far. The thing is, I think he could have shown the pink Pam Grier outfit, the shirtdress he did in the Real Woman challenge, or the white cocktail dress with the black cummerbund -- any of those garments would have spoken immediately to who he is as a designer. I think he just froze.

Also? I liked Jeffrey's dress. I was surprised that the judges hated it so much.

I didn't look at the collections online, but it's getting to tough to wait. Three more weeks to the finale!

Nilly, I forgive you for keeping your atonement post long and rambly from one year to the next -- or I would if it were anything to be forgiven, but it'd never offend me; it's one of the things I love about you. I hope you have an easy fast and a wonderful year!

The only thing in your life that is offensive to me is all the work that keeps you from hanging out here! And I can't really fault you for that, so.

SERIOUSLY! {{Nilly}}. You rock and I miss you.

This one could have used a "do not eat dinner while watching."

I WAS eating dinner. I think the grosser X-FILES have inured me from having a gag reflex during crime investigation scenes (at least the ones that are fake). That said, it was wicked gross and, per aurelia, I am grateful I wasn't having soup

BTW, did any of you Studio 60 watchers notice that besides Evan Handler, one of the other recognizable guys in the writer's pool was a Whedonverse hat trick?

Made me want Matthew Perry to ask "Wanna see my impression of Gandhi?"