Kazakhstan, much like LA, is mostly made of up of a huge basin surrounded by mountains on 3 sides. It has terrible smog and a huge radiation problem that is the result of being an area where they did a lot of nuclear testing.

It also has one of the most beautiful all-wood (seriously, no metal nails or screws used) churches I've ever seen in Almaty.

I liked it there a lot.

Jesse, are you home yet?

Is it morally wrong to participate in a group effort to overload the server of a site that you find reprehensible?

What if you really want to hear a sermon podcast at the site?

A bunch of people at Digg are trying to overload the server for GodHatesFags.com

Digg discussion: Make GodHatesFags pay for their bandwidth

I think it's wrong to try to silence them, but OTOH they are making podcasts, etc. of their message available to everyone on the internets....

What are people doing for New Year's Eve?

I'm hosting my annual low-key New Year's Party, which came about as a way to not spend my New Year's sitting around at home alone. Most of my friends have other, more exciting parties to go to, but I get a handful of folks every year.

This year, my girlfriend is finding a bunch of recipes for fun non-alchoholic drinks so she and my other pregnant friend will have something other than juice or water to drink. It will be odd not having the aforementioned friend drinking this year. Someone else will have to play drunken photographer with my camera, I suppose.

The only sucky part is that I have to work on New Year's Day, though thankfully my shift doesn't start until 11am. I expect I'm going to be incredibly tired that day.

What are people doing for New Year's Eve?

I have four parties to go to (I'm sooooo popular) One's in butt-ass Virginia and has a "theme" I love these people, but the theme parties have got to stop! OTOH, I will be wearing a tuxedo outfit and it's a James Bond theme, so that will be cool.

Two others are random groups of friends, one's expendable if I get to running behind (not that the friend's expendable, it's just that it will be a mob scene and he'll be drunk, so he might not even notice if I make it or not)

Final party is closest to my house and is with my gay boys. So, will have a boy to kiss at midnight, it just wont' mean anything.

Final party is closest to my house and is with my gay boys. So, will have a boy to kiss at midnight, it just wont' mean anything.

I just realized this will be the first year ever I'll actually have someone to kiss at midnight. (My girlfriend, not gay boys, for the record.) Wow.

Skipping in order to post that, according to the Buffista Calendar, today is quester's birthday. Happy birthday, quester! With lots of wishes for a great day and a wonderful year!

Also, in when-I-don't-have-a-computer-access news, Saturday, the 30th, will be plasmo's birthday. I haven't seen her UnAmerican font in forever, but I hope the well wishes cross the oceans and find her, somehow.

Heh. Somebody here in Chicago stole $50,000 worth of frozen broccoli. They're thinking he might have been confused as to the actual contents of the truck it was in.

Jesse, are you home yet?

Kat, you clearly missed my bitching about being at work yesterday. IOW, yes, I am home.

brenda, I suspect broccoli-loving terrorists. They hate freedom and love broccoli.

Did Almaty used to be known as Alma Ata? That's one of the few places where apple trees grow wild (they're supposed to have first been cultivated there) and the name of the place means "Mother of Apples". This may be all that I know about Kazahkstan.

Happy Birthday, quester!