The Dean has asked for articles about managing staff in tough fiscal times. I want to tell her I don't have time to research for her until she approves the replacement of the librarian she stole from us (for another job in her admin).

Teh cold, it burns. Am I crazy for thinking that the extreme cold weather is not so much exacerbating my sore/swollen throat as causing it? I seem to notice that it flares up after a cold spell.

It's been cruelly cold for a couple days now, and when I'm out in it, my airways have little to no protection from it, as if I wrap a scarf around my nose and mouth, my glasses fog up so badly I can't see. There is a definite allergy feel to this. And up till today, nasal irrigation and gargling with salt water has helped. Today, that stuff seems to help while I'm doing it, but 30 seconds after, it goes right back to feeling very unhappy.

In the end, I've transfered my agita to things that really deserve it, like man's inhumanity to man, and let my militant resistance to religious/spiritual terms mellow. It all seems relatively the same to me...similar flavor, different label...and what brings comfort, I support. What rejects peace, I resist.

This about sums up my philosophy, too.

I want to tell her I don't have time to research for her until she approves the replacement of the librarian she stole from us

Sounds like that's your article right there.

Be seeing you, Patrick McGoohan

Patrick McGoohan, the Emmy award-winning actor who created and starred in 1960s TV show The Prisoner, has died at the age of 80.

Oooo The Matrix debated in church. That sounds interesting!

In the studio with minions. Not much for me to do except enjoy the awesome players playing. If only they didn't need click track.

Did I mention that yesterday I had to go outside at -18˚F to start my van? I wish that was a windchill...I think that was around -40.

We hit -17 last night. It's barely creeping into positive temperatures today but the cold is supposed to get worse tonight, along with the wind. Bleh. Makes it hard to get out of the house.

Shir, I hate to sound like a dumb block of wood, and this is truly a question that reflects my ignorance, but when Israel warns the people in Gaza to get out, where can they go?

You're not dumb. It is a lose-lose situation, for all sides involved.

Because they can't go anywhere. The lucky ones, the ones with enough money/means got away abroad already. The ones who left behind, generally speaking, are the poor, mostly uneducated, very unstable base for society.

So it's easier to dehumanize them. And not taking them seriously. And using their poor situation, and make sure they'll stay that way for continuous abuse of them and manipulation of the Palestinian issue. Because it's so much easier to abuse the weak side.

Looking back, I think Hamas' mistake was shooting at civilian population in areas that weren't in dispute. If they would have keep their aims at military targets in disputed areas, and maybe, God forbid, political targets (as in, choosing wisely political targets and talking with them to create lobby). Because that could have brought more support to them in Israel.

ION, I have to deal with an asshole on another board of mine. Not fun, and the man just can't get a f'ing clue about how to act online. He's also, of course, convinced he's always right.

We hit -17 last night. It's barely creeping into positive temperatures today but the cold is supposed to get worse tonight, along with the wind.

I will stop bitching about Utah cold and not mention the 40 degrees and bright and sunny outside now.

And I won't mention that on Friday, when it's supposed to be 18°, I leave for a long weekend in SF, where it's in the 60s.