Oh no - I'm a democrat!

(i think it was the stupid environmental laws that got me - stupid environment!) I was voting with my pocketbook!

You are a Social Liberal (66% permissive) and an... Economic Liberal (33% permissive) You are best described as a: Democrat Link: The Politics Test on OkCupid Free Online Dating

for rob

You are a Social Moderate (43% permissive) and an... Economic Moderate (50% permissive) You are best described as a: Centrist Link: The Politics Test on OkCupid Free Online Dating Also: The OkCupid Dating Persona Test

Bush & Blair - Endless Love

Amusing - but TRUE!

So, I had this party....

Well, I just had a party this Saturday. If you weren't invited - you are not alone. Due to (unprintable) stuff, lack of foresight, and just letting people fall though the cracks, I dropped a LOT of people who were supposed to come. Let me tell you about some of them: (again, these are the people, who, for the most part, did NOT get invitations.)

--> One of my DragonCon/D&D buddies who lives down the street asked me if I wanted to come over Saturday to learn a new game. I said no, I couldn't - "...but would you like to come to my party?" (AWK-ward.....)

--> After looking at my Evite list, I saw that some of the emails I were using had been bounced back as no longer in service. I was gonna get around to the whole updating email thing, buuuuuut.... Must be why I ended up with one girl there from college, but not her best friend. (also a good friend - sorry, H!.)

--> My ex-girlfriend, A. I fully intended on inviting her (we're still pretty close friends) and was wondering why she kept on hinting that "we should go to dinner next week to catch up." When I said "Well, you're coming to the party, right?" she mentioned that she hadn't been invited. Augh. In *my* mind, I think it was pretty clearly just a mistyping/oversite, as I invited some of her friends (Chris - you'll see more of him later) and her frickin' ROOMMATE. Clearly an oversight. In her mind - well, who knows. Mysteerious minds of women, and all. I still felt bad, but not as bad as i did about....

--> Big D's family, who I have been spending a bunch of time with since he got sick. I was pretty sure I had told them, and didn't want to burden them with too much to do. So then they called me the next morning, and invited me to a movie (Corpse Bride, pretty good, not as singable songs as Nightmare.) Robynn: "So, what did you do this weekend?" Me: "Had a... party?" Robynn: "Ooooh. Why?" Me, sinking lower in my chair: " My... birthday?" Robynn: "When's your birthday?!" Me, almost to the floor: "To...day? Didn't you get the Evites?" Robynn: "Noooooooo."
Me, as defensive as one is while sunk all the way into a chair: "Well... I sent one! Really!"
First thing I did upon getting back to the house; check my evite history. And I did send one - to Big D. Who has been in the hospital since the day I sent it out. Great job, Sean. Good followthrough.

IN OTHER NEWS:

OnlyAymie came, and had fun talking with various other people. She sent me a message earlier today that read "So, are you going to do a birthday fogo too?" (At the party... )"we and the chrises and their wives were talking about fogo outside and having not gone in a while."

Heh. The chris's.

Obituary - Thanks to KayRay for the link

I was really almost going to go to this fellow's memorial service... then I determined that there was a small chance it was for real. So I chickened out.

Apparently the picture caught KayRay's eye as she was flipping through the obits on Sunday. Understandable, once you see it. And if you are a little squeamish about finding humor in an obit... I'll have to tell you about the funniest dead animal I ever saw. Next time. If you ask for it. (and BirthdayTwin, you know I'm talking to you.)

Suggestion/Answer Book Sampler: Sex in the Stacks (at Duke)

Amusing Q/A by Duke's librarians about some of the... naughtier activites possible at collegiate libraries. I liked the tone of the answers. Interstingly, *safe* for work.

Thanks, Amazon! (Or - Funny Item!! Really!!)

I am almost petrified to determine what this product is used for.
(why would it come in 2.2 pound containers?)

-edited to make people want to click on the product link above.

Urban Legends Reference Pages: Hurricane Katrina (Carjackings)

Urban Legends Reference Pages: Hurricane Katrina (Carjackings): "E-mail details purported increase in carjackings and release of sex offenders after Hurricane Katrina. "

Noodle - Pass this along as necessary. Carjacker = Georgia resident. Released prisoners = Not really. Nigerian millionaire = not a good idea to make money.

Everyday Hero for Katrina

Thanks to V for this link, reminding us of people who do a great job.

Funny vignette - OR: it could happen to anybody.

So: Was looking at the E-vite to my par-tay this afternoon with a friend.

Friend: "I'm not even going to ask who half of these people are."

Me: "you should be able to guess at least ONE of those people; P-Dogg works in that office over there." /gesture at nearby office.

Friend: Brief pause, then "....Dennis?" (Pat's officemate)

Me (skeptical look) "Don't you mean Puh-Dennis? Or Puh-Theresa? (unless it's one of those silent 'p's that i have been hearing so much about. Or rather, *not* hearing so much about.) "

Friend: (bashfully) "Ah. P-Dogg is *Pat*."

Yes Virginia... P-Dogg is Pat.

Update to Sean's Weird Websearches!

Alrighty - A *bunch* of stuff has been happening recently - too much for me to really want to deal with all at one time. But instead of dealing with the past week in a chronological methodology, I would like to honor Google's new Blog Search capability. I am proud of Google, not incidentially the owner of blogger, where this blog is located. Only 2 months after Yahoo had blog searching capability, and about a year after it bought the company with the best blogsearch technology, it released it. In Beta, of course.
So, without delay, enjoy the wild world of (updated) wacky websearches that led people (poor, poor unsuspecting people) to my blog.

I'll separate searches by search engine, for ease of entry. And remember, these search rankings were true at the point that I entered the data in my spreadsheet. Feel free to play along at home, with the search engine of your choice.

For the term "carrottop", on AltaVista, I was ranked 4th. Yahoo had "carrottop in shape" at 4th too. How weird is THAT?

Yahoo had "dairy of a mad black woman"at 11th. Ask.com had the phrase "who starred in A Dairy of a Mad Black Woman"; and on the 22nd of August I was Number *1*. VICTORY!

I had two visitors from MSN Search. With the search "dragoncon 2005 photos", I was on page 13. "dragoncon 2005 pictures" on Yahoo came in a disappointingly low 82nd. The interestingly conjoined phrase "chick-filet dodgeball" gave me yet another number *1* - of the only three results total.

Technorati is the grandfather of blog searches. As such, the phrase "dailydancer" put me in the Top 6. "jojo green day concert" gave me yet *another* NUMBER 1 on 26-Aug.

As I mentioned last time, Yahoo is the real winner here in bringing peeps to my site. all below. are all phrases from that websearch.
Revisting some from the first edition of Sean's Weird Websearches: "John mcdonald the last one left" came in at sixth. However, the book still blows. Thanks, EverBabe, for "dog and porcupine" which came in 15th. Still that was better than "pictures of spider bites to the finger", a drooping 22nd. "dogthebountyhunter" was 77th when I checked on the search, but may have originally been in the top 40.

I show up at 3rd and 8th for the phrase "The 3 Variable Funny Test", only below the actual creators of the three variable test. How weird.
Yikes! My *link* to the Brian Ellis website, the originator of my quote "saying keep it real", is MUCH higher than even the original Brian Ellis website with this phrase.

"t-man transcript" Poor T-man - more popular than he liked, I imagine. But his real transcript would get an even higher ranking than the number *1* I recieved. The rank for the search for "Jennifer Nettles"was 93rd. I need to do a retrospective, maybe move back up on the list here.

I think the space in "cartman isms" must have contributed to my success to my NUMBER 1 PLACEMENT. "touched by his noodly appendage" Guys at the Skeptic's panel at DragonCon LOVED this site. But to be ranked number *1* for that search? For THIS blog? That's unlikely.

My site was 37th for the search "sean crisp". I am threatened by the existance of this fellow, and hope he's not a giant potato chip. Vampire. ...ermm.... Chipire. Never mind.

"WWW.BOOBOO.COM" came in at 50th. I just don't even begin to understand why my site is ranked number 50, instead of the original WEBSITE www.booboo.com.

Lastly, I am not sure which makes me more uncomfortable: the fact that SOMEBODY did a search for so-called "Freaky pictures", or that my site was in the 60-70 range.

NOT talking about SuperMark

EverBabe - I'm not saying this made me think of you. But I'm not saying it didn't.

Dear Prudence,

I'm sure, like most women, I sometimes feel I need to parent my husband. He is an intelligent man who started from an entry-level position in college to management, where he will celebrate 20 years this winter. He is an excellent husband and father. He worked two jobs to help put me through school. There are moments, though, when I feel our 4-year-old has better comprehension skills. Some things are little, like not rinsing dirty dishes or letting the garbage overflow; those I can overlook. Some things are more important. He has ruined many pieces of clothing (usually mine) by attempting to do laundry without sorting the colors, then gets upset when I bring it to his attention. His defense is that he is only trying to help. But this morning he fished his old toothbrush out of the garbage rather than ask me which new one was his. He said he didn't want to wake me. Prudie, I buy the same color every time! I do not understand how this seemingly intelligent executive can sometimes be an idiot savant. He is begging me to have a second child. After this latest incident, I am genuinely concerned. I do not want to be a single mother of three.

?Kissing a Garbage Mouth

Dear Kiss,

Would you be offended if Prudie said she smiled while reading your letter? Some men are just not on the domestic wavelength. Yours does seem very considerate of you otherwise. The missteps sound as though he is just not thinking about common-sense things, or perhaps he's a space shot if it's something he's not fully engaged with. Here's a mechanistic solution so you won't have to be annoyed anymore. By all means tell him he is relieved of laundry duty. Buy toothbrushes that have different configurations. (Maybe he's colorblind?) Because he wants to pitch in, "assign" him chores and then spell out how you'd like them done. And don't let the toothbrush episode stand in the way of a second child. Good luck managing your loving idiot savant. Prudie knows you can do it.

Thanks to Slate

KATRINA TIMELINE

This is a lint to a very interesting timeline that tends to.... *question* current talking points that the local and state governments didn't ask for help in time. I've pulled together some of the more applicable headlines. (PS - this timeline has links to each document, mostly from official websites such as whitehouse.gov - so while the website itself might have a political slant, the times and dates are likely correct)

Friday, August 26
GOV. KATHLEEN BLANCO DECLARES STATE OF EMERGENCY IN LOUISIANA

Saturday, August 27
GOV. HALEY BARBOUR DECLARES STATE OF EMERGENCY IN MISSISSIPPI [Office of the Governor]

GOV. BLANCO ASKS BUSH TO DECLARE FEDERAL STATE OF EMERGENCY IN LOUISIANA:

FEDERAL EMERGENCY DECLARED, DHS AND FEMA GIVEN FULL AUTHORITY TO RESPOND TO KATRINA:

Sunday, August 28

9:30 AM — MAYOR NAGIN ISSUES FIRST EVER MANDATORY EVACUATION OF NEW ORLEANS:

AFTERNOON — BUSH, BROWN, CHERTOFF WARNED OF LEVEE FAILURE BY NATIONAL HURRICANE CENTER DIRECTOR:

Monday, August 29

7AM – KATRINA MAKES LANDFALL AS A CATEGORY 4 HURRICANE

10:30AM — MICHAEL BROWN FINALLY REQUESTS THAT DHS DISPATCH 1,000 EMPLOYEES TO REGION, GIVES THEM TWO DAYS TO ARRIVE:

U.S. unprepared to receive foreign aid - Americas - International Herald Tribune

"Even with difficulties delivering foreign aid, it is beginning to arrive at or near the Gulf Coast, including ready-to-eat meals from Britain, tents from France, and first-aid kits and baby formula from Italy"

For all of those who say: where is the aid from all of those other countries that we've helped in the past?

Blog showing the fact that we've been offered a *lot* of aid. (yes, even from France)

"The oil-rich nation of Qatar has offered the United States $100 million to assist in the humanitarian crisis triggered by Hurricane Katrina."

They can afford it, you say? How about the POOR nations, recently squashed by the tsunami?
"...official statements of sympathy and aid offers from at least 70 nations, including countries usually on the receiving end of U.S. and other foreign help. Among them was Bangladesh, which Monday pledged $1 million."

So, as a country, I think that it's clear that we have plenty to feel sorry for ourselves for; being abandoned by the rest of the world just doesn't fit the facts.

God Outdoes Terrorists Yet Again | The Onion - America's Finest News Source

Sadly, once again some of the best coverage of disasters comes from our satirical and humor newsmagazines.

DragonCon 2005 - It's a Shindig!

Alrighty, I'll write a little about my fun times at the first night of DragonCon. It was where I dressed up as much as possible, and then boogied my pants off. Although they stayed on.

But, that is neither here nor there. Here are some random pictures of the ladies I danced with (probably at least 3 hours of dancing. yay, me.) But MAN I was sore; the entire rest of the (very) long weekend I was seen to moan and groan of my body's aches and pains, although no one seemed to care. Hmm... that might have had SOMETHING to do with what happened later that night. (more later on that - as if you pervs care. ) To the ladies!





















Here's an action shot of Jewel Staithe, in her prime beatbox mode.



Note Wacky Mr Jewel dancing like a loon as Jewel chitterchats with some lucky nobody. (...stoopid nobody)

This one's just weird. I like bad drag as much as the next guy (who doesn't!) Here she dancing with ... them?

Alrighty, the girl in red latex miniskirt. That was pleasant. She was dating/married to the guy on the left beside her, who was in an... *interesting* movie. Will tell you more about that later.

















Here we have a nice picture of Adam Baldwin. Who's he, you ask? Well, he's obviously in Serenity (the FireFly movie) BUT -> noticed him in Full Metal Jacket too. And he's 10 years OLDER than me. Weird.

Note RedLatex next to Adam. Is that close enough to a 'star' for you? {grin} Could have hit him in the head, if I didn't want to get pummeled. or more realistically, even if I *did* want that. Which I didn't. No, sir.

OK, stupidest story of the weekend. The Shindig got out about 3:30, which meant I got to the hotel about 4 AM. I *did* have a key to the hotel room, but it had been latched from the inside. So: possible bed was inside, as well as the keys to my car and house (so taxi wouldn't have helped.) Truthfully, I wasn't even positive there was room for me on the *floor*. I didn't want to beat on the door willy nilly and wake up a potential 17 peeps, and decided I'd just wait in the lobby til someone was moving around. Now, we were staying in the T- , not part of the main complex. Upon reflection, coulda/woulda/shoulda stayed in the two main hotels, and tried to sleep on a couch. Less homeless people wandering through the lobby. {YIKES}Seriously, it makes it harder to sleep if you're scared your booty will get jacked as you rest. So, I slept in a chair from 5 AM - 8 AM, in three one-hour increments. Then BigD (staying in the same hotel, and wandering out to charge his cell phone) told me to beat on the door. Which I did. And then they opened the door, and showed me to my fold-a-bed. Which was empty. {shakes head} But I did end up with this nice picture of me sleeping. (What? Sometimes I sleepphoto! (like sleepwalking, but *much* more unlikely.) )



More to come later!

Sean's StarStruck DragonCon '05

Alrighty, I'm home, and (mostly) alive. (although bedtime will be very, *very* soon, I wanted to post the best picture taken *with* my camera, albeit one of the few that *I* didn't take. I just wanted to show you guys the fact that my camera was *THIS CLOSE* to Jewel Staithe, actress in such shows as Firefly, Dead Like Me, and Wonderfalls. More details later on how the picture came to be, but the highpoints were: MixMaster Jewel, me really hurting after a night of dancing, and Mr Jewel posing. Like a poser. Stupid Mr Jewel. {grin} I'll probably either do one big post for the Con, or show some sort of highlight reel. I did take several accidental movies.

Hmm - just noticed it looks like she is nekkid. That is, however, not the case. As you'll see in the OTHER pictures. When I get them posted. Which will not be tonight. Sorry.

The Rebellion of the Talking Heads - Newscasters, sick of official lies and stonewalling, finally start snarling.

EverBabe - this story is EXACTLY what we were talking about today. The reporters, who like to at least have the appearance of impartiality, are so frustrated with the loss of life and back slapping by the officials that they are actually calling the politicians on their sh!t. Which is when journalists SHOULD be respected.

I'm curious about whether this will be the watershed event that will give journalists back their good name.

Summary of Findings: Religion A Strength And Weakness For Both Parties

CRAP CRAP CRAP

Or, as Slate says, "Sixty-four percent of Americans want schools to teach creationism along with evolution. Forty-two percent think "living things have existed in their present form since the beginning of time," and another 18 percent believe in evolution but think a supreme being guides it."

Or, as SuperMark says: "42% of Americans think evolution is a total crock? That's amazing."

Ah well - maybe we'll have bred that out in 100 years.

2005 Dragon Con - Or, How Sean Spent His Weekend As A Big Ol' Dork

So, DragonCon, the annual nerd-a-thon here in Atlanta, starts today. I had always wanted to go, and this year seemed like a good time. (no previous committments, etc.) Registration was last night, and I bumped into two groups of variously leveled geek friends.

(it looks as though i very carefully took a movie of them and Chewbacca, instead of a still - I will try to get a screen capture, though)

Enjoy the sight of a blurry Chewbacca and apparently the back of some short Imperial trooper.

PS - if you haven't heard from me by Tuesday, call the police.