So I made these icons and banners for . Nothing says “Happy Birthday” like blasphemy!

Already today I’m annoyed as fuck, and it’s barely 9AM.

Still cannot find the USB cord to my scanner, which I need to use today. I could scan the stuff I need with the laptop, but the problem is that I cannot install the only CD-Writing program I have on the laptop as there is a “known compatibility issue” with the OS. I cannot network the laptop to my computer so I can just create a folder to put the stuff I need in. So essentially I have a scanner on the computer I need to have the images on, but no access to the scanner. I have a better scanner built in to the 3-in-one in the office, but have no way of transferring the images to my computer once they’re scanned. Ham, no burger… Peanut butter, no jelly… Kool-Aid, no sugar… Goddamnit.

There’s an incident with someone that has frustrated me NO END with how completely baseless their incessant bitching about LiveJournal is, and yet the one thing I want to be able to do - namely to tell them that if you’re using a service that is that bad, then fuck off to UJournal - or Greatest Journal - or DeadJournal - or GoFuckYourselfJournal - is the thing I can’t do. Not that it would matter in the least, because once you’ve gotten it into your head that the rules you make up are the right rules, there really ceases to be an effective argument. Still, I fantasize about Sir Fuck Chop doing a headstand on the summit of Mount Twatloaf with a lightning rod shoved up his ass on a seriously stormy day. I suspect this is one of those assholes that bitches incessantly about the horrible service at X restaurant, yet continues to patronize them on a regular basis. Fucking moron. There are always going to be people that make you want to put your own head in a goddamned waffle iron with their stupidity, I accept this and have for a long time - but today was NOT the day for it to just roll off my back like normal. And having stated all of that, I feel better and let that bullshit go. Sometimes that’s all you need, apparently!

In general, I’m frustrated and highly aggravated. Yes folks, today is a Metallica/Velvet Acid Christ/Bad Brains kind of day.

Took these yesterday, photoshopped them and now here they are. Two are color, the rest are black & white. Enjoy, or not.

So yeah.

I’ve been asked a lot of different things lately in regard to the work I do with . Each of the cases we get requires a lot of investigation and inquiry to past precedents, FAQ references, as well as references to the Abuse Bible, LiveJournal’s Terms of Service.

It’s interesting to me how people throughout LJ can totally disregard ToS in favor of their own personal agenda, or try and make up their own set of rules, such that they demand imposition on everyone within the confines of LiveJournal. It’s pretty simple to accept that the speed limit on I-85 is 70MPH. I understand people feeling that such a speed is too fast, or that it is too slow. Or that all interstates in North America should be the Autobahn. But here’s the thing, folks. No matter what the fuck you think, say, or do - the goddamned speed limit is 70 MPH - end of story.

Oh, and what’s more? That more people don’t even bother to read the ToS to begin with. That thing you are referred to when you create your account - that EVERYONE gets referred to when they create an account - that gives you LJ’s rules/guidelines, as it were. Like all of the sudden, ToS just “happened” to fuck up your day.

I’m proud to volunteer for the Abuse Team. I believe that the team, its methodology, and its members are as fair and impartial as is possible to be. I accept and have no problem with anyone who is critical of the team and the work we do, that is more than fair. Conversely, if you don’t DO the job, or really know HOW it’s done, such criticism isn’t worth taking seriously. It requires a lot to give of yourself, in time, energy, and resources, to volunteer for anything to begin with. You are willingly entering into a situation where you have to take a lot of shit to see the end result of fairness, which I believe we achieve more often than not.

I see tons of stuff that I find morally objectionable, but I believe that people have the right to say what they want to say until or unless it infringes upon someone else’s rights as dictated by the rulebook. Hell, in the not-too-distant past I’ve even ended friendships as a result of things people said here on LJ that I found completely fucked up - but they have just as much right to say what they want to say as I or anyone else does. And if it bothers me, I don’t have to read it or be affected by it. That’s my choice, something I can do for myself that doesn’t require outside intervention.

I also hate censorship. For as much as I staunchly disagree with racism, sexism, homophobia (duh), and the like, and while I find pretty much all of that rhetoric invalid, ridiculous, baseless, and unredeeming, I’m careful on a personal level to go into battle about it. My personal feelings about things get left at the door when I work in Abuse. ToS doesn’t care what my personal feelings are on anything, and rightly so.

The First Amendment is a big deal with us. Classic example, Fred Phelps and his hatemonger cult. I hate him, hate everything about him and every word out of the asshole he calls a mouth. Big fucking deal, though - he’s as much an American citizen as I am and as such he is free to say whatever he wants to say, regardless how anyone else feels about it. The more people who get to hear his bullshit, the more people see him for what he is. He does more damage flying under society’s radar, so by all means let him say what he wants to say, as loudly as he wants to say it. Matter of fact, I’ll personally hold his megaphone in one hand while in the other I hold a sign that points to him and reads “Listen carefully to this stupid Hitleresque motherfucker!”

Read your Terms of Service, people. Say what you want to say, there is no rule that says you have to play nice. All we ask is that you play by the rules an
d comply when you break one, no matter what the other guy did. That’s more than fair. You’re responsible for yourself, not anyone else. You’re also responsible for how you react to others, good, bad, or indifferent. And let’s not forget what I find to be the most astonishing thing about everyone who bitches about ToS and - it would be one thing if following ToS was difficult, but it’s not. Grandstanding and threatning legal action in the name of being taken seriously? Are you fucking kidding me with this bullshit?

You have many choices in keeping an online journal, there are many to choose from. Part of what makes LiveJournal special is that it’s an open source project. Don’t like how we do stuff? Fine - take the code and start your own. Just remember before you rip on us and tell us to fuck off that you have other choices, so you can live by LiveJournal’s ToS or fuck off yourself. So there. >:OP

Happy blogging.

NOTICE: this movie is NSFW, as it has little white boys using very strong language, aiight?

Damien,

I love you. For all of the reasons you think and probably many that never have occurred to you, but mainly for the best reason possible - no reason at all. I’ve learned a great deal from you in the past two and a half years, and have opened myself in ways I didn’t believe possible for a crotchety, grizzled old bastard like myself.

You’ve brought more peace and good energy to me than I have ever felt worthy of, and taught me how to accept those things. You’ve given of yourself without having to be asked, you’ve learned to be patient and speak your mind unabashedly, you’ve accepted my quirks and insecurities and annoying habits and not made me feel bad for them. You’ve become my blood as much as my own, and given me a family that I love as much as the one I have worked so hard to create.

Best of all, you’ve given me the one gift I never thought was meant for me to have; you’ve given me joy. As I’ve explained to countless others before; who and what you are has made my loneliness in the world disappear, it has brought me closer to feeling complete and content than I thought imaginable. No matter what bad things get thrown at us, I know there is no step I have to take in this life alone because you’re always willing to walk it with me, as I am with you.

5

Matthews Band sued over waste dumping

Bus driver allegedly dumped excrement into Chicago River

The state of Illinois sued the Dave Matthews Band on Tuesday for allegedly dumping up to 800 pounds of liquid human waste from a bus into the Chicago River, dousing a tour boat filled with passengers. [Story here]

What a shitty day to be on a tour boat, I swear.

What a long Monday this has been!

Still no replies to the cases I have open in , so I’m going to push to open at least 6 new ones tomorrow. Provided everything goes well, anyway.

I have spent a great deal of time Photoshopping the artwork for Maggie’s birthday present, which is a wooden purse I’m making and embellishing with pictures from the beginning of her life to present. It’s a painting/woodworking/decoupage kind of project. The painting I finished about an hour ago, and at least half of the images I’m using I have already gotten into print and cropped down accordingly. I’ll post pictures when I’m done, I know it’s hard to imagine without being able to see it. She’s wanted one of these things for at least a year now, so finally she’s getting one. When I say the images start at the beginning, I mean the beginning. I have a picture of her mother when she was about 8 months pregnant with Maggie, it’s one of several she had taken and they are some of the most beautiful things I have ever seen. I’ve done some really special things with incorporating her mother and Granny. I can go ahead and show off the artwork I’ve gotten so far, I guess.

This is going to be the front of the purse…
Row 1: (l-r)Haley, Maggie’s eldest; Paw Paw & Granny; Cole’s first tooth falls out
Row 2: (l-r) Maggie & the little boy she saved after he drowned; Nathan, Maggie, & kids; Maggie & her brother Ward
Row 3: (l-r) Maggie & her mother; Avery; Damien & I

This is going to be the inside of the front cover. It’s a piece I did of Maggie about two years ago. In the lower left corner is an overlay image of Maggie and her mother Gail when Maggie was a year old.

Hopefully I can have most of this thing done by tomorrow and start adding the hinges, latch, and end grommets. So anyway, I’m off to bed - I’m flat worn out.

Gays Are ‘Sinners’ Senate Candidate Declares
by Steph Smith
365Gay.com Newscenter
Chicago Bureau

(New York City) In a blistering attack on gays the man parachuted into Illinois to battle Democrat Barack Obama for a seat in the US Senate Wednesday used his maiden speech on the campaign trail to call gays “sinners” and denounce same-sex marriage.

Speaking at a City Club of Chicago luncheon he declared that America is in “a great moral crisis,” adding that he will use the campaign to bring those issues to light.

Keyes said that allowing gay marriage would destroy strong families, the foundation of society, but he stressed that he doesn’t dislike gay people.

“It’s not because I’m against homosexuals, but because I’m for the marriage institution and creating strong families,” he said. “We must be a community of people in faith.”

Later, responding to a question from Chicago gay activist Michael Bauer Keyes said that “there is no contradiction between defending the institution of marriage and understanding that even when you look at somebody and you know that they’re in sin, you can still remember that they are children of God.”

Bauer was not impressed with the response, but a group representing conservative organizations opposed to gay marriage applauded.

Keyes also said that those who would allow women to have abortions in cases of rape or incest lack integrity. He said that if elected he would press for reparations for the descendants of slaves and likened Obama to a socialist for supporting big government.

Keyes, a conservative Maryland broadcaster was nominated to run for the Senate against Obama earlier this month when following a failed search for a suitable candidate in Illinois to replace Jack Ryan who withdrew from the race after ex-wife and former Star Trek performer Jeri Lynn Ryan accused him of sexual improprieties.

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After reading that, blood shot out of my nose and flew across the room. This motherfucker is so whacked out, it defies description, but I’ll try.

Alan Keyes.
Alan “Uncle Tom” Keyes.
Alan “How Else Can I Be A Puppet For Straight, White Conservatives” Keyes.
Alan ” I Have No Problem Exploiting My Race To Get The Extra-Chromosome-Conservative Vote” Keyes.
Alan Keyes: insipid, self aggrandizing, banal minded, vexatious cunt.

For more, please see or listen by clicking an appropriate link.

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REPUBLICAN NATIONAL CONVENTION SCHEDULE
New York, NY
6:00 PM Opening Prayer led by the Reverend Jerry Falwell
6:30 PM Pledge of Allegiance
6:35 PM Ceremonial Burning of Bill of Rights (excluding 2nd Amendment)
6:45 PM Salute to the Coalition of the Willing
6:46 PM Seminar #1: Katherine Harris on “Are Elections Really Necessary?”
7:30 PM Announcement: Lincoln Memorial Renamed for Ronald Reagan
7:35 PM Trent Lott: “Re-segregation in the 21st Century”
7:40 PM EPA Address #1: Mercury: It’s What’s for Dinner
8:00 PM Vote on which country to invade next
8:10 PM Call EMTs to revive Rush Limbaugh
8:15 PM John Ashcroft Lecture: The Homos Are After Your Children
8:30 PM Round table discussion on reproductive rights (men only)
8:50 PM Seminar #2: Corporations: The Government of the Future
9:00 PM Condi Rice sings “Can’t Help Lovin’ Dat Man”
9:05 PM Phyllis Schlafly speaks on “Why Women Shouldn’t Be Leaders”
9:10 PM EPA Address #2: Trees: The Real Cause of Forest Fires
9:30 PM Break for secret meetings
10:00 PM Second Prayer led by Cal Thomas
10:15 PM Carl Rove Lecture: Doublespeak Made Simple
10:30 PM Rumsfeld Lecture/Demonstration: How to Squint and Talk Macho Even
When You Feel Squishy Inside
10:35 PM Bush demonstration of trademark “deer in headlights” stare
10:4
0 PM John Ashcroft Demonstration: New Mandatory Kevlar Chastity Belt
10:45 PM GOP’s Tribute to Tokenism, featuring Colin Powell & Condi Rice
10:46 PM Ann Coulter’s Tribute to “Joe McCarthy, Great American Patriot”
10:50 PM Seminar #3: Education: A Drain on Our Nation’s Economy
11:10 PM Hilary Clinton Pinata
11:20 PM John Ashcroft Lecture: Evolutionists: A Dangerous New Cult
11:30 PM Call EMTs to revive Rush Limbaugh again
11:35 PM Blame Clinton
11:40 PM Newt Gingrich speaks on “The Sanctity of Marriage”
11:41 PM Announcement: Ronald Reagan to be added to Mt. Rushmore
11:50 PM Closing Prayer led by Jesus Himself
12:00 AM Nomination of George W. Bush as Holy Supreme Planetary Overlord

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Oh. Almost forgot. new layout coolness