Cool Stuff Today

Earl brought into the office this little foam nerf gun. Apparently he has about 200 of them, for some reason. It's a little immature, and very tempting.

The chord progression I was playing while working on songwriting stuff apparently matches up somewhat with "Defying Gravity" from Wicked. So that's stuck in my head now.


Here's something I drew at work yesterday.

'Kittery Tide' would be a Girlyman song, yes.

Parallels

At playgroup today, there was this little boy named Henry. He really likes the new DuPont race car riding toy that's pretty new. He likes it so much that even when he's had it for a while, and then Sam really wants to play with it, he won't share. So his mom picked him up and forcibly removed him from the toy. Henry got over it (after a while), and Sam got his turn.

Well. There's this country named Ukraine, and a woman named Tymoshenko. She had her turn as Prime Minister, and lost the recent election to Yanukovych. I know it's tough. The Orange Revolution didn't result in the changes that everyone wanted, and she's lost support. But Yanukovych won. He might not be the shiniest future for Ukraine, but he won. There was not evidence of massive election fraud.

THIS IS HOW THE WORLD WORKS. It doesn't matter who you are. It doesn't matter how terrible and horrible and mean the winner is. When you lose an election, you give up your seat, or give up your credit as a respected European leader.

Give it up, Tymoshenko, or I'll send Henry's mom over there.

The Altar Guild Comic Book, and Today's General Adventures

Exciting current events:

1. My phone was stolen. This has been inconvenient, to say the least.
2. Allie is coming.

In light of #1, the timing of #2 is impeccable. It is not time to fret; it is time to gallivant around the city whilst munching on bagels and discussing theology.





I am now proud to present the first of a few installations of 'The Altar Guild Comic Book'. At church, we are compiling a church customary (or something akin to one), which records how the church functions. The altar guild is in charge of the sanctuary materials and physical preparations for worship. Their handbook reads like an Emily Dickinson poem, with many, many capitalized nouns. Here's what we're learning today:

CPJ Update

A few minutes' poking around the Committee to Protect Journalists website shows some interesting statistics.

1 journalist was jailed in Russia in 2009.
3 journalists were killed in Russia in 2009.
52 journalists have been killed in Russia because of their work since 1992.
24 more journalists have been killed in Russia since 1992, with unknown motives.

Those four categories, for China:
24 jailed in 2009.
0 killed in 2009.
2 killed since 1992 for their work.
1 killed since 1992 with unknown motives.

So, congratulations China, on not killing lots of people. But you still put them in jail. Let's work on that.

Russia, you and I have had this talk already. On the positive side, one of those tags is no longer accurate, but that's the work of Colombia and the Philippines, not you, Russia. 30 cases of complete impunity? Why on earth do I love you so much, Russia?

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What's been going on in 2010?
Journalists are hiding and the police are raiding newspaper offices again.

General Adventures

I have been reading a lot of webcomics recently, and I have found it inspiring. So, here are three moments from my day, in comic form.