Another friend has succumbed to the pregnancy virus…

They’re falling one by one…

One of my friends gave birth several months ago, and now another has recently conceived.

For all expectant mothers everywhere, please please please read this site. And do your child a favor… be sane, sober and drug-free when you think of baby names. Kids are horrible and will tease a David, but if a “Breckin” or “Venus” steps into the classroom… watch out.

The Game Of Politics… Congrats to the Dems.

I voted yesterday. Mostly Republican for the National seats, but I voted Libertarian wherever there was a candidate for local offices. As sick as I am of the Republican abuses of power and major straying from conservative principles, I couldn’t stomach voting for a Democrat.

If you’ve been living under a rock, the Dems now have control of the House & the Senate. is one state away (come on Virginia!) from being controlled by the democrats.

I’m not writing for political analysis, but to explain that the office I work in is mainly Liberal and I’m one of the (I think) three people in an office of 20 who count themselves as conservative – one an NRA member & another young Christian girl.

Ten minutes ago when the wires published that Rumsfeld stepped down, a wave of cheering flowed through the office. All the message boards I belong to are echoing the same sentiments – they are ecstatic the Dems won the House.

Me? I’m keeping my mouth shut. I don’t like confrontation, and I don’t like explaining myself to hostile persons after their party wins – Sore losers are one thing, but sore winners? Yikes. I suppose we get the government we deserve. Perhaps the Republicans have been shaken out of their complacency and will figure out how to get back on track… either that or I’m voting strictly Libertarian from now on.

Review: Hi-Tec-C Cavalier by Pilot Japan

(I lifted most of this from the review I wrote for this pen on Jet Pens)

A while back I bought a few pens from Jet Pens, one of them was the Hi-Tec-C Cavalier Pen .3mm.

I have to say that I *love* this pen. My search for an extra-fine-point everyday use pen has come to an end. I’ve been using the .38mm uniball signo pens for years and was happy. I wanted something a little more non-disposable, classy & professional-looking (not that I have anyone to impress), and this one caught my eye.

The line is consistent, no skipping, very smooth writing and I like the weight of the pen – substantial without being too weighty. One thing I did notice is that the ink is not completely waterproof. It’s a minor thing, but an inconvenience when I want to use watercolors over it. I have other waterproof pens in my arsenal so it’s not a huge turn-off.

I use this one every day in my moleskine and art journal. Just a word of warning (although most who like using very fine pens will know this already) this pen WILL go through paper if you write hard enough.

I showed this off to a friend of mine and the next time I saw her she pulled out a blue version of the exact same pen. She’s just as much of a pen-freak as I am.

More journal pages

I uploaded a few more journal pages on flickr… here are a couple:

Halloween Tricks – and a saddening lack of creativity

At least in my neighborhood. Our doorbell rang three times. Three. We had a total of 5 trick-or-treaters, and only two of them were in costume. Three of them wore all black, one of them actually wore a mask, but the other two had masks in their pockets. I may be wrong, but aren’t masks supposed to be worn over the face?

I said to these costume-less kids, “Guys, I see a severe lack of creativity here… Come on, it’s Halloween – where are your costumes?”

To which they replied, with sheepish grins on their faces and pulling out their masks from their pockets, “We’ve got masks.. and eggs… and toilet paper – those are for people who don’t give us candy.”

Yes.. TP & Eggs. I gave them candy so I was spared from the TP & Eggs… It astonishes me that children egg peoples homes who don’t give them candy. It’s CANDY. I could go on a diatribe of the entitlement mentality that’s spreading like wildfire… but it was Halloween… no treats, you get tricks, right? And ever since I can remember, tricks usually involve vandalism instead of silly little pranks.

I grew up in Michigan, and every October 30th we were all warned to stay indoors – in Michigan (more specifically, Detroit) the day before Halloween is called “Devil’s Night”. For those of you who didn’t have the experience of growing up in Michigan, or haven’t seen The Crow, Devil’s night is a night of destruction, vandalism, and pyromania. I haven’t lived there in years, so I don’t know how big of a thing this still is, but I remember teachers, newscasters, bus drivers and parents were very vigilant on the 30th of October – warning us and making sure we were all inside, even those of us who lived in ritzy suburbia, at dark – just in case some crazy gang members decided to start fires in our neighborhoods.

We never saw anything in our neighborhoods on Devli’s Night, but the evening news showed us terrific fires & smashed-out windows… That was the trick, I suppose, from people who don’t get many treats without taking ‘em for themselves.

One Halloween I dressed as a punk – complete with dad’s black leather jacket, eyeliner, a lightening bolt painted on my cheek & a purple mohawk wig. My sister was a skunk. I think the next year she was a punk skunk… Anyway, we were walking around, alone since the 80′s were a bit safer and our mostly-Jewish neighborhood wasn’t exactly a hotbed of criminal activity, doing our Halloween rounds when a kid came up to me and sprayed shaving cream in my face. I suppose he thought that was a neat trick. I don’t take kindly to things like this, so I grabbed the can from him. It would have been more difficult to do if this kid had been on his guard, but he was laughing. I grabbed the can and threw it at his head as hard as I could. That was my trick… I think he ran away crying, but I didn’t stick around long enough to find out. I grabbed my skunk-sister and ran home.

So back to the kids that came to our home last night expecting to be handed mounds of stomachache-inducing sugar… What happened to imagination and creativity? Is it all just about the candy? I remember thinking for months beforehand what I would be, and gathering the appropriate props & clothes for the occasion.

I blame video games, the federalized school system, and television for the lack of creativity among kids these days… All the creative costumes I’ve seen on Make & Craft have been made by 20-30somethings. Maybe it’s just my neighborhood. But I think the problem is a little more widespread than that.

**Edited to add: 16 Homes burned on Devil’s Night in Michigan. Guess it’s still going strong..**