Rumors and Tasteless Truth

There is a rumor afloat that Six Degrees, the makers of MoveableType and other blogging services, is going to buy LiveJournal. We forget, sometimes, that LJ is a business. I wonder if anything will change.

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Congress yesterday had a prayer service-- a private one, in private chambers, completely legal-- for the people killed in the tsunami a week ago. Tom Delay gave the reading. His choice? Matthew 7: 21-27.

7:26 And everyone who listens to these words of mine but does not act on them will be like a fool who built his house on sand. 7:27 The rain fell, the floods came, and the winds blew and buffeted the house. And it collapsed and was completely ruined.

Tasteless does not begin to describe it.

Well, Mr. Delay should be happy. Although the Republicans kept the rules that would require Mr. Delay's suspension from leadership duties should he be indicted, they also strengthened the rules with which they may quash ethics investigations. Last year Mr. Delay earned three public rebukes from the ethics committee, and the Republicans have apparently sworn that never again will he be caught with his hand in the cookie jar-- unethically.

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And good news of a sort: Parents who underestimate a teenager's drinking habits are usually right. Conversely, parents who have pessimistic expectations about their ability to moderate a child's bad habits typically have children with bad habits.

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And one for the Transhumanists: Human Performance Enhancement in 2032: A Scenario for Military Planners. Somewhat high-level and tentative, but fun.

Today's Kanji.

Today's kanji is 水, meaning "water." It is usually pronounced みず,as in the word 水色 (みずいろ), lit. "water color", meaning "light blue," when used alone (the kun or native reading) and スイ,when used in combination with other kanji, as in 水泳 (すいえい), meaning "swimming", in the on or "Chinese" reading.

A pause, and a pattern emerges.

Well, let's see. I wrote 400 words today, which is not quite as good as the 1200 I wrote yesterday. I did the second chapter of my reading Japanese textbook, and I actually drew something.

I finished lesson 57 in my spoken Japanese classes and I've started to notice something: in the morning, when I put the CD into the car stereo, I'm on. Even though I feel not awake and haven't had coffee, I can sometimes come up with the answer to new structures and vocabulary, clearly learned from my anime exposure, before I'm prompted, and the words and verb forms come easily. At night, though, it's hard work; although I feel awake and competent, the vocabulary is not there, the verb structures require conscious effort, and it just feels like a slog. Anyone else notice anything similar?

And I have to say, I love a diet that requires (requires!) that I consume dark chocolate and red wine. Omaha and I made (store-bought, frozen) chicken cordon bleu with egg noodles and steamed broccoli, and I had a glass of Rosemont 2003 Shiraz/Cabernet, and damn, that is one fine wine. Fruity, flavorful, tastes and feels wonderful. And for dessert, hot chocolate and vitamins (the fat from the milk and chocolate helps me absorb vitamin E).

We had Yamaarashi-chan over and she was good company, did her homework without complaints and described all of her works at school. Kouryou-chan, in contrast, was in a bratty mood tonight and ended up going to bed early. Sigh. Omaha and I are working on it; it's not "just a phase."