Another faithful friend bites the dust

My iPod died Thursday night. It's the same problem as the last one: the headphone jack just stopped working. I don't imagine I'm that rough on the poor dear, but it just failed on me Friday morning and now I can't hear anything. I've already ordered another one; they're only $25 plus shipping and handling, and that's a lot cheaper than replacing the whole unit. The hard drive seems to be in good shape, as does the screen and mobo. It's just annoying. I also ordered a replacement battery. I do not want to upgrade to one of the never ones; I understand there's no Linux compatibility at all with those.

In the meantime, I am tuneless. I could buy a 4GB card for my Palm and move the most frequently listened to tunes in there (that's the maximum the Palm supports); right now it's only a 512MB card with e-books on it. But the Palm's battery is a little dubious as well. I guess I'll survive without it for a week or so.

Getting back on-line

Omaha and I have been feeling very burned out the past couple of days. It's partly the sickness that's been going around; I have the chest cold today, can feel it deep within, rumbling and grumbling.

Valentine's day is also the day Omaha and I successfully conceived Kouryou-chan, so we went out to her favorite restaurant, where she gleefully informed the waitress this was her "conception day!" The waitress, unfamiliar with this idea, decided it was her birthday and arranged a birthday celebration with balloons and a sing-along and the awkward question, "How old are you today?"

Well, traditionally, she's some nine and a quarter or so. Her precise gene sequence is ten years old today, but her gene sequence isn't really "her," in that sense. Still, we got through it all with good spirits and some desperate handwaving.

I also ran down to See's candy to pick up the two pound box I'd ordered on Thursday. It was a good thing I had ordered it ahead of time; when I got there a long banner informed me that "we are out of:" and on that list were two of Omaha's favorites. I'm such a regular that they don't need to see my ID anymore, and kinda know what to start when I ask for a box.

We tried to revive our flagging spirits last night. fallenpegasus kindly agreed to watch over the girls for an hour or two while Omaha and I went down to the hot tub place in Federal Way. We bought the Valentine's Day special, which got us two personal bottles of "sparkling apple cider," a rose and some cheap candy, as well as an uninterrupted hour of time together, naked and without the kids. We brought our lives and our exhaustion with us, and spent most of it more commiserating over the difficulties of raising two kids and less being romantic. It was not that kind of day.

I have spent most of the past two days off-line, not posting or reading, just trying to avoid it all and the headaches I've been having recently. I'm sorry if I've missed anything. Sometimes I just need a vacation from it all.

Not just stupid, but inciteful to hatred

Ray Comfort is not just an idiot, but a vicious idiot. On WorldNetDaily, they're pimping his book, a classic collection of apologetics without much else behind it. But Comfort is treading dangerous waters when he

contends atheists hate God because he does exist.

"Atheists don't hate fairies, leprechauns, or unicorns because they don't exist," writes Comfort. "It is impossible to hate something that doesn't exist. And that makes the point."

Dear Ray: Atheists don't hate god. Not at all. Our feelings towards him are the same as our feelings toward fairies, leprechauns, and unicorns.

On the other hand, our feelings towards you are loathing, revulsion, repugnance, and pity. How can it be otherwise when you won't leave us alone, when you perpetually broadcast your inanity to the world, and encourage your zombie followers to rebreathe your stupidity endlessly?

If I were subject to daily messages from Unicornists that my failure to believe in Unicorns was a sign of moral depravity, despite evidence to the contrary, I'd be a vehement aunicornist too.

What irks me most is that Comfort doesn't know his history. Romans 2:15, which Comfort cites as his "evidence" that everyone knows at birth that Christianity is true, is the exact same passage used throughout history to justify Christian atrocities against non-Christians. It's the Biblical equivalent of "Kill 'em all, let God sort 'em out." It's the passage used to justify the Crusades.

I can only conclude that Ray Comfort hates, and as he gives, so he gets.

My Kids Love Shakespeare!

There's nothing quite so entertaining as listen to my kids laugh their heads off watching the Brannagh production of Much Ado About Nothing. They actually get it, which I think is very cool.