6/4/06-6/17/06

FROGS UPDATE 6/17/06

*tag made for me by a friend*

The frogs are all alive and well. The tadpole that I got for free some months back is still a tadpole. He has spotted up a bit and shows evidence of being male-- his throat is yellow. Because of his size, I am sure that he will be a bullfrog when he grows up. He and the feeder fish are swimming around with the catfishies. The catfishes actually seem to be happier for the company!

~spike q

CHOSEN 6/17/06

Yahoo has chosen to feature my 360 blog for a couple of weeks on a page for interesting and active blogs. I do have some new 360 friends now from that already and a bunch of new mail. I was not able to write back to everyone because of their mail settings.

~spike q

I'LL BE MAKING THE ROUNDS LATER TODAY 6/15/06

Missing all of yas!

I went to Pennsylvania to a conference. My good friend Philly Dave and I teach a workshop there every year on how to get published. This year the conference was in State College. I also got to be in the art show-- the curators downloaded my blogs with the computer art on it. The Crow also got compliments on his tag that he made for me.

While there, I read at the open mic, crashed a "spiritual practices" support group with two other pagan friends of mine-- the folks there were mostly uber-christians, and played tourist. I went to Bellefonte, a quaint tourist trap but I liked it.

I also went on a bus tour of the animals at Penn's Caves. While there, the driver told me that folks from a certain animal rights club showed up and kept showing up. During the tours, they would all complain about how mean it was that the wolves didn't have DOG HOUSES. The wolves do have a nice den on the other side of their mountain away from the tourists, but that was not good enough. Finally, the business was getting a little wrecked so the dog houses were bought. The wolves pissed on them and then totally destroyed them.

That little glimmer of wisdom demonstrates the key difference between animal rights activists and animal welfare activists. Animal welfare activists know that although dogs are descended from wolves, wolves do not want dog houses!

Take care of YOU!

blessed be,

spike q

NPR AND PBS 6/13/06

Subject: Save NPR and PBS (again) Hi, Everyone expected House Republicans to give up efforts to kill NPR and PBS after a massive public outcry stopped them last year. But they've just voted to eliminate funding for NPR and PBS—unbelievably, starting with programs like "Sesame Street." Public broadcasting would lose nearly a quarter of its federal funding this year. Even worse, all funding would be eliminated in two years--threatening one of the last remaining sources of watchdog journalism. Sign the petition telling Congress to save NPR and PBS again this year: http://civic.moveon.org/publicbroadcasting/ Last year, millions of us took action to save NPR and PBS, and Congress listened. We can do it again if enough of us sign the petition in time. This would be the most severe cut in the history of public broadcasting. The Boston Globe reports the cuts "could force the elimination of some popular PBS and NPR programs." NPR's president expects rural public radio stations may be forced to shut down. The House and Senate are deciding if public broadcasting will survive, and they need to hear from viewers like you. Sign the petition at: http://civic.moveon.org/publicbroadcasting/ Thanks

This message brought to you on behalf of MoveOn by spike q.

GONE GONE GONE for a bit 6/4/06

It so happens that I will be devo, in absentia, missing in action, hasta la vista baby and all of that until I come back to sit in front of this thing once again and chill your bones with angst and protests against censorship and other brain-numbing stuff.

So in the words of some famous relative whose name and bloodline I cannot quite recall--

LATER.

~spike q