instant gratification

alright, so i've read a lot of romance novels and today i was inspired to begin holding im conversations in romancespeak. here, for your reading pleasure, are some snippets (as well as something a bit more risque i quickly threw together for an erotic fiction gathering). i heard it from a friend that march 3rd is national romance novel day...perhaps you should grease and flex your writing muscles so that i might have a firm adversary for a sparring match.

"away"
pummelled only by the blows of his indifference raining down on her like so many unspoken words, she gathered his silences close to her like a mantle against the rising winds. afterall, wasn't hiding only part of being seen...

"brb"
was his retreat irrelevant, a storm brewing on distant horizon...a backdrop for some battle fought on a far off land with enemies she knew nothing about? a challenge he faced alone because he let no one in, he was without allies but armored to such an extent it took her breathe away each time she crashed against him. or was this a response to the intensity of the seige she had waiting, an ambush on an unsuspecting heart? one thing was for certain, his air of abstraction thinly masked the mustering of a powerful strength. a strength that had withstood her advances for many moons, shattering her own defenses all while lighting within her a secret longing...the longing to join forces and follow him into the darkening night.

"ttyl"
finally, the torrent of her gentle protestations pierced the thick veil of distraction he lingered under. a light of understanding dawned in his eyes like a ray breaking through slowly dispelling clouds. but was it too late he wondered as his softly shining eyes--those icy depths she'd plunged into so many times searching for currents that might lead to warmer waters--traced the outline of her back in the dim glow of the doorway.

"btw"
words flow from my molten core like the stirrings of desire he sparked each time he placed his quill firmly to the pad. the delicate but insistent scratch of its inked ball sent lightning bolts of recognition through her spine, which carried the electric current of his penned thoughts to that dark and mysterious place deep inside her...that jungled shore where drums still beat an ancient rhythm. a rhythm older than words and yet one he accessed every time he spun that seductive web of language around her. a web that caught her in sticky tendrils where words spun in deadly circles that frenzied the drums until the waters overflowed their banks, wetting her thighs and rendering them as silken and as inescapable as the gossamer strands still clinging to her mind.

and now for the hardcore stuff

"geography lesson"

i'd begin by running the tip of my tongue along the coast of sweden, starting at the border with finland and slowly licking up to linger at stockholm. repeat. then i'd swirl past oslo and lower my mouth, gently placing my upper lip against the seaward side of norway and taking both countries into a warm moist kiss. my tongue just can't get enough of stockholm. in my excitment i might just engulf the entire peninsula until my lips land firmly at the base, i mean border of norway, sweden and finland.

i think that's how demark is made, but i can't be sure. we don't learn very much about these things in school.

to gladiate

someone asked me if i am a gladiator, being cheesy i wanted to reply, "no, but i gladiate"...i.e. i like to make people glad...did i really need that i.e.?

anyway, i wanted there to be an etymological relation between gladiator and glad. alas. what you see here is the beginnings of a false etymology. someday i will get a few more degrees and i will spread my false etymologies to the WORLD. or maybe, just maybe, to the moon.

glad
O.E. glaed "bright, shining, joyous," from P.Gmc. *glathaz (cf. O.N. glaor "smooth, bright, glad," O.Fris. gled, Du. glad "slippery," Ger. glatt "smooth"), from PIE *ghledho- "bright, smooth" (cf. L. glaber "smooth, bald," O.C.S. gladuku, Lith. glodus "smooth"), from PIE base *ghlei- "to shine, glitter, glow, be warm" (see gleam). The modern sense is much weaker. Gladden is O.E. gladian "be glad, make glad" + -en. Slang glad rags "one's best clothes" first recorded 1902. Glad hand "the hand of welcome" (often used cynically) is from 1895.

gladiator
1541, from L. gladiator, lit. "swordsman," from gladius "sword," supposedly from Gaul. *kladyos (cf. O.Ir. claideb, Welsh cleddyf, Breton kleze "sword"), from PIE base *qelad- "to strike, beat."

gladiolus
c.1000, from L. gladiolus "wild iris," lit. "small sword," dim. of gladius "sword," so called by Pliny in reference to the plant's sword-shaped leaves. The O.E. form of the word was gladdon.

if we extrapolate!

let's meditate on "slippery," "smooth, bald," "to shine, glitter, glow, be warm" and ease into thinking about the wild iris and the little sword, then let's remember that vagina comes from sheath. [follow that link or face the tiger].

yes. i am a gladiator.

p.s.
glade
"clear, open space in a woods," 1529, perhaps from M.E. glode (c.1300), from O.N. glaor "bright" (see glad). Original meaning would be "bright (because open) space in a wood" (cf. Fr. clairiere "glade," from clair "clear, bright;" Ger. Lichtung "clearing, glade," from Licht "light"). Amer.Eng. sense of "marshy grassland" (e.g. Everglades) first recorded c.1796. this means i waxed.

p.p.s.
ye olde friendster profile once upon a time read:
"Gwendolyn is blended with natural fragrance oils to create uniquely inviting fragrances for your home. Gwendolyn is available in a variety of fragrances that were...Created by Nature. Captured by Gwendolyn."

signs of life?

miracles and tourniquets

i was really struck by the convergence of headlines this morning, especially after thinking all weekend about this image:

let me go home, let me go to him.

if you were trapped under 150 feet of mud, who would you want working up above?

Enthusiasm wanes for people power
MANILA It was 20 years ago this month that Corazon Aquino coined the term "people power" to describe the thrilling popular uprising that drove Ferdinand Marcos from the presidency of the Philippines.

In its iconic image, nuns knelt in the paths of huge tanks as hundreds of thousands of people massed in the streets of Manila with prayers and songs and courage to face down a dictator.

"A new life starts for our country tomorrow," said Aquino, who took office as president when Marcos fled to the United States on Feb. 25, 1986, "a life filled with hope and I believe a life that will be blessed with peace and progress."

It is almost painful to look back today at that moment of celebration and optimism. After two decades of continuing political turmoil - partly fueled by repeated attempts to recreate people power - this nation of political romantics seems to have sunk into a mood of weariness and disillusionment.

A new term has been coined for it: people power fatigue.

"I'm not getting emotionally involved any more," said Sheila Coronel, the country's leading investigative journalist, who was among those who faced the tanks 20 years ago. "It makes me too angry."

"It was miraculous," said an American diplomat who was in the streets during the people power uprising against Marcos. "But you can't live on miracles."

i'd like to believe in miracles, but maybe they only come into play when you've lost your arms and legs and all you've left to live for is to see the person you love one more time before you die. or perhaps they keep you breathing for four days under a mountain of mud. i'm more concerned with what happens when the people with two arms and two legs digging stop believing.

Philippines Rescuers Hear 'Signs of Life'
GUINSAUGON, Philippines - Rescue workers refused to give up hope of finding survivors in an elementary school buried by up to 100 feet of mud, digging into the night Monday after detecting what the provincial governor called "signs of life."

Sounds of scratching and a rhythmic tapping were picked up by seismic sensors and sound-detection gear brought in by U.S. and Malaysian forces.

"To me, that's more than enough reason to smile and be happy," South Leyte Gov. Rosette Lerias said. "The adrenaline is high ... now that we have seen increasing signs of life."

Still, it was hard to imagine survivors under the wet muck nearly four days after a mountainside collapsed and covered the farming village of Guinsaugon, killing up to 1,000 people. No one has been pulled out alive since just a few hours after the disaster Friday morning.

you can read more about the complications associated with arterial tourniquets. you can also make all the anagrams you can out of tourniquet and leave them as a comment.

i have ongoing, growing appreciation for the arcade fire. wake up:

something filled up my heart with nothing, someone told me not to cry. now that i'm older, my heart is colder and i cannot see that it's a lie. children, wake up. if the children don't grow up, our bodies get bigger but our hearts get torn up. i guess we'll just have to adjust.

school of love

it has become apparent that i have to learn people today. i hope this makes up for my being so unthankful this past thanksgiving.

so it's valentine's day. if this holiday makes you feel a little crappy, you probably are inclined to complain about its commercial whorery. in which case, isn't this a pretty easy holiday to dismiss? ignore it. it's not like you have the day off of work, or you're supposed to make resolutions, or you have to eat a turkey. even people who do have significant others agree that the greeting cards, flowers and chocolates are ridiculous. this is not a system we have to buck against folks, why let it spoil your mood? also, if you go out and you're alone it screams that you're single and everyone else who is out is also available (like my brilliant red feather idea). this could be good for you.

i'm not even going to write about the history of this holiday [though i recommend you read up on flogging and maybe check out the great romance of the Trumans]. in fact i was almost going to just lie to everyone and insert the history of sweetest day in its place, as that holiday originally attempted to get people to think about those less fortunate and a little outward focus goes a long way on days like this.

i'd be a hypocrite* if i yelled at anyone for being moody, but i can tell you it will hurt my feelings to see you sad and angry today. so let's think outwardly, if need be you can think about me instead of you. it is, afterall, the two week mark to my birthday - february 28.

since, you asked, i am having a GREAT day. my boss brought in dunkin donuts, a lady down the hall gave me some chocolates (really though, the chocolate manufactured for valentine's day - distinguished by its heart shape and red foil packaging - may be made from the waxy substance sucked out of sawdust-stuffed puppets...i think we call those souls.), another coworker became a grandmother at 12:45am, boys on the internet are sending me random messages in spades [won't use that phrase again], my birthday is clearly approaching, i've got a hot date tonight, this woman applying for a scholarship left me a valentine's day voice mail for my customer service, i'm going to alaska in a week. thank you for asking.

your life can be just as good, because i am your friend, and it's likely i will do a little bit more for you than you do in return [with some notable exceptions, you know who you are and i will send you a little card in a few minutes full of rainbows and midi notes - you love rainbows and midi files! i love you].

"There is no remedy for love but to love more."

~Henry David Thoreau

*c.1225, from O.Fr. ypocrisie, from L.L. hypocrisis, from Gk. hypokrisis "acting on the stage, pretense," from hypokrinesthai "play a part, pretend," also "answer," from hypo- "under" + middle voice of krinein "to sift, decide" (see crisis). The sense evolution is from "separate gradually" to "answer" to "answer a fellow actor on stage" to "play a part." Thus hypocrite (c.1225) is ult. Gk. hypokrites "actor on the stage, pretender."

**warning - for mature audiences only. you know the other day someone told me how that infamous duct-tape photo brings out my eyes. it's my opinion that the favorable response to that photo has more to do with the smile under the duct-tape. it would seem unexpected. one time, when i was orally pleasuring a man, he said something that made me want to laugh. i didn't, but i did smile. i would imagine unmistakenly feeling a smile when someone's mouth is on you, is nice. just remember, whenever you can, to smile.

they call us dreamers

they call us dreamers - a pictorial

Bird Ate My Donut showed me this today. Click on the word this before continuing, it is essential to this posting.

1909: On the left is J.T.C. Moore-Brabazon, who earlier the same year was the first British pilot to fly in Britain, in his personal French-built Voisin aero plane. On the right is a pig in a wicker basket behind a sign that says "I am the first pig to fly."


1959: Project, Launch Vehicle Little Joe. Pigs were eliminated as Little Joe flight test subjects when studies disclosed that they could not survive long periods of time on their backs. However, McDonnell did use a pig, 'Gentle Bess,' to test the impact crushable support, and the test was successful.

1983.

a little birdie

it's time for some updates. i know i want to keep this darn blog merely INFORMATIVE, but i just wanted to tell you a few things and since evidently you lose blog traffic if you don't post often enough. i have to try and keep you coming back.

1) it is thursday, february 2. happy birthday timmy! timmy is that very tall man in idaho who has a new baby girl. also, happy birthday to laurie, don, allie and jon again.

2) i could be seeing andrew bird in milwaukee tonight. that would be great, but it is not happening alas. i have some obligations. i like obligations. and i will go to milwaukee tomorrow night, it is also my sincere wish that andrew bird will not die and i will therefore catch him some time in the future.

3) i will be playing badminton tonight. i need someone with a camera to take a picture of my awesome t-shirt, made by team captain norah. i just went to look up what our standing is after last week - hell yes we're still firmly in second place. raw! a funny bit - when i went to look for my league website - the chicago metropolitan sports association [incidentally, i not only belong to a gay and lesbian badminton league, i belong to the first gay and lesbian badminton league in the country] - i googled "CMSA" and came up with this: www.cowboymountedshooting.com. ooo la la.

4) i'm collecting so much delicious information on whales and squid for my february postings on whales and squids.

5) i will easily compile my 29 things list well in advance of my birthday...

6) i have the technology identified to begin cataloging my books read and movies watched.

7) i have old dreams new again.