And Bunnies. That's right, Bunnies.

Hello!

I've been busy.  Sorry if you have been feeling neglected.

Friday I had a taiko performance.  It was not what I was expecting.  I was gone from home for 7 hours for a 30 minute show.  But - we got to have free sushi from Sushi Sen.  They are located in Lake St. Louis, Missouri.  If you haven't been there, you should certainly go as soon as is convenient.  The performance wasn't quite perfect.  Drive had issues.  I didn't love being the leader of Kagura, but we made it through, and I kept smiling!  Well...I don't think I smiled for Kaifuu, but that was because I was precariously close to hitting a drum that was meant to be offstage the whole time.  As far as strange injuries are concerned, I really would love to know how I bruised the lower inside of my pinkie finger.  I also didn't do great things to my back when loading, but that isn't strange or mysterious.

Pretty much since then I've been applying for jobs, and such like.  And I also backed up and deleted all the pictures on my camera.  Now I can take some more!  Woot!

We had an ice storm on Saturday night/Sunday morning, so I missed the meeting.  Have I EVER missed a meeting before?  I don't think so.  I really didn't have a choice.  It was solid ice as far as I could see, here, and no road treatment.  Josh says it's because the local guys in charge are cheap.  They knew they'd have to shell out money for salt if it was a weekday, but they don't particularly care if people can't get to church.  Very depressing.  Of those who did attend the meeting, I hear that several fell and some even experienced injury.  Yikes.

Yesterday I made a profile on LinkedIn.  I think Josh is more excited about it than I am.  Hopefully, I can hunt down someone who has worked with me and can support that I know some of the stuff I claim to.  Right now I don't look very convincing.  I've also completely re-worked my resume, applied to several jobs (again), and registered for two upcoming job fairs.

No pressure.

I have been reading the Silmarillion.  Everyone warned me against it, and said it was difficult.  Really, I don't find it so.  The only thing that gets me is how everything has to have 3 different names.  Yay for the glossary!  I haven't really read much Tolkien lately, but I want to.  I started reading The Hobbit, you recall, but stopped when I realized that my dad wanted to read it to them.  Well, now when they visit, he reads it to them....and where does that leave me?  I was going to just pick it up and start reading it to myself, but then Josh bought me The Silmarillion.  He wants me to be able to explain it to him.  That, Friends, is why I am reading it right now.  But it really is not difficult to follow....just difficult to remember which names go with which characters/places/objects of nature/weapons, etc, etc, etc.....

I spoke to my brother on the phone.  He is super busy with school and tests, so it was a short call.  Josh is super busy, too.  Tonight he has to work late, on top of it all.  We are planning to celebrate his birthday this weekend.  Friday his work friends want to go out, and Saturday we are having his birthday dinner.  Sunday we are going to a Superbowl party.  I hope this doesn't end up being too much for him.

We had a thunderstorm today, but as Missouri storms go, it was not particularly worthy.  No hail, no power outages.  Quite disappointing.

My house is filthy.  It's kinda grossing me out.  Ew.  Maybe I will clean it tomorrow.  I'm assuming I won't have work.  Haven't had any in ages.

I know that gun control is a hot topic right now.  Here is a quote for your perusal:

""The Gun Is Civilization" by Maj. L. Caudill USMC (Ret)


Human beings only have two ways to deal with one another: reason and force.

If you want me to do something for you, you have a choice of either convincing me via argument, or force me to do your bidding under threat of force.

Every human interaction falls into one of those two categories, without exception. Reason or force, that's it.

In a truly moral and civilized society, people exclusively interact through persuasion.
Force has no place as a valid method of social interaction, and the only thing that removes force from the menu is the personal firearm, as paradoxical as it may sound to some.

When I carry a gun, you cannot deal with me by force.
You have to use reason and try to persuade me, because I have a way to negate your threat or employment of force.

The gun is the only personal weapon that puts a 100-pound woman on equal footing with a 220-pound mugger, a 75-year old retiree on equal footing with a 19-year old gang banger, and a single guy on equal footing with a carload of drunk guys with baseball bats. The gun removes the disparity in physical strength, size, or numbers between a potential attacker and a defender.

There are plenty of people who consider the gun as the source of bad force equations.
These are the people who think that we'd be more civilized if all guns were removed from society, because a firearm makes it easier for a armed mugger to do his job.
That, of course, is only true if the mugger's potential victims are mostly disarmed either by choice or by legislative fiat--it has no validity when most of a mugger's potential marks are armed.

People who argue for the banning of arms ask for automatic rule by the young, the strong, and the many, and that's the exact opposite of a civilized society. A mugger, even an armed one, can only make a successful living in a society where the state has granted him a force monopoly.

Then there's the argument that the gun makes confrontations lethal that otherwise would only result in injury.
This argument is fallacious in several ways. Without guns involved, confrontations are won by the physically superior party inflicting overwhelming injury on the loser.

People who think that fists, bats, sticks, or stones don't constitute lethal force watch too much TV, where people take beatings and come out of it with a bloody lip at worst.
The fact that the gun makes lethal force easier works solely in favor of the weaker defender, not the stronger attacker. If both are armed, the field is level.

The gun is the only weapon that's as lethal in the hands of an octogenarian as it is in the hands of a weight lifter.
It simply wouldn't work as well as a force equalizer if it wasn't both lethal and easily employable.

When I carry a gun, I don't do so because I am looking for a fight, but because I'm looking to be left alone. The gun at my side means that I cannot be forced, only persuaded. I don't carry it because I'm afraid, but because it enables me to be unafraid. It doesn't limit the actions of those who would interact with me through reason, only the actions of those who would do so by force.

It removes force from the equation... and that's why carrying a gun is a civilized act.

By Maj. L. Caudill USMC (Ret.)

So the greatest civilization is one where all citizens are equally armed and can only be persuaded, never forced."

What did you think?

Oh, yes.  And there's this:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&feature=endscreen&v=ZGrFqCIa-Vk

Have a happy day!!!