My mom asked me to share these links with as many people as I know.

Pray for Neda (Roya Hakakian)

A Tribute to the Brave and Courageous Citizens of Iran

I don't pray, but my heart goes out to everyone affected by the violence, and to everyone else back "Home," as Mom would say. Still wishing I could do more than just spread linkages on the Internet.

In weird coincidences, I'm the same age as Neda Agha-Soltan, and the same age my mom was when the 1979 revolution occurred. Mom was already out of Iran by then, and it wasn't until 1998 that she was finally able to return. I remember being confused when she came home from that visit, because she spent the better part of a week in tears.

I was a dumb teenager then. I get it now.

I always thought she was brave, but damn. I can't even imagine leaving the US and not being able to return to my homeland and the majority of my family until 2028. Mom did that, journeyed all over Europe and the US, learned a new language and customs, earned her doctorate, got married, raised a family while working full-time and climbing the career ladder up to V.P. ... damn.

"Kinkade painting was typically rendered in slightly surreal pastels. It typically featured a cottage or a house of such insistent coziness as to seem actually sinister, suggestive of a trap designed to attract Hansel and Gretel. Every window was lit, to lurid effect, as if the interior of the structure might be on fire."

I dunno who said it, but it's true.



Come on. Tell me that house isn't right down the street from Miskatonic U, filled to the brim with queer denizens sporting the horrifying, piscine Innsmouth look. They're opening a gateway to R'leyh amid one of their infernal rituals, causing the skies to darken. But don't worry- thanks to Kinkade, the terrifying spectacle will remain well illuminated by light sources of no explicable nature or purpose.

To slaughter us
why did you need to invite us
to such an elegant party?

-Ahmad Shamlu


Those are my kinsmen, fighting for justice. As concerned as I am, and as bad as I feel for not being able to help, I also can't help but feel ridiculously proud.

There were more rallies in Tehran today, despite Mousavi asking his supporters not to show up for fear of their safety. BBC says that today's turnout was even bigger than yesterday's, and yesterday's numbered in the hundreds of thousands (some accounts report millions). President Obama has made some comments, but obviously, the US government is playing this one cautiously.

My cousin in Sanandaj showed up on Gmail this afternoon, so we chatted for a bit. Everything is fine, but the Iranian government continues to crack down on websites (they've just recently blocked Yahoo! Messenger, which is why he was on Gmail), and he wishes he was home in Tehran, with the rest of the family.

I let him know about all the supportive things people have been saying about the protests, even in places where you'd least expect it, like Fark. He can't see any of it since Twitter, LJ, Fark, etc. are blocked, but hearing that people are rooting for the Persians seemed to cheer him up a bit. =)

Thanks for everyone's well wishes and support! It really means a lot.

Here's the latest from the AP: Mousavi rally, one confirmed dead; summary of what has happened over the weekend in Tehran and elsewhere

BBC has coverage as well.

Tehran Bureau is also a good place to visit.

Also, in case there was any lingering doubt: leaked election results (thanks, stardragonca!)

Got a long email from my cousin in Sanandaj! Family seems to be OK, but obviously very disappointed about how the election turned out. It's been a long-held suspicion that their votes don't matter. Even so, people got their butts out to vote this time, in record numbers... and now they know they don't matter.

Riots seem to be calming now, most of the leaders have been arrested. Still lots of chanting and marching in the streets, though. Land-line phones and electricity seem to be back up in Tehran, but cell phones are still down.

Mousavi has called for a rally tomorrow in Tehran.

No idea what will happen from here.

* Iranian citizens living aboard are allowed to vote in the election. The polling stations in Los Angeles were still open when Ahmadinejad was declared the winner.

* With the paper balloting system in place, it's highly doubtful that all the ballots in the country were gathered up and hand-counted within the space of a day. Ballot boxes are being trashed and burned.

* Protests still ongoing. Still no word from anyone I know in Tehran.

My mom doubts that this is going to lead to any real change, but we're being optimistic nonetheless. It's extremely hard to rally groups of people against the government. Known leaders are arrested, and children are more or less taught to be spies in school. "If you hear Mommy/Daddy say anything like this, you should report it" etc.

And of course, because there always has to be piss in the cornflakes: massive protests in Tehran as Ahmadinejad is declared the winner of Iran's presidential election by a landslide.

Take a look at the polling results leading up to the election, and you'll realize why everyone is pissed. He suddenly went from polling around 40% to winning 60% of the vote? Oh, and the Iranian news networks are suppressing coverage of the riots? Oh, and the police didn't let Mousavi (the highest-polling opposition candidate) give a press conference after the results were announced, as had been scheduled? Yeah, that sounds real fucking legit.

The one good thing that might come out of this is that the people might be pissed off enough to oust the current regime and those asstard mullahs. I can only hope that it isn't replaced by something worse, and that my family stays safe through all this.


ETA: Cell phone service has been completely shut off in Tehran, as has access to social networking sites. We think regular phone service might have been shut down as well. No word from family yet.

ETA 2: Power is now out in many parts of Tehran, for "grid repair" (pfft). Some people have been getting word out via illegal satellite hookups, so now the police are starting to crack down on those. There've been continued protests throughout the night. Mousavi has been placed under house arrest, and they might have arrested Khatami too (former president who's part of the same moderate movement). I've also heard that Tabriz (city in northern Iran) is under martial law.

Dan Bylsma: an interim coach who took the helm mid-season. He would've been happy staying with the farm team in Wilkes-Barre, but after Therrien was fired, he found himself coaching in the major leagues. Ever calm and unshakable, win or lose, he led his young team to their first championship in seventeen years: one of only a few game seven championship victories on away ice in history, against a decorated veteran team known for being unstoppable at home.

Amazing.

Thanks for an unbelievable season, Pens.

How about that? We got ourselves one of these:



To set next to the one of these we got in February:




What next? The World Series?

*snort*

Seriously, great night for Pittsburgh. =D

Stay classy, Detroit!

Man, that brings back memories. That was my favorite track on that game.

Now I want to play it, and I don't have a copy- or an N64, for that matter. No love from Wii Virtual Console, either. =(

Based on amethyst_hunter's fine suggestion, I sent a donation in memory of Dr. George Tiller: National Network of Abortion Funds

This shit gets my blood boiling. This is one of the very plainest examples of terrorism and religious extremism one can point to, but because these piles of human waste thump on a Bible and not a Koran, they will continue to waltz in and out of prison and be publicly defended by "good," "Christian" people. Fucking adults who speak of demons as though they actually exist.

Unless people grow the fuck up and start minding their own goddamn business, we are all royally screwed.

Remy and I went to the wedding of a friend of mine today, a girl I've known since high school. In fact, she's pretty much the only person I've kept in touch with from high school. The fact that we both went to Pitt probably helped.

I was a little anxious about going to the wedding, wondering just how many other people from high school I might run into. Three, as it turned out, and we were all at the same table for the reception. People I haven't seen in nine years. They all looked great, and were doing really well, and I was likewise happy to show off my bad self and my charming husband. It was so weird, though, talking with them- it was as though we'd never left high school. As we described where we live and what we do for a living, it felt like we were teenagers pretending to be grown-ups.

One of them said something I agree with: it's nice to visit and find out what other people have been doing, but just for a little while. It's a relief to get back to your regular life, which doesn't include these people anymore.

Pretty constructive day off:

1) Visited the Science Center
2) Got new wiper transmission, plate light, and oil change for my car
3) Walked over three miles
4) Ordered a new work desk (in black) to replace my cramped, hard-to-clean-under IKEA one
5) Made healthy sweet potato fries to go with Remy's buffalo burgers

So, c'mon, Pens. If I can do all that, you can totally sweep the Hurricanes tonight. ;)

ETA:


// This goal still makes my jaw drop
// DAMN IT FLEURY PLEASE STAY IN THE CREASE

Full bouquet

Close-in detail

After enough practice, the tulips became easy. The stars weren't hard, they were just tedious. There's at least a couple hundred in that vase. I'd finish a big batch of them and be all excited, until I saw how they barely took up any room in their container.

Mom loved it, though, so I'm happy.


/* LET'S GO PENS! */

On Monday, Sidney Crosby and Alexander Ovechkin scored hat tricks in the same game.

Today, I score my own hat trick: three years of happy marriage that I wouldn't trade for anything.

Love you, Remy! Here's to many more happy years together.

Thank you, Internets. Thank you for taking one of the greatest tear-jerking scenes in all of Geekdom...

...and making me laugh so fucking hard at it.

Over the weekend, we finally cleared out our storage unit and Goodwilled a ton of stuff. My parents were nice enough to rent a van and help us with the loading and unloading, so props to them. There's now a lot of stuff in my car that must somehow find a home in our wee apartment. We'll figure it out.

The best part of our moving adventure was when my mom suggested stopping at a little hole in the wall in Canonsburg to pick up pizza. Not only did this place have pizza, but they also sold beer by the bottle, and you could buy mix-and-match six packs!!

Now, to those of you living in civilized states/provinces, this is no big deal. To those of us in the land of the commonwealth-controlled liquor stranglehold monopoly, who must buy beer at special commonwealth-owned stores where they sell nothing smaller than a 24-pack, this pizza place is a WONDERFUL MAGICAL LAND OF MAGIC AND WONDER. They even had the fabulously expensive raspberry lambic I'm so fond of, and the mix-and-match is letting us try new beers for the first time in ages (seriously, do you want to buy 24 beers you might not like?).

Only a relative handful of restaurants in all of Pennsylvania have the license to sell beer in six- and 12-packs. Not a single grocery or convenience store does. We're definitely keeping this place in mind whenever we make the trek south of Pittsburgh to visit my family.

Saffo Clithero Pleasure Horses.

I'm so confused. How is this not a sex toy website?

I graduated from Pitt over five years ago.