This is not unusual. It's Lent and I should be thinking about Lenten things but I'm hung up on the recent court decision protecting Fred Phelp's particular brand o' (legally protected) hate free speech.

So as disgusted as I am by Phelps particular message, I think I understand why the court ruled in his favor. Free speech means ALL speech, not just that which we like to hear. I had an ethic professor once that drove this point home over and over again. Free speech is all speech, including speech you don't like. (with certain exceptions, like fire in a theater, and other documented situations) As he said, what's the counter to speech you don't like? More speech.

Here's the thing, If we don't like his message, why aren't we out in droves drowning out his particular brand o' (legally protected) hate free speech with our
particular brand o' (legally protected) love free speech?

In the past I've made proposals that we should drive like porn stars, and settle major disagreements with dance offs (I've still got dibbs on Timberlake and Federline you bastards) in this case I'm asking that we look at Fred's published schedule and get out with there our own counter protests to drown out his particular brand o' (legally protected) hate free speech.

I mean, this isn't rocket science folks. We learned how to deal with his ilk in kindergarten. We sing a song, one I bet most of you know: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iYjcNR7W-Ow&feature=related

(or something by Neil Diamond - you choose. I trust you.)

What I want to see in the media is that every time, Fred and co. are out to spread their particular brand o' (legally protected) hate free speech, they are drowned out by a million (ok a few hundred) like minded people singing a pop song that tells us that it's OK and that our song (and message) is more important and will not be snuffed out by some dude and his particular brand o' (legally protected) hate free speech.

Mostly I'm just damn tired at this point. I've spent a good many days in bed trying to not cough out a lung. It kind of worked. I think Monday I'll be able to go running again. Maybe. I hope so. I hate not being able to breathe.

More soon. I've got stuff to make and work to avoid.

(and a love of Bull Durham from a young age probably didn't help matters any)

Last night, I finished the bracelet I was soldering together, and started finish sanding and polishing on the rings I made Steph and I. I've got a few more Ideas to work out, but it's ok. I have some time. I mean class dosen't start until next week.

Speaking of class: Oh God. Next week.

I'm going to go back to bed and finish fighting off this .. thing I picked up over the weekend.

Not bad.

(This means I managed to propel my 210-ish lbs carcass at just under a 10 minute mile for an hour. It's a good start.)

I love academia, and the process of studying and discovering in that environment, but 3 kids and a full time job (and a few important hobbies) make me wonder if it's worth it. It may be the end of summer talking or it may be that I genuinely don't know yet. I've been actively pursuing an advanced degree for a while. It might be nice to take a moment to breathe. We shall see.

A few technical (read pedantic) notes:
I've been experimenting with crossposting on LJ from my movable type install at depressoboy and, depending on where I'm writing from, it seems to be mostly successful. The most recent entries have been from my phones browser, logged directly into movable type. If you don't pay attention the autofill/correct function will truncate words. I'll keep playing with it.

I did join the masses on faceborg a while back with the messenger designs page (which I need to add more stuff to). It's faceborg. At this point it's almost a damn necessity to have one. It is what it is. In some respects, it's nice to have to talk to a few far flung friends, but the weird privacy issues do make me want to keep it at arms length.

However, the pedantic stuff isn't why we are all here. I'm supposed to go run 6 miles today. I should go do that.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/38730223/ns/msnbc_tv-countdown_with_keith_olbermann/

For a site that migh be 30 minutes from the house, it is far enough away that you can't hear anything but nature. (like my parents growing up) Weirdly, I was reminded of the what it was like growing up in the woods. The next day after breakfast and cleanup, we talked to the boys about some forestry stuff and then set out on a hike. 5 or 6 miles (and manu hours) later we had completed a massive hike (for the cubs) helped some boy scouts that were lost during their orienteering exercise, and had a heck of a time wandering all over the place.

Came back, had lunch, then Neal did some geocaching with them and then it was time to prep and cook dinner. It always amuses me when we are grilling over a campfire. It becomes a 2 person project to cook and 2 people to prep. We managed to get everyone fed, seconds, and even s'mores because that is how we roll. It's not a campout unless there are s'mores (and rain). All in all, a good weekend in the woods, and the rain was kind enough to hold off until I was packing up the tent.

I am always surprised at what time we get on the road when we are packing out. We were done and packed by 9:00 and home (and very wet) by 10 or so. Everyone rested while I setup and dried out the tent and packed it away (for next weekend). Then, a delicious dinner at a new Japanese steakhouse full of excellent food, sushi, and company. A good end to a great weekend.

As an aside, I'm not really sure what place blogs hold in our twitter and faceborg happy world. Long form navel gazing seems to have gone out of style (if it was ever really in style in the first place). There is a lady (and jewelry designer) by the name of Wendy Brandes that wrote the other day that maintaing a blog is hard work, and she is correct. God knows I have stopped and started in more than one place. I suppose that if I mean to be serious about anything, I should add this back to the list. We'll see.

In other news, the new scouting and school years are about to start. It looks like I'll be busy again very soon. I should do something about that.

I should keep doing this. I mean this entry is boring, but I can probably do better.

She's been here a couple of weeks ans it's like she's been here forever (in a good way). It's funny how you just sort of fall back into the correct roles and movements.

I think we may have just booked a trip to NYC next month to see the Tim Burton show at MoMA. I am reasonably pleased. ;-). There always seems to be something that I want to see in NYC, the trick is just finding a way to make it affordable.

Now I should sleep. We have scout stuff and my sisters birthday celebration in the next 48 hours. Should be good times.

In other news, I started a new business selling jewelry and other stuff made out of chain maille. Http:// www.messenger-designs.com or Www.facebook.com/messengerdesigns

It's a lot of fun to make, and I love it.

I joined a gym at work so I can run over the winter months. I derermimed that I don't like the gym because of old, naked , sweaty guy. You know him, right? He the dude that strips the second he walks onto the locker room and hang out. It's disturbing. Really.

As for the marshmallows, boy, did I screw them up.

I followed the instructions and ended up with marshmallows that are more like taffy than marshmallows. Not that it's really a bad thing, just not what I was aiming for.

I think I lnow what I screwed up, and it's kind of basic. In the beginning, the author has you make a something she calls "marshmallow syrup" (better than light corn syrup, because you know, no corn). You are supposed to cook it to 240 degrees. My guess is that I over cooked it. I base this idea on Alton Brown's show on candy making. If you over cook the sugar syrup, it becomes crystallized. As the "syrup" I made continued to cool, it became more and more like rock candy. Again, not a bad thing, just not what I was going for.

The mashmallows made from the "syrup" taste good, but they are not marshmallows per se.

So I'll try again. I'll cook the syrup to a lower temp (the recommended fix for this sort of issue) and try again.

the recipie looks right, but the flavor is all sugar, no vanilla. very sad.