For those that aren't familiar, RAGBRAI (Register's Annual Great Bike Ride Across Iowa) is the world's longest, largest, and oldest touring bike ride.  It began on Sunday, July 20 by dipping the back tires in the Missouri and ends Saturday, July 26 with a front tire dip in the Mississippi.  The route varies each year and North Liberty was luck enough to host Thursday evening this year.

Jayne's Highlights of the Day:

1. Arriving for volunteer duty at 6am and spotting a rainbow

2. Staking at least 50 pirate flags (N. Liberty's Theme: Pirates of the Corridor) with 3 co-workers

3. Choosing from over a dozen food vendors for lunch...mmmm, pulled pork!

4. Waiting for Lance Armstrong to ride by to pick up a bag for Kate (Hudson!)

5. Pirate Punch

6. Meeting the Italians and getting the full Italian treatment! (My personal favorite!)

My friend, Red Stick Razzle Dazzle, was voted Rosie by her friends after they saw the movie over the weekend.  It got me thinking...I wonder who I am?!?  And I hope I can have that much fun and with girlfriends like Donna's during that period in my life.  Don't worry, there won't be any singing (as much as I love it!).  But how much fun would it be to have 'Jayne and the Jitterbugs,' ala 'Donna and the Dynamos!'

One can always dream!

This morning, instead of waking up to the alarm clock, I was jolted out of bed by wind, rain, hail, lightning, thunder, and Tiffin tornado sirens!  Not a great way to start out the week, especially since I have to take over full dog duty while Josh is out of town.  Full dog duty means getting up at 5:30am to walk and feed Miss Zoey, which is usually Josh's responsibility.  What do you do when it's a downpour, the sirens are blaring, and the dog really has to go...and I'm not a morning person so I'm still half asleep.  After the sirens are done we cautious head out the back door.  No rain, but it's still windy and the lightning show was amazing and Miss Zoey did her thing.  I can't believe we weren't struck by lightning!

Miss Zoey and I need to invest in raincoats and boots!

This truly is a 100% fool proof foundation.  Guaranteed to apply evenly and will not leave streak marks or "mask" marks at the chin and hair line (you know what I'm talking about!).  Plus, it's so light, perfect for those hot Iowa summers.  The Starter Kit comes with everything you need, plus a fun DVD.  I've already converted 3 people!

Quick tip: The Skin Rev-er Upper is a must.  I thought I didn't need it because I already had my lotion, but I tried the foundation without the Rev-er Upper and it didn't apply/cover as well.  So every morning I apply the Rev-er Upper and my regular lotion.

This product can be found at Sephora, Bare Escentuals, or Blaze in Coralville.

"Mackenzie Allen Philips' youngest daughter, Missy, has been abducted during a family vacation and evidence that she may have been brutally murdered is found in an abandoned shack deep in the Oregon wilderness. Four years later in the midst of his Great Sadness, Mack receives a suspicious note, apparently from God, inviting him back to that shack for a weekend. Against his better judgment he arrives at the shack on a wintry afternoon and walks back into his darkest nightmare. What he finds there will change Mack's world forever. In a world where religion seems to grow increasingly irrelevant "The Shack" wrestles with the timeless question, "Where is God in a world so filled with unspeakable pain?" The answers Mack gets will astound you and perhaps transform you as much as it did him." (from www.amazon.com)

Words above and video below posted by AlJazeeraEnglish

I don't usually listen to music like this as it isn't really my genre. Not really... OK: rephrase. I wouldn't pick up artists like this. However, I was introduced to this little ditty by way of a Firefly fanvid called - appropriately enough - Diary of Jayne. Yes, it was about Jayne.

Then, behind all those clips of the best show ever, I realised what a nice song it was and how I could get my grimy little paws on a copy. So I did. On all three Breaking Benjamin albums. That's how obsessive compulsive I am. I have to have them all even if I hate everything else by the artist. Such is my life.

If I had to
I would put myself right beside you
So let me ask
Would you like that?
Would you like that?

And I don't mind
If you say this love is the last time
So now I'll ask
Do you like that?
Do you like that?

No.

Something's getting in the way
Something's just about to break
I will try to find my place in the diary of Jane
So tell me how it should be

Try to find out what makes you tick
As I lie down
Sore and sick
Do you like that?
Do you like that?

There's a fine line between love and hate
And I don't mind
Just let me say that I like that
I like that

Something's getting in the way
Something's just about to break
I will try to find my place in the diary of Jane
As I burn another page
As I look the other way
I still try to find my place in the diary of Jane
So tell me how it should be

Desperate, I will crawl
Waiting for so long
No love, there is no love
Die for anyone
What have I become

Something's getting in the way
Something's just about to break
I will try to find my place in the diary of Jane
As I burn another page
As I look the other way
I still try to find my place
In the diary of Jane.

I highly recommend office olympics for anyone looking for a great team building activity, a fun way to break up the day, or just an opportunity to get a little silly in the office.  Below is a picture from Juggernaut...I was not very good.

Plan B probably won't be as exciting as an Iowa Cubs game, but, when it comes to my family, it doesn't matter what we're doing as long as it's time spent together.  We manage to make it fun!

Once again, I am stuck in a dinner rut!  I stare in the fridge and the pantry and wonder what to make for dinner.  Usually during said rut, we survive on cereal, chicken strips and fries, mac & cheese, quesadillas, and chips & dip, until we completely run out and I have to go the the grocery.  I have no desire to grocery shop because I don't know what to cook and I'm tired of cooking the handful of go-to recipes I use...I know you all have them!  When I ask Josh what he would like for dinner I get the standard, "I don't know" or "whatever."  Ugh!  With a whole shelf full of cookbooks you'd think I would be able to find something, but they either have way too many ingredients for a weeknight meal or Josh doesn't like it enough for me to add to my rotation of recipes.

To get out of my rut, I usually turn to the Kraft Food & Family magazine  (free!) and website which provides quick and easy recipes and they taste pretty good too.  I also gravitate toward the Food Network website as well.  Then I get re-inspired to cook again.  So, today I will be perusing the pages of the Kraft website.

-T

It all started yesterday afternoon with a rousing game of tennis ball catch.  We are working with Zoey on giving the ball and I was doing my normal, "NO, Zoey give, NO, give!" Followed by prying the ball out of her mouth.  Every couple of tosses she does drop the ball and I praise her, "Good girl Zoey!"  and get so excited that we're actually teacher her something.  Well, this particular day she refused it all and had an even tighter clamp on the ball.  Nothing was working, so we ended the play session.  I sulked and Zoey bounced back home as if everything was right as rain.  I even shed a few tears...I know, she just a DOG!  Later that night we did make up and we both went to bed satisfied.

Well, this morning told another tale.  We had our normal morning routine, I come down the stairs and have a good morning Zoey petting session, then get my food ready for work.  The very last thing we do before I leave is go out.  So, I clip on the leash and we walk out the door, "come on Zoey, go pee!"  Nothing...we walk up and down the sidewalk for 5 minutes.  "Come on Zoey, go pee.  Get in the grass, go pee!"  She just stands there and looks at me like I'm the dumbest person she's ever seen.  Finally I gave up, went in the house, lectured her about listening, she looked at me all sad, and I left.  Now I feel awful, but I can't let it get me down.  She is just a dog. 

While I have grown up with dogs, this type of 'behavior' is very new to me.  If anyone has any advice I welcome all comments and suggestions.  Next stop, obedience training!

8 Days and Counting!  I can't begin to explain how excited I am to see the Sex and the City movie.  What a great opportunity for a girls night out to watch a fun movie.  The fab 4 are back in action...YEAH!

Josh was out hunting this morning with his friend Josh, they heard plenty of gobbling...the first time in this particular spot.  Don't think they left with anything, but it's always exciting to hear the gobbles!

Anyhow, the convention felt massive. I had been to the Marriott Denver Tech Center for the last couple of Nan Desu Kan anime conventions but the convention area never felt quite this active. The convention had something going on in every room and even bleeding out into the hallways. There's even a convention within a convention aptly named HorrorFest for those seeking other thrills. There's a bevy of panels, an ample dealer room, a handful of video rooms and table top gaming rooms, a room devoted to model kits and a very large and diverse art room for the art auction.

I only got to check out a couple of panels. The big panel of the day was the presentation of the remake of Get Smart starring Steve Carell and Anne Hathaway followed by a brief question and answer session with Masi Oka (Hiro on Heroes) and Nate Torrence ( Dylan Killington on Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip). Despite the MC telling the crowd Mr. Oka was not there to answer questions about Heroes we still got a healthy dose of Heroes related questions. The Q&A ended up being pretty light. Most of it ended up being fluff about working with the various stars on the movie, the DVD side movie starring their characters, and various questions floating back to the work they did on television before they made it big. The actual Get Smart clip preceding the Q&A left me a little mixed on the movie. I'm not familiar with the original series enough to weigh in on how true to the source the remake appeared to be. Steve Carell and Anne Hathaway have good rapport with each other in the scene and it's definitely got the right tone and humor. The close out of the scene turned out to be a really poor comedic choice and served nothing to enhance the action preceding it. I guess I shouldn't be too surprised since the film comes from director Peter Segal who has worked on some real comedic winners with the likes of Adam Sandler and Eddie Murphy. I don't think the preview really swayed me one way or the other but it at least reminded me the move was still coming out.

The panel was followed by a quick trailer of Speed Racer from The Wachowski Brothers and starring Emile Hirsch, Christina Ricci, and John Goodman. I'm surprisingly interested in this film because of the high definition filming techniques they used to capture it. The film looked like it's going to be a two hour long acid trip. About 80% of the trailer showed cars not actually on the road and it seemed like the film was basically centered around Speed's family and unraveling a conspiracy in the racing league. Yawn. This will probably be a mediocre film based on The Wachowski's last couple of offerings. At least they had the good sense to put in the classic sound effects from the TV show.

I did get a chance to check out the art show, the model kit show, and the room of consumerism. The dealer room had a lot of neat little trinkets, DVDs, apparel, toys and an unhealthy collection of rare and expensive autographs from a variety of stars. I had a couple of brushes with celebrity when Adam Baldwin's (Jayne from Serenity/Firefly) autograph session shuttled past. There was Nichell Nichols (Uhura from Star Trek) who parted the sea of nerds and helped out small wayward group with our exodus from one of the panel rooms. Fitting since it was Passover at sundown. I also watched Zachary Quinto (Sylar from Heroes) walk around and check out the upstairs areas of the convention.

The last event I checked out was the costume contest. This was the first contest I've actually sat through the whole thing and only because a friend of a friend was in it and the rest of the convention was practically dead. Highlights included a duo of Lego Men, a large scale Gundam costume, a way too into it Wolverine, sexy Ghostbusters (because I love sexy and pieces of the horrid film Night at the Museum. Thankfully there was only a minimal amount of Final Fantasy costumes which is the Blue Collar Comedy tour of cosplay as far as I'm concerned. Unfortunately, there was a good deal of people who had no shame and came out with there Gary-stu costumes on top of the excruciating skits. The worst of them involved a menagerie of music cuts between a mock argument for some lovers or some bullshit like that. I'm so sure this was a brilliant idea when the conceived it and they were thinking it would be so original and people will love them for gracing them with such an original idea. Well it wasn't. Frankly I can't decide if I was more embarassed for them performing it or for the audience who had to watch and clap for it. Despite the technical guffaws and other issues, the MC at least could be entertaining and I will have plenty of pictures to laugh about on a rainy day In short, I doubt I'll be watching too many costume contests in the future. Or invited back to see one as the case may be.

StarFest 2008 turned out to be pretty neat and a little more relevant to my nerd tastes. Hopefully I'll get the chance to check it out again and sit in on more of the panels and get to see more and take part of what the convention really has to offer rather than the tiny nibble I got this year. It's nice to see a convention this cool and attended by a great deal of prominent celebrities in the Denver metro area. I look forward to next year's convention.

http://www.erikthevermilion.com/astrology.school.htm

I used to think that homosexual charts would be under strong influence of Lilith the satellite of Earth.  The charts of criminals and sociopaths proved to be so, but not the charts of homosexuals.  This surprised me.

In one book I read that male homosexuality is ruled by afflictions in Libra.  I have found that there is some truth in this, but it may not be the whole story.

Since Libra is ruled by several planets, to wit Venus, Jason, Hymen, and Baldr, I wondered which of them leant toward homosexuality.  I suspect that it is Venus afflicted, which is traditionally a part of a signature for it.

Incidentally, about female homosexuality, Sappho rules Capricorn, and their afflictions are what lend the possibility that she would make that choice.

I found another factor in male homosexuals, which is an unwillingness to surrender their will to God, but rather a willful and dogged pursuit of their particular choice of pleasure regardless of what God may recommend for them.  No "Thy will, not mine, be done" for them.

And let's not get into the "which god?" escapist denial modus here.  If that is your bent, then get gone, this isn't for you.

Some I found to be female souls in male bodies, who have not found the courage to accept the moral guidelines of manhood yet.

But many I found to be overwhelmed by demons, who set the pattern of their lives for them.  These often have a desire to dominate or degrade other men, a sort of twisted competitive edge, by using women's tactics instead of men's tactics, for whatever reason.  They are usually extremely masculine fundamentally, but with a bent toward feminine tactics in the competitive world.

In any case, without the influence of satan, no man ever entertains the idea of homosexuality.  Those who surrender their wills to God have no interest in it.  That is my finding.

Another clarification, many luciferians are members of clubs that require sodomy in their middle-to-higher level initiations.  They claim not to be satanists, but luciferians.  But they have been foolin themselves.  The word "satan" means "adversary".  Lucifer is "the adversary", therefore luciferians are also satanists, only they have failed to see where their true long-term interests lie.

Astrology Classes Online!:

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http://www.erikthevermilion.com/astrology.school.htm

First let's make it clear that a hexagram is not a "Star of David".  There is no documentation for this idea.  It was anciently an occult symbol and, for some, a symbol connected to Saturn.

I have seen people gettin gaga over the presence of a hexagon or hexagram in a chart.  If you use only 10 planets, it is fairly rare, even more so when you use only the "karmic 7" planets.

Charles Jayne was an astrologer who identified 16 movin points in the sky that have inevitable connection with our lives.  Some of these are known planets, while some are so-called "hypothetical planets."  The Hamburg School planets ("Uranian" planets) are not included amon these 16.

Chiron is one of these planets.  If you consider all 16 of them, plus Lilith, you are goin to find a lot more charts with grand sextiles in them.

So your "grand sextile" personality is no longer such a special person.

A birth with any equidistant ring of planets has some significance to it.  For one thing, the person's different departments of life are likely to be very integrated and overlappin.  Then you can read the numerology of the aspect involved, in this case the number 6.

Astrologer Rob Hand's horoscope is a ring of quintiles, so he is a "five man".  Just look at him!  You see "5" written all over his face!

Astrologer David Hamblin boiled the number 6 down to the findins of Astrologers John Addey and Charles Harvey:  #6 in the chart talks about the rhythm of life, the outward expression of the joy of life, the rhythms of work and play -- all rhythmic doin.

Marc Edmund Jones found that symmetry in a chart makes for influence upon the masses, in the chart of a famous person, whereas asymmetry would make less for influence than for just bein seen.  He mentioned the chart of Gandhi as an example of symmetry.

The grand sextile is a start of a symmetric pattern, but it only has to involve 6 out of the important 16 planets.  To see how symmetrical is the chart, we need to know the positions of all 16 of the "big 16" planets, as I like to call them.

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I realise I'm not writing very well at the moment. I'm just impatient and depressed because I'm so bored!!!! Also, I haven't seen A much lately which is not making things better. God I hate fucking TG and her hunny muffin living together. Not that I wish to do the same after two months of going out as that would probably end up in disaster, but TG, that twofaced bitch! why her? I'm certainly not happy for them. I just realised how childish that sounded, but I'm not deleting it so that I can remind myself what I am like when I'm in a bad mood.