... or, is Minneapolis on a mission to make itself the most ridiculous looking city in the Midwest?

The evidence:

http://www.roadsideamerica.com/tip/5735
http://www.wide-formatimaging.com/images/article/1173804621900_wfi03_07heres3.jpg
http://www.lileks.com/bleats/archive/06/0606/061906.html
http://www.lileks.com/bleats/archive/05/0405/photo1.html
http://tinyurl.com/3rshgd
http://projects.dot.state.mn.us/35wbridge/index.html
http://www.alumnicenter.umn.edu/about/index.html
http://tinyurl.com/4wycj4
http://tinyurl.com/4uyo3a
http://www.citiesarchitecture.com/Building/969/225_South_Sixth.php
http://www.citiesarchitecture.com/Building/1974/Mill_Ruins_Park.php
http://www.citiesarchitecture.com/Building/1976/Minneapolis_Central_Library.php

May I also note, that most of these monstrosities were funded by cutting Minneapolis Library services, wasting state funds for the "arts and education," and the raising U of M activity fees? Also be sure to blame Pawlenty's stadium fetish. Your tax dollars at work!

My health.

Kyped from the evil soul in my FL who shared this.  So many levels of UGH!!!  It's like Goatse, except text only and with feline butt glands.  YUUUUUUUUUUUCK!  It's more awful than awful!  UGH!!!

Click at your own peril.  Not at all work-safe.

I am in a diabolically good mood.  I am about to work on next week's Rasputin Catamite, and everything today is going according to schedule.

Lady Soveign is playing.  I have bookings for modeling/promos/dancing until early November, and  in about two weeks, it is possible very likely that I'll have bookings until next year.  September is still shamefully empty, but I am sure that when the art schools get back in session and the promo agency has their post-July schedule ready, I'll be able to fill up that month.  It appears that I'll get to be a guest creator at Fallcon!  Hopefully, the G3 Upir's Mark monsters will be ready by then, because I cannot wait for y'all to meet them.  I am also auditioning for another short film on the 19th for the part of a doctor.  (Trish: the stripper role for the student film fell through because of scheduling issues.)

I am also excited because the Benton County Foster Care Orientation is happening on the 20th.  Sadly, it might be happening in my home rather than at the County Office.  Apparently, it seems that Loki and I are the only people signed-up.  WTF!?!  Kids need foster parents, and the county helps pay for their care.  Loki and I felt pretty sad about that.  We probably won't be able to commit our resources until next year, but seriously... why aren't more people willing to help out.  Hmmm...

On the annoying side, my six-pack abs are fading.  I need to correct that stat.

I want this so bad and it is on sale until the 19th!

Next paycheck, come to Vassie!  PLEASE!!!

I have no idea how many shoes I have, nor do I care.  I do know that I wear them all rather often.

Personally, I have no problem with any typical or atypical forms of marriage, as long as the government isn't involved, churches aren't being forced to violate their own moral dictates, and everyone is of legal age.  If you want to marry a man and you're a man, that's cool.  If you want to be 1950's traditional with one man and one woman, even if one partner is gayer than a kite, that's cool too.  Want to have twenty wives? If you can afford them and you treat them well, awesome.  Want to make your crazy bisexual polyamorous lovefest into happy knotted yarn ball of committed bliss and wedding cake, more power to you.  Want to get married in a church like a good Catholic folks and get drunk afterwards?  Sure!  Marriage is a social contract, a private matter, and an excuse for someone to throw a party or dressing up like a snow-covered mountain top.

I have mixed feelings about that whole FLDS mess.  The raid seems to be another massive constitutional rights fiasco.  On the bright side, Janet Reno wasn't involved.  Additionally, there is a good chance that the raped child-bride-in-peril was actually a schizophrenic woman with a history of calling wolf.  This stupid oversight increases the chance that many legitimate criminal issues in the case will be thrown out of court or overturned.  Although the child custody cases are likely to succeed, I cannot help but think that a big ugly lawsuit is in the horizon.

Even in this dark mess, I cannot ignore a good sense of humor.  Read the following portion of a transcript from a recent CNN interview.  (Notes added.  Thanks mom for the tip.)

TUCHMAN: There's a lot of sex on that show (Big Love,) isn't there?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Too much.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Which is why a lot of our people stopped watching after the first couple of episodes.

TUCHMAN: So, that's unrealistic?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Well, I don't know.

TUCHMAN: Which brings up this question: how is it decided which wife the husband sleeps with on a given night?

JOYCE: We draw straws, and the one with the short straw has to.

[Edited to include FYI: The women in this portion of the interview by CNN were not minors, and they all stated that they did not approve of underaged marriage.  Also upon re-reading the interview, I realized that the women were not of the Texas FLDS compound, but rather the town of Centennial Park.]

It's not what you think.  Vas is still the same abrasive homosexual femme dyke y'all have come to know, but she is no longer a Lesbian.  Confused?  Well, I guess it has to do with the fact that words mean things.

I have no problem using most offensive words on the basis that they exist for the purpose of being used.  I will call people nigger/spic/yid/dago/honky/redskin/bigot/asshole/piece of shit/fluffy bunny/et cetera(s), if they have behaved in a way that earned the title, if they belong to said group and think it's funny, or as a light self-denigrating jab.  I will not use those words lightly or outside of the proper context.  I do have a lot of unease about using groups of people to describe behaviors or states of being that may not be pertinent to who these people really are.  For example:

"I would never jew you out." = "I would never shortchange you."
"What a gyp!" (Will piss my husband off on contact.) = "What a rip-off!"
"Let's go nigger-knocking." = "Let's knock on someone's door and runaway."
"You throw like a girl." = "Your pitch was very weak."
"That's so gay." (My husband says it too much.)  = "That's pathetic."
"You don't look hispanic." = "You're pretty."

After much pondering, the word Lesbian pretty much falls under this troublesome category.  I read this article about the people of Lesbos suing a gay-rights group over the word, a while ago.  At first I thought, it was a frivolous concern, yet as the days passed, the article just haunted me.  I couldn't stop thinking about how horrible the people of Lesbos must feel about having their ethnic name being a label for a stereotype.  I mean seriously. At least "sapphic" refers to a specific person who had a hankering for girl.  "Gay" is a positive stereotypical label because it implies happiness, and in terms of being a sexual minority a predominantly heterosexual society, "queer" doesn't seem unreasonable.  Even "dyke," which is frankly my favored slang term, is based on common behaviors seen among homosexual women.   Getting that out of the way, I must note that not all homosexual women are from the island of Lesbos, and not all Lesbians are gay women.  For this reason there's really no way to defend the word in the context of homosexuality, as anything other than a description for a state of being, pejoratively using a name used to describe a group of people of a certain ethnicity.

Now, I think everyone has the right to use any words they want.  If you want to call yourself or others Lesbians, even if you aren't referring to people of Lesbos, go right ahead.  It's freedom of speech.  I am not the mind police, and it is not my job to judge.  Just don't expect me to participate any further.  I am not going to edit words and art I've done in the past to prevent offense.  That would be intellectually dishonest.  What I can do, is take what I learned and adjust my future behavior accordingly.

I can deal with people doing horrible things to me.  At least, I know what those type of people are about, so it is easier to deal with the damage and move on.  What I cannot forgive with such ease is someone who acted kindly to me for evil reasons without disclosing the reasons up front.  There is no unforgivable sin, but some are harder than others to erase.  In my culture and my opinion, dishonoring a loved one is worse than outright enmity.

It's all been said before.  It's not the fact that my old friend used me on several levels, and destroyed things that were dear to me. It's the fact that he admitted that our "deep and intimate friendship" was nothing but a means to end in his quest to get ahead as an artist and to get laid.  The only way I'll ever forgive that fakehead, is he drops the wholesome and loveable, pacifist Buddhist dufus who creates art for "the children" and whose only addiction is coffee act.  When he drops the pretense and presents himself as an anti-utopian, ambitious and ruthless businessman, who is keenly aware of how his image affects his art and mucks around with the dark arts for personal gain, then maybe I'll regain some respect for him. 

Until then, the only communication I care to have with him is face-to-face and fist-to-fist.  Alas, that would involve bothering to seek him out, and that's not worth my time.