a wolf angel is not a good angel

The good news is that my cramps waited until after everyone left before they decided to make an appearance.

subtitle: we clearly do not share any genes

wolfa says: so should i have chocolate cake for breakfast?
sister says: thats disgusting………
wolfa says: what?
wolfa says: disgusting?
sister says: ew
wolfa says: it is so not
wolfa says: it is delicious
wolfa says: what is wrong with you? i can’t believe you’re my sister

But I don’t really see why putting lobsters on ice to attract customers (and suffocating the lobsters to death) is more cruel than serving them to the customers (and boiling them alive).

I am having about a dozen people over on Sunday, for my much delayed (and sunny but *cold*) housewarming. What should I serve? I am going to make something flourless with chocolate, for my friend who cannot eat gluten (probably a chocolate cake), and I am going to make apricot mini pie dumpling things on my grandmother’s suggestion (half a canned apricot in a piece of pie shaped like a dumpling), and . . . what? Cookies? What kind(s)? I’ll also get some fruit for those weirdos who like to eat healthy foods instead of desserts. But I need ideas for the desserts. Chocolate chip cookies? Chocolate orange cookies? Oatmeal cookies? Peanut butter cookies? Sugar cookies?

So I was dehydrated the other day. You’ve been taking pills at night, my grandmother pointed out. So I thought, ok, my cold is almost over, and it’s not at all bad anymore, I’ll stop taking them. And I did.

Now, I looked at what’s in these pills.

Pseudoephedrine: 60mg, half-life 9-16 hours
Chlorphenamine: 4mg, half-life 6-23 hours
Dextromethorphan: 30mg, half-life 3-6 hours

I took these Tuesday night. Let’s say midnight. It’s been about 60 hours. The dextrmethorphan should be gone, the pseudophedrine should be down to at most 1/16 of its initial amount, the chlorphenamine could be gone or maybe down to somewhere between 1/4 and 1/8. Anyways, I am certainly not having any anti-cold effect, because I am sniffly and coughy and achy.

So why am I *still* feeling like I am living in a desert without access to water?

Hey, PZ[1]: Canadian politics are calling you.

Many adults in Canada would not take faith into special consideration when choosing a party leader, according to poll by Ipsos-Reid released by CanWest Global. 68 per cent of respondents say they would be willing to vote for a potential prime minister who was an atheist, or a Muslim, and 63 per cent would back an Evangelical.

Now, part of this is clearly desperation: looking at (mostly) Catholics has given us Martin, Chretien, Mulroney . . . maybe people from other religions would suck less! Part of this is that we’ve already done it. “Can’t say I won’t choose an evangelical when our PM is one!” (Is Preston Manning also one? Stockwell Day is.)

But it’s interesting to compare this with the numbers in the US (which I thought had been discussed more recently by Pharyngulates, but I can’t find it: a comment claims this, but I have no idea where the numbers are from), where a majority of people wouldn’t even vote for an atheist whose policies they agreed with. Of course, it’s easy to claim this when it doesn’t seem to make a difference — Paul Martin, Jack Layton and Stephen Harper are all some form of Christian, and have talked in public about it. (Not to claim they should hide it.)

In January, those three party leaders all wrote about religion in society (Gilles Duceppe abstained, and I do not know what he believes).

Faith Today Magazine, a publication of the Evangelical Fellowship of Canada (EFC), asked the leaders to respond to the following question: “What role do you think faith should play in developing public policy, and what is the place of religious institutions in contemporary Canadian society?”

[ . . . ]

“It is perfectly legitimate for citizens and legislators to take into account their own deeply held faith convictions in developing public policy, provided that people remain open to the faith and philosophical perspectives of others,” Harper wrote.

First, let’s all stop laughing hysterically for a bit. Notice that we must take into account the faith of others (if it’s deeply held enough), though at least we can also take into account the philosophical perspectives of others, either those who do not have faith, or those whose faith says that it should stay out of politics.

A lot of this has come up because Harper has taken to ending his public addresses by saying ‘God bless Canada’. 26% of Canadians take offense, including (the highest number) 36% in Quebec[2]. 65% don’t care, like me, because I find it much, much, much less offensive than gagging all the MPs, or trying to make a scientist not give a talk about global warming, or fuck with the child care benefits, or dismantle any environmental legislation we have. It’s not that Harper has faith convictions that worry me, it’s not even that he is very public about his religion. (Though I note that other politicians can be public about their religion — and their intent to make policy for everyone, of any religion.) It’s that he seems to plan to make all Canadians follow his religious beliefs in public, if not in private, and that his legislation is totally against anything I want to see in my country.

It makes a nice anglo girl almost believe in separatism.

[1] Zed!
[2] No idea if they also get annoyed by O Canada.

1. The Habs lost.
2. When I got home, I went up the back stairs to my place. I heard hissing, but there are a lot of cats around here, so whatever. As I got closer I heard more and more hissing, and then I saw a (very ugly) raccoon, on my porch, hissing at me. Having no clue what it would do if I tried to get into my balcony (which would mean that the raccoon was cornered and couldn’t leave without passing by me), I went all the way down the stairs (in the rain) around the building, and up my front door. Then I went to the back and saw the racoon STILL on my porch. So I turned on the lights, banged on the door, then thought oops, grabbed my camera, and watched the raccoon disappear into the night before I could get a picture.

I am constantly thirsty. I have no idea why I am so thirsty, but there we go. I drink as much as I can, but I have limited room in my internal organs. My mouth feels always dry, my eyes even feel dry.

Update: my grandmother reminded me I’ve been taking antihistamines. Well, that makes sense.

When I phoned my mother and my sister answered the phone, I did *not* ask her why she was not at work on this, her second day of employment. (It is possible that the answer is that the weather prevents her working, though it’s mostly the same as yesterday, but I could never have asked that question without a hint of “You didn’t get fired/quit after ONE DAY did you?” in my voice.)

A bunch of scientists were asked to give one fact every high school graduate should know. I got the numbers ones approximately right (except the extra-credit bonus one, which I knew the exact answer to in part due to a -10C[1] salty water fight we had in high school chemistry once: that is *cold* water), but otherwise knew all the answers to them! I’d say go me except, you know, these aren’t really hard questions.

c/o Ms. Frizzle

[1] I know this is not the exact answer.