The joys of the low-maintenance holiday

Much as I really enjoy putting on a big spread for Thanksgiving, I have to say there's something gloriously freeing about not doing so this year. Ordinarily I'd've been a complete head-case by this point in the week.

I did get a duck to roast for supper, just 'cuz, but the nice thing about duck is that you don't have to pay a bit of attention to it during the procedure. Three cheers for the self-basting fowl. Now, I may get ambitious enough to make it a-l'orange...but then again, I may NOT.

moody greys and ice blues

The system's magic nose goblins continue unabated from yesterday, too numerous and niggling to identify individually.

Fun With Majordomo was not resolved by the time I left last night, and Mr. Networks, who was looking at it, is now suddenly not going to be in today and the customer is v. antsy and I've got nothing to tell them.

Right before I left for class, Mister I Moved My DNS To Netsol Accidentally, who I spent *hours* with (after the entry, too) helping fix his shit, as did Joe and dariodevil, called demanding credit on his bill because, get this, he blames me for fucking up his shit in the first place. I hope he dies of pustulating venereal diseases.

Got to class, and they had a famous sensei in from, um, Berkeley I think? Which is a fine thing and all, except that it meant the class was absolutely mobbed, and therefore nowhere near as productive a class (at least for me) no matter how stellar the teacher may be. ...And now let me speak a bit of heresy--I find that I don't get as much learning out of Famous Sensei classes in general, because usually they don't stop to explain a darn thing. It's interesting for contrast, and it's a joy to watch them exhibit techniques, but if what they're doing is not something you already know, then you're going to remain pretty well adrift.

And, the cherry on my shit sundae: after class, Linna passed on that the Friday weapons class was cancelled for good, because Keith is finding it too much to juggle that along with his back-to-schoolness. I adored that class. He's a terrific teacher, with a real gift for getting across those little points that you're missing to get the technique down. And yes, the Thursday weapons class is still on, and Charles certainly knows his stuff (he's been doing it for longer than I've been alive, after all) and I like him a lot, but it can be awfully hard to keep up with him; I enjoy Thursdays but I don't love them in ALL CAPS.

"Life sucks, get a helmet."

A last bit of moo for the day

...and a look at the numbers that shape your world.

In the mid-90s, the House of Representatives logged 140 hours of testimony into whether Clinton used the White House Christmas card list to identify potential Democratic donors. These days, a House committee has logged a whole *twelve hours* of testimony in the past two years relating to whether we are torturing prisoners at Abu Ghraib.

I don't care if you're Democrat, Republican, Libertarian or Monster Raving Loony; whether you support the Bush administration or wish it in hell. Which claims do you think our government should be most concerned with?