Pretty much anyone who knows me already knows I'm a pacifist and believe the death penalty to be barbaric.  But I still had to answer this question

I challenge anyone who believes in the death penalty to see the play Exonerated, based on 11 true accounts of death row inmates who were exonerated (and one who was exonerated after he had already been put to death.)

I just answered this Featured Question, you can answer it too!

I'm a pacifist.  I do not believe violence of any kind is ever the answer to anything.

I don't kill flies - I shoo them out the door.
I don't kill spiders - I pick them up with kleenex and toss them outside.
I don't believe in spanking - under any circumstances.
I don't believe in fist fights to solve problems.
I don't believe in numbchucks or billy clubs.
I don't believe in war.
I don't believe in the death penalty.

Someone once asked me if I would change my mind if someone raped, tortured then murdered my grandmother.  I can't honestly say how I would feel.  It's never happened (and never will, as she passed away 15 years ago - my other grandmother passed away 33 years ago.)  I feel about that question the way theologists feel about the question "If God can do anything, can he make a rock so heavy he can't lift it?"

Here is where it really gets weird.

I play World of Warcraft.  The last few days I've been playing a character I have on a "Player vs. Player" server (usually I play on a Player vs. Environment server - me against the computer, basically.)  My character is an Alliance character.  The enemy of the Alliance is the Horde.  When I see a Horde, I'm supposed to kill on sight (if they are near my level.  If they are way below me, that is just bad 'sportsmanship' in the game.)  But I can't.  I'm such a pacifist that I can't kill the character of what I know to be a real person behind a computer.  Computer monsters and enemies are no problem.  (Though they often feel no qualms about killing - or ganking - my character.)

Can one be psychopathically pacifist?

Sometimes on Saturday nights, Mac and I go to Friday's for dinner and to play Buzztime (formerly NTN) trivia.  Specifically TV trivia and Music trivia.  We do pretty good and usually get our name on their (local) top ten scores two or three times - we each play our own playmaker box and try to get more than half the slots between us on the top ten scores board. (We play independently - no helping each other - so we're actually competing against each other as well as the other patrons.)

So music trivia - first round did okay - 10 questions worth 500 points each, 50-50 questions..  Second round (8 multiple choice questions, timed, worth up to 1000 points), fell apart, third round (vote for a category, correct answers worth up to 1000 points, wrong answers -250), started pulling back up, 4th round (they call it triviaoke - they give the artist and one line of lyrics, then you have to choose from five answers which words are in a later lyric) pulled out in front.  Fifth round is a wager round.  You see the 5 possible answers and then, based on those, you bet up to half your points that you will know which one of them is the right answer to the question that will follow.

Saturday the five answers were names of new age bands.  I bet as much as I could, because one of them was Mannheim Steamroller and I figured if the question was about their current tour, I'd get it.  The question wasn't about their current tour, but as soon as I saw Chip Davis in the question, I knew the answer was Mannheim Steamroller

I not only won, but took the number 1 spot on the top ten scoreboard.  Haha, I wonder how that chick who WAS in first place feels about being knocked down to second?  Oh.  That would be me.  LOL The first two slots are MINE! (I have a total of three slots on that board, and Mac has 2.)

Mac won TV trivia and also got his name on the top ten scores for that game - in the number 1 spot.

See, I do play more than World of Warcraft

Mannheim Steamroller is coming to a cozy theater in Joliet next week and Mac and I are going to see them.  It's supposed to be an ethereal, space-inspired concert, with holograms of shuttle takeoffs and landings and other space stuff.  I don't know if anyone remembers "Space Music" but it was the precursor to New Age, but much more ethereal.  It will be interesting hearing them play something other than Christmas music.  I know they've recorded many "Fresh Aire" albums, but all I ever owned was their Christmas music.

Should be an interesting concert.  We have main floor 10th row seats. 

My sister's grandson is the photo of the day (Tue, 9/18/07) on the Piston's web site! Check it out:

http://www.nba.com/pistons/photogallery/september2007.html?curPhoto=1

My boss has been promoted to Senior Vice President.

Does that mean I have also been promoted?  I now report to a Senior VP and not a lowly VP

Today's Featured question is "How Has 9/11 changed your life?"

Immediately after it happened, I went into a kind of dazed shock, and stayed there for about a month, having nightmares about it.  I couldn't bear to watch the news footage.  My complete trust and belief in my security was shattered that day.  I thought we were inpenetrable, invulnerable.  We were the world super-power and nobody would dare mess with us.  I felt betrayed, violated.

Now I realize how naive I was.  I don't mind giving up some of my freedoms to be safer.  Sure, it's an inconvenience to stand for 2 hours in a security line at the airport, but if it means a safe trip, then I'll suffer the inconvenience.  I HATE that 9/11 forced us to have to give up some of our freedoms, but I have accepted it and am willing to live with it.  But how naive of me to believe that we were somehow another world - a world where those kinds of things always happened to "someone else". (I had a Palestinian friend who told me the next day "This is what we had to live with every day.")

My greatest fear is that as time goes on, we will become complacent.  And "they" will be watching for our complacency - and hit us again when we have let down our guard.  It doesn't necessarily have to be al-Qada.  It could be any radical group that hates our democracy, our wealth (we are a country whose working poor would be considered affluent in some countries).  Is it jealousy?  Or do they really think we are vile, evil, arrogant creatures?

There were two men on this earth who could make my stomach churn, and fill me with strong feelings of hatred - and make me--a pacifist--think of the death penalty as an appropriate punishment.  One is dead.  The other is likely dead, too, considering all the medical problems he supposedly had.  Those two men are/were Saddam Hussein and Osama Bin Laden.  I can't BEAR to look at pictures of them, and whenever either of there faces were shown on TV, I had to look the other way. (Don't start in on how Saddam wasn't part of 9/11 - I don't really care whether he was or not.  His behavior was atrocious and inhuman.  He was a cruel bastard - I think he made Ivan the Terrible look like a saint.)
   

I just answered this Featured Question, you can answer it too!

Last week I took a Tickle IQ test.

This was in my mailbox this morning:

Sheryl,

As a top-scorer on Tickle's IQ Test, the
in-depth analysis of your IQ score is FREE.

It's
my guess they sent everyone one, and are playing strongly on people's
egos.  Everyone wants to think they're smarter than the average
person

Out
of curiosity, I went to look.  I had to sit through 5-6 pages of
full page ads (surprise surprise) before I came to the report.  It
was definitely comprehensive and included some history of IQ tests and
how they've changed and been challenged over the years.

I started my job on January 8.  This year the fiscal year ended Aug 31.  (Next year they are starting a new fiscal year so that they end on a regular calendar quarter, so our next fiscal year will actually only be 10 months long.)

End of fiscal year means salary increases based on review ratings.  I had my review today and my overall rating was "Exceeds Expectations".  My boss told he how glad he was that I was there.  He said he once heard me remark that I would like to retire from this place, and he said he hoped I would stay until retirement.  He also said that before I was hired, he was kept awake at night with worries about the technological problems they were faced with here.  He said he sleeps peacefully now, knowing that the technology of this company is in such capable hands.

The Exceeds Expectations means I'll get a nice hefty raise

Well damn.  I have to take the rest of the week off and get paid for it.  Life sucks.

(I hope everybody caught the tongue-in-cheek there)

Our fiscal year starts Sept. 1.  The policy here is that you can only carry 1 week of paid time off forward.  Anything over that is lost.  Turns out I have one week plus 2 1/2 days of PTO and since we are only working a half a day Friday, I'm taking tomorrow, Thursday and Friday off. 

Who'da thunk that in just a little over 6 months I would have accumulated too much vacation time?  LOL

My review is next week.  This is also the annual salary increase.  They have a rigid schedule of increases.  If your review is Outstanding, you get 5%; Exceeds Expectations: 4%; Met Expectations: 3%; Needs Improvement discretionary 2%; Unacceptable: discretionary 1%.  I am hoping for 4%.  My first review was Exceeds Expectations.  I think my second review should be the same.

Hell, just showing up for work every day and not surfing the web all day exceeded my own expectations   I actually have WORK to do most of the time.  I'm taking a break from writing a Crystal Report right now that is giving me a headache.  Figured a break might cause a light bulb to go off.

Thursday I'm heading to my sister's for a weekend of karaoke and debauchery.  Okay, karaoke.  I'm too old for debauchery lol