About Jen

Jen isn't quite sure when she lost her mind, but it is probably documented here on Meditatio. She blogs because the world needs her snark at all hours of the night... and she probably can't sleep anyway.

Space Shuttle

The Lord be with you
And also with you
Let us pray:

We pray to you, almighty God, in this time of uncertainty over the fate of the space shuttle. You are our refuge and our strength, a very present help in time of trouble. Do not let us fail in the face of these events. Uphold us with your love, and give us the strength we need. Help us in our confusion, and guide our actions. Heal the hurt, console the bereaved and afflicted, protect the innocent and helpless, and deliver any who are still in peril; for the sake of your great mercy in Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Kyrie eleison!
Christe eleison!
Dona nobis pacem.

Less Angsty

I’m a bit less angsty than I was last night. I applied for a few jobs on Monster, called the LCMS congregation that is sitting on my secretarial app from last fall to see if there was any progress, got part of a stripe on my scarf done,got some layout changes on my candidacy blog up, and actually had a healthy dinner (spinach salad with feta cheese, mandarin oranges, and walnuts). My financial paperwork for next year came today, as did my unemployment paperwork. I’m aiming to mail in the unemployment stuff tomorrow. My in-laws have been trying to tell me that filing unemployment is a way to stick it to the government and keep them from being able to afford nukes for the war in Iraq. If it were the federal government paying it, that would make sense. However, I don’t think the State of Ohio is buying any nuclear weapons any time soon.

Thank you to those who commented. There’s always the fear that when you lay yourself out bare, that someone is going to say something hurtful; and I’m thankful that I have people who support me and remind me of the strength that I can draw upon.

I do get angsty from time to time, partially because I’m in a weird position this year. It’s kind of like having a glass placed over me on the walk of life — I’m stuck in one place for a period of time and I can’t proceed until the glass is lifted. I can’t believe that my time in Newark is half-over and that in 6 months, we’ll be back in Cols or in St. Paul. It’s also been a stressful year because it’s our first year of marriage (living with someone is always strange for the first year), I’m doing my candidacy process for ordained ministry this year, I’m trying to narrow my options down for seminary, and this is the first year since I was 4 that I haven’t been a student. This was supposed to be a year of rest and November 24 to January 24th was not restful in the least. I’m praying that the secretary job does come through because it’s not as stressful as retail was.

Off to create a few bookcases!

The State of the Felines Address

I just realized that I haven’t done a cat entry in a while so… here is the State of the Felines Address!

The Kitties

They’re getting BIG. Finian is probably going to be the size of a Toyota Camry when grown and Cullen will be a magnificent tiger. His tail is already 3 inches too long.

On Sunday, Cullen tried to hang himself in the blinds cord and thankfully was only tangled for maybe a minute before I found him and untangled him. Then we tried to take Finian outside to play in the snow. He finagled out of his harness and bolted down the street. I finally caught him, zipped him into my parka, and took him home. He spent the next hour wrapped in an afghan on his daddy’s lap while I shoveled snow. Needless to say, my nerves were shot by the time the Superbowl started!

They have realized that they are tomcats and that one of them should ideally be alpha cat. Soooo… they are beating each other up for that honor and Finian is currently winning because of size and aggression. I have a spray bottle on me at all times to stop the fighting.

And that’s all for now. (Did you really think I was going to drone endlessly about them??? That’s what photo albums are for!)

Management Request

The management of this blog has this to say regarding comments:

This is my space to rant and vent about what I think appropriate. If you disagree, that’s fine. You may express your disagreement. I have a few requests though (which are CLEARLY outlined on the right sidebar as well as here).

1.) If you want to write a long comment (more than one long paragraph or two medium ones), just email me. Long comments take up too much space.
2.) If you have an agenda to push, go elsewhere. I’m referring to the comment left on my “State of the Union Undressed” entry. There was nothing of real edifying substance in the comment, so I deleted it. It’s MY blog and MY right.
3.) If you’re going to comment about an egregious wrong of mine, why don’t you leave me a website or email address so I can get back to you? That way, I can address the wrong and we can discuss it. If you don’t leave me contact info, it’s a “drive-by posting” and doesn’t enable discussion and will cause me to censor or delete your comment.
4.) If you hate my Democrat-leanings, deal with it. I don’t go on your blog and call you a fascist just because you agree with the Usurper in the White House, so don’t rip my beliefs on mine.

Management thanks you and wishes you a pleasant surfing experience.

Peaceful War Protest

(Thanks Dayna!)

[It’s NOT too late. He needs to keep getting them, so send yours TODAY!]

This amazing idea from the Boulder Mennonite Church: There is a grassroots campaign underway to protest war in Iraq in a simple, but potentially powerful way. Place 1/2 cup uncooked rice in a small plastic bag (a snack-size bag or sandwich bag work fine). Squeeze out excess air and seal the bag. Wrap it in a piece of paper on which you have written, “If your enemies are hungry, feed them. Romans 12:20. Please send this rice to the people of Iraq; do not attack them.” Place the paper and bag of rice in an envelope (either a letter-sized or padded mailing envelope–both are the same cost to mail) and address them to: President George Bush White House, 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. NW Washington, DC 20500 Attach $1.06 in postage. (Three 37-cent stamps equal $1.11.) Drop this in the mail. It is important to act NOW so that President Bush gets the letters ASAP, preferably before the report from the inspectors comes out on the 27th. In order for this protest to be effective, there must be hundreds of thousands of such rice deliveries to the White House. We can do this if you each forward this message to your friends and family.

There is a positive history of this protest! In the 1950s, Fellowship of Reconciliation began a similar protest, which is credited with influencing President Eisenhower against attacking China. Read on: “In the mid-1950s, the pacifist Fellowship of Reconciliation, learning of famine in the Chinese mainland, launched a ‘Feed Thine Enemy’ campaign. Members and friends mailed thousands of little bags of rice to the White House with a tag quoting the Bible, “If thine enemy hunger, feed him.” As far as anyone knew for more than ten years, the campaign was an abject failure. The President did not acknowledge receipt of the bags publicly; certainly, no rice was ever sent to China. “What nonviolent activists only learned a decade later was that the campaign played a significant, perhaps even determining role in preventing nuclear war. Twice while the campaign was on, President Eisenhower met with the Joint Chiefs of Staff to consider U.S. options in the conflict with China over two islands, Quemoy and Matsu. The generals twice recommended the use of nuclear weapons. President Eisenhower each time turned to his aide and asked how many little bags of rice had come in. When told they numbered in the tens of thousands, Eisenhower told the generals that as long as so many Americans were expressing active interest in having the U.S. feed the Chinese, he certainly wasn’t going to consider using nuclear weapons against them.”

The State of the Union Undressed

Bush did a pretty good job and *almost* made the case for war with Iraq. He failed to mention the idea of going to Congress first *or* working *with* a coalition. (He said “lead a coalition”. Georgie, we’re not the only nation in the world that thinks Iraq is a problem. Let’s learn to play on a team.) He talked about the need for new energy sources that are cleaner. He avoided using the O-word though (oil) — he talked about liberating ourselves from foreign energy sources. Ummm… name one foreign energy source that we export in large amounts other than oil. He talked about environmental regulations, yet he has rolled back quite a few of them. (To fight this, go to the NPCA website, click on “Take Action” and then click on “Action Alerts”. Do it now.)

Gary Locke, the governor of Washington state, was the Democratic rebuttal (so to speak) and he won as far as selling me on the Dem’s plans. The tax cuts aren’t as deep as Bush proposed but they reach *everyone* and not just the ultra-wealthy. He actually talked about liberation from foreign oil (which is pretty much the only reason we care about *anything* in the Middle East) and he has a decent track record on the environment. I have a serious amount of respect for him because he’s done some good things in Washington, is a second generation Chinese-American, attended Yale on scholarship (i.e. not an entitled person), is an Eagle scout, is the governor of a wastern state (which means that he understood the angst of the West when Bush told us to quit whining and conserve energy during the power crisis), and is really where I am on a lot of issues. Pity that he isn’t running for President…