"No, you're not odd. You're just 'special'."

Not too much going on LOTR-wise today, I think we're all kind of pausing in our obsessions, giving ourselves a little vacation before the ROTK teaser appears (supposedly next month). At which point I fully expect everyone to begin geeking again with a renewed sense of purpose.

Speaking of a sense of purpose, aelfsciene and I have decided to start a crusade to get Shira to move her classes back to Tuesday nights. We want esmerel to be able to rejoin us there, and to be able to take Alyne's class Monday nights. We still need to come up with the appropriate cunning plan to accomplish this.

Oh and class last night was da bomb, absolutely fantastic, and it was incredibly cool to have S- and caredhel joining us. I want to be Alyne when I grow up...*sigh* I'd settle for having half of her control and poise.

Politics, politics, politics!

Anyone interested in some good coverage of the worldwide anti-war protests this weekend, I've got some nice links for ya:

http://www.smh.com.au/photogallery/2003/02/16/1045330463100.html
http://sf.indymedia.org/news/2003/02/1574963.php
http://www.aerotechnews.com/starc/2003/021403/europe_protest.html
http://www.napanews.com/templates/index.cfm?template=story_full&id=9365F8BD-2C89-4E36-AC93-F469BD4C039F
http://www.fortwayne.com/mld/newssentinel/5201357.htm
http://www.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2003/02/17/016.html

"About 80,000 marched in Dublin, Irish police said. Crowds were
estimated at: 70,000 in Amsterdam; 20,000 in Montreal; 40,000 in
Bern, Switzerland; 30,000 in Glasgow, Scotland; 25,000 in
Copenhagen; 15,000 in Vienna; 5,000 in Cape Town and 4,000 in
Johannesburg in South Africa; 5,000 in Tokyo and 2,000 in Dhaka,
Bangladesh."

Wow.

And an interesting article that mentions Senator Byrd's speech that has so impressed me is available at:
http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=15199

I particularly liked being reminded of a quote by Mark Twain:
"It is curious that physical courage should be so common in the world and moral courage so rare." Whether you agree or disagree with the anti-war movement and its doctrines, I gotta' say there were a lot of folks showing moral courage this weekend. I couldn't be one of them because of prior commitments, but next time I will.

End Politics

And can I just take a second to say:

Happy Birthday Aelf!!!

So now I'm mostly-benevolent? Where did I go wrong?

( The latest update on the Holy Empire of Artemisia )