1010b in 101000b.
Inspired by Sister-in-law Katie.

0001. Go to mass at least five times a week.
0010. Say at least a decade of the rosary every day, with Anne Marie.
0011. Write for at least an hour a day.
0100. Read for at least an hour a day.
0101. Cook at least one meal a week.
0110. Clean the kitties' litter boxes at least every other day.
0111. Fold and put away laundry instead of living out of a basket.

1000. Floss every day.
1001. Clean out filing cabinet; file everything from past three years; clean off desk.
1010. Figure out a budget that we can stick to with one income, that includes charitable contributions.

Because All the Cool Kids Linked it a Long Time Ago.

World of Goo

Download it. Play it. Enjoy.

(Don't say I never did anything for you.)

[Publisher's note: Area Man Joe Belland was taken to Happy Dale Sanitarium today, screaming obscenities and muttering "it explains everything!" and "it's the source of harmonic cubic wisdom!" He had burned most of his personal possessions, but found amongst the debris was the following diagram, simply labeled "Theory of Everything"]

Smart Girl.

She won a contest for the speech, too.

I think she takes just the right approach. The pro-choice position is based on emotion, not reason, so a reasoned rebuttal is unlikely to change any minds. Instead, we need to take a page from Scott Ott and learn how to love them right.

Any argument against abortion that focuses on the humanity of the unborn is liable to fail, simply because the reasons for why an unborn child is human will never change the emotions of the pro-choicer about the mother's situation. That's why I like the approach of Lia here, who takes the time to talk about the impact of abortion on the emotions of the mother.

And I swear, this blog is not turning into an affiliate of the National Right to Life League. Maybe come August or so, when my child is actually granted rights under the Constitution, we can return to our normally scheduled programming.

And, again, congratulations to little Benjamin for surviving the most dangerous place in America. It shows that your parents love you very, very much.

F.U. News Congratulates Jeff and Liz on their New Baby Boy!

From TBF:

"I am proud to announce the birth of Benjamin George, on 16 February, 2009, at 6:04PM.

"At birth, Benjamin weighed 8 pounds and 3 ounces and measured 20 inches long.

"Liz is doing extremely well, and we anticipate being discharged on Tuesday to take Ben home.

"Earlier in the day, the doctor was able to externally turn Ben so that he was no longer breach, which took us from being classified as a high risk to a low risk birth.

"Five minutes before the birth, everything was going so smoothly, Liz's doctor turned to me and asked if I would like to deliver the baby, with doctor supervision.  I jumped at the opportunity, washed up and got a pair of rubber catching gloves. By time Liz finished being shocked by the idea, Ben was in her arms and being dried off.

"Thank you to everyone for your support."

Bugs Bunny: Psychic?

So The Murloc and I were watching some old Bugs Bunny cartoons, and I noticed the following during the short "Tortoise Wins by a Hare", ©1943. In it, the following newspaper is shown, with a publishing date of Nov. 1, 1942.

How did Bugs know? He must be a psychic.

Link dump.

Firstly, this site is awesome for anyone looking for some music to play.

Secondly, this Pandora radio station is awesome if you want something to listen to while reading Space Pirates.

Lastly, this is just plain awesome.

Happy Valentine's Day!

(Also see: Terrans, Protoss)

What We're Playing, YouTube Version

Well, Joe beat me to the punch, but yes, those are the pieces I recorded.  If you want direct links to the HQ versions, with MUCH better audio, here they are:

The Girl With The Flaxen Hair

The Graceful Ghost

Polonaise in A Flat

The Stars and Stripes Forever

But the reason I hadn't posted them yet, is that I was working on this, an embeddable custom player of all our music on YouTube, just for F.U. News (you may need to make your browser wider):

Here's a direct link to the playlist that goes into the player, which you can randomize, or copy to your own playlist (if you have a YouTube account, but of course you do so you can vote 5 stars on all our videos).

Jenny, post more piano videos!

UPDATE: Yay, Jenny posted more piano videos!:

Dawn

La Fille aux Cheveux de Lin

Secret Track

What Dave's Playing.

Apparently, Dave uploaded YouTube vids of all the pieces he played in WWP Vol. 1 about a month ago and didn't tell anybody, the jerk. So here I am, linking them because he's too lazy. 

La Fille aux Cheaveux de Lin.

Polonaise in Ab.

Stars and Stripes Forever.

The Graceful Ghost.

Be sure to watch them all in high quality!

Too Inspirational Not to Link.

Midwife at Auschwitz: Stanislawa Leszczynska.

I had never heard this story before. The article mentions "materials are being compiled as evidence for her process of beatification." Does that mean her cause for canonization is open? It seems to me that she would be a particularly good patroness for pregnant and nursing mothers.

Yes, I realize I've been posting an excessive amount of links and videos recently. I'll try to get a content post sometime soon. But don't get your hopes up. It will probably be more Space Pirates.

Our Lady of Lourdes and St. Bernadette Soubirous.

Orate pro nobis.

Too Funny Not to Link.

How Obama Got Elected.

I don't remember why I didn't post this when I first came across it (or where I even came across it), but it's interesting and worth a look. I don't even remember what made me remember it, but I just wanted to mention that the girl wearing the "Obama" shirt reminds me of my coworker, in that she, too, cannot say Palin's name without smirking and rolling her eyes. It's almost Pavlovian in its reflexiveness.

The similarity is uncanny.

Also, someone tell ABC that if they're still looking for someone to replace Peter Jennings they should give this girl a call. Maybe they could put her in a little picture-in-picture box during World News Tonight so she can smirk to let the viewers know when they should disapprove of something.

Charles Gibson: "Millions of delusional people gathered in Washington DC this past week for the annual 'March for Life'."

Girl in box: *smirk*.

Well, What I'm Playing, At Least.

Figured I should post these before I forget them, to prove that, yes I did in fact play them.

Asturias.

Bear Dance.

Polonaise.

The Moldau (Part1) (Part 2).

La Fille aux Cheveux de Lin.

Instead of waiting for that One Perfect Performance™, I just went with what I had, mistakes and all. I've decided I prefer the mistakes, as it makes the performance sound more human, and less like it was played by a robot. Also, it's waaaay to easy to obsess about the mistakes.