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Wednesday, July 2nd, 2008
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4:41 pm - Not so bad
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On a day when you can spend lunch bebopping to CJ Chenier and his fab Zydeco band with a cool breeze blowing through the tent on a not too hot day on the National Mall, that commute into DC doesn't feel so bad. That was good. I haven't been happy a lot lately, but that made me bouncy happy.
I work about a block from where the Smithsonian Folklife Festival is being held. Caught a little of Charles Thibodeaux's Cajun band as well, which was not as rocking, but I love hearing that Cajun French and wheezy yells. Tomorrow at lunch I'm going to stand in line to go inside the intricately painted Bhutanese Buddhist temple they built on the mall.
Which reminds me--several years ago, I volunteered at the festival and worked as a gopher for some amazing Burmese fruit carvers, embroiderers, and calligraphers. At the end of the day, the fruit carver gifted people with her day's handiwork, which looked much like what you can see down the page on this site here. Gorgeous stuff. And when she came to me, she handed me the beautifully, intricately carved, rose bedecked whole half watermelon. And I was traveling home on the metro. We're not talking about those little round shaped watermelons here--we're talking about the huge, oblong, fricking 20 pound hernia-inducing variety. I couldn't decline, of course. So there I was. I did hope that when I put it down to go use the porta-john, someone would swipe it, but it was there, each time I came back. So, it sat on my lap all the way back on the metro to Greenbelt. And it sat in my refrigerator for months. So that's my volunteering at the Folklife Festival story.
I still have to post about WISCON and whole bunch of other things, but yippee for a slow day at work and a yay-inducing lunchtime concert.
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| Wednesday, June 11th, 2008
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8:14 pm - My family
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| Sunday, June 1st, 2008
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6:18 pm - But that's NOT how Bunny plays it!
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There will be a WISCON report but I just had to relate what I just saw on my walk home from the coop grocery.
I saw a wild rabbit and a squirrel ambling about on the lawn in front of the apartment building next to mine. Then suddenly, squirrel went running at rabbit top speed. Rabbit jumped straight up in the air a couple of feet, the way cats do when spooked, as squirrel passed running underneath. Rabbit came down in the same spot and just kept on munching grass like nothing happened, as squirrel went back to ambling about.
Wild. I've just never seen squirrels and rabbits play together before. Have you? That move was so cartoon-like. I feel like I just passed through the Warner Bros dimension.
And now I know where squirrels get their expectations about what cars will do when they run at them.
current mood:  amused
current music: NPR--From the Top
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| Wednesday, May 28th, 2008
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8:27 pm - Been out of commission
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Will report about WISCON but got felled by the con virus 2 hours after getting home. All kinds of nasty projectile. Hours of bathroom cleaning fun while nauseous and weak. A day and a half in bed with fever.
Very happy cats, however, feeling well paid back for the days alone by having human properly in bed for two days.
Feel very, very lucky this didn't hit me earlier, especially in the airport or airplane, though it would have been someone else's bathroom or otherwhere's cleaning fun. *offers sympathies to anyone who experienced that.*
My uncle died yesterday. Still haven't gotten through the line to his spouse yet to offer support.
It was a wonderful con filled with my gorgeous peeps! Thank you organizers and volunteers all!
And yes, I saw copies of that nasty post *trying* to make fun of some of the really beautiful women and charming young'un's I met--*trying* being the operative term, and *failing* mightily--what were they thinking? Not much apparently.
current mood: on the mend
current music: soothing
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| Thursday, March 27th, 2008
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12:12 am - I CAN HAZ JOBZ!!!
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I got hired today by a contracting firm with the government to be a technical editor at the EPA. Sounds impressive, doesn't it? I'm expecting it to be dreadfully boring, and if it's not and is the least bit fulfilling, I will be happily surprised. But gainfully employed again and in the editing field as I had hoped is such a relief!
With the recession as bad as it is, I was getting really scared that I wouldn't get something to keep me and my kitties in my apartment making the monthly rent. I'll be making more than I've ever made before, so I can start saving a bit and get a little security. And I'll be working for the EPA, so something I can feel good about--as time passed I was figuring I was just going to have to suck it up and sell my conscience to work at a Beltway Bandit Corp or Homeland Security or something else distasteful. But I was also getting worried if i could get an office job at all that would pay the rent.
The contracting company I'm working for is minority-owned. My supervisor is a very nice and down to earth Navy vet, who made much of my resume and my attitude--they needed someone to fill in fast and were delighted I could. So yippeee!!!
I start Monday. I'll be working in DC in the Ronald Reagan Building a couple of blocks from the Capitol Building and a block away from the National Mall, so I'll definitely get to see the cherry blossoms this year. And it's right next to the Old Post Office Pavilion, so between that food court and the building's own cafeteria, I'll have fun lunches. So I'll be getting the metro-into-work Beltway experience--it's not a bad commute. Expensive, but will save my car from wear and tear and help the Blue Pearl to live a long full life. People from all different departments work in that building, so it may be a nice opportunity to meet all kinds of people, and that could make the job more exciting. And if the job turns out to be one I don't want to spend too long in, it may give me the opportunity to get a foot in on a better federal job with an actual pension and that good medical plan.
I'm still going to keep bugging the people at the publishing house near me so they will eventually have to give me a job interview--editing with them was the job I really most wanted to get, and is still my dream job due to the subject matter I'd get to work with and the commute (but the people there could always turn out to be batshit, and make it a hell to work at, so you never know.) But for now, yay a good job for me! No more fear of poverty for a while! *booooounce*
current mood: grateful
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| Thursday, March 20th, 2008
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7:01 pm - Before the LJ Content Strike/Boycott Begins
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The 24 Hour LJ Content Strike/Boycott begins in less than an hour, so I'm signing out of LJ for now.
If you are not participating in the strike, I fully respect your choice. I ask that you respect my choice to strike/boycott by not commenting or replying to any of my entries or comments anywhere on LJ, or clicking on any of my entries or journal pages on LJ until March 22nd.
I don't know if using LJ's message boxes creates statistical use for them or not, so I ask you not to send me an LJ message during this time as well.
If you're participating in the strike, remember that we're not only trying to reduce content to LJ during this time, but reducing the clicks on LJ pages, so don't even peek in at LJ on your browser--you know you can do it! And if you go play on Insanejournal or another journalling service, beware of any links from metafandom posts or others that lead back to LJ and avoid clicking on those. If there's something on LJ you want to copy to another journal site, or that's too long to read in time, download it now.
I'll be posting on my Insanejournal tonight here, so please come over there to play with me. (-:
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| Monday, March 17th, 2008
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11:35 pm - IT'S A 24 HOUR LJ STRIKE ENTRY
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![[info]](../p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) beckyzoole has called for a one day LJ strike.
The terms we're striking for are here.
Keep in mind the strike beings at midnight at the start of Friday March 21st GMT--that's for the UK. For those of us on EST it starts at 8:00pm, Thursday night, March 20th and for ya'll on the west coast of the US it starts at 5:00pm Thursday night, March 20th. You can find the starting time at the major city nearest you anywhere in the world here.
To participate in the strike, don't post, comment, or even open up LJ on your browser during those 24 hours, so that LJ gets no clicks. Come on, you can do it!
Honestly, I have no faith SUP can mend their ways, so this may be a useless piece of activism; however, it's not that hard to do, so I think it's worth a go.
Anyway, marta said El Jay Staff will be doing a post tonight to explain how censoring those LJ interests was a mistake. This ought to be good. *munches popcorn*
Me, I'm considering March 21st GMT to be
SET UP AN INSANEJOURNAL AND BLOG THERE DAY!
In that spirit, here's all the links you need to migrate your LJ to IJ and double post for ever after in order to use one or the other as your back up journal:
To set up a free IJ account go here.
To copy your LJ back entries to IJ use lj-sec or this migration tool created by antennapedia. These will copy all links, and your embedded scrapbook pics from LJ will show up there as well, but none of your comments--no one seems to have the technology for that yet.
Once you have all your back entries copied, you can now double post to both journals using Semagic. snapetoy has a tutorial on using Semagic here.
If you want to use OpenID in posting--this is a way to post to LJ without logging into it--go to mercurychaos's tutorial here.
Here's an interesting post on the state of LJ type platforms discussed at a conference. It's cool to see Squeaky, IJ's administrator, offer info on his intentions for IJ in a comment on that post here. I think I'm getting to really like Squeaky, so yay for a business I can happily support for now.
current mood: still methodically flouncing
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| Friday, March 14th, 2008
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12:22 am - The surf is great at IJ!
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"May?" We MAY criticize you? You damn well got that right, you mealy-mouthed fuckers. Yeah, LJstaff's really pissed me off this time, and it's migration time.
I've heard nothing but good things about Squeaky's handling of IJ, and with 100 icons for an unpaid account, their welcoming of fandom, and no bullshit, I can put up with the ads there and the stupid asylum theme. strangemuses says IJ took to the influx of thousands of GJ refugees without a hitch, so they're definitely doing something right thus far.
The only thing keeping me on LJ now is ya'll. The more of you I can woo over to IJ with me over time, the better. I guess I'll be double posting for the foreseeable future, but I'd love to move my main base over there now. Got to dig up my bookmarks for migrating tools and get my IJ running. Yay 100 icons again!
I just hate generating revenue for folks who do business like LJ is doing, and yes, we are generating revenue for them, even with basic accounts, by creating community. Even this post is helping them with that. I'd just like to see IJ overtake them. And if not Insanejournal, than another text-based networking site catering to epistolatory-types, but right now, IJ looks like the best bet.
current mood: methodically flouncy
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| Wednesday, March 12th, 2008
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11:10 pm - I Haz an IJ! Do U Haz an IJ?
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OK, the latest LJ shenanigans finally motivated me to create an InsaneJournal. I had been meaning to create one since GJ went belly up. So I'm also lavendertook on IJ. Friend me! Friend me!!!!
Who of you have IJ's for me to friend?
current mood:  accomplished
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8:21 pm - Another LJ FAIL
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LJ has just abolished a user's ability to create a new basic account.
If you already have a basic account, you can keep basic, but any new unpaid account will now be host to advertisements; i.e., a Plus account. And I assume that means if your paid account established before today lapses, it will return to basic, but that's a big assumption at this point. And the loveliest part is LJ has not announced this.
Does anyone know what this clause under basic accounts means:
* 25 subscriptions for notification of new posts, friends, comments, or events?
current mood:  annoyed
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| Friday, March 7th, 2008
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11:29 pm - Friday Night Milli Tribute
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Starting off, here's a pic from 3 years ago of how Milli and Saki got along:
They didn't curl up together ever, but sleeping one inch from each other isn't bad. Once they acclimated to each other after the first 5 months--"acclimate" meaning Saki deciding she didn't have to kill Milli anymore, and Milli learning how to fight like the calico tiger she was and have fun with it, their relationship was pretty sibling-like. Saki is a pushy extrovert, so when Saki pushed in--because Saki always goes where Saki wants to go--Milli alternately shared her space with her as in the above pic, swatted her off, or more characteristically ran away.
Saki was definitely depressed the first week and half after Milli died--perhaps as much due to the lack of leftover food to steal from Milli's perch as missing Milli, and the change in routine Milli's absence entailed. She seemed angry at me as well, perhaps wondering why I didn't bring Milli back home, and was spending most of the night out in the living room. She's gotten back to her usual purry, Stevie Nicks-meowing self the past few days. I haven't noticed a change in Tuxie or Moo, except that Moo has been much more comfortable walking up to and nosing Saki. Maybe she senses Saki's loss, or feels empowered by the absence of the other elder cat who lived with us before she came on the scene.
( More Milli pics )
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| Friday, February 29th, 2008
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11:31 pm - The One Week Milli Picture Tribute
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So as I told you, there'll be pictures. Milli has been gone a week. The missing her is sad, but having since researched a little about cat lung cancer, finding out it hit her at exactly the designated age, and that her suffering could have been so much worse if the disease did the more usual metastasizing in other systems, I feel grateful for how quickly the worst of the disease manifested and that she got to enjoy most of her life, almost up to the very end. So I'm celebrating that.
Mill was one to fix you with a very intense stare:
She had her moods when she wanted to be petted, and would beg me to pick her up and hold her for 10 to 20 minutes at a time, purring, stretching out her paws and dangling them over my shoulder, flexing her toes all the while. But more often she preferred to be near, not in contact; she was rarely a lap cat. She had a habit of fixing that stare at me, and when I'd look back, she'd blink her eyes in that loving kitty way that spoke of approval and adoration. I'd blink back in turn, and we could keep up that exchange for minutes on end. She was quite the blinker of sweet nuthins. (-;
( More pretty Milli pics )
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| Sunday, February 24th, 2008
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12:31 am - M'Lila (Milli, Mil-Mil) Tinuviel (April 16) 1996--February 23, 2008
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M'Lila (Milli, Mil-Mil) Tinuviel
(April 16) 1996--February 23, 2008
M'Lila because she was named after a cool background character on Xena: Warrior Princess. Tinuviel because she spent half her time being an Aloof Elf Princess. April 16th because I brought her home from the DC Animal Shelter on April 16, 1997, when she was approximately one year old.
Beautiful Milli, Queen of My Heart. ("Beautiful Dreamer"--her theme song)
This is the very last picture I took of her. It was this Thursday afternoon; she was on a wool blankie enjoying herself despite labored breathing, purring and making biscuits in the sun, the last little bit there was.
The diagnosis came back Friday morning as lung carcinoma. Yeah, I told her years ago she should quit smoking, but you know how cats are.
( More about Milli )
current mood: grieving
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| Wednesday, February 20th, 2008
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10:45 pm - Milli Update
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After getting Milli xrayed and finding she had a bunch of fluid on the lungs, the vet aspirated her thoracic cavity and removed 90cc of fluid. She sent off a sample to a lab and hopefully we'll know something Friday. Today, I'm taking her off the prednisone and putting her on antibiotics and salix. She lost 3 more ounces in just the last 2 days. Even though she has been eating a little better the last 2 days, it's not enough to keep up with how much she's burning with her lungs pumping so hard, and the steroids have done little to help with that.
The aspiration should have made her breathing easier, but it hasn't very much. She ate well enough this evening for me to get all her medicines in her, and I was really relieved she didn't balk at the Baytril in her food because it's a bit acidic. She's been spending the evening plastered beside me and laying like a wet noodle. Her breathing is better enough that she can rest on her side now. The problem is that when the poor thing gets relaxed enough she wants to curl her head over and lay halfway on her back, and that just makes her pant again.
So here's hoping there's an infection that the antibiotics will take care of or something that is treatable turns up from the lab report. She's enjoying eating and she's enjoying affection and brushing, but she's not going to last long unless we can get her breathing to ease. If it's cancer or something else untreatable, I just keep her until eating and affection aren't satisfying anymore, and then take her in for the peaceful way out of this life.
Saki has been a real champ at shouldering how Milli is getting all the attention and brushing and she truly deserves a medal for that, my cat of constant wanting.
current mood:  tired
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| Tuesday, February 19th, 2008
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10:50 pm - The Milli Watch
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My eldest kitty at 11 years, pretty Milli, in this pic here from last fall, is not doing so well. She started eating lightly a few days ago, then yesterday her breathing got really labored and she got to looking quite frail. So I rushed her to the vet, got her blood works done and got her a dexamethasone (cortisone-like steroid) shot. It took a few hours for the dexamethasone to bring back up her strength, though it hasn't eased her breathing.
( More Milli pics and the State of the Kitty )
current mood:  worried
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| Tuesday, February 12th, 2008
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11:49 pm - Born to Straddle
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"Yes, I'm fucking comfortable. Why do you ask?"
Poor Saki was trying so very hard to take a nap on the slanted heating vent this afternoon. She gave it her best shot, then gave up after 5 minutes and settled for her goddamn fluffy poodle blanket on the goddamn futon. She is a cat of very strong wants. If I find her on this laptop tomorrow ordering an electric blanket, I won't be surprised.
current mood: amused
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| Tuesday, February 5th, 2008
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11:32 pm - Sisterhood IS powerful, so stop fucking it up already!
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Robin Morgan wrote an endorsement of Hillary Clinton and there are many points she makes that I completely agree with. But with more proof that whiteness can make otherwise brilliant women's brains rot, she tells us,
So why should all women not be as justly proud of our womanhood and the centuries, even millennia, of struggle that got us this far, as black Americans, women and men, are justly proud of their struggles?
Will this meme--that in order to understand feminist oppression and struggle, you must compare it to racist oppression and black civil rights work--just end? How many times do women of color have to say that this shit asks a woman to choose her left arm over her right leg--in this case asking a black women to see her arm as having something that her leg doesn't have? Experience matters, and when you are a white woman and make such comparisons, despite your best intentions, despite what other inclusive statements you make, you make the "we" of feminism a "white we" and you identify yourself with a feminism in which women of color are not at the center, but the margins.
By making this comparison in the above statement, Morgan's original "we," her "our" ejects black women as Other by the end of the sentence. We just went through this crap with Gloria Steinem. If Morgan hadn't been paying attention to what womanist and feminist women of color and white antiracist allies have been saying the last damn 30 years, feminist writers in newspapers, radio, and the blogosphere just posited a pretty good summary in response to Steinem's white blindness.
This compartmentalizing feminism is not my feminism. I wish these iconic white feminists--iconic for good work they have done--do some more thinking about their own whiteness and anti-racist ally work so they do not reinscribe their feminism with a white default. One's rhetoric does matter. Yes, one's rhetoric can be sophistry and lies, but it is also what we use to express how we see the world and reveal where we stand in relation to whom, and for whom, we are speaking. Who your "we" includes matters. A feminism that makes the baseline "we" white is not a feminism of liberation.
And I'm not blaming this crap on HIllary Clinton--she's not the one pulling this divisive shit. But Morgan isn't doing her favors here and she should know better by now.
Me, I'm going to comb through Clinton's and Obama's websites some more before deciding my vote next Tuesday. Or just do an AU write-in (I think my state allows write-ins) for Barbara Boxer, John Conyers, or Sheila Tubbs Jones.
current mood: annoyed
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| Thursday, January 24th, 2008
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11:10 pm - Atonement, or The Beatchez Alwaiz Lye!
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I just went and saw a matinee of Atonement--ugh! Next time I decide to see a film because all the critics love it, remind me that most of those critics have mainstream white heteropatriarchal values that are forsooth yucky unto mine eyes. I'm so stupid not to do my research on the story before seeing a film like this because more often than not they piss me off.
If I knew this was a "poor nice guy falsely accused of rape by those lying bitches" story I would never have gone to see it. Because, you know, that's such an important story to tell over and over and over--how rape is horrible for the menz because menz gets accused falsely of rape. I mean, who cares that one in three or four women (and a percentage of men and significant percentage of transfolk) are sexually assaulted by men, and ALL women live lives constrained by that fact. It's silly of me to think of women as important outside of how they affect men.
Yes, the film is very pretty with very pretty people and a concise narrative; it's just the same old story of how women are liars and ruin men's lives and it's about time those bitches atoned for it. And if those pathetic spinster girls are going to get published, by golly, that's what they should write about if they are to attain tragically sympathetic status.
Thumbs down on this one.
current mood: annoyed
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| Tuesday, January 22nd, 2008
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11:29 pm - Job market jamming
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I applied for a job that I really, really want today, so please cross your fingers for me.
Interest-wise and commute-wise it may be just perfect for me, and I should be a good fit for it, so we shall see. Meanwhile, onto the next application . . . .
current mood: hopeful
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| Monday, December 31st, 2007
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11:25 pm - And now, a new year's message from Moo
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Ms. Moo Brandybuck aka Princess Holstein the Winsome bids you a happy new year
and sincerely hopes you happen upon a spot of sunshine to make your ears glow in the coming year.
Happy New Year, ya'll!
current mood: mellow
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