And now we wait

The last two letters of recommendation made it in today, the last day they could be submitted. My application to graduate school is now officially complete.

Now I just have to wait to see whether they want to take a chance on a student of nontraditional background with the bare minimum in research requirements met. Here's hoping!

Today's Cultural Warfare Update

Entire "Silent Night" lyric-rewriting "secularisation" story promoted by Focus on the Family, Bill O'Reilly, and other "War on Christmas" flacks is a complete fraud;

"Texas school bans green and red clothing" "War on Christmas" story also a fraud;

New argument, coming out of Eagle Forum, on why creationism is necessary: Evolutionary theory destroys the Constitution. Yes, really;

Focus on the Family confirms the above Silent Night story, but celebrates the school changing the play;

Ford rebukes the American Family Association; AFA pissed off;

"Same-Sex Marriage Now -- Polygamy Next";

Krispie Kreme extends free doughnuts to Bible study - a more pointless national protest I cannot imagine;

Concerned Women for America wants Federal money for "Strengthening Marriage" programmes;

FotF sends out a second ad against Senator Salazar;

Iowa fight over marriage rights;

Concerned Women for America on recent obscenity, marriage rulings, and the Alito's nomination, all of which they're for;

Catholic Action League: Massachusetts Catholic hospitals should defy emergency contraception law;

Lifesite also proclaims polygamy is next, promotes South Dakota anti-marriage-rights amendment;

American Family Association ACTION ITEM against Wal-Mart for marketing to GBLT customers;

AFA relaunches boycott of Ford Motor over "violation of good faith agreement" to stop marketing to GBLT customers.

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surprisingly cold

It barely got above freezing today; it peaked up to 0.2C and then decided not to bother for anything higher, so there's still hard frost on the yard from yesterday. The feeder has been a sparrowsphere (or other type of birdieball) most of the afternoon, as everything with wings gorges itself on sweet, sweet, suet. It's almost down to last night's low here already, so who knows how cold it'll get overnight. The steps are quite slick just from the frost, so if we get a warm spot, I'll want to have that sanded-paint on standby!

We've had a bunch of the "icicle" segments on our icicle lights fail already - and the glowy-ball strands have had another failure, this time the better-behaved strand on the front deck failing on the right half. These lights are so not worth the trouble sometimes. I think, though, I've got a plan: replace all the bulbs (on the sphere set) just right out of the gate every year. There are only 19 of them (originally 20 - vandals at the old one took out one beyond repair), so that's feasible. With the icicle strands, tho', I dunno - maybe just buy new ones every third year? That would certainly be easier, but I just hate the waste involved in that. (And replacing all 150 bulbs every year is out of the question. To get that many bulbs semi-affordably, I'd have to buy a new strand already pre-loaded, and, well, there you are!)

Wednesday's miles: 1.1
Today's token: 0.1
Miles out of Hobbiton: 540.1
Miles out of Rivendell: 80.3
Miles to Lothlórien: 386.1

And today's leaf picture:


Explorer Moth

I also got a bit of a moon photo out of Paul's camera; that's not easy, since it's not really meant for this kind of photography at all. It isn't as neat as it was in real life, but it's kind of interesting in its own right:


Moon in the Clouds