Canals in Bradford-on-Avon

While in Bradford-on-Avon I noticed that there were
quite a few canals around the town. In the center
of town, there was a canal lock system. The locks
would open and close when they were letting boats,
mostly house boats through from one section to the
other. They would close the locks, and then the
water would either rise or drop depending on the
direction of the boat.
On another part of the river, the Avon River,
I saw ducks and swans. It is illegal to kill the
swans, because they belong to the queen, in this
case Queen Elizabeth II. We walked through
several fields, and came to one near the river
where there were many sailboats out sailing around
the canal.
I leaned towards the water to pick some
wild flowers and that's when I discovered what
nettles are. The antidote to nettles is the leaves
of a plant that usually gorw near the nettles.
You spit on the leaf and the rub it on the affected
area.

London bridges

Walking around London by
myself.
The day before the beginning
of the biggest Quaker event
that I have ever participated
in, the World Gathering of
Young Friends.
I took the train, the "West of
England" line into London from
Bradford-on-Avon (or BOA as it
is commonly refered to as). I
left on the 9:22am bound for
Waterloo Station.
I got into the station just
before noontime that
Monday- August 15, 2005. My
first goal after arriving at
Waterloo was to navigate myself
to the footbridge that spans
the Thames, winding itself
through the center of London.
The footbridge connects
Waterloo to Charing Cross.
On the bridge I found tourists,
locals, business people with
brief cases, bums with their
signs and paper cups out, and
panhandlers with their guitars
filling the air with music.
One thing I found fascinating
that I only saw in magazines
and on television before was
the double decker Routemaster
buses. Sadly I didn't have the
opportunity to ride on one,
because my ambition was to make
it around London by foot, and
because it would have cost extra
money to ride one. On the
otherhand, if I knew that they
were all going to be put out of
commission, I would have ridden
one while there.

My pretty scarf

I received my first birthday gift today,
a scarf that I actually witnessed being worked
on when I was visiting my boyfriend last month.
His mom was knitting this beautiful scarf with
multicolored sparkly yarn. I'm so excited about
getting to wear it. I couldn't find a photo
of what it looks like though.

It's snowing outside

There is white precipitation
known as snow falling from the

heavens.

Above the ground, the people down
below, the cars, houses, and even the
tallest of all skyscrappers.
It's pretty when it falls on the large
coniferous trees in the landscape,
on the grass and mountains, and the old

beautiful

houses around. Then comes the shoveling,
and that's the part that stinks, especially
when it's the wet sticky snow that becomes
so awefully heavy after not too long. Then
the trucks come along with their plows bearing
down on the pavement of roads and driveways,
removing the snow and dirtying it with the
mixture of sand and salt to prevent slipping
and skiding. Now the snow isn't so pretty anymore.
People trudge through it and dogs go pee and
take a shit in it. No longer is it pure and
beautiful, but flithy and disgusting looking.

Gay Activists Sue to Protect Gay Marriage

from Associated Press - Boston:

By STEVE LeBLANC

BOSTON (AP) - Gay rights activists sued on Tuesday in an effort to block a proposed constitutional amendment that would put an end to same-sex marriage in Massachusetts.

The lawsuit, filed by Gay and Lesbian Advocates & Defenders, challenges a September ruling by state Attorney General Tom Reilly that found the amendment drive was legal.

That ruling allowed backers of the amendment to begin collecting signatures. They gathered more than 120,000 - well above the 65,000 needed to get the measure on the 2008 ballot.

Gary Buseck, GLAD legal director, said the Massachusetts Constitution bars any citizen-initiated amendment that "relates to the reversal of a judicial decision." Reilly should have blocked the question from going forward on those grounds, Buseck said.

The proposed amendment is designed "squarely and solely" to reverse the landmark 2003 decision by Massachusetts' high court that legalized gay marriage, Buseck said.

A Reilly spokesman defended the decision.

"While the attorney general does not personally support the proposal, we are confident that letting this question proceed was the right decision," David Guarino said. "This proposal isn't a reversal of a judicial decision, but an effort to change the constitution going forward."

Kris Mineau, president of the Massachusetts Family Institute, one of the prime backers of the amendment, said the proposed amendment does not specifically try to reverse the court ruling but rather seeks to spell out the legal definition of marriage as being between a man and a woman.

Spinning

Twirling in solipsistic circles
getting dizzy.
Eyesight blurred until each of the
individual colors of objects look like
one mixed color.
Oh, I feel sick from this.

History repeats itself with different
characters, sort of like rehearsing the
same Broadway musical with a separate cast
of actors each time.
Let's compare G.W. Bush to Julius Caesar
or Hannibal (and not the one from the video).
He, like Caesar and Hannibal did in their
days, is trying to take over the world, using
military force to slowly (or quickly in some
cases) conquer over the governments and
people in other countries.
His saying, "If you're not with us, you're
with the enemy.", in my blunt, nice and
Quakerly opinion is a load of elephant shit.
Basically saying that if you don't agree with
his methods and motives (modus operandi),
you're one of the "enemy", of which the
classification is up to him. We as United States
citizens are under another fucking monarchy,
a sovereign nation ruled by an evil, corrupt,
greedy, and egotistical group of individuals
with so called "ethical morals and values".

OPEN UP YOUR EYES PEOPLE!!

If killing and terrorizing others in countries
abroad, starting pre-emptive and extremely
unnecessary wars, and sending the economy
into a sharp downward spiral is called
ethically moral and just, then we have a
very wonderful government.
On the contrary, the exact opposite is true.