Bouillabaisse

We have a lot of ground to cover today, so let's dive right in.

First of all, if you are looking for a cheap, not-yet-illegal high, stay away from the Angel's Trumpet plant. Rumor has it that these plants are powerful hallucinogens, but the reality is that unless you are very, very careful the only high you'll be getting involves a long tunnel with a bright light at the end. Recently a 17 year old Titusville, Florida boy nearly killed himself in his quest for Nirvanna. What ever happened to driving to the 'wrong part of town', buying a nickel bag from some shady character in baggy jeans, getting stoned, eating a bag of Doritos and a pint of Ben and Jerry's and going to sleep?

Kudos to NASA. Thursday afternoon the New Horizons spacecraft launched flawlessly into the azure Florida sky, beginning a decade-long journey to our, maybe, most distant planet Pluto. The timing of this launch was critical because Pluto is as close to us as it will be for another 500 years or so, and even though the New Horizons probe will take nearly 10 years to get there, missing this window would have added nearly half again as much time to the mission. In February of 2007 the probe will pass close enough to Jupiter for the planet's gravity to add to its already incredible velocity. If all goes well the rendezvous with Pluto should occur sometime in 2015-2017.

Why is it that conservatives will rabidly sound off about defending the Constitution, but as soon as someone exercises their First Amendment right to disagree with the administration they are 'unpatriotic', or 'stupid'? I once had a discussion in my class with a very intelligent young lady who was very conservative, and she took exception to the stereotype of the ill-informed redneck conservative, a point I granted her, but everywhere I turn it seems that all I hear from the right is 'You f**king liberals need to just get over it. We won, and yer stupid for daring to question his holiness, W.' And I wish I were exaggerating.

A friend recently turned me on to a web site called www.pandora.com. You input the name of a group, or song, and it automatically programs music for you based on your input. You can link to music purchasing sites, but it's free to listen. I highly recommend it.

Ok, with the exception of another too-cute kitty pic that will go up after this, that's all for now. And hey, let's be careful out there.

Kisses,
Marius