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Holy crap, it is!

From President Obama’s promise to “restore science to its rightful place” in his inaugural speech to his affirmation of a woman’s right to choose to the FDA giving the go-ahead to testing of embryonic* stem cells, this week has restored so much of my pride in my country and faith that common sense may actually find a home in D.C.

Add to that the closing of Guantanamo Bay and the lifting of the global gag rule that has prevented women around the world from wresting independence away from their reproductive systems and I am just giddy.

*About that “embryonic” moniker.  Stem cells are harvested while the embryo is in the blastocyst stage – which is approximately 30 cells.  The ones wringing their hands over the potential life while disregarding the quality of the lives that are already here destroyed more than thirty cells – nay, a veritable holocaust – the last time they scratched their collective hineys.

But, if you irritate me enough, I can muster a little grumble.  Today, that honor goes to CafePress for perpetuating tired gender stereotypes.  This is a clipping from today’s e-mail:

Uploaded with plasq‘s Skitch!

Of course, there’s nothing actually stopping me from ordering the cool Vitruvian Robot design. I just get so tired of the woman=mother drumbeat and the implication that interests and hobbies have to conform to gender roles. So this one gets filed with my wag of the finger to Target over that solar system canvas.

The difference is that the fountain at the Point is this great frothy jet of water, white with air bubbles.  The fountains at Gateway are slow-moving and calm.  No froth – no white.  So, what they’ve ended up with is, well, a pool of blood.

I so want to get a hold of a couple dozen prop body parts to dress this up for Halloween.

After a bit of a sabbatical from work, I got a call at about 3 PM last Tuesday telling me I had to be back the next day.  Nothing like a bit of advance notice, ya know?  That call kicked off a flurry of activity that won’t let up until Saturday and I already feel like a washrag.

I’m at the midway point now of work and school (should be paying my bills right now instead of blogging) but (oh crap, I have homework, too) at least all of this included PodCamp Pittsburgh.  It was so energizing to be surrounded by a bunch of social media types, bloggers and podcasters all sharing what they’ve learned and planning where this is all going.  I was not feeling up to the associated parties – maybe next year, because I totally want to have a beer at least in the vicinity of Chris Brogan.

The organizers really pulled off a great event with interesting people leading informative sessions.  I know I left there on fire.  Lots of ideas, lots of visions of opportunity…

The fire lasted until I returned to work this morning, where they have little psychic water jets placed strategically to douse dreams.

I really have to start building my own life.  And it’s going to be based around the ember that they can’t douse – no matter how hard they try.

This is a Palin supporter:

Any questions?

Third visit – still as phenomenal as the first time. This is maybe a third of the available sushi. There’s hot foods on the other side and deserts behind. Green tea ice cream FTW.