Studying and Poop

I spent most of last night studying for my first test in molecular pharmacology. That was pretty painful. I'm going to study some more here at work, and then go review with my boss later in the afternoon. It's a multiple choice test, so hopefully it won't be too bad. Nice thing is, we get to get out of class a little earlier tonight. Woot!

A couple days ago I had gotten up really early to let Bandit out to pee. I walked into the hallway (it was still dark), and spotted something on the ground, shaped like a small cucumber. My first thought was that it was the puffer, and that one of the cats had someone gotten under the tank lid and gotten to him. So instead of turning on the lights like a smart person, I just bent down and poked it. It wasn't the fish (incidentally, I probably could've walked 3 feet and just checked the damn tank). Peering at it closer, I realized that it was a piece of cat poop. Lovely. I called Marc, and we found two more pieces of litter-covered poop in the hallway. We didn't know what the hell was wrong with our cats, and I finally looked it up today. It actually has a name. They call it "poop hockey" and apparently cats will get bored and pull poop out of their litter box and bat it around for fun. I'm not sure how that's fun, and I'm guessing one of them has to pick it up in its mouth, which is gross. Of course, the dog likes to eat that poop, so I guess he's worse.

Anyways, we're going to be buying more toys for them now.

Big Rant

So yesterday was my mini rant, and I'm gonna get on the soapbox again today. I try to avoid being too serious here, but this topic really pisses me off. So I'm listening to the news, and they're talking about how Bush is announcing today that he's going to back a Constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriages. You know, because he has nothing more important to do. It's not like there's a war going on or anything.

But I mean, who CARES? What is the big fucking deal? I find it ironic that the party that's supposedly against big government is suddenly all for usurping state and local government laws. But seriously, I don't get why people care so much about what other people do with their own private lives when it has absolutely zero impact on their own. It's not like I as a married person suddenly felt this shockwave effect when all the same-sex couples got married in San Francisco. My own marriage doesn't suddenly feel invalidated. I mean, it's a celebration of love, it's a good thing, and it doesn't hurt me or anyone else at all. Let people do what makes them happy. No one's being hurt by it.

It should be appreciated that these people love each other and want to celebrate that with marriage. People might say, well why can't they just get civil unions? Well, that's not really good enough for the rest of us, is it? Our Constitution grants that every person should have equal rights, and there's no reason it shouldn't apply to this. It wasn't too long ago (and hell, I think it still exists in some states as a law on the books) that many states banned interracial marriages. People weren't considered equal then, and they weren't afforded the same rights. That's changed now, because we know better, and most of us wouldn't think to question the validity of an interracial marriage. And the same should apply to sexual orientation.

Everyone talks about the sanctity of marriage and how gay marriages somehow defiles it. Someone explain to me how a heterosexual couple getting drunk off their asses and getting married in Las Vegas and then having it annulled the next morning isn't defiling marriage (hi Britney!). Or how about the fact that 50% of the people who get married end up getting divorced. There are plenty of shitty heteros getting married these days who do plenty of damage to the institution of marriage. And people are concerned about two people who really love each other, and take marriage seriously and want to make a lifelong commitment to each other, just because they're gay?

These people aren't trying to ruin marriage, they're celebrating it. And they're trying to celebrate love just like anyone else. That's something that should be embraced, not fought. It's like gay couples that want to adopt - isn't a child better off with loving, caring parents, then a couple of cracked-out, abusive, heterosexual parents? There are plenty of kids being raised out there by people who have no business being parents other than that they're a man and a woman. But that's a whole different topic, and I'm not gonna get into that.

I have hope that people will come around in time, just like they did when it came to race (for the most part). Bush can take his amendment and shove it, and I hope it never sees the light of day.

Climbing off my soapbox now...back to poop stories! ;)