last night i was going to take a quick stroll around the park by my house. the second i touched my jacket on the coat rack in the front hall, i heard a rusting noise. everest imitating a throw-rug on the floor (he had been lying there for hours), morphed into a three-dimensional dog standing right by my side. he looked at me. 'walk? walk? walk? you must be going for a walk. take me! take me'. in the evenings i usually only take one dog. there are frequently many dogs at the park. sometimes my two get excited about another dog, jumping and barking and pulling. 250lbs of dog isn't easy to handle. i've never let them go, but i have been pulled onto the ground a couple of times. i had planned on taking ania.

everest was eyeing me as i put on my sneakers, perched on one foot, balancing carefully because i was too lazy to sit down. now, i made the task exponentially more difficult by staying standing, i'm not quite sure what my logic was there. he stood by me side, as close as he could without touching me. the second both of my feet were on the floor, WHAP, he pawed my leg. i looked up. he quickly turned around, faced the door and sat. glanced back over his shoulder to look at me, then craned his neck up waiting for me to put his collar on. this is a cue for an 'awwww' for you mushy types. needless to say, he went for the walk with me. smart dog. knows how to win me over. :)

dad's wedding this weekend. strange. i like the woman he is marrying. she is nothing like my mother, which is a very good thing. she is *just* like my dad. they make an interesting pair. it is just so odd to me, going to a parent's wedding. they are having a full-blown wedding, big white dress, cake, 170 people...i get to be a bridesmaid. woo? at least i get a great black dress i could easily wear again. so glad my stepmother to-be choose black. and then let the three of us bridesmaids choose a dress. a miracle! a bridesmaid dress that can be re-worn! flying down to orange county. the land of 70 and sunny. i hope. at least it should be warmer than 32 in the morning...though, after seeing .sara's temperature readout, maybe i better pack a jacket.

have a great weekend. don't forget to brush your teeth. floss, too. play nice. share your toys. go to bed at a reasonable hour. eat all your vegetables. or, have a good time, sleep till noon, play video games all day, eat ice cream for dinner and stay up all night. :)

reasons why i get out of bed every morning:

n'sync is coming to arco arena march seventh.

mariah carey has more number one hits than any other artist except for the beatles and elvis presley.

'people are itchy and lost and bored and quick to jump at any fix. why is there such a vast self-help industry in this country? why do all of these selves need help? they have been deprived of something by our psycological culture. they have been deprived of the sense that there is something else in life, some purpose that has come with them into the world' - james hillman

that purpose? i'm looking for it. it's there somewhere. i am determined to find it. i think my trip is a step in discovering it.

$33.7 billion? let's throw all of our resources at defense spending...sure. we don't need to educate our children, give health care to our citizens, take care of our elderly...yes, i want our country to be secure. who doesn't? we are happy to put deficit spending on hold for defense measures, but not for so many other problems this country faces.

do you say bless you (or guesuntight) when you hear people sneeze? i heard a segment on npr the other day on this. how people really don't say it much anymore. it's a simple act, a few words that say 'i'm sorry you are ill and sneezing. i hope you are better soon'. to which the sneezer will often say 'thank you' or 'excuse me'. are we losing this courtesy? i always think of the movie 'singles' where bridget fonda's character states that is one requirement for a man she'd like to be with. "i want a guy who will say 'bless you' when I sneeze."

it's not that hard, really. when you do say it to a stranger, their face often shows a look of suprise. which turns to a smile, as they realize that someone cares enough to say those simple words.

bless you.

i just got my accaptance package in the mail...i was waiting to see if i got into a course this spring or if i'd have to wait until the summer. but...ohmigod. i am so excited i am shaking. on april 9th, i leave for a month long backpacking/wilderness leadership course in the gila range. i have dreamed of taking a nols course since i was a freshman in college. did i say i was excited? a whole packet of stuff to read, more later. :) i'm really excited.

a woman needs a man like a fish needs a bicycle
you've been trying to throw your arms around the world - u2

yesterday i was leaving the climbing gym, listening to ok computer. got on the freeway entrance ramp with karma police playing. now, normally, as this is a long entrance ramp, i drive fast, enter the freeway, gun it and zip into the fast lane. normal alissa operating procedure. i drive too fast. not insanely fast, but it's sacramento. everybody drives slow. fast compared to much of the 'i-think-i'll-drive-the-speed-limit' traffic. for some reason i decided to hang back behind this big rig. at 60mph. don't know why i did that. two seconds later here comes mr.highwaypatrolman. if i would've done my normal routine, i would be a perfect target for his ticket book. now, did the fact that karma police was on (i didn't realize the song was playing until later) cause me to unknowingly slow down? good karma? i just found that interesting. or maybe i am thinking too hard. :) wishing y'all good karma days.

in honor of martin luther king jr. it is fascinating, and also sad, how true these words ring 35 years later. enjoy think. ponder. act.

I am convinced that if we are to get on the right side of the world revolution, we as a nation must undergo a radical revolution of values. We must rapidly begin the shift from a "thing-oriented" society to a "person-oriented" society. When machines and computers, profit motives and property rights are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, materialism and militarism are incapable of being conquered. A true revolution of values will soon cause us to question the fairness and justice of many of our past and present policies. On the one hand we are called to play the good Samaritan on life's roadside, but that will be only an initial act. One day we must come to see that the whole Jericho road must be transformed so that men and women will not be constantly beaten and robbed as they make their journey on life's highway. True compassion is more than flinging a coin to a beggar; it is not haphazard and superficial. It comes to see that an edifice which produces beggars needs restructuring. A true revolution of values will soon look uneasily on the glaring contrast of poverty and wealth. With righteous indignation, it will look across the seas and see individual capitalists of the West investing huge sums of money in Asia, Africa and South America, only to take the profits out with no concern for the social betterment of the countries, and say: "This is not just." It will look at our alliance with the landed gentry of Latin America and say: "This is not just." The Western arrogance of feeling that it has everything to teach others and nothing to learn from them is not just.

A true revolution of values will lay hands on the world order and say of war: "This way of settling differences is not just." This business of burning human beings with napalm, of filling our nation's homes with orphans and widows, of injecting poisonous drugs of hate into veins of peoples normally humane, of sending men home from dark and bloody battlefields physically handicapped and psychologically deranged, cannot be reconciled with wisdom, justice and love. A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death. PAmerica, the richest and most powerful nation in the world, can well lead the way in this revolution of values. There is nothing, except a tragic death wish, to prevent us from reordering our priorities, so that the pursuit of peace will take precedence over the pursuit of war. There is nothing to keep us from molding a recalcitrant status quo with bruised hands until we have fashioned it into a brotherhood. - Martin Luther King, Jr. 1967

more changes...no more white...name experiment...nothing else exciting...hope you aren't working but have the holiday off. :)

!! public service announcement !!
about the white space, because a couple of people have asked it it is a mistake. i have this design thing (complex? ;) ) about centered pages, and only like things aligned left if they will go all the way across the screen. but i want more control over the user's view, so i often use fixed-width tables (usually 800px). i liked the look of the cut-off letter 'a', but it looked silly floating against a green background. hence, the white stripe to somehow anchor it. i think it is coming across as more of a mistake, so i will likely futz with it in the next few days. in the meantime, you are supposed to have a white bar on the left, do not attempt to adjust your screen, that huge waste of web real estate was done on purpose. :)
!! end public service announcement !!

solitary popsicles. testing a new name. for some reason this phrase just sticks in my head, from the magna-poetry. thinking about what they represent, perhaps, or maybe just the sound of the words together...4 syllables than 3. i'm not sure about it though. i have been trying to think of a good one for awhile (hence 'alissa lyn'. kinda creative as the dave matthews band)...thought about treehouse, but all the domains are gone...maybe a treehouse variation.

lists again...maybe i am just trying to make order in chaos...

1. i made a cool stained glass window.
   
2. sodering irons are hot.
   
3. if you touch them you will have a 500+ degree burn that will blister.
   
4. this hurts.
   
5. cutting glass is not easy, glass is sharp.
   
6. it will leave deep cuts in your fingers.
   
7. this hurts, too.
   
8. i now have two more pints of festivus in the freezer and band-aids™ on two fingers.
   
9. have gone through 10 pints of said ice cream so far this winter.
   
10. i can't seem to think straight lately.
    
11. hence, lists. attempt at order.