Ash the Mighty

Seriously. Why are they bothering?

This won’t be a long one, so don’t worry. I just noticed this article on BBC wherein I discovered that Saddam Hussein “walked out” (after having been ordered to leave) of his own trial. Despite having requested permission to leave, he was shocked when he was ordered to do so. “I led you for 35 years and you order me out of the court?” Later he left shouting “Down with the traitors.”

Now there’s no question that the dude is simply not a nice man. Killed a lot of people and whatnot. Granted, students of Middle Eastern History could tell you all sorts of stories about how what he’s done is nothing compared to what his predecessors did, but this isn’t the time nor the place. Instead let me just point out that historically, when you overthrow a tyrant, YOU KILL THEM RIGHT THEN. At the most you convict them of trumped up charges over the space of a half hour in a kangaroo court. You do not televise the thing and you don’t try and pretend like he’s going to get a fair trial. This is Saddam Hussein being tried in Iraq. That would be like trying Hitler in Israel.

You’ve just got to stop all this BS. He’s a walking dead man. He knows it. The jury knows it. This new trial judge really knows it. Someone put a bullet in his brain pan and let’s move on. All this is doing is creating a mockery of the legal system and giving him and his subordinates more chances to make political speeches. Does anyone actually want that?

Just a thought.

~DTAR

Who wants to buy me some BOOZE?!?!

I have officially passed both the state and national portions of the State of Arizona Real Estate Licensing Exam. Now I must only attend the contracts class tomorrow and I will be a fully licensed Real Estate Agent. Now who wants to buy me a drink?!?

~DTAR

Well that’s something you don’t see every day

One of my best friends in the world is on the great wide internet . . . naked . . . voluntarily. Hmmmm. Oh the things I’ve been missing out on all these years! Without being a total perv, may I say “fantastic”? How ’bout just “awesome.” Oh, and “cold.”

Take care, Lady.
~DTAR

P.S. I should explain that the reason that I’m so fascinated by this is that, with the exception of one other girl (who actually also posed for the same website and had some pretty major issues) and to the best of my knowledge, no one I know has ever purposely strived (striven?) to be starkers on the interweb. I just find it so cool! Get down with your pornstar self!

Boo Fricken Ya

I’ll be perfectly honest and admit that I failed a test recently. No, not Latin. I said recently. And I got a D, thank you very much. No, I am ashamed to admit that I joined the vast proportion of people out there and failed the ASREB school test on Thursday. This was very sad-making for Ash. I had it all planned out. Pass the test Thursday, take the state exam this week as well as the 6-hour contracts boot camp course, and then start at KW on Monday the 30th.

This did not happen. I got a 73% when only allowed a 75%. This means I missed it by four questions. This really makes for a sad Ash.

But today I retook and now a very happy Ash stands (sits) before you (well, before a computer screen). I felt a tiny bit better about today’s test and happily enough that was reflected in my grade. I went from failing by four questions to passing by four questions. While it is true that it might be said that this is not exactly the greatest victory ever recorded, I would have to say to those people: SCREW YOU AT LEAST I PASSED! WOO HOO! (how’s that for an awkward sentence?)

So now I will be taking the state test on Friday . . . in Casa Grande . . . ewwwwww. After that, assuming I pass (which, knock on wood, shouldn’t be too hard as it is reputed to be at most half as hard as the school test), I’ll attend the contracts class on Saturday, and will be able to start Camp 4-4-3 on Monday on schedule. Which of course will leave me free to wreck havoc on the world when Bowlesie is in this general hemisphere in late February/early March.

Yup yup yup, things seem to be coming together at least a little bit. Of course, now that I’ve said that something is bound to happen. Look both ways before crossing the street everyone!

Stay chill.

~DTAR.

A genuinely serious moment.

I know that I tend to be irreverent on this blog and will make fun of pretty much anything to get a laugh, if only from myself. But this time I want to talk about something serious. Those horrified by this thought may feel free to turn away now.

Yesterday evening I got a call out of the middle of nowhere from a young woman who is a recent friend of mine. We’ll call her S. S had previously told me she had a first date with some new guy last night, and I viewed it as a bad sign that she was crying so hard I couldn’t understand her. Apparently she was the victim of an attempted date rape. I did what I could to calm her down over the phone and asked if she was hurt. No. Did she want to go to the hospital? No. Did she want to go to the police? No. Why not? Because who would believe her?

Fucking hell.

S’s attitude seems to be pretty common in my regrettably not-terribly-limited experience. She agreed to the blind date (which was arranged via an online dating service) and so somehow that makes her a slut, which means that no one would believe that she wasn’t inviting it upon herself. I’ve known no fewer than a half dozen women who have been raped or have suffered attempted rape (that I know of) and of all of them, only two have ever taken the matter to the police (and one of those was because her parents found out and she was a minor at the time). All the rest felt as S did that even if they did come forward, the police would believe the man over the woman. And to my everlasting disappointment, the police did believe the rapist over my friend the other time that they were brought in. No arrest was ever made. As I was the one who convinced her to make the report, my disappointment is doubled (and if you should happen to read this, and you know who you are, I’m still sorry my dear).

Seriously, what the hell is wrong with our society that women who have had one of the ultimate trespasses committed against them are not given the benefit of the doubt in such a case? At the very least they are owed an investigation! Of course we must continue to presume innocence until guilt is established (especially because I’ve also known a guy who was wrongfully accused of rape and suffered for it), but I’ve seen how some people in positions of authority handle this with my own two eyes and I can’t even put into words my disgust.

Rant’s over. Sorry. I just get a little . . . angry . . . when people don’t treat women with respect.

As a final note, if anyone out there reading this got a little frisky with a girl last night who said “no” when she meant “yes,” then just wait. Karma will get you in the end.

~DTAR.

An observation:

Asking me to choose which of the Corr girls is the most attractive is like asking a parent which child they like best. Seriously, how could anyone choose? Well, having just googled them, I guess I’ll have to choose the lead singer, Andrea, as the other two are already hitched. Damn. Oh well.

So, Andrea. Come on down. I guess you’ll have to do!

~DTAR.

P.S. What brought this on? I randomly caught the music video for Runaway and was just struck by how truly and amazingly gorgeous all three of them are. Especially my future wife, Andrea.

Et voila.

The two of you out there who don’t read my blog on LiveJournal and prefer to go instead directly to AshRhodes.com will have already noticed that I have enacted a pretty major change. All of my personal stuff now resides at the address home.ashrhodes.com. This will allow me to turn the root domain into a site for my soon-to-be Real Estate business.

This is also the perfect time to announce that baring any unforeseen circumstances, I’ll be “hanging my shingle” with Keller Williams at the Legacy One branch (which doesn’t have a website, but if you want to see something, check out my Branch Manager, JoAnn George’s website or my Sponsor, Cris Tutera’s website). I’m pretty stoked about this and am a great fan of KW’s modus operandi which emphasizes education but at the same time, to be perfectly blunt, let’s me keep a lot of the money I earn.

So yay. And please. If you or someone you know is looking to buy or sell in the Phoenix Metro Area or in the Tucson Area, LET ME KNOW!

~DTAR.

It really will make you go blind . . .

Viagra and Cialis have been found to cause risk of damage to your optic nerve.

Does anyone else find this too funny for words?

~DTAR.

Owen Westley Reich

. . . was born on January 15th at about 3:30am. He weighs 8 pounds and 7 ounces. He caused his mother no end of trouble and despite being on pitocin for almost 48 hours, he still needed a C-Section in order to join us in this world.

Now I’ve not quite been able to figure out what this kid is to me. His Dad, Travis, is my first cousin (his mother and my father are siblings). So does this mean that he’s my first cousin once removed? Or second cousin? Or just some random crying thing?

For those who like babies (Meggan), pictures will almost certainly be posted some time soon. Have a happy Sunday!

~DTAR

I just love this shit

1. Grab the nearest book.

2. Open the book to page 123.

3. Find the fifth sentence.

4. Post the text of the sentence in your journal along with these instructions.

5. Don’t search around and look for the coolest book you can find. Do what’s actually next to you.

That would be the book that I’m reading: A Secret Atlas by Michael A. Stackpole (who lives in AZ and has a BA in History. How could I not love this guy?).

The fifth sentence doesn’t make much sense alone, so I’ve included the
sixth as well: “Purple lightning wreathed her limbs, shocking them
straight. Her head flew back, her dowager’s hump vanished as her spine
untwisted.”

This is an account of a “magical” healing that one of the main characters witness, though
there is some question as to its legitimacy. Oh yeah, and small wonder
I’m reading fantasy. I seemed to read nothing but chronicles for two
plus years, I’ve got a whole lot of trash fiction to get caught up on!
Thanks for the little doo-hickey which provided me a short-lived distraction during my migraine-of-the-year.

Take care, everyone.
~DTAR.