MsGeek's Journal: Thanks.

First off, I don't really celebrate Thanksgiving. The commemoration of the genocide of the Indigenous Americans shouldn't be an occasion for celebration, but one for mourning.

That said, as far as totalling up what I am thankful for, as a lot of people also do this time of year, I realize I have much to be thankful for.

I'm thankful for the opportunity to pick up where I left off in College. Between financial aid and some family and friend support, I am not only able to pay for college expenses and books, but I am in the process of retiring a significant chunk of credit card debt. Not having all that Dot-bomb bust debt hanging over my head will feel *real good*.

I'm thankful that what remains of my family are basically a bunch of good people. Sure, there's a bit of dysfunction involved...how can there not be, it's the nature of family to be dysfunctional. I'm worried about a couple of my family members right now...Cousin Brad is in the hospital...complicated to try to explain why, but suffice it to say it's sufficiently bad to where he is in the ICU, and my Uncle Richard, who has been battling Prostate Cancer for a number of years, is not doing well. They both have been very supportive through the bad times and I'd really prefer they stuck around. Then again, as my dad would always say, "everyone's terminal."

I'm thankful for the Linux community. Whenever I've been stuck, I have had someone to give me the right piece of advice I've needed to fix the problem. Whether it's the Santa Barbara contingent, or the SFVLUG guys, or the developers of OSS whom I met at SCALE this last Saturday, I have never had problems with Linux that were insoluable. Perhaps that's the real reason why Microsoft fears Linux so much. Sure, there are people in the community who are too 'leet for school, but most I have met have been decent individuals. Good folks. Gotta love it.

I'm definitely thankful for my husband Richie. As of January it will be 17 years since our relationship started, and it hasn't gotten old or stale or lame, and we have only grown closer together instead of growing apart like some people do. Maybe part of the reason was deciding not to have kids. Maybe it's the fact that we seem to agree on more things about life than we disagree about. In any event, it's cool.

I'm also thankful that I made it to 40. For most of my life I thought I wouldn't, but amazingly enough I did. I think I can see my way clear to growing old gracefully. That is, if I don't do something stupid or we humans don't collectively do something stupid.

I'm thankful that people on the Left and the Right here in the US have stopped fighting each other long enough to challenge USA-PATRIOT. It's amazing to see right wing nut jobs like former Georgia Representative Bob Barr and Phyllis Schlafly and the card-carrying members of the ACLU agreeing about something. Perhaps there's hope. Funny thing: my congresscritter, the evil Howard Berman of the "RIAA hack-back bill" infamy, just sent my husband a paperback copy of the US Constitution. I checked in there...the entire text is present and accounted for. It's not a half bad document, if only the current Administration would support it and defend it like they said they would when they all got sworn in. :P

Anyway, that's about it for now.