Farglesnoppers...I suck.

Every day, several times a day, I compose marvelous posts. I right the wrongs of the world, chew out ignorant drivers, belittle Christians who apparently have never read a word of the Gospel, and enlighten self-absorbed boobs who think Republicans are human. I chronicle all my various projects (I have projects. Really.), describe with humorous aplomb all the antics of my pets and lanky, truant teenager, and wittily discuss my latest reading adventure.

In my head.

My excuses for not actually writing these posts are legion. I can't really write that ;way; I'm doing real work, I have no before pictures, so why write about a project if no one can SEE the before and what a magnificent difference I've made?

Truth is? I'm lazy. And I suck. There you have it. The Universe is doomed. I could have saved the Universe, but I'm lazy. And I suck.

Did I mention I'm also rather silly?

Well, lookit that....

My daddy always used to say “...the road to Hell was paved with good intentions.” I wonder if that extends to those of us with ADD who start out with such good plans to change ourselves, to raise our kids right, keep the house clean, grow veggies, eat veggies, walk the dogs.... Well, you get the idea.

I was looking for notebook paper to once again try and make a monthly menu so I could shop more efficiently and I thought, oh, that binder I have...the one with the white horses on it...I’ve never kept up with the journal I started in it, literally 20+ years ago...there’ll be a ton of unused notebook paper in there. It’ll be a bit old, but still usable, no need to open one of the spare packs I have for the kiddo. Well, yes, there was, is, a ton of notebook paper in it. Also, dividers (labeled “Contract,” “Routines & Lists,” “Journal,” “Menus & Shopping,” “Diet & Workout”, a contract with myself, and a zipper pouch of pens, ruler, and stickies.  “facepalm” Wanna know the date?  19 JUL 09.  Yes, 2009. *eyeroll and another facepalm*

I don’t know whether to be heartened by the fact that apparently nothing’s (or very little) changed in my outlook, or to be very disturbed nothing’s changed in my outlook.

*confused look*

So, here’s the contract I wrote out then (and I REALLY wish WP would preserve Word formatting):

I.  Whereas –

A.  I am tired of being...

1. tired all the time,
2. fat,
3. stiff,
4. in pain,
5. in a disaster zone,
6. financially out of control,

B.  I am disconnected from...

1. family,
2. my body,
3. nature,
4. the Divine,
5. my creativity,

C.  I am Squandering...

1. years,
2. talents,
3. resources,

II.  I recognize I am...

A.  Intelligent,
B.  Talented,
C.  Resourceful,
D.  Determined,
E.  The only one who can change ME

III. Therefore, I resolve...

A. To Rejuvenate by...

1. stretching,
2. following a workout plan,
3. getting the proper amount of rest,
4. making healthy food choices,
5. develop my household routines,
6. create and follow a budget and pay-off plan

B.  To reconnect by...

1. having family meals at the table,
2. include Mother in more things,
3. meditate and pray
4. invite the Divine in through prayer and ritual,
5. set aside time for creating,

C.  [To remind myself]....

1. life is short, spend every moment wisely,
2. things don’t have to be perfect,
3. appreciate and use what I do have and not bemoan what I don’t have,
4. life is a work in progress and will never be finished.

IV.  My priorities are...

A.  To not overload by...

1. trying to do it all at once,
2. losing perspective,
3. expecting immediate results,
4. forgetting the larger picture by getting caught up in the details.

B.  Every night...

1.review the day

a. What did I accomplish?

b.  What was left undone?

• move to the next day –or–
• re-evaluate – do I need to do it

–tomorrow?

–another time?

–does something else need to get done first?

• Does a schedule or routine need to be changed based on a/b?
• [Write in journal, especially things I am thankful for]

2. review and prioritize tomorrow

3.  follow the routine

C.  Remember I am part of the web...

1.  I am central to my, if I don’t care of my needs, no one else will,

2.  [but] I also touch and impact others,

3.  some small thing I do –or don’t do–can resonate billions of light years away, plucking the web and thereby change the Universe,

D. don’t let “C” get [me] down,

E.  don’t be your own worst enemy,

F.  follow thru through [hahahahah]

G.  KISS (keep it simple, silly!)

19 July 2009 then, is the first day of the rest of my life, the day I choose to be reborn. I make this covenant with myself, the Divine within and without as my witness.

I was going to rewrite or type up the contract but I want it to be as is, imperfect, fluid, dynamic, and alterable, like life itself.

Follow through!

//signed//

19 July 2009
-------------------------------------
It would be laughable...it is laughable...but it’s exactly what I would write today.  There’s some reason I found this today, some pivotal moment, I suppose. Trying not to read too terribly much into it, but I’m renewing this and am going to put effort into seeing it through.

Simple Ikea hack

Take one of these. Which is designed to hang on the wall and hold these and these; put it on your laundry room wall and presto!

You're going to get tired of this before I do.

Next SCA list: Feastbox

The feastbox is a wooden box about the size of a smallish cooler. My husband made it.  It's virtually indestructible and a pain in butt to carry.

Standard:

• 4 plates


• 4 maple bowls spare wooden bowls


• drinking vessels


• period utensils - spoons, knives (forks not period, optional)


• cutting knives


• matches, butane lighter


• salt & pepper


• paper towels


• napkins


• table cover


• carrier bags, trash bags


• foil & glad-tainers

For court events:

• Table runner


• Chargers


• Candles & holders

 

Only two pages wasted

After all that angsting about which notebook to use for my lists...I've decided to keep the original. I mean, everything's already written out, why go to all the hassle? There's still plenty of room in the spiral, too. I can save the other one for a different project.

So. To keep up with putting the lists here, I give you the staples list:

• Salt, pepper, spices and herbs*:
  
  
  
  • Marjoram
  
  
  • Basil
  
  
  • Oregano
  
  
  • Parsley
  
  
  • Garlic powder
  
  
  • Onion powder
  
  
  • Cinnamon
  
  
  • Nutmeg
  
  
  • Ginger
  
  
  • Curry powder
  
  
  • Coriander
  
  
  
  


• Sugar, creamer


• Coffee, tea, and hot chocolate mix


• Oatmeal, cream of rice


• Bisquick, flour


• Syrup, honey


• Emergency can-goods:
  
  
  
  • Tuna
  
  
  • Beans
  
  
  • Chunky soups
  
  
  • Ravioli
  
  
  • ETA beef stew
  
  
  • kippers
  
  
  • mac'n'cheese
  
  
  
  

*Need small spice containers

Cor Blimey, how you do go on.

Okay, my husband sent this cool site to me, http://www.effingpot.com/ which is a glossary of Brit-speak for Americans. He apparently lived in Texas for awhile and used his experiences to write the list. It’s fairly exhaustive, but has some definite errors as well as assumptions that some of these words aren’t used by Americans, and have been for a very long time…since before the invasion of Britcoms, to be honest.

Here’s one that’s incorrect:

“Nark - If someone is in a nark, it means they are in a bad mood, or being grumpy. It's also the word for a spy or informant.
For example a coppers nark is someone who is a police informant - which you might call a stoolie or stool-pigeon. The origin
is from the Romany word, nak, meaning "nose".”

Now, I don’t know about the Romany (Gypsy) word nak. But the American slang word Nark or Narc comes from Undercover Narcotics Officer, usually someone who is masquerading as either a high school or college student. They would get friendly with dopers and their suppliers and then “narc” on them, or turn them in. So now to be a narc is to be yes, a stoolie or stool-pigeon: informant.

Here’s another:

"Shammy - I think you call these wash leathers. They are the completely useless cloths, originally made from the skin of the
chamois - a wild antelope, the size of a goat. They dry rigid and leave horrible streaks across the windows they are supposed to clean!"

I’ve never heard a chamois called “wash leathers” in my life. Maybe in North Carolina or some such place, but it’s a chamois (pronounced shammy). I wonder if he knows you’re supposed to rinse the thing out and then wring it very well before you use it?  I’ve never had a problem with them streaking.

"Plaster board - Sheet rock in Texas. In the UK, plasterboard is used to make ceilings and is also used to make internal walls, it is
then covered in a thin layer of real plaster, except in cheap modern houses. In Texas, entire houses are made from sheet rock, which
is a bit worrying if it is windy or rainy! If the three little pigs had lived in Texas, they would have been eaten! In some states call it's
called "plaster board" like it is here in the UK and others it's called drywall."

Okay, we do not make our entire house out of sheet rock or dry wall…heavens! The house is framed with wood, insulated and then various outside coverings are used, including adobe, hardi-plank, siding, brick, Austin stone.... Only the interior walls have sheet rock on them, and they're still framed inside with 2x4s at the very least. Oy gevalt!

And he seems to think “sofa” is the only word we use for what they call a couch. Well, we use the word couch, a lot, along with sofa and divan. Although divan is not used quite so much anymore. It’s what my grandmother called her sofa. :)

And he seems to have a problem figuring out why we call a restroom a restroom. That one might be a bit tougher, if you aren’t very old. They’re called that because back in the day, restrooms in nicer restaurants, hotels, theaters, and department stores had an outer room with a sofa and very often little sundries like mouthwash or lotion available, and they had an attendant. The attendant was there to watch your purse or briefcase while you went to the loo, and keep the place neat and clean all day long. You often left a tip in a little basket. So they really were places to rest as well as relieve yourself.

There are some under slang that we—at least I and my family—have used forever in the US:

To go on a bender means to basically go on a non-stop drinking spree; blast or blast it all; blinding; Bob’s your uncle; botch; cheeky; cram, for studying hard; dim to mean thick or stupid; and every cowboy called food “grub” in the westerns; haggle; hunky-dory, and in shambles are all examples.

"Piece of cake - I remember saying it's a piece of cake in front of one of my American friends,
who then started looking around for the cake! It means it's a cinch!"

Dunno what kind of dimwit friend he had, but we’ve used this forever. Means the same as “easy as pie,” or a “walk in the park.”

"Piss poor - If something is described as being "piss poor" it means it is an extremely poor attempt at something."

Again, totally US term.  Same here:

"Plastered - Another word for loaded. In other words you have had rather too much to drink down your local.
It has nothing to do with being covered with plaster though anything is possible when you are plastered."

"Shitfaced - If you hear someone saying that they got totally shitfaced it means they were out on the town and
got steaming drunk. Normally attributed to stag nights or other silly events."

 

Now here’s one we use but to us it means 6 of one, half a dozen of the other:

"Sixes and sevens - If something is all at sixes and sevens then it is in a mess, topsy turvy or somewhat haywire!"

Here’s a few that are definitely ones we’ve used for ages in the US:

"Sloshed - Yet another way to describe being drunk. Clearly we need a lot of ways to describe it since
getting plastered is a national pastime."

"Twat - Another word used to insult someone who has upset you. Also means the same as fanny but is less
acceptable in front of your grandmother, as this refers to parts of the female anatomy. Another use for the
same word is to twat something, which would be to hit it hard. Get it right or I'll twat you over the head!"

"Yakking - This means talking incessantly - not that I know anyone who does that now!"

"Zonked - If someone is zonked or "zonked out" it means they are totally knackered or you might say exhausted.
When a baby has drunk so much milk, his eyes roll into the back of his head, it would be fair to say he was zonked!"

I’m beginning to think that perhaps there are some of these that went to England some time ago, since I believe our TV went there before theirs came here, and 30 or 40 years ago entered the lexicon in the UK and he just ran into a great number of idjit Texans.

 

As for correcting our grammar…Not everyone in England is paragon of grammatical correctness, so stuff it. :)

 

The List Mania goes on....and on...and.......

I've decided on the Stuart Hall Executive Project Planner.

Okay, so, this shows how long I’ve had this notebook…a) there’s no web address on the back and b) apparently after having been purchased by Pen-Tab in 1998, Stuart Hall Co., Inc., was closed down in 2001.

O.O

And…I think Pen Tab Industries might have gone defunct, too. So, I guess this is a collector’s item now. ROFL. Best make good use of it.

This is the closest I can find on Amazon.

Or this

This is very close

Oooh..this one’s nice

Anyway…harrumph. On to organizing the lists. I need sections.

• SCA


• House


• Non-SCA sewing


• Non-SCA projects

These might end up being transferred to a loose-leaf binder, but for now, I’ll keep them in the spiral…or maybe an individual notebook for each. It’s not like I don’t have any spare notebooks. *kitty giggles*

Gah! You see, this is why I never get my act together, so many decisions!

Okay, so first list, subject to change, of course:

• 1. Kitchen Box (Rubbermaid ® Roughneck™) - Permanent items:
  
  
  
  • Make cover
  
  
  • ETA: Frying pan
  
  
  • 2 pans/pots-get kind without the long handles, like this set right here
  
  
  • Basin
  
  
  • Drainer
  
  
  • Bowls
  
  
  • Spatula, spoons, knives, cutting board (wood), fork
  
  
  • Colander
  
  
  • Measuring cup
  
  
  • Stove
  
  
  • Grill for fire
  
  
  • Dishcloth & brush
  
  
  • Can opener
  
  
  • Hotpads
  
  
  • Hand towels, dish towels
  
  
  • Lantern and/or flashlight
  
  
  • Fly control (bonus: everything you never wanted to know about flies )
  
  
  • Scent traps
  
  
  • Tents for food
  
  
  
  


• 2. Kitchen Box – consumables
  
  
  
  • Make cover
  
  
  • Dish soap
  
  
  • Bleach
  
  
  • Matches/butane lighter
  
  
  • Foil
  
  
  • Trash bags
  
  
  • Wipes
  
  
  • Scrubbies
  
  
  • Zip bags
  
  
  • Glad-tainers
  
  
  • Propane
  
  
  • Paper towels/rags
  
  
  • Sharpie
  
  
  • Cadles
  
  
  • Carrier bags
  
  
  • Small laundry soap, baggie of dryer sheets, roll of quarters
  
  
  • Lysol
  
  
  • Fly strips
  
  
  • Bug repellant
  
  
  • Vinegar
  
  
  
  

 

 

Zen and the Art of List-Making

Pursuant to the post about getting back in the SCA, I want to start a project book. I have one, a cheapie spiral that I made all sorts of lists in good gods...9 years ago??  *sighs* Has is really been that long ago? Where in Hades’ Funhouse does it go?  I don't really think it's been that long ago for some of it...I hope.

Okay, so, let’s see, here are the list titles, I’ll get to the individual lists later:

• Kitchen box (make cover) [the kitchen box is a Rubbermaid® Roughneck™, as are a lot of our camping boxes, so they need covers to hide the “mundanity”]
  
  
  
  • Permanent Items
  
  
  • Consumable Items
  
  
  
  


• Food box – staples


• Feastbox – regular event items


• Feastbox – court event items


• General Equipment


• Banners


• Coolers


• Tent


• Tool Kit


• Light Box


• Stake Box


• Pavilion


• Bedding


• X3 Minimum Costumes – summer


• X3 Minimum Costumes – not summer [it IS Texas, after all]


• X2? Armor


• X3 Costume Projects to Finish [well, they WERE to finish, but now to start]


• X3 Mundane Clothing/Equipment/Sundries


• Other Projects to Finish


• War List! [for Gulf War during Spring Break]

And that’s just what I have in the spiral.

Now..before I go any farther, I want to replace the spiral with a different kind of notebook. Still a spiral but different. I could supply a small office supply store with the stash of paper, pens, spirals, binders, clips, hi-liters, etc that I have. No. Really.  So, here’s the list of new SCA project notebook candidates:

• Pen-tab Project Planner – 7.25 w x 9.5 h, Lined, numbered, with a blank notes section on the right hand side.


• Cambridge, top-bound, ¼” graph paper


• 2, count them! 2 Bienfang Note Sketch Book – standard size, a little less than half of the page is lined, on the left, and the right is all blank. I already have a couple projects in one of these.


• Cambridge Executive planner pages – standard size, top spiral, roughly the top two-thirds is ¼” graph paper, the bottom is yellow and lined “Quick Notes”


• Off-brand Notes/Sketch Book – 11x9” drawing weight paper, one-sided, top less than half blank for sketching, bottom lined.


• Stuart Hall Executive Project Planner – standard size, narrow blank notes section on the left, lined on the right. So far, this one is my front-runner.

 

I shall sleep on it. Night.

 

Return of the modern middle ages

OT for a sec..I could have sworn I made another post after the one about automatic updates.  Weird.  Anyway.

 

Some of my vast readership (bwahahahah) might know that I belong to a group called the Society for Creative Anachronism, or SCA. It’s been an on-again, off-again relationship for a long time (1988 to be exact). I’ve made tons of friends, a few enemies, and a lot of memories. I met my husband in the SCA.

There were times I was totally involved and on a fast-track for big things (awards, etc.), then we had our son and played a bit, then not..then some more, then was out, then came back, blah-de-boop as my daughter says.

Recently, I introduced a pair of friends of mine, Ms Pushing Furniture and her hot boyfriend, to the SCA and damned if they didn’t take to it like ducks to water. Really active; she’s being her OCD self and turning out costumes and doing all sorts of things, including helping another relative newbie learn to sew.

And I’ve managed to get myself appointed as Chronicler (I do the baronial newsletter), which is the first ever office I held in the SCA nearly 23 years ago. *arched eyebrow of confusion*  But back then we did it the hard way, cut and paste on blue-line boards, now I just use Adobe InDesign the same as I do for the newsletter I do at work. Easy peasy, as they say. That is if I could get people to submit articles and things.  I think people just don’t care anymore. It kind of went to pot over the last couple of years because the woman doing it didn’t have time..or something, not sure what, so I think people just kind of gave up. The newsletter is a requirement of being a barony, so we have to turn one out, but I think unless we start getting submissions, it’s really a redundancy: everything you need to know is on the website.

So, anyway...we’re “active” again...sort of. I’ve gained so much weight that none of my costumes fit anymore. And I had made some pretty nice ones, too. And my husband’s stuff doesn’t really fit, and my son has none...and the whole barony seems to be on this EVERYTHING MUST BE LINEN kick. Yes, linen was period, cotton wasn’t, at least not how we use it. But not everything was linen, either, and I see a lot of clothing being made out of linen that should really be wool or even silk. BUT. It’s Texas, so I’m totally willing to give them that one.

Linen is much more available than it was 20 years ago, but most of what you can get locally in Austin is all in trendy colors or is a linen/cotton blend. The blend is sorta-kinda okay for certain things. It is cooler and doesn’t wrinkle as much...but then that signature wrinkling is part of the linen “mystique,” if you will. The other nice thing is that if you order online, you can get a number of different weights of linen in white and then dye it if needed.

The point of this post originally was to lay out all that I need to do to even go to an event. List making ftw! We shall move apace in the next post.

 

Automatic means I don't have to do anything

You know, I understand that software needs upgrading, I understand the reasons, I even agree--for the most part--that software should be upgraded regularly. But, you know...(insert put-upon, slightly whiny voice)..when it says "Click here for an automatic upgrade to Wordpress 3.1.4," I expect an AUTOMATIC upgrade. One click. Poof! Done. No, click here for this task, back up this...oh, oh, oh...you gotta back up this, too...and wait, now you have to CLEAN UP. WTF?

No. Auto means...auto. Too many clicks ruin the soup.

Changes

It appears my site here has done some morphing on its own while I was otherwise engaged. I've lost my custom header and the font doesn't look right. Hmmph. Are websites related to dust bunnies? Off doing their own thing while you're not watching?

Related to that, I finally got off my arse and straightened my room last night. It is by no means an OCD's dream, but it's much better. Less dust and clutter and the dog has more room at the foot of my bed now. Ben must've thought there was a distressing dearth of cat fur on the bed....I woke up with him curled up on the pillow next to my head.

 

Brain much?

It suddenly occurred to me a few minutes ago why blogging is so painful for me.

I've stopped thinking.

In some ways I think more than I used to. I consider things, I evaluate them, but in general, the thinking muscle has atrophied. Snippets of thought better suited to Facebook or Twitter are what my brain produces now.  I find it difficult to pen a cohesive letter any more.

I'm beginning to wonder if a tumblr might not be a more appropriate venue for my lack of writerishness.

But...all my friends are doing it....

At least one of my friends likes to post a "things I like" list every now and then. She'll post different themes of "ten things." I must admit, I'm not nearly so ambitious, but then Dianne's written four books now (three are published, the fourth is being published), and is writing a fifth, she blogs constantly and writes "other fiction" on a regular basis. To be completely honest, when it comes to writing, she is what I wish I were. Ha! I always have been a dreamer.

But, as they say, I digress.

This is just a general, "here are things found on the intarwebs I love plus" list.

1.  I love planners. I never keep them up like I should, but the idea of organizing my life on little lined pages just enthralls me. As I said, I always have been a dreamer.

2. Like Dianne, I love sticky notes; my planners have a plethora of sticky notes in them (which is a problem with digital planners: where the hell do you put the sticky notes??). But I also love paperclips and binder clamps.  Once again, I think it's the whole organizational thing....I picture all my papers and to-dos neatly clippered and clamped with nifty clips and I'll be able to look at a stack and presto! I'm saved.

3.  I love  boxes. Of any kind.  Boxes.  And more boxes. And even MORE boxes. See above. My family believes I secretly know if I get enough boxes, my problems will all be solved. Heh...yeah...I'll get back with you on tht. (OMG....that search sets my heart to fluttering...BOXES!!) Oh...and these, too.

4. Let's face it, I love office/school/art supplies. Period. Different colored pens, markers, sticky notes, notebooks, paper, blank books, rulers, sketch pads, pastels, brushes, you name it. *sighs*

5. I love this room.

6. I love these bookshelves.

7. I love my new washer and dryer. After all the hassle of getting the washer to work and a part replaced, they work great. (Maytag Centennial series).

8. I love my boss. Not that way. He rocks. He might be a colonel, but he checked his ego at the door. He's still intense, demanding, and a control freak, but once you understand that he's all about the mission, you get it. There are still days when I could cheerfully boot him in his flightsuited arse, but then I can also TELL him when he annoys me. The other colonels I've worked for? Oh, hell no. He's PCSing this summer and I'm gonna miss him.

9. I love April and October. which just happen to be my and my son's birth month (April) and my mother's and three of my best friends' birth months and my anniversary month (October).

10. Kismet.  Via Facebook I just found this. I love it. What amazing advice from such a youngster ;).

Now, if you're paying attention (and actually have taken a look at Dianne's lists), you'll notice a big difference. She actually writes about each item, discusses it, tells you why she likes it, irrationally or not. I suppose that's telling. It tells me why she's a writer and I'm not.  But it also tells me I can't always tell you why I like something. Or, conversely, why I hate something. (Although I can easily tell you why I hate some of the ignorant stupidity surfacing these days. [Again, I digress.])

Austin on the map

This time of year I get to thinking about Austin's notoriety. Back in 1986, a little thing called SXSW started here. There were 170 bands and about 700 people attended. I was so wrapped up in finishing school, I don't even remember if I knew about it or not.  At the same time, Austin proper was about 350,000 people and the economy was just starting to tank. But it was better here than a lot of other places, so...we got an influx of people looking for work. Austin grew. By 1990, we were just under 465K in Austin proper. If you just did the math, that's 115,000 in four years.

In the wake of the most recent economic tankage, the media put it out that Austin had jobs and the economy was still clicking. Well, until all the out-of-workers from California, Michigan, and all points across the US got here. The 2010 census numbers of just under 800K  I'm betting are now tens of thousands higher. And of course, we got a huge lump of new citizens after Katrina in 2005. Traffic is phenomenally worse and it wasn't that hot to begin with, due to Austin's tendency to stick its collective heads in the sand when it comes to expansion: everyone wants new business, but no one wants the infrastructure in their neighborhood (can't say as I blame them there).  And, like some sort of growth gauge,  SXSW featured 2400 performers and drew about 36,000...and that doesn't count all the "unofficial" bands and people who didn't actually buy tickets to the SXSW venues. There were hipsters stopping traffic on major streets, gawking, as if Austin were some kind of bizarre museum exhibit. The metrorail, usually slightly anemic in ridership, was packed to the gunwales with riders and bikes.Even though Austinites are rather laid back and easy-going, we still have jobs and kids to get to school. In a way, it reminds me of living in New Orleans. The rest of the world just thinks we party all the time. Uh...no.

I think it's cool that people think Austin is cool. It rocks that we are still labeled "the live music capital of the world" (as much a misnomer as that might be), but sometimes I wish people wouldn't enjoy Austin quite so much. In addition to everyone flocking here to take our jobs, there are about 50 kabillion festivals, sometimes two or three on any given weekend. Oh...in addition to SXSW, the rodeo was on, too. Hipsters and c'boys. I keep picturing this huge pile-up with skinny jeans, pink sunglasses, cowboy boots and manure all piled up and everyone looking rather confused.

The icing on the cake was realizing that some departing SXSWer, sometime Saturday Sunday night decided to take a souvenir. The lanyard for the Texas flag pole on the WWI memorial here in front of the UT stadium was cut and the Texas flag stolen.  You read that right, from the WWI memorial. Really, people? Some folks just have no shame.

If you come to our home to party, please behave yourself, and don't steal from your hosts.

Have we always been this nuts?

To put it simply: this country has gone insane. I'm really beginning to believe that the apocalypse will not come from outside, from some foreign invader, but from the inside. We will self-destruct on stupidity. Just as scientists are discovering that homosexuality is caused by a number of biological factors, I think we'll discover that conservatism is biological in origin, too. It must be...I mean, just how far can one go with no brain? With the caveat that one is just a different kind of human, the other is a defect. Yah...I know which people will read that one way and who will take it the other way.

I'm not dead...really

I had told myself I wasn't going to be one of those web/blog people who started a site and then just disappeared off the face of the earth. Well, I suppose that's true, because here I am, but it's been three months.  Several times I said, "I need to go make a post, but I just don't feel like it." and blew it off.  I'm paying for this g-damned site, g-damn it!

Part of keeping a website/blog is to chronicle the things that happen (especially in my case, since my memory resembles nothing so much as a screen door...with holes in it...) and it would have been nice if I'd been on top of things...oh, well.

In today's news, it's cold. Friggin' cold.  I know those of you up in Yankeeland don't think 23 with a wind chill of 10 is all that cold, but in Central Texas...for the record...that's cold.  And it's icy. But it's business as usual (BAU). Bleah.  My van stopped blowing warm air halfway into work...I'm hoping it's just a confused thermostat...we'll see this evening.

My dryer has been eating clothes for some time now. The drum is loose and things catch in the space between the drum and the housing. Minor damage being rusty marks, major damage being holes in things, like a starving moth got hold of them.  And now the washer has decided to stop running. It cycles, water runs and drains, but the drum doesn't turn. The dishwasher conked out a year ago. So..I'm wondering who'll extend credit to a credit weenie like me.  Farg.