The Alternative Universe

I Have Aspergers Syndrome

2010-05-01T20:30:00.001-06:00

Well, it's been a long time since I've said anything here (mainly because I lost my password and no longer had the email address associated with this account). But now I feel this huge urge to relate my experiences with Aspergers Syndrome since I found out I had it about two weeks ago. I doubt anyone will read it, but I have to post this anyways.

First of all, I'm self diagnosed. The few people that I've talked to about this seem to think that unless a doctor says I have it, then I don't have it. I'm just looking for attention. While I don't feel like I'm looking for attention, at the same time, I want to shout from the roof tops, HEY! THIS IS WHY I'M WEIRD! So maybe I am seeking attention a little bit. Maybe this post is about proving I have it regardless. I really wish my mom were alive so I could dissect every little piece of this condition with her. I don't have any friends these days that I can spend hours talking about myself with. Haha. I also wish that she were alive so I could apologize for blaming her all these years for things that are clearly not her fault... now that I know it's the aspergers.

What Is Aspergers Syndrome?

Aspergers Syndrome is a mild form of autism. You are born with it. It affects the way you learn things and how you see the world. Some of the more obvious symptoms of aspergers is difficulties in social situations, delayed speech, avoiding eye contact, sensory issues such as being bothered by the way things taste, feel, sound, or smell, obsessions on certain subjects to the exclusion of other subjects that hold no interest to them, and the reliance of routines. Stress can cause an aspie (short term for one with aspergers syndrome) to either blow up disproportionately to the situation, or shut down completely such as going silent, hiding out in a bathroom until they calm down, or leaving abruptly.

Aspergers Syndrome is often misdiagnosed as ADD/ADHD and social anxiety, along with to a less extent, bipolar disorder, agoraphobia, depression, and many more. That's not to say that these diagnosis are wrong, only that these can hide the bigger picture, that the person has Aspergers Syndrome and all of these diagnosis are a result of that.

I'd like to take everything I've learned these last couple of weeks, and share my own experiences. This will be a long boring post. :P

Discovery

A few weeks ago, I was shopping for a 'summer read' in the book section of Target. A cute cover of a freckled boy caught my attention with the title "Look Me In The Eye" by John Elder Robison. I read the first few pages about his teachers or other authority figures telling him to look them in the eyes and thought, ha, I've heard that one before. It was about Aspergers Syndrome and Nadia Bloom had just been found in Florida so I bought the book.

Reading the first few chapters had me saying a few huhs. He was describing his childhood. I should have been clued in from the title, but it never occurred to me that I would have autism. So he said that when he would play with blocks, he would sort them out by color and it bothered him that other children would come in and mix them all up. I was definitely bothered by mixed colors. My games involved organizing the toys and then forming roads and parking lots with them.

On the playground, while most kids were interacting and swinging and hollering, I was sitting quietly organizing the rocks by the six different types they seemed to come in. This one is kinda clear like a crystal. These are see-through but stained yellow. These are chalky. Those are smooth and yellow, and these are black, rough and shiny. That one just doesn't belong. After all these years, I can still see those rocks clearly and the little piles I made out of them. How I sat there and watched in amazement as a group of kids lined up and spontaneously started singing "Don't go chasing waterfalls, please stick to the rivers and the lakes that you're used to, I know that you're gonna have it your way or nothing at all, but I think you're moving too fast." By the end of the lyrics over thirty kids were marching across the playground. I sat by my pile of rocks and whispered the words then obsessed about the situation for days. I hoped that the kids would do it again and that I could run in and join them. Then maybe I would be normal.

Then the book went on to say something that has been bothering me for the last two years. "People with Asperger's or autism often lack the feelings of empathy that naturally guide most people in their interactions with others." The very word, empathy, is something I've been muttering to myself for months. I have no empathy unless it's that time of the month. Why don't I have empathy? I've got to pretend I have empathy. Why don't I care? He just said this, so think fast, what can I say that makes it look like I care? Like I have empathy.

I believe my brows started knitting together and I started reading more slowly. He said "The worst of it was, my teachers and most other people saw my behavior as bad when I was trying to be kind." I instantly recalled the hundreds of times when people have called me rude growing up, and not understanding how I could have possibly been rude. At some point I learned that if I just kept on smiling, people would stop thinking I'm rude. Then I heard so many comments about how people like me because I'm smiling all the time. Even if someone was screaming in a rage, breaking things, my head would be down and I'd have a slight smile on my face patiently waiting for the weird emotions of the other person to pass.

I looked up from the book and told my brother, "This is weird. I think I might have Aspergers Syndrome." He said, "What's that?" I said, "It's a mild form of autism. I don't really know, but this guy has it and everything he's saying about his childhood sounds just like me." He said, okay, and I kept on reading. Going through the book I started relaxing. I decided I didn't have it. Then I decided I might have it, then again, I didn't have it, and again, well, maybe I do have it.

Going online, I was assured I didn't have it until I ran across this video.

This video made me cry. It was me. I couldn't believe it.

She's talking mostly about the workplace but here are a few things that struck me...

Aspies are honest. I've told lies before, like everyone, but I'm extremely honest with things like money, people's reputations, where credit is due, etc. If someone asks me an opinion, I'm not going to say I like it if I don't.
We believe that if we just work hard enough, we'll succeed, but the reality is, working hard has very little to do with advancing and succeeding.
Environmental sensitivity like being uncomfortable in panythose, with too much air conditioning. I could not stand having air blow on me as a kid. No matter how hot it was, I couldn't let the air blow directly on my skin. Yes, I do want the car air on full blast, please don't turn it off just because I made it point away from me.

And then she had a list of traits about women with aspergers being different than men with aspergers. I looked at that list and checked off one thing after another. Link About the only things that didn't apply to me were about outbursts when stressed out. I shut down or escape instead. I don't talk incessantly. I've learned to shut up and barely get a word in during any conversation. And I don't pursue relationships so nothing awkward happens there.

Useful Aspergers Links
Life With Aspergers
Help 4 Aspergers
Aspie Quiz
Also look up the phrase "I have Asperger's Syndrome" in Youtube!

I'll be quoting mostly from these sources to relate and recall my own experiences.

My Life With Aspergers

So now I'd like to go over a few more stories about living with aspergers. Reading about it has really opened my eyes about my own childhood and recalled so many things that happened because of it. Reading what others have said about it has made me really want to do the same.

One thing I keep hearing with aspergers is a reliance on routine. That is one thing I do not have. I can't stand routine. I always try to leave and return by different routes. I don't like sleeping in the same bed. Typically I'll sleep one way in my bed, add some blankets to make things softer and sleep that way, sometimes with lights on, sometimes not, sometimes with fans blowing for the noise and sometimes not, sometimes I'll go and sleep on the couch or the chair in the living room. One of my obsessions is maps and geography so I have no problem driving to the state line and then taking another route back, and if I'm confused, finally checking a map. I think one of the reasons this doesn't bother me is because I never actually grew up with a routine. My parents were divorced early on so I never knew where I would be going on the weekends, and if I asked what the day held, my father would ask why I needed to know. Maybe change is my routine. Maybe I have routines I haven't figured out yet. I've only been looking at this stuff for two weeks.

"Stims to soothe when sad or agitated" from the list of female aspergers traits. One time I was walking through the living room in my early teens and stepped on a tack. I said offhandedly, "ow", lifted up my foot and pulled out the tack. A friend of my brother's was over and said, "Woah! Was that a tack? How did that not hurt?" It did hurt. And I like it. So I started taking a tack when I was upset, dipping it in alcohol, and stabbing it into the palm of my hand or the bottom of my feet. About a year later I started wearing a rubber band as a bracelet and snapping it against my wrist if I became agitated. To this day, I still do that when I get really upset. If I can't find a rubber band I'll pinch and scratch my hands, scrape my shoes against my ankles, rub my legs with my knuckles while driving or rub the skin on my chest and face. If I'm feeling less agitated I often rub pieces of tape together or doodle geometric designs. I can't sit still to save my life.

"Prone to mutism when stressed or upset..." from the list of female aspergers traits. Conflict was difficult as a child. Every single parent teacher meeting my mother went to, the teacher would say something about my behavior and class and my mother would turn to me and ask me to explain myself. From that point on, I was a mute. No amount of threatening, touching, coddling, sweet talking, my mother's crying, or what have you would make me say another word until we were on the car ride home. And any questions about why I would suddenly behave this way were never answered.

Life With Aspergers, Aspergers and Eye Contact

Aspergers and Eye Contact

There's a lot in the literature about gaze-avoidance or lack of eye contact in Asperger's kids (and adults) but not really a lot from an Asperger's point of view.

What Practitioners and Parents Think
Frequently, it's left up to the reader's imagination to think of reasons - perhaps the child has just not learned that making eye contact is an essential part of spoken communication? Of course, this theory assumes that the condition is eventually treatable by training. It's consistent with the notion that eye contact does improve as the subject gets older but it's from a medical or educational point of view instead of coming from an Aspie.

[btw: apologies for my use of the term aspie - I'll use it through this blog in a familiar sense because it's difficult to keep writing Asperger's Syndrome. It is not intended to be derogatory in any way.]

An Aspie Point of View
Eye contact hurts.. no, not in the painful sense but it's quite uncomfortable. I always feel that I'm revealing more than I want to with eye contact and that I'm receiving more information than I want to know. Of course, I know that eye contact is critical to spoken communication, so often I'll compromise by either of two methods;

Method 1: Making brief eye contact every few seconds.
This is the "roving eye" technique whereby you make eye contact at the very start of each sentence and then drift away as soon as the person you're talking to is reassured that you're listening. There are a few problems with this method.

First of all, people often assume that your concentration is wandering. I'll often get told, "well, I know you're quite busy..." or "I'm probably boring you..." or "I can tell you're not interested..." as a response to using this technique when I really am interested in the conversation. When that happens, I usually have to switch to the other technique.

Method 2: Making eye contact for half of the Conversation
A two-way conversation is made up of two halves. Person 1 speaking while Person 2 listens and vice versa. As a general rule, people like to know that they're being listened to but aren't as worried if you don't make a lot of eye contact while you're talking. The plan with this method is to make reasonably constant eye contact (though you'll probably need to "flit" your eyes away several times during longer diatribes to ease the tension) while they talk to you and rest your eyes while you talk back.

As a partially deaf person I was encouraged to look at lips and I've become quite good at lip-reading. Unfortunately, as an adult, the lips are just too close to breasts and I often find that my female subjects will try to cover themselves during conversations. This is as embarrassing for me as it is for them.

I guess the best rule is to either stare at the face or (cheeks are a good idea) or slightly above and/or to the left or right of their head - never downwards or they'll assume the worst.

Overall, this is a more effective method than the "roving-eye" method but it doesn't work with everybody. In particular, you need to watch out for people who start turning around mid-conversation to see what you're staring at. If this happens, you need to either make more regular eye contact or switch to the other method.

I am a big fan of the roving eye method. Being a cashier, I've developed the smile, look in the eye and say welcome, look away and complete the transaction inserting a brief eye contact every thirty seconds or so, and then give another eye contact as I thank them before they leave. If they start talking about anything, listen, quickly find a question to ask about what they are talking about, and repeat until they get tired of talking and leave. If I have to sit opposite a friend, I've learned how to study irises and eyelids and so on so that it looks like I'm looking you in the eye, when really I'm thinking about drawing your eyes on paper. These are things I learned how to do so as to appear normal.

"May not have a strong sense of identity, and can be very chameleon like, especially before diagnosis" from list of female asperger syndrome traits. I have noticed this about myself. I don't seem to have my own personality. Any time I'm with a person, I start mimicking them. I start adopting their personality. I do this with tv shows as well. I adopt accents and phrases for a few hours and even think using the same voices I've just heard. I sometimes wonder if I'm being two faced and assure myself that I'm not when I don't adopt bad traits of other people.

"Parents of aspies often think that their children don't show Asperger's tendencies towards patterns. Sometimes, you just need to know where to look...

Example 1. My 7 year-old son seems to wander all over the place when we're walking in the shops. My non-aspie (NT) wife just thought he was mucking around but when I went with him, I immediately became aware that he was walking in patterns on the tiles. Since the coloured pattern zig-zagged across the shopping center and he was following it, he seemed to be all over the place." Link

I have always followed the patterned tiles as a child. It used to bother me if clothing racks and isles weren't placed just right according to the tiles. It also bothered me if I had to leave a pattern before it ended because Mom turned the shopping cart down another isle.

Obsessions or Pet Subjects

Aspergians tend to be interested in one to four subjects and have difficulty listening, learning, or watching shows about things that don't fall into their subjects.

I've had a few obsessions over the year. I've been obsessed with history and geography most of my life. I can't stand the dates, but the logical periods lined up and the stories contained within them have always fascinated me. If I'm following the history in one book, for example, I dislike learning about the entire history of one country followed by the entire history of another. I want to learn about the entire world by the decades. I want to be reminded about the past of each country as they get updated. Now if the countries are in their own books, I don't mind. But if it's the same book, I don't want them separated. Chronological orders are very important to me. That's one thing I disliked about the bible and one thing I absolutely love about The Daily Bible In Chronological Order. In geography, I love maps, but they have to be complete maps. If it's a topographical map, I want the topography of the ocean floor included as well. I dislike ancient maps. I want accurate, extremely accurate updated maps. If I'm studying, reading about or heard mentioned any name of a place, I have to look up the location on a map as soon as possible. I have a huge list of little obsessions on the title of this blog. Recently, I've taken up gardening and DIY projects as an obsession. The other day I got it in my head to make a table and couldn't wait for the weekend, I had to do it right then. So I bought some cheap poor quality wood, stuffed them into my car and that night and next day I sawed, hammered and painted my porch table. It's alright looking, but it will probably rot away in a year because I couldn't be bothered to wait for the weekend to borrow a truck and get some better quality wood that could be cut by a wood saw instead of my dinky metal saw.

I'll cut this post short for now but I think I may write a few more on the subject when the books I ordered get in.

My Dog Almost Died

2008-04-12T21:39:00.001-06:00

No Srsly.

It ruined my whole day.

I took my chis to the vet Friday afternoon (after running around paying bills, getting my taxes done, washing my car, and otherwise having an amazingly productive day) and had their tests and shots done. I scheduled Buster to have plastic surgery (getting that three year old sore from his face removed... and a dental) and Cinnamon to have her own surgery (getting spayed xP) next Friday.

So it all got done.

Then I went over to this doggy day care place to enroll Cinnamon. I'm so neglectful. I work ten hours a day, six days a week, and then she barely gets to run around an hour before I go to bed. So she's going to go to day care two days a week. Buster is fine just sleeping all day and night. He's an old fart.

Where was I going with this story?

Oh yeah. So I'm in the middle of a tour of the daycare when Cinnamon starts crying... or whimpering. Whatever. I thought maybe all the other dogs were making her nervous. Then she starts drooling. I'm like, this isn't normal. But some guy there was just like, oh, she'll be fine. She's just stressed out.

Then yadda yadda yadda, I go out to my car and call the vet, and they're like, no, that's not normal. Bring her in RIGHT NOW. She's having a reaction to the drugs. So I rush back to the vet's and Cin is just drooling away and kinda' passing out. They gave her shot of Benadryl. I worried. They kept her for the rest of the afternoon. Went back at 6:30 to pick her up before closing.

Long story short, she fine. Like nuttin' happened.

We all went home and hung out on my bed playing with toys. I wuv' my puppies.

Currently: Procrastinating

Legends

2008-03-15T20:59:00.006-06:00

Missed me any?

I've been verily busy. Mucho verily.

Okay, so I've got Legends launched. Tis' official. And all the spare time will be devoted to it, I'm sure.

And I'm also playing Animal Crossing on my new Nintendo DS. Bought it for my bday.. which was yesterday.

Ate mucho food. Stuffed. The END!

Currently: Going to bed.

Recurring Dreams

2007-11-09T17:47:00.000-06:00

I keep having these dreams.

They aren't the same exact dream. Totally different stuff happens each time. But they always begin the same, they always end the same, and they always involve the same place and person. I've had these dreams for almost a year, but they were spaced out. This week, I've woken up from them every single night. It's a little upsetting.

I go to sleep, and then I wake up. I either wake up in my old bedroom at my old house, or I wake up in my Mom's bedroom. When I first wake up, I'm a little disconcerted. I know I live in an apartment across town. My dogs are there. My clothes are there. I need to go take a shower there. Why did I decide to stay at my old house for the night? I should go.

But then my Mom is there. I chat with her like old times. Talking about anything. There's usually a bunch of cats or kitties around. They move about all slowly. If they pass by us or roll onto their backs near us, we'll tickle their bellies or scratch an ear.

I then feel a little guilty for deciding to live on my own all the way across town. And it seems a lot farther away than it really is. I love my apartment, but I need to go soon. I can't leave my dogs there stuck in a cage all morning. Before I go, I ask Mom if she needs anything done. Do I need to bag up some trash? Rake the yard? Does she have any new home improvement projects going on? Last night she wanted to me to help her replant the pear tree.

So I get up out of the bed or couch or wherever I was conversing with Mom. I'll try to do something normal before leaving the room. Something that doesn't quite work out. Like last night I wanted to turn the bedroom lights on. So I go to one corner of the room. I flip some switches. All they do is make multiple fans turn at different speeds. I then put my hand through a door to the bathroom and flip switches there. Same results except this time the bathroom exhaust fan thing turns on and off. I go across the room to a different set of switches. It seems like one row of five switches with clothes hanging on the wall concealing anything above them. All the switches don't work. I lift up the bottom of the clothes and find another row. I flip those. I look up at the ceiling. Instead of one light and two fans like I was suspecting would be up there, there were three fans with lights hanging off of them, and a ton of little spotlights all over the ceiling. Still looking up at the lights, I move my hand higher behind the clothes and find another row. I flip one switch and all the lights come on and then quickly fade off.

My frustration goes away and I look back at Mom. I tell her, "You know, I think we are still dreaming. Do you want to try to wake up?" She smiles at me and nods. I close my eyes and try to move my real body. It works. I jerk myself awake and and I'm back at my apartment. At first, I'm pleased with myself. I was right. We were dreaming. But then I realize with a small shock that Mom is dead. I can never talk about my apartment with her, or have silly philosophical arguments with her, or help her out again. For an instant I want to cry. Then I fully wake up and I'm over it.

I really don't mind having dreams about Mom. I just wish it wouldn't so often be the 'last' dream and that I'd wake up to that shock of her gone. I know I've been missing talking to her more lately which is why I'm prolly dreaming about her more lately, but this is turning into a cycle. My dreams remind me of her which is causing more dreams.

This has really got to stop. :(

Currently: Reading another Jim Butcher book. It's the last one. What am I going to do after I finish it?

Mah Pets on Halloween

2007-11-01T00:18:00.000-06:00

My first halloween on my own... except I wasn't exactly alone.

I have *counts* four pets now. And I thought they all should celebrate halloween with me.

A side note... trick or treaters don't, apparently, climb stairs for candy. :( I'll have to buy less candy next year... like only some for myself. What in the world am I going to do with all of this? Yikes.

Above you will find my red Siamese Fighting Fish, Article, and his bowl mate, Oliver, a Black Kuhli Loach. They ate only orange and black food today, and shared their area with ghosts and delicious halloween M&Ms.

Cinnamon and Buster were dressed up tonight seen here sitting on the couch by the witch I failed to hang up. The ghost and tombstones were enough out there. She would have been overkill... so she hung out on the couch.

Buster is sporting a Ghost Buster costume. Haha. This boy is getting scary skinny and if I don't find their nail clippers soon, I'm going to have to buy a new one. Look how long those nails are! Yeesh.

Here is my best girl in a dressy, spooky spider costume. I very regrettably had to cut Cinnamon's ears the other day. The hair just kept on growing and growing... and then I didn't brush it for couple of weeks. Oops. When I got done cutting the mats out, it was so mangled, I had to go on and do the whole thing.

Currently: Listening to some random person's myspace page. I don't even know how I found her, but her music collection is terrif!

Boo!

2007-10-31T14:31:00.000-06:00

*Dramatic Moaning*

Currently: Eating too much candy.

Didja Know?

2007-10-27T16:21:00.000-06:00

When we were kids...

I convinced my brother that there were green colored people on an island in the Pacific, and that purple people were extinct.

Haha.

Currently: Reminiscing.

Ouch!

2007-10-25T13:35:00.000-06:00

I fell down my stairs yesterday.

A cop saw me.

The end.

Currently: Thinking about food.

Candles, Dunes, Cold Weather, and Comic Planning

2007-10-22T15:01:00.000-06:00

I went out for lunch today and it was friggin freezing.

I was like, woah, wtf is going on here? Oh yeah, it's October. Bout' durn time we got out of the triple digits. I've got to dig out my long sleeve shirts... and maybe even a jacket. You know, I always remember Halloween as a cold holiday, but I was beginning to wonder.

Anywho... enough about the weather.

Went to West Texas this weekend and got to climb some sand dunes. First time I've been on any kind of sand in my bare feet. You'd think that since I went to Mexico and all, that I'd have managed to walk on the beach without my shoes on at some point, but no. Never have. That was cool. My feet sank in to my ankles. About half a foot under the sand, the sand turned cold and kind of wet feeling. It was nice. I also have a very achy thumb because I lit about three hundred (I'm guessing, felt like a billion) candles with one of those annoying child safe lighters. Oh, I hate those things. Used up three of them lighting all those friggin' things. Did I mention we were there for a wedding? Yeah. It was beautiful. The night was pitch black except for the candles. Then this wind came by and burned out about 95 percent of them all at once. It got dark right quick. I just laughed at that. All that work and boom, gone.

The comic is coming along nicely. I removed all the fantasy parts of it. No stupid faerie blood or magic or anything out of the ordinary. It will be more warrior dramatic with intrigue. Yeah. And I'm feeling better about the entertainment value of the whole piece. It's interesting to me, so hopefully others will find it interesting when it launches.

Progress is great. The chapter summaries for both legends are completely done. The walk through and character profiles are complete up to the midpoint of the first legend. And the script is completely written for the first chapter of the first legend.

And I'm finding it amazingly satisfying to work on this comic. You know that feeling you get when your reading a good book, and your out somewhere doing regular stuff and in the back of your mind, you want to hurry up and get back home to continue reading it. That's how I feel about working on this comic. This is a very good sign, because I don't usually finish projects I start. I just want to get off of this comp and go continue writing the walk through and character profiles.

So script wise, it's solid. I'm only worried now about the art wise. Heh. I've been practicing up a bit, and when I get some solid forms I'll post the character sheets here. Micah, the main dude, is great. I can reproduce his features and his costume in any pose pretty confidently. I'm still not doing facial expressions right, but I've got a book helping me out there. Sarai's costume is good, but I'm still having trouble on her face. I've got her face pictured pretty perfectly in a few sketches but ninety percent of the time, she looks like different people wearing the same clothes. I don't know what I'm doing wrong. But yeah, I'll figure it out. And I haven't even started on all the other characters (and there are tons) but I know what they all look like in my mind's eye.

Currently: Decorating for Halloween... wow I've got a lot of decorations. o_O

Football, Funerals, and Fainting

2007-10-09T00:19:00.000-06:00

First of all, let me say, that I am very happy I watched the Cowboys/Bills game tonight.

Those last two kicks, we were all screaming at the TV. It was good. Can't believe we won after all that. Ha.

Went to my great aunt Ruby's funeral today. It was outside in the heat, right before it rained... so also humid. I embarrassed myself sooooo baaaaad. About halfway through the funeral I knew I was going to faint. Then I decided, that no, I was not going to faint. I was going to stand there, and not faint, if it was the last thing I do.

The preacher man droned on and on and on (not talking about Ruby, but trying to save souls or something, hate when they do that) and things were getting brighter and blurrier. The last two minutes of his speech, I was completely blind. Couldn't see a thing. I was standing there with my eyes wide open and all I could see was white.

I told myself over and over, not going to faint, not going to faint, not allowed to faint, DO NOT FAINT. Prayed it, even. And my purse started weighing a thousand pounds, and my back felt like it was on fire. I had a hand on the back of a chair, so I knew when I started swaying that I was in trouble.

Finally the preacher guy was done talking, and I started trying to figure out how I could get onto my knees... because I didn't think I could NOT faint for much longer... and I really didn't want to just fall over. Bout that time my uncle grabbed my arm and started hauling me to his truck. I regained my vision about halfway there. Spent the rest of the time in his truck cooling off while people chatted.

Why do I always have to do something stupid like that? Grrr.

Currently: Sketching character profiles.

Comica

2007-09-25T12:33:00.000-06:00

I've started a new comic series.

I'm going to flesh out the storyboards a bit, make sure I can draw the characters the same way every time (oie, the faces, at least most of them are wearing masks or beards, so that will be easier), and hopefully I'll be able to launch it on my website by the beginning of next year.

It's a serious project with a story that's been swimming around in my head for nearly three years now. It will unfortunately not be funny, more of a epic fantasy. I wish I was funnier. Bleh.

It has a huge background story that I need to be careful about introducing properly when it's needed. I plan to start it at a very tense moment, technically in the middle of the story, and fill in the gaps along the way. Fortunately that will be easier, as the main guy character will be meeting the main female character for the first time after the tense stuff is over, and hopefully I can introduce her back story through his eyes. Cept, she won't explain it properly for a long time to come. She's a little introverted. I dunno. Volume Two will be the story of this woman's daughter and she starts out explaining her mother's life story, but it may be years before I get to start volume two.

Yeah, I know I'm being vague.

It's called The Legend Of Sarai. She's part faerie, one of the last of her kind, marries a farmer in the east, farmer gets killed, marries a prince in the north and has a daughter, prince gets killed, runs away with said daughter to the west while 'the dark' spreads across the land after them, daughter gets captured and taken back east, she runs after them with male hero character which is where the comic kinda starts. Sounds common now, but I have some unique stories planned for it.

I want to say that it will be something kinda in the middle of The Lord of the Rings and Death Note... maybe a bit of Dark Tower mixed in there too. That's my aim... but it won't be as good as either, and it won't be copying either. Ha.

I'll stop the gibberish now. Just wanted to say.

Currently: Drawing

Oh Donovan

2007-09-24T08:07:00.000-06:00

I don't know why it is, but the name Donovan has been attacking me lately.

You know how it is when you discover a new word... and then it starts showing up everywhere... like how could you not have noticed that word before?

Started out with me liking Jeffrey Donovan, the guy from Burn Notice and Touching Evil. Great actor. Then there's Donovan, the character on Eureka. Then Capt. Craig Donovan of Seven Days. (I started watching that series again yesterday.) Then Donovan is the first name of a guy that lives upstairs from my brother's place. Oh, and Donovan McNabb on yahoo today.

Not that any of this is remotely interesting, I just thought I'd share.

Currently: Going o_O IRL

10.. 9... 8... Boom... Oops

2007-09-13T22:59:00.000-06:00

Survey stolen from dwaggie.

---10 Firsts---

First Best Friend:::
Mary Mary. I miss Mary. I still have an awesome gift she gave me and we saw our first tornado together when I helped her move away. We were 8 or something.

First Screenname:::
bookey314... I love books. But peeps assumed I was a guy and wanted to place bets. hahaha.

First Pet Name:::
Domino. For the longest time I thought my grandfather had dumped him into the ocean from an airplane after he died. People. Please don't lie to little kids like that. You don't know the damage you do!

First Piercing:::
My ears.

First Crush:::
I don't know. I didn't do a lot of crushing.

First CD:::
Alanis Morisette... and I didn't get to actually listen to it for almost a year... when I got my first cd player. Ha.

First School:::
Bradfield

First House Location:::
I call it the green house... It was green. I don't know where it was at.

First Kiss:::
4 years old... with tongue... with brandon... in the bushes. We both thought it was gross. Haha.

First Car:::
White 03 Camry that I absolutely adored until that moronic old woman destroyed it. Now I have a Midnight Blue 03 Accord that I feel myeh about.

---9 Lasts---

Last Time You Smoked:::
A cigar last April. Hehe. It was gross.

Last Food You Ate:::
I just had some cookie dough ice cream with hot fudge on it. Woo.

Last Car Ride:::
Yesterday when Cindy and I were out doing stuff.

Last Movie You Watched:::
Oh what was that movie. Shooter. I think. Last week.

Last Phone Call:::
With Dwight about my car. Ha.

Last CD You Listened To:::
Serosia CD I got from Derek at his concert. Hehe. I still need to pay Kathy back for that.

Last Bubble Bath You Took:::
Holy crap. I'd love a bubble bath... in a big tub. Lessee... It would have to have been ten years ago. Maybe as little seven. I'm thinking at my Granny's old house. Her tub had jets and everything.

Last Song You Listened To:::
Some japanese song that is seriously funny. There it is.

Last Words You Said:::
Holy crap... a few seconds ago. I said that out loud you know. Ha.

---8 Have-You-Evers---

Dated A Best Friend:::
Urm, no.

Been Arrested:::
Yes... I mean no.

Been On TV:::
Yes.

Eaten Sushi:::
No... but I keep waiting for an oppurtunity to. o_O

Cheated On Your B/F or G/F:::
Hehe... Kinda. I wouldn't do it these days though. That was kids stuff.

Been On A Blind Date:::
Yeah.

Been Out Of The Country:::
Yes. xD

Been In Love:::
Never. I don't think I ever will either. What the heck is 'in love'. That's a stupid concept.

---7 Things You Are Wearing---

1::: Jeans
2::: unders.
3::: uppers
4::: glasses
5::: doggy bed to keep my feet warm
6::: ummm... freckles
7::: dirt? I should prolly fetch a shirt at some point.

---6 Things You've Done Today---

1::: woken up.
2::: ate a pizza thingy.
3::: ate that ice cream.
4::: watched burn notice.
5::: sat down here.
6::: got on myspace.

---5 Favorite Things (not in any order)---

1::: My pups... and the walking them throughout the complex at 3am.
2::: My computer... and the mind warp gurgley thing I turn into from.
3::: My apartment.... all the rooms and all the things.... it's all mine! Yahahaha.
4::: My car... and the driving anywhere and everywhere in.
5::: My gun.... bang bang. heehee.

---4 People You Most Trust---

1::: I
2::: Trust
3::: No
4::: One

---3 Things You Want To Do Before You Die---

1::: The same things I'm doing now... but with maids.
2::: Take more trips... like cruises and hiking in colorado.
3::: Enjoy the doing of it. <_< _=" ">_> =_= x_x =_=

---2 Choices---

Vanilla or Chocolate::: vanilla.... with fudge. o_O
Hugs or Kisses::: spooning.

--1 Person You Want To See Right Now---

1::: No one until I put a shirt on.

Currently: Not wearing a shirt... I do believe we've established that by now.

Crazy People

2007-09-09T10:59:00.000-06:00

Had some excitement at church this morning.

I'm a teacher's assistant for the 2 and half and 3 year olds. We were in the middle of a class when this big built black dude rushes in and hands me flier and then rushes out. Cindy asked me if I knew him and I said, um, no. So she went into the hall and he came out of the supply room with a fire extinguisher, went into another classroom and traded it for a trash can and then told Kevin that the fire extinguisher was a bomb. Some of the men escorted him out of the building while Shauna called the police. He took off down the street before they got there but they found him. They said they knew about him and that he was having an 'episode'.

That was interesting. Hehe.

Currently: Singing silently.

Aftermath

2007-09-08T01:57:00.000-06:00

Oie!

That was a fun concert. Kathy and I were sitting around making fun of people. Derek's band is great. I know they'll get onto the radio soon.

Currently: Painting mermaids.

Updations

2007-09-07T00:53:00.000-06:00

Ooooh, very excited.

I'm going to a friend's concert tomorrow night. Serosia! Derek plays guitar and writes alot of the music.... and he screams some. Can't wait.

Lookin' for a job again.

That's the news. Ha.

Currently: Mind Melding :P

I Can't Believe It

2007-07-08T19:43:00.000-06:00

They are actually making The Bourne Ultimatum.

But by the looks of the trailer, it will have absolutely nothing to do with the plot of the book. Are they even trying? It's bad enough they killed off his wife.

Course' it looks like the title makes more since for the movie than it ever did for the book.

Crazyness.

Currently: Moving

Owwwowwwowwww

2007-06-29T14:28:00.000-06:00

I thought my toe was healed...

But then I was hugging on a pit and she stepped on my toe... and I think she rebroke it. Must have only been healed enough to not hurt. *moanyhead*

Currently: Wishing I had bought some triple As.

I Accomplished Things Today

2007-06-23T16:46:00.000-06:00

Yeah. And I did it objectively.

None of that overwhelmedness and depression today.

Just objective get'n'r'done.

Currently: Looking up pet insurance.

Crooked Smiles

2007-06-22T21:36:00.000-06:00

You know how I have a crooked smile? It's not because my face is crooked. It is, but that's not why.

Apparently my neck is too straight (side view) and is pinching a nerve which makes the right side of my face slightly less sensitive than the left on the jaw nerve. This makes me pull my right cheek up more so that there's even smiling pressure, but not even actual pressure. Or whatever. Point is, I'm weird. Actually that wasn't the point. I forgot the point back when I was typing the first part of this paragraph.

Anywho...

Yeah, I've been getting some help from a chiropractor and getting my nerves tested and stuff. At least the massages are working. I'm a bit skeptical about the whole adjustment thing, but I'm definitely not going to do surgery. Nope. Not gonna' happen.

And when I start feeling better (and my treadmill gets moved to my apartment, finally) I'll, uh, start exercising. Yeah. Believe it or not, I used to love walking on my tready... and doing tai chi and stuff. I've become a right sloth the last couple of years with all the helping of sick people and the freely buying of pudding pie mixes since I moved... I love chocolate pudding pie.

And tai chi looks ridiculous when a fat rear end is doing it. Haha. I close the blinds now... and I've forgotten the last part of that dance, the part between where you do this one footed thing, twist, and go back to the starting point for some reverse action... and I'm messing up the reverse action. And my breathing is totally erratic, not calm at all. Yeah. But who cares. I've only tried doing it a couple of times now. I'll figure it out. Or look it up. Ha.

Currently: Cleaning out the old house and when not doing so, worrying about cleaning out the old house.

GiggleSnort

2007-06-14T01:01:00.000-06:00

Heeeheeeheeee

Haaahaaahaaa

Currently: Laughing my rear end off. :P

I Broke My Toe People!

2007-06-08T06:38:00.000-06:00

And let me tell you...

That's not fun.

Especially when it also involves a stabbing, a toothpick, and carpet.

Hurts worse than when my brother broke my pinky toe shoving that small trampoline over just when I was leaping over it... to beat him up.

Hehe.

Good times.

Currently: Going ow.

My Wreck

2007-05-15T16:40:00.000-06:00

Was in a wreck last Saturday. My poor car is ruined. I loved that car.

We were driving down a street with two lanes on each side of a middle turn lane. People all the time pull out real fast in front of traffic and whip into the middle lane. Like they're going half way across. It's a very busy little road. That's what I thought a woman was doing when she came towards me from the left. Except that she didn't whip into the middle lane. She just kept on coming. I had time only to move my foot over towards the break before I hit her. I've got lots of bruises and some lingering whip lash. My step mother had really bad whip lash and more bruises. My little brother and sister were in the back and both of them hit their right cheeks against the seat and gave them black eyes.

My Car:

Her Car:

Currently: Moping about my poor little car. I will miss it.

Survey and Some Quizzes

2007-05-03T16:41:00.000-06:00

I'm stealing the survey from Melissa and the quizzes from no one... just felt like taking a few.

1. last beverage→ Dr Pepper in a Bubba Keg. Yum.

2. last phone call→ From Melissa... I think.

3. last instant message→ From Melissa. Ha.

4. last CD played→ My mix cd, of mostly Chevelle and System of a Down.

5. last time you cried- Last night watching Star Trek: Voyager. *falls over laughing*

6. last text message→ To my brother which he ignored... last month.

SIX HAVE YOU EVERS:

1. dated someone twice→ Um, yes? o_O

2. been cheated on?→ Oh yeah.

3. kissed someone & regretted it?→ Tobacco is gross. So yes. Haha.

4. lost someone special?→ Definately yes.

5. been depressed→ Duh. O_o

LIST THREE FAVORITE COLORS:
1. Blue
2. Brown
3. Green

THIS MONTH HAVE YOU

1. Made a new friend→ ummmm... a new aquaintance... but no. No I haven't.

2. Fallen out of love → Erm, no.

3. Laughed until you cried→ Never.

4. Met someone who changed your life→ Lesseeee... nope.

5. Found out who your true friends were→ Um, no. I know who they are.

6. Is there something you want to tell someone? - Er, no.

7. How many kids do you want to have? Either none, or three. Ha. Prolly none, though.

8. Do you have any pets? Buster and Cinnamon sittin' in a tree. o_O Chihuahuas.

9. Do you want to change your name? Sure. I wouldn't mind dropping the A.

10. What did you do for your last birthday? Nothing... except get awesome presents from people. Haha.

11. What time did you wake up today? I woke up around 8, got up around 11. :3

12. What were you doing at midnight last night? Watching Star Trek: Voyager, methinks.

13. Name something you CANNOT wait for? I can't wait to... um... finish this quiz. I don't know. :P

14. Last time you saw your father? Monday night... I think.

15. What is one thing you wish you could change about your life? I had a maid. *shrug*

16.What are you listening to right now? pyro ding in and out of msn.

17. Who's getting on your nerves right now? nuttin'

18. Most visited web-page? Neopets.

19. Coke or Pepsi? Dr. Pepper

20. Have you seen anyone naked in the past week? Only myself, man, and it wasn't pretty.

You Sometimes Hold a Grudge

You aren't exactly vengeful, but you're not going to forget when someone wrongs you.
And while you'll forgive the small things, you don't hand out too many second chances to people who really screw up.

Do You Hold a Grudge?

Your Hawaiian Name is:

Alani Lana

What's your Hawaiian Name?

Your Personality is Very Rare (INTP)

Your personality type is goofy, imaginative, relaxed, and brilliant.

Only about 4% of all people have your personality, including 2% of all women and 6% of all men
You are Introverted, Intuitive, Thinking, and Perceiving.

How Rare Is Your Personality?

Oh really? I'm so rare. :P

You Are 44% Brutally Honest

Honesty is important to you, but generally, you try not to be brutal about it.
You'll sugar coat the truth when you need to... and tell a white lie when necessary.

How Brutally Honest Are You?

You Belong in Paris

Stylish and expressive, you were meant for Paris.
The art, the fashion, the wine!
Whether you're enjoying the cafe life or a beautiful park...
You'll love living in the most chic place on earth.

What City Do You Belong In?

Your Pirate Name Is...

Pegleg Ladyfingers

What's Your Pirate Name?

What Your Sleeping Position Says

You are calm and rational.
You are also giving and kind - a great friend.
You are easy going and trusting.
However, you are too sensible to fall for mind games.

What Does Your Sleeping Position Say About You?

There's a 40% Chance You've Been Abducted By Aliens

Even though you have a few alien abduction signs, you're almost certainly in the clear.
However, if aliens ever do come to your neck of the woods... they'll probably be coming for you!

What Are the Chances that You've Been Abducted by Aliens?

You Are an Ice Cream Cake

Surprising, unique, and high maintenance.
You're one of a kind, and you don't want anyone to forget it.
You're fun in small doses, but it's easy for people to overdose on you!

What Kind of Cake Are You?

Ooooookay. o_O

You Are Balanced - Realist - Powerful

You feel your life is controlled both externally and internally.
You have a good sense of what you can control and what you should let go.
Depending on the situation, you sometimes try to exert more control.
Other times, you accept things for what they are and go with the flow.

You are a realist when it comes to luck.
You don't attribute everything to luck, but you do know some things are random.
You don't beat yourself up when bad things happen to you...
But you do your best to try to make your own luck.

When it comes to who's in charge, it's you.
Life is a kingdom, and you're the grand ruler.
You don't care much about what others think.
But they better care what you think!

The Three Dimension Luck and Power Test

Haha. I'm such a dictator. *shifty again*

You Are 54% Non Conformist

You definitely have your freak flag out, and from time to time, you wave it.
You have some pretty strong opinions, and you're not afraid to express them.

Are You a Nonconformist?

Your Hillbilly Name Is...

Ellie Mae Clementine

Hillbilly Name Generator

Alright, enough of that!

Currently: Wishing I could play some more Cake Mania. One hour wasn't enough! *shifty*

Just Cruising Along

2007-04-26T22:46:00.000-06:00

Went on a cruise. Had some fun. What better way is there to bore you with the details than showing ya' pictures? So here they are. :P Oh, and blogger decided to cut out on me so three pictures will be linked to instead of displayed. *kicks blogger*

This is our upgraded stateroom. Got a window view. We were stuck in Galveston for two days as they replaced a huge engine part, so the trip to Progresso was canceled. Anywho, that got us a twenty percent refund, an upgraded stateroom, and 50 bucks put on our charge cards to spend on the ship (which is basically the entirety of the tips they automatically charge ya' for). So this is our state room ocean view. It was a nice sized room, and we enjoyed it.

They made little towel animals for us each night. Above is a bear, and below is a pig. I promptly took each animal and put it on the shelf below our tv, and put headphones on them. Our animals have got to listen to some tunes, ya' know.

Oh, and here's a view out of our window. It was pretty low, so the surf sprayed it a bit. Kathy and I would sit each night staring at the waves hitting the ship hypnotized. Especially during the rough parts. 7 and 8 feet waves are pretty entertaining.

The most popular area of the ship was the main Lido deck. It had two pools, one with a slide, a jacuzzi, live music, a bar, tons of tables, two food buffets, and lounge chairs. It was also the main thoroughfare for the lunch rooms at the rear of the Lido deck and a good way to get to the pools on the quieter Veranda deck which was one deck up and behind the big engine tail thing sticking up. We hung out more on the Veranda deck reading books and laying out. And when we got back early from Cozumel, we had the pools and jacuzzi there all to ourselves. Fun stuff. So anyways, this is what you see coming out onto the deck from the forward and main end of the ship, and this is what you see turning around. You come in through the middle glass doors there, and the bar is on the right. My second favorite stop, actually.

Every night round' about desert time the waiters would perform silly songs and dances for us. This was our last night and them singing the funniest song yet.

We went to Cozumel. Docked on the cheap side of the island. Prices weren't cheap, they just got to park there for free, which sucked for us because the good shops were all the way on the other side of the island. Here's an outside view of the dock area, and you can see lots of leftover damage from the hurricane. The dock is messed up there and the rubble in the middle used to be a hotel. Still pretty there, though.

We shopped down there some.

Should've shopped way down there. Here's some more picks of the island coming towards us.

Oh, and here's a pic of a sunken boat that was parked at the broken dock we're parked at. You can just make it out under the water. A few times the waves settled enough I could see the seats and everything on it very clearly. It's down a ways... pretty deep there, even though it looks close. I'm looking down about ten stories of the ship, we're parked on top of that boat safely, and I could move down the rails a good distance without it moving much. Hehe. There was also a sunken plane nearby but we couldn't find it.

And that's it, folks. More stuff happened, but I didn't take pictures of it. Prolly won't remember it for long. Oh wells.

Currently: Yawning.

In Case You Haven't Seen This Yet

2007-04-11T14:26:00.000-06:00

Or in case I let this blog go by another month without posting o_O

Watch this crappy song written by a couple of seven year olds:

And then watch this:

Alanis is my hero! Lol.

Currently: Being pissy about my passport and registration renewal.

Apartmas!

2007-03-29T15:08:00.000-06:00

Hehe. So here is my apartment.

You enter into my apartment by the door just right of this pic. Where the wall curves there. When I first moved in, all I had was my puppies. They're still there, but now I have some furniture. I don't have it decorated the way I want or all the furniture that I want, so I'll take a pic of it then... when I do. :P And that large window thing is a sliding glass door that leads to a roomy balcony.

After you enter the apartment, to your immediate left is a view of the kitchen and dining room. This is the before (like the dog food there? :P) and after shots of that. I LOVE this furniture. White washed and so pretty. And soon I'll have tons of cranberry glass inside those cabinets. Hehe.

Looking straight on from the entrance is a small hallway. You can just see the curve of it to the right of the dining room in the before shot. On the left is a bathroom, on the right is my office (see previous post) and straight ahead leads to my huge bedroom. Hehe.

So here is the before and after shots of my bathroom.

And here be the bedroom. That's a before shot. I have some chairs in there now, but I still don't have all my bedroom furniture. So I'll show you that later, too.

I hope you enjoyed the tour. :D

Currently: Drooling

Deskmas!

2007-03-29T14:50:00.000-06:00

This here is the big magnificent desk I built and I'm durn proud of it. :D

Step one: Unpack contents of box.

Step two: Start building it.

Step three: Build it some more.

Step four: Don't forget to build the hutch.

Step five: Enjoy!

That computer on the left is my brothers'. I'm keeping it until he moves somewhere where he doesn't get the door kicked in every other week. >_<

More pics to come!

Currently: Pixelating

Are You a Robot?

2007-03-16T03:16:00.000-06:00

Funny, I was just watching Data. :P

Currently: Looking at the time, widening my eyes, and hurrying away to sleep.

Sing Happy Birthday To Me

2007-03-14T15:18:00.000-06:00

Because you know, it's my bday.

I bought myself a birthday cake. I keep nibbling on it, and it keeps making me sick. I'm not supposed to have that stuff. It does a number on me... ummm... yeah. Nevermind.

Guess what I got. Heehee. Daddy got me two fishing poles. They are gorgeous! I love em' love em' love em'! I can't wait to go fishing again.

I need to go to my brother's house and get the cord that hooks my camera up to the computer. I've taken loads of pictures of my apartment and my fancshy smanshy desk. And I'm tired of playing with the photos I have on my computer. I'm ready for new stuff to tweak. Yeah.

I do believe I mentioned me getting cable. Anywho, I ended up returning the wireless thing and buying all the crap I needed to install the cable across the walls of my living room and through a newly made hole in the wall to my office. It all looks so nice. I'm happy about it. And it cost less than half than the wireless thing.

My favorite shows now are The Dog Whisperer, SG1, various Star Trek episodes, Futurama, Coupling on demand :P, and you know, some more stuff. I'm such a nerd. Whatever.

Currently: Eating Cake

I Killed My Plants

2007-02-24T14:43:00.000-06:00

Didn't take them in the first night it was cold. They were so pretty. I tried to save them, but they don't look like they want to be saved.

I've officially been living here for a month. It's home. Still don't have my furniture. I need to kick my brother around a bit.

Today the power keeps going out for a second or two at a time. Like twice an hour. It's really windy today, but yeesh. I've given up reprogramming my clocks. I'll wait until this weather settles down.

It took me three weeks to complete my desk, and then I moved my computer in. It was so pretty for a day. Then I ordered cable and only one cable outlet in my apartment works. I bought a wireless thing, but it refuses to work for me. *cry* So now my desk is lonely and my computer sits on the floor of the living room.

I love this place, but I'm disliking more and more a few things about apartment living. I decided to move into an apartment because I didn't think I could handle the little things, like maintaining things that want to break and dealing with a septic tank and taxes and stuff. Not alone. But it seems I'm dealing with more and more issues here, and the management just brushes off my concerns. *kick* If I can't get some basic things fixed here this year, I'll just go buy a friggin' house. Whatever.

But besides that. It's beautiful here. I have a great view. It's quiet. And I absolutely love living with just my dogs... and I don't even need them, but you know, they're my babies. :P I miss my cat. :(

Oooh, and I'm about to get my concealed handgun license! Weeee.

Currently: Shopping for plants.

Apartmenticities and Deskosities

2007-01-16T18:40:00.000-06:00

So, I believe I should go to home depot and buy some sand. Stock up for future freezings. It's not fun trying to climb icy stairs. A friend was helping me move some stuff today and she had some sand handy and that stuff works great. For some reason I really didn't think a smidge of sand would actually do anything, but it made it like the ice wasn't even there. I think I might fill a tub up with it and keep it in my coat closet. Hehe.

I need to take some piccies of my apartment. Also, the desk I wanted isn't going to happen. I have a chance to buy another one for much cheaper, but I'm not sure if I should. If I wait too long, it will disappear on me. I just don't know. Mocha cherry is so dark, but my computer is black, and it might be okay... but I'm afraid of making things depressing for the sake of a comfy feel. I just really don't know. Can't make up my mind. Buying that and the bookcases will cost around 1000 dollars, so it's a big decision. Bleh :P

I just remembered I wanted to go to the post office today to finish my passport application, but I forgot. Tomorrow I'll be doing lots of shopping. So maybe the next day? Or not? Sometime soon. Hehe.

Lots of stuff to think about. I haven't spent much of anything on my proposed furnishing budget. I'm so indecisive. I'm usually never indecisive. I usually know exactly what I want and go for it immediately. I think the problem is, really, that the computer is very important to my way of life. I spend so much time on it. And while I've made this desk work over the last few years, I want something that I'm not going to complain about for the next ten or so years to come.

I've been talking to everyone about this stupid desk I'm buying. Hehe. Yeesh. I'm prolly' annoying the heck out of everyone. It's just a desk. No need to get huffy about it. I'm just sad that the dream desk I want, the bush mission pointe collection, is being discontinued and no one has the hutch. The hutch isn't that important, I think, but I want it. It's just not the same without it. It's not the DREAM without it. And I might as well spend a lot less money if I can't have my dream. The bush tuxedo mocha cherry collection is pretty similar, but no book cases. And it's being discontinued as well. And it's so dark. But I can get mocha cherry or very similar colored cherry wood book cases elsewhere. BUT I DON'T KNOW.

Stop that. *whack*

Currently: Waiting for the bro to get home so I can go home.

Brrr

2007-01-15T08:30:00.000-06:00

I spent 10 minutes this morning trying to open up the trunk of the car. Had to break some of the ice just to get the key in. Didn't manage it.

So I said, whatever, I'll just stuff this stuff in the back seat. So I broke some ice off to unlock the front door. And I pulled... and I pulled... and I jerked some... then pulled some more. Yeah. My car is frozen.

Currently: Wanting some breakfast. :(

Apartimentos

2007-01-12T01:03:00.000-06:00

This week I have one address. Next week I'll have another. I have no idea how long it will take my driver's license to be switched to the new address, so I also have no idea if I should put my new address or my old address onto my passport application. If you move, do you have to get a new passport? I've got much to research.

Also, the rubber around my windshield is coming out again. Cept' this time it is MY car and I don't know what to do about it, or how much it will cost to fix. I expect the whole windshield will need to be replaced. What the heck did Mom do to fix the problem last time? Maybe someone just jammed it back in real good. Dunno. It freaks me out every time the wind catches it and then it slams back on the car with a metallic thud. Instant heart attack, and not that fun when I'm on the highway between an eighteen wheeler and a concrete barrier... and the eighteen wheeler isn't so much concerned about staying in his lane. Also, sometimes the wind blows through it and it sounds just like a cat crying. THAT really freaked me out until I realized what it was. I was afraid some animal was hanging on for dear life down there or something.

How do you know which washer and dryer to buy? I can get both from a range of 800 to 2500 dollars. I'll need to measure the apartment again and make sure the dryer runs on electricity, but yeah. Which ones? I talked to a salesman yesterday, and he picked a couple out he thought I should have. I kinda' want a front loading washer though... and I don't want to buy trash. I WANT something nice that's going to last me. The dryer at the house is gas and going fine... it's 10 years old. But the washer is a source of annoyance. A screw holding a piece of metal, which is holding a spring, which helps keep the tub sturdy during the spin cycle keeps getting shaken loose and then there's the constant banging against the front. Won't stay put together, man.

So anywhosits, a friend or two and I are going to shopping this weekend for that and stuff for my new apartment. And also, doing the move. So after I relax a bit here, I think I'll wash all my clothes, pull out a few outfits to wear for the next few days, and then pack em' all up. I should also repack my red glassware. They won't survive a move the way they are now. I really didn't think when I unpacked them and put them in these tubs that I'd be repacking them so soon... mere months later.

I have no idea what color wood I should be aiming for in my new digs. Should I go with the tables I already have and don't like, or should I cover my tables with cloth and get the darker cherry wood I like... or maybe I want white washed wood and do a relaxing beachy decor. I hate being so mainstream as to decorate with beach stuff like everyone else, but then, I always get this relaxing blissful feeling when I'm around beach stuff, that maybe I should just DO it and stop worrying about what stream I'm in. Hehe.

That's enough chatter, you. Go wash your clothes!

Currently: Sneezing, apparently.

More Quizzes

2007-01-11T06:42:00.000-06:00

I'm going quiz crazy. Mainly because I'm trying to be artistic, and freaking out when I make a tiny mistake... while being anxious about my new apartment plans... yeah.

Your Sloth Quotient: 72%

You're a pretty lazy person, and you relish in your own sloth.
While being lazy does feel good, you're missing out on the really good parts of life that take a little work.

How Much Sloth Do You Have?

True. True. And what parts might that be?

You Are Incredibly Logical

Move over Spock - you're the new master of logic
You think rationally, clearly, and quickly.
A seasoned problem solver, your mind is like a computer!

How Logical Are You?

Is that a good thing or a bad thing?

You Are a Chick Rocker!

You're living proof that chicks can rock
You're inspired by Joan Jett and the Donnas
And when you rock, you rock hard
(Plus, you get all the cute guy groupies you want!)

What Kind of Rocker Are You?

I'm actually living proof that nerdy chicks can rock. Har har har.

Your Ideal Pet is a Little Dog

You're both high strung, hyper, and cute.
You're one of the few people who can get away with carrying your little dog in a little bag.

What's Your Ideal Pet?

Not really, but I do have some little dogs. Hrm.

Currently: Pointlessly jumping up every few minutes... maybe I am high strung.

Blogger

2007-01-10T01:35:00.000-06:00

... And after a couple of days, I have finished updating the archives to have labels. Yay! All my posts have labels.

I also deleted tons of my archive posts... months worth even. I say alot of pointless things. In fact, most of my posts are pointless. :D 64 of them. After that, I mostly rant, talk about my family, my pets, and post pictures. I also have a few favorites. Not many, but there they are. Hehe.

I can't figure out how to do a couple of other things using new blog code with my old template. I'd love to add the number of posts in each month beside their respective links on the sidebar. I'd also like to link to all of my labels over there too. But the tags make no sense to me. And what is up with the widgets. Widgets are supposed to be a hypothetical product for advertisers to practice advertising, and salesmen to practice selling. Bleh. :P

Until I figure it out, I'll just update it manually. Yeah. Ciao.

Currently: Zapping pets.

Quizimondo

2007-01-09T20:18:00.000-06:00

A quiz.

You Are 24% Spoiled

You're barely spoiled. You may have some nice things, but you never let them go to your head.
You appreciate each gift you're given - and you don't dwell on what you "deserve" to have.

Are You Spoiled?

Exactly!

You Are: 50% Dog, 50% Cat

You are a nice blend of cat and dog.
You're playful but not too needy. And you're friendly but careful.
And while you have your moody moments, you're too happy to stay upset for long.

Are You More Cat or Dog?

I'm also a 50% dog lover and a 50% cat lover.

You Are 48% Nerdy

You may be a bit surprised with this score, but your more of a closet nerd than an actual nerd.
Stop denying your inner nerd! You're truly dorkier than you think.

How Nerdy Are You?

Actually, I keep telling my friends I'm a dork and a nerd, but they think I'm insulting myself. o_O

Your Blog Should Be Blue

Your blog is a peaceful, calming force in the blogosphere.
You tend to avoid conflict - you're more likely to share than rant.
From your social causes to cute pet photos, your life is a (mostly) open book.

What Color Should Your Blog or Journal Be?

Well... the cute pet photos are right.

Currently: Meowing with my cat.

Switching to the New Blogger

2007-01-09T04:56:00.000-06:00

I was so afraid. I was so scared. I was twitchy twitchy twitchy.

I finally switched to the new blogger. And guess what. NOTHING CHANGED! Hallelujah!

As someone who has spent ages... back in the day... tweaking and tweaking the template of this blog, I can assure you that when they say your template doesn't change... IT DOESN'T CHANGE!

And that makes two years now of being a blogger. Mmhmmm.

Currently: Celebrating

Choices Made and Received

2006-12-29T15:59:00.000-06:00

Howwww Dayyyyy

Don't ask me what that means, every time I hear howdy, it echos in my brain and hours later it sounds like howww dayyyy howww dayyy. And if you've seen the movie, The 13th Warrior, it takes on the voice of that guy yelling 'ooo day' calling from the ship in that foggy land place. *starts thinking about the 'fire vwerm'*.

Well... guess I just explained it then. o_O Moving on.

I think I've decided what apartment I'm going to move to. But they, like every other freaking apartment around here, only accept 2 pets. That's it. I have two chihuahuas and a cat. They are my kids. My babys. I have to have all three. My brother hates my animals. He's not going to feed or look after my cat. Garrrrr...

Only thing I can do is sneak the cat in later. Buster is 10 years old. Garfy is 9. Cinnamon is almost 2.

Ugh. I'd willingly sign a contract saying I will pay for cleaning and repair of anything my animals mess up if they'd willing accept all my pets. Hey, I even want some fish to add to the equation. I don't think they like fish either. -.-

But anyways, I believe the apartment decision is made. I also finally got in the money for insurance. They gave my brother way more than me, cuz' they decided to pay the funeral home out of my half. Both were checked for funeral home properly. I made sure of that. Idiots, but my bro is cool. He'll pay me back.

I went to the Dallas Aquarium after doing some paperwork in downtown Dallas yesterday. I lurved the cats, the hammerhead shark, the penguins, and uh... those cute little monkeys... and the manatees. Yeah. I loved lots of stuff. But it was more of a zoo than an aquarium. A very wet zoo. I thought the whole thing would be like the couple of tunnels they had. But it was more of a rain forest set up with bats and birds and reptilian creatures.

OOooooooh, the huge gigantian cat fish were the neatoest things. When we were above the manatee tank looking down we were seeing the cat fish. But we were also seeing something weird under the water fall. (We had no idea the tank was so deep.) I could have sworn I was seeing some white ghosty things down there and we were waiting forever for them to come up. We were staring and staring, and then I could have sworn I saw a person down there. Maybe someone was cleaning the bottom of the tank. Then when we were several floors down, we ran into the tank, saw the cat fish hanging out up by the surface, and saw the diver feeding the manatees and someone talking about them on a microphone. It was a scheduled show. So we stayed down there a long time watching them after the show too.

Check out the manatee cam at that site. You may not see them, but the fish and turtles will swim by. That's awesome. Haha. Those really weird hook nosed fish are cat fish and one's a bass if it has scales. They're weird. The video is fine for dialup, I'm having no problems. But watch!

You know, one of the funnest things, actually, was watching that diver cleaning the tank up a bit after feeding the manatees. Oooh, watch him kick his legs... watch him swing his net thing... watch him dump the debris by the surface. Lol.

I did lots of stuff this week. Hrm. But that's my news. Ciao.

Currently: Barely paying attention to the geneology videos I just got at the library... apparently.

Wriggles Toes

2006-12-15T03:44:00.000-06:00

How many days 'till Christmas?

That job was pretty fun. Worked for three weeks. I couldn't wait for a break, but now I'm going on three weeks with no job... and can't wait to work again.

Oh goooooodness.. I think I may be going on a cruise soon. I won't get my hopes up, though, until the tickets are actually purchased.

Speaking of purchasing.... I feel major guilty. I bought premium for fifty dollars on a whim and now I wish I could have asked my friend to give me a referral before I did that. I've promised to give her a referral ages ago and now I never can.

I can't wait to move out. I'm running to the mail box every day hoping to see that check so I can just get out of here. As soon as that check comes, I'm going to purchase a cruise ticket, and then start taking more tours of apartments.

It's been suggested to me that I should get a loan on a small house just outside of Dallas instead of doing the apartment thing. I've been totally against that... but now I'm wondering if I should. It's not as simple as rent. There are taxes, insurance, and keeping up with things without a landlord's assistance. But the major benefit for me would be to have a back yard that my little chihuahuas cannot escape from... with a door that leads to this backyard. I need a yard people! I do. I thought about having a large pot with grass in it on the balcony of an apartment... or whatever. Having a yard would make life oh so much easier... aside from the mowing -.-.

I don't know what I'll do, but I do know I need to get out of here. I need to go.

Currently: Dreaming

My Feet Hurt

2006-11-17T00:25:00.000-06:00

Ow Ow Ow Ow Ow Ow Ow Ow... My Feet Hurt... Ow Ow Ow Ow... I'm not gonna' make it. Ow Ow Ow Ow

I've got a new job, man. I'm a cashier at an electronic store. :3

Oh my gosh, my feet are hurting.

I want to put all my money right back into that store. Ha.

I am so upset. They tryin' to give my money to my Aunt. I have to call em' tomorrow. I hate when things happen at night when I can't do anything about it.

Did I mention my feet hurt?

Currently: My feet hurt! Shut up!

If One More Thing Breaks...

2006-11-04T03:17:00.000-06:00

I'm surrounded by things that are... well, breaking! My universe is crumbling into millions of useless little pieces! Yeeesh.

Air Conditioner broke. Fixed it. Fridge broke. Fixed it. Washer broke. Fixed it. Broke again. Didn't fix it. I just sit on it and enjoy the thumpy ride during the spin cycle. Stove broke. Didn't fix it. Don't know how to fix it. I rarely employ professionals to fix things unless they're a friend. TV broke. Didn't fix it. It's a ten year old rear projection big screen. Love the thing but we're learning little tricks to get around all the craziness. Like using the VCR to reach channels higher than the number thirteen. (I mean really... thirteen channels... like those old ancient televisions that my grandmother still used until she died... how come my TV has psychically reached into the past to some cousin TV... to employ only those channels with numbers between 1-13.) Then I press the magic button every time I turn it on and once every hour to keep that loose red tube in the right place. Sink clogged. Worked for three hours but I fixed it. The vacuum cleaner broke! A Kirby! Mind you, a ten year old Kirby, but still. Grarrr.

Guess what broke today. My dish washer broke today. Today, my dish washer died. It won't drain the water. I used a mop to get all that water out and tried to unclog it, but no luck. Then I turned the thing on so as to fill it up with cleaner water in hopes of like... using the plunger on it or something. But the little spin thingy wouldn't spin. Then it started smoking. Oh come on! Did I hit the mop against something I shouldn't have?

Maybe I just didn't have it on the right setting. Now that I think about it, maybe I need to fiddle with the position of the positioner and see if it really was on the rinse cycle. It could have been on the steam cycle. That would make sense. o_O

That does make sense.

Steam... not smoke.

I'm stupid.

Still clogged, though.

Oh, and the internet isn't working tonight, either. Two of the blogs I like, livejournal and deadjournal, are out so I can't check on people there. deviantART is on read only mode, so I can't submit anything or check on the comments.

NEOPETS IS CLOGGED WITH TRAFFIC!... Three in the morning and it's clogged to a grinding halt. I've been trying to battle for an hour and even when I manage to finish a fight, it won't count towards my score. One hour and I have one measly point against the stupid Black Elm! I've yet to fight the Blathering Beech and the Savage Sycamore. Don't you just love those names? Yes... they're trees. I'm fighting trees. It's three in the morning and I'm trying to fight some trees and I can't because so many other people are trying to fight the trees, too. This is some very popular tree fighting we've got here.

Oh, and George got his hand caught in a press today. Cut the tips of his fingers off and crushed the bones. I'm praying for him and I hope you will too.

Currently: Going back to kick some trees' rear ends... wherever that may be.

Job Search, Take Two

2006-11-01T03:58:00.000-06:00

I didn't go job searching at all last week or, uh, so far this week.

That's pretty bad considering the only thing I have to do is pick up the phone and call the temp agency. Haha. But behold! My excuse! I am sick. I was sick, I mean. Still got the cough, but that phase lasts months, sometimes. No, I was really sick. It came with a headache so bad I felt like throwing things at people, but there was no one around to throw things at. My dogs were around, but I don't want to be that person that throws things at their dogs. o_O Not unless I'm asleep and have the excuse.

I spent Sunday night (whilst sick and frequently washing my hands so as not to spread the germs *halo*) painting on kids faces for Fall Festival. All sorts of choices they could pick, but the three most popular designs were the pumpkins, flowers, and jedi light sabers. One kid dressed as Nacho Libre had me paint a big light saber on his chest. Haha.

I've been spending alot of time in Paint Shop Pro. You should check out my latest pics on DeviantART. Lots of photomanipulation and I especially like my icons. I think I should start making some Christmassy icons. Hrmmm...

Salut

Currently: Uploading more userpics to livejournal cuz' I can. :P

Ciao Momma!

2006-09-23T20:51:00.000-06:00

Momma left us yesterday.

It was a real beautiful passing. I held a hand. Her friends held her other hand. People were holding her ankles and touching her legs. As she took her last few breaths we sang her favorite hymn. Two minutes after she went, my brother finally pulled up. He almost made it in time.

Things are getting put together. Best that can be done I guess.

My only twangs are when I'm shopping or something and I feel this incredible urge to call Mom up and ask her opinion on something. I feel abandoned almost. She was my best friend.

Currently: Listnin' to Dashboard Confessional XP

Aye! It Be A Pirates Life Fer Me!

2006-09-19T22:37:00.000-06:00

So.

Mommers is living her last few days pain free. She's cracking us up with some of the things she says, though. Like this morning, I woke up at 4am because Mom woke up at 4am. We talked and talked. Mostly crazy talk. But whatever. It was going okay until the hot sauce king got up. He gets up around 4:30 and leaves for work at 5. On his way out the door she started yelling at him.

"HSK! Go do the wild thing! GO do the WILD thing! GOOO DOOOO the WILD THING! HSK! HSK! Go do the wild thing! WHAT!!! Is she not pretty enough for you!?! GO DO THE WILD THING!"

"Gotta' go to work now, mom, see you later!" as he slams the front door.

"GO DO THE WILD THING! HSK! GO DO THE WILD THING!"
(HSK = Hot Sauce King = Brother's name of which I'm not permissed to tell)

I was on the floor totally unable to breath from laughing so hard.

She's not expected to live but four or five more days. I'm okay with it. Not freaking out or anything. But I sure will miss her.

Currently: unsuccessfully multitasking

Aaaaggghhhh!!! hiccup

2006-09-14T23:40:00.000-06:00

I love quizzes. Cha. Stealing them is fun too.

You Are Storm

Exotic and powerful, Storm descended from a line of African priestesses.
Emotions can effect your powers, but you are generally serene.

Powers: controlling weather, creating winds that lift you into flight, generating lightning

Which of the X-Men Are You?

Your Personality Cluster is Introverted Intuition

You are:

Multilayered and complex
Inspired and driven to achieve your goals
A visionary with a complete life plan
Intuitive enough to understand difficult problems, ideas, and people

What's Your Personality Cluster?

My Personality


Neuroticism	40
Extraversion	2
Openness To Experience	32
Agreeableness	20
Conscientiousness	2

Find your MySpace/Xanga/Hi5 soulmate / pysch twin
Test Yourself Compare Yourself View Full Report

Friendster, MySpace Layouts and hi5 by Pulseware Survey Software

You Are

An Angry Pumpkin Face

You would make a good smashed pumpkin.

What's Your Pumpkin Face?

You Are Elektra

There's really no superhero with more style than you.
Because who could beat being sexy assasin ninja?

What Superhero Are You?

That's enough. Really.

Currently: Wanting to play some more hangman *burp*.

Quickly Now Because I Haven't Much Time

2006-09-08T21:26:00.000-06:00

Pfft.

I drove over to Louisiana all by my lonesome and got my car back. It was found in good condition behind a house in Bossier City. The brakes are complete mush and they junked out the inside with food wrappers and bread crumbs. -.- The only thing I know about the dude is that he spoke spanish (three spanish cds found), he's messy (grossness), and he's an idiot (he stole my car :P).

Mom's here with me now. She's on Hospice and I'm doing my best to keep her comfortable at home. It's a lot of work. I'm bored. I'm achey. And I'm a bit lonely. I'm keeping mom doped up on pain pills, so all I have for company is books. Mom gets tons of visitors, but they only stay a few minutes or they're trying to help with someone so that it just feels harried whenever someone is over. I still don't want to be online during the day even though I'm back home. There are so many phone calls, I can't see it being a good thing keeping the phone line busy.

You Are From Jupiter

You are exuberantly curious - and you love to explore newness.
Enthusiastic and optimistic, you get a kick out of stimulating intellectual discussions.
Foreign cultures and languages fascinate you. You love the outdoors, animals, and freedom.
Chances are you tend to exaggerate, so try to keep a lid on that.
If you do, you'll continue to be known for your confidence, generosity, and sense of justice.

What Planet Are You From?

You've Experienced 36% of Life

You have the life experience of someone in their early 20s.
You've seen some of what life has to offer - but you have a long ways to go.

How Much Life Experience Do You Have?

Currently: Moping

Frosty Corn Balls

2006-08-26T13:15:00.000-06:00

That's my breakfast cereal. o_O Mmmmkay.

A few days ago, while I was asleep, someone popped open a locked window in my Mom's bathroom. They went to my brothers room and stole ten dollars worth of change. Then they went to the living room, took the keys off the table beside my purse, walked out of the front door, and drove off with my car. In hindsight, I can remember the sound of the window being popped open. Like someone banging a hand against the glass real hard. I can also remember the sound of the change rattling around for a long time. I can remember the door opening and closing. But I never have, in all my life, been suspicious of strange sounds. I was asleep, sorta. I knew my brother was at work, sorta. But no sound short of voices would have caused me to think someone who shouldn't be in the house was there.

I have a nice rental but I miss my car. :( I especially miss my map book. It had everyone's houses and a whole lotta stuff marked in it. I was thinking about getting a new one and transferring that all over. Now it's gone. And my car was so nice. It was a luxury edition and it had a Lexus engine and it had a great sound system. And I loved loved loved the cruise control. It wasn't bulky and hard to mess with so I could use it even during stop and go traffic to save my hurt knee. I even filled the gas tank up the day before. *sigh* Please come back!

Currently: Saying less than I would so the bro can get on.

Thumpity

2006-07-21T00:11:00.000-06:00

So that heat thing... our compressor went out. Got it changed out by a friend the other day and uh... he hasn't asked for any money yet.

I'm going with a friend to check out nursing care facilities for Mom later. They released her the other day, got her home, couldn't handle certain things, had to call the paramedics to help us out, and now she's back in the hospital. Various doctors and nurses can't believe that they tried to send her home instead of down to rehab. o_O

And... I seem to be incredibly busy doing very little at all. Maintaining the house, visiting mom, handling bills, uh... normal adultish stuff. (Eek, when did I become an adult? O_O) And I'm considering this my vacation too. It is SO relaxing to not have to get up every five seconds to retrieve this, pick up that, help move her and her stuff to this room, help move her and her stuff to that room, wake up several times a night to calm things down, and deal with her steroids making her evil and telling me I'm worthless and never do anything but hang out on the comp. Yeah.

Currently: Waiting for a new neo day.

Steamyness Pshhhhh

2006-07-16T21:25:00.000-06:00

It is SO HOT!!!!

It's like 105 outside and probably 99 inside... we have no insulation in this house and the temperature gauge doesn't go past 90, so I don't know.

What's really funny is the dogs. Buster has his mouth wide open, tongue hanging out, and keeps going back and forth to the fan and the water not quite deciding where he'd like to be. Cinnamon, the ever playful puppy, is rolling around on her back in front of the fan, legs all spread out like she's making and x, and taking nibbles at my toes.

I made a mermaid today. Go check it out at deviantart. XD

Mom's in the hospital again. Turns out she has diabetes. A normal range of blood sugar levels is like 90 to 160. 500 causes you to go into a diabetic coma. Mom was at 480. The last few days have been really hard taking care of her and we attributed her symptoms to her new drugs and chemo which she started last week. All that weakness, endless thirst, and uh.. other things was the diabetes. I think those symptoms actually started, though, a month ago. This is really not going to be fun. :/

Currently: Chatting

Cry Cry Cry

2006-07-12T02:26:00.000-06:00

I'm living in gross gross grossness.

Everyday this week will be about getting up early, staying at the hospital or the cancer center for hours and hours, and then gross things. Repeated when necessary.

The following is gross.

Mom has a needle hanging out of her chest. She's not strong and is almost falling down all the time. In my head I keep picturing her falling... forward... moooooaaaaannnnn. I can't stand these stupid thoughts that won't go away. Cry. Plus with the even grosser things that happened last week. Geeyah.

/End gross.

So since I'll be spending five hours in a waiting room tomorrow... minimum... I went and bought the first harry potter book. I know dwaggie will be proud. Haha. *sigh*

Currently: Searching for a charger.

Stuffems

2006-07-03T22:07:00.000-06:00

Today... I did lots of stuff. Did lots of stuff yesterday too. :3

I spent the whole of this morning and part of the afternoon in the emergency room with Mom. She tried to sleep in bed for once (after her port replacement surgery last Tuesday) and rolled on it or something. It hurt something fierce (I always end up erasing that common phrase of mine, but I think I'll leave it in this time) and bruised up underneath her stitches. XRays and things told us it was alright and it stopped hurting around noon. We agreed that she should stay in her chair (that chair that helps you stand up and stuff... was grandmothers before she died) until she is completely healed.

Then there was all the other stuff... a jumble of errands and, uh... food. *shrug* I'm worn out. I need a vacation. Haha.

Currently: Studying prayer so I can do it better. XD

Family Drama

2006-06-30T17:34:00.000-06:00

We had a very serious family discussion about how my brother treats us. I thought I'd share part of that with y'all.

Disclaimer: I don't believe in adult language. Those who use adult language seriously need to grow up. However the following includes it, so avert your eyes. X_X

Mom: We are all mature adults here. We should be treating each other with respect.

Manda: Well, I refuse to be treated like an Ass Slave.

Hot Sauce King: Like a what?

Mom: She said an Ass Slave.

Hot Sauce King: What the hell is an Ass Slave?

Manda: You're always ordering me around and treating me like shit.

Currently: Cleaning the house. *scrub scrub*

The Mega Ultra Life Update Post

2006-06-24T02:55:00.000-06:00

... You know, that boring thing people do when they can't or won't blog every week and they have to make sure their friends don't think they're dead or worse... found a life. *shudder*

Firstly, Mom got her biopsy results back and all that extra cancer is still colon cancer. All her doctors are like, huh, what the hey, colon cancer never does this. o_O Yeah, that's comforting. Right now she's hit the peak of her second boost which is very painful. Comes about two weeks after the treatment, same as last month. About every hour, for five to fifteen minutes, her head feels like it will explode. She cries, she screams, she accuses people of not caring (well... I'm not going to pretend to freak out over it. I care, but have you ever seen me be anything but calm? -.-), and it generally just really sucks.

Secondly, the Hot Sauce King almost cut his thumb off last week at work and then quit his job for an unrelated reason. Now that he's back home during the day, life is much more stressful. My brother is a rage machine. He flips a switch and if the light doesn't come on he takes it personal. Slams doors, becomes a pissy two year old, and is impossible to be around. Idiot. And I wish he'd stay away from the durn computer. This box is my life, and he slams the keyboard tray in when his stupidity causes things not to go right. Bends the metal and stuff and I have to beat at it to get back out again.

Thirdly, the county where my dad lives is trying to ban fireworks this year... the year he decided to invest in a fireworks stand.

And lastly... I've been a weirdo. One day I'm crying and want to throw away all my hard work, the next I'm bubbly and happy. And no, I don't suppose it goes along with the release day of my favorite comics. *shifty*

If you want to laugh your rear off, you have to read The Adventures of Dr. McNinja. Read allll of the archives. It won't take that long. It's so good, I've added them to my exclusive links on the sidebar. Hehe. And always, I have to tout Sam and Fuzzy. Me lubbs that insane teddy bear.

I'm also grrring at this here Blogger. They've taken away the option to date blog entries anytime you want. -.- I can make drafts that last a month, but when I finally publish them they show up a month back. That really is irksome. I have to create a whole new post and just paste everything over.

I'm also lamely attempting to bring all of my empty blog accounts together into a MerCave theme... and make something useful out of each. I'm really looking forward to filling up my deviantart account. I don't draw or become creative enough. And maybe one account I can practice my story telling in... or poems. Whatever. It's not like I have time for anything, but I can pretend... and maybe in a year it will all look like a month of business. haha.

And one more thing, I'm about half way through cleaning out the archives of this blog. Deleting comments that don't matter anymore, deleting lame useless or too revealing posts. Etcetera etcetera. When I first started blogging, I had this idea that I was going to be some awesome blogging journalist... then it turned into a popularity contest (though I only really liked two people, one stopped blogging and the other is still in my links :3), then I found something fun to do, made awesome friends there, and use this for... nothing really. So a lot of months are pretty parched of anything, but really... the thing looks a lot cleaner.

And that sums up the last few weeks. How interesting.

Currently: Running off to bed before the sun rises... yikes!

Yesterday

2006-05-29T18:18:00.000-06:00

So, yesterday, the idiots came out in full force. Not such a biggy now that I've slept on it, but still. What is with people? o_O

I went to get some lunch and on my way back I entered a long bottleneck of cars. Well, some old fart that thinks he owns the road flipped me off for not pulling over. He had room too. The funny thing is that this dude gets all dressed up on Sundays. Yeah. Real Christian there. Pfft.

Then, well, I won't talk about that one.

And finally, this girl that has started showing up in a chat group I hang out at is trying to destroy my reputation or something. She claims to be a 54 year old grandma, but she sounds like she's a high schooler.

Three days ago she was attacking an acquaintance, so I pm'd her that she had the situation wrong. We debated about it in a civilized manner for a while, then she insulted me, I insulted her back, she insulted me twice more, and I blocked her from contacting me again. Five minutes later she goes back in the chat room and says, Manda, please stop harassing me. I told her that I wasn't aware that I was and she was welcome to report and block me. And she says she wasn't report happy. Whatever.

Last night, she was back at it. She thanked me for insulting her and typed up a dumbed down version of what I said to her. People that don't know the group that well were comforting her. It was disgusting. Then the rest of the night, whatever I said, she'd attack. I didn't respond to any of it. Just ignored her existence completely. Some of it was so funny, I had to laugh.

But anywho... stupid people make me feel smart. :3 I think I need people to insult me every now and then. It's odd. I have a low self image. But when I'm on the defensive or whatever, I have a high self image. O_o It's like I care more about polite people thinking bad things of me than of rude people actually saying bad things of me. Somebody slap me. Hahaha.

Currently: Chowing on donuts and banging my head around to new music. Cha.

This Week in Nature...

2006-05-19T22:14:00.000-06:00

We will be talking about the twenty three or so ant colonies living in my front yard. Every day I meet and greet with these little dudes while trying to keep two curious chihuahuas from getting into trouble.

Course' we have some ant poison on the coffee table waiting to be spread about the yard, but this reporter has been sick all week... and in no mood to do anything but hurry along the business of her companions.

What makes these dudes so interesting is the shape of their homes. They create a crater like bed around a central tunnel. It's hard to see from this picture, but the sides actually fold over like an ocean wave. After a storm, it really is something to see... as several tall precarious structures dot the yard.

Each bed surrounds a wide central tunnel. During the day there isn't much activity, but when rush hour rolls around, you can see tons of ants entering and exiting.

They have tiny, pale, red brown bodies and seem to favor the shamrock leaves as their burden of choice. There are tons of ant species but these dudes seem new to our neighborhood. Most of our ants in past years come in three varieties; The fire ants which are killed off quickly, early in the season; The little brown ants that build their homes in cracks, instead of beds, and generally go unnoticed; And the little black ants that build massive beds, about one every seven houses apart.

I really do need to get that poison out. Kill em' off. I've almost grown attached, though. But no, I'll not be holding any funerals. :P

Currently: Hacking and coughing.

Its a Me!!!!

2006-05-17T01:08:00.000-06:00

I think I'm getting better at this artistic thing... looky! I drew mah self.

This little diddy is the best self cartoonage I've ever drawn. One new lesson learned... stop trying to hide that big chin of mine! Cartoonists AMPLIFY the quirks... not hide them. V_V So... I'm all happy. I learned a new trick.

I think anyone who has seen me... known me... etcetera... can attest to this being me. :D I'm a wearer of hairbands and I do lubb my Christmas PJs. And this particular top says alot about me. Am I a good girl, or a rude a... er, person.

Yep... proud and excited... and a little dorky I be.

Currently: Multi-chat-tasking.

When You Can't Entertain

2006-05-15T21:37:00.000-06:00

You do quizzes...

Duh!

You Were Actually Born Under:

You are quick witted, charming, and bring luck to all who know you.
A bit greedy, you tend to go after what you want - with success.
Clever, you seek out knowledge... and eventually use what you know to your advantage.
You are very loyal, and you treat your real friends like they are family.

You are most compatible with a Dragon or Monkey.

You Should Have Been Born Under:

You are totally loyal, faithful, and honest.
However, you don't trust others to be as ethical as you are!
Straight forward and direct, you really aren't one for small talk.
You are a great listener - and an agreeable companion when you're in a good mood!

You are most compatible with a Tiger or Horse.

What Year Were You Born Under?

Tri-Lamb Material
65 % Nerd, 26% Geek, 56% Dork

For The Record:

A Nerd is someone who is passionate about learning/being smart/academia.

A Geek is someone who is passionate about some particular area or subject, often an obscure or difficult one.

A Dork is someone who has difficulty with common social expectations/interactions.

You scored better than half in Nerd and Dork, earning you the coveted title of: Tri-Lamb Material.

The classic, "80's" nerd, you are what most people think of when they think "nerd," largely due to 80's movies like Revenge of the Nerds and TV shows like Head of the Class. You're exceptionally bright and smart, and partly because of that have never quite fit in with your peers or social groups. Perhaps you've realized, or will someday, that it is possible to retain all of the things that you like about being brilliant and still make peace with the social cliques around you. Or maybe you won't--it's really not necessary. As the brothers of Lambda Lambda Lambda discovered, you're fine just the way you are and can take pride in that. I mean, who wants to be like Ogre, right!?

Congratulations!

Thanks Again! -- THE NERD? GEEK? OR DORK? TEST

My test tracked 3 variables How you compared to other people your age and gender:

You scored higher than 99% on nerdiness
You scored higher than 99% on geekosity
You scored higher than 99% on dork points

Link: The Nerd? Geek? or Dork? Test written by donathos on Ok Cupid, home of the 32-Type Dating Test

Currently: Wondering how I drank this Dr. Pepper so fast.

They're Retarded!

2006-05-14T18:18:00.000-06:00

What is with the newsies attacking myspace lately? Every day it's "blah blah blah and is your kids in danger on myspace dot com?". Geeyah! Another classic example of annoying clueless reporters trying to stir up panic.

Why are they leaving livejournal, xanga, and blogger out of it? It says in the myspace terms that you aren't allowed to post personal info or nudity. Okay? All of these sites have similar terms. It's not myspace's fault that people choose to post this stuff. It's the user's fault. Just like it's not the gun's fault that someone chooses to shoot someone with it. It's not the knife's fault that someone chooses to stab someone with it. It's not the car's fault that someone chooses to run someone over with it. It's not McDonald's fault that someone chooses to over indulge and become a blimp from it. People want to blame everything else but themselves for their incredible stupidity.

Don't even get me started.

Currently: Coughing

Schoolin

2006-05-12T00:47:00.000-06:00

I became a Teachers Aide for a day... for kindergarten.

I tried to sleep last night, but didn't get a wink. So yes, I was a bit zombified. Then I drove to the school and wasn't in there five minutes before someone came in and said a white Camry out there had a flat tire. Of course it was mine! A nice shiny screw was the culprit. Where do all the screws come from!?! Are people throwing their tools out of their windows willy nilly?

I helped the kids pay attention to their task... coloring in the scales of a fish. When they completed that, I walked them to the box to turn them in. Then had them write their names on the top of their little booklets. Then they read the book to me.

Gas makes it go!

Cars need gas. Gas makes it go. Trucks need gas. Gas makes it go. Boats need gas. Gas makes it go. Lawn Mowers need gas. Gas makes it go. What else needs gas? Big rigs need gas. Gas makes it go. Big rigs give gas.

Yeah. That's what most of my day was like. We also colored in those books after they were read and watched a movie. Always did love The Land Before Time series. I had to keep pulling boys back to sit next to me.

Oh but we did have some drama too. After the kindergartners went to PE where Ron works (Kathy's friend's husband who also changed my tire) I stayed in the office answering phones. Three girls got pulled in from recess with green hair. They dyed their hair semi permanent on the playground! haha. Then a bunch of people started screaming in the nearby cafeteria. The the teachers started running down the hall yelling about a fight. Two girls started it which got the whole cafeteria going crazy.

Ah, to be back at a wholesome elementary school.

Currently: Reflecting

The Deeper You Get

2006-05-08T01:07:00.000-06:00

Disclaimer: The following is heavy in self-mopage and should be ignored. :P

I have this vision of a Vietnam soldier dude walking through a swampy rice field with his machine gun held above the water. The farther he goes to get out, the deeper he sinks until only his hands holding the gun are above the water... and there are bubbles... still moving forward... and then the bubbles stop.

What a lovely vision to have. But that's how I felt today going grocery shopping.

All day today I have been extremely moody. From tearing up over a stupid movie to being short fused over my the Mommy. I'm PMSing. So then Mom wants to go grocery shopping. She wouldn't write out a list, no, she has to come with. My mother can easily spend three hours buying milk. She's indecisive and she has to read the labels. With my mood and my back acting up, I was so not looking forward to it.

When I got there I had to pull her wheel chair out of the trunk, but I bent over wrong setting it on the ground so instant back pain. Didn't even get twenty pain free minutes.

Turning my buggy around in the toilet paper isle made my finger nail pull backwards. Ow.

While we were searching for dog treats I had a stress related twitch. My right leg wanted to kick backwards but the rubber of shoes kept my foot in place. This resulted in a mightily sharp pain in my knee cap.

Limping around the store caused my left calf to become stressed. This resulted in my right heel becoming itchy and painful. Then my left thigh started hurting. After that it was my right hip. That caught up to my achey tail bone and back. THEN I KNOCKED MY ELBOW AGAINST A SHELF!!!! This was not fun. I was limping around like some messed up weirdo, pushing a horribly heavy pull-to-the-right buggy, while ignoring the ever so many 'are you sure your okay?'s from my mother.

That's not even the worse that happened tonight, but I won't bore or gross you out with those details. Needless to say, it was a nightmare. Did I mention the mega sinus headache?

Currently: Recovering

You Know What?

2006-05-07T00:05:00.000-06:00

I just wrote this hugely long post revealing all my little secrets... but I couldn't go through with it.

So instead of some long ranting heart wrenching melodramatic tale of my inner workings, let me just try to entertain you...

...

Right. Wasn't that fun?

Currently: Waiting for my ship to come in

Hehe

2006-04-22T16:29:00.000-06:00

Wanna' see Momma?

Here ya' go...

How do you like them apples? *coughimlamecough*

Currently: ebaying

Update On Me Life

2006-04-19T12:15:00.000-06:00

I have nothing entertaining to tell at the moment. A little busy lately so a little neglectful. Haven't updated my blog or turned on AIM in days and days. *turns on AIM as she writes this*

I need to update my AIM name on here. It's NOT cinnamonlover anymore... I had that name all of two seconds. haha.

Mom has been going to radiation every week day morning. I stay up late at night and then I have to wake up to drive her there. My new hair cut is a mess. I don't have time to do anything with it before I leave and ALL of my headbands that I like are BROKEN! Don't they make any headbands for adults? Getting off track here. :P Radiation is no big deal. They put her mask on, bolt her down, and then point puple lights at her head for ten minutes. Then she's done. At the moment, she's doing thirteen treatments of whole brain radiation. Then they will make a new mask for her, blend some new scans together, and pin point the bigger lesions. She's on steroids for her swollen brain, and those make her act irrationally. Cursing and breaking glass have occured. Since she found out it was the steroids causing it, she's more aware of herself and isn't acting so mean anymore. Also, she has a spot of cancer on her lung and a spot on her liver. After the radiation they will do biopsies of these and make sure its still collon cancer before treating it with chemo. They flushed her metaport out and it still works fine although they can't draw any blood from it.

Cinnamon has always slept in a cage but now I've got Buster doing it too. He used to sleep with me but I don't want to deal with all his fur anymore or cause mites to invade my new mattress quickly. Neither are allowed in my room. We used to call my room Buster's room since he spent more time in there than I did. Hehe. He's getting older and doesn't have as much control over his business as he used to. The good thing is, he's more excited at night to enter his cage than Cinnamon. All I have to do is tap the cage and say 'bedtime' and he jumps up and runs in. I'm surprised. Hehe. Cinnamon just kinds of hangs back and looks away like, 'hmmm? I didn't hear anything'. She's so silly. I'm also thinking about getting a fifty dollar high pitch noise, dog bark control machine... thing. Life would be much more pleasant if they wouldn't freak out every time someone comes over. Grrr...

If you ever have the opportunity to get Net Zero, don't. You get less than what you pay for. Connection hangs of up to ten minutes happen at the very least, once an hour. Also, they hang up on you four hours on the dot, and if you step away from the computer for fifteen minutes, you'll come back to find it disconnected for 'security' purposes. They always launch IE when you sign on... to their home page. No option to turn that off. (I use Firefox, stupid!). And you have to watch a thirty second commercial that stays on top of everything every time you sign on. Let me tell you, when you are having trouble signing on and have to do so three or so times, those stupid commercials make me want to punch someone. Grrrrrr...

I've got all my inherited red glass collection out. We are going to be spending two hundred dollars to pack it all up good. There are twenty seven dessert dishes, twenty one dinner plates, tons of goblets of all shapes and sizes, pitcher, wine glasses, canisters, bowls, decorative things... just tons of lovely stuff. I'll have to decorate my dining room in red for the rest of my life. Haha!

I think that's it. Nah, but whatever. Zawzy.

Currently: Slaving over massive online projects... cuz' it is oh so fun!

Cleaning Out Za' Closet

2006-04-03T23:42:00.000-06:00

Awaiting the arrival of my comfy, twin size, pillow top, bed tomorrow I decided to do some major spring style cleaning of my room. My trash can is filled to the brim with mementos of the past.

I have kept a souvenir from every official boyfriend I've ever had... as early as five years old. The shoe box that held these trinkets gave me a good laugh today... before joining the other junk in the ben out back. Haha. I had a brass bracelet with blackened cats holding hands from my first boyfriend. I was obsessed with cats back then. Haha. My second was two strings of yarn... probably for making those string finger designs or something. A brief fling at daycare while I dated boyfriend #1. LOL! From boyfriend #3 I had a piece of paper with a huge colored rose on it and a poem. Awww. Boyfriend #4 was a autographed school photo. Boyfriend #6 was a napkin from taco bell. Not exactly sure why. o_O. My last boyfriend, Boyfriend #7, was a styrofoam cup with love notes written all over the side... oh, and our engagement ring. Don't worry, it was probably worth about five bucks. Piece of crap. And I dumped him two weeks later. Haha.

Which reminds me... I saw his wife today.

We went up to the Imaging place and picked up Mom's MRIs. Very interesting. I had just been studying sinuses yesterday, so it was really weird to suddenly see all her sinuses and, uh, brains. If you've ever seen an MRI from the top of the head looking down, round about where the eyes are, you'd be going ooooh and aaaaah too. It's really freaky to see white olives floating in front of long muscles floating in front of a brain. Yeah.

So Mom has six identified masses. I could pick out four of them. Over the top of her head towards the right, she has a wide flat mass, very thin but covers a good portion of her brain. On the right side of her head right above her jaw joint (which is why they kept thinking she had TMJ... and why, when her brain would swell, it would push her teeth down) she has one mass that is 1.8cm x 1.6cm. Farther back of that is the largest mass. It's above and behind her right ear. It is 3.6cm x 2.8cm. Yikes. That is huge. :/ And then on the left side of her head, above her left ear, is a mass that is 1.5cm x 1.4cm. It's pretty much all over her brain.

Some time this week she'll start radiation therapy. They doubled the dosage of her swollen brain pills, and she's finally feeling better.

Currently: Playing with gauze.

Stepping On Unstable Stones

2006-03-22T13:06:00.000-06:00

Bye bye beddy!

Dragged my bed out by the curb around two thirty Tuesday morning. Have one on layaway for... two hundred and thirty dollars. (Ever notice the amount of twos and threes that show up in my life?)

I'm back to night time living. It's stupid. I sleep on the couch, but both my brother and my mother have stolen my couch bed several times. And I'm finally feeling better from some flu like sickness that hit me two months ago.

So I'm ready... but I'm back to night time living. Better buy that bed and get my schedule fixed.

Currently: Procrastinating and disappointing.

A Birthday Recap

2006-03-15T18:10:00.000-06:00

So... maybe you are wondering... maybe you aren't... about what happened on my bday.

Online, I had a blast. Offline... it was a long and boring day. Towards the end of it, dad showed up with a cake and several movies. I am now the proud owner of Spy Game, Kiss the Girls, Star Wars I, IV, V, and VI, and Braveheart o_O. I keep eating little pieces of the cake, but it makes me sick. But I wasn't expecting a cake at all, so that was good. ;)

Saturday, for lunch, we'll be going to Applebees. If a certain friend of mine would like to come along, she is welcome, if not, I'll see her next month. :P

I won't even get into the rant tonight, though I have a humongous headache because of it. And I think I'm going to go through my archives and erase a bunch of stuff. Make sure nothing is there that can kick me in the rear.

Laters

Currently: Moaning

The Rediculous Everything Post

2006-03-10T21:50:00.000-06:00

I decided to go a little crazy. Yep. Watch out!

Here are some pets I have adopted. :D

GrundoMoody

MowMowDominacious

That's Rufus, and his baby brother and sister. :D

And this is Yellowstripe. Wonder what... SHE will turn out to be.

Now for everyone's names. Muhahahaha

I believe that QUITE enough craziness for today. Mhmmmm

Currently: Chowing down on Shells and Cheese

And They Got It Right

2006-03-09T13:06:00.000-06:00

Always nice to find something completely random become so completely true. Dunno' what I'm talking about? No worries. Just pretend I'm being 'mysterious'.

Currently: Being mysterious, duh!

Ten More Days

2006-03-04T10:34:00.000-06:00

Just ten more and I'll be the big two-enty two. Whoop doop dee doo.

It's a tradition. Go eat at Applebees, see a movie, get yelled at, and cry. That's been my birthday since I was like... sixteen. Eh, had to be older than that. Yo, Melissa, how old were we when we met? Went to your surprise bday party, then two months later we were best friends, then a few months after that, we got 'mentors', and that's about when I discovered Applebees. LOL!

Applebees is the last addition to the birthday tradition. Seeing a movie started around 13... Getting yelled at started around 10... And the crying thing has been going on since kindergarten. Haha.

And each time I cry, it is for a totally different reason. My dad giving me the bday spankings happened every year I was at his house for the day. My boyfriend, whatever his name was, Matthew or something, was mean to me one year. No one showed up to my eleventh birthday party. Haha! Uhmmm... broke my pinky toe tripping over a trampoline. Sprained my ankle at someone's house... I don't know. You get the point... something always makes me cry on my birthday.

... And I won't even get into the subject of the yelling.

Currently: Looking for shiny sea shells and toy boats.

One More for the Fire of February

2006-02-28T10:30:00.000-06:00

I couldn't let February end with only ONE SINGLE POST!!! So now it has two o_O.

Let's see... I'm becoming quite talented at drawing flames. I start at the tip of the intended flame... and I draw a curving line downwards. Most of the time in an 'S' shape. Then I go back to the tip and I curve the line down beside it, making the flame a bit fatter in one point, then skinny, and then thick at the bottom. I make several of these flame outlines near each other in several twisty patterns giving it a fluid flamey look... even leaving a few pieces alone and above them.

Then I flood fill the flames with a deep bloody red. Next, using rust red, I trace the outlines on the inside edge of the flames, and flood fill again. This leaves that deep bloody red color two to five pixels thick depending where it is in the flame. I do the same thing using a burnt orange and leaving the rust red color four to six pixels thick. These three color lines are sharp and come to points. When I go to the the bright orange, burnt yellow, and bright yellow colors, I only let them come into the flame as gentle waves. The waves of your hair, not the sea.

On a black background, these flames look gorgeous, wild, and fiery! I've enjoyed drawing them. From learning how to seeing the final beautiful result. It has been fun. But alas, the drawing part of my project is complete. No more flames need drawing. I wonder if I'll ever be able to use this new found talent again.

Currently: Getting mother's sinus infection. Is that car on it's side or am I?

Sigh

2006-02-15T23:43:00.000-06:00

I'm bored. I'm sick.

Nothing new is going on. No reason to update. Cinnamon is cute. The cat gets sick off and on. Mother's been so dizzy that her hand keeps going about five inches left than where she's trying to go... kinda funny watching her try open the fridge door. And that's about it. Yep. What a nice February were having.

Currently: Sighing

So Much To Gossip About

2006-01-29T06:39:00.000-06:00

But you know I never hear and tell, so that's out.

There really isn't that much to talk about (besides the juicy gossip). My life is at a stand still. I spend much of my time chatting with my friends on Neopets and Gaia and a few other great forums. I now have Firefox 1.5. I love that you can reorder tabs. I don't love that Curacao is not compatible and I've had to switch to Red Cats Blue Flavor. I couldn't handle a color switch. Must always be blue.

I bought a Prima Strategy Guide to Pharaoh... and I've never seen such a badly written, disgustingly unorganized guide. I'm half way through with it, and I've learned exactly three things which is nice. You know I had gotten the Chronicles of Narnia for Christmas. I read all but the last book in only two weeks. Now I can't seem to get back into it. I absolutely love every book I've read, but the first few chapters of The Last Battle has really turned me off. I can't stand that ape. Someone please tell me it gets better than that! Maybe I'll be able to finish reading it if I knew it got better.

Did I mention that Cinnamon's website has been updated? Yeah. And I'll have to take some more pictures next month and update it. The cat is sick... again... worse than ever. We bought some antibiotics for him... same as we used last time. He really is a mess. He's sneezing all over the place, his eyes are draining, and when he sleeps, he snores. I keep thinking my brother is sleeping on the couch behind me. Who knew my brother and a sick cat have the same exact snore?

I've recently got into a new comic. Well, it's not new, but I'm new to it. Sam and Fuzzy. Check it out. Be sure to read up on the archives, cuz' the ninja stuff is priceless.

I'll have to add links to the things I've mentioned in this entry later, as this posting thing refuses to completely load... the whole top bar is missing. No spell check either, so sorry for all the wrong spellingzes. Also, I won't be able to enlarge my first paragraph and shrink the last, either. Where is my top bar!!!???!!!

EDIT: Top bar finally back and I went link crazy. :D Please note that some of these links are just stupid... but funny.

You know that background music I used to have? Well, the site said it would come back online soon, but that was a few months ago. I don't think it's coming back. *cry* I'll probably upload some midis I made to a free file host. Don't expect it too soon, though. I'm going to procrastinate on that for awhile. Who knew you could plan procrastination?

Currently: Er... Organizing.

They're Married!

2006-01-14T23:28:00.000-06:00

Okay, so my cousin, Jonathan, finally got married.

They canceled the actual wedding. They just drove to Vegas and were married at one in the morning. We went to the reception tonight. It was fun. Done in Lu'au fashion with 80's dance music. Had some delicious white cheesy spaghetti, with cheesy bread. Mmmmm... and they had a Man Handled red velvet cake. Yummers.

Currently: Continuing my ever popular successful newsletter. Yay!

King Frog Attacks Enemy City!!!!

2005-12-21T01:07:00.000-06:00

The King Frog struck around 12:30 this morning rampaging the utopian society of Cricketopia. No one knows for sure why the King would do this, but one official is reported to have said the King had been suffering from tummy rumbles for the past few days.

This is a picture taken of the king just moments before the devastation.

The numbers are now in. Yes, it appears over 300 Cricket lives were lost. Stay tuned to The Alternative Universe for further updates. Manda out.

Currently: Uh, I don't know, writing stupid stories.

So Christmaseeeee!

2005-12-03T20:29:00.000-06:00

Alright! Today was the day! Now it feels like the holidays!

So I went shopping today. I bought a helicopter set for my baby brother. He's like, uh, six or something. Then I got my baby sister (5? 4?) two horse sets. She'll love those! I got Louis (12?) a globey light thing that dances when you touch the glass. Groovy, eh? Got my mother Heaven. That's a book. Didn't get anything for the Hot Sauce King... or my dad. Got loads of stuff for Missy Melissy. Not going to tell ya' dear!

Now what am I getting? The tape to Xmen broke, so I know I'm getting the DVD... I'm also getting the Bourne Identity and the Bourne Supremacy DVDs. I still can't believe they killed off his wife! What the heck!?! Guess there will be no Bourne Ultimatum. Also got the Matrix DVD because our tape is MIA. I think Dad is getting me Batman Begins. Mom bought me The Chronicles of Narnia. Also got a New Testament magazine thing. That's all I know about... I'll also be getting, um, at least two surprises.

In other news, Garfield S. is really sick and we've already spent a hundred and fifty bucks on him this weekend. Still don't know what's causing the problem. He's dehydrated and a bit anemic.

Currently: Drawing a comic.

The Christmas Tree Versus The Holiday Tree

2005-12-02T22:15:00.000-06:00

Ha Ha Ha

That's my simple answer on the whole thing, but if you want to get a bit deeper on the subject, here goes.

Why does someone buy a fir tree when December rolls around? Is it to, perhaps, celebrate a certain holiday named Christmas? Are people going to demand that Christmas be renamed to "Holiday"? A holiday named Holiday? What does "holiday" mean, anyways? Does it not mean "holy day"? Hey! It's Holy either way!

*Takes a breather from immature rhyming.*

What about products made for Hanukkah? Like the Hanukkah Dreidel? Are they going to rename it Holiday Dreidel? That's a bad example, but really. Who are they selling the products to? No one is offended to buy a fir tree called Christmas... but a boat load of people seem to be offended to buy a fir tree called Holiday.

These storesb have gone on the hot seat for their stand on being, what they call, politically correct. But virtually no one agrees with them. Jews, Muslims, and Christians alike think these stores have taken the issue two steps too far.

The minority needs to be protected. The minority needs to feel as safe in this country as the majority. I'm not talking about race here, either. In my mind, racist people should be stoned, and the whole race issue never be mentioned again. I'm talking about minority of views. Everyone should be able to scream out their beliefs without fear. But that's as far as it goes... the majority rules. This is just and it is right. This country is a democracy... led by the people, the majority. If this country were led by the minority, it would be as bad as being led by a royalty... or a dictatorship.

Bottom Line is Changing Modes. How bout' movies? I'm watching Batman Begins. Great movie.

Merry Thanksgiving Everybody!!!!

2005-11-24T23:27:00.000-06:00

That's right.

I said Merry.

Now go away!

Weight: 199lbs

Now The Final Story

2005-11-12T17:32:00.000-06:00

A guy had a heart attack and ran into the house.

So there it is... my excitement for the day... that wasn't that exciting.

Weight: 185lbs

Something Interesting

2005-11-12T17:14:00.000-06:00

... To Me

This is maturity: To be able to stick with a job until it's finished; to do one's duty without being supervised; to be able to carry money without spending it; and to be able to bear an injustice without wanting to get even.

Guess I'm not as "mature" as I thought.

Weight: 185lbs

Aaaah

2005-11-12T17:12:00.000-06:00

Looks like an SUV ran into a house.

We were very surprised when the tow truck drove out of the house with the SUV on its back... very surprised indeed.

Still looks like someone died though.

Weight: 185lbs

Something Odd Down The Street

2005-11-12T15:45:00.000-06:00

Police Cars... Police Tape... Onlookers...

Did Someone Get Murdered?

Weight: 185bls

It's Just A Story, Dear, No Need For Pills

2005-10-29T23:16:00.000-06:00

She saw the headlights reflect off the stone wall before the Rolls Royce turned the corner. She stepped out into the narrow lane. Taking a breath, she prepared herself. The car was almost there. She turned her head up to the sky, found the moon, and stared.

The mission was only to last one year. One year at the very most. Then he would come for her. She didn't know that night, with her bare feet bleeding, her black dress in tatters, that she would be living in South Chile for seven.

Weight: 175lbs

Funny Only To Me

2005-10-21T00:07:00.000-06:00

Just found this old thing. Oh my goodness!

8-20-92
I remember when I was two years old at Easter time I would put my eggs in my brothers basket and he would win the test but I ended up geting my eggs back

8-22-92
I remember when I was 3 years old I took my cat and get it against the wall with a flash lite and said, "I won't give you any food intil you open your mouth," and my mom said "What are you doing," and I said, "I wan't to see the baby kittins."

3-3-93
My hamsters named Fredrica and Tedy are cute.

3-31-93
I'm here at school right now at 12:49 p.m. and in aboute 2 more hours I'm out of school and in to day care. I can't whate becouse I'm bord and day care has lots of games. Or at least it's funer.

6-5-93
Erica is so rood and stoopid. Erica thinks she's so cool.

Mercedes is my new best friend.

Brenisha is my friend too, but we still get in little fites some times.

Erica has some cind of dirty atotood, and I don't like it. One part of that is she acts like she's cool.

11-12-93
Today was a long day. I do have much to look forerd to. Its a fryday. Papa and baba wen't hunting erlyer altho it is about 10:15pm. Well gota go use the restroom tell ya what time when I get back. It's about 10:20pm. Well gotta go before I loos to much of writing lines, don't you think so. by "seya" next time when I write in this diary. By-by.

12-3-93
My hamster dide, he dide, he dide, the one's name was Tedy. "Ntu," I can't believe it, he realy dide.

3-2-94
Fredrica dide of age a couple of days ago, Ya, I'm upset but not quite becous I ghess I'm used to hamsters dieng.

So.... anyone else want to dig up their old diaries and share? Hehe.

Weight: 185lbs

Oh So Gross!

2005-10-19T23:31:00.000-06:00

Kathy found half a green hairy caterpillar in her Whataburger burger.

... that means she ate the other half.

Weight: 185lbs

You Know Uru

2005-10-19T17:03:00.000-06:00

I've been playing Uru - Ages Beyond Myst.

It's nice. The visuals are great, the sound is fine, and the concept is intriguing... but what's the point? It's like looking at a sci-fi art book. The puzzles aren't fun, only annoying... and once you leave the entrance level, you have no guidance whatsoever. Just a vague concept of putting your hand on seven magic pieces of cloth hanging here and there.

It gets really stupid when they say there are seven journeys (that's what they call their magic cloth) in the desert... it's supposed to be something ancient, and yet one of them is hanging off the back of an RV and another on the back of a no trespassing sign.

My advice: Never play this game.

Weight: 185lbs

Melissa's Meme Is Now My Meme

2005-10-14T00:34:00.000-06:00

I've been very unoriginal lately... so why stop now?

Three Things I Want To Do Before I Die:
Ooooh... life goals. Scary!

Three People Who Make Me Laugh:
Osi (Oh Sigh, not Aw See), Mom, and Shade

Three Things I Love:
Books, Games, and Sleeping

Three Things That I Hate:
Deceit, Headaches, and People Who Just Don't Get It

Who Do I Go To For Advice?
Uh, me? I am a born problem solver.

What Have I Dreamed About Lately?
Last night I dreamed about Scamander-in-Chief... Don't ask.

Who Do I Tell My Secrets To?
Melissa

Who Do I Write The Most Emails To?
Osi

Who Do I Receive The Most Emails From?
Osi

The Last Movie I Saw In A Theater:
It's been so long, I have no idea.

The Last Movie I Rented:
The Life Aquatic

The Last Book I Read:
The terrible "Starliner" by David Drake... I even wrote a review on it. Read it here.

There ya' go.

Weight: 185lbs

Today, In History

2005-10-11T16:26:00.000-06:00

So, I've got a new freak of an admirer. He just keeps turning around to smile at me.

Quit looking at weirdo!

Weight: 185lbs

Tweet Tweet

2005-10-06T23:30:00.000-06:00

I went out for lunch with Mom but I arrived at her work way too early. I had to sit in the car and watch tons of people heading off for their own lunch breaks. That's when they all turned into birds. It was weird.

A flock of seven came out and walked together down the side of the building. They seemed to be going too far. In a very choreographed manner, five of them raised their hands and pointed out into the parking lot, and with a single move, the flock changed directions. Then three more came out of the building. The flock of three spotted the flock of seven. The leader put her fingers to her lips and gave a loud whistle. The flock of seven turned to look. The leader of that flock whistled back. They seemed to communicate something to each other through whistles and sign language. All were agreed and then the flock of three burst into laughter and flew back into the building.

Weight: 185lbs

I've Got New Eyes

2005-10-04T13:44:00.000-06:00

I've been waiting for them for three years. Nothing. Then I saw my opportunity and jumped at it.

I knew that my glasses weren't as effective as they used to be. When I read or was on the computer all day, they stopped working. I'd drive around the city, and when I stopped at the light, my vision would blur to the point I wasn't sure I could drive. Then the light would turn green and my eyes were instantly focused again. Or I sat around and when I wanted to see something I'd be able to, but if I wasn't paying attention, everything became a relaxing blur. My thoughts were that my eyes were just lazy. They didn't want to work out all day... like me. Haha.

Mom broke her glasses the other day. I talked her into an exam first, before just buying a new pair with her old perscription. Her appointment was today. We went up there, and I caught a glance at the sign. Buy one, get one free.

As she filled out her paperwork I said, hm, they've got that sale going on again. Buy one, get one free. She said, hm, she could get an extra frame just in case, and went back to the paper work. I said, "This could be a great opportunity," Then under my breath I finished, "to buy your daughter some new glasses."

I didn't think she heard me at first. I just kept staring at a picture featuring the back leg of a dalmatian. Suddenly she popped her head up and said, yeah, she could get some glasses for me. They squeezed me in for an appointment right after Mom. Woohoo.

So I had the exam and stuff. The doc put the machine to my eyes and told me to say yes if I could still read the bottom line of the chart. Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. He was amazed. Didn't I wear glasses all the time. No, just when I read and watch tv. "Can you see me?" he asks. Yes, I can. "Clearly?" Yes. "What if you were just sitting around doing nothing? Would the room be blurry?" YES! "Dear, you are REALLY far sighted. You're going to need to wear glasses more often. You won't strain as much." Alrighty, then.

So now I've got me some glasses. A little darker frames than preferable, but still okay.

Weight: 185lbs

So, Um...

2005-09-30T00:47:00.000-06:00

Been trying to post stupid stuff here for a couple of days, but something would always happen and it wouldn't go through.

That can be annoying as when I feel like saying something stupid, well, let's just move on.

Here is something cute to liven up this dreadful (my new favorite word) post. Where is the inspiration? Please! Someone give me a word, a phrase, anything. I'll take it and run.

Er, maybe I should just go to bed.

Weight: 185lbs

WooHoo!

2005-09-24T23:23:00.000-06:00

All that trouble picking out a new screen name and then I'm sent an email that my old one is out of suspension and I can use it again.

So... To all who are curious. You can reach me on AIM as Bookey314.

Another Whoop. Now I can talk to all of my old genealogy buddies. Never could remember their names. Ooooh... then there are all of my Acropolis buddies.

Hmmm... Looks like I've got some helloing to do.

Weight: 185lbs

Guess Who!!

2005-09-24T18:25:00.000-06:00

I finally figured out who these two are.

They are Thomas and Emma Sanford. That would be my, uh, great great grandparents.

Weight: 185lbs

Nuttin'

2005-09-23T11:10:00.000-06:00

So, um, busy week. Whatever.

Grrr... Most of post deleted :P

So.... Grrr.

Weight: 185lbs

Whatever

2005-09-18T14:35:00.000-06:00

Seems the only other music code working was for Megalomaniac and I'm just not in the mood for him right now.

Guess I'm stuck with Spies.

I wrote a stupid song last night. It had great music in my head kind of along the lines of 10 Years' Through the Iris and Coldplay's Daylight. Then I went to bed and when I woke up, I lost the tune and the song sucks. I hate when that happens. Not like I'd ever do anything with them, but it was mine. Cha.

Weight: 185lbs

And He'll Soon Come Back

2005-09-18T13:45:00.000-06:00

He left a cryptic message for me.

He said something about never being able to get my camera to work so he couldn't take any pictures of the dolphins. Does that, per chance, mean he broke my camera? Did he put the batteries in correctly? Is he too stupid to know how to turn the thing on? I guess I won't know until five o'clock this evening when he said he'd be home.

Hmmm... I should probably change my background song. It's been on for too long. I love coldplay and that is one of my favorites of his. I can never get tired of hearing it, but that is not to say others won't. So, what next? Aliens Exist or Oceania? I think I'll try out Blink 182 first. I intended to change the song every week. What happened?

So? Sho sho.

Weight: 185lbs

Mmmmm... Worms

2005-09-17T12:58:00.000-06:00

The brother and his friends left last night to head for the gulf coast.

They're going on a fishing trip and they took my digital camera. I just know they are going to break it. Grrrr... He breaks everything he borrows from me.

Weight: 185lbs

The Movie Is GOOOOOOOD

2005-09-15T22:56:00.000-06:00

I'm tired (but not tired enough to stop) of trying to convince people who have never seen The Princess Bride that The Princess Bride is a really good movie.

Don't let the title scare you off. All who see come to agree... except for that one guy... and he was just an idiot so who cares.

Weight: 185lbs

That Was Annoying

2005-09-15T18:25:00.000-06:00

Playing two days of catch up (not ketchup) was tough and oh, so stressful.

... Especially when every answer except ONE was WRONG!!!! Didn't know there was, like, a formula involved. Now I know. And now I get a whole evening doin' whatever.

Let's see... listen to some more x&y, wash the dogs, er, and blog surf! Yay.

Weight: 185lbs

Here We Go Again

2005-09-14T12:09:00.000-06:00

My brother, once again, has got poison ivy.

Now I have to drive him to the doctor tomorrow to get a shot.

Weight: 185lbs