Well, today hasn't been terribly exciting so far, just the usual stuff that happens around here - S and I made stupid faces at each other, the Toddler refused to nap until he fell asleep on me at 4:30, right before J and S were about to take him to see some family (of course), Girl Child is sick.. the usual, for the most part. We're supposed to be having D&D tonight, so I may have exciting things to post tomorrow if W and A show up at a decent time for us to start game. And if I get my ass off my computer and shower and nap.
Speaking of showering, today will be the day that I start the No 'Poo thing - I washed out some old travel bottles from when I went to England last year because the ones S bought aren't sufficient, and I will be mixing up my baking soda once I'm done writing this post and hopping in the shower, as you're supposed to mix it fresh.
I've been really slacking on the laundry and I kind of hate myself for it. I think I may clean up the living room after my shower and vacuum, and then nap. Actually, that's a stupid idea, I'll just get instantly sweaty and gross. Okay. I'll clean and vacuum, mix my baking soda, shower, let my hair dry, start a load of laundry, and nap. There. Hopefully I'll feel a little better when I wake up, as I've felt like poop all day.
I've got another link round-up from the course of the day - apparently I read enough news websites to qualify for a daily dose of links. They'll be posted at the end.
Wow, there's just not a whole lot to say. Today's just been a day. The last few weeks have basically been the exact same, except I'm sucking with laundry the last couple weeks - I almost got completely finished and was all awesome and stuff, and then I just failed because I was so exhausted, and then it got so hot and I don't like to move at all when it's hot. So I just suck and need to cut that shit out.
Anyway. It's just me and Girl Child, and she's in her room. It's really quiet. And I have such strange taste in music. I've been listening to Voltaire's Star Trek songs, and the CD Brent Spiner put out a few years ago today. Combine that with all the other weird stuff I listen to, and you've got the ultimate dorky collection. I have more music in that vein than anything else, probably. I wonder when I started liking satirists so much? (I've also got Garfunkel and Oates, Jonathan Coulton, Weird Al, and some other stuff I can't remember offhand right now - my playlist is currently over 2,500 songs strong, and the only thing I have in a truly high concentration is M's music - about 20% of my music library is him.) And oh god, I just went from Zombies On Your Lawn to The Good Stuff by Kenny Chesney. That is such a strange transition.
And now.. onward to... LINKS!!
Link Round-Up
This is one of the most terrifyingly mesmerizing music videos I've ever seen. Oh. My. God. I.. just.. what I don't even..
This is just asinine. I hate commercials, and this is a big part of why. It's so disturbing!
Here are some reasons why filesharing is good for music.
It's seriously time to allow change to happen, and if you don't understand computers, you should definitely step aside and not make laws about them.
I found this New York Times article about atheism being on the rise (written in 2009, but still fairly relevant) to be pretty interesting.
Michele Bachmann, who I hold in about as high regard as I do Sarah Palin, won't answer questions about the small business she and her husband own that she's always going on about. Please don't let her be President, America. That would really suck.
I officially love this lady. Seriously, what a person!
I need to research this issue a bit more, but I'm not sure how I feel about e-tickets - it feels a little bit too Big Brother for me. Do they zap the car and get the information, or is it just an electronic machine that they create the tickets on when they pull someone over? Or maybe I'm just an idiot, because obviously they're still going to pull you over, so it must just be an electronic method instead of the paper method. Duh, me.
I already do not like praying mantises (manti?), but this video is hilarious. I love how the announcer is just dying with laughter at the end. It definitely does not increase my love for the things, though. Bleah!
Anyway, time to go do things!
Saturday, July 30, 2011
Friday, July 29, 2011
My Very First Link Round-Up!
This is like a milestone! Or a day when I should get an award! I'm starting the foray into semi-mainstream blogging. I think. Maybe. Anyway.
I'm finding more and more that I have a lot of links I want to share with people, and I generally don't post them on social networks because I expect most people not to be terribly interested in what I post on Facebook.
Here, though, it's a bit different. This is my blog, so if you're here reading this, you've either got an interest in me personally or find me interesting (*dies laughing*), or you reached me while using Google to find something else (which has happened a few times now).
I digress. I'm going to start posting links, possibly daily, possibly a few times a week or once a week. I don't know. I'll start writing some form of title on them once I have some idea of how often it is going to occur.
Also, after this one, there will not be nearly as much pointless explanation before the good stuff.
Link Round-Up
Alec Baldwin wrote a piece for the Huffington Post about the national debt and all the problems with the debt ceiling and the defecit that I found interesting and accurate. I think I agree with him.
A really dumb man from New Jersey didn't bother to turn off the water for his automatic sprinkler system when winter came, and then was astonished to find that he would have to pay the water bill after the pipe froze and burst.
The school board of a small town near Springfield, Missouri has unanimously voted to ban Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse Five from the shelves of the schools because it is "biblically contrary". The complaint that brought the issue before the board came from a man whose children are homeschooled. Goddammit.
This article from Mother Jones started the abortion rights rant I was writing, which morphed into the sex education rant in my last post.
GraphJam very accurately portrays what household objects look like to a toddler.
The Bloggess made me want a giant metal chicken sculpture. Which I already posted about, but I forgot, so here's a link to the specific post.
And more No 'Poo articles, all of which are at least a year old:
NPR
MSNBC
A woman's personal experience with going No 'Poo.
So far, most of the articles I've found that talk about it negatively are people who haven't done their research and are horrified by how their hair will feel if they don't shampoo daily, not realizing that it eventually balances out and turns out fine for most people, from everything I've read so far.
I don't really have anything else of import to add except that I actually cooked for once last night and it turned out fabulously. I'll post a real post about it tomorrow, since I'm making it again when I feel less like a murdered migrane. For now, it's time to start getting ready for bed.
I'm finding more and more that I have a lot of links I want to share with people, and I generally don't post them on social networks because I expect most people not to be terribly interested in what I post on Facebook.
Here, though, it's a bit different. This is my blog, so if you're here reading this, you've either got an interest in me personally or find me interesting (*dies laughing*), or you reached me while using Google to find something else (which has happened a few times now).
I digress. I'm going to start posting links, possibly daily, possibly a few times a week or once a week. I don't know. I'll start writing some form of title on them once I have some idea of how often it is going to occur.
Also, after this one, there will not be nearly as much pointless explanation before the good stuff.
Link Round-Up
Alec Baldwin wrote a piece for the Huffington Post about the national debt and all the problems with the debt ceiling and the defecit that I found interesting and accurate. I think I agree with him.
A really dumb man from New Jersey didn't bother to turn off the water for his automatic sprinkler system when winter came, and then was astonished to find that he would have to pay the water bill after the pipe froze and burst.
The school board of a small town near Springfield, Missouri has unanimously voted to ban Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse Five from the shelves of the schools because it is "biblically contrary". The complaint that brought the issue before the board came from a man whose children are homeschooled. Goddammit.
This article from Mother Jones started the abortion rights rant I was writing, which morphed into the sex education rant in my last post.
GraphJam very accurately portrays what household objects look like to a toddler.
The Bloggess made me want a giant metal chicken sculpture. Which I already posted about, but I forgot, so here's a link to the specific post.
And more No 'Poo articles, all of which are at least a year old:
NPR
MSNBC
A woman's personal experience with going No 'Poo.
So far, most of the articles I've found that talk about it negatively are people who haven't done their research and are horrified by how their hair will feel if they don't shampoo daily, not realizing that it eventually balances out and turns out fine for most people, from everything I've read so far.
I don't really have anything else of import to add except that I actually cooked for once last night and it turned out fabulously. I'll post a real post about it tomorrow, since I'm making it again when I feel less like a murdered migrane. For now, it's time to start getting ready for bed.
Personal Choices, Indoctrination, and Sex Education: A Rant
Okay, it's soapbox time.
In my last post, I mentioned that I had partially written an essay about my experience with sex education in school. Today, I was spurred to write another essay about militant veganism, which caused me to decide to finish writing (read that as completely rewrite) the first essay. And now, here they are, in all their ranty, bitchy glory:
It's Not Your Business: A Rant
I don't tolerate people who are militant about their beliefs very well. I don't care if you don't want to eat meat, or honey, or eggs, that's your business. It's when you get in my business, like in the case of this submission on Passive-Aggressive Notes, that I have a problem with your beliefs/lifestyle.
This is why, if I ever change living situations from my current one, I will ensure that the eating habits of the potential roommate are similar enough to mine to not cause conflict (as well as having similar lifestyles), or I will make it very clear that it is not their business what I eat, nor should it be my business what they eat, just as it is not anyone's business how our lifestyles are conducted, so long as the activities of the people living in the dwelling do not affect the ability of the people they share living space with to conduct their life in a normal way. I don't give a shit what you put into your body. If you are not family or someone whose well-being I am responsible for, it is your business what you choose to put into your body, or on your body, or what you buy from the store. I do not care. That also means that you should not care, and if you have a problem with what I'm eating, you damn well better keep it to yourself.
In a roommate situation, the dwelling's common areas are, in fact, common. This means that the living room, dining room, bathroom (if there is only one), and kitchen are for use of everyone living in the dwelling. If this means that you divide the cupboards up equally so as to keep everything separate and only use your own food, then that is what you do, and you do not bitch about your roommate's dietary habits consisting entirely of Mountain Dew, Cheez-Whiz, and Twinkies. Why? Because it's not your business! It's not your body, they are not your responsibility, and it is not your job to care. Same goes for someone who has a philosophical objection to eating or using animal-based products. If you don't want to eat meat because you have a problem with it, that's fine, but don't expect me to quit eating it because it upsets you. That's going too far. I am not that politically correct, and I do not expect anyone else to be that accomodating, either. I won't stop you from eating tofu or crickets or anything else I find repulsive, so long as you don't expect me to eat it or expect me to change my eating habits for you.
Basically, everyone leave everyone else the hell alone unless what they are doing is actually causing you a problem (like having a loud party all night when you need to get up at the crack of dawn for work). It's not your business.
And now, an even longer one about how I was woefully uneducated about my own body.
How Being Indoctrinated Nearly Fucked Up My Life
I learned everything that I know about sex and my body from the internet.
This means that the education system failed me. I didn't know I had a vagina until a few weeks before I got my first period. I wasn't sure why I was having periods in the first place, and certainly didn't connect it to fertility or babies. They were just kind of there, part of the landscape.
My sexual education in school mostly consisted of a short video talking about the body parts, which I didn't remember anything about, and how bad STDs are and how you should never have sex outside of marriage. (We never learned anything specific about the various kinds of STD, just that they were bad. In fact, my knowledge of them is still woefully incomplete.) That's what I was taught every year in school from 4th grade through 9th grade, with varying degrees of explanation, and never learned anything that would actually be useful to me in the real world. Then there was the pro-life seminar.
This was a seminar that happened when I was in the 6th grade at the Catholic school I attended. There was a special speaker to talk to the whole 6th grade (all of about 50 kids), a video, and promotional materials, which included bumper stickers and lapel pins with itty bitty baby feet on them.
This seminar provided me with no knowledge of what abortion was, just that it was wrong and the best thing in the world was to be pro-life. I had no basis for understanding it, didn't know it was a medical procedure, or any of the many, many reasons why a woman might choose to have one done. I was told I was supposed to be pro-life because that's what God wanted, and they needed people to spread the message, and of course children are the best means to spread something like that, since they are easy to indoctrinate.
When I started 7th grade, I was attending public school for the first time, and became friends with a few girls whose primary goal was to lose their virginity as quickly as possible. I only had the vaguest concept of what virginity meant, or what a virgin was, even though I was brought up Catholic and obviously we talked about the Virgin Mary on a regular basis, but a virgin was never explained to me as a concept. I just assumed it was her title or something, like Queen Elizabeth, and didn't pay it any attention. Of course, being susceptible to peer pressure and the opinions of people I wanted to like me, I wanted to lose mine as quickly as possible, too, even though I didn't understand what it meant.
I lost my virginity in 2001, two weeks before I turned 14. Yes, it was my decision, and I was the one who instigated it, but I definitely was not ready to be having sex. I didn't know how to have sex, I didn't understand sex, and I didn't even enjoy it. I wasn't even sure how everything was supposed to fit together, either, and didn't really connect it with getting pregnant in more than an abstract sense. I was also under the delusion that getting pregnant was a good idea, so I wanted to have a baby as soon as possible so I'd have someone to love me, which is one of the most fucked-up reasons to have a child ever, and I am so glad that I didn't become a mother when I was a teenager.
Here's another aspect of my complete lack of knowledge: I had no idea how to take care of my parts. I didn't know how to keep them clean, or make sure to avoid things like yeast infections or other problems. I didn't understand condoms, either. I am incredibly lucky that I did not catch a disease or get pregnant.
When I was about 15, I joined LiveJournal, and with it came the various communities that were once vastly popular on the website. (This was before Facebook and before people widely used Google, or at least before I knew how to use Google.) One of these communities was Vagina Pagina, which taught me everything that I was not taught in school - useful information like what the hell a labia actually was, and that you do not pee out of your vagina, as I had assumed as a small child. I was lucky, too, because this was the best community I could have gone to to learn all of the things I didn't know about my own body. There were no myths. There were explanations for why things work the way they do, recommendations on how to keep track of and predict a period, and pretty much everything else my mother or my school should have taught me before that point in my life. I learned about abortions and why they are important, and used this information to form my own opinions on the subject, as I did with many other subjects covered by this community. (In recent years, I've done independent research, now that I have Google powers, on things like home birth, midwifery, breastfeeding, and gay rights and have formed my own opinions and convictions on those subjects as well, but Vagina Pagina really opened the door for me becoming who I am today.)
I am a product of abstinence-only sexual education. It's not doing anyone any good, and I'm one of the lucky ones who didn't manage to fuck up my life in some way because of it, and I managed to properly educate myself independently.
This doesn't even cover the incredible amount of indoctrination I received with regard to religion and DARE, but I will bitch heartily about that at another time.
In my last post, I mentioned that I had partially written an essay about my experience with sex education in school. Today, I was spurred to write another essay about militant veganism, which caused me to decide to finish writing (read that as completely rewrite) the first essay. And now, here they are, in all their ranty, bitchy glory:
It's Not Your Business: A Rant
I don't tolerate people who are militant about their beliefs very well. I don't care if you don't want to eat meat, or honey, or eggs, that's your business. It's when you get in my business, like in the case of this submission on Passive-Aggressive Notes, that I have a problem with your beliefs/lifestyle.
This is why, if I ever change living situations from my current one, I will ensure that the eating habits of the potential roommate are similar enough to mine to not cause conflict (as well as having similar lifestyles), or I will make it very clear that it is not their business what I eat, nor should it be my business what they eat, just as it is not anyone's business how our lifestyles are conducted, so long as the activities of the people living in the dwelling do not affect the ability of the people they share living space with to conduct their life in a normal way. I don't give a shit what you put into your body. If you are not family or someone whose well-being I am responsible for, it is your business what you choose to put into your body, or on your body, or what you buy from the store. I do not care. That also means that you should not care, and if you have a problem with what I'm eating, you damn well better keep it to yourself.
In a roommate situation, the dwelling's common areas are, in fact, common. This means that the living room, dining room, bathroom (if there is only one), and kitchen are for use of everyone living in the dwelling. If this means that you divide the cupboards up equally so as to keep everything separate and only use your own food, then that is what you do, and you do not bitch about your roommate's dietary habits consisting entirely of Mountain Dew, Cheez-Whiz, and Twinkies. Why? Because it's not your business! It's not your body, they are not your responsibility, and it is not your job to care. Same goes for someone who has a philosophical objection to eating or using animal-based products. If you don't want to eat meat because you have a problem with it, that's fine, but don't expect me to quit eating it because it upsets you. That's going too far. I am not that politically correct, and I do not expect anyone else to be that accomodating, either. I won't stop you from eating tofu or crickets or anything else I find repulsive, so long as you don't expect me to eat it or expect me to change my eating habits for you.
Basically, everyone leave everyone else the hell alone unless what they are doing is actually causing you a problem (like having a loud party all night when you need to get up at the crack of dawn for work). It's not your business.
And now, an even longer one about how I was woefully uneducated about my own body.
How Being Indoctrinated Nearly Fucked Up My Life
I learned everything that I know about sex and my body from the internet.
This means that the education system failed me. I didn't know I had a vagina until a few weeks before I got my first period. I wasn't sure why I was having periods in the first place, and certainly didn't connect it to fertility or babies. They were just kind of there, part of the landscape.
My sexual education in school mostly consisted of a short video talking about the body parts, which I didn't remember anything about, and how bad STDs are and how you should never have sex outside of marriage. (We never learned anything specific about the various kinds of STD, just that they were bad. In fact, my knowledge of them is still woefully incomplete.) That's what I was taught every year in school from 4th grade through 9th grade, with varying degrees of explanation, and never learned anything that would actually be useful to me in the real world. Then there was the pro-life seminar.
This was a seminar that happened when I was in the 6th grade at the Catholic school I attended. There was a special speaker to talk to the whole 6th grade (all of about 50 kids), a video, and promotional materials, which included bumper stickers and lapel pins with itty bitty baby feet on them.
This seminar provided me with no knowledge of what abortion was, just that it was wrong and the best thing in the world was to be pro-life. I had no basis for understanding it, didn't know it was a medical procedure, or any of the many, many reasons why a woman might choose to have one done. I was told I was supposed to be pro-life because that's what God wanted, and they needed people to spread the message, and of course children are the best means to spread something like that, since they are easy to indoctrinate.
When I started 7th grade, I was attending public school for the first time, and became friends with a few girls whose primary goal was to lose their virginity as quickly as possible. I only had the vaguest concept of what virginity meant, or what a virgin was, even though I was brought up Catholic and obviously we talked about the Virgin Mary on a regular basis, but a virgin was never explained to me as a concept. I just assumed it was her title or something, like Queen Elizabeth, and didn't pay it any attention. Of course, being susceptible to peer pressure and the opinions of people I wanted to like me, I wanted to lose mine as quickly as possible, too, even though I didn't understand what it meant.
I lost my virginity in 2001, two weeks before I turned 14. Yes, it was my decision, and I was the one who instigated it, but I definitely was not ready to be having sex. I didn't know how to have sex, I didn't understand sex, and I didn't even enjoy it. I wasn't even sure how everything was supposed to fit together, either, and didn't really connect it with getting pregnant in more than an abstract sense. I was also under the delusion that getting pregnant was a good idea, so I wanted to have a baby as soon as possible so I'd have someone to love me, which is one of the most fucked-up reasons to have a child ever, and I am so glad that I didn't become a mother when I was a teenager.
Here's another aspect of my complete lack of knowledge: I had no idea how to take care of my parts. I didn't know how to keep them clean, or make sure to avoid things like yeast infections or other problems. I didn't understand condoms, either. I am incredibly lucky that I did not catch a disease or get pregnant.
When I was about 15, I joined LiveJournal, and with it came the various communities that were once vastly popular on the website. (This was before Facebook and before people widely used Google, or at least before I knew how to use Google.) One of these communities was Vagina Pagina, which taught me everything that I was not taught in school - useful information like what the hell a labia actually was, and that you do not pee out of your vagina, as I had assumed as a small child. I was lucky, too, because this was the best community I could have gone to to learn all of the things I didn't know about my own body. There were no myths. There were explanations for why things work the way they do, recommendations on how to keep track of and predict a period, and pretty much everything else my mother or my school should have taught me before that point in my life. I learned about abortions and why they are important, and used this information to form my own opinions on the subject, as I did with many other subjects covered by this community. (In recent years, I've done independent research, now that I have Google powers, on things like home birth, midwifery, breastfeeding, and gay rights and have formed my own opinions and convictions on those subjects as well, but Vagina Pagina really opened the door for me becoming who I am today.)
I am a product of abstinence-only sexual education. It's not doing anyone any good, and I'm one of the lucky ones who didn't manage to fuck up my life in some way because of it, and I managed to properly educate myself independently.
This doesn't even cover the incredible amount of indoctrination I received with regard to religion and DARE, but I will bitch heartily about that at another time.
Thursday, July 28, 2011
Switcheroos and Baking Soda
I am so lazy! I've been having a hard time finding the desire to write anything. Really, all I'd like to do at the moment is a whole fat lot of nothing. Or sleep. My dark circles have bags. Even when I get enough sleep, I look exhausted.
I haven't done anything more with that essay about abortion that I talked about - I've been busy ignoring it in favor of things that require much less brainpower. In fact, I'm pretty sure that my brain has just completely deteriorated to a point where I'll never be able to think deeply again. That's kind of a scary thought, so maybe now I need to work on that essay and post it.
I'm listening to my favorite song by M at the moment, which is making it hard to sit and type everything out because it's so beautiful that I want to sit with my eyes closed and just listen to it.
Last night, I switched from my poor Frankenstein of a computer (which I never posted any photos of) to S's old XPS that used to be J's a few years ago. S inherited M's XPS (they're actually almost the exact same computer, except M's old computer has a better processor and RAM but a smaller hard drive than the other XPS), so I get a computer that I can actually keep most of my crap on, but now I can't play the Sims, unless I turn this one off and put it somewhere safe and hook the other one up with its eight thousand cables, because the optical drive on this one is broken from J dropping it so much. However, this computer has a much better, and less broken, keyboard. It's also faster, has Windows 7 instead of XP, and it's prettier. Not to mention, I could theoretically take it places with me that allow me to use the electricity, since the battery does not work at all. And I can close it if I need to, which is nice and something I've definitely missed. Anyway, I was intending on formatting this computer before using it, but then discovered that because the optical drive only works sporadically, it can't reinstall Windows (or run the Sims, since you need the disc to play if you don't want to play pirated copies), so what I've done instead is delete all of S's old files, reconfigure all of her settings and basically change absolutely everything to suit me. It's almost like having it be mine, except that it says Users>S-- instead of Users>L--, which just bothers the hell out of me, but honestly, if that's all I've got to complain about, I'll take what I can get.
Anyway, so lots of excitement surrounding the transference of computers - I'm keeping the Frankenstein as a way to play the Sims until I manage to acquire one with a functioning optical drive and other good parts, and this also means transferring my music library over - that's almost 18 gigs of music! And I have to completely resort it and delete all the stuff that I only deleted out of iTunes last time, because it's all back now since I never deleted the source files. (Over 1,000 songs, actually, that I'm going to have to go and find and delete. Oh joy.) Then I have to readd my audiobooks and fix all of them as well, probably, knowing my luck. Maybe it'll let me fix the chapter titles so they don't suck anymore, though, because a lack of formatting makes my head want to explode. And I need to find a better copy of Order of the Phoenix, as the one I've got is missing the end of the chapter The Woes of Mrs. Weasley.
Well, that's probably enough bitching about how disorganized I am and how much work I'm going to have to do in iTunes before I can even attempt to sync my iPod, so in other news, S and I are going to be trying out this "No 'Poo" thing that I found on a blog, which sounds completely awesome - basically, we won't be using store-bought shampoo or conditioner on our hair anymore, but a mixture of baking soda and water (and after J gets paid, we'll also be adding essential oils to give it a scent) for shampoo every few days and apple cider vinegar with water for conditioner, though just on the ends at first. Funnily enough, I found this not by searching for ways to stop using shampoo, but to find ways to make my hair healthier with food items, out of a combination of curiousity and frustration at how pathetic and weird my hair is. And because I just joined a long hair forum, hoping for some information that I might find helpful in growing my hair out. Anyway, I found this blog after a bit of googling, and it sounds like an absolutely terrific idea, especially after I got a load of her before and after pictures - her before picture had her hair looking dry and weird and poofy with this weird wave, and in the after picture, her hair was tame and soft and silky-looking, and it had darkened, too, to a shade of brown that she apparently was in love with.
Anyway, I've devised a schedule of how often I'm going to use the baking soda mixture on my hair, and I'm still trying to decide if I'm going to use the ACV every time I wash my hair or every other time. The way I've drawn up the schedule looks as if I'll be washing my hair on Saturday, Tuesday, Friday, Monday, Thursday, Sunday, Wednesday, and then back to Saturday again, in a nice little cycle, so there'll be two days between each washing. I don't know if I'm going to need to move them closer or not - you're supposed to just rinse your hair with warm water in the shower on the days you don't wash it. It's going to be an interesting first week, though - the first 10 days or so apparently involve some truly horrific hair days while the scalp stops being all weird and re-regulates the natural oil production, which is basically the purpose of this experiment. I'm going to give it about a month and see how I like it by the end of August, and if it ends up looking okay, that's just how I'm going to wash my hair from now on. Hopefully, I'll never need to use a styling product again.
I'm really excited about this! I've read one account of someone's hair falling out in clumps, but 90% of them say that after the natural oils of the scalp regulated, they were so happy with it that they'd never go back. Also, some people discovered that they had curly hair, or straight hair, or another entirely different hair type than they previously thought, and it cuts out frizz almost completely. Also, if this works and we keep at it, we're going to save SO much money in the long run - we use a lot of shampoo and conditioner right now, and it'll be nice to only have to buy a box of nice, cheap baking soda instead of shampoo and conditioner for every person in the house, if J and Girl Child switch to it as well. Actually, I'm doubtful that Girl Child will make the switch, since it's so close to the start of the school year, but J probably will, if it does good things for our hair. I'm hoping M will make the switch, too, from what I've read, it does amazing things for people with very curly hair, and I think he'd be very happy.
Today, we went on errands involving the Kansas Department of Revenue - specifically getting the car registered and going to get Girl Child her first state ID and to get my instruction permit so I can work on driving and get my license. Unfortunately, I'm listed as having suspended driving privileges, so I couldn't get my permit today, or take the test, or do anything but be hung up on by customer service in Topeka. So I'm calling tomorrow morning, after I call the other relevant places to get more information on why this happened. Hopefully, it'll be quickly resolved with little effort on my part and I'll get my permit on Tuesday or something. If I'm lucky and it doesn't turn out that my driving privileges are suspended for life or something ridiculous.
In D&D news, we're starting another new game what W is going to run, and I'm going to try out being a rogue. Basically, I'm a fancy beat-stick, but it's still a slight departure from the norm, and since I'm not all that good at the roleplay aspect as of yet, that's the best I can do right now. I decided to name my new rogue Zoe, and S told me that I'd damn well better live up to the name and be a Big Damn Hero. It should be interesting with W running - I've never actually played a game with him running, because LW was born right as he was about to start running the last game that I was going to participate with him as DM, and we basically had to give that campaign up after one session. So, yeah, I'm a little nervous, as from what S has said, W's games are usually something that turns into a Lovecraftian horror. Anyway, because J's work schedule is changing, we're moving game from Saturdays to Mondays, which is handy, because that is the day I'll be watching LW every week, so we'll be able to get started sooner since they won't have to drive all the way out to Raytown to pick him up before even getting here.
I applied for a job with the county a day or two ago, I can't remember for what position right now (it's in my email, so it's not like I'll be totally clueless if they actually called me), and I'm intending on applying to be an election worker, so maybe that'll help me get a normal job. The permit thing is going to cause me problems, though, but maybe not too many.
I don't really have anything further to add, so I'm going to go and be very frustrated with iTunes now.
Also, thanks to The Bloggess, I now want a scary metal chicken sculpture.
I haven't done anything more with that essay about abortion that I talked about - I've been busy ignoring it in favor of things that require much less brainpower. In fact, I'm pretty sure that my brain has just completely deteriorated to a point where I'll never be able to think deeply again. That's kind of a scary thought, so maybe now I need to work on that essay and post it.
I'm listening to my favorite song by M at the moment, which is making it hard to sit and type everything out because it's so beautiful that I want to sit with my eyes closed and just listen to it.
Last night, I switched from my poor Frankenstein of a computer (which I never posted any photos of) to S's old XPS that used to be J's a few years ago. S inherited M's XPS (they're actually almost the exact same computer, except M's old computer has a better processor and RAM but a smaller hard drive than the other XPS), so I get a computer that I can actually keep most of my crap on, but now I can't play the Sims, unless I turn this one off and put it somewhere safe and hook the other one up with its eight thousand cables, because the optical drive on this one is broken from J dropping it so much. However, this computer has a much better, and less broken, keyboard. It's also faster, has Windows 7 instead of XP, and it's prettier. Not to mention, I could theoretically take it places with me that allow me to use the electricity, since the battery does not work at all. And I can close it if I need to, which is nice and something I've definitely missed. Anyway, I was intending on formatting this computer before using it, but then discovered that because the optical drive only works sporadically, it can't reinstall Windows (or run the Sims, since you need the disc to play if you don't want to play pirated copies), so what I've done instead is delete all of S's old files, reconfigure all of her settings and basically change absolutely everything to suit me. It's almost like having it be mine, except that it says Users>S-- instead of Users>L--, which just bothers the hell out of me, but honestly, if that's all I've got to complain about, I'll take what I can get.
Anyway, so lots of excitement surrounding the transference of computers - I'm keeping the Frankenstein as a way to play the Sims until I manage to acquire one with a functioning optical drive and other good parts, and this also means transferring my music library over - that's almost 18 gigs of music! And I have to completely resort it and delete all the stuff that I only deleted out of iTunes last time, because it's all back now since I never deleted the source files. (Over 1,000 songs, actually, that I'm going to have to go and find and delete. Oh joy.) Then I have to readd my audiobooks and fix all of them as well, probably, knowing my luck. Maybe it'll let me fix the chapter titles so they don't suck anymore, though, because a lack of formatting makes my head want to explode. And I need to find a better copy of Order of the Phoenix, as the one I've got is missing the end of the chapter The Woes of Mrs. Weasley.
Well, that's probably enough bitching about how disorganized I am and how much work I'm going to have to do in iTunes before I can even attempt to sync my iPod, so in other news, S and I are going to be trying out this "No 'Poo" thing that I found on a blog, which sounds completely awesome - basically, we won't be using store-bought shampoo or conditioner on our hair anymore, but a mixture of baking soda and water (and after J gets paid, we'll also be adding essential oils to give it a scent) for shampoo every few days and apple cider vinegar with water for conditioner, though just on the ends at first. Funnily enough, I found this not by searching for ways to stop using shampoo, but to find ways to make my hair healthier with food items, out of a combination of curiousity and frustration at how pathetic and weird my hair is. And because I just joined a long hair forum, hoping for some information that I might find helpful in growing my hair out. Anyway, I found this blog after a bit of googling, and it sounds like an absolutely terrific idea, especially after I got a load of her before and after pictures - her before picture had her hair looking dry and weird and poofy with this weird wave, and in the after picture, her hair was tame and soft and silky-looking, and it had darkened, too, to a shade of brown that she apparently was in love with.
Anyway, I've devised a schedule of how often I'm going to use the baking soda mixture on my hair, and I'm still trying to decide if I'm going to use the ACV every time I wash my hair or every other time. The way I've drawn up the schedule looks as if I'll be washing my hair on Saturday, Tuesday, Friday, Monday, Thursday, Sunday, Wednesday, and then back to Saturday again, in a nice little cycle, so there'll be two days between each washing. I don't know if I'm going to need to move them closer or not - you're supposed to just rinse your hair with warm water in the shower on the days you don't wash it. It's going to be an interesting first week, though - the first 10 days or so apparently involve some truly horrific hair days while the scalp stops being all weird and re-regulates the natural oil production, which is basically the purpose of this experiment. I'm going to give it about a month and see how I like it by the end of August, and if it ends up looking okay, that's just how I'm going to wash my hair from now on. Hopefully, I'll never need to use a styling product again.
I'm really excited about this! I've read one account of someone's hair falling out in clumps, but 90% of them say that after the natural oils of the scalp regulated, they were so happy with it that they'd never go back. Also, some people discovered that they had curly hair, or straight hair, or another entirely different hair type than they previously thought, and it cuts out frizz almost completely. Also, if this works and we keep at it, we're going to save SO much money in the long run - we use a lot of shampoo and conditioner right now, and it'll be nice to only have to buy a box of nice, cheap baking soda instead of shampoo and conditioner for every person in the house, if J and Girl Child switch to it as well. Actually, I'm doubtful that Girl Child will make the switch, since it's so close to the start of the school year, but J probably will, if it does good things for our hair. I'm hoping M will make the switch, too, from what I've read, it does amazing things for people with very curly hair, and I think he'd be very happy.
Today, we went on errands involving the Kansas Department of Revenue - specifically getting the car registered and going to get Girl Child her first state ID and to get my instruction permit so I can work on driving and get my license. Unfortunately, I'm listed as having suspended driving privileges, so I couldn't get my permit today, or take the test, or do anything but be hung up on by customer service in Topeka. So I'm calling tomorrow morning, after I call the other relevant places to get more information on why this happened. Hopefully, it'll be quickly resolved with little effort on my part and I'll get my permit on Tuesday or something. If I'm lucky and it doesn't turn out that my driving privileges are suspended for life or something ridiculous.
In D&D news, we're starting another new game what W is going to run, and I'm going to try out being a rogue. Basically, I'm a fancy beat-stick, but it's still a slight departure from the norm, and since I'm not all that good at the roleplay aspect as of yet, that's the best I can do right now. I decided to name my new rogue Zoe, and S told me that I'd damn well better live up to the name and be a Big Damn Hero. It should be interesting with W running - I've never actually played a game with him running, because LW was born right as he was about to start running the last game that I was going to participate with him as DM, and we basically had to give that campaign up after one session. So, yeah, I'm a little nervous, as from what S has said, W's games are usually something that turns into a Lovecraftian horror. Anyway, because J's work schedule is changing, we're moving game from Saturdays to Mondays, which is handy, because that is the day I'll be watching LW every week, so we'll be able to get started sooner since they won't have to drive all the way out to Raytown to pick him up before even getting here.
I applied for a job with the county a day or two ago, I can't remember for what position right now (it's in my email, so it's not like I'll be totally clueless if they actually called me), and I'm intending on applying to be an election worker, so maybe that'll help me get a normal job. The permit thing is going to cause me problems, though, but maybe not too many.
I don't really have anything further to add, so I'm going to go and be very frustrated with iTunes now.
Also, thanks to The Bloggess, I now want a scary metal chicken sculpture.
Friday, July 22, 2011
Quick Update
Yes, I am alive!
Life's been.. you know, life. I haven't updated in ages, I know. I haven't felt like it. I discovered that this computer will (barely) run The Sims 2, so I've been playing that pretty obsessively, as I do. I've also almost finished catching up on the laundry, but have slowed down significantly due to the heat wave - poor M sleeps in the basement, which is an oven, and I don't want to fry him to death any more than he has to be.
I'm still unemployed. I recently applied at Old Navy when a position opened up, but I never got a response, so they probably hired someone with a better employment history. I'm getting my learner's permit on Monday or Tuesday, though, so I'll be driving again soon, and will hopefully have my license by the end of October. Yee-haw.
Honestly, it's been pretty boring here lately. Even the insane stuff is sort of boring when you factor in the fact that it happens every day.
I am going to try to start blogging more regularly, though. I was doing so well for awhile, too. I have a nice little rant I wrote about abortions and sexual education after the whole thing with the legislature in Kansas screwing with Planned Parenthood, and I may eventually get off my ass and refine that so it's postable. Maybe.
I've got a Google+ account now, which is pretty cool, since I'm really angry with Facebook after they started forcing chat on me, like I'd want to use that shit. There was a reason I was permanently offline and kept it hidden, and I don't appreciate them deciding to sign me in or force it to be visible to me. I'm hoping that it'll be pretty difficult to connect my blog to my G+ account, though, since I like to keep my private life separate from my work life and all that.
I think I'm going to start baby-sitting LW sometimes here soon, which should be interesting. I'm not sure how we'll get him down for naps or anything, but he's a cutie, so I'm totally cool with baby-sitting and making a little pocket money. Woo.
Anyway, I have nothing further to add.
Life's been.. you know, life. I haven't updated in ages, I know. I haven't felt like it. I discovered that this computer will (barely) run The Sims 2, so I've been playing that pretty obsessively, as I do. I've also almost finished catching up on the laundry, but have slowed down significantly due to the heat wave - poor M sleeps in the basement, which is an oven, and I don't want to fry him to death any more than he has to be.
I'm still unemployed. I recently applied at Old Navy when a position opened up, but I never got a response, so they probably hired someone with a better employment history. I'm getting my learner's permit on Monday or Tuesday, though, so I'll be driving again soon, and will hopefully have my license by the end of October. Yee-haw.
Honestly, it's been pretty boring here lately. Even the insane stuff is sort of boring when you factor in the fact that it happens every day.
I am going to try to start blogging more regularly, though. I was doing so well for awhile, too. I have a nice little rant I wrote about abortions and sexual education after the whole thing with the legislature in Kansas screwing with Planned Parenthood, and I may eventually get off my ass and refine that so it's postable. Maybe.
I've got a Google+ account now, which is pretty cool, since I'm really angry with Facebook after they started forcing chat on me, like I'd want to use that shit. There was a reason I was permanently offline and kept it hidden, and I don't appreciate them deciding to sign me in or force it to be visible to me. I'm hoping that it'll be pretty difficult to connect my blog to my G+ account, though, since I like to keep my private life separate from my work life and all that.
I think I'm going to start baby-sitting LW sometimes here soon, which should be interesting. I'm not sure how we'll get him down for naps or anything, but he's a cutie, so I'm totally cool with baby-sitting and making a little pocket money. Woo.
Anyway, I have nothing further to add.
Saturday, July 2, 2011
The Rambliest Post Ever
So I haven’t bothered writing a post at all this week. This week has kind of sucked. I’ve been completely sleep-deprived for the last two or three days, and we’re out of cigarettes (and I’m not sure if we’re getting more or if only J is going to be smoking from now on), so I’m a real treat to be around right now.
I’ve almost completely finished all the laundry that was taken downstairs, though, so as long as I maintain it a little better, we won’t end up with a laundry mountain taking over the hallway again.
I spent three days working on a new Sharpie art piece - I don't have a photo of the completed version (and I'm not entirely sure I'm happy with the completed version), but I do have a photo of it as it was right before I finished it off.
I've also got photos of the crazy line drawing and the slightly schizophrenic-looking one that I'm pretty sure I've already mentioned previously. I'm going to put those in the photo gallery instead, though, I think. The crazy picture up above I'm thinking about uploading to DeviantArt as a work in progress photo since it's been months since I added anything to my profile.
Anyway, Thursday and yesterday were particularly bad in this incredibly fun week. Girl Child had a friend over for a sleepover, which wasn't a problem, she's actually been working on cleaning her room, so S said she could have her over. The problem came when Girl Child basically seems to have decided that since her friend is over, she can treat me any way she wants, regardless of the fact that I am an adult and she is not. So the last two days have been nothing but us sniping at each other because I've finally cracked. She completely overreacts to everything I say and do, even when I'm being perfectly lovely to her, so I'm done trying to be nice, at least until she adjusts her damn attitude and starts showing me some respect, because I'm sick of her crap.
Today, S and the Toddler are going out to meet up with a friend of S's, AC, for a little while, since it's been awhile since they've seen each other. He's almost doubled in size (or at least it seems that way to me) since AC last saw him in October.
Sunshine is slowly starting to get back to normal, so maybe she won't need to be put down after all. She's sort of started wagging her tail again, and wagging her butt sometimes, too. Unfortunately, she's also started being food aggressive toward Shadow again, even when he's nowhere near the food. And for fuck's sake, we don't starve her! There is always food available. Dumbass dog.
My hair is about as long as it was in March of 2010, so I'm a little over a year behind where I would have been if I hadn't ever cut it, so at least there's that. In about another year, it'll be waist-length, so in about two years, it'll be about to where I want it. It's starting to look thicker, so maybe this not-dyeing thing is working out for me.
I don't particularly have anything of substance I want to write about. I'm feeling particularly anti-social today.
I'm hoping to soon be able to get my learner's permit so I can start to get the hang of driving again - I discussed it with S a week or so ago and mentioned that if I got it in July, I could try for my license in October - I'm hoping to have my license before next spring, because S is planning on having a medical procedure done that would render her unable to drive for over a month, and the entire household would disintegrate if she didn't have a substitute driver. Seriously, no bills would get taken care of, we would starve and die, J would never again get a prescription filled, and the car would eventually run out of gas or something. Of course, we'd have starved and died by then, but still. So it would probably be preferential for me to have a license so I can help in that way - plus, that would enable me to have a bit more independence - I could also get a job further away once I find a job nearby that I can use to get enough money to buy a car.
I was so angry at the couch the other night that I coated it in tape so it would stop falling on me. I hate sleeping on it, we were supposed to get a new couch four months ago, but shit kept happening and we never were able to get one. So I took a roll of packing tape that I had downstairs from a move and taped the cushion fabric to the top of the couch frame. I think, since S and the Toddler are out of the house, I may remove the tape and nail it up there for a more permanent solution, at least until we get a new couch. We're basically going to have to completely take this couch apart when we get rid of it to find all the crap we've lost inside of it.
This week has been crap. The only reason I sound so damn cheerful half the time is because that's just how I sound these days - I don't think there's a power in the 'verse could stop me being cheerful for long. This is what happens when you decide that you are going to be happy no matter what. Eventually you stop trying to seem happy and just are happy. And funnily enough, after writing all this down, I'm a lot less cranky and angry than I was when I started, so maybe that's another little nugget of wisdom I've learned: don't bottle everything up, find an outlet.
The weather here is awful, I wish it was winter again. All my clothes that look good on me are too warm for me to wear unless it's 20 degrees outside. It's currently over 90, and even with the air conditioning on, I feel like I'm melting. I'm wearing my oldest, rattiest pajama pants and an ancient t-shirt, so I should be fine, but my stupid body is convinced that it's actually on fire. (I've had these pajama pants since 8th grade, actually - I got the set specifically for pajama day at Sumner, and the only reason I can still wear them is because the elastic is basically exploded.)
I love the music that M makes - this particular song simultaneously makes me feel like my heart is swelling and makes me think of Jurassic Park. What a combination.
I'm experimenting with not messing with my fingernails at all unless they get a snag, and am working on breaking myself of the only relic of biting my nails - sucking on them. They're still very thin and bendy, and I hope they eventually get hard if I stop putting them in my mouth and idly playing with them, but right now they're like kitten claws - flexible and sharp.
Yesterday, S and I were introduced to a new way to play the Bad Translate game by my friend CN. There's an online tool that does the translation transitions for you, so 10 translations, 20, 30, 40, 50, or 56 - and there are often hilarious results. S and I spent most of yesterday playing with it, writing stream of consciousness passages, nonsensical sentences, and weird phrases to see what we would get. For example, if you input, "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog," and tell it to translate that sentence 50 times, it comes back with, "Fox Brown cloth." I don't know what the hell that's supposed to mean, but it's pretty funny.
I require more coffee and I am interested to see if we have any canned pumpkin in the house at all, because I'm interested in completely winging a pumpkin cake. Since I'm awesome like that. I just wish I wasn't so tired. I hope today doesn't suck as much as yesterday did.
I’ve almost completely finished all the laundry that was taken downstairs, though, so as long as I maintain it a little better, we won’t end up with a laundry mountain taking over the hallway again.
I spent three days working on a new Sharpie art piece - I don't have a photo of the completed version (and I'm not entirely sure I'm happy with the completed version), but I do have a photo of it as it was right before I finished it off.
 |
| I haven't decided if I want to call this anything or not. It now has a few more ribbons of yellow and some more stars and a black background. |
I've also got photos of the crazy line drawing and the slightly schizophrenic-looking one that I'm pretty sure I've already mentioned previously. I'm going to put those in the photo gallery instead, though, I think. The crazy picture up above I'm thinking about uploading to DeviantArt as a work in progress photo since it's been months since I added anything to my profile.
Anyway, Thursday and yesterday were particularly bad in this incredibly fun week. Girl Child had a friend over for a sleepover, which wasn't a problem, she's actually been working on cleaning her room, so S said she could have her over. The problem came when Girl Child basically seems to have decided that since her friend is over, she can treat me any way she wants, regardless of the fact that I am an adult and she is not. So the last two days have been nothing but us sniping at each other because I've finally cracked. She completely overreacts to everything I say and do, even when I'm being perfectly lovely to her, so I'm done trying to be nice, at least until she adjusts her damn attitude and starts showing me some respect, because I'm sick of her crap.
Today, S and the Toddler are going out to meet up with a friend of S's, AC, for a little while, since it's been awhile since they've seen each other. He's almost doubled in size (or at least it seems that way to me) since AC last saw him in October.
Sunshine is slowly starting to get back to normal, so maybe she won't need to be put down after all. She's sort of started wagging her tail again, and wagging her butt sometimes, too. Unfortunately, she's also started being food aggressive toward Shadow again, even when he's nowhere near the food. And for fuck's sake, we don't starve her! There is always food available. Dumbass dog.
My hair is about as long as it was in March of 2010, so I'm a little over a year behind where I would have been if I hadn't ever cut it, so at least there's that. In about another year, it'll be waist-length, so in about two years, it'll be about to where I want it. It's starting to look thicker, so maybe this not-dyeing thing is working out for me.
I don't particularly have anything of substance I want to write about. I'm feeling particularly anti-social today.
I'm hoping to soon be able to get my learner's permit so I can start to get the hang of driving again - I discussed it with S a week or so ago and mentioned that if I got it in July, I could try for my license in October - I'm hoping to have my license before next spring, because S is planning on having a medical procedure done that would render her unable to drive for over a month, and the entire household would disintegrate if she didn't have a substitute driver. Seriously, no bills would get taken care of, we would starve and die, J would never again get a prescription filled, and the car would eventually run out of gas or something. Of course, we'd have starved and died by then, but still. So it would probably be preferential for me to have a license so I can help in that way - plus, that would enable me to have a bit more independence - I could also get a job further away once I find a job nearby that I can use to get enough money to buy a car.
I was so angry at the couch the other night that I coated it in tape so it would stop falling on me. I hate sleeping on it, we were supposed to get a new couch four months ago, but shit kept happening and we never were able to get one. So I took a roll of packing tape that I had downstairs from a move and taped the cushion fabric to the top of the couch frame. I think, since S and the Toddler are out of the house, I may remove the tape and nail it up there for a more permanent solution, at least until we get a new couch. We're basically going to have to completely take this couch apart when we get rid of it to find all the crap we've lost inside of it.
This week has been crap. The only reason I sound so damn cheerful half the time is because that's just how I sound these days - I don't think there's a power in the 'verse could stop me being cheerful for long. This is what happens when you decide that you are going to be happy no matter what. Eventually you stop trying to seem happy and just are happy. And funnily enough, after writing all this down, I'm a lot less cranky and angry than I was when I started, so maybe that's another little nugget of wisdom I've learned: don't bottle everything up, find an outlet.
The weather here is awful, I wish it was winter again. All my clothes that look good on me are too warm for me to wear unless it's 20 degrees outside. It's currently over 90, and even with the air conditioning on, I feel like I'm melting. I'm wearing my oldest, rattiest pajama pants and an ancient t-shirt, so I should be fine, but my stupid body is convinced that it's actually on fire. (I've had these pajama pants since 8th grade, actually - I got the set specifically for pajama day at Sumner, and the only reason I can still wear them is because the elastic is basically exploded.)
I love the music that M makes - this particular song simultaneously makes me feel like my heart is swelling and makes me think of Jurassic Park. What a combination.
I'm experimenting with not messing with my fingernails at all unless they get a snag, and am working on breaking myself of the only relic of biting my nails - sucking on them. They're still very thin and bendy, and I hope they eventually get hard if I stop putting them in my mouth and idly playing with them, but right now they're like kitten claws - flexible and sharp.
Yesterday, S and I were introduced to a new way to play the Bad Translate game by my friend CN. There's an online tool that does the translation transitions for you, so 10 translations, 20, 30, 40, 50, or 56 - and there are often hilarious results. S and I spent most of yesterday playing with it, writing stream of consciousness passages, nonsensical sentences, and weird phrases to see what we would get. For example, if you input, "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog," and tell it to translate that sentence 50 times, it comes back with, "Fox Brown cloth." I don't know what the hell that's supposed to mean, but it's pretty funny.
I require more coffee and I am interested to see if we have any canned pumpkin in the house at all, because I'm interested in completely winging a pumpkin cake. Since I'm awesome like that. I just wish I wasn't so tired. I hope today doesn't suck as much as yesterday did.
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