31
July

It doesn’t take a genius

I, as many of you know, have an affinity for tweeting. Over the past week, I’ve posted about 100 per day. This may be seen as excessive, but chances are most of them are replies I’ve made in the middle of the night to friends. Now, if I had an actual life, which my crappy problems seem to prevent, I might not make a lot of tweets…but I seem to entertain people with many of my tweets, so maybe it’s a good thing that I inherited the tendency to have a lot of problems.

Anyway…someone complained tonight about one of her followers tweeting too much. Seeing as how said person at the time followed about 15 people (its now down to eight), it was relatively simple to figure out that I happened to be one of these people who tweets too much. Apparently, I’m supposed to take into account the strain that it puts on her feed. Yes, I guess my 100 tweets a day strains a feed when you follow 15 people. I don’t know. I follow about 700 people. I try to keep up with most of their tweets. I seem to manage rather well. I’ve only missed one truly major thing in the past week on Twitter, and I found it elsewhere. Now, if I can keep up with those 700 people, many of whom are just as tweet-addicted as me, then how come this person has trouble with my tweets plus the 14 other people who don’t tweet as much?

And why should I have to quit tweeting as much because one person complains? Like I told her, she didn’t have to follow me. She began following me during the 2008 election, a time when I made just as many tweets as I have over the past week on a regular basis. I believe she knew what she was getting into.

I like to tweet. I tweet more than I actually say anything offline. I mean, seriously, most people offline do not know what my opinions are, what I’m currently doing, or even what my voice actually sounds like. (This is partly due to the fact that I tend to be ignored. Maybe I’m over-compensating on Twitter.)

Ah, it’s Friday and since it is such, I’m going to do something that is big on Twitter and should be big in the blogging world. I’m going to do a little Follow Friday blog style:

Amy, Ashley, Becca, Brandy, Caity, Car, Christine, Damita, Hannah, Jonna, Julie, Kelly, Swetlana, Tara

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31
July

For Whom Do I Devote an Entry

Jail Tat Guy
I don’t know whether to include Jail Tat Guy in my entries because he claims he doesn’t actually live in this neighborhood. Jail Tat Guy claims that his mother is the one living in the house that is actually owned by a wonderful former neighbor who happened to be the Bail Bondsperson who let Jail Tat Guy out of jail. He thanked her by leaving the area and causing her some issues with the bond. He has apparently since paid his debt to society, as is evident by his collection of jail tattoos.

Jail Tat Guy is pretty nice, I guess. He mowed our lawn a few months ago when no one else was able and our lawn was relatively high. Of course, he did this wonderful favor for $60 and didn’t manage to finish nor did he come back and Weed Eat when he claimed he would.

Pimp My Ride Family
These people are always getting some pretty interesting vehicles and, well, pimping them out. They typically do this with trucks and paint them all kinds of colors with interesting types of trim. (If you’ve read SVM books, you know how Jason Stackhouse supposedly has the black truck with the swirls? Well, for a while, so did they.) These people are absolute sweethearts, and one of the few families that don’t run away screaming when the dogs see them. They understand that our dogs, who will bark at anyone, love just about anyone…except of course Satan’s Spawn. (There have been incidents with SS where he was yelling at us, and Molly has nearly attacked him. Never piss off a dog by yelling at her person.)

The Kid Who Has Parents That Hate the World
Huntsville has a lovely baseball franchise known as the Huntsville Stars. As most franchises do, they have their special days where they give away stuff to kids. Isn’t that sweet? Well, someone in their office decided it would be a good idea to give children these lovely little noise devices that make the sound of like an elephant or…well, do beached whales make sounds, anyway…it’s a sound that is both loud and annoying. Parents, of course, hate this noise and choose to either take away the toy or send the children out into the neighborhood to make the noise as loud as possible.

We have one of those neighbors somewhere in this vast neighborhood that decided to do the latter. And to make sure that the noise is heard by all, they put their beloved child on a bicycle so he could get around the neighborhood spreading their lovely joy with all of us. It’s just one of those experiences that if you’ve never been through it, you should realize that you are truly one of the most lucky individuals in the world. Clearly, his parents are antisocial people who wish to cause the neighborhood harm.

The Ambiguously Gay Duo
Now, I do not know for a fact that the two men who have lived together in our neighborhood for the past 10 years or so on a different street are gay. My dad claims they are. I do not actually know these men and I have never seen them in any amorous positions, so it is entirely possible that they are just two men living together in a house.

The duo is known around the neighborhood for decorating for every holiday. Not all of the holidays are ones that I even knew existed, but they make sure to celebrate them. I always love going by their house because you can tell that these are two men who care about what’s going on and how to make people experience happiness. I have a feeling that I would like the duo.

The only thing I don’t understand is a recent development in the duo’s house. They have a garage (as do most houses in the newer parts of our neighborhood [I live in one of the houses from the 70's--most people featured in these stories live in the newer houses]) and the garage door is down, except that they have this piece of wood down at the bottom. The wood stretches from side to side with the exception of a circle that looks about the width of a CD (maybe bigger), which has a plastic pipe. This development causes me to wonder what could possibly be going on in that garage. It really intrigues me. My dad says it’s a cat door. I don’t think of the duo as being animal people. I don’t think they’re all about the killing of animals, but I don’t think they’re into pets. Could be wrong.

I’ll try to write about Beetle Woman tomorrow. :)

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31
July

Daily 10 – July 31, 2009

10. This Tornado Loves You by Neko Case
9. Papercut by Linkin Park
8. Brand New Key by Melanie
7. Hate (I Really Don’t Like You) by Plain White T’s
6. Cassie (Acoustic) by Flyleaf
5. Tremble For My Beloved by Collective Soul
4. Feel Like I’m Fixing to Die by Country Joe McDonald
3. What’s Going On by Marvin Gaye
2. For a Pessimist I’m Pretty Optimistic by Paramore
1. Never Think by Robert Pattinson

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31
July

The League of Missing Vampires

Now, if you’re like me and you love the whole vampire genre (not one of those people who’d want to be bitten, just enjoy reading about it), then you would probably understand the complete giddiness that I had when my Entertainment Weekly showed up proclaiming the 20 Greatest Vampires. Okay, I agree with inclusion of Edward, Angel, Bill, and Eric.

My issues with the issue? I understand you have to include Dracula, but, for goodness sake, make up your mind on which Dracula is best. There is no need for multiple Draculas. And Lestat as #1? Surely there has to be a vampire who is better than Lestat. Most people I know who are fans of the genre generally skip Anne Rice.

The honorary list included Elvira (uh, I always just thought she was supposed to be some gothic queen), and I think the Counting Count from Sesame Street. (It was either him or Count Chocula.) Of course, the list did not include some great vampire portrayals:

Willow Rosenberg was a vampire for 2 episodes of Buffy the Vampire Slayer (The Wish and, greatest ep ever, Dopplegangland). Where was she? Also, temporary vamp – Xander Harris. Then there was Drusilla and Spike. How can we forget them? Spike was able to add so much depth to the fifth season of Angel. Drusilla pretty much made so many of the moments of season 2 of Buffy.

Some of the Twilight vamps should have been included. I understand that they couldn’t include all of the Cullens or the Volturi or Victoria, James, and Laurent, but couldn’t they pick more than just Edward?

True Blood and Southern Vampire Mystery series vampires such as Pam and the various Kings and Queens and Sheriffs.

Oh, and what about when Paige of Charmed was temporarily a vampire? She was fun with her “why you gotta be like that” line. It was amazing.

There are entire books and series that they forgot. Mitchell from Being Human was nowhere to be found.

I sat down and wrote my list of missing vampires that could have made the list. I could think of at least 21 off the top of my head. 21…and yet, EW couldn’t find their favorite Dracula and thought it would be cute to come up with their crappy choices for Honorary Mention. Clearly, these were people who just picked the most popular vampires and left it at that.

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30
July

Update on the neighbors

Satan’s Spawn’s truck was at his home this morning when we took the dogs out this morning, meaning that he is probably inside plotting the demise of some family he dislikes. (We’re not the only neighbor who he thinks deserve to be shipped to his motherland of Hades.) I, as usual, was nervous as I walked passed with Xander, because even though I have trained Xander NOT to pee on Satan’s Spawn’s tires, I still worry he will. (Xander did once, in front of SS, and SS got mad and I think issued a hoodoo curse.) Luckily, it was not Monday, because in the almost nine years I have had Xander, I haven’t been able to express to him the importance of NOT peeing on the recycling bin. (If you happen to live on my side of “my” street and you leave your recycling bin out, chances are, my little sweet baby has saluted.)

You know, his peeing on the recycling bin has caused me to have a fear that I had never had before…recycling bins after they’ve sat out and waited for the recycling truck. I know that though he’s adorable, Xander isn’t incredibly original when it comes to peeing locales, so chances are that other alpha males have come along and saluted the bins.

What else? The Jaguar was not at home this morning. I don’t know how I feel about this. Maybe Jaguar owner has a legit job? Hopefully. I hope I’m not right about this theory that he/she is involved in illicit practices. That would suck. This was always such a nice neighborhood, aside from the blatant dislike of non-WASP that so many people have. After Tank, the only pit bull on the street, moved in with his not clear black family, people have gradually gotten used to the idea of an integrated neighborhood. Maybe in forty years, there will be more than one sign supporting a black candidate for President in the entire school district. (No, it was not in my yard. I’m not ALLOWED to put up signs at MY house because apparently my Republican father believes my Democrat ways are bad or something.)

Yesterday, my mom and I went to the grocery store. I was hoping against hope not to run into the four horse-girls of the apocalypse. Luckily, the fates smiled upon me and did not grace me with such a pleasant experience as seeing and hearing these bright shining beacons of evil. These girls are the ones who a few weeks ago were with their mother at Wal-Mart while she was grocery shopping, and I could hear them for two hours asking for chocolate, running, screaming, and just basically acting like the poster children for what happens when Mommy forgets to give little darlings their precious Ritalin…or when she forgets (4 times) that she promised God that she loved humanity enough to know to use birth control. I normally don’t say things like this about children, but those girls are just so bad that it’s frustrating to see them. They were a little better last week with their father (or their contact from Hell), and I almost rethought my stance on them. However, when he had his back turned, suddenly, they were at it again…running, screaming, and basically acting like someone had just given them 100 Cokes and a bunch of red food dye. (Red food dye is the one that increases hyperactivity, right?) So, I was happy they won’t there.

Grump master general is sleeping right now, as is the mother dearest. I probably should be, but who would report on the wonders of this glorious neighborhood if I ever went to bed? (No, I’m not manic…I just can’t sleep. I want to. I’d love to. Just not happening.)

Oh, one more neighbor thing. There’s a new neighbor. They have a black lab. It’s pretty…a little out of control. I wouldn’t be surprised if Satan’s Spawn tries to sneak over and sacrifice it to appease his father. I hope that doesn’t happen. I like when there are more dogs in the neighborhood, not only because I like dogs, but also because I get a bit of joy and satisfaction out of things that displease SS.

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30
July

I could do without sight for a year

Strangely, I think I could handle sight, now that I've been faced with the whole possibility of not having it one day…

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30
July

So Simple

I’ve been trying to write this for a long time, and Leslie’s loss just really encouraged me to, even though my experience isn’t really addiction and isn’t as serious. It reminds me why I need to stay away from my “happy pills”.

In seventh grade, I became the clumsiest girl in the world. I was never a good athlete, though I had previously done well in volleyball and soccer and was a fairly good dancer. Around a year after I quit actively pursuing dance, I began actively falling on my butt and spraining my ankles repeatedly. Then I hurt my knees and found out about the chondromalacia. The doctors felt sorry for me so they started with Tramadol one time, and when that didn’t work, they tried Darvocet. The Darvocet was great for a while, but eventually, I was taking it for the feeling it gave me and not the pain relief. (Let’s face it, Darvocet does nothing for pain.) I took it, and I would run out. I wasn’t really enterprising so I didn’t go searching for more. I was “lucky” because I would get hurt again almost as soon as I ran out, and I would get another prescription for Darvocet. This went on for a while. I quit actually physically feeling like I needed the meds, but I still kept taking them. I was taking the SAT (the kid one, not the college prep one) in 8th grade and I started getting really sick. My body was having a bad reaction to the amount of Darvocet I took. Not something serious, mainly rebound pain and nausea type stuff. So, I switched to Tylenol.

Tylenol got me through the rest of eighth grade, taking extra strengths regularly…to sleep and to ensure that nothing bad happened while I was at school. Yes, I know, it sounds like a whole panic attack type-OCD thing, and mostly the Tylenol was like a security blanket. It held me in place while I went through school. It kept me from feeling like my world was falling apart. And with the right other medication that I would take, it would guarantee me the perfect night’s sleep. Then, in tenth grade, my mom realized how much Tylenol we were burning through every month or so. (We’d get the huge bottles of extra strengths that Equate makes.) Tylenol was no longer allowed in the house.

I had my wisdom teeth taken out in the summer between 10th and 11th grades. They were deeply impacted. I ended up being put on Lortab 5′s, I think. Well, they worked, but not well enough…so my mom gave me the next highest dose, since she had some of those from some problem she’d had. Those worked a little better and I found that they made me happy. For someone who hadn’t been happy in years, this was a very important discovery. I began not only trying to rid myself of the pain, I began trying to chase the happiness. We ran out of those, but I think there was like one more higher dose of that particular drug in the house and I used it up quickly. The only left was Oxycodone, which my dad had been prescribed for his kidney stones. He only used it once because it knocked him on his ass. I tried it, and not only was my pain finally completely gone, it made me feel the happiest I had ever felt in my life. I felt like I could do anything. It made me feel free. I took those until I ran out. I then went back to my oral surgeon, asking for something…telling him, I needed something. He wouldn’t give me anything. He refused. I was distraught. If I had been enterprising, I probably could have gotten a hold of something that would have brought back my happy feeling, but I started to realize I was losing something in myself. I realized that my desire for this happiness was odd, since I’m one who rather enjoys her long bouts of melancholy. I just let it go, though I would hope every time I went in to see a doctor with some ache or pain that I would get Lortabs or Oxycodone…or if I had a cough/bronchitis, I would hope for Tussinex. (It’s good, trust me…doesn’t help that the stuff tastes like candy.)

I can’t take pain killers anymore, but not because of my realization of this unhealthy happiness seeking behavior…I became allergic to hydrocodone. I could still take Darvocet, but it does even less now than it used to. I sometimes will take Tramadol when I’m in pain, and it buzzes me a little, but I don’t take it for that reason. I do misuse my old Klonopin so that I can sleep. I also take Tylenol or Percogesic every night to make sure I sleep.

The oddest thing about the whole thing is that when I didn’t need the pain killers every day, I felt like I could take them forever. Now, with all the crap that I’ve been told is wrong with me, I need pain relief…and there’s nothing I can take.

I know it’s not an addiction, and I’m thankful that I’m not addicted. I just have an unhealthy desire to take certain things. I know to try to avoid them. That can be difficult, but it can be done.

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