Dec
22

Candy Cane Shivs and Other Holiday Rants

Posted in blog, christmas, rant, wtf | 6 Comments
So, I ran across this article yesterday. I haven’t quite picked my jaw up off the floor yet, honestly, particularly at this part: Mother Kathleen Flannery said a administrator called her and explained that, “not everyone wants Christmas cheer. That suicide rates are up over Christmas, and that they should keep their cheer to themselves, perhaps.”Wow. So, exactly what *is* it we’re celebrating during this season, anyway? Seems a far cry from “Peace on earth, goodwill to man,” that I was always brought up with.  And sure, I suppose you *COULD* make a weapon from a sharpened candy cane…but what about pencils? Those metal parts on rulers? Sporks? Hell, why not just run up to the chemistry lab, snag some acid and THROW it?? (Obviously I don’t advocate any of the above. But those little candy canes that break when you look at them hardly constitute as weapons.) My son’s… Read more
Dec
3

One of *Those* Days

Posted in grumpy as fuck, i'm a big dummy, pain, rant | 6 Comments
So, yeah. Remember a few days ago I was bitching about my left knee popping? Got up from where I was sitting last night on the floor and *poof*.   Doesn’t exactly pop anymore…because I managed to hyper-extend it. There’s no swelling, but it definitely bends further back now than it should (hey, it matches the right knee, whee!) and I couldn’t put any weight on it at all going up and down the stairs. I suspect it will be okay if I just leave it alone for a few days – there’s no real pain unless I attempt to twist it or climb stairs. (Just a little crampy when I first attempt to stand – nice shot of tension from my back to my ankle. If I had to guess, part of this was probably caused from when I went to go get my back realigned on Tuesday. The doc has… Read more
Nov
12

Chill Out Over Change

Posted in rant | 8 Comments
Change is always hard. (And yes, I’m still a bit kerfluffled about the editor change. I’ll get over it.) But as difficult as an actual change may be, why is it that so often its mere suggestion can turn normally rational people into knee-jerk reactionaries? At some point last year, the FF&P group I’m in (and currently the webmaster for. Sort of. Not for much longer), decided to take a look at the Yahoo mailing list we were using. FF&P has over 600 members – and that can lead to a *lot* of email messages, even on digest. Plus, we were getting some complaints via private emails that not everyone was happy with the way things were becoming so social. We had a lot of discussion about what constituted “promo” – i.e. the posts that continually shout out to the members to go read blogs/buy my book/use this service. (In some… Read more
Sep
18

HOA Hell

Posted in hoa, rambling, rant | 3 Comments
So, we got dinged by our HOA this week. 1) You can see our trash cans from the street. They’re at the top of our driveway. Right outside the garage. Where they’ve been for about…oh, that’s right. Five Freaking YEARS. Never mind that yeah, we probably should have been keeping the cans in the garage this whole time. In fact, since we moved here, just about everyone else on the cul-de-sac started keeping their trash cans by their garage too. Trend setters, that’s us. Though really what it comes down to is I don’t like keeping trash cans inside my house. At all. Not even my garage. Suppose we’ll have to now, though. Funny thing is, we got dinged about the same thing almost four years ago. Just a nasty gram in the mail about it. And then…nothing. 2) We have weeds in our front garden. I’ll admit we sorta… Read more
Aug
23

Thrill Me With Your Acumen

Posted in david garrett, rant, reviews | 3 Comments
I’ll admit I’m not much of a reviewer. Not of books or music or movies, or really anything else. Not because I don’t have an opinion, but I can’t be bothered to make the effort. (I probably should, particularly on GoodReads, but that’s another story.)  If a reviewer likes or dislikes something, I want to know why. What was it that struck him or her as good, or great, or just plain terrible? I understand that things can’t always be explained. Sometimes things just don’t resonate for whatever reason, and that’s fine too. One can simply say, “I didn’t like it.”  But being a reviewer doesn’t give you the right to bash. Personal blogs may be a different matter, but if I read a review on a “professional” site, then I really to expect that review to have at least a modicum of decorum. Which brings me to the crux… Read more