You may have noticed a lack of blog posts this week. That's because my computer contracted a malware that my anti-viruses couldn't kill so I pulled a nuke and pave on my computer. This means I had to download everything again. This includes drivers, Windows updates, and even Open Office so I could keep writing. Thankfully I had almost everything writing related backed up to Google Drive and Dropbox, so the only thing I was missing was the hastily written pathetic little outline/timeline for Cracked World. Nothing vital, and I can easily rewrite it.
This also means that I've been dealing with my computer shutting off at random times and rebooting as Windows downloads and installs "critical updates". I think it's finally done so I don't have to worry about it anymore, though I expect I'll have more updates to download as it usually takes several days to catch up to everything. I'm still using Windows 7, and I'm not looking forward to making the switch to Windows 8 when I (eventually, not in the immediate future) get a new laptop.
I'm focusing on getting my three interconnected short stories rewritten and polished. Then I'm going to format them. (That's going to be fun.) And then I'm going to publish them as e-books on Amazon and Smashwords. I don't know when they're going up so I'm not going to give a time frame now. I'll post more on it when I'm getting closer to being ready to publish. I hope that I can entice all of you to support me and buy copies of the e-books. If this goes well, I might do up a novella that I've written and put it up as well. We'll have to see.
I had a bout of insomnia on Thursday night, coupled with having a freaking huge ass spider run across my legs. I know this because the damn thing ran across my foot as I was working on one of the short stories. I figured since I couldn't sleep I might as well get some work done. I almost screamed out loud. The spider was fast but not as fast as I can be when confronted with something the size of a quarter, legs included. It made a satisfying pop, and then I buried him at sea (a.k.a. flushed it down the toilet). Ew.
Himself is working on his project. I can't say what it is, but it's a big one. We have high hopes for this one producing some ongoing work for his company. That would be a huge benefit and a relief to me as well. So fingers crossed for good things happening.
Lastly, I'll leave you with some music videos like I usually do. As things get better, look for my vlogs starting up again. I know you're all excited about that.
You know how last week I was so excited to go back to work, right? Well if you've read my blog post from Thursday you'll see that I'm not back at work like I wanted to be. I've had to quit my day job permanently because of my health. If you're really that curious, ask and I'll tell you privately. Otherwise I'm not going to talk about it anymore here.
Himself and I got into a discussion this week on how, now that he's bringing in a steadier income from his business, I've gotten into my old habit of "spend, spend, spend" again. He's right. I have. And that's proving troublesome because I can and will run us out of money. All the bills still get paid, but the rest of it is spent on frivolous things. That's partly because I want nice things and partly because of the bipolar. I need to work hard on stopping this habit before it leads us too much further down the road of ruin. We've already been there enough times in our lives. I don't want to visit that place again.
On the writing front, I'm slowly making my way through the timeline of major events in the world of Aleran. I realized, after a discussion with Himself, that I need to know the history of the world I'm writing in because events in the past will color the present of my characters. So I'm working on that. Then I'll work on the outline for Cracked World. Then I'll see about starting that one over again. I'm also polishing three of my short stories that are interconnected with the intent of self publishing them and getting them on Amazon and Smashwords for sale. We'll see how well that one goes.
So, this week started on a good note and ended on a good note. On Monday, I heard back from my HR representative. I was cleared to go back to work. She'd get in contact with my manager and either she or my manager would call me back. I was thrilled with that.
Then I didn't hear anything from anyone all week. So Thursday I called my manager and left her a message. She called me back Friday morning and asked if I was coming into work Friday afternoon. Needless to say I jumped at the chance to get back to work. So, now I work Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, and Friday. My Sunday shift is 1-6. My weekday shift is 4-9. I'm only part time until November. Then I get to go back to work full time. I'm excited though. It feels good to be back to work, even if it's at the same soul sucking job I left a year ago with no intention of going back.
I have a new appreciation for my job, now that I've been out of it for a year. I realize it is a hard job and that it's not for everyone. But I know I can do it. I've had a year to think about it and realize just what I want to do with my life. Right now, what I want to do is pay off all my debt. I need a job to do that. So I'll work and pay off my debt and eventually I'll be debt free again. That is my goal now.
On the writing front, since I've scrapped Cracked World, I haven't done as much writing this week. I'm building a timeline of historical events, since those are going to shape the world. And then I'm going to do a timeline/outline of events in Cracked World so I have some direction for the story. This also means I'm probably going to have to rewrite some major sections of Marked too but I'm not worrying about that right now.
Nothing much else to report this week. I expect I'll have more to say about the day job next week, after I've been back at it for a week.
Remember last week how I was grousing about not getting my paperwork filled out in a timely manner? Well it finally happened this week. But not without a lot of hair pulling on my part.
My clinician left the practice a little over a month ago. I was seeing an intern in the interim because I'm being seen pro bono. Well, that intern couldn't fill out the paperwork so she was going to pass the information on to her supervisor. Well, her supervisor thought it was all about more counseling so she was ignoring me. I finally started calling her directly and eventually got things sorted out. Or so I thought.
The day before the paperwork was due she called me back to tell me that she couldn't fill it out because I wasn't seeing any of her people regularly enough for them to make any sort of judgment call on my ability to go back to work, or even the validity of my original diagnosis. So it looked like I wasn't going back to work after all. Then I had an idea.
I called my regular doctor. I've had other problems crop up that he's seeing me for so I decided to see if he'd fill out the paperwork. Not only did he fill it out, he resolved some of my other issues for me too. So we got the paperwork faxed in and now I get to wait and see if it's good enough for my employer to accept it.
In other news, I've been slowly making progress on Cracked World this week. I've been having some trouble in getting into the main character's head but I've been able to work around that. I'm looking forward to getting to a certain point in the book, so I'm really working hard to make it there. I doubt I'll make it before I go back to work, but I'm going to try anyway.
I've played a little Sims 3 this week too. There was one day where I was just too stressed to even think about writing so I went and did something completely different. I love Sims 3. I wish I had the money to get all the expansions and all the stuff packs. There's 20 of the buggers now. I have Sims 3, World Adventures, Ambitions, Generations, Supernatural, and Pets. As soon as I get some money to spend, I'm going to buy another one of the expansions. Or maybe one of the stuff packs. As that will be some time from now I've got the time to make up my mind.
That's it for this week. Keep your eyes on the blog. I'll be updating everyone as soon as I hear back from my employer when I'm able to go back to work. If I'm able to go back to work. If my regular doctor, who wasn't the one who signed me out of work, is sufficient enough to get me back into work. Crossing my fingers!
This week has not gone at all like I planned. Don't get me wrong. I enjoyed myself immensely this week. But I didn't get as much done on the story as I hoped to. I've been distracted by running errands and getting out of the house with Himself most of this week. It's been pleasant, if a little busy.
The main reason I'm frustrated though is my clinician's office still hasn't called me back to help me fill out the paperwork I need to have filled out before I'm allowed to go back to work. They keep telling me they'll pass on the message but nothing has happened. I'm going to keep calling every day until I get a firm answer. It's not that difficult. Read my file, copy down the info from my file onto the paperwork, and let me get my ass back to work. It's that simple.
Of course, they apparently don't think it's that simple. I could fill out the paperwork myself, except that's kind of illegal. Medical fraud and all that. Don't think the thought didn't cross my mind though. But knowing my luck they'd call my clinician's office to verify the information and I'd get caught. I'd not only lose my job but I'd probably get criminal charges laid on me. I don't want to go through that so I'll just be the exceptionally annoying squeaky wheel.
As I said, writing this week didn't happen. I maybe got 2000 words this whole week. So I'm going to try to improve that number this coming week. It all depends on how things go with Himself and with my clinician's office.
Himself signed a rather nice contract to build some kind of web page for a client that's netting him a fair bit of money. I don't know all the details but it's nice to have a steady income coming in now from him. That's why we've been running every place this week. We've been taking care of some things we've neglected because of a lack of funds.
Well that's enough rambling from me today. Hope everyone has a great week!
Well, this week didn't end the way I intended it to.
It started out all right. I've been making progress on Cracked World, even though I pretty much started over from scratch because I didn't like how it was going. I like it well enough, even though I still think I'm taking too long with the beginning. I'll have to see how the story plays out.
I think I've made it pretty clear I was intending to go back to work. I've talked about it enough this past week. Well Thursday I went to my med doctor and got something to help with the anxiety that's inevitable at my job. Life was pretty good up to that point.
Then we got to Friday. Friday was the day I went into see my clinician. She'd fill out the paperwork and fax it in and I'd be all set to go back to work by the end of next week. Easy, right?
It didn't go that way. Because my clinician is an intern, and a summer intern at that, she's not "qualified" to fill out the paperwork. I now have to wait for someone else in the office who doesn't know me to fill out the paperwork. I don't know when that's going to be. I do know it has to be soon or I'm going to lose my job. They'll only hold it for so long and so long happens to be September 10th. After that date, I will no longer be employed at the bank. I'd rather not lose my job over something this stupid, so I'm going to keep hounding them to find out what's going to happen.
So that kind of derailed my plans for next week. If I haven't heard by Wednesday, I'm going to call and pester someone to get me an answer. Because I need them to fill out the form so I can go back to work.
I did hear from my boss on Saturday. The problem there is she may not be my boss anymore. They did another shift bid while I was out on disability and if there isn't a position on her team, I'm going to have to go back to someone I don't know as well. At least, I hope it's someone I don't know as well. There are a couple of managers that I'd rather not get again. Talk about personality clashes. I'll know more on Monday. Another thing she told me was that we're losing the smaller accounts I was working with, probably going to another center, and gaining one large account to work with. Should be interesting when I go back.
So that's my week in a nutshell. How was your week?
There's not much to report on this week. Himself and I had a few spats but nothing out of the ordinary. I started working on Cracked World. I'm still waiting on my beta readers to see what they think of my two short stories so I can get them edited and out there for publication.
Himself raised a very good point yesterday, one that's stuck with me since our discussion. He asked me what the goals of my characters were and why they were following those goals. Marked had a fairly cut and dry premise. So does Cracked World. But Burning Dreams, Shifting Sands, and the as yet untitled third book in that arc don't have such a clear idea as to what the reason behind the goal is. So before I actually sit down to rewrite Burning Dreams and write the other two, I need to identify the goal and how to get there. I also need to identify why my characters are doing what they're doing and how they got involved in the story in the first place.
I've made the decision to go back to the evil day job. I've been on permanent disability for a few months now and I realized as many problems as I have, I can't not work at a regular job. It's like part of my identity is missing. I need the benefits anyhow so I'm going back to work. Probably starting at the beginning of September.
That's about it I think for this week. Make sure you check back often for my regularly scheduled blog posts.
Well, this has been an interesting week both in a good way and a bad way.
The good way is I finished my first draft of Marked. I'm already thinking about how to edit it even though I'm going to leave it to sit for a month or two. I've read a few articles which make me realize what my story is missing. So I've made some notes and in a month or two I'll make those changes.
I've also got a couple of my short stories out for people to look over to see what they think. I'm going to shop those around in the near future to see if I can perhaps sell one or the other. I'm hoping to get something for them so I can at least say I've made a start at getting published.
Onto the bad. I found out that one of my student loan holders is taking $50 off my disability to pay for defaulted student loans. Now that may not seem like a lot, but when you're living on $801 a month, that money is vitally needed. So now we're looking for places to cut costs.
Well that's it for this week. I'm not very talkative today. We'll see what we can figure out for next week. Here's some music videos for your enjoyment.
This past week hasn't been too bad. I got a weekly appointment moved to the afternoon on Fridays because 9 am was just too hard on me and Himself. We've worked out some financial difficulties we found ourselves in. And my roommates finally got us a new hot water heater so no more driving to my dad's for a hot shower or biting the bullet and taking a freezing cold shower. (Those were not pleasant.)
On the writing front, I surpassed my 60k goal for this month and I'm still going. I still fully intend on finishing Marked by the end of July and I'm on track to do that. On Friday I had a little issue where I'd written myself into a plot hole big enough to drive a semi through. So I ended up backtracking 100 pages or so and starting from that point to rewrite the scenes to get rid of the plot hole. I didn't have to delete much, which made me a lot happier. But I got everything sorted out and this plot hole is gone. I'm sure I'll find more when I go back to edit, but this particular hole was preventing me from moving forward so I had to take care of it now.
That's it for this week's 'fess up. See y'all next week!
Any of you long time blog followers remember my SFU posts? You know, where I'd talk about my week and my writing. Mainly about my writing. And just other general life stuff? Well I'm bringing them back.
Aren't you all excited? ;)
Now, for those of you who missed the post I made about this (I did make a post about it didn't I?) I'm trying to finish the first draft of Marked, formerly known as Only A Name, by the end of July. So far, I'm on track to complete that goal. I'm using Camp Nano as an excuse to write as much as I can every day and it's working. While I'm not updating as frequently on the Camp Nano site, I am still tracking my word count and it's progressing nicely.
Of course, that does lead to the inevitable blocked moments when I run into a brick wall. I ran into one of those last night when I tried to think of a name for a creature they were fighting (I figured it out finally). And now, I'm in a boring part of the story and I don't want to write it but I know I need to so I can progress with the story. It's a short boring part but it still has to be written. (Even if it'll probably get changed in edits.)
I've changed up my blog post schedule a little bit going forward too. From now on (or until I change my mind again) Sunday is back to the SFU and Tuesday is for the snippets. Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Saturday will stay the same. Friday I'm taking a day off my blog.
Well, I've abused the parenthesis enough for one blog post. See you all next week on the SFU!
It's been a rough week. The reason there was no post last week was because I was in the ER. Again. This time with a massive infection in my lower leg. It got so bad they actually admitted me Monday. I got to spend a wonderful two days in the hospital (ugh...more hospital bills) and the rest of the week off from work. I go back to work tomorrow. I anticipate another Talk with my manager about my attendance issues but really, when the doctor says stay home and I've got FMLA to cover my job and vacation days to cover the time, I'm staying home.
I'm trying something a little different with the writing. I'm actually outlining a novel. I know, I know. I'm a pantser. What am I doing outlining something? I'm trying to pin down the story so it doesn't go all over the place. I mean it already does go all over the place but I need it to not go all over the place quite so wildly. So I'm trying to shoe horn the story into a workable whole by outlining it.
Well, that's it for this week. Back to work tomorrow so not as much time to focus on writing but at least I'll have a paycheck. Here's some music videos for you to enjoy.
Well, it's the first day of the first month of 2012. Whoop-dee-do.
Normally I do a year in review post on the 31st, but really, me talking about how my year sucked is such a downer I decided to avoid it this year. I will admit getting two of my books written made me smile. And learning to crochet finally after all these years was certainly a high point. Getting to know some of you on Twitter was awesome too. But I had a lot more shit happen that wasn't good than was good. At least 2011 was better than 2010.
So with luck my life will continue to follow that trend and 2012 will be better than 2011.
My goals for this year are simple: keep writing and lose weight. I'm not going to say I'm going to finish another book in 2012 or I'm going to drop 20 lbs by the end of 2012. The truth of the matter is I don't know what the year is going to bring. So as long as I keep writing and lose weight, no matter how many words get written or how many pounds I shed, it'll be all good to me. I kind of want to start querying ONLY A NAME but I don't think it's going to be ready for that. Maybe I'll save the querying on that for 2013.
To everyone who follows me, and to those who happen to wander over here to see what I write, I wish you all a very happy and prosperous new year. May whatever your goals are for this year be fulfilled and may many good things come your way.
Life has gotten a little better and a little worse all at the same time. I'm no longer in danger of separating from Himself but we're in danger of becoming homeless. Twitchy is still jobless and is in danger of losing her house. If she loses the house we're out on the street with nowhere to go except some really cheap ass hotels because we don't have anyone who can afford to take us in.
Writing is going okay. I've done another edit on ONLY A NAME and it's out to my last remaining beta reader, who plans on getting to it at some point this month. I'm in no hurry but I'm grateful she's willing to take a look at it for me. I especially think the ending is weak and needs help.
Work is work. I'm out of customer service again and back in collections where I was happier. I'm hoping I'll start doing well at work again. I'm excited and scared at the same time. Things have really changed since I left and it's a whole new world that I'm coming back into.
Nothing much else to report so here's some music videos for you to enjoy.
Wow. It's been a while. Sorry, folks. I'm still in the middle of some rather rough stuff so I've been neglecting a lot of things. I'm still on Twitter a lot under @annikkawoods, so if you're on Twitter & you don't already follow me, please feel free to drop by and say hi.
Therapy is going well. I've got another week and then I'm back to work. I'm actually looking forward to being back to work. It just reinforces the whole schedule thing that I need in my life and while I'm nervous I'm not as broken down about it as I was two months ago. Himself and I...let's just say he's part of the rough stuff I'm going through and leave it at that.
Writing...well, not too much has been done. I've done a little work on ONLY A NAME, but because my hard drive is dying (seriously enough that I can't turn my laptop off if I want it to turn back on again) I haven't done much in the way of writing. I got the verdict back from my beta readers and the Halloween story just won't cut it. I'm going to attempt Christmas stories instead, and that gives me some time to get them written and perfected.
This week's 'fess up is brought to you amidst panic attacks, fights with Himself, and major stress. I'm having a really bad time of it right now because our financial situation has not improved. In fact it's gotten worse. I don't know what to do anymore, other than go back to work - which is a no-no according to my doctor.
Writing is sporadic right now because of my emotional state. But I did get a story finished that I'm going to polish and then I'll probably post it close to Halloween, since it's a Halloween story. It's just a short blurb in one of my UF stories, although I'm beginning to think they're more Para Rom stories rather than straight UF stories.
I'm keeping it short this week, so here's the usual music videos.
This week has been a remarkably long one but not a bad one on the whole. It's been long because, oddly enough, I miss being at work. Days drag on when you don't have something regular to do. But I've got therapy coming up so I'm looking forward to that, even if it's going to be painful.
Himself has a steady job. He's working at another call center, which he really hates, but we're in a position where we need steady work more than we need him doing something that doesn't bring in money. The Kirby job doesn't bring in money if he doesn't sell, and not too many people are buying now.
I finished Cracked World this week, which makes two of my Aleran novels down. I started a third and I've also started one of my sci fi novels to give myself a break from the fantasy. I'm having a little more trouble with them, but I expect the fact that I spent a lot of time focused on Cracked World has to do with that. I took yesterday off and played a video game, something I haven't done in a while. It was very refreshing.
Today is the ten year anniversary of 9/11. I can remember precisely what I was doing that day. I was sleeping. I'd spent the previous night on a Greyhound bus bound from Seattle to Boise. I'd just broken up with Himself back when we were still only engaged over something ridiculously silly. I was absolutely heartbroken because Himself was the first person I loved that dearly, though he wasn't my first boyfriend. I remember getting in at 2:30 am on 9/11 and walking into my parents' house.
Mum was standing there in her green nightgown with her old red shawl wrapped around her shoulders. That was soon wrapped around me too as she held me while I cried. I believe the comment of "It's his loss" was mentioned on more than one occasion by her during the next 4 1/2 hours until I finally passed out around 7:30 in the morning.
I was woken up at 8:30 by my mom arguing with my older sister about turning on the news. She didn't want to wake me up. But my mom did turn on the news. I heard her say, "Oh my god." I pulled on my glasses just in time to see the second tower get hit. I didn't go back to sleep after that.
Mum and I just sat and held onto each other, watching as everything happened. It was probably two hours later, and we were still watching the news, when the phone rang. It was Himself and his mom and sister. They wanted to make sure I was all right and that I'd arrived in time. His sister told me, "It's not like I don't hate you but I also don't want something to happen to you." (Yes, she's really that spiteful...and yes, I have it written down in my journal so I do remember this.) This is also what got me and Himself talking again, and ultimately led to him leaving Washington for Idaho. Which then led to us getting married.
9/11 was a horrible day. I was blessed that I didn't lose anyone I knew or loved that day. I was worried about my cousin, who was in Washington DC. He was off duty Army special forces, and was taking his wife and kids around the DC area. At least, that's where he was supposed to be. His car hadn't started that morning, and they were still somewhere in Virginia.
While I do remember that time, and I know that it was a devastating blow to the U.S., September doesn't hold a lot of pain for me because of that. It holds the pain because on 9/13/03 my mum lost her fight with a brutal form of cancer and died. She went from diagnosis to death in three weeks. My mum was a hard woman to live with growing up, but in the last few years of her life she'd really changed and I was growing to love her even more. I lost her before I ever really got to know the new woman my mum had become.
Now for my usual music videos. So until next week, my most wonderful friends.
Sorry about the blog absence last week, but I was in the hospital and didn't have access to my laptop. I spent 9 days in the hospital, and now I'm on a month long hiatus from my day job until I get some therapy out of the way. My doctor practically ordered me to keep writing though, so that's what I'm going to do.
Himself is still working for Kirby but he's looking for something with a steadier income so we can get out of Twitchy's house sooner. He's got a couple interviews lined up for next week, so send good thoughts his way. One is almost the same hourly wage as I get ($11/hr), so we'd have a lot more to work with and that would be lovely. Instead of living from my paycheck to my next paycheck.
Writing is going well. I've put in almost 15k on the novel this week since I got home, and hope to finish it by the end of the month. I've got some other projects that need to be finished, and I've got some side stories I want to write because the side characters interest me as much as the main characters. The side stories probably won't ever see publication but they're going to be fun to write. I may save them until November, when I do NaNoWriMo again though.
I'm going to deviate from my usual SFU for a moment. I want to talk to you about a subject that is both serious and very important to me: mental illnesses. I myself am bipolar. I suffer from depression, mania, and anxiety - mostly depression and anxiety. My mental illness was part of what got me hospitalized. It, along with unattended health issues, knocked me off my feet.
NAMI has a great definition for mental illness. My favorite part of the definition is: "Mental illnesses can affect persons of any age, race, religion, or income. Mental illnesses are not the result of personal weakness, lack of character or poor upbringing." It also mentions that it's treatable, which it is through therapy, counseling, and medication. Coping skills can be taught and medication can help stabilize moods.
There's even an institute to deal with mental health issues (NIMH).Now, aside from the terrifying portrayal of them in "The Secret of NIMH", the National Institute for Mental Health has a lot of good information available to those who either suffer from mental illnesses or the families of those who have to live with those who suffer from mental illnesses.
One thing I've seen which breaks my heart is a lack of support from friends and family members. Friends abandon individuals with mental health issues. Family members go after them to "get their head on straight" and to "get over it". You can't get over it. It's treatable but not curable.
If you know someone with a mental illness, don't turn away from them. Offer them love and support even if it seems like they don't want it. Mental illness can make people do strange things, and one of them is isolate themselves to avoid any further pain. Don't let them. Isolation and a feeling of being alone is often what leads to suicide among those with mental illnesses. Let them know you're always there for them no matter how often they tell you they don't need help.
Now, for a lighter note...this week we're going to have some Simon's Cat videos instead of my usual music videos.
We've had two days of some rather spectacular thunderstorms so I opted to avoid being online last night (and I forgot in lieu of other panic inducing issues Saturday night and Sunday morning). So we're a day late but here's the SFU anyway.
No soapbox this week, I promise.
My paycheck didn't show up on Friday. It didn't show up on Saturday. No mail on Sunday. We have a lot of bills to pay off of my meager paycheck and they were all running late. This made us very, very nervous. Thankfully my check showed up on Monday (today) so we were able to get some of our bills paid. But we had one major expense come up that's wiped out the money I was expecting to have for food and other random but necessary things. I've had to ask my dad for help and I NEVER ask him for help anymore because he can't always afford to help me. We'll get to see on Wednesday how much he can help us.
Yes, my work offers direct deposit. Yes, I've signed up for it. I don't need another panic-inducing weekend like this past one.
Nothing new on the work front. Same old, same old for me. Himself is still job hunting. We're hopeful that SOMEONE will eventually realize he's perfect for their company (or at least very good for their company) and will hire him soon. We have to keep that hope up or we'll drown in our depression.
Writing is going okay. Still working with getting my critiques done, after my email went and ate the most recent chapters. ONLY A NAME is on hold until I get the critiques and beta reads done for it. The Beauty and the Beast retelling is getting darker and more violent, which is what I want, so we'll see how that goes.
I don't really have that much to report this week. So instead I'll leave you with more music videos. Enjoy!
I know, I know. I'm late with getting this up. It's still Sunday for another two hours here so it still counts as a proper SFU. I'll be a little better about getting it in on time next week. At least, I hope I will.
This week has been full of same crap different day. Himself is still unemployed. I've gotten another lovely "meeting with a manager" over with. I still have a job. Twitchy is still a pain in the ass. You know, the same stuff I tend to complain about.
Writing is going well. The Beauty and the Beast retelling is finally taking off. I've found ways of making it fit the dark, twisted vision I've had all along. No light and fluffy, although it does have a happy ending. I can't quite completely obliterate the faerie tale out of this story.
This week my SFU is going to be a little different. I'm dragging out my soapbox again. I'm bringing up some things that bothered me over the last week in regards to news and the like. The first thing that I want to talk about is something that's not far from a lot of minds: the debt ceiling talks.
Gee, who DIDN'T think that the talks were going to collapse? Seriously. The Republicans are so fucking protective of the wealthy in this country that they feel that destroying this country is worth it. REALLY? Come on. There are people starving to death in this country because we don't have enough money. There are elderly who are choosing between medications and food, knowing they need both to survive and yet they don't have enough to buy both. Whole families are living homeless because of this shit. It has got to STOP.
But they won't listen to us. Maybe when the entire fucking country is unemployed, starving, and littered with the corpses of people who fought to the end to survive and ultimately failed they'll begin to understand what their bullshit is doing to this country.
Another thing I wanted to talk about is how focused people are on Amy Winehouse. I didn't even know who she was until I Googled her when she started showing up all over my Twitter feed. I hate to break it to you folks, but, well, a musician overdosing on drugs and alcohol and dying from it isn't news. It's more common than it should be, actually.
Now, I'm not saying her death isn't tragic. It's sad to think of someone so young dying. I don't know if she had more musically to offer the world but she was still a person who had friends and family who loved her. How must they be feeling right now, knowing she's dead because no one could seem to help her fight her self-destructive behavior? Where were they when she was self-destructing?
Too many people stand back and go "Too bad, so sad. but she did it to herself so she deserves it". No one stops to think of the people left behind who have to live with the feeling that they might have been able to do something to prevent it. Just like what happens when someone suicides because of depression. Or when a doctor misdiagnoses something and a family has to watch a loved one die when, if they'd just pushed a little harder they might have convinced that loved one to see a different doctor.
Death is tragic, no matter what the circumstances. How about we take a moment to remember, not only Amy Winehouse, but all of the teens who've killed themselves because of persecution for being part of the LGBT community, or were too intelligent or too creative for their peers to understand, or are being abused and death is the only way out they can see? Or all of those civilians killed in every war that we've ever had? Or for all of the soldiers that have laid their lives on the line, who are still laying their lives on the line, and who are getting screwed over by the country they've sworn to protect? Or how about those who die due to the incompetence of medical practitioners? Or those too poor to be able to afford doctors, who die in the streets or in their homes because they don't have any way to get help? Who will remember all of the silent casualties of a war that should never be fought in the first place - a war against humanity that large corporations and politicians seem to want to wage with us as the unwilling (and unknowing) soldiers?
*puts soapbox back in her closet*
To close out, here's the usual music videos. Enjoy.
Yeah, I'm back online. This time my missing blog posts weren't by my choice. My internet bill was one of the bills I put off and, well, it got cut off like my phone. I paid the phone and the internet on Friday, only to find out that our router bit the dust. We found this out because I couldn't get the internet to load up even after I made the payment and we finally hooked Monstrosity up to the hard line. Yeah, that didn't go over well either. We're the source of internet for the whole bloody house, and now we have to wait for a while until we can get a new router.
The good news is that when we get the router, we're going to get another external hard drive and we're going to set up some kind of wireless network dump thing. Basically Himself and Nice Roommate are going to put together something kind of like Dropbox, only it's going to be localized and only for the house. That's going to be seriously useful. (No, I'm not a techie. I just like techie things.)
Another good thing this week is I went in to pay the phone bill and walked out with a new free phone (and a 2 year extension on my contract with Sprint, but I love them so I don't mind). This is my new phone, Best part is it's purple. The guy tried to sell me on a touch screen phone with a QWERTY keyboard attached but I wasn't in a position to pay $50 to walk out with it. I got it because I was grandfathered into the upgrade plan where you got to upgrade after 1 year instead of 2. I'm not complaining because I've wanted an upgraded (TOUCH SCREEN YAY!) phone for a while. I'm still playing with it but so far I like it.
In spite of not being online, I did get some writing done. I'm still trying to work out how I'm going to start my darker version of my Beauty and the Beast retelling. I know where I want it to go and how I want it to end, but for once it's the beginning that's stumping me. I'm hoping something good will happen over the next week and I'll figure it out.
We had a rough week when it came to extra expenses. Himself was driving home from taking Nice Roommate (who doesn't have a car or license right now) to work when our tire blew out. We're very lucky we pay the extra money every month to have roadside service. Geico sent someone out to help put the spare on and on Friday we got a new tire for the car. Well, new to us. There's an awesome guy we go to that sells used tires that aren't horrifically used. They're in good shape and last for a while. We've been going to him from the time we had our minivan. We also found out our emissions test is due by the end of this month. We've lost the little card they sent us so we have to find it before we can take the car in to get the emissions checked. But that's for the next paycheck.
Himself is still job hunting. My employer is hiring for my same position (they're aiming to fill the 2nd floor by the end of the year...assuming the government doesn't default and screw us ALL out of jobs), so he's going to take another shot at getting on there.
That's pretty much it for this week. Here's some music videos for your viewing pleasure.
