mighty_aphrodite: (Default)
Oh yay! I discovered a wonderful group on Ravelry today: Random Acts of Kindness. You can post monthly what your wish list is and if people have what you are wanting on hand, or are just really nice, they will send it to you! Looking around, it looks like a lot of people get their wishes granted! So yay! Here's hoping. Since I've been out of work, my budget just can't keep up with my knitting habit. I would dearly love to expand my needle collection and get some nice new yarn to over-dye with kool-aid. *crosses fingers*
mighty_aphrodite: (Default)
So I had this friend in high school. We were pretty good friends, did a lot of stuff together. We were never inseparable besties or anything, but friends. Things got a little tense when she got the part I felt I should have had in our last school play, but we remained friendly (She was the drama teacher's pet, but said she didn't want the part and wasn't going to audition, then did anyway the second day of try outs and got the part. I got to be her understudy. I was understandably a bit hurt). When we got to college, we still hung out occasionally.

Then she started dating this guy who was a year behind us in school and all the sudden forgot about all her friends. She just... quit talking to us. Friends of hers I didn't even really know commented on this to me. She contacted me via e-mail out of the blue one day after months of silence to bitch that my website was a "carbon copy" of hers and I was trying to be her (Because calling someone a pathetic wannabe is the way to win back your pissed off friends). I sent back an angry e-mail, deleted the website, and she never spoke to me again. Not even when we had 2 classes together in the next few years (we had the same 2nd major). Once in a while I got curious as to what she was up to and checked her blog, but after a few months, complete radio silence (this girl creates new blogs with the frequency some people buy shoes, so I assume she moved on).

So she came to mind this evening, and by some miracle I found a trace of her on the interwebs!

Turns out, she married the guy, lives in a tiny town in the middle of nowhere and works as a glorified secretary at a nature center. And she got FAT. She has two chins, has a BAD "mom haircut" and looks 10 years older than she is. And this is a girl who used to be a 5'10" size 3 with long flowing blonde hair.

I don't care how mean spirited this sounds...

My life may be shit, but at least I'm still cute!

---------------

Okay, now I feel like an ass. Apparently she got cancer and lost a leg. :( She was still a bitch to me though. And she's a batshit insane kool-aid drinking granola-eating braless hippie.
mighty_aphrodite: (politics> don't blame me)
Hugs and Kisses and Heads of State

Dear Miss Manners:

What should an American president do when he greets a foreign head of state? What about his wife? And would that be any different from an average American citizen greeting a foreign head of state?

A handshake and "How do you do?" seem appropriate everywhere, but what about curtsies, head nods and genuflecting? Is a bend at the waist considered different from a bent knee? If anyone can have a final say on this, I believe it would be you.




Final say? If only that were true. Miss Manners has now watched at least half a dozen administrations get this wrong. They go to one extreme or the other, behaving like other presidents' buddies or like monarchs' subjects.

Where is the Office of Protocol, for goodness' sake?

Yes, yes, Americans pride ourselves on being warm and open and spontaneous. But heads of state are the symbolic embodiments of their countries, and the greeting gesture is itself symbolic. If they improvise mistakenly, they can expect a spontaneous outburst of American disdain.

The American greeting routine used to be simple. Because we officially consider all people to be equal and equally worthy of respect, the same gesture, the handshake -- simple, dignified and egalitarian -- would do for all.

We knew it wasn't universal, but it was our way. We felt superior to people who had to bow down to their leaders. And we found it side-splitting to watch news footage of French generals bestowing kisses on their soldiers when they gave out medals.

Then, about half a century ago, came the American huggy movement. Instant intimacy was going to solve everyone's problems by making them feel good, which, in turn, would end war and strife. It took rather vigorous forms among some, but eventually infiltrated even the most staid parts of society, where the handshake had been the greeting that fathers gave their young sons.

And it spread internationally. Heads of state took to kissing and hugging one another, a truly bad idea politically. Those photographs are bound to surface when the loved one or his country does something nasty.

Symbolically, it is bad even in good times. Such bonding smacks of the days when protocol had sovereigns from different monarchies addressing one another as "Monsieur Mon Frère" or "Madame Ma Soeur," regardless of whether they had any familial ties. The idea was that they belonged to an international ruling class as distinguished from the mere subjects over whom they reigned.



And if you don't believe that, you should try a spontaneous hug on any head of state -- your own or anyone else's -- who happens to come your way in a parade or ceremony.

But symbolic subservience to a foreign ruler is worse. When Miss Manners sees American citizens delighting in bowing or curtseying to royalty, she tries to remind herself that they are just being silly, not treasonous. When an American official does it, we can only hope it was because he was noticing that his own shoelace was undone -- and not that he recognizes the divine right of kings in general, or the authority over us of that king in particular.

Link (free registration required)
mighty_aphrodite: (chuck>hung)
Awwww. My Facebook fail went away when I actually GOT a message in my inbox. I was starting to get used to it.
mighty_aphrodite: (Default)
I was compelled to submit my Facebook giggles to FailBlog.

Vote for my fail!
mighty_aphrodite: (Default)
If I "don't have any messages", why is there a "1" next to "inbox" at the top?

mighty_aphrodite: (Default)
Some idiot college student on my facebook (a girl I knew in high school):

"I want to take a second job for the summer, but no one is hiring!"

Boo fucking hoo. Quit being a greedy little bitch and be glad you have ANY job. There are adult people with families and children to support who are completely unemployed right now and can't find work, and you're bitching about not being able to find a SECOND TEMPORARY job while you're out of school for the summer? Do you know how much I want to punch you right now?

Another girl on my facebook:

"I used to say I'd take the first job I was offered, but now I'm not so sure..."

Shut up. Please, just shut up. If someone is offering you a job in this city, and you don't take it, I don't want to hear a damn word about your job search ever again. Ever.
mighty_aphrodite: (Default)
I'm going to lose my fucking mind. When my dog gets in the fridge and eats the leftovers, my husband freaks the fuck out and yells and screams and threatens to get rid of my dog. His brother threatens me with a baseball bat, destroys my property, sets fires in the apartment? "I'll have a talk with him."

I am so fucking tired of this.
mighty_aphrodite: (Default)
I swear, the next time I hear/read someone bitching about their job, I will haul off and punch them. Unless your job involves being shot at, you have nothing to bitch about right now. Shut up and be glad you HAVE a damn job.
mighty_aphrodite: (Default)
http://textsfromlastnight.com/

Funniest thing I have seen in a very long time.
mighty_aphrodite: (Default)
Sotomayor Ruled That States Do Not Have to Obey Second Amendment

Anyone who thinks any government has the right to take away a person's right to bear arms is no moderate.
mighty_aphrodite: (Default)
I think I'm going to have to head back to the Apple store again tomorrow. My brand new MacBook adapter got very hot and stopped charging a bit ago. I googled around and apparently this is a big problem with these things. I'm also now getting poor battery life readings. It's at almost full power and telling me I only have 1.5 hours left on it. It's usually a three hour plus battery. I"m going to let the lappy and the charger cool off and try again in the morning.

ETA: Couldn't sleep yet, so I tried again. Huh. Seems to be working normally now. Odd.
mighty_aphrodite: (Default)
As an observer of people, a freelance sociologist, if you will, I’ve come to this conclusion when it comes to the American liberal, based upon my experiences:

It has to do with self-identity and politics. For the average American liberal, political ideology makes up a large part of how they self identify. It's not just how they vote, it's who they are. Especially in an area like the Twin Cities, where I am, which is a kind of liberal Twilight Zone, these people are almost completely isolated from any opposing point of view. Not only is "liberal" who and what they are, it's the only acceptable way to be. Because of this self-identity, any disagreement or disapprobation of liberal ideology or of a particular liberal individual is perceived as a personal attack (X is liberal and so am I, therefore any attack on X is an attack on me). As such, and because any dissenting opinion is by default morally unacceptable, the average American liberal feels quite justified in responding with a personal attack on the dissenting individual or upon some conservative whipping boy.

For example:

Conservative dissenter: “I think Barrack Obama’s policies are ill-considered and unwise for X, Y, and Z reasons.”
Liberal: “I don’t have to sit here and listen to your racist opinions.”

C: I don't believe empathy is an appropriate criteria in choosing a Supreme Court justice *cites judicial oath*"
L: "You just want some racist, antifeminist white man."

I wish I were kidding. I’ve heard this kind of thing happen more than once.
mighty_aphrodite: (Default)
Well, I'm not going to knitting group anymore. Tonight was just kind of the last straw. I'm tired of being the closet conservative and listening to all their liberal bullshit. At first it was just the one woman who pissed me off. Not a single week goes by that she doesn't make some blatantly rude anti-religious or anti-conservative comment. Then today, this other woman and I get in a discussion about the quality of the local public schools which basically boils down to her telling me that I'm a deadbeat expecting the school to parent my kid, just because I said I'm sick of them not holding him accountable for his behavior, and in fact, encouraging it. (The other day David went to the school to pick him up early, and when he told Byron "Ok, lets go" Byron replied "Piss off" and his teachers laughed hysterically. How's that for being an authority figure? And that's only one example).

When I politely ended the conversation, she turned to the only other girl who was there and started a conversation about something else and just pretended I wasn't there. Real mature. So, while they were yammering on, I quietly finished the row I was knitting, gathered up my things and left without a word. I had not taken three steps away from my chair when I heard it get really quiet behind me. No doubt they are still sitting over there gossiping about me.

No, I won't be going back.

4 AM

May. 24th, 2009 04:04 am
mighty_aphrodite: (movies>dark crystal>skeksi)
Nope, still not asleep. Sleeping in an empty apartment is creepy. I think I'm going to stay up until sunrise, feed and walk the dogs, then sleep all damn day, walk the dogs again in the late afternoon. Perhaps I'll go the the coffee house around the corner later in the evening after it cools off. I know if I do pretty much anything in the heat of the day, I'll make myself sick.

And by the way, I hate hippies. Seriously. I had a great, cheap generic albuterol inhaler. It tasted like socks and made me lightheaded and nervy, but it did open up my bronchial tubes as indicated. Thanks to goddamned environmental regulations, my CFC-propelled generic albuterol is no longer available. My pharmacy recommended ProAir as the CFC-free alternative most like it and got my doctor to sign off on it. Problem? There's NO FUCKING GENERIC FOR IT. So instead of a $10 copay, now I have to pay $25. Great. That's a chunk of money for an unemployed chick. On top of that, despite its claims to be CFC-free, it smells and tastes exactly like hairspray. At least the dirty sock taste was organic. On the plus side, I don't seem to get the shakes with this brand like I did with the old one. At least, I didn't this time. I'd still rather pay half as much and tweak a little.
mighty_aphrodite: (Default)
My knees and ankles hurt. I feel old.
mighty_aphrodite: (Default)
Color me surprised. My doctor whom I haven't seen in 9 months or more actually approved a refill on my albuterol without making me come in for an appointment.

She does, however, want me to come in ASAP for a follow-up. Which... I'm not going to do because she will want to talk about why I haven't been in in over nine months nor refilled my antidepressants for over 6. I'm really not a fan of that, which is bound to involve lots of guilt and judgment. So... no.
mighty_aphrodite: (Default)
I keep banging my knees on things and accidentally whacking them with random objects. Ow. People are going to think my husband beats me.
mighty_aphrodite: (Default)
Got woken up out of sound sleep by a ringing phone, and now I feel like crap.

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