Ree’s musings

I feel ill. Presidential race aside, I still feel nauseated.

My state had political ads telling us that we are tolerant and that is why gays should not have rights.

...

Yeah. So my state ousted the Senate Minority leader, probably the most powerful Democrat in the nation, and replaced him with a teetotaling evangelistic Christian who looks like a cross between a Queer Eye end product and a Ken doll. (Methinks the Senator-elect doth protest too much.)

Meanwhile, in our House race, we opted to keep a Democratic Congresswoman of less than a year, despite her Republican challenger being a genuine farmer and probably what we call "good people" around here. Conversely, she was a lawyer before the special election.

My state is the most fucked up ever. At least we're at home in this country. Anyone know the where to start getting a passport and fleeing to New Zealand? I've already ruled out Britain and Australia due to American-like politics.

I was going to post some good news I just got, but you know what? Screw it. I don't care anymore. I can't even explain why I don't care without getting pissed off all over again. It wasn't really wonderful anyway.

LJ obsession quiz results, because I'm too lazy to paste again. Heh.

Not much going on, hence the quiet. Been sick. Sore throat, then head cold, then fatigue. The last is probably my thyroid, or (as I like to call it) my "damn neck gland". It's lazier than the rest of me, making it pretty lazy indeed.

This is me on Mountain Dew:

...

uhhn. Maybe I'll have content later?

People are stupid and abuse the vinegar out of HTML because they staunchly refuse to get a freaking clue! Internet Explorer does NOT equal the World Wide Web! Just because it works on your special Windows setup doesn't mean it works for anyone else! STOP USING BAD CODE, DAMMIT.

This rant brought to you by the acronyms HTML and CSS, and rampant ambivalent emotions caused by having five pounds of Hershey's at the same time as a modicum of restraint. ACK.

Oh yeah, and don't use ALT for tooltips. Use TITLE instead. That's what TITLE is meant for. Okay?

I am being a good little woman and sparing you all my RSS rants. For now.

I get regular updates from Snopes, which is only the very best site on urban legends that you will ever find. (Not just the scary dreck either, although that's certainly a draw.)

Today brought with it an update, with the "Still Haunting the Inbox" section still carrying this message:

"Given the current state of the technology, you needn't fear that thieves are using their cell phone cameras in checkout lines to capture your credit card information."

What is that? I never heard of such a thing before Snopes, but now I wonder. Does that mean in the future we will have to beware such theft and if so, will anybody warn us in time?!?!?!?!?!?!

...okay, that's enough chocolate for today, I think. Much too hyper. (Muwahaha.)

I've been hissed off all day. See, I found a cache of books at the secondhand shop, all by authors I knew well and liked even better. Awesome. Huzzah.

Today I cracked one open. Mixture of scifi and archaeology (of all things!) = rock. I likey.

Page 77. The author -- someone with an advanced degree and a habit of researching his novels, so he should really know better -- had one character mention using shovels.

I blinked. Shovels? In excavation? I must have misread that. Nobody uses shovels to unearth anything they intend to investigate. That would damage whatever they're after, which would be stupid. I must have read too fast and the shovels are for moving dirt that has already been sifted.

Nope. Using shovels to excavate -- and if they hit bone, they'll switch to brushes.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH. You have exploded Ree's brain. This is the end. Bye-bye coherent thought.

Buddawhahuh? *repetitive blinking spasm* I -- that -- they -- but -- AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH.

Stupid freaking shovels. They completely disrupted the verisimilitude of what had been a wonderful tale, throwing me back into reality with fifteen minutes to kill by grumbling "...shovels" in a strangled hiss, whenever it bothered me overmuch.

So today's cussword is nothing unprintable. It is, rather, "shovels". It joins a veritable glossary of Reeish, including "frackshnix,""buddawhahuh?", "bwee," and the legendary "LAGGING!" Use it five times today and it will pop up in your brain for the rest of your days.

...shovels!

Grab the nearest book at hand. Go to page 42. Go to sentence 11. Post it and the name of the book in your journal (add these instructions to your journal as well).

"Define, in pixels, the position of the layer's left edge from the containing line of text."

Webmaster in a Nutshell by Stephen Spainhour & Robert Eckstein

Heh. The HTML reference chapter, now that takes me back. I've been dwelling in the XML chapter lately. (Why? Dorkitude. And there should be a way to use XSL to make my backed-up del.iciou.us bookmarks clickable even in Opera, but I'm not seeing it yet. Dammit.)

No-one expects a Spanish disquisition!

I should not be permitted dictionaries.

*throttles the computer* Crash one more time and I swear by all things holy I will shove your demonic case directly into the wall and scream with harpy delight as I do it. Just push me, you miserable soulless heap of plastic and silicon. Just you fucking TRY IT BITCH.

*calms slightly* What I was typing when the computer issued its impromptu gag order was, my paid account. It's up at the end of the month and I can't cover it. If I go without it, it sure won't kill me, but I thought I'd throw it out there and see if any kind soul would want to tide me over.

If you, dear reader, want to buy me some paid time, I only need 2 months. That will last me through Christmas. I'll get some money then from geographically-distant relatives and with that I can buy another full year of paid time.

Oh boy. Nothing like an adrenaline rush at 1 A.M. I was walking to my bedroom, shoeless. And a centipede skittered its freakish way across my bedroom floor right after I came in.

Now, insects generally don't bug me (har!), and spiders get left alone so long as they don't freaking touch me. But centipedes! I can't append adjectives to them that aren't profane. Yellow or brown, perhaps, but there's a bevy of cursing that I dearly yearn to attach as well.

My mother has a habit of disbelieving my late-night creature encounters, so I tricked the -- the thing -- into a box and from there into a jar, which you better believe I sealed tight. It can suffocate. It's vile and I condemn it for daring sully my domain. Let's see my mum tell me I was dreaming when she can see the thing before her, eh.

Meanwhile, no sleep tonight. What if there's more? They could easily climb my walls or blankets onto my bed, oh God... so I am awake, wearing boots, and keeping my feet tucked high under my chair.

Centipedes. Worse than shovels, honestly.

Today I am thankful that Turkey Day only comes once a year.

The holiday has brought my brother and his friends out of their college town and into my house. While they're here, I have heard one incredulous question more than any other: "A five pound candy bar?!"

Heh. Yes. I was mildly helpful and Mommyrinabear thanked me with Hershey's bar bigger than my laptop. Rina rocks. I've been sharing with whoever dared risk finger sprain by breaking off a chunk themselves, which effort has whittled the bar from reading "HERSHEY'S" to approximately "HERS". Too true. *g*

I've been sorting old bookmarks. It brought up on old memory: A television ad, run by an area church at Christmastime, showing Jesus with crown of thorns. An unseen narrator said something about remembering that Jesus did not stay an infant, something to that general effect.

I was a child then, my teenage years in the distant future by my eyes, and I told my mom that I didn't like that ad. She pointed out that they had a point; some Christians rejoice at Christmas without remembering what the Bible says is the reason Jesus was born.

Just a passing thought. On an entirely different note, please remember that bottled cappuccino contains milk, will eventually go bad, and should be checked for expiration date before anyone consumes it. If it expired on the 8th and someone, say me, drank it on... oh, maybe the 27th, that would be bad. Very bad. Luckily I'm all better now. Huzzah.

In the course of bookmark cleaning, I found The mind in the eyes test and took it. I'm just going to say I did badly. My score blew. I mistook hostile for shy, and flirtatious for hostile.

I think I have discovered a source of my difficulties relating to people offline. Yikes.

My brain should not combine Jabberwocky and Cthulhu. It just -- shouldn't.