Daylight Slavings Time

Yes, it's that time of year again, where we get back the hour that Daylight Savings Time robbed us of in the spring. Knowing me, I'll probably waste it online.

Speaking of time, Saturday 8 asks "when's the last time."

# when was the last time you bought something for someone else, and what was it?
I bought something for my mom, but I don't remember what it was.

# when was the last time you complimented someone, and what was their reaction?
I think it was somebody at work. I tell people good job, and they just sorta walk away. I have a hard time complimenting somebody without it sounding insincere. I think it's because people very, very rarely impress me, and I have to be impressed to give a good, genuine compliment that doesn't sound hokey.

# when was the last time you had to return a purchase to the store; what was it and why?
I remember doing it, but I don't remember what it was or why. I don't keep track of things like that.

# when was the last time you had an ice cream cone?
No idea. I don't buy them ready-made, and I don't keep cones around the house because I don't eat ice cream enough to use up more than 2 or 3 cones before the rest go stale. So I might get one at my mom's house, but not often, because she likes to repackage ice cream in other containers to save space, and that tends to ruin the texture.

# i had to take The Kid to the doctor. when was the last time you had to go to the doctor's office?
A couple weeks ago; it was a urologist.

# when was the last time you were embarrased by something you did? What was it and what happened?
That happens practically every day. I went to a movie party Friday night and left my soda bottle on the table in the front hall when I left. Oopsie.

# when was the last time someone was kind to you?
Yesterday. Or earlier today, depending on what time zone you're in and whether you've changed your clocks yet.

# when was the last time you locked yourself out of your house/apartment/work? what did you do?
A couple months ago. I got somebody to let me in.

sbt/sbc

Book 'em, Danno.

[Sorry if the folks at Booking Through Thursday have heard that one a million times already.]

1. Do you make notes in books as you read them?
Very rarely. I might underline a passage, but that's maybe one in 100 books, and I don't think I've ever made handwritten notes in a book except a textbook.

2. Why or why not?
I don't have any reason to.

3. If you do, do you make notes only in certain kinds of books or all of them?
See 1.

sbt/sbc

Saturday 6. [It's still Saturday on the West Coast, so I'm not THAT late...]

1. Who is the last person who you spoke to by telephone?
The lady from the dentist's office reminding me of my cleaning Monday morning.

2. Who is the last person you spoke to online?
Probably my friend C.

3. Which of the two have you seen more in person?
I've never met C in person, and I don't know if the lady that called from the dentist's office is one of the office workers I've seen or if they farm out phone reminders to somebody else.

And what is the thing now with referring to the patient in the third person? That's the second call I've gotten where they don't ask, "Is Frida there?" but just say, "I'm calling to remind Frida of her appointment with Dr. So&So on mm/dd at hh:mm." Dammit, I'm Frida [well, not IRL, but for the purposes of relating events in this medium, I am]. Stop talking to me like I'm somebody else, or like I'm a damn voice-mail machine. It's insulting.

4. Take the quiz: How is your self-esteem?
It says I have low self-esteem 32% of the time. What it didn't do, and this was a pleasant surprise, was hand me a bunch of nagging bullshit about how I should feel better about myself, blah blah blah. I've seen quizzes where, if your self-esteem wasn't in the 90th percentile, you were admonished to love yourself for the wonderful person you are, never mind the fact that very high self-esteem is a sign of a personality disorder. [Great thing to do to a person with low self-esteem, by the way: criticise them.] But I thought some of the questions were a tad dodgy. And it's not that this quiz is that bad, either, in case Patrick was wondering. It's mostly accurate in the sort of questions it asks. I'm just in a mood to pick things apart today.

You CAN'T always depend on people to help you out when you're down. If that's how you feel, that doesn't mean you have low self-esteem, it just means everybody else you know has it hard too. I know maybe two people who could and would help me out if, for instance, I lost my job. Everybody else in my family is either on welfare or Social Security. They don't have anything to help out WITH. The co-workers I know who would be willing to help out are just as broke as I am, and so are my friends. So how much is it a self-esteem issue and how much is it a matter of simply not knowing a lot of people with free time and money?

Then there's the issue of finding it hard to concentrate. That has to do with self-esteem? It can be a symptom of depression, which can be both a cause and an effect of low self-esteem; but it's a very tenuous link between concentration and self-esteem, since there are a million things which impair concentration:
~subacute CO poisoning
~lack of sleep
~medication side effects
~vitamin deficiencies
~boredom
~low blood sugar
~noise
~stress
~ADHD
~brain damage
~PTSD [which can, but doesn't necessarily, lead to low self-esteem]

As for deserving to be loved, I think it's debatable whether anybody deserves to be loved. [In fact, I think that whether anybody deserves anything is arguable.] Is it a matter of deserving? And can you love somebody just because they deserve to have somebody love them? I can't. If I don't love 'em, I don't love 'em. The end. That's just how I feel.

Then there's the question "You fear that you will never find true love." I didn't check that one even though I suspect I may never have another romantic relationship [not that I'm falling all over myself looking for one; I have enough goddamn problems] and even though I'm pretty sure the "true love" they're talking about is a romantic relationship. I've done enough bashing of the legions of retards who think that RR's are the only "true love," so I won't go into it again, no matter how richly they merit my derision. Since my definition of love includes familial love, love between friends, animal/human love, and a great deal more besides penis/vagina love, I've already found true love, and plenty of it, thanks. So I may or may not have skewed my result there, depending on whether the quiz writer was talking about p/v love or all love.

Sorry to get on the heart-shaped soapbox there, but I think love, and its definitions and parameters, is one area where this culture is deeply warped. Don't even get me started on the media's depiction of love and what it does to people's expectations. I'll be here all day.

5. What is the longest period of time you have gone without internet service since you became a "regular user"?
I think it was the four days that I was in the hospital.

6. How much did the lack of internet availability bother you?
Not much, but I think that was due to the copious amounts of morphine I was given. Also, I had CD's, hockey games, and the fX channel, so that helped. It's the old methadone strategy--substitute one drug for another.

Time for more coffee, and maybe breakfast. I think another batch of potato pancakes may be in order.

sbt/sbc

Blursday Memes.

Yeah, I know these are late. This is one of the few places where I can be late and not get socked with a service charge of some kind.

Booking Through Thursday.

1. Do you read in bed? For how long? Do you fall asleep reading? Will a good book keep you up all night?
I read in bed nearly every day, either until it gets really late [usually on work days] or until I'm about to fall asleep and drop the damn thing. I can't remember the last time a book kept me awake for very long unless I really wasn't that tired.

2. Where do you keep your nighttime reading? Do you have a special table next to the bed? Are there many books there? Do you keep books there that you aren't reading (finished or unread)?
I have a bookshelf next to the bed. It has whatever books I'm reading in bed plus a couple hundred just stacked on the shelves because there isn't enough room to put them upright.

***

Thursday Threesome.

::Payin' the bills::

Onesome: Payin'-- Hey, 'they' tell us fuel prices are down! What are you payin' this week for a gallon of gas?
I have no idea. Probably two-something. There's no bus service in town here or between towns, so I don't have a hell of a lot of choice except to pay whatever they charge. That makes it sort of pointless to spend a lot of time looking at the prices--it costs what it costs, and when you need gas, you need gas. Unless you like walking 35 miles each way to see a doctor.

Who are they?

Twosome: the-- heck you say! There's an election coming up here in the US; do you plan to vote? No, no need for your soapbox. ...unless you want to .
Yeah, if I can figure out where I'm supposed to vote since I moved. I generally vote by party. Green is first choice, other third parties or independent are second choice, and DFL is third choice. If there's a Republican running unopposed, I don't vote for that office. The only exceptions I made were in the last two presidential elections, where I voted DFL to try and keep Bush out. Worked great, didn't it? I might as well have voted for Cap'n Crunch. And now that an increasing number of states are using the Diebold voting machines which can be hacked by a developmentally disabled toddler with a Speak & Spell, we ALL might as well vote for Cap'n Crunch, because it won't make a hill of shit worth of difference. This is a shining example of the democracy which we work so hard to spread around the globe.

Threesome: Bills-- Which bill(s) do you absolutely dislike paying? ...and by that I mean the one you "have to-have to" but wish you didn't have to. Tuition/books? Power? The newspaper?
I hate paying all of them. The only ones I dislike less are final payments [such as the final $120 or so I have left on my mattress, which I'll pay off next month].

sbt/sbc

Dos Preguntas para Lunes

"Para lunes" sounds like a euphemism for underwear, like "pantaloons" or something.

Curious as a Cat.

If you could remove one of the current Supreme Court justices based on their moral positions, whom would you choose?
Oh, hell, I don't know. Whichever one is the most conservative. I know I should pay more attention to that stuff, but I have a hard time seeing the point when I can't vote for justices, and the person who appoints them [i.e. George W. Douchebottle] doesn't listen to what I or any other citizens want anyway. Petitions, public outcry, letter campaigns...it all goes in one big monkey ear and out the other. Maybe if I was a billionaire, he'd listen. But I'm not, so there's buggerall I can do about it. So yeah, just 86 whoever leans furthest to the right.

Finish this sentence: "What I really need ____________."
Can't be bought in a store. Well, some of what I need can [a better car, for one]. But the really important things can't. Courage, for example, and perspective, and social support, and the ability to forgive. I need to unblock some of my channels to let in good stuff, and board up some other channels to keep other people's horseshit from polluting my psyche. It's happening; it just takes time. Anyway, that's what I need.

Yeah.

sbt/sbc

Taking Sinventory

Saturday 6.

1. Take the quiz: How much sloth do you have?
It says my sloth quotient is 29%.

2. Take the quiz: How much wrath do you have?
Wrath quotient: 24%.

3. Take the quiz: How much lust do you have?
Lust quotient: 14%.

4. Take the quiz: How much envy do you have?
Envy quotient: 30%.

5. Take the quiz: How much pride do you have?
Pride quotient: 32%.

6. Of these five sins, which quiz's response seemed most different from your real personality?
Patrick, you make the heroic assumption that people know their own real personalities. ;-) I'm sure most people know themselves better than others do, but I think we all lie to ourselves at least a little about who we are. If I'm as honest with myself as I can manage to be, I'd say all the scores are pretty much spot on. I know it's somewhat different than how some people perceive me, though.

I also think it's a good sign that I managed to get a wrath score under 50% without having to lie [at least consciously]. That's a marked improvement.

sbt/sbc

Late memes.

Curious as a Cat [about five days late].

Finish this sentence: "I have been blessed because _______________ ."
uh...I was born into circumstances that allowed me to be a freer, more self-actualised human being than is possible for most people in most periods of history.

Why is the sky blue?
Because if it was green, you wouldn't know where to stop mowing. Everybody knows that.

***

Booking Through Thursday [about two days late].

1. Do you read short stories?
Not usually. I've read some and enjoyed them, but I don't especially gravitate toward them.

2. Why or why not?
I have a backlog of literally dozens of books to read, and none of them happen to be books of short stories.

3. What do you like and dislike about short stories?
I like that the shorter format allows the writer to present ideas in a way that isn't drawn out over four hundred pages. In a novel, it's hard to walk that fine line between losing the message in the details of the story and bashing the reader over the head with it every ten pages. In a short story, you can present an idea, explore it a little, and leave the reader to ponder it, without having to build up a big story around it that might obscure the idea. The trouble with this, though, is that some stories should be expanded and told as novels, but the short story format prohibits it; so you're left with this unopened bud of a great idea, which is disappointing. Of course, some stories aren't that complicated, so they're better off as interesting short stories than as draggy, boring novels.

That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

same bitch time, same bitch channel...