Entitled or insecure?

If someone asks for advice on a message board, and one of the respondents posts a 500-word patronizing, condescending, polysyllabic bloviation in response, what does it make said bloviator when she then returns to the thread to complain that the original poster hasn't thanked her for her post? Specifically, when said bloviator says she wants back the time she invested?

Disgustingly entitled, or horrendously insecure?

*ponders*

Yay for pasta and the internet

Pasta, because that's all I can eat.

The internet, because that's the only way I can communicate.

The dentist was over two hours of hell this morning, and pain requiring T3 ever since. So instead of boring my few remaining readers and/or grossing people out, I will share adorable doggie pictures!

Littlefoot:




My brother's dog, Ralphie:

Heehee! Miss Jams has a bat in her hair!

That's a direct quote from Maresche, the only co-worker to notice I wore a bat barrette today because I couldn't find a green one. It was a good antidote to the rotten start of my up-and-down day.

Not cool: discovering at 11:30 last night that I was out of coffee.

Cool: having M notice my barrette.

Not cool: having a co-worker verify the stuff I'd just done and discover a lot of mistakes.

Cool: my boss being impressed that I talked to her about it and worked out a strategy for dealing with my memory/concentration problems and our busy time of year. She actually said that she was pleased I came and spoke with her about it instead of hiding from her.

Not cool: wondering how I'm going to put gas in my car and buy dog medicine before I get paid next.

Cool: selling a bottle of BPAL for just about what I paid for it, to someone who will love it more than I ever did.

Not cool: worrying about the health and happiness of several friends.

Cool: actually winning something for once! Michelle at All Lacquered Up had a drawing to see The Wizard of Oz in HD, and I was one of the winners! Yaaaay!

Now to decide what nail polish to wear...

No more relying on Snopes

A while back, Snopes ran a badly-researched article on the book & movie versions of The Golden Compass. I wrote to them about it (actually, I sent them a thoughtful and amazing post written at the Lush message board by a poster named Shelby), and while they didn't precisely fix the entire article, they did remove some of the more blatant errors and the proof that they had relied on abstracts as opposed to reading the books.

Today, when I was reading about the Kitty Genovese event, I ran across an article from Snopes about an urban legend about a rape during Scream Session week.

I was surprised and dismayed to find that Snopes reiterates the Kitty Genovese urban legend, and really upset to get an e-mail in response to my comment which basically said, "Look up the references if you don't believe us." Upon taking another look at the article, I note that the only reference is to the scream session legend, they have nothing cited to back up their figure on the Genovese case.

You'd think they'd try to not propagate more urban legends.

I've been tagged!

What were you doing five years ago?

Working full-time for my mom, living and gardening at my old house, dating a Civil War re-enactor.

What are five things on your to-do list for today (not in any particular order)?

Finish drying my comforter
Watch "American Idol"
Read the new books I just got
Balance my checkbook
Take a bath

What are five snacks you enjoy?

Garlic bagel chips
Cucumber sandwiches
Whipped strawberry or raspberry yogurt
Lindt dark chocolate truffles
Pizza rolls

What five things would you do if you were a billionaire?

Endow a giant no-kill shelter and put Zayrina in charge
Get a private plane so I could travel and take my dogs with me
Add more floor space, a giant, decadent bathroom and a deck to my house
Pay for lifetime maid service

What are five of your bad habits?

I don't vacuum until I can't see the floor for fur
I don't dust unless there's company coming
I'm middling-bad about putting away clean laundry
I eat in front of the idiot box
I correct people (but I'm working on that one!)

What are five places where you have lived?

Edwards AFB, CA
Hudson, OH
Akron, OH
Cuyahoga Falls, OH
(that's it, there is no number five)

What are five jobs you’ve had?

Cashier at a convenience store
Slave labor at a fast food chain
Night desk clerk at a Super 8 Motel
Graduate assistant/tutor/English instructor
Administrative assistant to an attorney

What five people do you want to tag?

Nope. Sherri tagged everyone when she tagged me.

Deep breath and walk away...

There's a raging argument taking place on a message board that I've been posting at since 2001. Basically, about half the posters are saying that depression is an excuse people use to get SSDI funds and that it can be cured with "a swift kick in the ass."

One poster dragged out Erick Turner's study. Somewhere on Queen Mediocretia's blog is a discussion of this article, but I'm too lazy to look for it.

The bit that caught my attention this time was at the very end of the article.

"About 80 percent of all antidepressant prescriptions are written by primary care providers and other non-psychiatrists. Before the introduction of SSRIs in the late 1980s, almost all antidepressant prescriptions were written by psychiatrists."

My response:

The "non-psychiatrist" who prescribes for me is a neurologist specializing in MS. In fact, he's the 2007 Ohio MS Society volunteer of the year, as well as Director of the Experimental Therapeutics Program at the Cleveland Clinic's Mellen Center. Oddly enough, all of my friends with MS-caused depression get their prescriptions from their neuros as well. I'd like to see some data on how many of those "non-pyschiatrists" are neurologists, oncologits, etc.

And I'd have to see a breakdown of the patients involved in all of the studies to see what the makeup of the control groups vs. the experimental groups is.

I agree that every medicine we have available to us today is over-prescribed. That's why we have things like antibiotic-resistant tuberculosis. However, I don't believe that it's as much of a scourge as it's made out to be.

Right now, I'm just ticked off and disheartened by the number of people who think mental illness, particularly depression, is faked for benefit. Time to walk away from the computer for a bit.

From Lisa, at Brass and Ivory:

MS Awareness, Blogging Friends, and a little Link Love

There are at least 137 MS Bloggers out there actively discussing whatever suits their fancy. Below you will find many of these suspects....wait... I mean lovely blogger friends who happen to have multiple sclerosis.

Remember how I mentioned a group project was in the works? Well here it is. As the founder of the Carnival of MS Bloggers, I'd like your help in spreading the word, and in doing so we will strengthen the bonds of our own little Multiple Sclerosis Blogging Web (and share some linkie love with each other). If you are not an MS Blogger, but are a regular reader here, please feel free to help spread the word too.

Here's what you do:

Copy the entirety of this post
Create a new post and paste this content
Visit 3 of the blogs listed below which you were unfamiliar
Leave a comment on their blog encouraging them to participate
Please add Brass and Ivory to your sidebar, if it's not already
New editions of the Carnival of MS Bloggers will be presented bi-weekly at Brass and Ivory. Previous editions will be are archived here and the button below has been revised to include the new link. Please update your sidebar.

Names of the Blogs - Name of Blogger (if known)and # of posts in 2008 (as of 3/5)

Tokyo Girl Down Under
Mima's Doings
Mark and MS
Home Sweet Home (Jennifer)

9 Brand New MS Bloggers joined the blogosphere in 2008!!

New! Carole's MS Blog (Carole) 49
New! Great Mastications (Orla) 37
New! Movin' On with MS (Sammie) 26
New! Me, Myself and MS (Emma) 10
New! Being Ammey 8
New! Blogbuster (Daniel) 6
New! Etsy Crest (Shelby) 6
New! Serina's Blog 5
New! I'm Beating MS (Michael) 2

Most Prolific MS Blogger - so far in 2008!!

Jim's Deep Thoughts (Jim) 231

Top 10 Rather Prolific MS Bloggers - so far in 2008!!

A Stellarlife (Diane) 109
Merely Me's Multiple Synchronicities (& Sclerosis) 90
Friday's Child 70
My Journey - Living Well with MS (Diana) 69
Sunshine and Moonlight (Kim) 65
The MonSter Ate My Branes! (Natalie) 65
Queen Mediocretia of Suburbia 60
Brass and Ivory (Lisa) 56
Brain Cheese (Linda) 52
Maybe I'm Just Lazy (Julie) 51

28 Moderately Prolific MS Bloggers - so far in 2008!!

Maggsbunny (Maggie) 48
Living with Multiple Sclerosis (TC) 47
MS My Way (Callie) 43
Bugs, Bikes, Brains (Shauna) 39
Dancing with MS (Lazscott) 37
Trying to Catch My Breath 37
A Florida Journal (SwampAngel) 35
Now We Are Six (Tish) 33
Reality Check (Michael) 32
Access Denied (Herrad) 31
Multiple Sclerosis Blog (Charles of MSBpodcast.com) 30
MS Activist (NMSS) 29
Self-injecting Chinese Hamsters since 2007 27
Shirl's the Girl (Shirley) 27
Disabled Not Dead (Anne) 26
Life with MS (Trevis) 26
Living with MS (Blinders Off) 25
White Lightning Axiom - Redux (mdm) 25
Stevers! 23
Word Salads (Have Myelin?) 23
Danieldoo (Vivian) 22
Caregivingly Yours (Patrick) 20
Deo Volente (Lisa N) 20
Down the MS Path (Vicki) 19
Do You Have That in My Size? (Denise) 17
Jenn's Nook (Jenn) 17
Fingolimod and Me (Jeri) 16
Human Life Matters (Mark) 16

51 Mildly Prolific MS Bloggers - so far in 2008!!

A Life of Learning with MS 15
Behind Blue Eyes (Zee) 15
Katy and Mike's Adventure (Katy) 15
Living Life as a Snowflake (Sharon) 15
Mandatory Rest Period (Kim) 15
MS Maze (Mandy) 15
My Journey with MS (Christina) 15
The Multiple Sclerosis Companion (Pat) 15
'Tis Herself (Kell) 15
A Short in the Cord (Joan) 14
Blindbeard's MS Blog 14
Bubbie's Blog (Cathy) 14
One Crazy Chick (Chris) 14
Pat's Pond (Pat) 14
Rants and Musings (Cutter) 14
G and K's Mom 13
MS Toolkit 13
Newly Diagnosed with MS (Andrea) 13
One Life (Stephen) 13
MS Not Just a Diary (Doug) 12
Rayne's World (Jayme) 12
Chaos Personified 11
My MS Journal (Jaime) 11
Purely Patsy (14 yr old Patsy) 11
Victoria Plum - Technician! (Victoria) 11

26 Less Prolific MS Bloggers - so far in 2008!!

Broken Clay (Katja) 10
Mark Pickup (Mark) 10
My Chain Driven Ride through Life in Alaska (Michelle) 10
Deborah Does Navel-Gazing (Deb) 9
Funky Mango's Musings 9
Inside the Mind of a Squirrel 9
Living Well with MS (Michon) 9
No Time for MS (Courtney) 9
Sorting It All Out (Michael) 9
Travels With Lucy (Virginia) 9
MS Caregivers (Prudence) 8
Can You Hear Me Now? (Donna) 7
Irreverence is Justified 7
Multiple Sclerosis Notes 7
My Tysabri Diary (Lauren) 7
Chris Has MS (Chris) 6
Diary of MS X (7 Divas) 5
Electrical Disturbance (Stephan) 5
Know Multiple Sclerosis 5
MS in the OC (Frank) 5
MS News and Notes (Deb) 5
MS Recovery Diet Blog (Ann) 5
The Endomorph (Ruth) 5
The Jaws of My Life (Jaws) 5
Time to Deal with MS (Homer) 5
YodaMamma MS & More 5

38 Barely Prolific MS Bloggers - so far in 2008!!

Some of these folks have multiple blogs or co-blog and are loved none-the-less!! Let's help spread the love and let them know that WE know they are appreciated.

Carolyne's MS Odyssey (Carolyne) 4
Defeating Illness (Chris) 4
Intent, Context, Perception (Chris) 4
Libbi's MS Journey (Libbi) 4
MS Recovery Diet Blog (Judi) 4
My Autoimmune Life 4
The Life & Times of Sancho Knotwise (JM) 4
The Zen Pretzel Trick (Zen Angel) 4
When it's Raining... (Keeley) 4
Kebenaran - The Truth 3
Montana Homecoming (Sister Jane) 3
Ms Quill 3
Reality Chick (Keli) 3
Catch My Disease (Lisle) 2
Clods and Pebbles 2
Dissonance 2
Georgia MS Advocates 2
Lazy Dog Public House 2
Looking Forward with MS (Pamela) 2
Surviving MS in Alaska (Michelle) 2
These Pretzels Are Making Me Thirsty (Trrish) 2
Troy's Multiple Sclerosis Experience 2
You Me and MS (Judi) 2
Camille's MSadventures 1
Comment Column (Virginia) 1
Erik's MS & Lyme Blog 1
Hop Bloody Hop (Philip) 1
Jenn's Journey with MS (Jenn) 1
Living with MS (Cyndee) 1
Mismorphic's World of MS 1
MS Musings 1
MS Real Life Stories & Issues (Kristin) 1
Postcards of My Life (Sherry) 1
Rebooting Times 1
Shoester (Doug) 1
The BS of My MS (Heather) 1
The Perseverant Pincushion (Trish) 1
Tysabri Help (Deej) 1

Having too many items from various posters to count:

LJ Users with Multiple Sclerosis

And finally - 26 MS Bloggers who have been silent in 2008!!

Angst on a Shoestring (Gina)
Dandelion Wine (Lynx)
Doug's MS Journal (Doug)
It's Not All in My Head (Optimist)
Just Above the Abyss (Heidi)
Life with MS , seeking a cure (Karyl)
Managing MS with Tai Chi (Joel)
Managing Multiple Sclerosis (Vince)
Marciarita
Michele's Blog
Mike's Place
MS - My Scene (Virginia)
My Complications (Amanda)
My Demyelination (Tina)
My MS Experience
Object of My Injection (Michelle)
Say It Isn't So (Mouse)
Talk Story with Kimberly
The Great NetXperiment
To Be Continued... (Jaime)
Truth and Beauty (Baraka)
Tryin' to Imagine Bliss (Suzy)
What is MS to Me (Dave)
Willy's MS Rants
Wind Among the Reeds

Hard to categorize:

I Have MS (Tim)
Huggins' MS Pages (James)
MS - A Personal Account
MS Protocols (Jeff)
MSB's Podcast
MSing Around
Multiple Sclerosis Blog and News
Multiple Sclerosis Sucks
OUCH! It's a Disability Thing
Squiffy's House of Fun

I'm too damn lazy to find, copy & paste all the relevant links. You can find them at Brass and Ivory, linked above, and over at Queen Mediocretia's blog.

Thanks, Zayrina

Such a surprise! (not)

Courtesy of my lovely Lioness:

Your Score: The Otter

You scored 46% domestic, 57% gregarious, 64% trickster, and 23% intellect!

Wild, Gregarious, Emotional Trickster: you are the Otter! Playful, capricious, active. Otter people are often very lighthearted, playful people who are naturally joyful. During rough times, otter people are often optimistic and are masters in finding the humor in even the worst situations. Otter medicine teaches the value of laughter, play, and feminine wisdom.

This test categorized you based on four different axes of personality, which were then associated with a different animal. The four axes, as well as all possible results are explained below.

Wild/Domestic: This first axis categorizes you based on how much you are drawn to the outdoors, versus how much you are drawn to civilized situations. Domesticity has many shapes and forms, and varies from the joy of dolphins leaping next to a ship to the steadfast loyalty of a family dog.

Gregarious/Solitary: This axis measures how solitary you are. If you scored high, it means that you enjoy the company of other people, while a low score indicates that you prefer a more solitary lifestyle.

Trickster/Serious: This axis measures how well you line up with conventional trickster archetypes. People who fall into this archetype have a sense of humor and an excitable, highly chaotic streak. Scoring low doesn't mean that you don't have a sense of humor; it just means that you probably don't think dynamite is very funny.

Intellectual/Emotional: This last axis determines whether you are more emotional -- acting based on feelings and instinct, or rational and intelectual -- acting more on thought than on your gut feelings.

Talk about internet virii!

Last night, a friend in Australia sent me a Yahoo message just to tell me about his miserable head cold.

Today, I have a miserable head cold.

Clearly, ZoneAlarm is ineffective.

Did I mention I'm miserable?

I just hurt myself laughing

Thanks to Zayrina, who found this.

Content rating

Sherri hooked me up with the blog rater.

Mingle² - Online Dating

Sex (2) Suicide (1)

Apparently dog gross stuff is acceptable.

A meme from the Leptard and his buddy Brendan:

"[P]ost a comment and I'll give you a letter if you ask nice. Then list ten things that you like that begin with that letter. It's all about the loose letters, round here..."

Brendan gave me the letter "P," so here's my list of ten, in no particular order:

Peppermint puffs from King Leo Candy--pure sugar and peppermint oil. Yum.

"Pink" by Aerosmith.

Fiction by Sara Paretsky, Robert Parker, Anne Perry, Elizabeth Peters and Terry Pratchett.

Posting on message boards like the Great Escape, the CyberSoapBox and the Chat House.

Pooh.

Packages from friends.

Plush animals, particularly bears.

Pandas.

Penguins.

Products from Lush.

police psych eval florist question

Ahhh, yes, ye old referral log. Gotta love it.

"multiple sclerosis -died -fox"

Yes, I have MS. No, I haven't died. Yes, I've been told I'm a fox. *blush*

Wow, someone in Eugene, Oregon got an url for my blog via e-mail. Now 'fess up and tell me who sent it to you. I want to know who thinks my blather is worth passing on. *grin*

"flu shot gluteus maximus"

Two of you looking for this--trust me, get your flu shots in the arm. If the nurse whacks a muscle, better that your arm be a bit sore than that you can't sit down for a day.

For the dozens of you looking for "contemporary bathrooms" on Google Image Search--how bored ARE you? I've checked out of curiosity, and my blog isn't on the first eight pages of results. You've got an awful lot of time to waste, that's all I can say!

"complaints about colyte"

Lots of complaints--it's totally disgusting, trying to keep down a gallon of salt water in eight hours. If you have to do it, you have my sincerest sympathy (and I'd recommend a 'scrip for Phenergan, too). And on a related note, to the person searching "What if colyte doesn't work," gah, what a nightmare. I can't imagine drinking that swill to no effect. I'm gonna have nightmares now, thanks.

To whoever at the Kohler company checked out my blog: You folks make awesome tubs, and I've linked to your site a few times. Care to give me a free tub for the publicity? You're getting more and more from all these people who keep pulling my blog up on Google--you'll get your money's worth in a year or so, honest, and I don't want much, just the two-person overflow jacuzzi with colored lights and the ceiling-fill spout.

"cramps diarrhea vomit worst story laxative"

Yuk. I am so not telling my worst cramps diarrhea vomit story on here--I'd like to keep my six or so readers. Go read the Best of Craigslist for that kind of stuff.

To the person from Kaiser Permanente in Walnut Creek, CA: First of all, a friend who works for Kaiser in SoCal says you've got a lot of nice weird people at your office (lots of IT geeks, I understand), so hello. Second, thank you for coming back to read my blog after your first look. Thirdly, you win the prize for most creative Google search. I'm also appalled that my blog is the seventh link when you put "police psych eval florist question" in. Finally, what did you decide were the appropriate flowers to send to someone who just flunked the psych eval for a police job? In case it ever comes up in my life, of course...

Two memes

One from Sherri:

You are The Moon

Hope, expectation, Bright promises.

The Moon is a card of magic and mystery - when prominent you know that nothing is as it seems, particularly when it concerns relationships. All logic is thrown out the window.

The Moon is all about visions and illusions, madness, genius and poetry. This is a card that has to do with sleep, and so with both dreams and nightmares. It is a scary card in that it warns that there might be hidden enemies, tricks and falsehoods. But it should also be remembered that this is a card of great creativity, of powerful magic, primal feelings and intuition. You may be going through a time of emotional and mental trial; if you have any past mental problems, you must be vigilant in taking your medication but avoid drugs or alcohol, as abuse of either will cause them irreparable damage. This time however, can also result in great creativity, psychic powers, visions and insight. You can and should trust your intuition.

And one from Jay:

RULES: Each player of this game starts off with 10 weird things/habits/little known facts about yourself. People who get tagged need to write a blog of their own 10 weird habits/things/little known facts as well as state this rule clearly. No tagbacks.

Okay, I don't know ten people to tag, so anyone who thinks this is kind of cool is welcome to do it.

1. My eyes change color from blue to green to grey depending on my mood and/or what I'm wearing.
2. I actually love my job most of the time.
3. I ordered five pooping reindeer for Christmas--four for presents and one for me.
4. I sing to my dogs, and they each have a special song.
5. I can't seem to write fiction right now. :(
6. My bath addiction is at odds with my dry skin, but the former always wins.
7. Despite my research into their love lives, I don't actually own all that many socks.
8. The ones I do own are sorted by color and arranged in rainbow order in the drawer.
9. The only time I've turned on the television in my bedroom in the last year was to see if it still worked.
10. I'm still not convinced that there isn't a mad duck living somewhere in my basement.

For those using Google to find bathroom pictures

First of all, you'd be better off checking out the Kohler gallery than reading random blogs. Most of the nightmares are in the "Traditional" section--you've been warned.

Second, if you're really that curious about the bathroom of a stranger, here are before and after pictures of mine. For those of you who don't know me, my entire interior was swathed in 1970s Mylar wallpaper when I bought this house two years ago, and I'm removing it at a rate of one room per year.

Before:



During the renovation:



After:





From frou-frou to plain jane. Any questions?

Was it really only ninety minutes?

At approximately 6:45 this evening, I was perusing my favorite message board, preparatory to answering the question, "What exactly IS a cucumber sandwich?" when, with alarums and excursions, I lost the interwebbienet, the computer, the A/C, the water pump and the washer and dryer.

In short, the power went out.

As I live directly across the street from the substation, I knew I didn't need to call and complain--I'm always among the first to have power after a one of Cuyahoga Falls' rare outages. I whiled away the time yakking on the phone to Mallie and ABG. One of the things that struck me was how the three of us could have a perfectly reasonable discussion about inheritance taxes when the 5 page thread on that subject on the AH has become a SRCOC* thread for me.

Fortunately, just before the power went off, the temperature dropped and there was a bit of a breeze, so while I got sweaty, it wasn't the total drenchedness it would have been had I been outside when it was 87ºF. I am pretty dependent on electricity, not just for the computer, but because my well pump is electric. Fortunately, I've got two pre-Prohibition 3.5 gallon toilets and usually between one and four five-gallon bottles of water in the house. It probably wouldn't hurt to fill one of the empties with tap water, though, and dump it on a regular basis...

At any rate, the power came back on at 8:25, and thank dog for battery-operated clocks and my cell phone, as I had to run around re-setting clocks. The VCR gets to blink until I have a chance to sit down and change it, but it's all the way in the living room, so who cares? *grin*

*SRCOC: Sacred Rubber Chicken of Chastisement, which I use to whack people who swear they are going to stay out of particular threads or types of threads and then violate their promises to themselves. I shall use it on myself if I go back in that thread. *serious nod*