dragondawn420

Clickyclicky on the picture. Is much better in larger size. *big evil grin*

“Inhabitants of Planet Houston. Slaves of Zod. It has come to my attention that many of you have been preparing to celebrate a human emotion known as ‘Love’. I have heard that this celebration is called ‘Valentine's Day’ and that it is filled with all sorts of unnecessary luxuries that I did not give you permission to enjoy…First there is the exchange of ‘flowers’, a most peculiar ritual…Why is it that you choose to give your loved ones the carcasses of befallen vegetation?…Then there is the issue of chocolate.”

kneel before zod

or at least posted it on the website; i don't subscribe to the roseville press-tribune.

letter to the editor

what's really cool is that it was posted first, and the subject was used as the headline for the column. whoooofuckinghoooo!! i feel so powerful, but really, it's fadda auros who wrote the bulk of it. the first and last paragraph are mine; the meat of it is his. and earlier tonight when i was at the bank, a woman in a beat up pickup with angelides for governor stickers and other lefty/anti-bush ones had pulled into the parking lot as i was leaving. i slowed down and yelled out the window, "i love your bumper stickers!!" and gave her two big thumbs up. she yelled back, "thank you! it's nice to hear it!"

i keep hearing that in the top congressional districts around the country that are in play this time, that polls are trending democrat in ever increasing numbers. i'm hoping against hope that we get a chance to take back at least the house this time, if not both houses of congress. the threat of vote tampering/theft is a real one, and in more than just ohio and florida. it's the one thing about the upcoming election that still has me scared shitless. is it too late to ask for UN election observers for november?

this being off work has me on a fuuuunky sleep schedule. i'm not totally nocturnal because i'm sleeping off and on no matter what time of the day or night it is. however, i'm heading to bed soon since both myself and the cat have had our medicine, and i've found a place to go for mother's day brunch. i'll set my clock for a decent time to get up and then i'll call the restaurant to make reservations and call the stepdon to let him know what i've found. i can always cancel the reservations if we decide to go elsewhere.

random: i'm really liking having grown out my bangs. they haven't quite got to the same length as the rest of my hair but it's long enough to pull back into a pony tail.

random: i have a big ole geek crush on dr bob brier, the egyptologist. i'm watching a series called 'pyramids, mummies, & tombs' thats on the discovery times channel (it's why i'm up at 4am), and he's the presenter guy. he's a true geeky academic, in love with his subject and passionate about it. to the point that in the middle of a bit about nubian kings and their pyramids, when he was in a museum that had something he thought was cool he has the camera follow him and he gave a short explanation about the item, then went on with his subject of nubians. i love that. plus, he's got a rockin' bronx accent. *grin* [added a few minutes later, diff program] oh, and he tells horrible jokes, and i love horrible jokes. of a mummy that is one of the first to have its brain removed: "he was a no-brainer." i love that!

random: the cats have been romping the past 15 min or so as i've been writing this; at one point, sergei walked up to umbie and then just jumped over her, as if he had springs in his silly little feet. then, he and marley began chasing each other around the living room and down the regular 'racetrack' of the hallway and my bedroom, or the spare room. sily dorks.

random: i need to add some user pix, but i don't want to use only photos. anyone have info on where i can go to find some of the cool icons y'all have?

random: i want to wash my down comforter. is this possible or do i have to take it to a dry-cleaners?

on headbangers ball right now in-studio is a band called Wicked Wisdom. the singer is none other than jada pinkett smith, will smith's wifeypoo. i didn't really like the song of theirs that was played a few minutes ago while i was typing my other post, but it's pretty darn cool that she's into metal. talk about a minority among a minority: there's a lot more women-led metal bands now than ever before, and more metal bands with blacks/hispanics/south asians/pretty much anybody other than white guys, but you don't see many african-american female-led metal bands. i like seeing it. the rap/hip-hop world is becoming more diverse in both performers and audience but the metal world isn't at the same level.

i can't wait till our society is diverse enough that no matter your skin color you can find a music niche that suits you.

yay - i found headbangers ball showing on MTV2. boo - even as much as i love metal, it's a little bittersweet because it reminds me of chris. and zilla. other than progpower, i'm not sure where to meet metal guys here other than shows...i guess i ought to dig up the website for The Boardwalk, the local metal club. it's out here in darkest suburbia near me, so it would be a snap to get there and back. i'm not afraid to go to shows alone, so...hrm. i may have to look into that.

[evil thought only jaime will understand]
i just remembered that last year at progpower good ole norman gave me his business card...i suppose if i was desparate i could call him up since he's in the bay area. however, i keep reminding myself that he slept with beth(leopard) and that just squicks me the hell out. 'acourse he also fucked metalrose and probably her friend, too, and countless others...see, i've talked myself out of it. *sigh* it's too bad, really. norm's a pretty good-looking guy, but he's got a really bad case of singer's disease (means he thinks the world worships his ass the way he does) and he'll fuck anything (see: beth[leopard]). gah.

i could use a nice meaty guy to get rough and enthusiastic with; as pushy and aggressive as i can be the rest of the time , in bed i want a guy to be assertive and almost man-handle me. at least most of the time...soft and tender is okay once in awhile. however, i haven't the faintest idea when that will come back into my life. 'specially since i'm picky and want an intelligent metalhead: smart people make better lovers. that's one way i'm so spoiled by the guys i've been with since i left the ex. the best ones i met through my friends (a WONDERFUL filter, by the way :)), so it was pretty much a given they'd be above average. i won't have that filter at the local rock show, so...meh.

i suppose it's a good sign that i'm feeling more antsy about things like meeting someone. i'm still nowhere near where i would like to be before i meet anyone, so i'm just gonna keep working on that..but i might add some extra-curricular outings to expand my social horizons.

i have downloaded firefox. it is good. yay! now what i'm trying to figure out how to get my old netscape bookmarks from my old machine to the laptop. since the old machine ain't hooked up to the 'net i'm going to have to save it to 3.25 disc. grr. oh well...i'll figure it out.

[a while later...]
whoohooo! i'm not as dumb as i thought i was! i was able to copy the bookmarks over to the disc and got them uploaded to firefox. gods, i'm so happy to have tabbed browsing again. i hated having to open a new browser every time i wanted something, plus the security issues with IE...ah, no. i asked auros about it real quick-like when he and xta were here, and i had been forgetting to do the download. ahhh...feels good to have all my bookmarks back. i'll integrate the ones that aren't dupes and delete the rest: i like to keep an organized bookmark list.

in other news, marley still hates me. it saddens me that he shies away from my hand now when i go to pet him under the chin. *sniffle* i hate having this medicine thing between us, because i've never had to do something like this to him before and he really isn't happy with it. i'll have to take introducing teeth-brushing very. very. slowly. i'll do a lot of bribing since he's food-oriented. tonight after i gave him his meds, i let him get over the worst of it and then offered some feline greenies to him. he accepted them, then i left him alone again. i didn't want to push it with him, and i know he'll get over it and come sleep with me once i go to bed. despite the medicating, i've been waking up to having a large stripey cat curled up next to my arms or under my chin.

the doctor thinks i'm having an exacerbation of my MS, so he has put me on leave till june 30. i thought he'd said june 13th, and that's what i told the short-term disability people so i'm going to have to fix that. he's also scheduled me for an MRI, and i'll be running around getting copies of my previous MRI's from kaiser and from the woodland hospital. *sigh* i'm of two minds about this whole thing...it feels like admitting defeat, both against the disease and the job. i keep telling myself it's not my fault, and some days i even believe it. *wry*

in semi-related news, marley went to the doctor as well on tuesday. he had his bad teeth pulled, and was tested for FIV and feline leukemia: negative on both. the vet said if either had been positive, he would have called me to see what i wanted to do. i was worried about it all day till i could call at 3.30 that afternoon. i have to dose him up with liquid antibiotics twice a day for 10 days, so it's just as well i'm home. i'll be slowly introducing him to the concept of teeth cleaning once he's all healed up, since the vet thinks he's going to have dental problems the rest of his life and he's only 4. yikes. i'm looking at potentially 16 years of brushing a large cat's teeth...oh, the things we do for our pets. *grin* the other two will go in sometime next week to get the rest of their leukemia vaccinations and then we'll be done with vet visits for a good long while. i'm doing it now while i have the money, since i'll have reduced income for awhile.

i'll definitely have to purchase some vacation time once i'm back at work so i can go to worldcon, since i don't believe i accrue vacation time while i'm out on leave. gah. that's another reason i'm ambivalent about being on leave, but every time i think about going back my breathing tightens and i get that trapped, panicky feeling in my head. my panic attacks as an adult are much more subtle than they were when i was a kid, but i think that's because i learned a long time ago to use biofeedback to control the symptoms. thank god for judy blume books! i got the idea from one of hers about a boy who had a 'nervous stomach'. controlling the breathing and heart palpitations became second nature. every time i feel bad about having to take anti-depressant/anti-anxiety meds, i remind myself of how anxious and nervous and emotionally out-of-control i was as a child and young adult, and i don't feel so bad. in my case it really is analagous to being diabetic in that some part of my body chemistry is out of whack, and i have to control it with medication. *shrug* and people wonder why i don't want to have kids. ha! i'd hate to visit my funky health issues on another generation.

other than all that crap, life's good.

best. commercial. ever.

bwahahahahahahahahaha!

"why no pinch?"

[edited later]

i keep coming back to this commercial when i need to smile. it just cracks my shit up.

i don't know what i'd do without my cats. umbie is curled up on my left shoulder and marley is between my feet as i lay here on the couch. with all the crappy job stuff coming down, it's been their quiet furry presence that keeps me sane. without the unconditional love that they give me i'd be lost.

had to go to the doctor's today to go back to work, and was able to convince the doc to sign me out on stress leave till 5/8. that will give me time to get in to see my neuro to see if i can get it extended. once i've been out 7 days i can get disability pay. it's not my full salary i don't think, but i'll be okay. i will have to purchase some vacation hours before worldcon since i won't have accumulated enough by then..at least, i don't think i will. i'll try to dig up what i accumulate per payperiod and then i'll figure out exactly how much i have to buy. there is no way i'm letting this thing now prevent me from going to worldcon. i'm not missing getting to hang with my peeps, and i'm not missing seeing tad and deb, and i'm not missing finally getting to meet anne mccaffery and michael whelan. absolutely not. *shakes head*

i strained my lower back on wednesday, i guess when i had bent over to dig some rocks up. i bent from the waist, and was clawing rocks from the ground with my right hand, so the pain wound up in a triangle across my lower back. i wasn't doing it for hours and hours, but i guess with the existing stress i was carrying in my back and my lack of muscle tone, it didn't take much. i got in to see my massage therapist this morning (8am was the only appt available), and he worked me over but good. he said that most of the knots were in my mid to upper back, running along my spine, not the lower back. i guess that's just where i'm feeling it pull . he said he wasn't able to get them all out this time, so i'll be making an appointment for next saturday. thank the gods my neuro wrote me a 'script for massage therapy, so i can use my healthcare spending account to get 'reimbursed' for it.

so i sit here, feeling like someone beat me with a stick. literally; the masseuse had to use such hard pressure to get the knots out that my back is sore. however, it's not the sharp shooting pain i had earlier, and after his workover the muscle relaxants the neuro prescribed should be that much more effective.

someday i hope to not have to deal with this kind of crap, in that being in better shape hopefully will limit the damage i can do just by bending over. i hope that will help with the muscle spasms as well. it's not like i ever expected to become all athletic and shit, but i would like it if my body just worked like it's supposed to.

i'm on a mini-vacation: took wed and thurs off this week. even though i was off work for quite a bit earlier in the month, i decided to keep my days off instead of giving them back. work's just that stressful.

i had a really nice, lazy day today. the most i accomplished was to re-pot several plants for the front yard. it's a darn good thing i decided to do so: my spider plant, cecil, was horribly root-bound. in fact, the roots had grown completely around the dirt in the pot, and i had to cut most of it all away. *shudders* it was gross looking, too, because the roots looked like worms or huge maggots..all pasty white and fleshy. that's why i wear gardenting gloves, being that i'm weird about touching stuff like that. anyway, i got him re-potted, along with two other spider plants and a hydrangea that leslie next door gave me. it went into the biggest pot; it's very small and my eventual plan for it is to put it in the ground in an area where it can grow into a large hedge. mmm, hydrangea. i love their big pompom flowers and big leaves.

tomorrow i plan to make some phone calls, pick up some tax stuff i have to sign for at the post office, and i think i'll tackle my bathroom counter. it's frightening, and i need to do something about it.

i didn't owe de taxman anything this year. in fact, i got $313 back from Fed. *shakes head, listens to marbles rattle* i applied it automatically to what i still owe from last year, and if i do my mental calculations right, it means i'm almost done paying it off. wheee! *twirls* i got about $500 back from state and opted for direct deposit into my checking account. i haven't bounced any checks lately, and have paid all my bills current except for the car insurance and that will get paid on thursday (pay day). i'm kinda proud of myself for managing as well as i have for as little time i've been doing the auto-download into quicken, and once i have a few months worth of info i'll start putting together a budget with quicken.

it felt so good to realize that i'm almost done paying the IRS for last year's taxes, i burst into tears. i kept thinking it was this huge thing hanging over my head, but i've managed to whittle it down more than i realized. i think i'm going to call the IRS folks i spoke to awhile back, and see exactly how much i owe now, because it's possible that my state refund will pay off the remainder. !!!!! i just now realized that while writing this. if that's the case, i'll really be stoked to the gills since it will mean i may even be able to begin saving money for my MINI downpayment, rather than paying down my IRS debt. it didn't help that i kept forgetting i'd paid off almost half of my tax bill when i got my bonus, and so i've been fearing i'd have $100 monthly payments for over a year. duh. i'm a dork. this is the result of my extremely poor organization skills. i swear, i'm about ready to hire a personal organizer for a full saturday of re-doing my life. *shakes head at self* nah, it'd be a frivolous expense at this point but i can dream, right? *grin*

anyway, at least i'll sleep much easier tonight. thank the gods for that.

and i haven't the faintest idea how to get a spiffy background going on my main page, or where to find new cool userpics/icons. oh well, i'll figure it out bit by bit i suppose. i'm awfully happy to be able to tweek the look more, i must say.

i have to take my car out to carmax, a nationwide chain of dealerships that only sell new, good-quality used cars. i want to see what they'll give me for the 'stang; my manager at work was telling me that she took her mercedes SUV there to get rid of it before she bought her nissan murano. i also need to call the mini salesperson tomorrow and talk to her about a time frame of how long they'll hold my car. gah. this whole thing is turning into a nightmare, and i have no one to blame for it but myself. i'd just wait and rebuild my credit back up some but i need to get rid of the mustang while it still has a decent value; it's 9 years old, and despite being a sports car convertible in good condition, it will soon begin to lose value rapidly. so i need to sell it -now-, while i can. stepdon may front me part of the down payment, and i'm going to ask my grandmother about the last bit of my inheritance. fuck. i didn't want to do that, but i'm a bit stuck. gah. well, i will say that this whole fiasco has been rather sobering for me and i am taking (slow) steps to quit fucking up so much.