guiltyred

Apparently people are starting to report reinfection with H1N1.

From the article: John Law, spokesman for the Department of Health and Human Resources, said the information his agency has is that the likelihood of getting the virus twice is "very, very, very rare."

"Once you have had it, you have a natural immunity to it. It's like the mumps or the chicken pox," Law said.

Problem with this? Chicken pox can recur spontaneously via the virus taking up residence in the body and never leaving. So...I'm not really comforted by his statement. We still know far too little about the behavior and life cycles of viruses to be making such bland announcements.

The reason for this post? Romy's sickly again and we're not sure what's going on there. We'll be keeping a close eye on this.

One door must close before another can open. With the passing of this night I am looking ahead to a less sad and less fearful future. I wish to honor life and its mysteries without compromise.

The future begins now.

I caught a show on the History Channel - The Haunted History of Halloween - and something about the narrator seemed familiar.

Then it came to me: he sounds like Lazard as performed by the cast of Crisis Perverted.

If you've never heard these guys, check 'em out! The satire level and sheer hilarity - not to mention some dead-on voice acting and some utterly bizarre subject matter - make these unforgettable. ("Drunken Dial" is one of my favorites.)

We heard what sounded like a hawk right outside our window. It was so clear and distinct, it could only have been a hawk in the cedar tree - but no! It was a big sassy bluejay, strutting his stuff and imitating a much larger bird. I'd heard they could do this, but I'd never actually experienced it before.

It sounded just like the hawk that kept turning up when we were at the mom's swimming pool this summer. Hm, maybe that's the whole point, eh?

On a whim I looked up the symptoms of H1N1 in adults.

I...think I have a mild case of it. Except for the cough/sore throat, and not-quite-barfing, I scored the whole damn checklist.

I'm actually hoping that's what it is. This would mean I don't have to spring for a shot. And it's mild enough to just be miserable without being dangerous. And I think I'm on the upswing. I think.

So...yeah.

Woke up this morning to extreme cuteness.

I was lying on my side, and Wylie-kitty was stretched out against my back, under the covers with his head on my pillow.

Of course, as soon as I said "get the camera" he moved. :3

Nor my titanic tears the seas be dried
Nor fear the mockery of thy yellow flowers?

(yes, they are both for *ahem* male enhancement products)

I've been absent from online these past couple of days because, on top of everything going on, I've been hit in the gut by some kind of virus. It's miserable timing all around but it's on the upswing today.

I'll try to get back to commenting tomorrow.

The Mocker has left us as abruptly as he had arrived. He barged in on our household the weekend after September 11, 2001, and this afternoon his heart gave out with no warning. He went on his own time, as I kind of expected him to do - just not this soon.

There is a picture of him here. I...can't really talk now.

And it's awesome! :D

I've gotten rather sound-sensitive at night, to the point that a neighbor's air conditioner or a loud transformer (heh!) can keep me awake - it's that low-frequency thrumming sound, it gets into my head.

So...sweetie got me a Marpac Sound Screen white noise machine. We'd been using an electric fan to cover the noise, but with winter coming it'd be too cold. This thing sounds like our fan, but gives off no cool air - it's just sound, and it covers not only that low-frequency electronic noise but the other night, when we had 50 mph wind gusts and rain, it made the whole storm sound like rolling ocean waves! I don't think I've had better sleep! :D

If anyone has trouble sleeping through random irritating noises, I wholly recommend this gadget. It's adjustable in several ways (hole covers rotate in two areas, and there's a two-speed switch), it's small, and it WORKS!

I subscribe to a number of "help you find a job"-type newsletters, and this one just...no.



For folks who don't belong in the strict gender binary, this is more than a few steps backward.

I hope this is all voluntary, or they add an "other" option. Not holding my breath, tho.

ladyofshadow asked me to do a post for her now that she's had her wisdom teeth extracted. She's sore but okay, and is stocked up on jello and other soft foods.

Here's wishing her a speedy recovery and suggesting that she probably looks a lot like the hamster in my icon right about now, sans karot!

Still don't know if it's a cold, allergies, or weather-related sinus, but my sweetie's still sickly, and now I'm miserable too. It's a very low-grade sinus pain, sniffles, and headache, combined with that all-over achy, wish-I-was-still-in-bed feeling.

We're trying to find something brainless and pleasant to occupy our evening. When I was a kid, if I was sick on the weekend, they were always showing old (black-and-white old) sci-fi and monster movies on tv, and I have memories of being soothed in my misery by such heroes as Rodan and Creature from the Black Lagoon (what can I say? I cheer for the monsters).

And now I'm curious: anyone on my flist treat their colds with old movies? If so, what's your favorite to sit and watch from the underside of a pile of blankets?

I feel a little silly for freaking out yesterday over that website, but it was the latest in a string of incidents that left me feeling spoonless - the straw that killed the camel, so to speak.

I am very happy to inform that it's been fixed, quickly and professionally. And yes, I bought my book.

It's funny, but until recent events (RaceFail, GenderFail, SurveyFail) I really didn't have a grasp on why, exactly, stupid little details caused so much trouble. All my life I'd been told to "lighten up," to allow people to say what they wanted even if it left me feeling like dirt, that it was my fault for being "too sensitive." Now I'm beginning to understand the depth and prevalence of - what? I'm still unsure what to call it. Institutionalized privilege? The sense that society reinforces the stereotypes while simultaneously shutting down anyone who speaks out against those stereotypes.

I'm still learning that no, it has never been my responsibility to lighten up when I am hurting. It has never been a failure of mine that I take issue with things that cause me pain. I am not too sensitive - I am a person with feelings and value and dignity, and because I do not conform in one or more vectors I can expect to be presented with situations that cause discomfort, anxiety, or pain on a more consistent basis than many of my peers.

It IS my responsibility to guard my mental, emotional, and physical health, and to that end I must learn that anger and frustration are not the best reactions. Sure, I'll flip right out if I'm weary and already stressed; but it's my choice to calmly address those things that cause me discomfort rather than just stew on it. And by not stewing on it, I get stronger. I remind myself that it's not a problem with my perceptions, it's a problem that has become an integral part of modern society, and it's not insurmountable.

Today I feel stronger, and my faith in humanity has been boosted. Thank you, bookseller, for being civil and prompt in your action and reply. It means more to me than you might know.

I just joined another writing comm at DW - propfiction. (There's also a mirror community here on IJ, same name - will probably play here too, but I don't want to double-post.) It's pan-fandom, there's no word limit, they take fiction and art, and there's no requirement to post to the community - just take the bunny and run, if you want.

The bunny bit, and I decided to go ahead and post to the community just for grins. You can find it here. :3

Jou always finds the best online crack!

There is a site that originally wanted to be a health-info search-all. It set up its searches to cast far and wide across the web, and opened its virtual doors for service.

It did not, however, remember the Three Cardinal Rules of Online Cover-Your-Ass:
1. NEVER go live without going through a beta period and finding and squashing all embarrassing bugs first;
2. NEVER overlook the potential for users to be smartasses and find hilarity in your shortcomings; and
3. NEVER but NEVER rely on Wikipedia for non-lol purposes.

And now I give you...Healthbase.net's suggested treatments for Mary Sue.

Go ahead, have some fun before they figure out the bugs!

Apparently gray wolves aren't considered an endangered species anymore, despite their still-precarious foothold in the United States. And in Idaho and Montana, the powers-that-be have decided that 1000 wolves is too many: they have authorized a hunt to the tune of 70,000 hunting permits expected to be sold in Idaho alone. The quota is a mere 300 wolves total; there is of course no chance that hunters will err/lie outright and cap more than the allotted amount, right?

Maureenlycaon sums this up better than I can right now.

Wolves are a very emotional subject for me. When I first read about the hunt, I freaked the heck out. Then I read a very coherent and thoughtful comment about why this might be a good thing: the more wolves come into contact with humans and domesticated animals, the greater the chance for disaster (not least of which, I observed, is the chance for dog/wolf hybrids that are not afraid of humans and which might be carriers of rabies). At the time, I thought it was a smaller, controlled hunt under discussion.

But 70,000 permits?? To kill 300 animals across 2 states??? And I'll tell you, if you click on the link in Maureen's post about the first wolf killed in this slaughter, the cowboy-machismo of the killer will make you sick. These people aren't about keeping wild and domestic separate by force, they're about trophies and scoring the kill before their buddies.

It's enough to make me puke.

The Defenders of Wildlife have a special page set up to educate about this heinous situation and other threats to America's gray wolf populations. They have a form letter you can customize, to send to President Obama urging immediate action to place the wolves back on the endangered list.

I have now written to two U.S. presidents - Carter and Obama. Both times, it was about the wolves. I really hope things get fixed and stay fixed for this beautiful animal.

Please, step up and speak up. This is urgent.

We're not game-players here; no time for it and less patience. Also lacking a PSP or a Wii, which makes gaming kind of difficult.

No, we're into watching cutscenes like an anime series. And our current quest is Understanding Kingdom Hearts. Seriously. There's been much MST3K-ing in our apartment these past few days, ever since loading up the original KH cutscenes and staring blankly at the computer till our eyes bled chowing down on all the junk food in our home while trying to figure out what the deuce was going on.

I've tried to read through the scripts of KH1 and KH2, and I keep hitting one thing that throws me into utter confusion. Before I lure my sweetie into a viewing of KH2, I sought out the answer so that I could lord it over my unsuspecting other half conveniently and casually toss it out at the opportune moment to earn myself a thank-you snog. And so, as anyone with a question and the permanent impression of an advertising campaign drilled into their head would do, I went to Ask.com - and asked The KH Question of Doom.

Dear Ask.com: in kingdom hearts, what is the difference between a heartless and a nobody?

The first link looked promising - also highly entertaining. And so, I went there, and now take you there with me to marvel at the heretofore unexpected answer: Heartless and Nobodies

Clears it all up, don't it? :3