Telling it like I see it
so don't ask if you don't want to know
Another First!
Nov 20th
Last weekend I had my first ever blue screen of death.
Spent the entire weekend dicking with this PC, finally figured out how to do an emergency backup (because stupid me NEVER backs up anything – duh!) and had to do a factory restore. Great.
Though I saved all my pictures and files, I lost everything else. Music, work, games, etc.I thought because my work files (mp3s and wav files) were in documents, when I gave up my music apparently the whole Windows 7 cross-referencing stupid shit ignored all my work files too. Fuckity fuck fuck.
Oh well.
I’m up and running now, just in time for PodcampAZ (today and tomorrow) and to work on my presentation for Ignite Phoenix After Hours – a pilot program for Ignite presentation that aren’t quite PG-13 enough for regular Ignites. My presentation is Fuckin’ Asthma, the trials and tribulations of dealing with severe asthma and the difficulties it presents with your sex life. What every normal breathing person should keep in mind when attempting a one-night-stand with an asthmatic. It can be done.
My submission (*snerk*) was selected so now (another first) I have to put out. I’m working on it, but time is a crunch with my PodcampAZ focus this weekend and Thanksgiving coming up. Wish me luck.
So that’s why I haven’t posted here. I’ve been so busy with those two events and trying to restore everything I needed, and plus I couldn’t figure out how to log in here. My illustrious web guy has our dashboard logins slightly different than the average wordpress blog.
The Rest of the Trip – FL Half
Nov 12th
Then somewhere in the dark Ginnie drove over christmas tree roadkill. Someone lost their cheap and tacky electrically wired tree in the middle of the highway and she made a split-second decision to straddle it to save the tires, but the wire caught up under the car and she could see sparks behind us and freaked out. We pulled over and I yanked out what I could reach, but the wires had wrapped around something under the car. So to avoid getting ran over by some semi, we hit the next exit where she borrowed scissors and crawled under the car. I’m pretty sure that’s where I lost my debit card, crawling around trying to see under the car.
Foggy mornings, so she had her first experience driving in the fog. Then 1 mile out of Florida she moved over to let a couple of GHP cars back on the road and one thanked her by pulling her over. Poor kid, excellent driver with shitty luck. He said she sped up when he got behind her and that was suspicious. Maybe it was the AZ plate. He asks her a bunch of questions, he asks me a bunch of stupid/useless questions (is the Grand Canyon in AZ? Do you have a lot of drug smugglers in AZ? Why were you in DC? How long will you be in FL?) and then wanted to search the car. Really?
Okay, I understand about probable cause and all that shit, but the minute you say no they get all butthurt and cause you more grief. I laughed and pointed at the back seat piled with blankets and crap and told him the trunk was full as well, have a ball, baby. So Ginnie and I stood on the side of the highway for half an hour while he and some other GHP guy searched my car. They even yanked the back seat out! I didn’t even know you could do that with my car. Then the trunk… until the redheaded cop unzipped my sexcation kit and the big burly bald black guy almost fell over laughing. That was that, they tossed everything back in with a thank-you-very-much and no eye contact, and gave her a warning about my windshield. Whatever.
Got to Mom’s – food – Brittany came and picked up Ginnie for the night – helped Mom with her cell phone – next day picked up Ginnie and went to Dad’s – hung out – out to Olive Garden – hung out – dumped Ginnie back at Brit’s – next day to my sister’s to see the boy then back to Mom’s to help her clear out some stuff. Last day brunch with Dad and Bonnie and then hit the road home.
There’s pictures on Flickr and pictures on yFrog (which I HATE) and I can’t figure out how to link to the set.
On the way home we stopped at the Oklahoma City Memorial, Window Rock and then Winslow AZ.
SmallChild is now pissed because I’d rather finish this than take her spoiled little ass to McDonald’s.
The Rest of the Trip – DC Half
Nov 8th
Yeah, this is long. And confused so bear with me. I’m still recovering but if I don’t get this down I’ll forget even more.
We left Tuesday morning and drove up through New Mexico, Texas, and somewhere in Oklahoma Ginnie took a wrong fork and we decided to go for it. Up through Missouri and Kentucky, a bit of Tennessee and finally Virginia. Ginnie got to see her first massive leave changing, the hills and mountains of the east (they are vastly different than the mountains we have here) and we did plenty of talking. We slept in the car the first night but got a room the second. I didn’t want to show up at my friend’s house smelling too bad. Somewhere in there we had tire issues. Or I thought we did, turns out there was nothing wrong with the tire, just that obsessively checking the pressure and using inferior air pumps made the tire appear to be leaking.
We decided to take the Blue Ridge Parkway up though part of Virginia. Now she understands why I loved Virginia so much. It’s a beautiful state and I wish I could still live there but I can’t deal with the cold. Or as it turns out, the traffic. That started backing up clear down to where I used to live in Stafford and didn’t get any better the rest of the weekend. How do those people deal with it? Loopy roads that pretzel so bad you couldn’t possibly find your way around without a GPS. And my Google Navigator was having trouble!
We got to my friend’s Paul’s house and got situated for the night. I had the asthma attack and the day proceeded as I said in my previous post. After the Rally, we took the train to an Atheist/Humanist meetup and eventually found Brian and Janice and especially Bruce. Ginnie really liked Bruce. I probably should have accepted his invitation in the first place. I think Ginnie would have been more comfortable. Anyway, we got back and watched most of the Rally they had recorded.
Sunday we got up and went back into DC. With the Marine Corps Marathon running most of the roads were blocked so we parked the car and rode the train again. The walk from the Smithsonian station to the Air and Space Museum was hard on me but we did it. Halfway through that we decided to hit the Holocaust Museum too. THAT walk was hell. I swear the cold air was trying to kill me but Ginnie was a trooper and patient as could be.
I think out of the whole trip the Holocaust Museum was the most important. Slow and crowded, but it was slow because everyone wanted to see, read and absorb every panel and display. It was very… moving.
From there we went back for the car and drove back into the city. Found a decent parking space nearby Lincoln and wandered around there. Then down to the Vietnam and Korean war memorials.
Monday morning we packed up our stuff and went to the Iwo Jima thing and then headed to Arlington Cemetery and took advantage of tourmobile. I certainly couldn’t have walked up those hills. Though other than not being able to breathe I felt fine. We visited the Kennedy gravesites and then watched the changing of the guard at the Tomb of the Unknowns. I’d swear that ceremony was way more elaborate years ago when I lived at Fort Myer. Oh well. At the gates of the cemetery is the Women Veterans Memorial so we went in and looked up my name and there I was. I need to send in more information but the basic stuff is there. I think Ginnie was proud of her old mom.
Then off to Florida.
Rally Recap
Nov 8th
I didn’t actually make it to the rally.
Here’s the thing, I’m sure I’ve told you I’m asthmatic. So I got to my friend’s house fine*, woke up at 4am unable to breathe and had Ginnie take me to the hospital. By the time that was dealt with, the pharmacy trip was dealt with and getting back to my friend’s house happened it was almost 11. We all decided to go to the last stop on the train line for a best chance to get on a train. I’d passed the closer station and spotted the very long line so it seemed like a smart choice. 
Still having difficulty breathing, the walk to the line and then finally (after more than 2 hours in line) we squished into a (the fifth train that went though) train and made it downtown. I managed to walk about 50 steps before I’d have to stop and rest for a while. It was the cold air. I have a real problem breathing in cold air.
So… I got to a bench on the Mall and gave up. Sent Ginnie off to see if she could get close enough to the stage to actually hear anything but the crowd was so thick she couldn’t get in at all. And that was around 3:30 when it was almost over and lots of people were leaving.
I enjoyed the camaraderie of the crowd. People were happy and cheerful and I got to see lots of signs passing by. Some humorous, some serious. I’d tweeted my location hoping any of my friends would come find me but no luck. I’m still glad I went. I felt I accomplished something though I didn’t accomplish anything at all. Does that make sense?
*Watch for the rest of the road trip in another post.
Sad Sap
Oct 24th
I’m going to get whiny so just skip over this one.
I HATE whiners.
Really, just skip it.
There are stretches of time where I don’t speak to another human being. Days. A little alone time is a good thing and I really like living alone most of the time. But that nobody-loves-me feeling rears it’s ugly head most often when I have too much time. Like this weekend. I haven’t spoken to anyone since Friday night.
There’s this litany going through my head since mid-afternoon. Nobody likes me, nobody invites me to go anywhere or do anything, nobody thinks about me. My fun is all fake. Shut up you stupid obnoxious ugly fat cow.
Sure, I’ve been invited to special events or parties or group things. But nobody ever calls and says “Hey Debbie, come on out and do this with me” or some such. I see on twitter or Facebook that my friends have impromptu meetups here and there or at someone’s house but people don’t pop up and ask me to hang out.
Why?
So yeah, I’m all feeling sorry for myself and sniffling in my milk and cookies. Good thing I’m leaving in a couple of days. Maybe I just need a change.
Or a cliff.
And no, don’t respond with a bunch of head-patting Oh we love you Debbie bullshit. Just once in a while remember I’m sitting here at home so bored out of my skull if I had a gun I’d shoot myself just so I wouldn’t think these stupid ego-stomping thoughts all the fucking time. Maybe the next time you go out you could maybe invite me along. Or whatever.
FCKH8
Oct 19th
Hopefully I can make myself clear without offending the people I like and still piss off those uptight people who might come across this.
Specifically those people who hate and/or can’t tolerate gay and lesbian people. Or bisexuals for that matter. What the hell does it matter what adults do in their own homes?
Personally the whole idea of girls doing girls makes me nauseous. Don’t like that kind of porn, and after having been in a F/F/M threesome in my youth, experience tells me I’ll never get over it. Eww yuck and NO. Now men with men porn I find slightly interesting. Maybe cuz I like dick too. Whatever.
But you know what? It doesn’t matter how I feel. EVERYONE HAS THE RIGHT TO FIND LOVE WHEREVER THEY CAN. You have no control over who gets your blood pumping. Neither do they so why punish them?
Imagine the person who you’ve loved and lived with for the last 10 years is in an accident and you’re told you have no right to see them or make any decisions for their care. And to add insult to injury, they aren’t covered on your health care plan. Then they die and you’re entitled to nothing.
How is that right and humane?
Imagine you’re a teenager and you have the hots for little Suzy cheerleader. And you’re Sarah. Or you’ve in love with the captain of the football team and you happen to be on the team too. Your parents, your church, your peers vilify gays and lesbians every day. Why?
Do you really feel the need to encourage kids to kill themselves? Does it make your day when some poor teenager offs himself just because he loves the wrong people? What the fuck is wrong with you?
I have a couple of lesbian friends and I like them just as much as all my other friends. I just don’t think about them (ewww yuck) having sex. I don’t think about a couple of my obese friends having (ewww yuck) sex either. In fact, I don’t imagine any of my friends having sex. Unless of course it’s that one guy or that other guy and it’s with me. What people do when they’re not with me is NONE OF MY BUSINESS.
There’s an old saying: to each his own. Here’s another saying: accept the things you cannot change. Try this one: Don’t propagate hate. As a matter of fact…
FCKH8.com Straight Talk About Gay Marriage from FCKH8.com on Vimeo.
Are you stupid?
Oct 19th
*twank twank twank*
(That’s the sound of knocking on a metal security door)
INNER DOOR OPENS
“Yes?”
“Ma’am, I’d like to talk to you about…”
“Excuse me,” I interrupt because I see the pamphlet she’s about to shove at me. “Do you see this sign jammed in my door? Do you understand what it means?”
“Um yeah, but I’d like to just share this…”
“In a minute,” I interrupt again. “First let me share with you the joy of anal sex and how miraculous the climax can be. In fact if I close my eyes and pray I can almost cum just from the thought of shoving that pamphlet up your ass. Or… have a nice day somewhere else.”
SLAM!
Yes or no, commit either way.
Oct 17th
You remember this post where I bitched about what a PITA is it when some people drop the ball on volunteer commitments?
This is sort of like that. This time I want to slap people who can’t be bothered to RSVP properly. Let me ‘splain how I do it.
- I get an invitation (usually through Facebook or email) for an event.
- I peruse my calendar for conflicts (yes, I has them) and decide which I want to attend.
- I check the appropriate box on the invite.
See, simple. Takes oh I dunno, 30 seconds. And then, and THEN… each Sunday I go over my calendar and make sure I know which/what/where I’m going for the week ahead. I make final decisions about conflicts and go back and make sure the hosts have my final decision.
Oh sure, sometimes I get right up to the last minute and change my mind. I have to babysit or I’m having breathing issues. I still take that moment to go and change my answer on the RSVP.
I don’t say I’m going and then NOT SHOW UP.
I don’t say I’m NOT going and then drop by.
Well, to be honest I may have done the above but I seriously TRY NOT TO. Why? Because it’s RUDE AS HELL.
I’m the scheduler for #evfn and we invite over 250 people every week. Last event we had:
- 11 people said yes
- 17 people said maybe
- 53 people said no
- 241 people didn’t answer
- 9 people actually showed up
You know, I don’t really care if you come or not. That’s totally up to you. My problem is these venues want to know what to expect. They always always ask “how many people are you expecting?” And I have to respond with “der-dee-der I dunno, could be anywhere from 10 to 40!” like a dumbass. Because my people usually don’t RSVP properly.
I’m on the planning committee for PodcampAZ. We KNOW from past experience there will be several hundred attendees. It’s in a month and as of now we have around 70 people registered, and most of them are committee and speakers. If the only people going are the ones running the thing, why bother having it? Going by the RSVP/Registration numbers maybe we should just call it off. (Here’s that registration link.)
What I’m saying is, show some respect to the people planning your events. Let them know if you’re coming or not ASAP. Answer when asked. Commit to the decision. And if you have to change it at the last minute, let them know that too or pretty soon nobody will bother planning anything around here and you’ll be all alone once again. Or is that just me?
Says Who?
Oct 13th
I find it interesting when stuff is advertised on the Internet as The Best or The Only program to do XYZ. Says who?
You put the question out there, maybe on twitter or Facebook, which is the best program to oh I don’t know, fix your partitions – and you’ll get 10 (or more) different answers. And I don’t really quite know what partitions are. Or something as simple as what’s the best twitter app. Or what’s the best program for editing audio files. There can’t be 5 Best Programs. Its all in what you’re looking for specific to your needs.
Advertisers (and politicians) should stick with describing exactly what they can do for you and stop trying to undermine their competition. We are not stupid. Sure sometimes we’re lazy and don’t want to do research (which is why you see “what’s your favorite program to do XYZ” questions in the first place) and you might sell your program by saying it’s the best. But you’re doing your clientele a disservice. Instead of slamming your opposition, list exactly why yours is better and leave it at that. And don’t lie.
Because you know what? Just like in everything else, if you screw over your customers by saying your product fills their every need and then it doesn’t, we tend to bitch. And we bitch obnoxiously.
Tell it like it is. We’re really getting fed up with the bullshit.
Our Podcamp brings all the geeks to the yard
Oct 12th
(I stole this from Tyler’s blog because he’s a more interesting writer than I.)
by tdhurst ·
I’d like to personally invite you to this year’s Podcamp AZ on November 20-21. It’s full of cool presenters (like me!) genius panels for WordPress/SEO, Podcasting and Video Blogging questions and plenty of cool giveaways from sponsors that are eager to woo the geek crowd.
But it’s not just for geeks. In fact, my presentation topic will be solely aimed at ALL the non-geeks in the audience and I’ll teach you how to translate geek speak, decipher common acronyms and explain why we are online so much. So join us, geek or not, on the weekend before Thanksgiving.
Did I mention it’s free? Sign up now!
Here’s the details:
what: Podcamp AZ 2010
where: University of Advancing Technology (Baseline and the I-10)
when: November 20-21, 2010 (tentatively 8:30am to 3pm)
who: New media innovators, enthusiasts, participants, and newbies who are interested the role of the internet in interactive communication.
why: It’s two crazy cool days of learning, sharing, and people meeting. And Phoenix metro is gorgeous in November.
how much: FREE
Here’s that registration link.
