Category: all about me

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a bit of freelisting on Monday

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Well, I have thoughts running through my head this morning, but none of them that I could elaborate a whole post on, so I figured a free list would be a great idea! Let’s get started.

  • After a great weekend spending time with my friend, and attending her great wedding, I had to wait almost 5 hours in the airport because of delays. Boo to that. Either way, the weekend was a blast. It is funny how reconnecting with old friends can be such an amazing time. I’m glad her wedding went so well (even though it was rained out, and we couldn’t have it on the beach), and I fully expect her to be at mine… that is, if we ever have one *james… hint hint*.
  • Tattoo news: I am going to go and get a Sparrow tattoo this weekend, if all works out accordingly. Where should I get it?? I am seriously torn. I also might sign up for a consultation on another half sleeve… I want a phoenix and a Ganesha… stay tuned!
  • The Vampire Weekend CD is great. It gets better with each listen. Seriously, check it out.
  • After hearing the lead single from Death Cab for Cutie’s new record, I am a little worried. I hope that I like it as much as I love their previous work…
  • While at my friend’s wedding this weekend, I met some of her friends which are Atlanta locals. They had a really cool point and shoot that they actually got for the lucky married couple as a gift as well. After playing with their camera, I think that I am going to go and get it… today. It isn’t “better” than mine, it is just more of what I want. So what does that mean??? Well, that means that my perfectly fine 6MP Panasonic FX-01 is for sale, if someone wants it. It is a great camera, and I would be willing to part with it for $100 (much less than I paid for it). I will also throw in a 256MB memory card for free!! (hey, it isn’t much, but it’s something). Anyone interested? I have the box and all the stuff it came with. Let me know.
  • I wish that I were independently wealthy (big surprise), so that I could go on a real vacation. I went to drop my friend and her new husband off for their cruise before hitting the airport, and I now REALLY REALLY want to go on a cruise myself. I think that James and I may have to do that sometime in the near future.
  • This makes me really, really sad. Seriously, enough is enough. Bring them home. I support each and every troop that has been, that is there, and that will go overseas for us; I just want them home safe, and soon.
  • I had to be the respondent to test an interview instrument today, and I was reminded how interesting our jobs must seem to the outside… I mean, we talk about explicit sex for work!!! It certainly makes you at least smile!
  • Is it bad that Zombie Jesus, or the thought thereof makes me giggle? I mean, he kind of was a zombie, wasn’t he?? Maybe that’s blasphemous, but whatever. Did everyone have a great Easter?? I didn’t really do anything to celebrate; in fact, I had brunch with about 15 Jewish people (my friend’s husband is Jewish), so I guess I REALLY didn’t do anything for Easter.
  • Apparently, I look better with weight on me. At least, that is what everyone in my friend’s family said, after having not seen me for a few years. While it is nice to hear, I still can’t help but feel a little fat.
  • I guess that’s it for me… but what’s going on in your world??? Anything you want to talk about? It’s Monday, so I am sure that there are plenty other bored folks out there… am I right?

all about me, happenings, show the love, that is so gay

wedding shopping list

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One of my best friends is getting married this weekend, and I am in the bridal party. Here’s the breakdown of monies that I have spent thus far:

  • 2 nights hotel stay: $286.20
  • Flight to and from Ft. Lauderdale: $293
  • 3-button black suit, 100% wool: $99.99
  • Cuffs for the pants: $12
  • Shoes: $49.99
  • Belt: $14.99
  • Shirt: $21.99
  • Total: $778.16

    • (wow, I didn’t realize it was so much!)

Being in one of your best friend’s wedding, even though you can’t get married: Priceless. Don’t get me wrong, I am not bitter, it is just an observation, seriously. I am so happy that I get to be in her wedding, and I love my friend to bits and pieces (she knows this), HOWEVER, I really wish that gay people could do it too. If not marriage, at least something where we could get the hoo and haw of being in a relationship for years, and having our commitment recognized. That’s all, really.

I am excited about this weekend, but I am nervous; I don’t know ANYONE other than my friend (the bride), and her soon to be husband. That should make things interesting to say the least!

all about me, hmm interesting, near and dear, the catch-all-egory, tragic

too close for comfort

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So they have released a “final report” on the path of the tornado… and it ended literally 400 or so feet from our house. Wow. I mean, it is just surreal, because on the street where it ended (which you can literally throw a rock at from my back porch), the damage is way worse than on our street. I am extremely thankful that it stopped when it did. I honestly can’t believe that it got so close!! Who knows what would have happened with that massive tree that took out our fence if the storm would have kept going! The thought alone is just pounding in my brain this morning.

I can’t imagine what Sydney must have been thinking as it came through, because we weren’t even at home. Poor little guy!! I am honestly glad that we weren’t home; I think that it would have been very, very scary to hear all of the madness. Again, I am just incredibly glad, and I feel amazingly lucky, that it ended where it did… 400 more feet and things may have ended very differently for us!

On a completely different topic, I was driving on the freeway recently, and I saw a man driving with one hand holding his cell phone to his ear, and the other hand plugging his other ear so that he could hear. He was driving on 85 with no hands. NO HANDS! Where are the fucking police to pull over people like this?? Every time I drive down the freeway, I have to constantly adjust my speed and I have to be on constant alert for freaks around me, because cell-phone-talkers are constantly slamming on brakes, and drifting into and out of your lane. Hey police… POLICE the freeway and stop these dangerous freaks! It isn’t normal to have a major wreck on every major freeway in Atlanta every day. Pass a law or something, but this madness has to stop!

all about me, happenings, home improvement, near and dear

ATL-nado 2008

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Wow.

It is midnight, and as I sit here writing this, I cannot even begin to express how amazingly lucky I feel. I have been looking at pictures of the devastation that occurred throughout Cabbagetown and some of the other areas near us in Atlanta, and I feel fucking blessed. I also want to make sure and say a huge and amazing thank you, for every text message, email, and phone call I got. It was really truly amazing to know so many people cared. Thank you so much.

storm damage
Well, here’s how it went down for us. Last night, we were over at Joey’s for a Smash Bros party, and around midnight, we got word that there were some pretty nasty storms going on downtown. The word tornado was even used. Coming from a place in NC where we have had MAJOR destruction from tornadoes in my life, I instantly got scared. I never thought it would happen here; why? I don’t know, but I just didn’t. Instantly, James and I felt the need to get home, and make sure everything and everyone (i.e., Sydney) were okay. Riding down the freeway was almost surreal; they had whole exits blocked off due to tornado damage… right at the heart of the city.

Finally, we got home, and a couple of our neighbors had called us to let us know that our house was okay, but that the fence behind our house didn’t fare so well. Basically, the storm took out two major trees in the back of our property, splitting them right at the ground, and sending them toppling over our fence, shed, and into our neighbor’s yard. The entire fence wasn’t taken out, but major chunks are going to need to be replaced. We had a little tin shed in the back yard that was full to the brim with our power tools and home improvement equipment, and as of right now, it looks like a crumpled up tin can. It was completely smashed. The funny thing, is that the new table saw that we bought to do the hardwoods took the brunt of the tree, and managed to save every thing shorter than it, including the much more expensive lawnmower, leaf blower, and weed eater. It might not be salvageable, but it definitely did its duty to protect its fellow shed-mates.

Early in the morning, we had a guy come out to remove the trees, and they chainsawed the hell out of that wood all day, managing to remove almost all of it. It is unreal how big that tree was, and even more unreal was how close it got to our house. It was literally within about 4 feet from the back of our house; which is where our bedroom is. There were also two shattered javelin-like off shoots from the tree that were hurled into the ground so deep that they couldn’t even pull one of them out. Those were much closer to the house, but still managed to miss us by a couple of feet.

For those wondering about the waverunner, for whatever reason, James decided yesterday that the place it was at (the right side of the shed) was getting poor grass growth because of the waverunner being there, and as such, he moved it to the left side, between the shed and the fence. Whatever made him do that completely saved the boat. It wasn’t even touched, with the tree landing totally on the shed and the spot where it had been sitting all of this time. That was some intense luck on his part!!

Other than the damage to our fence and shed, and the damage to our neighbor’s fences and their car (which was just the windsheild and hood), I have to say, that we got out of this thing amazingly lucky. A few houses down the street have trees right through the middle of their houses, and as I mentioned before, the devastation in Cabbagetown is just awful. My heart goes out to everyone that received damage in this storm. It was unexpected, and I just feel blessed that we got out with only a little damage. My car has a few dings in it from the golf ball sized hail from earlier today as well, but luckily I got some blankets on it before it really started coming down.

All in all, I have to say, thank God for our house being missed, and I am truly thankful that we are with power, and okay after these storms. It could have been a lot worse, and I am thankful that it wasn’t for us. Now… the process of rebuilding begins… we have an insurance person coming out this week; wish us luck!

Check out the photos on flickr.

all about me, mixed media, show the love

ready. set. BRAWL!

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You may or may not know this about me; I am a pretty big video game nerd. I have been playing video games for as long as I can remember, and still play to this day. I currently have the Wii, an Xbox 360, a DS lite, a PS2, and a working original NES to boot!! While games have come a long way, the basic principle behind them hasn’t (at least for me); it’s all about having fun.

For whatever reason, I have always been drawn to cartoon fighters, and as a kid, I can remember MANY Saturdays at the local Putt Putt Golf and Games, where I would play hour after hour of Street Fighter II (still one of the best fighters ever made, IMHO). My goal was to get as good as I could, so that I could compete and stand a chance against those other kids that were somehow magical at the game.

Well, times haven’t changed… this weekend saw the release of perhaps the most anticipated game for the Wii system; Super Smash Bros. Brawl. For those that are scratching their heads, wondering what I am talking about, Super Smash Bros. is a fighting franchise that was created by Nintendo, and utilizes their unique characters in hand to hand fighting combat, which pits favorites like Mario against other beloved characters.

The preceding game to Brawl, Super Smash Bros. Melee, was introduced to me by my friends, who have been addicts of the game for years, since it’s release on the Gamecube. Needless to say, they are far more advanced in skill than I possess for Smash Bros., but that doesn’t mean that I don’t enjoy playing against them. I see myself as that little kid again, standing there, watching the other kids dominate at Street Fighter II, waiting for my turn to unleash my skills against them. It took a long time, but I finally became one of those kids that could win every now and then; and so shall it be for Smash.

Since we got the game on Sunday, we have been playing like mad. It is cool too, because this is a game that James and I both enjoy, so we can play together. This weekend, one of our friends is having a Brawl get together at his house, and I have got to practice my skills all week, so that I will have a chance to win at some point during the night.

Overall, my impressions of the game, are that it exceeds all previous expectations that I had. While the Wii is not a high-definition gaming system, the graphics of Brawl are beautiful and very, very well crafted. I am definitely impressed. I am also very happy with the addition of the new characters, specifically Pit (Kid Icarus!!!!!!!!), as well as the Pokemon Trainer, who I am playing as well (currently, we haven’t unlocked Sonic, but I am eager, after playing as him at my friends’ house this weekend). I am glad that this game is finally out, and I am glad that we get to enjoy the game with our friends. Now… I can’t wait for Soul Calibur IV and Street Fighter IV to hit Xbox 360 later this year! It’s looking like a great year for fighting games!

all about me, home improvement

updates are interesting… aren’t they?

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It seems like everything and nothing happens these days in my life. There is waking up, driving to work, work, driving home from work, watching TV/passing time until bedtime, sleep, and then repeat. However, these past few weeks, we have been dealing with the house being in total upheaval over the floors in the office being replaced, and I have nearly broken my back to get things back in order.

First was installing the hardwood floors. This is something that is, in theory, easy to do. Easy to follow instructions, and relatively inexpensive if you do it yourself ($700 for a 12×10 room). Yet, the manual labor… whoa. It is on a level of it’s own. It isn’t enough that you have to hammer and things like that, but you have to be bent over unnaturally to do so. That just KILLS a back; and given my history with major back trauma, it has done me in.

To top all of that off, we decided, “hey, now is a good time to paint the office, since nothing is in there, right?”. So we painted two walls a chocolate brown, and the two other walls a baby blue-ish color. The result is an amazing looking room, if I do say so myself. I am in love with the results, but I hated the process.

As if that wasn’t enough, I also decided that it was the perfect time to build a new bookcase/shelving unit for our electronic components and video games. That was a chore too. But, like everything else, it is finished!! I am going to try and get some pictures up in the next little while, so check flickr for those. Aren’t home projects so much fun? Yeah… when they are DONE.

all about me, hmm interesting, is it just me?, listen up!, near and dear, public health

maybe mine aren’t working (?)

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I have talked about my continual battle with depression on this blog before, and today, I saw something that I felt compelled to discuss. First of all, I should mention, in case it isn’t “known”, that I take a SSRI for my depression. I have for a long time, and often times, I wonder if it even works, because I still find that I go through bouts of moderate to severe depression. Well, after reading this, I can’t help but wonder if the medication is actually “treating” the depression.

In the article, they discuss a study that was done to compare the “clinical effectiveness” of several SSRIs (mine is listed), in order to see if the benefit of the drug was more than a simple placebo. What’s interesting, is that they found that across the board for those drugs that they looked it, it wasn’t (except in cases of extreme depression). This makes me wonder about the drug that I take every morning to “prevent” my depression; especially since, as I mentioned, it hasn’t actually gone away at any time during the course of my “treatment”.

I am not saying that I don’t believe the drugs have any benefit. Even the placebo effect is proven to have a benefit, and that may account for some of these findings. However, I do think that it is easy to wonder, that if you take drugs to help with a problem, and the problem doesn’t seem to want to go away, then perhaps those drugs aren’t working for you. The article also mentioned that trying therapy first would probably be a new recommendation; but I did that, and still ended up taking medication, a medication that I am now even more curious about.

I know that the medication must have some benefits. I don’t have anxiety as intense as I did before I took (at least I don’t think that I do). I also know (through the magic of therapy), that my depression is more likely than not, tied to my anxiety. So, if the medication is working on the anxiety, but it doesn’t have an effect on the depression, what does that mean? Should I be taking a different class of medication to deal with the depression as well? Or, am I “better” than I was before, and I just don’t know it? Maybe the drugs are working, and I just don’t know the difference because I have been taking them so long? I find myself riddled with questions right now.

This is something that I think might be worth exploring further. I may make a doctor’s appointment to find out more about what may or may not be a better option for me.

One issues I do have, is that the article goes so far as to say that the medications “don’t work”, citing it is below clinical significance. That is to say, that just because it wasn’t statistically significant, they have proven that it doesn’t work; which really doesn’t make sense, if it did work on the minority of those “not-statistically-significant-so-forget-them” patients. This is where the cynic about clinical research in me steps in, because I always question its reliance on numbers, and a lack of perspective on the individual that may benefit… In the case of a drug that MAY benefit some that has very few side effects (for adults), why would they declare that it simply doesn’t work, just because it doesn’t work more often than not? Additionally, if it doesn’t work most of the time, why have they waited until now to tell people that are taking it?

What’s your take on this? If you take one of these medications, is this going to effect your future treatment? Does it concern you that your medication may not be doing what you need it to? What do you think?

all about me, happenings, home improvement

flooring update and plans

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So I mentioned it, but didn’t really elaborate on it, but our floors are now fixed. We have had issues with our floors since we bought this house, mostly due to crooked contractors and a not-so-truthful home inspector. Well, we had re-supported them in the past, but the office was just getting worse and worse, so we decided to rip up the floors and start from scratch.

This week, they came in, and built new joists in all of the affected rooms under the existing floor, but the office was so bad, that they had to literally start over. The floors were ripped out, and new joists were built and a new subfloor was laid. Needless to say, it has been a very stressful experience. What’s interesting, is just how bad the floor was… the joists that were holding up the floor were not even attached in some parts, and were literally a ticking time bomb; it was only a matter of time before someone fell through. I am glad that we took care of it sooner rather than later.

We have been talking about what kind of floor we want to do in the office, and James seems to think that we can put in hardwoods ourself, so reluctantly, I am going along for the ride. I am excited, however, that we are going to paint the office a new, more interesting color, and that we will be getting hardwoods in a room to add value to our house. Let’s hope that it is as “easy” to install as the directions indicate (seriously though, they make it sound easier that tile installation; which we have done successfully in the past).

I have been without my desktop since they tore out the floor in the office earlier this week, so I haven’t been able to get any of the pictures of the devastation up on flickr, but I am going to try and rectify that soon; since we we be having a subfloor and nothing else, I might as well set up my computer so I can use it.

Oh well… home renovation can be very stressful, but the end result is always welcome!!! Stay tuned for more updates, and hopefully, some pictures to see the progress!!! Wish us luck… and PATIENCE. We are going to need it!

all about me, is it just me?, tragic, venting

consider this…

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I was going to write a product praise post today, but I have decided to instead focus on a very important word: consideration.

It is a small word, but it has huge implications. In a relationship, a strong bond of communication and the continual use of consideration are paramount.

But consider this… small lapses in judgment that occur more often than not, that continually challenge your partner’s belief that you actually consider them. What do you want to do to make it better? Do you simply apologize, and hope that he can understand that you acted without thinking (again)? What if he doesn’t want an apology, because he knows that it will only be followed by future apologies?

I just wish that I was near the top of the list. I don’t have to be number one, but I do need to be on the list. I want to be considered, and more than just an after thought. I don’t mind mistakes, and I can handle a misstep here and there, but continually asserting that consideration is being utilized, while example after example of it being missing are being presented, just isn’t going to get better with a simple I’m sorry.

You actually have to want to change. I want to be more considerate, because I know that I am far from perfect myself; but I hope that you do too.

Why do relationships have to be so hard sometimes? If there are any solutions that are out there, I am all ears.