"There are so many ways that obesity can kill you."

This is kind of scary.

I'm an Ash Tree

My friend Troy from EFNet's #starwars! (ah, the good old days of sitting around resenting the elitists in #starwars...) sent me an interesting email about what tree you are based on your birthday. Here's mine:

May 25 to Jun 03: Ash Tree (the Ambition)
Extremely attractive, vivacious, impulsive, demanding, does not care for criticism, ambitious, intelligent, talented, likes to play with fate, can be very egotistic, reliable, restless lover, sometimes money rules over the heart, demands attention, needs love and much emotional support.

This is supposedly based in Celtic mythology. If any of you want to know what tree you are, just post your birthday below :) (Ha! I've found a good way to get more people to post! Ahahahahaha!)

Unappreciated, or misunderstood?

Lately I've felt as though my contributions, to friendships and to online communities, have been written off or ignored. To a person with an ego like mine, this is highly distressing. I have worked hard in most of these cases to help out as best I could, but either the people involved don't care, don't like what I'm saying, or don't realize that my framework allowed others to draw the conclusions that ultimately helped them. Some of these are personal friendships and some of these are more professional things, but they all affect me the same way. I feel devalued by these people's avoidance of or missing of the point...especially when the credit for a final decision winds up going to someone else, or to the person who needed the help to begin with.

I realize that I shouldn't do things with the goal of receiving acclaim or thanks, but knowing that doesn't make it any easier not to think that way. I get quite a bit of positive feedback at work, so maybe I feel that I should receive adulation from everyone. I don't know.

All I do know is that it's been bothering me. At first I thought it was just a problem with dealing with other women; having a good friendship with a girl is about the most impossible thing in the world. (If you're a guy, it's a lot easier, as far as I can tell, to befriend a girl.) I think girls keep internal score cards and expectations that are impossible to predict and live up to, and while guys can usually get over this and not care whether or not they fit the mold, other girls have more trouble with this. I personally go back and forth between wanting to please the girl and being annoyed that she wants me to change who I am.

So it would be understandable if it was just girls I was having trouble with. But today a guy misinterpreted me (apparently) and also didn't take everything I said into account in his response. I understand that he's busy, but I almost would have preferred that he not respond at all, if he was going to give so little thought to my input.

I want to be respected, seen as someone whose advice is useful and good. But all I've seen lately is people ignoring or misinterpreting what I say. I think I'm intelligent and have good thoughts...I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong in presenting them to others.

Maybe I'm doing the girl thing and having unrealistic expectations...

Apparently I'm way too long-winded for Blogger's new "About Me" profile section

I wrote a nice big autobiographical piece for my Blogger profile, but when I try to include it in the update, I get an error. Until the issue is resolved, I'm going to go ahead and post it here. Enjoy!

I love talking about myself, and tonight I seem to be in the mood to ramble, so I hope you have some time.

My name is Heather Aubrey Meadows. I have two younger brothers, AJ and Ben, and a mom and dad. My brother AJ is married to a wonderful woman named Faye, and they have two sons, Connor and Logan. Ben is engaged to a great girl named Manda.

I was born and raised in Nicholasville, Kentucky, and until I was 7 I lived on a street called Lois Lane towards the outskirts of town. As a fan of Superman, this street name delighted me. While I lived there I went to private school at Lexington Christian School, which later became Lexington Christian Academy. I grew up using an Apple II e computer, playing games and typing and eventually writing my own BASIC programs.

Sometime around second grade, my parents moved us to a house in Nicholasville proper, and in third grade I started going to public school. I had always been a shy person, but the realization that these new people were unfriendly and superficial (at least, that was my impression) made me more reclusive than ever. By the time middle school came around--I attended East Jessamine County Middle--I was something of a freak, wearing sweat pants, T-shirts, men's belts with huge buckles, and a brown trench coat. My hair was always back in a messy ponytail and I wore huge, red-rimmed glasses. Annoyed at how no one seemed to understand me or even want to, I began literally talking to walls, which really did my social life no good whatsoever.

Meanwhile, my dad invented a tool for electricians, which he began selling out of our house. We had to learn how to run a mail-order business essentially from scratch. Back in the beginning, before we had the parts extruded, I would cut them from a long bar of aluminum using Dad's band saw. I'd then drill holes in them with the drill press and sand down the edges. We took orders through the mail and over the phone, and we stored customer information on 3X5 index cards until we finally, around 1993 or so, got a modern computer. I discovered "chatting" at the age of 15 on BBSes, and I engaged in all kinds of interesting and intelligent conversations there.

Come high school, I joined a kung fu class and started to try to make myself normal. If in middle school I thought I was superior to all others, in high school I strongly believed the opposite. I felt that I had stunted my own emotional development and that now I was a worm beneath everyone else's feet. It was during this time that I developed my first real crush, a crush that lasted for years, on a guy one grade above me. He was in my kung fu class and I was highly impressed by his determination and abilities--not to mention the fact that I thought he looked like Luke Skywalker. Nothing came of this crush, of course, and the angst made it difficult for me to properly pursue normal friendships.

My junior year of high school was probably the best. I sometimes wish that I'd graduated early, to end it on a high note. I was a member of several clubs, I was physically fit, I had good friends, and I went to Florida that year for spring break, which was amazing and fun. That summer I attended the Governor's Scholars Program, which I look back on as one of the greatest experiences of my life. I met a guy who will probably be a lifelong friend, Matt Gunterman, and I learned a lot about the world outside of high school. This made me itch to go to college.
Senior year was very depressing by comparison: I'd lost the election for BETA president, I'd quit kung fu and gained quite a bit of weight, I suddenly realized that I really didn't have any friends--lots of people had moved away, and my regular group was all closer to each other than they were to me--and I was also very slow in applying to college, with at least one teacher telling me that I had made the wrong career decision. (He was right, but I'll get to that later.) Plus, GSP had shown me how cool college life was going to be (or so I assumed), and I was bored with the high school dynamic.

Needless to say, I was very happy to get out of high school. In the fall of 1996, I packed up and moved to Huntsville, Alabama to learn to be a mechanical engineer. The idea of pursuing this profession had come to me after a friend's little sister informed me that astronauts had to have 20/20 vision. Indeed, I had been toying with the idea of becoming an astronaut. The new knowledge devastated me, but I decided--in typical martyr fashion--that if I couldn't be an astronaut, I'd be the next best thing and design the ships astronauts flew in. This decision had absolutely nothing to do with whether or not I would actually like mechanical engineering.

It turned out that while the general principles were interesting, I was very bored by the specific details. I slacked off in class, missed tests, and failed/withdrew from some courses while getting Ds and Cs in others. I did manage an A in physics lab, but I already knew at that point that I'd chosen the wrong path.

It was during this first year of college that I did something pretty horrible, even though at the time I thought I was somehow justified. During the first hall meeting, my roommate and I met a guy who lived across the hall (yes, co-ed floors; can you believe it? We lived in four person suites with two bathrooms apiece, too. UAH had it good). This guy ended up dating my roommate, but over time it came out that he'd originally wanted to date me instead. As time passed and he began seeking me out more and more as a means to "escape" my roommate's temper and perceived selfishness, I found myself wanting to date him as well. By the end of the first semester, it was decided that he'd break up with her and go out with me after my roommate had a chance to move out.

(This rather clinical description is as far as I'm going to go in this profile, but bear in mind that it was far more messy than that.)

The next semester saw me enjoying myself, wasting all of his money and treating him like crap--because he let me. I'd tell him to do something and he'd do it. He wouldn't change his opinions for me--he was a staunch atheist and Democrat--but pretty much anything else went. The most telling aspect of our relationship is the fact that while I was satisfied sexually, he was not, and I didn't want to satisfy him.

I broke up with him twice during that semester. I felt like I was leading him on, that since I knew I didn't really love him I should set him free. But he always wanted me back, always slipped into such great depression that I felt that maybe I should be with him, should try to help him, should try to love him. It didn't work. I've come to realize that you can't be in love with someone you pity. (Sympathy is another matter entirely, though.)

Over the summer I tried to break up with him again, only to say I'd take him back...but by that time he'd had enough, and he broke it off with me. I have to say that that moment was the most bittersweet of our entire relationship. He was standing up for himself and doing what I wasn't strong enough to do, which automatically made him infinitely more attractive, but at the same time I felt an inordinate sense of freedom. I felt that I could live again, that my mistake was finally over.

My behavior was inexcusable, and I am ashamed of how I treated both my boyfriend and my roommate. My roommate has since graciously forgiven me, and we saw each other once when she came into Lexington for a family wedding. I have no idea what happened to my ex; he seems to have dropped off the face of the Internet.

I considered my first year of college to be a dismal failure at the time, although now I look back on it as a learning experience. In any event, I dropped out of UAH and made no immediate plans to return to school. I had no purpose, no direction, and then no boyfriend...so I started fresh, got my first real job--at Willis Music in Lexington Green mall--and bought my first car.

I'd only been working for a few months when I was diagnosed with biphenaltypic leukemia and admitted into the University of Kentucky's Markey Cancer Center. From September of 1997 until April of 1998 I lived on the third floor of Markey, only occasionally being allowed to go home for visits. I underwent three rounds of chemotherapy and a bone marrow transplant, and I of course lost all my hair. I also had a catheter implanted in my chest, which left a round scar the size of a dime between my breasts, and due to abdominal pain during treatments I also had an exploratory procedure that left a six inch scar across my stomach. As I was immuno-suppressed, this wound didn't heal for months.

While I was in the hospital, I got online quite a bit--my mom brought my computer in and I used my hospital room's telephone to log on during the evening. Typically I stayed awake all night, met with the docs in the morning, and then went to sleep. During this time, I learned how to make webpages in Microsoft Word. (Yes, I know; you can stop writhing in agony at any time.) I also chatted quite a bit on IRC and ICQ.

Despite being able to get online and play around, I was still very much tired of being cooped up and having my life on hold. Once I was free to go, I immediately registered for classes at UK, signing up for whatever sounded remotely interesting. I ran into my old high school crush at orientation that summer, and was highly embarrassed to have him see me bald. It's strange how strong feelings like that can come back years later...but obviously, nothing came of seeing him again.

1998 was a highly eventful year, apparently, because that was also when I started growing closer and closer to a guy I met through a Robotech chatroom. I'll spoil any possible suspense and let you know right now that I am currently married to that guy.

We first met in person in the summer of 1999, when I drove down to visit him in Augusta, Georgia for two weeks. In many ways that trip felt foreign and strange, and in many other ways it felt like coming home. We knew each other so well online, but being in person really added to the breadth of knowledge. Facets that I hadn't had to consider before were now large factors. It was an intriguing shift from an "online relationship" into a "long distance relationship".

We managed to stay together, long distance, while I finished college. I considered transferring to a college closer to him, but ultimately I decided that I didn't really want to take all the core classes over, so I'd best stick it out. Plus, after 13 months of working full time I quit my job to pay more attention to my studies, so I couldn't have really afforded to move out of my parents' house anyway. I stayed in Kentucky until I finally graduated in fall of 2002. (During this time I traded my old car, a 1993 Ford Taurus, for a 1998 Ford Escort. I loved that car, and drove it until I unfortunately totaled it in an accident on my way home from a trip to see Sean. After that I had no car payments, due to the fact that I inherited my grandfather's 1986 Subaru GL hatchback, so I was able to quit my job at GRW Aerial Surveys, which was data entry that had already gotten boring, and did so without much remorse.)

After taking several different courses in things that sounded interesting, I ended up majoring in Linguistics and minoring in Japan Studies, and towards the end of my college career I tacked on a major in English because I had more than enough credits. I really stumbled into Linguistics and Japan Studies randomly; I'd taken courses because they sounded like fun and I ended up loving it all. I wasn't sure what I would do with my degrees, but I felt that doing linguistics or something involving Japan--or, preferably, both--would make me happy.

On January 2, 2003, my whole family drove down to Augusta to help me move into a beautiful apartment and to celebrate my wedding. On January 4, 2003, Sean and I were married in a small ceremony at Augusta Golf and Gardens, where multiple pictures were taken, and then we enjoyed a reception at the apartment clubhouse before my family left to return to Kentucky and Sean and I finally began our new lives as husband and wife.

The first year was a big transition for me; living away from my family was very difficult, more difficult than I remembered it being from Huntsville. This was largely due to the fact that I didn't have a job or anything else to really do during the day once the apartment was settled. I made frequent trips to Kentucky and felt very cut off and alone.

Towards the end of 2003, I received a data entry job offer from a good friend of ours, a former boss of Sean's. I took it. From these extraordinarily humble beginnings, I worked my way up to the business manager position at the company, 2go-Box, a local restaurant marketing firm (and now, a delivery service). My background working with my parents' business, plus my natural sense for organization and customer service, have really helped me to blossom in the new position. I work closely with the president and salesperson, Robert, and am planning on starting my own business one day.

Due to the cancer treatments, it seems that I am unable to have children. This has been a blight on an otherwise very happy existence. I still fall into depression about it. On the plus side, being over five years in remission means that it's extraordinarily unlikely that my cancer will return.

In 2004 I became closer friends with some great people who live in and around North Augusta. If I had to make an analogy, I'd say that North Augusta is a lot like Nicholasville, while Augusta would be Lexington, and the area where Sean and I currently live (to the west of Augusta) is something like the Richmond Road/Man O War side of Lexington. Essentially, Sean and I are on a growing, developing, prospering side of town with lots of popular stores (the Augusta Exchange is just down the road) and restaurants. North Augusta is growing, too, but the sheer distance from our side of town, plus the fact that it's in South Carolina, makes it feel a little different. It's not on the cutting edge of growth, though I imagine it will get there someday; instead, it just feels like a really nice place. I've been thinking very seriously that it would be nice to buy a house there and really settle down. This is a far cry from my depression of 2003, during which I wanted to run home to Kentucky at the soonest possibility. I'm finally fitting in, making friends, forming routines, and doing a job I love. I finally feel like I'm home.

Okay, wow...

Blogger has just added a crapload of new features, including comments. Their comments feature appears to be far more robust than the Blogkomm thingy I've been using; I can turn comments on and off individual posts, I can limit comment posting to a specific group of people... Wow.

Blogger will also let me archive individual posts on their own pages along with their comments, which is what I was trying to do by archiving by day (which obviously doesn't work if I post more than once a day). Plus, all Blogger templates are standards-compliant and machine readable, written in CSS, so that means I can look at the code of their new templates to see what I can do to make my site compliant too.

Essentially they've gone through and added almost everything I could want. (One feature that I would like that isn't present is a means to truncate posts on the front page and only show a certain amount of characters, so more posts could go on one page, and so the reader could immediately tell if he/she has already read the post and see how many comments there are without having to scroll past huge, robust diatribes filled with gargantuan paragraphs. I'd also like an easy way to post photos, but you know, I'm just amazed at what they've done already, and I don't really have the webspace for a photoblog anyway.)

So yeah, this is pretty impressive. I had logged in to write a story about "my first date", but the new Blogger look totally derailed me. I'll probably come back to that post later after I mess around in here a little.

Ben's Game

This has got to be one of the coolest things I've ever seen. Children are awesome.

"The fast pace of modern life is stretching our Stone Age brains to the limit."

This is a fascinating article on how the limits of our short-term visual memory. I think that the idea that "limits on visual memory are related to limits on the number of items we can attend to at once" holds a lot of water. I've noticed that when I'm being inundated with information--such as articles on my Bloglines--I tend to feel like I'm overloading, often to the point that I scroll past things without looking at them, or even unsubscribe to something that is giving me too much to take in. Likewise, while I'm focused on a writing task, I have a hard time paying attention to anything else, including the music I'm playing in the background. The song could be running over and over for hours, and I wouldn't realize it. Sean has tried to talk to me while I was writing (or reading), only to have me bark, "I'm busy!"

Less cognitive-intensive things, like making printouts, mailing packages, and sorting items are easier on my brain, so I can usually do two or three of those at once while listening to my boss explain something else. However, even then I sometimes have to ask him to repeat himself.

This limit on our conscious attention actually seems to be a fundamental behind a book Robert loaned me, Getting Things Gone by David Allen. Allen posits that having no plans or routines for dealing with multiple tasks causes them to pester us via our subconscious mind. His organizational system hinges on setting up areas in which to file work items so that we don't have to think about them until it's time to...thus freeing our minds to think about what we need to at the moment.

I don't know if this is something we can, or even necessarily should, evolve out of. It seems to me that noticing what is important and then acting on that knowledge is a necessary part of life. Perhaps this is our brains simply being efficient. If we don't need to see or know something, our subconscious minds may simply be ignoring those things in favor of what our conscious minds are dealing with. Would it really be better for the subconscious to stop doing this, and to allow the conscious mind to process everything? I'm not sure that it would be as easy to focus if that were the case--this might even have something to do with people having short attention spans/ADD.

Pretty interesting stuff.

Well, I didn't fall on my face.

My butt was pretty damn sore, though. I always forget about bicycle seats. They are truly the tool of Satan.

Just watched Star Trek: Nemesis for the first time. It was pretty good. It was actually a movie, instead of a two hour episode. You'd think that I could quantify why, given that I took two whole film courses in college. But I'm not entirely sure what the difference is, although I do think that in general the following factors had an effect: there were more things going on than you'd usually have in a two hour episode, a lot of stuff happened very quickly, and a main character died. There was the typical beginning with the group assembled like family again, but it didn't go on monotonously forever, and all of a sudden we were thrown into the action. I think that definitely changes the experience.

There were also several emotional things going on at once, including Deanna's mental rape experience, that were not plunged into and explored laboriously as they might be in an episode. I suppose the following comparison can be made: episodes are like chapters in a book, while movies are like short stories.

I dreamed about adoption last night, I guess. There was an alcoholic man who was trying desperately to give away his son. The boy was a real cutie, with spiked blond hair, and I guess he was around Connor's age. (Didn't look a thing like Connor, though.) I took the boy and we got along famously. It was just weird. I explained it in the dream to some skeptics with a speech about how I understood why the alcoholic had to give up his child, and why that made me feel that I should take him. The rest of the dream was me carrying the boy around and talking with him. He was really sharp. We discussed all kinds of things, which of course I can't remember now. Dreams are silly like that...I don't even know what the boy's name was.

Then today when I was leaving Publix I saw a woman and a cute little toddler, and I almost started crying. I winced and grimaced and told myself to stop letting it affect me. Because that's really what it is. I'm allowing myself to be in pain.

Lately I've been thinking that I would really like to buy a house in North Augusta, to be near my friends and to start a more "mature" part of my life, but today I started wondering if getting a house would be too painful without children in it, or if I'm thinking of a house as a substitute for a child. I don't know. I feel like I want to do things that pretty much require a house, like garden, and have a guest bedroom, and have cookouts, but at the same time I wonder if I'll feel weird about it knowing that there won't be any little ones to fill the larger space. Maybe I'm just leading myself towards more pain.

I don't even feel like I'm expressing this coherently. There's so much in my head that refuses to come out. I guess...I just want to know. For sure. And once I do know...I want to make some sort of plan.

I always try to tie things up tidily and explain them away. So there you go, emotions; get over yourselves. I am so incoherent right now it's not even funny, and the more I write, the less sense I make. I need to just stop writing now.

More on obesity

I have been thinking more about the "obesity isn't unhealthy" argument that I linked to in a previous post, and I don't know...it just seems like bullshit. Maybe the idea that obesity is bad is too far ingrained for me to have an objective opinion...but I don't know. I tend to think that things that have historical precedent have stronger arguments. We come from a line of hunter-gatherers who ate natural foods. They weren't necessarily rail-thin or bodybuilders, but they weren't fat, either, in general.

That was one of the things I wondered about from that article--it said that an overweight person who worked out could be more healthy than a thin person who didn't. That's certainly true...but how many overweight people do you know who work out regularly? The ones I know who do have lost and are currently losing weight, so I hardly think they count.

The argument seemed to be that being fat is natural for many people, and therefore there shouldn't be a stigma. I can agree that overweight people shouldn't be stigmatized, but I'm not sure that the proliferation of obesity these days is "natural". Something is causing it; and just because something is caused to happen doesn't mean that that is the natural order of things. It is one of humanity's responsibilities as thinking beings to evaluate how we affect the world and how the world affects us, and to try to correct damaging behavior.

Today I got an interesting motivational mailing about fitness and obesity from Leanne Ely, an associate of FlyLady. I think the FlyLady policy is that I can quote the emails in order to spread the word about the system, I just can't archive emails for people to get elsewhere...so I hope it's okay that I'm quoting this part:

We do ourselves no favors when we eat stuff that merely puts volume into a space that requires nutrition. I believe one of the reasons obesity levels have hit such highs with children is because they can't get the nutrition they need--they keep eating because their bodies are screaming for real food! When your body wants and craves nutrition, until it gets it, you'll want to keep eating. Have you ever noticed how junk food just doesn't satisfy? That's why--it's not real and you need real food to fuel your "engine"--all stuff you can pronounce, not the chemicals, colorings and additives that are so prevalent in junk food.

Ms. Ely is a nutritional therapist, so it's not like she's some housewife who just came up with an idea...but it does ring of common sense, doesn't it?

(I know that sometimes my body screams out for chocolate, but I don't think that invalidates the theory.)

Right now I'm home for lunch, eating some leftovers. I suppose that's mildly healthier than going for fast food...although part of this is meatloaf :> After work today I'm going biking with Mari and Kelly (and maybe Brooke; haven't seen her to ask if she's coming). I'm really looking forward to it. I haven't been on a bike since 1997! Time to see if the phrase "it's just like riding a bicycle" is a viable simile.

Hmm, hope I don't fall on my face.

Blood everywhere

I dreamed last night that I saw blood on my underwear when I went to the bathroom. I had already cleaned up and left the bathroom before I realized that I might be having my period--for the first time in five years. Terrified that I was raising false hopes yet again, I was about to check...but then I started seeing blood everywhere. It was spraying all over everything in a fine mist. Even though I realized that this new blood was coming from somewhere else, I still felt that maybe I was having my period too. I never got a true confirmation.

Stupid dreams.

Looks like the Nigerians have moved to Europe!

Check out this email I just got:

INFOEUREKO INTERNATIONAL LOTTERY AND PROMOTIONS.
EGASTRAAT 254,
AMSTERDAM,
THE NETHERLANDS.
FROM: THE DESK OF THE MANAGING DIRECTOR
INTERNATIONAL PROMOTION/PRIZE AWARD DEPT,
SCFN: GWK/5333/025648/03UAD.
BATCH: 241/2002/BLL.
ATTN: CEO,
We are pleased to inform you of the release today the 3th of APRIL, 2004 of the INFOEUREKO INTERNATIONAL LOTTERY/PROMOTIONS, NETHERLANDS held on the 19th of APRIL, 2004. Your e-mail address attached to the ticket numbers 1001-58255563-2285 with serial number 8888/03 drew from the lucky numbers 02-22-00-66-99-85-52-12-36-50, which consequently won the lottery in the FIRST category. You have therefore been approved for a lump sum pay out of ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY THOUSAND EURO ?120,000.00)in cash credited to security file number GWK/5333/025648/03UAD.This is from a total cash prize of ?3 million share among four individuals and Six international companies lucky winners in this category. CONGRATULATIONS.
Your funds is now deposited with our Payment/Finance Department in the security company to your name ,Due to the mixed up of some numbers and names, we ask that you keep this winning a top secret from the public notice until your claims has been processed and remitted to your account as this is apart of the security protocol, to avoid double claiming or unwarranted taking advantage of this program by participants. All participants were selected through a computer ballot system drawn from the 100,000 company/individual email addresses from all over the world as part of our international promotions program, which we conduct every decade. We hope with a part of winnings ,you will take part in our end of year stake ?20million international lottery. To file for your claim and your winning certificate to enable our fiduciary agent to transfer your winning sum in to your bank account, please contact our fiduciary agent. be sure you call or by email.
------------------------------------------------------
ADENT
-----
SECURITY COMPANY SERVICES
TEL: +31-642-680-688
E-mail:scs@starspath.com
E-mail:euscs@netscape.net
MR.D.ADAM.
( Director of payment )
------------------------------------------------------
For processing and remittance of your cash to a designated account of your choice. remember,all
winnings must be claim not later than MAY 14th 2004, After this date,All unclamps funds will be returned to the promotion company. NOTE: In order to avoid unnecessary delays and complications, please remember to quote your security credited file number and batch numbers respectively in every correspondence with our fiduciary agent. Furthermore, should there be any change of your address, do inform our fiduciary agent as soon as possible. Congratulations once again from all members of our staff and thank you for being part of our promotions program and publication.
Yours sincerely,
MRS.ROSEWISA KATS,
FOR MR. CLIFF BROWN.
(promotion manager).

I'm about to die laughing. If people actually fall for this...well, I don't want to say they deserve to have all their money taken away, but they pretty much do, don't they?

(I especially like how the scammer says I should keep my lottery winning a secret. Clever.)

Well, DUH!!!

Today's Captain Obvious, from this article:

A spokeswoman for the Royal College of Surgeons of England told BBC News Online: 'Operations should be carried out so that does not happen.'

There's one brilliant lady.

On the funny side, I came across the article through Metafilter...and the title of their entry on the subject was "Tetsuo!!!" :D

My birthday's coming up...

...so if anyone's interested in buying me stuff, I've updated my Amazon Wish List.

I'm so terrible ;P But really, this is the most efficient way of letting people know what I want. If you're going to buy me something, please buy from the "would love to have" or "must have" categories (just sort the list by priority).

Yes, my highest priorities are: 1) Japanese language; 2) the Friends television series! ;P

I really want those Pimsleur CDs. From what I can tell, they are the best on the market. It's possible to find them used...

...aaaaaaand it's time to go to work. Buhbye!

Reminiscing

I've been working on the Macross 2051 website this weekend, adding and updating content. When I got to planet Tir-Na-nOg, I decided to revisit some old posts: specifically, my first-ever GM position, running the D.I.R.E. Wolves for the Arcadia Task Force.

There's a lot of great stuff there, IC and OOC. So I thought I'd share a bit:

By Q-GM Illusion on Wednesday, June 28, 2000 - 02:27 am:
OOC: Sero, you are onboard the Falcon, the stealth ship the DIRE use for subtle little infiltration operations like this one. Everyone posting on the thread is also in the Falcon. You are in the back section with the rest of the team, and Rollins, Cormann, Jade, and Ikaru are up front. Jade and Ikaru are piloting. I wish you would read the thread more carefully before asking questions, because I'm pretty sure all your questions are answered in the roleplay.

By Nexx on Wednesday, June 28, 2000 - 09:54 am:
OOC: Come on Illusion. Dont let it get to you or your heart will expload like a baked potato.

By Q-GM Illusion on Wednesday, June 28, 2000 - 05:54 pm:
OOC: My heart exploded years ago, leaving nothing but a hard, crusty shell in its place...devoid of feeling, of caring, of emotion...perfect for being an EVIL GM!!!!!!!

Err, sorry...I think I was channelling someone else just then. ^^

The problem of people not reading what was on the board was not limited to Private Hirimoto. I learned that soon enough.

I also learned that people tend to disappear for long periods, only to either 1) reappear later; 2) never come back and never tell you they're not coming back. One such case was Aricelle Santos. He hadn't been posting for awhile, so I decided to do this:

The forest floor had so far seemed quite firm, so it was quite surprising when Santos took his next step and his foot suddenly sunk into the ground. There had been no indication of any sinkholes or underground burrowings, he mused, even as he lost his balance and fell face-first.

Unfortunately the spot he had chosen to fall on had previously served as a rest area for some passing forest creature. A large forest creature.

With a sickening squish, Santos' upper body landed right in a huge pile of putrid dung. The feces smeared itself across the front of his power armor and some of it squeezed into Santos' open helmet. He'd be smelling this lovely aroma for quite some time.

As an added bonus, the fall had twisted his ankle.

Santos never posted again.

I had to wrap that scenario up too quickly at the end, with one of those annoying fast-forward posts that take the actions away from the players. I'm actually not sure if I've ever completed a scenario without having to do that.

My NPC, Captain Roger Cormann, was a fun character. Rereading the thread made me want to play him again. I suppose, if I ever go back to playing on the AMRN, I could pull an Alias and say that he was given a drug to feign death so that the Guild could steal him away for their own evil purposes. And then brainwash him. Or something. I don't know. You can get away with a lot in science fiction!

As a final note, I'd like to include this snippet, without context (because it's more fun that way) from my favorite character in that scenario, Anthony Patrick Jameson:

Anthony got himself to his knees and started undoing what was left of the lower part of his fatigues. "No, I'm not tha' shy sar. Jus' don't go around telling the rest o' tha Wolves about me underwears."

Mailing list feature added. Stroke my ego and sign up!

Some people mentioned to me that they forget to check my site because it's not on a huge portal for blogs and they don't get my posts in their email. Well, now those people can sign up to my Yahoo! Group and receive each and every post, complete with horribly huge and annoying banner ad!

I took the opportunity with this update to shift my About and Links sections into separate .js files. Now when I want to add a link or change some information, I can just edit those files instead of republishing the entire freaking blog. Why I didn't do this to begin with is still beyond me. I have teh best hindsight evar.