I Ain't Afraid of No Daleks

Just came back from Albany with my farm lady friend. I was glad to get to the cemetery again. My friend enjoyed it--it's about 400 acres of rolling hills and valleys sort of, with 100 to 200 year old trees and streams, etc., so it's as much a park as a cemetery, really.

We saw a great blue heron, and heard lots of other birds, but no deer around today. I forgot howm any relatives mum had buried in those 400 acres...whew...one dating back to the 1700's, and then---totally by chance---we drove by my mum's cousin's grave "uncle" Irving and "aunt" Doris's graves. I said "hi" to them...I always liked them, as a wee child, they were always very nice to me.

Took some doing to find mum's grave..and I am rather put out with the cemetery's staff, I must say/. They'd--since mum had passed on--blocked the road into the section she was in, and we had to hoof it down there--it's in a little vale alongside the Moordenaerskill stream, sandwiched between two hills....it was totally overgrown! It has not been mowed at all. I was shocked at conditions in the cemetery, actually. The cemetery had always been well maintained when I lived there--no mean feat, let me tell you...whoever the new superintenent of the cemetery is---he sucks at his job.

I will be e-mailing them a note, tomorrow, trust me on this! As it was, the plot was so overgrown with grass and weeds, that I almost missed the stone--and my great-aunt Orpha's stone is MISSING. It's gone! What the hell?? I thought it was merely hidden by the grass, but it's just plain gone...it wasn't very big, ao I cannot fathom how it could vanish like that.

I had to pull up the grass and weends by hand over mum's grave....getting a deep slice to my palm from a sharp blade of grass, in the process. It's going to hurt for a few dsys. I bought some potted violets and planted them at the family headstone. The grass is still too tall to see it, but at least I know it's there. Hopefully no one will come along and pull them up--some cheap arseholes have been known to do that.

We went to Ted's Fish Fry afterwards, and met the owner's grandson. I had my fish and chips with homemade coleslaw (we serve it with slaw over here, not mushy peas)--slices of haddock filet, hand breaded in a light cornmeal coating and fried, and my friend had the fried clams, served with hand breaded fried onion rings, and we both had coffee flavour milk shakes, with it.....nom-nom!!!

I took my friend on a tour of my hometown...some things had changed a lot, some things not at all, as is the way with most towns we grow up in, I guess.

There's a lot of emergency services activity today, though, more than what is usual. Before I left this morning, the lights went out--appraently there was a fire on the next street over that blue the electicity for our section of the street. On the way down, just off the motorway, we spied firemen putting out a car fire in a McDonald's car park, then, coming home, there was a brush fire--not good, as winds are really whipping around today, up to 40 miles per hour at times...then I overheard that there was a serious motorcycle-dump truck accident, as well----Americade motorcycle rally starts today, so, forgive the pun, but it seems to be starting off with a bang, this year.

I came home, and heard a muffled meow from the living room closet--poor Boots soemhow got into the closet in my lounge and got locked inside! He's been in there for the past 4 hours, poor dear! He's still a bit skittish, and I'm giving him extra attention...which he's eating up, the moocher. He hates being separated from me and/or the other cats.

I picked him up and cuddled the hell out of him, and that seemed to make him happy. He's such a timid sweet-natured soul, for such a big butch looking tom cat.

So, now I'm sitting here, drinking a Coke and trying to decide if I want to clean or take a nap--probably a bit of both, I guess.

OK, we went to war over rumours of WMD's--even tho' weapons inspectors were saying all along, that there probably were no WMD's....the fact that ALMOST ALL of the American population refused point blank to listen to be realistic and listen to these men and women, probably is the biggest indication why we aren't flag-waving our troops off to Korea at this very moment.

It was 9/11 and we needed a scapegoat. Just as the USA, shortly after WWII's Pearl Harbour attack, sanctioned penning up American born citizens of Japanese descent into concentration camps in California, Just as Americans illegally tried and condemned celebrities--whether guilty or innocent-- over communism in the 1950's, so, Americans once again chose to react instead of think, post-9/11.

We are not always a nation of courage. To say that, is to admit that you are naive, uneducated, and living in a bubble made of one-way glass.

That's not to say America and Americans have never shown courage--they have, time and time again---but....not 100% of the time.

There is no physical way that a missle from Iraq and consequently, Iran--if they had one--could ever reach the USA. However, a missle from North Korea can hit Alaska or Hawaii.

So, why aren't we pushing the troops out the door with a wave of a flag, and a yellow ribbon tied to our pick up truck radio antenna's, like we did with Iraq?

Why aren't we flying flags, and blaring 'God Bless America' from every radio and tannoy, and chanting 'USA-USA-USA,' like war is some kind of sporting match and the soldiers that fight and die for us, the equivilent of our favourite football team?

North Korea hasn't attacked us in fifty some-odd years. They don't have terrorissts, and...they dress more like us, than those of Arab descent, do.

And, we have an oppponant who actually HAS a well-eqipped army, who can fight us on our own terms! Whoa, that's not good, is it? You think a few thousand soldiers dying in Iraq is bad? Try a ten or 20 thousand deaths, if North Korea ever goes to war with us. THAT'S why we aren't rattling the saber with North Korea---it's harder to get Americans mad at them, and they are ten times more capable of fighting back, then the Iraqi's ever were.

Also, money--the cost of fighting on three fronts--Iraq, Afghanistan and North Korea, would do more than just bankrupt America---it would destroy us just as easily as a single nuclear bomb would.

The big day has come. I'm still a bit rubbish, slightly anemic, but going anyway. I can sleep in for a bit, tomorrow, if need be.

Someone e-mailed me my horoscope this morning. Yeah, like I'm gonna' buy into that. There's a storm coming in, and I have to hit the laundromat and be back before 11am, and I've been delayed here at home by the weather.

It's to be a cool day today, partly sunny with a few showers--yesterday was gorgeous, but I was too ill to appreciate it. Sod's law--finally get a Saturday off for a one-day holiday, and I'm too sick to appreciate it, LOL. Tonight we'll have widespread frost, as temps dip down to 1 to 3 C...but then they go up to 70 F, by the late afternoon, so it won't be too cool, tomorrow.

I think horoscopes are a bit rubbish, but here's what this one says, if anyone out there buys into this palaver....what a bunch of horse pucky!

What happens, happens. No such thing as destiny. And, just for the record, I no longer have any aims or goals--other than survival...and getting the hell out of this mangy apartment building, maybe...wouldn't mind finding a different job, but other than getting the sack, I don't see any "prospects" on my horizon...I don't have any wishes anymore, that part of me died a while ago...for me, it's going to be the same old poo, different day, for me, just as it's been for the last several years...."wish fulfillment" indeed--horoscopes are daft, arent' they?

No one would ever dream of describing a Scorpio as wishy-washy. You almost always know what you want, and the force of your will can be downright intimidating. But even though you're feeling firmly resolved about your plans and priorities as 2009 begins, Saturn in Virgo seems to have some radically different ideas about what you should be doing. And before the year is through, you're going to have made at least one surprising about-face and maybe even rerouted your life.

HIGH POINTS Public Life/Career: 8/14, 9/10. Love: 7/2, 11/22.

Tardisgurl's done went and sent me another meme. It the words of The Church Lady (Saturday Night Live character from the 80's)..."Well, isn't that SPECCCIALL?"

This one's not too bad...sort of.

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1) What stickers do you have on your car?

I don't have a car.

2) What posters do you have in your room?

Target Books poster from the 1980's with Tom Baker as Dr Who on it. A Metropolatin Musuem poster of a Tiffany stained glass window of a autumn woods scene with a waterfall.

3) Favorite knick-knack or other object in the room you are in?

You know, I have a room full of clutter, but I can't think of a favorite..as far as knick-knacks go, I suppose I like my large chalkware cowboy horse "Empty Saddle" statue, with a real leather saddle and bridle. The saddle has is unique--it has its own patent number, and is signed, "Denver, Colo." on it. It's supposed to be from the 1940's.

4) If you could drink anything right this second, what would it be?
Actually, I'm drinking lime flavour sparkling water, at the moment...and that's what I want to be drinking, so there ya' go.

5) Does anything hurt on your body right now?

Oh yes, my foot and left knee are aching abomidably at the moment...but, I'm used to it, not big deal. I just now took some Tylenol, so it'll be fine. I have a knee brace lying around here somewhere, if I need it tomorrow.

6) What are you planning on doing tomorrow?

I'm going down to Albany Rural Cemetery to visit my mum, and put some flowers on her grave...my friend and her grandson are coming along, and I'm going to show them the waterfall--you can walk over the top of the spillway (if it's not in flood), and come out in a charming glade by a stone bridge. And then I'm going to show them the giant goldfish (carp) in the cemetery pond...then were going to the local chippy, Ted's Fish Fry (Hoo-ray!) afterwards, for a fish and chip dinner and coffee flavour milk shakes for dessert. I'm hoping she won't ask to see the street I grew up...even after 25 years, I don't think I could emotionally handle it...it's hard going back to a place you loved with all your heart, knowing you can never live there again.

7) What's your job position called?

TSR--telemarketing services representative.

8) What size ring do you wear?

6...I think. I haven't owned or bought a ring, in a good many years...I had to sell the few I had...though I think I may have one or two cheap gimcrack one's lying in a drawer somewhere. Though I'm not really into jewelry, I'm very, very, very picky about rings...I don't care about diamonds or gold, it's the stone and design that attracts me.

9) Do you own a camera phone?

No, god, I can't even figure out voice mail or texting...and you want to add a phone into the mix...no thank you!

10) When's your birthday?

End of October, but I don't bother with it, any more. It's just another day to me.

11) What was your elementary schools mascot? School song?

Tigers. "We are the tigers, the mighty-mighty tigers, from ___, from ___, everywhere we go-oo, people want to know-o, who we are, so we tell them, we are the tigers, the mighty-mighty tigers..."

I can't believe I still remember that--and I wasn't even good at sports!

12) What's your favorite bottled water?

Oh puh-lease! You do know that about 90% of bottled water is all the SAME?

I suppose though, I should give a plug for Saratoga Water--my parents used to buy Saratoga Vichy and Saratoga Water when I was growing up. It's bottled just 15 miles away in a bottling plant near Saratoga Spa State Park, and the water is natural mineral water, from a spring, that when it flows south underground, supposedly runs literally right under the house I grew up in.

13) What's the next concert/show you're going to and when?

I have no idea. I went to a play last September. I heard a cheezy four-guy local band at Beemer's Pub a several weeks ago...concerts and shows where I live are generally too cost prohibitive.

14) What were you doing at 9 pm last night?

Telemarketing to bitchy people in Minnesota, Kansas, California, Idaho, Colorado, Wisconson, New Jersey, Vermont, Oklahoma, Hawaii, Alaska, Arkansas, Texas, Arizona, Tennesee, etc.

15) What's your favorite Starbucks drink?

I can't afford Starbucks, and it's not handy to me. There's several coffee shops downtown...but the local convienience store's coffee is just as good, quite frankly--Cumberland Farms shop sells my favourite: Green Mountain coffee, and Stewart's Shops sells Paul DeLima brand--a good quality resturant brand, which I aquired a taste for, when I was cooking for the Holiday Inn, in my early 20's.

16) Do you exercise as much as you should?

Not since my accident with my foot--walking with a painful foot is very tiring.

17) Did you attend your High School prom?

No. I was asked--but it was meant as a joke...it was mean, but I got over it pretty quickly.

18) Did you attend someone else's?

No. I've never been to a prom.

19) Would you give your bf/gf a second chance if they cheated on you?

I don't know. I've never dated anyone long enough to get that far.

20) Something red within 5 feet of you.

The label on the Tylenol bottle, the red coats of the foxhunters on my Spode china mug I use for a pen pot, the binding on some books: "Popular Quotations," "Grammar," "The Writer's Digest Guide to Manuscript Formats" (worthless twaddle, I don't know why I kept half my writing books from college)--also, "The Intelligent Eye," and the lighting's not great, and I am a little night blind, so I can't tell if the cover of "The Complete Works of Shakespeare" is red or brown.

21) Your last bag of chips?

Some cheap brand I got for a dollar at Family Dollar.

22) The weirdest thing you've seen this week?

Where I live? What haven't I seen that's weird? We had a parade Monday, and the horses were followed by a tractor with a loader to scoop the poo, and the driver was throwing wrapped candy to the kiddies along the parade route.

23) Ever done the Electric Slide?

Never heard of it...is that a dance?

24) How much French do you know?

Oui, No. Merci, Merci bocoup, BienVenue (welcome?), bon jour, bon soir, way lotel (phonetic-where is the hotel?) Way la bon resturant? (phonetic--where is a good restaurant?) alons-y, Sacre Bleu!

25) Sparkly things?

Not into sparkly too much. I own three pairs of clip-on earrings, half a dozen pins, three or four necklaces, one bracelet...maybe have 2 cheap rings lying about somewhere, and mum's old opal ring. I sold what "good" jewelry I had (except for two things) to help pay for mum's funeral.

26) Ever crash a car, been in accidents?

Yes.

27) Do you look good in yellow?

Usually, no, but I have a couple of yellow blouses i wear that I carry off OK.

28) Do you sing?

Not really. I will, if I HAVE to--like in church, or when I was required to in theater class, but generally, no. Only to myself, if I do, when I'm alone. I can't really sing very well...too Polish, ha-ha.

29) Ever sang in front of a crowd?

Sure: Church, theater class, and for a overseas study course, my tape recorder broke, and I had to stand in front of 10 mostly total strangers and sing the verse of the Erie Canal song (I was doing my water studies presentation on the history and importance of New York's Erie Canal.) That was quite tough for me, but...not as embarrasing as being chosen to play a female version of Jerry Springer later on, for the group presentation...wow. I was the ONLY one in the group, that had never seen the programme, LOL. Had to take a crash course the next morning in being and ad libbing Jerry Springer...yikes.

30) Do you dance?
Mum taught me the box step when I was a senior in high school, for the village's annual St. Patrick's Day dance. I used to be able to do the Virginia Reel, the monkey, and the Hustle..but not any more.

32) Least favorite color?

Martha Stewart colours...god, they make me nauseous...no really, not meant as joke.

33) Favorite kind of pizza?

Papa's Corner Restaurant's sliced sausage pizza, or, Talk of the Town Tavern's sliced kilbasa (Polish) sausage pizza, or the pepperoni pizza from Roma in Whitehall, NY.

34) Ever had Dippin Dots?

Never heard of them.

35) Ever make fun of a homeless person?

No, I've been homeless--and nearly homeless, it's absolutely nothing to laugh about...it's worse than dying, as far as I'm concerned.

36) How old were you when you got your first mobile phone?

45

37) How old were you when you got your first car?

21 or 22, I'm not sure.

38) How many driving tickets have you had in your life? How many for speeding?

Two, I think, none for speeding.

40) How many parking tickets have you ever had?

None.

41) Do you own your own car?

Not any more, no.

42) Do you want to get married?

Nope.

43) At what age do you want to get married?

145..figure by then, I'll be too dead to care.

44) Have you ever been married?

No.

45) Have you ever received a restraining order?

No.

46) Liberal, conservative, independant, or none?

Liberal

47) Do you vote?

Yes, although much more reluctantly than I did 20 years ago.

48) Ketchup or Mustard?

On what? Depends on what I'm eating--ketchup on fried potatoes, scrambled eggs and burgers, mustard on sandwiches, baked ham (gammon) and hot dogs.

Seems fruitcake isn't just for Christmas any longer....as you know, I've been getting hit with erm--funny people of late on here...now, got a comment on my Perfect 10 Dr Who fiction blog from someone posing as...Russell T. Davies.

Riiiight. And the catfish are jumping and this cotton is high, and every Welshman is buggering a sheep.

I mean, come on! The chances of anyone famous EVER leaving a comment on one of my blogs, or e-mailing me, or PM'in me, etc...are exactly---NONE. I'm pretty sure that in whatever time remains for me on this planet, no one from Dr Who--no one from the BBC or anywhere else connected with the programme, will EVER contact me. No one famous will ever contact me personally...I'm so certain of that, I'd be willing to wager nearly every possession I own on it.

It's not the first time--well, it's the first time for someone posing as RTD, but several times in the past few years, some wisecrackers have sometimes left messages on my various blogs--including my long-deleted first blog in summer of 2006--posing as David Tennant. But, this is the first for Mr. Davies.

Well, the world is full of odd people. I deleted the comment of course. It was harmless...funny, even. It said, "Fell asleep reading this (Rain of Terror). At last, a cure for my insomnia." Cheeky.

It made me laugh so hard, I was going to let it stay...but then had second thoughts, as some overly-entusiastic Whovian might think RTD actually reads the blog and start leaving messages for him on there, like the DT fans leave messages for tennant on this blog, sometimes...which is a bit freaky, but I got used to it...eventually.

Want some ice cream. Want some now!

Guess I'll walk down to the shop down the way later, for an ice cream cone. Peanut butter pandemonium, or coffee and cream? Hmmm--decisions, decisions....

Hamlet starring David Tennant, Patrick Stewart and all the original stage play cast, will be broadcast possibly in the autumn, on BBC, and, furthermore, will be broadcast by BBC America in the USA, sometime in 2010.

While a few overly-enthusiastic Tennant fan-girls of the star have laid claims to have been responsible for bringing this about, the RSC refutes that, saying this had been in discussion since before audiences ever saw the production....which is far more plausable, as it's likely that an undertaking such as this, with a cast and crew of this size, who might have other committments months after the stage performance has ended, would require many, many months of planning.

In other news, more on the choice of Matt Smith's new companion:

Another Scot will be appearing on Dr Who, this time a 21 year old Scottish actress named Karen Gillan. Gillan was one of the soothsayers in the Fires of Pompeii episode. Says the new executive producer Steven Moffat: "We saw some amazing actresses for this part, but when Karen came through the door the game was up. Funny, and clever, and gorgeous, and sexy. Or Scottish, which is the quick way of saying it. A generation of little girls will want to be her. And a generation of little boys will want them to be her too."

The other new executive producer, Piers Wenger, says of Gillan: We knew Karen was perfect for the role the moment we saw her. She brought an energy and excitement to the part that was just fantastic. And when she auditioned alongside Matt we knew we had something special. It is a partnership that is ready to take on the universe!"

Karen Gillan studied acting at Telford College in Scotland, before continuing her studies at the Italia Conti academy, based in London.

Series 5 of Doctor who is set to air in spring or early summer of 2010, after current Doctor David Tennant bows out in his final episode on New Year's day of 2010. Before the Christmas-New Year finale though, Tennant will be appearing as the Doctor in Waters of Mars in November, and a Sarah Jane Adventures two-parter in September or October, as well as doing a voice-over for an animated Doctor Who adventure, also to be shown in the autumn.

Besides Hamlet and Doctor Who, David Tennant is keeping busy doing voice-overs for documentaries, and will be hosting Masterpiece Theater Contemporary, on PBS stations in America, for the 2009/2010 season.

I adore Dr Who as you know, but I've never thought of it as anything but entertaining fiction...same with Star Wars, Star Trek, the Twilight Zone, Buck Rogers in the 21st Century, the original Battlestar Galactica, etc.

Yup, some people can't seem to separate sci-fi from reality, apparently. -I swear, these are true statements...and quite frankly, they'd make great fodder for some fan-fic stories.

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Christine Fitzgerald, a confidante of Diana, Princess of Wales, claims that Diana told her that the Royal Family were Reptilian aliens, and that they could shapeshift.

David Icke's --BBC reporter-- claims that humanity is actually under the control of dinosauroid-like alien reptiles who must consume human blood to maintain their human appearance. "Evidence" goes from Sumerian tablets describing the "Anunnaki" (which he translates as "those who from heaven to earth came"), to the serpent in the Biblical Garden of Eden, to child abuse, fluoridation, and the genealogical connections between the Bush family and the House of Windsor. Icke theorizes that the reptilians came here from the constellation Draco. Like most conspiracy theories, falsification of Icke's hypotheses is nearly impossible, but Icke continues to sell books and give speaking engagements based on concepts ranging from the New Age to his political opinions.

Mary Stewart Relfe claims in "The New Money System 666" that barcodes secretly encode the number 666 - the Biblical "Number of the Beast". This theory has been adopted by other fringe figures such as the "oracle" Sollog, who refuses to label any of his books with barcodes on the grounds that "any type of computer numbering systems MANDATED by any government or business is part of the PROPHECY of the BEAST controlling you."

The Wingdings Font included with Windows has a history of controversy. In 1992, only days after the release of Windows 3.1, it was discovered that the character sequence "NYC" in Wingdings was rendered as Skull and crossbones symbol, Star of David, and thumbs up gesture. This could be interpreted as a message of approval of killing Jews, especially those from New York City. Microsoft strongly denied this was intentional, and insisted that the final arrangement of the glyphs in the font was largely random. Various other combinations of Wingings characters are alleged to have special significance by conspiracy theorists, but these results are likely purely coincidental.

Esoteric Hitlerists and conspiracy theorists interested in Nazi mysticism and World War II have speculated that the Germans landed on the Moon as early as 1942. According to other theories it is believed that the Nazis had made contact with 'half a dozen' alien races, including the malevolent Reptilians. (That would be the Bush family? LOL )

It is sometimes claimed that the Kentucky Fried Chicken franchise is owned by the Ku Klux Klan, and the chicken is laced with a drug that makes only black men impotent. Ironically, the KFC franchise is actually owned by an African-American.

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I got these from two different websites while surfing the net, but I'm sure there's plenty more out there! I'm telling you, real life is far odder than any fiction story ever could be.

America, home of the free and the...bonkers? Yep, apparently!

I got this from (I may have this title wrong) "sharp as a tack" (??) blog, found while casually. surfing the net--sorry, I forgot to include a link before exiting the page, and can't find it again! According to the blog author, parts of this post were gleaned from an old Washington Post article. I tried to leave a comment, but the last post was dated 2007, and I don't think this person uses this blog any longer. Still, it sounded a whole lot like something I myself would write (even down to the spelling errors, ha-ha), and I felt I should post it here, since it's a topic that directly effects me.

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Today, there are 18 million reported cases of severe mental illness in America. Almost half of these people are either untreated, or under-treated, thanks to America's inhumane and selfish health care system, which only provides treatment for both physical and mental illness, based on a totally unbalanced and uneven cost/profit system, and not on actual need. As a result, many who cannot afford expensive co-pays, medicines and transport to sometimes far-distant providers, either because of poverty, or simply that their private insurer refuses to pay or has high co-pays, or, their employer won't provide health inurance. Therefore, a lot of American men--including war veteran's, women, pensioners and even children fall through the cracks, largely unnoticed.

More people suffer under the USA's rotten-to-the-core health care system, then any other western nation...yet not one American out of 100, gives a damn about the uninsured-until some untreated person, takes a gun and starts shooting people, because the country refuses to recognize to pay for treatment for mental health care.

According to a mental health survey done in 2005, One-quarter of all Americans met the criteria for having a mental illness within that year, and fully a quarter of those had a "serious" disorder that significantly disrupted their ability to function day to day.

This survey, it should be noted, did not include some of the most serious disorders, such as schizophrenia, for which patients are often institutionalized.

Less than half of those in need get treated. Those who seek treatment typically do so after a decade or more of delays, during which time they are likely to develop additional problems. And the treatment they receive is usually inadequate.

As some naive people (that's the most polite way I can put it) will loudly point out, America has the best standards of health care in the world.

BUT: despite the availability of effective treatments for many mental illnesses, including depression and anxiety, about a third of people in need rely solely on nonprofessional sources such as Internet support groups and spiritual advisers. Why? Because they either cannot afford these treatments, don't have ready access to these treatments (no professionals in their immediate location), or, their insurance won't cover it.

The truth is, most Americans affected by mental illness, receive either no help, or are being treated by nonmedical providers or nonspecialists, whose care typically fails to meet minimal standards of adequacy.

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And, here's what I have to add to this discussion:

COUPLED with this, and perhaps, making things worse, is the actual fact that Americans are some of the most intollerant people in the western world, when it comes to how they feel and perceive, mental illness.

Social acceptence in America of mental disorders is very low. The media is partly to blame, labeling people with mental illness who commit crimes, with the terms, "crazy," "mad" and other negative words...this negative, childish and grossly ignorant approach, actually causes a lot more harm than most people realize...and probably makes crimes by emotionally unstable people more likely, because of the stigma the media has attached to the mentally ill.

Americans are actually afraid to talk about mental illness--while it's a bit more open today than it was 20 or 30 years ago--when it comes to Europe, Canada and other western nations, America lags far behind, in their perceptions and acceptance of mental illness.

Basically, after the AIDS bigotry and paranoia calmed down in the early 90's, mental illness became the new poster child for American ignorance and fear.

While more people are starting to understand that mental illness is genetic and not something that the person does purposely to themselves, still, the atmosphere or unreasoning hate and fear, prevails in both the average Americans mind, and in the media. The media loves the mentally ill, because sensationalism sells...and the acts of someone whose brain isn't fuctioning normally, or whom has suffered some sort of living circumstance or physical or phycological trama, that has effected their emotional well-being...well, they can appear a bit sensationalistic, at times.

Americans often inflict the emotional/mentally ill---even their own children, with emotional distancing....they don't want to be around someone whom they don't percieve as "normal." They are afraid of that which they don't understand, and they don't want to make the effort to try and understand, either. It's easier to hate and fear, than it is to show compassion and understanding...and a good portion of the American population loves doing things the easy way.

(

Oh God. I read today where the new Doctor's (Matt Smith) new companion, is some 21 year old. Oh sh_t.

I love Dr Who, so I WILL watch the first 2 episodes, and give the children a chance....but, feck--I'm 48 years old, I CAN'T relate to anyone under 30...fer gawd's sake, half these kids at least where I live), can't even be bothered to pull up their trousers properly, these days!

I don't want to say I'm going to hate it, before I seen it, but I am really sad that older fans like me are being shoved aside like this. I know it's a kid's show--but jeez--whatever happened to giving young people a MATURE role model to look up to. Oh, I've heard Smith is a wonderful young actor, and I certainly am not panning the guy before I've seen him do his thing...and really, I'm NOT dissing Smith!

I'm not dissing Moffat or anyone....I'm just...very sad. I feel sometimes like the world is leaving me so far behind...like my world is shrinking...I feel so...invisiable, sometimes. Left out, I don't count anymore in this life...that's how this bend toward children in the Tardis is making me feel...very, very lonely and sad.

I hope It'll be OK. I know there isn't a single living soul connected with Dr Who, or at the BBC, whom gives a rat's bottom what someone like me thinks--hell, even tho' I've been a devoted fan for 26 years, I'm a Yank, and as such, cut no ice with Auntie Beeb.

All I can do is wait and see...and be sad. I can't really tell you why I'm sad, other than I used to relate to Dr Who, and now it's much harder, cos' characters like Rose (and let me state that I think Billie Piper is a fantastic actress, so calm down Rose shippers)...but I could NOT relate to Rose! I tried, I really, really tried...but...I don't live in that world, I've NEVER lived in that world...RTD's world, the world of today's young people, is so alien to me, some of RTD's characters, the world of today's hip and young...are more alien to me, than any alien in Doctor who--does that make sense?

Now, it's more teenagers in the Tardis...and I worry that I'm going to be left behind again..and seriously...that makes me so sad, that I'm almost in tears, tonight. Dr Who literally saved me from killing myself, and for it to be something I can no longer hold on to...I've lost so much, so very much...now, I worry I'll lose this old friend, as well.

Ah well, I guess we'll see what we see, next year sometime. I hope I will still be able to love the show, and not stop watching it...Mr. Moffat has written some gems of scripts, so maybe the "teenagers" age won't matter. God, I hope so.

It's been a grueling day....still a touch of montezuma's revenge, which has left me feeling rather weak. I didn't eat well today...a garlic roll for breakfast, Big Mac for lunch, and another burger for dinner...just didn't have time to eat properly, running around like a loon--which I have to do AGAIN, 'cos I forgot the blasted US postal service gives it's employees 1 1/2 hours for lunch..in the middle of the day, so I was mucked up there. Now I have to catch a bus well before noon tomorrow, to post some things. Damn.

I went to the consignment shop today--the one I've been going to for about 6 months now, and buying from regularly--I usually find at least one item I like there, when I go, sometimes several. Well, they have a different 1/2 price sale every day, so I've gotten some genuine bargains--upscale clothing for practically nothing.

Last week, I ripped my one and only pair of khaki summer trousers, and I thought I'd see if I could get a pair for $4 or $5 from the shop...the one pair they had was a shade too big, but I found a lovely pair of black trousers for $5, that are cut to make fat people like me look slimmer (LOL).

Anyway, while there, I noticed that trouser suits and dresses were the special du jour that day, so I found a couple of dresses that I liked, and brought them into the dressing room (nothing wowed me enough to make me want to buy it, though)...well, no sooner had I locked the door, then someone is pounding frantically on it!

I'm like, "What the???" Did someone mistakenly think this was the ladies???

Turns out, the shop has been getting a lot of theft lately, people grabbing clothes off the racks and waltzing out the back door with them, apparently.

So anyway, I open the door, and the shop owner and her assistant, are demanding--and I DO mean, demanding, that I count the clothing I have....OK, been coming there for 6 months, a regular buyer, and not ONCE in all that time, was I ever stopped from trying things on. I just always walked to the dressing room, whether with one item or three or six, and simply tried them on--no fuss whatsoever.

Suddenly, out of the blue (I was just there two week's ago, and no one said boo to me, about trying things on), you have to stop and get a "ticket" showing how many garmets you are trying on--only up to four, now, apparently.

There's a wee hand-written sign on the dressing room door--that was at CHEST level, and there was no way I'd notice it! The bitches stood there and MADE me count my clothing--twice.

I almost walked out, but I said to hell with it, and tried the stuff on...but they lost a good custoomer today, that's for sure. I never was so taken aback in all my born days! I've never in my life ever considered shoplifting--I say, if I can't afford it, I wasn't meant to have it...or, I can save up for it, or wait and hope it goes on sale, or put it on layaway. I don't need or want to shoplift. It's what drooling knuckle-draggers do, not me.

But, they can take their paranoid attitude and shove it where the sun doesn't shine. The woman that runs the shop is an older upwardly mobile type, who doesn't seem to have had to deal with any serious problems before...the shop is run more like a hobby than a shop--as she's never open nights. and closes a 4pm on Saturdays, and closed altogether on Sundays and Mondays--which is fine....except every time I go in there of late, the owner is moaning at me about how bad business is...well, duh--maybe if you extended your hours so folks who work days and/or on Saturdays could shop there, maybe business would be better!

And, half the time you have to wait forever at the till, because she and her assistant(s) are chatting away in the back room, and not paying any attention whatsoever, to the activites of their customers... Jeez...and it was such a nice little shop, too. But...what a buncy of palaver though, to throw at a good customer!

Well, I've got plenty of clothing now, I won't miss it all that much. While I was in the shop though, I noticed this ill-mannered woman there. She was going through the racks, basically shoving her way through the clothing--pushing the clothing hung on the round racks, like her life depending on it, wham-wham-wham! What the hell?? How could you possibly look at clothing that fast???

The speed shopper almost shoved me down trying to get past me, and I shot her a look...she snootily shot me back a look, so I quietly and calmly said.."Maybe shoving a disabled person doesn't bother you, woman"--(I wasn't about to call her a lady), "but I'm sure the lawsuit if I fall down and hurt myself from your shoving, will." Then, turned my back and walked away. When I turned, I a lady behind me gave me a delighted smile, then winked at me--I'd seen the pushy woman shove by her, as well. I'm so bad, sometimes.

Spent the night talking to uncouth Americans from coast-to-coast...the worst one's were from Minnesota (god, that state's got some ssriously uptight arseholes--are they all born with a rod stuck up their bottoms?)....and Kansas...snippy nasty little wenches, the women in Kansas, tonight. Sometimes I really, really hate Americans, after having to deal with them for hours...god, what a bunch of total assholes we are!

If Americans had the brains and balls to care what kind of impression they make on total strangers who call them on the phone, they'd probably behave a lot more like human beings, and less like knuckle draggers--sorry, giving neanderthals a bad name.

Having heart palps tonight. Going to bed in a moment. I was hoping to spend the day at home tomorrow, but doesn't look likely, now. Didn't get enough done today. Ah well, at least it's supposed to be nice out, this weekend. Cheers!

When there's only one other person in the elevator, tap them on the shoulder and then pretend it wasn't you.

Call the Psychic Hotline from your cell phone and ask if they know what floor you're on.

"What's Wal-Mart? Do they, like, make walls there?" - Paris Hilton

"Smoking kills. And if you're killed, you've lost a very important part of your life." - Brooke Shields

"Whenever I watch TV and see those poor starving kids all over the world, I can't help but cry. I mean, I'd love to be skinny like that, but not with all those flies and death stuff." - Mariah Carey

"So, where's the Cannes Film Festival being held this year?" - Christina Aguilera

"I get to go to lots of overseas places like Canada." - Britney Spears

"Fiction writing is great. You can make up almost anything." - Ivana Trump

"It was God who made me so beautiful. If I weren't, then I'd be a teacher." - Linda Evangelista

"I'm not anorexic. I'm from Texas. Are there people from Texas that are anorexic? I've never heard of one. And that includes me." - Jessica Simpson

I think the Clueless movie was very deep. I think it was deep in the way that it was very light. I think the lightness has to come from a very deep place if it's true lightness." - Alicia Silverstone

--The metal backs of iPods are made from recycled zippers.

* The original title for Catcher in the Rye was Hey, Look, a Carousel!

It's just been confirmed that a paired-down version of the RSC's recent production of Hamlet with David Tennant, will be filmed for the BBC. The 180 minute special will be filmed in June, for broadcast on the BBC later this year. It will be a scaled back version of the original stage production (well, it would have to be, really).

Despite DT fan-girl's claims, the RSC had been in discussions about this since last year, and were finally able to find the space (literally speaking) and the cast, crew, etc., to make it all happen. The re-written script for the film version of Hamlet, promises to be as faithful as possible to the full stage version as seen by sold-out audiences last year...now we just have to hope that Tennant doesn't go skydiving and break his leg or something.

A gloomy day here on my side of the Atlantic seaboard. overcast and chilly, promising more rain. The Elvis Festival's opening ceremony got cancelled 'cos of the wet cold weather...the poor elvi have to wait till' today to be welcomed to the Adirondacks.

How do we get our belly buttons?

Before we're born, God lines us up in a row, and goes down the line, poking us in the stomach, saying, "You're done, you're done, you're done, you're done...."

I'm off to do my weekly Friday chores in a bit. Very thrilled to finally be able to go see mum's grave on Sunday...tickled pink! I've wanted to do that for going on 3 years now, so it's going to be a very special day for me.

Have a good day, all.

I'm tired and can't sleep, feel a bit off tonight. So...I'm just writing literally whatever pops into my head as I write...I have no clue where this post is heading, and that's a fact. I can barely keep my eyes open, and this whole post may end up being totally daft.

It's such a magnificent old world out there, and I am sad for all the people who don't realize that. I was blessed while young, to learn that every time I walked out the door, into the woods and fields to explore my surroundings---that ever step was an open door to the entire universe, every second an adventure.

Every second of every day, is new--yet old. All that happens now, has happened before...different people, languages, circumstances and surroundings...but, life and death, envy, jealousy, corruption, love, passion, wars and births...very little is new...but how many of us truly realize that?

Hamlet could easily be re-written today in plain--even coarse and rude-- English, and turned into your average episode of Eastenders or As the World Turns.

I got the chance to see the wolrd, and gosh, I was blessed. Going out of the US totally changed my life, my outlook on things...for the first time I realized that the adventure I felt when I walked the woods of home, was there in the world at large, also.

I dream of going. Anywhere, somewhere...an open road beckons me ever on. I have genuine pioneers in my blood--no really, I am a direct decendant of one the first settlers of a western New York county, way back in the 1700's, when there were still hostile Indians lurking about. My great-great-great-great grandfather helped to build the Erie Canal--it was this that first opened the west, not the prairie schooners--covered wagons rolling over the endless plains came later...after a trip on the canal to the Great Lakes, Pennslyvaia, Michigan or Ohio.

I want to go back to the world. I want to see it again...Europe, Canada, Copper Canyon in Mexico, Chaco Canyon here in the states--the walled houses of early Native Americans built into the cliff sides. I want to spread my wings and fly...fly away to adventures again...a new life. But, my feathers are gone, life has plucked them, and they are laughing at me to my face, mocking me, teasing me... feathers of freedom floating before my sad eyes, dancing on the empty air.

I'm going to the Albany Rural Cemetery this weekend, to visit mum. I hope I can find some nice flowers, and that her grave is in decent shape. Bothers me still, that I've never been able to afford a stone--evne a $500 stone, costs more than that, 'cos you have to trasnport it and everything. Another reason to flirt with daydreams of wealth.

Anyway, the ARC has been around since 1841. It was formed when concerned citizens of the city of Albany, NY were worried about the smell--and potential of disease, from crowded, poorly tended city cemeteries...some of which had exposed graves.

So, they set aside some 400 acres for a cemetery.

Today, the cemetery remains much as it was, 100 years ago. Many of the stones have been damaged though, or vandalized. The damage came mainly from downed trees or high winds or shifting soil--or, acid rain from coal-burning energy plants in the midwest, melting the stone. Vandalism comes from two sources: bored and unimaginative teens, and theives, looking for brass and copper and other victorian-era benches and stone flower pots to steal for profit.

Still many monuments remain, that are tributes to the artisan's skill: angels, chirldren, clothing--like hats and boots, trees, cannon, balls, pyramids, bas-relief brass sculptures, intricate celtic crosses, a fireman's helmet...even a Chinese or Japanese stone...tall and narrow with writing in oriental characters.

Buried there is a US president, a US president's son, soldiers, statesmen, actors, artists, poets, musicians, sporting figures, victims of accidents, disease, battles, even a couple who was killed by pirates--no, really.

Another couple was killed, when they were crossing the train tracks on their way to the cinema, and the wive's old time high heeled lace-up ladie's shoe got caught in the rail...rather than leave her, hubby held her in his arms while they were crushed by the oncoming steam train. A young girl was sitting in a carriage while her parents were visiting the family plot--and the horse spooked, throwing the girl to the ground, where she struck her head and was killed--within feet of where she would be buried.

Two small stones at the base of a monument near Cypress Waters--aka, "Cemetery Pond," bear on the back of them, the very last words of the two wee children as they died. Also near the pond, is a tribute to a sea captain, who saved survivors of a shipwreck in the 1950's. A little boy in knickers (short trousers, not underpants), holding school books, stands with his hand extended, index finger outstretched....on which at one time rested a little marble bee (before it was vandalized). This is "Georgie," he died from an allergic reaction to a bee sting...he was stung on his way home from school.

The Burden vault is surmounted by two big dogs on either end. One time, I was walking a puppy there, and the vault had air vents poking out of the grass of the hillside. The puppy walked up to an air vent--and started growling and backed away, terrified. Weird, huh? Gave me the shivers.

Near the Burden vault, is an plinth--surmounted by copper unbrellas, going up the plinth in progression, from large to small...at one time, the tips of the brollies had little bells dangling from them...these disappeared under unknown circumstances early in the 1900's.

Even after we die, sometimes we live on in our stories and our art. The tragedy of our own death, is sometimes the only way we are remembered.

Comment from the following bcuk LOSER:

WHAT'S WITH ALL THE FUCKING NUTJOBS ON BCUK, LATELY?

Comment from a menatally ill blogger;

Nancy as your sister I have to ask, why are you writing these things? You live in a house with a loving butch, two beautiful adopted children, and your a perfectly healthy woman, yet you continue to lie about yourself all over the internet, so why?, that's all I need to know is why? Why do you tell people you were molested, that so many things are wrong with you, that you live in this horrible apartment building when you and I both know that none of it is true, is it for attention, do you feel that your not getting enough of it from your butch at home, or has something simply snapped in your head, what is it nancy what is wrong!?! we can help you if you would only tell us whats wrong. oh and david tennant? nancy cmon you've been gay all your life remember?
This mentally ill blogger signed on to this website, with a BLOG USING MY REAL LAST NAME, AGE AND CITY. Who cares? Come on over nutjob, we'll have tea and biscuits.

And you can think I'm gay, you can dis David Tennant, and I don't care. You are mentally ill, and mentally ill people don't know what they are doing. Get some medicine. Here's a website you can use: http://mentalhealth.com

I suggest you use it, you need HELP.

Actually, this is a good thing. I was going to stop blogging so much--now, to fight back, I'm going to blog even more than ever! Thank you, you crazy little nutjob, whover you are!

I just tried to get down to my mailbox attached to the outside porch post, and I went down in my socks--I mean, one doesn't need shoes to go down two flights of stairs and a short hallway, right?

Well, apparently, the new hubby-wife handy people, whom I've decided to call Two Twats With Tools, were shocked that I went downstairs in my socks--"YOU'RE going down barefoot?" No, I'm going down in socks, twat man. Barefoot would indicate that I wasn't wearing anything at all on my feet.

Apparently, without any rhyme or reason, the Two Twats With Tools, "just decided" to come in here today, and pull up the staircase carpet...didn't notify anyone, not even the building manager. As normal for them, aparently, they are doing a half-arsed job of it, and not replacing the hall carpets, just the stair one's....without any safety precautions for tenants...They've been hammering away on the floors for about 3 hours straight now. I am totally sapped from a week of extreme stress and not a little sleeplessness, and I was looking forward to a quiet rainy day at home, to get some rest. I'd swear here, but I'm too crapped out to care any more.

I want out of this life so bad. I seriously wish I hadn't stopped myself from doing something probably really stupid a couple of years ago. I wouldn't be here now. Even tho' in many ways, my life is getting better, inside me, it's not. Inside me, every day, more and more, I feel more lost and empty and miserable, than ever before. I don't know why, and in a way, that makes me feel worse--like I'm being churlish in the face of improvement.

I don't know...I have more friedns than ever in my life--good friends, wonderful friends. I can afford the occasional haircut now, and have, literally, for the first time in my entire life, lots of clothes. I have the 3 cats still....why the hell am I so unhappy and miserable? I hate my job, I don't like where I live, but...so what? So do a lot of other people, I'm sure...they manage. Why can't I cope, lately?

Don't know if there's any answer to that. I do know I want to get the hell out of here, I want to escape, fly away...but my wings have been not just clipped--life has cut them off. Last year I came to the line in the sand, orossed it, and...stopped caring.

The person I am now, isnt anything like the person I was, a five years ago. I don't know this person. I don't think I want to. I don't like this new me, not by a long chalk. Some days I want out so bad, you have no idea...but I just don't have the stuff left inside me to give a damn, any longer. That's just a fact. I can't pretend I don't feel this way, 'cos I do. Every single day...I don't expect anyone to understand. That's OK. I'm an exile from my own life.

I imagine the Two Twats With Tools probably have a better and more satisfying life, than I'll ever have. Even twats are more useful to the world than I am.

Jeez...dear heavens, can I please win the lottery so I can get the hell out of this shitehole of a building?

NOW the half-arsed twats that the building manager has "hired" are tearing up our staircase---our ONLY WAY in or out of the building...short of making a rope out of sheets and climbing down from the balcony. I cannot go downstairs to check my post, or go for a walk or anything! Damn it!

Did they stop to think of telling us about this? NO. I NEED the effing handrail to get up and down stairs and they're tearing it up..bastards. I mean, the stairs do need repairing--but why the hell didn't the stinking managment bother to tell us about this???

I wrote her and told her that if it happened again, I would report her to the state of New York for unsafe conditions...and to the disability office, as well. Effing MINDLESS yuppie bitch.

...BBC America, that is.

The Next Doctor will make it's debut on June 27th at noon on BBC America. It will be followed by Planet Of The Dead, which will air sometime the following month.

It won't make a difference to me, as thankfully, I've already seen these, and also, ince I can't possiblby afford the cost of getting BBC America (love the show with all my heart, but $100+ a month to get BBCA on cable, might as well be a million dollars a month, to someone with my income.)

1.PICK OUT A SCAR YOU HAVE, AND EXPLAIN HOW YOU GOT IT?

I have several to choose from, will do the quickest. I was taking a hunt seat riding lesson once, and I was wearing my western riding boots, instead of "English" riding boots, and what we here call "English" (hunter-jumper) saddles, have really narrow stirrip leathers...anyway, while I was riding around the ring a couple of minutes into my lesson, my jean's rode up my leg, exposing my bare calf...my boots at the time were short...and the stirrip leather ground into my leg, gouging a 1/2 inch size chunk out of my skin...and me being the dedicatedhorsewoman, I just kept on going...for about 60 minutes. Took weeks to heal, still have traces of the scar.

2. WHAT IS ON THE WALLS IN YOUR ROOM?

Sort of off-white paint that came with the flat, Some Dr Who stuff, couple of prints of old paintings that I like, a letter of commendation, a few photos, a museum poster, a cheap wall hanging from Family Dollar, and a commemorative plate from my hometown's 50th anniversary celebration in '74.

3. WHAT DOES YOUR PHONE LOOK LIKE?

It's a silver Virgin mobile...I have a landline phone, and that's a modern push-button retro style (1940's) black desktop phone. (I don't have landline service, though. Can't afford it).

5. WHAT IS YOUR CURRENT DESKTOP PICTURE?

Same as always: The Tardis shooting out of the space-time vortex into "normal" space.

6. WHAT DO YOU WANT MORE THAN ANYTHING RIGHT NOW?

A job I like would be nice, but I'd settle for an egg Mcmuffin from McDonalds, ha-ha.

7. DO YOU BELIEVE IN GAY MARRIAGE?

What's to believe or not believe? If a gay or lesbian couple love one another, why shouldn't they be able to get married?

8. WHAT TIME WERE YOU BORN?

Sometime after 7pm.

9. ARE YOUR PARENTS STILL TOGETHER?

My late parents divorced in 83.

10. WHAT ARE YOU LISTENING TO?

I turned on my player while I'm writing this, "Casanova Baby!" (which i love) by The Gaslight Anthem, then "Sand and Ice" by Fanfario came on, and "Build" by s band called The Housmartins that I recently came across while surfing through music sites on the web, played after that, then "Henrietta" (a fav. tune) by The Fratellis, "Two Weeks" by The Excentrics, "Twirling Towards Freedom" by Enter the Haggis, "Heaven" by Los Lonely Boys, "Kiss Me Again" by Ben's Brother, "Local Boy" by The Rifles, "What Do You Want From Me?" by Monoco, "Canadian Rose" by Blues Traveler, "Shout Shout" by the Proclaimers, "I Will Never See the Sun" by Great Lakes Swimmers, "There You Are" by Pocket Full of Rocks, "Accidental Joy" by The Minders, "Stars/em>" (another fav tune) by The Cranberries, "Angry Mob" by the Kaiser Chiefs...now "Syndicate" by another band I just cqme across, called The Fray, is playing at the mo'.

Homelessnes, being sectioned, having my electric/gas cut off, not being able to feed the cats, losing my remaining possessions.

I can remember when I was a child, one summer night, we kids borrowed blankets from all our homes, and clothesline, as well. We rigged a makeshift "tent" between some trees in the narrow strip of woods that lined our driveway--there was a streetlamp at the end of our drive, and that would help us to see--this was in the days before halogen lamps, so it was just an ordinary soft glow, not an orange or blue assult to the eyes, like the streetlamps of today--so bright they can be seen clear up in space.

So, we roped off four sqares of blankets, and somehow (I forget this part) we rigged a "roof" of blankets, as well. Then we pulled out lawn chairs--the lounging style chairs to sleep on--there were bugs on the ground, so lawn chairs would keep the insect contacts to a minimum.

We sat up late into the night, talking--there was sis, me, and several of the girls from the neighbourhood and, I think, two boys. One thing we spent the night doing, was daring each other to go into the nearby cemetery....the Catholic cemetery was on the east border of our street, and just across the field/ravane as well.

All night long, we bragged that we'd do it....but no one ever did. We were such a bunch of wussy's! Well, I suppose I was the biggest one, I kept finding bugs (of the harmless sort) in my "bed" and that freaked me out, so I grabbed my sleeping bag, and spent the night inside the house--on the floor by the front door screen--I could still hear all the night sounds--but didn't have to worry about moths, mosquitoes, strange little creepy crawlies...did I mention that this nature girl is just a tad squeemish about bugs?

But, every once in a while, the subject of spending the night in the cemetery would crop up--and we'd brag that we could do it...but no one actually ever offered to, and no one ever pressed anyone to...we never took it all that seriously.

It was the dare that never really was.

Just missed the bus! Well, too late now. Will have to run my errand tomorrow or Friday. I wanted to go to the post office. I have a packet to send to a friend, and I promised Absolute Radio's solicitor, I'd post something back they'd sent me---the woman actually rang me up personally, can you believe that? Sounds like they are nervous, all of the sudden. You know it took them something like 6 or 8 weeks to send this paper to me, and now they want me to go out of my way to post it back to them, right away?

Well, sorry, but I don't exactly live in a busy metropolitin area with good public transport, or just 'round the corner from a post office...the nearest office is a good 25 or 30 minute walk away from me...at least the way I walk, it is. Sod it, they waited that long to send the damn thing to me, they can wait several days for me to post it back--at my own expense, mind you...cheapskates.

So, here I am waiting for a lift, with Flame letting out more silent but deadlies in my face. Gee, thanks so much ya' wee ginger wind-machine.

I got accused of being gay again, last night--which is fine. I don't care, let 'em think what they will. Heaven knows why in the 21st century, so many people don't grasp the "genuine old maid" thing. Do I HAVE to have a man? Do I have to HAVE to have a woman, for that matter? Why can't I just be...me? Do real lesbians have to put up with this crap all the time...."why don't you date men?" He asked me. Yeah? Why don't you try shoving a sock down your trousers and make the women in Sandy's Clam Bar boggle at you? Cripes, the crap an old maid has to put up with, sometimes!

I suppose when it comes to relationships,---ugh, now Flame is literally pawing my chest frantically, trying to get my attention....typing is so much of a joy around cats--not. But, self-centred creatures that they are, they do love me. Well, anyway, speaking of love--or rather, not of love, I suppose I am very vulnerable in that area, and still perhaps, even at 48, a bit naive...that's why I will never be a "real" writer--I simply have lead too sheltered a life, really. Oh, I've been here and there, and seen and done some things--but, some people live in one kind of bubble, I suppose, when it comes to interacting with people and living a "normal" life, I have my own bubble I live in, as well.

Co-worker will be here in 13 minutes, so I'd better get off the 'puter. I look rather spiffy today, in my "new" turquoise blue linen blouse I got from the garage (boot) sale the other day, and my favourite pair of blue jeans. Not posh, but very neat and trim. Simple but elegant, ha-ha, that's me...with an emphasis on the "simple," more tnan the "elegant." I'm far to clumsy, overweight and...clumsy, to ever be called that.

I'm sitting here with wee Flamey on my lap. she's been sleeping with me, of late--an indication she's going into heat again, soo---aw, yuck. She just let out a silent but deadly...another indication she's going to start yowling down the four walls again, soon. If I ever get my hands on 300 bucks, she's getting fixed, no doubt about it. Right now she's all lovey-dovey, "I wuves you mum, I really, really wuves you...in heat, she loves everyone...and wants them to make passionate love to her...even me...bleh. Then she gets out of heat, and wants to be left alone, and hates the two boy's...moody moggy.

It's a drizzly overcast day here. Yesterday started out quite cool, but then warmed up by nightfall--it was actually warmer after dark, than it was during the day...how strange is that?

My appointment is today, but the lady driving me there, hasn't rung me up yet, to tell me when she's picking me up...getting doubly nervous now, both about the appointment and getting there...well, all that will happen is that I'll have to reschedule and take a bus/cab. It'll be expensive as hell, but not much I can do about it. It's the waiting that will really be difficult, though. I'll have to go to the local ER about my right eye, though. It's really beginning to give me greif...not so much the pain as the internal swelling.

Whew...she just called. Picking me up at noon (I'm buying her lunch and paying for her petrol)...she wants to go to the all you can eat Chinese buffet. I've no appetite again, but I can always get a cup of coffee or a soda, if I'm not hungry by noon time.

So, I have a quick chore to run, before she picks me up, so I'm going to just nip off for the bus. May be going to work after the surgeon's office (if I can see ok and am not in too much discomfort) and go to work...so won't be online today. No Roasting DT captions until tonight or tomorrow (I know poor wee Tennant will be ever so disappointed, but it will do the bloke good, keep him from getting spoiled.)

Off into the rain then, have a lovely day, all. May showers bring June...mosquitoes.

I just got a little brochure in the post from the blindness assn. about my eye disease...it says that it's vitally important for someone with my condition to protect their eyes from bright sunlight/UV rays---so how come, in 8 year's time, NO ONE concerned, ever told me this???

Not my optomotrist, or the retina specialist. Was it a big secret? Yeah, I know my blindness until recently was "dormant" and minimal--my disase had started, then stoppped, and they (the "experts") didn't expect it to advance, so apparently, they didn't figure I needed to know this important little piece of information?

There's no cure for my disease, so maybe they just didn't figure they could do anything about it, back in 2001...heaven knows what this surgery's for. I had to ask my eye doctor, when he showed me the pictures--reluctantly, if that dark spot was the retinitis...he hesitated, then said merely, "yeah, pretty much." What the hell does that mean????

He used to be a good doctor, but I'd not been to him in a while, maybe he's getting jaded, or maybe he was having a bad day. Jeez--people do treat the poor and the ugly differently from the "beautiful" and the trendy, that's for sure. If I were some thin smartly dressed bird with a beemer, he'd have treated me differently, perhaps. I don't know.

I'm not in a very good mood today, as you may have surmised, from reading my blog posts.

Off for 5 hours of telemarketing hell. Life sucks and then you die.

I got paperwork from the government in the post, forms to fill out re; my disability. Well, one page, they ask you to write down what you do when you are at home, what do in your free time, what your hobbies and interests are.....god, that's totally depressing!!!

Nothing. I do nothing. I blog, I listen to music. I watch the same old DVD's and read the same old books, over and over again. Once in a rare while, I muddle my way through writing a Dr Who story, or a poem, or rarely, take a stab at some pathetically bad short play.

That's all I do. I don't have any hobbies any longer--can't afford them. No one ever comes over, only very rarely (about once a month or every few months) do I spend time with another human being.

"Career skills?" It asks. Ha. None. I can type after a fashion, file--only no one uses acutal hard-copy files any longer, write (sort of), answer telephones/work with my voice--yeah, there's a useful skill in my very macho part of the world....I can wash, dry and fold hotel towels practically in my sleep, clean toilets, muck out horse stalls, I know how to lug and tote, fetch and carry, I don't have a car but I'm a reasonably good driver, and I know how to work in a library--unless it involves computers, and then I'm screwed....and not much else. Seriously, nothing much else. I'm utterly worthless. I am also not particularly nice-looking, and despite the weight loss, still over 200 pounds.

I might was well be living on the dole, I'm not good for anything else.

I suck.

God, these government forms are depressing. This ain't a Frank Capra film, no one's going to walk up to me and take me to a better job/life. I'm stuck in the one place I never wanted to be, and....well, that's life. Some people land in the fountain of good fortune, and some of us land in the dung heap of life.

I just worked my way through 211 job listings on the New York State Job Service webpage...how many jobs did I qualify for? A sum total of...none. Not even the dishwasher position, 'cos they wanted someoe who could also do maintenance of lawn equipment...well, I know how to change a blade and clean the air filter on a walk-behind lawn mower...where to put the petrol adn oil in...and--there's my sum total of knowledge...which I learned on my own, so I have no idea if I even would do that right.

I'm totally depressed.

I hate my job, you have no idea. I am on a different schedule this week, and the time I start alternates from one day to the next, and for the life of me, I cannot remember when my shift starts tonight--can I get hold of a supervisor--ANY supervisor, to even ask? No. Two supervisors for our department, and neither of them have answered their phone for ages, this afternoon.

Why does management always need to pull both supervisors off the floor, if it's not an emergency??? Surely, this company is the most discomglomerated, disorganized, disingenuious piece of shite that I've EVER worked for, in 35+ years of employment--with the single exception of the nuns in the convent, who weren't exactly trained business staff.

Though the next installment of Series 4+ Episode 16, Waters of Mars isn't slated to air in the UK until November (rumour on the fan boards is around Guy Fawkes night, but how they'd know that, is anyone's guess)...anyhow, David Tennant will return as the Doctor SOONER than November, when he guest stars in a Sarah Jane Adventures 2-parter.

The SJA returns in Sept. 2009. It is said that this will be an exciting two-part episode, with Tennant playing a major role in the programme....wheter there will be a tie-in to his final regeneration two-parter at Christmas, remains to be seen....but, I wouldn't count it out.

AND, that's not all fellow Whovians (and...okay, DT fan-(cough)-girls), David Tennant will be also doing the voice-over for his character in a Dr Who animated cartoon, also coming in the autumn months. Also lending their voices in the cartoon, are David Warren from the Love and Monsters episode, and The Doctor's Daughter guest star (and, and, according to the person who sent me this info, also DT's girlfriend? I seriously don't care, but I suppose some people are into celebrity gossip rubbish--bleh), the talented Georgia Moffatt...aka: that very cool dude, Peter Davidson's, daughter.

Stay tuned....

Another glorius day, over here in northeastern New York....and I'm stuck at home until this evening. I have chores to finish...hoovering the lounge carpet, in this case and dusting...I'd do the windows, but I seem to be out of window cleaner...gee, what a shame.

The balcony could use a quick sweep, as well, I noticed, when I was out there watching what laughingly passes for a parade in this wee city pass by me, yesterday.

Gotta' feed the cats, and myself first though. I'm going to have myself a proper fry-up this morning: eggs, applewood smoked bacon, toast, fried potatoes. Going to be a long day. I have to work extra hours this week, to make up for being out of work on my first (and only) holiday day, this Saturday. We don't get paid holidays--or any holiday days, for that matter...or rasises, or sick pay, etc. But, you can ask for a day off....if you make up the hours elsewhere in the week, which means long days for me, alas.

Working five or six hours a day, used to be nothing to me, who has worked 10 hour days, and/or 6 or 7 day work weeks....but in the last year or so, my health has gotten so poor, that even 2 hours work leaves me drained sometimes, and walking down the street only 10 min, can leave me knackered....not all the time, I mean, some days my old energy is back and I feel as if I can saddle a tornado and ride it, but lots of times it's not that way, and then I get sort of sad....despite being a "big boned" woman, I was always very active and quite fit--for someone my size. I am aging almost overnight.

I think I need a change of scenery--well, a change in my life, my routine, living space...something. I'm not going to get it, at least not anytime in the forseeable future...and, it may not be what I need, I don't know. I don't know anything, any more, and that's the truth.

I'm trying hard not to worry about my eyes. There's worse things than going blind, I don't have cancer, my heart is doing OK, and my kidney functions are fine, so far. My diabetes is somewhat better lately, and my BP is down a bit, as well.

I miss mum. She was a rock for me, my friend. She spent over 5 years, knowing she was going to die, and she never once complained. She was scared, sometimes, but she never let me see it...she just kept living her life one day at a time, as usual--well, as normal as her illness would allow, and tried to cope as best she could---could I do no less?

This is seriously, every Whovian's dream come true! Good for this bloke, and he did a fantastic job. And it's really a nice way for the old team to go out, bringing in a fan like that, lovely.

I only got to touch an old series (T. B. era) console and sit in Bessie, but I'd give the rest of my eyesight--no really, I would, to have just five min. in that studio, THAT'S how much I love this programme. It's really very special.

Anyway, enough of my blather, on with the "special scene" by Russell T. Davies, staring Tim the fan, John Barrowman and David Tennant.

Awww--what a lovely man, and while the Whovian in me, didn't always agree with, or even like, Davies' decisions---I didn't care. I only fussed once during the whole of the 4 series, and quite frankly, if I DID agree with every single thing the man (or anyone) did, I'd really start to worry about myself, ha-ha.

Mr. Davies is a flippin' fantastic writer, and...I'm not, so who am I to say, what is and what isn't? I really don't care if I liked something or not, because at the end of the day, RTD took me on a magic carpet ride through my dreams---those dreams were of seeing Dr Who brought back to life again, and Russell, dear man, you did it, and you did it with dash and panasce, and by gosh, you did something I'd never have been able to do, even if I was in your class as a writer (and knew anything about television production).

And I say, thank goodness for Russell T., what would we fans ever have done without him?

One of the first songs I ever remember hearing, wasn't on the radio, it wasn't the Beatles...it was 'Johnny Angel." My parents bought the record probably when I was about 1 or 2 years old. They had a good-sized collection of 45 vinyl records when sis and I were wee children...and most of them were real snoozers, I gotta' tell ya'.

We didn't pay that collection of 45's much mind...except for one. From the time I was 3 or 4 years old, right up into my pre-teen years, Johnny Angel got some pretty massive play time in our home. Not sure why, it wasn't anything special, really. You couldn't dance to it (in my childhood, little girls did NOT slow dance with little boys...unless they were forced into it by their parents or grandparents, at a wedding or something.)

My sis, who was--and still is, somewhat, facinated by witches, monsters, horror, paranormal stuff, etc. (if she were growing up today, she's most definately be one of those "goth" kids) and she loved the flip side tune, 'When's it Gonna' Get Me?" Yeah, my sister was (and still is, sorta') really weird...but then, aren't most siblings?

The holiday weekend is coming to a close, the sun is slowly sinking over West Mountain--(I assume, I can't see it from here, 'cos of the trees/houses), and I've just had a fab dinner of bonless-skinless chicken thighs seasoned with Mrs. Dash (a salt-free seasoned pepper blend) amd browned in olive oil..and then simmered in some low-sugar cherry pie filling....served on a bed of parmesan flavour couscous, with buttered brussels spouts on the side. Yummy! And now, for a cup of coffee...(sighs contentedly)...I've got some oldies playing, it's a lovely mid-spring evening, and Boots is on my shoulder, "hugging" me and purring away....my life doesn't get much better than this, people.

"I tell you what? Why don't we head back to my flat, and I'll peel off my officially licensed Dr Who pants and show you what a real Time Lord can do with his sonic screwdriver."

Back when I came of age, my dad said I could be any religion I wanted--I was pretty much forced into being Catholic by my dad, whom, ironically, outside of going to church on Sundays and holidays, wasn't especially religous.

But, I waited over 2 years, until I was 20 to make my decision--one I didn't take lightly. I was never what could be labeled a devout Christian, but I wasn't a semi-athiest as I am, now.

I didn't hate being Catholic, but, a lot of what I experienced and felt, and how I was treated as a child, by those in the church who apparently never heard of the term "christian kindness," sort of made me uncomfortable with my enforced religion. I saw the Catholic religion as a church more concerned about appearences, pagentry and tradition, than with the teachings of Christ. I didn't like that. That's not how I saw religion's role in my life and in the community.

St. Joan of Arc church where I went as a child--I was baptized and confirmed there, went to my first family funeral there, and my first wedding (my sister's first marriage)...it never changed. You didn't need to read along with the service, 'cos with the exception of the homily--which was so boring and droningly dull and so out of touch with the world I lived in, that I don't remember ever actually listening to it. People used to virtually bolt out the door at the end of the 30 minute service...in fact, sometimes they'd leave right after Holy Communion! (Which seriously pissed off the priest so much, that one Sunday after homily, he dellivered a venomous lecture about it--which had little effect).

The Catholic church used to have an organ and singing when I was wee, but the new preist didn't like music (apparently) and did away with singing in church. (God forbid that one would feel HAPPY about going to church, yeah?) Basically, our two priests growing up were...something I'm far too much of a lady to say.

So, I started going to the Presbyterian church. I was made to feel welcomed, they were deeply concerned for others in the community--even had a food pantry, there was no pagentry, just simple worship and fellowship...meted out quietly and conservatively, in plain English...the semons all were about dealing with daily life issues or issues going on right then and there in the world....and few bolted out the door after service, they went to the hall for coffee and chat.

Anyway, even tho' last year I gave up on the church--much to my "christian' co-worker's unacceptance and discomfort...Americans...for a country that is big on freedom of religion, they don't really respect those who choose to be free of religion....so, last year I gave up on God...not out of disrespect, but....well, I have more than a few reasons, and, like in the early 80's, it wasn't a decision I took lightly.

In the paper this morning, I read this:

Catholic aide says gay men commit most paedophilia | He said the "vast majority" of abuse cases in the UK affected teenage boys. "Now what does that tell you? Now that is a fact," he added.

As a pedo victim, this just sickened me. This is horribly un-true, and will result in innocent men being persecuted by ignorant bastards. And, it passes over little girl's being hurt by these pigs, as well. The Catholic church using pedophile VICTIMS to push their homophobic agenda---I didn't think I could ever go back to being Catholic, and I am certain now, that I made the RIGHT decision to leave the Catholic chruch.

I no longer have ANY respect for the Catholic church after reading this. They belong in the Middle Ages, buring witches and dissenters, and putting them on the rack. The Catholic church no longer belongs in the modern world.

Skype is down. I have to go back in and do some stuff...Skype is great, but it has bugs sometimes...ususally I can get it back up in a minute or two, but I keep clicking on it, and it won't pop up! Arrgh!

Oh well, I'll try again later. My server was acting up, around 7am, so maybe that effected it...my hotmail account is also giving me greif. Never rains but it pours.

So, if anyone wants to Skype me today, try later in about a couple of hours. I am going to go make my bed and do some chores, so I'll try to get back in later.

....literally, this time.

Glens Fall's one and only parade has come and gone for another year. Charlie sat in my lap for most of it, and was his usual mellow unruffled self. He put his ears back at the loud chopper motorcycles, and didn't care for the "Ooo--oooo--ga" of the old Model T roadsters, but the dashhound "Weiner Walk" contingent intriqued him, and for once, he did me proud, and didn't even twitch when the two bagpipe bands went by...last year they freaked him out--which is embarrassing, 'cos his full name IS "Bonnie Prince Charlie."

Pretty much Charlie just laid in my lap, watching the parade, and every once in a while leaning back with his "scratch my itchy ear, please" posture. He's totally one mellow dude. You could fire off a bazooka and it probably wouldn't faze him too much.

Charlie will be 9 years old in June, so will his brother, Boots. Flame will be 9 in the autumn.

Flame peeped her head out the open balcony window for a bit, decided she didn't care for the racket, sniffed indignantly, whinged a bit at me, and left in a huff. Boots is still hiding. First note of the brass band (only two, this year), and he was off like a rocket.

The parade was much shorter this year, and there were only 2 brass bands: the Lake George Community Band, and the city's high school marching band. It's likely due to budget constraints, as bands have to be paid and that gets a wee expensive on town and city budgets in hard economic times. Also, other small communities are having parades today, so community bands (there's only a small handful of them in New York's north country), have to decide what town they want to play in.)

My charming new downstairs neighbour, the ex-marine and his girlfriend (who's apparently out of jail, now) brought dining chairs out on their porch to watch the parade...the girlfriend walked out to watch the piper's go by, boyfriend, dressed like some slob, walked out stood beside her...and started groping her...yeah, buttocks, snogging, etc...right in front of the kiddies. How utterly charming, then he dragged her back inside with him, like she was a piece of meat he coveted....leaving the chairs behind. Yeah, well, maybe he's too tired from lifting beer bottles to his mouth.

I gotta' tell you, if this guy really was in the marines--he either got a dishonourable discharge, lied about it, or the US marines , who were once a grand institution, have seriously lowered their standards, and basically will take any mangy chav moron who comes along, who can obey orders and shoot a gun. The behaviour and attitude of adolecent chav mooks like this guy, isn't doing their reputation any favours, let me tell you.

I mean, here's this macho looking fit guy--got the military buzz cut and all, and he didn't even get off of his lazy American arse to stand when the military honour guard went by--but he moved fast enough the minute his girlfriend left his side. Sex is so much more important than patriotism, yeah?

Here it is, a National Holiday, Monday morning, 6.10am....and in my city, run by middleclass whitebread bougeouis proletarian republicans, who pretty much think and act like it's still the McCarthy era of the 1950's, and, pray tell, what do they decide to do?

They decide it would be a really good idea, at 6.10am on the equivilient of a bank holiday Monday, to do some construction work!

Yeah, I'm sure all of us up and down this part of Glen St. deeply apprecated back up hooters and gunning heavy equipment engines rather rudely waking us at 6.10 am......if I had a magic wand, I'd run a goddmamned freight train at 4am through the mayor's back yard, and have a big rig 18 wheeler park in the head of the public work's department's driveway, gunning its engine and hooting its air horn, at 4am. Yeah, revenge would be very sweet indeed.

Bastards. Hey morons, every hear of noise pollution, quality of life issues? Oh wait, you probably still think there's dinosaurs roaming around some place.

Filming for David Tennant's last stint as Dr Who wrapped up on Saturday. It's in the hands of Steve Moffat and Matt Smith now.

Thank you so much Tennant and Davies, Collinson, Ms. Gardner and et al. for a marvelous ride in the Tardis---speaking as an American Whovian for the past 26 years, you all are the best of the best, bless. You've touched my life in so many ways--and I'm sure, quite a few others...but, I mean, my LIFE. Dr Who kept me going when I had basically nothing much left to keep going for (other than my cats and a few possessions), so...I know none of you will ever, ever read this, but jeez gents and ladies--wow, what a ride it's been.

It's been brilliant and funny, sad and thoughtful, intense and...well, bloody fantastic.

Sure, I'm looking forward to what's in store around the next bend over there at BBC Wales, but you all are--and will be, sorely missed, Thank you for everything.

Excuse me, I'm going to go cry into my microwaved mashed potatoes, now. Cheers!

I was sitting here minding my own business, when the neighbours suddenly are running up and down the stairs, and then one of them yells, "You better open this f_cking door, Now! If you don't, I'm gonna' kick it in!"

Charming. Not inviting them to my next soire on my yacht, then.

Sad news stories in the papers this morning, on my side of the Atlantic.

In Oregon, a 31 year old woman pushed her two children off of a motorway bridge and into a cold river at around one in the morning. She apparently may have driven her blue Audi on to the bridge, and pushed her two children off.

The 4 year old boy drowned, but nearby residents who were awake at the time, heard the children's screams, and immediately launched boats in search of the little one's...finding them about an hour later. Too late to save the boy, but the woman's 7 year old girl did survive and is in stable condition. Police call the apparently brave little girl "quite a little fighter." The woman later was found in a multi-level car park, threatening to jump off the 9th level roof. Police arrested her and charged her will aggravated murder and attempted aggravated murder. There's no statement from police at this time, as to the woman's motives for doing this. Police are waiting a day or so, before questioning the surviving child.

In other news....

A man in Arizona was attending a high school graduation party in a private home, when he got into an argument with guests. The man had a handgun in his car, and went out for it, came back, and started shooting, killing 2 and wounding several others--including a policeman responding to the domestic dispute call, and a 10 year old boy.

Yeah, guns don't kill people..emotionally unstable Americans who are allowed to have as many guns as they want, kill people.

Two local guys took their beat up old SUV out for a spin...along a swath cut into a rural mountain town, that was for utility poles going through the mountainous terrain, from a power dam about 8 miles away on the Great Sacandaga Lake/Reservoir.

The two men, while negotiating the utility pole trail--which is marked private property by the power company, and deemed fit only for ATV or foot travel--- tried to drive their old 1994 Ford Ranger up an almost vertical rocky incline--surprise, surprise--the SUV rolled over, injuring the two men. One of the men admitted he'd been drinking earlier in the day, but due to his injuries, police were unable to verify whether he'd been drunk at the time of the accident (Americans don't have to be drunk to behave like complete morons).

Of course, neither man was wearing a seat belt, causing one of them to be ejected from the vehicle during the accident. It is not known who was driving. After being taken to a local hospital, one of the men was then airlifted by medi-copter to a medical center in the capital city of Albany. Two volunteer fire departments and two ambulance/rescue squads responded to the accident. The accident took place in Warren County, but the men were from Washington and Saratoga Counties, respectively, and no one knows why the two men suddenly choose to go off-roading in that particular area. The article doesn't say if the Ranger was equipped for off-roading with a roll-over bar.

1994 Ford Ranger

I had thought to stay up and watch a video or two on the comp, but I'm getting spots in my eyes again, and I think I just need to call it an early night.

I am not a fan of books on tape, bedtimes stories are nice when you're sick--I used to take out some books on tape, like Lousi L'amour westerns and some mystery novels when I had a bad cold or something, to lie in bed and listen to. When I was laid up for a bit last year, I lay in bed listening to The Stone Rose Dr Who story on disc, and it really helped to pass the time. And, it's nice to listen to a full-cast recording of a stage play, I have to admit, when you can't be there to see the real thing. I do own a several books on tape--two Dr Who novels and Richard II, a full-cast CBC recording from 1946, that I got at a used book sale.

I love old time radio recordings--unlike the UK, quiz shows and radio plays are virtually non-existant on modern American airwaves--the cast and sound effects are "theater of the mind," as someone once said. (Rupert Holmes?)

But, I adore reading. I literally grew up surrounded by books--even now, I have books scattered all over my living room and a bookcase in the bedroom, as well. I cannot imagine my life without books...which upsets me because I might no have to imagine it, a few years from now. It might be a reality. The thought of not being able to read is very distressing--oh, I'm a survivor, I'll adjust...still, even tho' I know millions of people love books on tape and this new Kindle thing...not me.

I know it sounds hokey, but truly, for me, there's something almost deliciously magical, in turning the next page, continuing an adventure...you can't get that from someone reading to you--I don't care how well he or she pauses, or does voices or whatever. It's just not the same.

Now, this is a news article from the website of what laughingly passes for our local newspaper. Am I wrong--and feel free to correct me if I am wrong, or is some of the grammar in this article sadly lacking?

I actually studied news editing under the then-assistant city editor of this very newspaper, an editor who swore up and down that their reporters came from places like Harvard and Columbia University, and that their staff of editors and copy editors, was of the best---well, that was then (2004), this is the reality now:

'We warned them, we warned them, we warned them'
Whitehall students alert chaperones of alcohol at prom

Deputy John Latour made the arrests

OK...you're out of work. You need a job, you apply for jobs and leave your answering machine on when you're out, to catch any calls from prospective employers....so WHY the hell do you have recordings that run like this:

Hell-woo, I'm jimmy--(loud giggle)--I'm your prospective employee's very loud obnoxious three year old son, that can barely talk yet, and whom you can hardly understand, but I'm doing the answering machine recording 'cos mum and dad think everyone loves my noxious little voice-- if you have gotten this far without hanging up in digust, leave a message--(giggles uncontrobably in a nail-bitingly grating way).

Hey. I'm not here. You know what to do, so do it at the sound of the beep.

We're not answering the phone, cos' we're out looking for jobs

Yo! We're not home, so you know what to do. (not hire someone who actually says, "Yo!"???)

If you are a telemarketer hang up, everyone else takes their chances. (I take it you aren't applying for a phone centre job?)

We're not answering the phone because we're screening our calls, if we decide we like you, we'll return your call.

THE RIGHT WAY TO PROGRAMME YOUR MACHINE IF YOU REALLY DO WANT A JOB, AND WANT TO ACTUALLY IMPRESS A PROSPECTIVE EMPLOYER:

Hello, you've reached (phone number or name). We' can't come to the phone at the moment, please leave.....etc.

Now, it that all that difficult???

Damn it!! Need to get a new keyboard! I don't know what the hell I keep hitting on mine, but it keeps kicking me out of posts! It's like I've hit the "save" button, or "enter" key, but I'm not! It's driving me bonkers!

I do not want to go to work today. Have you EVER tried selling shite on a holiday weekend to permanantly irate, impatient, emotionally immature, completely unstable, moronic Americans, with manners like shite? (which is 3/4 of the entire population of the USA, from my vast experience).

Welcome to 4 hours of telemarketing hell.

I'm gonna' get an earful today...cos' you know, it's all MY fault that I rang their number 6 times this week, and they didn't pick up the phone, 'cos they have caller ID and didn't know the number.

Yeah dimwits?

Here's a clue for you:

PICK UP THE EFFING PHONE, SAY 'HELLO?' W-A-I-T FOR US TO ANSWER, RESPOND CIVILLY, HAVE AN EFFING PROPER CONVERSATION, POLITELY DECLINE, SAY GOODBYE, W-A-I-T FOR US TO SAY GOODBYE, AND GUESS THE HELL WHAT? WE WILL NEVER EFFING CALL YOU AGAIN, YOU DUMBARSE HALF-WITS.

I'd rather spend 30 minutes listening to that American Satan Rush Limbaugh, than go in to work today and spend 4 hours listening to his spawn.

I was watching some old and new real-life myth/mystery videos on YouTube.

Amazing the crap people will buy into, just because it's on TV. Now, I'm NOT saying certain things exist or don't exist--I of all people, know that there really are things out there, that cannot be explained--because we lack the knowlege and nothing more, but....

...what I AM saying, is that some people try to explain paranormal and other mysterious activity, by NOT explaining it.

For instance, there was a video about the increase in earthquake acitivity being linked to the End of Days. All throught the film, the narrorator never really stated any FACTS or gave any practical information...pretty much the whole video went: "Could increased activity be a sign that the End of Days is approaching? Could earthquakes in America and elsewhere, be just a prelude to international disaster? Is climate change causing the earth's core to become unstable? In his predictions for End Times was so-and-so right?"

Of course, not ONCE does it make mention that we have 10 times the amount observation stations now, and a lot better techology and equipment, than they had 500, 100, or even as little as 75 or 50 years ago. Of COURSE it's going to appear there are more earthquakes, because we have more people and more sensative equipment and faster reporting of earthquakes, then we've ever had before, in the entire history of mankind!

I mean, it does seem right now, today, that indeed there are more earthquakes of late--New York has had not less that FIVE earthqakes--Sunday, Monday and Tuesday, ranging from a not felt 1.9 tremmor, to a 3.0, in the past week--3 in the same location in northeastern New York, one the northern Adriondacks near Quebec, and one in western NY, not far from Rochester, I think. This is extremely unusual, to the point of being almost unheardof. We get earthqakes, yes, but never in clusters like this, all over the state. Or so I read on a university website..and in my lifetime, I don't recall this, tho' I haven't exactly been following earthquake activity much in my life. (When I worked in Yellowstone Park I became interested for a time, because I had to walk past the National Park Service seismograph at Old Faithful geyser every morning on my way to work.)

But....25 years ago, we didn't necessasarily have the ability to get some of the information we have now..perhaps 20 or 30 years ago, that 1.9 quake may or may not have registered, but, unless it was actually felt, it might have gone unreported, because there was no equipment or obervers covering that particular area.

Well you get the gist? Lots of questions, but...not a single fact or answer.

That's like saying: Will Nancy burn the toast tomorrow morning? Will she use Brummel and Brown yogurt spread, or I Can't Believe It's Not Butter? What kind of bread will she use? Will she even have toast at all? And, if she doesn't have toast tomorrow morning, will that mean the east coast of the United States will break off and fall into the Atlantic Ocean?

What a lot of palver about a bunch of nothing!

Well, sometimes some of these shows are done a little better than others--like the old 70's television series, "In Search Of." My sister loved that programme, so consequently, since we only had 2 teles in our house--one in the living room, and my dad's portable set in his bedroom (my parents "seperated" in the mid-70's, but still lived together--just in seperate bedrooms...and dad usually retreated to his room to watch tele, after the 6 O'clock news.)..so, what sis watched I had to watch..and this wasn't badly done, as titalating paranormal programmes go.

Here's a clip of In Search of:

Once again, someone, who seemed genuinely taken aback, said to me yesterday, "You don't have television or rent videos? What do you do, then???"

Erm....lots of stuff.

I mean, I really don't hate television--I like televison...I just don't like 75% of what's passed off as televison in America, these days.

I used to live next door to a gay couple, and I hung out at their house all the time--it was practically my second home! They were excelllent conversationalists--even tho' neither of them had ever graduated high school, and one could barely read--I got more out of conversations with them, than I did from talks with some of my profs at college. Very worldly, lively and intelligent mates, those two were. I miss them, sometimes.

Anyway, yeah--we talked. But, my friends also loved watching televison--historical documentaries, old films, TV series...you name it.

They got over 400 channels, and paid (at the time) around 100 dollars a month for the privledge....yet they were forever whinging how there was "nothing to watch' on tele!

I think that speaks volumes for the (mostly) crappy state of American televsion, in the last decade or so.

I mean, OK, sometime I wish I had tele--BBC America, Public Television, and shows like West Wing and Law and Order aside--is it worth a $100 a month....

..am I REALLY missing anything? Is watching American Idol going to be a life-changing experience? Do I really give a rat's fart about Ophrah's latest obsession? Do I REALLY want to get my news from Fox and the CNN newscrawl?

Do I want to sit there all day on my overstuffed sofa from the bargain furniture outlet, drooling into my Pringles can, watching The Weather Channel? "Oh look, Earl! They's having a thunderstorm way up there in Nu Yourk!"

No, I don't think so!

It's an enormous universe out there, people! There's more than just tele! There's books and writing, there's hobbies galore, there's nature and there's art and theater and music, board and card games, there's science and relgion and politics....conver-effing-sation! And, so much more--there's millions of other human beings, towns and villages, city's and ancient ruins, and ....a whole entire plant, millions of years old, just waiting for you!

Television is great---but if you can't watch TV, if all TV (heaven forbid) stopped, what the hell would you all do, for pity's sake?

I was reading how a local trucking company up near where I live now, was hired by Hollywood film makers to modify and provide two big-rig gasoline takers for Angelina Jolie's new film (I don't really know who she is, but I've heard her name mentioned quite a few times on entertainment news broadcasts on the radio---she's a popular film actress, I take it?)

Anyway, the stunt used two stunt doubles for Jolie--whom by-standers claimed looked just like the actruess from 10 feet away. Scenes from the film were shot in and around the ultra-modern Empire State Plaza complex in New York's captial city of Albany, a few week's ago.

The action scene was filmed on the west side of the Dunn Memorial bridge--which as multideck levels. The stunt required the trucking company to modify two petrol tankers, to accomdate the stunt double(s). The trucking company had to weld on a flat screen--basically a cat walk, on top of the tanker--with the addition of a couple of vents sticking up through the steel mesh of the walk area. This is purely Hollywood taking liberties with reality, as, it was reported by the trucker, it's illegal in New York, to have any sort of vents sticking out of a gasoline tanker.

The stunt scene only a couple of minutes on screen--but took about 2 weeks to film, and required one tanker to be driven on a lower roadway deck, while the drove above it on the top roadway deck. The stunt person(s) were required to be on top of one petrol tanker, walking along it...then dropping down to the petrol tanker below.

The scenes were filmed on the motorway decks seen to the middle left of the photo-on the Hudson River, docked just south of the bridge, on what used to be called the "snow dock," (where the city dumped excess snow removed from snow banks on the city kerbs, up until the early 90's) you can see the decommissioned USS Albany, now a floating historical exhibit.

The Dunn-Memorial Bridge (which replaced the original bridge in the 1970's), seen here in this news photo, being repaired after a partial collapse last year.

Spending the morning on the phone---very rare for me. I can literally go days without needing to make a phone call, and can go, and have gone many times, actual weeks without a single phone call coming in...today, that's not the case.

I got an overseas call from Absolute Radio's solicitor, a wrong number, a telemarketing call from Virgin Mobile, and a call from a telemarketer trying to see me a warranty for a car I don't have.

Then, I have been trying to chase down the number for the surgeon who's going to run the pre-op tests and screening for my possible laser surgery on my now blind-ish eye...and, that's been not fun, 'cos I am only getting a recording!

As soon as I reach them, I have to ring up my co-worker, to let her know how long my appointment will be, so she can decide if she wants to hang around with me in the surgeon's office, or go shopping. It's so kind of this lady to take me all the way down to Saratoga...it's a good 30 to 40 minute drive---merely a stone's throw by American standards, but still, it's her day off, and I am gobsmacked by her kindness, honestly I am.

I won't lie. No one who has to deal with this, can understand, but I am nervious. It's like someone who has cancer or some other fatal illness, and they have come to terms with it, and know they are going to die--but when that time actually comes, we're all human, and we are all scared. You would have to be superhuman not to be scared. Well--it's sort of the same for me...I've accepted the loss of my sight is probably inevitable, but I hadn't been confronted by it head-on before, and that's a whole other kettle of fish. I'm....OK. I've been through tougher things than this, heaven knows. Still....well, it's our big Memorial Day weekend. I wish I could be doing something "fun," like go to the amusement park/waterpark, or playing crazy golf or horseback riding, whitewater rafting, going to an arcade, horse show, etc. etc., but...not gonna' happen, this year.

And...that's fine. Maybe next year.

Hope you all will have a nice weekend. Cheers.

...well, by me anyway, ha-ha.

I just got an e-mail from some Whovian acquaintence (again, sorry about typos, eyes are still a bit iffy today). So this young lady is all sad, 'cos she lives in the UK and says her great and illustrious sex-god known as David Tennant, is leaving the UK.

Erm--he is? Didn't I read somewhere last year in someone's post, that the man recently bought a home over there somewhere? Well, easy come, easy go.

But, as it turns out, she's under the impression that he's coming over here to do Masterpiece Theater. No, he doesn't have to, fan-girls. It's just a presenter role, a brief introduction to the drama being shown, and it's usually no longer than a few minutes long..he can do that from his lounge in London or Cardiff or Glasgow or...wherever. He doesn't need to come here to do it---or, alternately, he could fly over to Boston, spend a day or two taping intros to the whole series, at the WGBH studios (who produce US Masterpiece theater).

She wanted to know if I knew where "he will be staying?"

Okaaay, what part of "I don't know David Tennant" on my blog header, don't these fan-girl's understand????

I mean, DT doesn't know me, and even if we did, by some astronimcially improbable chance did meet, let's face it: he wouldn't give a rat's fart about me...I'm just another face in a crowd of millions. And..that's fine.

Where in the world is David?

I don't know...erm--Las Vegas with Kylie getting blootered? Sunbathing in Sweden? Skin diving off the Orkney Islands?

Hey, I sould market that as a game, and flog it to the fan-girls, I'd make enough money to move me and the cats and my stuff the hell out of this violent and completely bonkers country called America.

A Georgia man was given a 100 year prison sentence today, after a jury found him guilty of poisoning his own children.

The man fed his 3 year old and 18 month old Campbell's tinned soup, which he had laced with prescription drugs and cigarette lighter fluid.

Why? Because the man wanted to get rich, by suing Campbell's for selling tainted soup.

Greed is an evil thing, no doubt about it...and Americans, more and more with every passing year, seem to excell at using it as an excuse to steal honestly earned money, and to hurt themselves and innocent people.

I've only sort of been following stories about the Hadron Collider...the one that everyone involved denies that it blew up last year. They are soldiering on though, apparently.

Even though I do have dyscalculia, that doesn't mean math doesn't interest me...in fact, I liked algebra, even tho' my disability means it's impossible for me to do it...and, what people like Tesla in the past, and these gents are doing...well, I find it very intriquing, if you must know, even if I don't entirely grasp it....there's that abstract concept of these immense intangible things out there in our universe, that we cannot obviously see or quite grasp, that we know--or merely suspect-- may well exist, nonetheless.

As some of you who know what's going on with me might surmise, I've had one helluva' stressful day. I'm utterly knackered!

I'm trying hard not to be scared or too nervous...tho' no one likes the idea of surgery, I know that it may help retard my blindness for a few more years..but the bottom line is: i could well be fully blind before the age of 60, possibly much sooner than that, even.

Part of me has been mostly OK with this knowlege for the last 8 years. However, 8 years ago the disease was dormant and not progressing at all...and it wasn't expected to progress at that time, into well close to, or even into, my pensioner years...and, I didn't have it in both eyes then, either, and never expected to get it in both eyes, as I was assured that that was a minimal chance...well, I guess not so minimal, after all.

The upside is, that some portion of student loans are sometimes forgiven if someone goes blind, and...maybe I can get a seeing eye dog, ha-ha. I miss having a dog...maybe I can get a rough-coated collie, like lassie (and my dear Shamrock, who was half-collie, and had that lovely long pointy nose). That would take a lot of the sting out of it, ha-ha.

It's not so much the loss of sight that bothers me...god I'll miss reading though, and seeing nature's beauties...so much as the loss, even temporarily, of my independence. Of course you know I'm on my own, and sometimes able-bodied, I get compltely overwhelmed, especially when I'm physically ill, or injured, or bi-polar.

I grabbed a sandwich for my dinner, washed down with a diet Coke, and now I'm off to bed--it's almost half-past 11pm, and I'm feeling the long day right now---tonight, on top of everything else, my bursitis acted up in my left knee (at different times in the past, I fractured both kneecaps and sometimes they get a bit achey), and I could hardly walk at times...I was walking all bend over and gimpy...my left knee wouldn't work, and my bad right foot was sore...jeez, I don't mind being a few years shy of 50 one iota, but some days, it really sucks getting old.

My eyesight started clearing from the drops and stuff around half-past five, so I went into the office at six PM...and about five min. later, the computers crashed!

So, we spent 2 hours in a "forum," having to put up with the loud obnoxious teenagers the chav office has hired, through the whole thing. I put up my hand to make a point, and I was told the brats behind me were mocking me...stinking obnoxious rugs...

...and the kid came in again with his effing jeans hanging down his arse and his underpants showing (red with yellow bananas), and when several reps got on his case to pull up his stinking pants, he refused, and said his pants weren't showing...to which one elderly rep replied, "they're bright red kiddo..now, I either have x-ray vision, or you need to grow up and learn how to dress yourself properly. Which do you think is the right answer?" Good for her!

God, I've wanted to say just that, but I wouldn't get away with it, like she did..she's been with the company twice as long as I have.

Anyway, during the break, we went outside for some fresh air. Some of us were hanging out by the picnic table, when, on the other side of the car park, on Bay Street, not one, but TWO city police cars come up--one with lights flashing...and pull over...Mr. Ding-a-ling!

That's right, two cops pulled over the ice cream man! One with the flashing lights got out and was directing traffice around the van....while the other officer went around to...the service window--the big window with the ice cream stickers plastered around it.

I wonder if he was asking if the vendor had any frozen donuts? Do you have any coffee flavour ice cream sandwiches?

Hey, it got up to almost 90 F today, maybe they wanted a popcicle.

I'm typing without seeing the screen (my vision is too blurred from the drops/bright lights), so forgive any typos...I'm typing very, very slowly.

Now, all my life, I've more or less been a tomboy treehugging cowgirl. I was so NOT a pink frilly kind of girl.

So, why, all of the sudden, am I wearing pink? I have a pink tee shirt, girly tops...for gawd's sake, last week I even bought a DRESS. I don't need a flippin' dress, I have four of em' I'm not wearing now! I mean, you buy a dress or even a skirt, and you have to have the shoes and the stockings or tights, and all that palaver to go with it...next thing you know, I'll be spending all my spare time applying make up and perfumes and lotions, going for manicures and pedicures, watching soaps and Ophra, reading trashy romance novels and wearing clothes by Old smelly Navy, Aerofossil, Applecrumble and Pinch, etc...ewwww--I might start to look....girly. Bleh, phooey, vomit.

Think I'll go out to Tractor Supply Company and buy a nice manly lumberjack shirt.

....I am going blind. However...not yet.

No glaucoma, retina is good, macula is fine...but, my RP http://www.allaboutvision.com/conditions/retinapigment.htm is advancing. It's gotten dangerously close to the macula (that's what connects your eye to the brain), and I've also got a very tiny spot of blindness in my left eye, which I didn't have before.

Basically, if the RP moves a few more milimeters closer to the macula in my right eye and covers it, it's adios eyesight forever.

But...next Wednesday I'm booked into the surgeon's office down in Saratoga 15 miles from here, to see if my right eye can be saved with laser surgery...if it can, I'll be booked into Glens Falls or Saratoga hospital, forthwith.

So....keep your fingers crossed for me, ey?

This means I won't be going down to see mum next Saturday, but then, mum would be quite put out with me, for spending money on bus and/or train and/or cab fare, and flowers, when I had such a presing issue. And, quite right, too, I suppose.

It's a cloudless day, supposed to get up to 27 C or maybe even higher, today. Nice breeze at the moment, and in the 70's F, so not too bad yet. Seems weird...people were covering up their plants to protect them from the frost Monday, and now on Wednesday it's going to be hot enough to go swimming and sunbathing. Very strange weather.

We've new "caretakers" in the building...well, not sure what they are supposed to be taking care of. The woman painted the outside door, yesterday--not a WET PAINT sign in sight...and she painted the OUTSIDE of the door, left the dirty sumdged inside of the door unpainted...how rubbish and lazy is that?

My dad used to be like that. We had no real backyard neighbours...our back yard fronted a little grove of Eastern White Pine, and a dirt track that the former Victorian-era estate's gardener used, to take his big Massey Fergusson tractor to the field next door to our house to mow the grass, and to the big steep ravene, to dump leaves and brush down it. Oh, and there was the remains of an early 1900's Japanese garden behind out house as well: moss-covered paths, low growing flowers and shurbs, etc...and past the garden on a hill, with a lawn inbetween, was the little mansion of the Episcopal bishops of Albany.

So, basically--we had no backyard neighbours. So, dad one day, was feeling ambitious--a rare thing for him--and decided to paint our little cape cod style middle class bougois home....so he bought two gallons of white paint....and painted the BACK of the garage...and...stopped there.

OK, to this day, I cannot help but wonder, what the hell was the point of that??? What was dad thinking?

And....what is with these new caretakers? Again, today they are painting the porch posts white--porch posts that have never been painted since the day I moved in 20th Nov. 2006...and again, there's not a WET PAINT sign in sight. DOH. Now, this woman (and apparently, her boyfriend) aren't too swift looking. One of the other tennants told me she'd gotten out of jail not too long ago. What happens is, the cheap nouveau riche chav building manager, reduces the rent of certain tennants, in exchange for them doing odd jobs...so, not exactly getting quality people.

I am of the opinion, that every single tennant in my building is in-bred. I can't wait to get the hell out of this hovel full of mentally deficient chavs. Cripes, I'm telling you, I'm no longer all that crazy about a democratic free public (state) education. It really is wasted on certain portions of the American population.

I wonder, has anyone ever done an international IQ poll? I am guessing the US would be at the bottom of the list. America may be the "melting pot" of humanity, but these days, I realize that we got what Europe didn't want...the leftovers, ha-ha.

You gotta' wonder about the rejects from Ellis Island, that were sent back--what are their decendents like?

INEXPERIENCED CHILI JUDGE

JUDGE TWO: This final entry is a good, balanced chili. Neither mild nor
hot. Sorry to see that most of it was lost when Judge Number 3 passed
out, fell over and pulled the chili pot down on top of himself. Not sure
if he's going to make it. Poor Yank, wonder how he'd have reacted to a
really hot chili?

Just going to bed, it's late. Tomorrow's the big day, so I can't sleep in. Keeping my finger's crossed all will be well..and I'll be getting sorely needed new glasses--I'm supposed to get new one's every year or two, but it's been about five or six years now, so I'm way overdue for new lenses for my very near-sighted eyes.

Didn't eat dinner till after 11pm, and I decided to wait a bit before going to sleep, so my stomach can cope with the spag bol.

Leaving you with some jokes, to lighten the morning:

Reasons Texas should be annexed from the United States:

A Texan called his local town office, asking for them to move the deer crossing sign from the road near his house, to another location. Why? Because the deer were getting hit by cars, and he wanted the "deer crossing" to be put in a safer location for the deer.

A tourist went to a BBQ resturant in Texas, and asked the waiter for "minimal" BBQ sauce on their ribs. The waiter replied that he was sorry, but they didn't use the minimal brand, but made their own sauce on premises.

A Texan went for job re-training at a local college, that included an introduction to computers. His final exam included a computer terms quiz. The Texan failed...here's why:

"Hard Drive" - Trying to climb a steep, muddy hill with 3 flat tires and pulling a trailer load of fertilizer.

"Keyboard" - Place to hang your pick up truck keys.

"Window" - Place to hang your shotgun in your pick up truck.

"Floppy" - When you run out of Polygrip for your dentures.

"Modem" - How to get rid of your dandelions.

"ROM" - Delicious when you mix it with coca cola.

"Byte" - First word in a kiss-off phrase, ending with "me".

"Reboot" - What you do when the first pair gets covered with cow shit.

"Network" - What happens after you've just reeled in a trout.

"Mouse" - Fuzzy, soft thing you stuff in your beer bottle in order to get a free case.

"LAN" - To borrow as in, "Hey Delbert! LAN me yore saddle."

"Cursor" - What some guys do when they are angry with their their wives.

"Bit" - What goes in my horse's mouth to help me steer.

"Digital Control" - What yore fingers do on the TV remote.

"Packet" - What you do to a suitcase or Wal-Mart bag before a trip.

One of my co-worker's had to call some woman tonight, named--and I'm perfectly serious, mind you---"Clio Katschitz." No, really, that's the woman's name! I saw it myself on the computer screen. Gosh that was funny. What WERE her mum and dad THINKING????

("Clio" being a popular name for cats and lions, makes this doubly funny. Poor woman.)

You can't make this stuff up in Hollywood, let me tell you.

I had some woman tonight, I asked for her hubby and accidentally mis-pronounced their last name...hey, you make a zillion calls a night, ratttle off the script a couple of hundred times, sometimes your brain doesn't always connect with your tongue fast enough. I'm human not God...I'm a liberal, and as Every American knows, God is a conservative.

Anyway, first the southern bimbo says, really sarcastically, "There's no one by that name here." So, I assume I've got a bad listing/wrong number. I ask as per standard proceedure, if I have the correct address. She tells me yes...then in a whinging shriek (more than a little freakishly) shouts "But it's not Feildsome....it's FELLLLLD--SOME!

OK, then, Mrs. Fellllldsome, forget to take our daily dose of Prozac today, did we? Cripes!!! America really needs to put drugs in the water supply.

Another woman somewhere (I forget what state I was calling, think it was Florida, but it may have been New Jersey)...well, before I even got a breath out, before I even said "hello," she was doing the paranoid pit-bull with lipstick--household Gestapo routine, snarling at me, "Are YOU tryting to sell something?" I explained that here hubby belonged to the the organization I was working for, and I was trying to contact him in regards to that. Well, she didn't believe me! So I asked if I had the right address, and yes, I did. I said he'd belonged to the organization since last year. She snarled at me "We belong to a LOT of orgizations."

Yeah, like maybe the mafia or the triads, perhaps? God, I am so NOT impressed by people's affilations with clubs...she's sniping at the WRONG person, if she's trying to impress me! Now, if she was a Red Cross volunteer, helped at a hospice, worked with disabled kids....

Anyway, she demanded to know what's this about, and I told her I why I was calling her myterious hubby, and she said, "I ASKED you what you are calling about." And I just TOLD you, you daft bitch. I told her TWO MORE times, before she got even more hostile and snippy and said, "since you won't tell me, I'm going to hang up the phone."

???? Someone, as a public service, get me the HELL out of this insane country, please.

Well, it's half-past ten, and I have to make supper...think I'm cook up some spag bol. Haven't had that for a while.

I'm exhausted, hope the brats upstairs will sleep tonight instead of party.

I've started a new group blog. Its a recession, and some of you, like me, live in areas that draw visitors...well, here's a chance for you to help your local econmy, and possibly make a POSITIVE impact on your local region.

The group blog is for local residents to tout the activities and good things about about the place where they live. In a recession, more and more people are choosing not to do any long-distance travel...and those that are choosing long-distance travel, are being pickier than ever, about where they go, and spending more time on research.

So, if you have something good to tell people about your town, city or region of the country, go to: http://www.locals.blog.co.uk

You don't have to join the group to post, you can always PM or e-mail me with what you want to say, if you're not comfortable about joining a blog group.

You can post about: entertainment, special events, recreational and cultural opportunities, the local flora and fauna, shopping, restaurants, pubs/bars/clubs, transport, hotels/motels/camping/resorts, whatever you like...you can offer tips as to best places to go, or places to avoid...even travel directions and schedules.

You think you can't make a difference...but, if someone chances upon your reccomendations and enjoyes themssleves...they may tell others, and before you know it, the local economy is picking up.

Just a thought, anyway....

Didn't sleep a wink all night...went to bed just before sunrise. The boys upstairs again--dear god, they were having one hell of a blow out up there...I mean, they must have been positively blootered!

Shortly after 2am there was a tremendous thump--pretty much sounded like a body falling on its face on the floor. Then, around 4am, there was a huge crash! I mean, it sounded like someone tipped a bookcase full of books over, it was so loud, it shook the building, and knocked a knick-knack in my living room over! It wasn't another earthquake, it was them...at 5am, someone that sounded like he weighed 14 stone ran across the floor...I'm guessing to the loo. I wanted to sleep in till' noon, but yet another loud crash woke me at 11am...dropping something heaving on the floor over my bed. B_stards.

So, now I'm totally knackered, and not looking forward to trying to stay awake at work tonight. Eyes still bothering me, imagine there's loads of typos in my writing.

Warm today, but somewhat overcast and more humid than yesterdy, tho' there's a hazy sunshine.

Hope you all are having a good day. Cheers.

I read where former vice-presiden Dick choke-me...erm, Cheney, is going to do a "terrorism" talk the same day as Obama is.

Really?

I mean, come on! What kind of drooling frontal lobotomy candidate still even cares what this greedy, lying, propaganda vomiting, spittle-spewing war monger has to say? God, conservatives are such freaks.

Oh wait. Conservatives do...'cos god help them if they should actually start using the grey matter between their ears...it's much easier to listen to propaganda, than it is to think, thinking might me they'd have to get their lazy, well-fed American lard-asses off the sofa and away from Fox News, and do some freaking research...scary stuff, that.

These are the conservative Nazi's calling liberals Socialists and communists...well, takes one un-democratic party to know one.

"Fascism should more properly be called corporatism,
since it is the merger of state and corporate power."Benito Mussolini.

The majority of American gun owners, from the forum's I've read, love radio talk presenter Rush Limbaugh...even my sister and her gun adoring partner (who won't cross over state lines to visit me, 'cos he can't take his gun with him...not a joke, I'm serious, and shoots at targets planted on the hillside from he and my sister's kitchen window).

Rush Limbaugh is the consumate conservative...he is the poster child for American conservatism. Conservative Americans (who are mainly all white and Christian by the way--even tho' Limbaugh is Jewish)...they take this selfish, bigoted, racist moron absolutely seriously. I mean, seriously...these aren't jokes, folks, this milktoast twat is totally on the level.

Here's some DIRECT quotes that Limbaugh has made, both on radio and in interviews:

"Why should Blacks be heard? They're 12% of the population.
Who the hell cares?"

"Feminism was established so as to allow unattractive
women easier access to the mainstream of society."

"One of the things I want to do before I die is conduct the
homeless olympics...the 10-metre shopping cart relay,
the dumpster dig, and the hop, skip, and trip."

"I don't give a hoot that [Columbus] gave some Indians a
disease that they didn't have immunity against"

"If we are going to start rewarding no skills and stupid people--
I'm serious, let the unskilled jobs that take absolutely
no knowledge whatsoever to do--let the stupid and
unskilled Mexicans do that work."

ON Michael J. Fox bravely speaking up about his having Parkinson's Disease: "He is exaggerating the effects of the disease. He's moving all around and shaking and it's purely an act. . . . This is really shameless of Michael J. Fox. Either he didn't take his medication or he's acting. This is the only time I've ever seen Michael J. Fox portray any of the symptoms of the disease he has. He can barely control himself."

"The only way to reduce the number of nuclear weapons is to use them."

"The Sierra Club (a well-respected national organisation that protects natural resources) wants to limit the number of kids you can have to two. They are into power and controlling peoples lives."

"The most beautiful thing about a tree is what you
do after you cut it down."

"There are more acres of forestland in America today
than when Columbus discovered the continent in 1492" (Erm--nooo. We have little things called cities and towns and roads, now, you twat.)

"Sexual harassment at this work station will not be reported.
However...it will be graded!!!"

"Don't let the liberals deceive you into believing that a decade of sustained growth without inflation in America (in the '80s) resulted in a bigger gap between the have and the have-nots. Figures compiled by the Congressional Budget Office dispel that myth"

(Reality: CBO numbers for after-tax incomes show that in
1980 the richest fifth of our country had eight times the
income of the poorest fifth. By 1989, the ratio was more
than 20-to-1.)

"The poorest people in America are better off than the mainstream families of Europe"

Reality: In 2007, the poorest 20 percent of Americans could purchase an average of $5,433 worth of goods with their income. Meanwhile, in Germany, the average person could purchase $20,610 worth of goods; in France, $19,200; in Britain, $16,730.)

_____________________________________________________________________________

So basically, if Rush's words are anything to go on, your average conservative American lives in fear of anything not part of their insular little glass bubble world--they hate the poor, hates blacks, hates women, hates gays, hates anyone who loves trees/nature and wants to save it for future generations, loves AND supports violence--even against other Americans who are non-white, or gay, or a woman or love nature and/or support peace, loves money and power, says they love Jesus, but at the same time they worship money/greed (proverbial tools of the devil)...

.... and well...basically...conservative Americans have proven beyond any doubt, that for the most part they are cowardly bullies, ill-mannered, chav, pseudo-patriotic, artificially-moral, extremely violent, selfish, self-centred, superficial and empty-headed buffoons.

Every time they talk or write, they prove this over and over and over again. Thank God some of us wouldn't dream of listening to their mindless twaddle. Why waste perfectly good brain cells?

Well, I WAS going to bed. It's 1am. However, my stomach once again has other ideas. The warm glass of milk didn't help at all. I just got sick to my stomach, and broght up my meds...and now my mouth tastes like chemicals, bleh!!!!! And, I've got nasty heartburn.

I have to give up curries and chilies and other spicy food, no doubt about it. Darn, I do like spicy food--I like to TASTE my food, I hate the bland cardboard tasting "healthy" rubbish that passes itself as food, these days. I'm a culinary American dinosaur.

I had a peanutbutter and jelly sandwich and a glass of milk, for my supper tonight...and would you believe it upset my stomach? I've not had PB & J for ages...ironically, I had that, cos' I thought a chorizo sandwich would be too spicy for my stomach and give me heartburn...lol. Oh well, no big deal. I can sleep in tomorrow, thankfully. One of the perks of working nights, is that I can sleep in, for the rest of the day (as long as I don't have anywhere to be, of course).

Yes, Tardisgurl has basically begged me to do her meme. She's a nice young lady, so what the heck, I can't say no when someone has said "please" to me no less than four times in one sentence "I know you said you are tired of memes, but would you please, please, please, please, do this one?"

(Massive sigh.) OK.

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1. WHAT WERE YOUR FAVOURITE BOOKS AS A TEENAGER?

Oh, that's going back aways. I first stumbled up C.S. Lewis's books, when I started high school, and I quickly read through them all-not in order, which is one of the things I actually liked about his books, is that he wrote them so they could be read out of snyc...which I'm told is harder to do with the Harry Potter books, but I wouldn't know, having never (gasp-I know, it's a shocker) gotten around to reading any of them.

I still read horse books, of course, a couple that I read many times over: there was this fiction book about harness racing called, "The Horse Comes First," And Dark Sunshine--written in the 50's, about a girl with polio that learns to walk again, with help from her horse, and The Blue Roan--I forget what that was about, but I read it three times, so I must have liked it...and there was a short series of books about a rescued thoroughbred race horse, that began with a title "A Horse Named Bonnie," that I read over and over.

Also, it was in my teens that mum got a copy of "Essays" by Ralph Waldo Emerson in her library, and I got quite absorbed in some of them. And, in 1978, she was gifted a complete leatherbound set called "British Poets" dated frm 1814, that the library board sniffed at and told mum to throw away! Mum couldn't bear throwing perfectly good books away, so, since I was her unrecognized volunteer, I got rewarded by getting first crack at the "throw 'em away," books. I liked poetry, and, like Shakespeare, my schooling left me with virtually no exposure to the classics and poetry...so everything I learned about it, until 2000, I learned pretty much on my own...so it was through British Poets (later stolen), that I got my first exposure to Cowper, Godlsmith and all the rest.

Can tell I loved reading, yeah?

(oh, that's cute! A sparrow landed on my balcony supports and is singing, and Boots is sitting there by the window, scolding it with a chittering noise.)

2. WHAT WAS YOUR MUM AND DAD'S FAVOURITE SONGS?

Mum liked "Chances Are" by Johnny Mathis, and "Wish Me A Rainbow" by the Ray Coniff Singers.

Dad was always singing (very badly, I may add) "Young Girl," By Gary Puckett and the Union Gap.

3. WHAT'S YOUR FAVOURITE SONG?

You know, I don't really have one...I love so many songs I don't know how I could ever choose. I have favs, of course, Letter from America, Stars, Mandy, Ruby, There She Goes, California Dreamin', Kokomo, oh...just to many...really, how could I ever choose one?

4. WHAT DID YOU HAVE FOR LUNCH TODAY?

Why do these things always inquire about what I put in my stomach? OK, I love food--forget buns of steel, I'd rather have a sticky bun, if you must know.

Actually today's lunch was meant to be last night's dinner, but I forgot to take the meat out of the freezer yesterday...so I had a couple of turkey cutlets in a yogurt-onion curry sauce, broccolli, and cheesy rice. Not my usual luncheon fare, but, there ya' go.

5. DO YOU LIKE ETHNIC FOOD, AND IF YES, WHAT KIND?

I like Italian, Mexican, Indian, Polish, Carribean, Chinese, Tibetan some Greek, and some Middleastern dishes.

6. LAST PLACE YOU HAD A MEAL OUT IN A RESTAURANT OR TAKEAWAY?

Erm--not sure, it was either McDonald's or New Way Lunch hot dogs.

7. CAN YOU COOK? DO YOU LIKE TO COOK?

Oh yes, I've been cooking since I was about 13 or 14, and I used to cook professionally, and have a culinary certificate. Do I like to cook? Not really....well, sometimes...but I got pushed into cooking, and as much as I like food, I can take or leave cooking--tho', that said, I do enjoy the smell of comfort food cooking in the kitchen...nice homey feel to it.

8. LAST TIME YOU FLEW A KITE?

Back when I was in my late 30's, I used to live in a small town with a public beach on the Hudson River, and sometimes on windy days, I'd take a kite down there and fly it about for a bit...just to have something to do.

9. WHAT WOULD YOU LIKE TO DO RIGHT NOW?

Not go to work, ha-ha.

10. WHAT WOULD YOU RATHER BE DOING, TODAY?

Gosh, I'd have liked going out for a sail on a lake, or for a drive in the country, or shopping, or hanging out with someone, walking around...anything where I could enjoy the nice weather.

A local man who just won election as a town justice (they are employed by towns tohear small claims lawsuits, traffic violations and other misdemeanors--such as vandalism, public exposure, marijuana possession, drink driving offenses, etc. A village or town justice can be anyone, they don't need to have a law degree, or even a college education.)

Anyway, a local man was elected town justice recently...and just got arrested for felony drink driving...so, who's going to hear his case? He was not only speeding and driving recklessly, but was seriously drunk--the state's legal limit is .08, and the justice was .l7! Whew! The man was stinking! The man has since resigned his position...well, I should think so! How can a drunk judge other drunks and still call himself impartial?

Tuesday morning over here, and a drop-dead gorgeous day it is, too! A perfect 10 day, weather wise...the type of day I love for driving to the top of a mountain, or being out by a lake or going horseback riding...not a cloud in the the deep blue skies, no humidity, cool, but not uncomfortably so...just perfect.

Unfortunately, I'm stuck at home.

I was going to run out to the shop and get some cold cuts--I'd underbought lunch meats on Friday..but then I remembered I had some Portugese and Spanish sausages in the freezer that I'd gotten on sale earlier in the month, so I pulled out a packet of some little chorizos, and I can have a sausage sandwich for lunch, if I get hungry.

My appetite has been so wonky of late, I will go days without feel like eating, one week--and the next week, be famished all the time, no rhyme or reason to it. Doesn't do my body much good--one week I'll fit nicely into a size 18-20, and the next I'll be in a 20/22!

We had frost here, last night, as it got down to 1 C, but it's supposed to warm up to about 19 C today, and by the weekend it'll be around 26 C.

I'm having issues typing--my left eye's OK, but my right doesn't want to focus, so if there's typos, sorry. I'm typing much slower and more carefully than usual...which is very slow indeed, probably about 10 or 15 words per minute...still, things could be worse, I reckon.

If it gets warm enough, I'll go out on the balcony, later. I need to get some live flowers--but they are very expensive this year, for some reason, and I'm holding out for some bargains. I don't have loads of room on my postage-stamp sized balcony for flower pots, but I often have 2 or 3 out there--I'd love to get a potted bush, but decided that wouldn't be practical. There's only just room for two chairs and a wee table, and too many live plants would just look junky.

So, after a good night's sleep, I'm going to putter about the place, maybe go for a walk 'round the block later. Walking in the city--well my city, is incredibly boring. Out in the country there's always something new to see, but here...pretty much the same old things, year after year--tho' it's nice to see flowers in people's yards...but most people in my neighbourhood (not so much on the main street, the side streets behind me, I mean) are strictly working class, and don't have big posh gardens..or any gardens, often as not. The weathhier middle class and upper middle class mostly live on the west side of Glen St., the working classes on the east side of the street...not sure why that is...posher homes, I guess. The west side of Glen St has doctors and lawyers, the east side of Glen has massage therapists and real estate offices...if you walk west, you'll see trendy natural healing clincs, if you walk east, you'll come across the Salvation Army HQ.

WEll, I hear the postman downstairs, so I'll be off to see what's what down there. Cheers.

It's just a little past half-past midnight over here where I'm at. I'm ready for bed..up with a quesy stomach...the meds really do a number on my tummy, some nights...well, that and likely the bacon-cheeseburger with seasoned fries, ha-ha. I WAS supposed to make tureky cutlets in yougurt-onion sauce...but dummy here is experiencing early senility, and forgot to take the meat out of the freezer--doh...and the meat for tomorrow's dinner isn't quite thawed yet, as well...so, it was a toss up between a bacon-cheeseburger, another turkey sandwich (what I had for lunch) or a bowl of cold cereal...bacon cheeseburger won, ha-ha. I haven't had one in quite a long time, so actually it was a bit of a treat, for me....but, apparently, not so much for my stomach, alas.

I was going to read, but my eye is bothering me. And, for once I wasn't in the mood to watch a video, so I spent the night programming songs into a new playlist for my player which I dubbed, 'all oldies all the time.' 150 tunes from the early 60's to the mid-80's, give or take a year or two. I'll now be alternating playlists on here--basically, when I get tired of listening to the "oldies" list, I have the "contemporary" list on stand-by, to switch with....and, there's still the original playlist, on my other blog, as well.

I adore music....I was always hard-pressed to afford records and tapes...but when the industry switched from the more reasonably priced vinyl and cassettes, to hugely expensive CD's...well, I sort of stopped listening to music, for quite a while...I still listened on the car radio and stuff, but not like I did, when I was younger...you couldn't pry me away from the radio, from my pre-teens right up to my mid to late 20's....pop, rock, disco, new age, jazz, folk...didn't matter--sometimes I'd listen to oprea, classical, polka--even organ music! I just love music--well, most music.

I am really not into discordant, excessively loud or "scream" music--whether it's metal, punk, grunge, or even "free" jazz...and I am sorry, but I do detest rap--I'm not crazy about Greggorian chants, either, for that matter. And, I pretty much lost my taste in the early 80's, for what is now loosely termed, "country" music. Show tunes don't often grab me, either...tho' I do still very much enjoy crooners and big band numbers..and old-time bluegrass and western swing music, as well.

Music is the door to your soul, it can make you feel better--or feel sad, it can take you places you've never been--and may or may not want to go...heck, music can brighten one's life in so many ways, it's just...fantastic...it's a magic carpet that trancends all bounds.

So, if anyone reading this likes "oldies," I hope you enjoy the player. It doesn't play automatically any longer, so hopefully those who don't cotton to older music, won't be annoyed by it. 95% of these songs are all stuff that I pretty much grew up listening to, from the time I was a wee child in the 60's, listening raptly to songs on the car radio or blaring from the juke boxes in the local diners...all the way into my mid-20's, when I'd have a radio going in the workplace most of the day.

...what's going on with my eye. Finally got hold of the eye doctor...apparently they were trying to reach me, as the nurse at the health centre went and rang them up on her own, and suggested they move up my appointment, as she felt it was rather urgent I get seen as soon as possible. That was nice of her. So...

Thursday I go in and get the drops and have the lights shone in my eyes and do all the tests...a bit of a drag, but I'd rather know than not, wheter I am losing my sight, or if it's just a minor irriattion. The eye still hurts a bit, and feels..droopy. The nurse said something was wrong, but it wasn't anything she could diagnose as it wasn't something really obvious.

I have virtually no periphial vision, of course, but now there may be something more going on...anyway, I've tried, and am trying, not to worry or fuss over it too much--tho' truthfully, it is a bit of a bother. It's getting hard to type and read, truth-to-tell.

Wish I wouldn't have to wait four days, that's the tough part...still, it's better than having to wait 'til the 26th, which is when my other appointment was, or not being able to go at all, cos' I have no funds for it....which is usually the norm, rather than the exception.

Typical country music song titles:

Dropkick me Jesus Through the goalposts of life

You're the reason our kid's are so ugly

You can't rollerskate in a buffalo herd

Thank God and Greyhound she's gone

She got the ring and I got the finger

Pardon me, I've got someone to kill

They may put me in prison, but they can't stop my face from breaking out

My wife ran off with my best friend, and I sure do miss him

My John Deere was breaking your field, while you were breaking my heart

She thinks my tractor is sexy

If my nose were full of nickels I'd blow them all on you

I'm just a bug on the windsheild of life

I'm the only hell my mama ever raised

I've got the hungries for your love, and I'm waiting in your welfare line

I'd rather have a bottle in front of me, than a frontal lobotomy

I wanna' whip your cow

I been flushed from the toilet of your heart

I would have wrote you a letter, but I couldn't spell 'yuck'

I don't know whether to kill myself or go bowling

I changed her oil, she changed my life

Get yer biscuits in the oven and yer buns on the bed

Her teeth were missing but her heart was pure

How can I miss you if you won't go away?

I fell in a pile of you, and got love all over me

She's an ugly dawg, but I love it when she makes me howl

I love her more than I love my shotgun

I shot a deer for you dear

If you don't leave me, I'll find someone else who will

You are my silver spoon in a plastic fork world

Producers of the reality show Survivor are planning an episode that takes place only in state of Texas.

Contestants must Travel from Waco, to Fort Worth, Brownsville, El Paso, Lubbock, Amarillo, and Dallas.

They must travel the state of texas, dressed as transvestites, while driving a pink BMW sporting a number of bumper stickers that read: "I'm here to take away your guns." "Texans are an inferior species" "Honk if you're gay!" "Beef sucks!" "Beer is for pussies," "Only morons listen to country music." and "Liberal's rule--we won you lost!"

The first contestant to get to Dallas alive, wins.

Was turned down for volunteering at the Elvis fest in Lake George.

The only position open--which was offered somewhat reluctantly, for some reason-- was a rather cool one, I thought--go from venue to venue checking to see that all the Elvi were where they were supposed to be...I'd like that, actually. Alas, I own no car, and my lame foot means I just plain no longer am able to walk very fast...damn.

No matter what I do, I just can't get anyone to accept me as a volunteer for anything. Am I that ugly? Is it 'cos I'm fat? Do I seem stupid? Is it my breath? Do I have kooties?

Not the hospital, the library, the local theater, the senior centre..now, not even the Elvis Festival, wants me.

I feel so damn useless. I'm no good for anything, I do nothing for no one. No one effing wants me for anything! What the hell good am I? What the hell did I go back to college for? What the hell am I going to do for the rest of my life, vegitate? I am just so stinking worthless, it's not amusing at all. I have no marketable skills, I'm not attractive...I'm a loser. I hate myself so much sometimes, none of you have any idea.

I just want to DO SOMETHING with my life...but...there's nothing. I am nothing.

...another earthquake, apparently. Well, a tremmor. We've had three in the last two days, in my part of New York. Two over the apparent fault southwest of Albany...the second one only a 2.1...and a slight tremmor up in the far northern Adirondack park...only a 1.6

Hmm--that's odd.

I got up early to try an contact some people...only to find that I'd misplaced my phone on Saturday...in my jeans pocket...in the dirty laundry hamper. Thankfully no one seems to have tried to call me.

Then, I found out it wasn't charged. Oh joy. So, I have to try and contact an optomologist about my wonky eye...and be to work on time by 5 pm. Life sucks and then you die.

Last night I woke in the middle of the night, unable to sleep 'cos of an upset stomach, so I got bored and did a new playlist player for this blog. I've had several complaints in the past few months about the player playing automatically---and noticed it's now available with the ablity to not start automatically, so after setting up a new playlist of 100 songs, I changed it to manual start...hopefully that will make the musical boors happy, ha-ha.

The old....whoa. Why is my chair rocking back and forth? We had a minor earthqauake just southwest of the capital city of Albany this weekend--only a 2.8, apparently...was this another tremmor, or is someone in the building running some equipment? The building doesn't have washing machine hookups, but maybe it's something else. The building settling again...it's a bit of an odd feeling, every once in a blue moon, sitting here feeling my chair sway gently. It only lasted a few seconds.

Anyway, the old playlist is still posted on Roasting David Tennant, for anyone that perfers the mix of contemporary/oldies/folk/jazz, etc. that was on there...and yes, it still plays automatically. Pfft--to the whinging music boors.

So, it's nearly 1pm, and I've been ditering around all morning, like lazy slug. Time for lunch and then try to get hold of the eye doctor again. (sigh). Sometimes I really do wish I had a minder....or at least my mum to nag me...I get sidetracked so easily, sometimes.

Click pause on the playlist player above, to watch this video

I did this about 6 or 7 years ago--three of the half-dozen or so Hudson River rafting company's were located in the town where I used to have my year-round trailer home, and one time I had some extra funds, so instead of going on a horseback trail ride, I opted to go rafting instead, and loved every minute of it--it's really a blast!

The guide very much still has is "Lon-ga Island" accent, and is no more a native of the region than I am...proving that this place can really grow on you.

CLICK PAUSE ON PLAYLIST PLAYER TO WATCH THIS VIDEO

Living here, I've seen a lot of this gentleman's work in local galleries--and even on the walls of the local hospital. The city where I live...well, basically, Tongue Mountain, where this video was shot, is less than 15 miles from me.

Well, now Tardisgurl's gone and done it. Playwrite27 is not a happy little camper, at the moment.

She sent me an e-mail, that had a link in it, with only the words, "This is so cool! Check it out!" I thought it was just some funny photo or article or something. Not quite.

It was an article about Tennant's final episodes...with pictures. Well, it was in reasonably big print, and the harm was done, so I just said, to hell with it, and read the damned thing.

I've been avoiding spoilers like they were the biblical plauge! I've been staying away from websites and forums and avoiding news articles like mad....only to be ambushed from behind by a fellow fan...damn-damn-damn!

Oh, I know she didn't do it on purpose, she's a teenager--and god help me, a...Rose shipper, (vomit)...I like Billie Piper very much--think she's a lovely actress, but I don't especially cotton to all of the dripping, drooling, wet-knickered Rose shippers on the forums and fan-fiction, ugh!

I am so NOT a soap opera/romance novel sort of woman....I'm just what it says on the tin: a genuine old maid, tree-hugging, closet transcendentalist, hillbilly-metrosexual. I don't do romance. Bleh.

Anyway, you won't get any spoilers from me. I won't talk about what I just saw/read. You want to know, you want to ruin the suprise, you want to open your prezzies before the holiday, be my guest...just don't ask me to help you.

Why did I read it? Cos' I'm an American--stupidity is ingrained in our culture.

Damn-damn-damn!!! (Slams forehead on desk. Ow.)

I keep getting bombarded with "car deals of the century" e-mails.

And, it's true, with dealers being cut out by carmakers in droves, some 44,000 cars and trucks are begging to be sold, at the lowest prices in over a decade.

And, if I actually had any money, had the income to support it, and my credit wasn't in shreds, I'd be right there getting my Ford Ranger, Mini or motorized skateboard, whatever.

Unfortunately, these bargains are wasted on me, cos' even if they damn things were free, I still couldn't manage the manditory insurance, tax, title and registration fees, the $2.25 a gallon (currently) for petrol, not to mention tyres, brakes, oil changes and other needs.

Wish these dealers would stop nagging me...junk mail in the post, in my e-mail...one local dealership, that I've not done business with in 10 years, even contacted me by phone...how the hell they found my mobile number, is beyond me! They're on their hands and knees begging me to buy a car...and me virutally as good as pennyless, when it comes to being able to make a major purchase...wonder how much money they are wasting, pleading with someone like me, to buy their poxy cars?

It's only going to be 55 F today...but by Friday, it's supposed to jump to 80 F! Go figure.

A man in a rural town was charged with a felony, after the drunken man's friend's took away his car keys so he couldn't drive. The man went home, got his loaded shotgun, and fired a couple of rounds at his friends, telling them to give him the keys to his pick up truck.

Police charged the man with third-degree criminal possession of a weapon, a felony, endangering the welfare of a child, four counts of second-degree menacing and two counts of discharging a weapon within 500 feet of a dwelling, all misdemeanors. The man is in the county jail for lack of $100,000 bail bond.

Four county sherrif's deputies, a sergent, a sheiff's investigator, and an New York Dept. of Environmental Conservation police officer were all involved in the incident. (Note that in New York state, ENCON officers have total power in their region, to arrest anyone for anything, not just hunting, fishing or environmental offenses).

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A local 20 year old man was convicted of felony 3rd degree criminal mischef, after he smashed another man's pick up truck windows with a brick. The other man was a rival in a relationship with a woman. The young man was sentenced to 1 year probation...and if he does well and commits no more acts of vandalism or violence, he will be granted 5 years probation, if not, he will go to jail for 5 years.

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Following in the footsteps of other towns and counties in New York, neighbouring county of Washington has passed a "SOCIAL HOST" law.

This comes by several names...some towns and counties call it, a "good neighbour" law, or a "quality of family" law, etc.

This law in solely intended to curb underage drinking---that is, anyone under the age of 21, in New York state.

New York counties in the past 20 years, have been increasingly cracking down on underage drinkers, sometimes with "sting" operations--sending teenagers into bars or convenient stores, to see if clerks properly I.D. the kids or not--those that don't get arrested on the spot.

Now, the county has passed the social host law, which allows police and the county district attorney to prosecute anyone who allows alcohol to be served at social gatherings to minors...whether in a private residence, park, banquet hall, etc.

The law could bring up to a year in jail and a $1,000 fine for parents or homeowners who knowingly allow underage drinking parties to occur at their places of residence.

Other New York counties with this type of law on their books are Westchester, just north of New York City, and Nassau County on Long Island. Several towns in Washington County already have this law on their books, as does the town of Gloversville, in Fulton County.

The way the law is written however, puts the burden on the county to prove that adults/friends knowingly allowed underage drinking to occur. There is a mixed reaction from county officials, some saying it's about time the county took a proactive stance to prevent deaths from teen drink drivers, with others showing doubts about how effective this new legistlation will be.

Had the law been in effect last year, police would have been able to charge two parents under the law, whom held an underage drinking party for their 16 year old son and his teenage friends--which directly resulted in a drink driving crash that killed two of the girls who'd been at the party.

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Several towns have had to get water from other sources, amid fears of PCB contamination--which is believed to have cancer causing chemicals in it. The federal government has begun the first phase of a project 20 years in the making; dredging PCB's (an oil used in transformers, that doesn't break down, and can migrate through rock and soil) from General Electric's transformer operations, from the 1940's to early 70's, that was dumped in and along the Hudson River.

There is a very high cancer rate in towns along the upper Hudson River valley within 50 miles of the GE plants (2 of them) on the Hudson. The lake up the hill from my street--about a mile from the river--that I grew up fishing and swimming in, has PCB's...and very likely we had them in the soil of our family home...I, like many upstate New Yorker's, probably have at least some trace amounts of PCB's in the fatty tissues of our bodies.

So, despite massive protests of people living along the river, dredging has begun in Fort Edward (just down the hill from the road where my farm lady friend lives). Since many towns on the river, get their water from the Hudson, it is feared by many that disturbed PCB's will get into drinking supplies, despite extra filters being used, and promises by the EPA (US govt. Environmental Protection Agency) to monitor water supplies daily for any sign of contamination. Already, one local town, Stillwater, has lost 2 million gallons of water usage per day--lost revenue for them, as they charge town residents for water, based on usage.

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And, the BIG front page headline in the local paper, yesterday?

That none of the local car dealers would be effected by Chrysler closures of dealerships.

Ohh, how rubbish is that???

I mean, you use the banner on the front page, to report NO NEWS?

Come on! All the really important stuff going on in the world, and the BIG story is that there is no story...no one's going out of business? How lame is THAT???

This is about the 800 dealerships Chrysler is cutting out.

800 dealerships out of some 10,000+ across the USA...it's an awful lot, but it's not what I would call a massive disaster.

The Post-Star used to be a wonderful local paper--until big business got its mitts on it, and turned it into puree of bat guano, to cater to the lowest common denominator---switching to big pictures, "fluffy" or "no news," continually cutting down on column inches (the length of a story)...garbage, suitable only to line the litterbox with.

USA:

WALES:

FRANCE:

NETHERLANDS:

AUSTRALIA:

SCOTLAND:

IRELAND:

ENGLAND:

ITALY:

DENMARK:

PARAGUAY:

Over the weekend, four local men--two of them involved in local law enforcement--went wild turkey hunting in the Albany, NY area. They were not together. It is not known if any of them were hunting legally--the state requires hunting permits for turkey shooting.

Two of the men--cousins--were crouching behind some bushes, making turkey noises.

One of the other two men--a corrections officer from a local jail (his hunting partner was a police officer from a small local city), shot the two men in the bushes...knowing, apparently, that they weren't actually turkeys. The two men received facial injuries from the pellets of turkey shot, as the shooter was standing, shooting down at the men...who were in the process of getting up from their crouch.

The investigation--which is ongoing--has revealed that this probably was not a hunting accident.

It is believed that possibly the two cousins--who had turkey decoys out in the field in front of the bushes, were taking the mickey out of the other two hunters (or, in true redneck fashion, the two cousins may have been doing something rather kinky that I really don't want to know about), and allegedly the corrections officer may have fired out of anger---the old "I'll teach them a lesson they won't forget" bit.

The four men were hunting on a stretch of vacant land, off of a busy local four-lane roadway in a combination retail and suburban residential area, somewhere between the city's of Watervilet and Schenectady, NY. Although not in the country, hunting is permitted mostly everywhere in New York state, as long as the shooter has permission of the land owner or is on public lands, and is more than 500 feet from an occupied building. They all walked out of the area together, where the two police officers summoned help, and turned themselves in to ENCON police officers. The two cousins were taken for treatment at Albany Medical Center. Their condition is not listed, but it is believed that none of their injuries were life-threatening.

New York's Department of Environmental Conservation (or ENCON as we call it here), had this, slightly contradictory statement about safety while out hunting for turkey's:

"It's not a good idea to make sounds like a turkey, such as gobbling or whistling, while out hunting." And, "Always assume that when you are out turkey hunting, and you hear a turkey gobbling, that it's another hunter."

Translation: Always assume ANY white American male with a loaded gun is a complete moron.

Here's a better idea: GET RID OF THE EFFING SECOND AMENDMENT! Don't let these arseholes have guns in the first place!

To live a life, where one has known verbal, emotional and/or physcial abuse, is to have your security shattered.

My neighbour abused me, my dad abused me, classmates, people in cyberspace, even total strangers, have abused me--meanness--name calling, trying to elicit sex from children, making someone friend who doesn't want to be, not going away when you're asked to, trying to make someone who doesn't know you into your instant girlfriend/boyfriend, threatening someone with physical violence--that is all abuse...anyone who says it isn't, is either a child, or lives in a protective glass bubble, or is an abuser him or herself.

words can harm and scar and cause pain, every bit as much as a slap or a punch...but the bruises and the bleeding are all on the inside, and the pain continues, sometimes years after injury has been done.

The garbage-heads who wrongly think they have power over someone, by hurting them, are nothing but abusers, and total losers. What makes someone turn into a pedophile, a rapist, a stalker or a wife-beater?

What drives someone to blindly hurt another human being; either by throught or word, or deed?

Ten times out of ten, these losers are in denial--he or she will think what they are doing to another person, is perfectly normal, and lack the conscious or moral strength of character--or perhaps the right chemicals in their brains, to understand basic right from wrong.

Anyway, as I said, recent events have dredged up some really bad feelings and memories--things I'd rather put behind me, but which will continue to haunt me for the rest of my life.

I know a few people who have come forward--very bravely, and said they too, were abused.

I was sent something else recently, and only just got round to reading it, and would like to share it with other bloggers, like myself, who have been victims--either in real life, or in cyberlife, doesn't matter...this applies to both I think, really.

I have to deal with this 38 year old emotional issue, and I found the stuff sent to me by a fellow blogger, extremely helpful and enlightening, and I hope that you will, too.

I don't know what website this came from, but I thought it was quite good.

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VERBAL/EMOTIONAL ABUSE: How do I cope?

Above all, you must understand that it is simply not possible to communicate in a mature adult manner with a disordered individual, who's obviously emotionally unbalanced in some way.

Reading the forums on a certain "history" website...wow. Deliberately dumbed down Americans, really shouldn't be given acess to a free education--it's just wasted...expecially on conservatives! These freaky people actually argue on the forums about God creating the earth in 6 days---it still bothers me that any sane human being would take a biblical myth so seriously and literally.

Especially considering that, when Genesis was written, science was virtually non-existant, and none of the writers even knew of the existance of other planets, the universe....gravity...hell, these are people who thought that if you sailed the ocean far enough, you'd fall off the world! OK...and conservative christians, genuinely believe--and want to FORCE us to believe, that the writer who came up with the 6 days, really knew what he was talking about? Riiight.

Well, I've procrastinated long enough. I'm not dressing up today. Don't feel like it. I'm going to wear my "antique motorboats" motif tee and an old pair of jeans, screw being fashionable for one day.

Won't be going to the farm, to any chairity do's or bar-hopping this weekend. I spent my $15 spending money for the week in one throw, this afternoon...on a dress...and a pin.

After I paid a medical bill and paid cab fare several times over, spent $15 on the laundromat, put $20 aside towards a security desposit for whenever I can afford to move some day, bought lunch...and supper (I was far too knackered to cook tonight), went shopping for some of that ordinary stuff we all need in the course of a week...well, I had my $15...so I went to the consignment shop. I'd seen a pin in there.

It was a cloisonne pin--merely a small horizonal pin marked "Isle of Skye" on the back, with an art nouveau style floral design in purple, pink and burgundy. I don't figure it was terribly expensive new, but it was only $5, and I've not bought a single piece of jewelry in over five years, so figured it was overdue...it really just grabbed me.

While there, I browsed...didn't see much...until I spied this fab dress--it was so "me"...it was floor length with a slit up the sides to the knees, it's sleeveless, but with a short matching top that pulls over, like a jacket sort of...it is black with some beige fringe, buttons, patches and embroidery--it's quite funky looking, and not something you'd see everyday...but slenderizing, and despite the different design, it's not "loud" or tacky in any way. No bling-bling, just...different. The label says "Gepetto copyrighted designs USA" but I've never heard of it. I admit, there are some labels I like better than others, but I don't pay huge attention to fashion lables, as a rule. I just go with what I like, and what I think is comfy/looks nice on me.

I really don't need a dress, I have three dresses, and since my office went to casual dress, I seldom have reason to wear them, any longer...considering how slovenly some of the (mostly younger) reps dress--like they're going out on a Saturday night bender at some back alley dive in the poor part of town, basically, I would most certainly be overdressed!

But, as it happened, it was on sale--50% off. I'd seen the dress before, but never tried it on--or even gave it a second look, 'cos it was 18 dollars...and I'd absolutely never pay more than 10 or 12 dollars for a used dress, no matter how smashing it may look on me...not unless it was "new" and still had the tags on it, maybe.

So, new dress I've no place to wear, and a new pin, which I will be wearing some time soon...and, staying home for the weekend. I don't want to overspend, saving my money for next weekend. Gotta' get mum some nice flowers. Maybe if there's still some lilacs in bloom, I can pick some to take..if I can get away with stealking some...mum adored lilacs, she had a bush at home, and always looked forward to seeing it bloom, every spring. I've thought about planting a bush over her grave, since I've never been able to afford a headstone--she's buried on top of her dad, and next to great-aunt Orpha. Maybe Walmart's will have some lilac bushes on sale next week--but...would they allow me to take it on the bus..and how would I plant it, when I don't own a shovel? And what would I carry the water in? Ah well, maybe I should content myself with a bouquet of flowers.

I swore I'd never post about this. I don't talk about this. Not ever. Not even with a therapist, not even with family members, not even with friends.

I was going to post this privately, as an "only me" post...but maybe my coming forward, will help others...I don't know.

Please don't read this, if you don't like hearing about the darker sides of someone's life--and ESPECIALLY, don't read this if you are shallow and just looking for cheap thrills. That's just...diseased.

This is going to be very, very hard to write--one of the most difficult things I've ever written in my lifetime. I won't get into graphic details, you don't need to know about that...those details will haunt me for the rest of my lifetime, and don't need to be brought back to life on paper.

Agian, DON'T read this, if you don't want to hear the words of a victim...and--I'm going to be my usual blunt self, and tell you: don't read if you are just some dull-witted, one-dimentional rubbish person, surfing the net looking for cheap titaltion. That type of person is not welcome here, and isn't wanted.

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I was nine years old. I didn't even know where babies came from yet--as hard as it is to believe in this day and age, kids didn't get the old birds and bees talk until they were around 11 or 12, when I was growing up.

We had a neighbour across the way. He and his wife had the only in-ground swimming pool on our street. They were child-less and regularly had us kids from our little dead-end street of ten homes, over frequently for swimming parties. It was 1970...middle-class suburban Americans were still largely innocent to the less savoury side of life.

One summer day, the man invited me and some of the other kids to come over for a swim. The other girls--including my sister, had left, and as I was leaving too, the man asked me if I wanted some cream....well, he often gave us canned sodas while we were over--root beer, orange, cola...and cream soda. I thought he meant to come into the kitchen for a soda...I was nine, I trusted the man, had known him and his wife all of my life, been in their house with my sister and the other kids before...only we didn't go in the kitchen...we went to his bathroom.

Well, much to my utter confusion and growing fear, the cream wasn't soda. I won't go any further...it wasn't pretty. The least graphic thing that happened, is, after he took me to his bedroom, he showed me a pack of rude playing cards...then it got worse.

I can't talk about it. I don't like thinking about it. But, in light of recent events, which I also won't go into, as it's over and done with--well not, but I'm continuing to ignore the situation, as best as I can, and put it behind me...just like I'm still trying, 38+ years later, trying to put what happened to me, to rest.

Well, it'll never be put to rest. The fact that I'm still a virgin, that I cannot trust enough to even go out on a date, should speak for itself.

Nothing was done to this man. He's dead now, and I'd like nothing better than to piss on his grave, but that's beneath me, and beyond me, so I have to just forget. It was 1970, and there was no such things as pedos, back then. It was NOT discussed. In fact, we lost friends because no one on the street believed me! I was 9 effing years old, and had never even seen a man's private parts...how else would I have known? But, no one wanted to admit that.

The neighbours across the street, who were good friends, were not such good friends, afterwards. In fact, they continued swimming there with their kids...until a little girl from the village was visiting them...they took her over there for a swim, and she claimed the man fondled her crotch while she was swimming--then the neighbours across the street, stopped being friends with these people too, and never were on comfortable terms with us, afterwards--tho' eventually we all put it behind us, about three or four years later.

I'm not sure which was more damaging to me though--the loss of innocent, being victimized by this sicko....or the blame placed on me, the shunning, the shoving under the carpet...my dad went into denial...he wouldn't even discuss it--my own dad, would not believe me! That hurt so bad, you have no idea.

Well, now you know. I never thought I'd discuss this publicly. This is the first time ever. I've not even done this with my mum, a therapist or a close friend. I may delete this post...but, as I've said, events of the last few months, have dredged up so many evil and painful memories, that I know now, that I seriously need to deal with.

Make no comments, unless you really feel you need to. It's an umcomfortable subject for me, and I really don't like to discuss it.

Still, if there are other victims out there--whether of pedos, rapists and/or other sick individuals...well, if this helps you, that's good news for me...if it doesn't, oh well, that's life.

There's a lot of speculation about when the next Dr Who special will be. I'm of a mind it'll be around Halloween. I read somewhere that the next special is "Dark and scary," and that seems to fit in with Halloween--and of course, it's already been put out there by the BBC, that Waters of Mars will be shown sometime in the autumn...and traditionally, the BBC seems to like to air the specials on a holiday weekend....discuss?

This is what the weatherman says for today:

High pressure is going to slide across New York State today and this should produce a near perfect day...no wind, no wet, a lot of sun and milder weather.

However, at 9:38am, there are scattered large patches of rain in the central and southern Adirondacks...so what's the "accu" really mean, in accuweather? Accu-tely WRONG???

I was reading were a couple of guys working at Old Faithful in Yellowstone National Park, were put on probation--and are probably not only going to be sacked, but possibly fined, or even arrested, as well--because they walked up to the Geyser's cone, and urinated into it.

Now, this in itself is the act of two very dumb human beings, obviously. It's pointless and mindless and got them nothing but international noteriety as a pair of morons....well, something the press doesn't know about, is that these two young Yanks, damn near got themselves seriously injured or killed!

You see, I lived and worked at Old Faithful area, when I was 19--the abnormally blistering hot summer of 1980.

Just days after I arrived at my dorm, there was a big foo-foo-ra going on, around the geyser. I found out later, that a male employee, had walked up to the Old Faithful cone...and fell through the only inches thick crust around the geyser, up to his hips.

Now, if you're eating, don't read further.

The employee not only got sacked and charged by federal authorities with wandering out of bounds and vandalism (for breaking the delicate crust around the cone)....he had the skin on his legs basically almost boiled off.

This was in early June. I left at the end of August, and was told that the boy was still in hospital, in intensive care, still in critical condition.

It's not unheard of for one of the larger animals to fall through, and be cooked alive...two bison and an elk were killed that way, while I was there, in the middle geyser basin. It's not a pretty scenario---yet, I sometimes did see tourons wandering past the ropes on the boardwalk trails in the various geyeser basins, at times...sometimes foreigners who couldn't read English, and sometimes stupid Americans--who could read English, but lacked the basic intelligence to put two and two together--"gee, maybe that sign saying 'Danger: stay on boardwalk' means I should stay on the boardwalk."

There are (or at least were, in my time), from the day you arrive for orientation, CONSTANT reminders to employees, to stay the hell away from geysers--to not EVER go off the roped off wooden boardwalks...because you could indeed conceivably get boiled alive! I mean, you are lectured about it in the orientation hall, you are told about it on the park bus, it is (or was) in the employee handbook, and there's signs all over the place, reminding you to stay within bounds for safety reasons---these two latest idiots, should be grateful they're just getting sacked and fined.

American men: Stupid's not the word! (Try brain-dead.)

A BOARDWALK SAFELY TAKES VISITORS AROUND HOT SPRINGS IN A GEYSER BASIN IN YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK

Thank god I've finally, after all these years, gotten an appointement with an eye doctor...cos' something bad is going on with me. My bad eye (the one going blind) is hurting tonight...I was seriously having trouble--and still am--seeing the computer screen, at work.

I feel light-headed, as well, and my vision is darkening. I'm not scared or anything, but I am slightly puzzzled...I've been unusually tired all week, but chalked it up to two busy weekends, which I'm no longer accustomed to. Now...I don't know.

I won tongiht's "contest" at work: for every credit card sale, you put your name in a bucket on the supervisor's desk...the prize(s) was that winning reps got to go home 15 min. early--paid. Well, thanks to a yakker--a nice old lady from Long Island who was touting the wonders of fish oil to me--I actually logged off the computer 10 min. early...still, no complaints from me, ha-ha!

So, anyway, maybe I need to eat some dinner, even tho' I'm not famished or anything like that...my farm lady friend brought me in a piece of birthday cake she made, for her partner's grandad's birthday...yummy! A light and fluffy chocolate devil's food cake with white frosting...very nice.

Still, maybe my blood sugar's off? So, I've put some frozen sliced breaded eggplant (aubergine) to bake in the oven, and am gonna' cook up some cappelllini spaghetti and some Newman's Own creamy Vodka-style spaghetti sauce, and make myself a wee lettuce salad with bacon bits and croutons, and bob's yer uncle, I've got myself a nice late supper. Perhaps I'll feel better after I eat a proper meal, who knows?

Gah--I really hate being alone sometimes...it can be a massive pain in the arse, at times!

I have encroaching night blindness--ironically, I can see better in the dark, than in dim lighting conditions...for example, if I walk into our hallway in my apartment building from outside, with only one 60 watt bulb lighting 2 halls and 2 flights of stairs, it's really dim. If I walk in from a bright day, into the dim hall, in the dark corner at the bottom of the staircase--which gets no light from outside, cos' the front door hallway takes a bit of a turn there...well, anyway, I can't go upstairs after coming in from outside on a bright day, 'cos the minute I hit the dimly lit spot, I basically go utterly blind for about 10 to 20 seconds--as in blind as the proverbial bat...until my eyes slowly adjust.

In the case of my apartment, my kitchen is lit by one dim bulb in the ceiling, and the windows don't get much light--one faces northeast, and never sees the sunshine--cos' surrounding buildings block the sunrise, the other kitchen window faces the building next door, so definately not much light there.

Today I was rumaging around in my freezer, and I knocked a tub of cream cheese out of the freezer. I HEARD it fall on the floor, OK? But....I can't find it, ANYWHERE. I mean, it's a flippin' kitchen, a very tiny kitchen, at that! I looked on both sides of the fridge, under the kitchen chair, all over...cannot find that blasted tub of cream cheese anywhere!

I am sooo-frustrated right now! I can't see!!! I KNOW it's there somewhere, but be damned if I can actually see it. Don't have time to crawl around on my hands and knees feeling around--and anyway, for the last 2 years I've been fighting an infestation of spiders in my kitchen and bath, so I'm not that tempted to feel around dark corners (I actually do have arachniphobia).

This just sucks! I hate this! I love my independece, but sometimes I almost wish I did have a minder.

Well, if yesterday was a lovely cloudless spring day, today is total rubbish--it's dark, grey, rainy, windy and very chilly. It's didn't get down to 0 C, like it did last night, but still, unseasonably cool, in the upper 50's F...tho' I read where tomorrow it will be fab again, partly sunny and in the mid-70's F. Weather is getting weirder by the year, let me tell you.

My arthritis is playing hell with me today, so much so, that I actually have it where I never really had it before...my shoulders and elbows are stiff and creaky, as well as my hands and knees and bad foot...even my dodgy left hip is sore.

Nothing much going on in my life today. I'm working on getting desperately needed new eyeglasses...something my very near-sighted and slightly blind eyes have been without for about five years now. Thanks to a friend, that will soon be fixed....US health care is the worst in the world...oh, the quality is great...but, as some of my regular readers know, if one doesn't have health care insurance, or has rubbish insurance, or lacks the sustainable income to support enormously expensive co-pays and medicines--and expenses which insurers don't cover or refuse to pay out for, one just suffers...and perhaps, dies.

And, that's the American way, these days...young or old, man, woman or child, doesn't matter...your government and your own fellow citizens don't care, they lack the courage and the compassion to see the reality, so they hide behind excuses and hate and selfishness...it's not trendy to care about Americans suffering, it's easier to worry about someone in a third world nation, than to acknowlege that some Americans live in practically third-world conditions, themselves.

Truth is, the hard and bitter truth, is that most Americans live in a glass bubble--a red-white and blue snow globe. They are petrified of having their "perfect" nation, shown to be flawed. America is not supposed to be flawed, America is supposed to be the best and greatest and strongest nation on the planet. God invented America, ya'know, so it can't possibly ever do injustice or wrongs, and it can't ever have suffering people's...it's the individual's fault they are suffering, it's not any of America's responsibility! America doesn't want to be responsible, they just want to react and damn the consequences of the aftermath...reacting doesn't require thinking, and thinking requires some sense of effort, and effort requires a sense of responsibility...it's a chain reaction leading to the decline of America, all the way around.

Sorry, I'll get off my soapbox now.

Anyway, it's quiet in here for a change, so I'm spending a restful day. I've been tidying up the living room, had my lunch of a ham and cheese sandwich, and now am planning on finally setting down to watch the Planet of the Dead Dr Who DVD someone very kindly sent along to me. Hope you all are having a good Thursday!

I just got an e-mail from Tardisgurl, telling me how "lucky" I am, 'cos apparently actor David Tennant--who makes some fan-girls drool and get damp in the knickers at the mere mention of his name--will be hosting PBS's Masterpiece Theater this fall.

Oh goodie. Actually, I used to watch MT all the time...when I had cable TV...which I don't any longer, so it's really not going to matter to me, one way or the other, who hosts MT in its new season.

I'm happy for PBS though, as hopefully Tennant's presence will bring new viewers in, that maybe shunned "quality" television in America, previously...and certainly, it may be of help when it comes time for the local station's doing their fund drives (public television in the USA is funded partly by corporate sponsorship, partly by govt. funding (tho' that has shrunk considerably in the last 25 years), and partly by donations from viewers...which is why Americans watching public TV have to put up with a week or two's of programming interruptions (there's no adverts on public TV, other than blurbs about corporate sponsors before and after a programme).

Our local Dr Who fan club (disbanded in 1989), back in the 1980's, used to man the phone's on the day the programme aired in our region, and I'm happy to report that Who fans, for a few years, were the #2 highest fund drive donors...which didn't make the snooty local PBS programme director happy....he was far more (rather tactlessly) thrilled when opera fans beat us out, and didn't hesitate to gloat over it.

A post by a blog friend inspired this post.

From my teens to my mid-20's I was a casual birdwatcher. Here's some pics of birds that I'd seen around my home, while growing up in the upper Hudson Valley region of New York state.

BALTIMORE ORIOLE

REDWING BLACKBIRD

MALE CARDINAL

BLUEJAY

MOURNING DOVE

GREAT BLUE HERON

RED-WINGED HAWK

BLACKCAPPED CHICKADEE

EASTERN PHOEBE

KILLDEER

BROADWINGED HAWK

PILEATED WOODPECKER (And these are big mothers, raps on trees like a jackhammer--it'll not only wake you up in the morning, it'll wake you up ALL OVER!)

DOWNY WOODPECKER

RING-NECKED PHEASANT (When my sister and I were wee, these birds were numerous, and used to come right up to our outdoor playpen--it's one of my first memories, seeing a pheasant. Most of these birds mysteriously disappeared from my neighbourhood around 1972, but some remained--tho' they were very elusive)

AMERICAN ROBIN

CANADA GOOSE

AMERICAN BITTERN

HOUSE FINCH

Jeez---someone tonight was prodding me about my (lifelong non-existant) sex life, and suggesting I start trolling for what laughingly passes for studs in my little rural city of 15,0000 (inbred) rednecks....ummmmm--no, don't think so, thanks.

"You're not gay, are you?"

Erm--no, I'm a freaking old maid...what part of "I don't" don't these people get? Honestly, I wouldn't know if I was gay or straight, 'cos I don't care--really! I don't care. Of course I look---I mean, I'm not a pile of ashes in a cardboard box yet, but...I am simply not inclined, either gender.

When did humanity become so obsessed with sex, that they cannot fathom a person not wanting to "do it?"

Dang, it's hard being me, sometimes.

I mean, it does put a damper on my dating life--no man on the planet (at least not in my part of the world) wants to date a woman he'll never get a leg over.

Wish folks would let me alone. I feel like a freak in a carnival side show. "Step right up folks, and see the last 48 year old non-Catholic virgin!"

I didn't mention this, but my farm lady friend, when we were out that Sunday, driving around-- laughingly tells her son-in-law in the car, "Yeah, Nancy's a virgin, did you know that?" Oh, ha-ha, big joke. Cripes! Let me alone already!

I've lived here for 2 1/2 years. In all that time, not ONCE has the USPS carrier picked up my outgoing post! Not. Once.

I've left it sticking out of my box--where it's sat for 2 days, until I bit the bullet and trudged down a few streets to the nearest public mail box--which only goes out once a day, in the evenings.

I've left the stinking post in PLAIN SIGHT in a basket under my mail box, left it sticking out of the mailbox, inside the mailbox..done everything but hang a big red banner from the box saying, "Hey arsehole, pick up the blasted outgoing post, you lazy bastard!"

I've written them a complaint, tho' I'm sure that will be taken seriously...not.

I'm told it's a tough job. Yeah, yeah, yeah. He's a grown 20-something man, he can take it...I mean, I was mucking stalls and lifting easily a few hundred pounds of weight a day, five days a week, as a 30 year old woman...and dealing with large, sometimes unruly animals in the bargain, outside 8 to 10 hours a day in all weathers--and, working a part time flea market business with my mum at the same time, so that meant working 6 to 7 days, often late into the night, and lifting yet more stuff...so, sorry, postman doesn't get a whole lot of my sympathy on that score...it's a tough job at times, but he's getting a very good salary and has excellent benefits and has better job security than a good many of us, right now, so pfft-to him!

While it is a lovely cloudless day, it's also a bit chilly...it got down to 0 C here, last night, and we had frost warnings out...which won't be good for some farmers, such as those with apple orchards--the trees have blossomed, or are beginning to blossom, and some folks are just starting to plant...tho' planting season here, really doesn't begin in earnest for another week or two, as yet.

Oh dear heavens, not again!

I made a post about 2 years ago, about David Tennant's dodgy nickname, and this morning I wake to a fan-girl comment, all about how the actor got his nickname...do I look like I care???

TAKE THE HINT, FAN-GIRLS! Just....stop, already! The whole 'ten-inch' thing is so overdone...it's yesterday's news. Go out and get a real boyfriend, yeah?

The neighbours across the hall have two cats and a dog. One was left outside to fend for itself, the other cat and dog...were left in our common hallway...no food, no water and no erm--facilities. So, I just came home to a very hungry and thirsty cat...I gave it food and water myself, and cat and dog poos and wee-wees in the hallway...right on the other side of my bedroom door (which is permanantly locked and can't be used, but still, a door...so I had to just now, stuff some dirty towels from the laundry bag against the bottom of the door, to keep out the stench....gross!

I mean, yeah, I've worked in stables and kennels and a cattery, too, cleaning up poos...but the smell is not really something you ever get totally used to, trust me! Bleh! I had to spray fragrance around the room--the bedroom has viturally no venilation, as the windows are firmly painted shut, like they'd been puttied over. Those lazy bastards, they never finish what they start and they always do things half arsed...I've seen them walk by their mailbox three days in a row, without bothering to bring up their own post!

Well, there goes my returning appetite, down the loo.

I just 'discovered' this band fairly recently...really like them.

So, before I depart for 4 hours of telemarketing hell, here's a video of one of my fav songs of theirs: (as always, click pause on the playlist player in my blog header.)

Gaslight Anthem, doing "Old White Lincoln."

In nature, I shed my mundane self, and become something bigger...yet more intimate, as well. I touch the centre of the universe, walk in step with the wind and the sun and the rain...they become a part of me, and I of them.

When I'm outside in wood and field, beside water and out in the wind, I am young, yet old. Nature changes, every moment, every second of the day; the shifting shadows weave a living tapestry on the landscape, a shaft of sunlight slanting through the trees, the twinkling sunbeams laugh with the dancing of the leaves on the breeze....and my heart, spirit and soul laughs with them.

I just got an e-mail (well, a couple of days ago, I'm a bit behind with my e-mail reading) from Tardisgurl. She says some Dr Who fan website she belongs to, is doing some awards for best fan fiction stories, and she wants me to enter.

Yeah...no. There's a reason my fan fiction rarely gets read...it's DULL...if you don't believe that, read a few posts back "My Dr Who dilemma" has an unfinished story on it...which is incredibly bad. I'm not being modest or humble here. I am totally realistic about my writing abilities.

Really though, my fan-fic stories aren't what the average Dr Who fan-fiction reader wants: They want Corronation Street/Eastenders/Emmerdale style stories. They want violence and girly romance-novel toucy-feely stuff that's easy to read. They want short stories....unless it has lots of graphic sex, then they like a long hard story.

They don't want my G-rated stories, trust me. I'm an old maid, I don't do romance. I can't, really, no life experiences to work with there. I've had my fan-fiction blog for a bit over 11 months now...just a few week's shy of a year. How many comments have I gotten on my stories? Around eight or nine. Less than ten people have read and liked my stories, in 11+ months.

Besides, I don't need awards. They're nice, lovely in fact--but, really, it's the satisfaction of crafting something solid out of thin air with words, that makes me feel good about my writing.

And sure, I'd love to be a paid writer...but, that's never-ever going to happen. I live firmly entrenched in reality; I have no dreams, no illusions. I don't write for praise..sure, I get chuffed--and surprised, when someone takes the time to say nice things about something I'd written...but I write...just because I (usually) enjoy it. It's just a hobby, a way to pass the long days and nights alone. Lately, I've been a bit bored with it, cos' that's basically all I've been doing for the past several years, having no other hobbies and unable to get out of the apartment/city much.

I'm hoping as I get out more, and as my health (hopefully) improves..and when I finally get new glasses (thank you, you-know-who) so I can see the computer screen better, that I'll feel more in the "groove" again...actually, I'm pretty sure I will. I never could stay away from writing, long. It's not just a passion, it's an obsession, I guess....sort of like my love for Dr Who and horses, I suppose.

Yes, I long to write Who-fics or plays that people want to read, that people love to read...but, reality-check: I'm just not that good. Talent or competence really doesn't have anything to do with it...you have to have a spark, something people want--something they themselves may not even know they want, that draws them into your story and your character's lives. I don't have that...I wish to hell I did. I've not been around in life enough, I've lead too isolated an existence, I just plain don't write (fiction-wise) what people want to read!

Well, going to the laundromat...the one just across the Hudson River bridge, in a shopping centre in the next county, cos' there's a one-dollar store nearby and I need some stuff, so I can do two chores at once...also opted not to take all the laundry...I know I should, and that I need to, but I also am not entirely well of late, as most of you know, and think a rest is in order, so just doing 4 day's worth, instead of 2 week's worth....will try to make time to do the rest of the wash on Friday...if it's not too hectic again.

Anyway, need to pump myself up to go out and do my chores, so leaving you with one of my favourite tunes by Aretha:

Well, we got another partial lay off notice last night. For the next few weeks, the only work for business-to-consumer department workers, is 4 hours a night, five nights a week, and 6 hours on Saturday. Some very upset workers, there, one saying outright, after the supervisor asked if anyone had any questions: "Yeah, I have a question: how are we supposed to live?"

Yup, that sounds about right. While the CEO's nosh in four-star restaurnants, laze about in expensive condos and drive posh cars, we peons have to struggle like hell to pay the rent/mortgage, buy basic groceries and pay for petrol and/or cab fare.

I had an OK night last night, at work, despite feeling very rubbish. I made two sales and most of my calls were to decent human beings...even a few nice people.

Of course, I had the idiot on Kentucky, who, when I asked for someone, the person on the other end dithered for about 20 seconds, before saying, in a spaced out manner, "I don't know," and hanging up.

Another woman in Kentucky started basically screaming at her hubby, "Yew better pick up the phone! I'm telling you, pick. up. the. phone! I don't know! It's New Yourk! Who do yew know in New Yourk? I said, pick. Up. The. Phone, damnit! (Love rednecks and caller ID)

Some broad in Minnesota said, "If you want to speak to my husband, you'll have to go through me, I conduct all his business." I thought perhaps he was deaf or ill, and said, perfectly innocently, "Oh, sorry, I didn't realize he wasn't able to conduct business over the phone, certainly I can talk his wife---" The witch interrupted me, launcing on some paranoid tirade, "What do you mean by that?" (Erm--nothing, I was just being POLITE?) And she continued ranting at me, "How DARE you call us, poking your nose into my business, is that your job?" (No, my job is to talk to rude idiots and paranoid droolers every night, apparently). I just said, that I was sorry to have upset her so much, and since I couldn't talk to her, I would just hang up...which I did. Wow, was this woman tightly wound or not?

God, Americans are freaks, sometimes.

In the local news, apparently guy in a sports car, has been driving around to Walmarts in the area, stealing stuff. He takes a plastic tote, fills it with small stuff like video games, small electronics and DVD's and then brings the out to the garden shop patio. Last time, at the Saratoga Walmarts, he tried to get the tote through the gate, but it was locked, so ended up taking everything out of the tote by hand, and putting it in his sports car....but this time, he left stuff behind....including a bottle of Rogaine hair growth product. The newspaper printed a CCTV pic of the guy..and yup, he's going bald, alright.

The man could be charged with petit larceny, a misdemeanor, and attempted grand larceny, a felony punishable by up to 4 years in prison, police said.

Another local man was charged with breaking and entering, after he broke into an ex-girlfriend's home by ripping open a window screen. After he broke into the home, he ripped apart her shower curtain. (oh, shades of Psyco there, yeah?)

In the same town, police are looking for the driver possibly involved in a hit and run. Police say a drunken man "abruptly" came off a side street on to the town's high street, literally walking or possibly even running into, a passing car. The car didn't stop, leading to a possible hit and run charge for the driver... the combative drunk was taken to the local hospital with unspecified injuries. Erm--if someone runs into a car, who's the hit, and who's the run?

A man in Saratoga County was arrested for felony aggravated cruelty to an animal, after he picked up a 6 month old Jack Russell terrier puppy by the throat, and threw it to the ground, fracturing its leg. No reason was given for the man's assult on the dog, which required extensive surgery and is recovering at a local veterinary clinc. The man is in the county jail, unable to procure a $1000 bond.

In another news article, a woman in Denver had her license plate revoked, because authorities decided that it could be mis-read. The woman, who aparently adores eating tofu, had a vanity plate that read, ILVTOFU. Other vanity plate rejects include: OBITEME, 2EROTIC and PASSGAS.

The woman told the newspaper, "My whole family is vegan, so tofu is like a staple for us. I was just going to have a cool license plate, and the DMV misinterpreted my message," and now, the American Civil Liberties Union has entered into the cause, questioning what they call censorship by the state of Colorado.

Only in America.

Flame woke me at 5am, so here I am sitting in front of my computer...blimey! The sun's not even up yet! Thanks, Flame, ya' daft cat.

She's laying in my lap as I type this, well...try to type this, not much fun trying to type around a cat, let me tell you.

I went to bed a few hours early last night, and for once, slept well. Woke hungry so hopefully the wee stomach bug I've had the last few days is gone, now.

I went to have some cereal, but my milk's gone sour, bleh. Not the best way to wake in the morning; a cat licking your face (the same cat that likes to drink out of the toilet), and sour milk.

She just looked up at me and gave a contented sigh...well, at least someone is happy in this apartment this morning. The two boys are still on my bed, snoozing away...typical.

So, I guess breakfast will be Quaker instant grits... their "ham with redeye gravy" flavour. Meh-it's food....I think.

I really had blown off doing any more meme's for a while. I was basically being inundated by them...and still am, actually...but I've just been either saving the e-mails or deleting them...but, as it happens, I just took my Clindamycin, and for some reason, I can't lie down for 30 minutes--and I do need to lie down, cos' while at work, my stomach bug came back to haunt me, darn it--so, I'm gonna' do this wee one-word meme.

It's boring to read these things, I know, but bear with me...promise no more meme's for at least 2 weeks...I'm cutting back, ha-ha.

_______________________________________________________________________

ANSWER WITH ONE-WORD RESPONSE ONLY:

Where is your mobile phone? NIGHTSTAND
Where is your significant other? NONE
Your hair colour? BROWN
Your mother? CEMETERY
Your father? CEMETERY
One of your favourite things? TARDIS
Your dream last night? TRAIN
Your dream goal? WRITE
The room you’re in? LOUNGE
Your hobby? WRITING
Your fear? HOMELESSNESS
Where do you want to be in 6 years? SECURE
Where were you last night? BED
What you’re not? SKINNY
One of your wish-list items? SOFA
Where you grew up? VILLAGE
The last thing you did? MEDICINE
What are you wearing? PLAID
Your TV? FLOOR
Your pets? CATS
Your computer? DELL
Your mood? SAD
Missing someone? MUM
Your car? NONE
Something you’re not wearing? THONG
Favourite shop? ANTIQUE
Your summer? SPRING
In love with someone? NO
Your favourite colour? BLUE
When is the last time you laughed? SATURDAY
When is the last time you cried? SUNDAY

I'm ditering over this story I started back in December. Truth to tell, my heart's not entirely in it...well, maybe more like my focus, really.

I'm of a mind to just delete it and forget it...then...I don't know. I am not a person who likes to give up on a story. Sometimes I do, like a story I wrote called "Numbered Days." I began it when I was ill with that bad abscess in 2007, and when I came out of the hospital, I sat down to it...and totally lost the thread. Not so much writer's block, as I just couldn't remember what i wanted to do with the story, where I wanted it to go.

So, I sat here this afternoon in my living room, in front of the computer, listening to some music and a lawn mower puttering away across the street, simply ditering over what to do with this story. I've done 8 chapters, but with my ill health...and other stuff of which some of you are aware of, I simply haven't had the druthers to bother with it...I mean, so far, I don't think anyone has ever even read it, so it's not like it's a big loss if I make it disappear...then again, I don't like to quit on a story, either, unless I really think I'm wasting my time with it.

Is is worth having another go at, or should I just bin it and move on?

___________________________________________________________________________________

Evil Waters

CHAPTER ONE

“Yeah, maybe some roast beef or gammon.” the Doctor shouted, “ I’m going to invite our little slimey friends to tea.”

OK, so, President Obama's "stimulus" has helped the rich and middle classes, lovely.

But, time and again, Obama has given America's neediest people the raspberry.

1. Backpedaling on universal health care. FACT: around 50 MILLION men, women and children in Aemrica have NO access to affordable health care. Millions more have only very limited health care....and many often have to give up everyday luxuries, like magazines, cable tv, clothing purchases---and in many cases at the moment, even FOOD, to pay for expensive co-pays and medicines, which are NOT covered by insurance.

In America, thousands die of untreated ailments, because either, they have a low income and no insurance...or, they have a low income and poor insurance that doesn't cover many expenses, or, their private insurance just won't pay for treatments. This is a FACT. Americans die. Children have died, elderly people, middleaged people...people from all walks of life...just plain suffer and die, for no other reason than America doesn't have the courage or compassion to care.

Obama included. He backpedaled, and is petting the insurance industry, by making them promise to cut rates. Well, la-de-da-da. Tell that to the mother of the 10 year old boy, who died in horrendous pain 2 years ago from an abscessed tooth, because NO dentists in his area would give him free medical care, and his mum's low income only provided for treatment for one of her two sons--tell this woman who had to literally decide which son would live and which would become ill and die, because she had no money to pay for two dental visits, that you are lowing insurance rates, Mr. President.

2. The stinking stimulus pay check thing....how Obama allowed the IRS to f_ck up, and take the wrong dedections out of the working poor's pay checks, and now the Americans who can least afford it, will likely have to pay back hundreds of dollars to the government next year.

And, President Obama hasn't said ONE WORD about this problem. He's just letting it go, without one worry about how it will hurt people next year. Oh, that's a big help, you bast_ard.

3. NOW, Roads and bridges stimulus package, meant to bring more construction work to America, to help put people back to work, ISN'T going to those areas that need it the most.

For instance, according to the newspaper I read this morning: Elk County, Pa., isn't receiving any road money despite its 13.8 percent unemployment rate. Yet the military and college community of Riley County, Kan., with its 3.4 percent unemployment, will benefit from about $56 million to build a highway, improve an intersection and restore a historic farmhouse.

Obama Talks the talk, but he very much ISN'T walking the walk. I don't know who's driving the white house bus these days, but President Obama is clearly asleep at the wheel.

I just found a blurb online, while trying to track down some information before going to "visit" mum in the cemetery, in a few week's time, about the cemetery being haunted.

Supposedly, in one section of the cemetery, people have seen a couple in their pyjamas, floating over some headstones. Hmmm--now, that's nothing I'd ever seen. Doesn't say which section, though. This cemetery is over 350 acres, and dates to the 1840's, with older graves that were transferred from cemeteries in the cities and private family plots, that were being displaced by progress.

http://www.graveaddiction.com/albrural.html This website contains many good pics of the cemetery where much of my family is buried--from ancestors from the 18th century, to my mum.

(as an aside, there's a pic of a Civil War monument with a marble eagle--one of my family plots is right near there, the one with the "mystery" ancestor, the MacLeod woman...which is where mum was when she had her "enounter".)

Mum had an enounter there, and I also had two encounters there--but neither were with "sightings," but with oppressive feelings...basically being "pushed" away from a site--please don't roll your eyes, it's very real, I mean that.

Mum was the calmest person I ever knew...very little phased mum, she wasn't superstitious, she had a ghost in her library (which I did see), and was totally OK with it. So, when my mum came home one day, from doing genealogy research in the cemetery, white-faced, and told me she was driven off from a grave site, I believed her. She said she got the very distinct feeling that she wasn't wanted there.

You see, I had a similar encounter, twice. Once it was horrible, and to this day i really don't like to even think about it, let alone discuss it, tho' I did write about it, once, on here. Let's just say that one one picnic-ranmble that I literally ran away from.

The other enounter wasn't quite so scary...not benign, but hardly oozing evil or anything like that.

I was an amateur historian, focusing on this particular cemetery. I found out that back in the 1850's, a cemetery for the African-Methodist Epsicopal church in Albany had been removed to this cemetery. However, there was no record of where the removals went to. This is not odd, as blacks in most of 19th century America were buried seperately from whites. But, through some diligent digging in the New York State Library and a few other places, as well as some good old foot work, I found them...I think. Most of the removals were taken from what is now Washington Park (where the recent Tulip Festival just took place). Washington Park had been interdenomical cemetery and a swamp, for most of the 18th and 19th century. Then, the Victorians decided that it would be better as a park, so the graves and monuments were dug up and hauled off to a certain section set aside for the purpose in the big cemetery.

I meticulously wandered this place in the big cemetery for days...then, by sheer chance, I noticed something off in the woods bordering the field. There, was a row of sunken graves...looking like mass graves, marked off only by a few short marble posts. I found them.

As I got out a tape measure to mark the graves on a grid, and also a pencil and some tracing paper to do some rubbings, to see if the posts contained any writing or markings to give me a further clue...something odd occured.

My excitement suddenly turned to discomfort....from discomfort, to an oppressive, spine-crawling feeling.

It was if I was being mentally told "go away, you are not welcome here"...only with feelings, not words.

I was in denial for about 15 or 20 minutes, telling myself I was just being ridiculous...but...it didn't work. I booked on out of there....came back, a week later...it didn't happen--for about 30 minutes. For 30 minutes, I was fine, busy taking notes and things...and then...yup, it happened again, that oppressive discomforting feeling. Weirded me out, let me tell you. But, it wasn't bad...I mean, it's hard to describe, but all I got was the feeling that these "spirits" wanted to be just let alone.

I've not been back, since, and these former slaves and freemen and women, remain buried in those woods, unknown, and uncared for.

I'm getting absolutely inundated by Trekkies coming on to my blog, 'cos some Trek fan found some ridiculous post I did of humourous Star Trek captions....I mean, there's dozens of hits from this one forum!

I'm a WHOVIAN! Dr Who rules, Star Trek DROOLS.

What's worse, is that I read the forum post with a link to my blog, and the fan-girl has the CHEEK to say that my music is "crap" and to turn down their speakers.

Well, a Trekkie wouldn't know GOOD music, if it fell over them. I mean, they probably listen to this:

CLICK PAUSE ON PLAYER TO WATCH VIDEO....you might also want to have a barf bag handy.

Several of my friends and fellow bloggers have sent me some e-mails over the past couple of days. Honestly, I've simply been so tired and/or busy, that I've not had a chance to really go in and reply to them. I will--promise, but it may not be until Monday, as I'm going back to bed, for a bit. Cheers.

I just got 'round to checking yesterday's post: My NY state student lender just sent me a bill for $18,000+. Well, no worries, I'll just nip out to Fort Knox then, and make a quick withdrawl. Do they take gold bars, d'ya think?

What a waste of time, money and good paper, sending someone whose yearly income is less than $14,000, an $18,0000 bill! Government waste, indeed. Ah well, they'll have to be content with the fiver I send them, up theirs.

My rubbish Fujifilm disposable camera only took 7 shots before it died, so no cow-shots.

These are the only decent pics that came out, just some spring photos from around where I work/live, and one of me, at the Walmart hair salon.

Since taking one of my meds, I've developed some really vivid dreams...good dreams, nice dreams, for the most part...even a lovely dream one night, where I lived in the country and owned, for some reason, a Welsh pony (I used to have a friend several years back, that was Welsh pony breeder, maybe it was an old memory surfacing.)

Last night was just...weird, though. I dreamed I was working...only, instead of on the phones, I was doing survey's in a supermarket...only the supermarket had open sky instead of a ceiling, and a storm was brewing. I remember telling my co-workers we'd better find some shelter...

...and then I was standing outside, and my supervisor told me that I had to stop Noah's Ark from coming into the city. What the??? OK, well, sure enough, I look up down a side street, and there, towering over the supermarket building, was Noah's Ark, larger than life, barrelling down a city street towards me.

Somehow, I wound up on the ark, only instead of Noah, there was God. I forget what He looked like, except he had white robes. And, there were no animals on the boat...but God pointed up, and there was a flock of geese flying, just a few. And I pointed, and there was butterflies and then dragonflies--but they were sort of physcadelic coloured in my dream....and then a dragonfly landed on my arm and bit me so hard it hurt (I woke up later to find a cat scratch on my arm in the spot, so I'm guessing Boots, who was sleeping alongside me, scratched me a just a tiny bit with a claw while I was sleeping, and rather than waking me up, the pain transferred itself to my dream) ...and I accidentally killed it, trying to get it off me.

And in the meantime, God was taking great pains not to step on any insects on the boat (for some reason it had insects but no animals), and He was rather disappointed in me. In my dream, I was walking around with this enormous welt on my arm...God didn't even offer me some Bactine for it....then I woke up.

OK, tell me THAT wasn't a bizzare dream! Especially considering I'm an atheist now!

Well...okay. I dressed up to go out--my best pair of Rider's ladies "slim-fit" boot-cut dark-dye blue jeans, my favourite blouse--the soft red chamois cloth one with the funny Chinese men on it, and my burgunday leather/knit jacket.

Got into the cab, and the cabbie said, "Hope you don't mind me saying so, but you look really hot in that jacket and shirt."

Ey??? Me???

Whoa. Me???

Move over David Tennant, you aren't the only hottie out there, now.

Well, it might have been better, if the cabbie looked like Pierce Brosnan....however, he weighed 300 pounds, was balding, and wearing an "eat my d_ck Obama" tee-shirt.

Ah well.

Anyway, just to verify that I'm very much not a party animal or pub crawler, this is how my "big night out in Glens Falls" went:

The changable weather tonight (just dropped 10 degrees in an hour, and is supposed to plunge to just above 0 C, in the wee hours)...any weather change can bring on a bout of arthritiis or bursitis or both (blame it on all that heavy lifting and being out in the cold damp all the time, in my younger days), well, anyway, the achy knee/foot caused me to opt for a cab down to Beamers--the pub where my co-worker tends bar on weekends.

Beamers, it turns out, is a hole in the wall Adirondack themed pub in what passes for Glens Fall's bar district, complete with deer and moose heads on the walls--just in time for the band's last set. The cover band wasn't bad...well, they weren't terrible, at any rate...four beer-gutted slovenly dressed middle-aged guys, with two guitars, a drum set and a guy singer doing rock tunes that somehow all managed to sound alike.

I sat and listened to the music, trying not to gawk at the man behind me groping a woman's breasts as they danced (oh, that's subtle), and the three women groping each other...and the lead guitar player...in another corner. God, times have changed since I went bar hopping (pub crawling) in my late teens, early 20's. Back then, unless you were in an actual gay bar, or extremely drunk, women very much didn't grope each other publicly--privately, yes, but not in the open...now...anything goes, I guess! Which is fine. Watching dancer's sexual groping in some dive, isn't high on the list of an old maid's ideas of a good time, but...whatever.

The bar was so small, the lead singer had to stand in the doorway to the pub, while band members had their backs to the walls.

Other bars on the street had bands going full tilt--and a few cat fights going on, on the sidewalks. So, I sat at the bar, had a couple of Pepsi's, chatted with my co-worker, listened to the band until they quit a bit past midnight, then watched a bit of tele (Saturday Night Live), then ambled off. Grabbed a slice of bacon-cheddar pizza to take home, then negotiated my way past the drunks and the wary bouncers, over to New Way Lunch for a hot dog and another Pepsi (why is it so darn hard to get a "Coke" in Glens Falls? Pepsi really has a lock on this place)...anyway, then...I slowly ambled home...and here I am.

Maybe next week, I'll go to Wallabee's Jazz bar, or the late-nite coffee house.

Tommorrow is Mother's Day, here in the states.

Mum always supported me in my choices, she loved being a mum, and took it very, very seriously. She didn't mess about. It was her first love and, despite other occupations, it was her number one career. And yes, she approched like it was a job, and not just soemthing automatic. Mum read Doctor Spock, she encouraged us to explore and discover, to read, to be curious. She was a firm disciplinarian--difficult, cos' my dad was just the opposite: she'd say no, he'd say yes--or vice-versa.

Mum was strict on manners. To mum, manners were EVERYTHING. They were the key that unlocked the doors to polite society, and also what made you civilized and human. Mom wanted us to be open-minded, even when she herself was predjudiced, she refused to let her own bias towards others get in the way.

Mum always took great pains not to project her negativities, anger, hardships and hurts on to us. Mum was our protector, our teacher, our friend.

That's not to say we didn't deserve the rare paddle on the bottom with a hairbrush, being sent to our room, or, the ONE time I asked her what the "f" word meant (having heard a boy on our street repeatedly use it while we were in his back yard playing with our Tonka trucks), this was when I was 10 years old, which momentous event earned me getting spanked with the hairbrush, AND my mouth washed out with Ivory soap! (bleh)...Jesus, I tell you what, I didn't cuss again until I was in my mid-20's!

Did I ever resent my mother? Of course! There were embarrassing moments every kid has to go through. When I flunked out of college at 19 (much to my everlasting shame), mum announced it to the neighbour that lived across the street--in the middle of the Shop-Rite supermarket! I'm like, "Hello, standing right here, do you not see me getting all red-faced?"

And, yes, several times she kept me from doing something I dearly wanted to do: Skiing lessons, (well, maybe she was right, that time), working in a tack shop by myself one weekend for a lady I'd just met, going on a protest march in Washington, D.C. at age 18, for allowing women in the military (I signed the petition, anyway...and we won, eventually, women now fight in Iraq and Afghanistan, because of young girl's like me, being angry at being denied serving the country in battle.) And, mum stopped me from getting my own place once--a place that, while a bit of a dump, was also perfect for me..a two-room cabin in the woods.

Yet, she also encouraged me....pursing hobbies, career(s), jobs...allowed me to go by myself to Wyoming-Montana when I was 19, go by myself to New York City at 16, travel to Dr Who conventions in New York and New England, in my 20's....didn't say a word when I quit my cushy, decent-paying, good benefits job with a Fortune 500 company, to go work in a stable full-time for minium wage and no benefits. When I decided to go back to college full time, 20 years after I flunked out of college, all she said was, "why?" I told her, and she just shrugged and said, "well, if that's what you want to do....it might be good for you."

I wasn't a saint or an angel. Tho' I didn't get into any of the serious trouble my sister consistantly did, I gave mum a few headaches from time to time, sure. But, she stuck by me. She told me when I was wrong...and when she thought I was right. Mum wanted me to be the best person I could be. Like most mum's, she wanted me to be happy. She didn't want us to have to deal with dad and his occasional rages and frequent selfishness, and did her best to protect us from that. She allowed me to be a tomboy, to be me, but, didn't allow me to run wild...I might dress like a boy, but darned if I was going to act like one! I was made to have manners, mum made sure I was around nice people. Sis...well, sis often disappeared for all day, sometimes, weeks, even months, as she grew older. But, I was there, and I think mum treated me, the way she would have made my sister have been, if my sister hadn't been so resistant and obstinate.

Mum talked a lot about her family--not constantly, but when promted by me, she would tell me all about better times when she was younger...and some not so good times, as well. Mum was an only child, and, like me (strange, I'd only just realiized this), by the time she'd lost almost all her family. Though she'd never dream of putting on airs, the unvarnished truth is, that dad did marry up with mum.

Dad's family were dirt-poor fatherless immigrants. Now, gran liked my mother, and mum adored dad's mum, from all accounts I've heard...but dad's brothers and sisters and cousins...mostly they disliked mum, thoroughly, except for a couple of his sisters--he had 3 sisters, and four brothers. My godmother/aunt who lived in our village, and another aunt who lived in Florida, got on quite well with mum. But, for some reason, dad's other relations snubbed mum...and me, too, for that matter...tho' some of the "aunts" who married dad's cousins were nice to her, and were friends.

Mum was a lonely woman---having a husband like dad, in a small community, could be quite an isolator, and I think being a mum helped her cope...and later, the library...god, she loved being a librarian! Mum adored books and learning. Mum liked history and politics and such. Never into gossip and soaps and lying in the sun getting a tan, like most of the mum's on our street, mum preferred going to libraries and museums, and on outtings with us kids--picnics, swimming, horseback riding, fishing, bowling, museums, zoos, etc.

Much of who I am today, I really do owe to mum.

Click on pic to make larger.

June Marie F___-G___: 14th Feb., 1926---14th Nov. 2005. I love you always, and miss you forever.

Like the old pop song, I'm spending yet another Saturday night alone...well, maybe not. Now, I'm not a pub person, never really have been--tho' I went through a brief phase at 18-20 years of age...but, then, I grew out of it. Wasn't me, really. Not that there's anything wrong with pubbing and clubbing, it's just...not my idea of fun, I suppose. Because I spent so much time alone as a teen, I guess I do tend to prefer quieter, more solitary pleasures, I'm afraid.

However, (Rats! I just missed the last bus downtown--Sept to May they stop running at 9pm....June-August, the precious tourists get service till' 11pm. Dang! Now I have to walk downtown)...anyway, as I was about to say, I've had a nice very much needed post-work nap, and now am going to head off downtown to a South Street dive called Beamers Pub, where my gay co-worker E__ tends bar. He's a great guy, always makes me laugh. No bones on him! He's very naughty...and hey, even an old maid like me can use a little naughty to spice up her life once in a while.

I don't drink and a bunch of drunks combined with loud music (there's a live band tonight) isn't my idea of fun generally, but hey, I ain't dead yet, and I need a change of scenery, from sitting here in front of a computer all night, or watching dr Who, or reading in bed. I've got a bit of extra cash at the moment..and it's only a $2 cover, and maybe another 2 dollars for a Coke or a lime and soda, so what the heck, why not?

I'm only sitting here, editing a story and listening to my playlist player, anyway...and Flame is once again in heat and yowling like a banshee--although I did get her to shut up for a bit, by feeding her some movie theater butter flavour popcorn--god, that cat snorts down popcorn like a junkie with cocaine. She's mad for it! She even tries to stick her head in the bag, if I don't feed it to her fast enough. She sits there crunching a kernel, with a look of sheer joy on her face, *crunch-cruch-crunch-nom-nom!*

Speaking of bags, I was putting the shopping away last night. and placed the empty plastic bag on the floor (I'm always forgetting to grab my shopping bags in my rush out the door, shame on me)...so I hear this rustling noise, and I look down...and there's big ol' fat Charlie, sitting on the floor, quite calmly, just sitting there....with a plastic shopping bag over his head! God, that was hilarious!

Any other cat would panic, but you could set off a firecracker next to him and he'd barely notice--nothing much disturbs Charlie--not even when the Adirondack Pipe Band goes by on the street, in the Memorial Day parade. All he does is put his ears back--he's not of Scottish decent, I reckon. Charlie's a dear, I should hire him out to a film company, ha-ha. Oh, but I have to say last night I did stand there in the kitchen, cracking up in a fit of giggles; as Charlie calmly sat there, while I removed the bag, he looked at me with this, "Oh, okay, that's better thanks" look on his face. Daft cat.

So, it's nearly half-past 9pm, and I think I'll get dressed into something comfy and head off down to Beamer's. I likely won't stay long. Maybe I'll pop round to one of the food joints and get a slice of pizza, or a hot dog at New Way Lunch, if they're open. It can get a bit rough on South Street as the night goes on to morning, so I don't want to stay, as that's totally not my bag, not at my age, anyway, ha-ha. I'm an old fart, and proud of it...worked hard to get here, been up the creek, over the mountain and down the loo, why should I try to dredge up the past by acting like a teenager again? I worked hard to get here, and by god, I'm gonna' act my damn age! (slams fist on desk--ow.)

It's Saturday, I have to work 4 1/2 hours today, and we're to have a spot of stormy weather this afternoon.

Today's the big annual Tulip Festival in Albany, NY. Held in Washington Park, just a few streets west of the city centre, the festival is one of the major events in upstate New York this time of year--made more important this year, as it's the 400th anniversary of the "discovery" of the Upper Hudson river and the Albany area (Known orginally as the Dutch colony of Fort Orange), by Henry Hudson and his ship, "Halfmoon."

Headlining the festival this year, is the band, Third Eye Blind, which is a good band, I think. Wish I could go, but alas, I have other committments...and am saving my money to go down there on Memorial Day (your 2nd bank holiday wkend in May, I think), to "visit" with mum.

One year, when we were children, maybe 1967 or so, the "Tulip Queen"--and honour bestowed on one young lady from Albany each year, was my neighbour, the Episcopal bishiop of Albany's, niece. They had a big do, an outdoor BBQ in the field next to our house, and invited us kids...so I got to meet the "queen," who I recall was a lovely girl, and all us kids got to also eat all the free hot dogs and Pepsi's we could hold, and have a nice romp in the field, too, rolling down the wee hill, playing hide and seek in the nearby woods, and such.

My parents dragged us to this festival, year after year, as my sister and I were growing up...and me, as a teenager. It was nice...lovely flowers in bloom everywhere, lots of good festival type food, music, and horses (loved the horse drawn wagon rides, of course).

You know, it's bad enough getting spam in your comments....but it's worse, I think, when you get some foreign git that hasn't a clue about the English language, spamming you with a long comment that pretty much amounts to nothing more than a lot of unintelligable nonsense, with some dodgy links randomly inserted into every other sentence! Jeez.

You know what? I feel better today. I feel empowered a bit more. Tho' I am still quite ill, some nice things happened to me today.

I found out my friends not only like me a lot, but, that I've actually made a difference in a few lives, afterall. I never thought that before today, never knew, would never have guessed for a moment.

Today, I did something nice for a friend--it was my farm lady friend's birthday, and I was browsing a garage sale--that's where someone cleans out their unwanted junk and has a sale in their garage...or porch, or lawn or barn, etc.

I found a pretty little country-style pendulum clock with a black and white cow on it, for $5, so I bought it for her, cleaned it up and gave it to her tonight, at work. She loved it! After work, we went shopping together at Walmart...I picked up the film. Would you believe it? NONE of the farm pics came out! Alien cows??? I took most of them in daylight, so at least some of them should have come out! All the pics I shot in Glens Falls came out, even the indoor one's! WTF???? Why can't I take pics of my friend's cows???

Well, I'm fed up with cheap cameras. No more pics! Someday I'll have enough for a REAL camera again. I had a Kodak EZ Load that was lovely, but the first one fell into the sea, and the second one--which I had to buy from e-bay 'cos Kodak stopped making them-- got stolen out of my car. I'm told they sell digitals now for around $40, but I'm leery of cheap cameras now.

We had a tremndous thunderstorm as we came out of walmart, the fire department was called out, and not surprised, as the lightning was going straight down...the rain was going sideways.

So, maybe tomorrow I'll post pics of flowers, 'cos that's all I got for my 10 dollars, 4 pictures of flowers, one pic of me at the hairdressers, and a pic of a co-worker. Darn it.

Well, I'm told you know who thinks what she and sonny jim did to me was a big larf...yeah, making someone who'd had a TIA a month ago, and who is sick even now, even sicker, that's really hilarious...I so hate America, I have to get out of here!

These people are going genuinely bonkers! You know, the bus driver yesterday, on the bus I was riding, actually got into a loud and prolonged argument with another passenger, over Mohomad Ali? The driver was mad at Ali, cos' he was a Vietnam draft dodger---okay, that was the 1960's! Hello, 21st century!!! Get over your maschonistic patriotic self, for Cris'sake!

And, today, some broad in Texas is mad at Obama, cos she claims that no one will buy her farm equimpment since Obama took office in January, cos' HE caused this recession? Erm--hello, is anyone home? Talk about an empty house! That would be the recession that began in effing 2007, when BUSH was in office! Then I got some frontal lobotomy candidate, in St. Cloud Minnsota, who told me, "I don't know anything about anything?" Ey???

Well, that about size up America, in a flippin' nutshell.

Anyway, aside from being ticked off about the pics not coming out again, it was generally a good day. I don't feel great though, and almost fell asleep at work. It's half-past 9pm, and I only just had my dinner. Still have the shopping to put away. Didn't make the laundromat, didn't make the optomotrists. Not for lack of trying, but for lack of getting a cab in a timely fashion.

I'm going to finish putting the shopping away, and go to bed early. Maybe sit up and read a while. I was going to watch dr who on DVD, but I am really fighting sleep now. I was going to go out tonight, but think it can wait until tomorrow. I was only going to visit a co-worker, who tends bar at one of the dives downtown. I'm very much not a pub crawler, never have been, never will be, but he's a nice guy, and he invited me to stop by. I met his partner once, and he seemed quite outgoing and friendly, and he's supposed to be working there now, as well, so it would be nice having someone to chat with--pubs are boring when you don't know anyone and are not particularly a socializer (and, not to mention, you don't drink).

But, aside from rare trips to the farm, and shopping at walmart, I bascially still have no social life to speak of, whatsoever. So, maybe I'll back off blogging just a wee bit, and start getting out more..if I'm feeling up to the walk downtown, that is. Today, walking at times, was like trying to tread through knee-high treacle, I was just that tired! My feet and legs felt like lead weights.

Well, we had a nice day, despite the storm tonight. Supposed to be nice tomorrow, stormy again, but 20 degrees cooler on Sunday.

I opened my closet tonight and another moth flew out! I'm definately going to have to get stronger moth control. I hate moths, even baby one's! I am worried about moth balls with the cats--aside from the smell, the cats like to sleep in the closets and I worry about accidental poisoning. Any ideas out there, how to safely moth proof a closet when you have pets?

So, got to do the thing with the shopping. Got some nice buys, this month. I bought a lot more ready meals for the freezer and cupboard, than I usually do, but not being well, I thought it might be a good idea---if I have some easy to make, fairly quick meals, I have more of an incentive to eat, on days when my appetite is off, or my health is low.

I just had to post this, as it gave me a bit of a laugh:

Recently, a farmer in Washington County, New York, was arrested on a felony theft charge. The farmer is under arrest for allegedly stealing a tractor and a haying combine.

Four things led police to conclude that the farmer was guilty:

1. He was the previous owner of the repossessed tractor and hay combine, which had been recently sold at auction and was being held in storage at a local farm equipment dealership for the new owners--from where it was stolen.

2. There was an eye-witness to the theft.

3. The equipment was found parked on the previous owner's property, albeit, one side--the side facing the two-lane paved road, was re-painted black, over it's original colours.

4. The previous owner showed up at the dealership just days before the theft, inquiring about the equipment...during which process he gave a false name: "Peter Parker," and then dropped his trousers, revealing red and black Spiderman leotards underneath.

Oh spidey, say it ain't so!

I almost did something really stupid today. Instead, I came home and wrote this stupid poem instead:

Fire and Steel

Endings aren't beginnings but death,
Dreams stolen away by theft,
Grasping straws that burn at a touch,
From rage and fear, yet still, you clutch
Tightly, holding on to the light within.
The fire cannot hurt. Nor any amount of sin
Which tries to destroy the soul in vain,
Can compete with a spirit forged from pain.

Well, I wrote the last post before checking my e-mails. I have to shut down my blog. You-know-who has reported me to bcuk.

I want to go on record, that I've been blogging on here since Sept of 2006, without so much as ONE complaint lodged with Bcuk.

But, that has all changed. This isn't doing my health much good. I AM having chest pains again, no lie. This person is a selfish, inhumane person, to allow this to continue, KNOWING I've recently had a mini-stroke. To say that he or she is not responsible for her son's actions, is just a cop out and a lie. But...I digress.

I want this person to know that she may have won, but I AM retaining all posts on a SECRET blog that no one knows about. So, she may have gotten these posts off of the blog (well, now her "lawyer" can't use them against me, if I have to delete them, ha-ha), but they are still out there, so she also loses on that score.

Goodbye. I will stay a member of the blog so I can follow friend's posts. but this bullshit is just too much for my health. If this person insists on wontenly endangering my health by continuing to hound me (and I know she and her son have "bothered" other people now--a serial blogger, so I know it's not just me--and yes, I have documentation about that, sweetcheeks, so tell your lawyers, yeah?)

This is what bcuk wrote to me:

Dear equuscomitis@hotmail.com, It has been brought to our attention that your blog at the URLhttp://oldmaid.blog.co.uk/ violates our Terms of Service (ToS), in particularthe following sections: §10. Inadmissible Content and Behaviour§10.2.In particular, the following shall constitute inadmissible content:# content of a slanderous or defamatory nature;# content violating the rights of others to the protection of their privacy orother privacy rights, in particular legal positions protecting against thepublication of one’s own image. Specifically, the posts at the following URLshttp://oldmaid.blog.co.uk/2009/05/06/just-need-to-write-this-and-get-it-off-my-chest-6070059/http://oldmaid.blog.co.uk/2009/05/06/i-am-having-chest-pains-now-i-don-t-need-this-shit-6070921/are clearly in violation of the ToS, in that they reveal private details ofother blog.co.uk users. We request that you remove any details of any blog.co.uk users that you haveposted on your blog within the next twenty-four hours, ie by 1430 CET onFriday, May 8th, 2009. Failure to comply with this request within the timeframe mentioned above willresult in the removal of any postthat we consider to be in violation of the ToS.

Good bye everyone. It's been lovely, but I really, really don't need this sh_t. I am really having chest pains, I'm not joking. What started as a better day, has been completely ruined. I hope swj/pj/ps are happy that they've destroyed an important part of my life. There's nothing I can do about it. Nothing. Stalker wins, I lose.

However, as I said, for legal reasons, I am copying and pasting this post, all comments, etc., to another blog (not bcuk) so I can have a record of it.

I want to than everyone for their support, it was the last thing I expected. I won't mention names because the last thing I want is to drag anyone else into this muck.

When I got up this morning, and wrote that last post, I really hadn't expected to continue publicly blogging, after yesterday. With my multiple, potentially serious helath issues, I decided to heed the nurse's advice.

Let's face it; at the end of the day, all I am, is just some fat, ugly, lonely old maid, sitting in front of her computer screen, morning noon and night, blogging away and writing bad plays and daft Dr Who stories, because she's got nothing else in her life worth doing. That's me, in a nutshell. Nothing I write will ever change anyone's life, or change the world....really, blogging is just me, grasping at straws, to feel less invisible in the world. That's my reality. That's what I wake up to, every morning.

Outside of my friends, bless, I really didn't think anyone from the "outside" world, was reading my blog.

Seems I was wrong, and I think the half dozen or so people who have come forward in the last 10 hours or so, whom I do not know, really caught me by surprise. I'm genuinely gobsmacked. I had absolutely no idea that people (not on my friends list) liked my blog.

I've had two comments that actually left me chuffed.

One person said I made him or her feel "less alone," and that he or she "enjoyed" reading my blog.

The other was an e-mail by "anonymous fan", where someone wrote that he or she loved my Roasting David Tennant blog and my Dr Who stories, and thinks Russell T. Davies would like them and I "should send them to the BBC". Aw, now I have to admit, that did my ego a world of good, as that's very probably one of the nicest compliments I'd ever gotten about my Dr Who stories--of course, RTD would probably blow them to pieces (and rightly so), and anyone from the BBC would bin my stories---

but, it's a lovely thing to tell me, and these two messages were just the thing to say to make me feel better, so bless you both, whomever and wherever you are.

So, maybe I will continue publicly blogging, but for the time being, any deeply personal posts will be posted privately for friend's only, and I may leave off posting political (liberal) posts, and/or posts that paint America in a less than patriotic light, as this seems to upset you-know-who....but I may come back to that, some day, when things settle down again.

I got a note from someone who isn't on my friend's list, who asked me to post to my blog, 'cos she was having problems getting e-mail.

My blood pressure went through the roof yesterday, but otherwise I seem to be fine, heart-wise. I do sometimes get chest pains when severely stressed. It went from 140 (well, that's what it was Mon.) to 210 yesterday.

Yes, I'm taking a break from blogging for health reasons. When I explained to the nurse-practicioner why my BP was so sky-high and my pulse was racing, she told me I should stay away from blogging/the internet if it upsets me that much. So...that's what I'm being forced to do, thanks to the mrs and her son. I don't see how she can say she's not responsible for her teenage son's actions--a parent not taking responsiblity for their kid, what a surprise. Well, come on, reality check: he never would have known about me, if she hadn't told him...how the hell else would he have gotten a bcuk account and started following me around the web--I mean, the ONLY person to visit my new creative writing blog on livejoural, was either her or her kid....well, I won't have to put up with this any more, cos' I have stopped writing. Writing just isn't enjoyable, these days...and since I'll never be a paid writer, there's really not much incentive for my doing it...and I don't think most human beings out there, are honestly going to miss me being on this blog or my other blogs, anyway. It's not like I'm popular or anything.

Anyway, Boobycakes and other non-friend's list readers, there ya' go. Thanks for visiting my blog. cheers.

Pictures of things I really like...

Woke early this morning, so I bit the bullet and got my messages--grocery shopping at Walmart...with a pit stop first at McDonalds for a sausage and cheese Mcmuffin, 'cos while I wasn't hungry when I left, wouldn't you know it? I was famished when I got to Wally-world.

While in Mickey-D's, three pensioners sat near me. The three old men were sitting around, loudly discussing their purchases, the way the hard-of-hearing are wont to do (or really, most Americans do, for that matter..we do often talk to each other like we're standing three yards away instead of 6 inches, dunno' why).

One guy was lamenting his grandson's growing feet...apparently, the kid keeps asking "papa" or new trainers all the time. Then, somehow, the conversation at the next table, turned rather surreal, as I sat munching on my lovely warm sausage butty and sipping my diet Coke, I heard them start to discuss the merits of Oprah versus Ellen. (Oprah Wimfrey's Talk show, Vs. The Ellen Degeneris talk show). How bizzare was that, sitting there, watching these three old butch looking American guys--whom I'm quite posititive wouldn't have been caught dead watching this stuff, 20 years ago, sitting there seriously discussing the differences between women's talk shows?

Wow, the times they ain't just a'changin', they are past change and soaring into just plain weirdness.

Someone e-mailed me a link to this article. Dear god, how despicable can some Americans be? In my area, a man was just sentenced to three years in jail, for disability fraud...this bozo will likely get off with a slap on the wrist, 'cos he's a commander, and in the USA, military people are sacred bloody cows.

___________________________________________________________

Federal prosecutors have filed a civil lawsuit against a Navy commander from Anne Arundel County who was granted a Purple Heart for injuries he claimed to have suffered when a plane crashed into the Pentagon on Sept. 11, 2001.

The lawsuit filed last month at the federal courthouse in Washington does not raise questions about Coughlin's actions during the Pentagon attack, but challenges the account of injuries he submitted to the compensation fund. Coughlin still has the Purple Heart, and the honors are not under review by the Navy, officials said.

Got a missed call on my mobile...number wasn't anyone I knew...looked it up...some fence company in Long Island??? Def a wrong number!

I'm bleeding from my jaw abcess and can't get it to stop. Looks like I'll have to go to the health center, whether I want to, or not. Dang.

I am holding an online raffle for charity.

I have 4 tickets to 27th Annual Quik Chek Hot Air Balloon Festival in New Jersey, USA, to be held the 24th to 26th July, 2009.

Features of the festival will be concerts by recording artists Kool and the Gang, Michael McDonald, Al Jardine (Beach Boys) and the Endless Summer Band, and also Meghan Martin. There will be up to 125 balloons, mass launching at 6.30 am and 6.30 pm, approx., fireworks on Friday night, with a "moonglow" on Saturday night--where balloons fire up in the darkness.

Special shape balloons will include: Darth Vader head, a red barn, a clown head, a pirate inside a wooden barrell, a giant panda, the pink energizer bunny, a giant bee, and a can of Pepsi Cola.

Other entertainment will be by the Flying Wallendas, local musicians, magic shows, and an arts and crafts fair featuring over 200 vendors.

There's a video contest, and the winner chosen by the festival gets a ride in the Darth Vader balloon, and other balloon rides will be offered, as well.

For more information, go here: http://www.balloonfestival.com/entertainment/event/

This raffle is for FOUR tickets. Bids start at just 1 dollar! All proceeds to benefit the National Kidney Foundation, to be donated to the memory of my mum, whom died of kidney failure in Nov. of 2005, after a long brave battle over a period of approx. 5 years.

SEND E-MAIL BIDS, STARTING AT JUST $1, TO: nbgwho@aol.com

BIDDING CLOSES ON 1ST JUNE. CHECKS OR MONEY ORDERS ONLY (This is on the honour system, as bids can be sent directly to the charity--I'll provide the address-- after biding has closed.) Tickets will be awarded to the highest bidder, at midnight on 1st June, so it's important that you include a valid e-mail address that you check regularly, in with your bid.

Dr Who has gotten two nominations for the Hugo Awards for 2009, congrats to them!

The Hugo Awards are held every year for the best science fiction or fantasy of the previous year and winners will be announced this summer.

NOMINATIONS FOR BEST DRAMATIC PRESENTATION, SHORT FILM:

Doctor Who - Silence in the Library/Forest of the Dead (written by Steven Moffat and directed by Euros Lyn) and,

Doctor Who - Turn Left (written by Russell T. Davies and directed by Graeme Harper).

On another front, Dr Who has garnered NINE nominations at the Wales/Cymru BAFTA's this year:

NOMINATIONS FOR CYMRU BAFTA'S:

Best Drama Series / Serial for Television - Phil Collinson
Best Director Of Photography: Drama - Rory Taylor for Silence in the Library
Best Sound - Doctor Who Sound Team for Midnight
Best Editor - Phillip Kloss for Midnight
Best Make-Up - Barbara Southcott for The Next Doctor
Best Screenwriter - Russell T Davies for Midnight
Best Original Music Soundtrack - Murray Gold for Midnight
Best Director: Film/Drama - Euros Lyn for Silence in the Library
Best Interactive: Rob Francis for BBC's Dr Who website and their interactive offering.

Also, The Sarah Jane Adventures garnered a nomination for Best Children's Programme, and, the other DW spinoff, Torchwood, got 2 nominations for Best Costume and Best Design.

Congrats and good luck to all concerned...most especially to Russell T. Davies and his fellow producers for bringing us these wonderful programmes.

"Bones, Scotty, Spock. We. Must. Join forces. With. The Doctor. Look. At All. The BAFTA's. He's. Won."

...and this proves it!

SMOKING ROOM CEILING MURAL

You know, when folks are talking about this TV series or that advert on television, I get rather tired of people saying to me, "You don't get television?!?"

No.

Or, when I profess not to know a thing about a certain movie, "you don't go to the movies or rent videos?

No. (sigh) I don't.

Or, when talking about some celebrity gossip, "You hadn't heard that?"

Or, when talking about my personal life, "You haven't dated in over TEN YEARS??!!!???"

How about, "you've never used an i-pod?" or "you don't know how to text?"

And don't get me started on my factually being a 48 year old virgin who'd never been kissed.

I mean, these are people whom quite seriously have never heard of Oliver Cromwell, Thomas Paine, Angela Merkel or Gordon Brown. But by god, they've heard of Angelina Joile, let me tell you.

Jeez...am I out of touch, or are they?

I was reading where filming has been completed in Albany over this past weekend, for a part of some major motion picture. An actress named Angelina Jolie (whom I've heard of but know nothing about) was in it. The film begins with a "S" but I can't remember the name. She's sort of nice looking, in a typical modern Hollywood anorexic starlet kind of way...I had to google her, 'cos I had no idea what she looked like.

It was filmed around the captial building, in the ultra-modern Empire State Plaza (pictured below), which houses state government offices, the New York State Library, and the New York State Museum...and the "Egg," a centre for the performing arts where plays, dance and concerts are held--which is also where I had my high school graduation (class of 500+ students and all their families, wouldn't fit in our high school auditorium). We once held a mini Dr Who convention in the indoor observation deck of the 44 story tall Corning Tower, the tallest building in Albany, NY.

The Plaza has an underground level, all done in ultra-modern marble, essentially it's a long wide corridor, with a large canteen, shops and offices. Sometimes special events are held in the corridor on weekends, such as craft fairs and collectables shows.

OBSERVATION DECK, CORNING TOWER:

One of the reasons I got out of Dr Who fan fic websites, is the stupid cliques going on there. Bleurgh! No thank you! It's like high school all over again!

Someone e-mailed me this fan fiction "survey." Looks more like a meme, to me, but what the heck, I'm up with a toothache, so might as well...

______________________________________________________________________

Fanfiction Survey:

Do you read or write fanfiction? Yes.

When did you first start reading/writing fanfiction? What series was your first story about?

June, 2006 I wrote a really awful Dr Who (new series) story, with the 9th Doctor....though as I recall, I did write my very first Dr Who story for a fan club newsletter, back in 1987, that was a Tom Baker story, but I really don't remember much about it.

What was your first fandom?

Probably the Partridge Family, or perhaps Emergency! I didn't see Dr Who for the first time, until 1983, though I definately was a big Star Wars fan, back in the 70's.

First ship?

Tardis!

What website do you use most?

For posting fan-fics? Wordpress, and sometimes Livejournal or Blog.co.uk.

What do you think of Fanfiction.net?

It's OK, there's some really very good fiction on there, but sometimes you have to wade through an awful lot of Who-porn and other rubbish, but as far as rubbish goes, it's got less Who porn than Teaspoon does.

What fandoms have you written in?

Dr Who, but did some Who crossovers with Are You Being Served, Battlestar Galactica (orig. 70's series), Lassie, Gilligan's Island, Father Ted and Bonanza...merely out of whimsey.

Pairings?

Probably Doctor/Donna mostly. Though I've done several Doctor/Martha's and a couple of Doctor/Rose's. My recent (still unfinished) story pairs the Doctor with Wilf and Gwen Cooper, just because I felt like it.

Any fandoms you would like to write in?

Nah, I pretty much stick to Dr Who. It's what I know best.

Do reviews affect how you write in any way?

No, not usually. Honestly, 75% of the people leaving reviews have not exactly majored in English, writing or communications...which isn't to say their comments aren't valid! And, certainly, I'm not saying that these comments/reviews aren't appreciated, but I try not to take most reviews--good or bad, too seriously...not that I get many reviews, mind you...they are extremely rare. That said, I did get some good advice though, quite recently, and am editing some of my stories accordingly.

Actually, it's when no one will comment on a story or play or whatever, that I tend to take to heart more, I think. I tend to believe, "well, this must really be a load of dull rubbish, if no one can even be bothered to tell me whether they liked it or not."

Do you use a beta?

No, had a bad experience with one...and also, as part of my communications major, I studied editing, so I don't really need a beta reader...I'm just extremely lazy about editing my own work, ha-ha.

What ratings do you read/write?

I have no idea what this means, I'm not in the little world of the fan-fic writer's clique. I make an effort to write true to the series, so I write G or PG, as, at the end of the day, Dr Who is a kid's programme, after all.

What warnings have you used on your fiction/read?

I so do not write Who-porn. I sometimes have a bit of minor rude language, and a few scenes have had violence involved, but not enough for it to be more than PG rated...and even then, probably in the real world of film and television, my work would likely barely merit a PG rating. I had a website consistantly rate most of my stories PG, and honestly, I have no clue why.

Do you have any squicks?

What the hell is a "squick?" Speak E-N-G-L-I-S-H!

Do you Role-play online? If so, what?

No, I'm a bit too old for that stuff these days, I gave it up when I was 14--except for acting classes in college, of course.

Have you ever stolen something from another prson's work?

Hell no. I might borrow a vaugue idea from an existing work--every writer that's ever lived has done that at some time in their life, really. Writing stories has been around since the 27th century BCE! Honestly speaking, I'd rather die than steal someone else's creative work they've laboured on...that's like raping someone's heart and soul, to me.

Favorite fandom to write/read?

Doctor Who

Favorite pairing?

We alredy sort of covered this question...the writer is either got dementia, or is not very good at writing surveys.

Favorite writer/writers?

I don't have a faviourite fan fiction writer--I have favorite published Dr Who writers, but no one in particular that I follow in fan-ficdom.

How long should a chapter be?

As long as it needs to be....that said, somewhere between a few short paragraphs and War and Peace.

Do you write/read drabbles?

Yes. Though after spending 100 days writing drabbles for the Accord Hospice fundraiser in 2007, the fun sort of went out of it, for me.

Any fandoms you avoid?

Not so much...I avoid most Who-porn like that plague, cos' it's so very rotten...I detest cheezy, badly written, rubbish-plotted romance novels, and so, I would also avoid cheezy who-porn.

Pairings you avoid?

Doctor/Captian Jack. I don't hate Capt. Jack, or anything of that sort--but neither am I comfortable writing his character--so I stay away from putting him into any of my works.

Kind of the the same goes with Rose--she's a fantastic character, RTD and Billie Piper did a marvelous job making her come to life-- but, truth is, I simply don't relate to Rose, because I've never been around someone like Rose, and I was never really like that when I was a young person (from my prospective), so I'm not really comfy writing a character I can't gel with.

Warnings you avoid?

Yes, adult warnings. I really do try to write as true to both the new and the classic series as I can--a drama that was orignally and essentially, meant to be a children's programme.

Do the number of reviews tell how good a story is?

This question is too vague...I mean, good or bad reviews? But no, numbers of reviews don't indicate anything except whether people are reading a story or not. Of course, if there's loads of positive reviews, that could indicate a well-written, nicely executed story--or, it could indicate that the story is merely easy to read, or contains some cheap titalation (sex, graphic violence) that is drawing readers in.

What do you think of Mary Sues?

What the hell is a Mary Sue? See? This is why I shy the hell away from these little online fan-fic cliques...high school rubbish.

Have you ever flamed someone?

Hell no, I'm a grown up. I left high school behind in 1979.

Have you ever been flamed?

Yeah, once, but I deleted it, the brat wasn't making any sense, yelling and going on how awful a writer I was, for no other reason that I dared to start ONE sentence of a drabble with a speaking quote...what a load of tripe! Open any fiction paperback, and see for yourself.