There Are 10 Of Them Anyway

1. I'm going to wait out the whole Facebook stalking possibility thing a little bit longer. I'm lucky to have a couple of highly competent researchers in my corner and, while I historically have crappy judgment about dates, their evidence is still inconclusive so I'm going to give it one more missive before defriending or what have you. Currently my gut feeling is that he'll never show up in my city. I have, however, been wrong before. Frequently.

2. Yesterday I got another fighter in my corner about my health insurance problem and that was a source of great comfort to me. Somehow it was comforting even as she verbally grimaced about how completely fucked I am.

3. Ever since I got the notice for my premium increase and knew I'd have to change health insurance if at all possible this thing has been running around in my head. It is, to some extent, hyperbolic but I have to get it out. Almost a decade ago I breathed concrete dust and human ash from the World Trade Center while I marched against a war launched on a pack of lies and I was called unpatriotic. If that was unpatriotic then what do I get to call Americans now who oppose health care reform? The current system, unreformed in any way, is actually responsible for the deaths of more Americans per year than 9/11. Opposition is what then? Unpatriotic? Traitorous? Self-destructive on a grand scale? Or, more likely, something being perpetrated ultimately by people who think themselves above the cut off for being burned by the current system. I think they're wrong, I think that when it's done with me it'll come for them and it won't care how many American flags they've waved over their loaded guns in a town hall situation. Once they get cancer/diabetes/old age this system will boot them like it's trying to boot me (and many of my friends) and it won't give a crap what side of the debate they were on.

4. Huh, that previous one should probably have been its own post, eh? Too hyperbolic, I think, for that, though.

5. I took my dog to a Brooklyn Cyclones game (Technically Kath took my dog and me. Thank you Kath!) and, while it tuckered her out a bit, it also energized her immensely. I fear she's been bored out of her skull and I feel a little guilty about that.

6. Surprise! Despite my inability to be surprised by most things in every day life I am pretty easy to surprise on the gift front. ChemE delights in visiting in the summer, having me pick out my gifts and delivering them in December. I have almost always forgotten what they were by then and cry out things like, "Aw, I remember these now, I LOVE these!" Today I got this very fun book via UPS. On a whim I entered a raffle. I forgot I entered. Mrs. G reminded me that I won. I gave her my address to deliver to the blogger making the donation. I forgot all about it until the man in the brown shorts rang my bell (dirty!) this evening. Yay!

7. Rescue Me's first full 22 episode season comes to a close tonight. I couldn't believe it had been that long but when you don't take hiatuses every other week 22 episodes don't take anywhere near 9 months to run out. I've said this before and I'll say it again and again. I wish shows would just do that instead of the network eking out thing. Run Fringe every week, without fail, for 22 weeks. Then go away for a bit and run Glee for 22 weeks. Don't jumble everything up. Much cleaner, much more interesting, and I think the cable channels are showing you how well it works!

8. I finished Mark Zupan's biography which covers a shitload of ground for a pretty short book. I'm now in the process of sacking up and asking if he'll agree to be interviewed for what Zelda calls "The Vagina Column." Wish me luck (and thank you to those who have already assisted the quest!).

9. I've been thinking a lot about perception since I began using Facebook regularly. I was surprised at how inaccurately perceived I felt over relatively little things. A couple of years ago I was talking to a friend about a blogger who I felt prickly about. The friend, who had met the blogger in person, said, "She's not a bad person. She's just not a very good writer." I felt immediately that the latter was a worse judgment than the former. I beg you, feel free to call me a bad person just please don't call me a bad writer.

10. What are your thoughts on Twitter? Mine change daily. An old friend and great techie (among other things) suggested I look into an aggregator (right word? maybe) where you enter your 140 characters and it automatically posts to Twitter and Facebook and, I think, even your blog if you're so inclined. I'm considering it. And then I'm not. But then I do again. You know me.