Blogging Lite

I’m keeping it skimpy today due to an unforeseen run-in with a calculator and a ball point pen.

No, really I’m fine. It just hurts to type a lot.

Of interest today:

Hillary on the run from Obama.

Britney hospitalized after row with ex.

Sony releasing DRM Free songs on Amazon.com

And that’s about it… I know, it’s a weird mix of news, but sometimes, like today, you just put up links to the first three things that caught your eye, regardless of how stupid they were.

Happy Friday!

10 Things I Loved in 2007.

When reading through all the end of the year lists posted on various sites, I noticed that so many of them were negative. “10 Biggest Disappointments” was something that caught my eye, and while funny, I really felt like it was important to end the year on a positive note. You see, 2007 has been a great year. It really has. The best things about it to me, are probably unimportant to you though, so I’m going to stick with materialistic objects of the year that made my eyes pop out of my skull.

I know, it’s oh so shallow of me, but I’m a gadget girl. Get over it.

10. Heavenly Sword

This game, unlike so many PS3 titles before it really showed me that buying this console was completely worth it. While short, Heavenly Sword uses the sixaxis controller for all its worth. It seamlessly guides you through standard controls, while taking full advantage of the motion control, and another first for me, was the use of full motion video during real time game play. Yes, it’s picture in picture, but so what? Watching a scene out of the corner of your eye, while you’re busy bashing tables and clearing space for a good fight is well worth it.

9. The Wacom Bamboo Fun Tablet

This tablet is the least expensive tablet I have seen come on the market. While The Gimp has it’s issues with it under Windows (apparently pointing devices in windows are treated as a single item, under linux they are individual peripherals with their own settings), it works seamlessly with Adobe Photoshop 5.5 and even under Windows Vista itself. This tablet deserves mention on this list, primarily due to price. Prior to this, it was difficult to find a worthy tablet for less than 100$. I truly believe that Wacom has struck gold with this device, allowing itself to cut into a market of the curious and tablet noobs, which allows them to later sell the higher end Intuos to people who find themselves really using the hell out of this thing. I may upgrade eventually, but for now, the bamboo fun really is just that, fun. It’s so rare to find a product that actually is what it says it is.

8. Beck: Mongolian Chop Squad

This anime lands itself on my list of favorite anime of all time, and Funimation’s release of this title has been excellent. From the awesome menus, down to maintaining the original Japanese credits, they have treated this title with the respect and love that it deserves. I have yet to see the pivotal episode 23, during which Koyuki spends the end and most of the following episode singing the same Beatles’ tune, but I have high hopes that it was not replaced in the Japanese dub, even if it was replaced in the English dub. We’ll see when I pick up that volume. Regardless, the release quality on this series has made me sit back in awe of Funimation due to the sheer amount of respect that they had in maintaining the integrity of the show. Well done Funimation. Well done.

7. Transformers: Live Action

Michael Bay, what can I say to you? Words escape me.

You rock man!

While Transformers wasn’t everything I wanted it to be, it was everything that I hoped for. I walked into that theater expecting to see giant robots throwing helicopters around like they were toys and what did I get? I got giant robots throwing helicopters around like toys! You even managed to give us back the real Optimus Prime (Peter Cullen, for the uninitiated), who had been absent from the transformers universe for so long that it drove us to tears of agony and despair. Everything that I loved about the cartoon series in my childhood was here, absolutely everything. For 144 minutes, I was ten years old again. Nothing I have
seen this year made me feel that way, nothing. Thank you Mr. Bay, for giving me back my childhood magic.

6. In Rainbows – Radiohead

The innovative pricing scheme aside, this is just a damned good album. It is not the best Radiohead album that I’ve heard, but it was well worth the price I chose to pay for it. The music here is reflective and thoughtful. Fabulous for wandering around outside while you’re taking a walk and taking time out to just… think. The pricing scheme is another matter entirely, which I thought was terribly clever, though Radiohead, I do wish you would release your actual sales numbers. I know that I had to try for three days straight to get into the site to buy my copy of the album, and finally I logged onto it in the middle of the afternoon and managed to get my download to go through, so you must have made something!Thank you for a great album, and for presenting the world with a new way of thinking about music distribution.

5. Heroes: Season 1 on DVD

I rented the first DVD of this series on Netflix, and was so enamored with the show, that I went out and bought the DVD’s the following week. I had to watch all of this as soon as humanly possible. Forget the fact that it was just a cool premise, with actors that were so great that I was impressed that this ran on NBC. It was the fact that this was finally a show that I could watch with my teenagers that was grown up, thought provoking and fun that did not embarrass the holy crap out of me with comments that I had to explain when an episode was over. There were shouts of “Su-pa Hi-ro!” as we ran to the basement to watch this series on the big screen and all of us loved it, every single second. Sadly, the writer’s strike has taken the second season away from us, and from what I’ve heard so far, it sounds like it was a good thing. Rumor has it, season 2 sucks. Also, NBC, you’re twits. If this had been available on blu-ray, I would have bought it on blu-ray. Alas, it was not meant to be.

4. Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 3

I know, this is the second video game to make this list, but hear me out. This isn’t a ps3 title. This game is totally last gen. No, no one can watch you play this game and understand the draw that it has for you, but as one reviewer said, when you are sitting down, away from your console and controller, planning out your schedule for the week in the game, you know you’re hooked. SMT: Persona 3 gave us a unique perspective on gaming. It was both a slice of life title, and a traditional RPG at once. No game I have played before or since has taken me to two completely different worlds and blended them so seamlessly, with a story that was so engaging that it was worth sitting in front of the ps2 for over 100 hours to get to the final scene of the game. This is definitely my personal favorite game of the year.

3. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

Okay, so this list has revealed me to be the geek that I truly am beneath all the glitter and shine. So what? This book was awesome. This was the culmination of the Harry Potter series, that had not only captured the imaginations of my children, but also myself and my husband and everyone that I know that bothers to pick up books on occasion. I won’t spoil it by telling you what I loved about the book, I will only say that I went to the midnight release party and by the following morning, I’d finished it and passed it on to my son, who finished it the morning after that. I know that I only slept when I couldn’t keep my eyes open anymore, and I’m pretty sure that my son didn’t sleep at all.

2. Fruits Basket 18.

Yeah, more with my anime/manga fandom, but again I plead for tolerance. This volume is by far the most poignant of the entire series to date, and the only one that left me crying. Not just near tears, I was crying like the girl that I am. I won’t spoil the story for fans, but if you aren’t reading Fruits Basket, and you’re a girl… I just have to ask, “What’s stopping you?” Sure, manga is an expensive habit, but some series are worth it. Fruits Basket tops the list of worth it. I won’t expect males to understand Fruits Basket. The story is centered around a female main character who is more than a little ditzy, and would fall flat and uninteresting to those who have never been a teenage girl and truly understood the girl that you knew (or the self that you left behind) that had such a big heart, that it was all she could do to not wrap the entire world up in it.

1. My family

Okay, okay, I know that I said this list would be materialistic, but I really think it’s important for you to understand that at the end of the day, everything that is on this list is something that I love because I shared it with the people that are important to me. My husband sat behind me for the entire time that I played Persona 3. My entire family sits next to me on the couch when I break out Heavenly Sword. My kids went to the theater with me to see Transformers. My daughter got a Wacom Bamboo Fun tablet for Christmas and we spent time together while I showed her how to use it with photoshop. My son and I have always shared our love of Harry Potter and we talked about the books for hours after finishing each installment. My husband found Beck and we spent many a Friday night watching the show in the basement, laughing and crying together. Heroes was also a family activity which gave us a lot of togetherness. Music is also not something I keep to myself, and I have shared the Radiohead CD with my entire family and talked to them about the album. I’ve even shared Fruits Basket with my children. The important part about this year, and what made these things things that I loved, was who I shared them with. At the end of the day, family is what matters.

Ellen and the Dog.

After reading the comments on this article in wapo, I had to say something.

Many of the commenters in this article are obviously clueless. One particularly irritated me. “Susie” wrote: “And to limit dogs to families with no kids (14 and over is essentially no kids) is ridiculous as well.” I’ve met many a dog that has no business being in a home with children, and many a child that has no business having a dog. There are lots of dogs that love and adore children, a friend of mine has a fat and happy golden retriever that absolutely adores children, and his other dog, a yellow lab/german shepherd mix, while an old lady these days, still manages to get some bounce in her step when she has children to frolick with.

My own dog is another story. He likes his children, but only his children. My dog and my daughter haven’t been famous friends, and my dog has been terrorized by my neighbor’s children in the past, and I only discovered it after I cleaned up cuts and knicks in his skin after a whole fist full of rocks were hucked at him. As a result, my dog doesn’t like children that are more than three feet tall and less than five feet tall. Placing this dog in a home with young children would be sheer idiocy and many dogs that end up in rescue programs end up there because they don’t get along with the children in the home. The rescuers are not doing it to “hoard” the dogs. They’re doing it to save the dogs from an inevitable death in a shelter or on a veterinary table because, for a growing number of dogs out there, dog + children = bite.

It really is down to the fact that so many people just assume that because they have children, they must have a dog. Dogs aren’t part and parcel to the whole parenting schtick, and being a good parent doesn’t mean that you’re a good dog owner. These things are mutually exclusive.

As for Ellen… honey, you should have read your contract. I agree that it is sad that the rescue organization seized the dog from what appears to be a good home, but in the process of trying to get your way you have made it harder for the organization to place other dogs in homes. This isn’t about one dog. This is about a nation of dogs who have been abandoned by their owners for whatever reason. Some of the reasons that I’ve heard for people dropping off their dog at a shelter have shocked me and vary from “Well, I’m moving and he’s too big for an apartment.” to “He didn’t match our living room furniture.” While I understand that your intentions were good, many people are too stupid to own dogs and the rescue organization is just trying to protect the dogs from stupid people. Please try to put your own feelings aside and believe that the rescue really does have the best interests of the dog at heart.

Ten Guilty Pleasures

I found this wonderful list of 100 topics to blog about on Chris Brogan’s blog. If you’re interested after reading my ten guilty pleasures, pull down a topic and write one of your own, but be sure to link back to him.

When I think about guilty pleasures, I think of decadent things like chocolate. The common idea of what these things are tends to be food related, but I don’t really treat food like a guilty pleasure. I love to eat, we all do, but that’s not the point of a guilty pleasure if you really think about it. Guilty pleasures are things that we don’t need, but want to do for ourselves, in spite of the fact that we don’t need it. Some women think that taking long, luxurious, scented baths is a guilty pleasure. If you think about it, smoking can be a kind of guilty pleasure. Indulging in expanding one’s cd or dvd collection could also be added to the list.

My friends all have different ideas of what guilty pleasures are. I know that for one of my friends, food really is her guilty pleasure. For another, it’s his porn collection. These ideas vary widely with the individual. Guilty pleasures are something that is truly based around the individual.

For me, it’s hard to pinpoint just one thing that I would consider a guilty pleasure and the idea varies widely even among my own personal indulgences. Yeah, I really go for the occassional cupcake, and I love ice cream, but those things are really just good food to me. They aren’t what I indulge in. I indulge in electronics, media and manga. My friends don’t always get that, but my guilty pleasures really aren’t about them. They’re about things that make me feel good. They are things that are for me and for no one else. I don’t have to share, and I don’t want to.

Does that sound selfish? I think it does, but I also know that many people spend a large part of their lives looking at what’s going on around them. They think about how they can help someone else, or how they can change someone else to make life easier, but the reality is, the only thing you have the power to change is yourself. Sometimes that means spending money on something that seems frivolous.

These are my indulgences.

1. iPod Nano 2nd Gen.

I got my iPod Nano for my birthday this year, even though it was right before the expected release of the 3rd gen iPods, I love my Nano. Sometimes, I’ll share music that’s on my iPod with my family, but 90% of my listening happens when I’m alone in the car. I have a wireless transmitter for my iPod, and I will crank up the J-pop and sing while I’m driving down the highway. It fills my soul up to do this, and recharges my batteries for the evening ahead. For 15 minutes on the road, the world only has me and my music in it. It’s a wonderful feeling.

2. Motorola Razr.

My cell phone. I love my cell phone. I love it so much that I go out of my way to find excuses to call people on it. I didn’t need a cutting edge phone, that’s for sure. At the time that I purchased my razr, it was the cutting edge phone. It had bells and whistles on it that have now become standard thanks to the razr raising everyone’s expectations of cellular devices. Mostly, I wanted a razr because they came in pink, and I could find the thing at the bottom of my purse, but I also wanted it to live up to the expectations that I had from my previous Nokia phone, which was a fairly cutting edge model when I got it, but wasn’t nearly as easy to use and customize as the razr. I have a lot of fun making my own custom wallpapers and ring tones for this phone. This is now important to me, because it’s something that I can do to make this phone mine and set it apart from all the other razrs out there on the planet.

3. Chobits

This is the second anime title I ever purchased. I got hooked on it because of episode 5. During this particular episode, the main character, Chii, goes shopping for panties. Chii’s a recently reformatted personal computer and has a hard time remembering things, so she walks all the way from the apartment to the lingerie store chanting, “Underpants, underpants, underpants.” I giggled for the entire half hour, which really stunk for my husband because he was on a conference call with the office after hours and I just couldn’t stop giggling. I got some of the dirtiest looks from him, but it was worth it. The rest of the series is just wonderful, and while no one else in this house will watch this anime except me, I don’t care. It was worth every single penny I spent on it.

4. Nintendo DS

Originally, my DS was purchased so I could play Animal Crossing with my kids. I’ve gotten bored with Animal Crossing and have graduated to Hotel Dusk, which is just a load of fun. I also picked up the first two Phoenix Wright games, and am anxiously awaiting the third. My husband doesn’t get it. The graphics on the DS look about as good as the graphics on my brother’s old super nintendo. They’re nothing to shout about. One of my friend’s first comments to me about it was, “Wow, it’s a pepto bismal pink game boy.” He didn’t get it either. My DS, is really all about me. I don’t have to share this console with anyone and I can play whatever I want, whenever I want. It’s instant gratification gaming, and if the graphics suck, oh well. That’s why my husband bought a PS3.

5. Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 3

Okay, I admit it. I’m not a big fan of MegaTen titles. I’ve only ever played DDS prior to picking up my copy of Persona 3, and I still haven’t finished DDS because I can’t get past all the damned grinding. Persona 3 though… makes grinding fun. No one else in my house is interested in this game and so far I’ve blown a whopping 60$ on the thing for the game and the game guide (because really, you can’t get through a MegaTen game without a guide, and you have no idea how much I wished for a guide for DDS). The graphics on this title don’t even push a PS2 to its limits, and I usually end up playing this game on the ps3, simply because the ps3 is in my living room. It’s really not all that, but the game is damned fun and the story is engaging enough to keep me entertained. What more could I want in a personal indulgence title?

6. HP Pavillion dv6448se Laptop

I needed a new laptop. Not bad, but I needed one. Now, my previous laptop is seriously showing its age, and I’m glad I replaced it, but I didn’t need the laptop I bought. Nope, no way. I didn’t need windows vista, or two gig of ram, or a Turion 64×2 processor. I didn’t need the really sweet nvidia graphics card that’s on board this baby, and I already had an external dvd burner. I didn’t really need any of this crap, but it’s nice. The laptop was mostly purchased because it’s a special edition with a white back and metal casing. The keyboard is silver, and the laptop is visually gorgeous. My husband took a look at the specs and decided to get it for me for a couple reasons. 1. It’s a damned nice machine. 2. They were running a special on it when we walked into the store the week after I saw it, so the price was right around what he wanted to spend. Yes, even I admit that it’s more than I need, and I may never go buy that copy of bioshock to play on this machine… but it’s damned nice to know that if I got a wild hair up my behind to do so, I can.

7. Red River

Red River is a shoujo manga series that is currently waiting for volume 19 to release. Yes, I said 19. I started purchasing this series two years ago. This manga isn’t particularly outstanding. The art is very detailed, which I really like, but it’s a tad old school for my usual tastes. What gets me is the romance. I get swept away by Yuri and Kail and their deep, abiding love for one another. It’s silly and high-schoolish. My husband doesn’t get what I see in it, and he doesn’t understand why I’ve spend almost 200$ on this manga series so far. I can’t really explain it either except to say that I positively adore Red River. When I get a new volume, I immediately run upstairs to my bedroom and sit down and read the whole volume cover to cover. Then I back up a few volumes to get the full story together in my mind, and re-read the new volume when I’m done. Then I’ll sit down and read the whole series to date, to see if I see anything in the older volumes that I might have missed before. I can’t tell you how much I enjoy this. I have guilt about doing it because I pretty much abandon my family for three hours when I get a new volume of Red River, but I feel so revitalized when I’m done with it because I spent time doing something that I enjoyed doing and I don’t have to explain it to someone else. They know that it’s really all about me, and it’s wonderful that they respect that for those three hours once every couple of months.

8. Leather Jacket with two matching purses wallet and boots.

When I was a teenager, I opposed the idea of purchasing clothing made from dead things. I still won’t do fur. But there’s something about leather, especially Italian Lambskin. It’s so damned soft and feels so good in your hands, that I just can’t stop myself when I get the opportunity to buy some. It started with my jacket. I needed a winter jacket that wasn’t horribly bulky because colleges don’t exactly have lockers that you can shove your stuff in with the intent of finding it there when you get back to it. A bulky overcoat doesn’t fly very well when you have to hang it on the back of a chair. So we were walking by Wilson’s and they were running a sale, and my jacket was purchased. After that came the matching black hand bag that fits in my back pack when I need it to, and comes out for carrying around on the weekends. But that purse was too small, and when I went by Wilson’s again, they were running another sale, and my large Italian lambskin bag was purchased along with a matching wallet, because my wallet was also too small. These things all had to match this completely awesome pair of boots that a friend of mine ordered online, which didn’t end up fitting her when she got them, so I bought them off of her and they are now my winter footwear of choice. Comfy, warm and durable. I could have gotten by with less expensive things, but there’s something about leather. I can’t describe it.

9. Non-fat Sugar Free White Chocolate Mochas from the local Java Hut.

Now, every once in a while, I’ll ask for 2% milk, but I usually stick to the non-fat because it’s better for you. Nowadays, drinking 2% milk tastes like drinking half and half to me, so I can tell when the girls at the Java Hut accidentally subbed 2% for Non-fat. You’re probably wondering why this is such a guilty pleasure, considering that it’s non-fat and sugar free. It’s a guilty pleasure because I actually have an espresso machine and can make my own non-fat, sugar free white chocolate mochas at home. I end up paying 4$ for the privilege of going to the java hut and gabbing at a very cheerful, very nice gal who knows me by name when I drive up and tells me that my nails look fantastic while she makes my coffee for me. You can’t beat a 4$ ego booster to start your day, in addition to getting your caffeine.

10. Acrylic Nails.

This is my big sin. I pay about 50$ a month to get my nails done. I don’t need to spend this money, I can do my own nails and have done my own acrylics before. I’m not bad at it. My manicurist though, does amazing nails, the best nails in town. She’s always booked up and getting in with her is a bit of a chore, but she’s worth it. She’s a ray of sunshine and is very creative with what she can do with acrylics. I’ve had white tips, pink tips, red tips with holly leaves and berries on them for Christmas, black tips because well, they were neat, and I’ve also done brown and purple and several variations on the white theme with various and sundry flowers hand painted on them by her. Does anyone else benefit from this besides me and my manicurist? Um… absolutely not. Who cares? I don’t have to keep my nails polished if I don’t want to, I don’t get hang nails and if I want to polish my nails, it stays on because nail polishes are actually designed to work best over the top of acrylic nails. It’s a win win situation for me, even if it is a bit frivolous. Yeah, if I needed the money, I’d stop getting my nails done, but as soon as I had it again, I’d call her and make an appointment to get a new set put on as soon as she had time.

Diana.

Diana is a good friend of mine. After a long battle with cancer, chemotherapy knocked her immune system out of commission. She came down with spinal meningitis about five weeks ago, and they managed to beat it out of her system with antibiotics, but the antibiotics caused a series of yeast infections which eventually caused kidney failure and a host of other problems.

To make a long story short, she didn’t end up beating it. She was taken off life support and passed away quietly this weekend, as per her living will. Her ashes will be scattered in the Mississippi River.

Diana Probus was a wonderful writer and artist who inspired hundreds of people over the years. Her support and kindness kept me going when things got rough. I miss her terribly and I pray for her and her family as they celebrate her life in the weeks to come.

Why am I telling you all about this? Well, Diana was one of my many gemini sisters. I ask that each and every one of my readers keep a good thought for her and her family.

Live Blogging: Tofu Snickerdoodles

9:29 pm. My gemini sister, Saeryph, and I decided to make Tofu Snickerdoodles. This is accomplished, in theory at least, by taking the betty crocker cookbook recipe for snickerdoodles, replace the “margarine” with Smart Balance and the “shortening” with silky Tofu. In theory…. it should work.

9:45 pm. With everything washed, preparation begins. My husband tries to help by breaking out the food processor. I thwart his plans by grabbing the pastry blender. The dough is prepped, all is well after a brief splash of egg beater on the counter from the initial stir in process. Prepare for rolling!

10:00 pm. The cookies have been rolled into balls coated in splenda and cinnamon. In theory, this should work! Into the oven they go!

10:10 pm. *sigh* The cookies didn’t melt and form a cookie shape. We ended up with Tofu Snickerdoodle balls that are not quite done in the middle. My husband suggested grabbing as spatula and squashing them. My gemini sister concurred, so squash away!

10:12 pm. The cookies went back into the oven and are about to come back out.

10:15 pm. The cookies are now out of the oven. My gemini sister and I are pretty sure that they’re done, but we’re not entirely sure what this means yet. More later as the story develops.

10:21 pm. They came out a bit cakey, and not very flat, but not horrible. My gemini sister somehow managed to pop the tab off her soda can and we had to spend a few minutes figuring out how to open it. It took a moment, but she managed it somehow. I got bored and left the room before she figured it out. Now we’re both back at our computers enjoying our time geeking, and wondering if we’re going to head back to the dough…

10:27 pm. My husband stepped in and took over dough rolling when my gemini sister and I couldn’t decide whether we wanted to go back to it. I stepped in and smashed the cookies into perfect rounds! 10 more minutes and we’ll know the verdict for sure with the second batch!

10:40 pm. The second batch is out of the oven and done. The verdict is in. They taste like snicker doodles, but aren’t *quite* the same. The cakey consistency makes them weird, and they’re actually not buttery, but the flavor is bang on. Experiment deemed a moderate success, given that we have agreed to change the name of the cookie to “Tofu Snickerdoodle”.

I’ll post pics if there are any cookies left in the morning.

Windows Vista…

I found it. The laptop.

I walked by it in a store and it was the one.

It was sort of like finding the man of your dreams…

… only this was way better!

Or so I was led to believe, then I got it home. I started stripping off all the add ons. By the time I had finished deleting everything I was so sick of the windows vista “Are you sure you want to remove this program?” for stuff like the friggin’ AOL Trial for crying out loud! By the time I was done getting all of my stuff installed on it, I was ready to divorce Vista and go back to my E-XP.

You know things are bad when the dude at Best Buy says, “We’ve still got some copies of Windows XP if you want it. When I took mine home, the first thing I did was rip Vista off of there.”

We’ll see. Vista may not be long for this world…

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

I loved it!

Yes, I finished reading it some time last night and spent the evening discussing a book with a friend who also finished reading it at about the same time I did. I won’t spoil it for you, but that tripe the reviewers are saying about the book being “grim” is ridiculous. Those reviewers obviously haven’t read The Prisoner of Azkaban.

It is called Harry Potter and the *Deathly* Hallows. Yes, it involves death. That’s the only spoiler I’ll give you.

I also went to the midnight release party for the book at Borders. It wasn’t really… all that exciting. They raffled off some stuff, they gave away some marketing swag for other books, most of which I and my children have already read, and otherwise I sat around and played Hotel Dusk on my DS, waiting for them to call my number so I could line up and get my book. I wish I hadn’t gone there so early, but the espresso stand in the mall stayed open for the shindig and she was selling drinks called “Butter Beer” and “Gilly Water”, both of which were fantastic, so that was a lot of fun.

That’s all the news that’s fit to print for today! Enjoy your Sunday!

Signing off!

To my faithful blog readers and dear friends… oh the drama that must ensue!

*chuckle*

I’m signing off for a few days. I’m having a procedure done that’s called a LEEP. This procedure will stop the cell mutation in my cervix, which could eventually end up with me being diagnosed with cervical cancer.

I’ll be fine, but I wanted to let everyone know what’s going on for two reasons. 1. Many of the people that read this blog care about me, and 2. To spread the word that this can happen to anyone and that there is something that you can do about it.

If they had invented Gardasil ten years ago, I would not be going in for outpatient surgery tomorrow that will ruin the rest of my summer. My daughter and I both are being vaccinated with Gardasil after my procedure. My doctor wants me vaccinated against the other variations of HPV right away and is extremely thrilled about the life-saving potential that Gardasil has put into his hands. I recommend to anyone who has a girl that they love in their life, especially if that girl is your wife or daughter, talk to them about Gardasil and HPV. Research the vaccine, and make your own decisions, but please, choose to do something rather than nothing. The stress this has put on me has been so awful… and with a vaccine to put an end to the majority of the cases of cervical cancer out there, there is no reason that a woman should have to go through what I am going through, ever again. There’s absolutely no sense in it.

I’ll check in again when I’m feeling well enough to post.

Gradumacation

I think everyone is aware, but I haven’t posted on it directly so let me just say that as of two weeks ago, I received my Associate of Arts degree. I officially have a kollege edumacation.

The only thing I really have to say is that education changes you. It changes the way you view the world and I think it does this for the better. The one thing that my instructors gave me in college, that I have walked away with and run with in my life, is the ability to question everything.

I have a list of things that I took for granted, that I no longer take at face value. The big one, for good or ill, is people. I look at everyone around me much differently than I did before. My husband is no longer just the guy that I married. He’s my hero because in addition to being a breadwinner, he’s a domestic God. He does dishes! He cleans! He cooks! And I love him for it more now than I did three years ago.

It’s not all sunshine and rainbows though. There are a few people that I used to admire thinking that they were so intelligent… when the truth is, they may be intelligent, but intelligence and wisdom are equal partners in any relationship. Wisdom goes hand in hand with the ability to make choices in life that will make you happy and I realized, these people that I used to admire for their so-called intelligence… are the most miserable people I have ever met. I have a much more full and happy life than those people and the reality is, they have nothing that I desire or admire anymore. Unlike them, I refuse to ride through life sitting in the passenger’s seat. Screw that, I’m taking the wheel.

It has been an interesting transition for my husband. He’s not entirely sure where I’m going, and the truth is, neither am I. I just know that where I’ve been hasn’t filled my life with joy and laughter, and the one thing that has, my children, are preparing to leave the nest and I have a whole lot of life to live after they’ve gone out into the world. I don’t intend to waste a single second of it on something that doesn’t make me happy. Anything else is a poor use of my time.

So to all of my friends, I want you to know that education does change you and it has changed me. I love you very much, and I want all of you to get out today and do something that fills you up inside from the bottom of your soul, until it hits the brim and starts to spill over. Do something for you that makes you happy that is not at the expense of someone else. I promise, you won’t regret it, much like I will never regret a single moment of the last three years. The process of getting my associates degree has been the happiest time of my life. I know my bachelors will be even better and I did it for myself. I didn’t do it to prove anything to anyone, except to myself.. and I am proud of what I have accomplished so far.