Happy 2007-to-be!

In the year 2007 I resolve to: Reunite the Spice Girls. Get your resolution here.

I'm such a narcissist

Risha, for lack of a better word, is good.

Which movie was this quote from?

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Everybody! Everybody wants a piece of Risha!

Which movie was this quote from?

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Funny like I'm a Risha? I amuse you?

Which movie was this quote from?

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Yet Another

You are The Hierophant

Divine Wisdom. Manifestation. Explanation. Teaching.

All things relating to education, patience, help from superiors.The Hierophant is often considered to be a Guardian Angel.

The Hierophant's purpose is to bring the spiritual down to Earth. Where the High Priestess between her two pillars deals with realms beyond this Earth, the Hierophant (or High Priest) deals with worldly problems. He is well suited to do this because he strives to create harmony and peace in the midst of a crisis. The Hierophant's only problem is that he can be stubborn and hidebound. At his best, he is wise and soothing, at his worst, he is an unbending traditionalist.

What Tarot Card are You?
Take the Test to Find Out.

I gots me quizzes

Here are the results from various little quizzes/games that I've taken over the last few days. These are mostly nitsee's fault.

OK, so this one is late, the icons are cute:

You went trick or treating as Tricero.
ForrestGump gave you APaperclip.
Athos gave you AGoldenKey.
Death gave you AnApolloBar.
Odysseus gave you Asparagus.
You had a fabulous time until LauraIngalls wouldn't stop reciting the Simpson's version of the Raven.

What's Your Trick-or-Treat Haul?
Shiver My Timber--A Pirate RPG

This one is really accurate (at least for me), and I was pleasantly surprised that I didn't get those cliched questions about how you pronounce "water" or what you call soda:

What American accent do you have? Your Result: Philadelphia Your accent is as Philadelphian as a cheesesteak! If you're not from Philadelphia, then you're from someplace near there like south Jersey, Baltimore, or Wilmington. if you've ever journeyed to some far off place where people don't know that Philly has an accent, someone may have thought you talked a little weird even though they didn't have a clue what accent it was they heard.
The Midland
The Northeast
The South
The Inland North
Boston
The West
North Central
What American accent do you have?

I think that I must have missed the Immaculate Conception question. (What, did the person who wrote this quiz go to Catholic school?):

You paid attention during 97% of high school!

85-100% You must be an autodidact, because American high schools don't get scores that high! Good show, old chap!

Do you deserve your high school diploma?
Create a Quiz

Conspiracy Theories

While buying coffee this morning, it suddenly occurred to me that, for publicity reasons, Oliver Stone might have had a hand in yesterday's terror attempts.

Food for thought.

Conversation in the Car

Dramatis personae: My hubby and me
Location: Route 46 in Ledgewood, NJ
Status: Returning from the Macaroni Grill and Wal-Mart;
both pro-evolution.

"They have one of those little Darwin things."

-pause-

"Come on, you can go faster than that. It's the pedal on the right. Push it, puuush it. No need to be afraid."

"No one ever said that old people can't be fans of Darwin."

"True. After all, evolution is a slow process."

I'm spreading (yes, like a fungus)

I've had this blog for a couple of years now (though you'd never know that based on the total number of posts). However, the various fandoms that I follow (mostly for fanfiction) have been shifting increasingly to livejournal, and it's frankly been getting kind of annoying to post reviews and such. Not to mention the increasing number of friends-locked journals with interesting-sounding stories. So: brand spanking new journal.

After some deliberation, I decided that since the driving force behind the whole existence of it was fanfic, I would make that the focus of that journal. (Plus, I've been meaning to do some reviews/recs for a long time now.) Personal commentary will still go over here at Personal Brain Dump. (Since to the best of my knowledge, Chris, you're not into fanfic, I think you will approve of this plan.)

For the record, I really wouldn't expect regular updates or expansive replies in the livejournal anymore than you get them over here.

Edited to add: You'll notice, I decided to fix up the place a little while I was at it.

Olly Olly Oxen Free!

I just checked my email for the first time all week, and realized that Chris tagged me. I'm glad to be thought of, but now I have to think of six people to tag in turn! Uh, um, eh...

Shoot. I'll be back. *walks away muttering peoples' names*

Random fuzzy cuteness

I ran across some old pictures while backing up my computer.

Sam is upright, Max is on his back.




This is The Meep (official name Tabytha):





And Mr. Fuzzy Lizard (Darwin):

Puppy love

Oregon is a dangerous place to be a journalist.

Just call me "Chemo".

If you don't read old DC comics, this dude.

I'm all for modern medicine, but I'm starting to feel like my blood has been replaced by a chemical cocktail. I went to the doctor yesterday (the first available, not my normal one) because I've been nauseous and exhausted for more than a week. He asked me a few questions, told me it was "probably a virus or maybe an infection of some kind", gave me a prescription for a few days worth of an anti-nausea pill (which has given me a nasty metallic taste and dry mouth), and then completely ignored the problem I came to him for in favor of grilling me about my blood pressure.

Admittedly, my reading was pretty high (158/100), but I'm sick, which always gives me higher readings. I was on blood pressure medication a couple of years ago, and eventually stopped it myself (yes, bad Risha, I know), because as I moved out of the busy season at work my pressure kept dropping, which would give me dizzy spells until the doctor cut back the medication, and then a few weeks later I would be dizzy again. Then my refills ran out and my pressure was fine, so I never went back to get a new prescription. Plus, by that point I hated that stuff. I've had some borderline readings since then, usually when sick and/or overworked, but nothing like when I was first diagnosed or yesterday's.

So the doctor pitched a fit and demanded that I take the rest of yesterday and all of today off work (gave me a note to that effect and all), and come back to be rechecked this afternoon by my normal doctor. Frankly, the work that I'm currently falling behind on is stressing me more than working would have. Today my pressure was lower (150/100) but still too high. So, despite telling me directly that it was almost certainly because I went back on the birth control pill a few months ago, I'm also back on blood pressure medication. Simply stopping the pill for a week or two to see if that fixes it? No, why do that when I can be additionally medicated?

Maintenance medications currently prescribed to me:
Lisinopril 20MG (blood pressure, one daily)
OvCon 35 (birth control, one daily)
Tazorac 0.1% creme (acne, applied to face once daily)
Axert (migraines, as needed)
Albuterol (inhaler, as needed)

And I'm still nauseous and exhausted.

Doing my bit

Separated at Birth?

Pope Benedict XVI


Emperor Palpatine

"Pr-i-vate Eyes, are watching you, Pri-vate Eyyyyyes..."

Maybe it's the voyeur that I never knew was inside of me, but I love this site beyond the telling of it. I don't recall exactly when or how I ran across it (Top Five Too Much Fun Site of the Day? Blog of a friend?), but I watch it all the time. Traffic in Moscow, people working in Australia, laundromats in Japan, cats sleeping god knows where... for my perusal, 24 hours a day.

Missing in action

I'm sorry I've been gone so long. I'm not going to go too far into why in a public forum (though Chris tracked me down awhile back and got the whole story), but I will offer two thoughts:

- The tough part of depression is that when you're depressed enough to need a doctor you're too depressed to bother to see one.

- I will get a flu shot next year if I have to bribe a public official and knock over a small child standing in my way.

However, I'll try not to disappear quite so thoroughly again. Unless, of course, my head explodes or something. I've had a f^$%ing headache everyday this week, and as far as I know I don't need new glasses or a brain transplant.

"Female cliche"? Since when is that a personality trait?

Long test I spotted on someone else's blog... not very flattering, unfortunately, but probably not too far off for many of them.

Advanced Global Personality Test Results Extraversion |||||||||||| 43% Stability |||||||||||||||| 63% Orderliness |||||||||||||| 60% Empathy |||||| 30% Interdependence |||||||||||||| 56% Intellectual |||||||||||| 50% Mystical |||||||||||||||||||| 83% Artistic |||||||||||| 43% Religious |||||| 30% Hedonism |||||| 30% Materialism |||||||||||||||| 63% Narcissism |||||| 23% Adventurousness || 10% Work ethic |||||||||| 36% Self absorbed |||||||||||||| 56% Conflict seeking |||||||||||| 50% Need to dominate |||||||||||||||| 63% Romantic |||||||||||||||| 70% Avoidant |||||||||||| 50% Anti-authority |||||||||||| 50% Wealth |||||| 30% Dependency |||||||||||||||| 70% Change averse |||||||||||||||||||| 90% Cautiousness |||||||||||||||| 63% Individuality |||||||||| 36% Sexuality |||||||||||||| 56% Peter pan complex |||||||||||| 43% Physical security |||||||||||||||||||| 90% Food indulgent |||||||||||||||||||| 83% Histrionic |||||| 30% Paranoia |||||||||||| 43% Vanity |||||||||||| 50% Hypersensitivity |||||||||||||||||||| 90% Female cliche |||||||||||||||||| 76%

Take Free Advanced Global Personality Test
personality tests by similarminds.com

This week so far - by the numbers.

Days ill with gastly death cold/flu thing that even the prescription drugs don't seem to touch: 5

Items completed from my To Do list: 10

Items not completed left on the list: about 1000

Hours in the car tomorrow (min.): 5

Boxes of tissues killed off in my house this week: 8.5

Hours of actual sleep (approx. total since Sunday): 20

Hours of tossing and turning and coughing and hacking: 200,000

Percentage of exaggeration in the last item: Not as much as you'd think.

Hours spent shopping during a massive downpour today: 3

Hours spent staring blankly at Christmas cards in the store, trying to focus enough to pick one out: .75

IQ of person who shops for hours in a massive downpour while still struck down by the death cold/flu: 38

Years in purgatory that my husband deserves for giving this to me: Haven't decided yet, but it will be a lot.

I have next week off, so I have nine glorious days to do with as I will.

Well, aside from doing the laundry, cleaning the bathroom, sweeping the kitchen, changing the cat boxes, finishing my Christmas shopping, putting up the tree, decorating said tree, wrapping presents, trying to keep the kittens out of the tree, brushing the adult cat (Persian), making a hair appointment, keeping the appointment, making a long overdue followup doctor's appointment, keeping the appointment, changing the sand in the lizard cage, playing with the lizard, exchanging some bras I bought that were the wrong size, buying toothpaste, doing some food shopping, getting an oil change, getting a car wash, meeting some friends for Thai on Wednesday, cooking something to bring to Christmas dinner at my in-law's, calling my parents and telling them that we're doing Christmas at the in-law's this year, seeing my parents at some point before or potentially after, seeing my grandmother at some point before or potentially after, dropping some presents off at work before Wednesday (for two people that I wasn't expecting to give me a present who gave me one), paying credit card bills, getting cash from the ATM, and traveling five hours each way to and from the in-laws.

"...a bunch of mindless jerks who'll be the first against the wall when the revolution comes."

Or maybe a better quote would be, "That's cool," said Zaphod, "we'll meet the meat."

http://www.3dweb.no/galleri/stuestolbm/bilder/anim1.swf (PG-13: Contains strong language, bad puns, cartoon cows) (not actually Douglas Adams related despite the quotes.)

Required reading

Are all of my loyal readers (hi Chris!) reading Josh reads the comics so you don't have to?