I've found a new artist

He's not new, but he's new to me. I like his stuff. Reminds me of Dali. Mark Ryden. Check him out.

Public Service Announcement

Not like I have a lot of public, but for those of you out there with cats & dogs, check your food - some have died, some have simply gotten sick (kidney failure, I think they said). Pass the word.

http://menufoods.com/recall/

More news on the "I told you so" front

Mortgage Report Rattles Markets

A national survey showing that a soaring number of homeowners failed to make their mortgage payments in the last quarter of 2006 rattled lawmakers in Washington and the markets in New York yesterday, as the Dow Jones industrial average plummeted 2 percent, or nearly 243 points.

The report, which sent every major stock market indicator tumbling when it was released at noon, revealed that the problems in the market for "subprime" mortgages -- loans made to home buyers with blemished credit histories -- might be spilling over to the broader mortgage industry, analysts said.

Okay, just had to stick that in there. Was reading a blog entry titled "Study Proves Other People Are Even Worse Than We Thought" which made me laugh out loud. You'll have to watch the animation. So I may end up adopting a new catchphrase. "You're just vilifying a triangle!" and "You're just championing a triangle - jerk!"

Now I happened to be chatting with my ex-husband (#2, I don't keep in touch with #1) while reading this, and sent him the link to the animation, and then the article. He didn't anthropomorphize the triangles at ALL. Very interesting! I remember him telling me that on the thinking/feeling psych test he scored 100% thinking, which was unusual. He's an unusual guy. :)

Off to watch The Daily Show. Ciao!

Okay, maybe more people should be listening to me.

Okay, this is a big I TOLD YOU SO post. Except nobody was listening to me the first time (I mean, my babu was listening, but he doesn't make foreign policy or anything) so this won't feel as satisfying as it could.

I said back in 2003 that invading Iraq would lead to a huge mess, and accurately identified large chunks of the mess that have now resulted.

I said months and months ago that mortgage lenders were going to start going under because of all the people losing their homes & foreclosing. And here's the news.

"New Century may be insolvent because too many of its own customers -- most of whom have poor credit histories or heavy debt burdens -- aren't repaying their loans. Bad U.S. subprime mortgages are at a seven-year high, forcing more than two dozen lenders to close or sell operations. Their woes may contribute to more than 1.5 million Americans losing their homes and 100,000 people losing their jobs, according to real estate executives, economists, analysts and a Federal Reserve governor."

Eh, enough of I told you so's. No satisfaction.

I'm reading horror stories about how soldiers unfit for duty are being sent back to Iraq. I don't just mean the mentally unfit ones, the ones suffering from PTSD or depression or whatever - 'cause after all, they're not REALLY sick, right? *growl* - No, I'm talking about the soldiers who are PHYSICALLY UNFIT FOR DUTY ACCORDING TO PHYSICIANS.

As the military scrambles to pour more soldiers into Iraq, a unit of the Army's 3rd Infantry Division at Fort Benning, Ga., is deploying troops with serious injuries and other medical problems, including GIs who doctors have said are medically unfit for battle. Some are too injured to wear their body armor, according to medical records.

About those mentally unfit ones being redeployed - those are the ones that survived. Heard an interview on Fresh Air today about the special report done by Lisa Chedekel and Matthew Kauffman of The Hartford Courant (they're getting the George Polk Award for it): Mentally Unfit, Forced to Fight. Listening to the horror stories of suicidal soldiers who were told that they were faking it, or given antidepressants and told to get back to work - who then went off and shot themselves...

"In a case last July, a 20-year-old soldier who had written a suicide note to his mother was relieved of his gun and referred for a psychological evaluation, but then was accused of faking his mental problems and warned he could be disciplined, according to what he told his family. Three weeks later, after his gun had been handed back, Pfc. Jason Scheuerman, of Lynchburg, Va., used it to end his life."

He's only one of many. As a person who has been suicidal before, who has attempted before, who has been hospitalized for psychiatric reasons - this makes the hair on the back of my neck stand up. It makes me weep. It makes me want to take the officials responsible for this out behind a barn and hurt them in creative ways.

I don't think I can read any more news tonight.

This got me thinking

Just started seeing a new counselor guy. I think I like him; we'll see. One of the questions he asked me in our first meeting, while typical, ended up surprising me. He asked me how high school was for me.

Pure, unadulterated, hell.

Why?

And then I had to think for a moment. Why WAS it that bad? I had a couple of good friends. I wasn't popular, but most of us weren't popular in high school. My experiences with fucktard husband #1 (the guy who said that I was lucky he was dating me because nobody else would) certainly put a damper on things - hard to enjoy yourself when you're in a relationship with a moron like that, and too stupid yourself to realize you should have set the guy on fire after the FIRST time he pulled some bullshit. That blows a good chunk of my time; sophomore thru senior year wasted on him. I occasionally wonder how my life would have been different had I known enough to not get involved with him.

But other than that, I felt different. No, DIFFERENT. In middle school I had been part of the "Misfit's Club" - those kids that weren't friends with anybody else. People have always called me weird, or strange. I've always been very emotional - kids stomping on bugs bothered me. Talking about people starving in the world reduced me to tears. I loved to learn. I think my favorite class was Humanities - the way everything in the world is interconnected is one of the things that makes me just vibrate with passion. But the stuff other kids in high school talked about just didn't make any sense to me. I wasn't interested in sports, I liked music but wasn't a rabid fan of anybody (I listened to the Beatles and Simon & Garfunkel mostly, for chrissakes) and my sense of fashion was unusual, to put it mildly. Brand names meant nothing to me. I loved to sing, and was constantly irritated by the people in chorus who were there for two years just for the credit requirement. I always thought that in my junior & senior year, those people would go off and do something else and leave the chorus to those of us perfectionists that were passionately interested in it. (It was a great disappointment when they stuck around - that's largely why I quit chorus my junior year and joined band. Another mistake.) I didn't think I was attractive. (I look back now and say "Holy Shit! Damn, I'd have done me!")

I'm rambling. I do that a lot. To myself and out loud, too, so Hex isn't the only one. This stupid navel gazing sometimes tires me. I keep doing it because I'm trying to find out what's wrong with me. Or, failing that, I'm trying to find coping mechanisms so I can live with myself. (And let other people live with me; being married with two kids kinda blows my hermit option.)

Maybe I over-think things. I'm going to go do something else.

It's a good thing neither J nor I are sympathetic vomiters.

But I have to say, if I get thrown up on one more time, I'm going to lose what tenuous hold on sanity I have.

Sitting & reading

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We sold the house!

WOOOHOOOO!

Everything else pretty much is the same.