Bleh

It is drizzly and gross outside. One of those days where you just don't want to get out of bed, much less do anything.

I don't mind good storms -- I like them, in fact -- but drizzle is just depressing. Nobody, myself included, seems to have much motivation to do anything. Including think up good posts, actually. Maybe the drizzle and my brain will clear up and give me a better posting idea later...but I said I would post today, so.

A Day Early

I know, this should get posted tomorrow...but I dunno if I'll have the chance tomorrow, so here it is...overdone as it may be, things I'm thankful for:

My Family - they drive me nuts, I drive them nuts, we're about as far from normal as any family I've ever known...but we love each other. we support each other. We take care of each other.

My Sweetie - because he's a smart, funny pain in the butt who doesn't cut me any slack on things I shouldn't get any on while looking out for me when he knows I do need a little. And he's hot, too. ;)

My Friends - They're lunatics. Every last one of them. But so am I, so we suit each other. They're pretty darned awesome people.

My Dog - He knows it's his job to look out for me, and he does it to the best of his ability. As long as he's not distracted by food, anyway. He's a great little guy.

Technology - More specifically, the technology that lets me "hear", that lets me talk to people I'd never get to know otherwise, that lets me make phone calls, that lets me take care of stuff without having to leave the house...my life is not easy, but it's a lot easier than it would be without all these gadgets and gizmos. The just-for-fun ones are pretty awesome too.

Doctors - Even though I can't stand them sometimes, I've had some really fantastic doctors over the years...and they've kept me in much better shape than I would've been otherwise.

Books - I would not know well over half the random facts I've picked up over the years if it weren't for my books. I don't read as much as I used to, but I still love it.

Last, but far from least,

God - For all the things He has blessed me with, which I could take weeks trying to fully list.

HA

It has come to my attention that, in their tradition of wringing every last drop of money from their customers, EA has already released a new pack of parts for Spore. This mini-expansion, if you will, is available for $20.

Seriously?

So I pay $50 for the base game, and then another $20 just to make my critters look different?

No thanks. Especially not so soon after the base game release that there is plenty of speculation regarding whether they even waited for the game to go on sale before creating this pack.

There's apparently a full-blown expansion in the works for a few months down the road, to expand gameplay with....stuff we were told would be in the base game, but was cut for time reasons. Hm. Took a decade to develop the game, but they couldn't spend a couple more months finishing stuff they had been dangling in front of fans? Guess that wouldn't have made them as much money.

I won't be buying the "parts" pack, and I won't be buying the expansion. Screw you, EA. Give us the old Maxis back.

Christmas Shopping

I've probably mentioned this before, but I totally love Christmas shopping. I have a total blast hunting for just the right gift for each person on my list, finding the one thing that totally fits them. Granted, sometimes the gifts are less than exciting -- my sister, for example, wants a small filing cabinet (I asked for the same thing though, heh), but other times, they are truly epic...

Last year, for example, I gave one of my friends a yodeling pickle. Yup. He has a tendency to get too serious/focused, so I told him whenever he starts getting tensed up about something, use the pickle. It is impossible to stay serious around that thing.

A few years back, I bought Mom a license plate frame. Boring, right? Well, not exactly. She'd been rear-ended several times in the last several months (yay tailgaters!), so I bought her a license plate frame with metal spikes on it. "Here, mom, maybe people will think twice about following you too close now..."

Or this year...I've already picked out a couple of really fun gifts. My brother, the music geek is getting a drum t-shirt...that actually plays. He's going to be a big hit with his musician buddies with that one.

My sweetie is getting a very cool gift too, but I can't say what since he reads this blog. It is way epic, though. And I'm going to have a lot of fun teasing him with mentions of just how awesome it is over the next several weeks.

I can't wait to give all this stuff to my family and friends...giving presents is at least as much fun as getting them. :)

Wake Up!

If my brain could actually talk to my body, this is what a typical morning would look like...


Psst.

Shh. I'm sleeping.

Look at the clock. you should get up.

Bah. Leave me alone.

No, really...you should get up.

No. I'm comfy here. Toasty warm blanket, soft pillow, soft bed...

But it's getting late.

It's cold out there. I'm not crawling out from under this blanket.

You won't be cold after you get dressed.

That involves movement. I don't feel like moving. I want to go back to sleep.

You have things to do today!

They can wait...

*Sigh* I didn't want to have to do this, but...

But what?

Remember that glass of water you had before bed?

....

....

I hate you.

I know. Now get up.

Mail!

So, two interesting things delivered by the mailman today.

First off, one of the pet supply websites I've bought from in the past apparently sold (or gave) my mailing address to PETA. Now, I'm not for animal cruelty by any means. I like animals. I'm sure as heck not a PETA type either, though. I eat meat, and enjoy it, darn it. I'm not going to use the PETA-logo return address labels. If they love animals so much they should be worried about the trees they're wasting, too. Animals live in those trees!

Ahem.

The second thing I got was an "oops" from Amazon. My family chipped in and bought my sister a new GPS for her birthday (her old one broke a few months ago). It arrived today...twice. Apparently they screwed up and sent me two of them, as two separate shipments. I checked my credit card bill, though, and they only charged me for one. Hm. I emailed Amazon customer service and basically told them they can have the extra one back if they want it, but only if they pay for the return shipping.

Kinda nice to get mail that's not medically-related for a change, anyway.

Squee!

Ok, I've been good and not posted about WoW recently, but you guys are going to have to put up with it today.

Only three more days til Wrath of the Lich King (the new expansion, for you non-WoW addicts)! I've already got all of my initial plans all mapped out...my Death Knight name and professions, where I'm going to go first with my hunter, talents and pets and all kinds of awesome stuff...I am positively giddy with excitement.

I've read so many different places that this expansion is what the last expansion should have been, in so many different ways...lore, pvp, maps, a lot of the class changes...granted, there are some things certain groups of people are not thrilled about, but that's going to happen no matter what. All in all, it's looking to be really spectacular.

I'm debating changes to my pet lineup once I get into the high 70s and can use exotic pets. Right now I have a gorilla for normal soloing, a moth for single-target elite soloing, a wasp for grouping, and a worm and a core hound sitting in my stable that I can't actually use right now. I'm thinking I'm going to swap the last two out...the worm for a rhino to use in pvp (because mass knockbacks rock!), and maybe a chimera...or, if I get really lucky, a spirit beast. I'm not holding my breath for the spirit beast, though, because at the moment there's only one spawn in the entire game, it's rare (LONG spawn timer), and it's sure to be camped pretty heavily for at least a few weeks. It's supposed to be a pretty spectacular pet, though.

Personally, I think hunters should get a short-term spell similar to a priest's mind control that lets us "tame" an animal-form druid for 20-30 seconds...just because that would be pretty darned awesome. Of course, my sweetie with his 70 druid may disagree with me. I would totally swap Scare Beast for that spell, though. Running enemy druids into their own team to do some damage? Heck yeah!

Ahem...minor sidetrack there...anyway.

I'm hoping the servers don't crap out on Thursday with all the launch-day traffic, but I'm not holding my breath. The servers have been choppy for the last few weeks...most noticeably this past Saturday when several hundred baby tauren and a few hundred allies crashed the servers. If one measely event on one server can bring everything crashing down, what's goign to happen when thousands of people who wouldn't normally be online log in to invade Northrend? My money is on some not-so-pretty lag and server crashes. Personally I'm strongly considering staying in Outlands for the most part and cleaning up some old quests to get level 71 or 72, aside from a brief trip to Northrend to level up my professions. No guarantees on whether I'll actually have the self-control to stay away, though, lag or no lag.

Just an idea...

Ok, so I won't copy 99% of bloggers and write about the election results other than to say: bah.

Anyway.

I'm so excited it's November! The holidays are approaching quick -- my favorite time of year. Christmas shopping and pretty clothes (when else can I get away with wearing sparkly clothes and not get funny looks?) and special treats and lots of opportunities to make people smile! Christmas goodies are already out in stores, and people are already making gift lists.

My family started something last Christmas that I hope becomes a new tradition. We've got to discuss doing it again this year, but we all liked it so much last year that I think it'll stick. Rather than spend a ton on presents for each other, we each bought each other one small gift, then pooled the rest of the money we would have spent and sent it to my Aunt P, who helps run a school for deaf kids in the Dominican Republic. We asked her to use the money as she saw fit for people who were in need of it. We sure don't need more "stuff" around here anyway.

P spread the money around a bit, but most of it went to two families.

The first family is a single dad with a couple of kids, one of whom is deaf. Their house had been trashed by a mudslide, and the dad was basically at the point where he was going to have to decide between selling his car to be able to fix up the house, or not having a place for his family to live. He's a taxi driver, so his car is his livelihood...it wasn't cool. P passed on enough to him to let him fix the house up without having to sell his car.

The other family was even better. A local teacher had taken in a few kids, not her own, to keep them off the streets. Money was tight, and one day she got to the point where she literally gave the kids the last bit of food in the house, and had no money to buy more. She had been praying for some way to keep feeding those kids...and that very afternoon she received some of the money we had sent.

How cool is that? Seriously.

I love giving presents (and I won't deny that I enjoy receiving them as well), but honestly, I don't need more "stuff", and most of the people I know don't either. There are so many people all over the world who can't even afford the basic necessities of life for one reason or another. Americans alone spend billions over the holidays. Billions. Wouldn't it be awesome if we could take just a fraction of that and use it to help people who really need it? Even 1% of that money would make a massive difference to a huge number of people.

So, as the holidays approach...why not think about helping someone else out instead of just giving people lots of stuff, much of which will barely even be used? You can still give gifts...just give smaller ones. Change somebody's life.

I'm going to.

Spread the word. Let's change Christmas!

Go Vote!

Two more days until one of the biggest elections in US history. No matter who wins, it will give us a first -- the first black president, or the first female VP. No matter who wins, a lot of things will change. A lot of people will be excited. A lot of people will be pissed off.

And a lot of people won't bother to vote at all.

Yeah, yeah, your vote is insignificant, blah blah blah. Know what makes it even less significant? Not casting it at all. Know where your vote is more significant? At the local level. Even if you could care less about who wins the presidency, go vote. Vote for the people who will be running things where you live. The ones who can win by a handful of votes.

Too many Americans are ridiculously apathetic about their right to vote. They don't bother to vote, then they whine about the people who end up in office. You don't like the people running things? Do something about it. Vote.

You may or may not agree with my political opinions. That's fine. You have that right. If you aren't going to vote, though, do not come and complain to me about the state of this country. If you can't be bothered to go stand in line for a couple minutes, push a few buttons, and get your sticker, guess what? I can't be bothered to listen to your ranting. You want things to change? At least try and help elect someone who will run things the way you want them run.

Mark it on your calendars, people. I expect to have to stand in line for at least an hour to vote, got it? A shorter line than that, and I will be annoyed.