Apparently I need to find some time to blog....and there is stuff to blog about.....Soon, I hope.
Tonight on my walk around the lake I saw a small black and white woodpecker scaling a tree. This bird was much smaller than the Northern Flicker (another woodpecker) that I've seen before. Checking the Cornell Ornithology webite, I found the little guy is a Downy Woodpecker.
No wonder I frequently hear woodpeckers -- we've got two different kinds in the neighborhood, LOL.
During today's walk around the lake I saw that there is a second set of goslings that have hatched. Ironically both sets of goslings and parents were "hanging out" together. The first set -- the ones I've seen several times before-- are very relaxed parents that don't get agitated when you walk by them. The new set are not so calm. I think it was the male that was hissing at me as I walked past. The new set have four goslings while the other set have five. And I still have not seen any ducklings. I did see four male wood ducks which I'm wondering if they were from the batch of 19 ducklings last year.
I wish death on spammers. Or maybe just pain. After deleting 50 spam that were posted over the weekend, I have no patience for such scum of the earth. Feh.
Looks like the website is back up and running. Something happened on the provider's end that screwed things up and had it inaccessible to me for a few days. Aarggh!
I've decided that I'm prejudiced against prejudiced and ignorant people. So what does that make me? ;)
Finally updated the version of Movable Type in response to all the spam I've been getting in my comments.
What I wanna know is why don't these assholes get real jobs rather than sending out a bazillion spam that users have to continuously delete? It's not like I'm going to buy one of their products/services. Sheesh.
While I was gone for just over 2 weeks, I had my mail held. Today I received all the backlogged mail. One item I received was a credit card bill for a card I just started using. It had crossed my mind before I left for my extended holiday that I hadn't received a statement for it yet. Since the card was new, I had no idea when the due date should be. But I figured that since I had not received it prior to my leaving, the due date had to be well after when I would return.
That was my first wrong assumption.
Upon opening the bill, I found the due date to be TOMORROW. My first reaction was WTF! My next reaction was to pick up the phone and plead my case to the credit card company. I have in the past been successful in having the card company waive a late fee after the fact. I figured I'd try to preemptively get this one waived or make other arrangements. (Yeah, I've been reading too many stories about Iraq...so sue me. ;) )
Talking to the rep I could get her to neither waive the late fee nor extend the due date. She informed me that the bill had been mailed by Dec. 12th. I informed her that I hadn't received it before Dec 20th. (Damn slow mail around Christmas.) When I offered to pay by phone she informed me there was a $12 fee for doing so. I then tried to get her to waive the $12 fee. She informed me that she could only do that if I was making a payment of $10,000 or more.
If I was making that large of a payment I sure as hell would not be worried about a $12 fee!!!!!
I informed her that I had had another card with her company for over 10 years and I might just have to consider taking my business elsewhere as a result of this inflexibility. She didn't bite. I ended up sucking up and paying the $12 fee rather than dealing with having to pay a $30 late fee and taking the chance they'd jack up my interest rate. But I was not happpy about it. Knowing my luck, my bank will charge me on top of the $12.
You damn well know I'll be writing to my credit card company in complaint and if I get no satisfactory response I will make good on my word. Granted they all are like that, especially if you have one that offers a low rate. But as long as people don't fight it, these credit card companies will charge exhorbinant (sp?) fees and rates AND get away with it.
Sure makes me want to use cash at all times. That may well be my resolution for 2004.
Somedays this blog is uncooperative. Today is one of those days. Thing keeps freezing up whenever I try to rebuild. Grrrr....
Not sure whether to blame my ISP or my host. *sigh*
I've been paying college student loans now for 7 years. Most of that time has been without incident. I received the lowest rates because I paid my account on time. However this year, Sallie Mae has become a nightmare. I guess with the low interest rates, they decided they needed to devise ways to make more money.
In July I received my payment book. In it I noticed my interest rates had gone up a point instead of down. I was like WTF! Then I received a notice that I owed about $14 that was past due. Again I was like WTF!
This was after receiving a notice that Sallie Mae had screwed up on everyone's loans and had been charging too low a minimum payment for their accounts for last year. I had been suspicious of the low amount and had been paying extra anyway.
It seems that Sallie Mae tried to fix this by sending out a set of three coupons with higher minimums around April to fix this problem. In April, I had moved, so I never received the coupons nor did I know of their existence.
Fast forward to July when I realize that they have screwed up. I call their customer service. I ask why my rate went up. The lady explains about the coupons etc. I explain that I never received them. She indicates that if I pay the $14, she will fix the account to have the lower interest rate.
Of course I have been busy and I didn't check up on this. I never can remember my password and have changed it every time I log in. Finally I remembered to check it this morning. And the rate is wrong. %$#@!
So I look for the toll free number. Turns out they don't accept calls on weekends. I decide to email them using their form. After I finish writing my letter, before I submit it, I read what they have written below the submit button:
" E-mail is not a secure method of transmitting your personal account information. Requests submitted here are not encrypted or protected in any form. If you choose to provide your personal account information, we will take that as your approval to respond by e-mail even if the response includes personal, account-specific information such as your Social Security Number."
Well considering their system automatically includes you acount number aka your SS#, then how can I be expected to email these fools if I risk my SS# in doing so?!?! How the fuck do they get away with still using people's SS# as account numbers, I honestly don't know.
I may have to wait until tomorrow to call them. I kept a copy of the letter I wrote in case I decide to snail mail them as well. *sigh*
The whole situation has me pissed. It's so tempting to go consolidate my loan with someone else. And if they don't get it right this time, I just might go do that. The only problem is I don't owe much more than $5000 at this point.
I have 3 more years to go on this loan. And just over 2 years on my car loan. I'll be soooo happy to have them both paid off. It'll be over $500 a month I'll have extra to spend! :)
I just need to get through this without strangling the customer service person on the other end of the phone tomorrow, LOL.
And I probably blog too much about the weather considering someone found my blog by searching " how much precipitation did we get yesterday " LOL.
Actually, I've been often been told I should have been a meteorologist, since I'm apt to check the Weather Channel the minute I see storm clouds. Gotta check that radar and see if the rain is coming my way. ;) And you know I've watched too much Weather Channel over the course of my life since I know how to read the weather maps, hehehehe.....I'm such a geek.
Fall has arrived. The trees are starting to show their fall splendor. And walking around the lake today, it looked like something from a postcard. Just perfect. And the weather, almost warm for fall, made for perfect walking weather just before dusk. It smells like fall and I love it.
In a few weeks I'll be sad that all the leaves are gone. But for now, I'm enjoying the fall colors.
Back a month or so ago, I had someone email me a racist joke--a poem about welfare and Pakistanis coming here for free money. It pissed me off then. And I deleted it.
This was the same joke some CEO was asked to resign over because he forwarded it to his employees. So I'm not overreacting.
Now the same person emailed it to me AGAIN and titles it 'oldie, but goodie.' WTF? I wrote back to her, this time indicating that it was racist. That it's the type of thing that incites hate. There is already tension between the Arabic and Western world...why fan the flames more? I asked her how she would feel if that poem was about Africans, Haitians, or Jamaicans coming over to live off welfare. I'm sure she'd see it as racist then.
Amazing. *shakes head*
Yesterday we had a strong thunderstorm that rolled through knocking down many tree limbs and interrupting power. I even left work early after the power did not return for over a half hour. Luckily at home we never lost power--all my clocks held their time.
And evening brought more thunderstorms today. Luckily these were less severe. But I'm sure they were unwelcome to those whom I saw still clearing tree limbs from their property.
More storms are predicted for tomorrow.
I'm still here. Drove up and back to and from Philly Sunday to see cousins I haven't seen in years. Then yesterday, had a friend drop in unexpectedly. And today I'm just exhausted from all the running around I've been doing and the lack of sleep I've been getting. Can't wait for the long weekend where I have nothing planned!
So in the meantime, I might suggest you check out the links on the left for some interesting reading. With some sleep, I might have more to say tomorrow.
Today at the supermarket, I picked up some Pink Lady apples. I'd never tried them before and I was up for something new. Tonight I sliced one up and my, was it a treat. At first I couldn't decide what they tasted like. Then, Brian tasted one and said it was a cross between a Granny Smith and a McIntosh. Immediately I knew he was right. That's very much what the apple tasted like. YUM! Quite tasty.
However when I looked it up, the US website said it was a cross between a Golden Delicious and a Lady Williams and it's grown in Western Australia and New Zealand.
And now as I look at the label I realize it's not an official Pink Lady....it's a Cripp's Pink out of New Zealand, lol.
In spite of still being tired, I dragged my ass out of bed and headed to the gym where I went to the Bosu and Core Board Class. With the high humidity and the fatigue I've been feeling the last few days this was an especially challenging class. As opposed to the strength training type class I take on Mondays, this one involved more cardio. I suck at cardio when the humidity is high. And being fatigued did not help matters.
But I survived.
We also did some pilates on the bosu as well. It was a great workout. But I ended up needing a nap by early afternoon, LOL.
It's another one of those Fridays where I have no energy and am completely spaceshot. I'm a tired hormonal bitch whose just curled up in her chair in front of her puter doing nothing much of anything. A complete veg out is in progress. Mad cleaning will ensue tomorrow. Along with massive consumption of salty carbohydrates, LOL. :)
Looks like the rain is returning this week with thunderstorms forecast each day this week. *sigh*
I had been hoping to head out to Western NY this weekend. Perhaps I will push those plans back two weeks.
When we bought the house this year, I feared we were buying at the peak of the bubble. At the height of the housing insanity. Ha!
Another end unit townhouse on my street sold nearly two months later at over $10,000 more than mine. Now there's an interior unit on my street listed over $25,000 more than we paid. And a house equivalent to mine in a different section of town listed for $33,000 more than what we paid. That means this house is now worth up to $35,000 more than when we bought it. Great if we were planning to sell it soon. Not so great since we will be reassessed at the end of the year for taxes.
In Maryland, houses are reassessed every three years unlike Jersey that rarely reassesses. This house could be reassessed for over $120,000 more than it was assessed 3 years ago. Granted, the new reassessment will be phased in over the next three years. But that's still an increase in taxable value of $40,000 per year. That's going to nearly double my taxes in 3 years without any increases in the tax rate...which will likely increase as well. Can you say ouch?
Time for the bubble to burst...quickly. That big of an increase will sock us big time. Now's the time for the prices to get driven downward by the rising mortgage rates, so my tax assessment doesn't rise quite so high, LOL.
The insanity needs to end now. :)
Almost 2 years ago, I stumbled upon a blog (linked by another blog), or rather an online journal of someone I knew in high school. After reading the then current entry, I somehow felt I knew this person. The tone and language just seemed so familiar. So I read back further into the archives and realized in fact I did know this girl. She linked an entry to the high school we graduated from and posted pictures that allowed me to figure out she was in fact this particular girl that had been in many of my classes throughout high school, and at some point early on, had been a friend.
I wrote to her to say that I had found her blog, to ask how she was doing and to give a little blurb about my life. I guess I hoped for a response, but when I got none, I left it be. But from time to time I did check her journal out of natural curiosity. During this time she dealt with depression, finally finished college, planned a wedding, and eventually married. Today when I checked I found she shut her site down, citing her lack of interest after journalling for over 5 years, which is understandable. But she mentioned that knowing that too many folks knew where she journalled was making it harder for her to write, it made me wonder if I played a part in that.
Should I have never tried to contact her? I know we had drifted apart as friends as our interests diverged, but I never thought there was any animosity between us. I didn't feel right secretly reading what she was writing, but maybe having her know I was is worse (for her). I dunno. Clearly I was not the only person she knew that had discovered her...and she mentioned others that she had pointed to her journal page.
I don't write many terribly personal entries here, because the internet is a public place. You never know who might drop in unexpectedly. Also, I have invited friends to read this page. Only a few drop in with any frequency that I'm aware of. I invited them so they would know what's going on with me. But primarily I write this stuff for me. However, as I said, anything I would be embarassed/ashamed/etc. to have read by folks that know me, doesn't belong out there on the internet. And I do keep things less personal in case they do drop in. Especially about work stuff, since that's practically a policy there. Does that make it hard for me to write? Not really. Lately I tend to go on about politics and current events just fine. And gardening seems to be a topic of late.
I think that even in person I don't talk much about myself. I find myself boring and I'd much rather listen to someone else talk about themself, LOL. I find it interesting that some folks remember so many events in their life so vividly. I swear I've forgotten half of mine.
This girl talked so much about high school in her journal--that's what struck me. Over ten years later and she's still reliving shit from high school. Stuff that's completely off my radar. I remember more good times from college but much of that is over 10 years back now. I'm very much rooted in the present. And looking to the future...making goals for myself. My happiness is in the here and now. I find it inside myself. One thing I learned a long time ago is you can't rely on others to bring you happiness.
So in the end, I hope she finds happiness. I hope she finds out who she is now, and not worry about who she was then. She seems like she might be on the right track, finally.
On my way to New Jersey Saturday, I got stopped for speeding on I-695 around Baltimore. I had a black Honda CRV on my ass as I was passing a line of slow moving cars. As I was getting past the line I was preparing to move over, but the CRV slid out from behind me first. I got off the gas, as I saw I was going into a curve that I knew the cops tend to frequent. But apparently I didn't slow down quick enough. I saw the cop walk out into the left lane and flag me in. Meanwhile the CRV drove past scot free.
And the cop I had to deal with was not the type to talk with. He fired off his spiel such that I'm not even sure what all he said. I caught the "Maryland State Trooper' and 'license and registration' parts--that was about it. My attitude was like, 'just give me the ticket' because this guy was clearly a hard ass and not going to be sympathetic to hearing that there was someone bearing down my ass at the time I was speeding. So I got a $75 ticket for going 73 in a 55. Less than my NYS ticket for 65 in in a 55 from 4 years ago. That one was $90.
I'm just pissed that this will likely put points on my license. My record WAS clean. Grrrrrrr....... I've driven that route so many times and this is the first time I've ever been pulled over. And only my second ticket ever. At least the guy in New York was nice about it. The Maryland guy had his hat drawn forward like a drill seargent and acted like one, too. *sigh*
Some days I just feel lame. Here it is Friday night and all I want to do is curl up and do nothing. I feel sapped of any energy. Is that what turning 30 does to you?
My brother is enjoying cooking on the barbeque. But the grille we bought on Saturday is already cracked on the side. It must have had a flaw and when heat was applied, it cracked through. So now I'm trying to find out if I need to disassemble it and bring it back to Sears in order to get a new one. Luckily we do still have the box. (Since it cracked the second day we had it, and trash day hadn't come yet, LOL.) It'll just be a pain to take it apart and get it to fit back into the box properly. I haven't managed to stop in or call when a manager is actually available to take my question. :(
Update on my Tomatoes: I plucked off 4 small ripe tomatoes yesterday. No more rotten ones. :) Must be they needed some dry weather, and Mother Nature finally cooperated and gave us what the doctor ordered. ;)
Yesterday I received an email that a close friend of mine is pregnant and having a girl. The weird thing was I sensed something was up the last time I talked to her. My women's intuition had kicked in, and was right as usual. LOL. ;)
It's great news...it'll be their first child. :)
Went to Happy hour last night at the Joe's Crab Shack with folks from work. M is leaving, and so we were celebrating her last day. Ironically some guy had started talking with MK at the bar and joined our group for the night as a result. He was from Roanoke, VA and had a twangy accent, but seemed to fit in otherwise. Later in the evening MK gave him a hug when he came back from the john traumatized. It seems two guys were going at it in the bathroom. Not sure what he saw but he certainly heard some action LOL. Gave him the heebie-jeebies, LOL. And the other guys as well. They were all threatening to use the lake instead. ;)
It was a nice relaxing time overall, with M having probably too much to drink by the end. She was having fun and being flirty with the guys.
I have been having pain in my shoulder and neck the last few days. I got C to start massaging it, but he was only doing a so-so job. M decided she would give it a try since I was still in pain. Figures, she did a better job of finding the knot and working on it. (I get deep knots that are tricky to find some times. ) She got interrupted, so C continued working on my knot since it'd been located. Later M decided she'd give me a hand massage (she'd been giving those to others as well--it relieves stress).
When she got interrupted again, C started talking again about how he found guy-guy disgusting but girl-girl was fine. He wanted to know what I thought about it. I could sense he was getting ideas of M and me along with him...and I wasn't about to go there. I said I was too tired to get into that topic of conversation or something like that. Knowing my luck he took it to mean something other than me avoiding the topic because I knew it could lead to no good. LOL. Girl-girl is not exactly my thing, though I have nothing against it.
For some reason guys love fantasizing about that stuff. Not sure what the root cause of that is. But the minute anyone sees any sort of close friendship between women they want to see something sexual there. Any worry of that sort of perception can create distance between friends where there shouldn't be any. Worry that someone sees something that isn't really there or intended. Does that make sense? Or am I just rambling again? LOL.
My computer is getting up there. It's over 4 1/2 years old, bought with severence money from the job I lost 2 jobs ago, LOL. It's a 350 MHz Pentium II Dell Dimension. It actually does most of the things I want it to do. But recently it tends to make my CDs skip when I have browser windows connecting to webpages. :( Oh yeah, and my subwoofer died within the last year.
My plan is to replace the computer later in the year or perhaps early 2004. Hopefully it'll hang on that long. I need to save up some money first, LOL.
Tonight I finally went to get my hair cut. I had been wanting to make an appointment for over 3 weeks. Finally yesterday I made the call and tonight I got my hair chopped. It's actually a pretty short bob even for me. But I like it. Short is more manageble. And longer hair tends to pull down my face making me look drawn. By the end of the summer, I'll need to get my highlights done again. God this stuff gets expensive after awhile, LOL. :)
Currently I'm listening to Tori Amos' cover of the Boomtown Rats song 'I Don't Like Mondays.' It just seems to suit today, LOL.
The weekends just don't last long enough. Don't you think we should all switch to four 10 hour days and have three day weekends? I think the world would be a happier place. (It might be a simplistic view, but hey, why not?) We could all stop and smell the roses. Rather than dread going to work again. We spend over 8 hours out of the ~16 we are awake at a place we'd rather not be most days. Wouldn't it be nice having more time to do things that are more enjoyable and rewarding?
Interestingly enough when I did a search on the song because I couldn't remember the name of the band that originally performed it, I found the snopes.com page explaining that the song was in fact written about a girl who shot and killed two men and wounded several of her schoolmates and a police officer. Afterwards she told reporters 'I don't like Mondays.'
Ironically this song is followed by 'Happiness is a Warm Gun' (orig. the Beatles) which has excerpts from both presidents Bush. The first being the younger Bush, being his usual dumb self.
George W. Bush: “I believe that uh, people who are going to commit crimes shouldn’t have guns.”
And the second being his father who's not that much better.
George Bush: “I guess my reaction is the same as every other father’s and every other grandfather. My heart goes out the people, to the victims. Because I don’t understand how kids can be out in the garage making bombs and a, and a families be totally unaware of it, this culture going on. And I’m as troubled about it as anybody else and I don’t know any answers.”
This can be found on Tori Amos' Strange Little Girls album.
Perhaps with longer weekends, we could devote more time and energy to our families and to ourselves. Happiness is a far more rewarding than money. And goes a long way to making us healthy and whole.
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I had been getting excited because I have lots of tomatoes growing. A few had even begun to ripen. Then I find that the first 2 of those were rotten on the bottom, despite not being fully ripe yet. What's up with that? Has it been too wet? I don't get it. I hope they don't all end up that way. It would be a pretty bitter end to a crop that seemed so promising. :(
I was managing to post everyday so far this month until yesterday. Went out last night instead....had an interesting time. Would write about it, but I'm too tired and a T-storm is moving in. Double-whammy, LOL.
I guess I'm getting too old to be out until 3 am and then go to work in the morning. My body can't handle the lack of sleep. And a nap tonight only disoriented me more. Geez.
Hehehehe.....
Back to the grind again after a relaxing 3-day weekend. Didn't go anywhere, save Target, PetsMart and Safeway, LOL. Did get some cleaning and laundry done. Nothing outrageous. Oh yeah, and did go see Montgomery County's fireworks display. Whoever does their show does a fabulous job. Always throws in some new and different ones along with the typical fare. Sure to get some cheers from the crowd.
That was my 4th weekend in a nutshell. Now that it's Monday, it's back to work. I feel like such a sloth because I still feel tired. Someone hand me some energy, I'm severely low on it, LOL. :)
I walked out on my deck this morning to water my plants. It was about 8:45 am and suddenly I hear music playing. The music that accompanies "Let's get ready to rumble!" I just about burst out laughing because it seemed weird to hear this music.
Accompanying this blaring music was an announcer introducing the local swim team. The pool is down past the end of the lake, but I heard this guy loud and clear. He continued by getting each of the swim teams to cheer, then the parents. The parents were clearly still drinking their coffee, for there response was pitiful. And the announcer made sure to let them now that! LOL.
I had already learned that sound carries well across the lake. Two, maybe three weeks ago I was out on my deck reading a book. There was a party across the lake where I swear I could hear many of the conversations from. I'm just relieved I don't live in that neighborhood, because that party must have been very loud.
Additionally, there is this one guy that walks around the lake that bursts into tune singing anything from Ozzy to country. Strange boy! Really strange, I assure you.
I never imagined how entertaining it is just to be on my deck, LOL. :)
Don't ya hate it when you go to bed later than you wanted to and then when you finally do start to fall asleep a nasty thunderstorm rips through waking you up for the duration?
I'm gonna be zombie girl today since I'm already at a sleep deficit. Perhaps I'll bail on going to the gym today. Get some sleep instead.
But I gotta admit the second half of the thunderstorm last night was a humdinger. Lots of lightning strikes and booming thunder. Close ones that have you clinging to your pillow. Not like that's gonna do anything, LOL.
I'm just a chicken shit when it comes to bad thunderstorms.
Summer has arrived and the rain has ended for now. We're going straight from the 70s into the 90s as a result. Hot, hot, hot!
I went to the dermatologist yesterday. I was amazed at how quickly he heard my complaints and scribbled off prescriptions. I think he barely looked at me. I talked longer with the nurse prior. This process did not give me the warm and fuzzies. Granted my 'issues' were minor. But I would have like to have been able to ask questions if I had any. This appointment felt a bit more than rushed. I think I waited 40 minutes and saw the docror for 5 minutes. Sheesh.
Then since it was 4 pm, I opted not to go back to the office. Instead I went to MVA Express. I was thinking I'd get a whole new license with my new address. But when I got there, the line was so bad that I opted to fill out the form and get a card with my new address and forego getting a whole new license. LOL.
Then I decided to go over to VEIP to get my car emmisions inspection. Of course I picked the wrong line twice. Finally I switched lines a third time. I hated doing that, but by doing that I finally got done prior than I would have if I stayed in either of the two lines. So it was worth switching a third time. Of course, if I had picked better to begin with, I would have been done even sooner. A couple of the lines were clearly faster. And I hadn't been close to the new lane that opened. So plenty of folks who arrived later were finshed before I was.
And BTW my car did pass. LOL.
More weather news. Turns out we've had so much precipitation these last several months that even the Doppler radar is ready to quit! LOL. Seriously! Since the folks at the National Weather Service haven't been able to take it off line long enough to PM the system (preventitive maintenance), the Doppler is acting funny.
Yesterday I had a woman at the deli counter wish me a Happy Mother's Day. I nicely corrected her, saying that I wasn't a Mom. She said well, someday I would be. I often wonder if I will. Being perpetually single with relationships few and far between I wonder if the odds are stacked against me. I guess I could go the route of Match.com. But I see those type of sites as superficial and awkward....I dunno.
I use my experiences in college as my basis for that belief. The days just prior to the world wide web....from 1990 to 1994. We had a VAX/VMS system with bulletin board/message board style interactions. One board in particular, 'Cheers', as in the bar in Boston ala TV land, was a place college students met for distrubuting jokes and meeting others. I recall some of those folks I met as being less than stable and in some instances scary. Others were merely harmless lonely people. But it's often hard to differentiate the two simply via email.
On the flip side, maybe I'm just a wuss. Maybe I should give it a try. However the folks I know who have tried it ended up with guys they met offline rather than online. The biggest challenges lies in simply meeting people. (Guys in particular)
I have read lots of different blogs over the last few months when I find the time or be so inclined. I enjoy a well written blog, as well as a creatively designed one. They don't have to be both at the same time, often they are not both. But I think I would lean towards blogs with good content. Different people use blogs for different things. Often I find myself going, 'hey, that's a neat concept for a blog. Why didn't I think of anything like that?' And those generally are the best.
I love blogs from deep people. Perhaps old souls like myself. [I've been told on different occasions by tarot readers/palm readers that are friends that I have an old soul...you don't have to believe it, but I tend to, lol.] These bloggers tend to share themselves with their readers and have a witty or unique view on life. A subtle sarcasm or cynicism that helps them endure the harsh atmosphere of life, while still trying to look on the bright side. I often wish my blog could be half as good as theirs. But in the meantime I heartily enjoy reading the trials and tribulations of their life or the links they choose to pass along.
But there are some blogs I wonder why I read other than to see how much more of a bitch or asshole this person can prove themselves to be. Condescending, self-important, and downright ugly. Mean, in a back-handed way. I don't read these often, but I still do just to keep proving to myself how low people can go when they are trying to elevate themselves above others. And that's just it. It would be one thing if the person saw themselves as being mean or condescending, but many of these don't see it. It would be easier to explain if I could give examples, but I'd rather not link these blogs to here, lol.
For myself, I'll stick to writing mostly about my real life tales. For those of you who ever wondered, Schneewittchen was a screenname or handle that I picked up in college back around 1991. [VAX, VAX baby by DJ Ari Stotland, lol. Okay, only maybe Sue and Tiff will understand that reference, hehehehe. Think Vanilla Ice.] My friends [Sue, Tiff, Ari, Steve, etc.] shortened it to Schnee [shnay, rhymes with day]. It's German for little Snow White. I had taken 4 years of German in High School, and I recalled the Brothers Grimm fairy tale character and took it since it was a unique screename. Hence, Once Upon a Time: Schneewittchen's Real Life Tales, lol. :)
It may not be much of a concept, but that's what I came up with back in July, lol. Now I'd like to start working on a new layout for the blog, since this one is several months old. Maybe I'll find the time over the holidays. ;)