Ooh, looky: a troll!

On my recent article below, "The Missing" Obsession, an anonymous troll left a comment. Apparently, the troll thinks I have rose-colored glasses on.

Things may be worse than what we see in the media. I was specifically referring to crime, not to the war in Iraq or whatever else. My point, which I guess didn't come across, was that the media hypes up things like missing people when people go missing every day, and fail to emphasize important news like the Karl Rove debacle or the new energy bill that was passed by the House of Representatives. The media can make you think that you're going to get kidnapped or attacked if you walk out your front door, instead of telling us the whole story sometimes.

I know bad things happen. They happen all the time, every day. Just get some perspective on it, that's all I'm trying to say.

Some arty stuff

Go here to see my latest round of journal prompt cards. And here is the anniversary card I made for DH.

Sweltering

We went to an outdoor wedding on Saturday.

It was 99 degrees. No shade. We sat on hot folding chairs in the blistering sun. The only good thing was that it was short and quick, with no singing or readings--but the preacher did tend to ramble on. DD was good throughout the whole ceremony, in spite of having a mild cold. Even I didn't feel too bad; usually, the heat makes me feel very ill.

The couple had no receiving line, so we didn't have to wait around. Instead, we were able to go straight to the reception hall. Thankfully, it had the a/c cranked on high, and we cooled off. We were also able to go through the buffet right away, without having to wait for the bride and groom. The food was the typical wedding fare: finger sandwiches, relish trays, hot wings, cheese dips, etc. It was mediocre, if you ask me. Some of the food must have been prepared days in advance, so it was kind of icky.

DD wanted us to dance with her, so we took turns. She had a blast.

Sunday, DH went to a fishing tournament. DD and I played in the baby pool, but again, it was so damn hot! I could only stand the heat for about an hour. We went inside and I felt awful. I had to take a short nap. DD drew some pictures. We watched the "Good Times" marathon on the TVLand network.

I felt like crap all day. I guess I'll chalk it up to hormones.

Whatever...

Despair

I am in the throes of an existential crisis.

Why am I here?

Why bother doing anything because nothing truly matters?


...



Why bother living at all?

My Pandora's box has no hope left inside of it, and I don't know where to buy more.

An Update

Actually, we ended up not going to the movies last weekend. Instead, we went out to eat at Red Lobster--a belated birthday/anniversary dinner--and then we went shopping. DH wanted to go to a sporting goods store and I wanted to go to the local Borders bookstore. I ended up buying three books, because they were buy 2 get one free ("Lolita" by Nabokov; "The Things They Carried" by Tim O'Brien; and "The Handmaid's Tale" by Atwood). In addition, the store was have a sale on its bound journals. I bought two of the large 8½ x 11 books (similar to this, only they said "Journal" on the cover and had lined pages) for a dollar each! Apparently they hadn't sold well. After I carried them around the store for awhile, I realized why: they are heavy! I should have purchased the whole stack.

So now I'm on a journal/book fast: not allowed to buy anymore blank books or reading books until I've read/used the ones I have. :)

The week has been busy with work and such. DH got a letter this week from one of his old co-workers telling him that another of their co-workers was given 3 months to live. He was diagnosed with cancer in May. He was a groomsman in our wedding and is our age. Hearing this news certainly put things into perspective.

Life is too short to spend living in the past or the future. Now is all we have. Life is way too short.

TGIF!

More Disinformation

I just want to scream. Vaccines have been used for over a hundred years, with some adverse effects, yes. However, do you really want to take the chance of your child getting polio or diptheria? I didn't, so I got my daughter immunized. I do worry that unimmunized children pose a threat to my daughter, though.

CBS News did a (non-)news story last night about the alleged vaccines-autism link. Medical studies in the U.S. and abroad have shown no evidence of a link between vaccines and autism. But now we have a Kennedy blowhard spouting off about the issue.

Autism is a terrible affliction, and I sympathize with the families whose children suffer from it. California studies the outbreak of cases in its state, but I wonder if they study the environmental factors and the familial genetic factors as well.

This story was definitely NOT news, and that was obvious: Kennedy said that no regular newspaper or magazine would touch his op-ed article. Only Salon.com would publish the piece.

Make an informed decision about vaccines, but realize that if you choose not to vaccinate your child, you are not only putting him or her at risk, you're putting the rest of us at risk as well.

Gosh, what were they thinking?

The new cbsnews.com website is a horrible mess. The ad at the top of the page takes up a third of the browser screen. The old design was much more user-friendly. Why did they feel a need to change a useful site?

Ah, perhaps this is the reason (quote from the NYT article): "This has the potential to revolutionize news on the Internet they way CNN did for television," said Sanford C. Bernstein analyst Tom Wolzien.

Wahoo.

Mediocre Reviews for F4

USAToday says that 'Fantastic' overstates it. However, that is not going to stop me from seeing hottie Ioan Gruffudd (Mr. Fantastic). Julian McMahon as Dr. Doom should be decent, too.

Yeah, DH & I going out this weekend. Woohoo!

"The Missing" Obsession

In this opinion by Dick Meyer of cbsnews.com, he says that the rates of crime committed are lower than ever before, and that children are safer, happier, and healthier than ever before.

But the media's focus on missing kids and missing (white) women has made crime seem to be worse--much worse. The people of Aruba are sick of Natalee Holloway (as is whoever wrote this article on kuro5shin.org [via metafilter]).

We need some perspective, that's for certain. All these cases are sad and unfortunate, but people go missing every day--some by choice, some not by choice. Amber Alerts are wonderful, and every person found alive is wonderful. But we have to remember that things are not as bad as they are painted by the media.

"Braceology"

USAToday has two articles about the popularity of rubber bracelets: Braceology and Brace Yourself.

Will the madness never end?

London, my thoughts and prayers are with you.

Crafty

I made this checkbook cover tonight. I also made an anniversary card for DH, which I will scan after he opens it. It took two hours to make both items. Whew.

For the checkbook cover, I took a piece of paper with flowered designs on it, cut it to fit the cover, and then pasted vellum quotes on it from a sheet of quotes. The sticker says "Divine wisdom guides me" and the gold stars on the back (Be Creative) are also vellum stickers. The "d" in the word "dreams" on the front is highlighted with a square glass sticker. This project was simple and easy to do, probably about fifteen to thirty minutes. (If I had more things I wanted to collage onto the paper, it would have taken longer.)

I'll explain the card later, after I scan it. It took longer because it was more complex, and I had to type up something I wrote and print it out for the card.

Fireworks

On Sunday, we didn't do much of anything. DD and I played outside. She rode her bike on the sidewalk while I read "The Diary of Anaïs Nin" (vol. 1). We played Frisbee and wrote with chalk on the sidewalk. Later that night, we went to the town fireworks. It was the first fireworks for DD. Other years, she was either too little, or DH didn't have the day off from work. I hadn't been to a fireworks display since July 4, 1997, right before our wedding.

We couldn't have asked for better weather. The sky was clear and the breeze was actually almost chilly. We sat with some (old) friends, and had a great time. I think DD really enjoyed herself. I know I did.

But wouldn't you know it, DD was up at the crack of dawn on Monday morning, as if she had went to bed at her regular time. Heh.

Blah

So, I managed to leave work early on Thursday. I went home and took DD to the pool, and we had a fun time. The rest of the evening we spent relaxing in front of the idiot box. On Friday, I decided to take DD to a local scrapbooking store that was advertising heavily on tv.

Typically, my car is old and it shakes. It had been shaking for months. I never thought twice about it. I figured the tires were just old and would eventually need replacing. We went shopping without incident, but as we pulled off the interstate and stopped at a stoplight in the town where we live, I noticed that the front left side of the car seemed to be off-kilter.

I pulled into a parking lot and stopped. The whole tire was practically off the rim. Sigh. I went into Burger King and asked if they had a phone book. No one knew so they had to get the manager to unlock the office and look inside there. I'm glad it wasn't a major emergency.

Luckily, it was 3pm and the service stations were still open. I called one of the companies and they sent a wrecker. $50 later, we were towed and the tire was replaced. However, it was a used tire. On Saturday, DH went to Wal-mart and bought two new tires (for $70), then brought them back home and had the same service station put the tires on the car (for another $15).

Come to find out, the service guy said that when the car is shaking like that, it means the belt has slipped on the tire. I wish I had known that about six months ago!

Thankfully, the tire lasted until we made it back home. DD thought it was an adventure. Yet another thing she'll probably need therapy for.

Driving to work today felt strange because the drive was so smooth.

And how was your weekend?