If You Can’t Drive in Snow

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DON’T.

Seriously, people. If the speed limit is 45, weather permitting, DRIVE 45. Don’t get offended when you drive 30 and someone is up your ass. It’s because you have failed to learn the purpose of the gas pedal.

That said, let’s talk about snow. I get that a lot of you are southern transplants and are a little afraid of a bit of frost on the roads. Let me clue you in: MOVE. Most of us grew up back east (Michigan, specifically; I can’t tell you how many of my brethren have escaped here) and we KNOW HOW TO DRIVE ON SNOW. If you don’t, PULL OVER. You want to go 20 in a 45, fine. I can do 40. MOVE.

I’m all about careful, but you people borderline on road hazard. Lead, follow, or get out of the way. Seriously.

Oh, and you asshats driving SUV’s and thinking you’re above it all? I drive a Honda Fit. I drive circles around you. Know why? I don’t think I’m invincible. That would be why no one stops on the side of the highway to help you when you tank on the snow-covered median. They’re laughing too hard.

I Believe

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I believe in equal marriage rights for all, regardless of gender.

I believe in tattoos, body art, and piercing whatever body part you can stand to be pierced. Your body, your rules.

I believe in you believing in whatever deity you believe in…as long as your deity believes in leaving everyone else alone.

I believe in letting you believe in whatever makes you happy, so long as it doesn’t hurt anyone else.

I believe that people who feel the need to tell everyone else what is “right” have a very narrow world view. That’s sad.

I believe if everyone tended their own personal gardens and stopped sticking their noses in their neighbors’ gardens, everyone would be much happier.

I believe I’m pretty much right in this.

The Facebook “This is MY TOWN” Groups from Hell

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You all know them. They start out innocuously as “Oh, let’s reconnect with people from our home town and share fond memoires” and ONE PERSON says something negative (yet true) and it turns into “OMG HOW CAN YOU SAY ANYTHING BAD ABOUT OUR TOWN?”

Queue moderator post about how we have to keep it positive, blah blah blah.

Really?

Um, you get why people left that town, right? Crime through the roof. Check. No jobs. Check. Crap weather. Check.

But OMG HOW CAN YOU SAY ANYTHING BAD ABOUT THIS TOWN????

Hmm. Maybe because I LIVED there for 27 years? Asshats.

Yeah, I unliked and moved on. Still, it pisses me off. ONE person (not me, go figure) says ONE bad thing about the town (and gospel truth, I can tell you that) and suddenly the PC police are all over it.

Fuck that. Sugarcoat your life there all you want. Just don’t get all bitchy when everyone else has a freaking toothache.

Idiots.

Cool Sites for Bookworms

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I have a mad love affair with books, and over the years I’ve found a few really good sites for book lovers. My top three are below:

Shelfari – build your virtual library here. You can rate books as well as show others what you’re currently reading, want to read, and have read. Also, lots of discussion groups to join and you can follow others and have others follow you. A really good book lover’s site.

FictFact – I freaking LOVE this site. Tracks book series you are reading and lets you know what the next book is. If you’re waiting for the next book in a series, it lets you know when it will be out. I read so many series that I would pull my hair out if I didn’t have this site. SO much better than trolling around the ‘net trying to figure out which book is next.

BookCrossing – a great way to recycle your books. Put an ID tag on them, put them somewhere, and wait to see what happens. I’ve never had any luck getting mine found, but I keep hoping. You can also hunt for books in your area. It’s fun.

What are some of your favorite book-related sites? Post them in the comments below.

2012 Book List

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So, I’m a couple days late (story of my life) but here’s my 2012 book list. To be fair, I’m still working on the collected works of Lovecraft (hey, the book is 1100 pages long and I’m reading it between other stuff – sue me) but otherwise, here’s what I’ve read. Feel free to leave comments/questions below, and share your reading list, if you care to!

2012 Book List

Dead Beat – Jim Butcher
Rose Madder – Stephen King (reread)
All the Rage – F. Paul Wilson
Why We Get Fat (and What to Do About It) – Gary Taubes
Night Shift – Stephen King (reread)
High Deryni – Katherine Kurtz
God is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything – Christopher Hitchens
Proven Guilty – Jim Butcher
Evil Genes: Why Rome Fell, Hitler Rose, Enron Failed and My Sister Stole My Mother’s Boyfriend – Barbara A. Oakley
‘salem’s Lot – Stephen King (reread)
White Knight – Jim Butcher
Small Favor – Jim Butcher
Turn Coat – Jim Butcher
Changes – Jim Butcher
Side Jobs – Jim Butcher
Ghost Story – Jim Butcher
Hosts – F. Paul Wilson
Dracula’s Guest: A Connoisseur’s Collection of Victorian Vampire Stories – Michael Sims
Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation – Lynne Truss
The Haunted Air – F. Paul Wilson
H.P. Lovecraft: Complete and Unabridged – H.P. Lovecraft
The Wind Through the Keyhole – Stephen King
Something from the Nightside – Simon R. Green
Deadlocked – Charlaine Harris
Agents of Light and Darkness – Simon R. Green
Too Good to Leave, too Bad to Stay – Mira Kirchenbaum
Brothers to the Death – Darren Shan
The Shining – Stephen King (reread)
Nightengale’s Lament – Simon R. Green
Gateways – F. Paul Wilson
Hex and the City – Simon R. Green
Skeleton Crew – Stephen King (reread)
Paths Not Taken – Simon R. Green
Crisscross – F. Paul Wilson
Sharper Than a Serpent’s Tooth – Simon R. Green
Arguably: Essays by Christopher Hitchens – Christopher Hitchens
I, Zombie – Hugh Howey
Dead Witch Walking – Kim Harrison
Hell to Pay – Simon R. Green
Infernal – F. Paul Wilson
The Unnatural Inquirer – Simon R. Green
The Talisman – Stephen King and Peter Straub (reread)
Black House – Stephen King and Peter Straub (reread)
DarkStar – Carol J. Hansen
Cloud Atlas – David Mitchell
Just Another Judgment Day – Simon R. Green
The Good, the Bad, and the Undead – Kim Harrison
Cold Days – Jim Butcher
The Good, the Bad, and the Uncanny – Simon R. Green
Every Which Way But Dead – Kim Harrison

Why I Don’t Understand Anti-Vax People

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You know what? I will never have children, so this is not my problem, but I’m going to throw my two cents in anyway.

First, let’s talk about herd immunity. Because I think a LOT of you are living in ignorant bliss right now.

In America, a great deal of “the herd” is immune, right now. Do you anti-vax people not get that in ten or twenty years, the “immune” herd is going to be a LOT smaller? Your particular calf is going to be in danger, then. Oh, I’m sure, ONE kid, somewhere, had a bad reaction. And if it was YOUR kid, I get you’re upset and really fucking pissed about it.

HOWEVER:

I was part of the WHO’s “Smallpox Eradication Program” (not that I knew it). I was born in 1966. Yes, I have a lovely smallpox vax scar on my arm. See? smallpox

Oh, I’m scarred for life. Yes, I am. The horror. Bigger horror? Dying from smallpox.

Look, I’m an accountant, and I fully understand the math behind risk/reward. You want to know what? I’ll take Vaccinations over Major Illnesses That Can Kill Me any time. ANY TIME.

You feel free to choose differently. But if your kid gets sick and dies of some disease that could have been prevented by a shot that hurt for TWO SECONDS, don’t cry to me. I get that modern science is not the be-all and end-all of existence, but sometimes you have to look at the math, NOT the emotional toll.

I have no dog in this fight, but I encourage you to think long and hard about your choices for your children. LONG and HARD.

I’m part of The Herd. I’m 46.

The herd isn’t getting any younger. I’m just sayin’.

And if this itty bitty circular scar is the worst thing to happen to your kid, count yourself lucky. My mother cared enough to protect me from shit that could kill me. She was a pragmatist who understood risk/reward and would have taken her lot in life stoically had she not drawn an Ace. She knew what she was doing. She knew men with advanced degrees probably knew better than she did. And she wanted her kids to live, and not be sick and suffer. She’d seen what happened to kids with polio, so she knew. Vaccines are NOT the devil.

Science>GAWD. Get over it, people. Fact>fiction. Same story.

Tattoos and Visibility and All that Stuff…

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I have tattoos. I’m sure my mother would sell her soul to Satan to remove them, but I have them. And I like her soul right where it is. So there you go. Love you, mom! Sorry your daughter is such a godless heathen! (Yeah, this will never make her laugh. Oh well).

Right now I have five. Two are highly visible (the ankle tat I have is a shamrock, and the wrist tat, well, that I agonized over for two years before pulling the trigger. Because you have to think these things out, dontchaknow).

Even after two years of thinking, I kind of regretted the wrist tat. I remembered feeling the same way about the ankle tat when I got it (OMG IT’S VISIBLE PEOPLE WILL JUDGE ME) and then I quickly got over it. Because, yeah, they might judge me, but so what?

The wrist is taking longer. I suspect it’s because I’m not used to seeing it yet (it’s only been about 6 weeks and it’s long sleeve weather). The best part is it got “outed” at work and NO ONE EVEN NOTICED. We have a lot of visible ink around here, so I suspect everyone thought I’d always had it. Win!

Katat

I knew a wrist tat was going to be a challenge. People see it and want to know what it is. Mine is kind of random if you’re not a Stephen King Dark Tower fan. So, I’ve found myself explaining it. A lot. That’s okay, though – if I can sucker someone into reading the books I feel my work is done.

My reasons for the wrist tat are pretty simple, if you know the meaning of ka in the Dark Tower series. Ka is a wheel; ka is fate and karma and destiny all rolled into one. Ka IS, and ka will bring you around to where you are supposed to be. I put it where I could see it to remind me of that, and to remind me that fate and karma and all of that made me who I am, and will make me who I will be.

So, my new tat and I are growing together. I like it, a lot. I know it’s not PC and I know I will have to spend a lot of time explaining it, but that’s kind of a perk. Think how many people I can get to read the books. If I can do that, then it’s totally worth it.

And, as always, I never regret things I’ve done. I only regret things I SHOULD have done. So there. :D

And, my mom will have kittens over this. I swear. And I ALSO know my sis will out me to her. Because that’s what sisters do. It’s probably for the best – mom will get mostly over it before I see her again. LOL!