Lazy Saturday

Saturdays are better with StumbleUpon.

Today, I came across a very powerful essay about girls, size, and self-worth, and I thought I’d share it with y’all.

So here you go.  Happy Saturday!

It’s over there!

My post for today is right here.

Oops

Last night was kinda crazy, and I totally forgot to post.

*hangs head in shame*

But I’ll make it up to you with TWO (count ’em: 1… 2!) post today!

First, this completely pointless and boring post apologizing for the lack of yesterday’s post.  Lucky you!

Second, a real, super-awesome post later today.  Or at least moderately awesome.  I guess we’ll have to wait and see…

See ya’ then!

Faith in Humanity

Someone told me that America wasn’t ready for a black President.

Someone told me that our nation was too full of hate.

Someone told me that the South was still too full of bigotry.

Someone told me that there were more distrustful white folks than decent color-blind people in the US of A.

That someone was wrong.

Someone told me that America wasn’t ready for a Barack Hussein Obama.

Someone told me that we could only elect Presidents with Western names.

Someone told me that Obama’s name was too Muslim in a Muslim-fearing country.

Someone told me that we could never trust someone who had even the slightest, most disputed tie to Islam.

Someone told me that we could never hand over the leadership of our country to a half-Kenyan man.

That someone was wrong.

I’m not here to gloat.

I’m not hear to say “I told you so.”

I’m just here to say, “We’re better than you thought.”

“We’re bigger men, bigger women than that.”

“We’re greater than our fears.”

“We’re not a nation of bigots.”

“We’ve grown up, all of us.  We’ve grown out of our racist paranoia.”

And so I guess I did tell you so.  And I’m glad to say you’re wrong.  Not because I want to do a victory dance.  Not because I want to rub your face in your misjudgement.

Just because I’m so, so happy that we’re better than you thought we were.

A description

The easiest thing to do right now would be to talk about the election.  I’ve thought through several election-related posts, but the thing is, you guys are probably all electioned-out right now.

So, instead, I’ve decided that I will describe someone.  Someone dear to me.

When you look at her, the first thing you see is strength.  Her strong shoulders are evidence of a life of perseverance.  Her slightly-pursed lips speak of determination.  Her eyes burn with the fierceness of a woman who has fought – fought for herself and for her loved ones – over and over again.

At first, the strength is all you can see.  Her presence is commanding – intimidating – and it is hard to see past it to the person behind it all.

But as your eyes adjust, you begin to see something else.  You see beauty.  Thick, dark, shimmering hair.  Warm olive skin, work-worn but still soft.  Shining brown-black eyes; a sharp, strong nose; full lips.  Her naked face betrays her strength before her beauty, but it takes only a smidge of lipstick and a swipe of eyeliner to transform her from Warrior to Angel.

And what an angel!  With her sweet, captivating smile, she is suddenly an innocent young girl in the prime of her life, not a 30-something mother carrying the burdens of a struggle-filled past.  She is a lovely Persian princess, and it is impossible not to gravitate to something so beautiful. Impossible, indeed, not to stop and stare, to let your jaw drop just a little, before such a stunning transformation.

While her strength and beauty are the easiest things to note about her, perhaps her most significant aspect is her frailty.  She is sweet and fragile, fearful and timid, and much of her strength and fierceness comes from fighting her own demons.  Her heart is full of conflict, never knowing when to fight for herself and when to submit to those she loves.

She can think of a dozen strong and sassy ways to stand up for herself, to put others in their place and re-arm herself with the power that should be hers, but in the end, she’ll probably just keep silent, apologize quietly, or do whatever she can to keep others happy.  She’s like a tamed Dragon – powerful and deadly, but without the will and sense of self needed to defy her captors and demand the freedom and respect that any Dragon should command.

Warrior, Angel, and Tamed Dragon – Imagine what amazingly fierce beauty we would see if all three were reconciled as they should be!  Imagine the captivating, fierce, Warrior Princess, gentle to those whom she loved and who loved her, but unforgiving and deadly toward any who set themselves against her or refused to treat her with the honor that she deserved!

My greatest desire for her, nay, for us, as friends, is that I might one day see this Warrior Princess stand in all her glory.  That I might play some part in her struggle to claim her rightful throne, and that I should have the privilege of beholding the person whom she was meant to be.

Looking for Ideas

My chiropractor gave me an assignment today:
Come up with a regular exercise routine that I can do with (or despite) the girls.

I have a few magazine articles with some individual body-sculpting poses I want to do, but it’s not enough to put together a whole routine that would up my heart rate and leave me a little worn out by the end.

Anybody have any ideas?  Suggestions?  Good links?

Thanks!

Picking Up the Pieces

As some of you know, I got a job at the beginning of October.

And then I quit.

There are a lot of reasons that it didn’t work out, but the biggest two were that:

1. I was just making enough money to cover childcare, gas, and other expenses, leaving no extra  income for bills.

2. The girls were adjusting very, very poorly to being away from me four days a week.

So now I’m back home, and with a renewed gratitude for the opportunity to be my kids’ mom and the manager of Makeshift Manor.

The computer room is covered in toys and board books.  My kitchen floor is sticky.  And I can’t seem to catch up with my laundry to save my life.  But I’m filled with a sense of hope.  Hope, because I’ll be here tomorrow, and the next day, and the next, surrounded by opportunities to make this a better place for my family.

Incidentally, if any of your know of any weekend job openings in my neck of the woods, please let me know.  I still need that extra money to cover the bills…

Sometimes, I like being told what to do.

The Great Rae Ann has spoken, and I must obey.

Haha! Just kidding!  Rae Ann and I have become a lot closer in the last year, and, as such, some of my little-cousin-fear has given way to a plain ol’ friendship.

But when she emailed me this morning and told me that I HAD to do NaBloPoMo again this year, I decided to go for it, not out of little cousin copy-cat syndrome, but because I really and truly enjoyed the challenge last year, and am excited at the thought of doing it again.

So here we go!  30 days, 30 posts!

Are you ready for this craziness?

Cuz I’m getting excited just thinking about it….

What is our relationship to the police today?

This article was very interesting.  It makes some broad generalizations that I’m sure would be offensive to some, and that are certainly not true of every single civil servant, but it also makes some very valid points.

As our country tip-toes toward becoming a police state, these are things that all of us should be pondering.  Then watch this and this, and check out these as well.  With all the heavy-handed police stories on the news today, we all need to know our rights.

How to Quit World of Warcraft

As some of you already know, it’s over.

It was robbing me of my life, my sleep, my creative energy.  True, I played much less than most WoW addicts probably do – something like 10-15 hours a week – but that was 10-15 hours a week that could have been spent in so many better ways.

I finally got sick of its presence in my life, and I got rid of it, for GOOD.  It’s been several weeks since that fateful night, and, while I occasionally get wistful about tradechat leetspeak, I do not regret my decision in the slightest.

One of the things that makes World of Warcraft such a dangerous game to get into is that it is difficult to truly quit, even if you commit to doing so.

Stop paying for you account?  Your characters are still saved – forever- waiting for you to reactivate it.

Delete your characters?  All you have to do is email Blizzard (WoW’s parent company) in a moment of weakness and ask for your babies back, and they will be restored with all their old gear, etc.  And with the hundreds of hours that you put into those “toons,” it’s a big relief to get them back again!

Oh, but I’ll just play a little bit.  I’ll only play on the weekends, okay?  Oh, and Friday nights, cuz I can stay up late.  Oh, well my guild raids Tuesday and Thursday nights – that’s not a big deal, right?  And then I’ll use the weekends to level my alts!

Suddenly, you’re right back where you started.

So here is a step-by-step guide to quitting World of Warcraft FOR REAL.  Do it while you have the guts, and don’t look back!

1.  Take all your auctions off the Auction House.  Vendor everything, or mail it to a friend.

2. Take everything out of your bank.  Vendor or mail to a friend.

3. Vendor or mail everything in your bags.  Then vendor your bags.

4. I know this one makes you want to throw up, but vendor your gear.  Do it!  The real world misses you!

5. Now you have a bunch of gold, right?  Either mail it all to a friend, or give it away on trade chat to the first person who whispers you.

6. Delete your naked, broke character, and take a moment to cry.

Repeat until all characters have been systematically stripped and destroyed.

Now, I haven’t actually tried emailing Blizzard to get my toons back, but I can’t imagine that they would agree to it.  Because, I mean, come on, if they were that lenient, you could make thousands of gold pretty darn fast that way!  Just liquidate everything on a toon, send it all to a trusted friend, then get it all back from Blizzard and split your profits!

I’m so glad I made this decision, though occasionally I still have pangs of sadness for my dear sweet banker, Jezabella, whom I had dressed in thousands of gold in vanity gear, including the Noble’s Elementium Signet and a Sharpened Letter Opener with +22 intellect.  She was becoming a real economic power on my server!

But you know what?  At the same time, she wasn’t becoming anything.  She was just pixels and bytes.  Because it is JUST. A. GAME.

Good luck, and be brave!  The real world misses you!

P.S.  If you are a WoW Widow, keep all this in mind for those times that you husband says “Oh, yeah, I’ll quit!  See, I’m cancelling my account right now!”  Unless he does everything outlined here, he still has an out, so don’t break down in sobbing “thank you”s just yet!