Much better today, btw.

Cross-posted from that other blog of mine, with a few additions:

I have my pet peeves and my questions. Why do so many people say ‘ground’ when Jack or whoever is inside, and ‘floor’ when he is outside? (you’d say ‘whoMever’ if ‘him’ would fit in place of Jack) Is this a UK thing? Why, oh, why can’t people get that ‘span’ is reach, not a past tense of spin? ‘The Brooklyn Bridge was constructed to span the East River between the boroughs of Manhattan and Brooklyn.’ ‘Jack spun around quickly.’ That is, without doubt, my biggest pet peeve.

Point here is, I keep reading ‘bored of’ instead of ‘bored with’, which has always been common usage as far as I know. Lo and behold, I decided to google, “when did ‘bored with’ become ‘bored of’.”. (Yes, I suck at punctuation.) Didn’t actually know you could phrase things that way in a search, but did it ever work. Here’s the first result:

From here: http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/words/bored-by-of-or-with

“Bored by, of, or with?

Which of these expressions should you use: is one of them less acceptable than the others?

Do you ever get bored with eating out all the time?

Delegates were bored by the lectures.

He grew bored of his day job.

The first two constructions, bored with and bored by, are the standard ones. The third, bored of, is more recent than the other two and it’s become extremely common. In fact, the Oxford English Corpus contains almost twice as many instances of bored of than bored by. It represents a perfectly logical development of the language, and was probably formed on the pattern of expressions such as tired of or weary of. Nevertheless, some people dislike it and it’s not fully accepted in standard English. It’s best to avoid using it in formal writing.”

It’s not as jarring as ‘span’ instead of ‘spun’, but the point really is, I love google. I love that I can come up with a very crudely-fashioned search question, and it gets answered regardless of my lack of skill with the English language. And yes, English is my first, and unfortunately only, language, and I’m still not very good at it. 🙂 Although, I can say ‘maisonnette’ which I just learned my one-bedroom, teeny kitchen box is called in England. Also, ‘croissant’. Hey, people, I speak French. 😉 Oh, ‘cafe au lait’, you all.

Here’s a good resource, if you’re not sure about a word:

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/

I look things up all the time. I’m especially bad with apostrophes, as in it’s, its, or its’, and I’m always having to go back and check. Don’t you just love words and language and grammar and punctuation and all that jazz? Could it be more confusing? Possibly, but then I’d have to give up speaking all together. Which I also just looked up, and it’s correct usage is ‘altogether’. Who knew?

Also, ‘Jack and I went chasing weevils’ NOT ‘Jack and me went chasing weevils’. ‘He told Jack and me about another weevil.’, NOT ‘He told Jack and I about another weevil.’ Take out the ‘Jack and’ and that’s how you know if it’s ‘me’ or ‘I’.

Enamoured of, or enamoured with? From the Oxford dictionaries site:

If you’re crazy about ferrets, you’re enamored of them.

It is less common but still acceptable to say “enamored with.”

But if you say you are enamored by ferrets, you’re saying that ferrets are crazy about you.

This stuff is addictive. Or I’m just in a good mood today. Or both.

You get two choices about today’s post. They both made me laugh, so….(I think it’s four dots)

OR

I am having so much fun with this post. Done now.
Pictures are from cartoonstock.com and Dilbert

But, god, you know what’s worse? People actually voted, and keep voting them into office. What does that say about us?

On another note of miserableness, having a major pain day. Even my fingers hurt. And my toes. IDEK what that’s about. For future reference, people, Tylenol sucks for pain. I took three. Nothing. No effect at all. Why do I keep taking it? Morons R Us. (Oh! See previous paragraph.) The thing is, if you eat a good amount of food when taking it, it theoretically won’t give you ulcers. Ibuprofen, which does work, has no such fail-safe. Apparently it can cause strokes and heart attacks. Major pain or dead. What a choice. I love American medicine. Really, I do. God forbid you should give me the good drugs. You’re not the ones in pain. I am just a big bundle of joy today. Sorry.

“Why no, I did not have time to put the baby in her crib. I did, however, find time to dig out the ear muffs so the gunfire would not deafen her.”

Was reading a blog I follow when the person mentioned an article upon which said person commented, and the comment was deleted. Here’s the article:

The Evolution of
Gwen Cooper

So of course I had to go check it out, and now find myself in a bit of a flame war with the author. Hey, I try to be nice, but sometimes it’s just so hard. Anyway, it’s making me laugh a lot. Just thought I’d throw that out there. Laughing is good, people.

Also, my homemaker is back after two weeks. Yay.

I have been filling out my Peapod order on my Nexus 7.  Buying lots of salad things and will get my homemaker to help me get them user-ready.  I’ve been getting premade salads, but they can be expensive.  Also getting power bars for breakfast, as I am not up to doing any food prep first thing.  Open box, eat contents is my usual thing.  I’ve even made a full pot of coffee sometimes and kept it in the frig to either have it cold or nuke a mugfull.  The simpler the better works for my screwed-up life.  Fooducated a few things to make sure I wasn’t just buying sugar in disguise, too.

I love, love, love this Nexus 7.  I started with Kindle Fire, but hardly used it.  It is heavy, clunky, and doesn’t even work well all the time.  So happy I went with Google.  I know they really are evil, in spite of their motto, but they do put out some good stuff.  I cannot imagine what the new Amazon Fire phone is like, but I’m not even going to research it.  I love Amazon for shopping, and I love my Kindle Reader, but Fire is a no.

So anyway, I decide to do a little post about it.  Once I figured out how to post from the Nexus, I clicked the ‘new post’ thingy, and it opened the page with a little swirly bloop bloop.  So laughing now.

Republican Rep. David Jolly (Fla.) announces support for gay marriage – The Washington Post.

This is the kind of thing I’d like there to be more of, instead of just item after item about how stupid my species is. Also, the picture!!!!

Tree of 40 Fruit

I mean, seriously, what is the point of killing a bunch of people you don’t know, who are not out to get you, who are just minding their own business. What does this say about you and your so-called ’cause’? I could tell you what it says to me about you, but I don’t want to use that kind of language here. God, sometimes I am just disgusted to be a member of my own species.

Are there any? I have to admit, I have been feeling abandoned. Not by any readers out there, but by just everyone in general. Depression. It lives. Partly because the last Prednisone decrease brought back all the pain and un-mobility, and it is taking some time to overcome it, even though I went back to the previous dose two weeks ago. But also, because generally speaking, I really am somewhat better and not in such a fog and miasma of pain and misery, and that just makes me realize that while I was really, really non-functional, my life disappeared. I have virtually no one left who even cares if I’m dead or alive. Not totally, but mostly, everyone has just forgotten me. Or just written me off as a – lost, too much bother, not worth the effort – used to be. Feeling sorry for myself? No one else does, so who else is there? LOL Life is really, really hard sometimes, when you are sick and live alone and really have no one who sort of HAS to be there for you. You know how they say, “Home is where, when you have to go there, they have to take you in”? I have no home in that respect. At the very worst, when no one even calls to even see if I’m still alive, (One person, does. I do have one person, thank the gods for that, but not family, not friends I’ve had forever), I start to think of ways to just let it stop. Not make it stop. I don’t think I could ever go that far, but maybe just stop doing this or that that keeps me going. You know? Maybe it’s just that I’m dying of loneliness. I kind of manage to repress that most of the time, but every few years, it just hits me in the face that I am well and truly alone. I am generally very good at repressing. I am a fighter. I hate to give in, so I have learned over time to just bury all the feelings. Lately, I keep remembering something someone once said, “Oh, let’s all feel sorry for (me, it was me they were referring to)”. And now it hurts. It hurt then, but now it is in the forefront of my thoughts, for some reason. I have been dropped as a friend for being ‘too needy’, so I avoid reaching out at all costs. Avoid asking for help unless there is just no other alternative. I don’t want anyone to feel sorry for me, I am not pitiful. I am just alone. Virtually all of the time. I have three hours a week of a homemaker, and one friend who comes over now and then. That’s my life. I know, this is just Jean being whiny again. No need to bother. But it does help to write it down, even with a keyboard. Sorry, readers. Go back to whatever else you were doing. It’s all fine.

I just watched what I thought was a helpful video on different virus scanners here:

Free Virus Scanners Accuracy Compared

I was amazed, as I frequently am, at the comments. People complaining that it is a video and _their_ time is waaay too precious to waste watching it, why didn’t the author do an article, etc., etc., etc., and it degenerated into insult slinging and name calling. Geez, the guy sits down to do something helpful for people who may not have this info, and the result is getting reamed out for his delivery method. I see this all the time. If you don’t like videos, google for some other way to get similar info. What is wrong with people? Where is the ‘Thanks. I learned something.’ or ‘This info was helpful.’ or you know, something not mean, nasty and full of vitriol?
I’d think twice about putting out any info in future, and therefore, a source for those of us who _don’t_ already know everything about everything would be gone.
Sometimes, people, I. Just. Don’t. Know.

And he really rocks it. I love his voice.

Rain, but not really:

I know. I’m tired today, and my legs hurt from the stairs, so here I sit reading blogs and such.

You know by now I am against consolidation of companies into fewer and fewer owners. Here’s a thing I found about that. The comments are good, too. Who owns what

Remember back on June 22 I posted about my Roku and its earbuds? A couple of days ago, I got up at 7am after having had two hours sleep. Why? Only the illness gods know why I would be wide awake after two hours sleep. So as I’m sitting there, thinking that since I’m awake I might actually stand up and move, I noticed the Roku box on the shelf under the coffee table. (I slept on the couch. I don’t have a coffee table in the bedroom. Seriously, dumb, not crazy. Well…)

Anyway, it says right on the box that the earbuds plug into the remote. Well, duh! Idiot Jean is an idiot, on more days than you might think. Gave myself a good laugh, anyway.

Forget where I found this article. Sorry about that.

Burger King, hate, logic article

Sometimes it just blows my mind, the arguments supporting the hatred, bigotry and homophobia some people live in. Logic trumps. It’s a good thing. I’ve said this before, yes, but worth saying again: The NEW Testament TRUMPS and CANCELS the OLD Testament. Fundamentalists and religious bigots and fanatics choose to ignore that fact to give themselves permission to shore up their shaky senses of self-worth by hating, denigrating, and persecuting others they perceive as different. If they weren’t so dangerous, we would all be going, ‘Oh, poor babies. Feeling bad about yourselves? What a shame.” Can’t we just make them all go and stand in the corner for several millennia?

Here’s an example of a better way:

The way to do an apology

Here:

Had an excellent day. Went out with my friend Tess. Second time
we’ve gone out in less than a month, and both times, the elevator was
borked. Down and up stairs, not something I can usually manage, but did
both times. Also got to go visit her husband and their dog. They have
the best dog ever. Doesn’t bark, even though she can, doesn’t make
messes, cute. Anyway, last time I did the stairs there were no
unpleasant (for unpleasant, read ‘ow, ow, ow’) after effects, so hoping
for the same this time. I really do seem to be getting better. Doing
all the superstitious things to not jinx myself. Not really, but… As
Gibbs’ boss said on NCIS, when asked by Gibbs if he is superstitious,
“I’m a little stitious.” One of my favorite lines ever.

Just took a quiz I found on Tumblr, from here:

political quiz

My results are below. The interesting thing is, to me anyway, I am
NOT affluent (I’m actually well below the poverty line) or highly
educated (high school, no college, to my regret), nor am I at all
optimistic about the nation’s future. The more we allow religious right
conservative bigoted racist homophobic assholes into office, and let
corporations and the obscenely wealthy determine our policy, home and
abroad, the worse off we are going to be. I am not at all hopeful for the future of my country.

Did I mention that the last time I saw my ‘doctor’, she literally bullied me into accepting a scrip for a statin that I did not want and do not believe I need? The side effects are a lot of things I already have wrong, and I’m going to make them worse on purpose? Seriously, she used up most of my appointment time telling me ‘what a high risk I am for a heart attack, my risk is 30% over the next ten years, I’m the highest risk patient she’s seen this week, etc’. My heart is fine, and if she’d looked at my medical records, she would have known that. I finally gave in, because I wanted to ask her a question about pain meds, but when I began, she checked her watched and told me if I had any questions, I had to make another appointment. Thus ‘doctor’ in quotes. Anyway…

The drug she insisted I take is a statin. I have mildly elevated cholesterol. Yes, I am overweight, but I have never been thin, and I have had a chronic, debilitating illness for seventeen years, with about seven months last year being virtually bed-ridden and/or housebound. Nurse told me my metabolism was so slow as to be nearly non-existent. Inactivity does not really help with being thin, even though I don’t eat a lot. Really, I am not making that up. Also, now that I am doing much better with the extra supplements I’m taking, I am a lot more active than I have been in years, and actually lost five pounds this past two weeks. Yay, me. So today I came across this article:

http://www.badscience.net/2014/06/what-statins-tell-us-about-the-mess-in-evidence-based-medicine/

I am seeing a new doctor in September. Keeping my fingers crossed she’s a real doctor this time.

While googling an image to go with this post, I came across this article:

Signs of a Bad Doctor

OR…next time you stop at Mickey D’s. Found it here:

http://www.weightymatters.ca/