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Saturday, November 11, 2006 - 18:52:48
Friday, November 10, 2006 - 23:10:51
I've been trying hard to keep up with the whole
NABLOPOMO spirit, but tonight? I got nothing. Too tired, too worn out from a week down with Stupid Mystery Fever
(hey, if the doctors can't identify it, I get to name it whatever I want, right?). So, I tell you what: You can either head over to
my house, where I'm complaining about the
obviously tampered-with results of the SpongeBob SquarePants Top 100 Episodes countdown
(YES, my life has come to this), OR, you can do yourself a favor and go make the acquaintence of
Matthew Baldwin at Defective Yeti, instead. Laugh and learn along with him as he reads and reports his way through an adventure with the great American novel,
Moby Dick, during the month of November, and treat yourself to some gut-busting moments as you eavesdrop on him in various social situations via his
"Conversations" archive. It's priceless stuff, I'm telling you.
So there, even though I had nothing of my own to give, I still
gave. That's just how I roll.
Thursday, November 09, 2006 - 11:30:48
Oh, come on, you know you do, you big ol' softie. Having been involved in
C.A.R.E.'s
(Central Arkansas Rescue Effort) foster system for a number of years
(hey, we all work with our strengths, and while the prospect of case-working, or screening homes, gave me the shudders, nursing pitiful critters until they were ready for "forever homes" was somehow a perfect fit for me)* , I can personally attest to the amazing amount of hard work they do, and have done, over the years. It's a truly inspirational story, how this brainchild of one soft-hearted human has blossomed into the powerful rescue organization it is today--they even own their own mobile spay/neuter clinic now, where they provide free sterilizations for the pets of low-income families! So get yourself to the River Market ArtSpace Friday night, and buy some art and save some lives! Also, if you even THINK you have a talent that could go to good use, or a temporary warm bed and warm heart for some less-fortunate furry friend, go to
CARE's website and check out all the opportunities they have to offer. You won't be sorry. Maybe you'll even find a four-legged companion who needs YOU, for life. Seriously, PLEASE:
Visit the website. There are SO many ways you can help.
Here's the press release about Friday's special event:
River Market ArtSpace, a gallery located on President Clinton Boulevard, has honored CARE by selecting it as the beneficiary of a percentage of its sales on its next "Second Friday Art Night" -- which is this Friday, November 10, 5:00PM to 8:00PM. CARE will get a percentage of the sales made during the 5 pm - 8pm time period. This is a great way to get out and do some early Holiday Shopping and benefit CARE at the same time. We hope to see you there!For more info, see: http://rivermarketartspace.com/ (and click on PROCEEDS NIGHTS)http://www.2ndfridayartnight.com/Your Friends at CARE*I should also not be allowed to personally pull dogs from the shelter. EVER. I did it once, and came home not only with the one I was authorized by hubby
(and CARE) to foster, but an "extra." A beautiful little white toy poodle who I immediately christened "Pearl." Aside from my just coming home with one more dog than I'd agreed to, the naming of the "pitiful" one was a marital struggle. See, Pearl was blind, and had a long-term crushed leg. She was also over 10 years old, and toothless. I have NO idea how she'd survived any time at all on the streets, but that's where she'd been picked up, and where she had obviously been for some time. We got her healthy enough for surgery, at which time she was spayed, and her leg amputated. The stress of the surgery triggered Addison's Disease
(ALWAYS HAVE I.V. FLUIDS RUN DURING ANY SURGICAL PROCEDURE ON YOUR PETS--ALWAYS. NO MATTER WHAT YOUR VET SAYS. JUST DO IT), for which she was medicated the rest of her life, and soon her atrophied left eye
literally fell out. Alex always wanted to call her "Lucky."
Anyway, Pearl wound up living out her remaining years of life with us, since 3-legged, one-eyed, toothless elderly dogs with Addison's disease don't really scream, "ADOPT ME!" She was happy, healthy as could be expected, and got around surprisingly well, even managing vigorous wagging of her nearly-nonexistent stump of a tail. And for a while, at least, she was loved. I thank the friends, both far and near, who donated to the vet clinic on behalf of Pearl for her many medical expenses.
Give it a try. You won't be sorry.
Belinda also blogs from her home base on the Internet, "NINJA POODLES!" Expect chaos. During the month of November, expect it daily, thanks to the madness that is NABLOPOMO.
Wednesday, November 08, 2006 - 11:02:42
...or are the birds singing just little prettier today, the colors brighter, and the laughter of children sunnier?
And this from someone who's been really sick, and didn't even read any news until late this evening. It was just...in the air, I guess.
Tuesday, November 07, 2006 - 19:34:16
In which I once again learn something new, and feel the need to share it.
We picked up some prescriptions at our local Walgreen's pharmacy today. And here is where you learn something slightly freakish about me. I am a compulsive pill-counter. I wasn't always this way, but some years ago, when I was having my prescriptions filled elsewhere, I had a recurring problem with being shorted on my prescriptions, where pills were involved. In other words, the number in the bottle did not match the number on the label. This was happening, at the time, with narcotics. And so it was that I began the counting of pills in any new prescription.
So today, my husband picked up some medicine for me, and brought it hom. He took my two items out of the bag, and tossed them to me...one bottle of Nasonex nasal spray, and a bottle of
(notably NON-narcotic) pills for a stomach ailment. Of course, I immediately opened and counted these, checking for the "30" pills that were noted on the bottle's label. I counted 27. Counted again, with Bella's assistance, and still...27. Called the pharmacy, where I was informed by a tech that they were "like, really swamped right now," but that I could call back around 8:00 a.m. tomorrow and speak with a pharmacist, who would assist me in this problem.
The tech also let it slip that, nowadays, instead of actually COUNTING your pills when they fill your prescriptions, they just pour them onto a special electronic scale, set for the particular pill you're receiving, and plug in the amount that your prescribed number of pills
should weigh, and when the numbers match up, they fill your bottle. She also admitted that "sometimes the scales are a little off."
I have to wonder how often this happens. If this is really how it's done nowadays, I'd guess pretty darned often. Back 15 years ago or so, when I worked as a pharmacy technician in a couple of hospitals, pills were counted. Counted. By actual human beings. And then they were counted again. The pharmacists had these nifty little trays, upon which they'd pour a pile of pills from the bulk bottle, and the simultaneously count and scrape the pills into a little "trough" on the side of the tray. Once counted, the top of the trough was closed, forming a kind of funnel, from which the pills were poured into the prescription bottle.
But now we have technology. And, apparently, mistakes. So, as a public service announcement from me to you, COUNT YOUR PILLS before leaving the pharmacy. They might just "weigh" different than they "count."
Monday, November 06, 2006 - 20:47:50
Got your attention? Good. I knew it was bad. I mean, I knew there were a LOT of women who were not voting. But until
this campaign came along, I didn't know how bad it WAS. Got you wondering, now? TWENTY MILLION SINGLE WOMEN did not vote in the last presidential election. It's the "single," as in "unmarried," part that's baffling, to me. If unmarried women had voted at the same rate as married women, over SIX MILLION MORE VOTERS would have gone to the polls in 2004. I
weep for what might have been. I also did not anticipate learning that those women make up the single largest group of non-voters in the country. Do your part, and get the word out. Email this
30-second PSA to everyone you know. If you have a website or blog, post this button,
which links back to the
"Women's Voices. Women Vote." website and
PSAs. Because, seriously, gals:
You have the power to change the world. All you have to do is USE it.
And pass it on, wouldja?
Belinda also blogs from her home base on the Internet, NINJA POODLES! Expect chaos. During the month of November, expect it daily, thanks to NABLOPOMO.
Sunday, November 05, 2006 - 22:35:37
I have, previously, on my
other site,
raved about the brilliant Lisa Stone, who I first encountered in her role as co-founder of the amazing effort that is
BlogHer.org. A couple of weeks ago, she wrote a piece there that I found absolutely perfect in its simplicity and cut-to-the-chase attitude. I don't think she'll mind if I just go ahead and reprint it here in its entirety
(Lisa's article in color). To read follow-up comments, you can find the original article
here. Do yourself a favor, and meet
Lisa Stone:
Dear women of the Internet:
We need to have a talk. There's a reality of online life that some of us are suffering through by ourselves, a completely normal but painful experience that every woman I've ever met who goes online has had -- and that plenty of men have had too.
I'm talking about the lovely experience of encountering Internet trolls. And for me, it all boils down to this...
Sometimes people are mean in this virtual Web world. Really mean.
And it's my opinion that there's only one solution: Ignore them.
That's the most powerful thing you can do.
I'm saying shun them, like the Amish, as a friend recently recommended to me via email. This is our virtual world -- we created it. The most powerful thing we can do when we encounter a person who is abusive online is to refuse to acknowledge them. Deprived of the spotlight, their own hateful little lights will blink out.
Buh-bye!
Don't link them, don't talk about them, don't read them. As far as we're concerned, they don't exist. And amongst ourselves, I think it's time to bring the issue out of the closet, demystify it, circle our wagons and learn to roll our eyes about it together, even laugh at it. Who cares?
I can imagine some of your faces -- you're thinking that I don't understand. You're wrong. I already know how hard it is and I do understand. Believez-moi.
If you're lucky, you may not yet have learned that people exist who will use the Internet to come to our blogs or sites and belittle us, call our names and poke fun at us, our beliefs, our races, our religions, the fact that we are women or men or other, perhaps even our kids or our dogs or our sans-serif fonts, for crying out loud. In fact, if we have the nerve to be female, especially someone who is not white, we will attract more mean, hate-filled people than folks who are not female and white. Some of these people even (inexplicably) have enough time and interest in us to start their own blogs and sites to showcase their abuse of us.
Ridiculous, isn't it? You may wonder to yourself, how is it that there can be a war on in Iraq, children starving on the streets of every nation on this rock and the unfolding horror that is Darfur -- and some people have time to spend hours bullying other people online?
Here's how: It's not about us. It's about them. That's why ignoring trolls works.
Please read that last sentence again? Now print it, cut it out, chew it up and swallow it. This is my mantra: It's. Not. About. Me. That's why I refuse to play.
Here's a little perspective that helped me: As Timothy Campbell, who wrote this great article for AOL users in 2001, said: "Trolls crave attention, and they care not whether it is positive or negative. They see the Internet as a mirror into which they can gaze in narcissistic rapture. If you want a deeper analysis than that, perhaps a psychologist can shed some additional light on the matter."
In order to take our revenge, our best bet is "don't respond, don't interact and don't engage," recommends the UK National Workplace Bullying Advice Line:
"Many serial bullies are also serial attention-seekers. More than anything else they want attention. It doesn't matter what type of attention they get, positive or negative, as long as they can provoke someone into paying them attention. It's like a 2-year-old child throwing a tantrum to get attention from a parent. The best way to treat bullies is to refuse to respond and to refuse to engage them - which they really hate. In other words, do not reply to their postings, and on forums carry on posting without reference to their postings as if they didn't exist. In other words, treat nobodies as nobodies."
Gina Trapani of Lifehacker puts it yet another way:
"But when YOU are the target of an insulting post or sharply-worded email, quite frankly, it can really suck. Today I've got some strategies for dealing with Internet Meanies: those faceless virtual bullies who take pleasure in shooting other people down from the safety of their keyboards....It's easy to take out frustrations on someone online because they don't quite feel real. Talking smack puts people in a position of power, one they want to be in because they feel small and weak in other areas of their lives. The key words here are "small" and "weak." "
Today, fortunately, the law and corporate policies have evolved to the point where we can take action in certain circumstances. Specifically:
Currently there are 45 cyberstalking (and related) U.S. federal and state laws on the books, as well as laws in U.K. and India. Read about them here at Jayne Hitchcock's site, Working to Halt Online Abuse (WHOA): http://www.haltabuse.org/resources/laws/index.shtml
If you need information on child-related laws, WHOA suggests you visit Safetyed
Get their IP addresses from your logs and ban them from your blog. That's what Jenna Hatfield did. She writes:
"what do you do when mocking, name-calling, insulting, ignoring and cussing don’t work? What do you do when you’ve got a persistent little bugger that annoys the bejeebus out of you, sucks up your bandwidth, steals photos and takes things out of context to their own personal spaces? I wasn’t sure this morning. I now know how!"
Check out Jenna's post to ban IP addresses if you host your own site. Here's how to ban an IP address on: Typepad, WordPress (Update: see Sassy's comments below about taking care with this host), Movable Type and Blogger (I don't know for certain about this last link, but it's the best I could find)
So - there you have it. That's my approach to online life.
What do you think?
Image credit: Family Living, Hatfield Style
Lisa Stone
BlogHer Co-founder
Surfette
