13. February 2010 by Bex.

I’ve been trying to blog for a few days but not a lot is coming to me.  It’s like everything: I have a lot I want to do, and little energy and motivation to do it.  Cooking, cleaning, stitching, photography, etc.

So here is a general catch-up.

A few weeks ago I brought home a sick rat from the nature center and nursed her back to reasonable health.  I got attached to the damn thing and was going to keep her, but as rats are social creatures, knew I had to get her a cage mate.  So I got her a cage mate and she tried to kill it.  So we picked up the litter mate for the new one and took the nursed one back to work.  I feel horrible but in the end it all worked out.  The now-healthier one is back with her old cage mate and the new one I got has her sister with her.  So now, not really meaning to, I have two new rats.  They are baby Dumbo rats, with the huge ears.  Very cute.  But the house is a step away from officially becoming a petting zoo.  I either need to have a kid or have my uterus removed.

Ash the rat

Samus

At work this week there was another round of layoffs.  That was tough.  I am safe because of how our department is funded but that doesn’t isolate me or my coworkers from the stress around us or the extra work we all have.  So it sucks, but life goes on.  I’ve been thinking of taking some classes in criminal justice to open up other areas where I can work.  Whether or not this is actually going to help me, I have yet to figure out.  But I’m exploring my options and maybe I can do records work in a court house or police station someday.

Ron and I are fighting over using the XBox.  A lot of good games came out in the last few weeks.  We picked up Mass Effect 2, Bioshock 2 and Dante’s Inferno.  If we didn’t have to leave the house for food or work, we’d barricade ourselves inside.  We did manage to get to the gym today and I am about to start cleaning up the house a little….so we aren’t too bad off.  If we stop bathing and start defecating in diapers, call social services.

Mass Effect 2 (Ron’s game)

Bioshock 2 (very sweet)

Dante’s Inferno (very visually appealing and gross)

Other than that, I’m worried about my ex’s daughter.  She’s at a very vulnerable age and is having normal teenage issues on top of other issues.  It’s a recipe for disaster and I’m not sure her parents are aware of how serious it is.  I’m pretty pissed off about it to be honest but don’t want to type too much about it publicly.  All I can do is spend time with her when I can and be an ear for her.  I expect I’ll see her next weekend if my eyeball surgery on Friday goes well.

That leads me to my eyeballs.  I’ve been wearing my glasses for a couple months because I’ve been going through pre-screening and screening for Lasik.  My surgery is the 19th and I’m pretty excited but a little freaked out too.  I guess it takes just minutes so at least it is quick.  What is a little unnerving is having just finished reading A Clockwork Orange, having my eye lids pried open does not appeal to me.

Here’s to hoping they don’t inundate my brain with some kind of programming.  Unless it’s “This Will Make You Wealthy” programming.

That’s about all I can think of right now.  Aren’t I exciting???

Posted in Work, Books, Video Games | 6 Comments »

18. January 2010 by Bex.

I’ve never considered myself a hippie, although I do consider myself “different” then a lot of women.  (Maybe “tomboy” is the correct term considering my love of shooting guns and playing video games.)  I like who I am and don’t see a real need to change, except for any unattractive habits that may come up.  I don’t have a problem with hippies or conservatives or anyone else, as long as they aren’t in the extreme on either side of the spectrum.  But I’ve never considered myself a hippie until lately.

I have been changing our diets slowly but surely to a more organic diet.  We cut down on alcohol and caffeine, we are drinking organic milk and when I can afford to buy more organic food, I do.  I also bought a cast iron skillet finally because it will last longer and doesn’t have Teflon or other non-stick chemicals all over it.  As we run out of household cleaners, I’m replacing them with “green” cleaners.  By the way, all this shit is rather pricey.

Due to the popularity of Facebook, I find myself talking to people from home/high school a lot more then I did when I actually went to school with them.  I can’t believe how many people have some kind of autoimmune disease.  These are people my age - early 30’s.  I’m getting pretty frickin’ paranoid that even though some of the shit I have is inherited, that all the chemicals we grow up eating and breathing can’t be helping.  In fact, I wonder if over the generations all the chemicals in our environment aren’t causing some of this.  Anyone heard of Silent Spring by Rachel Carson?  I did a paper on it in grad school when I was studying integrated pest management.  She realized one spring that the birds weren’t singing as much as they normally did each spring.  Basically through her research she discovered that DDT, a popular pesticide, had made it’s way into our ground water and thus into our food chain.  Certain species of birds were dying because their egg shells were so thin that none of the babies were making past the incubation phase.   Her book and all the controversy that it made led to state legislation all over the nation to ban dangerous pesticides.  And how did she die? Breast cancer; the incidence of which has gone up considerably since WWII when more chemicals began to be regularly dumped into the environment.   Reminds me of Marie Curie and radium in some ways.

No one can eliminate his/her exposure to chemicals completely.  But I have to cringe whenever I see commercials for scented candles and oils and sprays that companies want you to spray around your house.  If your house stinks all the time, clean it.  Quit covering up the stank with chemicals for cripe’s sakes.

On that note then, my resolutions to eat better are going well.  We hardly drink anymore (boo!!!!  beer tastes good dammit), I’ve had fried food once and am eating better overall.  Do I feel better?  Not yet.  I have a feeling that eventually I will.

I leave you with some KC fog shots.  It’s been kinda creepy/romantic outside.  I think I’m ready for April but love that we’ve had snow and fog to change things up around here a bit.

Tschus.

Posted in Blogs, Books, Health | 2 Comments »

27. September 2009 by Bex.

We hit the jackpot this weekend at Game Co.  It’s like Game Stop only more vintage, and they pay a lot more for your games.  We got a nice credit with them and picked up several used games.  I was pretty geeked to find two Evil Dead games on XBox:

I haven’t played A Fistful of Boomstick yet but I did play Regeneration for over an hour today.  It is HILARIOUS.  Ted Raimi does the voice of your midget Deadite sidekick and Bruce does Ash’s voice, of course.  There are a lot of catchy one-liners and general hilarity.  The best part?  You can lock on your enemies and punt the Deadite to attack them.  I love it!    Since having an XBox is relatively new to me, I didn’t pay much attention to these games before.  I now have all the ED games but not all the games with Bruce’s voice.  Which is ok, as I’m not sure how much of a geek I want to allow myself to be.  Here is a link to the games: http://www.bruce-campbell.com/group.asp?grp=49

Crap, I just noticed this as well: http://www.bruce-campbell.com/pilot.asp?pg=action_figure It’s a BC action figure.  Crap….$60?  I may be a geek,  but I’m a cheap geek.  Damn.

The other thing I did this weekend was finish up a book called Shadow of the Wind.  It is one of the best novels I have read since The Historian.  The author, Carlos Ruiz Zafón, writes very descriptively.  The setting is 1940’s and 1950’s Barcelona, set in the aftermath of Spain’s civil war.  It’s a mystery and very well woven.  I’m sure I could have figured out some of the twists and turns if I had let myself think about it, but I really enjoy just letting a story take me along.  I can’t write a good review on it but you can find some great reviews on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Shadow-Wind-Carlos-Ruiz-Zafon/dp/1594200106  Apparently The Angel’s Game is a prequel that just came out in English only a year ago.  I’ll have to grab that up soon.

Long story short, read it.  I was dubious at first but I went from summer beach reading to this book.  You have to get your brain in the right mode to really let the story suck you in.   If you read it, let me know what you think!  I should really join a book club but am too damn lazy.

I also finished another cross stitch but will have to wait to unveil it until after I send it.  I made it for a swap for a photo group I participate in on Flickr called Phat Quarter.  After the recipient receives the piece, I’ll post photos of it.  It’s actually very lovely if I do say so myself!  I also finished an embroidery not long ago that is for a breast cancer awareness challenge on Craftster.  It’s another photograph-to-embroidery piece:

This photo has over 12,000 hit on Flickr, but that’s probably only because my boobs are partially showing.  I hate that pervs are looking at it but the photo has done some good.  I’ve had some people contact me to ask about the reconstructive part of mastectomies.  I personally feel better having talked to someone who has gone through this shit before me, no matter what it is.  So I keep the damn picture up for others to find, in case anyone else has questions.  The contest on Craftster starts in a couple weeks and I’m eager to sumbit this.

Rowdy is shrieking/whining for his supper so I better go.  Dogs do not like to wait for their supper!  Tschus!

Posted in Cross stitch, Needlework, Crafts, Craftster, Bruce Campbell, Photography, Video Games, Books, Flickr, Hobbies | 2 Comments »

12. April 2009 by Bex.

By the way, I finished a new cross stitch today.  It’s a Laugh My Ass Off bookmark!  It’s coming in handy since I have a bunch of new books to read.  Currently reading The Golden Compass and absolutely loving it.  It’s so original and descriptive.  As good as the Harry Potter series.

I hope to read the next two in the series after I finish this one.  Thank goodness for the public library.  Keeps the Amazon.com bills down!

Posted in Books, Hobbies | No Comments »