This story is about something called Radical Honesty

Letting your id out to play now and then is good. Letting your id take over your mouth 24-7? Not so good.

So the average guy (and none too few of the womenfolk) thinks about sex every x number of seconds/minutes. I really do NOT want to have to hear about it from every Tom, Dick, Harry, Jane and Jill.)

And that sums it up - I don't actually *care* about the random id musings of the majority of folks I have to deal with. (There is a short list of exceptions, and you know who you are.) So why in g-d's name would I want to subject myself to even more unwanted knowledge about people I'd rather not deal with anyway?

I'll save my "unfettered honesty" for blog postings. Where others can avoid it if they wish, and where I can avoid theirs (mood depending).

Apparently, too well. Today we experienced the joys of having one's car stolen. No one was *in* said car at the time, nothing irreplaceable was in the car, and the cops found it just a few hours later. Minus, I'm told, many of the parts that make it particularly car-like. (Seats, battery, fender, bumper....)

So I now have a nice blue claim ticket that I get to take to city hall (ok, a building right next to city hall) in 3-5 working days, and they will return to me a vaguely car-shaped pile of metal. And I should be contacted by my insurance claims adjuster tomorrow.

On the upside, I can relax and not worry about driving to work for the near future. Bill and Dom get to play rock/paper/scissors for that tomorrow. Yes, I'm being glass half full girl.... 'cause why not? I work in the toilet section of Newark. Bring you car around there long enough, and your number will come up. So today was my day. Life's like that sometimes. And it's a little refreshing to having a spot of bad luck that just randomly happened, and wasn't in any way due to me bing a ditz.

you want ribbons fast
with printing for your wedding
not gonna happen

three weeks it takes to
get a ribbon order done
you want it friday

but it's my wedding
the customer's always right
give me your boss now

sure crazy lady
go whine at my boss - he'll just
hang up on your plight

no printing this time
you should have made better plans
plain ribbon for you

Lee Iacocca wants to know where all the leaders have gone. Personally, I think we killed and ate them.

I do have a response to one portion of the essay, where he knocks the younger generation for their apathy - and it certanly does exist. Once an official is elected, we are stuck with them. Doesn't matter if you voted for them or not. Hell, it doesn't matter if you even voted. Yes, I DID vote in the last election, and no, I honestly don't feel that it meant a damm.

In the corporate world, if a leader is incompentent, power drunk, or just plain nuts, you can fire them. We've got a president who, I think, is all three. The best we can do is hope like hell that the next one doesn't suck as much. Is it any wonder that the 30 and under demographic doesn't see much point to it all? Votes or no votes, we still have no real power to stop this runaway freight train.

Of course, we can mount a protest.... an excercise in performance art. We can answer the pollsters when they call and register our dissaproval in the ONLY method that modern politicians listen to, but Mr. "follow my instincts" Bush doesn't even pay attention to that.

We've heard a bit lately about how certain governmental employees serve "at the pleasure of the president". Problem is, the president once served at the pleasure of the american people. This is no longer true. (Maybe it was never true.) Our democracy is a fiction. Our leaders care about two things: gaining power, and keeping power. Any positive acts that arise from this are just happy by-products. I can't even remember the last time something stupid came out of Washington (or Trenton) and my reaction was something other than "well duh..... what the hell did you expect them to do?"

The last generation that honestly thought they could make things better were the baby boomers, and they frelled things all to pieces. (More on that some other day) Those of us that came after, raised on a saccherine sweet diet of rose-tinted nostalgia and faded ideals, might know that the emperor is naked, but no one (in power) is listening. But you, Mr. Iacocca, came before them, instead of after. Maybe they'll listen to you.

About a month ago, I had a head cold. This is even so typical for me at this time of year that I paid it no mind. If I *had* been paying it some mind, maybe I would have spent that day running around outside in the wind and cold. That day took an almost finished head cold and mutated it into a sinus infection - an all new expierence for me, and not one I really needed.

But hey, I'm game. These things happen. Two rounds of antibotics and decongestants later, I'm still in pain. Not so much pain as before, but not tip top. So I go back to the doctor. That was Tuesday. I got *new* antibotics and some perscription nose spray. Come Wednesday, I'm feeling a little better. And then thursday hits, and the pain in my sinuses gets replaced by a sharp throbbing pain right above my front teeth. This is close enough to my sinuses (in particular, the lower right side where I'd been having all the problems to begin with) that I chalk it up to stress. (HR thought it was a good idea to tell me that I had to "make up time" because I was out for half the day. At the doctors! I could have called out sick for the entire day and there wouldn't have been a problem, but I thought I'd do the responsible thing. Silly me. Grrr... crush... but that was settled before the day was over.)

Thursday rolls around, and I feel like shit. I figure it's the antibotics kicking my ass as they are wont to do. Bill tries to get me to call out, but no. Far too much work on my desk. Evening comes around and that new sharp pain above my teeth is joined by a nice swollen lump. So today has been two doctor's offices, and yes, I have an abcess. And an appointment with my dentist tomorrow. And Tylenol with codene. Did I mention the amazing sparkley light headed making pain that happens when a doctor pops the abcess?

In all likelihood, this means root canal. Which I'm not looking foward to. on the other hand, I have this massive jones to re-watch Celestial Navagation:

JOSH: What the hell happened?
C.J.: I had woot canaw.
JOSH: What happened to your cheeks?
C.J.: I had woot canaw.
JOSH: Why are you talking like that?
C.J. (louder): I had woot canaw!
JOSH: Yeah, I heard you the first time, I was just amusing myself.
C.J.: I can suggest some othew things you can do wiff yourseff.
JOSH: Are you in pain?
C.J.(shouts): I had woot canaw!
(grabs her jaw with a pained expression)

On Tuesday, I went to the DMV to get my license renewed (now all new, spiffy, and digital.). This meant digging out my passport and several other proofs of residence and identity so that I could be officially tagged by my very protective government. This wasn't so bad.

I say this, because when the announcement came out that the special computer needed to *make* the digital licenses was down, and that the statewide *network* needed to run the machines was down, and the folks on the other side of the counter couldn't say if they (the machine and the network) would be back up in five miniutes or five hours, about two thirds of the people waiting in line (most of whom were in front of me) left amid much grumbling. This meant that about seven miniuts later, when everything came back up, I was able to get processed in jig time. To celebrate, I took Bill out for sushi.

The bad came the Wednesday, when I realized that I'd managed to forget my ATM card at the stinking ATM I hit before dinner. So, quick call to my bank, and the card is cancelled, a new one is in the mail, and seeing as I'm also out of paper checks, a new box of those will be showing up soon too. Not too bad... just that I barely have access to my account for the next few days (branch hours and my work schedule don't quite mesh). This wouldn't have been that bad, I'd just put a cash advance on my credit card to tide me through the weekend. (I am quite the cash-less girl these days, it seems.)

So, not so horrific right? I even had a happy family dinner waiting for me up at the grandparents. Except that... halfway though the drive up to Branchville, I rear ended the guy in front of me. Me? Other than feeling like the *dumbest* creature on the planet for making such a boneheaded mistake, I'm ok. My car, on the other hand, is gone. I am now car-less. This sucks a lot.

The up side? Er... thank god Bill and I carpool to work. And, um.... less gas to buy. But I miss my little Betsy. She was a Blue '92 Prizm. Completely generic, beat up, small, and growing less reliable as the years wore on. But she was 100% *mine*, paid in full in cash back when I actually had the savings to do such a thing. I hate being in debt, even for the best of reasons... looks like car payments are in my future.

This weekend I managed, without any outside asstance, to sprain my ankle. This makes for several weeks of gimping about and me just being crochety, because not only am I a lousy patient, but as this is the FOURTH time I have managed to do this, I should have bloody well known better than to try to work out in sandals.

Hates self....

Every wide eyed new ager and wannabe wiccan wants to get in touch with their past lives. No one ever stops to wonder if you're not back on the planet because your past life was a complete asshole.

In the same vein, your spirit guide? Might just be Gengis Khan.

And that totem animal? A very hungry shark who thinks you are the blue plate special.

Lesson for the day - I need to stay the hell AWAY from the new age part of the bookstore. it's where they grow stupid people.

So today was supposed to be my "get shit done day". Bill was off LARP'ing in the very cold woods, so I had the whole apartment to myself. The morning went off without a hitch. Got up, showered, went to the bank, hit the grocery store (nothing worse than grocery shopping on a saturday morning, but I was lazy this week. Bleah.) went home, cleaned up the house (and it's just so /nice/ when I'm not embarrassed to look at my own living room...), wrapped all my christmas presents, and finished a few new non-computer art pieces. (to be posted soon).

No problems, so I check my mail.... and the net connection has crapped out. No problem, it does this sometimes. (I'm told hooking a router up to the cable modem will help with this problem - eventually I'll get around to it.) I power down the computer, unplug the modem, and wait. Plug the modem back in. Wait some more. Reboot the computer.

Still no connection.

I try to reset my DHCP settings. No go.

So I dive into my last ditch solution, which has always worked up until now... uninstall Norton Security and reinstall. The uninstalling part goes off fine, but reinstalling.... fails miserably. Apparently, Norton 2003 does NOT want to re-install under SP2. Two failed installations later, I still have no net connection, but I am getting CONSTANT reminders from windows that I am now completely unprotected from every bad thing in the world.

My computer feels naked. Not cool.

Finally, I break down and call Optimum Online tech support. And the connection problem isn't actually on my end. They are having issues. Bleah and double bleah. I get off the line with the nice tech and ponder my nervous feeling computer. Looks like we have to upgrade to an SP2 friendly version.

Insert side trip to Comp USA - and some gratuitous hanging out with Bill, who is back from LARP'ing and is working security at the door. I shell out some money, and come home with my spiffy new copy of Norton 2005. It installs perfectly. It also has lots of new features that look quite nice. While attempting to activate the installation (as is becoming a depressingly familiar activity with new software) I find that my 'net connection has come back. Whoohoo!

The full system scan took over an hour. But, it now even finds adware. Spiffy. Die adware, die! (as I delete the quarantined files)

So, all's well that ends well. Time to dive back into drawing. Yay.

Yes, we will send you up to two free proofs on your art or typesetting. After that, we charge for them. No, you really can't sneak one in through the back door by asking for just one more eensy weensy change that you don't need to see before sending the job to press.

If you request a change, you have to see and approve it. No exceptions. If you don't want to pay for extra proofs, get your ducks in a row BEFORE you give me the changes.