Love or hate Dan (and I love him) you have to give him props for waking up xanga from it’s usual Saturday stupor. His post with photos of shaving razors was actually quite educational for me. I had no idea what TWLOHA was about, nor that a picture of a disposable razor could be controversial. He got a huge conversation started on what’s usually a dead night and I, for one, had my awareness raised.

All this talk of triggers. Who knew? Not I, but a lot of very passionate people who maybe struggle just a tiny bit with anger. That’s just speculation on my part, but the tone of the counter posts I saw was in the neighborhood of screaming fits of rage. Oh goody, another round of public unsubbing. Nobody. Cares. Seriously, do you announce to the world when you sub a site? No, because you know nobody cares who you sub. So why would we care when you unsub? The fact is, you’ve been played and you’ve reacted exactly as expected by a master of manipulation.

Then, as also expected, came the sarcastic “trigger posts” poking fun at all the people who were upset about the original post. All part of the manipulation, too, but at least the people writing them knew they were playing their assigned roles. Trigger this and trigger that and photos of gun triggers and on one of them I linked a picture of this horse…


…and got a “huh?” response. Come on, people! It’s Trigger! You know, Roy Rogers’ horse. No, not Mr. Rogers, he had a trolley. Roy Rogers, Dale Evans, “Happy trails to you, until we meet again…”???


The response? “Generation gaaaaaap!” Sigh.

Does anyone out there read the Xanth books? The Gap Chasm runs across the width of Xanth and used to have a powerful memory spell on it so nobody knew it was there. It was how Xanth defended itself against invading hordes of Mundanes. Until the spell was detonated, leaving randomly floating “forget whorls” to catch the unwary traveler and cause them to forget where they’re going and why.

I’ve been reading those books since I was about 19 years old and I’m finally catching on to the analogy of forget whorls to life. Why is it I can instantly come up with the name of a long gone singing cowboy’s horse, but I can’t remember why I’m staring into the refrigerator? Ohhh, I get it. Somehow, it’s less scary to think of it as an outside, randomly occurring force instead of a sign of passing the halfway mark of my life expectancy. That’s a nice way of saying I’m closer to being old than I am to my youth. And that’s okay; age has it’s compensations. Or so I’ve been told. I’ll blog about it if I ever trip over them. It will keep me occupied as I recover from the broken hip.

Dear Dan,

Your post last night crossed the line and triggered an urge in me to read bad fantasy novels filled with badder puns. It also made me feel old and caused me to forget why I was standing in the kitchen. I’m pretty sure it’s responsible for the recession, the stupid Ford commercials and the rain that blew in last night. It wasn’t raining before you wrote that post, after all. And if the Colts lose tonight, I’ll be sure to blame you and your triggers because they didn’t lose any games before you wrote that post. I wouldn't be surprised if that post of yours has started a chain of events which will end in all the major tourist spots in the world falling down and bad disaster movies making lots of money. It’s all your fault for posting a picture of somebody shaving. I hope you’re proud of yourself.

Love and kisses, Vi

P.S. I remembered - ice cream! Breyer’s Mint Chocolate Chip. All is right with the world now. Dan is off the hook.

Another life update, not because I have nothing else to say, but because I want to spend more time on what I’ve started and choose my words carefully.

October was miserable; wet, cold and gloomy. November has been the glorious weather we usually get in October. Sunny days, blue skies, mild (for us) temperatures. It’s made it very difficult to spend my days painting the kitchen and, in point of fact, I haven’t spent as many doing that as I should. All I have left to do is the bottom of the walls. I’ve done a couple of small sections of wall, but got discouraged. I’m not a good painter for one thing. And then the only painters tape I could get at the village hardware store allowed the wet paint to bleed and pulled chips of the dry paint off with it when I peeled the tape from the walls. Hence my public service announcement the other day. I’ve taken the past couple of days off, but need to get back to painting this morning.

Brett and I are probably going to see The Men Who Stare At Goats this afternoon. I’ve heard it’s funny. We haven’t been to a movie in months. And speaking of movies, I can’t decide whether to get the new Star Trek DVD for Brett for Christmas, or just buy it and watch it. Maybe we’ll watch it, then I’ll wrap it and give it to him for Christmas. That could work!

The news from Texas regarding our nephew is not good and much prayer is needed. A miracle is needed. His situation has consumed me the past few days and I’ve been a bit of a wreck. Writing has been difficult. I will just apologize now for the bipolar nature of my posts, both past and future. They reflect the chaotic state of my emotions. Be patient with me; I’ll settle down eventually. Maybe.

I went to the nearest Barnes and Noble yesterday, which happens to be in South Bend, Indiana. I called a friend and met her and her adorable son, Samuel, for a couple of hours catching up. Next time I go to South Bend I’m getting Samuel that “Yightning McQueen” toy flip phone from the Disney Store. Just because I love how he says “Yightning McQueen.” And because he’s pretty much irresistible. Next time I go to South Bend, I’d also like to meet my xanga friend who lives there. Maybe for a bit of geocaching. Maybe we should plan to go down there while this glorious October weather holds.

While I was in Barnes and Noble, I found a really funny book. I’m thinking about a contest sometime after Thanksgiving and the book will be the prize. I have to read it first, you know. I’ll be careful not to break the binding. The contest will have something to do with zombies. And Christmas. It’s still in the development phase.

It’s after 10 AM and I still need to shower and get dressed so I can start painting. Really, painting is not good incentive at all to get moving on a Saturday morning. I hope the rest of you are doing something much more fun today.

ETA: The goat movie was.... bizarre. Funny, but weird. Brett says we'll watch the Star Trek DVD and I can get him Iron Man for Christmas. I like how the man thinks.