Jul
02

I know I’ve said it a million times before (and I’ll probably say it at least another million times in the future) but I’m going to say it again:

I often want to write but have no idea what I want to write about.  Sometimes the urge to write is so strong, but I end up getting frustrated because I feel empty of ideas.

And I don’t just mean in relation to blogging.  I mean all the time, in my blog, in my journal, in letters, or just writing for the sake of writing.

Does that happen to any of you guys?  Does it frustrate you like it frustrates me?

I love writing.  I haven’t always loved writing, but at some point in high school I developed this love for writing, writing anything: taking notes in class, English assignments, writing notes, poetry (I used to write a lot of poetry)… I never really cared for it before and when it hit me it really hit me.

Is this writer’s block?  I hear people all the time say that writer’s block isn’t real, but if it isn’t real then what is this?  What is this nearly overwhelming desire to write with nothing coming to mind if it’s not writer’s block?

Jul
01

I don’t understand ‘getting paid to blog’.  How does that work?’

Kat over at Tough Girl 101 posted a blog yesterday about how she gets paid to blog, called Can You Make It As A Paid Blogger? I answered that I didn’t quite understand the mechanics of it, but I wanted to make a blog out of my response anyway to see what you all think about it.

I’m not against getting paid to blog.  On the contrary, I would love to get paid for it.  But at the same time, I think it would lose it’s attraction if I felt I was obligated to do it.  Blogging is something I simply love to do.  But if I were to feel obligated to do it, it occurs to me that I might not want to do it anymore.  That maybe getting paid for it won’t be as fun as just doing it for me?

I mean… who pays you?  How do you claim that on your taxes?  Do you consider yourself to be self-employed?  And what do you blog about to get money?  Do you have to blog about specific things?  I’m sure I can’t get paid to blog about how I sit at my computer every morning before work and debate over whether or not I have time to play WoW, or about the enormous amount of ice cream I ingest on a weekly basis while I watch TV shows with my sister.  I’m just sayin’.  I think there’s only so much out there to get paid for blogging about, isn’t there?  I don’t know a whole lot about any one specific topic (except for Star Wars), not enough to blog about anyway (except for Star Wars lol).

So can someone explain to me how it works, this blogging for dollars thing?  And what do you think about it?

Jun
30

I miss Walter.

There has been a lot of comment spam sneaking it’s sneaky way through my spam filter lately.  I get all excited because I have 10 new comments instead of 3, only to find that the extra 7 are spam.  And it makes me sad.  Stupid spam.

I have a few new books, but I don’t really feel like reading them.  I’m too sad about not having any more Harry Potter books left.  I really love the Harry Potter universe and I’m kind of stuck there for the time being.  So while I do have books on my bookshelf that I haven’t read yet, I just don’t feel like reading anything new.  In fact, I might read The Deathly Hallows again, because it was that good and I want to make sure I didn’t miss anything.  You know, since I was dead tired when I forced myself to stay up until 3:30am to finish the book.

I don’t have any pictures to insert into this blog to make it pretty.

Aside from Dr. Quinn, I’ve been watching Legend Of The Seeker on Hulu.  Has anyone seen that show?  Has anyone read the book it’s based off of (Wizard’s First Rule by Terry Goodkind)?  It’s not a bad show, but it’s nothing like the book.  There’s too much extra stuff in the show that’s just WRONG.  If you’ve read the books and haven’t seen the show, I don’t recommend that you watch it.  Ever.  If you’ve never read the books but you’re looking for something to watch, go ahead.  It’s entertaining.

OK, so Mike just told me to blog about babies.  lolz.  I don’t know what to say about them except that I WANT ONE.  I love babies.  I want to get married and have babies.

And lastly, in this blog of random crap you’re being fed today, I need to announce that today I listened to something other than Wizard Rock for the first time in about a month.

PS  -  I love cheese.

Jun
29

My weekend activities consisted of the following:

  • playing WoW
  • finishing Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows
  • watching Dr. Quinn with Sarah
  • dinner at my mom’s
  • eating ice cream (surprised?  :D)
  • hanging out with Alli
  • my nephew being sick

And you know what?  The sun came out today.  It’s out.  Google says SHOWERS ALL DAY! but the sky is saying something very different and I like it (not Google lying, the sun actually coming out).  It’s about 76°, sunny and humid and I’m loving it!

Even though it’s business casual at work today.

So yeah.  I played WoW for most of the day on Saturday.  I got from level 14 to level 20 (go me!).  Poor John was sick all day, feverish and throwing up.  Sarah couldn’t get her computer to connect to the Interwebz so she couldn’t play WoW for most of the day.  But she eventually figured it out.  And John was feeling much better by Sunday morning.

Sarah and I have been watching my Dr. Quinn DVDs, and as we watch I’m remembering parts of every episode.  It’s fun.  There are episodes in the later seasons that I haven’t seen, so I can’t wait to watch those either.

All-in-all I like how Harry Potter ended.  It was a marvelous ending to an incredible story.  I stayed up until 3:30 in the morning Saturday night to finish it, and I must say that I cried about Fred Weasley.  I actually cried twice reading the last book.  There was probably at least one point in each of the last three books that I cried.  I’m in love with the series.  Every book.  I’m sad it’s over, but it ended perfectly.  I can’t wait for Half-Blood Prince to come out in theatres.

And this morning I got to talk to Walter!  So I’m smiling.

How was your weekend?  I hope today starts your work week off in a good way (I’m so weird, I love Mondays)!

Jun
26

ilovefridaysnew

I LOVE…  that I got to talk to Walter for over an hour this morning.  OVER AN HOUR.  And it was beyond glorious.

I LOVE…  old school Michael Jackson.  Kids these days don’t understand.

I LOVE…  taking pictures.  One time I took this picture of a slug (I know, I’m weird) but it came out so good!!!!!

I LOVE…  living in Rhode Island.  Don’t judge me!

I LOVE…  all the Harry Potter books.  I’m half way through Deathly Hollows, and I can’t believe it’s so good!

I LOVE…  playing WoW.

I LOVE…  chocolate ice cream.  I could eat it every day!  Oh wait, I pretty much already do…  :D  He he he.

I LOVE…  the burn marks in my front bumper from my major jump start failure.  I’m so proud of them.

I LOVE…  hanging out with Sarah at the end of the day.  She’s so awesome.

I LOVE…  Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman.  And Sully.

I LOVE…  you.  For real.  I’m in such a good mood!!!!

What do you love today?!!!!

Jun
25

I am currently so deep into reading Harry Potter that I can’t even begin to formulate a blog at the moment, so the following blog is a repost from my Myspace blogging days.  It’s one of my favorite blogs I ever wrote.  Enjoy!!!

(for storytelling clarification: I am Irish, and Alli is Miss Hugs)

********************

We interrupt your daily lives to bring you Today’s Top Story!

Today’s Top Story: Irish Sets Cars Aflame, Gets Electrocuted!

I’m reporting to you live on this cold weather day (it is 24 degrees out) to inform you of the insane happenings at the yellow house on the hill.

Let me set the scene, people.

It was about 10:30 am and I had just gotten home with my grandmother from a morning of stress tests at the local hospital (the tests were for grams, not me). Miss Hugs’ van is still parked in the driveway, but the hood is up. She is late for work. Grams and I come in the house and Miss Hugs says “I need you to jump start my van!” to which I replied, “Ok! Mikey Pop showed me how to do this a couple weeks ago!” 

Miss Hugs and I go outside and I start my car. Good car. I pop the hood and the trunk and retrieve the jumper cables from the trunk. Then Miss Hugs and I get in my car while I untie my jumper cables (sue me, I’m a neat freak) because it’s warm in there and it’s effing COLD outside. She’s stupid first, it’s important for all y’all to remember that. We’re each holding a side of the cables and she opens her door, thinking that somehow we’re going to each get out our respective doors with an end of the cable. Its ok, I told her she was a dummy. So I get the cables and I hook the red up to the negative and the black up to the positive (shut up you don’t know anything yet!!!). Then I go over to her car and do the same thing. Once the black up to the positive side I feel a jolt that throws me back some inches and flames start to flicker on the battery. I GOT ELECTROCUTED, PEOPLE. 

Oops!!! 

Miss Hugs leaves me to fend for myself as smoke arises from both cars. I run around, rip my car keys out of the ignition and hightail it in the house into the living room where Miss Hugs has the phone and she’s screaming “should I call 911?!” and grams is yelling at us for screaming and calling us stupid for making the cars smoke. 

“Call Daddy!” I tell my sister, and she throws the phone at me, it is dialing. I take the phone and head outside, the cars are still smoking very badly and I run back inside to the safety of my house and I tell my dad what happened and he tells me to get the cables off of at least one of the cars.

OMFG IS HE KIDDING ME?! 

I go out and Miss Hugs points out that the yellow cord had melted off the wires and the wires were all exposed. My dad says get some rubber gloves, pull the wires off, he’ll he here in twenty minutes and don’t let Miss Hugs start her car.

But he wants me to start my car. Yeah right

So Miss Hugs grabs two rubber dishwashing gloves, we each wear one and try and get the cables off her van since her car was not the one all charged up. The cables are hot to the touch even through the gloves (let’s face it, people: dishwashing gloves aren’t all that thick) but I manage to get them both off with minimal help from Miss Hugs.

Sometimes she’s just good for comedic value, and moral support.

We grab our cameras because, of course, I need to blog about this and I need pictures to do it! I call my dad, he’s on the way. He’s not happy at all. We take all the pictures we can and only then realize that when Miss Hugs grabbed the dishwashing gloves she grabbed two left handed gloves. Both sets are ruined now. But that’s ok, they’re just dishwashing gloves.

I had to tell someone. And Lo! my friend PQ is online so I tell her how it all went down. She probably thinks I’m some kind of stupid freak now, but I guess that can’t be helped. And then my dad got here. Whew, was he angry. He was beyond angry, he was growling. That means he’s mad, people. He looked at my car and then at Miss Hugs’, he orders me to take my car to my uncle Uncle’s garage to have him make sure I didn’t fry something. He tells Miss Hugs she’s S.O.L. until Uncle can come down here and take a look at her van. That thing still ain’t going anywhere, it isn’t a battery thing.

Daddy says Jerry isn’t allowed to touch the van! And my mother isn’t allowed anywhere near the building! My poor daddy. He has to save one of us like once a week. It’s only Monday and this is the second time he’s had to come to the rescue this week. I’m not kidding when I say he’s the greatest dad in all of existence. The poor man. In the meantime I’m in hysterics, laughing my head off like a crazy hyena. I’ve realized that it wasn’t even noon yet and I’d already started two cars on fire and gotten electrocuted.



So I called work. I called out of work. I can’t go in like this! Louise got a good laugh out of it, and I need to take my car to my uncle’s shop. Miss Hugs is so coming with me and she knows it. I can’t face Uncle without her since she’s my accomplice. Especially not when Uncle thinks I’m car-tarded in the first place. I’m determined to not be the only car-tarded person getting the blame here!

So that’s my story. It’s sad but true. Don’t hate. 

It’s only fair to tell you all that her van escaped unscathed, with just minor bruising.  But it still won’t start.  HA HA.

Jun
24
More New Math

More New Math

Jun
23

Ah.  Today is the first day this year that I’ve made and brought to work something for lunch that wasn’t a peanut butter and Fluff sandwich.

You know, as opposed to going out and buying food that’s already been prepared and taking it to work.  Which I’m always doing.  Sarah will be so proud of me.

I toiled in the kitchen to bring the following food items to work.

And it was grand.

Jun
23

Harry Potter And The Order Of The Phoenix came out as a movie.

In 2007.

And I didn’t know about it.

How can this have happened?  WHERE WAS I?!!!

For a few years now I’ve been seriously thinking they were skipping a book in the series of movies.  But I was wrong.

Then I thought, well maybe I saw it and I just forgot… because I do that a lot with a lot of stuff.  But that didn’t happen, either.

Alli and I should have known this movie had come out.  We just. should have. known.

For shame.

Jun
22

I’ve played quite a few games in my time.  Quite a few indeed.  So when I announced that I was going to start playing WoW, I was irritated at all the negative feedback I got.

I heard a lot of “We’re never going to see you again”s and some  “See you in a few months”s along with quite a few “We all know where THIS is going”s.  Equip each statement with a massive eye roll and there you have it: the reaction I got from just about everyone that doesn’t already play.

I ignored it, and laughed it off.  I’ve been a gamer since I met D in high school.  I’ve been hooked on MMORPG’s (for any of you non-gamers that stands for Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game) for a good five years now.  I’ve played Oddessy, Runescape, Diablo2, Meridian 59, UltimaOnline, EverQuest, Lineage, World Of Warcraft, Endless Online, Guild Wars, Vanguard, R.O.S.E. Online, Fly For Fun, Ragnarok, and probably a few others that I’m completely forgetting.  So I’ve been around the gaming world.  I know how it is.

I know.

I don’t need people rolling their eyes at me, telling me they’re disappointed in me and telling me how it’s going to be.

Um, if you know me then you know I’m not like that.  I’m a big girl, and not everyone falls into that stereotype.

Or better yet, if you’ve known me long enough, you should know I’ve been down that road and that I learned my lesson.  Because of all the games I’ve played, no game was more addicting or life consuming than Illarion (before you click the link, remember that it was far less developed 5 years ago than it is now).

This is Illarion.  You’ll want to click to see the full images.

Click to enlarge.

Quinasa at Varshikar. Click to enlarge.

Quinasa and Aristeaus at The Fluffy Sheep Tavern.  Click to enlarge.

Quinasa and Aristeaus at The Fluffy Sheep Tavern. Click to enlarge.

Quinasa and Aristeaus getting married.

Quinasa and Aristeaus getting married. Click to enlarge.

Illarion is a free MMORPG.  An isometric free RPG where you can only walk at one pace and all the character avatars look exactly the same, no matter what they’re equipped with.

To say that I loved this game would be the understatement of the century.  I lived this game.  I used to eat, sleep, breathe, and BATHE this game.  It dictated when I slept, when I worked, when I ate (which was rarely), and everything else I did or (more likely) didn’t do.

Probably the longest period I went without having a boyfriend was while I was playing this game.

It’s not just an MMO, it’s actual role play.  To have and keep a character you need to, like D&D, come up with a personality and character description as well as a back story, and then you need your character to blend in with the world around you and interact with other characters.  With the old account system (there isn’t one now) you had to actually apply for an account and not only answer questions, but complete a story in a few sentences to play.

There was no questing.  Power gaming was frowned upon.  All the characters looked the same with our names (and numbers!) over our heads.  85% of your in game time was spent actually role playing, not gaining skills.

It. Was. AWESOME.

For a while.  Then it started to become unfun.  I had this whole life in game.  A husband and a profession, a whole LIFE.  And when it started to get unfun, it leaked into my real life.  My unhappiness spilled over into my everyday activities.  And even then I didn’t quit.  I took it too seriously to quit.  I took it so seriously for so long that I was afraid to leave, even though I was completely miserable.  I needed the game.  It kept me awake at night.  I played for a long time this way before I finally quit.  And I quit twice.

The first time I quit, I went back after a few months thinking that all I needed was a break.  But no.  It was far worse than that.  And I played for a few more months before I quit entirely.  It’s been hard.  I’ve since even stopped going to the forums because I get sucked in that way too.  And I know better.

So when I say I know how it is to be addicted to a game, I’m not kidding.  I know how it is.  I’ve been down that road.  I’ve seen the Dark Side (they don’t really have cookies, don’t let them fool you).  It took a lot of repairing to get my life back into shape, but I’ve done it and I won’t do that to myself again.

So I ask you to please keep your snide comments to yourself.  I don’t want them.  I started playing WoW because Walter has gone to Iraq and I need something time consuming and enjoyable to do so that I don’t spend all my time worrying about whether or not he’ll come home at all.

Don’t assume anything about me based on the short-comings of other people.  I am NOT other people.  And I’ll freaking play World Of Warcraft if I want to.  So get off my case.