Starting a New Phase of My Online Presence

First of all, I’d like to say Happy Easter to those who celebrate Easter. We don’t, but if you do……Happy Easter.

You may have noticed that I dropped off a lot in my horror stuff. This isn’t because I hate horror now, I still collect and watch horror almost every single day of the week. The reason I did it was because I could hardly watch horror without seeing it through reviewer eyes. That’s rough and was actually making me pretty jaded about the genre. I decided last October that my October horrorfest was not going to happen again because it’s so hard to do. Back in 2010, I got ill for about 8 days out of the 31 in my event, 2011 had the same thing, and last year I ended up writing the entries in August so that I could get them out in time.

I also, as you know, backed off witchcraft and religion in a major way awhile back. Religion because I don’t really fit in any of it, and witchcraft because it was becoming increasingly hard for me to balance practicing with blogging. I stopped practicing for like….a year or more simply because I knew I’d need to write about it, or wanted to write about it, and as a result it was getting in the way of my immersion.

Now, I’m finding it hard to even rant these days. I have a lot I’d like to rant about, I just am not finding it easy to come up with coherent rants anymore. I’ve covered most things several times over and so I don’t feel like I have a reason to write rants, now.

Due to all these things, I’m stepping away from blogging. I will not be deleting anything on Not So Serious, and I will be leaving it open in case I feel I need to return to blogging. But, I think that at this point in time, I will be taking my witchy practice and seasonal reverence, as well as my horror fetish, to another venue. One that isn’t really blogging and isn’t really dependent on that.

Some may argue. When I tell you where I’ll be posting things from now on, some people might say, “That’s just Blogging Lite!”. Perhaps it is, but I will finally be able to integrate the photography that I’m planning along with a short blurb about what I’m doing, thinking and feeling at that point. Short, to the point, and much easier to maintain.

I’m going to be posting everything on Google+. Most of my regular visitors are already following me on Google+, so this should be pretty “no fuss”. For those of you that aren’t, you can find me at this link if you should want to do that.

LJ’s Google+

This move might not be permanent for more than one reason. I hate Facebook, that’s not a secret. Google+  is just like Facebook in several ways. If it gets really bad, I’ll just it off the same way I did Facebook. Without any hesitation. I hope it doesn’t, and I won’t be using my real name anywhere on Google+, so we’ll see. Not very many real life associates will be following me there.

There will be one last post on Not So Serious before I sign off. That post will be released on April 13th, and it’s for my beautiful, witchy friend Magaly’s “Witches in Fiction: To the Bone” blogging event that starts April 1st. I just need to figure out what I’m posting.

In any case, I hope to see you all on Google+, if I don’t, please be safe and I hope none of you have any writer’s block. Heh.

Again, Have a Happy Horror Easter, Everyone!

“50% Of People Participate in Earth Hour!!!!”

There was an article posted by “The Slate” yesterday about Earth Hour. Now, the poster was talking about how electricity has advanced mankind and yada yada and it was generally in opposition to Earth Hour, but for a janky reason.

Of course, I’m also against Earth hour, but for a much more logical reason and that is that I’m tired of people trying to bullshit and eek their way through life without actually plugging into reality. So, on a forum somewhere I stated that Earth Hour is meaningless until people decide to change their habits. I also said that not very many people “actually” participate in Earth Hour. Some guy of course had a big fit because I actually plug into reason and sanity and logic and then made up a statistic on the spot about the participation, telling me that 50% of people participate. That is a totally bullshit, made up statistic. Regardless of where he got it, it’s totally bullshit and I’ll tell you why.

Because I have eyes. That’s why. I can plainly see with my own two eyes that 50% of people aren’t doing anything of the sort.

I know tons of people outside of the internet and not one of those people is participating in Earth Hour. Not only are they not participating in it, they aren’t even mentioning it. In fact, I’d be quite flabbergasted to hear that they even knew about Earth Hour! No one is talking about this damned hour of mass delusion outside of internet circles.

“What are you going to be doing for Earth Hour tonight?”

“It’s getting close to Earth Hour, I better get going. I wouldn’t want to miss the time when I’m supposed to shut off my lights…..that are already off.”

“Tonight is Earth Hour, LJ! Don’t forget!”

No one is saying any of that. None. Not one person is talking about Earth Hour. The only place Earth Hour exists is on the internet. Twitter, Facedork and other internet hidey holes are the only places where people exist that delude themselves to this extent. Nothing pisses me off more than weak symbolism. Turn off your lights for an hour and do nothing else. All talk, no action. I know not one person who actually turns their lights off for Earth Hour. If you do, they’re doing it for the net. No other reason. Chances are no one is really turning anything off. They’re just posting on Twitter and Facedork that they are. Truth hurts.

Let’s humor the hype machine and assume for one minute that 50% of people turn off their lights for 1 hour on a specific scheduled night of the year. What on Earth do you think these people are doing during that lightless hour?? Think about it for a minute.

They’re certainly not sitting there in the dark of their homes, with lamps filled with lamp oil running, playing Monopoly! And, if they are, they’re freaking Mormons. Period.

I’ll tell you what they’re doing. They’re doing the same things they do every single year during Earth Hour, and probably the same things they do every single Saturday night. They’re watching television. They’re lights might be off, but their television is running. If they’re not doing that, they’re talking and texting on their cell phone. The lights might be off, but they’re certainly not sacrificing anything. They’re sitting there will the glow of their cell phone illuminating the room while they post about what a great, environmentally conscious person they are because they shut off the lights for an hour!

If they’re not texting, talking on the phone, posting on Twitter and Facetard or watching whatever is on TV on a Saturday night, they turn off all their lights, lock the doors and go out for the evening.

And, where do they go on a night when 50% of people participate in Earth Hour from 8:30pm to 9:30pm? Hmmmmm???

They go to eat. Or they go to the movies. Or they go to drive the strip. Or they go to the bars and drink. Are you seeing where this is going? How many of those above places are going to shut off their lights for one hour on a Saturday night???

That’s right, damned few, if any. I’ll wager that none will.

They go to places with lights on.

Meanwhile, back at the house, all of the appliances in those little Earth conscious human dweller homes are still eating electricity simply for being plugged in. Perhaps someone gets a phone call on their land line and the answering machine picks up. The answering machine that’s plugged into the wall sucking and nawing on electricity, while the phone (also most likely electric eating) rings for 1 minute and a half. Perhaps their water heater kicks on, maybe even their central air furnace. Because it still is the dead middle of the freaking winter in America, you know.

Maybe some of them will have to get gas on the way home. Gas at stations that are using electricity for that person to even get gas out of the pump.

That person, the one who fell for the mass delusion of Earth Hour, who left his house dark believing that he was “doing his part” will still be using electricity in some way. Be it by the electrical grid when he’s using his cell phone, when he’s ordering his Big Mac and fries at the McDonald’s on a Saturday night, when he’s watching television even though he was kind enough to turn off his lights, when he’s drinking that beer from the tap at the local pub, when he’s driving the strip lit up into the night sky with neon lights. His home lights might be off, but he certainly didn’t “participate” in Earth Hour anymore than he would have on any other given Saturday night.

Stop fooling yourselves. 50% of people participate in Earth Hour????? So 50% of people are sitting at home in the dark, playing gin rummy by candle light and talking with their families??? For an hour? In this day and age? 50% of people, including the ones that own businesses and restaurants??

Bullshit. Earth Hour is nothing more than social media arm chair quarterbacking. Unless you see with your own eyes 50% of your towns and cities go dark, you’re being gullible. No one is seeing that, so people need to stop claiming it. Because it’s pure unadulterated bullshit.

Another Year, Another “Earth Hour”

Tomorrow is Earth Hour. And again, this year I will not be doing much to participate.

For those who have dropped their teeth on the floor, aghast, recoiling in horror, think about the implications of Earth Hour. Then think about your own connection to Earth Hour and how very little difference it even makes in the grand scheme of things. Then go and read this to understand why my opinion of Earth Hour is so casual.

Instead of joining in an hour of mass delusion every year, I have gone one further. I have changed my actual habits instead of trying to be all “Twitter Environmentalist” about the issue. Most of the people who observe Earth Hour don’t actually even understand the real problem, or understand what needs to happen to fix it. Instead, their friends on Facetwat and Twitter said that March 23rd was Earth Hour, and being a joiner they’re not going to let anyone down or anything. In fact, I’d wager that the people who say they’re going to shut off their electricity for one hour tomorrow night are many, while the people who actually do it will be few. Most people are exactly what I said they are, “Twitter Environmentalists”. People who talk very big and do very little.

Now, inevitably, there will be someone out there who will be vain enough to take what I just said personally, like I know who they are and am lumping them in with the social media joiners. If you are really doing something in real life to cut your carbon footprint and be less of a resource hog, then this doesn’t pertain to you. Keep your panties on. However, if you’re not, you’re going to know who you are.

What I have done this year far outweighs anything I could contribute to Earth Hour. The amount of electricity I use at 8:30pm, is miniscule.

The first thing I did this year was move. It wasn’t a planned move, but it turned out better than I could have ever fathomed. We moved into a smaller house. This is a big deal. Smaller house equals less energy required to heat it. This house is also better insulated than the one we lived in before it. It also has carpet. Carpet and good insulation equal less energy needed to heat it.

In our previous home, we were paying roughly $500 a month in heating. I’ll let you all recover from choking on your tongues.

Yes, $500. In the South! Our largest bill over there was in 2010, and it was $540. That tells you that we were using ungawdly amounts of electricity to heat it. Because our central air was electric. It didn’t get any better in the summer time, either. We spent probably $300 a month just to cool it in the summer. Basically, the walls were made of paper mache’ and the heat and cool air basically left the house out of the top of it, the window seal, under the doors, you name it. It was poorly constructed.

It didn’t really matter that as far as lights were concerned, we are on the very low end of the spectrum. Both my husband and I are moderately photophobic. For those who don’t want to Google it, we are light sensitive. I get migraines from it sometimes, and can be forced to wear dark glasses indoors on occasion. We don’t like a lot of lights running anyway. Even with our computers and the kids’ XBOX and Zen’s TV running, we are still on the low end of the spectrum because there are usually few lights on during that time.

Since we moved, we have cut our electricity bill by over $300! The highest bill in this house was $235, which is still damned high, but nowhere near what we paid over yonder. This is after 1 year, too. That is taking into account both winter and summer billing. The amount of electricity we are saving is enormous compared to the very little amount we would be saving during something as shallow as Earth Hour. That isn’t all we have done to cut down on our consumption, but that’s the one that is new and really matters. We still use less plastic, we still use less paper, we still use less chemicals, we still only have one vehicle.

The fact is, no one is really going to reduce their carbon footprint enough to really make a huge difference until we all go back to using candles and lamp oil for lighting. Until we go back to the days of wood burning stoves and fireplaces for heating. I don’t see many arm chair environmentalists that are willing to do such a thing. So, I don’t really care to hear their whining until they are willing. Until people really wake up to see what it will really take to do any real amount of good, it’s just one giant, social media driven farce.

This morning there was a question posed on a forum about Earth Hour.

“So on the evening of March 23 there will literally be the biggest circlejerk known to man going on?”

Yep.

 

 

Today’s vape: Peach Green Tea!

Spring Equinox

Tomorrow is the Spring Equinox and I have the usual planned. Nice meal, some themed decor, a Spring Awakening meditation and some offerings.

The Food:

Corned Beef Sandwiches with Saurkraut and Spicy Mustard!

The Drinks:

Iced Tea with Lemon!

The Incense Offering:

Frankincense and Lavender!

The Vape:

Mint Chocolate Chip!

 

*Vape refers to the flavored vapor liquid I’ll be vaping with my e cigarette.

The Week From Hell

It has been one pisser of a week over here in LJville. I’m ready to see this week go and go fast!

First of all, it’s Spring Break around here. Started Monday, ends day after tomorrow. You’d think it would be a fabulous week. I get to sleep in. Not even close. This week has sucked major butt.

It started with Zen getting really sick on Sunday night. By Monday night he had pneumonia. At first, I thought it was the same virus that got me 3 weeks ago, and Mouse the week before last. Monday night at midnight, Mouth and I were fighting Zen the Bull Fighter in Emergency Room, the Spring Break edition! He gets really combative and violent when he sees hospitals, so you can imagine that made for a very wonderful 3 hours. All said and done, my poor Zen had gotten a severe sinus infection from the allergy season here. We are still playing Mountain Cedar Pollen the Home Game right now, and it’s really knocking people in the dust. The sinus infection moved into his lungs and caused pneumonia. Thankfully, he did not have to be admitted. But, I get to give him breathing treatments for the next 3 weeks because he has week and scarred lungs anyway and this was the last thing he needed.

He still sounds like shit.

To top off my week, yesterday I get a call on my cell phone from Mouth. Or, since it was Mouth’s phone, I thought it was Mouth.

Nope. It was the freaking paramedics.

Yes, I also swallowed my own tongue.

Mouth was in a car accident at 5:30 yesterday evening. He is fine, for the most part. Thankfully, he wasn’t injured worse than he is, but he has a minor concussion.

Get this.

My son decided to refuse transport. He wasn’t really hurt bad enough to be transported, but he also decided he was going to keep the truth from me about how badly he was hurt, too. It wasn’t life threatening, but he tried to play off like he hadn’t had a minor head injury.

It failed, I used to be an EMT, he can’t play that shit off in front of me. We dropped the other passenger from the car off (also not hurt, none of the 3 of them sustained any major injuries thankfully!) and immediately Mouth was asking me where the friend had gone. I knew instantly he had a concussion. Today, he remembers very little about yesterday. He can remember the accident and how it happened, but he can remember nothing else about yesterday. Not even who he was with or even anyone he spoke with yesterday. He’s showed me the picture he took of the car about 9 times since last night saying, “Mom check this out.”

I know son, I was there. I came to pick you up.

Today he finally admitted to me that he had hit the dashboard with his head. They were only going 35 MPH, but that’s fast enough when your friend crashes head on into a telephone pole while trying to drift around a corner like a moron. He also admitted that he knew I would bitch at him about going to the ER if he told me. I would have, and he’s right. I’m also pissed that he didn’t tell me, but it’s not like I didn’t already know.

He will be okay, he is still refusing to see a doctor and there’s nothing I can do as he’s 18, but I’m keeping a sharp eye on him. He’ll come through it fine, he just needs to rest.

I have about 75 new grey hairs this morning, though. And, I can’t wait until this whole week is over. Eff me, man!

Dental Nightmare

I mentioned that I would go ahead and do a whole rant on my dental nightmare. I’m going to do that, now. Unfortunately, I can only speculate how different things might be today if I hadn’t gone through all of this, but I suspect that I would have substantially less problems.

The first time I was ever in a dentist’s office was when I was roughly 3 years old. In my opinion, a 3 year old child has no business in a dentist’s chair unless we’re talking about a child with severe baby bottle mouth, or some other nightmare. Normal kids with normal teeth have no business in a dentist’s chair. Period. I don’t care what the American Dental (We Need To Protect Our Capitalist Bottom Line) Associate would like you to believe, normal 3 yr old children don’t need dentists.

My mother had taught me no real dental hygiene yet by that age, which is kind of weird considering she would become so obsessed with my dental appearance. Naturally, the dentist when poking around in my mouth with sharp metal objects, poking holes in my tooth enamel where there were no previous holes.

It was around that time that the dentist became rather concerned about my over bite. Now, I had a moderate over bite back then. Nothing too major, nothing that would make me look like a monster, just an overbite. But, from that moment on, my mother became absolutely obsessed with my dental appearance. So much so that I actually believe she got pleasure from my resulting physical pain.

When I was 8 years old, she hauled me into an oral surgeon’s office, had 6 people hold me down on a flat bed, gas me with ether and needlessly yank 4 teeth out of my head. They were all 4 of my bicuspids and were in no way causing me any real grief. She did it because the quack orthodontist she had been consulting told her that all 4 of my bicuspids needed to be removed to make room in my mouth for my teeth. This turned out to be bullshit, by the way.

From that time on, my time at the dentist or orthodontist’s offices were filled with pain, a lot of physical torture and wrenching on my jaws which have caused me permanent jaw damage and bullshit.

When I was ten, the ortho put spacers in between all of my teeth. This was to space them out in mouth. I remind you that they were only mildly crooked, nothing major and nothing ridiculous. Imagine having a constant, 3 week tooth ache all over your mouth and eating nothing but soup. That is what those 3 weeks were like for a 10 yr old me. After that, Mr. Quack Ass cemented metal brackets around all 4 of my back molars with little hinges on them. That was where the headgear would hook into my mouth and push the back teeth farther back in my jaw. I had to wear headgear for 10 solid months when I wasn’t eating.

What I didn’t know at the time was that the cement Mr. Quack used was a very old type and didn’t have a savory reputation. It actually caused acid wear on the enamel on teeth and was later discontinued, although no other ortho in my area still used it at the time Quack was using it.

Following that 10 months was when they decided to put the old style, full metal band braces on my teeth. Most other orthos were using the newer metal type they use today that don’t have metal bands on them, but not Mr. Quack. He still used full bands. I actually had a metal band running through the middle of each tooth, all the way around it, on every single tooth.

For 4 years.

Each one of those bands was cemented onto my tooth with the shitty, enamel eating cement.

Fast forward 3 years. One year before I’m to get those off my teeth. I’ve been in the office, having an asshole wrench my jaw around for 4 solid years already by that time, and I’m starting to get migraines and jaw pain. Not one person took me seriously that I would get a headache after eating or that my jaw ached at the hinges.

Once I got my braces off my teeth……the damage started to make itself readily apparent.

All of the enamel on all 8 of my back teeth was eaten away where the band was. Left in it’s place was an orangeish, yellow band of damage. The 4 HOLES in my gum line where all my bicuspids were yanked from were still visible! And, remember that over bite I told you about? The one the headgear and back teeth movement was supposed to fix? Yeah, I have an even worse one, now. My over bite is INCREDIBLE now. So much so that I have actually knocked my two front teeth off alignment with my bottom front teeth and pushed them farther out!

I don’t want this to get too long, so I’ll get into the permanent damage.

As a result of all of that I have to visit a dentist almost quarterly, now. I have permanent TMJ which was what was causing me the headaches and jaw joint pain. I get up every morning and have to massage my jaw at the joints to be able to open them. I have constant tinnitus from the TMJ.

In addition to that, I have lost 4 of the 8 of my back molars. I no longer have any of my 12 year molars in my head. Every single one has had to be removed due to damage from orthodontics. Three of them cracked off to the root and the fourth one had a hole going right through the side straight through to the other side where the band had been. The other 4 molars are living on borrowed time. All 4 of them have old fashioned amalgam fillings in them, and all 4 of them are cracking away.

My two front teeth are chipping away in the same spots the bands on my teeth were. No where else, just where the bands had been placed. Remember those 4 holes from my bicuspids? Yeah, those are still visible.

Now on to my bottom teeth. The ones in the front. They’re all mildly loose. Upon xraying me, the dentist here informed me that my roots had actually retracted by 50%, some of them more due to constant movement too early, and that some of my my front teeth are not even surrounded by bone! He told me that this was due to rushed orthodontic procedures. He has recommended that I have most, if not all, of my teeth pulled and to either get implants or dentures.

I’m only 41 years old.

I honestly do believe my mother got some kind of charge out of the pain I endured during those 6 or so years. She wouldn’t hear any kind of complaint from me about the pain I was in, and still doesn’t give a rat’s flying ass. The funny part is that she was so concerned that my teeth weren’t perfect, yet was too cheap to spring for a good, reputable orthodontist. She used the cheapest Quack in town.

The only one of my children that has ever been to a dentist is Zen. He has to go because the enamel on his teeth is almost nonexistent and he grinds them. He will have them all out this summer because I’m afraid they will abscess.

Neither Mouth nor Mouse has EVER been to a dentist. They haven’t needed it. Mouth’s teeth are straight, white and he has no problems whatsoever. Mouse’s teeth are straight, less white than Mouth’s but still not bad by any standard, but I think he is starting to get a cavity. So, his first time at the dentist will be in May and it will be at age 15.

That’s how one should go about dentists, in my opinion. People should go to doctors when they need them. You shouldn’t be sitting in a doctor’s office every year for no good reason. That’s the way I feel about dentists. You go to one when you need one. Sitting in their offices, allowing them to puncture your tooth enamel with sharp metal objects every year is ridiculous.

I have a lot more dental work coming my way, however. If I had the money, I’d yank them all and have done with it.

Thanks, Mom.

Narcs Lie To Get Their Way

Since I’ve been reading around on psychology forums and reading about other people and their experiences with narcissists, it’s amazing to me what I have overlooked in my  time dealing with my Mom.

Since I’ve been distancing myself from her slowly over the course of the last 10 years, she has resorted to new ways to try to control me and get me to do what she wants me to do. This last weekend she flat out lied to me about her health to get me to call her.

Saturday night, she starts texting me at 10:30pm my time. That’s 9:30pm her time. According to her, she’s been talking to anyone who will listen or give her any information about the professor she’s stalking around campus. Supposedly they gave her information that confirms all her suspicions about him.

Whatever.

I texted back for about 5 or 10 minutes, but Mr. LJ and I were in the middle of watching the movie Shogun and I ended up turning my phone off because at 10:30 at night, I am not going to text back and forth about some stupid guy I couldn’t care less about.

The next morning, I turned my phone back on to see another few texts, random garbage about said professor and then a couple of them asking me if I was still there. About 9am my time, my phone starts ringing.

Now, my mother knows that I don’t have the minutes to yap on the phone all day. We have cell phones and are very lucky, but we can’t pay the prices they have for unlimited calling, so I try to get her to text me more because it saves me minutes. But, she hates to text (and she’s really bad at it, most of her texts are almost unreadable due to autocorrect), so she calls me anyway.

I knew why she was calling, so I didn’t answer. I texted her that I was out at my in laws with the karaoke machine running so I couldn’t talk on the phone.

Then she texts me that she has blood in her stools and it’s an emergency. She left a voicemail to that effect as well. She was panicked sounding. So, I’m thinking, “Oh shit, I better find out wtf the deal is here.”

Bad call on my part. I fell for it hook, line and sinker.

I call. She picks up. She’s totally calm.

Me: What’s up? What exactly did you see?”

Her: I think it’s better now. I didn’t see any blood, only mucus. The mucus was this morning and the rest of it was last night. <insert some more random information about pain and bowel movements the night before>.

That’s when I knew that I had been had. She was having pain and bloody stools, supposedly, the night before but magically didn’t mention it in the barrage of texts I was receiving at 10:45pm?! Not even later on did she even once mention that in her texts.

Nothing until the next morning.

BS. I didn’t answer the phone or texts and she needed to find something to jar me enough to call her. So, she used her health. After me trying to have a serious discussion with her about how she needs to be seen if she’s having blood in her stool she conveniently changed the subject to her fucking man-toy again!

I really hate assholes that do shit like that. Lying about your health, or not taking it seriously enough to have a decent discussion about it really piss me off. Do people not realize that the more they do shit like this, the less seriously people will take them? It’s called crying wolf, I think. Or fire in a crowded theatre. All it does is make it less likely that I will take her seriously if she were to try something like that again, and the next time it could be fucking real!

It’s really my own damned fault, though. I know damned good and well that she doesn’t give a rat’s ass about her health. She has high blood pressure she doesn’t treat, for Christ’s sake. Even if she did have blood in her stool it wouldn’t phase her in the slightest aside from using it as an attention source.

Once she had my attention, even though I was being rude and talking on the damned phone when I was at someone’s house, she takes that opportunity to launch into why she really wanted my attention and that was to wax all psychotic about her man-toy. Fuck.this.shit. I’m so tired of hearing about that asshole I could throw up.

I realize it’s not his fault. Hell, he doesn’t even really know it’s going on. But, gddamn! It’s annoying as hell. I don’t wanna hear about him. I don’t wanna know about him. Just have your little obsession and leave me the fuck out of it!

This, folks, is why I have stopped answering my phone…..