A loss

I just read that Lloyd Alexander, one of my favorite childhood authors, passed away on Thursday. I credit him and Tolkein with my love of fantasy fiction, and am sad to hear of his passing.

Look how freaking prolific I am!

*Another* post! In less than 2 weeks! And I still haven't shared jack shit that's actually personally relevant!

That would be because I'm procrastinating, and because I hate whining. And so much crap has gone on in the past couple weeks that I'm avoiding writing about it, and am instead writing about other stuff to distract myself. Because I can't figure out how to write about my own stuff *without* sounding like I'm whining, and I'm not ready to focus any more of my "free" energy on thinking about it enough to write. I'd rather spend said energy on fun things. Like this awesome survey I linked to from gofugyourself:

blogreaderproject.com/survey (Yes, same link as above. I'm thorough.)

It was a fun and comprehensive survey about what I (the survey-taker) like and what I do. As I'm sure I've said a bajillion times, I'm a compulsive self-analyzer. This poll was perfect. Detailed, but not laboriously so. Exhaustive, but not excessively (IMO) intrusive for an online questionnaire.

If you, dear reader, also wish to waste a good 10 - 20 minutes on something interesting and not too onerous, check it out! Fill it out! You might just enjoy it :~D

*Gag*

I know I belong to too many yahoo groups. I join a bunch, stick around for a while, then leave. It's what I do. It's why I shouldn't make "real" friends (different settings, similar behavior on my part). But I do, and now I'm being punished. I belong to a couple Weight Watchers Core groups that have been quite helpful, and I don't want to leave them. But staying with these groups has exposed me to one of the horrors of the internet: Incredimail.

This is some of THE tackiest shit I have ever seen. Chris and I have joked about decorating a guest room for unwelcome visitors in an overwhelming lighthouse theme, and now thanks to this "service", I have received multiple lighthouse-themed emails. "Cute" country mice getting into peoples' food. Peoples' names animated (or still) with penguins. Flowers. Stars. Rainbows. Stuffed bunnies. Precious Moments. Need I say more? It's like a bunch of 11-year-old girls got ahold of my computer and reprogrammed it.

Seriously, I'm glad any- and everyone can get on the internet. My WWII-era farmer-stock grandparents are online, bless them, and getting a lot done! But they're not wasting their time or mine with cutesy smarmy nauseating graphics in their emails. And honestly, I wish the rest of the world was on the same page. I feel my IQ (and the collective quotient of every group involved) dropping with every Incredipuke message. WTF motivates people to inflict this sort of thing on others?

Seriously, this must be stopped.