LOOK OUT CAESAR!

Oops. Too late.

Gotta do it right.

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Happy Pi day!

May as well go eat pie since you’re most of the way there.

Apparently McCoy 6 wants to SUE the city for condemning one of their apartment buildings.

This is AFTER the city tore down and cleared the decrepit buildings in the old stadium loop and then charge the Warners only $1 (one single dollar) a year lease.

Let me share the experience Michael had in college.

TO clarify, many “apartments” in Morgantown are old houses divided into multiple living spaces, with kitchens and bathrooms added in somewhat randomly.

Michael and his roommate were shown an apartment, signed a lease, and then told that the apartment they were renting not only was not the apartment they were shown, it wasn’t even in the same house.

When they moved in the place was filthy. Disgusting. The stove looked like it hadn’t been cleaned in years, the kitchen floor was sticky, the carpet and furniture were horrific (dirty and stained and unhealthy looking), and the bathroom was a disaster. Many things didn’t work, including the drain in the tub (by the time you were done showering the tub was full of water. Disgusting water.) When they moved in they complained about all these things, and were told that something would be done.

No one ever came to repair anything. Ever.

When Michael moved out after a few months, McCoy 6 refused to return his security deposit, listing all the “damage” done to the apartment, which was the list of the problems Michael and his roommate had complained about when they moved in.

Needless to say, Michael is not the only person they did this to.

Friends who moved into Mountaineer Court soon after it was built had complaints about the foundation, structure, and construction of the apartment. Time has not been kind to the building, and if they maintained Mountaineer Court in the same manner as they maintained the apartment Michael rented, it’s a small wonder the building was condemned.

Did I mention that the Warners are some of the better known Republicans in the state? One brother ran for governor, another was chair of the state Republican party. And now you know why I have such disdain for Republicans in West Virginia.

This picture is just a little too twee, but that’s how they looked.

I much prefer the picture below.

The crocuses are blooming. Glad I raked the beds so they could actually reach the light.

If you’re a guy you may want to wander off at this point and look at pictures of trucks or comics or whatever manly things you do when girl cooties are involved. If you’re married, you may want to read on, because this information could be useful for your wife.

Last year when I went for my yearly exam, the doctor asked me if I wanted to also get the HPV test done.

For those of you who aren’t aware, HPV (human papillomavirus) is the cause of cervical cancer. You won’t necessarily get cervical cancer if you have HPV, but it does place you at risk.

So I told my doctor sure, I’m all about testing for cancer, and then promptly forgot about the test.

This year when I went in for my exam I was told that since the pap smear and the HPV test had come back negative, I don’t have to get another pap smear until 2011.

I still need to get my yearly gynecological checkups, but I get three whole years without, “now this is going to pinch just a little bit.” Which I think is quite nice.

The HPV Test website provides more information, if your doctor hasn’t already suggested this option.

I told you I didn’t give up (Nathan)!

I’ve implemented part one of the new format.

You’ll only notice a difference on a wider screen, at which point the bottom half of the sidebar should slide up to the right of the top half of the sidebar.

Behind the scenes, I’ve been cleaning up the code. I initially created this template off another one, and did only what I needed to get the look I wanted. I’m now cleaning up the code and leaving myself comments so I don’t have to wonder, “what the hell is this shit?”

For now, all other changes should be subtle and not make much of a difference.

I did make a couple changes to the width of the content window, changing the max and min. If you think the content potion of the page is too small no matter what you do, let me know and I’ll play some more.

I’m also willing to take suggestions, however, before you ask, I can’t place the archives in a drop down menu like the categories. Unfortunately, my oldest archives could not be brought into Word Press, so they won’t appear in the drop down menu.

Well, I suppose I could do two drop down menus……

I’ve been posting a lot of word association games on Wedesdays, so here’s something different: open thread, talk about whatever the heck you want to talk about.

The sofa (metaphorical or not) is comfy, there’s brownies on the table and Michael has beer in the fridge (Blue Moon, Circus Boy, and three other kinds I’m too lazy to open the fridge and see.)

So make yourself at home (while remaining fully clothed thank you–this isn’t THAT type of place) and maybe someone who doesn’t usually comment will take this as a sign to introduce themselves. If nothing else, once they have, maybe we can get them to play the next game of word association.

As I’ve mentioned previously, I’ve been having issues with my depression recently. This isn’t a new thing–I’ve been dealing with it since I was sixteen–but events over the past several months have conspired to push my mood further and further out of my control.

I’ve been trying to do everything I’m supposed to, and met with only limited success. I think I’ve plateaued (Wait. Does plateau refer only to an upward rise or does it also count in downward spirals? Nevermind. You know what I mean.)

What does this mean? It means I have very little patience, very little tolerance, and everything frustrates me. My home situation makes this a serious problem as I’m not discussing my problems with my grandmother, because she will immediately assume she is the cause of those problems, and then she’ll get upset and feel extremely guilty, and then I’LL feel even more guilty and feel worse…. and you can see where this is going.

Why I’m bringing this up is because Grandmom is now in Virginia spending a week and a half with my aunt. What I am hoping is this will give me some true downtime to try and get myself back together, and start the long haul back up to normalcy.

Where I’m having difficulty is that I keep debating whether I should ask my doctor to increase my prescription. Yes, I’ve been under a lot of stress, and that stress is receding, so in theory I may be able to climb out myself. On the other hand, I may simply be making things harder for myself by thinking I can do it all myself.

Tough call.

Starting Friday I’m taking three days off work for a mini vacation. I’m going to get a massage and pamper myself on Friday. Probably go out to dinner and maybe even lunch. (Drinks are a toss-up. Alcohol and I are not best friends when I’m depressed, so I try and avoid it to avoid the stupidity that goes along with it. But it is relaxing in extremely small amounts.)

Do I need anything? No. I just want to share this because it’s what’s going on in my life, and as I said when I started writing about depression, until we can be honest about mental illness and our issues with it, those of us who suffer will continue to feel stigmatized.

It shouldn’t happen, but it does.

So I like to speak up, because there are still many people who can’t talk about their mental health problems, because their employers and family or friends wouldn’t understand.

I don’t think my situation is unique or special. I just hope that by talking about my problems, perhaps I can convince just one person to see mental health as something to be treated the way we treat diabetes or high blood pressure, not a personal failing.

Because let me tell you, it feel like a personal failing from the inside, so the last thing we need are people on the outside reinforcing that idea.

This wasn’t supposed to be a tirade. I don’t really need to gather any excess anger or indignation. I just like to occasionally explain the world from my point of view.

I’m going to work on the layout for the website.

If things are horribly broken, never fear, I’m already cursing at the problem.

For now, you shouldn’t notice much of a difference when I’m done. Most of what I’m doing is behind the scenes.

ADDENDUM the First:
That is IT. I have HAD it with dealing with this, especially on this computer.

I’ve been looking for different ways to battle my depression, and so I’ve bought a couple baking books this year. Why baking books? Because it’s difficult to remain depressed when you’re making cookies.

Last purchase was Nancy Baggett’s All-American Cookie Book, which I’d been eying for the past year or so.

After the book came, I spent a couple evenings on the sofa, first looking through the book, and then marking the recipes I wanted to try. Since I needed a recipe that didn’t have nuts or too much chocolate (due to Grandmom’s diet limitations) I decided to try the Lemon Jumbles, since after chocolate, my next favorite flavor is lemon.

If you are going to make cookies (or anything else) with lemon, always use fresh lemon. Most good lemon recipes call for both lemon zest and lemon juice.
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How on earth did I end up on a mailing list for a Barbie catalog?

Seriously.

Happy Purim!