For those who don’t get WVU E-News or the local paper:

CONSTRUCTION, TRAFFIC DELAYS

1) Construction to begin Monday on Willowdale sidewalk project
Work is set to begin Monday on the Willowdale sidewalk project, spearheaded by WVU’s Student Government Association (SGA). The project is expected to be completed by mid-August in time for the start of the fall semester. March-Westin was the successful bidder on the project, which will add a 5-foot-wide sidewalk along Willowdale Road, a popular walkway for students and Morgantown residents adjacent to Milan Puskar Stadium, Ruby Memorial Hospital and the WVU Health Sciences Center. When complete, the new paved area will connect to a city sidewalk leading downtown and will be lit as well as handicapped accessible. The public should expect Willowdale Road to be reduced to one lane for intermittent periods while crews are at work.

In the lab, the last group of computers face the wall, which means that you can’t see what’s on the monitors. As far as we’re concerned, anyone who sits at those computers is porn surfing, but there’s nothing we can do about it, since we can’t catch ’em at it.

Which brings me to today.

As I was walking back to my office (in the back of the lab) I noticed one of the creeps who always sits in the back of the lab.

Then I noticed that his keyboard tray was shaking.

I really hope he was just playing some action game, but I wasn’t about to look closer.

Michael: You win! You got all the mail!
Michelle: Really? What’d I get? Anything fun?
Michael: Lowe’s bill…Credit card bill… well, those are in my name, but you pay ’em, so they’re yours.
Michelle: Gee, thanks.
Michael: John Edwards… XM… USAA… Gardener’s catalog…
Michelle: Oooooooh! Gardener’s Catalog! I could spend some money there.
Michael: I didn’t say Gardener’s catalog. No Gardener’s catalog here. Nope.

Could be worse. Coulda also been Baker’s Catalog and a catalog from Sur la Table.

Steampunk Workshop including Steampunk Keyboard and Monitor.

Steam Punk Star Trek About 10 minutes, and long in places, but still amusing

Totally safe for work yet rather disturbing Robot Romance

xkcd webcomic I’ve been reading this regularly for awhile. Here’s a recent favorite

Girls with Slingshots webcomic, you really have to start at the beginning and work your way forward. Not for everyone.

ARRRRRRG. Fucking sweet potatoes. Cats are bad enough. I definitely don’t need a dog.

Pawsense I’d somehow managed to forget about this. Probably because both of my cats stay off our computers

Warning: Cat Vomit I keep meaning to order one of these signs.

100% off on Amazon Make sure you read the reviews.

Naturallycurly.com (This is a reminder for me to check here. If you’ve seen my hair you’ll understand.)

Culled from here and there and my memory.

Doctor: I’m prescribing you the 20mg tabs, but I’d like you to take 10mg for the first week. You can just cut the pills in half.

Pharmacist: Your prescription plan won’t pay for this medication in smaller than 40mg doses, so you’ll need to cut the pills in half to get a 20mg dose.

Perhaps I’m just paranoid, but it really seems like someone out there screwing around with me.

On the bright side, this medication only cost $4, and a pill cutter cost $4.50. So all in all it’s still $102 dollars cheaper than the last medicine.

Every time I check the weather (I love the animated radar), it looks as if the called for rain is not going to happen.

So I did my part to make it rain.

I just spent an hour watering my flowers.

Just how much of a geek is Michelle?
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…has always squicked me out.

wetware \WET-wair\ noun
: the human brain or a human being considered especially with respect to human logical and computational capabilities

It makes me think of the kinds of noises you’d hear if someone opened up your skull and went poking about in your brain.

Just so you don’t think I fell of the earth, I’m still here, and I’m still attempting to deal–although I’m not necessarily dealing well.

I’m still having a rough time with my medication–in fact I left a message for the doctor to call me, because I think I’m doing worse than I was when is started the meds. (Which I find amusing when I’m not being annoyed by the side effects. [Because, really, who doesn’t need a little something to make them more anxious and jittery?])

How do I know things are getting worse? Because I can hardly drag myself out of bed in the morning, and if given the choice would spend all my time hiding in the basement reading all my favorite books. But I am getting out of bed and going to work. And I am not hiding in the basement–at least not all the time. And I’m reading new books instead of my old favorites (but that’s mostly because I have so many books I haven’t read, I feel guilty picking up a book I’ve read previously. No matter how much The Phoenix Guards or Swordspoint or Pawn of Prophecy calls out to me. [Especially Phoenix Guards, because reading that means I have to read Five Hundred Years After, and then I’d have to read The Khaavren Romances, and then I’d have to read all the Vlad books, and since I have Dzur on pre-order for when it comes out in paperback, I’ll have to re-read all the Vlad books again then…(I’m sure you can understand how difficult it is.)])

So I’m dealing. I just could be dealing better.

To be honest, it’s terribly frustrating to know that in what seems to be another life, I could deal with the problems and issues that cropped up from day to day. I know I was once a person who could handle stressors–maybe not exceptionally well, but I could handle them. But that seems like something that I read about rather than something I did myself. Depression makes me feel like I’ve always been completely incompetent, so why do I bother trying. But after years of dealing with this, I’ve learned that if I take action and do something about my depression, it will eventually pass.

I just have to be patient.

I hate being patient.

In other news, now that it seems to be general knowledge (i.e they finally told my grandmother), my father starts radiation therapy next week. In the grand scheme of things, it’s not a huge deal. But when he had the surgery for his prostate cancer in 1999, I was hoping not to have to deal with this again. But things are the way they are, and I simply have to accept that (since it’s not like I can actually do anything about it.)

So nothing has really changed–I’m still plodding along. But I have hope that things will get better soon.

Like maybe after I completely get over this stupid cold I seem to have picked up.

Memorial Day is the day we are to remember those who fought for our country. This is the day we remember those who fought for our freedom and for justice. This is the day we remember those who gave their lives to so that we might now have:

freedom of speech….
freedom of religion….
freedom of association….
freedom of the press….
the right to keep and bear arms….
the right to keep the military out of our homes….
the right to be secure from illegal search and seizure….
the right to a trial by jury….

Main Entry: freedom
Pronunciation: ‘frE-d&m
Function: noun
1 : the quality or state of being free: as
a: the absence of necessity, coercion, or constraint in choice or action
b: liberation from slavery or restraint or from the power of another : INDEPENDENCE
c: the quality or state of being exempt or released usually from something onerous (freedom from care)

Memorial Day
The history of Memorial Day

US Census site for memorial day

http://www.census.gov/pubinfo/www/multimedia/Memorial2004.html
Remember
The Constitution and other historical US documents

But most of all, please remember the 3426 soldiers who have died in Iraq, the 387 soldiers who have died in Afghanistan, and the many many soldiers of have been wounded in service to our country..

What a complete asshat.

See SmartBitchesTrashyBooks for a longer refutation.

Theological world views:
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After a month and a half of phone calls and hair pulling, a new DSL modem, multiple checks by Earthlink and Verizon, and finally a new line from the telephone pole to the house after we eventually had difficulty with our phone service, we finally have stable Internet!

As a complete and total geek, you can’t imagine what it’s been like having an internet connection that wouldn’t stay up for more than a few seconds at a time. I was reduced to playing minesweeper and solitaire!

So with internet back I spent the evening catching up on book reviews and trying not to pay attention to the Star Trek: Next Generation that Michael and my grandmother were watching.

As far as everything else goes, I’d say I’m feeling better, but that’d be a lie. Let’s say I’m feeling less horrible, and maybe I’ll be back for more regular posts next week–depending.

Or perhaps not.

I’m not sure how much I’m going to be posting for awhile.

I’m still having problems with my depression, and so don’t really have much to say other than things along the line of, “woe is me,” which may be amusing the first time, because it’s not like you hear the word “woe” very often, but is much less amusing on the umpteenth repetition.

So, you’ll see me when you see me. I’ve only been on the meds for two weeks, so perhaps just giving it a bit more time will help.