Okay

http://thegoosegirl.wordpress.com

(blame jess.)

It's snowing!

It's happy-making. Seriously and completely happy-making that it's snowing. In fact, I just pulled up the blinds on my window so that I can see the flurries. 

And I'm drinking an iced chai. Go figure. I just need caffeine to make it through the day. I have to have my paper pretty much done by 4:30 because I'm working from 5:00 to 10:00, and my rough draft conference is tomorrow at 11:00. I figure that I'll have like three hours tomorrow, too. 

But hopefully this snow is a good omen for the rest of the season. 

But I suppose my paper is coming along. I think I might have four secondary sources, which means that I need at least one more, and so far it's like three pages, and it has to be five to seven. I'll get there. 

Ooh! The snow is sticking! Yay!

Except will that mean that I'll have to drive in snow? Ick. I mean, I did have my permit in the winter, but like, I never drove. 

The downside to this whole paper thing is that I seem to have lost the sample paper, so like I don't know what exactly I need. I think a title page, an outline, the draft, the works cited page, and then the sources--photocopied or printed out. Sigh. So complicated. And for what exactly?

I'll be so glad when this class is over.

♥madison

Respect

Apparently some people from YA for Obama have joined Team Sarah, probably to see what they're saying and to give a different viewpoint. This has lead some Team Sarah people to join YA for Obama.

And some of them are driving me insane. They seem on the whole to be a bit condescending. And the one? Grr.

It's not that I wish she would leave. Okay, I do, but not for the reason you think.

Maureen Johnson has said countless times that anyone and everyone is welcome on the site, and it's great that there are older and younger, American and foreign, conservative and liberal. I mean, you can't get well-educated on politics until you talk with people from all sides.

I know I do have the tendency to get frustrated and stuff when discussing things with people who strongly disagree with me. I mean, I think that's human nature. But it's sort of more like when I feel I'm not being understood. That's what really ticks me off.

I mean, I wholeheartedly believe that you shouldn't go into something attempting to change someone's mind but simply to explain your own views. Especially when you're in the minority.

And you should never be condescending toward the other side. You have to stay completely respectful. I mean, you have to be beyond respectful. It's not until later that you can start getting a little more passionate.

And this woman? She is just so patronizing and condescending and it's annoying me to bits. I already responded to explain to her that I took offense at her calling people she disagreed with "mad" and "bizarre." Um...just because I call her "crazy lady" in my head doesn't mean I'm going to call her that to her face.

And you know, it has like nothing to do with her political beliefs. It has everything to do with her tone.

It's just so aggravating. I mean, I know I'm not exactly as respectful as I could be on my blog, but this is my blog and I can say whatever I want how I want. On sites that aren't mine, I use a very different tone. I mean, yes, sometimes I do lose my temper, but I like never resort to condescension. 

I mean, so far, she has done nothing but aggravate me. And it makes it so much harder for me to listen to her and to consider what she's saying because I'm so turned off by her tone.

And I highly doubt that's her intention. 

And please don't think that this is because I'm liberal. It's not. I am just as turned off by some of the responses this woman has received from liberals. 

I just don't see why people can't keep things respectful. Read through it. If it's not something you'd want someone--especially a stranger--to say to you, there's probably a better way to say it. 

I'm not saying that you should just bite your tongue and not say anything. I'm just saying that to me, the more persuasive posts are the quieter ones. I can read those and understand what the person is saying. I can't when I feel like the person is yelling at me.

♥madison

Confused and otherwise not in a good place

Why can't I make up my mind? Because I am totally not in a good place right now, and making up my mind is just about the last thing that I'm capable of doing.

And then I'm like never sure if half the things I think and feel are really what I'm thinking and feeling or if I'm just being a drama queen. And it's kind of a scary thought when you're trying to figure out what's exactly real and what's just you being your writerly self and dramatizing everything because seriously, where's the fun if there's no drama?

But that just leads to so much confusion because you just don't know. Like you have no idea who you even are. You just have no grasp on reality.

And what grasp on reality you do have, you completely hate because reality is totally and completely cruel to you at the moment.

And that's what it's like for me at the moment. And that is why I'm doing this. Because I have like no idea what exactly it is I want or need at the moment. Except way more time. And a quadrillion dollars. 

♥madison

The agnostic is asking for more prayers and good thoughts

http://thegoosegirl.wordpress.com/2008/11/18/the-agnostic-is-asking-for-more-prayers-and-good-thoughts/

If you don't already have the password (it's the same as usual), you can email me.

speak2wind [AT] gmail [DOT] com

This is all just rather ironic because we're reading Waiting for Lefty in Drama, and it's very much pro-working class and somewhat communist. And it's like if anything can make you hope for a revolution and a completely overthrow of the system, it's this.

This will be weird

Internet Explorer has gone temperamental and keeps telling me that it's stopped working. I'm thinking that it may have something to do with installing the video chat stuff, but I'm not sure. That's just when the problem started. And since I need my internet, I've downloaded Firefox since like it seems everyone likes it better. Except it's strange to me because I've been using Internet Explorer forever.

But if it's not going to work for me, then I'm not going to use it. Because like seriously. The internet should be a convenience, not an annoyance.

This spell check thing is majorly annoying me. I like usually turn spell check off unless I want to check the spelling, so an automatic spell check=not cool to Anilee.

See? It's even telling me that I'm spelling my name wrong!

♥anilee

Three Short Tales of Idiots on the Road

So on the way to class...

There was this moron in the left lane who like WOULDN'T PASS. And he had like this special engine too, going by the sound. He liked didn't step on the gas until I tried to pass him in the right lane, but there wasn't enough room. (Yes, Anilee will pass in the right lane if it comes to it.)

But that wasn't the worst of it.

On the way home, two idiots wouldn't move into the left lane so I could merge, even though there was plenty of room. Although the one person, I later noticed, got off at the next exit. So that's sort of okay, although I was still ticked.

But you want to know what really put me in a bad mood?

I almost got hit by a truck. Yep. Some f****** idiot of a truck driver thought he like actually would be able to make that turn before I reached that stretch of the road. Yeah...I was livid. I like had to slam on the brakes, and that moron of a truck driver (how did he pass his test?) like drove in the wrong lane for a bit until he could into the proper lane. Oh, and then? He goes a whole freaking fifteen miles per hour under the speed limit. Seriously. Way uncool.

Just because it's raining does not mean that you should drive like an idiot. You should drive cautiously, yes, but never like an idiot.

The worst thing was I forgot about the horn. I totally could have honked it when that truck driver was pulling out.

I still want to know what was going through his head. Seriously.

♥anilee