Yippikya.com

No, I haven't snapped. Well, haven't snapped more, I guess. I have been spending far too much time at Yippikya.com. No, it's not about cowboys. It's one of them there social networking sites, but with a twist. It's geared towards creative types. Artists, designers, singers, musicians, photographers. I like it so much, I even wrote a yippikya squidoo lens about it. Doing that brought me to the attention of one of the founders of the site. (Yes, really.) I was nervous at first, because I thought he was going to be pissed. I don't know why, that's just the way my brain works. He was actually happy that I wrote the post, and even invited me to visit their offices. Of course, they're in Houston, so it'd be a bit of a long trip just to say "Hi", but I appreciate the gesture all the same.

If you're interested in joining, here's my affiliate link. If you're not interested in joining, that's fine too.

Just To Prove Sam Wrong

... and because I'm too tired to think more clearly about it. The meme regarding writing strengths. In no particular order:

1. Relentless, ever-functioning internal spell-checker. The thing that makes me curse and/or twitch whenever I leave the apartment and read something with typos.
2. Not to steal from Sam, but I'm also visual. Probably has something to do with that art stuff. I can see the scene in my head, play it out, pause it, rewind... it's like having a DVD player wedged in my skull. Only without the searing pain. usually.
3. Stories pop into my head nearly fully-formed. I just have to "watch" them, and write it all out. Very little editing required.
4. Completely unnecessarily good memory for trivia. Why does that matter? I wrote a story in 7th grade that my teacher really liked. Want me to tell you about it? I can. I can take the parts that were good then and make them even better now, remember what worked and what didn't. But I can't remember where I left my keys or my hair. Go figure!
5. I have a 19th century vocabulary. By that I mean I use words like "propinquity" and never stop to think that the reader doesn't know what the hell I'm on about. If I write "singular" it doesn't mean "alone" or have anything to do with astrophysics. (Usually.) For me, it means "unique".

There you go, Sam.

Explicit Lyrics

We stopped at our friendly Verizon Wireless store today to upgrade our cell phone. Part of the contract renewal, not because we're phone-happy. (We're decidedly phone-unhappy people.) The transaction complete, the nervous anime-eyed sales rep asked that we fill out a customer satisfaction survey online. I completed the survey, and it presented me with a button to close the window. I clicked on the button, and started to laugh. Why? Because I saw this:

How, exactly, do I close the browser window explicitly? Is there some sort of flourish I'm lacking when I click buttons that make my actions not as explicit as they should be? Do I need to adjust my chair if I'm going to start doing explicit things with my browser? I'm going to have to do some research into this. There's a whole world of internet inactivity that's thus far escaped me!

Half News

I'm really tired of the news. That is, news programs such as CNN. It's annoying not only because it's the only channel we watch with any regularity, but because of the way the news is dished out. Half a story or less, with occasional facts thrown in there, all for the sake of ratings? Shouldn't ratings not matter when it comes to the news? Shouldn't the news be, well, news? Facts? Things that are currently happening around the globe, as well as across the nation? I don't care about celebrity custody battles. Save those oh-so-juicy stories for the entertainment shows. And... hey, media? I know there's a big hullabaloo about the Navy building that looks like a swastika from the air, but could you maybe provide some facts for people? You know, like how that particular symbol has been around since the neolithic, has been used in all manner of religions and cultures the world over, and to focus on its history since 1920 is really just a drop in the bucket and does nothing but feed into the negativity associated with it. Learning from history means all of history. As far back as we're able to go. Not just to when talkies were a novelty. Despite what creationists may think, humans didn't just pop into the scene a hundred years ago. No need to spend $600,000 taxpayer dollars on fixing a building just because it looks like something, OK? There are many, many other things that need fixing first.

Or, the short version: stop being stupid.