Deborah Lipp

75%How Addicted to Blogging Are You?

I get a lot of comment spam exactly like this:

Daniel [email address] [spammy website] [IP address]

I couldn’t understand some parts of this article [blog post title], but I guess I just need to check some more resources regarding this, because it sounds interesting.

Daniel doesn’t understand anything. He doesn’t understand Paganism, politics, cats, or movie reviews. But he’s always willing to check more resources. Several times a day, sometimes.

Daniel, read a fucking book and get back to me, okay?

Roberta tagged the whole wide world with this meme about what you think 2008 will have in store.

1. Will you be looking for a new job?
No. I mean, disaster could strike, but I’m very stable in this job and I’m a stable type person.

2. Will you be looking for a new relationship?
Absofuckinglutely.

3. New house?
No way. Maybe in 2009 or later, I’d like to own all four walls but not now.

4. What will you do differently in 08?
Let go more; control less. Hah! But no, I think I really will.

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Apparently, today is Show Us Your Blogspace Day, and even though PSoTD didn’t challenge me personally, I thought it looked both fun and humiliating. Plus, I cross-post at If I Ran the Zoo, and PSoTD did challenge IIRtZ. So there.

The blog shown on my monitor is, in fact, Tom’s IIRtZ post of his blogspace.

Featured in this hideous mess; my Cow Parade “Udderly Wicked” cow, a Kali figure, my James Bond Movie Poster calendar (still on November, but November is You Only Live Twice, and December is Die Another Day), a fairy, a Lego witch set, Arthur’s iPod shuffle case, the camera case, a framed Playbill from The Fantasticks 25th anniversary (I also have the 35th somewhere), my Beanie Baby dogs (I have to keep them separate from the other Beanie Babies; they’re troublemakers) and I dunno what all else.

Denzel wants me too. Get in line, buddy.

This is so great. Play the vocabulary quiz game and donate rice through the United Nations to help combat world hunger.

It’s a super-good quiz. The words are hard, and some of the words given as possible answers are also hard.

So far, my best level is 48. Go ahead and beat that.

I know someone who is a narcissist. I don’t mean someone vain or self-centered, I mean a textbook, DSM-IV, narcissist.

One thing I’ve noticed about this person is that he’s pretty clueless about all sorts of things. Doesn’t know about common illnesses or their well-known home remedies. Doesn’t know what sort of government agencies exist to help with common problems. All sorts of small, helpful awarenesses are just utterly absent.

I was surprised at this at first, because this is a very intelligent person. But ultimately I realized that it is in fact, part of the narcissism (Gods, I hate typing that word).

One feature of narcissim (argh) is lack of empathy. Which at first seems like an interpersonal problem. Damages friendships and family relations, that sort of thing. But it turns out, you learn a lot in life from being empathetic. Face it, there’s a finite amount you’re going to learn by studying, or by experiencing it yourself. Most of us have a huge body of knowledge gained by paying attention to our friends. My friend had back surgery. My sister and another friend had gastric bypass. I have several friends in AA. I know two people who’ve successfully sued to get SSI disability. None of these are things I’ve experienced myself, but all of them are things I know about, and can talk about knowledgeably, because I’ve paid attention to what my friends had to say about their own experience.

If you lack empathy, you lack an enormous resource for becoming smart about the world. So no matter how high your IQ, you end up…kind of dumb.

A photo journal of a fabulous meal:

The table is mostly set when we arrive

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Speaking of co-workers, one of our consultants is very handsome. Very handsome. In a Mohinder Suresh kind of way.

A few weeks ago, I started to realize that Mohinder has kind of a crush on me. Always laughs when I make a little aside in a meeting, always gives me a big, cheery hello in the mornings, always big beautiful eyes and a dazzling smile. It just feels like he’s paying extra attention to me.

At the same time, I keep telling myself, that’s how beautiful people make you feel. That’s what their power is. When you have those eyes and that smile, everyone feels like it’s especially dazzling when pointed at them.

But still.

(Oh my GODS he just did it again. “Hi Deb.” Big smile. Raised eyebrows. Eye contact. Oh. My. Gods.)

I’ve been working late for days and days. Hell of a project. Here every night until seven. And the other night, around 6:45 or so, Mohinder comes up to me and offers me an apple and a granola bar. Because I’m working late. And he’s concerned. With big eyes and a sweet face. And again I say: Oh my Gods.

So I tell this story to Arthur and he’s all “Go for it!” But, but, but…What does go for it even mean in this context? He’s fifteen years younger than me, he’s from a very different culture, he’s a co-worker, he lives in a rooming house owned by his consulting company, with six other Indian consultants. Go for it? I’m stumped to even define “it.”

Still. Mohinder. Wow.

Saturday I went to a birthday/costume party. Dressed as a fairy. So there was glitter involved.

Monday morning I arrive at work and someone says “There’s glitter in your hair.” Monday. Two days later.

Oy.

Then another person remarks on the glitter. Then another. My credibility is clearly shot. So anyway, I’m talking to the third person, and we’re joking around about it, and she says something about ‘What’s in that stuff, anyway?’ (Because it’s in my hair, eyebrows, bathroom sink…she figures probably my lungs as well.) And I said, ‘I dunno, probably carcinogens.’

And what it came down to was this: You know why you never see elderly fairies? That’s right. It’s the glitter. Fairy Lung.