( Things getting better at work... )

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( OH NOES A DIET POST )

I'm sleepless, I'm a bit cranky, I didn't eat much last night. "Screw it, I'm getting a donut." There's a donut shop a block from the apartment that I've never tried. I order a kolache and a donut. Lady puts them in two separate bags.

I open the kolache bag on the way out and immediately take a bite. Then I notice two glazed donut holes in the bottom of the bag. Crap, she gave me the wrong bag. But I've already taken a bite, so ah well.

I get home and open the donut bag. It also has two glazed donut holes in the bottom. DONUT SHOP WIN. DIET CRITICAL FAIL.

The political brouhaha of the week is that Mitt Romney, when we was in high school, got a gang of guys together, jumped an effeminate gay-looking guy, held the guy down, and cut his hair.

I was bullied a lot in elementary and junior high. I was poor, I was a nerd, I was really awkward. I still carry a huge chip on my shoulder from it, and any incidents like this still unnerve me. (Maybe it's a small blessing that my school system was more into psychological torture than physical scarring.) Thing is, I don't actually feel that mad at Romney about this thing.

Yeah, I was bullied a lot, but then I also did it to other kids. Like in junior high, there was some girl who had been accused of stuffing her bra. So every time I walked past her, I made some comment and laughed about it, to the point that one time she got pissed off and kicked me off my bike. Y'know, that's what you were supposed to do. If someone was inferior to you, you were supposed to point it out to them and prove your superiority. It was a fucking virus - people did it to you, so you did it to others, and I don't even know why.

So Romney assaulted some kid at 18 and got away with it. Fine, I can kinda buy that. Someone should've pressed charges at the time, but it was four decades ago. So Romney gave some bullshit answer to it a few days ago. Okay, lots of people would get nervous and try to laugh it off when confronted by something so horrible about their past.

No, I'm not mad at Mitt here. I'm mad at the entire goddamned society. I'm mad that I walk past a TV running CNN at the gym with the tagline, "Romney Incident: "Prank" or Bullying?" If a bunch of 25-year-old men held a guy down and cut his hair, they'd be charged with assault, but when a bunch of high school kids do it, it's labelled with some half-ass innocent words like "Prank" and "Bullying" and "Not Assault."

I'm mad that people all over the internet today are rushing to defend the incident - not just Romney, but the incident itself. They say, "Oh, everyone was bullied at some point in time." NO, YOU IGNORANT FUCKTARDS, NOT EVERYONE WAS WRESTLED TO THE GROUND AND MARKED BY THE MOST POPULAR, UNTOUCHABLE KIDS IN SCHOOL IN ORDER TO DENIGRATE THEM IN FRONT OF THEIR ENTIRE SOCIAL STRUCTURE. THAT SHIT DID NOT HAPPEN TO YOU.

I have said this before - Americans believe that bullying is a birthright. We believe that victims of bullying basically deserve it, that they should've been tough enough to fight back, or they should've just manned up and lived through it, or they should've known that dressing like a faggot would get them beaten up. I am not that concerned that our next president could be a guy who was a bully. I am concerned that a substantial portion of the people who will vote for him appear to see that as a positive trait in a leader.

Go to Goodwill to try and find an extra pair of cheap work pants. Take five pairs off the shelf to try. Go to dressing room, it says to only bring three pieces in at once.

I bring in two pairs. One fits, one doesn't. I put one on the return rack and put the other pair off to the side.

I bring in the other three pair. None of them fit. So I've only found one pair of pants in the store that fits.

I walk back out to take my one pair and leave. An employee has helpfully walked by, grabbed both pair to return to the shelves, and ninja'ed her way out of sight. And I end up leaving without an extra pair of pants. Fuck you, Goodwill ninja.

So last night I went to the convenience store nearby to get some milk and ridiculous novelty cereal, because I could.

And this particular store regularly has THE most ridiculous music, running the gamut from the randomest of random oldies to horrible covers of death.

And I was perusing the cereal aisle (and moving around every so often to avoid these incredibly sugar-powered kids speeding up and down the aisle repeatedly), and I hear over the intercom: "o/` Don't know much about a science book, don't know much about the French I took~"

And I had to stop myself from giggling like a nerd sovereign, because that particular song shows up briefly in one of the Jing: King of Bandits manga (specifically volume 4, in the Prison of Dreams story arc, where it is used as a method of making sure a dodo-bird-and-cerberus-dog-powered trolley moves at the right tempo, and no I'm not kidding, and no that is not the silliest means of drawing a trolley seen in that manga) in a couple of panels and I am easily entertained.

One of the nice things about having a brain that works the way mine does (when I have the right medication and strategies to navigate its crazier flights of WTF), even if it can make things a pain in the damn ass sometimes because I can't focus or people don't understand my nonlinear logic leaps of doom? I am rarely bored for too terribly long these days. Because I will remember things like oldies songs in manga out of the blue and it will make me smile and I will be able to deal with dodging speeding kids in Shoppers Drug Mart repeatedly. XD

...what.

I pulled up my healthcare website, got a list of approved doctors in the area. There are several doctors that have received a two-star rating indicating that this doctor has gone through a cost and quality assurance program. So you would imagine that this would inform my decision on selecting a doctor.

I start calling down the list.
* Next available opening: four weeks.
* Next available opening: not sure, maybe six weeks.
* Not accepting new patients.
* No longer accepting my health care plan.
* Waiting list for new appointments.

The last one says to me, "Hey, I have phone numbers for a couple of new doctors in town. You should call them." I call the first. That one is not in my network. I call the second. They ask if I'd like to come in tomorrow.

So I keep calling and... wait, an opening TOMORROW? I call this insane right to the secretary's face, and she laughs. I have no idea if this doctor has a two-star rating, or if they even appear on my provider's website.

Every now and then, you will hear a libertarian say that healthcare would be better if insurance was reserved for high-cost problems and that more low-cost things were paid out of pocket, because then people would shop around for the best price and care. I want those people to give me their doctors' phone numbers and tell me when they have openings.

They are enormous, prim, articulate, intellectual Ancient-Egypt-y spiders and that rocks.

So this made me really happy to see. XD

I like that people remember that Anub'arak wasn't a sellout. (I'm guessing it's epic spider pride /\8/\ that makes the living Nerubians figure he is; after all, nothing could possibly outwit or outclobber Anub so he must've thrown in his lot with the bodiless oaf, right? Most improper!) And that the Nerubians are not exactly willing fandoobies like the Cult of the Damned. Nerubians are arachnid Vulcans. XD

Blizzard seems to forget this, but they've forgotten a lot of stuff when it's convenient or Metzen hit the beer bong too hardthey got lazy or they forgot and didn't bother to look things up or w/e. Which...that's going the right way to futz your way into a corner plotwise. Diamond-shattering side-eye goes here.

ANYHOW back to the Nerubians...I wish we'd seen more of them in WoW, and we had gotten to go to Azjol-Nerub. We may well in the future if they move its zone map somewhere that isn't under Northrend lol--portal it like Quel'Thalas maybe. There are still old gods kicking about after all. I DUNNO MAN LOL WISHFUL THINKING.

( self-indulgent AU yammering XD )