Obligatory?

Has the "end of the year" post become an obligation? Is it my duty as a blogger to write something to sum up the last year? If so, does that really mean I give a shit?
Oh well. I'll do one anyway.

2009: a year in points

- I worried, a lot. I was also sick, a lot. I'm positive that those two things had NOTHING to do with each other.

- I started working at a new library and quit the old one (despite popular opinion that I would be there forever).

- I made it past the quarter of a century mark without too much trouble. I did not have a nervous breakdown, cry or any other "you're 25 now" cliches. In fact, I think I cared about it less than anyone.

- I completed my second short film, this time - Zombies. It was awesome and I am still grateful to everyone who helped out.

- I made some new and seriously awesome friends and walked away from some seriously not-awesome friends.

- I ended up in the hospital, which I wouldn't recommend for fun.

- I got myself a new puppy. Her name is Frankie, BTW.

- I went to Boston to hang out with two of the awesomest people I'm lucky enough to know.

All in all it was a year I probably wouldn't willingly chose to live over again, but it had its good points. Thanks to everyone who was there to make the good stuff awesome and the shittiness stuff I could live through.
See you all next year.

Always,

-Gwenhwyfar

Good To Know

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So, How Was Your Monday?

Chances are it was better than mine.

Sunday I was fine. Paul came over for supper and we hung out for a while. I played with the new puppy and everything was great. My room is a mess and kind of intense for new pets so I decided to close the doors and sleep in the living room with the cats and the puppy. (It certainly isn't unusual for me to sleep on the couch.)

At about 1.45am I woke up with what I thought was stitch in my side. I spent about 20 minutes trying to stretch it out but instead of getting better it got worse. Within an hour I was struggling to get a breath at all. It felt like someone was crushing my ribs.

Here's a Pro Tip - Panicking makes breathing really difficult and when you're panicking because you can't breathe, it makes things worse.

So at about 2.45am I called my mom who came over to see if there was anything she could do. There wasn't.

This is probably the point at which I should mention that I have a MAJOR hospital phobia. I have broken and set bones myself rather than go to the hospital. So when I heard myself saying "we need to go to the hospital", it dawned on me just how serious it was getting.

Another thing I learned - When you show up at the hospital gasping for breath, they don't make you wait. I got a room in record time and had more tubes and things stuck in and to me than the Borg. I got intimately acquainted with both Morphine and Gravol, both of which made me incredibly groggy and neither of which made it any easier to breathe or less painful.

After a lot of drugs, more questions than I've ever been asked in my life, a CT scan, giving enough blood to cover any possible test and eating an icebergs worth of ice chips (which I had to BEG for from the first doctor and then was given as many as I wanted by the second) they decided that it wasn't any of the more horrible of possibilities.

No blood clot, no heart attack, nothing that needed surgery. It is, in fact pneumonia. It's not usual for it to come on so suddenly or severely but I guess I'm just lucky.

They loaded me up with antibiotics and gave some prescriptions. I even got some food, which I managed to keep down for almost an hour. Then I finally got to go home.

All things considered, it was a pretty shitty day. Today I'm feeling a bit better, still hurting everywhere and breathing is a luxury I promise never to take for granted again. But I'm better than yesterday.

So if anyone needs me, I'll be at home, being sick and hanging with the cats and the puppy.

PUPPY!!!

Everyone, I would like you all to meet my new little girl. So far, she remains nameless but we're going to work on that one tomorrow. I'll keep you updated.

I'm Here To Entertain AND Educate

Here are some fun facts for you, the drooling masses. Enjoy.

- Scientists estimate that sleep lost due to daylight saving time reduces the average lifespan by nearly two full months.

- Wind-mills always turn counter-clockwise. Except the ones in England.

- It is physically impossible to urinate and give blood at the same time.

- The western lowland gorilla's scientific name is 'Gorilla gorilla gorilla.'*

- Oranges, lemons, watermelons, and tomatoes are berries.

- Worms reportedly taste like bacon.

- 49% of Americans don't know that white bread is made from wheat.

- Non-dairy creamer is flammable.

- Moths are unable to fly during an earthquake.

- 90% of women who walk into a department store turn to the right.

- Animals will not eat another animal that has been hit by a lightning strike.

- Wearing headphones for just an hour will increase the bacteria in your ear by 700 times.

- The day after George W. Bush was reelected, Canada's main immigration website had 115,000 visitors. There were only 20,000 before.

- For every person on earth, there are an estimated 200 million insects.

- Kevin Spacey's older brother is a professional Rod Stewart impersonator.

- Americans take an average of ten days off per year for vacation. In France, the law guarantees everyone five weeks of vacation.

Don't worry, there are plenty more where those came from. There is almost no end to the stupid, weird and useless facts about the most trivial, ridiculous bullshit out there.

*edit: thanks for catching that, J.

Only 320 Days Left

I take halloween seriously. Maybe a little more seriously than most people. Personally I don't think there's anything wrong with that. It also means that I usually have my halloween costume all planned out almost a year in advance, along with several other people's (being a make-up artist has its perks).

Since I'm bored and not really in the mood to post anything too serious, here are some ideas I've come up with so far.

- Queen of Hearts (my friend and I went as Sweeny and Mrs. Lovett this year and there was talk of doing Hatter and QoH next year)

- Army Man (which would be wicked awesome if I could find a couple more people so we could have one of each pose)

- Knights of the round table (of the Monty Python variety, complete with "coconut shell" horse/personal assistant)

- House Frau (I think everyone I know would die of shock if I actually did this)

- A Lichtenstein

That's all I have for now (aside for some vague ideas about spending the next couple of years going as different Python sketches) but I'm taking ideas.

So much planning to do....

X-Lessons

A couple months ago I bought Vol. 1 of X-Men: The Animated Series. It's one of those things I love because I grew up watching it. I used to get up early on Saturday morning just to watch it. I bought the comics. I know all the characters. So I was excited to be able to watch them again.

Last week I bought some more and since I've got myself a cold again, I've been doing little else but watching through them all.

While I was watching them (really for the first time in years) I started noticing all the little things that had never really occurred to me before.

- Scott Summers is an even bigger asshole than I remember. I never liked Cyclops, he always struck be as a jerk-bag but there were way too many times I wanted to punch him. Why the fuck is Jean even with him? Hell, Logan is a fucking pushover compared to Scott.

- I know Jubilee was meant to be the character the "younger audience" was supposed to think was cool and someone for them to relate to, but Jesus Christ on a cracker that girl is the most annoying moron in the whole line-up of Marvel characters. Her role seems to be less "being cool and relatable" and more "fucking up everything with her raging stupidity and general fuck-wittery".

- I had completely forgotten just how "late 80s/early 90s" the look of the show was. Mostly because when I was watching the show last it was the late 80s/early 90s.

- X-Men should never have done a Christmas special. It is, hands down, the lamest episode ever. I have never seen a christmas special of any show that I liked but this was absolutely bottom of the barrel.

- I do love Nightcrawler but his over the top christian preachiness made me want to puke. The fact that they had Logan kneeling in a church praying after his chat with Kurt was almost more than I could handle. What the fuck was up with that? Thanks for pushing your hardcore religious agenda on a children's show (and the right-wingers are worried about the "subliminal subversive messages" in other shows?).

- For as much as I really do love the show, it is really funny seeing just how watered down a lot of it is. I know it's because it's a kid show meant for Saturday morning viewing but hearing Wolverine coming out with classic lines like "Stop the philosophy, let's go kick his butt!", "What are you doing with her, you pile of dog puke?" and "It's adamantium tasting time, boys!" (I think we can all be thankful that didn't become his catchphrase) is just kind of sad.

- Not just for X-Men, but can all animated shows PLEASE stop creating Scottish characters (or any character with am accent) unless you are willing to either find someone who HAS an accent or can pull one off successfully. I don't know why the Scots get hit so hard in this category, but sweet Jebus... that shitty voice is making me jealous of the deaf.

I feel like at this point I need to reiterate that I do love the show. Like most things tho, that doesn't mean that I don't have plenty to complain about or make fun of.