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Right about now I have a serious hate churning inside me for the WordPress Media Uploader. But even though it’s giving me no end of problems, (I’ve been working on this same post for the last two hours), I’m still going to share these pictures because they’re awesome.

As Father Z has noted, there have been two comets visible throughout the last two weeks. Whether you’ve been able to see them or not depends on where you are. I haven’t looked at Rapture Ready, but I’m sure they’re really nutting up over there since comets were seen as omens in previous centuries, and there have been two of them visible in such a short time.

And now, on with the pictures. All of these come from Astronomy Picture of the Day, which is a great site because, along with the pretty pictures, they provide nice descriptions with lots of links.

For my blind visitors, I have uploaded this as a gallery since I had to do this via email, and it contains the following pictures, in no particular order. I apologize. I had planned to put these up with nice, descriptive alt tags and everything. Most of these pictures are of Panstarrs. One of them was taken over Boulder, Colorado, with the sunset; one was taken with the Tucson Mountain Range featured along with the new moon; one of them was taken from a space vehicle and features Earth and a mass coronal eruption; and lastly, one is a picture of both Panstarrs and Lemmon, (the other comet), both visible at the same time at sunset.

Evans, Georgia, United States
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It’s been a very long time since I’ve actually sat down and wrote something for this site. I don’t suppose the audio posts count. And a lot has happened.

Since the last time I wrote something significant, I found a place. My very own place. With a bed and a sock drawer and everything. It’s located in a really good area, and there’s a ton of stuff within walking distance. And it’s month-to-month, which meansI’m not trapped for a year at a time in case some work comes up somewhere else other than Augusta. I have a roommate, but she’s got her room and I’ve got mine, and there’s a huge amount of space between us. And she’s nice. And not an ax-murderer. So it’s cool. I got interwebs set up yesterday, and will have wireless later. Which means I can start playing with my new utrabook. And eventually, I can start pulling stuff out of storage. Yay!

Once I get completely settled, (or maybe before then), there’s going to be more written content here. I have a desk now, which makes this a whole lot easier. And I will put up some pictures as soon as I get some taken.

I’m participating in National Blog Post Month again, and this time, I hope to actualy be able to complete the challenge and write something every day. And I have some neighbors who will provide some very interesting stories to tell. I promise, not mean ones.

So, let the new chapter begin.

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I normally try to keep things positive and apolitical around here, because I want everyone, no matter where they fit on the political spectrum, to feel welcome. But I just came across an article from Yahoo! News (thanks Twitter) about two men who decided to have their doctor euthanize them after they found out that along with being deaf, they were also going blind and would never see each other again. I heard something about this story earlier this week, but didn’t go looking for it. After reading this article, I’m shocked. I would never dream of having myself euthanized if I found myself in a position where I was going to lose my hearing, although I depend heavily on it. Yes, it would be devastating, but I’d learn to adapt. But I also recognize that, in Belgium, where this took place, euthanasia is legal, and individuals who are over eighteen, and mentally competent, have the option of doctor-assisted suicide if they’re suffering. But what really shocked me was the last line in the article:

Belgian lawmakers are considering a law that would extend euthanasia to dementia patients and children, whose families and doctors consented.

That’s taking this entirely too far, in my oppinion. I can see where this is going. A couple has a baby, learns that the child will be disabled, and then decides to have the child euthanized. The child has no say because he or she is too young. That’s crossing the line and would be murder. Same thing with the elderly. Family decides they don’t want to take care of Grandpa anymore, so let’s just put him out of his misery. And I can see all kinds of “quality-of-life” arguments being bandied around.

Personally, I think the two gentlemen who committed suicide rather than become blind and then learn to adapt made a tragic decision. But I can also understand that they had the choice, and maybe they weren’t aware of any resources that could help them, and they figured they were in for a lot of unbearable suffering. And so they exercised their right of free choice, and took the option they did. I don’t agree with it, but I can understand it. But according to the last line of that article, consent by the victim goes out the window, and it becomes another person’s choice. And that’s completely evil.

So what do you all think? Am I just foaming at the mouth, or does my position have merit? Leave a comment and let me know.

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The Road goes ever on and on
Down from the door where it began.
Now far ahead the Road has gone,
And I must follow, if I can,
Pursuing it with eager feet,
Until it joins some larger way
Where many paths and errands meet.
And whither then? I cannot say.

–J. R. R. Tolkien

I’ve been thinking for a long time about adding a sustained series of posts on my health journey:

  • What I’m doing generally to become healthier
  • What I’m doing specifically to become healthier
  • The health goals I would like to reach
  • My thoughts and feelings as I travel through my health journey

This is the official beginning of the series, although I’ve been seriously working at this since August of 2013. I started Weight Watchers in August, and that’s been the main thrust of my journey. But because I want to talk about other things that are tangentially related to this, I’m going to make these posts broader in scope.

Yesterday, we had a Starfleet get-together in Colombia, (South Carolina, not the country), so we dropped by Weight Watchers early to jump on the scale and check our progress for the previous week. Technically, Saturday is the beginning of my Weight Watchers week, but I still think of it as ending the week, since Saturday is the end of the week calendrically on both the Jewish and Gregorian calendars, (at least in the United States). Last week, I lost 2.6 pounds. This week, I stayed the same, neither gaining nor losing. I’m happy with these results for a couple of reasons:

  1. I tracked last week, but not every meal, mainly because I find the iPhone app such a pain to use with Voiceover, and the Weight Watchers site is pretty much unuseable with a screenreader, any screenreader.
  2. I was active this week according to my ActiveLink, and I was active more than the week before, but I still didn’t reach one hundred percent of my activity goals for any says this week.

My activity percentages were higher than the previous week though, and this is a good thing. I’m planning to be more consistently active during this week, to get the percentages higher.

I also had two non-scale victories this week.

  1. I have some dennim skirts that I couldn’t fit into before I started Weight Watchers back in August. As of last week, they were still a little tight, but not tight enough that they couldn’t be worn in public.
  2. I also had a T-shirt that I couldn’t get into back in August, and I can wear that now too.

This week, I’m getting up earlier so I can be up early enough to pray and get started on tasks I need to complete at a reasonable hour. I’m also going to make it a point to put my ActiveLink on earlier so that I can maximize the amount of activity I do in a day. I will also start a section in my journal to keep track of my thoughts, feelings and achievements over the week so that I can compile them into a post next week so I can keep this series going. I haven’t written in my journal in a long time and I think that’s something missing in my life.

I think if I stick to my goals, the week ahead will be a very productive one.

More next week.

Evans, Georgia, United States
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It’s a new week, and that means more writing. I missed Thursday and Friday, (with the exception of little bits), and I’m hoping this doesn’t disqualify me for this month’s National Blog Post Month. I’ll catch up on the prompts I missed for last week, because I think they were good ones and I would like to write about those subjects.

Today we deal with the subject of music, and which songs are good for helping with the get-up-and-go that is so important for getting stuff done and making sure I don’t spend the entire day in front of the TV engrossedin the ID channel. (For those who aren’t familiar with it, that’s Investigation Discovery, and it’s all crime, all the time, and they never run infomercials. If your cable provider doesn’t carry it, call them and threaten to get a bunch of your friends and other interested parties together and start rioting outside their offices until they do. 😛 ).

Anyway, back to the music.

Music has always been a huge part of my ife. I normally listen to jazz or soul, especially when I’m working. Jazz and other instrumental music helps me to concentrate on what I’m doing and avoid distractions. But when the need for energy arises, that’s an entirely different story. This is the point at whitch I will either listen to some of the stuff I grew up, or listen to certain alternative tracks. And speaking of the music I grew up with …

When I was a teenager, my all-time favorite group was Color Me Badd. I bought all their albums, saved newspaper clippings, had videos, and even annoyed my local radio station with requests just so I could make sure their music got played. I bought their second album after spending two days singing at an Exceptional Children’s Conference. I stopped at a record store (remember those?) in Greensborough, North Carolina, on the way back home to the Fayetteville area to pick it up, and had the chance to listen to it (or at least part of it) before my mom and brother and sisters got home, which meant I could play it as loud as I wanted. The eighth track on that album, (Time And Chance), is a song called “In The Sunshine”. I thought it was cool and catchy then, and I still find it catchy now. It has an upbeat, happy sound. Unfortunately, I don’t know of an official video that I can link to, but if I find one, I’ll update this post. Of course, since I was thirteen, the content of the lyrics went right over my head. When I listened to the song again as an adult, and knew what was going on, I found that the lyrics weren’t exactly a work of art. But the beat and melody were still catchy. So if I’m doing housework, I’ll through that one in the playlist.

Some of the other songs I like to through in my energetic playlist are:

  • Bad Habbit, by the Offspring
  • Off The Wall by Michael Jackson
  • Several songs by Alanis Morisette
  • I Love Your Smile, by Shanice

There are several others, and if anyone’s really interested, I can add the whole playlist to this post. For now though, I think that’s a pretty good sample. And as I come across other music that’s upbeat, catchy and just generally sounds good, I’ll add tha ttoo, regardless of the format.

This ;post is part of a series I’m writing for National Blog Post Month. For more information, or to see others’ posts, go here.

Until tomorrow.

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There are days when I get up feeling like I could conquer the world. And then, there are those other days. The days when I don’t think I’ll be able to get out of bed, let alone do anything else. And the hardest part about those days is knowing that I have a ton of daily tasks to get done, and not enough energy to do them. These are the days when it’s very important to remind myself to take things one day, or one hour, or one minute, or even one second at a time; when I have to remind myself that I’m not Superman, and that my personal worth doesn’t depend on whether I did an allotted amount of work; when I have to remind myself that tomorrow’s another day, and that sometimes it’s OK to just slow down and take things as they come. Fatigue, both physical and mental, is a big part of Lupus, and a lot of the time, that’s the biggest battle for me, far and above the pain caused by any of the other attendant symptoms. Often, I berate myself for being lazy, even though I know this is completely irrational, because there is a good reason for not moving, or not getting as much work done as I would like. I know, on a rational level, that I’m not lazy, but sometimes the self-hatred can become overpowering. But I know in these cases that my emotions are getting the better of me, and I have to stop and tell myself to look at my situation logically and rationally. In this year of 2013, I plan to pay more attention so that when my emotions start to run wild and I start to berate myself, I can stop and reorient to a more rational perspective. I know that this will take a lot of effort and prayer on my part, but I believe I can be successful. And on the days I stumble, I will remember to tell myself that tomorrow’s another day.

This post is part of a series for National Blog Post Month, (NaBloPoMo). If you would like to participate, or read other posts, go to the NaBloMoPo site, and be sure to add your post to the list.

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When it comes to replenishing the energy supply, I’m not too sophisticated. Right now, my biggest energy source is caffeine in its various forms: coffee, tea, and my absolute favorite, Coke. Personally, I believe Coke is the elyxir of life. This is problematic though, because Coke is extremely unhealthy, (twelve ounces of the stuff equals about 140 calories, all of which are empty), and it has the potential to sabotage all of my goals relating to becoming more healthy. But it tastes so good. There’s nothing like that first swallow. The shock to your taste buds is the best. I’ve tried other versions, (diet Coke, Coke Zero), but while I can stand these and will drink them, they don’t quite do the trick. I’m sure almost all of my love for Coke is purely psychological. But it’s a tough monkey, and I don’t think I’ll ever completely give it up. Good thing Weight Watchers doesn’t demand I give it up completely, because I’d be out the door real fast.

In the past, I used to draw energy from spiritual persuits: contemplation, prayer, Torah study. I’ve been very lax when it comes to the area of spirituality in my life, and one of my goals for 2013 is to increase the amount of spirituality in my life. I know that prayer goes hand in hand with my goal of becoming healthier, and that I will never become healthier if I don’t make it a point to look inside and discover what keeps me from doing the right things as far as my body and mind are concerned.

I’m also planning to add more exercise. I know that I will have to take this slowly because of the Lupus, and that’s a hard thing to deal with for me. I find it discouraging when there’s something I want to do, and I can’t because I’m either sick or physically fatigued. Lupus sucks. But it’s something I have to deal with, and I will have to give myself constant reminders that I can’t overdo it, not without serious consequences.

I think if I incorporate the steps I’ve mentioned above into my life this year, I will see progress. Maybe not the outward progress I’d like to see, (at least at first), but definitely progress. And progress is always good.

This post is part of a serious for National Blog Writing Month (NaBloPoMo). If you would like to participate, or read other posts by other participants, go to NaBloPoMo.

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It’s 03:34, and it looks like I’m starting off the secular new year with a weird sleep schedule. But I’m not going to let that get in the way. I’ve decided that I need to fix my routine problem, and that means getting up and doing things at a set time. I still plan to get up like a human later this morning. The laundry’s done, and all I pretty much have to do today is some writing. I’m participating in NaBloPoMo this month, and am looking forward to writing with the prompts provided. Hopefully this will get me blogging more substantively. I would like to get to a point where I’m writing at least one post a day, with some really great content at least once a week, and the big goal with my site this year is to participate in NaNoWraMo, or National Novel Writing Month, in November. And these goals go along with my goals of finding a job, becoming healthier, finding my own place, ETC.

You should expect the first NaBloPoMo post later on today. I’m excited to start writing it. The only part I really have no clue about is a title for it, but practice makes perfect, and I’m sure by the end of the month I’ll get to a point where coming up with titles isn’t so hard for me.

Happy New Year everyone, and may the coming year be prosperous for all of you.

Amanda

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Last week was a “come eat some chemicals with me” kind of week. By last Saturday night, I managed to come down with some variant of the plague, so I spent last week gobbling musinex like it was candy, sleeping, and having very little appetite. I spent most of the week so sick that I tried to get Denise to just smother me and get it over with, but all I got out of her was an offer to put me in the shed and deliver bread and water to me on a daily basis, which was jokingly delivered of course. As a consequence of all this sickness, I didn’t attend Rosh Hashanah prayers, although I do remember contemplating part of the Unetaneh Tokef prayer, specifically the part about who will live and who will die. Yeah, I know, it was a morbid thought, but for most of the week, I have coughed so much and so forcefully that my diafram and lungs have been on fire, which has made it very difficult to breathe. I’m still sick, so I probably won’t be attending Yom Kippur prayers either, and I can’t fast for health reasons, but I will pray at home and observe the other afflictions, and do my best to repent, although every year I always feel as though I haven’t done enough on that score. I’m glad we have a merciful God, because if we didn’t, I’d be totally screwed.

I started reading The Stand by Stephen King, which was all the more creepy because of my being sick. It’s the uncut edition, so I still have quite a few pages to go. I also read a little of Rav Schwob On Prayer, and Praying With Fire. I spent some time praying for a better year than this last one has been, because God knows I could use it. On the first night of Rosh Hashanah, I didn’t eat apples and honey, but I did eat a chocolate-filled, chocolate-iced Crispy Cream doughnut to accompany my prayer for a good and sweet year for all my loved ones and myself. And speaking of apples, it appears as though the apple tree in the backyard has started producing ripe fruit. We haven’t tasted the apples yet, but they’re yellow, and according to Sister T, (Denise’s sister Theresa), that means they’re ripe. The weather has started cooling down in the evenings, and we have the windows open, so it feels very nice in and outside the house once the sun sets. We’re hoping that this measure will lower the utility bills, because we could sure use that.

I’ll end by wishing all my readers a good and sweet new year of 5773, and with wishes that you all be inscribed and sealed in the Book of Life.

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20120903-132329.jpg

Max hates to take pictures. He hates them so much that, if he’s doing something cute, and he catches you aiming a camera at him, he’ll immediately run off and so no picture to add to the collection. So I was very surprised when we got this one. It’s a picture of Max taking over my pillow, which he loves to do whenever I’m around. And of course it’s very cute. So, enjoy this picture on your Labor Day.

Davison, Georgia, United States of America
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It’s been a little while since the last update, so I figured it was time for another one.

Once I got to the airport, the trip to Augusta from Greenville was absolutely perfect. There wasn’t 1 ounce of stupid from anybody in that airport, and I was very surprised. There were no flight delays, and I actually got to a Gusta early.

When I got to Wil and Denise’s place, Max and Titan were of course very happy to see their Aunt Amanda, even if Titan was mad at me for leaving him for so long after my last visit. Once I put my stuff down, and got a partial tour of the house, I realized they have a screened in front porch. This is totally awesome. There is a ceiling fan and a table with chairs, and we have spent countless hours out here. This, of course, has resulted in a staggering lack of productivity between the three of us, and lots of fun. We have managed to get a few things done though. And I’m in the process of updating my resume, and applying for jobs.

As far as my faith is concerned, there are three synagogues here, but I haven’t gone to any of them. I’m feeling a little weird about calling any of them, and having to ask for a ride. But sooner or later, I’ll have to dig up the nerve, because the Yamim Noraim (Days of Awe) are approaching, and I have this idea of possibly becoming a better Jew this year and becoming more observant. To that end, I’m having my mom send my candle sticks and Shabbat candles along with some of my other stuff. I’m thinking of attending the local Chabad synagogue, because I’d like to pray in a traditional setting, and I’ve never been to an Orthodox synagogue. I’ll have to figure out how to get the Chabad Siddur in an accessible format that’s not going to take up a ton of space I don’t have in Braille volumes. But I’m sure I’ll figure something out.

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It’s been a little over thirteen years, but I’m finally managing it. I’m finally managing to leave GVegas, otherwise known as Greenville, North Carolina, also known as the crown jewel of Down East. This isn’t happening the way I’d planned, but I can deal with that. I’m finally getting away from all the pirate mania nurtured by ECU. I’m a little sad I won’t be defacing one of the tons of pirate statues around town, but I can live with that too. So why am I moving?

This has been a very crazy summer. It started off with a bang. My apartment complex is being turned into a student ghetto, so since I’m no longer a student, I had to get out. I got a notice at the beginning of June telling me that if I didn’t get out within thirty days I would be taken to court and evicted. So naturally, I rented a storage unit, started cramming stuff in, and crashed at my friend Andrew’s. Unfortunately for me, his mom, who he lives with, is a little nuts. The woman hounds me to death all the time, wanting to cut up my food, (yes, this includes eggrolls), doesn’t want to go to church because she’s afraid I’ll fall if she’s not here to babysit me, and a bunch of other stuff that only crazy sighted people can think of. (Note: this does not mean that all sighted people are crazy. Just this one). So I’m going to move in with my best friends in the whole wide world, Wil and Denise, for a little while. And I get to see ma boys, Max and Titan. I’m not sure where I’m going to end up permanently yet, but I know it will be better than living Down East. I’m definitely excited. Here’s to a better life.