Who ARE These People...(continued from below)
What TkM doesn't know is how much she freaks me out...No, no...not in any blatant way with content and such. Rather it's the resonance of her style, history and assorted personality stuff that sends bizarro gooseflesh up my arms.
An innocuous example? I found her site on a google of "Tequila Mockingbird"...The oh-so-clever registered name of my cat.(okay, yeah. I said innocuous, right?)
Her 100 Things About Me list was so extraordinarily close to mine, that anyone would think I plagarized it. Seriously. I've had to consign mine to the scrap heap and will need to come up with 100 other things about me. Gee, thanks, TkM. (When I had DH review them both, his comment was, "That's spooky--Is this one of those alternate reality things?" Indeed.)
So it's a kindred spirit sort of a thing that keeps me reading. Not that that is any hardship--TequilaMockingbird's site features a wry and well-turned writing style. Of course we share as many differences as similarities (TkM's adoration of Gore gives O'Donnell's delight in Cruise a serious run for its money--:shrug:-whatevah..). Whether it's relating the Great Chili Scandal, scribing how Drunk Girlfriends commisserate or railing at some Nasty bit of politics, TequilaMockingbird is "So not Stomped [by those who might try bully or rain on her parade]"...
And why wouldn't someone monikered 'Your Bitter Co-Worker' go play in a sandbox titled 'Everything That Sucks'?
ETS...there's a poignent mix of piss, vinegar and pathos here that is awesome and awful all at once..There's a hardy candy shell (titanium-laced) coating a sweet chocolate center. And ETS will be the first to tell you so.
Her site is not unique in it's function as a place to rail at an unfair world. What is unique is the humor, passion and glimpses of the coping, healing processes she's brave enough to share.
ETS' vitriol and raw anger occasionally leaves me breathless. I return, though, because I've come to be invested in wanting ETS to survive and thrive. Besides, she's possessed of a mouth and fuck-awl-yawl attitude to rival, nay, even surpass my own...and you can't find that on cable...not even payperview...(says the chick with no tv-heh)
Who ARE Those People?...
In the "Sites..." column???
The honest answer is that I have no idea.
I "know" them purely through their sites. So any relationship I share is filtered through that medium. That being said, it seems only polite that, having listed them here on this site (a dubious and rather shady distinction to be sure...) I expound on the reason each site is on that list.
The short answer is that I'm a flibberdegibbet and am tired of losing track of sites I enjoy reading. Yet that begs the larger question of *why* I enjoy reading (and sometimes interacting on) those sites. In that vein, here's a little Preamble to each:
Struggle In a Bungalow Kitchen
SIBK's thread involves looking to expand her day to day repertoire of tasty-goodness for her family. This is more of a launch pad to general observation/conversation than a hard and fast rule.
It's as much for the friendly, familiar style of the postings there as for the opportunity to 'talk turkey (err...or pheasant) that I enjoy dropping by. SIBK's site exudes a bungalow kitchen kitsch where good rich coffee aroma fills the air and drop-in guests are an occasion for friendly chit-chat. It doesn't get heavy or dense at SIBK--a welcome respite for weary www wanderers.
I'd lose track of this site and then find it again til I finally bookmarked it. Now that it's on the sidebar, I look forward to more regular visits. P's got quite a 'spin' on things. I enjoy dropping in and always take away something to ponder.
It was not terribly long ago that YBCW was a laurelled and lauded Poli-Sci geek slaving away in Public Servantitude. Better living for all through *my* efforts in government (cheeky, no?).
Alas, the road to hell for classically liberal independants in politics is paved with sessions exposing the seamy underbelly of power mongering in an entrenched two-party system...YBCW boldly chickened out of the conquer from within strategy and fled shrieking (and, if I recall, staggering and drooling were involved as well) from the fray...
But if it's in the blood, baby, ya cain't never break free...Enter Propagandist's site; A campaign consultant of the LA, California variety, Prop's site features funny boiler room and campaign anecdotes, carefully considered links (and the side bar to outside research and policy sites is a boon to my aforementioned lazy ass)...all spiked liberally (no pun intended, but oh well, heh) with Tom Waites, William Blake, and personal reflections/introspection...
Propagandist makes the statement, 'I believe in politics as a means to a better society'. P & I may (too soon to tell, but it's almost inevitable between any two people) dispute just what constitues a better society. To the statement, however, I wholeheartedly raise my glass and toast...
I'll continue in this manner, accounting for all the linked sites. Only, at this point I can see it'll take a moment, so I may as well get these out and go from there...
A bit of Site Housekeeping/Remodeling:
You'd think that a chick who cashes a check playing Ringmaster as a PM for a seriously monolithic IT behemoth, I'd have more of a clue about technical thingy-stuff...
Truly, though, I haven't a clue (see--you beleaguered Technical people? Your suspicions are confirmed...Your PM is clueless--Before you get too smug--Try wringing requirements out of the client while simultaneously writing the cost case and project plan from thin air, finageling capable techs that are still speaking to you after the last project for this client, checking the pit traps for any hapless office flunkies that are overdue with necessary administrivia and...oh yeah...actuallyaccomplishing and delivering something...Then get smug when I ask for the thousandth time, "Yeah, yeah...but will it be working by noon? And why is there a line item for gerbils on your expense report?"
While so very-not my expertise, technical thingy-stuff holds great fascination and appeal for me. As a result, I can while away hours poking with a stick to get stuff to do stuff. Sometimes it works. Sometimes I have an idea as to why... Mostly it is quite clearly magic and like the Necronomicon a misplaced syllable can spell certain doom. 
And the whole point of that ramble? I goofed around with http://blogrolling.com/ since I wanted to have a one-stop shop for the sites I most enjoy. How that all works? With the Java and all that? Not a fucking clue...magic, I tell ya-magic...howevvvver, I weaseled around and around to figure out and and where to put the stuff and am dogged and determined enough that I was able to hijack that newsserve column to do my evil bloglist bidding. Things broke down when I tried to add the "blogroll me" link, but by then I had lost interest and moved on...Cause that's just the way it goes with me....I'll forget about it completely until the next stick poking excursion...
Though it's lazy, I'm posting here an excerpt from a comment gone amok on another site.
The background is that THYRIO has been toting a jeep full of garbage around for the past two days. Day one was an 'oopsie, forgot the dump is closed on Weds', but day two found no one minding the dump--likely due to the recent snowfall.
Why post my comment here? Because I went off into tangent-land with it (so sorry, T) and it really should have had it's home here and not crowding up the poor man's comment section...
Frankly, I find that this is indicative of my overall style (and why this blogging thing held such appeal)...Rarely do I spring tothe keyboard with burgeoning newborn ideas just waiting to be written. I tend to the Socratic rather than expositive modes of expression...Which is why a mis-adventure in garbage sends me careening off to wax nostalgic and philosophic about social mores in France....
The comment post
"Well, I hope that you neatly stacked your garbage for later disposal by the absentee dump-minder. That's not snarky--just pragmatic.
My DH points at this type of behavior on my part and 'blames' my time living in France (y'know, amidst all those French people...). He may be right.
The French are simultaneously the most rule-bound and yet rule-breaking society around. Everyone "knows the rules" and for the most part adheres to them quite strictly...So, the off-shoot of this is that if one is witnessed breaking the rules, conventional wisdom says and popular custom dictates that "there must be a very good reason"...and people simply accomodate that transgression with little or no comment/protest.
Example: In France, you stand in line. Period. For just about everything. Now, in the States, if someone were to cut in line, at the least they'd be in for some serious sniping--worst, they'd be ejected, pelted with small furry animals and left for dead at the back of the queue. In France, if someone cuts in line, they just...err..cut. Eyebrows will be quirked and mouths will be moued in that way only the French can pull off...but not a feather will ruffle. The working assumption is that the cutter has a pressing concern of such great (and private) urgency, that of course they must go first--and to stop them and ask what that reason might be could impede the cutter even further...simply unconscionable. Same goes with; smoking in a 'no smoking' area, traffic rules, any dog-related transgression, shopping ettiquette, and things like leaving your garbage neatly piled in front of a 'not supposed to be closed' dump.
The French believe in rules wholeheartedly and also believe in not following them when you shouldn't. Vive La France.
This got long. Dammit. I'm working on that yakity-yak trait...Promise!"
(edited for typo)
I'm moving this up to the front because, dammit, those cockney kittens fuckin rawk.
All site evidence to the contrary, there are no belltowers and highpowered rifles looming in my near future...
When pushed to the outer limits, I tend to hunker down; bunker in with something uplifting. something like...Kittens...performing kittens--Oh yeah, Baby. That's the good stuff: Getcher Hot Kitten Action Here...
Shirk Shirk Shirk...
Lurk lurk lurk...
I realized today that if I dedicated even 1/2 the time to writing in my own site as I do running around reading all my favorites, I might actually have posted something in the last month or so...
Ah, intertia--Thy name is Cat.
Meanwhile, over at THYRIO's Site , he pondered the imponderables of the unsullied gift. THYRIO, cast aside your stalkish doubts. Cloak yourself, rather in that grand titled tradition that men (and women) have used throughout the ages to bleach the public smears of impropriety from their desire to bestow largess to beauty. You are no stalker..No,no! You, dear sir, are a Patron. 
Wehhelhellhell...Apparently there's a lot more to this "blogging" thing than first meets the eye...
I decided to take the plunge and go blog-lic after I (*duh*) finally made the connection that all these nifty sites I kept visiting were um...blog-thingys...
I'd found myself taking refuge in a variety of different sites where the writing was good, the topics were timely and the wry undertone of humor helped me keep mine, too.
It was upon reading an entry devoted to the "art of the blog" that the light came on..."Ohhh...people can just--DO this...", and after a bit of noodling around the various places that one can "do it", I settled on this site as the most instantly accessible.
Why? Cause after diddling around at the rail long enough my inherently ansty nature had had enough of merely ingesting content...I wanted to PLAY...
There's also the candid admission that I am hungry for peer interaction. There. I wrote it. I've reached a point (not the first, probably not the last) where I'm feeling intellectually isolated; unable to make connections of any substance within a physically present peer group...And, yet, here's this online band of delightful lunatics chattering on in ways that have resonance. Oooh, ooh!! Me, too! Me, too! Can *I* play?
Which brings us to now...today...I plunked my quarter in the jukebox, spent the last few days intrepidly avoiding over-editorialization (striving for that balance of grammatical readability/flow vs. spontenaity) and find that I've been yap yap yapping into the void...
Dude...I've outed myself to myself as an attention-hound. Shouldn't come as any great surprise, I suppose...I do, after all, know myself pretty well and should have seen this one coming from way down the block...
But now...the added realization that I've got to go solicit folks to interact with me...Arrrgh!! Do you know how many 'not okay' buttons that pushes?...No. Of course not...my decades as the continually new girl, weird girl, scapegoat girl are my own cross to bear...Hell, I've spent the better part of my time on this planet walking through doors, supplicating at the social altar, etcetera, ad nauseum...So why-oh-why did I think that this gig would be any different, right? It all comes down to the same scenario as ever...Plaster that good-ol' "HI MY NAME IS...PLEASE DONT FUCK WITH ME" Sticker on my heaving bosom or hunker and bunker down in the here and now of the cultural wasteland of interaction that *is* my current situation, tighten the belt one more notch on my starving social-side and...
"Buck-up, Little Cheerio. Put a good face on it, for here comes your hapless buddies Jane and John Doe who have no idea that if they engage you One. More. Time. in earnest conversation about "Christmas is sooo commercial just look at how early the mall decorations are up and by the way arent terrorists so bad and scarey and John still cant find a job but its not his fault cause of all the foreign people not cause he was never really good at what he did anyway and is a lazy a-hole who'd rather play nintendo and if only che guavara were incharge cause he had it going ON and OMIGAWD that episode of westwing was just so, like youknow deep and all..."...you may very well finally snap (again) and allow your inner voice to become your outer voice (again) and say unkind yet true things.
Worse still, you might inflict yourself mercilessly on your dear devoted husband--that basition of support who by virtue of all his many fine qualities does not deserve to be spitted and flamed for the simple act of not giving a hairy rats ass about the ironic or hysterical or touching or hyper-fascinating subject at hand.
Sighh....
Once more into the breach, dear friends, once more;
Or close the wall up with our English dead!
In peace there's nothing so becomes a man
As modest stillness and humility;
But when the blast of war blows in our ears,
Then imitate the action of the tiger;
Stiffen the sinews, summon up the blood,
Disguise fair nature with hard-favor'd rage;
Then lend the eye a terrible aspect.
Henry V, (III,i)
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