The Return Of The Queen

Listening to: Random Happy Hardcore

Wow! It's been a loonnnnnng friggin time since I've posted on my own stinkin' blog. Well hey sorry for having a life and school and whatever, but now that summer's here, all that's gone away, leaving me lots of time to rant online. And I will start with this:

They Call It “Babysitting” For A Reason

And I’m going to tell you what it is (obviously).

Last month or so, I endured the most intense babysitting job of my life. I was going to simply narrate a sequence of my adventures, but then I realized that it would probably be more useful to you if I gave you the strategies I used to survive.

1. Be The Good Cop. You are the BABYSITTER, not the parents. Avoid absolute anarchy (if possible) by setting some guidelines and learning when to say “no”, but feel free to bend a few rules, learn which ones are completely unnecessary and which ones are inflexible, and when to put your foot down. Learn to say “no” with firmness but not authoritarianism. Chances are, the parent(s) will give you some rules before they leave, and these are usually the ones you should follow as closely as possible, but see above for situations they haven’t mentioned.
2. Walk A Mile In Their Tiny, Barbie-or-Spiderman Light-Up Shoes. Be a kid again. Use your imagination. Be free, be crazy, be random, have fun. Make funny faces, scary noises, and weird accents. Have tickle fights and piggy-back rides and games of hide-and-seek. But be sure to keep a portion of your brain mature enough to handle a situation that requires said maturity.
3. Impress Them. Are you a star athlete? Do you play electric guitar? Have you been in a play? Do you have a black (or any color) belt in taekwondo(sp)? Bring it up (with subtlety, and in a fitting context). If they think you are cool, they will respect you that much more. It doesn’t even have to be that audacious. Wicked video game skills or the ability to ride your bike all the way to school and back will still earn you plenty of “WOW!”s, respect, and an extra bit of self-confidence when your peers just don’t understand how awesome you are that day (and every day, of course).
4. Keep Your Adrenaline UP. This applies particularly to psychotic, sugar-addicted, undisciplined little demons such as my most recent ones. You WILL be exhausted by the time the parents get home. The trick is not to let it happen before then. If you can wear the kids out before they do so to you, then you’re golden. Babysitting is psychological warfare, and adrenaline helps make your brain, body, and reflexes fast and strong enough to handle it all.
5. Have Long-ish Fingernails And Strong Hands, Or At Least A Strong Will. It is GUARANTEED that they will A. grab something they’re not supposed to have and run off with it, B. start physically fighting with their sibling(s) or you, and/or C. cling to a piece of furniture or the like and not let go in order to avoid doing a chore or something. As stated in #4, you need good reflexes, but also the strength to overtake them if things get out of control. This sounds kind of ridiculous (“I’m several years older than they are, why would I have trouble with this?” They’re stronger than they look, believe me). For A., catch up to them, grab the object with your opposite hand, then grab their empty wrist (so that they don’t move the object from one hand to the other). Simply hold and pull until they give up and let go. If necessary, hold the object up as high as you can, then squeeze the wrist of their hand that is holding the object, gently at first and gradually apply pressure until they let go. Try not to resort to using your fingernails unless they’re your sibling (I didn’t!). For B, get in between them and hold them away from each other. You may have to pick one of them up if this doesn’t work at first. For C, follow the directions for A, although you will probably have to resort to the wrist-squeezing earlier on.
6. Walk The Line. If they get into a fight, try getting them to talk it out with one another like civil human beings. This will be unsuccessful. Once it is, and one or both have stormed off to their respective quarters, talk to each of them in turn and explain why someone was in the right and someone was in the wrong and why. Don’t accuse, make SURE that you have all your facts straight, and be fair to everybody. Give hugs if somebody starts to cry. You’re the “adult”, you have the negotiation skills.
7. Make Semi-Empty Threats. This sounds completely horrible but it isn’t. When I say “threats” I mean things like “Okay, well, you guys can go play in the mud, but I guess that means you can’t come inside ever again”. They WORK, incredibly well. “Semi-Empty” means that sometimes, if you ignore the threat, then you’re going to have to follow through with it to show them that you mean it. For example, not finishing your vegetables means no ice cream. And that’s that. When they’re done with their pizza but the green beans are sitting there untouched, and they’re BEGGING you, PLEASE, can we catch the ice cream truck, the answer is no. Tough luck, kiddos. But if you finish your green beans now, we’ll make cookies later. No, you can’t get ice cream now and eat the vegetables later, you had your chance and you blew it. You’re lucky I’m offering the cookies. Take it or leave it.

This seems like a lot of overwhelmingly complicated stuff, but most of it is just stuff I’ve learned from experience and going by my own instincts and wicked psychological tactics. Remember, kids are cute and babysitting pays really well! Now go for it! But stay away from my clients, you little moochers.

*Insert Friendly Greeting Of Choice Here* *Insert Holiday Of Preference Here*

Listening to: "Invisible and Silent" by Covenant

Ahh, the holidays. Times of extreme consumerism, of generic sleigh bell noises in every commercial, of people whining and moaning over all that is not PC, of going to the mall on the 26th and getting into fistfights with soccer moms while returning those ugly pajamas your grandparents got you, of spending all your money on presents for people so that you're out of lunch money until February. Unless of course you're smart like me and you get them something small and cheap, plus something handmade and cheesy.

....Oops. Well, now you can all do the same for me. Or you can get me something nice, whichever you please.

Anywhoositz. The holidays. Love 'em or hate 'em, and chances are you do both, they are upon us once again, and I feel as though there are some issues involving them I must address. The first is this: Christmas carols. Yes, that's right, I said the C-word. No, not THAT c-word, you dirty minded freaks. I say "Christmas" because, with the exception of Adam Sandler's "The Hanukkah Song" (which barely counts anyway), Jews and Muslims and People-Who-Celebrate-Kwanzaa and atheists and whoever else are lucky enough not to have to put up with these infernal things. Forgive me if you disagree, but now that I've moved out of childhood, 95% or more of all Christmas carols annoy me so much that make me want to stick forks in my ears. Jingle Bells, White Christmas (racist much?), Little Drummer Boy, Rudolph The Reindeer Who Got A Sinus Infection...they're so frickin' catchy they won't leave your head. And they play them EVERY YEAR, with increasing frequency and for a longer period of time every year. Granted, a few of these, such as "O Holy Night" and "What Child Is This?" are either beautiful or epic or moving enough to be tolerable or even likable, but nonetheless the majority of these songs tend to piss me off every year with their annoying-ness. Add that to the fact that most of the lyrics DO NOT MAKE ANY SENSE, and I become rather Scrooge-like once the Christmas carols are dusted and taken off the radio shelves to be added to the playlists. Or, more accurately, brought up from a computer file. Whatever.

On the subject of the PC police, let me say that I am more offended by people saying "Happy Holidays!" to me than I would be if someone with halfway-decent eyesight told me "Merry Kwanzaa!". (A brief note on my absurd pastiness: I make cream cheese look like it has a tan.) This is AMERICA. Our founding fathers built our nation on the concept of FREEDOM OF RELIGION. By telling me that I will offend people by saying "Merry Christmas!" to them, and that I must instead say "Happy Holidays!", my choice of religion is being suppressed in the name of...freedom of...religion? Oh freedom of speech, too, that's a double whammy right there. The point is, Freedom of Religion does not equal Everybody Act Like You're Atheist. It means, or at least it SHOULD mean, Believe In Whatever You Want And Don't Let The Government Tell You Otherwise, even though it tends to be translated as Pretend Like You Don't Have A Religion And Sacrifice Your Freedom Of Speech So That You Don't Offend Anyone Mmkay?. Let's all try something like this next year: I should be able to say "Merry Christmas!" to a Jewish person, they should be able to say "Happy Hanukkah!", and we should both appreciate the kind wishes given to each other and turn off our Givudam's to the fact that we come from different religious backgrounds.

But then of course that would eliminate a cause for randomly suing the pants off of people, which isn't very American now is it?



Merry (belated >_<) Christmas and Happy New Year!

A Tiny Annoyance

The drums in most of The Deftones's songs sound like scheiza. The snare sounds like it's a genetically-modified tom. Other than that, they're kind of a good band, I guess. I had my iTunes on shuffle and that came up and it annoyed me, so I made it public. That is all.

Listening to: "My Own Summer" by The Deftones

A Super Spiel To Make Up For Lost Time

Listening to: "3 Libras" by A Perfect Circle

Wow, it's been awhile since I updated last...oh well. Anyway, I wrote this really long, rambling spiel (y'know, as opposed to my short, precise spiels) on that icky-sticky-oh-so-overdone topic of love awhile ago and sent it to a friend to see what they thought, and figured I'd post it here so it would look like I've actually done something recently. Plus I figured it'd give people something to be annoyed enough about to leave a comment. It's nicely cynical, blunt, and somehow deep but narrow-minded at the same time ("nihilistic" even, perhaps). Read the WHOLE THING before you decide to be completely, genuinely pissed off at me. Thanks.

Originally written 10.14.07:
I've noticed that, simultaneously, loving and not loving (which is not the same thing as hating), are the 2 most wasteful things someone can do in this life. Other than not recycling. But anyway. Say you love someone (romantically, compassionately, friendship, family, whatever, you choose). You could love them beyond your own comprehension, but there is nothing that says that they have to love you back to the slightest degree, or even be the slightest bit aware of the fact that you love them. Okay, you might say, what if they DO return the feeling? Then it's just that. A feeling. You have the feeling, they have the feeling...So then what? Well, maybe you/they act upon it, which makes love both a feeling and an action. As an action, it's something that you/they will physically/materially benefit from (a hug, a gift, a favor, etc). So if that is a physical/material benefit, what does that have to do with the feeling "love"? If I go to the mall and buy a t-shirt, the cashier doesn't give me the t-shirt because he/she loves me, but my friend might give me a t-shirt for that very reason (an over-simplified metaphor, I know, but it's the best I can think of right now). And if we love for physical/material benefit, then isn't that selfishness, which is pretty much the opposite of love? As for the "feeling" love, what benefit is in that? In a sense, the spirit, if you will, feeds off not only the "feeling" of loving another, but the "feeling" of another's love (I'm putting quote marks around the word "feeling" because that doesn't sound like the right word to me, but I don't know what other word to use. "Emotion" sounds even worse.). So the "spirit" is happy, satisfied, loving/loved, etc. What does this lead to? An action manifesting from it. Which leads to...? Back to the beginning. Another thought: If we are supposed to love everyone as we love ourselves, then do we love anyone? Is it possible to love everyone and still be able to say you love them? It's like the law of opposites, you can't have one without the other (or so it says). If you love everyone, and hate no one, then that sounds like you're neutral. But this could be untrue based on how much, and it what ways, you love different people. Don't get me wrong, everyone potentially deserves happiness. But it doesn't lead anywhere. Love, although the deepest "thing" (more quotes because, again, I don't know what else to call it) there is, is just another thing like everything else we do that seems to lead to nowhere/nothing, it just doesn't take as long as most other things and we tend to enjoy it most, obsess over it most, hurt from it most, want it most, etc.
HOWEVER...
NOT loving is ALSO the most wasteful thing you can do. Because if that's not what you're doing, then what the hell ELSE are you doing?! If you're loving, then you're making the most of your life that there IS to make of it. Life is a gift, which I'm really sick of hearing but I know it's true, so there's really nothing to do with it but enjoy it, which is most fully and effectively done by loving. People are always trying to find some deep special "meaning" or "purpose" in their life, but in reality, it seems that even if they DO find it, it's an action resulting as a manifestation of love. The only real difference is that there are an infinite number of actions that they can choose from in their day and in their life, and that's where the illusion of "I have to find my special destiny!" comes from. It's all the same thing, we just call it a bunch of different things because, especially in today's society, we have this whole "I'm a unique and special individual!" that everybody's obsessed over. Which isn't a bad thing, we ARE all different, which is great, but we can't be blinded by the illusion that any one individual is more important than any other individual. I believe in a thing called "social anarchy", which doesn't work if everybody only cares about whether they personally live or not, because then, nobody does. I digress. Love today. And tomorrow. And whatever other days there are. Cause that's all we can do.

My Biggest Personality Flaw. Let Me Show You It.

Listening (obsessively) to: "Day of the Baphomets" by The Mars Volta

For those of you with less than a square inch of common sense (or who haven't read/disagree with my long rant on the subject), this post is going to seem "emo" to you. For the rest of you, it will probably fall under the category of "human" or "natural" or something similar. I literally just discovered this about 10 minutes ago, and never before have I felt so compelled to make a completely meaningless and irrelevant post on something as to use all caps, a habit which I typically despise. You're just lucky I didn't make the font all huge (it's tempting though).

Okay. *inhales*. Here goes.

MY BIGGEST FLAW IS THAT I AM AFRAID OF EVERYTHING.

Yes. Everything.

And the thing of it is, not only am I AFRAID of EVERYTHING, it seems that I DO everything OUT OF FEAR.

As I think back on every little thing I do on an average day, I realize that this is true for at least most of them. And when I say "fear", I don't mean the kind of uber-phobia, "oh em gee that chick from the Ring is going to eat me and the world is ending before I could TiVo the last episode of The Office" kind of fear. I mean the kind where it's like "oh crap I gotta do this, find that, hurry up, slow down, study harder, practice often, get more sleep, talk to my friends, be nicer to my family, update my blog, and hope to God I can get it all done before tomorrow inevitably catches up with me and that the stuff I choose to do today is the right stuff because I only have so much time to get it all done."

Let me explain. In a nutshell, here's my average day:

6:30-8 AM, I'm in fear of looking like crap and being late.


8:15 AM-2:45 PM, I'm in fear of getting bad grades (except 9:07-10:04 ^^), being late, saying/doing something idiotic, and having a blonde/klutz incident.

2:45-2:50, I'm afraid of missing the bus, not getting my own seat, or having to sit next to someone who isn't particularly fond of me.

3:15-???, I'm afraid of getting bad grades, not getting enough sleep/food, pissing off my parents, getting pissed off at my sister, not having enough time to interact with my friends, and having mental breakdowns.


Does this look a lot like YOUR typical day? Are you reading this and thinking "Pfft! What a drama queen!". Well, I don't blame you. A good majority of people have days that are, more or less, following the same general patterns as mine. (and I do tend to be a bit dramatic...). Granted, if you're an adult, this changes a bit, ie things like work rather than school, but it's close enough. You sit at a desk and file papers and write reports and do as your master says. Because you're afraid of getting fired/expelled if you don't.


I don't get it. Is it just me? Am I making something out of nothing? Does anyone else get this way? Is it the way society and the media expect us to behave, and so we inevitably do so? Is it a natural survival instinct thingamadoohicky? What? What IS it?


I've heard a lot of cliched little sayings like "the greatest risk is not taking one" and "the only thing to fear is fear itself" and "Well, you can't not let ANYTHING happen to him. Cause then NOTHING would ever happen to him. Not much fun for poor little Pablo." (yes, that was a quote from Finding Nemo. Deal with it.). And, well, they're kind of true. When I get my homework done, get A's and B's, etc, my parents are happy and they say "Good job! Keep it up!" and that's it. Nothing really happens (except that I go through a mental list of all the less productive things I'd rather have done with my time). But if I get an F, or even a C, I get a lecture, a "why did you do this?!", a "grades are important!! Do you want to go to college or not?!", and maybe even a "no *insert fun privilege thingy here* until you've studied more!". And something has happened. It's not a good something, but it's something. The same goes for any of the other above. I'm late, I get yelled at; I have a bad hair day, I feel like people are looking at me weird (although they probably don't care anyway, as they shouldn't); you get the idea. But if the choice is between nothing and something which is bad, then which is preferable? That sounds so...I dunno, pessimistic? Which isn't what I'm trying to say at all. Maybe the whole "fear of failing" thing is just the half-empty version of saying "desire of success". But "avoiding failure" doesn't really feel like "success", it just feels like "whew, that was close! Glad I managed not to screw up THAT one!". And maybe that's just my twisted personal psychology. Or maybe it's because I've simply done what's expected of me rather than anything worth considering a "success". Ever have one of those times when you've done something you're really proud of, and you announce it loudly and obnoxiously for the world to hear, except that the world Doesn't. Freckun. Care.? And you KNOW it's not THAT big of a deal, but it's still something YOU accomplished and you wish SOMEone, ANYONE, would just look at your brilliant stick-figure drawing or perfectly-half-cleaned bedroom for a moment and say something along the lines of "Wow....nice!"? (*sigh* Yes, I am a drama queen, we went through this two paragraphs ago, let's move on now, shall we?). Well, if you haven't, then that means that either A. Everything you've ever done has been praised and adored by all (not likely), or B. You've never accomplished anything you would consider worth noting, and therefore have very low self-esteem or very high self-expectations or simply don't care about doing anything with your life, or some combination of those. Which isn't very likely either. So chances are you know what I'm talking about. And you know how much it SUCKS. Because that stick person drawing took you a whole 15 minutes to do, plus 5 minutes of careful planning, drafting, and thumbnails. It was a truly original piece, straight from the heart, classically inspired and modernly crafted, and although it ought to be in the frickin' Lourve, you have to pay a daily rate to have it stuck by a magnet on your refrigerator.

Hmm that was a bit of a tangent, now where the helck was I going with that...?

Oh, right. So, anyway...more maybe's. Maybe I'm one of those low self-esteem people who needs someone else's encouragement/approval/praise in order to feel like I've done anything right, and I just need to learn to realize on my own when I've done something well. But then I might end up becoming a cocky butthole and think that everything I do is perfect. Or I might sink lower and hate everything I do. Is this one of those things that everybody except me learned to master when they turned 9, and my brain is, once again, lagging behind in the "social skills" department? I dunno...maybe I just need a reality check, or a (lack of?) sanity check, or a "you just spent 45 minutes typing about NOTHING, you foolish woman" check. Or someone with a lot of money could write me a check with a long number on it aaannnndddd...that would solve very few of my problems and would probably create a few more.

Sigh. I'm still afraid. Of everything. Of things happening and things not happening and whatever's in between, if there is such a thing.

I guess the main thing is trying and doing the things I WANT to do and not worrying about if I'm going to fail at them and letting the rest sort itself out because there's not much I can do about them anyway. Which probably isn't as easy as it sounds but I'm going to make it happen...somehow...O_o...

That was pretty much completely pointless. If anyone made any sense out of that, please, PLEASE, leave a comment and enlighten me...although if anyone actually just READ through that whole thing I will be absolutely amazed and slightly scared. Again.

Hmm. I might decide that it was a stupid idea to post this at all. If you see this and then all of a sudden you don't, I've probably taken it down entirely, and that would be why. Sorry.

To The People In My 2nd Hour:

My dear classmates,

I understand that the majority of you contain what is known as the Y-chromosome along with limited amounts of testosterone, so I will try to use the kind of language you understand best as I say this:

Dude, this whole acoustic thing is like, so frickin' gay*.

I mean, don't get me wrong, bro, I know us chicks dig the whole "sensitivity" thing. But seriously man, there's like, two chicks in the class, including me, and I feel like I'ma gunna puke or somethin' every time some puny kid with his acoustic guitar gets up there and sings about how "I didn't mean to hurt you honey" or "tomorrow's coming too soon" or some crap like that. Your MOM can make "music" like that, man! Let's put the rock n' roll back in it bro! C'mon, you know what I'm talkin' about! We need a loud, fast drummer and some solid-body electric string-things and somebody who puts the vol. back in the vox man! This is what it's all about! Lose the overdone high school emo crap and pick up some originality at the lyric store while you're there! You gotta grow some where it counts and step up to the plate! Dude, do you WONDER why yer gettin' bored sittin' there listening to one presentation after another (or why the crowd's acting bored listening to YOU)? D'ya need a clue why they all sound the same? Well it's probly cuz they DO, man! So stand out in the crowd! Take a chance, crank it to 11, and wake them suckers up! I mean, yeah, bro, we got a couple o' guys who know their stuff, who can pull it off, but fer those who can't, well, there's too many of ya anyway. So cut the crap, write some REAL riffs, shred them solos, and bring it back already!

.........O__o.......
....Okay I can't do this anymore, my brain hurts. But you get the idea. When I take over the world, one of the first things I'm going to do (after I do away with all inedible forms of tomatoes and shut down the RIAA and FCC, that is) is set up a system requiring you to have a special license to use any kind of musical instrument. You will have to attend 50 hours worth of classes over the course of a year. There will be specific requirements for those trying to obtain an acoustic guitar. Besides being able to actually PLAY the thing well, with SKILL and MUSICALITY, you will have to write and submit suitable lyrics and pass a vocal test to prove that you can use it the right way. There will be a computer chip permanently placed inside each acoustic guitar which will be able to sense if you are in violation of anything that is against Good Musical Taste, and if it does, oil (or liquid Axe depending on if there's such a thing as oil by the time I've taken over the world) will seep from every pore in the wooden body of the guitar and you will have 3 seconds to step away from it before it self-destructs and bursts into flames. Officials will arrive at your home to check your license before they suspend it until you can prove that you know how to use your instrument properly. If you are caught without a license, you will be arrested and the maximum sentence will be 5 years in a specialized Musical Correction Facility. Students working to obtain their license will receive instruments that do not burst into flame, but those with a permit will have a chip which will instead feature a clip of the vocalist from Aphex Twin** angrily scolding you in surround sound for your impudence. And I don't mean hitting a wrong note or something, that happens to everybody. I mean intentionally and deliberately playing in a style which is offensive to the ears of people over the age of 12 (and I will admit that what I considered "music" when I was 12, 13, even 14, is now mind-numbingly abhorrent to me, now that I am the wise, mature, and sophisticated age of just-barely-16). I know this may sound totalitarian, obsessive, and unreasonable to you, but it's actually quite sensible, and it really is for the benefit of all. This includes you, dear acoustic guitar players. For one thing, that guy Estaban or whatever who has those ads on really late at night will *ahem* mysteriously disappear to some remote location, and only top-notch high-quality beautiful-sounding acoustic guitars will be produced and distributed to EVERYONE who fulfills these requirements. Plus, you get to pick your own, and you can customize it to suit your stylistic needs if you wish. Free strings, cables, extra equipment, all that jazz. Not sure how I could make it better than that. And think about this: Would you rather have the pants scared off of you by the guy from Aphex Twin**, or deal with me once I snap from having to listen to the turds you recycled from the last Plain White T's/Red Jumpsuit Apparatus/Brand New/Boys Like Girls/etc song you heard?

That's what I thought.

There is hope, though. I can think of about 3 or 4 people from my 2nd hour off the top of my head who could feasibly pass this test. Then again, especially considering one of them is the teacher, those aren't very good odds. It does worry me, though, that this could be the future of music. That these...people...*bites tongue*...could be the ones rising from the underground and into the mainstream. I guess it's been that way for awhile now, though, but honestly...I had hope for my generation. I don't know how many sweets I was on when that hope formed, but it was there nonetheless, and it dwindles even now. Some of my friends have lost all faith in the entire NATION'S music scene, or even contemporary music entirely. I wonder if they're right. I wonder if it can be saved at all. I can't do it alone, by any means. The only thing that really sets me apart is my determination to BE set apart. That has nothing to do with whether or not I have any musical ability, although I like to believe that I do. But in the long run, someone will eventually have to wake up and realize that what they've been listening to/creating isn't all that original or heartfelt or worth listening to. And then they'll dare to dig deep and pull out something that's totally new. And, if it's done well, people will flock to that because they've never heard anything like it. In a perfect world, that is, which this is obviously not. Rather, people are afraid of leaving their little genre-boxes, afraid to listen to something new, afraid they won't like it. I've been there. I've half-written many a less-than-half-decent song. But I'm listening to more and more new things and trying to expand my ears as much as I can. I'm not saying everyone should go experimentalist with it, but everyone has the potential to create better things than they have been lately, and I'm patiently waiting for it to happen. When you guys think you've got something like that, anything like that, anything I haven't heard, send me your demo or "that-song-by-that-one-band" and I'll send you either an imaginary box of hugs or whatever's at the bottom of my wastebasket at the moment. Whichever one’s a fair trade.

And with that, I wish the best of luck to you, my fellow classmates, as you learn and grow in your musical experiences. And if I ever take over the world, I wish you the best of luck on the survival of your sanity. You're going to need it.

Love or earplugs,
>>Madison<<

(*"Gay" is another one of those words that is used too much and usually in the wrong context. If something's stupid, say it's stupid. If a person is a homosexual, they are gay. I'm not lesbian or bi or whatever but it's pretty much the same thing as racism when you refer to something as being "gay" when it's not actually gay, you just don't like it. I was obviously using it to be sarcastic, although in this case, it could probably be taken literally. ~_^)

(**If you've never heard of Aphex Twin, go to YouTube and type in "aphex twin come to daddy" and click on the first video you see. Some might call it "FREAKY/SCARY!!!", but if you ask me, it's a great, danceable little tune.)

Listening to: shtuffz you ain't nevah heard uv bahfore.

Questions, Comments, Suggestions, Recommendations, Frustrations, Long Strings of Expletives?

Leave them all in the magickal Comment Box, which I have recently fixed so that you don't have to have your own blog to post in (which I think is rather unfair, don't you?), now that I figured out how. So sorry about that.
Love,
>>Madison<<