Fine Wine Taste and Cheap Beer Budget

Wine, because champagne gives me a fuck of a headache.

Then again, never get bombed on red wine. That's a bastard of a hangover.

I earn points for taking surveys for the Memolink program, which gives discounts on various things for points earned. The surveys are kind of silly. Here was the results of the travel survey.

You're a Savvy Traveler!
Four-star hotels. Shopping sprees. Fine dining. For you, traveling is all about indulgence. Leaving the comforts of home doesn't mean leaving your love of luxury. In fact, you probably enjoy the spoils of a vacation more than most.

Admit it, you like the finer things in life, especially when you're rewarding yourself with a getaway. And you know that giving yourself a few special treats will make the trip more memorable and worthwhile. So go ahead, order the dessert, relax with a massage, unwind in roomy first-class seats. That's how you savor the experience. Ahh...

Well, I reckon they captured some of my attitude about traveling. My idea of camping is in a cabin with hot running water, and if I go on vacation I like to be able to do some nice things. Unfortunately, I've never traveled enough to be savvy. I've never gone anywhere on my own, and the only places I've been outside the United States are Waterton, Canada and Tiajuana, Mexico. Waterton is a nice, pleasant little town. Ate breakfast in a Chinese restaurant. They had grade C maple syrup. It was cheap. It was edible. The last time I was in Tiajuana I was 16, and I don't know if it's changed, but it was sleazy then. Sadly, I can hardly afford the gas to drive to and from work, so I doubt I'll be going anywhere and savoring any experiences any time soon.

Here's the results of the next survey. I wanted to laugh, I really did. I just don't feel motivated enough.

Hot Cars & Hot Products, that's what you want!
Talk about in the know. You're on top of the current trends, even if the current trends are throwbacks to days past. You know the latest lingo and can probably rattle off a list of movies that are currently showing in the theaters, as well as the latest "it" place to grab a bite after the show. Chances are, you pay attention to the news and current events, too. Basically, you're on top of your game. You can change with the times and are on to the next best thing before others even know what hit them.

So what's the vehicle to fit your hot lifestyle? Maybe it's the new Beetle or the Mini Cooper. Or maybe your interested eyes should be falling on the new breed of transforming trucks like the Chevy Avalanche. Whatever you pick, we know it will be hot!

Dude...

I really wouldn't know a current trend if it came up and bit me in the ass. And even then, I really wouldn't care about it unless it could serve me in some way. I couldn't even tell you what's showing in your theatre. The last movie I saw in a theatre was Constantine. That was about four years ago, I think. I pay attention to the news because you kind of can't get away from it. And if I was on top of my game, wouldn't I be at least not broke by now?

If I was going to drive a Beetle it would be the old one. Those new ones look like some sort of car from a 60's sci-fi movie. I guess a Mini Cooper would be ok, but I don't really know what the big deal is about them. But a transforming truck? Now, that's for me!

Transformers...more than meets the eye!

My new vehicle is also my new friend. As long as I supply him with oil, we're buddies to the end!

You can look at the Memolink site if you want, and if it seems the kind of thing you'd like to do, let me wheedle you into earning me some points. Leave me a comment with your email address or email me at bloomingpsycho@wildmail.com and let me send you a referral.

Beyond Broke

If there's such a thing as beyond broke, this might well qualify.

I'm 20 cents shy of being able to buy the packet of mini donuts from the vending machine.

Not that I really need the mini donuts...

But it would be nice to know I could have 'em if I wanted 'em!

Being broke SUCKS!

And I really am kinda hungry.

This fellow does a great job covering the guitar part on the Limp Bizkit song "I'm Broke." I saw them in concert nearly nine years ago now. One of the best shows I've ever been to except that Eminem opened for them and to be honest, I find him annoying as hell. I know a lot of people like him, though. To each their own.

Here's a funny picture for your head: Old broad in mosh pit. I really was! I stayed on the outer edges but I was part of it for whatever fool reason that possessed me. Probably bipolar hypomania. I ended up with bruised ribs but to be honest, I don't regret doing it. I had a great time!

This Week's Big Dump: News You Can't Use

I think the experience with what the barbecue pork did to my IBS inspired me to post this dreck. Either that or it's fun to laugh at. Probably a combinaton of the two.

Worthless Story #1
Found at MSN.com
Lindsay Lohan wishes she were Marilyn Monroe

Paris Hilton would wish she had a personality if she had enough brain cells to formulate a thought.

My comparably brilliant take on this worthless waste of bandwidth?

I hate to dis anyone, but...
As for Lindsay trying to emulate Marilyn Monroe?
I'm pretty sure Marilyn is rolling over in her grave.
As for Paris' outfit and behavior?
No surprise there.

Worthless Story #2:
The Flavor of Yuck
Ladies and gentlemen...
I have long loved the band Public Enemy's thought-provoking political messages. But I'm starting to wonder if Flavor Flav of Public Enemy has a really, really lowbrow, brainless twin whose behavior reflects horribly on this socially relevant band. Because THIS

has a moronic "reality" show on VH-1 where women actually compete for his affections by making utter (slutty) fools of themselves to inspire caveman musings from him on their worth--mostly based on their breasts and boo-tays. (Surprise.) These gals' behavior and mode of dress makes Paris look like a class act and a Rhodes scholar to boot.
Plus Flav, who is 49 years old is expecting his EIGHTH illegitimate child with something like woman #4. Apparently he engages in this utterly irresponsible behavior due to the fact that he wants 10 children. He might want more than that but he ran out of fingers to count on. WTF, Dude? Chuck D, Professor Griff and DJ Lord oughta take him out behind the studio and whup his monkey ass till it ain't no fun!
I got that line from the movie House Party, and it was also used in a Public Enemy song. I am NOT comparing black people to monkeys. I am, however, comparing Flav to a dog that needs to be fixed 'cause that's what he's behaving like!

Click here to watch a great Public Enemy video and see why I love them, and also read about the despicable way that Flav treated one of the few nice gals that was fool enough to come on his dumb show. She's better off that he cut her loose, though, because she's way too good for him. Click here to read how he treated the winner of the last installment of his show. She's too good for him too. Both of these women are lucky he dissed them, because otherwise they might have become incubators for Flav Spawn #9...

Ewwwwwww!

Suddenly the Proteus computer from that dorky 70's flick The Demon Seed sounds pretty damn enticing by compare.

And now if you'll all excuse me, it's back to the necessary room. Before it becomes necessary for me to raid the Gerri Atrik Retirement Community's emergency supply closet for a Depends.

The Forgotten Heroes and Others: my birthday rant

I'm watching a news program about a real problem which our government would like to sweep under the rug. Many of the firefighters and cops who worked Ground Zero on 9-11 now suffer crippling physical and mental problems and, surprise, surprise, the government is not giving them the help they need. Hearing about one fellow's struggle to breathe is making it hard for me to breathe--I can't even imagine his daily hell. He's on 18 different medications, most of them very expensive, and yet he gets a puny $600 a month disability and his need is still being disputed. They showed a picture of Bush holding a fallen cop's badge promising that "we will take care of those who have taken care of us." As one of the firefighters who spoke on the program said, it's a bold faced lie and Bush should give the man's mother back her son's badge because he doesn't deserve to hold it.
But these guys shouldn't really be surprised--they're being treated with the same care and respect as our Viet Nam veterans were. Many of them lived in (and still live in) poverty after returning home and couldn't get a fair shake. I would love to see this country start taking care of those who have served it, both here and overseas. Paying the heinous amount of taxes that come out of my paycheck would not hurt nearly as much if I knew it were going to help people like this. People who sometimes are called on to risk their lives to help others. Soldiers, firefighters, cops, EMT's and paramedics. (As much as I complain about the cops who pull people over for minor infractions to fulfill ticket quotas, I sure wouldn't want there to be no cops.)
My own brother is a firefighter, a paramedic and a SWAT team medic. I think after all of his training he's finally getting around $20 an hour, which he fully deserves. As a "mere" firefighter, a person who goes into burning buildings, (which may be just a tad risky to life and limb) he made a mere $11 an hour. It's taken him a lot of years and a lot of training to get to where he is now. When I see the pay scale for public servants and then hear overpaid athletes and actors whining about how they need more than the several million that they've already made, it makes me want to neuter them so they can't breed.
Certainly not that the Prez would bestow more than a stale beer fart on me for my birthday (after all, why should I expect any better than people who gave their all in a horrific national emergency and are now being fucked over and fucked over again) but if Congress was to ask me what I wanted for my birthday (which is today--at 6 AM precisely I will be a 43 year old bat, which I think is a lot in bat years) I would say "for fuck's sake, would you use my damn tax dollars to give appropriate care to these people and quit giving them grief? God/Goddess only knows that you sure take enough of my damn paycheck for taxes and I'm sick of my hard earned money going to fund a war I don't want, thousand dollar military toilet seats, and the hookers and/or barely legal gigolos at Congressional parties."
I certainly know better than to ask the Government or even my damn insurance company help me pay for therapy. Although the amount of disability I could get from work if I were injured or ever became too ill to work is drastically reduced due to a pre-existing condition (fibromyalgia) I would have trouble making a claim that I need treatment such as physical therapy, chiropractic care or especially something like massage (which really helps but is considered unnecessary--they'd rather see a person prescribed addictive pain meds) and would be told that if I want such a thing I need to get another job to pay for it. But part of the problem with fibromyalgia is that when someone who has it gets overworked they hurt so bad that working becomes nearly impossible. The pain leeches serotonin, which in turn causes depression, which in my case is exacerbated by the fact that I already have a mood disorder. Then I start having psychological effects, can't work due to depression, vicious cycle. I know full well how these things work.
When my son went to the hospital last week due to a critical depressive incident the counselor that was working with him was told that county mental health wouldn't deal with him because he has insurance. And now we're fighting with insurance to try and get his sessions with a private counselor covered. You pay out the ass monthly for the damn insurance but they sure as hell don't want to pay for anything if you ever need them to. And when my son didn't have insurance I tried to get him on the Child Health Program and was treated like a freeloading loser by my beloved local government. The woman I dealt with was such a complete bitch. When I called her to ask a question she was so completely condescending that I said "look, Lady, I called you to find out something about the documents I'm supposed to provide as proof that I'm poor, not to have you act like a huge bitch to me!" Paying for private insurance (I would have to pay around $600 a month to add him to my insurance at work) at $120 a month became a small price to pay by compare to having to deal with a system that claims they have a program available for kids without insurance, but if you try to utilize that program you're in for a beaurocratic nightmare and humiliation of epic proportions.
Something is also wrong when a person wants to work but can't because if they go to work they'll lose all government medical benefits for their kids and they can't afford to do that. One woman whom I worked with for a brief time had a severely mentally handicapped son. She went back to work and was paying for a therapist/teacher to be with him during the day because she felt that he could benefit. The government pulled all help that she had been getting and wouldn't pay anything towards the therapist. Her choices became having him institutionalized or quitting working and going back on welfare, which is what she ended up doing. The salary she was earning as a nurse's aide would never have covered her son's care, education, and their living expenses too. What's wrong with this picture when someone wants to work but has to make a choice not to??
And that's my birthday rant. Happy fucking birthday to me.

Changed

Well...
The template is now very, very green. I guess it was green before. But it is even greener now.
Recapping:

The Flavor of Axe has wrapped and Axe has chosen his latest fling. But his bandmates are seeing shades of Yoko Ono. Does this spell the end for Death Cheese?
The Cheesemeister was clobbered by frozen breasts! See this and other useless news at the Crappy Times.
Brittney gives an incredible gift to her friends and associates for Valentine's Day.
Discussions of family dynamics and fuckery at the Psych Hell. Not for the faint of heart or those who lack compassion. There is a reason I don't list this blog. But seeing as none of my damn blogs have any readership, I don't think it matters. I'm really beginning to think the fucking troll cursed me because he was pissed that I went to great lengths to expel him. If you don't think curses work? Well, they don't always. But sometimes they do. And I've been on the receiving end of them before. But this is a discussion for the esoteric blog some other time.
Oh yeah, happy fucking birthday to the crusty black flower/old bat (both being avatars for the same ill-tempered excuse for a human being) tomorrow. The Cheesy Lily will be 43 years old and looks every day of it and then some. And she is not in a very good frame of mind right now.
I changed the comments to not open in a popup window because there is some fuckery going on with my computer. I have re-installed Firefox several times (actually I have to reinstall it a few times a week to make it run) but still the comment window comes up as just a sliver and I can't resize it. I can't wait to get a new computer! This is a "What the hell, it runs" computer. And I'm grateful, but it's old and has a lot of glitches. I'm getting my son a Toughbook for his graduation present and if I have enough left over will get one for me as well.
I really need to go to the post office before it closes. I have a book to mail out for review. Talk about an expense, it costs $5 to mail one and then there's no guarantee that they'll get reviewed. I never read my reviews, good or bad, so I really don't know what's being said. All I know is a bad review would discourage me for months no matter how many good ones I got. And anyway, it's best not to start believing your own hype, as far as the good ones go. Be humble, be real, and write what the Spooky Guy and I like. Even if nobody reads it, I guess. That's my motto.
Later on.

My Birthday Fortune

Holy shit, Batman. Not only does no-one give a shit about the book blog, they just don't give a shit, period.

Kind of distressing.
Happy fucking birthday Friday, Cie, you unwanted old bat.
There has never been a Cheesemeister that was worth anything.
You should kill yourself and do the world a favor.

HELP!!!

The blog where I feature chapters from the book is getting powerful few visitors. It's withering up and dying! If anyone wants to generously provide a link on their blog letting people know of its existence it would be very much appreciated. The address is http://lostbeneaththesurface.blogspot.com

Thanks muchly!

Business Buzz

I still haven't entirely given up on the idea of having my own business. I'm trying to spread myself less thin. My next project is to make some nice magnetic bumper stickers for my car, and to register domain names that people will remember that will redirect to the affiliate sites. I'll take some pictures once I have the signs made!
My son is doing better it seems. Still a way to go to really resolve things but I think he has a pretty good chance of making a good recovery and being able to have a good life. I'm trying to be optimistic.

Personal Probs

Hey people.
I have been having some personal problems. I wrote about them on the psych blog.
I will hopefully be back to abnormal soon.

The Occasional Film Review

Love Don't Cost A Thing (The 2003 remake of the 1987 film Can't Buy Me Love) is one of those movies that tries in its own shallow Hollywood kind of way to have a positive message. The premise is that a geeky, unpopular guy Alvin (played by the very popular teen idol Nick Cannon) helps very popular cheerleader Paris (Christina Milian) by repairing the damage she did to her mother's high-price-tag Cadillac SUV and in return she pretends to be his girlfriend for two weeks in order to get him in good with the popular kids, who are assholes in the first degree and leave anyone with an ounce of sense asking "why the hell would anybody want to be friends with THAT??"
The movie involves Paris giving a lot of makeovers to Alvin, and the inevitable moments where Alvin must decide between his real friends and his shallow fake friends, and of course the moment where Paris decides she actually likes him. Super-duper uber predictable. Annoyance factors abound from the plethora of rich kids posing ghetto, and of course these youth attend Perfection High where no-one with a blemish or an ounce of fat is allowed through the door. Oh yeah, and guys, the way to a girl's heart is being a bit of an asshole to her. Because girls secretly want to be treated like dirt. It makes us feel sexy. And remember, wearing whatever is in fashion at the time is the key to forming meaningful bonds. As long as you do that you're sure to make real and lasting friendships.
On the positive side the movie does have humorous moments such as when Alvin is trying to learn to dance by following along to an aerobics tape led by dancer Damon Butler looking and acting Flamingly Fabulous, or when he fixes a car using a condom after opening the package in the fashion taught to him by his hilariously pervy father (played by Steve Harvey.) For a formula movie that tries vaguely to have a message but could only work if you were perfect in the first place, Love Don't Cost A Thing wasn't bad. However, if you wanted a movie that actually imparted a meaningful message, you probably want to give this one a pass.

Meet the Vampire

You Are a Night Person

For you, there's nothing worse than having to get up and moving early. In fact, you probably don't hit your peak until well after the sun has set. So if your struggling to make it on a normal schedule, realize it's not your fault. You just weren't meant to do anything during the day!

Are You a Morning Person or Night Person?

I think I'm actually more of a Dork

Your Geek Profile:

Internet Geekiness: High Movie Geekiness: High Music Geekiness: High Fashion Geekiness: Low Gamer Geekiness: Low Geekiness in Love: Low SciFi Geekiness: Low Academic Geekiness: None General Geekiness: None

How Geeky Are You?

I Wish I Were A Beer

You Are Bud Light

You're not fussy when it comes to beer. If someone hands it to you, you'll drink it. In fact, you don't understand beer snobbery at all. It all tastes the same once you're drunk! You're an enthusiastic drinker, and you can often be found at your neighborhood bar. You're pretty good at holding your liquor too - you've had lots of experience.

What's Your Beer Personality?

Actually my stomach doesn't like Bud. It's too acidic. The last beer I had was actually a Mickey's Big Mouth. But I guess that technically that's malt liquor anyway.

I USED TO be an enthusiastic drinker, you mean. I guess I'm still a lush at heart! ;-p

Nowadays a six pack lasts me six months and holding my liquor means I actually finished a bottle of beer.

Crappuccino for my Bunghole

You Are a Cappuccino

You're fun, outgoing, and you love to try anything new. However, you tend to have strong opinions on what you like. You are a total girly girly at heart - and prefer your coffee with good conversation. You're the type that seems complex to outsiders, but in reality, you are easy to please

What Kind of Coffee Girl Are You?

Let's see how far wrong they are with this one. I'm not very outgoing.

"Girly Girl?" Bitch, please! Hardly. However, I depise the term "tomboy" to describe a girl or woman that doesn't want to act all submissive or isn't stereotype "feminine." That word needs to be bounced from the English language just like racial stereotypes.

My son once asked what that made a guy who enjoyed activities like cooking--a "Jill-girl" perhaps?

I actually am pretty easy to please--be nice to me and I'll be the same to you. Be an ass and you may well be invited to talk to the bunghole!

The Devil Wears Prada

What Your Blue Outfit Means

You're a classic girl with an impeccable sense of style. Down to earth you project a loyal and honest persona. You are sweetly feminine - a strong, tough guy can't resist you. Designer match: Prada Signature accessory: Fur lined leather gloves

How Your Favorite Outfit Tells What Kind of Girl You Are

Actually, I intimidate most guys. And while I do wear leather, I don't wear fur. So there!

Virus Alert

There's a nasty virus going around and I've got it. Read about the symptoms and my suggestions here.
I hope I didn't pass it on to my friend whom I visited in the hospital today. At that point I thought I was having allergy symptoms. He's got enough problems--he doesn't need this on top of it.