It's HG Wells' science fiction stories night on Turner Classic Movies

I started watching First Men in the Moon (1964) at my friends' house, and then came on home and finished watching there. That story inspired a Call of Cthulhu game adventure that we played years ago, with Mi-Go on the moon instead of Selenites. Now The Time Machine (1960) is on. I probably won't stay up for that; I've seen it before. I really should read the original of the former--I have a Wells collection on my Kindle. 'Grimm' wasn't on tonight, and won't be back until after the Olympics, on February 28th.

The week has seemed very long. I'm ready to relax for awhile. Tomorrow I plan on getting up early and getting an oil change, wash the salt off the car, and take a friend to the grocery. Oh, and of course, there are the game notes to do. So I'm going to get in my jammies, listen to some music, and head on to bed in a bit. Hope your week was great.

Interesting article

Most of my adult life, the majority of men in my life have been gay. My ex-husband and ex-'bosom companion' (long story) are gay. My dearest friends--rather, my adoptive family--are gay as well. But I don't have much to do with 'gay subculture', and this article has some valid points of how women are often treated by gay mem who have been subsumed by it. It is written by a gay man who sees women as people, not objects. Whether you agree or not, it's still an interesting article that would be good for starting dialogue. And one thing I must absolutely agree with, saying 'I'm gay' never excuses deplorable behaviour by or towards anyone.

The Myth of the Fag Hag and Dirty Secrets of the Gay Male Subculture

In my mid-twenties, I learned that taking your female friends to a gay bar is like taking a vegetarian to a butcher shop. There is a lot of meat, a lot of prime cuts, and even a little tripe, but nothing they can eat. While there aren't any publicly-posted placards posted to the effect of NO BROADS ALLOWED, the unnecessarily long wait times they have to endure to get drinks–watered-down drinks nonetheless–and the degree of stink-eye they receive from bartenders do a great job of conveying that same general message. Shortly thereafter, I began wearying of gay bars in general. My friends were largely women and if they weren't being treated respectfully–and not getting decent cocktails, then what's the use of opening a tab?

It's a dirty secret of a subculture of the gay male world about women: That they're essentially unwelcome, unless they come to us as a Real Housewife, a pop diva, or an Tony award winner–or an unassuming fag hag. To anyone just coming out of the closet and hoping to get his bearings in the gay male community, the attitude towards women is simple: They are just objects whose function is to serve gay men. Maybe it happens when gay men get too comfortable in newly-discovered safe spaces–where they get to call the shots as their proudly out new selves. Or maybe it happens through cultural conditioning. Whatever the cause is, it becomes clear: If there isn't any kind of transactional exchange happening, then women lose their value in gay male subcultures.

Today I

went to the pharmacy after work and then over to T-Mobile, where I asked about taking my tablet off my bill and about a discount due to my workplace. Apparently they have you call if you want to take a line off your account, so that the retention people can work on you. But I had good solid reasons for not keeping the broadband on the tablet: a) I am no longer on the bus and am usually around wi-fi, so I no longer need an over the air data connexion, and b) I have unlimited data on my phone with a 2.5 GB hot spot I can use to power the tablet if I'm away from wi-fi. Turns out that they not only could cancel the broadband, but I'm eligible for a free 200 MB of data without overages each month due to my tenure with T-Mobile, and it's something that will be locked in as long as I need it, even if they no longer offer it later. So I can still use some data over the air, and use my hotspot capability if needed when away from wi-fi, like over at YKWIA's, or use the wi-fi when I'm at home, at the library, etc., etc. I'll save about thirty dollars dong that, and then, with the discount that should be available, my bill with be about $40 less than it is, right around $100, give or take a few dollars. Meanwhile, my Samsung Galaxy S3 is almost paid off, although I may upgrade to a Samsung Galaxy S5 when they are released around April or so. If not, my bill will go down by about $20 more. Yay!

Then I got some gas at Kroger ($2.74 with the 40 cents off from my Plus card!), got a few things for tonight there, and headed over to YKWIA's for the finale of 'American Horror Story: Coven'. I loved it, and won't give any spoilers here, but I think it ended on the right note.

I also ordered the DVD for the fourth season of 'Downton Abbey' from Amazon and it should be here Friday, which is interesting, as the show doesn't finish up here in the States until late February. So I'll have the whole set. :)

Okay, I got home late because of AHS, and it's after 1:30 am. I'm cramping (getting ready for my period) and my muscles are all knotted up, and feeling no-so-great, so I'm going to take care of a few things, stretch out in bed, and hopefully go on to sleep. Good night.

This week

I found out that cancer has touched the lives of two people I know--one newly diagnosed with breast cancer, and the other losing her battle with leukaemia. The former was very good to me while I was out with my broken ankle, and always went to bat for me when I needed it. The latter had a very lively spirit, was so very alive, and it's hard to think of that now gone. I am saddened by the news, and plan on praying for both of them tomorrow when I do my monthly libation. Be sure to show your love for those close to you while you can; you never know when a small thing such as a doctor's visit could change your life forever.

This gets points for the most adorable commercial, ever, I think

It's also a nice integration of Passenger's 'Let Her Go', which I like so much I have the album on my phone. :) Budweiser obviously realises that you cannot go wrong with Labrador pups and Clydesdales when it comes to Super Bowl ads. :) Thanks to Jill for showing it to me earlier today.

My computer will start a tune-up in three minutes, two, one...

So here's a brief post before going to bed.

On my mind today, January 28th

1986--I spent the day in shock watching the Challenger disaster over and over again; I still mourn those lost.

2000--The loss of my beloved grandfather, at peace after a long and terrible battle with emphysema.

2014--Was saddened to hear of the death of Pete Seeger, who lived his life by music and trying to make the world a better place.

Also had a great dental cleaning and picked up some donated books to take to the hospital where I work from a store halfway to the next town. Then spent time with YKWIA and A, and watched 'The Originals' and 'Supernatural'. Now it's time to go to bed. Good night.

Came home from physical therapy

and took a bath and then laid down on a heating pad for a bit. Then YKWIA called and we talked for awhile. Now I think I'm going to take some ibuprofen and head on to bed. It's been a quiet night. Tomorrow will be much colder than it was. Our school system is on a two-hour delay due to the low temperatures, which is at least better than the week they were off last week (one day for Martin Luther King, Jr Day, the other four for weather). The wind is howling outside, and it's only 11 outside right now, with subzero temps forecast and wind chills of about -10 degrees possible. Brr...so tired of this!

It feels positively balmy

holding steady at 11 pm at 48 degrees, our high for today. Even the projected low, 23 is higher than most of our highs lately. So needless to say, when I got home from the game, the first thing I did was take my trash and recyclables out, then cleaned out the fridge and did some dishes. Sadly, we're going to plummet again, as tomorrow is forecast around 0 or 1 degrees Fahrenheit. Not fun. A high for Tuesday will be about 13. So I'm practically basking as I long as I can.

Yesterday we got four inches of snow, which, with the high winds, drifted quite a bit. But the streets are in decent shape thanks to the warming above freezing. We may get some rain and snow tonight, and a bit of snow in the morning, but the plunge to single digit temps for the third time this month is the big story.

I didn't get much done on my 'snow day' yesterday. I did a lot of napping, and worked on my physical therapy exercises, all of them, but didn't do so well about watching TV, although I did watch a couple of hours of the Smithsonian channel, a programme on the finding of Richard III's body and one on Sitting Bull and the Battle of Little Bighorn that were both interesting. I still haven't watched 'Grimm', 'Sherlock', or 'Downton Abbey', though.

I struggled with the notes for awhile last night, then spoke with YKWIA for an hour on the phone and returned to them, only to stall. We'd talked about something that's going on in my life that I haven't fully dealt with, and it just made me want to curl up in a ball some more. So, I went to bed and kept trying to wake up every hour on the hour, without much success. I finally got up about 6:30 and finished them shortly after 8 am. I know I shouldn't have that much trouble doing them, and it's really helpful to do them, but I just dragged this time. I am glad I brought my laptop with me, because in my sleep-deprived state I didn't manage to get the correct files into my Dropbox files for access from my phone. Overall, I didn't get decent sleep, so I find myself (after way too much soda) as still a bit pumped up by the game (in which things were resolved that had been issues, but one of my characters was suddenly nearly killed, and may still die, unless they can figure out how to get her out of a stasis) but pretty sleepy at the same time. It's been a long day of housecleaning, grocery shopping, gaming, etc. I've also recorded 'Downton Abbey' and 'Sherlock' to watch later.

Tomorrow I have physical therapy. Tuesday it's a dental cleaning in preparation for some oral surgery. At some point I've also got to go get some medicine from the pharmacy, too. And I should go ahead and do my taxes, as I have all the paperwork I need. But for now, I think I'll call it a night. Hope you had a good weekend as well, and have a good week ahead. Stay warm. Good night.

I am somewhat concerned

The wind is quite fierce outside and although it's hard to tell how much snow we've had (it's largely blown off the vehicles to drift on the ground), we did get some. One local parkway was shut down earlier because a salt truck went over on the highway. It's been pretty crappy for those out there, and I'm staying home. However, even at my house, my windows are creaking horribly with the wind, like they might crack and break. They have cracked before, and were replaced, and ever since then, the wind actually comes through the window a bit, so they must not have weatherstripped well. I have a windchime and sheer on the inside of the window, normally still, but even they are moving a bit. There's a lot of howling and creaking going on. The air is full of snow, but I can't tell if it's falling out of the sky or moving a bit from the ground. Some obviously is from the roof. Not good. Here's hoping the windows don't fail.

Very cool

With the frigid temperatures I've been wearing my TARDIS hat and scarf, and getting strange looks, as it has 'Police' in big letters and 'public all box' in small, and they think I'm a police booster or such. Or so I've been asked. :)