Maybe it’s that time of year, when things start dying and we start preparing for long, dreary months.

Or maybe 2010 was just slated to be a wench of  a year.

But tonight, I’m having a hard time. My back is wrenched, and I’m off work again. I already don’t make enough. If you take away a week, well, the paycheck ain’t pretty.

I’m also seeing  a lot of people I know struggling.

With pain.

With sorrow.

With a loss, or a coming loss, of someone near to them.

And I feel powerless.

All I have to offer is virtual hugs, pats on the back and words.

And I know those mean something, but I’d love to do so much more.

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Dear Canada,

Today is Canada Day. I am not Canadian, but I appreciate many of the things you have given us. While you could have kept Celine Dion, Pamela Anderson and Justin Bieber for yourselves without hurting MY feelings, you did give us Dan Akroyd, Margaret Atwood, and Ann-with-an-E of Green Gables, to name a few.

You’ve also provided maple syrup, use of the word “eh”, a ton of hockey-related updates, and many jokes related to the word beaver.

Oh, Canada, what’s not to love about that?

So, to the many Canadians I adore, Happy Canada Day!

Love,

Jen Thepsychobabble

PS: That’s a VERY abbreviated list of the Canadians I adore. Teh Internetz tends to blur borders for me, and I struggle to remember who’s from where!

PPS: Speaking of things that should be celebrated, you should head over to BlogHer@Home, read Kim’s sexy post, and enter to win RIGHT NOW!

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Heh. That makes it sound like we’re a bunch of axe murderers, or evil scientists plotting the unleashing of zombie hordes.

Mmm….Braaaains…..

Anyway. Moving. On.

I don’t have much to say, and there isn’t a lot of time…mostly because I spent it messing around with my blog theme. Sorry.

So, for your reading pleasure-

STUFF ON TEH INTERNETZ NOT BY ME

• Who Am I? from A Life Less Ordinary
• Some Shape of Beauty from Her Bad Mother
• Five Star Friday- A collection of reader submitted favorites
• Got a tough question? Ask TheBloggess
• Regretsy- Where DIY meets WTF??

There. That should keep you entertained for a bit!

Catch you later!

Jen ThePsychobabble

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By sheer coincidence, I see that @PrincessJenn over at Princess Prose is also featuring the males. This was completely unplanned, just for the record. What can I say? It’s not the first time she’s written something, and I’ve had to double check that I was reading her feed and not my own. “Have I been posting in my sleep again??”

But enough babbling, and on to the list!

@Childsplayx2- Father to toddler twins, he’ll crack you up and move you, in the same day.

@Whyisdaddycrying- Possesses an odd, sarcastic-y, deadpan-ish humor. Enjoys his running. And his drinking. And the kiddos.

@themuskrat- Another dad, who often says inappropriate things. But it’s okay, because they’re funny.

@avitable- Not a daddy blogger, he’s a humor blogger. And he makes the cut for most of my lists. I’ve followed his blog for years, and he was one of my first twitter follows. I will warn you, he’s not for the faint of heart! But I love him anyway, lol

So there are my recommendations for this week, I hope you enjoy them! And please, feel free to play along!

Love and such,
Jen Thepsychobabble

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I read a post the other day. I’m not going to link to it, because it was a “Goodbye Cruel World! I’m taking my ball and going home.” blog closure post. So who wrote it, and where it was at, is pretty much moot.
But it’s been bugging me, because the attitude of the post is something I’ve seen before.

And it smacks of bitterness and negativity.

Apparently, she was concerned that she was becoming a mommy-blogger. Which, fair enough, I’m not keen to fill the stereotypical mommy-blogger slot. At the same time, I have kids, I talk about them, ergo I figure I’m at least a quasi-mommy-blogger. I can deal with that.

But then she went on to make some sweeping generalizations, that I’ve heard before. I’d like to stress that it’s not this one person I’m all irritated with, it’s just that I’ve heard all this before, and it riled me up the other night, lol

All Mommy Bloggers Are Just Angling For A Book Deal

I’d have to disagree, obviously, or else I wouldn’t bother writing about it, eh?
Yes, I’m sure a good chunk of bloggers would swoon if offered a book deal. But that’s like watching American Idol and complaining that the contestants are just angling for a record deal.
Blogging is writing. Bloggers are writers. Therefore, I would expect that a higher percentage of them hold close (some secretly, some not so secretly) dreams of book deals and publishing contracts, as opposed to your average person who’s just not into writing/blogging.

Your Day is Really Very Boring, and Not Important Enough For Me to Read

Good. Click the X.
In all seriousness, it’s in the way it’s told. Some people are just natural story tellers who CAN make doing the housework into an interesting story. Some of us? Eh, not so much.
But then, not everyone is writing for fame, fortune and book deals. Some are writing for themselves, or to keep in touch with family members. There are a million blogs out there on a million subjects. Some of those subjects don’t hold my interest. Rather than telling that genre that “You all bore me to tears.” I just don’t frequent them.

Your Kids Do Not Shit Glitter

I admit, this one made me smile. Because I think we’ve all known THAT parent. Their kids can do no wrong, ever.
Absolutely dead on, my kids don’t shit glitter. They aren’t perfect. And yes, I fully realize that posts where there is gushing about the wee ones, can be really dull for those who aren’t related to them. Please refer to the Boring rebuttal for suggestions on how to handle this.

Cliques

I’ve seen this accusation time and time again. “You all have a super duper special clique that I can’t get into. Wah.” It goes hand in hand with, “I wrote/tweeted my favorite blogger, who was 120,000 followers, and didn’t get a personal response back!”
There is only so much time in a day, and there are only so many people one person can keep in touch with.
Have I seen groups of women who interact more with each other than with others? Absolutely. Do I consider it a clique. Not usually. Most of the time, it’s just that these women have some common thread linking them. Be it a special needs child, a site they all write for, they live near each other…..there’s an extra commonalty there, that you just might not have. It’s not a personal slight, it’s just life.
Think of it as being at work. You don’t hang out with Every. Single. Coworker. after hours, right? You hang out with a select few that you have more in common with.

My Life is More Than Ass-Wiping and Nose-Blowing

Um, yeah. That would go for most people. Oh sure, some days it SEEMS like that’s all I do. But if it was? Who cares? As long as I’m happy with it, it’s not your place to tell me how lame I am. Again, find the X and move on.

Whew. It felt good to release that. You have no idea how many times I’ve bit my tongue over comments like these.
I suppose your perspective would depend on how you define a mommy-blogger. I guess in my world, a mommy blogger, is a mom who writes about her kids. Not necessarily 100% of the time, but often enough that I can follow their stories.
So, mothers, bloggers and those who aren’t, how do you feel about mommy-bloggers and blogging “cliques”? Do you consider yourself a mommy-blogger? Why or why not?

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Edited to Add: I should have wrote this in here to begin with, but I was upset. The hate wasn’t directed at me, this time around,(I’m sure I’ll get my share). I actually didn’t even know the poor woman who was attacked. I’d read her once or twice, but that was about it. I’m not linking, because I don’t want to drive traffic to the troll, but for those who are interested, you can google Madison Mcgraw to learn about this particular instance of cyberbullying

I’ve decided that the internet truly brings out the worst in some people. I think that the shield of semi-anonymity causes them to feel that they can say whatever they want. Like it won’t actually hurt anyone, because their actual name isn’t known. It’s a phenomena that even has it’s own name- Cyberbullying, and, unfortunately, it’s not limited to immature high school kids, or college students with issues.

No, we’re seeing grown adults, men and women alike, using the internet to reach out and kick someone.

Here’s the thing. Words hurt. Even anonymous ones. And once they’ve been thrown out there into cyberspace? There is no deleting them.

Oh sure, you can remove them from your facebook page, or your twitter stream, maybe delete that nasty blog post. But I promise you, in that short amount of time between the publish button and your regret? Someone saw it. They saw it via their tweetdeck, or their feed reader. They happened to be right there when you published, and caught it. Somehow, someone saw it.

Worse yet, maybe you have no regret. Maybe you don’t care that you made some pretty big leaps to reach a horrible assumption, and then broadcast it as “truth”

Or maybe, just maybe, it’s not about the person you’ve decide to dump a whole load of hate and anger on. Maybe you heard of something horrible happening, and instead of seeing an opportunity to reach out and help someone, maybe you saw a way to reach out and grab some attention. Even if it’s negative. Hey, they claim that there is no such thing as bad publicity, right?

I’m not going to stoop to your level. I’m not going to stand here and wish that something horrible happens to you, and you find yourself a target for hatred and anger, instead of compassion. I’m not going to publish names and addresses. If I did, I would be just as bad as you are.

But I will say this. What you did (are doing) crossed the line from “being skeptical” to “cyberbullying” quite awhile ago. Maybe it’s time for you to be the one who “throws the computer down the steps” and log off until you can get your anger back under control.

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OMG! It’s my VERY FIRST Blog-type award. I feel so speshul and loved. Anne, over at Forever a Younger tagged me with a Neno award.

Neno’s Award—-Rules and Regulations
1. As a dedication for those who love blogging and love to encourage friendships through blogging.
2. To seek the reasons why we all love blogging.
3. Put the award in one post as soon as you receive it.
4. Don’t forget to mention the person who gives you the award.
5. Answer the award’s question by writing the reason why you love blogging.
6. Tag and distribute the award to as many people as you like.
7. Don’t forget to notify the award receivers and put their links in your post.

So…why do I continue to blog? Why am I so addicted to it? I know! I’mma gunna do this in LIST FORM! Because I? Am a fan of lists.

Someone asked me why I blog one time. And I decided you could basically sum up my reasons for blogging into two short phrases. 1) I talk. A lot. and 2) I have issues. There you go. My reasoning in a nutshell!

Now for the tagging aspect. I’m going to hit PrincessJenn with this one, Vixen, and Avitable.(although, I’m not sure he “does” awards. Meh. Tough cookies. You’re getting one anyway. So there.)

If your name isn’t on this list, it’s probably because I’m too lazy to do any more linking. So feel free to steal this award, and share why it is *you* blog. And please, send me a link. I’d love to read it!

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But Deb from Spawnocalypse interviewed me for the Great Interview Experiment, and so you can find that over here.

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I wrote this last night, and then never posted it for some reason. lol

I’m sitting here, waiting for the Great White Hunter to return home.

And while I already wrote about what I’m grateful for this year, and about my family (a good number of whom I will be trapped in a house with tomorrow, wish me luck with that!) in the very recent past, I’m still just completely overwhelmed with how much we do have to be thankful for.
Even in the midst of the really low times, we still have it pretty good.
And *that* is thanks, in part, to you. Because without friends and family, we have more or less nothing.

Happy Thanksgiving.

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_________
UPDATE Anissa experienced a second bleed, in the thalamus. Later in the day, she did become somewhat responsive. She’s attempting to reach out her hand, and struggling to open her eyes. Please keep her and her family in her thoughts. There has been a paypal account set up for those who are inclined to help support the family financially during this crisis.

_______________________

Yesterday, the kids and I all passed out on the couch, in a heap of sickness. And when we woke, we felt a little better. Because sometimes illness is like that. Sometimes you just need a nap, and some good old chicken noodle.

Yesterday, while the kids and I were all passed out, Anissa was struck down by a stroke.

Instead of packing for a cruise, the one she and her family were going to take, partly in celebration of Peyton no longer having to have monthly cancer-be-gone checks, instead….she’s in the ICU. The universe has seen fit to knock her on her ass, again.

Unfortunately for the universe, Anissa is not the sort to be brought low without a fight. I hope you have your shin guards on, bitch, because Anissa will SO play dirty!

In all seriousness, our hearts and thoughts go out to Anissa and her family at this time.

The Aiming Low Ladies have set up a P.O. Box for anyone who feels moved to help the family, and there is also a contact form for anyone in the Atlanta area, who is willing and able to to help out.

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