I am feeling better today. Still staying home for one more day but I feel I’ve been more productive today than I have been for the past several days. I’m still really tired but I don’t think it’s mono and I’m hoping to go back to school tomorrow. Forwarded a letter from my doctor to all my teachers. Did I mention I’m still tired? Yeah, so this is all you get, but at least it’s in complete sentences this time. Ahahaha.

Apologies to my mom for not updating sooner. Been real sick. Went to doctor today. If fatigue isn’t better by end of week, will go in for bloodwork. Possibly mono but more likely just virus. Tired, so tired. Couldn’t even brush own hair last night. Got note from doc about school but would … Okay, four hours later, forget what I was saying.

I feel like I’m outside my body or something. It started with overdoing it while swimming. I swam about 7 laps in 15 minutes and I was done. And I way overdid it. My muscles were all screaming in pain the whole way home, and I took three Advil when I got there and it took the edge off a little. But now I just feel really weird. Like my stomach is not right. Like I can smell vomit in my nostrils even though there is none around and my breath doesn’t smell like it. So I am physically crippled by the muscle pain - only 30 minutes till I can have more Advil! - and mentally crippled by completely having no idea what is going on. I haven’t done anything tonight. I’m alternately cold and hot. I don’t know if I’m sick or not. My brain is just non-functional for no apparent reason. I was fine earlier today. What the hell is going on? Who took away normal me and replaced her with some imaginary thing? And no, I have not had any substances. Except Advil, and probably some chlorine while swimming. I just feel so freaky. I’m not even in my body.

I’m surprised by how much Jasmyne Cannick’s article No Country for Black Men bothers me. I have been told to “get out of America” because of my opinions about the president and our government, but when Cannick says how much she dislikes America, I find myself wanting to tell her to get out. For some reason the argument of “I have a right to disagree” that I always use for myself just doesn’t want to apply itself to her in my mind.

I’m also concerned by my “get over it” attitude toward the article. I didn’t know I thought blacks should just get over slavery. I’m not sure that I do think that. But when Cannick goes on and on about blacks are still enslaved (”my people are still waiting”), I just want to tell her it’s time to forget the past and focus on the present. Yes, of course the disadvantaged situation of many blacks today stems from their experience as slaves…there’s no question about it. But is it really necessary to dwell on the atrocities committed back then? Should it just be a fact of life that blacks had this experience and now we move on? Should we move on? What good does it do to express anger at the “torture, rape, and death of countless black people” from long ago? (Even that phrase, “long ago,” is in question - when did blacks start on the road to equality? Was it the end of the Civil War in 1865, or was it not until the Civil Rights Act of 1965? When does the tragic past of black people end?)

The column definitely provoked a lot of feelings in me. I agree with Cannick’s statement “you will never catch me waving this country’s flag” but I disagree with her line about “I will never claim America as my country.” The whole column has left me shaken, and I think that’s a good thing when it comes to op-ed pieces.

• The alumni vs. students College Bowl game was today. We won, but they wouldn’t listen to me about the Brooklyn Dodgers and Thomas Gallaudet! I seem to be the comic relief for audiences, my seriousness and indignation when I’m proved right always gets a laugh.
• The Diddit contest ends in about three hours. I am pretty exhausted and I’ve pulled out all the stops I can think of, so I’m going to leave it at that. If I win, I want to get an iPod Touch, because it’s really sexy!
• While going through old software, A found my CD with wallpaper that I made at an old job! The CD was lost for a LONG time. Now I have approximately 1500 wallpapers for my desktop. Wallpaper Master is certainly getting a workout! I could set the interval for 1 minute and it would be like a slow, immersive screen saver experience. Or something. I’m addicted to wallpaper.

Please, please, please go to this link and vote for couple #5!! Tell your friends and ask them to vote too! (BTW please use a real e-mail address, they will email you to confirm your vote!)

Got another comment on my I Hate Hollister post, from someone with the username “girlygirljen94″:

welll i think that u just dont have enough money to get the clothes. I LOVE ABERCROMBIE & FITCH all my friends shop there. 9i mean like its a must. i think that u are totally wrong and i dont like it.i think that just because you can get it u dont like it.

My reply:

Gee, you know what? You’re totally right. It’s all about money. Life is about shopping. Why didn’t anybody tell me this before I started studying world peace?!

You’re 14, honey. Come back and talk to me in 10 years.

Her comeback:

thats right

*headdesk*

I have to say though, that post is a never-ending source of amusement. I should get a better stats package so I know what search terms people use to find that post.

Well crap, my Flickr Pro account is going to expire in 5 days. I am not working right now so I am cash-strapped. I have to decide if I want to go ahead and buy it…I might be able to swing a one-year account.

Wow…an anonymous benefactor has gifted me with a year of Flickr Pro. It’s so strange not knowing who it is! Part of me really wants to know, and part of me wants to just be happy knowing that someone out there cares about me, even if I don’t know who it is. I’m tickled quite pink!

And hey, I made this awesome papercraft, check it out. It’s my first one though, so it kind of sucks…when I say “awesome” I mean the pattern. Which is here:

I keep a private blog elsewhere; it’s publicly accessible but it’s not of interest to anyone but me. Here are a couple of recent posts:

October 1st:
I love this. There are a few houses along Route 123 near my house, in a perfect position to advertise to the hundreds (thousands?) of people who drive by on this artery every day. One of them put up a giant sign saying “Virginia is MCCAIN COUNTRY” that must be 8 ft long and 4 ft tall. They had it on the ground, propped up, with a small floodlight on it.

Then two days later, their next door neighbors put up an equally giant “VOTE FOR CHANGE: Barack Obama” sign. It’s also 8 ft by 4 ft, but theirs is up on stilts (2 or 3 feet off the ground) and closer to the road. It’s freaking awesome and I literally pumped my fist in the air when I saw it.

Not to be outdone, the first neighbors have gotten stilts for their sign - a little taller maybe? - and put THEIRS closer to the road.

It’s freaking hilarious. I gotta get a picture in the daytime. Oh, and the McCain sign was obviously obtained from far away, because Northern Virginia is quite blue.

October 9th:
Apparently someone had the balls to spray paint “socialist danger” on the giant Obama yard sign. Nice. Not to mention all the Obama signs in the median disappeared. Another McCain sign showed up where I had taken one the other day, plus another at the stop sign out of our development. My wife took both of those down on her way to work and says she has no problem with it since the other side is pulling the same shit.

I figure the Republicans must be pretty desperate if they’re resorting to such immature tactics. Come on, Northern Virginia is SO blue. Why bother?

Turned out my wife also called the local Obama campaign office about it. They requested that she call the local police to inform them of the incident, but she can’t make too many personal calls from work, so she asked me to do it. Of course they said they can’t do anything, but they at least took down a report. According to the Obama office, it’s much worse this year than it has been in the past. Signs are being taken off private property, not just median strips - I would never do such a thing. And the spray painting - which turned out to say “No Experience, No Obama!” on the other side - is just beyond the pale.

We haven’t had quicklinks since July 28th. Do people prefer this format to the daily posting? Obviously I’m not collecting enough links for daily posting, but would people prefer I posted these more often, or…?

ReTweet

List of Twitter bots.

ShoppingNotes.com

Here you can bookmark any shopping link, indicate the price you’re willing to pay, and get notified if the price drops to that level.

Free Shipping

Before you shop online, check here for codes for free shipping.

Taxi Fare Finder

Estimate your Taxi Cab Fare & Rates. Enter your location & get the distance, duration, and estimated fare. (Valid for many cities in U.S. and Canada right now, with more coming soon.)

FixYa

Social networking geared toward troubleshooting gadgets, cars, electronics, etc.

ConvertWorld

Interactive calculators used for converting between currencies, weight, volume, mass, time, distance and more. (My new favorite converter!)

GreetQ

Buy and personalize greeting cards online. Some really cute ones. If you sign up, you get 3 free. These are paper cards, not e-cards!

Outgoing Adventures

Outgoing Adventures is an international tour operator specializing in small group tours for gay people—men and women—and their friends, to exotic destinations worldwide.

Public OpenID Providers

Listing.

The Roads of Northern Virginia

Biographies, Exit/Intersection Lists, History and Maps of What Gets Us Around.

Chipotle Nutrition Facts Calculator 2.0

Incredibly useful for those on a diet. For example, I had no idea that the salad dressing was 330 calories. Now I know how to tailor my salads for future reference!

The Legal Status Of Prostitution In Canada

Very interesting article about how prostitution is legal in Canada. The summary is that there are restrictions but it’s better than the USA.

E-Prime

Wikipedia article about the form of English that does not use the verb “to be”.

Best Ad: Evolution of Logos

Interesting.

Study of Symbolism and Tradition in US Presidential Logos

Interesting look at political logos from 1988 and later.

Cake Wrecks

Baaaaad cakes. BAD. [via vsl]

As always, my quicklinks are archived at Ma.gnolia for your convenience. You can browse my tags as well.