The Watching

I’m starting a new series of tweets in a series that I’ve called #watchingtweets. I’m considering using it as a pilot for my NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month – nanowrimo.org) entry this year. I’m going to keep tweeting like this every day, in character, for a week.

If you think the series makes a good pilot idea for my story, please leave a comment below and let me know what you think, preferably including details of what you did and did not like, and advice on how to continue, what to include, etc.

If you think the series is boring or won’t make for good prose, leave that in the comments as well. If you think I’ve been watching too much lonelygirl15 let me know that in comments, too.

It’s 2:11 am, and I haven’t slept, I’ve been watching this stuff for the last week, and I think it’s gone to my head. But hey, if it fuels NaNoWriMo, I’m all for that.

Remember: The tweets are IC (in-character) and not actually part of my real life. (mostly) So don’t freak out and start emailing/tweeting for me to run, although that would probably be flattering to my ability to write. All tweets connected to the series will have the hashtag #watchingtweets attached to them.

- Amanda. Or what remains thereof.

You Were The Storm That Came and Went Like Lightning

I have had -so- much to write about for the last week, but I couldn’t focus to save my life on one subject. I have a project due to Clay by at LEAST tomorrow so he can write it with me and post it by Thursday. So I should totally be working on that. BUT I have something else that I really, really want to talk about tonight. Something that I haven’t really shared with our community yet.

Warning: The post that you are about to read might contain too much awesome for your brain to handle. I apologise if it implodes.

Two years ago, John and Hank Green decided to communicate purely through Video Blogs, in person, and possibly phone calls for exactly a year. They proceeded to build a huge community (we became known as Nerdfighters), put a lot of stuff on their heads, deal with real issues that really affect the country and the world, create ‘In Your Pants’ jokes, make everyone laugh, and just overall blow all our minds.

My fingers are cold.

And now, for your viewing pleasure, lots and lots of links:

The Brotherhood 2.0 project channel, vlogbrothers.

The Five Awesome Girls (Hayley, Lauren, Kristina, Kayley, and Liane)

HayleyGHoover (The woman who introduced me to all of this)

LianeandtheMusic (Who’s voice makes me CRY)

italktosnakes (Kristina… Whom I have no words for.)

owlssayhooot (who is an adorable creature and has the benefit of having no shame about being a nerdfighter)

annnd Lauren (Who regularly blows my mind with who she is, and her music.)

Nerdfighters site

The Original B2.0 video- Hank

The Second B2.0 video- John

Goodbye, B2.0- The Last video before the new face of the project.

John- I Am NOT A Pornographer

Lauren’s Rap

List of Must See B2.0 Videos compiled by John/Hank

My fingers are at this point FREEZING so I will create a B2.0 playlist, a 5AG playlist, and a general Nerdfighter playlist tomorrow, and update this post.

Amanda. Or what remains thereof.

Things Discovered While ON the Internet That Have Nothing To DO With the Internet

So I’m sitting at Sonic. Because I can get internet here. And It’s late September, so it’s rather nippy outside, right? And of course, I’m reading @TheBloggess’s PNN column because it takes my bad days and makes them full of giggles, right? And it’s very very cold out here, for parts of me that are not covered (like fingers, because mittens MAKE IT HARD TO TYPE).

And then The Beatles start playing on Sonic radio. Hey Jude is in my ears. It’s slowly getting to be light outside, but I haven’t slept properly in a while, and that might be a bit of a problem. So I’m rather cold and I’m shaking and I’m smoking because that’s what I do at 6:50 in the morning when I’m doing something stupid and then Hey Jude is filling my ears and the shaking just… stops. for the entire duration of the song. A complete calm sweeps over me and everything fades away, because, let’s face it, The Beatles will always own your soul.

So “Hey Jude” makes me tick. What makes you tick? Seriously. I expect responses to this. What. Makes. You. Tick?

-Amanda. Or what remains thereof.

I Answer To No One and Am Made Nobody’s Heir

Pay It Forward

While some of you are aware of this others are not: I have recently become homeless due to a couple of small minded people having an objection to an aspect of my personal life. No this post is not about my whining over it, this post is about two rather different matters…

The first is that it is possible to survive like this. If you are a mentally and emotionally strong person, and have a fairly nice, approachable face and perhaps a decent amount of luck, it can be done. Even in a small town. Perhaps especially in a small town.

Now, I’ve always been a truly firm believer in the entire theory and practice of ‘Pay It Forward’. I double tip waitresses when I have the cash, sneak extra food home for the roommates when I work in food service, offer help to random people on the street, and drop everything to help friends at a moment’s notice.

Yet I’ve never seen anything like this. The receptionist at SRS has become something of a friend and goes out of her way to help me.

Various employees of the diner go out of their way to help, feeding me, relating my story, giving me coffee, and just generally making my life easier.

The mother of one of the cooks, without my knowing they were related because they don’t look alike and she works in the Deli that I frequent in the evenings, sat down with me and talked for a while, got my story out of me and took me home with her so I could shower and wash my clothing and sleep. She even gave me eight dollars.

A man who sees me sometimes outside the restaurant asked one of the waitresses about my story and then gave them ten dollars to let me have a free breakfast, but wished to remain unidentified.

Just when I can’t take the lack of sleep and the barely enough food anymore, a person takes me under their wing and helps for a day or two.

My blog has been relatively whine free so far, mostly because I use it to promote things like Melissa Anelli’s Cancer Research Walk, and also to rant about Newsweek and stupid people signs and republicans and the Topeka PD. I do not like to use it for self pity or personal gain. So for all of the #ba members (and staff, this goes for us too, guys!) the rest of this post is a directive made as a challenge.

***Insert dramatic Call-To-Arms moment.***

I challenge ALL of us, including myself, to spend at least one hour on one day a week ‘Paying It Forward.’

Now whether you choose to do this by donating to Children’s Cancer Research, or seeking out a person in need whom you don’t personally know, calling your parents and/or grandparents to offer them help or company, doing volunteer work in a soup kitchen, giving someone a ride somewhere, helping someone homeless with money, giving someone a place to stay, or finding a person who needs a job some form of employment, do whatever you can to take what you’ve earned, or been blessed with, or left with, or given, just a little piece of it, and Pay It Forward.

You never know who might need you or when you might need them. It doesn’t just happen to old men or seasonal workers or even 19 year olds who happen to be in love with a member of their own sex (much to the chagrin of others). It happens to us all. At some point we’ve all been down on our luck and eating Ramen or tea and toast or depending on the kindness of strangers. And someday you’ll wish you had Paid It Forward.

No One’s Out Here and I Was Not Followed

Stupid People Signs, Newsweek, and WTF, Topeka?

The last twenty four hours have been extremely odd. Perhaps it’s a lack of sleep thing, but I don’t think so.
Things that I’ve learned and/or that have happened in the last 24 hours in no particular order:

1.) I saw Dorothy walk Toto down Lincoln Ave. this morning.  No, I was -not- hallucinating, I just live in the town famous for the OZ Museum.

2.) I left my cell phone in the computer store. Please don’t ask me how.

3.) Old Newsweek issues have made me slightly paranoid that the entire US is bugged/wiretapped. And I’m addicted to Newsweek.

4.) I spent exactly $9.11 on breakfast, accidentally, and then asked the waitress how I could change the total. … as it turns out, I could not.

5.) I apparently have a warrant out for my arrest for something I’ve never done in a city I’ve never even set foot in. What. The. Fuck. Topeka?

6.) It has come to my attention that there must be a lot of really really moronic people in the world, because I run into WAY too many stupid people signs.

7.) Recently discovered that apparently the Gov. of  Texas entertained the idea briefly of secession from the union. I’m sorry… what?

8.)  Obama fact one: It was PROVEN that he was born in Hawaii. Indisputably. I personally never had doubts about this, but it leads to; Obama fact two: A few days after the evidence of this fact was presented, THE PERSON WHO’S TV SHOW IT WAS PRESENTED ON said that “There are still a lot of questions about the place of Obama’s birth.” Wtf, political talk show?

9.) Falling into ponds: Can lead to lack of skin and a bit of blood loss.

10.) Never tell your siblings ANYTHING you don’t want their girlfriends to know.

11.) My addiction to Newsweek is possibly more harmful than my stress smoking, energy drink drinking, OR sleep deprivation. WTF Newsweek?

~Amanda. Or what remains thereof.

Shameless Plugging

This is the shameless personal agenda charity portion of my day. I can’t get ahold of Melissa Anelli in order to ask her if she would like for the #ba to plug her charity walk, so I’m going to do it privately on my blog first and see what happens.

Melissa Anelli, as some of you may know and some of you may not, runs The Leaky Cauldron. At least last year and this year, she’s done the Avon Walk for Breast Cancer. And this year, she’s asking for some help rasing the donations for her walk.

Earlier this week, I RT’d something that Matt (@whompingwillows) and Melissa (@melissaanelli) had tweeted. She’s announcing her walk and her need for donations through twitter, and I would like to take this opportunity to plug it to the #ba and anyone else who happens to be following my blog or my tweets.

Like @TheBloggess, Melissa Anelli is one of those people who even if you think that they might be unapproacable, ends up being the kind of person you can hang out with, if you make the effort to get them to notice you. (Not personal experience. Unfortunately. But she goes to the HP conferences.) She needs about 1000 dollars more to reach the goal set for her, but not the goal she’s set for herself for her walk. I’m asking the #ba to take a look at her blog, her site, and her Walk page, and at least give it a good try to donate, or find some way to contribute. After all, we’re a charitable organisation, and what better way than Cancer Research Walks?

The link to Melissa Anelli’s blog is here.

The link to her site is above in the second paragraph.

The link to Melissa Anelli’s Walk is here.

Please consider, guys. We only have so many hours, days, and years in our lives.

-Amanda. Or what remains thereof.

Don’t Ask Me What You Know Is True…

This is one of those days where I woke up in a very… relaxed mood and then began doing five billion things while still retaining that… liquid bones feeling.

So I’ve been fighting with my internet, downloading @TheBloggess’s blog entries for the wikipedia article, checking in with C. and J. and B. about the #ba site, fighting with the internet some more, telling James that @williamshatner stole all his socks, running out of cigarettes, giving in and making the patientes.ba@gmail.com account, updating the site, updating my blog, fighting with the internet, creating the mailing list (for which people need to send me MORE EMAIL ADDRESSES. I don’t even have half of you.), trying to get ahold of Melissa Anelli, John Green, and Hank Green for charity associations, contemplating the idea of trying to create a #ba Wiki (too soon, too huge a project), link checking and reupdating the blog and site, fighting with the internet a little bit more, and wondering why I’m listing to INXS in the middle of the evening, trying to add to the index of blogs and twitter pages and such, texting Denmark from my phone, and wondering if these puncture wounds on my neck are going to stop hurting anytime soon, as well as stalking @TheBloggess in all a manner of ways for her bio.

Yeah. I tweet a lot… but I really -am- doing stuff, people, I swear!

-Amanda. Or what remains thereof.

Knock Knock…Are You Alone?

So we’re all insane and thus we are insanely busy. Here’s the list of all the strange/impossible things we’re working on and/or have completed recently:

There is now an (in-progress) index archive of the important #ba links. TheBloggess links, as well as quite a few people’s twitter pages, 20 or so blog links, some facebooks, and a few others. and that is here

There is now a facebook group here

There is now a wordpress site (created by@DUrower08) , that we’re all working on and it’s coming along nicely: here.

Personally speaking:

@mayopie is working on the updates for the site, as well as a fully indexed list of #ba members and their codenames.

@DUrower is working on the site itself in addition to working with both myself and @mayopie on the various aspects of the madness that require us to summon soilders from Central Headquarters.

@PrincessOfForks is working on all of the above, maintaining the gmail account in her spare time, and most importantly, keeping us all sane.

And I (@patientes) am working on the wikipedia article (yes, still), the rest of the delicious.com indexing, and a mailing list through our gmail account.

This Was An Accident, Not The Kind Where Sirens Sound…

Under the Disclaimer of: Okay, this is a personal rant. I’m sorry, but seriously, I have to get this shit off my chest.

So last night, my brother brought a friend home with him, and we were all goofing off, I was chasing my brother around with full ashtrays and brooms and such, yes? yes. All of this was fine, of course, until about two hours after the guy left. He asked my brother for my number, I let him give it out, not expecting it to be more than the usual random bullshit.

Expected him to hit on me, I had fair warning about that. But he wouldn’t give up! I told him I was in love with Jaymie (Without mentioning names), he decided it was ‘hott’. Okay, fine, I can deal with the fact that you’re a desperate pig. I wasn’t feeling too stabby at that point. Then he said ’so are you single’. Okay. Dude. really. I JUST SAID I’M IN LOVE WITH THE WOMAN I’M HAVING AN AFFAIR WITH! Does that SOUND single to you? I didn’t think so. But apparently it did. I told him it depended on his definition. He asked ‘Single 4 me, and you can have her 2′.

Right. First off, I hate netspeak. A lot. more than anything else in the common abuses of grammar except possibly people who can’t tell ‘your’ from ‘you’re’ and ‘they’re’ from ‘there’ or ‘their’. So, strike one. Second, he couldn’t take a hint. at all. I chalk it up to him being desperate and needing to get laid. But nonetheless, strike two. And then you say something like THAT? I don’t care if you are drunk or not. that is strike three, and then some.

I told him again that I was in love with her. He responded with ’so wat does that mean 4 me and u?’ Okay, so you’re dense. I can see this. Fine. I told him that I didn’t know, because I didn’t even know him. Trying to be nice, still, even though I’ve completely lost my temper at this point, right? He still doesn’t get it. Tells me he’s a nice guy, blah blah blah. I tell him again, I don’t know him at all. STILL doesn’t get it. Says we should hang out sometime then. I told him I didn’t know because we’re moving out of Wamego soon. (this is true)

So what does the moron do? Tells my brother that he and my brother and I should all live together. Then says the same thing to me, but adds in Jaymie. Starts asking my brother questions about the house and the rent and such. I, from that point on, just ignore his texts. You would think he would get the message, right? Wrong. He texts me again -tonight-. Three times, because I wasn’t at my phone, and didn’t realise he was texting. So I had to ask my brother to get rid of him. Not kidding.

I think I should retitle this ‘Patientes has a stalker’ but I like the song more. I mean, REALLY.

I. Feel. Very. Stabby. About. This.

-Amanda. Or what remains thereof.

The List Of Things I Never Want To Do Again Just Gained Another Item

So here’s what I’ve been doing for the last 4+ hours: Fighting with internet; begging for blog/facebook links from the #ba, fighting with internet, begging for blog/facebook links from the #ba, fighting with internet some more, indexing blog/facebook links from the #ba, fighting with internet even MORE, indexing Twitters of 32 members of the #ba, refreshing @-reply list, fighting with internet again, refreshing DM list, and indexing everything sent to me. Plus indexing all the @thebloggess links I could possibly find.

And finally, I’m done. For now. I think. If I missed people, @-reply your links to me. As it stands, here’s the link to our Delicious account: http://delicious.com/BloggessArmy