Dusty trappings of a life now shelved

This is a rare open post to say that things have gotten really difficult for me lately, and I've removed some friends and comms from my flist. I also quit karate, gave away a bunch of stuff, and am reshuffling virtually every area of my life. I haven't decided whether I'm deleting my journal or not, but I am giving strong consideration to deleting both this one and another.

I've cut mostly journals of folks who didn't seem to be reading me anyway, rarely or never commented, or who weren't posting. Maybe we just weren't each other's cup of tea. Fair enough. I'm trying to simplify a lot of things in my life right now. Please don't infer meaning beyond that. It's simply not there.

If you're local, I'll probably hang out with you occasionally; if you're not, there's always email. I'm online every day.

I wish you all a good weekend.

Today we were talking about how frustrated he was with the boys in school, because all they can talk about is football, they don't do their work, they annoy him and pick on him, they don't pay attention in class, and they behave like idiots. He said he knew why this happened, though. He explained it all for me quite simply. In his own words:


"You see, the influx of testosterone that occurs during puberty causes boys to become more aggressive, and the increased amount of schoolwork and the social pressure causes them to be more stressed, which contributes to their aggression. This, combined with a dramatic increase in height, weight, muscle, and stupidity caused by watching too much TV, makes a toxic mixture, turning them into trolls."


I guess that just about sums it up right there, eh? XD

Burt Bacharach and Angie Dickinson's daughter, Nikki Bacharach, killed herself -- apparently over her inability to cope with her Asperger's syndrome, if this article is to be believed: http://tinyurl.com/2vhcn9

How very sad.

:(

We spent the day at Children's Hospital, getting the medical workup for Logan's autism diagnosis. It went okay. First we went to audiology. Basically, he was more interested in the toys than the noise coming out of the speakers. Though I knew he could hear the sounds, he just ignored them some of the time. He was involved with puzzles and couldn't be arsed to respond much. Finally the audiologist put some sort of wires with foam tips into his ears and hooked him up to a laptop which measured whether the sounds were getting through and how the eardrums were reacting. That test showed normal results.

Next, we went to the speech-language pathologist. She didn't tell us much we didn't already know; just that she recommended we book him for the feeding clinic to work on textures, but she thought we should see occupational therapy first, so she gave us a referral.

( And finally.... )

This was a busy week around here, even without vlvtjones getting older!




And congrats on moving into a place of your own once again! :D

I hope your birthday was wonderful! Sorry I didn't realize it was your birthday until just now!

I'm actually surprised I like it, as I generally find most tunes that are heavy on woodwind-type instruments to be annoying. I think the piano and drum balanced it out and made it more enjoyable than I usually find this type of music. This is The Corrs doing "Toss the Feathers":

Hope it's a blast! :D

Hope you have a great one, my dear! :D

I noticed that my Advanced Placement exam credit was not among my college transfer credits, and I emailed my college to ask them why. They said my high school didn't include my AP records, so, despite having my U.N.O. college transcript which indicates I had entered with credit in English and wasn't required to take freshman composition, they don't have the actual proof of the credit, and so cannot transfer credit to my present course of study. I will now have to take freshman comp AGAIN; this seems ridiculous, as I received credit for the upper level English courses I took at U.N.O. that had comp 1 as a prerequisite! I believe I am getting credit for those as electives; they can't be credited as English courses because I haven't got credit for freshman comp.

I called my high school and told them the scores weren't on the transcript I paid for. They said that's all the records they have for me, and blamed Hurricane Katrina, when I know it has nothing to do with this. They gave me the number for the Louisiana State Department of Education. I called them and they said all they can do is mail me a copy of my transcript -- without AP credit on it, because it's the same damned transcript my high school mailed out. They told me to call my high school for any other records.

Nobody at either my high school or the Dept of Education even knew what AP credit WAS when I asked about it.

::pulls hair out::

I don't want to have to retake freshman comp! Any ideas? Anyone? :(

My family and friends from out of state have been calling in a panic over the collapse of the section of I-35W that collapsed, sending about 100 people into the river below. We're all accounted for and fine.

The cell phone lines are jammed. It took over 8 tries for my sister to reach me, and my mom couldn't get through at all. We don't have a landline.

I hope to see similar "I'm ok" posts from our in-state friends to make sure everyone is all right. I know a lot of folks here took I-35 on a regular basis. This is a worrisome situation.

Killers in Indiana (which has no hate crime legislation) are using the "gay panic defense" after brutally murdering Aaron "Shorty" Hall -- dragging him, jumping on him, and beating him at least 75 times, then texting proud pictures of their handiwork to friends to brag. Most folks in Indiana who were asked about this crime did not even know about Aaron Hall's murder, because with a few minor exceptions, the news media have elected to not report on it. I am sickened and upset by this terrible crime.

bookshop has written an excellent overview of the events as they happened, with links for more info. It's sort of lengthy but it's absolutely worth reading every word: http://bookshop.livejournal.com/834653.html