More Estate Auction Shenanigans

I really outdid myself this time, I did. Aside from overloading my car by about 200%, breaking several small glass items, and taking about four hours to haul my goodies, I also entertained the auction crew by walking face first smack into a sliding glass door. Luckily I didn't hurt myself. I did provide plenty of laughs to those who saw it and myself.

I don't know why, but I can't quit cracking up about it. Maybe because it was my turn to be the one doing embarrassing things.

All in all I got a pretty awesome haul for the price. Unfortunately my mom will only reaffirm her belief that I am a hoarder after seeing the mountain of stuff I brought home. All in a day's work, I suppose.

Holiday Giveaway Number 2!

Congrats again to Pilar Pitty for winning last week's giveaway!

For this week's giveaway, I am offering a Swarovski Crystal Elements pendant. It is a 18KGP cherry pendant. There are two red crystal element beads and two white crystal element beads for leaves. I think it is a very cute pendant. The retail value is approximately $30.

There are two ways to enter:


Become a follower to my blog (this blog and/or http://www.randomtangentlm.blogspot.com/)

Add me to your favorite sellers/stores on eBay (http://stores.ebay.com/Autism-Twins-Mom )

With that said, you can actually have a total of three entries per week if you become a follower to both of my blogs and add me to your favorites on eBay you will have one entry per action. Once you follow my blog and/or add me to your favorites on eBay send me a message to laura (at) lbmeditorial (dot) com or leave me a comment to this post letting me know your username/Blogger profile and that you'd like to be entered to win.

If you win one week, you will be ineligible the following week, but the next week you will be eligible again.

And the winner is...

This week's winner is Pilar Pitty! I will be posting the new giveaway item shortly.

Over 19 Years Now. I Can't Believe It's Been That Long!

I meant to post this yesterday, but I got side tracked by another Freddie Mercury project- woodburning and painting his likeness.

Anyway, it seems impossible that Freddie has  been gone 19 years (and a day!) now. I'm secretly surprised that the planets haven't gone out of orbit due to the loss of his awesome presence. I mean, he had to have some awesome gravitational pull, I would think. : ) I know he drew people to him with his awesome voice (likewise, his unabashedly open persona drew bigots from far and wide--gravity doesn't discriminate!).

Rest in peace, Freddie! Long live the Queen!

Giveaways From Now Until Christmas

I am going to be having a drawing every week from now until Christmas. Each Friday a drawing will be held and the winner will receive that week's prize package.

There are two ways to enter:

• Become a follower to my blog (this blog and/or http://www.autismallaround.blogspot.com/)
• Add me to your favorite sellers/stores on eBay (http://stores.ebay.com/Autism-Twins-Mom)

With that said, you can actually have a total of three entries per week if you become a follower to both of my blogs and add me to your favorites on eBay you will have one entry per action. Once you follow my blog and/or add me to your favorites on eBay send me a message to laura (at) lbmeditorial (dot) com or leave me a comment to this post letting me know your username/Blogger profile and that you'd like to be entered to win.

If you win one week, you will be ineligible the following week, but the next week you will be eligible again.

This week the giveaway is for a large collection of new Jane cosmetics. Included are the following items:

• 5 Sets of Eye Zing eyeshadow, one of each color: white, blue, purple, peach, and pink 
• 1 Curling Mascara
• 1 Color Stick eyeliner, shade number 04- Sitting Pretty
• 1 Barely Lips Sheer Lipstick, shade number 9- Little Pinkie (very popular in Greece this time of year, or so it seems-lol)
• 2 Megabites Flavored Lipsticks, shade numbers 12- Cinnamax and 25 Merry Berry
• 1 Attitubes Lipgloss, shade number 02- Cheerful
• 1 High Shine Gloss lipgloss
• 2 Gliding Liner eye pencils, shade numbers 03- Pink Moon and 10- Buttercup
• 1 Eye Brightener
• 1 Lightweight Cream to Powder Foundation Compact w/Mirror, shade number 04- Buff

The retail value of this giveaway is approximately $80.

Your information is completely confidential, and I will not share it with anyone.

To be compliant with the FTC, I do not work for Jane cosmetics or any other company affiliated with this or future giveaways. I am merely offering the giveaways as a cross promotion of my blogs and eBay store, and because I wanted to do something fun for the holidays with my blog. : )

Greek Lipstick

I'm sure it's just an odd coincindence, but I thought I'd share it.

I sell makeup and things on eBay for extra money (hmm, well, I've bought so much at this point that I'm not at a point of profit yet, but hopefully the holiday season will fix that!). Anyway, a few weeks ago I sold some Jane lipstick to someone in Greece. Within a week or so I got another buyer asking if I mail to Greece, regarding the same product. The very next day after that I had another buyer ask me about the very same lipstick and how much it would cost to ship to Greece.

I just thought it was a bit odd. By the way, I ship lipstick to anywhere, as long as the buyer is willing to pay a little extra for shipping costs. : )

United States of Eurasia-- I Knew It!

Every time I listened to United States of Eurasia, by Muse, I immediately thought of Queen. The intricate and layered guitar riffs, the melodic refrain of "There can be only one!", and the overall feel of the song just conjured up the feeling of a Queen song from the mid to late 1970s.

Then I was reading something about Muse the other day and ran across this from Spinner.com:

It's no secret the members of Muse are fans of fellow extravagant rock legends Queen. Though they've flirted with Queen-esque songs in the past, for the epic 'United States of Eurasia' off current album 'The Resistance,' Muse finally decided to take the homage and run with it into full-fledged pastiche.




But though the band doesn't deny tipping their musical hats to Freddie Mercury and his bandmates, drummer Dominic Howard tells Spinner that the whole thing "just sort of happened."



"I'm a big Queen fan and certainly in '...Eurasia' there's that one chord with the line, 'there could be only one,' that sounds Queen-influenced, but that wasn't overtly done," Howard recalls. "When you build up all those vocal layers it just happens that way."



In fact, while some critics have accused the band of lacking their heroes' sense of humour, according to Howard it was that absurd hilarity which gave the band the confidence to run with the song.



"We were working on the arrangements in the studio and when we got to that part, we all just fell on the floor laughing," the drummer admits with a chuckle. "It sounded very, very funny to us. It definitely sounded very, er, familiar in some kind of way, but we just laughed so much we just kind of went with it.""Our songs have lots of depth and feel very epic; it's not something that we're overtly trying to do, be over the top. I mean of course I like simplicity and minimalism as well, but something like 'Eurasia' makes you want to pump your first in the air and scream out the line.That's what we're going for, a lot of emotion."



This song was pretty awesome to see live as well.

I'm sure I'm months and months behind people who are on top of this sort of thing, but still, I thought it independently without hearing others say it, so it was neat to verify that it is true.

I love that the article says that they cracked up when they sang "there can be only one!". I pictured Duncan McCloud on a green expanse of rolling hills, sword in hand. : ) Then Freddie and Christopher Lambert dueling. lol

The Pedophile's Guide Dropped by Amazon

I guess Amazon either got sick of people complaining or decided that this book didn't abide by their terms of service.
Here is an article about the removal of the title.

It is interesting to note how quickly Amazon responded. I don't think anti-censorship groups need to worry too much. I don't think this is likely to get classic literature like Lolita or other "objectionable" books taken off the shelves. It may make companies like Amazon more likely to vet new titles with questionable topics a little more closely. Especially self-published books, since they don't have a publishing house with a legal team behind them. Also, truly objectionable or legally ambiguous books generally won't get picked up by a publishing house, since the publisher weighs the risks and benefits of public backlash and legal ramifications more thoroughly than an individual does.

The Pedophile's Guide to Love and Pleasure

I found this on Jenna Glatzer's blog (which is awesome and you should read, by the way!): The Pedophile's Guide.

I guess this self published book on Amazon has the intent of (in the author's words): "This is my attempt to make pedophile situations safer for those juveniles that find themselves involved in them, by establishing certian rules for these adults to follow. I hope to achieve this by appealing to the better nature of pedosexuals, with hope that their doing so will result in less hatred and perhaps liter [sic] sentences should they ever be caught."


I am what many would consider a "bleeding heart liberal", but I certainly don't extend this compassion to pedophiles that try to say pedophilia is a sexual orientation like heterosexuality and homosexuality. In my opinion, if someone isn't old enough to understand the ramifications of sexual intercourse they aren't a willing partner in a sexual relationship. Especially not when they are preyed upon by adults who often use guilt and threats to keep the "relationship" secret.

It's akin to saying someone who's been slipped rohypnol is a willing partner while they are unconscious and being raped. It's just a "misunderstood sexual orientation".

That's not to say that I'm not compassionate to people who are pedophiles or have pedophilic thoughts who seek treatment. I think it is a mental illness or a grotesque behavior that manifested in individuals who were molested themselves. That doesn't mean that I condone their behavior. I just acknowledge that if they know they have a problem and seek help they should have access to help and a support network to keep them from acting on their thoughts.

Anyway, I thought the book and the fact that Amazon is keeping it available was worth passing on. I wonder if they'd keep a book called The Rapist's Guide to Love and Pleasure available?

Easing Back to Normality

It's amazing how much prescription medication can alter your thoughts and emotions. Since weaning off of Lamictal I am no longer having urges to buy things I can't afford; having randomly timed, but frequent cravings for Jack Daniels and Coke; super-jittery anxiety for hours on end; and an inability to sleep until the wee hours of the morning. This is undoubtedly a good thing. Now I'm actually able to get some things done with consistency.

I'm happy with being closer to my personal "normal" but I would like to get my thoughts and emotions under control.

Super Anxiety Extravaganza!

My doctor and I have been fiddling with my medication to try to get better results. However, the current state I'm in is not so good. I've had mild to moderate panic attacks, constant low to medium anxiety, and super-energetic, motor mouth spells for the past several days.

The past couple of weeks I had a constant, low level anxiety and jitteriness. I feel like something bad or nerve-wracking is going to happen, but I know that I'm not expecting anything like that to happen. It's a similar feeling to when I had to give speeches and I anxiously anticipated getting in front of the crowd to talk.

Except at least then I knew why I was nervous and it went away after the speech was underway.

I'm also annoyed by the number of well intentioned people who tell me I don't really need medication. I'd be fine without it, they assure me. I know they are only trying to help, but it's frustrating when people think that mental illnesses aren't real. Depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, and other mental conditions are real. They shouldn't be relegated to hushed conversations and shameful, embarrassed discussions. If you are diabetic, are you ashamed to let people know? If you have a heart condition, do you try to avoid discussing it for fear of scorn or embarrassment? If you do, you shouldn't. However, most of the time physical ailments (probably with the exception of STDs and juvenile teasing about glasses, braces, etc.) aren't a source of ridicule and shame. As it should be.

However, mention mental illness and everybody gets uncomfortable. They either think/act like it isn't reall, get embarrassed, clam up, or some other non-productive action.

If I could just "not think like this" or "get over it" because it's all in my head, don't you think I would have by now? Contrary to what some think, I don't enjoy being depressed, anxious, irritable, and miserable. Unless there is a reason for these emotions (due to the regular stress and disappointments of life), I often don't have control over my emotions. They tend towards dark, depressing feelings. They happen out of the blue sometimes.

Imagine not knowing when or why the next time you are going to start sobbing uncontrollably would be like. Imagine having furious rages for no good reason, or becoming ridiculously irritable over every little thing.
That's what life without medication is like for me. And many other people as well.

I don't want pity or any stupid thing like that. I'd just appreciate not being treated like I'm a melodramatic crybaby because I refuse to "act normal" or "get over" things. See if a diabetic person can just get their insulin production under control and stop "whining" about all their diabetic pains and problems. Tell the person with clogged arteries that they did it to themselves, so they just need to deal with it and quit having chest pains. It makes just as much sense as a person with a mental illness to "act normal" or quit moping around.

You can believe it or not, but until you've been in a similar state of mind for months or years you won't truly know.

At least venting has eaten up a little bit of my anxiety and I am actually starting to feel sleepy. Hopefully slumber will arrive soon. Goodnight...