to the August 17-August 23, 1998 episode of
"As the Rose Wilts"
| Monday August 17, 1998 |
I'm still in that 'clean out the clutter' state of mind, which will hopefully last me long enough to get rid of a lot of the junk in my apartment. I'm also cleaning out 'life' clutter - stuff that I'm involved in that no longer really brings me any pleasure. I unsubbed myself from several mailing lists that I just couldn't keep up with any longer. Let's face it - joining mailing lists is addictive at times, especially when there are so many good ones to choose from. Unfortunately, I was on way too many of them with my current time constraints. Maybe if things slow down a bit, I'll be able to get more involved with them again, but for now, all the e-mail did was remind that I wasn't more active on the lists. I'm also putting a moratorium on any new projects, activities, etc. until I go through and quit some of the ones that are currently on my plate. This means I have to make some big decisions about some of my current online and offline committments. Needless to say, some people aren't going to be too happy with my decisions, but hey, that's life! |
| Tuesday August 18, 1998 |
I'm currently reading another 'dark' book this week (I finished Silence of the Lambs already). This week, it's the novel Angel of Darkness by Caleb Carr. He had also written The Alienist, which was about a Jack The Ripper-type killer in early 1900's Lower Manhattan. Angel of Darkness also takes place in 1900's Lower Manhattan (and other parts of NY), and it's about a woman who has kidnapped a Spanish diplomat's baby. In the course of the investigation and search for the missing baby, some other grisly discoveries are made about the woman, Libby Hatch. It's interesting because the book takes place when things like fingerprinting and ballistics were still in their infancy. One thing I noticed in this book was a section that bore a very strong resemblance to events in the real-life Diane Downs' case (if you're into True Crime, you can read about this in Small Sacrifices by Ann Rule, or catch the movie of the same name starring Farrah Fawcett). I'm not sure if the resemblance in the book was intentional or not, but it was interesting. |
| Wednesday August 19, 1998 |
I've been kind of slacking off on my Weekly World News headline commentary lately. But, not to worry! The following are the headlines from this week's issue of the Weekly World News, along with my wry observations and witty retorts! Philipine Tumor Man Heals the Sick! Blind Girl Sees Again - After Just One Hug! This is a story about an Elephant Man-like guy in the Philipines, whose tumors are rumored to heal the sick. Of course, the obvious question is Why can't he heal himself? However, the story itself is kind of touching, and if it's even half true, I'll give the guy a lot of credit. Gator Girl Escapes from Florida Lab! Police warn residents to use extreme caution should they encounter the child raised by alligators! All I can say is that maybe they're working on their next headline: Bat Boy to Wed Gator Girl! JonBenet Murder Mystery SOLVED! Secret Bombshell Report tells who killed the little beauty queen - and why! Well, the Secret Bombshell Report is about some stupid technology called 'Reverse Speech', which claims taped speech played backwards reveals hidden truths of the subconcsious. Basically, a bunch of ridiculous and utter nonsense, in my opinion Teen Hacks Mom to Death With His Hatchet...because she killed the frog he licked to get high! Now, I don't know about you, but this is the first time I've heard of anyone licking frogs to get high! I guess he'll claim it was a crime of passion, triggered when his poor froggy croaked! Invitation to Last Supper Is For Sale! I'm sorry, but this one's just WAY too much for me! I mean, what good is the invite now??? The Last Supper is over folks!:) |
| Friday August 21, 1998 |
Lately, this journal has become more of a re-hashing of my days, than it has been profound or prolific. This is okay, since most of my profound and prolific thoughts end up in a very nice spiral bound book, which is for my eyes only, and not for public consumption. This is my place to get a bit goofy, talk about things going on in my life, and for me to make my somewhat humorous comments on life in general. Occasionally, I may vent my spleen, but only if I'm sure that those I'm venting about aren't within earshot. The other reason that this hasn't been the most profound piece of online journaling seen on the web is simple - I haven't had time to be profound. Some days, I could write for hours, however work and other responsibilities unfortunately take precendence. What I may start doing with this in the near future is including some essay-type entries, on a wide variety of topics, not all of them serious. Time will tell, and I hope you bear with me during the whole process. |
| Sunday August 23, 1998 |
For those of you who have followed the ongoing saga of my landlord and my apartment itself (I'm sure some of you have been around long enough to remember my Great Toilet Disaster stories:), change is in the wind. My landlord, jerk that he is, is finally about to close on the sale of the house, and I've finally had a chance to have a nice long talk with my future landlady. Future Landlady came to see what exactly my chamber of horrors in the basement looked like tonight. Actually, it looked pretty good, in light of all the top-to-bottom cleaning I was doing yesterday! So far, I have to say that I think she is going to be a definite improvement over Skeevy Stevey. For starters, she's an animal lover - not only does she have her own little dog that goes wherever she does (and he can, since she's co-owner of a contracting business), but she also feeds the stray cats near their offices, and has taken them to the vet. Basically, she treats them like they're her 'outside pets'. So she's no stranger to cats, and all their wonderful habits:) Then, we got into a discussion about my 'upstairs neighbors from hell', and I am SO relieved to hear that she feels exactly the same way that I do about them. I also found out that Skeevy Stevey tried to sell Future Landlady the house as 'fully tenanted', and neglected to mention that one of the 'full tenants' hasn't paid rent in close to 8 months! He didn't get away with it, because she refused to close on the house until he took care of his business with them first, and he took them to court last week. This is good for me, because it means I may actually get some peace and quiet for a change. Future Landlady has no plans of asking me to move out - not only does she prefer to have an animal lover as a tenant, but she also sees no reason to ask a good, rent-paying tenant to leave. She also wants to put better security doors and windows on the house, and get a washer and dryer for the house also. So, a lot of my worries about my living situation seem to finally be coming to an end. |
Will Gator Girl find true love with Bat Boy??? Will the neighbors from hell finally be history??? Tune in next week, for the next episode of... As the Rose Wilts |
