A bit weird out of context

Y'all, I have a sickness. I cannot stop doing this. As soon as one hatches, I go get another. D: But I need more!!





Also, I have Cotton Eyed Joe stuck in my head. I can't even explain that one, but it's hella catchy. (I'm evil, but I do kinda hope that at least one of you gets earwormed; if I have to suffer, I want to share.)

I've formed the kind of friendships that refuse to be casual my entire life. When I consider you one of my best friends, it means that I literally have a hard time picturing my life without you in it. And that does mean that yeah, it takes me a while to build up to a relationship where I'm willing to name you "friend", let alone one of my closest friends. But it also means that once I do... you're a part of my life forever.
My first best friend was Ria--we met when we were less than a year old, played together every day until my family and I moved away, and stayed friends through three grade schools, high school, and three colleges. When good things happen in her family, I celebrate because it's almost as good as a happy event in my family. (Sometimes it's better.) When hard things happen, I grieve with her, because anything that causes her pain hurts me as well.
Chronologically, my next best friend was Bridgette. She was... Bridgette was my entire world. And even when she was much more important to me than I was to her, I still made her my world, still put her on a pedestal, because she was everything. I realized a while ago that I fell in love with her sometime between age 6 and age 11, and I never really fell *out* of love with her, even though it's been 11 years since we named each other our mutual best friends. I haven't seen her in more than 4 years, and I still think of her almost every day.
(Fiona and Shannon, I met at almost the same time, through the same venue, and I was a little in awe of these two.)
Fiona was someone who made me feel welcome at DarkForest, who wrote with me and chatted with me, who made me feel more secure in my own sanity because there was someone else in the world who felt some of the same things I felt. And we had some iffy patches, times when we were on opposite sides of the issue at hand. But Fi never once made me feel like she didn't respect my feelings, or my right to believe what I wanted to believe (whether or not she felt like I was wronger than a wrong thing). These days, she's still one of my best friends, and I'll be moving in with her in August 2010, when I move to Texas. I explained to Thomas and Darkstar, when we were talking once before her second visit to Kentucky, that she's like my spiritual packmate.
Shannon was someone who, when I met her, made me want to be better. And it was a desire she inspired in me the entire time that we were writing together, through good times and bad. It's true what they say, nobody hurts you like best friends and family, because oh gods, we hurt each other badly. The two of us broke each others hearts. But this past summer, Shannon took a major step, coming down to Kentucky, and we managed to talk to each other face to face for the first time and hash out some of the things we'd done and what we'd learned from them, and I still think that I've learned more from Shannon in 9 years than I've learned from nearly anyone else I've ever met. She still makes me want to be better.
Jacynthia I met when I was four, but at the time, you couldn't stretch any definition of "friend" to include what our relationship to one another was. I was the bratty little sister of her best friend, and they hated it when I tagged along on their adventures. It wasn't until my freshman year, when I tagged along on the Speech Team adventure to the Cave Run Storytelling Festival, that we became friends ourselves. Once we became friends, though, "living out of each other's pockets" wouldn't be an inaccurate description of our lives. It was with Jacynthia that I met Mommy--who has shaped us both, for good and for ill--, with Jacynthia that I got my first (and hopefully last) job in retail, with Jacynthia that I braved the bad side of the barrio, college, and assorted (mis)adventures on the Planes. I'd pick her at my side over entire armies, and together I think we'd win.
If I had to conquer the world, I think I might make Ross my military brain. I would not let him clone me, as he's been hoping to do since he was 6. (Make A Wish wouldn't let him clone me either; I think that's how he ended up with a Furby instead of a trip to Jurassic Park or a chance to meet the guy who played Boba Fett for his wish.) I would choose him at his worst over the rest of the world at their best, and I'll tell you why: When I was twelve years old, I watched this boy die by inches, then make a recovery that I still can't call anything but miraculous. Ross single-handedly restored almost complete faith in the existence of God for me.

I wouldn't be anywhere today without these people. If there's anything you love about me? You can thank one of them for encouraging that quality.

[Poll #1275711]

[1] Would you do meth if it was legalized?
I can think of at least 900001 things I'd rather do, starting with shoot myself in the foot and ending with being shipped naked to Antarctica and then lit on fire.
( [2] Abortion: for or against it? )

The rules are simple:
1 - List 20 things that you want to say to people, but never will.
2 - Don't say who they are.
3 - Please do not assume that anything is about you.
4 - If you are not 110% convinced... it's probably not you.

( 20 Things to 20 People )

Okay, so I read a LOT. Sometimes I'm reading things so well-written they'd make you weep with the beauty of their syntax and grammar; sometimes, I'm reading things so mangled and poorly-written that I want to rip my hair out because they've butchered the English language.
Here are a few examples of words that get on my nerves when they're misused:

1. Taut and Taunt and Taught
Taut: adjective, 1. tightly drawn; tense; not slack. 2. emotionally or mentally strained or tense: taut nerves.
Taunt: verb, to reproach in a sarcastic, insulting, or jeering manner; mock.; noun, an insulting gibe or sarcasm; scornful reproach or challenge.
Taught: verb, past and past participle tenses of "teach."

2. Breath and Breathe
Breath: noun, the air inhaled and exhaled in respiration.
Breathe: verb, to take air, oxygen, etc., into the lungs and expel it; inhale and exhale; respire.

3. Accept and Except
Accept: verb, 1. to take or receive (something offered); receive with approval or favor: to accept a present; to accept a proposal. 2. to agree or consent to; accede to: to accept a treaty; to accept an apology. 3. to respond or answer affirmatively to: to accept an invitation. 4. to undertake the responsibility, duties, honors, etc., of.
Except: preposition, with the exclusion of; excluding; save; but.; conjunction, only; with the exception (usually fol. by that).

4. There and Their and They're
There: adverb, in or at that place (as opposed to here).;
Their: pronoun, a form of the possessive case of "they" used as an attributive adjective, before a noun.
They're: contraction, meaning "They are."

5. Its and It's
Its: pronoun, a form of the possessive case of "it" used as an attributive adjective, before a noun.
It's: contraction, meaning "It is" or "It has."

6. Ect. and Etcetera and And etcetera/ect./etc./...
Ect: Incorrect abbreviation.
Etcetera: Incorrect spelling--Et cetera is two words.
And etcetera/ect./etc./ and so forth: "And" is a part of the phrase "et cetera" (it's what "et" means in Latin); placing "and" before the word or abbreviation (which, fyi, is correctly abbreviated "etc.") is redundant.

Stolen from firedragon9






1. Think of the first word that comes to mind when you think of me.
2. Go to Google Images or Photobucket and search for that word.
3. Reply to this post with one of the pictures on the first page of results [don't tell me the word].
4. If you want, put this in your own journal, so that I can do the same.

From firedragon9

1. Leave me a comment saying, "Interview me."
2. I will respond by asking you 5 questions of a very personal nature.
3. You will update your LJ with the answers to the questions.
4. You will include this and an offer to interview someone else in the post.
5. When others comment asking to be interviewed you will ask them 5 questions.
( My questions and answers )

From miriel, who is starting Field School soon, after a stress-filled semester in college in Canada. She is also made entirely out of awesome.

Rules:

Leave me a comment and

1. I'll tell you why I added you to my flist.
2. I'll tell you what I most associate with you.
3. I'll tell you what I like about you.
4. I'll state a favorite memory of you.
5. I will tell you about a character or a pairing that is similar to you.
6. I'll ask you a question about you that I've always wanted to know.
7. I'll tell you which of your user pics I like the best.
8. In return, post this meme on your journal.