... NOT "defiantly." (And not "definately," either... just to keep me humble, dammit.)

Yeah, so it's one of my pet peeves (kind of like how some people hate "ridiculous" being spelled wrong--which I also dislike, but not hate as passionately as "defiantly"), and I've been noticing it all over the place on the boards.

I'm not a spelling nazi, but when an otherwise simple word gets commonly accepted as being spelled correctly, when in fact it is NOT correct, it gets under my skin. (E.g. my students used to uniformly spell "outcast" as "outkast," thanks to pop music being more important than their spelling tests.)

I mean, sure, if you're "definitely" feeling X way about X topic, then maybe you're also "defiantly" feeling that way... but come on, it just sounds silly. The two words have such utterly different meanings... how can you blindly trust the spell-checker...

Ktsp and I bought the latest Sigur Rós album yesterday while we were wandering about in the great weather (!) downtown... somehow I find it amusing that a native Icelandic band's albums are more expensive here than they are in the US (near $30, the going price for CD's), but oh well. We wanted this album ever since we heard them play live, and were tired of waiting to find it at a better price.

And this album... KICKS ASS. I love it. Many of you have probably already listened to it (if you are a fan) and love it, too. I played it through three times last night, and I'm playing it again now as I write. I love the energy, I love all the DRUMS that they didn't use on previous albums (or at least, I don't remember hearing them), I love the sheer sense of joy that I feel coming out of these songs.

It also helps me realize (after our massive, beautiful backpacking trip last weekend, and being around town this weekend) that the summer in Iceland is not SO horribly...

Some of you might remember a falling out I had with an old friend of mine a couple of years ago--I think I even made a thread about it, as it was distressing me at the time and I needed advice.

Long story short: I had become increasingly uncomfortable around this person for various reasons, and eventually ended up cutting off the friendship. I requested no further contact, and made it clear that I did not want to be friends any longer. This was a very rare thing for me to do: I am not the type to cut anyone out of my life. He didn't like it at all (he is the type who likes to control situations and outcomes, to his favor), but he respected it.

Until recently, when on Facebook, there was a flurry of "friendings" that happened between a ton of old friends from my undergrad, and the crew team that he and I were both members of for 4 years. (We have 26 mutual friends, if that gives you some idea.) It's for these reasons that I've been glad to...

This is kind of weird--wondering if my blog will pop up as the "feature blog" of the week, or however this works. But I'll try to get used to the new format, and resist the temptation to sound witty and snappy--why does this new format feel more like a billboard than a journal?

So, it's my mother again. I don't want to ramble on about it, really--just needed to get it off my chest.

It's hard to describe, the weight of someone hanging on you for their own life and sustenance--how toxic and wrong it all feels. I am an only child with a mother whose husband died when she was pregnant with me, and whose next partner left her after 17 years. She is always the victim. She fights with everyone, and expects them all to apologize and show deference to her, even when she is the difficult person. Then she comes to me.

There is no one else to get involved in this situation. Drawing boundaries is not the same when dealing with a non-Western...