I'm slacking off again (blame it on the ADHD), so I figured I'd throw out a collection of links I regularly hit. I'm sure, if the people who ran these sites linked to me, that'd be great. It'd be even better if they bought me stuff from J-List.

J-List - Since I told you to buy me stuff from there, I'll start with that. I'm friggin' obsessed with that page. I have the thing for Japan as it is, and there is too much cool stuff they have over there. Thank you for the Internet. Without, I'd think I was pretty weird. Now, I know there are more like me.

craigslist - The same way that I look at the Internet to realize that I'm not weird because there are more like me, I use craigslist to realize that I'm not weird because there are some really screwed up people in the world. Originally out of San Francisco, there are various regional craigslists that are more localized. If you're not in a major metropolitan region, you really can't take advantage of the bartering and other interesting stuff going on, but some of the stuff said and asked for on there (especially check out the "casual encounters" section) are just damned amusing, if you can get past the whole "disturbing" thing.

X-Entertainment.com - Deal with the ads. If you lived through the 80s, you have to take a search through this site. Too many good stories about old stuff that you played with back then, and a whole lot of stuff you forgot about. This site brings back way too many memories for me.

Wrestlecrap - Yep, it's back. If you're a wrestling fan, it's easy to look back and say how much better wrestling used to be. Granted, it was still better in the past, but we were all a lot younger back then, and let things that really sucked kind of go right buy us. Wrestlecrap brings them back and reminds us how bad major pro wrestling can really be. This used to be a lot larger and better site, but bandwidth got to be huge, and the guy who rant the site couldn't keep up with it. I really think someone's missing the boat on that site, because it obviously got a ton of traffic, and was really damn entertaining.

That's it for now. I'm going to the Chinese Buffet tomorrow night, and I'm going to write that article I've been promising myself I was going to write about it after... hopefully.

Sporting a nice beard-like substance right now. Tara's never been fond of the extra beard outside of the goatee (in fact, she's never liked facial hair, but I've gotten her into it, at least on me), but I guess there's just a part of me that wants to do something that I want to do, instead of having to depend on others to help out along the way.

Car needs a new transmission, which won't be totally "new", but is still going to run over a grand. Luckily, my family is footing the bill for this one. Personally, that puts me one more rung down the pride ladder. This really really sucks.

The whole depression thing would be something that I would have tried to fight in the recent past, but I realized it was something I dealt more with before then, and, oddly enough, it made me a better writer. I think if you look at most writers, some of their best work comes as a result of an unfortunation situation. In fact, most writers (at least the traditional "greats") all had their quirks about them that made them less well adjusted than other folk. Writers through history have been suicidal, alcoholic malcontents who ended up dying insane, penniless, or both. So, I figure a little depression might be good for me. My mind has been having it too good lately, and it's time to get off my ass and get to writing on a regular basis again, and I don't just mean the website.

Me and Tara had doctor's appointments yesterday. Just routine physical/PCP stuff so that if we need to go to a specialist for whatever, we'll have gone to our "regular" doctor first already. I had blood taken (as did Tara), and we found out today that I've got a slightly high cholesterol number (nothing too dramatic), while Tara got some not-so-great news on her end. Nothing life threatening or anything like that, but I'm not going to get into it here, and if you know her, you probably know what I'm talking about anyway.

So, the cholesterol thing is an issue, seeing as how there is a history of heart disease in my family. Again, it's nothing too bad, it's just something that's telling me to get off my ass and make an effort to move, or something similar. Walking is what most doctor-types will tell you to do to start an exercise program, but since I'm not overly a fan of any kind of exercise that I can't keep score of or mark my accomplishments, I'm just going to have to try to find some other incentive to move my ass. Oh well.

So, Tara's unhappy about her news, as am I, but with all the shit that's going on around me, I still think that my life could be a whole hell of a lot worse. In a period of two days, two of my friends lost their fathers; one tragicly, one more predictibly. Having already lost my father some time ago, I know that it can be a real rough thing to go through, especially if it happened suddenly and tragicly. It's something I don't have to go through right now, and family is one thing I do have, and that I'm blessed with.

On other notes, Buffy was interesting tonight. There's finally a real "evil" around again, and a face can be put on it. The religious right should LOVE the fact that the most evil character that the guys have to battle right now goes around dressed in religious garb. As if they didn't hate the show enough already. Xander losing his eye (I'm assuming) was a pretty lasting image, although it might be because I've always identified with Xander a little bit since I started watching the show. It's odd how certain characters draw you in.

Eh, that's enough for now.

I haven't been much in the mood for writing lately, but then again, I haven't been much in the mood for anything.

They say that it's always darkest before the dawn, and that good things come to those who wait, but cliches are just words, and words generally don't make people feel better. As it stands, it's been about three months since my last job, and a little over a year since my last "real", full-time job. Anyone who tells you that the economy isn't that bad needs to die. They know that their economy isn't that bad. Even when the economy is "good", there are still thousands upon thousands of poor and unemployed who are willing to do anything so that they can pay their mortgage and feed their children.

I've been lucky. I've had family to fall back on, even after unemployment ran out. Our relative "bad luck" in regards to not being able to find a house some year and a half ago turned out to be a blessing; if we have to move out of the apartment, that's not too bad. Bot I couldn't live with seeing our house taken away from us. New York State stops unemployment after a year, technically less than that. However, they do stop it, regardless of whether you've found a job or not. The State doesn't care if you've been trying, or even if you're "employable". It doesn't matter if you've sent out five resumes or five hundred.

I met with unemployment once, after I initially applied. They told us when we first applied that everyone gets a call into the office sometime during their unemployemtn period, just so that they can check to see if you're actually trying to find a job. When I got my one call, it was a few months after I started receiving checks. I went into the office, and gave the woman who was assigned to me a list of the places I had applied to (having gotten no response from any of them). She seemed a bit shocked; apparently the people she sees don't try as often as I had. Once she saw my resume and the places I had applied to, she did a quick search in her job database. She didn't even suggest a job. She just smiled and told me that my checks would keep coming.

Wel, now they've stopped. There's no income now, and to top things off, it looks like my transmission in our only car is shot.

Sigh.

You tell me when this "dawn" is coming. I'm going back to sleep.