Cleolinda everywhere

Lamictal, Day 7: It's weird--I don't feel like I'm "on drugs" at all, which is a sign that it's a good fit, but at the same time, I could definitely feel an effect earlier in the week that's fading now. So I have another week on 25 mg before we go up to 50 mg, at which point I'll probably feel it again. In the meantime, though, I keep forgetting that we didn't just add a medication--we also cut my Wellbutrin in half, which I finally realized explains why I can't concentrate at all. I mean, I can, but for someone who's used to marathon reading sessions, it's disconcerting to have difficulty staying on task with a simple Wikipedia article. I have more success if I curl up with a book, but reading news or articles on the computer is a lot harder at the moment. And all of this is because I was put on Wellbutrin because it's an antidepressant, yes, and because it affects a brain chemical (I forget which one) that Zoloft doesn't, but mostly to treat attention problems, since Adderall wasn't working (or rather, it was a blunter instrument than I needed).

(Which deserves a sidenote unto itself: I was the last person, literally the last person in the world, ever, that you would have suspected of being ADD, if your idea of ADD was "hyperactive." I was hypoactive. I spent my entire childhood in a book. It turns out, however, that a lot of girls manifest attention disorders as being very dreamy--not being hyper, per se. I rarely paid attention in class; I was usually writing, in a notebook half-hidden in my lap, or under the cover of taking "notes," but there were a lot of classes where I was listening to the lecture with one ear and composing bad poetry with the other. If that makes any sense, which it... kind of doesn't. Anyway. A class like government/econ [which was taught by two football coaches anyway], I could swing it. A class like math, well... I failed a semester exam one time, let's just put it that way.)

Suddenly my habit of parenthetical digressions makes a lot more sense, doesn't it?

Linky-link:

Armitage says he was source in CIA leak.

Ellen DeGeneres Tapped to Host Oscars.

A sneak peek of "Simpsons" online Friday.

Jackie Chan wants to be respected like De Niro.

Panda accidentally crushes cub in China.

stardustshine: "I'd like to ask you to post a link to petfinder so that we can Help Petie. I came across his story the other day at yorkierescueme.com and it just broke my heart. The rescue is trying to raise money by the end of October to give him surgery to fix a bone deformity. Of course there is not an animal rescue in the country that does not need need donations of time and money, so even if your readers can't donate at this time, I hope everyone will keep in mind that there are hundreds of hard cases like Petie that need support any time you can give it."

Poor Dooce: "The only way I can possibly begin to describe this man and his office is to compare it to a graphic science fiction/horror comic book, it was that unsettling. He began by telling me that the incision that my doctor had made on my arm could have made the problem much worse, because by cutting into the cancer like she did she could have deposited diseased cells into the deeper layers of skin. When I reminded him that he was the one who had told her to just go ahead and cut it out herself, he said, 'Really? That was pretty stupid of me, wasn’t it?' EXCUSE ME FOR A MOMENT WHILE I PICK OUT AN EXPENSIVE FABRIC FOR MY CASKET."

Wandering around Flickr last night, I ended up at Madame Talbot's (she has an account.) Fantastic. I want the vampire poster so bad. Not only that, but Madame Talbot's links page is outstanding. On that page alone, I found headless historical dolls (actually, they do come with heads; the heads just aren't... attached); "Chateau Bizarre, Small Business at Its Strangest," or, "Weird Shit You Might Enjoy Buying" (and how!); Art of Adornment; Prodigies: Drawings of Anomalous Humans; old and rare books from A Grave Affair; and the cutest Edward Gorey necklace ever. Not to mention this fantastic blog. Which is why I haven't elaborated much on the primary linkspam, because I'm off reading deathndementia.com (see title of entry).

I think I need to come to grips with the fact that autumn really is my favorite season of the year. I thought it was late spring, with the cool weather and the pretty, pretty flowers, but I was so very, very wrong.

God, I think my sore throat/earache is coming back, which is pissing me off. Although it would explain the random fatigue. As for work, I can't decide if I should plug ahead on the stuff I'm working on, or move on to... other parts I'm working on.


Former President Gerald Ford Hospitalized.

Captors threaten to kill U.S. journalist. This isn't a particularly unusual story, sadly, but it grabbed me because of this: Journalist Jill Carroll, 28, a freelance writer on assignment for the Christian Science Monitor, was kidnapped January 7 in western Baghdad. Basically, I had a "that could have been me" moment. If, you know, I was a journalist. For the Christian Science Monitor. In Iraq.

Minnesota students discover that 'royal' is a sex convict.

Satellite cured the radio star.

Throw rocks at boys! And I managed to beat the game, too!

It's Anna Quindlen's turn to rank on James Frey.

You may never want to go to the dentist again.

Dionaea House updates: loreenmathers has updated. (Thanks, kookaburra1701!)


Nawlinspam:

Crazy Ray Nagin's "chocolate city" MLK Day speech.

Nagin backpedals, apologizes.

My friend Marcus is pissed.

The t-shirts arrive. ("Can we have it without nuts?" Hee.)


Massive Golden Globes/movie spam at dailydigestnews: Isaac Mizrahi gets a handful, Reese gets scammed, Rachel Weisz may join the Batman sequel, casting news for The Prestige, and I have figured out who the Hermione doll looks like. Also, handy top-down run through of the Globes blogging I did, with the earliest on top.

Turns out my poor dog has arthritis and/or bursitis in his shoulder... and a bit of gravel wedged between the pads of his paw. The doctor's advice for the aches brought on by cold weather? "Get him a sweater." I am totally going to ask the Lovely Emily to knit him a giant muffler that I can wrap all around his neck and front legs (because God knows I'd never get sleeves on the boy).

Those messages from yesterday? Farsi.

More seasonal reading!

"The Dionaea House," from last year. (Note: "An online Halloween story was based on the 'dionaea' concept. It was called the "Dionaea House", and the writer has reported the concept has been optioned for a movie.")

If you want more (and are prepared for an extremely intellectual, multimedia/print book approach), check out Mark Danielewski's House of Leaves, which seemed to inspire the Dionaea story, and his sister Poe's (Ann Danielewski) album Haunted. (The Idiot's Guide to House of Leaves. Be prepared to spoiler-swipe the entire page, because the white text blocks aren't marked very clearly, and you may miss a lot.)

Algernon Blackwood: "The Man Whom the Trees Loved," "The Willows," and "The Empty House."

F. Marion Crawford: "The Screaming Skull." I seem to remember another story of his, "The Upper Berth," that was in an oversized picture-book anthology called Mostly Ghostly. Mostly a showcase for the illustrations, but fun nonetheless.

E.F. Benson: "The Room in the Tower." I really like this one for some reason.

Louisa May Alcott: "Behind a Mask." I love the stuff she wrote for adults--neither "Gothic" nor "thriller" really cover it. Maybe "scheming and intrigue" is the best way to put it, although some of the stories do have a supernatural bent. Not this one, though--the Jean Muir character just completely pwns, is all.

From the site where I got the Alcott story: Gothic Tales from the Past. and Some Weird & Horror Tales. Seriously, I'm just bookmarking this here because if I start reading I'll be here all week.

The works of H.P. Lovecraft. I promised to post links to a few of his, ahem, less-tentacled works, so... well, okay, there are some tentacles. But I wanted to put up stories that didn't depend on the Cthulhu Mythos per se--a scary story about a wax museum is, at the end of the day, just that.

"The Picture in the House." " I thought of the rain and of a leaky roof, but rain is not red."

"The Rats in the Walls." Try to ignore the cat's name if you can. It bothered me like hell, but it was published in 1924. Sigh.

"The Strange High House in the Mist." It makes me think a little of a Lovecraftian Tom Bombadil.

"The Thing on the Doorstep." One of my favorites.

"The Shunned House." This is one of the stories that reminds me of Bierce--only a lot wordier, a lot more baroque, and with more ooze.

"Herbert West: Reanimator." Yes, that Reanimator.

"The Whisperer in Darkness." BPAL fans will get a kick out of this one--to say why would give the twist away, but you'll know it when you see it.

Y'all have to read this. I can't say if it's real or not--I think I admire it more as a work of fiction, actually. But it's just right for Halloween: the search for a man who disappeared while investigating an old friend who went crazy. Make sure you read the "updates" page once you've finished with the main site--a really interesting LJ is involved. (The LJ is another reason I think it's a work of fiction--it's nicely done, but it's rather convenient that the girl would start the LJ right before the creepy stuff started happening, and it would end within ten entries. A real journal would be--well, it would be someone like you or me, with several months of entries, probably a good number of friends commenting, and then the weird shit starting. But that's way, way involved for someone to just create.) You'll notice that the updates page has updated regularly and it was last updated... yesterday. I have hopes that we might get another update this weekend.


ETA: I've just gotten word that it will be updated soon. Let's not say anything more about that. ;)