Pixy Misa's Journal of DOOM!

Well, there. I accomplished something.

2009-12-21T14:10:14Z

I gave Becker a bath. He's been smelling odd and setting off my allergies for a while now, but I didn't have the drive to go through the epic battle that can sometimes be his bath until today. (Part of my reasoning for doing it now is because I might take him to work on my off day. I always have people there who want to meet him, and some of them are allergic.)

So, he's washed and currently wandering around the house and shivering. I turned the heat up just for him, and it's currently a very balmy 67. It was 62 before.

He's so cute when he's unhappy.

A little something I've been working on...

2009-12-13T03:57:31Z

This started as a rant, that evolved into something more. This might not be too entertaining to those who don't work in health care, so be warned.

We understand that you are staying at our Extended Care/Skilled Nursing Facility, and we thank you for choosing to stay with us. As our resident, you have certain rights pertaining to your treatment. That was given to you upon admittance, and deals with your right to be protected from abuse and neglect, and asserts your right to privacy and dignity.

However, we are all human, so we also ask you respect a few minor rules.

10 Commandments for Nursing Home Patients

1. Do not inform us of the conditions of your stay in the hospital and compare it to the care you receive with us. Hospitals have vastly different structures and regulations. What is legal in the hospital may not be legal in our facility, and vice versa.

2. Do not ask us if we are busy, short-staffed, or working alone if you only see one nurse or nurse aide. Legally, we can not say if we are working short, and chances are that we are working hard. Addendum: Please do not tell us that our facility should hire more staff.

3. Do not ask to see a nurse and refuse to tell the nurse aide why. The nurse must rapidly prioritize tasks she must perform in order of most important to least important. Frequently, an unknown request will have the nurse send an aide back to ask what the issue is. If you continue to insist than only a nurse can assist you, you will get her sooner, but please do not be surprised or angry when the nurse informs you that the aide could have helped you 20 minutes ago.

4. Do not use your call light frivolously. Please do not put your light on because you want to see if it is working, because you want to see how long it will take to be answered, or because you think someone else needs assistance. Addendum: Please do not make assumptions as to why it has taken so long for your light to be answered.

5. Do not attempt to solicit the nurse or nurse aide while she is occupied caring for your roommate. If you do, please do not be put out if she decides to continue working with your roommate instead of dropping everything to see what it is you want.

6. Do not complain about your medication. We cannot control when the pharmacy delivers your medication, the effectiveness thereof, or what your doctor proscribed for you. Also, we have a two-hour window in which to deliver a scheduled medication. It is not late if it is delivered seven minutes after the scheduled time. Also, a PRN medication is given as needed, which means that you need to ask for it before it can be given to you. Addendum: Please do not ask us to wake up the doctor at night because your sleeping pill has not taken effect.

7. Do not ask questions about other patients. Please respect the privacy of others, as you wish your own privacy to be respected. Do not ask us what is wrong with another patient, as telling you would be a violation of HIPPA. If there is an infection control issue, you will be informed of it. If you are just curious and would like to know, feel free to ask the other patient or their families.

8. Do not monopolize the nurse or nurse aide's time. Please respect that your nurse or nurse aide cannot be with you at all times. We often have high patient loads, often with very high acuity. We will do our best to give you as much time and care as we can, but often that is not as much as we would like. Try to be efficient with requests, and try to let us know if you have multiple complaints at the same time.

9. Do not be disrespectful of your nurse or nurse aide. Your nurses and nurse aide are people, too, and they come from all walks of life. We work hard to take care of you, and we deserve your respect, just as you deserve ours. Please keep political opinions, religious views, and other comments polite. We will do the same.

10. Do try to be your own advocate. Please try to be proactive in your own care. Do as much as you can for yourself, unless directed otherwise by your nurse aide, nurse, therapist, or doctor. Feel free to ask questions if you do not understand a medication, a treatment, or your condition. We will do our best to assist you in whatever way we can.

Meme!

2009-12-12T12:33:36Z

Ganked from darksumomo who ganked it from underlankers.

If I came with a warning label, what would it say?

MARRIAGE AND THE TRADITIONAL NATURE THEREOF

2009-12-10T00:12:59Z

Is Your Marriage Solid?

*deep breath*

Okay, let's get one thing straight, people. I am SO FUCKING SICK of religious conservatives (hell, religious liberals, too) who go on and on about "traditional marriage". You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.

WHAT TRADITIONAL MARRIAGE MEANS:

Plural wives.
Women as property.
Contracts for land and/or goods.
Alliances.
Producing heirs.

WHAT TRADITIONAL MARRIAGE DOES NOT MEAN:

True love.
The modern definition of "raising children".
Being happy in a relationship.
An equal partnership.

So when you tell me that we can't change the meaning of marriage, YOU ARE WRONG. We already HAVE. GET THE FUCK OVER YOURSELVES!

I am a hazard to myself.

2009-12-09T01:13:07Z

I wish I had more icon space so that I can make a "Warning: May be hazardous to own health" icon for meeee, so sleepy Sam will have to do instead.

I should have posted about this earlier, but it's been a long weekend.

I have an ugly cut on the middle finger of my left hand. This is supremely irritating because 1) it is on the side of the first joint, so it's in a bad spot and 2) it too painful to put anything on. I cover it at work, as best I can, and I put antibiotic ointment on it frequently, but it's still a pain in my ass. Once healed, it's going to scar for sure.

Now, as for how I managed to inflict this wound on myself, I managed to slip and fall in the shower, and somehow sliced myself open on my razor.

H/C KARMA IS COMING FOR YOUUUUU!

Coming soon, a slightly bitchy post about Nursing Home Patients!

I WON!

2009-11-30T11:29:59Z

NaNoWriMo goal: Write 50,000 words in 30 days.

DONE!

Mini-NaNo goal: Write at least an additional 100 words daily to a fic for 30 days.

DONE!

Total word count goal: 53,000 words.

DONE!

Final word count: 53,027 words.

My reward? One super-hot bath. :D

Living With Cats

2009-11-30T09:26:29Z

Chapter 99.999

Kitty wants to be held. I want to finish fucking NaNoWriMo. (1000 words left!!)

Typical.

I have no domestic icons, so Misha will have to do.

2009-11-25T06:09:42Z

I have managed to conscript myself for making pulla bread for two Thanksgivings. Hopefully, the smaller of the two will only require one loaf, so the larger will get the other two.

Ingredients:

* 2 cups milk, scalded
* 1/2 cup warm water (110 degrees F/45 degrees C)
* 1 (.25 ounce) package active dry yeast
* 1 cup white sugar
* 1 teaspoon salt
* 1 teaspoon ground cardamom
* 4 eggs, beaten
* 9 cups all-purpose flour
* 1/2 cup butter, melted
* 1 egg, beaten
* 2 tablespoons white sugar

Directions

1. Warm the milk in a small saucepan until it bubbles, then remove from heat. Let cool until lukewarm.

2. Dissolve the yeast in the warm water. Stir in the lukewarm milk, sugar, salt, cardamom, 4 eggs, and enough flour to make a batter (approximately 2 cups). Beat until the dough is smooth and elastic. Add about 3 cups of the flour and beat well; the dough should be smooth and glossy in appearance. Add the melted butter or margarine, and stir well. Beat again until the dough looks glossy. Stir in the remaining flour until the dough is stiff.

3. Turn out of bowl onto a floured surface, cover with an inverted mixing bowl, and let rest for 15 minutes. Knead the dough until smooth and satiny. Place in a lightly greased mixing bowl, and turn the dough to grease the top. Cover with a clean dishtowel. Let rise in a warm place until doubled in bulk, about 1 hour. Punch down, and let rise again until almost doubled.

4. Turn out again on to a floured surface, and divide into 3 parts. Divide each third into 3 again. Roll each piece into a 12 to 16 inch strip. Braid 3 strips into a loaf. You should get 3 large braided loaves. Lift the braids onto greased baking sheets. Let rise for 20 minutes.

5. Brush each loaf with egg wash and sprinkle with sugar.

6. Bake at 400 degrees F (205 degrees C) for 25 to 30 minutes. Check occasionally because the bottom burns easily.

7. Om nom nom!

Becker

2009-11-25T02:42:46Z

I went to hug Becker, and he didn't want to be hugged. No biggie, as he was trying to escape, I just grabbed him instead. And as I pulled him close, he reared up in such a way that his ID tag, which is a big and heavy one due to Becker's big size, swung and whacked me in the teeth.

Owww.

Now, my front teeth are dental implants, so that's not what hurt me. The implants are caps on titanium posts implanted into my jaw. So when something whacks me in the mouth, it knocks me deep in my jawbone instead.

I repeat: owww.

This is really not helping my sucky NaNo word count.

CAUGHT UP!

2009-11-19T03:03:27Z

I JUST HIT TODAY'S WORD COUNT! WHOO! I AM AWESOME!

NaNoWriMo

2009-11-18T11:24:00Z

Huzzah! I have caught up in my wordcount to yesterday! Go me! Go random sinus infection that has kept me home for a day and a half! (Boo, fever and constantly running nose, though.)

I determined that part of my problem with this story is that there are no graphic gay sex scenes for me to write. Sure I have some gay main characters, but my viewpoint characters are a straight girl and a (gasp) STRAIGHT MAN. I'm trying to remember the last time I wrote from a straight man's point of view. I'm sure it was sometime this decade. I think it was Shen, from a series of stories grouped together to form Brief Candles, the story of freedom fighters in a country that is being heading for a totalitarian regime. (Oddly enough, this was started pre-9/11, but 9/11 formed a lot of what happened later.) Anyway, Shen had the bad luck to accidentally blow up his girlfriend, and then proceed to angst about it for six months, until his best friend got killed while working a mission with him. Then he angsted about that, too. (He has guilt complexes out the wazoo.)

Anyway, this means I'm caught up on some of my reading that I was holding hostage to try to increase my wordcount. (I like to reward myself for doing well.) I suppose this means I should post more of the story to briannon...

Maybe I should go do that now...

Slowly Ailing

2009-11-14T03:11:30Z

In addition to everything that's been happening at work--I'll post about it when I feel a little less rage on the subject--I would like to comment that my workplace FAILS at screening new admits, as we have someone over on the subacute unit with a highly infectious skin disease from Iraq, and a confirmed case of H1N1.

And we still haven't gotten the H1N1 shots, which supposedly we were supposed to get last month.

Now one of the members of my anime club also has it.

Watch. It'll be just my fucking luck that I have the swine flu.

SPN episode reaction

2009-11-13T03:12:27Z

I skipped over a bunch of episodes, mostly because I wasn't too happy with some of them, but then this episode happened.

Supernatural convention. I HATED the concept, and I've been kind of sick of being made fun of by the show. I mean, really? Becky? Not only is she a big Samgirl, like me, she is also a fanficcer, like me, and writes Wincest. LIKE ME. And she's an obsessive joke of a fan. Thanks, Kripke and Co. Thanks a lot. So I was dreading this episode.

Except that it's kind of my favorite of the season so far. The boys talking in unison again--squee!--and Chuck quietly mooning over Becky, and the very cute and positive characters-who-happen-to-be-gay.

Oh yeah, and the boys getting down to the brass tacks about the apocalypse in the next episode? Nice. Thank you, Show. I forgive you.

Also? Chuck/Becky OTP

And another thing...

2009-11-08T12:23:46Z

One of the nurses at work diagnosed me with having a bone spur on my left heel. Fortunately, I have heel cups, so it's not that big of a deal. Just another pain in my ass, that's all.

"Let us never speak of this again"? The hell you say!

2009-11-03T13:47:56Z

Wave Obscura wrote me this really cute SPN fic! Unfortunately, she'll fly out to Michigan and kill me if I post it, but trust me, it's seriously cute. I just wanted to give her a very public and slightly embarrassing thank you.

(Psst! RITE MOAR FIC!)

Health-related woe

2009-11-02T02:35:53Z

In an attempt to be a healthier person -- and incidentally try to lose some weight -- I have mostly cut junk food out of my diet. Fast food? I can avoid it. Candy? I only eat it occasionally. Potato chips? Well, I know I have a problem with them, so I try not to be around them at all.

The problem? NaNoWriMo. November is the one month my healthy eating is allowed to go to hell. Junk food is writing fuel, keeps the brain going and the body happy. Except... I guess it's because I've gotten older, but the crap I ate to get me started on NaNo has made me incredibly sick. I suspect it was the potato chips, because the last time I ate some, I had a similar problem.

God, I hope I don't puke. I haven't since I was in high school, and it's a pretty awesome record of not-puking that I don't want to break just because I ate some stuff that I should have avoided.

Also annoying? Tara seems to think that rubbing on me and creaking will make me feel better.

Oh, uh...

2009-11-01T06:05:31Z

In relation to my NaNoing, I kind of ignored you all and decided to go with The Bloody Necklace. My reasoning came from the_sports_geek, who said, "Which one do you think you'd be more likely to sell?"

As much as I love Incarnate, The Bloody Necklace is the one I think I'd sell first.

Thank you guys for your input, though!

Meme!

2009-10-21T11:41:35Z

The problem with LJ: we all think we are so close, but really, we know nothing about each other. So I want you to ask me something you think you should know about me. Something that should be obvious, but you have no idea about. Ask away.

Then post this in your LJ and find out what people don't know about you.

I need a ZOMGEXCITED icon.

2009-10-19T06:17:33Z

I got recced over on spngenlove for Wheelchair Detective!

ZOMG reccer's quote: "This was a really fun and interesting case-fic, with a nice dose of hurt!Dean. The characterisation is great and the OCs throughout the story are wonderfully fleshed out.

*does a mad happy puppy dance!* AWESOME!

(I'm still hoping I'll one day be awesome enough to have a story recced on crack_impala. But this'll do, pig. This'll do.)

SPN

2009-10-16T11:52:35Z

Bleah. I knew I wasn't going to like this episode from the get go. Child actors, especially ones forced to play uber-powerful beings? Kinda suck. A lot. I also never feel as though they ever manage to get the motivation of these sorts of characters down. Bah. and it turned out for the best, for one, we don't have to deal with Jesse again until it's time to kill the devil.

I'm also a little annoyed that the brat got the title of anti-christ. That's Sammy! C'mon, guys, you should have brought that up! Something like this:

Castiel: ...also known as the anti-christ.
Sammy: *brow wrinkle* I thought I was the anti-christ.
Dean: *facepalm* Oh god, here we go again.
Sammy: I'm just saying, you know, I thought that would be my title. I started the apocalypse, I was Azazel's favorite, you know. Hell, I've been called the anti-christ, boy king, demon messiah for three years, now. And now it turns out that I'm not the anti-christ after all? I mean, are we mixing up our mythologies, because it doesn't quite track.
Castiel: *beat* ...AN anti-christ.
Dean: *to Sammy* Are you happy?
Sammy: Yes.

Anyway. That aside, the things I liked about this episode were the random funny bits towards the beginning. The kid scared shitless of Dean, Dean eating that leg of ham, the masturbation joke. Hee, I love it when this show makes reference to masturbation. Because I'm twelve.

(Dean: Uh, shoulda cleaned the pipes...
Jo: *dirty look*)

I did think that Dean zapping Sammy with the joy buzzer was out of character. What if it hadn't worked? Dude, Dean would either go to Hell again, or Lucifer would have to resurrect Sammy. Either way? Not in character. Bleah again.

I'm just looking forward to that upcoming Trickster episode. I think that's going to be awesome, and stretch Jared Padalecki's impersonation skills to the limit.

Poll!

2009-10-13T02:25:13Z

View Poll: NaNo Ponderings:

pixymisa @ 2009-10-09T12:07:00

2009-10-09T16:09:55Z

Jess is sad.

I need more icon space already??

2009-10-09T13:02:05Z

Why is it that Jared Padalecki seems to get more attractive the longer you watch him? Or maybe it's just Sammy. But, uh, I never realized things about myself until I saw him working the scrubs and wearing those gloves. Woof.

I actually liked the tone of this episode better than some of the others. There was a lot less of the heaviness that's been saturating the rest of this season. Even if Paris Hilton was in it. Bleah. I do wonder about all the jabs they poke at Jared's previous work history. Gilmore Girls, House of Wax. Seriously, Jensen's been in a hell of a lot more shit.

I did like that they brought up the fact that Sammy didn't know killing Lilith would be bad. I like that the brothers were acting like, you know, brothers. And I liked that Sam called Dean on some of his shit--deciding that Sam made a mess, so he has clean it up.

I still want a fucking hug. Sammy wants a hug, you can tell. Come ON, Dean, hug Sammy!

I need a WTF icon

2009-10-08T01:07:00Z

Okay, people. I considered posting this rant on fanficrants, but I lurk there like whoa, and I kind of want to keep it that way. (Anti-wank is a way of life! Think before you post!) Browsing through spnstoryfinders, looking for something that is not J2 AU or John/Dean mpreg, I came across this gem:
"...Jensen and Jared work in the corporate world and one of them is the big boss and the other his PA/secretary(doesn't matter who's who) where they are lusting after each other and end up getting together. I've read the one where Jensen is Jared's cross-dressing secretary and Jared doesn't find out until he has him bent over the desk and discovers Jenny is a he not a she..."

Okay, J2 is not my thing, but I have read a few, and I don't begrudge anyone their J2 AUs at all. (Why hello thar, 13chapters.) But really? REALLY? Jensen Ackles is pretty, I give you that, but he's also, like, 6'1" and is very masculine as well. Now, Anna brought up the point of MTFs, so I suppose that "Jenny" could be a transgirl, but I still find it impossible to believe that Jared would have NO FREAKING CLUE that Jensen might not be biologically female.

That's it, spnstoryfinders. We're breaking up.

My angst

2009-10-07T01:45:41Z

WHY HAVE YOU NOT UPDATED, crack_impala? I need my fix!