Distracted By Something Shiny

Code Black is leaving Netflix on Monday, April 1, here in the U.S. & if you can watch it before then, you should. It’s a documentary about emergency medicine, emergency room doctors, a new generation of doctors, county hospitals & how they’re run & how they’re funded, the healthcare system in America, and how doctors in emergency rooms - and even more specifically *county hospital emergency room* doctors - feel about the healthcare system in America. I didn’t agree with everything they had to say, but I found it all fascinating, especially as a person who’s been the patient on the other end multiple times. These doctors basically think nothing - lack of insurance, hospital overhead, staffing, regulations - should get in the way of patient care ... and that I did agree with.

Also of note, the cute blond doc in the film is actually the director as well. He wanted to highlight the struggles of the healthcare system in a place like LA County hospital, so he made a movie. It was executive produced by Marti Noxon, so we can thank her for helping this film see the light of day.

In sum: Code Black, the documentary, available on Netflix until April 1. Go watch it.

Star Wars: The Last Jedi spoiler free thoughts...
Brothers & Sisters in the rebellion: No one is really a nobody. Anyone - and I mean *anyone* - can be the spark that lights the fire. Don’t give up. Rebellions are built on hope, after all. And the fire is coming.

net neu·tral·i·ty
noun
1. the principle that Internet service providers should enable access to all content and applications regardless of the source, and without favoring or blocking particular products or websites.

As you may have seen, today has been a call to action for net neutrality, to stop the rollback of the internet. Do you want a fair & equal internet, where all sites are treated the same, where the time it takes to load a page remains the same for Amazon as it does for an individual person's handmade jewelry page, remains the same for NBC's page as it does for small independent news bloggers, remains the same for HarperCollins as it does for self-publishing authors' personal pages? Should the internet be ruled by who can pay the most or should all sites be equal? Should the internet be ruled by corporations or should everyone have the chance to utilize the amazing tool that is the internet on an equal basis?

If you stand with net neutrality, take this call to action today! (and if you didn't get to it today - some of us had wall to wall appointments today! - then try tomorrow. It's alright, you can still join call!)

Some articles with information on the net neutrality rollback bill and today's internet protest...
Link 1, Link 2

Some ways you can answer the call to action...
Link 3, Link 4

(copy/paste anywhere you wish). Join the call!

So I need your opinion, guys. My sister donates to a different charity every month through her church, but this year she has decided to donate to two additional charities outside of her church, looking for something a little more liberal, I guess. She has decided to do this to try to help offset a tiny bit of some of the things that people will be possibly losing due to a Trump presidency. I thought this was a good idea and as I am not horribly strapped for cash - I do okay on government services because I live with my sister, though I can only afford a little for each charity - I thought I would follow her lead. I wanted to choose two charities that would be close to my heart, so I decided to go with an LGBTQA+ and a disabled nonprofit.

For the LGBTQA+ charity, I am looking at two places. My state has a well known and excellent political lobby group that does very good work. We can expect to need stuff like that with Pence in the White House, after all. They also do legal and justice-related advocacy work. The other one I'm looking at is in the Highland Park/Detroit area and is a youth center for LGBTQA+ runaway/foster youth. It not only offers housing, but life skills, education, mental and physical health care and aftercare assistance. The question here is...do I help individuals on a smaller scale or the community as a whole on a political scale?

For the disability community, I have also found a Michigan political advocacy nonprofit that lobbies for bills and other things that the disabled community needs. I can definitely see us requiring more of this type of work over the next four years. However, I had been hoping to donate to some sort of place that gives assisted devices, mobility aids and the like to disabled people whose insurance does not cover it and who can't afford it on their own. I can't seem to find anything on the national or state level for this. I could donate to our county organization, but they don't give the stuff out, they only rent it. They have what they call a 'loan closet', but they don't loan it, they rent it, say for $15 a week for a walker. Which is fine if you just broke your leg and only need it for a few weeks, but I want something that helps the chronically ill people of my community. So should I keep looking for something like that or should I donate to the political lobby group?

[Poll #2061022]

Thoughts? Decisions? Other places I should look into? They are all such good options, I can't decide, but money is limited, so I can only pick two. Thanks, gang! Working on making 2017 better for all!

Now this is a great day! I am so thrilled! I never thought this would happen. I never thought I would see my home-state, Michigan, have marriage equality. I never thought I would see this country have marriage equality. And now we do! I am so happy for all my friends whose state marriages will be recognized everywhere. And for myself and every lgbtqa person who can now marry freely in this country, whomever they love. (not that I ever plan to get married, unless Enrique Murciano or Chad Michael Murray come calling, which don't require a Supreme Court ruling, but still, you never know!) I love looking at the pictures of all the celebrations and the two elderly men who have been together over 50 years and are now married, the man who was one of the people involved in the case who now has the right to be on his spouse's death certificate, all of the people whose dreams got recognized today and the generations to come who will never be denied the right to love who they want. Also, Joe Biden, wearing a pride flag as a cape and running through the halls of The White House high-fiving everyone. It's a great day!


Love Wins!
More pics here!

Celebrate tonight, keep fighting tomorrow!

So, first off, last night we had my cousin's 10 yr old daughter spend the night. We try to, every once in awhile, have her over for a Girl's Night. She really enjoys that extra female attention, I think. We played some Wii Sports - (she rules at tennis, I rule at bowling) - and she told us a million stories - (you guys think I can spin a tale, you should hear her). And while we were explaining to her that the cats would come see her on their own schedule because you can't get a cat to do anything they don't want to do, she said, "Yeah. Like men." OMG, she is 10, where did she hear that?! After dinner we played two games of Simpsons Clue and ate cupcakes she brought from her Mom's baby shower. We also watched her current favorite movie, Pitch Perfect. She not only knows all the words to all the songs, but she knows all the dialogue for the movie too! This morning, after Sunday breakfast with my mom, my sister took her to the movies. Apparently at breakfast she was telling everyone who would listen about her special Girl's Night with her cousins!

But that's all the fun I get because the rest of the week is going to be insane.

( Coming up in my week... )

It's going to be a very stressful week, is my point here! I will let you all know about Mom as soon as I can. And I hope you all have good weeks!

So last week, I was severely sleep-deprived from The Week Of The Roofing that came before. Then on Sunday, my wrist/arm was hurting so freaking bad. I could barely grip anything. IDEK, but I wrapped it in an icy-hot patch and then an ace-wrap too, which helped but it was an entire day without the use of my hand. (I had to spoon feed myself my pills that night). On Monday, I woke up to...people on the roof! WHAT THE FUCK EVEN? I thought I was having a nervous breakdown. I started crying. I was just so tired, you guys. I’d pushed through by saying that I just had to get through that one week and I did and then they came back on Monday! I had no spoons left to deal with that nonsense. Thankfully that was the actual last day but I was horribly sick all Monday, just from the stress and claustrophobia and lack of sleep. I felt better on Tuesday, but then stupidly tried to do shit and went to therapy and woke on Wednesday nauseous all over again. And then on Thursday, I started my Awesome Time Of Month. Fuck that noise. Plus, we found out the hospital is sending Dad home - not because he is better, but because they have reached their limits on what they can do for him. His infection is better but he is still barely mobile and has extreme arm/back pain which they 'fixed’ with a steroid shot - which is not a long-term fix. UGH - I just feel better about things when he isn’t at his house in the middle of fucking nowhere, with no one to make sure he takes his meds and drink 20 liters of Pepsi a week (yeah, he does that) and take notice when he isn't sleeping.

On the plus side, I booked a hotel for my trip to Chicago in October! It's not far from Lake Michigan and isn't overtly expensive (for Chicago) and I am excited to finally get to meet rhymephile and dugindeep in person! Also, omg you guys, The Tigers are SO FUCKING CLOSE to taking the Central League Division! If Cleveland would just back the fuck up off our asses for two goddamn seconds. And, I got to see my Texas Cousin and her baby - they just recently moved in from out of state and I haven't seen her in like four years, so that was AWESOME. Her boy is 15 months old and the biggest flirt ever! And it's almost Halloween! Saturday is the trip to the Halloween store for our big purchase of the year and then the madness begins!

Also, on the plus side, The Nephew has started writing me a 'book series' about himself and his superhero team - (a giant robot and a man made of lightening) - and the adventures they go on. His super power is that he can turn into anyone, so in one story he turns into Bilbo and uses Sting and in another story he turns into both Thorin and The Hulk. Also, we recently had a talk about the legend of King Arthur and the Sword In The Stone and I explained how people have been rewriting that story in books and movies for years and years. Next thing I know, he has written a story where all of these big bad tough guys keep trying to pull the Mango (why it's a mango, Idek) from the ground after it crash lands there and no one can do it and the one guy is sure he can because he's the biggest guy in town and then a girl rides up and she is the only one that can do it! HE WROTE A STORY WHERE THE GIRL BEATS OUT ALL THE BIG TOUGH MEN. Then she disappears because Surprise Twist, she was an alien. I feel like there was more, but that's enough for now, I suppose. Night all!

First off, I did, indeed, watch Sharknado! Thanks for the heads up to all of you who pointed it out to me! It is, hands down, the best SyFy channel movie ever made - and this is coming from me, who has watched a LOT of these movies - in that it knows exactly what it is and didn't waste any time getting there. There is a sharknado within the first ten minutes and it kept up that pace for the rest of the movie, no standing around talking for an hour - (I’m looking at you, Tornado Valley!) We were yelling out what we thought was going to happen next and it was just as predictable as all that and so terribly shot - (they would show sharks in the flooded street around the SUV, but then a second later there would be the SUV driving down streets with no water around them at all). Ian Ziering was the lead, which just makes me laugh, but I was a little disappointed there was no Jason London or Nicholas Brendon in it. Sharknado was gloriously awful and I loved it.

I also recently watched the mini-series of ‘In The Flesh’ and highly recommend it. I was worried - when I heard the theme of POV of a zombie who is becoming human again - that it would just be a rip-off of Warm Bodies, a book I loved. But it wasn’t and it was supremely different from any zombie movie I have seen before. There were so many social issues layered in the subtext; bigotry, racism, segregation, homophobia, depression, suicide, second chances. It could be heavy-handed at times but I was continually amazed at how they used the issues of recovering-zombies to run parallel with the characters’ emotional issues. There were some ‘holy shit’ moments and yet, it was also oddly uplifting. It showcased the theme of humanity - like so many zombie movies do - but in a completely different way. If you have ever had a moment in your life that you wish you could get another chance at, this mini-series will really speak to you.

Also, So You Think You Can Dance - which had a really stupid format this year, but apparently they got so many complaints from viewers that they changed it up again. Originally, when they first debuted the Top 20, I called Alexis to win this thing. I am really smitten with her - (and Maleece, but her dancing often shows her youth). But since competition began, Alexis has been a little shaky and someone else has really blown my mind on the stage - Jasmine Harper. That woman is a fucking force to be reckoned with. I am repeatedly stunned by her performances and I am changing my prediction to her as the winner. If not her, than Aaron…because heeeeeello and hotdamn! That man has chemistry like I have rarely seen on this show and he can pull of any style and jfc, YES. Plus, isn’t it about time a tap-dancer won this thing? As for the other male dancers - they are all amazing and I love them, but wow do they seem young this season. My reaction to most all the dudes besides Aaron - (to which I offer the aforementioned JFC, YES) - is that I want to give them cookies and rub their little heads. ( In sadder SYTYCD news…Spoiler )

I have also been enjoying this sweet new show on NBC, called ‘Camp’ - not to be confused with ‘Summer Camp’, the reality show on USA. It star Rachel Griffiths, who I love, and is about a family camp where everyone in the family comes; adults, teens, kids. It reminds me of this movie I loved as a kid with Michael J. Fox called ‘Poison Ivy’. Who remembers that movie? It’s sweet and has an odd family dramedy/teen show mix going on. Perfect summer viewing!

The Fosters has tackled some really tough issues lately. ( Spoilers from the last two episodes, involving interesting social commentary. ) This show really treats their audience with respect when dealing with these complex issues. Plus, I am stupidly into the teen romances!

Teen Wolf has done several things that pissed me off this season, but recently they may have made up for all that bullshit. ( Spoilers for the entirety of S3 thus far, some boo and some yay. ) The season needs to do more eps like this one, thank you very much.