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		<title>In which I write.</title>
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		<pubDate>Fri, 14 Jun 2013 05:22:44 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Anna</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Anna]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Depression]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.aflux.net/?p=3081</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[The Bloggess could not have written this at a better time. It was just the kick in the ass I needed tonight. I don&#8217;t talk about suffering from depression a lot. There are like 10,000 reasons for this but it&#8217;s mostly because people just don&#8217;t get it. If you suffer from it, or live with [...]<p><table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="left">
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				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>The Bloggess could not have <a href="http://thebloggess.com/2013/06/im-coming-out/" title="written this">written this</a> at a better time. It was just the kick in the ass I needed tonight.</p>
<p>I don&#8217;t talk about suffering from depression a lot. There are like 10,000 reasons for this but it&#8217;s mostly because people just don&#8217;t get it. If you suffer from it, or live with somebody who does, you probably get it. And no, you aren&#8217;t &#8220;so depressed&#8221; that the item you wanted wasn&#8217;t on sale. You had a reaction, you were sad, but you are most certainly not depressed.</p>
<p>Ben and I have been going to biweekly couples counseling sessions and one thing that keeps coming up is My Depression. It&#8217;s not something that ever fully goes away. Medicine can help, exercise can help, counseling can help, but when a bout of depression decides to creep into your head and completely take over your thoughts and feelings and daily life, all those things just can&#8217;t knock it the fuck out of there.</p>
<p>So when the counselor asks me how I cope, I tell her how I used to write. A lot. About funny things, about sad things, about life, about depression, about everything. But then after awhile I just kind of felt like I was echoing the same words that had already been said over and over and over. I used sarcastic humor a lot when I wrote about this stuff because it was natural and easy and a way to cope but it started to feel forced. I&#8217;d have to think of a way to make it seem funny that for three nights in a row I didn&#8217;t get any sleep at all because I was scared that I&#8217;d die in my sleep and the fear of not waking up the next day made my heart pound so hard I thought that&#8217;s what was going to kill me and holy shit it&#8217;s just a panic attack and the entire world is asleep and I want to stand outside in the middle of the street and scream fuck you all for not understanding how scared I am.</p>
<p>It&#8217;s hard to turn that into a joke. Because it&#8217;s not really that funny.</p>
<p>So one day I went to write and I sat there with my hands poised over the keyboard ready to type and&#8230;  nothing happened. I&#8217;d try to force it, I&#8217;d try to just GET. WORDS. ON. THE PAGE and then I&#8217;d delete it because it&#8217;s bland and horrible and not funny at all and 90% of the people reading it would just think that I had legitimately lost my goddamn mind.</p>
<p>So the counselor tells me to write. And I just can&#8217;t express to her or Ben how much I wish that were possible. I WISH I could just sit down and write. I also wish that I could explain what it feels like to want to get all this shit out of my head and the very real physical pain it causes to sit there while nothing happens. The thought of sitting down to write and then nothing happening is frustrating and infuriating and PAINFUL. It hurts.</p>
<p>It took me almost a week to actually sit down and do it. This is it. I guess it&#8217;s going to take time. Like, I&#8217;m training to run a 5K on July 4th and realistically I didn&#8217;t give myself enough time but I was needing a kick in the ass to actually get out there and train. I&#8217;ve had to really push myself out of my comfort zone. I&#8217;ve been sore and tired and I&#8217;ve wanted to give up but my ridiculous stubborness to kick this 5K&#8217;s ass is the same thing I need to do with writing. It&#8217;s going to be uncomfortable, it&#8217;s going to be hard, it&#8217;s going to cause me pain, but the end result will hopefully be a better me than when I&#8217;m NOT doing it.</p>
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		<title>Epic Bloodletting 2013</title>
		<link>http://www.aflux.net/epic-bloodletting-2013/</link>
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		<pubDate>Fri, 24 May 2013 04:18:48 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Anna</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Anna]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[bloodletting]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[donating blood]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[photo]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[picture]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.aflux.net/?p=3068</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[If you follow me on twitter or facebook you&#8217;re already aware of my Epic Bloodletting 2013 but a bunch of people have asked me what I think happened so I thought I&#8217;d share (what I think are) my two mistakes here so that I can save somebody else the eventual HORRIBLENESS I went though. I [...]<p><table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="left">
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				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><img src="http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3672/8809124322_bc73381ec2_o.jpg" class="alignright" alt="BLOOD!" title="BLOOD!" /></p>
<p>If you follow me on <a href="https://twitter.com/antigone" title="twitter">twitter</a> or <a href="https://www.facebook.com/anna.hirsch" title="facebook">facebook</a> you&#8217;re already aware of my Epic Bloodletting 2013 but a bunch of people have asked me what I think happened so I thought I&#8217;d share (what I think are) my two mistakes here so that I can save somebody else the eventual HORRIBLENESS I went though.</p>
<p>I used to donate blood every couple of month when I was younger. First because it&#8217;s just a good thing to do. But also because there was a place in Bakersfield that paid $50 per donation and I was a broke single mom and sure, give me $50 for feeding me cookies and pretzels and orange juice!</p>
<p>I do it now because of my grandma. She donated blood and then she received 9 pints (probably more, that&#8217;s just the last number I saw) when she fell and ended up in the hospital. So now it&#8217;s a very different thing. I realize that somebody out there has a grandma that needs blood and I&#8217;m just so happy to be able to help. And the story I&#8217;m about to tell is horrible and disgusting and HORRIBLE but I&#8217;m going to start out by saying this: <strong>I will 100% be donating blood again as soon as I&#8217;m able to.</strong> It&#8217;s like 30 minutes of your time that costs nothing but saves a life.</p>
<p>I hadn&#8217;t donated in almost 10 years so when the mobile bus came to work about six month ago I was the first in line. Then they started to email me to remind me that I was okay to donate again and I kept putting it off till finally I decided that I was done making excuses and scheduled an appointment for Monday at 3:00PM. The office was on my way home and I figured I&#8217;d be in and out pretty fast and still beat the majority of traffic.</p>
<p>BOY WAS I WRONG.</p>
<p>I&#8217;d done everything right to prepare. I&#8217;d had 60+ ounces of water, I ate a bunch of healthy food, I&#8217;d worn comfy clothes so that I wouldn&#8217;t be stuck with my legs up in the air in the chair with a skirt on, brought in the iPad to read for the 10 minutes the blood giving takes. It was going to go just like any other time I&#8217;ve given blood. And all that DID go exactly as it always does.</p>
<p>Till it didn&#8217;t.</p>
<p>Problem 1: The day before I had a TINY fever, like half a degree. I didn&#8217;t think it was anything to worry about because they took my temp before the draw but the nurse in the ER later said that it might have been enough to set off what eventually happened. Lesson learned.</p>
<p>Problem 2: And this is where it all went downhill, I got up too fast after the draw. Normally I sit in the chair for about 10 minutes after the draw BEFORE I get up and move to the table full of food for recovery. They were getting busy and the girl that started my draw was busy getting a draw started in somebody else so another guy came over to remove the needle and tape me up. He did this quickly because he had already started a draw in somebody else and within a minute of them stopping the flow I was bandaged and he told me to head to the food table.  I should have insisted that I sit for a few minutes but I didn&#8217;t want to be in the way so I immediately got up, walked to the table, sat down, the nurse asked me what goodies I wanted to munch on, I asked for some water, she turned around to fill the cup, I told her that I was feeling a little dizzy so would it be okay if I laid down on the couch&#8230;</p>
<p>And the next thing I knew there were a bunch of people standing around me at the table asking me what my name was and if I knew where I was and I badly needed to vomit. I had passed out sitting in the chair, thank goodness, and before they could scoot me three feet to the couch I had a mouth full of vomit and was pointing at the garbage can. From that point on I pretty much threw up every 10-15 minutes for as long as I can remember being awake.</p>
<p>The nurse kept trying to get me to take sips of water which would come up within minutes. At one point she tried to take a puke bag from me to give me a new one but she didn&#8217;t HAVE the new one yet and I told her not to take it away but she did anyway so I vomited a good two foot arch down the front of her coat, down her pants and onto her shoes. After that she always made sure to have the new bag handy before taking the old one away.</p>
<p>I had no concept of time at all but I know by about the 4th time I threw up till I was pretty sure I was going to lose an internal organ, I told her she needed to call my husband. NOW. Once he was on his way they tried to start an IV thinking if they could just get some fluids into me that I&#8217;d start to feel better. They tried three times in my arm to get a vein and couldn&#8217;t. I have REALLY BAD veins and if I start to dehydrate even a little they collapse, turn to mush and you have to go in through my hand which they weren&#8217;t willing to try. The last attempt they thought they had the vein but they were just dumping fluids into my arm, not my vein, and holy shit that hurt. Hurt enough that I forgot for a second about the extreme nausea and almost pulled the needle out of my arm myself.</p>
<p>About that time Ben got there and I remember them talking to him but I honestly don&#8217;t remember any of what was said. I remember thinking that I just wanted to go to sleep SO BAD because I knew that was the only way to stop feeling nauseated but they kept putting cold compresses on my head and telling me to stay awake. The next thing I knew was paramedics asking me a lot of questions and that Ben was eating a cookie. MY COOKIE! I NEVER GOT A COOKIE! They asked me if I wanted to try and get to the ER in Ben&#8217;s car or in the ambulance and I knew that if I went with Ben I&#8217;d sit in the waiting room for who knows how long before being seen but if they took me in the ambulance I&#8217;d get in immediately. I also realized how silly it seemed to take an ambulance ACROSS THE STREET to the hospital but I didn&#8217;t care JUST GET ME OUT OF THIS PLACE AND STOP THE NAUSEA. They got an IV into my hand, took my blood pressure and blood sugar, all of that was fine but my pulse was weak and in the 10 minutes that they examined me I threw up twice. Well, I dry heaved till I felt like I was going to pass out again twice. Nothing but bile and foam had come up for quite some time.</p>
<p>Then I dry heaved when they loaded me onto the gurney. Then I dry heaved in the ambulance. Then I dry heaved when they moved me to the gurney in the hospital room. And I dry heaved as the doctor asked me questions and took my vitals. It just kept going and going and going. The paramedics had given me as much Zofran as allowed and it didn&#8217;t touch the nausea. Then the nurse at the hospital but a full dose of Reglan into my IV. It didn&#8217;t touch the nausea. She came in after that and asked if I could try and take a pill and I said I&#8217;d try. When she walked in to hand me the pill I was dry heaving so she just turned around and walked out. When she came back in she had another drug. I don&#8217;t remember the name of this one but she told me that it would make me drowsy and I was like PUT IT ALL IN RIGHT NOW I WANT TO SLEEP PLEASE MAKE ME SLEEP. When about half the syringe had emptied into my IV she asked me if it hurt since it will cause a burning sensation and I said something along the lines of this:</p>
<p><strong>Me</strong>: Oh yeah, I can feel that.<br />
<strong>Her</strong>: Does it hurt?<br />
<strong>Me</strong>: I don&#8217;t think&#8230; it&#8217;s not like&#8230; I can&#8230; it&#8217;s going in there but&#8230;<br />
<strong>Ben</strong>: Does it hurt?<br />
<strong>Me</strong>: I&#8217;m&#8230; not like&#8230; It&#8217;s working in there I think it might be like&#8230;<br />
<strong>Ben</strong>:&#8230;<br />
<strong>Her</strong>:&#8230;<br />
<strong>Me</strong>: *sleeping*</p>
<p>Seriously, I don&#8217;t even remember her finishing up the syringe or leaving the room.</p>
<div align="center"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/antigone/8798575989/" title="This is what happens when you try and do good deeds. by antigone78, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2867/8798575989_20fb5b7890.jpg" width="500" height="283" alt="This is what happens when you try and do good deeds."></a></div>
<p></ BR></p>
<p>Apparently at some point while I slept Ben took my picture, a video of me snoring, ate Subway and somebody pulled the fire alarm in the ER. There were sirens and strobe lights and loud speaker announcements and I slept through all of it.</p>
<p>I woke up later because Ben noticed that my blood pressure had fallen way down (think it was just a loose cuff) and he had called a nurse in. It was after 9:00PM. Six hours after the initial appointment and the first time in almost five hours that I wasn&#8217;t scared to open my eyes because I knew I&#8217;d just start dry heaving all over again. I could finally feel the nausea subsiding. I was released not long after that with a prescription for more anti-nausea medication and a note from the doctor to stay home the next day.</p>
<p>I&#8217;m still really sore. My abs hurt more than P90X or Insanity has ever made them feel and my lungs hurt pretty bad. Like, all the time. Apparently this is common after throwing up that much. I&#8217;ve read this will last a few more days so I&#8217;ve been taking aspirin to help a bit. And I&#8217;m tired. I don&#8217;t know if my body is still fighting off a minor bug or is just in recovery mode but sleeping has been hard because of the ab/lung pain so I&#8217;m looking really forward to this three day weekend!</p>
<p>The worst part of all? They had to discard my donation. I totally get, given my reaction, why they had to but it was a little like pouring salt in the wound. Sucks! I already have an appointment for a donation in a few month though. I&#8217;ll make sure not to rush out of the chair again this time and that I&#8217;m GOOD AND HEALTHY before going in. It was a HORRIBLE day but not as horrible a day as the person that eventually ends up needing that pint of blood.</p>
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		</item>
		<item>
		<title>On the eventual implementation of the No Pants Rule.</title>
		<link>http://www.aflux.net/mirena/</link>
		<comments>http://www.aflux.net/mirena/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 01 May 2013 04:35:49 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Anna</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Anna]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Cassidy]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.aflux.net/?p=3041</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[For a long time now I&#8217;ve been going back and forth about having another baby or officially closing down this factory. So I sit down like a reasonable adult and make a list. Reasons to have 17 more kids: Babies smell yummy. Babies are cute. You can dress babies up in ridiculous outfits and they [...]<p><table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="left">
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]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>For a long time now I&#8217;ve been going back and forth about having another baby or officially closing down this factory.</p>
<p>So I sit down like a reasonable adult and make a list.</p>
<p><u><strong>Reasons to have 17 more kids</strong></u>:</p>
<ol>
<li>Babies smell yummy.</li>
<li>Babies are cute.</li>
<li>You can dress babies up in ridiculous outfits and they can&#8217;t get pissed. Well, they can get pissed but they can&#8217;t do anything about it and you shouldn&#8217;t feel guilty for laughing at them.</li>
<li>I really loved breastfeeding.</li>
<li>Cassidy doesn&#8217;t fall for my <a href="http://www.aflux.net/reasons-to-have-offspring-1/" title="Reasons to have offspring. #1">Halloween candy tricks</a> anymore! (See also: <a href="http://helablog.com/2012/05/epic-zombie-baby/" title="Zombie Baby Costume">Zombie Baby Costume</a>)</li>
<li>Baby fat rolls.</li>
<li>OMGBABIES!</li>
</ol>
<p>Then I think about the fact that in about 3.5 years Ben and I will get to stop being legally responsible for anybody but ourselves and all that would mean and&#8230; I kind of can&#8217;t wait. For instance, I could implement a No Pants Rule in the house and if Cassidy doesn&#8217;t like it then she can move to her own fascist house where stupid pants are a requirement.</p>
<p>So I sit back down and make another list.</p>
<p><u><strong>Reasons you really don&#8217;t ever want another child</strong></u>:</p>
<ol>
<li>After a few months you realize that babies actually smell like vomit and poop and sleep deprivation.</li>
<li>Screaming babies are not cute.</li>
<li>Kid clothes are expensive. And even though you own 75 onsies and 48 pairs of baby leg warmers and 93 bibs, you can&#8217;t walk in the door of a Target without &#8220;accidentally&#8221; walking down the baby isle and buying at least 2 more of each because you are an emotion hormonal nutcase and if your baby doesn&#8217;t have 1,249 pairs of socks you are depriving them and I JUST WANT TO BE A GOOD MOM STOP JUDGING ME!</li>
<li>I really hated cracked nipples and my milk letting down in the restaurant when the baby across the room that has no relation to me whatsoever cried and now the two hours I put into looking good to go out on a date night has been ruined by the two basketball sized milk stains on my shirt.</li>
<li>I&#8217;m an adult! I don&#8217;t need stupid kids for Halloween candy! I can buy candy whenever the fuck I want! Also: This year I think I&#8217;ll buy my normal amount of Halloween candy then just not answer the door when the kids knock. Instead, every time I get a knock, I&#8217;m going to eat another piece of candy while looking through the peephole at the faces of sad, candy deprived children. And I will smile. And there will be no guilt. Also: GET OFF MY LAWN</li>
<li>Instead of having to clean baby fat rolls in a bath every day, I can soak in a bath MYSELF with a glass of wine and Kitchen Nightmare episodes on the iPad. And I won&#8217;t even have to put pants on afterward.</li>
<li>FREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEDOM!</li>
</ol>
<p>No matter how cute the fat rolls are, I am really REALLY looking forward to the No Pants Rule. And most importantly, I remember that cute little babies grow into slightly less cute toddlers, then slightly more pain in the ass kids and then eventually into somewhat intolerable teenagers.</p>
<p>So on April 11th, 19 day ago, I went and had the <a href="http://www.mirena-us.com/index.php" title="Mirena IUD">Mirena IUD</a> inserted. This baby factory is closed, people. Also, I have been bleeding for 16 out of 19 days. But that&#8217;s another post for another day. It will go into how I&#8217;m pretty sure my cervix packed it&#8217;s bag and didn&#8217;t even bother to leave a note before walking out of my life forever. Because OMG PAIN.</p>
<p>I&#8217;m kind of surprised about how okay I am with this decision. And of course, there is always the option of having it removed if for some crazy reason I change my mind but I&#8217;m about 99.99999999999999999999999% sure that Cassidy is going to be an only child and in 3.5 years you should definitely call before you come over because there&#8217;s about a 100% chance I will not be wearing pants.</p>
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		<slash:comments>13</slash:comments>
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		<title>#TREKKIE4LIFE</title>
		<link>http://www.aflux.net/trekkie4life/</link>
		<comments>http://www.aflux.net/trekkie4life/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 12 Apr 2013 03:48:44 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Anna</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Anna]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[photo]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[picture]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[trekkie4life]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.aflux.net/?p=3033</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[I have so many words in me and not the will to write them. I will undoubtedly be posting here in the coming months because I miss it. I miss this so much. But for now, the words I feel are not ready to come out so instead I leave you with a proper Throw [...]<p><table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="left">
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]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>I have so many words in me and not the will to write them.  I will undoubtedly be posting here in the coming months because I miss it. I miss this so much. But for now, the words I feel are not ready to come out so instead I leave you with a proper Throw Back Thursday photo.</p>
<p>August 2005 at Great America for Cameron&#8217;s birthday. I made them stand in front of is so that I could get a picture with the Enterprise without looking like an idiot because OMG ENTERPRISE TAKE MY PICTURE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE!?</p>
<div align="center"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/antigone/37004298/" title="Picture-227 by antigone78, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm1.staticflickr.com/32/37004298_8c4784d8e9_o.jpg" width="450" height="600" alt="Picture-227"></a></div>
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		<title>Keek is everything that is wrong with allowing fools on social media.</title>
		<link>http://www.aflux.net/keek-is-everything-that-is-wrong-with-allowing-fools-on-social-media/</link>
		<comments>http://www.aflux.net/keek-is-everything-that-is-wrong-with-allowing-fools-on-social-media/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 19 Mar 2013 00:35:59 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Anna</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Anna]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Rant]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[spam]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[The Internet]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.aflux.net/?p=3011</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[So, recently a few of the celebrities I stalk follow have started using this app called Keek. Think Instagram but with short videos. So far I&#8217;ve seen a Teen Mom star, every single Kardashian spawn, Snooki and JWOWW1 post tweets and/or screenshots on Instagram of their Keek accounts. I kind of wrote it off as [...]<p><table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="left">
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]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>So, recently a few of the celebrities I <del datetime="2013-03-18T23:20:43+00:00">stalk</del> follow have started using this app called <a href="http://www.keek.com/" title="keek">Keek</a>. Think Instagram but with short videos. So far I&#8217;ve seen a Teen Mom star, every single Kardashian spawn, Snooki and JWOWW<sup class='footnote'><a href='#fn-3011-1' id='fnref-3011-1'>1</a></sup> post tweets and/or screenshots on Instagram of their Keek accounts.</p>
<p>I kind of wrote it off as Keek trying to hype it&#8217;s service. I assumed that these folks were probably being paid to pimp the service, which I get. Make your money, yo. But then I started seeing more and more people post tweets about it and also Instagram screenshots so I checked it out.</p>
<p>Okay, let me be completely honest. I have absolutely no plan at this point on using the service but when I see any new service like this I grab the username Antigone as soon as possible. I get annoyed when somebody else gets there first because I&#8217;ve been using the name online for FIFTEEN YEARS so technically, it should be reserved for me anyway.</p>
<p>So I signed up and grabbed my username, browsed a bit, followed some people and closed the app. I started getting notifications on my iPhone IMMEDIATELY so turned off all that business but the emails were already hitting my inbox too. I had just been deleteing them as they came in but then saw one titled &#8220;Get Your Account Verified&#8221; so I checked it out to make sure that I hadn&#8217;t missed a step in the sign up process and this is what it said:</p>
<blockquote><p>The Keek community is growing rapidly with millions of people signing up monthly. Keek account verification is used to authenticate the identity of users. The verified icon helps establish trust and makes it easier for users to find you and your content.</p>
<p>1. Post at least one keek to the account you want to verify.</p>
<p>2. Take a screenshot of your Keek profile and post it to your official Twitter, Facebook and/or Instagram accounts with this verification message:</p>
<p>Copy text below:<br />
Go download the Keek app and subscribe to me! My username is antigone <a href="http://keek.com/getapp" rel="nofollow">http://keek.com/getapp</a></p>
<p>3. Email us at <a href="mailto:verifyme@keek.com">verifyme@keek.com</a> and include your Keek username along with links to the verification message posted on each of your official accounts.</p>
<p>• You don&#8217;t need all of the above accounts to be verified but your chances increase if you post the verification message to all official accounts you own<br />
• Active Keek accounts with engaged followers and subscribers increase your chances of verification</p>
<p><strong>Keek manually reviews all submissions and does not guarantee verification for any account.</strong></p></blockquote>
<p>And I was like YEAAAHHH. Hello spam! Post screenshots of us all over the place (FREE ADVERTISING!) and MAYBE at SOME POINT we&#8217;ll &#8220;verify&#8221; your account. Hey Keek, guess how I&#8217;ll verify that I am who I say I am, BY POSTING A VIDEO OF MYSELF FLIPPING YOU THE BIRD!</p>
<p>So I realized that the reason all those celebs were doing this was because branding is a big deal. Social Media is the best thing to happen to celebrities in a LONG time (obviously talking about celebs that choose to not be as private) and they want that verification so they fell into this trap. But for everybody else, this is Keek just cleverly using social media and the kind of idiots that like stupid shit on Facebook spam pages to garner themselves a TON of free advertising.</p>
<p>Seriously, just look at a search on twitter for &#8220;Go download the Keek app and subscribe to me! My username is&#8221;:</p>
<div align="center"><a href="https://twitter.com/search/realtime?q=Go+download+the+Keek+app+and+subscribe+to+me%21+My+username+is&#038;src=typd" title="keek by antigone78, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8112/8569464977_4a3691baa1_z.jpg" width="402" height="640" alt="keek"></a></div>
<p></ BR></p>
<p>Why in the hell does _becky_w or royaaal_ need a verified account? Other than Keek&#8217;s want for them to make sure all their twitter, Facebook and Instagram followers know the app exists. Now MOST PEOPLE will open this email and realize this right away. But the same people that like photos to prevent cancer on Facebook will do this verify BS and pollute the internet with an app that SHOULD do what every other decent app does and know that if you build an excellent app, people will promote it all on their own and it will grow and thrive and become The Next Big Thing.</p>
<p>And I know this isn&#8217;t a BIG DEAL. It&#8217;s not even a Big Deal. But I hate that this is the direction the internet is going and I really wish all these young ignorant whippersnapper would get off my goddamn lawn.</p>
<div class='footnotes'>
<div class='footnotedivider'></div>
<ol>
<li id='fn-3011-1'>Okay, so I used to HATE these two. I watched like 2 episodes of Jersey Shore and started thinking that it might be a service to humanity to napalm the entire coast of New Jersey. Then I watched thier spin off and&#8230; I kind of love them. Pregnant Snookie was just the right amount of clueless but adorable and really in love with her little Guido to be and JWOWW, despite the ridiculous need to CLOSE HER MOUTH WHEN SHE CHEWS is really funny and is great about lauging at herself. Her relationship with her fiance reminds me a lot of mine and Ben&#8217;s. TL:DR TOTES LOVE THEM <span class='footnotereverse'><a href='#fnref-3011-1'>&#8617;</a></span></li>
</ol>
</div>
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		<title>Reasons to have offspring. #1</title>
		<link>http://www.aflux.net/reasons-to-have-offspring-1/</link>
		<comments>http://www.aflux.net/reasons-to-have-offspring-1/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sat, 02 Mar 2013 04:41:32 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Anna</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Anna]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Reasons to have offspring]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.aflux.net/?p=3002</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[I think I&#8217;ll make this a weekly thing for all you parents out there that, like me, sometimes wonder why in the heck you decided to do this in the first place. 1) Halloween Candy! When they&#8217;re young it&#8217;s: I&#8217;m just going to test some of these to make sure they&#8217;re safe. When they&#8217;re a [...]<p><table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="left">
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]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>I think I&#8217;ll make this a weekly thing for all you parents out there that, like me, sometimes wonder why in the heck you decided to do this in the first place.</p>
<p><strong>1) Halloween Candy!</strong></p>
<p>When they&#8217;re young it&#8217;s: <em>I&#8217;m just going to test some of these to make sure they&#8217;re safe.</em></p>
<p>When they&#8217;re a bit older it&#8217;s: <em>Time for bed! Leave the candy down here in my lap so I can protect it! What? I have no idea why all the Starburst are gone!</em></p>
<p>When they&#8217;re teenagers it&#8217;s: <em>Let me explain the concept of rent to you.</em></p>
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		<title>Until you&#8217;ve learned to drive, you&#8217;ve never really learned how to swear.</title>
		<link>http://www.aflux.net/until-youve-learned-to-drive-youve-never-really-learned-how-to-swear/</link>
		<comments>http://www.aflux.net/until-youve-learned-to-drive-youve-never-really-learned-how-to-swear/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 05 Feb 2013 06:09:49 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Anna</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Anna]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Ben]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Christmas]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.aflux.net/?p=2995</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[So, my mom got me this road rage megaphone for Christmas which is funny for a number of reasons. The first reason is because I hardly EVER cuss in front of my mom. Every once in awhile I&#8217;ll let a random F-bomb drop if I&#8217;m talking passionately talking about something (POLITICS!) or I&#8217;ll let a [...]<p><table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="left">
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]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>So, my mom got me this <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Generic-Road-Rage-MegaPhone/dp/B002WZPZOM/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&#038;qid=1360039955&#038;sr=8-1&#038;keywords=road+rage+megaphone">road rage megaphone</a> for Christmas which is funny for a number of reasons.</p>
<p>The first reason is because I hardly EVER cuss in front of my mom.  Every once in awhile I&#8217;ll let a random F-bomb drop if I&#8217;m talking passionately talking about something (POLITICS!) or I&#8217;ll let a random &#8220;shit&#8221; slide out (heh, heh, heh) but for the most part, none of those words. And it&#8217;s not even like I TRY to not cuss, it&#8217;s like I get in front of her and this Bad Word Filter is thrust into my brain and those words get stuck there till we&#8217;re in the car on the way home when they all come pouring out in a river of verbal diarrhea.</p>
<p>So the best part was she handed it to me with a HUGE smile on her face and was like, &#8220;I saw this and immediately thought of you and knew you had to have it.&#8221;</p>
<p>I opened it and was kind of confused about what it was till I pressed the first button and a man at volume level 830,482 screamed HEY, GET YOUR FUCKED UP PIECE OF CRAP OUT OF MY WAY. And the entire room was quiet for about 3 seconds before we all started cracking up and my mom yelled PRESS ANOTHER BUTTON!</p>
<p>So I did.</p>
<p>UH, ARE YOU DRIVING THAT PIECE OF SHIT TO THE DUMP!?</p>
<p>And my mom laughed. And I was like, &#8220;What alternate reality are we in right now!?&#8221;</p>
<p>Have I told you all about how I&#8217;ve been begging Ben for like 10 years now to PLEASE let me put a police style blow horn on my car and he lists off these lame reasons I&#8217;m not allowed to to that?</p>
<p>1) It&#8217;s illegal.<br />
2) I&#8217;d get shot.<br />
3) Or run off the road.<br />
4) Or arrested.<br />
5) Apparently he believes that sometimes people don&#8217;t need to know what I&#8217;m thinking which I think is just silly. I let HIM know what I&#8217;m thinking at the times so why would I deny the general public that great pleasure!?</p>
<p>But lets be realistic here. I believe that if you see some dumb teenager on the phone and you have the ability to call her out on it and POLITELY ask her to GET OFF THE GODDAMN PHONE, YOU TWIT then she would be so embarrassed about being called out that she&#8217;d actually get off the phone. And probably flip me off. But STILL! That hand would be flipping the bird, then end up BACK ON THE WHEEL instead of holding the phone to her ear!</p>
<p>YOU&#8217;RE WELCOME, WORLD.</p>
<p>Alas, he&#8217;s put his foot down and denied me this one simple wish. That&#8217;s okay though because now I have this awesome little megaphone so that I can wait for it to be really quite, or a really serious moment in a movie, or when he&#8217;s leaning in to give me a sweet kiss and&#8230;</p>
<p>COME ON, GET OUT OF THE WAY YOU FUCKING MORON.</p>
<p>Best. Present. Ever.</p>
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		<title>&#8220;The miracle isn&#8217;t that I finished. The miracle is that I had the courage to start.&#8221;</title>
		<link>http://www.aflux.net/the-miracle-isnt-that-i-finished-the-miracle-is-that-i-had-the-courage-to-start/</link>
		<comments>http://www.aflux.net/the-miracle-isnt-that-i-finished-the-miracle-is-that-i-had-the-courage-to-start/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 28 Jan 2013 06:11:22 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Anna</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Anna]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Running]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[exercise]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[running]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.aflux.net/?p=2987</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[So, I&#8217;m running again. I got SO discouraged the last time I made a real effort because of the HORRIBLE, PAINFUL, DEBILITATING shin splints that I just&#8230; gave up. I felt like I should have just been able to do it. It shouldn&#8217;t have to be that hard. It&#8217;s just putting one foot in front [...]<p><table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="left">
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]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>So, I&#8217;m running again. I got SO discouraged the last time I made a real effort because of the HORRIBLE, PAINFUL, DEBILITATING shin splints that I just&#8230; gave up. I felt like I should have just been able to do it. It shouldn&#8217;t have to be that hard. It&#8217;s just putting one foot in front of the other till you get to the end. It&#8217;s not supposed to hurt that bad.</p>
<p>But it did. And when Ben suggested that I get professionally fit for running shoes I threw up my hands and stubbornly refused because NOTHING WAS GOING TO WORK. I HAD ALREADY TRIED ALL THE THINGS.</p>
<p>And so it went for almost a year.</p>
<p>And finally, after watching him train his broken body (back surgery, multiple knee surgeries, people telling him running was out of the question) <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/benhirsch/8408724663/in/photostream" title="My husband is a badass.">to a 1/2 marathon</a>, I listened to Ben and went and got professionally fit for running shoes.</p>
<p>And I ran. And my legs were all, YEAH! LET&#8217;S DO THIS SOME MORE.</p>
<p>I&#8217;m right back where I started, and that does suck, but yesterday I finally restarted Couch to 5K. I&#8217;ve listened to Ben and am stretching before and REALLY well after each run. I listened to my sister-in-law Melyssa and am getting over my ego of needing to better my time with each run and am starting out SLOW. But I&#8217;m running and my legs feel GREAT. I&#8217;m going to punch that 5K right in the face and then I&#8217;m just going to keep on running.</p>
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		<title>Weekend away.</title>
		<link>http://www.aflux.net/weekend-away/</link>
		<comments>http://www.aflux.net/weekend-away/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 21 Jan 2013 04:30:00 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Anna</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Anna]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[beach]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[photo]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[picture]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Pismo]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[vacation]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.aflux.net/?p=2967</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[When we were opening gifts for Christmas Ben told me, &#8220;One of your gifts is a weekend away in Pismo. Pick a weekend and I&#8217;ll set it all up.&#8221; It was awesome. We usually stay at a certain hotel but it&#8217;s kind of silly expensive so we decided to stay at the Best Western Shore [...]<p><table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="left">
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]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>When we were opening gifts for Christmas Ben told me, &#8220;One of your gifts is a weekend away in Pismo. Pick a weekend and I&#8217;ll set it all up.&#8221;</p>
<p>It was awesome.  We usually stay at a certain hotel but it&#8217;s kind of silly expensive so we decided to stay at the <a href="http://www.shorecliff.com/" title="Best Western Shore Cliff">Best Western Shore Cliff</a> and I think it was a great choice!  Going down I had one plan: RELAX. We spent most of the time in the hotel room, only really leaving to eat. PERFECT.</p>
<p>Cassidy rode down to Pismo with us Friday evening and was picked up by Mary, her boyfriend Elisio and one of Cassidy&#8217;s BFFs Mallory and they continued on to Orange County to go to Knotts Berry Farm Saturday. </p>
<p>Here are some highlights!</p>
<p>I woke up to this view Saturday morning.</p>
<div align="center"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/antigone/8388860408/" title="&lt;3 by antigone78, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8509/8388860408_423f586444.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="&lt;3"></a></div>
<p></ BR></p>
<p>It was GORGEOUS! I was worried because the night before it was COLD. Like, two jackets and a scarf IN THE HOTEL room cold when we first got there. But the weather was perfect. We opened the door and the sun reflected off the ocean and warmed our room enough to keep the sliding glass door open all day.</p>
<p>We went down to breakfast there was an automatic pancake maker. I was like, WE NEED ONE OF THESE OMG! LIKE SERIOUSLY! TODAY!</p>
<div align="center"><object width="500" height="281"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/YbbVSv0iZWU?hl=en_US&amp;version=3"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/YbbVSv0iZWU?hl=en_US&amp;version=3" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="500" height="281" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true"></embed></object></div>
<p>It&#8217;s $3,500. So apparently that&#8217;s out of the question. Ben&#8217;s priorities are whack.</p>
<p>We ate a lot of this clam chowder in a bread bowl from <a href="http://www.splashcafe.com/pismo.php" title="Splash Cafe">Splash Cafe</a>. It is the best thing you will ever put in your mouth and the entire reason we went to Pismo instead of some place closer. You can <a href="http://www.splashcafe.com/order_chowder.php" title="ORDER THE BEST CLAM CHOWDER YOU WILL EVER PUT IN YOUR MOUTH!">order it and have it sent directly to your home</a>. YOU&#8217;RE WELCOME.</p>
<div align="center"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/antigone/8387634303/" title="Clam chowder bread bowl #2 with a view. by antigone78, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8353/8387634303_f471e91c25.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="Clam chowder bread bowl #2 with a view."></a></div>
<p></ BR></p>
<p>Saturday we got cute and went to <a href="http://www.steamerspismobeach.com/" title="Steamers Pismo">Steamers</a> for dinner where I NOMed on the second steak in 24 hours. It was a good food trip.</p>
<div align="center"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/antigone/8387747905/" title="&lt;3 by antigone78, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8184/8387747905_37ed44223e_z.jpg" width="480" height="640" alt="&lt;3"></a><br />
</ BR><br />
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/antigone/8388840430/" title="Rare filet. YES PLEASE! by antigone78, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8371/8388840430_19bc165515.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="Rare filet. YES PLEASE!"></a><br />
</ BR><br />
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/antigone/8388843894/" title="Perfection. by antigone78, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8089/8388843894_5ea8341dcd.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="Perfection."></a></div>
<p></ BR></p>
<p>I woke up to this seriously beautiful sunrise on Sunday.</p>
<div align="center"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/antigone/8388728468/" title="Woke up to this beautiful view Sunday morning. by antigone78, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8516/8388728468_29aa968823.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="Woke up to this beautiful view Sunday morning."></a></div>
<p></ BR></p>
<p>It was the perfect weekend. Relaxing, lazy and full of good food and my handsome husband.</p>
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		<title>2013 Flu Update</title>
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		<comments>http://www.aflux.net/2013-flu-update/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sun, 20 Jan 2013 05:59:26 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Anna</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Anna]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[flu 2013]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.aflux.net/?p=2971</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Number of days sick: 3.5 Number of pounds lost: 6.5 Number of times I wished I&#8217;d just DIE ALREADY: 76 Number of solid meals I ate over 3.5 days: 3 Number of solid meals I kept down over 3.5 days: 0 Gallons of water consumed over 3.5 days: 3 Gallons of water kept down over [...]<p><table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="left">
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]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><img src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8356/8396549903_87bfb727ce_m.jpg" class="alignright" alt="Cute dogs sleeping" title="Cute dogs sleeping" /></p>
<p>Number of days sick: <strong>3.5</strong><br />
Number of pounds lost: <strong>6.5</strong><br />
Number of times I wished I&#8217;d just DIE ALREADY: <strong>76</strong><br />
Number of solid meals I ate over 3.5 days: <strong>3</strong><br />
Number of solid meals I kept down over 3.5 days: <strong>0</strong><br />
Gallons of water consumed over 3.5 days: <strong>3</strong><br />
Gallons of water kept down over 3.5 days: <strong>0</strong><br />
Number of times I dry heaved and wished with all my heart that something, ANYTHING, would come out: <strong>849</strong><br />
Number of hours spent sleeping on the couch with dogs: <strong>63</strong><br />
Number or house spent on the couch watching HGTV: <strong>All the rest of them.</strong></p>
<p>For the record, I did have a flu shot.  Apparently there is some mutant monster flu that wasn&#8217;t included in the stupid vaccine this year. THANKFULLY, Cassidy showed symptoms but it never progressed into anything.</p>
<p>I feel REALLY HORRIBLE because I just didn&#8217;t have it in me to get on the plane to Arizona Friday to go to support Ben during his first half marathon. It broke my heart to have to drive away from the airport when I dropped him off but the entire way there I fought and fought to not throw up in the car. At one point I almost lost it but managed to hold it off till after dropping him. Even worse than having to leave him was the thought of having to leave him with his last image being me hurling in the car.</p>
<p>I finally stopped throwing up yesterday late morning but then it all started to come out the other end, if you know what I mean. I mean diarrhea. Every 30-45 minutes. Till 6:00AM this morning. I woke up exhausted at 9:30AM this morning with two hungry dogs staring down at me. I could have slept for another hour or two or seven but they were like, nope. Feed us, Sleeping Beauty! And here&#8217;s a fart to let you know how serious I am! Usually Ben gets up with them no later than 8:00AM on the weekends so they let me sleep in quite a bit which was nice of them. Well, except for the farting part.</p>
<p>I&#8217;m still pretty tired. You know that normal after flu hangover you get where you are low on energy and tired and just kind of lethargic till you can get a solid day or two of real food and liquid into your body? Yeah, that. So now I&#8217;m going to bed and resting my poor body. If anybody around you is showing flu symptoms, I highly suggest freebasing vitamin C and investing in a bubble suit.  Stat.</p>
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