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	<title>aflux.net &#187; Rant</title>
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		<title>Why I will not selectively remove you from my ticker and why YOU are responsible for YOUR OWN security on Facebook.</title>
		<link>http://www.aflux.net/why-i-will-not-selectively-remove-you-from-my-ticker-and-why-you-are-responsible-for-your-own-security-on-facebook/</link>
		<comments>http://www.aflux.net/why-i-will-not-selectively-remove-you-from-my-ticker-and-why-you-are-responsible-for-your-own-security-on-facebook/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sat, 24 Sep 2011 00:18:31 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Anna</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Anna]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Facebook]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[featured]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Rant]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.aflux.net/?p=2404</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[So here&#8217;s the thing. The new Facebook. We love it (TIMELINES ARE AWESOME!!) and we hate it (new news feed? Sucks ass). And then there&#8217;s the ticker. [...]<p><table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="left">
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			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>So here&#8217;s the thing.  The new Facebook.  We love it (TIMELINES ARE AWESOME!!) and we hate it (new news feed?  Sucks ass).</p>
<p>And then there&#8217;s the ticker.  Oh, the ticker.  People seem to be REALLY REALLY upset about the ticker.  But here&#8217;s the thing, all that stuff that people are seeing, they are seeing because of the privacy settings YOU and YOUR FRIENDS have set up.  If you comment on an update that was posted as &#8220;public&#8221; (or &#8220;friends of friends&#8221;), everybody can see it (or everybody you are friends with) in the ticker, on the wall itself, on your wall, it&#8217;s&#8230;  you know&#8230;  PUBLIC.  If you post on a status that was marked as &#8220;private&#8221; or &#8220;friends only&#8221; then nobody can see it but you and your friends.  It won&#8217;t show up in the ticker or anywhere else except on that person&#8217;s status update.</p>
<p>Here:</p>
<blockquote><p>Facebook says that the new News Feed and the ticker do not affect your privacy settings. Ticker will only display information that you&#8217;re already able to see anywhere else on Facebook. Facebook does say, however, that if you start seeing stories that you haven&#8217;t noticed before, it&#8217;s likely because &#8220;ticker makes things easier to discover. <strong>It doesn&#8217;t mean that privacy around Facebook has changed.</strong>&#8221;</p>
<p>To control who sees your posts in the News Feed and ticker, be sure you use the privacy control in the Update Status box. <strong>Also remember that the comment privacy is tied to the privacy of the post: If you comment on someone&#8217;s public post, your comment is thereby also public.</strong>(<a href="http://www.macworldme.net/2011/09/22/facebooks-redesigned-news-feed-things-you-need-to-know/">source</a>)
</p></blockquote>
<p>And I love all of my facebook friends, ALL OF YOU.  DEARLY.  A LOT.  But I will not respond to this request:</p>
<blockquote><p>Do me a favor: please hover over my name here, wait for the box to load and then hover over the &#8220;Subscribe&#8221; link. Then uncheck the &#8220;Comments and Likes&#8221; option. I would rather my comments on friends&#8217; posts not be made public. Thanks!</p>
<p>Repost, if you don&#8217;t want your EVERY MOVE posted on the right for everyone to see! I&#8217;ll do the same for you if you want; just click &#8220;like.&#8221;</p></blockquote>
<p>Because all that stuff?  It&#8217;s stuff I can see just by clicking on your profile!  It&#8217;s been there ALL ALONG, it&#8217;s just more convenient to see it now because it takes one less click and is streamed right there on the right.  It&#8217;s not showing anything I couldn&#8217;t see already!</p>
<p>I highly suggest you take a second to check your <a href="http://www.facebook.com/#!/settings/?tab=privacy">privacy settings</a> and have it set &#8220;friends&#8221; if you don&#8217;t want people&#8217;s comments on YOUR POSTS to be public or show up in the ticker.  The thing that bugs me the most is that I&#8217;ve seen people with PUBLIC Facebook profiles ask me to do this.  I JUST&#8230; WHAT!?</p>
<p>Instead of asking ME to censor you, take the time to do it yourself and if you don&#8217;t want your comments to show up publicly, don&#8217;t post comments on people&#8217;s status updates that are public.</p>
<p>This to me is common sense but at the end of the day, follow this common rule:  Don&#8217;t post ANYTHING online that you wouldn&#8217;t want the entire world (<em>and everybody on facebook</em>) to read.</p>
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		<slash:comments>17</slash:comments>
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		<title>My Case for Torrents.</title>
		<link>http://www.aflux.net/my-case-for-torrents/</link>
		<comments>http://www.aflux.net/my-case-for-torrents/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 21 Sep 2011 05:24:23 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Anna</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Anna]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[featured]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Rant]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.aflux.net/?p=2400</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[So here&#8217;s the thing. I download torrents. I mean, I&#8217;m pretty sure that everybody has done this at some point but after reading a comment thread the [...]<p><table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="left">
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]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>So here&#8217;s the thing.  I download torrents.  I mean, I&#8217;m pretty sure that everybody has done this at some point but after reading a comment thread the other day where people were basically condeming every person that has ever downloaded a torrent straight to the 11th ring of Hell (the one where you are forced to listed to that horrible Friday song on repeat at full volume FOR ETERNITY) I wanted to say something.  Problem is, I can&#8217;t remember where I saw it so instead I&#8217;m going to justify myself to all of you who probably do it too.  Because I&#8217;m pretty sure most of my readers are soleless geeks.</p>
<p>The main point that people were making is the fact that you are &#8220;pulling money out of the pockets&#8221; that create the content.  Now, they were specifically mentioning actors and I was like yeah, because poor Charlie Sheen was only making 1.5 million dollars per episode.  I bet he is really feelin&#8217; it in the pocket book.  Poor guy&#8230;</p>
<p>Granted they don&#8217;t all make that much but even those cute little brats from The Suite Life of Zack and Cody make $20,000 each per episode.  So at 28 eisoded in the second season they each earned $560,000.  This doesn&#8217;t include endorsement deals, books, ETC!</p>
<p>And don&#8217;t even get me started on what movie stars make.  It&#8217;s obscene.  Seriously.</p>
<p>ANYWAY!  I&#8217;m not as concerened about the actors as I am about all &#8220;the little people&#8221; that work on set, catering, wardrobe, you get the idea. I do think that THEY are the ones that people should be more concerned about.</p>
<p>Lets veer off that tangent and back to the topic.</p>
<p>My main arguement is this:  I DO pay for all these shows.  We pay for cable, including HBO and all that jazz.  We pay for movies that we really love (plus the outrageous ticket prices to see them in the theatres usually once a week) and know we will watch over and over, pay for <a href="http://www.netflix.com" title="Netflix">Netflix</a>, pay for <a href="http://www.hulu.com/plus?src=topnav" title="Hulu+">Hulu+</a> we pay and pay and pay.  And it&#8217;s awesome that most major networks offer some kind of online viewing option and that&#8217;s great if you happen to have an internet connection available.  But what if you don&#8217;t?</p>
<p>Once you remove the internet equation your choices become limited.  You can rent Movies from iTunes for $5.00 each or you can pay $3.00 PER TV EPISODE to buy them.  Or you can pay for the DVD or Bluray and hope it comes with a digital copy (again, we do this with movies we love) but other than that, on a phone or tablet you really don&#8217;t have any other options.</p>
<p>So I download them.</p>
<p>Honestly, it seems really silly to pay $5.00 to iTunes JUST to watch something on the go.  Especially when the same movie is available from RedBox for $1.00 to watch at home.  The pricing is ridiculous.  If you want me to pay for it don&#8217;t try to stab me in the pocketbook with a dull knife in the process.</p>
<p>If there was a service out there that let me download a season of a show for $10.00 or LESS I&#8217;d consider it but even that is pushing it.  $50.00+ is STUPID.  BE REALISTIC.</p>
<p>Just for the record, I ONLY download TV and Movies.  I got a Nook for Mother&#8217;s Day and I&#8217;ve paid for every single book I&#8217;ve read.  I just can&#8217;t get behind NOT paying at LEAST once for something.  With TV shows and movies, I&#8217;ve either paid via cable subscription or in a theater so I don&#8217;t feel bad not paying a SECOND time.  Same thing applies to music.  I buy all of it.</p>
<p>So what do you think?  Do you break the bank just to catch up on your favorite TV show?  What do you think would be a &#8220;fair&#8221; price to rent movies or TV shows to watch on a mobile devise?</p>
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		<slash:comments>10</slash:comments>
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		<item>
		<title>Pinetiquette.</title>
		<link>http://www.aflux.net/pinetiquette/</link>
		<comments>http://www.aflux.net/pinetiquette/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sun, 28 Aug 2011 04:36:56 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Anna</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Anna]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[featured]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[photo]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[pinterest]]></category>
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		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.aflux.net/?p=2384</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[&#1080;&#1082;&#1086;&#1085;&#1080; &#1085;&#1072; &#1089;&#1074;&#1077;&#1090;&#1094;&#1080;I&#8217;m writing this as a sort of guide for people that use pinterest. And by guide I mean, I want you all to fix these [...]<p><table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="left">
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]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><font style="position: absolute;overflow: hidden;height: 0;width: 0"><a href="http://ikoni.eu/">&#1080;&#1082;&#1086;&#1085;&#1080; &#1085;&#1072; &#1089;&#1074;&#1077;&#1090;&#1094;&#1080;</a></font>I&#8217;m writing this as a sort of guide for people that use <a href="http://pinterest.com/" title="Pinterest">pinterest</a>. And by guide I mean, I want you all to fix these things that bug the shit out of me.  If you don&#8217;t have a pinterest account, YOU SHOULD GO GET ONE.  I have invites so leave a comment and I can send you one.</p>
<p>I really love the site.  I&#8217;ve already tried several recipes and got a lot of inspiration for Cassidy&#8217;s room makeover in the few short months I&#8217;ve been <del datetime="2011-08-28T02:58:08+00:00">obssessed</del> using it.  It&#8217;s such a great tool to organize those bookmarks that seem to get lost in the shuffle as we surf the massive web.  Plus, I love getting to see the things my friends have pinned.  Different girls all of them, but cool to see how many things we ALL love.</p>
<p>There are a few pet peeves I have though and I can&#8217;t tell you the number of times I&#8217;ve seen these two things happen and it annoys the creativity right out of me.</p>
<p><strong>#1 &#8211; If you are going to pin something, pin the individual web page for THAT recipe, craft idea, etc.</strong>  So many times I see it where instead of linking to an individual blog post containing the recipe for something, people copy/paste what they see at the top of the page.  That&#8217;s fine if the blogger never blogs again, but once that item is pushed off the main page of the blog, now I have to go searching for it.</p>
<p>Example!</p>
<p>I made these <a href="http://www.ericasweettooth.com/2010/04/pink-lemonade-cupcakes.html" title="Pink Lemonade Cupcakes">really awesome pink lamonade cupcakes</a> the other day which I found on pinterest.  The problem is that when it was originally pinned, the blogger had just published the recipe so the pinner just had to copy/paste the blog&#8217;s main URL.  But the blogger has blogged many times since then so instead of the pinterest picture linking back to the actual recipe page, it links back to the main blog.  So now I have to go to the blog, find the search bar, enter the recipe name, find the post and click.  I know it&#8217;s not THAT much work but if you are looking for good cupcake recipes and you have to do this on EVERY CUPCAKE RECIPE PIN YOU CLICK it can get old fast.</p>
<p>Even worse, several times I&#8217;ve gone to click on a pin and it just links back to a picture!  No blog post, no article, no recipe, just an image of some awesome thing I want to know more about!  FRUSTRATING!</p>
<p>Solution:  Make sure that when you submit your pin, that you are linking it back to the ACTUAL blog page.  Just click the title of post, copy and paste the URL of that post, submit!  Easy!  Also, if you&#8217;ve had to search like I said above, rather than repinning, create a new pin with the correct linkage.</p>
<p><img src="http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6064/6087831472_75ac14b5f3_z.jpg"></p>
<p><img src="http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6206/6087286195_f1a6fbb7ef_z.jpg"></p>
<p><strong>#2 &#8211; Image theft is OUT OF CONTROL.</strong>  Like, when <a href="http://pinterest.com/pin/11393488/?utm_source=sendgrid.com&#038;utm_medium=email&#038;utm_campaign=pinterest.com">I see my photos floating around out there</a> being repinned and linking back to a tumblr (NOT the individual POST, but the tumblr&#8217;s MAIN PAGE {SEE #1 OMG}) it does get annoying.  Now my awesome image is getting attributed to some random girl on tumblr that looks like she just makes it a habit to steal photos and repost them WITH NO ATTRIBUTION EVEN THOUGH <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/antigone/5362522230/">RIGHT THERE ON MY FLICKR PAGE I REQUIRE IT.</a></p>
<p>I&#8217;ve seen this happen SO MUCH to <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/wisely-chosen/">Melanie</a></p>
<p>Six of the below pictures are her&#8217;s.  One links back to a blog post with no attribution to her, one links back to a blog&#8217;s main page so I have no way of knowing if she&#8217;s attributed (SEE #1 ABOVE!!), one links back to a failblog WIN (the main page, OF COURSE SEE NUMBER MOTHERFUCKING ONE) where people in the comments who recognize her link to her flickr page, one links back to some random photo sharing site and TWO actually link back to Melanie&#8217;s flickr account.</p>
<p><img src="http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6189/6087334961_e803a8ca65_z.jpg"></p>
<p>I understand that we can&#8217;t ALWAYS find the original artist to attibute but some people don&#8217;t bother trying at all.  This is also why, as a general rule, I don&#8217;t link back to tumblr blogs.  Most tumblr blogs that I&#8217;ve come across make no point of attributing the original so I have no desire to then promote the blogger in some way.</p>
<p>*steps off soapbox*</p>
<p>For the most part, Pinterest really is just all around a completely awesome site.  Right now I&#8217;m off to search it for something yummy to make my coworkers for a Monday Morning Treat.  Don&#8217;t let these two things discourage you from using it!</p>
<p>(Just don&#8217;t commit either of these crimes or I will have to hunt you down and pretend I don&#8217;t like you for like five minutes.)</p>
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		<title>And I am angry.</title>
		<link>http://www.aflux.net/and-i-am-angry/</link>
		<comments>http://www.aflux.net/and-i-am-angry/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 03 Jun 2011 02:49:02 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Anna</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Anna]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Cassidy]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[featured]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[parenting sucks sometimes]]></category>
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		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.aflux.net/?p=2290</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[I get annoyed when absent bloggers apologize for not having written in awhile. Like they OWE you an explanation. Dude, you have a life, live it and [...]<p><table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="left">
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]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>I get annoyed when absent bloggers apologize for not having written in awhile.  Like they OWE you an explanation.  Dude, you have a life, live it and don&#8217;t feel like you need to explain it to ANYBODY.</p>
<p>But I&#8217;ve totally done it before.</p>
<p>Because I&#8217;m all about the hypocrisy.</p>
<p>So here we go.</p>
<p>I haven&#8217;t written because I CAN&#8217;T.  When I sit to write it&#8217;s because something funny has struck me and I feel like EVERYBODY NEEDS TO KNOW THIS RIGHT NOW.  I&#8217;m not an every-day-I-need-to-tell-you-all-the-mundane-shit-I-did type of blogger.  Which is odd because I am an every-day-I-need-to-tell-you-all-the-mundane-shit-I-did blog READER.  I need to know that your cat threw up today after you fed it real tuna because I am voyeuristic and&#8230;  well, nosy.</p>
<p>I listen to conversations in restaurants ALL THE TIME.  I can&#8217;t help it, you people talk LOUDLY about SHIT THAT SHOULD NOT BE SAID IN A RESTAURANT.  I&#8217;ll turn to Ben like, &#8220;Did you just hear what that lady said!?&#8221;  And he&#8217;s like, &#8220;Dude, stop being crazy.&#8221;  Seriously though, if you don&#8217;t want the entire restaurant to realize you&#8217;re there with your lover and not your husband, LEARN TO WHISPER.</p>
<p>So anyway, when I sit down to write it has to be something I feel like I NEED to say and when I CAN&#8217;T say what I NEED to say you get halfass attempts like that last blog post.  It actually hurts my brain to read it.  I can&#8217;t believe that some of you got through it and then COMMENTED.  YOU PEOPLE ARE SAINTS.</p>
<p>And then my dad is like WHY AREN&#8217;T YOU BLOGGING!?  YOU&#8217;RE OUT OF THE WILL!</p>
<p>And then when Ben starts to notice and because he knows me so well he doesn&#8217;t say &#8220;So I noticed you haven&#8217;t blogged lately.&#8221;  He says, &#8220;What are you not saying that you need to say that&#8217;s causing you not to blog?&#8221;  DAMN THAT MAN AND HIS KNOWING ME SO WELL.</p>
<p>This question inevitably leads me to verbal diarrhea that lasts for 20 minutes.  I take a deep breath to start and then it all flows out in one really long, never ending sentence and as it&#8217;s happening I can feel the tension and the stress and the fuzzy feeling pouring out of me and afterwards I want to light a cigarette and ask him if it was as good for him as it was for me.</p>
<p>It&#8217;s never as good for him as it is for me.</p>
<p>So here it goes, the reason I haven&#8217;t been able to blog.  The reason that every time I sit to write it turns into a 4000 word long rant and most of them are a variation of the work &#8216;fuck&#8217;.</p>
<p>I am ANGRY.</p>
<p>I am SO ANGRY.</p>
<p>I am so angry at Cassidy&#8217;s father for abandoning her just when she&#8217;s getting to that point in her life when she NEEDS strong male influences.</p>
<p>I am SO ANGRY that I dropped her off on a Friday in February and pulled her dad aside and explained to him that she&#8217;s having some abandonment issues (some deaths in the family affected her more than she even now realizes) and that he NEEDS to be PRESENT in her life right now.  She is in counseling and she NEEDS to know that she has her family around to support her and for whatever reason YOUR presence in her life is SO important to her and she REALLY NEEDS you to be there right now.</p>
<p>And then he drove off, put her to bed that night and LEFT.  HE LEFT HER THERE.  For a week.  He chose THAT DAY to break up with his girlfriend of NINE YEARS who Cassidy LOVES AND ADORES and LEFT HER THERE for Mary to pick up the pieces and deal with it.</p>
<p>I am ANGRY that her (now ex) step-mom finally had to explain what was going on TWO DAYS AFTER HE NEVER CAME HOME and her first response was, &#8220;I&#8217;m never going to get to see you again, am I?&#8221;  You guys, just writing that sentence literally causes a surge of adrenaline to pump into my heart, I am SO ANGRY.</p>
<p>I am ANGRY that against my better judgment, I let her go down there a few weeks later and he LIED TO ME telling me that she had her own room in a HOME to sleep in and instead, he was living at his automotive shop and left her alone in the dark on a couch and when she woke up THERE WAS A STRANGE MAN IN THE ROOM asleep on the other couch.  And she was SCARED and had to PRETEND to be asleep, SCARED.  ALONE.  WITH A STRANGE MAN.</p>
<p>I am SO ANGRY at him for deciding to leave his beautiful, caring, loving girlfriend that my daughter thought of as her second mother to date a FUCKING PROSTITUTE.</p>
<p>And no, I don&#8217;t mean like I&#8217;m catty and calling some girl a whore because she looked at my boyfriend the wrong way.  I mean, the girl he is dating is an ACTUAL prostitute with online ads like (following links are NSFW) <a href="https://www.bestcorts.com/us/132598">this</a> and <a href="http://eroticmugshots.com/bakersfield-escorts/?pid=3271066&#038;loc_id=23&#038;city=bakersfield">this</a> and <a href="http://www.localadultpages.com/162/posts/8-Adult-Services/8-Female-Escorts/1551856-Come-join-me-the-real-Eva-Mendez-look-a-like-for-some-late-night-fun-5foot-amp-amp-120s-thick-am.html#">this</a>.</p>
<p>I am ANGRY that all I had to do to find these sites was google his prostitute girlfriend&#8217;s phone number.</p>
<p>I am ANGRY that I now have a file on my computer full of images like this so that when we eventually have to go back to court I&#8217;ll have them handy.</p>
<p>I am ANGRY that my daughter can easily find these pictures online.  That THIS is the girl he&#8217;s chosen to bring around my daughter and sees absolutely NOTHING wrong with what she did/does and thinks that she&#8217;s a perfectly acceptable role model!</p>
<p>I am ANGRY that he hasn&#8217;t bothered to contact her in TWO MONTHS (except the one time that SHE called HIM) because apparently he&#8217;s too busy with his prostitute.  And that every time she calls and leaves him a voicemail message she knows will never get returned, I have to watch the sadness she tries to hide in her big beautiful blue eyes.</p>
<p>I AM SO ANGRY that I had to explain to my TWELVE YEAR OLD DAUGHTER what a prostitute is because that was the only way to explain to her why &#8220;Roxy&#8221; is NOT an okay person to be around.</p>
<p>I AM ANGRY that my daughter is hurting.  She&#8217;s struggling.  She&#8217;s depressed and sad and putting on a really good show but she&#8217;s hurting.  She&#8217;s lying about SILLY stuff and befriending girls that push her around and she doesn&#8217;t even realize that the reasons she&#8217;s doing this is because she&#8217;s in pain.  She hurts and she doesn&#8217;t even realize it.  And Ben and I are trying REALLY HARD to help her understand but, of course, we&#8217;re the &#8216;bad guys&#8217;.  We&#8217;re the rule makers, the enforcers, the ones that have to pick up all the little pieces that HER FATHER has broken off of her and slowly piece her back together.  We glue two on, he knocks three off.</p>
<p>I am SO ANGRY how unfair it is that she has to go through this.  That I have to go through this.  That Ben has to go through this.</p>
<p>I get angry when people tell me &#8220;Well, one day she&#8217;ll get it.  She&#8217;ll see what kind of person he really is.&#8221;  Like that&#8217;s supposed to be some kind of comforting thought.  Like the fact that one day she&#8217;s going to wake up and realize that it&#8217;s not that he doesn&#8217;t care NOW, it&#8217;s that your dad NEVER CARED about you.  How the fuck is that supposed to make me feel better?  I just smile and nod and try to breathe past the knot that forms in my throat and fight back the tears that my broken heart sends welling up to my eyes.</p>
<p>Mostly, I am angry that I don&#8217;t know how to fix this.  There is no book to read, no website to look at, no person that can sit you down and give you all the answers.  I have no control over this, over him, over what it&#8217;s doing to her.</p>
<p>I have no answers.</p>
<p>And I am angry.</p>
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		<title>This post had no other point than to be whiny and let you all know that sometimes being a responsible adult sucks balls.</title>
		<link>http://www.aflux.net/this-post-had-no-other-point-than-to-be-whiny-and-let-you-all-know-that-sometimes-being-a-responsible-adult-sucks-balls/</link>
		<comments>http://www.aflux.net/this-post-had-no-other-point-than-to-be-whiny-and-let-you-all-know-that-sometimes-being-a-responsible-adult-sucks-balls/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 15 Apr 2011 03:56:08 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Anna</dc:creator>
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		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.aflux.net/?p=2271</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[I have been BUSY at work. In all caps and bolded. I can&#8217;t get into specifics because I don&#8217;t do Work Talk here for obvious reasons but [...]<p><table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="left">
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			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>I have been <strong>BUSY</strong> at work.  In all caps and bolded.  I can&#8217;t get into specifics because I don&#8217;t do Work Talk here for obvious reasons but just know, <strong>BUSY</strong>.</p>
<p> I can NOT miss work right now.  Simply, CAN NOT.  Not an option.</p>
<p>So Monday I woke up and was like I AM GOING TO ROCK THIS DAY!  On the way to work I plan out my work out, dinner plans, I AM GOING TO OWN IT.  Work is BUSY and I feel like an hour after I get there it&#8217;s time to go home and WHERE DID THIS DAY GO?  Then on the way home I noticed that I was like, REALLY tired.  By the time I got home I just felt mentally and physically just DONE with the day.  I got home at 3:30 sat down on the couch to relax for a few minutes&#8230;  and woke up when Ben got home at 7:30.  WHAT THE?  I ended up going to bed right after Cassidy did at 9:00 and slept like a rock.</p>
<p>Then Tuesday was pretty much a repeat of Tuesday.  Cassidy ended up hanging out at a friend&#8217;s house after school and ate dinner there, I went home right after work and slept.  I figured maybe I was in for a really bad period and my system was just trying to warn me to rest up for the WILD RIDE AHEAD.</p>
<p>But no.</p>
<p>Wednesday when I woke up I felt like, just every single cell in my body wanted me to get back into bed.  I was exhausted.  I guzzled a bunch of orange juice on the way out the door hoping the sugar rush would keep me alert enough for the commute to work.  Once again though, I got to work and <strong>BUSY</strong>!  NO TIME TO THINK ABOUT BEING TIRED JUST WORK AND BE <strong>BUSY</strong> AND&#8230; then one of my coworkers was like, &#8220;Dude, why are you so red?  You look like crap.&#8221;  I brushed it off till I ran to the bathroom and caught a glimpse of myself in the mirror while washing my hands.  I was red!  THE HECK!?</p>
<p>Then it dawned on my just how horrible I really felt.  I thought my throat was sore because I&#8217;d been talking so much at work but I realized that it was probably just because my throat was SORE.  BECAUSE I AM SICK!  I was too busy to realize how sick I was!</p>
<p>Turns out I have a fever pushing 102 degrees.  Awesome.  I CAN NOT miss work right now.  CAN NOT.</p>
<p>I&#8217;ve been popping Tylenol like mad to keep the fever down.  No need to go to the doctor because other than a slightly sore throat and just a bit of congestion, I have no other symptoms and the fever goes down to about 99.5ish with the medicine.</p>
<p>I&#8217;m just&#8230;  I&#8217;m not a good sick person.  And I am REALLY not good with fevers.  They suck the energy out of me like crazy.  But I went to work, and I&#8217;ll go in tomorrow.  And Saturday I have to take Cassidy to an all day band competition in San Jose and then possibly on Sunday I&#8217;ll have time for this &#8220;rest&#8221; stuff that everybody is telling me to get.</p>
<p>Anyway, this post had no other point than to be whiny and let you all know that sometimes being a responsible adult sucks balls.</p>
<p>The End.</p>
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		<title>It takes a village. And a facebook group. And a twitter feed.</title>
		<link>http://www.aflux.net/it-takes-a-village-and-a-facebook-group-and-a-twitter-feed/</link>
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		<pubDate>Thu, 10 Feb 2011 06:48:09 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Anna</dc:creator>
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		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.aflux.net/?p=2116</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[I&#8217;ve had this post jumbling around in my head for quite some time but never really wrote it because often times when I try to say things [...]<p><table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="left">
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			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>I&#8217;ve had this post jumbling around in my head for quite some time but never really wrote it because often times when I try to say things like this I end up coming across as a loudmouthed asshole but I feel like SAYING IT is more important than how a few (probably guilty) people will interpret it.</p>
<p>So anyway&#8230;</p>
<p>I remember when Cassidy was born I didn&#8217;t have the luxury of 100s of online friends helping me through all the stuff that was happening.  When she was born, google was still a small little site run out of a garage.  Message boards were still crap and chat rooms were full of horny fat me trolling for little girls.  So when Cassidy got thrush at two weeks old, I didn&#8217;t have twitter or facebook to turn to for questions and support.  I went to the ER at 2:00AM freaked out because she screamed every time I tried to feed her.  It only took 4 hours to get an answer, a tube of lotion, and a pat on the head.</p>
<p>When she got roseola when she was 8 months old I didn&#8217;t have a forum of moms to go to for stories or support and encouragement.  I asked my mom, my mother-in-law, and three of her grandmas who all gave me the same answer and told me to stop being a worry wart.</p>
<p>When I got food poisoning and was told to stop breastfeeding till it passed and she would never start back up again and felt like a COMPLETE FAILURE even though I had managed to make it 10 months, I didn&#8217;t have an online &#8220;shoulder to cry on&#8221;.</p>
<p>And really?  Lately, I&#8217;m almost happy for all of that.  Because I feel like more and more I see JUDGMENT when what I hope to see is SUPPORT.</p>
<p>Heaven forbid a woman say she isn&#8217;t going to breastfeed, or that she&#8217;s going to breastfeed till the child is a toddler, or has a birth plan that includes an epidural, or chooses a home birth, or chooses to try and let her baby &#8220;cry it out&#8221;, or wears her baby 24/7, or lets the child sleep in bed with them, or wants to cloth diaper, YOU GET THE IDEA.  It seems that no matter WHAT you choose to do, there is another mother (or even NON-parent) out there that thinks you are wrong and is going to loudly tell you how you aren&#8217;t doing it right.  And I&#8217;m just TIRED of it.</p>
<p>TIRED OF IT.</p>
<p>Tired of reading tweets that liken crying it out to ABUSE.  Tired of facebook updates that say women that choose c-sections are stupid and lazy.  Tired of hearing women say they feel like BAD PARENTS because of the things that other women are saying to them about their choices.</p>
<p>So here&#8217;s the thing.  HAVE an opinion.  I encourage that!  But please, PLEASE don&#8217;t be catty jackasses when you are handing out that information and be aware that it&#8217;s JUST an opinion.  Just because you believe that something is right for YOU does not mean it is right for EVERYBODY.  I am very pro-breastfeeding.  I believe that it&#8217;s best for mom and baby to do it for as long as you possibly can but there have been plenty of times that I&#8217;ve encouraged and supported new moms that have chosen to bottle feed&#8230;  for whatever reason.  Because it&#8217;s not okay for me to EVER make another parent feel bad for a decision they have made about their own child.<sup class='footnote'><a href='#fn-2116-1' id='fnref-2116-1'>1</a></sup></p>
<p>I feel like we have this amazing opportunity to be a helpful community, a safety net, a backbone of support for each other from all over the world.  We can support, encourage, nurture and help each other on this REALLY HARD journey of parenthood and we&#8217;d all be so much better off if we could remember that and one simple thing: respect each other.  Period.</p>
<p>Remember at the other end of that tweet or forum post or status update is a fellow parent that is tired, frustrated, confused, scared, WORN OUT and they need support, not judgment.  </p>
<p>/steps down off soapbox.</p>
<div class='footnotes'>
<div class='footnotedivider'></div>
<ol>
<li id='fn-2116-1'>Unless I think there is actual physical harm being caused to the child. <span class='footnotereverse'><a href='#fnref-2116-1'>&#8617;</a></span></li>
</ol>
</div>
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		<title>Taking a nap now.</title>
		<link>http://www.aflux.net/taking-a-nap-now/</link>
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		<pubDate>Sat, 29 Jan 2011 00:16:24 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Anna</dc:creator>
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		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.aflux.net/?p=2108</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[It&#8217;s 4:14PM now. I wrote this at work and for some reason I can&#8217;t log onto my WP control panel there because technology hates me. The day [...]<p><table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="left">
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			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>It&#8217;s 4:14PM now.  I wrote this at work and for some reason I can&#8217;t log onto my WP control panel there because technology hates me.  The day has been good to me so far.  BECAUSE IT WAS WARNED.</p>
<p>That will make sense in about six paragraphs&#8230;</p>
<p>I am SO tired.  Had an argument with Ben last night, went to bed with puffy eyes, got horrible sleep, woke up with a MASSIVE headache and with a STUPID blond mistake.  I woke up at 4:00AM and realized that I hadn&#8217;t turned on my alarm clock so I set it to 4:30AM and went back to sleep.  Except I didn&#8217;t set the ALARM, I reset the TIME.  I woke up later and the clock said 5:26AM and I have to leave the house NO LATER than 5:15AM to get to work on time.  I yelled shit, literally jumped out of bed and jammed my knee into Ben&#8217;s dresser.  PAIN!  Then ran around the room, somehow managing to get pants on, found my bra, looked at myself in the mirror, SHUDDERED, brushed my teeth, grabbed my phone to check the time&#8230;  4:58AM.</p>
<p>@#&#038;%@&#038;%@$@#</p>
<p>That&#8217;s when it hit me what I had done.  FUCK!</p>
<p>Then I reset the clock to the correct time so Ben wouldn&#8217;t wake up to see the wrong time.  Dude only has .75 good knees right now, he can&#8217;t be banging them into dressers or doing any kind of jumping.</p>
<p>I have a &#8220;nervous stomach&#8221; have I ever told you all that before?  It can create bathroom drama on demand.  When I get nervous, excited, scared or the wind blows south, my stomach is somehow immediately able to make it necessary to find a bathroom RIGHT NOW.  So I finished getting dressed, went downstairs and packed some food, then started to head out the door when it hit me in a way that told me to go now before a 45 minute car ride.  And then I ended up leaving the house at 5:17AM.  Then I got in the car and realized I needed gas.  I&#8217;m not exactly sure how I made it to work on time but I am thankful that by some miracle there was only ONE other car in the carpool lane all the way to work and he got over when I came up behind him and let me pass.  THANK YOU Mr. Carpool lane guy, I don&#8217;t know who you are but good karma, YOU HAVE IT!</p>
<p>And there you have it.  It&#8217;s 8:50AM now and I&#8217;m DETERMIED that the rest of the day will not be taking the same path last night and this morning did.  YOU HEAR THAT, DAY!?  YOU&#8217;VE BEEN WARNED!</p>
<p>ALSO!  My laptop got a virus because I&#8217;m awesome and think that anti-virus software is for WEAK PEOPLE.  WEAK!  Oh, and it won&#8217;t go online.  Or let me sync my iPhone.  So at some point I guess I&#8217;m going to have to fix that so that my 365 friends don&#8217;t think I&#8217;ve abandoned them.  I&#8217;m still taking pictures, just going to have to wait till I get it all fixed to upload them.</p>
<p>I think that&#8217;s it for now.</p>
<p>Have a good day everybody!</p>
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		<title>Television is to news what bumper stickers are to philosophy.</title>
		<link>http://www.aflux.net/television-is-to-news-what-bumper-stickers-are-to-philosophy/</link>
		<comments>http://www.aflux.net/television-is-to-news-what-bumper-stickers-are-to-philosophy/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sat, 29 May 2010 05:24:06 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Anna</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Anna]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[featured]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Rant]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[TV]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.aflux.net/?p=1805</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[I&#8217;m exhausted. This is actually pretty normal for a Friday night but this week it&#8217;s worse because I spent the last two days at work trying to [...]<p><table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="left">
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			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>I&#8217;m exhausted.  This is actually pretty normal for a Friday night but this week it&#8217;s worse because I spent the last two days at work trying to catch up for the two days I laid on the couch with a fever and scared to turn my head because the wave of resulting nausea was crippling.</p>
<p>No, I am not pregnant.  I think it was just a flu bug and it sucked.  Balls.</p>
<p>I hate staying home during the week.  I hate that I am so swamped at work that when I come back there is ALL THIS STUFF, TWO DAYS WORTH, that I have to take care of RIGHT THIS SECOND.  And then the days of playing catch up afterwards.  But more than that, I just, home is BORING!  At least Ben was here so I didn&#8217;t have to talk to the wall, or the dogs, or the remote&#8230;  but still!  I wasn&#8217;t really in a talking mood and for some reason as bad as I felt I couldn&#8217;t get much sleep and I couldn&#8217;t move my eyes to read (WAVE OF CRIPPLING NAUSEA) which left me with *sinister music* DAY. TIME. TV.</p>
<p>Now, I&#8217;m just going to lay this out there:  I love <a href="http://www.cbs.com/daytime/the_young_and_the_restless/">The Young and the Restless</a>.</p>
<p>THERE I SAID IT, OKAY!</p>
<p>I&#8217;ve been watching it for YEARS AND YEARS AND YEARS and it&#8217;s a guilty pleasure I don&#8217;t often talk about out loud.  Ever.  To anybody.  I can&#8217;t even talk to Ben about it because any time I try to watch a DVR&#8217;d episode he rolls his eyes with such force that it knocks the pictures off the walls.  IN CHINA.  Actually, I&#8217;m pretty sure the BP oil leak in the gulf was caused by Ben rolling his eyes when I turned on an episode of The Young and the Restless.</p>
<p>Other than that show though day time TV is PAINFUL and at one point I woke up from a short nap and <a href="http://www.mauryshow.com/">The Maury Show</a> was on and the remote was like, THREE WHOLE FEET AWAY, and I just didn&#8217;t have the willpower or the mental capacity to REACH ALL THE WAY OVER THERE to turn the channel.</p>
<p>About 10 minutes in I started to shake and broke out in a cold sweat and I think my braincells were starting to march, single file, out of my ear to GET AWAY FROM THE MAURY SHOW.  AT ALL COSTS.  There&#8217;s only so many times a person can watch a girl having a FOURTH MAN DNA tested to attain the proud job of deadbeat baby daddy before they break.  Somebody has to be this kid&#8217;s dad!  Like, I&#8217;m totally behind the closing of Guantanamo Bay now because all we really need to do is lock a person in a cell with a 60 inch TV screen playing The Maury Show.  I give them 10 minutes MAX before they break.  PROBLEM SOLVED!  MILLIONS OF DOLLARS SAVED!</p>
<p>I need to write this shit down more often.  America would be so much better off.</p>
<p>Also: Working on and off on a new theme for the site so if you come and things look broken or ugly, it&#8217;s because of that.  Or Ben went and rolled his eyes again, either way.</p>
<p>But it&#8217;s probably Ben&#8217;s fault.</p>
<p>I&#8217;m just saying!</p>
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		<item>
		<title>In which I declare the rest of us Gods.</title>
		<link>http://www.aflux.net/in-which-i-declare-the-rest-of-us-gods/</link>
		<comments>http://www.aflux.net/in-which-i-declare-the-rest-of-us-gods/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 03 May 2010 14:37:25 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Anna</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Anna]]></category>
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		<category><![CDATA[Geek]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[John Mayer is a tool]]></category>
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		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.aflux.net/?p=1798</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[On the way into work this morning the DJs were talking about John Mayer&#8217;s recent switch from twitter to tumblr. John made a post on his tumblr [...]<p><table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="left">
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			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>On the way into work this morning the DJs were talking about John Mayer&#8217;s recent switch from twitter to tumblr.  John made <a href="http://jhnmyr.tumblr.com/post/554610743/twitter-isnt-over-im-over-it">a post on his tumblr</a> talking about how much better it was than twitter because it&#8217;s conversational structure is better:</p>
<blockquote><p>I love reading other Tumblr users replies, because they’re thoughtful by virtue of the fact that if they’re not, they’ll bring the intellectual property value of their own blog down, and that’s a commodity on Tumblr.</p></blockquote>
<p>Now, John actually has a point here.  I can imagine for somebody like him the sheer amount of @replies you get can be OVERWHELMING.  And especially for douchebags like John Mayer it&#8217;s got to get a little old checking your @replies and having to hear about what a tool you are.  But you know, I guess that twitter just likes to keep it real and John Mayer IS A TOOL.</p>
<p>Now, I read this post he made about twitter and how he was over it when he first posted it and just rolled my eyes because it was just more of John Mayer being the self-important ass that he is.  Reading that post it was clear that he never used twitter for what it was meant to be used for.  It never asked &#8220;How my I help you in further inflating your ego today, John?&#8221;</p>
<p>The thing that really bugged me this morning was how the DJs didn&#8217;t know what tumblr was and thus dubbed John &#8220;technologically advanced&#8221; for being &#8220;ahead of the social networking game&#8221; and I&#8217;m sorry but, WHAT THE FUCK?</p>
<p>John Mayor showed up on twitter THREE YEARS AFTER IT LAUNCHED.  Long after the day of the FailWhale, and COLOR WARS (TEAM #FF1CAE FOR LIFE) and wouldn&#8217;t know what to do with twitter if it didn&#8217;t have search and trending topics.  Do you remember that?  Being able to search tweets was BIG NEWS for us geeks when it was introduced!</p>
<p>He joined twitter after it became popular and &#8220;the place to be&#8221; on the web and only after other &#8220;A Listers&#8221; started getting media attention because of it.  And probably only because his publicist was tired of having to listen to his elitist bullshit every day and wanted to give him some other outlet to have his cock ego stroked while also injecting him into the cool new trend.  Reading his tweets and blogs make my brain swell.  I&#8217;m pretty sure he pays somebody to follow him around with a thesaurus.  BIG WORDY PRETENTIOUS POSTS!  HE HAS THEM!</p>
<p>And now he&#8217;s joined tumblr.  Well great!  <strong>WELCOME TO 2007</strong>!  Dude is SO AHEAD OF THE GAME!</p>
<p>I joined twitter December 30th, 2006.<br />
John joined twitter January 30th, <strong>2009</strong>.</p>
<p>I joined tumblr in late 2007.<br />
John first posted to tumblr November 12th, <strong>2009</strong>.</p>
<p>If John Mayer is technologically advanced because in the last year he&#8217;s started to utilize software that&#8217;s FOUR YEARS OLD then most of my online friends are technological fucking savants.  No, GODS!</p>
<p>No, just BETTER THAN JOHN MAYER!</p>
<p>Which isn&#8217;t saying a lot.</p>
<p>Because it&#8217;s John Mayer.</p>
<p></rant></p>
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		<title>#TeamTaylor</title>
		<link>http://www.aflux.net/teamtaylor/</link>
		<comments>http://www.aflux.net/teamtaylor/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 14 Sep 2009 14:54:05 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Anna</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Anna]]></category>
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		<category><![CDATA[VMAs]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.aflux.net/?p=1594</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Because you are going to be sick of hearing it by the end of the day I&#8217;m just going to get it all out of my system [...]<p><table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="left">
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			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Because you are going to be sick of hearing it by the end of the day I&#8217;m just going to get it all out of my system now.</p>
<p>I&#8217;ve never purchased any of Kanye West&#8217;s music because I think he&#8217;s a worl class douchebag.  And the thing is, I actually love some of his music but I WILL NOT give my money to an artist that I think doesn&#8217;t deserve it.  I&#8217;d download it illegally, of course, but even having his music on my system would make me feel dirty.</p>
<p>I was just flabbergasted by what he did to poor Taylor Swift last night.  Just, speechless.  It wasn&#8217;t until his apology that I REALLY got heated.  Seriously, THAT&#8217;S an apology!?</p>
<blockquote><p>I&#8217;M SOOOOO SORRY TO TAYLOR SWIFT AND HER FANS AND HER MOM. I SPOKE TO HER MOTHER RIGHT AFTER AND SHE SAID THE SAME THING MY MOTHER WOULD&#8217;VE SAID. SHE IS VERY TALENTED! I LIKE THE LYRICS ABOUT BEING A CHEERLEADER AND SHE&#8217;S IN THE BLEACHERS! &#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230; I&#8217;M IN THE WRONG FOR GOING ON STAGE AND TAKING AWAY FROM HER MOMENT!&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;.. BEYONCE&#8217;S VIDEO WAS THE BEST OF THIS DECADE!!!! I&#8217;M SORRY TO MY FANS IF I LET YOU GUYS DOWN!!!! I&#8217;M SORRY TO MY FRIENDS AT MTV. I WILL APOLOGIZE TO TAYLOR 2MRW. WELCOME TO THE REAL WORLD!!!! EVERYBODY WANNA BOOOOO ME BUT I&#8217;M A FAN OF REAL POP CULTURE!!! NO DISRESPECT BUT WE WATCHIN&#8217; THE SHOW AT THE CRIB RIGHT NOW CAUSE &#8230; WELL YOU KNOW!!!! I&#8217;M STILL HAPPY FOR TAYLOR!!!! BOOOYAAAWWWW!!!! YOU ARE VERY VERY TALENTED!!! I GAVE MY AWARDS TO OUTKAST WHEN THEY DESERVED IT OVER ME&#8230; THAT&#8217;S WHAT IT IS!!!!!!! I&#8217;M NOT CRAZY YALL, I&#8217;M JUST REAL. SORRY FOR THAT!!! I REALLY FEEL BAD FOR TAYLOR AND I&#8217;M SINCERELY SORRY!!! MUCH RESPECT!!!!!</p></blockquote>
<p>So because you gave YOUR AWARD to Outkast, YOUR AWARD THAT YOU WON, it&#8217;s okay for you to stand up and give Taylor Swifts&#8217;s award away too?!  An award that you didn&#8217;t win!  An award that she deserved and WON.  A 19 year old girl&#8217;s first VMA.  A 19 year old girl who used to dream as a little girl of one day WINNING THAT VERY AWARD!?</p>
<p>Also, when in the hell is MTV going to stop letting this guy be a douche?  Remember he interrupted the 2006 MTV Europe Music Awards when he lost to Simian and claimed his clip should have won?  Remember in 2007 how he didn&#8217;t win for a single one of his five nominitations and got his feelings all hurt and said he was going to boycott MTV and hever show is face there again ranting and raving backstage like a fool.  Then he realized that, you know, he kinda NEEDS MTV and got over that.  Then THIS!?</p>
<p>Seriously, MTV, grow some balls and take a stand and stop letting Kanye make a fool out of you.  There&#8217;s a reason nobody watches the network anymore.  Letting assholes be assholes is just one in a long line of reasons.</p>
<p>Okay, I&#8217;m going to step off my soap box now and I&#8217;ll just conclude with:</p>
<p>Pink is my hero.  Go to iTunes immediately and download her newest stuff.  She&#8217;s brilliant.  She works her ass off up there AND REALLY SINGS!</p>
<p>Also, Beyonce is a dancing singing fool!  Girl rocked the show.  Hard.</p>
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