No, the terrorists have not won

I just have to say this. When I check hotmail, I can always see these headlines of little teasers, and I'm just sick and tired of the crap that comes out of msn. Are we just a nation of drooling idiots? I do not give a flying f*ck about Kelly Osbourne going into rehab. Or Ashton Kutcher's wardrobe and his relationship w/Demi Moore. Or whether "Trump-style firings should become the norm." Or what Hilton, what's her name, Paris is doing, or wearing, or designing.

Or the bachelor. The Bachelor/Bacherlorette, Average Joe, Average Joe returns cyclical, simulacral fun-house mirror crap is absolutely useless to me. I've watched about 15 minutes of those shows, and they're utterly ridiculous. These are supposed to be real people, not actors, and they talk and act like lame soap opera stars. Then 1 person gets rejected, "America" can't take it (unless they're watching the relationship crash and burn on GMA or the Star), so the rejected person comes back w/their own show, picks a person, and then someone's rejected from that show, so they get their own show.... Why are people interested in this? If you want to see nasty, backstabbing women and jerky, dorky men, watch Elimidate. All the sex and sleaziness with none of the emotional commitment. Show's a half-hour long.

Behold, brambles, I am your destroyer

It's deliriously warm here and I don't know what to do with myself. Must work outside, that's all I think, because I can't just be outside and relax. I broke down about 25 cardboard boxes yesterday and tied them up. I raked today after walking through the backyard and picking up sticks and parts of tree limbs, broke them up, and put them into paper bags to save for future kindling. Before that, I'd gotten a bit of test paint to try out in our stairway upstairs. Mda & I had a really productive talk about paint colors and a stained glass design for the light in the stairs. I checked my collection of glass--none is opaque enough to use.

Then I went out and cleared, I would say, a 6 ft square section from brambles. Perhaps I should suck it up and get back out there. I have had this fantasy each year that I've lived here that I will dispose of all the brambles, but I only do it for about 1 1/2 hours at a time before giving up. Pulling brambles is pretty easy (they're in sand and aren't prickly when you pull them out fresh), and that seems to do the trick, keeps them from growing back. But it's overwhelming to work and look up to this sea of cloudy burgundy waves in all directions.

Ok, cigarette first, soda, a little "Fresh Air", then maybe mroe brambles.