I guess I’ll write about this

I don’t know if I’m just tired from the heat and humidity, all laughed out about this, or just so mind-numbingly bored by this tiresome, ignorant, small-minded woman that I want to plunge rusty ice picks into both my eyeballs AND my eardrums, but I really wasn’t in the mood to write about this incident.

However, because the media (mainstream, lamestream, or Dream Team...whatever) continues to fuel speculation that she will run for President, I feel that it is my duty as an American citizen to point out just how moronic this slack-jawed window licker really is.

So Sarah Palin is on some sort of weird family vacation bus tour thing, despite not really spending any amount of time at any of the sites they’re visiting. A half an hour at the National Archives? Three hours at Gettysburg? Really? No wonder she’s stupid. How sad that she’s passing her lack of desire to learn on to her kids. You can’t learn much about our nation’s historic sites if you breeze through for a photo op without bothering to read about it, absorb it, and freakin’ LEARN.

The Quittah from Wasilla really took the cake on Thursday, though, when she stopped at the Old North Church in Boston. When asked about Paul Revere, she went into one of her weird word salad diatribes that has to be seen and heard to be believed.

He who warned the British that they weren't going to be taking away our arms by ringing those bells and, um, making sure as he's riding his horse through town to send those warning shots and bells that, uh, we were going to be secure and we were going to be free.

That’s right. In Palin’s Bizarro World, Paul Revere was defending the Second Amendment, although the Constitution hadn’t been drafted yet, and the Revolutionary War had not even begun. As Bill Maher said, she shouldn’t be on a bus tour. She should be in summer school.

I understand that the media needs and wants to cover this. She is definitely news right now, showing that while she might not have even a tenuous grasp on American history, she certainly knows how to manipulate the media...and of course, here I am writing about her. She truly is a consummate media whore, unwilling and unable to have the narrative shift off of her. When the media spotlight moved off of her and onto other Republican candidates, she made damn sure that the focus returned to her by cooking up this bizarre bus tour. As someone who has been accused of being a narcissist, I think that accuser needs to study a little harder (maybe they can have lunch with Palin at summer school) and understand the true meaning of narcissism. (Of course, it has been proposed that narcissistic personality disorder be removed from the DSM. I eagerly await their revised diagnosis of me.) I think Palin is the walking embodiment of a narcissist, and she shows it in her usurping of the attention placed on actual candidates like Romney, whose official announcement of his run was completely overshadowed by Palin’s “family vacation.” I’m sure that she was quite pleased by that.

Is she going to run? Hell if I know. I’m not sure I even care anymore. My instincts say no. ClusterFox still has her on their roster, I don’t see her wanting to give up her lucrative speaking career, and I certainly don’t see her wanting to bring down the intense media scrutiny of her personal life and business. Nah, she’s just going to milk this for all she can, get all the attention she can, and she’ll just keep raking in the dough from the gullible and misguided. On the other hand, she just might be arrogant enough to think that she has a chance, despite her high negative numbers among everyone other than conservative Christians. In that case, she’s not just ignorant. She’s delusional.

That’s crazy talk!

There has been a big shakeup in the psychology world this week! And certain people might not be very happy about their very important diagnosis getting the boot.

The new edition of the DSM (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders) will eliminate five personality disorders, including Paranoid, Schizoid, Histrionic, and Dependent. But the real biggie, the one getting all the attention (naturally), is Narcissistic Personality Disorder. *gasp* NO! How will all those narcissists deal with being told that they don't rate their own personality disorder any longer? This could be very damaging to them.

This decision is causing a lot of disagreement among psychologists and psychiatrists. The rationale is that a patient can be diagnosed with a personality disorder with elements of the various disorders that have been eliminated. A smorgasbord, if you will, of personality disorder symptoms. Practicing psychologists and psychiatrists feel that there is a wide gap between what researchers see in their studies and what they see in their practices, and are none too happy about this decision. Although psychology is a bit of a hobby of mine, and I've read a few books about it, I am by no means an expert, so can't really comment on whether this is a good decision or not.

However, as someone who has been accused in the past of being a narcissist, I can certainly comment on that. I'm really not sure what prompted this person to decide that I am a narcissist, since I really don't fit the pattern of Narcissistic Personality Disorder symptoms (RIP, NPD). I think all of us exhibit certain of these behaviors at times; I am definitely easily hurt, and can appear unemotional at times. However, there is a big difference between exhibiting certain behaviors that many of us show at times, and being classified as having a personality disorder. I can only put on my psychologist hat and wonder if that accusation wasn't a classic case of psychological projection. Hmmm. There is also a big difference between exhibiting a healthy sense of self and self-worth, having self-confidence, and being a narcissist. While looking for a picture for this entry, I saw several that portrayed President Obama as being a narcissist. I think that is just silly.

He is obviously very self-confident. What politician isn't? I would think it's a prerequisite for the job. As for myself—and no, I am not comparing myself to our President—I worked hard to get past my feelings of inferiority, my self-doubts and insecurities. Although I still have those things, I have tried to replace them with a stronger self-confidence and a faith in my own abilities. My job did a lot to help me with that. I was good at what I did, but a lot of that came from my dedication towards learning as much as I could and keeping up with changes. My supervisor placed a lot of faith in me, giving me extra tasks and pushing me to learn more. I'm pretty sure that she was happy with my efforts. I have never pretended to know it all. Good grief...my Bachelor's degree doesn't qualify me as an expert! But I think it's okay to have confidence in your abilities, knowledge, and experience, as long as you have the equal and ever-present realization that there is always, always more to learn.

Does that make me a narcissist? I don't believe it does, and I would be interested to see if any psychologist would diagnose me as such. I saw one several years ago, and I wasn't diagnosed then, so I'm not sure what the person I mentioned previously based their diagnosis on. However, they might be happy to know that both borderline personality disorder and obsessive-compulsive personality disorder (not the same, but related to OCD) are still in the DSM!

Oooo, it’s magic!

I don't know if I'll be able to update on Friday, so I'm scheduling this post to be published while we're on the road. You can find the original, complete with comments, here.

I don't often repost previous entries, but since we're heading to the beach and will see plenty of flesh (sometimes whether we want to or not), I thought a dead sexy post was in order. There are lots of good links in here, too. But first, a video!

Friday, April 24, 2009

I’m looking at me through the glass…

What an ab fab day! Ken is done with his duties in the refueling outage--a couple of days early!--and took today off. I made a quick trip to the store, then we walked around to see where we wanted to plant the trees we got from the state, and he planted them while I got the table and chairs set up and the cushions on. It felt so great to sit out in the sun and soak up some Vitamin D, although it didn't take me long to get hot and get a little pink. I am so pale, and although I don't have a problem with that, I do like to get a little glow on me in the summer. At the beginning, though, it doesn't take much to give me a little bit of sunburn.

I like to take something out with me to read, and I'm trying to catch up on Time. My favorite columnist in the magazine is Joel Stein, and he never fails to crack me up. In this issue, he wrote about narcissism, and mentioned the Narcissism Personality Inventory, a test used for many years by psychologists to assess whether or not someone is a narcissist.

Narcissistic personality disorder is named for a character in Greek and Roman mythology, Narcissus. He was a young man of exceptional beauty, but also quite arrogant and proud of his looks, spurning every suitor that came his way. The Greek and Roman gods didn't look kindly on such arrogance (hubris) and usually rewarded such behavior with a dose of payback (nemesis). Narcissus's payback was that while walking in the forest, he came across a still pool. As he looked into the pool, he saw his own reflection, and not realizing that it was actually himself, he became so enamored that he gazed at the handsome youth in the pool until he wasted away. The narcissus flower is said to be the embodiment of the mythological youth, and nods over ponds and pools as its image is reflected in the still water.

Stein's column was funny as always, but since I've been accused of having narcissistic personality disorder (but of course, I considered the source), I thought it would be interesting to take the test. It consists of 40 questions, and took only a few minutes. The national average is a score of 15.3, while celebrities average 17.84. I topped out at a whopping 8. And the questions are grouped into various categories, such as superiority, entitlement, etc. Some positive answers are considered to be more troublesome than others, and my positive answers were more in the non-troublesome categories. There's a difference between having a healthy ego and being narcissistic, and some armchair psychologists seem to project their own inadequacies onto others, or try to diagnose based on their limited perceptions of the individual. Whenever I've speculated that someone has a particular disorder, it's been based on observation of behaviors and symptoms, not personal opinions.

So it's good to know that I'm not a narcissist! Having said that, I received a blog award from Debra of Write on Target. Deb and I are new to each other, but I enjoy her writing very much, and she is one cool rock chick. And the award she gave me? The Sexy Blogger Award.

Just like the Spanish Inquisition, I wasn't expecting THAT!

Deb wrote, "Her politics are right on, she loves birds, and she loves the band, X. How sexy is that?"

Sexy is in the eye of the beholder, I guess!

I'm going to break with my recent award tradition of saying that if I read you, snag the award for yourself--I'm going to name a few dead sexy bloggers. But first, the hardest part: naming five things about myself that I think are sexy. Yikes! Again, this is in the eye of the beholder, and I could be way off on some of these, but I'll give it a try. In my younger days, I loved to go out clubbing, and had lots of cute little party dresses...I've definitely mellowed! But sometimes it’s all about the attitude, isn’t it?

1. I have long hair. Some people really seem to dig that.

2. I have big eyes, and they're probably my best feature.

3. I love to RAWWWWK!

4. I drive a Mustang GT, and when I'm in it, I love to RAWWWWK!

5. I'm smart. I'm certain that anyone who has ever found me sexy did so because of that and nothing else.

Now for naming some blogs, and this will be easier than the above! If you don't choose to pass it along, that's cool. Feel free to sit back and revel in your sexiness.

1. How could I not name my most awesome hubby, Ken? He's adorable, he's funny, and he's smart. It doesn't get much sexier than that. :)

2. Jamie of An Animal Rescuer's Life. Not only are we neighbors, she's got some major sass going on. And tattoos. I love her sometimes perverse sense of humor. And she is a foster mom to cats and dogs in peril. Now that is sexy.

3. Rebecca of Provocation of Mine(d). She's actually the one that got me and Deb reading each other, so that's one cool thing. She's also got about a foot on me...so she's tall, blonde, and gorgeous. If she weren't so funny, kind, and intelligent, I might really really dislike her.

4. Sheria of The Examined Life. Smart, strong, hilarious, a strong sense of justice for all, and an incredible heart.

5. Dan of The Wisdom of a Distracted Mind. I felt the need to have another guy in here besides my husband, and Dan's the man. I'm drawn to his warped sense of humor, his amazing writing, and his gorgeous photography. The cheese and bacon cologne doesn't hurt, either.

Sense a pattern here?

Smart is sexy. Spread the word.

I’m looking at me through the glass….

What an ab fab day! Ken is done with his duties in the refueling outage--a couple of days early!--and took today off. I made a quick trip to the store, then we walked around to see where we wanted to plant the trees we got from the state, and he planted them while I got the table and chairs set up and the cushions on. It felt so great to sit out in the sun and soak up some Vitamin D, although it didn't take me long to get hot and get a little pink. I am so pale, and although I don't have a problem with that, I do like to get a little glow on me in the summer. At the beginning, though, it doesn't take much to give me a little bit of sunburn.

I like to take something out with me to read, and I'm trying to catch up on Time. My favorite columnist in the magazine is Joel Stein, and he never fails to crack me up. In this issue, he wrote about narcissism, and mentioned the Narcissism Personality Inventory, a test used for many years by psychologists to assess whether or not someone is a narcissist.

Narcissistic personality disorder is named for a character in Greek and Roman mythology, Narcissus. He was a young man of exceptional beauty, but also quite arrogant and proud of his looks, spurning every suitor that came his way. The Greek and Roman gods didn't look kindly on such arrogance (hubris) and usually rewarded such behavior with a dose of payback (nemesis). Narcissus's payback was that while walking in the forest, he came across a still pool. As he looked into the pool, he saw his own reflection, and not realizing that it was actually himself, he became so enamored that he gazed at the handsome youth in the pool until he wasted away. The narcissus flower is said to be the embodiment of the mythological youth, and nods over ponds and pools as its image is reflected in the still water.

Stein's column was funny as always, but since I've been accused of having narcissistic personality disorder (but of course, I considered the source), I thought it would be interesting to take the test. It consists of 40 questions, and took only a few minutes. The national average is a score of 15.3, while celebrities average 17.84. I topped out at a whopping 8. And the questions are grouped into various categories, such as superiority, entitlement, etc. Some positive answers are considered to be more troublesome than others, and my positive answers were more in the non-troublesome categories. There's a difference between having a healthy ego and being narcissistic, and some armchair psychologists seem to project their own inadequacies onto others, or try to diagnose based on their limited perceptions of the individual. Whenever I've speculated that someone has a particular disorder, it's been based on observation of behaviors and symptoms, not personal opinions.

So it's good to know that I'm not a narcissist! Having said that, I received a blog award from Debra of Write on Target. Deb and I are new to each other, but I enjoy her writing very much, and she is one cool rock chick. And the award she gave me? The Sexy Blogger Award.

Just like the Spanish Inquisition, I wasn't expecting THAT!

Deb wrote, "Her politics are right on, she loves birds, and she loves the band, X. How sexy is that?"

Sexy is in the eye of the beholder, I guess!

I'm going to break with my recent award tradition of saying that if I read you, snag the award for yourself--I'm going to name a few dead sexy bloggers. But first, the hardest part: naming five things about myself that I think are sexy. Yikes! Again, this is in the eye of the beholder, and I could be way off on some of these, but I'll give it a try. In my younger days, I loved to go out clubbing, and had lots of cute little party dresses...I've definitely mellowed! But sometimes it’s all about the attitude, isn’t it?

1. I have long hair. Some people really seem to dig that.

2. I have big eyes, and they're probably my best feature.

3. I love to RAWWWWK!

4. I drive a Mustang GT, and when I'm in it, I love to RAWWWWK!

5. I'm smart. I'm certain that anyone who has ever found me sexy did so because of that and nothing else.

Now for naming some blogs, and this will be easier than the above! If you don't choose to pass it along, that's cool. Feel free to sit back and revel in your sexiness.

1. How could I not name my most awesome hubby, Ken? He's adorable, he's funny, and he's smart. It doesn't get much sexier than that. :)

2. Jamie of An Animal Rescuer's Life. Not only are we neighbors, she's got some major sass going on. And tattoos. I love her sometimes perverse sense of humor. And she is a foster mom to cats and dogs in peril. Now that is sexy.

3. Rebecca of Provocation of Mine(d). She's actually the one that got me and Deb reading each other, so that's one cool thing. She's also got about a foot on me...so she's tall, blonde, and gorgeous. If she weren't so funny, kind, and intelligent, I might really really dislike her.

4. Sheria of The Examined Life. Smart, strong, hilarious, a strong sense of justice for all, and an incredible heart.

5. Dan of The Wisdom of a Distracted Mind. I felt the need to have another guy in here besides my husband, and Dan's the man. I'm drawn to his warped sense of humor, his amazing writing, and his gorgeous photography. The cheese and bacon cologne doesn't hurt, either.

Sense a pattern here?

Smart is sexy. Spread the word.