<![CDATA[A one-thing-a-month sort of meme and random other crap.]]>I think some combination of weather changes and other factors is really screwing with pain levels today. Right now, I seem to have joint pain all over (especially, though, my left jaw and both hands), a migraine, phantom gallbladder pain (which seems to for some odd reason flare with the migraines), and some kind of stomach pain (probably from the crappy food I had to eat for lunch, since staff didn’t cook in time and I had to get something at a convenience store instead). And on top of/underneath all that, the usual neuropathic pain that seems to be really, really bound and determined to convince my whole body it’s either sunburned or being ironed (and any spot that’s already in pain, gets extra special bonus pain magnification a certain radius around it complete with weird icy-burning sensations). And I seem to be at that stage where my body runs out of natural painkillers and just starts screaming (although I just discovered that touching near-boiling water was extremely pleasant, if dangerous, and then ran water over my hands as hot as I dared without scalding them for awhile, and feel a little better).

That is to say, if I seem grumpy today, that may be an explanation, if not an excuse. I’m currently mixing up a home remedy I use for pain sometimes in emergencies, in the hope that I won’t bug the crap out of my neighbor when we eat New Year’s Eve dinner. I’ve been alternately online getting grouchier than I intend to, or lying in bed and trying to zone out.

Anyway, here’s one of those things people do during the New Year. I’m not totally into this whole New Year thing. It’s not a point where I tend to mark the beginning and end of years, if I do so at all. It seems arbitrary. Nothing seems qualitatively different about January as opposed to December. I tend to mark years in some more amorphous way when I do at all.

But anyway, regardless, people have been doing this thing where they post the first line from each month on their blog.

January: It seems like there’s a couple ways of portraying autistic adults in most books on the topic.

February: I am a mediocre hammered dulcimer player.

March: You were the ones who watched how we moved, then said what that must mean.

April: I’ve recently written this as a reply to two different blogs, so I’m going to try to turn it into a blog entry in itself, modifying it a bit in the process.

May: It’s Blogging Against Disablism Day.

June: I’ve long thought of getting a t-shirt that says “I’m the monster you met on the Internet.”

July: A famous quote attributed to Susan B. Anthony (who probably, like most feminists of her time, had atrocious views on disability, among other things, but oh well):

August: This is largely in response to comments on a recent post.

September: I was tagged for this twice, and finally finished it.

October: This still isn’t the post I’ve been trying to write, which is more political in nature.

November: I made the following video after observing a lot of things.

December: The following is a quote (used with permission) from a chat with Laura Tisoncik tonight (all the the following are her words, not mine, but they express something I’ve been trying to express for awhile):

I don’t like this version of a one-a-month meme that much though. I think I’ll write my own in a minute.

]]>