I just heard about Heath Ledger from my designer (we were in fitting isolation all day, and he just turned the radio on). I am, like others here, weirdly floored and surprised and sad. I am not sure if it was how much I liked him in movies, how much I like Michelle Williams and feel for her and baby, how young he was, or what, but I am very sad.

Also, I have the perfume problem. I brought it up to my boss when our big boss decided she wanted to pump perfume throughout the offices as a marketing technique. I was like, um, no! This never came to fruition, but it made people aware of my sensitivity without me having to make a big deal out of something like dryer sheets, so I was lucky. There was a cleaning woman who could make me sneeze and swell up just by walking in the building, but she left before I could say anything.

In a coincidence to the first set of links, I'm watching the NOVA program on the Ulas family in Turkey whose kids walk on all fours due to some genetic thing.

(I'm trying not to think about the Ledger thing because my cousin's stb-ex drove his motorcycle into a wall to commit suicide when their daughter was 2. Just a little too close.)

Oh.dear. Frontline is airing something that immediately made me think of "The Internet Wants Your Daughters." We'll wait and see if they reiterate Allyson's or OMGinternetDANGERWILLROBINSON message.

my cousin's stb-ex drove his motorcycle into a wall to commit suicide

Failed, I'm assuming from the formation of the sentence. I have a cousin whose boyfriend tried to commit suicide by driving a car into a wall. It might even have been her car--memory fails me. Didn't work for him. She dumped him while he was in the ICU, but they ended up getting back together and even getting married. The marriage didn't last much past her moving to Europe a couple months after the wedding.

Which, really, is to distract you from the genesis of the whole thought process--just focus on the fact that my family is not right.

OMG y'all. Check out what I found in the grocery store last night: [lin

Whoah. ORGANIC batter in a can? That's crazy!

again, not my fault so I shouldn't feel this ill, the fault of something written 12 years ago and not touched since.

Thank god it's not your fault and hope it means continued employment is a guarantee?

Sometimes I think it would be better to pretend I didn't see it and let it be found out in the course of events (especially if it's something I got detoured by rather than what I was working on) but I just can't let things go.

AKA "Why I'm In QA"?

I had no idea the company had a "Look! Look at the cool and zany people who work here!" blog, but apparently they've been stalking me for months.

Hee. Now I'm wondering about their process, and what went through their heads and plan. "I hear there's this woman..." "ooh, do we just...call her up and ask? Should we watch her for a while?"

Sometimes I want to move to Seattle and work at the Evil Empire. But then, I realize that I have no skills that they would want

Move to Seattle anyway! I did!

Oh! I got some of that pancake batter in a can stuff, also! I don't really know why, but I think I'm going to like it.

Eta: Y'all! I did, like, five loads of laundry today and I folded and put them ALL away! That's a first in a long time. I don't even want a gold star for it, the laundry basket not silently reproaching me is reward enough.

No, actually, he was quite horrifically successful, in both the suicide and trauma to his family (totally not fair of me to cast it that way, but by god, the act and the way it played out was really traumatic. Sad as it is to say, I wish it'd been pills.) Bad grammar and construction on my part. He was stb-ex when it occurred.

Honestly, I'm not that close with the cousins affected. But the visceral reaction is pretty strong and not really fair or understanding.

Maybe it's not fair or understanding, but it's understandable.

FTR, Frontline started out OMG! but seems to be winding up Allyson's lesson.

-t, thanks. I don't really need the reassurance, it's just sobering to discover your own emotional judgments, and realize they don't line up with your idealistic/philosophical whatevers, you know?

I too am sort of dumbstruck by the Heath Ledger news. I'm also surprised that they reported the address and apartment number.