Up until now, I’ve tried to follow every blogger who’s following me, but I’m getting far too many email notifications, so I can’t do that anymore. If you are following this blog and don’t receive a follow back, please do not be offended. It’s nothing personal.
Tag Archives: announcements
I think I’m about to hear some very good news!
My daughter wants me to come over today because she and her boyfriend say they have some important news. They want her father (my ex) there too.
They are obviously very much in love, going by their almost sickeningly adorable Facebook entries about each other, LOL!
Of course I immediately wanted to know if she was pregnant. She isn’t. That’s a relief!
I think I know what it’s going to be.
She has changed so much this past year, just as I have. She is so much more mature than she used to be and is finally making some good choices. She’s also talking seriously about going to college. I think this time she means it.
This isn’t related really, but these are some late summer flowers I took pictures of at church this morning.
Anti-bullying public service ad in the sidebar.
This is now in the sidebar.
This is a bully free blog. I allow dissenting opinions, of course, but trollish or abusive comments from bullies and trolls won’t be allowed (and have never been allowed). Every day I go through my comments folder, and sometimes I come across these comments. I can check IP addresses and take screenshots if I want. But I’ve never had a reason to, and hopefully never will. So abusive comments do not normally get approved and get sent to Trash. Fortunately I haven’t had too many. If an abusive comment shows up without my having to approve it (normally this happens if it’s someone who has commented before), it will be deleted and sent to Spam or (possibly) approved and called out.
Anti-bullying is a thing these days, and I’m glad it finally is. Bullying was never taken seriously when I was a child and teenager. In fact, the bullied victims like myself (even girls!) were
likely to be blamed for “not fighting back” or harshly ordered to “let ’em have it,” etc. And of course, no one believed us anyway, because the bullies had turned everyone against us and used their flying monkeys to back up their bogus “I’m such an innocent angel” act in the Principal’s office.
Most of us learned The Golden Rule in kindgerdarten, but fewer of us internalize that rule as adults and treat each other with respect. Bullying isn’t just something kids do on the playground; it’s something that happens between grown-ups online, in the office, in the church, and at home. It happens even among family members if they have chosen a scapegoat. Bullying affects all of us and is one of the greatest evils of our age.
Because this is a blog about narcissism (largely, anyway) and narcissists and bullies are so often one and the same, I decided to link to the government’s website against bullying. There’s an image in the sidebar you can click on to get information or get involved.
You can visit their site at http://www.stopbullying.gov/respond/be-more-than-a-bystander?gclid=CJ2yubGKwMYCFQyoaQodEN0M2A
No more bullying! Let’s respect each other and remember The Golden Rule.
Peace,
Lauren
I’m doing the unthinkable.
I am taking tonight off. I have never taken a night off. I feel guilty about doing that. I’m afraid that, like a ex-smoker who smokes “just one cigarette” and thinks they can go back to being a non-smoker, that if I take even one day off from writing, that it might become a habit and I’ll get lazy about posting and go back to being a writer who doesn’t write. And that is something I cannot accept in myself.
But I have a few good reasons for not writing tonight.
1. I am exhausted. I need sleep.
2. I have a ton of emails to answer. I have been putting off answering them in favor of writing new blog posts. I’m probably the world’s worst email replyer. I don’t want people who email me to think I don’t care, because I do, so I need to reply to those emails tonight. I have a responsibility to the people who don’t feel comfortable voicing their concerns, stories of abuse, or questions in the comments section.
3. I really don’t have any good ideas tonight. If I suddenly think of something, I’ll be back to write it.
4. I have a lot of reading to catch up on. It embarrasses me how little I read anymore, now that I write all the time.
5. This probably qualifies as a post, so I really haven’t skipped a day.
See you tomorrow!
A HarsH Goodbye…
So Jason is leaving the blogosphere to hunt treasure.
I’m grateful I started my blog when he was still here, because he was of such immense help to me getting started.
A lot of people here will miss you, OM! 😦 Good luck in your future endeavors. Maybe you’ll be back someday…
Major changes in the header!
If you look in the header, you will probably see the headings are completely different. I did some rearranging, renaming, and cleaning up, which meant some of the headers had to be demoted to sub-headers. There were simply too many headers which were becoming unwieldy and making the blog look cluttered, not to mention they were becoming disorganized and hard to navigate. I think this change will make it easier to find what you are looking for.
Hopefully everyone likes the new header arrangement. So take a look, play with the headers and subheaders, and see where your favorite topics are.
Blessings,
Lauren Bennett “Lucky Otter”
Two new header tabs!
Because I write so much about my Aspergers, I realized it would be easier for my readers to find related articles if I made a kind of “Table of Contents” listing the relevant posts. I decided to do the same for my Avoidant Personality Disorder, even though I haven’t written too much about it (my Aspergers and Avoidant traits tend to blend together so there’s a lot of overlap).
Living with Avoidant Personality Disorder
Later, I may add an additional tab about BPD, but because my articles about BPD tend to blend in with the NPD and general Cluster B disorders articles (of which there are far too many to list in a header tab), it would be a lot more difficult to separate them. It would also be harder to pick out the ones applying only to my own experience in having BPD, from those talking about BPD in general. Anyway, my header graphic pretty much announces that this blog is primarily about narcissism and BPD (which I’ve been writing a lot more about recently).
Second chance to participate in parental narcissism survey!
To all ACONs:
I emailed Valerie Berenice Coles, Ph.D candidate from The University of Georgia to find out when the results of the survey about parental narcissism I posted about back in the winter would be published. I received this reply:
Hi Lauren,
Thank you so much for you email! I promise I have not forgotten about the report. After concluding the first study we received so many request from individuals that missed the study that we opened another study for those who missed the first one and are including those responses in the report (which WILL be sent out this summer). If you happen to have any readers who did not participate in the first study but are interested in getting involved (there is only 1 $100 gift card this time), the link is: https://ugeorgia.qualtrics.com/SE/?SID=SV_8cDgGItIiXqe3B3
This study will be up through June. If you have any other questions, please let me know!
Valerie Berenice Coles, MA
PhD Student, Research Project Manager
Graduate Assistant to Franklin College of Arts and Sciences Student Ambassadors Program
University of Georgia
Department of Communication Studies
Caldwell Hall
http://comm.uga.edu/people/individuals/155
So, for any ACONs who did not have a chance to participate in the first survey, which ended on February 28th, here is another chance to help out and possibly win a $100 gift card too.
The survey will only take about 15 minutes of your time but those 15 minutes will be invaluable in helping to find out more about this very important topic.
As I did the last time, I will be posting a link to the survey in the sidebar.
Again, here is the link to the second survey:
https://ugeorgia.qualtrics.com/SE/?SID=SV_8cDgGItIiXqe3B3
Also, as soon as the results are available from the first study, I’ll be posting them here.
Not bragging, but…
Rain check for “The progression of spring” series.
I have been posting a new set of photos in my weekly series “The Progression of Spring” every Sunday since March 8th, but today has been pouring rain all day, and it’s foggy so I’m going to have to delay the next installment until tomorrow or whenever the weather improves. Monsoon season has started. Sorry, guys! Here’s one photo for ya.
I’d say in about another 2-3 weeks I’ll be ending this series because once everything looks like summer, I’m done with this project. Every day is looking greener than the last. Spring is in full swing!
ETA: I looked up the weather forecast for this week. The first nice day looks to be Tuesday, after that, who knows? We’re in monsoon season–mid-late April and early May is our rainy season.
Click graphic to enlarge.
Lucky Otters Haven 