Five Points of Unusual Advice

While these points of advice may come across as silly and ridiculous, do not be fooled into thinking that the advice is worthless. Each point on this list has come from real-life experiences, and you just never know if you, too, will one day be faced with these tales of horror.
1. Do Not Make Bread in Small Spaces
Already, I can see the looks of confusion as this one, very small point gets read. Bread in small spaces? Oh yes. Please, allow me to explain this awesome piece of advice. Bread is a wonderful substance and smells absolutely delicious as it bakes, but unless a person has made brea... From: Five Points of Unusual Advice That You Just Wouldn't Think About

Laundry Room Etiquette

Article about Laundry Room Etiquette

I write for a few different websites, mostly just to get feedback and to read what other people are talking about. You wouldn't believe the material that can be written about. The writing world is so vast that everything and anything can be put into words... with a few exceptions when it comes down to TOS.

Anyway, I noticed a very strange trend on one of the sites that I write for. Of all the topics, stories, and blurbs that I've written for/about, the topic that has received the most views has been about laundry room etiquette. Seriously! I didn't think that it was going to be much of a topic when I posted it... I was just mad because I waited half an hour to use a washing machine because some fool wouldn't get his clothes out when the timer was done. Hence, an article about laundry room etiquette was born. Who would have guessed that it would be the article to reach over 1000 views in about two months? I'm not much of a marketer, so for me to get that many views is pretty nice.

If you're interested, take a look: Laundry Room Etiquette

Abuse - A History Creating the Future

While we are awaiting a bed bug update, let's switch avenues for just a little bit.

I write a lot of articles about abuse for college students, online publishing sites, and sites for teens. The topics include such things as woman abuse, man abuse, human trafficking, child abuse, et cetera. I suppose I'm so caught up on this subject because so many people are blatantly ignorant about how much abuse truly exists in the world.

This blog post is going to be less of a generalization and more of a personal viewpoint on past experiences, although I will post some links at the bottom for further reading.

Just like so many other people, my parents are divorced. The divorce was not friendly, and there really isn't any love lost between the two sides of my family. Both of my parents claim that the other was abusive, and to some degree, I can see a bit of truth behind the pointing fingers and nasty side commentaries that my older brother and I received for so many years. Neither was innocent, but both claim to be, as is very common with many couples who break up.

Anyway, the true focus of this post is to share a sudden realization that just struck me at approximately 10:00 a.m. while I was in the shower this morning. I was reminiscing back to when I was a little kid shooting hoops with my older brother, who at the time had a violent temper. I took a shot at the net, the ball bounced off the rim, and wham, it made contact with the back of my brother's head. Before I even knew what was happening my brother was flying at me and landed a solid punch right into my mouth. Yes, blood spewed and my top tooth went right through my bottom lip. It was awkwardly painful.

Bawling and wailing, I stumbled up the porch steps, leaving a bright red trail of blood in my wake. My mother came out to see what the heck was going on, took one look at me, and then turned and cuffed my brother upside the head. Apparently one degree of abuse deserves another, but I have to admit that it was rather satisfactory at the time to see him get slapped.

A few days later my lip was still in the process of healing and had scabbed over (not very attractively, either). My grandmother from my father's side came to the door for a visit, took one look at me, and asked what had happened. I told the story, and she took a deep, gasping breath.

"What did you do?" she breathed.

What did I do?

What she really meant was, "What did you do to deserve getting punched in the face? You're at fault for something."

At the time I was just angry with her for blaming me for a complete accident, but only this morning I came to realize the origin of her ways of thinking.

My father has often told my brother and me of the childhood that my father went through, which was filled with abuse from his father, whereas his sister's life was full of abuse from his mother, our grandmother. Could it be that my grandmother was an abused spouse who just took from her own personal experiences and projected them onto other people? Did she get caught in

a blind belief that if she were beaten physically or mentally, that she believed it all to be her own fault?

My grandfather was a tough bird, an Englishman through and through. He was strict, rarely smiled, and never gave any open affection to my grandmother. His criticisms were harsh, and his forgiveness impossible to gain. Perhaps, in all the years that I resented my grandmother for her seemingly snooty attitude, were years and years of silent suffering that she took to be her own

fault.

For more reading on abuse issues, please refer to:

Human Trafficking: http://socyberty.com/activism/the-horror-of-human-trafficking/

Information on Woman Abuse: http://beyondjane.com/lifestyle/issues/woman-abuse/

Living After Abuse: http://socyberty.com/advice/rebuilding-life-after-abuse/

Abuse for Sexuality: http://socyberty.com/gay-lesbians/the-concept-of-gay-persecution/

Bed Bugs - Journey Back to the Elderly Couple

Remember the night stands that I mentioned earlier? The ones that I bought from an elderly couple, and that were infested with tiny little bed bugs? Yes, well, I paid a whopping ten dollars for those night stands, which really translated into $364 after two fumigations.
Anyway, my fiancé and I debated long and hard over whether or not the couple realized that they had bed bugs, but after witnessing a couple of mattresses sitting out by the curb, decided that they probably did know. Despite this fact, however, we decided to pay them a visit to be absolutely certain.
We knocked on the door, and the elderly gentleman answered. We told him our story about the night stands and the bed bugs, and his response was...
"Huh."
HUH???
No offer to refund my money, no apology.

He continued on to mention that they knew about the problem and that they had taken care of it (I highly doubt that, since their house was still in perfect order). A thank you for coming and a closed door was our reward for our efforts.

Sleep Tight...

Don't Let the Bed Bugs Bite

Once upon a time, that was my favourite saying before going to bed. I used to say it to my mother just about every night as a kid, never suspecting that a bed bug wasn't actually the equivalent of a bed mite.

Well, just for the record, please allow me to clarify that a bed BUG and a bed MITE are extremely different entities. A bed BUG is not only very visible to the naked eye, but is a messy, nasty little creature. While mites tend to add about ten pounds to your mattress every year while they reproduce like bunnies and leave feces all over the place, a bed bug will leave very large feces behind, as well as fairly large red stains on your pillows, mattress, and sheets. Bed bugs also leave a pretty gross red smear when squished.
What is the red smear?

Take a deep breath...

It's your blood.
Yes, indeed, they feed off your blood, but not like a mosquito. Bed bugs will often line up down your vein and push their little beaks in, injecting saliva while sucking blood. The saliva can cause massive swelling and itching at the site of the bite. It is also a signature of the bed bugs to leave several bites in one location.
In my own personal experience, I had over seventy bites on my body within the first week of infestation. It was horrible, and I looked like I had chicken pox on my belly and legs.

For me, these disgusting bugs came from a set of night stands that I bought from an infested elderly couple (whom I did not know was infested, of course). The bugs started off as tiny little white movements in the bottom of the drawer, and then grew and evolved into fair-sized, red vampires. Insomnia became my best friend, as the bugs only come out at night when all is dark.
Over a month and two exterminations later, I am still finding pockets of these rapidly reproducing, sick little monsters.

The countdown begins for being bug free!