132 - Ambien

Forgot that I was going to post this for Greg... This is one of those 'The side effects sound so horrible, why would anyone take this medication?' moments. Here are the pertinent facts (I apologize for any typos... every time I try to paste something in this box I am reminded that the last time I tried it, nothing happened that time either... if anyone knows the trick to that please feel free to share):

"AMBIEN and AMBIEN CR are treament options you and your doctor can consider along with lifestyle changes. When taking either of them, don't drive or operate machinery. Plan to devote 7 or 8 hours to sleep before being active. [Not bad so far...] Sleepwalking, and eating, or driving while not fully awake, with memory loss for the event, as well as abnormal behaviors such as being more outgoing or aggressive than normal, confusion, agitation, and hallucinations may occur. [Okay, now I'm worried] Don't take it with alcohol as it may increase these behaviors. In patients with depression, worsening of depression, including risk of suicide may occur. [So Ambien may kill you...] If you experience any of these behaviors contact your doctor immediately."


On this website I noticed that the disclaimer he found claims you can have sex while on Ambien without remembering it. Wow. Imagine that... Honey... I swear I didn't sleep with him... Oh... you say you have video? Well... *cough* you know... I am on Ambien...


And my oh my... I love the Twilight series. I still haven't seen New Moon and will probably wait until it comes out on dvd like I did for Twilight... but these people are serious about their Twilight... in fact... their life is Twilight... Well. To each their own. Me? I live in my own alternate reality where I'm the vampire... unfortunately I have the negative side effects like burning in the sun and not liking to be awake during the day. Where's my super-human strength and my charisma??? Where's my sparkly skin??? (okay, I can fix that with some shimmery lotion, but feel my angst dammit!)

This is one of those things I'll probably initially rant about, eventually become curious about, end up reading, and feel ashamed of myself for having done so (all the more ashamed if I end up enjoying it). But this is the ranting phase. Insatiable... First thing that came to my head after I read the blog was... a modern sequel to Dracula? I have a problem with authors writing sequels to books they didn't write in the first place. And (speaking of...) the cover looks very Twilight-ish to me (or New Moon-ish rather). Same reddish-white on black in a similar shape. It's not exact, but it's close enough for me to immediately draw the comparison, I assume I'm not the only one whose eye will be drawn to it because of the similarity. Right or wrong... I do often judge a book by its cover. I'm sure I'm not the only one... and I'm sure marketers know this.

So to sum up my thought process... this book appears to be riding the coat tails of a classic book, using Dracula as a stepping stone to pique people's interest, and it's being dressing it up in a Twilight costume, and on top of that, it's being touted it as a sequel... Does anyone else think this is wrong? Am I overreacting? It's one thing to write about vampires... *cough* they're fair game... it's quite another to write as a character from someone else's book. Now... all that being said, it didn't bother me in Elizabeth Kostova's The Historian (an amazing book by the way, it sometimes sent chills down my spine... I seriously wouldn't sit with my back to the window while I read it), but it wasn't touted as a sequel. Yes, she used Dracula as a character, but it wasn't a continuation of Bram Stoker's novel, she came at it from a different angle - what if Bram Stoker's book wasn't fiction? I think that's the difference. I'm not sure. I just know this isn't sitting well with me right now. Imagine that. A case of literary indigestion.

Also, I found some more cool blogs. Check the sidebar. You know you want to. I added about five, but I think my two favorites are Queen of the Frozen North, and How to Write Badly Well. I periodically clean out the blogs that aren't being updated anymore, which always leaves me with a sense of regret... because I became a follower in the hopes that I would get to read more... and then I don't get to read any more... Sometimes I find blogs by browsing people's sidebars, this time I hit that 'next blog' link at the top of my blog and instead of forwarding me to blogs written in Chinese or Mandarin (I don't know why, but it used to), it actually sent me to several very interesting writing blogs (written in English... I forget that this blogspot thing is global). So there you have it. More reading material if you're looking for it.

And where's my friggin' snow-covered lawn? I feel gypped. It snowed and snowed and snowed all day but it never stuck. I figured that when night fell, it would start to stick and we'd get just enough for me to build another pigmy-sized snowman. But no. It's really, really cold (I have tile floors). But nope... no snow (flashback of the song from White Christmas... there's no... snow...). Thought jump: So You Think You Can Dance did a cool number to the song Choreography from White Christmas. Not quite as awesome as the Danny Kaye and Vera Ellen version (have you seen her foot tapping? my god! it's unreal!), but cool enough that I didn't hate it on principal (and that's saying something!).

Okay, well... good night. Busy day cleaning out the cupboards tomorrow, and some of my garage organizational materials came today, so I'll be out there as well. Supposed to be in the 50's (faranheit)... it fluctuates widely... hell, it could be 90 on Sunday (probably not, I'm just throwing it out there, but you never know...).