I’m thankful for my family, who raised me with values about what’s important in life so that I didn’t turn out to be a wannabe Child of iPrivilege (not a typo).

I’m thankful that some of my students are really nice kids.

I’m thankful that I work with such nice people that I had two Thanksgiving invitations to juggle as well as enough leftovers sent home with me that I haven’t had to cook all day.

I’m thankful that if I had to cook today, I’ve got stuff on the shelves and money in the bank so that I can get whatever I need.

I’m thankful that I have a job that I don’t hate, that pays the bills and gives me a way to help people.

I’m thankful that I live in a country where I, as a woman, am free to have that job, to own what I earn from it, to vote, to write this blog, to live on my own, to drive a car, and to be a friend to a few of the people in line to keep it that way.  I’m especially thankful for those friends.

I’m thankful that my brain cells and wacky hobbies let me make myself useful, for example to another friend just a little while ago, even if it takes a while for stuff to work.

I’m thankful that I’m healthy, my cats are healthy, insurance is about to make my teeth healthy (over time, of course, because these things take time), and life is generally OK.

First of all…I’m not under the impression that it really matters one way or the other whether I’m addicted to the internet: I don’t have a normal life for it to interfere with

However, a friend of mine posted “Ten signs you spend too much time in internet forums” a few weeks ago, and seven of the ten signs apply to me. No, I’m not going to say which seven. The list does seem to be based somewhat on our group’s quirks and traditions, so I’m not sure how much that affects how many of them apply to me.

According to Wikipedia, on the other hand, internet addiction doesn’t actually exist–people spend too much time on the internet but it’s not a separate mental disorder or addiction. We do, of course, know that Wikipedia’s always right. But on the off chance that it’s not, here’s my Top 10 Signs You Might be an Internet Addict.

1. You’ve taken this quiz at Blogthings either out of actual curiosity or in hopes of being an addict.
2. You not only know what a lolcat is, you’ve made one or two at some point, you celebrate Caturday, and when you see something wacky in real life you think “that could be a lolcat/loldog/lolcar/lolcousin/etc.”
3. Your friends are from the internet, even if you’ve met them in real life.
4. You have a list of the people you know online, with other information such as their ages, pets, obsessions, etc.
5. Even if you know your friends’ offline names, you frequently give them new online names.
6. Even your friends who weren’t from the internet now use the internet to stay in touch with you.
7. If you made a list of people you really trust, it would contain more people from online than offline.
8. You know why “Wikipedia’s always right” is an ironic statement, but you use it anyway.
9. You not only have a blog, but you have a blog spam problem, and a strategy for fighting it.
10. You make top 10 lists about the internet in that blog.

I’ve made a few lolcats, but this is the first time that something I’ve said has been depicted as a lolcat (at least by one of my friends who then pointed it out to me; I guess I wouldn’t know if someone decided to make fun of me behind my back or something).

I actually mailed mine today…including two to Canada and one to England. I think I got everyone on the list. Oddly enough, it was actually fun, though it wasn’t easy to get the cats to pose.

I’m currently looking for job fairs during spring break and the week before, in places that would make some kind of sense given that I’d like to be around my friends for more than 1% of the year. That would probably involve stopping by and seeing people…yeah, that’d be rough.

That’s what I’ll be doing before much longer. Gotta get up early tomorrow and ride mass transit with seventh graders. I’d waaaaaaaaaaay rather sleep in!!!