The "Carrying Pouch" (I'm sorry, it's just something I find funny, to call it pouch instead of a case) even comes in one of three colors! The pouch/case/whatever isn't part of the Deal of the Day, or the DotD, as I call it. Since they're from Amazon, I'm linking to them using my affiliate account.

What does this mean? To you, nothing; you pay the exact same amount that you would if my account was not in the link/were not in the links. To me, though?

To me, it means that I get the tiniest percentage--and I do mean the tiniest--of what you pay, and eventually, when it adds up to $10 or over from taking a few cents here or there, Amazon sends me money.

It adds up. Really, really slowly, but it does.

By the way, if you ever are thinking of buying anything on Amazon, you could really help me out. Email me (at comfortable.in.shadows@gmail.com ) links to the items you want on Amazon. I will email you back either a) to a mini shop page I've made with my account number all in them (click the items from that page and buy them, and it counts as having been bought like from a link with my account in it) or b) just links to all the same pages, but with my account info in it. I can do this at any time, and I will do it as SOON as I see the email, so no long waiting for you. It would help me a lot if you kept this in mind.

I know there are people who would like to help me with the fundraiser but just can't. This is a way you could help without taking money out of what you'd spend anyway, and you can do it in months from now, like at Christmas, as well as now. No time limit!

Anyway, so!

• Amazon's Deal of the Day: Seagate Expansion 500 GB USB 3.0 Portable External Hard Drive | This is item model number STAX500102, and it looks great. Besides the nice size (again, 500 GB), it's Plug-and-Play, which means it doesn't require any software, you can just drag-and-drop to save files, it's USB 3.0 but still is backwards-compatible to work with USB 2.0, it's USB powered, and it comes with a one year limited warranty. (Yes. Yes, I did just copy and paraphrase that from the product's page.)
  
  Normally this hard drive costs you $79.99, but today, as the Deal of the Day, it only costs you $54.99. That's a savings of 31%.
  
  

  • I've never before added anything else related to the deal of the day, I think, but I've never before seen carrying casses for external hard drives of this size (or bigger) before either. So if you do get this, you may also want to check out Drive Logic's DL-64 Portable EVA Hard Drive Carrying Case Pouch. I'm not linking to it yet, because it comes in three different colors, each which costs slightly different amounnts, so I'll do that at the end and link to each of the three product pages.
    
    These are the perfect size to hold the 500 GB Seagate External Hard Drive. The case--or pouch, I guess--has a durable, hardshell exterior to protect valuable data on the hard drive within. There are exterior and interior pouch for storing cables or accessories along with the drive, and there is an interior strap which secures the portable hard drive in its place. Plus, Memory Foam on the inside provides added protection to the drive.
    
    You already know it fits with the 500 GB Seagate drive I'm talking about in this post, but it's also compatible with several different makers of hard drives beyond Seagate; Iomega and Western Digital being just two examples. Finally, if you want to make sure it fits with a drive you have in mind, the maximum working dimensions are 6.0" x 3.7" x 1.2". (Yeah, I copy and paraphrased--and improved the grammar, too--from one of the product pages, again.)
    
    So now you need the links to the three different colors and the prices for each!
    
    

    • First, the carrying pouch comes in Black, which costs you $8.25.
    
    
    
    • Second, it comes in Blue, in which case the price is $7.99.
    
    
    
    • And lastly, you have the option of buying the carrying pouch in the beautiful color Red, which will set you back $7.49.

And there we go.

I have another thing to ask, though. Even if you're not interested in buying a hard drive or a pouch yourself? Could you make a post on your own DW/LJ/Tumblr/blog that links to this and explains what's in it? That way, if people want to buy, they'll come here and use the links to the product pages that have my affiliate codes in them. (Or you could right-click and copy the codes and past in the links with my affiliate codes in them on your page, but this seems like less hassle.) Just. Explain what I'm doing, that I have the DotD up here linked to with a link with my affiliate code in it, what the DotD is today, and that I also have the pouches for any external hard drive in the 500 GB size, in three different colors, linked to as well. (Also with links with my affiliate account embedded in them.)

If you want to also mention the e-mail me links to things you want to buy at Amazon and as soon as I see them I'll email you back new links to the same products, just with my affiliate code embedded in the new links (still costing you the same money when you buy what you want), that'd be nice too, but I'm really only hoping for you to link and mention stuff for the Deal of the Day.

It would be awfully nice, though. Every few pennies here or fifty cents there really does add up, especially if several people email me even for just one item they want to buy, whenever they want to buy something. It would help me, and I would appreciate it.

Whatever you do, though, even if you just read this whole thing? Thanks. :D

Said awesome item is the Cyberbike (Magnetic Edition) for the Wii. Normally, it's $180, but today it's 25% it's normal price, making it $150--and there's a used one for $135.

I would kill for this, for my home mini gym--it stores easily and manages not to take up much room, and on the page you see seat covers you can use to make the bike seat softer--but, alas, I lack the money. One of you might want it, though--for an exercise bike, this price is great.

If you buy it, let me know how you like it?

Yep, it works. Both getting the $1 credit and the credit itself expire midnight PST--aka, you have to both get AND use it by then--but it's easy as pie to get.

This is the page you go to to read the instructions and find the button to link your Amazon and Twitter accounts, thus actually getting the credit.

I have mine, though no idea what to get with it. Suggestions are appreciated.

Meanwhile, enjoy links to some of the free music I've been downloading from Amazon.

Songs

Thread, by Now, Now

Walk With Me, by Memoryhouse

Old Mythologies, by The Barr Brothers

About a dozen more songs later, along with half a dozen or so albums--all legal and free, I add again.

If you download any of these songs, or the ones I post later (and the albums I post with them), I'd love to hear what you think of any of them.

My vision is screwy again--I can't say I can safely drive atm, but migraines do that, it's just lasting a while--so I'm off the FList thing, and I hate that. As a result, my guilt makes me share pretty things. Lucky you, I guess, but I apologize for the things on my FLists that I miss when things like this happen. I also give big hugs to those who DO email me and understand.

And I guess, for the first time, I'm admitting how badly it hurt and upset me when a few people chose to NOT undestand or accept my disability, and instead ended our relationship. Most assumed that WAS reading my FList again--even though, as I pointed out in each case, that I had SAID I would post when I was reading again. In several of those cases, I had also been making sure to send an email at least once every two weeks, to try and keep in touch--because they were important to me.

After pointing these things out, in each case--few, but yeah, they hurt like hell and made me feel small and like I was worthless or worth only caring abuot for so long because of symptoms of my illness I couldn't conterol--the person basically went, "Oh...well, we may as well stay defriended anyway and not bother fixing our friendship/getting close again/talking/whatever".

In more than once instance, I knew there was something else also going on, which hurt more; I'm grateful that not only were there few people who did this, but even fewer who lied in part about things. I am.

But it hurt. Which is why I try and post when I can't read FList. No, I'm not ignoring you. Yes, I'm getting better. But until the day EVERYTHING is 100% gone, I'm still sick, I'm still taking medications that damage my body and have serious side-effects, and my life is kinda still at risk from the bartnoella especially. I've given up, a little; when I feel like I'm the only one making an effort, or the majority of an effort, I just...don't have the energy to KEEP feeling that way and making the effort in a friendship, no matter how badly I want to. I need the support and to be contacted, too, not always the one contacting.

(Course, I'm also utterly exhausted all the time; the physical therapy is hard and painful and I'm throwing myself into it because I don't have another choice. So that doesn't help with reading FLists or with emailing people who I DO still try and keep in contact with. Don't worry about if you're one of the people who I feel like I may as well just...conserve my energy, I guess, rather than keep investing into a friendship that some people (and it's plural) say they want, but don't act like. I say don't worry if you are one, knowing that half of you will, as we geek girls do insecurity well, many of us. But mots of the ones I'm talking about aren't on DW nor LJ, so seriously, it's not worth it. if you DO worry, then my suggestion is to simply email me and talk about nothing, as that's proactive rather than worrying! You can ask if you're someone I'm referring to as well, if you want, but odds are extremely high I'll say no. And I'm almost always open to re-engaging in a friendship with just about anyone, the few exceptions being those who I know, however sad it makes me, would not be healthy for me to engage with again in just about any manner.)

I don't lie--and I mean that in all ways. Lying by omission or implication is still lying. One thing I can promise to all and for always is that you'll never get a lie from me. I also don't use the truth to be cruel; I promise that too. It may hurt, but I never mean for that result and hate when it occurs.

I promised myself a lot of things this year--to get healthier and stronger, for one; to learn that it is okay to be angry and also how to be so appropriately, have the right level of response to each situation, for another. A third is to learn to love myself more. To find myself physically beautiful--that's hard. It's very hard. I see a weak body that's too sharp in features and too-large breasts that often hurt, and there's just...I don't see any beauty in me. But part of that is feeling trapped in a cell, in this body that I sometimes feel betrayed me; beauty is hard to see, there. Someone helped me, a lot, even if he also caused me more emotional pain than I thought he could, too, though, and I'm still trying.

And I'm trying to love my non-physical traits, which is easier. Honesty being one. Which means feeling safe to write what I need to in my own blog.

I didn't, for a long time. About three years of time, I guess. Someone went looking to see if I had an LJ s/he was not friended by; I did, and after finding it, s/he accused me of using it to rant about him/her in it. (I never did, and the thought kinda shocked me. I was writing about things related to my health, of all kinds, my religion-related troubles, and how hard it was at the time to handle school, my health, and my family...being, well, my family.)

I've never looked to see if someone has a blog I'm locked from; not my business. I certainly wouldn't assume what was in a journal I couldn't see. So I don't know if it's common or not, or how others react or not. For me--trust was one of the things I was dealing with already. Being hit with that out of the blue made that part worse, and I found myself writing posts and deleting them, even silly ones. Or avoiding LJ entirely. Or starting to panic the minute I hit post. It wasn't the root cause--I had enough other serious things for that--it just became associated with it.

And I dealt with it. It's been a while since I felt that way, but I still had the habit of avoiding a lot of things I WANTED to write about. Yeah, I meant it--very little personal is going on these blogs, at least for a while. But I wanted to, today, and I have the right to if I want to--and to be proud of myself that I'm able to again.

So I guess, in a way, this post was a test, to PROVE to myself that I was able to do so, should I WANT to do so. And I can.

I have three lists: Things I Want To Either Be Proud Of Or Comfortable With (see: my appearance), Things I Want To Work On, (see: tons of stuff), and Things I AM Proud Of.

And having written this post, and not panicking as I go to post it, knowing I CAN do this if and when I want to and that it's just a blog post, again, like it should be? That's going on the last list, yep.