Gingerbread, far too much sugar, and theatre people. Let the oddness commence!!
Dec 03, 2007
The weekend’s snow turned into rain, and there’s now a great huge puddle outside the back door. I expect some ducks will take up residence at any moment, blown off course from Lake Washington.
The gingerbread party was small because of the snow. When that much snow hits (and it was an unusually heavy snowfall, especially for the first of the season), roads close...and since the house was at the bottom of a hill, lots of people cancelled. I walked the 15 blocks and discovered that while my shoes may have been just fine for more southerly latitudes, they won’t cut it up here in winter. (Because that’s just what I need, another expense.) We had fun, though: the gingerbread house was on fire, had an occult face on the roof, and was attended by E.T. and his spaceship, Dorie and the clownfish from Finding Nemo, someone/thing kung-fu fighting, a beaten thug-face, and Cthulhu Pride (a multicolored cookie that may have been something else, but looked a bit cephalopod-ish - so we had our Great Auld One, even if He was kitted out in a slightly-less-than-dignified manner. (Next year, possibly a throwdown deathmatch between the cephalopod and the FSM. Not on Fox [because they suck]) We also sat around and watched the final two episodes of Project Runway, and verbally eviscerated this and that entry by the finalists. One outfit looked like Sailor-Senshi-meets-LL-Bean. It was...odd. Then, because we were acting far too mature, we put in the Rankin Bass specials and sniggered through things like “a kiss a toy is the price you pay” (apparently that song got the special pulled from TV for a few years) or “riding a Vixen the wrong way” (wait - allude to child molestation get censored, but the bestiality stays? Waytago, there...)
Keep in mind that all of this talk was in front of a very bright, somewhat bored 9 or 10 year old girl. Yes, we’re responsible adults, taking care what we put forth onto impressionable young minds.
...and I almost got that out without laughing…
Interesting posts from other Holidailies sites:
It’s all about the babies
Star Wars
Worst Prompts Ever
Keywords: | pop culture | Holidailies | friends |
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This week is just full of interesting news.
Jun 07, 2007
Copies of the Firefly series DVDs, as well as a DVD of Serenity, are headed up to the International Space Station to start a permanent movie collection. The shuttle carrying replacement parts, sundries, and crew is set to launch tomorrow evening (7:35 PM Eastern time). Check out the countdown clock NASA has, read news, and soon, see photos.
You gotta love that the first pirated HD DVD is the one about space pirates who broadcast a video that the government wants to keep secret.
reavers_ate_my_dvd
And further news: CBS may be bringing back Jericho as a mid-season replacement. Apparently, the fans sent 50K lbs of nuts to the studio (where, supposedly, they’d have some company in the CBS execs...aherm). This may have been one of the factors that convinced them, oh, yeah, there’s actually some interest in the show out there. I haven’t been able to find anything definitive on the web, just speculation; but hell...seven episodes is better than a TV movie in that there’s more time to properly finish up the various stories. (After reading how the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and Rita, and the lackluster government response, sparked ideas for the show, I’d love to find out how the writers resolve the situation they’ve set up. I seriously doubt that they’ll just suddenly have the military and FEMA roll in and start handing out care packages. They don’t strike me as such inelegant storytellers as to use such an obvious [and obviously unrealistic] out.)
Keywords: | television | Jericho | Firefly |
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Sites I visit weekly...if not more often. All found through T13.
Jun 06, 2007
Thursday Thirteen 96::32: Favorite Haunts
Most times, I check out the T13 hub to see which sites I'll be visiting. I go by the short descriptions — if it catches my eye, I'll visit the site and read their entry. There are a double handful of sites whose entries have been consistently good, and whose other content keeps me visiting throughout the week. I've become a regular visitor on some of them.
- Whiskey Talking
- Writing Aspirations
- The Screaming Pages
- This Eclectic Life
- Wylie's Words
- Di's Book Blog
- The hidden side of a leaf
- Tennessee Text Wrestling — who, as it turns out, is celebrating one year blogging this week!
- Fond of Snape
- The Gnostic World of Candy Minx
- Philly Transplant
These two sites don't participate in weekly memes, but they make for good reading all the same. If you haven't visited, them please drop on by. You might find a new daily stop:
- Pseudotherapy — funny, honest, open...a conversation with a good, slightly eccentric, wickedly funny friend
- The People's Republic of Seabrook — good writing, if a tad on the zealous side at times...but we all have days like that)
Other Participants
Keywords: | Thursday | other people | memes | blogs |
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Or, "for". I mix up those prepositions something fierce...
May 01, 2007
Helena, proprietress of Situation Sunday, has entered the Blog for a Year contest. (I only recognize one other blogger’s name in that list: thebluestbutterfly.) Go check out these two folks’ sites, and if you’d like to see them paid to blog for a year, vote for them!
(I have to admit, I’m a little disappointed in the contest thus far. There’s less than $1500 in the blogger pot...and the company sponsoring this contest will be taking half of whatever’s there. So right now it’s more like “be paid $700 to blog for a year” - which, in some senses, is a tiny bit better than AdSense revenue and less distracting to the readers. While I’ve got no problem with the sponsoring company getting some money for their work and efforts developing and maintaining the site, nobody’s rolling in the green as of yet. Still, there’s eight months left to go. Things could improve.)
Rashenbo has been gettin’ all meta this past two weeks, writing about writing. She’s been soliciting ideas and opinions, asking what people what they think about this and that type of scenario, soliciting opinions on character fates, and posting the odd bit of poetry and blog quiz. (Oh, admit it. They’re like Cheetos: oddly addictive and kind of fun. I see the orange dust all over your fingers and the quiz results all over your site, don’t even try and pull that one over...)
Speaking of things we’d sometimes rather not acknowledge, She owns up to enjoying a Dukes of Hazzard movie (don’t worry, not that scary thing with Jessica Simpson and Mr. Jackass.) She’s still on the jobsearch trail, too - so if you’ve got some positive vibes to spare, send a few her way.
Another friend who could use some positive vibes (or more to the point, commiseration about the joys *cough* of WordPress) is SJ, who’s being driven to distraction with the twin joys of stubborn blog software and the dark lure of Facebook.
If you can spare a little cash (as little as you want, even $5), think of sponsoring Juan Carlos Fernandez as, for the third straight year in a row, he joins riders pedaling 575 miles (from San Francisco to Los Angeles) this June. They’re raising money for, and awareness of, AIDS and services for those with the syndrome. You’ll be able to follow the riders’ progress through videos, daily blogs and podcasts. For folks who live in Southern California, Juan Carlos will be holding a fundraiser on Wednesday, May 9th at Hamburger Mary’s in West Hollywood (map), at 7pm. A suggested donation of $20 gets you ten bingo games, including the grand prize game. You can win all sorts of excellent prizes - plus, from what I’ve heard, the events are an absolute blast. (And unfortunately, I can’t make it...mnyah.)
Keywords: | popular culture | other people | activism |
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when you're bored and anxious...and many of them are actually useful
Apr 24, 2007
The new company is hitting some delays getting the purchase order through its system — so, until further notice, I am at leisure. Pfaugh. I want to earn money, dang it. I definitely want to be able to start with my new medical benefits in June, not July...so I’m really going to push to work at least one day in April.
That said, yesterday I puttered around on the web (only this time, from the comfort of my own home) and found some cool resources.
Open Source as Alternative lists open-source (often free) software programs that can be used for the same purposes as popular closed-source software. I looked up alternates to Visio (which is about $250 for a full personal edition), and found some other tools that I can try for creating flow diagrams and org charts.
I spent time looking through all the various blog carnivals, and found several active ones to try out: Carnival of Good Stuff, all the good stuff that makes our lives and the lives of everyone around us better; Observations on Life, he weirdness and funny bits of life; Carnival of the Odd, another collection of the obscure, amusing, and outre; Coffee and Tea Festival, showcasing industry news and shop talk; Doing It Differently, showcasing innovative, creative, twisted, or entertaining ways of getting things done; the Friday Ark, a longrunning carnival featuring peoples’ pets (or pets’ people); Let the Sunshine In, an interreligious listing the miracles we all experience every day; Mondayitis, with tips, posts, and humor to make Mondays less agonizing; Memory Lane Monday, a collection of memories of our lives; Positive Thinking, a carnival about thinking positively and / or beating depression; and the Top Ten Lists Carnival, which is pretty much what it sounds like.
Finally, while surfing through all the carnivals: I found the Carnival of Chocolate (for chocolate recipes of all kinds) and its wonderful home page, Chocolate Recipes that I Love. This can go along quite nicely with Chocolate Gourmand, a site run by a former co-worker of mine who distributed samples at Christmas. Mmmmmmmmm...good stuff! He posts all his recipes and many techniques.
Keywords: | site traffic | pets | Open Source software | memories | coffee | chocolate |
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Old and new header graphics for Thursday Thirteen.
Apr 11, 2007
Thursday Thirteen 88::24: Return of the Header Graphics
Nine brand new header graphics, four that were posted previously. Most are photos of my cats, so if you aren't an ailurophile, you probably won't be thrilled. Please save these graphics to your own server rather than linking to them from this site.
- I didn't stage this photo. Ursa crawled underneath a fold of the comforter one day when I had the fan on. (While the fan did cool things down, it also ruffled his fur...and Ursa hates that.)
- Fog sits in my computer chair quite often. Earlier this week when I approached, she rolled over — probably hoping that the extreme cuteness would keep me from evicting her from her perch.
- Ursa and Fog, both sitting in the computer chair. (Fog has lately started a passive-aggressive campaign to take over any spot that Ursa tries to claim. One of these days, he's going to turn around and whap her.)
- The cats, in the TV cabinet. One of my hesitations in purchasing a widescreen is that it would either be too large for my current TV cabinet...or it would pretty much nix any further scenes like this one.
- All three cats, conspiring about something. Probably about how to get more treats.
- A family of white tigers at a zoo in China.
- A photo from Astronomy of the Day: an aurora over Alaska. Photo credits to Joshua Strang, USAF.
- Wake-up juice on a textured-brick background.
- My own creation, using a very nice photo of a beach. I am ready for summer. NOW.
And now, the older header graphics:
- Urban silhouettes
- Down the spiral staircase
- Sunrise on the surface of Mars. Photo credit to NASA.
- The Witches' Head Nebula. The large version of this photo is my current desktop background.
Other Participants
- L-Squared with things she'd love to do some day soon
- Angelle Trieste on why she hates MSIE
- The Median Sib with thirteen recipes she loves (I'm drooling over the pound cake with caramel frosting)
- J's Thoughts and Musings with sites she lurks on
- Whiskey Talking with an utterly random list
- Families are like fudge… with ways everyone can help the environment
- Wacky Mommy with things that make you feel good
- Daddy's Roses with 13-letter words
- Chicken Scratch
- Observations form Missy's Window with thirteen extremely stupid signs
- Spyscribbler with ways to relax and decompress
- Just Bloggin' Along with search engine terms people used to find her site
- Well Behaved Women Seldom Make History with conversations with her kids
- The Flatland Almanack with foolproof ways to ruin a relationship
- The Screaming Pages with things she wanted to be when she grew up
- Random Musings with places she didn't find her lost keys (and the place where she finally found them)
- Fond of Snape with things she loves that begin with the letter 'i'
- Lori's Light Extemporanea with her truly ugly Monday
Keywords: | Thursday | memes | graphics | cats |
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