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Look at that - I survived September!

Possibly because I slept through as much of it as possible. I managed to be only 15 minutes late to work today - then ended up taking a nearly two hour lunch with Ann and Shane. Thinking back, that's how lunch time used to go - we'd have a great big bull session with people from the other offices upstairs and chat and gossip for a long time.

It's no wonder I've been so miserable this year. Everybody's LEFT! I eat lunch at my desk in less than 10 minutes and can go through an entire day without speaking to anyone. Some days without seeing anyone. The numbness seemed to kick in this month and I seem to be able to function again, so long as no one disturbs my blissful, ignorant bubble. I just look for lots of distractions. It's hard to do. I try to help out wherever I can but I just don't seem to be useful to very many people. So I throw myself into books or films or hobbies, and then get comments about how nice it is to have such free time. Nice? NICE??? It isn't nice. I hate it. I WANT to be busy and useful to people.

About all I seem to be useful for is keeping western theater on the air.

Oops. I ranted. My point was that September was blissfully numb. Can I have something better for October? Is it too much to ask?

QOTD (obtained from eavesdropping on noisy office next door): "I thought I was overweight - turns out I was just full of shit!"

Dilbert Ultimate House

I'm not too sure about this . . . some of the ideas are good. However, I think houses should have foyers. It's easier to carry items in, gives you some space when you enter without interfering with what's going on in other rooms. It's also a nice place to keep strangers waiting without giving them the opportunity to poke around . . . I haven't looked completely at it yet, but thought it was interesting.

The Original Tombstone Generator

Just trying to get into the Halloween spirit . . .

This was sent in to one of my mini non-mini lists . . . The Florida Soap Opera

The story starts with rumors that Frances was married to Ivan but she
was seeing Charley on the side. Charley left her behind on his way to
Florida and she, quite angry, went after him.

Charley runs all over Florida while a very humiliated and furious
Frances, chases after him to exact revenge.

Ivan, who was meanwhile vacationing in the Caribbean, recovered his
energy and went chasing after Frances and Charley. Ivan's heart is
full of bitterness and vengeance as he menaces the inhabitants along
the Gulf of Mexico who all take to the hills.

We later find out that when Ivan was lolling around in the Caribbean
he seduced a young lady named Jeanne and then left her. Jeanne, who
now all hot and angry, chases after Ivan. She had just recently
broken her engagement to Karl and he, in turn, was looking around,
all over the Caribbean for Ivan and Jeanne.

Karl's young sister, Lisa, comes after him to try to help and protect
him from his own follies. She knows him well and tries her best to
keep him from getting into hot water.

Then Matthew, Lisa's boyfriend, takes to following her since he feels
he can't live without her.

Don't miss the next episode of As Florida Turns..to that effect,
please make sure you buy a generator so you can keep up with the saga
as it unfolds, even after the lights go off all around you...

Way too much rain today.

I went to work late and left early - I have completely lost heart for my job. I hate admitting it, but right now . . . go ahead, someone make me an offer.

Please.

Movie Review: Evita

Not many movies make me cry, but this one had tears rolling down my cheeks by the end. I suppose I didn't think about the combination of an Andrew Lloyd Webber musical and Madonna's splendid acting abilities. Very stylized, very passionate, very long. The clothing was beautiful. Madonna's dancing was not. I was rather disappointed - I thought she could do better than that!

Is this day over yet?

Crazy back and forth day at work. I couldn't get the Volunteers email to work, so had problems notifying everybody of the fact that we had to cancel the football taping. And it just dawns on me to have posted a notice on the web site. I kept getting interrupted by the phone and losing my train of thought while editing, so I can count on another two days of attempting to finish a project that should have been finished in March.

People keep calling me asking questions I technically don't have the authority to answer. I'm giving them answers anyway. (this is at home, too.) I hope I don't royally piss anyone off. Is it MY fault that people aren't around when other people need answers?

To my shock and amazement, they're painting the Insurance building on Station Street. It used to be tan with brown trim. It's now yellow with blue trim. I was bleary eyed and sinus-dazed when I walked to work this morning, and it refused to register for a moment that the building was changing color. (I certainly hope that they got an OK from the Town first - goodness knows the historical society will pitch a fit about historic buildings changing color!)

I think maybe tonight I'll take my cookie container, the movie Evita, some silk lounge pants, and hide out in my room. Possibly under the bed. For a few weeks.

I hate commercials.

Netflix has spoiled me utterly. I saw that Stargate was going to be airing on the Sci-Fi channel, so I decided to watch it. About an hour later, I gave up, and went upstairs to hang my new glass shelves (that I found for six dollars at Big Lots!) Every fifteen minutes - commercial break, three to five minutes long. The movie was going so slowly, and everything felt so chopped up, it just wasn't worth the time. I decided to just bump it up on my list.

I complained to mom about it later, and dad overheard the conversation. "What movie was it?" He asked. I told him. "Oh? I think I have that upstairs!" He goes to look, sure enough, there it was. On DVD. Unopened. Now sitting on my desk.

Beat THAT, cable companies.

Hey! I think I found a great recipe for me!

Elephant Stew
1 elephant
2 rabbits (optional)
1/2 pail peppers
2 pails salt
4 bushels onions
93 1/2 gal. water
6 pails flour
Cut elephant into bite-sized pieces. Cook over kerosene fire for
approximately 4 weeks, until tender.
This will feed about 3,000 hungry hikers. If more are expected, add the 2
rabbits; but do this only if necessary as most people don't like hare in
their stew.

There's nothing like the opportunity to put your studies to work. Mom wants to finish part of the basement. She's gotten all excited about these do-it-yourself carpet squares that she found online. However, before we can put carpet down, there's a lot of other things to do first. We went over a lot of ground to figure out just what needs to be done.

The first and foremost thing is to get rid of a lot of the junk down there. Fortunately, very little of it is mine. I would say it's mostly Erin's. She either needs to come get it, throw it out, or rent a storage unit. I wonder how much they cost? I wonder if I can give her one for Christmas?

Second would be to clean everything, Then seal the concrete floor. After that, put up walls. (walls are rather important!) This is probably going to be the hard part, as we also need to put up the studs for the walls. Dad did one wall a very long time ago, but that was as far as he got. We also have to work around the heating and AC units, the water heater, a few pipes, and two heavy metal supports. I drew up the floor plans and we sat and discussed possible places to place the walls. We finally came up with a solution that we think will work the best for the budget she has in mind. I keep coming up with great ideas for down there. I just wish they had the money for it. It'd be SO nice for her to have a nice craft room to work in, or at least store things in. As it is, I think this just turns out to be a room to send the guys to during holiday get-togethers.

She had some odd ideas. It was like she wanted to set up a finished room in the middle of the basement, so you'd come downstairs, be in the basement, walk over to a door and enter a finished room. I wanted to be able to go downstairs and right into a finished room, and then go through a door to the unfinished portion. It's all in the presentation, after all! There are a lot of possible solutions, I realize. I think we need to also discuss them with the builder, who will, most likely, be Andrew. The poor guy. I did warn him to run . . .

I hope it works out. This would be really nice. If it weren't for a certain pole in a bad place, I could have fit a pool table down there . . . *sigh*

I noticed my grandmother's car was gone when I went to pick her up to take her to get her hair cut. (they let her have a car, they just don't let her drive it.) So I asked mom where it was.
"Well, Christopher has it."
"Oookay . .
"Didn't I tell you?"
"tell me what?"
"You mean I forgot to tell you? I thought I had told you! How did I not tell you?"
"I'm still not being told. What happened?"

Apparently my not-always-thinking-clearly cousin managed to hit a telephone pole with his truck while trying to prevent his lunch from falling off the seat. He's ok, the telephone pole's ok, the truck will be ok after a thousand or two dollars in repairs. (I don't know what happened to the soup.) My aunt got to the scene before the police did and began to chew him out for being so careless. A policeman arrived, saw what was going on, laughed his head off, and wisely said very little. (I mean, really, what could he say that was any worse than what his mother was saying?) Fortunately, he wasn't charged or ticketed, but I'm sure that repair bill is going to be painful.

I can't help but consider eggs a sort of dangerous weapon in my house. I had half a dozen still in the fridge. The question was, how do I get rid of them, and soon? They're foreign food to me, I was too hesitant to try to cook them any other way. Dad suggested egging the neighbors. (I bet he was a REAL joy to live by when he was growing up.) So I decided - cookies! I took me a few minutes to find a cookie recipe with eggs in it, but the Toll House chocolate chip bag had a quite a good sounding recipe. It called for 3 eggs and 4 cups of chocolate chips - 2 cups of which were to be melted. I thought for a few minutes, then went to look in the small pantry. There, on the lower shelf, was the box Brian had given me last year for my birthday. The box that had contained two pounds of chocolate. I still had one pound left, as my braces had prevented me from eating the rest. I used a scale to figure out how much two cups of chocolate chips weighed, and then melted almost the entire bar.

I was a bit disappointed with how they turned out. I expected cookies with eggs in them to be a bit thicker. They turned out thin and almost exactly like the eggless cookies - which pleased Mom to no end. She's rather defensive about her eggless recipes, and often asks if they taste the same. I feel bad, though, all these cookies in the house that she can't touch.

So . . . does anybody want a cookie? Homemade? Loaded with chocolate? Gourmet chocolate at that?

Spent the entire day editing. Counting roughly one hour for the digitizing of the video, it took me about 6 hours to complete a half hour show. I had about 50 minutes worth of video to work with. Fortunately I didn't have to fiddle with the video or audio sessions this time! It's a little on the boring side, but I'm sure the people involved will appreciate it!

That's one project down, about three more to go. Thankfully Mike is editing Naturefest!

Movie Review: The Canterville Ghost (1944)

This happened to be on TV the other night, and I apparently never saw it all the way through. There was a fantastic swing dance jam right in the middle of it! It was all the more interesting because it was two male dancers, both very good. This movie, of course, was made back when actors had talent other than taking direction. People danced, played musical instruments, sang . . . it was great.

I don't particularly care for Robert Young. He looked too old and was too formal for the part of a wise-cracking soldier. Margaret O'Brien was adorable, but I think she had the same acting teacher that Shirley Temple had. I got the impression that she was a LOT smarter than she acted. The plot was very basic. The castle was beautiful, particularly in the entrance hall. There's nothing like Tudor architecture for a feeling of grandeur!

This was still a cute movie. Great for watching when you feel rotten and want something to pass the time that's enjoyable. When I did a web search for it, I found a quite a few different versions of the movie - all with different plots. I'll have to see if I can find Oscar Wilde's original short story.

Movie Review: The Last Samurai

Well, I wrote a really nice review, hit the wrong button, got shifted to another site, came back, and it was gone. GONE. As in, I don't even remember what I wrote, and I don't feel like trying to recall.

So if you want to know what I thought of it, you'll have to ask.

I have been wanting to scream all day. No particular reason, just feeling agitated.

So, here goes . . .

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGGG
GGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHH
HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

hmm. That didn't help.

My sister has great talent in photography. She now has ribbons to prove it!

She entered three photos into the photography contest at the Frederick Fair. She nearly didn't, and it took all of us pushing and then frantic last minute web searches to find a one hour photo near where she was driving. One, a photo of an orange butterfly on a green leaf, won first prize in its category. Another one won second prize, a photo of the Harper's Ferry firehouse, covered in snow.

Dad sent her tornado pictures to Weatherbug, where they were placed in their Hall of Fame and will be available for download for a year. (I haven't been able to find where this is, I'm assuming you need to download the program to access it?)

So congratulations to Erin! She deserves it, her pictures are fantastic.

Now, if only we can convince her to submit her scrapbook pages to magazines . . .

Sid Meier's Pirates! Home

While I greatly doubt this will live up to the original, I can't wait to see it! There's a lot to be said for 2D games.

It was a dark and stormy night.

Tornado warnings were issued, which means my mother went into her storm panic mode, turned on the tv to local weather reports, and started calling everyone she knew. She freely acknowledges that storms scare her, and she gets it honestly, passed down through several generations. I don't know how it skipped me. (it might have been annoyance at being woken up in the middle of the night to be told that if I was scared of the thunder, I could go in the basement.) I turned off the PC and went downstairs just to calm her down, and watched the news. Tornado sightings at Dulles. Manassas. Centreville. Ashburn. Sterling. Over NOAA. Brunswick, where my sister and her husband live. Mom frantically called my sister's cell phone, their house phone, and kept leaving messages in her panic voice. I kept telling her they weren't answering because they were in the basement. She finally Andrew's cell phone, who answered and said they were fine, they'd call right back. Obviously from the pictures below, they weren't in the basement. According to Erin, by the time they got home, realized what was going on, caught the cats and got them in a carrier, it was heading away from them. (Judging from the photos and what I heard on the news, I'm guessing it headed towards Burkittsville.)

We are not a tornado prone area. Hearing all these local town names in association with tornado sightings/touchdowns was just plain eerie. So was recognizing the shopping center in photage of the tornado in Centreville. It was fascinating and a little bit scary. I don't like hunkering down, I want to see and know what's going on. I contented myself with staring out the window at the sky, trying to figure out just what a tornado would look like and if I would recognize it if I saw it. For the most part, it wasn't windy where I was. It was much windier today!

I sincerely hope this weather trend doesn't continue into the winter.

Rescue Team Tops in province

WTG, Phil!

Photos of the tornado that passed by Brunswick, Maryland:

The Willowcrest is now back in the basement, where it was born. It was a high school graduation present, and I spent the following summer and part of the fall down there, putting it together and doing my first kit-bash when I enlarged the kitchen and bathroom. I had just joined my first miniature online group - Small Stuff, I think it was, and had been learning a LOT about different techniques for decorating.

I had wanted a house that looked like the beautiful victorians we drove by on our way to Harrisburg, PA, but with decorated in a contemporary style. It was going to be MY house, no dolls in this one, just stuff that I wanted to own life size. Of course, I dressed a modern doll, and then she took over the house, and both wove themselves into one of my stories. I'm not sure if I've forgiven her yet for that.

My favorite part of the house is the brick facade. The siding that came with the house warped horribly when I painted it, so I smeared wood putty all over the side of the house and drew lines in it to resemble bricks. Then I painted it. I was incredibly pleased with the results.

I wanted a big stained glass window over the tub in the bathroom. The first one was ok, but I wanted a bay window, and had to wait a few years before I felt confident enough to try it. It was only recently that I was finished that section of the house.

I had too many ideas, and only one house. The bedroom turned into a Pool room, and then a study. The attic went from an attic to a guest room to an office to a bedroom to a, well, you get the idea. I feel I'll be much better off sticking to room boxes. For now, I will finish the house, empty. Perhaps give it to my cousins, or to some neighbors. Possibly donate it to charity? Who knows. My other dollhouse will not leave my possession - it means too much to me. There's so much work to be done on it! At least this one has a definite theme! I've only one room completely finished in there - the kitchen. And considering I just stole the kitchen table for the shelf and haven't installed the doors on the bottom of the pantry, it isn't finished after all.

My room looks so bare now. I'm painfully aware that the only things hanging on the wall are a mirror and my Middle Earth Tapestry. I was thinking of using floating shelves to display the dolls I've finished. Now to go and find some . . .

Talk Like A Pirate Day - September 19

Avast! This is vitally important, mateys.

Book Review: Peter and the Starcatchers, by Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson

Have I mentioned one of my favorite books is Peter Pan, by James M. Barrie? Well, when I heard that Dave Barry (a favorite humorist) and another author had written a sort of prequel about him, I made a beeline for the library.

It's written simply, almost as if towards children. It describes how Peter ended up in the magical Never Land, and the adventures that brought him there. I was slightly disappointed with it, and expected a lot more from the mysterious wooden trunk. I suppose I wanted something more true to the original, or veer from the orignal completely and create its own story. Instead, they insist on creating each of the main characters, right there in their book. I would have done it differently. Heck, I would have dropped the trunk into the volcano and have it explode all over the island.

It was a cute read though. And pirates were in it! Don't be intimidated by the size of the book, I think the print's oversized, and the chapters are incredibly short. One of them was only a page long, including the chapter graphic.

My clutziness is growing worse.

I went to make an adjustment to the shelf and knocked the chess set off the edge.

The one inch scale chess set, with 24 chess pieces. Really TINY chess pieces.

Naturally, there is an air vent below the shelf.

You can see my predicament.

Miraculously, I caught the set in midfall. Fortunately, the game board is magnetic, so most of the pieces stayed close by. Upon resetting the pieces, I discovered that the white Queen and a rook were missing. Or it could have been the white King and a bishop. I'm not sure which piece is supposed to be what . . .

I stared at the set. I stared at the floor. I grabbed a flashlight and combed every inch. Finally, I pulled the grate up and dared a peek inside.

What do you know? it makes an abrupt turn under the floor. Lots of gross little crumbs and carpet fuzzies and who knows what else. And there among the grit is a flash of silver. My little rook/bishop. Not wanting to make any mistakes or knock it any firther down, I grab some mini wax and a small screwdriver and extract the rook. I soon find the Queen under a metal flap and extract her, too. Then I grabbed some fine black tulle (Providently handy) and threaded it carefully through the vent grate before replacing it. If I knock anything else that tiny off the shelf, the tulle should catch it. And I won't have another moment of near panic and sheer "DOH!"

The chess set has resumed its former place on the big bookshelf. Well away from the edge. And the vent.

Movie Review: Tombstone

A story about true friendship, brotherhood and revenge, set in the Old West. I highly doubt it was historically accurate, but I didn't feel up to throwing fits about nuances. So I was able to turn the brain off and enjoy the story and the actors. And such actors! Lots of famous people in this one, even Charleton Heston manages a cameo. I've read that they grew their own Victorian mustaches, which at first looked rather silly, but after a while it seemed to add dignity and ferocity to their faces. Val Kilmer played a great role, with a southern gentlemanly drawl, and a lackadasical air. His line, "A'm yer huckleberry" had me chuckling. I enjoyed the costumes, too, lots of detail, and I've always liked dusters and other such long coats. Lots of those in here. Overly dramatic? You bet? Do I care? uh uh. It was a long movie though. Possibly one I'd watch again.

Fall's my favorite season, but I appear to be allergic to it. Or perhaps it's just September I'm allergic to? I don't know. I've been in a dazed fog all day. I can't spell, I can't form sentences, I keep stepping and tripping on things, or knocking them over. I took a sick day and stayed home, only venturing out to pick up my Allegra. I slept, read and messed with a shelf on my wall, turning it into an archeologist type study. Or at least the start of one. My mind works on the visual abstract, there's only certain things I want to focus on. I can make a dollhouse look good and leave it empty, or I can design a room with no walls. Alas, I can't do both.

I like the shelf. I can finally display all the fun stuff I've acquired over the years, and figure out what to add to it. I even wired the lighting, using a roundwire system I had bought years ago and never used. Of course, all the lights I had I had, um, harveyed to attach to the tapewire system, which meant I had to harvey it back to the tapewire. (in HCTV terms, to Harvey means to juryrig something to make it work. Harvey's nickname is Dr. Solder, best known to get things to work using bubble gum and bandaids. *mutters about engineers for a bit*) They all light! Now that I see the layout, I may just go buy new lamps. I think I'd feel a bit better about it . . .

It was an Upstairs Downstairs kind of day. In other words, I spent most of it running up and down the stairs at work. First for normal Monday stuff, then because I suddenly realized that I had never reinstalled the HENS system or the PCAnywhere on the new BBS. It took a lot of angry words, hocus pocus and other such fun stuff before I could get the PCAnywhere to work. I no longer like the program. I keep hoping that the Board will install cat 5 cable down there so I can connect via the network, but that doesn't look likely anytime soon. Turns out PCAnywhere locks up your fast-login ability, so that you have to actually sign in. This completely defeats the purpose of the program for us. The computer is supposed to boot up and automatically launch the powerpoint show. It freezes, we should be able to dial in and restart the computer. Fortunately I found a solution that allows me to get around the problem. (VPN disabled the welcome screen.) Of course, as I sit here, it dawns on me that I don't HAVE a telephone modem on this computer. *bangs head against wall*

To add to the day, I nearly hit a mailman who was attempting to make a U-turn in the middle of an intersection. It's a bizarre intersection, as it crosses over another road at a curve, but the yellow lines lead you onto the OTHER road, so you're also merging at the same time. Fortunately I realized he was turning kind of wide, so I waited and watched as he quite calmly kept going and then ended up heading back the way he came.

So I get home and think, ok! I'll try to make an omelette before mom gets home! As it's cooking, it dawns on me that I really don't know what an omelette looks like, and that in my mind I'm picturing it more as some sort of turnover. I also don't know what finished cooked egg looks like. So I stand and stare and poke at the yellow glob for a while, watching it carefully, until I reach what I assume is finished.
It had the consistency of macaroni-n-cheese. I could NOT swallow it without that awful gagging sensation. (I know, it's highly embarassing, not being able to eat an american staple, but I can't help it, I've tried many times, it's just not worth the effort to make it go down.) So much for omelettes. I think maybe I'll let dad teach me how to make french toast next. Or hard boiled eggs. It depends on how hard they are, and if I can eat them.

I had to try.

I don't need a tv.

Every time I say I don't need something, I seem to end up getting it anyway. (Although technically, I still don't own a laptop.)

There's only two tvs in the house, one in the family room, one in the master bedroom. It's pretty much next to impossible to watch either one, particularly the family room. People are in and out all the time, It's incredibly annoying, especially when you're trying to work out to some exercise video. Then there's the commentary for movies and shows(what in the WORLD are you watching?).

I have a tv stand in my room - it can hold up to a 27" set. There's a dollhouse sitting on it, but this house can be relegated to the basement. It will never live up to my standards, no matter how hard I try to kitbash it. I mostly watch movies on my computer, but if I want to have friends over it's rather difficult to crowd around a 15 inch monitor sitting in the corner of the room.

It's something to think about. Something to save up for, too. :-x

Hi! I'm Elaine! I'll be more than happy to do the work that needs doing at work . . . but please, you have to TELL me that it needs to be done. If I were a mind reader, I would not be here.

So in the future, don't complain about shows not being aired because they were merely dropped on my desk the Friday night before the Saturday airing. I might be the HCTV fairy, but I don't live there. Yet.

Yeesh.

Movie Review: The Black Cauldron

Don't. Just don't. ;-)

At least Disney recognized it's awfulness by not releasing it until about 5 years ago. It was so bad I watched it speeded up just to get through it.

I've been told to read the book series by Lloyd Alexander and pretend the movie doesn't exist. It still sounds bizarre. I mean, an oracular pig?

I went to a bluegrass festival out in Lovettsville today. I partly went because I enjoy the acoustic instruments and the vocal harmony of bluegrass - particularly male vocal harmony. The main reason was because my mom LOVES bluegrass and doesn't get a chance to hear it often. (and dad was being a putz and wouldn't go with her.)

It was a very nice afternoon, with several groups of varying talents. It ranged from a local family to the Kingsmen, who have been around for many, many years. Surprisingly it was the Kingsmen I was disappointed with, as they brought a drummer and pianist with them, and only had one guitarist. Only ONE guitar? With bluegrass/gospel? At least the other groups brought mandolins and banjos. *sigh* I'm being nit-picky, I know. I just can't help but feel that bigger isn't always better. I loved listening to my relatives sing together at the last reunion, there's just something about family harmonics that's so beautiful.

The developers are circling my grandmother's neighborhood like vultures.

Apparently they've already been turned down by the town council to 'redevelop' the area into high density housing. So the developers decided to approach all the residents and see if they could be talked into it. If the people want it, well then, what's the town council going to say?

Judging from what my grandmother and mother heard at the meeting, they're roughly split down the middle. It's not a comforting thought. We had a hard enough time finding THIS house for them! My grandmother is considered below poverty level as she has next to no income. Fortunately she's given some tax breaks and I don't believe she's even on welfare. She's lived successfully on next to nothing her entire life. (I guess that's what you learned to do during the Depression.) However, we need to keep her close to us, and in a place that can accomodate my grandfather's needs.

Of course, sometimes I can't help but think that moving them might not be such a bad idea. Her backyard quickly turns into a swamp when the weather's bad. The extension to the house was built by the previous owner, who evidently didn't know what he was doing or didn't care. The tv reception is horrible. The sewer has backed up into the basement bathroom - twice. We've done our best, but there's always something going wrong with the house. They've had to make a few modifications because of my grandfather's wheelchair, adding ramps, a deck, a door, and a small outdoor elevator. They have land around the house, a good thing because they sort of need that buffer due to my grandfather's loud, random outbursts. (he can't help it.)

It was a good house when we moved them and my great-grandparents there about 8 years ago. I'm not sure what's going to happen at this point.

Web Design Tutorial: Color Concepts - Color Psychology and Web Safe Colors

Another page to look at when I get home.

Maybe I should just go home?

Waterford Homes Tour & Crafts Exhibit (Waterford Fair)

Note to myself to look at this site better when I get home.

So I wander into the ortho's office, with the mentality that nothing they did would be worse than my last visit, when they put those awful metal bands around my back, back molars.

Guess what!

"Oh dear, they're doing what I was afraid they're doing. They're making your bite too wide. We'll have to take these off and put different ones on."

"You hate me, don't you." She just chuckled and claimed she didn't.

Fortunately Ruth was much faster at replacing them than Iris had been. Iris had been anal retentive about keeping the tooth totally dry before cementing the bands on, Ruth just quickly passed a suction tube around them, while chatting about her upcoming trip to South America.

And I was so excited about the two pounds I had gained. So much for THAT. I'm just hoping it won't be the same misery I felt last time. In other words, I'm hoping I'll be able to eat.

AutoREALM - The Free GNU Mapper

I've found a new toy.

Dumbbells are heavy. I just thought I'd share.

Granted, when you've got one properly gripped in each hand, they're not bad at all. When you're trying to carry three around in a store, or in a bag, they're a real pain.

So. I now own a bunch of dumbbells. I claim to have already had a workout today just buying them.

Johnny Depp is portraying James M. Barrie in an upcoming movie.

From what I've seen of Depp, and what I've read about Barrie . . . I can't wait.

It's been a dazy sort of day, and it went by really fast. (is dazy a word? well, it is now!)

I should start a map featuring all the places my boss has been visiting this past year. Guess where she's going for two weeks in October? Go on, take a guess! I'll give you a hint, it's not in the US.

I got to meet the new arts council director. She looks to be about my age. I feel so sorry for her - it's a rough job. I hope she turns out to be vicious and well organized.

I mostly spent the day working on redubbing the audio for the infamous history show. I know very little about audio and all the seven hundred and three effects and filters you can use on it. All I am aware of is that the audio was not recorded on in stereo or on separate tracks, so the chances of my being able to separate the audio and the speaker's voices are nil. So! My solution? Redigitize all of the speakers and lay them over the current audio track. Turn down the current audio track. Turn up the newly digitized audio. It seems to be working well - I'm roughly halfway done. It's time consuming, as I have to go through 40 minutes of footage to grab the 3 minutes of speaking that was used for each section. Also, every once in a while I find myself unable to accurately line up the tracks and end up with a slight echo effect. I'm reluctant to redo the music, as I don't feel like going through our libraries to find whatever songs he used.

Let this be a warning to you - don't delete your finished projects until you're absolutely POSITIVE that you won't need it any more. The bigger and more complex the project, the longer you wait.

Movie Review: Hero

I'm ashamed to admit I didn't immediately recognize Donnie Yen, although I DID recognize that the person in the role was someone I knew and liked. The movie seemed to be billed as Jet Li film. I expected it to be like his directed films and was gearing up for lots of blood flying around. Instead of blood, the director, Yimou Zhang, used wind fans. Lots of wind fans. The actors billowed throughout the film.

In the movie, the characters compare swordplay to writing calligraphy. This movie was more calligraphy than swordplay. Everything was artistically done, from the way people fought (or didn't fight) to the colors the characters wore in each flashback. Scenery was just as important as the characters, rain falling during a fight scene, billowing silk banners, leaves swirling. There was a LOT of imagery. There was a lot of plot, too. It was almost like a whodunit mystery, as each flashback offered a different version of what happened.

It was hard to figure out who the antagonist was. The king was an intelligent if slightly paranoid man, but was perfectly calm as he sat and talked to his would-be assassin, accepting his fate and being very curious as to how his death was supposed to come about. The assassins believed in their cause enough to give their lives for it.

I was highly disappointed in the extensive use of wirework until I finally relaxed and accepted it as an anime film using real people. I enjoy watching swordplay just for swordplay, it's impressive and beautiful when well done, it doesn't need to add anything supernatural to it. I felt the arrows were overly excessive. If you see it, you'll know what I'm talking about. One arrow and a decent archer is all you really need. Heck, 12 mediocre archers are just as good. But WOOSH! It was a plague of arrows.

Lots of people tend to die in films like this. For us, death is a sad thing, but I think that it's supposed to be perceived as noble, heroic. It is not failure, merely finishing a job in this world and going on to the next. Their story ends, but it will be remembered and honored.

Actually got to talk to Mollie the other night. (sometimes insomnia is a good thing!) She seems to be doing ok, still planning on moving to CA.

I'd like to take a moment to state the Pepperidge Farm's Soft Baked Chocolate Chunk Cookies are really, really, really good.

I'd also like to state that even half cans of coke affect my ability to sleep. *sigh*

If you haven't seen J.K. Rowling's official web site, go check it out! I had a blast playing around on it this afternoon. The Flash portion of it is particularly impressive, even if the sounds get a bit repetitive. Fortunately she provides a text-only version as well, and a lot of good information about herself and her work. Can't wait for #6!

Thanks to everyone that helped me put my money panic into perspective. I'll be ok. I'll just have to be careful. And let mom give me that new red leather jacket to me for Christmas. Good ole Christmas. yup. Red leather jacket. I don't NEED one. I'll just drool all over it. Remind me to forget about it, ok?

My Dell rebate finally showed up! It will be headed straight for the savings account so I can use it to pay off the credit card. Yay! Money in the mail!

eBay item 5518356055 (Ends Sep-06-04 11:27:50 PDT) - Tupperwared Wind from Hurricane Frances

Don'tcha just love eBay?

Bad mail day. My car insurance has doubled. My health insurance has gone up nearly 20 dollars. It's bad enough they don't cover my prescriptions or most of any doctor bills. I feel I'd be better off taking that money and sticking it into an interest bearing savings account, and then drawing from it when I need to pay doctor bills, for all they help me through the year. *sigh* This is somewhat painful. I'm going to need to do something soon. At least I finished my resume. Now to see who I need to pass it to.

*beats mind with big stick until bizarre, upsetting and annoying dreams stop occurring*

Wow. I survived August! I stand amazed.

Ok, September . . . be kind.

Thursday, September 30, 2004

Wednesday, September 29, 2004

Tuesday, September 28, 2004

Monday, September 27, 2004

Sunday, September 26, 2004

Saturday, September 25, 2004

Friday, September 24, 2004

Wednesday, September 22, 2004

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Monday, September 20, 2004

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Friday, September 17, 2004

Wednesday, September 15, 2004

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Friday, September 10, 2004

Thursday, September 09, 2004

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Thursday, September 02, 2004

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