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January 2002 Archives

January 4, 2002

It's the little things in life...

We have a new paper towel dispenser in the bathroom at work. This may not sound like much, but for the past few months, we've been making to with a huge roll of paper towels on the counter. Not even sheets, just a big roll. You'd get your hands wet, then have to try and unroll paper with wet hands and tear it off. It was a mess.

Before that, our towel dispenser had a button and a lever on it. I don't know why, but you had to push the button in, then pull down on the lever. It gave you like two pulls of paper, which was nowhere near enough to dry wet hands. Maybe if we just ran them under the water and then shook half the water off, it'd have been enough. So you had to push the button and pull down on the lever again...

So anyway, we now have a new dispenser, with no button, just a lever. Ah, bliss.

January 8, 2002

I have a theme song

Julia, your theme song is Walking On Sunshine!

Your upbeat approach to life makes "Walking on Sunshine" the perfect anthem for you. We can see you dancing down the vegetable isle with your grocery cart, smiling at all the checkout clerks.

Oh dear. I don't know if this is really me or not. Ian says he can see it as mine, but I dunno...

It's past!

This is late, but it's still appropriate, methinks.

Sins of the Father has been shown! Thank the Lord!

FX has been advertising this movie since OCTOBER! Every commercial break on Buffy, which is on twice a night. I was SO ready for this to be over.

Don't get me wrong, I think the movie was important and probably a very good movie. But it was SO overhyped. They're even overhyping the replay next Sunday.

Sorta like the new iMac. It's cool, but not worth a week of hype on the front page of their website.

January 10, 2002

Yet Another Online Quiz

If I were a web "feature" you love to hate. I'd be:


Online Quizes!: I am everywhere. Wherever you turn, there I am. I wanted to be a shrink when I grew up. Now I have an AOL account. That's ok... The Inkblots gave me hives.

More silliness

Sea Green

This quiz says absolutely nothing about your personality. Take it!

Threes...

You know how they say things come in threes? Well, I've just had that proven right.

Earlier this week, I was asked if I was interested in helping moderate a mailing list I joined some months ago, the DM Advice list. It was mentioned on Role-Playing Tips' weekly newsletter. The moderators realized that they couldn't keep up since the advertisement had brought in a LOT of new members, so they asked me and one other person (another woman, actually!) to help them moderate. I took a few days to consider, since the list was in the middle of a flamewar at the time, but I said yes.

Then, today, I am replying to a message on evolt. One guy sees my reply, answers me offlist, and points to his own site, because he notes that I do a lot of role-playing and run a convention. So I check it out, and it's a cool gaming site. I'd originally thought it was computer games, and it does do some of that, but only in the RPG sense. The guy asks me if I'll write for him, and I say I'll consider it.

The third thing was not less than two hours later, I get an invite to be on the editorial staff of Dreamscribe, which is the newsletter/zine of Dreamlyrics, where I run my TBE game. I thought about this, but decided to decline the offer. I just don't want to start that up and then have no time to help out...especially if I want to get serious about my writing again (which I have been considering, and I really do want to...back in that groove again, I think).

I just have to find the frelling time to do it.

January 14, 2002

She wants to make sure you're okay, stupid!

Lou's home sick today. Said he has spent about 20 minutes awake, in increments, today when he called for me to bring him home some Sprite and N'ice.

Turns out Artemis wouldn't let him cover up his face. She's done this before. Any time Lou accidentally or purposefully pulled the blankets up over his face, she came over and reached out her paw and patted his face, or his head, or his hand. Basically making a nuisance of herself until he uncovered his face, then she's okay.

Annoying? Maybe. Cute as all hell? Sure. She wants to make sure her human is alive and well and BREATHING.

Deal with it, sick boy.

January 16, 2002

I got better...

Lou doesn't have strep. Yay! I have to go to his doctor's office this afternoon and get a note so he can go back to work tomorrow. I haven't had to have a doctor's note like that since I went back to school my junior year in high school, after I got the chicken pox. I still had some scars, but was no longer contagious. But the school secretaries didn't believe me, and I had to get a note!

I don't recall whether or not I actually went back to school that day after getting a note or whether, by the time I got it, I just stayed home. Sometimes, it was a good idea to go to a school that was 25 minutes away by car...

Evil is all relative

I am 34% evil.


I could go either way. I have sinned quite a bit but I still have a bit of room for error. My life is a tug of war between good and evil.

Do not want to go through Mines of Moria, as suspect Balrog still angry about bad date we went on back in Second Age.

Cassandra Claire has written very amusing "secret diaries" of the Fellowship of the Ring characters.

Be warned, they're slashy, though very funny. Don't take them seriously, and start at the bottom to get all the references.

Spotted on Dave's blog, though Cassandra's Harry Potter fanfic is a recent favorite of mine. I'm still not done with Draco Sinister, though I'm going slowly and savoring it, because I know that she's not done with the follow-up, Draco Veritas, yet.

Je suis le President de Burundi

Which Izzard Are You?

Surreal Izzard: You talk bollocks all the time, and don't care who knows it. You are King Pig from Hell, and talk to strange people on buses. Your underwear is consipring against you, and if James Mason was here, he'd have something to say about it. And that something would be WEEEEEEEOOOOOOOOOOEEEEEEOOOOOOOOOOOO.

January 17, 2002

Score!!!

Lou relented! I am getting a laptop!

Here are the specs, it's the 3000-S304 with WinXP Pro (ick). CDW is where I ordered it from, because Microwarehouse stopped listing it on their website, and PC Connection only had it bundled with a printer, and then it was "Call for Availability", alas. Would have gotten it direct from Toshiba, but they don't have them available. I figure they're going to roll out a new one or something.

Now I just have to wait for it to arrive. It's killing me already, because though it's listed as shipping "same day" on their website, it hasn't shipped yet! And I ordered it last night! So I emailed them.

Want. Laptop. Now.

And the two reasons Lou relented are 1) I might not be able to get the one I want because it looks like they're hard to find, and 2) He's next up for a new machine then, and he wants a TiBook. Heh.

January 18, 2002

Frelling delays...

My laptop has been backordered. I'm so pissed. I should have known though, when I got in touch with my sales rep yesterday, and he said that it was the absolute last one they had in their warehouse, and he hoped they could find the right box. I think he was giving me a warning, as best as he could.

I emailed him this morning, because I'm concerned that Toshiba has stopped making them. Asked him to give me an ETA, if he could.

I may try to talk Lou into taking me to CompUSA tomorrow. According to their website, they have the high end laptop model available in both of the stores local to us. It'd mean overall about $150 more, with tax added on top of that. No shipping, but I wasn't having it overnighted, so shipping wasn't as much as tax'll be.

If they have discontinued it (I really should email Toshiba), then I may just go to CompUSA and get the high-end model. That does it, I'm emailing Toshiba.

I was right!

They are discontinuing the laptop! I called Toshiba (no email contact on the site), and the guy told me they were bringing out the 3007 in a week or so. Who knows when it'll get down into the other channels.

So I've got to make a decision. I will have to Think On It. The new one has the Firewire port and everything else the others did, probably just has a faster processor or something.

Damn damn damn! Waited to frelling long!

Laptop update

I cancelled the order with CDW. The sales rep told me that there was an 1800 config that was identical to the 3000 I wanted, then I pointed out the lack of Firewire port, which he conceded.

I am going with Lou to CompUSA tomorrow, to actually get a LOOK at the thing. Figure out if I want it or not. Sony has a VAIO that has similar features with a similar price, so I may change my mind on the kind of laptop I want. But maybe not.

Grant pointed out that if I went up to New Hampshire, and bought the laptop at a CompUSA there, I wouldn't have to pay tax. And there is a store in Nashua. And I have Monday off.

So we may be visiting Jack on Monday, after a stop over at CompUSA! We'll see!

I did nothing that I wanted to do today to prepare for my game tonight. Well, I wing it anyway. I may just have that fortress be mostly open in the middle, with the rod right there. But first, Sana has to fight off the ghost...

January 21, 2002

Laptop delayed

Decided to wait on the laptop. See what Toshiba gets out in a few days or so, and if nothing comes, then I'll get the 3005. Or if I don't like the new ones, I'll still get the 3005.

...sigh... But I really really want one now.

Well, Lou says this about my feet...

Brrrr!


Which drink are you?

January 22, 2002

frell frell frell

I was asked today if we had a laptop available for a co-worker. He will eventually get a TiBook, but now he gets whatever we have available ready now.

Why does this bother me? Because the only reason this guy is getting a laptop is because my big boss said so. And my boss said so because the guy mentioned that he had another job offer, and was seriously considering it. So he gets a laptop, to take notes in meetings in this office, not because he's going to be traveling or anything. But because he's going to be in meetings to take notes.

And my PCD has still not gone up to Brown's HR because of the big boss needing to talk to our Executive Director.

That does it. I'm going to start looking for another job. Maybe if I get an offer, they'll work on getting me more money and a job description that actually says what I do, rather than one that says part of it.

January 23, 2002

LEGO just plain rules

I was sent this link from Myth, who got it from a mailing list we both used to be on (I unsubbed as it was too social for me). Anyway, it's just wonderful, though not yet finished. Be sure to look at the places, for the look "behind the scenes." Absolutely marvelous!

I was NOT this before

I took the Kingdomality test again. I took this years ago, when Anne first sent it to me. She's big into those online quizzes. :)

So I take it again. I took it a few weeks ago too. As I was the last time, I'm the Dreamer-Minstrel.

Your distinct personality, The Dreamer-Minstrel might be found in most of the thriving kingdoms of the time. You can always see the "Silver Lining" to every dark and dreary cloud. Look at the bright side is your motto and understanding why everything happens for the best is your goal. You are the positive optimist of the world who provides the hope for all humankind. There is nothing so terrible that you can not find some good within it. On the positive side, you are spontaneous, charismatic, idealistic and empathic. On the negative side, you may be a sentimental dreamer who is emotionally impractical.

When I first took this, I was SO not this type. Anne was this type. I don't recall what I was, and you can't see every possible answer. I think I was the shepherd, but I can't say for sure. I may have been the Benevolent Ruler.

I'll have to wait for Anne to get back from Florida, and see if she keeps all them old emails. Or look at home when I get there.

Weight Watchers weigh-in tonight. I was not that good this week. I really need to do better. I'd like to get down under 170, but I keep hovering between 175-178. Frelling annoying. Of course, if I actually stayed within my points range...

One more reason to switch

I've been thinking about moving to Movable Type for this blog, because it allows comments. I hate pop-up windows, so I'd configure it like gamegrene, so that you add comments on the individual link archive, rather than a pop-up on the main page.

So, while returning the original pilot tape to my new (well, semi-new) co-worker Paula today, in a burst of synchronicity I noted she had a Hello Kitty calendar, and she pointed out the Totoro picture as her desktop wallpaper.

And Ian IM'd me a link today, the Hello Kitty Has No Mouth, from which I also found the 101 Uses for a Dead Totoro. Of course, Paula has not seen Totoro, just had a picture from an old job, and now I must bring in the video. She must see Totoro. She also made me remember I still have the big stuffed Totoro in my closet, where his whiskers need repair. I'll have to figure out how to repair them and do it, then return him to a more prominent location.

So Paula's site is just way cool, using dhtml and all sorts of stuff with layers that makes me extremely jealous of her abilities. And she uses Movable Type, and knows the people who created it, so if I run into problems, I can run to her. So I just have to find the time to design the new blog using MT, and then import the old entries. I've got it set up in a hidden directory here for my writing, so it's not like I need a new install or anything. Just have to add another blog.

But first, I must figure out the templates, and how to make this look like I want. And maybe a graphic for the top header, instead of text. Hmmm.

Photoshop, here I come!

And by the way, I love BlogScript. I can type out my posts using TextEdit, and then copy the text, run the script, and it posts it to my blog. Hella cool.

January 25, 2002

Being sick sucks

...especially when your net connection is down. Ours was out from sometime on Wednesday (we only checked Wednesday night) until Thursday afternoon, so I was forced to sit at home and watch TV. And there wasn't much good on!

So I worked on balancing the checkbook a little, and going through the bills. I wasn't sick enough that I couldn't concentrate...otherwise that would have been frelling dren. And fortunately I'd loaded the last two chapters of Draco Sinister to my hard drive. Got tired of reading them online, so I copied and pasted them into TextEdit on the iBook. Now I could actually read them in bed!

So, I get the 'net connection back, read emails that have been piling up (oh, have to remember to switch the Amber Mailing List over to another account, or quit it, since mediaone.net is going bye-bye), and then I go back to download the five available chapters of Cassie's next novel, Draco Veritas, and then find out that there are fifteen more chapters to go! That she hasn't written yet! ARGH! Must Read Very ... S...L...O...W...L...Y...

How many googles does a googlewhack whack?

UnBlinking: Googlewhacking: The Search for The One. Courtesy of ***Dave. I'm annoyed, I can't find anything, but Grant finds a bunch right away, or at least ones that are only listed on word lists.

January 26, 2002

Cool tidbits and sundry

Wendi linked to me! She's a hella cool artist who if I won Powerball, I'd give her a ton of money to draw characters for me. And other art.

Sluggy Freelance was mentioned on Neil Gaiman's weblog. Sluggy's latest storyline looks to be an excellent one, allowing Pete to, as he puts it, stretch his narrative-art legs. I was getting worried...for a time there, it wasn't as funny or as compelling as it used to be. Maybe it was build-up to this, maybe it was minor burnout, maybe it was just a change in my humor tastes. But this new storyline is a bit more serious, and is also hella cool.

Plus, he noted in the header of the page my email to him about Sluggy being referenced in a Chicago Tribune online article! Okay, it wasn't actually mentioned in the article, but Sluggy was in the references at the end of the article, but it was still there.

Also, Paula mentioned me in her blog. I hate to tell her that I'm not currently residing in RI, though I work there. However, I am still an Aquidneck Islander at heart, since I grew up in Portsmouth, so that's okay. Hey, if we could find rent as cheap in RI as we have here, with as nice an apartment as we have and it was the same distance from our work and friends, we'd move.

Of course, with Paula linking here, this means that more coworkers might find my blog. Ah well, I'll just have to live with it. If anyone wants to talk to me about what I write in here, they're more than welcome to come by my office and talk to me.

I'm getting impatient for my laptop. I've gotten hooked on using a laptop with borrowing the iBook from work. With Lou playing Fallout Tactics on my desktop, I have to boot him off to check email and such. But I find that a pain, and not something I can bring myself to do often. Maybe it's just I don't like the desktop much anymore, maybe it's just I don't want to ask, maybe it's just me, I dunno.

So if Toshiba hasn't announced anything new by next Friday, I think I'll be calling CompUSA in Nashua, NH, and heading up to get the laptop.

Or, if they don't have them or I don't want the new one, I may go with a Dell or Gateway and pay the expense, since I can get the full version of Office XP when I buy from them, and the cost difference is really only the difference between getting the Toshiba w/o the software, and the Dell with it. But no Firewire. (sigh) I'm weighing whether or not it's worth it.

Worked on a graphical logo for the blog last night, and got one I really liked, but found it looked terribly sucky with the layout of the blog as I have it now. I may move to MovableType and experiment with their templates before deciding on a final version of the logo.

"Hope he tries something."

Cassie has new entries in her Very Secret LotR diaries. Merry's made me laugh hysterically out loud, and Gimli's (which I read a few days ago) had me from the Grr. Argh.

Lego Death Museum of Horrors

Okay, a few of these are just plain old sick, but I laughed hysterically at some others. Flash required.

Courtesy of surreally, which I found by being bored tonight and surfing some weblogs when I should be writing.

Can you tell I'm bored?

I'm doing the link thing, starting with my weblog, and then going to one of my friend's sites via the link on the side bar, and then following links from there to other blogs, basically click-surfing.

And I'm coming across all these little sick and twisted gems. Like this one on Melly's site. Ian IM'd me a link to her page some weeks back, with a very poignant blog entry about her father and her relationship with him.

Anyway, I love that frelling goldfish commercial. And some of the rhymes are better than others, IMNSHO.

January 27, 2002

Grissom, Chaffee, and White

It was 35 years ago today that Virgil "Gus" Grissom, Roger Chaffee, and Edward White died in the capsule of the Apollo 1. I hadn't even been conceived yet, but my parents were living in Huntsville, Alabama at the time, home to Space Camp now.

My dad worked on all the Apollo missions, and the Saturn missions before that, through subcontracting at IBM. We had all the Apollo mission patches on the wall when I was growing up, and some Saturn ones and a picture of a Saturn launch. Later, we had some Skylab patches, but I don't know if my dad actually worked on that or just got the patches.

My dad died on July 4, 1984, in the summer between my junior and senior years of high school. I had a French exchange student staying with me for a month or so that summer too, and this was about three-quarters of the way through her stay.

Looking back, I wish I'd gotten to know my dad better. He was a private man, not one for sharing (which is pretty surprising, since he had 7 children *chuckle*), and I was a kid, the sixth of the seven. He'd shown me how to change the oil on the cars, put the lights on the Christmas tree, how to navigate using the map on road trips, how to not step on my younger sister when she was sleeping in the bean bag chair (the one and only time I can remember being spanked).

But I never asked him what he did at his job, or if I did, I don't remember it. We rarely talked; it just wasn't his way, or mine at the time. I've picked up one of his bad habits - we used to have to stand in front of him and the television to tell him that dinner was ready if Mom asked us to; shouting never mattered. He'd tune us out and only breaking his view was the only way to catch his attention. I do that now, though not just with TV, with anything that has my attention at the moment, even my own thoughts.

I wish I had gotten to know him better. Asked him about the Apollo missions (I know what part he worked on - in all those "view back at the Earth" shots where the huge black ring spins away -- the instrument section -- that was what he worked on), about what he did as an engineer for IBM, working on the Trident submarines (the reason why we moved to Rhode Island, he worked out of the Navy base in Middletown). He was smart and talented and my father.

And I miss him terribly.

January 28, 2002

...drool...

Apple has introduced new G4 Towers.

So I called Kate, got the specs, and we're getting two. One for her, one for me.

Not the new dual 1GHz, alas. Too expensive for our budget. But the 933MHz, which comes with the SuperDrive. I want to be able to burn CDs without having to boot into OS 9.2.2, which I have to do because I'm using an external SCSI burner, and the support for SCSI in OSX is pretty minimal, and Toast isn't quite there yet either. I swear Toast worked fine, and then one of the updates to OSX broke it.

Whatever. Hopefully before I go on vacation, I'll have one of these babies in my hands.

January 29, 2002

YAOQ

This one I found via Wendi, who found it via Dave.


Take the What

animal best portrays your sexual appetite?? Quiz


How can I get in touch?

Paula pointed out that nowhere on my website do I have my email address displayed. I went and checked, in disbelief, but she is right. Unless you browse all of my pages, wherein you'll find it in the TBE section, it ain't there.

But I don't want to put it out there for the spam harvesters. I get enough, thankyouverymuch.

So, I have posted it, spelled out, at the top right here. Non-clickable. But it's there.

Sorry about that, Paula!

I also added in a forwarder for julia at sfad dot org, since that's my directory here. I decided to go with julia for the directory rather than glyneth at some point, I forget where. But it's all there now, and would be a mess to move. So there it stays.

I also added in a pop mailbox for my honey. With AT&T Broadband having to give up the mediaone.net domain as part of the buyout settlement, it just makes more sense to use our own domain for email addresses, and never having to change them again if we move.

Now I just have to get him to start converting over. That should take some time.

January 30, 2002

YAOQ 2

See which Greek Goddess you are.

Courtesy of ***Dave, who didn't take it, but his wife did.

He's leaving, on a jet plane...

Ian just told me he's going to Hong Kong for two weeks. Grandmother's 85th birthday party. And hey, if you're going halfway around the world, why not take some time and browse?

Of course, we'll be in Vegas for a week during that time as well. So fun vacations all around!

Watched Buffy on FX (The Wish!) and Buffy on UPN and Smallville on WB last night. Will find time today to post about them on my new pop culture blog. If not today, tonight.

Busy busy today! Web server won't keep serial number, so won't stay running. Have put Kate onto it. Hopefully She Will Find Solution.

Also have to Set Up iBook lab. Have reformatted mine own iBook. Much gnashing of teeth, but it is Not Really Mine. Gives more impetus to get Toshiba this weekend.

And Really Must stop Typing This Way. Have been Reading V. Secret Diaries too Often.

Attack of the Clones

Supposedly someone got a script and posted a review, which says it kicks serious ass.

We'll see.

YAOQ 3

Though I should know how bad it is when I have to clean up the pre-generated code to make it accurate....(sigh)

The Eighties Pop Act Test deems me:

70% Eighties Pop Act

You are U2: You moved well beyond the eighties, you have grown into a person ready for this millenium. But your best work was still the Joshua Tree. So watch 21 JumpStreet reruns.

January 31, 2002

Blog geek

I hadn't put this up because I wanted to edit the screen capture. I didn't know they'd fixed the OSX capture until I tried it (Command+Shift+4 works again! Still no Command+Shift+CapsLock+4 though) today while doing something for work (really! I did work today!).

Anyway, last week I went to Blogger and noticed that my blog was listed in the most recently updated blogs listing! You don't know what this means to me. My little itty-bitty blog, listed on that front page. Oh yeah, probably for a minute, and I've never caught it before or since, because it scrolls so quickly. But I did a screen capture, and here it is, in all its glory.

Go me!

About January 2002

This page contains all entries posted to Society for Aesthetic Deletions in January 2002. They are listed from oldest to newest.

December 2001 is the previous archive.

February 2002 is the next archive.

Many more can be found on the main index page or by looking through the archives.

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