Society for Aesthetic Deletions

Apple's new iTiVo device.

Look at that high-tech shine! Look at how simple and easy to use, just like Macs!

Look at the date!

Courtesy of TidBITS.

I have been eating the chocolate eggs that folks brought in as leftovers from Easter all morning. Admittedly, I've only had three of those candy-coated milk chocolate eggs, one peanut M&M, and three of the Nestle Nest Eggs (one each-Krackle, Peanut Butter, and Caramel), but they are filling.

I have a Salisbury Steak WW meal heating in the microwave. I love Salisbury Steak (though the real one is my preference, not the WW version). But I just can't get enthused.

Too much chocolate.

Won't stay the same at WW this week, methinks.

TheForce.net Is now N*SyncFanForce.net!!

Courtesy of Ian.

Google Technology. Wonderful article explaining just how Google is so quick and accurate.

All these slooflirpa articles are hysterical. I especially love Think Geek's take on it, especially this one.

I'll try not to post any more. Unless they're REALLY good.

Courtesy of ***Dave.

[oops, forgot to publish this...]

Nothing really much to blog about, alas.

I was going to try to find some good links to the Cranston situation, but the Providence Journal, aka the ProJo, didn't have any really good summaries.

Ah, here's one. Not so much a summary as to how they got themselves mired in this, but a good look at the shit that's going down in the wake of it all. I'm glad I don't live in Cranston, myself.

Tried to lure the Husband out to lunch today, being the "Voice of Evil." But I waited too long, he was in Warwick, and didn't have time to come back and pick me up. Maybe later in the week.

Okay, folks, here's a chance to Par-Tiss-a-Pate!

(yes, I know it's spelled wrong...it's supposed to be that way!)

I'm going to be doing a redesign of this site, most likely going to a tabled format. I don't like doing this, but I do like Netscape readers to be able to view the page without it being a horrible mess. Of course I do know of only one Netscape user...

Anyway...do you like comments to be available in pop-up windows? I personally hate 'em, which is why I don't have them on this blog. But if people aren't commenting because they have to load a whole new page, I'll put 'em in.

If you're not commenting because I say nothing worth commenting on, just ignore the above. I don't really care. Really. :)

There was more I wanted to say, but my watch just told me it's time to leave work, and my husband awaits downstairs! Lata...

I have Breakfast Club in 10 minutes (monthly gathering of everyone who's in at work to have food and talk about birthdays and promotions and babies...social stuff).

At 10:00, I have our two-hour monthly tech division meeting.

At 1:30, I have a two-hour Introduction to PHP class.

Following that, I may go see my former co-worker Brian, and/or head to the mall for some new books to read.

Then it's Weight Watchers weigh-in, followed by a fattening dinner somewhere.

Which does remind me of one thing I wanted to blog about...

Weight-loss costs now deductible. You need to keep a seriously itemized list, and be at least 30 lbs. overweight to qualify. And be under a doctor's care. But hey, it's a start.

How to pack a hippo and how not to move a gorilla.

The amusing note about moving Pet Rocks above the gorillas is great. Remember, the latter is completely under the "pets" category!

It appears that a publisher in Japan has contracted with Harlequin to manga-ize (is that a word?) some of their older novels into graphic novel format. They appear be doing contemporaries mostly, however they've announced a first dip into historicals with The Devil Earl by Deborah Simmons. No idea on release date yet.

You can see samples of previous ones here. Be sure to scroll across the panels - one in each scan has an enlarged version.

Okay, I've re-added the popups for commenting back in.

I've also changed the excerpt length to a more manageable one. Sorry, Morbus. It also means that anyone who's syndicated me will only see the tiny excerpts. (heh)

And I've re-arranged the blog links. They are alphabetical now, don't read anything into them (and yes, ***Dave is alphabetized by Dave, not by *). I've added a new one, What She Really Thinks. I've removed Anadandy's LiveJournal at her request. Now that Too Flattering Sweet is up and running on MT, she'll not be using Live Journal much anymore.

Heh. Yet Another Convert. Now to get Lisamarie to join us...

The major redesign is still forthcoming, probably over the next few weeks. Or longer. The new logo is almost done, which is a big chunk of the new design.

I also picked up five books at the mall yesterday. Once I'm done reading them, I'll be posting reviews in Pop Goes the Culture!.

I was relating a tale to Paula via IM today (thank the $dieties for Fire) that happened earlier this week.

I was at my boss Kate's desk, leaving her a note as she wasn't in. A co-worker came by, someone I'm friendly with (okay, I'm friendly with everyone, I'm just more friendly with some), and she was looking for Kate. Noting that I am not she, I agreed with her. Then she added, "You're like Kate..." to which I responded with, "Only less gay!"

Said co-worker looked at me in astonishment. One of those, "Did she just say what I THINK she said??" looks, still smiling, but obviously taken aback.

I laughed, and kept on writing my note. I later related the story to Kate, who laughed with me, and asked me how surprised the aforementioned co-worker had looked when I had said that.

In talking to Paula, she lamented that everyone is so mercilessly PC these days that simple jokes between friends can get blown out of hand by those who aren't in the same social circles. I told her to blog about that, but she declined, saying that she's gotten enough grief from the tom+cruise+braces people, amongst others, that it just isn't worth it.

Now, that's sad...not being able to speak your mind in a weblog because of what the few loonies will say to you, either in your comments or in email.

I told her she's just too popular. It's things like this that make me glad I don't have a ravening horde of fans, reading my every word. It makes me glad that I have maybe a comment a week. It also makes me glad my husband doesn't read my weblog, or even really care about it. If I got nasty emails/comments, it'd drive him crazy.

I think he prefers the ignorance. So do I sometimes, so do I.

1. What are the first things that you do in the morning to start your day?
I wait for Lou to get out of the bathroom, giving me usually about another 10-20 minutes to lay about in bed. Then I'm up, bathroom stuff, getting dressed stuff, putting the sugar in the tea, grabbing the travel mug and lunch and purse, and out the door with hubby. He eats breakfast at home while I get ready, and I eat my granola bar/cereal bar at work as I begin to read the morning's email, and occasionally weblogs.

2. What are the last things that you do at night before going to bed?
I shut off the laptop or turn off the TV, hit the bathroom if needed, change into my pajamas, fix the sheets/blankets if Lou's hogging them in bed, chase Artemis out of my side of the bed (she's taken to keeping Lou company while he reads, before I come to bed), climb in, and grab my latest book. I also set my alarm. My getting in bed to read is Lou's cue to turn off his light, put his book down and take his glasses off and go to sleep. We both have no idea why he does this, but 90% of the time, when I get in bed, he stops reading within minutes and goes to sleep. I read for a time, depending on book and tiredness, then off come the glasses, off goes the light, off comes the extra pillow behind my head (placed beside the bed), and I attempt to sleep. I am usually successful.

3. What daily routine have you recently added to your day?
No clue. I'm old-routine (like taking off my shoes when I enter the house), not really new-routine. Though with the cats, who greet us at the door, Lou and I pick one up (I usually get Beana, Lou gets Missy), pet them a bit, let them groom each other, then drop them and do a cat-switch.

Though, now that I think about it, Lou has made a concerted effort to greet me with a hug when we are actually inside our apartment, after divesting ourselves of coats and backpacks and such. That might be considered a new routine.

4. What routine do you wish you get rid of?
Shouldn't that be got rid of? Want to get rid of? Anyway...

I wish I didn't have to get up to go to work in the morning. But don't we all? Okay, almost all of us...

No, there really isn't something I'd like to get rid of. At least, not that that I can think of at this moment.

5. What's the one thing that makes you feel like something is missing if you don't do it some point within your day?
See my husband or the cats. When we go away for a weekend or something, I miss seeing the cats. It helps that I'm in a different setting, so I'm not expecting to see them. But when going to bed, I sometimes expect to hear and feel a cat jump up at some point, looking for attention.

And Lou goes off to an Addiction Studies conference for a week each year, in June. I get out of routine when he's not around. Though I like the time to myself, I do miss him. Though he has had internet connections at 2 out of the 3 colleges where the conference is held, and bringing his laptop allows us to communiate via IM.

Friday Bonus: What are your plans for the weekend?
My plans? Oh, thanks for asking!

Anne and I are doing another Chow Yun Chat tonight, but I have asked that one of our activities be watching Farscape. Saturday will be spent avoiding the Feng Shui'ers that invade the apartment, and doing the game book and reg form for The Black Road, which shouldn't take too long, really. Then writing some checks, doing laundry, and maybe going to see LotR:FotR again. Though I could do that on Sunday if Lou was interested.

I've also started playing FFX on my own, since Lou is entranced with EV: Nova, so no doubt some time will be spent with that.

And plotting my evilness for ATF next week. Oh yeah, and writing the summaries for the last three sessions. I've been a major slacker (sigh).

You're an insane pyromaniac- complete with devoted minions and sexy shadowy armor.† Yeah, you're pretty damn evil, but when people think of you, they seem to notice your insanity prior to your mad evil skills.

Great. I'm Dilandau. Gives me more reason to watch my newly arrived Escaflowne - Betrayal & Trust (Vol. 2) this weekend, baby!!

Courtesy of Blogatelle.

KODAK: Taken On The Road-American Mile Markers

New York City: A Ford engineer rigs his camera to his odometer, and clicks the shutter at every mile marker. 6 days later, he arrives in San Francisco. Pretty cool. Some boring pics, some blurry pics, some cool pics.

Courtesy of Anne.

I'm really getting frelling annoyed by losing posts in the MT box. It's not MT's fault, it's mine.

I really wish I knew enough Perl to be able to hack BlogScript/mt-xmlrpc.cgi to include titles. Categories are optional, but would be nice for some of my blogs.

ANYWAY...

I was out from work yesterday, hence no blog entries. Just wasn't feeling well, so took the day out to rest up sleep in. Maybe it was the time change, I don't know.

Sunday, Lou and I went out and dropped lots of cash, after eating a nice breakfast out with our friend Pat. Lou reminded me that I wanted to get Virtua Fighter 4, but I have a feeling he was really thinking of getting Jedi Knight II: Outcast, which he'd heard was out on Saturday.

So we went to Toys 'R' Us first, and grabbed Virtua Fighter 4. Then he wanted to go looking for a specific Spawn figure (She-Spawn), and so we went to the mall. Where we promptly bought JK II: Outcast, Heroes of Might and Magic 4, and a Neon Genesis Evangelion figure for me from EB, and then to KB Toys to get the She-Spawn for him.

Of course, in the car on the way home, I check the specs for JK II: Outcast. Hmm...my processor is fine (P2/400 required, I have a P3/450), but my video card is not. Well, we'll just see if it works. My card may be supported, but not on the list, because it says others are supported on their website.

One guess what happened after Lou installed.

So he suggests returning it, and I suggest buying a new video card. We don't need to get top-of-the-line, since I'm using the laptop as my main machine, basically giving him my desktop machine for his gaming needs (those he can't get on the Mac, or just doesn't want to wait for a Mac version of). I tell him it won't be that expensive.

And I start to research, starting obviously with the ones listed on the box. I have a few scary moments, until I realize that my AGP 1x slot can use higher AGP cards (at least, according to some of the websites out there). Then I turn to eBay. I see an auction for a Matrox Millennium G450 card, dual-head (ooh, with a $10 cable I can do video out to a TV!), and it's only $73. PCConnection wants $115. I figure, I'll go as high as $90, with $5 for S&H, that's still $20 cheaper than PCConnection, and the eBay auction is a new card, shrink-wrapped and everything.

I place my bid, and an hour later, I have my card for $83.06, plus $5 S&H (I skipped getting the $3 insurance). It should be here by the end of the week.

Lou and I beat each other senseless with VF4, having a lot of fun punching buttons (who does tutorials? Who reads the books to learn the combos? Not us, at least not at first!) and learning new things. He whips the pants off me at first, and I'm determined that we each play the same character until we've both won one match. I have a lot of trouble with my fave, Sarah Bryant, beating his Vanessa, but eventually I do, and we move on until we've played everyone once.

Then I start playing Blitzball. Yes, I've started playing FFX, and my poor team hasn't won a game yet. We've tied twice -- but I may go back to my previous save, which doesn't have all those terrible losses. I forgot to get an item in an area, and want to get it before I'm forced to move on.

I'm having a terrible time with two of my forwards in Blitzball. Lou had a much better time of it with his team. But damn, if my goalie and one of my defenders aren't the highest levels of anybody! I may need to trade out my forwards if I can't get them up levels, and techniques. (sigh)

I also finished reading an anthology of romance stories last night, and when I have a few minutes, I'll review it on my popblog. Now I can get back to finishing I Dare!

Lou woke me up this morning, too. I was having the oddest dream, and he asked if I was okay. As I was waking up, I realized that I had heard a noise from the area of my stomach, but I ignored Lou and hoped he'd think I was asleep. Then he moved his leg into mine, and I had to ask what was up. He asked again if I was okay, and I said yes. Turns out my stomach had been making the strangest noises this morning, loudly and quite a few times. Lou had forgotten to set his alarm, but my stomach was able to fill that task, it appears. My alarm was set and would have gone off in a few minutes anyway.

Well, gurgling still beats his talking in his sleep. Though with us on the same sleep schedule the past few years, I haven't heard anything really amusing in quite a while. My friends know of the two phrases that were the most memorable, and keep reminding him of one on occasion.

But I won't post them here. He'll be terribly embarrassed. Even if he doesn't read the blog.

Cybersmut and Debt Undermine Penthouse

(New York Times article, free registration required)

Wow. What will I do for my porn when Penthouse goes? Curl up in bed with a laptop with a 'net connection and go trolling alt.sex.stories.moderated? Or the archive?

And what will happen to the Penthouse Letters??

Why doesn't anyone think of the CHILDREN??

(oops, sorry there, got kinda lost...)

Courtesy of ***Dave.

Oh great...just what the addiction needs.

Of course, they'll still need to work around that whole pesky keyboard thing. But you will/can be able to buy one (and a mouse) when you get the broadband/hard drive adapter.

But does this mean that Linux users won't have to boot into Windows to play the game finally?

Courtesy of Slashdot.

Mariah as laid her first egg!

The above link will take you to the four views site, but this is a picture of the egg.

Courtesy of Wendi.

WARNING - this post may not be for the faint of heart. Read at your own risk.

A New York Times magazine article, entitled Power Steer, details the life of a cornfed Angus steer. A journalist bought a cow, and followed its progress through to the slaughterhouse.

I think it's worth a read by anyone who likes beef, which I do. A few quotes:

We have succeeded in industrializing the beef calf, transforming what was once a solar-powered ruminant into the very last thing we need: another fossil-fuel machine.

I hadn't realized this. The cows are cornfed, that I realized. But the chemical fertilizer used on the corn is created using a heck of a lot of oil, 1.2 gallons for every bushel.

We are what we eat, it is often said, but of course that's only part of the story. We are what what we eat eats too.

A good thing to remember. Read the article and take note of the amount of antibiotics our cornfed beef need to be on to keep themselves healthy on a diet of corn. Hormone therapy is another issue.

This article won't make me give up meat. I love a nice medium steak just as much as I did before I read the article. But now I'll take a look at the local supermarkets, start comparing the prices of grassfed beef (when I can find it...though there are some local "healthy" stores I can look at), just to see.

Lou and I don't eat meat that much at home...usually hamburger. Maybe once every other month, we get steaks for our George Foreman Grill. At that rate, we might be able to afford the higher cost.

I have a friend who gave up eating meat, partially out of reading some propaganda informational material on slaughterhouses from his pro-environmental sources, and convinced his brother to do the same. The article also has a description (though not from the journalist, he was not allowed in that room) about what happens to the cows in that room. What I found most interesting was the person who designed the room is autistic. She said he helped her "think like a cow." And the industry has embraced her ideas, though mostly out of their own self-serving practices.

Hmm...now that I think about it, I'm reminded of a show I saw on Animal Planet, about the eating of dogs in some Southeast Asian countries. And how supposedly, dogs seeing other dogs being killed before them gave the dogs a rush of adrenaline, which according to connoisseurs, sweetened the taste of the meat. The show, by the way, was condeming the practice, and not promoting it.

What is sacred cow to some, is dinner for another. I guess that's what I'm trying to say here.

Courtesty of ***Dave.

I was given a Trivial Pursuit-a-day calendar this past Christmas. I would have preferred a Far Side-a-day Calendar, especially since this is the last one they're doing (sob!).

Anyway, yesterday's question was one to which I most definitely knew the answer. I'm generally pretty good at trivia. Actually, I'm pretty good at many non-strategy board games.

But let's see how you do. Today's Trivia Question comes from the SN category, which as diehard Trivial Pursuit fans know is the Science and Nature category.

What's the most frequently ingested mood-altering drug?

Get the answer by clicking MORE, but if you want to guess, feel free to do so in the comments.

So, I took The Desert Test...

Based on Japanese Archetypes the desert represents a hardship. Each of the animals represents an aspect of your life. The order in which you sacrifice the animals might be said to represent the importance of these things to you. The one that you sacrificed first is the least important, and the one that you kept is the most important.

1 You sacrificed the Lion. The Lion represents pride.

I sacrificed the lion because I thought he'd eat all the other animals first.

2 You sacrificed the Monkey. The Monkey represents your children.

I don't have any children. I sacrificed the monkey because he was useless baggage.

3 You sacrificed the Sheep. The Sheep represents friendship.

I sacrificed the sheep because the other two could still help me. And the sheep would have been terribly hot under all that wool.

4 You sacrificed the Cow. The Cow represents basic needs.

Sacrificed the cow because one can't ride them very well, and it was probably out of milk by then.

5 You kept the Horse. The Horse represents your passion.

Duh! I've been riding the horse all along!

Like Anne, I put way too much thought into this, methinks...

Courtesy of Anne.

So You've Decided to be Evil

Favorite bits? The Spammer Career for Evil-Doers. The Religious Right as Henchmen. The maps for the Underground Secret Headquarters of Doom.

Courtesy of Ian, who hasn't blogged about it but IM'd me the link yesterday.

Spelling Test

I missed six.

* desiccate

* minuscule

* inoculate

* sacrilegious

* supersede

* irresistible

(sigh) I was just telling Kate yesterday that I won a spelling bee back in 7th grade, which was taken away from me when the other learning centers protested that we had had some of the words as vocabulary words. We had another bee, and I came in 3rd.

I couldn't spell the word "seamy." I lived a pretty white-bread life, and had no idea, even when the word was used in a sentence, what that word was.

Heh. Now I know.

Courtesy of ***Dave.

1. What is your favorite restaurant and why?
Hmm...tough call. I'd have to go with Little Chopsticks, on Smith Street in Providence. They have the best Chinese food I've eaten, and they're friendly and good to Lou and me. When we were dating, we'd meet for lunch every Friday there, as we both worked in Providence. It was the person who got paid that week who picked up the check. We continued that until I started working at St. George's, in Newport.

2. What fast food restaurant are you partial to?
Fast food? Hmm...I am partial to Subway. I also love McDonald's, but they're much too greasy. And though my favorite ever was Kentucky Fried Chicken (now KFC), I just can't eat it anymore. I spend an hour in the bathroom afterwards. No good. (sigh) I miss Extra Crispy (not Extra Tasty Crispy) chicken.

3. What are your standards and rules for tipping?
Having worked as waitstaff, I reward good service, over-reward excellent service, and under-reward mediocre service. In MA, our tax is 5%, so we can triple the tax easily to get the right amount, but I never do. I divide the bill by 10, then divide that in half, and add the numbers together, adding or subtracting for excellent/mediocre service. And I don't usually remember to cut out the alcohol.

4. Do you usually order an appetizer and/or dessert?
One or the other. Since WW, gone are the days wherein Lou and I could order separate appetizers and separate desserts, and eat them all. So depending on our mood and what restaurant it is, we'll get an appetizer to split and skip dessert, or skip the appetizer in hopes of having room for desserts, split or individual.

5. What do you usually order to drink at a restaurant?
If I'm in the mood for alcohol (and depends on the meal), I'll get White Zinfandel or Merlot. Otherwise, it's usually Diet Coke and water. On rare occasions, I have a mixed drink, usually something fruity that's a speciality of the restaurant.

A second one appears.

I'm so excited. I'm hoping she'll lay at least one more before starting the incubation.

My friend Jenn Jackson asked if I was willing to play in her play-by-email game. I have been thinking about it for a while, and finally mentioned to her at my last WEF session that I've been meaning to email her about getting an invite.

Of course, she finally emails me when I'm in the middle of a creative drought, having to make up a new character for a new game (since we all died in that Monday game), having a vague idea for an Amber game (that won't take place now, since I was the only one interested), the character for the letter game blog with Anne, and now this game.

So I talked back and forth with her in email a little bit, then basically dropped it. I had too much other stuff to concentrate.

Then, another person asks me to join his PBeM Amber game...

Well, on the way back from breakfast with Anne and Tim and Will, a word came to me. It may be because of playing Final Fantasy X...the taunts of "hornless" to poor Kimahri made me hear the words that spawned a 1,800+ word background all starting with the word that echoed in my head.

Treeless.

For a person whose society is based around trees, tree cities, and such, being treeless would be very bad.

I was 3/4s of the way through the background before he had a name.

Sometimes, creativity strikes, and we must follow the muse. If I had given in to my impulse and played FFX, Saelin would never have been born. At least, not in the way he was today.

I really need to follow that writing muse more often. Otherwise, she gets terribly lonely.

Even if that means I still haven't watched Friday's Farscape.

Which Member of the Endless Are You?

Courtesy of Doyce.

If I were a sappy movie ballad, I would be I've Had the Time of My Life from Dirty Dancing.

Creating a renewed interest in dancing, I successfully led middle-aged women everywhere to part with their husbands hard earned money.

What sappy movie ballad are you?

Courtesy of Doyce, though seen on ***Dave's and Anne's sites before succumbing at the cave.

The third egg has arrived.

By the way, if you want some more BirdCam fun, check out Shaky's Archive Viewer.

Monday Mission

Like Anne, I'm doing this because I wanted to answer some of the questions, but it may not become a regular thang...

1. What caused your last case of psuedo-road rage?
I don't drive all that often. My husband prefers to drive, so I let him. We have occasionally silly times where we race to the car to see who's going to drive. So I drive maybe once a week, which means I really can't recall the last time I got pissed at a driver.

2. Tell me about one of your favorite television shows that was cancelled (past or present).
Hmm...

I went through this phase, back in the 80s, where whatever show I was watching and loved with all my heart, would be cancelled. So I started watching things like the A-Team, just to get them cancelled. Didn't work, alas.

I have no memory for this stuff. I was disappointed that Invisible Man got cancelled, but Lou and I had stopped watching it before then. I am enjoying the reruns of Now & Again on Sci-Fi, but I didn't watch them on network TV. I recall being upset when Square Pegs got canned. I recall being really upset when Spy Game and Strange Luck were bagged. I'm still cheesed that Batman Beyond is gone, though moving it off of Saturday mornings to weekday afternoons meant I didn't see much of it.

3. Have you ever gone online and pretended to be someone else? What's the story there?
No, not really. I do have a hotmail account I have told no one about, and use it for two specific mailing lists, which do not have my real name on them. And no, I will not talk about them with you.

In my early days online, back when I was on local BBS's, people (read guys) didn't believe I was a woman. We all finally met up at the people's house from where the BBS was run, and then they began to believe.

4. What was (is) one of your favorite Children's books?
The Black Stallion series. I read and reread and reread them all the time. Have them all somewhere still, I think.

5. Can you recommend a CD (tape or otherwise) for me to listen to on the drive home?
For me, driving home is relaxation time, and many times it's no-words-to-music time. So I love to put in any of the Final Fantasy Soundtracks I have, and head home. Unfortunately, they're four CDs each, and I don't carry them with me. I want an MP3 player for my car.

But if you want to bop to some groovin' tunes, put on Barenaked Ladies Gordon. Totally rocking CD.

6. What is your online nickname and what is the story behind how you selected it?
I have two, do you want to hear about them? Sure you do...

My first online handle started on Compuserve. My brother (who is 11 years older than me) and I were playing Bard's Tale on the Commodore (64, maybe 128), and needed help. So he told me we could sign on to Compuserve, there were forums for downloading stuff. We used my credit card (I had one for college), and his handle, Dazzler.

Later on, since I was paying for the account and it was pay by the hour, I changed the password so that he couldn't go online on my dime. But I kept the nickname.

It comes, by the way, from the way he "dazzled" everyone on the golf course, or so he said. He's a golf pro.

I kept Dazzler for years. I even respond to it when people call me "Dazz" or "Dazzler." I had no idea there was a comic book character until someone told me, and gave me a few of the roller disco issues so I could read up.

My first email account outside of CIS kept the Dazz name, dazz@io.com. But as things moved on, I left the name behind. I needed a new name, I don't know why, but I just felt like I did.

So Glyneth was used. Glyneth was my original Heartwood character, a RuneQuest 3rd edition game using the GMs own world, not Glorantha. That name I got from combining Glynis and Gwyneth. Glyneth was a very tough, take no crap character, who had a sweet spot for one guy, but was going to remain a virgin, frell it, so she could become a StarRider and get her unicorn mount!

The game slowly disintegrated, as the GMs marriage dissolved. I tried to keep playing, but the spirit of the game wasn't there anymore.

I started with glyneth as my handle when I stopped paying for CIS, and needed local dial-up access (io.com being in Texas). I found a provider, and glyneth was used. I've kept it at various email addresses since then.

Glyneth is not likely to be used, but Dazzler and its variations were. I think that's why I switched. There is only one other Glyneth out there (though looking online tells me of a Jack Vance character of the same name, in some book somewhere), and she took my name on yahoo, frell it. So there, I'm glynethkoromov, my character's last name (well, she was Glyneth Blackthorne, then found out her da was not her da, but another man, with the last name of Koromov).

I was glyneth on AOL once, and have long-since forgotten the password, so on AIM I'm CalderCFS, for a Fading Suns game called Children of the Fallen Stars (aka CFS), wherein I played Calder.

There, more than you EVER wanted to know about my online handles.

7. Ever been bitten or stung before (snake, wasp, dog, etc)?
Probably by a wasp or bee, once or twice. My cats have bitten me, but in play. As my dog Casey did, when I was younger. But other than that, not that I can recall.

BONUS: Does anybody love anybody anyway?
I love you whether or not you love me.

Space HoRSE, a M.U.L.E.-like game, will be produced by Shrapnel Games later this year.

Man, I LOVED M.U.L.E. When I read this, I started making those wonderful music sounds of the game as I raced to blog about it.

This was the first real strategy game I ever played on the computer. My sister and I would play on my brother's Commodore 64 for hours. I don't recall if I won all the time, but we had a blast.

I may have to get this game, at least for nostalgia's sake. Even if it isn't the real M.U.L.E.

Courtesy of Slashdot.

United States Patent: 6,368,227, in which the "inventor" swings from a tree branch or other like equipment, not front and back, but side to side.

The user may even choose to produce a Tarzan-type yell while swinging in the manner described, which more accurately replicates swinging on vines in a dense jungle forest. Actual jungle forestry is not required.

Not since this patent have I seen such idiocy from the patent office.

Courtesy, again, of Slashdot.

I get to move into a new office today. Well, probably over the next few days. The guy who moved on left a lot of stuff in there, and I need to get that all out, and possibly move desks around, before I can really move in.

Plus we need to keep his two computers up and running so others can access it. Right now, my boss is futzing around with one of the computers, so I really can't just move it, alas.

But here is what I'm going into:

View from the Door

View from the Door 2

View to the Door

Window View

Window View 2

Yes, I get a window that doesn't look out onto another office! Even if it will take me days to move in, I will be there!

Fourth egg laid.

Hella cool.

It's very hot out today.

My Son of Weather Grok tells me, in the cities that I track, that it is 90 in New Bedford (closest to where I live), 96.1 in New York City (Central Park, where Ian and Jeanne live or work), 93 in Concord, NH (where Jack lives), 90 in Raleigh (where Grant lives), and 91.9 in Providence, where I work.

Wow. I'm glad I'm working in air conditioning today. And I've got most of the stuff out of Philip's office, in preparation for the move tomorrow.

And one of our new employees (the one to replace Philip, actually!) starts Monday. I need to be vacated so she can have my office by then.

Wheeeee!

No blogging today. I officially started the move to the new office by moving the computer over. That pretty much did it for me; now I have to move everything in. I should have it done by noon-ish tomorrow, I think.

I took some preliminary pictures, which will be posted tomorrow, hopefully with some pictures of it all done.

I didn't eat lunch today because of the move. I got busy, and then wasn't hungry. About 2:30 I had an apple from lunch, and went downstairs to get a Diet Coke (a buck for can? I thought it was 80 cents. Never buying from there again...even 80 cents was pushing it).

I'm home now, curled up on the loveseat with the laptop in my lap, Beana looking cheesed at me because of said laptop, and getting ready to watch The Wish on Buffy on FX. Some bad news - I found out my Farscape tape from Friday didn't work. I accidentally set it for a.m. instead of p.m., and then had it for 8:00 a.m. anyway. so even if that had been right, it wouldn't have taped the right show. I'm bummed, but it's just one more reason to get TiVo in a few months.

Anyone want to give me a recap, until I can catch it on a rerun?

1. What's your favorite TV show and why?
Damn, tough question. Right now, at this moment, I'd have to say Farscape. Followed very closely by Smallville, Angel, and Buffy, in that order. Buffy just hasn't quite hit its mark for me this year, while Angel has found its stride and taken off like gang-busters. Smallville is regularly enjoying.

But nothing can beat Farscape. It is an original, engaging sci-fi show, and there aren't that many of them out there these days of this quality.

2. Who is your favorite television star?
See, you had to say star. Actors can be actors and not be stars. Who is my favorite television performer? That's the question I'll choose to answer. Rob Lowe, on West Wing. He is one of the main reasons I watch that show when my husband does. He gets all the best lines, and it's just a joy to watch him deliver such well-written lines.

3. What was your favorite TV show as a child?
Child? How old? What's considered a child? I have no idea. Hmm...I guess I'll have to go with the answer I blogged about -- Dungeons & Dragons, the cartoon. I endured watching the end of Jem in order to catch this when it started. 'nuff said.

4. What show do you think should have been cancelled by now?
The Mummy cartoon on Saturday mornings. Please. Just go.

5. What new show do you hope escapes the axe this season?
One that's in danger of it, or just one in general? I hope Alias escapes the axe, even though I haven't been keeping up with it like I want to.

This is why many people think that Christians are loonies.

Show us AIDS evolving into a cat -- which is essentially the Evolutionistic position of common ancestry for all lifeforms -- and then you'll have something worth noting.

They really lose it here, though:

Given the now obvious anti-Christian and cultish nature of Apple Computers, is it any wonder that they have decided to base their newest operating system on Darwinism?

I do not want to be misconstrued here...I am not saying that Christians are loonies. I'm saying that it's articles like this that can make others think Christians have no idea what they're talking about.

UPDATE 9:25 a.m.: This may be a parody site. But sometimes, these loonies sound like parodies. I'd appreciate anyone who could confirm whether or not it's just another Landover Baptist site.

Courtesy of MacSlash.

We are all creatures of habit. Cats are creatures of habit...it's why, on the weekend you most desperately want to sleep in, the cats are wandering around your head, making sure you're not dead. You're usually up by now, and "it's different, they don't like it", to paraphrase my local group of friends.

I hadn't really realized I have habits at work. I have twice now, since moving into my new office, forgotten to bring my Palm home. I had a routine. My new office's arrangement is different, and therefore my routine is not the same, and I forget things.

Like turning off my lights and my radio when I leave. The new locations for these objects haven't made it into my habits yet.

And of course, I have bad habits. One of my behaviors is exhibiting itself in my new office.

When I have something that I need to do, I come up with other things to do instead of the thing I need to do. Not that these other things don't need doing, mind you. It's just something I put off, and now I "want" to do it because it's not the thing I should be doing.

I noticed this behavior in myself probably about 10-13 years ago. I ran a game online on the RPGames Forum in Compuserve. I was not a good GM. I rarely posted after the game got going. And at one point, I watched myself exhibit my avoidance behavior. Every time I sat down at my Amiga 500, telling myself that I was going to write the post, I would look around at my desk, or my room, and suddenly find something else that I had to do, right then. Like clean the desk. Like organize my bookshelf. Like clean the crap that had accumulated on the floor.

I was doing everything I didn't really WANT to do, in order to avoid posting for my game.

That's when I knew I had to stop running the game.

I've noticed this behavior in other things too -- like I needed to write out the checks for our bills a few weeks back. Suddenly, in the guise of searching for all of the ATM/restaurant receipts and misplaced bills on our very messy kitchen counter, I started to clean that counter off of all the junk that had accumulated there.

Typical avoidance behavior, for me. I did do the bills, by the way.

And now, my new office. As you can see by the pictures below, I have a bunch of my stuff on the floor and on m workspace that needs to be cleared off. But what did I do on Friday, when I should have been doing all this cleanup?

• I gave one of our employees a Cube instead of her Bronze Keyboard Powerbook, which I had meant to do the previous Friday, but another laptop going belly-up got in the way. And then I never got back to it the rest of the week.

• I upgraded software and various OS bits on another user's computer, who had asked to have it done days ago, but I just hadn't made it a priority.

• I upgraded the tech staff's admin assistant's computer, when all she had problems with was her email program. I've been meaning to upgrade her computer for months.

Amongst other things I did on Friday.

I left work early yesterday, to be home in time for a package to be delivered. So not much got done in the office yesterday.

I am fully expecting that when I start to clean my office up this week, I will suddenly realize that we have another new employee starting on Monday, and I don't have the office he'll be moving into cleaned out of the stuff that's been stored in there, and I don't have computers ready for him.

Expect more pictures from me in a few weeks.

View from the Door - early
View to the Door - early
The Bookshelf's Location
View from the Door - later
View to the Door - later
The New Work Area

I have some more pictures up on the wall now, but that will have to wait until I've made some more progress on cleaning up the floor.

Looking for a new apartment in NYC? Go on, make the call!

Courtesy of The Morning News.

Dan Bricklin posted two articles on using a Segway. I found both of them very interesting tidbits, and he was hella lucky to get a chance at one of those things!

Impressions after riding a Segway HT: Part 1 and Part 2

Courtesy of Random Walks.

Instead of cleaning up my office, I've been paying attention to my neglected little blog.

So now, since I went back a while ago and added categories to every post, and now the category is displayed with the post.

I still need to work on the redesign. Maybe in another month or so.

Click on the image to see a larger version.

Courtesy of ***Dave.

Take the What High School Stereotype Are You? quiz, by Angel.

I thought I was more of an outsider, but I was part geek.

Courtesy of Doyce.

I got an email from a friend yesterday, saying that she was leaving Las Vegas, and coming back home to New England, more specifically, Connecticut, from whence she came.

I don't know what to say. She moved out west to be with someone she'd known online and at various Ambercons for some time, and not long after that, they got married. I'd known that Vegas wasn't the place she wanted to live; I'd teased her often enough that she should come back home, that we missed her, that New England missed her.

I had planned on mailing to her, in a few weeks, some spring leaves, since I'd noticed how non-leafy Vegas is. And then more were going to follow in the fall, with all the autumn colors.

Now, I get an email that says she's moving back. It is unknown if her husband will follow in a year or so. She hopes to be situated by midsummer.

Well. And Well. What does one say to that?

I'm glad she's coming home. But what about her husband? I'd love it for him to come too, unless they're having problems that they can't work out. Las Vegas is his home, it's where he grew up. Connecticut is her home, it's where she grew up (I think...it's home, anyway).

What does one say to these sorts of things? I'm at a loss.

1. What are your hobbies?
Gaming, reading sf/f and romance, and some fanfic, doing web pages, my blog. I got into painting miniatures last year, but that has really waned. I also love playing, or watching my husband play, video games. And watching sf/f on TV (Buffy, Farscape, etc.).

2. Do you collect anything? If so, what?
Not really anymore. I used to collect "How did you meet your spouse/SO?" stories, before I got married. I never wrote them down or anything, but kept them in my head. I considered recently trying to do that again, and making a blog of it or web page or something. I used to collect action figures, but that was more of a "as I saw one I liked" basis, and I've dropped that habit. And I was collecting the Star Wars LEGO sets, but again, have dropped that. I probably will get some more of the new sets, though.

3. Is there a hobby you're interested in, but just don't have the time/money to do?
Painting miniatures. Collecting fantasy artwork. I could make the time to do the former, but I haven't, and I don't have the money to do the latter! I also want to write, but I'm not making the time for that. I may try to do something like NaNoWriMo this year, just to try.

4. Have you ever turned a hobby into a moneymaking opportunity?
Web design. Haven't actually made any money at it yet, and my interest in doing it for money is waning these days. And if I write, and sell something, maybe I'll be able to say yes, but then it won't be a hobby anymore, will it?

5. Besides web-related stuff (burbs, rings, etc.), what clubs do you belong to?
Some friends locally have a reading club, nicknamed FaRGoNE (Fantasy Readers Guild of New England), for us to talk about a book that one of us has picked every two months. This month's selection, not on the site yet alas (our webmaster is busy building his house), is Glory Road by Robert Heinlein. Lou's pick.

Other than that, I have no clubs or formal organizations that I belong to. Huh.

Sequential Tart's ode to breasts.

Courtesy of the Daily Illuminator.

Write a random phrase from each of the following:

Nearest magazine to you:
"If the PCs save Lisa and deliver the Eye to Ganamemnon, they should receive the experience points they would get for defeating both outsiders." (Dungeon Magazine #91, The Rock and the Hard Place D&D Side Trek, by Brian Corvello, pg. 48.)

Nearest book to you:
"I didn't answer. I was thinking about a flamethrower and an M-1 and a couple of cases of ammo. And the liquor, of course." (Oscar Gordon, Glory Road, by Robert A. Heinlein, pg. 91.)

Nearest cd insert:
"The radio bites were recorded during two improv sessions at QED MEDIA CORP. in May, 1994." (Pants, Corky and the Juice Pigs.)

Nearest piece of paper that you wrote on:
13994. (amount of experience we received for tonight's D&D session, in which our 14th (now 15th)-level party defeated an ice paraelemental and a 22nd level villain.)

Nearest piece of paper that was written to you:
Nothing, really. Maybe a receipt, if you want to count that. Or I could find a card in the bedroom. Oh, wait..."Try to use Pattern to find a tavern where we can have an enjoyable fight without breaking people." (note to me as GM, from, I believe Myth as Artor, in my WEF Amber game.)

Courtesy of ***Dave.

George Alec Effinger dies. The Locus link promises more details as they become available.

No, not what you're probably imagining.

A cat, named Flo, kept bringing live animals in through the cat door, to play with and chase through the house.

So, these entrepreneurs, decided to rig up a box to the outside of their cat door, and only let dear old Flo in if she wasn't carrying something.

How'd they do it? Read all about it.

Courtesy of User Friendly's LOTD.

I got an email this morning from Chris telling me that the Ann Arbor crew has discovered my blog entry.

Hmm...guess I didn't think of that. I hope I didn't create more problems. (sigh)

Snakes. Lots of snakes.

Me, I'd agree with Jeanne. We prefer cats to get rid of rats and domestic pests.

Courtesy of Jeanne, URL above.

I dropped "MaBarry's Amber Bits" from the blogs. I'm just not that enthused about Amber these days. Good thing I'm winding WEF down to a close, eh?

But I have included "It Slices! It Dices!", Meera's other gaming blog. It has content that I'm currently finding more interesting and relevant to other games.

Which Sluggy Freelance Character Are You?

Courtesy of Sluggy Freelance. Worship the comic.