In the (getting to be) time honored tradition of speaking to my brother through blogs, here’s what I’ve got to say today:
I hope you’re having a lovely time, and that you find everything that you’re looking for there. I also hope that you get by Chinatown, and get me a couple of the things that I’ve been looking for….
Were the examples good enough? I didn’t even go into figurines 🙂
Seriously, I can’t wait to hear all about it!!! Love, C
I just got back from a focus group on Kia cars. I was a last minute add in (someone cancelled and Brigitte always looks after me), and I got paid well….
But that doesn’t change the fact that Kia’s are crap cars. I mean, you can’t fix them, and the maintenance cost to stay within the warranty are phenomenal…
But boy, does the Amanti look good or what?!?!?!?
They’re still crummy cars!!! (determined look) Give me something that I can dive under the hood of any day – just something that I won’t have to dive under the hood of.
Well, the job’s doing ok, and is a little less scary than I imagined. I think, once the dust clears, that I’ll be able to do this pretty much without too much trouble. In fact, I think that I’ll be able to do this, and still have time to help out with charge entry (my old job, which I kinda miss). Of course, only in the “I’m going to steer away from the really boring batches” fashion. 🙂
Congratulations to Mel! I knew that you were the woman for the job! I’m just glad that someone listened for once, and they gave it to you!!!!
Well, I think all this good news deserves a sweet tea, so I’m heading over to the local drive thru to get one – God help me, they opened one 2 blocks from my house….
….and, I’m going to be doing much daydreaming about the Stargate game this weekend. I can’t WAIT to see what J throws at us this time. I haven’t finished my report for the last game yet, but I’ve been so busy reading the Dresden Chronicles that I haven’t gotten to it yet. Maybe I’ll do it later this evening.
BTW, I suggest that you check out those links above. The Stargate RPG is a FUN system – I think it’s more fun because I like the series – and the Dresden Chronicles are deliciously, unapolgeticly 40’s pulp noir and really funny. I’ll have to write y’all a review when I’m not fabulously late for work!!!
Ok, quick note to all of you that don’t know: I got a promotion!!!!
Actually, I got it last Wednesday, about the same time that I got a really nasty chest cold, so I was absent the rest of the week, and didn’t have to deal with it.
Now, all the new stuff is going to catch up with me. I’m extremely nervous. So, I’m putting on my best smile, remembering all of y’all that love me, putting my head up, shoulders back, hair done, makeup on, and walking out the door.
Say a little prayer!!! 🙂
Well, howdy folks! I’ll bet you’re wondering where I’ve been…well, just here. I’ve been part of a carpool since May, and that’s pretty much limited my website/email/genealogy/blog accessability to about an hour every Saturday morning. Now, anyone who knows me knows that my brain function is pretty non-existant between the hours of 6am and 10am, so you can see how I’d get all fascinated by the pretty pictures in the copious amounts of spam that I receive, and just completely forget about everything else. ANYWAY, the carpool is pretty much kaput for now, so I get to enjoy the internet a lot more, and I may be able to get little times like these when I can make long, rambly posts about absolutely nothing and everything. Just think of it as an online afternoon drive down the Devil’s Backbone (aka RR 32 outside of San Marcos) on a hot summer afternoon with the AC on. Lots of pretty views, but not a whole lot of content to survive in that environment.
Where to start? I still don’t have the family tree up (the offline one with all my freaking research so carefully documented on it). So I have this faboo FTM ver 11 (thanks Mom and Daddy!!!!) sitting on the shelf gathering dust until I can get it up and running. Now I hear all you smarties in the background asking “Gee, C., didn’t you have a backup?”. YES I DID. It got FUBARed with all the rest of the files and several workbooks and documents in one fell swoop of the uninstall function. I think I lost a few IQ points in that as well.
Now let me assure you: the fabulous Linkstation that all this info was on was not to fault at all, I just severely misunderstood the very simple instructions that I was given, and screwed it all up. In fact, the folks at Buffalo Tech have been extremely supportive (bless you Sven and J) and have gone above and beyond in trying to recover it – I really wish that I had saved the picture that J emailed me of the Linkstation in pieces on Sven’s desk. Let me just assure you that thing has every document, workbook, pdf, etc. so it’s pretty precious cargo. I’ve never seen anything like the storage capacity on it. I’d get another one, but we haven’t even used a third of the available space.
Ok, now I’m sounding like a walking (typing?) advertisement for Buffalo Tech, so I’m going to go back to what I do best and be a walking (typing?) advertisement for my handsome brother, the brilliant and handsome Photomatt. 🙂
Matt, babydoll, you really need to show me how to use some of the wonderful toys that you’ve added to WordPress when you updated me to the new version! I’ve no idea what have of this stuff does, but it looks really groovy!! And while you’re at it, you can show me how to add my own photolog, to do those little blurblets (not a bad word for one that I just made up) that you do on Photomatt, and tell me why, every time I use one of the utilities in the toolbar (aka str, em, link, etc.) the darn program scrolls me back to the top of my post (it’s very frustrating). Oh! and you can also show me how to spellcheck, manage the gallery on Mullenweg.com………well, lets just say that I have a “honey do” list for you a million miles long, and you, honey, are just too far away!!! 🙂 I’ll consider your assistance in this – making my sites even a tenth as cool as yours – just compensation for teaching you how to drive (HOV lanes notwithstanding) both standard and automatic, how to get soot out of your carpet (did that work?) and how to steam.
Ok, I’ve typed enough on this darn thing, and until I get my own laptop (ahem), it does not behoove me to sit here tip-tapping away when I could be at Seattle’s Best finishing the new book series that J has gotten me hooked on (Jim Butcher’s Harry Dresden books – and before you ask, yes, I think that James Marsters should play him, I’m just not as fanatic as some people) , sipping a Javakula, and being so proud of myself because I spent $.04 less than I would have at Starbucks (love that blog, by the way)….
Thanks, girl! This is cool! And timely, I guess….
WAIT! How did I get D&D, and a Buffy star??? That’s just too bizarre…
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In 1974 (the year you were born) |
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Gerald Ford becomes president of the US Hank Aaron hits his 715th home run to beat Babe Ruth’s record Impeachment hearings are opened against President Nixon by the House Judiciary Committee President Nixon resigns President Gerald Ford issues an unconditional pardon to ex-President Nixon for all federal crimes Muhammad Ali knocks out George Foreman in the eighth round to regain the heavyweight crown in Zaire Heiress Patty Hearst is kidnapped by and eventually joins the Symbionese Liberation Army Dungeons & Dragons officially released People magazine is published for the first time Kate Moss, Alyson Hannigan, Penelope Cruz, Alanis Morissette, Leonardo DiCaprio, and Ryan Seacrest are born Oakland Athletics win the World Series Miami Dolphins win Superbowl VIII Philadelphia Flyers win the Stanley Cup Blazing Saddles is the top grossing film All the President’s Men by Bernstein and Woodward is published “Killing Me Softly With His Song” wins Grammy for song of the year |
I came across a problem when my new cousin was born: I accidently uninstalled Family Tree Maker off my computers and linkstation, and therefore erased my family tree. Over 500 names and 10,000 data records….gone. J says that there’s a guy at his work who can retrieve it for me, but I have to wait until he’s got a few free minutes to work on the Linkstation. I want it done NOW, but I don’t want to be ingracious. I hate waiting.
To make matters worse, none of my passwords are working for the family tree site that M made for me, and he’s been sick, so I’m trying not to bug him about it.
As if I wasn’t frustrated enough, the capper is that my parents bought me FTM version 11. This is a wonderful, jump up and down, sing for joy thing, except, I can’t install it for fear that I’ll overwrite the text files that I really really need recovered, and therefore lose everything permanently.
I hate being patient.
I just hope that no one thinks I’m ignoring the birth of my cousin, or the death of a distant cousin on the other side. I also am getting a rather promising Clesi inquiry from this one guy, who sounds like he’s starting to get impatient. I can’t research it without my notes.
Ah well, all will be back to normal in a couple of weeks. Then I can research this claim, and add the pertinant info that I need to. M and I were talking about reloading the gene site; starting over on the records, really jazzing up the gallery, and tweaking it in a hundred different little ways. It sounds like a lot of fun. The poor kid is being pulled in a lot of directions right now, though, and I don’t want to add to that stress. Just watch for these changes, for those that follow that site; you should have some really cool results to look forward to….
I would love to write full reviews, but I don’t have much time this morning. I also don’t wanna spoil these movies for y’all.
I saw the Chronicles of Riddick last night. It is one of the most beautiful movies that I’ve ever seen…however, it was not as good as I thought it would be. Let me know what you think when you see it, but I believe that you could have gotten rid of the Vaco character entirely, and had a much better movie. Maybe it’s because I didn’t like the actor; he was so hokey and overdone. There were parts of the movie that I’m convinced were just written to get Thandie Newton in some of those very improbable dresses. If you just had the prison bit, it would have been a much better movie.
I saw the latest Harry Potter movie last week, and I was amazed at the subtlety that Cuaron was able to give that story. The sets look lived in now, the school looks like it’s actually suffered from years of abuse by adolescents with way too much power. And the Dementors….shiver…they were actually scary. I loved it. Now I’m just curious if they’re going to have to make 2 movies for the next book.
I saw LA Confidential and the directors cut of Pitch Black last week. I had forgotten what a phenomenal movie the former was and was amazed at how much the latter was improved by the director’s additions.
And finally, I started the 2nd season of 24. Wow. Does Sutherland get an Emmy for this? I feel like I deserve an award for all the stress and the waiting for the next Netflicks disk to arrive!
Well, I didn’t want y’all to think that I had slipped off the face of the earth. I’ve been hugely busy lately – as anyone who has tried to communicate w/ me over email well knows. I have news aplenty, just not a lot of time to write it down in….I’ll do that later. I would, instead like to impart to you a trio of movies discovered over the last few years thanks to J deciding that it was time for us to follow Oliver Platt’s career:
Three to Tango: In my opinion, this is the best of the trio. I would have never watched this movie if Platt hadn’t been in it. Matthew Perry made a spate of movies in between trips to rehab, and most of them are true stinkers. This one is a delightful exception (and the Whole Nine Yards). Neve Campbell is just there to look like a dewy-eyed starlet, and she slides through this movie with so little effort or commitment, that I wonder if she didn’t get rug-burn. Dylan McDermott was brilliant and creepy as the obsessive compulsive germaphobe foil, to Matthew Perry’s bumbling moron. And then there’s Oliver…who plays a gay architect, with a zeal that is just hard to fault. The script has some cheap one-liners (like “You’ve made your big, gay bed, and now you can gaily slumber in it”) and a very transparent plot, but it’s funny and somehow charming. Bonus: the soundtrack is an excellent collection of modern swing that is just impossible to miss!
Lake Placid: This is also another movie that I would have never seen – it’s a monster movie for goodness sake! But it is absolutely hilarious. You’ve got a really oddball cast with Bill Pullman, Bridget Fonda, Meredith Salenger (yes, of the 80’s films Dream a Little Dream and A Night in the Life of Jimmy Reardon), Betty White, and….you guessed it, Oliver Platt. There’s not much to say about this movie, except the script is hilarious (I’m not even going to go near the plot). Betty White steals the movie shamelessly with lines that I hesitate to put in this entry for fear of the spam that I would get. I’m only sorry that you didn’t get to see it with Woozer who was in shock over White’s performance the whole time: W: “But she’s a Golden Girl!” L: “She’s not so golden anymore….”
The Imposters: A really funny funny movie! Written, directed and starred in by Stanley Tucci (who I first noticed as the creepy assassin in The Pelican Brief). It’s a pseudo-musical door farce with a vengeance. Platt and Tucci are out of work theater hacks who end up stowing away on a ship. There they run into cameos by just about every indie film actor you can think of: Alfred Molina, Lili Taylor, Tony Shalhoub, Steve Buscemi, Allison Janney, Isabella Rossellini, Woody Allen, Hope Davis, and Billy Connolly, just to name a few. All it’s missing is Eric Stoltz. Check it out.
A few other films Oliver has been in: Pieces of April (twisted), Ready to Rumble (crap, but funny crap), Gun Shy (I didn’t really like it, but J loved it – you decide), Dangerous Beauty (excellent film), Three Musketeers (see crap comment on Ready to Rumble), and Flatliners (I loved this film, J didn’t – you decide)
Ok, I’m a little ticked at a few people for various different reasons. Even though this is usually my happy, cheerful place, I just have to vent what I’m too polite to say in person. Here’s my rants for the week:
1. Don’t lecture me on religion. Even assuming that I give a flying f@ck about the religious opinions of a pretentious slug like you is annoying to me. I took comparitive religion in college, in fact I took so much theology and philosophy that if I never see another one of those classes, I can die happy. I don’t think that I’m holier than thou, you just have yet to tell me one thing that I didn’t already have to regurgitate for a paper or test. If I have a question I will ask you. I can assure you, my problem is not that I’m too shy to ask, it’s that I’m too polite to tell you to shut the f@ck up. In fact, lets cure that right now. You wanna “Buddha says” me again? Charlie says to get your head out of your ass so that you can see the world past the tip of your own sanctimonious white trash nose. Charlie says that you have to quit being a Psycho Hosebeast to truly experience enlightenment.
2. Don’t you hate it when people assume you’re an idiot just because you don’t have a degree?? They assume that they need to lecture me on every little thing just because I didn’t finish college. I learn at least one new thing every day. I intend to do this until I die. You would be able to do this as well, if you weren’t so busy polishing the frame with your diploma in it. In fact, I think YOU’RE the idiot because you paid all this money at a fancy school for a degree, and then you had to start at entry level on a job that has so little to do with your degree that it’s riduculous. I’’m just waiting until I decide on a career before I get my degree, so it can be relavant to my daily life.
3. I think that the Sneaker Pimps have the perfect quote for my next rant
“Don’t think cause I understand …. I care
Don’t think cause we’re talking ….. We’re friends”
Your problems are only mine because you insist on trying to make them so. So I walk away, and you’re left standing there flapping your trap about how I’m going to miss you. Well, the remarkable thing is that the only thing that I’ve noticed that’s gone from my life is the huge weight on my shoulders.
4. Don’t assume that just because I’m Catholic that I hate every other religion and all it’s practioners. That’s you projecting your bigotry on me. And don’t assume that I’m insensitive to your practices or beliefs, you might think that rant number one was evidence of that, but that was me targeting an individual that I’m fed up with, not an entire religion. I will apologize right now, in case I made anyone uncomfortable.
5. Talk about friendship ending acts: don’t go tracking down my friends anymore. If I get one more call asking me if I’m allright because some little girl with the world’s biggest case of denial is calling them, then I’m going to start returning the favor. And you will not like the result, I can assure you. Just put back on your rose tinted glasses, and go back to pretending everything’s ok – just do it without harassing me or my friends anymore. I’m angry currently, but don’t make me feel cornered, ’cause If you wanna play dirty, I’m gonna win. I have been your staunch defender for months, and you’ve given me nothing but grief for it. You have managed to tear down every good thing that I’ve ever said about you. That’s what you get when you force someone to choose sides. Just let it die there, and retreat to your corner with what dignity you have left. I wash my hands of you.
Charleen's Chateau 