The headphones of my MP3 player were getting dead, one ear didn't work, so I bought a replacement. It came, I discovered, with an offer from eMusic for 35 free songs. When I actually got to eMusic, I found that they were offering 50 free songs and a free eBook. And so now I have a bunch of new songs, an eBook of Pride and Prejudice and new headphones for my MP3 player! I am ready for this plane ride tomorrow!
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03:44:42 AM,
Saturday 17 July 2010
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Leaving for Florida tomorrow. I still need to pack tonight. All my laundry is done, tho.
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01:32:51 AM,
Saturday 17 July 2010
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The NAACP recently condemned the Tea Party, and I was one of those people who secretly pooh-poohed that condemnation. Thankfully, Ta-nehisi Coates is around to set me right.
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07:01:58 AM,
Friday 16 July 2010
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Its something that, in 2010, Argentina passing a law allowing gay marriage is not THE news of the day. Exciting news, certainly, but not the tectonic shift it would have been 5 and 10 years ago.
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(1)
06:57:35 AM,
Friday 16 July 2010
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Of course, what do I even do except putter around anymore.
And here's me 35 years too young to retire.
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04:58:38 AM,
Friday 16 July 2010
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Cleaned my room a bit, applied for some jobs, puttered around. Saw a movie. Despicable Me. It was quite good.
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(3)
04:52:43 AM,
Friday 16 July 2010
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What do you know? My sharpies are right where they should be! Its such a disconcerting thing to find something where it should be. When I was looking for them last week, I never checked where they should be, because it was manifestly impossible for them to be there.
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02:57:18 AM,
Friday 16 July 2010
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I have a headache, which I am putting down as a heat-related illness. I spent an hour outside mowing my lawn (it turned out replacing the spark plug worked dandy) and it was miserable. I took a cold shower, and am now computing naked trying to reach a more comfortable equilibrium.
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(2)
10:17:02 PM,
Wednesday 14 July 2010
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92 degrees outside, but it feels like 104. Good lord.
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(1)
10:13:44 PM,
Wednesday 14 July 2010
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I spent too much money today, and bought a bunch of CDs, including "Twistable Turnable Man", which is a bunch of different artists covering various Shel Silverstein poems. Its amazing how depressing the whole collection actually is.
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10:12:56 PM,
Wednesday 14 July 2010
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I was going to mow the lawn this morning. This depends heavily, of course, on being able to start the mower. It seems to start, but then dies quickly. I have checked the oil, it has gas, its starting, but its not able to stay started. This is intensely frustrating, because the longer it takes to get this resolved, the worse the heat will be and the more awful it will be to actually mow the lawn. And the lawn needs mown before we go to Florida, so it has to happen today, tomorrow, or Friday. What a situation.
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(3)
03:04:48 PM,
Wednesday 14 July 2010
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It is 83 degrees currently, and weather.com helpfully remarks that it feels like 92 degrees. At 8 AM. As my sister would say, this is not acceptable.
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(2)
01:07:33 PM,
Wednesday 14 July 2010
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I am bursting with Toastmaster energy, but I am wondering how much of that is because of I am unemployed and deeply bored and need something to do.
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06:18:17 AM,
Wednesday 14 July 2010
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We had a great Toastmasters meeting tonight. Four guests, three speakers (including myself). This is the second great event we've had for the club this year. This is a positive start.
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05:50:57 AM,
Wednesday 14 July 2010
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We are going to Florida on Saturday! For a week! It seems so unreal!
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05:50:16 AM,
Wednesday 14 July 2010
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When I woke up today, the clock said 3. This was surprising, but considering that I had stayed up late, and hadn't slept well the last couple nights, maybe not too surprising.
It turned out, however, the clock was wrong. I don't know how it could be changed, but no other clock in the house changed, but there you go.
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06:15:07 PM,
Sunday 11 July 2010
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I don't know why American cartoon accents are so horrible, but they are.
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(1)
07:54:34 AM,
Sunday 11 July 2010
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Picnic pictures are available. You can look on Facebook or on our club's website.
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12:07:28 AM,
Sunday 11 July 2010
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I bought a couple of Jazz/Swing CDs recently, and I am loving listening to them in the car. They're so contagious! I just gotta dance! And then I attract stares in the store. But still!
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11:53:08 PM,
Saturday 10 July 2010
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The picnic was a tremendous success! We had a great turnout, with the number of people who showed up matching, more or less, the number who RSVP'd. They weren't always the same people, but it was still nice. I'll be putting up some pictures later, if you care, and maybe a bit more about the event. All told, however, it went very well.
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08:00:27 PM,
Saturday 10 July 2010
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Waking up still somewhat tired. Yawns and stretches and a shaken feeling.
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12:20:20 PM,
Saturday 10 July 2010
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Its always the way. There really isn't anything else I could be doing right now to prepare for tomorrow, but I feel as if I need to be doing something. I think I'm going to be to bed. At least that's something thats useful.
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05:56:42 AM,
Saturday 10 July 2010
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Even better, it was the illustration that is done by MOLD.
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05:45:38 AM,
Saturday 10 July 2010
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I spent some time cooking this evening, making potato salad, mashed potatoes, a casserole, and a hamburger for my sister. My potato salad is getting quite good, even as I am getting freer with the proportions of the ingredients. I don't even remember the original recipe at this point, I'm basically throwing stuff that I know taste good together, and mixing it with potatoes.
Most of my cooking tonight was in preparation for a picnic tomorrow. My Toastmaster's group has been in existence 60 years, and we're celebrating. Somehow I got to organize the thing, although really, it was mostly a matter of saying "this needs to be done" and someone else saying, "I'm glad you're doing it."
We've got at least 30 people who have said they're going to show up tomorrow, and if only 5 of them fail to do so, and we get another 5 who didn't let me know, we'll have a good turnout. I spent some time this afternoon creating programs and prizes. I'm quite pleased with the prizes. They have pictures of Blue-footed Boobies on them, and so are "Booby Prizes." We will award them to the winners of our imprompteau Tall Tales Contest. If you're in the area, and want to stop on by, we'll be in Antioch Park from 11 to 2.
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03:52:33 AM,
Saturday 10 July 2010
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How is it that neither of the first two cookbooks I consulted have recipes for non-bake cookies?
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(7)
01:23:59 AM,
Saturday 10 July 2010
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I've been cleaning, and now I need to take out the trash, and run a few errands. I should probably shower before I leave the house for good, however, because I am extremely groady.
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10:33:01 PM,
Friday 9 July 2010
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I recently reread A Wizard of Earthsea, and then later The Farthest Shore, and just today I got through The Tombs of Atuan. I very nearly got stuck in the middle of the Tombs, but I'm not sure why. The power struggle between Tenar/Arha and Kessil, for some reason, was difficult to read about.
One thing I really like about Le Guin is that her characters, in their struggles with pride and jealousy and anger, feel real to me and speak to me in ways that few others do. She has captured the reality of those human emotions in a way which I empathize deeply with.
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10:32:14 PM,
Friday 9 July 2010
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I own a Folio edition of the Arabaian Nights, which has been damaged by water and mildew. However, the mildew has grown just so to cover the name of the author, or editor, I suppose, all except the letters MOLD.
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(2)
10:28:40 PM,
Friday 9 July 2010
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Q: How many Call of Cthulhu players does it take to change a light bulb?
A: All of them. Never Split the Party!
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(2)
02:45:44 PM,
Wednesday 7 July 2010
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Its not even 9:30, and already the stink of fireworks is everywhere.
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02:20:32 PM,
Sunday 4 July 2010
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So, I think my Yahoo mail account has been, well, hacked. Not badly, I hope, but I've been sending spam to my family, and one of my uncles just sent me an email remonstrating me for sending him links to an online pharmacy selling Cialis. Now, I would normally assume that I had been spoofed, but I looked, and there was an email in my "sent" folder, which was worrying. I changed my password, and now I'm thinking I need to change all my passwords everywhere, which is just a huge pain.
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09:54:31 PM,
Friday 2 July 2010
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The universe does not want me sleeping in today.
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02:43:12 PM,
Friday 2 July 2010
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Arguments for the abolishment of religion are, usually, bellicose and extreme in a way which admits that religion has no value whatever, a proposition I am generally unwilling to accept despite by generally atheistic/agnostic tendencies.
This post from PZ Meyers, however, is an interesting, sensitive, and valid argument, saying that religion as we generally understand it had a purpose, but that purpose is increasingly out of line with modern scientific and social needs. We don't have to get rid of God, but we do need to come to new understandings of God, God's place in the Universe, and our own.
At any rate, I found it interesting.
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02:41:43 AM,
Friday 2 July 2010
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Democrats and Republicans: A Joke.
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02:34:32 AM,
Friday 2 July 2010
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The problem with watching lots of episodes of crime dramas, like Bones, and Law and Order:SVU, is that the scenarios start to look alike, for instance, the corpse dressed like a superhero, or the ones where a group of teenage girls form a pregnancy pact. Its not bad, per se, although a little "ripped from the headlines, it just means that you get to see two sets of characters play out the same scenario.
I suppose it could be like the old Commedia del'Arte troups, where the actors are playing more archetypes than characters, so each troup has its own interpretation. Or it could just make you wish for better writing.
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(3)
09:19:34 PM,
Thursday 1 July 2010
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I was about to ask incredulously who put Celine Dion on a blogswap, but I think it was me. The problem with unlabeled discs, you see.
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(1)
03:41:13 PM,
Thursday 1 July 2010
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