Dyno's Whine

2008-11-11T12:31:00.001-07:00

Well, igleast it's cool for we studious types. =) Go to www.arcticowlsoftware.com and download the free software for learning the states, or the countries of Europe, or even the Canadian provinces. They are small and fun little programs for learning those things most of us tend to forget or never learned. I even find the knowledge pretty useful when it comes to current events in the world. So go over there and download that stuff and play with it a while. It's good for your brain!

Catchup (no not ketchup)

2008-05-23T22:36:00.002-06:00

We had a GREAT time in Canada last week for our anniversary trip. Totally gorgeous! This week I started out Monday with a job interview that immediately turned into a job. I'm now an administrative assistant for Kuna Counseling Center, which is a bit wild and disjointed but not bad. It's the closest thing I've had to using my degree since I graduated in '92. :) The people there are really nice and the schedule is very flexible; they have given me all the time I need off for the summer which is most awesome. It's still a bit nerve-wracking for psychologically wimpy ol' me, but it's good mental exercise. Jake gave me a blessing the other day and since then the Lord has been helping me a lot.
With the income from that and the savings we have from refinancing our house, we have been spending a bit much lately. We bought a 2007 Toyota Prius (which we LOVE), are replacing my dead laptop, and upgrading our satellite to HD. Can I just say that I am excited? Whee! I love spending money! Bad me! But with the refinance we are COMPLETELY out of credit card debt! Now that IS something to cheer about! Hooray!

It's sad when...

2008-05-02T16:21:00.002-06:00

You're home all day and end up checking online to see that something has been delivered and is sitting on your doorstep.

I'm just sayin'.

Caveat Emptor!

2008-05-02T13:53:00.002-06:00

I have lost the 2nd Compaq laptop in 3 years due to motherboard failure this week. No warning, just suddenly dead and every boot attempt results in a beep code saying that the CMOS can't write to RAM. Replacing the CMOS battery and removing/testing the RAM didn't help, leaving the motherboard as the culprit. AGAIN. Last time it was the onboard video card. My MIL lost her Compaq to a motherboard problem about a year ago as well, so this is not a rare occurrence, apparently. Now I have to save up for another machine and pull data from my little hard drive again. So to those of you out there who are shopping for laptops: avoid the Compaqs! Anyone have a brand they particularly recommend? I'm looking at Toshiba or Lenovo, but I would rather have XP than Vista.

We're failing our children

2008-04-24T13:36:00.003-06:00

This is something that has been bugging me for a while. I've seen it around a bit, but the most profound examples of how we are failing our children seem to come from my sister who teaches high school in Oklahoma. Over a third of the senior class in her high school are flunking out. OVER A THIRD! And from the tales she has told me of so many of her students, it's not a surprise. The kids just don't care, and their parents don't care, to put even the slightest modicum of work into their education. They won't bring their books to class, they won't even bother to read the questions on tests -- she actually had a student who prided himself on getting through an important test quickly by guessing on every single question. The kids are beyond apathetic and rude and cheating is second nature. I could tell you many stories but I will spare you the gory details. And lest you get the impression that this is just her school or just Oklahoma, I have heard similar stories up here in Idaho. It's appalling. These are the people who are going to be running our businesses, working on our vehicles, helping us in stores, and working on our homes. Not to mention the ones that will be helping us in hospitals, flying us across the country, and other life-threatening situations.
Where do these kids come from? Answer: lazy, apathetic, or self-absorbed parents. I've seen many parents try to absolve themselves with statements like "I didn't teach them that" or "I don't know where they get it from, must be from other kids at school," but the bottom line is the kids learn this crap from their parents. Responsibility, love of learning, integrity, all good things are learned from the smallest age, way too young for blame to be placed on the schools, not to mention that it has been proven in study after study that parents have the biggest influence by far out of any factors influencing children. And many parents are just plain too stupid to realize what they are teaching their children when they do things like get mad at a kid for asking questions ("curiosity and learning is bad") or attempt to justify a dishonest behavior ("as long as I get what I want, it's okay").
Please, people, pay attention to your kids. If you don't HAVE to work, stay home with your kids and love and teach them the things that they need to grow up smart and strong and good. It's hard work. REALLY hard work. If it's not hard, you're not doing it right. But it's worth it. Not even the best schools or daycares can make up for what you are teaching or not teaching your kids right now.

Why Facial Hair is Not a Sign of Manliness

2008-04-23T17:11:00.003-06:00

OK, first, for the sake of argument, we must define manliness. I will give two criteria that will be difficult to dispute for my definition: 1) The ability to conquer, and 2) the ability to attract the ladies.

For the first point, I bring up three of the most conquering societies in history: the Romans, the Mongols, and the English. The Romans were one of the earliest societies to make clean-shaven men the norm, and they are commonly acknowledged as some of the greatest conquerors of the ancient world. Surpassing them in conquering ability, however, was the Mongols, who ruled land from Bavaria to the Pacific Ocean. While commonly portrayed as bearded heathen, they actually eschewed facial hair. Then surpassing them, and everyone else, in conquering ability, was the British. The sun didn't set on the English empire as during the 19th century they ruled land clear around the globe. And everyone knows that they are a traditionally rather clean-shaven bunch. Therefore, according to our powerful examples, facial hair is typically negatively associated with the most powerful conquering peoples.

As to attracting the ladies, most women do not like the scratchiness of beards and other forms of facial hair. Ask any marketing specialist and they will tell you that all of the studies in the Americas find clean-shaven men to be far more attractive to women than their bearded counterparts.

Therefore, based upon scientific evidence, facial hair is not a sign of manliness.

2008-04-17T17:37:00.001-06:00

I lub dis song. And I'm testing out imeem's embed features so maybe you can learn to love it too.

Social the Networks

2008-04-17T17:27:00.003-06:00

OK, I don't know what's up, maybe it's because it's Spring, but I've joined three social networks in the course of a week. sparkpeople, facebook, and imeem. It really makes me wonder about today's kids, with all this shallow socializing on these huge specialized networks! Imeem seems great for music and sparkpeople is interesting for health and facebook is just...well, facebook -- but if this is the way people socialize today, I'm really feeling old! How do you keep up with it? How do you resolve and determine REAL friendships? Or do you just use the online to supplement?

Funny Kitties

2008-04-15T18:49:00.003-06:00

This video is somewhat like how we are with our cats. Have I mentioned that we love our kitties? They are our children. I don't know how I will cope when they aren't around anymore. And if you ever doubt me, just look at our vet bill!

Does it make me lame now that i posted about kitties on my blog?

SparkPeople

2008-04-14T11:34:00.004-06:00

I'm not generally much of a person for online social networks. I mean, I belong to a few, but I just don't get INTO them. I think I'm too old. :b But my sister pointed one out to me yesterday that I thought might be helpful, so I joined it. We'll see how it works out.

For those who have never met me in person, I have to confess: I am very fat. VERY fat. I have a metabolic disorder which has ALWAYS made it difficult to lose weight, but over the last 10 years a few bouts with serious illness have pushed me over the edge from overweight to very obese and it has been very discouraging. It makes me tired, aggravates my depression, aggravates my genetic predisposition to insulin resistance, makes it hard to move around, etc., etc. Until you've actually been this fat you have no idea how hellish it is. With the depression it is even harder to fight than it used to be, so most of me has just sort of given up. And I find normal diet and health plans to be such a huge amount of bother and effort and so full of chipper, happy, gung-ho people that they just make me want to run away. So I'm afraid of trying this, but I'm going to try it anyway. Not anything high-falutin', just trying to exercise more and eat a little less and eat a little healthier. Just being more aware, not calorie-counting. Hopefully it will make a difference. We'll see. I really don't want to get gastric bypass surgery. If you want to try the site out for yourself, say hi to me there -- my username is mouriana.

Why I Blog (or, why I don't Blog So Much)

2008-04-14T11:21:00.002-06:00

I'm not a very good blogger. Obviously. Other people have a hobby or interest that they blog about. News comes up on that topic, then they comment on it and bring it to people's attention. I don't do that. Blogging to me is generally an effusion of emotion, something that has built up for a while that I feel I need to say something about. Then, IF you are lucky, I will remember that I even have a blog so I have a place to raise my voice, and I will post here. But it seems like most of my good ideas are lost to the sands of time.

Honestly, I blame my depression for a lot of my silence: so very very little seems worth interest, let alone talking about. It's very difficult. But a lot of the blame comes from backlash from the overwhelming diarrhea of the mouth I had for so many years. I grew up without many boundaries. Throughout college and for a few years afterwards I just said whatever came to mind. This got me into serious trouble a few times and lost me some friendships. It reached the point where I became very wary of my tongue, not just because of the hurt it could cause and the inappropriate things it would say, but also because I realized I was annoying with my endless chatter. I grew to hate my mouth. So I have gone in something of an opposite direction...unless I have a good reason to say something, I keep it to myself. Good or bad? I guess that's for you to decide. But for you blog addicts, I guess it could be considered a bad thing. :)

A New Blog Post -- so stressful!

2008-04-10T21:51:00.004-06:00

I was called on the carpet today for blogging so infrequently. So I am posting a post.

I was watching Cranky Geeks with my husband (yes I occasionally feed my geek roots) and they mentioned that the honorable (snort) NY Times is talking about how stressful blogging is, since there was some evidence of three deaths of bloggers. I say, of course it's stressful! Why do you think I blog so infrequently?! Oh, the pain! Having to think of new things to rant about! It's not easy! Especially if you are like me and you want to say something meaningful. How can I say anything meaningful if we're still suffering the repercussions of the writer's strike on TV? I mean, really!

Seriously, I guess some of my news was that I didn't get accepted to the Master's program in Creative Writing at Boise State. Turns out they wanted something unique and original, not necessarily well written, who knew? So now I has to write something new and original for next year. And grammar be darned.

Other than that, I have finally joined the ranks of social networking and jumped on Facebook today. I didn't want to. But tons of my friends and family are there. I couldn't help myself. It's not my fault! Stop looking at me like that!

I'm gonna go be unproductive elsewhere. See yas.

Happy Quote

2008-02-28T13:02:00.003-07:00

Happiness is a thing to be practiced, like the violin. -- John Lubbock

This quote has become one of my main life mottoes. As regular readers and those who know me already know, I suffer from chronic depression. However, in general, I think I have a much better attitude than I did 10, 15, 20 years ago. Why? Because I have practiced. I'm not naturally talented at being happy, but I have practiced it. Now many aspects of it are like second nature. Aside from medication, part of the practice has been 'cognitive' -- that is, I just find better thinking patterns and practice them until they are more natural -- and part of it has been from sort of 'psychotherapy' -- that is, I find the causes of my unhappy thoughts and change or root them out. This has been brought to mind while I am here in Utah helping my tragedy-ridden friend again. I couldn't do what she does. I just couldn't handle it, I am sure. But SOME of our struggles have been remarkably similar, and it's been interesting to me to see how differently we deal with the struggles. She plows through them, working and working and working to make them better or manageable. I stink at that; I tend to phyisically collapse or withdraw from extreme stressors. But she is at the same time very angry and bitter about the circumstances, and I find that this is something that I have learned to be better about. I have learned and gained enough faith that the trials are for my good and I must find good in them, because Heavenly Father loves me and as long as I do my best, He will protect me from things that are actually eternally bad for me. That means that even though a situation sucks, I have to remember that it's not only going to be okay, but it is somehow the best thing for me. Even if I die; even if I suffer. This causes me to have to rethink many, many situations to match this background eternal truth. But rethinking these things has never led me wrong, as long as I keep the love and grace of the Saviour as my unyielding rock of Truth. My friend struggles with this. She has other ideas that take precedence over this truth, so she is very unhappy as she plows nobly through her trials. My heart bleeds for her. I could not do the great things she does. But I want her to be happy.

Trials

2008-01-04T15:39:00.000-07:00

It has been an odd month. I won't go into details about the 3 people I know whom I have found out have cancer/probable cancer. But it's freaking me out. They are all young -- one is just eleven -- but it's making me feel old and scared and very, very mortal. The thing that has been getting to me the most, though, is an old friend who was in a snowboarding accident Christmas Eve and broke his back, among other things. They have been working to keep him alive since then (which has gone blessedly well) so we don't know many details on the status of the back, but so far he has not been able to feel anything from the waist down. For some reason this sort of thing gets to me more than even death itself. The thought of losing functionality absolutely terrifies me and it terrifies me vicariously in this situation. In fact, I don't want to talk about that much anymore.

This family is full of gems. The Mom is brilliant; she is my best friend from college and she is incredible with all she is able to do. The Dad, who had the accident, is also brilliant and an incredibly hard worker who only recently was able to get past the post-doc world and become faculty at the U of U. Their oldest child (who is far too old :) ) is a great help AND very smart, and the youngest child is a spitfire full of laughs. Their middle child unfortunately has some fairly severe handicaps, but I know this has brought blessings to the family through the struggles, and I think it has brought blessings to many others as well because the Mom fights so hard to make sure the legislature passes laws to help children like him. I mean, tell me, who has the strength and energy to raise 2 normal children AND a severely handicapped child AND lobby the state along with the other jobs she does on the side? She's incredible!

At any rate, I will be going down there in mid-January to help, but if anyone would like to contribute to gifts for this amazing family, please contact me at spamcatcher AT cableone DOT net in the next week or two and I will be happy to put any contributions into the kitty. The Dad is going to be in rehab for probably about a year, so any help would be greatly appreciated.

Logic and Blaming Religion for Evil

2008-01-04T15:26:00.000-07:00

I was talking with an acquaintance the other day and he mentioned that 'all wars are because of religion.' I was so shocked I didn't know what to say for a moment, then I rebutted, 'of course not ALL wars are because of religion. Many are about power, or land, or ethnicity, etc.' I wasn't very convincing, though I brought up a few examples, and I found myself disappointed with the conversation. It got me thinking again, though, about the common argument that 'religion can't be real/true because it is the source of so much evil.' This is a common fallacy that is put forth, surprisingly, often by intellectuals, even though it violates some of the most basic of logical arguments. You cannot hold up an example of the worst of something and use that as the complete representation of that thing. I believe it is called the straw man argument.

To put this in other words -- if religion is evil because so much of religion has been used as an excuse for evil deeds, then you must apply the same argument to all things that have been used as an excuse for evil deeds -- power, money, possessions, love. I can see many people falsely believing that power, money, and possessions are purely evil because of this (ignoring all of the good that can be and has been done with all three), but few would try to argue that love could be purely evil. Yet ask any homicide cop about the motives for the murders he has seen, and I can guarantee that love -- or some semblance thereof -- will be in the top three. It's just bad logic to take the worst examples of something and use it as the representation of that thing. So stop doing it. If you don't like religion, fine. But you'll have to use some different argument than 'it's evil'. There have been far, far too many good things done in the name of religion -- why, even in the hideous dark ages, religion was the reason we had writing and history preserved -- for it to be pure evil. We don't even have to get into the argument of what constitutes 'truly following God' for me to win this one. So I'll save that one for another day. :)

The Joy of Giving

2007-12-24T16:55:00.000-07:00

I typically finish my Christmas shopping rather early, but this year was a bit different. I'm a member of an online LDS forum called Nauvoo, and one of the members who lives near me has a son who has been very sick. So upon some discussion and the brilliant ideation of mini.michaela, we gathered up some money and gift certificates and today I headed out, dressed in full holiday regalia and armed with donated gift certificates.
First I went to Deseret Book. That store kept making me cry today as I looked at pictures of my Savior and I thought of the great things He has done for me and I thought of the young man for whom we were gifting. I bought a CD, a journal, and a book by Neal A. Maxwell and got out of there as quickly as I could.
Then, under duress of one of my gift certificates, I headed for my nemesis, the mall. Parking was crazy but I found a good spot and got some good stuff: a cute stuffed beagle and some really fluffy socks that I was tempted to buy more of because the deals were incredible. No wonder so many people shop on Christmas Eve! Then I grabbed some spicy Chinese food and headed out into the cold again.
Next stop: CompUSA. They have some good deals going on right now because corporate is closing all their stores down, but not as good of deals as I would like, and they don't appear to carry games anymore. Still, that was a dangerous store. I'm lucky I got out of there without a laser printer.
Next was the heart of my shopping: Cost Plus. I call it the heart, but that mostly because that's where I got the basket that everything else went in. :) That place is the BEST place for baskets! And international chocolates. And stuff like that. I got a nice Asian dinner set, since Jordan has been living in China and that's where Brianna is from. Also got some chocolates and a seahorse-shaped bubble gun. Because EVERYONE needs a bubble gun.
Then I walked over to Barnes and Noble. Another dangerous store. Luckily I had to go to the bathroom too badly to be distracted by all the interesting books. Made it out of there without having bought anything, so hooray!
Got into Archiver's 5 minutes before closing and bought a nice photo album, in red, because red is a Good Color in Chinese culture. The fact that they were closing scared me so I rushed to Best Buy for a gift certificate. Considering that I don't even KNOW these people in real life, I think making it through with only one gift certificate is pretty good! It had a nifty LED display that I tried to program to say 'Get Well Soon' but the interface was clumsy and frustrating so I ended up just saying 'Get Wel lhi' or something like that so they will have to be happy with that.
All done, delivery time. It only took about 10 minutes to get to Bonnie's house from the mall area, and they were so excited to see me! It was so nice talking with them and explaining the gifts. Brianna immediately started reading the Maxwell book and Jordan started playing with the bubble gun, so I think I done good. :) We took a picture, which I don't have a copy of, of us with the stuffed dog. Hopefully it will go in the album. I start to see where Santa gets so much joy from.

Music and stuff

2007-11-30T23:17:00.000-07:00

First things first: HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOMMO!!! Not that she reads this. But you know, it's out there now. :)

Then I wanted to talk about this uber-cool website for music-type people. It's got the typical cool stuff that any e-commerce site should have: a wishlist (that you can save and even send to other people), recommendations, etc. But the cool thing is the product. As most of you from anything smaller than a major metropolis know, it can sometimes be hard to find good sheet music. Most stores have pretty small collections, esp. if you want more than simple, or classical, or movie music, or anything using different instruments. But MusicNotes.com has just about EVERYTHING (except much female barbershop music. Sigh. Nobody's perfect). You put in what you play, how you want to play it, and it will find music for you. PLUS, one of the nicest things as a contralto vocal performer, I can TRANSPOSE almost everything I buy to a key that sounds better with my voice. Sure, I can get up to the E above middle C if I have to, but I don't sound too good up there. However, give me something that gets to the E BELOW middle C, and I actually sound halfway good! So I transpose it, I can hear a sample, I can see a sample, and I buy it and I get it immediately right off my printer. It's so nice. So go and check it out and buy something. And no, I don't get any commission. ;P

more stuff and more

2007-11-21T21:58:00.001-07:00

No, I'm NOT going to talk about Thanksgiving. I'm thankful for stuff but I try not to be thankful just once a year, so aside from the yumminess of turkey and stuffing, there's not much to talk about there. Maybe once we move to Oklahoma one of these days it will be different.
I AM going to talk about Pushing Daisies real quick, though. Tonight was another brilliant episode. Where do they come up with such clever, unique plots and witticisms? Not only was the overall plot unique and clever, but the side bit about Chuck's aunts dealing with depression was wonderfully profound as well. Man I can hardly handle how much I love this show.
Christmas is coming and it's driving me nuts. There just isn't enough money in the pocketbook to get all of the cool things I want to get for people. And I receive too dang many cool catalogues in the mail. Like Penzey's and Patternworks and King Arthur Flour. Not to mention all the goodies you can still find at Amazon and Costco even without a temptingly colorful catalogue. So hey, you, go to those stores and buy cool stuff and tell me about it. That way I can get my Christmas shopping fix through you at least. :) Happy Holidays!

Oh and speaking of holidays, my barbershop group is performing at the Old Time Christmas pageant thingy in Kuna at the Old High School Gym on the 1st of December at 1:00. Actually -- we'll be singing solos because one of the ladies can't make it but you should come hear us sing anyway!

A Funny Old Story...

2007-11-20T13:09:00.000-07:00

A friend reminded me that I also have some good old stories I can tell on here so I figure I would regale you with some of my college exploits. Since that's the only time I ever really did anything interesting anyway. ;)

Anyway, it was a Friday night and I was studying and making cinnamon rolls. My roommate Katie and I lived in an old 1920's quadriplex with an old gas stove that was nearly as old as the apartment (that place was AWESOME). The oven's temperature ran about 100 degrees hotter than it said (at least according to the few numbers you could still read on the dial) and it had to be lit with a match, so it was fun (remind me of the time I left my little sister there and she decided to bake something but she didn't know you had to light the oven and she almost blew up the place). ANYWAY, my roommate had accidentally barely left the gas on. I mean, BARELY. Couldn't hear a hiss. Couldn't smell the gas. But it had built up in the oven, so when I went to light the oven I barely had time to think, 'wait, was that all the way off?' and back up before a ball of flame came at my head. I shut my eyes and 'eeped' as I heard a crackle and I started slapping at my head to try and put out any flames (luckily I don't use hairspray!). My roommate heard the 'eep' and came to ask what happened. The conversation went kind of like this:
"Is my hair on fire?"
"What?!"
"IS MY HAIR ON FIRE?!"
"Stick your head in the sink."
"What?"
"STICK YOUR HEAD IN THE SINK!"

So I did, and we turned on the water to hear the great sizzle of hot meeting cold and wet. Then we moved to the tub where it was easier to maneuver and really rinsed my hair out. When I was done, there was a ring of singed hair around the tub, my hairline was pushed back about an inch, and my eyelashes looked like I had taken scissors to them. I couldn't stop laughing. Couple of things I learned about that experience:
1. It really IS an eternal law that you're not supposed to study on a Friday night! and
2. I have Eyebrows of Steel, because they weren't the slightest bit singed. What a dumb superpower to have.

Chuck and What I Did This Summer

2007-11-12T20:29:00.000-07:00

Well, first, I have to say that I love the show Chuck a little more each week. The pilot was only mildly impressive to me -- I just thought the premise of a guy memorizing tons of things simply by being flashed images in the course of a few hours, was kind of stupid. But every week the characterizations just get better, and, let's face it, when it comes right down to it I'm a sucker for the romantical. This week's was just luscious on that front; I just find Chuck's character to be so cute (am I a sucker for the geeky or what?) that I feast upon Sarah's hidden liking of him with great delight, and I relish the fact that she now has to fight for him. Woo hoo!

Now, I have to repent of the sorry sin of neglecting an exciting tale of What I Did This Summer. It was only a week, actually, but it was still interesting. I went down to Education Week at BYU in August. Originally, it was primarily to meet friends I had met on the LDS online forum at www.nauvoo.com. But once I got there I was pleasantly surprised to find that the classes offered by BYU were insightful and informative, offering handy items on psychology, teaching skills, scriptures, and gospel topics. It was wonderful! I feel like it was something I was meant to be at -- mostly because of the adventure I had getting down there. First, when I was just past Logan on I-84, I was run off the road by a retard in a little blue car. There were posts on the side of the road, but miraculously I was able to barely (and I mean by INCHES) keep between the posts and the retard who ran me off the road. THEN, when I was in Salt Lake on I-15, in the midst of construction, a huge piece of metal was flipped up from the side of the road and bounced off the top of my car, missing my windshield by less than 2 inches. It being in the middle of construction, there was no shoulder so I couldn't pull off the road, and I really couldn't even slow down from the 65 mph speed limit being in th midst of traffic the way I was. I felt very blessed to make it down to Ed Week with only a dent on the roof of my car to show for my adventures!
That was the biggest adventure of the week, but I had a great time while I was down there, seeing my brother, meeting my online friends, and getting to take some great classes for not much money, it was an awesome trip that I hope to make into an annual trek.

Scrapbooking and stuff

2007-11-11T12:23:00.000-07:00

OK, first, I must disappoint with the fact that I couldn't find any gaping plot holes in Moonlight this week. Admittedly I wasn't paying very much attention, but siiiiiighh. I actually kind of even liked the show, though it fulfilled my lame prediction that his ex-wife was going to come back and cause trouble somehow. But it worries me that I liked it. Either the show is getting smarter or I'm getting dumber. Eep!

If I weren't so busy this week I would be even more sad that there was no Pushing Daisies this week. As it was, Wednesday was a gaping hole of sad emptiness, but I survived.

Now onto scrapbooking. I must mock myself. I am not typically a person who gets onto the popular craft bandwagon. And according to my husband, I have spent much time mocking those who do things like scrapbooking (a fact which I have conveniently forgotten). Spending so much time, money, and space on putting pictures onto fancy pages seemed silly to me, I guess. But as I get older and more nostalgic, I find myself SCRAPPING and LIKING it. I have stacks and stacks of photos that bring back great memories, but as I get older, more and more of the details are becoming lost to me. And so many of them are parts of times that are so important to me that they deserve to be remembered, more than just an image, but labeled and in context. I've been creating a scrapbook of my college years and it's wonderful, remembering and putting things down, and thinking of how my descendants may now look at them someday and hopefully have an idea of what those wonderful years were like to me, so much more than simply photos in a box. I only wish my own ancestors had the ability and forethought to put such things together for us for our records. It's amazing how much is lost in a single generation.

Oh, and I have to put a plug in here for Saturn. I'm not super-keen on their lower-level cars at this point (it was downright EMBARRASSING trying to get up a mountain in Utah in August of this year -- I had no power!). However, their non-commissioned sales staff are TOP NOTCH in my book and we have always appreciated their honest approach. We research blue book values before we go look at cars, and Saturn has always offered us top dollar for our trade-ins without haggling. When we have bought used cars from them, they have typically BEAT the blue book price and have been very honest with us on the value and problems with the vehicle. But the thing that clinched my loyalty this week was this: five years ago we bought a brand-new vehicle from them and purchased the warranty with it, as we were told that we would get the money back at the end of the warranty period if we didn't use it. Well, the warranty expired in September, so a little over a week ago I called to check on the status of the refund. A simple letter giving the status of our payoff was all that was necessary and we already have received the check -- a sizable sum. Now I just wish that the Saturn company sold Priuses!

Another plot hole or two

2007-11-04T16:46:00.001-07:00

Man, this Moonlight show is just a plethora of plot holes! I love it! It gives me something to blog about like EVERY WEEK.

Ok, this week's main plot was irritatingly contradictory. Two weeks ago the rule was established that the way you are 'turned' into a vampire is by drinking a vampire's blood. Well this week, they brought out a new human drug made of, you guessed it, vampire's blood. There is no explanation as to why this doesn't turn any of the people who drink it, though we are left to assume that the silver (which is poisonous to vampires in this branch of the mythos) in the mixture somehow voids that basic rule. So not exactly completely a plot hole, but enough of a 'gee let's just make up the rules as we go along' item that it's irritating.

Another vampire 'fact' that has been established is that they cannot eat human food. Why they can't is never explained, but it has come up in multiple episodes that often vampires pine for the food they enjoyed when they were human. If this were simply a case of the food doing them no good, logic dictates that they could still enjoy the food, eat it, pass it, whatever, even if they couldn't get anything from it, but no, we are told that they cannot eat it. Dumb rule if you ask me (esp. since it contradicts all other vampire mythos I have seen, though I will admit I am no expert), but ok. It is often shown that Mick won't even drink coffee or the like. However, near the end of this week's episode, Mick is seen drinking some alcoholic beverage and sharing it with his vampire friend. Um, if you can't eat human food or drink human drink, when did alcohol become ok? Another handy rule made up on the spot? And don't tell me it was fermented blood, because this stuff was the color of apple juice, not even looking like red wine, so forget that.

Knitting addiction and catching up

2007-11-04T10:17:00.000-07:00

First, let's catch up. I did ok on the GRE. Got a 680 on the verbal, and I only needed a 500 for the program I'm trying to get into, so I think I'm good. Hooray! I won't mention my computational score. It's horrifically embarrassing, esp. for someone who took calculus in college for an easy 'A'.

Otherwise, I'm in a knitting frenzy lately. I keep buying yarn and making stuff with it. The Christmas projects I can excuse, even though I committed myself to too many of them. But every time I see a baby lately I feel compelled to knit them little fruit hats like this one pictured here. And why, yes, it IS pictured on a cute little kitty! So my hands are cramping up from too much knitting. But it's so ding-danged compelling. Look, ma, I made my own material into something cute, just from this piece of string!

testing...testing...123

2007-10-29T16:29:00.000-06:00

Tomorrow I take the GRE. I'm taking it as part of my attempt to get into the MFA program in Creative Writing at BSU. It's just the standard test, and the only thing the MFA program looks at is the verbal, but I am scared stiff.

Standardized tests used to be easy for me. I have never studied for one in my life, yet I consistently scored in the 98th-99th percentile on both verbal and mathematics throughout my primary and secondary education. It was the one thing in life that I was really good at, and though I've learned since then that it doesn't matter nearly as much as it seemed to when I was in school, I still took a lot of pride in the fact that I could test well. But it's been 15 years since I've gone to any type of schooling, and I've spent the last ten years of my life with the world telling me I'm stupid and me believing it, so now even the practice tests I've taken intimidate me. The verbal portions haven't been too bad, but the computational are AWFUL -- it's so much easier to practice reading and writing on your way than it is to practice geometry and algebra. And I'm wondering if it is really possible for a person's brain to melt.

Even more important though -- I think the world tells EVERYONE that they are stupid, that they can't do things, that they should just give up. I don't know why, it just seems that way. And I wonder, how do people get past that? Are they just particularly strong to be able to rise above it, or particularly stupid to be ignorant of it, or what? And how in the world do you get past that and not get cocky or cruel?

The bestest show ever

2007-10-28T12:04:00.000-06:00

Pushing Daisies is the best show on television right now. I have to say it's even better than House. This week they even featured a song by They Might Be Giants quintessential album, "Flood". This means that the makers of Pushing Daisies are TEH AWESOME. So if you haven't caught any episodes go here and catch up. Now! Do it! Doooooo iiiiiiiiit! (Might work better with IE than Firefox though, sorry. :( )