My Week of Internet Thanks - Day 4

It is late, and Black Friday at Walmart has sapped my desire to do anything other than sterilize the majority of the population.  This is slightly late, but I suspect you will forgive me.  If not, I suspect I will live.

Day 4 - Webcomics

Below I have included links to some of my favorite webcomics.  Enjoy, and happy belated Thanksgiving.

XKCD

Player Vs Player

Real Life Comics

Order of the Stick

Looking for Group

My Week of Internet Thanks - Day 3

This one is quick, because I am tired from driving back from Arkansas.  Today on the Internet I am thankful for Hanson, specifically for making them not for little girls anymore.

Day 3 - Hanson

My Week of Internet Thanks - Day 2

I am sitting at Bluegrass Airport, waiting on the very first flight of my life to take off.  To take a bit of the edge off, I thought I should be thankful for something.  So, here it goes.

Day 2 - Podcasts

I have included the embedded players for two of my favorite podcasts.  Hope you enjoy!

Stop Podcasting Yourself - The Sound of Young America

Jordan, Jesse GO! - The Sound of Young America

My Week of Internet Thanks - Day 1

Somwhere amongst the tryptophan overdoses and the ritual worship of extremely padded pigskin-slinging gladiators, it is customary to give thanks for ones blessings during this aptly named holiday of Thanksgiving*.

Because the real world is scary and the day star burns, the only real thing I'm thankful for is the Internet**.  This week, you'll see why.

Day 1 - Jessica's Daily Affirmations

*You Canadians are free to go back to being selfish and self-absorbed.

**No, not really.  It's called suspension of disbelief, you should try it some time.

Scrappers Give Thanks

I cannot say enough about how worthy a cause this is, ladies. If anyone reading my blog has not participated in this page-raiser yet, please consider doing so! Your submissions could help bring a smile to the faces of so many children!

My Pages:

Made with bits from: Kellie's Kreations


Made with bits from: Scrappy Princess


Made with bits from: Kellie's Kreations


Made with bits from: Kellie's Kreations

Follies and Foibles*

I find myself sitting at the computer, lo this Saturday evening, downloading a CD by which I can restore my PC.

"Why is this?" you undoubtedly find yourself asking.  "You're the king of all computers, the emperor of electronics, the sultan on silicon."

Thank you.  Really, you're too kind.  Unfortunately, even at my exalted station can one fall victim to the simplest of mistakes.  Haste, it is said, makes waste.  It also makes for accidentally deleting restore partitions before you've had a chance to create backup DVDs.  If that rhymed it would be an equally popular saying.

So here's a Public Service Announcement (not from your favorite DJ Three Dog**, but from me, Nathan): make sure you have backups created before you do stupid things.  Or before you do smart things.  In fact, quit reading this, make a backup, and come back.

...

...

Good.  Don't you feel better.  I know I do.

Now my burn is completed and the real work begins.  Off to the races, boys and girls.

*I'm not 100% sure what that word means.
**You're welcome, Fallout 3 nerds.

Christmas Decorating Plans

I know it's not time for Christmas... yet... but it's never too early to start planning for decorations, right?

It's not even really that early - decorations can go up next Friday. :) YAY!

Tree:
- Retrieve tree and decorations from mother-in-law's house on Thanksgiving. Make husband carry heavy tupperware containers. Console him with lots of kisses.
- Decorate with ornaments from last year. Small collection, but pretty.
- Buy cheap ball ornaments at the Dollar Tree ($2 for like 30), so that cats do not ruin nice ornaments. Test them by throwing a few at the sidewalk outside for shatter-index. Probably buy a cheap tree skirt to make clean-up easier (No idea about $$).
- Pop Dollar Tree popcorn ($1 - three bags) and string it on leftover thread from my sewing class, make HUGE popcorn garland to lay all over tree (cats do not like popcorn).
- Cut construction paper ($1)(also purchased from Dollar Tree) into 1/2-inch strips legnthwise, then cut each strip into 1 1/2 inch pieces. Glue together to make garland. Wrap around tree. Be excited.
- Hang christmas lights and possibly ornaments from each of the three front windows. (Mini Tree Lights = $2.50 at Wal*Mart - still shopping for plastic "non-breaking" ornaments).
- Buy box of candy canes - decorate the tree & are removable for stirring into cocoa! Genius! (88¢ at Wal*Mart)
- Look at Dollar Tree for cheap, cheesy christmas-themed tablecloths - use one for kitchen table, use the other two for living room side table, and desk/entertainment center. (Assuming around $3 - considering where I'm buying them)
- Maybe table runner to put on LP player? ($1?)
- Undecided about greenery - considering the kittens, I think no this year.

Mi chiamano Mimì

Sì. Mi chiamano Mimì,
ma il mio nome è Lucia.
La storia mia è breve.
A tela o a seta
ricamo in casa e fuori...
Son tranquilla e lieta
ed è mio svago
far gigli e rose.
Mi piaccion quelle cose
che han sì dolce malìa,
che parlano d'amor, di primavere,
di sogni e di chimere,
quelle cose che han nome poesia...
Lei m'intende?

Mi chiamano Mimì,
il perché, non so.
Sola, mi fo
il pranzo da me stessa.
Non vado sempre a messa,
ma prego assai il Signore.
Vivo sola, soletta.
Là in una bianca cameretta:
guardo sui tetti e in cielo;
Ma quando vien lo sgelo,
il primo sole è mio,
il primo bacio dell'aprile è mio!
Il primo sole, è mio.
Germoglia in un vaso una rosa...
Foglia a foglia la spio!
Cosi gentile il profumo d'un fiore!
Ma i fior ch'io faccio,
Ahimè! non hanno odore.
Altro di me non le saprei marrare.
Sono la sua vicina che la vien fuori d'ora a importunare.

Sandwiches, Faces, and Blinking

Dear Imaginary Readers,

It is time once again for the bi-annual update of Coincidental Fishsticks.  This update is sponsored by Boredom™.  When there's nothing else to do, choose Boredom™!

Tonight's insane, rambling diatribe is inspired by National Novel Writing Month, or NaNoWriMo.  For those poor few uninformed, this is a month in which the nation, as a whole, sits down to write a novel.  The best of these get self-published.  The worst are burned while their authors fight to be the one survivor of the Thunderdome (Fun Fact: on the weekends, the Thunderdome is home to high school football tournaments).

It is also a time in which amateur authors are encouraged to put pen to paper or finger to keyboard to create a piece of fiction out of nothing.  The act of conjuring up a world is the closest man can come to magic*.  Fifty thousand words which existed before are being reorganized in a way never before seen to create something completely new.  Nobody has ever seen this thing you've created before, because you just created it.  "This is my story," you will say in unison with your writing brothers**, "There are many like it but this one is mine."

This is both liberating and debilitating.  I find it completely numbing, and not in the fun way you get before dental work.  The options are, if it is possible, too unlimited.  I need boundaries, and this blows them away.  I salute those who can look the open prairie in the metaphorical face and wait to see who blinks first***.  I look forward to completely ignoring your novel the way I do most things.  For now, my steam has run out and I never did figure out if I had a point or not, so I'm going to end here.  Now, where's that sandwich?

*Unless you're Criss Angel.

**And sisters.  Geez, we get it.  Ladies can do anything fellas can do.  Now be a doll and make me a sandwich, yeah?

***You will.  Metaphors don't need to blink, because of their state of being not a physical object.  Use a dog or small child instead.

Home Again, Home Again...

I find, with each passing day, I am more and more glad to be home.
Yesterday was exhausting. Phew.
It was the dress rehearsal for Dr. Wolf's Studio Recital & Fall Opera Scenes. Which naturally means that Deanna (Opera Guild President) and myself (Opera Guild's oldest current standing member and Treasurer) were out and on the go all day. Phew! It's a good thing she's staying at my house all week, we could just crash when it was all over!
My day looked something like this:
7:00 - alarm went off. It was around this time. I woke up, Dee didn't.
7:15 - I was dressed, Dee was wiping sand out of her eyes. :P
7:45 - showers and breakfast aside, we were ready to leave.
8:00 - Institute (studying D&C this semester)
9:00 - Go back to apartment for computer power chord - dummy.
9:15 - Go to Chase and get change. Because cash is imporant to have on hand.
9:20 - 10:15 - Drive around campus and curse EKU parking. Epic fail.
10:20 - Arrive at class. Is there a test today?
10:21 - Check the syllabus. THERE ARE NO DATES.
10:24 - Ask a classmate. No idea.
10:25 - Ask another. NO ONE KNOWS ANYTHING!
10:26 - 11:59 - FREAK OUT! And study the powerpoints online. OH WAIT - you don't have Microsoft Office. Nevermind.
11:00 - Biology starts. Test is not for two more weeks. Experience sweet relief.
12:00 - Walk to Foster.
12:15 - Wait for Deanna to get un-Lost.
12:20 - Go with Dee to pay her rent, pick up her props. We are getting tired now. Found the next two issues of a manga I'm reading in her apartment. Ganked them. Sweet victory.
1:16 - Go to my apartment. Pick up props. Play with kittens. Joy.
1:45 -Go to ACE. Dee's mother is not there. Her grandmother is in the hospital. Lovely.
2:00 - Go to the Dollar Tree. They do not have what we need. We continue to be tired.
2:10 - Go to Hobby Lobby. FINALLY! Found (part of) it!
2:50 - Sit in traffic.
3:05 - Go to Party City. Found the other part. Debated over price. Was tired, bought the cheaper of the two. Declared it suitable.
3:20 - Drive to campus. Park. Then WALK to rehearsal.
3:24 - I found myself with a serious desire to cause bodily harm to the first person to be snarky to me.
3:30 - Rehearsal starts. We have to dress Chase for his opera scene. He likes Orange & Purple, I like Teal. Deanna overrides him and says yes Teal. I have a moment of triumph.
3:40 - Dee starts rehearsal for Stoned Guest.
3:41 - Children start arriving for Oliver! scene. I have to answer many questions.
4:00 - Five kids (that's two more than were at rehearsal last week) Dee, Courtney, and I begin drawing food on posterboard.
4:15 - Act like you have energy. Check. Devise choreography for end of children's scene. Check. Rehearse it with them three times. Check. Fall over and die now? Nope, not happening.
5:00 - Rehearse La Boheme. Face melts off because I have forgotten all the words to my aria. Which is in Italian. Failcakes.
5:30 - Rehearsal blessedly ends. Dee remembers to pick up the markers that I was too tired to care about. All leave.
5:45 - Have urgent desire to speak with Ashley. Get offered free food from Subway. Take her up on offer. Have dinner. Speak urgently.
7:00 - Husband calls. Wants to know why I am not home and where is the chili? I am embarassed - I forgot it.
7:20 - I am home. Husband forgives me.
8:something - I am tired. I go to bed.
9:something - ZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzz......................

This said. I am again tired. And tomorrow is the performance. And I'm still having word difficulties.
But on the bright side, baby has decided to behave and quit with the nausea thing. :) Woohoo!