« February 2005 | Main | April 2005 »
March 31, 2005
i really shouldn't laugh at geeks
but well, when good friends send you
links like this...
Posted by crystallyn at 09:31 PM
March 29, 2005
geek obsessions
So maybe I'm slow to the podcast bandwagon, but now I have a definite reason to pay attention. Besides poetry readings by Mark Strand, Forrest Gander, Robert Creeley, Mark Doty and more, now I can fuel my other obsession...
Battlestar Galactica.
I am so hooked on this show and now I can check out really cool podcasts about the episodes, characters, writers, motivations, etc. Executive producer Ronald D. Moore gives great commentary...really gives a whole new dimension to it all.
I am SO sad that the season finale is this Friday. I don't WANT to wait until next season for my fix! Seriously, absolutely great sci-fi. I'll warn you though...it's tough to figure out what is going on if you miss an episode. I missed the mini-series
and it took me awhile to figure some of it all out. Season 1 should be out on DVD soon though, I bet. Worth buying and catching up!
Posted by crystallyn at 08:38 PM | Comments (4)
March 27, 2005
give me dignity
If there is anything that the Teri Schiavo case has shown us...it's that we need to be very clear in our wishes as to how we would want medical treatment to be given or not given to us in the case of being mentally or physically unable to do so ourselves.
Get your living will in order. They're very popular these days as a result of the endless media circus!
As for me, let me state clearly, if I became vegetative, massively disfigured or unable to function on my own over the long haul--put me out of my misery. Please. There is no way on earth I would ever want to be sustained unnaturally and indefinitely. I figure that if I could only live hooked up to some crazy machine then God probably wouldn't want me living anyway--it's man playing God then, not the natural forces of the world that brought me into them.
I look at it this way--if it were me in a vegetative state for 15 years--my soul would be going bonkers trying to get out and to move on to bigger and better things (heaven, reincarnation, whatever may be in store!). It would be the most awful thing ever to be trapped, watching my family go through terrible sadness and pain; wondering when I would ever just get back up and move forward; wondering why natural forces hadn't just taken the course they were supposed to.
The thing that saddens me most about the whole Schiavo case is that the poor woman is now, in the last days of her life, the center of the world's attention...in a way that I'm sure she would never ever have wanted. It's sick and disgusting and we should all be ashamed of ourselves. We're all waiting with baited breath to find out if she finally passed on. I'm sure I'm not the only one who checks the news first thing in the AM with the primary goal of finding out--did she make it one more day? Or finally, did the end of this horrible media nightmare arrive? I just want her to be at peace.
And reading about people who want to kill to help her--I just don't understand. I don't understand how the religious right seems to decide to throw the teachings of Christ right out the window when it suits them. I mean really, an eye for an eye was SO Old Testament. Christ taught us to turn the other cheek, to forgive, to love our neighbors, and to live by example. He was a pacifist--the most pure and true of them all. So much so that he, with all the power within him, didn't lift a finger against his oppressors, dying on the cross at the hands of people who in the end, he FORGAVE. Isn't that the whole point of Easter? Sometimes it seems so strange to me, how I, bordering on agnostic that I am, know so much more about the Bible than the people who profess to it being their favorite book.
It really really saddens me. The older I get, the more crazy the world seems to be.
Posted by crystallyn at 09:58 AM | Comments (3)
March 25, 2005
diagnose me too!
Found originally on Boing Boing, Michael Bassik of the Personal Democracy Forum has come up with an excellent idea--sending pictures to Bill Frist for his professional diagnosis!
I added one of my scabbed lip (3 stitches, face bruised and swollen...it's not one of the worst pics) after our car accident.
Wonder what he would say it is? Nasty case of herpes? Cold sores gone wild? Maybe even AIDS?
Posted by crystallyn at 09:17 PM | Comments (1)
March 24, 2005
she has integrity
as Joe says.
We caught a recent episode of South Park, featuring WING! Oh my, she kicks ass over all the American Idol contestants, hands down!
Joe: "She's much better than William Hung!"
And he's right.
Listen to Dancing Queen. ABBA remake--the best I've heard yet!
Posted by crystallyn at 10:05 PM
March 22, 2005
is April really the cruelest month?
Or so Eliot tells us. I'm not so sure. But they do say March comes in like a lion and out like a lamb. But if that's the case, why is April so cruel? Personally I don't see any lamb grazing around here. No grass to graze upon.
I think this Boston March has been cruel. First day of spring arrives and I was faced with a snow flurry on my way to work. Then today is a miraculous 53 degrees...the first time it has been this warm in months and months. And the rest of the week? Back down to the 40s. The snow is slowly slowly melting. Key word there--slowly.
I don't think all of it will be gone until well into April. We just had too much this year. And it keeps teasing us...melting a little, then turning cold again. Mother Nature is having a grand old time with us this year.
Boston had the 5th snowiest winter on record this year. So much so that they had to haul snow out of the city so it wouldn't clog up roadways. There is one such dumping ground (called snow "pahks") between my house and my gym. It's a side yard in a gravel pit and I saw them hauling truckloads of snow in and using a crane to pile up the highest dirty snow mountain I've ever seen. It won't melt until September I bet. This morning I drove by...couldn't see much snow, actually. Oh the mountain was still there but instead it was one huge butt-ugly dirt mound. Only if you saw them bringing the snow in would you realize that it was a pile of icedirt. BLECH!
But today, oh glorious day! I drove into Concord center with the sunroof open, windows down and my jacket off! I saw a robin! The first one yet for me this year. I can't tell you how happy I was about that. And today, on a conference call, one of my colleagues was telling me that she saw flowers in her neighbor's yard! Could it possibly be? I thought she had to be joking. Not one iota of green to be seen around my town.
But I've been waking up around 5:30 because it is light outside, so I know spring has nearly sprung. I just wish the coils would hurry up and unwind. I'm ready to usher old man winter back into his cold empty hole.
Posted by crystallyn at 09:41 PM | Comments (3)
March 20, 2005
the sweet smell of success
well, if you are a bowler, you might hope that success goes along with the sweet smell. My sister recently had her car stolen from her driveway in Boise. Her husband was warming up the car and he went back in to say goodbye to the kids and someone came and swiped the car, which also had his wallet, watch, the kids' car seats and two bowling balls in the trunk. A week later they did recover the car, sans radio and everything inside it. A week or so after that, they found the kids that had taken the car, but their stuff was still a loss.
But now, Misty and Tom can replace their lost bowling balls with yes, you are reading this correctly--scented bowling balls!!
Apparently they are quite popular with pro bowlers--over half used them last year during the PBA tour last year. The balls, made by Storm, has around 40 different scented balls, such as black cherry, chocolate, lemonade, plum, blueberry, grape, banana, cinnamon, orange, amaretto and cherry.
Mmm. Amaretto. If I were going to be buying a bowling ball, that would do it for me...
Posted by crystallyn at 09:54 AM
March 17, 2005
fashion geek
I really think I should have one of these:
Tulip E-Go notebook inlaid with solid palladium white gold plates in which thousands of brilliant cut diamonds have been set. The quality is V.V.S. top-Wesselton and the total weight is 80.00 Crt.
but since I can't probably afford that...I would certainly settle for one of the funky fabric ones...
I think it would inspire me to get off my ass, go sit in a cafe and write. I'd look so ultra-hip now, wouldn't I?
Posted by crystallyn at 08:27 PM | Comments (1)
March 13, 2005
there are lots of things
that I have been wanting to write about but have felt an internal "blah" sort of feeling and haven't done so. The accident threw Joe and I really out of sorts emotionally. We don't look or feel 100% and that's been a struggle. We both may end up with facial scars out of the whole ordeal. I have a pea-sized chunk of scar tissue inside my lip. The lawsuit could be a very lengthy process. We haven't been to the gym in three weeks. Joe has lost nearly three weeks of income and that is, of course, stressful. Our awesome Vegas vacation seems like it was ten years ago. Taking time off from work for doctor's visits is a hassle. The antibiotics have Joe feeling lethargic. We're both tired of watching TV and being cooped up in the house. We go through periods of being elated that we are alive, still have each other and that it wasn't a lot worse--to being angry that our lives were thrown into such stress, pain and turmoil. We just want our lives back and moving forward.
I have an itch to throw a cocktail party.
Other things:
I want to see Spamalot!
I'm tired of snow. I want to see crocuses and daffodils in people's yards, not piles of dirty ice.
It's rather irritating that I have to take a vacation day in order to walk at my graduation on June 3. Why can't they have it on a weekend like other schools??
I, for one, am glad that Martha's out of jail--she got so shafted. Did anyone see that horrid Ken Lay piece on 60 minutes? If that slimy man gets less jail time than her I'll be ticked.
I have always wanted a Clapper.
There's a new online magazine out that is worth a look if you are a foodie like me--Saucy.
I'm gearing up for Duran Duran on April 1!!!!
An absolutely fascinating look at how people work.
And to round out your day with overwhelming cuteness...
Posted by crystallyn at 01:45 PM | Comments (1)
March 09, 2005
out of all the pain
we've suffered, Joe pointed out that it could have been a lot worse.
We could have been attacked by wild monkeys!
Posted by crystallyn at 07:28 AM | Comments (2)
March 06, 2005
share and share
I've really come to like Google's next little free tool, Picasa. What a wonderful program! I've been looking for a good, free program that allows you to easily categorize and manipulate photos and hands down, Picasa is the best I've found. Combine that with Hello another tool that helps you to quickly share photos with friends and you've got a winner. If any of you end up trying Picasa and Hello make sure you add me to your friends list!
And speaking of friends, NetFlix gives you the opportunity to share your movie lists and recommendations with your friends. Any of you Netflix users that want me to add you, let me know!
The accident update: Joe's surgery on his nose went okay. He had a high blood pressure reaction to the cocaine pack they had given him (and the guy next to him in recovery who was puking didn't help) but he's better now with a cast on his nose and finally in better spirits. He can nearly breathe again! We're waiting for results of my CT scan to come back to see if I may need surgery. I really really don't want to go through what Joe has just gone through. In the meantime, I'm fighting with this freaky little bit of scar tissue in my upper lip where they stitched it back together after the accident. Between my nose and my lip it's essentially numb. I can't pucker up very well and blowing candles out is suddenly the most difficult job in the world...not because I don't have enough hot air, but because I can't get my lips to work right. It makes me immeasurably sad...if they can't fix it I don't know what I'll do. Kissing, one of my all-time favorite things, is suddenly only a half-sensation now. My smile is messed up too...it looks tight and fake. Okay, enough whine. Anyone got some good bleu to go with it?
But if you are waiting anxiously, like I am for the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy to come out, go here
Posted by crystallyn at 06:08 PM