5.21.2003
two things
well, maybe three...or four.
Going to move over to Moveable Type from Blogger...having them do it (I got freaked out thinking about how I could mess it all up), so unsure when it will take place--hopefully in the next day or so.
Thanks James for getting me hooked on Blogshares. I went from $500 to $192,000 in less than a week. Joe thinks I'm obsessed. Now it's getting to be too cumbersome and time consuming to trade, however.
Clay better win tonight, that's all I can say.
Joe put his name into the Googlism and it had WAY better things to say...
joe is my interactive bra
joe is love
joe is a good man
joe is the hottest man alive
joe is rad
joe is appearing with his own band
joe is so getting laid tonight !!!
joe is interrogated at the police station
joe is having a drink in his local bar when in walks this beautiful woman
joe is the devil
joe is your pwner
joe is not happy about being left behind in episode 101
joe is not an expert in voodoo and he promises to be nice to his followers
joe is controlling transmission
joe is a highly secret paramilitary organization whose job is to stop the diabolic organization of cobra from taking over the world
joe is nasty
joe is hurtled to purgatory
joe is a priest
joe is no ordinary gorilla
joe is so smart
joe is enjoying a lot of success with his latest album
joe is truly a beer fanatic
joe is working to ensure that northwest florida becomes a place that is as unique
joe is dancing in the streets
joe is not stoned
joe is gorgeous
joe is awesome
joe is a sick monkey
joe is founder and president of hypnotic marketing
6:37 PM | link | up| archives |
crystal is
according to Googlism:
crystal is highest quality of over 30% lead
crystal is a public health consultancy group
crystal is our specialty
crystal is for $1
crystal is the name
crystal is crucial
crystal is one kind of piezoelectric material
crystal is currently a hot item nationally
crystal is approximately 10 cm high
crystal is stolen
crystal is the name given to all clear colorless quartz
crystal is rotated around this axis and a new face is left at various intervals during the rotation
crystal is receives $1
crystal is made
crystal is cheap !!!
crystal is golden nintendo
crystal is forever
crystal is a fourth ``state'' that certain kinds of matter can enter into under the right conditions
crystal is usually defined as brilliant glass
crystal is a family of shrink
crystal is at heart a collector
crystal is transparent
crystal is truly magnificent
crystal is a nice point with a centrally located point and an isis face
crystal is a natural double generator
crystal is a transparent glass of a high degree of brilliance and optical purity
crystal is concentrated energy
crystal is a reward in itself
crystal is considered by many people to be the finest quality
crystal is a fragrance free stone that neutralizes odor causing bacteria for 24 hours
crystal is manufactured in large sheets up to 3" thick
crystal is sent to you for continued healing
crystal is the customary gift
crystal is bound with jute twine
crystal is making tremendous adjustments within your energy field
crystal is found almost everywhere you see white quartz rock on the ground
crystal is president and chief
crystal is from brazil and arkansas
crystal is pervasive in the market with 85% of fortune 1000 (wow I would like that)
crystal is the crystal of death or outcasting
crystal is a tabby and hosts soft green tourmalines
crystal is the most suitable material to split light so that it shines
crystal is one of the largest weyrs on pern (any Anne McCaffery fans out there?)
crystal is amazing
crystal is priced at $400
6:18 AM | link | up| archives |
5.20.2003
if ruben wins i'll be
pissed. Joe got me watching American Idol...he's been very sucked into it. Ruben is good, but he isn't better than the others. The John Lennon "Imagine" cover that he did was just NOT good...sorry, but that's the truth of it. Come on, let the gay guy win...he's much much better.
The amazing thing is that there are thousands of clueless teenage girls who idolize him...my gaydar is like a siren when I see that guy. I mean, come on...his favorite male singer is Peter Cetera???
8:33 PM | link | up| archives |
5.19.2003
so we REALLY scored
what I didn't mention about the typewriter bracelet is that it cost $40 and the really nice man that was there threw one in for Paulette for being such a nice friend to get it for me for my birthday. So today, in looking at Reusablog, I discover this link to the same sorts of bracelets. We made out like bandits!
3:56 PM | link | up| archives |
5.17.2003
we scored
at Brimfield. Now we are exhausted, but we came home with a few treasures. I spent nearly $70 on postcards, sigh. I wish my scanner were hooked up! Paulette got me a cool, funky bracelet for my birthday (it's in a couple weeks) made by this guy from Tacoma, WA (we called it Tacky-Aroma when I lived in Seattle). He collects keys from old typewriters and makes bracelets out of them.
We also picked up a great plant stand for the balcony as well as some old milk bottles for me to use as flower vases. For the kitchen, we acquired a nifty print of the incubation of a chicken egg that had been hand colored by an artist. You can't see it well here, but the colors are beautiful and it's just so odd that we had to have it.
The artist said that she found it wonderful that Joe and I liked the same art (well, from what she saw!). She said that most couples would come by and one of them would love the prints and the significant other would hate them. Speaking of art, we came across a guy selling vintage posters. They were in excellent condition and the art was unusual and interesting. Some of them were quite beautiful. I wish we could have afforded the ones that we liked...this one I absolutely loved, from a series of public service announcements on working and behaving better...
and this one, which I found on the website, but didn't see at the show:
There were also many many strange and odd things, but I think that this was one of the strangest:
Tiles made on the thighs of a woman. I can hear the men saying YEEHAW!
8:44 PM | link | up| archives |
5.16.2003
tomorrow morning
we're grabbing Paulette and heading over to Brimfield. I'm not too excited about getting up early (we're picking her up at 8:30) but that's what you need to do if you are going to really spend some time there. Technically, we should BE there at that time but we aren't that dedicated.
I'm always sort of amazed at how many people that live in the Boston area haven't heard of Brimfield. It's about an hour drive, down near Sturbridge, MA. It's one of the country's largest antique shows, lasting a week and filling fields and fields of a one mile stretch through the center of town. You could spend days there and not see everything. They have shows three times a year--in May, July and September. When I say antiques, that's what I mean--it's not a massive garage sale, but hundreds of antique dealers. You can find nearly anything there and you can find some great deals.
We bought a beautiful dining room table, circa 1930, for about $300 dollars at the September show. I always find great antique postcards there (they even have a whole building dedicated to them!). Paulette collects metal martini shakers. I always find great jewelry. I love wandering the aisles, checking out the big mirrors, ornate plant stands, tables of collectible china, linens linens galore!
I know that we won't be able to see everything tomorrow--there is just too much to see. The main Brimfield site has a bunch of helpful hints for navigating your way through the show. Joe pointed out the best one: If you are a serious collector of specific items, consider wearing a t-shirt that states what you are looking for. So tell me, what if you are a nude postcard collector...or you collect metal bedpans (which actually some people do)? I want to see one of those t-shirts!
9:30 AM | link | up| archives |
5.14.2003
i mentioned
that this weekend we planted flowers...
There are tons of squirrels around and I watched a mom and her baby wander around the yard. The baby is a bit big now, but when they were running places, across the fence, the baby would try to get on mom's back and of course would fall off.
Every time she stopped, the baby would start trying for her belly, which was sort of cute.
and so I was sitting outside this evening, writing a little, having a glass of wine...
and you see that rainpipe back there behind the flowers? Well, sitting there writing, I heard a scratchy noise. I look over the edge and it's one of our too friendly squirrels (not mom or the baby though) making his way up. He sees me and keeps coming and jumps onto the porch under the wall so that he's near my feet. Romeo is of course, no where to be found, so I take the chair and sort of chase him around the flowers with the leg until he jumps back onto the pipe and runs up to the roof. My adrenaline is really pumping, but I sit back down and start writing again. Romeo comes back out to join me. Ten minutes later, scritch scritch, and I don't move, waiting for the squirrel to come up so I could see what Romeo does. He hasn't ever been faced with a live animal before, save a mouse in our old apartment which he seemed to completely ignore.
Nothing has changed. I have decided that Romeo is, indeed, a pansy.
He stares at the squirrel and seems confused. The squirrel is in a panic, runs through the flowers and back up the pipe to the roof. I look at kitty in shame...
So much for a ferocious watch-cat. Instead we're going to have to go buy some vaseline to slather on the drainpipe.
7:23 PM | link | up| archives |
5.11.2003
cat lady
that lives(d?) two blocks away says that she isn't crazy--she has epilepsy. Ahh, so in one of her fits, she would decide to lock up the dead ones in the freezer? Pretty strange epileptic fit if you ask me.
8:53 AM | link | up| archives |
5.10.2003
last night
joe made porkchops with a really fabulous sauce, asparagus with prosciutto and a yummy salad with goat cheese and dried cherries. So I had to make a super dessert--courtesy of Cooking Light: Mocha Fudge Brownies
They are amazing--yummy, amazing, and very very rich, so don't cut yourself a big piece right away! Savor!
Today we went to Crate & Barrel and used a gift certificate that my employees got us for a wedding gift. One of the things we picked up were some really cute lanterns for the porch.
I can't wait to start having dinner out on the porch again. Or breakfast on weekend mornings, hanging out having beers on hot summer days. Tomorrow we're going to head over to "Home Despot" as Joe always calls it and pick up plants. We're VERY ready for summer.
3:25 PM | link | up| archives |
soooo I have switched
hosts and it was mostly seamless!!! I never even saw any downtime. WOOHOOO! And it was fast...probably 12 hours max.
10:45 AM | link | up| archives |
5.9.2003
switching hosts soon
so I anticipate downtime in mail and my web. Once it goes down, I anticipate a massive stock drop...so you might sell now and buy when it goes down...
2:56 PM | link | up| archives |
email is back up
but I'm switching to BlogOMania soon--hopefully over the weekend.
Random things I wonder about:
* How someone can smoke, talk on their cell phone (without headset) and drive at the same time?
* Who all those people at 6:45 AM ET are on their cell phone to?
* How expensive it is to build a real clipper ship in today's age?
* How bizarre it is that we live a mere two blocks from the crazy cat lady.
* Why animal-rights activists aren't camping her lawn for the abuse of 52 cats (in the Watertown apt...they found over 60 in her Beacon Hill Apt) and her emaciated great danes?
* Why they haven't locked that woman away? What sane person keeps corpses of cats in her house and in her freezer?
* Why is it called a "pair" of scissors? Is one half A scissor? (actually, Joe wonders these things...I don't)
* How can I be old enough to be having my ten year college reunion this year?
8:45 AM | link | up| archives |
5.8.2003
my email has been down for five
days, in case you've been trying to reach me. Try crystallyn14 AT yahoo.com if you need to. In the meantime, going to be switching to a new host soon (five days is UNACCEPTABLE)...so there will be downtime expected at some point for me--possibly this weekend. Sigh.
NOTE: DO NOT USE VALUEWEB/AFFINITY FOR YOUR WEBSITE HOSTING
I called, was on hold for a long while, told that the mail issues had been resolved, but my mail is sitting on an "idle" server and there is no ETA on when my backlogged mail (which I have been assured has not been lost or bounced) will be delivered to me. Two days ago they told me 3PM for my mail to return and now it's 48.5 hours later and I'm still without it. In today's day and age email is extremely important. I can understand intermittent issues with servers, but FIVE days and no ETA on fixing?? The two week's credit that I got I had to practically wrench out of them (they don't guarantee email service, they say) and truth be told, it means zilch to me. Reliability, security and speed are key in this age and Valueweb has lost itself a customer--a customer of three years.
3:31 PM | link | up| archives |
5.7.2003
in case you dot.bombers
are interested in investing in something luscious and lucrative...
10:27 PM | link | up| archives |
last night
i discovered that one of my grad student colleagues has a drinking problem. I'm not talking about just being an average lush, but far more to the extreme. I was shocked--it was the first time I was in a situation where one of my peers was behaving inappropriately due to alcohol in a setting other than a bar or a party. I didn't know how to handle it really, and I find that it really is bothering me--my inability to do anything about it.
I don't know this person overly well--she's been in a few classes with me and I have engaged with her outside of school, but she's not someone that I have any real connection with that hasn't been class related in some way. I was so shocked--this woman is always so put together and truthfully, I've really admired her, but now I realize that there is a lot going on behind her seemingly cool exterior. Several other classmates noticed she was a bit over the top last night...(and apparently has been like that in prior weeks but I didn't realize) and when she was talking to me at one point, I could just smell it on her breath. I find myself sad and worried for her. She's injured herself even, as a result--falling twice that I know of--clumsiness brought on by too much to drink.
I wish I knew what to do. I want to just say something to her, to tell her that I noticed she's out of sorts and to ask if there is anything that I could do...or perhaps urge her to seek help. I want to think that she is still in a place where she could listen, that she isn't so far into the bottle that she doesn't care anymore. But I don't really know her--she's not someone I could call up on the phone and say, hey, and feel like she would listen to something of this magnitude. She might not ever listen to me, or it may just make the situation worse. She has such intelligence and talent and it's so sad to see her hurting herself.
I just feel like I should at least make one effort--to say that I care. If she rejects that, then it really isn't my place to try any further. Then again, is it my place to say anything in the first place? It's ironic, last night in class we were talking about disabilities and when is it appropriate to offer help to someone who is in a wheelchair, for example, and struggling to move around a cluttered room? Should you offer help and risk offending them by suggesting they aren't able? Or would they be grateful for your support? She spoke up and said--I think that you should always offer, and move on if they tell you they don't need help.
And so, in a way I would only be doing what she herself would do, wouldn't I? Or is this just none of my business? I will probably only see her one more time, in the next class, and then she has graduated and moved on and in all reality, we might not have much contact. Would I mostly just be opening up a can of worms for myself? Sigh. I really hate moral dilemmas...
3:27 PM | link | up| archives |
5.5.2003
how do you
contribute to the world around you? I find that I'm asking myself that a lot--as a result of the book that one of my classmates in the Critical and Creative Thinking Program at UMass recommended. The book, written by Rosamund Stone Zander and Benjamin Zander is called The Art of Possibility. I find that I'm thinking about this particular chapter a lot--more so than most books of this sort.
It's the idea of the self as a contribution that is sitting with me. A whole new way of looking at life. The idea that life is an invented game and that you can change and alter the framework of that game--change the rules, create new ones. The core of this chapter is on page 59:
THE PRACTICE
The practice of this chapter is inventing oneself as a contribution, and others as well. The steps to the practice are these:
1. Declare yourself to be a contribution.
2. Throw yourself into life as someone who makes a difference, accepting that you may not understand how or why.
The contribution game appears to have remarkable powers for transforming conflicts into rewarding experiences.
The real key to this is that it takes away some of the ego--some of the selfishness that many of us tend to have about the way we move through life. Instead of focusing on what your actions will get you, you focus on what your actions can do to change, to give, to create, to help--in whatever situation you might be in--and as they say even though you may not understand how or why.
I've been thinking a lot about this and how I can move through my life differently. How I can contribute. How I AM a contribution. When you change the focus, you instantly have value, I mean, real self-value and that's a pretty cool concept--to always be able to feel that.
12:56 PM | link | up| archives |
5.4.2003
if you aren't
familiar with The Oliver Daily (who looks to be the true boss over at Textism), then do check him out. Make sure you use the back arrow to delightfully waste many minutes of time as you oo and aww over Oliver and his new pal Hugo.
8:51 AM | link | up| archives |
5.3.2003
something new
here. I also added in new comments--the old system made it VERY slow loading. The sad thing is that I lose all the comments that I had previously---well, not quite lost since they are on my server.
Also picked up new glasses today--very smart and sassy glasses, but well, since I'm sick as a dog, I'm not taking pictures yet. Sorry!
Just a week or so ago, Joe and I were talking about going to New Hampshire at some point this summer. We were talking about the Old Man in the Mountain,
the state's pride and joy. I told him how it was falling apart and they were shoring it up all the time with big wire nets.
I guess that this morning it fell apart! That's such a huge blow to NH. The strange formation is the state's symbol--adorning highway signs and anything relating to the state of NH, including the quarter!
Definitely a sad day for those north of me.
1:56 PM | link | up| archives |
5.2.2003
so i'm sick
again! Yes, AGAIN! It's just not fair. I swear, I've been ill at least 4-5 times this year alone...and it's barely May. This time I was sure it was just the dry air of Denver getting to me...started as a mild sore throat but then in the space of a day it moved to my chest, congesting me up completely. I spent more time at the sink this morning than I like and it sure as hell wasn't doing my makeup. Running slight fever this evening...glands in my throat are very swollen and my coughing is not very productive anymore--it hurts to cough and it has become very shallow. SIGH.
Joe is running to the store to get me sickly things--7Up, kleenex.
So just to be sure that I'm knowledgeable, although I'm sure this is probably something else (I guess Strep is going around), I thought I would look and see what the symptoms of SARS are. In that, I found my most disturbing bit of information...it seems like a regular flu when it starts. The symptoms are, essentially exactly what I'm experiencing now with the exception that my fever is only 99.7, not 100.4+. I'm fairly sure that I'm ok as far as this disease is concern but it is troubling--no wonder people may experience worry and hysteria--if the symptoms aren't distinguishable...
The fast movement of this disease is VERY disturbing. In epidemic proportions, the doubling of this disease is more than just troubling. According to the World Health Organization:
Update on cases and countries
As of today [May 2], a cumulative total of 6054 probable SARS cases with 417 deaths have been reported from 27 countries. This represents an increase of 207 new cases and 26 deaths when compared with yesterday. The new deaths were reported in Canada (2), China (11), Hong Kong SAR (8), and Taiwan (5).
Taiwan, which has a rapidly evolving outbreak, reported today a cumulative total of 100 probable cases, with 11 new cases compared with yesterday. Eight SARS deaths have occurred in Taiwan. Canada reported 2 new probable cases today.
OMG that is scary. I have been partially worried...one of my closest friends is in Toronto and his partner is from China and I'm sure that this epidemic has touched people that they know in some way--I am just so grateful that he's no longer in that country while this is going on. Even though Canada is a hot spot in some ways, they are clearly able to handle the situation in a way that China just isn't.
207 cases in one day. Well, that's enough to scare me into being well, huh?
7:35 PM | link | up| archives |
5.1.2003
back from denver
and quite tired. Managed to take this shot from my hotel window last night. The only time I saw the mountains at all.
The sales guy that was supposed to go to the Rockies game with me broke his nose playing basketball the night before so I gave the tickets back so someone else could use them. Instead, I went and wandered to a bookstore, stopped at Bath & Body for some bubblebath and then came back, relaxed and read The Metamorphoses of Ovid, translated by Mandelbaum. Was cozy in the "Heavenly" bed that the Westin had and nice to have time to just read for once.
9:11 PM | link | up| archives |
