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August 3rd, 2008
11:32 pm - So.. not usually a fan of handgun carrying permits...
But all I could think when i read this story: Canadian Bus Stabbing was... wouldn't have happened in Texas. Someone woulda pulled out a gun and blown that nutjob away.
How does someone have time to stab someone else 50-60 times and DECAPITATE him, and it all happened too quickly for anyone to do anything?
Ugh.
Current Mood: ![[mood icon]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/mood/moonsis/stars/purple/grumpy_sp.gif) annoyed
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June 29th, 2008
10:44 pm - Battlestar Galactica
OK, so I finally did it. I rented Season 1, Disk 1.
I'd been a holdout for a few reasons. Anyone who knows me well knows that I was a HUGE fan of the original BSG. I have all 24 episodes on VHS, recorded when SciFi ran a marathon for the 15th anniversary of the show (1993). It was hosted by a much less adorable Dirk Benedict, and was filled with little bits of trivia. I've enjoyed those tapes many a time, and I'll be honest - I was kind of offended, when the new BSG came out, that they would tinker with a show I loved so much. I mean really, Starbuck a girl?
But all I hear is good things, for the last (has it already been?) 3 years -- and after hearing my brother and his wife rave about it the last time I was over for dinner (they're somewhere in the middle of season two, right now), I decided to take the plunge.
( I know I'm the last person on the planet to see this show, but if by some freakish chance I'm not alone, and you don't want it ruined, don't click here. )
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April 17th, 2008
10:31 pm - Pope's Fault.
Also, I cut off most of my hair today. VERY short.
Current Mood: ![[mood icon]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/mood/moonsis/stars/purple/pensive_sp.gif) nostalgic
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April 10th, 2008
08:34 pm - Ramblings
Today, April 10, 2008, I got a new patio door. This ends a year-long saga of having a door that did not fully close, which led to many a car-trip-freakout when leaving my house for extended periods of time, usually to visit my mother, who I would call, ask for reassurance that really, the odds of someone prying open the stupid, stuck door and stealing all my worthless crap were very small, and then I would usually manage to put it out of my mind until I was driving home - fully expecting to see police tape or some crap on my door when I arrived.
It's a long drive from Dallas to San Antonio, and I usually spend the Irving-Temple jog of it worrying about my unlocked, incompletely-closed back patio door.
But no more! Door opens, closes, locks, and slides quite nicely in its little aluminum track. Oh joyous day.
Now I can start saving money to fix my A/C, which I stubbornly refused to fix until the stupid door closed properly.
Current Mood: ![[mood icon]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/mood/moonsis/stars/purple/mellow_sp.gif) satisfied
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March 31st, 2008
07:57 am - Democratic Convention, and Vacation!
Looks like we might FINALLY have our vacation plans ironed out! I just need to get my sister to sign off on my evil scheme NOT to rent a condo at Padre. I found a beach house at Crystal Beach (near Galveston) and it's cheaper than any of those places, bigger, and it has a yard for pets! There's a community pool which we have access to, which seems to me to be no weirder than sharing a pool with an entire condominium complex.
Anyhow I'm feeling good about it, $1200 for a week.
I feel close to actually taking a vacation for the first time in years. MANY years, like since I was married.
This was a LONG weekend. I spent all day Saturday (literally all day. 8am until 9:30 pm) at the District 9 convention. Endless parade of candidates and democratic officeholders coming to speak, plus a soap opera star, hee hee. Heather Thoms from Young and the Restless / Bold and the Beautiful. I tried to take a picture of her but I was too far away, she's like a quarter-inch tall.
I need to go to work, more on the convention later.
Current Mood: ![[mood icon]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/mood/moonsis/stars/purple/sleepy_sp.gif) tired
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March 13th, 2008
11:44 pm - Horrification
So has anyone else seen the tv commercial where all the people are walking around with flowers growing out of their heads? So. Wrong.
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March 5th, 2008
02:21 pm - Super Tuesday II
It appears I am now an official Democrat - after 16 years of voting, mostly in a democrat fashion. Yes, I did the "Texas Two-Step" this week and voted/caucused in the Democratic primary. For my efforts, I will now be a delegate to the Dallas County convention, making my presence felt for Hillary.
The caucus thing was kind of interesting last night - crazy chaotic, and no one seemed to either know what they were doing or have planned for so many people to show up. My precinct, 4604, had a lot of older people and a lot of Latino voters show up. This is pretty representative of the population, I think - South Irving isn't really chock-full of young urban professional types. Anyway, Hillary won our caucus by about a 55/45 split. We're sending 11 delegates to the county convention, and since I was one of about 30 people left in the room when that got decided, I ended up being one of them. We had to pick 11 delegates and 11 alternates, so it's not like I did much other than raise my hand and say I'd do it :) but it still is kind of a neat feeling. Definitely an interesting experience, and amazing to see so many people fired up about voting. Our polling location had four precincts, and there were probably about 600 people there for the caucus.
Let me just rant on the Obamaniacs for one moment. They need to get a grip. It was like they had been told they needed to take charge, and the fact that the temporary precinct chair was a Hillary person rankled them from the outset. When we had our official vote for the permanent chair, one of the Obama people insisted that we recount the vote something like four times. They changed HOW we were going to count (raising our hands, counting off aloud, standing then sitting once you were counted, etc) several times, then when it became clear that no, they REALLY weren't going to get to have one of their people be precinct chair, several actually left in kind of an angry huff.
Seriously, folks. I mean I guess I shouldn't be surprised, I'd heard that both camps were complaining about the process, and that no one really knew what to do, and there were dirty tricks of all kinds alleged by both groups. I just think that most people want the election process to be fair, and the lady that we DID elect seemed to be of that sort. She was scrupulous about making sure everyone was on the roster, and carefully counted everyone. I think most people would act like that, and acting like you think she wouldn't is sort of rude.
So anyway, we were there until about 9:30 last night, which means I will have to download last night's Jericho. That's my only complaint about the evening. Otherwise, it was pretty much an educational and exciting experience, and left me feeling (no lie) pretty patriotic and hyped about the voting process.
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February 6th, 2008
10:13 pm - French Fries
Can you give up something for Lent if you ate it for lunch on Ash Wednesday?
I mean, if the Ash Wednesday service wasn't til nighttime, and you decided at the service, which was a good six hours after lunch, that you ought to give up something for Lent.. can it be french fries if I had Wendy's for lunch?
I'm not (really) trying to be flip. It just hadn't really been in my mind to give anything up, and then at church tonight it seemed like maybe I should.. and I think it should be something you really like, not something that you could stop doing for 40 days and not care anything about. And I like french fries, and it would be a good thing not to eat them for over a month.
We did have one of my favorite passages as the lesson today, which was kind of neat. It isn't often that they pick ones I actually know :)
http://bible.oremus.org/?passage=Matthew+6:1-6,16-21
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January 27th, 2008
03:12 pm
I am almost ready to make my Oscar selections! Went out last night and saw Michael Clayton. That was, I must admit, a pretty good movie. I don't think it's on the same level as There Will Be Blood, though. Still need to see Atonement, then I'll have seen all the Best Picture nominees. Maybe next weekend. SAG awards are tonight, finally some pretty dresses to look at! The SAGs are kind of neat because they only honor acting (which is sort of obvious since they're the actors guild, but yeah...), and only the actors vote on them. They don't award a Best Picture, they award a Best Cast. So that's kind of cool. I'm kinda pulling for No Country for Old Men. Only Javier Bardem got an Oscar acting nomination, but all of them were great, even Woody Harrelson :P. Anyway, it's on TNT/TBS tonight, and no cable for me.. so I'll be reduced to checking Yahoo for pictures of the pretty dresses. C'est la vie.
In other movie news... How freaking hard would it have been to pull the Dark Knight trailers until Heath Ledger was buried, or heck I dunno, at least til after his family had a chance to get his body home to Australia? At Michael Clayton last night, the very first trailer is for The Dark Knight, and it opens with Heath Ledger's voice. Very VERY tacky. I'm a fan of the Batman movies, no question -- but when it's clear that working on the movie messed the guy up, and he was taking God knows what drugs to sleep and for anxiety, and (hopefully) accidentally OD'd on said drugs and is now dead.. seems the least Warner Brothers could do is stop marketing the damn film for a week or two. It's not like it isn't going to get a huge bump because people are going to want to see Ledger's last film. Send out new trailer reels and have a little decency. It's just classless to run images of a guy dressed up like a (very scary) psychopathic mass murderer when you know they're planning his memorial service in California. /rant off
Current Mood: cynical
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January 20th, 2008
10:14 am - Longest drought in a while...
And I got a nudge from the Pope, so who can say no?
Hi, all two of you who read this. I've apparently taken an 11-month break from LJ, and I'd blame MySpace, cept I haven't posted there in months either. I think what's happened is I have finally embraced what I have always expected - that very few people care what's going on in my life, and it's sort of sad to continue posting when so few people read. It's like, who am I talking to?
Pope, I guess. Hi Kari!
Let's see, what's going on in Steph-land. I'm still working at SGS. I've been there about 16 months now. It's a good job and lots of good people, even though it's stressful and often frustrating.
My house is a disaster of epic proportions. Hopefully I will be able to replace my sliding glass door next month. Once I get my tax refund, I'm going to fix the AC/Heat which has been broken for over a year. I refuse to do another Texas summer with no AC. Once I can check those things off, perhaps I wil be able to overcome basic house hatred enough to give it a good cleaning, and then I could maybe allow someone other than me in it. Ideally, my family that has moved here - my brother and his wife.
Alright, what else. In the last year I've joined a church and the choir that sings in it. Recent service schedule-shuffling aside, I'm enjoying that quite a bit (more than I thought I would). A highlight of this Christmas for me was performing in our Christmas Oratorio (Saint-Saens). Perhaps I will post some of the music when I get my CD. I'm also working on the design of the cookbook the church is putting out for its 50th year anniversary.
I've quit playing World of Warcraft and now play Lord of the Rings Online. I've been suckered into agreeing to organize raids for our kinship (a guild by any other name). We start that next week. I've got two characters of any note, a minstrel (healer) and a hunter (archer-type). I'm on Landroval if anyone else plays and wants to say hi. Look for Freesia or Leawynn.
Family updates - My brother passed the bar. He and Ally are living here in Dallas and I see them rather less often than I'd like, but we're all busy. Ally and I went to the movies last weekend, she likes films (drawing a movie vs. film distinction here), like me, so that's fun. Meredith is still in Austin, her girls are 5 and 4 now. Ayden has started kindergarden and should be reading all on her own any day. Katy is a funny little bug :) I feel bad for her, that since she has a December birthday she has to wait to start school. I have this feeling she'll be top of her class, since she insists on doing everything Ayden does. Mom is still in San Antonio. She's substitute-teaching and takes private tutoring students as well. Dad and Yong are in San Antonio as well, they spend a lot of time traveling. I think they're in San Francisco this weekend.
Oscar nominations come out next week. Not sure if I'm making the trip to S.A. to watch what may be nothing more than a press conference, but we'll see. I'm feeling OK about what I've managed to see so far this year - still need to see Atonement and Charlie Wilson's War. I've got 3:10 to Yuma coming next up from Netflix, and I've got Away From Her downstairs to watch this afternoon.
I guess that's pretty much it. I've updated my contact info here so emails should work again. You do have to be registered with LJ to see my email.
Take care, world. I promise not to be a year in posting again.
Steph
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February 26th, 2007
11:28 pm - Oscar Weekend
So, I'm back in Dallas after a long weekend at Mom's :) was a good time, we went on Saturday to see Ayden's second soccer game ever (more in a moment on the amusing-ness of 4-year-olds playing a team sport) and went to lunch with all the Austin Newmans/Lumbleys. Went home, got takeout for dinner and watched Marie Antoinette. Then Sunday, we spent most of the day goofing off around the house, and preparing delicious munchie food for watching the Oscar's. Mom's friend Sue came over in an evening gown, which was very funny, and then she changed into jeans :P and we watched the whole thing and did a lot of trash talking about who was going to pick more winners.
My mom won for the first time in history, by 1 category >.< She has apparently stopped selecting her picks based on who SHE liked best, and is now following the much more sensible strategy of picking who the ACADEMY liked best :P Anyway, she picked Alan Arkin for supporting actor, and I picked Eddie Murphy. So she wins bragging rights for the next year, I think she's put her winning ballot on the fridge, with a magnet.
So. 4-year-olds playing soccer is VERY funny. Ayden was so cute in her ponytail and her uniform that was MUCH too big for her. They run these girls in groups of 3, and they pretty much run up and down the field and try to score goals. Ayden was a little upset, as she didn't score this week - she had 2 goals in her first game - and she was convinced she "didn't run fast." There were a couple of meltdowns, the most amusing one was when Mike was yelling something at her, like "Go Ayden, get the ball" or something equally innocent, and she stopped, turned around, put her little hands into fists and her arms straight at her side, and yelled "PAPA! Don't TELL me!" and then flipped that ponytail around and ran off.
Anyway, it's only her second game ever and she's only 4. If she's still walking off the field crying and refusing to go back in when her coach calls when she's 14, I'll worry :)
I got a couple of cute pics on my cell phone, if I can figure out how to get them off, I'll post.
Only down side to the weekend was not getting to see Carlos - we had kind of made tenative get-together plans a few weeks ago, but we didn't get to meet up. Maybe Memorial Day weekend!
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February 17th, 2007
11:55 am - Interview Me!
1. Leave me a comment saying, "Interview me."
2. I respond by asking you five personal questions so I can get to know you better ! If I already know you well, expect the questions may be a little more intimate!
3. You WILL update your LJ with the answers to the questions.
4. You will include this explanation and an offer to interview someone else in the post.
5. When others comment asking to be interviewed, you will ask them five questions.
From ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) wickedsin:
1. How did you get involved on your current career path?
By accident. I had applied for different job at SGS, and a project manager part-time job opened up. When my boss called, he was offering me part-time hours at a higher pay scale, which came out to just about the same as a 40-hour week at the job I already had. I'd been thinking about getting out of graphic design full-time for a while, and this was a position that used my printing industry experience but WASN'T designing. So I took the job, and got promoted to full-time in December :)
2. What is your ultimate goal in life?
This is a horrible cliche' but .. to end up happy. And that can mean to stay fat or get skinny, stay single or get involved/married, stay in Dallas or move to middle-of-nowhere-West Texas and live in a monolithic dome.. I'd like to make enough money to save for retirement, get cable again and be able to buy things on the occasional whim, even if they're sort of expensive. I'm not at a point in my life right now where I can envision my perfect happy existence, but I figure I'm heading that way.
3. Stripes vs plaid?
Plaid.
4. Name the book that influenced you most
I don't think I've read one book that I can point to as the "most" influential. I'd have to say a series of books that marked a turning point for me was the Wizard of Oz series, I think those were the first "fantasy" books I ever read when I was pretty young, and it helped form my love of all things imaginary and fictional :)
5. Guilty pleasure?
Movie days at the dollar theatre. I'll go to 2-4 movies, buy popcorn, hot dogs and cokes and stay there all day. Also stouffer's macaroni and cheese :P
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January 28th, 2007
11:39 pm - Wow, it's been more than a month since my last entry :P
Since I restarted this thing a while back, now and then I'll have these 'a-ha!' moments where I think 'I really ought to write about that in my journal, because it's kind of an interesting thought and I'd like to remember it.'
Unfortunately, these always seem to come to me at inopportune times - at work, in the car, in bed where it's warm and I don't want to get up.. so no one will have the dubious pleasure of reading any of my deep thoughts today. Instead, I will write about the Oscars.
I'm going to go home and watch them with Mom this year :) We haven't had a lot of chances to do that since I left home, and it's always fun. She's the only other person I know who genuinely keeps a list and tries to see as many Oscar movies as she can, the better to guess who will win and feel betrayed when ones favorites lose.
This weekend I checked off the last three Best Picture nominees on my list. Three! I saw a subtitled double feature on Saturday, first Babel and then Letters From Iwo Jima. They were both good. Babel was hard to "enjoy" because you don't really get attached to any of the characters, which I suppose is kind of the point, it being about isolation and how no one communicates anymore or whatever. Letters was quite well-done, and probably would be my Best Picture pick if I hadn't already seen and LOVED The Departed. Tonight, I watched Little Miss Sunshine. Again, good flick, but not changing my pick. If I had to rank the five movies up for Best Picture this year, I'd probably say.. The Departed, Letters From Iwo Jima, The Queen, Little Miss Sunshine, Babel. I wouldn't be at all surprised if they give it to Clint Eastwood, tho. Letters and Flags of our Fathers, taken together, are supposedly (haven't seen Flags yet) quite the achievement. If nothing else it's remarkable that he put two Oscar-caliber films together in one year.
Next weekend, my assignments are Notes on a Scandal (Judi Dench - Best Actress and Cate Blanchett - Best Supporting Actress) and Blood Diamond (Leonardo DiCaprio - Best Actor and Djimon Hounsou - Best Supporting Actor). I've really got some work to do in Best Actor. I haven't seen ANY of those movies, and not all of them are see-able before Oscar Day. I've got Half Nelson on my Netflix list, and am going to try and see Last King of Scotland and The Pursuit of Happyness. If I can see those 4, and maybe Volver, I'll feel informed. Wish Little Children was still playing. Maybe the Angelika will bring it back before Oscar Night :)
If there's time (ha ha!) I'd like to see Pan's Labyrinth, and maybe some of the 1-nomination films that are in categories I like - Art Direction, Costume Design, Cinemetography.. The Good Shepherd, maybe, or Curse of the Golden Flower. I also find Sofia Coppola's Marie Antoinette kind of intriguing :)
Anyway. Yes, I get a little stupid this time of year and always spend way too much money on movies and movie hot dogs. In a couple of weeks, I'll treat you all to my picks for who will win what. I know you're all sitting on the edge of your seats :P
Current Mood: ![[mood icon]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/mood/moonsis/stars/purple/nerdy_sp.gif) geeky
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December 11th, 2006
11:44 pm - Sunday 12/10
So there's no raid tonight, no tv to watch, and a lot of laundry to do so here I am posting while that spins and swishes.
Last post was the week before Thanksgiving, so, to sum up:
Thanksgiving was trip both annoying (traffic, food poisoning, father, The Fountain) and happy (mom, nieces, dinner that did NOT give me food poisoning, Borat)
The week AFTER Thanksgiving, I got a promotion! full time, which amounts to a 25% pay increase. Lots more time needed at the office, but I don't care. I can't believe that after less than 3 months on the job I've gotten what I was HOPING for some time next year. I'm sad that it had to come because the senior CSR for the Frito account is moving on, he's a great guy and knows a ton, but I can't even be too upset about it. After I get straight on finances, I'm FINALLY going to be able to think about redoing the floors, fixing the back door, getting the AC fixed, all the crap that I've just had to put up with because I was too broke to do anything but struggle with my regular bills. Hell, I might even be able to get cable TV again. Like a real grownup.
This last week was mostly spent at work, but I did go out with April on Thursday night and we saw The Queen. As in the movie, not the actual Queen. I enjoyed it, April less so I think - but I do think Helen Mirren will win an Oscar for this role. I don't believe she's ever won one, tho I know she's been nominated a couple times. Anyway, April and I went to Bennigan's after and munched unhealthy food and caught up a bit, I hadn't really talked to her since she got back from PA. Friday after work there was a marathon Arkham Horror session at Lee's house. I mean marathon, it was like 6 hours long! We played again on Saturday afternoon, I think I like the game much better with fewer players (6 on Friday vs 4 on Saturday). Too long between turns with 6.
After the game on Saturday, April and I got into a longer-than-intended conversation on the evolution of Sci-Fi/Fantasy. But I must back up a minute.
A month or so ago I went to the Friends of the Irving Public Library Book Sale and picked up a ton of older books, and among them were a few 70s/80s sci fi books - most notably the Riddle Master trilogy by Patricia McKillip. The first of these books came out in 1976. It's the second time I've read the books, and I'll be honest; I STILL don't 100% "get" the way McKillip's world functions. But I've come to the conclusion that that's OK. See, modern fantasy feels about as fantastical as a bad cartoon sometimes. These books are full of familiar situations in unfamiliar settings; They imply that everyone is really, deep down, "just like us," with all the same problems and worries -- romance, money, wars, dysfunctional families -- but maybe they just ALSO can do a little magic and ride around on say, a lizard.
When I started reading Sci Fi and Fantasy, I was about 11 years old. I would go into my dad's study (this is when he was still somewhat fatherly and we had things in common, not the strange alien parent he has become), look through his bookshelf and pick up, for example, God Emperor of Dune. Or something by David Brin. My dad devoured Sci Fi and I was determined to read these books. They were totally alien worlds, completely different in every way from what was familiar, and I loved it. Fast forward to 1991-ish, and I'm at Texas A&M for student orientation. In the bookstore, I found a copy of Mercedes Lackey's By The Sword. I'd never read her books before, and I enjoyed it. To be fair I don't think her earlier books sinned quite as much in this way, but.. it was dumbed down. It wasn't a stretch for me to relate to these characters. And nearly every single Fantasy book I've read since then has mimicked that style of making it easy for people to relate to, and that really is bothering me now that I've re-read Riddle Master. I mean God, the most difficult book I've read in the last year or two (and I'm excluding House of Leaves, because that was only difficult in its tedium) wasn't even written by a "Science Fiction" or "Fantasy" Author -- Margaret Atwood's Oryx and Crake. Tho maybe I'm not being fair to her, she DID write The Handmaid's Tale. :) I think that this is at the root of why I've been leaning toward contemporary fiction more than Fantasy and Sci Fi as I've gotten older. I'm just not challenged by it anymore, and I want to read something that makes me stop my breakneck "ok what happens next" pace and go back and reread a paragraph just because it was HARD. It's too easy to skim most modern Sci Fi/Fantasy, and that's a shame.
So if anyone can point me at some GOOD Sci Fi/Fantasy books, I'm all ears :) I'm going to recommend the Riddle Master trilogy to all of you :) and I've got two copies, so let me know if you want to borrow one.
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November 22nd, 2006
11:04 pm - Happy Citizenship to John
Grats John :)
Few days late, and he doesn't read this anyway, but yeah. I'm glad I was there even though it was a little weird, especially meeting his girlfriend at the end (she was a little late and since I didn't know her, we couldn't exactly find each other in the middle). She seems nice, but very quiet. Maybe she felt as awkward as I did :P Anyway, I was pretty impressed with the amount of trouble the US Government went to to make the day nice and memorable for all the new citizens. There were a couple nice videos, a woman who sang the national anthem and America the Beautiful, and a neat part of the ceremony where they had all the people stand up by country. I wasn't surprised to see how many people were from Mexico, but I was a little surprised at the large numbers of Indians - I guess it makes sense, I just wasn't expecting it :) I think John was the only Canadian, but there were people from a whole bunch of countries. Iraq, Iran and Afghanistan were all represented and that was kind of cool. So to sum up, I'm proud of him for finally making it official, and I'm glad that I was able to be there and see him so happy. Note stupid cheesy grin.
I'm heading home to the family for Thanksgiving, looking forward to seeing the girls, my brother and sister (and their associated spouses), and acourse Mom. Not sure if I'll see Dad this trip, he tends to be off gambling over Thanksgiving, but I guess I'll call. Had a rather annoying weekend and week up until now in prep for the trip tho, I'm having to put new tires on the car, got it inspected, got the oil changed.. Yay for money-sucking vehicle crap. I'll be glad to have new tires tho, mine are pretty worn.
Game from a friend's journal:
Step 1:Put your iTunes/MP3 player on random.
Step 2: Post the first line(s) of the first 20 songs that play, no matter how embarrassing the song.
Step 3: Post and let everyone you know guess what song and artist the lines come from.
Step 4: Strike out the songs when someone guesses correctly.
Step 5: NO CHEATING
1. Well, they'll stone ya when you're trying to be so good,
2. I asked the habitual partygoer just how high she thought she'd get,
3. Put the horses in the stable
4. I was crazy to think crazy to chase
5. Welcome to the jungle, we got fun and games
6. Is there something that you're tryin to say? Don't hold back now.
7. Maryann you're better than the world
8. Cease to resist, giving my goodbye
9. From the first hello you gave to me
10. I sit two stories above the street
11. Come on, oh my star is fading
12. I had me a wife, I had me some daughters.
13. I'm in a mess, I'm in a dress
14. Hitchhiked back from Blue Earth
15. Come in, come in, come in, come in
16. Mama don't 'you send me no love this month
17. The more I see, the less I know
18. An icicle feast for my watery eyes;
19. Sun still stone - Watching
20. Morning smiles, like the face of a newborn child
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November 17th, 2006
12:23 am - Two Firefly sightings!
Adam Baldwin - Daybreak
Nathan Fillion - Lost
It's weird seeing Adam Baldwin all... clean. And by clean I mean he's shaved and wears a suit, not that he's a good guy, heh. He's playin a kind of sleazy Internal Affairs investigator in this new Groundhog Day gone violent series, Daybreak. Not a bad premiere, not sure if it'll hook me til Lost comes back tho :) We'll see.
Nathan Fillion was good on Lost. He guest starred on the last episode of the Fall story arc, played a Miami cop married to Kate. She drugged him and ran off god knows where. It must suck being a fugitive on the run for killing your stepfather.
Anyway. I got chastised the other night for not posting here often enough, so TA DA. Here I am.
Not a lot goin on in Stephworld. I've been on the new job for about 8 weeks now, it's goin pretty well. Learning a lot every day, I'm amazed how quickly the day goes by really -- I spend so much time trying to keep on top of everything I don't even mind our extremely restrictive internet policy. Cept for it makes it hard to keep up with LJ :P Seriously tho, I finished the Superbowl promotion, that was a hell of an initiation. My first real project and it's one of the biggest ones that gets done all year. I can just imagine my boss's thinking on that -- "Good idea, give it to the brand new, part time girl!" heh. Anyway it was finished with only minimal issues, mostly just stuff I didn't know yet. So when January rolls around and you are doing your Superbowl snack shopping, admire the lovely Frito-Lay display and think of my fabulous organizational skills.
Other than work, I've been reading a lot lately. I went to the friends of the Irving Library book sale and bought a huge pile of used scifi paperbacks for like 10 bucks. Was pretty cool. Television continues to ease up its demands on my time as more and more shows I like get axed. Farewell, Kidnapped. I fear Studio 60 won't be far behind, which makes me sad, that's a good show. No one writes dialogue like Aaron Sorkin. Lost has been sort of underwhelming this season, imho.. it hasn't been BAD, just not blow-my-mind-cool. It's on hiatus til February, or something, anyway. More time to watch Heroes! which is by far my favorite new show this season. Save the cheerleader.. save the world!
Tomorrow I'm going to see John get sworn in as a US Citizen. It's a 2-hour thing, so I expect nearly 2 hours of not-so-interesting and a few minutes of neatness. Big day for him tho, and I'm glad I'm going to get to be there. It's odd to me sometimes that we've managed to find a way to really be friends, it's true I suppose that we know each other better than other people ever will, so it's nice not to have to throw that away because our marriage didn't work.
That said, I'm a little apprehensive about meeting his girlfriend :P I think I'm the only one of our friends who hasn't met her yet. Even my mom has met her (long story, don't ask) and I guess it's probably time. At the very least I imagine she's a pretty tolerant person, he can be pretty tiring at times :P No one knows that better than me.
Speaking of John and our weird friendship, he called me last weekend to tell me he'd found the "perfect Steph game." The Guild 2. It's a sim that has crafting, family, economics, politics, and all kinds of other things he knew I liked. I downloaded the demo and I'll probably pick the game up sometime this week. He was excited about the multiplayer option, apparently you can play competing clans of medieval europeans and step all over each other to rise into the nobility.
I think I've written enough for one night. :P to Brad.
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October 10th, 2006
07:36 pm - Television and Thunderfury
first off, just to get this out of the way, and because approximately two of you will even appreciate the "accomplishment" of this stupid sword:
I'm done, I'm done! several thousand gold and many many months after I started. It -is- a nice sword.
I'm such a nerd.
anyway, my life has been pretty hectic lately, kind of surprisingly. Television is taking up far too much of my time. I read an article the other day in Entertainment Weekly talking about the downswing in popularity of the sitcom, and I realized that I'm watching a lot more tv since there aren't NEARLY as many sitcoms on, which I hate. I've just never been a fan of seeing people in embarassing situations awkwardly stumbling around trying not to get caught. Not since I was maybe 8, and watched Three's Company, or whenever that was on TV.
That's not to say I don't like comedy. I do, I just generally prefer it to be less formulaic and more clever. I like comedy that has its "real" moments, which is why I like shows that run more of an emotional gamut. yes, DRAMAS. or something sillier like Desperate Housewives. I like to get to know characters, and appreciate plot. Not be able to see how a show is going to turn out 10 minutes into a 30 minute program.
Admittedly, sometimes there are funny things in sitcoms. I actually was very surprised to like That 70's Show as much as I did, and have been seen to laugh at Everybody Loves Raymond, or Friends. But by and large sitcoms make me uncomfortable and embarassed for the characters. It's the reason I've never liked "Susan" on Desperate Housewives all that much. She's a klutz and she does stupid things like burn down her neighbors house then try to get away with it (what?!?) and try to steal mail out of the postman's bag when she realizes she doesn't want to confess, and falls thru a hole in her boyfriend's floor when she's snooping thru his house to see what all his dirty secrets are. She makes me cringe, real people don't act like that.
Anyway. I must go kill internet dragons now. Everyone have a pleasant evening!
P.S... treatise on manners and how it's the glue that holds society together to come!
Current Mood: ![[mood icon]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/mood/moonsis/stars/purple/indifferent_sp.gif) blah
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October 3rd, 2006
September 26th, 2006
11:51 pm - New job type things.
So I started my new job on Monday. I think I will like it, once I have some clue what I'm doing. At the moment, I'm spending a lot of time standing around my empty cube (no computer, just a phone and a chair, the computer should be here later this week), trying to think of something I can do, unpack a box (office recently moved) or file something, so that I'm not just standing around my empty cube.
I've mentioned that this job kicks me out of my comfort zone, and that was no exaggeration. For the last decade, pretty much, when I've gone to work I've known that whatever was thrown at me was something I could handle (cept once, when some crazy person wanted me to draw a 3D map from photographs of buildings and a gif from Mapquest. But I did it :P). I know my way around the various programs used in the "graphic arts fields." Such was my comfort that I never even minded starting new jobs, because jobs were pretty much the same. Sit down at desk with mac and someone's concept art (sketch, something they imcompetently mocked up in Microsoft Publisher, old art with corrections marked, what have you), behin measuring, matching/selecting fonts, pick photos, draw something, slap it together, call it ready to proof. Rinse and repeat through countless proofs and critiques and you have a finished piece which even if I think it's ugly (because the customer is always right, even when they like reflex blue, red 185 and times new roman), I'm fine calling it my work because they were happy. I used to thrive on the discussions I would have with clients, helping them discover the best way to present their thoughts. It is, to me, the best part about being a designer.
My new job has none of this. I am a Project Manager now, for a company that handles printing for several other large companies. We don't create the art or print it, we just (and it's really not a 'just' thing) handle it. We color correct everything from skin tones to the orange of a cheeto, we make sure the plates get to the printer on time, we make sure all the labels show all their parts to keep legal happy. It's going to be a lot of paperwork and database management.
I'm not sure I'm going to be as personally satisfied by my work at this job. I won't be making anything, which I do really love. But, it's more money. Which I desperately need. It's a new set of skills. I love learning new things. It's got upward potential. I'm feeling good about the people, too -- my new boss is very laid back and seems, on my two days of observation, to be more interested in getting the work out than micromanaging how it's done. Which I have always appreciated in a supervisor.
Anyway :) the upshot of this is that once I learn what I'm doing I think this will be a good thing. The hours could certainly not be better. I love getting home between 4:30 and 5.
Other stuff: TV is goooood lately! Boston Legal is not disappointing me, I've really liked Smith and Jericho, the Stars Dancing have been very amusing even though I've been skipping the results show, and I feel shame in admitting to how much I love Grey's Anatomy, but god help me, I do. I watched Heroes tonight on tape, and it really wasn't bad. Lost premieres next week I think and that should be good. Anyone else happy the fall is here? :)
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September 18th, 2006
01:19 pm - My LJ is ugly and this interface is confusing.
I think I need a client for LJ again. I dislike very much this default thing.
Also, on my mac at work, my doggie ears do not flipflop. That makes me sad. Since when do animated gifs not work in Safari? That seems all kinds of wrong.
This is my last week at my current job. It's been an interesting couple of months (got laid off from job of many years, accepted job offer so as not to lose unemployment benefits, 2 months later got an offer I could not pass up), but I'm moving on to bigger and better, and I'm taking my first steps out of my little graphic design comfort zone in about 12 years. I must admit to fear. I'm going to be a Project Manager at Southern Graphic Systems, working on the Frito-Lay and Owens Corning accounts. It's kind of a big step for me in that it's NOT art. I'm managing the art, and quality checking things, and working with artists, but I'm not actually sitting down at a cute little Mac and making the art myself.
It's more money per hour, and fewer hours (in what amounts to a wash income-wise, but the fewer hours means freelance/free time and that's a huge perk as far as I'm concerned). It's also getting me out from under that glass ceiling of graphic artist income that people insist isn't there, but when you've made the same amount of money for the last nearly 6 years, it's hard for me to believe I've imagined it. To be fair: yes, I did lose my fancy corporate job which might have led to more money. And after that yes, I did make a sort of lateral move to a small business where raises didn't happen for 3 years. And finally, yes, I did accept a job at just about the same amount of money as the job I lost, but the opportunities out there were ALL for that range of pay unless they were corporate jobs who either didn't call me for an interview or didn't call me back AFTER I interviewed :P what's up with that, huh? I know my shit, I guess fat girls maybe don't fit into some "Company Cultures". Anyway, I don't think incremental cost of living raises really move you up in the world. That's not what they are for, thus the incremental and cost of living descriptors.
Anyway I'm excited about what this new group of responsibilities and higher per-hour pay scale will mean for my future employability, but I'm also nervous :) so those of you who might see me this week/weekend be kind as I'll probably not have slept much. That's my usual stress coping mechanism, anyway. Exhaustion. I'm so mentally healthy I could have my own talkshow, eh?
Current Location: Work
Current Mood: tired
Current Music: Some christian radio crap emanating from tim's cubicle
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