Archive for November, 2004

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Thanksgiving Part II

Tuesday, November 30th, 2004

Saturday – J&SP came over and Princess S & CS helped prep the tree while JP & I worked on lunch. After some simple and tasty spaghetti J&SP put the lights on and then Princess S & I decorated the tree while the boys took over the sofas for naps. CS woke up and built a great railroad, but then when I was ready for him to build one around the tree, I guess all his creativity was used up since he just made a little square with rounded corners. See the Princess’ blog about Saturday for more. That night CS & I finished Seven Samurai, it was a good movie, but just sooooo long!

Sunday plans got changed a bit so I had time to have CS help me put up the outside lights, and man was it frigid out there! I could barely feel my finger when we finished. After CS left to hang out with his roomies and get some more WoW (World of Warcraft) in, PH stopped by. We went to get pics of his house, but not much has changed on the outside, most of the work going on is in the interior now. I then made him drive me to dad’s so we could all have Thanksgiving dinner together with the Thanksgiving leftovers. It was fun, good food, dad & his wife seem to be doing well, and PH got to meet the new puppy.

Yesterday CS took me out for lunch – yummy crepes! and then we checked out all the goodies at Cost Plus. He got rice candy for him and handmade candy canes for me. They aren’t as good as the big handmade candy cane I got from Dansk, but they are still better than the generic ones. And so cute!

Today I get to go to the dentist – fingers crossed that I finally get to go back to a regular schedule of only going twice a year. And then we’re having a going away lunch for a coworker. It actually worked out perfect, the dentist called to move my appointment forward so I should be able to get to the lunch on time. :) The bad thing is that I discovered that my heater is going out this morning, and if the repair costs too much I’m just going to get a new heat pump (combo heater/ac). Another big repair is not what I was wanting just as I was creeping my way out of debt. Heck, the only reason I’m not out of debt now is paying for replacing the roof! Sigh. Wish me luck!

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About 20% of the population is highly sensitive

Monday, November 29th, 2004

20% = 1 out of every 5 people. So if you’re not “highly sensitive,” then you know someone who is.
I mostly like this quote:

“The truly creative mind in any field is no more than this: A human creature born abnormally, inhumanly sensitive.

To him… a touch is a blow,

a sound is a noise,

a misfortune is a tragedy,

a joy is an ecstasy,

a friend is a lover,

a lover is a god,

and failure is death.

Add to this cruelly delicate organism the overpowering necessity to create, create, create – - – so that without the creating of music or poetry or books or buildings or something of meaning, his very breath is cut off from him. He must create, must pour out creation. By some strange, unknown, inward urgency he is not really alive unless he is creating.”

-Pearl S. Buck

The only part I really don’t like is the “inhumanly” since obviously it isn’t inhuman – it’s a standard human variation. But I’ll put up with abnormal since 20% doesn’t make a majority. But abnormal meaning “outside of normal” not meaning strange/bad.

From: http://highlysensitivepeople.com/

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Thanksgiving!

Monday, November 29th, 2004

Where did I leave off? Well, I managed to get a ride to Santa Rosa with AP(f) Wednesday night. We left around 9:30pm and traffic was fine the whole way there. We talked the whole car ride so that made the trip go by quickly for me. And her adorable little mini-pinscher Charlie was with us, he was so cute! And I’d forgotten how soft dogs tongues are compared to my cats’ sandpaper ones. Thanksgiving was filled with cooking and eating and followed by watching Shrek 2 and staying up till midnight talking with my brother as my headache went away. Mom’s boyfriend made a really great smoked turkey too. All the food was yum and I had plenty of leftovers to bring home with me.

Friday morning we got off to a bit of a late start after enjoying some golden layers biscuits with honey butter for breakfast. That was followed by hours of running around and paperwork with lunch squeezed in as mom & I did bank stuff. They headed off home sometime after 5pm. Tree decorating was put off till Saturday and I headed off to CS’s to play some World of Warcraft and start watching Seven Samurai.

Look for Thanksgiving Part 2 coming soon to a blog near you!

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this guy has too much free time…

Wednesday, November 24th, 2004

but he’s funny! http://www.zefrank.com/

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Is is a grenade? No! It’s an exploding cell phone!

Wednesday, November 24th, 2004

“Today the Department of Consumer Safety announced a recall of all Kyocera/LG cell phones sold by Verizon in the last three years. Apparently the batteries are prone to explode and a user lost part of his hand in one incident. Here is the URL – http://www.recall-warnings.com/cpsc-content-05-05505.html”

Makes me glad I got rid of my Kyocera ages ago! Yeek!

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Pizza, Photos, Plans

Wednesday, November 24th, 2004

Pizza – all my cats LOVE pizza. I was having some leftover pizza last night, and Cookie was on my left, Khalua was on my knees and Mocha was on the arm of the sofa to my right. I caved and gave them all some – Cookie more than the others since she usually doesn’t want special snacks. And then I had to toss the kittens on the floor so I could finish eating.

I found a photo hosting site that actually lets me upload more than 10-12 photos at a time. Shutterfly actually works on Macs & PCs and with more than just Internet Explorer. Woohoo! And I get 15 free prints. :) So now I’m in the process of finally getting ALL my photos online. And of course I’ll update my photo album link once I’m done.

Plans… plans for Thanksgiving keep changing. :( Daddy got sick so now he & his wife aren’t going, so I can’t get a ride from them. AP(f) is sick too, but she might still go back and give me a ride, but then I’d need a ride home. Luckily PH offered to come get me and take me home. Yay!!! But if AP(f) isn’t going tonight or early tomorrow I’m going to be driving myself (ugh!) in holiday traffic (double ugh!). I’m keeping my fingers crossed!

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Dolphins are so spiffy!

Tuesday, November 23rd, 2004

I used to want to be a dolphin trainer, until I realized that I wouldn’t be able to after starting to have problems with my ears when I swam to the bottom of a six foot deep pool. I still want to swim with them someday though!

Dolphins save swimmers from shark

Monday, November 22, 2004 Posted: 10:29 PM EST (0329 GMT)

story.dolphins.afp.jpg

Dolphins are known to attack sharks to protect their young.

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (Reuters) — A pod of dolphins circled protectively round a group of New Zealand swimmers to fend off an attack by a great white shark, media reported on Tuesday.

Lifesavers Rob Howes, his 15-year-old daughter Niccy, Karina Cooper and Helen Slade were swimming 100 metres (300 feet) off Ocean Beach near Whangarei on New Zealand’s North Island when the dolphins herded them — apparently to protect them from a shark.

“They started to herd us up, they pushed all four of us together by doing tight circles around us,” Howes told the New Zealand Press Association (NZPA).

Howes tried to drift away from the group, but two of the bigger dolphins herded him back just as he spotted a three-meter (nine feet) great white shark swimming towards the group.

“I just recoiled. It was only about 2 meters (6 feet) away from me, the water was crystal clear and it was as clear as the nose on my face,” Howes said.

“They had corralled us up to protect us,” he said.

The lifesavers spent the next 40 minutes surrounded by the dolphins before they could safely swim back to shore.

The incident happened on October 30, but the lifesavers kept the story to themselves until now.

Environment group Orca Research said dolphins attacked sharks to protect themselves and their young, so their actions in protecting the lifesavers was understandable.

“They could have sensed the danger to the swimmers and taken action to protect them,” Orca’s Ingrid Visser told NZPA.

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Another (accidentally) long weekend

Tuesday, November 23rd, 2004

Let’s see if I still remember what I did this weekend. :)

Had yummy dinner at Mimi’s and then we went to Toy’s R Us to pick up Scene It! Which they were out of. So someone bought a version of Trivial Pursuit that came with a DVD. As predicted I mostly sucked but did know a couple random things. The second game was guys verses girls and we blasted the guys. I did my part by rolling good numbers (which I failed to do the first game). CS & one of his roommates & I stayed up waaay to late to play a game of Settlers, which I think I won… but I don’t really remember, which is sad since that would be the first game of Settlers that I’ve won.

Saturday was flag football, fun, but not as fun as I remembered it being in junior high – people were too serious about the game. And since we had extra players on our team that needed to sit out, I ended up watching from the sidelines and cheering CS on. We lead in penalties, but that was about it. Then CS & I took a nap and went to see The Incredibles! Whoohoo! Hehe, that movie was funny! Edna was my favorite, darling! We had an early dinner before the movie at Fridays, which I loved because their food is yummy and that early they weren’t crowded or noisy like I hate. That night we introduced CS’s roomie JR & his roomie’s girlfriend Jen to Settlers. Jen kicked our butts. Even with the bad job CS & I did explaining the rules. She started with a 5 & 8 on wood and a wood port. And just zoomed ahead. We also tried the ama-zake (sweet sake) I had. Yum yum! Although none of us was sure if it was alcoholic. I assumed it had to be, but we couldn’t tell for sure. And JR & I didn’t feel like trying to translate the packaging.

Sunday I just did stuff around the house & played with kittys and got a bit moody/lonely. Then PH stopped by to make my computers talk to each other and after that CS came over and cheered me up. We watched the Punisher which I really enjoyed and Khalua lay in my lap for most of it. :)

Monday was supposed to be work but I woke up feeling all blech (headachy/sleepy) so I called in sick and slept till almost noon, watched Driving Miss Daisy – good but melancholy, slept some more then CS came over with pizza – Yay! – and we started Doctor No, but then it was bedtime, so I don’t know how it ends yet. I need to finish watching PH’s Bond movies so I can give them back. :)

And here I am back at work! :) And lunch is over, so I’m pretty much done.

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Bunny PSA – Medicine

Friday, November 19th, 2004
Meridia, a weight-loss drug. He said the agency should consider whether its benefits outweigh the risks of higher blood pressure and stroke among people taking it. “I don’t think Meridia passes that test,” Graham said.
Crestor, an anti-cholesterol drug. He said the government should evaluate the occurrence of renal failure and other serious side effects among people taking Crestor. Two of three other statin competitors prevent heart attack and stroke and do not cause renal failure, he said.
Accutane, an acne drug linked to birth defects. Graham said the drug represents a 20-year “regulatory failure” by the FDA and sales should be restricted immediately. (Bunny note – isn’t this the one also linked to causing suicidal depression in teens? Something about only being tested on adults, and then happy teens taking it, and then committing suicide? Found it: The drug is known to cause miscarriage and severe birth defects. Patients taking Accutane may develop potentially serious problems affecting a number of organs, including the liver, intestines, eyes, ears, and skeletal system. And some patients taking Accutane have developed serious psychiatric problems, including depression. More rarely, patients have developed suicidal behavior and killed themselves.)
Bextra, a painkiller. Graham said the drug poses the same heart attack and stroke risk as Vioxx. He recommended designing studies to look at the drug’s cardiovascular risks.
Serevent, an asthma treatment. He said the drug was shown, with 90 percent certainty in a long-term trial in England, to cause deaths due to asthma. GlaxoSmithKline, told by the FDA to do a large, clinical trial, begged off. “We’ve got case reports of people dying, clutching their Serevent inhaler,” Graham said. “But Serevent is still on the market.”

Full Article

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Geek giggle

Friday, November 19th, 2004

So occasionally on the boring tech support email list I’m on, somebody actually says something funny:

spammer’s are using our bandwidth to send their emails, violating the law, using hijacked computers, spreading viruses, etc. Most people, however, don’t consider the bandwidth usage, and don’t know spam is sent from hijacked computers and viruses. They just view spam as another (albeit particulary annoying) form of advertising. That’s why, IMO, “we allow people to use us like this.”

The average person isn’t pissed off enough about it. Yet. What keeps me hopeful as I wade through spam and listen to my users complain is that someday, some people are going to drive a dump truck full of spam (the original, smelly stuff) and dump it into some spammer’s yard, or convertible, or perhaps both. I imagine them opening their front door and having a meat mountain slide into their living room. Good times.

——

And yes I’m geek enough to get this and think it’s funny. =P

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