SGA DOTS

Still not feeling completely well, but good enough for the Stargate Atlantis get-together. Thanks to the Dumping Grounds we had the 2-parter (The Storm and The Eye) of SGA to watch tonight.

McKay: "So how will we know which one is Sheppard?"
Ford: "He'll be the dot taking out the other dots."

SICK

Ugh. The flu thing that's going around and has passed through the parents and Tonbo and a few people at work has finally claimed me. Went home early and plan to be a slug tomorrow and not do anything of consequence.

But I will check my DXGold account at some point, because tonight is an end of session (EOS), so I'll have more money in my DXDebit account tomorrow. WooHoo! Passive income is on it's way!

For the best info and answers from people who know (and answer newbie questions with grace :) check out the DXPowerTeam site. Bunches of good stuff available without registration, although for $15/month, the other topics in the forum are worth it.

DLM GOODIES

Have very much fallen in love with the TV show Dead Like Me. Watched the whole DLM first season DVD box set w/Tonbo and we're starting at the beginning again. And even though this will be his 3rd time to watch them, Tonbo is still finding something new. Like the "goatee and gold lame sash" reference in ep#2 "Dead Girl Walking" which is a reference to the original Star Trek ep "Mirror, Mirror" where the alternate universe Spock and Kirk are distinguished by a "goatee and gold lame sash".

Did a bunch of Googling for Dead Like Me goodies (pics, music, and screensavers) and came away with a pretty good stash. Favorite item: a Happy Time Screensaver !!! It is (as George would say) "the shit". I have it running at work. I wonder if they'll ask me to replace it ...

It's available at DeadLikeMeOnline.com (Downloads link), which also has a great picture gallery and info about the songs used in the show. I did purchase the Boom Boom Ba song from the Metisse website (click on the 'music downloads' link in the top nav). This song is also available on the soundtrack to "The Next Best Thing". It loops incredibly well and is perfect background music for almost any task (like blogging ;)

Now to actually write the fanfic suggest by Tonbo the other night. Although I'm a bit hesitant, since I haven't seen the second season, and I have a personal bias against writing fanfiction without knowing the whole story, or as much of it as is available. Kind of like writing a Fruits Basket fanfic after only seeing the first 4 eps and thinking Kyo always wears his bracelet because he loves his mother who gave it to him. If you've seen ALL of that show, you know how what an ... interesting ... thought that really is. :P

HALF FULL

Talked with a friend today and after I made a comment, he said I looked at things "half full" and that he liked that about me.

Funny to think about it, but I am a lot more of the point of view of the glass is half full than half empty. At least these past few years. And very much so this month (belief in that counter is a powerful thing ;) And once you start seeing the half full part, it's kind of amazing how many more people seem to see the half empty part.

Which is kind of understandable. I mean, the first thing you see when looking into a glass that contains a liquid is the empty part. You actually look right through it in order to see the liquid full part. Some people make it a point of not looking through the empty part and instead focus on it. How big is it? What could be there? What should be there? Doesn't matter if there's any amount of the best tasting water on the planet in the container if the person looking at the air above it wishes it was something else, be it wine or coffee or carbonated water.

Which comes back around to a conversation Tonbo and I were having the other day about how unhappiness spreads so much easier and faster than happiness. It's great to do the random acts of kindness thing, but understand it can be instantly wiped out by someone cutting infront of someone else while driving. And I'm all about the random kindness acts (especially with gifts! - this is StuffGirl speaking after all :), but I'm also aware how fragile it sometimes seems. Not that one should be "happy" all the time by any means. There's way too much to life to be that. But being positive, having a half full attitude, does make the not so happy times easier to deal with.

HOUSE OF FLYING DAGGERS

Went to dinner w/KWP and Tonbo this evening. Tonbo had to go to bed early for work (he has to be there at 6 am!), so I went with KWP to see the movie The House of Flying Daggers.

Like Hero (which Quentin Tarantino "presented" and had nothing to with the creation of, which is kinds of obvious if you watch it) and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, The House of Flying Daggers is a Chinese film that currently has an American theatrical release. Much less colorful than Hero, it has the fantastic fighting scenes, and an engaging plot - layers of which are slowly revealed as you go along. I'm still not sure what I think about the ending. I flipped back and forth between rolled eyes and renewed interest 3 or 4 times during the last 15 minutes of the film. Overall, worth a viewing, especially on the big screen.

1 YR OLD

This blog is now officially (just over) one year old. I don't have over 365 entries, but it's somewhere over 271, which is exponentially more entries than I've ever had in any other kind of journal or diary.

So, here's to another year on the path to financial freedom. Many irons in the fire, some on the side waiting to be lit. New deadline, complete with countdown on the front page (how's that for motivation?) ((I wonder if anyone noticed ...))

And ... now that I'm DXDebit qualified, I had an extra $99 to use. Also started my second portfolio and will fund it some more tomorrow.

Side note: funny thing, that same PM found that same ship-it-award, although this time it was in a box since the last move of office buildings. Guess some things don't change. :P

PATIENCE, GRASSHOPPER

It feels really good to have a definitive plan and a date again.

It also makes it difficult to wait.

And I don't want to "wait" for 997 days, because there's still a lot going on in my life. Projects to continue ... some to finish ... some to start AND finish ... etc.

And dream ... about all the things I'm going to do with my extra 40-50 hrs/week. :)

TOILET SEAT GIRL

Tonbo's first day of work at his new job, so we had a celebration dinner of Pizza Guy and watched the pilot episode of his Xmas gift of the first season DVD box set of Dead Like Me. He's already seen all of these thanks to SpoonPrez, but they really are good enough for a second viewing.

After being killed by a falling toilet seat from the space station Mir, Georgia Lass becomes a Grim Reaper. Instructed by her boss Rube (wonderfully played by Mandy Patinkin), George is given a Post-it Note each day of the soul she is supposed to take on to the next whatever. At first resistant, she eventually gets used to her un-dead life.

Or so I'm told. Having only seen the pilot, she is one spoiled little 18 year old snot. Dying might have been the best thing that ever happened to her. ;)

Quirky, Canadian production, that is funny and morbid and touching and very difficult to describe. American broadcast TV it ain't.

Dead Like Me MGM official website

Dead Like Me Showtime website

1000 DAYS

Which sounds waaaay cooler than 3 years.

My new target for retirement.

And not to say that that is the day I will retire, but that is the (targetted) day when I will have as much (or more) passive income, so that ANY TIME I WANT TO, I have the OPTION* to stop selling my time to someone else and still pay for those little necessities like food, shelter, and electricity.

But until then, I do enjoy my job, and really like the people I work with. And that is meant without any sarcasm at all.

FYI: the countdown script came from http://www.dynamicdrive.com.

* option, in this case, being somewhat different from a Lord Ventinari "choice".

HOPE

Tonbo's caught the flu thing that's been going around. Both the parents had it, but so far I've escaped. Vitamin C and Echinacea. And trying not to get sneezed on. :P

Still reading through the DXPowerTeam site. Have sent in funds for a membership, because I keep coming across threads who's replies include posts I can't get to without being a member. And there's a whole gallery of screenshots I'd love to see.

Consoles are on hold until the new system is up, but since I'm in this for the long haul, I think I'm going to focus on stock up my portfolio as much as I can right now. Which isn't too much, but paying off the credit cards and personal loans isn't quite finished yet, and those are still a priority. Besides, it compounds interest every 6 days, so whatever I get in now is still going to be worth it.

It's very exciting to think of shortening my original 10-years-to-retirement plan. I've currently starting the 5th year, and don't have much tangible to show for it. But, damn, am I smarter for it! Found out lots of things that didn't work for me. And now I think I've found something that will.

Which gives me "that greatest of all treasures, which is Hope".

As Thomas Edison said, "I haven't failed, I've found 10,000 ways that don't work".

DGP

Okay, officially started my DXGold Portfolio with $15. Off to a roaring start, I know, but I'm still figuring stuff out. Been reading for the past week the free info on the DXPowerTeam site. Very, very, very cool stuff with very, very, very cool people who answer newbie questions with grace.

Also did a P4, which worked out well, once I was sent the correct account number. :p

WFH

Had a lot of reading to do for a pitch, and the office has been a bit noisy lately, so I worked at home today. Logged in and checked email, printed a bunch of stuff ... and went outside.

It's still warm for January, high 50s. I sat on the patio, sheltered from the wind, warmed enough by the sun that the air didn't make me feel cold. And I read. And underlined. And flagged. Went in about every hour to check email, had lunch, went back outside.

Best day working I've had in a while. And I also had an extra 1.5 hours to spare since I didn't have to drive into the office.

"I am offering you a job, Mr. Lipwig. Work, for wages. I realize the concept may be unfamiliar."

Only as a form of hell, Moist thought.

        - Going Postal by Terry Pratchett

FROM WHERE I SIT

Haven't had time to read much of the discussions going on in the Going Postal classroom over at BNU. I poked my head in a bit earlier this week and came to the conclusion that I probably wouldn't spend as much time in there as I thought. I had assumed there would be more Pterry interactions, but so far, there are very few apples around (the appearance of an apple icon signifying a reply to a post by Pratchett).

And then I read the following thread and everything went 'click', as well as bringing to mind a scene from a certain Woody Allen movie ...

Reader: "I am especially curious about Lord Havelock Vetinari. Is he inhuman? Perhaps a Dark Angel who "has-a-lock" on wayward souls in limbo while giving them a second chance? Maybe that's why the population of Ankh-Morpork is suddenly the city where everyone wants to live? Or maybe he IS human, albeit a very clever and preternaturally knowing one, since he seems to always know the goings-on in and around the city. It's difficult for me to discern. Any thoughts?"

Reader: "Now that it's been brought up, I confess to curiosity as to why Vetinari's first name is Havelock. The only Havelocks I know of are Havelock Ellis, the early sex researcher, and a type of cloth worn below the hat as in the French Foreign Legion. During the American Civil War, many Northern ladies made havelocks for soldiers, who generally used them for coffee strainers. I dig the Vetinari joke; that's great!"

Reader: "I thought it was a play on the name Sherlock, since Vetinari is like Sherlock Holmes. Very intelligent, obsessed with his work, and a master of disguise. (Minus the opium and cocaine)"

Author: "From where I sit, it was just a name that sounded right..."

PINKY POWER

You are Zoe. While most others see you as a
stone-cold bitch and yes.woman to the captain,
you can be both a loving wife and quite
emotional - though you never let it show.


Which Firefly character are you?
brought to you by Quizilla

BLINK

Didn't really have any specific plans for today, other than to enjoy it in that special I-have-to-go-to-work-tomorrow way that ends most weekends and the last day of any vacation.

Still reading Going Postal, and the Barnes & Noble University class starts tonight, which I'm looking forward to.

At some point in the early afternoon I took a look at my eyes in the mirror and saw red lines coming from the corners of my eyes out to the irises. Crap. They still aren't gone after 3 days of glasses. That was a bit worrisome. Called Mom and Dad's flight was coming in this after noon so I went down there to go to the airport with her. A house call, as it were, for my ophthalmologist. Got a check-up and he gave me some drops to use and some other drops to use if it got worse. Nothing series, I just spend too much time on the computer and don't blink enough. :P

MARIMIX

Great fan-art for the Mari-sama ga Miteru anime from the French fansite MariaMite

GLASSES

I've been wearing my new glasses a lot, but went back to contacts earlier in the week because of the rain. Glasses and rain aren't very compatible. Took the contacts out today due to red eyes. It usually goes away within the day, so it's not that big a deal.

And I really like my new glasses. If I had known glasses had gotten this cool I'd have gotten a new pair a long time ago. Rimless, kind of Tezuka-looking in shape, anti-reflective, with magnetic sunclips on the front. Sweet!

Pitch and desk cleaning was the work week, although billable stuff has come my way for next week.

Started watching Maria-sama ga Miteru. Extremely shoujo, but the last 5 minutes of the 1st ep made it worth watching the second. :)

THE POWER OF EARPUFFS

Kthebird made a breakthrough today (scroll down to "Thursday, January 6, 2004". I know how she feels, having had similar insights when I have accomplished something that I didn't necessarily know I could do. Sometimes the small things are the big things in life.

Still cold with upper 30s. You'd think it was January. But next week should be high 60s again, so it's still my kind of winder. :)

Did fan done sales taxes and was going to file online, but they online accept Amex or Discover for a $1 processing fee, so I'll just spend the 37 cents to mail it to Austin.

Still reading Going Postal for my Barnes & Noble class which starts next Monday.

Have also succeeded in getting Tonbo interested enough with my random quotes, descriptions of events, and giggles and laughs while reading Discworld books that he is currently reading Guards! Guards!. Heard him laughing last night as he was reading, and then he came in and made several attempts to tell me the funny parts, and ended up laughing instead. At least I'm no the only one that reacts that way to Terry Pratchett's briilliant command of the English (not American) language.



    "Do you know he arrested the President of the Thieves' Guild this morning?"
    "What for?"
    "For being president of the Thieves' Guild, it seems."

SURVIVORS

Mid-afternoon there were reports of an ice storm heading our way, so I left work early and headed home. I can hand cold. I can handle wet. I don't like cold and wet, especially if it ends up turning into ice. Spinning out of control on a bridge is not something I want to repeat. Ever. And having a cable modem makes 'working at home' a realistic possibility compared to my old dial-up.

Noticed there was a new challenge on the Serenity: The Official Movie Website - write your own episode. I've had a Firefly fanfiction idea for a while, and this seemed like a good excuse to write it. Plus I really enjoy writing dialog, and that's essentially what a script is. So I got busy.

And discovered writing takes time. I know this should be rather obvious, but it was still a bit of a surprise when I'd only finished the teaser by the time Tonbo was home and packing to get ready to leave for Winter Conference.

I worked my way into Act 1, and went to check the site to see if the challenge had been taken down since you only got points if you were one of the first 100 entries.

And discovered they had changed the description. Now you only had to submit a one page synopsis. Ah, of course. So I hurriedly wrote up a synopsis that quite frankly sucked, but I hurried because I really wanted the (now) 500 points.

Tonbo read what I'd written so far, and gave it the thumbs up, saying I should finish it. Which I'd like to do, and probably will. If nothing else, a finished script will get across what I mumbled through in my synopsis.

Stayed up rather late, and Tonbo left rather early, so it actually kinda worked out. The conference is in Alabama this year because of Legacy Business Group, so that's 17 hours closer than the usual place in Utah.

MORE RAIN

rain

ship black market beagle

rain

work

rain

through the lunchroom window we watched the buildings on the horizon disappear as the clouds crept in on little cat feet.

no rain

home

no rain

dinner wings and PoT eps

wind

catch up on blog

more wind

potential rain overnight

RAIN

rain

work

rain

home

rain

getting ahead on the Quixtar Shopping Guru

rain

SG-1 WITHDRAWAL

Did the late night movie/anime thing again with Another Thin Man and more Prince of Tennis. That was all the Thin Man I could handle, although I did enjoy the ones I saw, for the most part. I'm not much of a mystery fan, unless such mysteries take place on the flat world carried on the back of four elephants who stand on the back of a giant turtle who is swimming through spacetime.*

KtheBird came by for another knitting lesson. I've finished the first/bottom part of the hat and needed to switch colors. Which actually took less than a minute of instruction, and she probably could have told me how to do it over the phone. However, I was very glad she was around as I royally made a mess of the next couple of rows, and she spent a bit of time rescuing it for me.

Don't you wish real life had a "Save Game" feature?

Dad had called earlier in the day, saying he had fixed my little portable humidifier and wanted to bring it by. I thanked him, and said he didn't need to make the trip all the way up here for that, since Mom was coming by on Saturday for a Garden Work Day. There was the tiniest of pauses and in my mind, I saw his lip twitch (the subtle indication that he is perhaps telling an untruth). Then he said it was taking up room in his car, I said okay, see you this afternoon, and we hung up. The humidifier I asked to see if he could fix was approximately 12" x 6" x 5". Needless to say I think something larger is coming to my house. And it was, quite, larger. And just about as quiet, and actually made a difference in the overall humidity of the house. Turns out he couldn't fix the little guy, so he replaced it. I love my parents ... and not just because they give me stuff, although I am StuffGirl and Gifts are my love language.

Patryn came over in the evening and we blew out the end of Stargate SG-1 Season 7. And now we must wait until Jan 21 for Stargate Atlantis to start back up again. I believe SG-1 season 8 starts up the week before, but since we haven't seen the first 11 eps, we're not involved with that one. Besides, Patryn is going to buy the DVD box set as soon as it comes out anyway. ;)

And went to bed before 2 am since I have a meeting tomorrow morning at the office.

Vacation is officially over.

* Discworld reference

NEW YEARS DAY

Having stayed up through the wee hours of the morning with Tonbo watching The Thin Man, Prince of Tennis eps, After the Thin Man, and a few more Prince of Tennis eps, I went to bed.

And was awaken by the sound of leaf blowers and lawn mowers. Knowing I don't live in San Diego*, I honestly thought it was part of my dream, but my dreams aren't usually that loud, and why would anyone be cutting their lawn on New Year's Day?

Maybe because it's warm, sunny, and going to have a high of over 70F?

Not exactly the way I wanted to start the new year, but I'm not really complaining. Now. As I write this almost a week later. At the time I was a bit put out, having wanted to sleep a little longer than 6 hours.

Decided to take the hanging icicle lights down, now that the holidays were essentially over. Tonbo and his ladder to the rescue again. Much nicer than when we took them down last year and it was actually winterish weather and my fingers got numb.

Afterwards we sat in the backyard and enjoyed the spring-like breeze and listened to my new wind chime.



An omiyagi from the DMA "Splendors of China's Forbidden City" exhibit, it was not the chime I thought I was buying, buy I really like it nonetheless. The kanji (according to About.com) is "Ji" which means "lucky, auspicious, propitious". It is a nice, higher pitched compliment to the Baby Ben chime and single more-metal-sounding chime I already have.

Spent most of the afternoon catching up and then getting ahead on the Quixtar Shopping Guru. It would make my life a lot easier if these future drafts would become posts on their own, but until then I guess I'll just have to log in once a day. Which usually isn't a problem. Unless I'm on vacation and it's 70F outside. :P


* Miroserfs reference