Random Thing #11: By Popular Demand...Faux'Gria

This is what I have sometimes when I'm stuck in a hotel room and am craving a Sangria and either there is no bar, the bar isn't open or the bartender goes "huh?" when you ask for Sangria. The hotel shop usually has all of these (at least the ones I stay in do).

One can Sprite (NOT diet, ick)

One individual size bottle (or if only option, can) orange juice

One individual size bottle of red wine (any red will do, I get the Merlot)

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Pour equal parts into a glass. Depending on size of glass you will probably have one or two more servings left over. Sometimes all you get in a hotel are those small plastic glasses, which hold even less. I try to stay in hotels with some kind of real glassware in the room or else keep one from the breakfast buffet...

If it sounds disgusting, just remember, it's still better than the tapwater.

Recently Read

Just finished reading WWW: Wake by Robert J. Sawyer and was very pleased with it. I'm looking forward to the rest of the trilogy. The book is about emerging intelligence, physics, computers, technology which restores the main character's sight and so much more. It's optimistic for the most part and very sympathetic. This isn't a book review, it's late and I'm too tired to try to be analytical, it's just my recommendation to read it. If you click the link above to buy it, a few pennies go into my beading fund :-) so thanks!

Um, Sorry, But I Don't Think We're Really a Good Match, Ifeanyi

Google's spam filters do a very good job. I probably only get 3 or 4 a day in the in-box. This one slipped by, though:

I bless the day I set eyes on your mail thats is my word,but of all let me say compliments of the season to you my angel.My purpose of emailing you is that i needed a white man to marry me as husband,

Ok, first mistake. There seems to be some gender confusion going on. I'm not sure where it comes from, I tend to dress and act fairly feminine. Also note the past tense "needed a white man to marry me as husband" - is this a Dear John?

Since my child hood i have been dreaming of marrying white at least i will be the first to marry white in my home town,any day God of heaven makes this happen or comes to pass i will be the happiest person on earth.I just want to let you know that age does not matter in marriage i am 23years old now,loving you is like making heaven,pls honey do not say no to my proposal you are all i have honey,

I'm saddened by this need to "marry white" and I doubt that God of heaven approves as well.

I will use this oppurturnity to thank your mother for given birth to you because without her you can not exist.Writing something to you is like making heaven i have always had something to laugh about lately and someone to think about which is you, I used to have dark and lonely days because of my dream and heart desire,days coos the sun don稚 shine my way because my dream have'nt come to pass,

I'm thankful my mother had me too. I'm sorry that she has passed away and can't know that a spammer is grateful to her for having me. I don't think she'd take it as a great compliment, though.

wish that I could find the words to say and show you that love is real but words cant express the way you make me feel, so you are my angel my sun up in the sky, I may be
going through hell but as long as I get your reply to talk to you I feel like i am in Heaven, The way I see things only you
can ease this pains I feel and wipe my tears away, only you can make me whole again.

I'm feeling very sorry for this person, to have invested so much in me that I cannot reciprocate. I'm thinking she needs to start working on some self esteem issues.

Honey not a day goes by that I don稚 think of my furture wife which is you , when I think of the conversation I feel like I have been very blessed already all ready though i have'nt got your feed back but i know that God of heaven will make it happen, just one thing I ask God for lately
and that痴 just for me to hold your hands and if that would be all I don稚 mind. I donor make promises but I tell you I 'all be the best I can be.

Huh? Now I'm a future wife? Not in California, sorry to say. There's this law called Prop 8, see. I'm against it and all for gay marriage. Even if it were legal, though, I'm already married and I don't think the polygamy law will be overturned. Plus, and I think this is the main show-stopper, not gay.

I just had to let this words out talk my heart and felt I should tell you about my self i am a black girl based at cote d'ivoire ivory coast.i wish to stop hear untill i hear from you soon pls honey think of me.
yours in love
Ifeanyi Gideon

Ifeanyi, I hope you find true love. I hope you find it based in cote d'ivoire ivory coast. I hope you find it with a fine man of any race who loves you. While it's probably true that I'm a heaven sent blessing to my dear husband (who, if he were reading that, might pass out from hysterical laughter) I'm sure you can do much better for yourself than me. Hate to break your heart, but it's better to be honest and make a clean break of it. You'll thank me some day.

But, of course, you're not a 23 year old black "girl" (more self-esteem problems, or, more likely the spam was written by a total mysogynist asshole, with only Penthouse as his guide to what 'real women' are like, because a 23 year old female is a woman, honey). I'm not sure who you are but in the end, I've sent your email to the spam folder.

New Look - Whadda Ya Think?

Yes, I succumbed to the new Blogger layouts. Been tweeking it, trying to get close to old look. Lost a lot of the stuff in the sidebar and added new stuff.

The reason I did it was that I looked at my blog this morning and the side bar was completely fracked. (or is that frakked?) Tried fixing the html, but my brain isn't working too well since I'm still aching from the weekend at the convention. Gave up and said what the heck to "upgrading" to layouts.

At least now I can see who my followers are. Won't you be one, too?

Dawno is Not Pleased at All By PicturePeople.quebecblogue.com 's Plagiarism

Today I posted a little wrap up of my experience in Artist's Alley at Bay Con over in my beading blog.

Soon after I got a Google Alert that sent me to a post on a robbing SOB plagiarizing blog called "PicturePeople" that had the exact same title as my post but text that looked like my post had been run through Babelfish a couple times via French, Dutch and Italian then back to English (which, if you haven't done yet, is fun).

You can compare the two at my blog - the text from the stolen post seen on the robbing SOB plagiarist blog is found in its entirety at the bottom of my blog, so don't give the robbing SOB plagiarist any traffic...even though I've given you the link to the robbing SOB post stealing plagiarist's site.

However, feel free to let the world know about the robbing, stealing, plagiarist blog site called Picture People.

Our Masters, the Cats

Cats. I'm owned by three of them. They decide what particular convoluted shape we get to sleep in at night, when we have to get up to supply food or re-fill the water dish - 3am is a particularly fine time to push the water dish around and wake me for a refill. They decide our seating arrangements - "sorry, I'm napping in your computer chair right now, how about you just kneel in front of the desk for a while?" "You didn't really want to work on that necklace I'm sleeping on right now, did you?", etc.

So I'm quite fond of the various cat pictures and videos from I Can Haz Cheezburger. Here's a silly dignified cat with a large box to play in conquer - the ending is particularly cute.

Random Thing #10

I've posted a couple videos (because I can!!) *ahem* because I found them funny and hoped my one or two readers might also.

This is random thing #10 about me - I'm on the Ninja side of the Ninja v. Pirates question.

Ninja Parade...

Ninja Parade Slips Through Town Unnoticed Once Again

New Engineer Guys Cat Video - Worth Waiting for the Concert at the End...

TIGERS LEOPARDS Vs Pumpkins! - The best home videos are here

Recommended Reading: Bizarro Bytes

I'd like to suggest checking out some twisted tales of bizarro, horror, and dark fantasy, Bizarro Bytes. I became acquainted with Jeremy via Twitter and am hoping you'll get to know him, and his stories, too. There are some free stories, an email subscription offer and other info about Jeremy at the site linked above.

Remembering and Re-booting

I was nine years old when Star Trek first showed on TV. It was on at or past my bedtime, I think it was Thursday nights at 9 or 10:00 p.m. I do remember getting to see some episodes, maybe they were summer re-runs. It was generous of my parents to let me watch something they probably thought was grown-up Science Fiction. I think it's a true memory I have of watching "The Corbomite Maneuver" with seven year old Clint Howard and his Tranya.

In '68 we moved to Taiwan and there was no Star Trek showing there. Except at a school fair where someone had obtained, who knows how, recordings and were showing them in a classroom off of a tape machine and TV monitor set up. I must have stayed for hours.

We got back in 1970 so the show had been cancelled by then. Fortunately I'd begun collecting the novelizations, the first ones by James Blish which re-told all the episodes and then later stories by various authors. Some of the early ones were really bad, but I have them all. I particularly like the ones Diane Duane and Ann Crispin wrote about Spock and Vulcan/Vulcans.

I was ecstatic when Next Generation came on, I'd seen every movie as they came out, but I was ready for a weekly fix. I watched every new series faithfully, even Enterprise, though I did give up on Voyager for most of the middle, and only coming back to catch the last episodes of the last season.

So, I've been looking forward to the new movie, even though some have told me they thought I wouldn't like it as an older Trek fan. I'm here to say I loved it.  The actors did a fabulous job with the characters and the re-boot, no quibbles here. I hope this revitalizes the franchise with a whole new generation of Trek fans, I hope the studios have the actors signed and scripts written or being written for the next one.

Most of all, I hope I can take my grandchildren to a Trek convention some day.

Do You Watch Monk? I Bet You'll Like This.

I love Monk. Lee Goldberg writes very successful tie-in books and has done some freelance episodes for the TV show ("Mr. Monk Goes to Mexico," "Mr. Monk Meets The Godfather," "Mr. Monk Can't See a Thing"). I visit his blog via my RSS reader every time he updates (he's also an author advocate par excellance and has spoken out against writing scams) today he posted this very clever fan mashup of Monk and The Rockford Files theme music - which made me rather nostalgic for that show:

Moment of Outrage for the Day

The post I found this on is titled "Fox News, still hilariously evil" - and yes, I can see that. But when I watched the clip of clips showing Fox comments for each day since Obama's inauguration, I was more outraged than amused. Yes, I'm all for freedom of the press - it's essential. But these people call themselves journalists? It's one thing to be of the loyal opposition, it's another to foment fear with outrageous hyperbole and out-right lies. I'm embarrassed to have ever called myself a Republican. I hope that cooler heads with more moderate agendas will somehow come out of hiding and take the GOP back.