Random Thing #9

Saw this today, laughed a bit self-consciously, and as a prologue to my post, I thought I'd share it (post continues below embed):

Watch Real Life Twitter on CollegeHumor

Yes, I am on Twitter. I Tweet, Re-Tweet, follow and am followed. No Twibes yet, but I know what my Twitalizer scores are (need a glossary - start here with a fun post about Twitterspeak: 66 Twitter Terms You Don't Need to Know).

I have a #BlameDawno hashtag. I signed up for Twiggit, have TwitThis (no jokes about who's the twit, ok?) on my browser toolbar, and use Ping.fm to post statuses on Twitter and Facebook simultaneously. I use cli.gs to track people clicking on the links I Tweet.

If you are a psychologist or psychoanalyst, please don't comment, or send me an urgent email with your phone number for an appointment. I know I'm sick.

I'm on way too many social network sites. Ones I'm pretty much never on include MySpace, LinkedIn, MyBlogLog...haven't been to CoComment in ages, is it still up? I was enticed to join Vox and Discus, but haven't used them. I've Dugg some stuff (and that's what I got Twiggit for). I believe there are dozens of other sites I've signed up for out there, long forgotten, as well.

I just added my beading blog to Technorati, so I'm visiting there again after a long hiatus. I've also registered at a number of forums but only frequent one, (Absolute Write) and I haven't been there that regularly lately, even after a 3 month furlough.

I follow over 100 blogs on my Google Reader, on top of that, although I admit that I don't read every one - sometimes I peek at the first few lines on the feed, othertimes I skip over them. Never miss opening up my daily webcomics though.

So, my obviously serious internet addiction is hereby offered as today's Random Thing. Thank you for reading. Now let's all go to this place called "outside" and look at that bright thing shining up there in the "sky" - they tell me it's "the Sun" and the "light" it emits is good for you - except for "ultraviolet" and you should wear your "sunscreen" when you go "outside".

Random Thing #8

There's a conversation on Making Light (that started off*) about a NYT obit for J. G. Ballard that includes a quote saying “His fabulistic style led people to review his work as science fiction,” said Robert Weil, Mr. Ballard’s American editor at Norton. “But that’s like calling Brave New World science fiction, or 1984.” My reaction to that quote is rather rude, but that's not the point of this post.

There's discussion going in the comments at ML about about shelving books. Some have light-heartedly recommended shelving by color; others share how they shelve their books. Got me thinking about a new random thing to share.

In the past, when we had room for inside bookshelves**, I've shelved alphabetically regardless of genre, also mixing hard back and paperback books on the same shelf. The only exception is my rather large collection of Star Trek novelizations.

While those books are written by many different authors, they are all about Star Trek, so I feel they should all be shelved together (and so do the bookstores I buy them in). They all go in publication order, by show order. So the TOS books, then the TNGs, the DS9 and the VOY (very few). Never bought any Enterprise.

Then there are the ones that don't fit by series (SCE, Excalibur, Titan, etc.) those are by publication order, but each spin off story is in its own group. There are a few other series of stories (Captain's Table series, for example) that also don't fit into the main categories, those too are grouped separately.

And that's #8. At this rate it'll take me years to get to 50.


*many start on one topic and delightfully wander off into fascinating diversions
** right now the shelves and 80% of my books are in the garage

Happy Earth Day

My favorite clip discussing all the hoopla leading up to this year's Earth Day:

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	M - Th 11p / 10c
Back in Black - Kids' Earth Day
thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Economic Crisis Political Humor

Happy Belated Anniversary to Elements of Style & Random Thing #8

Somehow I missed that April 16th was the 50th anniversary of Strunk & White's Elements of Style. Required reading in my Freshman English Comp class in college and a handy thing to have lying around in general. I know some disagree, but I'd rather go wrong using Strunk & White's advice than try to muddle through improving my writing on my own. At least I think it sounds better to say "But that's what Elements of Style suggests." than "uh, well, it looked ok to to the MS Grammar check".

NPR did a radio commentary in honor of the anniversary - you can click on this link for the audio (you may need to click again inside the player to start it) or this link to read it - but I think it's more fun to listen to.

Random thing:

When I was younger I went to night classes at a Bible college, taught at a private Baptist Church school and was one of my church's teen group's adult leaders. I loved the Biblical Archeology class best - the whole history of the Middle East region and shards of evidence of the historical lives of the Bible figures was fascinating - and the professor had spent extensive time doing digs at places like Jericho. I also was active in various Bible studies for many years before and after that. So when I heard about a TV show that was loosely based on the story of David and Saul (the story is told in the books of Samuel and others in the Bible), set in a present, but alternate universe, timeline, I thought I'd watch. I rarely catch it on TV, so I watch the full episodes on NBC.com during lunch break or after work. I was chatting about the most recent episode with my husband today:

DH: kings?

me: it's a mini-series

you'd hate it

me: sort of an alt-history loosely based on the story of David and Saul in the Bible and has a slight "homage to Dallas and Falcon Crest" feel to it

DH: i misread that initially and thought it said "david soul", not "david & saul"

and i was very confused

me: heh

DH: an alternate history based on david soul in the bible?

wtf?

jesus & hutch?

me: Jesus & Hutch...you're gonna get hit by lightning

DH: so long as it's cold lightning, i'm ok with that

it's HOT

And that's my random thing.

Thinking about buying Elements of Style? Click here and a few pennies go into Dawno's beading fund...

just signed up and am testing ping.fm

Don't Ever Give Up

Nearly 48, gray hair, matronly figure, never been married, lives with cat Pebbles, currently unemployed and from a 'collection of villages' - nobody expected to be amazed...but they were. Brought tears to this nearly 52 year old who stopped singing back in her 30's eyes, I'm not ashamed to admit.

Three big w00ts! for Susan Boyle's performance on Britain's Got Talent. Embedding disabled on the YouTube for this, please, though, do click through and listen, you'll be happy you did.

Amazon Fail

I am appalled with Amazon's censorship tactic brought to light this weekend on various blogs and Twitter.

So, click this and add the link on your blog, too. Send Amazon a message.

Editing to add: Digital Medievalist's post "Amazon Rankings Reek of Homophobia and Puritanism"

Damn corporate idjits.

Random Thing #7

Found via an article about Vimeo on Slate.


powerlinerflyers from wes johnson on Vimeo.

I've stopped and watched similar displays (with fewer birds and wires, though) and there's something fascinating going on. I don't want to know the science behind it; I'd rather apply an imaginative reason.

Watching this with the music the video creator chose (per Slate: "Johnson sets the video to Yann Tiersen's "L'autre Valse d'Amélie," from the Amelie soundtrack, laid down with startling synchronicity to the images. ") - does it make you think these are living musical notes moving and changing, creating the tune as we watch? Or maybe it reminds you of the holes on some huge organic roll of player sky-piano music?

Random Thing #6

First seen on Whatever, the blogger of which saw it at Gizmodo - the Peekaru.

I have to say, when I had little ones, I probably would have bought this version. It would have looked nicer than the weird slings and carry-things I wore back then - they never matched anything I was wearing and always created a huge mess of wrinkles either on the front or back of my blouses.

That's my random thing for the day.

Dawno Recommends Some Blogs - Photography

If you love photography, I would like to recommend following Nikon Sniper's blog. I think his pictures are simply lovely and cover a wide variety of themes.

Another blog of beautiful photography is The Smitten Image - lots of pictures of the beauties of nature up in Canada and the occasional Jack Russell Terrier named Benny. I've been watching the seasons change up there through her photo essay posts.

On Live Journal user pecunium (Terry Karney) posts about his photography, he also has a website with an image gallery.

Since most of my photography consists of pictures of my jewelry and the occasional family photo, I've only otherwise got a few flower pictures I'm particularly proud of:

Tiny bloom on a flower growing out of a stone wall in Ireland

Flowers at a lovely nursery I visited when I met with a friend in North Carolina:

A blooming barrel cactus at the same nursery (which was more like a private botanical garden with flowers planted all over and walkways and little streams flowing through it.

Closeup of a teal colored flower (I was amazed that there was a teal colored flower anywhere so I had to take a picture - I'm very glad I did) on a plant at the UCLA botanical gardens (this one was right in front of the chain link fence between the gardens and the street, so it must be very hardy.

I used the pictures of the cactus and the teal flower to make calendars on Cafe Press in 2007 & 2008. Didn't make one for this year, though.

Do you have a blog to recommend for beautiful photography?

Mom Song

You've probably seen some version of this (or maybe even this one) but I saw it for the first time today. Must say I grinned through the whole thing.

Random Thing #5

I'm married to a pool player. He hasn't played a lot in the last few months, but he loves the game and was active with a league for a while. Once they made it to regionals (in Bakersfield of all places) but, unfortunately, no further.

I think the mathematical aspects of the game appeal to him, he's very adept at all that math stuff. Me, I liked geometry but was miserable at algebra and got no further than the basic stuff in both. I had to take algebra 1 twice. I got one of the lowest scores in the college math placement - I remember my counselor saying that. I wonder why she felt it was necessary, I already knew I was going to have to take something remedial to get my general ed credits in math. Fortunately there was a great class that covered the requirement created especially for non-math students. We even got to go to the Huntington Library on a field trip.

Anyway, here's an amazing little clip (first seen at Suburban Guerrilla)of a pool playing prodigy.

Billions and Billions...

About an hour ago I read on Whatever that Carl Sagan's brilliant Cosmos is now available to view on Hulu. So if I seem to have disappeared, it's because I'm watching. I don't think I saw much (if any) of it live when it was running and I'm thrilled to have this opportunity. If you want to watch, here's ep. 1 - then go to Hulu to see the rest.

The Big BSG Finale's Unanswered Question...Debated by Spike and Angel

Forwarding on from Organized Chaos, who linked to this io9 post Spike and Angel Debate the BSG Finale



In other news I finally got my new beading work table set up, I'm exhausted but really happy it's done. Posted about it over on my beading blog if you're curious.

BSG Finale & Random Thing #4

Watched the BSG finale last night with DH. Other than finding the heavy handed moralizing annoying, the 'tribute' to the old show's theme song sappy, too many flashbacks (just had to go 2 hrs for a "proper" finale, so let's film some flashback filler), and a mild case of wtf with Starbuck, I enjoyed it.

Now here's the question I bet you're all been wondering about: what season passes are on Dawno's TiVo? Even if you're not, I'm posting them. It's Random Thing #4 (at this rate I'll get to #50 some time in 2014)

ETA: 30 Rock
Bones
BSG
Castle
CSI (only the original one though)
ETA: Chuck (thanks for the reminder, Alby)
Dollhouse
Eureka
Heroes
House
Lie to Me
Lost
Mad Men
Monk
My Name is Earl
NCIS
NUMB3RS
Psyche
Reaper
Trust Me

Things I watch online because they're not TiVo'd for one or another reason

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart
Damages
Raising the Bar
Smallville

Lots of speculative or science oriented shows with some police-type procedurals thrown in and a couple lawyer dramas. Did I ever mention that until I realized I'd never "get" the math, I wanted to be a scientist? I didn't care what type, but from about 3rd grade I wanted to do something that entailed lab coats and beakers or better yet, a space suit. Then in college I thought about law. Although I didn't end up in either, at least I work in tech now. I may not design or program the stuff, but I do get to see lots of cool tech in action every day and use a lot of it, too.

Money is Flying Out of the Windows of the Pickup in Front of You - What Would You Do?

My daughter called me a bit after 5pm tonight. "Mom, I can't believe people! I mean, they were putting themselves and others in such danger! They were even running out on to the freeway!" She was headed home on the northbound 805 in San Diego. Suddenly she noticed cars stopped on the median and the breakdown lane (possibly in the freeway too, but I can't remember exactly). It took her a moment to figure it out - they were crouching and sitting and stooping. Then she saw some paper fly by - they were stopping to pick up as much money as they could as it fluttered down the freeway.

Yep. The details aren't all in yet, but apparently just a little ways ahead of her there was a pickup being chased by the police with money being flung out the windows. The police recovered $18k. The news story said "It was unknown how much money was collected by passers-by or how much money may have been thrown out in the first place."

I'm proud of my daughter for driving straight home and avoiding the freeway later on her way to her evening class.

Extreme Sheep LED Art - Another Brave Astro(bat)naut

I watch a Live Journal group, Discworld, and a member, mama_hogswatch posted this today (it's fitting for the Discworld group because she references Granny Aching and the Aching clan are shepherds) - it's rather amazing, not too long, do watch the whole thing.



Wow. The sheepdogs are the truly amazing part of the story - that they can take the commands and control the sheep to produce these amazing movement patterns.

And my DH just sent me the link to this clip (via Gizmodo)



Enterprise fans will recognize the theme song...

Lastly, I won't go into details, but I'm very happy right now with BofA's credit card customer service. Several things were frustrating me and now I've finally gotten to the bottom of it and they're fixing it all up. *whew*

Noted Scientist Agrees With Me - Excel Sucks

See, Chad Orzel, noted scientist guy, professor and owner of a very cute dog who understands physics, and who (Chad that is, not the...well, sometimes his dog does, too) blogs at Uncertain Principles for Science Blogs.com, agrees with me about Excel!

Miscellaneous other thoughts and random stuff:

Did you notice my Star Trek movie countdown widget in the sidebar? Well, I'm more impatient than before for that to reach 0:00:00 - saw the new trailer this weekend while waiting for Watchmen (which I really enjoyed) to start. Some of the same scenes as past trailers, but a few new bits. Too bad they don't have an embeddable clip on the official site. You can go to Apple.com and watch it - click on Trailer3.

Watched the new mini-series Kings on the web the other evening, as I hadn't heard about it in time to either have it TiVo'd or watch live. Think "Dallas" or "Falcon Crest" but with alternate reality New York-type metropolis as a setting, monarchy instead of republic as the form of government, but everything else seems rather 21st Century US-ian, down to the cars and clothes. I'll give it another episode or two to prove itself - the CGI and other photography is pretty well done, pacing was ok, plot - just read I and II Kings in the Bible for spoilers, I guess...

Lastly, I watched Colbert Report again to hear the interview of David Grann. While Colbert interrupted and took off on tangents so David was barely able to give a coherent account of his book, I did hear enough to decide I wanted to read it. Now. Not wait for it to arrive via Amazon or even drive to the store, NOW. So I went to the publisher's page, Random House, and saw there was an eBook option. Not just Kindle or Sony, but other distributors and one of them was Mobipocket, which I have. Mission accomplished!

Am a few chapters in, and really, really enjoying it (click the link above on David Grann to see some great stuff about the book on his website or scroll down to see the Colbert interview) - it's not only the story of the original explorer Fawcett, but a modern exploration that tried to follow in Fawcett's footsteps and possibly find out what happened to him, but also the story of the author's exploration of the explorers...all interwoven and skillfully written. If you want to get the book through Amazon, (this is the only paperback edition available) please use the link below and I'll get a few pennies for it. Also available for the Kindle.





Here's the Colbert interview:

The Colbert ReportMon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c

David Grann

Colbert Report Full Episodes
Political Humor

Mark Sanford
NASA Name Contest

He Gets it!! Graveyard Book - Gaiman Interview on Colbert Report

I don't watch the Colbert Report much - used to, just fell out of the habit - but I was always astounded with how many of the interviewees on his show didn't seem to be clear the show's concept (same goes for people being interviewed by Daily Show correspondents)...that being, "it's satire you dolt - why are you looking [puzzled, insulted, upset, stunned like a wack-a-mole]?"

Neil Gaiman was interviewed the other day. Now, here's someone who clearly gets it, and because he does, it's a great interview:



If you want to read the book, it'd be cool if you'd click here and Dawno gets a few pennies for her recommendation:




And continuing on a satire kick - Onion Radio News Alerts You May Have Missed
Part 1


Part 2

Lead, Follow or ... Oh, Nevermind, Just Tweet Something

If you see yourself in any of these 10 signs, you may need help. Is there at Twitter 12-step program? I may need it. I've been finding and following a lot of crafters, and then following some folk they follow...it's addictive. I'm trying to keep my balance of # of follows to # of followers within about 40 or 50, knowing that a number of people I follow won't follow back, so I probably won't ever have equal numbers.

Why? Because for some reason it bothers me to see folks following thousands and only having a few they follow back. Well, it bothers me when it's not Scalzi or Wheaton or Gaiman...

I have been surprised by a couple of follows - dipnote (Department of State), NPR tweeters, Stephen Fry (squee!!! *ahem* sorry)

Interrupting this post for breaking news: Just heard on BBC news on my radio: A British soldier has crashed 2 tanks in Germany this evening. Crashed one, went back for another and crashed it, too. For some reason, I find myself applauding his moxie... yes, he was drunk, and it was *bad bad* someone could have been hurt, yes... but really, two tanks? It is funny.

Random Thing #3

I have now soaked 2 cell phones. One got washed, and the other fell in the toilet (today). Thank goodness my husband's pre-iPhone was a Razr (which my phone was) and I could just re-charge and swap in the sim card (which got through the 2nd soaking just fine).

Of course all the 'stored in phone' stuff is gone, again. I may not replace for a while, since the hubby's old Razr is just fine, and when I do, it's probably for an iPhone.

Lesson learned? Do not keep cell phone in back pocket if pocket is not deep and if it is made of slippery material.

I decided to find and follow more handcrafty people on Twitter today. Several are following back, which is very kind of them.

Speaking of Twitterers who follow me, I heard about a Twitterer called 'Dipnote*' which is actually Tweets from the office of the Sec't of State and added them to my follow list - interesting little updates and links to articles and press releases about what Sec't. Clinton is doing. Imagine my surprise when I got a notice in my email that Dipnote is following me! I wonder if anyone in the State Department is interested in a nice jewelry lanyard...

*'Dipnote' refers to a Diplomatic Note, a formal communication between an ambassador and a minister of foreign government (from a dipnote tweet reply earlier today).

Yeah, I Know You've Probably Already Seen This...

...but I really enjoyed it, and wanted it here where I can watch it again without clicking around to find it.



Today's Random Thing (#2 see this post for #1): In 1985 I began deliberately thinking of Friday the 13th (prior to that, it really didn't merit thought as I'm not generally superstitious) as a lucky day.

See, my son was born on Friday, September 13th that year. So I celebrate each Friday the 13th with a bit of reminiscing about that tiny baby boy and all of the joy he's brought into my life these past 24 years. On the 14th I go back to grumbling about the annoying parts of parenting a son.

So, How Do You Really Feel About the 25 Random Things Meme?

1 Random Thing

Here's a random thing about me - I, just a moment ago, almost put the home wireless phone in the freezer instead of back in the charger.

My SF Conventions '09, Classic Lit + Zombies

I got the news early Feb 4th that there is an open table available for me at Potlatch SF Convention, Sunnyvale CA, Feb 27 thru Mar. 1st. I was already planning to go, bought my membership last summer. I'd reached out to the auction organizer to volunteer some of my work and help her, I hope I can still find a way to do at least some of that.

Now I'm going to have to figure out what pieces to bring, get them organized and tagged (what kind of tags??), think about display - what sort of room will I have at/around my table? Should I bring my mannequin? I will bring a mirror - it's nice to try stuff on and see how it looks. I've got the foundational stuff for building my displays, but until I know what size table and what the area behind it is like, I can't finish it.

Also thinking about making book mark type thingies since it's a convention about SF books. Maybe some St. Patrick's Day theme stuff? *GAH!!*

*mild panic* I really didn't think I'd get in!

In other news, I'm planning on being at Bay Con in Santa Clara Memorial Day weekend and hoping to get into the dealer's room there, if not I'll try to get into Artists' Alley again. I'm also going to sign up for World Fantasy which is Halloween Weekend in San Jose. That's three really good conventions this year and all LOCAL!! No airfare, rental car or hotel expenses! W00t!

Just heard about this on "Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me!"- it was one of the 'bluff the listener' quiz choices, which the listener, from my husband's home town, actually got it right, guessing between Peeps versions of the classics, beginning with The Odyssey, Pride & Prejudice & Zombies, or Death of a Saleman re-done with an extra scene added "...in an attempt to make Arthur Miller's classic Death of a Salesman accesable to audiences raised on television police procedurals..." If you want this and click the link below to purchase, I get a few pennies, which would be much appreciated!

I Still Prefer My News From The Daily Show...

The Daily Show has provided me much enjoyment lately. Well, always, but I'm catching up right now, online, with episodes I've missed. Just watched this episode and in his interview with Daniel Craig, it was charming how bashful Craig was at times.

Then, in the Jan. 20 or 21st episode there was a picture of former VP Cheney in his wheelchair at the inauguration. Of course, they did this (I'm rather proud of myself that I was able to capture a screenshot and actually save it as a picture I could paste here):

National Hugging Day (tm)

Yep. It's "National Hugging Day (tm)" (don't forget the tm, they ask on the official site, way down at the bottom - site rather glitched up in Firefox).

As many of my friends are virtual (not to mention family who live many, many miles away) I offer you here a big virtual hug.

Absolute Write News

AW is experiencing technical difficulties. The techies are working on it. If you want a place to commiserate this weekend, the "Refugee Camp" is open - you will have to register if you weren't around back during the big AW shutdowns in '06.

You can also join AW Addicts on Facebook.

Instant Book Gratification - Paul Auster's Man in the Dark

Yesterday I was listening to the local public radio station, KQED, and the program "City Arts and Lectures" came on. The guest was Paul Auster. He spoke about a number of topics, but he spoke quite a bit about his book Man in the Dark (see link at end of post).

After hearing him talk about the book, I decided I wanted to read it, so I went over to Amazon and there I saw that they had it available as a download through Audible.com at a price I thought was very fair for an audio book. I purchased it, downloaded all the Audible.com software and then the book. Listened to it that afternoon and evening while I was beading.

First off, great book, read by the author, who did an excellent job. He has a pleasant voice, good articulation and emotion. Also, it appealed to me in that there is an element of 'alternate reality' which is one of my favorite types of fiction, and also that it starts off with the protagonist doing something I do all the time, which is tell myself a story to help myself fall asleep. I'm a bit more successful than him, as I never get all the way through a story before I fall asleep.

As the mother of a soldier, who just came home from Iraq, the ending was particularly difficult for me, and I am very glad that I did not hear this story before my son came home - I think it would have had a much more profound, and anxiety inducing, impact on me if I had.

It's the experience of getting the audio book that led me to choosing the e-book over waiting for the hardback, that I want to talk about, though.

I could have bought the book from a number of sources - the Macmillan site has it for $23.00 or, if you wanted to listen, you could order a CD. Amazon had the hardcover for $25.64, paperback for $11.10 or the Kindle version, or an Audible download. Normally, if you go direct to Audible it would cost $17.47 but through Amazon it was $13.10 - also less than the cost of the Kindle version ($13.77).

I wanted to "have" the book immediately, so the download was certainly the best deal, since it would have taken a couple days at least to arrive, unless I wanted to pay a high premium for overnight shipping.

I may wander into the local Borders some day and see if I can get the hardback to re-read, and probably at a good price...but the ability to hear an author talk on the radio and then immediately have an unabridged, well produced, easy to acquire copy...well, that's the beauty of the internet. I wish acquiring any book, anytime was as easy as it was yesterday.

Last Post of 2008

This has been an interesting year. My son spent most of it in Iraq (he was deployed from the end of Sept 07 to Dec 08). Thankfully he's home now.

I continue to wrestle with, and abhor, Excel (here's a bit from The Onion that caught my eye because it's about Excel).

I blogged more on my beading blog than this one this year - beading has become more than a hobby - it's an outlet for my creative impulses, a way to get out and meet new folk and make a bit of money at the same time, and a stress reliever.

August was WorldCon in Denver, politics were on my mind in October and November. That's the year in a nutshell.

Don't know if I'll be any better at updating this blog in '09, thank you readers (all 3 or 4 of you) for checking in on me now and then. I hope your 2009 brings health and happiness, and a little economic recovery wouldn't be amiss, either!

Enjoying My Holidays - Hope You are Too!

It's great having both the children home for Christmas time. Well, in the case of my son, he's in the general geographic area for the holidays, staying at his girfriend's family's home. Since I took over his bedroom for my office/workroom he's got nowhere to sleep here, so I'm very grateful they're putting him up.

I've managed to come down with a miserable cold, though. Not to sleeping too well at night for the past few days, meaning that I've been getting up for the day between 11 and 1 for the past few days. Since it gets dark at 5 PM, I'm missing out on a lot of daylight.

The other night the kids, husband, son's girlfriend and I went to my son's favorite sushi restaurant for dinner and his girlfriend got a great picture of us, which I shall share here.

The only thing I dislike about the shot is that I forgot to push my open purse behind me.

I've got the rest of this week off, so I hope I'm feeling better soon so I can get some stuff done this week that I've put off for way too long. Until I do, I'll continue reading through my Christmas gifts - my husband bought me my entire Amazon wish list and I've read two of them so far, The Sunrise Lands and Scourge of God by S. M. Stirling. He also got me a polishing tumbler and a 19" flatscreen, hi-def, TV/monitor for my office/crafts room that I mentioned wanting in passing some time ago.

My son gave me a very generous gift card for Artbeads, I'm trying to decide if there's anything I really want right away or if I'll save it for later, and my daughter gave me a beautiful Waterford picture frame, an adorable, hand crafted, pocket sized tissue package holder that she stitched and appliqued, and some watch parts for crafting - little gears and hands and springs, great for embellishing and (perhaps this year I'll learn) embedding in resin for charms or pendants.

I have spent a good amount of time working on jewelry - I've constructed several new pieces, which you can see at my beading blog if you'd like a peek. A couple of the books my husband got for me are about jewelry design and have given me lots of ideas for new things to try in the coming year. I've already gone from fairly simple stringing to creating necklaces using wire loops and hand crafted wire components, I've gotten confident enough to begin making things with more expensive sterling and gold filled wire as well. The next step is to try and create my own beads and other personalized embellishments to make my designs unique. One of the mediums I plan to learn to work with next year is polyclay - I've seen so many wonderful beads and pendants other craftspeople have made using polyclay, I can't wait to try it myself.

He Knows if You've Been Bad or Good...

Merry Christmas!

My Son Is Home from Iraq

Need I say more?

A Happy Ending

I have mentioned, in the past, of my great antipathy for Excel spreadsheets. They are right up there with Power Point presentations as the bane of my existence.

Today I worked about 6 hours to finish up a spreadsheet and analyze the data in it for a project stakeholder meeting tomorrow morning. I'd put maybe 4 or 5 hours into yesterday and last week, as well. Having had Excel tragedies in the past, mostly due to lost data from crashes, I saved my work early and often.

Finally, I was done. I opened a new email in Outlook (about #5 on my list of hated applications), wrote a brief of my analysis, attached the spreadsheet and sent the email to the stakeholders.

Then I, for reasons I don't really remember at this time, I opened the spreadsheet from the email - maybe I was having a premonition - and saw that instead of the new and improved data rich and analyzed spreadsheet, there was instead attached a very early version. I began to experience what delicate women once called 'the vapors'. Then I panicked.

I went searching for the newer, updated version that much of my sweat and blood had just gone into. I couldn't find it. I sunk into the depths of depression. I was going to have to work for 6 more hours to re-construct all that work. The question was, could I do it drunk, because all I wanted at that moment was a large tumbler of Midleton Irish Whisky.

I sent off a despondent email to the people waiting for this data that they had received the wrong spreadsheet, I couldn't find the right one, and that I was going to have to re-do the spreadsheet tonight but would have it for them by the morning meeting.

Then I got an idea...there's this folder called OLK38 in my computer's temporary folders where all the attachments I send with emails seem to reside - at least for a while - probably until I shut down my laptop or re-boot (it stays on almost all the time, so the folder gets pretty full). So, brimming with hope, yet filled with trepidation, I checked there.

Hallelujah! The computer guardian angels were smiling on me - it was there!! I guess I'd opened the original worksheet from an email attachment (thus it was in that OLK folder) and had been obsessively saving my work there instead of to the file on my desktop - which was the one I attached to my first email.

So, it's not Excel's fault, really. But I blame Excel anyway.

Google Track the Vote Map Widget

Thought this was cool. Vote percentages and number of electoral votes come up when you hover over a state.

ETA at 5:30 Pacific - Click the link above the map if all the one here is doing is loading over and over.

Another interesting place to watch the election is the Twitter Votereport feed.

He Is? Really? Squeee!

In the "This email speaks for itself" department...

Hi, Dawno .

Stephen Fry (stephenfry) is now following your updates on Twitter.

Check out Stephen Fry's profile here:

http://twitter.com/stephenfry


Best,
Twitter

If he comments on this blog I will probably faint dead away...

Yes, I know that he is very kindly looking at his follower's list and graciously following them as well. It's not like I'm special. But there are other 'celebs' I follow on Twitter who I've posted on their blog or been a member of their now defunct forum and thus might even have some tiny name recog. with them (doubtful, but in an infinite universe not impossible) and they're not following me on Twitter.

Like I said, 'squeee!!'

"E" mail and an Update on the Internet Radio Legislation

I was recently forwarded an email (a business email at work, by the way) where the writer of the original message referred to emails as "E" mail through out the message. I have this image stuck in my head now, of the person who writes "E" mail...he's somewhat like Dr. Roundbottom, or maybe T. Herman Zweibel, publisher emeritus of The Onion...and definitely could be a character in Wondermark.

In other news, remember the post I wrote about writing your congresscritter about the HR 7084, Webcaster Settlement Act of 2008? Here's what my representative, Anna Eshoo (well, probably one of her staffers) wrote back:

Thank you for writing to me about H.R. 7084, the Webcaster Settlement Act of 2008. I voted for and the House passed this bill on September 27, 2008 and it has been sent to the President for his signature.

As you know, the Copyright Royalty Board (CRB), which determines royalty rates for the use of music over Internet radio services, has prevented the growth of this innovative new music platform by assigning a royalty rate that is too high, endangering Internet radio. The Webcaster Settlement Act will allow private parties to agree on a deal to correct the faulty decision of the CRB by clearing a path for private negotiations to continue while Congress is in recess, allowing any and all groups to work out a settlement amongst themselves to replace the astronomically high fees set by the government with fees agreed to by all parties.

You may also be interested to know that I'm a cosponsor of H.R. 2060, the Internet Radio Equality Act. H.R. 2060 would modify royalty fees for webcasting. The Copyright Office Royalty Panel (CARP) recently established high royalty rates for music webcasts.

I'm concerned that the CARP ruling may have the unintended consequence of bankrupting many companies or forcing them to alter their formats to news and talk radio. This, in turn, will reduce the consumer's choice of streaming content, limit the diversity of streaming content on the Internet, and impede the growth of an increasingly popular medium.

On October 7, 2002, an agreement between webcasters and the recording industry was made and the full House passed the bill by voice vote. The change seeks to ensure that artist shares of the royalty payments for streaming digital music over the Internet would not be deducted against recording industry legal and administrative expenses. The agreement between the RIAA and small webcasters permits the small firms to pay a percentage of the revenue instead of the per song rates set by the Library of Congress.

H.R. 2060 has been referred to the House Energy and Commerce Committee, which I'm a member of, and I will continue to do everything I can to see that this important legislation becomes law.

Please write your congresscritter in support of HR 2060!

Hundreds of Penguins Returned to Ocean

More than a thousand juvenile Patagonian penguins have washed up on the northern shores of Brazil this year for reasons scientists have yet to comprehend fully. Over the weekend, hundreds of the stranded birds were airlifted to the southernmost tip of the country and released into the South Atlantic Ocean, close to their native territory. How exactly do you get that many penguins on a plane?

For the answer to that question read the article in Slate. For a heartwarming video of the penguins' return to the sea watch this:

This is the VP Debate I Wanted to See

Queen Latifa as Ifill - her expressions are priceless. I was laughing so loud my husband came from the other side of the house to see what was so funny...

Madly Waiting for Mad Men Episodes

Why does it take so long for an episode of Mad Men to show up on iTunes? I keep checking back and I swear it's been a month since a new one showed up. Probably not, since iTunes appears to be only two episodes behind the broadcast schedule. I really enjoy the show and do look forward to the new episodes.

I spent the day doing photography of my jewelry for my Etsy store, listening to the KQED live stream on my laptop upstairs, coming downstairs with the memory card from the camera, putting it into my laptop downstairs (which also had the live stream going, but oddly a few minutes delayed from the upstairs one) and editing and uploading my photograps for the new listings. I got through nine today. I have so many more to do, too.

Also had a pleasant time tweeting with several folk...topics were carnival food (fried, mostly), figuring out how to use a phone to do tweets and succeeding and miscellaneous chatter. I have come to appreciate Twitter for those little chats.

Well, back to work on my necklace - if you want to see and read about it, please visit my beading blog.

Must Listen Radio

Today, This American Life (on the radio, not the TV show) is doing a sequel to a show they did this May called "Giant Pool of Money". Show description of "Giant Pool of Money":

"A special program about the housing crisis produced in a special collaboration with NPR News. We explain it all to you. What does the housing crisis have to do with the turmoil on Wall Street? Why did banks make half-million dollar loans to people without jobs or income? And why is everyone talking so much about the 1930s? It all comes back to the Giant Pool of Money."

I recommend listening to both shows. The archive page at This American Life has a full episode feed you can listen to for free on your computer or download for 95 cents.

Did Palin Hit the Target? Just Read This

Hey There, Joe Six-Pack

Recommended Reading

I believe I've mentioned here how much I enjoyed Jo Walton's books Farthing and Ha'penny. The final installment is now out:

A Gallimaufry of a Post

So, do I buy Paul of Dune from the SFBC just so I'll have a complete collection? I have all the other books by Brian Herbert and Kevin Anderson. Guess I will, but I'm worried that this one might disappoint as it is set in the time between the stories that Frank Herbert actually wrote - and he didn't feel compelled to write about that time or its stories.

I'm going to grit my teeth and watch the VP candidate debate Thursday night. I don't want to, but since I moderate a politics and current events forum, I feel I must. In the back of my mind I keep hoping that Tina Fey will be there impersonating Palin instead of Palin...And Thursday night has both CSI and Smallville - I wonder if they'll get bumped.

Snow on Mars!

A clip of a great gag from the old Candid Camera show - the last bit is best. I've been watching AMC's Mad Men and for some reason I'm starting to wish men would go back to wearing hats. (This would make more sense if you watched the clip. If not, just go with it, but it isn't as much of a non sequitur as it looks.)

I'm not sure why, it's not like men wore hats all the time when I was growing up - they'd pretty much stopped by the time I was old enough to really take notice of fashion. I have seen pictures of my grandfather in a hat, but I don't seem to have a true memory of it. My dad, being in the Air Force, wore a hat a lot of the time, but hat=uniform and so it didn't apply to civilian clothes. However, if getting men back into hats meant women would have to wear them, too, and gloves, and those horrible, full, flouncy slips (crinoline? what are those?), I'll pass.

I've been listening to archived shows from This American Life lately. There was one particular one about music where David Sedaris was featured. In it he sings a number of commercial jingles imitating the voice of Billie Holliday. The whole thing is marvelous, but that part was really funny.

My other favorite episodes were the one where they visited the USS Stennis in 2002, the one about babysitting and the one about The Giant Pool of Money - something I highly recommend you all listen to - it's very enlightening about the roots of the current mortgage crisis.

Just watched this clip of Palin talking to Katie "slow pitch softball" Couric.

First reaction - really, that's Tina Fey, right? No, come on, stop pulling my leg...that's really Palin giving that answer?

Second reaction - Come on, just name one news magazine. It's easy, Newsweek, Time, US News and World Report, heck, even say People for goodness sake. Is she afraid she'll say the name of a magazine and get in trouble with her campaign handlers?? Yes, all the Palin defenders will say I'm being unfair, but really, that was not a tricky question. I'm a middle of the road leaning to conservative voter who has been a registered Republican since the early 80s, so I actually went into this election cycle really hoping that McCain could somehow convince me to stay with the party. His VP choice completely killed that hope. Even if I agreed with every other thing he says (which I don't) I think it's a sure sign of loss of mental acuity that he would pick her.

Aston West has tagged me with a little meme. I like Aston, even if he does drink unusual (as in not familiar to me as a Trekkie, like Klingon Blood Wine or Romulan Ale, or even Tranya) beverages.

Here are the rules, my answers, and the next six people who get to take on the challenge.

The rules:

"If you’ve been tagged with the Meme Game from Twitter, you must post 6 things no one knows about you on your BLOG. Then you have to tag 6 more people. (Don’t forget to let them know they’ve been tagged.) Leave me a comment letting me know you’ve accepted the tag."

My answers (caveat - these are things that most people who haven't grown up or lived with me for any length of time wouldn't know, not "no one knows" ):

1. I broke my nose when I was 5, and it was all the fault of a green crayon.
2. I once crocheted a nose warmer with a tassel on it in my HS colors and wore it to an away game (I was in pep band and we had to play at the game) where the temps were below freezing for all of the game.
3. I have a little bump on my left ear that makes it look vaguely Vulcan (at the right angle under the right light).
4. I can't stand to get cake crumbs in my icecream but I love icecream sandwiches.
5. I have never finished reading anything written by Ernest Hemmingway, no matter how hard I've tried.
6. I hated the Rolling Stones but enjoyed listening to my parents' Andy Williams records...when I was a teenager in the 70s. (of course I wore headphones to make sure nobody knew it)
   

Feel free to feel tagged if you want to and pass it along.

Update on Net Radio Bill

An update regarding yesterday's post about H.R. 7084, the Webcaster Settlement Act of 2008. The bill unaninously passed in the House. On to the Senate.

I sent a message to my Representative, Anna Eshoo, so if she was present and voted, I thank her for her support.

Save Internet Radio - A Plea from Pandora

From the Pandora Website:

September 26, 2008

CONGRESSIONAL EMERGENCY!!!

Listeners we need your help... NOW!

After a yearlong negotiation, Pandora, artists and record companies are finally optimistic about reaching an agreement on royalties that would save Pandora and Internet radio. But just as we've gotten close, large traditional broadcast radio companies have launched a covert lobbying campaign to sabotage our progress.

Yesterday, Congressman Jay Inslee, and several co-sponsors, introduced legislation to give us the extra time we need but the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB), which represents radio broadcasters such as Clear Channel, has begun intensively pressuring lawmakers to kill the bill. We have just a day or two to keep this from collapsing.

This is a blatant attempt by large radio companies to suffocate the webcasting industry that is just beginning to offer an alternative to their monopoly of the airwaves.

Please call your Congressperson right now and ask them to support H.R. 7084, the Webcaster Settlement Act of 2008 - and to not capitulate to pressure from the NAB. Congress is currently working extended hours, so even calls this evening and over the weekend should get answered.

The central congressional switchboard number is: (202) 225 3121

Or to look up your representative, visit: https://forms.house.gov/wyr/welcome.shtml

If the phone is busy, please try again until you get through. These calls really do make a difference.

This is a fork in the road. Only massive grassroots opposition will keep us from another 50 years of top 40 radio. It's time to take a stand and break the stranglehold of broadcast media on radio.

Thanks so much for you ongoing support.

Tim

Founder, Pandora

Another Political Post - "Head of Skate"

Thought this was funny, and clever.

See more funny videos and funny pictures at CollegeHumor.

I Want a Uniform Suitable to My Position

There should be a uniform, it needs gold braid, big brass buttons and a whistle on a gold chain that hangs from a fancy loop through the button hole at the collar. A nice hat, gloves, shiny shoes to go with it, too. Needs to be a color that won't show cat hair, though.

Uniform for what, you ask? Cat Doorman. That's what I am. All day they're, yowling or scratching to get in or out of my office/workroom. I'm the doorman for 3 cats who can't decide half the time if they actually want in or out. And, before you ask, no, I can't leave the door open. I won't go into the reasons why, so you or random droppers-by won't feel compelled to lecture me about my reason. We want to stay friendly, right?

Yogurt, the senior statesman of the cats sits about 2 feet from the door and stares up at the knob. If I don't leap up to open it, he comes over to my chair and bats at my arm until I do.

Pudding, the young ne'er do well, who normally just lies around on his back looking like a long-haired cat fur rug, claws the underside of my chair as his signal that "I'm all done in here, you will be letting me out now, right?" and then he goes up to the door so close, that when I do open it, he always has to move out of the way and often in his haste to leave bumps his nose.

Jello, the diva, scratches at the door. She scratches furiously. I'm surprised she hasn't clawed straight through the wood yet.

So, yeah, I want a uniform. And a whistle.

Recommended Reading

If you don't already read Jill Miller Zimon's Writes Like She Talks, please go read this post "Tim Wise's This Is Your Nation on White Privilege"

Billionare in the Basement

Anyone else think Bill has a shot at a new career in sit coms?

Back from My Trip to Hamburger University

I recently got back from a trip to a conference at Hamburger University, the McDonald's training facility outside of Chicago. The campus is lovely although it rained all day Thursday, but fortunately there is a covered walkway from the training center to the hotel where we had lunch and the evening networking reception. I bought a little umbrella for the walk to the parking lot (and for later if it was still raining) that has little McDonald's golden arches all around it. Not so sure I'll be using it much but I'm glad I had it as the rain was really pouring later in the evening.

Our day one keynote speaker was Bruce Tulgan, who gave a talk on (the) “Workforce through the Generational Lens”. He was fascinating and energetic, a good thing early in the morning after flying all day the day before and crashing to bed after checking in at the hotel. Click on the video clip on his website for a taste of what we heard that morning.

His thinking on how each new workforce generation impacts the previous one's thinking and the future of business does make one pause to think - the company I work for has a decidedly younger attitude, even though most of the leadership are Baby Boomers.

This is somewhat accounted for, I believe,by being in hi-tech where people have to always be innovating and thinking of the next wave of customer needs, but I also think that newer (mostly younger) hires are less discouraged by fossilized culture and thinking in hi-tech, allowing them to bring the positive virtues of their generational style more quickly into the overall stream of progress. Nobody has the time to "earn their chops" when speed of innovation is the most important factor. Not a lot of looking back goes on, it's all about "What are you going to do for me tomorrow?"

I particularly enjoyed his discussion about the current crop of new workers - the ones in my children's generation. "Self-esteem on steroids" "most high maintenance workforce generation in the history of the world" are two tags he gives them. Crucial to understanding how to lead this group of workers is that they were raised under a constant barrage of self-esteem messages and kept occupied by structured activities, yet often they go to work and are "empowered" by managers who think a hands off approach will work with them.

Yes, that's a broad generalization, but their parents (um, me included) were the generation of Soccer Moms - right? Also, he's talking to an audience of corporate managers or recruiters, so the focus is on the new workers who are coming out of colleges and MBA programs - young people who were put on waiting lists for the best day-care the day the pregnancy test came up positive.

So these young workers' lives revolved around organized play-groups and huge percentages of their daily activities were "outsourced" to child care, camps, sports and classes. Not very many of them were told to 'go play outside' and had to think up their own fun - they were coached, taught and organized from a very early age. And all of them were raised in the tech-age - they instinctively go to the internet for data, they have the knowledge of the entire world at their fingertips - what they need from their managers and leaders is someone who will coach and guide them on how to use that knowledge to be productive, make a contribution and get ahead. This clip is a highlight from that portion of the talk. I guess it's pretty obvious I enjoyed the session.

Day two's keynote was from Alan Beaulieu, Institute for Trend Research on “The Impact of Economics on Contract Labor” (this was the VMS Professionals conference - VMS being vendor management systems - or the methodology, tools, practices and people who manage the use of third party company labor like temporary, contract and consulting workers). This was a bit of a downer, as he did not tell us things are getting better anytime soon with the economy. However, he was an energetic and funny speaker who did give us good information about where his analysis found places one can weather out the impact of the downturn - and he thinks by 2010 we'll be riding the tide upwards again.

I met some lovely people, didn't win any of the drawings (and they were good ones) but handed out a number of cards and was asked to speak to a couple groups on the things my program is doing about a different aspect of VMS mgmt that's just starting to take hold at many of their companies - something I've been working on and in for the last four years.

Of course Saturday, the day I flew home, was beautiful and sunny and I got to enjoy it for all of the 15 minute drive back to the rental car drop off. One of these days I do hope to visit Chicago just to enjoy the tourist-y stuff.

Sunday was the local Art and Wine festival. We arrived at 10:00 am, got great parking at the structure just off the main street where the festival is held and made it through most of the fair before the weather got too hot and the crowds terribly large. I talk about what I purchased on my beading blog if you've any interest in hand crafted beads and jewelry. We bought our annual souvenir tee shirts and glasses, wine glass for me, beer stein for the husband, and went out to lunch. I had a craving for beef, so we went to Black Angus for a late lunch.

I spent most of the rest of the day playing with my beading, catching up on emails and at Absolute Write - now it's back to work. Hope we all have a great week.

Political Post - Sorta

what more needs to be said?



Well, I should mention that I first saw this at Pharyngula. By the way, though I'm linking, I must mention that when he's not foaming about religion, I really do enjoy the blog, but radical anything (religion, atheism, politics) is not something I'm comfortable with, so don't think I'm endorsing or agree with his more vehement atheist subjects.

Sadly, the Long Weekend is Nearly Over

My nephew got to play in the Davis v SJSU on Saturday, they were ahead 10-0 until the end of the game and SJSU won 16-10. But the nephew got to play and that was exciting. Spending some time with my sister and her family (+ nephew's girlfriend) was fun. The next morning we had a bit of an adventure trying to find the train station to get my nephew back to Davis, but it all worked out and he got home just fine.

My almost daily posting on my beading blog has gotten me on the first page and pretty well positioned on that, of a Google search for "beaded badge lanyards" - not sure how many people actually search that, but I'm there if they do, so that makes me rather happy. Got a comment from Lois at A Beaded Affair who was searching on 'copper' and went to her very lovely blog and Etsy shop - I recommend her to you, too. Lots of wonderful artists I'm discovering who are doing beautiful work at Etsy.

Back to work tomorrow. I love having three day weekends but going on a business trip just one day afterwards will probably mean a lot of catching up next week. Speaking of which, the Saturday after this is the 13th - and my son's birthday, which fell on a Friday back in 1985.

Hard to believe it's been 23 years. I got to talk with him for over half an hour on Saturday morning, which was wonderful. He finally received the package I had shipped to him (Muscle Milk - he's always working out whenever he can, and wants to bulk up - maybe so the pack he carries isn't equal to 50% of his body weight? He's always been a wiry guy).

I also sent him a bunch of phone cards via a special deal the Army & Air Force Exchange Service has set up so non-military people can purchase and send them to the soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines they know who are overseas. I don't know if he has them yet or not.

By the way, even if you don't know a soldier overseas, there are special programs that will send your donated phone cards to a service person in the branch of your choice - just go to https://thor.aafes.com/scs/default.aspx and scroll down a bit to read the details.

It's been a while since I mentioned any of my favorite web comics, but A Girl and Her Fed is having a donation drive that's worth checking into. The artist is going to put her web-comics in print and with a donation of $30 you can help that happen and get some original art as a thank you.

Dave Kellett's got a new Sheldon book out - Pugs, God's Little Weirdos and I just received my copy with an original sketch and Dave's autograph. Sheldon's pug, Oso, is definitely a little weirdo.

Finally, and not about a comic strip, I got my copy of Zoe's Tale by John Scalzi. I'm waiting to read it on the plane, but it's been hard.

Notice Anything Different?

Yeah, got tired, after all these years (I started this blog on August 21st, 2005 - Happy Belated Birthday, NVNC IS VIDES, NVNC NE VIDES!), of the green background. I did get some complaints here and there about the color, which I've been ignoring, but it was finally starting to wear on me, too. Also changed text color and restored the text to 'normal' (apparently I had set it to bold instead of just making the size a bit bigger when I decided the text was hard to read - I've learned new things since then).

I added a little blurb at the top - I know I haven't been great about updating, but I do put something up at my other blog almost daily, so I thought, if you're visiting you might be interested in what I've been doing that's kept me from updating here.

I had a great, half-hour long chat with my son today. We're counting the days until he comes home from Iraq. I won't say anything more specific, except that the light is just beginning to glimmer at the end of the tunnel.

He, of course, wants me to be there when he lands and has started 'reminding' me to make plans. I know I don't always do things as far in advance as I could, but it's really to early to be buying airplane tickets, etc. Especially since the current arrival window is about a month wide.

He's always been one to want things structured and thoroughly planned out. Not that he's not spontaneous, but I think just knowing that there *is* even a tentative, flexible, plan keeps him from getting nervous that there won't *be* a plan.

I can't believe it's already Labor Day weekend. This summer seems to have sped past faster than any I can remember. Tomorrow I go to see CSU San Jose vs. UC Davis - my nephew plays for Davis, so I'll be sitting with the Aggie fans instead of the home team fans. Not that college football has ever been much of a passion for me. My college didn't have football. National champion wrestling and basketball, but no football. The local community college had a great team that I think did very well in its division - but I didn't follow it, either.

I don't want to get all political here, but the news that McCain has chosen a woman as a running mate is all over the place. While it's rather stunning that a woman is on the Republican ticket, the choice has me completely bemused. Did he pick her for her looks? Seriously, the woman is probably wonderful, but she hasn't finished her first term as governor (of Alaska) and her other political credits are all very small potatoes. Her positions are very far to the right, but that can't help McCain, he's got the right. Does he think an anti-abortion, anti-gay marriage woman will get him all those disgruntled Hillary Clinton voters in his camp? Color me confuzzled about this one.

Tempus Fugit

I went to Office Depot last weekend for printer ink. Of course that's not all I got, but that's what I went there for. Ostensibly. Really, just printer ink...ahem, anyway...and of course the place was packed with back-to-school shoppers.

Now that I have an empty nest, I don't keep track of those sorts of things. Glad I didn't need to go to the mall for something. Watching the girls (for some reason it was mostly girls there with their parents - I maybe saw one boy) looking at notebooks and pens and paper made me just a tiny bit nostalgic for the times my kids and I did our back to school errands. But just a tiny bit and only for a moment.

Back to school also meant clothes shopping, and wincing at not only the price tags, but the clothes themselves. I guess every generation goes through it's "really ugly fashion" statement period and ugly is always subjective, so I'm sure my opinion isn't worth the pixels it's written in, but I don't think in 30 years these kids will look back on their mini-skirts and Ugg boots and think "That was the apex of beauty and style." Then again, I thought the midi-skirt was cool. Hey, I'm tall, I carried it off! My daughter was eclectic in her clothes choices, so she pretty much bucked the fads in high school with my full approval. (She did finally buy Uggs last year - her feet were freezing in the winter and the Uggs were nice and warm.)

I forgot about my weekend reflections in the days between now and then, but just got a Tweet from Wil Wheaton's Twitter feed that said "Did I miss a memo? Are tights + UGG boots + a T-shirt dress thingy + a headband the new thing? I keep seeing this disaster everywhere I go." and it reminded me.

This from the actor who wore some of the (sorry, Wil - I know it wasn't your fault) ugliest sweaters ever, as Wesley Crusher on Star Trek, TNG...I hope he knew then what those girls don't know now - sometimes following the latest fashion fad (or being forced into someone's conception of the future of knitwear) just makes you look ridiculous. I was too old for legwarmers and high-heels with torn sweatshirts (Flashdance), but yeah, I did wear polyester disco dresses, so I shouldn't talk.