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October 15th, 2009
11:18 pm - Ok, so, I guess this means we're being adopted?
For the past three weeks or so, my children and I have been feeding the neighbor's kitten. He's a really pretty thing -  - and so friendly! but his owners got a new boxer that the poor thing is terrified of! He's not afraid of our shepherd though (no one would be, believe me) and so he's been hanging around our place. I haven't minded it for the most part but he's started darting into the house! He's not our cat and I seriously doubt he'd leave our poor old blind and deaf cat be, not to mention the rats and mouse! Eeek! This evening, because I felt sorry for him out on such a raw, wet night, I let him into the basement for a while and in less than an hour, he had caught and devoured a mouse down there! (Since the old cat went blind, mice have become a problem). Now I REALLY don't want him in the house! Our Lily (one of the rats) saw him from the other side of a screen door and LEAPT off my shoulder to the ground! She knew a killer when she saw one!
So now I am left with a dilemma. Do I suggest to the owner that she try to keep the cat inside their house? Now that he's bigger he might not be as fearful of the boxer. Or do I bite the bullet and offer to take the cat on as an outside / basement animal at my place? If I do that, I'll have to get him vaccinated, nuetered and defleaed (things I really doubt he's had done yet) because I don't want the issues not doing those things would bring, but ... he's not my cat!
*sigh* I think someone has to tell him that.
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September 15th, 2009
September 11th, 2009
April 8th, 2009
March 25th, 2009
01:03 pm - Posting like a mad woman this month....
The other day, on a whim, I looked to see if perhaps there was any evidence of my involvment in former fandoms floating about in the aether. I was quite, QUITE shocked to find that there is.
The Star Wars Collector's Bible
They've even got screen shots of our covers - amazing!
The first one was Millenium -  but we found that someone else had used that name and so we then had to change the zine's name for later issues.
 
This was back when we did fanfic the hard way, without computers or the internet! You young whippersnappers don't know how good you got it!
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March 24th, 2009
12:48 pm - Checklist for my grant application...
Narrative... check.
Finalized plan, coming soon from FDC.
Permits?... Submitted. Awaiting approval.
Letters of support... 7 and counting.
Application form... 50% completed.
Cost estimates from the engineers at FDC... $101,000....
WTF?!?!?!?! For a half mile of trail?!
Before we involved the engineers, it was coming out under 10!
:O
Current Mood: astonished
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March 19th, 2009
08:03 am - *Squee* I found my house!
Take a look at this!
http://planetgreen.discovery.com/home-garden/green-sustainable-hobbit-hole.html
My fantasy and my environmentalism united at last! *sniff* And in WALES no less! *Fangurl squee!*
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March 11th, 2009
11:36 pm - Do you use an online thesaurus? Which one?
I've never been happy with Ask.com's purchase of my favorite online thesaurus - thesaurus.com. They did nothing but screw it up! I used to be able to cross reference dozens of words for any particular one I chose and it even included arcane words. Now either they've dumbed it down COMPLETELY or they've moved all those good features to the pay version - I don't know which. But I'll be dammed if I'm going to pay for what the site has now turned into.
If you use a thesaurus site -and you like it - could you share the link? This seems like an OBVIOUS use for the internet, and the site I mentioned used to be great - but I really need something to replace it or I'll be stuck going back to my dog-earred Roget's!
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March 7th, 2009
11:46 am - Something to share
I've not been very regular with my LJ reading, so you must pardon me if this has been shared already.
A friend of mine put me in touch with a copy of this film and the story of its creation. It's a movie called Sita Sings the Blues which is now available free online via a creative commons license. It's worth viewing if you haven't seen it already. It's loosely based on the Ramayana and the producer/director/writer's own experiences and has some very cool original music plus reuses some lovely old jazz (I love old jazz!). What I find amazing is that this woman did the whole film herself on her computer! Each of the graphic styles is so dramatically different that it's hard to believe it all came out of one mind! Please, download a copy and watch it - it's family friendly too. My kids loved it as much as I did.
Give it a viewing!
Sita Sings the Blues
Directed, written, produced, designed and animated by Nina Paley
82 minutes
Animation
Color, stereo
Digital Cinema Package, HDCAM, DVD; soon on 35mm
2008
Sita is a goddess separated from her beloved Lord and husband Rama. Nina is an animator whose husband moves to India, then dumps her by email. Three hilarious shadow puppets narrate both ancient tragedy and modern comedy in this beautifully animated interpretation of the Indian epic Ramayana. Set to the 1920's jazz vocals of Annette Hanshaw, Sita Sings the Blues earns its tagline as "the Greatest Break-Up Story Ever Told."
Current Location: Doing laundry
Current Mood: ![[mood icon]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/mood/classic/smile.gif) content
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March 6th, 2009
08:43 pm - The newest member of the family...
Hubby was less than thrilled, but my daughter did what she promised she would do and so I agreed she should get the pet she wanted. May I introduce you to Lily?
It wasn't until tonight that it dawned on me that my daughter had picked the name of one of my favorite OFCs in LOTR fanfic - and the name of an old friend from the same source. Total coincidence, of course, but I got a chuckle out of it. And it got me re-reading a few of my favorite fics. ;)
Current Location: home
Current Mood: contented
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December 24th, 2008
04:23 pm - Once again, I've procrastinated until it is far too late for Christmas cards...
I do this every year. You'd think I would have learned by now, but apparently I haven't.
I did manage to get a nice gift out to all the relatives and I have almost all of the presents wrapped, dinner is in the oven and the kids will get to start making cookies as soon as I can convince them to vacume the floor. Ah. The holidays.
My yearly letter, which I should have mailed, but perhaps this is the more ecologic way to do things - no paper needed and hopefully fewer carbon based fuels burned - ( Here )
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November 4th, 2008
11:55 am - It’s finally here. Election Day 2008.
You know, I’ve never before voted for a candidate that I had such total, complete faith in. Gore came close, but in Obama I see all the talents and skills our country NEEDS so desperately now. We’re a mess, fiscally, environmentally, legislatively, internationally; no matter who was elected, he or she would have inherited such a disaster from Mr. Bush that I doubt they could have it cleaned up in one term. But, if anyone has a chance of fixing things, it’s Barack Obama. McCain’s negative campaign has done nothing except confirm that fact for me. I didn’t scare when Cheney threatened us in 2004 and telling lies about Obama won’t scare me away from him in 2008. In fact, the gall of the man for even trying to enrages me. Does he think I'm a coward, or too stupid to figure out how to look things up? Guess what, Mac? I’m not. Neither are the majority of Americans.
I don't know if Obama’s going to win today. The polls say so and even in the very rural central PA town of Renovo where I work, the Obama signs outnumber McCain's 11 to 2, but the voting system here is suspect. After 2000 and the ‘Help America (NOT) Vote Act’, our county bought ES&S voting machines – you know, the touch screen type? The problem with them is, they don’t produce a paper, voter-verifiable receipt.
It’s not that I worry that the old ladies watching my polling place will try to steal my vote. It’s not that I think the machine will ‘flip’ my vote. It IS that the end result of all of our votes is a few files on a memory stick that has to then be transmitted to Harrisburg. Anything can happen to those files. Rutgers University proved that they can be altered by computer virus, and that those viruses could be copied from memory stick to memory stick via the voting machines without anyone knowing they are there. A virus could EASILY alter a voting district’s results and then delete itself, making a change that NO ONE would be aware of, except those who wrote the virus’ code. THAT’S what I worry about. If that happens, 50 of Pennsylvania’s 67 counties will have NO paper backup with which to do a recount.
Maybe Rachel Maddow is getting to me. She’s said she won’t believe an Obama win until the republican concedes. After the gut punch I got in 2004, I don’t want to believe it either. I’m even afraid to imagine what it will be like for fear of jinxing his chances. Maybe I’ll be able to imagine it tomorrow. Today, I have work to do.
If you haven’t already done so, GET OUT AND VOTE FOR OBAMA. And if there’s a wait to vote, STFIL! Remember your rights. If you are still in line when the polls close in your area, you still have the right to vote. This is history in the making, folks. Don’t cheat yourself of your part in it. VOTE!
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September 22nd, 2008
02:26 pm - Please! Complete this quick PBS poll!
I can NOT believe the results of this poll. How could any informed voter possibly think this woman is qualified to be VP?
http://www.pbs.org/now/polls/poll-435.html
Current Mood: ![[mood icon]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/mood/classic/angry.gif) horrified
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August 28th, 2008
07:22 pm - Gotta plug this.... If you've got ipods or smart phones that you want to make kewl covers for, check
Seriously, NO one makes ipod covers for the seriously fannish, but I found this place that lets you upload a picture, tweak it any way you like and create a skin cover from it for your device. Here's the site.
http://www.uniqueskins.com/
Not only can you make covers for a bunch of different devices, but they are cheaper than the ones you can get from other folks that make these and I seriously can't tell the difference between these and the expensive ones. The images may be slightly lesser quality, but they are as good as any photo printed off a color laser. Take a look!
I don't think I've ever plugged a product on my LJ before, but this is just TOO kewl for words. And it seemed right up the ally of any fan who's tried desperately to find accessories that match their favorite obscure passion. These guys are fast too. I ordered these covers on Monday. Seriously, check them out!
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August 20th, 2008
11:21 pm - Long time, no post!
I’ve kept meaning to post, really I have, and have commented on various pages over the last few weeks, but finding time to put together an actual post has proven difficult. Hopefully I won’t regret stealing this afternoon to do this one.
( Pictures from ‘My Office’ under the cut – image heavy post! )
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July 22nd, 2008
10:42 pm - Why Women Vote - HBO's 'Iron Jawed Angels'
My aunt sent me this and I thought it deserved a read - and a watch. The video is probably in your local video store.
A piece of history we need to remember, or perhaps become aware of, told in a brief and moving way. I never knew this anyway.
This is the story of our Grandmothers, and Great-grandmothers, as they lived only 90 years ago.
( Read more... )
Current Mood: determined
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June 2nd, 2008
10:10 pm - As the spring turns...
Spring and spring fire season will officially be over tomorrow; we turn our vehicles back in and have to start paying for our own gas to go to work. Hmm. Ok, well, that's not such a great thing, but I am glad that the we won't have to worry about forest fires again for a while.
What we HAVE had to worry about this year is gypsy moths. Last year was horrific in some parts of my district and we begged for money and resources to combat what we knew was going to be a bad infestation, but they gave us next to nothing and are only allowing us to spray with Bt (Bacillus thuringiensis) which, without cold and wet weather to help it along, is almost a waste of money.
I fear we'll have another year of defoliation and that will mean dead trees. Lots of them. *Sigh*
( On top of that... )
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April 21st, 2008
11:04 pm - Goodness, I've never been the object of such national attention before...
There's something to be said for being a Pennsylvanian on the eve of possibly the most historic primary in US history. Everyone wants to talk to you, wants your opinion, and every candidate wants your vote. I feel so privileged. *OK, that is a little sarcastic.*
( There’ve been some benefits. )
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