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Monday, November 29
If Only Fixing a House Was This Easy
I started a separate Web log tonight for my house updates. It's primarily for my mom (and various other interested family members who live 5 hours away) and it's very informal (not written with a general audience in mind), but you're welcome to take a look.
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Saturday, November 27
Possession is Nine-tenths
I learned a new term today from one of the documents at work. " Typosquatting," the act of maintaining an Internet address "which takes advantage of a common typo" to redirect Web surfers from the intended site to another site. In this case, the company being sued took the name of a well-known company and added "www" in front it (making it www.www[company].com) so that when people mistype the address and leave the period out they end up at the second site. (You don't have to type the "www" in front of addresses in Internet Explorer. If you type "www[company].com," you'll end up at "www.www[company].com.") I've seen it before, but I didn't know it actually had a name until today.
I've also learned recently (from a case at work and from my real estate agent) about the concept of " adverse possession," which is basically the legal process through which a person uses your property for a specific length of time (7 or 10 years) without your permission but with your knowledge, after which the person can argue in court that he/she is now the owner. Apparently it happens frequently in property disputes between neighbors (one neighbor cuts the grass and raises a flower bed over the property line and eventually claims ownership, etc.); the case at work involved ownership of a parking lot. What an odd concept. So my real estate agent has advised me to draw up a contract if I ever "loan" property to my neighbors.
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Thursday, November 25
Why Rent When You Can Buy?
So which is scarier? That every self-checkout lane at Wal-Mart had a typed sign taped to the light pole that read "IF YOU WISH TO USE TWO FORMS OF PAYMENT, PLEASE REQUEEST ASSISTANCE"? Or that Wal-Mart now sells strippers (and for cheap, too!)? Maybe I should go back for a couple more. I'm sure they'd make good "stocking stuffers."
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Tuesday, November 23
Reason #143 To Clean Out the Pantry More Often
Contrary to popular belief, canned foods do not last forever . . .
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Monday, November 22
Stay in the Lines
I found an online program that lets you apply different colors to a stock photo to see what color schemes might look like. Anyone have any opinions on the choices I came up with?
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Saturday, November 20
Ooooooo . . . Lightsabers . . . *drool*
They're like breasts, except they make cool noises.
The first Episode III trailer is out. Even though the first two prequels bit (or bited or however you want to conjugate it), it's still fun to watch the trailer and *hope* that Lucas actually listened to the criticism of the first two. I still want him to put the original cast in alien makeup and give them cameos.
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Nebraska, Home to Dumb Criminals
Whoops.
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The Perils of Being Private, Revisited
Heh, looks like I called this correctly.
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Thursday, November 18
All the News Fit To Print
Although I get the majority of my news from the Internet (I refresh the Yahoo!News page every twenty minutes or so when I'm on the computer), I still read the print copy of the World-Herald (my local paper) every week day (I used to have a 7-day subscription, but I usually skipped reading the weekend issues so I cut it back to a 5-day subscription). Today's paper carried pictures of my home county as the center article on the front page of the paper . . . although the pictures highlighted Ted Turner's buffalo ranch, which will likely serve only to irritate the constituency of my home county, the majority of whom really, really don't like Ted Turner. My favorite was a pretty picture of the sun rising over the North Platte River a few miles south of my hometown. The online version had a complete slideshow, including one of Crescent Lake, which I haven't seen in 15 years (I used to go camping there once a year).
The paper also had an article about the unfortunate closing of Stages of Omaha, due to financial difficulties. That's a blow to the local theater scene.
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Tuesday, November 16
I Need a Diary . . . Oh, Wait, I Have a Web Log . . .
I talked Jamie into seeing Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason with me on Sunday. It was a decent sequel, although not as good as the first one. I don't want to spoil it for anyone, but go see it if you want a good little feel-good romantic comedy. The funniest part of the movie, for me, came when Bridget said a line, then paused, and I jokingly leaned over to Jamie and finished it, and then Bridget finished it with almost the same words. Jamie thought I'd seen it in a promo until I pled amused ignorance. Oh, and I discovered how to get up to the "hidden" second floor at Oakview Theater (okay, so that's kind of lame, but I've been trying to figure out how to get up there for months). Exciting, aren't I? ;) I also managed to do two loads of laundry. Gasp! Will the excitement never cease?
One week until house closing. And counting. Panic/excitement/trying-not-to-thing-about-it/pick an emotion.
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The Perils of Being Private
I read an article today about the ongoing withdrawal of support for the Boy Scouts of America, this time by the U.S. military, which agreed to enforce its policies prohibiting the sponsorship of non-federal agencies. I was once a Boy Scout (complete with the numerous merit badges, annual Scout camps and canoe trips and various assorted charitable activities), but I removed the links to the Scouts from my Web site and quit donating money to them after the 2000 Supreme Court case in which the BSA successfully argued that, as a private organization, it should be allowed to prohibit the membership of those who refused to follow its moral guidelines. For the purposes of these cases, the people the BSA banned have been homosexuals and atheists, two groups that the BSA says fail to meet the "morally straight" and "reverent" portions of its oath, and in the most public of these cases the BSA first issued a one-week order to conform, then expelled a 19-year-old Eagle Scout with over 1,000 hours of community service after the Scout mentioned to a Scout leader that he was an atheist. I was disappointed in the BSA's decision to continue its discrimination rather than change with the times (as the Girl Scouts have done), but as a strong proponent of free speech I'm not going to suggest that the BSA be forced to accept members its doesn't want. I am, however, going to expect the BSA to live with the consequences of choosing to define itself as a private, and not a public, organization, which entails the loss of "public benefits" it has enjoyed for decades. These include the free use of government land (not only parks but also public school facilities), the free use of public service announcements for fund-raising and recruiting purposes and financial sponsorship by government agencies (and I think their congressional charter should be revoked, as well, although I doubt that will get through Congress any time soon). This isn't supposed to be a form of punishment or an attempt to sway the BSA into changing it's position (although personally I find their position archaic and distasteful); on the contrary, it's simply the fair policy of treating a private organization the same as all other private organizations. The Scouts cannot have their cake and eat it too; they can't choose to be a private organization in order to legally maintain a position of discrimination and then expect no fallout or criticism. (There are all sorts of other tangential discussions about whether the Scouts' position is in fact "moral," what sort of message they're sending to their own impressionable members regarding tolerance and the like, but they're not relevant to my main point, that a private organization that admits to discriminating can't expect special access to public, tax-dollar-supported facilities.)
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Sunday, November 14
Maybe They'll Find a Stargate
Yet another report of the discovery of Atlantis (albeit without any proof).
And yet another annoying instance of writers ignorant of world history applying their own religious beliefs to a non-Judeo-Christian culture. "Theories abound as to why it disappeared, from Atlantis being hit by a cataclysmic natural disaster to Greek mythology which describes the civilisation as being so corrupted by greed and power that it was destroyed by God." The Greek culture did not have a "God." It had an entire pantheon, and Zeus (the king of the Greek gods) and Yahweh (the Judeo-Christian god) are clearly two different entities. This would be like an ancient Greek journalist writing about "the cult that worships Jesus, the son of Apollo." Bleh.
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Saturday, November 13
Whoops
I think I saw this in a commercial lately. I have a question, though. "Spectrum"? "Sprint"? Where was I when these cars came out?
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Thursday, November 11
Step Right Up, Cast Your Vote, Win a Prize
It's been over a week since the elections so I think I can actually talk about them without bursting into tears now (although crying wasn't my actual reaction; something more akin to dejected numbness, I think). I didn't have it half as bad as Amanda, who ended up alienating some friends over her parental lecture on citizenship (and how taking your toys and moving to Canada is not the right response). That's probably because I don't have as many friends as she does. ;)
In any case, as everyone can probably guess, I was vastly disappointed in the election results. Enough said. All other things aside, though, I can tolerate four more years of W. ("tolerate" in the way kids grudingly accept arbitrary rules set forth by their parents, simply because they have no other recourse); my single biggest point of concern and breath-holding focuses not on any decisions or policies he'll introduce (although I'm sure they won't make me happy), but rather on his upcoming judicial appointments. Presidents come and go, policies can be changed; Supreme Court justices are for life. I'm still puzzled by the fact that none of the conservative justices retired during Bush's previous term (giving him a chance to replace them), but he's certainly going to get a shot at it this term. I'd like to think he'll pick justices who are moderate and open-minded (if only so that the Senate will approve them), but I'm bracing for his nominations of Scalia-clones. One bright spot is the resignation of John Ashcroft, who literally scared me. I don't know anything about his replacement, which makes me kind of leery, but I'm hoping he spends less time trying to force his personal beliefs on people than Ashcroft did.
One point of consolation is that now that the elections are over we won't have to wade through the knee-deep sludge of advertisements and attacks. I saw an article today about new words added to the English language during this campaign, and most of them are derogatory or condescending in one form or another. The article also talks about the wide-spread perjorative usage of "liberal" (now used as an insult), which I don't understand. It's been a common usage in my family for decades (something along the lines of "Commie"), but this election was particularly vehement in demonizing the word as much as possible, which I think is going away from the original meaning (not that most people know its original meaning; the "Evolution of American Political Parties" class I took in college should be required of everyone). The dictionary contains no definition of "liberal" along the lines of "evil" or "heartless" or, less ideologically, "one who wants to take all my stuff and give it to people who didn't earn it and generally intrude in my affairs." It does, however, have the following definition:
"[one who favors liberalism,] a theory in economics emphasizing individual freedom from restraint and usually based on free competition, the self-regulating market, and the gold standard . . . a political philosophy based on belief in progress, the essential goodness of the human race, and the autonomy of the individual and standing for the protection of political and civil liberties; one who is open-minded or not strict in the observance of orthodox, traditional, or established forms or ways"
This doesn't sound much like Communism, and it doesn't sound very evil. In fact, it actually sounds pretty good. By this definition, I guess I'm a liberal (although an Independent one). Of course, it's always easier to hurl epithets than discuss issues (especially in those 30-second sound bites).
On a less political note (well, still political, but not blood-boiling), I survived the 13-hour election day process in one piece (and actually learned a thing or two). I got up at 5:30 a.m. (on three hours of sleep) and reported to my polling place at 7 a.m. (it wasn't where I voted, but that didn't really matter since I voted absentee). I was kind of the odd one out of the "election officials" (our cool-sounding titles); it was me and four forty-something women. But we all got along well. We placed the signs, set up the voting booths and broke open the ballots before opening at 8 a.m. (although people started lining up at 7:45). We had 40 people in the first 20 minutes, which proved to be our biggest rush of the day. There wasn't much slacking, though. I was on my feet for about 6 hours, passing out and explaining ballots or providing "technical support" (lost pencils, voided ballots and the like). I spent another 5 hours at the sign-in table writing down names and voter ID numbers in the lists and trying to help the people who weren't in our lists figure out where they were supposed to vote (we had a lot of those). We had several "provisional ballots" (ballots we allowed people to fill out even though they weren't in our lists; these were sealed and sent to the Election Commission, who determined whether they counted or not - I'd wager most of them didn't, but it was better than not trying). We also had several unhappy (did I say "unhappy"? Maybe "irritable" or "pissed off" would work better) people who were frustrated at not being able to find their polling places and took it out on us. And we had two very heart-warming and uplifting instances of immigrants who were casting votes for the very first time in their lives: one Hispanic man who had to have his 10-year-old son help him interpret the ballot and one Vietnamese woman who was positively glowing as she told us about how excited she was. In contrast, my slacker generation, gifted with liberties and privileges that billions of people will never know, stayed home. I saw only 20 or 30 people my age or younger the entire day (a very small fraction of the total). I was very disappointed.
I was immersed in the election process itself, especially the nuances that most people never consider. Each ballot had to be signed at the bottom by two election officials (so that no one could stuff the ballot box with sample or stolen ballots), and those two officials had to be of different parties (so that no one party could stuff the ballot box with supporting votes). As a political independent, I could sign pretty much anything (I even got to sign the official seals that sealed the boxes when they became full); members of the two parties, however, could only sign things that were signed by someone of the opposite party, which created a nice little game of "pass the ballots" during the slow times. I'm estimating I signed somewhere in the vicinity of 350 ballots over the course of the day. At 2 p.m. I got to be an official escort for the ballot box when the full one was transported to the nearest collection point (no one was allowed to be alone with the ballot box at any time). We weren't allowed to talk politics in any way, shape or form the entire day, we weren't allowed to make any commentary on the content of the ballots (even if the voter asked) and we weren't allowed to have any communication with "the outside world" that the voters could hear (so no television or radio), which meant I had no idea how the elections were going until I got home at 8:30 p.m. Instead we talked about house renovations and medical advice (one of the women is a nurse).
All in all it was an educational day (and not nearly as stressful as some other polling places; there were several that had 3-hour waits, while ours was never more than 15 or 20 minutes). I think it was good for me. I'll probably make a habit of it now that I have most everything figured out, especially since election workers are an endangered species. Civic responsibility and all that, you know (*someone* in my generation had to get it).
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Wednesday, November 10
But No Video Games . . .
I bet Riven would run really well on one of these.
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Monday, November 8
Um, Yeah
I've been out of blogging mode for a couple of days, but I'll post something in here later today. I hope everyone is well.
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Thursday, November 4
Every Little Bit Helps
Reason number 112 that Sarah McLachlan completely rocks. Enough said.
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Tuesday, November 2
No, Really, Go Vote
I don't want to hear any "it's too much trouble" or "my vote doesn't count" whining. :P I'm off to man a polling station. Happy Election Day. :)
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Monday, November 1
Am I Not Pretty Enough?
I hope everyone had a great Halloween. :)
I'd been working on my costume for a couple of weeks (or rather, for a couple of days over a three-week period). Step one, assemble the parts, which involved trips to Goodwill for a prom dress, 3 shoe stores to find a pair of size 11 flats ('cause I couldn't walk in the heels), a costume store for the wig and Wal-Mart for pretty much everything else. Step two, cut the prom dress and the shirt in half and bribe Lisa into sewing them together for you (thanks again, Lisa!). Step three, cut one leg off the pants (I actually ended up cutting more than this, enough that I had to learn to keep my knees together when I sat down). Step four, shave half of your face. Step five, fill a balloon with hair gel (which was quite the ordeal). Step six, let Jamie do your makeup (the electrical tape is to keep the makeup from smudging over; it is not facial hair friendly). Step seven, put on the rest of the costume, add fake nails, rings and the hat/wig combination you cobbled together and put on your shoes (one women's flat, one tennis shoe) and smile coyly for the camera. I borrowed a bra from Jamie (with my gel-filled balloon I came out to a 36C, I guess). Jamie went as "Magenta" from Rocky Horror Picture Show (which I haven't seen, although she looked pretty close to the pictures she showed me). Lisa was kind enough to snap a group photo.
So, am I pretty? Or frightening? ( One more to haunt your nightmares . . .)
I got a couple of compliments on my costume, so I guess not everyone thought I looked like a dork. In the fine tradition of What Women Want, I also learned first-hand all of the things that women go through to get ready (panty hose, makeup, fake eyelashes, acetone soaking, walking in uncomfortable shoes, wearing a constricting band around your chest . . .). Entirely overrated. I had enough trouble remembering to keep my knees together. But it was all in fun. :)
P.S. - We poked a safety pin into the balloon later. And then we picked pieces of balloon off the hallway wall and wiped hair gel off the bathroom CD player. Whoops.
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