May 2008
Saturday, May 31, 2008
I spent the vast majority of the last two and a half days downloading compressed file after compressed file. What for? Well, I think it was late Wednesday night (time is very muddled for me right now) that I discovered digital scrapbooking. So I've been searching for and downloading kits like crazy. It's funny because I've never gotten into actual scrapbooking (unless you count the old way where you just paste on or two things on a plain page and leave it at that). I made one scrapbook page at Tamara's baby shower since that was our main activity. It was fun, but it was pricy and only a one-time deal.
Digital scrapbooking, however, appeals far more to me. Not only are there tons of wonderful people who release free kits, but I heart Photoshop already and this gives me a new fun use for it. It's way easier to place things and mistakes are easily fixable. The only thing that will take some getting used to for me is how much you have to use the drop-shadow style. Everything pretty much has to be given a drop-shadow--it's crazy!
Anyway, after spending hours and hours collecting kits, today I finally made my first page! It features my two cute cats and a limerick I wrote today specially for it. I made it as a challenge thing, but now the website that's running the challenge is down and has been for a couple hours. Blarg. Hopefully it will come back up before the day is out, otherwise I'll miss my chance of entering, and there's a tangible prize, too. For anyone else interested, here are some links to very nice kits that are free (for personal use only):
Simply Clean Digi Scraps - The first one I found. Very clean, beautiful kits.
NBK Scrap - The Vintage kit is gorgeous and HUGE! So many papers and elements and it's not even finished yet. The Leaf kit is really nice, too.
Bon Scrapatit Designs
A Work In Progress - Lots of lovely free kits!
Happy Scrap - The site's in French, but it's not hard to figure out the download links. ;)
I've got more links if anyone's interested, but those are some of the ones that have the nicest kits. And now, I shall leave you all with the limerick I wrote to go with the pictures of my kitties in the garden.
Cats hunting in a garden
Often have eyes that harden
When they spot some mice
Who are quick to entice
They eat them without pardon.
Monday, May 26, 2008
You would not believe how gloriously fabulous it felt to wake up this morning and have my right ear clear. I have thanked God many, many times throughout the day. The only thing is, now that my right ear is clear, I can tell there's some blockage in my left, though certainly not as bad as the right was. Not done with the ear drops yet, I guess. It was kind of scary... the ear drops started burning some today, which they never did before. I'm thinking maybe it's from sticking my pinky in there and my nail scratching off some skin revealing new stuff that doesn't like ear drop solution. Hopefully that's it anyway. Therefore, I'll try to wait a few days before putting more in and give my ears a chance to recoup.
I went and watched Indiana Jones again today. It's a good movie, but really not so fabulous as we'd all hoped. *sigh* I liked Speed Racer far more, which I wasn't so excited for as I was for Indy. At least this time it wasn't so crazy busy and I was only needed for a little help. :)
This evening we had a bit of a thunderstorm. I actually saw flashes of lightning, too! Most times we just hear the rolling thunder and don't see the flashes, but not tonight. I like the sound of the thunder rolling off the mountains, though sometimes it does get really loud (not so much tonight) and makes me a bit nervous. Always reminds me of when I was in seventh grade though and decided it was my goal to get struck by lightning. Don't ask why I wanted that, I could probably never articulate it. I eventually decided I wouldn't got looking/hoping for it, but if I was someday struck, I'd be okay with that as long as I didn't have any problems for it. Most people don't end up with any serious issues from taking a bolt. Though I don't think I really want that to ever happen to me now. lol I do think lightning is amazing though and perhaps one day I'll manage to photograph some. From a safe distance, of course. ;)
Sunday, May 25, 2008
I'm warning you all now: this is an entry about earwax. So don't read if you think it's gross. lol
As I have posted, I've been having some trouble with my right ear for the past few weeks. Not only that, but I had trouble with the same ear about six or so months ago. Lots of plugged feeling time and it throws off the equilibrium when it's really fogged over as well. One of my earliest childhood memories has to do with earwax, actually. I was having problems because there was so much build-up that my mom had to take me to the doctor and I remember they had these tubes that they put up to my ears and they shot water into my ears to flush it out. As I remember it, it was very painful because it felt like high-powered spray, and I remember I was screaming and crying at the same time. So tramatic that it's stuck with me all this time. I'm not even sure how old I was, but I wasn't more than four or five.
So, growing up, I remember having to do ear drops and the flushing of water with the little blue rubber bulb on a regular basis (as in every few months or so). Even into middle school I think I was still having issues (apparently some people just natually produce more earwax than others and my body's just really good at it, lol). I shared a story a few entries back about my amazing giant piece of earwax that came out once and still had the spiral to it. But then, for a long time I really didn't have any problems with it. That was until the time last year.
I couldn't hear properly out of my right ear for days and when it finally "popped" I was overjoyed and giddy. But even though it popped and my hearing went pretty much back to normal, I don't think I ever really got the stuff out... or certainly not all of it. So this time I figured it was the same thing, but this one has lasted a lot longer. Then I got worried that it was something other than wax buildup, which would not be good and would mean an expensive trip to the doctor which I don't have coverage for. The last few days have been pretty disconcerting as I'd wake up with my ear feeling heavily plugged up, but within a half an hour it would go mostly back to normal (or only slightly plugged/muffled). Weird. So, I stepped up the earwax removal drops and the prayers.
A few hours ago, I decided to do some more drops as I didn't end up doing it the last day or two. I let the drops sit for a good while and the little crackling sounds that signal it's working sounded more promising this time. I drained the ear and a good visible piece of earwax came out. Hallelujah! What a heavenly sign. Not only did it mean some amount of success, but it also meant that hopefully the problem is just wax blockage and not anything scary! I was quite excited/happy and even went to show my mom. lmao
Now, about a half an hour ago I thought I'd do some more drops to see if anymore would come out. So, I put the drops in, and it definitely felt like it was doing something... more than many of the other days for sure. I let it sit, then I flipped over to the other side to let it drain. I could feel a little coming out and some crackling, but I knew there was a lot more of the solution still in there. Then I did what you're not supposed to do, I stuck my pinky in my ear to wiggle things around some. You would not believe how much wax came out of my right ear. Many, many, good sized chunks. I didn't even think that that much could fit in there, because it's not like it's that big of a space... right? Crazy as it sounds, I found it so amazing that I took a picture of it. Yes, if you're curious you can see it. I put the AAA battery in the picture so you could tell how big those chunks of wax are. I swear it's like an accomplishment that my ear produced that much wax buildup. lmao And the scary thing... it sort of feels like there might still be more in there. But at least I got that much out, and it's a LOT. It totally reminds me of the beginning of the first Shrek movie where he pulls wax out of his ear and uses it as a candle for his dinner. Hahaha.
In other news, Emily came over after I posted my last entry and we watched four episodes of SG-1. I was trying to prove to her that in the later seasons (which she hasn't seen) Daniel carries around a P90 and knows how to use it, but I didn't pick quite the best episode for that. He's carrying it around, but he didn't fire it at all. It's still a funny episode though (season 10's Bad Guys). ;) Then we watched the first three episodes of season 7. After that we ordered pizza and decided to watch Wild America since neither of us had seen it in ages. Lots of good laughs in that movie, too. When that was over, my parents went to bed, and Emily and I watched the end of PofA on TV. Emily went to leave when it was over, but couldn't find her keys and realized she'd locked them in her car. lmao Good thing my dad's a locksmith. ;)
Whew, that was fun, but also a little crazy. I went down to the theatre to watch Indiana Jones and it was totally sold out. Of course, that doesn't mean there wouldn't have been a seat for me, so I waited to find out. While I waited I decided to help out in concessions since the line was very long. Popcorn was popping non-stop. I went up to get more ice and the bin was almost totally empty! Apparently they tried to make ice last night, but it didn't work and now that I'm thinking about it, I wonder if the water wasn't turned on for the machine as we used to sometimes keep it off when we weren't using it so it didn't leak. Theoretically they would have known to check that, but it depends on who was there at closing and if they're a newer person or not.
Anyway, Brian J. left to get more ice so I ended up doing popcorn for a while. My poor forearms are in a little pain from popcorn and butter burns. I'd almost forgotten how bad those things can smart. There was so much butter flying around that it was getting on the floor and as I told Katelyn when she remarked that I was sliding, "it's butter-skating!" lol Praise God that none of us fell from it. And since none of us got hurt, it was kind of fun. lol
By the time Brian got back and took over popcorn the previews were already over and the line was still really long, so I just kept helping. It's funny. I went down to watch the movie and instead ended up working... for free. Haha. I don't mind though. I kind of miss working there (though not enough to want to actually work there again... right now is good that I help when I go down to watch a movie), so I'm happy to help when I can, especially with the projector stuff. Popcorn is never the job you want to volunteer for, but it's been quite a while so it wasn't so bad--I survived. ;) At least they all said they appreciated my help when I left; that was sweet of them. I might try to see it tomorrow (tonight's probably going to be packed again, so it's a no-go), or I might just wait until Tuesday when other people are back to their normal schedules and it will be far less crowded. ;)
Saturday, May 24, 2008
Today I met Karen. She bought my extra pair of tickets for the WA BSB show, so we met up to exchange cash for tickets. :) Mom and I met her at Olive Garden and we all had lunch and chatted. Karen's really nice and it was cool to have a very BSB-enthused chat with someone as that doesn't happen a whole lot for me anymore (my BSB friends have dwindled from former years). lol I even got to see some pictures of Karen with the Boys which was rad. :)
On the BSB subject, I don't think I mentioned before that they announced dates for Canada. There's a show in B.C. two days before the WA one, so Sam and I are planning to go. We're both so fabulously excited because we've been trying to go to a BSB concert together for a good few years now and it's finally looking like it's going to happen! Now I just have to try and get us super good seats because Sam's never gotten floor seats to one of their shows and that's just WRONG. Haha. Oh, by the way, this is why I applied for my passport the other day.
After lunch with Karen, mom dropped me off at Barnes & Noble while she went elsewhere for a bit. I again wandered through the Bargain Books area, but didn't see anything that sounded interesting and I didn't already have. Then, mom called before I was quite finished and said she'd be there in two minutes to get me. So, I started toward the door, but got side-tracked by a few more bargain books area. There was a section for gifts for grads and I happened to see a book of medieval words and phrases there. I'm not sure why they thought that should go in the gifts for grads section, but either way, it looked cool to me, so I decided to get it and make mom wait a minute outside. lol I'm telling you, that Bargain Books section there has some great books to use as resources for writers. I got a rad book on Heraldry a previous time, and I've also just gotten some other cool books that may or may not be used to help with stories, but are awesome to have either way. :D
We then traveled over to Wal*Mart, where I didn't do too bad for myself. I got a few items, but didn't surpass the $20 mark so that was quite happy. I found a clearance area in the paper/pens/office products section and picked up a bunch of paper products. Also got some pens from the non-clearance area since they came in pretty colors, and I got a few other things.
The final stop was an ice cream cone on the way home because it was hot. It went up into the eighties and blissfully cold sugary goodness was the best thing for it. ;)
The rest of my day's been spent at home. I did some chores and cut some veggies to go on the grill (they're really good in this garlic marenade and then charred up real good on the grill). Then I just surfed the internet and watched TV. I have a bunch of books to read, but I just haven't felt in the mood the last week. Two of them are from the library though, so I need to get in the mood to read them before they're due! Oh, and lastly a mention of happiness... I wrote some last night. Mostly notes, but still something. I also once again re-started the beginning of the book. I keep hanging up on that part and perhaps I should just start writing some of the other scenes and come back to the beginning later. Either that or just spit out a beginning and revise it later--something to get me past this point. Still jazzed that I wrote though. :D
Thursday, May 22, 2008
I did end up being able to run-through Indy yesterday, though a few hours later than I'd originally hoped. The boss wasn't able to get the print until a certain time and got back later with it. Then, when I went down, the last twenty or so minutes of Speed Racer was playing since it had been threaded for an early show that no one came to. Here's a film lesson for you all: once it's threaded, it plays at some point. You cannot rewind a film like you would a VHS tape. It rewinds as it's playing because of how it goes from one platter, though the projector, and then onto another platter. You could attempt to wind back the film, but you'd be winding it into the center of the platter and it would be a pain in the butt. So yeah, watched the end of that, then threaded Indy fast and pushed "Run."
Harrison Ford has still got Indy down. ;) I've always liked him, so there were no problems there. Shia did fabulously and an amused smirk appeared on my face every time he whipped out his comb. So perfect for the time period. I'm sure there are still a lot of people who haven't yet seen it, so I won't go giving away too much here. I must say that I totally didn't expect what happened with the Crystal Skull--as in, the resolution of that part of the story. Kinda different than the other Indy films. And I was so right about Shia's character, Mutt. So right. Overall, I liked it and I'll be going to watch it more times, but I can't say that it was amazingly fabulous or anything. I think the hype is higher than the delivered product, but that it's still a good movie and worth the cost of the ticket to get in.
Indy finished with just enough time for me to thread Speed Racer before the show was supposed to start. I stayed and watched it since it was my last chance for an in-theater viewing. I was feeling really bushwhacked about mid-way through watching it though. I've no idea how that happened. Then the movie seemed crazy loud to me, even though I was sitting in the same spot as all the other times and it was running at the same volume it had previously. I thought perhaps that meant my ears were fixed, but this morning my right ear was once again messed up, so I guess not. lol
Today I went and applied for my passport. It only took about ten minutes complete with having my picture taken. That was pleasantly nice. The speed of it, not having my picture taken. That part is always horrible, but, like I said to the post office lady, it looks better than my license picture. Guess I can't complain too much when I look at it that way. Plus, only border officials are ever going to see that picture so as long as they can tell I am who I am by it, then whatever to everything else. Hopefully it won't take too long to come, but at least I won't need to use it until September, and there should be no reason for it to take that long.
Tuesday, May 20, 2008
This is hilarious, in the "aww dang" sort of way. So yesterday the end of Temple of Doom cut off, and I still don't know how that movie ends. But I thought today I'd watch The Last Crusade since I have the actual VHS of that, etc. Well, apparently I don't have it anymore. I searched through all of our tapes and it was nowhere to be found. *pouts* It must have gone into a thrift store bag at some point. Did I put it there? I don't think I did as I watched it quite a few times and like that one. Did mom? She says she didn't and normally she asks me if I want to keep such things before putting them in a give-away bag. *sigh* Oh well. At least I remember that one pretty good, so it's not such a big deal.
Instead of going to see Speed Racer again tonight, I was invited, along with my parents, to a BBQ... even though it was raining. lol We had all that sun over the weekend, but rain started up last night. I must say though, I'm extremely thankful for the rain and cooler temperatures. I slept way better last night than the few previous nights. I can't sleep when it's really warm at night. I recall that last summer I even went so far as to sleep with a soft ice pack on my feet to cool me down. lol I've a feeling I'll have to do that again this year.
Last night after I posted my blog entry, I recalled that I still had a concert page I hadn't ever gotten around to put up. So, I wrote what I could remember and now that page is up in the concert section for the BSB concert of '99 I went to. As I wrote on there, I'm pretty sure I have something I typed up right after the show, but it's in a scrapbook in a tub in the garage... somewhere. Maybe someday I'll pull it out and re-type it to add to that page. At least that section is now up-to-date.
Monday, May 19, 2008
Sweet! God is good! :) Not only did we get a print for Indiana Jones, but I'll probably get to do a run-through of it on Wednesday. *happy dance*
And on the topic of Indy, I watched Temple of Doom today. It's really kind of scary what with all those freaky ritual things and whatnot. Egh. But at least not scary to the point it would have been when I was younger and things would have looked more realistic. Only bummer is that toward the end, when everyone's looking over the edge of the cliff to see if Indy's about to come up over it climbing the remains of the rope bridge, it cut to black (or blue, as my VCR is). Noooooo!!! There was more tape room left to record, but apparently the TV guide must have been wrong about how long it was and now I don't know what happens at the end! *gasp* I mean, I know Indiana lives--that's a little obvious--but I don't know exactly what happens at the ending. Major bummer. So, at some point, I'm going to have to find someone who can tell me waht happens or who owns that one and will let me borrow it to watch the ending. lol Maybe I'll get lucky tomorrow.
I also went and watched Speed Racer again this evening. I went in thinking that it would be my last time watching it in theatres (I'm so definitely buying the DVD when it comes out), but as I was watching it I enjoyed it so much that I think I'll have to try for at least once more. lol Some of the shots and sweep effects are really cool in that movie, and the racing is awesome (so wish I had jump jacks on my car, lmao), and, of course, Emile, who plays Speed, is really good looking. lol It wigs me out though because there are times in the movie where his expressions make him look a LOT like Leo DiCaprio. Crazy.
As the movie was starting, I walked past the projection booth and could hear the sound of film moving around in ways it shouldn't, so I looked in. First I thought it was just because they didn't put the stopper on the outside of the film on the platter, but once that was fixed, there was trouble with this device that sits in the center of the platter that the film gets threaded through so the platter knows when and how fast it should spin (I hope that makes some sense to at least one person who reads it--I can't explain it any better). It wasn't functioning properly and they were having to hold part of it and/or spin it manually. Seemed like it might be static, but then it turned out that it had been threaded improperly (a new person was learning). So, I told them to stop the film for a minute so we could fix it and helped with that. Only took a moment and then I hit the resume button. Afterward though, I felt like maybe I took too much control and steped on their toes a bit. I certainly don't want to be obnoxious, but I do like the projector stuff a lot and enjoy helping out when I can. I'll just have to try and keep these thoughts in my mind next time something happens when I'm there and ask if they want myself instead of just jumping in, etc.
Sunday, May 18, 2008
I am privileged with movie goodness. I saw Prince Caspian again yesterday and today I went and watched Speed Racer for the third time. Most people don't make so many tips to movie theaters in such short periods. Then again, a lot of people wouldn't want to because they're not so big into movies as I am, but yeah. I'll probably go see Speed Racer again tomorrow or the next day, and we'll see how long I can hold out before my third viewing of Prince Caspian. lol Now we're coming into the better movie season so there are lots of good things coming out in the next few months to keep my theater trips frequent.
Going with the movie topic, our theater is supposed to open Indiana Jones on Thursday, but today when I was down there the boss was, too, and she told me she got a call Wednesday from our booker saying that they're not giving us a print after all! No way! Since I started working at the theatre I cannot recall that ever happening before when we've booked a movie, had it confirmed, and then they told us we weren't going to get it after all, and at the last minute to boot. *shakes head* My boss is obviously not happy and trying to do whatever she can to get them to give us a print. Hopefully they'll give one to us. I guess they told her they didn't have enough, but she's not buying that, and I'm not really either. If that's truly the case, then the distributor was stupid as it's a huge movie release and they ought to have made a ton of prints. *sigh* Up to God now.
Before I went to the movie yesterday, I went with Emily so she could run some errands. Once the errands were done, we had a heck of a time coming up with something else to do. There aren't really a lot of options around here in the realm of things we'd consider doing. There's lots of outdoor activities, but neither of us are up for that sort of thing. So, we went to B & N and browsed books for a while to kill time. lol I did find a new writing book though, and Emily got me her employee discount on it. Woo!
And now back to more movies. I taped the first two Indiana Jones movies yesterday since SciFi played all three. I have The Last Crusade on tape, which I like a lot, but the other two I'd never actually seen all of; basically just one scene from each in passing. So, today I watched Raiders of the Lost Ark. It was pretty good, but I still like the third better. Man, for it's time it's a rather graphic movie. And it was somewhat predictable, but still a good adventure. :) More proof that monkeys are evil though from that movie. At least that monkey met the end it deserved for being evil. lmao My mom got a kick out of my comments on that stuff. ;) And then I made comments about how stupid the Germans in the movie were too. They must have never read the Bible otherwise they would have known they were going to die. Guess they shouldn't have burned all those books... That's the sadest part in the third movie, when they show the pile of burning books. It's so sad that the radicals then really did that; just the amount of information that was lost then.
I considered watching Temple of Doom tonight after we got back from picking my dad up from the airport (he went on a trip with three of his siblings back east to visit relatives for the past week), but I'm feeling quite tired. I didn't get a very good sleep last night and had to wake up early this morning, so I'm thinking it's time to sign off from here and maybe just read a tiny bit before I go to sleep. Man, it's only ten, too.
Friday, May 16, 2008
Ugh, I am feeling majorly tired and would have already gone to bed except that mom and I were determined to finish watching Pride and Prejudice. We started it early this evening when I got back from my pointless trip to the theater. I went down to watch Speed Racer again, but there were no customers so it was a no-show and I got to turn around and come right home. Blarg. Bummer. I'm going to see it at least one more time, I'm sure, but I'd like to see it maybe twice more before it's gone... we'll see how my schedule goes.
The above is not my main reason for posting, however. When mom got home and brought in the mail, I had the happy surprise of finding my Backstreet Boys tickets had arrived! :D Now I get to hold them in my hands, stare at them, and salivate over the approaching concert. lmao Now, if only they'd announce some Canada dates so I can see about going to a show with Sam.
I did it! I woke up early this morning and headed to the theater to see Prince Caspian. On the way there, Ran called me and was surprised to find me awake. lol Poor Ran was waiting in a very long line in the hot sun and needed someone to talk to so it was good that I was awake. When I got to the theater she joked that she'd still be in line when the movie was over so I said I'd call her afterward to see. Hung up and got my ticket for the very first showing of the day and went in.
It's good that I re-read the book yesterday and that I was fully prepared for there to be a lot of changes, because there were. Most of it I'm okay with, but there were a few things that nagged on me a bit, mostly to do with missing parts with Aslan and then them all being sort of jumbled in together at the end, which messed up the portrayal, I think. And now, there may be some minor spoilers so don't read on if you haven't read the books or seen the movie yet and don't want to know anything. ;) In the book there is no budding romance between Susan and Caspian, however, based on what is known of her character from the later books, this particular addition is conceivable. All I could think when she kissed him toward the end though was that she's younger than me and he's older than me and it just seemed odd. lmao But I suppose they're probably not really that many years apart in real life. *shrug*
Oh, happy day, they kept some of the best lines from the book in the movie (or paraphrases of them anyhow)! Most especially I was delighted that at the very end Edmund wonders if they could get back to Narnia because he left his new torch there. Hehehe. That was the perfect finish and made me a happy camper. But yeah, I liked it quite a bit, though definitely not as much as LWW. I have a feeling, though, that Voyage of the Dawn Treader will raise the bar back up because that will make a fabulous movie, if they do it well. Oh, and the whole thing with the Telmarines having Spanish accents actually didn't bother me so much as I thought it would. Only thing is, are all the humans in Narnia in the books/movies that come after this "time" going to have Spanish accents, then?
After the movie let out, I went to Barnes & Nobel to peruse the bargain books section. I just discovered how wonderful that section is a few weeks back, so now I check it every time. I found a large volume about the Irish people for $10 and couldn't pass it up. The back of the jacket has some very interesting facts that I had not heard of before, so I was intrigued. Oh yes, and before I found that, my phone rang and it was Ran. She had just gotten out of the store she'd been waiting in line for! I had to apologize for not believing that it'd take as long as the movie. ;) We chatted for a while longer, so that was nice.
Woo hoo! Looks like my hush money from the government is in my bank account now! I like referring to it as that, which I got from Emily. lol Sadly, I only got the minimum $300 instead of the maximum $600, but it comes in good timing because I just got my credit card bill yesterday and now I won't have to take money out of my savings to cover it. Oh dear, how fast things add up. I shall hopefully get back about $150 when I sell the extra pair of BSB tickets I got, but still, I spent way too much the last month and need to behave myself better from now on. I just got a nice check for finishing that client website, too, but all of that's going to the credit card bill and the medical insurance bill. Blarg at myself.
Thursday, May 15, 2008
I had meant to start reading Prince Caspian a few days ago, but did not actually start until late last night when my eyes were already laden. I read the first two chapters, and it's good that I've read it a few times before because I'm not sure how much I actually absorbed last night. Therefore, I figured I'd be spending most of today finishing it, but it went much faster than I had figured. All together I think it took me about four or five hours to read the book... something like that. I read it in chunks, doing other things inbetween, so I'm not exactly sure. Either way, I have finished reading it and am prepared for seeing the movie tomorrow.
I know it's going to be a lot different than the book. Out of the seven in the series, this one has the least going on, in my opinion. For the movie they will have to add a number of things, I am sure. I just hope they don't take out anything, like the very end of the book when Edmund realizes he left his torch in Narnia, which he must refer to as such and not a flashlight. I shall find out in the morning. If I can manage to get up, I'll go to one of the earlier shows where it should be nice and quiet. Emily asked if I wanted to go to the midnight showing tonight, but with how tired I was last night, I'm pretty sure there's no way I'd be awake enough to watch the movie let alone drive home afterward. Besides, matinees are cheaper. :D
Wednesday, May 14, 2008
Saturday morning mom and I headed off for our mini-vacation to Whidbey Island. We spent three nights there and had a nice, relaxing time away from stuff. Hopefully the break from the internet will do my creative spirit good and maybe I'll get writing like mad here soon. lol There's really not a whole lot to say about the trip. We visited a number of state parks they have on the island as well as some other little historical places and gardens and whatnot. And yesterday, before we headed home, we went to a holly farm where they had holly trees that were over 70 years old! And there were a lot of hollies there. Only bummer was that it was raining (only day it did) when we went and so I didn't get to take any pictures and we only walked around the outermost trees for a short while. I didn't even see where the hollies ended there were so many! I would love to have a little grove of holly trees someday. :) Anyway, mom and I had a really nice time just hanging out and doing whatever we felt like. Only downer of the trip was not sleeping very well. It's so nice to come home to your own, comfortable bed. lol
Sam got to see the BSB in London this evening. I got an e-mail from her and managed to talk to her on AIM for just a bit a few minutes ago. :) She said the concert was awesome and I'm totally going to love it when I get to go in September! I was already excited for it, but now that I've gotten the rave review from Sam for it, I'm definitely even more excited. Now I just need to figure out who's going with me. lmao
Addition: I was just surfing some forums and read something that reminded me of something else I had meant to post about. One of my cousins got married on Saturday. I wasn't even invited. Pish. No, it was just a small ceremony from what I've heard and they might do a reception in the summer, etc. Anyway, second of my 11 cousins to get married. And, apparently, she's pregnant, too, so there is a new cousin in the works. I think I shall decide to be determined to be the last of my cousins to start dating, maybe even get married, even though I am fourth from the top (and the eldest girl). It's looking good so far. Hahaha.
Friday, May 9, 2008
My big outing for the day was going to see Speed Racer. I was fairly excited to see it, though not in a way that can compare with Prince Caspian or Indiana. I got to the theatre plenty early and helped out just a little bit, but didn't have to do much which was nice. Then Emily got there just in time for the trailers to start. Crazy stuff, that new CG Star Wars that's coming out. I'll probably go to see it, but I don't really like the animation style--not for the characters, anyway. We'll see how it is when it comes out.
Anyway, back to Speed Racer. I can see why it got a fair amount of bad reviews from critics, and there were some overly strange quirky things in it, especially toward the beginning, but I actually thought it was pretty dang awesome. Totally should have been rated PG-13 and not PG though. I need to write a harshly worded letter to the MPAA about their falling standards these last few years. Anyway, I laughed a good deal in the movie, the guy who plays Speed is lovely, and I found the style of the whole movie really interesting. It's an explosion of color, which is a little jarring at first, but then quite grew on me, especially since I'm quite artistic and like colors a lot.
The racing scenes are awesome and I had to check myself when I was driving away from the theatre afterwards lest I go speeding like mad through town. ;) Totally wish I could get my car to drive straight while at an angle like in the movie. Haha. Let's see, what else? Speed's little brother is hilarious (even if he does have a monkey as his friend... egh). Rex is awesome, too. And, at the end of the movie after the final race, Speed drinks milk (or at least I assume it was... don't know of any other white beverages). YES! I love milk! Brings back memories of the "Milk, it does your body good" commercials. ;)
I'm definitely going to watch it a few more times. Gotta soak in all the background stuff. Which reminds me, there's some rad and hilarious background effects used in different scenes. And the shots... really different from any other movies I've ever seen. And again... all the races were rad. So, this won't make it onto my all-time favorites list for movies, but I may end up buying it, which means it's pretty good.
After the movie I went to help out with a charity auction. It went pretty well, though there weren't as many people there as we might have hoped. I won a gift card for only five more dollars than it's worth, so that was cool. lol Actually, I won it for two more, but rounded up since it was for a very good cause and I could afford a little extra. :) I might have liked to bid on some other items, but I don't have that much money to do so right now. After a recent good look at my checkbook it's become apparent I need to spend less and save more than I have been, so I'll have to be working on that as it's hard not to buy stuff a lot of the time.
Thursday, May 8, 2008
My poor ear. God only knows what I've done to it. No one ever let me stick a quetip in my ears ever again! They lead to only bad things. My ear was just hurting more than normal a few minutes ago, but the pain seems to have diminished some now. I went and grabbed our medical reference book and looked up ear problems. Based on the reading, I'm still hoping it's a wax problem. However, it's possible that I may also have a ruptured eardrum and/or accute infection of the middle ear, neither of which are good. Don't have all the symptoms for the latter, which is good, but the former can cause the latter so... yeah. I'm starting to wonder if I should fork over the cash for a visit to the doctor. Maybe I should call my insurance company and find out how much it would be. If it's less than $40 it might be worth it to go and have it looked at so I can at least find out what's wrong with it. I certainly don't want to end up with any serious damage or anything. Ow, it's smarting again.
Last night I went to work trying to coil some wire so it would be ready for cutting whenever dad and I were to get around to building the saw setup. However, that didn't go very well. It was a LOT harder to do than I originally anticipated. Apparenly my hands/wrists/lower arms are not really strong enough for that. Then, when I pulled my measley 1-inch coil off the brass rod I was using, I discovered marks on the brass and then looked at the inside of the coil and discovered it'd been scratched up too. *sigh* There goes that. Looks like it'll just be a whole lot easier to buy pre-made rings, but now that leaves me with the task of attempting to sell all the wire and other stuff I bought. Hopefully I'll be able to do that and make back mostly what I spent. Already I want to buy some more rings of different sizes so I can make some other weaves.
Polished off the client website I've been working off this afternoon. It was all done last night, but I was asked to make a few slight modifications on pages before making it live today. I'll probably have to add some more pictures later and a few other things, but for now it's done, so that's good. Looks pretty nice too, and I'm happy with it, which isn't always the case. lol There have been a good few times where I did what the client wanted, but I thought it looked horrible. They were happy and they paid me though, so I don't suppose I'm entitled to much griping over those occasions.
You know, I remember that I got third row tickets to see BSB yesterday morning, but I don't think it's really set in yet. Either that or I'm just vastly matured since the last time I got tickets for one of their shows. I doubt it's that. lol I suppose one never knows though. I am 23 now, after all. Once I get the actual tickets in my hands, that's when it might set in more.
Wednesday, May 7, 2008
Praise God. I am so extaticly thankful right now. I asked Him last night and this morning if He could get me the password for the Backstreet Boys ticket pre-sale and help me get good seats and He definitely did! :D This is going to be a very excited, somewhat long-winded story now. lol
So, last night I made sure my Ticketmaster account info was all correct, and then I fretted a whole bunch about not knowing the password to get the tickets. I tried to calm myself down the hour or two before bed and it sort-of worked. lol Set two alarms for 9:30 AM so that I could have time to look/find/get the password online, then went to sleep.
The phone rang about a quarter after nine this morning, so I got up and out of bed pretty quick then, turned off the alarms so they wouldn't go off when I was already awake, turned on my computer and then explained to my mom why I was up so uncharacteristically early. Heh. :) Then I opened my e-mail to find that Karen said you had to get the passwords through the fanclub. Man, I paid for membership to that for two years and it wasn't at all worth it the second year so I'm not going to pay $30 to join again! Therefore, google searching commenced.
At first I wasn't really getting anything (nor did I when I searched last night). Then I found some people on eBay selling the passwords (or at least that's what they claimed). I was like, "do I really want it that bad to pay $5 to someone on eBay?" I left the windows for them open as a last resort if I got really desperate. Praise God though because a little while later he led me to a blog where they just post passwords for pre-sale things and it's free to find out what they are. It said there were two for this one, so I wrote them down, then continued searching online. I was excited to find them, but there was a big chance they were wrong and wouldn't work so I kept looking until 10 o'clock rolled around and I could test it.
Both passwords worked! But, although they worked, there weren't really any good seats coming up save for my first search where I accidently put only one ticket instead of two (I'm hoping I can get someone to go with me). So I kept searching. In previous years I'd have my laptop on my desk right next to my monitor so I could search twice at once, but I don't have the laptop now so that was a no-go. lol After a while I opened up two browser windows and did it that way though. Haha. I got some close seats in a side section, but opted not to take them. Reason being that for the NG tour when I thought I was getting really close tickets on the side of the venue it turned out there were huge speakers totally blocking our view of the whole stage minus the first foot in front or so. We were very blessed and moved to seats that no one came to claim, but I didn't want to chance it again this time, especially since I've never been to this venue just like I hadn't been for NG.
So, I continued searching. Much searching and re-typing of the password and then entering the CAPTCHA passwords over and over and over and over again. Then I got another close set in the side section (after having many from the center sections that were really far back), and contemplated getting it since I'd seen nothing better for a while. Then I wondered if the seat numbers went from the inside out or opposite? So, I asked mom to get the phonebook for me and called Ticketmaster. Managed to get to a human and at first the guy wasn't going to help me because he said the tickets didn't go on sale until Saturday. I explained I had the pre-sale passwords and that I just needed to know what direction the seat numbers went in. He had to get a supervisor to find out, so hopefully he was right. lol Anyway, by the time I was done on the phone I'd come up with some row 7 in the center-right section (four sections, two in the center) and lost the other ones anyway. Mom said I should go for them, so I went to checkout, but got an error and lost them. Then a couple searches later I came up with the same row a few seats down and mom said to grab them, so I bought them. Happy! :D That's pretty good seats. But, me being me, I decided to keep searching for a bit just to see what came up. I think it was the second search that came up which caused me to inhale deeply and rather loudly in shock.
THIRD ROW in one of the center sections! And, if the Ticketmaster guy was right, toward the very center of the stage! *squee* I pounced. Man, I wasn't going to let those pass! lol I was freaking out and jittery and thinking I'd click to submit my order and have my card charged then find out the seats had changed on me (no joke, it happened to me years ago), but they didn't! Praise God! I've finally settled down a bit, but I'm still excessively happy here. lol I had to have my mom check the seats when they first came up because I was afraid I was imagining things. Haha.
So, now I have an extra pair of tickets to sell, but hopefully it won't be difficult to find someone to buy them from me. They're still really good seats at seventh row. But now, I really must go eat since I've been up going on three hours and haven't had anything yet, so crazed was I over getting tickets. ;)
Tuesday, May 6, 2008
I feel rather accomplished-y now, looking back at the day. I got a good few things done that I wanted to. Not all, but it was a start. I guess, though, the more important thing (writing) has not been done yet, but I could still do it soon, provided I don't make a bunch of excuses. But, the things I did get done:
After getting up and having breakfast, I vacuumed like my mom asked (and later I empied out the dishwasher without her having to ask me!). Then, I pulled out Writing from the Inside Out by Dennis Palumbo and finally finished reading that! I started that months ago and didn't touch it for a while, but picked it back up over the last few days. It's a book about the psychological blocks and issues writers struggle with pretty much on a daily basis. I must say it feels good to know I'm not alone, and it got me starting to think in some better directions. I'm not "cured" by any means, but hopefully I've taken another step forward. The book had some very good points.
After that, it was to my computer to work on the client site I'm currently creating. I finished off the HTML and CSS, made sure it validated (no errors on either the first time through, wee!), and then got to work on a few of the pages. Of course, they were the easier, less time consuming pages, so tomorrow will be more in the way of that. I think I'm going to save the picture gallery for last. I'm not using a script for it, so it's going to take a bit to get thumbnails made, etc., but there's not a whole lot of pictures so far, and it will be easy to add more later.
Then I showered, got some food, and sat down for Wheel of Fortune. I'm getting really good now. Not like solving all the puzzles or anything, but a big improvement from when I first started watching it more a few months ago. It's fun. Then more TV for a while before Dad and I went out into the garage to finally work on getting some stuff going so I can start making my own jump rings. We got holes drilled in some brass rods I'd purchased, then setup a little holder for the rods so I can make coils from the wire I already have. Yay! It worked out well and didn't take too long after we solved the hickup of how to change the drillbits on the drill press when we didn't have a key the right size for it. lol Ingenuity came through after a bit and daddy solved it with some tools (I don't know what they're called, so that's the end of that explanation).
Now I'm getting my blogging done, which in a sense counts as writing, though it would also be good if I worked even just a little bit on a story tonight as well, but at least this is something. And in a few minutes I think I'll go work on making my first full chainmaille bracelet as I got some pre-cut rings in the mail today to tide me over until I can make my own. Yay pretty colors, though they sent me the wrong shade for one. lol E-mailed them to ask for a discount on the right ones or something, so we'll see what comes of that. (Edit: Just received an e-mail from them. They said that the last batch was just a lot darker than normal and they don't give refunds for it. *rolls eyes* If it looks like the other color, then you should just say you're out of stock of the lighter one. *sigh*) I can still use these at least though, just not for the exact project I was planning for.
Oh, we also put flea drops on the kitties this evening. Angie really didn't want it done so I had to chase her around the house, prod her with a long pole, and eventually grab her out from under my bed (good thing it's on those risers right now so I could actually fit under there). My poor kitty girl. I gave her some treats though, so hopefully that appeased her some. Balf wasn't happy about it either, but wasn't so much trouble to catch and is so a little more forgiving of me already. That flea medicine is nasty, but it does the job. After having the whole house infested years ago and having to use the bombs, we learned out lesson and we start earlier on the flea drops now. Haven't had a problem since, praise the Lord!
Edit: AHHH!!!! Karen just informed me that the Boys are coming here in September and the pre-sale starts tomorrow!!!! How am I only finding this out now? And I don't know the pre-sale password! I e-mailed Karen asking for it, so hopefully she'll check it in time and send it to me (provided she knows what it is). I even e-mailed a radio station just now asking them too in hopes that I can somehow find out what it is. Gosh I'm so excited!
Monday, May 5, 2008
Having a plugged up ear is not fun. When it stays plugged for more than a few hours, it's really not fun. *sigh* This happened to my same ear a few months back. I'm thinking there's some sort of blockage that's been in there all this time and just does not want to come out, and it's deep. I could pay to go to the doctor and have them scrap the bugger out, but they always end up scratching the ear and I worry they're going to do some permanent damage or something. Plus, it'd be expensive just to go for that, so I'm just gonna pray to God that it gets unblocked for good this time and whatever's stuck in there comes out! And, not to get too gross for some of you, but I have had some mondo-sized wax come out of my ears when I was little. lol I thought it was rad, but in my experience telling people, they usually think it's gross. You know what, I'm just going to tell the story now and you can skip down a bit if you don't want to read it. It's short. So, one time after using the ear drops, my mom was squirting in the water to rinse out my ears and this huge piece of wax came out of one of them into the sink. It was long and had a curly-cue from the shape of my ear and everything! I wish I'd saved it or taken a picture or something. Hey, I thought it was rad! lol
I slept horribly last night. I didn't get enough sleep Saturday night, but managed pretty well through church in the morning, finishing Dragon Outcast by E.E. Knight in the afternoon, and then a party at church in the evening. Man, what a fancy swaray. I was not expecting them to go as all out as they did. I was also expecting to be more bored than I was, but I'm glad that I ended up having someone to talk to (of course my parents were there, too, but it's nice to have someone your own age that you haven't seen for a while to chat with sometimes). But yeah, back to the sleep thing...
I watched some TV with mom when we got home, then I thought I'd read for a bit. I fell asleep in the middle of reading a page, I think. Next thing I know I'm waking up on the couch with the lights on and my book halfway down the back of the cusion. I managed to get up, grab the book and bookmark, and then went to turn off the lights. I got one okay, but was so bleary-brained that I couldn't remember how to turn off the other light for a few seconds! lmao I made it to my room, put the book away, but left the bookmark out (good thing the chapters are short and I remembered where I was this morning when I put the bookmark back in), then got straight into bed. That's when it's a really good thing I put my pajamas on as soon as I got home. lol
That part wouldn't be so bad, but I woke up a whole bunch of times during the night. I felt sweltering hot and kicked off some covers one of the first times, then the next time I woke up I was too cold and had to pull them back up, and when I woke up before I actually got out of bed I was burning hot again. I hate that. I had all sorts of weird dreams, too, most of which I don't remember and that's probably a good thing. I do remember one though because when I woke up the last time and saw that the clock said eight something I was EXTREMELY confused. I could have sworn I'd already woken up at a later time than that and wondered how in the heck I'd gone back in time! I had to really stop and think about it for a few minutes before I realized the first time I'd woken up had actually been a dream (there ended up being some key indicators in it, like stuff my mom would never say). I was so warm that I just got up and got some juice. My mom was getting ready for work so I talked to her for a bit and then decided I'd go back to sleep on the couch. Hey, it worked last night to get me to sleep. *shrugs* And I did nap for a while, but then the sun got too bright and woke me until I hid my head under my blanket. lol Then I got up when mom got home. Hopefully tonight will go better.
Oh, and my last thing for this post: the first teaser for Twilight is now online. There's a link over at the Twilight Lexicon. Based on the behind the scenes clips I've seen thus far, some pictures, and now this trailer, I'm pretty sure they're butchering the story from the book for the movie version. I'm really hoping it doesn't turn out to be as horrible as the Eragon book-to-movie was, and at least it doesn't seem to be even close to that bad. However, I've already got things to nitpick about. I think the main two are that in the book the prom is held at the school gym, and in the movie they're having it at this old inn with a Monte Carlo theme. *rolls eyes* There's no reason not to stick to the book on that. The other is the movements of the vampires at times in some of the behind the scenes footage. They're making them too obnoxiously monkey-like. Two problems with that: 1) I really don't like monkeys (except like Abu from Aladdin) and 2) while they should have their ferral moments, the vampires are way more sophisticated than to dance around a fire looking like monkeys. *rolls eyes again* That being said, I'm still planning to go see it, and the teaser trailer does look pretty good.
Thursday, May 1, 2008
Happy new month. Feels just like the last one, with the exception of perhaps starting out a bit warmer. I will be perfectly happy if the summer heat waits to appear for another month or two. Heh. The weather here is fabulous: the other day it was sunny, then rainy, then sunny, then rainy--back and forth every few hours the whole day. Gotta love it. :)
Today's been pretty quiet here. I continued work on a client website, but had to take a break because CSS was misbehaving and I couldn't take it anymore. I was trying to make a rollover navigation list, but now I'm thinking I'll change my original plan and go with something else because, despite that it's being mean to me, it also doesn't look so good as I was thinking it would. Oops. I had planned to finish the coding of the template tonight, but I think I'll take the rest of the night off and go with re-coding the navigation tomorrow when I feel more calm toward the code. ;)
