Hey, you in the back row, SHUT THE FUCK UP!
Author: Shelly
Notes from the Grammar Police
Dear Slim-Fast People,
Please advise your advertising department that the correct phrase is “fewer calories,” not “less calories.” I’m sure y’all don’t want to be portrayed as a bunch of ignorati.
Thank you,
The Grammar Police
Cattail and Bumper Stickers
I’ve been driving around with a nekkid car, which has been bugging me. The MoonPie of Delight was plastered with all sorts bumper stickers (what else does one do with an Onslowmobile?). I figured it was a public service to give folks something to read while they were stuck behind me in traffic.
Last week, I pulled up at a traffic light behind another blue Tracker. It was the BoD’s twin, except it was sporting all manner of red-white-and-blue stickers of the “These Colors Don’t Run!” variety. That was the last straw. I couldn’t let the BoD’s evil twin go unchallenged, could I? So now the BoD, too, is finally sporting stickers of her own, and I feel like I’ve done my civic duty. If I didn’t live in Red Central, I probably wouldn’t feel so strongly about plastering my car with pinko lefty propaganda. I think it’s important to remind folks that there is another point of view. I sometimes get the impression that folks around here have no idea that liberals exist in the wild.
We Have Normality
The migration is finished and I think most everything is working. I had a weird problem uploading photos this morning, but I’m hoping it was just a fluke. I was able to upload a bunch of files with no problem, but the second batch had to be uploaded one at a time. Hrmf. The email kinks seem to have finally been sorted out, as well, but I’ve lost a bunch of messages somewhere, and I fear they’re permanently AWOL.
On top of all that, my hard drive decided to crash and die last weekend. I’ve been pretty good about backing up files, so it wasn’t as tragic as it could have been. It was still a headache I didn’t need, though, considering that I’ve misplaced some of the programs I use all the time. Re-downloading them on my crappy connection was not fun. The good news is that I remembered to set the new hard drive’s jumpers before installing it, installation went smoothly, and everything is working perfectly. I even seem to have magically fixed a weird, non-critical error I was getting from Photoshop.
And then, as if life weren’t exciting enough, one of my air conditioners decided to die last night. Luckily, it happened while I was home and not during the day. Otherwise, it would have gotten dangerously hot in here for an elderly cat and a brachycephalic dog. It was too late to go buy a replacement last night, so I ended up going in to work early, then leaving when the stores opened. I picked up a new AC on the way home. It was a pain in the arse to install, though, because it’s so shallow that it’s not properly weighted for drainage. All the weight is on the interior half of the unit. Hrmf.
So, while I was experiencing my imposed computer and blogging hiatus, I was busy taking lots and lots of pitchurs. These are the highlights.
Crepuscular Rays
Echinacea
Zinnia
Dew on Leaf
Daylily
Cobweb Weaver
Storm Clouds at Sunset
And, it may storm tonight. Can a plague of locusts or a scourge of boils be far behind?
Note: The egg sac in the spider photo is about the size of a pea. Just to give you an idea of how ridiculously tiny those little hatchlings are.
Sunday Photoblogging
I woke up early again this morning, while it was still cool outside. The sun was shining through the trees, creating little fingerling rays of light as well as a long patch of sunshine on my otherwise shady yard. Within that patch, the dew glittered on the grass, so I got my camera and took some macro shots of it. There were also zillions of those little spider webs littering the yard. I don’t know what sort of spiders inhabit them. They look sort of like winged, eight-legged ants to me, not spiders.
After yesterday’s sweltering heat, this morning’s dew was wonderfully refreshing. It’s likely to be just as hot again today, so it’ll be nice to think of the coolness of the dew on my feet.
Crepuscular Rays
Evening Belt of Venus
Last night’s Belt of Venus occurred at about 9:30. Daylight saving time has wreaked havoc on my sky watching, among other things. I just haven’t been able to adjust to the new rhythm, so things have been hit-and-miss. I can’t get used to the fact that it doesn’t get dark until 10pm. I’m normally in bed long before then, and the light makes it difficult to sleep. I’m starting to wonder if my internal clock will ever adjust.
Is It Plugged In?
Remember when I said that installing hardware or software is either a cake walk or a nightmare? And that installing my new DVD burner had, surprisingly, gone very smoothly? Yeah. Well. I thought I’d burn some new music for the car, and found that I had no sound. Now, this was not surprising, as Windows jettisons my sound card drivers at the smallest provocation. So, I reinstalled the drivers, but still no sound. I uninstalled the sound card, then reinstalled it, and still no sound. I physically pulled the card, restarted the computer, uninstalled the drivers and all related software, shut down, replaced the sound card, restarted, reinstalled the drivers and software, shut down, restarted, and still no sound. Gah! I got on-line and downloaded new drivers from the manufacturer, went through the whole song and dance again, and was rewarded with a whole lotta silence. At this point, two hours had passed and I was ready to start throwing things. It suddenly occurred to me, though, that I had neglected the cardinal rule of b0rkened computers. I checked and, somehow, my speakers had come unplugged from my computer.
Kill me now.
Sunlight and Fog
It’s a beautiful day in the neighborhood. The folks at weather.com are a bunch of liars, apparently. I woke up to bright sun sparkling on a heavy dew, with a veil of fog skirting the southern edge of the valley. It was hot already, though, so I decided to get my butt in gear and run my errands early. Not that it helped much, because by 8am the heat and humidity were already oppressive.
Sunlight and Fog
Southern Ridge at Sunset
As I drove home from work on Friday, the sky was overcast and there were intermittent sprinkles of rain. The cloud cover thinned as evening approached, and I was hopeful that we’d be treated to a beautiful sunset. As it turned out, the western sky didn’t produce much of interest, but the clouds above and the southern horizon glowed a lovely shade of pink.
Technical note: My web host is in the process of physically migrating to new servers. I’m scheduled for migration on the 17th, which means they could begin as early as midnight Sunday. The move will involve everything, including e-mail. I’ve had a look at the helpdesk boards and there are quite a few folks who have been experiencing migration issues. Coppermine, which I use for my image gallery, seems to be making a particular pain in the arse of itself. So, if there are outages or other problems, they will hopefully be temporary. If not, I’ll try to get them resolved as quickly as possible. In the meantime, please think lots of happy, painless migration thoughts for me.
May
Instant Review: May
May has always been just a little weird. Born with a lazy eye, she grew up wearing a corrective eye patch. The other kids didn’t like her, so her mother–a doll maker–gave her a special doll and told her that, if she didn’t have any friends, she should make her own. When she grew up, that’s just what May did.
As independent horror films go, this is one of the better ones. The acting is good, the story is unique, the writing is smart and funny, and the characters are well developed. And, Angela Bettis, as May, is perfectly mesmerizing and disturbing.
Shrine
Shrine
ink jet print on vellum, luna moth wings, chicken vertebrae, cicada shells, and pigmented beeswax adhered to board
The writing under the photograph is from Letters to Esther, taken from a letter written by Richard Glendening. It contains a highly romantic passage likening the innate goodness of women to that of angels. Men, conversely, are of a baser nature. It might have been a nice theory in 1920, but it holds women to an impossible standard while selling men short.
Thursday DogBlogging
Harriet spent last night’s storm crashed out on the couch. She was lying on top of her sleeping bag, which I’d just washed. It, in turn, was on top of several folded blankets. At one point, she attempted to re-enact a scene from The Princess and the Pea. Or, perhaps, Bitch of the Hill? It was quite fun to watch her trying to get comfortable on top of the mound of bedding. Just when she’d get everything scrunched to perfection, she’d try to lie down and would be foiled by the slick surface of the sleeping bag. After several attempts, she finally gave up and crammed herself between me and the blankets.
You can see, I think, that she is not much bothered by storms.
Did you know that dogs have eyelashes? I don’t mean the whiskers above their eyes, I mean actual lashes. Miss Brown’s are not long and glamorous, but they’re fairly easy to discern.
