HIM – Our Diabolical Rapture

And to respond to why people make fun of Canada… um, because it’s funny? See part of it has to do with the high French population in canada, and we all know that the french are known for being rude and annoying. As for the rest of canada, the people are pretty normal, maybe even a little nicer, so it’s ok to make fun of them in a joking way… not like making fun of mexico, if you make fun of mexico you are called a racist. *shrugs* And so in the spirit of making fun of Canada, I uploaded the MST3K Canada song to my webpage, you can grab it if you want, it’s quite funny, and less than a mb:

MST3k Canada Song

*Yawn* So I got up this morning and my bot wasnt connected to the scifi server, the server had reset and he came back with -!- R²D² Erroneous nickname. Apparently the scifi server doesnt allow ascii characters in the nicks anymore! YAY!! Sure R² has to be r2d2 now, but there was just so much Perl hated about those weird characters %) r2 will work MUCH better now. %)!!!

So last night we went to the bookstore and picked up the 4th and 5th Wheel Of Time books so I didnt have to continue reading icky Degree Of Guilt. They are about 1000 pages each, so it’ll occupy me for a couple weeks, I’m gonna have to figure out something else to read after them tho, and order them from bn.com before I finish these… I am thinking I’ll read Snowcrash since it’s on my “need to read” list.. I wish I had a physical need to read list %) Oh and maybe by the time I am done with these books I will have gotten over to my friend’s house to borrow his 2001 books..

Enough about books! I have to mention something that I had to deal with yesterday. I was in #13thHour, just minding my own business, and this guy I know comes in (it was actually him and his friend at a computer chatting as the same person), and said something about how great Microsoft Spellcheck is. Now I have no idea how this program works, but after seeing all my typos they were like “haha, want a copy?” I casually refused, saying it really wouldnt be much good to me since I didn’t use windows. That’s ALL I said. Not “I dont want your stupid MS products” or “MS products are for stupid windows monkeys” or “MS is for lamers” no, nothing like that. And then I get from this guy “what’s your point? I use windows, and linux, and OSx and ….” i was like “my point is I can’t use a microsoft windows product if i am not using windows…” They totally attacked me like I was some “other OS elitest” insulting their Windows usage. I asked him why he attacked me like that but never got a responce, heh. Honestly, nothing could be further from the truth. So I started thinking about my thoughts on why I use linux, and wrote them up… I might devote a section to my site eventually on this, but for now I will just briefly outline here:

Why I Use Linux

For the work I do, perl development, image editing, web development
(using technology acceptable on ALL browsers), as well as most of my
casual computer usage (playing mp3s, chatting, surfing the web, some
gaming), linux fits almost all my needs. It is also very stable, and I
don’t have to worry about mandatory rebooting everyday so I wont lose
work. I deal with far fewer crashes when working on things, making my
time working greatly reduced. I also found the working environment of
enlightnenment emmensely beneficial, I no longer have a cluttered screen
of all my applications I am working on jumping all over each other… I
currently have 9 virtual desktops in linux, usually use about 6 at a
time. Also x doesnt use up as much memory as windows does %) And if I
get really frustrated with X using my ram I can always close it and
still do what I need to do from virtual terminals. I think my record
uptime for linux was 70 days… for windows? 3 days, and that’s with
TONS of problems… with how much I use my computer it’s really not
acceptable for me to stop everything I am doing to reboot. Also, some
games (like my beloved Unreal Tournamet!) run in linux much better than
windows. I am able to view and shut down anything that’s running in
linux to play UT using the most possible ram and processor power, in
windows I don’t have nearly the control. Did I mention that Linux is
free? Microsoft’s software is VERY expensive, and you definately don’t
get what you pay for.

Reasons Windows Still Exists

Maybe this is improperly titled. Oh well… I do sometimes boot into
windows. Why? Because I might want to work with flash, and I haven’t yet
found a linux port of Macromedia Flash studio. But I don’t use flash too
often since it’s not viewable in all browsers. So mostly my trips into
windows consist of watching streaming media. See, most streaming media
requires plugins that are only made for windows and macs… I cant watch
music videos, movie trailers, or short movies in linux because of this,
sucks? Yes of course, but there is nothing I can do about it. Also
gaming, although I can play UT in linux, most games are only playable on
the windows platform. Sure there are other games that can run on linux,
but it wont be a big movement until a few major companies make that
step… just like with anything else. In addition, print/scan/digital
imaging support for linux sucks. I boot into windows when i need to get
digital camera pics off our camera, and we use a win2k box for our
print/scan server. Now, for the beginner on the
computer windows is alright… it’s unstable, and when you install stuff
it slows your computer down with 32545 things running at the same time,
but it really is pretty easy to use. Linux does require some knowledge
of computers, and when something goes wrong people do need a brain to
fix it.

I guess in the end, it’s really a matter of time before linux is
supported by more popular software companies and is finally accepted as
a “user friendly” operating system. But there have been very great
advances with KDE and Gnome to make things look positive. Several
corporations already require their employees to use a linux graphical
desktop, and it’s really not too difficult to use! Of course I try to
push people into using linux… and me being a woman helps a lot %) Most
guys dont want to be shown up by a woman so they will give it a shot.
It’s not for everyone, but even now it’s a very good alterative.

I’ll definately need to clean up that rant a bit before I put it on my webpage %)

Moving on… I got an email from a guy I knew in Seneca Falls last night, he was always pretty cool, dropped by the store I worked at all the time to cheer me up, and we hung out sometimes, just as friends of course. He left for TN last August and I gave him my email one night while we were hanging out downtown and told him that if there was no other way of finding me, email would be it. It’s been almost a year since I heard from him, and I didn’t expect to, so it’s really made me happy %) He had no idea what happened to me and my ex after he left, said he saw my ex with “some ugly chick” last time he visited SF and asked him if he was stupid enough to dump me for her, hahaa. So I emailed him back letting him know what happened, where I was n stuff. Unfortunately I have a feeling he was hoping I was still in Seneca Falls since he mentioned he’d be “willing to move back to Seneca Falls if there was a reason to” … was that a guy just being cryptic? Lol. Oh well, he’s always been cool tho, maybe we can keep in touch through email, I’d like that..

Hmmm… oh we went grocery shopping last night ’cause we didnt have bread, or milk, or hardly anything else %) We got home and I was gonna make Myk a sandwich for him to bring to work today… I couldn’t find the bread. First I thought it was me being stupid when I put the stuff away and I just put it in the freezer or something, but I looked EVERYWHERE… even out in the Jeep to make sure I didnt leave it there. Nope. Heh… as we were leaving the grocery store the cashier was in a rush to leave and I’m sure he left our bread in a bag behind the counter and forgot about it in his eagerness to leave… flocker %( We paid for bread and the stupid Giant monkey didn’t give it to us… makes finding lunch for today really sucky, I’ll prolly have some leftover mashed potatos and chicken or something. *looks at the time* I should do that now…. but first…

PLUG is tomorrow night, we’re thinking of going, ’cause the weather has cooled down a bit today… driving into central philly when it’s hot is not my idea of a good time %) But we missed last month’s meeting ’cause Myk wasnt in the mood for it. Anyway, yeah… lunchtime.

Duran Duran – Careless Memory

Ah twice in one day… I must be bored %

So I set up the #13thHour shop, it’s all pretty n stuff noew. Ah to answer a comment left about the last post, why the room is called 13thHour. Well, first of all I didn’t name it of course… it was Myk’s doing when he opened the room. From what I gathered it was pretty much a different way of looking at the world, even if just changed by one hour… if that makes sense, which I doubt…

Hrm.. *wanders*

Barenaked Ladies – Break Your Heart

So I said yesterday that my friend’s shoutcast server was cool and I should start one. Well I thought about it (after installing the silly server) and it’s really dumb to waste bandwidth on something that no one will listen to.. I can’t guarentee constant connection anyway since I get lazy with such things, and the silly comcast cable connection sucks %)

Speaking of things I start and never finish.. I discovered cafepress.com today. It’s a site where you can setup a store with stuff you design, and sell it to ppl n stuff. Cool idea… I set up part of a #13thHour store this morning with an existing logo (http://www.cafeshops.com/cp/store.aspx?s=13thhourchat — the store)… heh, couldnt get the store ID 13thhour ’cause a guy already owns it, doh! … funny thing is, I *know* this person, his company is called 13thHour and he dropped into our chat room a while back asking why we named the room that, heh. Oh well, I am prolly gonna make up summore logos, I am not sure yet if I want to make one with the 13thhour.tk name yet, since it’s a free domain and I don’t know it’ll last forever… and then make a few logos for princessleia.com and put them up there, not that ppl would want to buy them… but I might want to pick up a few for myself… YES I want to be a walking spam advertisement for my domain!! %)

Heh, so a friend of mine sent me the mp3s of the “French Taunts” from Monty Python and the search for the Holy Grail… that’s like my fave part of that movie.. and on my dvd is gets all messed up during the second taunting %( all “cannot read disk” So at least I have the mp3s now %) hehe…

Hrm what else? Oh watching those mst3k tapes this weekend really made me want to see more… so a few people I know showed me to mst3ktapes.com … apparently some of them have bought from there and they are reliable… Myk wants to get episode 910 (The Final Sacrifice) ’cause it was bashing canada through the whole thing, which is funny of course!! Hehe… It’s pretty inexpensive to get tapes from this site, so we might get a few %) I’ll talk to Myk when he gets home tonight tho, we’ll see what we can buy.

Hmmm so today I was thinking of playing with NET::IRC … a perl module for irc chat. I’ve got r2d2 up and running as an irssi bot, but it’s just so much cooler to have him as a “from scratch” bot… and I checked earlier and the Cobalt has a recent enough version of perl to run net::irc … *shrugs* it’s worth a shot, and this way my perl knowledge wont seep away %) It’s great practice, even if I end up not using him for the room moderator bot.

But before I go do that, I have this new book review to put up, since I finished Regeneration this weekend

Regeneration, by Pat Barker, 252 pages

This story takes place in 1917 England, in Craiglockhart, a mental hospital outside of London. Based loosely on the lifes of a few of the characters, it tells of Dr. William Rivers, who uses new methods to “cure” breakdown patiences that arrive from the front lines of world war one, all while privately fighting past demons of his own. Each character has their own view on the war (what it means to them, why they should/shouldn’t return to action), and this book actively explores these reasons, as well as the fine line between pure cowardice and insanity. It explains what these men had to endure to reach their breaking point, in sometimes graphic detail. When I picked up this book i was very skeptical, as I don’t much care for war-related stories, but this book was truly profound, I found myself very intrigued by all the characters, I highly recommend this book.

Yep, I liked it %) I think I have found I am not fond of books with real people … I much prefer fantasy and science fiction, and some that deal with spirituality, but I was pleasantly surprised by Regeneration. Heh, now I am trying to get into this “international best seller” Degree of Guilt which is turning out to be another disappointment, it’s one of those run of the mill law stories, ZzzZZzz… I am not sure where I why I picked it up in the first placee *shrugs* I will prolly read it until I get to the bookstore, or break down and go to bn.com to buy new books through there, heh.

Oh! Our air conditioner was fixed this morning %) luckily I got dressed right after Myk left for work ’cause the a/c fixing people were here at like 9:15. Apparently a part blew during that awful thunderstorm friday night, but they had spare parts so they just put the new one in %) yay! It’s already down to 76 in here, I’ll probably keep it at this, ’cause it’s nice %) So I’m gonna go wander off and bask in the coolness…

Hmmm, so it turns out that Signs (even the 10:10 showing) was completely sold out friday night and our friends sold our tickets to a very willing to pay couple. That’s good, ‘least we don’t have to feel bad about wasting them or something.

Yesterday was ok, the apartment felt hot, didn’t know what was up, finally called the Office and said something was wrong with the a/c … apparently the breaker went when we had that thunderstorm last night “all you have to do is switch it back on” … so on that we decided to go to the Olive Garden, expecting the house to be all cold when we got back. We got to the Olive Garden, and besides being warm and packed with people the wait was over an hour, they didn’t even have any of the blinky/buzzy things because there were so many people waiting they had run out. So we left there and tried to think of a place that wouldnt be crowded at 7 pm on a saturday night. We ended up at this cute little Indian food place. We had been there before, a really nice low-light atmosphere, each table has a real nice long candle on it, and despite not being able to pronouce any of the names of the food on the menu, it’s quite good. We got this yummie shrimp roll appitizer, and then for the meal I ordered this super yummie shrimp with a tomato, cream, and spice sauce %d And of course we ordered some of the bread they make that’s so good, took some of that home with us even.

After dinner we wandered over to Blockbuster ’cause I was in the mood for a comedy… ended up picking up some mst3k episodes on tape, and some overpriced whoppers, twizzlers and coke (sorta as a replacement for going to the movies, hehe). So we came home, expecting a nice cool evening watching our favorite show, and the apartment was hot. Apparently the thunderstorm completely fucked up the a/c .. power surge prolly, sucks tho %( it’s SOOO freaking hot in here, thermostat says 83, but in the computer room here it’s noticibly warmer, must be almost 90 %( sucks.

Anyway, a friend of mine just recently installed a shoutcast server on his computer, so he can play music to the world all the time, hehe… not a bad idea, if you actually have an audience for it. *shrugs* fun to play with tho %) So I am gonna check out the linux port (if there is one… i know there is one sorta like shoutcast, just wasnt sure if it WAS shoutcast)… that should be fun… bbl.

We didnt end up going to see Signs last night, a really bad thunderstorm started, and Myk was really tired from work anyway. Heh, I felt bad ’cause our friends bought our tickets online in advance for us, so we’llhave to pay them back pay even though we didn’t go. The theater was about a half hour away too, the ride out there in that thunderstorm would have been awful. We did go out for pizza earlier that night, so I wasn’t completely disappointed… I really wanted to borrow those 2001 books tho, I’m about 120 pages into Regeneration, it’s good but I’ll probably finish it today.. then I think the last book on my shelf I havent read (and isnt part of some series) is Interview with the Vampire. Heh, pretty soon I’ll be reading some computer book I don’t understand ’cause that’s all that’s left… unless I go to the bookstore of course… Myk has Dune as well, I should really read that… God I’m boring!

So I was thinking, a couple huge parts of my growing up have been really lost in the past couple years, I am totally not the person I was in high school as far as hobbies are concerned. My webpage has nothing on it about Disney (and I used to be a crazy disney fan) OR about rodents, which I used to have tons of growing up, we even bred lots of them. So I’m gonna put a section up on my site about Pets. I’ll post some pictures I have of my former pets and invite others to have pictures of theirs up *shrugs* just for “cute thing” value, hehe… and it IS one of my interests %) I think I will write up a thing about my former Disney infatuation as well, since I think my website would be much better with a fully well-rounded picture of who I was and who I am. Right. So I’ll go work on that now.

Jane Siberry – It can’t rain all the time

It’s been a good day today… got up this morning, did some laundry, cleaned the house, now i smell like bleach even tho I took a shower… hehe… I guess I can use that as an excuse for my typos %D And my good mood… hehe.

Myk and I are going with some friends to see the movies “Signs” tonight, should be fun, i need to get out, and we havent seen our friends much lately… been spending my weekends reading, and gets that boring %)

Anyway, a friend of mine sent me a picture of one of her rats… really cutey, and made me think about adding a part to my site with people’s cutey pets, hehe.. so i am gonna do that… bbl

Peter Murphy – Crystal Wrists

I finished The Celestine Prophecy last night…:

The Celestine Prophecy, By James Redfield, 246 pages

I wasn’t sure what to expect when I began to read this book, checking the cover for some sort of distinction into a class (non-fiction, fiction, religious…) and couldn’t find one. The story is an adventure of one man who travels to Peru on a whim after hearing about a revolutionary manuscript that was discovered. Through a series of coincidences he discovers the “9 insights” of evolving humanity… where we have all come from and where we are all going as humans and a culture. The book in itself as a story (fiction, used only to demonstrate the ideas) was full of surprises, the church has convinced the Peruvian government that this manuscript must be destroyed, so our main characters are forced to run throughout the novel to avoid capture… but the coincidences, so avidly described tended to get on my nerves a bit, as much as they were necessary for the point to get through. But of course the adventure was not what the book was about. This books was one man’s vision of spirtuality in this changing world. I was hesitant about his views at first because he believes that we are living in a special, profound time… and I think that everyone who has ever lived would have liked to think of their time period as a special turning point in history, every christian thinks their generation will be the one to see christ return. The insights pretty much outline a better way to treat our fellow beings, and it does make a lot of sense, even without his “energy fields”… Energy Fields, these were described as coming from everything living, energy that can be moved among things through different actions, and although I thought on this for some time, I really couldnt accept it, in the book the characters could actually see these (which I assume would sorta be like auras). Ok, so in all? I liked this book, it’s another one of those pychological books that got me thinking. I don’t believe that we will reach a perfect conciousness someday and transend material possessions, but treating fellow humans with respect and love is something we all could use a bit of practice with and this book outlines a very good way to doso.

That’s probably one of the longest I’ve written.

So yesterday Myk started thinking about us starting up a consulting business. Sounds like a good idea, could bring in some extra money and I’d actually have a job of sorts, even if it is just consulting, at least when people asked me I could seriously say “I’m a consultant”. So I started writing up a consulting proposal yesterday, which isn’t as easy as it looks, especially when our references and history is pretty sparce, since we are just starting consulting and all. Plus we don’t have a name, so it was difficult, “We ___ would like to develop a webpage for your company” that sort of thing. Anyway, I will work on it a little more today, hopefully get a standard one together. It would be kewl working on webpages and stuff professionally, since as of yet I havent made a penny from all my webwork.

In other news I am still working on that Magic bot getting a lot of help, a friend of mine on IRC is writing up card descriptions of all his cards, that should help ’cause I wont have to do them all myself. I am gonna go for a walk tho before it gets to unbarably hot… bbl

^^ Neopets Addiction Quiz… That’s strangely comforting.



^^ Personality Quiz.. k



^^Life Outlook quiz… gee, something to remind me how boringly normal i am, yipee!


I don’t really feel like writing in this… I’m in a crappy mood, feeling terrible about myself, hating myself even, heh… I’ll get over it. Yesterday I went swimming, the pool here is really big, I never realized… and when I got there I was the only one swimming, as I was leaving a few other people started coming, but it was kewl to have the pool all to myself. The walk there wasn’t too bad either, I had just rinsed out my hair, and when my hair is wet I’m generally cold… so walking in the warm weather wasn’t so bad… same with coming back. Luckily the pool was pretty warm too, so I didnt go into shock from going in.

Anyway, a few of us got bored in chat yesterday and decided to think of ways to play Magic:The Gathering in IRC. Very very very sad… we are so geeky that we can’t even go to the gaming store with the other geeks and play like normal people! Heh, anyway I worked a magic bot to help us play, even more geeky huh? *Yawn* Oh! Myk’s mom came over last night with his b-day present… a VCR, hehe… we’ve needed one since moving in and just havent been brave enough to go to the store and be laughed at by ppl who only sell dvd players now. *Shrugs* maybe i’ll watch the lion king this afternoon, or something else i dont have on dvd and havent seen in forever, lol. bbl

Current Song : Hoobastank – Remember Me
Ah a new wonderful day of heat advisories.. stupid philadelphia. Luckily I have a/c … unfortunately I decided that today I really am going to go swimming and the pool is on the other side of the complex, so if I don’t collapse in the 100 degree weather walking 1/4 of a mile I’ll be fine. I guess I feel weird going there by myself, there’s a lifeguard I mean, but going to the pool alone is weird… But Myk doesnt have a bathing suit, and he’s at work anyway… and it’s probably busy when he’s home. I am sure I’m not the only one to go alone.. Hopefully there won’t be too many kids in the pool, that would totally suck. But we ARE paying to live in a place with a pool, and I did just spend $50 online for a bathing suit, so I would feel bad if it was all a waste. Right. Moving on…

I didn’t do much yesterday, did some editing of some of my older webpages, oh and I posted a thing about a Platform Independent Web. Boring maybe, but I had had so many discussions concerning webpages that “only look good in IE” or whatnot that I wanted to write something up to consolidate my arguements, at least the ones I could think of when writing it.. Heh, I played with my Neopets some %D But that’s ’cause I was feeling down… didn’t feel like doing anything, and I had taken some Benedryl for my icky alergies so I was feeling kinda froozy.

I played some UT (Unreal Tournament) this morning.. trying to practice ’cause it just sucks that I am so lousy at it sometimes, I figure if I play a map each morning with some moderately hard bots I will get progressively better, and I wont be “that girl who plays that sucks” .. ugh, see it’s that female geek stigma again, if I am a girl and I play video games I am expected to absolutely rock or really suck (because I am “just playing the game ’cause of a guy”). I should really learn to ignore these stereotypes, it’s ok to be average!!! Ugh.. I am gonna go get some lunch then head out to the pool around 12:30ish *wanders*

I’m always listening to music of some kind when I’m on the computer… Maybe I’ll write what song I’m currently listening to everyday when I start my blogging.. yeah. Starting now.

No Doubt – New

This is very surprising since I havent listened to No Doubt in forever.

I’m in one of those monday afternoon depressive moods. Today my thing to be depressed about is my lack of real life friends. I have a bunch of friends online, and that’s very cool, there are lots of really great people there, I love them lots %) but when I am bored, on a monday afternoon I can’t say “Hey (insert name here) wanna go get a coffee?” The most we can do is chat. That leaves me in the house, in this silly computer chair. I want to go out sometimes! I hate depending on Myk for everything, even all my social interaction. But can I help it? I’m terribly shy, so even if I knew were to look for people to hang out with I probably wouldnt have much luck approaching them. I guess I have a hard time getting close to people in real life anyway. It’s probably because everytime I do either I move, or they move, or something stupid happens that makes me not be able to hang out with them. When my friend Jim an I hung out back in Seneca Falls it was mostly at work ’cause my ex would freak if he saw me anywhere else with him… A few months after getting really close to my friend Eric he went to college… less than 2 months after I met my friend Tom I broke up with steve and ended up moving… and just TWO WEEKS before I left rochester to come here I met my friend Pete… Me moving has had a lot to do with it I guess… It’s always still hard knowing that I have probably only one person from high school that I even remotely talk to (yep, that’s you Leslie), while it seems everyone else in the world have “friends they have known forever”. Heh… life sucks.. I’m gonna go try to find something to do to keep my mind off it.