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maethe @ 12:19pm: Slash
I removed a number of people from my LJ Friends list. That doesn't mean we're not friends. It just means I hadn't heard from you in a while and/or I lost interest in whatever interest we shared. Don't read too much into it. If you want my bulleted lists about how I need to do laundry or gossip from the company that's no longer the company that you really want to hear gossip about, just drop me a comment.

katemonkey @ 5:06pm: Tweets for Today
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breyten @ 5:16pm: Update

• The Geekfest meeting at lonneke and patrick was loads of fun! Also, thanks for being such great hosts. My photos can be seen over here.


• My Flickr photostream, and my twitter account are a better indicator of what I have been doing lately than this blog (sorry).


• I'll be going to California on Thursday for two and a half weeks for vacation. Lots of fun awaiting :)

zaza @ 5:00pm: Подумалось: DnB - Drunk nusty Bitch

tcpip @ 7:51pm: Australian political changes and US political foolishness
It seems that the West Australian Labor government has been re-elected by the skin of its teeth. A very cogent explanation of why the election was so close by crankynick basically blames a poor Labor campaign, although the Liberals were helped by astoundingly biased reporting from the West Australian newspaper. In a very sensible effort to shore up what has become a particularly unpopular government, the Labor Party in New South Wales has finally rid itself of the pro-privitisation treasurer and Premier; the former was sacked by the latter and then the latter was sacked by his parliamentary colleagues. I have hopes that Nathan Rees and Carmel Tebbutt will be able to 'do the right thing' and regain the trust of the NSW public.

Far to the north and east, the U.S. political landscape received a shockwave of sorts when Republican Presidential hopeful John McCain appointed Sarah Palin as the Vice-President nominee. This self-described "bulldog with lipstick" has come with a lot of attention, with her viewpoints on banning books, teaching Creationism in schools (but not comprehensive sex eduation), and opposing abortion in nearly all instances. What is remarkable about the choice is that (a) it shows how much the Republican Party is still under the influence of the fundamentalist religious lobby which seeks to impose their narrow worldview on the American public and (b) how irresponsible, divisive this choice is which, yet another sign of how completely unfit McCain is for the office of President.

In my own life everything is going very well. Ran a good game of RuneQuest on Sunday (Borderlands, Jezra's Rescue for those who know such things), and have received some excellent endorsements for RPG Review. Have been dealing productively with a number of work issues relating from everything from a particular Drupal module, HR and motivation issues for administrative staff (I've decided that our new administrative staff should at least do our Introduction to VPAC Computing course to give them a better sense of what we're on about), to dealing with some unprofessional behaviour from a software vendor.

ebourland @ 4:07am: That pestilent cosmetic, rhetoric.
"That pestilent cosmetic, rhetoric." — T.H. Huxley, English biologist and author (1825-1895). --from yahoo.com today in history

nikolasco @ 4:02am: Tweets for Today

• 04:18 Posted: Tweets for Today tinyurl.com/5mdbxb #
• 21:05 Saved: Deteriorata! tinyurl.com/bq4ct #

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chtoosha @ 11:55am: Интересно
Вот еду,значит, в районе отрадного, и в меня начинает перестариваться (прям как в феминистках) тупая п... на розовом матисе. У нее даже зеркал нету.
И вот интересно, считается ли мое ее обзывание сексизмом?

mortonfox @ 3:22am: Southwestern Connecticut, Round 3
Nice weather after yesterday's rain. Sunny. 75-80°F. I went to SW Connecticut again to find more of this year's new geocaches. This time, I got all the way to Orange and Milford before it got late and I had to stop. Only the last two were done after dark. Downtown Milford was quiet on Sunday night and it was the perfect time to examine the evergreen.

I've had a pretty easy time in Connecticut so far. The only problems I encountered today were parks with residents-only parking restrictions. The town of Stratford had the worst restrictions. When I arrived at the entrance to Roosevelt Forest, I saw a sign saying that there is a $1,000 fine for out-of-town cars. Furthermore, the sign stated that even town residents will be charged if they don't have a parking permit displayed, although the fee then drops to $300. When I read that, I decided to forget about Stratford and the half dozen or so geocaches in Roosevelt Forest, and continued onwards to the next town. Many towns are willing to share their public parks, so why bother with the few that want to shut out outsiders?

Dinner was at American Steakhouse in West Haven, which is much better (both in ambience and in salad bar selections) than their Norwalk location. Once again, I had the seafood platter because I like the fried fish and scallops.

( The caches... )

beechan2 @ 12:14am: Pony Project 2008... ~_~
Yep, go Hasbro...

From what I've been gathering over on the MLPTP, Pony Project 2008 STARTS September 17th, at the Chelsea Museum in NYC.

It took having to find out from a small amount of people in the TP and Arena who were invited by Hasbro for what SEEMS to be opening night.

Has Hasbro actually updated the Pony Project website so that the rest of the world could know of the exact dates and the location?

Nope.

Have they EVER sent out any newsletters / emails to those of us who actually signed up to their newsletter way back when?

Nope.

Right now, the ONLY "real" information ANYONE has sits on one little thread in the TP. Those of us on the Arena knew NOTHING about this information until the ever awesome PhyllieBean came over and replied to someone who posted a thread asking about it.

Hasbro has NOT been doing the best of jobs in advertising for Pony Project this time around like they did back in 2005. For the 2005 PP, the dates and location were released WELL in advance, so people from all OVER could plan to attend.

Officially, Hasbro hasn't even released the dates to the public eye yet, so really, the rest of who DIDN'T get invitations, who had NO clue as to when Pony Project was going to be, have maybe LESS than two weeks to plan. And people from the other side of the country... well, they're screwed!

They pulled the same stupidity with the MLP Fair, not releasing the dates for it until it was almost too damn late to make reservations, buy tickets and get the time off from work.

And tell me how it is that people who ordered the new collectors edition "art deco" and "eyeshadow" ponies from online toy stores OTHER than Hasbrotoyshop are already getting their ponies, while Hasbro STILL hasn't shipped out the orders for those of us who actually ordered STRAIGHT FROM HASBRO THEMSELVES? Yes, I know the ponies that Tammy ( Poniesyeah ) and I have ordered still haven't been shipped. I've been keeping an eye open on my Hasbrotoyshop account and neither of our orders have been shipped yet.

Go Hasbro... I know your target audience is the brainwashed mothers who only buy ponies for their kids to make them shut up or as last second "oh crap I forgot to get my daughter a birthday / Christmas / didn't want to put any real thought into it" gift, and they don't care about how you run your business, BUT do realize you DO have actual fans of your toys, and those fans ARE customers, and you DO piss a LOT of us off.

Seriously, at the moment, the only G3's I'm buying, with money going to Hasbro, are the collectible ones ( art deco, eyeshadows, etc ). I only bought one current Core 7 because I wanted to have at least ONE Pinkie Pie in my collection. All other G3's I've gained in the past few months have been from other collectors, and some as baits for customs. Yeah... not a fan of the Core 7. Nuff said about them. We all know those aren't going away for a while now.


YES, this thing with Pony Project has rocked my nerves that much. I enjoyed Pony Project 2005, and have been waiting for 3 years for the next Pony Project. It's really the only time when it's the ARTISTS and CUSTOMIZERS that can shine, and not just the "OMG PONIES!!!!!111oneMUSTCOLLECTTHEMALL!!!" overly obsessed fangirls and fanboys.


Going to bed now... leaving computer on to finish nabbing, "Belladonna of Sadness".

~~Bee

beechan2 @ 11:00pm: Cheetah Girls: One World
Dang my love for Bollywood! ~_~;;

This is the ONLY reason I like, "Cheetah Girls: One World".

The dancing is FUN, the music that ISN'T totally Cheetah Girl-ish is addictive ( except for Dance Me If You Can and Cheetah Love... I can see someone remixing Cheetah Love to work as a eurobeat, for parapara or techpara dancing to  ^^; ), and Rupak Ginn and Kunal Sharma are QUITE nummy!

Yeah, I LOVE movies that involve a LOT of great dancing and music!


~~Bee

sneezypb @ 2:26pm: Haven't Been Called Middle Eastern In a Long While
Was invited to dinner at Nasrin's last night. Some others from the neighborhood were invited as well. I got to tell the story I formerly blogged about in the Melungeon post:

Laurie: Ezra, where are you from?
Ezra: Right here, born and raised.
Laurie: Oh... Where are your parents from?
Ezra: Dad is from here. Mom was a military brat, so she's not really from anywhere.
Laurie (Getting visibly confused... Long pause.): Okay, I'll just say it. Why do you look like that?
Ezra: Oh, okay! I understand now. My father is black. My mother is white.

There was shock on various faces. More so on the trio who had never previously met me. None had thought I was black. They had thought me maybe Middle Eastern. Like maybe I was related to Nasrin? ROFL

The only time anyone has ever thought I am from the Middle East was back in college. Rahat, I think, who was from Saudi Arabia wanted to know when I was going to apply for my work permit to stay in the US. LOL It turns out he knew I knew so many people from the Middle East, he assumed I was as well.

transmothra @ 5:59am: More Jon Stewart on McCain
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beechan2 @ 1:04am: Wiiiiildshadow!
Wildshadooooow! Check yer emails, hon! ^^;

Kriticocious commission is all finished!


Smaller browser version here:


India ink and brush, Prismacolor markers, white gel pen and white colored pencil, on 8.5 x 11 inch card stock.


~~Bee

wolfie_ @ 8:30pm: Results of quick experiment
OK, so someone told me "but kids are so cute...!" (as a response to me telling them I'll never have kids).

I was curious, and had the thought "I bet googling 'children' won't give me a cute kids result."

So I did, googled children. OK first one wasn't really a horrible result, but wasn't really cute. Then the second test idea popped up: how are they compared to....say....kittens?

To be fair, I did try to find a pic of children that were in a "cuter" photo.



Not too horrible and I think the picture is what most people consider cute, but I do want to smack them in the face. This was found on the second page. I tried to find something better, but it was rather difficult.

Googled kitten. First hit:



I think the kitten wins. But that's just me.

mortonfox @ 7:45pm: Before Hanna


I knew Tropical Storm Hanna would hit this area some time today, so I just went to Parsippany, not too far away, for a few geocaches.

It was a damp early afternoon. Cloudy and the temperature was around 80°F. Near the park and ride lot in Parsippany, I'd just finished with the "Park and (H)Ride" geocache and was heading back out when I saw a lady coming down that trail. She told me that she was looking for a strange man who lives back in the woods. I hadn't suspected there might be a hobo back there because I didn't see any tents or boxes and, beyond the usual litter 20-30 feet from the parking area, the wooded area was quite clean. I should've asked her why she was looking for the man but didn't.

After the third cache, the rain started coming down heavily so I went home.

( The caches... )

transmothra @ 6:57pm: Coming up, a redesign
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chtoosha @ 1:02am: Дослушала наконец Лукьяненковских императоров иллюзий.
В очередной раз поразилась схожестью эмоций от чтения Стругацких. Особенно от прочтения гадких лебедей. Нет, сюжет разный, но вот концовка ... концовка оствляет лично меня с чувством разочарования вида "и это все?". Ну, возможно, я еще мелочь пузатая и не осознала чего-то.
Но были и положительные моменты. Психотип мужчин как Кей Датч -- мой любимый и почему-то наиболее близкий. Нравятся мне такие сильные независимые одиночки. Более того,они не только сильны, рациональны и правильны, но они и первые среди равных. Стремятся к одной им ведомой цели, идут до конца. Будут бошкой стенку долбить, пока или их голова или лоб не разобьются, хотя эти цели зачастую понятны только им самим и не стоят тех усилий, что тратят на достижение подобных вершин. Мне тяжело понимать таких людей. Я могу предугадывать их поведение, но не способна понять, зачем так делать, когда есть дорога в обход...но,возможно, потому такие и притягивают, что не понятны. В такого, как Кей, я могла бы и влюбиться. Ну могла бы, будь по-моложе...Особено притягивает эта внутрення борьба с собственными эмоциями, которую он в итоге проигрывает.

Ладно, а теперь отрешимся от Лукьяненко и перед сном почитаем-как озорника Брантома...

confusednazgul @ 10:55am: Nightwish is Tuesday night, and now we might be going to see Dragonforce in November too! Yay! It's really nice to live in a big city where major performers are constantly showing up.

I'm taking my Airport Express back to the Apple store today and getting an Airport Extreme instead. I've had the Express for a couple of weeks, and it's been nothing but a pain. I'm hoping that an Extreme will perform better, plus it has more features. If that doesn't work out though, I'll have to figure out another way to share my stuff with my Macbook Pro wirelessly...

mountain2sound @ 9:39am: good morning.

wolfie_ @ 2:48am: I <3 you Hirano Aya, but....
http://www.japanator.com/elephant/post.phtml?pk=8617

XDDDD

chtoosha @ 12:56pm: Еще минус 2 кило и буду как после госа на 3 курсе...тока нервы были тогда расшатаннее.
Ща вроде все пофигу, но чего я так худею...

nikolasco @ 4:01am: Tweets for Today

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mortonfox @ 11:35pm: The Baron who is Red


This evening, I went to Mills Reservation in Cedar Grove for the Snoopin' For The Red Baron geocache. It wasn't far from the parking area but the straight-line approach is not recommended. My approach is not recommended either. I didn't know there was a trail intersection a bit ahead so I bushwhacked across to the cache site when I still had 250 feet to go. Even so, it was easy. Only did this one though because it was close to dusk and the second cache in this park requires climbing at or near a cliff. After that, I went to Garden State Plaza for some pseudo-Thai food.

Consumerist used a few of my photos recently. My photo of fries with gravy is in their Friday Flickr Pool Finds and my photo of a Panera Bread storefront is in an article on Panera Bread's better than expected customer service. (Thanks to thomasj for spotting the latter.)

( Friday Five )

beechan2 @ 11:07pm: Tropical Storm Hanna
Oh this is going to be a "fun" day ~_~;.

---

"NEW CASTLE-KENT-INLAND SUSSEX-DELAWARE BEACHES-CECIL-KENT MD-
QUEEN ANNES-TALBOT-CAROLINE-SUSSEX-WARREN-MORRIS-HUNTERDON-
SOMERSET-MIDDLESEX-WESTERN MONMOUTH-EASTERN MONMOUTH-MERCER-SALEM-
GLOUCESTER-CAMDEN-NORTHWESTERN BURLINGTON-OCEAN-CUMBERLAND-
ATLANTIC-CAPE MAY-ATLANTIC COASTAL CAPE MAY-COASTAL ATLANTIC-
COASTAL OCEAN-SOUTHEASTERN BURLINGTON-CARBON-MONROE-BERKS-LEHIGH-
NORTHAMPTON-CHESTER-MONTGOMERY-BUCKS-DELAWARE-PHILADELPHIA-
INCLUDING THE CITIES OF...WILMINGTON...DOVER...GEORGETOWN...
REHOBOTH BEACH...ELKTON...CHESTERTOWN...CENTREVILLE...EASTON...
DENTON...NEWTON...WASHINGTON...MORRISTOWN...FLEMINGTON...
SOMERVILLE...NEW BRUNSWICK...FREEHOLD...SANDY HOOK...TRENTON...
PENNSVILLE...GLASSBORO...CAMDEN...CHERRY HILL...MOORESTOWN...
MOUNT HOLLY...JACKSON...MILLVILLE...HAMMONTON...
CAPE MAY COURT HOUSE...OCEAN CITY...ATLANTIC CITY...
LONG BEACH ISLAND...WHARTON STATE FOREST...JIM THORPE...
STROUDSBURG...READING...ALLENTOWN...BETHLEHEM...WEST CHESTER...
NORRISTOWN...DOYLESTOWN...MEDIA...PHILADELPHIA
936 PM EDT FRI SEP 5 2008

...FLOOD WATCH REMAINS IN EFFECT FROM SATURDAY AFTERNOON THROUGH
LATE SATURDAY NIGHT...

THE FLOOD WATCH CONTINUES FOR

* PORTIONS OF DELAWARE...NORTHEAST MARYLAND...NEW JERSEY AND
  PENNSYLVANIA...INCLUDING THE FOLLOWING AREAS...IN DELAWARE...
  DELAWARE BEACHES...INLAND SUSSEX...KENT AND NEW CASTLE. IN
  NORTHEAST MARYLAND...CAROLINE...CECIL...KENT MD...QUEEN ANNES
  AND TALBOT. IN NEW JERSEY...ATLANTIC...ATLANTIC COASTAL CAPE
  MAY...CAMDEN...CAPE MAY...COASTAL ATLANTIC...COASTAL OCEAN...
  CUMBERLAND...EASTERN MONMOUTH...GLOUCESTER...HUNTERDON...
  MERCER...MIDDLESEX...MORRIS...NORTHWESTERN BURLINGTON...
  OCEAN...SALEM...SOMERSET...SOUTHEASTERN BURLINGTON...SUSSEX...
  WARREN AND WESTERN MONMOUTH. IN PENNSYLVANIA...BERKS...BUCKS...
  CARBON...CHESTER...DELAWARE...LEHIGH...MONROE...MONTGOMERY...
  NORTHAMPTON AND PHILADELPHIA.

* FROM SATURDAY AFTERNOON THROUGH LATE SATURDAY NIGHT

* AT 8 PM EDT...TROPICAL STORM HANNA WAS LOCATED ABOUT 100 MILES
  SOUTH SOUTHEAST OF CHARLESTON SOUTH CAROLINA. IT WAS MOVING
  NORTH AT ABOUT 20 MILES PER HOUR...AND THIS MOTION SHOULD
  CONTINUE TONIGHT. THE STORM WILL MOVE ALONG THE MIDDLE ATLANTIC
  COAST SATURDAY AND SATURDAY NIGHT. IT IS EXPECTED TO BRING 3 TO
  7 INCHES OF RAIN TO THE WATCH AREA BEGINNING TONIGHT INTO
  SATURDAY NIGHT. THESE RAINFALL TOTALS HAVE THE POTENTIAL TO
  PRODUCE FLOODING ACROSS THE AREA.

* IN THE FLOOD WATCH AREA...ROADS AND POOR DRAINAGE AREAS MAY
  BECOME FLOODED. ALSO...SMALL CREEKS AND STREAMS MAY RUN HIGH
  OR GO OUT OF THEIR BANKS WITH THIS EVENT.

YOU SHOULD MONITOR LATER FORECASTS AND BE ALERT FOR POSSIBLE
FLOOD WARNINGS. THOSE LIVING IN AREAS PRONE TO FLOODING SHOULD BE
PREPARED TO MOVE TO HIGHER GROUND SHOULD FLOODING DEVELOP. ANYONE
DRIVING WHO ENCOUNTERS A FLOODED ROADWAY SHOULD NOT TRY TO DRIVE
ACROSS IT. FIND AN ALTERNATE ROUTE."


---

Yeah, we've brought in our outdoor furniture and anything else that isn't super heavy or bolted down, as tomorrow promises to be one super messy day.

NO one in my family is daring to drive ANYWHERE tomorrow. NOT HAPPENING!

Both Andover and Byram Day have been canceled, and ShopRite is prepping for insanity.

Yeah, I'll be sleeping in as much as I can tomorrow.


~~Bee