Saturday, August 31, 2002
Friday, August 30, 2002
1. What's your favorite piece of clothing that you currently own? Hmmm. I'm not sure if it counts, but I love my panda shoes somethin' fierce. 2. What piece of clothing do you most want to acquire? A month or two ago I would've said a knee-length suede coat with (fake) fur at the collar and cuffs. Every girl in Sydney was wearing them this winter, yet every one I tried on was about three sizes too small. I can't help it; I've got broad shoulders. So I gave up on that dream. Nowadays my clothing aspirations aren't centered on any one specific garment. I'm all about getting down to a size 14 so I can shop in the damn frilly girls' stores. I hate everything in their windows (it's all pastel gypsy crap right now), but I hate even more the fact that even if I wanted to wear it, I couldn't. So that's what I want. 3. What piece of clothing can you not bring yourself to get rid of? Why? It's corny but... my high school letter jacket. I never wear it - in fact, I hardly ever wore it in high school, and it currently resides in my Mom's basement - but earning that thing was a dream come true. You all know I was the big brain in high school. That's all the more reason why I wanted to prove I could do something other than that. I wasn't the greatest tennis player ever, but dammit I earned those varsity letters. (Although, if some greater power offered me the choice to trade the jacket for the body I had back then, I'd do it in a heart beat.) 4. What piece of clothing do you look your best in? I had to ask the Snook. He says it's my short black skirt and my long black calf boots. What a cheeky monkey. 5. What has been your biggest fashion accident? Just check out any of my school pictures up until about 10th grade. Seriously. If it had stripes, or patches, or ribbons, or huge embroidered teddy bears, I probably wore it at some point. Of course, then I passed it on to my sister. :)
Thursday, August 29, 2002
 At last! I finally have Mac OS X 10.2 in my possession. During last weekend's fruitless trip to the Apple Store I noticed that the Apple seminar road show was swinging through Sydney this week. Today I dragged the Snook down to the Convention Centre in Darling Harbour to check it out. What a haul! I got tons of free stuff: brochures, stickers, a gigantic Jaguar poster. Even better, when I bought the OS they gave me a $50 rebate coupon and a free T-shirt! Now I don't feel so bad about missing out on the first day action. *grin* Anyway, it's all installed and I've been having some fun playing around with the changes. The new iChat is especially interesting. Pictured here is my current desktop if you wanna check it out. (Yeah, I'm lovin' the leopard skin.)After the seminar we headed back out to the Harbour. It was such a beautiful day. I'd been in one of my blue "Why did we leave London?" funks but those never last long in the face of Sydney sunshine. Snookums caved to my whim and we took a ferry all the way around to Circular Quay, under the Bridge and near the Opera House. I never get tired of that. I couldn't resist taking a few pictures. Here's the Snook having a rest, a view of the city skyline, and a shot of the big scary entrance face at Luna Park. (Imagine going through that at night as a kid... "Can't sleep. Clown'll eat me!")   
(If you're confused, that was all meant to be sarcasm. I really am pissed about the show and I'm leaving feedback at cbs.com right now.) Wednesday, August 28, 2002
Tuesday, August 27, 2002
The forum itself should be hopefully self-explanatory, but let me know if you have any problems. It's a threaded discussion (unlike my blog comments), so you won't have to hunt for replies to your posts. You don't have to login or anything, but your IP address will get logged so I can track/ban abusers if necessary. There's no HTML allowed, but you can use something called "PhorumCode" to format your messages. (Instructions are linked on the posting forms.) It's pretty simple. In related good news, I finally got my copy of The Lovely Bones today! (It just got released here today, so any other Aussies should now be able to find it.) I think I'm going to try to set it aside for a few weeks, though. I read fast, and I finished Back When We Were Grownups way, way too early. I'd rather have the book be fresh in my mind. But if you're interested in joining in for September, be on the lookout for a copy!
   It was... okay. As the Snook put it, "It tastes like home brew." It was pretty fizzy, but they were big bubbles like you get in a Coke. It wasn't quite foamy enough. (He thinks to get that result, you have to use more grain and less sugar.) The taste was pretty yeasty and pronounced, and it hit the tongue almost like cider. It's definitely drinkable, but it's not going to win any awards or anything. Oh well, the next batch will be better! Monday, August 26, 2002
 As promised, here's a picture of the current state of my Storm at Sea quilt. I've got a lot more rows to attach, but you can get the design starting to take shape. I love the way it gives the impression of curves and waves, despite being made up of all rigid geometric pieces. I'm pretty proud of it. Man, quilting this thing is going to be a beeyotch though.
Snookums: (in Eric Cartman voice) Kewl.
Sunday, August 25, 2002
Oh, and it didn't help that Satomi Tiger was in the class. (That's my nickname for her. Anybody get the reference?) She's this weird little Asian girl with no rhythm who just bops away in the corner the whole time. She's crazy, but she's also got ten times the energy I have. She's like a cartoon character. I hate Satomi Tiger.
Saturday, August 24, 2002
In slightly better (but still annoying) news, I've got another batch of "Lance in Space" CDs to send out to you, you, you, you (and you), and my sister. The annoying part is that the post office was randomly closed today so they won't go out til Monday. But you should have 'em in a week or so.
Random answers today. These are deep questions and I haven't had any coffee. 1. What is your current occupation? Is this what you chose to be doing at this point in your life? Why or why not? I'm doing web development contracting from home right now. I just sort of fell into this work during college, mostly because it made more money than anything else I might do. I do enjoy the work, but I hate the industry. I have ethical problems with the way "consultancy" works in practice, like charging the client extra for something frivolous that they should've been talked out of in the first place. It's hard. It can also be pretty soul-destroying to put all your effort into a pointless site that dies six months later. When a carpenter builds something or a teacher instructs somebody, the results of their work matter. Not much of what we do in this industry matters. I don't want to do this forever. 2. If time/talent/money were no object, what would your dream occupation be? Being famous. I'd be a general all-purpose celebrity. I'd get paid to work on my websites, and I'd probably host some sort of TV show too. I might even be in some movies. It's ridiculous some of the people that are on TV these days. I'd be better than 90% of them. I am completely and utterly serious. 3. What did/do your parents do for a living? Has this had any influence on your career choices? They both started out working in manufacturing but eventually wound up in white-collar desk jobs. My mom is a computer systems administrator (and webmaster), and my dad is the manager in charge of service at an RV dealership. I guess Mom's job had more influence on me, since she was always bringing home computers and that's how I got involved with them. At the same time, her tales of office bureaucracy and politics pretty much convinced me that this isn't what I want to do long-term. 4. Have you ever had to choose between having a career and having a family? Nope. That's one of the advantages of being a completely self-absorbed Generation Xer. :) 5. In your opinion, what is the easiest job in the world? What is the hardest? Why? What a random question. Shall I be all philosophical? The easiest is one that you love, the hardest is one that you have to force yourself to do. In my own case, the hardest is whatever job I currently have, and the easiest is whatever job I currently want. Friday, August 23, 2002
Thursday, August 22, 2002
I just finished reading Douglas Coupland's latest novel All Families Are Psychotic. (Hmm. It appears it hasn't come out in paperback in the US yet. Weird.) I haven't liked his last couple of books and this one sure didn't impress me at the start. It just struck me as too wacky and gimmicky, like Dave Barry's Big Trouble (which I hated). Things just get more and more farcical. Eventually I just gave in and accepted it, and that's when it got a lot more fun. By the end I was having a good time. It doesn't have the emotional weight of Microserfs, but it made me laugh a couple of times. I thought the whole "Princess Diana" bit was random, but I did like the resolution of it. The Buffy Series 4 DVD has been out for ages in the UK, but we still haven't procured a copy. (The exchange rate makes UK stuff very expensive for us.) It's out here in Australia, but it's not in the cool little "book" format. Instead you have to buy two huge boxes, each with several separate DVDs (in separate cases) in them. That, of course, just wouldn't "go" with the rest of our collection. So we remain in limbo, not sure whether to shell out for the nice version or suck it up and go with the crap one. (Waiting ages for the US version to come out is out of the question.) I've been suffering Buffy withdrawal, though, so I caved and rented the first disc of Series 4 and last night we watched the first episode, "The Freshman". I wasn't happy. Why is it that Buffy gets totally shit upon in the first episode of every season? Willow was a jerk to her, Giles blew her off, and her Mom was less than sympathetic. I did like Xander's little "What would Buffy do?" speech, but hello? What happened to character continuity? Xander was an ass all of Season 3. Now suddenly he's not an ass anymore? And Willow went from nerdy computer girl to sexy trendy Wicca over the course of one summer? I don't buy it. I'm hoping that the entire episode was constructed to make you feel Buffy's sense of alienation and discombobulation, because that's how I felt. Otherwise it sucked and I really hope it gets better soon. (Also, the random phone call bothered me until I read that it was the first Angel crossover event. Great. Now I've gotta rent those too.) After the Buffy disappointment, we watched Wim Wenders's film Wings of Desire. You may have seen its much crappier and cheesier "remake" City of Angels. Wenders's version is much better, but it's also pretty challenging. Not a lot happens. Parts are in monochrome and parts in color. Dialogue is in German, English, and French, so there are a lot of subtitles. There are random appearances by Peter Falk and Nick Cave. To be honest, I'm not sure how I feel about it. Ebert makes some good points in his review, and while I can appreciate it artistically, it's not the kind of thing I really enjoy myself. At any rate, it's worth seeing just to realize how completely crap the Nicholas Cage/Meg Ryan version is.
Wednesday, August 21, 2002
 Snookums and the Art of ZenI don't think I mentioned it on the site, but I gave the Snook a "zen garden" for his birthday last month. It's this little wooden box filled with sand and smooth polished rocks, and it comes with a tiny rake so you can smooth it out. He likes it a lot. It's set up in our dining room and every week or so he redesigns it. It helps him de-stress. Since I figure some of you could use de-stressing too, I've decided to share his designs with you. Next time you're upset or frustrated, just stare at the zen garden for a while. It's the next best thing to being a Buddhist! Tuesday, August 20, 2002
Monday, August 19, 2002
Saturday, August 17, 2002
Friday, August 16, 2002
How do you like your bath? Or are you a shower person?
 Looking for a unique gift for that special someone? How about a Leg Lamp? Yes, seriously. You can even customize the stocking, shoe, and lampshade to complement any decor. For an extra fifteen bucks, they'll stamp "FRA-GI-LEE" on the side of the box and enclose a "Major Award" certificate. I know what my old man's getting for Christmas this year! :)Thursday, August 15, 2002
Wednesday, August 14, 2002
 Lance in Space!At long last, I present to you my magnum opus. Twenty-two space age songs with a heap of surprise sound effects. I even threw in a robot! The artwork and complete track listing are now online for your perusal. (If you're one of my swappees, you might want to wait so as not to spoil the surprise.) Oh, and see if you can spot the monkey!
Did I mention that I'm trying out all the classes at my gym? Well, I am. I got inspired last week and took in a session of Body Pump, which nearly killed me. It's basically synchronized weight lifting to music, and even though I used the least amount of weight possible I still couldn't walk for two days. I did it again later in the week and it went much better, though. I'm gonna keep doing that one. Then on the weekend I tried out Pilates, which I thought was BORING. Seriously. It wasn't even as stretchy or breathey as I expected. It was like baby yoga. I have changed my mind about it slightly, since I woke up the next day with crazy soreness in unusual places, like the sides of my abs and my triceps. So obviously I got something out of it. But overall, I wasn't impressed. So tonight's experiment? A beginner's step/aerobics class. Okay, those of you who know me in person are probably laughing at this point. Why? Because I'm the clumsiest person ever. I can be walking on a perfectly flat street with nothing nearby and fall flat on my face. So I want you all therefore to picture me, big ol' clumsy me, huffing and puffing and flailing away on the babiest step they had. It was comical. Our instructor and the rest of the class would be bouncing around in syncronized step perfection and I'd be going the wrong way with the wrong leg at the wrong time. Regardless, I toughed it out for half an hour until we switched it up to aerobics. Then I really made an ass out of myself. I haven't done "the grapevine" since high school, and it seriously showed. I actually bumped into the girl next to me, like, three times because my body persisted in "step-touching" left when everyone else was going right. The extra loud music and yelling of the instructor was just so confusing. It was nearly as bad as spinning. Within ten minutes I gave up and hauled my bewildered ass to an exercise bike. I don't think I'll be doing any more that. Tuesday, August 13, 2002
Monday, August 12, 2002
 How Jedi Are You? Of course I can't pass up a quiz like this. Check me out; I'm a Jedi Knight. Of course, I think that's sorta the default if you're not A) evil or B) trying to get into Padme's pants. (Link courtesy of one scruffy looking nerf herder.)Saturday, August 10, 2002
Friday, August 9, 2002
1. Do you have a car? If so, what kind of car is it? Nope. I haven't had one in years. Luckily you don't need one in London or Sydney. The last couple times I went home I rented one to make the trip to Indiana from Chicago. 2. Do you drive very often? Nope. The last time was November of last year when we stopped off in the States on our way to Australia. I don't even ride in cars that often. We take a cab occasionally, but mostly I use public transport. Actually I probably won't be driving anytime soon since my US license expired in March and Indiana doesn't let you renew over the Internet. I could get an Australian one, but it's much harder here and I probably wouldn't pass (since I don't have a lot of experience driving in big cities). 3. What's your dream car? A vintage cherry red Volkswagen Beetle convertible with leather interior. 4. Have you ever received a ticket? I've gotten a couple of warnings, but only one ticket. See below. 5. Have you ever been in an accident? I think it was the summer before college, and I was driving with my then-boyfriend near his house in Michigan. It was a really bright day and we were tootling through town at no more than 30 mph. Suddenly I noticed that the car in front of me (a Corvette, naturally) had stopped to turn left. I didn't have time to do anything but slam on the brakes. I couldn't have been going more than 5mph when I hit it, but of course I had to put a big scratch in the bumper. My car fared worse; I had jammed the brake pedal so hard that it got stuck down and my boyfriend had to yank it up so I could pull off the road. Soooo, anyway, the lady driving was already calling the cops on her mobile within ten seconds and I knew I was pretty much screwed. I ended up getting a $100+ ticket for "rear ending" and my insurance, of course, went through the roof. Whatever. I'm so glad I don't have to drive anymore.
Thursday, August 8, 2002
Wednesday, August 7, 2002
 Snookums has a new hobby - home brewing. That's him with his first batch of "wort" down in our kitchen. When it's all done, it'll make 20 liters of beer. Yeah, that's a lot. It's currently in the first "fermenting" stage, which means that all the little yeasties inside are turning the sugar into alcohol and releasing carbon dioxide, which bubbles out that valve at the top. (I'm already getting sick of the "GLUB... GLUB..." noises every five seconds.) Then when that's done, he's got to fill all the bottles and let them sit to further ferment and create the bubbles. All I know is, we're going to have one hell of a party when this stuff is finally ready. We're not even supposed to be drinking beer! (Too many carbs, you know.)
Monday, August 5, 2002
I had three pressing appointments today, all of which were nerve-wracking in different ways. First, I hauled myself out of bed and into the gym for the 9:30 "Pump" class. This is basically synchronized lifting with free weights. It wasn't as hard as yoga, thankfully, and I got a great workout. (I have a feeling I won't be able to lift my arms in the morning though.) Our instructor was the funniest, campiest, bitchiest gay man I've met in some time. I'm already planning to go again next week. Next I had to head to the Enmore Theatre to discuss doing some part-time "front of house" work. It's a great old theatre only a couple of blocks from our house, but it's mainly a concert venue these days. I won't know for a few weeks if they need me. If they do, I'll most likely be ushering or bartending. How sweet would that be? Me, slinging beers at a rock concert! (For the Yanks: it's not like in American stadium venues. This is an actual old theater with all the chairs and stuff ripped out. The bars are actually inside along the walls and back.) I think it would be totally fun. And last but not least, I had my big important interview with these folks. I was worried that it was going to be a really stuffy corporate place, but instead everyone was really laid back and nice. It's in a great building down in the city with views of the Harbour Bridge. As usual I went in planning to be all poised and professional and within five minutes ended up yammering away like I always do. I guess that's for the best, though. Lots of folks can do what I do; the only thing that distinguishes me is my enthusiasm and passion. Hopefully that's what came across. (We talked for twice as long as we were supposed to, so fingers crossed!) So in my book, I went three-for-three today. *phew* Thanks for everyone's words of encouragement! Sunday, August 4, 2002
More fun with Australian culture! I'll give you the name of an actual Aussie television program, and you guess what the show's about. (As usual, those of you Down Under are disqualified.) Guess away!
Saturday, August 3, 2002
I don't have much time left to put together my Metafilter CD Swap discs. I've got two possible themes/playlists picked out, but I'm not sure which to go with. The first is an entire CD of REM covers, from Tori Amos doing "Losing My Religion" to William Burroughs interpreting "Star Me Kitten". Several of the songs are from an obscure tribute CD I tracked down many years ago. The second option is "Music to Watch Space Girls By - A Mix to Accompany Lance Bass on his Trip to the International Space Station". Seriously. (I completely nicked the novelty theme idea from Bill.) Anyway, it's a generally upbeat collection of all the space-themed songs I could find. So which would you rather get? Do you think people would prefer a nerdy REM collection or a nerdy space compilation? (Yeah, I'm a nerd.) Of course, I could always send out both...
My answers are going to suck this week, as I know jack squat about genealogy. 1. What is your lineage? Where are your ancestors from? Well, one-quarter is Korean. That's my maternal grandmother. The other three grandparents are all American. I really haven't done any research, but I'm pretty sure that the "Howard" side of the family is British. (Sidenote: There's a Castle Howard in England! I bet I'm in line for the throne.) The "Manns" and "Harter" sides probably lean towards German. When the Snook and I visited last year, my grandma showed us all these old scrapbooks she had and pointed out a picture of a Native American woman. Apparently that was, like, my great-great-grandmother or something. I had no idea. So throw in a little Cherokee too. 2. Of those countries, which would you most like to visit? Definitely Korea. Ideally I'd like to take my mom and grandmother along on a big trip, if I could afford it. It's so close to Australia (relatively speaking), though, I may end up taking a mini-trip with the Snook if we can swing it. 3. Which would you least like to visit? Why? Well, it's not really a country, but quite frankly, the "American Indian" bit is the least interesting to me. I've never really romanticized that culture and I don't think this familial revelation is going to change that. I'm scared of horses. I'm not a big outdoorsy person. (I did see Pocahontas, like, five times though.) So that's the part I'd probably least like to "revisit". 4. Do you do anything during the year to celebrate or recognize your heritage? Nope. We eat Korean food every now and then, but not on any specific occasion. 5. Who were the first ancestors to move to your present country (parents, grandparents, etc)? Wait. My "present" country? That's Australia, which would make it... ME. Yep, I'm my first ancestor to move here. (In terms of America, I have no clue. Man, I wish somebody in my family would research this stuff.)
Remember that job interview I had last week? I got it! It's another contract project where I'll be working from home. I'll be developing an entire site - database, backend, frontend, everything - all by myself. I'm excited to start. And guess what else? I have two more interviews on Monday! One is another contract IT position, and the other is a part-time position working front of house at the nearby Enmore Theatre. To be honest, I'm more excited about the latter. It's a great venue, and they get all sorts of concerts and shows. (That's where we saw Ben Folds.) In fact, I'm going to ask about a job for the Snook as well. It's only a couple nights a week, and it would be so fun to do it together. I'll keep you posted on the outcome. Friday, August 2, 2002
 As the SUV debates continue to rage, I thought I might try to track down the WW2 carpool scare poster Tricia mentioned. Once again, Google Image Search did not disappoint. Here it is, as found on this page (which also contains another good one with Uncle Sam). Remember kids! When you ride ALONE, you ride with Hitler! Especially in big SUVs. Nazis need lots of room.
Ooh, this is such a good rant. The author takes on sportswriters who always include a woman's marital or family status when writing about female competitors, as if they can hardly believe that a mother could also be a first-class athlete. In a roundabout way, it also reminds me of something that happened in London a year or two ago, where a woman was killed outside a train station. Every headline blared "MOTHER OF THREE GUNNED DOWN" or something similar. As if crimes are somehow more senseless when perpetuated against a breeder. Why should the fact that she had children have anything to do with it? Somebody died, that's horrible. Somebody won a race, that's great. This need to single out women (whether for additional pity or congratulations) on the basis of their "domestic achievements" is patronising and unnecessary.
 The suburban jungle...Yes, this is your first glimpse of our new house. Isn't it cute? I just love the brick. The house is narrow but it goes back pretty far. Ma Snook took this picture when she came down to help us move a few weeks ago. (That's me looking particularly unattractive on the right, and the Snook himself peering out of the front door.) I'm hoping to get indoor photos taken soon, as soon as we get the last of the new furniture and hang up all our pictures. Okay, see, that's where the post was supposed to end. Instead we now have to talk about something scary: spiders. I'm not a fan. In fact, I've been developing a rather severe case of arachnophobia since we moved. See, all the most poisonous beasties in the world are here in Australia. Most of them, the snakes and jellyfish and stuff, don't live in the middle of the city and I don't have to worry about them. The spiders, however, do. And some of them are downright nasty. (Last week at the Slashdot meetup, even the most hardened lifelong Sydneysiders admitted to being petrified of funnel web spiders.) In our nice little modern apartment, I didn't even think about creepy crawlies. Now we live in an old house, a house with street-level entrances and a back garden. I think about them. I especially think about them when I go out to the shed to do the laundry. I just know they're going to be in there. Anyway, this is all background information. The point of all this rambling is...  This bastard crawled across my hand tonight. It's a Huntsman spider, which is technically supposed to be one of the harmless ones. It was still frickin' huge and hairy and scary though. I was out on the front porch moving the trash and recycling bins out onto the curb. I reached for the recycling bin and suddenly this thing was crawling over my hand. I seriously jumped, like, three feet straight backwards and started shaking my arms like mad. (There may have been some screaming, but to be honest, I've blacked most of it out.) I ended up on the sidewalk with the spider sitting on the welcome mat looking at me. I had no idea what kind it was, nor whether it would bite me if further provoked. So I did the only thing I could do... I stood there and yelled for Snookums to come rescue me. He showed up and explained that it was harmless, and then proceeded to bash it with a newspaper since I was still hyperventilating. Dude, I can still feel it. I have a feeling my phobia's only going to get worse.Do you share my pain? Or are you a friend to the eight-legged freaks?
Thursday, August 1, 2002
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archives
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"Moblog" refers to posts and images posted directly from my mobile phone.
"PW Blog" refers to posts recovered from my very first weblog, which dealt with news related to my college dorm. |
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