Mountain Cabin

Tressel makes Ohio State history, continuing dominance over Michigan

2007-11-18T10:12:00.001-08:00

: Seventh-ranked Ohio State deftly handled archrival Wolverine State 14-3 and earned sequent straight-out Big Ten statute titles for the first clip in 50 old age in U.S. college football game on Saturday.

Jim Tressel became the first Buckeyes manager to beat out Wolverine State six modern times in seven years.

Chris H. G. Wells ran for a career-high 222 paces and two touchdowns and Vernon Gholston and the Buckeyes' defence dominated Michigan's banged-up offense.

The Buckeyes (11-1, 7-1 Big Ten) are likely headed to the Rose Bowl for the first clip since 1997. No. Twenty-Three Wolverine State (8-4, 6-2) missed out on its 4th trip to Pasadena in five years.

No. One LSU 41, Mississippi River 24 Today in Sports

At Oxford, Mississippi, Trindon Holliday returned a kickoff 98 paces for a touchdown and LSU forced two turnover rates during goal-line stand ups to steal past Mississippi.

The Tigers (10-1, 6-1 SEC) didn't play well on offense, but Craig Steltz and the nation's top-ranked defence helped put a school record with three consecutive seasons of 10 wins or more.

Ole Girl (3-8, 0-7) was in danger of a winless conference season for the first clip since 1982.

Steltz had rally-ending interceptions late in each half, and Francois Jacob Hester and Prince Charles George C. Scott each rushed for touchdowns after failing Ole Girl onside boots in the 4th one-fourth to guarantee the win. Colt Saint David added second-half field ends of 48 and 43 yards.

Texas Technical School 34, No. Three Sooner State 27

At Lubbock, Texas, Billy Graham Harrell and Lone-Star State Technical School knocked Sooner State out of the national statute title chase.

Harrell threw for 420 paces and two touchdowns for the Red Raiders (8-4, 4-4 Big 12) and for the 11th clip this season a top-five squad lost to an unranked team.

With Beaver State losing on Thursday, the Sooners (9-2, 5-2 Big 12), who were 4th in the up-to-the-minute B.C.s standings, appeared to be in good form to play for a national statute title if they could win out.

No. Four Sunflower State 45, Ioway St 7

At Lawrence, Kansas, Sir Alexander Robertus Todd Reesing passed for 253 paces and four touchdowns and Sunflower State remained undefeated, whipping the Cyclones to put up a clang with sixth-ranked Show Me State for the Big 12 North title.

The Tigers and Jayhawks (11-0, 7-0 Big 12) will ran into adjacent weekend in a game that could establish the victor into the national title game.

Reesing hit 19 of his first 20 bases on balls as the Jayhawks romped to their first 11-0 grade in school history.

No 6. Show Me State 49, Sunflower State State 32

At Manhattan, Kansas, Jeremy Maclin scored three touchdowns for Missouri, and had 252 sum paces to put the U.S. single-season first-year record for all-purpose yards.

He returned a kickoff 99 paces for a touchdown and caught two scoring passes, giving him 2,201 all-purpose paces for the season, 175 more than than Terrell Willis of Rutgers had in 1993.

Chase Daniel threw for 284 paces and four touchdowns, helping Show Me State (10-1, 6-1 Big 12) to its first win in Manhattan since 1989.

No. Eight Empire State Of The South 24, No. Twenty-Two Bluegrass State 13

At Athens, Georgia, Knowshon Moreno ran for 124 yards, Saint Matthew Stafford added a 10-yard TD tally and No. Eight Empire State Of The South overcame four turnover rates to maintain alive its opportunities of playing for an second championship.

The Bulldogs (9-2, 6-2 SEC) clinched at least a necktie for first in the Eastern Division and will confront top-ranked LSU in the Dec. One statute title game if Volunteer State loses one of its last two games.

Kentucky (7-4, 3-4) couldn't take advantage of two interceptions and two muffs by the Bulldogs.

No. Ten Old Dominion Technical School 44, Miami 14

At Blacksburg, Virginia, Branden Ore ran for two touchdowns and the No. Ten Hokies dominated Miami in their concluding tuneup for a confrontation with competing Old Dominion adjacent weekend, with the victor moving on to the ACC title game.

Virginia Technical School (9-2, 6-1 ACC) moved into a share of first topographic point in the Coastal Division with Virginia. Sean Glennon threw a touchdown base on balls to Justin Harpist and Jahre Cheeseman and Carlton Weatherford had scoring tallies for the Hokies, who handed Miami (5-6, 2-5) its 2nd sequent demeaning loss.

No. Five Occident Old Dominion 28, No. Twenty-One Cincinnati 23

At Cincinnati, Pat White Person ran for a brace of second-quarter touchdowns, leading the Mountaineers to a triumph that left lone two squads in the conference statute title chase.

The Mountaineers (9-1, 4-1) can win their 2nd Big East title in three old age by shutting with triumphs over No. Twenty-Five Nutmeg State and Pittsburgh. Their game against UConn (9-2, 5-1) in Morgantown, W.Va., adjacent weekend will likely make up one's mind it. 1 |

Nigeria: 'Our Challenges as Female Auto Mechanics' - AllAfrica.com

2007-11-16T23:18:00.001-08:00

Agha IbiamLagos

Miss. Opeoluwa Gentle, 21, from Ekiti State is a superb girl, judging by her communicating art and her senior school certification scrutiny (SSCE) consequence which she made at one sitting. Ope is naturally scientific discipline inclined.

But her hope of becoming a mechanical technology pupil at the University of Lagos (UNILAG) was dashed.

Even when she scored more than than the cut-off mark at the station University Matriculation Examination (UME) Joint Admission and Matriculation Board (JAMB) scrutiny in 2005, she told THISDAY that she was not considered for admission.

This rejection almost frustrated her as she had no 2nd program of what she could make to break her hereafter since she had lost her father in 2003. But today, she said that letdown have turned out to be a approval in disguise as that have led her to becoming one of the lady mechanic's that graduated recently at the Lady Machinist Initiative, Lagos.

"I was not admitted for the course of study I applied for even though I scored 42 as against 34 Marks the school authorization said the cut-off mark was", she said during the end of the first twelvemonth ceremonial of the arrangement in Lagos.

It was a friend of hers in Ajegunle where she dwells that gave her the information about the machinist preparation through a flier. In April, 2006, she commenced as a machinist trainee, an country that is regarded as male dominated field. The course of study which Ope could not read in books and larn all about theories surrounding mechanical engineering, she have ended up learning practical.

Like any profession, Ope had challenges that almost threatened her from continuing the training. She said, "I was loosing form and getting weak. At a point I lost path of the whole thing, but was encouraged by household members". Even though she have acquired some technical experience in motor mechanics, she still eyes the Ivory Tower where she trusts to do her experience complete. But this time, the contrary will now be the lawsuit where she will drill her trade full-time, and surveys on part-time basis.

Grace Kadiri Boubai, 25, is a dark complexioned miss from Bayelsa State. She have been on preparation for two years. It was through the little sister that she came to cognize about the initiative. Just like the narrative of the seeds in the Holy Place Book that drop on fertile soil, she became the fertile dirt on which the seed fell, grew and multiplied.

On seeing Grace for the first time, it is hard to separate her from a man, as the preparation have brought out a masculine stature in her. Grace who now remains with the father in Lagos, having lost her female parent is determined to finish the three twelvemonth programme. And after that, she trusts to travel back to her state and set up a workshop.

Following her wise men footsteps, Sandra Aguebor, laminitis of the initiative, Grace said the workshop focuses on preparation of girls. This way, they are discouraged from going into prostitution, kid trafficking and other societal frailties that abound in the society.

Just like her co-worker Ope, Grace said she will still like to travel back to school after the training. But for now, this sort of preparation is what she have been yearning for and she is determined to follow it to the end.

Another trainee, Noemi Dinlongi, have also been on the preparation for two old age and hopes to finish the three twelvemonth course. She was a pupil in Jos, but heard about the lady machinist enterprise at the Praise Sanctuary, Deliver Church of Supreme Being in Lagos, and decided to do calling in it.

"Honestly I am in love with the career and that is why I am showing a batch of involvement in it. I bury about the emphasis and guarantee I give my best for it", she said. Noemi said there were two other misses that came from Redeem, but had to discontinue apparently owed to the emphasis facet of the job. Though there are challenges on the occupation such as as getting injured and exposed to sunshine, Noemi take a firm stands that she prefers it to staying idle.

Relevant Links

She will desire to travel back to her small town in Tokyo State to set up a workshop. To actualise this dreaming will not be a job to her as the arrangement is in partnership with a batch of corporate houses that could assist them to excel.

Some of the arrangements are Coscharis Motors, PAN, Eastern Malayo-Polynesian Depository Financial Institution and Commissioners for Women Personal Business in Lagos and Benin. Others are former first lady of Lagos, Mrs. Oluremi Tinubu, Rotary Clubs and other non-governmental organisations. Apart from working closely with these few organisations, Sandra told the assemblage that she have benefited tremendously from the American government. Through the United States Embassy in Nigeria, she was able to see seven states in the United States courtesy of Dr. Atim George, Counselor for Populace Affairs, United States embassy.

The enterprise have successfully trained and graduated seven misses and a Liberian refugee boy, picked from assorted deprived circumstances. They were first rehabilitated and provided with the preparation in car machinist care and fix technology. She said the trainees are counseled on wellness and psychologically before the preparation commences.

Page 1 of 2

Law school dean search committee begins interviewing final five - Minnesota Daily

2007-11-12T18:37:00.001-08:00

From 202 candidates, the University law school narrowed its listing to five finalists who could go the school's adjacent dean. Now, the finalists will acquire to check up on out their possible new occupations as the hunt approaches an end.

Starting Monday, each campaigner will do a two-day visit to campus in order to be evaluated by faculty, staff and students, with the hunt commission overseeing their visits. After the campaigners have got made their visits, the commission will show its pick to Provost Uncle Tom Sullivan.

The five campaigners come up from all over the globe. Two currently name New House Of York home. Nora Demleitner is the interim law dean at Hofstra University in Hempstead, N.Y., piece Saint David Wippman is Frailty Provost for International Relations and professor of law at Katherine Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y.

Read about all the campaigners in tomorrow's issue of The Gopher State Daily.

Universities defend credit card deals

2007-11-01T08:16:00.001-07:00

Officials from Iowa's three populace universities are defending trades which let companies to marketplace their recognition card game to students. Iowa, Ioway State and UNI have got understandings with Depository Financial Institution of United States to marketplace university-branded recognition card game to alums, but Ioway and Ioway State also aim students.

Iowa State University Alumni Association president Jeffrey Samuel Johnson states most pupils can't acquire purchase in today's human race without a recognition card. "If our pupils are going to make normal society, adult-related purchases or transactions, they have got got to have some word form of credit," he says. Doug True -- a University of Ioway senior frailty president, states the sole contract actually cut downs the figure of recognition card solicitations aimed at pupils while they're on campus.

"One of the personal effects of having a single provider....there weren't a battalion of (companies) soliciting pupils at the union," he says. However, the 10-year deal with Depository Financial Institution of United States makes not forestall other recognition card companies from selling their card game to pupils through the mail or at off-campus locations in Ioway City and Ames.

Some pupils have got complained about the universities giving their computer addresses to recognition card companies, but True states it's public information that tin be purchased by any company. True and Samuel Johnson appeared Tuesday before a legislative commission studying the issue.

Representative Jodi Tymeson, a Republican from Winterset, states it looks the larger fiscal issue for pupils is loans to pay for college tuition rather than the debt they're racking up on recognition cards.

"The aggressive selling of recognition card game to pupils is not as large a job as we thought," Tymeson says. "Certainly, I would promote parents to speak to their children about the fact that they're going to be receiving all these offerings and that there is a cost with a recognition card. It isn't easy money. It isn't free money."

According to records from the University of Ioway and Ioway State, fewer than 600 pupils have got signed up to transport the Depository Financial Institution of United States cards, and the norm balance on one of those card game is $1,100. The school functionaries cited other statistics indicating the norm pupil at Ioway and Ioway State is carrying about $23,000 in pupil loan debt.Â

New college code of conduct

2007-08-27T22:30:00.001-07:00

}
HARTFORD The leadership of Sacred Heart University, Fairfield University and Three College on Monday agreed to an out-of-court settlement with state functionaries over the controversial usage of so-called preferable loaners for pupil loans.

The university functionaries admitted no wrongdoing, but will add a sum of $75,000 to their scholarship funds. They said this lawsuit differs from others in the nation, because no university employees personally benefited from their professional human relationships with the college-loan organizations.

The three establishments accepted terms price reductions on gross sales of software system system from one loaner and a Fairfield University functionary took an out-of-state trip paid by another lender, according to Lawyer General Richard Blumenthal.

The Rev. Jeffrey P. von Arx, S.J., president of Fairfield University, said no employees were disciplined for accepting $16,000 in discounts, which were given after The College Board Inc. was listed as a preferable lender.

In February of 2006, another loaner - AMS, an affiliate of the Sallie Mae program - flew the manager of Fairfield's assistance business office to Sunshine State for a three-day client focusing group, according to an "assurance of voluntary compliance" signed by Arx and Blumenthal.

Anthony J. Cernera, president of Sacred Heart University, said that no SHU employees were disciplined for taking $15,000 in software price reductions during 2004.

The College Board was also included on a listing of preferable loaners for students. In the 2004-2005 Advertisement

school year, the College Board's loan sum increased by more than than $2 million and in the two followers old age it increased by $4 million and $3.5 million, respectively, at Sacred Heart.

Trinity received a $12,000 price reduction from The College Board. All three establishments denied allegations of illegalities. Fairfield University will lend $28,000 to its general scholarship monetary fund by September 1 to countervail the fiscal benefits received by the college. Sacred Heart will lend $25,000 to its William Curtis Commuter Program scholarship. Three will donate $22,000 to a monetary fund for Capital Of Nutmeg State students.

The incentives were uncovered during a still-active, six-month investigation into inducements, conflicts-of-interest and improper patterns in the $85 billion-dollar student-loan industry.

During a news conference in his business office with members of the Connecticut Conference of Mugwump Colleges, Lawyer General Richard Blumenthal announced a new codification of behavior that forbids the type of British pound professional quo that have rocked the college-loan industry around the nation.

The College Second Home

2007-08-22T03:46:00.001-07:00

Lena Datwani, a agent with Bellmarc Realty, states many of her clients are parents buying flats for their college-age children, and she is not alone in noting the trend. The thought is, parents put in an flat to supply lodging for their children in college and also, eventually, to utilize as a pied-à-terre. Related

Of course of study purchasing a piece of Manhattan, no substance how small, typically necessitates navigating the demands of hard-and-fast co-op boards. This twelvemonth Ms. Datwani establish an flat on Bleecker Street, in the bosom of Greenwich Village, for a New House Of York University pupil but was turned away because the building's co-op board allowed parents to purchase units of measurement only for steadily employed children, not those still in school. "I see parents who desire to purchase for their kid at N.Y.U.," she said, "but co-ops have got all sorts of rules. Some don't let for parents to purchase for children who are pupils at all. Others don't let pieds-à-terre, and often using the flat as a pied-à-terre is portion of the plan." Ms. Datwani eventually establish a place for the pupil on Fifth Avenue.

University towns, urban centres and rural enclaves alike are drawing purchasers seeking places for their college-bound family members. Developers are also catering to a growth grouping of alumni who desire to go back to the campus on weekends for on-campus cultural public presentations or sporting events.

Part of the marketplace is being driven by parents opting out of paying increasingly expensive on-campus room and board fees, which norm $8,149 a twelvemonth at a four-year private university, according to the College Board. Michael Zaransky, the co-chief executive director of Prime Place Investors in Northbrook, Ill., A existent estate house that have college lodging near respective campuses including the University of Prairie State and Purdue, described a Federal Soldier Housing Administration funding programme known as a "kiddie condo" loan, which he said could do the purchase of an off-campus abode for a kid even more than attractive.

The loan, designed for a pupil who will utilize the place as his or her primary residence, typically necessitates a down payment of about 3 percentage of the purchase price. The kid measure ups for the loan by having the parents co-sign and by using the parents' assets and recognition history. While co-signing A mortgage for a 19-year-old pupil might look a chilling prospect, Mr. Zaransky said the agreement could be very favorable. "It is not a bad trade in footing of the handiness of attractive funding and in footing of establishing recognition for their boy or daughter," he said.

Beyond the marketplace for students, more than developers are putting a turn on second-home ownership by catering to alumni who desire to be within walking distance of a football game bowl for game years and tailgating parties.

"We seek to be as stopping point to the athletic centre as possible," said Brad Pager, the president and main executive director of Gameday Centers Southeastern, the developer of condoes next to college campuses. "We marketplace through the alumni groups," he said. "A large trade for us is season ticket holders and extravagance boxes. Those are the people that be given to remain long weekends. They won't lose a football, baseball game or basketball game game." Gameday condominiums are sold furnished and are usually decorated with college Son and paraphernalia.

Another developer, Finishing Touch Companies, have respective condominiums in Baton Rouge, La., near Pelican State State University and in Manhattan, Kan., for Sunflower State State Wildcat Well fans.

In South Bend, Ind., place to the University of Notre Dame, about one-half of the condominiums at Stadium Club, a five-building condo-conversion undertaking with two-bedroom units of measurement selling for $134,900, have got been picked up by students' parents, while the residual are being used as holiday residences, said Jim Webb, an agent with Century 21, which is selling the project.

The development, he said, is also attracting purchasers who believe of themselves as parents of future pupils and are giving their children a taste sensation of college life.

"We have got one proprietor who was here for a game recently," Mr. Beatrice Webb said, "and he had all of his immature children with him. None of them had even taken the Saturday yet. We have got a batch of those hopeful types."

College Search Made Easy

2007-08-06T18:38:00.001-07:00

How a pupil hunts for colleges can be just as of import as where. The criteria for college hunts are almost as many as there are colleges and universities to take from. However, all hunts and standard aren't created equal.

The listing of possible hunt criteria could travel on forever, but there are definitely some that most college hunt land sites utilize more than often than others. The most common pick of standard in a hunt is a major. The major is a good topographic point to begin looking because if the pupil have got decided what they desire to make with their lives, they can seek colleges that have corresponding major league available. Also, if a pupil starts with another standard like location, that hunt will give consequences within a certain geographical location and not screen by major most times.

Other popular hunt criteria include hunts by college size, cost of tuition, ethnical or racial diversity, calling way and spiritual affiliations. The size of the college is a criteria that may not be as of import as many others. Most pupils recognize that a little school as well as a big university can offer quality academic standards.

The terms of a college is for many pupils the lone existent consideration, and obstacle, in searching for a worthy college or university. Some online hunts let the pupils to input signal values for the amount of tuition they are willing to pay a school. The consequences of a college hunt with this standard can be eye-opening experience. Determination out what certain schools complaint for tuition can be a crucial factor in choosing a school.

The type of pupil organic structure a prospective pupil might be a idea for some students. That is why another 1 of the hunt standard hunts colleges by race and ethnical background. Usually, there are pre determined dropdown menus with percents of diverseness the prospective pupil desires in a college. This is usually not a very determiner factor in most college student's searches.

The last major standard that pupils utilize to seek is spiritual affiliation. Many pupils desire to cognize that their current religion and beliefs systems will be observed or better yet, celebrated, while they go to there. Using this college hunt criteria is simply something a pupil would utilize if they already had a peculiar spiritual college in head or wanted to additional narrow the search.

Other criterion, like part of the country, public versus private, athletics rankings and extracurricular activities usually come up 2nd to some of the more than urgent college hunt criteria. Starting off with the rudiments in a hunt and whittling down the options from there is a smart attack to take.

There are hunts that offering a batch more elaborate college search. If, for instance, a pupil wanted to cognize what courses of study that social classes offered or what the norm ages and graduation rankings of current fresher was, that information is available too. However, focusing on too many inside information can really do the procedure a batch more complicated. Sticking with the rudiments criteria is the easiest manner to acquire good results.

Freud's Mother Wants To Give You a Psychology Scholarship

2007-07-30T09:20:00.001-07:00

Got something to state about Sigmund Freud and his mother? Then studying psychological science in college may be for you. Applying for psychological science scholarships can ease the fiscal load of college.

Students planning to analyze psychological science in college are eligible for general and accomplishment scholarship dollars, but there are also psychological science scholarships specifically for pupils in this major. Colleges and universities may offer their ain psychological science scholarship, and some programmes may include money for incoming students. Some sections awarding scholarships once a pupil is enrolled.

In improver to traditional psychological science scholarships, there are also grants that aid wage for school or particular projects, like research or fellowships.

Many people mistake the work of psychologists with psychiatrists. Psychiatry is a subdivision of medicine. Doctors of psychopathology aid patients with their mental health. This may include therapy Sessions or prescribing medicine.

Psychologists, on the other hand, survey behaviour and mental perceptions. They detect the manner world and animate beings believe and trade with situations, studying relationships, emotion, perception, interaction and cognition.

Lab work is cardinal to the survey of psychology. Without his dogs, Ivan Pavlov would have got been nil but a adult male of ideas. Students studying psychological science will have got the chance to constitute and diagnostic test their ain ideas, and assistance in the laboratory research of other pupils and professors. Lab work may offer college pupils other chances to gain money, or other schoolroom credit, to supplement their psychological science scholarship awards. Psychology research work may include observing behaviour and thought forms of animate beings and people in assorted settings.

Some of the psychological science scholarships offered to incoming pupils are given by the American Psychological Association. The APA is the world's biggest association of psychologists, boasting 148,000 members, according to the group's Web site. The central office are in Washington, D.C. The grouping offerings good information for psychological science pupils or high school pupils thinking of entering the field. They have got information on careers, accredited college programs, recommended reading as well as a pupil forum and occupation hunt help. The APA also hosts an yearly convention.

If you make not have an APA scholarship make not be disheartened. As noted, there are other agency to assist wage for your psychological science education. Pounds Per Square Inch Chi, the national award society for psychological science students, for example, also gives out psychological science scholarships and research grants to college students.

Preparing for University Education

2007-07-26T18:10:00.001-07:00

Since I myself will be entering university soon, I'd wish to share some tips on how to acquire yourself prepared for entry. Most people might acquire a daze on entry as life in university is much less spoon-fed and you are mostly left to discover, research and larn on your own.

Make certain you check up on out your university website for of import updates on the processes required for freshmen. Bash also read up on the course of study of study for your course, and seek to acquire an thought of the what the subjects are about. Some universities also supply homework courses of study for pupils to read up before term starts. If these are available, don't lose out on a opportunity to fit yourself with some cognition before entering university. As lectors in the university aren't going to spoon-feed you with information, you will happen these homework course of study very utile in helping you understand what is taught during lectures.

If you have got the chance, traveling to your university campus and take a circuit of the surroundings, just to familiarise yourself. Record the clip taken for traveling so that you can be after your trips when term starts in order not to be late. Personal dismays may be of usage if social classes end late in the nighttime as the campus might be dark and quiet, and therefore dangerous.

Not forgetting the merriment portion of going to university, you can shop for new clothes, bags, stationery, etc. sol that you look great and experience confident when stepping into unfamiliar surroundings. Take advantage of the gross sales to acquire your equipment as the cost of these points can really stack up.

A Cheaper College Textbook Price = Big Money Savings

2007-07-17T12:24:00.001-07:00

A discounted college text edition is extremely valuable at least to the student. College disposal and campus bookshops are not built on the thought of providing the last cost service and education. This is why, at least in part, stuffs and resources needed to successfully complete a social class are so expensive.

You necessitate to cognize that your college is not in the concern of providing commodity and services at the last possible costs. Still , if they were as concerned about your instruction as they claim, wouldn't they seek to maintain some terms under control? To perplex substances even more, many attempt to raise uncertainty in your head about getting your stuffs somewhere else then the local campus store. The ground is that colleges do significant net income selling you books and supplies.

Don't you desire 100s of other dollars per semester to pass any manner you want?

Find a discounted college text edition on the on the web and start to acquire your books online at the cheapest terms available anywhere.

REALITY CHECK!

Why delay in lines, waste material hours of your clip and SPEND MORE for your material than you necessitate to? Order your books from an online bookshop and salvage time, and money!

Buying USED do a batch of sense but many colleges simply don't desire a batch of them around because they simply don't make as much money as merchandising even a discounted college text edition new.

So you can stop up not being able to sell directly to the bookshop after the class. Ordering online and getting the cheapest text edition not only gives you the best terms but merchandising back the resources is no large deal.

Online retail merchants however have got a much bigger audience because they sell to all college pupils all across the country. This agency that there is a built in marketplace and involvement from careful pupil shoppers for used texts.

So Here's the Bottom Line. You get...

* Better Selection

* much CHEAPER

* You have got the option of purchasing good quality USED or getting them NEW at a large discount.

* No fuss purchasing what you necessitate for inexpensive online vs. waiting in line at the campus store.

* Depending what you necessitate for the semester, you can save hundreds OF DOLLARS

* Easy resale once the social class is over

Get moving now to turn up the cheapest texts on the web. Fiction, non fiction, literature, and yes even discounted college text edition are available here. All your book necessitates can be establish and quickly delivered within days. Get them now!

How to Prepare for the Law School Admission Test (LSAT)

2007-07-14T12:47:00.001-07:00

Entering law school is never an easy thing to do. There is so much to believe about and so many alterations to travel through and stairway to fulfill, that it can look like you will never acquire there. After all of that, you still have got to travel through hebdomads upon hebdomads of waiting and wondering if you were able to acquire into the law school of your choice, and the law school admittance diagnostic diagnostic test may or may not even matter.

The law school admittance test is the LSAT and when it come ups to the LSAT there is a batch to believe about. The examination itself takes about a one-half a twenty-four hours to complete, and is required by all law schools so there is no getting unit of ammunition the law school admittance test. It is designed to mensurate the cognition and the capacity of learning of each and every pupil who uses for law school; so that those who are going through the alterations that are required to choose people to come in into their law school cognize that they have got only the most intelligent students, tantrum for being successful at their institution.

There are five subdivisions to the Law school admittance test. The inquiries on the diagnostic test are multiple pick tests, but only four of the five of these diagnostic diagnostic tests lend to your overall LSAT score. There is a subdivision designated just for reading comprehension, one for analytical reasoning, two for logical reasoning, and a authorship sample. In addition, there is a subdivision that is designed just to prove new diagnostic diagnostic diagnostic test points and this is the subdivision that makes not add to your overall law school admittance test score, but you won't cognize what subdivision this is when you take it.

It is best to do certain that you take the law school admittance test before the calendar month of December axial rotations around. This is the best clip to take it in order for the consequences to be ready and read by the people who take applications at all of the top law schools in the nation, but most people take it in the summertime calendar calendar months or the autumn months, right as the Fall begins.

If you desire to be able to be as prepared for the law school admittance diagnostic diagnostic test as you possibly can, you should happen out just how the test is scored. You don't have got to acquire every single inquiry right, but knowing how to reply the inquiries and whether or not it is better to go forth a inquiry space or potentially reply it incorrect is portion of knowing how to take the test.

It is probably best to set up yourself for the law school admittance diagnostic diagnostic diagnostic test by taking a test homework social class either in individual or on the internet. You can take the law school admittance diagnostic diagnostic test at any 1 of 100s of test locations all around the world.

Thinking About An MFA?

2007-07-12T12:20:00.001-07:00

For Me or Not For Me?

Grad school is a large commitment. Not only will you have got to uproot yourself and unrecorded for 3 old age at the clemency of instructors who will force and draw you to grow, you will most likely be paying many one thousands of dollars for the privilege. Unless you desire to learn at the university level, you don't technically *need* Associate in Nursing MFA. So why alumnus school?

Years ago, the American theatre had something closer to an learner system. It's often said that the best manner to larn is by doing, and this system allowed budding immature histrions to make just that. They would begin out in spot parts, larn by observing and performing with the aged experienced histrions in the company, and slowly work their manner into supporting and finally leading roles. When the fiscal clime made repertory companies in this county insupportable, histrions lost the most logical and stable manner to larn their trade. Enter the Master of Fine Arts program.

What sort of histrion make you desire to be?

Ask yourself what sort of calling you desire to have. If your primary end is to do commercial messages and a weber telecasting series, it may not make sense to travel to grade school. If you're already a gorgeous model-type with personal appeal and connections, sacrificing 3 old age of your life for preparation may not pay off when young person is such as a trade goods in Hollywood. Or, if you're already happy with the path your calling is on, and you're consistently working on Great White Way with no end in sight, again: why are you even reading this?

If you're seriously interested in classical work, grade school is a very logical choice. Very few people today are able to acquire the sort of vocal, physical, and intellectual preparation necessary for major functions in the classical canon on the fly. We've all heard those horror narratives about so-and-so from such-and-such television show trying his or her manus at Shakespeare--it's usually not very pretty. Without old age of apprenticeship, one of the lone ways to have got sustained growing as a classical histrion is by attending a programme that supplies such as preparation and--perhaps even more than than importantly--gives you the chance to cut your dentition on great functions away from the judgmental eyes of the outside world.

For most actors, however, the pick may be far more complicated. Theater (and while many Master of Fine Arts alumni travel on to callings in movie and television, most schools are *theater* preparation programs) makes not throw the fiscal promise of medical specialty or law. Since most of the top schools prefer pupils who have got been out in the human race for a while, these people are gambling that leaving their callings for now will pay off 3 old age down the road. The possible additions are great: beyond technical training, there is personal growth, a built-in network of equals and alums, the opportunity to turn by performing great roles, and the clip to happen what sort of histrion you really are. The hazards are also great: will the gamble wage off? Volition you stop up in debt and no better off than you started? Be honorable with yourself: the manner your life is going now, can you acquire the preparation you need? Or make you cognize in your intestine that in order to carry through your originative potentiality you necessitate to step away and give yourself to full-time study? There are fantastic private studios in New House Of York and lanthanum serving workings actors, and there are fantastic instructors at Master of Fine Arts programmes shaping alumnus actors. The difference is not the quality of instruction; it is which direction is right for you.

An Master of Fine Arts is not an Master of Fine Arts is not an Master of Fine Arts

Some programmes will be you an arm and a leg. Some, like the Old Earth and NTC, will pay *you* to attend. Many have got associations with well-thought-of regional theatres and warrant ranks in Actors Equity by graduation. Schools have got very different personalities: for example, art have a repute for being more than avant-garde, like the theatre with which it is associated. Almost all green goods industry show windows in at least one of the major marketplaces (New House Of York and LA)-- but not all are attended equally by casting directors, agents, and managers. For example, Yale, NYU, and UCSD green goods a joint demo window on both coasts--these are 3 top schools together on one day, so tons of people show. Wage attending to differences between schools; they are not negligible.

If you're thinking about grade school, be as specific as possible when doing your research. Don't just use to Yale University because it's Yale. An Master of Fine Arts from a esteemed school is a great leg up, but it's not going to do your career--that's up to you, *after* you graduate. Talk to person who's gone there recently, not 30 old age ago--schools, like people alteration a batch with time. Most importantly, ask: are alumni of this school out there working?

The programme you stop up in volition be your place for a good ball of your life. Brand certain it's a place you actually desire to dwell in.

Distance Learning Courses For Business Accounting

2007-07-10T11:21:00.001-07:00

Accounting is one of the few topics that tin warrant you a occupation no substance where you analyze it. Distance acquisition in accounting is a good option for working people. This manner you won't necessitate to go forth your occupation and you can also analyze at your ain gait and convenience. Moreover, continuing instruction along with surveys gives you more than practical preparation which is good for a planned career.

Some of the outstanding colleges and universities that offering the installation of distance acquisition in accounting are listed below:

* Helen Keller Alumnus School of Management of DeVry University- This University offers distance acquisition in programmes like Maestro of Accounting and Financial Management, Alumnus Certificate in Accounting and Alumnus Certificate in Financial Analysis. This school utilizes all the advanced and high-tech technology to leave instruction to its distance acquisition students. Course construction is very synergistic and both the teacher and the pupil can interact through online classes, treatments and e-mails. The course of study stuff is also not very hard to get. All the stuff is available through Internet and traditional textual matter book method is also supported.

* University of Capital Of Arizona This University have campuses spreading all over the nation. It offers two courses of study in concern accounting, namely Bachelor of Science in accounting/business and Master in Business in accounting. You can gain a graduate, undergraduate as well as master's grade through this University.

* Straggler University This University is another prima establishment that offerings distance acquisition option for accounting. Degrees that they offer for accounting are -Diploma inch Accounting, Bachelor of Science in Accounting, Alcoholics Anonymous in Accounting and Executive Alumnus Certificate in Professional Accounting. Courses offered by this university are accredited by Center States Committee on Higher Education. Classes are specially designed to be attended in the eventide and weekends and also through Internet.

* Vivien Leigh Valley College: This college was established with the slogan cognition is powerfulness and it truly endeavors to accomplish this motto. For accounting it offers an associate of scientific discipline degree. In this programme pupils are made familiar with the complete accounting cycle, taxations and payroll, fiscal statements, fiscal investments, computerised accounting and direction marketing.

* Centennial State Technical University This is another prima establishment that imparts distance instruction in a assortment of programs. It have campuses in North Sunflower State City, Centennial State Springs, Siouan Falls, Mile-High City and Mile-High City North. In accounting it offers a batch of grades like Bachelor of Science Accounting, Associate of Science Accounting, Associate of Science - Business Administration (Accounting), Maestro Accounting.

On successful completion of any of these programmes pupils can acquire occupations as junior accountants, senior clerks and also in the business relationships place of many Banks and private companies.

Boost Exam Scores

2007-07-08T14:46:00.001-07:00

Every pupil detests them, but they're unavoidable in college…exams. They can do or interruption semester classes since some professors count mid-term and concluding examinations as half, or even more, of your concluding grade. To do substances worse, examinations are usually the most hard facet to a college course.

It's gotten to the point where some pupils are physically affected by the pressure level of taking an exam. This is commonly referred to as "exam anxiety" and its becoming increasingly common in the collegial world.

So how can you hit well on exams? Well, it's actually not complicated and there are many helpful tools to help you in your testing endeavors.

Here are some basic guidelines you should follow to hike your examination tons exponentially:

1.) Go to class!

This may look simplistic and fundamental, but so many college pupils disregard actually going to class. This is becoming even more than prevailing in today's collegial human race since many duty assignments are posted online. However, nil replacements going to social class and hearing to the professor's lecture. This is important to scoring well on examinations since many professors set inquiries on examinations that tin only be answered from social class treatments and subjects not covered in the textbook. Therefore, do a point to go to class. It may be boring, but you'll be thanking me come up examination day.

2.) Get plentifulness of remainder the nighttime before an exam

Once again, a tip that looks simple, but so many college pupils neglect to set up themselves for an examination by not getting adequate sleep. This consequences in being groggy and not able to concentrate during the exam. So, do certain you acquire at least eight hours of slumber before any large exam. Rest = mental focusing and watchfulness = high examination score

3.) Associate the stuff to something you know

If you're studying stuff that's complicated or completely foreign to you, seek and associate it with something you're familiar with. Necktie key footing to simpler conceptions in countries you have got cognition in. This volition do it much easier to retrieve the stuff during the exam.

Reading Style Development for Research Papers

2007-07-06T07:15:00.001-07:00

In order to develop a proper and effectual reading style for research papers, it is of import to cognize two things: First - what one should seek and acquire out of the paper, and 2nd - exactly where that information is located in that peculiar paper.

For effectual and good research paper writing, one should cognize exactly how a typical research paper is brought together. For any research paper, there is always an deathless outlook that a peculiar job have been solved that no 1 else have published yet, in that literature.

But it is to be remembered that an thought alone cannot usually be adequate for publication of any research paper. In order to set an thought on paper, one should larn how to compose a good research paper and also give a good research talk, travel ahead and research accomplishments in authorship papers, on giving research talks. It is to be noted that authorship research proposals are cardinal skills, but they aren't easy at all.

For reference, one can mention to a book - "How to compose a good research paper", by St Simon Peyton Jones. Please short letter that before obtaining aid from any federal federal federal agency for authorship research papers, one should cognize the agency's background.

It is always good if the authors at the agency have got helped out college pupils by authorship the internet's best research document for a long clip period of time. It is also good if the federal agency have a dedicated squad of specializers working extremely difficult twelvemonth after twelvemonth authorship one thousands of alone research document for reference.

One will happen tons of other companies that claim to be "experts" in authorship every type of academic paper possible, but one should take federal agencies who specialise in lone authorship research papers. Any agency's specialised nature will do its service the most experienced, qualified beginning for perfectly formatted research document in all commendation styles, including MLA, APA, Turabian, Chicago, and may be even Harvard.

Get The Point - Paying For College At The Grocery Store

2007-07-02T09:40:00.001-07:00

Rewards programs or points programs for college fall into two major categories:

1.) rewards credit cards and

2.) rewards for specific purchases programs.

The basics of the programs are essentially the same. You spend money at the grocery store, gas station, and restaurants on items you would normally buy and you earn points or rewards dollars that are placed into a college savings account, typically a 529 tuition account.

There are a variety of college rewards credit cards available. Most pay up to 1% into a 529 college savings plan for all purchases made. Some cards do pay more than 1%, but that is a general average. Let's take a look at the math behind this. If you open one of these card accounts when your child is born, you'll have 18 years to earn rewards on purchases. Let's say that you are a responsible credit card user and pay the balance every month. You use your card for gas, groceries, and at restaurants with an average spent of about $400 per month. This means you're spending approximately $4800 per year which means you're receiving $48 annually into a college savings account. After 18 years, before any interest or growth earnings, you will have accumulated $864. Even with a high growth rate on the 529 plan, you're not going to be able to pay for college with that savings amount. But every penny saved is one cent less that you wont have to pay in loan interest.

In addition to credit card rewards programs there are a variety of programs that allow you to earn points - which can be turned in to cash - for purchases of certain items at stores, restaurants, and other locations that you shop every day. These programs include:

Each of these programs requires a variety of stipulations and conditions. For example, in order to access dollars in your uPromise account to make payments towards a student loan, that student loan must be held by a specific loan service provider. SAGE scholars offers tuition discounts for students attending specific institutions. The benefit of all of these programs is that they are free. With a little time in your child's early years you can save substantial amounts of money with these programs if you work them to the best of your ability. Careful research and planning up front with one of these programs can provide valuable rewards for funding your child's education.

Besides these programs being free, they also pay much higher rewards than the credit card rewards programs. uPromise pays reward amounts ranging from 1% to 25% on the products and services which are eligible for rewards. And, you are not the only one who can fund your child's education with these programs. Upromise allows students to be selected by several family members and friends as the recipient of their savings.

So, if you have family and friends who would be willing to register their credit cards or discount cards from particular vendors with the uPromise web site then this may be an easy way for your child to earn even more money towards their college education.

Canadian Massage Schools

2007-06-29T12:42:00.001-07:00

If you are thinking of undertaking a massage course, you should take a look at Massage Schools in Canada. In as little as 18 months, you could begin an exciting future as a Registered Massage Therapist (RMT), with training from a Canadian massage school.

If you are someone who is dedicated to the field of natural healing, and you have a real interest in helping others to achieve optimum health, you might just be primed for a massage education. In Canada, the practicing massage therapist is also called a massotherapist, and there are several levels of education available. In less than two years, you can earn a diploma or certificate in massage at a massage school in Canada. More advanced studies at a four-year Canadian massage college will earn you a degree, and qualify you to apply for a massage therapy license in Canada.

Canadian massage schools provide both theoretical and practical coursework to give students a well-rounded massage education. Massage students are given numerous opportunities to work with actual patients, often including outreach and community programs. Clinical practice can take place in a hospitals or massage clinics, or in a private massage practice under the tutelage of a Registered Massage Therapist (RMT). This extensive, hands-on experience will help you to hone your massage techniques and improve your proficiency.

Your future massage practice will no doubt expose you to a wide assortment of patients, with varying reasons for seeking your services. You could specialize in one type of massage in order to treat one type of patient, such as the elderly, infants, people with soft-tissue injuries, athletes, and others. This is why it is vitally important that your massage training includes a variety of styles, modalities, and techniques so that you can provide the optimum benefits of massage to your patients.

Before enrolling in a Canadian massage school, be sure to carefully review the curriculum, tuition costs, and accreditation. Many of the massage schools in Canada require the applicant to possess a bachelor's degree (preferably pre-med) to qualify for enrollment. Take all of this into consideration before you plunk down any of your hard-earned money on a massage course in Canada.

To learn more about Canada Massage Schools and other massage schools, please visit our website where you can review massage courses and submit a request for more information. SchoolsGalore.com can help you find out everything you need to know for a successful career in massage.

DISCLAIMER: Above is a GENERAL OVERVIEW and may or may not reflect specific practices, courses and/or services associated with ANY ONE particular school(s) that is or is not advertised on SchoolsGalore.com.

Notice: Publishers are free to use this article on an ezine or website, provided the article is reprinted in its entirety, including copyright and disclaimer, and ALL links remain intact and active.

How Average Students Can Win At The IIM Personal Interview

2007-06-27T06:46:00.001-07:00

However what should your strategy be if you have
no awards and achievements (other than being
school prefect - somehow all MBA candidates are
school prefects) to speak of and you found yourself
selected by one of the IIM's or other top tier
B-schools.

For you to succeed here are a few pointers that can
aid in the process:

1) Be clear about your goals: In your case you will
have to be definitive about what you want to achieve
in the next 3-5 years and exactly how an MBA will
fit in the picture. Suppose you are an Arts graduate,
suppose Psychology Honors. Now you should focus
on the industry to begin with- suppose Finance and
Investment Analysis. You can state that a major
part of the investment analysis is examining trading
psychology. Why some stocks tick despite poor
fundamentals and some fail to move despite good
fundamentals. You can state that you have enough
of numerical understanding and backed by an MBA
in finance you could carve out a strong niche in the
area of Investment Analysis and Dealing of
securities.

2) Show your ability to think business: If you have
never won a award, examine activities that seem to
add value to some process. For example you could
start a blog on a topic such as Tax planning for
home based professionals. Talk about what kind of
advice and articles you wrote for the blog and how
popular your blog was by examining the page views
received from the blog. You can start a blog on
wordpress or blogger as they allow free blogs and
also have a statistics section to measure how many
page views you received.

3) Be well prepared to talk about your academics: Be
clear of the basic fundamentals, as they will surely
want to know how serious you were about your
studies. Go over the major fundamentals and be sure
to be able to answer them

It is not an easy task to prepare for IIM Personal Interview questions . So don't punish yourself
mentally if the initial answers you write don't seem
impressive enough.

Michigan Law Schools - How to Find & Get Into a Great Law School in Michigan

2007-06-11T13:47:00.001-07:00

There are six great law schools in the State of Michigan. These include the Ave Maria School of Law in Ann Arbor, the University of Detroit Mercy School of Law in Detroit, the University of Michigan Law School in Ann Arbor, the Michigan State University College of Law in East Lansing, the Thomas M. Cooley School of Law in Lansing, and Wayne State University Law School in Detroit.

Of course, not all Michigan law schools are alike, and in choosing a Michigan law school - as you would with any school - you should make sure that you are making the correct choice for YOU. Unfortunately, far to many prospective law students fall into the trap of letting magazines and artificial law school rankings make the choice for them. If you were to do that, you might focus on the University of Michigan Law School, which admittedly enjoys an outstanding national reputation, to the exclusion of several other excellent law schools in Michigan or elsewhere.

One of the things I try and emphasize to students trying to select a law school is that you get a very similar education no matter where you go. The "elite" schools will never admit that, but its true. Moreover, having been a practicing lawyer now for almost 10 years, I assure you that where you went to law school will very quickly become virtually meaningless to your employers and colleagues. I've known great lawyers and terrible lawyers who went to great schools - and I've known great lawyers and terrible lawyers who went to no-name night schools.

Therefore, if you've decided you want to go to law school in Michigan, you should carefully analyze which of the excellent choices will be the best law school for you. If your aim to get a high-paying job in Manhattan immediately after graduation, the University of Michigan Law School is probably a place you should target. On the other hand, if you're looking to set up a local practice on of the smaller local schools may be your best choice.

Although the substance of what you will learn is largely the same at every school, the environment is definitely not. That's why, if you've decided you want to go to a Michigan Law School, you should visit every school you're considering to get a feel for the campus and physical surroundings. You should also speak with some students to see what they have to say about the atmosphere. Some law schools are definitely more friendly that others.

No two Michigan law schools are created alike, just as no two law students are created alike. Finding a good match should be your top priority. You're going to spend three years of your life and tens of thousands of dollars - regardless of which Michigan law school you select - and you should do everything possible to make sure its not a miserable investment.

When I was choosing which law school to attend I spent hundreds of hours and thousands of dollars researching and in many cases visiting the eleven schools that made my final list. In the end, I didn't choose the highest ranked or most prestigious school I got into, but I did choose the best law school for me. And I made the right choice.

This is just one of the many topics I discuss in my ebook Covert Tactics for Getting Into the Law School of Your Choice and in the Covert Tactics Law School Newsletter, both of which are available at my website.

This article may be freely reprinted or distributed in its entirety in any ezine, newsletter, blog or website. The author's name, bio and website links must remain intact and be included with every reproduction.

College Prep - How to Read a Book for Success

2007-06-08T09:39:00.001-07:00

Probably the most important skill that you will ever acquire is reading. It doesn't matter if you read fast or slow you need to read and read often. Many would argue that reading is no longer necessary for success but that just isn't true. Although some have made it without reading, studies show that the number one common habit among successful people is reading.

But just because you know how to read doesn't mean you are reading as well as you could. You also need to know how to correctly read a book. You need to be able to make the book yours which is an intimate process involving action. You cannot master a book being passive. You must think, envision and imagine what is being conveyed to you by the author.

Like any relationship reading a book is work and what you get out of the relationship is directly related to what you put into it. If you don't get from a book what you expected examine your own actions before you condemn the book or the author.

Were you true to the book reading process? Did you take time to build a relationship between you, the author and the book? Or did you hurry the process, skip the four-play and rush to the climax? Leaving all involved dissatisfied and wanting.

If you truly desire to make a book your own and gleam from it all its treasure. You must develop a habit of reading and a system to enhance that habit. Here are some suggestions to help you get started on in a habit of intelligent reading.

Read the front cover, the back cover and the dust jacket.

First, you must take time to examine the front cover; then read the title and the subtitle. Begin thinking about what the title or subtitle is trying to tell you about the book. Now examine the back cover and read the summary if one is provided, if not read the testimonials. What are they trying to tell you about the author, the book or the content? If there is a dust jacket read what the publisher included here.

Don't rush this process take your time and get to know your book.

Read the table of contents.

Next, turn to the table of contents and read each chapter title. Study the chapter explanations and get a feel for the book's structure. Many authors spend a great deal of time on the table of contents but most readers ignore the table of contents. Start a new habit and spend some time with the table of contents.

Note: If the book has an index take time to go through the index as well.

Read the preface, forward and introduction.

Now, read the preface, the forward and the introduction; read them carefully and thoughtfully. Here you will get your first glimpse of the author's intent. Don't hurry let the message come to you.

Choose a few passages to read.

Open the book and begin to turn the pages, stop occasionally and read a few sentences. Thumb through the book and read a few pages in a row but never more than that. Begin to get a feel for the main theme of the book.

Categorize your books.

By now you should have a pretty good idea of what the book is about and be able to categorize it. This is important because you don't want to read a science book the same way you read a poetry book. There are different types of books and different rules for reading them. Your possible categories are:

practical
theoretical
imaginative
stories
history
science
mathematics
canonical
philosophy
social science

Knowing where each book belongs determines how you continue the process to make each book your own. So, begin taking your time with your new book or re-kindle the flame with a book from your past. You won't regret it.

Boychik Lit Is Hipper Fratire

2007-05-25T09:51:00.001-07:00

The new term fratire, or fraternity satire, was coined a year ago by Warren St. John of the New York Times, presumably because his editors did not approve of another term that rhymes with "chick lit."

But somehow, fratire just doesn't seem catchy enough. And that preoccupation with fraternity culture - is puking on your own shoes really all that interesting?

How about - boychik lit instead? Derived from the Yiddish word for a young man who has more chutzpah than brains? Boychik lit can be a counterpoint, alternative to, and parody of the hugely popular female-oriented fiction genre. Moreover, boychik lit defies the widely held notion that today's young men won't or can't read, presumably because they've been conquered, co-opted, and rendered brain-dead by the video game industry and excessive self-abuse.

As to the population at large, even if they are not rabid fans of chick lit, the woman-on-the-street and her cowlicked male companion will both know something of Bridget Jones's Diary and The Devil Wears Prada. An even larger audience of TV viewers will have eagerly anticipated episode after bodice-gripping episode of Sex and the City.

One need not stray beyond the lush pastures of HBO to find the demographic home of boychik lit. Entourage is a series about young men on the make in Hollywood. However predictably repetitive the subject of scoring in Babe-alon, not only young men but also men of a certain age who fantasize about being young never seem to tire of Entourage.

The godfather of boychik was Peter De Vries, longtime New Yorker editor and (today) the lamentably deceased and mostly unsung master of the male-centered comic novel. For example, never one to shy way from topics in questionable taste, De Vries wrote Slouching Towards Kalamazoo, about a confused young man who elopes with his teacher, and Forever Panting, about a struggling actor who divorces his wife to marry his mother-in-law.

To summarize, in the boychik-lit story:

The male main character is looking for sex and is bewildered by emotional entanglements.
He is a hacker and a slacker, clever and resourceful but chronically lazy.
He's a dropout who can't hold a steady job.
Far from being the hero with a single tragic flaw, the boychik is riddled with worrisome flaws, with one or two possibly redeeming qualities.
The tone is observational and witty, sometimes sarcastic.
The boychik tells his story in a confessional, first-person narrative.
At the end of the novel, the hero has almost managed to undo the complicated mess he's made in the course of the story and thinks he has learned important lessons, which may or may not be valid.

Oh, and one more crucial distinction: The chick-lit novel is typically set in New York City, ironically where many people readily understand what a boychik is. The boychik novel is set in Los Angeles, where many people will mistakenly assume that boychiks wear wigs and stiletto heels and hang out in certain bars in West Hollywood. # # #

Read the author's blog where he discusses his own recent contribution to the genre, My Inflatable Friend: The Confessions of Rollo Hemphill.

Humor - Advice for Newlyweds

2007-05-22T14:21:00.001-07:00

My granddaughter got married in Illinois so we hopped in the car and emptied our pocket book at a dozen or so service stations along the way.

I should say "gas" stations as there is no such thing as a service station since the man with the "star" turned in his badge—except in New Jersey and Oregon where it is still civilized.

Twice I decided to put my wife's handicap tag on the rear view mirror and look forlornly out the window—but nobody volunteered to pump gas for me—and nobody seemed to care that I had about ten zillion bugs on my windshield.

So I pumped my own gas and watched the pennies zip buy at the speed of light while the gallons moved as slowly as molasses in January in Nome located on the south coast of the Seward Peninsula which, if you haven't been there or have been there, is in Alaska.

Removing bugs squished on my windshield at 75.3 miles per hour is horrific. The speed quoted is the combined speed of my Sienna and the bugs, but that is only an estimate. Dragonflies, which make a big splat, could raise that to 75.35 or so.

God made bugs of mostly waterproof, instant-setting epoxy resin. I always carry a spade in my car for the tough spots. My wife says the scratches the spade makes are worse than the bugs. How could that be?

Having always had a persistence to study nature, I study each squished bug carefully to see if I can add a new species to my "life bug list" which I keep in my glove compartment next to my "life bird list" and my "life rock list."

We had stopped in the fossil hills of Wyoming to look at past squished critters and I saw that I had an extinct cousin of Dendroctonus ponderosae on my windshield— Dendroctonus ponderosae nowdeadacus—or ancient pine beetle.

I hoped to register this with The World Federation of Extinct Species so they could remove it from their list, but I realized that I would be accused of making the extinction of Dendroctonus ponderosae nowdeadacus final.

Anyway, I could not scrap the bug onto my sticking note, so they would not believe me anyway. Also, the photo I took of the bug was as blurry as the bug.

By the way, did you know that we are losing a number of species of farm animals every year? I read that at: http://www.fao.org/NEWS/2000/001201-e.htm

We got to Newton, Iowa where there was a pre-marriage reception for my granddaughter and the handsome quarterback she had landed. He is the twin of his wide receiver who was married last year and so got ahead of him.

Some of our old Iowa friends were at the reception and we exchanged lies and other success stories. It was very hot in the building and the caterers could hardly keep the punch bowls filled. It was not any cooler in Illinois on the banks of the Mighty Mississippi.

I always call the Mississippi, "Mighty." I wonder if I leaned that from Mark Twain who hung out on the river. Do you remember Indian Joe of Tom Sawyer fame? I think that Tom Sawyer was one of the first movies I ever saw. Indian Joe scared the daylights out of me. When I was birding with my Number 2 son on the bank of the river, I kept an eye out for that sneaky Indian Joe in the woods.

Well, my granddaughter and her man were married in the Nauvoo Temple as were her brother and older sister. It is the custom of we Mormons to get married forever so that is what they did.

Here is my advice to the new couple:

Keep Truckin'!

The End

Real life, or Something Like It

2007-05-19T16:13:00.001-07:00

I live my life online as do many of you, and lately I have been frustrated by how hard it is to leave the virtual world and find the physical items that I need to do business with someone.

I mean, who has the time anymore? What with all the hours spent creating fake MySpace celebrity pages and linking them to my real accounts, setting up new SecondLife virtual businesses, sending IMs to all my far-flung correspondents, Skyping colleagues to keep up to date on what they are doing around the world, updating my LinkedIn profile and writing endorsements for others, reading my group email postings, downloading free music to play on my iPod so I don't have to talk to people as I am walking down the street, and checking out the latest overnight rankings on various game servers to track my progress, is there any time left to just live your life in what used to be so quaintly called meatspace anymore? Who needs meatspace when there is all this meet-space, anyway?

Remember that cell phone service that tells you when you are in the vicinity of your friends? It seems so odd now. Why bother going out, when you have all your broadband at home? And when I am out, I find myself looking around to figure out where I can get connected. This is the beginning sign of addiction.

Is it any wonder that we can't carry on a real f2f convo anymore? (And how many of you had to stop and decode that last sentence. LOL) At least we are all becoming excellent touch typists. I guess that is one skill that has shown improvement across all demographics. That is, if you can take the time to type out the entire sentence and not abbreviate it as I just did.

And I didn't even mention updating all of my blogs and creating podcasts, sending out these email updates to my mailing list, maintaining the mailing list and associated Web sites, and doing my usual round of online backups too. Isn't it nice that we all these systems to make us more productive? How about spending some time creating actual content, rather than all this babysitting our data?

It is great that we can Google anything anyone anytime, and research their college indiscretions (lucky for moi Al Gore hadn't invented the Internet yet when I was that age), but try finding a postal address, a phone number, or a contact name on the average Web site nowadays. Or how about trying to find any indication of the company you are surfing has actually been in business, or is still in business. It hasn't gotten any easier to get these mundane pieces of information, with phishing emails and hijacked URLs. (Have you all gotten the latest batch of Paypal messages saying that money has been deposited to your account? Don't open those.)

This just proves my point: we all live in the virtual world, and concentrate our energies on the screen instead of each other. So gather up your individual laptops, sit on the couch with the TV on and with a few IM sessions open, and don't forget to grab your cell phones in case someone wants to call you. On the other hand, it has gotten easier to screen my phone calls — the only people that call my wired home line these days are selling me something, or wrong numbers.

Ok, I gotta go post this email and get back to doing some real work for my clients.

Sending the Kids Off to College Should not Break the Bank

2007-05-17T14:16:00.001-07:00

Well here it is another school year at an end. The kids are ready for summer, fun, beaches, parties and everything else. What they are not thinking about are colleges. They, in fall will be off to college and possibly working and a busy schedule.

By taking the summer in steps you will have some extra money for college. As you all know books will break a bank. They in some cases are more expensive than the classes. The kids of today want to party and have a lot of fun. But by sitting with them and telling them that you are paying for college does not teach them, but by saying you are going to assist them and help them, you may find this will be better on your wallet.

In June let the kids rest. They sure have earned it. But tell them by July you want them to have a part time job that will help pay for their summer fun and also some they can stick aside for college. This is an easy step. They should have no problem agreeing with this. Work it out on a spreadsheet, after they get their job. Take half and show them over the summer what they will have. Sure it may not amount to much, BUT at least it's a start.

In some cases the kids are only going to a junior college. They can still keep their job. This is great. That way they can still have the savings during the year.

Another step that you can take is if you don't want them to work, but just rest most of the summer for their college adventure, then you should not have to sock them all their fun money…they should work part of it off. They are never too old to take out the trash.

By working with your kids you will find that they too are willing to save and work for what they want.

Computer Graphic Schools Foster Dynamically Digital Careers

2007-05-15T09:16:00.001-07:00

Considering computer graphic schools that can help you start a graphic design career? Stanley Gilbert, a long-time graphic designer and illustrator, who also teaches design and illustration at Austin Community College (AAC, Austin, TX), stresses the importance of finding your niche.

"Prospective students should weigh the alternatives between an intensive two-year program like ACC's and more laid back, but academically challenging, four-year computer graphic degrees from a university," says Gilbert. That's because, as he explains to his students, having work skills is not enough in an industry that shapes film, theatre, music and literature -- degrees from computer graphic schools will set you apart. "You've got to have some of the 'it' that sets you apart, and full, well-rounded [computer graphic degrees] are vital, whether you get it formally at a university or informally on your own."

Before Computer Graphic Schools...

In his own experience, Gilbert learned early on after graduating from Texas State University in the 1970s with a degree in commercial arts, and trying his hand at a freelancing career, that it would take another school stint to keep up with the technology. That's when he decided to attend ACC (where he would later be asked to teach as an adjunct). And students wishing to attain computer graphics degrees, he says, are taking the first step toward a lucrative career.

"I couldn't recommend a better launching pad into the business for a freshman student than a design certificate or degree from a reputable and well established school," says Gilbert. "If I had had such opportunities from the start, I might have been in the business for 30 years now instead of only 20."

Skills to Seek at Computer Graphic Schools

Whether your choice computer graphic schools emphasize computer graphics degrees or computer aided design programs, Gilbert says there are basic skills that designers should learn. They include being able to:

Exhibit a high level of creativity used to solve problems

Think outside the box while functioning productively inside the limits

Write, speak, and create effectively

Respond quickly and inventively to client's needs

Demonstrate good hand-eye coordination

Pay attention to detail

One thing is for sure when considering computer graphic schools or computer aided design programs: "The industry keeps expanding both technically and in job description," explains Gilbert. The time to start pursuing computer graphics degrees is now.

Holistic Universities - Meeting Alternative Education Demands

2007-05-11T09:13:00.001-07:00

Find Holistic Universities in the United States and Canada. While the fields of alternative and holistic medicine continue to expand, so does the growing demand for integrative and complementary healthcare. This explains the phenomenal development and rise of holistic universities.

Today, one can choose from any number of holistic universities that offer a broad spectrum of healing arts modalities. Whether you elect to enroll in a chiropractic course of study, or if you are more drawn to massage therapy, then holistic universities can provide you with education and training to meet your personal and professional aspirations. Chiropractic holistic universities do, however, require prerequisite education from an accredited college or school. Furthermore, students choosing to pursue their doctor of chiropractic degree will quickly discover that the majority of chiropractic holistic universities call for a mandatory 4,000+ hours of clinical, class and lab training.

Holistic universities offering bodywork programs, for example, will typically provide education and practical training in musculoskeletal anatomy, physiology, kinesiology, deep tissue massage, sports massage and Swedish massage. For more advanced courses, a number of holistic universities will extend hands-on instruction in acupressure/shiatsu, Chinese medical massage (Tuina), cross-fiber massage, craniosacral therapy, Rolfing technique, lymphatic massage, Thai massage, and a variety of other specialty bodywork methodologies.

Holistic universities offering Oriental medicine studies will give students an opportunity to learn about Eastern medicine philosophies, including education in acupuncture, Qigong, Chinese herbal medicine, needling techniques, moxibustion (cupping), and other related coursework.

There are also holistic universities that offer training to students who desire to become holistic health practitioners. Applicants who engage in this course of study will gain a wealth of knowledge and skills in holistic health modalities including instruction in mind-body-spirit medicine - which may involve energy healing therapies, bodywork, herbology, natural health, nutrition (vitamins, supplements, etc.) and associated classes in anatomy, physiology and pharmacology.

Overall, conventional medicine is no longer the only proverbial "kid on the block" for treating common illnesses, ailments and disease; holistic universities provide the necessary academics and training to accommodate the popular demand for holistic MDs, chiropractics, acupuncturists, massage therapists and the like.

If you (or someone you know) are interested in finding holistic universities, let career training within fast-growing industries like massage therapy, cosmetology, acupuncture, oriental medicine, Reiki, and others get you started! Explore career school programs near you.

Holistic Universities: Meeting Alternative Education Demands

© Copyright 2007

The CollegeBound Network

All Rights Reserved

NOTICE: Article(s) may be republished free of charge to relevant websites, as long as Copyright and Author Resource Box are included; and ALL Hyperlinks REMAIN intact and active.

Closed For The Season

2007-05-03T21:54:00.000-07:00

It's time, folks. I need to board up the cabin for awhile and take a vacation from blogging. It's definately not permanent. I could keep blogging every work day but I think I need to force myself to not do it for awhile. I'm also on vacation starting Thursday for a week. I'll still be reading everyone's blogs, I just want to not have to put anything down on mine.

Who Says?

2007-02-07T02:10:00.000-08:00

Who says you can't import your new Blogger into WordPress? I tried WP for a bit but decided to upgrade to the new Blogger, and I specifically remember reading you couldn't import once you switched. But then everyone is going to WordPress and doing the things that the new Blogger doesn't allow. So I decided to try it again...and it did it. All my posts are here.

So head over to the new cabin at: http://themountaincabin.wordpress.com/

I won't be doing any double-posting...I'll just pick up with the new site as soon as I can. Work is so busy and dealing with some personal stuff. I hope to get back to the blogging every weekday really soon.

The Best Birthday Gift Ever!

2007-01-31T02:10:00.000-08:00

Yes, today is my birthday. Even if I had forgotten my own b-day, I would have been reminded by the 10 dozen automatic emails in my account from all the message boards and groups I'm part of that sent out a congratulatory message to me. At least I know the computer servers care. ;-)

But what is the best birthday gift I mentioned in my header? Well...remember back a handful of weeks ago when I found out my company was switching health care providers? And neither of my two choices carried the fabulous, new doctor I had found? Read it HERE. Well, I decided to check once more, but this time I went to their website (this Doctor has her stuff together - a comprehensive website with all the info you could want). I got the email address of the woman in charge of insurance, and I emailed her yesterday asking if they take my new insurance.

And guess what came in my inbox this afternoon? Her email saying they now take my insurance! WooHoo! and how does this grab you for great customer service? She said she noticed that a number of their patients were no longer covered because they had to go with the same company I have, and instead of losing them, picked them up so we could all stay. I tell you, I feel incredibly lucky to have found them.

I've been busy all this morning on a project at work. Two of us are trying to get the new master image out to all the counselor's PC's in the call center. We have about a third of it finished. We'll be working on it each morning up through Saturday morning (unless we get it done by Friday or better yet Thursday, and then no need to come in on the weekend).

The 'spike' in my forehead is gone so that's a big plus. I also got the neatest b-day gift from M. who works in the call center. She's kinda goth and loves Nightmare Before Christmas like me, and other Disney stuff. I'll try and get shots of it to post here. Mark told me where my present from him was (he's out of State right now) and I opened it this morning. It was a trivia game I had my eye on. Can't wait to get together with our friends to play.

And finally, I'm giving a review of the new HBO comedy, Extras. I'm not too sure if HBO started with the second season, or it's in the second season (it's filmed in England) and HBO is starting with the first season....but....I honestly had to keep myself from trying to turn it off, I was that uncomfortable...and it's only a half an hour show.

Now let me preface by saying I love British humor, from the PBS 'Brit-coms' to Ab-Fab (possibly one of the best comedies to ever come out of the UK) to Monty Python. But I just didn't get the humor. If it was supposed to be funny, it was the very mean type, like Andrew Dice Clay comedy where you laugh at someone because you aren't the target of the mean jokes.

Ricky Jervais is Andy Millman, an actor who has some how fallen from the graces of the BBC, and is trying to work his way back to the top from the ground level.

Maybe the episode I saw was just not that good but I cringed all the way through it and didn't laugh once. Now the American version of The Office (which Ricky Jervais created the British version) is cringe-inducing, but you still laugh, and care for the characters (I just love when Jim and Pam are playing pranks on Dwight and they knowingly smile at the camera). Andy just doesn't act like a real person. He sits there and lets people basically take a dump on his character/his job/his career, and he just looks at them and doesn't fight back/make a nasty comeback/break down in tears and run away/etc. He gets this slack-jawed look as if to say, 'If I don't say anything or react, maybe they'll stop being mean to me'. The rock-God, Mr. Bowie, was on this episode and Andy gets he and his girlfreind in a bar's VIP area where Mr. Bowie is. Then Mr. Bowie just suddenly sits down and makes up a song on the spot singing about the 'pug-faced, little man who sold his soul' (referring to him making the worst sitcom ever for money - briefly glimpsed at the start of the episode). God, it was just embarrassing. Not that it was badly down...the acting is good...but just that it was pointless. If Andy was a mean nasty guy and deserved what came to him, then OK (think Rowan Atkinson as The Black Adder - or hell, the Coyote as he chased the RoadRunner), but he's just this actor who just goes along with life and wants to be famous. I would honestly love to hear someone else's take on this program. Am I wrong here? Did I catch a bad episode?

Heffalumps and Woosels

2007-01-29T02:10:00.000-08:00

My little 'under the weather' spell from last week turned into a full on sinus infection Friday night. I spent the weekend miserable, and on Saturday worried about Logan because he threw up twice that evening. I had taken him to the vet Saturday morning for a shot but don't know if that would have caused it. He's been perfectly fine all day Sunday.

But by Sunday I was not going to chance trying to get in to see a doctor on Monday so I went to the clinic just down the street from me. It was deserted, which was nice, and they take my new insurance. Only the co-pay for the visit was higher, and that was a bargain if I could get on some drugs that day.

Any of you have the problem that when you start taking something you get the weirdest dreams? And this was lucid dreaming for me...I knew I was awake at times, I could influence what was happening and the dream just went on and on. I can remember every detail crystal clear but won't write it down because it was so f-ing bizarre! Golden weapons, dwarf bread, spirits, white magic.... But the lovely part was about 4 AM when I realized someone had driven a railroad spike through my forehead! It still hurts and it's 12:30 here at work. If one of my co-workers didn't have today off I'd have called in.

I did watch Another Gay Movie last night. Totally raunchy and very funny. It's a low budget gay version of American Pie about 4 gay boys trying to loose their virginity before college starts. And there's hint of a sequel in the movie, too. It was totally more enjoyable than The Dukes of Hazzard movie which I also watched. That film was a steaming pile of dog crap.

That's it for me. Gonna try and look busy until 3 when I can get home and go to sleep.

Making An Appearence

2007-01-25T02:10:00.000-08:00

It's almost the end of my work day and I'm so happy. I get tomorrow off (instead of Monday) so I can sleep in and try and get over this sinus/cold thing I have. Our company's Board of Directors are here for the next few days but, luckily, my co-worker has been placed on 'BoD' duty. He has to fix or deliver the computer related items they want for the next few days. If I don't feel any worse I hope to catch a movie. I still haven't seen Dreamgirls.

Everyone have a safe weekend!

MIA

2007-01-23T02:10:00.000-08:00

I am still here. Work has been very busy. Add to that I am fighting a cold and feel awful so I'm not posting much. I'll return when I can. At least my co-worker bought me lunch today. Left over Macaroni Grill for the next few days.

On the same subject, my back has been hurting (be quiet, Spider!) the past few weeks and I haven't been doing any major lifting or hauling of equipment. So I'm going to see a chiropractor at the office where my brother's wife works. She talks about the folks who come out of the sessions feeling so much better. It couldn't hurt. :-)

Things That Make You Go 'Hmmmmmm.....'

2007-01-18T02:10:00.000-08:00

Harvard Confirms Rising Nicotine In Cigarettes

And people keep smoking cigarettes why...?

Gotta Love My Town

2007-01-16T02:10:00.000-08:00

Let's take a little trip to the area of my town. It's located on Highway 27 right where the Highway 192 ends.

And there are a few sights I need to tell you about that you will see if you drive past this area.

The first is the boobie bar, formerly know as Roxy's. It's new name is Fantasy Gentleman's Club. Catchy title, huh? It's been there since before I moved to Clermont so at least 6 years, but probably more. But you can't tell by the building because it just got re-stucco'd! I'm still waiting on what color they will repaint it...or maybe they'll leave it cement gray. We had so hoped this place would get torn down when they started widening 27, but no such luck. For the Christmas and New Year season the owner had two electronic marquee signs in front of it (one facing north and one facing south), but they are gone now. He must have gone over budget renting them and couldn't keep them. Stripper sparkles and pasties are expensive!

Across the street we have this 'L' shaped wooden building. It was once a large citrus stand that must have done big business back when there was nothing out there but orange groves, and customers driving down to and back from Miami stopped for souvenirs and citrus. Now, the fruit stand occupies about a third of the building.

But what of the rest of this building? Well, early last year, Homer's BBQ opened up at the other end of the building. They even got a fancy painted sign with a smiling pig on it shortly after opening. They were open only on certain days, but the operating hours expanded and then they were 7 days a week. Sadly, Homer's closed last month. The marquee announced they were closed and restaurant equipment was for sale. But don't fear. It's now used for Catholic services on Sunday! They even have plastic film over the windows to make it look like real stained glass!

It goes so well with the pool supply store and the florist that have recently taken up residence between it and the fruit stand section. Definite proof that hope springs eternal.

Then there's the abandoned gas station right past it. It changed hands several times but finally breathed it's last in 2006. It's abandoned, but don't worry. You can get gas at the station right next to it. They even sell 'Cuban Sandwishes'!

Yes, it's all for real. Come by and check it out sometime.

3 Reviews, Oh My

2007-01-12T02:10:00.000-08:00

Yes, I have three quick movie reviews for you.

The first is Shock Treatment, the semi-sequel to The Rocky Horror Picture Show. This film was just recently released in a double DVD set along with RHPS. I had seen it only once but love the music from it. Mark and some friends of ours had never seen it. So after dinner out we all went to our place to watch it.

The reason it's sort of considered a sequel is because it has the characters of Brad and Janet in it (it also has Betty and Ralph Hapschatt who are in the opening scene of RHPS, too). The story revolves around a TV studio in Denton where Brad and Janet become 'contestants' on a marriage program. Brad ends up being committed (to another program, in fact) and Janet is wooed and coerced into becoming the next be star for the mogul who runs the studio.

The film did not succeed for several reasons. First, it was specifically made to be a cult film, following Rocky. What the creators didn't realize is you can't purposely make a cult film...the following has to form itself. It was also shown only at midnight showings (like RHPS is now) so no real public exposure.

Secondly, the script is hard to follow. It could have benefited from some better editing and rewriting. I think part of this problem was due to the fact that the film was supposed to be shot in the actual town of Denton, Texas, but a film strike in the States forced it to be filmed in England. The writers had to do a rewrite and set it all inside a television studio (no American location shots needed), which lead to one of the best parts, though. Read on to see my explanation.

Third, the only actor to return from RHPS to reprise their original role was Jeremy Newsom (Ralph Hapschatt), the other three returning characters (Betty, Janet, and Brad) are played by different actors. But to make things stranger, 4 actors from the original movie are back...as different characters! It all is quite strange. But you do get to see Barry Humphries not dressed up as Dame Edna, and I love me some Jessica Harper as Janet! (See the pic above) She has the most wonderfully deep singing voice.

The movie really is not that great. The music is it's saving grace. But watching it today you will get this very eerie feeling. This film actually predicts reality television! This is the bit I mentioned earlier: that perhaps the sudden re-write to place all the action inside a TV studio adds this different facet to it. All the 'programs' at the studio are basically real people just being manipulated and filmed for the studio audiences's pleasure.

Richard O'Brien did write an actual sequel to RHPS entitled 'Revenge of the Old Queen' back in the 80's, but due to the failure of Shock Treatment, and the age of the original actors he says there is little hope it will ever get filmed.

*********************************************

Movie review #2: The Haunting (the 1963 version)

What an awesome horror film! I read the original novel by Shirley Jackson some years ago and found it interesting. I think this film is better than the novel! The acting is first rate. The house it was filmed in is wonderfully creepy. And you never really see anything scary, it's all implied by sound effects and the actors' reactions to everything...and it does the trick!

A group of people are invited to a house that is thought to be haunted (it has a history of people dying from accidents in and around it). This is the story of their stay there. If you like a good ghost story, this one you will really like.

**************************************

Movie review #3: Videodrome

A bizarre horror film that preaches about the dangers of new technology and those who abuse it.

James Woods (looking really sexy in his younger days), runs a public access channel that shows soft-core porn movies. But his technician comes across a pirate feed that shows snuff films. When he watches the video tapes he start hallucinating weird things. As he investigates who is broadcasting this signal, he finds he's been turned into a guinea pig and an assassin for the broadcasters of this strange program. It really turn bizarre when a giant gaping wound appears in his stomach and he becomes this living VCR where when the Videodrome recordings are inserted he is at their mercy. And Deborah Harry (aka Blondie) is one masochistic lady in this film. Some interesting effects too. I really liked the one where Deborah Harry is on the tv screen and it begins to bulge out of the set, and James Woods starts making out with her. It's a simple effect that still looks impressive by today's standards (this was filmed long before CGI was used in movies).

If you don't mind some gore, some torture, and some trippy visuals, then give Videodrome a try.

School Days

2007-01-11T02:10:00.000-08:00

I had my second class today, and it's my favorite of the two I'm taking. I've had Professor R. before and he's a lot of fun. He has a very easy teaching style and is geared towards real-world knowledge, not book learning necessarily. Professor N. from class #1 seems OK (never had him before this class) but he's not a loud speaker and seems to ramble a bit.

The interesting news is the school will be offering a Security Systems Analyst degree in August. I'm going to get more information on it, and at least take some of the classes as course electives that I still need to take.

Work is really hopping today once I got back from class so I'm off to complete more tickets. Later!

Saying Goodbye

2007-01-10T02:10:00.000-08:00

I received an email yesterday that really effected me. I won't go into details but it had to do with a dear friend of mine and his state of health. Even though I've only known him for a handful of years, and only saw him usually once or twice a year, he became a good friend to me. Most of our communication was through emails or discussion boards we moderated on.

I am 37 years old and have never had to deal with the death of a friend until now. I went home and wrote him an honest email while crying over the keyboard. His email said that saying goodbye over the phone would have been too much and he had to do it in an email. So I called our mutual friends and spoke with them - all of them as shook-up and stunned as I was.

I admire him for his strength and intelligence. He never takes crap from anyone and always tells it like it is. I wish I could be more like him. He also has the best stories to tell. He always teases me about the Broadway productions he has seen with the original cast members.

I know there will be some more days of tears we all will shed for him. Definitely more tears when I see the gang again next time and we start reminiscing. And his partner, B., has the hardest job of all. I just hope he can handle this, and know that he has friends who will help him through it.

On Saturday I think I'll go to the Magic Kingdom and go ride our favorite attraction, the one that brought me into his circle of friends, and think about him.

T., I love you man. I know I said this in my email to you, but just know you touched my life, and I am better for it. I'm gonna miss your wit and wisdom, but will always cherish our friendship.

Goodbye.

Your friend, Reid

Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (Yawn Yawn)

2007-01-09T02:10:00.000-08:00

Did ya' miss me? Yesterday was just a really busy day at work (add to that not really having a subject come to me I wanted to blog about). And now staying later at work (more on that in a bit) and being the only one at home for a few weeks I had very little free time.

First, a movie review:

Kiss Kiss Bang Bang - I had hopes for this film. It was nominated for a GLAAD Award in 2006 for Outstanding Film - Wide Release, though did not win. I thought if GLAAD nominated this, there's got to be something 'gay-worthy' in it. There really wasn't. Val Kilmer's private eye character is gay, but he isn't the main character, and his sexuality was not really necessary except for the 'tied-to-the-chair' scene. Otherwise, it's a quirky murder mystery where the writers decide it would be great to have Robert Downey Jr get his finger cut off by a slamming door and have a dog eat it. Watch it if it's on cable, but unless you are a huge RDJ or VK fan, I wouldn't waste your money on renting it.

As for the story-line, a private eye, a small-town girl in Hollywood, and a thief-turned-actor get embroiled in a murder plot. A few chuckles but mostly uninteresting.

********************************

Today was the first day of class. Something to do with Server 2003 for Windows. Thursday's class is, too. I really like the little USB drive I bought. We can plug them right into the monitor! Neat-o! I also type my notes as the teacher talks and save them right to the drive.

After spending $237 on school books yesterday I am glad to find out I can return one of them that we aren't going to use ($48.70 back on the credit card! WooHoo!)

But because of my day classes, I am staying later at work to make up the time. And some changes will have to be made to that. I was at work until 5:30 yesterday. The worst part about that is I don't get home until the sunset, so the kids have been alone during the daylight hours. To make it up to them I let them run around the front yard (they race each other between our house and Serge's house, back and forth). I let them do this until they both needed to take a dump on his lawn. Hey, he doesn't pick up after his dog, so I'm just paying him back.

Well, to get back on track, I am going to adjust my time to 5 PM. I'll shorten my lunches to 30 minutes (or skip all together) to make it all work. But I am really psyched starting school again. I checked out my degree chart and it looks like I'll need only 6 more classes after these two are done. I know I won't be able to take 3 classes over the summer, and unlikely even 2 classes will be available I need, so I foresee me getting my degree in 2008.

Well, lunch is over so back to work for me. Everyone have a great week.

Work Decisions

2007-01-03T02:10:00.000-08:00

If you've read my blog over the past few months you'll know about the unrest we've been through at my place of employment. First, we were told of our financial instability so raises and bonuses were on hold for two years (could change depending on how our business improves). Then we laid off almost a dozen people, some of them directors (IE-executives). I was not worried about my job because I'm infrastructure. They simply can't keep the place running with less people at the Help Desk. Was this the job I wanted to stay at? Stuff like this can really beat your morale down.

It has come to the point where I've been putting my resume out and seeing what jobs might be available. Nothing fabulous has appeared. But something has happened that has me thinking I'll stay a while longer.

When my boss allowed me to take day classes for the upcoming semester, I thought how lucky I am to work in a company that is small enough where we all know each other, and one of my bosses would have my educational interests at heart. The place may not be perfect, but there are some really good benefits that I shouldn't overlook right now. I start next week on Tuesdays and Thursdays. I can't wait to see the 'difference' in day-class and night-class students.

Rainy Days and Tuesdays

2007-01-02T02:10:00.000-08:00

Yes, a cloudy, rainy day today in Orlando. But that didn't stop the day from being hectic. One employee suddenly decided this morning to take a week off (she emailed us this morning to tell us that), and another co-worker is already off...so that leaves two of us to cover both buildings. Thanks...

So I decided that I'm making bread tonight. I make the dough in my bread machine, and then cook it in the oven. I follow the bread stick recipe in the manual and end up with delicious, hot bread for dinner. But the best part (besides eating it) is the smell of the dough as it rises. It makes the house smell so good.

Now I have to decide what to make for the main course. This might entail a stop at Public to see what catches my eye.

Life After Tomorrow

2006-12-28T02:10:00.000-08:00

We caught a great documentary on ShowTime the other day called: Life After Tomorrow

It's interviews with the girls who played Annie or the orphans (sometimes both) in the Broadway show and/or the road company of Annie. And what great stories they are. The good and the bad are discussed. Even Sarah Jessica Parker is in it (yep, she was a orphan then moved into the role of Annie). If you have a love of the theater, you owe yourself to see this documentary.

(Crap! Now I have that 'Hard-Knock Life' song stuck in my head!)

*****************************

I finally had my Christmas with my Dad last night over at my brother's house. He's back in town for a few days. He's been spending time up in Jacksonville looking after his mom who had a very minor stroke. I usually let him do the talking with my brother. They can talk for hours about guns, cars, and the goodness of the Republicans and Rush (when he saw my hybrid in the driveway he had to make a anti-Gore snide comment about it - Gee, thanks, Dad). The only time I felt comfortable is when we talked about computer stuff - it's the only thing we have in common, and where he doesn't turn it into a political discussion. But, it was a decent time, at the very least.

Different Is Better...I Think

2006-12-27T02:10:00.000-08:00

Yes, the Cabin looks different today. I upgraded to the new Blogger. There's a couple of nice features, like drag-and-drop set-up of your blog layout, and no letter verification when leaving comments on your own blog. Maybe it was time for a make-over.

Things were pretty dead at work yesterday so I got to leave early. Ran home to go through all the stuff Mark got at Linens & Things on clearance, all with 20% off coupons on each item. All decorating items for the house. We ran out to a few places then to my mom's to take down her Christmas lights.

But once all that was done we went to the Earl of Sandwich at Down Town Disney. I love this place. They have the best sandwiches. They have names for each one (like the meatball is called the Cannonball) and the bread they are served on I've never had any where else.

Mark wanted to get the Holiday Sandwich before they stopped offering it at the end of the year (it's turkey, gravy, stuffing, and cranberry - wasn't there an episode of Friends about a sandwich like that?). I got their turkey and bacon and a bowl of tomato soup. It was cold outside taking down those lights. So if you're in the Disney area, give them a try.

A New Toilet And A New Channel For Christmas

2006-12-26T02:10:00.000-08:00

Yep, that's what we got. On the 23rd, Mark decided to rip up the linoleum in the guest bathroom and start laying the tile he had bought a few months earlier. That meant picking up a new toilet at Home Depot to also put in. As you can guess, there was not a rush at Home Depot in the bathroom section so this didn't take much time at all.

I'll post pictures when it's totally done. The only thing left now is to clean up the excess grout that's on the tiles. But the tile is such an improvement over what was there.

Christmas was pretty quiet. My mom is out of town and so is my dad so I stayed home Christmas Eve and Day. Mark did all 3 shows each night so he was gone by 3:30 each day. For you Floridians, you know what the weather was like yesterday: gray and rainy. I watched the tube and played on the PC. It was great watching the Disney Christmas parade on TV and the whole time they had on-screen radar maps and warnings for tornado watches for the entire Central Florida area.

But the best part of the weekend was finding out that Bright House now carries the Logo Network! It's the new GLBT cable station. They had some shows I recorded and we watched when Mark got back from his performances. There was Wigstock: The Movie, and a documentary about the history of Fire Island Pines that was fascinating. They also run shows like Queer as Folk and other gay-themed programs (edited as this is regular cable). One of the things I like that they do is when they show a succession of pictures of two people, guys or girls, from baby pictures to adult, and the final shot is one picture of the two people together as a couple. If you live in Central Florida and subscribe to Bright House, check out channel 181.

We also watched the season finale of Dexter. Twisted and great like every episode is. And leave it to CSI to make murder a comedy (the guy stuck in the cement when he tries to dispose of a body). I also saw the season finale of Doctor Who; I'm glad they ran the two episodes back to back so I didn't have to wait to see the ending.

So that was my Christmas...a bathroom make-over, rain, television, and the computer. We exchanged a few gifts; nothing extravagant this year as we have that big cruise coming up in May and that's our big present to ourselves.

I hope everyone had a decent Holiday, as well.

Merry Christmas!

2006-12-25T02:10:00.000-08:00

...or what ever holiday you celebrate!

Two No More

2006-12-22T02:10:00.000-08:00

What you are about to read is a story I wrote a few years ago. I post it every year around this time. It's a little maudlin but writing it was cathartic.

P.S. - If you want the right 'mood' for this story, play Mannheim Steamroller's 'Stille Nacht' in the background

******************************************

Ryan took two mugs from the cupboard and put them on the tray. He then put the kettle on the stove and lit the burner. The blue gas flames leaped into life under it with a quiet hiss. Outside, Ryan saw it was lightly snowing. This is what he had always loved about his cabin home in the foothills of the mountains: winter snowfalls. His favorite thing to do was to sit on the couch with Don, the fireplace casting a warm glow on everything, and watch the tiny flakes drift down. But things had changed now.

He went back into the living room, turned on the stereo, and sat on the floor next to the Christmas tree. It hadn’t been decorated, yet. In fact, Ryan had only gotten it that morning and put it in the stand. Doing that was even difficult for him now.

The decorations sat in a large plastic bin he pulled from the attic earlier in the day. Ryan broke the tape on the ends with his fingernail and popped the lid open. He set it off to the side and began removing decorations. He pulled out several boxes of small white lights followed by the crystal ornaments he so loved.

As he lifted out the ornaments he suddenly stopped when he saw what was underneath. It was a tiny frame made out of fake gingerbread with two little gingerbread men in the lower corners. Ryan stared at the picture in the frame and felt the tears returning. In the picture he and Don were in their tuxedos at a company Christmas party. They had on red bow ties and Santa hats. Their arms were around each other's wastes as they smiled happily. It was hard for Ryan to believe the picture was over 5 years old. He could still remember that event like he and Don were just there.

Ryan took the frame and hung it by its ribbon loop over the nearest tree branch. He slid back against the recliner and just looked at it. He wiped away the tears with his hand and continued to look at the picture. The frame was a silly impulse buy from Don when he was out Christmas shopping one day. He picked it up and showed it to Ryan.

“I know the perfect picture for this.”

“Which one?” Ryan asked.

“I’m going to leave you hanging on that one. I’ll make it a surprise for you.”

Don always loved creating little surprises for him. It might be the plate of homemade cookies he would see in the kitchen when getting home from work, or the small cards he would find in his briefcase from “the man who loves you more than you’ll ever know.” Once there was a very racy Polaroid photo with a strategically placed flower that Ryan found in his suit pocket. After seeing that, he took the rest of the day off and spent that time making love to Don in bed (and in the den, and the kitchen, and the back porch).

The whistling of the kettle shook Ryan from his daydreaming. He got up and walked towards the kitchen. Don’s office was next to the kitchen. Ryan kept the door closed all the time now. He paused at the door and put his hand on the knob. If he opened it would Ryan be there behind his desk hard at work?

Ryan decided not to look, but instead, answer the shrill whistle of the kettle. He turned off the burner and began filling the two mugs with boiling water. He put the kettle down and looked at the tray. He laughed at what he had done. There was only one person now who would need a mug of hot tea. He sniffed and wiped his eyes again.

The phone began ringing as he stirred his drink. The second mug was left on the tray. Ryan hadn’t wanted to answer the phone anymore. Instead, he often left that duty to the answering machine now. It finally picked up.

“Ryan? It’s Jean. We made it to Mom’s. I’m so glad to finally get away from work! I hope you’re doing OK. Wade and I can’t wait to see you tomorrow. You are coming over tomorrow, right?”

Ryan stood in the kitchen doorway to hear the machine better. Was he going to his Mom’s tomorrow? Lately, it seemed he didn’t want to think about things beyond the current day.

There was a pause from the speaker. “Ryan? I miss you. I know things are hard right now, but you’ll get through them. Come spend time over here with us. I don’t want to think of you all alone for Christmas. See you tomorrow, OK? I love you. Bye.”

The machine beeped indicating the call had finished. He stood there listening to the quiet music from the CD player and watched the snow fall. He walked over to the tree and took the frame off the branch.

******

Ryan got his coat on and walked out the kitchen door. He walked off the porch and began following a path into the trees behind his home. The snow had stopped and the moon now shone through a break in the clouds illuminating everything. But Ryan didn’t need any help finding the field. He could probably find it blindfolded.

The field was a small, open area in the middle of the trees about 500 feet away from the house. It was the perfect place for picnics and just relaxing. Don built a bench and put it in the field and they both spent many afternoons sitting and enjoying the surrounding nature.

In the center of the field stood a stone memorial. On it was carved, ‘In memory of Don Warrell, 1973 - 2003. You are loved but not forgotten.” A thin layer of snow lay across the top of the memorial. Ryan brushed if off with his bare hand and placed the frame ornament on top. He lowered his head and began crying again.

It was an accident, according to the police. Nothing could have been done to prevent what happened. Ryan got a call from the hospital. It felt like a hole opened up under him when the nurse informed him Don had been seriously injured. He raced from work to the hospital. Don was connected to all sorts of machines. God, he hated hospitals. He took Don’s hand in his.

Don’s face was badly bruised with his left eye completely swollen shut. Most of his exposed skin, Ryan saw, was in bad shape from cuts and scratches. His right eye was closed so Ryan assumed he was sleeping, or maybe unconscious. The doctor was in the room checking Don’s vital signs.

“How is he doing?” Ryan quietly asked.

“Not very well. He’s suffered a major blow to his head. We’ll have to monitor him closely.”

“Will he regain consciousness?”

“I can’t say, Mr….?” The doctor looked at him expectantly.

“Ryan Collins. I’m Don’s partner,” he explained.

“Yes, Mr. Collins. I don’t know when he’ll wake up. He wasn’t awake when he was brought in, but that’s not to say he won’t come to at any time. You’re welcome to stay by his side. Hit the call button for the nurse if anything changes.” The doctor turned and left the room.

“Don, can you hear me? Are you awake?” No response. Ryan pulled a chair over with his other hand. He didn’t want to let go of him.

Ryan kept talking to Don for the next 45 minutes to get a response but none came. Using his cell he called his mom and dad and told them what had happened. They said they would drive up as soon as they could. He began to doze off from the constant hum of the machines as he watched Don's face. Suddenly he felt a feeble squeezing on his hand. He opened his eyes and looked at Don.

Don’s right eye was open and was looking at Ryan.

“Hi, honey. How are you? Can you talk?”

Don opened his mouth but nothing came out. He made the smallest shake of his head to indicate he couldn’t.

“That’s alright. Just rest your voice. I love you.”

Another squeeze on his hand and a slight smile appeared on his lips. Ryan rang for the nurse who rushed in. Ryan pointed towards Don. The nurse made a few notes on his chart and then took headed out the door.

'I'll let the doctor know he's awake,' she said and left the room.

Ryan told Don all the things he wanted to do when he was better. The cabin needed some exterior fixing up; what would be planted in the garden after the winter was through; out-of-state friends who they needed to visit. Don just kept a firm grasp on his hand.

The doctor came in and looked his patient over.

'He's awake which is a good sign, Mr. Collins. I'll have the nurse bring him something to help him get sleep. That will be the best thing for him.' He left the room and headed for the nurses' station.

The nurse came in and gave Don a sedative and told Ryan that Don needed his sleep. Ryan kissed Don’s forehead lightly and gave his hand another squeeze. He then left the room in search of something to eat. Sitting in the cafeteria, he saw his parents walk past. He left his table and caught up with them. Ryan hugged them both and promptly broke into tears.

******

Ryan brought his parents into Don’s room. His parents and he sat by his bed for a few hours while Don slept. They tried to keep the conversation positive but Ryan’s mood was starting to crash. Ryan looked at his watch. It was 12:30 a.m. He gave his house key to his mom and dad and told them to go get some sleep. He would call them if there was a change.

Don went into convulsions a short time later. With the heart monitor sounding an alarm, Ryan pressed the call button. After several presses and some yelling for help out into the hall, several nurses hurried in and took over. A doctor Ryan had never seen before showed up and began assisting. One of the nurses escorted Ryan out telling him he would need to wait outside so he wasn’t in the way. She went back in.

Don was pronounced dead 20 minutes later. The doctor and nurses could not revive him; his injuries were too much for his body to handle.

Ryan walked out to his car totally stunned. He was too shocked to even cry or think of calling his parents. He got behind the wheel of his car and drove home. When he entered the front door his mom was sitting on the couch watching television. She saw the look on Ryan’s face and immediately knew what had happened. Throwing her arms around her son, she started crying while Ryan held her tightly.

******

The cold was stinging Ryan’s face. He wiped his tears away and turned back towards the cabin. The moon went back behind the clouds but the light from the cabin was enough to guide a person home. The phone began ringing as he reached the porch. He went inside and answered it; no waiting for the machine this time.

“Hello?” he answered.

“Ryan, it’s Mom.”

“Oh, hi Mom.”

“How are you doing tonight?”

“I’m getting by. I bought a tree and set it up, and pulled out the decorations.”

“Well, that’s good. I was worried because Jean said you didn’t answer when she called earlier.”

“I was busy,” he replied. “Mom?”

“Yes, son?”

“I miss him. I miss him so much. And everything around here reminds me of him. I don’t even know why I bought a tree and tried to make this place look festive!” Anger was creeping into his voice.

“Ryan, I understand, I really do. Christmas is going to be a tough time for you, as will be birthdays and anniversaries. But don’t go through them alone. I’m here. Your father is here. Your sister is with us for a few weeks. We’re not expecting you to be over Don’s death. It was only a short time ago we were all having dinner together. And your father and I miss him, too. So spend time with us and we can remember the good times we all had.”

“It hurts,” he barely whispered into the phone.

“I know, Ryan, I know. But you have to keep living. Don’t waste your time pining for Don. He wouldn’t want that. Now how about we drive out to pick you up and stop for dinner on the way back here?”

“Alright.,” he replied.

“Good. We’ll be there as soon as we can.”

“Thanks, Mom.”

“You’re welcome, Ryan.”

“Tell dad to drive carefully. It’s been snowing here.”

“I will, Ryan. We’ll see you soon. I love you.”

“I love you, too, Mom.”

They both said good-bye and hung up. Ryan went to the bedroom and packed an over-night bag. Once he finished he went through the house and turned off all the lights and sat on the couch to wait for his parents.

The fireplace cast a dim, flickering light over the room. He watched the glow slowly die out. Ryan glanced out the window and saw the snow had started again. He watched it fall silently past, alone and with only memories of the man he loved to share it with.

Darts & Underwear

2006-12-21T02:10:00.000-08:00

Our friend, D., called and said they were going out to Studz to throw darts (and remove their pants as Wednesday is Underwear Night). The place was quite packed. I don't think I've ever seen that many there before. Six was there, tired from rehearsal (I think).

If we keep playing darts with D. we have to handicap him. He is too good at it. Maybe drop him to 2 darts, or 1 dart, per throw. It was great seeing friends we hadn't seen in months and just catching up on what's been going on. Even if we did get home after midnight and I had to be up at 5:15 this morning.

Zune Porn and More

2006-12-20T02:10:00.000-08:00

Zune: The MP3 With More Porn!

***********************

Hey...thanks to everyone who left me comments and emails about yesterday's post. Things are fine, as they always turn out to be. So on to a racial post for the week:

We stopped at a store to check out their Christmas merchandise as it should all be going on sale very soon. As we walked around, Mark asked me if I noticed anything strange. I said no. He then pointed out that almost every item with Santa (cookie jar, doll, etc) was an African American Santa. I then realized we were at...

[Wait for it...]

Cracker Barrel. True story.

**********************************

I saw the Candlelight Processional again last night because Neil Patrick Harris was narrating. He is really good looking in person and I walked right behind him and his group when they left the theater. His boyfriend, who was with the group, was even better looking.

Isn't This A Sign Of The Apocalypse?

2006-12-15T02:10:00.000-08:00

Xanadu is coming to Broadway!

Run for your lives! Schlock just can't be stopped! The Olivia Newton-John cheese-fest known as Xanadu is heading for the Great White Way! Read my write-up about seeing the film back in August HERE.

But the new trend is to take movies and make musicals for the stage out of them. High Fidelity just opened, and is closing after only 2 dozen performances. Can the story of a Muse helping a hunk bring a disco club back to life succeed? Will the ghost of Gene Kelly haunt the theater? Will there be roller skating!?!?! As long as the show doesn't take itself seriously there may be a chance.

Seduce Me...Maybe

2006-12-14T02:10:00.000-08:00

Waaahhhh!!!! Can somebody change me, please?

Moving...Maybe

2006-12-09T02:10:00.000-08:00

Well, I've decided to try another service for blogging right now and see if I like it more. WordPress offers some great options (though Blogger just announced their new service so it may not be a permanent move). For now I'll post on both sites and see. Feel free to check out mymountaincabin.wordpress.com . The one thing I'm worried about is I can't edit my template to my cabin theme. We will see. I would be interested in hearing other reader's experiences with WordPress. Leave me a comment!

MyMess.com

2006-12-08T02:10:00.000-08:00

Fresh on the heels of my Mac-fiasco of installing yesterday (they didn't start today because the user is off today - so maybe Monday), I got to thinking about another mess that you can find on the web: It's called MySpace.

If you are unfamiliar with MySpace, then this must be your first time ever on a PC and dealing with the Internet. I understand the principle of why it is so popular. I just never got sucked in. I've been there...I've even created a profile...but there's a major flaw, which I think can coincide with the problem of personal web sites, and that is: there are no rules on what you can put on your site. What makes MySpace worse, though, is they make it easy to add content. And most web pages look like roadkill after their 'owners' start putting things on it they think are cool.

MP3's that automatically play! This is a pet peeve with me. I like to surf the web listening to my own tunes, but when you go to a person's MySpace page and are automatically blasted with their favorite song they put up, I get annoyed. And I'm not going to turn off my sound because there are legitimate sounds I want to hear.

The never ending page is another part of the mess. Some pages just go on for several screen lengths, and it's all because of 100 comments from people with really large avatars or added pictures, or they've just added every type of information window they can. Enough already. Keep it short and sweet, and put a link to comments or content that's old.

Wallpapers? Sure! Let's allow people to throw up any picture they want to be tiled over the entire page (and it's there a LOT if the have the above problem of tons of stuff added to the page - 'Let's look at Brittany Spears tiled for 6 screens!'). It makes reading stuff great fun when the words overlap like colors on the page. It's kind of like solving a Wheel of Fortune puzzle. I think that's and 'A', Alex.

And finally, there's the wonky add-ins that are so poorly written that they either conflict with something else making your browser act erratically, or they simply don't work at all. It might have been cool when Johnny Q. High-Schooler saw it on that Warez web site, but he didn't realize it was really written with code leakier than the Titanic. Hey...what's that? A virus attached to that applet? Great....

Throw all of this together into a blender, make the majority of your users under the age of 18, and you have web sites that are mostly headache inducing, if not dangerous to computer operation. It's like giving a five year old a pneumatic nail gun. There's a chance they might make something useful, but you pretty much expect the worst.

Back To Work...

2006-12-04T02:10:00.000-08:00

Yes. Another weekend is over with and time to go back to the rat race. I did enjoy Saturday and Sunday. Spent time in the Parks. Expedition Everest is as awesome as ever. And it was fun hearing my relatives scream on the ride (they had not been to Animal Kingdom before).

My 'Holiday Gala' for work was OK. The space was not filled, and I think the atmosphere was definitely dampened by the recent layoffs at work (one of the people, in fact, was one of the ladies partly responsible for planning and putting together the event). I enjoy wearing my tux. Got lots of compliments. I was the most formally dressed person there. No pictures, though. They had no photographer for the event. One of the folks at my table snapped a few pictures. I'll have to get a copy from them. I left just before 10 PM. Drove by the PH and was going to go in but the parking lot was full, and since I was alone, and dressed very nicely, I didn't want to park off site. I drove over to Studz, had a drink and played a few games on the video machine, but there was no one there I knew and the few people there were busy in conversation with others. I left after about 30 minutes and went home.

Sunday I went to **** ******* ***** ***** and got my **** ***** ************ *** ******* *****. That was a lot of fun! Rushed home, got changed, and went to my brother's place for his office get together which was decent. A small gathering so very casual and low-key.

I also got to watch some of the shows piling up on the DVR. Here are my quips on the best shows I watched:

* My Name is Earl is still one of the rudest and funniest shows around. And the scenes with Joy, Marly Matlin, and her sign interpreter were f-ing hysterical!

* The Office - This show is so cringe-inducing when you watch it, but you can't look away! I guess you could describe it as uncomfortably entertaining. The whole storyline about the employee who spent time in prison and everyone finding out...yikes! But the pratical joke played on Pam by Jim, and the final shot where she is being serenaded (and her look at Jim knowing she had been set-up) was priceless.

'Yes, Eddie...But is it art?'

2006-12-01T02:10:00.000-08:00

File this article under the 'Yes, Eddie...But Is It Art' section. You may remember this news story back in 2005. Now someone has gone and taken it a bit further.

Documentary to be made about man dying from having sex with a horse.

***************************

And for the 'Brittany Flashing Her Beaver' Department, we have appropriate t-shirts for you to wear. (Make sure you read the link's URL).

***************************

For the 'What Was JC Penney Thinking or Hello Dummy?' Department we have THIS November 30th blog entry.

***************************

Please light a candle for World AIDS Day.

***************************

After all the madness at work yesterday, it was nice to get home, look through the mail, and find a card from one of the jobs I applied for saying they are currently reviewing my resume. Mark thought it was good too after I told him about the lay offs at work. I also put my resume up on my web site and linked it to Dice.com. I'll see if I get any hits from it. It's going to be a busy weekend for me. I'm sure I'll have details on Monday. Everyone have a good weekend.

The Termination-er

2006-11-30T02:10:00.000-08:00

I came into work this morning to find the rest of the group talking about something that had happened yesterday after I left. I get invited to look at a few emails to explain what's going on...and I see lists of employees we are letting go. Now I know I wasn't one of them (they would have told me the day before not to come back) but it still hit home. I thought about how easily it could have been me.

I have been laid off before - twice actually - so I know I would survive if it had happened. But if you've ever lost a job, you know that feeling you get when it happens. The ground seems to open underneath you and then you get that feeling of shock. You just seemed wrapped in a blanket: sounds are muted, things around you seem unreal. It's a common human response. You just have to ride it out. Then pick yourself up, look over your options, choose one, and move on.

And our Christmas Party...excuse me - Holiday Gala - is Saturday. Will any of the employees who were let go show up? All of this just makes me think of a saying I believe in: 'Expect the best, prepare for the worst.'

********************************

My written exam was way too easy last night. It was 20 questions taken exactly from our previous 8 quizzes. He didn't even mix up the order of the multiple choice answers. I'm almost positive I got a 100% on it. The teacher handed out our final lab which we will be doing in the next two weeks. He split the class in half for each week, but if my lab partner and I do the lab and have him check it one evening when he's there he'll mark it off as completed. This lab is so incredibly simple we should have it done in 10 minutes.

As mentioned in the first part, my Holiday Gala is Saturday. I've decided to attend this year (we aren't having one the next few years because of our financial situation). I've also decided to wear my tuxedo. Hell, it hangs in my closet and I never get to wear it. I think it will be used at least once in 2006 (the last time we used out tuxes was on a cruise in 2005).

Prom Was Never Like This!

2006-11-29T02:10:00.000-08:00

I just purchased the soundtrack to a really great stage show. It's called Zombie Prom. Now most of you know I really enjoy things that are weird, macabre, and not usually the norm, and this definitely fits the bill.

I first heard the opening number for this musical on XM's Broadway channel and it had me hooked right away. I went online and easily found the show through a Google search. Information on the stage show is HERE. But going through more of the results I found out...they've made a movie out it! And it stars RuPaul! Check out the trailer! [WARNING: It contains a huge spoiler in it] It's currently making the rounds of the gay film festivals.

Why the gay film festivals you ask?

The storyline is definitely not about gay people, or gay subject matters. It's just about two young kids who fall in love, but are forced to break-up because the girl's parents think the boy is a bad influence (he drives a motorcycle, wears a leather jacket, etc). The boy is so distraught he throws himself into the town's nuclear reactor to kill himself. But by the title, you can tell he comes back as a Teenage Nuclear Zombie! Throw in a disciplinarian school principal (Delilah Strict is her name), a sleazy tabloid reporter, some awesome high-energy songs, and sharp, witty lyrics...and Voila! You have a campy musical! But the story is basically an allegory about how society has treated gay people. But it is in no way preachy, just a heck of a lot of fun.

If you like musical theater, and are looking for something new and different, you'll find it at the Zombie Prom!

P.S. - Check out RuPaul's take on 'People Are People' here.

Apologies

2006-11-28T02:10:00.000-08:00

Sorry about no post yesterday. Coming back to work after moving people last week, and counselors going to their new desks...there was lots of whining and problems that had to be taken care of. Add to that me leaving my laptop at home (I now have no desktop at work so basically I couldn't do anything until Mark brought it to me - luckily, had an appointment down town and dropped it off on his way.), things just didn't permit me time to sit and put together an entry.

The first order of business: What was the gift that Mark brought me? I did tell Spider over the weekend because he was practically begging to know. ;-)

It's a Build-A-Bear with leather chaps on. Now they are Harley Davidson riding chaps (as opposed to posing chaps which have the snaps/zippers on the inside of the pants leg, not the outside) but LeatherWerks hasn't created a line of t-backs, vests, and boots for teddy bears...just real ones. Mark will pick up the rest of the outfit on his next trip out to Anaheim (which is this evening and comes back in two weeks).

Let's move on. We had a wonderful, wonderful Thanksgiving Day weekend. The best part was NOT getting up Friday before the sun and going out to the stores. We looked through the ads on Thursday night after everyone had gone home. And we saw nothing that really jumped out at us...nothing that we wanted to go stand in line for and fight other shoppers looking for parking spots. I specifically remember Sydney waking me up wanting to go to the bathroom. I took her out, and gratefully climbed back into bed, thinking how much better I felt being able to go back to sleep and not be out at the stores.

Saturday night we ran out to the MGM/Studios and checked out the Osbourne Family Spectacle of Dancing Lights. 'Dancing' has been added to the title this year. Every 15 minutes the lights put on a show to a hard-driving Christmas tune (Mannheim Steamroller and Trans-Siberian Orchestra songs). And I really have to say I enjoyed it thoroughly. It's amazing to see all the lights in the whole area just blinking and fading in tune to the music. After checking all that out, we then caught Fantasmic which I also still enjoy a lot.

We spent Friday and Saturday putting lights on my mom's house, my brother's house, and our friend C.'s house. You could get rich doing that if you had the time and equipment. With all of Mark's traveling three houses were all we could handle.

Sunday night Mark did a performance while I walked around Epcot and riding a few attractions. When he was done we ran over to the Studios again and had dinner at Mama Melrose's which was soooo good!

*********************

I am now fed up with leftovers. At least I finished off several of the containers of food this morning packing my lunch. I can actually get to the back of the fridge now. Tonight will be some more leftovers...by Thursday I should have them all finished. But the kids have been loving the dark meat we saved for them. I give them a little bit in their bowl at each feeding.

I hope everyone had a good weekend like we did. Take care!

A Heaping Helping Of WHAT???

2006-11-22T02:10:00.000-08:00

Gentle readers, our word for today is: Twatwaffles

There are few bloggers who can make me laugh out loud. One of them is my friend Craig, at the Gilded Palace Of Sin, but Craig can also make me bawl like a baby with his posts. The other blogger who makes me giggle at work so my co-workers stare at me is Six Shooter. I am so thankful I was in the office alone when I read his post today entitled 'What's as big as a cruise ship, but isn't?'. I laughed hysterically at this story.

Six, thanks for the great laugh today!

***************************************

Overheard in an LA emergency room:

'Mr. Gere, the cell phone in your back pocket seems to be squeaking.'

'Uh, yeah...my cell phone...'

***************************************

Last night I made bread dough in the bread machine and then made rolls. This was a pretest for Thanksgiving dinner for tomorrow. God were they good! Mark got home and I was so glad to see him. I can't wait to post a pic of the gift he brought me.

I'm going to go finish my to-do list here at work then go home and enjoy the next 4 days off. Everyone have a great Thanksgiving!

Telemrketer Hell

2006-11-18T02:10:00.000-08:00

This is so good I couldn't wait until Monday to post it! Anything where the telemarketer gets put on the spot is alright by me!

Revenge On Telemarketers

Not Today

2006-07-24T03:10:00.000-07:00

Sorry, kids...I've been working my butt off today moving equipment at work. No time to write more than this. Update tomorrow if things slow down. Take care!

Everyone Loves A Pearl Necklace...And Other Weekend Items

2006-07-17T03:10:00.000-07:00

I've got a lot of little things to talk about today so buckle-up and read on.

******************

On Saturday Mark's sister and brother-in-law were in town for a college re-union event. We had lunch with them at the Yacht Club restaurant. We were really excited because his neice was leaving the next day with her mom back to South Florida. Hurrah! The electrical meter would stop spinning at light speed now. Well, I suggested to Mark that we go out to Sea World that night and ride the Kraken and look around. So we did. They have a new area themed to a Mediteranian seaside village that is very pretty (as opposed to old Key West themed area in the front), and we discovered this section where they do the pearl diving. There is stadium seating in fron of the 'grotto' windows where the people dive down and grab oysters for customers. And diving for oysters was one f-ing hot guy wearing only plack spandex shorts and goggles. Needless to say we spent quite a while watching him swim down and around, then back up for air. Not a hair on his body and a great chest and 'package'. Unfotunately, we didn't bring the camera because we didn't expect to see such nice 'scenery'.

I wonder how much I would have to pay him to make me a pearl necklace?

*****************

My Friday post said I was going out for the day to relax and maybe see a movie...that was until I went to let the dogs out and discovered the pond pump was not running (the backyard is eerily quiet when the pump is off). I then opened up the skimmer and checked it out. No giant frog stuck in the intake (or should I say 'half a frog'?). The water was very hot in the skimmer; that was from the pump trying to work and overheating, thus making the water hot. So I spent my day driving out to Apopka to Aquatic Eco-Systems and buying a new one ($244). Mark got in Saturday morning, slept a few hours, and then went to work on the pump. Luckily, he had the piping parts needed and we got it in in about half an hour, though it was incredibly hot outside. But after getting the pump and getting home I did not feel like going out so spent the rest of the evening at home.

*****************

Movie Review - Crash - A very powerful movie, but I don't think it should ahve won the Oscar. Something nagged at me as I watched it. I think it was because it just didn't feel 100% plausible. Some of those people did the dumbest things and I wanted to shout at them. I also thought they should have wrapped up the storyline with Matt Dillon and the lady in the car wreck. How did that rescue affect her? You only see her one more time after that and she's simply on the phone with her husband.

Movie Review 2 - Elvira's Haunted Hills - A 'B' movie for 'B' movie's sake. Cheesy jokes. Cheesy acting. Lots of cleavage. All this and Richard O'Brien chewing up the scenery. Fun if you are an Elvira fan (like me). One thing I did notice: during a few scenes where you see her bare shoulders, you can see the scars on her body. As a small child she was scalded by boiling water on her body.

*****************************

Sydney is doing well. We have to make her walk slowly, becasue if she walks quickly or runs she uses only three legs which is not what you want to happen.

Whoops! Got to cut this short. I have to go to one of our directo's homes and install a wireless network for him. Later!

You Can't Say Homeowner...

2006-05-04T03:10:00.000-07:00

...without saying 'homo'. It's true! Try it!

We went to our HOA meeting last night. It seems our funds are not the best because of all the money we waste on hiring lawyers to take residents to court who don't follow the neighborhood guidelines. But the good news is the new 'newsletter' should be delieverd soon. It's now more of a magazine with some ads (that pay for it). It should be a lot better looking than the colored-paper, tri-fold page they used to send out.

***********************

I went to see my MD yesterday to talk about my medicine that may have been the cause of my depression. I was int he waiting room for 1 hour and 50 minutes. I finally complained at the front desk when I saw people who arrived after me being taken in. They suddenly said I'd be the next one in. I had my co-worker call me and tell me my new boss wanted to see me (company audit was happening and I was supposed to talk about something - oh, well), for god's sake. I had to pay with cash, since their card machine was not working - I'm glad I had it because no one told me before I arrived. Once I get in, the 'nurse' has trouble working the scale for my weight, and even more trouble trying to take my blood pressure. Then, another MD comes in, not the one I made my appointment for. I discuss with him so I can simply get back to my job. He gives me a prescription for a blood test and tells me that getting enough sleep (he said my 6-7 hours a night is not enough) and eating 3-4 eggs a week will help testosterone production.

I was seen and out of there in under 10 minutes! I rescheduled an appointment to see my MD in three weeks...and find out it is her last week. I know she had threatened to leave if the front desk didn't pull their sh*t together. I can atest that they haven't. I only hope she moves to another practice that's nearby so I can keep seeing her.

Satan Is Selling Crack?

2006-04-25T03:10:00.000-07:00

All of us in the Help Desk just got CrackBerriess....I mean, BlackBerries. We weren't really big on them, but our boss wanted us to have them. Looking at email as it comes in can be useful. I've tried to reply to my gmail but can't figure it out. I can read them, at least. I wonder what this blog looks like on the tiny screen? Hmmmmm....

But the thing that pretty muched proved these devices are evil is that all the phone numbers these units came with started with 666. Seriously, they all did. But we didn't keep the numbers...just transferred our old numbers to our new units. Does that make them re-formed?

[Honestly...I have no problem with the number 666....it's a number that follows 665 and comes before 667, that's all...but people like my mom would freak if they saw or had that number. Ain't the Bible a great source for truth

**************************

Mark worked the Fringe preview last night. I hadn't picked up a shift because I assumed Mark would be working and someone would need to go home and take care of the dogs. Well, he had yesterday off so I called the volunteer group but they had no shifts, so I went home after work. I wasn't really up for going out there because of all the driving on Sunday and then what happened during the day yesterday. Here's what went on: I ran out to a FedEx drop off point to send out a piece of bad RAM I needed to return. After getting back I'm on lunch and I get a call from my mom....who is in Georgia...telling me my step-dad left his wallet at home and they needed his license and military ID. So I had to drive to her house, locate the wallet, then go and FedEx it to the hotel they were driving to. It just happens I went back to the same mail store I went to just an hour earlier. So, as you see, I did a lot of driving and didn't want to go in the totally opposite direction for the evening.

Instead, I went home and didn't turn the PC on at all. I cleaned the pond filter (this time of year the darn thing needs to be cleaned twice a week), folded laundry, clipped coupons, and watched Doctor Who and the Triumph the Insult Comic Dog's DVD. I then went to bed at 10. Mark got home just after midnight. With the 30 previews that were there he could tell which ones we should see. The two best he saw were Wanzie's The Lion Queen, and another one called Bathhouse: The Musical. I'm sure I'll be talking about all the ones we see when the Fringe gets going.

Everyone have a great day....to poop on!

put your music player on shuffle

2006-04-18T03:10:00.000-07:00

Put your music player on shuffle.

Press forward for each question.

Use the song title as the answer to the question.

No cheating!

How am I feeling today?:

Tenterfield Saddler [The Boy From Oz]

Will I get far in life?

Goodbye, My Love

Where will I get Married?:

Science Fiction/Double Feature

What is my best friend's theme song?:

Into The Vast

What is the story of my life?:

Super Heroes

What is/was highschool like?:

Open A New Window

How can I get ahead in life?

It's A Small World

What is the best thing about me?:

It's So Easy

[GASP! I'm shocked!]

How is today going to be?:

Ricky

What is in store for this weekend?:

Poor Jack

What song describes my parents?:

Duke & Duchess Vocals

To describe my grandparents?

Elaborate Lives

How is my life going?:

Exit Laugh

What song will they play at my funeral?:

Pomp and Circumstance March No IV [abridged]

How does the world see me?:

Footloose-Too Cute [Forbidden Broadway]

Will I have a Happy Life?

Roger Rabbit's Cartoon Spin

What do my friends really think of me?:

How Are Things In Glocamora? [Forbidden Broadway]

Do people secretly lust after me?:

That Boy Could Dance

How can I make myself happy?:

Your Horoscope For Today

What should I do with my life?:

Visions-Voice

Will I ever have children?

Doombuggy Load Music

What is some good advice for me?:

The Trunk Letter [Haunted Mansion Movie Score]

How Will I be remembered?

Alfred Hitchcock Presents: The Jar [Danny Elfman]

What is my signature dancing song?

Me and My Town [Sondheim]

What does everyone else think my current theme song is?:

Beetle-Snake [Danny Elfman]

What type of men/women do you like?:

Out Tonight

HNT (Sort-of)

2006-03-16T02:10:00.000-08:00

Since I haven't had any new HNT pics taken, and I honestly can't think of any new 'poses', either...I decided to continue HNT by posting pleasing pics of others. Here is today's speciman:

Now I can't write here what I would truly want to do to him...or should I say, have him do to me?...but this pic is so incredibly hot, And it's not some professional photo shoot picture, either. This guy is not airbrushed or color adjusted. Nothing like a good leather pic to get my day going. WOOF!

**********************

I look at my creditcard balance every week to make sure there are no unauthorized charges, and to check ym spending. Crap! I have been spending a lot. I've been paying off the balance carried every payday (for me, that's every two weeks), and I can cover the amount, but I have been unable to pay Mark any of the money I still owe him. $499 was the latest amount. I looked at all my chargers and looked at the larger ones. My goal is to not go over $400 for this next period.

**********************

Marks is traveling 4 different times in April, now. He will be away almost as much as he will be in town. Looks like I will get lots of time to play Kingdom Hearts 2 on the big screen.

**********************

Poor Logan. The other day he carried one of his toys outside with him to go to the bathroom. This happens when we've just gotten home and they've been locked up for awhile, they'll run around with toys as if it's some offering to us that we came home and they want to show their appreciation. Sydney has started doing this, too, having picked it up from Logan. Well, Logan dropped it on the yard and came back in. Mark picked it up and threw it onto the porch for the two kids to go after...but this hard rubber toy is not round, but more like a molecule shape with a noise maker inside. This toy hit the ground and bounced sideways into the pool. Logan stood there watching it as it went under and floated to the top. Then all the air from inside escaped and it sank to the bottom of the pool. Logan then laid down and just stared at it, 6 feet down, ont he bottom of the pool, just like a little kid who is watching their plastic bucket being washed out to sea by a wave and can't do anything about it. I had to grab the long brush pole and work it up to the shallow end and onto the steps. The water was freezing and there was no way I was going to get into that.

HNT Some More

2006-03-02T02:10:00.000-08:00

I love jock-straps. When I was younger I hated seeing guys wearing them, but that changed around the time I found my BDSM side, and now I love a guy in a jock and I enjoy wearing them (though, not at work).

****************

Looks like we are finally hiring a third person to assist the Help Desk. I don't want to go into too great a detail, but th person who got picked is no the one AJ and I wanted, but the other ones we liked either didn't have enough experience or had something int heir background check that our company will not allow.

****************

WARNING! RANT ZONE AHEAD!

Mark was reading me a newspaper article about this town in Florida called The Villages. It's just North of us and it's where all these old folks come to retire. Well, the article was talking about how all these old farts from New York form groups like the NY Restaurant Club, Theater Club, and such. Then they start quoting these worthless gas bags. Every quote went something like this: 'There aren't any good -INSERT ITEM HERE- like there was in New York, so we made a club so we can talk about it.'

Go fuck yourselves you old farts! Christ! If New York is so much better, why come down here and plague us? Pick up your dentures and move your shit back there! I honestly believe a big part of why Florida is messed up is because of all the old people who retire here. I know the roads would be a lot safer. A friend of my mom's was just in an accident because an old man decided to suddenly make a left turn from the right-hand lane in front of him. And schools? They don't give a shit about them because their satanic brood is living in another state so these old prunes don't need to be concerned about education; it's not affecting them.

END RANT

Sad Songs Say So Much

2006-01-10T02:10:00.000-08:00

I like sad songs. I don't know why...actually, I think I do but am embarrassed to admit it: they make me feel sad for myself. I'm sure it's some sort of self-destructive behavior, but I just never breached the subject when I was in therapy.

I remember one day living in Las Vegas and an on-line friend of mine from Australia was visiting me. We had the apartment to ourselves and were going through my CD collection. We played our favorite sad songs, and by the end we were holding each other and crying our eyes out.

So here's my current list of sad songs. Some of them you may not consider a sad song, but I'll give an explanation on each one.

**************************

Sad Songs

*The Rose - Bette Midler - This one is just so powerful. The lyrics themselves are not really sad, but you think about the story-line of the movie The Rose, and it just gets to you.

*Life In A Northern Town - Dream Academy - The lyrics are some-what cryptic, but this song makes me sad. I think it's the sound of the lead singer. He sings it in a very soft voice which makes you think of an isolated town snowed in for winter.

*How Do I Live Without You - LeAnn Rimes - Only the LeAnn rimes version of this song, and the words are just so powerful. I remember hearing this song for the first time and thinking about a boyfriend I broke up with. It just ripped my heart out.

*Constant Craving - k.d. Lang - You can just hear the emotion in Ms. Lang's voice as she sings the words. To me, it's about a love that two people can't deny, though they can't be together. Now, that is something to be sad over.

*I Can't Make You Love Me - Bonnie Raitt - Oh my god! This song's words are so sad. Someone telling the person who no longer loves them to give them one more night because in the morning it's all over. I think the acceptance of the relationship ending is far sadder than someone pretending their relationship is still valid.

*Same Old Lang Syne - Dan Fogelberg - I've written about this one on my 12 Songs of Christmas post. A man who runs into his old crush on Christmas Eve, and doesn't make his move for her, even though her love life is non-existence with her husband.

*Officium - Jan Garbarek - Performed by the Hilliard Ensemble - Most of my readers are not Disney nuts who go to the Parks all the time or even live near enough to do that often. But for those few who are, this may sound familiar. This selection (Track #1 Parce mihi domine) is the music they used to play in the Stave Church exhibit in Norway at Epcot Center (sadly, the exhibit was changed this past December, and so was the music). There are no words to this symphony, but the use of a saxaphone and the choral voices make it incredibly mournful. When I met Mark, I was thrilled to find out he actually had a copy of this music. I would never have found out what it was on my own.

So there you have it. My list of sad songs. Please let me know any of your favorite sad songs, too. I can always use some more.

What Are You Wearing?

2005-11-07T02:10:00.000-08:00

Have you ever been having a really hot cyber-session with someone in a chat room (or IM), and suddenly you imagine what this anonymous person REALLY looks like? -->

**************************************

The weekend was pretty good. After a company event Friday night, we went to Studz to chat with friends. We hadn't been there in over a month.

J. was there and we got talking about lots of different things. He spoke to me aobut a friend who works for a software company that has opened 8 new positions that need to be filled. The pay is good, the benefits are excellent, and the job involves occasional traveling. He took my card and said he's have him call me. Is there a change in my job future ahead? I enjoy where I am but working for a non-profit the pay is not competitive.

Saturday evening we helped Mark's friend move a few large items to his new apartment (when you have a truck, everyone wants you to move them). His friend then treated us to dinner at the Ale House. We were in Linens & Things as our friend was picking up some 'new apartment' necessaties. I saw so many home items there I need that I think I'm moving L&T to the top of my 'favorite stores' list. We both get the 20% off one item coupons all the time in the mail, and they will take them if they are expired. Heck, they even take Bed, Bath & Beyond coupons, too! I will have those Sharper Image Wireless Speakers at 20% off very soon!

Sunday we met my brother's ex-girlfriend and her new boyfriend at Epcot. We still like he a whole lot and she wanted to see the Food and Wine festival. And her new boyfriend, though in his late 40's, was still a looker! We rode some rides and ate food from around the world. We finally got out of Epcot at 4 PM. We then headed to Bed, Bath & Beyond to check more home items. There we got a lesson on good knives and good cookware from Rebecca. She was very nice and knew her stuff...and doesn't even get commision on sales. We found the knife set we will be purchasing soon, and the Calphalon cookware set we want. I guarantee we will have them by Christmas time.

********************************

This just in: the doctor's office just called my cell and told me to fill the testosterone prescription and begin using it. Hairy ass and deeper voice, here I come! LOL!!!!!

Sawmill Debauchery

2005-11-01T02:10:00.000-08:00

Well, it was hard to believe we hadn't been to the Sawmill in almost two years. But since we had the addition & pool built, and got Logan and then Sydney, our weekends were often busy at the house. But we went there Saturday night for their Halloween festivities. We got there just in time to see the parade. We then checked out the store (Spike, you are still the nicest and cutest employee at the campground!) where Mark bought a new piece of jewelry for his P.A. I walked around the camground looking at the decorations on the cabins and mobile homes, and then met back up with Mark by the stage and we went through the haunted garage. That was a lot of fun, and the Wolfman in his jock strap was quite a treat! The devil in the leather singlet was a close second. While waiting about 15 minutes for Mark to get pictures of Wolfman, I stood around and got felt up by one of the actors wearing a skull mask. So I got a boner from a bonehead, you could say.

I didn't want to put all my photos in one post so I split it into three. I changed the posting times so this initial post will appear first. Make sure to check out the other two 'previous' posts. Enjoy the photos.

*****************************************

Golf carts are always used as floats in the parade

I don't know what they were supposed to be, but any reason to wear striped thigh-high stockings and NO underwear...

Watch out for Ursula!

This 'float' was really very inventive (she won for Best float, too)

Hey, Mr. Construction Worker!

I am at your command, Sir!

If it's not golf carts, it's trucks...

That wrap is barely covering his butt...

Who wouldn't want a bed they could drive around? Commander Whorf is right behind them. His was a really well done costume.

This was the Jetson's flying car.....mmmmmmm....yeah.

One of the Slutty Fairies

[INSERT CAPTION HERE]

The Whole Slutty Fairy Brigade

They had names like Mary Kaye, Noxema, Revlon, etc

Cleopatra (Marc Anthony was driving)

Spooky Golf Cart

The Red Hat Ladies #1

Ok, Mr. Dark Angel. If you are gonna dress to impress, wear something other than black jeans for pants, for god's sake.

Ghouls later seen in the haunted garage

A golf cart pulled by a truck!

More Debauchery...

2005-10-31T02:10:00.000-08:00

Part 2:

He's dressed up as a man drinking beer!

See! It wasn't all wild costumes! There were lots of decorations, too.

More guys who went out of their way to celebrate the holiday.

And he wasn't wearing underwear, just like the Romans, we made sure...

Where the hell is my Swiss Miss cocoa?

We think what was in his long-johns was real...

It was scarier without the flash.

At least he tried...

The obligatory 'man with chiansaw' at the end of the haunted garage.

The end of the haunted garage was a wide open area themed with freaks and a graveyard. It was a great job done in a small space.

If you look closely, you can see that the mummy was....ummm...quite aroused by the whole experience.

A clothed freak in the end section.

Smile!

The stage entertainment.

Have you seen my sheep?

They were characters from the 5th Element

The contest judges.

A vehicle from the 5th Element.

Ursula with the Little Mermaid

Those bitches rode in style!

You see a lot of leather-with-wings costumes at a gay campground during Halloween. That's Heaven for me!

Touched by an angel!

He actually isn't praying. He was trying to catch thrown candy when this photo was snapped.

The 5th Element crew again.

The 5th Element car from the other side...

The guy who arranged the parade (in the scoop)

Wings and leather again.

Love the go-go boots!

The 2nd unit of Red Hat ladies! Notice one of them is pregnant.

To Boldly Swish....

2005-10-28T03:10:00.000-07:00

This just in (thanks to How Does One Deal? ):

George Takei Comes Out of the Closet

I must say his 'cloaking device' never diverted my gaydar. It was just a question of 'will he admit it to the public?' And all I have to say is 'Good for you, George!' (I'm sure there's a furor in Star Trek fandom circles right now.)

Now for the evil part. Tonight I am having dinner with my mom and brother for my brother's birthday. I will tell my brother this news (he was a fanatical Star Trek fan back in the 70's) to get a rise out of him. My brother was mean to me growing up, and as he matured (if you call it that) disassociated himself from me. Ours is not a relationship of talking about our lives or going out to dinner together. He can say a few sentences to me but seems a bit uncomfortable around me. I say 'live, and let live.' If he wants to be like that, I'm not going to force him to change. He is not mean or vindictive to me...he just seems socially stunted.

Say It, You Little Bitch!

2005-10-23T03:10:00.000-07:00

Whatever Happened to Christie McNichol?

2005-09-20T03:10:00.000-07:00

Movie Review

Flightplan - Mark won tickets last week to a sneak preview of the new Jodi Foster film. We all liked it and I hope it does well, for Touchstone's sake. I don't think Jodi has ever made a bad film, at least lately. The storyline is as follows: Jodi is flying to the states with her daughter. They are going there to bury her husband whose coffin is onboard. She also happens to be the person who designed the plane. She wakes up from a nap and finds her daughter missing. Has her daughter been taken or is she jsut going crazy? Great acting and a good story. I give it a thumbs up.

Homo-Icon

2005-08-02T03:10:00.000-07:00

Have any of you seen the new Brawny papertowel ads? Can you say homo-erotic? So homo-erotic that some of them have been edited?

In the first ad seen on the Brawny site, check out the humongous bulge in Brawny Man's pants at the very end of the commercial. Glad he has all that paper towel to clean up with afterwards. In the edited commercial they do a close-up on him so you can't see the crotch bulge.

You can watch the sequel commercial on the Brawny site, but it's been edited. Watch it on the second link I posted and notice the section where the Brawny Man drops a huge glob of frosting on the guy's cheek and then wipes it off. It's been taken out. Is it really frosting that hits his cheek? Hmmmm......

http://www.brawnyman.com/products/ads.html

http://www.audiocomedy.net/random/brawny2.shtml

If only they got sexier. How's this for the next ad?

There's a guy laying in bed masturbating. He orgasms with loud gasps and moans and lays there panting. Then the Brawny Man (naked) walks into view and and starts wiping him clean with a roll of Brawny papertowels. It would sell a million more rolls for them. Hell, I'd buy stock in the company at that point.

Subversive As Ever

2005-06-13T03:10:00.000-07:00

We had a good weekend. The only depressing thing is the crab grass that is taking over a huge patch of our front yard. That stuff is just nasty. You pull it up in huge clumps and you're left with a patch of dead grass because that stuff is so thick and invasive it kills the St. Augustine grass. We had showers throughout Saturday and a bit of Sunday.

Mark had to work Saturday afternoon so I took Sydney to her final obedience class. She wasn't top dog but she passed. Hey, she's younger than Logan was when he went to class. Each puppy got a rawhide 'diploma'. One of the dogs barked and snapped at Sydney when she walked near him thinking she was going to take hig rawhide. I think she learned that not all dogs are friendly like Logan.

We made dinner and sat down to watch Tarzan on the Wonderful World of Disney...and in hi-def. Just an amazing thing to see. I played around with my laptop while watching the show. Afterwards Mark had fallen asleep on the couch so I also watched the Muppets Wizard of Oz on DVR. It was a lot better than I was led to believe. There were some really good inside jokes. The only part I actually didn't like was the Scooter character. I didn't like the new voice/performer. Scooter was origianlly performed by Richrd Hunt. He also did Janice, Statler, Sweetums, and Janice. He passed away in 1992 from AIDS. At that time Scooter was 'retired'. That's why you didn't see him in the Muppets Tonight series. But I guess someone wanted him back for MWoO and it was just not the same. But oherwise it was a fun hour and 40 minutes; there weren't too many songs, and the changes to the script actually help to keep it fresh. It wasn't a direct take off on the story we all know. From the story I read, the Disney execs got scared after reading the script because of the similarities to the Movie, and since Disney has had a run-in with Ted Turner (he owns the rights) before they didn't want to get him on their case again. Well I say it was a blessing. The script was still inventive, and actually had enough storyline changes to keep it from being predicatable. Oh, there was one other thing that bugged me: Are there really black people in Kansas?

Sunday morning we went to Animal Kingdom to check out a few things and then get to our errands. We first went to the Festival of the Lion King to check out the theater. It was recently enclosed so that it is now air conditioned inside. Animal Kingdom is a hot park, they made a good move in doing this (they are also enclosing the Tarzan Theater in the future, too). Unfortunately, the main performers were lack-luster. They either are not morning people or they aren't very good performers. But we got our fill of Tumble Monkey eye candy, and enjoyed seeing which male dancer was acting the queeniest.

We then went to DinoLand and watched Lucky the Dinosaur, a free-standing animatronic that walks around. He was fun to watch but being in the direct sun we didn't stay long (and oh my god! is disney just hiring old and/or socially retarded Cast Members now? There wasn't a cute make one to be seen anywhere in the park!). We waited in line for Tarzan Rocks and got a seat 4th row, Center stage. Check out the pictures below and eat your heart out! Even though the dredlock wig is hideous, the rest of him was boner-inducing when you are that close. During the show Mark's cell phone rang. It was his neice. He answered it because she was driving up to our place and he wanted to make sure she wasn't having car-trouble, etc. As he spoke to her the male vocalist came over and reached his hand out for the phone. I nudged Mark and he looked up and handed the phone to the guy (His name was Sean G.). Sean said 'He's busy right now. He'll call you back later!' and hung-up. It was great! After the show we walked past Expedition Everest and took photos. When you walk past the Tarzan Theater that ride just smacks you right in the face with how big it is. I can't wait for that one.

Christie got her earlier than I thought. It will be nice to have her here so she can let the dogs out to go to the bathroom during the time we are away. She isn't scheduled to work at Epcot until Saturday, but she is ging in today to pick up extra shifts.

Watch out for loin-cloth sweat!

I know why she's smiling: she's seen what's under that loin cloth!

Puppy UpDate

2005-05-27T03:10:00.000-07:00

As asked for, here's an update on Logan and Sydney:

They are both doing fine. Logan seems to have reached his optimum weight (about 79 pounds) and Sydney seems to still be growing (about 27 pounds as of last Thursday). It's amazing when we look at the few photos of her as a puppy and see how big she has gotten. And yesterday she was able to jump up on the bed with the help of a running start. It's true what people say: that the first-born gets all the pictures taken. We have tons of Logan but few of Sydney. We will try and correct that soon but she also is so energetic. She will not stand still for long. She is doing ok with her training class but is more willful than Logan is. I'm hoping that over time she will copy Logan's way of being obedient.

Sydney was spayed and microchipped while we were out of town. The bill for that along with boarding for them and a few shots and tests for Sydney was $480+! I am so glad Mark's friend Melanie was able to pick them up Friday afternoon and watch them in the evenings while we were gone-we didn't have to pay for 7 nights of boarding. She did report to us that Sydney was licking her stitches and the vet did not give her one of the Direct TV collars. We learn this Saturday afternoon, AFTER our vet has closed, so Melanie took Sydney to PetSmart and got her one. But Monday night we got a message from Melanie telling us she had chewed through it (I think Sydney had help from her brother) but appeared not to be bothering her stitches anymore. That was a relief.

Neither of them likes the pool. Logan will step into it down to the 2nd step but won't go all the way in unless we carry him. Sydney won't even get her paws wet. We took them to the dog park Wednesday for some play time and Logan tried to climb into the bucket of water to splash in...so I think we will start filling the kiddie pool next to the pool and let him play in it. Maybe someday soon he will jump into the pool on his own.

Sydney now sleeps at the foot of the bed (on it). Logan sleeps between the bathroom floor (on the cool linoleum) and next to me in bed. Sometimes in the middle of the night I'll make him go back into the bathroom if I don't want to be sandwiched between him and Mark.

We were discussing with my sister about what breeds are in Sydney and she mentioned how Border Collies are very intense and will just sit and watch you. Sydney does this a lot...and I notice it so much more now that Jean told me this. Sydney does watch us all the time. Maybe as she gets older she'll be even more clever than Logan.

***********************************

Season Finales (and 1 Series Finale) I saw and my thoughts:

Will & Grace: Stanley's alive? Well, that wasn't too much of a shock. The plots have been getting boring (at least between W&G). I hope they keep doing more with Jack and his job at Out TV. Those are some of the funniest bits now.

Desparate Housewives: Rex can't be dead! It's gotta be a trick he's playing to see if Bree was the one poisoning him with potassium (so he thinks). All in all an incredible season finale for us. We were riveted to the screen for the whole thing.

Alias: Oh my god! Does J.J. Abrams know how to keep us in suspense or what? Just when Michael was going to tell his secret to Sydney, that SUV smashes into them (and made me jump out of my seat!). All we know now is their 'chance' meeting in the very first episode was actually arranged. Did he work for SD6 at that time or some other group? Tell me, Mr Abrams!

Everybody Loves Raymond: An anti-finale I would say. It was very funny but no real closure was made except for the camera pull-out at the end with the families all around the table. I know this was a problem for some people. For me, it just told me that life went on, and even though they would fight and conflicts would happen, they still loved each other. I liked it better than if the writers would have had them having their dreams come true or someone really dying.

CSI:Miami: Is Kali really gone? And will Horatio's brother ever return? Will his wife stay with him, thereby leaving the show?

CSI: Quentin Tarantino is one twisted fuck. That whole burying thing was bad enough, but then having the ants bit thrown in was just torture. I think I'm starting to like this one better than the Miami version.

**********************************

We are going to see Dragness of God and the Naked Holy Ghost tonight at the Fringe Festival. I can't wait. I always rave about Michael Wanzie's plays and I'm sure this will be no different. For next Friday we are seeing The Naked Guy which has played at the Fringe in previous years to rave reviews. It's being put on for Gay Days because.....there's full frontal nudity in it! WooHoo!

Friends of ours are coming in next week for Gay Days. The only problem is they are meeting up with a straight couple that Mark & I are getting tired of spending time with. It seems everytime Mickey and Mel visit, D & S come to Orlando, too (and one time they brought their kids - talk about a couple of horrible brats). I am going to call Mickey and tell her the truth: that on Saturday we don't want to hang around D & S. They are ok but we just aren't good friends with them; we would rather spend time with the girls or ourselves, rather than with D & S.

**********************************

Some things we realized on our trip:

-Simon Malls look alike. They apparently use the same color schemes and such. I guess they make their money by creating cookie-cutter decor for their new locations.

-Our rental car had a Florida plate on it even though we picked it up in Virginia

-woodchucks look like beavers without the flat tails (we saw several on our trip)

-deer make for huge roadkill. We saw 2 dead ones during our trip. We are used to squirrels and possums which are small...seeing a huge deer in the middle of the road was just such a big surprise.

it looks like freedom resort spa is

2004-11-12T02:10:00.000-08:00

It looks like Freedom Resort & Spa is having some construction difficulties. I got a mass emailing from them saying the Resort will be open by January but the bar, Club Freedom, should be open in December so all family members could ring in the New Year together. I only hope this delay doesn’t mean they will never open. We may have to wait for Mark to win the Lottery then (and I need to mention our Lottery is up to $32 million this week).

Mark is getting all these classes at work. He’s now working Saturday and Sunday. Well, that gives me some alone time to play videogames. Woot!

One of the security guards at work decided to send a snide email to the Care Center which ticked off some people. Some sort of email war began back and forth, and the next thing I know Byron is asking me to cover the Front Desk. Déjà vu! I’m back! But Randy is off today so I don’t need to be available to assist him, and both Chris’s know they can reach me at the Front Desk for Help Desk stuff….AND I just log into my desk PC remotely and it’s almost like I’m still there (except for the CRT…I have two flat screens on my desk…video real estate!). I will be here until 4 today.

It looks like Terry Pratchett novel, Going Postal, when I got to the Front Desk. Yes, I’m already sucked in. I love everything he writes.