Category Archives: Daily Babble

Murderous New Year

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Austin started the new year off with murders on both the first two days. I spent most of day three hoping there wouldn’t be a third murder, because that would really start to feel like a disturbing trend. Though the worst case scenario of massive numbers of murders happening this year will likely not become reality, the two that have happened are disturbing me all the same.

The first murder happened in the North University area about five miles from my house. The victim was a young woman … a teaching assistant who by all accounts was a wonderful human being with a bright future helping kids. It’s very sad. It’s also concerning, because two other women were also attacked in the same area that same night/morning, and while there haven’t yet been any evidence connecting the attacks and the murder, it certainly seems quite likely.

So far, all they have is a police sketch of the man who attacked the two women, and they haven’t yet caught him. So who knows, there may be a man attacking women and a man who murdered a woman, or they may be one and the same. What really matters to me is that there’s at least one man out there, very near my own neighborhood (and in an area I am sometimes in), who is dangerous. I guess the best case scenario here is that the attacker and the murderer is one and the same, because the police sketch is engraved in my brain. If the attacker isn’t the murderer, well then there’s someone out there who broke into a young woman’s house and killed her, and we don’t have a clue who they are.

On the second day of the new year, I turned on the local news, and the very first story I heard hit even closer to home. A woman’s body was found in a dumpster behind the T-Mobile store just a couple blocks away. I recognized the location beef they even announced the address, because I’ve walked by that very dumpster who knows how many times over the years cutting through the parking lots on my way to the Walgreens at the corner. The victim in this case was a 34 year old homeless woman, and if the police have any information on what happened, it’s not making the news.

Maybe the attacks and both murders are all the same person, maybe there’s two people. Maybe there’s three. Who knows right now. All I do know is that there’s one or more dangerous and potentially deadly persons walking free after committing crimes in the area of Austin I call my stomping grounds. I find myself a little unsettled.

The major reason I am finding these crimes more unsettling than usual is that I’ve had an interest in Austin murders since I served on a jury for a murder trial. I’ve been tracking the trends and causes of local murders for years, and generally speaking, murders in Austin tend to happened between people with connections to one another. They are quickly and easily solved, and the perpetrators locked up in a matter of days or at least identified and on the run.

The reasons for the person killing someone almost always tends to be interpersonal conflict, either long-standing or heat-of-the-moment, between persons already involved in each other’s lives … family, friends, spouses, roommates, drug connections, and so on. So far, the two recent murders don’t match the trend I’ve seen developing over the years. I dont like it when events don’t fit established trends.

With the information we have currently, it very much seems like there’s no connection between criminal and victims. Perhaps more information will come out and there will be some connection, but for now, I have to work with the information I have, and that information tells me there’s someone out there just killing people for no reason at all. It’s bad enough when people get killed for completely stupid reasons by people they knew and sometimes even loved, but for no reason at all (or some insane reason a crazy person has in their head)? That’s even more disturbing, because it’s far more difficult to avoid. I can avoid having people in my life who I feel might snap and do me harm during a disagreement, but I can’t very well avoid insane and murderous strangers, unless I never leave my house (which I do almost daily).

Hopefully, more information will come to light soon in both cases and the perp or perps will be caught. In the meantime, I’m going to be a little more watchful while out and about alone.

Staycation is Over

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The new year is still a newborn, and I’m already overwhelmed by all the things I need to get done. I meant to get caught up on a few projects while Lin was on vacation, but instead … I opted to spend my time sitting in the living room with Lin watching Star Trek Voyager on Netflix. I don’t suppose I should give myself a gold star for watching two seasons of a TV show, should I?

It’s not like this is unprecedented behavior. Whenever we don’t go somewhere for a real vacation and Lin takes a Xmas to New Year stay-at-home break from work, nothing of true importance ever gets done. Not all that much different from when we go away on vacation, except those kinds of vacations at least leave me with a bunch of photographs and some stories to tell. Staycations allow me to feel guilty about not doing anything at all, because I was at home, so I could have done SOMETHING that needed doing.

C’est la vie.

Going to try not to beat myself up about it too much. After all, when am I not behind on a list of things that should have been done days or weeks earlier? LOL! The last couple of years, that seems to have become my persistent state of being. I’ll bumble around for a few more days as I get my butt in gear and decide on a plan of action (or two), and by next week, I’m sure I’ll be on track and ready to attack the projects that have been mostly on hold since the holiday madness began.

This holiday season was more grueling than usual with historically high levels of family dysfunctionality and the added complication of my mom having a health issue. Mom has an appointment with her doctor tomorrow, so hopefully the health issue will get sorted out satisfactorily. I can’t really get embroiled in any of the big things I need to do until after her appointment because a) I’m a little worried and b) Mom is freaking out (and wants to be on the phone with me all day). And all I’ll say about the family dysfunctionality is that I’ve finally decided I am done putting up with it. Going forward, I will not be spending neary two months or more of every year wallowing in steaming piles of family-induced stress. I have better things to do.

My first priority, aside from bringing some much needed order and cleanliness to the household, is to get ready to attend a gallery reception next week. I need something warm and fashionable to wear, and I need new business cards. But today, I’m just going to focus on getting some housework done and staying awake. The “staying awake” part is going to be hard, and I suspect I will end up crawling back into bed for a bit at some point. I stupidly allowed myself to sleep in every day between Xmas and today, and now, I’ll be paying for it. When a giant mug of coffee doesn’t get me in gear at all, you have to know I will not be able to resist snoozing at some point (likely sooner rather than later). It doesn’t help that winter has decided to make another freezing cold appearance. When it’s this cold, all I want to do is sleep.†

Guess I should have a little breakfast and make a game plan for the day. I’m pretty sure the only things I can hope to accomplish today are getting the dishes done, clearing the rubble from my art table, and baking some cookies. I’ve already decided we’ll be having tamales for dinner tonight, since I do happen to have a bunch of them in my freezer.††

In closing, I hope everyone has a prosperous and happy year, and if you’re the sort to make New Year’s resolutions, may you find it easy to stick to them!

Happy New Year!!!

Footnotes
  1. † Doesn’t help that the furnace is being excessively cranky this morning. Cranky furnace = cold house = cranky and unproductive Orb. [↩]
  2. †† I’ve been working on a post about my journey into the world of tamale making. With luck,I should be done writing and editing it tomorrow … or shortly thereafter. [↩]

Tis the Season

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Yesterday brought the arrival of the first of the spring gardening catalogs. Therefore, I spent the afternoon, evening, and most of the night organizing and inventorying my seed collection and contemplating this year’s vegetable garden.

The last few years, my goal had been to create enough of a few vegetables to put some back for winter eating. Thanks to the worst and longest drought in Texas history, I have failed to achieve this goal. I am not at all certain this drought is done with us yet, so this year, my gardening goal will be a little different.

This year, I will plant a larger variety of vegetable in smaller quantities. My goal is merely to supply my kitchen with tasty fresh veggies for as long as the season lasts. I’ve successfully managed to do this every year since I started gardening, so all I am really doing is releasing myself from the stress of trying to stockpile food and the disappointed that comes when that doesn’t happen. I love gardening, and I want to continue to love gardening.

Years ago when we started our mission to eat as locally, organically, and ethically as possible, sources for such foodstuffs were few and far between. Working toward stockpiling things grown in my own garden was a worthy goal. But now, there are so many places I can go all year ’round to buy healthy, in season, local produce at reasonable prices. Also, our financial situation has improved slightly, so if I want to buy organic produce, and it costs a little more than the non-organic options, I can without feeling like I’m breaking the bank.

I know that someday, our very own backyard will be capable of producing much of our dietary needs, but until such time as the weather cooperates with me, it seems silly to keep being so ambitious. Last year was awful. There has never been a more awful summer in my life. The extreme heat, the lack of rain, the fires (and constant threat of fire). The day I finally realized there was no hope for my garden was a sad, sad day. It was supposed to have been my best year yet, and it turned into the worst. The experience of working so hard for so little return almost killed my desire to garden at all.

But then the first gardening catalogs arrived, and apparently, I am still addicted to gardening. I just need to change gears. Less focus of production output … more focus on fun and relaxation! I’m looking forward to this year’s garden. Who knows what the weather will be like. Maybe better. Maybe the same. It could even get worse (though I shudder to imagine worse). I’m just going to do the best I can to get something for my work, but mostly, I’ll be doing the best I can to enjoy myself and my garden and spending time outside doing something interesting and heathy.

Let the garden planning begin!

Soulful Rockin’ Christmas!

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Last night was the big concert night I’ve been anxiously awaiting for the last few weeks. Trans Siberian Orchestra at the Erwin Center! Finally!

We left the house at our planned time of 6:30 pm. Wat neither of us had considered was that it was a weekday, and we’d be driving through the end of rush hour traffic. As we were creeping along the expressway at about 10 miles an hour, I started to worry we wouldn’t get there in time to eat before the show. Of course, being anxious and cranky doesn’t make traffic move any faster.

After the slow and annoying drive, we finally were within sight of the parking garage. As to be expected, there was a line of cars waiting to get in. We pulled up to the end of the line (after a very exciting u-turn I was sure would lead to ur demise), and then … we sat and sat and sat. The line wasn’t moving! I finally got annoyed enough to hop out of the truck to go see what was holding things up. I usually doesn’t take all that long for cars to get into a parking garage. All I could see was a long line of cars sitting and waiting to get in. No idea what the hold up was, but shorty after I hopped back into the truck, things started moving.

Lin gave the attendant our parking pass, and we quickly picked a spot to park and dashed off in the direction everyone else was moving. Thank goodness for signs with clear directions, because by the time we got to the stairs, we couldn’t tell if everyone had gone up or down. Had it not been for the signs, we would have gone down, and the correct direction was up … and follow the sidewalk to the right. It spit us right out across the street from the Erwin Center.

That’s when it started to drizzle. Just a little, but considering we’d both decided we didn’t want to deal with carrying around a jacket or coat at the concert, we were less than happy about not only being cold but also getting wet. We crossed the street quickly and found ourselves standing in a somewhat long and slow moving line of people. There was also a lack of any kind of signage, so no one had any idea if this was the line we should be standing in or not. By this point, I was seriously becoming concerned we would miss dinner entirely.

It felt like it took forever, but at last we gained entrance to the building, and after asking where the Lone Star Room was and not really getting an answer, we found it on our own and dashed in to enjoy a very rushed meal. For me, thirty minutes to eat, use the restroom, buy drinks, and find our seats is way too rushed, but we d what we have to do!

I’d like to say something nice about the food. It looked nice. It even smelled nice. The buns were nice a fluffy. The salad was fresh and crisp. Unfortunately, that’s where the nice stopped. The green beans and potatoes were woefully undercooked, the poor chicken had every drop of juiciness and life cooked out of it, and I would have never thought it possible for there to be an apple crumble tart I wouldn’t finish, but I met just such a tart. We ate it all, of course, but we chuckled about it the whole way through. Nothing to be done about it anyway, and we were hungry.

Next up, we stopped at the bar for a glass of wine, which we hurriedly drank since we weren’t sure if we could take it in with us or not. Slamming a glass of wine worked to finally chase the last of the outdoor chill away. Then I hassled off to the insanity of the women’s restroom, and we headed into the arena area. Seeing a bar right by the door, we bought two more glasses of wine and went in to find our seats.

I’ve only been to the Erwin Center once before, and I’d never been down on the floor before. We walked in, I looked up and around, and all I could say was WOW. The show wasn’t sold out, but there were thousands and thousands of people, and the venue is just huge. Being down on the floor made me feel small. LOL! When I stopped gawping at the room and all the people, I noticed Lin had been moving in the direction of our section. Well, I assumed that was where he was headed. He’s the one who bought the tickets and saw the seating chart. I had no idea where in the mass of humanity we would find ourselves sitting.

I caught up to Lin just as he got to a riser at the back left of the floor. It was really full, and I was hoping our two seats weren’t the ones at the inside end of a very long row of people. Thankfully, we were up at the back and right on the end! Perfect! Our view of the stage was incredible, and should we need to acquire more beverages or something, we wouldn’t have to annoy everyone else to get out of our seats. Yippee!

Then … we waited. And waited some more. 8 pm came, and we were still waiting. I chatted with the lady sitting next to me, and Lin went off to get more wine. While he was gone, the house lights went down and stage lights came up. Just as Lin got back (out of wine, so I had to drink a Bud beer, yuck), various announcements were made about money being raised for a local organization (Casa de Luz) and sundry other things. Then, at last, the show started!

I’m not even going to try to describe the show in too much detail. Lights, lasers, smoke, fire, snow. Yes, snow! And the music? Incredible and beautiful. The first half of the show had a narrator telling a Christmas story in between each of the songs. It was lovely and moving. Then the last half of the show was rock-n-roll and soul and classical classics. The light show and pyrotechnics were awesome, but the best part was when the very large and no doubt heavy equipment hanging overhead moved down and the performers ran out on it. One of them was right in front of us! So cool!

Or actually, not cool but hot. When Lin saw Trans Siberian Orchestra a few years ago, he was sitting very close to the stage, and he said he could feel the heat from the pyrotechnics. We thought, sitting sans far back as we were, we wouldn’t really notice the heat at all, but now were we wrong! I can’t imagine how hot it must be on stage, because sitting across the large room from them, I still felt like I was right in front of a campfire. When a mini stage came up from the floor right beside our section with flames coming out of it, I think I could have roasted a marshmallow. LOL!

Then, the show was over. It was almost three hours long, which is quite a long concert, but I could have watched another three hours! My advice to anyone who wonders if they should go see Trans Siberian Orchestra is to just pay whatever they want and go see them. I would say that in most venues, there isn’t likely to be a bad seat in the house. The show is going to be incredible to see no matter where you sit, and the music is phenomenal. it is totally worth the money. I am so glad I finally got the chance to go, and I suspect I will want to see them again in the future.

We exited the Erwin Center and found ourselves walking back to the parking garage in a right proper rain storm. I was thankful I’d decided not to wear heels. Had I done so, I’d have been even more drenched. I was so glad to get back to the truck, but getting out of the parking garage was pure madness. I don’t even know how long we sat there waiting for the line of cars to move, but it felt like ages. I turned on the radio and started singing along to the songs to stave off the boredom and aggravation. Eventually things got moving, and we were out on the expressway driving home in the cold rain.

To finish off this splendid night, I poured both of us a final glass of wine, and we watched the season finale of Next Great Artist before flopping into bed fatigued. I was a great date night which even managed to get me somewhat into a Merry Christmas mood again … and fun was had by all!

What A Day

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The list of things I wanted to get done today was long, seeing as I didn’t get yesterday’s list done due to the whole “having to go to the main tax office” thing that happened. Unfortunately, I woke up feeling achy, cranky, and sneezy. Allergies! How very fun for me. Therefore, I decided if I could just get my business with Time Warner done today, I would consider today a success.

Well, today was a success, but oh, what a day.

I hate going west of MOPAC for any reason whatsoever. I especially hate doing so when it’s the cable company office I am off to visit. The combination. Of West Austin traffic and insanity combined with the annoyance of dealing with Time Warner is always a recipe for aggravation. Tday did not disappoint!

First off, the cable office is a pain in the butt to get to. No really. It sucks. Bad, bad location. Every time I have to go over there, which thankfully isn’t often, I end up lost and driving around frantically trying to figure out how to get back on the right track. Some. This can be blamed on the street layout in the area being less than stable and normal, some on my not liking being on the expressway, and most if the blame lies with the stupid, crazy drivers who won’t let normal drivers into the lane they need to be in to get where they are going. Seriously, West Austin is full of crazy, mean drivers.

I finally got to the cake office, but as usual, I took a weird path getting there. So after the stress and trauma of the trip there, I then got to carry a load of cable boxes and wires and remotes across the huge parking lot … and hen finally, deal with a customer service representative. Joy. Not!

There wasn’t much of a line, so it didn’t take too long for me to get up to the counter. I was sort of glad for the wait, tilt gave me a few minutes to catch my breath and chill out a bit. I was a bundle if nerves when I got there. Finally, a counter opened up, and the guy called out for ticket number 33. I had pulled number 32, and seeing as I was in a rather cranky mood, I shouted out “Hey! What about 32!” the guy apologized, called my number, and as I passed the person holding the but of paper numbered 33, I apologized to him. You know, even when I’m cranky, I do my best to be nice to strangers.

I plopped all our cable gear on the counter, and I imagine he thought I was there to cancel my service. As I’d sat waiting, there were a lot of people canceling their service. But no, I explained I needed to return one box and remote we wouldn’t be using anymore, needed to exchange one box and remote that had started behaving badly, and that I needed to make some changes to my service plan. He seemed happy I wasn’t just canceling the whole shebang.

The box return and exchange took no time at all, but sorting out my cable services was another matter. I’ve had the same cane account since I got it decades ago, and he was surprised by the old codes and nonexistent “packages” on said account. It took I’m a long time to straighten out what was there and get it al, up to date with the current codes, and then he removed what I wanted removed, and then … he started looking to see if there were any deals he could offer me.

He gave me the DVR rent free for three months, since we’d been having problems the last month. He offered me Cinemax, which I had just had I’m remove, for a penny a month for a year (no really, I don’t want Cinemax, even for so little a cost), and then he said he could give me a deal for Turbo Roadrunner (internet) for free for a year. Though I will probably live to regret it, I took him up on that offer. What the hell, right?

End result? I walked out with a new DVR, new programmable remote, faster Internet, and a cable bill that will be $50 cheaper a month. This definitely sounds like a WIN! I ws pleased, anyway.

Then I got back into the truck and headed back into the insane traffic situation, which was made worse by the truck informing me it was on its last drops of gas. Ugh. I had no idea where to find a gas station I’d want to buy gas from over there, so I just kept heading in the direction of home. Naturally, I didn’t manage to force my way into the lane getting on the expressway (assholes everywhere) and ended up deciding to take Anderson Lane back to my ‘hood. This worked out well, as I finally saw an Exxon station with gas at a good price. I was ridiculously difficult getting out of that lot and back into traffic, but when the truck needs gas, it needs gas. Running out of gas on my way home would not have improved my mood, right? LOL!

Finally, I got home, plugged everything back in, and after one quick call to get the box activated, the cable was back and better than ever. Really. The image was awesome! The old box ws sucking worse than we thought, I guess. Then I worked on setting our favorite channels, resetting all our regularly recorded shows, and programming the remote to do all the things I wanted it to do. This took a couple of hours, most of my brain cells, and it almost destroyed my very last nerve. But I did it all by myself! I’m sort of proud of myself. Usually, I leave it to Lin to deal with this crap, but I didn’t want him to waste hours of our evening fussing with it, and well, I’m not an idiot and should be able to set this stuff up on my lonesome.

Once all that thinking was done, I popped some aspirin, an allegy pill, and a zinc tablet, and my brain fogged over. I meant to take a nap, but I think I just sat here on the couch playing Angry Birds and watching stupid TV shows. To be honest, I don’t know where the hours went.

Now Lin’s home, and he’s happy I did all the programming and setting up stuff. I ordered a delivery pizza, because no way do I feel like cooking after the last two annoying days. And … I’m topping off my fuzzy brain with some tasty chilled cider. I’m really floating now, which is better than feeling like crap. Hopefully, I will feel better in the morning. I still have a ton of stuff to do. Most notably, I need to continue panicking about what to wear on Saturday night, and I probably need to go buy some shoes (and maybe makeup). But for now, I’m mellow and feeling no pain, and any minute now, the pizza will be here. Once I’ve eaten dinner, I’m betting I fall into a total stupor on the couch. I deserve it. The last two days have been less than awesome.

Saturday’s coming though, and I can’t wait. The Nutcracker! Opening night! Woo hoo!!!

There may be typos and such. I’m not checking. I don’t really care at the moment. Blame it on the drugs and booze. LOL!

Hair Update

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My hair is getting longer! As it will, of course. It’s finally long enough to use headbands, so I bought me some today.

My Hair

I would still like to buzz it back to about a half inch long, but I also would like to get it back to a chin length bob. We’ll see how I feel about it after the holiday party season is over. It’s possible buzzing my hair off will become an annual spring thing. LOL!

Helloooo!

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OK, so I suck at making regular posts to my blog. Well, it is the holiday season, and those of you who have known me for a while know that means my life is mostly insane at the moment. I’m forgiving myself for not posting as much as I said I would. You should forgive me too. LOL!

Thanksgiving went fairly well. Since my plan to buy plates of food to take to Mom’s didn’t pan out, I ended up cooking everything, and that went well. I had fun doing the cooking at a leisurely pace the day before, and everything turned out tasty and filling. Of course, I made way too much, but that’s the point of Thanksgiving, right? Eat until you burst, and then eat turkey and stuffing until you don’t want to eat it again for an entire year! Mission accomplished!

Now we’re in the build-up to Xmas. This year is slightly crazier than usual owing to the fact Lin and I have tickets to some awesome holiday shows. Saturday, we’ll be going to the opening night of The Nutcracker, down at the Long Center, and on the 21st, we’ll be having a night out at the Erwin Center to see Trans Siberian Orchestra (added bonus: gourmet meal before the show). There are a few other things I’d like to go see and do, but we can only squeeze in so much into one month … and there’s the whole family thing as well. Have to go this year, since I was sick as a dog last year and didn’t.

This year, Mom is coming over a day or so before Xmas to stay for a few days. That means we’ll be heading to the Family Xmas Gathering together from my house. It also means she’ll be spending her birthday with us, which is cool. I haven’t seen her on her birthday for about 20 years. She’s always been staying at other family members’ homes in other cities. I want to do something special, but I haven’t decided what yet.

Also, since Mom is coming for a visit, that means I have to get the house in some kind of clean and orderly state. Mom’s pretty forgiving, but still … I’d like it to not look like a total wreck. Guess I’ll get started on that next week.

The rest of this week will be devoted to panicking about what to wear to the ballet on Saturday. It’s probably going to be cold and wet, which sucks and limits what I can wear. I’ll probably end up buying something new. New and warm and classy. Maybe a new sweater dress! I meant to do that today, but thanks to a teenager working at the service desk at the grocery store, I had to deal with a muddle involving my truck registration, which sucked up time I planned to use clothes shopping.

Oh well, there’s still time. Tomorrow, I can go do that and maybe get the cable box switched out (it’s been acting badly for weeks). I’m sure other things to do will make themselves known too. I’ve felt like I am forgetting to do something every day for days on end now, and it’s quite likely I have forgotten something. My iPad can only remind me if I remember to tell it, and apparently, I didn’t. LOL!

Speaking of the iPad … I still love it. I’ve picked out a really awesome case I want to get, but I want to wait until after the holidays to order it. I’m going to be away from home a lot during the day for the next few weeks, and the last thing I want is something expensive sitting on my front porch tempting people to steal it. But I needed something to put it in until I get the awesome case, so today I went shopping for a cheap one to keep it pristine in the meantime. I found a nice one on sale ($20 down from $40) and while it’s a pretty nice case, it’s all professional and business looking, which I really don’t want. It’ll do for now though, and I feel better about carrying the iPad around with me while out in the world now that it’s in something.

Now I’m going to go pop the top on a bottle of cider and chill out for a while (perhaps by watching some Doctor Who). It’s been a somewhat annoying day, and a cider (and Doctor Who) will make everything better!

Countdown to T-Day

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I hadn’t planned on doing any cooking for Thanksgiving. As always, my plan has had to be altered. Isn’t that always the way it goes?

Mom insisted we come to her house this year –after two years of being at my house. I didn’t want to cook in her tiny kitchen, and I didn’t want her to do any cooking either. Just a day of sitting, eating, talking, and setting up her computer stuff. Therefore, the plan was to pick up some plates of Thanksgiving Day goodness from Threadgill’s and go to Mom’s with it. But … Threadgill’s doesn’t open until 10:30 that morning. We need to be on our way to Mom’s much earlier than that, so there went my plan.

So now there’s a whole turkey thawing in the kitchen sink and a slew of ingredients taking up space on my prep table and in my fridge. Tomorrow, I’ll be doing a lot of cooking to get everything ready to eat and packed up for easy travel and quick reheating. Ugh. Not my plan at all! Not at ALL!

It’ll be OK. I thought about buying already cooked turkey and side dishes but a) it would have been even more expensive, and b) I read the ingredients and gagged. So I decided to just go ahead and cook it all myself. Since I’ll be doing it the day before and can take all day to do it without the stress of people waiting to eat, I think it might even turn out to be fun. Well, maybe not fun, but at least it might not be a totally awful experience. I do, after all, enjoy cooking.

Still … it would be nice if just once one if my plans went AS PLANNED. I suspect this will never happen. My plans always fall apart. Always!

Me I need to go bake some bread. We’ll need it on Thursday, and if I do it today, we can have sandwiches tonight. I’d like to not have a mess in the kitchen after dinner. Be nice not to have to clean the kitchen before I start making a mess of the kitchen

Shame on You!

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I imagine you’ve heard and seen news of the police vs. protesting students incident at UC Davis. It would be nearly impossible not to have heard about it, but it’s taken a few days for the meat of the story to really crystallize. The original official take on what exactly happened turned out to be less than entirely truthful, but thanks to nearly ubiquitous cameras with video capabilities, we can all have a clear picture of what went down in full color, with sound.

This is a compilation of four videos time synced together and shown simultaneously, which gives the best coverage of one of these situations I have ever seen … and only possible because of our modern technology.

Yup. Looks me to me like the cops were behaving like pigs and assholes. I guess we’re lucky it was pepper spray and not bullets. It’s not like shooting students with bullets would be unprecedented.

I don’t have too much to say about the protesting going on. More power to them all. Nothing I like better than some grass-roots organized freedom of speech (as opposed to the Super PAC created variety). What I’ve been having thoughts on lately is the ubiquity of cameras.

There was a time not so long ago when personal video cameras weren’t so plentiful. Not everyone had one in their pocket, and the power of the camera belonged to the authority figures and businesses in the form of security cameras. Many people began to decry the coming Age of Big Brother, and for a while, it definitely felt like that was a road we were headed down at break-neck speed.

But technology continued to improve, as it will, and now the ability to record video and snap photos is in the hands of anyone having even a cheap, pay-as-you-go cell phone. The ranks of cell phone owners covers all socioeconomic classes, races, creeds. Any time anything interesting, exciting,outrage provoking occurs, there’s a sea of mobile devices recording reality as it happens from multiple angles and points of view. It’s a beautiful thing to have access to so much data.

The power of the camera has been wrested from the hands of authority and placed into the hands of the people. Some people still rage against the security cameras that cover every corner of public life, but the truth is … the people have far more cameras, and thus, far more power. The world truly is watching, and more often than not, what it’s watching comes from the hands of the less-than-powerful. At the length, truth will out … and it’ll be posted to YouTube, shared on Facebook, and Tweeted ’round the world.

The watchers are becoming the watched. Roles are reversing. Down with Big Brother, and power to the people!

All New Fresh Hell

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Oh do let me tell you about my day so far. You see, I decided to install Snow Leopard on my Mom’s Mac.

I was feeling pretty confident, seeing as everything went so smoothly with my own OS upgrade. What could possibly go wrong? Easy as pie! I started the computer, to make sure it booted, since we did just have new memory installed last week. It did. Everything seemed fine. I popped in the Snow Leopard DVD, and away I went … into HELL.

All was fine until it asked which drive I wanted to install it on. There’s only the one, so it’s not like I could choose incorrectly. I picked the only option, it started installing, and then … error message. Said it couldn’t be installed, because the contents of the hard drive couldn’t be changed. WTF?

I tried restarting the whole process, but this lead to the computer merely booting to a white Apple screen and the computer shutting down. Nothing loaded. Couldn’t eject the DVD. No response from the keyboard or mouse. You can imagine the mother of all panic attacks beginning at this point.

OMG I’VE BROKEN MY MOTHER’S COMPUTER!!!

I started looking stuff up on the Internet, trying to solve my crisis, and nothing seemed to be working. I finally found a way to get the DVD out of the thing by pressing the mouse button while it was booting (or trying to boot). I tried starting it without anything in the DVD drive, and nothing. NOTHING. I began to have thoughts of taking the whole mess over to the geeks at the Mac repair shop and dropping some money on the problem, but I really didn’t want to spend money on it if not absolutely necessary. So I put the DVD back in to see what would happen.

This time, I was able to get to the disk utility program on the DVD, so I verified it and tried to repair it, and the end result was it telling me the only thing that could be done was erasing and reformatting. For the record, I haven’t done any such thing on a Mac ever, and I didn’t have a clue about how to go from FUBAR computer to working one. But I looked some more stuff up online, and figuring I had very little to lose at this point, I clicked the erase button.

Then I turned everything off and rebooted to the Snow Leopard DVD. It started as expected, and about 35 minutes later, I was greeted by the Apple welcome screen. Holy cow. I somehow saved the day. Sometimes I amaze even myself.

Now I have iLife installing, and it seems to be moving along as expected and should be done any minute. Then, I’m going to pack the Mini back into its box and not think about it again until we set it up at Mom’s house on Thanksgiving. Then, all I should need to do is get the latest updates from Apple, set up her email and Internet, and install Firefox and some of its extensions, and the computer upgrade will be over and done with.

Of course, I’ll also be setting up Mom’s iPad that day too. Hopefully nothing will go wrong with that. I swear, any more problems and my head will literally explode. Seriously, Universe … no more computer problems of any kind for a while. I know I used to be something of a geeky computer whiz, but I did turn those portions of my brain off when I bought my iMac, and the space has already been reallocated for other uses. LOL!

Also, so glad to have an iPad. I was using the keyboard and mouse off my iMac, and the monitor off Lin’s computer, so the iPad was the only connection I had to the Internet to solve my crisis. Bravo, my most helpful iPad!

Now I really need to eat something and have a soda or some coffee … and I need to sit still and chill out a while. Without a doubt, my blood pressure is WAY up.