Baby Bean is Growing

 BabyFruit Ticker

Monday, January 31, 2005

I'm lying in bed, writing, and next to me, Brandon is snoring his head off. Literally. I am worried about his head, he is being so loud.

I must be a heavy sleeper to sleep through this.

*loves her laptop*

the google meme

Since everyone has been saying they gacked this meme from me (*snerk!*) I thought I might actually DO it. =)


"Go to google images and type in your answers for each
of these, then post the first picture that comes up
for your search."

1. Your first car.

Nissan Sentra

2. The place you grew up.

Richardson, Texas

3. The place you live now.

Oh my God, so true!

4. What shows up when you type in your name?

So NOT what I look like...

5. What shows up when you type in your grandmother's
name?

I love my grandma a lot, but she is not, actually, the patron saint of France...

6. What shows up when you type in your favorite food?

The grossest looking cookie EVER.

7. What shows up when you type in your favorite drink?

This is not a frosty beverage.

8. What shows up when you type in your favorite song?

I do NOT like that octopus.

9. What shows up when you type in your favorite smell?

actually a very cool picture

10. Your favorite pair of shoes ever?

this could actually BE my shoe...

favorite line of the day

"...women must recognize that if we don't do much more than our job for whatever it pays, we're not doing much at all. We should do things outside of our paid work for real satisfaction -- do something to give back to the community. [Justice Ginsburg] said, 'We should think of ourselves as teachers to our colleagues.'"

From hesychasm's livejournal post on Justice Ginsburg.

Sunday, January 30, 2005

Good Omens

It's become a sort of a thing over on Live Journal for some people to use their journals as a place to review the books they read this year. I thought it was a great idea, and a very good exercise, so, here we go!

The first book I read this year was Good Omens by Terry Prachett and Neil Gaiman. It is a book about the apocalypse, the ultimate battle between good and evil, the antichrist, the four horsemen, hell hounds, angels, and devils.

It is also a comedy.

It's very much a Hitchhiker's Guide meets Monty Python British take on the events of the end of the world in which the angel with the flaming sword, and the snake from the Garden of Eden become friends whilst on Earth doing their respective jobs, and decide, when the time comes, that they're actually quite fond of the planet and of humanity in general, and that things will be, on the whole, terribly uninteresting if the world were to end. So they decide to thwart it.

Fortunately, it doesn't need a whole lot of thwarting. Things start to go wrong when the antichrist is switched at birth and given to the wrong set of parents so that, when he should have been raised by a couple of satanists, he is, in fact, raised by a painfully normal couple in a nice little village.

The best parts of this book are the two main characters, Aziraphale the angel, and his friend Crowley the demon. Their discussions about the nature of good and evil, the ineffability of the divine plan, and the fact that really, their jobs aren't too difficult, because humans get up to more evil, and greater good, than either of them could ever come up with.

And just when you'd think they were more malignant than ever Hell could be, they could occasionally show more grace than Heaven ever dreamed of. Often the same individual was involved. It was this free-will thing, of course. It was a bugger.

Aziraphale had tried to explain it to him once. The whole point he'd said -- this was somewhere around 1020, when they'd first reached their little Arrangement -- the whole point was that when a human was good or bad it was because they wanted to be. Whereas people like Crowley and, of course, himself, were set in their ways right from the start. People couldn't become truly holy, he said, unless they also had the opportunity to be definitively wicked.

Crowley had though about this for some time and, around 1023, had said, Hang on, that only works, right, if you start everyone off equal, okay? You can't start someone off in a muddy shack in the middle of a war zone and expect them to do as well as someone born in a castle.

Ah, Aziraphale had said, that's the good bit. The lower you start, the more opportunities you have,.

Crowley had said, That's lunatic.

No, said Aziraphale, it's ineffable.


I really quite enjoyed the humor, and, in fact, most of the psychological theological discussion. Some of the characters wandered dangerously close to idiotic and ridiculous, while others were just plain boring. The four horsemen, for example, could have been ingenious, but ended up merely as plot points, which was rather disappointing.

The ending was... a tad anticlimactic. Which is saying a lot for a book about the end of the world. But in the end, I'm not sure there was much other way for them to end it. It was certainly no "Left Behind" in terms of vast religious doom, but it was entertaining, and a very fun read.

I would recommend it.

Friday, January 28, 2005

Edward Gorey Writes Fanfic, with captions for those who don't live inside Sam's head.

copperbadge: A is for Albus, who planted a tree. [Dumbledore wrapped up in the whomping willow's branches]
B is for Black, done by drapery.

C is for Cedric, killed by a rat weasel.
D is for Dobby, eaten by Kneazles.

E is for Evans who made a mistake. [Lily and James' wedding photo in which she is subtly chained to his leg.]
F is for First-Years who fall in the lake. [Dennis Creevy, drowned.]

G is for Granger done in by a charm. [Hermione strangled by the time-turner]
H is for Harry who came to no harm.

I is for Irony in the next line;
J is for Journalists, dead in their prime. [Rita the ex-beetle, squashed by a copy of the Prophet.]

K is for Krum who dropped off in a trice [empty broom, floating midair.]
L is for Luna, as dotty as dice. [small girl in straitjacket]

M is for Malfoy, eternally pure. [Draco, dead on a slab and holding a lily]
N is for Neville who never was cured. [Neville, faceplanted in a cauldron]

O is Ollivander whose wands always please. [This one was hard to rhyme.]
Alternate: O is for Oliver caught in the trees [Oliver's broomstick sticking out of a tree]
P is for Peter who choked on some cheese. [dead rat, feet up]

Q is for Quirrel, beginning to smell; [Quirrell in advanced decay]
R is for Remus who eats very well. [Werewolf, with human arm protruding from mouth.]

S is for Severus, put in his place. [Snape being stewed in a cauldron]
T is for Tonks who hasn't a face. [Tonks lying with head behind curtain.]

U is for Umbridge who didn't go cleanly. [I wish I'd done better on this one. I wanted to indicate her being eaten by vampire kitties or something equally charming.]
V is for Voldemort feeding Nagini. [Nagini with a large lump in the middle.]

W is Weasley who's begging for pence. [Ron robbing someone at wandpoint]
X is for Centaurs, who never make sense. [Hahah. Because Centaurs don't start with X.....shaddup.]

Y is Young Ginny, who had a malaise;
Z is Zabini gone up in a blaze.

By Sam

Wednesday, January 26, 2005

daily drabble

He'd known from that moment on that they would be together forever, and had worked diligently for the next four years to convince her of the same. He was still working at it, really, terrified in the secret places of his mind he let no one see that she might wake up one morning, see him for the fraud he really was, and be gone forever.

But the idea of marriage had never really crossed his mind. It was a terribly Grown Up and Responsible thing to do -- and really rather contrary to everything he believed. That sort of Responsibility was most definitely best left to other people.

Or so he had thought.

favorite lines of the day

If I pour your cup, that is friendship.
And if I add your milk, that's manners.
But if I stop there, claiming ignorance of taste,
That is tea.
But if I measure the sugar
to satisfy your expectant tongue
then that is love,
sitting untouched, and growing cold.
-- Cowboy Junkies, 'Cold Tea Blues'

Quoted in Sam's Sweet Tea and Cocoa.

Tuesday, January 25, 2005

Mission Viejo Bank Is Robbed

So, apparently, on Sunday the Wells Fargo bank downstairs from my officewas robbed.

Huh. That's a little more excitement than I want in my work day.

memories... in the corners of my mind...

I gacked this idea from Allison's Blog.

"I have decided to show you - the nameless, faceless, internet masses - a small slide show of my life. With words, not pictures... This is how this is going to work, I am going to start with an early memory and move forward in time to the present. Fun, huh?!"


Well, my internet masses are much less nameless and faceless, but I thought it would be interesting to do anyway. =)



I remember sitting on the porch at my Great Grandmother's house in Michigan drinking hot tea and eating molasses cookies with my Mom while it rained and feeling terribly grown up. I also remember stairs set into a hill in her back yard, a basement with a folding table, a little vase, and some wildflowers that occupied me for hours and the swing set in the back yard next door.

I remember that it was raining on my first day of kindergarten.

I remember being in the gifted and talented program in elementary school, and one year our class planned a trip to Mars. We had to work out what kind of supplies we needed, how much food and water and oxygen, how to split up the work, those kinds of things. And, I remember I had just read "Ender's Game," and so I was CONVINCED for a while that it was all actually real and they were really going to send us, a group of 4th-6th graders to Mars.

I remember stealing Allison's shoe in choir in junior high and, instead of giving it back to her at the end of the period, sticking it in my backpack and going off to my next class, which happened to be Geometry. I remember we had a quiz that day, and half way through it, the door opened, and in came Allison, clomping lopsidedly in one shoe and one sock. She walked right up to my desk and stuck out her hand. Without a word, I handed her her shoe, and she turned around and left. The Geometry teacher looked at me for a count of about twenty and then said, "I don't want to know."

I remember in ninth grade English class we studied Romeo and Juliet, and the teacher broke us up into groups to "interpret" certain scenes from the play. My group got the death scene, and we "interpreted" it like we were all Valley Girls/Boys. I was the priest, and I remember one of my lines was something like, "Dude, I've been trippin' over tombstones this night."

I remember, that same year, Allison and I came up with a list of more than a hundred unusual names for my friend Jessie to name her ferret. I still have that list on my bulletin board in my room at my parents' house.

I remember, in high school, I broke into a teacher's office one day because I needed a key to another room. I did it by climbing out the second story window onto a ledge, walking along the ledge, and climbing in his office window.

I remember, in high school, everyone thought I was a total wallflower and little Molly Milktoast until I was directing the filming of the school talent show and cussed out my crew when they weren't doing what I asked. After that, my best friend Charlie gave me the nickname "Uberbitch." And it stuck.

I remember, about two weeks into my freshman year at college, my roommate and her friend invited me to go with them to a play in the theater at midnight. So we all went, and it was a bunch of comedy skits. About half way through, this guy ran through the theater wearing nothing but a bandana around his head and a pair of socks. I remember thinking, "Wow. I'm really a college student now."

I remember in college on the first day back to classes from the summer, I was walking across the quad, and I heard someone scream, "WHO LET THE BOGGS OUT???" I turned and saw my friend Aaron running across the quad at me. When he got to me, I said, "You've been waiting all summer to use that, haven't you?" He grinned, and said, "Yup."

I remember going to see "Evil Dead" at the movie theater at my school because Bruce Campbell was supposed to come talk about it, and my friend Suzanne was inordinately excited, and claimed she was going to ask him to sign her bra. He didn't show, but we had a really good time laughing at the movie.

I remember, after I graduated from college, my whole family was sitting around watching me open graduation gifts, and my boyfriend Brandon gave me a tiny little box. His mom about had a heart attack, because she thought he was going to propose. He didn't. =)

And finally...

I remember, just this past summer, trying on this wedding dress at a store, being given a bouquet of fake roses, a veil and a pair of shoes, and being led in front of a big three way mirror. The saleslady said, "Take a good look. Brides don't get to see themselves this way, but this is what your fiance will see when he looks at you for the first time at the other end of that aisle." I broke down in tears right then and there and knew it was the right dress for me!!

=D

Hey Al, that was kind of fun! Good way to get the writing juices flowing. =)

two miles

I ran two miles this morning.

Two. Count them: one, two.

Two MILES.

I got inspired because my online writing buddy Kris runs a lot. She lives in New York and goes on daily runs, in the snow, in Central Park, and last weekend she was talking about how she did eleven miles.

...

Let's hear it for TWO! =)

Anyway, this morning I was feelin' kinda poopy. Brandon was supposed to get up and go work out with me, but he said he didn't get to sleep until after midnight, so he was staying in bed.

*cough cough* SLACKER! *cough*

Anyway, feeling poopy, and sleepy, and grumpy, and several other of the less popular dwarves, I hauled my big behind out of bed and across the lake to the workout room and up onto that modern day torture device they call a treadmill.

Now, see, the thing that has always held me back (well, one of the things -- the MAJOR thing, at any rate) from enjoying and excelling at running has always been my asthma. I couldn't run a continuous mile without stopping until last year. That was a BIG milestone for me, and made me want to return to my elementary school and shout BOO-YA in the face of my PE teacher.

But I digress.

So, asthma being my biggest hurdle, I have recently (in the last year or so) found ways to start overcoming it. First, I take a preemptive puff on my inhaler before I get going. This seems to help a LOT. Second, I jog on the treadmill. Don't ask me why, but jogging outside is about 78% guaranteed to give me a minor asthma attack -- even when I take a preemptive puff. But, for whatever reason, jogging on the treadmill doesn't give me the same reaction.

SO!

The point of this long winded and rambly post is this:

TWO MILES!!!

*and the crowd goes wild*

Monday, January 24, 2005

update!

The wedding blog has been updated with info regarding guest accommodations. Click the link on the left to have a peek.

=)

Friday, January 21, 2005

Hmm...

I just found a cat hair in my tea, and the thing about that is, I'm at work, the tea is at work, the tea cup is at work, and the cat is at home, so how did she manage to get her hair into my tea????

HOW??

Whenever Brandon tells people that he's studying for his masters in Biotechnology, the response is almost invariably, "Oh, like, genetics?" To which he responds, "yes... kind of..." and then they want to know what he's going to do with that degree, to which he responds, "Make cats with opposable thumbs."

...

To which I respond, they don't need them, they already run our lives and remind us of this by managing to get their hair in our tea from fifteen miles away.

~~~

On a completely different subject, I've discovered that my drive to and from work is an immensely good brainstorming time. I've taken to driving with the radio off so I can just THINK. This morning, for example, I played out an entire scene from the St. Jude's novel between Bobby and James that I'm actually quite pleased with -- even now that I've got it down on paper.

That makes me feel good, because lately, writing has made me feel rather overwhelmed. I think I'm having a serious case of stage fright. (Or, what would be a better euphamism? Keyboard fright? Computer fright? Typing terror?)

With Sect, I now know that there are literally HUNDREDS of new people reading it over at hpff.com, and that is more than a little daunting. I think that's why I've been having writer's block on it, because I'm afraid it isn't any good any more. It isn't a logical thing -- tons of new people tell me how good it is, and therefore I start to worry that it isn't any good. How does that work?? Yeah, my mind is a scary place.

Also, I'm feeling very nervous about my new collaborative project, because the other girls are so GOOD and I feel very much like the little person suddenly getting a chance to play with the big kids, and it's a little scary. It's so much FUN, I just don't want them to realize suddenly how crap I am and kick me out. ;c) I feel kind of like I'm scribbling with crayon while they write their Pulitzer novels. *sheepish grin* But I'm glad they let me play. =)

Finally, I think I'm feeling a tad overwhelmed because I just sent off a check for $300 to register for the Children's Author's Bootcamp workshop in San Diego in February. This makes it very real. I'm going to go down there and spend a weekend with other writers, and it's going to be sink or swim time. It's going to be use it or lose it, step up to the fire or get out of the kitchen, shake what your mama gave you kind of time. Not that there's any PRESSURE from a workshop they call a "BOOTCAMP," or anything. =) I'm looking forward to it, but I'm a little nervous all the same. My infallible belief in self isn't so infallible any more, not after the whole DGA internship fiasco, and so now I'm a little wary. Every time one part of my brain says, "You could really do this!" another part says very skeptically, "Are you sure?"

This is not -- I swear -- a plea for you all to pat my head and make me feel better, because even if you did, I don't think it would help. It's not a logical thing, and no amount of "Good Lacy, nice Lacy, pretty Lacy," is going to hoist me out of it. (I get plenty of that from the hpff fangirls screaching "OMG! I LUV UR FIC!") This isn't even a poor me pity party, it's just me trying to figure out what these weird "emotion" things bouncing around in my head are and what they're connected to, cause, as I said, not so good with the logic, me. I just needed to vent a bit, and sympathetic ears are all I was looking for here. =)

It's also me trying to say to myself, "SNAP OUT OF IT AND GET WRITING, YOU GOOBER!! THIS STUFF ISN'T GOING TO WRITE ITSELF!!"

=D

*Yeah. Where did all that COME from??? I started this post about cat hair and tea...*

Thursday, January 20, 2005

favorite line of the day

Why am I here?

Ah. Destiny? A combination of God's will and my caprice, Salazar answers. And since I do not believe in God I will have to declare that it is mainly my caprice.

FromThe Artist. Not The Art by Sam.

Wednesday, January 19, 2005

which harry potter character are you?

You scored as .

Hermione Granger

80%

Harry Potter

80%

Severus Snape

70%

Remus Lupin

65%

Albus Dumbledore

55%

Draco Malfoy

45%

Sirius Black

45%

Ron Weasley

40%

Lord Voldemort

15%

Peter Pettigrew

10%

Your Harry Potter Alter Ego Is...?
created with QuizFarm.com

Tuesday, January 18, 2005

Brandon is watching American Idol, and I have retreated into the other room. I can't STAND watching that show early in the season, because I hate watching people embarrass themselves like that. That's probably why I don't like that kind of comedy either -- that episode of Friends where Ross gets stuck in his leather pants with the lotion and the baby powder just makes me squirm and want to hide.

Brandon loves it. I can hear him cackling madly in the other room. =)

Sunday, January 16, 2005

A Little Help from Her Friends

Hey guys!

I need everyone who reads this blog to take a moment RIGHT NOW and go over to Allison's Blog and leave her a few words of encouragement. She's had a really REALLY (amazingly hugely horribly terrible really) hard weekend.

She needs a little love, and I know I can count on all of you to give it to her. Click on the link above and leave Allison a comment. It will only take a few minutes, and I KNOW that it will mean the world to her.

Saturday, January 15, 2005

new imac mini

This so totally rocks, squirt.

http://www.apple.com/macmini/
I just spent the last 30 minutes or so editing my blog.

I was going through and removing any references to my place of business, my co-workers, etc. that would specifically identify them. Luckily, I don't post a lot about my work, and there was only one post that I had to delete in its entirity. I felt I had to do this because a friend of mine almost got fired from her job yesterday for blogging about her job.

I'm of two minds on this. Unfortunately, I understand where the company is coming from. The things she was saying were all in jest and all fairly harmless, but when taken out of context, (or not understanding her sense of humor) they could be considered defamatory. She probably should have been a bit more circumspect about using real names and details, but honestly, I don't believe she thought she was doing anything wrong. Her intent was never to hurt anyone or to defame her company.

On the other hand, I can understand why she did what she did, as well. Her job requires that she be "on" all the time -- smiling, polite, efficient, etc. I can tell you from experience that it's not easy to do that, especially when faced with rude customers, demanding coworkers, etc. I'm lucky that I get to hide in my cube and grumble when I have a bad day; she doesn't have that option. So, I understand why her blog was, for her an outlet, a place to rant, a safe place to express her feelings. Only, it wasn't safe.

Luckily, she wasn't fired; she was placed on 30 day probation. Unfortunately, this whole experience has caused her to question if this is really the type of place she wants to stay, and it's also going to undermine her relationships with her boss and her coworkers.

I feel sad that the lesson in all of this is that one has to censor oneself, even in an inherantly censorship resistant medium like a blog. I feel sad that I felt the need to go through just now and censor myself. I feel sad for my friend (whose name I am deliberately not using) who had to learn this lesson the hard way.

Tuesday, January 11, 2005

Sect Update

I have finished plotting out Sect with a detailed outline broken down by chapter.

I am currently estimating that there will be 42 chapters total.

Woah.

Why I write harry potter fanfiction

I didn't write this essay.

But I could have.

What I mean by that is that it embodies everything I think about why on God's green earth I've decided to write a 200,000+ word novel that will NEVER be published -- CAN never be published -- outside of a few websites and weblogs. Why there are people all over the world from 12 to 50 writing Harry Potter fan fiction. Why we talk about it, think about it, live it and breathe it on a daily basis. Why it is so much fun and so important to our creative lives.

Not everybody who writes fanfiction wants to be a professional author, like I do. But all of us have somehow found this creative outlet that lets us express ourselves, even when based on someone else's foundations.

It's a great big beautiful fandom out there, and this essay very eloquently expresses why we write it.

An advertisement for Harry Potter

Monday, January 10, 2005

another really great line of the day

"I love bagels, but bialys are the real soul of that world. If bagels are Ella Fitzgerald, bialys are Billie Holliday."

From The Amateur Gourmet.

favorite line of the day

"I don't like The Sims, because if I wanted tiny people to ignore me, I'd go talk to my siblings."

Sam, aka copperbadge, on his livejournal

Thai-riffic

Last night, Brandon and I made Thai green curry with tofu. At home. By ourselves. And it ROCKED.

You buy this little tiny jar of Thai creen curry from Thai Kitchen, mix it with coconut milk, fish sauce, basil, tofu, and vegetables and voila! *makes kissing noise* Thai green curry with tofu!

It was REALLY good, but very spicy. I used 1 tablespoon of the curry, as per the instructions, but I think next time I would use maybe 2 teaspoons instead.

And Brandon ate it without complaint, even though it had tofu in it. He said he actually LIKED it! Yay! Score one for Lacy's innovative food tastes!

I am telling you all this because I LOVE Thai Kitchen! I've had quite a few of their products and they're ALL very very good. Their soups are excellent. The little ramen-type packages are very good when doctored with some frozen mixed veggies and some sort of meat. Sauces are divine. Haven't tried any of their canned soups yet, but I'd bet they're just as good. =)

Their website is also really fun, as it has all their products, plus recipes and tips.

Lacy's Thai Tip:
Regular Coconut milk contains 14 grams of fat per 1/3 cup serving. Buy lite coconut milk.

Sunday, January 09, 2005

You can see where the insanity part came from.

Have spent the entire afternoon working on the website for Daddy's band, Virgin Insanity.

Yes, instead of writing. Who said that?? *glares*

Only, I told Daddy's bandmate, Bert/Bob that I would have it up by early January, and it's rapidly becoming mid-January, so there you have it.

Don't give me that look. I'm going to go write after dinner.

Friday, January 07, 2005

daily drabble

Life, in general, was being a total berk. Remus and Sirius were not speaking. Hell, they were hardly even looking at one another, and no one would tell him why. He'd spent more than an hour interrogating Peter to be certain that he didn't know anything, and it had been a wasted hour at that. He'd tried interrogating both Sirius and Remus in turns, but neither was saying anything. About anything. Sirius got sullen and moody and tended to become violent if James brought it up, and Remus became inexplicably deaf and mute until the subject was changed. James wondered when, exactly, he'd ceased to be able to bend either of them to his will.

The only thing he did know was that if one of them didn't tell him what the bloody hell was going on here fairly soon, he was going to have to knock some heads together.

On top of that, Lily was still ignoring him. And he was still ignoring her. It was getting easier, truth be told, but it was also making him cranky. She was like a bad habit he was trying to shake, and going cold turkey wasn't as easy as he'd anticipated. As he'd slowly been cutting her out of his life, the side effects had become more and more pronounced. First he stopped the snarky remarks, which had led to him being rather quieter in general than most of his professors and classmates were accustomed to. Then he'd stopped leering (at least, leering openly), which meant that he spent a good deal more time actually paying attention to what he was supposed to be doing at any given time than to what he would like to be doing. Namely, Evans.

The latest development was that he'd been trying to stop daydreaming about her. Gone were the infinite "LE+JP" doodles from the margins of his textbooks. Gone were the endless lists of her endearing qualities and estimations of her measurements written in invisible ink on the backs of his essays. He'd found himself actually reading his assignments last night while his mates sat around him in stony silence, and he'd been deeply deeply disturbed.

Thank Merlin for the full moon. They were all in desperate need of some serious marauding.

From The White Hart a MWPP work in progress.
I received aproximately 60 reviews for Sect between 7AM yesterday and 7AM today bringing me to a grand total of 240 on that site alone. That is a LOT of reviews.

And, surprisingly enough, hardly any of them were of the ubiquitous, one line, "great chapter" ilk. Although, I did get a LOT of "OMG! I luv this fic! Pls update sooooooon!!!!1!!!!" =)

60.

I'm not complaining. No no. I love it. I'm reeling a bit, but I love it. Anyone who's been reading this blog for any length of time knows how I beg for comments and crave feedback. It's what I do, it's what I live for. (Ten points to anyone who can tell me what Disney character said that line.)

But 60 is a lot of reviews. Especially when you're an author who has a reputation for responding to each and every reviewer indidividually and by name. And even more so when your stupid internet filters at work will let you read the reviews, but not do the actual responding, so that any responding that goes on must be done in the wee hours of the morning and the twighlight hours between the last crumbs of dessert and the first thoughts of sleep, lest you become buried by the goodwill messages of dozens of anonnymous strangers.

=)

Not a bad way to go, actually...

Thursday, January 06, 2005

reverse dictionary

Whenever I can't think of a particular word that I want, I use theOneLook Reverse Dictionary. You type in a phrase and it comes up with words that it thinks matches that phrase.

So, for example, when I couldn't think of the word "exacerbate" just now, I went to the Reverse Dictionary and typed in the phrase "make worse." Exacerbate was fourth on the list.

The really fun part, though, is that sometimes the reverse dictionary comes up with some pretty strange things that it thinks match your search.

Strange results for "make worse:"

18. schlimmbesserung
19. super grover
20. avon safety wheel
27. weatherproof
59. prostitute
60. whoop
72. bark
93. competitive advertising


Super Grover??

favorite line of the day

"The very act of believing creates strength of its own."

From a fortune cookie I ate.

Woot!

Sect is the recommended story of the month over at harrypotterfanfiction.com because our good friend Janina Podgurski recommended me.

I am without words. The reviews have been coming in at an alarming rate. I got 14 overnight.

And the only terrible thing is that so far I haven't been able to log into the site to respond to the reviews from work. I can read them, but I can't respond, and in a very short period of time, I'm going to be buried...

Wednesday, January 05, 2005

daily drabble

What is sweeter than honey, what fiercer than lions?
What binds us together, both pauper and scion?
A bond that's eternal when freely bestowed.
A harvest more plentifully reaped than when sowed.

The riddle on Harry's amulet...

favorite lines of the day

I am building up some serious bad Karma. I live in fear of the day when the universe makes me eat it.

In an email from Allison.

* * *

Slang is a type of linguistic jaywalking: you can stand at the crosswalk and wait for the light to change, but that would be boring, as well as slow, so we'd rather not.

Michael Adams from Slayer Slang

FYI: i did not die

I just inhaled a noodle from my chicken noodle soup.

by the by...

NEW ILLUSTRATIONS from Wayne-the-wonder-Dad are up on the blog and also on my livejournal.

They'll go up on Dad's website as soon as I get my act together and upload them. Couldn't do it last night as we had to go to the grocery store; man does not live by frozen cake and week old milk alone.
I have a TON of work to do today. Literally. One ton.

What am I doing instead? Blogging. Que sera sera.

So, my next door cube neighbor has a noise. It is located somewhere in the ceiling above his cube. It is driving him crazy. Absolutely batshit insane. Because of this, he is also driving the rest of us crazy, asking if we can hear it.

It is sort of like a chopper noise. A slowish, continuous thudding. I only hear it when I stand up, so it doesn't bother me in the least, but apparently, it is sending my neighbor round the twist.

He has reported it to the people in HR. He has reported it to our boss. He has reported it to me. Numerous times. He has asked me (again, numerous times) why it is quieter in my cube than in his cube.

I don't know, man. Maybe my little voices are just more polite than yours and know when to keep their mouths shut.

Tuesday, January 04, 2005

best mates



This is my friend Allison (on the left) and me (on the right) at lunch on Monday right before I left for the airport.

And my shirt reads "Geek is Chic" in case you were wondering.

Monday, January 03, 2005

i had a dream

Had a very strange dream this morning about a man who was much MUCH older than me, with three daughters, hitting on me on the plane. And I was enjoying it and actually entertaining the thought of going out with him.

I need to see Brandon.

Leaving Big D today to head back to the OC, where apparently it has been raining since we left. Lovely. =( I hope our apartment isn't underwater. Perhaps the cat is doing the kitty paddle all around the living room. Or -- more likely -- sitting atop the bookcase waiting to strike us down for leaving her alone for a week.

Going to go have lunch with Mom today before we leave for the airport. Had to say goodbye to Daddy last night as he leaves ungodly early for work.

I don't like saying goodbye.

*sniff*

favorite line of the day

Beef... As in, "Word on the circuit is you've got beef with me."

Ah, as in, the cause of subject of protest, outcry or distress - not, therefore, "word on the circuit is you've got a lovely bit of topside for me. Any mustard? Yorkshires?"

Ok then.

Anyone got beef with me, OR my american slang? No? Lovely.

From Lucy's Livejournal

Saturday, January 01, 2005

Happy New Year!

2005. Wow. What a scary thought.

Yesterday, Emily was telling me that one of her friends was freaked out, because when he graduated high school and went to college, he thought to himself, "I'll be the class of 2005" and it seemed so far away, and now, here it is.

But I've got one better. I'm going to be MARRIED in 2005.

Wrap your brain around THAT one, if you can. I can't. =)

Had a very strange New Year's Eve last night with Emily and her friends. Plans changed so many times I'm not quite sure at this point what we ended up doing. Then, they all chose to go see the movie "Closer." So, I called my friend Allison, who was meeting us, and told her and whatever, and we got to the theater and she had already bought her ticket, so I bought mine, and then Emily decided she needed to throw up in the parking lot. (There was no alcohol involved, either, just Tex-Mex.)

So, none of her friends wanted to go to the movie any more, but Allison and I already had our tickets, so we went.It was... Interesting. You could tell that it used to be a play. What's funny is that I got CARDED to buy my ticket (the woman asked if I was 17, and I said, "Er... I'm 24). She said it was the sexiest movie she'd ever seen. I decided she's led a very sheltered life, or has some very strange kinks.

To tell you the truth, I found almost NONE of it sexy. It was depressing and a lot of dirty talk. REALLY dirty talk. And a scene with two men having e-sex over IM when one thought the other was a woman that went on for WAY too long. WAY. Not an enthralling filmmaking technique, let me tell you, and honestly, I think it just made everyone in the audience uncomfortable.

They did use the word wank an amusing number of times though. =D

Thumbs DOWN from this reviewer.

Off to my granddad's house in a bit here to watch the Cotton Bowl on his big screen. I'm pumpped. I'm ready to hump it with the Aggies.

I think there should be a tee shirt that says "My sister is an Aggie... But I don't really get it."