Baby Bean is Growing

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Monday, February 28, 2005

favorite line of the day

I keep hearing that fantasy characters are fiery. Show them burning. Burning sheds a lot of heat and light, and both will attract readers like moths.

From limyaael's Gaining reader empathy rant.

The Commonly Confused Words Test

OKCupid! presents: The Commonly Confused Words Test: "Advanced
You scored 100% Beginner, 93% Intermediate, 93% Advanced, and 72% Expert!
You have an extremly good understanding of beginner, intermediate, and advanced level commonly confused English words, getting at least 75% of each of these three levels's questions correct. This is an exceptional score. Remember, these are commonly confused English words, which means most people don't use them properly. You got an extremely respectable score.
Thank you so much for taking my test. I hope you enjoyed it!

The Commonly Confused Words Test
http://www.okcupid.com/tests/take?testid=14457200288064322170"

WOO! Go me. How did you score?

Top 5 reasons I don't like my job today:

1. It's Monday. I didn't really get a weekend (as I was at a writer's conference all weekend), so it doesn't feel as though it should be Monday. That's the WORST kind of Monday.

2. I sit near the phone room and something in there has been making an oscillating pulse tone noise ALL MORNING. All work and no play make lacy a dull girl... all work and no play make lacy a dull girl...

3. The fridge I keep my lunch in REEKS. Old fruit or something. Ye gods I'm glad it's not my job to keep that thing clean.

4. The Weirdo Coworker saw on my calendar that I was going to a writing conference, and has taken to asking me, "So, you published your book yet?" and other pointless questions. Really, if he winds up at the bottom of a lake at some point, I'm pleading justifiable homicide.

5. Kali made a bunch of all new icons for our collaborative fic project, but I can't see them here at work because of the stupid internet filters.

DAMN THE MAN!!!

Friday, February 25, 2005

favorite lines of the day

Yes. This is what I do with my day. For people who don't read Harry Potter, this probably won't be funny, except for sheer randomness value. For people who do read Harry Potter -- you've got to admit: that's a damned funny picture.

sheafrotherdon:
Perhaps we can play on Gilderoy Lockhart being a total nutcase? Make his mum or dad a Wizarding radio personality? (Unless there's canonical evidence he was raised by chickens or something -- I don't have my books with me right now). Something like . . . 'Like Charlemgane Lockhart (of the Witchcraft and Wizarding How To And Whyfore show (WBBC 4, Wednesdays at 3), it shows you how with easy . . . ' etc? And feel free to play with any and all of that cause I pulled it out of my behind ;)


lacylu42:
But, for future reference, Charlemagne Lockhart is a KICKASS name, and the idea of his parents being game show hosts... Hillarious.

=D


sheafrotherdon:
You know -- wouldn't Gilderoy have been at school with the Marauders? Or at least sometime around then?


lacylu42:
Absolutely. A couple of years younger, maybe?

I think he was a Hufflepuff. =)


sheafrotherdon:
He was SO in Hufflepuff. And some day the Marauders are going to have high fun with him on the day his talk show parents come to Hogwarts for the . . . school play or something.

Oh god I think I just died at the idea of the school play. THE POTENTIAL.


lacylu42:
LOL!!!
Oh. My. God.

What would they do? I say Pirates of Penzance. Hee hee hee. I see Sirius as the Pirate King, James as Frederick, Remus as the Modern Major General, and Peter as the Mr. Smee guy -- what was his name? Samuel?


ignipes:
OMG GET OUTTA MY BRAIN.

I just decided today, whilst randomly walking down the street, that the next vignette I'm writing will have Sirius talking like a pirate for the entire time. I hadn't yet figured out a reason for it (and had no intention whatsoever of explaning it--his friends, you see, have known for ages that one should not pay attention to Sirius when he does such things), but you've gone and come up with a reason for me. :D


lacylu42:
HAHAHAHAH!

That's too funny for words.

Can't you just see him prancing around singing "I AM THE PIRATE KING!" at the top of his lungs??
So, I just got a phone call from Allison. She's somewhere in southern New Mexico on the I-10 highway stopped for coffee on her way to California. She managed to pare down all her worldy possessions until they fit in her Honda CRV -- and still leave room for herself, two friends who are helping her drive, and one Boston Terrier. =)

They think they will arrive in California sometime tomorrow, and she was calling to ask if they could crash on our floor for the night.

Hey, the more the merrier. You only live once, right? =)

10 things I've done that you probably haven't

This meme has been going around over on the LiveJournals, and I thought it was kind of fun. It's amazing the crazy stuff people have done.

Gacked from metalumai. =)

I have:

1. Been chased by a tornado in Oklahoma.

2. Gone to see Yellow Submarine at the school movie theater after four or five rum and cokes.

3. Polkaed with a girl at a bar called The Cowgirl Hall of Fame.

4. Played a pirate, a policeman, a small child, a chorus girl, and a wench in various school musicals.

5. Spent twelve hours straight in an editing bay and come out wondering not what time it was, but what DAY it was.

6. Been nicknamed 'Uberbitch' in high school after scaring the crap out of my all male video production crew.

7. Edited a 12 episode television program -- and not gotten one iota of credit or thanks for it.

8. Dropped a $10,000 television camera down the stairs at Texas Stadium.

9. Opened the door to my room at 2am and been seranaded by six drunken men singing Glory Glory Halleluja

10. Written a term paper about Jerry Springer.

Thursday, February 24, 2005

random thoughts on a thursday

I remember...

...driving down the main street in Santa Fe past an orthodox Jewish man carrying a violin in a paper bag.

...listening to coyotes howling in the Jemez while being hugged by my boyfriend after we had been fighting.

...meeting half way between Los Alamos and Santa Fe at that laundromat in Pojaque called Jake's Dirty Shorts.

...lying on a picnic table at the edge of the Pecos Wilderness and shivering as I was dwarfed by the stars.

...watching lightening strike a tree outside my dorm room window, and being momentarily deafened by the thunder.

...singing in the old army barracks for a recital and getting a standing ovation of one.

...the vinegar smell of acetate and cellulose that is decomposing.

...the smell of darkroom chemicals and the strange red-orange light of the room as enlargers flicked on and off.

...the time we thought something had died under the bushes at the foot of our stairs, and later found out that the smell was actually just coming from the bush itself.

...sitting in a hot tub at 10,000 Waves in the dark while it snowed.

...the blue corn pancakes and pinon coffee at the Tesuque Village Market.

...hiking through the slot canyon at Tent Rocks on the Cochiti reservation.

...getting stuck in the mud near Jemez lake and wondering if we would ever get out.

...The Owl bar near Truth or Consequences and the green chili cheeseburger that set my mouth on fire.

...the Dairy Queen in Hatch with the best breakfast burritos I have ever tasted.

...the smell of chilis rosting in September.

...the farolitos and luminarios in the snow around the campus every year at christmas and carrolling across the quad as we waited for the tree lighting.

...the margaritas at Marias and telling my friends that I thought my forehead might be coming off.

...freezing our ASSES off walking to the Plaza Cafe for dinner and staying almost until it closed because we didn't want to walk back.

Wednesday, February 23, 2005

Lux Aeterna - Post a comment

I've written another book review of Trickster's Choice by Tamora Pierce. Not to spoil the end (of the review) but, it was very good. =)

Also, I've updated the wedding blog with registry goodness.

And, for anyone who is interested, it is still raining.

Tuesday, February 22, 2005

The new toilet paper problem

Just now, as I was walking to the kitchen to heat up my lunch, I had an epiphany.

In our office, one of the HR ladies has taken it upon herself to collect cans for recycling. When she reaches $100 in money exchanged for cans, she donates that money to a charity in the company's name. She does it on her own time and of her own choosing.

So, whenever the recycling bins get full, she goes around and collects the bags of cans. Today, she had done just that, leaving an empty plastic bag hanging over the side of the bin. As I walked to the kitchen, I passed not one, not two, but THREE of said bins, each with a new bag hanging over the edge -- and a soda can sitting in the bottom of the unlined bin.

That's when it hit me: this is the root of many of society's ills.

I'll call it the New Toilet Paper Problem. We've all done it sometime in our lives; when the roll of toilet paper runs out, we get out a new roll, but we don't bother to actually put it on the dispenser, because we think somebody else will do it.

That's the answer. That, in a nutshell, is the reason why so many things in our society that should be done, don't get done. This is why people decide not to vote, or recycle, or volunteer for a fundraiser, or attend PTA or city council meetings. It's why lawmakers don't introduce risky legislation, why governments neglect to feed the starving millions. It is why concerned citizens don't start petitions or lobbies or rallies for their cause. It's why the leaves don't get raked, the litter doesn't get picked up, the trash bags don't get put into the bins. It's why files get left in piles in the workplace, phones go unanswered, shelves go undusted. It's also why people don't sing, or dance, or write, or paint or create right away when they feel the urge to do so. It's all because we think somebody else will do it.

We are living in a time of epidemic social apathy. I see it very clearly in my own generation. I'm not advocating any particular political, social, economic, or theological philosophy here; I am simply encouraging us all who have a particular philosophy to exercise it. We live in a country that allows us to participate in every aspect of our lives. We can vote for who we want, say what we want, think what we want, and do what we want with our lives, yet so many people merely sit on the shoreline and wait for somebody else to make the waves. They don't even have to be big waves. Maybe they're only ripples from a pebble dropped in, but even those seem to be harder and harder to come by. Society has conditioned us to believe that somebody else will change that toilet paper roll. So we wait.

I've just realized that the toilet paper roll isn't going to change itself.
I want to try to condition myself not to wait for others to do what I can do myself. I want to be the somebody else that everyone else is waiting for.

Even if it's only a matter of putting the trash bags in the recycling bins or changing the roll of toilet paper.

Be the change you wish to see in the world.
~Mahatma Gandhi

Friday, February 18, 2005

Book review - the city of ember

Here's my latest book review of the YA novel, The City of Ember.

(I'm writing these over on the LiveJournal now because it's easier to read longer things on that format. =)

Wednesday, February 16, 2005

favorite lines of the day

I knew he was a ghost. I touched your arm, but you merely rolled your eyes and said that it was too early for supper. That is how it has always been, between you and my ghosts, so I was not surprised. I merely agreed that it was too early for supper and added that I would prefer Vernaccia that evening. White wine does not hold memories as thickly as red.

By Ignipes

Tuesday, February 15, 2005

Lacy's five things I like about today:

1. I did not blow-dry my hair this morning, and it went all wavy and actually doesn't look half bad, and two different people have complimented me on it. Huh.

2. Trader Joe's. It so totally rocks, squirt. I went over there on my lunch to buy some veggies for dinner, and found that they have pre-washed, pre-cut, pre-mixed, fresh stir-fry veggies. I got the bok choi, snow pea, water chestnut mix. Like bag-o-salad, only for stir fry! Then I needed some lunch, so I picked up one of their salads: eggplant, feta, and pine nuts. It was so yum that I didn't even use any of the odd garlicky salad dressing that came with it. Yay!

3. Mini Twix in the candy basket at work. What can I say? I'm easy to please.

4. Finding out that HP fandom has its own holidays. Today is actually the ancient Roman festival of Lupercalia (a fertility festival), but (based on the "lupe" I would imagine) fandom has turned it into an "I love Remus Lupin" fan day. That means lots of new fic, which always makes me happy.

5. My future father-in-law is visiting today, and the house is clean. I did NOT have to freak out and do a marathon cleaning at 4 o'clock this morning. So hooray for that.

=D

finding neverland

So, as a grand finale to the amazing Valentine's Day extravaganza yesterday, Brandon took me to see Finding Neverland. Gah, what an amazing film! Johnny Depp is officially in my top three favorite actors at this point. He is so perfect in this film, I can't even tell you.

Now, just this past summer, I decided that I actually needed to read Peter Pan for the first time; if you haven't done so, may I recommend that you do as soon as possible. It is, of course, a very quick and easy read, but it is so charming and devestatingly bittersweet that you will not regret it. In any case, as an epilogue to the copy I bough, there was a short article about the life of one Mr. J. M. Barrie, which I read.

The film is based on a longer book about his life, but I got the high (and low) points from the epilogue, so I more or less knew what was coming. I was, nevertheless, enchanted and wholly moved.

There are two lines which stuck with me an inordinate amount, and I will reproduce them here to the best of my ability; neither spoils the plot in any big way for those who haven't read about Mr. Barrie's life, never fear.

First, after the opening night performance of Peter Pan, Barrie is speaking to Peter Lewellyn-Davies, and several other people at the partie overhear. They begin to ask the boy, "Oh! Are you Peter Pan? How lucky you must be! Look, he doesn't even have a shadow!" etc. But Peter looks confused and says, "No! I'm not Peter Pan, he is," and points to Barrie.

Later, near the end of the film, Peter shows Barrie a notebook which he had previously torn to shreds and admits that his mother pasted it back together, and then he says, "After the play, I just started writing... And I couldn't stop."

I don't know why that last line got to me, except that I empathized with him so much. I started to cry at that point, because it was just so beautiful, and so sad, and so bittersweet all at once.

And if that little boy who plays Peter wasn't nominated for an Oscar, then the Acadamy people should be drug out into the street and shot. A boy that age giving that performance? Sheer brilliance. =)

Go see it at once if you haven't already. You will not regret it.

Monday, February 14, 2005

V-day update

So, the adorable sneaky boy showed up at my office at noon bearing a bouquet of those small pretty white spray roses and a big grin. We get in the car and he says, "I thought we'd just go to Burger King if that's OK." Sure, says I, still very happy to have roses.

So we head towards Burger King and he makes a wrong turn. "You can't get there this way?" says he. You cannot, says I. He says he will make a U-turn.

He does, eventually, make a U-turn, but that is only to be able to park on the correct side of the road so that we can get out of the car. At a park.

He brought me a surprise picnic.

So we go and find a sunny spot in the park and he unpacks his bounty which includes French bread, Brie, olives, a thermos of salmon bisque, strawberries and raspberries with whipped cream, sparkling water, and two of those adorable mini bottles of chardonnay.

I am so in love with this man...

FYI

It is not a good idea to leave a frozen dinner in your desk drawer over the weekend.

It tends to get un-frozen and leak and then begin to smell.

Took me a good ten minutes to figure out where that *particular* funk in my cube was coming from -- I originally assumed it was my walking shoes in the bottom drawer -- and then I found the puddle.

Gross. Anybody have any Lysol??
Happy Valentine's Day!!

Ah, national day of romantic drama!! Here's hoping there is NO drama in any of your lives today, but plenty of romance -- if you're into that sort of thing. And if you're not, then wait until tomorrow, and go buy a TON of chocolate on sale. =D

See? It's a holiday for EVERYBODY!!

So far, I am having a good day. Last night, Brandon asked me to wake him up before I had breakfast because he wanted to eat with me, so I did, and he proceeded to cook a full on meal for me! Croissants and scrambled eggs and jam and cafe au lait and fruit -- it was very continental. =) I opened some cards from my parents and gave him his requisite Valentine's Day boxers from Old Navy -- white with little red devils on (it's become a sort of tradition for us -- which is odd, because I think it's generally the ladies that receive underwear for Valentine's Day, but whatever...).

So I finished getting ready and went to work, and then, just a few minutes ago, I got a call from him. He says he "forgot" his lunch, and since he has to go out to lunch now, would I like to go with him? =D Sneaky boy! And SUCH a bad liar. But I love it.

=D

So, anyway, here's hoping your day goes well whether it involves romance and drama or not. I am eager to watch the little dramas play out in the workplace -- the "war of the roses" (otherwise known as "who gets the biggest bouquet?") has begun, and I've already overheard one woman pining for her ex-husband. Oh yeah.

To close, a bit of advice for you today; in the immortal words of the Isley Brothers, "If you can't be with the one you love, honey, love the one you're with!"

Sunday, February 13, 2005

You scored as Classic Pumps. You are Classic Pumps. Not a slave to fashion, you believe that some things never go out of style for a reason. One or two expensive items are worth a whole closet full of junk. Go on with your persnickity self, girl!

Classic Pumps

70%

Quirky Shoes

66%

Sensible Flats

57%

Flip-Flops

47%

Sexy Heels

23%

What Kind of Shoes Are You?
created with QuizFarm.com

Friday, February 11, 2005

field guide to valentine's day

So, I was reading Allison's blog (I would link to it there, but I'm just to lazy to type the code. There's a link on the left, people.), and I read a comment from this chicksa who calls herself AMG for Anonymous Midwest Girl. She seemed funny, so I clicked on her link which took me to her blog and I found this highly amusing piece of commentary: Anonymous Midwest Girl's Field Guide to Valentine's Day.

Read it. Laugh at it. Let me know how many points you get. =D

mailing list

Due to popular demand, I have created a "Sect of the Serpent" mailing list. An email will be sent to everyone on the list whenever a new chapter is uploaded.

For instructions on subscribing, please click here

the long and winding road

Well, Allison's on her way to California today to try to figure out the next stage in her life, and she sent methis picture from the airplane.

I think she's gonna be just fine...

=)

Thursday, February 10, 2005

Animal Group Names

This site tells us that a group of owls is a parliment, a group of tigers is an ambush, a group of rattlesnakes is a rhumba, and a group of gnus is an implausibility.

Man, this is a picture book just waiting to happen. =D

Snowflake and Snow Crystal Photos

Snowflake and Snow Crystal Photos

I don't know why these fascinate me so, but they do. =)

Wednesday, February 09, 2005

ooo... more favorite lines of the day

"He stumbles to his bed and falls face first into his pillows, giving vent to a sigh from the depths of his soul. The sound bounces off the walls of the empty dormitory, and makes him lonely in all new places -- just behind his ears and beneath his toenails and between the fragile bones of his left (and favorite) wrist. It's barely dawn and everything's gray. "

From sheafrotherdon's Fic: How Sirius Came To Say 'I Love You'

(You see? This is what happens when I have nothing to do at work... I blog until you're all SICK of me!)

Book Review

Here's another book review for Whale Talk by Chris Crutcher.

the guide is definitive. reality is frequently inaccurate.

A primer of internet, blog, and fanfic jargon and slang for the uninitiated, the curious, or the just plain bored.
(Many of these definitions have been written with tongue firmly planted in cheek, so while all the definitions are technically correct, they will also have my own unique spin on them.)


blog: 1. short for weblog; an internet based journal of any source 2. used as a verb [to blog] meaning to write and publish an entry to an internet based journal.

fanfic: short for fan fiction; stories of any length written about pre-existing characters and situations as defined by popular (or not so popular) books, television shows, movies, etc.
[Author's Note: My most recent discovery is fan fiction for Dorothy Sayers' Lord Peter Wimsey mysteries and The Odyssey. Yes, the one by Homer. There is fanfic for EVERYTHING. Quite amusing.]

fandom: used to describe the community of fanfiction readers and writers

comment / review: a message left by a reader for the author of a particular blog and/or piece of fanfiction. Comments and reviews make the author feel loved and are often accompanied by warm fuzzy feelings, except in the case of flames (see below). Lack of comments and/or reviews when the author KNOWS that her family and friends read the blog/fanfic can often result in low self-esteem and lots of annoying begging for comments. You have been warned.

flame: a negative review; more than that, however, a flame is generally left anonymously, and is frequently vituperative, if not ridiculous. The commenter who called me a "bloody twelve-year old" because I gave one of my characters dyed pink hair would count as a flamer or writer of a flame.

beta reader: usually shortened to just beta; someone who reads over a piece of fic before it gets publically posted; an editor; used as a verb [to beta] to describe the editing process; from the idea that the author would be the alpha, or first reader, and the beta would be someone who takes a second look.

brit picker: (possibly unique to Harry Potter fandom) a native of the British Isles who reads over a story to correct the author's British slang, phraseology, and spelling.
[Who knew that Brits don't use the word "gotten" -- it's baffling.]

meme: usually a series of questions that reveal something about the author's personality which tend to get passed around on the internet; of uncertain origins.

gack: to steal; "I gacked that meme from Allison." "Feel free to gack these icons."

drabble: a 100 word story; double-drabbles, then, would be 200 words. [The definition of drabble is highly contested in fandom. Some claim that the only true drabbles are exactly 100 words -- the length requirement being part of the challenge of writing them. Others insist that any short piece (say, under 500 words) qualifies as a drabble. The controversy rages on.]

ficlet: a short (usually around 500-1000 words) piece of fanfiction

canon: a fact which is spelled out specifically in the source material for the fanfiction. (ie: The fact that Harry Potter is in Gryffindor house at Hogwarts is canon.)

fanon: a fact which is NOT specifically stated in the source material, but is generally believed to be true by the fandom (ie: the fact that Lily Potter was in Gryffindor house is not specifically stated in any of the Harry Potter books, but fans generally believe it to be so.)

ship: short for relationship; refers to the relationship featured in a particular story
[Readers and Authors alike are extremely picky about which "ships they sail," meaning which relationships they like to read or write about. There are canon ships, fanon ships, and squick ships. It's mind boggling.]

slash: fiction written about homosexual relationships; the origin of the term is from fanfiction writers who included the relationship they were writing about with a slash between the characters, (ie: Alexander/Hephestion)

Mary Sue: a character in a fanfic who is a bad cliche; generally refers to characters who are TOO perfect, who have no flaws, and are therefore unbelievable; also refers to bad portrayal of canon characters, ie: Hermione-Sue; male form is Gary Stue.

shoutbox: a miniature message board placed on a blog for the purpose of "chatting" with other readers of the blog. See Allison's Blog for an example.

A/N: abbreviation for Author's Note; usually included at the beginning or end of a piece of fan fiction and/or an individual chapter; a place for the author to speak directly to the reader

ratings: based on the MPA system for rating films, fan fiction is rated based on it's content and suitability for general audiences. From G all the way to NC-17. Really.

fangirl: a person (regardless of gender) who becomes incomprehensible and loses all understanding of grammar and spelling when he/she encounters something they feel passionate about.
[ie: "OMG!!!!!!!1!!! UR the COOLST! i LUV THIS FIC!!!!!!!!!]

OMG: short for "oh my god"

LOL: short for "laughing out loud"

ROTFL: short for "rolling on the floor laughing"
[Seriously. I didn't make these up.]

*: generally used to indicate an action as in, *sigh* or *facepalms*

avitar: a small picture used on message boards to identify a user (also sometimes known as icons)

meta: discussion of anything deeper or broader than the average fandom conversation; ie: a discussion about the literary aspects of fandom, the larger social forces behind the movement, the technical side of writing, etc.

dork: anyone who takes the time to actually compile a list of fandom/blog/internet jargon; anyone who reads the list all the way to the end. ;c)

danger will robinson -- work blog ahead!

I've gotten so paranoid about blogging about what happens to me at work, but I've decided that it's hardly worth worrying about when a) I don't use real names and b) nothing I write about is at all interesting.

SO!

Lacy's Three Things About Work Today:

1. No one is here today except me.
I am the ONLY member of the IT (or, as the Boss Man likes to call it, "Business Intelligence") department in the office today. This is scary on several levels; if anything really major were to go wrong, I would have NO CLUE how to fix it. The best I could do would be to tell people to take deep breaths and count to ten while I call New York. I would then probably have to go to HR or somewhere to figure out WHO in New York I'm supposed to call and what their number is. Then we would chat and discover that they can't do anything about it because -- wait for it -- they're IN NEW YORK. Then I would probably find The Weirdo's home phone number and call him at home until he answered and came up here to fix it.

2. I have nothing to do.
No. Literally. NOTHING. I have no projects to work on. I had one, but The Weirdo told me not to do it when he isn't here because it has a tendency to freeze up the database, and if that happens, we're back at scenario number one up there. I have a second project I could work on IF the Network Guru had processed my access request before he left yesterday, which he didn't. So yeah. NOTHING.

Seems like a good day to write.

3. We now have candy, sodas, and flavored coffee again.
After the buyout, there was a big hullabaloo about whether or not the new Powers that Be were going to continue buying candy, sodas, and flavored coffee for the benefit of the office. Previous Powers That Be kept us pacified with sugar and caffeine, and now the new guys wanted to take it away.

Bad idea.

Sure, people were complaining about the new security procedures, the missing bonus checks, the miniscule raises, the deluge of paperwork, and all the other weirdness that comes from having your company bought, but they were SCREAMING about the candy. I mean, it was getting bad. We were down to our last ten packets of Hawaiian Hazelnut coffee and just a handful of Hershey's Kisses and Redvines.

*Lacy rollseyes*

But, upon going to wash out my coffee cup this morning, I discovered two full pots of French Vanilla (clearly the office favorite, as that's what we ran out of first), a laundry-sized basket FULL of fresh candy (including mini Twix, which are my WEAKNESS -- DAMN THE MAN!!!), and Sweet Girl from HR wheeling an enormous cart full of all kinds of sodas into the break room.

Balance has been restored. The natives have been pacified. Back to work.

Oh wait. I don't have any work.

holy cow

OK. So, I've just had way more "fun" than I planned on having this morning. I was adding a few new links to the highlights on the sidebar over there, and somehow deleted half of my template. I have therefore spent the last hour or so trying to get it back.

Seriously stretched the boundaries of my coding knowledge.

BUT! The good news is, I have made it easier to comment. Just click on the little orange link to show or hide the comments, and when you click the "0 comments" link, a little link will pop up that says "Post a Comment" and that's the one you click when you want to make Lacy happy.

=D

If you find any bugs, please let me know.

favorite line of the day

"I think we forget sometimes that excellence derives from dedication and dedication is joy taken in the striving."

From copperbadge's Ellis, Chapter Three, Part Two

Tuesday, February 08, 2005

LACY: I got a parking ticket yesterday.
BRANDON: Are you going to pay it?
L: Yeah. It's only $30. The meter ran out.
B: I wouldn't pay it. Just on principle.
L: I was in the wrong. I let the meter run out. What principle would you be defending?
B: The principle that I'm never wrong.
L: *facepalms*
I met Kris and she is yay! =) Fun girl, very nice, no New York accent, slightly shorter than me, not at ALL what I thought she looked like, so a very good thing that I had a sign that said KRIS in huge letters. =)

We had a very nice afternoon walking up and down Manhattan Beach until our feet fell off and eating ice cream (I had NUTELLA flavored ice cream -- how cool is that???) and taking pictures of the sunset. She has photographic evidence that the two of us were together, which she is going to send to me soon. We talked about everything and nothing and it was very nice.

Got her back to the airport in plenty of time, which is good, because there was a BOMB scare, and they closed down her entire terminal. Yucky poo. You can read about her trials and tribulations here on her travel journal.

And the bomb scare didn't even make the 10 o'clock news. Huh.

Monday, February 07, 2005

Real life and internet life collide

Today, in about two hours, I'm going to meet my internet writing buddy Kris in person for the very first time.

!!!

How amazing is it that in this day and age I can have friends all over the country that I've never even met? It is so amazingly cool to me that I can meet these people, get to know them, and develop these complex, actually meaningful relationships with them, never having met them in person.

Today, however, all that changes. I get to put a face, a voice, a personality to the name. I get to find out if she has a New York accent, if she is taller or shorter than me, how she takes her tea, what she orders in a restaurant, what she likes to talk about -- other than fanfiction, of course! It's really quite thrilling!

The internet is the great equalizer. I think, in years to come, it will be remembered as one of the world-altering inventions of all time; fire, the wheel, the steam engine, the assembly line; antiseptics; computers; the internet. I try to imagine sometimes what my children will think when I tell them that I can remember a time before computers, a time before the internet. I wonder what my grandchildren will think when I try to explain typewriters and television and radio to them as separate entities from computers and the internet. They probably won't believe me. They won't understand how weird it was, way back then, to meet a friend or a boyfriend online. They won't be able to comprehend that there was a certain stigma attached to internet based/begun relationships. All of that will probably be completely normal for them. Who knows. =)

Thursday, February 03, 2005

The High School meme...

The year you were a senior in high school...

[What year was it?]
1998-99

[What were your three favorite bands?]
They Might Be Giants, REM, and Pearl Jam

[What was your favorite outfit?]
Jeans, tee-shirts with funny stuff written on them, and black Converse with funky socks. =)

[What was up with your hair?]
Oy. One word. BANGS.

[Who were your best friends?]
Katie, Allison, Michael, and Charlie were the big four. Then there was Gayatri, Jason, Charlie’s sister Julie and her friend Suzanne, Jeff who came with Michael, Ken who came with Katie for a while, April and Fran who came with Allison, Deena, Dina, Parveen, and Pha.

[What did you do after school?]
I was either a) working, b) rehearsing for a musical, or c) working on a communications project.

[Where did you work?]
I worked for Vocabulary Enterprises as a personal/office assistant, and I had an internship at ScreenPlay Productions.

[Did you take the bus?]
No, I had a car. Murray.

[Who did you have a crush on?]
I had a crush on Michael for part of my senior year and then I got over it. Then I crushed on Jason for a while because he was dangerous. Then I wanted Charlie to take me to prom, but only because I didn’t know how else I was going to get to go. And then there was Kevin, who I never really had a crush on, but dated anyway.

[Did you fight with your parents?]
Don't all teens? But not any more than average.

[Who did you have a CELEBRITY crush on?]
Ooo! Let me think... David Duchovney, Eddie Vedder... I can’t think of anybody else.

[Did you smoke cigarettes?]
No.

[Did you lug all of your books around in your backpack all day because you were too nervous to find your locker?]
Heck no! I OWNED that locker, bee-otch. ;c)

[Did you have a 'clique'?]
Erm... Kind of. Me, Katie, Allison, Michael and whomever else came with the others were pretty much a solid group. That’s who I ate lunch with, anyway.

[Did you have "The Max" like Zach Kelly and Slater?]
Hahaha! No. Maybe Chucks? Pearce had the WExxon, I remember that.

[Admit it, were you popular?]
Not even any.

[Who did you want to be just like?]
I wanted to be just like Katie. (Seriously, how messed up was my self-esteem??)

[What did you want to be when you grew up?]
A movie director.

[Where did you think you'd be at the age you are now?]
Oh, I would have just finished film school and be directing my first feature film and be well on my way to being insanely rich and famous.

Tuesday, February 01, 2005

look! up in the sky!

I'm feeling rather powerful, and it's terribly frightening.

My department head has decided to outsource a large chunk of data validation which is GOOD because it means I won't have to a) validate the data manually or b) stretch the boundaries of my dubious brilliance to come up with a way to automate said validation. Truly, I am VERY happy about this.

What I am NOT happy about is the amount of trust and responsibility they're putting on my shoulders when it comes to communicating our needs to the outsourcing company. For example, when the department head asked me to write a scope document detailing what we thought we wanted the outsourcing company to do for us, I thought it was just for his purposes. Imagine my surprise when I discovered that he had forwarded it -- verbatim -- to the outsourcing company. Then, just today, I was invited to sit in on a conference call to the other company, and was appalled at how many times the words, "Lacy can tell you about that," or "Lacy's taking the lead on that portion," came out of his mouth.

To be quite honest, I feel totally out of my depth. Half the time I don't even speak the same language as these IT guys. I have no formal training, no degree or experience even to fall back on. Most of the time I'm making things up and flying by the seat of my pants.

When it's just my department, that's OK. They all know that I'm a temp. They all know that I frequently use words like "thingy" and "doomaflodgy" when I don't know the technical term for something. People from another company? Yeah. They don't know that.

It is unpleasant, to say the least, to spend two hours in a meeting terrified that you're going to make yourself -- and, in fact, your department, not to mention your company (if only by proxy) -- look stupid. Heh. Yeah. "Doomaflodgy" is not an industry standard term, let me tell you.

It went OK, but I am now all jittery and hyped up on adrenaline from sitting on the edge of my seat and pretending to be "Super IT Girl." Not a role I have much faith in. HA!

How do I GET these jobs??? It's still a mystery to me...

favorite line of the day

I've been over every inch of trouble. There's no part of it I haven't mapped.

From In Theory by Thistlerose.