As usual, I owe the world at large emails and FB. I'm afraid it won't happen before I leave for my trip. I'm 3 betas behind and about 20 emails as well. So, this is me officially signing off the blog for the rest of the year. Have a good holiday and I'll see you in 2003.

I dyed my hair today. Or rather highlighted. With hair like mine, it's really the same difference. I'm a kinda red-head now. Or maybe a dark-brown red. Something like that. I've seen one patch where I 'painted' badly and I'm hoping no one will notice (or probably wouldn't notice if I hadn't blogged about it). At any rate, it came out better than I thought it would and this time, I didn't end up dying my face as well (long story - don't ask).

I still haven't started packing. Nothing like putting it off until the last minute, I suppose. I have no idea what to take - or rather, I'm thinking of taking *too* much. I went to Europe for six weeks with a suitcase that fits in an overhead bin (and I had 2 extra pairs of shoes in that bag in addition to the ones on my feet). I kid you not. Now, I'm just going away for 12 days and I'm thinking I'm going to have to take several suitcases. Part of it is because of the kiddos. Have I mentioned the kiddos? There are seven of them - ranging in age from 11 months to 12 or 13 years. I have gifts for all of them. Including two rather large teddy bears. The teddy bears themselves will need their own suitcase, I think.

Hmmm...

Must think on this a bit longer and harder.

The Least Essential Albums of 2002.

Another item for my Christmas wish list

I just found out about a fund based in New York City that is designed to replace the $34 million that the US has withdrawn from the UN's plans on population control - and not because of budgetry reasons either. This includes birth control, education, and AIDS-prevention. According to a December 20th Ellen Goodman column, the $34 million would have "helped prevent 2 million unwanted pregnancies, 800,000 abortions, 4,700 maternal deaths," not to mention 77,000 infant and child deaths. How is this not a good thing? For more information on what the fund actually provides for, check the UNFPA website. You can find about more about the 34 Million Friends campaign specifically here. Note, this fund does not support abortion or fund abortion in any way; its goal is to prevent the spread of AIDs and decrease unwanted pregnancies through the use of education and contraceptives.

If you're interested in contributing to the fund to make up for the United States' withdrawal, you can send your tax-deductible donation here:

U.S. Committee for UNFPA
220 East 42nd Street, 28th floor
New York, NY 10017

Is it just me or did the amount of spam on the Internet just increase? It could be that, as Lori says, the Internet is dead, and so I'm noticing the amount of spam much, much, much more - but really, it's got to be a crime that I get more spam than email I want to read. I want to email Jerry (whoever he is) and tell him I barely can handle buying tires on my own, letting own buying the auto repair shop he thinks I'm interested in. Katie really wants me to come and watch her on her web cam (Sorry, Katie, dial-up and all that, and so I've got to pass. But thanks for asking me to stop by!). I understand that Mrs. Sesko Sesko needs my help urgently enough that she needs to send me five or six emails a day asking for it (on a related note, so you all don't think I'm completely heartless, I did email Mrs. Sesko Sesko back and agreed to transmit all of my financial information to her for a 30 percent cut of the money and for her to come here, rather than me going to Nigeria - she never responded. I can only imagine that her dire circumstances have prevented her from reading email).

The viagra people are insistent that they can help me; I hate to burst their bubble, but no. The dieters claim I can lose up to 25 pounds in five days. Now there's a deal I can't turn down. Someone with no vowels in his names wants to help me succeed on E-Bay. Daniel Williams wants me to "reply now" - sorry, Daniel, I ignore friends and bulkmailers equally, so please don't take it personally. Henry has a way of tripling my portfolio; he obviously hasn't heard about the stock market's effect on my portfolio - how do you triple zero? Great Deals is offering me pasta (Pasta Pro is the best!) for the bargain price of $14.95 (eh, the grocery store sells a bag of spaghetti for about 83 cents. Unemployed me will have to pass on the high class pasta). Carl has tricks to teach me on winning at casino games - great, Carl, but I got your email a few months too late; where were you when I was playing the slots in Monte Carlo this summer? We could have made a killing together! (Actually, I did make six euros in Monte Carlo, after recouping my admission price to the casino and the amount I put into the slot machine at the same time. I also attracted a group of curious Italians who kept speaking to me in, you guessed it, Italian. I think there was a rumble for my slot machine after I finished).

And is anyone else as amused as me if you type in "spam" in the IE address toolbar for a search, the number one result comes back for MSN's new Internet service?

I present to you a fic rerun in dishonor of spam: How to Succeed in Hard Times...

Whew, finally finished off my holiday cards. Usually I'm done with all this by now but because I didn't finish with exams until the 20th, I only got started yesterday and finished this morning. Now it's time to run to the post office and mail packages off, including a few cards overseas and to Canada for epals. I've already done the "fight the parking lot" dance several times and frankly, I feel rather predatory the way I stalk people coming out of stores in my car, but what's a girl to do?

I have lunch dates set up for next week. One with former coworkers, one down at the capitol to see lots and lots of tuba players and I'm still trying to track down my friend Sarah for coffee for Sunday. Wednesday, I jet. So, those of you in the New York/Boston/St. Louis area, how cold is it? Mind you, I've lived here for almost 5 years now and I've lost most of my New England resistance to cold. And oh yes, it's 70 degrees F at the moment. And sunny. And blue skies.

I have an exam today. The very last one of the semester. This was the optional exam I'd hoped to avoid taking, but alas, it wasn't so. It only covers 3 chapters worth of material - 2 of those chapters covering statistics and one chapter on how to write a report. My favorite chapter is the last one, of course.

No baking powder. I'm halfway through finishing up the dough for sugar cookies and I have no baking powder. Can I use baking soda instead?

Thing I learned today: if you start a phone call during your Anytime minutes time frame and then cross into your Night & Weekend time frame, your phone call is still billed at the Anytime minutes rate. I just learned that the hard way. A phone call I made - talked 73 minutes - at 8:35 pm in the evening cost me a whooping $30 this month, despite the fact only 25 of those minutes were done during my Anytime minutes time frame (Nights begin for me at 9 pm). Ouch. Anyway, I called the cell phone people and they actually knocked off the charges because I had no idea that that was indeed the case and this was my first time. But boy, talk about sticker shock...

Final grades are coming back and ::happy dance::, I have just learned that I've finished at the top of my class for one of them - I earned the number 2 grade, the number 1 person beating me out about by .6 of a point. Ah well. I'm still unbelievably thrilled.

My Christmas Wish List

The things I would like for Christmas. If you were thinking of getting me something, that is. I'd ask you not to, please. I've gotten to a point in my life where 'things' no longer make me happy (well, except for warm socks - I will never turn down a pair of socks). 'Things' do not compare to good health, family and friends. I already have more Parker, Cross and Waterman pens than I know what to do with. My bookshelves are overflowing, my closet is stuffed with clothes I rarely wear. I listen to the same CDs over and over again - don't need anymore. So, if I'm on your Christmas list, these are the things I ask for this year:

• Become registered with the American Bone Donor Registry or your country's registry. Please. It takes literally 15 minutes of your time and it's less than two vials of blood. You could save a life. Especially if you're a member of a minority group - minorities are underrepresented in the Donor Bank. So please, if you're between the ages of 18 and 60, consider become a registered member.
  
• Talk to your family about becoming an organ donor. Twenty thousand people die every year while waiting for a transplant. Consider that by becoming an organ donor, there is the possibility of improving the quality of life for up to 50 people.
  
• Volunteer for Habitat for Humanity. It's a wonderful opportunity to give back to the community and to help build something that is long-lasting and permanent contribution. And all for just 2 or 3 hours on a Saturday morning.
  
• December isn't the only time to be generous of spirit, time and money. Another month works just as well, if not better.
  
• Check all of the batteries in your smoke alarms. And while you're at it, invest in a carbon monoxide detector.
  
• Do something nice and unexpected for someone you care about. Take them out to lunch, make them cookies, clean up, etc.
  
• When driving, stop to let pedestrians cross the street. Yield the right of way.
  

These are the things I ask for.

The Friend Meme

Gacked from Melina, among others. Can you pick yourself out? Includes LJ and blog people both.

1. One of my oldest and dearest friends online. The only person to have read The Fic That Shall Not Be Mentioned Or Posted. A super-duper beta too who taught me how to spell 'raktajino.'

2. You write novels that I love to print because the small screen simply doesn't do them justice. You're so good at what you do, it's easy to think that a Certain Pairing That Shall Not Be Named, though canon, is so completely wrong.

3. You introduced me to my very first mailing list when I was still going by various nicks. It's been wonderful finding you again.

4. I just met you but already I think you're very cool. And after reading your "Alias" and "X-Files" fics, I'm determined to be you when I grow up.

5. You're stylish and just very cool in that black cape of yours. Not to mention your smurf flares. It's not nice to covet your neighbor's possessions, but if I could just have a bit o'style...

6. You're possibly the best meta blogger out there, the one who continues to be endlessly fascinating no matter what fandom you're talking about.

7. Your Voyager fanfiction made me a fan, not to mention, late for meetings. It was the first time I ever sent FB to someone from work, I was so enthralled by your fanfic. You are missed in Voyager.

8. You filk like no one else. And you're yellow. And lego. You know CSS and you're a Mac user. What's not to love?

9. You gave a list with no purpose a purpose. And then you kept us on purpose even when we started to deviate. Have a good time in London.

10. If I ever do a research project with anyone ever again, it'll be you. Because, you do things in Excel that make me quake in fear. That was one impressive "if then" statement.

11. You have a beautiful and lyrical flow to your writing and you make such ordinary scenes so extraordinary.

12. I don't know you well, but you're on zendom and I stop by your LJ often. I always find something interesting there to read.

13. You've been very patient to wade through most of my fics for the last couple years and I'm still impressed that I haven't scared you away. Even with C/7. I applaud your courage and patience both.

14. I don't know you too well, but I think you write beautiful fic for ENT and should write more. Yes, more. And post to ASC.

15. You. Have. Talent. Don't. Make. Me. Come. Over. There. And. Make. You. Post.

16. You're a good person, kind FBer and fun chatter but somehow you still manage to come out with a very forceful 'no.' How do you do it?

17. You're enormously cool. And you're named after one of my all-time heroines. Hope to see you back around soon. You are missed.

18. I don't know you that well either, but your blog has interesting things in it. I found it when you linked to me. Thanks for sharing your interesting thoughts as it's always pleasant to stop by.

19. I hear wonderful things about you from the Stylish One. Word o' mouth has it that you're a totally fantastic beta.

20. I know you back in VOY fandom and you wrote some of my favorite fanfic in both VOY, Sports Night and X-Files. You're possibly one of the most fluid and stylistic writers I've come across.

21. You saved VOY for me. And you're constantly surprising me with all the sweet things you do. So glad to have found you again and so glad to have a friend like you.

22. Individually, you people absolutely and totally rock. Collectively, you guys are a force of nature, inclined to start blog wars on a moment's notice and go to bat for a friend when necessary. I knew that before, but the Monster Chat o' Doom proved it.

Twenty-three of my classmates have graduated. Yesterday, at the strategy final, was possibly one of the last times I'd see them. One of them has already left the area to return to her native country. It makes me unbelievably sad. I wasn't friends with all of these people, but I was on teams with a few of them, and we did share good times and hard times alike.

I remember seeing some of these people at 3 in the morning. We shared pizzas. We spotted each other money when someone was running short. We were there when something went disasterously, and we were there when things went beautifully. And unlike the outside world, we understood what it really meant to be a first year and what a struggle it was to get through each day; it's impossible to even put into words how much we needed each other even when we didn't necessarily like each other that much. But we always managed to get past the conflicts and the petty arguments to pull it together and get through. And now a fourth of the class - a fourth of the people who survived the first year - are gone.

I felt loss when I returned this fall and discovered that some of my classmates had not qualified to return for a second year. Those departures were so abrupt, as we had not been able to say good-bye and good luck to them, in whatever they tried for in the future. And now, another 23 people are gone. I suspect May will be more difficult when all but one of us from the class of 2003 will be leaving.

So long and good luck, friends. And keep in touch.

So the conversation went something like this.

X: "What happened in chapter 14?"
Me: "Chapter 14? There was a chapter 14?"
X: "It comes after chapter 13."
Me: "I don't remember that one either."
X: "Organizational structure, behavior and matching controls to structures."
Me: "Nope, nada."
X: "Functional? Multidomestic? Global-matrix area?"
Me: "Chapter 13?"
X: "No, chapter 10."
Me: "Chapter 10?"

Okay, so a slight exaggeration. But this was pretty much what all of the conversations were like today in school. Part of me was completely flustered as I scored a 20 on the practice quiz on chapter 13 and though I'd read it like 80 million times, for the life of me, I didn't know what I'd read. No big deal - no one else seemed to know what was in chapters 13 and 14 either. It's like we all got to chapter 12 and our brains gave out.

We were prowling the halls, curled up in little nooks throughout the building, frantically memorizing the book (some people had just opened it for the first time this morning) and trying to figure out the differences between international, multidomestic, global and transnational strategies. Because, they only look the same. The pretty pictures tell you otherwise. Everyone had a mental block. Mine happened to be the last two chapters of the text but other people blanked out on other chapters. This is one exam where groupthink would have been a very Good Thing.

But thankfully, hardly anything from chapters 13 and 14 were on the exam and I feel very, very good about it. For once, I think memorizing an entire textbook (don't try this at home, kids!) paid off for me. To the point where I was sitting in the lounge with a couple of friends and reciting entire diagrams from memory. Scary. I'm going to dream about this stuff in my sleep.

The 2002 ASC Awards FAQ is available for comment on a newsgroup near you. Check it out. Please note, you have until January 31st at 11:59 pm to post a story in order to be eligible for this year's Awards.

And now for a rather sanctimonious rant from the soapbox...

And sometime I've been pondering - why is it some people simply don't respond to FB? Why don't they acknowledge they received it? There are several people whom I've sent FB to and I have no idea if they ever got the FB. The first time, I don't think much of it. I figure the FB got lost , but multiple times? I stop FBing. I think there are 2 or 3 authors out there whom I no longer FB, regardless of how much I like their stories because I figure that they don't necessarily care that I read their story or for some reason the FB never gets to them, so I don't see the reason why I should take time to FB them, when I have plenty of other wonderful authors (Lori!) whom I should be reading and FBing instead.

It's a lot like thank you notes. It's fun getting gifts for birthday parties, weddings, graduations, etc, but it's no fun writing the thank you notes afterwards. But never underestimate how important that thank you note is in terms of public relations with the person who gave you the gift in the first place. No one needs to give anyone else a gift - it's not a 'required' thing (okay, maybe some situations require a gift) but someone went out of their way to pick something out, wrap it up and then bring it. That deserves acknowledgement, regardless of personal feelings towards the gift in question. So many people don't write thank you notes these days and that's really sad. But then I've always been a bit on the prim side when it comes to thank you notes; my guests are barely out the door before I've sat down to write them all acknowledgements. Trust me. If you don't do a thank you note, people will notice the omission more than they'll notice the acknowledgement.

And now, back to the books. I think another couple hours on strategy and I'm going to have to be done with the subject (My favorite part of the book is in the last chapter where it tells me that if I just follow the strategies written in the book, I can be an effective CEO. Who knew that after reading that book, I now have the potential to be another Jack Welch or Lee Iaccoca or Jaques Nasser or Lou Gerstner?).

And I just discoverd the security settings on the LJ.... Friends only...

I tried Melina's music meme, found that it was hard and that my brain was exhausted from trying to absorb a semester's worth of strategy in one day. It goes back to my theory that everything learned in a class is learned in the 24 hours preceeding the exam - not during the semester (which, theoretically, would be the smart way of doing it).

I just went and banged on my neighbor's door - She of the Loud Music. I could hear the lyrics - not even the beat, but the actual words. It was all in Spanish and I appreciate Spanish music as much as the next person but not tonight. Tonight is Thursday. I was at school studying from 10 am until 6 pm tonight - 500 pages worth of material. Stuff I'm not even sure I remember (value chain, I do know what a value chain is though) and so I'm relatively cranky and all I want to do is curl up on the sofa with my blanket, have popcorn and watch television. I was planning to crank out an hour or so more of studying tonight, but I'll probably do it tomorrow. Exam isn't until 5:30 in the evening, so I've got the whole day to review the things I'm iffy on.

Still think it's nuts to have just one comprehensive exam. It's impossible to memorize it all and some of you know, even on good days, my memory is seriously lacking.

My application for the second masters' program is coming along nicely. I'm still debating why I'm doing this, considering how unbelievably tired I am of school at the moment and what the heck am I going to do with a second masters' degree anyway? Pulling a Bjorn? Over-education is a family joke so perhaps I'm just falling into tradition that way.

We're going to see Nemesis on Saturday evening. 7 pm show. So I'm sure I'll have much to tell afterwards. With approriate spoilers.

I've discontinued my other blog. It wasn't like I was updating it anyway and now that I have the LJ, I don't really need two blogs and an LJ. That would just be excessive fan girl behavior. I also finally have my icon for my LJ up. Again, credit goes to the Inimitable Miss Barr for making the image.

My last name is a verb! Who knew?

G******* (v) - To be totally intimidated during the practice round and blown out during a match. Originally done to BHS by Essex it is now a regular activity of the BHS team in regional play. As in: We really got g*********ed by Riverdale at the National Scholastics Championship! Derived from 1995-96 Essex star Ketan G*******and his answers such as STAR TREK (see below).

and here, he makes his sister so very proud

Star Trek (n) - Correct answer given by Essex's Ketan G******** after only six words of the question had been read in the practice round of BHS' first match under coach David R*****. This question thoroughly G*********red (see above) the Seahorses and Essex went on to a 310-130 victory, still the most lopsided defeat in Burlington's state-tournament history.

Still ROTFL.

LJ is working now. I made it pretty and I've posted to it. Now I need an icon. Tom Paris, perhaps? Smurfs? Seasoned with oregano? Right now, I'm just a white splotch on the screen. So sad in a world of pretty boys and Snape.

New article up at zendom: "How to avoid being accused of plagiarism" by RJ Anderson. Definitely a must-read for all ficcers, especially given current rumblings in fandom.

The last word on meta... maybe

Victoria on why she metas. My take on it is different. The question of why I don't meta. I did come dangerously close in chat the other night when I asked the question of whether LJs/blogs might speed fandom erosion. But Liz Barr warned me off and things were good again.

I don't know why I stopped with the meta. I enjoyed it for a while. I enjoyed it enough to read 80 million blogs a day, write snarky little metafics (ie, the blog wars), and respond to other people's blogs line by line here or in their comments. And one day, I just stopped. I can't say it was a matter of time - I have more time now than when I was actively metaing. I could blame it on Europe - six weeks without consistent web access has a way of making you fall behind on the meta and what's what in fandom. It could have been flamewars, that were inadvertantly started when simple questions were asked. It could be that I'm tired of groundless accusations and misinterpretations. It could also be that, unlike the craziness of last year, I'm spending a lot more time with Real People doing Real People things. And Real People don't do fandom (or if they do, they're really, really quiet about it).

A part of me also feels like everything has been discussed to death - or at least the topics I'm interested in. While I enjoy a good slash fic every now and then, it's not the overwhelming focus of my fannish experience so for the most part, most of the LJ/blog conversations don't appeal to me (Would it be wrong to say, in a strange reveral, that all of the slash discussion does in a way make a lowly het/gen writer feel marginalized?). I suppose I could generalize some of the meta to Trekkish and het experiences, but that would take more brain power that I really want to expend. Plus, when a generalization is made, invariably Ungood things happen. Possibly the only generalization I could make that would apply to all fandoms equally that wouldn't start a flamewar is that spelling and grammar are not optional.

Which all sounds very negative. Excessively negative. It's not that I think meta isn't good, but it's served its purpose - at least for me. Sometimes, I do read a discussion and I sit up and take notice, and occasionally link to it. But I'm pretty sure that I'm done in the meta realm. No more metablog for me, no more leaving intelligent (so I hope) comments in other people's diaries. Is it just me? That after a year of this kind of stuff, I'm longing for a laundry list of what people did or ate for lunch. It's more interesting to find out about the people behind the fic, what they do, what they are all about. I'm not necessarily interested in their views on pretty boys or whether realism is rated differently in different fandoms.

I used to think meta took away from fic writing and fennish interactivity. That was just an excuse not to meta. Even without meta, I'm not writing excessive amounts of fic (no matter what the Mod Squad may say about my prolickness - is that even a word?). I'm really just a BOFQ - well, not bitter, but definitely the OFQ. I'm not looking for "the why" - I'm going on six years in Trek fandom now and if I haven't figured out "the why" yet, then I'm not sure that I ever will.

For about five seconds, this is mildly amusing.

Microsoft Word and I just rumbled. I mean, really rumbled. Monstrous paper due tomorrow. Mostly all finished, I just needed to throw in some last minute charts (because, you know, you can never have too many appendices - we have appendices A through P. Paper itself is 57 pages long). So I'm thinking, just fix these highlighted things I got clarification on over the weekend, add the charts, and voila, I am done. But the computer crashed when I tried to add one chart (this is when I abandoned you, Liz) and then I couldn't get my cursor to move around the charts in order to add more. In the end, I cheated and started adding charts in reverse order by adding page breaks before a chart, rather than after the charts. This finally allowed me not only to insert the necessary charts but also to type the relevant text. So I just spent 90 minutes on formatting. Ninety minutes. Gotta love Microsoft Word. And now, last step - I'm going to take it get bound (which in itself is funny, as we had our Microsoft paper bound a few weeks ago and then the professor turns around last week and asks for an electronic copy instead. It would have been nice if he had told us he wanted it electronically in the first place). Anyway, that's where I am - in my favorite place, the computer lab, slowly going insane (doesn't help that G is sitting next to me laughing at me for talking to the paper after it was printed. I think I said, "Why won't you line up... damn it." It's okay - G is in his own private Microsoft Word hell as well. He's fighting the Table of Contents battle, which I did over the weekend). To quote my former cross-country coach, "You gotta love it."

Oh for the want of a joke

Jemima said I was too serious in And Baby Makes Five and that it wouldn't be considered a parody. I thought it was obvious that it was a parody. So as an experiment, I posted the thing to ff.net, categorized it as humor and sat back to wait. The reviews coming in are proving Jemima's point. ::sigh:: Don't make me come over there, people, and tell you it's a parody.

I downloaded a couple of Madonna songs today - "American Pie" and "Die Another Day." I'm going to blame Liz, because she's stuck somewhere without a Madonna fix and she wanted to hear the new James Bond song so I downloaded it for her benefit as she's just as much of a Madonna fan girl as I am. So while I was getting "Die Another Day," I thought I'd get "American Pie" as well as I never heard it when it aired and I didn't know what the controversy was all about. Well, I've heard it and I do like it. Very much. There is something to be said for the originals, yes, but it could have been much, much worse. So I'm possibly in the minority here as someone who enjoyed the song. I also downloaded "The Ketchup Song." Talk about addictive and infectious. Very funny.

And oh yes, Liz Barr has gifted me with an LJ code so I'll be LJing one of these days. As soon as I figure what's going on over there in LJ world and what those codey things mean. Many thanks to Teague who was also kind enough to offer me a code.

For those interested the legal standards applied to obscenity and what degree of literature would fall into that standard, here is the Miller test. There are three requirements here and the first two must be satisfied in order to determine that a work is obscene. Note that the first two requirements here are based on "contemporary standards" (this approach was determined in 1973 in the case Miller versus California, however "contemporary standards" here are defined as when faced with deciding whether a work appeals to the prurient interest or is patently offensive, jurors must use their own sense of what they feel is prurient and patently offensive) and the third requirement is more of a nationalistic standard; in other words, a work that is offensive in say, Memphis cannot be inoffensive (is that a word?) in Tallahassee. The standards are as below:

1. Whether the average person applying contemporary community standards would find the work, taken as a whole, appeals to the prurient interest.

2. Whether the work depicts or describes in a patently offensive way, sexual conduct specifically defined by the applicable state law.

3. Whether the work, taken as a whole, lacks serious literary, artistic, political or scientific values.

I've hit a roadblock on my paper. I have to sum up this semester's course in e-business by writing about 5 of the most valuable lessons one should pass on. It seems rather gratuitous fawning for the prof, methinks, as in "Spit back to me all the wonderful things I taught you this semester!" Anyway, I've got four down and I'm drawing a blank on the fifth. So taking a break and hoping against hope that something wildly innovative - something that makes sense as well - will hit me very, very soon. (Is it really crazy that in just over 3 pages I have 15 endnotes?).

Fannish question: why doesn't anyone interview het writers for fanfic articles, hmmm? Are we really that boring? Do we lack subversion? Does het not have innovation? But Vera, you're probably right. We het writers probably out-numbered slash writers years ago. So possibly my belly-aching is really come-uppence and it's really the time for slashers to take front and center.

I've discovered KaZaalite. I may never get offline. This does not bode well for the future.

Question, because when it comes to music, I'm such a tech newbie. But can I burn an MP3 to a CD? I've got a dial-up connection so I can't use KaaZa to download music because I'll be here all day. But I can use the school computer labs to download music and then burn them to a CD - I just can't download extraneous software to the school computers. MP3.com seemed like a good way to go. So, anyone know?

This and That

It's cold out. A windchill of 20 degrees. As far as I'm concerned, this state has just lost its competitive advantage.

And Liz made this button for me. Isn't she sweet? It really ought to be a movement. Something along the lines of "the few, the proud, the brave"?



Happy Birthday, Lori! May the poolboys make your day a special one.

Oh the weather outside is frightening

First things first, yet another collision between RL and VL - so hello to Alex and Robby ::waves::

Second, I second (whoa, redundant - once again, taking apps for blog beta readers) Vera's suggestion that the word fuffle deserves to be used more widely. Go forth and spread the fuffle.

Third, it's cold out. Really, really cold. Perfect day to curl up in front of the fireplace with hot chocolate. If I had chocolate or milk, for that matter. Actually, come to think of it, I don't have a fireplace either.

Fourth, two presentations and one paper down. Two papers and one presentation left. I may just make it.

Fifth, still working on defamation and the public figures on the Internet. And whether it's possible to sue someone for libel and be credible, given libel in web context. Still musing on that one.

Tired of the dregs? Help is on the way: Bright Shiny Objects has been updated. I've got to get to school early today - professor bumped our class up 15 minutes due to confusion on Monday and it's pouring rain, so the buses are bound to be absolutely packed so I'll need to leave earlier than usual - so, the write-up on yesterday's interview will have to wait until later on this evening.

Extra, extra, read all about it!

We made fandom_wank! I knew if we mocked enough, we'd get there eventually. This makes up for having to spend an entire 12 hours at school today. Yes, I can be happy and go back to my database project. My life as a fan is finally fulfilled. (Though, slightly tempered by the fact that I'm such an unknown commodity in fandom, that the FW didn't know who I was...)

It oughta be on a t-shirt already

Reason 80,543,542 why fandom_wank rocks. My favorite? "Because we don't automatically get 60 pieces of FB with our grocery lists." (Actually, I don't make a grocery list and I'm doing good if I have food in my cupboards as it is, but anyhow..). Read all about it here.

Which of Henry VIII's wives are you?

this quiz was made by the groovtastic ghouls at Spookbot

Natterings

Finally got caught up with my email (100+ unread messages, not counting spam, is nothing to sneeze at). I finally found the "controversial" fanfic article (read it here - though I suspect I'm one of the last people in fandom to read it) and I only have one thing to say 'bout it: Where's the het, kids? When did it become All About the Slash?

I want a button. Something that says "Proud Het Writer" or something along those lines.

Oh two things. I lied. I have two things to say. I want to live in Thamiris' world. I want 50-60 pieces of FB, all incredibly detailed and laden with thoughtful analysis. Obviously, I'm in the wrong fandom.