Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Black ice is not nice

I forgot how scared I was of black ice until I encountered it this evening -- shiny patches against black pavement, illuminated by lights coming from surrounding buildings. It was hard to walk slowly because the wind was blowing so hard and while the mercury might read 34 F, I'm pretty sure the wind chill was in the teens -- the type of cold that blows right through your skin and rattles your bones. Definitely not a fan.

Tuesday, January 27, 2009

Let it snow

It's snowing outside of my window. Three to five inches. I'm moderately excited. It's the potential for rain and icy weather I'm not so crazy about. Thankfully, I don't have to drive in the morning and navigate these roads in my tincan on wheels.

Friday, January 23, 2009

Just one of those things...

The only thing worse than one roll of really bad thin and scratchy toilet paper is having twelve rolls -- double size.

Thursday, January 22, 2009

Grrr...

So I haven't been able to blog because I'm getting old (I did get older recently) and cannot remember my password for blogger. I can't remember my password, because it's the same as one of my email accounts, which I recently changed the password for, because someone -- SOMEONE OUT THERE -- is using my email address for their own. Which is so bizarre to me because clearly they are looking for a job and are getting responses to their job search IN MY EMAIL ACCOUNT. Not to mention, they're getting invited to all the cool parties, and they're also traveling a lot, mostly from Detroit to other parts of the country, and usually on Northwest. I know this because they keep sending their boarding pass to my email account. They also have an interest in law school because someone I started getting missives on study groups and LSAT preps; when I emailed back to get off the list, the response from the law school was that I had requested to be put on the list, and they sent me my email as proof.

This is not a recent phenomena, but one that has been going on since fall. At first I just thought it was a typo, but no, someone out there really is using my email account. They're not doing it intentionally; I think they honestly think that my email address is their email address. And the crazy thing is, they can't read their email, they're not getting their email. You'd think when they didn't get the information about law school or their boarding pass, they'd catch on that they didn't have the right email address. But I'm starting to think the user of my email address is a couple of crayons short of a full box or simply doesn't care.

Anyway, it's getting annoying but there's nothing I can do about it. I've RSVP'd back to a couple of parties saying, "Thanks, but you have the wrong email address." This must have paid off though. Recently, Crayon Box has been trying to reset the password to my account. I know this because I keep getting the "Reset password" emails in one of my other email boxes. So clearly they keep trying to get in but can't. I got me some strong passwords.

Anyway, all this to say that I couldn't remember my password to blog because I've got to keep a step ahead of Crayon Box... but if I could blogged, I would have let out a big hip hip hooray on January 20! I'm keeping my hopes high for Obama, but understand that no matter what some might think, he doesn't walk on water, and he's inherited a mess of gigantic proportions. I don't envy him. Not one minute. I bet he's wishing he'd read the job description more closely, don't you?

Sunday, January 11, 2009

LotD

I've found this Creative Writing Prompt site helpful in clearing away cobwebs.

Saturday, January 10, 2009

New comments

I've replaced the YACCS commenting functionality with blogger's commenting system. It should work the same as YACCS, although the template isn't as pretty as the one I used for YACCS. It will ask you for a login -- you can sign in with a google account, Open ID, or anonymously. For now, I've turned off word verification because I find that highly annoying but if spamming becomes a problem on this blog, I will enable it. Let me know if you have any problems using the new commenting system. Note -- If you sign in anonymously, please sign your name. Thanks!
You can never have too much Bollywood

This is one of my all time favorite songs from Bollywood. This is from the movie "Guide":



and also this golden oldie from "Guide":

Tech

It looks like my longtime comments provider, YACCS, isn't around. I'll wait a couple more days to see what the situation is before I go in and tinker/tamper with the commenting function on the template.

ETA
: Looks like after seven years of service, YACCS discontinued its commenting service on Dec. 23, 2008. Wah! It was fun while it lasted. I will see about adding blogger's commenting function here.

Friday, January 09, 2009

Word

It's not often when reading one of the major national newspapers that I'm stymied by vocabulary in either a news article or opinion piece, but I was recently this week in an opinion article at the WaPo and the word is this: opprobrium. The word could either refer to "a death metal band from Metairie, Louisiana" or "Disgrace arising from exceedingly shameful conduct; ignominy; Scornful reproach or contempt; A cause of shame or disgrace." It's a great word, but I can't ever see using it in casual conversation. Now pontificating from a podium with finger pointing and a stern lecturer of a voice, that's more like it.

Note -- there are a surprising number of news stories using this word. See here.

Sunday, January 04, 2009

Life in the slow lane

The problem with having a computer circa 2001 is that it doesn't play well with newer technology. So this whole thing about uploading pictures from my India trip is taking way longer than it should, and then in the middle of the whole thing, my computer got tired, and rebooted itself. Everytime I plug in my digital camera, Windows gives me the helpful hint that upgrading my USB ports will allow the camera (and my iPod) to work faster. It's tempting, but it's also tempting to buy a new computer.

Here's the thing though -- other than the USB applications (ie camera and iPod), my computer works great for my daily activities which are nothing more complicated than email and writing and web surfing. Every now and then I'll use PhotoShop or Dreamweaver to update a page on my site, but MS Word is about as complicated as I get on a regular basis. This is why it doesn't make sense to buy a new computer and I'm not sure whether buying a new computer will make uploading pictures that much easier; I suspect part of the problem can be chalked up to "user error."
Resolve

I didn't make any New Year's resolutions last year because well, I never keep them anyway. This year, I've decided to give it a shot, even given my past history of lasting about a week on any one resolution. Here are my resolutions for this year:

* Keep my kitchen counter clean
* File/shred my paperwork
* Use those coupons I keep getting at the grocery store/Target
* Keep my toe-nails painted
* Start the morning with a few stretches
* Cook more at home and wean myself off my Morningstar-heavy diet which is getting a wee bit pricey these days
* Keep my car cleaned on the inside and outside
* Remember to ice my Achilles tendons, as if the pain of the tendons wasn't reminder enough
* Read more books

Friday, January 02, 2009

Dholi Taaro

I love this song -- hard to sit still when it's playing!

Found!

I've always wondered what movie "Dola re dola" came from and I can't believe I forgot it was in "Devdas", the soundtrack of which I think is in my car somewhere. Enjoy!

The end of an error

Jan. 20, 2009. Good riddance. Bob Hebert adds up the damage.

Thursday, January 01, 2009

To you and yours

Happy New Year and all the best in 2009!