The tell-tale pain in my arm is settling in again. I guess that's what you get when you attempt to respond to all of your email in one day. At any rate, I guess it's a pretty good indication I should call it a night (or an afternoon...)

One fanfiction genre I'm not completely sure of: Music groups. There are no less than 7645 fics about *NSync, 3047 fics about the Backstreet Boys, 353 about Britney Spears, Tori Amos merits 12, and even Rage Against the Machine has 3 fics, not to mention the occasional cross-over fic when two bands end up in the same fic. Even the boy band - the one that started it all - from my youth, NKOTB (New Kids on the Block), have their own fic category. Reminds me of a genre of "X-Files" fic which has David Duchovney dumping Tea Leoni so he and Gillian Anderson can run off together - that adds an entirely new dimension to 'shipper fic, I have to say.

The local NBC affiliate boasts that it is the only station with a weatherman who has a PhD in forensics earth science. I guess this means that if someone kills a tree, this guy can figure out what happened.

Someone on the P/T Collective brought up personal theme songs. I don't think I could just have *one* song, but I've finally settled on an album of songs - specifically, Tori Amos' Little Earthquakes.. This is one album that has never ceased to move me (or the angst bunny for that matter) and some of the songs really mean something to me, such as China, Girl (which lately has been as close to a personal anthem as I can get), Silent All These Years, and Winter. So yes, I am cheating. But if I had to pick one song from these, it would probably be Silent All These Years.

Pettiness...

Someone has gone and deleted Perfection, the C/7 fanfic index. The index was created in a way that anyone could update the site and add their comments without having to worry about FTP or HTML. And it was very, very cool - but apparently, someone has taken advantage of the 'openness' of wiki and used it against the group. The list moms are working to get the site back up, but it's still infuriating and I feel bad for them. Someone out there evidently has too much time on their hands.

This incident reminds me of the way the DS9 fandom used to be segregated back when I first started writing - W/Ders versus J/Jers, and trust me, it wasn't pretty. In fact, the flame wars were legendary - with rude messages being left in guestbooks and on message boards. I thought it was immature back then, and it's immature now. Okay, fine, you don't like *insert pairing here* but is it really necessary to hack up a website? To leave rude messages in guestbooks? To me, it seems like a waste of energy. Think about how that time could be spent instead - how about writing fic about *your* favorite pairing? Frankly, if I don't like a pairing, I avoid it. No need to spend precious bandwith or online time flaming authors or webmasters.

The last flame war between W/Ders and J/Jers led to the creation of the antiflame petition, which I host on the WDFA. As far as I know, this antiflame petition has kept JEWEL fairly honest and what's more interesting, we have a couple J/Jers who have 'signed' also. Unfortunately, not many people have expressed interest in signing after the initial draft was published and voted on by JEWEL. So, if you're interested in making cyberland a happier place to be, let me know.

I've added my Gladiator fic and my one X-Files fic to the site.

Woohoo! After many nailbiting hours (okay, four), I learned this morning that yes, I have been accepted at EDHEC- France, one of the top European business schools for next summer. Whew! Not only that, I was pleasantly surprised to receive a scholarship as well. I'm so psyched. I always regretted not going abroad during my undergrad years, especially since I love to travel, and now, I get the chance to spend the summer in Nice and Lille. Life really doesn't get better than this, does it?

Well, I finally stumbled in at 12:30 last night. The whole project looks dubious, but we think we explained (ah the beauty of language - semantics are wonderful) it and hopefully, there are enough numbers there that these few arbitrary ones - boy, were we arbitrary towards the end - hopefully will slip by without much scrutiny.

Don't try this at home, kids - this is definitely the thing that will land you in hot water with the SEC, not to mention the possibility of prison time (though we're convinced that half of our class will end up in jail for white collar crimes as it is - as my teammate said, we'll have a lot of visiting to do after graduation. Yeah, consider that MBA humor). At any rate, we still believe the Cadbury has a lot of explaining to do and their shareholders probably should take a closer look at those statements - talk about voodoo (if anyone can figure out where the $713 group operating profit on their statement of loss and profit comes from and how it relates to the cash flow, drop me a a line. Where those numbers come from, where they go - boy, the SEC could have fun with these guys. However, it's safe to say at this point, none of us will ever be employed as financial analysts in the future.

Well, that's half of a project down, 4 more to go. I think sleep, at this point, is an unnecessary luxury. I suggested that I stop paying rent and move into the computer lab and one of the 2nd years said he had heard rumors of someone who had done that once. One benefit? Internet access all of the time - talk about feeding the addiction.

BTW, "Fall of Shadows I" is up now at VVS8/a>.

11:15 pm.

It's 10:48 pm and do you know where you are?

The night is still young. Most of it has been spent battling Cadbury Schweppes' financial statements, but thanks to a little plug category called "Other Financing Activities" in the cash flow statement (don't ask - my teammate has dubbed this category 'Seema's Nondisclosure information', but hey, it works!). It's one of those deals where if your balance sheet is off, then your income statement goes bezerk, and then the cash flow is completely off kilter. And then if you even *think* about adjusting the balance sheetl, then it's all over for the cash flow and you have to start all over again. Hence, the plug was necessary. Thanks to this rather dubious new category, I think there might be an end in sight. As soon as we come up with an approriate explanation for "Other Financing Activities." We won't even talk about the rather sketchy accumulated depreciation numbers and the hideously low interest expense. There is definitely something fishy about the way Cadbury Schweppes operates - we didn't have this problem with Hershey's or Rocky Mountain Chocolate (yes, we're analyzing the confectionary industry). So many numbers, so little time... we're hoping the prof won't notice.

Between this chocolate project and the McDonalds' case project we presented last week... it's fattening just thinking about it.

It's now 10:53 pm. No, I don't think I'm going home anytime soon.

Here's the official summary information for "Fall of Shadows": The crew is left helpless as families are divided, while the Equinox crew and Captain Janeway are brought to trial. Like I mentioned before, Part I airs tomorrow at VVS8 and Part II will air the following week.

Last change, I think. This one, I like.

Someone ended up here using a search for "T'Pol" and "Jolene Blalock." I bet they were disappointed.

Retrospect got reviewed. I was hoping no one picked up on the title issue, but there you have it... some people are sharper than I am, I might as well admit it, and by the time I realized the snafu, it was too late. And the fault is mine, not the producers, as I selected the title - I should have gone with my original alternative titles, either "Other Echoes" or "Shades of Gray." *sigh*

At any rate, my next episode, "The Fall of Shadows," will air this week and next week. Consider this my most ambitious story since Lines in the Sand, and equally energy-sapping. Since finishing my second draft last week, I have been unable to do anything but edit existing work, some of which has been sitting on my hard drive since May. I do have to get my act together and make some last minute edits to "Fall of Shadows," but it's mostly completed at this time, which is a relief, as for the longest time, this ep was an albatross around my neck.

At any rate, "Fall of Shadows" will make very little sense if Zeke's "Rise and Fall" is not read first and "Fall of Shadows" will also make very little sense if not followed up with the last story in this arc, Jeffrey Harlan's "Jurisprudence," not to mention that I've added a few details necessary for later follow-up, which may seem out of place. At any rate, I hope you enjoy. Me, I'm going to sit back with a margarita or two and take a break.

I'm watching The American President, and it's very disconcerting that Michael Douglas is the president and Martin Sheen is not - Martin plays the Chief of Staff, but anyway, it's very strange, because Martin Sheen looks just as presidential as Michael Douglas, if not more presidential. Very, very strange. I keep thinking I'm in a strange episode of "The West Wing." At any rate, this is a very cute movie with some great lines in it. Consider this a rec. I might have to add it to my Top Ten movie list.

How's that again?

Actual conversation from Managerial Architecture & Organizational Economics this morning:

Professor: The European Union's new structure is becoming increasingly interdependent.
Student: Just like they were years ago.
Professor: Are you talking recently?
Student: No.
Professor: Well, Europe used to be made up of kingdoms and I don't see that they were necessarily interdependent.
Student: I was thinking about during the Roman Empire, actually.

And now that I think about it, yes, I can see that the Roman Empire actually had an M-shaped organizational architecture - with its multinational and geographic divisions, not to mention decentralized decision making rights.

In this same class, a few of our international students got into a argument about whether the Germans liked the Dutch or not; one student was especially insistent than the Germans did not like the Dutch, however the German in our class vehemently disagreed with this statement. I was amused.

I've also realized that our cohort is filled with some fine criminal minds - as evidenced by this conversation in Financial Accounting:

Student: Actually, I buy and sell houses and accelerate the depreciation on them for tax purposes.
Professor: Uh...
Student: It works. Saves on taxes.
Professor: I wouldn't do that. No, otherwise you'd be wearing stripes.
Student: I don't do it. I hired someone else to do it for me.

Trust me: this was the most mild of schemes to manipulate the books today. I was quite frankly impressed by the ingenuity of my classmates.

New look. Yes, I know, but the other one was too dark and the style sheets and Netscape were not getting along. Hopefully this will be better.

I have a strange, strange desire to write songfic. Here is the song which has inspired me.

Fun with Babelfish:

The below paragraph is from my short story, A Divorce in the Family:

It seems that if one retires to the country in search of peace and quiet, one will be disturbed. This universal truth was revealed to me when I made my way back to my hometown along the shores of Lake Champlain.

I had settled on a small house, perfectly secluded from the road by a fence of trees, and in walking distance of a narrow strip of beach. Few cars passed my stretch of the Vermont landscape and the air was clean and fresh. I saw few people and talked only to the disinterested paperboy who dropped off the newspaper later and later each day.

I then ran it through Babelfish to translate it into French and then from French into German and finally from German, back into English. Here are the results.

It seems that, if one withdraws oneself at the country on the search for the peace and for the quiet one is disturbed. This universal truth was indicated at me, if I mean way in my birth city along the banks of the Champlain lake made again. I had locked the account on a small house decreased/gone back perfectly by the road by a barrier of the trees and in the distance of the flow of a close beach tape. Few motor vehicles changed over my even end of the horizontal of Vermontn, and air was clean and fresh. I saw few people and have only with disinterested paperboy spoke, except newspaper released later and later to each day.

Amusing, huh? I'm toying with running my own gibberish through Babelfish to find out how close I got (various tense issues aside) to what I meant to say.

To translate my stream of consciousness from the other day (don't look at me like that - things happen, even in other languages): Princess of Elisabeth of Belgium was born on October 25. She's what, a week old, and she already has her own website. I didn't have time the other day to translate the site - apparently the news of this birth didn't make it into any of the English newspapers (thank goodness they had a French alternative to the Dutch site). For Royal watchers like me, this is a fairly big deal - this is the first time that a princess is in line for the throne in Belgium - basically she could be queen one day. (I said other things too - but this was the gist of it). Her site has the most adorable pictures on it too now.

At any rate, it alternately freaked me out and excited me at the same time that I can still read and write in a language I used to know like the back of my hand. Actually, it was more scary that after reading the website completely, I didn't even notice after a while that it was in French or that I was writing in French after that.

Well, three out of four midterms back and I'm happy to report I'm still in the ballgame! I'm so relieved, especially since I thought the exam I got back today was going to by my downfall (along with a one-way ticket back to the real world). This, btw, was the exam with the nefarious linear programming problem on it, along with other equally nasty and horrible things. But, I shouldn't have been so concerned - I didn't even need the curve, amazingly enough, to make the grade, which I'm so very proud of. In fact, I came in above the average, which is wonderful, fabulous - wow, can you tell I'm elated? Now I don't mind that I only got 36 hours of sleep in 8 days (not to mention the 16 hours worth of midterms - eek!) as I'm so glad to know that yes, I do have a brain, and yes it does function on occasion!

On another note, one of my classmates told me today that I rate above the Knicks for him. Since I haven't followed baskeball since the glory days of Coach Cal and Marcus Camby at my alma mater, I'm not sure whether to take that as a compliment or an insult. He did say that I did rank above this year's World Series though - I guess that's better than ranking above last year's Subway series in which no one outside of the state of NY cared who won. Still, if anyone wants to clarify this for me, please do.

La princesse Elisabeth est arrivee. Le date du naissance est 25 Octobre, 2001, et ses parents sont Phillipe et Matihilde de Belgique. Vous pouvez lire plus a se page du web ici. Désolé, parce que je peux pas chercher les annonces en anglais et je suis trop fatigué pour traduire en anglais en ce moment. Pourquoi cette naissance est-elle si importante? Peut-etre, c'est possible que elle serais reine de Belgique. C'est la première fois qu'une fille est héritier au trône de la Belgique. Si vous voulez, c'est possible de donner votre félicitations a les parents ici.

Fic recs: I was in a "West Wing" mood and definitely the best place to get "West Wing" fic these days is Our Boys, run by Sabine and August. Start off with Out in the Storm by Kacey for an intense look at Sam's thoughts in the aftermath of the Barlett revelation. Follow that up with Kaddish by Kim, where Josh takes a hard lesson in grieving - never melodramatic and always respectful. Pieces is a great Ainsley and Sam piece by Marzee Doats. Finally, Glass Lemons by Sabine looks closely at the CJ/Toby relationship and really gets into their heads. All of these authors have managed to get the tone and cadence right in the fics - none of these will disappoint.

Grocery story observations

Anyway, I ran out of coffee on Friday, so I had to go to the grocery store today - I was also out of tea, having only the decaf herbal types left (I ask you, what's the point of decaf?). I'm actually amazed I made it two days without coffee. As one of my teammates said today, "Forget food. Just give me caffeine and I can keep going forever." At this point, I think my blood is 95 percent caffeinated. It's probably one of the reasons why I'm so calm these days (or as the same teammate said the other day, "The prozac has finally kicked in.")

Anyway, as I was going through the soup aisle, I realized how hard it is to find vegetarian soup that is not made with beef stock. The only soup that is completely vegetarian is Campbell's Vegetarian Vegetable - which is good, but I was in the mood for the chunky vegetable soup and after checking the ingredients on several different 'vegetable soups,' I finally found one that wasn't made with beef stock. I also bought croutons to go with my salad and was amazed to find directions on how to make a field green salad on the back of the box. Adding the croutons seems to be the most difficult part of this recipe. Hmm...

The Enquirer is also milking the anthrax scare for all its worth. If you recall, the first cases of anthrax showed in the buildings where the National Enquirer is housed. This week's headline reads: The Anthrax Scare: As Told by the Enquirer Employees Who Lived Through the Scare (their caps, not mine). And then of course, there is the "exclusive" label on the story. The piece de resistance though was the tiny headline above the masthead - "Not Printed or Mailed in Florida." Gotta love the Enquirer - journalism at its best and it also gives us the "real" news, you know, the news that CNN won't tell us about?

I took the robot test. Never thought I'd be R2D2 - actually, never thought I'd actually be classified as a robot as I'm way too emotional to be a robot (trust me - I can cry on cue). But apparently, wonders never cease. See below:

The Queen Mother isn't dead, yet the BBC is already talking about news coverage in the event of her death? Sheesh.

Music Rec: Dreaming of You by Selena, the last CD by the Tejano artist who was murdered in Corpus Christi five or six years ago. The CD is half Tejano, half English - with the Tejano half constituting Selena's Greatest Hits collection. There is just something so infectious about Selena's music, especially on the Tejano half with songs like "Amor Prohibido," and "Bidi Bidi Bom Bom." There there is the sweetly sad ballad "Como la Flor" and the deeply rich "Tu Sole Tu," as well as the typically Tejano "El Toro Relajo." The English material is decent, with "I Could Fall in Love" and "Dreaming of You" as the strongest of the five songs; "Missing My Baby" is a little trite and cliche, but it's got a good beat to it. In general, a great intro to Tejano music - which in itself is very addictive once you get into it. Yeah, I think I'm getting assimilated .

Apartment dwelling is starting to get slightly on my nerves. Today, I realized that anytime I use the garbage disposal, it backs into the same sink I use to dry clean dishes. Add that to the leaky ceiling in the bathroom, the closet which is prone to flooding (only once so far though), and the water heater which makes mysterious squeaky noises, and I miss my house very, very much. Here, when something is broken, I call the apartment office and maybe, just maybe, they'll fix it - they still haven't fixed the leak in the ceiling, though they did come to take a look at it.

On a positive side, it's more quiet here than I thought it would be - in fact, it's almost as quiet as my house was, so that's a good thing. The other thing I can't understand is just how messy this place gets in such a short time - it feels like I just cleaned the place from top to bottom last weekend (and boy, did that feel good) and today, I take a look around and once again, a tornado has blown through the place. Amazing.

I'm finally getting caught up on my email. Mostly out of guilt. Met some classmates for coffee last night and I asked one of them - who happens to be our class rep what the results of the recent election to the Graduate Student Council was (not that I was running, just curious) and he said, "I emailed the results a couple days ago. Don't you read your email?" I had to admit that I didn't, since most of it is about people trying to sell football tickets or trying to buy football tickets. Anyway, Robby said he was going to add a 'read receipt' on all emails he sends to me, to see how long it actually takes me to open his email. Yup, definite guilt trip.

Fic Rec: Modern Medicine by Ellen Millholland. This is a 'radio' fic - 281 words, ST:TNG, and P/C to boot. Suffice it to say, I adore this little fic - for the first time in a long time, P/C is written in a way that makes sense - with an acknowledgement that P/C aren't a young, giddy couple and yes, the ghost of Jack Crusher does exist. It's alternately beautiful and heartbreaking. A must read.

Lo, behold...

Welcome to the first day of the rest of our lives living with MS Windows XP. In honor of the event, looks like MSN got a face lift - wonder if they had to call Microsoft before doing that? XP is one of those things that the jury is still out on - at least for me. This particular OS getting curiously close to 'Big Brother' for my tastes - after all, any time you reinstall the operating system, you have to call Microsoft (I think the folks in Redmond have a shorter memory than I do - do the words 'antitrust lawsuit' ring any bells?). On a positive note, Sting is participating in the celebrations on the newly redesigned MSN, no less.

From now on, Macca at Onslow will be screening my email. No, not really, but it was a good thought (and offer) from Macca. Much appreciated.

Call this fun with style sheets. Or maybe just procrastination. Either works.

Say it ain't so! Michelle Kwan has split from her coach, Frank Carroll. I admire her for being strong enough to head into this Olympic year without her coach, but I'm also now more apprehensive than ever about her chances at Salt Lake City.

From the inbox...

Today I got an email asking me to reconsider my policy on posting pornography on my site. My policy is no, absolutely no. It has been no since I opened the site in April of 1998 and it will remain no. The author of the email pointed out that to some, pornography is an artistic form of literary expression. I'm sure that's true, but there are plenty of websites out there that accept pornography - just not mine. And I won't say that this site is the Disney of literary sites - there are indeed some pieces on here that push the envelope. In addition to not accepting pornography, I'll also point out that I do not accept any pieces with a religious slant, regardless of the religion. The point is, I've tried to make this site as broad as I possibly can to appeal to the widest variety of writers and all ages as well. And I admit that this website occasionally does show up on my resume, so there is a hint of self-preservation in my judgement. And let's put this way - the type of stories which don't appear on this site are simply not my cup of tea, and my co-editors probably wouldn't read them either. That's the beauty of running a literary magazine: you can focus on the type of talent you want to focus on. So maybe I am missing out on literary genius and fif that is indeed the case, please accept my apologies. But my answer is still no.

Will the real Holly and Rivka please stand up?

Site rec: The Institute for Naming Children Humanely. Most fun I've had in a long time. The site even has a list of whether certain names are 'humane' or not. For instance, Chloe is humane but "watch foreigners try to pronounce it" but Chelsea is not, as it means "port and Freudians can take it from there." Or how about Rosanna, which is not a humane name, as it will always be associated with '80s music?

On a positive note, Holly is a humane name - though not if a December baby - but Rivka (sniff!) is not listed anywhere. If anyone knows if Rivka is a humane name or not, please send me an email. Thanks.

Because I needed a change...

Look Ma!

No, hackers aren't just men. Some are women too.

And while we're on the subject, a friend just let me know that cracking could fall under the realm of terrorist activity under proposed new legislation. Good to know after the fact. I'm hoping this kind of legislation doesn't pass, but then again, I'm biased. But really - cracking and terrorist activity? Not at all the same thing as say, sending anthrax through the mail, but I understand that it falls under a greater scope - cyberterrorism and prevention thereof. I imagine the framers of such legislation are thinking of people with malicious/evil intent who intend to bring down crucial networks, not the casual hackers who take down CNN's page for fun. Yet, according to this legislation, there is no differentiation and I really think there needs to be.

Now, if I disappear, y'all know what happened...

To phile or not to phile, that is the question...

Okay, bad Hamlet rip-off aside, I finally went to Rohan's X-Files Realm to get the scoop on season 9. I'm really interested in how they deal with the lack of Mulder; last season was intriguing because you knew that Mulder would show every now and then and it made the fact that Scully had a new partner less of a betrayal. Now as I read the spoilers, it's becoming more obvious that even Gillian Anderson is taking a back seat on the show to Annabeth Gish and Jason Patrick. And did I mention that Xena and Wesley will be joining the show? Yup. Welcome Lucy Lawless ("X-Files") and Cary Elwes ("The Princess Bride"). I'm getting hives just thinking about it. What about Skinner? Cigarette Smoking Man? Alex Krycek? Margaret Scully? Kersh? Well Manicured Man? There is no angst factor with Xena and Wesley! Trust me on this one.

For the Mulder watch, alas! There was a vague mention of a "brown haired man" showering in Scully's apartment in the season premiere, but no other mention of Mulder at all for the next few episodes. Instead, there is a lot of "Reyes and Doggett pull Scully in on blah blah blah." I enjoyed Doggett's character a lot - he brought a new intensity to the show but Reyes left me cold. Plus there's that whole no Mulder! thing - which will be interesting since we know that Mulder and Scully are parents of little William and conspiracy theory aside, I really can't see Mulder up and leaving Scully and the uber-Scully now. So it'll be interesting - but heartbreaking - to watch. Yeah, I'm an addict, I'll probably watch.

Site Rec: Wonderful Ann at "I Love P/T" has put together yet another super P/T video, this one set to Etta James' "At Last." You can download it here.

Four Eyes

Generally, I don't think you're supposed to have your contacts in for more than 12 hours. Anyway, these last few days, my days have been more of the 18-hour sort and by the time Tuesday night rolled around, my left eye was very aggravated. So Wednesday, I showed up in the lab wearing glasses. It might have been too early to drop this particular bombshell on my classmates though (note to self: do not sneak up on MBA students in throes of midterms) as so so many people came up to me and were like, "Seema? Is that you?" And then one of my friends, whom I just had dinner with last Friday and lunch on Saturday, he kept staring at me and finally said, "You know, if you hadn't said hello, I wouldn't have recognized you."

I guess the whole thing with Clark Kent and the glasses and Superman - well, makes more sense now.

Fic Rec: Falls under the category of study break and need something to take the taste of accounting out of my mouth, so I found this: Radios, a whole collection of fics in approximately 250 words - all fandoms, all ratings, all brilliant. Anything by Sabine, is of course, wonderful but I don't think anyone will be disappointed by the talent which practically leaps off the page here.

Take two...

Because I couldn't leave well enough alone. Found Just Jolene, the website of Jolene Blalock who plays T'Pol on Enterprise. Anyway, from a webmaster's perspective - wow, wow, wow. Really nicely done site (make sure you have all of the latest plugins though, didn't notice any non-Flash etc alternatives) and very well-organized. Site design gets an A. It's also among the most complete of the sites for all of the "Enterprise" actors (Linda Park's is just getting off the ground) and boy, um, don't go poking through the image gallery unless you're in the privacy of your own home. I mean that.

Okay, I admit it: I run searches for my name all the time on google, not to mention check out who's linking to me (yes, I'm paranoid that way) and it's amazing just how many Seemas are running around online. Weird, I knew the name was very popular, but my goodness. So much for my "Madonna-esque first name only deal." I probably should go by sEEma or something like that to differentiate myself from all of the other Seemas running around, but the punctuation/grammar princess in me won't allow it.

On another note, I got a lovely picture in the mail from Liz (talented girl!) today - namely, P/T sitting in a pot of boiling water as little bunnies bounce around them. According to Liz, there's only one explanation for this: the angst bunny has hit again and Tom and B'Elanna are in for more torture. Here's the dialogue:

B'Elanna: This can only mean one thing! Angst Bunny has inspired Seema to write angsty fic again.
Tom: Wah! Haven't we been through enough already?
Green Angst bunny: Better make room... Chakotay and Seven will arrive soon.

Frankly, I don't know what she's talking about. ;-) Though, I do admit - Liz has the sequel to "Lines in the Sand" right now and I don't think I was very nice to anyone, in which case, guilt is starting to set in. Anyway, one of these days, I will scan this picture, as well as the lovely autographed photos from the Blackpool con, which Monica was so kind to send me.

I hate breaking things. Makes me feel incompetent. I don't know where my brain is today, but it's obviously not functioning or I wouldn't have done something as stupid as mess up a database that oh, approximately 300 people use? To say I'm stressing would be a mild understatement. I'm really, really hoping for a miracle or the ability to comprehend Visual Basic enough to fix my 'ambigiuous onclicksfbank_ytd' coding error. Between this and linear programming, oy vey... You know, writing seems to be a good career choice at this particular moment. Who needs an MBA or database programming? Especially since mid-terms are right around the corner, like next week?

AGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

I feel better already.

Because the guys at Onslowasked... my new look.

The September 11, 2001 memorial site is now available.

I was wondering when "Enterprise" was going to come up with its hallucinogenic episode.

Can you write a fic in just 25 words? A bunch of us at CSFic certainly tried. Here are the results.

Zeke's Fivers are usually pretty funny, but his take on the "Enterprise" premiere, "Broken Bow" is hysterical. Ah. It almost takes the taste of the below reading out of my mouth. Oh yes, the article below is about coal. Go figure.

From my reading tonight:

"I have allowed (QUANTITY) to enter these relationships nonlinearly by introducing a quandratic in quanity (QUANTITY-SQUARED) in (1) and using the natural logrithm of quantity (LOG-QUANTITY) in equations (2) and (3)."

and

"We can obtain estimates with desirable asymptotic properties by specifying the likelihood function of the sample, given the nature of the sampling truncation and then solve for the maximum likelihood estimates (MLE) of the coefficients of interest."

You just know that this author never gets invited to any of the good parties.

Updated!

Believe it or not, I have finally been able to update my site. Eight new stories added to my fanfiction section. "Gladiator" and "X-Files" fics to follow shortly.

Love this song. It's "It's Time to Wave Hello," sung by Charlotte Church and it's available on her CD, "The Voice of an Angel." The quality of this particular version is a little rough and it *is* a Ford advertisement, but still - the song is lovely and worth listening to.

Enterprise thoughts - what you expected something else?

Okay, so this isn't your grandmother's Trek. In 120 minutes, I saw more flesh yesterday than I have in the three previous incarnations of Trek. And yeah, that includes "Let He Who Is Without Sin..." and Voyager's "Season of the Tank Top." More on that later. In sum, Paramount spared no expense on special effects - there were some really nice FX sequences which kind of made up for the fact that the crew itself, with the exception of T'Pol and the chief engineering guy (someone help me out with his name - Tucker?), had very little personality in general. Yes, I do mean Archer too (question - who wears turquoise blue briefs *that* tight and *that* short anyway? Nothing left to the imagination, let me tell you).

Here's the premise: "Enterprise" is set on delivering a wounded Klingon back to Qo'Nos, but gets side-tracked by a nifty alien species called the Saublian - I think you can figure out how this one ends, btw. The aliens remind me of some creatures I once saw on "The X-Files" - they have the ability to change appearance or disappear entirely. They can also crawl around on ceilings and up walls. I hope we haven't seen the last of these guys because they were kind of cool. Anyway, so Archer is determined to return the Klingon *alive* (we all know what kind of cultural boo boo that is) to Qo'Nos despite the Vulcans' advice to do otherwise. BTW, the Vulcans in this episode all possess a chip on their shoulder. Not that they haven't always, but their superiority complex is at an all time high here. Like Archer and the some of his other crew members (why do none of their names stick in my head?), there were occasions when I wanted to knock T'Pol into the next star system, but then the show would have been a lot less exciting.

As for the crew - well, one thing I did like about them is that not everyone knew *everything* about what was going on. There was a case of space sickness, general fear of transporters, and while a curiousity about alien cultures existed, these guys aren't necessarily PC. It's definitely a case of "Um, do we really want to be here?" So in that sense, "Enterprise" is pretty refreshing. The scene where Merriweather is teaching Archer & Tucker how to fly a shuttle was one of my favorites - usually Starfleet personnel can look at alien technology and figure out how it works in about 30 seconds; so nice to see this.

Romantic prediction? Forget Archer and T'Pol. It's T'Pol and the engineering guy (what *is* his name?). If there is *any* doubt whatsoever, watch the shower scene again. Trust me. I predict many, many PWPs set in the shower.

We didn't really learn much about the crew, but as this is a B&B enterprise (sorry), that's to be expected. We got a little fleshing out of Archer, a lot (literally) of T'Pol and the engineering guy, and everyone else is pretty much as bland as peanut butter and jelly. Hopefully, this will change. In general though, I was pleasantly surprised though, first by the opening credits - which were a welcome departure from the usual Trek "starship flying through space" theme, instead it was a montage of explorers exploring. Also, the opening song was quite lovely. A friend called me around 10:30 pm last night to find out my quick thoughts (ep was still airing here, as we have a strange viewing schedule) and we both decided, without much discussion, that "Enterprise" was worth tuning into again next week.

Only in an MBA class would someone refer to a conversation as a "communication transaction."

Ann over at I Love P/T has made a wonderful music video set to Faith Hill's "This Kiss." I feel better already. Fairly quick download to as the video is less than 5 M and beautifully done - a must see for any P/T fan.

Thoughts at 7 am...

One question: Once we get bin Laden, then what? I mean, bin Laden has got to have friends and money squirreled away in places we don't know about. We get him, you know there's got to be someone to take his place and frankly, I don't think we solve a darn thing by bombing anyone or anything. KC suggested a radical plan last night, but frankly, taking over governments probably won't endear us to anyone either. We don't need to give people reasons to hate us more than they already do. Whatever it is, we're in it for the long haul. Terrorism is such a beast - and it's the type of thing that you cut off its head, it grows another one in its butt.

****

"Enterprise" has been getting some decent reviews. I'm actually looking forward to the premiere tomorrow night. Now if I could just figure out this shared WB/UPN deal...

****

New computer is here and I'm loving it. Did not know the internet could go faster than 14.4 and the fact that when I click on a program and it opens without sighing or groaning is definitely a treat! Plus, I don't feel the need to apologize if I have more than one program open - this computer can seem to handle having WordPad and Netscape open at the same time.

My friend Bryan's cousin.

Site of the Day: In memory of September 11, 2001, you can post a virtual ribbon on your website.

What is it about the internet that makes people so dang rude? I don't mean to generalize - it's really just a few people out of many - but my goodness. Maybe it's the relative anonymity of the medium. You can call yourself whatever the heck you want and because there isn't a face to face encounter, it's easier to be cutting and hurtful. And given that there are lurkers everywhere reading everything, it's possible to hurt someone's feelings very deeply without even knowing it. Or maybe that's the intention. I don't know. Must feel pretty cool to slam people, I suppose.

I won't go into specifics, but there are certain people I just want to throttle or post a "Go away already, you waste of bandwidth you" message. It also occurs to me that continuously slamming people for whatever reason gets you nowhere, especially if it's a slam with no reason whatsoever behind it. Then the slam just sounds petty, jealous and ignorant - pretty ironic considering the flamer was probably thinking they were oh so smart. I also have little patience for trolls who can't spell or use punctuation. Dang it, no one is going to take you seriously if you can't even spell. I've kept my quiet so far, but I'm really quite stunned by how rude and ignorant some people can be. One of these days, you know I'm just going to have to say something, but until then, thank goodness for the Onslow Forum! I think I'm going to go cool my heels there now...

I saw a plane landing today. It's the first plane I've seen in a long time. I just stood and stared as if I'd never seen a plane before. Weird. I was thinking about whether I'd ever get on a plane again, whether I was afraid. I'm not afraid and I will get on a plane again. It's more scary driving through parking lots - not that one thing is the same as the other. Years ago, my father lost a friend when an Air India plane was blown up by terrorists over the Atlantic Ocean. Shortly after that, I remember flying to India, and having to wait for hours at JFK while our bags were completely opened and searched by security. Inconvenient, yes, but we knew when we got on that plane, it was completely safe. Every time I get on a plane, I always do consider the possibility of something happening, but then, so many things can happen in the course of every day life. And so, yes, I'll fly again. Like I've said before, giving into fear is giving into terrorists.

What I am scared of now is loud noises. I was walking through the parking lot today and I heard this loud bang. I nearly jumped out of my skin. It turned out to be a jackhammer, but I was terrified and immediately thought the worse. I also noticed this morning on TV, the station was broadcasting warnings about several construction projects in the area and the the possibility of sirens going off near the high school. At first, I was like, "What?" and then as I walked through the parking lot today, I figured it out.

Like the sight of airplanes in the sky, loud noises remind us all how our very sense of security has been destroyed. God bless us all.

Jolene Blalock speaks. I never ever thought there could be a training session for 'shaking' - scary the things you learn on the internet.

MBA=BMW.

Right now, I'd settle for a Toyota. Wait...

If I simplify, it's actually A=W.

I'm such a dork.

I'm moving on. The television is off and I'm doing my best to avoid newspapers. The horror does not lessen with each passing day and I continue to find myself stunned by the new stories which emerge. Because of this, I'm moving on. Not forgetting, mind you, and it doesn't mean I no longer care - it simply means that to keep sane, I can't let what happened on Sept. 11 consume every moment of my life. If I do that, then the terrorists have as good as won and I'm not going to let them have the satisfaction of getting to me.

****

Site Rec: YMMV. I've discovered nirvana, a site that recs fics. Unlike the Best of Trek, this one recs sites from a variety of fandoms, which is awesome for a multi-fandom reader. You can find "X-Files," "West Wing," "Buffy" and "Voyager" recs. There may be others, but these are the ones I took notice of. So, if you need an escape, check out this site for some ideas.

First thing we do, let's get rid of the 700 Club.

We've been throwing comments back and forth over at the Onslow Forum - some interesting perspectives, including some thoughts about the Middle East's POV and I do have to say, some of what has been said, by me, by others, may offend some people, so if you go to read, please note this ahead of time. Thanks.

It's not relevant, doesn't even make me feel good, but I found Wil Wheaton's blog. His blog about the the recent terrorist activity is particularly good, but you'll have to scroll past some gibberish about Vegas and other things to get to his thoughts.

Jerry Falwell, shut up. It's for your own good. Really. Falwell's latest soapbox.

Today is a National Day of Memorial..

Fic Rec: Why We Endure by Rob Morris. The events of September 11, 2001 from Sisko's point of view. I think the story speaks for itself.

It's been two days and it still feels like one of those really bad disaster movies that airs on Sunday nights. In the movies though, disaster is averted at the last minute by the star of the movie - usually some child star like Danny Bonaduce or Melissa Gilbert - and then everyone is safe, happy and lives happily ever after. There's no happily ever after here, no riding off into the sunset. This is real life. It really happened, it really happened...

There are heroes in all of this - the men and women who have been tirelessly working at the WTC and the Pentagon and in PA, not to mention those whose lives were lost and the families who grieve for them. All of these people are soldiering an enormous load - physically and psychologically - my heart goes out to them.

Last night, Liz and I were chatting and it was a bizarre *quiet* chat. We said a few words here and there, but there was a lot of "I can't believe this, I can't believe this." Even with the television constantly playing the images, it's hard to comprehend. Neither of us feel like writing right now and our strange senses of humor have taken a sabbatical. It is entirely too quiet, too quiet and every time, I think of a new, horrifying angle and chills go down my back again.

I'm concerned about the potential for violence against Arab-Americans. In this 'quiet unyielding anger' (as spoken by W) we all have, it would be so easy to associate the actions of a very, very small group with an entire culture. Arab-Americans are hurting just as much as anyone else in this country right now and it would be so incredibly wrong to show bigotry/violence towards them - even now we don't know who exactly is responsible. Let's leave retaliation to the government and treat everyone in this country with the respect and courtesy they deserve and not jump to judgements in our grief.

I can't believe it, can't believe it, can't believe it... I've seen the footage over and over again of the planes slamming into the World Trade Center and I've seen smoke on that lovely NYC skyline... My heart goes out to the friends and families of the victims. This has been truly a devastating day and it's simply horrible that terrorists could use innocent citizens against their own country. Please, give blood if you can - the New York hospitals are in desperate need - and do what we Americans do best: support each other in times like this. God bless.

I found this site on "Little House on the Prairie" last night; much hours of fun. You think "Voyager" has continuity problems? I'm so glad I'm not the only one who noticed the random problem with Royal (Almanzo's brother) and Jenny. That's always bothered me - how Royal has two sons and then two years later, not only does he look completely different, he no longer has the two sons, but has a 10-year old daughter, Jenny (played by the young, irrepressible Shannen Doherty) instead.

People we don't need to hear anything more from, ever:

• Anne Heche
  
• Jennifer Lopez
  
• Angelina Jolie (Liz counts Angelina Jolie's lips as another person... that's another point entirely)
  

I reserve the right to expand this list at another time...

Quote from Andrew quoting Kissinger (or Nixon, he's not sure): "All you need to be a good writer is a lead butt." True? Not true? Discuss. I do have to say, you do have to be able to have the patience to sit for a very long time to write and not only that, have the patience to get through the dry spells (which can be infuriating in their own ways). Of course, if you're in a writer's block period, sitting isn't going to help - I personally like to hit the gym or do something active or maybe get a good book. Sometimes, I go looking for fic (check this blog and my links page for my recommendations).

BTW, commercials which need to go away: the green M&Ms commercial with the parents who are concerned about the pin-up of the green M&M in their son's birthday. It's got cheesy music and a mother on the verge of tears. "But he's my little boy." Glad to hear it - it would be really creepy if she was sitting in someone else's son's room demanding that a cheesy poster be taken down.

Speaking of cheesy, I caught a bit of "Little House on the Prairie" the other day and wow, talk about melodrama. Don't get me wrong - love the show still - but my, they are good at *running*. Anything remotely angsty happens, they *run*, literally, out the door, and because it's on a prairie, they usually head out into wide open spaces, where they mope until the cause of their anguish comes to find them and apologizes. I think the running is a metaphor for *something*, but I'm not quite sure what. And it just occurred to me - the Ingalls kept adopting all of these children, but poor, poor Carrie never, I mean never, got any lines except for the occasional "Yes, Ma." Anyway, I did go looking for "Little House on the Prairie" in a curious "where are they now?" type mood. Especially for poor Sidney/Lindsey Greenbush (Carrie).

• Melissa Sue Anderson (Mary)
  
• Melissa Gilbert (Laura)
  
• Lindsay Sidney Greenbush (Carrie)
  

Fanfic rec: Found a lovely new author tonight in "The X-Files": Meredith. Her writing is incredibly poetic, wonderfully drawn portraits that remain true to the essense of Mulder, Scully, Skinner - and she treats Doggett with respect. Wonderful. "The Sum of the Truth" and "Something Less" are both highly recommended. These stories - with their delicate language and intense emotion - are nothing less than breathtaking.

Cool site of the day: I found this site Noodletools.com while searching for information on MLA style - apparently my style manual is out of date and so I had to go searching for updated info. Anyway, this was a very cool and easy way to put together a bibliography page. I love technology - thank goodness for the internet. ::happy snoopy dance::

***

Liz, I looked for birds all day today. I thought you'd want to know.

Okay, I couldn't help myself, broken finger or not, I was just *itching* to say something, so I did. Oh well.

I think I'll go look into that computer now.

I'm trying to figure out how upset I should get over this particular thread on the RD Message Board. It's the part where someone mentions that some people are deviant (in reference to C/7) that really gets me. Note s/he was *not* referring to the 'ship, but rather to me, as the author. Okay, I'm upset. But should I expend energy on a board that has the power to completely bowl me over with its inanity and personal attacks? It has gotten better, thanks to the efforts of some very dedicated posters, but still...

I think I'll buy a computer instead.

Interesting article on women's tennis; not entirely positive, but has some good insights in it. Here's the official US Open site. Semifinals will probably be Capriati, V. Williams, S. Williams and Davenport, with either Capriati or V. Williams walking away with the title. . I really don't expect to see Hingis in this line-up as she struggled against Iva Majoli and given the fact that she hasn't won a slam since 1999 (still, she's ranked number one...). Not sure that I want her to necessarily prove me wrong. I don't think she will, but it would be nice to see Seles in the semis and just for fun, it'll be nice to see how Kim Clijsters performs on hardcourt. She's definitely giving some of the top seeds a run for the money and she's an entertaining and powerful player to watch. Anna Kournikova? Sorry guys. She's not playing this time around.

****

My typing is pretty much back to normal at this point... I'm still having problems with "w" oddly enough and also with "s" and "d" and "x". Looks like the splint is here to stay for a little while, which is rather discouraging as my handwriting has gone to pot at this point and it takes about an hour to write anything legible. Yeah, definitely think I'm going to have to go right handed for a while.

Another random thought...

I was at lunch today, feeling completely overwhelmed, and I looked at my lunch companions and asked, "What if this is the biggest, most expensive mistake of our lives?" and I could tell, by their expressions, that they were thinking the exact same time. I think we've definitely took a flying leap off the cliff and gosh, I hope someone hands me a parachute soon.

Truly unbound

My nervous breakdown is scheduled for Monday afternoon for 3:15 pm to 4:35 pm.

**
My short term memory is deteriorating. I don't see how I can remember dates (historical dates, folks) with no problem, but can't remember a single thing that happened a few minutes ago. Example: Cheile asked me to read a part of her newest fic (quite good, mho) the other night over IM. So I did. We talked about it and of course, I had a comment or two or three. End of conversation. Next day, I ask Che how the fic is going and she makes some comments and I say, "Huh?" Her response? "Let's test Seema's short term memory" and she proceeds to reiterate our conversation from the previous night ending with, "Remember this now?" The worst part of it is that what I'd forgotten was something I'd pointed out to Che myself. Some help I turned out to be. Sorry, Che. Next time I'll do better, 'kay?

**

Speaking of Che, she introduced a new phrase to my vocabulary: "influenced tryst." Hmm... the possibilities are endless.

**

Jack Nicholson said it best in Mars Attacks (miserable movie, btw, despite the all-star cast): "Why can't we all just get along?"

Blogger doesn't work with Netscape very well. I'm very unhappy about this.

Oh my kingdom for an ISP!

Wait... I know what you're going to say; I don't have a kingdom, but a girl can always dream, can't she? Especially when it's something as important as an ISP! Dang it. Now I've had to find other ways to occupy my time... not that that is all bad, mind you. But at this point, I really just want to be able to access email when I want to access email (not when some ISP says I can). Is that too much to ask? Yeah, you're probably right.

On another note, I was eating Ramen the other night. Ramen! Dear God, I spent 3 years in the workforce, saving up, and four days into this newest adventure, I've regressed to my undergrad days. I swore after graduation I would never ever eat Ramen ever again and until two days ago, yeah, I hadn't touched the stuff. This does not bode well.

On a personal note: Harry, if you're reading this, the SE folks are thinking about you and wishing you well. Please - we miss you, so get well soon.

What the heck happened to HNN? It's been quite a while since I've tuned into the Readers' Digest version of CNN, but now with my new cable package, I have it and I'm absolutely annoyed by the changes to the format. The bottom half of the screen is taken up with: a marketwatch ticker, headlines, a weather map, and current times. This bottom half never disappears. The news anchors are relegated to the upper right hand corner of the screen. And to add to the annoyance, there are bullet points running along the left hand side of the screen. Good grief. It's enough to make anyone go back to Dan Rather.

BTW, Andrea Thompson, formerly of "NYPD Blue", is not so bad as an anchor. Given the format of the new screen, who is concentrating on the anchor person/reporter anyway? BTW, commercials still take up the full screen. Oh the irony...

Well, I'm in my new place. Not the smoothest transition ever and still some things that are a little hairy. I'm too tired to even think about it right now. Maybe tomorrow, when my blood pressure is lower. Much lower.

Blogdex! Finally, a search engine for blogs. Vicarious living, here I come. Amazingly, they've already listed my little blog and while I'm flattered, I'm also confused as to why anyone would want to read it at all. I think it goes back to that self-absorbed thing.

Fic rec: Be Careful What You Wish For... by Barbara Watson. Because I would be derelict as a supporter of the P/T 'ship if I didn't mention this talented new writer who just amazes me with the depth of her detail and the accuracy of her characterization. This particular story, "Be Careful What You Wish For..." came via rec from a friend and I thought I'd give it a try. I was glued to my screen - there's no detail Barbara leaves unexplained and she even makes the little inconsistencies in VOY make sense. Talk about taking on a real challenge . For those of you who were dismayed by the abruptness of "Endgame," this is the perfect salve for what TPTB wrought. Closure in every sense of the word, and also plenty of angst for those of us who crave it. So go, curl up in front of your computer screen and have a wonderful time. BTW, this is a very long fic - a novel in every sense of the word - but it's worth it.

****

BTW, re yesterday's blog: I'm moving, that's all. Thanks for the concern though.

I hate good-byes. I've spent a good part of the morning writing my "So long" messages to people I won't be able to say good-bye to in person and it's been amazingly draining.

Changes to the Miss America Pagent. I'm highly amused.

It's amazing how many blogs I've run across where the author could be my next door neighbor. Makes me think we do nothing in this city but blog all day.

~*~

Site of the Day: The Visible Barbie Project

The Visible Barbie Project is part of the Foundation for Unnatural Research's long-range plan for advancing the state of human knowlege of things that no normal person would ever think to wonder about.

All righty then!

A "Facts of Life" reunion! . There's just something about 80s sitcoms that I adore. And yes, I did tune in for the "Growing Pains" reunion. Go ahead. Laugh. I'm such a geek.

The Un-Site of the Day: I'm still trying to figure out if this particular site is a joke or not. Whatever it is, it's hysterically funny. As someone in the guestbook said, pure genius. Or rather, lack thereof. I can't decide. The pictures at the bottom of the site - those are the very best part of this site. If anyone has any ideas, drop me a note. I've never been quite this conflicted about badfic before.

Why is it, when you mention you're a Trek fan, people automatically laugh? If they are especially rude, they'll point too and say things like, "Do you wear a Starfleet uniform to work?" I really don't get it - if you said you were a fan of say, "ER," it would be like, "Cool, let's discuss what happened last week and don't you hate what they did to Elizabeth?" But when you say "Trek", it's like, "Ooohhh, you're sooo strange." I don't know - just something to think about. All I can say, there are worse things in life you can be than a Trek fan and honestly, if this is my worst quality, then go ahead and laugh. I won't take offense. Really.

A friend asked me yesterday what I planned to do once I get my degree. I told her I wasn't sure yet; one day at a time.

She looked at me and said, "You just bought yourself two more years, didn't you?"

Well, when you put it that way...

I had to 'fess. Two more years, I can put off making a real decision. It's kind of like when you're little and you keep saying, "When I grow up, I'm going to do such and such." I'm the same way - "When I grow up, I'm going to do such and such." I just keep putting off "such and such," mostly because I'm waiting for the grown-up me to finally show up. I thought when I graduated from college, I would know which way was up and after knocking around the real world for a few years, I'm not so sure. The only thing I know for sure is that getting this masters' degree will open up a whole new world of possibilities and opportunities.

Maybe in two years, the grown-up me will finally show up and know what's going on.

Computer update: apparently it's the motherboard that's dead (new machine, old machine - same problem - what's up with that?) and so my brother is ordering a new one. I'm actually getting a little excited over the new machine - 900 Mhz and 512 RAM with a 36 G hard drive (30 G new, the 6 G from my old computer) and a bunch of other things that I don't understand, but that my brother understands. Basically, the machine is overkill for what I like to do - word processing, graphic design, web design and Internet - but the thought of that much power... .

Mostly, I can't wait to get the new computer so I can *finally* update my website. I did put up a temporary Geocities site, but it's awfully plain, and the colors are a little funky (since I didn't have my Netscape color wheel handy) and I'm realizing that I've been awfully spoiled by using Dreamweaver both at home and work; hand coding by HTML again really taxes the brain! But it's kind of like riding a bicycle - I fiddled for a while and finally got it right. I do have to say, it's like learning to add/subtract/divide/multiply first and then learning to use a calculator. Anyway, I finally put the Redundancy Girls site and it bears testament to my hand-coding skills (or lack thereof).

Fanfic recs for the week

I'd been meaning to do this for a while, but somehow, other things kept coming up in the blog. Anyway, here are some fanfic recs for those of you who are still mourning the loss of Voyager to get you through to the Enterprise premiere on September 26.

• Voyager Virtual Season Eight This "virtual" season picks up immediately after "Endgame." Twenty-six episodes by a variety of authors chronicling the further adventures of the starship Voyager. There's humor, drama, romance, adventure, character development - you name it, it's there. So definitely worth stopping by and taking a look. Chances are, some of your favorite authors will show up during the virtual season. Currently, this project is on hiatus until August 15, when "Yesterday's Love Story" by Janeway 602 (episode #6) debuts. After that, new episodes "air" on Wednesdays.
  
  
• Voyager Virtual Season 7.5 I think a lot of fans would agree that season seven wasn't all that it could have been, so a group of talented writers have taken it upon themselves to rectify the situation. This season is canon through "Shattered" and then deviates from TPTB. Expect to see some of the long neglected characters shine again in this particular project. Episodes for this project "air" on Mondays and they have all new episodes until the end of August, I believe.
  

So sit back and check out some of these efforts by the fans for the fans. I'm sure every reader will find something satisfying in either or both projects.

SE folks, here's the link for the new email group: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/storyexchange .

One of my favorite places to hang out online, The Story Exchange is closing, sooner rather than later. It's amazing how sad this makes me, especially since I met some of my closest online friends on this site. So, to Harry, Salamander, John, Hedi, Mike, Tracy, Maitland, Sil - there's plenty of New Coke and spumoni in your honor and some Bob Marley on the jukebox. I'll see y'all in Bermuda. Cheers.

Numbers, numbers...

For fun, I counted things yesterday. For instance, in my 15 mile trek home from work, there are 15 traffic lights. Fifteen! The first 13 of those lights are in the first five miles of my trip, 4 of them being on a 1-mile stretch of road. And the last two traffic lights are in the last 5 miles of my trip. The best part of the trip, however, are the middle five miles - a nice, winding, two-lane road along a creek bed, with large trees (yes, trees!) and the occasional deer (which I have *almost* hit on occasion). So anyway, I thought that was a profound number - 13 lights in 5 miles. I can tell you when I first started working here 3 years ago, 6 of those lights were not there.

I also counted lights on my way to work today (different way - I like variety in travel) and there are 13 lights on the way to work. The first four lights show up in the first 5 miles of the trip and the rest are pretty evenly spread out, except for the last 4, which are in the last one mile of the way. The last one mile takes almost as much time as the first 5 miles.

In other numbers...

Eight - that's how many people I *don't* know who have sent me the Sir Cam virus. It actually kind of perturbs me that people I don't know have me in their address book. What's up with that? Somebody who calls himself the "Body Shop" sent me the virus *twice* yesterday. You know, I never even got a copy of the "I love you" virus. I'm almost disgruntled over that. I'd rather have an email with a subject that says "I love you" then "Sending you this file for your advice" (or whatever it says since it evolves in every incarnation).

I have 39 spam messages sitting in my bulk folder on Yahoo!. I'd delete them but that would mean either a) opening each one and deleting them individually (a pain on a 14.4 connection) or b) turning on javascript (hell on an ancient version of Netscape). I'm still fiddling with the idea of creating a website to showcase my favorite spam messages. We'll see. I think getting a new computer will have to take precedence over any random websites I feel like designing (though I did create a new site, which will be unveiled one of these days...)

Site of the Day: Recycle your spam!

This and That...

I called the phone company the other day to get my new telephone service set up. They asked me for driving directions to my new place. I' ll be lucky if I can find my new apartment again (given that I've only visited this city twice), so giving someone else driving directions to get there is incredibly stressful. They're asking for landmarks and things and I'm like, "Uh, take a left, I think..." I'm not hopeful that I will have phone service when I move in. C'est la vie. Time to kick the internet habit anyway, right?

In other thoughts...

Blogging is incredibly self-centered. Those of us who do this, we're writing as if people actually care about what we're thinking/doing/saying/writing. At the same time, it's awfully easy to get addicted to blogs. For instance, check out Elizabeth Barr's blog (not to be confused with my wonderful beta, Liz Logan) for some interesting ramblings. BTW, Liz Barr was kind enough to answer my question about why people read blogs and she said it was because she wanted to feel a connection with a fanfic writer, get to know that person per se. She actually wrote a really nice email and gave me permission to post it here (which I will, once I have access to my email again). Vicarious living, I can buy that. After all, reading other people's blogs is about as close to the RL person as we possibly can get.

A coworker sent the below to me today; it's pretty symptomatic of my life right now. I think I'm the sister on the stairs.


Three sisters ages 92, 94, and 96 live in a house together. One night the 96 year old draws a bath. She puts her foot in and pauses.

She yells down the stairs "was I getting in or out of the bath?"

The 94 year old yells back "I don't know. I'll come up and see."

She starts up the stairs and pauses. "Was I going up the stairs or down?"

The 92 year old is sitting at the kitchen table having tea listening to her sisters. She shakes her head and says "I sure hope I never get that forgetful". She knocks on wood for good measure.

She then yells "I'll come up and help both of you as soon as I see who's at the door."

Site of the Day: Robert Beltran Gripe Generator. Ya know, it was only a matter of time before we could relive all of RB's wonderful, glowing comments about his show. At least I can't disagree with his assessment of "Fury." See here:

"What they asked her to do with her character, I didn't understand. I think our writers are that far from brain damaged. I don't get them. But we were happy to have her. She's great. We love Jennifer. I wish she had never left the show; she's a really fine actress. But it was just the same old indication of our writers and producers having their head firmly up their collective ass."

Dang it, I hate when RB's right.