Saturday, December 22, 2001

BOXBOXBOXBOXBOXBOXBOXBOXBOXBOXBOXBOXBOXBOXBOXBOXBOXBOXBOXBOXBOX
BOXBOXBOXBOXBOXBOXBOXBOXBOXBOXBOXBOXBOXBOXBOXBOXBOXBOXBOXBOXBOX
BOXBOXBOXBOXBOXBOXBOXBOXBOXBOXBOXBOXBOXBOXBOXBOXBOXBOXBOXBOXBOX
-- *huge deep breath* --
BOXBOXBOXBOXBOXBOXBOXBOXBOXBOXBOXBOXBOXBOXBOXBOXBOXBOXBOXBOXBOX
BOXBOXBOXBOXBOXBOXBOXBOXBOXBOXBOXBOXBOXBOXBOXBOXBOXBOXBOXBOXBOX
BOXBOXBOXBOXBOXBOXBOXBOXBOXBOXBOXBOXBOXBOXBOXBOXBOXBOXBOXBOXBOX
BOXBOXBOXBOX!!

*Ahem*

I have -presents-. Presents that are sitting downstairs on the dining-room table, taunting me with their non-openable status.... Of course, that all changes at midnight tomorrow. Hee. And again, yay!
Posted by: Shannon M.: 10:24 PM |

Friday, December 21, 2001

YAAAAAAAAAY! It's Winter SOLSTICE! *Ahem* A happy Solstice to those who celebrate for reasons -other- than the days increasing in length. And for those of us that celebrate it for the latter reason: look, we made it! It's all downhill from here. *Grin*

...yes, I should be asleep. Tell that to my bizarre sleeping patterns.
Posted by: Shannon M.: 5:40 AM |

Two things: I rediscovered the Kelvath/Avrath song, I think -- 'If I Fall' by the Dixie Chicks. And quite probably 'Love Came Between Us' from the highly improbable source of the MST3K version of 'I Accuse My Parents'.

I'm gonna go write. I've had something nibbling at me for two days now, and I'm gonna see what I can do with it. Hee.
Posted by: Shannon M.: 5:42 AM |

Hooray! *Bouncebounce* I just saw my grades for ItN/Cabling -- A and A. My GPA is 4.0! And I need to get my stuff rounded up for housesitting! *Bounce*
Posted by: Shannon M.: 11:09 AM |

Oh, hello, seismic events. Nice to have you around. *Blinkblink* Now, don't do that again 'til after Christmas, okay? I don't mind little earthquakes, because I'd rather have a series of small ones than one -big- one, but man. Earthquakes aren't fun. *Breathes deeply and calms down*
Posted by: Shannon M.: 5:00 PM |

ooh. can't wait to get back to school!! hm lets see. xactlie 10 more daes. ok thats for spring cleaning. but no studieeing so its good!! hm and 3 more daes til my bdae. want my pressies and my cake!! hm *piggie* then the following dae is xmas!! dinner with cousinx. damn!! comfirm gonna suck lyke hell. hate them big time. haii. some more i bet they'll give chut presents one. ahah. so mean. but i mean they also cannot dun give if they they dun want to right. its lyke a must thing cos.. it just goes that wae. i guess.

I wish I were making this up. Actually, I don't. Yikes. Such is the danger of looking at random blogs...
Posted by: Shannon M.: 6:50 PM |

I am having an incredibly hard time refraining from opening the prezzie Mme. Jean gave me this afternoon. *Small grin* The tag is more like a small letter, and she drew Subjects 29 and 30, Kitty, and Zion at the bottom. Aww, happy sparkly Jean-art. And she wore her HappyPear shirt to school, hee!
Posted by: Shannon M.: 7:13 PM |

I love Men In Black. Just in case you were wondering. (That is, the movie, not the song.)
Posted by: Shannon M.: 7:52 PM |

It always surprises me when I come over to my grandparents' house and rediscover the action movies on their shelves. Relatively violent action movies, too: Hunt For Red October, Air Force One, U.S. Marshalls, The Fugitive, Force Ten From Navarrone, U571... Of course, they also have things like Chicken Run, Some Like It Hot, and Annie. And people wonder where my mother gets her eclectic tendencies, which were of course passed on to me...
Posted by: Shannon M.: 8:13 PM |

Oh! *Hug* Have a good trip, Reesa. *Grin*
Posted by: Shannon M.: 8:15 PM |

How could you be a stewardess on an international airlines and _not_ know what turbulance is? I have never understood that scene in Hunt For Red October. *Mutter* *Tries to go back to writing*
Posted by: Shannon M.: 8:18 PM |

Hmmph. Since I'm not getting very far, I'll make an early gift of it. *Small grin* *Waves a hand* I present to you Kelvath And Avrath: A Future Winter Holiday. Approximately five years into the future, actually. Enjoy, Or Something.
Posted by: Shannon M.: 9:47 PM |

"I write -books- for the CIA." Pause.
"Well, whatever."

I like this movie, too.
Posted by: Shannon M.: 10:07 PM |

Er, The Future may not make much sense if you haven't read Kelvath and Avrath's version of The End. You can find it here.
Posted by: Shannon M.: 10:11 PM |

After Christmas, I'm going to spring for some business cards for my housesitting venture*. VistaPrint.com has a deal where they'll send you 250 cards for the price of S&H, plus their ad on the back of the card. It's a small ad, and you get to pick the look of the card, which is nice. They're in Britain, so the S&H works out to about five bucks, but that doesn't seem bad to me at -all-.

* Lots and lots of people light right up when I mention that I'm a housesitter. It'd be nice to be able to hand them a card instead of having to scramble around for paper and a pencil.
Posted by: Shannon M.: 10:55 PM |

Thursday, December 20, 2001

And on that cheery note, I'm going to bed, because I have another full morning of shop-shop-shopping to do tomorrow. Luckily, I only have to buy a few more things, and then I get to wrap, cook, assemble and mail! Yaaaaay!
Posted by: Shannon M.: 12:21 AM |

Links later, as I need to go back to sleep. Element: Fire; Outlaw Star C: Aisha ClanClan (!?); Tenchi C: Kiyonne (again, huh?); Trigun: Rem. *Blink* Whatever. I'm gonna go back to sleep.
Posted by: Shannon M.: 5:54 AM |

Creeeeeepy. If I were a Tori Amos song, I'd be 'Silent All These Years', which is about the only song of hers that I will listen to voluntarily. *Blinkblink* Not that I -loathe- her, mind you. She's just...not my thing.

Oh, and links from earlier this morning: Element, Outlaw Star Character, Tenchi Muyo Character, and last but not least, Trigun!.

Links snagged from Plug Me In, which is not likely to make my list of regular reads any time soon.
Posted by: Shannon M.: 11:22 AM |

After Yazminda chased a mouse out of my defunct printer earlier this evening, the talk once again turned to mouse-control measures. Deciding that Bird TLC was unlikely to loan/rent/lease us a hawk, an owl, a raven, or other rodent-eating bird, and that a snake was more likely to never be seen again once it had consumed all of the mice, the possiblity of acquiring a cat is our last option. We'll probably get one from Friends Of Pets, if we do get one. I'm not too worried about Yazminda liking the cat -- she's known cats before. Of course, the one she licked ran away from her and hid, and the one that she wanted to play with (as in chase tennis balls, wrestle, etc) would hiss and smack her on the nose with all of her claws extended.

Twinkletoes (our cat) had gotten quite used to Tisha, who either ignored her or merely watched her go by, unlike Sassy, who would bark and give chase. When we got Yazminda, she wasn't sure what to make of her -- a bouncy, happy puppy that thought everything was to play with. Twinkletoes eventually took to staying out of the slobbery, rowdy reach of the dog.
Posted by: Shannon M.: 10:04 PM |

Wednesday, December 19, 2001

Dear ConAir:

The 'Quick Braid' may be quick, but it does not braid hair. It twists hair. Braiding requires three strands, your machine is only equipped to handle two. Please refrain from calling it the 'Quick Braid'.

Annoyed,
Shan
Posted by: Shannon M.: 12:19 AM |

Ack! I'm too late... Well, a happy, marginally-belated ANCSA Day to everyone.
Posted by: Shannon M.: 12:27 AM |

Well, I may be arguing with myself, Reesa, but that's nothing new. *Grin* I was quibbling with the use of the word 'seems' in the bit quoted below, because we should know by now that dyslexia -is- genetic. *Shrug*
Posted by: Shannon M.: 4:17 PM |

...And now -I- want a DDR game! *Snerk* Of course, I can't even pass the office-dance level of Incredible Crisis, but...
Posted by: Shannon M.: 4:22 PM |

I bounced all the way home because Mme. Jean made a HappyPear shirt! She tie-dyed it, then silkscreened Anj and Bart's sillhouettes on the front. It looks wonderful... She said she wanted to make me one, but she forgot to ask me for a shirt early enough. I told her it was all right, and she suggested we get the materials and do our own silkscreening. So maybe I'll do that over break...
Posted by: Shannon M.: 4:29 PM |

Got more shopping done today. All I have left to get is something else for dad, something else for mom, something for my grandparents, and something for my aunts and uncles. Plus I have to make fudge and cookies, and make up boxes, and then mail the whole nine yards... Hee!

This is the part of the holidays that I love -- the anticipation of people's reactions, the procurement of That Perfect Present, making yummy things to share... And then there's the traditions: Advent stories with mom; going out to dad's house for dinner, reading the Christmas story, presents, and a Christmas service; Christmas morning with mom and Ev; then Christmas in the evening with my grandparents and aunt Lisa and uncle Scotty.

This year will be a little different, though, because my grandparents are going to AZ for Christmas with Ken and Kel and their kids, so we're going to have Christmas with them when they get back.
Posted by: Shannon M.: 4:55 PM |

And I fixed the archive links, so that you can click on the links and get the past posts, rather than a Tripod 404.
Posted by: Shannon M.: 4:57 PM |

Mm... Is it sick or merely odd that I enjoy watching lionesses hunt and take down wildebeest/water buffalo? It's the power and grace and sheer...-fluidity- of their movements. It's not a blood-and-gore thing, because I don't want them to kill the animal just so I can see it die. (Not that they kill just to kill, anyhow.)
Posted by: Shannon M.: 9:45 PM |

Tuesday, December 18, 2001

Neither Mead nor Dreyer is autistic, but there is a word for the way they think - dyslexic. Like autism, dyslexia seems to move down genetic pathways. Dreyer has three daughters who think in Technicolor.

No, no, -no-. Dyslexia DOES move down genetically, trust me. I know this very, very well. I do, however, like the description of it as 'thinking in Technicolor'.

"The flip side of dyslexia is enhanced abilities in math and architecture.[...]"

For -some- people. Not every dyslexic is automatically a math whiz -- I'm lucky if I can get my checkbook to balance because I'm really bad at subtraction. You want me to write you a story? Okay. You want me to write a poem? You got it. How about defining a word, dredging up a bit of obscure trivia, or spelling something? I can do that. I know a guy named Jay who has terrible, terrible struggles with spelling and handwriting, but he wrote a poem for an English class that was -exquisite-. It was about flying in WWII. It gave me goosebumps, and I don't have the deep love of WWII history that Jay does.

Of course, he's also the flip side of -my- coin -- he's great at math. Not -just- math, though, and that's the important part to remember with dyslexia: it affects everyone differently.

-- From Wired's article on autism and Asperger's, snagged from Reesa.

Posted by: Shannon M.: 5:28 PM |

I just found out, after four years of wondering and never bothering to check, that I got an A in beginning drawing, and that my academic standing is 'good'.

I -want- to figure out a major, so that I can apply for a FAFSA loan or a grant or something and really -do- this college thing.
Posted by: Shannon M.: 9:05 PM |

Monday, December 17, 2001

Yeeeeeee! *Bouncebounce* I got an A in Japanese! I don't know my grades for Intro to Networking/Cabling, yet, but they should be up soon. In the meantime, the in-between time, I'm going to be bouncy. Yay!
Posted by: Shannon M.: 1:11 PM |

How fair is this? TMBG will go to Austraila, but not The Last Frontier. Phooey. *Snerk* Of course, if I dropped them a line letting them -know- the PacNW wants a show, they might do it...
Posted by: Shannon M.: 8:25 PM |

*Small grin* I'm only putting this here because I _like_ Shostakovich.

If I were a Dead Russian Composer, I would be Dmitri Shostakovich! I am a shy, nervous, unassuming, fidgety, and stuttery little person who began composing the same year I started music lessons of any sort. I wrote the first of my fifteen symphonies at age 18, and my second opera, "Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District," when I was only 26. Unfortunately, Stalin hated the opera, and put me on the Enemy Of The People List for life. I nevertheless kept composing the works I wanted to write in private; some of my vocal cycles and 15 string quartets mock the Soviet System in notes. And I somehow was NOT killed in the process! And Harry Potter(c) stole my glasses and broke them! Who would you be? Dead Russian Composer Personality Test

Test from Harpy's LiveJournal.
Posted by: Shannon M.: 8:36 PM |

Yazminda has these little lines around her eyes that make her look tired, or like she's been airbrushed or something, depending on the light. I love her, and I miss Mercury, too. (Mercury didn't want me to leave when her parents got home -- she likes being spoiled*, and I think she figures the more the better. Aww.)

* She's only spoiled in the sense that the people that love her will cuddle/hold/scratch/play with her almost as often as she wants them to, not in the 'has the run of the house and has no discepline because no one wants to 'upset' her sense. It's a -good- spoiled, she said, again and redundantly...
Posted by: Shannon M.: 8:52 PM |

More music-parking. And hey, MacAmp has a Windows version available.
Posted by: Shannon M.: 10:24 PM |

MacDesktops for everyone, Wintel or Mac user alike!
Posted by: Shannon M.: 11:38 PM |

Sunday, December 16, 2001

The Living Treasures video is pretty spiffy -- it's about people that are preserving the ancient traditions of Japan. I think they said that Japan was the only country in the world that had designated -people- as National Treasures.
Posted by: Shannon M.: 12:03 AM |

Awright! *Bounce* Cut-and-paste JavaScript works just fine. Check out the archives.
Posted by: Shannon M.: 12:06 AM |

I forgot, until just now, that I have a relatively new Shorts vid and a MST3K tape about a scientist trying to perfect a brain transplant technique... I just have to remember to get them back from Ev.
Posted by: Shannon M.: 12:08 AM |

Well, it's -not- my gallbladder that's being cranky and making me hurt. I had a HIDA scan at the end of November and it took a while to get the results in. I still can't eat anything I want, but at least I'm making enough bile and the like. *Grump* Now I get to go to a gastroenterologist and probably have an endoscope stuck down my throat. Gick.
Posted by: Shannon M.: 1:12 PM |

I -hope- this is a joke. I'm relatively certain it is, but it's not a very funny one. Is Your Son A Computer Hacker?
Posted by: Shannon M.: 9:50 PM |

The people at the CAP have entirely too much time on their hands. I'm not going to go into detail, but suffice it to say that I'm going to go read something I -agree- with, now.
Posted by: Shannon M.: 10:31 PM |

My mother confirmed it -- Missy was the one that let herself out of the car. Deuce, I have learned, also let herself into the fridge to get at the chocolate milk and pushed a chair over so she could get up on the counter to get the dog biscuits down off the top of the fridge. Cocoa has learned how to manipulate the lever on the recliner so that she can lounge in comfort, which goes to prove that brains run in her family.
Posted by: Shannon M.: 11:19 PM |

I think I'm gonna go to bed, now. I didn't sleep so well last night.
Posted by: Shannon M.: 11:40 PM |