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The bad thing about buying a lightening-fast desktop? Now I can see the horse and buggy speed at which my laptop works.
And speaking of buggy, what the hell is up with Firefox these days? I'll be working along just fine and then it will suddenly start eating memory like PacMan eats yellow dots. Everything comes to a grinding halt. And it isn't just me; I've heard others complain of this malady.
So, I'm restarting my computer - again - to finish an electronic filing that I should have finished more than two hours ago. Except for the alligator wrestling with Firefox.
Grr.
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Today's pearl (necklaces) of wisdom harvested from my twitter for my lazy blogging pleasure! - 02:14- On my way home, suitably exhausted. Good day!
- 01:40- I heard there's this dog food called Ol Yeller...that is hilarious! I'm so glad that I found them in that weekly circular!
- 15:13- Shower and off to the Stilyagi picnic in Ann Arbor. Hope to see y'all there!
- 13:08- Hrmm...just got an OTA OS update from TMO. Wonder what was in it. OS version seems the same.
- 04:53- HP movie was pretty good. I think my favorite so far...
Peace. |
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 I had a great time over the last few days! I went to South Haven to see Heather of Humblebeads and Rosanne of Fab Fibers. I had hoped to spend some time squishing my toes in the sand on the beach, and finally wear my new bathing suit, but it was oddly cold on Friday! It felt like autumn, actually. So we stayed in, and spent the whole day playing with bits of metal and paper and little odd bits of stuff, collaging them into pendants. At the end of the play session, we filled them with clear Ice Resin. It was fun to play with new things, and above is a sneak peek of some of the pendants I made. There are a lot more, and I am working on photographing them. Whew! Really reflective stuff... hard to get good pics of them. They are really fun, though... I can't wait to do more. I returned from my trip, and spent the day at home cleaning up the house, which I feel like I haven't spent a lot of time in lately, and nursing a bellyache. I am feeling better now, but am going to turn in early tonight, hoping to get some rest. Before I go, here are this week's Extra links! |
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I sold my old couch today, the one from the basement -- I'd listed it on Craig's List. A guy emailed me about it, asking if he could come look at it. I scheduled him for a time when M would be around also, since I'm not thrilled about letting strangers in my house when I'm alone.
I emailed him back, asking how interested in buying it he was. He said he'd take it, if he liked it. Then he asked if the price was negotiable, since he's a student without much money.
In my original listing, I said it was $90 but I'd listen to reasonable offers. However I didn't respond to his question by email, because I didn't want to just automatically start lowering the price when he didn't even know if he'd like it.
When he showed up today, he arrived with a trailer and two buddies. That was a good sign. I showed them the couch, they all sat on it, and agreed they liked it.
He hadn't mentioned the price. "Is $90 still okay?" I asked him, to allow the bargaining to begin.
"Yes, it seems a little steep, but if you're firm on the price...."
I didn't know quite what to say to that. I was prepared to come down a little bit if he asked, but he didn't even make a counter-offer. I wasn't going to just randomly pick a lower number, if he was willing to pay the full price! It was so weird -- somebody needs to teach this boy how to haggle.
"Okay, cool," was what I ended up saying.
In fact it's a large three piece L-shaped sofa. It was originally purchased for well over $1000. It's just that it's over 10 years old, and has sat in my basement for a few years. Although it's been loved by cats for awhile, it's still a solid and comfortable piece of furniture. I used it almost daily. I felt $90 was a bargain myself, but had expected to negotiate anyway.
The guys started maneuvering the pieces up my stairs and out to their trailer. I kept waiting for the kid to talk about the price. I figured he should mention the work of carrying it up the stairs, or the fact that I was clearly wanting to be rid of it (he could see that the carpet in the basement had been removed from everywhere but the floor the couch was sitting on). But he said nothing.
I was casting about in my head for some reason to knock a little bit off, even without him asking. The whole thing seemed quite silly. All he had to say was "How about $80" and I would have agreed, but without him making the first move I didn't know what to do.
I finally decided in my head that when he paid me, I'd just hand him $10 back. After all they seemed like good enough kids, and it wouldn't do me any harm. Here's the clincher though. Instead of handing me 4 $20's and a $10, liked I'd expected him to do, he gave me 2 $20's and a $50! I couldn't hand him $10 back without actually going inside and digging through my wallet for a ten dollar bill!
Before he paid me, after they got everything loaded up, the guys stood next to the trailer debating about something. I don't know what they were talking about. I figure the other two guys were asking him if it was really going to cost that much, and he was shrugging innocently saying, "Well, she seemed firm...."
Any bartender knows that you should always give a person change in small bills in case they want to give some of it back. When this guy handed me the inconveniently large bills, I just had to shrug and laugh to myself a bit. He had sealed his fate! I thanked him, wished him luck at school, and M made some joke about beer. The guys chuckled, waved, and drove away.
I hope they like their couch. It should be a perfect frat couch, as it easily fits five guys and it's no longer fancy enough to worry about spilled beer. I feel a little bad that I didn't give them more of a deal, but really they made it very difficult! I'm sure eventually they'll figure out how to negotiate. In the meantime, at least they got a comfy couch -- and my house is a little bit less cluttered than it used to be. |
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Poll #1432050 Correct Usage
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: AllIf there were a Wiki by the name of "Fred's Wiki," which usage would be correct?
Feel free to explain why... |
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Via Slashdot and Power Line (and how many stories can you say that about?): It seems that our buddy the ousted president of Honduras, Manuel Zelaya, was engaging in some good old-fashioned vote rigging. Slashdot says:
In Honduras, according to breaking Catalan newspaper reports (translations available, USA Today mention), authorities have seized 45 computers containing certified election results for a constitutional election that never happened. The election had been scheduled for June 28, but on that day the president, Manuel Zelaya, was ousted. The 'certified' and detailed electronic records of the non-existent election show Zelaya's side having won overwhelmingly.
Power Line says:
Deposed Honduran president Manuel Zelaya put a lot of planning into the illegal referendum he hoped to hold. It was this illegal referendum that prompted his removal from office. Zelaya apparently didn't trust Hondurans to vote the right way on the referendum. According to a Catalan Europa Press report picked up and translated by Babalu Blog, Zelaya had the machinery in place to rig the results.
Anyone want to bet on whether CNN will even run the story, never mind when? It's way too much to hope that our government will stand behind the legitimate government of Honduras, and oppose the pressure coming from Chavez and Castro to put their fellow leftist back in power against the laws of Honduras.
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Jul. 19th, 2009 @ 02:04 pm
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The morning news station I watch on the weekends sometimes has timing or technical or staffing issues, and will clip commercials (or even news segments) to fit whatever schedule they are on. Today was an unfortunate day for them. They played a five second clip talking about how their news segments were the longest, displaying their logo on a big chunk of rock. Immediately after that it cut to the end of an insect extermination commercial, with a big shoe coming down on the screen, a squelching noise, and someone crying out "Clark! We needed you!". The juxtaposition was awesome.
Conversely, the ad from our state governor was just creepy. I will say that Schwarzenegger and his team does a remarkable job of using the fact that everyone knows his face to air commercials supporting how he wants the legislature to act. It is much more effective than what Reagan did, and he is competing on a level that the other sides simply cannot reach. Kudos to him; he may save himself from being Gray Davised out of office.
But in the last commercial his skin was tight and bronzed from his time in SoCal. He was situated in a steel and glass building with blinding sunlight coming in behind him. Because talking about the state budget is a serious thing, he never broke a smile, but simply talked at the camera with squinted eyes and a flat expression. As he called on me to support him and support the state, my hindbrain was screaming "terminator!". I do believe I scooted back on the couch a bit. The one facial movement he used was to open his left eye a little bit more. You know, the one that has the red laser in it. Yikes. Good idea, unfortunate implementation. Current Mood: sleepy Current Music: Machines of Loving Grace, "Butterfly Wings" |
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If you're not a fan of progressive rock, you simply won't get this. If you are, however, this will be the best laugh you have all month.
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In a burst of laziness, I simply added a few MN-StF Picnic photos to the Misc 2009 gallery over on Facebook. go to the last few shots in the gallery (as of this writing).
I had a good time. Nice day, good people, enough food. Didn't play any of the games, but I rarely do. Mostly sat around and talked, and took photos. |
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Today's pearl (necklaces) of wisdom harvested from my twitter for my lazy blogging pleasure! - 02:29- Sherlock Holmes is a fucking action hero now. Fucking hell! I'll still see it though :(
- 02:12- Apparently, we're are no longer supposed to text at movies. Can I still video record the flick?
- 02:07- Chillin' at Harry Potter movie waiting for the start. This better be good for the million dollars movies cost.
- 00:56- RT @Kenco12 "Team MPCon", won both css and cod4. Took nearly 3 hours for both tournaments, no more than 3 teams #goffail
- 23:31- RT @Kenco12 Waiting for the #cod4 tournament to start at GOF LAN. *yawn*. Nothing like MPCon #goffail
- 23:31- RT @tankbusta #GOFLan with @kenco12 - Major CoD4 issues but what do you expect... #goffail
- 22:16- Hrmm..I appear to have sunburnt my head (just the front) and my right shoulder. Neat-o. Heh.
- 21:44- Kids made me sing "Today" on Easy while playing drums for it on Medium. 3-star finish, coulda done better on both: wish I knew the words.
- 21:16- And we're home! All in all, nicely done...now to play some Guitar Hero WT with the kidlets before the Harry Potter movie.
- 20:18- Back in MI bitches! Didja miss me?
- 18:26- Hello again Cleveland! Oh, and GUF in the last twat should have been GOF. Oops.
- 17:51- Hey, what a surprise but GUF deleted the complaint from one of their attendees from the forum. Guess complaints aren't allowed. #goffail
- 17:26- Kids retrieved and the trip home commencing. Yay for driving.
- 17:25- RT @tankbusta @nadams5755 GOF's LAN is using that 20 year old cisco equipment and it's laggy as hell. fail. #goffail
Peace. |
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Today I hugged dear friends and little children.
Today I told stories and listened to stories and laughed.
Today I got caught in a deep discussion about George Lucas and Star Wars and was laughed at by fellow geeks for being uber-geeky.
Today I sang Happy Birthday to an almost-toddler who was much more interested in the wrapping paper than the presents.
Today I rocked that almost-toddler to sleep and tucked her into bed.
Today I turned onto my street just as a fireworks show was starting in the park half a mile away. I parked and held hands with my hubby as we ooohed and aaaahed through 20 minutes of incendiary goodness.
Today? Was a good day.
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Yay! We went to the Ann Arbor Art Fair today. It was so much fun! So many beautiful things! ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) robots4dancing made it down from GR and met up with us in town.
( Lots of pics this way! ) |
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Heya crew. Angela has a birthday at the beginning of next month, and I want to put together a party, both for that, and because I want to have a party at my place. So, My place, Evening of Friday the 31'st. Doors open whenever the first of y'all show, but definitely by 8. Plan to start a fire out back, and enjoy the evening, unless it precipitates, in which case we will retire to my basement.
It's the little red brick place.
Requested (and please reply if you intend to bring, so others don't dupe) (except the liquor, of course)
Stuff to burn
Stuff to make a fire circle out of (bricks?)
Stuff to sit on (lawn chairs, and such)
Liquor, with a leaning toward vodka and Captain Morgan
Hard cider, be it Woodchuck, Strongbow, or something more esoteric
Hot dogs
hot dog sticks (there WILL be a fire, ya'know)
Chips
Games suitible for a party space with no tables only one table, hidden under Wii supplies
Whatever else you want to roast, cook, eat, drink, or play with.
Internets now accessible and wifi setup and running for the internet type. Wii running, for the game people, please feel free to bring fun games. I hope many of you can and will show.
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Amazon can reach in and randomly destroy the books on your Kindle remotely over Whispernet, without asking your permission first. Well, technically, thanks to the terms and conditions that you have to agree to before you buy the Kindle, you gave them permission in advance. Well, no thanks. I think the Sony e-Reader is a much better choice as a result.
Yet another reason why people should Just Say No to DRM.
Originally published at Thoughts by Ted. Please leave any comments there.
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To those of you who have switched to "twittinesis" to move your twitter entries to LJ, can you please put them behind a cut like you were doing previously?
Honestly, they make no sense out of context anyway. |
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![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/syndicated.gif){kind=small}
I had a great time over the last few days! I went to South Haven to see Heather of Humblebeads and Rosanne of Fab Fibers. I had hoped to spend some time squishing my toes in the sand on the beach, and finally wear my new bathing suit, but it was oddly cold on Friday! It felt like autumn, actually. So we stayed in, and spent the whole day playing with bits of metal and paper and little odd bits of stuff, collaging them into pendants. At the end of the play session, we filled them with clear Ice Resin. It was fun to play with new things, and above is a sneak peek of some of the pendants I made. There are a lot more, and I am working on photographing them. Whew! Really reflective stuff... hard to get good pics of them. They are really fun, though... I can't wait to do more. I returned from my trip, and spent the day at home cleaning up the house, which I feel like I haven't spent a lot of time in lately, and nursing a bellyache. I am feeling better now, but am going to turn in early tonight, hoping to get some rest. Before I go, here are this week's Extra links!
The Writing and Art of Andrew Thornton 
17 (70.8%)