Unexpected

For a while now I have been writing here, never sure how personal I can or should get. For the most part, even though it might seem fairly personal to most people, I haven't really written anything where I felt like I was baring my soul.

This weekend Wes and I broke up. Although I still feel sad, and a little empty and sick inside, I think I made the right decision. I have loved him for a long time, and in a lot of ways I still do, but the distance between us has always raised doubts in my mind and I could no longer ignore those.

I could no longer ignore those because something unexpected happened this week. I met someone. Someone here in Los Angeles.

What is amazing to me is how little I seem to have known my feelings until now. I have spent time dreaming of my future with Wes, and yet, I am not sure that I am ready to settle down and get married. I am not sure I am yet capable of giving my whole heart to one person forever.

I wasn't looking for this, but I can't say I'm unhappy now. Plunging back into the single world is frightening but at the same time exciting. And even if the man I met here doesn't become a serious relationship, I am glad for the opportunity to know him and spend time with him.

And that is just unexpected.

Will You Wear Your Costume to Work?

By Mike Erwin, Senior Ghoul Expert for CareerBuilder.com

Almost one-third of workers plan to or are considering dressing up for Halloween at work this year, according to Careerbuilder.com's "Halloween at the Office" 2005 survey.

Those in need of last-minute costume ideas for trick-or-treating through the cubicles can throw together the following office-themed get-ups in a matter of minutes:

1. A Day Off -- Using black lettering, write October 30, 2005 or November 1, 2005 on an orange shirt. When people ask what you are, say, "A day off!"

2. Running Late -- Show up to the office with messy hair and disheveled clothes with your pajamas showing underneath.

3. Vending Machine -- Dress in black and fasten snacks to yourself with the cost of each item displayed. To be really evil, place an "out of order" sign on the real vending machine and charge your co-workers for your snacks. When they pay, make sure you throw their snacks on the ground as the vending machine does.

4. Office Gossip -- Make up fun stories about your co-workers. Fasten the stories to yourself and put the name of your favorite grocery store tabloid on a hat. Hang around the water cooler and invite people to read the latest news.

5. Pink Slip -- No one ever wants to be served the dreaded pink slip at work. Wear a pink slip over your work clothes and chase your co-workers.

6. Post-it Note -- Wear all yellow. When people say "trick or treat" at your cube, pass out real Post-it notes.

7. Red Tape -- Buy red tape and tape it all over your clothes and cubicle. When people ask what you are, make them cut through some red tape to get the answer.

8. Leftover -- Wrap yourself in aluminum foil and give yourself an aluminum swan hat. Place a sign on your chest that says, "Anything left after 4 p.m. on Friday will be thrown away!"

9. Happy Hour -- Wrap a tie around your head and carry around an empty (yes, empty) martini glass with you throughout the day. At 5 p.m., scream, "Happy hour!"

10. Headhunter -- Carry a mannequin or doll head around with you, holding it by the hair.

For those workers who like a project and have more time to prepare, consider the following:

Missing Person -- Wear all white and use poster board to make a hat that resembles a milk carton. On another piece of poster board, place a picture of an employee who recently left the company and label them missing.

Einstein Managed his Inbox Just Like You!

LiveScience.com Wed Oct 26, 2:00 PM ET
Robert Roy Britt

If you're like Einstein, you respond to some emails immediately and let others wait. And, of course, some you never answer.

And every now and then, you find an old one in your inbox that you didn't even realize you had, and you reply.

A new study finds that the correspondence of Albert Einstein, as well as that of Charles Darwin, followed patterns similar to modern email communication.

Einstein sent more than 14,500 letters. But he received more than 16,200, and responded to only a quarter of them. Darwin mailed more than 7,500 letters. He responded to 32 percent of the roughly 6,530 letters he received. [Chart]

Of course letter writing takes more time than email, but the mathematical relationship between quick replies and delayed responses was similar, explains João Gama Oliveira of the University of Aveiro in Portugal.

Of Einstein's responses, 53 percent were sent within 10 days. For Darwin, the figure was 63 percent. But now and then they replied months or years later. Einstein begins one reply by explaining that he's just discovered the senders letter of more than a year prior while sifting through "a mountain of correspondence."

"In both Darwin's and Einstein's correspondence and today's email we find that most responses take short time, but sometimes the responses take a very long time, Oliveira told LiveScience. "In other words, for both email and mail communication, the response times exist in a very broad range of values, and there is no typical response time for which we could say that all response times are around (and close to) that value."

The result suggests Darwin, who conceived the idea of natural selection in evolution, and Einstein, father of modern physics, must have prioritized their letter-writing, say Oliveira and his colleague, Albert-László Barabási of Harvard University.

"Their timely responses to most letters show that they were both aware of the importance of this intellectual intercourse," the Oliveira and Barabási write in the Oct. 27 issue of the journal Nature.

The upshot: Einstein and Darwin exhibited a "fundamental pattern of human dynamics" that plays out every morning when you check your inbox.

3 Minute Management Course

Lesson One

An eagle was sitting on a tree resting, doing nothing. A small rabbit saw the eagle and asked him, "Can I also sit like you and do nothing?" The eagle answered: "Sure, why not." So, the rabbit sat on the ground below the eagle and rested. All of a sudden, a fox appeared, jumped on the rabbit and ate it.

Management Lesson

- To be sitting and doing nothing, you must be sitting very, very high up.

Lesson Two

A turkey was chatting with a bull. "I would love to be able to get to the top of that tree," sighed the turkey, "but I haven't got the energy." "Well, why don't you nibble on some of my droppings?" replied the bull. "They're packed with nutrients."
The turkey pecked at a lump of dung, and found it actually gave him enough strength to reach the lowest branch of the tree. The next day, after eating some more dung, he reached the second branch. Finally after a fourth night, the turkey was proudly perched at the top of the tree. He was promptly spotted by a farmer, who shot him out of the tree.

Management Lesson

- Bullshit might get you to the top, but it won't keep you there.

Lesson Three

A little bird was flying south for the winter. It was so cold; the bird froze and fell to the ground into a large field. While he was lying there, a cow came by and dropped some dung on him. As the frozen bird lay there in the pile of cow dung, he began to realize how warm he was. The dung was actually thawing him out! He lay there all warm and happy, and soon began to sing for joy. A passing cat heard the bird singing and came to investigate. Following the sound, the cat discovered the bird under the pile of cow dung, and promptly dug him out and ate him.

Management Lesson

(1) Not everyone who shits on you is your enemy.
(2) Not everyone who gets you out of shit is your friend.
(3) And when you're in deep shit, it's best to keep your mouth shut!


This ends your three-minute management course. All donations welcome.

Distracted

Men
Originally uploaded by littledevilworks.

Byline: Men's Rooms are for Men Only.

So I'm a little distracted today. The evidence of this might be that I just walked into the men's room. My brain even registered that the hinge was on the other side of the door and it was a different door than normal. But did that stop me? No. Ahhh life's daily humiliations.

Word of the day.

nychthemeron (nik-THEM-er-on) noun

A full period of a day and night: 24 hours.

[From Greek, a combination of nykt- (night) and hemera (day).]

Ever wondered why day and night were divided into 12 hours? The number 12 is not as random as it sounds. There are 12 moons in a year. The number 12 is easy to divide into halves, thirds, and quarters. Also, some cultures counted in base 12: three joints on each finger (thumb as the counter).

Score one for the gamers.

This was passed on to me by a coworker.

21 October 2005: London. Peerclix, providers of free PSP’s at www.peerclixpsp.co.uk today announced that men who play with hand held games consoles make better lovers.

Dani, a model from Ultimate Models agency, last week said: "My boyfriend used to come with me to all my shoots to keep an eye on the photographers. I gave him a console to play on, and a couple of weeks later, I could really tell the difference in how handy he’d become between the sheets. I let all my girlfriends know and then told them they could get a free PSP so that have the same happy glow as me!"

Internet beauty Loli agreed: "Since my boyfriend started playing with his on the way to work in the morning he has got much better with his hands."

Her curvy friend Paige was equally as enthusiastic: "I can’t wait to get my man a free console to practice playing with buttons. It should build up the muscles in his fingers a treat, and I might even try it myself!"

A spokesperson for PeerClix said: "I am very glad that Peerclix is playing a part in keeping these ladies happy!"

RIP Alberta

Goldfish
Originally uploaded by littledevilworks.

(Alberta being my very first carnival goldfish.)

Rome bans goldfish bowls seen as cruel

Tue Oct 25,12:28 PM ET

ROME (Reuters) - The city of Rome has banned goldfish bowls, which animal rights activists say are cruel, and has made regular dog-walks mandatory in the Italian capital, the town's council said on Tuesday.

The classic spherical fish bowls are banned under a new by-law which also stops fish or other animals being given away as fairground prizes. It comes after a national law was passed to allow jail sentences for people who abandon cats or dogs.

"It's good to do whatever we can for our animals who in exchange for a little love fill our existence with their attention," said Monica Cirinna, the councillor behind the by-law.

"The civilisation of a city can also be measured by this," she told Rome daily Il Messaggero.

The newspaper reported that round bowls caused fish to go blind. No one at Rome council was available to confirm this was why they were banned. Many fish experts say round bowls provide insufficient oxygen for fish.

The northern city of Turin passed a law in April to fine pet owners up to 500 euros (339 pounds) if they do not walk their dogs at least three times a day.

Tortoise & Hippo - Tsunami Friends

Tortoise & Hippo
Originally uploaded by littledevilworks.

NAIROBI (AFP) - A baby hippopotamus that survived the tsunami waves on the Kenyan coast has formed a strong bond with a giant male century-old tortoise, in an animal facility in the port city of Mombassa, officials said.

The hippopotamus, nicknamed Owen and weighing about 300 kilograms (650 pounds), was swept down Sabaki River into the Indian Ocean, then forced back to shore when tsunami waves struck the Kenyan coast on December 26, before wildlife rangers rescued him.


"It is incredible. A-less-than-a-year-old hippo has adopted a male tortoise, about a century old, and the tortoise seems to be very happy with being a 'mother'," ecologist Paula Kahumbu, who is in charge of Lafarge Park, told AFP.

"After it was swept and lost its mother, the hippo was traumatized. It had to look for something to be a surrogate mother. Fortunately, it landed on the tortoise and established a strong bond. They swim, eat and sleep together," the ecologist added.
"The hippo follows the tortoise exactly the way it follows its mother. If somebody approaches the tortoise, the hippo becomes aggressive, as if protecting its biological mother," Kahumbu added.

"The hippo is a young baby, he was left at a very tender age and by nature, hippos are social animals that like to stay with their mothers for four years," he explained.

Ticky Ticky...

Added a nifty new ticket at the bottom of the page, cause my old code was broken. Looks like 18 months and 2 weeks till graduation folks. And that's NOT soon enough!

A new disease!

Printer Addiction Disorder (PAD), a problem that affects thousands of Americans each year

With the pervasive use of personal computers, a number of previously unknown illnesses and disorders have begun to surface. Most of these are physical in nature and take the form of repetitive stress injuries. Less common are the mental effects of personal computer use. A new disorder recently found in government institutions is PAD or Printer Addiction Disorder. This disorder affects roughly 1% of current office workers and current estimates show that the amount of sufferers will increase drastically in the coming years.

Symptoms

Most prevalent symptom is the frequent walking from and to a networked printer. If a user is going back and forth at least 3 times per day; a positive diagnosis can be immediately established. Other less observable symptoms may include:

1. Lingering or the absent minded waiting for printouts that may or may not arrive
2. Fidgeting regardless of the importance of the awaited print
3. Yelling or screaming at printer devices even if they are not plugged in

Treatment

There currently exists no satisfactory PAD treatment and most office workers diagnosed with this disorder will have to be put under immediate care. It is important to remove all associations of printers from their immediate environment. This includes the prohibition of stapler use and the restriction of hole-puncher access. For any questions related to PAD please contact the HHS directly at:

Mailing Address and Telephone Number:
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
200 Independence Avenue, S.W.
Washington, D.C. 20201
Telephone: 202-619-0257
Toll Free: 1-877-696-6775

Human Unkindness.

Irate

Synonyms: angry, angered, annoyed, antagonized, bitter, cross, displeased, enraged, exasperated, furious, hopping mad, huffy, incensed, indignant, infuriated, irascible, irritated, livid, mad, maddened, offended, piqued, po'd, provoked, riled, steamed, tee'd off, tempestuous, testy, ticked off, vexed, worked up, wrathful, wroth...you get the point.

One of my students just called me at work to contest a grade I gave for a homework assignment. When I couldn't tell him exactly what he did wrong and why I took the HALF POINT off (because I'm at work and don't have the assignments here) he hung up on me.

Since when did THAT become an acceptable way to treat someone?!?

Human Kindness and the Need to Help.

Sometimes, watching the 11pm news, I wonder what the heck is going wrong in society. Then other times, I'm taken aback by human kindness and the need to help those around us.

Driving in this morning I had the unfortunate luck to witness a minivan flip onto its side on the freeway. I did what I always do in those situations - whip out my trusty cell phone, figure out where I am and how best to describe what I've seen, and call 911. What I witnessed, however, far exceeded my contribution.

There is construction on this part of the highway and the road is currently down to two lanes. Several cars pulled over to the right and people jumped out to help. Construction workers from across the street bounded over the barriers and one climbed on top of the car and had the door open before I could even dial.

I was immediately directed to drive around the accident and as much as I wanted to stay and help, I knew that I should keep moving so as not to create a bigger mess. I hope those people in the van are ok. And to those of you who jumped out and tried to help, you're the heroes.

Knittin' up a storm.

Birthday scarf
Originally uploaded by littledevilworks.

I've been knitting like mad lately in order to finish all my gifts before Chanukah and Christmas. I can't post most of what I've been working on because most of the people who are to receive the gifts read here. However, this is a birthday scarf that I whipped up for a coworker (who doesn't read!) so I thought I'd share.

Happy knitting!

Living in a Barbie World

Ken considers makeover to win back Barbie

Associated Press

NEW YORK - Apparently Ken still isn't over Barbie. Almost two years after the closely watched celebrity couple split after a 43-year romance, Ken is considering a makeover in an effort to win his doll baby back.

Mattel made the announcement Thursday. Russell Arons, vice president of marketing at Mattel, would say only that fans might see big changes this spring.

"A makeover may be just what Ken needs to step back into the spotlight," she said.

A makeover makes sense as a business strategy, said Chris Byrne, a New York-based independent toy consultant.

"Barbie and Ken are such an integral part of our culture and so aligned with each other, people want to see them together," he said.

In early 2004, Mattel tried to update Barbie's image by having her split with Ken and head to a California beach, where she caught the eye of Blaine, an Australian boogie boarder.

It was just a brief flirtation, though.

"Barbie and Blaine was a great PR stunt, but at the end of the day people want to see Barbie and Ken get back together," Byrne said.

Byrne noted that global sales of Barbie were down in the third quarter.

A Hollywood makeover won't hurt sales of the princesslike Barbies that 4- to 6-year-olds play with and it might help court the 8- to 11-year-olds who have turned to the more fashion-forward Bratz dolls from MGA Entertainment, he said.

This wouldn't be the first time Ken reinvented himself.

In the 1970s and '80s, he took up inline skating and boogied to disco tunes; in the '90s he focused on his careers as a businessman, baseball player, explorer and rock star.

A little JOLT for ya...

A minor earthquake occurred at 1:18:48 PM (PDT) on Saturday, October 22, 2005. The magnitude 3.1 event occurred 3 km (2 miles) N (3 degrees) of Marina del Rey, CA.

A minor earthquake occurred at 8:42:16 PM (PDT) on Saturday, October 22, 2005. The magnitude 3.0 event occurred 4 km (2 miles) ESE of Santa Monica, CA.

BARENAKED!!!

Yes the BareNaked Ladies are coming to Santa Monica and I'm PUMPED!! I already organized a group at work and I'm buying the tickets this weekend. Come join us for some witty Holiday banter and song.

Attitude at Work.

Stupid Sign
Originally uploaded by littledevilworks.

Caption this!

* Things to do in the Midwest
* 1001 Ways to Piss off the Boss
* Disgruntled lately?

It's Fall!

Fall Foliage
Originally uploaded by littledevilworks.

With the freak rain storm this weekend, it seems the fall season is upon us. I love the chill, though I miss the crisp clean feel of air outside the Los Angeles area (like oh, St. Louis while I was in college?)

Even so, I love me my fall.

Today was a long day, filled with lots of work and the feeling like I got nothing done. I'm looking forward to some time to catch up this weekend, though I would suspect my posting will be interrupted by my projects in the pipeline. Hopefully by next week I'll be caught up enough to find some more funnies.

Until then, I'm going to curl up under blankets and enjoy the chill outdoors.

Back away from the crackberry...

For Some, Thumb Pain Is BlackBerry's Stain

By Amy Joyce
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, April 23, 2005; 12:00 AM

Sandy Boyd's BlackBerry had become her passion. Now it has also become a source of pain.

About three months ago, the National Association of Manufacturers vice president noticed that, as she started to type, the area between her thumb and wrist would begin to throb.

Orthopedists say they are seeing an increasing number of patients with similar symptoms, a condition known as "overuse syndrome" or "BlackBerry thumb." In some patients, the disability has become severe.

Bette R. Keltner, dean of the Georgetown University School of Nursing & Health Studies has been forced to put her BlackBerry down. After two years of constant use, her hands were in so much pain, she had to stop typing. She remembers the trigger point: It was a 10-hour conference one Saturday where she answered about 150 e-mails. "Days later, I was in excruciating pain," she said.

The American Society of Hand Therapists issued a consumer alert in January saying that handheld electronics are causing an increasing amount of carpal tunnel syndrome and tendinitis. With that warning, the society included directions on how to properly hold the devices, urging users to take breaks and, if possible, place pillows in their laps so their wrists are in a more upright position.

But at airports and hearing rooms and other places where handheld users while away pauses by thumbing their keyboards, there are no pillows in evidence and very few breaks from the tap-tap-click of e-mailing.

BlackBerry subscribers now total 2.51 million, more than double the 1.07 million subscribers a year ago. Research in Motion Ltd., the maker of the BlackBerry, declined through a spokeswoman to comment on the disability issue. Some other handheld devices, such as PalmOne Inc.'s Treo and T-Mobile Inc.'s Sidekick phones, use similar thumb-operated keyboards. The small keyboards are tough on hands and wrists, according to Paige Kurtz of the American Society of Hand Therapists.

I forgot to mention.

Amidst the torrential rain, and my getting drenched outside my gate:

A light earthquake occurred at 12:31:03 AM (PDT) on Tuesday, October 18, 2005. The magnitude 4.4 event occurred 11 km (7 miles) N of Cabazon, CA.

Shake on!

The Government is Spying on Me.

No I'm not paranoid. I watch CSI so I knew they could find you, but I never knew how. Thanks to Frogpod for the link.

Sleuths Crack Tracking Code Discovered in Color Printers

By Mike Musgrove
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, October 19, 2005

It sounds like a conspiracy theory, but it isn't. The pages coming out of your color printer may contain hidden information that could be used to track you down if you ever cross the U.S. government.

Last year, an article in PC World magazine pointed out that printouts from many color laser printers contained yellow dots scattered across the page, viewable only with a special kind of flashlight. The article quoted a senior researcher at Xerox Corp. as saying the dots contain information useful to law-enforcement authorities, a secret digital "license tag" for tracking down criminals.

The content of the coded information was supposed to be a secret, available only to agencies looking for counterfeiters who use color printers.

Now, the secret is out.

Yesterday, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a San Francisco consumer privacy group, said it had cracked the code used in a widely used line of Xerox printers, an invisible bar code of sorts that contains the serial number of the printer as well as the date and time a document was printed.

With the Xerox printers, the information appears as a pattern of yellow dots, each only a millimeter wide and visible only with a magnifying glass and a blue light.

The EFF said it has identified similar coding on pages printed from nearly every major printer manufacturer, including Hewlett-Packard Co., though its team has so far cracked the codes for only one type of Xerox printer.

The U.S. Secret Service acknowledged yesterday that the markings, which are not visible to the human eye, are there, but it played down the use for invading privacy.

"It's strictly a countermeasure to prevent illegal activity specific to counterfeiting," agency spokesman Eric Zahren said. "It's to protect our currency and to protect people's hard-earned money."

It's unclear whether the yellow-dot codes have ever been used to make an arrest. And no one would say how long the codes have been in use. But Seth Schoen, the EFF technologist who led the organization's research, said he had seen the coding on documents produced by printers that were at least 10 years old.

Home Sweet Home

HOME SWEET HOME
Originally uploaded by littledevilworks.

A.K.A. The Retreat that Was.

I'm SO glad to be home. I think I have a better understanding of what my dad hated about being on call as a physician. My cell phone started ringing on Sunday night and didn't stop until about 2pm today.

Although the weekend was actually quite a success, and I enjoyed a lot of the discussion, I am very glad not to be in charge of logistics anymore. Tonight I'm spending an evening on my couch, recuperating for tomorrow and all the fun activities it brings (expense reports, editing the 33 pages of notes I took, finishing my law paper - YIKES!)

So in keeping with the theme, let's discuss home issues, namely Martha Stewart. I caught some of her Apprentice tonight because, let's face it, I can only make a few hours of DVR last so long. I have to say I'm not impressed. First of all, Martha is queen of the home empire and she had to steal her show from Donald? Second, her "set", which or may not be her headquarters is UGLY. If that's how I can expect my Martha'd home to look, again, I'm not impressed. Lastly, she's missing that tagline (yes we know Donald didn't originate the term "you're fired" but it does spice up the ending a bit). The "you're not working out, goodbye" is more a "you are the weakest link goodbye" which we all know didn't sell as well as Regis' warm hominess.

*warning Clueless flashback* Rollin' with the homies.

Ok I'm getting punchy... I'm going to do us all a favor and head to bed. More news tomorrow.

Why I don't support Miers.

Miers Backed Abortion Ban in 1989

By Charles Babington and Fred Barbash
Washington Post Staff Writers
Tuesday, October 18, 2005; 1:15 PM

Supreme Court nominee Harriet Miers agreed in 1989 that she would "actively support" a proposed constitutional amendment that would ban abortion except when necessary to prevent the death of the mother.

Miers indicated her support for a "Human Life Amendment" on an April 1989 questionnaire she filled out for Texans United for Life when she was a candidate for the Dallas City Council. The document, which has been submitted to the Senate Judiciary Committee, was first reported today by the Associated Press.


On that form, she also said she would oppose the use of public funds for abortion and use her influence to keep "pro-abortion" people off of city boards and commissions dealing with health issues. She qualified her answer regarding boards and commissions by adding the words, "to the extent Pro-Life views are relevant."

The answer differentiates her appointment from that of Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr., who left no explicit document indicating his personal views on abortion as opposed to the views of the Reagan administration when he was representing it.

"If Congress passes a Human Life Amendment to the Constitution that would prohibit abortion except when it was necessary to prevent the death of the mother, would you actively support its ratification by the Texas Legislature," the questionnaire asked.

Miers checked "yes" to that question, and all of the group's other questions, including those referring to public funding of abortion.

Locked out in the rain.

Door_Hotel_Lock
Originally uploaded by littledevilworks.

***

She read the email cautiously.

"Looks like our strategic planning meeting might be wet - the Coachella Valley is on flood watch."

She laughed it off.

Her boyfriend told her, "Those flood watches, they never actually result in floods."

***

They began the drive later than expected and got caught in some of LA's finest traffic. But surely the best moment was the torrential downpour halfway into the trip, where she couldn't drive faster than 20 miles per hour on the highway. Thankfully, it broke up shortly thereafter, and just maintained a gloomy drizzle all the way to the resort.

***

The catering manager spoke in hushed tones, "I swear we only have 5 rainy days a year. But last night the thunderstorm was worse than anything I'd ever seen." She had a sinking feeling.

***

Shortly after the meeting started, so did the next downpour. People entered the conference room completely soaked. Someone had trouble checking in, a lost reservation, and she ran over to help. By the time she reached the front desk, the main reception area was leaking like a sieve, and she was soaked head to toe.

As she walked back to the meeting room with an umbrella, she noticed that at least her meeting rooms were on the uphill side of the area - the giftshop had clearly taken quite a beating being on the slightly downhill side of the veranda.

***

The bellman escorted her to her room, a room not unlike her own studio, only gracionsly decorated. A huge king size bed, a couch, inviting broadband access, a fire place, a big screen TV and a shower that could fit 12 brought delight to her. She refreshed herself for dinner with the group and headed out.

After a fine steak dinner, she and her friends journied out to the local liquor store to pick out some tasty beverages. After a horrendous rainy day, the sky appeared clear and the group decided that a little time at one of the villa's many jacuzzis was in order.

***

Walking back to her room she couldn't remember when she'd had such a fun night out with people she barely knew. The air smelled cool and damp and the resort was lit with white lights (of the Christmas variety). It was beautiful. She climbed the stairs to her Starlight Villa, and placed her key in the gate outside her room door.

Nothing.

She tried again.

Still nothing.

In a flash of inspiration she realized that she had her cell phone on her, and the hotel's number on her keycard. She called, and was placed on hold. After 5 minutes and a few raindrops, someone answered. A security guard was on his way.

He arrived to find her huddled in the corner, trying to avoid the raindrops as they came faster. She was tiny beneath her green sweatshirt hood. He tried the lock with the master key.

Nothing.

He mumbled something about powering the door open and disappeared.

It rained a bit more steadily.

He arrived with a device that he fiddled with for 3 or 4 minutes while she patiently held the maglite for him.

Still nothing.

He left again.

More rain.

When he returned he had a mite sprightlier young lad with him, a ladder and an umbrella for her. The lad took the gate in one bound (ok hoisted himself over ungracefully) and let her in.

The lightening and thunder started, and the rain poured down.

After trying to obtain some promise for improvement the next day (to avoid a repeat scenario) she took a gloriously hot shower in the cavernous bathroom and settled down to a fire in her fireplace, the sound of the pounding rain, and her broadband.

Maybe travelling for business is ok sometimes.

Our high standards don't let us eat this... Do you want it?

U.S. rejects Katrina meals, offers them to others

Mon Oct 17,12:12 PM ET

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States on Friday offered needy countries more than 330,000 packaged meals donated by Britain to feed Hurricane Katrina victims but rejected due to a U.S. ban on British beef.


Overheard at the meeting:

"This is supposed to be fun!"

"Fun is relative."

Also seen (and felt):

The great downpour, flood, hotel leaking like a sieve of October 2005. It's gonna be a wild ride folks.

Netflix Beat October 2005

So this weekend's movies were an odd mix:

* L'Auberge Espagnol ("The Spanish Apartment") - Romain Duris plays an adorable French graduate student who takes a 1 year trip to Barcelona to learn about Spain and find himself. His girlfriend is played by Audrey Tatou who is adorably quirky, if in a somewhat minimal role. The film is filled with great music and fun characters in the apartment in Barcelona.

* Win a Date with Tad Hamilton - This is a somewhat odd teenybopper flick which echoes strains of Bye, Bye Birdie (which was originally loosely based on Elvis). Josh Duhamel is a yummy, albeit skanky, movie star whose wholesome actor image is slightly tarnished by his penchant for booze and womanizing. That is until he meets Kate Bosworth who literally "wins" a date with him. The movie takes some odd twists and turns, and Topher Grace is both comical and sweet. No great shakes, but a cute flick.


And that's it folks - I'm off for a lot of work and maybe a little R&R in Palm Springs for a few days. I'll be back Wednesday night, and I'm sure I'll have stories to tell. Have a good start of the week!

For the Gods of English

As far as I'm concerned, 'whom' is a word that was invented to make everyone sound like a butler.

-Calvin Trillin, writer

Outsourcing everything these days...

US outsourcing prayers to India
Tuesday, 15 June , 2004, 12:04

New York: Following the outsourcing of software and other technological work in recent years, Western nations have now begun "offshoring" of Christian prayers to India.

"With Roman Catholic clergy in short supply in the United States, Indian priests are picking up some of their work, saying Mass for special intentions, in a sacred if unusual version of outsourcing," The New York Times reported.

Joining Americans in sending Mass intentions, requests for services such as those to remember deceased relatives and thanksgiving prayers, to clergy in India, are Canadians and Europeans.

Where does it all go?

Every weekend I end up spending a day running errands and catching up on life. Somewhere along the way large amounts of money disappear and I get to the end of the day with the feeling I spent a lot and bought nothing. How does that work exactly? Let's see:

* Gas - $35
* 1 more ball of yarn for project that is already 75% complete - $7
* Laptop case for GIGANTOR laptop - $45

Oh yeah, I got an Inspiron 9300 courtesy of work. Well it's on long-term loan. That sucker is so friggen' big it needed a bag with it's own zip code. Fry's to the rescue!

In other news SC pulled it out and overtook the Fighting Irish 34 to 31 in the last 7 seconds of the game. That's what I call some exciting football. Undefeated 28 and 0. Let's do a three-peat folks!

Back tomorrow for the movie beat and a quick goodbye message before we head off to Palm Springs Paradise for work.

Slightly borrowed:

This little tidbit has been borrowed from here.

Here’s your thought for the day:

There is more money being spent on breast implants and Viagra today than on Alzheimer's research. This means that by 2040, there should be a large elderly population with perky boobs and huge erections and absolutely no recollection of what to do with them.

Happy Friday!

It is Friday, glorious Friday and despite a packed calendar at work, I am happy to report that today is the 2nd Annual Chili Cookoff at work and the building smells AMAZING.

Not much on tap for the weekend - the usual movies, knitting, and LOTS of homework. Then retreat in Palm Springs for a couple days next week. Would be great except I'm the organizer and POC so I'm in for a world of hurt. Keep thinking swimming pools and resort accomodations.

In other news, I inherited a beautiful Dell Inspiron yesterday. Don't ask me what model or what features cause I haven't figured out yet, but I'm now outfitted with style at work. (Still prefer my Mac at home though because of all those nasty Windows/MS Viruses!)

I leave you with the following word of the day (which bears no relation to my current position despite my active posting):

sinecure
noun:
An office or position that requires or involves little or no responsibility, work, or active service.

Res Ipsa Loquitor - "The thing speaks for itself."

Man coughs up screw after operation
Wed Oct 12, 9:55 AM ET

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Four years ago, Etienne Verhees broke two vertebrae falling off a ladder, after which doctors put a metal plate in his neck to help heal the wound.

This week, the Belgian coughed up one of four screws used to hold the plate in place.

"I have had a cold for the past few days," Verhees told daily Gazet Van Antwerpen. "I had a terrible cough a few days ago. That's when I suddenly felt something in my mouth.

"It turned out to be a screw."

One of the doctors involved told the paper he assumed the screw had moved because of an infection Verhees suffered following a second operation, which caused his neck to swell.

More Stupendous Assvice

"Success is simple. Do what's right, the right way, at the right time."

Arnold H. Glasow

Useful Quote

Frisbeetarianism is the belief that when you die, your soul goes up on the roof and gets stuck.

-George Carlin

Hump Day Haiku

Hump Day I love you
Can it please be Friday now?
Oh no. Two more days.

Conversation at work regarding "Strategic Planning Meeting"

Colleague (Via email): So I'm getting a King size bed right?

Me: That's what the request is for. I can put in for a midget cot if you'd like.

Colleague: Oh Cool! No need for the cot. My midget will not be travelling with me for this trip. He's in midget layaway storage.

Me: You're sick man.

Colleague: I treat my midget VERY well thank you.

From A Word A Day:

Cereologist (seer-ee-OL-uh-jist)

noun

One who specializes in investigating crop circles.

Going by the countless varieties of cereals on the supermarket shelves, you'd think you have to be a cereologist to be able to select one. But it's not that. Rather, a cereologist is someone who studies crop circles, intricate circular patterns on crop fields.

The word is coined after Ceres, the goddess of agriculture in Roman mythology.

Oh no.... NOT MY SMURFS!?!?

Smurfs
Originally uploaded by littledevilworks.

UNICEF Snuffs Smurfs
By Josh Grossberg Tue Oct 11, 5:22 PM ET

It's just another smurfy day in Smurf Village. The perpertually perky blue beings frolic around the fire, holding hands and singing that "tra-la-la-la-la-la" tune as bluebirds flutter by and rabbits hop around.

A regular Smurftopia.

But then the bombs come.

Hundreds of them raining down from warplanes in the sky, wiping out the mushroom-shaped abodes. Amid the fiery explosions, Smurfette is killed. Papa Smurf disappears. As the smoke clears, only an orphaned Baby Smurf remains, sobbing among the corpses.

No, this is not some pipe dream of Gargamel. The Smurfocide was instead perpetuated by the United Nations Children's Fund, or UNICEF.

For the G33KS...

You know you wanna go here.

"World Helpless Against Assaults of Nature"

By CALVIN WOODWARD, Associated Press Writer
Tue Oct 11, 4:15 AM ET

WASHINGTON - In a more hopeful time, buoyed by the promise of science, it was thought hurricanes could be tricked into dispersing, earthquakes could be disarmed by nuclear explosions and floodwaters held at bay by great mounds of dirt.

Such conceits are another victim of a year of destruction.

The planet's controlling forces romp over dreams like those. Usually the best that can be done is to see the danger coming long enough to run.

Rich and poor nations have taken the hit over a period so twisted in nature's assaults that one month, rich is helping poor and the next, poor is helping rich as best it can, and then the poor gets slammed once again.

The United States, giver of tsunami aid in December, accepted hurricane aid from some of those same countries in September. Now it is giving to South Asia a second time, in response to the weekend earthquakes. India is sending tents, food, blankets and medicine to its foe, Pakistan, geology briefly shoving aside geopolitics.

More than 176,000 people died in the earthquake and tsunami of December; an estimated 20,000 to 30,000 in the quake Saturday; perhaps 1,000 or more in Guatemalan landslides last week; more than 1,200 in Katrina. Asian beaches, mountainous Kashmir villages and American urban streets and casinos all were overwhelmed.

It wasn't supposed to be this way.

Proof that customer service will kill you.

*This rant courtesy of Dr. Devious.

Burn the souls of these peasants who cannot operate machinery. Destroy all of those who take their opposable thumbs for granted. Incinerate the ignorant masses who cannot spell simple words, use capitalization or punctuation. Let loose the dogs of war and point them at the "1337speek" community who will forever roast in the lava pits of hell. By decree, I command thee!

WildTimes

WildTimes
Originally uploaded by littledevilworks.

For my favorite work friend who says that the color pink makes him itch.

Headlines from Jay, and Quote of the Day

From last night's Headlines with Jay Leno:

"Britney Spears gives birth, releases fragrance"

-Associated Press

From last night's A Word a Day:

You can't do anything about the length of your life, but you can do something about its width and depth.

-H.L. Mencken, writer, editor, and critic (1880-1956)

It Makes no Sense

I'm watching devastating footage of the Pakistani earthquake and listening to the death count as they predict it will approach 20 or thirty THOUSAND and then I'm watching the sportscaster comment on the Angels' win over footage of the fans and players pouring liquor over each other. And it seems like such a waste.

OH. MY. GOD.

Ok people, I live in LA. I don't see stars all the time, but I do see them occasionally. I've also worked in a variety of theatre jobs where I met a lot of famous people. The point is, I don't get starstruck/awestruck/overexcited/tongue-tied easily. I'm usually pretty cool.

Jeffrey Katzenberg of Dreamworks just called here to talk to my boss. From Bombay. INDIA.

Just. A. Little. Unglued.

The flip side of the dollar.

It's a good thing $1 buys me so much in this building.

My beautiful commission stenographer job was supposed to pay me $1000. Well it did, but after taxes I'm down to $777 and counting. Guess there's more popcorn and soda in my future if I want to keep paying for school.

Just how far does $1 really go?

Despite popular myth that you can't get much for a dollar, I'll tell you what $1 will buy you in our building:

* An ice cold can of a delightful carbonated beverage (24 choices, 12 of them diet!)
PRICE TAG = 50 cents

* A microwave bag of popcorn to be popped at the microwave on any of the floors in the building.
PRICE TAG = 50 cents

* Beating the midafternoon munchies: PRICELESS!

Picture Perfect

Picture Perfect
Originally uploaded by littledevilworks.

Anyone up for playing a little hooky today? Meet me here.

The Reviews

In my post about nothing interesting yesterday I completely forgot to give my weekend movie/tv smackdown:

* The Wedding Date - I wasn't expecting much from this movie with Debra Messing and Dermot Mulroney, but it was romantic and cute, if not overly deep or intellectual. 3 stars for good, solid entertainment.

* Wall Street - Caught this one on TV and thought it was so-so. Sure Michael Douglas is the quintissential 80's millionaire bastard Gordon Gekko, and Charlie Sheen is the young prodigy Bud Fox who ultimately screws the millionaire, but I just couldn't relate. It reminded me a of a great book though - Liar's Poker by Michael Lewis, a book on the mayhem within Salomon Brothers and the ultimate downfall of the junk bond era. The book I would recommend... the movie.... eh.

* Prime Suspect, Season 1 - Not a movie, but DVD's from Netflix. This quirky BBC crime drama features Helen Mirren, Tom Wilkinson, and a zany British cast in a somewhat gruesome and kinky murder detective series. Think Law & Order in the UK. The mini-series was 4 episodes spent on 1 case and it was pretty good. I'm signing up for Season 2.

The weekend report.

Not too much to report this weekend. Yup, occasionally I lead a rather boring life. I used this weekend to accomplish the following:

* Sleeping in!
* Homework, school project, reading.
* Knitting knitting knitting. (And I found a cool new knitting group to hang with!)
* Website design (which just reminds me that while I may be fairly good at print work, I need to learn lots for web!)
* Cleaning and various household chores.
* Birthday party for a good friend - wine and chocolate, can't beat that.

The week promises to be super busy: more homework, big meeting at work, and projects as always. Superfab manicure tomorrow night (desperately in need) and much more bad TV to DVR. See ya back at work folks.

Alias - Or as I like to call it, who the hell am I watching?

In deference to my father, who I know reads this blog dutifully and probably hasn't watched his DVR'd Alias yet, I will not spill anything from last night's episode beyond the opening credits. Correct me if I'm wrong, but nearly everyone pictured in the credits for this season is brand new save Jennifer Garner and Victor Garber. When did one my favorite shows sustain a mass exodus? And further, why wasn't I properly notified?

In Need of a Bitch Slap

Just this week comedian Joan Rivers said Holmes's engagement to Cruise was a wise career move.

"Each woman has done very well by him - Nicole Kidman, Penelope Cruz," she said. "So this one ... who doesn't seem to have much talent, is probably the luckiest of all."

And the funnies, they just keep on coming....

The Winner Is... Fake Dog Testicle Creator
By MICHAEL KUNZELMAN, Associated Press Writer
Fri Oct 7, 9:04 AM ET

BOSTON - Gregg Miller mortgaged his home and maxed out his credit cards to mass produce his invention — prosthetic testicles for neutered dogs.

What started 10 years ago with an experiment on an unwitting Rottweiler named Max has turned into a thriving mail-order business. And on Thursday night Miller's efforts earned him a dubious yet strangely coveted honor: the Ig Nobel Prize for medicine.

"Considering my parents thought I was an idiot when I was a kid, this is a great honor," he said. "I wish they were alive to see it."

The Ig Nobels, given at Harvard University by Annals of Improbable Research magazine, celebrate the humorous, creative and odd side of science.

Miller has sold more than 150,000 of his Neuticles, more than doubling his $500,000 investment. The silicone implants come in different sizes, shapes, weights and degrees of firmness.

The product's Web site says Neuticles allow a pet "to retain his natural look" and "self esteem."

With news like this,

who needs to waste energy being creative?

***

London to Get Sexual 'Theme Park'

LONDON - Move over, Eros. Developers announced plans Friday to open a multimillion dollar sexual "theme park" near London's Piccadilly Circus, home to the much-photographed statue of the Greek god of love.

Backers say the London Academy of Sex and Relationships, due to open next spring, will not be a sleazy sex museum, but an educational multimedia attraction that will teach visitors to become better lovers and provide valuable information about disease and sexual problems.

Located within the Trocadero entertainment center — just around the corner from Soho, London's red-light district — the $8.3 million project will feature unspecified "high tech and interactive exhibits."

"Titillation is not the goal. It's meant to be educational. It's meant to be informative."

No comment.

Silent Scientology birth for Tom and Katie?
Group's birth principles call for no music or talking during labor

Updated: 12:01 p.m. ET Oct. 7, 2005

While Hollywood awaits a due date for Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes' baby, one thing is already a known fact — when the baby does arrive, Scientology will play a major role.

Tom and Katie are likely to follow the church's "silent birth" guidelines during delivery, which means no music and no talking during the birth, which also means no screaming during the pains of labor.

The doctrine also states that newborns cannot be poked or prodded for medical tests or even spoken to for the first seven days of their lives, believing that babies go through so much pain during the birth, they shouldn't have to experience any further discomfort or sensory experience that could return later in life to haunt them.

Word of the Day

Leptodactylous (lep-tuh-DAK-tuh-luhs)
adjective

If you are still stuck to those tired words to describe your sweetie,
here is a new one for you. Leptodactylous means having fine, slender
digits. No, not, digits on a bathroom scale or on a bank account.
Here digit means a toe or a finger.

It all sounds Greek to me: from lepto- (thin) and -dactylous (fingered
or toed).

Midterming it up.

I leave you, while I head to my midterm, with the following thought.

Courtesy of Fortune:

Moto's ROKR is a STINKR

To return to previous laughs...

Enter GoogleBombing.

See Google's Blog Response.

Also see Wikipedia's Defition.

A Google bomb or Google wash is a certain attempt to influence the ranking of a given page in results returned by the Google search engine. Due to the way that Google's PageRank algorithm works, a page will be ranked higher if the sites that link to that page all use consistent anchor text. A Google bomb is created if a large number of sites link to the page in this manner. Google bomb is used both as a verb and a noun.

And I must be PMSing...

Because a story I read in Fortune Magazine almost made me cry.

Excerpts from "The Only Lifeline Was Walmart,"
Fortune Magazine, Vol 152, No. 7, October 3, 2005, p. 74

"Jessica Lewis couldn't believe her eyes. Her entire community - Waveland, Miss., a Gulf Coast resort town of 7,000 - had been laid waste by the storm, and Lewis, co-manager of the local Wal-Mart, was asessing the damage to her store. Trudging through nearly two feet of water in the fading light, Lewis thought, How are we ever going to clean up this mess?

That quickly became the least of Lewis's worries. As the sun set on Waveland, a nightmarish scene unfolded on Highway 90. She saw neighbors wandering around with bloody feet because they had fled their homes with no shoes. 'It broke my heart to see them like this,' Lewis recalls. 'These were my kid's teachers. Some of them were my teachers. They were my neighbors. They were my customers.'

Lewis felt there was only one thing to do. She had her stepbrother clear a path through the mess in the store with a bulldozer. Then she salvagged everything she could and handed it out in the parking lot. She gave socks and underwear to shivering Waveland police officers who had climbed into trees to escape the rising water. She handed out shoes to her barefoot neighbors and diapers for their baibies. She gave people bottled water to drink and sausages, stored high in the warehouse, that hadn't been touched by the flood. She even broke into the pharmacy and got insulin and drugs for the AIDS patients.

'This is the right thing to do,' she recalls thinking. 'I hope by bosses aren't going to have a problem with that.'

Wal-Mart, America's biggest company, is many things to many people - discounter extraordinaire, union buster, guardian of small town virtues, wrecker of small town shops - but about one thing there is no question: It is the repository of the nation's stuff. And for the people whose lives were stripped bare by Katrina, it was mundane stuff that meant the difference between life and death. Lewis was one of thousands of Wal-Mart employees who delivered, and no, her bosses don't have a problem with what she did."

Brilliant Assvice.

Lower your voice and strengthen your argument.

-Lebanese proverb

*sheepish grin*

So I went to therapy after work tonight which was a good thing 'cause I'm still working on some issues (aren't we all?).

So I had a good cry.

So I had to cheer myself up.

So I bought 2 balls of yarn at Michaels. (**Stash begins to rival that of a premier yarn factory, I would advise you to buy stock in Michaels and yarn at the rate I'm going)

So there must have been a local science project going on because crazy parents were fighting over styrofoam balls in the aisles.

So I'm AMAZINGLY glad I'm not doing a solar system project this week.

So that was my night.

So, thanks for reading. :)

Mission: Spermpossible

Tom Cruise, Katie Holmes Expecting Baby

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Movie star Tom Cruise and his fiance, actress Katie Holmes, are expecting a baby together, a spokeswoman for the actor said on Wednesday.

Hmmm...

Dear Laura,

Here is your horoscope for Wednesday, October 5:

There aren't too many people brave (or foolhardy) enough to challenge you -- and if anyone should know better, it's your partner. Emotions are funny things, though. They're totally unpredictable and even more spontaneous. Prepare to do battle. Just in case.

QOTD:

"Vocations which we wanted to pursue, but didn't, bleed, like colors, on the whole of our existence."

-Honore de Balzac, novelist (1799-1850)

And the posts, they keep coming.

An enterprising young soul in the UK has come up with a winner of an idea, The Million Dollar Homepage. Makes my Dean's List look kinda dumb huh?

A book review...

Well I review movies, so I might as well review books I squeeze in between studies, knitting, DVDs and that little thing called work.

Angels & Demons by Dan Brown
I started this on Friday evening about 6pm, and except for a brief break, finished about 2am. Yes, it was that riveting and that exciting. I COULD NOT put it down. The best part about it is that it is grounded loosely in facts. Yes it is a fictional account, but there are enough real details about pieces of artwork or symbols or historical groups that the whole thing just sucks you in. I can't say anymore, because I cannot give anything away, but you must read this book.

And while you're at it, then read the sequel, The Da Vinci Code, which is going to be a movie.

That pesky B-School Dean has my name again...

Oh wait... that was the DEAN'S LIST. Guess I did something right. ;)

And check it out - we're #10!

Take that Mr. Gates!

Google, Sun in Challenge to Microsoft

By MATTHEW FORDAHL, AP Technology Writer
2 minutes ago

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. - Google Inc. took a step toward challenging Microsoft Corp.'s dominance of computer software with the announcement Tuesday of a collaboration agreement with Sun Microsystems Inc.

The move could lead to Google offering next-generation word processing, spreadsheet and collaboration tools that would take on Microsoft's industry-leading Office suite of software.

But for now its significance may be mostly as a symbolic shot across Microsoft's bow, signaling Google's intention of attacking the world's biggest software company head on.

Aside from a plan to offer Google's toolbar program with downloads of Java software, details of the agreement were scant. Though it could lead to a new pipeline for Sun software to millions of computers, there was no firm commitment.

OpenOffice, an offshoot of Sun's StarOffice, is a leading challenger to the ubiquitous Office suite, a major cash cow for Microsoft. Both offer a word processor and spreadsheet among other applications.

"OpenOffice is already an alternative, but if Google gets involved in supporting it, that could be the thing that puts it over the top," said Forrester Research analyst John R. Rymer.

Both Sun and Google share the common root of Stanford University. Sun — short for Stanford University Network — was founded there in the 1980s, while Google got its start there in the 1990s. And one of Sun's co-founders, Andy Bechtolsheim, gave Google's Larry Page and Sergey Brin $100,000 in 1998 to incorporate their young search company.

Sun has lost $4.5 billion since June 2001, although the Santa Clara, Calif.-based company has recently started to show signs of recovery.

While Sun has been struggling, Google's fortunes have steadily risen. Though best known as a search engine, it now offers free e-mail, maps, instant messaging, video and last week announced it wants to provide free Wi-Fi to San Francisco.

Apparently I have lied.

I apologize wholeheartedly to my readership and thank Spazrobot for bringing this crucial piece of information to my attention. I am deeply and mortally ashamed.

Too much TV

For a graduate student, I seem to be watching staggering amounts of television. Well ok, I don't watch it in regular time, I watch on DVR so that I can skip the commercials, thereby saving myself time. As we always say in my family, the more you watch, THE MORE you save!

So here's what I'm tuning into this fall...

1. Gilmore Girls - my only teenybopper WB guilty pleasure
2. House - gotta love Hugh Laurie, 'cause he's such a bastard
3. CSIs - The original is my favorite, but I tune in for Miami and NY too!
4. The West Wing - my old standby and new with Jimmy Smits!
5. Alias - I'm not sure how I'm liking this so far. *spoiler alert* What the hell did they do to Vaughn?
6. Without a Trace - I got hooked midway though last season. Anthony LaPaglia is great!

New shows:
7. Inconceivable - I love Ming Na and the show just might be ok
8. Grey's Anatomy - Sandra Oh is fabulous - I'm Netflixing season one to catch up
9. E-Ring - if you can get beyond Benjamin Bratt's ears (and boy do they stick out) it's a great show.

Now, that right there is 11 hours of TV a week, beyond what I devote to my Netflix on the weekend and the crappy TV I watch when nothing else is on and the DVR is empty.

And that my friends, is really sort of sad. If you hear a huge sucking sound, it's just the TV sucking my brain out.

Marketing Boo-boos.

When you're a marketing student you learn that you must be exceedingly careful when you publish taglines. You learn about all the little international language mishaps, as well as things you send out that you wish you hadn't.

My age old favorite example is the Chevy Nova. It didn't sell too well in Mexico because Nova, rather than being seen as the star that it is, was see as No-Va or "No go." Now why would you buy a car that doesn't go?

So in that spirit, I give you the email I just received a few moments ago:

From: The Territory Ahead
Date: Today, 4:09pm
Subject: How to Win the Cold War
Tagline: In times of failed clothing diplomacy, shearling is the warmest way to keep the peace.

Now really... who thought that was funny?

Sassy Sprite?

You are a dragonfly sprite! You are a natural leader, people are somewhat drawn to you and see you as someone to look up to but you only pay attention to them if they are useful, your equal or your superior. You tend to follow your instincts.


Which sensational sprite are you?
brought to you by Quizilla

Quote of the Day

"The voice of conscience is so delicate that it is easy to stifle it; but it is also so clear that it is impossible to mistake it."

-Madame De Stael, writer (1766-1817)

Whoa Dude!

Whoa Dude!
Originally uploaded by littledevilworks.

I've always loved the ocean. It's not the beach (I don't enjoy sand in places I didn't know I had), but it's the rhythymic ebb and flow of the tide, the sound of the waves crashing against the shore, and the expansiveness that makes everything else seem a little less significant.

Otherwise there is not much to report from my perch on the couch. Knitting is going swimmingly (ok, ok, a bad pun given the picture above) well, and Six Feet Under, Season 4 has been watched. All that's left to do is return to work and kick off yet another week. Isn't it the holidays yet?

Help help.. I've fallen onto my couch and I can't stop watching America's Next Top Model.

Gotta love those VH1 marathon sessions which go from twelve finalists to one winner in 11 hours. And NO I haven't been watching that long. I did however clean and reorganize the yarn stash and some of the crap around my apartment, and things are relatively clean. I think I'm still procrastinating about studying though - is there a cure for school apathy?

In the good news - USC trumped ASU 38-28. It was a little scary there for a bit, but the Trojans did their thing and rocked the final quarter. Fight on!