Image by Dixie_Native.

Yes, it's summer solstice here in Land Down Under. I celebrated by planting some flowers (alstromeria lilies, my favourite flower) and some herbs (catnip, rosemary, parsley, and coriander, all of which are for the kitchen except for the catnip, which is for the cat), and repotting a few things (one of my office cacti, a pot of what I think are some sort of violets, and the avocado pit we grew in a jar of water on the window ledge).

For those of you in the Northern Hemisphere, well, happy winter solstice.

I've been subscribed for some time to Yahoo's Word of the Day. And so far, not even one of the words has been one I didn't already know. Pathetic, I know. I'm a word nerd. I have a huge vocabulary, filled with all kinds of interesting and cool words, most of which I'm very unlikely to ever actually use in a real conversation (though I will admit to using the word "paradigm" in everyday conversation - though not every day - which says rather a lot about me, and I'm not sure it's entirely flattering).

I've had a look around the net, but so far I haven't found a Word of the Day that looks like it will really do much for me, so I thought I'd just ask people. If you know of one that's fairly challenging and for general vocabulary (as opposed to specialty technical vocabularies), please, please drop me a line and let me know. I'm okay with email subscription, though I prefer RSS. If I can find a good WotD that actually lets me learn interesting new words at least once in a while, I'll even accept subscription by carrier pigeon!

Barack Obama has a Twitter feed. Somehow, I doubt that he's the actual one doing the Twittering, though. He's probably got some assistant or aide or something. The Tweets are pretty impersonal. Still, might be worth following if you're interested in this sort of thing.

Hmm, actually, it seems that Darth Vader has a Twitter feed, as well. I have to admit, the Dark Lord's feed is a lot more entertaining than Obama's...

(I'm practicing my attention-grabbing headlines again. You like?)

A couple nights ago, Andrew forgot to put the rubbish out. As he was already undressed and in bed when he remembered, I got the honour of taking the bins out. On my way back inside, I encountered a rather charming creature on the patio, a Great Grey Slug. I watched it for a little while, because I happen to like slugs, and then I came inside and looked up slugs on the net, because at the time, I wasn't sure what sort of slug it was, and I'm a nerd who needs to know these things.

In the process, I came across a site with information on actually keeping slugs inside your bathroom to clean the tiles. Wow! Apparently, they can live in the drain, and they come out at night and eat the mold and mildew off the grouting and fixtures. How cool is that? Pet slugs who clean your bathroom for you!

We'll be thinking seriously about this. As I said, I quite like slugs, and I'd be happy to have them live in the bathroom and clean the place up at night. Very cool, indeed.

I hope this will be the last entry in the ongoing saga of my unfair suspension from eBay (more entries on my unfair eBay suspension, the letter I sent to eBay regarding this unfair suspension, and an entry on my father-in-law's unfair eBay suspension, and yes, I'm deliberately "seeding" those links so that search engines will more easily pick them up).

I got the email from eBay a couple hours ago (i.e., outside of Australian work hours, which means it was handled from somewhere else). There were two things to note. Firstly, there was no apology whatsoever, even though it was entirely their error. Secondly, they spelled my name wrong, despite having documentation in front of them (they even said in the email that they had reviewed the documentation!).

They also didn't mention whether they had removed the board restriction which led to all this. I have zero intention of posting on eBay's boards, but if my husband were to do so (since we share an IP address), we might have to go through this whole rigamarole again.

Meanwhile, my father-in-law has lodged a formal complaint against eBay with the Fair Trade Commission, complete with supporting documentation. He contacted eBay support SIX times and just got the runaround from them, so he just filed a complaint. What good it may do, I don't know, but I hope he gets some satisfaction from it, in whatever way it comes.

And my brother-in-law, whose account was the first one suspended (apparently), just got fed up with them, deleted all eBay cookies, and got a new account, which is, of course, against the rules, but I'm not going to tell eBay about it. I have, of course, just published it in my blog, but I think the odds of any human at eBay actually reading my blog are slim to none, and, well, I can't say I care much if my brother-in-law's account gets suspended again because he's actually breaking the rules (as opposed to not breaking them and getting suspended).

This was posted on the eBay Australia discussion board. The seller, rock_lite_amplifiers, gave me permission to post it here. I asked, because I knew eBay was going to delete it. Apparently, they already deleted it several times. The seller also confided in me that at least five other exemplary sellers wrote to them to say that eBay had done the same thing to them. Ebay doesn't want sellers. They don't want buyers (my buying account was suspended for no reason, along with my brother-in-law and my father-in-law). They don't seem to know what they're doing.

Anyway, here's the post, for posterity's sake, if nothing else. Ebay can't delete it from my blog (though if they put two and two together, they may never reinstate my buyer account).

I'll start this from the top and be as clear as possible in describing our situation and make this as black and white as possible. It really does sadden me to have to write this as I used to really love ebay and the people I've met whilst trading on this site. I expect this post will be deleted or pushed toward the back so please take the time to read it if you happen to find it.

We've been selling here as our main source of income for over four years now and have always provided a quality buying experience as you can see from our 12 month DSR ratings, yesterday we were slapped with a seller non performance flag and have been suspended from selling anything for 30 days.

Herein lies the trouble...

We decided in March to take what we thought was the next logical step in developing our systems and signed up with a certain auction management software company, the company in question will remain nameless.

Let me just say that after all the lofty promises and $700 a month fees for the software we were bitterly disappointed to find our sales plummet each month to new lows and to find that at the core is a piece of software completely unsuitable for the mid sized seller that was over complicated and cost more time then it saved.

After coming to this realization and holding out for a turn around in sales for as long as we could we decided to dump the new software and go back to the systems that worked so well for us over the previous four years...

Over the last month we decided to take a two week break and clear refresh before starting again with our old reliable systems, after the break we then set to work on redesigning our listings to once more work with the old systems we had in place before, three weeks of the month gone.

We then began listing again and as three weeks of the month had passed we only managed roughly a quarter of our monthly sales volume, two customers of which left neutral feedback one warranted the other was a buyer who did not follow the basic payment guidelines required as part of our sales terms and expected the item to have been shipped before payment had been received.

Two items from that one week go missing in the post and the buyers instead of voicing concerns to us open item not received disputes directly with ebay, the items as always were replaced even though insurance was not opted for (Items yet to be received and disputes still pending). If something goes missing in the post we give the buyer the benefit of the doubt and send them another item to replace the one lost in he mail.

So for one week of sales for the month we end up with one unwarranted neutral and two item not received disputes and with only having accrued 20 something feedback for the month we were over the 5% rule. Bearing in mind that replacement items have been shipped for the items not received.

So we have one bad month 75% of which is due to circumstances beyond our control, and ebay slap us yesterday with seller non performance and have suspended us from selling for 30 days.

If we had not had to redsign our listings, etc last month we would have done our normal monthly volume of 60-80 sales and would not have even come close to the 5% rule....How does one month of listing less and selling less then normal warrant a suspension with no grounds for recourse? Am I the only one who thinks this is completely unreasonable to cut us off from our source of income for 30 days over what is at the end of the day one warranted neutral.

Ebay have taken the new rules too far and are punishing honest hard working small business owners and families for such menial slip ups, when did the seller become enemy number one around here? Perhaps just perhaps if buyers were educated better we would not be faced with the gloomy outlook we are now faced with, I have no idea how we are going to pay our bills and eat for the next month without a business to run!

I have spent the last two days emailing ebay , using live help and being fobbed off over the phone and I am fed up...How is it that trust and safety issues can only be handled via email? What sort of a company refuses to discuss the situation over the phone and hides behind generic emails that are just cut and pasted together? So far I've been disconnected twice from live chat for simply mentioning the ACCC. I have sent 8 emails to trust and safety only to receive two emails back stating the same facts and not going into our situation at all, how can every seller be treated the same when there are different circumstances in each case?

Don't get me wrong here I'm all for a better buying experience but these methods are just wrong, why are reputable sellers being forced out? Sellers who have given a lot of themselves to help build a better community and buying experience on Ebay over four and five years?

On what planet does it make sense to tell a seller to improve there record over the next twenty days then Ebay will review the case and decide if we are fit to sell again....Ummm how in gods name do we improve our record over the next twenty days without being able to sell anything? To sell without selling, please tell me we aren't expected to believe this to be logical and common sense. How does our performance improve if we haven't sold anything?

It is time we stopped being walked all over by this corporation, if we don't all make a stand against this completely irrational way of treating good honest sellers now it will only be a matter of time before a dart is thrown by ebay that hits your user ID and you suffer the same fate as we are being forced to suffer now.

I BEG ANYONE IN THIS POSITION TO POST YOUR STORY HERE, AND FILE A COMPLAINT WITH THE ACCC under section 51AA Unconscionable conduct, contact any authority or media outlet you see fit. Divided we fall people if we stand strong they have to start to hear us, otherwise before long there won't be much of a marketplace left.

My in-laws are back from a trip overseas, and it seem that my father-in-law's eBay account is suspended as well as my buying account and my brother-in-law's account (see: this entry about why eBay are morons and then the entry with more about why eBay are morons and then this entry about what I wrote to the morons at eBay if you want/need to know more about this sickening ongoing saga). It turns out that my father-in-law's account is suspended, too. Apparently, he posted to the eBay boards, protesting the "required to use PayPal" thing and eBay decided that he was my brother-in-law and my brother-in-law was me or whatever it is that they decided. My father-in-law is not impressed, to say the least.

My mother-in-law's account is intact. Apparently, she didn't post to the boards, so that was okay. You can use the same IP address (and even the same computer) but you can't post to eBay's boards from any IP address that I've used. Whatever.

I haven't heard back from eBay regarding my suspension, but I only posted the letter yesterday. The probably got it today (generally, Melbourne to Sydney is an overnight delivery). They'll almost certainly drag their feet on it. I may hear back eventually. Who knows. I don't really care that much, and that's the truth. If they want to lose a customer, it's fine with me.

I did, however, receive an unpaid item strike on account of all this bullsh*t. As it happens, I know the seller quite well and I was in contact with her as soon as my account was suspended. I asked her to invoice me. She was very sympathetic, having had her own account suspended for stupid stuff in the past. However, she's currently on vacation, and I think she must have an automated thing to file a non-paying bidder dispute after seven days. Since I am currently suspended, she automatically "won" the dispute. She can (and I'm sure she will) reverse the strike against me when she gets back from her vacation and realises what happened. In the meantime, I'm wearing a strike because eBay thinks I'm my brother-in-law.

EBay deserves every bit of bad corporate karma they're reaping in the courts these days. Until and unless they do right by their customers, they're going to fail. I don't post much about their corporate bullsh*t here, but trust me, I keep an eye on what they're up to (because I follow e-commerce trends in general, and I used to be an eBay PowersSeller until I figured out how unreliable they are as a business platform... and said so on the eBay boards back in 2006... and got suspended from them...)

In the ongoing saga of eBay unfairly suspending my buyer account, I decided to go ahead and send them the paperwork they want from me, wherein I promise not to be naughty and I prove to them that I am who I say I am. I'm not sure why I'm bothering. Mostly, I keep getting emails from eBay about various things and I have no way to turn them off. It's annoying.

So I filled out the form and ticked the boxes and I printed it out and signed it. And then I photocopied my drivers license (both sides). And then I wrote them a letter. Mind you, they may well take exception to my attitude and refuse to reinstate my account, but I wasn't willing to just meekly accept that I was in the wrong, because I wasn't. Not this time. (I fully accept, as I've mentioned before, the suspension from eBay's discussion boards, and I have honoured that by not posting there since 2006).

Here's what I wrote:

To whom it may concern:

I have filled out and signed the required form and photocopied my Victoria Drivers License. Note that I have copied both sides, as we've moved and my address has changed. The address on the back is the current one, and is the one registered with eBay.

I am familiar with the rule under which my account was suspended, but I would like to note that I did not actually violate this rule. Back in 2006, I was suspended from the eBay boards (but NOT from eBay trading). I chose not to appeal and I have abided by the restriction and have not posted to the boards since then.

However, several months ago, my husband's brother was visiting our home and he used our internet service in order to connect to eBay (he is a buyer and a seller; I am a buyer ONLY). Apparently, he posted to the eBay boards. Ebay, in their wisdom, decided to suspend his account and mine, as well. Until the day my account was suspended, I didn't even know what his username was. I only worked out what had actually happened by piecing it together for myself; eBay's customer support was no help whatsoever in helping me to find out what had happened and why I was suspended!

So, yes, I certainly promise not to violate a rule that I didn't violate already and I won't let my brother-in-law use my internet service to post to eBay any more. I hope this is satisfactory.

By the way, my account has been in effect since 2000. I have spent literally thousands of dollars on eBay, and I frequently pay with PayPal, giving eBay even more money (at the sellers' expense, of course, but still, eBay pockets it). I have 100% feedback on my account.

Suspending me for something I didn't do, refusing to help me work out what actually happened and why I was being suspended, and now requiring me to promise I won't do it again (without even telling me what "it" was that I supposedly did; I'm fortunate that I was clever enough to figure it out, otherwise I'd still be wondering!) and send you copies of my personal documents isn't really what I call improving the buyer experience.

Please reinstate my account. I apologise for allowing my brother-in-law to use my internet service to post to eBay boards (though I didn't know he did it, nor did I think it would be a problem, given that he's not suspended from the boards and I haven't posted to them since my suspension from them in 2006).

While I'm at it, perhaps you might lift my board suspension to prevent this from ever happening again. I don't want to post on the boards (when I was suspended, I accepted it fully and was somewhat relieved, as a matter of fact), but I don't like the idea that if my husband were to log on from our shared internet service and post there (not that he does or would, but it's within the realm of possibility at some point), we'll have to go through this song and dance again.

I want you to know that this experience has left a bitter taste in my mouth. I am a good and regular buyer. I didn't deserve this treatment, nor did my brother-in-law. I don't know if you've also suspended my father-in-law and/or mother-in-law; they used the same internet service (I doubt they posted to the boards, though).

Thank you for your time. It is my hope that eBay will, for once, do the right thing.

As I wrote a couple days ago, my eBay buying account has been suspended. Note that my husband's account has not been suspended. Nor has my selling account (which doesn't actually have a seller component attached to it at the moment). Only my BUYING account.

After some detective work and help from third parties, I've worked out the the other user they think is me is actually my brother-in-law, David (who, by the way, still has not contacted me about this, despite the fact that he knows I was suspended; I had to work it out entirely on my own). Until this suspension, I had no clue what his eBay username even was, nor did I care.

What appears to have happened is that six months or so ago, David was visiting our home and he logged on to eBay via our wireless network (with permission, of course). While he was logged on, he posted to the eBay forums. Now, six months or so later, eBay suddenly compared IP addresses or something and decided that he was me and that I had violated my suspension from eBay's boards (which I most certainly have not done).

And in order for eBay to reverse their mistake, they expect me to fax or post them private documents to prove my identity. This is a BUYER account, folks. It is not a seller who needs eBay to make enough money to pay the electricity bill. This is someone who comes to eBay with the intention of BUYING things. You know, the person whose experience eBay is always talking about improving? Yeah. And because my brother-in-law, who did NOT have a suspension, posted to eBay's forums while visiting my home, I now am expected to jump through hoops to prove to eBay that it's really okay to let me buy things on their site.

They deserve to lose a buyer.

I haven't yet decided if I can be bothered to do this. I do NOT agree that I violated any rules, because I did not (it's not against the rules to allow a relative to use your wireless internet, no matter how eBay spins it). There are plenty of other places on the net that I can spend my money (and it's getting close to when I start doing Christmas shopping, actually). Do I care enough to send them in photocopies of my drivers' license and other documents they have no need to see in the first place? Hmmm.... tough call....

I saw something this morning that has been weighing heavily on my heart all day. After I took Miranda to school, I stopped at the bank to get some cash out. When I got out of the car, I saw a dog, some sort of bull terrier (the ones with the big, broad skulls), chained to a post. It was looking very anxiously at people and making kind of whimpery/excited noises. I went over to the dog to pet it, since it seemed so anxious.

While I was there with it, a man came out of one of the shops with a dish of water. He said, "Is this your dog?" and I said, "Oh, no, I just came over to pet it." I talked to him a bit more, and it seems the dog had been there for quite some time. Like, since very early in the morning. And there was absolutely no sign of the dog's owner. He did tell me that they had looked up the name of an animal welfare group and they would be calling if the dog remained there. I felt both relieved and saddened.

The dog was very sweet, and seemed so very anxious. She (I assume it was a she; I didn't really look all that hard, though) would have happily climbed into my lap and had a big cuddle with me if there had been an opportunity. She was just so happy that some person was there with her, paying attention to her. Poor, sweet dog. I suspect that some coward brought the dog out there in the small hours of the morning and chained it up and just left it, knowing that people in the shops would see it and eventually call animal welfare. This was a nice dog, very obviously a dog that wanted to be with people, wanted to please people. And there she was, abandoned on the street like somebody's rubbish...

I hope very much that this sweet doggy ends up being placed with some nice family or person who will love and appreciate what a lovely dog she is. Big, happy grin, such gratefulness for attention, so affectionate... I hope she gets a new "pack" where she can be properly cared for and treasured. And yes, I already mentioned this to God.

As for the person who left her there, I just want to say that what goes around comes around, and you will certainly reap the harvest from the seeds you sow with your attitudes, your actions, and your unwillingness to take responsibility for those in your care. I'm not worried. It'll come back to you. It always does. Always.

Got some weird sh*t from eBay today.

First, a notice that my "bid" had been cancelled on an item I bought months ago via BuyItNow. Item was bought, paid for, has been received. I have no clue how/why they would cancel a "bid" on an item I bought months ago. Weird, I think.

Then I go on to the next email and find that my account has been suspended.

This is an account I've had since 2000. It's my primary buying account, and it's associated with a PayPal account, so it's not like they can't check out who I am. I have literally thousands of dollars worth of purchases on that account, and 100% feedback. I have never done anything with that account except buy (I don't think I've even posted on any boards with it).

A few years ago, when I got just a little to outspoken on the eBay boards, they suspended my posting ability. They suspended my selling account (which I still have but no longer use), my posting ID, and my buying account from using the boards. No biggie (I was sick of the boards anyway), but they did manage to CORRECTLY figure out which accounts where mine.

This time, though, they can't work it out. They just plain suspended my buying account:

Hello [username], [email address]

We regret that your eBay account has been suspended due to the following policy violation:

*Previously Suspended User*
eBay prohibits users who are currently suspended from registering new accounts. Our records indicate that your account is associated with the following previously suspended account(s):
mysterycoms

To familiarise yourself with this policy, go to:

http://pages.ebay.com.au/help/policies/rfe-previously-suspended.html

For details on our other policies, go to:

http://pages.ebay.com.au/help/policies/overview.html

Due to the suspension of your account you are prohibited from using eBay in any way. This includes registering a new account.

Please note that this does not relieve you of your obligation to pay any fees you may owe to eBay.

Thank you for your cooperation.

Regards,

eBay International AG

My only response to this is.... WTF? I have NO CLUE who that user is. I have NO CLUE why they would associate my buying account with that user. And they clearly have NO CLUE because they haven't suspended my other accounts.

I'm in two minds about this. One part of me wants to fight it and show them that they screwed up YET AGAIN. Another part of me says, "Pffft. F**kit. They want to get rid of a 100% FB buyer, well, let them!"

Is there any way to appeal an eBay suspension? There doesn't appear to be....

Okay, just now I went and investigated a bit more. Apparently, I owe them $0 and this is why my account has been suspended. I'm not making that up.

Your account balance is: AU $0.00 as of Dec-22-05 07:53:36 PST

They give me the option of paying them by DirectPay, Credit Card, or I can mail in a money order. For ZERO dollars. On a seller account that I don't have (all my seller accounts are closed). For some association with some other user I've never heard of. I mean, W. T. F.

Okay, just for fun I tried to make a one-time payment of ZERO dollars. The system won't let me.

Honestly, what a bunch of idiots. They go on and on about how they want to "improve the buying expeirence"? Well, this isn't improving my buying experience... Really, I'm just to the point of not caring any more. They can't manage to keep their accounts straight and their stuff in order, well, they DESERVE to lose a customer.

For all of you who are still American or who celebrate American Independence Day. I was quite taken by the butterfly design on this graphic for various reasons.

Well, we managed to exceed our monthly bandwidth limit. What happens is when it's reached, you can still get on the net and all, and there's no extra charge, but they slow the connection speed. It's quite painful. The problem is that for a while we had an extra person using the network, and the network just can't tolerate that extra... Especially when it looks like there were very BIG things being downloaded (what, I have no idea; music? videos? no clue).

Anyway, things are quite slow and if I don't post a lot, well, that's why. Watching things spin while looking at a blank page is pretty tiresome, and believe it or not, I do actually have other things I can be doing. People sometimes think I haven't got a life in the non-virtual world, but I do. Having a nice, fast internet connection enables me to actually attend to them, too, rather than watching things spin while looking at a blank page...

It really irritates me when people are selling things (on eBay or elsewhere) and they really have no clue what they're selling. For example, there was a pendant I was interested in and it was listed as "German Silver". Now, German Silver can mean that it's a silver-coloured base metal made of some alloy of tin, zinc, nickel, etc. OR it can mean actual silver which is simply below the standard for sterling (such as .800 or .900 as opposed to .925 purity). To me, it's important to know what it is, because I have real problems with costume jewellery (my skin is very acidic, and base metal tends to turn black, green, and other nasty colours, and the jewellry is ruined very quickly).

So I wrote to this seller to ask what is was. I was very polite. This is the reply I got:

When I list an item for auction I am obliged to list it as it is. When I purchase items that are sold to me as German Silver I have to state that is what it is. I am not an expert in metal and therefore am not able to comment on the standard of one as opposed to the other.

Uh, right. They might as well have said, "I have no idea what I'm selling." Seriously, that's precisely what they're saying. They don't know anything about jewellery, they don't know anything about precious metals as opposed to base metals. I mean, I'm no metallurgist, but it's not all that difficult to learn basic things like whether the item you're selling is base metal or actual silver, is it?

People like this are the ones who make online trading such a big risk, particularly through eBay or similar sites. And yeah, it does irritate me. No, you don't have to be an expert, but you could at least have some damned clue what you're offering the public!

Rant over.

I just want to give a public thumbs up to Amazon and their customer service. Several weeks ago, I ordered four books and paid for expedited shipping. I wasn't in any particular rush, mind you, but it's not that much more for the expedited and I get very bored with waiting for them to get around to shipping. I'll take my chances with the actual postal services, but if I can give Amazon a few extra bucks to pack my stuff and post it sooner, well, sometimes it's worth it.

Anyway, they split the order into two packages for whatever reason it is that Amazon does these things (presumably, it has to do with shipping weights). The two packages were supposed to ship on the same day. I got one of the two packages, which contained two books. I waited patiently for the other, thinking that perhaps it just got mixed up in the Christmas scuffle or something like that. Eventually, I realised that the package was way, way overdue, and I wrote to Amazon's customer service department to politely enquire.

Well, they did whatever they did (checked the tracking? looked up various information? who knows...) and refunded my money AND sent the two books to me via international express courier. Wow. I would have been happy with EITHER of those options, but they promptly gave me both of them. Money back AND reshipping of the order. Just... wow. That's what I call customer service!

Festivus: For the Rest of Us!

I got an email today from a company in India who have been trying to get me to buy their wholesale goods (I haven't yet). Here's the message:

Dear Valued Costumer,
Now we have some Carnelian machine cut Roundel beads. I send these pictures to you. Wish that you are interesting.

*sigh* Yeah. I wish I was interesting, too...

I just finished reading Waiting for the Beatles: An Apple Scruff's Story by Carol Bedford. What a fun read! It was really evocative and easily put me in London in the late 1960s, sitting outside the Abbey Road EMI studios, waiting for the Beatles to come or go...

Carol Beford, the author, was one of the the Apple Scruffs. These were the world's most dedicated fans. They weren't groupies in the usual sense of the word, in that, they weren't offering or trying to get sexual favours from the band. Instead, they just waited for hours at a time in all kinds of weather just to get a glimpse, to say hello, to give the Beatles gifts (for birthdays, for example). The Apple Scruffs eventually even produced their own magazine!

I was quite interested in the insights into George Harrison's personality offered by this book. The author formed a friendship with him and while I don't entirely understand why she basically walked away from him (well, I kind of get it, but she may have left some stuff out that would make it clearer) and ended their friendship, I do appreciate the glimpse she gives into his personality and mannerisms. Very interesting (and, like the author, George is my favourite).

The book was published in 1985 and has been out of print for some time, so it can be hard to find. I bought a second hand copy through Amazon, but you can probably find it through your local library system if you look hard enough. Anyway, it's a really excellent read, and I enjoyed it very much. I think most Beatles fans would, as well.

It's come to my attention that someone is implicating me in some sort of backstabbing gossip sh*t-stirring campaign or something. I don't know the details. I don't bloody want to, either. I have zero time and energy for this kind of bullsh*t. It's like high school, and I HATED high school.

So, this is to the person who's instigating this crap:

Mate, get over yourself. I couldn't care less about you and your headgames. I couldn't care less about this childish bullsh*t, and you do know it's bullsh*t, I'm sure. Even you, as petty and mean-spirited as you obviously are, can't fail to appreciate that getting me involved in some sort of crap like this is petty and mean-spirited. Get a grip. You've managed to piss me off momentarily, but when I'm done being pissed off (which is likely right after I finish this blog entry and publish it), I'm going to just think you're a pathetic loser and go about my life, which, by the way, is pretty much an open book, so I don't know how anyone can think I'm secretive or sneaky in any way whatsoever. I'm totally up front with my motives and my actions. That should be obvious to anyone who bothers to take a look or who has talked to me for more than five minutes.

Okay. Enough. I've got nothing to do with this latest tempest in a teacup, and I'll be damned if I'm going to drink it down. As for you, I suggest you sit down with a nice, hot, cup of STFU, and if you don't know what that is, just Google it.

Done now. Going back to my happy life. You were only a blip on my screen. Bye.

There are a lot of Chinese in Box Hill (a suburb of Melbourne, and technically the geographic centre of the Melbourne metropolitan area), and we went there yesterday to go to the Asian grocery. Since 18 February is Chinese New Year (and an auspicious year, apparently, being a year of the Golden Boar), we decided to have Chinese style food for dinner.

While we there there, we enjoyed watching the traditional Lion Dance. Miranda was quite taken with it. Zoë seemed interested in the spectacle, but it's always hard to tell what's in Zoë's mind about things. Miranda, though, was trembling with excitement, quite literally.

I like Chinese New Year. It's a very happy holiday, very joyful. It was hard not to get swept up in the anticipation of the holiday.

Oh, and our Chinese style dinner was very nice. We had the traditional sweet pork buns, chicken soup, and a very nice pork and vegetable stir fry, with lychees and ice cream for dessert.

Oh, and the phrase that is the title of this entry means, more or less, "Best wishes and congratulations. Have a prosperous and good year." Or so I'm told.

Well, we were offline for a while. There are horrendous bushfires in Victoria and the firefront surrounded the electricity lines that bring in power from New South Wales and which connects Victoria to the rest of the country, and apparently the heat caused the circuit breakers to break.

Normally, it wouldn't be THAT big of a deal because normally Melbourne doesn't need huge amounts of power from NSW, but at the time that this happened, it was a super hot day and people were running a lot of air conditioning units and fans and so on, so the demand for power was extremely high. When the feed from NSW cut out, the city had a blackout.

We, in our home, weren't affected by it, but the host location for the server was (and so was the public transport system; I'm thankful Andrew wasn't at work in the city, because from what we saw on the news, it was pretty chaotic!).

Anyway, we're back now. Fingers crossed that there won't be any further blackouts. The weather has happily cooled down, so the demand is much lower. If they can just get those bushfires under control...

By the way, the area covered by the bushfires is enormous. I'm not good enough at numbers and conversions and finding out the area of other places, but as an estimate, I'd say the area is bigger than Wales and probably roughly the size of maybe... Vermont and New Hampshire combined...

It's summer solstice! Well, it is in the Southern Hemisphere. And it's quite hot here in Melbourne, too. I'm sitting here sweating and wearing a skirt and the top of my "tankini" swimsuit. Phew.

To those of you in the Northern Hemisphere, happy solstice to you, too, though, of course, you've got the winter one...

Anyway, happy solstice to one and all, whether sweating or freezing!

The sky is the most unnatural colour. The light is this weird yellow colour, and the sky is just strangely grey-yellow.

This is on account of the tremendous amount of smoke from the major (and I do mean MAJOR) bush fires that are to the east of us. We're not in any danger where we are, and we're not very near the fires, but on Saturday the smoke was so severe that visibility was reduced to a rather startling level (you couldn't see familiar landscapes or even more than a couple of blocks, it was very odd and spooky). Monday was very, very windy and the smoke cleared, but today it's back, and the light is this weird yellowy colour.

Very disturbing. And moreso because I know that people are fearing for their property, their livestock, maybe their very lives. I'm thankful that all I have to cope with is the smoke.

[EDIT] I've now been out and back. The funny yellowish colour is not so noticible, but the smoke out there is very thick, and you can actually smell the burning wood. Normally I like the smell of a woodfire, but this is not good, considering that the wood that's burning is buildings and forest....

Again, I saw someone make a reference to me as trying to convince people I'm an expert "on everything". I'm sure this is from the same person who has been dogging me for a while, mind you. But it still makes me wonder WTF?

There are far more things in the world that I don't know about than things that I do. Of the few specialised things that I know a fair bit about, I can speak with moderate authority on many of them, yes. I am confident in my knowledge of some areas of interest, why wouldn't I be?

The thing is, when it's something I don't know anything about, I keep my trap shut, or I only ask questions of someone who clearly understands the topic better than I. You'll never, ever see me blathering on about, say, nuclear fission. It's just not gonna happen. I know what I don't know as well as knowing what I do know.

And I also have to think that anyone who honestly thinks I claim to be an expert in everything must be an expert in NOTHING. Seriously. If I can intimidate someone by knowing a great deal about the internet or Tudor history or the obscure topic of American vs. Australian dialect, then they're pretty easily intimidated, intellectually.

This, by the way, is why I prefer to hang around with smart, technically adept people. They're not threatened by me - ohmighod - knowing things and being willing to share them. They actually want to learn stuff, and I want to learn stuff from them.

I guess it's just a geek thing. I've known for some years that most people don't actually want to know any more than they do, don't want to learn any new way of doing things, and can't stand to be around people who might know something they don't.

It's actually pretty pitiful, when you come to think about it...

As of yesterdayish, the WomenBloggers ring appears to have been restored. However, it's a couple hundred sites down, as far as I can tell (maybe not; I could be delusional as to how many sites were in the ring). Anyway, if your site was in the ring and it's not now and it should be, please resubmit.

Okay, I've been running the WomenBloggers webring for a while now, and it's been a tremendous success, hugely busy, hundreds of active sites, etc.

Today I went to do some routine ring business and guess what? No sites in it. Not one. All gone. Poof.

I've written to my account rep at webrng.org to ask what happened and if it can be restored. I hope that it can. If it can't, I don't know what I'm going to do, because I have no means of contacting those hundreds of members to even let them know there's a problem.

This is bad. Very bad. Here's hoping thye have proper backups and can restore the ring. I'm actually a paid member there now, so I'm going to be extremely cross if this turns out to be something that can't be fixed.

We went to USA Foods last week and one of the treats I got was some Welch's Grape Juice. I'm having some right now. Mmmmmmm. Blood of Christ. (Note: I'm not being rude; I grew up in the Presbyterian church and we always used Welch's Grape Juice for communion, and now when I taste it, I'm always reminded of taking communion).

They have grape juice here, of course, but it's not made from Concord grapes, which are, it seems uniquely American (and probably can't be imported to Australia for a million billion reasons having to do with quarantine and such). So the grape juice here is okay, nothing wrong with it, but it's not the same rich, sweet, unique flavor of Welch's.

And on the subject of Welch's, the whole fruit juice industry was pretty much started by Dr. Thomas Bramwell Welch, who, being a Methodist, wanted to find a way to make "unfermented" wine for communion services. The juice is, I believe pasteurised so that it doesn't ferment. (See, you knew I had to have a reason for mentioning the Blood of Christ, didn't you? I had a point - more or less - all along! Amazing!)

Well, I have been up to my eyeballs in webdev. Yikes. I've been setting up the shopping cart for the Uncommon Touch site, and it's been slow going, because I'm almost completely unfamiliar with the way the system works, which modules to edit to do stuff, etc.

It's looking better now, I must admit, but there are no items there yet and there are some bugs and glitches that have to be worked out still (as usual). I'm also working on how to structure the site, overall. I've pretty much decided that putting the shop as the main page is the best idea, with the blog(s) and other information in sub-directories. Toward that goal, I moved the blog to a sub-directory already, and the main page redirects to it and will until I get the shop there. Arranging that behind the scenes is going to be interesting... I'm thinking I may just make a completely new directory and move everything into that and just point the whole domain there, but that may be more trouble than its worth... *sigh*

Anyway, in the process of moving the blog there I adjusted the RSS feed (the beauty of using a third party RSS service like FeedBurner is that you can do that and nobody has to change their subscriptions or anything, as the subscription URL remains the same), and noted that this blog has subscribers. And guess what? It's more than three! It's even more than four! I was a bit surprised, actually. *waves to the subscribers*

Well, I'm going to bed now, to dream, perchance of PHP (I often dream in whatever geeky thing I'm doing at the moment).

Well. This blog has been accepted to BlogBurst, or, I suppose I should say, the BlogBurst network.

I'm not entirely sure why. I only rarely say anything that's particularly insightful (now and then I do, but most of the time I'm just blathering). Still, I applied, they accepted, there you go. My blog entries now have the possibility, however unlikely, of being picked up and syndicated by top-tier online publishers (Washington Post, for example, or the Houston Chronicle, or similar).

Personally, I think for the editors of those fine publications, it's going to be like finding needles in a haystack.

Anyway. There you go. Strange things happen in cyberspace, yanno?

Why is Weird Al my hero?

1) He's a geek. He was studying at CalPolyTech (one of those California Polytechnical places, you know, geek schools) when he had his first big hit, which was a parody of "My Sharona"

2) He's really smart.

3) He's really funny.

4) Did I mention that he's a geek?

6) His new album has a parody of one of my recent favorites, "American Idiot" (a song which I understand wasn't a big hit in the United States, though it was a hit everywhere else in the world, hmm, strange about that). The parody is "Canadian Idiot" and while I haven't heard it, I had a read of the lyrics and they're hilarious, with a nice, sharp, little gotcha kind of satire punchline at the end

7) Oh, and he's the premier accordian player in rock music today. How could any woman turn up her nose at a smart, funny, geek playing the accordian?

8) He's got a MySpace page, and I definitely suggest giving a listen to "White & Nerdy" while you're there (and, hey, "Don't Download This Song" is pretty amusing, too...)

So I got myself a new pair of ugg boots (note: NOT UGG Australia(tm) as peddled by Decker's and manufactured in China, and please note that NOBODY owns a trademark on the phrase "ugg boots" or "ugh boots" or anything similar in Australia).

These are proper sheepskin, lined with wool, reinforced toe and heel. Sheepskin is naturally water resistant, but I gave them a good coat of water repellant anyway, just to be on the safe side.

And I have to tell you, these are the MOST comfortable boots/shoes I've ever worn. I'm totally blown away. And I'm told that they actually adapt to your feet/legs so they become kind of a custom fit, so it's going to get BETTER. WOW!

In case you're interested, I got them from Snug Australia, who are based right here in Melbourne (and they ship internationally). Great boots, well worth the price, AND they're real uggs made by real Australians and not some random junk made in China and owned by Americans and pretending to be Aussie.

Got my new webcam. Had a heck of a time getting it to work on this system, for some reason. Something to do with the fact that this is Windows XP64 and not Windows XP32.

Anyway, it works now, as you can see by the unattractive picture of me on the sidebar. And I know it's unattractive because I hardly ever have good pictures taken of me, by webcam or any other means.

Someone from eBay came to Oztion with the sole purpose of buying items from me and others so that they could leave negative comments and be a pain in the neck.

eBay also has permanently removed my ability to post on their boards.

I think some people are getting nervous....

And given the way eBay Australia's traffic is declining, I can't say I'm surprised....

[EDIT] I've just found out that MANY critics of eBay have been permanently silenced. Not just in Australia, but all over the world. Those who were posting links to media articles, those who were organizing strikes or boycotts, those who were just too vocal about eBay's many, many problems and who too noticibly pointed out the stupidity of eBay's actions and the speculated on the consequences.

Mind you, these people are still allowed to SELL on eBay, so eBay is still thrilled to take their money. They just won't let them speak any more...

I can't say that I particularly blame eBay for this. I mean, I'd try to shut up my critics, too, especially if they were actually having an impact....

So I had to run out to the shops today to get some milk and a couple other odds and ends, and to make a long story short I ended up approaching a parking place from the wrong angle and I scraped the whole side of the car. Mildly dented, scraped the paint right off.... It was just me and the pole, thankfully, so it wasn't like I now have to settle with some other person, but I'm kinda bummed about it.

Just a real dumbarse maneuver, you know what I mean? *sigh*

I was never a big fan of Steve Irwin. I liked him at first, in the early-mid 90s when he used to do guest visits to Dave Letterman, but generally I found him kind of annoying. I do respect that he did a great deal for many charities and for Australian quarantine awareness and lots of animal/nature conservation, and good on him, so I'm not bagging the bloke. I'm just saying that I wasn't particularly a fan.

That being said, I was quite shocked to hear today that he'd died rather suddenly. He was apparently only the third fatal case of a stingray attack ever known in Australia (stingrays are not normally able to kill anyone). He was so much larger than life, and seemed so invincible. I mean, I saw the guy deliberately pissing off spitting poisonous cobras just to get them to spit vendom at him for the sake of a television show. That's pretty much larger than life, and seems pretty damned invincible...

Anyway. I feel for his wife and children. I can't help but do so. It's just the sort of person I am.

Continue reading "Steve Irwin"…

Wow, cool, you're exactly half my age.

I feel old.

Happy birthday, anyway.

Just wishing you a wonderful birthday and a happy, productive year ahead.

I posted this to The Perfume Blog. I may as well post it here, too:

Due to recent fee hikes by eBay, fee structures that we consider ridiculous and unwarranted, we are being forced to reconsider many things.

Foremost is our pricing. We try very hard to offer our items at good prices that are below retail and we even consider the price of the shipping when we set our prices. Now, however, eBay are going to be taking such a very large bite of the price that we will be forced to raise prices significantly or sell elsewhere.

It will no longer be viable to sell our perfumes on eBay at all, as the profit margin on them is fairly low to begin with and the many overseas sellers with false location details compete unfairly in the perfume category (or just sell fakes). Until we decide how to proceed, we will not be adding any additional inventory to our store.

We will also be preparing listings for other sites, ones that are Australian-owned and Australian-based.

Please note that this will affect ALL eBay sellers in Australia, the United States, and the UK who maintain stores, so you can look for and expect price increases across the boards, along with an increase in sellers who close their stores and/or abandon eBay entirely. (You may want to let eBay know how you feel about this.)

We recommend checking out the following Australian auction sites:

http://oztion.com.au/

http://aussiebid.com.au/

With enough support, either or both of those could give eBay a serious run for its money.

Okay, so I'm not writing here as often as I'm sometimes known to do. I can honestly say that I'm genuinely busy, and that this is, for the most part, a good thing. When I'm not busy and my mind is free to wander around, I can think of all sorts of stuff to put in this blog. This is good in that it keeps my mind occupied (there's nothing more dangerous than me with an unoccupied mind, trust me), and possibly good for readers who actually enjoy the drivel I tend to put here, but it also means that I haven't got all that much to do, or at least, that the stuff I have to do isn't diverting enough to take away from my ability to spend brain waves and time on the kind of random stuff I tend to write here.

Whew.

So I'm still selling stuff on eBay, and doing fairly well. June was bloody horrible, and I lost my PowerSeller status because my sales averages fell too low. This month, however, has been really quite good, so I should be a PS again soon (maybe next month).

Father's Day is in August, which means I need to get my backside in gear and get some men's fragrances and colognes here, and possibly some men's jewellery (cufflinks, maybe? but then again, modern dads wear earrings and even noserings, too...). Definitely the fragrances, though. I have it on excellent authority that fragrances are a big seller around Father's Day.

My Seasonal Affective Disorder isn't too bad this year, actually. I'm a bit blah, but it's not bad at all. I'm trying to keep up with the calcium and magnesium supplements, which, of course, help with the Fibromyalgia symptoms, and may help the SAD as well.

Tomorrow I have an appointment with the dentist to start the ball rolling to get my teeth out. I'm not fussed about this. Well, I am, because I've got this totally irrational and extremely painful dentaphobia (okay, technically, that means "fear of teeth" and I'm not afraid of teeth, nor of dentists, only of having people poke around in my mouth with sharp objects and other instruments, and the fear that I do have, while admittedly almost entirely irrational, is crippling). I'll have to take some Valium before I go, else I have a panic attack when I get in the chair (seriously, a full on panic attack, as in pounding heart, cold sweat, dizziness, the works).

I'm going to tell them that I just want to be done with the whole teeth business and get them all removed. I'll get plastic teeth and then I won't have to worry about the phobia or the severe gum disease that plagues me, and it'll be better in the long run. There's no way I can (or would) endure all of the multiple and costly and painful treatments for the gum disease, and it's a pretty sure bet that some of my teeth can't be saved anyway, and one of my top fron incisors has actually shifted into a weird position and it looks VERY weird. I also get bits of stuff stuck in my teeth all the time, and that can be quite painful (so I always have to have dental floss handy).

ANYway. I'm nervous. Maybe you can tell by the way I'm blathering on. I could go back and edit all of that, but I'm one of those people who, when I'm nervous, blather on endlessly, talk in loops, make stupid jokes, frequently repeat myself, etc. I may as well leave it, because this post reads exactly the way I sound when I'm nervous. And I have to tell you, thinking about going to the dentist tomorrow is definitely making me nervous.

Good thing I'm careful with that Valium. It would be so very easy to get addicted to it. Of course, that's why I'm careful with it...

The webcam, she is broken. That's why I've had the same picture there for ages. Sorry about that. I mean, if anyone actually.... noticed.

Happy winter solstice. Yes, winter. I'm in the Southern Hemisphere, remember? And if you're in the Northern one, well, happy summer solstice. You enjoy the nice, long, hot day while I'm here freezing my well-padded backside off in Melbourne and I'll do the reverse for you in six months. That is, I'll enjoy the long, hot day and you can freeze. Not in Melbourne, of course, because then you'd be in summer, too.

Anyway.

I have to laugh at Indian telemarketers.

Now before I continue, I want to make it totally crystal clear that I have no issues with Indians (or Pakistanis, come to that). Having grown up a military brat and lived all over the world, I've got a very, very accepting and even welcoming attitude toward other cultures, and skin color is pretty much meaninless to me other than in an aesthetic sense. I live quite happily in a country that prides itself on its multi-culturalism, and I think multi-culturalism is a good thing and I embrace it. Okay? Okay.

Now back to those telemarketers.

The thing that I find funny is that the phone connection is frequently terrible (I'm sure this isn't their fault, but still, it's not very professional nor is it conducive to doing business by phone). The second thing is that they'll have distinctively Indian accents, but they say their name is Tanya or Mike or Jessica or something similarly non-Indian, when you just know they're calling from Bangladesh or New Dehli... And then they'll hit on whomever answers the phone. Doesn't matter who you are, they want to read you their little spiel!

I sometimes answer the phone on behalf of my in-laws and once I told the Indian telemarketer that the person they asked for wasn't home, that I was their daughter-in-law, and I could take a message (hey, I always offer to take a message, and they never tell you up front that they're telemarketers, so who knows if it's not a legitimate call from someone with an Indian accent?). The telemarketer asked me (three times, because his accent was so thick and the connection so poor that I couldn't understand him) if I was over eighteen. He then proceeded to try to sell me some sort of mobile phone service!

On another occasion when I answered the phone for my in-laws, the telemarketer wanted to know if I could make decisions on behalf of my mother-in-law. I said no, but then when "Tanya" told me what she was selling (some telephone service, gee, the quality of the phone line doesn't make me want to switch, yanno?) I did make a decision on behalf of my mother-in-law. I said, "Thanks, but I don't think she'd be interested," and hung up the phone.

I don't think there's a moral to this story or a snappy ending. I just felt like sharing it. And believe me, if I suddenly get the urge to change mobile phone companies, I certainly won't be switching to one that hires people who barely speak English and go by fake names to recruit me!

ACK. There are only two entries on this thing at the moment (well, before this is posted). That means I've been neglecting my weblog.

Okay, well, I haven't had much to say, I suppose. I've been busy, busy, busy trying to kick my business into a higher gear, and it was a long holiday weekend (Good Friday and Easter Monday are both public holidays in Australia), and then uhm... I dunno. Time just keeps slipping away from me.

I tend to be somewhat... obsessive. Not in the true psychiatric sense of it, but in the "concentrating very hard to the exclusion of other stuff" sense. I've been putting a tremendous amount of thought and concentration and time and effort into the whole selling thing, hanging around on the PowerSeller bulletin board and learning, learning, learning.

One of the things I learned is that while 99.5% of people you deal with are going to be fine, that one in a five hundred is a complete nutjob. I have therefore acquired a P.O. box in the General Post Office in the heart of Melbourne (this is so that people can't guess my suburb), and Andrew, who convieniently works in the CBD (well, it's convienient for this, anyway, it's actualy not that convienient as it's about an hour's commute each way), goes around and picks up the mail (we pay extra for an email notification system that tells you when they're new mail there for you).

It seems that this particular P.O. box previously belonged to the owner of a night club called "The Kittycat Club". We looked it up, and it's a night club with an early 60s theme. Looks interesting, but I'm annoyed with getting their mail all the time. I mean, I don't even drink beer, let alone want to buy it, and one of the people who keep sending us mail there is a major beer company.

The other thing I've done is get myself an extra phone. It's a mobile phone with a pre-paid SIM card. The current charge is good for 60 days, and after that I can top it up with more hours, and I intend to do so with time that won't expire for a full year (because I don't expect to be using it that often). The phone sits in my desk drawer, and gets turned on during business hours and turned OFF the rest of the time.

What, you may wonder, is that for? Well, you're required to have valid contact information on eBay, especially if you're a seller. Unfortunately, anyone can request your details, and I don't want just anyone to have my home phone number (I guard that jealously! We're not listed and I like it that way, although we still get telemarketing calls, grrr). So the second mobile phone is so that customers can contact me if they need to and so can eBay, but so that I can turn it OFF during non-business hours and I'm not handing out my phone number (my personal mobile or my home phone) to random people. Happy to talk to customers if it's required, but only on MY terms, thank you very much.

I've also gone ahead and gotten an RBN (Registered Business Name). I've had the ABN (Australian Business Number) for some time now and it's been sufficient for the stuff I've needed to do, but I want to get a business bank account, and to do that I need the RBN. I put Andrew's name on it as well as mine, so he can sign contracts and do business stuff as needed (he does a fair bit of stuff behind the scenes, actually; he's MUCH more patient with some things than I am, and much better at negotiation).

So, that's where I am, basically. At the moment, I'm working up as many listings as I think will be good for Mother's Day sales, although I would have expected to have more Mother's Day type things going already. I'm told reliably that around Mother's Day the perfume selling goes wild, and I'm pretty well stocked up in anticipation of that, but they're sure taking their time about it. Haven't had a perfume sale in weeks.

Then again, I got a lot of last minute Valentine's Day sales, too, so who knows...

I'm not putting this in "Moron Mail" because it's not moronic, it's just strange. Here it is in its entirety, although I'm going to blot the name and phone number for the writer's privacy:

Dear sir/madam,

One of my clients has a Original Unicorn Horn in his possassion and want to sell it. Please let me know the possibilities. In case you require, more details can be sent.

regds.

[Indian Sounding Name]
+91 xxxxx xxxxx

I had to look it up, but the 91 country code is India and the IP address was also from India, so I'm assuming this is legitimate. Or, at least, it's legitimately someone who's looking to sell a unicorn horn (which is probably a narwhal horn or the horn of some other animal with a twisty horn, like some sort of gazelle).

Still, it'd be interesting to see such a thing, wouldn't it?

Honestly, I get the most interesting mail sometimes regarding that unicorn site. I think I may have to add a new category in this blog just for stuff relating to it...

So this will be the last entry I make for 2005. I don't really care one way or the other about artificial deadlines and dividers of time, really, but it is a good milestone sort of marker.

Only have three thoughts at the moment.

One: It's BLOODY HOT!!!!

Two: The decade is half over already. What the hell happened there?!

Three: I guess I should mention that there are new desktop wallpaper downloads available in the Picture Gallery.

Andrew and I are doing our usual New Year's Eve thing, which is sitting at home watching hired DVDs and eating junk food (chips, mostly, as my husband went out and totally forgot to get the other stuff I told him to get *roll eyes*).

Anyway. Here's to the New Year.

Saw this in someone else's blog (you know who you are *wink*) and thought I'd play, too.

---

Put an X by the movies you've seen. If you get more than 70, you're a movie expert.

(x) Pirates of the Caribbean
( ) Boondock Saint
( ) The Mexican
(x) Fight Club
(x) Starsky and Hutch
(x) Neverending Story
(x) Blazing Saddles
( ) Garden State
(x) The Princess Bride
(x) Young Frankenstien
(x) AnchorMan
( ) Napoleon Dynamite
( ) Saw
( ) White noise
( ) White Oleander
( ) Anger Management

total here: 8

(x) 50 First Dates
( ) Jason
(x) Scream
( ) Scream 2
( ) Scream 3
( ) Scary Movie
( ) Scary Movie 2
( ) Scary Movie 3
( ) American Pie
( ) American Pie 2
( ) American Wedding
(x) Harry Potter
(x) Harry Potter 2
( ) Harry Potter 3
( ) Resident Evil I
( ) Resident Evil 2
(x) The Wedding Singer
( ) Little Black Book

total here: 5

( ) The Village
( ) Donnie Darko
(x) Lilo & Stitch
(x) Finding Nemo
(x) Finding Neverland
( ) 13 Ghosts
( ) Signs
(x) The Grinch
( ) Texas Chainsaw Massacre
(x) White Chicks
( ) Butterfly Effect
( ) Thirteen going on 30
(x) I, Robot
(x) Dodgeball
( ) Universal Soldier
(x) A Series Of Unfortunate Events
( ) Along Came A Spider
( ) Deep impact

total here: 8

( ) KingPin
(x) Never Been Kissed
(x) Meet The Parents
( ) Meet the Fockers
( ) Eight Crazy Nights
( ) A Cinderella Story
( ) The Terminal
( ) The Lizzie McGuire Movie
( ) Passport to Paris
( ) Dumb & Dumber
( ) Dumb & Dumberer
( ) Final Destination
( ) Final Destination 2
(x) Halloween
( ) The Ring
( ) The Ring 2
( ) Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle
( ) Practical Magic
(x) Chicago
( ) Ghost Ship
(x) From Hell
( ) Hellboy
( ) Secret Window
( ) I Am Sam
(x) The Whole Nine Yards (the original)
( ) The Whole Ten Yards
( ) The Day After Tomorrow
( ) Child's Play
( ) Bride of Chucky
(x) Ten Things I Hate About You
( ) Just Married
( ) Gothika
( ) Nightmare on Elm Street
(x) Sixteen Candles
( ) Bad Boys
( ) Bad Boys 2
( ) Joy Ride
( ) Seven (SE7EN)
(x) Oceans Eleven
(x) Oceans Twelve
( ) Identity

total here: 10

( ) Lone Star
( ) Predator I
( ) Predator II
(x) Independence day
(x) Cujo
( ) A Bronx Tale
( ) Darkness Falls
(x) Christine
(x) ET
(x) Children of the Corn
( ) My boss' daughter
(x) Maid in Manhattan
( ) Frailty
( ) Best bet
( ) How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days
( ) She's All That
( ) Calendar Girls
(x) Sideways
(x) Mars Attacks

total here: 8

( ) Event Horizon
( ) Ever after
(x) Forrest Gump
(x) Big Trouble in Little China
(x) X-men 1
( ) X2
(x) Catch Me If You Can
(x) The Others
(x) Freaky Friday (both of them, heh)
( ) Ring of Fire
( ) The Hot Chick
( ) Swimfan
( ) Miracle
( ) Old School
( ) Ray
( ) The Notebook
( ) K-Pax

total here : 6

(x) Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
(x) Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
(x) Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
( ) A Walk to Remember
( ) Boogeyman
( ) Hitch
( ) Back Door Sluts 9
( ) Anal Acres 1
( ) Anal Acres 2
( ) B-Cup Divas
( ) The Fifth Element
(x) Star Wars episode I The Phantom Menace
(x) Star Wars episode II Attack of The Clones
(x) Star Wars episode III Revenge of The Sith
(x) Star Wars episode IV A New Hope
(x) Star Wars episode V The Empire Strikes Back
(x) Star Wars episode VI Return of The Jedi...
(x) Troop Beverly Hills
( ) Swimming with Sharks
(x) Air Force One
( ) For Richer or Poorer
( ) Trainspotting
( ) People under the stairs
( ) Blue Velvet
(x) Sound of music
(x) Parent Trap (both of them)
( ) The Burbs
(x) The Terminator
( ) Empire Records
( ) SLC Punk
( ) Meet Joe Black
( ) Wild girls
(x) Clockwork Orange
( ) the Order
(x) Spiderman
(x) Spiderman 2
(x) Amelie

total here: 18

(x) Mean Girls
(x) Shrek
(x) Shrek 2
(x) The Incredibles
( ) Collateral
( ) The Fast & The Furious
( ) 2 Fast 2 Furious
(x) Sky Captain Of The World Of Tomorrow
( ) Closer

total here: 5

(x) Titanic
( ) Saved
( ) Bowling For Columbine
( ) Farenheit 9/11
(x) The Sixth Sense
(x) Artificial intelligence (also known as AI)
(x) Love actually
( ) Shutter
( ) Ella Enchanted
(x) Princess diaries 1
( ) Princess diaries 2
( ) Constantine
( ) Million Dollar Baby
( ) Envy
( ) Eurotrip
( ) Malibu's Most wanted
( ) Big Daddy
( ) Black Sheep
(x) The Breakfast Club
(x) West side story

total here : 7

(x) A Christmas Story
( ) Spanglish
(x) Pulp Fiction
( ) Sleepover
( ) Evil Dead
( ) Killer Klowns From Outer Space
( ) The Seed of chucky
( ) Vanilla Sky
(x) Nightmare Before Christmas
(x) Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind
(x) Interview With The Vampire
(x) The Crow
( ) Purple Rain
( ) Reservoir Dogs
(x) Wayne's World

total here: 7

(x) Wayne's World 2
( ) 21 Grams
( ) Blow
(x) Edward Scissorhands
( ) Clerks
(x) Beauty and the Beast
( ) Guess who
( ) monster in-law
(x) Elf
(x) Stuart little
( ) stuart little 2
(x) Mall Rats
(x) Chasing Amy
(x) Dogma
( ) Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back

total here: 8

(x) Beetlejuice
( ) The Last Samurai
( ) The Amityville Horror (old or new)
(x) The Aviator
(x) Romeo and Juliet
( ) Barbershop
( ) Beauty Shop
(x) legally blonde
( ) legally blonde 2
( ) the forgotten
( ) confessions of a teenage drama queen
( ) the grudge

total here: 4

TOTAL: 94

Not too bad....

It's hot. This is the Northern Hemisphere equivalent of May, and it's definitely feeling like summer. Yeah, I know, technically May isn't summer in the NH, but we all know it can be plenty hot in mid/late May, especially in some regions of the continent. Anyway, it's hot today. Hotter than predicted (and I checked several different forecasts, too).

If I'd been able to stay inside all day, that would have been okay, but I had to go out (twice) and I definitely felt the heat (isn't that a song or something? hmmmm...). Its not too bad inside the house, but I'm going to turn the fan on, anyway, and I think I might even change out of these jeans and put on something lighter and more summery (cotton trousers, not shorts; I almost never wear shorts because my thighs stick to the cushion on my chair, ick).

Anyway.

I like the design for this blog (and other pages on this site which match it) but I'm getting a wee bit tired of it. It's been on here for years, and it also has this weird habit of doing strange things to the entries if I post anything that's too wide for it to cope with. I really probably ought to figure out how to do CSS-only layouts, but the last time I did that, I drove myself nearly insane because different browsers parse things differently (and IE has NEVER gotten the CSS right, and if you don't believe me, do a Google search for IE broken box css and see for yourself). I can usually fix stuff if I can get the browser in which it's broken, but in this case, it was only broken on a Mac running a particular OS and, gee, I don't happen to have a lot of Macs with different operating systems and while I did ask for help, nobody seemed to be able to figure it out, and I gave up.

Haven't gone back, really. Tables work for me, for the most part.

Anyway, I'm strongly thinking about redesigning this blog and the main domain pages, even have a vague idea of what I might like to use for a design motif, but it might be a while before I get off my large dimpled bottom to do it (I've got almost zero inspiration for web design lately, and by lately I mean, for several years).

I'm mostly making this entry to fill up space in the column so that the text will again flow properly, by the way.

Could you tell I was just rambling for no real reason? No. Don't answer that...

You fit in with: Spiritualism Your ideals are mostly spiritual, but in an individualistic way. While spirituality is very important in your life, organized religion itself may not be for you. It is best for you to seek these things on your own terms. 60% spiritual. 40% reason-oriented.

Take this quiz at QuizGalaxy.com

 

Back from holiday, but still catching up. We've had the floors redone (which is part of why we went away, heh), and moved a bunch of stuff, and we ended up moving a LOT of stuff around, including Andrew and myself switching rooms with the kids for various reasons. We're still sorting through... well, a lot of stuff...

I do have lots of pictures to share once I get a minute to get to it, but everything's kind of up in the air at the moment, including my computer. The old desk I had was suspiciously and uncomfortably wobbly when we went to move it back and so we went out and bought a new desk, but it won't be delivered until Monday, and in the meantime I'm using an old wooden desk (an actual desk, not a computer hutch or desk or anything of that sort) with just the minimum of things hooked up and/or installed (no printer/scanner, for example, and the external DVD drive isn't hooked up, the pen tablet isn't installed, etc.).

ANYway, pictures coming soonish, and my new desk coming eventually, and the house sorted and put away.... uhm.... soon, I hope....