Today is the the day that only comes once every four years, so enjoy it to the fullest.
Thirty days hath September, April, June and November; All the rest have thirty-one Save February, she alone Hath eight days and a score Til leap year gives her one day more.
Leap Year Info from Eric Weisstein's World of Astronomy
Happy Birthday to all the folks born on Feb. 29th, you are always younger than you look...
Last night the "severe storm" that was supposed to hit SoCal as fierce as it hit NorCal was more of the average "lots of rain" winter storm. By mid-morning today, the sky was partly-cloudy, but by noon we had rain again. Just before 2pm this afternoon, I went out and took pictures of finches at the bird feeders and flowering vines in my backyard. By 5pm, the clouds had mostly cleared and the sun was shining bright.
The pictures on the left are when it was raining at 1:45 pm and the pictures on the right are of the 5pm sunshine time. American and Lesser Goldfinches finally found the thistle sock about 3 days ago:
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A few months ago... mom upset... did some research on Metafilter, and here is what I found:
1) They come in quest of the Grail - on Roslyn Chapel.
2) Rennes-le-Chateau is a small French village with... - This Metafilter post has hours of interesting, Time-Suck links. Beware.
3) And Best of All....Oak Island and all of its sundry links are worth at least 8 hours of Time-Suck and is a much better mystery than the Grail and Mary Magdalene. I promise. Pirates, booby traps, maps, miles of tunnels built hundreds of years ago with no machines.... and all of it in Canada! Novia Scotia = A Total Ecilspe of the Heart.
I promptly forgot about the whole "Da Vinci Code" to do with the Oak Island Time-Suck, until Julie Wanda loaned me the book just before Bowling. I completed it the other night, and I have to say, with many others ... it is an ok to decent Romance/Thriller with all the thin characters and silliness of both genres. Regardless of my newly found literary snottiness, Jude Deveraux and Umberto Eco could have written a tighter plot in their sleep...
Ramon Jusino's Review of the DaVinci Code
The Opus Dei reponse
Dismantling The Da Vinci Code
Dan Brown's Web Site
My small contributions to the critiques on the novel:
a) The Lit Crit Concept of Unreliable Narrator: Ummm... So the biggest expert and proponent of the novel's main thesis also happens to the be the Evil Guy. Hmmm... can we say Unreliable Narrator? If the main authority of the subject in the course of the book is also the main Bad Guy, does this not give Mr. Brown a big loop hole and out on any faulty research and theology?
b) The Sacred Feminine repressed and supressed by the Roman Catholic Church? What glue was Mr. Brown sniffing when he wrote the novel???? Cough, cough, cough... Mr. Brown, have you never heard of the Virgin Mary? The Queen of Heaven? Prayed to regualarily by all 1.3 billion Catholics worldwide... The Rosary... Hail Mary, Queen of Heaven. Hello!
If Mr. Brown wanted to write about the "conspiratorial" supression of the Sacred Feminine, he picked the wrong Church. Small tip for you, Mr. Brown, Protestants - not Catholics - are very afraid of the Sacred Feminine.
Everyone else has done it... So, I figured I might as well join the "Where have I visited" Bandwagon. Thanks to Tom for providing the link to the map generator.
I have visited 60% of the States in the U.S (in red). Although, I must confess Missouri, Minnesota, and Pennsylvania were just long layovers at various airports. The rest I have driven through at some point in my life.
I have only visited 18% of the Countries in the World. Now I need to get my sorry self to Canada, South America (particularily Chile & Peru), Africa, Central Asia and ....
1) Ralph Nader - Please, Just say no. J.D. Lasica sums it up best:
"This man has neither conscience nor shame."
2) Bless them. Scientists at the University of Minnesota have developed a way to produce a renewable source of Hydrogen for fuel cells that is not based in oil/fosil fuels but in corn derived ethanol. Farmers of America will be happy:
"Researchers say they have produced hydrogen from ethanol in a prototype reactor small enough and efficient enough to heat small homes and power cars.The development could help open the way for cleaner-burning technology at home and on the road.
Current methods of producing hydrogen from ethanol require large refineries and copious amounts of fossil fuels, the University of Minnesota researchers said. "
3) Lots of lovely, happy rain the last few days. More to come. Orange County is still 6 inches below the normal rainfall.
4) SXSW here I come. I have paid for my Interactive and Music badges, I have the $$ for 8 days of hotel room, now I just need to save $$ for food & misc. whilst in Austin. Yeah!
5) I have decided that I will be upping the speed on my job search, while I love my freelance clients, I am going bonkers at home with just my computer. I would like to get a full-time web design or web master job at a real, live company. If you know of any positions in the LA/OC area, please let me know. Thanks!
Team Pins & Needles, of Art & Soul Tattoo, accepting the 2nd Place award at Punk Rock Bowling 2004.
Good News: It is raining!
We, here in Southern California, have been 5-6 inches under the normal for the rainy season. If we don't start seeing some good storms rolling our way, we will have a drought this summer.
Rain, Rain, come again - this week, next and the one after that...
By now we are all familiar with the "hello," "server report," and "thank you" email subject lines in emails that contain the latest virus worm.
Today, I received a new twist in three separate spam virus emails - insulting me to get me to open the "story.zip" file that contains the worm virus.
The subject line says something like "Your Story", "I though you would want to know" etc. The Body text says something to the effect of "Bad writing", "You could do much better", "Your plot is thin".... Basically the virus spammer is attempting to insult a writer into opening the zip file containing the virus.
I am sorry I didn't save the emails to give you the exact subject lines or body text being used, but they were all sent from actual entertainment companies. If I get more, I will report exactly what is said.
People creating and sending the viruses are getting more sophisticated in their use of tricks to get folks to activate the viruses.
Practice Safe Computing: use a firewall, a good updated anti-virus software, and don't open any attachments that you are not expecting. If an suspect attachment comes, delete the email. You can always ask your real friend to send again if it is legitimate.
"Jumping two-footed into hope" - Now, that's a quote. The story of my life and a good reminder of how to act in the future.
Real Live Preacher is back:
I will never know exactly what Jesus said, how he said whatever he did say, or what he meant when he said whatever he said in whatever way he said it.You see my problem.
What I have are the tattered words, songs, and gospel remnants from twenty centuries of people jumping two-footed into hope. That’s all I have, and I am keenly interested in these things.
After a discussion with Warren last November, I realized that I am a "left-wing Christian." Alex tells me that I am an "Idealist." Maybe I prefer a Two-footed Hope Jumper ....
You love me. You will buy me dinner, give me chocolates, and a nice bottle of Pinot Noir...
We have Launch. Punk Rock Bowling 2004 Photo Essay
Happy Valentine's Day.
The 4th Annual Barflies.net photo coverage of the 6th Annual Punk Rock Bowling Tournament is half way completed. Look for the photo essay to be launched at the Barflies.net later tonight or early tomorrow morning....
I would like to recommend The Royal Tit-Watching (Ornithological) Society of Britain website, as it is a great example of how the Brits are much better at wittily making fun of themselves and their nerdy hobbies.
Do check out the Shop for Tits store. I wear a "large" in the Classic Girl line, feel free to get me the Nice Tits tank top or the Great Tits girlie T. ;oD
Now I am inspired to figure out a fun t-shirt design featuring Black Phoebes....
1) Adolescent male California sea lion lives out fantasy of many teenagers by running away from home and basking in the sun on the trunk of a CHP cruiser whilst officers stand back in amazement.... Apparently the sea loin, found on a farm road outside of Los Banos in the Central Valley, over 60 miles from the ocean, had a bullet in his head.
2) Greedy Little Bastards - Last Thursday, while rounding up supplies for the Vegas trip, I bought some new bird seed at Target. I filled up the backyard tube feeder and thought, "This ought to hold them over for a week or two." When I returned on Monday, there was not a single black oil sunflower seed left in the feeder nor on the ground. The attack of the ravenous house finch and american goldfinch hordes....
3) My teaser photo essay on Punk Rock Bowling 2004: Boys Gone Wild - Vegas Style can be found over at the Barflies.net blog...
The minivan is rented, I have all my bags packed, within the hour Julie, Tink, and Alex will have arrived, we will pack ourselves in the minivan, and we will be off to DIY Punk Rock Bowling 2004!
Yeah!
Wednesday is more than half over, then we have Thursday (per the usual line -up of days), and then at 10am Friday morning we motor out to Lost Wages!
Early in January, I wrote on my love for taking group self-portraits and how due to being a petite adult the photos would usually be slightly out of focus or a bit too close up.
On Monday night, Mr. A and I went up to Zen Sushi in Silverlake to see Punk Rock Karaoke. My friend Brandise wanted to take a group self-portrait of herself, myself, and Shawn's self, with her camera sometime early in the night's proceedings. Due to her being a tall lady the above self-group portrait turned out to be in focus and at a good distance.
I need arm extensions.
Punk Rock Bowling 2004 has moved from The Castaways to Sam's Town. We will be bowling in two shifts on Saturday from 1-4pm and again from 9 - 11:30pm. Please come cheer for us!
