Some recapping . . .

December turned out to be a busy month for my family, some of those reasons I've already mentioned so no need to repeat it here. What I didn't mention -- the big snowstorm that hit the state on December 24. OKC got 11" or 14" (I've heard two different things and I'm not sure which is more accurate)of snow in 50-60 mph winds. It broke the last record snowfall for the OKC Metro area, well parts of it. Because the snow blew in sidewise there were a lot of drifts, plus it made visibility very, very bad. All the interstates were closed and at least one turnpike was closed. It got so bad the trucks that rescue drivers out in the snow couldn't make it through the snow. I sat at home watching the news, everyone else was in Texas, this was before my uncle died. Some people had to abandon their cars and when they went to retrieve them (a day or so later) they found that someone had broken a window and took things from the car. Some people . . . I hope whoever it was got a frostbite . . . or at least a nasty cold. <.<

Out here in the northwest the snow blew in the 50-60 mph winds. at around 20-23 degrees. Slantwise snow is neat to watch, but you can't see anything so it's not the kind of weather you want to be out in. I was quite happy to sit inside (after feeding the animals and breaking the ice on the stock tank) and watch it. I think there might have up to 3" of snow, but 75% of it blew into the ditches. Further west where a good friend lives, the snow didn't stick at all, moving to fast to do so.

And up until today I was breaking the ice in the stock tank so my horse could have water. I think the ice is about a foot thick (well, until today), except for that spot I've breaking the last two or three weeks. One of the things I hate about really cold weather . . . breaking ice. >_< But it has to be done. Was glad to be in Texas when the temp dropped to the single digits. It was in the 20s and low 30s during the day and teens at night in east Texas. It was in the low 50s today. Nice after all the 20s.

The funeral went as well as a funeral can be expected to go. My relatives behaved themselves, for once. On the drive back visited with some of mom's cousins which was nice. One cousin had made homemade potato soup so we stayed for lunch at their home. It was really good potato soup.

My work computer crashed Monday, the computer repair guy had to reinstall XP.

(Yes, we're still using XP, upgrading is not in the budget and frankly I wouldn't want to try to teach the editor how use Windows 7 or Vista. He hated it when the boss switched from outdated typesetting machines from the 1980s to computers. Am pretty happy with XP, actually.)

So it was a blank slate Monday evening. I decided it had realized it was a Monday and decided it didn't want to work. <.< Tuesday morning when I arrived I notice a not that gave a list of programs that had been installed, but not all of them.

Today I went to the dentist, something I've put off for a while. Felt wonky after I got home.

About a year ago a friend sent this and I finally remembered to share it. It's interesting reading and made me go 'hmm'. The following below the lj-cut is the email I received in its entirety.

Thank you for reading.

( Ben Stein on God )

And now a couple memes. Have another I will post when I'm a little more a awake than I currently am tonight.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! Hope your day goes well. I am thankful for so many things this year, especially my family, no matter how much they sometimes drive me nuts, and good friends.

Will be going to my aunt's house this year for an evening dinner. ^_^ The pies are all made, my dad and youngest sister made a lemon meringue pie, a pumpkin pie, some kind of pie with cream cheese and whipped cream, mom made cranberry sauce using fresh cranberries, well as fresh as you can find them at the grocery store anyway.

How about you all? What are you thankful for?

Apparently good writing on TV shows = cancellation
Another show bites the dust. . . thank you Fox >_<

This is the story I found while googling Dollhouse ): FOX shuts down "Dollhouse" -- permanently ::sigh::

The shows I really, really like get canceled: Firefly, Wonderfalls (after 4 episodes no less and yes I did see the original four despite Fox changing the nights it aired and advertising that fact >_<), Pushing Daisies (at least it got two seasons).

I also really, really like Fringe which I have yet to see this season as it's not one you can just watch one ep skip a few and still now what's going on. The episodes are being recorded and are kinda scattered around on DVD-RWs <.< They will be watched once the earliest one of this season is found. Gilmore Girls fits in this category, but it ran its course storywise. It was my happy/cheer me up show.

Of the shows I like (but don't really, really like) they're okay, writing varies from "what were the writer's thinking?" to "hey, that's kinda neat" but I don't usually think of them as really good writing or just basically good writing.

Some Trivia: V is new, sort of. It's first incarnation aired on TV when I was a kid. (am dating myself aren't I?) According to Wikipedia there was a mini-series in 1983, a sequal in 1984 and then a TV series in 1984-1985 and the 2009 version is called "a reimagining" fascinating. So does reimagining mean "we're all out of original ideas so we're going with the one that was cool in the '80s"? I am assuming that it was cool in the '80s I honestly don't remember. All I remember is that it was watched when I was a child and that the aliens were not trustworthy. Also Alan Tudyk - Wash from Firefly - and Morena Baccarin - Inara also of Firefly are in the 2009 version.

Not sure what to put here. Am a little behind on the writing lessons. It's been hard to focus lately, fortunately it's a work at your own speed course and I am very glad I picked the yearly course though. I get lessons every two weeks instead of every week. Today am taking the time to work on it while I have the house to myself. Eventually the housework will also get done -- it's just not as important as writing <.< .

I wasn't able to get off work to attend my aunt's funeral and this makes me sad. Did pick up a sympathy card for my cousin, don't have his address though.

A cool front blew in making it chilly and damp on Monday and Tuesday, though the sun did come out yesterday afternoon. It's been in the fifties this week. It was 97 the day of grandma's funeral. Hottest day of September. Can't seem to keep warm today. Have been using a space heater but kept getting too arm and when I shut it off I get chilly. Can't use the fireplace yet as the chimney hasn't been cleaned yet.

The house is very creepy at night when it's just me here. It creaks and groans as it settles for the day. The other night I kept thinking someone was knocking about downstairs because of the settling. Made it hard to get to sleep. Before I'd gone to bed I could hear the mice skittering across the wood floor (I think it's wood) and at one point it sounded like they were dragging something. It was a weird sliding/skittering sound (can't think of the right words to describe it). I joked with a coworker they must have been moving furniture.

Life still feels a little weird and surreal. I don't know how else to explain it. I have been ridiculously scatterbrained lately, though some of that I'm sure is due to lack of sleep. Stupid mice >_<

Have been thinking of doing Nano this year since I didn't do it last year due to technological errors that were beyond my control that and I was too stressed out from family stuff. If I do it'll be completely insane of me. Oh well. Also I will have to get a new account as I don't remember the password to my old account. I know they can send you your password (or a new one don't remember which) but I can't access the email account associated with my nano account or I would have done that. From now on my passwords are written down somewhere (usually on whatever scrap of paper was available). If/when I get my new account I'll post my username here.

I think that's it for now.

My August weekends were spent harvesting wine grapes early on Saturday mornings and two Sunday mornings. Made the weekend go very fast and not feel very relaxed. Some photos here: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2025371&id=1584313173&l=4041ff8202 if anyone wants to see. Not sure if I'm finished adding photos or not. Still don't have a photo of the winery owner's vineyard and his is more extensive than dads.

We picked grapes on dad's vineyard and the winery owner's vineyard. This was the winery owner's biggest harvest yet! I don't even want to think about next year. 0_o We started at 7 a.m. (well, as close to 7 a.m. as we could get <.<)and stopped at noon or then the we ran out of buckets. Ran out of buckets two weekends in a row. The first weekend the morning started out nice in the 70s and reached 103 by afternoon. >_< The following weekends were cooler with the last weekend being the coolest. I woke up with a headache and it never quite went away, after lunch it kicked my ass but good. Was out for the rest of the day and didn't crawl out of bed until early evening. One Saturday I had a date the evening after picking. Still not sure how that went. The winery owner's wife doesn't pick grapes so she provided lunch for the pickers. Oh my God, the woman can cook and she doesn't use recipes, offering her a recipe would be insulting to her. Ate too much because the food was good. She made lasagne, eggplant lasagne, meat loaf, and grilled homemade burgers. We also had salad and once homemade peach cobbler. Yum!

Two of the weekends grapes were harvested in both dad's vineyard and the winery owner's vineyard. These are vineyards on a shoestring so it's nice to have volunteers to help with picking and processing the grapes. Processing involves (I know no one asked) destemming the grapes and then crushing them. I still find it funny that my aunt thought red wine came from red grapes (I guess that's kinda logical if you don't know), but it doesn't. Red wine comes from purple grapes. Just one of those things I assume everyone knows and it turns out they don't. Really need to quit assuming things. ~_~

Dad made juice out of the Sangiovese (at least I think it was the sangiovese) and oooh. . was it sweet, not just sweet, but syrupy sweet. >_< I hate syrupy sweet. Unfortunately I didn't learn until too late that the trick with that kind of sweetness is to add sprite. It was kind of fun at first. It's not the kind of thing I want to do every weekend. Dad has also made jelly from some cabernet sauvignon. The first batch didn't come out well. Wine grapes have a higher sugar content then your average jelly grape (concordes sometimes) and the recipe had to be tweaked quite a bit. The next two batches did better, it's very spreadable, not as thick as the jelly you buy the grocery store or make at home.

Some of the varieties picked were Chardonnay, Sangiovese, Savignon Blanc, Cabernet Sauvignon, Barbera, Riesling, and a few clusters of Muscat Canelli.

EDIT: Finally got around to removing the warning I had up. . . sorry I didn't do it sooner. But the memes are still good.

( Memes I think I haven't posted yet )

In World of Warcraft, I currently have a level 26 human rogue, a level 11 night elf druid, and a level 9 blood elf warlock. The warlock is fun to play and so far has been the easiest one to level up just doing quests. Now I enjoy playing the rogue, I really like stealth mode <.<. The druid is also fun, but I don't if it's my playing style or what but she has been the hardest to level, which is a little frustrating. My warlock is on a different server than the other two.

( More on WoW )

As of the last two weeks I am finally managing time a little better and learning how to balance gaming with writing so my writing doesn't feel like a task to be accomplished, which it was beginning to feel like a few weeks ago. That's good a thing, especially since I enjoy writing. It didn't help that the local fair tab sucked the creativity right out of me either. I enjoy writing and feel like I've accomplished something for once. It's rare I feel that way.

But last week I used some of the suggestions in Holly Lisle's plot mini course (which is free, just have to sign up via email) and began actually writing down where I wanted the story to go. It also helped when I figured out what the story was about. It's not so much character driven as I had originally thought. It's about the city, and how this one event (The bridge disappearing) affects the people there. What do they do about it? Who does the investigating? Who made it disappear and why? Not to mention how did they do it? I'm a little backwards or something; didn't actually think of those questions until today. ~_~ But my mind was running in that general direction and it opened up a slew of possibilities and I answered some of those questions. One question took the longest to answer bugged me so much that my writing nearly came to an abrupt halt. I couldn't focus on anything but "Why was the bridge made to disappear? What was the reasoning behind it?" I had to know the why. The why is important, it's a rather large part of the story. Finally found the answer to that which led to figuring out my antagonist. Started chapter five yesterday and learned some interesting things about her that I had no concept of until I started writing. Isn't writing cool? I could not have figured that out except through writing.

Chapter five doesn't flow well, at the moment, but that's okay I can fix that. Chapter six is vaguely thought out, mainly in the "I know which character is going to tell it/show it" way. I'm not sure what happens in chapter seven yet or who's POV it will be from. Depends on how chapters five and six go. I'm barely ahead, but I'm more ahead than I usually am when writing. Normally I haven't a clue what I'm going to write until I write. I do however have a possible point for the ending. I kind of know where the characters will be when I get there anyway. Other than that it's kind of vague. But that's okay.

I have a review of Sims Life Stories I shall type up soon, but not today. My sister will be heading back to college over the weekend. Grape harvest also starts this weekend at a friend's vineyard. Fun stuff . . . .

It's hot 104 for a high. I'm so enthused -_-.

The writing is going well, I'm not sure about the pacing, but I'm trying not to ramble too much. Couldn't remember what kind of bridge the Bay Bridge in Ristretto Bay was so have been researching bridge types. I found this site Matsuo Bridge, Bridges helpful with basic information. Wikipedia also has a good listing. I've narrowed it down to Suspension bridge or Cable-Stayed bridge. While browsing The Tacoma Narrows Bridge disaster was mentioned, so I had to look that up. Found this video on YouTube: Tacoma Narrows Bridge Collapse. There's something fascinating about bridge collapses. Been looking them up ever since.

Did buy the WoW Battle Chest since it included the base game, first expansion and game guides, all for one low price. I really like the game guides, very helpful for finding things. Been enjoying the game, though I do get tired of running around killing things or dying, gets kinda boring after awhile. Still miss Sims. Did Get Playfirst's Diner Town Detective Agency and have been enjoying that. ^_^

Just put some tea out in the sun for sun tea, added a couple of raspberry tea bags with the regular teabags. Something nice and refreshing about iced tea in the summer. Lemonades and Limeades are also nice.

Hope everyone's doing well and keeping cool.

EDIT: Links should work now, need to remember to hit preview before posting.

Yes, I had to post that here. It's just crazy Oklahoma weather. I'm partly amused and partly annoyed that it's snowing. Went all winter with only a couple of dustings of snowfall and almost no rain and now it's snowing.

It came crashing in with thunder and lightning, rain and hail in the wee hours of the morning, when I was trying to sleep (naturally). The hail hit my window with a rat-tat-tat sound and I couldn't tell if it was sleet or hail. By noon it started to turn from rain to sleet and did that most of the afternoon. It took me twenty minutes to scrape the ice off the windshield, back window, wiper blades and side mirrors. The roads were slushy in town, but further west (where home is) the roads were icy. Fun. -_-

And now it is snowing. The NW part of the state, Guymon, Woodward is shut down because of the snow. This morning before I left for work the winter weather prediction was changed to a blizzard warning. There hasn't been a blizzard since my great-grandfather died, back in my teens. Whoa 0_o. Dad planted potatoes last week and the trees have been turning green and flowering.

A while back I stumbled onto Captain Robert's (of Abney Park) LJ. That was a fun find. ^_^ Anyway I was looking through it today and found this and he asked people to post it all over the web. And so thus here it is and feel free to repost if you like them. I guess that would be okay.



And if you want to see the actual post Abney Park- We picked the opening bands . . .

This is one of those times when living far out in the boonies of a mostly rural state makes me sad. I wish I could go, really. But, alas, I cannot afford the plane tickets out there. If I could afford it I could maybe plan a meet up with Anoma which would be cool. ^_^ ::sigh:: Maybe someday.

I was poking through my bookmarks yesterday and found some interesting ones I had saved on grammar. Haven't checked a lot of them out in a while, though I did make sure the links actually worked. Would be silly to post links that didn't work wouldn't it? Feel free to check them out.

In no particular order

Daily Grammar Lessons - Improve Your Writing With Free Grammar Lessons by Email Don't really know much about this site. Haven't tested it out, but it looks (on the surface) quite useful.

Good Grammar, Good Style (tm) This one offers classes on technical writing in addition to writing.

Guide to Grammar and Writing I've poked about this one quite a bit and found it handy. Now I just need to put it to good use. <.<

Lynch, Guide to Grammar and Style I browsed through this one when I first stumbled onto it. There is so much to look at.

Quick & Dirty Tips :: Grammar Girl This one has downloadable er lessons. I think they might be podcasts, but I'm not sure.

Webgrammar's free tips: references, grammar, editing, spelling, design, marketing and typography This one seems well organized. Don't know much about it.

I also found links to sites that discuss copyright laws with some warnings and cautions for writers. Thought these might be useful.

10 Big Myths about copyright explained Has more to do with copyrighted material on the internet.

Basic Copyright Concepts for Writers -- *Writers Write -- The IWJ*

Warnings and Cautions for Writers--Coypright

Understanding Rights and Copyright

U.S. Copyright Office


EDIT: Fixed the link to the Quick and Dirty Tips: Grammar Girl so it should work now.

Some links I forgot about, oops <.<

One of the things that brought me back to steampunk was the band Abney Park which I stumbled onto by accident while looking up steampunk custom content for sims. So naturally I had to check them out and found some songs on youtube and since I just had to have the song "Airship Pirates" bought a couple CDs. Love the CDs. It's nice to know there are songs out there that don't sound like everything else out there. They also have nifty stuff at their shop and I love the descriptions that accompany the items.

For more steampunk goodness check out the Aether Emporium

steamfashion is a nifty community. There's also a facebook site.

And this little game I found while poking through the games section at Brass Goggles:
Remnants of Skystone It's a neat looking flash based um multiplayer online game. I don't know if it's ready yet, though.

And web comics Girl Genius though it's actually called gas light.

I think that's it for the moment. ooh. . wait nearly forgot this



It's a fanbased video using Abney Park's The Wrong Side. The video amuses me. Like the song, too. ^_^

And a video for Airship Pirates featuring Abney Park at the Edison.
Sidenote, video is a little over 3 minutes long, there's a lot of deadspace on it at the end of the video.



Okay, now I'm done, for this post anyway.

I've been googling and stumbling onto nifty steampunk sites. I thought I'd share some of the ones I really liked.

Ghostbusters, Steampunk style This I stumbled onto after browsing steampunk photos on picasa. It amuses me greatly.
I also saw some pics of Star Wars steampunk style, which also amused me.

Brass Goggles a nifty site with a mini Steampunk FAQ for anyone not quite sure what steampunk is or is like me and has no idea how to describe it to someone else. It also has a steampunk name generator which I could play with for hours, but then I'm easily amused. <.< And a forum The Steampunk Forum Where I spent a lot of time Friday evening and shall probably spend more time there. So far I've only checked out the Anatomical section.

This one just because it ought to be mentioned The Steampunk convention site

I don't know when a lot of these steampunk sites came into being, but it would have been nice if I could have found them several years ago when paradoxhorizon and I were creating our little steampunk/western world. Oh well, found them now. Speaking of which I finally searched through my back up discs and such and found some of (if not all) of the notes. I'm not sure some the ideas we discussed if got into a file at all.

I was actually wanting to write about airships and such (might blame Abney Park for that <.< airship pirates and all >.> ) And the Magic and Mayhem world is the only world I have that airships would even work in. Technically they could work for my other worlds but it wouldn't be the same. So I looked for my notes and was pleasantly surprised when I found them. So I shall be writing in that world now, much better than my ridiculous attempts at writing fanfiction for a favorite western author.

Anyway, I love some of the fashions people have made or come up with and really goggles are just freaking cool. Now. . I just need to sketch out an airship. ^_^

And a steampunk quiz . . . I couldn't resist ^_^

Your result for The Steampunk Archetype Test...

The Roguish Pirate

9 Swashbuckling Engineer, 38 Crazy Clockwork Tinkerer, 27 Charming Noble, 42 Roguish Pirate, 0 Mechanical Fian and 25 Aetherist Bodger!

Take The Steampunk Archetype Test at HelloQuizzy

EDIT: Steampunk clothing for your sims for anyone so inclined. (is half tempted to create a steampunk neighborhood)

Things I meant to post when I found them but forgot when I finally to updating. Just call me scatterbrained. Links to places I thought potentially useful.

A while back I found some sites that with the potential of helping websites. One is Open Source Web Design In their own words: "Open Source Web Design is a site to download free web design templates and share yours with others. We help make the internet a prettier place."

I was thinking of using one of their templates to make my site look pretty while I take the time to finish/draw art (I have ideas) for it and relearn html and learn css.

While poking about for help on html and such I stumbled onto the Word Press site that has themes and found they had come out with a Comic Press version. Well that sound nifty and potentially handy so I checked it out. It's for people who do webcomics and I don't remember what I thought after browsing their site (it's been a few months <.<). Comic Press for anyone who wants to check them out.

And to help with the html, css and such there is W3 Schools Online Tutorials with lots of tutorials. I stumbled onto it tonight, er last night.


In other news. . .
I was flipping through my sketchbook and came upon on the sketch I did of Bryn for the Sever My Wings RPG. paradoxhorizon might remember who I'm talking about. I was thinking about recycling Bryn and Graymalkin (the er book guardian) for Ristretto Bay. I thought I'd keep them as bartenders (could always use more bartenders) and that's pretty much as far as I got. I don't know how much I'll change since they can't be quite the same as they were in the rpg. Bryn's name will have to change for one thing, since I already have an RB Bryn. But I have decided to let Bryn keep her wings, and am going with genetic experimentation to explain the wings since I don't want angels in RB. Recycling characters can be fun! ^_^

I had a Nano moment last week. I've been working changing some of my characters from last year's Nano story so they fit better in the 1920s and this character pops up out of the blue and he fits into the world, but I'm not quite sure what to do with him. I had things (character wise, background wise) more or less worked out and now there is this new character which provides different possibilities story wise. I've been having fun adjusting my characters to fit in the 1920s.

Before I forget I stumbled onto this forensic site A Free Comprehensive Guide To Forensics Which I found quite useful when poking about it. It also had book recommendations for writers. Also, the Howdunit Series writer's guide books on Crime Scenes, Modus Operandi, Cause of Death and others (those are just the three I have) I found them to be very informative and in some cases fun to read. Not that I've read them recently. Though I did dig out out my Modus Operandi book, I'm hoping it'll help me create better/more interesting criminals.

It's been chillier this month (to be expected since it's November) and it rained! I like the rain, after the rain it was foggy, don't like driving in the fog at night.

I caught a cold last week and am still feeling it. Took a cold/allergy medicine for it Sunday night so I wouldn't be blowing my nose every five minutes or so. I always feel so germy when blowing my nose. Sunday evening while checking out at Walmart I was tempted to tell the cashier I felt "contagious" when she asked how I was. Probably wouldn't have been a good idea. Monday I was no longer drippy, which was nice, but my nose felt weird and I was in a fog all day. Tuesday didn't feel like I was in a fog but couldn't remember things and my head was really feeling the pressure. I forgot to bring my umbrella home, so it's sitting at work, and I left my cell phone at home (haven't done that in months). Today I felt very drowsy and I don't know if that's because of the cold and a possible (maybe even delayed) reaction to the cold medicine. I hate taking cold medicine, mainly because of all the side effects (some of which are quite scary 0_o). I prefer to take vitamin C, drink hot lemon honey tea, take hot baths (good for temporarily helping with congestion, at least in me) and let it run its course. But I really didn't want to a drippy nose in the office, really hate that. And that was probably for too much information.

The tape deck in the truck quit working so now I'm stuck listening to the radio, which I hate, because I always seem to catch them when they're commercialing, ugh. -_- It might just need to be reset, which means disconnecting the battery and then reconnecting the battery (or something to that effect). If that doesn't work I'll get a new radio with CD player/mp3 player jack and maybe a um SD card jack thingy.

I have some more or less concrete ideas on the history of magic for the Ristretto Bay world, just need to write it down now.

Also. . . <.< >.> I caved.. and got a facebook account. I'm almost ashamed to admit that, but there are people I wanted to keep up with who don't have Live Journal (the shock! <.<) I still like LJ better; I can make it all pretty! ^_^

Nano Time!

I, alas, am not doing Nano this year. Partly for technical issues and partly because I just feel too drained to do it this year. This year has really taken it out of me, both mentally and emotionally. I'm not even disappointed or shocked about this. It's just been that kind of a year. So good luck to those of you who are doing Nano this year, I hope you accomplish your goals! ^_^ If y'all need a cheerleader, I'll be glad to do that.


The year has gone by so quickly. I keep thinking it should still be nearly the end of September not the end of October. Lordy. . . where has the time gone. I have figured out that I really do want to write. More than that I need to write. I feel like I've accomplished something when I do write, even if it's just a simple scene. I'm just lousy at making myself write. Need to work on that.

The house is cold and there's no way to heat the house yet. The chimney hasn't been cleaned yet and until it's cleaned won't be able to build a fire. ::sigh:: oh well. Dad will be home Friday, so maybe it will be done this weekend. Am wearing layers and I love my arm warmers, need to get some more.

The oddest thing happened yesterday. I'm still having trouble believing it happened and yet there's no other plausible explanation. Took mom to town yesterday to run errands and buy groceries. On the way home I'm driving along, keeping an eye on the highway and fighting the north wind when I noticed (in rear view mirror since I didn't glance back) something big and dark fly out of the back of the truck along with some dirt and dead leaves. Didn't give it much thought at the time, figured it was just dirt (though it did seemed like a lot of dirt). Got home and my sister says, "The liner's missing." I looked and the black bedliner the truck bed had come with was gone. I know it was still there at the grocery store but it wasn't when we got home. So all I can figure is that the wind somehow got under it and blew it out of the truck. See? It sounds improbable.

But the only other explanation is that there's a black market for used bedliners -- even more improbable. You'd need at least for averagely strong people to pry it out and then since the last place we stopped was the grocery store people would have noticed (they might not have done anything about it, though). It's big and squarish so it's not like it would be easy to move or hide. So since I'm pretty sure that didn't happen that just leaves the wind. It was gusting 35-40 mph yesterday and I was driving 70 mph on the divided 4-lane where it is 70 mph and the bedliner was loose so. . . I can't think of any other explanation. I do know that really odd things can happen in strong straight winds. I just hope it didn't land and cause other drivers problems or land on a farmer's fence. Not that I could have done anything about if I had watched it blow out. ::shrug:: I don't know it's so weird, and so unbelievable and yet . . .

Didn't get the cheese fest tab done when I boss planned because he couldn't get his act together. So it ended up being a rush job and then the fonts didn't embed in the pdf like they should have so I had to send the fonts to the printing plant in Clinton. this happens to all big projects and is the reason I dread such projects.

Funny stuff. . .

Typos can be amusing and humiliating. . . >.>

A few weeks ago Boogie was rushing to finish the Hinton paper and the lunch menus came in late so they didn't get proofed very good since there wasn't time. On the menu Boogie had typed "Porn & Beans" instead of "Pork & Beans" The teacher found this horrendous and insisted on an apology. Someone in the teacher's office had blown up the menu and taped it to the door of the teacher's lounge. Possibly said teacher doesn't have a sense of humor, it was an accidental typo.

The spiders seem to know what season it is. Sunday I was walking up to the porch and this spider appeared in front of me startling me. I nearly walked into it. This was a real live spider not a fake one. It had this huge body and spindly striped legs. The middle sister (the one in college) walked into it twice and jumped. Hate spiders so very tricky and creepy looking. While I was driving to Weatherford to drop my sister off at her dorm she was fishing around in her purse and discovered a live spider inside. So that was exciting.

This is what has me aggravated. It was in the Parade magazine.


Should Home-Schooling Be Illegal?

In February, a California state appeals court ruled that unless parents have recognized teaching credentials, they must send their children to school. The judge, citing a state education law, said that “parents do not have a constitutional right to home-school their children.” Parents and politicians were outraged, and the court will rehear the case this month.

At stake is the education of the 166,000 California children who currently are home-schooled. But the court decision also could influence laws across the country. Nationwide, up to 2 million children are taught at home. Experts estimate that the number is increasing 7% to 12% a year.

“If upheld, the California ruling will send shock waves nationwide,” says Richard Kahlenberg, the author of a number of books on education. He says the case “pits those who believe parental rights are paramount against those who place a premium on well-educated citizens.”

Right now, only six states have strict regulations for home-schooling, usually requiring parents to have their curriculum approved, to show test scores and, in some places, to submit to home visits. Fourteen states, including California, mandate only that parents notify the state of their decision to home-school.

Apparently DC homeschoolers are also having problems with this. Do they think homeschoolers are going to sit by and not fight? What scares me is that some idiots will think this is a good idea. 'Cause what happens in California oftens works it's way through the rest of the country. There's a poll on the site that asks "Should parents need teaching credentials to home-school their kids?"
So far the results are:

Yes 5% (2743 votes)
No 95% (50829 votes)
Total Votes: 53572


From my aunt who is a special ed teacher (who has dumb/lazy co-workers) and co-workers who have children in school I have learned that just because teachers have teaching credentials doesn't make them good teachers or mean they can actually teach. For instance Mary, proofreader at work, is annoyed with one of her daughter's teachers. The teacher in question was the math teacher, but she apparently (from Mary's words) can't add, because she hasn't been teaching the students. When they need help the teacher didn't help so the students made the same mistakes over and over again. In college Mary was taking an advanced math course (trig I think, not sure) and her had written a math formula (Mary told this so much better) on the chalkboard and Mary found a lot of basic math errors in the formula (like addition errors). Mary ended up dropping the class so it wouldn't drive her crazy. I don't know about most people, but I thought one needed to know the basics -- addition, subscription, etc. -- before one moved on to the higher maths.

I also realize that not everyone will or even want to homeschool, which is fine. But I think those parents that do should have the right to do so whether they have teaching credentials or not. It is their children, not the state's, not the government's (though the government would like one to think otherwise) and sure as hell not the Department of Education's (though they would probably like to think the country's children belong to them and that they know what's best). I think most parents (there are some that are, unfortunately that absolute morons who shouldn't have had children in the first place) know what's best for their child.

Possibly I'm preaching to the choir, I don't know. All I ask is that people stop and think, use their logic and common sense and consider the possible consequences.

It may not be well said, but I believe it had to be said.

Now that I have time to type stuff here I'm not sure where to start. It's been very busy lately. There's still stupid family drama going on. My brother's soon-to-be ex is trying to use any method she can to get money from my parents instead of getting a job. My uncle's still an immature, spineless jackass.

One of the local businesses wanted to run a full color ad in the paper, but fullcolor is an extra $800 and printing press the newspaper is sent to can barely handle one extra color (say red and black instead of just black, white isn't counted as a color). So my boss had the brilliant idea of sending the color pages to a different printer 120 miles away (instead of 60-70 miles away). Fortunately are sent via ftp over the internet but it still has to be delivered to the various places.

Since the business wasn't going to cough up $800 for the color the boss checked to see if other businesses wanted to do color and some agreed and thus kept the individual cost down a bit. So now on once a month until October we're doing a few full color pages. We have to get the color pages done and sent in several days before the normal weekly deadline so I get an extra day of work. (Yay extra money ^_^) I still dread them.

A lot of storms and a few tornadoes went through the central part of the state, the western section only got strong winds. It's been very windy lately.

The homeschool convention was Friday and Saturday. My sisters and I finally got our glass prescriptions filled. Well, I ended up getting sunglasses and a pair of regular glasses but they didn't have the right lense for the regular pair so they will be mailed when they're done. I do have new sunglasses. It's nice to have a new pair especially since my old ones have pretty much lost most of their tint. Which I didn't realize until the other day. Glasses are expensive, but contact lenses seem like a hassle.

While we were at the mall, my sisters and I got our hair cut. Mine is now a lot shorter than I thought it I would ever get it cut, so far I like it, but I haven't seen it without the all the moose the hairstylist put in it, so it's still in a probationary period. I don't think I'll cut it this short again, because I can't pull it all the way off the back of my neck. I thought it would be neat to try just once to get it this short. What can I say? the picture in the style book looked cool. >.> I might post a before and after picture of them since dad took them.

Today we tightened the wires of the corral and replaced missing staples now all it needs are gates and some panels and then it will be done.