At world’s end

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Well, I’ve seen Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End, and I’ve had a few hours to think about it (after a dream involving Orlando, natch), and I’ve decided I liked it. There were quite a few funny bits, and lots of clever references to previous movies in the series, and romance (and you all know how much I like that), and some jaw-dropping moments when I could not believe what I saw on screen could possibly be how the movie would go. Yet, it all wraps up quite nicely, even though I didn’t get to stay to the end (you should…I will for certain when I see it again), if in some slightly creepy ways. I’m not completely satisfied, and there are certainly some clunker storylines in there that could easily be trimmed. But I only checked my watch once. And I can’t wait to see it again. Perhaps not at the Moolah, for while they did have drink specials and I was able to have a Will Turner (vodka or rum, blue curacao, and lemonade), they’re expensive and I dunno if the couches are worth it.
Read on for spoilery talk…

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off the edge of the map

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Here there be monsters…
So here you go. After nearly a year, a new layout. Pirates, again. Sorry for the long wait. Things in RL decided to be more important. Besides, I really liked the old layout. This one isn’t so fancy, but I had fun with it.
Tonight I get to see PotC 3 with Leah at 9:30. Yay for advance showings! Will let you know all about it tomorrow.
Boo for my poor little iBook which is currently (hoepfully) on its way to the Apple Depot to get a new logic board. Maybe. It has been acting really funny, but of course it acts fine for the people at the Apple Store. I actually stopped in twice, and neither time did the laptop go wonky. I made them take it anyway. It’s still under warranty, after all. Here’s hoping it doesn’t get erased. At least I have my story file.

been a long time

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I’ve been on the same floor at work for four years. I wonder if they’ll count the time in Applied Physiology as part of my time with this department; I had the same ultimate boss, after all…not like I get anything for being there four years, but if it is, then next year I get a certificate or something…I missed it, actually. It totally slipped my mind on the day that it happened. Of course, that could be because I was shopping…spent a horrific amount of money at the mall with Leah, who has much better taste in clothes than I. But I’m happy with what I got…will have to go back to Target at some point and see if they’ll give me money back for charging me twice for one pair of shorts…
happy news: check your local theaters for sneak previews of Pirates 3 on the evening of Thursday the 24th! Be on the lookout for a new layout 😉

AttS is five

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Yes, I’m late on posting. But lest you thought I’d forgotten what a momentous day it is today, I thought I should put something up…
It’s Kate’s (friend) and Gordon’s (coworker) and Leah’s boyfriend Peter’s (you need more clarification?!) birthday today. (triple yay!)
My parents have been married for 31 years. (double yay!)
This website has been live for 5 years. (yay!)
Anything else I’ve forgotten? Aside from the writer’s meetup tonight…
Hard to believe I’ve been writing on this thing for five years. Just like it’s hard to believe that a) it’s been five years since I rocked it at the UAA championships in GA and b) I was actually *in* GA this past weekend. I’m not completely recovered, but I do have a nice tan 😉
I promise you that there will be a new layout this year. Yes, I have had the same Pirates 2 layout since the movie came out last year, and *of course* I know that the 3rd comes out next month. I actually have three layouts started, just not finished. I’ll get one up soon. Possibly after neurobio ends.
Thanks for reading. Let’s see how long I can stick it out.

Gold medal, anyone?

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Five years ago this day I was down in Georgia, at Emory University, winning the 100m, the 200m, anchoring the gold-medal 4x100m team, and placing fifth in the 100m hurdles. The only time I ever openly celebrated the moment I crossed the line. Beating my “rival” Nyota Pieh, of Emory, who had won every year since in the three I won. Being part of an unbroken WU women’s outdoor track conference championship streak. Getting gum on the hem of my dress on the plane ride back.
In a few hours I’ll be on the road, once again on my way to Georgia, to cheer on this year’s Bears. I’m missing the WU 5-year reunion and a few friends b-day parties, but this will be worth it. I was sorely tempted to try to pick up my golden spikes (no kidding. That was the only color they had, honest) as a rallying point, but that is pretty silly. I don’t know where my medals are. I think I got them, unlike the ones from junior year outdoor UAAs…I’ll just cheer…and try to be motivational. Life is a journey, time is a river, the door is ajar, that sort of thing…
Here’s what I said the day after, all those years ago:
Well, here I am again. No more UAA competition for me.
At the risk of sounding braggish…
I now have three golds in my possession… one for the 100, one for the 200, and one for the 4×1 relay. We RULE! Lady Bears rock the planet! Or at least the UAAs. You could say I went out with a bang. Those and my fifth place finish in the hurdles. So overall (individually) I gave the team 10+10+4=24 points and the 10/4 points from the relay. Coach said the only reason I couldn’t get MOP of the meet 🙂 was that I had won it indoors. I really think I would have. No one else double golded except the girl who actually got the MOP award, in the steeple and 5K (she already won last year indoors, too, natch).
You know what? Prayer really works. I prayed before practically every race and look what happened 🙂
And one more thing… we qualified provisionally for nationals in the 4×1 🙂
Somebody up there really loves me.
Let’s go Bears!

Dresden-phile

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Tuesday night, I met Jim Butcher, author of the Dresden Files and the Codex Alera, and have two books signed by him and actually interacted with the man, and that made me a happy girl. (Until my class presentation partner emailed me a totally changed presentation at 11:30 pm, but that’s another story.)
Jim’s a really funny guy. And he seems like he cares about his readers. He spent about an hour on Q&A, various insightful questions by readers who obviously care about his stories 😉 I was seated right next to him, since I sort of sidled up along the side of a bookshelf so I could set my bookbag down (I was carrying my laptop and a bunch of papers for the presentation. I did *some* work, honest). The speaker for his mic was next to me, so it was a little loud, but not terrible.
I was so proud I had the courage to ask a question. I’m not usually that bold. But he’s very approachable. I asked how he comes up with the twists at the end of his books. He answered that what normally happened is that he piles up every bad thing he can on his main character, then figures that he’ll get out of it somehow. He sends off chapters to his beta readers (man, what I wouldn’t give to be a part of *that* group) and every so often he’ll mention, ‘see, I *knew* he’d get out of it somehow,’ and someone will write back saying, ‘you mean you didn’t know beforehand?’ So I feel better about my stuff if a famous best-selling author doesn’t know how his stuff will end either.
There were probably fifty to eighty people there (I’m terrible at estimating, though), so the signing line wasn’t too long. I brought White Night and Cursor’s Fury and stood behind a lady who works for an internet service provider as a tech. Which I should look into, because more money would be nice. (Though, on the upside, I got a very positive annual review from my boss today, so perhaps a raise is on the horizon?) The lady knew about NaNo, which always amazes me. I have met so many people who don’t know what it is that I have a little spiel that I spin out to inform them 😉
When I got up to the table where he was signing, Jim was very nice and said how are you, etc, and I told him thanks for writing the books and that he’s an influence on m writing and I’ve got 65k of a novel I hope to finish this year. And he didn’t sound at all exasperated when he told me to make sure that when I finish this one to write the beginning of the next. Which I’ve already done, actually 😉 I hope that when I’m a fancy published writer I can be as generous to my fans as he is to his.

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White Night

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I read a book yesterday. Now, before you say, oh, that’s boring, she does that every day (which is true enough), realize that I read an entire book yesterday. Specifically, Jim Butcher’s new Dresden Files book, White Night.

Oh, Jim. How do you do it? There are only a few authors out there that can make me forget everything that I’m supposed to be doing and read. Admittedly, it’s easy for me to get wrapped up in a book, but I don’t finish very many books in a day any more. Though last week I read two books in four days.
He’s got tight pacing. His characters are very human, no matter that they’ve got magical powers. His world is real, and I can see it. You care about what happens. And you know what? He actually answers questions that the series had posed earlier. Thank you, so much.
I read it fast enough that I can’t remember all of it, which is a failing of mine, but I don’t mind that much because it makes it easier to re-read 😉 Thank you for the funnies and the heart-pounding moments, thank you for Toe-moss and Marcone and Lash.
One day I will get something written that causes such emotion.

I miss my remote

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For the last few months, the remote that came with my (used) tv has only worked intermittently, which, while annoying, doesn’t bother me *that* much, since I mostly only use the tv in my room for watching the morning shows and the occasional prime-time show that I don’t want to have to watch in tri-color (yes, the tv in the living room still has large arcs of blue, green and red from the lovely antenna degaussing incident of last fall). But there are several shows I’ve taped lately that I’d like to watch in my room, and the tv is just far enough from my seat in my bedroom that getting up every commercial break is annoying. Yes, I’m lazy. But when I’m comfortably seated with my laptop on my lap, it’s a pain to get everything shifted so I don’t have to sit through the commercials.
So. Finally made it to Target last night with the roommate (yay! joint shopping trip) and bought a universal remote, claiming to support my brand of tv. Brought it home, tried all the codes, no go. Of course, I might have difficulty on this one anyway, since it is a tv/vcr. But I tried the vcr codes too, and no luck. I have all the packaging and I cut it open nicely, so maybe they will take it back. But it doesn’t change the fact that I need to get another one, and that just bakes my cookies.
On a funny note:

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