About This Blog
A blog about my life, universe, etc. At any given time you might find something endlessly interesting or just me ruminating on something else, which no one (not even myself) finds interesting. That's the way blogs go, I suppose. Anyway, I was eleventh in line, and you weren't. Hah!

About Me
Name:
Sarah
Age:
26
Residence:
Columbus, OH
Religion:
LDS
Political Score:
5.00/-2.15
Job:
Temp @ JPMorgan Chase
College:
Ohio State University
Majors:
Political Science, International Studies
High School: Home Educated
Hobbies:
Reading, standing in line for things, writing, research
Resume:
HotJobs
Email:
lloannna@gmail.com

About My Family
My mom is a lawyer in Pickerington; my stepdad and dad are computer guys, and my stepmom (who works with my dad) is an engineer. My sisters are, in order of age, a photographer, an artist, and a person too young to have her own website. My brothers are, in order of age, living up north, and again, a person too young to have a website. At some point soon I'll be collecting links for my aunts, uncle, and cousins. ^_^

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Message Services
(Please see the notes below the Comment Policy before sending me a message)
AIM:
lloannna
ICQ:
29395930
Yahoo:
lloannna

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My CafePress Designs

Even More CafePress Designs

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Star Wars: Episode 3 Line (Hollywood)
My Star Wars Line page

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NaNoWriMo 2007:
My Novel: Cipere Lumen




NaNoWriMo 2006:
My Novel: The Manatee Conspiracy




NaNoWriMo 2005:
My Novel: Beyond the Cliffs of Kefira





NaNoWriMo 2004:
My Novel: sul Okyar tir taTz'ileea

 
I KNOW THIS GUY...   And so I'm giving him a link. Actually, his stuff is fairly interesting, such as it is, even if you don't know him. Warning: the language is somewhat... crude.

Weezer and Geezer

Stay tuned for my discussion of what stuff happened during the LOTR: ROTK line.

Oh, yeah, and I'm back.
posted by Sarah at 1:12 AM. | 0 comments |

 
IN ALMOST EXACTLY THREE HOURS...   Well, okay, fine, so in three hours and forty-one minutes (or so; my clock says it's 11:11 now -- and yes, I observe the moment of silence at 11:11 on November 11th... but I digress) I will be 23. On the 23rd. In 2003. How cool is that? For your personal edification, let me share with you...

Stuff that Happened On October 23rd (from the AP, TNL.Net, AmbitWeb.Com, History Net,and other sources):


On this date,

In 4004 BCE, according to 17th century divine James Ussher, Archbishop of Armagh, and Dr. John Lightfoot of Cambridge, the world was created this Sunday morning, at 9 a.m.
In 1641, a rebellion begins in Ireland. Catholics, under Phelim O'Neil, rise against the Protestants and massacred men, women and children to the number of 40,000 (some say 100,000). The Cromwellian Conquest of Ireland follows.
In 1679, the “Meal Tub Plot”, seeking revenge, Thomas Dangerfield alleges to the British government several plots by Mrs. Peter Cellier, including one detailed in a document hidden in a meal-tub in Mrs. Cellier's house, charging with treason most of the leading Protestants in England (Mrs. Cellier was arrested and tried for high treason, but found not guilty since the fabricated document was the only evidence)
In 1694, American colonial forces, led by Sir William Phips, fail in their attempt to seize Quebec.
In 1707, the first Parliament of Great Britain meets.
In 1783,Virginia emancipates slaves who fought for independence during the Revolutionary War.
In 1790, slaves, led by Vincent Ogé, revolt in Haiti (the rebellion fails when the white militia reinforces itself with a corps of black volunteers, but a revolt a year later leads to the establishment in 1801 of the black nation of Haiti)
In 1861, President Abraham Lincoln suspends the writ of habeas corpus in Washington, D.C. for all military-related cases.
In 1864, the Battle of Westport Missouri. The Army of the Border, led by Union Major General Samuel R Curtis, defeats the Confederate's Army of Missouri, led by General Stirling Price (est. 3,000 casualties)
In 1871, Columbia & Sappho (U.S.) beat Livonia (UK) in the 3rd America's Cup
In 1876, the New Orleans Mint reopens as an assay office
In 1888, Pelham Bay Park in the Bronx is vested
In 1890, the opera “Prince Igor” is produced (St Petersburg)
In 1910, Blanche Scott becomes first woman to solo a public airplane flight
In 1915, 25,000 women marched in New York City, demanding the right to vote.
In 1915, the first national horseshoe-throwing championship is held (Kellerton Iowa)
In 1918 President Wilson feels satisfied that the Germans are accepting his armistice terms and agrees to transmit their request for an armistice to the Allies. The Germans have agreed to suspend submarine warfare, cease inhumane practices such as the use of poison gas, and withdraw troops back into Germany. When the United States entered World War I, propagandist George Creel set out to stifle anti-war sentiment.
In 1927, the City of Netanya is founded in Israel
In 1929 the first transcontinental air service begins from New York to Los Angeles. Air Mail's first day.
In 1941, Walt Disney's “Dumbo” is released
In 1942 the Western Task Force, destined for North Africa, departs from Hampton Roads, Virginia. The men of Sub-Task Force Goalpost.
In 1942, Britain launches a major offensive against Nazi forces at El Alamein Egypt
In 1944, the Soviet army invades Hungary
In 1944, the World War II Battle of Leyte Gulf began.
In 1945, Jackie Robinson signs a contract with the Montreal Royals
In 1946, the U.N. General Assembly convened in New York for the first time, at an auditorium in Flushing Meadow.
In 1950, the cardiac "Pacemaker" is developed
In 1952 the Nobel Prize for Medicine is awarded to Ukranian-born microbiologist Selmart A. Waksman for his discovery of an effective treatment of tuberculosis.
In 1954, Britain, England, France & the USSR agree to end occupation of Germany – in Paris, an agreement is signed providing for West German sovereignty and permitting West Germany to rearm and enter NATO and the Western European Union.
In 1956, students hold a demonstration in Budapest Hungary, demanding reforms and democratization, that turns into a riot, beginning a nationwide revolt against the Communist government that fails and ends on November 3rd (crushed by Soviet troops and tanks)
In 1958, Soviet novelist Boris Pasternak wins the Nobel Prize for Literature; the USSR lends money to the United Arab Republic to build the Aswan High Dam
In 1962, USAF Major Robert A Rushworth takes the X-15 to 40,800 m
In 1967, the New Jersey Americans (later NY/NJ Nets) play their first ABA game
In 1968, Kip Keino (Kenya) wins the Olympic gold medal for the 1,500 meter run (3 min 34.9 sec)
In 1970, Gary Gabelich sets an automobile speed record 622.4 mph (1,002 kph)
In 1972, the musical "Pippin" opened on Broadway.
In 1973, a U.N. sanctioned cease-fire officially ends the Yom Kippur war between Israel and Syria. Sacrificial stand in the Golan Heights.
In 1973, after months of stone-walling, President Nixon agrees to turn over the White House tape recordings to Judge Sirica (the existence of the White House taping system was first made public during the testimony of former presidential aide Alexander Butterfield before the Senate Watergate committee in July)
In 1975, Islander Glenn Resch's 5th shut-out of an opponent (Flyers 3-0)
In 1977, Panamanians vote to approve a new Canal Treaty by a 2/3rds majority
In 1980, Soviet Premier Alexei Kosygin resigns, due to illness
In 1981, U.S. National Debt hits $1 trillion
In 1983, At 6,22 a.m. suicide terrorists drive a large TNT-loaded Mercedes truck into the Marine compound at the Beirut Lebanon airport and crashes into the first floor of the four-story concrete building where approximately 300 service members are quartered resulting in an explosion that killed 220 Marines and 21 other U.S. service members (At almost exactly the same instant, another suicide bomber in a pick-up truck full of explosives crashed into the nine-story building that houses French paratroopers, obliterating the building and killing nearly 60 French soldiers)
In 1983, two million people march in Western European capital cities demonstrating against the deployment of 'Cruise' and 'Pershing' missiles
In 1984, NBC telvises BBC footage of the Ethiopian famine
In 1984, the STS 51-A launch vehicle moves to launch pad
In 1987, the U.S. Senate rejected, 58-42, the Supreme Court nomination of Robert H. Bork.
In 1989, Charles Stuart alleges he and his pregnant wife, Carol, had been shot in their car by an African American robber, fanning racial tension in Boston (Carol Stuart and her prematurely delivered baby died from the shooting, but Charles Stuart was implicated later in the killings and was subsequently found dead, an apparent suicide)
In 1989, George Harrison releases his “Best of Dark Horse 1976-89” album
In 1989, The 62nd U.S. manned space mission STS 34 (Atlantis 5) returns from space
In 1991, Dr. Jack Kevorkian attends deaths of Sherry Miller, 43, of Roseville Michigan and Marjorie Wantz, 58, of Sodus Michigan (both use similar machines to inhale carbon dioxide)
In 1992, Japanese Emperor Akihito began a visit to China, the first by a Japanese monarch.
In 1993, Toronto Blue Jays outfielder Joe Carter becomes the 2nd player to end the World Series with a home run (a three-run, ninth inning homer giving Toronto an 8-6 victory over the Philadelphia Phillies in Game 6)
In 1995, A jury in Houston convicts Yolanda Saldivar of murdering Tejano singing star Selena outside a Texas motel on March 31, 1995 (the jury deliberates only 2½ hours before returning their guilty verdict)
In 1996, The civil trial of O.J. Simpson opens in Santa Monica, California (Simpson was later found liable in the deaths of his ex-wife, Nicole, and her friend, Ronald Goldman)
In 1997, In the Cambridge Massachusetts trail of British au pair Louise Woodward, charged with murdering a baby in her care, she denies that she'd ever hurt 8-month-old Matthew Eappen, saying “I love kids”
In 1998, Dr. Barnett Slepian, a doctor who performed legal abortions, is killed at his home in suburban Buffalo NY, when a sniper fires through his kitchen window
In 1998, Following nine days of talks at Wye River MD, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian Chairman Yasser Arafat sign a breakthrough land-for-peace West Bank agreement at the White House



Ten years ago, The Toronto Blue Jays repeated as baseball champions as they defeated the Philadelphia Phillies, 8-6, in game six of the World Series (news - web sites). An IRA bomb exploded in Belfast, Northern Ireland, killing 10 people, including an IRA operative.


Five years ago, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (news - web sites) and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat (news - web sites) signed a breakthrough land-for-peace agreement at the White House. Barnett Slepian, a doctor who performed abortions, was shot and killed at his home in suburban Buffalo, N.Y. Typhoon Babs pummeled the northern Philippines, killing at least 189 people.


One year ago, Gunmen seized a crowded Moscow theater, taking hundreds hostage and threatening to kill their hostages unless the Russian army pulled out of Chechnya (news - web sites). President Bush (news - web sites) signed the biggest military spending increase since Ronald Reagan (news - web sites)'s administration — a $355.5 billion package. Broadway librettist Adolph Green died in New York at age 87. The San Francisco Giants edged the Anaheim Angels, 4-3, to tie the World Series 2-2.





Today's Birthdays,
1750 Nicolas Appert, the inventor of canning.
1805 John Bartlett, lexicographer best known for Bartlett's Quotations.
1844 Sarah Bernhardt, French actress.
1869 John Heisman, American college football coach for whom the Heisman Trophy is named.
Former "Tonight Show" host Johnny Carson is 78.
Movie director Philip Kaufman is 67.
Soccer great Pele is 63.
Author Michael Crichton is 61.
Rhythm-and-blues singer Barbara Ann Hawkins (The Dixie Cups) is 60.
Actor Michael Rupert is 52.
Movie director Ang Lee is 49.
Jazz singer Dianne Reeves is 47.
Country singer Dwight Yoakam is 47.
Movie director Sam Raimi is 44.
Parodist "Weird Al" Yankovic is 44.
Rhythm-and-blues singer David Thomas (Take 6) is 37.
Rock musician Brian Nevin (Big Head Todd and the Monsters) is 37.
Country singer-musician Junior Bryant is 35.
Country singer Jimmy Wayne is 31.
Actor Ryan Reynolds is 27.
Blogger Sarah Marie Parker-Allen is 23.
Actress Masiela Lusha ("George Lopez") is 18.


AP's Thought for Today, "It is the characteristic of the most stringent censorships that they give credibility to the opinions they attack." — Voltaire, French author and philosopher (1694-1778).

posted by Sarah at 2:40 PM. | 0 comments |

 
OUT FROM THE SILENT DEPTHS...   Okay, so I haven't blogged in more than two weeks. That's just sad. Really, I admit it. But come on! I've moved, I've been applying for jobs left right and center, and there's this little political thingamajig going on in my state which just... well, heck, I've been distracted, and let's just leave it at that.

Today I volunteered at the South Bay (Redondo Beach) Republican Party Get Out The Vote (GOTV) HQ, because I got an email saying they really needed help. After I got my donuts and voted myself, that is. For what it's worth, I had a punchcard ballot, I punched my four responses ("should Davis be recalled," "who should replace him," "3% on infrastructure," and "stop collecting info about race on some government forms"), I pulled my card out, I referenced the numbers (next to each punched hole) to make sure that I had in fact voted the way I believed I had (for what it's worth, I think my answers were something like "4", "36", "157" and "158"), based on the numbers by the responses that I wanted in the little voting book thing. No hanging chads, no extra holes that couldn't be explained, no dimples, not even a little bit of baby fat. My ballot was, in my view, perfect, and so I turned it in and got my "I Voted" sticker and my ballot stub and THEN I went and found Redondo Beach. It turns out that it's a lot farther from the far edge of Long Beach than I thought it was, and apparently they're reconstructing a significant bit of Pacific Coast Highway. Next time I'll take the freeway. ANYWAY.

I showed up at 12:19pm and was put to work calling people to remind them to vote. My script was something like:

"Hello, my name is Sarah and I'm calling from the South Bay Republican Party Headquarters. We just want to make sure that you remember to go to the polls before 8pm tonight and vote yes on the recall, which is question ONE on page ONE of your ballot. If you need help getting to the polls, please call our headquarters at (phone number here) and we'll have someone drive you to your polling location. Your polling place is located at Our Lady Guadalupe Church, at 320 Massey Ave. in Hermosa Beach. The polls close at 8pm tonight and you must arrive by then in order to vote. Thanks for voting yes on the recall, good bye!"

I only really got to do that for the voicemail. 99% of the time I got people who had already voted, or I got bad numbers. Then, we did poll-watching. I was working the Torrance precincts (poll-watching = crossing off names as registered voters, you know, voted -- and then walking the precinct until I was abandoned) and if nothing else, the turnout alone dictated this was going to be a blow-out. In mixed party households, the Republicans had all voted by 3pm and none of the Democrats had, or the Republicans had all voted absentee and the Democrats were going to head to their polling place "sometime tonight." By 5pm I had whole pages where every registered Republican had voted and only 5% of the Democrats had voted (annoyingly, not that many A/I and N/P [third parties, independent voters, and no party affiliation] folks had voted, either), and in Torrance it's about a 50-50 split. After I was abandoned I went back to the HQ and called people in the Torrance precincts until I had to leave. It was fun. Of the calls wherein I made actual contact with the actual registered Republican I was trying to contact, only one person had not yet voted either absentee or earlier in the day, and she was just worried about where she was Officially Supposed To Vote. When I told her it was Our Lady Guadalupe Church, she got all relieved and went off to vote.

I signed out at 5:40pm. I'm going to definitely do more stuff for the presidential campaign, as well as any Schwarzenegger reelection campaign that might occur. This political stuff is fun.
posted by Sarah at 5:53 AM. | 0 comments |

 
I NEED A HOLIDAY...   Well, actually, technically speaking, no I don't. But I'm going to GET one, at least from the online world. You see, my friends, I'm moving tonight to Jackie's parents' house. And they won't have a phone line, internet, cable TV, or dryer for a week. Unfortunately, I won't be able to set up my blog the way I thought I could (to do automatic additions for new blogs for my blog trials), so we'll be saying adieu for a while. Maybe I'll be able to post from a library or something; who knows. See you all on the flip side!
posted by Sarah at 2:19 PM. | 0 comments |

 
My own monumental stupidity...   Really throws me for a loop sometimes. There comes a moment, every once in a while, where I prove to myself conclusively that I'm an idiot. Tonight, at 1:23am, that moment came again. Though really one ought to place it closer to 1:46am, which is when I found out that the car that I THOUGHT had completely died on me (I was already three-fourths of the way to a cohesive coping plan, and had figured out how to get to work and back for the next few weeks, at least, without a car at all), had simply gotten a flat tire. No, I didn't mistype that, I'm not guessing, THAT'S ALL THERE WAS THAT WAS WRONG WITH MY CAR. I was practically in tears with the (very calm) AAA representative, and couldn't remember the name of the place that we always always ALWAYS take the car to. I was completely in panic mode. I was extremely worried when I told the AAA mechanic/tow guy (I hope he makes more than I do, coming out to halfway hysterical girls in the early hours of the morning just to find out they're also DUMB GIRLS who don't need to get towed anywhere at all!) that I'd try to back up for him to hitch my car up. I didn't detect laughter or derision in his voice, for which I will be eternally grateful, when he told me I had a flat. Thankfully my dad thinks more clearly than I do regarding such matters; the Ford Taurus standard spare tire was in the right spot (for reasons unknown to me, I actually knew where it was). Watching the AAA guy change my tire was very instructive. The tire is fine-looking on the outside, but on the inside (the side that faces the interior of the car) it's completely ripped to shreds.

It occurs to me that my mom once told me she'd never let me drive without knowing how to change the oil and the tires, and I don't know how to do either. It also occurs to me that the reason my parents never told me my official IQ is probably NOT because the number is really really high. The smell of burning rubber (who DOESN'T know what that smells like????) is probably permanently scarring the interior of my car, not to mention everything in it (*sniffle*), and yet it didn't even OCCUR to me that my car might have something as utterly mundane and common as a flat tire. For the record, the car started making slight klinky noise around Ball and Beach (don't laugh) Blvd., but only when I accelerated from 25 to 35. It began making more serious vibrations and noises about a mile later. THEN it began chugging and making violent noises and smelling horrible about two and a half miles after that; I drove another 100 yards or so to the next light and managed to park it legally (and just beyond the "no parking 8am-12pm Wednesday" zone!!).

My only excuse is that I was going 35-45 the whole time, and have never been in a car with a flat tire before. It's a lame excuse. I'm treating the Taurus to a new tire and fluid check (possibly four new tires, though THAT would be a lot of money to spend on a car with 214,000 miles on it) Speaking of which, I had practically written a eulogy for the car for the blog in my head by the time the tow truck guy arrived. Suffice to say I am awash in my own lameness.
posted by Sarah at 5:46 AM. | 0 comments |

 
WHAT IS ESSENTIAL TO BLOGGING?   It seems that Daniel Weintraub's blog is now being subjected to editorial review before being published. I, like Glenn Reynolds, only read the Bee because of his blog. Not only do I just read his stuff, mind, I also read the news stories and other opinion pieces, especially when he points them out as something worth reading. On the one hand, I want to say that this seems contrary to the basic nature of blogging (which is extremely spontaneous, and often controversial or contentious); on the other, this is clearly exactly what one expects from newspaper editors (amongst other things, what kind of editor is going to argue that he's superfluous in ANY medium, let alone an emerging opinion vehicle like blogging???). Are their two natures diametrically opposed? Is it impossible to be a blogger for a mainstream newspaper? Or have we been making assumptions about what makes a blog a blog (and what makes a blog a good blog)? Let me think about it for a bit; I'll get back to you.
posted by Sarah at 4:48 PM. | 0 comments |

 
OH, THE HUMANITY...   I will (*gasp, choke, whimper*) be without phone or internet for almost two weeks starting on Moving Day, the twenty-sixth of September. I'll be surviving on cookies, ice cream, and my cell phone's voice mail service (I can check that from selected landlines from time to time). I'm currently working on a way to keep my "new blog trials" going, even though I won't be able to actually surf those pages until October.
posted by Sarah at 3:59 PM. | 0 comments |

 
WORKING IN A COAL MINE...   I need to see if the new "title" feature works the way I need it to. If it doesn't, we'll go back to the old school.
posted by Sarah at 5:36 PM. | 0 comments |

 
  DUM DEE DOO DEE DAH... I don't have a lot of time because I want to catch Jackie at work before she leaves, and that means high-tailing it out of here ASAP. Beginning to hate 1am closings, would love to have a job which would give me normal hours and Saturdays off. Anyway, new blog for the blog trials, V+. Go check them out, but don't feel you have to let them know I sent you (I'm pretty sure they already have more traffic than I do). BTW, official ISHTE ALERT: it's white text on a black background. You have been warned.
posted by Sarah at 5:22 PM. | 0 comments |

 
  AND THE BEAT GOES ON... Number three in the list of new blogs I'm reading is...

Titusonenine!

Happy blogging, Kendall, I'll be reading with interest!
posted by Sarah at 8:40 AM. | 0 comments |

 
  NEW WAY TO GET THIS BLOG: Via email! That's right, you can now join this group and get all the posts made to the blog sent straight to your mailbox.

posted by Sarah at 7:27 PM. | 0 comments |

 
  BY THE BY... I be giving up on posting exclusively in Pirate-speak for the day, mateys. It's just too hard to say anything of substance. Aye, but it be fun now and again! Anyway, the first two posts of the day are Piratized, and that's probably good enough. Aarrr.

posted by Sarah at 6:19 PM. | 0 comments |

 
  FINDING THE RIGHT STUFF ONLINE IS SO HARD TO DO... Now, I know that with all of you out there trying desperately to find whatever it is you're looking for (I know you're out there, and no, this site has nothing to do with the health benefits of standing in line), there is bound to be someone looking for all the other people who are eleventh in line for... well, for something. Now, if you were looking for the person who was eleventh in line for the first showing of Star Wars Episode II at Grauman's Chinese Theatre in May of 2002, your search is over! Congratulations, go get yourself a smoothie.

But what if you were looking for someone who was eleventh in line to something else? That would be a problem, because as far as I know, I'm not eleventh in line to anything other than that one showing of that movie (for what it's worth, a guy named Rik was eleventh in line to Episode I). So as a public service to you, my readers, I'm going to give you (on a hopelessly irregular basis) occasional information on all the other people who are eleventh in line. To, uh, stuff.

First up? The person who is eleventh in line to... succeed the President during a time of his incapacity!!! That's right, the constitutional line of succession. It turns out this is actually kind of interesting right now, because Ms. Eleventh In Line, Elaine Chao (the Secretary of Labor), isn't a natural born citizen of the US, and is ineligible to assume the office or duties of the President (3 USC 19(e)). So we have to move on to the Secretary of Health and Human Services, and he just happens to be...

Tommy G. Thompson!!!!

That's right, our good old friend and former governor of Wisconsin (not Pennsylvania, as some people might think -- that's the Secretary of Homeland Security). Look to the Wikipedia article on him for more info, and also check out the Wiki on the Constitutional Line of Succession.

Next time, we're going to take a look at who's eleventh in line to the throne of England, so stay tuned!
posted by Sarah at 6:06 PM. | 0 comments |

 
  AVAST, THAR BE ANOTHER FINE BLOG AHEAD! Ahoy, mateys, and welcome aboard on our voyage t'discov'r blogworthy bloggers from around the world! I be most pleased to put forth for yer perusal this inspired family group blog:

The Milner Blog

Now, off with ye!
posted by Sarah at 3:38 AM. | 0 comments |

 
  AAARRRRRRR, THEY BE FOLLOWING MY LEAD, MATEYS! As well they should be, no doubt about it. Tho' the thanks really ought go to Daniel Weintraub and the fine buccaneer crew of the California Broadcasters Association (it be they who released the questions, mateys), I be liking to think I had a small part in this. Aaarrrrr!!!

posted by Sarah at 3:35 AM. | 0 comments |

 
  HOW TO OVERWHELMINGLY INCREASE YOUR NUMBER OF HITS WITHOUT EVEN -- OH WAIT, I ACTUALLY HAD TO TRY... Wow, so, "hi" to everyone who came from the California Insider! As Mr. Weintraub indicated, I'm 22, a Harry Potter fan (amongst other things), and I'm in Long Beach. You all are the biggest group of people ever to find me, even ranking higher than the folks who were looking for dirty pictures of some other girl named Sarah (PopDex searches by "freshness" are, apparently, not very helpful in this regard). Anyway, welcome. It is so cool to have you stop by.
posted by Sarah at 3:19 PM. | 0 comments |

 
  SOMETHING NEW Okay, assuming you're through reading my epic debate answering post, you're probably exhausted and interested in something light and fluffy. Which isn't really what I'm going to give you now, though it's close enough, I suppose. You see, I've decided to help out the other relatively untravelled blogs out there by linking to them and repeatedly visiting to see if I like them. I'm going to give each one of them thirty-one days to prove themselves to me, and if I like them, I'm going to add them to the BlogRoll over there on the left. How am I going to find them? Not by Carnival of the Vanities links, not from InstaPundit references, not from Googlatives results -- no, my friends, I'm going to use the Random Blog feature at BlogSpot. I'll just start clicking on it till I find a blog updated in the last ten days with content I'm interested in and which I consider family-friendly, and then I'll post a link here. I want to do this at least once a day, which means sometimes there will be three one day and none for the two days preceding it. Sorry, I work for a living. Who is our first contender?

Ophelia Turns Blue

This is a virtually brand-new blogger (she started this week) and she has style. I wish her much luck and much blogging between now and next month. ^_^
posted by Sarah at 5:33 AM. | 0 comments |

 
  I MAY NOT BE RUNNING, BUT THIS IS STILL FUN... Daniel Weintraub has posted the 12 questions for the gubernatorial candidates who will be attending the debate on September 24th (the California Broadcasters' Association is sponsoring the affair, Schwarzenegger says he'll be there.) Now, I'm no gubernatorial candidate (I need three more years of residency -- and, coincidentally enough, need to be three years older than I am now! -- in order to run), but I figure, why not answer the questions myself? Now, mind, I get to answer these from the perspective of a 22-year-old who doesn't want to run for election, and I get to be snarkier, sillier, more idealistic, less realistic, and more honest about how I see things than any of the candidates (yes, even Angelyne). So, here we go.

How would you propose enhancing revenue and/or what specific cuts would you propose to achieve a balanced budget?
I would like to see a decrease in the basic administrative fees and state-mandated costs required to start and maintain a business in this state. Without sales (and possibly income) tax revenues (which we've been losing as businesses leave, choose not to expand, or aren't even begun in the first place), our budget cannot possibly be supported. I would also recommend reductions in pay to state-level elected officials (including the governor), and a reduced legislative session. Which, of course, would have the additional benefit of preventing the legislature from enacting more spending bills.

Leaders in the business community are convinced that this state is losing jobs and unable to attract new businesses. If you agree, what are two things you would change to make this a more business-friendly state? If you disagree, what are the misconceptions you would like to correct?
Well, as you could probably guess from how I answered the last question, I do agree with that proposition. The simple fact is that our regulatory enviornment is incredibly un-welcoming to businesses, and that efforts to expand are penalized (for example, if you have more than X number of employees, your costs go up by far more than they should, because now you have to provide them with so many additional amenities). Even Proposition 13, which held property taxes at their last assessment value, forces reassessment whenever a property is bought or sold, thus providing a disincentive to those who would like to, for example, increase the size or improve the location of a business. Frankly, it makes better business sense to stay stagnant, shrink, or simply move away. As to two specific solutions, I'd like to see a moratorium on new legislation targeted at businesses of all sizes, and a complete overhaul of the worker's comp system in the state.

How are you going to insure that all Californians have adequate healthcare?
I don't believe that it is the job of the state (either in the "state of California" sense or the "government" sense) to ensure that kind of thing. I'd like to see a lot less regulation of the industry, and I'd like us to get out of the business of providing sub-par health care to the poor. Speaking as a person with no health insurance who has seen government involvement disrupt everything from education to electricity, I can't see how more government intervention would make this better.

Everybody talks about wanting a colorblind society but what does that actually mean to you? In other words, how do we know when we have succeeded?
Presumably, when no one feels the need to ask what my exact racial background is. A good benchmark would be when the government stopped asking -- and yes, I support Proposition 54.

What should be the top priority for California right now?
Well, once we've cleared out the governor's mansion, Californians should get back to the business of living their lives, and the government should get into the business of reducing its own role in their lives. A comprehensive look at state expenditures, and an elimination of those which are redundant, irrelevant, or otherwise inappropriate for a state to be spending (especially given our budget crisis) would be high on the list.

If elected Governor, will you support the expansion of charter schools in California?
Yes, along with a relaxation of interference in private alternatives to public schooling (private schools, home education, etc.), and the introduction of voucher programs with minimal supervision. We've proven, I think, that a lot of supervision has only made things worse -- trying minimal supervision seems to be the next option on the list.

What do you expect to accomplish in the time remaining on Gray Davis’ term that he could not?
Choosing not to sign bills into legislation which serve no real purpose appropriate for state involvement, making the electorate and the 49 other state governors aware that California can be run competently, and shutting George Will up about how we're the sick man of the republic.

What is the single most important piece of legislation either signed or vetoed during this past legislative session?
Part of me wants to say the license bill for illegal immigrants, but in the end I think that the car registration tax is more significant, simply because its negative impact on citizens of this state is more than just ghostly fears of misuse and terrorism -- to tax and then spend is one thing, but to spend and then announce you have to tax to cover the expenditure is much worse. And as I am not in favor of progressive or punitive taxation, the fact that this will lead to more bus usage and fewer classic cars bought by Jay Leno seems to be not only pointless but in fact, bad for California. I say encourage Jay Leno to buy a thousand vintage cars, employ dozens of contrators to build a garage, and a few full-time mechanics and experts to maintain the fleet. Not to mention, the cost of convincing a million Jane and Joe Smiths to keep their gas-guzzling, smog-spewing, falling-apart-at-the-seams junkmobiles for another few years is going to far exceed whatever revenues can be acquired thanks to those who just can't help but buy a brand new car. And I'd rather not have to hire game theorists and statisticians to let me know at what point taxes will be so high that we'll need to bring in Mexican citizens by the busfull just to keep our population steady.

Do you support reducing the Vehicle License Fee (car tax), and if so, where would you find the revenue to replace the loss to the budget?
I support returning it to its previous level, and possibly lowering it from there. If there aren't enough revenues to be found in reducing the pay for state-level employees and the legislature, reducing the amount of time the legislature is in session, etc., then I will recommend making gambling legal throughout the state, authorizing the sale, concealed carriage, and taxation of all firearms not made illegal under federal law, and real investment (i.e. the buying of stock) in start-ups and expansion firms. There's a lot one can learn from Nevada and New Mexico.

What services will your Administration expect local governments to provide and what stable source of revenue will you give them to do it?
I would expect them to provide the services their citizens choose to demand and pay for. It's not the business of the state to dictate unfunded mandates to localities, nor is it our business to give them money to do our bidding. If the state absolutely, positively, has to have something done, it ought to pay localities for the costs incurred to them (in other words, if there's a CalWorks office in Anaheim, it had better be paying taxes to the local and county governments), and be apologetic about the interference.

Under Governors Pat Brown and Ronald Reagan, California spent up to 20% of its General Fund on Infrastructure - such as roads, bridges, colleges, hospitals and water systems. Now we spend closer to 1%. Proposition 53 on the ballot raises that figure to 3%. What are your positions on Prop. 53 and what will you do to invest more in California's aging infrastructure?
Privatization of services the state doesn't need to be involved in, less regulation over the construction industry, fee-for-service arrangements in selected state businesses, and a reduction in the involvement the state has in things which don't help it sustain itself. More programs like premium fast lanes, which allow those who are willing to sustain the costs of convenience help subsidize those who can't or who are willing to live without convenience. Yes, priority service at the DMV, if that's what it takes. I oppose Proposition 53, simply because I can't see any way to prevent things like that leading to 5% here, 10% there, and oh gosh, it turns out we can't actually pay for fire fighters because we're mandated to protect the otters. Better to convince the electorate to vote for sensible, responsible legislators, even though I realize that's not very likely to work.

As our population continues to age, the demand for government services to seniors will increase dramatically during the next decade. What do you intend to do to proactively manage this demand?
Privatization and deregulation of the health insurance industry will go a long way. We have to be prepared to adjust for changing spending and lifestyle habits, as well as accept that our school and work-age populations will be decreasing in proportion to the retirement-age population (though perhaps immigrant population patterns will keep that from being too big of a deal). Making the state more reliant on sales taxes (as opposed to income and property taxes), improving public transportation infrastructures (possibly by encouraging private investment), and adapting current infrastructure (like schools, which may be underused in some areas) to transition to future needs, would all help.


NOTE: Well, there you have it. Like I said, maybe not the most realistic. Probably 90% of what I believe in, the general public won't accept. Maybe 50% won't even work. But it would be so cool to have a candidate articulate even a few of the general themes that I tried to put forth up there. My realistic streak (the one that comes in and says "you're NEVER going to run for elected office, Sarah, and you know you'll vote for Schwarzenegger unless there's incredibly major changes in the next few weeks") knows that my candidate won't say much, if any, of it. But a girl can dream, right?
posted by Sarah at 4:20 AM. | 0 comments |

 
  PUBLIC POLICY WORK IS NOT LIKE THIS AT ALL There are a lot of good "reasons not to hate your job" links popping up lately. This one (about the worst jobs in science) is guaranteed to make you cringe (hat tip: Slashdot). And XRLQ has some pictures from truly "wow my job isn't so bad now that I've seen this" jobs.
posted by Sarah at 4:25 PM. | 0 comments |

 
  I'M CONFUSED... If the issue is disenfranchisement (as far as voters using punch-card machines to vote instead of something more modern and less "risky" or complicated), I can't see how the argument that we have to delay the election holds water. At least in MY county (Los Angeles), there are and have been touch-screen voting locations available for "years" (according to my sample ballot), which anyone can choose to go to in place of their original polling location. You have to get time off on an Election Day if that's what it'll take to get to a polling location (according state and I think federal law), all the polling places have to be handicap accessible -- heck, the sample ballot even says that the things are BETTER for people who need translations or handicap assistance, because they can vote without assistance from an actual person (the translator or reader). So where's the disenfranchisement?
posted by Sarah at 4:37 AM. | 0 comments |

 
  FUN STUFF: I have two new links to add to the template!

Random BlogSpotter




posted by Sarah at 6:45 PM. | 0 comments |

 
  HAPPY BIRTHDAY, CAROLINE I don't feel old enough to have a seventeen-year-old younger sister, but apparently I now AM old enough to have such a relation. How dare time move foward.

Seriously, happy birthday, Caroline. I've got to cash a check and your graduation/birthday/welcome to college package can be shipped to you. Whee!

posted by Sarah at 6:16 PM. | 0 comments |

 
  CONDOLANCES FOR ANNA LINDH MAY BE DIRECTED TO:

Utrikesdepartementet, 103 39 Stockholm
E-mail: mailto:registrator@foreign.ministry.se
Fax: 08-723 11 76

Source: Swedish Ministry of Foreign Affairs

(note: this is now the second-highest ranking search that gets people to my blog, right after Schwarzenegger references)


posted by Sarah at 4:28 PM. | 0 comments |

 
  IN HONOR OF MY MANY SEARCHENGINE COMRADES: I know that one or two of the people who read this today will be looking for information on how to contact the Schwarzenegger campaign. How do I know? Because people get here using such terms as "schwarzenegger headquarters main street" (and I bet they thought it was REALLY funny to find a Disneyland employee who talks about the recall election... and doesn't put the HQ address on her site!). Therefore, for your informational pleasure... the only address I have available for the campaign:

3110 Main Street
Santa Monica, CA 90405
(310) 664-9002
Open from 9am to 9pm daily (according to the phone message they left me yesterday)

I hope that helps.
posted by Sarah at 4:06 PM. | 0 comments |

 
  I GOT SOMETHING IN THE MAIL TODAY Which was way more interesting than my student loan bill. Yes, that's right, it's my very first actual mailing from the Schwarzenegger campaign. The text of the back is as follows:

*************************

Vote YES on Recall
LET'S BRING CALIFORNIA BACK!

"When I first came to California 35 years ago, our state was a place of dreams. Today, dreams, opinions, and opportunity are eluding too many Californians. Our people are doing their part, working hard, paying their taxes, raising their families and providing their children with the tools to succeed.

But California's politicians have not done their part.

Our state is in trouble, and I'm running for governor to end business as usual in California.

Fiscally Conservative Government with Republican Principles

• Repeal the outrageous Car Tax increase
  
• Appoint an outside auditing group to root out waste and corruption
  
• Enact a Constitutional Spending Cap
  
• Immediately attack the $8 Billion spending gap with Cuts
• not Taxes
  
• Restructure the $20 Billion inherited debt
  
• Establish English as the official language of the U.S.
  

Rebuild California's Economic Engine

• Reform Worker's Compensation laws that drive business and jobs from our state
  
• Help small businesses grow
  
• Protect Proposition 13
  
• Reduce burdensome electricity rates on consumers and businesses
  

Put Our Children First

• Protect education funding for our children's future
  
• Demand safe and clean schools
  
• Shift money and authority back to local schools
  
• Restore cuts from textbook budget
  

Reform Sacramento so the Public Interest Comes Before Special Interests
End the cycle of campaign contributions buying access and legislative and executive favors. Where every decision has one criterion: what is in the best interests of the people of California, for now and for the future.

Please return the attached absentee ballot application today. Make your voice heard to bring about needed change in Sacramento.

I hope you will join me in our campaign to bring California back to the people."
Arnold Schwarzenegger

Vote-by-Mail to Recall Gray Davis.
Vote for Arnold Schwarzenegger for Governor.

For a yard sign, bumper sticker or to help Arnold's campaign, visit us at www.joinarnold.com.

Paid for by Californians for Schwarzenegger, with additional funding provided by Arnold Schwarzenegger's Total Recall Committee, Vote Yes to Recall Gray Davis. Major funders of the recall committee include William Lyons Homes, Inc. and Paul Folino.

**************************

I'll probably comment more later, but suffice to say that I'm conflicted. I don't like some proposals, a few are non-proposals that are basically just Things That Will Sound Good (what the heck kind of a platform says it'll "help small businesses grow" and leaves it at that?), a few sound terrific (can't get enough of that "shift authority to local schools"), and at least one is completely outside the scope of the Governor's duties and obligations: how on earth does ANY governor of California manage to make English the official language of the entire country? I think that one was pulled from a Republican Party national platform circa 1994, possibly via a Typically Suicidal California Republican Party platform from a few years later.
posted by Sarah at 6:46 PM. | 0 comments |

 
  NOW, TELL ME WHAT YOU REALLY THINK... You can now give me a review beyond just an email saying "your site is weird." That's right, apparently BlogStreet has a review feature... I think this link should work. I'm going to add it to the template now.
posted by Sarah at 7:48 PM. | 0 comments |

 
  STUFF OF SUBSTANCE: So... "tonight" is like, a really nebulous term, which can in fact mean "sometime this week," right? Yeah, let's go with that.

I've been working on a lot of stuff in my head which, now that schedules are being radically reduced over at DL, will hopefully be making its way to the blog and sites soon. Amongst the items: why I don't hate "Joe Schmo" or feel bad for Matt (the "guy who thinks it's real"), when I thought I would; good reasons to get government out of schooling; my thoughts on actually getting to the business of creating my own future. Also, expect lots of "comparison shopping" stuff regarding looking for an apartment online. It's a real bear of a project.

Note: I had a comment which I didn't reply to, and meant to... though he'll probably never come back, let me just mention to the person who thought I was remiss in my obligations by being tardy 7 times in eight months: this is longest time I've ever had a job, most of the "lates" were less than five minutes (or more than 3 hours -- either traffic or mix-ups in scheduling), and I'm getting rave reviews. The majority of employers I've had in the past were either thrilled to have me show up at all (this held true for all employees) or so dead-set on absolute punctuality (not to mention a laundry list of other minor conformity issues) that I gave up on them after a few weeks. You sound like my former employer at the City of Anaheim, who believed I was late if I wasn't sitting at my desk, gazing lovingly at the phone (which almost never rang), five minutes before my actual start time of 8am (so that I would be ready to get to the Vital And Urgent Work of cataloguing old records of public works projects, exactly on time). I recall coming in to work praying he'd fire me (we parted ways after a month, mutually agreeing that my probationary period hadn't worked out very well) every day, and muttering under my breath that this is the sort of thing I ought to have expected from an employer which had me working exactly 32 hours per week, because if it was any more than that, they'd have to give me health insurance. When I realized that the working conditions compared unfavorably to those in the US military (at least they have benefits, and senior officers are supposed to salute back -- i.e. actually have or at least demonstrate some level of respect for you -- when you salute them), it was pretty much a foregone conclusion that that place and I weren't a good fit for one another.

posted by Sarah at 3:57 PM. | 0 comments |

 
  JUST WANTED TO LET YOU ALL KNOW: That you can now once again Join My Army!!! Seriously, this thing is a great way to waste a few minutes out of your day. Gotta love anything like that.

I plan to post some substantive... stuff... tonight.
posted by Sarah at 4:04 PM. | 0 comments |

 
  HAPPY BELATED BIRTHDAY, WWdN: Apparently, three years and one day ago, Wil Wheaton started his first blog. Coincidentally, twelve years and five days ago, I started sixth grade. Also, ten years and eight days ago, my brother James was born. WOOT! Remembering when stuff happened is cool.
posted by Sarah at 6:59 AM. | 0 comments |

 
  HEY YOU GUYS!!!! So, anyway, those of you who are here from my Craigslist ad, welcome, welcome, welcome. This little itty bit of cyberspace is what I like to call Mine, so it's a little messy and sometimes a bit weird, but overall I like it nonetheless. This is a good way of finding out what I'm like (which you already got from my ad), and apparently the way I talk (which you won't find much of in my ad), and all the rest of it. And yes, that was a quote from Goonies, one of the Best Movies Ever. And if that doesn't say enough about me, I can't think of what will...
posted by Sarah at 6:00 AM. | 0 comments |

 
  NOT THAT I BELIEVE IN THE PLACE OR ANYTHING... I got this from Lex's LJ. I think it's a nice way of illustrating my priorities.


posted by Sarah at 4:02 PM. | 0 comments |

 
  MAKE THAT TEN DAYS... All right, so I was wrong. To be more accurate, I was right, then I came home, gained access to incorrect information, became wrong, and found out my error rather late in the actual process. Yes, that's right, I was supposed to go to work yesterday at 4:30pm. Fortunately, I noticed my error at 5:30pm, which means that while I did have to work 10 days straight, I will at the least be getting 2.5 hours of overtime for my trouble. Never mind that I now have 10.5 points at work (that means I've been late 7 times since January 4th). I probably should have called out dependent, but I felt REALLY bad about leaving them alone to try and cope without me... stupid morals.
posted by Sarah at 3:06 PM. | 0 comments |

 
  I HAVE SOME THOUGHTS: Truly, I know I do. Sorry for the long delay between updates, everyone, but I've just finished working nine days straight at DL. If I didn't have tomorrow (which is to say, today, unless you're reading in... Hawaii...) off, I'd be working (if I've calculated this right) at least 15 days straight. Anyway, I plan to spend a good chunk of tomorrow catching up. AND it seems that Schwarzenegger is going to hold a press Q&A tomorrow, in honor of my day off. WOOT!

posted by Sarah at 5:50 AM. | 0 comments |

 
  HOUSEKEEPING: I don't appreciate or tolerate thread-hijacking. If you want to make a comment about something I've said elsewhere, there are plenty of opportunties to do so. I post my email on this front page, as well as in all forums and comment sections in which I take part. If you're looking for free publicity, try indices like Weblogs. If you're looking for a fight, go somewhere else. All comments which are not germane to the post to which they are appended will be deleted; I may choose to repost them in their own post here at my discretion.

Having said that, please consider the comments that Nitin made today (on the post that happened to be at the top of the page, about Anna and Barb and so forth) regarding what I said on CalPundit, regarding a list of good conservative blogs (CalPundit's owner is a self-described liberal):

""I haven't seen any lists like this on conservative blogs"

I hope you weren't implying anything, like the close-mindedness of Conservatives or Libertarians. Before I even saw this list, I had made a very similar post at my blog, hawken.blogspot.com . Also, I have always maintained a list of Liberal bloggers on my blogroll, that I check frequently.

Also, even though I am a conservative, I am very interested in ideas from all sides of the spectrum. This is the basis of my blog. It is a collection of my friends from high school, and we come from all different ends of the political spectrum. Traditional conservatives. Libertarian/conservative mixes (like myself). Moderate liberals. Extreme nader-supporting liberals. And we dish it out in an online crossfire.

So yeah, lists like that exist, and conservatives are just as open-minded to discussion as liberals are. While you are at it, make your way to a college campus, and ask if the liberal students are as open-minded to conservative thought. When conservative speakers are being booed, interrupted, and attacked, I hope this makes you double-check the supposed "open-mindedness" of liberals."

(link given: Hawken; email link not given in original comment)

For the record, here's what I said:

"Good to see blogs other than the big few that are always linked to by everyone. Though I've only been seriously perusing the political zone of the blogosphere for about two months now, I was surprised to see so many excellent blogs on the list that I haven't seen before. My "blogs to check daily" list is becoming oppressively long.

I haven't seen any lists like this on conservative blogs, but again it's only been since late May/early June for me. I must point out, though, that I started looking primarily at blogs that I agree with (e.g. SamizData) and branched out enough to find CalPundit and other liberal blogs. So, it's not like you all are being shunned."

You be the judge. And if you have something to say, say it here, in the comment section to this post. Thanks!

(note to Nitin: sorry, I meant "impugn")
[update: changed Nitin's name to reflect reality, thanks for the comment alerting me to the error.]
posted by Sarah at 3:30 AM. | 0 comments |

 
  AMEN, SISTER: Kira has an insightful post about Queer Eye for the Straight Guy, and sexual conversation etiquette in general. A good read all around...

And stop feeling up the straight guys already. They don't like it.

posted by Sarah at 7:00 AM. | 0 comments |

 
  REALITY BITES: Let's face facts here, for a moment, people: there are a lot of Sarahs in the world (and plenty of Saras, too). I'm quite used to being the "other" Sarah, have been referred to by monikers such as "Disneyland Sarah" and "Sarah the Younger," have become inurred to the effects of being called "SMPA" or "Parker-Allen," and at my place of work, when I'm in New Orleans Square, the other Sarahs know me as "Hermione" (everyone picked a name, you see). So I'd like to make one thing very clear to the 43 of you who, in the last two days, have come to this site in search of a different Sarah (who, apparently, has graced a certain... risque publication, shall we say, with her likeness): I'm not that Sarah. Understood? Hopefully some of you thought this place was nice enough to stick around and read more of, but considering the search terms you used to get here (besides "Sarah," I mean), I sort of doubt it. By the by, try searching on Google instead of Popdex. I don't rank highly there at all...

(note: 43 people makes 78.2% of my total traffic since yesterday...)

By the way, "hi" to the 11 of you (20% of my total traffic!!) who aren't me and weren't looking for that other Sarah. Please, feel free to look around, make a comment, etc. I sure do appreciate you being here!

[update: please also let me express my sincerest condolances to those of you who thought you were going to get an ex-reality TV show nudie type... it was never my intent for you to think you could get that kind of stuff here, but nonetheless I feel sad on your behalf that you were disappointed...]
posted by Sarah at 5:50 AM. | 0 comments |

 
  AND NOW FOR SOMETHING COMPLETELY DIFFERENT: I just thought I'd share my thoughts about Anna finally updating Last Tango in Paris again. I suppose I really shouldn't say "finally," not when I haven't put out an original work OR bit of fanfic since... well, gosh, March? But anyway, LTiP got updated again, and praise be to the heavens. Except... every chapter of this fic saga, just like every chapter of Triangle Prophecy, brings us all one step closer to the end (as far as I know, Anna isn't planning a fourth venture into the Roman Holiday world, and Barb has said many times she will not write anything else in the Psychic Serpent universe). This is sort of like original Harry Potter novels, episodes of Babylon 5, etc.; the feeling is only marginally less depressing than what you get when reading one of the last few books in the Chronicles of Narnia (for some reason, it always hits me in "The Silver Chair"). But at the same time, it isn't half as demoralizing as what I feel when something is stretched beyond it's elastic capacity -- take, for example, the Star Trek franchise and "Enterprise." There's beating a dead horse, and on Disneyland's Main Street to boot. It seems like you just can't win, and I find it sad.

Another sad thing? I'm not even REMOTELY well-placed in Google searches for "sarah." I know I'm in there (because when I search all the results for "lloannna," there's something like 20 hits), but nowhere near any kind of relevant ranking. In fact, I'm not even really very well placed on "sarah blog." Recent topics ("schwarzenegger," "harry potter," etc.) don't rank well at all, either. The SarahFinder doesn't turn up when you search "sarah disneyland." I find it vaguely disappointing, and yet reassuring in a "stalkers have to at least know my username to find me" sort of way. Of course, I've had the same username since 1992, so it's not hard (and, no one else has it... every hit on "lloannna" is me). So there's something to be comforted by. Or, freaked out by, depending on how you want to think about these things...

Realistically I think it's time we all admitted there's no real cause for optimism and everything's going to turn out badly for the rest of forever.
posted by Sarah at 5:22 AM. | 0 comments |

 
  WEDNESDAY IS GONE, AND I SAY GOOD RIDDANCE: You ever have one of those days when the only thing you manage to do well is convince yourself of your own incompetence? One of those days where you know you'll actually lose more than you spend if you go gambling, and where you know that if you come up with an idea, you should at all costs do its exact opposite, because all your ideas are turning into disasters? That's what August 13th, 2003, was to me, and I'm glad it's done. Now, let's move on; I hear Thursday is looking quite promising. Especially since they're not letting me near any money or cash register buttons or job interviewers or washing machines. Don't ask.

However, a real live blogging pro type person commented on my blog on Wednesday. I'm pretty sure Xrlq was just hear to see the train wreck (the scent of blood was probably in the blogosphere), but I'm pleased he stopped by nonetheless. And yeah, I know that Davis said "8 million," but he's an idiot and I'm not. Plus, my parents' co-Davis-voter-types deserve to be insulted. In fact, I say, we should be handing out commendations to everyone who signed the recall petitions, on the grounds that it was a big fat raspberry to everyone who voted for him in November. And because it's now Thursday, that means my idea isn't automatically false on principle, anymore.
posted by Sarah at 3:51 AM. | 0 comments |

 
  TAKE THE GOOD WITH THE... WORST AMERICANS IN HISTORY? Everyone has seen the RWN Survey of bloggers' views of who was the worst American in history. Now, the focus has been on the ones that each side (the lists are divided -- liberal bloggers' opinions vs. conservative bloggers' opinions) finds completely unbelievable, like FDR on the conservative list or Ronald Reagan on the liberal list. The thing is, standing here in the middle of the American political scene, I think I could have guessed 90% of the names that each side came up with that the other side would wail about. What I find interesting, instead, are the ones that both sides agreed on -- because frankly, there's three names on there (and I find this absolutely AMAZING) that I would have guessed one side would hate and the other side would be annoyed by, and they're on BOTH lists. I've aggregated and ordered the names that appeared on both lists, by total number of votes received.

Boss Tweed (10) (5 + 5)
John Walker Lindh (11) (6 + 5)
Aldrich Ames (13) (6 + 7)
Aaron Burr (14) (6 + 8)
Charles Manson (14) (5 + 9)
Lee Harvey Oswald (14) (6 + 8)
John Wilkes Booth (24) (10 +14)
The Rosenbergs (26) (20 + 6)
Timothy McVeigh (26) (10 + 16)
Benedict Arnold (33) (14 + 19)
Richard Nixon (33) (25 + 8)

Hang on, waitasecond... eight conservative people voted for Nixon? Six liberals voted for the Rosenbergs (on RWN and on my list, the Rosenbergs are counted as one vote even if the respondent said "Julius Rosenberg")??? While it is disheartening that Charles Manson didn't get more votes, and that Benedict Arnold ranks so high on both (thus demonstrating that far too many people still take their high school history class textbooks too seriously), I'm quite impressed that there were this many people who got a large number of votes. What's more, except for the Rosenbergs and Nixon, all the other matches got roughly the same number of votes (out of 36 liberals and 39 conservatives polled). Given that each respondent could vote for up to 20 people, I think that's pretty good. More than half of the overall respondants voted for Nixon and Arnold (we'll just ignore the reasons why voting either of them the Worst American In History is a bit silly, considering how complex both situations were). And it is heartening that agreements can be reached even amongst the flamewar set of opinion-holders. Now we just have to inject some political and historical reality into the proceedings...
posted by Sarah at 8:02 PM. | 0 comments |

 
  NOT JUST ANOTHER PRETTY MODERATE: CalBlog has some really interesting things to say about the Schwarzenegger campaign, and the idea (which I favor on a gut-instinct level, but can't explain rationally) that Mr. Universe has some intellectual credentials that make the former Rush fan (who got tired of the Dittohead/t-shirt/bumper music faddishness of the whole thing, as a 10th grader) in me get all goosebumpy. And, considering that we know that conservative Republicans all seem to have a political deathwish, if I were on Arnold's team, I'd certainly advocate spending about 58 campaign days in the armor of moderate thinking, too.

(George Will link courtesy of Matt Welch at National Review Hit & Run)
posted by Sarah at 6:53 AM. | 0 comments |

 
  NEW LINK OF THE MOMENT: Thanks to Koettke.Org, we now have a new link of the moment. Yes, folks, Jackie's moving onto the Honor Roll of past recipients of this tremendous honor... because, you see, we must make room for...

Computer 20 Questions

That's right, you can play 20 Questions with a computer. It took 29 guesses for it to realize I was thinking of a theme park (apparently it, like the majority of the Free World, doesn't read this blog very often), and 20 for it to realize I was thinking of a spaceship. The more you play (and millions of other people play, too) the smarter it gets. It thinks that theme parks are probably shaped like hot dogs, so I think we all ought to chip in for those lessons. Go on, click on the link. You know you want to!
posted by Sarah at 6:36 AM. | 0 comments |

 
  PERSONAL LIFE UPDATE:

Today has been quite a day on the political front (well, not really, but you'll see in a second) and more importantly, on the apartment front.

First of all, I finally was able to get ahold of the state Republican party (LA headquarters -- this is the only state I've ever lived in where there were two equal HQs for a single state party, further evidence of the north/south split here in CA), and it turns out that it didn't matter that I wasn't able to get to them on Friday. The Schwarzenegger campaign still hasn't released any information in terms of a phone number or physical address to reach them. What's more, my email to info@joinarnold.com (the email was posted this afternoon on the website) bounced. State HQ says call back on Thursday, they should have info then. If I didn't think that Tom McClintock's campaign (http://www.tommcclintock.com/) has chances of succeeding roughly comparable to a snowball's chance in Satan's parlor, I'd go and volunteer for him. After all, I've already got an address, phone number, and information on how to volunteer. Suffice to say that Arnold's team needs to get a move on, already; every single day represents fully 3% of the total campaign time.

Second, I have to make four phone calls tomorrow: to Marilyn (the woman who lives in the house I probably won't be renting a room out of; the utilities added an additional $150/month to the total, bringing it well above my hard ceiling of $600), to Lisa (I think she's the $380/month girl), Carmen (the $400/month plus $30-50 in utilities), and some girl named Yen, who didn't say more than that I had emailed her (which doesn't help; I emailed 8 people, four of whom had no clear ethnicity associated with them and one more who was definitely Asian ["we speak Chinese/English at home"]). We shall see.

[update: had to make the links, you know, actually link to something...]
posted by Sarah at 4:11 AM. | 0 comments |

 
  GRAY DAVIS SAYS THE RECALL ELECTION IS AN INSULT TO EVERYONE WHO VOTED FOR HIM: Fortunately, there's really not that many of them. I mean, when you look at the numbers, it seems to me, each person who signed the recall petition was insulting maybe 4.3 people who voted for Davis. And sure, that means that 0.45 people are insulting my California set of parents (who both voted for Davis), but anyone who listens to me talk knows that that's only a 0.45 increase on how many people insult them on a daily basis (particularly on political matters).

What I'm trying to say is, basically, that Davis is a twit who is making himself increasingly irrelevant and foolish-looking each and every day that this recall campaign continues. I look forward to seeing just how stupid he comes across as on October 6th!

[update: I had some issues with division earlier today, which have since been corrected... and no, I don't know why I thought that 800,000 was sixty percent of 3.5 million)

(link: The Associated Press, via Rough & Tumble)
posted by Sarah at 5:15 PM. | 0 comments |

 
  I JUST READ SOMETHING I HAD TO SHARE: I was clicking through my (now rather extensive) set of links to the blogging community (yes, I'm going to get a BlogRolling account, probably on the 12th), and I noticed a new link on InstaPundit (as if Glenn Reynolds needs more links), to the USS Clueless, aka Steven Den Beste's blog. And the article rocks, and I see that it rocks, and you should go read it so you can see it too. In fact, as they say, RTWT -- read the whole thing.

I also liked Steven's link to an OJ article (no, not THAT OJ, the Opinion Journal) about the non-boycott which has, nonetheless, proven quite effective. If you don't read all of SDB's stuff, at least read the whole OJ article, which is quite informative and makes a point I wish more people would (regarding France's less than stellar history with us... most of us seem to act as though the Statue of Liberty outbalances the rest of it!!)
posted by Sarah at 1:38 AM. | 0 comments |

 
  THE RELATIVE VALUE OF CONFORMISM: So, let's face it, I'm never going to get straight-As when it comes to conforming. Oh, sure, I try hard enough on occasion, but I can't even really fit in with Libertarians or Disney cast members, and well all know how accepting those people are.

Anyway, on one of my many email lists (I eschew message boards, which require clickthroughs and refreshes and other nasty interactions with my evil browser), one of the perennial topics of discussion has to do with conforming, and its relative usefulness/unacceptableness. In this case, all the members of the group are professing Introverts (in the Jungian/Kiersey school of personality typing), and the topic is conforming in a world (or at least nation) dominated by extraversion and extraverts.

Maybe it's just that I can't see conforming with ANYONE (even people who are adamant about not conforming and Denying One's True Nature), but I don't see how I can buy into the idea that adopting extraverted techniques while in situations where that proves advantageous is anything other than Plain Old Good Sense. I'm down with Plain Old Good Sense, since it usually encompasses most major Ways To Actually Succeed In Life. I appreciate not having more problems than are absolutely necessary, which is why I insist on keeping my personal time/space, well, personal, and why I make an effort to engage in chit-chat and socialization with Work People (this doesn't mean you, Jackie, you're not strictly a Work Person) even when I don't really mean most any of it and would rather just be left alone to accomplish my work. Why? Because the effort to do both (and many other things) is less than the effort and hassle and general unpleasantness of trying to deal with the consequences of not doing them. You don't want to see me with a migraine or having a weird depressive "sleep for three days straight" episode due to being forcibly exposed to endless social situations when I really just needed to be left alone. Nor do I want to have to work in a department with 2,000 people who think of me as a prickly, creepy, uncooperative, unfriendly Loner Who Might Be Dangerous. It's not about denying my true nature, it's about making my life as easy as it can be while still accomplishing my goals.

Note: this pragmatic streak is what keeps me from being a very good Libertarian even on the best of days... despite scoring as Libertarian as you CAN score on the World's Smallest Political Test...
posted by Sarah at 10:08 PM. | 0 comments |

 
  A FEW RANDOM THINGS: So, anyway, it's occurred to me that I don't update nearly often enough. Especially in terms of a day-to-day update thing (I do well on individual days, except when I don't update for ten such days all in a row), and not just hour-to-hour. Perhaps I'm not as bad as some people are, but it's not about comparisons. So, let's actually go about the business of blogging.

Recall Stuff
I've decided, as I'm sure you all know, to volunteer for the Schwarzenegger campaign. Well, that's becoming a bit of a pain. It turns out the California Republican Party can't quite be bothered to answer their phones on the weekend. So, as JAC (as I will henceforth be referring to the JoinArnold.Com website) STILL isn't updated with anything useful (there's a nice little bit about how great it was that in 1911, this one guy thought that a recall would be a good idea) beyond an online contribution form, I have to wait until tomorrow to get a phone number for volunteering and stuff. I have not, BTW, completely rejected the idea of voting for McClintock. I do wish I knew more about him, and less about his seeming need to just keep running for stuff till he wins again.

Also, just a warning, expect high levels of Recall-related stuff in my posts to pretty much every email list I'm on. Yes, even the Harry Potter fanfiction commentary ones. Sorry, just can't help it.


The Value of Independence
I'm going to be calling and emailing a few dozen people in the next three weeks, looking for a place to live. After 19 months of overstaying my welcome at my father's house (note to self: don't do that ever again), I've decided I would rather live on Ramen noodles than live here anymore. Also, once I'm out of the house, I can justifiably claim to be poor, and get reduced payments on my student loans.


The September That Never Ended
I finally have a name for the nightmare I experienced as a only-marginally-experienced Internet type, shortly before I started ninth grade. I wasn't really "in" the online world (Usenet, etc.) for very long before the day that AOL opened their portal to the Web (I remember trying to get through that portal during our brief and tortuous experience with AOL in 1991-92, and seeing a notice saying "Available Soon"), but it was still very much an us-vs-them thing for me (the "them" being AOL users), and for years I've recalled the time when the internet got flooded with neophytes and idiots with regret and sorrow (though actually, it was 1994, when AOLers started making websites and everyone started putting URLs in commercials, before I felt much of anything -- I was never really into Usenet except as a lurker). Considering that I wasn't even a teenager at the time, it's amazing how judgemental I was. Anyway, one hopes that the imminent arrival of AOL Journals won't have the same effect...
posted by Sarah at 8:51 PM. | 0 comments |

 
  THIS HERE WAR IS LIKE UNTO QUAGMIRES IN THE PAST: That's right, I'm dead serious about it. In just 102 days, an overwhelming 53 (American soldier type) people (actually engaged in combat) died (of combat-type injuries) in this conflict. Therefore, in approximately 279 years this will be just as bad as Vietnam.
See, it's clear-cut and reasonable, anyone would agree. And this is why I totally support us withdrawing due to the excessive loss of American soldiers (and the distastefulness and overwhelminghood of all of this to us poor idiot Home Front folk), absolutely NO LATER THAN the year 2284. I mean it this time.

Numbers and the idea and so forth all came from the Powerline Blog. ("Hat Tip" to PoliPundit)

Also, I like this site and think it says some Important Stuff About Voting. But I can't remember which blog I got it from. Sorry, will do better next time.
posted by Sarah at 6:27 AM. | 0 comments |

 
  UPON FURTHER CONSIDERATION... I think it's unlikely I'll be working for any Simon campaign. Guess that means I'll have to learn how to spell Schwarzenegger properly.
posted by Sarah at 4:53 AM. | 0 comments |

 
  AND NOW FOR SOMETHING COMPLETELY OUT OF DATE... Sometimes, you start to take care of something, and then you forget to finish taking care of it. This is what happened with this post from like, two weeks ago...

THIS DAY JUST HAD TO BE INTERESTING: And I mean that at least partially in the "Chinese curse" sense of the word "interesting." But not entirely. Things looked up, then down, then sideways, then put on some funky glasses and rode around Space Mountain and got really dizzy. Or they would have, except that Space Mountain is STILL DOWN and will be until I'm old enough to run for Congress. Maybe.

Let's begin at the beginning, shall we? Last night, 2am. I sit down, finally home and all that, thinking about watching some of the TV shows I've got taped (I'm 8 hours behind right now). I lie down for a second; there are commercials and stuff and I want to see if this episode of Seven Days is interesting enough to put off catching up on old Stargate reruns. Next thing I know, it's 5am, my stepmother is waking up, and the dishes didn't get done. At least the cars are on the right side of the street, because I'm so out of it I stumble back to my room, strip, and fall asleep without even setting the alarm. Barely even heard Carol's usual "why didn't you wash the dishes, and you had better get your stuff out of the living room" version of "good morning" (and mind, a cheery "good morning" isn't likely to make me happy in the morning; I haven't been an AM kind of person since ever). Woke up again around 11am to say "wow, it's 11am" and then slept until around 1:30pm. Then I woke up, took a shower, begged Maria not to wash the dishes (I get in trouble if anyone other than me does it), wash the dishes, check email (seems I won something from the OC Star Wars society, but I'm too busy to think about it), talk to my dad, run to Albertson's, cash my puny check from last week (should have cashed in vacation hours instead of taking unpaid days off for Comic-Con), get lunch at Joe's before I literally faint with hunger, and then drive to Anaheim. It's 5pm.

I get to Anaheim around 5:30pm, and go to the OC Credit Union office by Edison Field, to deposit last week's check (Albertson's won't cash it, it's too old). Realize I left all my account numbers here at home the last time I cleaned out my car. Drive to Mickey And Friends parking lot, park on level 2 (Daisy!), and walk to the AMC. I decide to see Pirates again (GREAT FILM), for the third time. Choose the 6:15pm showing, sit in one of the rows that has spots for wheelchairs (yes, I would have given up my spot for the party of anyone who needed it). Fully 77% of the theatre was unsold as of 6:11pm. I sit there until the previews are almost done and this... this... PERSON insists that I move my bag so she and her NOISY, TALKATIVE, MUST-COMMENT-UPON-EVERYTHING family can sit in all the rest of the spots. I look around, noticing the approximately 300 empty seats (most of which are better than mine; I choose slightly-bad seats a lot of the time in the hopes no one will sit near me), move my bag, and don't put the armrest down. I took scary amounts of satisfaction in the fact that she put her drink on the ground rather than either ask me to put the armrest back down (did you know that AMC first took out the patents on those armrests? They put that on the tour I took when I worked for AMC back in 1997) or get her noisy obnoxious sit-down-halfway-through-a-brilliant-scene family to move all their drinks so she could use the cupholder to her right. Hah! Luckily they weren't REALLY noisy until the credits (I was TRYING to listen to the soundtrack), and I think she got enough "WHY couldn't you have sat somewhere else" vibes from me, which is why she leaned heavily on the right-hand armrest the whole time. If the bottom of my bookbag is sticky in the morning I'll be blaming her, though.

There were other annoyances, most notably a family who shouted at each other in Spanish while trying to decide where to sit, during the early Port Royale scenes. Luckily, I took two Advil before the invading families began showing up, so I didn't really feel any actual pain. The movie was still brilliant; I left and went to the restroom and ran into That Kind of Women. They're the ones who have to continue extremely loud conversations about inane things while using the restroom; today the topic was "movies that Johnny Depp -- isn't he just great -- was in that I either saw or didn't see, and why they were great." Considering I had just suffered through Mrs. Comment About Everything's discussion of how ILM is "the best in the business" and how funny it is that two people were credited as "Dauntless crew" (suffering through such things from a seatmate is MUCH worse when you've had those same conversations, in the same multiplex, on the exact same topic [well, the Dauntless crew bit, anyway], only two weeks earlier), I was NOT in the mood. I nearly walked on top of the lady who was salsa-ing outside to the recordings that the current evening performance group was playing between sets. And it was a good thing that I was still somewhat cheery, and that I always try to remember how much I don't want to get fired, because I was seriously tempted to HURT the smokers in the area. Blowing smoke in my face isn't a good idea on the best of days.

Anyway, so I walk back to M&F structure, which is always a nice walk since (much like the walk from World of Disney to M&F) even on the busiest days almost no one walks it. And as I wait for the signal to allow me to cross, what do I see? A guy driving a white extended cab pickup truck (I would SO put the license plate number here, but he didn't have a plate on the front of the truck) BACKWARDS into the Pinocchio parking area (for larger cars and RVs and buses we have a lot next door to the structure; you have to pay a bit more to park there -- maybe $10), narrowly avoiding the bars and things which are supposed to prevent you from doing what he does. Basically he does this to avoid the parking charges. I was so annoyed by this, I watched him do it, tried to be certain of which car it was, and reported it to the first Traffic and Parking guy I saw. Unfortunately, as with so many other things at DL, if Security doesn't actually see it happen, we can't do anything. Still, I hope they caught it on the cameras. Then I walked upstairs, got in my car, and drove home. I hardly had any supernegative thoughts about how many things I do to make my life harder just to follow the rules, when so many other people flaunt them and face no real consequences, and didn't go through any of my fantasies about that kind of person getting caught. In fact, until now, I didn't even contemplate my secret thrill at seeing a couple of people getting citations on the San Diego trolley the last day of Comic-Con, for not having proper fares paid...

Anyway, I have to work at 5am (day 2 Stock training -- Receiver stuff), and so I have to at least give sleep a decent shot. Plus I have some laundry to do. Though I write this at 10:45pm, Surfside isn't letting me connect -- it may be tomorrow before this actually gets posted.


posted by Sarah at 4:25 AM. | 0 comments |

 
  WILL I OR WON'T I? So, now we know what Ahnold is going to do, which leaves me in a pickle, because it means now (or rather, as soon as he files papers) I have a candidate I could conceivably work on a campaign for (no, Larry Flynt was never an option). It depends on whether Bill Simon runs, and what the Ahnold campaign does in the next two days. But by Saturday, I expect to know three things: whether I'm eligible to move on to Part Two of the GR transfer deal (getting a recommendation, probably from Rigo), whether I want to apply to become a West Side trainer (basically contingent on the answer to the first one), and whether I'll be actively campaigning for a gubenatorial candidate (and which one I'll be campaigning for). Should be an exciting weekend, eh? 5pm Saturday...
posted by Sarah at 4:23 AM. | 0 comments |

 
  A CORRECTION TO RUMORS WHICH ARE MOST UNFOUNDED AND DUBIOUS AND GENERALLY ILL-CONCEIVED: And rest assured, Caroline will find a note of correction in her mailbox forthwith. I AM NOT just a LoTR "movie" fan -- the books are far far better than the movies. JUST BECAUSE I was unable to get around to reading them before FoTR came out (and the fact that C&L monopolized all copies of saidsame books in the household since our MICHIGAN days), doesn't mean I am merely a cinema-type Orlando Bloom fangirl groupie twit. Nor do I worship at the feet of Peter Jackson. Indeed, I find the elimination of Tom Bombadil and the Old Forest one of the chief drawbacks to FoTR the film (we will not go into the errors made in TTT, which are too many to enumerate). Not to mention the making of Arwen into a Zena-like girlfriend wannabe.

You know I'm really annoyed when I start using excessively large words.
posted by Sarah at 4:01 AM. | 0 comments |

 
  LAURA HAS A STORE OF HER OWN: And the stuff is all way cute. When I have the time and credit card access (mayhaps a friend will help out in that regard) I shall at a minimum be purchasing the Blue Moon hat, which is awesome.

To see and get her stuff, go here:

http://www.cafeshops.com/bluemoononline
posted by Sarah at 3:54 AM. | 0 comments |

 
  COMIC-CON UPDATE, PART ONE: Just a quickie update, because I'm tired and I want to see some of the stuff my dad HOPEFULLY taped for me while I was gone: I never did spend any more money (just the $13.95 for Wil's book, the $2 for the hot dog on a stick, and about $16 on not-fully-prepared food at Ralph's); I never did get to get the autographs of any Hobbits or Stargate Command types; I got up close and personal with some of J Michael Stra-ra-I-can't-spell-his-name-inski; I got a lot of free stuff. The ride back home was nice. Next year, I want to stay in the Gaslamp District hostel instead of the Point Loma one, as it's much closer and I could actually do things after 7pm then. Sigh. More later, I swear.
posted by Sarah at 3:41 AM. | 0 comments |

 
  POSTING FROM THE COMIC-CON FLOOR = VERY FUN: Hi everyone. I'll reformat this post later, when I get back home. I've been at Comic-Con for four days now (arrived Wednesday night) and have a ton of cool (FREE) collectibles. In fact, I haven't paid for anything at the Con itself, and all my money has been spent at the hostel (for my room), the grocery store, and $2 went to Hot Dog On A Stick yesterday. At the moment I'm at the SciFi.Com booth on the exhibit floor, pretty much not doing anything with these laptops that the staff intended. But it's all good. I'm waiting to see if I can get Amanda Tapping and Don S. Davis' autographs. ^_^ Anyway, probably ought to go and let other people use this terminal; I'll post tomorrow, most likely, when I get home.
posted by Sarah at 5:54 PM. | 0 comments |

 
  CAROLINE MADE A FUNNY My sister made a funny fanfic and posted to Riddikkulus, like I've been bugging her to do. Now you must go and read it. Go on, off with you. That's right, I said go. The link is RIGHT THERE, click on it already.

http://www.riddikulus.org/authors/madoka/FM01.html

You clicked on it, right? Okay, just checking...
posted by Sarah at 8:06 AM. | 0 comments |

 
  JUST A QUICK NOTICE: I'm going to Comic-Con in the morning (extra special love and kudos to Helen, who will be doing the driving and thus sparing me and AAA yet another dose of quality "my car is broken down, please come help me" time), and will be gone until sometime on Sunday. Then I have a shift at 1pm. My cell will be on. See you all on the flip side.
posted by Sarah at 7:20 AM. | 0 comments |

 
  THREE MORE THINGS: Since I've already used "TWO THINGS" as a header once in the last sixty days, I had to change it up a bit.

First, if you ICQ me, and don't want to get my standard goawayandleavemealoneyoucreep message (a rather scalding "who are you and why are you contacting me" is usually what I send to unsolicited ICQs), please reference this URL or the URL of a message board post or something. Please. Seriously, I hate unsolicited ICQs from creepy strangers, and I get so many, I'm oversensitive. Obviously, if you know me in person, or have chatted with me on and off for the last seven years, a simple, "This is Caroline" or "Steve from the line" will also suffice.

Second, I am in fangirl heaven, because Wil quoted a post I made to his message board. And replied.

Third, I have a Geek Code, and I don't know what I can do with it, other than to put it here. So here it goes.

-----BEGIN GEEK CODE BLOCK-----
Version: 3.1
GG/H/PA/SS d-- s-:+ a-- C++ U- L E-- W++(-) N o K- w+(--) O-- !M V PS+ PE++ Y+ PGP-- t* 5++(+++) X+ R tv++ b++++ DI++++ D++ G e+(++) h! r x-
------END GEEK CODE BLOCK------

posted by Sarah at 2:47 AM. | 0 comments |

 
  I NEED TO TRANSFER TO A NEW DEPARTMENT: Seriously. I scare myself. When I look at this picture, I first see that the pirate skull bank costs $8.62 and that I can't remember how much the gold chest with chocolate coins costs (around $3.77, I think -- but it might be more like $4.31), but there are two of them. Further, I realize that the gold earring (come to think of it, I think there are two of those sets displayed as well) comes as part of the eyepatch&earring set (I think that one is $2.69), and that the red velvet and beads aren't currently for sale (at least, not in New Orleans Square). It's a disease, and I'd like to hope that some time in Guest Relations would cure me of it.

Upon further reflection, there are also a few of the jeweled rings ($4.31) and possibly the bag-of-jewels gems (the bags cost around $5.33) present, as well. Some nice centerpieces, really. But I could duplicate them easily.
posted by Sarah at 7:47 AM. | 0 comments |

 
  REMINDER ABOUT CONTACTING ME: If you want, for any reason, to contact me, please use the following resources:

-- First, my regular email address (lloannna@surfside.net), my ISP sometimes eats the email but the account gets checked 2-3 times daily. I always post on my blog and here when I realize that the email route has been blocked.
-- Second, my home phone number (email if you want it); though I never ever answer the phone, I can hear any messages from my room and if you get through, and I'm here, you'll get a return call. Unless you're asking for money, of course.
-- Third, my cell phone number (again, email); this thing is almost never on, but sometimes it is, and it has voicemail. I'm trying to check it more often, honest.
-- Fourth, the message boards. I check these a few times a week.
-- Fifth, my alternate email addresses (lloannna at yahoo, netzero, and juno), which are checked less frequently.
-- Sixth, try and see if I'm on ICQ. I'm usually invisible because otherwise I get 20-30 unsolicited "hi, want to talk" messages daily. No, I will not cyber with you, and don't be shocked if you get a message saying "who are you and why are you contacting me?" if your username isn't familiar.
-- Seventh, snail mail. Slow but extremely reliable.

Please also remember that there are at least four extenuating circumstances, which often (regularly) screw up my plans. High on the list are: my dad is extremely sick and I have to do stuff for him; my stepmother is evil and orders me to do stuff randomly at inappropriate times/times that conflict with stuff I've already said I'd do; I no longer have any good times to take showers and what have you, so they end out getting stuffed into times I might have said I'd be doing something else. Also, I hate -- HATE -- telephones. There's a much better chance of me answering the phone if you email me first saying "answer the phone when I call." No, I'm not kidding. I started the calendar year with 300 cell phone minutes, and am down to 85, mostly thanks to three or four days at DL and a lot of confusion and "hey, let's call such-and-such now."

All of that stuff above also means that sometimes I may fully plan to be in my car driving to Hollywood at 3:30pm, with the cell phone on, but will be unable to actually follow through. Remember how I said people would have to bear with me, because of all that stuff going on in my life? Me being slightly less reliable than usual is part of that. I swear I'll be more punctual and such when my life isn't like this anymore.
posted by Sarah at 5:59 AM. | 0 comments |

 
  THANK YOU FOR YOUR SUPPORT: Just wanted to say thanks to everyone who's sent messages of support and so forth. Very much appreciated. I've been completely exhausted, to the point of not even checking email more than twice a week (many of you know that I've checked my email an average of 10 times a day since 1994 ^_^). Jackie will tell you how spaced out and weird I've been. I expect to update the blog some later on this week. Anyway, thank you to everyone for your support (and patience).
posted by Sarah at 7:42 AM. | 0 comments |

 
  FOR THE RECORD, WHILE I STILL SEEM SANE: Okay, this is just a head's up; apologies in advance for all the cross-posting. This message is EVERYWHERE today, but only to ensure that everyone gets it.

My dad left for his surgery appointment about 15 minutes ago (for those who I didn't manage to give this info to earlier, he has prostate cancer). For the next week, we won't know anything, and then after that we'll know slightly more than before but not anything to make a difference (I have no idea at what point we'll have any useful information). For the next week, my stepmother and I will both be extremely worried and trying to hide it from my brother and sister, who are officially too young to know more than "Daddy's sick and he'll be back this weekend." I'm pretty sure we'll take it out on each other, and those who've been forced to endure my rants re: Carol know what to expect in that regard. After that, I'll be dividing my time equally between the house, where my dad will be here (in an extremely sick and/or weakened "I have no interest in staying out of your way" mood), and the Resort, which will be inundated with gazillions of Guests who shouldn't be bothered with my personal issues (and who would just as soon step on CMs as notice they're there). I anticipate at least three months of serious mood swings/short tempers/periods of loss of rational judgement from everyone involved, including myself (random example of the day: my dad and I say good-bye, they get in the car and leave, I lie down and cry on my bed for two minutes, then suddenly get up and check all the settings on all the VCRs in the house before I forget). Therefore...

IF you get a really strange, overly emotional, random, whining, desperate, suicidal, panicky, "I CAN'T TAKE IT ANYMORE, I WANT TO MOVE TO VILNIUS" type of email (or see a message board post in the same vein), please keep in mind all of the above and cut me a little slack. The two of you who've said "you can stay at my place when your parents drive you nuts" (and you know who you are -- and BTW thank you again), I may take you up on your offer (though the chances are much lower since I've actually said that, so don't worry too much about it). Those of you who will be seeing me in the immediate future (Pirates opening night, ComicCon, etc.): I promise to try really really hard not to get moody on you without notice. You'll all be glad I'm a non-drinker by the end of this.


Thanks to Greg for noticing that 99% of everyone, won't know where Vilnius is. He suffered the wrath of a typical "OH YOU WANT INFORMATION, HERE I'LL GIVE YOU SIX PAGES" reaction, which is what anyone who asks me for a simple explanation is likely to get while I'm in an emotionally erratic state of mind. Anyway, here's a map.

http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/commonwealth/balticstates.jpg
posted by Sarah at 3:26 PM. | 0 comments |