Friday, March 15, 2002

How To Make a Bibliophile Happy....

Buy her lots of book! I met my best friend Jeanna last night for dinner and she got me a bunch of books for my birthday. I got Songs of the Heart (A Flavia Modernes Greeting Book), History of Art, Guilty Pleasures by Laurell K. Hamilton, The Laughing Corpse by Laurell K. Hamilton, and Seven Up by Janet Evanovich. I've been dying to read the Janet Evanovich book since it came out, so I am extremely happy to have received it. From the things Jeanna's heard about the Laurell K. Hamilton books, I have a feeling they're going to be right up my alley. So, my dear Jeanna, thank you for the great birthday gift!

.: 118 words at 07:06 PM in Daily Ramblings, ";print substr($entry_cats, 0, -2); ?> :: Link :: :: All the Voices Say... (1) :.

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Friday Five!

And now, time for today's Friday Five!

1. What's your favorite animal? Tough question! If I had to choose one, I would choose bright, tropical fish. Other favorites include big cats like tigers, puppies, kittens, manatees, seahorses, and polar bears. I just love animals.

2. What pets have you had in your lifetime? When I was little, we had dobermans. After they passed away, we got a cat when I was probably around eight or so. We used to have dozens of cat and kittens around (we live on a wooded acre) when I was young. My brother got a long-haired dauschand named Crackerjacks when I around ten. When I was in high school, we got a silky terrier named Nikki. I also had a russian dwarf hamster named Quicksilver. Steven and I now have fancy goldfish (you can visit my Meet the Fishbowl Inhabitants to see their pictures), though we plan on getting a puppy (maybe a mini-schnauzer) when we get a house in a few years.

3. Is there any specific pet that you've wanted but never had? Why? Not really. Maybe salt-water fish, but that's it.

4. Are you allergic to any animals? Nope.

5. Do you have any 'pet' pet peeves (your pets or others')? I hate when people put a dog in the back of a truck and drive like a bat out of hell. Drives me (no pun intended) crazy.

.: 238 words at 05:06 PM in Friday Five!, ";print substr($entry_cats, 0, -2); ?> :: Link :: :: All the Voices Say... (0) :.

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Globe of Blogs

I submitted my information to the Globe of Blogs yesterday. It's kind of similiar to the Pepys Project, but allows you to find a blog by other information like birthday, sex of the author, or author's name. Kind of cool to see who's out there blogging with stats similar to yours.

.: 52 words at 09:45 AM in Participation, ";print substr($entry_cats, 0, -2); ?> :: Link :: :: All the Voices Say... (3) :.

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Thursday, March 14, 2002

The Neurotic Fishbowl - Buttonized!

Nerdboy Mikey was kind enough to make a kick ass button for The Neurotic Fishbowl. If you're one of those people that like to use buttons for their links, feel free to snag one and link it back here. Enjoy!

.: 40 words at 11:25 PM in Linky Love, ";print substr($entry_cats, 0, -2); ?> :: Link :: :: All the Voices Say... (2) :.

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Everything's Eventual

Stephen King's got a new book coming out the day after my birthday. It's a collection of fourteen short stories entitled Everything's Eventual: 14 Dark Tales. While I'm really excited that he's got a new collection coming out (I absolutely LOVE his short stories!), I'm kind of annoyed. Out of the fourteen stories, I've read (or heard) thirteen of them. I'm one of those King freaks that hears he has a short story in The New Yorker or some other magazine and has to get a copy. It's disappointing that by being an avid fan and searching out these hard-to-find stories that I have no new King to look forward to until later in the year when he releases From a Buick 8. I guess it'll be good to get them all collected in one place, but I was looking forward to reading stories that were NEW to me and only one of these fits the bill. *pout*

.: 160 words at 10:37 PM in Media Consumption, ";print substr($entry_cats, 0, -2); ?> :: Link :: :: All the Voices Say... (0) :.

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Changes

Lots of big changes in my workplace happened today. They'll ultimately be for the best, so they are good things, but it's a little rough on people right now. I must say, though, that I am glad I work at the place I do. The owner is such a great man. When he was young, he and his grandfather used to collect coins together. His grandfather passed away six months ago and my boss inherited the coin collection that they had built together. To show us how important we are to him and to the company, he gave us each a silver dollar from the collection. It is so amazing to have a boss that cares about you. I am glad I work where I do. As hokey as it is, I will treasure this coin and I appreciate and respect the man that gave it to me.

.: 148 words at 03:20 PM in Daily Ramblings, ";print substr($entry_cats, 0, -2); ?> :: Link :: :: All the Voices Say... (4) :.

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It's a Group Thing: Part II

I had meant to do this yesterday, but am just now getting around to it. I've decided to make Wednesday's my day for "It's a Group Thing." (Wednesday, hump day, group thing. Get it?) Since I ranted earlier this week about beauty pageants, today's group term is:

A Rictus of Beauty Queens

.: 53 words at 12:13 AM in It's a Group Thing, ";print substr($entry_cats, 0, -2); ?> :: Link :: :: All the Voices Say... (0) :.

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Wednesday, March 13, 2002

Now I'm Golden....

I know the last test said I was a blue dragon (even though Todd disagreed with what weapon I really would have possessed), but apparently now I'm golden.





Take the What Color Dragon Should You Ride? Quiz

Made By: myway and teza

.: 42 words at 11:55 PM in Quizzy Stuff, ";print substr($entry_cats, 0, -2); ?> :: Link :: :: All the Voices Say... (1) :.

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DoSomething Question

Does anyone know why my DoSomething would be adding an extra space after the title of the song? I checked the templates and there are no spaces, but when it writes to webout.php, there's one there. I even checked the ID tag on the mp3 file itself and it's not there. Anyone else have this problem?

.: 56 words at 09:07 PM in I'm Looking For...., ";print substr($entry_cats, 0, -2); ?> :: Link :: :: All the Voices Say... (0) :.

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Now Playing - My Winamp Files!

Thanks to the talented Kristine, I have gotten Oddsock's DoSomething Winamp Plugin to work on my site. You should now notice a "Music Selection" in the sidebar along the right that tells you what I'm currently and have just listened to.

Thank you so much, Kristine! I really wanted this thing to work, but was having problems getting it to display. You are such a doll. :-)

.: 68 words at 06:56 PM in Geeky Things, ";print substr($entry_cats, 0, -2); ?> :: Link :: :: All the Voices Say... (1) :.

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Back Pain Update

I called the doctor today to try and get some muscle relaxers or pain killers, but he won't prescribe them without seeing me first, so I go in tomorrow afternoon. I had a follow-up appointment scheduled for next week so I'll just knock it out of the way tomorrow as well.

I feel much better today. Sore and achy, but nothing like the excruciating pain of yesterday. About two years ago Steven and I were wrestling on the couch (No, really. We were. Get your mind out of the gutter, you perv!) and I feel off. I fell on top of the huge portable phone striking my back, just above my hip. In doing so, I pinched a nerve. This pain is extremely similar to that, so I'm sure this is nothing more than a muscle/nerve issue. Catherine had suggested that it might be a kidney stone. Unfortunately, I got kidney stones right after I graduated from college (I had no insurance, having just gotten moved off of my parents' and it sucked massively!) and I'm positive this isn't that again.

Anyway, thank you all so much for your kind words and concern. :-) Hopefully I'll get some good medicine from the doctor and I'll be good as new soon.

.: 210 words at 11:48 AM in Daily Ramblings, ";print substr($entry_cats, 0, -2); ?> :: Link :: :: All the Voices Say... (4) :.

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Tuesday, March 12, 2002

OMG! The Pain!

I don't know what I did, but I have managed to pull a muscle in my back or pinch a nerve and I am in agony. I came home from the gym and noticed a couple of twinges which quickly intensified into screaming, sobbing pain. I tried walking around and working it out, but it didn't work. I ended up lying on my back on the couch weeping. Steven was about five minutes behind me so he came in right after the peak started. He saw me lying there and dropped his keys and wallet and ran to me. I managed to stutter out what was wrong and he got me some painkillers and juice and helped me into a hot bath. I'm telling you, at first I was convinced I was having a heart attack since it hurt so bad and was only on my left side. Earlier today I'd had some kind of painful twinges so I was worried that I'd missed the warning sign and was now in full attack. Silly fish. :-) For now, it's kind of a dull pain with occasional sharp spasms. I will be calling the doctor first thing in the morning to see if he can't get me some painkillers or something. Let's just hope it stays like this, more or less, for the rest of the night.

Update: Not long after I posted this I started feeling really sick to my stomach and very hot. I went into the living room and told Steven and lay down on the couch. He turned on the fan and was like, "Oh my god! You're really sweating!" I told him I was still hot and he touched my face and told me I was clammy. He helped me up the stairs and had me lay down on the bed. He turned on the fan and got me a cold compress. After a few minutes of that I got cold, so he came and covered me up and turned off the fan. I kind of dozed for a half hour and feel a little better, so I'm going to try and eat some soup. I wonder if maybe I have a virus of some sort. Whatever this is, it sucks.

.: 375 words at 08:59 PM in Daily Ramblings, ";print substr($entry_cats, 0, -2); ?> :: Link :: :: All the Voices Say... (3) :.

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Kind of Quiet Today

It's a little after five and I am bored. I do project management at a local web development company and ALL my projects are in the "please-send-me-your-content; please-answer-my-questions-so-we-can-move-forward; please-approve-the-work" phase so I don't have a lot to do (except wish evil thoughts on clients that ignore my e-mails). Maybe I'll go over to Victoria's Secret before hitting the gym and see if they have more stuff for me to throw my money away on. Maybe I should ask for gift certificates there for my birthday (now less than a week away). Anyway, I'd been kind of quiet today so I thought I'd ramble about nothing for a minute. :-)

.: 109 words at 05:16 PM in Daily Ramblings, ";print substr($entry_cats, 0, -2); ?> :: Link :: :: All the Voices Say... (0) :.

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Never Lose Your Bookmarks Again

One of the guys up here at work just lost his bookmarks. I told him he needed one of Shellen's cheatsheets. Shellen made a nifty little program that you put your top twenty links in and it generates an HTML page with your favorite links, headlines, weather, other handy links, and search boxes to Google, Amazon, and more. I went through and edited mine by hand, so I've got just about every link on here I ever use. It takes just a couple of minutes to make and you don't have to worry about losing your favorite links anymore.

(Link courtesy of Michele)

.: 105 words at 02:32 PM in Geeky Things, ";print substr($entry_cats, 0, -2); ?> :: Link :: :: All the Voices Say... (3) :.

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This-or-That Tuesday

Time for Ashley's This-or-That Tuesday:

.: 186 words at 09:49 AM in This-or-That Tuesday, ";print substr($entry_cats, 0, -2); ?> :: Link :: :: All the Voices Say... (0) :.

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Monday, March 11, 2002

A Drunken Fish

I was going through a bunch of pictures I pulled off my digital camera a couple of weeks ago and found this one from New Year's. As you can probably tell, I'm smashed. :-) I do love this picture, though. Steven's really got the "hold the camera out and take a self-portrait" picture trick down. He took a great one of us in Vegas two years ago that I'll have to dig out and put on up.

.: 78 words at 06:34 PM in Fish Tales, ";print substr($entry_cats, 0, -2); ?> :: Link :: :: All the Voices Say... (2) :.

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My Dragon Color


A BLUE Dragon Lies Beneath!

I took the Inner Dragon online quiz and found out I am a Blue Dragon on the inside. If there ever was a draconic example of a supple attitude, my Inner Dragon is it. Blues are the Water Elemental dragon - typified by their Steam breath weapon. Pretty creative, huh? It goes right along with my Inner Dragon's tendency to maim, but not destroy. Much like my native oceans and rivers will deform the rock over time, eventually wearing it away to nothing.

Humans shouldn't make the mistake of thinking I'm weak, however. After all I'm a good 30 feet in length and have a penchant for materializing out of any body of water, no matter how small. I also enjoy communicating with aquatic life-forms, hunting in totally inhospitable terrain (i.e. 3000 feet below the waves), and using my fluid nature to my advantage. My enemies probably won't even see me approach in the first place. My favorable attributes are the sunset, Autumn, water, compassion, intuition, and calmness. Naturally, I pity the fool who'd try and prove that calmness part, he'd probably wind up being scalded. *small grin*

(Link courtesy of Sharon)

.: 198 words at 06:19 PM in Quizzy Stuff, ";print substr($entry_cats, 0, -2); ?> :: Link :: :: All the Voices Say... (3) :.

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Child Pageants Or "How To Make Your Kid Look Like a Hooker"

We went to Steven's best friend's house this weekend for his dad's seventy-ninth birthday. Me and the only other two girls there under thirty-five ended up in the bedroom watching a special on beauty pageants for kids.

I was appalled by the spectacle that is beauty pageants for small children. I saw one father encourage his six year old to flirt with the judge. Hello! Do you want your child molested? Would that be okay as long as she won? Don't even get me started on the little girls who were in short shorts and halter tops and who were "shaking it." They haven't even hit puberty yet! There is nothing to shake! They had one year olds in makeup and teased hair.

WTF are the kids supposed to be getting out of this? They little girl that ended up winning the big pageant at the end looked exhausted and unhappy throughout most of the show. I felt so sorry for her. Her trailer trash mother has spent about $70,000 so far on pageants. The prize money for her big win: $2,500.

It was really depressing to watch and the strange, latent sexuality that ran through it made me want to strangle all of the parents. I suppose the grand scheme behind all of this madness is that eventually the girl may win a modeling contract or break into show business. The only thing I see happening, though, is yet another little girl learning that the only thing that counts is the way she looks and that if you flirt with the old men in power you may get something.

.: 270 words at 06:06 PM in Rants, ";print substr($entry_cats, 0, -2); ?> :: Link :: :: All the Voices Say... (49) :.

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Unexpected Surrealism

A staff photographer for National Geographic finds unexpected images whenever he takes a picture with his digital camera that ended up in a pond. Now every day pictures become amazing, colorful images. Maybe when I buy a new camera this year, I'll drop the old one in the water to see what happens to my shots.

(Link courtesy of Robyn)

.: 61 words at 04:33 PM in Notable News, ";print substr($entry_cats, 0, -2); ?> :: Link :: :: All the Voices Say... (0) :.

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The Red Tent

I finished reading The Red Tent by Anita Diamant yesterday. It was an amazing book. It was so fascinating to read about women and what their lives were like during biblical times. The book itself is a fictionalization of what may have happened to Dinah, the only daughter of Jacob. I'm not religious at all, but the book had absolutely nothing to do with The Bible, but rather with the relationships between women. Since I didn't know the story of Dinah, I was surprised by many of the things that happened, probably making me enjoy the story that much more.

I have always thought that to be a woman is a wonderful, mysterious thing. This book captures all of the words that I wish I could say, but don't have the skill to. It does make me wish I knew my own female relatives more. Unfortunately, both of my grandmothers are dead. Perhaps this will inspire me to learn what my mother was like before she became Mom.

.: 168 words at 03:41 PM in Media Consumption, ";print substr($entry_cats, 0, -2); ?> :: Link :: :: All the Voices Say... (1) :.

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Monday Mission 2.10

Here's PromoGuy's Monday Mission 2.10:

1. I love to order a Wendy's "Frosty" and then dip my French Fries into it before I eat them. Do you have any eating habits others might think are odd?
I tend to eat my sandwiches very plain with no garnishes like pickles or lettuce. Whenever I order sandwiches, "Meat and cheese only," I confuse the waiter most of the time. I also drink all my drinks without ice. I just hate ice. It melts and your drink gets watered down. Blah.

2. What was the worst date you ever went on?
I guess I'm kind of odd because I never really dated much. I was engaged to my high school boyfriend (who I now refer to as Satan) and when we broke up I was almost 21. After that, I kind of swore off relationships. A year and a half later I met Steven and we've been together ever since. I can't really recall a bad date with Steven (and I've repressed all my dates with Satan for the most part), so I guess I don't have an answer for this one.

3. Who (or what site) inspired you to begin Blogging?
That would have to be Christine. She'd been after me for probably a year to start blogging when she came up with the URL NeuroticFishbowl.com. Since she set up both the site with skins and Movable Type, how could I say no? I'm certainly glad she did since I'm enjoying myself so much.

4. Have you inspired, encouraged, or begged anyone else to start a Blog?
I haven't encouraged anyone and I haven't inspired anyone either, at least as far as I know.

5. Any foods you just will not eat?
The list is long and varied since I am a fairly picky eater. I cannot eat spicy food (even mildly spicy is usually to hot for me). I dislike lots of vegetables. I also don't like food that looks strange like casseroles (mixed up food - yuck!).

6. Describe the worst birthday party (adult or child's) that you ever attended?
I am at a total loss for this. Probably some hideously boring thing I attended when I was young, but nothing specific comes to mind.

7. What was the first music album you ever bought (tape, CD, LP, whichever or all of the above)?
The first music album I remember getting was Eddy Grant's Killer On The Rampage. My parents got me a dual cassette recorder boom box when I was about eight for Christmas and this was with it. Probably the first one I can remember buying on my own was the soundtracks for Top Gun and The Lost Boys. I also bought a ton of 45s including songs like Electric Blue by Ice House and Got My Mind Set on You by George Harrison. There were many others, but those two are the first that popped into my mind.

BONUS: Do you think you're what they say you are?
Ironic, but this is the only line I know from Jesus Christ Superstar. I just like singing it loudly. :-)

.: 526 words at 03:17 PM in Monday Missions, ";print substr($entry_cats, 0, -2); ?> :: Link :: :: All the Voices Say... (3) :.

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Spring Is In the Air...

With the first day of spring being only a little over a week away, I have made another new skin for The Neurotic Fishbowl. It is based on a desktop image that Dawn Mikulich created. I had been searching high and low for an image that captured springtime, and as soon as I saw Dawn's desktop, I knew it would be perfect. She was kind enough to give me permission to use it, so please visit the skin selector and check it out. Also, feel free to leave any feedback if there's something that you think should look different. Enjoy!

.: 100 words at 02:22 PM in Skinning the Fish, ";print substr($entry_cats, 0, -2); ?> :: Link :: :: All the Voices Say... (3) :.

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Monday? You Sure?

The phone rang this morning about 7:45. Steven answered the phone so I groggily asked him who it was when he hung up. He said it was the air conditioner repair man (we've got a freon leak that needs to be repaired) saying he should be there by about 9:00. I mumbled that anyone calling this early on a Sunday should be shot. Steven replied, "It's not Sunday, it's Monday." My confused brain then did the math and remembered that, it was indeed, Monday. What a crappy way to start the day. I thought I was going to get to sleep in! Damn.

.: 103 words at 12:31 PM in Daily Ramblings, ";print substr($entry_cats, 0, -2); ?> :: Link :: :: All the Voices Say... (2) :.

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Sunday, March 10, 2002

Happy Early Birthday to Me!

I had $95 in Amazon.com gift certificates just sitting in my account. I received an e-mail from them saying that for my birthday they were giving me a 10% off coupon. So with the coupon, the gift certificate, and the free shipping that they offer on orders over $99, I went and bought myself a little birthday gift. I'm getting: Nightmare at 20,000 Feet : Horror Stories by Richard Matheson, Winter's Heart (The Wheel of Time Series, Book 9) by Robert Jordan, The Birdcage on DVD, Dave on DVD, The America President on DVD, Say Anything... on DVD, The Terminator (Special Edition) on DVD, and Groundhog Day (Special Edition) on DVD. Grand total charged to my credit card: $12.42. Happy birthday to me! :-)

.: 132 words at 08:20 PM in Daily Ramblings, ";print substr($entry_cats, 0, -2); ?> :: Link :: :: All the Voices Say... (1) :.

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