Monday, November 27, 2006

What is the Internet?

So I haven't been online in a week. How crazy is that? I didn't think I could go without internet for that long. It's been interesting. I did a lot of knitting.

Last night when I returned home from my luxurious weekend of nothingness, I open my computer and e-mail. There were e-mails in my outbox. Work related e-mails of sending off info or projects before the holiday. Some personal ones of sending off info before the holidays. IN MY OUTBOX! For what? Six days? God I'm stupid. I have to keep changing the e-mail server settings between work and home and I must not have changed them back. So sorry to anyone who thinks I'm ignoring them!

I went to bed in a pissy mood because of that. Then I woke up, got ready for work, made it out to my car and noticed there was snow in my yard. That made me a bit happier because I got to stay home a couple more hours and wait for it to melt away before I drove.

Tonight I'm hoping to write and edit. Yes Michelle, I will make 30,000 by the end of the month. It's game time. I'm going to put on my writing outfit. Pink velour sweats, a feathered pink hat, my pink chenille scarf, pink University of Oregon sweatshirt, pink slippers, pink....just kidding :-) Sort of.

Lastly, I must publicly congratulate the Oregon State University Beavers for their Civil War win. Well done. God, where's the bathroom. I think I'm going to puke...

Monday, November 20, 2006

I'm a slacker

Yup, I know it. It's been what, a week since I posted? Yikes. I guess I just ran out of things to say for a bit. Scary, I know. Things have been pretty busy for me lately, lots of day job stuff and freelancing gigs. I haven't written anything since the beach retreat two weekends ago...

I'm looking forward to Thanksgiving. It's one of only two times (Christmas, too) that I enjoy cooking. I also enjoy the five day weekend. Unfortunately, this year is the first ever that I don't have any money for Black Friday shopping. Usually I save up and do all my Christmas shopping that day. But not this year. Luckily the University of Oregon vs. Oregon State "Civil War" game is on that day to distract me from my woes. Although I'm probably going to buy a wireless router for my parents house. No food till the end of the month is less important than internet at their houses :) I kid, I kid. Kinda...

It also looks like NaNoWriMo is a bust for me this year. Oh well. I know I can finish a book, I was just hoping to have finished this one by the end of the month.

So, what's going on in your lives? Any Turkey Day plans?

Tuesday, November 14, 2006

Puzzle Pirates

Often lately when I'm chatting with Elisabeth online, she'll say, "what are you doing?" I'll admit, most of the time I'm tempted to lie and say, "writing like crazy!" Or, "I've written 20 pages!" Or, "patiently waiting to see your next chapter."

But the truth is, it's usually, "I'm playing Puzzle Pirates." The game is absolutely addicting. You make a piracte character and spend the first several sessions practicing puzzles. When ye are comfortably enough you can be a jobber on a pilly with other real live people and battle against bots.

You earn gold and can buy new clothes, weapons, houses, furnishings, shops and other establishments. You can also join a crew. I love the crew I joined. They're fantabulous. Very welcoming.

If you like interactive games that are long term, you should check this out. Yarrr!

Glossary:
Ye - "you"
Jobber - "worker on a pirate ship - not a crew member of that ship"
Pilly - "pillage - situation where you would job for a ship or pillage with your crew to get gold"
Bots - "computerized pirates - they are the characters with two word names"
Yarrr - "yarrr"

Sunday, November 12, 2006

I'm baaaaaaaaaaaaaack

I made it home from the beach today, incident free. The weather was beautiful. Much less scary than when we went last February. Back then the windows were shaking from storms. This time we were tempted to close blinds because it was so bright.

I wrote a little over 5,000 words. I was hoping to write about double that, but it's 5k more than I had. In order to complete NaNo, I'll need to write 2,500 words a day. YIKES!

We had a great time. Lots of chatting, writing, chatting, writing, chatting, chatting, writing, etc. These are such a great group of women to know!

Anyway, off to bed. I'm tired and it will be a long week at work.

Oh! Before I publish post I'd like to inform the "masses" that AC/DC is supposed to go on one last tour. AC/DC!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Holy crap that's big news!

Thursday, November 09, 2006

Away for the weekend

This weekend, several of us from our writing chapter are going to the beach for a weekend of distraction free writing. Being that I haven't written anything in a week...I'm hoping to make some major headway this weekend.

In my absence, I'd like you to talk amongst yourselves. I'll give you a topic: The Holy Roman Empire was neither Holy nor Roman nor an empire. Discuss.

Tuesday, November 07, 2006

Confession

Elton John/Kiki Dee - Don't Go Breaking My Heart

It's confession time. I confess that I've secretly fantasized about singing this song as a duet with, well, several gorgeous men (but in the fantasy I can sing well).

What's your confession?

Friday, November 03, 2006

A special birthday today

Today is Elisabeth's birthday! Go over to our chapter blog (where I posted more in-depth birthday wishes) and say happy birthday!

Thursday, November 02, 2006

Thursday Thirteen

Thirteen Things about Lisa Pulliam


13 urban legends in honor of Halloween (copied from here)

1. Two dormmates in college were in the same science class. The teacher had just reminded them about the midterm the next day when one dormmate — let's call her Juli — got asked to this big bash by the hottest guy in school. The other dormmate, Meg, had pretty much no interest in going and, being a diligent student, she took notes on what the midterm was about. After the entire period of flirting with her date, Juli was totally unprepared for her test, while Meg was completely prepared for a major study date with her books.

At the end of the day, Juli spent hours getting ready for the party while Meg started studying. Juli tried to get Meg to go, but she was insistent that she would study and pass the test. The girls were rather close and Juli didn't like leaving Meg alone to be bored while she was out having a blast. Juli finally gave up, using the excuse that she would cram in homeroom the next day.

Juli went to the party and had the time of her life with her date. She headed back to the dorm around 2 a.m. and decided not to wake Meg. She went to bed nervous about the midterm and decided she would wake up early to ask Meg for help.

She woke up and went to wake Meg. Meg was lying on her stomach, apparently sound asleep. Juli rolled Meg over to reveal Meg's terrified face. Juli, concerned, turned on the desk lamp. Meg's study stuff was still open and had blood all over it. Meg had been slaughtered. Juli, in horror, fell to the floor and looked up to see, written on the wall in Meg's blood: "Aren't you glad you didn't turn on the lights!"

2. A girl and her boyfriend are making out in his car. They had parked in the woods so no one would see them. When they were done, the boy got out to pee and the girl waited for him in the safety of the car.

After waiting five minutes, the girl got out of the car to look for her boyfriend. Suddenly, she sees a man in the shadows. Scared, she gets back in the car to drive away, when she hears a very faint squeak... squeak... squeak...

This continued a few seconds until the girl decided she had no choice but to drive off. She hit the gas as hard as possible but couldn't go anywhere, because someone had tied a rope from the bumper of the car to a nearby tree.

Well, the girl slams on the gas again and then hears a loud scream. She gets out of the car and realizes that her boyfriend is hanging from the tree. The squeaky noises were his shoes slightly scraping across the top of the car!!!

3. My mother swears this is true: My great-great grandmother, ill for quite some time, finally passed away after laying in a coma for several days. My great-great grandfather was devastated beyond belief, as she was his one true love and they had been married over 50 years. They were married so long it seemed as if they knew each other's innermost thoughts.

After the doctor pronounced her dead, my great-great grandfather insisted that she was not. They had to literally pry him away from his wife's body so they could ready her for burial.

Now, back in those days they had backyard burial plots and did not drain the body of its fluids. They simply prepared a proper coffin and committed the body (in its coffin) to its permanent resting place. Throughout this process, my great-great grandfather protested so fiercely that he had to be sedated and put to bed. His wife was buried and that was that.

That night he woke to a horrific vision of his wife hysterically trying to scratch her way out of the coffin. He phoned the doctor immediately and begged to have his wife's body exhumed. The doctor refused, but my great-great grandfather had this nightmare every night for a week, each time frantically begging to have his wife removed from the grave.

Finally the doctor gave in and, together with local authorities, exhumed the body. The coffin was pried open and to everyone's horror and amazement, my great-great grandmother's nails were bent back and there were obvious scratches on the inside of the coffin.

Comments: It is a fact that once upon a time, before modern embalming techniques were in widespread use, people were found on rare occasions to have been buried alive. It's most likely, however, that 18th and 19th century horror stories involving premature burial were inspired by the medical discovery that victims of suffocation and drowning could be resuscitated — that, though they appeared dead, they really weren't. To say the least, this was a frightening realization for many people.

In any case, so strong was the fear of "precipitate interment" during the 19th century that some of the wealthier folk were known to stipulate in their wills that their coffins be outfitted with signaling devices ... just in case.

4. A woman goes to buy a large cactus from a nursery, and brings it home. Later that day she notices something very odd. The cactus appears to be breathing! She calls the nursery she purchased the cactus from and says, "I know this sounds crazy, but I think my cactus is breathing."

The woman she is speaking to tells her to immediately get out of the house, and that she (the nursery woman) is going to call the bomb squad. The bomb squad comes to the house and loads the cactus into a van. Just as they get it into the van, the cactus explodes and out come thousands of scorpions!

It seems that several scorpions had laid their eggs in the cactus, and they all hatched at once.

5. A very stylish teenage girl grew tired of spending hours carefully "ratting" (teasing) and spraying her hair to attain an extreme beehive do. She washed her hair in sugar-water, allowing it to harden in the style she wanted. At night, she carefully wrapped a towel around it and slept on a special half-pillow designed not to disturb the hair.

One morning she failed to come down for breakfast. Her mother went to her room only to find her dead in bed. When the towel was removed from her head, it was discovered that she had been gnawed to death by rats (or bugs — I've heard both versions).

6. A teenage boy drove his date to a dark and deserted Lovers' Lane for a make-out session. After turning on the radio for mood music, he leaned over and began kissing the girl.

A short while later, the music suddenly stopped and an announcer's voice came on, warning in an urgent tone that a convicted murderer had just escaped from the state insane asylum — which happened to be located not far from Lovers' Lane — and that anyone who noticed a strange man lurking about with a hook in place of his right hand should immediately report his whereabouts to the police.

The girl became frightened and asked to be taken home. The boy, feeling bold, locked all the doors instead and, assuring his date they would be safe, attempted to kiss her again. She became frantic and pushed him away, insisting that they leave. Relenting, the boy peevishly jerked the car into gear and spun its wheels as he pulled out of the parking space.

When they arrived at the girl's house she got out of the car, and, reaching to close the door, began to scream uncontrollably. The boy ran to her side to see what was wrong and there, dangling from the door handle, was a bloody hook.

7. A young lady is alone in her apartment. She goes to bed with her dog on the floor beside her. In the middle of the night, she is woken up by a strange sound. She is alarmed, but reaches down to the dog, who licks her hand. She is reassured and goes back to sleep. In the morning, she finds the dog hung in the shower. Where the dog slept, she picks up a note which reads "Humans can lick, too."

8. I wish to warn you about a new crime ring that is targeting business travelers. This ring is well organized, well funded, has very skilled personnel, and is currently in most major cities and recently very active in New Orleans.

The crime begins when a business traveler goes to a lounge for a drink at the end of the work day. A person in the bar walks up as they sit alone and offers to buy them a drink. The last thing the traveler remembers until they wake up in a hotel room bath tub, their body submerged to their neck in ice, is sipping that drink. There is a note taped to the wall instructing them not to move and to call 911. A phone is on a small table next to the bathtub for them to call.

The business traveler calls 911 who have become quite familiar with this crime. The business traveler is instructed by the 911 operator to very slowly and carefully reach behind them and feel if there is a tube protruding from their lower back. The business traveler finds the tube and answers, "Yes." The 911 operator tells them to remain still, having already sent paramedics to help. The operator knows that both of the business traveler's kidneys have been harvested.

9. One night a woman went out for drinks with her girlfriends. She left the bar fairly late at night, got in her car and onto the deserted highway. She noticed a lone pair of headlights in her rear-view mirror, approaching at a pace just slightly quicker than hers. As the car pulled up behind her she glanced and saw the turn signal on — the car was going to pass — when suddenly it swerved back behind her, pulled up dangerously close to her tailgate and the brights flashed.

Now she was getting nervous. The lights dimmed for a moment and then the brights came back on and the car behind her surged forward. The frightened woman struggled to keep her eyes on the road and fought the urge to look at the car behind her.

Finally, her exit approached but the car continued to follow, flashing the brights periodically.
Through every stoplight and turn, it followed her until she pulled into her driveway. She figured her only hope was to make a mad dash into the house and call the police. As she flew from the car, so did the driver of the car behind her — and he screamed, "Lock the door and call the police! Call 911!"


When the police arrived the horrible truth was finally revealed to the woman. The man in the car had been trying to save her. As he pulled up behind her and his headlights illuminated her car, he saw the silhouette of a man with a butcher knife rising up from the back seat to stab her, so he flashed his brights and the figure crouched back down.

10. There were two roommates (yes, I know, another college story), Sarah and Megan. Sarah was the theatrical type and loved acting. She was in all the town's plays. Megan was more of a book person, she loved to read and her studies were her first priority.

Anyway, there was a huge play called "Oh, Susannah" that Sarah was in, and it was coming up on Saturday... so every chance that Sarah got, she would practice in the park (that's where she got her inspiration) for hours. Every time, she would beg Megan to go with her, but Megan would stay in the dorm and read.

Well, on Saturday Sarah was a hit. Being the star, she was detained after the play, and got home really late. As she entered, she heard her roommate's rocking chair squeaking in the corner, but couldn't see it, not all the lights were on. Must be waiting for me, Sarah thought. Putting her stuff away, she went back into the main room.

From the corner came a voice. It sounded rather husky, but that wasn't what agitated Sarah.

"Oh, Susannah, don't you cry for me..." came the voice.

"Stop it Megan! Don't give me that crap, okay?" said Sarah.

"Oh, Susannah, don't you cry for me..."

"Stop it! I mean it, Meg!"

"Oh, Susannah, don't you cry for me..."

"Stop!!!!! That's it!!!!" Sarah screamed as she flicked on the room's lights.

Sarah gawked in horror at the sight. Her roommate's body was in the rocking chair, but her head wasn't, her head was on the wall, kept there by a butcher knife. From behind the rocking chair she could hear laughter – maniacal laughter.

"Who's there? Who are you????"

From behind the rocking chair jumped a man, later found out to be the butcher that escaped from the sanitarium in the next town. All the time he was cutting Sarah, he was singing, over and over, "Oh, Susannah, don't you cry for me... I come from Alabama with a banjo on my knee."

Pinning Sarah to the wall next to her roommate's head, he screamed, "Now, Susannah, don't you cry for me!!!!"

11. Be careful the next time you go to a cinema. These people could be anywhere!! An experience of a friend of my brother's wife left me speechless. Please do send this out to everyone you know. This incident occurred in Bombay's Metro cinema (Among the best in town). They were a group of 6-7 College girls & they went to the theater to see a movie. During the show one of the girls felt a slight pinprick but did not pay much attention to it.

After sometime that place began to itch. So she scratched herself and then saw a bit of blood on her hands. She assumed that she had caused it. At the end of the show, her friend noticed a sticker on her dress and read the caption. It read "Welcome to the world of AIDS". She tried to pass it off as a practical joke but when she went for a blood test a couple of weeks later (just to be sure), she found herself HIV Positive.

When she complained to the cops, they mentioned that her story was one of the many such cases they had received. It seems the operator uses a syringe to transfer a bit of his/her infected blood to the person sitting ahead of him/her. A horrible experience for the victim as also the family & friends. The WORST bit is that the person who does it gains NOTHING where as the victim loses EVERYTHING.

12. A couple was invited to a swanky masked Halloween Party. She got a terrible headache and told her husband to go to the party alone. He, being a devoted husband, protested, but she argued and said she was going to take some aspirin and go to bed and there was no need of his good time being spoiled by not going. So he took his costume and away he went.

The wife, after sleeping soundly for one hour, awakened without pain, and as it was still early, she decided to go to the party. In as much as her husband did not know what her costume was, she thought she would have some fun by watching her husband to see how he acted when she was not with him. She joined the party and soon spotted her husband cavorting around on the dance floor, dancing with every nice chick he could and copping a little feel here and a little kiss there.

His wife went up to him and being a rather seductive babe herself, he left his partner high and dry and devoted his time to the new stuff that had just arrived. She let him go as far as he wished; naturally, since he was her husband. Finally he whispered a little proposition in her ear and she agreed, so off they went to one of the cars and had a little bang.

Just before unmasking at midnight, she slipped away and went home and put the costume away and got into bed, wondering what kind of explanation he would make for his behavior.

She was sitting up reading when he came in and asked what kind of a time he had had. He said, "Oh the same old thing. You know I never have a good time when you're not there."

Then she asked, "Did you dance much?"

He replied, "I'll tell you, I never even danced one dance. When I got there, I met Pete, Bill Brown and some other guys, so we went into the den and played poker all evening. But I'll tell you... The guy I loaned my costume to sure had a real good time!"

13. This was in the "Washington Post"... the title of the article was "Best Comeback Line Ever." This is pretty damn good. Drunk and horny, he still came up with this!

Police arrested Patrick Lawrence, a 22-year-old white male, resident of Dacula, GA, in a pumpkin patch at 11:38 p.m. Friday. Lawrence will be charged with lewd and lascivious behavior, public indecency, and public intoxication at the Gwinnett County courthouse on Monday.

The suspect allegedly stated that as he was passing a pumpkin patch, he decided to stop. "You know, a pumpkin is soft and squishy inside, and there was no one around here for miles. At least I thought there wasn't," he stated in a phone interview from the jail.

Lawrence went on to state that he pulled over to the side of the road, picked out a pumpkin that he felt was appropriate to his purposes, cut a hole in it, and proceeded to satisfy his alleged "need." "I guess I was just really into it, you know?" he commented with evident embarrassment.

In the process, Lawrence apparently failed to notice the Gwinnett County police car approaching and was unaware of his audience until officer Brenda Taylor approached him. "It was an unusual situation, that's for sure," said officer Taylor. "I walked up to (Lawrence) and he's...just working away at this pumpkin."

Taylor went on to describe what happened when she approached Lawrence. "I just went up and said, 'Excuse me sir, but do you realize that you are screwing a pumpkin?' He got real surprised, as you'd expect, and then looked me straight in the face and said, "A pumpkin? Damn...is it midnight already?"

Links to other Thursday Thirteens!1. (leave your link in comments, I’ll add you here!) Diana Peterfreund; Tracie
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The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It’s easy, and fun! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well! I will link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things. Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!


Tag, I'm it!

S. William Shaw (he's awesome, go check out his blog) has tagged me to provide my darling readers with five interesting things about myself. This is a difficult task.

1. I'm interested in vampires, obviously for those of you who know me. But you may not know that the first dream I remember having involved me being chased by a gorgeous vampire through a garden maze at a castle. How old was I when I had this dream? About five I think. I used to pretend that the vampire and I were getting married and I'd walk down the slope of our backyard in a processional. The first movie I remember watching is The Lost Boys. These are the things that started me down a slippery slope, folks.

2. I love video games, particularly old school Nintendo. But I also enjoy X-Box and computer games. My favorite computer games are the Age of Empires/Age of Mythology series.

3. In high school I was part of the first members of our StRUT program (Students Recycling Used Technology) and the only girl in the program. I loved hanging out with those guys. Those were some of the best classtimes in school.

4. I have an odd fascination with the psychology of serial killers. I've always wanted to study what makes a person become a serial killers - nature/nurture stuff. In another life maybe I'll pursue criminal psychology, or at least write about it in a book. On a related note, I just learned a couple of years ago that a distant cousin of mine on my dad's side is in the Oregon State Pen for serial killings. Eerie.

5. My maiden name is Catto, which is of Aberdeen, Scotland. An ancestor, James Catto, invented one of Scotland's first whiskies - Catto Whisky. I collect anything to do with Catto Whisky (bar mirrors, shot glasses, ash trays, pitchers, etc.). Ebay has been a gem in this habit. The odd thing is, I've never tasted the stuff. They don't sell it in the U.S. I've been told by the distillery company that it is sold in Canada so I'm planning a trip in the spring. The best way to have me love you forever - give me Catto Whiskey stuff :-)

Wednesday, November 01, 2006

Wednesday round-up

1. The winner of 4 lies and a fib is....Erin! I have been married, but I have no clue how to write calligraphy. My hand writing looks like a 3-year-old boys. Way to go Erin!

And I'd like to say something about your answers (Bethany, Eli, Piper and Paty) - why is it none of you picked #5? Do you all readily believe and not question the idea of me peeing my pants? Not cool, people. Not cool.

2. My dog was adorable in her princess dress last night. As you can see in the second pic, she's a licker.
Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting
Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting

3. NaNoWriMo has begun! I'm proud to say I already have half today's word count done. Woohoo! My plan is to write 2,000 - 2,500 words during the week so I can spend the weekend editing.

4. You HAVE to read this post by Lit Agent X if you are on the agent search. It seems so many writers expect personalized rejections or don't realize how special it is when they receive one. Think about how busy an agent is. Read the post to remind yourself that they struggle too.