Thanks to beltanelady for this one. It's too good to lose.

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Comedy comes from truth revealed suddenly.

--Margaret Kerry, original model for Tinkerbell

Some of this may be TMI, but if you're a woman who takes birth control pills or if you're on medication that you get through an insurance company, it's stuff you might want to know...

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Yesterday, I read over Time magazine's list of the people who crossed in 2008 that they will miss. Some of them are people I will miss. There's also a lot of people who, although I never met them, are people who have influenced my life in one way or another. Some of the names won't be familiar, and yet you might actually know their work. Some of them won't be familiar at all to some people here, but they have each made a mark on my life. So yes, they'll be missed. Here's my list, in alphabetical order:

1. Cora Anderson
2. Robert (Bob) Asprin
3. Harriet Burns
4. George Carlin
5. Ollie Johnston
6. Harvey Korman
7. Don LaFontaine
8. Kermit Love
9. Mildred Loving
10. Randy Pausch
11. Tim Russert
12. Tasha Tudor

And, my "person of the year" this year would have to be Shadow. Miss ya, babe. But thanks for stepping back so that we could bring a new little Figment into our home and family.

ETA: And I should have known that by putting this list up here someone else would cross between now and the end of the year who needs to be added. And she crossed today....

Farewell Majel Barrett Roddenberry, First Lady of Star Trek.

The Big Read reckons that the average adult has only read 6 of the top 100 books they've printed. Well, let's see:

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Just so I don't misplace this post-it note again. These were "inspired" by the drinks I had at Disney, but were my own little twist.

Poolside Lemonade
1 pt. Triple Sec. (original recipe calls for Bacardi O, but you do what you have to with what you got)
1 pt. Bacardi Razz
2 pt. Sweet and Sour
Sprite to taste



Sunken Treasure
2 pt. Coconut Rum (we used Bacardi Coco, but my coconut rum of choice is Parrot Bay)
2 pt. Melon liqueur (okay, technically supposed to be Midori, but that was a bit pricey, so we ended up with Dekuyper melon and noticed no ill effects)
2 pt. Orange Juice
1 pt. Pineapple Juice
Sprite to taste

A very wise elder once somewhat jokingly called me the diva of decadence.

Tonight, it is 25 degrees outside and we have snow on the ground. Meanwhile, I'm sitting on the back enclosed porch, sipping a caramel hot chocolate loaded with enough whipped cream to make a stripper blush, more caramel on top, and red sugar sprinkles while sitting in the hot tub. If that doesn't define decadence, I'm not sure what does.

But just to keep reality in place, it was shortly after I got out of the hot tub that I realized from the sound of a can rolling across the laminate floor that I left the whipped cream out. Which is more decadent? The gal who just got out of that hot tub of relaxation or the kitten who has finished off the RediWhip?

This morning, I had planned to fuel up my car. As I drove up to the gas station, I saw two fire trucks in front with lights on and firemen all geared up out in front. Needless to say, I did not fuel up this morning.

One of my coworker's daughters was murdered this week in a case of domestic violence. It reminds me to give thanks that I got out of my first marriage before I became a statistic like that.

Watching the "Big Three" potential buyout deal and hearing the line once again that these folks are "too big to let fail", I wonder when we adopted a "No Business Left Behind" policy of fiscal planning in this country.

Just some random thoughts for today.

Okay, putting this in here so I remember why I'm using the tag phrase "please respect the caviar" years from now. I know I won't remember.

Here's the video. NSFW (mildly).

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And for some reason, I'm going to be giggling and singing this song all night.

Got another message from a well-meaning but horribly misguided "publication" today. Again, the same ol' line about "We can't pay, but we'll give you exposure", which we're sure means something even though we're a publication that no one has ever heard of.

While I was poking around to find an article I read years ago about why writers should never work for free, I came across this video clip from Harlan Ellison:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mj5IV23g-fE

If the documentary ever gets distributed, I'd love to see it. Although I don't agree with everything that he stands for, he's a genuine person, and that's a rarity in this day and age. (Oh, video is NQSFW if you're offended by adult language.)

I know that this will mean more to some people on my list than others, but it is pretty shocking.

INATS (the International New Age Trade Show) East has been cancelled for 2009 due to the economy. According to their web site:

In light of the current worldwide economic situation, we've decided to postpone the INATS East show until 2010. By waiting out these hard times, we feel we'll be better able to provide the buyer attendance that is crucial to exhibitor success.

I have the potential to be doom and gloom about some things from time to time, and about a year ago I had made a prediction that the pagan economy would be hurting pretty bad, however I thought at least the new agers could keep the coffers from running dry. But this.... wow. This is big. (And, as a sad note, if they do go on schedule for the 2010 conference, it's in Clearwater and not Orlando. Bah. Again, a sign of "going cheap".)

If you haven't seen the Onion's video about Halloween, I rate it as a must see:

http://www.theonion.com/content/video/in_the_know_has_halloween_become

Cut so as not to mess people's pages:
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Lately, because of some things that happened on a quickie trip to the World with some very special folks, we've been thinking and talking a lot about the magickal influences of Walt Disney on the world. So, tonight as I've got an article on screen about people using faith-based stuff to try and pray Satan away from Wall Street (by praying in front of a golden bull... too funny in its own right), there was a clue about the use of the Walt Disney Silly Symphony of the Three Little Pigs using the song "Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf" as an anthem against the Great Depression.

Could it work again?

Somehow, there's something to the magick for that. Thanks to the remnants of a cluster headache, I'm not quite sure what would be done with it, but there's something to that. It feels like it, anyhow.

Copy this sentence into your LiveJournal if you're in a heterosexual marriage, and you don't want it "protected" by the bigots who think that gay marriage hurts it somehow.


To put it in perspective....

My first marriage lasted less than six years.

My husband's first marriage lasted less than eight years.

Most gay partnerships that I consider marriages (although sadly not permitted to be legally ordained as such) among the folks I know have lasted longer than those two "proper" marriages put together.

Restricting which gender of consenting adults can marry each other makes the institution of marriage a peculiar institution indeed.

It's TLAPD. Google doesn't have a special header for it. Grr.

Better update coming this weekend or next week about where I am going and where have I been. (Was I traveling in Majorca? No, I still have a Kia... This TLAPD-related pun brought to you in honor of P&S.)

Anyhow, happy TLAPD to one and all!

Things have been considerably busy in the household, with all sorts of interesting (but ultimately positive) stuff going on.

And even though the most recent (and likely the last interestingness for a little while) event was the most painful, it was a huge blessing in so many ways.

So here's to Shadow... we'll miss ya, babe.

Read more about Shadow's life here: http://ardenfox.livejournal.com/11630.html

According to the Mac Geniuses... it was a hard drive failure. So, they're pretty much gutting the innards of the unit and giving me a new one (new hard drive and new case due to an issue with case crack that happens frequently and happened on mine).

What a great opportunity to do some spring cleaning. I've decided not to migrate everything from my eMac, but just pick and choose specifically what to copy so that I have a nice, clean unit....

...and then back up the whole system before I do anything else!

Sneaking a few minutes of "me time" to rant.

Well, not really rant. More like "Huh... grr." (Why does that remind me I haven't grabbed breakfast yet? Oh. Duh.)

So this weekend, I was working on a half dozen projects. No, seriously... a newsletter layout, a video game strategy guide that is falling behind because the author has run into delays from the game company, my educational tests gig, my "day job", getting the house in order (although credit for the house being squeaky clean really goes to A for being an insanely good house husband among other things!), prepping for an event yesterday, and making sure that I don't go insane in the process. Part of the stuff listed above included me downloading a demo of InDesign to make sure it worked the way I want it to for the newsletter before I drop $700 on the software. (Provided it wasn't what caused what happened below, it appears to be well worth the money.)

We went out to dinner (new Chinese buffet in town... for the local folks, it's where the steakhouse used to be on Restaurant Row). Came home, opened my laptop from sleep mode, and launched Safari. The page loaded about 3/4 of the way, and then I got the spinning beach ball of doom. Tried to force quit, no luck. Total hard lockup. Hit the power button and then turned the unit back on. And waited.... and waited... and waited. Pfft. Yup. Pfft.

So at this point, I get a gray screen with a file folder icon and a blinking question mark. My guess is that something happened and it can't locate the startup disk. Here's where things get weird. We ran to the mall and made an appointment at the Mac store for tonight (yeah, tonight...did I mention that my car's check engine light meant that it needed to be in the shop since Thursday while they wait for parts?). When we came home, we played a bit with potential fixes.

Trying to boot into safe mode caused a kernel panic.
Eventually we got the disk utility to launch, however it won't let any repairs be done on the hard drive (it shows the hard drive and specs for it, but it is grayed out).
We ran a hardware diagnostic from the system utility, and it said there were no hardware problems.

I've got a couple theories, most of which don't involve total hard drive failure. But it got me thinking... if I did lose the whole hard drive, would I be out a whole lot?

Most of my mail is backed up on the Gmail servers. Most photos and such are either on CD/DVD or are still on memory cards. A $20 piece of software allowed me to back up the stuff on my recently-sync'd iPod (so no loss of music and movies, aside from a handful of things that I had Hijacked but not transferred). Software is all backed up. The computer is fairly new (October 1 of last year), and I haven't wiped my old computer... so everything prior to October 1 is still on the old unit.

All total, I guess I'd be out maybe 200 files (mostly Word docs and PDFs)? All things considered, that's not bad at all.

Got VPN working on the megamachine (bless you again, A for being the techie!), so I'm not even out of the loop for work. Hopefully I can get everything restored, but if not... Apple is gonna have to fork over a new laptop (muhahah).

Because I'm doing the "share the 'puter" thing until mine is fixed or replaced, I won't be around much. (Not that I'm around all that much in general, aside from a couple communities.)

But call this a helpful PSA. Back up your files often. It's the right thing to do. And the more you know...the more you can sing the GI Joe theme song. Or something like that.

Back to riveting discussions of infections diseases. Whee.

So we have a company picnic coming up next week, and the company put out a memo about it. Unfortunately for them, line breaks didn't quite convey what they wanted....

COMPANY WILL CLOSE AT 1:30 P.M. (YES…CLOSE).

THERE WILL BE GAMES AND PRIIZES.

GAMES WILL CONSIST OF:

HULA TOSS SPONGE TOSS BALLOON TOSS DRESS UP

TORTURE

Is that truth in advertising or what?