So, I was checking out Dogster as part of a project I’m working on and I couldn’t resist clicking on the "What Dog Breed Are You?" banner. I was a little surprised by my results? A Border Collie? If that’s their idea of a Type A personality, then, yes, I guess so, but I think Border Collies are a bit more eager to please than I tend to be! Oh, and I would NOT trade my daughter for a corner office! (Really!)

Border Collie
The Achiever

You’ve heard about this "second-place ribbon"” thing, but really don’t ever plan on getting one. Not a chance. Highly competitive, you keep one eye on the Best in Show prize and one on the rest of the pack, making sure you’re always at least one paw ahead. You love your family and enjoy the company you keep, but you’d trade all of them in a heartbeat for a corner office and some meaty stock options. When you’re not licking your professional coat, naked skydiving and triathlons keep you entertained. You idolize the top dog and will do so until you sniff out a way to take over the company and do a little "restructuring."

FAMOUS BORDER COLLIES: Bill Gates, Bill Clinton, Martha Stewart, Barbara Walters

LIKELY PROFESSIONS: CEO, Banker, Manager, Astronaut

T did it, so I figured I’d try and see how different we are. WOW are we DIFFERENT! lol

Introvert/Intuitive/Thinking/Judging

You are an individualist and very independent by nature. You are very adept at devising systems and creating theories. Self-improvement is important to you, and you look inwardly for the energies to reach your goals. You are creative and an excellent problem solver that has the endurance to get those tough jobs done. You need your privacy and time for introspection. So much in the world interest you that you sometimes have a difficult time choosing what activity to pursue next.

In relationships you are very loyal and prefer a traditional structure. You tend to only demonstrate your affections to those who are very close to you. You enjoy one-on-one relationships that are very intimate. You sometimes like extroverts, because they can take the “heaviness” out of your personality. You love the intellectual arena and the exchange of ideas. You are very sensitive to rejection but hide your emotional vulnerabilities well. While very loving, you can get so absorbed in your own projects that you neglect those around you.

INTROVERT
While you may not be anti-social, you do need (and deserve) your private time and space to retreat from the world. Unlike extroverts, you need to develop a concept of the world or some aspect of it before experiencing it. Too much socializing may sap your energies. Your energies are derived from exploring the inner world of ideas, impressions and pure thought.

INTUITIVE
While you do process information through your senses you add a twist to your processing by relying on intuition and serendipity. You look for undercurrents of meaning and abstractions in what you experience physically. You do not just see things just as they are, but as what they could be. While you may rely on common sense at times, you trust inspiration far more.

THINKING
You evaluate data and reach conclusions by using your ability to apply logical, objective analysis to the information before you. Your thinking process values consistency and fairness over the affect your decisions will have on others. You compare courses of action logically and make your choices based upon what consequences you see them as having. If there is something wrong with a plan, you are the one to ferret it out. It is important to remember that this does not mean you are cold and unfeeling, but that your thinking process is analytical.

JUDGING
You like decisions to be made as soon as possible. You are not comfortable with loose ends and like to see conflicts resolved as soon as possible. You have a preference for a well-structured, orderly lifestyle with few surprises. It may not be all that important who makes the decisions that gets things done as long things do get done. You take commitments very seriously. While you are not inflexible, you do like to stick to a plan once it is set into motion.

Famous People of Your Type:

Dan Aykroyd, Susan B. Anthony, Arthur Ashe, Augustus Caesar, Jane Austen, William F. Buckley, Jr., Raymond Burr, Chevy Chase, Phil Donahue, Hannibal, Veronica Hamel, Orel Leonard Hershiser, Peter Jennings, Ivan Lendl, C. S. Lewis, Joan Lunden, Edwin Moses, Martina Navratilova, Chester A. Arthur, Calvin Coolidge, Thomas Jefferson, John F. Kennedy, James K. Polk, Woodrow Wilson.

Occupations Suited to Your Type Include:

Archaeologist, architect, artist, astronomer, biologist, chemist, programmer, engineer, designer, historian, inventor, mathematician, musician, philosopher, photographer, doctor, psychologist, researcher, scientist, professor, and writer.

Tag, you’re it! Take the quiz

AAAAAAAUUUUGH

I don’t like NJ. I’ve never been a fan of NJ, even when I lived there. Or maybe ESPECIALLY when I lived there. By far, the WORST things about New Jersey are all related to driving - the DMV, the interstates, the traffic, the auto insurance rates, etc. But OH MY GOD, this has to beat all.

Tuesday, I went to the Indiana BMV to get my drivers license and to register to vote. Well, primarily, to register to vote, since Indiana is a decision state and I’m excited about casting my vote here where it will really matter. So, anyway… after waiting in line, I had to take a written test since I’m coming from another state. 50 questions. Pretty quick but then I had to wait for the same person who was helping me before (instead of getting back in line). SIX people were helped while I waited for her to help some jerk with 18 forms to fill out. Finally, she’s free. 49 answers right. Everything looks good. Oh. Wait. The State of NJ says I can’t have my license. NEW JERSEY? I haven’t lived there for almost two decades! They tell me to wait. They’ll call. Oh, too bad, NJ is closed now. They gave me the number for the DMV (now renamed the MVC?) in Trenton.

Wednesday, I called Trenton. They wouldn’t tell me anything unless I could tell them the address that was on my license when I left NJ. Hmmm… ten minutes later after searching my paper files, Google Desktop saved me. I gave the lady my old address. She told me I have an unpaid parking ticket in Hoboken from 1989. OK, no problem. I’ll pay it. Nope! All this fabulous technology, but can I give her a credit card number and take care of it? Ohhh nooooo, of course not! I have to call the Hoboken Court for the details, mail Hoboken a check, get the receipt (by mail), MAIL the receipt BACK to Trenton with a $100 reinstatement fee, and then they will MAIL something to me that I can take to the BMV in Indiana to get my license. This whole process will take weeks. Meanwhile, I never had any idea this ticket existed AND I’ve had licenses in three other states since 1989 without it ever coming up.

Oh, and when I called Hoboken… she said the parking ticket would cost $14.

Here’s hoping I can register to vote.

I don’t know how long it’s been since I wasted time online playing a game or doing something silly. Over a year… maybe more than a few years! Today, I remedied that. This is the den of my apartment in YoVille. When I was done with my interior design, I went to the nightclub and had a Cosmo. LOL

A few of you know I’ve been working on a new website recently. Well… ta da! It’s here.
nycgadgetgirl.com isn’t going anywhere. I still plan to use this site for my freelancing. All the archives will remain online and I will probably blog occasional personal and geeky things here.

All the dog stuff is moving over to the new site though! Please visit Jenna & Snickers and let me know what you think by commenting on the first post.

• 11:24 PM July 28, 2026 Destination TinyLittleTown achieved at approx 630pm. Talking w/my sis ever since. Sorry I stopped twittering in Ohio… my bb battery died!
• @zbarahona same time zone. possibly a different planet though.
• @primitivedog didn’t hit any traffic on the whole trip, thankfully!
• @mollydigger I hope you gave him some modern money. Not sure if the deli will take shekels.
• 08:32 AM July 29, 2026 First lesson about living in the country: Don’t walk in grass on the morning walk! (Even my socks are wet.)
• 03:06 PM July 29, 2026 just unpacking. a lot.

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• 12:04 AM July 28, 2026 aahhhhh… checked into the hotel, fed and walked Snickers, ordered breakfast, snacking and then I’ll be sinking into the king size bed.
• @zbarahona STILL???? UGH
• @mollydigger it waited to start raining today until I was getting in the U-Haul to drive away. What does that mean? NYC likes me, I hope.
• @primitivedog Snickers mostly rode in the floor between the seats. His bed fits perfectly there.
• @zbarahona GO HOME
• @zbarahona oy Tell your asst editor that I’m very sorry you spent so much of your day with me!
• 10:19 AM July 28, 2026 Four Points not as nice as regular Sheraton, but breakfast was delicious and cheap. Walked Snick. Checking mail then heading out!
• WV welcomes me
• Oh! Ohio!
• 12:49 PM July 28, 2026 People out here probably can’t fathom why 8mm ppl live on top of each other to be in NYC.
• @mollydigger of course!
• @jmauro for diversity, culture, ethnic takeout, music, shoes, museums, and what @mollydigger said
• @tollers ha ha ha… what GPS? Have GPS and Google Maps on my BB but don’t think it does trip time.
• @tollers however, my brain estimates I will pass thru Columbus around 1430
• PS to all, yes I twitter and drive. Don’t tell the po po.
• @zbarahona Zeeeeeeeeeee! I misses u.
• 02:27 PM July 28, 2026 Just hit east edge of Columbus, OH.
• Real buildings!
• @tollers who needs GPS?
• 3:00 PM@Snick_the_Dog Snick! I’m driving!
• Rest stop. Walked Snick. Got Diet Coke for me, water for him. And we’re off!
• @tollers my data is incomplete but I’m guestimating 7pm arrival
• 03:46 PM July 28, 2026 Just saw a huge billboard that said JESUS IS REAL. We’re not in NYC anymore Snickers!

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• 7:30 AM Hour late waking up. Head is throbbing.
• Walking Snick. No time to enjoy it tho.
• Snickers FREAKED OUT when I left for u-haul… screaming and howling at the door. He knows it is Sunday. I am not supposed to leave.
• In the cab to u-haul and hoping that (1) the scheduling works out right today and (2) I’m not making a huge mistake! We’ll see!
• Will probably turn on TwitterTools before I leave, so it will blog my tweets while I move.
• 10:00 AM Things are looking up! Got the u-haul. Just waiting to be able to park it outside my building.
• 3:20 PM Heading into the Lincoln. Bye NY
• JUST SPENT $99 ON GAS!!!
• PA welcomes me!
• Just shared a cheeseburger with Snickers. He’s a great travel companion.
• 6:59 PM On the road again.

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• @tollers 17 boxes so far. I keep thinking I’m making progress and then turn around and realize I’ve only done 1/3 of the apartment.
• I seem to have hit an “I don’t know what to do now” place in my packing. Urgh.
• @tollers I can’t get random yet. I haven’t done my fragile stuff.
• overwhelmed and unhappy
• @tollers ok. fragile stuff, wrapped in newspaper and padded with clothes, coming up.
• @tollers except the kitchen. I can’t pack the kitchen. not enough paper to wrap stuff in. leaving it for a friendly volunteer to pack 2moro
• @tollers I have 5 friends & 2 paid guys coming 2moro. My u-haul reservation is f’d up tho, so I’m not sure I’ll even be here wn they arrive!
• Snickers must be reliving the meetup in his sleep. He’s barking and running… very excited.
• @tollers calling and whimpering only put me on standby behind 5 other people with 9am reservations. I have to just go and hope for the best
• I’m tired. Gonna go walk Snickers and see if it helps restart my energy.
• Snick and I are taking our last bedtime walk around the city. <sigh>
• I’d rather be sleeping.
• Totally stressed that I won’t be back with the u-haul when all my peeps show up tomorrow. And still packing.
• achy tired and have a headache. so much packing left to do. and then I have to CLEAN the place.
• I give up. Nowhere near done, but I MUST get some sleep. Going to bed now… will get a four hour nap.

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Two of my very good friends took me out for farewell drinks a few nights ago. The spot we went to used to be one of our favorites. The outdoor bar on Pier 84 only opened last year and it used to be a GREAT spot to hang out, drink, and relax with the dogs in attendance. The bartender was super friendly, mixed good drinks and had a dog of his own. Wow, has it changed. We went early (7′ish) on Thursday evening and it was noisy and crowded and the service was awful. We still had a good time being together and my friends gave me a card and several fun going away gifts. The crowd of people reminded me of part of what I DON’T like about NYC. Everything good ends up too crowded to enjoy.

One of the gifts is a big can of breadcrumbs so I can leave a trail by which to find my way home. <g> I promised to actually use them, so if you see a 10 foot U-Haul truck headed west next weekend dropping a trail of breadcrumbs behind it… you’ve just had a close encounter with me and Snick!

On a totally unrelated note, yesterday I calculated what my monthly gas costs will be if I commute into Indy daily (in the Jeep Grand Cherokee Laredo I’m purchasing when I arrive). O!M!G!!!!! Here in Manhattan, I walk 10 minutes to work - no commuting costs whatsoever. In Indy, my rent, car payment, car insurance and gas costs will be almost as much as I’m paying in rent right now. WHOOPS! So much for saving on the cost of living. Yikes! OK, so very important… everyone concentrate on willing the cosmos to find me a job that lends itself either to (1) Debbie and I carpooling every day or (2) telecommuting.

I’m definitely thinking of resdesigning in the near’ish future, but what about renaming?

I’ve been nycgadgetgirl for such a long time, but these days I mostly post about dogs. “Gadget Girl” doesn’t necessarily suit me any more, although the history of how I got the name is still meaningful to me.

The fact that I’m not freelancing much any more and rarely blog about techie or gadget stuff wasn’t enough to make me think of renaming, but now I won’t be living in New York for at least four years! NYCGadgetGirl = no NYC and no gadgets? hmmmm… I’m not so sure about that.

I could just go with jennagates.com. Although it has a definite self-centeredness about it, there’s no chance I’ll outgrow my own name. (No, not even if I get married again some day. I’ve done the name change thing and learned my lesson.)

Or maybe something completely different. Thoughts? Ideas? Suggestions?

One our volunteers created this nifty widget that anyone can use to show off our adoptable dogs. Check it out! You can add this to your site too by clicking “share” in the bottom right corner.

Thanks to Snick’s virtual buddy, and fellow NYC Shiba meetup member, Higgs for this great idea!

I’m on the phone on hold listening to muzak and the much too frequent recorded interruption. It says “…all agents are currently helping other guest at this time. If you’ll hold one moment, the first available agent will assist you as soon as possible…”

Ugh. I have noticed the “currently / at this time” combination a lot lately. What is that all about? Could “currently” ever NOT be at this time???

Of course, then the recording says “…we will expedite your call in just a few moments…” And yet I have been on hold for fourteen minutes and counting.

Actually… I just hung up. My call must not be as important to them as their recording claimed or they would have answered it or, at least, given me something more enjoyable to listen to!

• I love NYC because there is so much to do, so many interesting people, and everything is open 24 hours.
• I hate NYC because the only time it isn’t too crowded to enjoy is super late at night. I skip things I would like, because of the crowds.
• I love the lack of scary things like snakes and big spiders. I love the lack of darkness. I feel safe never being alone. I love the food.
• I love the big dog-related community and how easy it is to find friends with similar interests!
• I hate the noise. I hate how I always get a parking ticket outside my apartment when I rent a car for vacation.
• @abecker1029 lol. I am. Must be the heat.
• @mollydigger heh. I don’t get roaches. I get drunks and homeless with the random garbage on my front step.
• Watching a sudden, powerful spring storm. Thunder, lightening, rain. I love how a hard rain cleans the streets.
• Thunder and lightening are sexy. Is that a weird thing to say?
• @Neilochka that’s pretty fast! I’m watching people huddle under canopies outside. They’re hoping it will stop as suddenly as it began.
• The center of the storm must be getting closer. The lightening is striking closer each time.
• Storm is over.

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• @Nikkoth awww… Did she move to her second foster today?
• @zbarahona @jmauro don’t you guys have AC?
• Sitting in the shade at the dog run, drinking coffee and loving the inus. Headed to the flea market soon, then home to the cool apartment.
• @zbarahona @jmauro ah. I see. We were outside too, but sitting under the shade trees. Inside in the AC now till the sun goes down.
• Watching The Blues Brothers (for the first time). Was about to give up on it (SO STUPID) and finally got to the music. Yay! Now it’s good.
• Ray Charles! OK, now I’m understanding why this movie was such a big deal. (I really could have done without the first 45 minutes though.)
• Bookkeeping for NYCSR. <sigh> Never ending work.
• Wondering about Star Trek TOS. Ship-to-ship video conferencing, wireless personal communicators, etc… but the library is kept on tape?
• Saving Shibas was a lot more satisfying in the beginning when I was involved with the dogs. All I do now is push paper. Boo.
• @Neilochka thank you. the dogs ARE what matter.

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• Note to self: STOP FORGETTING to buy toner for the printer. And thanks for finally buying new socks.
• I normally stay away from talking politics, but I’m SO HAPPY that Obama won the nomination!
• This kid from NC moved into my building recently. Either he’s high ALLLL the time, has an IQ of 12, or both. Can’t stand the guy!
• It should be illegal for a headache to last 3 days. But how do you punish a headache?
• Begging for money for two of NYCSR’s foster dogs, Bea & Rusty. http://tinyurl.com/6jtshy
• Wow. NYCSR’s Facebook Cause (http://tinyurl.com/5f249y) just hit 100 members! Go Shiba supporters!
• @primitivedog well, it’s just a number really but it makes me feel good. what we REALLY need is money!
• @primitivedog spread the word… send the donation links around to friends who love your dogs and would like to help other inus!
• CRAVING CHOCOLATE ICE CREAM. Again. <sigh>
• @Neilochka if my SonicCare would just get online and order it’s own brush head refill things, I’d be happy! No twittering required.

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• 11:00 AM: This day is off to a slow start, but there is so much to do!
• 3:00 PM: Woof Patrol posted a great interview with my friend Cathy Schine and a review of her book The New Yorkers: http://tinyurl.com/4jhrdk

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• Why does everyone assume I will be their personal tech support service?
• If you pay someone to fix the brakes on your car, would you ask them a month later to teach you how to use your car radio? NO!
• I mean, you could ask… but to assume they will do it is ridiculous and to EXPECT them to do it - for free - is OBNOXIOUS.
• @mollydigger eh, same sh!7 different day… clients pay for one service and then think they can ask for help with everything “technical.”
• leaving work… why do I feel like I slaved away all day and didn’t accomplish anything? yesterday I accomplished enough for two days though
• I am considering having ice cream for dinner AGAIN. This does not mesh well with my desire to lose weight!
• @tollers yes… and you know who X is!
• uuuuggghhh… I just ate WAY too much for dinner. And, yes, it was chocolaty-delicious.

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• Coffee at the dog run on the weekends… the one leisurely activity I REFUSE to give up for the rescue.
• I have a tiny Inu in my lap and another next to me. This is the life. Too bad I have to go to the office today.
• Just solved a work email crisis brilliantly!
• Walking home from the office on a Sunday evening. Phooey to working on weekends
• Walking dogs at 120a. Gah.

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When I moved the site to the latest server and newest version of WordPress, I didn’t move the photo gallery. The gallery application was too much trouble and a total pain to format. Tonight I installed a WordPress plugin called Fotobook, which displays my Facebook photos on the blog. Ahhhh, the simplicity!

• Just slept from 2 to 11!!! Ahhh…
• Kept the poor dogs waiting all morning, finally headed outside and it started raining before we got downstairs!!! Hoping it will stop.
• Rain is getting worse instead of better. May have to go up and get a jacket and hat and walk anyway, before Snick pees on the stoop.
• Ugh… Got half a block during a reprieve and now it’s pouring again. Snick won’t budge from our new dry spot.
• @mollydigger GROOSSSSS!!!! Seriously?
• @mollydigger that is incredibly nasty
• Rain stopped long enough for us to walk to the pet store and now we’re stuck here. I still haven’t had my coffee.
• Ah ha ha the irony… we made it home and now it looks like the rain has completely stopped. The sun is blazing!
• Having coffee at the dog run on this beautiful, sunny afternoon!
• @tollers believe it or not, the sun is so strong it has dried everything already except the worst puddles. I’m sitting on a dry park bench!
• @mollydigger I hope that sewer thing isn’t recurring. NYC’s spring “showers” (flash floods) could be pretty gross for you if it is!
• Stopped a camera weilding tourist on the corner today to find out what everone is taking pics of… the “Sex and the City” BILLBOARD! Geez.
• @mollydigger heh. Who the hell knows.
• So annoyed… something is up with my cable and I can’t get online with my laptop to do any real work.
• Yay! I’m online. That was distressing.
• @tollers Are there any good Japanese take-out places there? I mean, really good ones?
• @tollers I gotta know! Hmmm… I think I’ll order some Japanese right now!
• Just pigged out on a most excellent bento box.
• @Nikkoth thunderstorm? maybe I’d better go walk the dogs before that gets here!
• Way. Too. Muggy. Out.
• @jmauro I can never figure out who u r talking to or what about.
• Thanking the universe for air conditioning.
• @Nikkoth just got back with them. We’re all set to be stuck inside! Yay!
• @Nikkoth poor Mashi (and you). I could not cope w/the humidity without my AC.
• @jmauro ok, that one I know was for me. If you address your tweets with @ username (no space) then whoever follows you will understand.

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• just walked by what looks like a BAD thing. Someone said a crane fell? 911 folks from 90th to 92nd on 1st Ave.
• I haven’t seen this many cops in one place since New Years!!
• working, battling a headache, wishing I wasn’t going to end up coming to the office this weekend… <sigh>
• wonders how people can feel safe living in houses without bars on the windows.
• I really hate wind. A lot.
• I can’t figure out why SO MANY people are taking pics outside my building the last two weeks. Nothing is attractive and nothing has changed!
• @zbarahona walking inus, hair in my face, can’t see, also gives me the sniffles and blows grit in my eyes. Just HATE it!
• @zbarahona ohhhh. Nothing prompted that one really. Just remembering how scared I was in the house my ex and I owned. No bars.
• @zbarahona Anyone could just walk up, break a window and come in!!! Why bother with locks???
• can’t keep my eyes open, so I’m going to bed early. Night night New York.

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I don’t normally blog about my job - unless it’s also related to Snickers - but my boss, the CEO of Bryant Park Capital, is mentioned in such a flattering light in this article, that I had to share… Interview with I-Trax Chair Frank Martin on Walgreens Acquisition.

• Soooo busy at work these days.
• As seen on Tech Republic: “10 most annoying programs…” So true, so true! http://tinyurl.com/6lc5tf
• @mollydigger That was the problem… I was at home working via VPN and the disappeared ‘puter was at the office, so I COULDN’T smack it.
• @jmauro LOL! Which BB did you get? And which carrier? I’ll help you. I have to set up Sara’s Curve later this week too. <g>
• @mollydigger @jmauro @nikkoth what REALLY works best is to install Mail for Google. much better than the browser, plus you get notifications
• @mollydigger @jmauro @nikkoth for Google Apps mail (like NYCSR) go to http://m.google.com/a in your phone browser and install from there
• @jmauro uh, no you don’t. they really aren’t all that.
• @jmauro there you go! now you’re set.
• Installed the Twitter Tools plugin for WordPress yesterday… not sure if I like it yet or have it configured the way I want. Hmmm…
• only just walking home from work why?!? why so late?

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• I had a very busy weekend and spent part of yesterday afternoon with a friend whose dog is in the hospital. She may not make it.
• installing service packs and checking user configurations today. Joy joy.
• Is anyone else using the Fotobook plugin for WordPress having issues with wp_list_pages? Excluded pages appear when Fotobook is activated.
• I was more interesting when I had more time to read.
• heading home from work and hoping Snickers is feeling OK.
• is logged into the office remotely. My body made it home, but my brain is still working at the office. At least I can pet Snickers this way!
• has to go to work early tomorrow because the computer I was working on DISAPPEARED while I was out walking Snick and I can’t wake it up!!!

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1. I love springtime in New York… NOT!
2. Chocolate chip cookies w/coffee, lox & onion omelette with cream cheese, or Challah bread French toast are foods I love to eat for breakfast.
3. It seems I’m always searching for more time in the day.
4. SLEEPING is a great way to end the day.
5. I think I need more help with NYC Shiba Rescue!
6. A certain ex-boyfriend is what I’ve been craving lately. 7. And as for the weekend, tonight I’m looking forward to sleeping, tomorrow my plans include working on NYCSR stuff and Sunday, I want to do some spring cleaning and play with Snickers!

(1) If you don’t have a Gravatar account yet… GEEEEZ! Go get one already.

(2) I keep my [massive and complex] to do lists in a mindmap at mindomo.com (which ROCKS, btw) but I’m not always at my computer to add things to it. I often remember to do items while I am out walking Snickers or walking to work. I’ve tried just sending myself email reminders, but then I’m bothered by them being in my inbox when I’m not ready to deal with doing, moving, or listing them. Today I fixed all that. Now I send an email to a special address at nycgadgetgirl.com with the reminder in the subject line, that address if filtered in gmail so that it skips my inbox and is labeled “to do.” When I’m ready catch up on odds and ends, I view the to do label in gmail, take care of all the little things and add everything else to my mind map!

One of my readers pointed me towards a new blog a couple weeks ago and I’ve been enjoying it ever since. The most recent post is excellent and must be shared.

Please go enjoy The Dog Whisperer Might Be Right This Time at I Am Shiba.

Hello everyone… I’ve recently transferred my site to a different server and made huge version jump in WordPress, so I’m pretty sure my feeds have changed. If you read me through a feed reader and you receive this, please let me know. Thanks!

Snick and I Got to Meet Janet Yesterday

Janet is in NYC for the weekend and stopped by our Shiba Meetup yesterday for her Shiba fix. I didn’t know she was coming, so when she introduced herself I was like "oh, hi" and then "wait! oh, hi!" I’ve known Janet online for a few years now, so it was cool to meet her in person.

Even My Dog is a Fire Sign

I’ve always thought it was interesting that almost all the significant people in my life are fire signs (as am I). My parents and my daughter are all Sagittarius. All three of the men I’ve been "serious" about in my life are Aries. I’m a Leo. I just happened to realize that Snickers is a Sagittarius too! That’s a little weird, eh?

Therefore, I must promote her newest online presence. She’s moving beyond MySpace and Facebook and she’s BLOGGING. Of course, if you’re over, oh, I dunno, 16, you may not find it very interesting, but I’m promoting it anyway!
For those of you who don’t know, She’s actually a pro at this online stuff already. When she was four or five, a friend of mine helped us start a website (on her own domain name, with custom graphics, etc.) which included ratings and reviews of child-friendly attractions around the city. She had me shut that down in 2001 cz she’d outgrown it. Then around 2004 or so, she blogged for awhile on a subsite of my site.

And, now, we give you… Jaqi’s World.

Why did I not choose an easier breed to fall in love with and start a rescue for?? It’s bad enough that a majority of dogs (mixed and purebreds) that come into shelters and rescue are under-socialized and under-trained, but combine that with the Shiba Inu tendency to be dog aggressive (a lot) if they aren’t super socialized as puppies and… OY! SHIBAS!

Our need to play musical foster dogs never seems to end… it seems like someone is always trying to give us another otherwise-perfect-but-very-dog-aggressive Shiba. <sigh>

1. Snowdrops are annoying.
2. I’m going to build a new kind of canine rescue organization.
3. __(ummm…. I just don’t have an answer for this one)__ is a song whose lyrics have meaning to me.
4. Just one sip and I can’t stop until my McDonald’s chocolate shake is all gone.
5. In the arms of a man I was stupid enough to let go is was where I’m happiest.
6. I believe that spending time with friends and family (and DOGS) is a necessary part of life.
7. And as for the weekend, tonight I’m looking forward to relaxing, tomorrow my plans include cleaning the apartment and drafting two new websites for clients and Sunday, I want to have Shayna’s meeting with a potential adopter go smoothly!

1. My favorite unexpected event of 2007 was the creation of NYC Shiba Rescue, Inc.
2. I’m most tempted by freshly baked chocolate brownies!
3. Today I want the rain to stop.
4. The last thing I took a picture of was Snickers and Shayna.
5. You and I have memories only of blogging.
6. The most recent movie I’ve seen that I really enjoyed was A Knight’s Tale (seriously, Miss ~T~ and I rented it a few weeks ago).
7. And as for the weekend, tonight I’m looking forward to taking it easy, tomorrow my plans include a looooonnnnng walk with the doggies if it is nice outside and Sunday, I want to get some work done for NYCSR!

1. This year, I’d like to spend more time reading the books piling up in my apartment, figure out a budget I can both afford and live within, and take an actual vacation.
2. Having time to daydream is what I daydream about most.
3. My daughter is a wonderful person.
4. I would like to have more serenity in my life.
5. I love to have lots of Shiba Inus around the house.
6. Snick the Dog makes me smile.
7. And as for the weekend, tonight I’m looking forward to sleeping, tomorrow my plans include cleaning my apartment and working on that budget I mentioned in #1 and Sunday, I want to be lazy… watch a movie and read books!

Miss ~T~ just IM’d me with lyrics from a funny song that we both like.

I looked on outa the window
An’ I started in a countin’ phone poles
Goin’ by at the rate of four to the seventh power
I put two an’ two together
Added twelve, an’ carried five
Come up with twenty two thousand telephone poles an hour

Turns out 22,000 telephone poles an hour would be almost 417 mph, not the 110 they were supposedly going when they hit the tunnel. Oh well, I guess counting and calculating aren’t that easy when you’re flying down the side of a mountain.

There was a time when my accent would have tipped the scales far in a southernly direction. Even when I was taking this quiz, I was a little nervous to see the results. I was relieved when it came up “neutral.”

I’ve never lived in flyover country and I didn’t move around at all as a kid, but I have been away from the south longer than I lived there growing up, so I guess it does make sense.

found via Treppenwitz

He sent me Alpaca socks! I checked my mail today and I had

1. Alpaca socks (and they are the softest damn socks you ever touched!),
2. the July/August copy of Hobby Farms with a bunch of Alpaca info in it, including an article by Adrian,
3. a brochure with a lot of Alpaca history, which I haven’t read yet, and
4. I swear to god(ess)(es) I am not making this up… A BAGGIE OF ALPACA FUR! I guess it is called Alpaca wool, but it is SO SOFT.

So, now I feel like I have almost petted an Alpaca! Thanks Adrian!!!

Now, if I could just spend the night in a yurt, I’d be happy. Anyone wanna send me a yurt vacation?

It has been quite awhile since I’ve posted about Alpacas. (If you missed the original conversation, you have to read about my plan to live in a yurt and own some Alpacas. Well, tonight, I got an email from someone that owns an Alpaca farm in Oregon. He was fascinated by the fact that the photo I posted when my sister first told me about these adorable, soft footed animals is apparently now the number one result for the search “Alpacas” in Google Images. Of course, the first thing I did when I got home was check that I’d credited the site the photo came from. (I did.) Then I tested out the search in Google Images and he’s right!

The part of all this that actually made it blog-worthy though is that Adrian (who sent me the email) actually has a great site with lots of information about, and photos of, Alpacas. I didn’t see it when I was first searching for info, but I enjoyed looking over it tonight and thought I would share it. The name of his farm is Mulberry Alpacas. Go and visit!

They really are SO cute. If I ever break down and leave the city, I think I HAVE to have some of my own. (However, I know now, after reading through Adrian’s site, that owning a single Alpaca is a bad idea. They prefer to be in groups.)

Read this on CNN this morning and had to share…

FREEPORT, Texas (AP) — When the cook on his shrimp boat went into labor 30 miles offshore, captain Ed Keisel grabbed a new roll of paper towels and a first aid handbook and did the best he could.

He successfully delivered Cindy Preisel’s baby boy, even though the baby’s feet emerged first.

“I’m no doctor, but even I knew that’s not supposed to happen,” Keisel said.

Click here to read more…

Follow the link for The Misanthropic Shiba, back when it was still funny as hell.

Fat people meandering along on the sidewalk bother me.

Umbrellas in my face really bother me.

But, FAT PEOPLE WITH UMBRELLAS???

AUGH!

Edit after the fact: I’m not talking about any and every overweight person and I shouldn’t have written the post the way I did, but since I don’t normally believe in editing or deleting my posts… I’m clarifying. What bothers me is when anyone, of any size, is inconsiderate on the sidewalk. It happens to be that there are a number of people that walk slowly in the middle of the sidewalk on my way to work many days and they make it very hard for the 100s of other people trying to move faster and more efficiently around them. They happen to mostly be large. It also really bothers me when people are inconsiderate with their umbrellas; I’m tall and you have no idea how many umbrella spokes to the face I have to dodge when it is raining. THIS PARTICULAR MORNING, a person, who happened to be quite large and carrying an umbrella was walking the wrong way through a crowd - completely oblivious - and smacking everyone with their freaking umbrella. I’m sorry if my post was inconsiderate, prejudiced or inflammatory.

Saw this over at Janet’s while I was catching up on some blog reading today and decided to take it myself, just for giggles.

You are Strength

Courage, strength, fortitude. Power not arrested in the act of judgement, but passing on to further action, sometimes obstinacy.

This is a card of courage and energy. It represents both the Lion’s hot, roaring energy, and the Maiden’s steadfast will. The innocent Maiden is unafraid, undaunted, and indomitable. In some cards she opens the lion’s mouth, in others she shuts it. Either way, she proves that inner strength is more powerful than raw physical strength. That forces can be controlled and used to score a victory is very close to the message of the Chariot, which might be why, in some decks, it is Justice that is card 8 instead of Strength. With strength you can control not only the situation, but yourself. It is a card about anger and impulse management, about creative answers, leadership and maintaining one’s personal honor. It can also stand for a steadfast friend.

What Tarot Card are You?
Take the Test to Find Out.

No time to blog, but I got a kick out of this and had to pass it on.

Lamest ‘Value-Added’ Products
05.09.07 | 2:00 AM
By Paul Adams

As every trillionaire knows, the easiest way to turn a quick profit is to take something that’s just lying around, put your name on it and sell it in huge quantities.

Doing something that adds concrete value…(more)

So, Miss ~T~ and I went to see this with a friend tonight. All I can say is DON’T BOTHER. This could have been a really good movie, but they missed every opportunity for the main character to learn anything about herself. The writer apparently thinks people who are crazy in love with animals are incapable of making connections with humans.

…are A Good Thing

Today I slept late. Again. Had coffee at the dog run. Came home and did a TINY bit of apartment cleaning (never did it the other night when I said I would). Had more coffee with an old friend. Went to the pet store. Ate a yummy late lunch from new soul food place in da hood. Did a bunch of financial stuff on the ‘puter. Answered some email. Sorted and dropped off laundry. Went to the dog run so Snick could play with an old girlfriend. Managed a few Shiba things here and there. Completed and filed my state and federal income taxes.

Why does that not sound like enough for one day?

I’ve been busy. OK? Just busy, that’s all. Here’s a quick recap of what I’ve been up to since my pre-cocktail pawty post.

And that’s just the stuff I can remember off the top of my head!

A few days ago, I logged into Meebo and found this message waiting for me:

[12:45] Bibby: Hi, I have been enjoying Snickers Blog for a while. I have a Black and Tan Shiba called Lily, she is 5 months old and we just started puppy classes. Shibas are a new breed to me, I had big dogs in the past. i am amazed everyday how intelligent and brave my little dog is and often forget how young she is. I have also enjoyed the links on to other sites, especially about Shibas escaping, we laughed as Lily could not be held in a puppy pen and baby gates only slowed her for a few days.

[12:45] Bibby: look forward to your new piece

I just want to say "thanks Bibby! you made my day." I know I have a lot of lurkers, because I can see all sort of stats on the hits on my blog each day. It’s nice and fun to get a note now and then though.

Yes, I am certifiably insane.

People ask me sometimes how I deal with the whole single mom with two dogs and two jobs thing all whilst living in midtown Manhattan. I usually shrug and go “eh, it’s not so bad,” meanwhile knowing it probably isn’t normal that I (1) almost never sleep more than 6 hours a night, (2) haven’t had time to sit down and read a book in several years, and (3) only take vacation time from my real job when I need to do something for Miss ~T~, catch up on my freelance work, or clean my apartment. Oh, and have I mentioned that I’m also the treasurer for my local, private dog run and the organizer for the NYC Shiba Inu meetup group?

So… that said, I suddenly decided about six weeks ago that it would be fun to have one of my Shiba meetups be a "canine cocktails" event.

Ahem. Yeah, right. Me and my SIMPLE ideas.

On Tuesday, March 20, at 7pm, the NYC Shiba Inus are hosting EIGHTY PEOPLE - yes, that’s 80 people - at a fund raiser for Animal Haven Soho. If you google canine cocktail pawty, you’ll get an idea why so many people have bought tickets already. Plus, this doesn’t show up in Google yet, but we were featured on a FULL PAGE in Time Out New York! How awesome is that? (It looks better in print.)

If it goes well, which it seems that it will, it may become a regular event. It has its own website and I may even have a corporate sponsor lined up for next time! (More on that if it pans out.)

Anyway, wish me luck. I’ll be taking a LOOOONNNNG NAP when this is all over.

If you live in the city and you don’t go to the flea market, you don’t know what you are missing. You really should check it out.

First, there is Chuck. He makes benches, stools, and desks from reclaimed wood and they are incredible. I bought one - custom made to the size I needed and stained the color I wanted - 6 or 8 months ago and I just love it. He and his wife Jeannie are very sweet people; Snickers likes to visit with them every Saturday morning.

I recently bought a vintage, black leather coat (part of the kinky outfit actually) for only $20. Seriously. It was going to be $25, but the merchant didn’t have change for my two twenties and gave it to me for $20. Miss ~T~ has purchased more than a few adorable handbags from our favorite merchant of all time - Judith Adler - and I got another REALLY awesome leather jacket from her for a price too low to be disclosed!

Oh, AND, the best deal so far? I got these awesome, red LEATHER chairs at the flea market a few weeks ago for only $125. No, not each. $125 for the pair!!! Can you believe that? They are in amazing condition and they are very comfortable too. Almost too good to be true!

Periodically, on my way to work, I see a woman walking two older dogs, I think one is a Yorkie and the other, a Maltese. I don’t know how often I pass her - maybe not so often - but periodically for over 3 1/2 years is enough to have a sense of recognition. I hadn’t seen her for quite awhile actually and then a week or two ago, I passed her and she only had one dog. I thought “oh. oh no.”

This morning, I saw her again. I was already running a few minutes late for work, but there she was, walking one cute little old dog (the Yorkie) I walked up to her and explained that I see her walking her dogs every now and again and I noticed she only had one with her that last couple times I saw her. I asked “Did he… ?”

She said yes, he was killed by a cab just a block from where we were standing. She was waiting at the corner for the pedestrian light about 6 months ago and a cab turned the corner cutting really close in front of her. He killed one dog and sent her and the other dog to the ER and the vet. We talked for a few more minutes about how she was dealing with it, her remaining dog, etc. I told her I was really sorry and then I went to work.

I’ve had close calls with cabs myself. They don’t see dogs that are low to the ground and they cut SO CLOSE to pedestrians. I saw a cab run over a woman’s foot one day outside the Port Authority! There is one intersection near my apartment where the cabs just WHIP around the corner and Snickers has almost been hit twice as we’ve started to cross the street and had a cab cut in front of us.

Walking dogs in the city can be a real challenge with the traffic, the crowds, people pulling out of parking garages without looking, construction sites, electrified grates, etc.

This woman seemed like such a nice lady and her remaining dog was so sweet and well-behaved. I just feel terrible that that happened to them.

Check out the box in the sidebar… to the right and down a bit. The gray box that says “chat with me.” YES, that one!

Well, what are you waiting for? If it says I’m online, then SAY HELLO!!!

When your girlfriend gives you a compliment… she’s possibly biased (and may have ulterior motives).

When your straight male friend gives you a compliment… he almost certainly has an ulterior motive.

But… when your GAY MALE FRIEND gives you a compliment, you can bank on it.

Actual conversation, earlier today:

him: What wonderfully kinky outfit!
me: Why thank you!
him: It’s a shame that doesn’t turn me on.
me: Well, at least I know that’s no fault of mine.

Yes, I walked home with a little extra spring in my step today.

I’m writing a silly post because I’ve been very emotional about Snickers the last few days. I’ve realized he’s really my “heart dog” (a phrase I found ridiculous until recently, btw) and I can’t bear the thought of what I’ll do without him when eventually leaves me. Tonight, a friend sent an email to Shiba-L about finding out her elderly male Shiba has an enlarged liver and spleen - possibly cancerous - and I’ve been teary and sniffly ever since.

So, on to the silliness… this weekend my NYC Shiba Inu Meetup group wore their bandanas for the first time. They were custom made for us by Barb at bandanamania and they ROCK. If you need pet bandanas for any group or occasion - or even just for a single dog - she is the woman to talk to.

Well, I was planning on coming up with a whole new template, but it just seemed easier to sort of graft the old stylesheet onto Wordpress and be done with it. I’m about half done. Give me another day or so and things might be looking good.

Well, as you can see, my blog LOOKS horrible. <sigh> However, looks can be deceiving. I actually was able to get into the old Movable Type installation on the server that blew up and export the old blog. I spent the better part of today configuring a new installation of WordPress (over and over and over) until it would publish my old entries and categories to the same "permalinks" that the old blog used. Once I’m done getting the functionality right, I’ll make it pretty again. I promise!

This past weekend, everything came crashing down. Email stopped working, websites disappeared. Hours later I finally found out that the company where one of my hosting company’s server was stored went out of business and the plug was pulled on the servers. I spent the last three days helping move domains - websites, email, applications, databases - and restoring data from a two week old backup. I haven’t had time to look at my own applications yet. I grabbed the flat files for my blog, added the latest entries below from the Google Desktop cache (I HEART GOOGLE), and kept working on client stuff. So, for now, no blog. The old files are here, but they aren’t connected to anything - no application, no way to comment, add real entries, change formatting, etc. The worst part is that I was planning to port the whole thing to WordPress, but now I have no way to export the old blog into a format the new software can understand. <sigh> It might be salvagable, but I haven’t had time to look at it yet. In the meantime, I keep wanting to blog, but I can’t. Therefore, for now, I’m going to just edit this page by hand. Most of you know my email address, so you can still comment privately if you want to.

Oh, and get this! I got my first hate mail today. It wasn’t in response to the blog directly; it was from a mailing list that I’m on, but it said, among other things: "…proclaiming yourself an expert on everything because why? you have a dog." and "…in your Shiba meetup group and your navel gazing blog…" I guess you can’t please everyone all the time. Good thing pleasing strangers isn’t my mission in life!!!  ;)  I am kind of flattered that she clicked over and read the blog though.

PS… isn’t "naval gazing blog" redundant?

• I’m porting the blog to WordPress and redesigning the templates sometime in the next couple months. Fun fun.
• I received some photos last week from a high school reunion that was held this summer. (I’ve never made it home for one.) I’m sad to say I only managed to recognize 4 people out of about 40.
• WATER, IT DOES THE BODY GOOD!
• Snickers is scheduled to take his AKC Canine Good Citizen test on October 24. We have some work to do between now and then.
• Did someone shorten the days to less than 1,440 minutes each and not tell me about it? Lately, I can’t seem to keep up with everything that has to get done in one day.
• A neighborhood friend gave Benedict some dog food for Kaos a couple days ago.
• Why do tourists insist on trying to flag down cabs that are occupied???
• ~T~ is getting a Sidekick. She’s paying for it herself from savings. WOW!

This is ridiculous. Black Jack, Missouri has a city ordinance that prohibits more than three people from living together in the same house if they are unrelated by blood, marriage or adoption. Wait… did I read that right? I did. WTF??? From Reuters:

Olivia Shelltrack and Fondray Loving and their children moved from Minnesota to Missouri earlier this year, buying a five-bedroom home in the tiny community outside St. Louis.

Shelltrack and Loving have lived together about 13 years and have two children together, along with a 15-year-old daughter of Shelltrack’s from a previous relationship.

Black Jack, a town of about 7,000 that prides itself on a city Web site for its "character and stability," refused to grant the couple and their children an occupancy permit for their home because they do not meet the definition of "family" as set forth by the city, the complaint alleges.

The full story is here and here.

Putting aside for the moment the complete obnoxiousness of legislating who can live together, I have a couple questions…

1. Don’t they meet the criteria anyway? The dad is related to two of the kids. The mom is related to three of the kids. All of the kids are related to each other. There’s no way you can pull three people out of the group and not have at least two of them be related to each other by blood.
2. If that isn’t enough, my next question is… why is this couple not considered to be related? I don’t know about elsewhere, but the family court in New York State considers you to be family if you are "related by blood, marriage, or child in common." They have two kids together! That makes them family.

It just makes me crazy that this family that has been together for THIRTEEN YEARS is being told they aren’t "family" when I’m sure there are plenty people in that town that fit their narrow definition of family but aren’t nearly as stable!!!

(PS Don’t miss out on the blog birthday party going on in the previous post. Everyone is invited!)

This blog is two years old today. I posted two entries on August 11, 2004. One was a picture of Snickers (of course). It was titled What A Handsome Puppy and I was so happy to get a comment on my first post! The second was A Few Other Photos From Saturday and two people commented on it also. (I started off thinking this would be a photoblog, but ended up with just the “blog” without the “photo.”)

First, I have to say, I hate the name nycgadgetgirl’s mental ramblings, but I think I’m stuck with it now. I really didn’t expect to be doing this for so long and I didn’t put any thought into the name when I started (obviously). Second, I want to say that I have met (virtually and in person) some very cool people through blogging. So, thanks to everyone that visits, comments, emails, and even lurks. This is fun!
Now, I have a favor to ask - for my blog, of course, not for myself - can we have a birthday party in the comments? Come on… everyone say something witty or silly and make my blog’s day special!

This is very cool. Scientists are using x-rays of fossils to piece together full images of what prehistoric organisms looked like and how they developed!

Paleontologists have been using acid to dissolve the embryo fossils out of rocks for about a decade, focusing on specimens from the time about 500 million years ago when multicellular animals began to proliferate. Tons of rock must be dissolved to retrieve a few hundred embryos, none of which are more than a fraction of a millimeter across.

Until now, Donoghue said, the specimens have mostly been treated as "curios of fossilization."

Using the new technique, he and his colleagues have been able to create cutaways, cross-sections and, by stringing together images of embryos at different stages of development, virtual time-lapse sequences of the animals’ metamorphosis.

The rest of the story can be found here.

One question though, for the people who don’t believe in evolution (not that anyone like that would be reading my blog, so this is rhetorical I guess)… if God snapped his fingers and “creation” started with the Garden of Eden, why did he plant all this evidence to the contrary? To confuse us? To keep us busy? What?

Seriously… I don’t know what’s happening with me, but I’m apparently getting stoopider as time goes by. Examples:

• I lose words with alarming regularity these days. I’ll be in mid-conversation with someone and just LOSE the word I need to finish my thought. Sometimes I have to resort to a thesaurus to get my thoughts back on track.
• I forget things CONSTANTLY. Until recently, I simply blamed this on having become increasingly dependent on my computer to remember things for me, but it’s getting where I feel like I’m disconnected from my brain if I can’t reach Google and Google Desktop.
• Last, but not least, I took one of those online IQ test thingies a few days ago and it reported my IQ as about 25 points lower* than it should have. Not that those things are completely accurate, but a few years ago I could take those play tests and get every single question right. I didn’t even finish this one within the time limit!

*Still above average, thank you, but definitely unacceptable.

The last thing I EVER thought I would do is put a YouTube video on my blog, but you must see this.

It seems that I’m always tagging something… tagging my blog posts, tagging my gmail, tagging, tagging, tagging. So, I decided to tag myself - not in the descriptive adjective sense, more in the "roles I play in life" sense. So, imagine if you will, that there is a virtual tag cloud above my head wherever I go. This is what it would say:

single mom, new yorker, responsible urban dog owner, geek, Shiba Inu enthusiast, freelancer, sister, daughter, friend, blogger, ODP editor, meetup organizer, reluctant employee, tenant, pedestrian, volunteer

I’m sure there are more, but that’s off the top of my head.

No no, not a yurt shaped like a pentagon!

This morning I was thinking about yurts again. (For those of you that are relatively new to my blog, I do that occasionally.) The new train of thought started at the dog run a few evenings ago. An acquaintance was talking about buying land upstate and building a cabin. I said build a yurt!!!

That got me thinking about the fact that I may never live in a yurt because I may never actually leave New York. My NYC dream used to be to build a house on top of a building. A little house with a white picket fence and a yard. That’s what a real penthouse is, you know… a house built on a roof. I’ve only been in one real penthouse so far, but it was quite nifty. Anyway… I’ve combined the old dream and the new dream and now I want to build a YURT on top of a building in NYC.

Now, I just need to be wealthy enough to buy some good roof rights and then have a yurt made out of some sort of sound blocking material. Cool.

PS I’ll let go of the Alpaca idea if I go with the pentyurt.

Israel
Without a television, I’m free to form my own opinions about world affairs and seek out news without having the networks feed me whatever their particular slant on current affairs and world politics may be.

Over the past year or so, reading personal blogs such as Treppenwitz has helped me finally begin to grasp the situation in Israel. It has finally become more to me than a distant place with connections to ancient history. With the war that’s going on now though, I almost wish I did have a television to tell me what to think. In the midst of all the different opinions and emotions that I hear and read (including the complaints of my not-very-Jewish Jewish friends that say they are "embarrassed" by Israel’s handling of the situation), I can’t seem to digest enough information to decide what my opinion should be.

Lebanon
I haven’t been able to process it all yet, but I just started reading this enlightening and well written blog, Reading While Falling.

China
A friend of mine here in the city won’t buy ANYTHING made in China (no matter how much work it is for her to find an alternative) because of their history of human rights abuse. Someone very important to me owns (and depends on) a business that is failing because it is losing so much work to China. Who can compete with their prices… their unfair advantage gained by mistreating their workers? And now Lachan links to a news article about the Chinese combatting rabies, not by vaccinating, but by BEATING DOGS TO DEATH.

Meanwhile in the US
Yesterday, Kevin said (in reference to his brother being in Beirut) "it all just seems like bullsh*t now." That really hit home. I remember having that exact emotion for days, weeks, MONTHS after Sept 11. For so many New Yorkers, everything that didn’t involve sorrow seemed ridiculously trivial. Life would never be the same. Laughter and lightheartedness were distant memories, never to resurface. But, five years later, I’m posting inane drivel about my dog. Lighthearted moments come easily. Life really isn’t the same, but pleasure does not necessarily bring guilt.

How the human race survives, creates art, laughs, loves and enjoys life when so much is wrong in the world is beyond me, but clearly we have an instinctive ability to put away the painful memories and move on. Now, if we could just figure out how to learn from our mistakes. <sigh>

My heart aches for everyone affected by the wars and horrors going on around the world tonight.

Walking to work this morning, people everywhere moving to and fro, heat coming from every direction. Like walking through a wok. We’re all just stir fry.

Ami did it. Besides, it only takes one click.

Your Personality Profile

You are dignified, spiritual, and wise. Always unsatisfied, you constantly try to better yourself. You are also a seeker of knowledge and often buried in books. You tend to be philosophical, looking for the big picture in life. You dream of inner peace for yourself, your friends, and the world. A good friend, you always give of yourself first.

Some of that is certainly true some of the time. I’d have to say "Always unsatisfied" is 100% accurate, 100% of the time.

Posts are blooming in my head again. I like that.

Here’s a bit of what I’ve been up to since my last post:

1. enjoying having my apartment (and life) to myself all summer
2. missing my daughter (which goes hand in hand with #1, unfortunately)
3. sleeping late with my snuggly doggie every morning (cz I don’t have to factor ~T~ getting ready for school into my morning routine)
4. working (I know, boo hiss, but someone has to do it)
5. returning to the Open Directory Project, where I was a volunteer editor in 1999/2000
6. completely rearranging and redecorating my bedroom (and wow, I love it!)
7. giving away NINE BOXES of stuff to the local senior center, and, lastly…
8. watching movies and avoiding the heat with my sister when she came to visit last weekend

I have a lot of reading to catch up on as I haven’t been keeping up with my friends in the blogosphere lately. I’ll be seeing ya sooner rather than later!

I want to be able to write while I walk. Seriously. Almost every morning on the walk to work, I think of something I want to write about. It’s a 10 to 15 minute walk. I could get a lot of writing done if I could actually walk and write.

I’ve joked for years about how I’ll be the first volunteer in line when they start testing human-embedded processors. I need a way to THINK into my computer. When I don’t have my laptop with me, I have my Palm AND my USB stick. If I could get my thoughts onto one of them, that would be a great first step. Next step would be to access the Internet mentally, so I could research things and upload what I write, ALL WHILE I’M WALKING.

Another thing that makes me crazy, besides that walk to work, is the bedtime walk with Snickers. We walk at least a mile every night, usually closer to 1 1/2 miles. I don’t blog mentally at night, like I do on the way to work in the AM. But I think a lot. Usually about conversations I need/want to have with people. For the people I can text, that works fine. I’ve perfected the art of texting while I walk Snick. LOL… actually, my best friend told me a few weeks ago that his girlfriend commented on the fact that I have text conversations with him late at night. I was like "what difference does it make what time it is?" (He’s a night owl like me anyway.) He said she thought I was thinking about him when I get into bed at night! I thought that was too funny. I said "You know I usually text you when I walk the dog, right?" He looked kind of disappointed… I think maybe it was him, not his girlfriend, that had the idea about when I’m thinking of him.

Anyway, back on topic, if anyone can figure out how I can walk and write, that would be great. I’d be able to blog more! The digital recorder thing won’t work - I tried it briefly and there is too much background noise for the software to pick up and translate what I say.

After commenting over at Janet’s a few days ago that I’d fallen way behind on my blog reading lately, she wrote me back and just said “it’s called life :-)”

Well, she’s right.

Perusing my own blog tonight, I realized that I haven’t had much to say lately and when I have, it hasn’t been as interesting (to me at least) as posts of the past. I mentioned a few weeks ago that I was doing some thinking. The result of that time spent thinking is that I have a couple projects going on in my life that are about (1) ME and (2) ME!

Seriously, this introspection was mostly prompted by a conversation with someone incredibly important to me. I found myself apologizing to him for not making time for him and it really hit home when I thought about what I was saying. Here was someone I truly love and when I had the opportunity to show him how important he was to me, I mostly took him for granted and pushed him away. So, I’ve realized that I spend WAY too much time working and doing things for other people and not enough time for myself and the people closest to me. I am changing that by undertaking a couple of self-improvement-type things for myself, resigning from a volunteer position, limiting the number of freelance projects that I work on consecutively, and making time and space in my life for my loved ones.

You would think blogging falls into the “for me” category and it MOSTLY does, because I started the blog for my own enjoyment and I mostly write for my own enjoyment. BUT sometimes I write because I feel like now that I have this great group of readers, I have to write or I’ll lose them. So, knowing that, and realizing that I need to spend less time at the computer if I’m going to actually obey my new rule to cut down on my work time, I’ve decided to become more of a weekend blogger. Maybe I should say “officially become” as I’ve sort of been weekends only for the past few weeks anyway. I think _saying_ that’s what I’m doing, and why, is important though.

So, that’s the scoop. I know those of you that have me in your feed readers will wander by when I post. I hope the rest of you will check by periodically and comment. I’ll still be reading and commenting on my favorite reads, but probably only once or twice a week. When I’m not in the blogosphere, I’ll be working on me, making room for the new, and spending time with the people I love. Because, you know, it’s called life.

Well… I am pretty sure I have the dubious honor of being the first attendee to get HOME from TequilaCon.

I called my friend lulu at about 7:00 tonight and told her I didn’t want to go because I would end up staying out too late and drinking too much and then I would sleep late tomorrow and feel crap and my whole day would be down the drain. At first, she said “well don’t go then” and then I told her WHAT it was that I was not going to and she was like “you should go, you have to go,” so I went and I took her with me! We made a deal that we’d only stay till 10:00 and that way we’d wouldn’t trash our day tomorrow.

I started getting a headache before I got there and by the time I’d had one drink I felt like my head would explode. I almost left, but good ol’ lulu wouldn’t have it. We’d agreed we’d stay till 10:00 and that’s what we did. We actually stayed a little later. I’m really glad too because it turned out to be fun and my headache eventually went away.

Jen is as charming in person as I assumed she’d be from reading her blog. I met Sandra when I first got there, but didn’t see her again later after the headache subsided and I was feeling more social. I met Brandon, who seemed just wonderful and I wish I’d spent more time talking to him. I do need to try his headache cure sometime. I met Leslie who said "I have a dog" and made me feel totally comfortable and ready to enjoy myself. I met one person who was introduced to me by her blog name “true blue” but I don’t know her blog address or real name and I also had a great conversation with her husband who was very, very nice but I only know him as “true blue’s husband.” There were two other people I met and liked but don’t know their names. AUGH! I am terrible with names, so if you’re reading this, I’m sorry I forgot your name.

My one regret is that I saw Sarah out of the corner of my eye as I was leaving, but didn’t get a chance to say hello. I was looking forward to meeting her. I coulda/shoulda stopped, but in my head I was thinking “we said we were leaving at 10, we said we were leaving at 10.” *sigh* I can’t seem to get these things right. I know there must be a balance somewhere where I can go out and have fun without staying too late or leaving too early.

I’m determined to be happy that I went instead of angry with myself that I didn’t stay and meet more people. I almost didn’t go, but I’m glad I did and THAT is a good thing. I will get to know them online and, who knows, maybe I’ll go to TequilaCon 2007! I’ve never been to Seattle*.

So… anyway, there will certainly be some much more interesting posts about TequilaCon 2006, you know, from people who stayed awhile, met more folks, had more fun and drank more drinks.

*There’s a rumor going around that it may be in Seattle next year.

I recently received an email from Jen over at Run Jen Run, inviting me to join the fun at TequilaCon 2006. Those of you who know me in real life will be amazed to know that I said…. *drum roll*… YES.

Group social things are just not, well, my THING. Something about being alone in a crowd has always freaked me out. It’s strange because I’m fine if I’m in FRONT of a crowd. Being the center of attention? Fine. Public speaking? No problem. Making small talk with a group of people I don’t know? Forget about it! It’s like I have this odd shrinking violet recessive gene or something.

However, amidst my recent introspection, I’ve come to realize this is an important part of expanding my social circle so when the invitation arose, who was I to say no? Besides, people are coming in NY from all over the country for this thing and it is less than a dozen blocks from my apartment! It’d be pretty lame not to go.

So, this post serves two purposes: (1) makes my intent to attend public, so I can’t back out, and (2) serves as an open invitation to any fellow bloggers that want to join us!

If my blog had background sounds, that’s what you would hear every time you’ve checked here for the past week… busy signals.

I had a very emotional Saturday/Sunday/Monday last weekend and a few days of introspection after that. Yesterday and today? TOTALLY BUSY. Tomorrow I have a little down time though. I wrote a LOT during the introspective days, but nothing that can go on the blog (although some of it did go to someone by email). Lucky guy.

I’ve been afraid to post anything new today because I don’t want to take away from the fabulous discussion that’s been going on in my last post. Therefore, here’s a quickie…

1) Gravatars are cool. Everyone should go get one.

2) Now go read my last post and add your two cents if you haven’t already!

I spent a few hours at a client’s office today, updating computers and fixing minor problems. He told me to go back to college. He’s an executive coach and a pretty smart guy, so I said “OK,” and filled out a readmission application for CUNY tonight.

How am I going to find time for THAT???? :-O

• some of my favorite bloggers write so much that I can’t keep up in the little bit of time I have to read. I end up staying up-to-date on the short blogs and never having time for the meaty ones!
• I have a BAJILLION drafts where I thought of a great post while I was walking to or from work, wrote a couple notes, and then never got back to it
• I work too much. I’d rather spend more time training the dog, writing in the blog, and reading books with ~T~
• speaking of ~T~, I think she’s giving up on the blogging thing. one more short-lived hobby down the drain. I wonder when she’ll find her “thing” but she’s young yet, so it’s all good
• I have a huge to do list in Life Balance right now that is keeping me from writing much, but I’m still around, reading, and commenting when I can
• if I could get some SLEEP it would help. the building across the street installed these massive floodlights last week and now it is so bright in my room that I can’t sleep (and that’s with the winter curtains drawn)!
• the trackback spam is killing me. I need to upgrade MT, but I have to move to a different server first and I’m dreading my blog getting all screwed up
• oh. hmmmm…. ~T~ left for spring break today. maybe I will catch up on some things. but I miss her. so does Snick. he’s asleep in her room right now. she left her iTunes playing and it’s starting to bug me.

As ~T~ would say… THAT WAS RANDOM!

I’m just busy, busy, busy these days! I hope I’ll still have some readers when I get back to blogging more than random comments and links.

Speaking of links, wanna see a CUTE Shiba Inu? Check out Kishi’s Run for the Money, his siblings and his other pack members.

Six posts that have made me laugh, cry, and/or think over the past months:

• pretending not to notice: csi: dan’s room
• Treppenwitz: Daddy Syndrome
• Because I Say So!: Cornered (notice: sadness warning)
• Words For My Enjoyment: The WFME Holiday Party
• SpriteBoy: Social Crucifixion on the Subway (an old post, but I only just read it)
• Blogography: Choice

Coincidentally, when I went out to walk Snickers last night, the RealFeel temp was EIGHT BELOW! Seriously.

Anyhoo…

My mom emailed me last night and said I have to see this movie, Eight Below. At first I couldn’t place it, so I looked it up on imdb. That jogged my memory. I saw a trailer for this when I went to see Good Night, And Good Luck. My reaction when I saw the trailer was "Ooh! It has dogs in it! :)" and then "oh, what a hokey looking movie. :(" What’s with the big Barnum & Bailey-ish tag line "The Most Amazing Story Of Survival, Friendship, And Adventure Ever Told" (emphasis mine)???

Other than the cute dogs, I wasn’t much interested. However, my mom liked it, so I checked out a longer trailer online. This looks like a good movie. The thing is… I started CRYING about halfway through watching the trailer. How can I see this movie without bawling? ~T~ says I’m a wimp. I dunno. We’ll see.

Oh my word. Who SAYS Valentines Day was created by Hallmark and FTD? If only I had known the truth all these years, I might have been celebrating Valentines Day after all!

Someone just sent me a link to the real history of VDay. Here are some excerpts:

The original, that is. Before it was called Valentine’s Day, back when it was called Lupercalia, a big Roman festival in honor of the fertility god Lupercus, before the ever-scowlin’ church got a hold of this ancient and rather odd and blood-pumped Roman lust-fest, co-opted it and de-sexed it stripped it of its more salacious and admittedly libertine joys, as the church is so tragically wont to do.

and then…

Then came the sex lottery. Oh yes. Say it like you mean it. Pretty much only have to say the words, “sex lottery,” and already you’re like, damn, count me in, sure beats dinner and a movie.

and a last tidbit…

Which is exactly as it should be. Which is exactly how we still, without even realizing it, manage to recall our delicious Lupercalia, take a big lick of ye olde pagan ways, regardless of everpresent churchly frowning and ‘Be Mine’ twittering and chubby Cupid chinz. Deep earthly sex and hoary gods and fertile lust and voluminous feasts of meat and wine? You’re soaking in it.

Peaked your interest, huh? I didn’t even excerpt the best parts! Well, here’s the whole thing. You gotta read it. (Except you ~T~. You don’t read it for another 4 or 5 years, k? Thanks.)

I think I’m about to take another self-imposed hiatus from the blogworld… at least for a few days. I haven’t been able to keep up with reading my favorite blogs, which drives me crazy.

So… I’m going to spend the next few days trying to catch up on my client work (again) and my apartment cleaning (again) and then maybe I’ll be readin’ and writin’ again.

OK, so my sister thinks we should buy Alpacas to roam around on the land she is buying (where I am fantasizing about building a yurt). How cute are these things???

The other night she pasted the following into IM from the site she was reading:

• Alpacas are never bathed, and they still have no odor. Alpacas dung doesn’t even have an odor.

This seemed too good to be true, but THEN she said:

• They also tend to all poop in the same spot in the pasture/paddock, making it easy to clean up after them.

And followed that up with another copy/paste:

• Alpacas are not aggressive animals, they are easy to raise, very hardy and require minimal shelter. They are earth friendly animals with clean habits and a wonderful natural curiosity. Alpacas make a variety of sounds such as clicks and snorts but are best known and loved for their humming.

Add all that to the fact that she told me a week or so ago that they have soft padded feet (instead of hooves) and I have a hard time believing these animals are REAL.

So, if I eventually live in a yurt, maybe I’ll get an Alpaca. hee hee

Alpaca photo borrowed from alpacainfo.com.

… but I couldn’t help myself. I saw this blogthing on Janet’s site and had to try it. For something so simple, the results came out pretty darn accurate.

The Five Factor Personality Test

Extroversion:
You have low extroversion.
 You are quiet and reserved in most social situations.
 A low key, laid back lifestyle is important to you.
 You tend to bond slowly, over time, with one or two people.

Conscientiousness:
 You have high conscientiousness.
 Intelligent and reliable, you tend to succeed in life.
 Most things in your life are organized and planned well.
 But you borderline on being a total perfectionist.

Agreeableness:
 You have medium agreeableness.
 You’re generally a friendly and trusting person.
 But you also have a healthy dose of cynicism.
 You get along well with others, as long as they play fair.

Neuroticism:
 You have low neuroticism.
 You are very emotionally stable and mentally together.
 Only the greatest setbacks upset you, and you bounce back quickly.
 Overall, you are typically calm and relaxed - making others feel secure.

Openness to experience:
 Your openness to new experiences is medium.
 You are generally broad minded when it come to new things.
 But if something crosses a moral line, there’s no way you’ll approve of it.
 You are suspicious of anything too wacky, though you do still consider creativity a virtue.

I find it slightly humorous that I only “have medium agreeableness.”

Back in September, I stumbled across a nifty way of tracking what you eat no matter what type of diet you follow - The LifeStyle Scanner. At the time, the service was “coming soon.” I checked again today and I see that it is up and running. I was thinking of trying it both for myself (low carb diet) and for my daughter (eats too many empty calories and no veggies), but their website doesn’t say how much the service COSTS. In their FAQ and on their pricing page it just says “The LifeStyle Management System^TM has a low monthly fee. With your subscription you will receive a LifeStyle Scanner^TM valued at over $100.00.” You have to SIGN UP (meaning give them your email address) before you can even find out the cost. Seeing as how I noticed a couple typos on their site, I don’t have enough confidence in them to sign up without knowing more. Hopefully, they’ll add the price and other info to their site eventually, because I think I’d like to give it a test run.

The firm I work for recently got engaged on a big deal. The CEO called an all hands meeting in the conference room to give us a pep talk about all the long hours we’re about to be working. He drew a great analogy. Forgive me if you’ve heard this; I think he made it up. Either way, I loved it. He said "If you go out in a rowboat fishing for whale, when you catch one you’d better hold on tight and hope you can keep the boat afloat."

You know how events can pile on top of one another and you just get so fed up with everything? Losing your cool - ranting, screaming, and hitting things - can sometimes make you feel so much better. I’ve had moments like that building lately, but haven’t quite lost it. Yet.

Well, Jack lost it yesterday and by the time I finished reading HIS rant, I felt better!

IM conversation with a coworker this afternoon.

[17:05] me: ohhhhhhhhhhhhhh. she’s from So Cal. That explains the extreme (fake) blondness
[17:06] he: she was missing something
[17:06] he: two things
[17:06] he: actually
[17:06] me: LOL
[17:06] me: maybe she hasn’t lived there very long. she’ll get them eventually.
[17:06] he: thats what i’m think’n too

I know, I know. You don’t have to tell me.

OK, no, I really don’t know. But I’m guessing. Some of you that have been reading me for awhile probably think I jumped the shark sometime in the past couple months. I hope you’re wrong. (Or I hope I’m wrong that you’re thinking that and you’re right not to be thinking it.    Or something.)

Anyhoo… Maybe I have been posting mostly misc junk lately. And Snickers posts. But he’s not fluff (or fluffy either for that matter). dammit! Don’t say that! I mean, um…

where was I?

Oh, yeah. After reading many mentions on other blogs of site stats and search words and popular posts, etc. I was finally curious enough last night to set up Site Meter. Wow. A LOT more people read my blog than I would have thought. WHO KNEW?!? (Obviously not me.) (And, um, why haven’t you lurker types been commenting and frapprizing me? Don’t you want to make me happy by saying hello?)

I also learned a couple things in this first 24 hours of having stats about how the transitory visitors find me. First and foremost, are the Shiba searches, so I’m going to keep on babbling about Snick and how wonderful he is. (hee hee! I have an excuse. I have an excuse!) Secondly, were the “how to” searches that turned up some of my tech and gadget posts. I know more about that stuff than I have been posting, so I’m going to try to write more there.

So, that’s that. I haven’t jumped and I’m going to try for more bloggin more better. I hope. Keep reading. I love you guys! Really!!!

The Conversation

Her (w/Jamaican accent): You whistle like a man.

Me:   … oh, ok …(sudden extended silence) …  … wait.   HUH?

Her: I’ve never heard a woman whistle like that. I can hear you whistlin’ all over.

What the heck does that mean? Whistling ability is gender specific and mine is wrong? I’m really a guy in a girl’s body? Was there a POINT to that remark?

All the way home from work I’m thinking to myself “Have I ever heard another woman whistle the way I do? Or only men? Is there something WRONG with me?”

I loved listening to my dad whistle when I was a kid and now I do it. If I’m deep in thought, I may be whistling away and not even know it.

weird. Just weird.

I’m slipping down the slope into another bout of insomnia. This only happens to me every couple years or so, but when it does it is so miserable.

I finally get wound up around 1:00 or 2:00 in the afternoon. Then bedtime comes and I can’t sleep. I stay up late. I get in bed and still can’t sleep. Inevitably, I fall asleep an hour or two before I have to get up (alarm rings at 6:10 AM). Then I wake up late and make T late for school. I drag my ass into work and drink lots of coffee. Then I finally get fired up around 1:00 or 2:00 in the afternoon… etc, so forth and so on. Eventually, I get so tired that I never feel awake or motivated, but I still don’t get tired enough to go to sleep at night!

Sleep deprivation gives me terrible headaches. AND I’m allergic to Ambien. My doc prescribed it once about 6 years ago. It made me super happy when I first took it and I slept REALLY well for a couple nights, but then I had a reaction to it and had to stop.
That WHOLE post was just part of me filling time while I can’t sleep. Dumb, dumb, dumb. Snick’s even given up on me and gotten in bed with T.

OK. I’m at least going to go not sleep in the warm soft bed instead of not sleeping in front of the computer.

I wasn’t serious when I said Maybe I Will Live in a Yurt, but believe it or not I’m actually considering it now.

T & I have been thinking of leaving the city for a little while. (And, NO, I haven’t heard anything regarding the contract in Virginia.) One of the places we consider when we periodically discuss escape is Indianapolis, because my sister lives there. And we love her. Even though she never updates her blog. (hint hint)

So, she’s buying this house on a big piece of land. And I’m in need of some relaxation and a NEW JOB. And T wants to change schools. Maybe I will build a yurt on her land and we will live there for a couple years. When we move back to NYC, she will have a nifty guest house!

Of course, T said on her blog that she was “so not living in a yurt,” but she is changing her mind. We were designing circular floor plans a few days ago.

So, it COULD happen.

I should not be awake at this hour.

That is all.

Emailed in to work this morning and took a sick day. Decided to take Snick to the dog run before going back to bed though. The weather was gorgeous and there was a PACK of dogs there. Ex-boyfriend wandered by the run and hung out with us for awhile. That was nice. Till it wasn’t.

Came home. Took a four hour nap. Snick was snuggly, so he must have known I wasn’t feeling well.

All I heard from the recruiter in VA was that she didn’t know anything yet.

David over at Treppenwitz turned us onto this nifty video.

Got a call in the afternoon with a chance to meet potential new client, so hauled my @$$ outta my little funk and went to a meeting. Glad I did too!

Just took Snick out to play and visit with his friends again and now I have to go get T from a school function.

After I bring her home, I’m off to see Brokeback Mountain with a friend.

That’s it. Just another Friday.

As you know, T and I have been talking about moving out of the city for a bit. Yesterday I got an email - totally out of the blue - from a recruiter at an IT consulting firm (specializing in the financial services sector of all things) who is extremely interested in my resume in relation to a 1 year project management gig. And where is it? Richmond, Virginia. How crazy is that?

The job sounds right up my alley. Having compared the pay and cost of living between here and there, I’m guessing we’d have a comparable, but MORE RELAXING, standard of living. I’d be doing what I love 40+ hours a week too, which I can’t say about my current job. (I love my freelance work, but not my “real” job.)

Might go nowhere though. Talked with her by phone this afternoon and now I’m just waiting to see what her client thinks of my resume tomorrow. We’ll see…

While researching dog food for Snickers a few months ago, I ran across Flying Dog Press. The site belongs to a dog trainer (who, according to my sister, is quite well known, but I didn’t know that at the time). The trainer, Suzanne Clothier, wrote a book which was featured on the website. It sounded interesting. I bought it. I read it. I loved it.

I just finished reading this today and I plan to start re-reading it tomorrow. This is not a training book. It is about learning to listen to what your dog is saying to you.

In addition to having some great things to say about our relationships with our dogs, Suzanne Clothier has a great way of saying them. Her writing style is engaging and enjoyable. This may sound corny, but I have to say it… This book made me laugh, cry, and think.

Buy it. Read it. You’ll love it.

Let me know.

I didn’t even realize it had been a week since I’d posted. I’ve been crazy busy the last couple weeks. I’ve been so tired at night that I went THREE NIGHTS without even bringing my laptop home from the office!

A few random thoughts that might have turned into posts had I been online:

• A saw a pidgeon with a mohawk the other morning on the way to work.
• I got a “hi, I just read your blog” email from a blogger here in NY the other morning that made me smile for quite awhile.
• I never meet anyone that I am attracted to or remotely interested in. What’s up with THAT?

And that’s it for the moment. Gotta walk Snick Dog. I’ll be back.

I created a Gravatar for myself TEN DAYS ago and added the code to my site to show gravatars for commenters, but I am STILL waiting for my image to be rated/approved. I am annoyed, annoyed, and more annoyed.

Edited 12/31/2005: My gravatar was finally approved today, so I’m not AS annoyed as I was yesterday.

So, T and I are home from Indy. Until this week, it had been a LONG time since I’ve spent time away from the city, so I took a few notes:

• Left hand turns are inefficient, annoying, and dangerous.
• Women and girls outside NYC wear WAY too much makeup.
• Cab drivers are really excellent drivers compared to the majority of drivers on our interstate highways.
• Snickers is a great travel companion.
• Driving is a lot like riding a bicycle in that you never forget how to do it. Whenever I rent a car, I think that so many years living in the city will have somehow cancelled out all the years I spent glued into a car, but it just doesn’t happen.
• The non-metropolitan areas of our country seem to mostly be ugly clumps of strip centers, convenience stores, malls and build-by-number homes.
• Snow stays white and pretty till it melts out there where people don’t walk (and do other stuff) on it!

According to this article that I stumbled across after following a link from Jeru Guru’s blog, it is a “blog mistake” to “not stick to your theme for the majority of the entries in your blog.”

I’d guess that, other than that, I pretty much “follow the rules,” but do there really need to be rules? I started blogging for my own enjoyment and I keep doing it because I enjoy the interaction with other bloggers that I’ve come in contact with (even though I don’t have the kind of time I’d like to spend reading and writing).

So… are my blog posts too random? Does it matter? Do you have a blog theme that you stick to?

I got my work done. I got my work done! YAY!

(And I bought T’s Christmas gift today too. Sshhhh….)

I have to take a couple days off from blogging (both reading and writing). I have managed to fall behind on two of my freelance projects over the past week. I’ve barely slept the last two days. I’m about to get a solid 6 hours though. I’ll catch up on my work - and my sleep - over the next few days and my reward will be being able to get back to the blogosphere.

So… don’t leave me. I’ll be back!

To the 400+ pound guy that was waddling down the sidewalk this morning stuffing your face and dropping crumbs and other food bits all over yourself:

Can I just say…. EEWWWWW! And thanks for temporarily ruining my appetite for my second breakfast. (Luckily by the time breakfast was delivered, I was over it.)

[Edit: Oops. Make that yesterday morning. Didn't realize it's after midnight.]

1. My first driving lessons were in an empty parking lot in a ‘56 T-Bird.
2. I’ve been proposed to by five men in my life. I gave two of them a wrong answer.
3. My favorite movie of all time is The King and I with Yul Brynner. I saw him in the stage version in Memphis when I was a kid. I don’t really remember details from that though - just his overwhelming stage presence.
4. If there were such a thing as technopaths, I’d be one. Technology just seems to "work" around me (much to the chagrin of people who call me for help and then can’t replicate the problem they were having).
5. Most people say my southern accent is faint… unless I’m very tired. Or intoxicated.
6. My (now ex-)husband and I once had the unique experience of standing completely alone in a still and quiet Times Square. It was about 2:00 AM the second night of the 1996 blizzard. (We lived 1/2 block off Broadway at the time.)
7. I am disatisfied with the current balance between security and freedom in my life. I’m working on it.
8. I have to eat 5 or 6 times a day or I’m miserably hungry.
9. My autobiography title would be I Ran Screaming From the South.
10. I haven’t had a television for almost 3 years. All I really miss is Law & Order.
11. Daniel Boone’s brother Israel was my great, great, great, great grandfather.
12. I’m a mutt of mixed descent, but part of the Clarke Sept of Clan Cameron via my Scot ancestors.
13. The best job I ever had barely paid minimum wage.
14. The highest paying job I ever had almost sapped the life out of me.
15. I’m finding it very difficult to come up with 27 things for this list!
16. Of the hotels I have stayed in, my favorite is the Carlton Hotel in Cannes.
17. My favorite number is 27.
18. My favorite color is purple.
19. As an adult, I’ve lived on both coasts, but never in flyover country.
20. My favorite singer at the moment is Rachael Yamagata.
21. The first show I ever saw on Broadway was A Chorus Line. My sister took me on what was scheduled to be the last weekend, but then they extended for another two or three weeks due to demand.
22. I suffer from sleep deprivation more often than not (and this blog isn’t helping).
23. I hate beer and only tolerate some wines. I’m a whiskey girl - especially Scotch.
24. I do not enjoy parties or other crowded social functions at all and will do almost anything to avoid them.
25. I have no fear whatsoever of public speaking. (Apparently crowds don’t bother me if I’m the center of attention.)
26. I’m quite musically inclined, but never did anything special with it (unless you count being voted Most Musical in High School, which I don’t).
27. I am SO HAPPY that I finished this list!!!

Playing with Google Earth today - “flying” from place to place that I’ve placemarked (home, dog run, where T is right now, work, my folks house, my sis, etc.) - reminded me of A Pale Blue Dot by Carl Sagan. Rereading it just now, it seemed so on point regarding so many discussions going on in the blogosphere about war, politics, religion and more.

Here’s the excerpt that I have printed out and lying around to reread occasionally.

Look again at that dot. That’s here. That’s home. That’s us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every “superstar,” every “supreme leader,” every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there-on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.

The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that, in glory and triumph, they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot. Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of this pixel on the scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner, how frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill one another, how fervent their hatreds.

Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the Universe, are challenged by this point of pale light. Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity, in all this vastness, there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves.

The Earth is the only world known so far to harbor life. There is nowhere else, at least in the near future, to which our species could migrate. Visit, yes. Settle, not yet. Like it or not, for the moment the Earth is where we make our stand.

It has been said that astronomy is a humbling and character-building experience. There is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another, and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we’ve ever known.

-Carl Sagan, Pale Blue Dot, 1994

One of these days, I’m going to start writing the religion/theology/morality/political posts that are bouncing around in my head. My feelings about all of these things are all mixed in with my (scant) knowledge of science in general and astrophysics in particular. Maybe soon. We’ll see.

[photo and excerpt text via The Planetary Society]

Wow. That was wonderful. My mini me and I just got home from seeing A Soldier’s Play at Second Stage. All I can say is that it was just wonderful. Everyone in it was fabulous. The audience was so caught up in it that you could hear collective sighs, gasps, and clucks at all the right times. And of course giggles too.

T’s favorite line? "How could I have done it?"

I wish I could tell everyone to make plans to see it, but it closes in 6 days (unless they extend it again).

I have some things to write about that I have nowhere to put, so… I’m building some subcategories into my blog this weekend and the navigation across the top may change a little bit.

Each category will have subcats that you can get to from the category page or from the tags at the bottom of each post.

I am taking a couple breaks though. One to go see Harry Potter w/~T~ and a few, hopefully, to get some real work done! (Real work = unrelated to blogging.)

…99% of the time you call for takeout in the city, whoever answers the phone has to run get the only person (or one of very few people anyway) who actually speaks English to take your order.

Why did they answer the phone? Did they think it might be someone who (1) called the takeout place for something OTHER than placing an order and/or (2) also happened to speak chinese/spanish/etc. ?

I hovered on the edge of an epiphany today. I must be difficult to be in a relationship with. I feel like I’m never perfect enough to let myself relax and have fun. I always need to get certain things in order so I’m not self-conscious. They aren’t even the smartest things to be so hung up on. I obsess over things like:

• my apartment is never as clean as it should be
• I don’t have/make time to shave my legs as often as I want
• my stomach is almost never flat
• I am, more often than not, about 5 pounds overweight

So… the lightbulb almost went off in my head today. I almost got it that if I could just accept these things and not be so demanding of myself, I would probably enjoy relationships more. But then the bulb blew out and I went back to being me.

Mad props to my friend Beth Benzaquin who created two nifty neato new logos for me… the one you see above this post and also the new one on my business site.

Beth and I have worked - and are currently working - on several web development projects together. She also happens to be the “mom” of Bean, one of Snick’s best buddies!

<start promo>PS If you’d like to hire her, or me, or both of us, drop me a line.</end promo>

This whole fake firefighter halloween rape thing has me going crazy. I usually tell my mini me about these sort of things, because I want her to be aware and be careful. With this one, I’m not sure how to approach it. I want her to be careful, but I’ve always told her she can trust the good guys. The white hats. The guys with badges. Her dad was a firefighter when she was born and a FDNY EMT for most of her life (until recently). We have close friends that are police officers. I’ve always felt comfortable telling her she can trust those guys. But now I have to worry about whether she can tell the white hats from the black hats!!! AUGH!!!

A friend just called me and told me about this story. Sometimes, I want to lock my daughter in her room and never let her out. There seems to be more evil in the world than I can ever warn her about.

Hoax Caller Fools Fast Food Asst. Managers into Strip Searching Employees

Andrea Harner has a couple of great posts this week related to feminism and equality. The first one references a Maureen Dowd article in the NYT and the second post references a NYMag article about author Mary Gaitskill.

Both articles are about modern women conforming to 1950s-type norms of feminine behavior. I think a lot of people see this as a black-and-white issue when it will never be that simplistic.

Note: I had more to say here, but no time to put it into coherent language.

http://www.planarity.net/

I know who you are you know. At least a couple of you anyway. I know you read the blog, but you never comment or participate. So… SHAPE UP BUDDY! To make it up to me, you can

• Name Your Autobiography, and/or
• stick a pin in the Frappr Map!

Seriously. Do it NOW!

A couple of my friends at the dog run told me about a game they made up a few years back… Name Your Autobiography. A group of them came up with cute names for their own and/or each other’s autobiographies. When they told me about it, my friend lulu decided my autobiography should be named I Ran Screaming From The South. I just remembered it as I was trying to write my "about me" page and realized it could make a nifty little blog meme.

So… name YOUR autobiography. Post it in the comments and put a post on your blog inviting your readers to do to the same.

I need to write an "about me" page. I put up the page, but I don’t have anything on it yet! Any questions? Suggestions? Help!

PS Any comments about the shifting format and navigation would be welcome also.

And we (the jury) had an interesting incident with the defendant’s lawyer after the case concluded. I’ll definitely write about that soon.

AUGH!!!! The phrase is "I couldn’t care less," not, as SO MANY people say "I could care less." Do people not think about what things they say mean?

(Sorry. Pet peeve just aggravated. Needed to vent.)

I’m writing this on my lunch break from court. Can’t get online though (that’s a whole other story), so I’ll have to upload later. Jury duty started yesterday. I was sort of looking forward to spending 3 days in the jury assembly room with nothing to do but catch up on my reading and writing. Boy, did it ever NOT work out that way. I spent all of 15 minutes in the assembly room yesterday morning and was called to a selection panel. Shortly after lunch, I became Juror #4. Of course, I can’t blog about the case, but I do have some things to say about the court house.

1. When I walked in yesterday morning, I put my bag on the scanner, walked through the x-ray, BEEPED and was told not to worry about it.
2. To their credit, I beeped again this morning and this time they made me go back and figure out why.
3. No one checked my phone to see if it was a camera phone - which it wasn’t because I had brought an older phone and left the camera phone at home, but they make a big deal about no cameras and then they don’t seem to check. Or maybe they could tell when it went through the scanner. Maybe.
4. The jury assembly room at 60 Centre Street (Supreme Court) is NICE. It’s nothing like the last assembly room I was in (in Queens, yuck).
5. They have computers here for jurors to use to get online for free. BUT if you brought your own laptop you have to PAY for Internet access. That doesn’t seem right. I was going to pay for it and I was really excited when I realized they have wireless (which they didn’t actually announce or publicize), but it turned out not to work properly after I paid for it, so I gave up and didn’t purchase it today.
6. Apropos of absolutely nothing, I realized late yesterday that it was the 16th anniversary of the day I met my ex-husband, so I called him today and said happy day-after-the-anniversary-of-the-day-we-met. We’ve been divorced almost three years now and we get along fairly well, all things considered. He’s my mini me’s dad, so of course I’m still happy that he and I met.

My lunch break from court is almost over. I have a feeling this case is going to go on and on and on. We haven’t heard much testimony yet. I guess we’ll see. If it turns out to be interesting, I’ll blog about it when it is over.

I have jury duty later this week, which most likely means three days of sitting around waiting. and waiting. and. waiting. I just called the jury assembly room though and thankfully laptops are allowed. I doubt I’ll have Internet access, but I can catch up on all my writing. And MAYBE I’ll find a cafe nearby to upload/download during lunch!

The good part is I get to go to Centre Street. I’ve only been down there a few times in the 13+ years I’ve lived in NYC. I like it because the architecture is different from the rest of the city.

Now, if I can just remember to swap out my phone Wednesday morning so I don’t accidently take the one with the camera.

OK, I’m on a quest. T and I went to get haircuts yesterday and I got highlights for the first time in my life. Wow. Cool. Neato. I had no idea! (I love and trust my stylist. I’ve been going to him for 4 or 5 years now, so I finally learned to walk in and just say "go for it.")

So, now I’m suddenly motivated to do something about the way the years have been catching up with me lately. I need to lose 8 pounds. I need to drink more water. I need to take much better care of my skin (sun screen, moisturizer, all that jazz).

Here are the two really tough ones though. They’re also the ones that will make the most difference. I need to sleep more than my average five hours per night and I need to make time to exercise. I’m not sure how "sleep more" and "make time for…" are going to coexist on my to do list though!!!

Hopefully just saying I need to do it will help motivate me to find a way. Now it’s been said. So I should walk the dog. And get to bed!

What is up with our world when there are three AP headlines in two days about pre-teens and teenagers killing and being killed?

• Teen Kills Family Members, Dies in Crash (ELKHORN CITY, Ky.)
• Relatives: Teen Killed for Helping Friend (LOVELAND PARK, Ohio)
• Ore. Girls Charged With Attempted Murder (KLAMATH FALLS, Ore.)

I’m working on a website for an off-broadway theater in my neighborhood. I was supposed to be finished yesterday, so, of course, I should be rushing, but as I was flipping through CDs full of photos to pick photos for the site, I found a series of the client and her dog goofing off during a photo call. I couldn’t help myself…

To be filed under: “WHEW! That Could Have Been Embarrassing!”

I have a favorite pair of sandals, that, for some reason, make me shuffle my feet like so many of the women I see walking to work in the garment district. Add to that the fact that the ladies room where I work isn’t in the BEST shape and the tile is coming loose from the floor.

I walked in there today, hit the edge of some tile with the front of my shuffling shoe, and almost took a nose dive. I caught my balance but then pictured myself falling, whacking my head on the toilet and passing out. Not a pretty image, but it made me laugh so hard I was again in danger of falling down.

And, that, ladies and gentlmen, was the most interesting thing that happened at work today.

I’m sorry, but I just can’t get enough of the Flying Spaghetti Monster.

I have to upgrade MT this weekend. There’s a plug-in for the new version that helps combat spam. In the meantime, if you see any unsavory trackbacks on my blog, I am so sorry.

Back in July I read an AP article about teachers being forced to teach creationism in the public schools as an alternative to evolution and I sent my sister an email that said:

I’ve decided to start a movement to make public schools teach that the earth is carried through the sky on the back of a great turtle. I will explain that this is what I believe and therefore it should receive as much academic validation as their nutty idea that the earth is round and suspended in space, circling the sun, with nothing to hold it up or make it move! I mean, that’s just crazy! Right? There must be something out there carrying us around, regardless of what scientific research and calculations tell us.

Surely if schools are being made to teach creationism, they’ll have to teach this too. My turtle belief is just as valid and has just as much proof to back it up.

While we’re at it, maybe we should make Palm Reading a required course.

And, today, I found out about Flying Spaghetti Monsterism, so I’ve decided to become a Pastafarian.

Ramen.

What? It could happen! http://yurts.com/

Technology For All is working to provide computers to Katrina evacuees in the Astrodome. They need volunteers and equipment. Come to think of it, if there is an organization in your town sheltering evacuees, they may need computers too! Ask around!

[via Techie Diva]

If I ever leave the city, I may have this guy build me a house. http://www.tumbleweedhouses.com/

(not that I’m ever leaving…)

[via MetaEfficient]

Just happened to notice that my blog is one year old today.

Who goes to someone else’s city and kicks their dog??? Apparently, American tourists do.
Read the rest of this entry »

I saw a Lightening Bug at the dog run last night. I have never seen a lightening bug in the city. I felt like I was 5 or 6. I wanted to run get a jar and catch it.

This is what I say to myself sometimes. GET A F’KNG GRIP! Today was definitely one of those days.

Really, it hasn’t. More to come.