Thinking

You know you've been watching too much BBC America when you have a slight British accent when you're tired instead of your usually increasingly Southern accent as bed time approaches.

Thinking

This makes me smile.

“It’s never just a game when you’re winning.”

The above explains why we don't have a Wii yet. The idea of having Wii bowling only a remote control away would just put too much competitive stress on our little family. I want Wii fit though...

Addicted to TV I Can Pause

No, I didn't get a TiVo, that would just be a recipe for disastor to my career, but I am watching TV on DVD. I don't know if I have an addictive personality or what, but whenever I watch TV shows on DVD I find it difficult to stop. I watch "24" for 24 hours solid if I can. Thankfully each season of "24" is nice and self-contained. When we watched Alias, we watched all 5 seasons solid, pausing only to sleep and go to class (since we were students at the time). Now, an evil friend has loaned us the complete series of Stargate. Ten 22 episode seasons. Now this wouldn't be too bad if we were still students, but as working professionals it is a bit harder. We are now two walking zombies who eat, sleep, watch Stargate and go to work. It isn't that great of a show, but we're still addicted. As engineers we are constantly attacking their science, and hubby laughs at their getting the military parts wrong (he teases that its because they are all Air Force), and don't get me started on exposition or plot continuity, but hey there must be some reason we are still watching, must be the characters *laugh*. Heaven help us if we ever get a Tivo and can play, pause, rewind and record live TV.

Detoxing from Anderson Cooper

After spending months rushing home and flipping on the tv to veg on the political fodder for hours each night I've found the last month to be a period of almost detoxing. Instead of abstaining from alcohol, smoking, or a toxic relationship I've been cutting back on the amount of hours spent watching a combination of Anderson Cooper 360 and BBC World News and hitting reload on several news sites at work. In fact I had no idea that there was a war going on other than the two obvious ones until I heard it on the radio in between U2 and Enya (I know, what a combination!) It's probably healthier this way, but I should stay a tad better informed. I will still keep Anderson Cooper on my list of people I'd love to meet in real life, despite my psuedo crush on him Colin Firth and Timothy Dalton. Maybe I should subscribe to Time or News Week for my news, the tv and internets can suck up so much time.

Trial By Fire - Timothy Ferriss

Timothy Ferriss, blogger/author of the 4 Day Work Week fame is one of those lifestyle design gurus who I'd actually like to meet in real life rather than some guy out there writing books to make money off of the people buying them. I think his approach is more like, here I am, this is what I do, let me explain so if you think you want to do it you can to. His latest project is a TV show which he is trying to get off the ground on the History Channel. He attempts to learn over the course of a few days something that takes years to master. In this case, Japanese horseback archery, for the pilot of “Trial by Fire” — which will air this Thursday, 12/4, at 11pm ET/PT on The History Channel. I'll be watching and the cool part is so will my husband because eh, its the History Channel and martial arts. The one issue I always have ready Timothy's books/blog/anything is I feel completely lazy, like, "Wow, if this guy could master a language to functional fluency in 30 days, why can't I?" Well, I probably could, but its not going to happen passively, I'd have to want it and focus on it, and I just don't. So shameless plug here, but I get nothing out of it. I like Timothy Ferriss in the same way that I have a weird crush on Anderson Cooper. They both do what they love with no holds barred and are cute in a real life (like I could actually know this person) kind of way. To see what I'm talking about, check out his show. Preview here.

Corey Cogdell Women's Trap Shooting Bronze

An Alaskan took the Bronze medal in Women's Trap Shooting, and I actually know her. Congratulations Corey. She is a really awesome person. Nice, a strong Christian and a strong shooter. Alaskan girls kick ass!

Shooting
Born: Palmer, AK September 02, 1986

Hometown: Eagle River, AK
Residence: Colorado Springs, CO - Olympic Training Center
Ht: 5'7"
Event(s): Trap

Her Olympic Blog

I'll have to catch the medal ceremony on youtube or load it on nbcolympics.com later because its 16 hours time difference between Alaska and Beijing. I'm sure her family and many of my friends in Anchorage won't be getting much sleep tonight, but I've got work tomorrow so I'm off.

What Kind of D&D Character are You

This doesn't sound like any characters I've played, but it does sound like me.

I Am A: True Neutral Halfling Bard/Sorcerer (2nd/2nd Level)


Ability Scores:

Strength-12

Dexterity-8

Constitution-13

Intelligence-14

Wisdom-12

Charisma-17


Alignment:
True Neutral A true neutral character does what seems to be a good idea. He doesn't feel strongly one way or the other when it comes to good vs. evil or law vs. chaos. Most true neutral characters exhibit a lack of conviction or bias rather than a commitment to neutrality. Such a character thinks of good as better than evil after all, he would rather have good neighbors and rulers than evil ones. Still, he's not personally committed to upholding good in any abstract or universal way. Some true neutral characters, on the other hand, commit themselves philosophically to neutrality. They see good, evil, law, and chaos as prejudices and dangerous extremes. They advocate the middle way of neutrality as the best, most balanced road in the long run. True neutral is the best alignment you can be because it means you act naturally, without prejudice or compulsion. However, true neutral can be a dangerous alignment because it represents apathy, indifference, and a lack of conviction.


Race:
Halflings are clever, capable and resourceful survivors. They are notoriously curious and show a daring that many larger people can't match. They can be lured by wealth but tend to spend rather than hoard. They prefer practical clothing and would rather wear a comfortable shirt than jewelry. Halflings stand about 3 feet tall and commonly live to see 150.


Primary Class:
Bards often serve as negotiators, messengers, scouts, and spies. They love to accompany heroes (and villains) to witness heroic (or villainous) deeds firsthand, since a bard who can tell a story from personal experience earns renown among his fellows. A bard casts arcane spells without any advance preparation, much like a sorcerer. Bards also share some specialized skills with rogues, and their knowledge of item lore is nearly unmatched. A high Charisma score allows a bard to cast high-level spells.


Secondary Class:
Sorcerers are arcane spellcasters who manipulate magic energy with imagination and talent rather than studious discipline. They have no books, no mentors, no theories just raw power that they direct at will. Sorcerers know fewer spells than wizards do and acquire them more slowly, but they can cast individual spells more often and have no need to prepare their incantations ahead of time. Also unlike wizards, sorcerers cannot specialize in a school of magic. Since sorcerers gain their powers without undergoing the years of rigorous study that wizards go through, they have more time to learn fighting skills and are proficient with simple weapons. Charisma is very important for sorcerers; the higher their value in this ability, the higher the spell level they can cast.


Find out What Kind of Dungeons and Dragons Character Would You Be?, courtesy of Easydamus (e-mail)

Uncharted Too Scary

I've been enjoying our new PS3 primarily as a Blu-Ray player. Kids animated movies really show up great and I can tell a difference in the video quality with those types of films. Major action movies also show up noticeably different. The rest don't have too much added value in the Blue-Ray format, so I can keep having Blockbuster send me DVD versions of those.

Before he left Hubby played through Call of Duty IV and I played a few levels before we turned the rental back in. Enough to realize that apparently my childhood lack of console gaming left me without a fundamental grasp of how controllers are supposed to work. I had to play on the easiest level and even then, half the time, by the time I figured out how to look in the direction I was being shot from, figure out how to reload my gun and shoot, I was dead or very wounded. With hubby gone for awhile, I figured I'd work on my six-axis controller skills and so I bought Uncharted. It's basically a modern day Indiana Jones where the main character explores ancient south american ruins, ruining them even more in the process, kills a bunch of bad guys, etc. I enjoyed the puzzle like aspect of most of the levels. It wasn't a strictly shoot-em-up type game and had a decent plot. I got all the way to level 15 or so, then like the most recent Indiana Jones movie, they had aliens/monsters show up. I tried, I really did try to finish the game, but I just can't take suspense. I don't watch horror movies, not because of the blood and guts, but because I can't get startled or deal with knowing I am going to be startled. The game just got too scary for me to calmly shoot the aliens/monsters and I ran out of ammo and promptly died. If they were normal jungle troops, no problem, but scary monsters which move on the walls and ceiling I can't deal with. I'll have to let hubby play past the scary part and then keep going when he gets back. I told my guy friends and they all laughed. This game is not scary at all according to them. This launched them into a discussion of which games are actually scary like AVP2 and a bunch of others I hadn't heard of. Oh well, call me a chicken, but I just don't do scary, even a little bit.

So what did I do instead? It was too much effort to go out and rent something, there was nothing on cable, so for the first time in my life I used pay-per-view. For $2.95 I watched 27 Dresses, got a few laughs and went to bed. Shameless chick-flick which made me feel like I'd lost a few brain cells by the end of it, but it definitely wasn't scary. To prove to myself I'm not a totally lame and shallow girl who only watches girly movies, tonight I rented the new Rambo IV movie. While there was plenty of action, I must say that it was a shameless ripoff, barely 90 minutes long, and only made it to theaters everywhere because of the success of the earlier movies. Some series should just stick with 3 movies, Star Wars, Indiana Jones, and Rambo. More is just shameless, unnecessary, and a waste of 90 minutes.

The HGTV/Bloglines Addicted DIYer's Dilemma

My bloglines have grown recently. Which results in my not getting any homework done at lunch due to the fact that my feedlist is full of inspiring home improvement sites. I've been obsessively checking the Apartment Therapy "Small Cool" competition submissions for ideas. It has me regretting my choice/purchase of taupe paint for the kitchen and wishing for a spring green next to my oak cabinets. Hubby is wishing he could pull the bloglines plug in the same way as he sometimes limits my HGTV consumption by watching guy shows (poor man can only watch so much paint dry). I've become fickle with all of my decisions, second guessing myself. Do I really want a tile backsplash or should I go with back painted glass or just semi-gloss paint. Should I really hold off on getting new counters or will people think the kitchen looks unfinished without Corian, Silestone, Ceasarstone or Granite?! I know I should care, but there are so many cool options out there I can't possibly try them all. I need to find my own style and stick with it and not follow these design show trends. They may look easy on a 30 minute program with two full-time carpenters and electrician and a designer on board, but they really take a lot of time to put together with two DIY'ers at home. Worst of all it's making me discontent with my house, which is really not that small 1,300 square feet and either wishing for something larger or much much smaller (like 600 sq.ft.). I must settle down, finish some projects and live with the results for awhile. So this weekend my goal is to finish painting the kitchen, put it back together and live with it for awhile before moving on to other projects.

Las Vegas Trip

We started out our trip in Las Vegas by paying $80.00 for a limo to take us two miles from the airport to the Hyatt Place hotel where my meeting was being held. Why $80? Well, at 1 am the hotel shuttle wasn't running and the line for cabs on a Friday night was over an hour long. I didn't want to wait so we took the limo. Thank goodness I was on expenses.

Getting up for a 8 am meeting after getting to sleep around 2am was definitely no fun. Hubby went for a walk while I debated the intricacies of publishing a technical magazine with fellow engineers. Around noon we hooked up and went to the Hard Rock for lunch. The lunch was a working lunch so it lasted well over an hour. I was totally unimpressed with the Hyatt Place which amounted to a stripped down Hyatt, business hotel that barely qualified for each of its 3 stars. On top of this was the fact that the hotel has been recently renovated. The carpet tiles may be easy to replace should one of them become stained, but they also use carpet glue in their installation. I was apparently allergic to the glue and spent most of my 5 hours of rest scratching my arms to death. The next morning I had hubby check us out and we went to Priceline.com to see what cheap rooms were still available elsewhere. Turns out that for the same rate as we were paying at the Hyatt we could be staying at the Venetian. Deal! Sign me up! So after lunch we cabbed it from the Hyatt to the Venetian.


After checking into our suite at the Venetian I was sorry that we would have to switch over to Treasure Island the next day. I'd show you a photo, but they all have one or the other of us in them, because of all of the mirrors in the suite. The room was gorgeous and I don't say this lightly. I stay in a lot of hotels, but this one still surprised me. I got $15 worth of casino credit which we quickly doubled to $30 in the slots, apparently I'm quite lucky. We were so bushed that we just wanted to sit down, sip our drinks and blow money in the penny slots. I won as much as he lost so we came out even. For dinner we hooked up with some of my friends from my meeting and went to a local place. I try to find a good Greek restaurant whenever we travel together as it is both of our favorite food. Also, eating on the strip can be ridiculously overprices if you don't want to eat horrid/questionably sanitary buffet food. Paymon's Mediterranean Cafe is a local joint full of people who actually call Nevada home. The food is excellent, tasty, and downright cheap. Five of us who drank, had appetizers, dinner and dessert all for less than $120.00, which I consider insanely cheap.

We headed back to the hotel that night blissfully content and full of warm Baklava. Our show was playing in the Venetian hotel so we didn't have far to walk. We got tickets for Phantom before we left and it was quite spectacular. I've always loved the Phantom of the Opera. Hubby saw the broadway show in San Francisco a long time ago before we met. He has always promised me that he would take me one day so this was really special . Phantom in Vegas is a slightly abrieviated version, but spectacular none the less. I remember there was an article a few years back when they were planning the show on how they got the chandelier to fall. Trust me it is well done, women were screaming. If I hadn't known what was coming I would have been totally blown away. The engineering behind that stunt was amazing.

The next day we packed our rolly-bag up and headed downstairs to breakfast. We found a little cafe along the banks of the Venetian. Apparently there are very few people who wake up for breakfast in Vegas so it took us almost 30 minutes to find one that was open. Afterwards we walked across to the Wynn, walking through the Venetian shops along the canal on the way. Then we crossed the street and walked past Treasure Island, down through the Mirage. The Mirage was smokey and dark. After we walked what seemed like forever to get through the casino we found out that to view the lions you have to pay like $14.00 a person. It totally wasn't worth it, so we trucked all the way back out through the front. Vegas hotels are not set up so you can walk through one, out the side and out to the next one. You have to walk in then back out through the front always passing through the casino on your way anywhere.

After the Mirage we went to Ceasar's Palace and walked through the shopping mall. My feet were tired so we sat at the slots for awhile. There really isn't anywhere to sit in Vegas without spending money. You are either gambling, paying to watch a show or sitting in a restaurant. I bought cute leather gloves with cashmere linings at Coach. My one major and non-expensible purchase of the entire trip. Ceasar's Palace has some really great architecture. It looks a lot less fake than many of the other hotels.

Next after Ceasar's was the Bellagio. After the Venetian I was expecting more. It still was quite over the top with a beautiful Chinese garden and a spectacular set of glass flowers inlaid in the ceiling. This was definitely one of the nicer hotels on the strip, although probably not worth 200 more a night than the Venetian for the extra 1/2 a star. We had friends who asked to see our suite at the Venetian out of curiosity and they said that it was better than the Bellagio rooms. I can't vouch for it myself, but I bet they were right. The Bellagio has the Cirque d'Soleil show "O" which is their water show. We didn't see it on this trip, but if we go back I'll definitely put it on my list.

By this point my feet were very tired. I had only packed work shoes which was a bad idea. One should never attempt to casino tour in heels. We crossed the street to the Paris. We had lunch at the Paris. They have an Eiffel Tour restuarant which overlooks the Bellagio fountains. A bit too pricey to justify on an expense report so we settled for the Mon Ami Gabi which is on the main floor right off of the casino. It was very good and reasonably priced. The casino had a younger vibe and was not oppresively smokey or generic like most of the others we had walked through. It looked like a fun place to stay and I'd definitely go back and spend more time looking around some other time.

From the Paris we headed back in the direction of the Venetian, my feet still killing me. We walked through the Flamingo and walked along the strip to the Ghirardelli chocolate store in between Harrah's and the Venetian. We stopped by the front desk of the Venetian and picked up our bags to check into Treasure Island. After all this walking it was about 4pm and my legs were dead beat. I flopped in my King bed and didn't move for an hour. We watched a history channel special on the history of Vegas and then called the front desk for a dinner reservation. Our one criteria is the restaurant had to be in the hotel. Little did we know that would give us so many options. We briefly considered going downstairs for the ship battle performance. Those who are staying as guests at Treasure Island have a special viewing area, but it was cold and I was not happy to walk anywhere. Instead we enjoyed a pleasant dinner at Francesco's. The service was excellent and the food was great. I had gnocci with hazelnut cream sauce. We both had way more food than we could eat and regretfully passed on dessert.

Our planning paid off and our show of the night was in our hotel of the night. Mystere is a Cirque show which plays at Treasure Island. Honored eight times as "Best Production Show" by the Las Vegas Review-Journal, Mystère has an international cast of 72 performers featuring dancers, singers, musicians and champion-caliber acrobats. The physical prowess of these performers was amazing. I was jaw droppingly spell bound for an hour and half. I swore the next day I would buy their cd as inspirational workout music. Throughout the performance two vocalists sing in a made up language while performers enact a nightly performance which send chills down the through the audience. This was definitely a family friendly show. Kind of unfortunate in some ways as I had to sit next to a couple kids which wouldn't stay in just their chairs, but I'm glad their parents got to do something fun and didn't have to leave their kids behind. However, those kids all probably left with the equivalent of a cigarettes worth of smoking damage done to their lungs just from walking to their hotel rooms at night.

It was more worthwhile to get a good night's rest rather than walk the rest of the strip the next morning so we stayed in the vicinity of Treasure Island. We walked next door to find lunch and were bitterly disappointed with our options. Unless you want mall food court food, finding lunch in Vegas proves as difficult as finding breakfast before noon. We ended up at the Neiman Marcus restaurant, I had no idea that they had a restaurant. Excellent sandwhiches, fresh bread and lots of iced tea kept us happy. Then it was off to the airport for a quick 12 hour flight home. Just a quick trip to Vegas. Having never been I can say that there is definitely a lot to see in Vegas, not so much things to do. They mostly try to funnel you into shopping and gambling. There are also shows which are some of the most unique in the world. All the smoking, unhealthy food choices and fake looking architecture and neon left a little bit of a hollow feeling in my stomach rather than one of cultural immersion. I would still go again, but I wouldn't go without a plan. I would actually want to know what I wanted to do in Vegas.

Oh yeah, as far as the gambling went, neither of us is good at it. I made up for his losses by playing video blackjack and we came out even. The whole trip actually cost us less than $300.00 which was totally worth it just to spend relaxing time together discoving a new place.

Venetian Canal shops

Treasure Island has a nightly show where the sexy sirens fight the bad boys

The view from our room in Treasure Island

Ceasar's Palace

Paris

Bellagio lobby with the glass flowers

Bellagio's Asian Garden

I'm a D List Blogger

To be an A-List Celebrity in Hollywood, it’s all about the amount of Vanity Fair, GQ, and People Magazine covers you can score. To be an A-List Bloglebrity on the Internet, it’s all about the amount of link love you can score. If it weren't for the show "My Life on the D List" I wouldn't worry about it. Perhaps I could shoot for C-list within the next year. Hmm...must come up with interesting content. But Legal Andrew has only been around a year and he's a B-List blogger, perhaps if I try harder? Dilbert the blog is an A-list blogger, but um yeah, he is probably popular for other reasons.

Bag of Crap

The things people will buy amaze me. When I saw that Woot.com had sold over $100k worth of this it just amazed me. Here is the ad in total:

Bag O’ Crap XXI

Wait, wait, why are you clicking that button? Don't click! You don't want this junk. Seriously, clicking that I WANT ONE button is a one-way ticket to disappointment and shame. You'll cram a few useless clumps of consumer flotsam into your life, be out like eight bucks, and for what? For what? What is the sound of one hand crapping?
If you must proceed, CHECK THIS OUT. Somebody misunderstands this concept every time, so please READ THE BIG PRINT:

1. WHEN YOU ORDER THIS ITEM, YOU’RE ORDERING ONE (1) BAG WITH up to THREE (3) PIECES OF CRAP IN IT.
2. YOU ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR SELECTING THE QUANTITY: THREE WHEN YOU ORDER.
3. YOU WILL WASTE FREIGHT IF YOU ORDER FEWER THAN THREE. And you’ll get less crap. Wait, why is that bad again? Do you people really need more crap?

You’re only getting one bag, no matter what. The order quantity you select is the number of crappy items we’ll put in your bag. Select THREE. Later, you’ll enjoy the satisfaction of taunting the surprisingly large number of less observant Wooters who ordered less than THREE.
As usual, we promise nothing about the quality or the desirability of these bags or their contents, except to promise that their quality will be low and their desirability will be non-existent. The best quantity you could possibly order would be ZERO.

THE HOLY CRAP COMMANDMENTS v2.0:

I. Thou shalt expect nothing beyond one bag of some kind and your chosen quantity of crappy items (which should be THREE).
II. Thou shalt not whine and complain when some people’s crap turns out to be nicer than yours.
III. Thou shalt take a moment to consider whether you might be better off just not buying this crap.
IV. Thou shalt not order just one crap and blame it on anything but your own inattention.
V. To paraphrase Stephen Stills, shalt thou not get the crap you want, want the crap you get.
The crap will be shipped via SmartPost, the crappiest shipping method available to us.

Harry Potter Moratoriam

In honor of all of the poor law school graduates out there who are studying for the bar exam rather than running out and reading their copy of Harry Potter 7 this weekend I am declaring a Pre-L ban on all spoiler posting. I won't be posting any details, spoilers or even commenting on whether I thought it was a good book. For those of you who aren't Potter fans, ignore this post, for those of you who are, be kind and don't blog about Potter until after the July bar exam is over. Let's show our solidarity for those who are going before us. Soon enough we'll be in their shoes, stressing over the bar and wishing we had time for a little light reading. And in an extra special display for my sympathy for all of you bar exam takers I will not be reading my pre-ordered copy until Sunday. I am going camping.

AK License Plates

Makes people think when they drive by you!

Strange, our state is so small that I've actually seen quite a few of these driving around. I used to live near the school that the CHOCLT license plate drove her kids to. The Anchorage Daily News has a whole website for them, but here are my favorites.

Who wouldn't want to say this to their fellow drivers occasionally?

Showing their support for life's most important dessert

As read in the rear-view mirror "Smiley," cool huh?

Harry Potter Season is Coming

Which Hogwarts house will you be sorted into?

I saw this quiz on Butterflyfish and thought that since the new movie and the last book come out next month this post would be timely. I agree with Butterflyfish in identifying with Hermione.

They Make a Movie out of Everything!

A documentary about former Russian secret agent Alexander Litvinenko, poisoned in London at the end of last year, will have its premiere screening at the Cannes Film Festival this weekend, the film director said Wednesday.

Female Penguins Don't Have Hips!

We watched Happy Feet last night. I confess to being completely oblivious of the plot of this movie prior to watching it. I assumed from the previews that it was a movie about a tone deaf penguin who gets his groove on by tap dancing instead. In essence I guess, that's still the plot of the movie. There are also several other subplots that are for more mature audiences, one of which was the theme of preserving our oceans so that cute little penguins and others can survive. The movie ended happily with the aliens/humans in the film realizing the error of their ways and banning the fishing which was causing the penguins to starve. Didn't really give me the vibe that I needed to run out and do something to help the penguins though as the movie ended quite happily for them. One of the things that did bother me in the movie was the way that they animated the penguins. They gave the females hips! An hourglass figure on a penguin? And of course the big daddy penguin had a big chest. Still, all in all the movie had both me and hubby laughing out loud at parts which is always a good thing. The penguin hips still bother me though.

Legally Blonde the Musical (2)

Laura Bell Bundy nominated for a Tony for Legally Blonde the Musical. Now I'll definitely have to go see it.

I am turoquoise

you are turquoise #40E0D0

Your dominant hues are green and blue. You're smart and you know it, and want to use your power to help people and relate to others. Even though you tend to battle with yourself, you solve other people's conflicts well. Your saturation level is higher than average - You know what you want, but sometimes know not to tell everyone. You value accomplishments and know you can get the job done, so don't be afraid to run out and make things happen. Your outlook on life is bright. You see good things in situations where others may not be able to, and it frustrates you to see them get down on everything.

the spacefem.com html color quiz