Category: general

I was in the middle of catching up the weekend’s stories when the phone rang.

“Please,” I said for no one’s benefit, “don’t ask me how to use [a software application available on our website].” Then I picked up the phone. “Heather Meadows.”

“Um, yes. You had a story on this morning about the car accident where my husband died.”

There was a pause. I filled it with, “Oh. Yes, ma’am.”

“I was wondering if it was going to be on the website.”

“Um, yes, it should be up in a couple of hours.”

“I just want to know what happened to him. I’ve been at the hospital…I can’t get the police report.”

A few of my brain cells recovered enough for me to say, “I’ll get it up as soon as I can, ma’am.”

I was supposed to be in a meeting in ten minutes.

I was a little late.

You Are a Schoolgirl!

You’re not quite as wild as a “kogyaru”, but with your short plaid skirt and silly white socks, you’re still a sexual fetish object. You can usually be seen hanging out in the girly section of the video game places, collecting photobooth stickers of you and your friends. You may not be as innocent as you look. Did those vending machine panties once belong to you?

Am I strong enough to push past the hurt and deal with the situation?

I guess I’ll find out.

N.H. woman bakes cookies on dashboard

With temperatures soaring Wednesday, Fontaine placed two trays of cookie dough on the dashboard, shut the doors and retreated inside to her air conditioned office.

[…]

Fontaine first tested her dashboard oven three years ago. She said anyone can do it; the only requirement is for the outside temperature to be at least 95 degrees, so it will rise to about 200 degrees in the car. Temperatures in the area reached the mid to upper 90s on Wednesday.

“It’s a car…it’s a barbecue. It’s the Car-B-Que.” Man, a dozen (or more) years later, I still think that an oven on the engine block is a brilliant idea ;>

Study: Technology is a girl’s best friend
U.S. women would prefer plasma TV to diamonds, designer shoes

The Girls Gone Wired survey of 1,400 women and 700 men aged 15 to 49, which was conducted by market researcher TRU, found that given the choice, women would opt for tech items rather than luxury items like jewelry or vacations.

The study found 77 percent of women surveyed would prefer a new plasma television to a diamond solitaire necklace and 56 percent would opt for a new plasma TV over a weekend vacation in Florida.

Even shoes lost out. The study found 86 percent would prefer a new digital video camera to a pair of designer shoes.

Hell yes! Designer shoes? Peh! Shop at Payless and save those dollars for a video mp3 player :D

It acts like it’s going to play the video I clicked on, but then it plays something else, and I can’t find the video I’m looking for on the page, and when I try to skip past the stupid video I didn’t want to watch the player falls into an endless loop of skipping all videos in the playlist.

Apparently the Tokyo Dome is currently hosting a month-long celebration of Naruto.

Monday’s events opened with the recording of a radio show, starring Naruto voice talents Junko Takeuchi (the voice of Naruto) and Kazuhiko Inoue (who plays Kakashi), who read out messages from fans, discussed the upcoming Naruto film, and previewed the theme tune from the new PS2 game “Naruto: Konoha Spirits,” sung by Takeuchi.

[…]

Visitors can try the characters’ favourite Ichiraku ramen, practice their dart-throwing skills, watch an exclusive Naruto 3D film and get a chance to try the new PS2 game.

The guy who wrote that article also took the pictures. I guess he was a one-man band at the event. I wonder if he took any more pictures.

The one I featured above is of course notable for the cosplayers, but my favorite part is the huge Gamabunta in the background. I’d like to pose for a picture next to it ;>

Back in May, Daniel Falconer of Weta Limited emailed to ask if the company could license one of my photos for an advertisement for their new fan website. Weta Limited is a creative company based in New Zealand consisting of six brands: Weta Workshop, Weta Digital, Weta Tenzan Chainmaille, Weta Collectibles, Weta Publishing, and Weta Productions.

Here’s a description of Weta Workshop, which you may have heard of:

Weta Workshop is a four time Academy Award winning company that offers services to all aspects of the creative industry including design, special make-up effects and prosthetics, creatures, armour, weapons, miniatures, prop building, large scale sculpture, display work and costuming.

(Check out their Projects list. This one is pretty interesting.)

You may have seen Weta Collectibles‘ awesome stuff. They produced exclusive figures for the Lord of the Rings movie marathon, which Sean and I used to have before the fire. They also made the Elven Helm that Magazine Man sent me.

Weta launched its publishing arm, Weta Publishing, in 2005. My photo was used in a print advertisement in a booklet put out by Weta Publishing that was distributed at San Diego Comic Con.

Here’s the original photo:

Here’s the proof of the ad Daniel sent me:

And here’s the ad in all its glory in the booklet:

A different version of the ad will also be used in a forthcoming publication.

Yes, I am very behind in my photo captioning! Here, finally, are the pictures I took in Kentucky at our Independence Day party.

Last Monday, it was drizzling, and I was in that strange mood that sometimes overcomes me when the weather’s just right. It’s a feeling that something is coming, something is changing, something is growing and developing. It’s a feeling that I’m peripherally a part of something enormous. When I feel like that I’m always very antsy and impetuous. On Monday, that meant that I drove to the golf course side of the Greeneway and took pictures in the rain.

It was getting dark, so most of them didn’t come out properly, but I got some good practice in holding still :>

(For my mom’s sake, I will only link to the first photo in the set, and not post it here.)

Here are the two photos I like:

Unfortunately, most of the rest of the photos are out of focus. I consider it a learning experience. Or something.

On June 26, my friend Wes from work and I went for a walk on the Augusta Canal Trail. We could hear the GreenJackets baseball game across the canal :)

We hot-footed it to the pumping station from the parking lot near Lake Olmstead, and then Wes very kindly put up with my photo-taking on our way back.

I’ve had these photos captioned for awhile, but it appears I never featured them on the blog. So here they are!

Towards the end of May, I went to the Riverwalk twice in one week. I finally got around to captioning the photos from these excursions today.

Monday, May 22:

Thursday, May 25:

I woke up early this morning, and here are some of the things I read:

Face of poverty ages in rapidly graying Japan

What is left after Gosuke Kakizaki’s 73 years of life as a magazine typesetter turned failed businessman turned penniless retiree is contained in two small rooms of a gray public housing complex far from the glittery core of this city. A white teakettle, a few stacks of books and a little TV set remain, as do mounted photographs from the hiking trips he stopped taking about three years ago.

[…]

“I can’t afford transportation, film for my camera or the photo-developing fees for such trips anymore,” said the soft-spoken Kakizaki, who is long divorced and has only sporadic contact with his two adult children. “The photos are all I have left. I can barely afford to feed myself now.”

I want to adopt a poor, elderly Japanese person. You know, just get a decent little house over there and have the oldster live in one of the rooms. I’d cook for them and clean and help them indulge in their hobbies. Wouldn’t that be sweet? :)

New Babylon 5 episodes, straight to DVD (via Slashdot)

I don’t think I really have to say anything about this that isn’t already said on AICN. (Except a total side note: when Monica’s trying to convince Chandler to invite his father to the wedding in Friends, Chandler mentions that his father “had sex with Mr. Garibaldi”. That line always confuses me, whenever I hear it ;>)

ExtremeTech reviews the Zero Tension Mouse (also via Slashdot). Man, that thing looks awesome. I don’t think I’d heard of a vertical mouse before, but the idea intrigues me. (I’m also interested in the idea of split keyboards with either side at an angle, or attached to the arms of a chair, or both…)

And, finally…

Dariush had a dream about Magazine Man! XD

A drive-by shooting/murder and an armed robbery in the same day! Isn’t that pleasant?

The armed robbery isn’t far from where I work. And not long ago there was an armed robbery not far from where I live.

North Augusta and West Augusta are supposed to be the good parts of town!