the thoughts and experiences of Heather Meadows
Well, I thought 11 PM was early enough.
I guess technically I went to bed at 11:20 or so, but still.
This morning I was very tired. I heavily considered forcing myself to get up at 6:30 as planned, but ultimately I slept in until 8:30. And I’m still a little foggy. I don’t think I would have felt better had I made myself get up, though.
Sean liked his present :) I got him the first season of Batman Beyond, which he didn’t even know was on DVD. I kept it a secret for a month and a half :D
This Penny Arcade is about to come true.
Hope it doesn’t suck!
It was rainy again today. I went to lunch at the Bee’s Knees and had the spicy shrimp sandwich, which was excellent. While I was there I read a few articles in the Metro Spirit. For some reason I was under the impression that the Spirit sucked, but it’s actually a good paper. I enjoyed the Whines section quite a bit, and the editorial about rape in Richmond County was very well written. The paper covered a few issues that we’ve been covering at work; I found a lot of it illuminating. It makes me think that I should read more local newspapers, to fill in the gaps.
Doing contract work in the morning before work is draining, but I seem to be able to handle it as long as I get to sleep early enough. 11 pm seems to be the best bedtime for me, so I’m going to try to stick to that.
Ultimately I would like to spend at least some of my mornings working out rather than racking up more hours sitting in a chair, but I haven’t gotten myself adjusted to getting up at the same time every morning yet.
I’d like to start planning and making delicious and nutritious meals, too. Once we’re moved, I’m going to focus on doing that. There was a lady on the Oprah rerun today who wrote a book called Why French Women Don’t Get Fat. I’d heard the theory before, but in a nutshell it’s this: eat slowly. Savor your food. Don’t eat until you’re full. Eat what you want, in small portions. And walk to more places rather than driving/taking the elevator/etc.
I think I can handle the first part, but the walking bit is troublesome. There are no stairs in any of the places in which I spend most of my time. I can’t walk to work (or even bike; North Augusta’s a little far). I’m not sure there’s any way to modify my normal routine to include more physical activity, other than walking more during lunch than usual. It would seem that old fashioned working out is going to have to suffice in my case.
In other news, Sean’s special present came in the mail today. I can’t wait to see the look on his face.
Staying in for lunch today, since while I like rain, I don’t necessarily like being rained on.
So I’m websurfing. Here are some of the things I’ve read today!
Asahi: Researchers transplant a human-type immune system in mouse
At the beginning of their experiment, the researchers genetically engineered a mouse and disabled its immune system to prevent an adverse reaction from the transplant.
Human hematopoietic cells were injected into the veins of the mouse within 48 hours of its birth.
The cells took root in the mouse’s bone marrow, and then changed into various types of human immune cells.
The mouse’s own cells remained in the animal.
However, almost all of the T-cells and B-cells, which are primarily responsible for immunization, and the NK-cells, which attack hostile cells like cancer cells, were human.
Mice have various types of immune cells, but because some of those cells are different than human cells, scientists have been unable to come up with results that apply directly to humans.
This problem is believed to be a reason why new drugs, including anti-cancer medicine, can have adverse effects on humans.
Testing the drugs on mice with a human immune system could help to fix that problem.
I found this article really exciting and somewhat disturbing at the same time.
Mainichi: Elderly woman killed by train after bogus barrier malfunction
A 69-year-old woman was fatally hit by a train at a railway crossing after apparently thinking the barriers were down due to a malfunction.
A nearby alarm post was displaying the kanji for “malfunction” at the time of the accident.
Police suspect Sumiko Shibata, 69, from Gamagori, Aichi Prefecture, tried to cross the tracks, despite the crossing barriers on the JR Tokaido Line being down, because she believed they had lowered erroneously.
So the “malfunction” alarm was on “correctly”, but the old woman didn’t know how to interpret it. Sounds like JR needs to rethink the design.
The Surprising Truth About Ugly Websites (via Slashdot)
As Internet professionals, we often forget that a large part of our society is actually afraid of the Internet. Although online shopping is growing, most people still have concerns about online security and the impersonal nature of the web. Most people do not know how to surf efficiently and use only the default tools that are given to them when they take their computer out of the box.
And this is one reason that ugly websites can sell. The lack of professionalism and a polished look leads one to believe that they are dealing with an individual. Websites cannot be trusted, but individuals can be trusted.
You may not believe this, but I have actually thought about this before. Every time I start out to design a slick website, I wonder whether or not it will scare people away. (Hey, it’s a good excuse to be lazy, at least. ;P)
The article goes on:
Although the above theory holds true in many examples, I believe there is more to the success of ugly websites than just conveying trust. Many of the websites that I referenced above have one underlying trait that can be attributed to their success: they are extremely easy to use.
It’s a good piece. (But the author seems to have an aversion to apostrophes.)
And finally, Marie Mockett discusses illustrated travel journals. And they are awesome.
I suppose it is all very well to be able to read and to like words, but after seeing these books, I really wish I could draw. Let me say that again. I really, really wish I could draw!
Well, I can draw, but I don’t do it much. Seeing these books makes me think it would be a good thing to practice.
I’m mostly well-rested, and it’s a nice rainy day out (I don’t mean that sarcastically; rain is so rejuvenating), but I’m stuck doing crap work I’m completely uninterested in, work that occurs every month, work that I am not sure I can get out of.
Oh well.
There’s a good article on MSN about how a large portion of the American population is looking into “downsized” homes.
[Architect Sarah] Susanka’s idea was so simple it was radical: “It’s time for a different kind of house,” the architect wrote, manifesto-like, in her 1998 book “The Not So Big House.” “A house that is more than square footage; a house that is Not So Big, where each room is used every day. A house with a floorplan inspired by our informal lifestyle instead of the way our grandparents lived.” She derided most spraddling suburban tract homes, with their unused dining rooms and their too many bathrooms, as spacious but not particularly comfortable — less nests than “massive storage containers for people.”
There is a really interesting table at the bottom of the piece, recreated here.
| Average size of new homes built in various developed countries | |
|---|---|
| Country | Sq. feet |
| United States | 2,349 |
| Canada | 1,800 |
| New Zealand | 1,900 |
| Australia | 2,200 |
| U.K. | 815 |
| Ireland | 930 |
| Japan | 1,000 |
I’ve put up pictures from the last few days: Thursday’s lunch at the Greeneway; yesterday’s day trip to Washington, Georgia to check out a possible wedding site for Brooke and David; and Alchemy’s Southern Oasis hafla, which took place last night. I did take some pictures on Friday to go along with my “podcast”, but when I was uploading pictures last night I decided that all of those pictures sucked. It was too bright out.
Lunch Thursday was nice. I went to North Augusta’s Publix and grabbed some sushi (which I dropped on the floor, but it still tasted good. It was still safe inside its package). Then I headed over to Martintown Road and sat on a bench and ate it.
The flowers were just starting to bloom in Washington, just like here in Augusta. This is the most prominent flower we saw.
The plantation home itself was beautiful, well-maintained but with that old-house feel.
As usual, it was tough to get bellydance pictures in the low light. Everyone has red-eye, which I did not bother to try and correct. And the costumes are difficult to make out. But some of the pictures are decent. There’s also a little movie in there of Ame spinning around with a sword on her head! (I stuck it at the end to better facilitate slideshows.)
Yeah, so here’s a horrible recreation of what I audioblogged during my lunch today. It seems I’m okay at extemporizing and horrible at recitation. Maybe I should have used notes.
Oh well. I’ll have to try for a good, fluid, off-the-cuff audioblog some other time.
I was hoping to enjoy this experience, and I had some thoughts all ready to post, like how when I’m explaining things I think I sound like my Aunt Carol, and how it’s hard when I’m thinking of things to say and wishing I could magically hyperlink them to something to just keep talking. I even took some pictures to go along with the story.
But losing the post made me lose the thrill, so there you have it.
I’ll put the pictures up later.
I watched the US premiere of the new Dr. Who on the Sci-Fi Channel tonight. They showed two episodes.
The first one was kind of boring, and I found myself flipping to G4/Tech TV several times, which was showing a TNG rerun. I guess I don’t find mannequins coming to life very compelling…and to be honest, there wasn’t much character development in the episode. Rose was established as a gutsy, passionate woman who provided a good counterpoint for the seemingly cold Doctor, but I didn’t really care about the things she cared about (especially her boyfriend–though given the episode’s ending, maybe that was intentional).
There was one really good part. The Doctor describes an object he’s looking for, and Rose spots it over his shoulder. When she nods at it, he looks, then turns back and says, “What?” She nods again, and he looks again, but still–“What?” Finally, after the third “What?”, he gets it. The comedic timing is perfect.
Still, the second episode was much better overall. I don’t know if I liked the premise better–space and time travel are always good, and there were some excellent themes–or if the characterization was superior–I think it was, we get insight into the Doctor’s past and some great introspection on Rose’s part. Probably both. The parade of aliens was nothing new, but I enjoyed the humor. The idea of a bunch of rich aliens risking their necks to watch a planet be destroyed by its sun is so perfect, I can’t imagine that no one’s ever thought of it before. And the “last human”…wow.
I loved seeing the Doctor get pissed, too. (And by that I don’t mean “drunk”, you zany Brits.)
I enjoyed the performances of both leads; the Doctor is charismatic, and Rose is compelling (and a total babe). Also, Rose’s mum rules.
So all in all, I am interested to see the next episode.
I had never seen any Doctor Who before tonight. I wonder what the differences are?
…so I just bought a bunch of Angelic Layer, Full Metal Panic!, and RahXephon.
It’s too bad it’s only “selected items”, and that more of the anime I want to get/replace isn’t on the list. But hey, it’s still a fabulous deal!
Apparently the post didn’t go up because I didn’t wait through the menu before I keyed in my menu choice.
So that’s five minutes of my rambling gone forever.
Alas.
I signed up for Audioblogger the other day, and today at lunch I called in and recorded my first entry.
So where is it?
Heck if I know :P
Why is it that when I have plenty of free time, I’m dull and lifeless and completely uncreative, but when I’m extraordinarily busy, I tend to come up with all sorts of creative ideas? (I’m pretty proud of that blog template/layout/feature toolbar I came up with, for example.)
Here lately, an anime music video has leapt almost fully-formed into my head. It happened in the car, because that’s the only place I ever listen to the radio, and the inspiration was a new song.
Today the song came on again, and this time I could almost see the music video. The song is perfect. And the video would express some feelings I’ve had about one of my all-time favorite anime.
The only problems?
I don’t have the source video.
I don’t have the song.
I don’t have video editing software.
I have never made an anime music video before.
;>
I’ve been staring at flowering trees for days (weeks?) and wishing I could get some good pictures, but I haven’t managed to get close to any of them until today. Pictures of my excursion to Riverview Park are up. I also uploaded pictures from yesterday, when I went to the Greeneway.
I keep writing posts in my head while I’m out at lunch, and then not committing them to paper/screen later on. Today I thought I probably ought to set up audioblogger or something. We’ll see.
In any case, let me just recap real quick what I did yesterday and today.
I brought my lunch yesterday, but that didn’t stop me from going to McDonald’s on my break and getting a Filet O’Fish combo meal :> I then took it to the golf course side of the Greeneway.
I chose to wear my new floral high heels (Brooke’s shoes) yesterday, and while they are comfortable, they’re still high heels. So I took them off and walked barefoot down the Greeneway. The warm pavement felt awesome under my feet.
Looking for a place to stop and eat, I considered a trail leading towards the river, and a park bench, but both were too sunny. So I went on until I reached the old metal building sitting along the left-hand side of the Greeneway.
I didn’t stay, but I did look around. Though if walking a short way up the path, finding a trail that runs up next to the outbuilding, following that trail, and eating my lunch on a bed of pine needles counts as staying, then I guess I did stay.
By the way, the strap on my Wal-Mart purse is broken. This occurred shortly after Mari told me that the strap on her Wal-Mart purse had broken. I think she jinxed it. Regardless, I had a lot of fun lugging it and all my other crap around while trying to take pictures.
And that was my lunch yesterday.
Today I decided to go to Wife Saver. I knew there was one in North Augusta, but I wasn’t sure where, so I googled it. When I drove out Martintown to find it, I realized that there are hella restaurants on Martintown Road. I will have to go to Monterrey’s sometime!
My winding journey back into town led me further out Martintown, then back in on some road of which I don’t know the name, and finally to Buena Vista, which I took all the way down to Riverview Park. I hoped to find some flowering trees in the public space, but no such luck. I drove past the place where I usually park and headed back around the baseball field. Finally I felt that I really wanted to eat under the shade of some nice pine trees, even if there weren’t any flowers nearby, so I stopped and carted my lunch over to a bench among the trees.
Unfortunately I wasn’t there long before a bee started buzzing around me. At first I just sat still and waited for him to go away, but after a time it became obvious that he was very interested in the bench beneath me, so I packed up and moved on. The bee nuzzled up under the bench; he must have been a carpenter bee. ;P
I finished my lunch on a set of concrete steps, then wandered around and took a few pictures.
On my way out of the parking lot I realized there was a beautiful flowering tree right across the street.
So, like the obsessive that I am, I left my car idling in the entrance to the parking lot, ran across the street, and took pictures until a truck pulled into the parking lot and I decided I’d better move.
After that, I headed back to the office, narrowly avoiding an accident when I failed to notice a stop sign ;P gj!
All in all, I had a good day. As usual, my lunch excursion was very pleasant, and breathed life into my day. Otherwise, I stayed busy, and I had a project to work on in between newscasts.
I also didn’t get up early and do contract work today, which I think helped me be less tired. But I have plenty of freelance projects I need to finish before I can stop doing that and have a clear conscience, so tomorrow it’s back to the grind.