Monday, January 24, 2005

I Gots a Snow Day!

All Philadelphia schools are closed so I get the day off! *Victory Dance*

I knew last nigh I wasn't going in, there's a foot of snow completely surounding my car. Can't go anywhere. But it's nice that I don't have to call in to work and explain. And last night Andy and I agreed, I repeated, agreed, that we would spend the day at home. A foot of snow. Stay home.

He was outside shoveling the cars out at 5 am this morning. Punk. We agreed! Apparently "agreed" only means he'll wait until I'm asleep to do what he wants. So Andy's at work now while I'm toasty warm and still in my jim jams. Poor Natalie had to go to work today and Delmar was actually on his way over to dig our cars out. I am astounded by this act of kidness. I would have never presumed to ask and it really caught me off guard.

Snow days really are the best days off. Now, I have a busy schedule of playing computer games and putting music on the MP3, whose name is Thelonius Monk. I can to me last night as I ripped a jazz cd. Those games won't play themselves...

Saturday, January 22, 2005

Still Snowing

My post this morning at at 11, there abouts. It's after five now and it's still snowing.

There's a kid out in the courtyard making a snow fort. Well, the kid is knee deep in snow, his tonka truck completely buried, and he's crawling around on his stomach. I thik he's making a snow fort. Hard to tell.

According to the Weather Channel, it'll snow until Sunday, leaving us with 12 inches of the white stuff.

To celebrate, I made a chicken soup. Yummy.

It's a Blizzard

Part of the Jolly Roger "Got to Get it Fixed Right Now" crisis is that fact that the Northeast is expect about a foot of snow to arrive this morning. Andy and I were at Circuit City at 9 a.m., not knowing the store opened at ten. Got to beat the snow storm.

By the time we made our purchases and were on the way home, the light flurries really picked up the pace and the meterological situation could be described as snowing. Now it's snowing like crazy. Twelve iches of snow give or take a few is expected. We'll be cocooned inside the apartment all weekend. I'll be playing computer games.

Baby's Got a Brand New Box!

The new computer arrived last night via the Watkins (who not only put together and installed the machine, but they make deliveries!) And after playing around with it qay past my bed time last night, I can honestly say the Jolly Roger is too much computer for me. It's too powerful. I'm in awe and a little afraid of opening programs least I totally fuck something up.

But in the vein of totally fucking up: we (the Jolly Roger and I) had our first crisis last night. Somehow, and this is only speculation on what actually happened, while I was playing Civ III, an omnimous blue screen popped up and warned that I only had 5 minutes of battery power left. The battery? But the dang machine's plugged into the UPS, the power source. Fuck.

I close the program. Then the whole machine just turns off. And then a high pitched beeeeeeeeeep. It's coming from the UPS. Anxious and really not wanting to wake up the neighbors at midnight with my lack of geek-fu, I grab the UPS and start unplugging, trying to turn it off.

Silence. Something happened.

I turn it on the power button. I suspect that it had been turned off accidently earlier in the evening. The UPS, in addition to being more than a surge protector, is also a battery and can provide a little bit of juice if even the lights go out.

I plug stuff back in. Except for the modem cord that goes from the box to the UPS. The little plastic thing broke in my haste. Oh fuck. Won't go back in, just keeps falling out.

I reassemble the UPS. Everything's fine except no modem connection, no internet.

But this story has a happy ending. Andy and I take the broken cord to Circuit City and by a replacement. We by a new cord, I install, and see how I type on the internet via the new cord! The first crisis with the Jolly Roger resolved. Now it's my computer. I already broke it. :) And then fixed it. *Mel all puffed up with pride*

Tuesday, January 18, 2005

Katamari Damacy

I spent yesterday playing the most addictive game ever: Katamari Damacy. The basic story is the King of the Cosmos went on a drunken bender and destroyed all the stars. So it's up to his son, a little green dude, to go to the bother of rolling up things on Earth to use as star stuff. To do this, you use a strange ball that stuff sticks too and the more you roll, the bigger the ball gets and the more stuff you can pick up.

It's very cool. The art, the music...It's all so strange, it's brilliant. And there really is nothing like rolling over a cat and a seeing it's little legs thrash about as the ball rolls. Supposedly, in the higher levels, the ball gets so big you can pick up buildings and even Godzilla. Cool. "Earth certainly is full of things," as the King of the Cosmos says.

Tuesday, January 11, 2005

Mel Enters the Digital Age

Tremendous news! I, she of old technology, Super Nintendo nostalgia and acient laptop, have purchased a blazing new computer and, most importantly, and MP3 player. I know. Can you believe it?

The computer is a custom build job, which Delmar and Natalie have graciously offered to do. Thank you, thank you, thank you. Of course, I have to be there to "learn" so I won't be so backwards when it comes to spiffing technology. It's got a fast processor (2.9 ghz *sigh*), a kick ass video card for the money, and, most importantly, a scary case. Black and red with this disturbing red glow from the inside. It's tough. If you met my computer in a dark alley, it'll beat you up, take your money and possibly steal all your data.

Ian is going wireless and will be updated to Windows 98 SE so he can suport jumpdrives and not be so tediously redunant. Natalie gave him a physical on Sunday, accessing his wireless apptitude. Apparently, given his age, he's a miracle. Hardly any bad patches on the hard drive and not as slow as I seem to think he is. But I an rather finicky. I want instant! Can't be bothered to wait 15-20 seconds for a program to open.

The MP3 player comes directly from Mom and Gran's Walmart gift cards. Thank you lots. It's not an iPod but I ain't got that kind of money. I also took my chances with the Belkin Tunecast II so I can listen in my car. The reviews ran hot and cold. Either they sucked outright or people loved them. But the reviews from this area seemed favorable so I'll keep my fingers crossed.

The MP3 should be here by the weekend. The computer is shipping as I type. Hopefully it'll be costructed over the weekend. Andy and I puchased a laser printer last month, so I'm good in the printer department. The only thing left on my list is a digital camera. Cool. I like being updated.

Saturday, January 08, 2005

How long does it take for a man to revert to bachelorhood?

Good question. This week, I've been struggling with a cold and taking so much de-congestant I can't feel my toes. In an effort to get better, I went straight to bed when I got home from work.

I woke around 7, hungry and sleepy.

Andy was sitting on the couch in a natty old tee shirt and eating macaroni right out of the pan.

"What are you doing?"

"I didn't want to get a plate dirty."

Honestly. It took me not making dinner for one night for that man to revert to bachelorhood. I'm lucky he didn't paint his face and speak in a made up language only other savage men could understand.

It was pretty funny.

And I'm feeling better now. Just a little crappy.

Count Every Vote

I found this lovely message in my mailbox this morning:

No American citizen should wake up the morning after the election and worry their vote wasn't counted. No citizen should be denied at the polls if they are eligible to vote. And, as the greatest, wealthiest nation on earth, our citizens should never be forced to vote on old, unaccountable and non transparent voting machines from companies controlled by partisan activists.

Tomorrow, members of Congress will meet to certify the results of the 2004 presidential election. I will not be taking part in a formal protest of the Ohio Electors.

Despite widespread reports of irregularities, questionable practices by some election officials and instances of lawful voters being denied the right to vote, our legal teams on the ground have found no evidence that would change the outcome of the election.

But, that does not mean we should abandon our commitment to addressing those problems that happened in Ohio. We must act today to make sure they never happen again.

I urge you to join me in using this occasion to highlight our demand that Congress commit itself this year to reforming the electoral system. A Presidential election is a national federal election but we have different standards in different states for casting and counting votes. We need a national federal standard to solve the problems that occurred in the 2004 election. I will propose legislation to help achieve this.

Florida 2000 was a wake up call. But the Republicans who control Congress ignored it. Will they now ignore what happened in 2004?

There are nearly 3,000,000 of you receiving this email. We accomplished so much together during the campaign. Now let's use our power to make sure that at least one good thing comes from the voting rights problems of the 2004 election. If we want to force real action on election reform, we've got to demand that congressional leaders hold full hearings. Make sure they hear from you and help hold them accountable.

Speaker Dennis Hastert: 1-202-225-0600
Leader Bill Frist: 1-202-224-3135

And please report that you've made your call right here: http://www.johnkerry.com/signup/electoral_reform.php

I want every vote counted because Americans have to know that the votes they stood in line for, fought for, and strived so hard to cast in an election, are counted. We must make sure there are no questions or doubts in future elections. It's critical to our democracy that we investigate and act to prevent voting irregularities and voter intimidation across the country. We can't stand still as Congressional leaders seek to sweep well-founded voter concerns under the rug.
Please join with me in calling Speaker Hastert and Leader Frist and telling them that you want action on election reform now.

A recent report from Representative John Conyers (D-Michigan) reveals very troubling questions that have not yet been answered by Ohio election officials. I commend the Democratic National Committee for its announcement this week that the DNC will be investing resources and reaching out to non-partisan academics in a long term study of Ohio voting irregularities. I am only sorry that we haven't seen the same from Ohio Secretary of State Blackwell and GOP officials.

Congress must play a positive, proactive role on this issue. That's why I will soon introduce legislation to reform our election system, ensuring transparency and accountability in our voting system and that all Americans have an opportunity to vote and have their vote counted.
Please remember to let us know that you made your call when you're done. We're hoping to ensure House and Senate leaders' offices hear our demand for action on election reform in meaningful way. Please take a moment to let us know you have made your call here: http://www.johnkerry.com/signup/electoral_reform.php

Thank you,

John Kerry

I believe it does not matter which side of the political fence you align yourself with or whom you voted for, but I do believe that your vote should be counted. The fact that there are votes in Ohio that were not counted is troubling. And I also think federal elections reform are needed. (Why can't we vote on paper like the rest of the world? Traceable, re-countable, simplistic paper?)

Every vote should count. Please call. It's important.

Saturday, January 01, 2005

It was an smacksident!

Last night, or sometime in the dark hours of the morning, I'm trying to sleep in an enjoy the holiday. The cat is doing his best to lick every inch of Andy's face and Andy is struggling. By struggling, I mean keeping perfectly still and whimpering but not doing a thing to defend himself against the cat. Fairly unhapply about being woken, I lean over, spy something round and furry, and smack it.

It was Andy's head. The cat, knowing that it was meant to for him, took off like a rocket.

"I'm sorry!" I plea. "It was an accident!"

"Sure you are, just a little smacksident."