Ghosts of Halloweens past

When I was a kid back in the 60s, Halloween was a major event. It seemed the entire town delighted in haunted houses and door-to-door trick-or-treating. My sister and I would meet up with our cousins and roam the eastside neighborhood from sunset until 10:00, collecting apples, candy, small bags of popcorn and the occasional [...]

Jumping off the cliff

National Novel Writing Month begins on Wednesday. For those unfamiliar with it, the goal is to write the complete first draft of a novel, 50,000 words or more, between November 1 and November 30. I’ve been thinking about it all of October, wondering if this is the time to screw up my courage and learn [...]

Stupid is as stupid does

Note to self: when writing list-style-type, disk must be spelled disc. Duh.

Boo hiss, Apple

While trying to help a friend figure out an embed problem in Firefox, I needed to download the latest version of Quicktime. But when I went to the download page, the only free version I could find came bundled with iTunes, a program I refuse to use. I’m loyal to Music Match Jukebox and I [...]

It’s legal, but is it right?

Reading the Seattle PI this morning, I was surprised to find a flashing banner ad for Mike McGavick, Republican candidate for the Senate, across the top of a news story I was reading. I checked half a dozen other stories, and the ad was there, too. It seems to be tagged to all news stories [...]

More on absentee voting

I thought it was bad that Washington requires me to sign my ballot envelop before I send it in. Listening to NPR this morning, I discovered it’s worse in Ohio. Not only must they sign their vote, they have to turn over their driver’s license, military id or Social Security number as well. Ohio passed [...]

Girly whining

Is there a law somewhere that says it’s illegal to have 10 perfect fingernails at one time? Just when I got them exactly the way I want them, I broke 2 this morning. They’re polished bright red, too, which means I have to remove all the color to keep from looking ridiculous. Grrr.

Giving locally

It’s Pledge Week for my local NPR affiliate. Though I’ve listened for a couple of years, I’ll confess I’ve never contributed to the cause. When the kids were little and watching Sesame Street and Mr. Rogers I annually sent my $35 in to the PBS tv station, but as they grew (and the station stopped [...]

Random bullets ala Parts-n-Pieces

Happy thing: I learned how to turn off the rich text editor in WordPress 2. Thank God! Happy thing: one button database backup in WordPress 2. Happy thing: New host that hasn’t glitched yet Happy thing: a Presto Log fire in the evenings Not so happy thing: ice on my windshield in the morning Happy [...]

“So good?”

Teen Girl Squad has become a cult phenomenon. I suppose it’s one of those things that is so bad it’s almost good. If you haven’t seen it yet, it’s sort of like a train wreck, but I’ll freely admit I’m a bit beyond the target demographic. Meredith and her friends are nuts for it, so [...]

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