Archives down for maintenance
Just a quick maintenance note: I'm doing a little back-end maintenance on the site, so the archives are down. Hope to have things back online by next weekend!
September 12, 2011
November 10, 2009
Saying Something Real
Being in a hurry - or tired or grumpy or antisocial etc - is no excuse for not taking the time and effort to make your contributions meaningful.
This is everything that crosses my mind after I stop with the excuse. I think about all the throw-away phrases I use where I could have actually said something valuable. I once wrote, "Every time you say blah blah blah, a creative writing teacher dies," and I meant it. Each time you open your mouth, you have an opportunity to build something. That's the perspective you want during the uncomfortable dead silence, not the victim-based emotion of excuse.
(via Rands)
March 23, 2009
Site Business
Website needs a redesign. This look is years old. Years. Guess it's geek out time. Finally updated my aging SFTP and text editor software. No more excuses.
Anybody have any opinions whatsoever about what kind of content they would like to see on this thing? At this point it's completely based on whim and (sporadic) inspiration, with no particular direction. I'm pretty OK with this, but if all 2 people who read it find it execrably boring and neither entertaining nor educational maybe it's time to change direction.
November 16, 2007
Teh Inbox
You people who keep your inbox at zero messages - or under 10 - who ARE you? How do you do it?
HOW??
Two hours of furious emailing/sorting/organizing and my work inbox is still at about 30 messages. And I'm not even going to talk about my personal inbox...
August 9, 2007
Miller Time!
Reggie Miller says he is contemplating a return to the NBA, this time with the Boston Celtics.
DO IT, REGGIE!!!
That man needs a RING!
June 8, 2007
It's Going to Happen
Sometimes you're rolling along through your Bloglines, skimming and clicking and tabbing, and you get stopped short by something that hits you just the right way. I love it when that happens.
From Posie, who always inspires me to get creative:
I put the needles down and didn't pick them up again for several years. When I tried to knit again, this time with a woman in her 70s named Heather who worked at the Yarn Garden, it was a completely different experience. I wanted to make something special for my soon-to-be-born niece, and Heather said, "Just pick something." And I started saying, "But I can't! I'm not allowed! The other teacher said it could only be wool! And she has to do her super-secret recalculations! Are you going to do the super-secret calculations???" And, of course, poor bewildered Heather (having learned to knit at age 7) was like, "Oh, pshaw. We'll make whatever you love. Pick something. What do you love?" And that is why I love Heather, rest her. I think my blood pressure dropped 20 points systolic. And — zing! — I instantly became a member of the club. I felt freedom and joy. I made a little kimono out of the craziest, cutest, bobble-y-ist yarn you've ever seen, and it wasn't easy, but what's so great about "easy"? Easy is relative. You just need a little space and a little time and a little C'mon baby! Join the human race! There is no secret handshake. You just get in there. If one book doesn't work, get another. If one teacher doesn't resonate, get another. It's all part of how it goes. You don't just stop, you go. I remember an old English professor of mine saying a long, long time ago, "Someday you will read something that will blow your mind. You'll be so excited you'll want to read every single thing about that thing, or by that person, or whatever it is. It will happen." And it just amazed me that someone would promise that. I remember thinking, "My God, it's going to happen to me! It's going to happen!" And since then it's happened a million times, and I get up every morning wondering if it might happen, that day, again. You just gotta believe.
April 13, 2007
Strange Maps
Don't know how I hadn't found this site before, but Strange Maps is fantastic.
Check it out! The The Free and Independent Republic of West Florida!
Meanwhile, new American settlers in the territory united with ‘old’ formerly British settlers from the British era to resist Spanish rule, leading to a rebellion in 1810. On September 23, 75 West Floridian rebels overcame a Spanish garrison of 28 (sleeping) soldiers at Baton Rouge, replacing the Spanish colours with the Bonnie Blue Flag (a single white star on a blue field) of the new nation. The fight left two dead and five wounded – sources aren’t clear whether these were rebel or soldier. Independence was formally declared three days later (and would last a grand total of 74 days.)
April 2, 2007
Champs
HOW BOUT THEM GATORS?
March 25, 2007
Macs Still Win
These days I'm still cranking away on my going-on-5-years-old Powerbook. This old bugger takes a lickin' and keeps on tickin', it's great. I do all of my photo management (and occasional editing, usually too lazy) on it. Things tend to look pretty decent, color-wise, aside from all of the stupid mistakes I make when actually taking the pictures.
Then I go to the office. I work on a new Dell laptop there, provided to me by the U of O. When I log into my Flickr account, the pictures look terrible. Terrible! Too faded, too dark, too saturated, not saturated enough. I literally cringe every time I see them and think about all of my friends who are still using PCs and how every image they see on their laptops could be just as bad.
I suspect that higher-end PC laptops have better displays, but seriously, Dell, come on. My 5-year old Mac pwnz your NEW one. Get with the program.
Speaking of bad and old things, here's a classic, recently unearthed, I don't even remember who took this but it sure takes me back: How not to ride tandem, or, How not to take an action shot, or, Shades of violet that should never be worn together. Lordy.
January 9, 2007
iPhone
OK. Finally it's official. Time to start savin' some cash NOW.*
* And by that I mean wait for my early adopter friends to spring for one, try theirs out, wait for prices to come down, wait for the next version to get even better, try it out again. I mean, would you want to be one of those people with one of those ancient first-gen iPods?
November 9, 2006
Keillor
GARRISON KEILLOR IS COMING TO BOISE! To benefit the Boise State NPR station!
I am SO there!
You know, I was a little late to jump on the Prairie Home Companion <3 <3 <3 Keillor train. But then I drove across the country with my mom and we listened to the entirety of Lake Wobegon Days through America's late-summer heartland. And then I understood.
October 20, 2006
Fluff
Sorry that the posts have been so fluffy around here lately, y'all. I've been busy at work and fried in the evenings. I should have more time in the next few weeks to put some more thought into things.
October 18, 2006
Search Engine Strings
I get some pretty funny hits to this website from search engine strings. Most of them relate to flying.. and you gotta wonder about who searches for these things. A selection:
"flying machine jeans rates"
"lets go to outback tonight ban"
"early bird flying machines"
"orange corduroy yard"
"nearest bicycle shop to hall middle school"
"making a flying machine at home" (YEAH! Somebody show me how!)
"vintage glass jugs with basket weaving handle"
"the flying and drying machine"
"flying man sewing machine"
By the Way,
I'm now writing using my PAID AND LEGAL wireless connection. No more shifting the laptop around at the foot of my bed, squeezing a dialup-slow connection from somebody else's service!
It's real nice.
p.s. Today I went to the Owyhee River and took some sweet photos. I'll try to upload them tomorrow morning. Also, Nyssa is a goldmine of picture opportunities. Going to go back soon to take some. And visit the junk shops.
September 19, 2006
Pirate Riddles for Sophisticates
I stopped by McSweeney's today for the first time in a long while and found this:
Q: What's a pirate's favorite aspect of computational linguistics? A: PARRRsing sentences.Q: What's a pirate's favorite alliance-creating diplomatic agreement from the Second World War?
A: The TripARRRtite Pact.Q: If that same pirate were then to recite a 20th-century poem about the nature of poetry, what would it be?
A: "ARRRs Poetica" by ARRRchibald MacLeish.
(UPDATE: After all, it is, apparently, Talk Like a Pirate Day.)
September 14, 2006
Strange Machines
I've been having problems with my laptop overheating. Nothing disastrous - it's not going to melt or anything - but it's disconcerting to have the thing's internal fans come on high when I'm in the middle of working on something.
The weird thing, though, is this: when I'm working at a desk or on any flat surface, even with the machine propped up for ventilation, it starts whirring after just a few minutes. When I sit it in my lap, where it arguably gets less ventilation and is warmer from body heat, it doesn't overheat at all. The fans don't come on.
It's a striking difference - I can have it on for literally 5 minutes at home on the table, using just Firefox, before the fans come on. But when I sit with it on my lap for 2 hours straight while watching a movie, they don't come on once.
What in the world??
September 11, 2006
Comedy Hour?
One of the ways that I plan to stay sane while driving out to Oregon is with books on tape. I'm also thinking of getting a few comedy albums to break things up -
Can anybody tell me anything at all about who might be good? I like Eddie Izzard, so I'm gonna get some of his classic late-90's stuff. But that's about all I got so far. I don't really know much about the work of some of the newer people like Dane Cook or Mitch Hedberg or any of those. It can't be anything too dirty, 'cause my mom will be in the car with me. Cursing is ok, though, as long as it's not ridiculous.
(UPDATE: I spent a few minutes educating myself on comedians and am gonna get some Mitch Hedberg, Margaret Cho, Bill Cosby, and, of course, some Izzard. Any more suggestions?)
August 30, 2006
Linksss
Some good stuff from the internets:
August 29, 2006
Oh, um, by the way -
So I do actually have some interesting things to talk about on this blog. I've just got that problem where I sit and read and read and read about something (e.g. that Forbes piece, or the Gwyneth Paltrow African ads, or crack cocaine rings in citrus groves) and don't get to writing about it 'cause there just seem to be so many angles on the issue.
I'm workin on it. I have tomorrow off work thanks to dear old tropical storm Ernesto, so perhaps I'll get to posting some more thoughtful pieces then.
Eyesight
Wow. Cows and manatees have some seriously bad eyesight. I should know, 'cause mine is almost as bad as that described below:
By varying the distance between the lines, the researchers showed that Buffett’s eyesight was about 20/420, similar to a cow’s and far worse than a human’s.
This NYTimes piece on manatees is pretty cool. It makes me feel bad for hating on Florida manatees when I was a kid (I preferred Florida panthers). If you, like me, were once a manatee-hater, check it out. They're not as stupid as we thought!
August 25, 2006
LOLZ
All I can really say about this is that I had a hard time not laughing so loud as to upset the meeting going on in the next room over. I don't usually read the Dilbert blog, but I found this link, and couldn't resist. I had no idea that men's undergarments could be so problematic. Guys, is this for real?
"No sooner had I freed Farmer Johnson from the cotton clutches..."
UPDATE: I've received confirmation from several sources that this is, in fact, a real issue. Hehe.
August 7, 2006
Talladega Nights
I was going to post some photographs tonight.
But I left my camera cable in Eugene, and I'm in Portland.
Instead, read my friend Andrew's review of Talladega Nights - I haven't seen it yet, but being from NASCAR country, I want to, and he's got some good thoughts on it.
July 15, 2006
About this Site.
Here we go:
Sarah
grew up in rural Florida
educated in rural New Hampshire
currently live and work in rural Oregon (Columbia River Gorge; previously, the High Desert)
The only thing I'm really going for here is to have a place to write some thoughts down for myself and for my friends and for whoever else is interested. This way maybe when I look back in a year or twenty I'll have something to show for what I thought and did way back when. It'll probably be embarrassing, but that's ok.
For those of you whom Google sent here whilst searching for "directions for home flying machine" or "flying machine jeans," sorry, I wish I had those too.
You can contact me through the comments or by writing me here.
I'm also on: