New Car

By request, here is a picture of my new car.

Other reasons to love my new car:

• The keyless entry system.
  
  It took me a few days to stop walking up to the door and using the key, but I finally got the hang of it. I can even pop the trunk from a few feet away! Okay, so it's not new technology, but this is still the first car that I've ever owned with this cool capability.
  



• The computer security hooks.
  
  Sorry, did I lose you there?
  
  The manual refers to them as "Car seat security tethers", but c'mon, an infant car seat in my car? I think not. However, my Kensington lock fits perfectly, so the laptop stays in its case on the back seat, I drape a coat over the lock, and I can go to Curves or into the supermarket and not be jittery about leaving the computer in the car. Can't do it on a hot day, even with the wonderful tinted windows, but it's still a great option.



• The tinted windows.
  
  I know I've mentioned them already, but in addition to keeping the interior cool, they also make it more difficult to see inside the car, and therefore to see stuff on the backseat inside the car, so I think they deserve to be mentioned again.

I'm a little disappointed with her gas mileage, as it is actually 3-4 miles per gallon less than the old one, but even with today's gas prices, that's a small price to pay for all the goodness. Yes, I'm really loving my new car....

Spelling Suggestions, Part 2

I was maybe too hasty in my earlier post about Microsoft Word's spell-checker...

I was editing a policy manual for theses and dissertations and one criteria is that the paper can't have any holes, i.e., that it is unpunched.

Word doesn't like the word 'unpunched' and has an alternative that makes me wonder (not for the first time) about the Microsoft programmers...

The suggestion?

Unquenched.

Jury Duty

I got selected for jury duty today. They anticipate the trial lasting most of this week, but hopefully not any longer.

My only hope is that maybe I'll get some good (non-evidentiary) writing material out of it. Already, two of the other jury members are getting on my nerves...

Wish me luck...

Creative Endeavor

I haven’t exactly been writing, but I have been involved with sort of a creative endeavor that has been eating a lot of my time.

This tutorial represents a collaborative effort on the part of myself and four other librarians here at UHH. The initial request / impetus came from the Computer Science 101 instructors. The template we based it on came from Kapiolani Community College. My librarian colleagues did most of the writing / tweaking, and I did all the web design work. Then four of us team-taught six sections of CS 101.

All the hours spent were definitely worth it – the Computer Science instructors were pleased, the students actually participated, and we (the instruction librarians) now have an additional tool we can use in the future.

My English class is still going well – I performed well on both the midterm and second in-class writing and think I did okay on my part of our group presentation. But, it’s the end of the semester and I have a 7-9 page research paper due in slightly less than two weeks, so I probably won’t be posting much. I’ve chosen the family dynamics and social structure in a few different versions of Beauty and the Beast and if the paper goes well, I’ll try to remember to post something about it here.

Tears of Joy, Tears of Sadness

I finally saw March of the Penguins and if there is anything in this world that deserves to be labeled a miracle, it is the fact that there are still Emperor Penguins in it.

I think it’s also not unreasonable to label it insane, awesome, incredible, unbelievable, inconceivable, amazing... {add your own adjective here}

Words don’t come easily after watching this story of determination and hardship.

This production deserves all the awards that it has won, and even more kudos on top of those. And I do hope the production crew got to vacation somewhere warm!

This film has wonderful long passages that allows the penguins to tell their own story without a ton of editing or commentary. Don’t get me wrong: the narration by Morgan Freeman is outstanding, but it doesn’t interfere with enjoying the movie.

March of the Penguins also doesn’t shy away from the truth or over sentimentalize. Some of it is difficult to watch, because it’s not sugarcoated – life is harsh for these small creatures at the bottom of the world. There is death and heartache. And you’re in for a surprise if you think penguins don’t have emotions – just watch the scene with the first egg.

Do yourself a favor and watch this tribute to the power of life. Despite the agony and helplessness of some of this story, overall it’s very life-affirming. I’m still shaking my head over the improbability of it all....

I’ve been writing and re-writing this post, but I really can’t say it any better than Jérôme Maison did in the ‘Of Penguins and Men’ special feature (which is really like getting a second Penguins movie on the same disc!)

The paradox of Antarctica: splendor and sadness exist side by side.

......

Life seems all the more precious to us now that the Emperor Penguins have shown us how fragile, delicate, and miraculous it is.

Amen.

If you follow the ‘March of the Penguins Press Materials’ link from the National Geographic website, you’ll find some fascinating background material (disguised as ‘Production Notes’) and awesome photographs (‘Hi Res Art). The ‘Official Movie Web Site’ has lots of info, too, and includes more photos, a screensaver, and wallpapers.

Oh, yeah, did I mention how darn cute penguins are?

She's Here!

For those of you wondering about the dry weather in Hilo the past few days, let me explain:

I finally got my new car!

btw, that also explains the silly little grin on my face :-}

Don’t get me wrong – the car I’ve been driving is a good car and I’ll be sorry to see her go – I'm very comfortable with her. She was the first car that I wanted and I bought. She’s a bit sporty and we’ve driven quite a few miles together.

But I just couldn’t pass on this new car: an immaculate, non-leaky, 2002 silver Saturn with only 17,000 miles, tinted windows, 10-CD changer – all for only $3,000.

Yes, I just stole a car and it was perfectly legal.

Even the security guard at Young Brothers (shipping company) said, "Wow, nice car!" as I was driving out the gate yesterday.

It still feels like I’m driving someone else’s car. I don’t know if this is just because it’s a different car or if it’s because it used to belong to a friend and I’m still perceiving it as her car. Whichever it is, I think the feeling will soon pass.

One other small problem, however, needs some immediate attention: the new car doesn’t have a name.

When Mom and I got the Honda Civic in 1988, we named her "Baby Car". When I got my original Saturn in October 2003, I knew old habits would die hard, so the new car would have to have a name beginning with "Baby". Since she was a blue-green, or teal, color, and P and I were deep in the trenches of writing the first Stargate script, it was almost inevitable that she ended up as "Baby Teal’c" or "Baby T" for short.

I think it will be okay if the new car’s name doesn’t start out with "Baby", but Mom and I have been brainstorming for weeks now and haven’t really come up with anything that seems right.

Waddya say, all you insanely creative people out there? Anybody got an idea for a name for my new silver Saturn?

My Daddy

I want to say a big, public "Mahalo nui loa" to my dad for being there when I needed him. It was 3 a.m. Hawaii time, I was scared, confused, uncertain, frazzled -- you get the picture. He was calm, cool, and collected and knew exactly how to fix my problem. I love you, Poppy!

Missed

I didn't even realize until late today that I missed posting yesterday. I guess I was too busy studying for my midterm. Which didn't go as well as I hoped. It's a bad sign when there is a list of seven characters to identify and your mind is completely blank on one of the names. Of course, I immediately looked it up and now will probably never be able to forget it.

Anyway, I updated my 52 in 52 list for 2005. I really will try to keep better track this year...

The Best Laid Plans...

...often go completely haywire.

Instead of updating my 52 in 52 list (the plan), I ended up running around after popped surge protectors, turning off computers, and writing emails to explain all the 'out of order' signs (the haywire). {pun intended}

On Saturday, I experienced a melted battery pack in an emergency light fixture at IfA.

I was beginning to worry that I might be turning into some kind of walking electrical disruption field, but have instead decided to blame it on all the rain we've been having lately....

Friday Night

The plan:
Pizza whilst watching Pride and Prejudice, possibly followed by some light reading or, if they were willing, some playtime with the babies.

The reality:
Nearly burnt pizza and a right hand scribbling furiously from the moment I got home. I had to eat with my left hand and try not to spill sauce on the notebook.

The culprit:
An idea tossed at me by P. At first, I could only think of what arcane form of punishment I would inflict on her, but since it's flowing very well, I may postpone the torture sessions...

1990-something

I've been working on consolidating the Astronomy and Physics guides and updating the design to conform to the new, snazzier style of the Counseling Psychology and Education guides.

So, I started reviewing the encyclopedias and dictionaries we have. Have we purchased any new ones since the guides were last updated? (Yes) Are there any newer editions for some of our older volumes? (Yes) Are there any older volumes that don't have newer editions that should be removed from the guide? (Yes)

And that's when I realized I require a radical shift in my thinking and the criteria I'm using because 1997 was 9 years ago.

The 90s just don't seem like they happened that long ago. Intellectually I know that 1990 was 16 years ago, but emotionally the thought that I could have a teenager just does not compute.

Along these same lines, I'm having a lot of difficulty accepting that I will turn 37 this year. I haven't had issues with my age before, but suddenly it doesn't seem like I can really be as old as the calendar says I am...

Uh-oh

I just realized that it's time to go home and I haven't posted anything yet today.

Today was kind of crappy, especially after the highs of yesterday. Not totally crappy, 'cause some good things happened, but I still wish I could have stayed home with my cats.

Which is where I'm headed right now. Will try for a more interesting post tomorrow...

Nailed

As you may remember, I was disappointed by my in-class writing last week. I was resigned to sucking it up and moving on. I’ll do better the next go-round!

So to say that today’s class was shocking would be a massive understatement. Not only was my writing good enough to have “nailed it” (that’s a direct quote from the instructor) and earn FULL points, but I was also asked to share it with the class by reading it aloud :-o !

Now, I made sure to point out that I do have a bit of an advantage over my classmates in that I already have a Bachelor’s in English (albeit from 1991) but I stressed that more importantly, to be able to write well, one must not only write a lot and write on a regular basis, but one must also read a lot. One student pointed out that I had used some words he wasn’t familiar with and I shared that I still keep a vocabulary notebook and subscribe to a Word of the Day.

And then I did a well-received Connections presentation, showing parallels between Eumenides by Aeschylus, Path of the Fury by David Weber, and The Kindly Ones by Neil Gaiman.

Needless to say, I’m flying pretty high right now. And not nearly as worried about next week’s midterm now.

Now if only I could write something decent for the second script....

Lousy Timing

Why do the ideas wait until I decide to go to bed?

Why is it that I can sit for hours reading, researching, thinking, writing and having nothing to show for it and finally be so tired that I call it a night, and ONLY THEN will the ideas start to flow so quickly that I can barely (and sometimes not at all) scribble them down.

And then there’s such a sense of loss for the ones I couldn’t pen in time. Was there a real gem in there that I’ve now lost forever, or was it just so-so, and it’s okay that it’s now gone?

And even if I do get all the ideas down, there’s the agony of trying to decipher my handwriting, which is not good even on my best days and deteriorates rapidly the longer and faster I write.

Anyway, I’ve got a presentation in my English class tomorrow, and the ideas were for that and I think they’re good ones, so I’m grateful they showed up, but two hours earlier would have been nicer...

White Trash With Money

Toby Keith has released the first single from his next album, and while Get Drunk and Be Somebody doesn't have as tight a grip on me as Honkytonk U did last year, any new Toby Keith material is reason to celebrate in my book.

And celebrate I shall, because the new album, White Trash With Money, is set to be released on April 11, just in time....

Graffiti Blues

I finally got around to replacing Jade, my 6-year old PDA that died last year.

{Yes, I named my handheld. I've named her successor, my laptop, and my car. Get over it.}

During the past 6 years, I've gotten fairly proficient at Graffiti, the writing software that Palm uses to input data. It's got some quirks, but then, so do I :) Most of the time, I'm able to input what I meant the first time and be pretty quick about it, too. I even occasionally find myself writing Graffiti characters when using pen and paper. Habits can be a terrible thing...

But when I got the new unit I discovered that Palm has changed to Graffiti 2 and it's making me crazy… um, you know, crazier than usual.

While the original Graffiti uses only one stroke per character, some of the G2 characters use 2 strokes. But the one stroke character will show on the screen first, and if you complete the second stroke quickly enough, it will change to the 2-stroke character. Too slow? Backstroke over that character and try again, loser.

As if that isn't frustrating enough, some of the strokes I'm used to are now assigned to a different character, e.g., the stroke I'm used to for the letter 'k' now produces an ampersand. I am not amused.

I've been doing a little investigating to see if I can somehow program it to use the original Graffiti instead, but I haven't had any luck yet. So now it looks like to be able to write how I want on my handheld, I will have to pay for a new software program.

Has anyone else had this problem? More importantly, has anyone else been able to fix it without forking over any more dough?

Lost Brothers?

I've recently gotten hooked on watching videos courtesy of Yahoo! -- no, really, I'm getting work done, too -- and was reminded again of how much Jon Bon Jovi, Viggo Mortensen, Kevin Sorbo, and Kevin Kay look alike.

Some of you won't know the last name, but ya just gotta trust me, he belongs on the list.

I've thought for a long time that the two Kevins looked alike and maybe the rest is just that thanx to S. I get to see a lot of photos of Viggo, but when I was watching some of the newer Bon Jovi videos yesterday, the thought smacked me again.

Anyone want to tell me I'm crazy?

Anyone want to back me up?

Dreams

The experts say –

Digression: Any time you read “The experts say” make sure you ask ‘Which experts? From where? How long have they been studying this? From where did they get their funding?’ All good questions that I’m not going to document for this post – I’ve done some reading on the subject, you can do your own research if you’re really interested. End of digression.

– that humans dream every night. I’ll take their word for it (for now), but if I am dreaming every single night, I certainly don’t remember most of my dreams.

I used to have recurring dreams (no, not about guys or sex, darn it!) but, although I can still remember a few of them, I haven’t actually dreamed (dreamt?) them in many years.

I still have anxiety dreams. I used to have them at the beginning of every semester. The most recent one was just before my presentation at the Hawaii Library Association’s Annual Conference in November 2005 (which actually went very well).

My dreams usually make no sense. The “experts” say dreams are a way for the mind to ponder daytime problems and suggest solutions. Well, if my mind is coming up with solutions while I sleep, it’s not sharing them once I wake up.

In my dreams, places are not identifiable, they change suddenly and randomly, people morph into other people, a person will be an amalgamation of two or more people – confusing stuff like that. So, except for the anxiety dreams – I grok those – I’ve managed to convince myself that my dreams usually don’t mean anything.

Until I have one that might.

What do I do then?

Do I try to struggle with deciphering the meaning? Or do I get a drink of water and go back to sleep?

Last night I had a dream that really shook me. I tried to tell myself that it couldn’t possibly mean what it seemed to mean. When that didn’t work, I started a dream journal (my mind, wisely, made me make no promises on how long I will keep it going).

I was worried that thinking about it and writing it out might wake me up too much and I wouldn’t be able to get back to sleep, but it worked out okay. I had another dream, but it didn’t make as much of an impact as the first, so I didn’t remember it for long or record it.

But that first one is still front-and-center this morning and I have a feeling it’s going to stick with me for a long time....

English Class

We had our first in-class writing in my English 303 class today. We knew it was going to be something about comparing / contrasting characters. And I could have sworn that last week the instructor said we could use our books and notes. So I worried about it a little, but not too much.

Until the assignment was handed out and she said NO books or notes.

PANIC!!!!!!!!

Suddenly, I couldn't remember anything: titles of plays, names of characters, plots, actions, consequences...

Fortunately, it's the first major assignment and I've got plenty of time to do well on everything else...

But it's still disappointing....

Fair Warning

Last night as I was trying to fall asleep, I found myself having a little discussion with, well, myself:

"You need to write everyday."

Yeah, I know. I try, but...

"Okay, you need a different kind of goal, so let's say that you have to post to your blog everyday."

I don't have access to the Internet everyday.

"Fine, but every day that you do, agreed?"

What if I can't think of anything to write?

"Then write that."

I agreed, mostly so my brain would shut up and I could go to sleep. So here's fair warning that even tho' I'll be posting more often, I (we) don't guarantee that it will be interesting. But it will be fulfilling a goal, so please bear with me.

At least I don't have to worry about staying on topic, since this blog doesn't really have one :)-