Tuesday, September 26, 2006

,.,.,.,,,.

so tired, shouldn't even be blogging, ut;s not like i'v nethibg to say. but my brain was saying, "if yo don't blog, I'm gonna make you all antsy." and so i'm blogging. with nothing much to say. but the words are coming faster now. like streamish of conciousnessish.
ish.

And, ta da. Just like that, thery're turned off. And on again. It's like it's opposite world or something. As soon as I say one thing, the other takes place. Universe has a sense of humore.

I had soem psuedo-insight about the nature of the universe and god and ...god earlier, but it's slipped away. So, that was a pretty pointless sentence. Maybe it'll come back to me soonly. If it does, I'll be sure to sahre.

October is fast approaching. And I've signed up for ABally's blog challenge of blogging everyday that month. Hope I have more to say when that rolls around.
In the meantime, I rEALLY wish that blogger would get the new version released. Steph's blog ahs laready switched over, and it looks awesome, and everytime she blogs it makes me alll envious. Plus, there's another blog I'd like to get started and the new features will definitely hlep in that regard.
And now, I am going to publish post and eventually stumble into slumbo land.

Saturday, September 23, 2006

Kablooie!! Nucleiod war!!

The TV Show "Jericho" premiered on Wednesday.
Premise: Smalltown in Kansas witnesses mushroom clouds off in the distance. Communication is cut off. Townsfolk deal with the possibility that the rest of the world might just be dead.
Yay! I [heart] post-apocalyptic stuff, so it's pretty compelling to see a series devoted to it.

The show itself was... well, there's potential. I'm still on the fence about it, and have decided to give it a few more episodes to determine whether it's a keeper or not.

But! Onto the fun, interactive part.

I've been thinking about all the movies and tv shows that have shown nuclear explosions.

Here's what I can think of, please add more!

Terminator 2: Judgement Day
Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines
"Battlestar Galactica" (new series. Not sure if the original 70s show dealt with nukes or not. I'm thinking no.)
Miracle Mile (late 80s movie with Anthony Edwards discovering there's one hour until LA gets nuked.)
Chain of Commmand - we have really crappy movies at my work. But, this movie DOES have a major city get nuked.
Independance Day (Um. I'm about 93% certain we see mushroom clouds in this. When the human resistance uses the nukes to fight back, right?)
The Day After
Beneath the Planet of the Apes - I believe, though, we don't really see a mushroom cloud as more of just a flash to white, but I'm including it anyway.
The season one ending of "Sledge Hammer!" ended with a nuclear explosion. (Season Two began retitling the show "Sledge Hammer!: The Early Years". Ha!!)
Certain episodes of "The Simpsons" and "Futurama" and "The Twilight Zone" have had mushroom clouds.


And this isn't even getting into novels that are all apocalyptic. Man, there's a lot of nukes in pop culture.
It's almost as though we've got a pre-occupation with the complete destruction of civilization or something...

Sunday, September 17, 2006

Yo ho, yo ho, a pirate's meal for me.

In honor of Talk Like A Pirate Day (September 19th), the Life Learners are having a get-together at Miranda's house where there will be much frolicking and feasting and fun.

Steph's been getting pirate garb together here and there for the girls (and herself) the past few days. They're gonna look really cool.

Today we went grocery shopping, and I started wondering what type of foods real pirates ate.
Here are some of the possibilities I came up with:

Fish.

Rum.

Pigs. (I don't know where they'd get 'em from, but when I think of pirates and food together, I imagine a roasted pig with an apple in it's mouth.)

Cap'n Crunch. (The official cereal of sea-faring folk)

Pop-Tarrrrts.

Thursday, September 14, 2006

Read My Lips...

Watch the video



And now, discuss. What DOES he say?

Sunday, September 10, 2006

Live and Learn Conference: Priceless

Hotels slept at: 2 - Holiday Inn Express in Flagstaff, and Hotel Albuquerque in Albuquerque.

Besides the conference, other places visited: Slide Rock near Sedona, Grand Canyon Caverns, Old Town Albuquerque.

Price I paid for a 32 ounce Pepsi in Sedona: $2.19

Temperature inside Grand Canyon Caverns:
56 degrees F

Number of feet underground GCC is: 220

Number of things able to live within the caverns: 0 (bacteria dies within 72 hours. The air is simply too dry for anything to live down there.)

Number of elevators within the Hotel Albuquerque: 2

Number of unschoolers attending the conference:
520. (not quite 20,000, but, during the first year there were only 135 people, so, you know, someday.)

Cool nicknames that the girls came up with for Albuquerque: Alba-turkey, Alba-quirky, Alba-cookie.

Number of rain sticks made: 2

Items made out of duct tape while there: Two purses, one ...um...sheet.

Times thunderstorms forced us out of the pool:
2. And they came out of freakin' nowhere, too! They were awesome, lightning, pouring rain, super strong winds, but, kinda scary too. Although... on the way home, right through Flagstaff was this storm that made it impossible to see, despite having the wipers on full blast. The raindrops were coming down so hard and so powerfully that I was afraid they'd break through the windshield. As soon as we cleared the city limits, the rain stopped too. Spooky.

Minutes that Saren danced at the after-dinner dance on Saturday night:
Approx. 18.5.

Minutes that I danced at the after-dinner dance on Saturday night: 0.


Song that Saren, Harper, and Miranda's youngest daughter hula-hooped to for the talent show on Friday night: "I Like to Move It"

Number of people playing Duck Duck Goose in the hotel lobby on Thursday night when it got to it's largest: Near 60. That was a lot of fun. The circle was HUGE, and it was just so cool to have teenagers, adults and kids as young as 6 all playing together.

Number of pennies placed on the railroad tracks in Flagstaff by us: 5

Number of pennies found after the train passed: 2 - plus a quarter that was done by someone else. As we were looking, an "official" told us that what we had just done was illegal ([eyebrow]) and highly dangerous.

Day I realized what my NaNoWriMo story would be about this year: Tuesday

Day I began doubting that story: Today.

Number of vehicles seen stranded on the side of the road during the entire trip: 43 - Compared to the trip we took to San Diego in July, which was 108.

Number of times we ate at Lotaburger: 3. And Lotaburger totally has the best catchphrase ever. "If you are what you eat, you are awesome." It's great because it's true.

Time left Hotel Alb: 10:10AM (Las Vegas time)
Time arrived home: 7:02PM (Las Vegas time)
Amount of money spent: Probably best not to think about that.
Where to read a more detailed account of the trip, plus see photos: Steph's blog. (Tomorrow, after she's had some time to rest.)

Sunday, September 03, 2006

Pause

Sadly, I don't have one of those remote controls that allows me to manipulate time. It would be super nice to have, because we have so much that needs to be done before we leave (TOMORROW!!) to go to the conference, and not much time to do it all.

I was going to make a copy of the Live and Learn Schedule [<-- is a pdf file] in my blog, but that involved figuring out the html for tables and a lot of typing, and so, eh. I just linked to it.
(Saren had a similar idea, but instead just copied and pasted the funshop descriptions on her blog - funny how the apple doesn't fall far from the tree)


Anyway. The point is that the conference is just days (or can we start keeping track in hours now?) away, and I am really excited about it. We all are.
At the conference, so many things are going to be going on at the same time... I don't know how I'll manage to get it all in. I remember when I was younger I would often have that feeling that I was missing out on something better, and would often wish that I could be in two (or more) places at once. I haven't felt that way in a long time, but I certainly do now.


Right now I need to stop blogging and go finish cleaning up/getting prepared for the trip. Of course, if I could be in two places at once, I'd be blogging AND doing that. Blast my inability to alter quantum mechanics!!

Anyway, this is most likely the last blog entry I'll make before we leave, so, enjoy the week everyone, and I'll see you all on the 11th!

Friday, September 01, 2006

S to the ress

Jez. Us. Kah. Rist.

Today was ... this whole week... month.

*deep breath*

It's September.

The conference is just days away. I am actually starting to really feel it. I'm very excited. It should be a lot of fun. We'll be sure to take pictures.

I'm on vacation as of now. Which is great. I really REALLY need it. Today being the last day before vay-kay, it was pretty hectic. On top of that, it was the last day before a 3 day weekend for everyone, and the last workday before a) the WB moves over to 33 and b) the new Network launches (on Tuesday).
So, yeah. A little bit busy of a day.
Additionally, we had news of an entire movie package being pulled. Yoink! Five movie titles for 4th quarter are now gone gone gone. And some of them were pretty decent flicks, too. (The Truman Show and White Christmas, for example. Why's it always the good ones that get pulled? I mean, why can't the Tori Spelling vehicles get wrecked? [sigh])
Anyway. Not only that, but another movie package was added to our lineup. Which, cool, will help in filling the holes from the absence of the other one, but ugh. Why the extra work NOW? Ya know?

Eh. It's out of sight out of mind time. The stress and crap and nonsense and work will all still be there when I get back on the 11th.
In the meantime, it's time to just chill and relax (er, as much as it might be possible to do stuff like that while surrounded by 20,000* unschoolers.


*Number may be slightly exaggerated.

Mileage

January - 730
February - 1357.8
March - 872.4
April - 1056.9
May - 278.3 (car, which is currently not running); 486.6 (minivan) --total for May is 764.9
June - car = 0.0; minivan = 1489.6
July - car = 0.0; minivan =1796.3
August - car = 0.0; minivan = 944.6

Year to date - 9012.5

And September's gonna be a big month, what with the upcoming drive to New Mexico and back.