'tis the modern age, and I am blogging on jury duty

Seriously. Montgomery County actually has WiFi in the jury lounge. They even have some computers available for those who did not bring a laptop. This is a far cry from the last 2 times I served on jury duty (once in NYC and once in Baltimore County). Previously, all I was allowed was a book. No cell phones. No electronic equipment. Even Walkmen (Walkmans?) were frowned upon, since you may miss being called.

But, today, I have my laptop. I have my cell phone. I have some work. I have a book. I have my iPod. I guess it won't be horrible...

The Inner Light

Okay, it's time to put my nerd hat on. Why? Because last night Turg and I remembered just how much of a nerd I/we am/are. See, SciFi channel has been showing Star Trek: TNG . Sometimes we catch it, sometimes we don't. (Mind you, we have all 7 seasons on DVD, so we could just watch whenever we want.) Last night, we sat down for dinner and TV and turned on ST:TNG.

Usually, within seeing the first few seconds of any episode, either Turg or I* or both can identify what episode it is, and whether or not we're going to like it (see, nerds, geeks, whatever you want to call us). Well, the second episode of the four being shown last night started with a scene of an "unidentified probe" on th bridge viewscreen. On sight of this, I start tearing up. Why? Because it means that it's one of my favorite (if not my all time favorite) episode of TNG: The Inner Light.

This episode makes me cry everytime I see it. Every. Single. Time. In the same places. Crying. So predictably that I got a box of tissues out to be ready for it. Even Turg knows at what points in the episode I cry, that he kept looking at me to see if I was (in turn, I kept yelling at him to stop staring at me). Big ball of crying, snotty, nerdy mess. Crying at ST:TNG.


*Incidentally, just an example of total geekdom - on one of our early and most memorable dates, Turg and I sat in Pizzaria Uno for hours playing ST:TNG trivia. Yes, this is geek dating at its best.

Twitter hates me.

Tweet... hello?

Not sure what happened to my Twitter thingie. But this morning when I looked, I wasn't following anyone and no one was following me... I feel so alone.

The interwebs hate me.

All A-twitter

I just don't know if I'm ready to commit to another online community... but at the same time, I don't want to be left out...

*pout*

Oh, what to do...

Introducing Kiwi

Yes, CawfeeGuy, I too have been assimilated. But for me this was a long time coming. I've been quietly considering getting the Nano since it came out. It was the first iPod design that I was attracted to (well, other than the U2 Special Edition that came fully loaded with their entire library, but that really had nothing to do with the iPod itself, per se). So, after grumbling to myself about how the mp3 player we had was not compatable with Vista (I'm not so sure I'm really compatible with Vista, but that's another entry), that I could not easily make playlists, etc... after convering with Magenta to decide on the color, I made the trip to Best Buy and bought one.

I introduce the 8 gb tiny wonder, Kiwi:

Mario Cart Wii + Skype = Awesomeness

Total awesomeness. It took a while to figure it all out, but once we did, it was so fun. Magenta, Turg, TTW and Fibji played all weekend. And watched each other play via webcam. Lots of teasing and trash talking, which makes the game oh so much more fun.

Every once in a while, I really love and am amazed by technology. So, who else wants to join the fun?

this. is. awesome.

It's rare that a computer game gets my attention. This one certainly has:


I. Want.

Shiny new toys

It took me a long time to figure out what I wanted to buy for myself. But once I decided on a laptop, I became single minded. I big on getting bang for the buck. My laptop has been dying a slow and painful death for a while now. I bought it so that I could write my thesis a million years ago. It had the features that I needed and not much more. It didn't even have an internal wireless card.

So, I'd been searching for a new laptop for while and was becoming disconcerted, since everytime I thought I found the one I wanted, by the time I finished researching and reading reviews, when I got back, the price went up. UP! Since when do computer priced go UP these days?? Seriously.

Anyway, I finally found the laptop for me. I'm very happy with it. It's shiny. It's fast. And most importantly, it doesn't overheat and crash in the middle of things (see slow and painful death). So here she is:

I've tentatively named her Nymphadora (obviously still on my Harry Potter kick). I think it suits her for now.

Current soundtrack of my life

Okay MS and CawfeeGuy, here's mine:

opening credits: How I Feel (My December) - Kelly Clarkson
waking up: Just a ride (from the Grey's Anatomy CD Michele gave me) - Jem
first day at school: Anxiety (Elephunk) - Black Eyed Peas with Papa Roach
falling in love: Temperature - Sean Paul
breaking up: Ever the Same (Something to Be) - Rob Thomas
prom: Simple Kind of Life (Return of Saturn) - No Doubt
life’s okay: Like That (Monkey Business) - Black Eyed Peas
mental breakdown: Language or the Kiss (Swamp Ophelia) - Indigo Girls
flashback: Suspension without Suspense (Return of Saturn) - No Doubt
driving: Breakaway (Breakaway) - Kelly Clarkson
getting back together: Wreck of the Day (Wreck of the Day) - Anna Nalick
wedding: Hear Me (Breakaway) - Kelly Clarkson
birth of a child: Somewhere I Belong (Meteora) - Linkin Park
final battle: Now Comes the Night (Something to Be) - Rob Thomas
death scene: Artificial Sweetener (Return of Saturn) - No Doubt

Considering how much U2 I have on my player, I'm surprised none came up. My mp3 player really liked No Doubt and Kelly Clarkson today... I wonder what that means...

So, something's going on with Blogger right now where I can't put titles on the entries, so bear with me if it all seems a little odd right now.

Graphic tastes

I want to thank Turg's buddy Weazel for the creation of a number of new banners for this blog. They are really fun and very me. I'll probably rotate them depending on my mood, since I like them all.

Get (red)

So, I wanted a new cell phone since my old one was dying and I wanted a new toy. I was debating with JS over what phone I should buy... particularly because I really don't use all the web stuff and all. But, in the end, JS bought me a phone I really love - for more reasons than just because it's new and shiny (which is usually reason enough).


I got the Motorola (red) Razr. I'd never been a huge fan of Motorola products. This one, however, is attached to a good cause. Unless you've been living under a rock, you've probably heard about the (red) project. It's the project started by Bono and Bobby Shriver in support of The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. Part of the proceeds of every (red) product sale goes to The Global Fund.

The fact that it's a (red) product made me more apt to buy it. I think that's going to be the case in the near future for a lot of things. I'm probably going to get the (red) Bluetooth headset to use with this phone. The whole point of the (red) project is to allow people to help contribute to The Global Fund through buying products they already use. Well, it's definitely worked on me.

Wireless life

I work at home once a week. The problem with working where I do is that security is tight. So until recently (read: tonight), in order to connect to work, I had to use dial-up. That's right. Now, we've had broadband for a long while, so it seems silly for me to have to use dial-up. So, let me explain.

Our apartment is completely wireless. There is the cable modem, the router and all sorts of wireless cards for various devices. There were practical reasons for this arrangement. Mostly, because of the way the apartment is laid out, running wires to the loft would be too much work and far too unsightly. So, we chose to be wireless.

The major issue with this arrangement is that my work computer, for reasons of security, was freed of its wireless card before I received it. That's right. My work computer came with a wireless card and it was removed before I received it. Only recently, within the past couple of months, has the agency allowed wireless access for home use. Once I heard that - I jumped on it and got my card re-installed. Great, simple, right?

Wrong. The encryption used by the agency is WPA, which, until recently (read: last week), was not supported by TiVo. So until all of the software was updated, etc., the choice was TiVo or work computer. Well... the TiVos won. Anyhoo, that's not a problem anymore since the software has been upgraded to support WPA encryption (well, on one of them... the other one is having issues).

So, what's the point? Well, now that everything has been set up and updated, I not only have broadband access with my work computer, but on top of that it's wireless. This makes me a very happy camper. No more waiting forever (and I do mean FOREVER) for email to load into Outlook. And I am no longer tethered to my desk.

This will make working at home even more enjoyable from now on. No more screaming at the dial-up anymore!

Extreme grocery shopping

Okay, so JS and I have discovered a really cool grocery shopping experience. I know what you're thinking: "Cool grocery shopping experience? What the hell is she on??" Let me explain. There is a new grocery store in our area called Bloom. The concept of this store (yes, this store was built on a concept) is to design a grocery store based on customer suggestions. So what you end with is a grocery store that is actually quite logically designed: The prepared foods are right by the front door so you don't have to go all the way to the back to get grab-and-go meal. The non-foods are relegated to the far end of the store so you get to that point last (which is good for someone like me who generally skips those isles in favor of Target). A map of the store on the grocery cart so if you forget something you're not like,"what isle was that in?" and run up and down isles looking for crap. And price scanners everywhere (because you never know when something is in the wrong place on a shelf).

Okay, I know, where's the cool part? Well, the cool part comes in the form of hand scanners. You know, like the ones they use when they stock? You scan a customer card (like a bonus card type thing), pick up a scanner, pick up a rack of bags, and you're off. Scan and bag as you go along, all the while keeping a tally of the final total. When you're done, you scan that you're done, go to a self-checkout, scan the customer card and everything you just scanned appears magically on the screen. Pay and leave. No surprise gigantic total at the end. No argument over price since you found out when you scanned. Totally awesome.


I know I'm totally geeky. But you have to understand, I'm one of those people who likes the self-checkout because it's generally faster, and I don't have to deal with a crabby checkout person. This whole, everything-is-scanned-as-I-go-along-and-all-I-have-to-do-is-pay thing is very very cool to me.

And I like using the scanner. But that's the geeky part.

Blogging about blogging

I have to agree with CawfeeBoy about these particular observations about blogs. The rare time I hit the "next blog" button up there in the right hand corner, I am confronted with some lame ass piece of crap, wrought with cheesy music or written in another language. So I don't generally hit the "next blog" button. But again, I hope that my blog is not half as bad as what I've seen out there.

So it was interesting when I came across this article. I, like the "about half" of the people who responded to this particular survey, blog for myself and my close friends and family. I don't think there are all that many people I don't know who read this thing. And I'm fine with that. I'm not out there to make a statement. I just think it's more fun to put the crap in my brain out there rather than writing mass e-mails when I feel like having a braindump.

I get to vent. I get to be silly. I get to write about whatever the hell is on my mind - however inane. I get to show everyone that I am indeed Supergirl. And whomever chooses to read will and all others will pass it by. And I love the occasional comments.

But the reason I started it all was actually really simple. Way back when, Blogger required that you register for a blog in order to make comments. So, I figured, as long as I was registered for one, I may as well use it.

For the love of TiVo

I love our TiVo. Why? I hate watching commercials. I want to watch my programs when I feel like it - I don't think I watched a single episode of Grey's Anatomy on Sunday. And I know I never saw InuYasha at midnight on Tuesday.

But the most recent reason why I love TiVo? The NPR podcasts. I love the radio show Wait Wait - Don't Tell Me. And now TiVo has podcasts of the episode from the previous few weeks. Which is great, because I forget to turn on the radio at 11am on Saturdays to listen. But there are a whole bunch of other catagories of podcasts, not just NPR.

Now if only they would podcast Car Talk...

Auto love

It's always funny when I read things in articles that I've said. Whenever someone gets a new car, or has an otherwise really fun car, I always ask what the car's name is. Half the time I get an answer, the other half I get a perplexed look. And I have always said that there are two categories of people: ones who name their cars (and other inanimate objects) and ones who don't. So it was funny when I began this article and read that very same quote. I always knew other people felt this way.

Well, I'm a car namer (for those who don't already know, the first car was Eva and the current one Ian). As is JS. And we name all sorts of objects - JS settled on Samantha for his Australian accented GPS. Most people I know are namers - perhaps not of the car, but of objects. And pretty much anything which appears to have some sort of intelligence, will at least get a sex assignment.

So, the question is, what category are you in?

Test drive

So, we have already talked about how JS got his driver's license. As with all things that take a long time to obtain, once obtained, one generally runs with it! Which, in this case meant, JS really, REALLY wanted to get a car.

Once he started researching, however, he found that it's a really shitty market for cars, particularly used cars. Really high resale values, high interest rates, limited selection, etc... really the worst kind of market for cars. What kind of car to buy? What year? What color? The initial idea was to get a Civic EX, like Ian (if you don't already know, that's the name of my car). JS had gotten used to driving Ian around while preparing for his test. We test drove one beautiful '03 Civic EX Coupe - in nearly perfect condition. The one problem was that it was selling for only about $1000 less than what we had paid for Ian... for a now 3 year old car. We decided we should keep looking, keep our options open.

We went to a dealership to look at an '04 Civic Coupe, mysteriously selling for the same price as the '03 we tested... and once we saw the car, it was no longer a mystery. Bad ju-ju all around from this car. A few dents, scrapes, etc... but the feeling was bad. The parking break stuck, incidental parts were missing (small panel covers, etc.). JS told the man that he didn't even want to bother with it. The dealer tried to show us another Civic. No go... not what we're looking for.

While wandering around the lot, pretty much feeling like we should leave, I pass by an '04 Mazda 3. The Mazda 3 had been the darkhorse choice, as we knew very little about it, and there seemed to be very few used ones available. And those used ones that were available were way out of the pricerange. Yet, there were two of them, twins, both silver, sitting right there, next to each other. We wanted to take one out (the one with fewer scratches), but first we asked what the dealer was willing to part with it for. The dealer told us a too-good-to-be-true price... time for a test drive.

JS started it up and we had that feeling that this car was meant for him - there were blue lights. We exit the lot onto MD355. As he's accelerating, the engine is revving very high - too high... what the hell?!?! Why aren't we shifting into gear?!?! What's wrong with the transmission?!?! We pull over into a random parking lot to switch places and figure out what's going on... Yeah, it's an automatic, so what the hell is up? Hrmmm... why is the shifter on "M" instead of "D"? What we did not realize is that Mazda's are equipped with sport manual - for those who want to feel like they're in control - the car is still electronically controlled. But that explained why we weren't shifting into gear. Well, that figured out and me in the driver's seat, we took this little puppy for a drive. And loved it. JS took over after a few minutes. Short jaunt on the highway and we were convinced - this car was definitely meant for him.

So with little hesitation, after confirming that the dealer was, indeed, serious about the price, we signed the dotted line.

So now, without further ado, I introduce MAX:




Doesn't Max have a cute butt?