This pic. is a bit of my artwork. These were done from sketches scanned in for Illustrator. Originally they were tattoo ideas for a friend with a love of the phoenix.
So I did this blog entry, because I noticed that Illustration Friday, was having a phoenix theme this week and I need a page to link to.

Aside from that, I can't believe we're at a new year already. The phoenix might be a good theme for the year. I expect some changes this year, since there are things annoying me that I hope to resolve. Still I'm always reluctant to institute change, since I always enjoy being warm and cozy.

Well it's been a while since my last post. I'm sure you can guess what happened. My cat died and I was bummed out for a while. Then I got busy with work and the Christmas rush, which truth be told, I'm not quite over, yet. I always find the fact that life must go on after death a bit disconcerting. Now I'm hoping for a wee rest period and I'm looking forward to a few things.
I have drowned myself in movies and such-like. Eragon the movie- disappointing. Night at the Museum, hilarious. Stranger Than Fiction, amazing. And I finally finished catching up on BattleStar Galactica. Awesome. Now I'm working on Heroes, also awesome. I even understand some of the Japanese spoken by Hiro, which has spurred me on to continue studying. And I've resumed my reading. I'm working on the last few Unfortunate Series, Fruits Basket and a few others. I always feel a bit safer immersed in an imaginary world, particularly when I'm feeling a bit EMO.
I've spent Christmas here in Florida with the folks. I helped my mom set up her new computers and tech for her new business, which is a very cool thing. And after one more night of sleeping on not my own very comfortable bed, I'll be home. With an easyish 3 day work week and another 3 day weekend! Then soon after that- the GA-GaTech Ice Hockey match and the return of good TV! Oh and things are getting interesting in the Harry Potter world. I'll have to update my web pages!
I finally got a G-Mail account, which I'm not impressed with. I've never been a fan of web mail programs. I am perhaps, spoiled to the Mac-mail system. But I haven't spent much time looking at what G-Mail can do, so maybe I'll change my mind. I hear Web mail systems can be great.

mostly it's been a yucky week for me. in the news, democrats are in house control. will it make a difference? will the country suck less? eh, who knows. now there are more resigning religious people. whatever. we seem to be stuck in this state of moral behavior vs. supposed anarchy.
hello middle ground?
hey, did i ever mention that the motto that goes with my last name is "mediocrity is the safe path." i laughed when i heard that the first time, because it fits me somehow.

i'm overloaded with work. my fault really, the pre-thanksgiving rush. and my cat is sick, probably fatally. when i moved into this apartment i ended up with 2 cats. Lucy and Ethel. Lucy died a few years ago and now Ethel is sick. this pic is Lucy and Ethel playing hide-n-seek.

more interesting things are happening at apple, i found this funny shuffle photo on one of the apple news blogs.

i recently found another great apple geek podcast. and the absolutely amazing 'radio adventures of doctor floyd' podcast, which reminds me of Rocky and Bullwinkle. i think R & B was my favorite show when i was little. something about the crazy narration, the goofy stories and the great characters.
and there's this cute cat comic blog. ah the internet, bringing us all lots 'o' cool stuff.

Dictators get Death! Immoral Evangelists! Worried Republicans!
Actually I have nothing to say about any of these things. Venture Bros. reruns! As funny as the first time! One can only hope for a 3rd season! I love the subtle pop culture references. It's so much smoother than some other shows. Though I loved the Simpsons Treehouse of Horror, tonite!
Crap! Can you believe it's Novemeber? Another year almost done! Am I older, yes! Am I wiser? Doubtful. Maybe my monkey senses are honed a bit better. Personally everything after Halloween is a bit of a letdown. Though I feel I should have enjoyed my Halloween a bit better this year. Next year I think I'll throw a party. Oh yeah, boo to my small city for not getting Nightmare Before Christmas 3D!
Still there are a few things to look forward to. I'm doing some interesting mural work. And there's Eragon, the movie. Looks like the casting done, is pretty cool. And the preview makes it look awesome. Ooo...and I still haven't started in on the 3rd season on Battlestar Galactica.
I'm in a good mood for a Sunday night. We'll see what happens after Tuesday.
This little piece is sometimes called Cat Skater or Hell on Wheels.

Well it's always a busy week after coming back from vacation. Catching up on work and house stuff. Doing the shopping and bills and whatnot.
Still it could all be much worse. The only thing I'm annoyed about is the disagreement between Expedia, Best Western and me. The hotel and/or Expedia screwed up and they're blaming it on each other and I'm the one who has to pay extra money for crappy service. Hotels are all about service!

On the plus side, I finally started watching Battlestar Galactica. I love finding a new (to me) quality show. It's awesome. I also saw the Prestige, a cool movie! I was actually surprised at the ending, I love it when that happens.

It's nearly my favorite day. I love Halloween. It's great for scaring all crap out ya. It's like the cleaning out of the brain before all the Holiday horror sets in.
It kinda bugs me that stores have Christmas stuff out. There should be a law! No green and red and gold until after pumpkins and ghosts are gone! Still any excuse to dress up in a cool outfit and eat lots of candy!

hey this is one of the few pics I took at Balboa Park, San Diego.

I just switched to the Google Blogger Beta. And now I'm adding tags. Whee tags! Also I forgot I turned the moderate comments on. Mostly to keep track of the comments that come in, so I can read them.

There's always a point, when you're out of town, when you're ready to go. That's where I am right now. The goal of the trip is finished, I went to my friends wedding. So all those plans worked somehow. But I hardly ever reach this point at the same time as I'm actually leaving. Like I'm going to spend a day with grandma now. I go home tomorrow. I look forward to it, but I also look forward to going home.
I missed the Japanese gardens in Balboa Park, San Diego. I guess they closed a little early that day. So I'll have to go back. I spent plenty of moolah and eaten a ton of food. Been to visit like a gazillion people and watched a very California wedding, complete with LAPD helicopters flying over. They zoomed off at the end, I guess they found their criminal.
There's always a point in all this sort of activity where I unconsciously start comparing my life, which is a bit odd, to the lives around me, which seem normal. I'm not married, I don't have any kids, I don't work for some big firm, I don't have an agent....
So then I have to spend a few moments thinking about what I do have.
Hey did I mention that my neighbor called the police on me? For noise disturbance. The police were very nice, they asked some questions about my activites. (up late packing, but very quietly) Then decided not to issue me a 'noise ticket.' Still, I didn't sleep very well, before my early flight. It was all very nerve racking.
Let's not count that experience under "do have!"
One of the things I do have is this new orchid, which smells a bit like cocoa. That's the pic, this time round.

It's been a while since I've done an entry. I've thought of it a zillion times, but didn't have time. I've done a bit of traveling. And have more to do. I went to Atlanta for Anime Weekend 12. And I went to the Japan festival in Stone Mountain Park. It was fun. It occurred to me that, That weekend is the only vacation that wasn't a working vacation. Usually I go out of town and there's a reason. Fix mom's computer, goto a family thing, fix the place up. I should go on vacation more often, it was nice. Of course, there's the guilt of having a good time and spending money frivolously.
And if the world wasn't crazy before. It seems to be even more so. As an interesting side note, I looked up impeachment on wikipedia. yeesh. I have no further comment on that.
I've been working diligently on my website. I had a time figuring out the CSS. Now I'm trying to work out some scripts to do a few extra things. Web codes have changed a lot recently. Maybe it's the Web 2.0 thing. I found this great little podcast from Harvard. A computer 101 class that actually explains how stuff works. I look forward to learning even more stuff. True I can upgrade a computer or build one from scratch. But I look forward to learning the mechanics behind the tech.
So this pic is a bunch 'o' bonsai from the Japan Festival. And I took it with my phone!

Well, it's been an interesting few days, if you're a Mac fan! Apple is stepping up the ladder again, I always look forward to seeing what Apple will do next.

Meantime, I've worked my butt off to get my Art site, Laughing Lion, going. Now I'll list it in the links. I have a long way to go and a lot of files and code to sort through, but there's nothing as great as the first plunge!

In funny news, JK Rowling challenged security to allow her to carry her manuscript of the 7th Harry Potter book, when flying home recently. Apparently she had to talk them out of checking it, maybe she already had her allotment of carry on bags. I have to say, with the new changes, I'm not looking forward to my coming flight to LA.

I love the smell of new television in the air! The summer series are finished, great stuff (Monk, Psyched, the Closer, and oddly Blade). On to the new season! Nice that Tv finally figured out that people like new shows all the time!

I read in Wired recently that entertainment has finally come back to how it was before Movies & TV made entertainment a Media industry. Apparently people use to pick what they liked and small independent ebtertainment was king. This is back in the days when life was more community minded. And the other side of that coin is talked about in the great book, The World is Flat, by Thomas L. Friedman. It's a small world, getting smaller, thanks to technology. Now if we could get government hip to all this news and really equalize the world...

Ah, I look forward to the social Utopia, that is Star Trek, but I worry it'll turn out more like Alien(s).

So this pic, is one of the art pieces I've put on my website.

huh?
I'm sure hell is about to freeze over since the emmys ended on time. Conan O'Brien didn't kill Bob Newhart at the emmys. He threatened to, if the show ran over, it didn't and the whole thing was hilarious. The world is still falling apart. And in general life is getting stranger. I don't think I can comment on the odd insanity that is international politics. It's like watching kids in a sandbox, being mean to each other.
In this weeks '3 things' (now in the links list), Jenna talks about how big tobacco has added more nicotine to smokes. Geez, I'm glad I already went through the quitting thing. And after seeing lung cancer in action, I'm very, very, really glad. So we kill other people, we kill ourselves.
I tend to 'wander off' when reality gets to be too much. Yesterday, I started thinking about what would I do if I had only free time. Money to cover expenses, no need to work. So my list would be something like this:
Paint and Illustrate a whole lot.
Devote more intense time to study Japanese and Spanish. Translate stuff for fun.
Spend a day a week catching up on reading.
Learn Apple scripting. Make some Widgets.
Animate all those cartoon versions of music videos wandering in my brain.
Take up T'chi and Karate.
Catch up on my Anime watching.
Play with my websites and work on a few others.
Add to my Stikfas collection.
Try new art things, play with a few others for no reason, except to experiment.
Travel. To Australia, Japan, England, Greece, Finland, Arizona, Spain, Vancouver, Toronto.
Think of new things to do in my free time.

So this pic, comes from a Korean site about a guy who folds Origami into the shapes of Spaceships. Cool....Oh well, back to reality.

Alas Pluto, we knew thee well...
So Pluto's been demoted! I can hardly believe it!
This brings up so many questions!

1- Will Dell be kicked out of the computer continuum? First their customer service goes down the drain, now their batteries are up in smoke. Really the problem is Sony, but it's not going to do Dell any good, dude.
2- Pasta or Noodles? Who will win the great war?
3- Cats or Dogs? I prefer the inimitable attitude of cats. But hey some people like birds, hamsters or snakes. We all know who prefers hamsters and birds.
4- Chicken or Egg? Really there's no question. Egg! Always the egg! So the first bird had a few scales, that didn't stop him trying to fly.
5- Tomato- Fruit or Veggie? Well it's got seeds so it qualifies as fruit. More importantly To-MA-To or TO-Ma-TO?
6- London or New York? This map pic is my choice.

In other news: Hollywood is crazier then ever, the News is making it up as they go along and reality is far less entertaining than fantasy. Anything for a good story.

PS- Hey terrorist factions, stop flying public transportation! Start building your own flying contraptions, so the rest of us can travel without security nightmares!

PPS- RIP- Bruno Kirby

So we are about to become a bigger solar system or a smaller solar system. The International Astronomical Union is going to vote soon on whether Pluto is still a planet and 3 other alleged space spheres are planets. Cool huh?
Meantime it's funny to see Astronomers and Astrologers duke it out. It's psychology vs. physics. Religion vs. science. Apples and oranges. eh. whatever.
Let's talk Apple. I'm a Mac fan, always have been since, computer camp all those years ago. I've used Amigas, Tandys, Commodores and the average IBM knock off. I own a self built Windows run PC, which I keep around mostly for Tech support for Mom and I'm interested to see what Microsoft does with Vista, whenever that is. I was way more excited by all the intersesting news from the recent Mac developers conference though. So this guy says to me, "you're using a Mac, that's your problem." Uh, yeah, we were dicussing your problem, actually. After using one of the Macs all today, without any hassle, I don't feel so ticked off as sorry for that guy.
From the funny side of life, Venture Bros. was hilarious tonite. And I caught a Simpsons ep. I had never seen before. Woohoo!

SO it's been an odd week. This is a crazy world full of Wars, Outrageous Health Insurance Prices and Airplane Security Madness. What's a girl to do? Find interesting news stories and hope everyone comes to their senses.
Take the mysterious cleaned house. So every so often, your house gets entered and cleaned. What do you do? Wait for a bill, hope it keeps happening? Read here for the true story.
Christian radio doesn't make enough money, so they might as well sell sex radio. Read here.
Loud Barry Manilow music scares off Australian gangs, but keeps the neighborhood awake, here.
And then there's advertising on eggs, really!

So this pic, comes from one of the all time great cartoons. 'Bully For Bugs'.
A friend and I were discussing the merits of farm sayings. 1- Don't look a gift horse in the mouth. Yeah, if you get something for free, don't questions it's quality immediately. Besides, ick, horses mouths full of teeth and spit! 2- Why did the chicken cross the road? click here to find out. 3- Grab the bull by the horns. That's the reason for today's pic. Personally if it's me, I say, 'Run as fast as you can'. Who want's to be on the business end of a bull? I can't think of a worse place to be.
Oh and just for fun, go here. Learn many things, you thought unknowable!

huh?
Well I might have more to say about trucks that are big billboards on wheels. Hello? Gas Prices? Global Warming? All to advertise casinos and what not.

In in the duh! news department, Pat Robertson says, 'Well it's hot as hell, I guess I do believe in global warming.' Okay I'm paraphrasing. It's nice when the dense people catch up. Now if we can change his assassination policies, maybe the rest of the world won't think we're such crazy egotistical idiots.

In You Tube news, big oil made a fake video about global science corruption or something. Let's keep the corporation going, use and abuse the small systems that help keep it real and in general make a mess. Oh wait we did. It's just amazing it took this long.

I shall have to resort to one of my favorite Savage Chicken cartoons.

Here's an interesting link with silly quizzes. I love silly quizzes.
And here's a cool link of artists desktops. I'm debating sending mine in. I'll let you know. It's almost as good as checking out people's fridges and medicine cabinets. You know you do.
There was a great episode of Monk and Psych, this past Friday. I love this new (to America) Cable short TV season. I think it pushes the creators to make the most and best of their creativity.

And lastly, this pic is of a famous Gingerbread style Victorian house in my great little city. It's currently up for sale!

huh? There's a lot of things I like. I don't always discuss them with everyone, because I guess I put different things in different boxes. Sounds like the ideal thing to put on a blog. So here are my top 5 secret guilty pleasures, in no particular order:
Cartoons: ok, that's not a surprise, I also like anime. Anything that maks me laugh, feels my chest with a warm glow.
Fantasy Books: there is nothing better then getting lost in a make believe land, i'm always a little sad when it's over.
Marshmallows: it's such a made up food, not found in nature. I find them irresistible, by the handful.
'Skipping Class': well work really. There is nothing better than skipping out of work early to go see the opening day show of say a good pirate or space or dragon or superhero movie. And a good cartoon.
80's music: it can be so shallow or blasphemous, but I really enjoy a lot of it: Duran Duran, Wham!, Depeche Mode, the Cure, Cyndi Lauper, Madonna.
It's Madonna that brings us today's huh? Apparently, she's staging a crucifixion like scene in her current concert. I have nothing to say about various religious symbols or dogma. One of the reasons I like Madonna is that she does what she wants, she takes all the flack and still makes a success of it.
Religious leaders of the world are not pleased with the current goings on. Her Rome concert seems to have drawn mass hatred from said leaders. Interestingly, it may be the only time they've agreed on anything and are on the same side. So Kudos MO for accomplishing in 2 hours, what 1000's of years couldn't do. Unified Religion!
This pic is another of my guilty secrets, my Stikfas colllection.

huh? Ugh! Hot, hot, hot. So this is a map off the weather channel website. I've never seen a map so pink! Pink is hotter than red! kinda scary... Yeesh. I feel blue. What a world.

I think I'll have to go immerse myself in some cartoons now.

But first I need to figure out why I wrote the sentence: I know that green frogs eat purple cranberries. For some reason this is on one of my many notes on my desk. It's definitely my writing. Huh.

huh?
Well I have to admit, I've been feeling a bit depressed this past week. All this war and hot weather is enough to make me think the world is coming to an end. Then today I listened to a few of my favorite podcasts and felt much better. This one (3 things), felt like a breath of fresh air. And I always enjoy this one (NC) and this one (TWIS).
I love that I can go to Comcast with my wonky DVR cable box and say, 'It's acting funny." And they'll give me a new one! The joy of box rental and service all for one low price! Now I can watch the Closer! and catch up on my On Demand Anime.
I went to a pool party this weekend, it was nice and cool. We celebrated a birthday, ate cake and ice cream (that I made!) and cooled off in the pool. I can't help but wonder if generations to come will look upon the pool as a huge waste of water. Still I had fun.
A friend is going to lovely San Francisco, CA this week and I recommended the Japanese Gardens there in the park. That's where these pics are from. I love Japanese gardens and have added them to my 'travel to do list.' Along with Art Museums, Librarys and Zoos. All of which are trumped by amusement parks with rollar coasters.
And Savage Chickens always cheer me up.

huh?
Well I finally saw Superman Returns. I suppose I consider myself a 'fangirl', though I'm not nearly as critical or cynical as a few people I know. Actually I have nothing bad to say about the movie. I liked it. I rate movies on this scale: Erase My Memory of That, Not The Worst 2 Hours, Entertained And Forgotten, Cool- Let's See It Again, Put This On My Amazon List. I'm easily entertained, so long as I don't feel I've wasted my time.
I have to admit it took me so long to see Superman, because I was kinda ticked off at Bryan Singer for deserting the X3 project. I also felt bad for the Brett Ratner, because, his work was doomed to be hated for stepping into Bryan's shoes. Hollywood is weird that way.

Meantime it's been reported that gas is the highest it's been in 25 years! Oh wait... how is that news?
And there's freakin' ad trucks drivin' around!!! Would someone please make a law???

To take my mind off that... enjoy this picture of my Orchids. It's supposed to be great if you can get them to flower. Somehow this one's flowered twice this summer, it's cool to watch.

huh?
So I was thinking I should write some big, inspiring, 'go scientists, down with politicians' speech here. But I just don't have it in me. Instead, you should go see this site: the Sex, Drugs and DNA book
That guy is way better at it than me. For some reason, scientists are being vilified as evil, amoralist creatures of the night. Or maybe that was a bad movie on SCI-FI?
So instead I bring you this picture of the new Super Hero stamps! Well the DC Comics version anyway! Cool huh? It's nice to know in this crazy world, you can rely on the US Post Office for entertainment! Thanks, post office for only screwing up 3 of the 1000's of pieces of mail I've received in my lifetime. I like them odds!

I think I'm getting the hang of this blog thing, I even backtracked and updated.
Oh and here's a v-blog from my friend Doug, out in La-La land.

huh?
So I have to admit I'm a pirate fan. I've already seen Dead Man's Chest twice. I don't think it's a romantic thing, I think it's that whole idea of basically doing whatever you want and pretending there are no consequences.
I saw a History Channel special about actual pirates and it's way scary. What's really strange is that the best Pirate (Black Bart) was forced into service as captain against his will. So his revenge was to be really good at it.
Still I like Depp's version better. I have to say Disney's treatment has been surprisingly good. And well I have to admit, I soooo prefer fantasy to reality. So excuse me, while I go find the new Terry Pratchett or Lemony Snicket book. Meantime, enjoy one of my Stikfas figures!

huh?
On the one hand I like this whole, weird networking thing, on the other hand it's a lot to keep up with.
so here's some links.



Check me out!
The Frappr Map doesn't always work, try the reload button.


nacho libre was like jack black's mexican version of the princess bride. Strange, yet hilarious.

Podcast links:

Three Things
The MacCast Podcast
Ninja Consultant Podcast
Ask A Ninja Podcast
Animation Podcast
Comedy 365 Podcast
Japanese Pod 101 Podcast
Planet Japan Podcast
Slacker Astronomy Podcast
Top of the Pods Podcast
A.B.O.V.E. Podcast
Annotated Alchemist Podcast
Universe Today Podcast
This Week In Science Podcast
The Word Nerds Podcast
The Paranormalists Podcast

Seriously, there's not a lot of laws governing what can be done with the internet, so big companies are looking for ways to be able to monopolize your ip address. go sign the petition. please?

meantime, what is it with 1- watching a countdown show. it's compelling. 2- watching celebrities do stuff like play poker, or whatever. 3- vampires?

huh?
Last weekend was fun, here in our fine little city. We had an Asian Festival. Yummy food, multicultural dancing, singing, acrobatics and REALLY BIG Japanese drums. Playing those drums must be an aerobic experience. I've heard that the players train on a little Japanese Island and play for hours every day. It was the Matsuriza Taiko Drum show. I hear a lot of the acts at the festival, play at Epcot, Disney, FL, frequently.
And then, in the art museum, there were the Tibetan Monks. They've been here before and spent the whole week working on a mandala. It was awesome. Of course they ceremonially 'destroy' it when they're done and put all the colored sand in the river.

huh?
Okay, so let me get this straight... the Prez can seriously push for bigger fining for Hollywood, when a boob goes astray, based on the idea of 'Hollywood has to be responsible for the morality of kids'. (paraphrased)
But the war (and continuation of) is okay for the morality of kids?

On a lighter note, I find myself impressed with the post office. I am constantly amazed at the idea of sending a letter for $.39. The Post Office handles billions of pieces of mail a year and has a really good rate of getting it right. I don't know how many thousands of pieces of mail I've posted and received and I can count on one hand how many have gone wrong.
And to be able to mail a box overseas for the price of a movie is great.
This pic is just a random picture of a Twinkies recipe. Yes there really is a book full of Twinkies recipes. eh? who knew?

huh?
I think i just thought of a way to prevent sports riots. Lower the temp. in the arena. No One ever riots at an ice hockey game. It's too cold.
Here's a cool game: laser chess
I like the idea of a game that involves lasers.
Now that I've seen X-Men I'm looking forward to seeing Pirates of the Caribbean. There's always something to look forward to. I have a friend who's not religious, he says his religion is entertainment. It's the new world order.
Apparently part of the new world order includes invitation only e-mail. Gmail accounts are invite only, who ever heard of such a thing?

So Since the last time I blogged, I've dicovered podcasts. eh, it's been a while. Podcasts are a great way to get information and entertainment. I hate radio, it's all commercials and repeated songs. having an iPod has made so easy to listen to music and books and Japanese lessons. Then I discovered podcasts and found out there are a bunch of cool people out there saying interesting things.
Here's a few of my favorites: askaninja, topofthepods, slackerstronomy, universetoday, mondays, planetjapan, japanesepod101, theninjaconsultants, theanimationpodcast, annotatedalchemist, theparanormalist, themaccast, 3things, animetoday, astronomyagogo, smartassscience, doogtoons, thewordnerds, comedy365 and A.B.O.V.E.
these are in no particular order.
i keep toying with the idea of doing a podcast, but what the hell do i have to say anyway?