For right now, I’ve decided it’s best that I put this blog to bed for a while. I’m still at Available Light and Five Dollar Radio, for those keeping score (or blogrolls). I’m going to be using Available Light as my personal-slash-photo blog, which means it should be [...]
I’m going to try my hardest (minus the season premiere of America’s Next Top Model and a Rock of Love marathon) to get the site — or some of it — transfered to blogger. I’m hoping to have Available Light be the new Five Dollar Camera, so you won’t have [...]
I need some help from Blogger bloggers out there. Say I want to keep my Five Dollar Camera name, but use blogger’s hosting (not FTP it), can I do this? Or do I still have to have my own server? With the service I’m with right now, I’m using only [...]
I’m far too happy about this: the next cycle of America’s Next Top Model starts Wednesday. But you know what’s the best part? Not the models, not the tipsy-tumbles in high heels, not the Jays, not the questionable use of the English language, but Potes’s recaps on Television [...]
I know this site can’t decay anymore than it already has, but this may be my last top ten. I don’t even care what I’m listening to anymore.
and all I wanted was a Pepsi.
My mom got me one of those personality/IQ test books. (I’m not taking any of the IQ tests. I really don’t want a blow to my self-esteem before lunch.) Wow. I’m completely inflexible, not much of a people person, not at all content with [...]
I asked this question on Library Thing a while back, but for writers, bloggers, or bloggers who are also writers, do you think blogging (or message boarding, for that matter — which is kind of like blogging with a couple thousand other people) has helped or hurt your writing?
I’m going [...]
Last night I wrote a “where I was,” “what I felt” 9-11 post, but I don’t want to share it. It’s not that it’s so raw, so real even six years later, it’s more that I have nothing add, or nothing to say that hasn’t already been said.
One thing I [...]
Just a question — and this is totally unfair to ask, I know, but…
I want to start over with a fresh blog — same name, I hope, but a new site. I can’t import the posts and comments to Blogger (yeah, I know — why would someone chose blogger over [...]
Thanks to the wonder of On-Demand, I was watching an episode of What Not To Wear that I must have missed the first time around.
The contestant (victim?) was basically the blond version of me, right down to the purple chucks. (Okay, mine were pink but you get the idea.)
So black [...]
I picked up this book yesterday — one those Time Life “where were you when” books that lists the things that define a generation: the Berlin Wall coming down, the first test-tube baby, the discovery of AIDS, etc. Most of those I could tell you exactly where I was when [...]
I renewed my domain name, so it’s mine for another year, at least. Problem is, I’ve been deciding what I really want to do with this site. I’m not happy with the host, and WP loads too slowly for me. I kind of want to point the name at a [...]
Vaguely inspired by the NaNo board’s adopt-a-title thread.
I went digging through my notes for titles to offer. I actually have a box of index cards with little bits of this and that written on them — things I keep around for future use. I didn’t find any discarded titles but I [...]
I have this site, and when I get a bug up my ass I can’t even use it as a platform in which to vent for fear that the ventees are reading. I’ll try to be vauge…
One of my biggest pet peeves: those who want nothing to do with you [...]
‘Cause it’s true. I was a big Judy Blume reader when I was a kid, despite being the complete opposite of one of her characters. I didn’t want boobs (TMI - I didn’t wear a bra until high school, preferring tanks under my uniform blouse, much to the chagrin of [...]
I’m coming off a weekend of bad tv. (Read a couple posts down. You’ll find one good example.) I don’t even think “bad tv” can aptly describe it anymore, it’s like post-society or something.
The show set at a tanning salon makes the girls trying to win the heart of the [...]
I read a post a few months ago about blogging pet peeves. (Sorry, I can’t remember where, or I’d credit you.)
The only blogging pet peeve I have is excessively cluttered sidebars. As a self-professed “widget whore” yes, I like a little bling on my blog, but please take in consideration those [...]
Bad reality TV (is there any other kind) is better than alcohol for creating that mind-numbing, don’t give a shit, kind of buzz.
I’m watching this show where a bevy of lovelies compete for the affection of an aging rock star. (I don’t name names, or badmouth anything, but it’s pretty [...]
I got a haircut yesterday. A short haircut. Shorter than I’ve had in a long time. Why is it when a dark-haired girl goes short, the first thing out of people’s mouths is, “Ooh, just like Winona Ryder.” Or, “Ooh, just like Katie Holmes.”
No. I look like Liza. Case closed.
Top [...]
I picked up this book yesterday: 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die. There’s an online counterpart to the list for those keeping score. (I’m keeping score. I’m not doing too well.) If you check Lists of Bests, there’s also a list for the 1001 books you [...]
Make that all about writing.
Alert the press: I’ve actually been doing non-blog writing. And guess what? It’s so gratifying. I mean, who knew writing just for oneself could be?
(This sentence brought to you by the the society for preserving sarcasm. Online and off.)
Seriously, it is good to write something that [...]
I’ve been putting off this entry for the 2nd StL Bloggers Blog Carnival for weeks now. I want to do it, but I’ve been dreading it, too. See, the topic is “the most significant day of your life,” and any day I can think of that could be called [...]
Things I’ve liberated from the pages of library books:
Last week Christy wrote about commenting on other blogger’s sites, and I thought I’d do a little informal survey of blog readers out there:
Those of you who read blogs but opt out of commenting, why?
I read a lot of blogs and don’t always comment. Usually, it’s something simple like, [...]
Sort of. I finally got to the YMCA Book Fair. Friday’s storm only pushed it back an hour, so I hear. It was relatively uncrowded, at least compared to other years.
Anyway, here’s my mini-haul:
I stumbled upon this show the other day.
Can we stop with the whole good girl/bad girl thing? How about women as living, breathing three-dimensional human beings who get mad, get drunk, get therapy, and even get arrested sometimes because human beings are inherently flawed and don’t always make the [...]
According to this post on Outside.In, USA Today released its list of the ten bloggiest cities in America. Boston tops the list, followed by Philadelphia and Pittsburgh. Our neighbor, Chicago, came in at number nine. St. Louis didn’t make the cut.
Granted, the number of bloggers a city [...]
Didn’t make it to the bookfair (see link below, somewhere). Hell, didn’t make it out my front door with that wall o’ wind. (Not to mention the lightning and hail.)
Miraculously, my lights only flickered. Where I used to live, I’d lose power if I sneezed the wrong way, and after [...]
This is going to be shorter than I planned, given that WP is spinning around right now. I had an “arrrgh” day yesterday, where every piece of technology I touched turned to shit. I’m blaming it on being premenstrual, because, well, I can. (Or my superpowers “acting up.”)
I’m trying to [...]
Recently I had a conversation with my dad that I wish I could post here in its entirety without making him look like a total schmuck. (Actually, I called him “The Italian Archie Bunker,” which is pretty apt. he even has the chair.)
Remind me next time I talk to my [...]
I’m terrified to raise a daughter in today’s society. How sick is it when clothing companies are marketing thong underwear to ten-year-olds? It should come as a shock to no one that kids are influenced by what they listen to, watch, read, and buy at the mall. And the messages [...]
My mother (and my grandmother before her) is a big fan of The Young and the Restless. I did not get the soap opera gene, but as a kid I had no other choice at 4pm but to watch. (I guess, technically, I did have other choices, like reading and [...]
The library’s for sale table has been exceptionally good lately: not just a bunch of old textbook from the 1970’s or dog-eared, stained copies of Windows 98 For Dummies. I picked up Jennifer Baumgarnder’s Grassroots and Judith Budnitz’s short story collection Flying Leap today. Plus there were several [...]
I did something yesterday that I never thought I’d do. As I was leaving a grocery store, a young woman cut in front of me, lingering at the door. I thought, “Okay, move your anorexic…” And I should stop right there. She was skinny. Too skinny. Maybe she came from [...]
First off, let me say that I’m a damn hypocrite. Last week or thereabouts, I said reading about music was boring, so I, um, started a music blog. Again. Don’t expect much. I don’t really know how I’m going to use it, other than to possibly move some of [...]
I solved my sketching problem: clipart. My mom, who inexplicably thinks I’m an artist, needs me to design a poster for her work. Unless she wants me to people this thing with cloven-hoofed (hooved?), flippers-for-hands freaks, clipart it will have to be. I’ve got two books of twenties and thirties [...]
Not that I’d want to. The part I should have remembered, I’m drawing a total blank on. Vague enough for ya’?
I dreamed that someone left a comment on five dollar camera listing all my flaws. How pleasant. And I remember none of them. (Though I think they may have been [...]
The top ten y’all…
I hate doing things like this, but does my site look like crap? I mean, like all the CSS is missing? It looks fine here (fingers crossed) but like shit on my laptop, for whatever reason.
[...]This is a list of the “I can’t believe I wore that” outfits that I do not own anymore because I am of reasonably sane fashion sense now, I hope, and had the decency to throw them away; ergo, no pictures. You’ll have to use your imaginations. Just remember, nothing [...]
As much as I’m attracted to the whole “mad, crazy genius” thing, I’ve been going into the rash of “mad, crazy genius” documentaries with some trepidation. The possibility for exploitation is so high. It’s easy to forget the art when you’re focused on the instability of the artist. Less than [...]
I could say something corny like “I wish this book existed when I was a teenager.” Actually, I will: I wish this book existed when I was a teenager. (I also wish I knew I could have graduated high school a semester earlier instead of taking a bunch of electives [...]
Really. That’s the reason I always give when someone asks me why I take pictures. I can’t draw. Not one fat-crayoned stroke.
So I always think it’s odd when someone says, “Hey, you’re artsy-fartsy. Can you sketch something for me?” No, I cannot sketch something for you, unless you want it [...]
All Music’s critics have posted their Mid Year Report: The Best of 2007 So Far.
Most of the high profile records of the year so far made the cut: Spoon, White Stripes, Amy Winehouse…the only real surprise was no Wilco.
[...]Yep. Even Big Orange couldn’t survive this week’s heatwave.
I think I’ll add horticulture to the list of hobbies I failed at, splendidly.
Big Orange in his healthier days:
One thing I learned from having a music blog (well, other than it’s essential that the blogger actually keep up with new music) is that unless you have some special insight, it’s best to just give ‘em free stuff. (Like, I don’t know, music?)
I have neither insight nor swag, therefore, [...]
Of all the “isms” classism cuts closest to the bone.
Sorry for the tired old clichĂ©, but that’s what years of “crap reading” does to your brain. (This is your brain on bathroom humor.)
I’ve probably been over this dozens of times, but I didn’t grow up in a middle-class educated family. [...]
This should be a “now reading” post, but given that most of my reading lately has been of the magazine variety, and that most magazines’ online counterparts are exactly what you’d read in the print version, consider yourself “dumped.”
I’m becoming one of those people for whom music is something that only streams out of a computer. (Okay, yes, I know it’s 2007 and that’s, like, everybody, but hear me out.)
For the past few years I’ve existed in a cultural vacuum, preferring my old CDs (and I never thought [...]
I once told someone I had no “unreasonable fears,” the phobias that send you running to the nearest shrink/hypnotist/herbalist. I can’t claim a fear of snakes because I’ve never been that close to one to know if I actually do have a fear of snakes, blood doesn’t bother me, and [...]
My blog was ranked #1 on Technorati yesterday. I bet yours was too. Due to a glitch, every blog was ranked #1 for about an hour or so Saturday afternoon. Thankfully, I got a screenshot of the momentous occasion before my free-fall back down to #260,000-something.
Stole this from All The World’s a Stage:
| You are a 1980s Diva |
 Bright colors, bigger than life patterns, and outrageous fashions.Your fashion style always has a retro yet futuristic edge. |
I saw this article on the Reuters website this morning: Angry men get ahead; angry women penalized.
I wish I had my old psych 101 book with me. In the chapter on gender differences, there was a “joke” list of the different ways men and women are perceived. Number one: [...]
I don’t really have much to say, individually, about each song today. A lot of new stuff — or “new to me” stuff — some old stuff, and a couple covers. Covers albums always have the potential to be horrible. Most successful cover songs fall into two camps: the artist [...]
I can’t sleep until my neighbors are asleep, obviously. Partying from about midnight until five-ish. Someone was running through the apartment, bellyflopping onto the bed, I imagine, and shaking my windows in the process. I thought they were going to shatter. This only adds to yesterday’s someone standing outside my [...]
I was raised with very few restrictions on what I watched, read, or listened to. I’d like to think I turned okay, maybe a slight fascination with the macabre, but nothing too out of the ordinary. (Which I blame more on twelve years of catholic education than my parents letting [...]
I just got my second Early Reviewer’s book today. It’s a memoir written by two women, twins, separated at birth and adopted by two different families. As an only child, I’m fascinated by how much siblings are alike, and not just twins. I have a cousin who’s convinced we are [...]
I’m gonna try to put this flash player thingy in a post. The last time I messed around with code or scripts, I totally broke my blog (well, one page of it, anyway), and I am supposed to be the tech savvy person around here. If I can’t fix it, [...]
Okay, Â this will be the last time I mention not going to BlogHer ‘07, I swear. Maybe. (I missed Amy Sedaris, people!)
I finally cleaned out my Gmail and Bloglines accounts, so everything is now sparkly-fresh and not showing “200 unread messages,” or, gulp, “2000 unread messages.” I know most [...]
Blog, I mean. I know. If you read this site on a semi-regular basis, you’ve probably seen the spate of “blog ennui” posts, most of which I chalk up to a) my having unreasonably high expectations, b) frustration with all the downtime and/or c) first year blogging letdown, or “the [...]
Crammed in between the last two pages of an old notebook, I found a couple book reviews I wrote years ago for another website (of which, unfortunately, I am no longer a member). They were good. I mean, really good. Like, “Did I actually write these?” good. For a split [...]
and like I have the arches of a normal person.
I’m wearing arch supports. I should have been wearing them since I was in kindergarten, at least.
So this is how normal people walk, huh? I feel a little splay-foot, actually, like a penguin. My toes usually point in, not out. For [...]
I’m thinking about taking a writing class.
I’ve done workshops before, a few times. Don’t get me wrong, I love being around writers, but I dread the inevitable first assignment, which is usually something simple like, “the kitchen of your childhood.” (Objection! Passive voice!)
I think you know where this is heading. [...]
I found my old mood ring in a a box of old stuff my mom had saved from my childhood, and like Veda Sultenfuss, my mood only “reads” black.
I’m waiting for it to turn blue after a little blond-haired boy rescues it from the woods — where I will [...]
This is what my newsreader looks like. I have a feed addiction, obviously. (Must not click chicklet, must not click chicklet, must not click chicklet…)
But I have this terrible superstition: I can’t unsubscribe to anyone. It’s bad karma. If I unsubscribe to one, [...]
The readability thingy I mentioned a couple posts ago? There’s an online version of the Flesch-Kincaid Readability Test.. Simply paste in some text and let the calculator determine how difficult it is to comprehend. The lower the score, the more difficult the passage is to read. (Some word [...]
